Mathias Hellquist

Hi, my name is Mathias Hellquist and I write imakethingswork.com, mainly for my own amusement, but still, it is fun that you have found your way here. I will be covering topics that are of interest to me, and which might include (but is not limited to) Team/Project Management, Web Development, Photography, Music, Food and other things I find worthy of typing something up about.

Quick facts about me: I’m 40 years old, I’m Swedish but I live in London, UK, and have done so since 1999. I am married and I have one extraordinary little son. During daytime I’m Technology Director at Profero currently moving house and countries, and during evenings I’m an avid amateur photographer. I have been working with Internet and online marketing since 1994 in various companies in Sweden, Germany and the UK, and if you’d like to find out more about those bits you can have a look at my LinkedIn Profile (though I will probably not add you as a contact unless I have worked with you).

Disclaimer: I am not here to solve world peace, pollution or your problems (I have my hands full with my own problems and their solutions) and the opinions, thoughts and other expressions on this web site are mine, those of me, personally, not the ones of my current or previous employer(s) or any other organisation or body I might have participated in/with.

The one possible exception to this is photos and images that come from Flickr, and which may come from others. If they do they will do one or both of either linking to the original photo, or by having their name attributed to the photo in addition to any linkage action. All other exceptions will be highlighted as and when we run into them.

If you would like to see me elsewhere you can have a look here:

flickr.com/photos/hellquist

twitter.com/hellquist

dopplr.com/traveller/mathiashellquist

www.linkedin.com/in/mathiashellquist

youtube.com/profile?user=daSlowie

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646444902

www.last.fm/user/mhellquist/

del.icio.us/mathias.hellquist

Quick FAQ

Q: Didn’t you use to run the d-x-b design portal a few years ago?

Great Designs

A: Yep, during late 90’s and early noughties. Didn’t have time to update it as often as I wanted though, due to commitments at work and I found that particular “market segment” quite full with loads of good sites out there covering both great design, interactive development and web development in general I quit whilst on top. I did keep the domain for a while, but last year I forgot to renew it, and it is now with someone else.

Q: Didn’t you use to play guitar in Europe, the band (Final Countdown etc)?

Floyd Rose by Nick Kidd

A: Heh. Nope. I did attend the gig when the video for Final Countdown was recorded, but not even my mother can pick me out in the audience.

The main reason for the confusion (not on my part, trust me) is probably due to the fact that one of the bands I did play guitar in (called Thrash Inc) did win the very same competition (Rock SM) that Europe had won a few years earlier, and which kick-started their career. We played a different type of metal though (less hair, more brutality) and were quite fed up with the confusion at gigs etc where we didn’t sound at all Europe-ish (which was what the venue bookers were thinking). So much fed up in fact that we changed name of the band (to Clench, yeah, I know, more “buttocks” than “fists” etc) when we released our first album.

The other guitarist in our band did buy a few Marshall stacks that had belonged to the original Europe guitarist (Sweden isn’t extremely big in population, most metal-heads/rockers are only 1-2 degrees separated), but that is about it. Next question.

Q: Didn’t you use to role play (AD&D etc)?

Gadgets

A: Yep, quite a bit. I’m an old school geek and back in -83 I started one of Swedens first role playing communities, FEAR (entirely off-line, obviously).

Q: Didn’t you use to play Paint Ball quite a bit?

Headshot (b&w) by Antanith

A: Yes, again, I started Swedens first legal (it used to be illegal) paint ball community (offline). I quit it though when people took it too seriously. If you can’t have fun doing it (anything in fact) you shouldn’t do it at all.

Q: Is it true you used to be a Quake 2 Rocket Arena 2 God?

Quake II

A: Nope. But I was indeed “clan leader” for Swedens (and thereby, by most peoples scale at the time, the worlds) best clan (Advanced Core Military Engine, ACME). In that clan we had loads of great (and high ranking) players, including most of the Top10 Ranking in the world. Myself, even then, I was better at the networking (and chatting) and hovered around the Top100 mark when I was at my best (which isn’t too bad given it was amongst 13 million players), so “God”? No. I can still hold my own though.

Map with places that have been somewhat important to me