Information is Power

In June I was elected as workplace representative for the office and have loved every minute of it.

It is one of the things, apart from my colleagues and projects, that I'm going to miss the most. 

My current workplace is covered by a collective agreement and one of the benefits because of that is that the employees have the right to elect a representative and they chose me. As a representative I got to present to the employer what the employees want and I also have had the right to recieve all information concerning changes to the organisation, changes to the workplace and how the company is going. Shortly, it's meant that I could ask questions and expect answers to most of them which is awesome! I get to be 5 again and ask "why?" "why?" until I annoy everyone. But jokes aside, it does come with an amazing right to actually know what is happening. In a world where a lot of companies make money from selling knowledge it is a rare treat to be able to experience knowledge freely.

For those who do not know the Swedish employment system, the workers union is a very strong force in the politics of workers rights. There is very few laws in Sweden that governs employment rights and instead a lot more power is giver to the unions and their collective agreements. In most cases this has been for the better as the common collective agreements in Sweden are much better for the workers than most law regulation in the rest of Europe.

Of course there is also downside to this set up. Not all companies in Sweden have a collective agreement in place. The latest numbers I could find was 88% of the Swedish workforce is covered by the agreements. This means that 12% risk getting contracts which do not cover rights such as minimum wage, wage development and pensions.

Comic Con Gamex - Awesome Day!

With an estimate of over 30 000 visitors to Comic Con Gamex, where about 5% are dressed up in some way or another, multi-player games being played on huge screens and artists showing off their latest creations, there was always something to look at while we wandered around the fair/convention. Some of the things that were going on just today:

• Star-Wars Parade
• BattleField 4
• Lecture on "How to survive a zombie apocalypse"
• Dragon Age Inquisition
• Lecture on "Introduction to Cosplay"
• Assasins Creed - Rogue
• Lecture on "How to build your own R2D2"

For those who do not know what Gamex is, it is an annual game fair that is held in Stockholm. This year they have joined forces with the comic books and film industry and called it Comic Con Gamex. Just walking around and seeing just how big this community is and what awesome things people do was great fun!

Not being a good photographer, but still wanting to show you some of the creations, here are some pictures of the ones I dared to ask to photograph:)

Blog Stats - what's up with the antlers?

So I have had my blog for some time and, being a Data Analyst, the most fascinating aspect of having a blog is the data it generates.

So as I'm sure all of you are as interested in stats as I am I thought I would share some of statistics.

First of all, I like see how people actually find my blog. Do they come through Facebook? Google? Other? I want to identify the channels that are mainly generating hits to my blog. I added my blog to Google Analytics in August 2013 so it is now possible for me to see how it has developed over time.

The sources are divided in to 4 main groups;

• Organic Search - Googling, Binging and the like
• Referral - Links from other websites not classed as Social
• Direct - Direct links the blog or links that are not tagged
• Social - Links from Social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

So looking at the statistics, it shows that Organic Search has slowly increased over time.

This is also understandable as when there is more content on the blog, there is more that can be searched. I was expecting to see some sort of delay effect in the Organic Search as it takes a while before Google actually properly indexes pages but it is not visible The top deliverers over time has, of course, been the Social channel as I have mainly used this channel to get my blog out on the wide web.

The next thing I wanted to check was what keywords is my blog showing up on searches? Well below you can see the top 30:

I especially like the "moose antlers". Not really sure why that is so popular. *J and K, I'm looking at you!*

Finally it's quite interesting to see where in the world people are coming from when visiting my blog

I must say I am disappointed that there are none in Greenland who are interested in my blog.

Nature, Y U so Freaky?

So the other day, Matte showed me something that he described as freaky. He showed me this video:

The video is of two slugs mating. Now I can only think of one word that describes it. Disgusting.

Alumni Mingle

On Tuesday I will be going to LiU's yearly alumni mingle together with Matte. I went last year and got to see the dancing robots which LiU's first year computer students get to program (so cute!).

Picture from LiU Alumni Facebook Page

Picture from LiU Alumni Blog

The students get to program these robots to play football to get a practical understanding of how their programming becomes reality. The presenters were two students, one studying Computer Science and the other studying Cognitive Science. Hearing these two speak together was very interesting as they were talking about the same subject from different perspectives.

This year's presentation is going to be about "Myths about career" and I'm really looking forward to this as it being a great opportunity to meet new people, hear where they have ended up and their challenges along the way.

After last years mingle I wrote a blog post about my current job and it was fun going back reading what I wrote back then. The blog post only had a link and not the actual picture so here is the picture now as Halloween draws closer. I want to also take a moment to say, once again, that Snider's drawings are great and if you have a moment to look through his blog you will not be disappointed!

By Grant Snider - Incidental Comics

Waffle Party

I am in a period of my life where all my energy is focused on work. As work is a touchy subject to write about ( all those NDA's and intellectual rights agreements have a tendency of getting in the way) I am reduced to write about the mere mundane... such as my party last week!

I turned 25 in August and wanted to do a proper celebration. Now August is not a good month to have parties so I combined it with my annual waffle party. Not being able to speak for all I'll just say that I had great fun! The blanket fortress seemed appreciated as it was rarely unoccupied and all of my prepared waffle mixture was eaten. No all time record was beaten (12 is the standing record since 3 years back I think) but B combed in the title of Waffle Eater with a tidy number of 9 waffles.

 

I always do waffle mixtures from scratch, not being a fan of the ready made mixtures so here is the recipe for those who ant to give it a go. Serves 2 normal people or 3 weaklings:
2 eggs
3-3½ dl flour
0.5 - 1 dl melted butter/margarine
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Enough milk to make the mixture smooth (somewhere around 4-5 dl)

Mix everything and pour in the milk last to avoid clumps . Count on around 1-1½ dl of mixture per waffle. It usually tastes better if the mixture is prepared the day before.

As everyone seemed too busy eating the waffles than taking pictures of them ( I deem that a success) you can get a picture of me licking a lollipop instead.

The party did however beat the record of the longest party I have held, with the first guests arriving a few minutes after 13, and the last one who was in any condition to leave exiting after 01 in the morning. Lets just say that the blanket fortress seemed to have done a good job of doubling up as a place to sleep.

New Opportunities

So the questions have been coming in:
"Are you changing jobs?"
"How did you find the job?"
"Don't you like your current job?"
So I thought it best to answer all in one single post.

Are you changing jobs?

Yes, I will be starting my new job at Tictail as a Data Scientist as of 1st December.

Don't you like your current job?

I like my current job as a Data Analyst at Rezidor and I love my colleagues. My decision to change jobs has nothing to do with being unhappy with where I am. It has everything to do with opportunities and the future.

How did you find Tictail?

Well, I didn't. Tictail found me. I recieved an email from Carl (CEO for Tictail). He said that he had found my blog on the internet, found me interesting and asked if I wanted to meet up for a cup of coffee. After some googling to ensure myself that the person wasn't a complete weirdo, I accepted the invitation.

We met up and I realized that this is a passionate person with a drive that could kindle anyone's interest. As he talked about the future of Tictail I could already start thinking about the data potential that lay within it's depth. His last question was direct - "What is holding you back from joining us?"

I asked to meet the rest of the team. A couple of weeks later I got to meet Siavash and J at Tictail's office. Being at the office I saw that the passion and drive was not limited to Carl. We talked numbers, models, analysis and potential. The questions asked were clever, the analysis had depth and I saw that Tictail has smart people with great abilities. We talked future and I saw how Tictail is really focused on getting a good team to deliver a great product. This drive was visible in every person I talked to, and made me realize that Tictail is going to go far.

So, next step is going to be Tictail and I'm excited!

Update: For those who want to join the Rezidor team you can apply to the Data Analyst role on LinkedIn here.