Welcome to marginally more money...

I've got a new job. Well it's more like three jobs rolled into one! I'm really excited to actually do something new after spending the last two years learning a lot, but basically doing the same thing the whole time. I'm also excited that I get to talk to people again, and teach as well. It's a little daunting and I'm sure it will be a lot more intense than my current role of writing, slacking, writing some more, then slacking some more.

For the new role I have to write about pharmaceutical data still, which is cool. I also have to teach new sales reps about the ins and outs of the science behind the products they are selling. Finally, I have to attend regulatory meetings for the company to make sure they are behaving properly and not mis-advertising/selling anything. Anyways fun.

The next couple of weeks should be really cool as well. I have tickets to see Bloc Party, The Cure and War of the Worlds (stage production). I haven't been to concerts in ages, so this should be very fun.

Epics lolz 111oneone1

Blink and you'll miss a couple of months of life I swear to god. Time flies past me faster than I could evor (sic) imagine.

It's strange, I feel like I have pretty much 'clocked' World of Warcraft these days. Since I last wrote about it, the largish expansion came out offering heaps of new content and purple/epic (rare) items to obtain. Since then, I spent uncountable hours raiding with large groups to get said purple items. Now I've got them there isn't much to do. Of course I can go for the next purps which offer me better stat bonuses, but really it's like the same amount of time for a minimal bonus. I can now 'pwn noobs' (destroy lesser players) all day long for all I care, and this is kind of fun; however, will become boring very quickly I think.

Basically... I need a new hobby. I think I might pick up my guitar which is pretty dusty, and has been unused for the last 6 months.

Dinner tonight - soup and toast... possibly salad...

I'm in ur profilez revampin ur errorz

I think I have my trip almost all organised now to the states, but I still have to work out a budget... At the moment I am fluctuating between hideously broke and just broke. After the weekends car fixing bonanza, where I had to fork out $200 to get my headlight wiring replaced, I'm currently siding on hideously broke. My car is such a money sink... I think it hates me. Every six months it decides to break in some costly and new way. Drive shafts, computer, internal wiring, something, anything else? Anyway, I think I have spent more on repairs, than my car is actually worth...

I'm going to attempt making paella for dinner tonight using fresh fish and shnazzle... should be good hopefully... just have to remember to buy some ingredients on the way home.

Stop... conference time

I'm relatively dissatisfied with my job these days... however, there is one highlight... conferences. Well I should really make that the singular... conference. To be more specific, in two weeks from now I should be freezing my ass off in Chicago Illinois at the American Chemical Society. I'm there to check out all the exciting updates in the world of Medicinal Chemistry.

I'm in the process of trying to find all the fun things to do whilst I am there, and all the good shopping places to go to. I heard there is this area called the Magnificent Mile which is one of the most densely packed areas of shopping in the world. Cool, I'm going to be broke for sure after this trip. I heard there are even some boutiques which are SO exclusive you have to book in advance to even be allowed to go into them... well if I am to believe Wikipedia that is.

Other than that life has just rolled on. Work has become less tolerable with the awesome invention of "re-accreditation", whereby I have to re-prove my writing on a weekly basis until otherwise deemed fit. The fact the some things about writing are subjective or stylistic seems to have been thrown out the window in favour of the development of "Operational Excellence"... I love American corporate values! Love them...

I might try posting some random photos on there sometime... bear with me.

Ze Goat Island

Outdoor pursuits. One of the things I love about summer in New Zealand is everyone gets outside and flees the suburbs to the beach for the day. Yesterday I pursued this humble tradition and jumped in a car laden with people, supplies and snorkel and headed for Goat Island. The only thing I was missing was a bottle of L&P. So after being cramped in a tiny roasting car for over an hour I finally arrived at the beach along with the other half of the city hot on my heels. The next part of the day was pursuing the quest of finding the ultiumate beach spot, which is never an easy task. Do you opt for the sunny spot, or some point with shelter from the wind or do you look for somewhere with shade (which will eventually move anyway)? In the end the only spot that was available was in the sun anyway, so it was time to let the sunburning begin. I have since one terrible episode in Thailand been very careful being out in the sun; I even have factor 50 sunscreen. After about three coats of sunscreen I was ready to hit the water. The best thing about Goat Island is the fact you can snorkel around and see heaps of fish (though my childhood memories have way more fish there than there are now), so it's like swimming plus.

I'm still getting my head around this blogger thing. I used to use Livejournal a little and some of the functionality over there was quite cool. For example the Music and Mood settings were quite cool. I could write about what I was listening to, and my mood, but there were cool little tabs instead over there. I guess that lead to the type of people who use that site. Perhaps people who want to 'outcool' you on their music choice were there, or perhaps even people wore their mood on their sleeve. I'll have to try adding some photos sometime and see how that goes.

My two lives

Day after day I wake up, go to work and return home to log into a second world. It's got to a point where they aren't different or parallel lives. They have become the same life. Online once seemed like a different sphere where I was something else... anything. These days, that isn't the case. I am who I am. I have many names these days online and offline, and you know what? I love it.

My creativity had dried up over the last 18 months. Something banal had set in, but I need to end that.

I'm seriously addicted to World of Warcraft. It's not something I do... It's now something I am. I have friends there, I have plans to make gold and a list of goals in game. It's weird. I enjoy it, but sometimes I do boring things in there, just like I would wash the dishes in real life. Sometimes I don't understand why I do it. After getting some new shiny piece of gear I want to run around the Undercity and gloat it up. I just got my epic mount (a very fast mode of transport) and have even developed a sense of elitism when seeing other players with 'lesser' mounts. This is weird since in physical reality this mount doesn't exist yet it's worth 720 gold which translates into a real world monetary value of around $NZ100.

Then there is the other part of me... the prior parallel 'real life' me. Working day by day as a journalist with nothing really to say. I just use a set formula in the way I write. It comes out the way my industry expects, but does not allow me to push any different creative areas. On the plus side it has improved my writing structure... I think.

Thus I work, I sleep, I cook, I spend time with my awesome girlfriend, I grind for gold/honour/whatever online and then I sleep some more. How exciting is that?!?