when the net's down

the troll in the pork futures store: i *think* i've read it before, but it could just be that somebody told me once about that part.

we had an express section during inspection today: the discipline commander identified all the usual troublemakers (including myself) and made us line up on the other side of the court. he went through our group first, released us, and then went through the rest of the guys. awesome ^_^

this morning saw us moving offices - never a pleasant experience. basically, our TL has finally realized that it's a good idea for our inner-team to be together (the kid, myself and private pile), and it's an even better idea if we don't sit with everybody else (must be the theme for the day). sharing an incompatible sense of humour, an incompatible taste in music, and an incompatible work-ethic - it makes me wonder that it took this long!

during the move, some of out network points went down, so we were completely unable to do any work. the entire day. and today just happened to be a mission critical one for the big project. that sucked.

although it did give me time to sort out other problems, and sit with private pile and lecture him non-stop. i stand corrected for my statement yesterday: i have, effectively, 9 weeks left to go. pile almost cried when i explained to him how much shit he's in.

i wish i could make him angry, somehow. anger is proper motivation.

before lunch, i got a call to say that the movers were waiting outside the base to give me a receipt. in order to get the receipt, i had to add tax. tax turned out to be NIS 60, and i had no cash. figuring that making them wait five minutes wasn't an issue (they didn't give me time to get ready to meet them), i went to the ATM.

which was out of cash. i dashed to the mongoose's office, but he was out of moolah too. so i ran like a madman back to my office (we're on the third floor), got cash from private pile, and legged it to the gate, where i had to stop running, walk normally and make sure that i was presentable (woe betide those outside and not in that state).

it's still summer, i'd just had a cigarette, i instantly became super-sweaty and super-smelly (and out of breath, to boot). the guy i had to deal with is a complete moron, and it took 5 minutes to get him to write the thing and produce change.

now our welfare officers are going to figure out whether or not i paid the extra money in vain (theoretically i'll get it refunded).

mess hall for lunch: we walked in to some good food, but a specific salad we were all in the mood for was missing. the girls on duty were being friendly but unhelpful, so i strolled into the kitchens and sorted things out (i've got a little experience with kitchen duty myself).

everyone who saw me walk out with the salad in question was a) grateful and b) confused because my rank is suspiciously out of place doing jobs like that.

so i made private pile do the rest of the dirty work, and after a few minutes we were enjoying a really good meal. well, at least as far as mess hall food goes.

in the afternoon, we had a training session for the up-and-coming inter-wing sports day. we didn't have a volleyball net... so we played dodgeball. that was a lot of fun, but REAL exercise... we left the court filthy and smelly and generally disgusting. extremely unpleasantly so.

the bus ride to work was fun. i coerced the new guy at the coffee shop to make dangerously strong latte, which i desperately needed. i went to our office first, gave spot his cup, and then mentioned that i was off to punch in to work. the guys in the aquarium laughed, and told me that it was the perfect time. confused, i took the elevator up to the 16th floor.

as of yesterday, online gambling in the states became illegal. our parent company pretty much exlusively deals in online gambling, and the states obviously makes up more than a significant percentage of the company's income.

we're okay, totally legit, but i walked in on a speech informing everyone that lots of them are about to be laid off. that sucks. and it was super embarrassing walking in, in full uniform, demonstrating that some of us are doing alright.

liquorice! spot got confused by the description i gave him, and got every type of katjes he could find. genius... KING!! he's rationing it, though. i really can't control myself.

after a couple of hours, including a little bit of actual coding, i simply gave up. my head's fucked, i need a stiff drink and lots of sleep. and to get the mess that is my life sorted out.

spot's grandmother was not impressed to see me, as usual. she's pissed off because i forgot to call and wish her a happy new year last week. i didn't call anybody, 'cause my head was kinda in a different place, but it looks like she's not going to let me forget it for a while.

the shower i just took is only interesting because once my socks were off they had to be double-bagged, and the place stank for a short while until the evil sock-demons had dispersed. they did not go quietly in the night. the shower was superb.

spot and i have just had an interesting discussion. we've lived together before (that's how we met), we've been study partners, we've served in the army together, we work together, and now we're moving in together again. aside from anything sexual, we're pretty much married for all intents and purposes. we'd have gotten married ages ago if one of us was an attractive female. the whole thing is very amusing.