packing up and moving

as many of you will have noticed I have not been updating this blog for a while.
I'm not exactly sure why that is and if I'll ever revert back to it. It has grown on me over the years but I'm not sure I'm that person anymore. I think of it fondly, sort of like one thinks of a friend from childhood that sort of got lost over the years. For several reasons I need to move on by going way back in my life and re-learn stuff I forgot on the way.
This blog somewhat represents that period of forgetting who I am and who I wanna be and that probably one of the main reasons I can't keep it up.

For those of you who want to keep on reading what's going on at the moment and what I do and such, leave a comment or contact me any other way that comes to mind (twitter pigeon, facebook or e-mail,...)

It has been fun, I had a good time.
Godspeed.

Are you coming to the Toga Party?

On August 22nd 16 people will be looking for a missing Secret Agent and the secret papers he carries with him. It's a real life role playing game.

As you all know I'm a huge fan of all things Fringe, X-Files and other suspense stuff (also with a pinch of humor, like Chuck) and wouldn't trade in my MMORPG's for a lot of money (especially now, that I'm finally in outland with my priest)

Now a bunch of brilliant people came up with the idea to use smart phones and other gadgetry to make their own mainstream LARP.
Do I really need to say it? I'm over the moon about it. If I were Mary Murphy I'd scream really loud and have them all on a hot tamale train to somewhere.

I'm not sure how the 16 poeple will get picked and who choses them, but I sincerely hope to take part in all the fun.

Wish me luck!
Yours truly,
@AgentPorter

in which I quit my job and revive my blog for a bit

I haven't been around much lately. Due to the invention of twitter and facebook and other social networks I've reduced my brain waves to 140 character messages at a time and not much else.

I quit my job on Tuesday, I was urged to by my own body and my gf and for once I followed the advice given to me.
I feel a lot better now that I know my time here is finite. No more fighting for leave and no more fighting for paid overtime. Those are fights other guys fought for me decades ago - I shouldn't have to again, because of some colonists who haven't read the memo.
There were other things going horribly horribly wrong and I realised that I wasn't talking about much else anymore. It does put a strain on yourself, your partner and the relationship you lead. Not. Good. At. All.

Also, I was getting more and more exhaused until my doctor finally proclaimed that I'm her newest Burn-Out Patient. Great.

So, I'll still have to fight my way through July and the I'll be free. Free to sleep in, free to take time for myself, free of obligations, free of money probably too. But I don't care because I live in a wellfare state and if I really have to I'll find a job quick.

So, that's about the news I have so far, but I'll probably be back with some more soon and let you know how the trip to Budapest went.

Have a good Week-end.

Rock your vote!

hi folks,
I've been on some sort of hiatus with this blog and I have no good excuse for it.
I've been busy starting another blog about my academic life and work. let's not talk about work.
Also, I've been playing quite a bit of World of Warcraft (not as much as I'd like thought) and that leads to a problem!
I have three character which I really like but becomes more and more evident that I need to focus on one of them. If I keep playing all of them, none of them will ever be a higher level and I'll have to play a fair share of quests double and twice. That will grow boring!

I have decided to give you all a short profile of all of those characters and let you decide for me.

Character I: Night Elf Warrior, Velcro, lvl 24
I like him because he will not die even if he gets pummeled hard. He can deal with more than one enemy at a time. While it is a lot of fun being front and center, right where the action is, it is often tiresome to keep the target in optimal fighting distance and right in front of me. Velcro is not very graceful or sneaky but has his fighting qualities and gets really cool weapons and armor.

Character II: Dwarf Priest, Viviane, lvl 22
I like her because she's a Shadow priest in the making. That means she completely sucks now and will die if you so much as look at her the wrong way, but she will be quite powerful with time. also, she can heal the party members and resurrect them if necessary. It will be good to have her in a group, once her casting time is shorter. I like playing Viv when I keep in mind that it might be hard now, but will be kick-ass later. She's all about the future.

Character III: Human Mage, Vareen, lvl 11
She's the "youngest" and it will take a while until I have her where the others are, but she already kicks ass and will probably continue to do so. She deals quite a bit of damage and using one healing potion she can kill mobs 4-5 lvls higher than her. I like the powers she has and the way she fights. As mentioned before it will be quite some time until I get to the interesting part of playing if I stick to her.

so, there you go. I like all three of them and will continue to play with them from time to time, but I need a main character and can't decide. please help me!

the omnipotent labour wizard

It's been very quiet around here, I know.
I've been pretty busy with a lot of stuff and it will probably stay that way, but I have wanted to come back here and write something for a couple of days now and not even the weekend would provide enough time for that, so I'm using work time for blogging - I think it's a great idea!

I do still love my job and I still like the people I work with, but like with everything else, a look under the hood reveals a couple of holes in the oil can.

Like for instance, my company hasn't really come up with an image for themselves. We supposedly have a done marketing and business plan, but it doesn't seem they know where they want to go with it.
I was hired to run the office in all it's administrative aspects and do a little marketing on the side. I have done 38 hrs of marketing and business development and about 2 hours of admin work each week.
I've been designing business card drafts for a while now, coming up with different messages and styles but there is still no decision because it seems noone wants to be responsible for the final say in "who we are or who do we want to be".
It's a bit nerve wrecking, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I keep incorporating changes but it seems to never end.

Today, I need to hand in our video reel for a fair taking place in march. It's basically 2 minutes of any kind of video material we want to be played in a loop with other companies' videos.
One would think that such a thing exists already OR in our case as we are a new company subsidiary, we would have a graphic designer, animation company or something like that doing the video for us...that would mean someone would have to choose a subcontractor and make a decision on what we want based on who we are and what we want to be to other people.
Any guesses? Yes, correct the video was done by ME. In fact, I'm still trying to make it look ok. It's not that bad given the situation but it's nothing like it should look. Needles to say I'm slightly more than tinkering around and not at all qualified to do this. but being the resident geek will give you assingments you don't want.
I would volunteer to do such final decisions on what we want a video to look like but that would mean that I'd run the company and I don't get paid that much.
but if you think it's bad for a presentation video and a business card if you haven't really come up with a company profile yet, think again.

Next week we need to write a briefing paper for the fair staff, so they know what our company is and what we do...
It gets even better. In two weeks time we need to have - drumroll please - a press kit ready for all the media people who will be there at the fair.
To be honest it's kind of my favorite train wreck to be. I'm looking forward to who it's gonna be the one who writes the damn press kit because sure as hell, it's not gonna be me.

All of this might sound a little ranty. Well, it is but it doesn't do my job justice. There are things I need to vent but most of the time I'm having fun and I like what I'm doing.
I still have to figure out though, why I always end up getting jobs better suited for omnipotent labour wizards. I don't think I have had a job, where I have only (or at least mostly only) done what is in my job description.

Not a very sad good-bye

During lunch break today, I came across two videos that explained a lot about the state America is in.
the first one was the last Barney cam video. I guess it's my own fault for watching, what did I expect, seriously. Seriously!
So Barney was in charge of christmas decoration in the white house or something, that's one thing. That was actually kinda cute. Bbut what the hell was the opening with the first family supposed to be? Jenna (with her arm in plaster) kneeling on the hard wood floor next to her husband comfortably placed in a chair. I can accept the very bad acting, after all it's the Bush's not the Reagans, but I have a hard time getting over the picture of Jenna and Henry and the way they were "seated".

The second video is President Bush's tour of the oval office. My gran couldn't have done a better job repeating the same information all the time and not remembering her previous sentences. She could've stammered and stumbled her way all through the presentation, just like W.
The only difference? Well, she's a bit older and senile. She's allowed not to remember what she talks about. she's not running a coutry.

Get this widget!

That's when I'm gonna reactivate my white house feeds and podcasts...I stopped after the first term because I really couldn't take it.

Welcome 2009

Outside the kids are starting to firing crackers already and I keep wondering when emergency rooms all over the country start filling up. before or after midnight?
Anyway, I never quite got why those firecrackers are really necessary and why they are sold to kids, or why at all.
I mean I understand where they come from, the tradition behind them, but I never quite understood why kids all over the place buy them and what's so much fun about a thing strong enough to rip off your hand and loud enough to make you deaf. They don't do ANYTHING. They are not pretty, they are not a fun gadget to play with, they have nothing speaking FOR them. They have, however, a lot speaking against them. They are loud, they stink, they're dangerous, they disturb animals, old people,..., babies, they are not very environmental, etc.

Fireworks, at least are pretty.

That's why gf and I stay at home and have a nice comfy evening with computer games and food, watching the fireworks from our window.

What will/did you guys do for new years? Stay at home or party like there's no tomorrow?
In any way, I wish you a glorious 2009!