My name is Michael Cardell Widerkrantz. I'm sometimes known as Michael Widerkrantz. Before my marriage to Petra, I was known as Michael or Mikael Cardell. Many people call me just “MC”.
I live in the south of Sweden with my wife Petra, our baby daughter and two teenage sons from a previous marriage.
I was born and grew up in the vicinity of Hudiksvall, a small town in the north of Sweden. From 1991 to early 1995 I attended Linköping University and studied Linguistics, History, Literature, Philosophy and several other subjects, but never practised those disciplines. After leaving university I went immediately into computing, first as a Unix system administrator, later mostly as a programmer.
I have spent almost all my professional career as a computer programmer, but I began programming as a hobby in 1985 on a Commodore Plus 4, having first been tempted with programming on my cousin's Sinclair ZX81. Most of my programming activities nowadays concerns Unix and computer networks. See my résumé if you're really interested.
I spend my time taking care of my daughter, trying to be a supportive dad to two metalhead teenagers, playing with old and new computers, blogging (in Swedish), writing other texts and listening to music at shows or in my home. I have a weakness for old-school punk rock, goth, EBM, industrial and other alternative music, but my taste in music is wide. I also watch many movies and read a lot, both fact and fiction, but probably more Science Fiction and conspiracy theories than is really healthy.
Public access to knowledge and technology is important to me. I try to contribute to some Free and Open Source Software projects.
As you might guess, I really like the hackerspace movement, DevHouse events and their predecessors, the computer clubs, HAM clubs, et cetera. Since 1991 I'm a member of the Lysator Academic Computer Society. I'm also involved in a group of local hackers who meet once in a while to program or to have a pizza, the Malmö Open Source Interest Group. I'm sometimes at the the local hackerspace Forskningsavdelningen, but I'm not really active.
I practise zazen and I try to adhere to The Sixteen Precepts. This probably makes me a Zen Buddhist. While being religious in a way, I also enjoy a healthy scientific scepticism. As a friend once said: “New age rhymes with sewage”. I take some comfort in the words of Kerry Thornley, one of the founders of Discordianism:
Before I was a Discordian, I took life much too seriously. When you take life too seriously you start to wonder what the point of it all is. When you wonder what the point is in life, you fall into a trap of thinking there is one. When you think there is a point, you finally realise there is no point. And what point is there in living like that? Nowadays I skip the search for a point and find, instead, the punch lines.
In 1991, when I found myself away from my sangha, I formed the mailing list Universal Zendo, at the time at the address zendo@lysator.liu.se. This was one of the first mailing lists with a focus on everyday Zen Buddhist practice. I left the management of the Universal Zendo list in more capable hands a few years later.
I follow a vegan lifestyle, mostly for ethical reasons. Veganism is a very strict form of vegetarianism and it means I try to avoid all animal products, not only in my diet, but also in all other products. For more information, se my text on veganism (in Swedish, I'm afraid).
My political leanings are toward libertarian socialism (or classical European anarchism, if you like). I have some history as a non-violent activist. My activism started with anarchist fanzine publishing in a punk environment in the 1980s. That lead to a draft refusal and actions against the military industry. I also helped start the Spunk Library, a now sadly neglected archive of anarchist texts that nevertheless might interest some of you. I keep a snapshot of the Spunk Library on my own server, should the original server go away.
This is a photo of me with my daughter taken in June, 2010:
(Photo by Petra Widerkrantz.)
Here's a picture from the summer of 2009(?) when I found an amusing sign with an important message:
(Photo by Petra Widerkrantz.)
Here's a picture from December 2007 where I'm sitting in a thoughtful pose, looking out across the sea towards Denmark:
(Photo by Petra Widerkrantz.)
This is how happy I looked when we visited mount Aoraki in New Zealand in 2006:
As a comparison, this is what I looked like in 1997. Click on the image for a text version. (Yes, really!)
(Photo by Christer Weinigel.)
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS/L/P d--@ s+:-- !a C++(++++) UBL++++$ P++$ L++$ E+++ W- N+++ o+
K++ w O- M V PS+++ PE Y++ PGP++ t 5 X+@ R@ !tv b+++ DI++ D--- G e++
h---- r+++ y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
My geek code explained and commented.
Last updated: <2010-08-03 16:33:16 MEST>