a little rest is in order

how did i forget yesterday's quote of the day?
"9am is too early for spandex!"

i was a bit disorganized this morning. i missed a semi-useful bus, and waited 15 minutes for the good one. as it arrived, i realized i'd left something important at home: something that's usually in a place i can't miss, but during friday's unfocused unhappiness i placed a book over it... that was just unfortunate. i made it back there in time for a slightly-more-useful-than-the-semi-useful bus, and arrived *just* as my ride turned the corner. phew!

most of today disappeared in a whirlwind of not much. lots of emailing and explanations, but no actual work. i did purchase the green and black jawbone; it appears to be a fair price and the cute girl's name is daria. you can't say no to that.

the two village-idiot arguments of the day were about palestinian blame and jewish elitism.

a) the palestinians are most certainly, royally, screwed over - what nobody (including they themselves) realizes is that they've done it and continue to do it to themselves. they allow terrorist factions and corrupt "leaders" to keep their lives in the gutter, and they feed their children absurdly hateful propaganda instead of education.

we have no choice but to defend ourselves, and it doesn't matter whether we want to be friends or not. we're not only not responsible for their situation, but we're doing more for them (it's unappreciated, and largely denied) than their own leadership is. or we're trying to, at least. it's not an easy job, when your own propaganda machine is broken.

b) once upon a time, a jewish studies teacher passed along a little tidbit:
how odd of god, to choose the jews! [hilaire belloc]
it was not odd, the jews chose god.
the chosen people? it doesn't mean "automatically better than everyone else", it means "with extra-added obligation to show everyone how its done". and not all of us stand up to that. being obligated to be good examples doesn't make us better, it makes our lives harder. or makes us feel more guilty when we aren't behaving as we should.
as for everyone else: what the hell do you care?! if you're jealous, don't be. just be as good as you can be, and you can "choose" yourself :)

nystire and i had an interesting discussion about taekwondo, while he was simultaneously aggravating me by practising a strike without preparation. one cannot get over one's fears without climbing into a fight unprepared. you can think and train and do whatever you like for as long as you like, if you're not testing yourself against others who are stronger and more experienced than you then you're not likely to improve. there's a very big difference between hitting a focus pad or a punching bag and seeking opportunities to attack while under threat of having your head impolitely removed.

i got a ride to azrieli, and waited for so long for a bus that it would've been quicker to walk. the bus i did take turned out to be a bad one (express), and i was lucky the driver let me off... the bus to ra'anana was jam-packed, and for most of the journey i didn't have enough space to open my book :/

training was great, i've never enjoyed one-steps before, some of the move interpretations were extremely unfriendly, but that's fighting for you. i got a ride with scrapper, and fed, and we had an interesting discussion that turned into the usual. the bus home was comfortable. and i finished a huge chapter :D

i watched an episode of the big bang theory to go with a decent (and surprisingly uncomplicated) mango, and then realized that i've suddenly developed a large, painful lump on the back of my leg - and the paranoia of either a serious bite or a weird parasite to go with it :S

i'm guessing it's time to sleep.