Long time no see.

Nothing really exciting has happened since last time, I think.

The last days I’ve been enjoying a mini show on youtube called Baman Piderman. It’s awesome when you’re overly tired!

Ouch. My back hurts.

Last night I finished the currently last number (#79) of The Walking Dead.

No, I’m not talking about the new TV series, I’m talking about what that TV series is based on – the comic.

The Walking Dead is created by writer Robert Kirkman and drawn by Charlie Adlard (Tony Moore did issues 1-6). It is in black and white, which I first thought was a let-down, but only after an issue didn’t really think about. While the art is very good, the storytelling is brilliant.

The story centers around Rick Grimes, a police officer who wakes up from a coma after a gunshot, only to find out that the world has been overrun by zombies. While this might not sound very original, I find it if not the, then at least among the very best zombie fictions I’ve ever seen, any medium. It has a lot of heart (and other intestines as well for that matter), and isn’t afraid to make dramatic turns, offing main characters and having plot twists that would make M. Night Shyamalan go “Whaaat?!”. This is a good thing. Unlike other ongoing comics that keeps the same ensemble of characters for 20 years except for the supervillain of the week (who often returns at least 20 or 30 times anyway), you actually meet new, original people all the time here. And then they die.

Differences from the TV series.

While the TV series is based on the comic, it seems to take a very different storyline after the first few issues. Without giving away the story, the happenings in the last episodes in season 1 didn’t occur at all in the comic – at least not so far. Most of the main characters stay basically the same, but where they are and what happens to them is different. For me it’s a good thing since I get a new story while watching the series (which I by the way also think is rather good), but the ones only watching the TV series is missing so much!

Try it for free!

Image Comics who publishes The Walking Dead offers the first issue online for free here, which I think is a great strategy for bringing new readers. So go ahead, see if you like it. If you do, visit your local comic book dealer.

The last week I’ve been in Rome, Italy. Monday to Friday I’ve lived in Frascati and worked in Morena, and during the weekend I’ve stayed near Termini in central Rome together with M.

Frascati was okay, I guess. Small, worn down but not completely without charm. We found one good restaurant there with both good food and nice staff.

Work went well and the clients appeared very happy with my part, so no worries there.

The bad and the ugly
Going into central Rome, I realized that the worn down thing was not specific to the suburbs but the city core as well. The streets were very dirty and we often came by areas that smelled very bad. The traffic was horrible, and the subway stations felt like nobody has bothered to renovate or otherwise improve them since 1986.
Everywhere on the streets people were trying to sell us cheap imitation bags and various crap with a very intrusive attitude. This was worst when eating at outdoor seatings, we often had to tell the peddlers at  least 3-4 times that we were not interested before they gave up. And came back again 30 minutes later.

Speaking of eating; I don’t know if we just had bad luck, or if the italian restaurants really are very bad. About 3/4 of all meals we had were a major disappointment. Service was most of the time terrible, and even though we always tried to be friendly and start the conversations in Italian, we were often treated with arrogance and not the smallest of smiles.

The good
The ice cream/gelato was good and the wine was cheap.

Sure, Colosseum was impressive and there were a lot of ruins, fountains and statues that would probably be reason enough for some people to go there, but after a while things start to look the same everywhere.

For us, Rome was all together quite a bad experience.

I hope I don’t have to go here again very soon. It will be really good to go home tomorrow.

The last few weeks has been quite hectic for me. Being involved in several top-priority projects coupled with preparations for next week has meant a lot of overtime at work, and too little sleep. But the bulk of the projects is over (at least for now), and I can hopefully get back to a normal speed soon.

Tomorrow I’m flying to Rome, Italy for a week. I’m going to hold a course there in one of my areas of expertise for a group of people at one of our big partners. I’m a bit nervous as I have never done anything like this before. Sure, I’ve held small workshops for a handful of people  before, but that was always in or own office and never more than a day long.

Well, at least it’s warmer in Rome than in Stockholm right now. I put away the motorcycle for winter storage the other day due to the cold. Partly because I can’t ride more than an 45 minutes or so without starting to get cold (especially the hands), but mostly because it’s dangerous. Frost in the mornings and fallen leaves on the road is not a good combination when you’re on two wheels. I hope the winter is short this year so that I can bring out the bike early.

Now, time to start packing.

I came across a clip with this really cool street artist, just using short sound loops and effect pedals to create his music – live.

Watch at least 3 minutes – It’s worth it!