Mostly I use this site to record my writing projects and highlight opeds and articles when they appear in newspapers, magazines, or journals. This site is not configured to be a daily journal or a personal diary, though these practices are perfectly acceptable. The secondary purpose of this space is to serve as a classroom blog and electronic filing cabinet for my high school and university classes. All words are deeds—especially when they connect and support a community of writers and learners.
Walt Whitman, over a century ago, wrote this famous line in his hallmark poem Song of Myself: “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world!” Today his YAWP is a literal reality. Whitman would have been a consummate blogger, and I bet he would have enjoyed whipping these zeroes and ones into global conversations:
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
About the title and header of this site:Thor is the Norse god of thunder and the protector of Asgard (the Mount Olympus of Norse Mythology), and mark is a pun on my name. According to the Norse myths, many giants met their death at the hands of Thor and his famous short-handled hammer called Mjolnir. In fact, most of the surviving myths center on Thor’s exploits. He appeared to be the favorite deity of ancient Scandinavians.
I am also a big fan of the Northern people, having spent seven consecutive summers living in Iceland. (Click here to read a travel story about my experiences on Thor’s island.) All people want to leave their mark on the world. This site is one of mine. The image in the header of this blog fluctuates between a photograph of Godafoss (Waterfall of the Gods) and a digital copy of a mountain-fyord print that I bought in 1999.
About the posting dates: In an effort to maintain complete transparency, I unveiled this site in January 2006. However, the date-centric posts go the whole way back to 1994, when blogs didn’t exist. I changed the posting dates in order to post the pieces in the order that they were written. My goal was (and still is) to accurately record my development and occasional accomplishments as a writer. This is the only sleight of hand behind what appears here. (See Rebecca Blood’s essay on Internet ethics for insightful journalistic tips for keeping cyberspace and bloggers honest.)
