Cups'R'Us

My life feels like it’s standing still. Well, not standing still, moving forward, but it’s been at the same equal pace for a while now. Like I’m stuck in this bubble of air bouncing along the yellow brick road, but not actually touching the ground.
I need something new! My piece of slack uncle still hasn’t bothered sending my computer to the repairbloke. That really just gets on my nerves – I want my computer! I’m sick and tired of my laptop already, it’s a good extra benefit, but as a mainPC? You can only go so far.
I need my computer back, I feel so isolated from everyone else without it. Sure I go out more without, watch more TV, but sometimes you just need to sit down and chill with something for a while.

My fingers are also really starting to itch about wow again aswell. I took up facebooking as a last resort. /bore. I have shit friends, they’re all boring /flame. Started playing that farmvillesomethingsomething game. Not really overly challenging, but the vague need for commitment is a band aid on a gunshot wound. It’ll keep my ticker going for the next 30 seconds, but then what? Am going to need the next fix soon.

I volunteered to watch my uncles’ dog this Saturday night, ended up crashing on the couch most of the night. He has a great PC, even wow running and everything. I didn’t even turn the thing on, couldn’t be bothered. It’s everything or nothing right now. Band aids don’t do the job. Duct tape, any one?

Maybe I should take up a “real” hobby… join a club, a community or whatever… Oh who am I trying to kid?

A big part of my job is working on expanding this pharmaceutical business to the Swedish market. But that’s easier said than done, let me tell you! See, and I’m sure at least the Swedes know about this, the Swedish pharmacy market is one big hole of gooey yucky black chaos. At least from where I’m sitting. Sure the end consumer might save a couple of bucks, but that’s a big maybe. So what’s going on? Well first of all. More than 2/3 of the (up till now) public pharmacies will be sold. To chains, investors or whoever would like to open a store and thinks “Hmm, maybe a pharmacy will be my thing. I’ll go try that”. So far, not a horrible idea. Except the fact that all pharmacy owners need to be licensed by Läkemedelsverket. Taking them forever, because they don’t even know what requirements are needed to run a nonApoteket AB pharmacy! A sidebonus to all this: Läkemedelsverket is also in charge of approving all product licenses (read: we can’t sell our products on the Swedish market till they approve it) and that’s cool. But they’re all over there so bloody busy that they have no time for approving our small products! We’ve been put on ice!

But ok, I can be patient as a rock when I have to. So moving on to the next obstacle – the TLV (the guys that decide what products should receive medical benefits upon sale). Right, their job is rather simple – design a new substitution system. Before, when Apoteket AB was calling the shots, it was all good. Now it’ll be mayhem in a candy box. So what did they come up with? Oh you’re gonna love this!

Now they divided the market into segments, prescription and overthecounter, human and veterinary, original (and parallel import) and generic meds. So far so good. Now of the main goals of ours is the vet business. There’s very limited PI on vet meds in Sweden – good for us! But. But but but! Had this been a year ago we would just report our prices to Apoteket AB and the orders would start ticking in. Now? Well I’m glad you asked! Now we have to go out and pick up agreements with each individual pharmacy/pharmacy chain. That’s over 600 pharmacies! Excellent, because we’re totally equipped for that. But it’s not that bad, could be worse. Sure it could, read on and weep.

So what’s next? Well, let’s take a look the generics. Doesn’t really have anything to do with us, but someone really got a good idea here. First, off the bat. As soon as the patent from the original provider expires, the TLV steps in and reduces all prices, original and generic by 65%. Boom! But they’re betting pretty heavily on this to heave home some cash, so they decided they needed to optimize the sales. Apparently pharmacies had a nasty habit of not selling the cheapest substitute. Well that needs to be fixed! So now they’re dividing generics into two: price below 300 SEK and price above 300 SEK. Bit of info: all pharmaceutical products change prices once a month. Suppliers bid in with their new monthly prices, these are approved by the TLV and put into effect by the 1^st of the next month. So all products that sell for less than 300 SEK are allowed sale the first 5 days of the month, for pharmacies to clear their storage area. After day 5 they can either be sold for no pharmacyprofit or all but the cheapest generic must be sent back to the wholesaler. Excellent! So much for the end consumer having options! Oh but I’m allergic to something in that generic – too bad, this is all you get! So much for increased service.

Now to the good stuff, original and parallel imported products: The TLV decided the best way to increase competition between pharmacies is to allow them to negotiate their own prices. Pharmacies don’t even have to store PI anymore, it all depends on what sort of deals they reach with the distributors. On the other hand, pharmacies will be able to earn a whole 10 SEK PER SOLD ITEM. The TLV hope this will be enough motivation to sell PIitems. In return they’re hoping that the individual pharmacy is able to negotiate prices low enough to still let the end product be cheaper than it used to be. I’m not that optimistic. There won’t be any common pricelist either meaning the poor Swedish schmucks need to do their homework properly to find out which pharmacy has gotten the best deal on which product. BRILLIANT! Now that’s what I call competition… But tbh isn’t it a lot more hassle than it’s worth?

Either way, I got some steam out, I feel better now!

Yeah, did you hear? Patrick Swayze kicked the bucket. That saddens me. I’m not really Oh no! /gasp /cry, how did this happen?! The world is a lesser place now, there’s a hole in my heart that can never be mended etc etc. It’s more an Oh well, he had a good run /send a friendly thought sort of feeling. Death is the be all and end all of life, we’re all gonna try it – at least once anyway. Some people die and it doesn’t leave a ripple. And then some people die and it affects others, in many different ways.

Me? Well this was one of my childhood idols we’re talking about. Right up alongside of David Hasslehoff and Donald Duck. When I was 10 years old I was going through some old boxes from when I was a toddler and I found a small 2page poster from some seedy weekly gossip magazine. I asked my mom who that was and she told me that that was Patrick Swayze. Apparently I’d seen the poster and had gone babyfrenzymode. So she’d put it up on the wall in my room and it would calm me. I dunno, she guessed I just liked looking at that poster, because he looked nice. And he did. IMO he was not some uberactor with uberhawtness, but I always thought he had an air of friendliness about him. He felt like a nice person. Didn’t make half bad movies either.

So hats off to ye Mr. Swayze, you’ll always be Vida Boheme to me.

I used to play wow. I actually haven’t looked twice at anything related to wow for almost a month. If there was an AAtoken for wow I’d be getting it soon! It’s been a nice break; I haven’t even really missed it. Or haven’t I? Sure I’ve been so busy I wouldn’t really have had time to play properly anyway. The fact that my PC’s been dead for the same amount of time might have been a big factor in me not playing wow.

But now what? Yesterday I packed the dearly departed in my car and we took a ride down to my uncles. He messed around with it for a bit, see if he could fix it. Like he could when I couldn’t! But he decided it was a lost cause and that we needed professional help. I could’ve told him that – I did tell him that! But I had a lot of extra expenses pop up the last while and professional help usually only means loss of $$. So he’s gonna pay for it. Personally I’d say screw the comp, it’s over a year old and most of the hardware’s hopelessly outdated anyway. Depending how much it’s going to cost it’d be money better spent buying a new computer entirely. But his dime = his say. Either way I’m going to end up with a working PC that can run that cursed game. Should it? I can honestly say that my server holds nothing for me anymore. Val, who I haven’t spoken to for a good while now, is in uberguild – good for him! Heard they’re nice and dedicated people, just what he was looking for. He said I could join np, they need a good disc/holy priest and that’d be me! But 3-4 nights a week of raiding from 20.00-00.30 is so totally unrealistic for me just thinking about it makes me giggle. I just can’t do that anymore, I’m not even sure I’d want to.

So what else? Pugs and the occasional step-in? Playing with a few friends that play at totally different times than I do? Why should I be the one that always has to change my life for a game? No more.

I could move again… Had a bit of a chat with daddyDC over the weekend, that’s actually why I decided to take the comp down to my uncle – saw a carrot that could almost be worth running after. He’s in a softcore guild from what I understood. Raiding 1-2 times a week from 7-10. See, that doesn’t signal the best guild in the world, but that’s not what I’m going for. I just want to play on my own terms, play when I can instead of having to carve out time for something that’s supposed to be a hobby. And this would actually sound realistic. You could prolly not clear all content in 1-2 nights like that, but that’s what pugs are for, if that’s what I feel like. I’m tempted. Plus, I’ve known DC for years, I think of him as family, I miss playing with him and talking to him daily. I know his playstyle, he’s relaxed and “casual” – if he says he’s in a good guild, I know what that means, what values it holds.

We’ll see what the uncle finds out, I’m anxious. I’d really like to play a bit of wow again. Just a bit. Just have the option.

Vote Earth!

It's as simple as that. As you all may or may not know, we're destroying our planet. Actually you, and me aswell, are contributing to a lot of bad things right now - just by sitting infront of your computer screen, TV, pretty much everything we do requires some sort of electricity these days. And that's bad.
Many of us worry about how we really need the latest designer clothes or mobile phone or if we really fit in our social circle; we even worry about important things like "will I be able to keep my job" or "how am I supposed to feed my kids next week". But basically none of that matters, not in the long run.
See, we're digging our own graves here. We may not be around to seeing it ourselves, but the people that are going to take over the world after us will. We're killing our unborn children, right now, as you're reading this. Scary thought, right? Climate changes, animal extinction, the ozon layer. They're all words that are being thrown around a lot these days, but do we really listen?
And what can we do about it?

Me? I vote Earth.

See?

http://www.earthhour.org/home/

That's the link you should click on, that's the link that's gonna change our world - if you let it.
Right now. Click on it. Go on.

So what do I do to make a difference? To make the world a better place?

Not much. To be honest, not nearly enough. But that's gonna change.
I buy organic groceries, I walk to the store instead of taking the car, actually I try to avoid the car whenever I can.
I try to make sure the animals I eat have had a good and painless life.
I turn off lights and electronics on the switch when I don't use them. I use candles for lighting and a bit of extra heat.
The light I do use all have lowenergy lightbulbs in 'em.
When I shower I keep a bucket in the shower that collects the water running through till it's the right temperature. Then I use that water to flush the toilet. I think I got that tip from Jamie Lee Curtis.
When my food's just about done, I turn the oven off and finish the meal on the heat already in the oven, it's plenty.
I contribute to WWFs endangered wildlife foundation. I'm thinking about sponsoring a kid in a 3rd world country.
I'm writing this now. That's probably my main contribution. I'm writing this and hoping a lot of people will read it. More than that, I'm hoping a lot of people will think about how they can change the world and then start doing something. Get some snowball/pay-it-forward thing going, you know?

How do you vote earth?

TGIF dear dear friends, and may all your Fridays be as awesome as mine is today!

It’s Friday, I’ve almost started chewing properly, over a week after my amazing open-mouth surgery and the weather is looking mighty fine (even tho the wind is a bit snappish)!

I have as good as nothing on my table today, have to read up a bit on the new Swedish pharmacymarket and that’s it! None of the usual slave labor I’ve been doing over the summer to help out with the vacation rush. Because what’s that gotten me? Nothing but a world of trouble, that’s what! See, my dear co-worker, let’s call her Scrooge, who’s actually in charge of doing all the regular production planning and –prepping plus making labels and marking leaflets and all that /yawnbusiness, has been loading all that off on me while she’s been covering other stations while the vacation season’s been on the rise. Fair nuff, I’ve been helping out aswell. But now! She’s still been pawing it off on me, only she’s taken all the credit of being superfast (because I’m just that good /flex) plus she’s started playing online games to pass time. Now, I don’t mind pitching in, but I’ll be fucked sideways if she thinks she can take the credit and slack off all day while I do her work.

So now I’ve become incredibly busy with what I’m actually assigned to do (since I’ve been putting most of that on ice since june!) and can’t help with all that. Suddenly she got very stressed, poor Scrooge :(

So yeah, I’m enjoying my Friday, as I hope you all are as well! and looking forward to a weekend of sitting my dog and going to my neighbors big 50^th birthday bash!

Have a good one, everyone!

Big brothers - some times you just wanna smack em on the side of the beak.

Ways to spend your lunch break:

1. Eat lunch. Tho many choose this slightly obvious option, it’s not for everyone. I, myself, like to have lunch outside my lunch hour, thus leaving a healthy amount of time for other, more interesting, things.

2. Browse news. Almost always worth a few good minutes. Yesterday I saw a few articles about a newfound race of rat, 3 pounds heavy and 82 cm long from head to toe, that’s right, not including tail. Eck! Looked rather cute tbh, all furry and nice, almost a small dog, nothing nasty or sewer about it.

3. Check up on new youtube clips. Nothing like spending some time on trimming your playlist and seeing what new recommendations pop up – best way to scout out new tidbits that could be useful.

4. Lolcats! Oh yes, my absolute favorite. Lolcats and other lollable animals are worth many, many hours of hardly hidden grins at work or school.

5. Go outside and relax in whatever good weather you might have. Sometimes you can get lucky and sometimes you get surprised about how it’s actually not as bad and grey as it looks like from the inside gloominess.

6. Play games. Online games, real games, get your mind totally off whatever’s nagging you during your normal 9-5 routine, nothing can get you head out of the gutter like a few games of card if one of your mates are up for it, or just do it online if you have access to a computer. Be careful with this tho, as nosy office snoops often get an upset stomach over this and might tell your boss. You aren’t doing anything wrong, it’s your lunch, but granted, it doesn’t really look too nice on paper.

7. Work some more. This tends to be my favorite – or at least the one I practice the most. Busy busy Brit means cutting into that extra special afternoon time. Try not to let this turn into a habit tho, there’s a reason why they call it a break.

8. Gossip. Preferably with another gossip loving co-worker, and if at all possible about another gossip loving co-worker. That way you are both interested in retrieving information about aforementioned third party, and keep it close to home and interesting.

9. Update your blog. Always a good alternative, also very therapeutic, if someone’s been getting on your nerve all day, sit down and write about it, get it out of your system. This also goes for keeping updated on other peoples blogs in case you’re out of fresh ideas, take a look around and see what’s happening. Blogging can be very social, use the medium!

10. Find a proper 10^th entry to this list. I didn’t mean for this list to reach that far, but if you`re a 10, you really are a 10 and you might as well come to grips with it.

Whatever floats your lunchboat, make sure you get up and move around for a bit if you sit down a lot during the day. Don’t sit and slouch and fall asleep in front of the screen, just getting up and walking around regularly helps keep your energy and attention span up, plus it’s a good way of keeping up on gossip from other departments outside your immediate range.

Lunch break YUM!

One of the biggest annoyances today (at least in my social circle) is the TV set.

There’s never anything good on! Correction: You just don’t like the shows that are on.

Even when there’s something good on, I’ve seen it 27 times already! Gotta agree there, networks love reruns – they’re cheap and they know all the other channels are running /yawn programs anyway, might as well save a buck. Frustrating but understandable.

The only time the networks air something new, something I actually want to watch, they put it on the late’o’clock timeslot! Us normal people with day jobs need our sleep! (That one’s actually started popping up a lot lately over the last summer season) That’s all advertisement! Ofc if the networks can bore you into watching old reruns for the umpteenth time because you know they’re airing a new TV premiere in an hour, that’s ratings and advertisement fees! So what if you’re down a few hours sleep tonight? At least now you’ll never forget that Kate never stopped loving Leo and tossed that huge mofo diamond overboard, that’s gotta be worth something, couldn’t live without that, right? /Snooooore.

As much as I love Simpsons, Sex and the city and all the other shows we’ve seen 75000 times, they keep rerunning those shows! As soon as they hit the final episodes, they just start over again, same timeslot, same ads, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE! /nod, maybe 2 hours straight of Simpson every single day is a bit too much… Maybe. But hey, it could be worse. A network exec could’ve gone mad and decided to air Titanic every evening just after dinner for, oh I dunno, maybe a month?

But what about the shows from “the good old days”, A-Team, Airhawk and Knight Rider? You know what I’m gonna say here, in that order of appearance: Too old, outdated and remade. (Even tho I’ve only seen the first half of the new Knight Rider pilot, I was not blown away. The jury’s still out, I’m keeping an open mind till next episode’s aired tonight).

Don’t get sidetracked Brit, you didn’t comment my statement!

Oh right, well… It’s not like those shows haven’t been aired over and over and over again, and then they aired them again just for good measure. But yes, times like this, it’d be a breath of slightly old, fresh air.

You know what I’d like? What I’m really holding out for? Ultimate Pay-per-view. The development is starting to move in that direction, digital TV, satellite boxes so you can mix your own set of TV channels and only get what you want, and only pay for what you get. So when’s the next step? My bet? No channels, no networks, just a box and a remote and you choosing exactly what show or movie you want to see at that exact time. Futurama, season 1, episode 5, go! Can push pause when you want, see it again later when you want, pay a small fee per episode/season/movie and you’re golden. I’d like that, no waiting till next Friday for the next end, no staying up till 20 past 4 to catch the end of "the best movie ever". Just exactly what you want, when you want it.

And we want it now!

Cursed be those damned wisdom teeth! I had one pulled yesterday – well, I had it surgically removed, to be exact! I’ve never known such pain. OOWWW! Plus now I’m facing another 1-2 whole days with nothing but mashed foods, water and painkillers en masse. Not kidding, 3 different types of painkillers plus penicillin AND my entire bottom jaw still hurts like it’s being ripped from my skull shred by shred. Which, btw, it almost was – I was so pushed up on anesthetics I was unable to keep my mouth open wide enough so they had to use some sort of massive machine to keep my jaws apart… So does that still hurt now? Yeah, maybe a small, insignificantly bit. On the other hand tho – even tho everything still hurts, I’m flying on a little pink cloud of fuzzy pink bunnies. I’m not kidding, I’m so high. Come to think of it, I’m actually pretty sure I’m even allowed to drive… But no matter. Oh yeah, didn’t I mention? I’m at work, stoning away, half asleep on my chair. Oh how I want to go home – I can hear my bed calling me from the distance… Give :( Oh well, time to see if I can get away with power napping at my desk for a bit. /Waves!