stretched out and in time for bed again

hmmm - i'm sitting on the beanbag next to my desk, watching the screen intermittently at an awkward angle because while everything else is connected connected to the laptop, i don't own a usb keyboard :/

i cannot express my gratitude for this laptop enough. not only have i been unable to leave my desk for the last hour, but i've been loading ukko with a very respectable selection of goa trance :)

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yesterday:
i was dead tired. the super-unhealthy breakfast from our base kiosk was alright, but the morning soon went sour - my previous post explains that. i spent most of the day under attack by the goblins in my pc... i didn't get much work done, and occasionally had to release a scream or an expletive...

to celebrate hanukka, which began tonight, we had a quick unit gathering with doughnuts. exceptionally doughy doughnuts - while some complained about them not being baked enough, i had to help myself to another one :P

the end of the day was consumed by helping one of the new kids write up a full report on a mistake he made... and this was two days after we'd all received an almost identical report from another section. it's not clear how much shit he's in, but i showed him how to use the report as a tool for preparing for the impending court-martial.

my eye aches were quite severe, i spent the day in search of a massage:
a) temples. it's incredible how sensitive and tense those muscles get when exhaustion reaches a certain point.
b) feet. for some reason my feet have been aching the last couple of days. massaging them on computer corners and chair legs isn't very helpful - but i found the solution at training. the bars we use for pull-ups, climbing and stretching? PERFECT for putting all of one's weight on exactly the right spots. it was struggle to pull myself off.

training last night was great, physically i was sore but a couple of guys from the old group were around and we were all alone for over an hour, so our instructor went old-school on us. this was exactly the right atmosphere in which to bring up all of our complaints, and we really got everything off our chests. here's hoping it'll make the difference we want to see, ie. bringing things closer to how they used to be in the good old days.

we're such fuddy-duddies - i mean we expect our instructor to be tough on us, we expect to fight and to fight hard, and we expect that people will be there with the aim of improving their skills.

ridiculous.

in other news: for being crap with my throwing arm and for demonstrating bad timing on a number of occasions, i ended up doing over 500 push-ups last night. my arms were a little tender by the time we walked out.

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i almost went straight to bed when i arrived home, and woke up at 9am with my alarm buzzing... fifteen minutes to electrician.

we're almost finished the first round of the work that needs to be done, and i'm a little irritated that we only now discovered something that would've made me plan the computer area differently. it's not a big deal, but it could've been handled better.

i took my pc in for repair, and am waiting for the news. i really, really hope my drive's rescuable [really?], because i discovered this morning that my backups were confused between two locations, and i'd been making them on the drive that's invisible :'(

[hmm - i seem to be getting used to this keyboard...]

after the electrician left i headed off to coffeeholic for breakfast with the iliad. i'm convinced the difference is in the translator; robert fitzgerald is not only exceptionally faithful [i've heard from a number of sources], but readable too :)

i sat with the hardware dude for a bit when i picked up mini-brackets for the shelf i found on my way home (just a centimetre short of fitting snugly, what a bummer!), and now he wants to come to south africa too :P

i bought myself a candelabrum for hanukka, which begins tonight. i came home, had a snack, then headed out on my blades to join the sunset rollers. the group began a half an hour later than i'd expected, so i had time for a beer and some jumping practice before we left.

there was a cute girl there looking for rollerblades to help out with a video... she asked if i was available to help out on sunday. i smiled, and asked what time - twelve o' clock noon. i couldn't help giggling, for me it's either around midnight or not on a workday. pity.

the group was good, and we had a very chilled roll through the park. we stopped to light the first candle and have doughnuts - very cool - and were treated to thunder and lighting... it was decided to begin heading home, which turned out to be a fantastically wise move as it began to rain about halfway back!

after a steaming hot shower, soup and a mug of marshmallow hot-chocolate; after catching up on comics... it's now time for bed. maybe i'll go out if i wake up early :)