RIP: 9/10/2006 - 30/11/2006

tuesday:

spot and i caught the bus home - after waiting half an hour for it. it always sucks to know we could've done another 30 minutes work. just being signed in is helpful in itself.

we stopped for coffee, and had a long brain-wracking trying to figure out if our plans for the next step of what we were working on would be more efficient or not, and what other methods are available to us. it's been a while since i got some decent mental anguish exercise.

wednesday:

went home, slept well (again!), and was absolutely EXHAUSTED the entire day.

getting a haircut in the morning was a mission - the base hairdresser doesn't have enough budget to get his clippers repaired, so i had to get my head shaved off base. NIS 40 :S, but at least i got a good head massage afterwards :P

in the afternoon, i returned to my office with a popsicle, and was rushed in to a meeting. an hour long meeting. i was only needed for the first few minutes, and the rest of it didn't involve me at all. i was struggling, and i mean *struggling*, to keep my eyes open, and i have no idea what was being discussed.

at some point, i heard a sudden sharp noise, and popped awake to discover everyone staring at me... i'd dropped the popsicle stick...

somebody screwed up in our client section, and heads were being prepped for rolling. it possible for a user to screw up this badly because since the last time this happened, we either haven't had time to patch, or we simply haven't been allowed to. our SC called me up to push things - and insisted on speaking in english. now, his english is understandable, but if we're in a hurry then it's probably better to spend the time doing as opposed to wondering what it is i'm supposed to do.

i rushed home early, got dressed, and then took a taxi to the wedding. one day... one day i will learn to stop arriving on time for these things. the guests i knew only rocked up an hour and a half later :(

aside from that, it was a nice wedding. the ceremony was - um - interesting: the presiding clergyman put on quite the performance, sang everything with this really psychedelic background music. i enjoyed it, but there were definitely guests getting edgy :P

the night was spent dancing, and around 1am the music started pumping properly and we had great fun until they threw us all out about 45 minutes later. i got a ride home, and i'm guessing i got to sleep around 2.30 / 3am.

thursday:

spuzz, spot and i got up and ready at 6.30, and made it to base with 20 minutes to spare. we made sure everything was ready, although the mongoose failed to pitch so there wasn't a video camera, and handed out poster-size copies of "IDF spirit".

the video camera would have been a waste. as the discipline officer walked down the rows, he got more and more agitated, and by the time he got to me he knew something was up, and REFUSED TO INSPECT ME.

we all stood there in shock, the guys on the side couldn't understand what was going on (one of our section's TLs was there too, also having been at the wedding), and we tried to force the situation.
one of the guys from my section asked him "what about [totalwaste]?"
"i trust that he has it."
so it was my turn: "and what if i don't? i don't!"
"that's alright"

BASTARD!! he just threw away almost two months' work, on my birthday :(

in any event, although the primary objective was a failure the secondary was achieved, and i have a suspicion that he won't be too interested in asking a bunch of desk-jockey soldiers for the "IDF spirit" any more ;)

and everyone threw their berets, which was funny as hell.

the photo above was taken immediately afterwards, as a few friends simply had to hear me say it. with spot keeping place :P

after having coffee with a large group of friends, i walked into my office to find it FILLED with balloons! and an awesome, really touching birthday message taped to my monitor :'D

awwwww...

i framed it, it was a really nice feeling. apparently one of our civilians got upset, though - nobody else got such a nice birthday surprise, and she doesn't think it's fair because the others might feel like they're less loved. ffs, we're a little more mature than that, surely?

we had a long team meeting, which started off nicely but lost me after about half an hour. i snuck out (okay, my TL hinted loudly at me), and went off with the mongoose and freshmeat (not so fresh no more) to eat falafel for lunch.

in the afternoon, we had tons of work to do. some of it involved missioning, as usual, and at some point i was sitting outside having a cigarette when one of our providers walked up to scream at me - apparently piles had abandoned his post (office, in our case) before home-time and had caused them grief by doing so.

i walked straight back to the office, contemplating informing our SC first, and promptly lost my temper. i didn't notice, but the girls in our section apparently were on the verge of tears from some of the things i said to him; as i informed him later, he's just bloody lucky i didn't let him be sent off for a court-martial. i told him i'll consider it a first offense, and the last one that i'll help out with.

i've gotten so used to controlling my temper that i'm a lot more comfortable with the fact that i didn't beat the snot out of him during the shouting - he actually had the audacity to not only shout back at me bullshit excuses, but he physically got up in my face while doing so.

i'm still refusing to go to prison because of some little shit with a bad attitude. oddly enough, after we had our little screaming match i actually had his attention, and we made some headway. i made him write a soppy apologetic email to our provider, and take us forward from there - the problem is that he's definitely capable of the work, just socially deaf and blind and he needs to be "properly motivated" to work, which appears to be possible only through threats of serious disciplinary action.

work last night was really chilled: i was wasted, but fortunately didn't have too much to do. catching up on news and figuring out a strange bug pretty much sums it up. one of my coworkers walked in at some stage and plonked two huge chinese take-away boxes on my desk, and then refused to let me pay for it. and aside from being a tad cool, it was really good.

sammy rocked up around 10pm, and we drove through to my place, to wake up spot and go with him and the kid to cafeneto for a birthday coffee and chat (no party, gotta save it all for the goodbye celebrations). sammy got me a really nice birthday present, and us a cute housewarming gift :)

friday:

the kid and i got up relatively early this morning to go shopping. we finally went to the first place i wanted to try, and the stuff they have is fantastic. it's a bit costly, but the good gifts usually are, but i'm pretty much done with the goodbye presents. now i just have to figure out when and in what fashion to present them.

i went for breakfast with nystire, and then did another very short round to get something for my sister. i didn't find what i was looking for, but i found a great present for my mom, now i've just got to hope i can transport it with too much hassle.

i came home, slowly, and after showering have spent the afternoon chilling. now i want coffee and a smoke, and then the kid and i are going to continue our new "tradition" of hunter x hunter on a friday afternoon :P

oh - and it's world aids day. do we say "happy aids day?" or celebrate by not getting laid?