lost with a smile

the guys picked me up later than expected. fine. we then took an accidental detour through haifa. not only was the car *PACKED*, and very uncomfortable, but the drive there took about two hours more than necessary.

oh, and we did some serious shopping on the way - my wallet still hurts.

we got there around midnight - i was expecting the ambient trance to be starting, but i was all wrong. heavy, heavy psychedelic trance, the entire time. except when there was silence in the afternoon, or some ambient when everyone started leaving today.

NICE.

also, there were many, many beautiful and sexy girls - that never happens at a trance party!!

lots happened during the weekend, so to sum up - it was awesome. it totally rocked. it was really beautiful, the weather was great, and i stomped till i could stomp no more. i didn't sleep much, owing to my delicate jobnik body - sleeping on hard rock didn't do anything for me. but i didn't get too sunburned, which is not the usual :), and i thoroughly chilled.

and played loads of great frisbee.

so about to jump in a hard-earned shower, then off to yogi's. the girl i've been semi-dating (metalhead, i rate is appropriate) called me today, we're either meeting up tonight at the lizard, or tomorrow (either in my area, or at my place, it wasn't defined properly :P).

so, all in all - all good. two thumbs up for a well spent weekend.

it's such a perfect day

no, no - really!!

i never found breakfast, as such - but i did get a lot of shopping done: awesome muscle shirt for my uniform, some shaving foam, and two (three) cd's - the essential simon and garfunkle (2 cd's), and the best of jefferson airplane.
wicked!

got myself a great cup of coffee, dropped my shit off at home, missioned for breakfast (again) - and came up with strange biscuits and tortilla chips. not the healthiest, but certainly tasty ^_^

spoke to some friends online, listened to great music all day so far, had a long shower, shaved and brushed teeth, got all my packing done (so exciting!), and am now just arbing around until the guys come to pick me up in an hour or so.

wheeee!!!

slow breathing

i just got up - i slept soooooooooooooo well ^_^

possibly aided by the sms conversation i had with the girl from yesterday. i think she likes me too :)

i'm off to hunt for breakfast (and the slower, the better), and then to do some shopping. it's time!!

two days down

i feel like i've lost time...

the braai at SxS's place was awesome - saw a lot of friends i've been out of touch with, the food was great, and i thoroughly enjoyed playing texas hold'em, even though i got my butt whipped.

i left his place around 7am, went straight to the ministry of interior, to discover that they've moved, and i'll only be able to go from the 3rd... oh well. i arrived to a totally quiet base, spent the morning juggling between arbing and grafting.

at 3pm i asked for permission to leave, and my commander gave me an ultimatum: if i finished the prog i was working on successfully by 3.30, i could leave - if not, i leave at 8pm... not very nice, as i've never tried to run the damn thing before.

at approximately 3.25, i gingerly clicked the "work, dammit!" button - and i'll be damned, it ran first time! not only was i very excited, but my commander was severely disappointed, 'cause he had to let me go ^_^

we went to a tattoo parlour in dizengoff - a friend from the base's cousin works their, and i saw his portfolio, and had a chat with him. his work is AMAZING, and as far as money is concerned he said we can work something out. now i just have to do the damn thing.

and yes, i'm totally nervous about this.

humorous aside: we're going to redo their website for them (i hope i find the time). it's one way to pay for the tat ;)

the mongoose and i went to go pick up the tickets - getting lost on the way, but we succeeded in the end. we ate good shuwarma, then took the bus to holon. went to the video store - awesome video store - and got AvP and big fish.

omfg - my first opportunity to see AvP!! my enthusiasm wasn't enough, i was so exhausted that i fell asleep after about half an hour. i LOVED what i did get to see though, so there is hope.

i slept REALLY badly. in the early afternoon, we rushed to return the videos, and then had a brilliant breakfast. we sat down for some serious (read: very tasty) ice-cream, but had to take it with us as his mom came to pick us up.

i took the bus to tel aviv, and walked-very-fast home, where i showered and changed in about 2 minutes (no shit - i'm most impressed), as i was late for a date with this girl i met a few weeks ago.

i am one lucky SOB. the bus arrived AS i got to the stop (aided by a little running). i arrived with time to spare - so i treated myself to neil gaiman - american gods.

i couldn't remember how this girl looks, so i was more than pleasantly surprised when she arrived, and turned out to be FINE. very cute, very sexy. and really nice - we sat talking over coffee for about an hour before she left. unfortunately, as is not usually the case, i'm all enthusiastic, and i'm not sure how she feels - but the situation is definitely an improvement over the norm :D

i walked through to karnaf's pad, got my tickets and sat for coffee. i started reading the book, and the first few pages are simply great. good buy.

the mongoose picked me up, and we drove to get the last ticket, then stopped for a hot dog. damn kosher-for-passover rolls taste like crap. ran into an old friend from the university though, which was nice.

he just dropped me off, i'm doing laundry, planning on reading a bit, and then - who knows??

i really need to slow down my smoking, i'm way out of control.

i'm totally excited about the festival - we're leaving tomorrow!! this is gonna be killer.

trundling in good weather

i wasted another hour of my life waiting for the damn bus home yesterday, but aside from that i got here without a hitch. i crashed for a couple of hours, then SxS came and picked me up, and we went off to the lincoln. actually, we went to another club first, but weren't allowed in on account of the age-limit being 25+.

it's been a loooooong time since my id wasn't good enough o_O

got home around 3.30, got to the base just before 8, and i'd LOVE to say i wasted today, but i worked pretty hard until about an hour before home-time.

some frustrating stuff, too. but i did play a game of volleyball, so not too much to worry about.

i went straight to the mall, to discover that none of my coupons are at ALL useful - rather annoying as i actually have rather a lot of stuff to buy.

about to shower, then off to SxS's place for a braai. can't complain too much ^_^

'n bietjie gebrand

i've turned all pink and shiny. almost edible, even :)

we spent the morning trekking around (me with my shirt off, hence the burn), visitng the horses and cows and ostrich and monkeys and so on and so on, even carrying around a lost chameleon - so cute!

that girl called back, spent 16 minutes on one of those random conversation calls. gonna have to hook up with her, i reckon.

we had a picnic up in the gilboa, nice area, very chilled. got back, watched a bit of mr. deeds, just got out the shower, and i'm gonna be on my way to afula in about an hour and a half. i hate having to go back early. however, i will be seeing SxS and yogi, at least - so tonight will probably be interesting.

*hopes*

generally nice day. the sky is visible again!!

*yawned* good morning

last night was certainly interesting. the seder itself was kinda nice, kinda awkward - the sound team made sure that we heard constant feedback, so that hurt a bit. the food was good though.

got back to a chilled evening. i was brushing my teeth when i noticed something small and black moving next to my foot - a friendly scorpion! boy, was it NOT happy when i shoved it outside, so i could kill it, box it, and toss it. i spent the rest of the evening paranoid about finding its friends.

just before bed i received an sms from this girl i met a few weeks ago, seems she does want to stay in touch. gonna have to check that out.

i still haven't woken up yet, but i'm looking forward to arbing around properly the entire day :)

< insert mantra here >

i watched all the die hard movies today - that was fun. that about covers everything so far... about to go and shower, then get ready for the first night seder.

it's weird to think that it's all because thousands of years ago, my ancestors escaped slavery, and witnessed crazy miracles.

that's not the only thing that got me thinking, but i got to thinking anyways:

we're emergent systems, hidden within an enormously emergent system, and it's funny that no matter how insignificant we may or may not be, each and every aspect of ourselves is so incredibly important to us as individuals.

i find it amazing that all we seem to want to do as individuals is share our sense of identity with other people, or exert influence over our environment. little kids squishing ants, environmentalists trying to save some arbitrary species at the brink of extinction, it's all the same. everyone looks for a mate that can also share in their understanding of life, the universe, etc., etc.... and that can more or less define us as a species.

i'm glad to be me. i'm don't harbour too many regrets, 'cause all the bad stuff is also a part of how i got here. i hope i succeed in what i consider to be my life's work, and if not, i'll still be happy that i'm on the path that i think is right. and i fantasize about the things i'd love to do, but can't.

i'm only writing this because of my need to share - this being my journal actually comes second, even if nobody actually reads this. what sparked this off? i was thinking of flying helicopters, and finding a soul-mate. neither of which might happen, but it feels good to play with these things in my mind.

and with that - happy holidays, and good luck to all of us as a species.

smile :)

clear-headed... but where the hell am i??

wow. what a journey.

a) work last night... SUCKED. BADLY. evil bastards kept the phones ringing the entire night, with the average waiting period between calls around 20 seconds. in addition to that (it's not like i was tired or anything), i got my first truly abusive caller.

and she called me "ignant". i'm more pissed off that it's forbidden to be impolite back than anything else. i really wanted to suggest her seeking anger management classes, or something.

i was bombed, as usual, by the time 4.30am rolled around. i got a ride from one of my co-workers, who dropped me off at spot's place. we had coffee, he finished packing, and we took a cab to the train station, where we breakfasted on coffee and muffins.

i got back home after 24.5 hours non-sleep, and hard work (man those calls KILLED me), and crashed for five hours. packing was a bitch, and as usual the busses sucked, but i eventually made it to the kibbutz alright. pity the weather here is as sucky as tel-aviv's, i wasn't expecting the sandstorm to be everywhere.

i got here, had an INCREDIBLE shower (i keep forgetting how good it is), and just finished watching an officer and a gentleman, for the first time. great movie. now about to get dressed, and off to supper.

where's pusssstulio when you need him?

today was an ugly, ugly day. the sandstorm's gone strong the whole damn week, and it most definitely puts a damper on things. not to mention the general tiredness that's been creeping up, none to shyly, on me.

didn't really do much work today. read a bit, napped every chance i got. we had an awefully boring gathering this morning, where they explained arbitrary and mundane things to think about (or not) during the holidays.

the mongoose constructed a BEAUTIFUL logo for our team... really sharp, really sexy. and the idiots STILL don't want it - they want their damn unrelated and simply stupid crossroads idea.
cretins.

i got home this evening for the first time in days, to do a bit of work, have a shower, and get back into uniform to get to work. if i'd walked, i would've been 15 minutes late - instead of half an hour. on the plus side, no-one here seems to care. and i changed out of uniform superman style - smooth and so fast nobody noticed.

i think.

never mind.

i'm tired.

coffee time.

i'm baaaaaack....

that was a long couple of days!!

i just got back from playing pool with spot, after a long, long day of doing nothing (being prepared for battle, or something). after guarding the 2-6am shift. which was kind of mediocre.

i've definitely slept too much. but i *did* finish michael crichton's eaters of the dead, which is BRILLIANT.

yesterday was *interesting*. the morning was insane, we had our primary production database go down, and i was helpless. eventually we found someone who could fix it, after hours of phone call after phone call, failed attempt after failed attempt.

we also went to the firing range... was fun!

tomorrow will hopefully be just another day, then working tomorrow night, and then off to the kibbutz for 3 or 4 days for passover! w00t!

bzzz *bop*

damn - i have a sunday AND a monday to recall, and my brain's been offline for both of them...

firstly - the apathy. the sheer, utter, and complete apathy. secondly - the weather.
both of them have caused me no end of sighing.

yesterday, the entire day, was a blur. sometime during the afternoon i developed a headache, which turned mean during the evening. spot went missing, and our section commander screamed at me for not being in touch with him, so in the evening i went to his place.
and found him. my commander called me a few minutes after he'd explained to me that we've been successful in bringing him to our section, to tell me the good news. good timing.

we went and played pool, then we waited for the bus for about half an hour, and my head was exploding.

i woke up this morning feeling better, but the weather did a superb job of bringing me down. the morning sucked, as we had to do an extra-strength clean of our office, but i did get plenty of time to read - i finally finished a study in scarlet, and i started reading terry pratchett - eric - i found the whole stuffed parrot thing too much, and my teammates kicked me out, still giggling hysterically and wiping tears from my eyes.

i met up with spot at the main gate, and started helping him with his "form hike". too bad they screwed something up at the main base, and now he has to do it all again tomorrow.

never mind.

oh - by the way - i scored 59% on the purity test. i'm actually quite embarrassed, and vow to improve my score. somehow.

spot and i then went to his "old" base - and like everyone in the region were attacked ferociously by gnats. gnats, gnats, EVERYWHERE. inhaled a few, got some in my eyes, my ears, clothing and hair were full of them. i hate gnats.

we had supper there, i stole some beautiful pictures from the psychotic american's new desk (he's green, he had it coming), and watched the closing ceremony for some course or other. stopped by spot's place on the way home, for coffee, and then made my way back here.

shower, and bed. that's all i have to say about that. i have this nagging feeling i'm forgetting something important, but never mind.

learning to talk... then forgetting again

i spent the day reading, and i did a *little* bit of work... i was using nurmras's machine to tunnel to lagnet, and had to learn how to use talk... not too complicated, when you know how :P

i met up with the mongoose at azrieli (after being harrassed by a newbie security guard), and we walked to the lizard. i had a double shot of sambuca for the first time in ages, which i thoroughly enjoyed. pity about those motor-skills... and my vision... i'm guessing it's the exhaustion. so i decided to come back home, and i'm now going to bed.

just so's you know - typing this is *HARD*.

bright - sunny - afternoon

and sleepy, too.

last night i crashed while waiting for the mongoose - i kept resetting my alarm, and so woke up every 5 minutes... for at least an hour and a half...

by the time he arrived, the plans had changed (without me knowing), so i was surprised with another double-date.
and i got the dog.
but no matter, i employed (deployed?) my newfound bad attitude, and we all had a lot of fun.

so we went to cinema city, and argued over which movie to see. i wanted to see hostage, and got overridden into getting tickets for white noise.
i had a GREAT bagel, a double-scoop of nougat ice-cream (my favourite), and we all sat talking codshit till (i think) about 2.30am, when the movie began.

with the possible exception of crossroads, which in my opinion had more saving graces, white noise is the crappest, dumbest, and most all-round boring and badly-made film i have ever seen.
it hurts to think that i paid money to see it.
money that could have been better spent on a mcdonald's meal.
and i hate mcdonald's.

i don't remember the name of the awards for sucky films [the razzies], but they definitely got my vote. oh - and we saw the trailer for hostage, and it looks fun.

so we had coffee at 5am - well, serious hot-chocolate at least, and then i got dropped off at home, and crashed.

i have done NOTHING of value this weekend. nada. not even cleaned my apartment. i suck.

pre-tty

very pretty. i LOVE the view of the sunset from my balcony.

after posting, i read some more, then walked to azrieli, and had coffee with yogi. we took a walk, then he visited my place for a bit before disappearing. i spent the early evening washing and reading, and chowing dubbelzout liquorice, and listening to limp bizkit.

life is good.

...

wow. just got up now, to a shower, reading sherlock holmes, and power sours.

i find coaching other people to be helpdesk agents to be hard work, but the guy yesterday was totally unprepared - that made things rather difficult. i kept passing out, and being rudely awakened by callers: it's HARD being helpful when your eyes won't open. but i was completely wasted.

i did manage to clear my email, though. and catch up on webcomics, and news, and so on...

brain's off, gonna read some more.

stretched and wound and ready for bed... but no.

first, the day:

long, long day. i was late for inspection this morning, and instead of just walking past, stood there stupidly waiting for the guy inspecting. fortunately, i misheard the time i was told to meet them, and by the time i saw them they didn't feel like dealing with me.

spot spent his day leaving his base, on his way to us. we've basically chucked the rude kid off the team to make space - i hope this all works out.

my commander and i managed to piss off the section commander this morning - that really didn't go well. my commander filed a joke report that stated how absolutely
crap i am, and the section commander took it seriously... let's just
say he's not pleased with either of us.

i tried to quit smoking, but without motivation it really is impossible.
i've lost NIS 120 (in the form of hours playing pool), and face, but deep down inside i don't wanna stop.

worked hard most of the day, t'was interesting.

went on a semi-date with this cute girl i met last week... i really like her, and we had fun, but in terms of physical attraction i think she's just alright, so i'm not sure if i'll pursue...

aside: the sherlock holmes stories - they're incredible!

i just found out i've been invited automatically to the kibbutz for passover, so i'll be there.

i'm now beginning to work - i'm going to be wasted by tomorrow morning.

absurd! fun! would you like to know more?

well. today was a loooooong day. i got enough sleep last night, which threw me off completely. i started my day slowly, went to the pain clinic for acupuncture (everything's a bit tender now), and then returned to the base for a fun-filled day in front of the pc.

actually, it included a rather not-good haircut, and a few interesting bits and pieces here and there.

i went from my base to spot's, arbed around there for about an hour (met a really nice girl... hmmm...), and then hopped a bus to herzeliya.

i visited the family i helped out for my community service... was a bit weird, and kinda as if i never left. odd. but pleasant nonetheless.

i walked through to kc's parents, and had coffee with her dad. not only was i regaled with the story of their visit (and i *am* a *bit* jealous), but i was given the care package from my mom...

let's see: power sours - check. chocolate - check. salt liquorice - check.

playstation controls - check.

SxS just reminded me that i'm missing beacon easter eggs, but my mom still has a couple of weeks to redeem herself :P

so i just got home, am waiting for hot water for a shower, and am planning on sleeping VERY well tonight.

sometimes i get the feeling that maybe i wasn't a baby-killer in a previous life. i really hope i'm right. (in other words, life is good)

*deep sniff* *choke*

i've just woken up - doing some work and then on to acupuncture! w00t!

monday night's continuation: i found spot passed out on a bench, having been locked out of his apartment. went for coffee, then took a taxi to the pub. no cute, sexy friend. that sucked.

we met up with the mongoose and a few of his friends, it was a fun evening. got home around 3am.

woke up at 6.30am. i don't know how. yesterday was hot - really, really hot, and i was exhausted. but owing to my current job function, i have to set a personal example, and couldn't sleep at my desk. i had nothing to do the whole morning... so, on the plus side, the other south african on the base has sent me a huge collection of books in txt and pdf format, so i started reading some random things.

lunch really sucked.

early afternoon our commander came by for a visit - we started working on some things and decided to restart one of our servers. this turned into quite an adventure. i spent the rest of the afternoon working. afterwards, i went to the main gate to visit the mongoose, who'd had to rush off to the firing range in order to guard - this promises hilarious results when he gets court-marshalled (probably today).

his parents gave me a ride to azrieli, from where i took a bus, got home, cold showered, and crashed.

*zooom*

sat night was kinda nice. even getting hit on by the excessively drunk girl didn't get to me.

sunday morning was filled with work... sunday afternoon / evening filled with guard duty. i got the prized task of opening, and closing, ad infinitum, the main gate.
wow.

did have some interesting run-ins with course-kiddies, though. some cute ones, even.

spoke to my mom, was dead tired when i finally arrived home.

today... today... today sucked. i discovered this morning that i had to go to rishon letzion to get my x-ray results. aside from being absolutely exhausted (i slept all the way there and back, nearly missing my stops), i made it back to my base *just* in time to begin guarding. same gate, same job, only in the sun with heat and humidity my only friends.

anyways, i just got home, showered, and am off to search for spot - he dropped his phone in the toilet this morning, so i need to figure out if he's joining us with his exceptionally cute and sexy friend.

and a good night to us all.

long day, but fun!

did the looong walk to spot's place. we arbed around the harbour area of tel-aviv, then made our way to mike's place. very busy. from there we walked to the lincoln, played some pool, then walked home (getting very lost along the way).

slept uncomfortably, had a great breakfast (at roughly 2pm), then went to the beach... was very nice. from there to coffee, from coffee to the lincoln, and i've just returned.

doing some arb html pages for a tutorial my boss has to give, then going out.

burble gurgle aargh

what a sucky, sucky day.
i think.

work last night:
was actually pretty cool, but we were quite busy, and i was very, very, VERY TIRED. we did get really nice company shirts, though.
and lots of caffeine.

i trained and bussed home this morning - an ugly morning, i might add. i had to have a shower before crashing, so i got to bed around 8.30, or 9, or something.

i had no idea why i woke up around 10 / 11. all i know is that i couldn't sleep, and the sky was grey, and it was hot and stuffy (windows and door wide open). i decided i may as well go shopping, so i put on sandals and shorts and a shirt, and shuffled off on my way.

i was talking on the phone, not paying attention to much else (my head still ringing from exhaustion), when i heard something behind me. i turned around, to some woman screaming and gesturing frantically. i stopped talking for a second, and managed to make out that she was telling me to get out of the street. so i turned around, carrying on my conversation in the other direction - quite pissed off at her stupidity.

if you're closing off and evacuating a street, make sure that anyone IN the street has some way of knowing. don't get all uppity because YOU haven't taken necessary precautions.
morons.

so i had to take a long route, did my shopping and then returned... we ended up sitting and waiting until about 2pm before we could go back. nothing in the news, so i haven't a clue what happened.

i went straight back to bed, and woke up roughly 9.30pm. had a quick just-add-water meal, got dressed, and walked here to spot's grandma. and we have rough plans for going out... buying tickets for DOOF tonight!!

cool cool.. the weekend!

right - today was weird and wobbly.

a) did as anticipated, arrived on base at 7.15 and left at 7.18, made my way to the medical base, and got my xrays done. cool sounding machine. luckily, through all the travelling and waiting, i got through the user manual for the RFID chips i'll be wrapping... a french company definitely in need of a better technical writer. in fact, if i hadn't taken so many computer science courses i wouldn't have understood a damn thing.

after waiting for the results for 20 minutes, i went to ask if i had time to get some breakfast - i got told the average wait for results is 1 - 1.5 hours.
fsck that.
so i went back to the base... stopping at the bank, quickly running home to get a change of clothing, and making it in time for the most awful lunch.
that didn't help much, considering i wasn't feeling good at all when i arrived. it's summer again - dehydration!!

b) first mails i received were from our absent commander - explaining to everyone in no uncertain terms that i am in charge. nice. and my team-mates' attitudes were noticeably improved.

spent the afternoon fixing bugs, cleaning the room, and working on important things, like my grid game. i missed the volleyball, but considering the state of my hand, it doesn't really matter.

c) dropped off my things at work, and met up with spot and the psychotic american (in uniform too), and we had coffee on dizengoff. it was actually really nice!

after the psychotic american left, i showed spot where a mutual friend of ours' lives... i was quite surprised to find it myself... and on the way to the bus stop we ran into a really cute, really nice french girl from his base. i HAVE to see her again.

d) made it back to work in time, and haven't shut up since. gotta work though... and i'm missing a good party tonight, which kinda sucks...
and i have no idea yet whether i'm staying in tel aviv tomorrow or not...

*blown away*

that was a crazy day.

no pizza nightmares, but waking up was still harsh. i went to the hospital, only to be informed that the secretary had got confused with my phone number, so couldn't get in touch with me to tell me that the appointment was moved to two days ago.
right.
so the appointment's next week.

i got back to the base to find serious problems. i tried fixing it, i did the same thing three times out of desperation, and when it didn't work (and due to other factors) i figured it was something else... so i gave them instructions on how to deal with it, and left for rehearsals.

later on i found out that my commander - aside from being upset with me for leaving them in the lurch - had gone into the office, done EXACTLY the same thing i did, and it worked.
colour me unimpressed.

the rehearsals were alright, but i had two lines to rap, and for some reason i just couldn't get them right the entire day.
i don't know why. maybe 'cause they don't quite make sense in english, but i think it was more the pressure.
so i screwed up the lines again in the actual performance... but it's okay, everything else was superb.

the event overall was actually quite nice. i got offered a ride home from the incredibly sexy girl who organized everything... and lives in my area... only to remember that i was supposed to visit my boss. she was kind enough to take me to herzliya and drop me off :) i like her...

i just got back now, busy studying RFID (OMFG i held one of the capsules that goes under your skin!!) all the way home. i forgot - AGAIN - to bring my referral with me. i don't know what the hell's wrong with my brain!! probably the same reason i can't handle my lines...

so i gotta go to the base first tomorrow, and THEN go to the medical base in rishon... i kill me. good night.

where am i?

i don't believe i just lost my post.

FSCK.

i just got back home, after waiting for a bus so long that it would have been way quicker to walk... although more painful, my right foot's been hurting the last couple of days.

1) i *HATE* the clinic on our base. almost everyone who "works" there sucks.

2) the problem kid's giving me grief, and i'm unimpressed.

3) we had tons of problems today, and i couldn't solve most of them - i found this extremely frustrating. only after i signed out and was on my way home, did my commander call and talk me through it all. all's well that ends well?

4) spot and i visited the new mall in my area, and then walked to the lincoln to play pool. i think i'm in love with the waitresses. dammit.

5) ate pizza for supper (anticipating nightmares)

loooooooooooooooong..........

i REALLY need to go to bed.

right: the wedding.
ab-so-lute-ly STUNNING. the wedding itself was magic, i think it's because i'm friendly with both the bride and groom, and the whole thing was really special.

it was uber-weird being in uniform. but i had fun anyway ;)

i got home around 1am...

to wake up at 6.30, hurriedly shave etc. before missing the bus. i got to the base to discover that the kid who was giving me shit yesterday wasn't arriving... great to know. i don't know what to do about him.

today was fairly busy, but amongst all the chaos i managed to learn how to do vb6 network communication, which is cool. on the other hand, i'm having a serious, serious problem with smoking. not cool.

i got home, put in a washload, slept for an hour, and went off to play pool with spot - it was GREAT fun, and i just got home now... t'was worth it :D

more is nog 'n dag - 5.30 wake up... yay...

[added later] KNEW i forgot something. i saw a doctor today, she told me the reason my hand's been hurting the last couple of months is because i've broken something. so i'm off to get x-rays sometime this week...

whoa. damn. wtf just happened? where am i??

i *just* got home. from a crazy, crazy day. after an AWESOME weekend!

thursday:

arbed the day along with little bits and pieces of work. i was bombed completely when we got to the beginning of the guard cycle, but i was looking forward to a relaxed weekend nonetheless.

when i got back to my office, i got the coolest email!! i'm officially replacing my commander for two weeks, while he's on a course - that puts me in charge of three other people, one of whom is higher ranking. i'm rather proud. and my commander's rather upset that's he's been replaced by a private.

almost all of the girls guarding this weekend were either troublemakers, or crying and in shock. that SUCKED ASS.

during my first shift, i found out that all the work i've been doing the last few weeks (outside of the army) has been for nought. not a good feeling, but i've learned a lot, and the pressure for the coming week has been reduced considerably.

i was joined for my shift by the mongoose and a couple of other guys, and we had fun. after the shift, i had to change the clocks on our servers - there was a girl from our section on duty, so she came by and helped out a lot. only problem is that we spent over an hour working on one of them, only to give up and report this to my commander... who says "whoops! forgot to tell you that we don't need that one".
bastard. i WILL get him back for it.
the girl was really cute, though.

so, i got to bed really late.

friday:

aside from everything else, due to the shift from daylight savings time we lost an hour of sleep. and i forgot to change *my* clocks. i arrived late for my shift, and the rest of the weekend the officer in charge didn't get off my back.

it was a dark, dark, sunny morning. the sun shone - directly into my face. i'd forgotten my glasses. i was exhausted. the commanding officers were constantly around my booth, so i couldn't sleep. it SUCKED. and it lasted a looooong time.

also, i tried all day to come up with a way to get my commander back - and failed.

the other south african came by, gave me a bandage for my sprained hand (awww...), and joined me in a shopping spree. yes, i got permission to leave the base to get cigarettes and birdseed. i am cool.

i got given some lessons in outlook calendars, the password to the internet machine, and a cup of coffee. a good recovery for the morning, all in all.

one of the guards called me smelly. i decided to take a (LONG) shower BEFORE sleeping. i didn't get any more complaints after that :P

it was an absolutely STUNNING day. hot, with a slight breeze.

had some really interesting discussions, took a nap (missing lunch, waking up only for a quick and rather pointless inspection... seated...), and then went up for my night shift.
which involved reading, supper (we were relieved for half an hour)... and a cute incident where the officer didn't notice i was smoking while talking to him, during my shift, totally forbidden.
:P

yesterday:

couldn't sleep during the night, the girls didn't stop screaming and singing into the walkie talkie - i was going NUTS. the mongoose called around 2am, which woke everyone up and almost killed me.

the run-up to the shift sucked.

i started my day with coffee and birdseed - funny thing is after a major wrestle with the coffee machine, i got back 14 shekels for the 2 i put in! never mind.

the afternoon was relaxed - had some interesting conversations, and slept and chilled. the shower totally rocked ^_^

and i came up with a way to get revenge on my commander. life is good.

lunch didn't rock though. this soupy thing that vaguely resembled beans and potato stew.
ew.
and i spilled some on myself as we carried round to the guys guarding :(

the evening shift was great. the mongoose visited, bringing excellent food, and we spent a few hours hanging. after he left, i was surprised by the guy who interviewed me - bringing me chocolates! yay!

after the shift i spoke to my mom, and then happily went to bed. i even managed to convince the girls to quiet down.

today:

today was insane. i finally slept enough, and made it to my shift on time - including a < 5 minute shave! the shift ROCKED. i took the main gate, so i spent my morning chatting and flirting - and had people running around organizing me breakfast and coffee, everything was grand.

no, really grand - i totally enjoyed my weekend!!

i went straight from guard duty (with full rights to go home) back to my office, and got hit with a mass of emails - our systems were screwed. i spent a frantic couple of hours working on them, and when i was done, i had to deal with our two new kids - who are NOT being helpful at all. it's actually quite rough to be in charge. but i think (i hope) i did okay before leaving. i'm about to shower and go to the wedding - empty-handed and in uniform :$