Without further ado, five reasons why I love my job:

This was never meant to be an advertisement for work! I just like my job.

So, I’ve been doing the usual things. Working, drinking, sleeping, playing.

I’ve signed up to be a Youthline volunteer here in Wellington, and accepted into the training programme, which is something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile.

I’ve been playing with server things quite a bit - which some people might have noticed (namely mjollnir) but I am feeling pretty good about where things are going - faster, more stable and more betterer.

My Debian Maintainer status is slowly coming along - I now have two packages in the Debian operating system!
You can follow my bugs and packages by visiting the debian QA pages

I’ve been drinking plenty of Epic beer - mostly since I organised getting it delivered to work, but also because we went along to the West Coast IPA Challenge recently at the Malthouse.
Needless to say, the Epic Armageddon lives up to it’s name.

I just realised that drinking and Youthline don’t mix - obviously I’m a smart enough cookie not to do both at once, or either to excess.
(OMG EXCESSIVE YOUTHLINE!)

I’ve had a bout of .. sickness, which is the best way for me to word the situation.
It starts to become a long story, but various things going on and my back injury from a few years back has flared up again, so I’m left taking lots of different meds to cope with the pain.

I need to somehow bypass the usual suggestions of Voltaren (doesn’t work) paracetamol (helps, but not enough) and various other so called remedies for the relief of pain.
So I need the stuff they keep in the back, on the high shelf, not the over-the-counter sort.

The problem, of course, is convincing doctors (New doctors, since I’m new to Wellington) that I do indeed have a legitimate need for stronger-than-usual pain relief, and I’m not just out to score their Benzodiazepines.
.. The fact I know that word alone is due course for a thorough background check and set of shifty eyes following me around the pharmacy.

Thankfully, I have found a decent Doctor and she is willing to get me through the things I need to get specific help, and specific medication.
The downside to this is it’s all addictive as hell, and I’m not really keen on becoming dependent on anything. (drug wise)

And, of course, drinking while taking this cocktail of pain meds ends in a messy state, as a few have witnessed, and may have included the reckless theft of precious indian artifacts from an unnamed establishment. (Which are now where they rightfully belong)

In other news, I’ve decided to focus a bit on becoming more involved in the Debian community, which to start with means I need to at least be a New Maintainer.
Since the company I work for is awesome, we already have 3 debian developers working for us, which makes it a bit easier for me to get things started.

GEEK!

Less than geeky news, I’ve managed to drag myself down to the Wellington Rowing club, and put my name down for some form of winter/social rowing.
Doing a form of exercise I enjoy (and that is beneficial) is something i’ve been struggling with for awhile.
I’m not a fatty, (not a real fat fatty) I just need something to keep me more of a shape that isn’t round.

Kat and I have been enjoying watching episodes of Green Wing - which is something I suggest to everyone who enjoys british comedy (lets face it, who doesn’t. - Think Black books, but in a hospital. And more crazy.)

Musically, the new Portishead album has been on a high rotation (despite what my last.fm recent listens suggests. I haven’t got it syncing up with my iphone yet.)

- On a side note. WTF? ELTON JOHN?!
I have to clear this up. I have a thing for the songs ‘rocket man’ and ‘tiny dancer’ - That’s it!

More musically, lots more mixed up mixes (I love turtles!) a fair amount of metal and other things, which are keeping me aurally satisfied (easy now, you filthy cow)

We had a hugely successful cocktail party, which left us with new friends and a bunch of leftover booze (thanks guys)

So, update complete.
Till next time.

1) We’ve seen Brett McKenzie (of FoTC) in the street, at a cafe and now at the pool, along with other quasi-famous celebrities, including Giovanni Ribisi and Michael Imperioli (Christopher from the Sopranos) out in the wild.

2) We tend to frequent places with extremely good coffee/food/liquor

3) Every now and then, a windy day feels quite nice and refreshing.

In other news;

• We’ve moved things around in our flat, and had a few different people to stay from Auckland.
• We adopted a stray kitty!
  It is uber-cute, but quite sad looking and skinny.
• I got my iphone! It’s fully unlocked and working fine..
  In fact, most of the photos you can see on my moblog, are from the iphone.
• I tagged along to bits of webstock and met some pretty cool people.
• Kat got a new job with Massey University, which is heaps cooler than her last job.
• I’m still enjoying my job with Catalyst, especially all the awesome people and geeky things I’m learning.

I still get the feeling that this is more home than anywhere else, and I think that’s the most important thing of all.

I get all inspirational and creative just being here.. Looking out over the harbour and watching cars and planes and things happen, or being in the city among all the people..

There’s SO much to see here! So much art and music so many sculptures and the people are awesomely creative and smart.

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to integrate everything somehow into some form of flow. and the title of this post made me feel like it was getting there.
Sort of.

I’m reminded of the scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson, where he’s reminiscing about the 60s, the era and the magic and all of that.

Somehow whatever I was thinking or feeling made me feel a little bit of that too..
Watching the sun drop over Mt. Victoria, from our house, with the remaining light filling up the bay..
It feels like now we’re a part of a huge wave, fueled by creativity and technology and inspiration..
Everything is so exciting and amazing, with new things happening all the time, people creating and people doing extraordinary things with and to themselves.
I feel like I’m learning more than ever about life, about myself and about interesting and intelligent things.

Right now, we’re riding on the wave of our generation, and it’s slowing rolling, gathering momentum and peaking, before crashing back up against the hills and leaving the same high-tide mark that Thompson was thinking about back in the 60s, in Vegas.

..

If you’ve got no idea what I mean, here’s the text from the book.

Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime or at least a Main Era–the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder’s jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Kat and I are settled in Wellington, Guests welcome. We have spare bed(s) !

My new job at Catalyst is awesome, everyone is nice and I’m enjoying the work I have been getting to do.

Since we’ve been here, We’ve visited plenty of brilliant cafes, bars, restaurants and probably eaten and drunk too much.

- Highlights include:

Mojo coffee
The Malthouse
The good ol’ Matterhorn
The Southern cross
Sweet mothers Kitchen (omg)

and visiting moore wilsons for the first time, which I have to say lives up to the name!
(Aucklanders, it’s a huge wholesale supermarket thing, but they sell the best of everything, along with the most amazing selection of rare/interesting beer I’ve seen in one place!)

Now we’re heading back to Auckland to spend Christmas with Kat’s family, then up further north to the Kai-iwi lakes for new years destruction.

I’ve fixed my hosting, (thanks Catalyst) and you can follow our events by checking out http://moblog.nothing.net.nz for all the mobile-goodness.

Once I get back and things resume some sort of normality, I’m planning on some proper hacky blog/mobile integration.

so..
Happy Holidays!

\m/

We’ve both managed to score brilliant jobs, and the packing is well underway.

I expect things to be completely messed up for the next few weeks as we move all our stuff to another city.

I finished up my last day at work on Friday and it was sad. Saying goodbye to people that have become more like friends than workmates.

Anyway, I’ve got the worst cold known to mankind at the moment, so I’m dosing on Codral & as much Vitiman C as I can get my hands on.
It probably has a lot to do with the insane amount of farewell drinks that were generously provided, but I’ll make it through.
I can relate to this video:

New Zealand is in mourning, over the loss of the rugby world cup.
Blah blah blah.

There is MORE to New Zealand than the game of rugby.
For the past few days everything in the news has been about rugby, even the HOMECOMING of the losing rugby team..
Who the fuck cares?

Can we not just move on? It’s just a game. I don’t want to be hearing about this!

I realise that it is almost ironic that I’m posting on my blog about how sick I am of hearing about rugby, but I had to vent.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Death, War, Famine, Poverty!

This is probably the first proper working (SMS/Phone calls, etc) iphone in New Zealand, and it only took about 6 hours of hard work! :)

For a full explanation of what they did (hardware and software wise) check this page - http://iphone.unlock.no/

I expect this is the start of something awesome.

You can see a few more photos by checking out his flickr photo set here

And Digg it, here