Odin Halvorson
HOST · LOOSE THREADS

Odin Halvorson

POSTS

Recent posts by Odin Halvorson

Pop-Culture

All Men Should Watch Pride and Prejudice (1995)

I was one of those young men who thought that Pride and Prejudice was the last thing I wanted to experience. But, oh, how I was wrong. I had accepted the prevailing masculine norm of my culture without realizing it; I had become colonized by thoughts which were not my own.

Education

The Purpose of Education (and why current systems fail)

We do not want to lay down a pattern or type to which men of all sorts are to be made by some means or another approximate. Political and social institutions are to be judged by the good or harm that they do to individuals. Do they preserve self-respect?

Health

Poor Air-Quality Decisions Put Lives at Risk

On November thirteenth, members of the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) issued a decision on a crisis. Given what we know of the impacts of climate change, it is quite likely that California will continue to see many devastating fires in the years ahead, and schools need to be ready for tha

Politics

The Duty to Party

This is not an article tackling all the many broad issues, nor even those which I usually mention. No, this is a different sort of article. It comes to me, as the November 6th election day draws to a close, that there is a substantial problem with the voting mindset in the United States, one which

Voting Guide

2018 Voter Guide

Compiled for District 2. Includes Sonoma County and Sebastopol voter information. Compiled for District 2. Includes Sonoma County and Sebastopol voter information.

Environment

Eco-Community, Technology, and Evolution

As the world changes, as capitalism shows its true face, as the climate cycles falter and shift, we need to concentrate on two things. As the world changes, as capitalism shows its true face, as the climate cycles falter and shift, we need to concentrate on two things.

Writing

How National Novel Writing Month Changed My Life

Able to pour my heart and my soul into those 50,000 words, I brought my confused and crazy life into some sort of alignment. Able to pour my heart and my soul into those 50,000 words, I brought my confused and crazy life into some sort of alignment. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime,

Writing

The Importance of Rejection

Something about that older model of SASE envelopes strikes me as important to consider. Something about that older model of SASE envelopes strikes me as important to consider.

Essay

Hard Work: The Greatest Con

You’ve heard it before: Poor people don’t work because they’d rather do drugs and fornicate with themselves. But is this really true? You’ve heard it all before: “Hard work is good for you. The people who don’t work are lazy. Poor people don’t work because they’d rather do drugs and fornicate with

Zen

Aikido and Zombies

Aikido can change your life… and the world. “The purpose of the Art of Peace is to fashion sincere human beings; a sincere human being is one who has unified body and spirit, one who is free of hesitation or doubt.

Writing

Richard Wright: The Best American Haiku

With Haiku, a self-nurturing could begin, albeit so close to his own death. Wright offers his perspective, his own loneliness, and his own desire for wholeness within three simple lines of poetry, allowing us to know him intimately at his most vulnerable and his most human.

Essay

Don’t Market Yourself

How many times in our life do we decide to do something based, solely, off of what other people are going to think of us? It’s tempting, isn’t it? “If you just market yourself correctly, you’ll make the big bucks!“ How many times do we decide to do something based off of what other people are going