riddling on base

i got a ride to base this morning; *much* more relaxed than the buses :)

the riddle i gave to my target:
(YOUR TEAM)₃₆ - (MY TEAM)₃₆ = 2uz0₃₆

everyone i showed it to before i sent it called me a bastard, and the response i got from the target (second-hand, of course) was hysterical :)
the riddle i got today is even more complex than yesterday's - i'm getting deliciously frustrated by it o_O

yogi contacted me just before lunch: his wife's given birth to a healthy girl! i'm really happy for them, and i couldn't help but walk around with a huge grin afterwards.

after lunch, my sinuses began acting up - most of the afternoon my brain was out of commission due to the lack of oxygen ?( [hmm... that looks kinda like a pirate]

we had a unit meeting, and afterwards i was talking to nystire when i heard raucous laughter behind me. i turned around, and my target was standing in front of a bunch of guys explaining how he'd figured out the answer^* with much exasperation - most of the expletives being directed at me, of course.

i was standing just behind him to one side, facing everyone he was talking to, and i was laughing hard and could feel my face changing colour! half the guys were winking at me, and suggesting to him that when he finds out who sent it to him he slap them silly... and he never turned around.

when we got back to our office we spent about 15 minutes canning ourselves >D

the rest of the afternoon was a waste, simply because i couldn't get my brain operative, and then i bussed home, met spot for coffee, did some sit-ups (i meant to get sorted out with studio b, but didn't), beat spot in tekken (although it was close; the control i was using definitely needs to be replaced :S), and i'm now ready for bed. tomorrow's the last day of yet another week, and aside from being exhausted all the time, i'm absolutely loving it.

i've decided the constant tiredness is either a throwback from the last couple of years, or i'm ill. or, as spot suggested, i'm simply sleep-deprived. although i doubt that severely ;)
hmmm - or maybe too much chocolate? or too much coffee?

^*he began from the wrong end (the left side), and due to a carry he should've been one letter off... but he subtracted one more than he should have and got to the right answer anyway. lucky bugger!

this man rocks.

huggies! not the diapers!

today began with a message from yogi to say that his wife had gone into labour. chatting with him on the bus, i almost missed my stop :P
turned out to be a false alarm, though.

we've got a jewish holiday coming up (purim, or "lots"), and we're playing a "game" where we each have a target to whom we must give gifts and riddles. the target has until sunday to figure out who's been providing him so that he can give a gift in return. the riddles are driving me nuts - coming up with them is one thing, but solving them in hebrew is a nightmare.

i finally made it to my welfare officer with everything i needed, and they've lost an important paper so i have to get it all re-authorized. urgh :S

one of the guys in my office joined me on the way back to tel aviv. he's a complete nutter for language, and carries around a book containing all the nouns in hebrew (all 20,000 of them) in all their forms... as i went through it, i got this extreme case of deja vu. i *know* i've seen something practically identical before, and experienced deja vu then as well, because the sensation was amplified along with the realization.

it was "free hug" day, or something. on the way home, i walked past a bunch of huggies with signs: can't not grin like an idiot after being given a hug - and the truth is that it's more like have one taken from you. they're just walking around collecting free hugs from everyone! genius!

sunshine: total eclipse
so she does have a boyfriend. and he left the country today, and she was really, really upset. completely unhappy and uncommunicative, and burst into tears when the huggies arrived and gave her one.

good site

unsuppressed

wow - i can't believe i almost blocked the memory:

i went for a haircut (okay, shave) today, and the barber tipped some hair onto my lap. approximately half of that hair was gray!

scientific experiments for the lot of you!

i didn't know it was going to rain today. one never does, but i thought i'd learned to take my brolly regardless... so i got a little soaked today. but it rained properly, so i enjoyed myself ^_^

our unit was lectured today concerning the evils (nationally speaking) of living in tel aviv and not having a million and five children each, considering the state of the nations surrounding us. the frightening thing is just how correct he is, but how impractical it has become to behave that way as a first-world country. throughout the world, people are beginning to understand (or dealing with firmly, in the case of china and india) the problems of overpopulation, but the arab nations' populations are still exploding.

wow. i can't believe i wrote that. it stays. i think i should've written "the arab nations are still experiencing a population explosion": that's still provocative, but less "from the hip".

anyway, hi-tech doesn't rely on all interacting companies to be based in the same area. it's just easier, especially as the companies can enjoy a larger and higher quality labour pool - silicon valley is the standard model. as israel is an information-based economy, that's reason A for so many people to be moving this side.

reason B is that tel aviv is an open, free society - not all of israel shares her sentiments. outside of the greater tel-aviv area, there aren't a lot of places that aren't isolated either geographically or religiously, and nationalist issues turn a lot of israelis away from haifa.

halfway through the lecture i started getting phone spam - after screaming at some poor tech-support girl for twenty minutes we discovered that somebody was trying to send me an mms. orange's mms services SUCK ASS.
a few minutes later i had a number, and i called it.

spuzz's phone doing weird things, huh? most of you will not care about what i'm about to say, but DO IT ANYWAY. add a name to your cellphone, something along the lines of "AAAAAAAA", with a number that your phone won't attempt to dial. a blank number works for mine. that way you won't annoy your friends when your phone's not locked.

oh.

and you should lock your bloody phone. always.

it took two hours to get home, and after handling a load of washing and moving some more music (i have to say it, i feel good about all my original cds), i'm going to bed.

stupor-fried

i spent most of today not absorbing anything (apparently not even coffee, no matter how much i gulped down). at one point i was dreaming about some girl teaching me which bits to flip on a giant circuit board type thing, and when i woke in a panic (i must've been out about 10 seconds) i couldn't remember how that information was supposed to help me :S

and there's nothing more worrying than asking someone to teach you something when you can feel your eyelids clamping down.

i came home a bit dazed - it might also have had something to do with asgaut and opeth on my ipod, the music is incredible. i remembered to go past studio b to find out prices and classes (why not take dancing lessons?), and my previous SC called me and we had a pleasant chat.

i sat with spot over coffee and food at cafeneto, and have been transferring more music since we've been back. my collection is insane ^_^

i'm jes' a-glowin' from this thar weekend

yesterday:

i woke up, played fallout 2 a lot, watched heroes, and then the mongoose and his gf picked me up. we had a huge lunch at his place - i haven't seen his parents in more than half a year - and then took siesta until late evening. i spent an hour or so reading v for vendetta (the graphic novel is brilliant), learned that "u" used to be known as "consonantal v", and then got a ride home to go to bed early.

that didn't actually happen, as i played fallout 2 and watched heroes until 4am.

today: heroes, more heroes, fallout 2. then a break for a couple of hours to clean the apartment and have lunch, then high fidelity (it's just one of those re-watchable movies), then the evening sorting out my ipod.

then more heroes (it just keeps getting better. much, much better), and then spot and i sat at cafeneto for a bit before i left for the lizard.

the lizard was kinda fun, and now i'm back and ready to shower and crash.

oh, yes. a stray thought on the way home: "i'm holding out for a girl who will really break my heart."

packing rubber, not lunch

actually, the beginning of the day was alright - only a little bit of pushing and shoving to get on the bus this morning. on the way back a bunch of us almost got trampled, and things got bad for the second bus because we'd all been hanging around for over half an hour waiting for an extra-specially late one.

too many people, not enough space to breathe, and one agitated totalwaste.

i just discovered that it's been exactly four years since my uncle passed away. every time i think about him the story of his totally unnecessary death upsets me anew. it's the main reason i don't trust doctors, especially those quick to write prescriptions.

i'm not sure if i found this story more amusing because of what he did, or how he explains why he thinks it worked.

run-of-the-mill psychopaths

please read the following links - the last one is particularly powerful but requires a *little* bit of background.

the CNN story that started it
skip to "here we go again", a harsh but deserved response
skip to "a rare opportunity", a good look at what the global society we live in allows

*how* much coffee?

after being compared to nystire in terms of caffeine consumption, it has been decreed that only beer consumption may be measured in litres: anything else in "doses" or "hits".

i went to visit her grandparents tonight, and i really enjoyed chatting with them. they helped me get my living arrangements into perspective when i asked about my "taped" experience yesterday :)

spot got all upset because i told both my flatmates that stealing my underwear is unacceptable. can anyone reading this back up his claim that there's a woolworths in new york with the same logo as the woolworths chain in south africa?

i can't believe it's thursday already!

forms multiplication

the morning began with me arriving at the city council, whose "service" branch has moved. not too far away, fortunately, so i got over there and waited for my turn in the express queue.

i noticed that their new symbol is a piece of curled red tape. how sweet, and comforting.

from there i was sent off to a regular queue. i spent half an hour having a screaming match with the cow behind the desk because i'm not an expert on city costs per metre squared of apartment space and i couldn't figure out what the hell she was talking about.

eventually i managed to get some sense out of her, and i've discovered that the amount that the city is planning to extort from me is actually quite frightening. and i haven't the foggiest idea as to how often i'm supposed to pay that small fortune.

i arrived on base roughly 11am, and aside from a bit of missioning around with nystire for a short while after lunch, it was a day i spent basking in the radiation from my monitor.

nystire and i took a bus back to tel aviv, and i got an opportunity to catch up with one of the cuter girls i know from the girl-farm. we split up at the station and i made my way home, and now that i've studied a bit and have seen episode 6, i'm going to bed.

there is hope for me!
vindication
a world of truth

just pushed me to bed

totally in it

taking the right bus is *good*.

breakfast on base is *good*.

four / five cups of coffee a day is *doable*.

getting a ride home and it taking fifteen minutes is *good*.

walking into a smelly, chilly apartment is *not good*.

napping in the evening is *good*.

having a spiritual re-awakening, internalizing all the craziness and making peace with my past few years is *good*.

watching episodes four and five of heroes is *good*. [breathtaking, actually. i mean wow, and then wow again.]

spending time with sunshine (albeit not alone) is *good*.

the cocktail room (even if only for an hour or so) is *good*.

knowing that i'll be waking up "late" (7.15) to pay the city council a visit is *good*.

t'was a dark and stormy morning,

the dishes were piled high. i washed them, waiting for the water to boil, made ready and left the apartment, still feeling awful from a long, sleepless night spent tossing and turning. i have a feeling that something that i ate yesterday caused my suffering... either that or the jogging.

i got off at the right stop this time, but i chose the next bus incorrectly - i took one with a round-about route that put me precariously close to having to fight my way onto the bus from the station.

it was a pleasant morning until i got a call from the states asking me if i knew where spot was. spot really isn't to blame for his shameless lack of self-discipline and basic sense of duty or responsibility. i blame his parents. if you keep treating someone like a child, they will never learn independence or be able to care for themselves.

i was provided a satellite phone this morning, and plugged it in immediately to begin charging.

the morning went well. the four cups of coffee and odd wafers smoothed it over considerably. lunch was decent. ten minutes on the phone with spot's aunt, who agrees with my previously stated sentiments, didn't do much for my irritation levels from this morning, but the rest of the afternoon was good.

leaving the base, i left the new phone on my desk, still charging - apparently it needs to plugged in almost constantly :S [at least i don't have to pay for it]

the public transport home pissed me right off. there was simply too much of it, and lots of being sandwiched between smelly and sick people. there's no need for that. when i ran into spot on my way home, after having had to fight to keep my place in the queue at the supermarket in order to buy some chocolate, all i had to say to him was how i feel about his family. i'm sick of them.

it's past my bedtime again, i hope tonight will be better than the last.

some links:

but is it quality mental masturbation?
possible correction
sharp-ish
a trip back in time

shin splints

i can't believe the weekend's over already... i don't really feel like i had one, as most of it passed by with me more or less dazed and with a serious headache. i think i'm just stressed because i don't really have any reason to be.

the kid and i went jogging today - i really needed that.
on the way out we were waiting at a red light, and i kept enough eye-contact with a cute girl coming the other way that she got confused, and her friend had to remind her to change direction - we all got a good laugh out of that :D

i was getting some good exercise until we reached the painful ending, and then we slowly hobbled back (along the promenade, quite nice actually). luckily, it began improving when we closed in on our apartment, and i've been good since.

spot made excellent spaghetti bolognaise, and we had a serious tekken session to go with the coffee afterwards. the rest of my afternoon was consumed by fallout 2 and heroes; the differences now that i've patched the former are pronounced, and the latter just keeps getting better.

gmail just came to the rescue - i've finally moved over all my university mail (and that didn't take too long), so i can stop being irritated by the intolerable volume of spam. i've finally outgrown the account that's been my "base" since i immigrated.

magist and his flatmate arrived, and we just came back from great sushi (right next door, too) and absolutely fantastic sorbet ice-cream (guava and strawberry). it's now most definitely past my bedtime.

a day with the birds

i woke up to some heavy reading this morning, and then went out to meet nystire and his siblings. cider for breakfast, waffles for lunch, falafel for dessert, and a relaxed while spent reading a new and seemingly interesting book i've bought called licensed to kill - hired guns in the war on terror in the park by lake's old place.

i was planning on napping when i got home, but fallout 2^*1, a bunch of educational stuff, alien resurrection^*2 and tekken kinda got in the way.

and now it's bedtime already.

^*1 after all i've done, it got stuck - turns out it's impossible to play properly without patching.

^*2 turns out i haven't seen it after all. i really enjoyed it. winona ryder rocks.

concluding the introduction

i discovered which bus stop not to wait at this morning. good to know :S
the day's highlights included an amusing introduction to the rest of my new unit, and having remembered to bring my brolly without knowing we'd have to deal with a crazy storm on leaving the base.

today was the end of an excellent but tiring week. lots of hebrew, lots of memory activation, beginning to get used to a new routine... and at 9.10am, babylon was installed on my pc, so i've stopped flipping through an outdated treeware dictionary and can now simply ctrl-click on any word i don't understand for translation. YES!

what now seems a long, long time ago i interviewed for my new unit and had my cv laughed at. today i had a long talk with the guy who interviewed me then, and he is absolutely incredible when it comes to pushing my buttons.

he had me fired up then about wanting the position, he has me all fired up now about succeeding - it appears that my desire to prove myself and to demonstrate that i'm not worthless is almost as strong as my desire to achieve my dreams.

cafeneto, tekken, unfuzzying my beret, heroes, and now bedtime... it's time to enjoy the weekend!

qubits
how romantic!

early to bed, early to rise...

again, 5.15. it's late now, tomorrow's going to hurt. i left the base around 8pm, after getting shamefully stuck with a rusty revolving door for over five minutes. more bent than rusty. whatever.

i received an email today with my previous unit's logo attached, so i edited it and sent it on to nystire. sitting with a photo editor open, i was tapped on the shoulder and told "i'm guessing you're <totalwaste>."

my new branch commander, a deadly serious-looking middle-aged man who looks like he's used to people jumping to attention on sight.

whoops.
so i got up and introduced myself, finished sending the photo and got back to work. pity about first impressions lasting.

i joined the kid and his brother for a huge humus lunch, and was returned back in time for a branch meeting. i barely managed to keep my eyes open - over an hour of hebrew. although i did manage to follow pretty much everything, the humus effect was taking hold and my focus was swimming. i'm wondering what was going through nystire's head.

no more "okay, you can leave now" when my commanders notice my eyes rolling :'(

i had a personal meeting with the BC which went way better. he told me to print something out afterwards; on clicking the print button i was asked if i was absolutely certain that i needed a hardcopy, we're trying not to waste paper.

nice :)

i ate supper with a couple of guys from our building - one of them from my office, and i actually didn't recognize him at all. that was a tad embarrassing. i really should start paying attention :P

since i've been home, i've watched the beginning of an absolute horrifyingly bad movie made in south africa. queen's messenger (1 / 2: anything with a character named captain strong) - DON'T watch it. it's the wrong kind of bad.

now i've seen part 1 of heroes, i'm going to shower and crash. tomorrow's the last day of the first week of the rest of my life.

a warm puppy

i can't believe we managed this morning, nor that it's going to become normal for me - much easier to arrive an hour early though, especially hopping on an only almost-full bus.

brain-breaking hebrew today, oodles of it. i really got attached to babylon making everything a ctrl+right-click away, and flipping through the dictionary is distracting.

at the same time, i'm well impressed with how much my hebrew's improved!

i'm really happy with where i am. it's not easy adjusting to the new life, but i'm feeling good about every step!

i got home, did some shopping, had a quick dinner, and after playing some fallout 2 and prepping my system for my p5, it's bedtime. i'm a lot annoyed about this intermittent internet thing, but i can't simply scrap everything and install windows xp just to see if spot's right :S

... you gotta wear shades!

one of my teammates complained about the glare of greenness exuding from my monitor: "how the hell can you read that?!"

my eyes and brain work, more or less. everyone's got there own, personal lack of taste, and i'm no different.

i tried to get hold of my medical files today, and was told what i could do with myself. i then went and bought myself a new uniform, so everything i'm wearing is suddenly fresh and smelling rookie again, i passed through my previous base to say hi, and returned to mine too late for lunch after hours of sitting on a sweltering bus.

nystire and i got into a minibus for a ride to tel aviv, and due to a lack of space people were being unseated according to rank and time served. that sucked. eventually they told us that one of us had to leave, and i can't decide if it felt worse being thrown out or staying on the bus while others were getting thrown out.

after changing and putting in laundry, i joined nystire and his to-be, or more precisely they joined me on a mission to buy a router (pronounced root-er, for you americans and aussies who don't speak english).

on my way home i spoke to my now ex-employer, and re-explained to him that nql isn't supposed to wait for me to do simple things that only he can take responsibility for... like writing test scripts for his own applications. he's a bit of a doos.

spot set up the net connection, i handled the laundry, and we sat at cafeneto for a bit.
the kid and i have agreed to wake up at 5.15am, he's coming to my base for a driving course of some sort.
sod this, i'm going to sleep.

a sign for the dawning

a new era: and the sign is a beautiful, old-school, clicky keyboard with proper layout and none of the windows keys sitting on my desk. and a p5 glove attached to my home pc; the mouse functioning's alright, but i need a connection to the internet in order to download a dll that wasn't installed off the cd provided :S

i have to get up really early to make it to the new base on time, and today stung a little. i spent most of the day running around forms hiking, and i met many interesting people.

i just have this feeling like things are going well, as they should be, as they should have been, and today left me with the unusual sensation that all the horrible shit i've been through during the last six years has been made worthwhile.

i was thinking about this on the bus: i look back on my blogging and i see how much i've matured since i began, and it's hard to remember that the reason i view all that stuff now as simple and easy to deal with is because i learned how the first time through suffering.
and 20/20 hindsight is complete bullshit, because if i knew a week ago what i know now i wouldn't have behaved the same and i wouldn't have gotten to the point i'm at.

but as my mother taught me, i've always done what i've believed is right at the time, and somehow it's all worked out. and even if it hadn't i wouldn't be able to regret *my* actions...

the house that controls the spice...

i slept badly last night. i have a strong suspicion that it's the quiet that got to me. or the quantity of strawberry and cream cake that i consumed. or the odd space that i'm in in my head because i finally made it up here and my life is finally back on track - and that track makes sense.

more cake for breakfast, and i sat warming myself by the tv until we all went out for a drive through the countryside.

our first stop was a spice farm, a tiny house *packed* with people buying every type of spice and spice-related that you could possibly imagine. absolutely amazing stuff... i especially loved walking past the mustard powder that can clear sinuses at three paces; i didn't buy anything just because i wouldn't be able to do anything with it.

although i did organize granola with coconut chips for my breakfast tomorrow.
our second stop was a small restaurant: it sucked. really, truly, unbearably aweful service, and the food was mediocre at best, unpleasant in general. we all left with an unpleasant taste in the mouth, but i'm feeling better after a quiet drive home and some more cake to smooth it all out.

i think the most interesting bit about that restaurant was sitting there as a couple received the fish they ordered - standing upright on a plate, in full uniform (fins and scales and eyeballs) and with an expression that suggested that if it were thrown into water it would carry on swimming.

now *that's* presentation.

i'm hitting the shower now, then it's back into uniform and back down south... i'm so excited for tomorrow it's silly...

the television in its natural habitat

i left a little later than i'd intended to, but arrived on the kibbutz around lunchtime, which was a little earlier than i'd anticipated.

i have to admit that wearing this new rank is odd. i feel awkward, and i can't stop staring at my shoulders. it's a rank i've laughed at - i showed spot this morning and he got hysterical - and it's a rank that very few people actually want.

i had to work my ass off for it.

at the same time, most soldiers simply aren't familiar with it. my cousin here (he's a basic training commander) took one look at it and stared at me in horror, thinking i'd somehow become an actual officer. "no, no," i explained with a smile, "this is even worse."

so i switched clothing, and spent most of the day on the couch watching the telly. good stuff, i can tell you: from a life less ordinary to a really fun movie with john cusack and frasier's dad released in 1989 (both so young!), and i even let myself be entertained by some israeli tv...

so i've napped, been fed a good meal, eaten the most decadent cake i've ever come across that my cousin made (my god - a strawberry and cream cake that even the base was is amazing: *so* having it for breakfast), and now that i've completed my little updation i'm off to read and sleep.

speaking of reading (i'm still near the beginning of war made new):
1) great quote from hiram maxim (inventor of the maxim machine gun): "in 1882 i was in vienna, where i met an american jew whom i had known in the states. he said:'hang your chemistry and electricity! if you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility.'"
2) the book briefly mentions "chinese" gordon, of whose clan i'm a descendant. what was that about being familiar with one's roots?

IANAP...

... but this just cracked me up :)

i've been reading news this morning, so before i hop off up north:

anti-darwinism
another form of cuckoo-ism
dna rainbow (cute)
test for string theory
a good start to the weekend
and this is almost true. aside from forgetting about japan, he doesn't take into account the quanitity of americans abroad who *have* to watch the superbowl.

me and my time machine

my day began with sunshine directing me to where my orders sent me... arriving without too much hassle, being shouted at about being AWOL, being sent off to wait and twiddle my thumbs for an hour or so... after getting sick of waiting, and having other arrangements to attend to, i knocked on the guy's door:

"listen, sorry to be rude, but i'm supposed to be promoted in a couple of hours. is there any reason i'm sitting on my arse?"
"you're getting promoted? why didn't you say so before?"
"did you ask?"
"listen, i can't do anything with you until you've been promoted. i don't even know how you got here, or who issued your orders..."
"you did. your secretary called me yesterday..."
"nevermind. go to your promotion. you were never here. bye."

so i made my way to my old base, stopping by cafeneto for coffee with sunshine, and then continued on... to discover that while my promotion was scheduled for 1pm, i wasn't authorized to receive the rank.

that's an oops. doing everything under last-minute pressure as usual, and using some really good people i've met during the past month, we managed to sort out everything by 1.02pm. i *rushed* to my old office, to discover it abandoned and everyone waiting for me in our BC's...

it was an amusing little ceremony, especially the part where i was stripped of my previous rank.

but i did manage to speak this time. as i started off: last time i was mute, this time i've been upgraded to having a mere speech impediment. i was shaking while speaking, i was all emotional, but at least i said what i had to say. the retort from my now previous BC only emphasized how right i am and how great she and my now previous SC [the bull] are.

i spent the afternoon in morbid fascination - i now have a rank that even privates hold in low esteem :P

i spent the afternoon performing a knowledge transfer to brother bear and our sergeant first-class, and was almost done when the bull rushed in to inform me that there was a huge problem and the kid had to go to work...

"oh shit," i thought to myself. it actually turned out to be a fun problem to sort out, and by sort out i mean discovering, in conjunction with a number of other sections, that there wasn't really a problem. it was generally a good laugh.

i received my new orders before leaving the base - they're back-dated for two days ago, so when i arrive on sunday i'm at their mercy :P [i'm *really* not worried, though]

my now previous TL [OaG] gave me an awesome little goodbye gift, and i finally really actually properly officially left the office for the last time, not counting visits. i bussed home, changed, and made my way to mmf's. his girlfriend made great supper, we sorted out his site, watched too much telly, and i left with my psOne cable in my pocket ^_^

from there i walked to the zamir, which was a cute party, and i came home to shower and rest a bit before heading up north. it's been a nutty week. hell, it's been an insane nine months.

no, one better. it's been a rediculous and silly and harsh two years and three months. i already feel like i'm beginning to normalize!!

new orders

i slept better last night, went to base early again this morning. it was an interesting morning of nothingness, but after lunch i heard tell of things moving and i made my way to herzeliya to have my wallet raped so that i could re-receive the papers that i already filed with the army two weeks ago so that i can re-file them.

stupid, slimy bastards.

i met up with piles and spot on the way back for coffee, then hopped to work for the last chat with the boss, ate with yogi and came back home to fight with spot over the broken washing machine and unhappy internet connectivity.

gotta get me some shuteye. a large part of the day was dedicated to buying the p5 glove, but it's an annoying process in this country :S

after not sleeping last night...

... primarily due to sore legs (body still aching, especially neck, surprise), i woke up super early and headed straight for the wrong base. [on purpose]

hah! i was awol today, and nobody noticed. well, my previous BC informed my current SC who doesn't really have anything to do with me anyway. i wasn't released today, rather entered into permanent force - theoretically this makes me a completely displaced jobless soldier with an increased salary that's still considerably lower than that from the job i just quit.

the satisfying bit of the day was the mongoose calling up that cow's superior and telling her to crap on the foolish girl for being unpleasant to me ^_^

and i spent some time with a girl who's really helping me out of the current mess and doing it with a smile. and it's nice to hear that my now previous commanders are well appreciated by everyone they've been in touch with regarding me, because they're really deserving.

oh, yes. it rained a LOT today. i took some abuse from the kid about not being man enough to leave my brolly behind, but i've been more-or-less dry and he's guarding tonight.

after coffee with nystire and his fiancée, i went to work to inform nql that i'm officially forbidden from working as a civilian. i cleaned out my desk, and came home to eat the rather decent ghoulash spot's been raving about, catch up online, fiddle with the guitar, and now shower and get some rest.

my life's upside down and it's all beginning to make a very strange sort of sense. i must be an NCO.

scientology rules in court, apparently
zune?
musical truism

gaming:
frikkin' cool, miss!
smart lawyers?!?!
not a smart lawyer at all - /. comments a must!
real gaming (or, an accident waiting to happen)

eco time:
last showing
another wish i'd thought of it!
damn right
and back to twiggy (but he's right)

11:59:00:01

i don't have time right now to really describe what happened today, and how it brings closure to the last month of my nightmare. it was a really long day, a really unpleasant day, and almost literally at the last minute i got a phone call telling me to cancel the vacation.

so i suffered some abuse on the induction base [the mongoose will be dealing with that], been to training, had an unpleasant ending of relations with sunshine, and i've been out tonight for the opening of ta2's new club - now it's time for a couple of hours' shuteye and then i get promoted in the morning.

i think. it's all terribly confusing. i walked into my now previous office this afternoon and all i had to say was "i've got nowhere else to go!" :S

STOP THE CLOCK!!

just after 16.30 i was finally informed that i've been given leave... it'll take effect tomorrow afternoon if i manage to sort my shit out, and once taken will leave me with one single day of mandatory service left - that's cutting it seriously close. "tight" had this in mind, it feels like something out of a movie.

so today was highly stressed. at some point i thought "sod it" and had a cigarette, and sat quietly being mildly stoned for a short while, before getting back to my combination of spider solitaire and trying to keep my shit together.

then i walked into work, and my boss was around for the first time in a couple of weeks. the first sentence out of my mouth after "hi" was "i'm outta here".

granted, i said it a little more politely than that, but basically i've quit and i'll be closing shop and helping out here and there until they can properly do without me. i had a chat with the boss about the current situation and all the things i've been complaining about, but he's not really interested in what i have to say.

nystire arrived to pick up his biltong, and we went out for tortillas.

i cleared out my virtual desk, and here's what i had to save:
From: nql
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 1:01 PM
Subject: object oriented lesson


// create an object;
$sf = new SFFX;
// set the parameters
$sf->set_post($_POST); // pass the form variables + validation
$sf->set_act($arg); // pass the values that we got back from ACT +
validation
$sf->set_cookie($cookie); // pass the user's cookie preprocessed in an
array
+ validation
// do the action
$success = $sf->create(); // check wether post, cookie were called
(="validation"), just do the stuff
// continue accordingly
if ($success) {
do something with $fs->record_id...
}
else {
do something with $sf->error...
}
// This is what I call object oriented, "Mr DoItAllInOneFunction"

SEP Field: SET.

so tomorrow's gonna start with a lecture on stress-management: well-deserved, i haven't been dealing with mine correctly. in related news, i just had a freak-out because after finishing this post, i managed to press a key combination that told firefox to drop my current window and pressed OK, and i don't know how.

boy, have i thanked the googles for the recovery function.

the tepid housewarming

my day today began with a hysterical conversation with wooz the ghoul barman that resulted in my being on the receiving end of a serious thumping. it was a mission in itself to tear myself away from the game in order to get the cleaning started.

cleaning took four hours, and included everything. in the end we had only about 10 visitors, with spot leaving halfway through to go to magist's housewarming.

a few of us went with our TL to play some pool, and i saw the angelic waitress for the first time in months... the pool we played wasn't serious, but i did have a bit of fun.

now it's definitely bedtime.

drool day

aside from shopping this morning (fine, early afternoon), all i've done today is play fallout 2. i'd be in shit if it wasn't for quick-saving, because the last couple of hours have seen me randomly judging and executing several small towns. while i'm trying to play through the missions.

although i'm extremely happy with my character: heroic luck and 100% on gambling. the rest is pretty much average.

hah! not one cigarette the entire day.

the colour of self-worth

last night the kid came home most pleased with himself: he's learned all we've tried to teach him about doing things properly the first time, and he's just gotten extremely positive results for his first serious attempt in the real world :)

i went over some c# material before going to bed, and it all came back to me (with interest, i've properly forgotten some things).

this morning i phoned to harrass the people responsible for my vacation authorization, and i think that the girl i spoke to understood my problem, because this afternoon she reported back that it should be handled on sunday. that's not a guarantee, but at least come sunday i'll know who to bother.

speaking of bother, the mongoose helped me out with a really nice print of winnie the pooh for my welfare officers :P

the interview:

pleasant. interesting. it sounds like a job i'd enjoy and learn from. didn't bat an eyelid when i stated my minimum salary (three times what i'm currently surviving on), which i think indicates that i should begin checking out the current average and raise my sights a little.

after my last interview, i promised myself that i would prepare a system i've previously designed in the event that i get asked again. i was asked again, but not having fulfilled that promise i got stuck.

so the interviewer pulled out a question, which just happened to require an algorithm almost identical to the one brother bear and i worked on a couple of months ago - i had an immediate O(n) answer on hand, no thinking required ^_^

they want me immediately, but i'd apologized about my unavailability from the start... if i do need the job, then i hope nobody fills the position before i get there ;) [having my cake and eating it]

i have to be honest, that was a good ego-boost. i experienced an increased appetite in spite of the aweful food, and playing inter-branch pictionary afterwards made the day complete :D

my mother made an interesting point in her last email: if i'm going to study again, why not in canada?

i'm going out for a smoke, then i'll come back inside for some more work-hating, and then the weekend begins. i'm 100% focused on sleep potential.

pretty winners - odd interface, click symbol to access?!
highly amusing - i love americans

when you know your mommy's right

to: tipsfortrevor@treasury.gov.za
subject: Budget 2007

Dear Sir,

I believe that there should be no additional tax relief for companies or for individuals earning more than R 600,000.00 per annum.

The money that is 'saved' by not cutting taxes for those at the top end of the earnings ladder should be used for staffing our essential institutions.

It is essential that nurses, teachers, other health professionals, policemen and prison warders and prosecutors, all the people that make this country work, are better trained and better paid so that they are motivated to stay in these essential services. Nurse and teacher training colleges should be re-opened while we still have qualified people to man them, and if the qualified educators are white, so be it.

Prisoners should be made to work to contribute towards their keep so that less of the budget is needed for Correctional Services especially as we do need more prisons, run more efficiently, as the crime rate spirals.

The affirmative action that has cost us skills has the most expensive part of our new dispensation. If the skills are available, it is silly to appoint people on the basis of colour/gender. We need to get past that. Our country needs to employ the best to get the best for everyone, and service delivery will improve immediately.

i wish i could believe that trevor would take her seriously.

overproduction = unproductive

i can feel my brain tearing at the seams. i've had a long week, and now that it's over everything's come rushing up to the front to crowd all the functional bits. as if it wasn't bad enough that i had to deal with serious brain-rape from nql's lack of communication skills, i've just been introduced to a new level of bad design that wasn't apparent from the start, and i haven't a freaking clue how to go about working around it.

and i don't want to.

i'm sick of this shit.

i don't mind php, web-development, grud-work... i don't like it, but i can deal with it. i mind having to be stupider than i'm already feeling so that i can blindy write things in the manner that i *hope* is correct. correct for the existing environment, of course.
design wasn't considered in these systems, and i think that the monkey who continued without understanding what was required for the company confused all the entities - and the users - and the providers - and me. it really does pay to employ somebody who doesn't need a beating with a cluestick to perform basic system analysis, and it really does pay to find someone who actually has an idea how the business itself needs to operate.

not only that, but if they'd had a decent design they would have known from the start what they required from the providers: i'm thinking that maybe this company should start over.

it pays to begin on the right foot. an idiot off the starting block will fuck you right up.

irresistable photo

click to view actual size

the sign says "no parking / stopping" for the entire area, the list below includes bicycles. some idiot chained his bike to the sculpture itself.

now i just need to learn how to use the camera.