31/12/03

*** yesterday ***

i basically wasted the rest of the day. i played some starcraft, and went to our brit's surprise birthday party. and played some tekken.

*** today ***

i made a pitiful attempt at homework, gave up, and watched some tv before going to bed.

30/12/03

*** 28th ***

i slept a bit, then worked a bit, until SxS came over, and we played some tekken. i sucked.

*** yesterday ***

i skipped first class, and went to the ultra boring one. i had difficulty focusing when he opened his mouth, but as usual i made it through.
i haven't learned a thing, though.

i handed in my homework, got a quick tutorial in using .NET to build web applications (compared to the current system, it is AWESOME. and it uses c#...), and went to do my accounting homework in the library.

aside from the person who did the original, i think i'm the only one who did the homework without copying. i didn't finish it, but i do have that tingly sense of satisfaction. it is, without a shadow of a doubt, the ugliest assignment i've ever handed in - i couldn't be arsed to do more than my rough draft.

the class was interesting - we finished all our course material, so we have three spare weeks. after class i went home, put my laundry in the washing machine, and went to taekwondo.

it has been a long, long time since i last got any real exercise. it was a rough session.
i least i stretched out.

i got home around 23.15, took my washing out, had a quick supper, and

*** today ***

i just got out of a much-needed, long, hot shower. i'm about to make plans for new year's with her (i had to choose between her and my friends, as they're doing the trance thing - it's my first time dealing with such dilemmas), and then go to bed. i have to go to work in the morning.

anyway, we've been slacking on the punishment of those-who-don't-do-their-dishes, and our argentinian has been abusing this. the other three of us have now washed all of his, and we've done so much, that we're going to be beating the crap outta him when he gets home. i have four punches that i owe him, and i did the least :)

*** later ***

well, i woke up early, and went to work. work went fine - one of the better moments was receiving a mail from some hick claiming to be a reverend with "brain cancer", in desperate need of that $20 he's owed by a company that we work with...
ya.

i had a great lunch - chinese, lemon chicken. very tasty, and lots of it.

i was supposed to go directly to ramat aviv, but my trusty study-partners weren't available, so i got a ride home, and have been arsing around here since 2pm.

i DID get to see al gore on conan o'brien, however.

28/12/03

*** 26th ***

dinner went swell, although her father wasn't there, so i suppose i have no idea how it would've gone. her mom watched a movie on tv with us afterwards - fast food, stolen cars, which is a really weird movie, and definitely not one to see with one's partner's parents.

*** yesterday ***

she slept at my place, and in the morning we went to SSSO and her husband's place for breakfast. good breakfast, it went on from 10.30 till about 14.00, and included watching some tv, and me getting a belated birthday present: one of those totally sweet bean bag thingies that you heat up in the microwave for sore muscles.
JUST what i needed!

i slept and did homework, and later on went out with grootbek and a friend for hot chips. she picked me up, and we went to put petrol in her car, and then returned to my place to watch a nightmare before christmas. i've been waiting to see that movie since it came out... it was AWESOME!!

*** today ***

by the time the movie was over, it was so cold that we literally had to hold each other until we were warm enough that she could drive home, and i could brush my teeth.

i woke up at 07.30, and had a nice, hot shower, before being picked up by SxS, and going to our big meeting. the meeting lasted one and a half hours, and was successful - more or less.

we walked out of that meeting, into another one, which lasted about an hour, and i got myself a ride home. i watched the first half of the goonies, which i only saw once as a kid.
i'm sure that chunk is related to the kid from the kid, they look similar and have exactly the same, stupid, acting and voices.
yes, i KNOW they're just kids.

i went back to school for math class - i managed to lose a bet of five cups of coffee with the lecturer. the word "fishes" is a plural noun. when the hell would one use it acceptably?!?!?!
i feel cheated, by the whole world.

i had lunch, and then went with grootbek and a friend of ours to the mall, where we did the mallrat thing, and went bowling.

now, i've ALWAYS sucked at bowling. this is the first time i've won at bowling: i scored 164!! with four strikes, one of them off a spare in the last round, and four non-strike spares in total. i r0xx0red!!
i'm very proud of me.

before going, we played an arcade game which involved force-feedback machine gun controls. we did okay, but i couldn't move my right hand for about five minutes afterwards - those things were POWERFUL.

i'm about to take a nap, and then i'm going to do some of the work i'm supposed to have finished by tomorrow morning...

26/12/03

she and i arrived at the party just after 00.30, which was being held in the club just underneath the tallest building in israel.
a really styling club, with free sushi, and cheap (relatively) drinks. they were playing hip-hop when we walked in, and the dance floor was packed, as was the rest of the place.

it was our first time properly "going out", as opposed to seeing movies, and doing coffee shop rounds, and it was really, really nice. we spent a lot of time dancing together, talking to all sorts of different people, and we had a great time.

we left a bit early, and i got to sleep around 4 / 5am. i don't know how, but she managed to drive herself home - i was too exhausted to even THINK about taking her home.

i woke up around noon, and received a phone call from a friend of mine, asking after another friend of mine for purposes of causing them trouble. as i knew that there was no good reason for this, i went over to the other's place to warn him. we had a difficult, 45 minute discussion over what to do, but whatever happens, i think that my relationship with the first one just took a dive.

bad timing too, he just got issued with a tavor (bull-pup assault rifle), and he's on vacation...

just kidding, that has nothing to do with it.

i went shopping with grootbek and a friend of ours, and then she picked me up, and we went to the mall. i had some lunch, and we had a really serious, unpleasant conversation, that needed to be had. it wasn't even about us, but we were both upset afterwards, and i'm still feeling uncomfortable.

anyway.

i got home, and passed out. i had some really, really odd dreams. one of them involved me going to see a movie with her father (who doesn't dig me), and we had a really pleasant conversation, that was totally arbitrary.
got stuck in my head.
wishful thinking.

i've got an hour to get ready, then i'm going to her place for dinner. and i'm wondering how it'll go. eh.

25/12/03

*** 23rd ***

i was supposed to go to taekwondo, but the guys who were buying my oven were scheduled to arrive at 17.00, and i wouldn't have made it back in time.

they only arrived at 20.30, or thereabouts. stupid pricks.
at least i got rid of the damn thing. now i'm working on selling my fridge.

SxS picked me up quite late, and we went off to tel-aviv to work on our applied project.
we got almost nothing done.

*** yesterday ***

on the way back from tel-aviv, SxS and i stopped in to a fast-food joint (about 3am) for burgers and chips. it was really cold, but i was really desperate for food.

i got to bed around 5am, and to be honest, i don't even know what i did for the missing hour or so. i woke up at 11.00, to go to a "meeting".

the meeting started off really badly, with me forgetting the name of the person i was meeting with. i'd met her months before, and spoken to her fairly regularly in the time since.
needless to say, she was quite offended.
the meeting went okay, and i received another tutorial in oracle's portal software. i learned something.

i spent the rest of my time on campus organizing meetings, which is a bit irritating, as it means i got nothing productive done.

i got home around 16.30, and passed out. i slept till 19.30, and my study partner came over, and we worked on our c homework until 23.30. my vision was blurry, and my brain was fuzzy from dealing with various degrees of pointerdom. almost all of our issues stemmed from trying to send struct** to struct***, and so on, and it's all because the method signatures are given, and we're not allowed to change them.

after she left, i had supper, and our brit, grootbek and i watched a national geographic documentary on jurassic crocodiles.

*** today ***

and some welsh people, in a hardcore version of jackass.

i have tons of homework to do, as usual, and now is not a good time to start. i wish i had a reasonable excuse...

i'm enjoying a nice hot cup of soup before i begin, though - makes me feel all warm and tingly.

i just remembered! i was supposed to go to karnaf's christmas bash!
oh, pooh.
hopefully we'll get it right for new year's...

merry christmas, everyone!

*** later ***

i had a long day today. i got up at 08.30, and got to the pharmacy at 09.40.

rant:
all over the world, the medical industry (i think that's the right word) is advocating the use of condoms, both for HIV protection, and for birth-control. the cheapest condoms i've been able to find in this country are NIS 27 (R40) for 12.
WHAT THE #@$%?!?!?!

i got to university at 10.15, all ready for our first meeting, but noone else was there. so i did all the prepwork myself, and one of the guys made it at about 11.45.
we entered the meeting without our project manager. that was a little embarrassing.

the meeting went really well, in fact, with our project manager arriving after about half an hour, and the meeting itself lasting a good hour and a half. we learned all sorts of things, agreed on all sorts of things, and managed to get a lot of preparation done for the next meeting on sunday, with the boss.

we'd missed a class, so we went to talk to the lecturer, who was quite happy that we'd come, and gave us all sorts of material, and some helpful advice.
nice.

after lunch, i went to the library, and did the algorithms homework. it was really simple, but i was exhausted, and found it quite rough. but i did it.

our next class was in international economics and trade. normally, our lecturer is clear and concise. today, i can only describe his lecture as the ramblings of a madman. and whoever developed those theories in the first place, had some severe freudian issues, and should have been killed, quickly and quietly, and buried with his notes.
the sketchings and equations made no sense whatsoever, and totally contradicted every basic mathematics principle i've ever learned.
and there were too - many - stars.

during class, due to the overwhelming and disturbing nature of the material, i took a break, and went to talk to some friends of mine. through them, i gained some interesting ammunition for our sunday meeting, and i'm starting to get really excited for it: we're gonna kick some ASS! (if the guy listens to us, at least)

i got a ride home, and found her waiting outside for me.
* GRIN *
we spent some time talking about bits of the last two weeks, and she went off to babysit.

i had a shower, and made myself a snack, and didn't do any sleeping. i tried playing counterstrike, but our internet's slowed down, mainly by grootbek uploading gay porn again.

i have plans to go with her to a free-sushi party tonight, but it's still in the air...

23/12/03

*** 20th ***

i slept late saturday, and spent the afternoon doing homework, and playing counterstrike. i watched taxi driver,

*** 21st ***

before going to sleep (around 3am).

i slept quite a lot (i needed it), and basically did c homework the whole afternoon.

i went to a friend's place, and got some exercise (they have a pull-up bar, and stairs that equate to a set of monkey-bars).
we had some coffee, and i gave online (telephonic) c# tutorials.
oh well.

i went home, got dressed up (black jeans, smart black shirt, my dvd belt, and more or less (more less than more) decent shoes.

about eight of us met up at the taxi rank, and went off to the residence of the president of our university, for an "event".

lots of shmoozing, and some good food. the evening went well.

SxS and i left early, and went to our friend in pituach's place, where they were just setting up for a party - which turned out to be the most chilled house-party i've ever been to. really, really nice.

*** yesterday ***

i finally got to sleep at 3am, again, got up at 07.30, and arrived at class just after 08.20. class was okay, but for the second half we had a guest lecturer, who taught us all sorts of shit about aquisitions and mergers, which was really sweet.

and, as is usual for mondays, this was followed by the most boring lecture in the world. he's employing a new trick - holding off the class quiz till the end, so that noone gets to leave early.
mutha-funsta.

got into a couple of political arguments today - which turned fairly ugly, so we gave up - and then sat in the library doing accounting homework.
went well. hmmph.

accounting class was okay, and then i hurried home, hoping to make it in time to eat before training.

i am *such* a lazy bastard. i went to see lord of the rings instead, with grootbek and our brit.

most of it was fan-friggin'-tastic. some of it was complete shite, and some of it was downright aweful. but all-in-all, i did enjoy it.

*** today ***

we got into a really obscure argument after the movie: "can lord of the rings really be considered good literature?"
how does one define good literature?

anyway, grootbek tried to get involved in the argument, and i shot him down from the start, as he has no clue when it comes to intelligent arguments.
i was a bit too rough with him though, and now he's all offended again, and threatening to disconnect me from the internet.
very mature.
so now i have to be extra-specially nice to him. i suppose i deserve it though, i've been far from patient with him, and he is like a little retarded kid - you just CAN'T be mean to one.

i'm about to have a shower - hopefully .NET will have finished installing on my machine before bedtime...

20/12/03

*** yesterday ***

i did almost nothing of value with my day. i played tons of counterstrike, fairing quite well, and then went off to candle-lighting (it's the first night of hanukkah) at a friend's place.
afterwards, we returned home, and had a full three-course meal, for ten people, which in total cost about R100. we had soup, and homemade bread, cottage pie, and salads, and finished off with potato thingies (latkes), and way too many jam doughnuts.

we watched dogma, and then the k1 fighting, which was REALLY exciting! great fights, especially sapp vs. kimo, which was simply awesome.

*** today ***

grootbek and i then had a serious argument, but it took him a while to stop being childish and actually argue. unfortunately, i then realized that he really was correct, and i'd pushed him unnecessarily hard (figuratively, although i did have to physically threaten him to get him to calm down and stop shouting (he's much bigger than i am)), and i hope my apology was the end of it.
it's tough, living with my big mouth.
sometimes ;)

it's now very much early morning, and i STILL haven't slept, but i have to wait a bit for the water to heat up before i shower, and there's no way i'm going to bed without cleaning up.

hmmm. whatever shall i do?
i know.
c.

or not.

19/12/03

*** yesterday ***

i got to bed around 06.00 - 06.30, and i woke up at 11am.
and went to class.

where i remained until 18.30. in our last class, i fell asleep, and apparently missed everyone having a good laugh at my expense, with the lecturer defending me.
nice.

last night was very chilled. i did some laundry, i watched two movies i hadn't seen before (mallrats and office space), and spent about an hour struggling to fly a helicopter.
hovering at about three feet, and landing, is incredibly difficult, and i have learned the utmost respect for helicopter pilots. and they make it look so easy in the movies...

i also played some counterstrike, but i sucked badly. it was an unfamiliar map, but that doesn't excuse my silly responses in tight situations.

oh, and SxS came over, and we played some tekken. i need more practice...

*** today ***

i woke up at 10.30, nay, 10.40, and tried to finish our c assignment. i managed to fix a significant portion of it (i had to rewrite the realloc() function), and then discovered that elusive "one more bug".
and then grootbek walked in, and continued talking to me after i politely told him to leave off, and he broke my concentration. then he got all upset with me, because he'd done me a favour by bringing me a returned assignment from campus.
i could no longer focus on the bug, and gave up (i was running out of time), which basically made all the work i'd done this morning worthless.

i RAN to campus, walking only when it was raining, and printed wednesday's version of the assignment, and handed it in just in time.

i got a lift back home, and now i have to figure out what to do with my day. part of me wants to spend it beating up my flatmate.

18/12/03

*** 16th ***

i got home around 6am, waited about half an hour for the water to heat up, had a shower, and went to bed. i woke up around 10 - 11am, when she came over.
she left around noon, and i had breakfast, got my gear and went off to tel aviv, for training.
i got there a few minutes late. i received, and put on, my new taekwondo uniform, and we began doing all sorts of silly things, like sprinting, and fighting. having missed a lot of training, being sick, and losing weight / muscle mass (people are commenting, it's quite embarrassing), i found it to be a lot of hard work.

after training, i went to a classmate's apartment to do our accounting homework. an absolutely STUNNING apartment, in the middle of tel aviv, and it's really cheap.
i'm only a tad jealous.
anyway, i couldn't see straight, but we somehow got through most of the assignment. and then i made my way home.

i got home, and found our brit playing with a new joystick, attached to microsoft flight simulator 2004.
and it is GOOOOOOD.
he gave me some time with a training helicopter, which proved to be really difficult, but as i've been obsessed with flying them since i was a child, i was completely absorbed and thrilled.
and i got to practise all the neat stuff i've learned from the jane's ah-64d longbow manual.

she came over with one of her flatmates, and our brit and grootbek came with us to ra'anana to play some pool.

*** yesterday ***

we had a lot of fun, and because there were five of us, it came out fairly cheap, at least by israeli standards.

she and her flatmate returned to gedera, and i logged on to an israeli counterstrike server. and played some AMAZING games! i managed to keep a kill:death ratio > 1, and at one point racked up a beautiful knife-kill...

on my way to bed, i stopped by our brit's room, where he had been sitting for ages, flying a boeing 737, the entire distance, in real time, between two states.
i'd heard the others making fun of him, and, curious, i sat down to watch.
i could not believe that flying and landing a boeing could be so intense, and so riveting. for about twenty minutes, or more, i had to keep reminding myself to blink. i managed to help out a bit, but unfortunately the landing didn't go so well, and resulted in a crash.
but the process is simply incredible.

he then gave me another round with the helicopter. i had one goal: to land the damn thing.
after a few minutes, i managed to figure out the basic idea - you have to pre-compensate for over-compensation, by pushing the rudder pedal (twisting the joystick), and immediately pushing on the other one to adjust. this results, basically, in twisting your hand (pushing the pedals) rapidly from one side to the other, which kind of looks like a nervous twitch.

anyway, i LANDED THE DAMN THING.
AH - YEAH.
totally proud of myself, i went to bed (around 03.30).

i woke up around 11am, or something. i went shopping, bought myself some food, and a 40GB harddrive. i can now use my computer like ordinary human beings.

my programming partner came over around 15.00, and we worked on our assignment, due friday, until 23.00.
my back, and my eyes, HURT.

she gave me a ride to work,

*** today ***

where we're now about to begin. i watched a really funny movie, called the gamers, or something, for which i'll add a link when i get the chance...

good hunting.

15/12/03

*** 12th ***

i got home at 05.30. i got up at 09.30, and stumbled to campus, where i printed out my homework and handed it in. this took me forever, as i wasn't just tired, but STILL SICK.

i did some basic shopping, and went to sleep.

she came over, and we went to sleep.

she left, and i went to sleep.

she came over, much later, and we went to the video store. we took out the professional, with jean reno. and watched it, all wrapped up in a duvet on the couch, eating marshmallows with nutella, and oranges.
and i TOTALLY enjoyed the movie.
i'd seen it before, when i was about 15, and there were a couple of things i didn't appreciate. firstly, it's a luc besson film, with gary oldman. a winning combination, as the fifth element is one of my favourite movies. secondly, natalie portman. good lord! it was really her!

she slept over,

*** 13th ***

and left in the morning. i slept in a bit, and then proceeded to, very slowly (STILL SICK!!), clear out my room for cleaning. pretty much one item at a time. fortunately, i managed to find a whole bunch of important stuff that had gone missing...

my flatmates and a friend dragged me out to burger king for lunch, which was even slower than usual, although they had tofu ice-cream, which didn't do more damage to my sinuses.

she picked me up on our way home, which lessoned the hell of me having to move my body, and we spent about half an hour together, before she ran off to visit a friend. i did some sewing, and our brit, and a friend of ours, joined me in watching a documentary on the shaolin.
absolutely AMAZING.

i made myself some spaghetti, and then put my computer together (after having put the rest of my room back). and then wasted some time.

later, she had a problem with her car, so instead of driving over i walked her to my place, we spent some time together, and i walked her home. i'm very sweet.

*** yesterday ***

i got up around 11am, did my math homework, and went to class. after class we struggled with some rediculously difficult accounting exercises, and then i went off with my project partners to tel aviv, where we hurriedly finished the assignment, and handed it in

*** today ***

at 00.02, two minutes after the due date.
brilliant.

i slept over, learning some useful yoga techniques before going to bed. i slept awefully, however, and far too little.

class today was a little piece of hell. way too boring for my tastes, but then, monday always is.

today i learned how to use oracle's portal to build and use a database. it's very simple, and very impressive.

i gave up on the accounting homework, and handed in a rude letter to the effect that the homework was just too much. i hope i get partial credit. the accounting class itself was totally confusing.

after class, i went home, slept for about half an hour, and then got on the bus to work. where i am now... again...

11/12/03

*** 9th ***

my ear drove me nuts the whole day. i started the warmup session in tel aviv, but i was literally barking orders, then taking a moment to keep myself upright, as i was seriously in need of not doing anything physical.

i got home fairly late, and spent the evening drinking soup, and trying to sleep. sleep did not come easily, however.
lots of coughing, hacking, and nasal dripping.
on the plus side, the showers have been great.

*** 10th ***

i forced myself up yesterday morning. i don't know how. i had a fever, and my ear was still buggered, but i got to university at 09.05, and sat down for a most productive meeting.

i then went to a class in which i didn't understand a thing. apparently, it was a really good lecture.

i spent the day on campus, doing homework, meeting with people apropos our applied project, and helping others with their homework. by the time i left, at about 18.00, i was completely worn out.

more soup, some really well-made (even if i DO say so myself) tuna-pasta, and a short semi-nap later (accompanied by half a box of tissues), i found myself desperate enough to try medication.
sinu-med.
i think it helped. i took the bus to work, on which i heard the paranormal remix of prodigy - voodoo people, which is such a classic!

*** today ***

we're starting work in a little while, and my chest and head are buggered. not only that, but i've agreed to work tomorrow night too. as much as i'm too screwed to do it, i really need the cash.
workaholic.

*** later ***

well. i got to bed at 06.00, and arrived in class at noon. our last class finished at 18.30, and i managed to fit in an hour's sleep before getting on the bus to work.

i arrived at work about two (2) minutes late, and we're about to start.

good news for today:
the assignment in c that i thought was due tomorrow, is due next week only, and i have someone to do the homework with.

bad news for the day:
sandman and moonflake are no longer together. it is a sad day, and it feels like the end of an era. i hope things turn out okay.

end.

09/12/03

*** yesterday ***

well, no sleep for me. i was in class by 08.30. suffering greatly, with plenty more to go.

after class, we went off to tel aviv, where our group for the year-long applied project spent the afternoon / evening working on our initiation document.
we discovered, around 19.00, that we'd been doing everything wrong from the start. we called the instructor, and he changed our project completely.

everyone else doing the project is doing meaningless little things, as the point of the course is understanding the process, not doing the development. our group, however, is now developing an actual system that will be implemented by the university.
for free.
not impressed. we need to figure out how to get at least SOME financial compensation...

got a ride to training, stopping on the way to pick up a girl who wanted to try it out, and see if it suited her.
i was still sick, and sore (pulled muscles), and hadn't eaten since lunchtime. the training was really, really hard for me.
i fact, i'm surprised i survived...

we missed the bus home by seconds, because i was desperate for a chocolate (i needed the sugar!), and we started walking back to herzliyah. fortunately, about halfway there, another bus came, so i could stop stumbling all over the place.

*** today ***

i had some soup, a hot shower, and went to bed.

and SLEPT! i woke up this morning feeling SO much better. my throat, chest, and muscles are still screwed, and my left ear's been blocked for the past hour or so, but it's all much easier to deal with, now that i've had some shuteye.

funny dream i had -
i was in sea point, and needed to take a taxi with two other people, and the taxi driver walked off for his break. so i stole the car, and we went on our way, avoiding the police, eventually managing to return the taxi, just in time.

unfortunately, the driver could see it had been driven...

07/12/03

*** yesterday ***

the vampire game went really, really badly. i went from bad situations to worse, and now my character is definitely on her way out.
oh, well. it's definitely been a learning experience.

i got home, spoke to her for a bit on the phone, and did lots and lots of homework.

*** today ***

and continued to do lots and lots of homework, until about ten minutes ago, when i had a cold shower, and am now off to my bed, to which i've just added another duvet.
it's really, really cold.

*** later ***

right. another sleepless night. at some point, i was so uncomfortable, that i got up and did some homework...
i got up (although i hadn't got any sleep) at 11.30, kind of had breakfast, and then went to math class. which was really interesting, in a hallucinogenic sense of the word.

i tried to do some work in the computer labs, but i couldn't focus, and eventually gave up and came home.

* stuff happens *

i had a huge supper, and then an awesome shower, and i'm now going to bed. praying for a normal night.

06/12/03

*** 3rd ***

i got into bed around 6am, and got up around noon. i spent my day at the doctor's, getting x-rayed, and consulting with an orthopaedic surgeon, and it turned out (after all that) that my foot was actually fine.

the whole process was pretty unpleasant, not helped by my back / neck being out of action as well. not to mention, the general unhappiness of walking into a health care centre, with no people inside, and a wall filled with signs in hebrew that i simply couldn't read.

i did, however, discover a new passion in life - hot chocolate with too much sugar. it really is amazing.

i then went off to work.

*** 4th ***

work was quite relaxed. i got my usual long, long phone calls (lasting upwards of half an hour), and was about to read hunter x hunter while talking them through their problems. i didn't get any homework done, however, as our work machines cannot read pdf files, so that kinda sucked.

i got home at 04.30, and was in class at 10.15. exhausted, and coming down with a throat infection. it was a long, tiring day, with lots of homework to hand in, but we were rewarded at the end with an economics class that was not only informative, but entertaining as well.
it's kinda wierd saying that, but it's true.

i took the bus to our taekwondo gym, where i underwent the examination to test my ability to not die without cause. i always feel sheepish about these things, because they insist on finding out, the hard way, something that i could just tell them myself.

instead of training, i joined her in tel-aviv, at an exhibition of international photo-journalism. it's an incredible exhibition, with amazing pieces, and we enjoyed ourselves. i also ran into a friend that i haven't seen in two years, who's now working for the Associated Press.
good to know.

we came back to herzliyah, i did my math homework, and then,

*** yesterday ***

around 1am, we went to her place, where she made me soup and generally took care of me.

yesterday morning, i was completely screwed up. math class was crazy, and i had two hours afterwards to complete my programming homework, which i almost managed. almost.

i did some basic shopping, and then came home and crashed.
last night, we were invited to a thanksgiving dinner (a bit late), and for a few of us it was our first time. the food was good, the atmosphere was pleasant.

around 22.30, i came home, spent a couple of hours doing homework,

*** today ***

and went to bed. i woke up around 3 / 4am, because my throat was hurting me, and i tried unsuccessfully until 09.30 to get some sleep.
our brit had the same problem, so there're two sick people in this apartment. at least we get sympathy.

our apartment is absolutely freezing.

i managed to get some sleep, and we watched frankie and johnny, and now i'm going to try to do some more homework before our vampire game at 17.00.

i'm - so - cold.

03/12/03

*** yesterday ***

i was asked to work a later shift as well, which i wholeheartedly agreed to. more money. much needed.

i worked until 14.00, when our food arrived. a large quantity of mushroom and alfredo linguine. really good. only problem was that as soon as the food arrived, i remembered that i only had 45 minutes to arrive at our gym in dizengoff.

basically, i ate it all as fast as i could (it was really good, though. bit of a waste), and then ran, literally, all the way to the other side of the train station (which is normally about twenty minutes away. i made the bus by half a minute.
sweaty, already.

i took the warmup session, which was fairly easy, as the kids gave me so much trouble that i spent the whole warmup punishing them.
at least they learned, eventually. the rest of the training was good. unfortunately, aside from my troubles with my foot, i managed to put my back out. again.
crap.

i made it back to work just in time. in between working, i did some homework, and have been reading some hunter x hunter. i find it interesting how some of the things in the tv series are much clearer...

*** today ***

ho, hum. it's 01.43, and we're still going. we're about to start another session, so everything's slightly more tense, but the night's been fairly easy so far.
i forgot to mention yesterday, that i started reading the jungle book on the bus to work, and i got totally sucked in. i almost missed my stop! it's such beautiful stuff, and just the style makes me feel like a child again.

02/12/03

*** yesterday ***

i got a great night's sleep, woke up at 07.30, and made my way to class. class wasn't as boring as usual, and our second class, the really horrible one, was actually informative for the first hour or so. which was, to say the least, quite surprising.

i finally got off campus around 19.30, and made it to taekwondo around 08.45. training went well, but the skin on two toes of my damaged foot has gone dark, and numb, and i'm starting to worry about gangrene. or something.

*** today ***

OMFG. as i'm writing this, i'm reading up on gangrene, and it looks quite likely that that's what's happening to my toes. this is most disturbing. scary. and i'm going to see my doctor asap. which will only be tomorrow.
#@$%.

anyway, i woke up at 04.10 this morning, to lots of heavy thunder, and a few drops of rain. winter's here!

i woke up early this morning, and have been at work since 10.04. i'm "taking a break" at 14.00, and going to dizengoff center, where i'm taking the taekwondo class for warmup and stretching.
and brutal punishment.
there're some kids training there who are really rude, and i get to employ all the fun techniques i learned in cape town.
and i'm a bit of a sadist.

and then, back to work. until 21.30, or thereabouts.

30/11/03

*** 28th ***

i joined her babysitting her little brother. watched an incredible video of china.

*** yesterday ***

i got home, having walked, exhausted, in the freezing cold, at 01.30. and went to bed.

i woke up at 07.30. i don't know why. i just couldn't get back to sleep!

i spent the morning doing homework, with a short stop for a great big breakfast, and ferris bueller's day off , which always goes down well.
oh yeah! - yello
and charles sheen! OMFG! i'd totally forgotten about him. he was great.

at around 16.00, she picked me up, and we went to the beach. we had supper at my place (a much improved version of tuna-pasta), and then she went home.

*** today ***

i stayed up until 02.30 doing accounting homework.
which just wouldn't add up.

i woke up at 07.30, forced myself to eat some toast, and went off to university, to print out my homework.
slight logistics problem a) library opens at 08.30. class begins at 08.30. must print before class.

it turned out that class was only scheduled to begin at 08.45, so everything went well. i got someone to take notes for me, and then went with her for breakfast, to a really nice coffee shop, where i had a croissant, and a really good hot chocolate.

i got back to university in time to print out some homework, which came out really nicely (pretty fonts make all the difference), and to do the math homework.
i learned something about germans today. i was sitting and talking to this girl, and then suddenly she just left, all her stuff still on the table. when i wanted to leave, she was nowhere to be found, and she rocked up about twenty minutes later.
apparently, this is perfectly normal german behaviour.

went to math class, which was not bad, but i had difficulty keeping my eyes open. i then went to the labs and did some more homework. yes, that's pretty much all i do with my life. after the labs, SxS fetched me and a couple of friends and we went to herzliya pituach for nando's. an enormous quantity of good, spicy food. i liked.

we went to our friend in pituach, and chilled for a bit. my mom called me, and we spoke for about half an hour. met up with some more friends, and then came home, where i'm about to go to sleep.

all in all, it was a pretty good birthday. maar more is nog 'n dag.

28/11/03

*** 26th ***

work went well. i learned stuff. i assed around. i ate at burger ranch. and it wasn't so bad.

i took the bus home, nodding off the whole way.

i did some shopping, then went out shopping with our brit, who prepared a styling meal of bangers and mash.

*** yesterday ***

i woke up at 07.20, with a miserable attempt at the algorithms homework. i had a really interesting conversation with our brit, at about 8am, about helicopters and flight and stuff. he actually knows things. many things.

i bladed to class (last time i'll be doing THAT for a while), and discovered the class had been cancelled. i finally got that newsletter sent out to all the international students, and have already had one sign up!
so nice to see a plan come together.
i did some c# homework, went to class, and then spent a couple of hours finishing the algorithms.

we had a really interesting class, and came up with a topic for our 40 page paper...
40 pages...

at some point during the day, i was introduced to a hybrid apple & pear. very nice.

i bladed home quite quickly, and for some reason i had a lot of energy - i don't understand.

i had a quick supper, then went off to taekwondo. where i got beaten really badly. i managed to keep up with the class, which felt really good, but the fighting was hard.

i kicked someone, with full power, in the elbow. my foot swelled up immediately, i don't recall being in that much pain since i broke my fingers as a child. it really scares me to look at it.
i went home with one of the kids, and it took forever for the bus to arrive. we went past the paramedics base station, and discovered that they no longer have doctors on duty at night, and i can't afford to spend R400 on hospital fees. so i walked home, had an AMAZING shower,

*** today ***

and am now on my way to bed.

*** later ***

my brain hurts. i woke up at 08.00, and hurried off, with grootbek, to math class. which sucked. piles. it was totally aweful, and we learned nothing.
we did enjoy some time poking fun at the lecturer, which got him quite annoyed, but otherwise, hell hath no fury like an early math class.

after class, i went to the labs to do my c# homework. the lab with .NET installed was unavailable. which meant working without a compiler.
doesn't help when you need to hand in an executable.
doesn't help when you need to know if your code runs.
after an hour and twenty minutes, i was almost done. and my knee brushed against the reset button on the machine... and there's a security policy set up that deletes all foreign files on the desktop...

fortunately, i managed to repeat all my work in under half an hour, hopefully with few errors.

i went out with grootbek for lunch, did some minor shopping, and then she came over. we watched mary poppins, me for the first time, and then she disappeared home.

i've spent the past four hours trying to get past the copy protection for master of orion 3, which has proved doable, but there's about 450MB that seems suspiciously unnecessary...

i need to get some sleep tonight, which probably won't happen, and i need to do my programming homework, which isn't really happening either. i do more damage to myself than anything else... my foot's feeling better, though.

26/11/03

*** 24th ***

sammy gave me a ride to work, and i discovered that only south africans seem to have the ability to appreciate sixto rodriguez. quite sad.

*** yesterday ***

work was most pleasant. for me, at least. i had a single call, while everyone else was flooded, and that was because my single call lasted about forty minutes. and there wasn't anything i could do about it, and the lady was quite pleasant, so it could have been much worse.

i got home around 04.00 - 04.30, and went to bed.

i woke up at 10.00. i went to sort out my social security issues, but they're still on strike. i went to the post office, and picked up yet more mail for my niece, who no longer lives in israel. i love bureaucracy.

i then went back to sleep.

i woke up around 15.00, and went with our brit to the mall. i've discovered that not only do we have muscular problems (back and neck) in common, but also a great love of complicated strategy / simulation games. i introduced him to master of orion 3. fortunately, there's a feature in the game that reminds you, every so often, to get back to real life.

she and i were celebrating out seventh month together, so i went looking for a gift, but i found none.
crap.

we went home. getting out of the cab, i did my traditional paranoid check to make sure that we hadn't left anything behind, and i found our brit's wallet. i don't need therapy, i need people to listen to me more. made myself some spaghetti, packed my gear, and went off to tel-aviv to meet JOSH.
we mooched around the tel-aviv central bus station, and i found a cute white teddy bear with a big red heart, and decided it was a worthy gift. we then went off to a friend of his' place, a really nice guy from east london, and we chilled and talked until we realized that we were about to miss the bus to gedera.

hurry, hurry, hurry.

we made it in time for the bus, with fifteen minutes to spare, so we took a moment to check out the games arcade. i got into some platform game, and was kicking its ASS, so i had to abandon my game when the bus arrived :(.

the bus ride was cool, and she came to fetch me from the bus station. we pretty much fell asleep as soon as we got to her place.

*** today ***

we woke up at 07.30. which wouldn't have been a problem, but i slept too much yesterday, so i was fidgety the whole night. i had some coffee and biscuits, and then took a bus to work.
i finally finished reading the manual for jane's ah64-d longbow, and have decided to read it again, just to make sure that i got everything. it contains a good bibliography, so i figure i can get hold of some of the books referenced, and learn some more details of flying. but i think the best thing would be to get hold of the game itself, which, apparently, is totally realistic (and hopefully works under win2k).

i ran into my boss this morning, for the first time since a week before i left for the two month holiday. i received gifts for the jewish new year (while i was away), and for my birthday on sunday! i like working here more and more...

right, to work.

24/11/03

i woke up around 7am, searched in vain for a topic for our presentation, and walked to class. a boring class.

followed, surprisingly, by an even MORE boring class. although, this one DID have a quiz, and i didn't have a clue...

during my free time today, i did accounting homework in the library, which pretty much sums the day up for me.

at 17.10, i started typing my homework out nicely. at 17.15, i received a call from our applied project lecturer, arranging a meeting for 17.25. our assignment was due in at 18.45. the printer started giving me shit.
after finishing the printing, i SPRINTED to the meeting, and made it to the class with seconds (literally) to spare. but, we were approved for our project, so that's one less course we have to worry about ^_^ (i'm stealing that).

i walked home, played fallout 2, showered, lay down for ten minutes, and now i'm on my way to work.

23/11/03

*** 20th ***

i left a really mean note on my cupboard door, chastising "whoever stole my cereal". like i didn't know already. quite embarrassing, really, as it's such an unmanly thing to do, but i was on my way to bed and didn't think i'd run into grootbek.

i woke up about three hours later. and i totally couldn't get back to sleep. grootbek was in the lounge, and there was a brand-new box of kariot (pillows) in the kitchen. and an explanation to boot.
sometimes, i wonder.

i couldn't sleep, and our lounge had been infiltrated by stoners, so i tried to do some homework (failed abysmally), and read some more of wizard's first rule.
good lord.
THE scene with demmin nass will never be forgotten.

*** 21st ***

i got to bed around 1am. i woke up at 6am. to do homework. i finished the math, without too much hassle, but i was completely confounded by the programming homework's algorithm. we had to reverse-engineer a recursive function using two variables.

i went to class, managed somehow to stay awake, and tried to get assistance from the lecturer with the troubling assignment. he couldn't help me.
great.
i eventually handed in an incorrect paper, which feels crap, and then took my walk of shame. i got home, spent about ten minutes (or more) unsuccessfully trying to figure out bus routes and times, and eventually gave up and phoned the bus service. who basically informed me that i had about twenty minutes to shower, pack, and get to the busstop.

between buses i had about fifteen minutes, so i went on a quick shopping spree (chewing gum, juice, and chips), and finished them before the bus arrived... i'm such a pig.

and i now know where microsoft's offices are.
* ponder *

i lay down on the back seats, and passed out. i was rudely awoken, about half an hour later, by some soldier hitting me repeatedly with the butt of his m16, shouting at me to get up so that some lady could sit down.
now, i don't mind getting up for her, what i do mind is being jabbed by a weapon in good nick.
insensitive prick.

the lady then began trying to feed me with naartjies. i took one, but i politely refused the rest (there are limits).

after another hour, we arrived at afula, where i changed buses, and was on my way to peace and tranquility.

friday night consisted of about two minutes of talking (aka the matrix: interrupted, i was trying to catch the first ten minutes that i'd missed from the second one - not worth it anyway), and waking up a few hours later completely disorientated. i found my way to bed, and slept some more.
a bit later, i woke up, had some chicken and potato, and went back to sleep.

*** yesterday ***

at some point during the night, i turned over in my sleep. nose-first into a wall. ignoring the fact that i woke everyone else up, i was in incredible pain, and seeing stars.
can't say i've ever done that before.

i got up just in time for hot chocolate in the morning, and we all lazed around, watching the cricket, and other arbitrary television.

i slept some more, and then watched a movie called time & tide. it is, in short, amazing. pure entertainment (with a cool factor of ten, and a story to boot), in spite of the need to read subtitles (it's a serious hong-kong action film).

expecting extra scenes (like, director's cut or something), i watched the dvd of men in black. i have now seen the exact same film SEVEN times.
hmmmm.

after everyone else went to bed, i watched born on the 4th of july, for the first time. wow. i can't believe i'd never seen it. great film.

*** today ***

07.00. blergh.
had some turkish coffee, and a quick shower. went to the mess hall, gobbled down two hard-boiled eggs, and got a ride to afula. had just a short wait for the bus, and a fairly quick, comfortable ride back to herzliyah.
i went straight to campus, and did some work on our applied project. i came up with a really good name for it, too: BOMB - Budget and Orders Management Base. sweeet.
between math class, in which our lecturer made fun of my accent, twice, and sitting in the library, where i learned some german amongst all our accounting homework, my day literally flew by. i got a lift home, completely re-ruined my pot (more rice troubles), went to the bank, got some liquorice, and then returned home once more. i finished wizard's first rule, which is absolutely awesome, and then SxS came by for some tekken.

i beat him a couple of times. i feel good about that.

we did some homework (or, attempted to do some homework), and then he left after repeated unsuccessful attempts to play counterstrike.
i've finally given up, and i'm about to reinstall the damn thing. stupid bastards at steam can't just leave it alone when it works...

20/11/03

*** yesterday ***

i woke up around noon, did stuff, then went back to sleep. at around 14.00, grootbek accompanied me to the bank, and had his card chewed by the atm.
that was funny.
but not THAT funny. it's just a typical thing that happens here. they don't just give you a message saying "insufficient funds", they just take your card. and then his personal banker screamed at him when he told her he was upset.
very professional.

i actually can't remember what i did all day, aside from sleeping here and there. i still had the headache - the sleep didn't help. and i didn't have the energy, or the attention span, to do any homework.

for supper, i had a really strange idea, and i made a sauce for my spaghetti, frying baked-beans in tomato sauce, and green beans, together. it tasted really, really good.
we won't talk about flatulence till later.

i took the bus to work, and had to stand the whole way.
crap.

after i got to work, sammy and i went off to play pool. well, snooker. we both sucked. i ate lots of pretzels.

*** today ***

work this morning was actually quite pleasant! no bitchy calls (not to me, at any rate), and we spent most of the time talking, playing games, and doing homework.

and nobody noticed me 'n my gas. yay!

i'm now sitting on a spare system, quietly doing my assignments until 05.30, when i'm probably going to get a ride home. and then, it's time to start a brand new day!
i feel better now.

*** later ***

i got home around 7am, and had a shower. i slept for 45 minutes, and somehow managed to drag myself out of bed. after three failed attempts at leaving the apartment (i was completely broken and exhausted, and my vision and hearing were marginally impaired), i made it to class with barely a minute to spare.

thank you, coffee. i love you.

i spent most of the day in class, alert because i absolutely had to be. i finally managed to get the ball rolling on our main project, so i'm kind of proud of myself.
i basically had an hour to do the algorithms homework - and the last question was exceptionally nasty. i was in a daze, while a friend of mine was trying to explain some crazy shit to me, and i only got about half of it sorted out before i had to hand it in...

the tutor for our communications and networks course told me that the work i did for the upcoming assignment is just fine. suits me, it gave me something to do this morning.
i am now the proud owner of what has to be the ugliest and most annoying website ever made.

it's now 19.40 - i've just gotten home, and i'm about to do my maths homework before crashing. otherwise, it's never going to happen.

oh, right. and i discovered today that grootbek's been stealing my food from my cupboard. fucking prick - the worst thing is he's the one in the apartment with the rich fucking parents. fuck. i hate him, i really do.

19/11/03

just before the calls started coming in, we had mass hysteria throughout the office - one of the guys accidentally forwarded some rather hardcore porn to everyone on the office mailing list.
this includes some of our managers overseas. some people were scrambling to help him, others to get hold of the porn before a solution could be found...
lesson: don't mess with porn on work servers.

what a horrible, horrible morning. we had two sessions joined together, which meant no breaks in between. and for the first half, we were almost constantly on the phones, trying to calm down these horrid american beasties.
i got the queen bitch, for twenty five minutes.
i don't even talk to her for that long.

the second half was quieter, but i'd already developed a headache, and i couldn't really concentrate on anything.

oh. and i spilled coke all over the desk. all over our computers. everywhere. let's just say that the others were NOT impressed - and one of those people was our manager. who was certainly angry enough at the time to put in a bad word.
i did manage to clean it up though... i hope i got all of it.
lesson: don't drink next to the computers.

i managed to get a ride home. a really trippy ride home, as i'm tired enough to be hallucinating, and the guy who gave me a lift wasn't very talkative.
the first song played in the cd-player was the spice girls...

i got home at 04.30, made a final attempt at cleaning the pot i've scarred, and now i'm typing this as i wait for the water to heat up. i need a hot shower, and some sleep.

what's totally crap is that the internet connection's down, and i can't wake up grootbek to get it back up. i feel bad about how today went.

18/11/03

hmmm - a bit of counterstike before bed this morning. i played on a server with 4 on 4, and these guys were GOOD. it got to a point where i was literally shaking, and having trouble pressing the right keys...

i woke up at 09.00, and left at 09.30. i went to the bank in pituach with a relative, to sort out some problems with my account. everything got settled smoothly, and we had some coffee before he dropped me off at home.

i had breakfast, played beneath a steel sky, and took a nap before taekwondo.
i was exhausted. i never made it to taekwondo.

i finished beneath a steel sky. it's an excellent game - the story is great, the puzzles are clever, and the graphics (by 1994 standards) are awesome. and it's quite funny, too.
what sucks is the ending. it could have been drawn out a little. it summed up everything, in two or three sentences, and then ended.
swak.

i played some counterstrike, and then decided it was time for some eating.

i did exactly as i remembered her doing on the weekend. i turned on the gas, i put in some oil. i put in one cup of rice. with hilarious (albeit not for me) results. my flatmates were in absolute hysterics, and i was quite upset. my pot's all burned now.

what i've learned, and what i'll probably never forget, is always do the first few steps on LOW flame. NOT high.

i made a new batch, which came out great! now i need to clean the pot that i nuked.

i played through a section of final fantasy viii today. i had a lot of fun, and didn't have to think too hard. very pretty. very, very pretty.

i took the bus to work. i had to sit next to two smelly guys. i had nothing to do on the bus besides think about the fact that i was sitting next to two smelly guys.

i had really good thai food for supper, and now work is about to begin.
* jumping up and down for joy *

17/11/03

the time is now 06.53. i've been up for 23 minutes... i'm so proud of me! that was some of the best sleep ever - and five hours made a surprising difference.
although, i suppose that the fact that i'm typing this out is an indication of where my brain isn't at the moment - it's only kind-of study time.

*** later ***

for fuck's sakes. i got through about twenty pages of the document, before i had to head off to class. i got there just in time. i kept nodding off - the lecturer is really boring, and has almost perfected the art of talking much, saying little.

after class i discovered that i'd done the wrong reading. so not only have i lost a lot of sleep, and spent a lot of time wracking my brains over obscure mathematical formulae, but i could have spent that time asleep, and been just as productive.
muthafunsta.
the class itself, for which we'd been assigned the reading, was slightly more boring than the first one. the man said absolutely nothing for three (literally) hours.

i got a ride home, and grootbek gave me a haircut. i think he's probably set a world record for slowest headshave ever. unbelievable.

i arbed around for a bit, then went back to university, barely in time to print out my assignment before class started.
i made it inside just before cutoff.

we had a quiz, a really nasty accounting quiz. i hate the way today went.
the rest of the class was okay - i nodded off a bit towards the end, but i'm almost only human...

i walked home, had me a grand supper (spaghetti with a basic out-of-the-can sauce), and i've done a load of washing. which i'm about to go and put on the line.

oh, and i've played tons of beneath a steel sky. the more i play, the more impressed i get!

i was too tired to go to taekwondo - i wonder if i'll have the energy tomorrow. here's to me!

16/11/03

*** yesterday ***

i totally wasted the day away. i'm SO proud of me! she came and picked me up, and we went off for an hour to the park (stopping for crepes and icecream on the way). she then dropped me off at my vtm game.

things are improving - i'm starting to get the hang of everything. however my inexperience does get the better of me. this is the situation i found myself in last night:

the slavemaster has aroused raeka's anger, by refusing to do business with a female, and she stalks him across town, until she sees him entering a rather seedy tavern.

raeka enters the tavern. being the only woman in the room, and good looking at that, every head turns towards her.
so much for subtlety.
she sits down at the bar beside the slavemaster, and tells him, "we need to talk." the slavemaster gives her a dirty look, and tells her the only talking that will take place is in bed. as it's a way to get him alone, raeka agrees, and goes up to his room to wait for him.
a little later, he walks into the room, quite drunk. he begins undressing, and rudely tells raeka to do the same. she walks up to him, as his pants are halfway down, picks him up by the throat, and slams him against the wall - pinning his arms to his side with her other arm.

the slavemaster's eyes go wide in terror. raeka brings her face to within an inch of his, and for a long moment does nothing but stare angrily.
"i don't like you, " she says, "but you WILL help me."
she strangles him until he loses consciousness, and lays his body out on the bed. she searches him, but finds only money. she stalks out of the room.

a large, beefy man is waiting outside for her. he sneers, "finished so soon?"
"he couldn't last as long as i thought," she quips.
"you'll not speak such things against any man! i'll show you how long a man can last."
he grabs her by the arm, and roughly drags her to another door along the landing. angered, raeka barely resists. she knows what's coming next.

as they get inside his room, he rips away her dress with surprising speed, pressing his body against hers, his belt already halfway off.
raeka goes into a frenzy - he will NOT have his way with her, nor anybody else! she pushes him a few steps away, and takes a wild swing with her fist. he finishes removing his belt, and attempts to whip her with it, but he's still too close, and he also misses.
raeka kicks him blindingly fast, and very hard, in the groin. he doubles over, and she knees him in the head. he crumbles.
for a few minutes raeka proceeds to kick and crush his body into a bloody pulp, barely recognizable as having once been human. she is naked, covered in blood, and he has been turned into a human pudding.

blood, blood, everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

once she's calmed down, she takes stock of her situation. there is nothing in the room but a wooden cot, and two buckets - one filled with water, the other with human waste. nothing to wear. the only thing she finds of any use, is a knife, but that's not going to help her get through a tavern filled with people...

she waits until about an hour before dawn, when finally things have quietened down. she peeks out the door, and sees the innkeeper stacking chairs on tables. she attempts to sneak past him, but about halfway down the stairs, he turns and sees her. he is shocked, seeing her naked and covered in blood, and asks, "what on earth has happened?"
raeka mumbles something about a man in the room, attempting to come across as hurt and abused - the innkeeper cannot see that the blood is not hers.
the beast within is stirring - raeka is in need of blood, and dawn is approaching. she has no time for games.
wanting to know more, and probably with some intention of helping her, he lets her lead him to the room containing the dead man. as he enters the room, she closes the door behind her, covers his mouth, gripping him tightly, and sinks her fangs into his neck. she feeds until he has no more blood, and then drops him gently to the floor. she cleans herself up a little, removes and puts on the innkeeper's clothing, and hurries home.

i spent most of this scene completely clueless as to how to proceed, with everyone else getting quite upset with me at every turn, because i handled it all rather badly - just the simple mistake of following him inside, and everything else was out of my hands!
but i did have a lot of fun.

i came home, intending to do something productive, but our internet was lost. it took us ages to get it back (and me all the while forgetting to have supper), and by that time i'd lost my inspiration. i played some beneath a steel sky (such a beautiful game!), and then she called, and i went with her to the bus station so that she could get id photos.
the machine wasn't working...
we said goodbye, for two weeks. this sucks. i hope i'll get a chance to go through to visit her, but it doesn't seem likely.

all three of my flatemates have agreed to my proposal, that for any item of cutlery or crockery that we clean, that wasn't dirtied by us, gets the soiler one good punch. at the end of each day, we tally up, and whoever has a deficit gets beaten.

already, there are no dishes in the sink. it's amazing how fast it worked!

now i have to figure out how to get them to stop stealing my apples... i'm eating one really juice, solid granny-smith as i type. mmmm. crunchy.

*** today ***

i got up really early, and bladed to class. we had to have a class at 08.45. it's just great. really pleasant way to wake up.
spent the day in class, or doing homework. i finally managed to leave campus around 16.30, and went over to a friend's place, where five of us had a good ol' braai (i can't spell the english word for it). our brit has spent enough time in cape town, that he could actually back me up with my stories about the mother city, and he even had a few of his own! it was a totally new experience for me.

that's where a few of my hours went. i got home, i'm guessing, around 8 / 9pm. i've been trying to do homework, but i really can't focus. we have 33 pages of economics reading for tomorrow, and i can't make head or tail of even the first four pages, and we suspect that there'll be a class quiz.

this lecturer is a complete bastard.

i'm absolutely in love with beneath a steel sky. it's a beautifully designed game, the graphics are at LEAST good enough, and it's loads of fun all around.
only problem - can't play 'cause i don't have time.

i'm gonna make one last attempt at this crazy document, and then it's way past time to hit the hay.

15/11/03

*** yesterday ***

i managed, by doing my homework at around 3am. with marshmallows...
mallow-math.

waking up at 07.00 was a total bitch, and waking up at 07.30 wasn't much better. i bladed to class, and got my homework in on time. i couldn't fall asleep in class, because we were actually Learning Stuff.
bugger.

afterwards, i sorted out my other two homework assignments, and then missioned off to the bank. where i had to wait for ages, just to get a lecture from the personal banker, about how there's a machine that gives printouts and i need to learn how to use it. apparently, it doesn't matter that it's only in hebrew.

i got home, and she came over. we went shopping, which was not an entirely pleasant experience, and then returned to my place to cook lunch. a friend of hers came over to help, and we made a huge, cheap lunch. i think i got most of what we did...
including leftovers.

i introduced our brit, and a friend of ours, to watch 28 days later, of which i only managed the first twenty minutes or so before passing out. i woke up about an hour later, and had to get ready for supper with her relatives, which actually went quite well! let's hope it lasts.

afterwards, we went to see a movie: Love Actually (Is All Around). when i ran into the storyteller of our vtm game (on his way to see kill bill), and he saw my ticket, i got an empathetic pat on the shoulder. i keep getting dragged to see chick-flicks.

but this, this is one chick-flick i might even watch again. it's very cool, and has tons of recognizable british actors (including the "wanker" from human traffic), and is very nicely tied together.

*** today ***

it was so good, in fact, that we waited and watched as everyone else left the theatre, amused at the fact that EVERYONE was all touchy-feely.

we were going to go out for coffee, but we were both too tired. i drove her home, and took a slow, cold walk back to my place.

i woke up around 11am, with a phone call from my mom. we didn't talk for long, and then i decided it was time to actually get up and start the day.

i've now had a great breakfast (scrambled eggs on toast, leftover tuna salad, and lots of marshmallows to go with the cup that used to contain hot chocolate), and i've got homework to do. i dunno where to begin. our vtm game begins 16.30, so maybe i'll just waste today away.
yes... that sounds like an EXCELLENT plan.

13/11/03

*** 11th ***

i showered. i smelled good. i didn't do anything productive, as expected. however, i did play some beneath a steel sky, which was loads of fun, and i read some of terry goodkind - wizard's first rule.

OHMIGOD.
i got sucked in, and had to read at least till the end of the chapter. it's THE scene with denna - really hectic.

*** yesterday ***

i got up at 08.30. or 09.30. my brain's not that good. i'd gone to bed with ambient music playing, but when i woke up, i was greeted with silence. not being a good sign, i immediately went to check. blue screen of death.
after three unsuccessful resets, i was totally upset.

so, i had my breakfast, did some homework, and walked to class.

i went to class. our lecturer told us english speakers to come, because enough of the material would be in english, and the topic was oracle.

we sat, about five non-hebrew speakers, in a completely hebrew lecture, for one and a half, EXTREMELY long hours. where everyone spoke really quickly, and none of understood a thing from the slides. that's one and a half potentially productive hours of my life, gone.
gone.
gone.

i walked home. then walked my kon-pyu-taa to the store.
i hate giving my baby away.

went back to university, and did some homework. ran into a guy in the cafeteria, who i studied with two years ago. he told me he'd run into some south africans in the far east, and mentioned one of them by name. turns out, it's one of the guys i matriculated with! he disappeared almost immediately after highschool - i have his email, and am all set to harrass him (we were friendly, i ain't no stalker).

i got a challenge from a guy in our class, who also does taekwondo - he wants to fight me at the next competition. i dunno...

i didn't go to any of my other classes. i went home, and had a nap. then took a bus to work, where i spent a really long time clearing email. and talking on IRC!!

we had thai food for supper. lots of it. good stuff, too.

*** today ***

it's so nice to be able to associate working with talking to my friends, even if it does mean missing people due to incessently nagging pesty inbred maggots.

*** later ***

i got a ride home, so after a great shower, i fell asleep around 06.30. i woke up at 11.00, had a cup of tea, and went off to campus. class was interesting, but long.

i was ravenous afterwards, and had a large, salmon and cheese sandwich. you didn't need / want to know that. and went to do some of my assignments. mmmm, homework. i just LOVE doing all my homework.

i went off to the computer store, to pick up my konpyutaa. about (after much skimming through previous logs, with no success) two weeks ago, i took my computer into the shop, and they replaced my memory. they charged me NIS 20 because it's better.

i get there, and they tell me that the memory's faulty, and i have to pay NIS 80!
WTF?!?!?!
bullshit. i refused to pay them, and i have this horrid feeling that something else is the problem, like my motherboard. which means i'll be back in there in another short while.

got home, starving. i made myself fried eggs on toast, and then spaghetti, and then passed out for a couple of hours. i've been sitting and playing on my pc for about an hour an a half now, and i've just remembered that i'm going to have to finish my math homework for tomorrow morning...
also, she's coming over soon, and we're probably going out, so i dunno how i'm going to manage this.
* sigh *
i'm just, like, so complicated.

11/11/03

i got to bed around 1am. i woke up at... ...
10.30!!!
it was amazing. i had breakfast, tried to go online (very slow day), and then went to campus, stopping to buy shoelaces on the way. i need them because the elastics on my old pairs of pants is dying. the guy at the store insisted on knowing this before selling them to me. he then started getting friendly, and took me for stupid (maybe he's right?) because i couldn't understand what the hell he was saying (in hebrew).

i did some more of the systems analysis, which is really not complicated, and then took a walk to the busstop, where i got on the bus for tel aviv.

i had a sandwich, ran into experimental. we talked for a few seconds, and i made my way to the bomb shelter for training.
i thought i was half an hour late. turned out i was half an hour early. that sucks. so i went to the goth store, where they have tons of really cool posters, and found a few must-haves. i wish i had cash.
it got a bit sad, however, as i was trying to figure out whether or not i could get a winnie-the-pooh / tigger poster, AND a "we want YOU - for satan's army" poster, and put them next to each other in my room.

training was hard, my body was most unresponsive.

i just got off the bus, and am about to make spaghetti (if i had more money, i'd be bored of spaghetti already), and then i think i'm going to go to bed. oh - and shower first. i stink.

10/11/03

i got to bed about 03.30, having spent my early morning doing lots and lots of homework. i woke up at 07.30. then 07.50 (whoops). i finally managed to leave the apartment at 08.20, and got caught, halfway to campus, in a downpour. it's barely stopped raining since saturday night.

speaking of which - at about 2am, we heard an enormous boom (during a lightning storm, we kinda knew what it was), and then all the power went out. fortunately, it went on about five minutes later.
there's a reason i'm saying this, don't you worry...

so, me, caught in the rain. i took a looooong detour, to the centre of town, and bought myself a really cheap brolly. and then walked aaaaaaaaall the way to campus.
soaked anyway.

i discovered that all the campus servers had gone down during the storm. all - of - them. apparently, the server room had been approximately eighty degrees celcius when the first guys arrived in the morning. not only was this distressing for them - all my homework had been sitting in my mailbox, and there was no guarantee that the mail would be restored.

fortunately, my argentinian flatmate brought the stuff on stiffy. he and i managed to print out our homework before going to class, but this caused us to be about ten minutes late. when we entered, and please bear in mind that we'd been up all night doing this homework, we discovered that we've been given until next week.
typical.

the class proved to be EXTREMELY boring, and as soon as we were given a break, about half the class (at least) made a run for it. i had a really small lunch (financial constraints), and had a meeting with a lecturer, apropos our applied project. it was a most constructive meeting, and i managed to get some insider tips.

i spent the rest of the day on basic system analysis, learning basic c#, and arbing around online.

i went to accounting. accounting was interesting. and quite pleasant.

i walked home, collected my gear, and went to taekwondo. which sucked. i had no energy, and my body's not in any kind of shape at all.
bah! humbug.
took the bus home, had myself a whole can of sweetcorn (WITHOUT creamed sweetcorn), spoke to her, and had a glorious, hot shower. and now, it's time for BASS (Beneath a Steel Sky), and bed. maybe i'll read a bit from wizard's first rule, which i managed to download. maybe, just maybe, i check to see what other homework i have.
let the wheel weave as the wheel wills.

09/11/03

*** yesterday ***

kill bill. excellent, excellent movie. so far.
i both loved, and hated, the excessive use of blood.

*** today ***

what a long day! it started with a major fight between flatmates, which went nowhere. i then had class, and after class did accounting homework. which i still haven't finished. we also have another assignment due tomorrow, which i have no clue how to begin.

interesting things that happened today: none.

i had scrambled-fried eggs on toast, a delicious orange 'n chocolate yoghurt, and two badly baked potatoes for supper. i have a headache of note, and i'm not inclined to do anything productive right now. including this. i don't even know why i started.

08/11/03

*** yesterday ***

she was really, really kind, and took me to tel aviv to pick up experimental, and then brought us back to herzliyah. i'm going to need to do something special to repay that - please mail me any suggestions (i can spend lots of effort, but very little money, and my imagination's not very good).

*** today ***

we went to our buddy in pituach, who fed us really good chicken soup, and allowed the others to make a small spliff sweatshop, with a cute production line and some very interesting results.

i managed to leave my jersey there (that's now two items i have to recover), and we then went off in search of the party.

we had to wait a while at the entrance, so we took the opportunity to eat some candy (to go along with my liquorice), of which even i had a small sliver.

rhino met up with us, organized our entrance, and directed us to the party proper. it was on the edge of a forest, a really nice spot. the music was really chilled and funky. there were lots of people, which i hadn't expected, and unfortunately a lot of arsim (greaseballs, pimps, assholes). we had a really fun night, and sunrise was great. the only problem is that right after the good music started, the arsim started fighting. the music stopped, apparently someone got stabbed. we decided it was a good time to leave. good that some people really get into the true spirit of the nature party...

we got totally, utterly and completely lost on the way out. we had a grand adventure before one of the patrolling guards found us and led us out.

it was during the ride home that i really started to trip. we got to ra'anana, and i was getting hectic visuals, and i was given salvadore dali - the paintings to read. i didn't make it very far into the book before passing out, and aside from a brief attempt at 11.30 to watch ed, edd, and eddy, i slept until 13.50. i walked back home, which only took about half an hour, had breakfast, took an INCREDIBLE shower, and played counterstrike. and didn't do too badly.

i had an extremely frustrating experience just now: i tried to book movie tickets (kill bill) over the phone, in hebrew. everything was going great, until they asked for my credit card number. i followed the instructions, put in the number, pressed #, and it asked me for the number again. i repeated this four times before giving up. why can't they just let me get ONE freaking thing right in this country?!

i intended to take a photo of myself when i got back, just to demonstrate how utterly messed up i was, and only remembered after the shower. sorry. there will be some photo's from earlier though.

07/11/03

*** yesterday ***

the party wasn't so great, but not a complete waste of time. saw some people i've been out of touch with for a while. we went to her place, and crashed (without doing homework, OBVIOUSLY).

*** today ***

got up at 08.00, finished my homework, and she gave me a lift to campus. class was kinda okay, got away with making fun of the lecturer (good to have one with a sense of humour - he just insulted me right back), and then bladed home.

i did some washing (sorely needed), and played lots of counterstrike. on servers with good people - i got my ass kicked, and BADLY. some great moments, however - i got into a standard gunfight with some guy, and we both ran out of ammo at the same time: i pulled my knife and slashed him to death! got such a rush, i was shaking for the rest of the round...

she picked me up, and we spent the day at her place - sleeping, and eating. eating, and sleeping. and babysitting, as we keep getting conned by her sister.
* shrug *

we're going to a nature party tonight - it looks like i'm going to have to spend NIS 150 (R200) on a taxi, to go fetch someone, because the guy driving us is being difficult today.
oh well. it'll be worth it.

i have this grand plan to finish those logs i've been neglecting for so long (the ones concerning my last days in cape town, and my flight back)... but i'm not holding my breath. neither should you.

06/11/03

*** yesterday ***

got back from work around 06.30, and got to bed at 07.00.

i woke up at 11.00, i think. actually, i don't remember much from yesterday - i was very tired. i did homework in the library for most of it, and went to two classes, both of which i didn't need to be in. i got my wednesday and thursday timetables confused.
so i could've slept all day, really.

straight after class i went home, stopping for coffee at a friendly new student, jgg, then rushed off to tel aviv. the scout movement had a memorial for yitzchak rabin, so i went to join her (she's in the scouts). it was definitely an experience. some interesting speeches, at least the ones i understood...

she had to go right after the ceremony, so i made my way home, made some toast (no cutlery or crockery - my flatmates are bastards), and went to bed.
i think.
oh, and i had a long theological debate with our brit. it was rather interesting.

*** today ***

i woke up early, around 9 / 10am, and turned on the boiler. i spent the morning doing my homework (algorithms, really nasty graph stuff), showering (a really nice, long hot shower), and then rollerbladed to university. i was in class until 06.30 (i can't remember too many details - see attached rant). i bladed home, went shopping (bought much munchies), had a much needed shower, and made myself spaghetti with sweet-chilli sauce. while trying to set up counterstrike.
which isn't happening.
something's happened to our internet, and i keep timing out, even on the servers i usually play on. it's very frustrating.

she's just come back to herzliyah for the weekend - she'll be here soon, and then we're off to a student party (held by jgg) to say hi and be polite. then i've got homework to finish for tomorrow morning, our 08.30 class, and then i'm sleeping at her place. which is a hell of lot more comfortable than mine...

*** rant ***

i'm getting truly sick of grootbek. i'm sick of all his slick american bullshit, his constant childishness and lack of responsibility. he never does his dishes, constantly reminds me to do mine, and gets upset and offended when i reciprocate. coupled with his frequent nagging about the bills, which i physically don't have cash to pay yet, i've been walking around with this urgent need to hit him. hard. and lots. especially whenever i want to prepare food.

my new plan is as follows (although i'm not sure that i'm going to find anyone here agreeing with me): for every dish of his that i do, i get to punch him once. same thing goes for each dish of mine he does. the "points" are tallied at the end of each day, before bed, and whoever has a deficit gets to go to sleep bruised.
i think that's fair. and everyone ends up happy - i'm only to happy to fuck him up and pay for it with soapy water.

05/11/03

*** yesterday ***

i had almost half of a huge pizza with grootbek, and serendipitously arrived at the busstop in time to hop on. i'm still reading the AH64-D manual, which gets more and more interesting. the only problem is that i need time to go online, and find out about all the details they leave out...

i arrived at work a few hours early, so i had time to clear my email and catch up on webcomics.

*** today ***

turned out i wasn't meant to be just listening, i actually had to work this morning. and i got some really frustrating calls. including one from a german woman who could barely speak english, and wasn't actually meant to be in the event - so i couldn't find her on the systems at all, and had no clue what she was rambling on about.

i've spent most of my morning writing the journal entry for the big trip - talk about bringing back memories. my brain hurts just thinking about it, although i just had a thought: it's possible that i'm just very, very tired.
i really should have done some homework.

gonna go get some coffee now. yep, definitely need coffee.

04/11/03

*** yesterday ***

well, i did sleep alright. but then i had to be up at 08.00, and arrived for class at 08.30. i basically spent the entire day (until 19.30) at university, with about three hours in total to arb around and do homework.

i bladed home like a madman (or as much as i could, i was REALLY tired and sore and my body wasn't very responsive), had a shower, some food, and then hopped on a bus (i love that expression) for the train station.

in typical-for-me fashion, i missed the 20.29 train by about two minutes (i watched as it flew past me), and the next one was only due at 21.50.

fuck.

i took a slow walk to the mall. i finally found a decent sewing kit, and i went looking for some arcade games, but i couldn't find any worth playing by myself. i went to ilan's for hot chocolate, which was very, very good. made me feel much better.

another slow walk, and i made it in time for the last train. got to rechovot around 22.30, and she came to pick me up. i didn't see much of gedera in the dark, i met her flatmates, and after much talk (my hebrew is aweful), we went to sleep.

*** today ***

woke up around 11am. i think. breakfasted, stretched, and then we went for a walk through gedera. very quiet, cozy (spelling?) sort of place. we had some amazing iced-coffee, coupled with some frighteningly bad service, and the hurried off to the train. i made it with about two minutes to spare (*phew*), and had an uneventful journey back home.

my flatmates of completely inconsiderate sons-of-dogs-on-heat muthafunstas. i did some good shopping, had plans on a decent lunch when i got home (still really tired), and i had to wash everything i needed to use, 'cause there was NOTHING clean in the apartment except for a plate and a spoon.
bastards.
i made myself some tuna-pasta (using fake mayonnaise), and played final fantasy. grootbek came into the lounge, so as soon as i found a save point, we switched to tekken, and i totally taught him a lesson, with every character in the game.

i was going to sleep, tried to play cs, and got stuck reinstalling. so i haven't slept, the update hasn't finished, and i have to go to work in about an hour or so. and then be in class at 11.00 tomorrow. and i have tons of homework to do. i'm so smart.

02/11/03

*** yesterday ***

i woke up around 14.10. really, really needed the sleep. had a really chilled wake-up, as some friends had come over and we were talking while i was eating and doing homework.

i played some good cs, then left for our weekly vampire game. it was much better than the first one - i'm really getting the hang of the character, the people i'm playing with, and the game itself.

i got home, but immediately left with our brit to visit a friend of his. it turned out i'd met him on friday night, and a couple of other guys were there too (one from the wakeup). so we chilled, had some tea, and talked a hell of a lot, about a hell of a lot. we had supper (tuna pasta! although with mayonnaise, not ketchup), and then walked home.
back to argueing with grootbek about dishes. god, this is childish.

*** today ***

i'm delaying my shower till morning - i'm getting up at 07.50 for class at 08.45. oh, goody. it's financial accounting.
i'm now debating whether or not to play cs before bed...

*** later ***

i'm listening to marilyn manson, filled with a need for violence so strong that i keep having to remind myself that if i tear my own skin i'm going to regret it in the morning. and this isn't from the music, that's just fitting.

fucking dibs. they're fucking striking again. but fucking EVERYONE. BUTT-FUCKING everyone. even the banks and the post-office are going on strike. so no cash, and no trains, so i can't go and see her in gedera.
but that's not what's getting to me.

i spent the whole fucking day at university. most of it doing homework, that we eventually gave up on, because it makes no sense and we haven't actually been taught how to do it yet.
slimey bastards.
but that's not what's getting to me.

i'm typing this when i'm supposed to be finishing a report. it's late. but none of this is what's making me feel like i want to find every motherfucker in the city and rip their throats out. slowly. bathing myself in their blood, squeezing every last drop out into the street.
hmmm. maybe manson is making it worse.
i don't care. i think what's bothering me is that it's finally sunk in that i'm back here, in israel, and no longer held in cape town's sweet embrace.

i have so much work to do, and so little time for myself. go on, feel sorry for me. it's not like anyone else has the same problem.

and experiencing technical difficulties with counterstrike doesn't make me feel better either.

01/11/03

*** yesterday ***

i played cs, on an israeli server. if your microphone picks up a strong signal while you're playing, it broadcasts it to the other players. some kid's mother started screaming at him in hebrew, telling him to stop playing and come for supper. in hebrew. much hysterical laughter, and much typing of LOL and ROFL later... this went on for about five minutes!

i got dressed up - i'll post pics later on. we went to this really lame party (hip-hop, much drinking, rather crappy people), but finally SxS came to the rescue.

oh, and grootbek got really drunk last night. our argentinian's car is full of puke, and i'm really nervous about finding out more in the morning...

*** today ***

not that we did much anyways, as we met up with some friends and went club/bar-hopping through tel-aviv. got some interesting reactions to my costume, especially considering the fact that israeli's don't celebrate halloween.
i suppose it should worry me that some girls were hitting on me.
and some woman who forgot it was halloween - her birthday is on halloween. go figure.

it's now 05.45 as i write this. the sun's just rising, i'm just going to bed. it took me a really long, hot shower (playing cs while waiting for the water to heat up) to scrub off most of the facepaint, but now it's definitely time for some sleep-inaction.

anyways, good night.

31/10/03

*** yesterday ***

i got up around 10am. i *think*. i went to the bank, where they informed me that traveller's cheques are not considered legal tender in israel - you have to wait 14 days for it to be accessable. after a while i managed to get hold of the bank manager, who allowed me barely enough money for food until then.
i love this country.

i spent most of the day in class. some of it was really interesting. some of it was not.

got home fairly late, helped my niece pack, and finally found my phone charger(s). played a bit of cs, and then went for pizza. we had really cheap, and really hot pizza (the really hot bit got stuck to the roof of my mouth. very sore. very blistered).

i saw her off from my place, and then went with grootbek to get hamburgers. well, one hamburger. i wasn't hungry anymore. when we got home, we played tekken until about 2am, and then went to bed.

*** today ***

grootbek and i woke up at 07.30 this morning, and got to class at 08.30. for a really sucky class in mathematics I. although i guess this is what you deserve when you fail the basic courses more than three times each (i'm including supps).

after class we went to the bank, where i discovered that my money STILL hadn't been made available. so i had to wait again to speak to some foul-tempered woman, who, after much argueing, finally agreed to give me the money.
* PHEW *

said hi to that really pretty girl who works there. she seemed really excited to see me. i guess it's 'cause i'm not available. i'm so full of myself! and happy about it...

we then took a slow walk through herzeliya, stopping in at most of the shops looking for halloween gear.

i was going to make myself eggs for lunch. i put the margerine in the pan, waited for it to boil, and cracked the egg. and nothing came out. all the eggs in our fridge had frozen solid. so i made toast, and had some strange cereal (raisin-bran, but the soya milk had gone funny from the cold).

took a bus to tel aviv, and trained for a couple of hours. nice training. bussed home, went to the corner cafe (the only place open), visited another student apartment (very pretty, with a great big roof), and then came home. we have a new shower head. massage-style. oh yes.

i now have some time to kill, and then we're going out to the party... unless, of course, i find out about a better one.

30/10/03

*** yesterday ***

i got home around 04.45, and passed out. was woken at 08.30, because some idiot who has my number forgot to lock his phone.
BITCH.

i got up at 10.15, and it started raining. very pretty, but it stopped me from being able to blade to class. bugger. i made it just in time for class, only to find out that the class was in hebrew.
...
i decided to stay anyway, as i know the lecturer. turns out, i actually understood most of the class! i amazed myself, at least.

i had a great big lunch, and the walked home for a kip.
i got up at 04.20, put on my blades, and was about three blocks away when it started raining again. so i stopped, put my shoes on, and as i started walking the rain stopped. unfortunately, by that time, the road was just too wet to rollerblade on, so i had to walk AGAIN to class.

the lecturer was only fifteen minutes late. the class is a good one, unfortunately it's mainly stuff that i know already. so i suffered along with the lecturer while he tried to explain concepts like compilation to business students (particularly dumb business students, i might add), until we got a break, where i explained my situation, found out all sorts of neat things (he's a very smart man, and in the know vis-a-vis (whatever) computer science), and promptly made my way home.
running into the lecturer from the first class on the way, and arranging a meeting where he's promised to explain to me how to do well in his course (hopefully without doing too much work).

i got home, and the tekken tournament began. my niece had arrived just before i'd left, so she'd made herself comfortable, and she even organized my supper while i played.
very cool.

*** today ***

a few of us went off to our buddy in pituach, where we sat and chilled, and then returned home for bed, stopping into bomba for some really good french fries.

i had a great shower, remembered (was inclined) to floss, and then made preparations for bed.

it's now 02.43. the reason i'm still awake is because i HAD to play counterstrike. on an israeli server. it was very, very cool.

29/10/03

*** yesterday ***

turns out munchies were on top. but not before counterstrike.
yes, i can play cs again. if only i'd gotten some sleep instead, i wouldn't be in the mess i'm in right now... 20/20 hindsight. at least i did okay.

i went for a walk to the bank, to discover that the atm's were out. i had a huge shuwarma for lunch.
not in that order.

i got home, got my gear, and took a bus to dizengoff center, for some more taekwondo training.

firstly, the gym is NICE. big, lots of punching bags (enormous ones), and all sorts of fun equipment. having said that, i can now say that as much as i enjoyed the training, i got my ass kicked by the trainer (almost literally: i'm covered in huge bumps and bruises). and we learned a new stretch that's intended to make us able to perform the trick vin diesel did in the beginning of pitch black. all sorts of new muscles hurt now.
on a slightly less pleasant note, i kicked some kid in the teeth in the middle of a fight, and i have two small piercings in my big toe. he apologized afterwards for his teeth being so sharp, because he'd broken them and had them replaced.
bastard.

note: the toilets in dizengoff's basement are seriously freaky. they look like shower cubicles, with the toilet sunken into the floor. somehow, people are expected to sit on the floor to take a dump. quite gross. and there's rows upon rows of them... it's like something out of a bad 80's sci-fi movie.

anyway, i was tired before i went. by the time we were finished (17.30 and dark outside), i could barely walk.

i took the bus home, and grootbek came with me to draw cash and go shopping. i have leet shopping skills. unfortunately, i don't have leet banking skills. it's five days later, or something, and my money still isn't in my account, so i'm going to have to go in personally in the morning. missing even more valuable sleep.

i had a quick shower (with my flatmates messing with the hot water on purpose, and then locking me in the bathroom), put on some fresh clothes, and hopped on the us to work.

i've been reading the manual for jane's ah-64d longbow (1996) computer game, and that what i did on the bus. it's got some really interesting information, and makes it worthwhile looking up all the details on the internet that they've left out (although they haven't left out much).

i got into the building just in time to order pizza with everyone else - bacon and mushroom, very good. i spent some time clearing out my email, saying hi to people, and talking to her on the phone.

*** today ***

my job tonight is to learn the new system, which is identical to the old one. i've been bored, and i'm so tired that i can't actually do anything useful. so i've been catching up on webcomics, cnet's news, and every now and again listening in on other helpdesk agents' calls.
i'm tired.

we're almost finished, and i have to be in class at 11.00 in the morning. bleah. but i suppose tonight hasn't been all bad...