Big Fat Ostrich

top - 11:27:57 up 2 days,  2:51,  2 users,  load average: 227.75, 225.36, 224.84
Tasks: 958 total,  72 running, 877 sleeping,   0 stopped,   9 zombie
Cpu(s): 33.1% us, 66.9% sy,  0.0% ni,  0.0% id,  0.0% wa,  0.0% hi,  0.0% si
Mem:   4086484k total,  4009724k used,    76760k free,   130860k buffers
Swap:  8388496k total,      136k used,  8388360k free,  3163560k cached

What else can I say, except that it’s a bad scene all around. And for privacy sake and non-disclosure, I can’t really talk about it. In fact, I cannot even kill -9 any of those zombie processes. Plus, I’ve never seen that many of them all at once before. Yes, this server is in one sorry state. So I’ll have to resort to a rare Linux event: a reboot.

How embarassing.

If you’ve been anywhere within listening range during the last year or so, I’ve probably tried to steer the conversation towards The Walking Dead at some point.

Robert Kirkman‘s serial masterpiece follows a group of survivors as they try to navigate their way through a zombie apocalypse. The focus is mainly on Rick who, back in issue #1, wakes up from a coma to find that the world has gone to hell. That initial premise is reminiscent of 28 Days Later, but the similarities end there. That said, I won’t be going into a full synopsis of the series since it’s much more fun to discover on your own, so check out Image Comics, or the Wikipedia entry for the full low-down.

The zombie genre has been done, re-done, and done to death, but Kirkman has a way of telling a story that keeps you engaged without focusing solely on random zombie attacks (which are still fun). Marry that with Charlie Adlard‘s astounding artwork (and Tony Moore’s from issues 1 to 6), and you have a series that’s immediately addictive and reads way too fast. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that upon discovering The Walking Dead, I burned through the first 8 collections in about 1 week and now have to suffer while I wait for the monthlies.

So, if you haven’t already acquainted yourself with The Walking Dead, I can’t recommend this series enough. If you’re a fan of the whole zombie thing, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of The Walking Dead, and if you haven’t, well, get to it and start reading!

I wasn’t going to draw any parallels between the undead and rabid Walking Dead fans impatiently waiting for the next issue but hey, I just did. Who could resist?

The Walking Dead Issue #60 will  be released on April 15