i didn't forget you, oh jerusalem

it's now a half past midnight, and after a week of craziness the system is now finally stabilized. i hope. the problem with intermittent issues and crappy tools is that they make debugging almost impossible. tonight we were fortunate to have the systems crumble again *and* i'd asked my boss to turn on my computer at work, and by using that station remotely i was able to run my code in debug mode and get to the core of the problem: another procedure that's been running just fine for months now.

in other words, this week the universe conspired against me. was it provoked? possibly. i blame surfing and watching a movie in the daytime :)

now that that's sorted out, i'm relaxed enough to try watching the movie that failed earlier... the combination of ubuntu not letting me watch it on the big screen even though it works fine on the small one and the boss sending me message after message when i was specifically trying to ignore him didn't do much for my nerves. and when i stress, i feel it. and now i believe i've earned a little respite.

---i don't know how we managed to get out of bed so early this morning, myself in particular as i was deep into some more epic dreaming. we scrambled to get ready and stepped out into the last ten minutes of cool morning before the heat struck. we were pleasantly surprised to find the bus station almost deserted at that hour, and the bus to jerusalem was so quick that i only scripted a handful of panels. thanks, google, for caching ovid for me :)

jerusalem was burning, the sun searing and not much shade around. especially not near the western wall. we arrived about twenty minutes early, enough time to stuff cash into an envelope and write a nice blessing, and then we hid in the shade while my cousin and her family gathered for the ceremony.

i almost got away with not participating (i got the honor of carrying the torah scroll, which always makes me nervous), and although standing in the sun for an hour of prayers isn't my idea of a great way to spend a morning it was nice seeing them (i feel like i discharged a duty) and the barmitvah has really learned his stuff; he didn't just learn a few sentences here and there like most of us do, but has actually learned the entire weekly portion. in my opinion that's pretty hardcore for a thirteen year old.

pg was less than happy, though. she doesn't dig the separation of the men and women and after all the effort to go with me she decided to stay back during the "do".

*sigh*
fine. no more religious family duties for her. i get it.

we didn't stick around for too long afterwards, just enough to chat a bit and then painfully force ourselves through the intense heat and exhaustion to grab the bus back to the central station, where we stopped for coffee before returning to tel aviv. the ride back was a pleasure because we passed out for most of it, but alighting into even more intense and humid heat at the end of it was not welcome.

i crashed on the couch with the airconditioner on for an hour or two before getting some film festival organizing done, then went with pg to walk the dog and eat dinner at jeremiah. it was pleasant, but the portions were too big (and we finished them, because we're pigs) and the walk back was slow going.

...

i have a plan. it involves a shower, and then choosing between a movie and bed. i've got this.

---it may not be a complete solution to global warming, but converting carbon dioxide into fuel is very, very exciting nonetheless. hooray for science!!!