catch-up

a totally successful weekend: the two underworld movies (although the sequel was a tad boring), primal fear (the first time i've seen it since it was on circuit) and most of fight club. the kid and i walked in the rain to return the dvd's, and just *had* to sit with cider and brandy for a while before coming back home for a quick supper.

and now i'm off to bed. it's been a long, difficult day.

oh, and j-girl's invited herself over sometime during this week, i'm interested to see if that happens...

no way!
good stuff

grilled

we started yesterday off with the city council, and i was glad to discover that it wasn't because of language difficulties that i didn't understand them last time, it's because the rules are bloody stupid and they're cheating the population of this city as much as possible.

and they lost all of spot's documents, so instead of requesting to see them again, they simply added a whole bunch to our bill. amazing.

we chilled a bit at cafeneto (nice doing that on a weekday morning), and then started on the horror story that is bussing to the base. i told the kid to buy his team marshmallows after lunch, like i used to :)

i basically got there in time to check mail, go to lunch, graft a little before a little unit get-together, graft a little more and then get the hell outta there.

i went to the bank, sorted out a whole bunch of things. including ordering a cheque-book. it feels so... grown-up.

i visited the mongoose's ex, then met up with spot and a friend of his for supper and coffee... at the cafeneto, of course. sunshine was there for the first time in ages, and it's the first time she's seen me with my new rank. we chatted for all of two seconds (actually, spot did most of the chatting) before we bolted; i don't know what *i* think as far as she's concerned. :S

i found the marshmallows the kid had bought on the table when i got home. eh?! i left him a rather harsh name-calling voicemail.

i got dressed, then bussed through to SxS's place. grootbek was there, we went to pick up ru55 (and eat too much south african chocolate), and then come down to tel aviv :P

we ended up at molly bloom's, and it turns out that they make extremely good apple pie. afterwards i got a ride home, showered and hit the sack.

i had an NDE this morning, i woke up groggy and went to the bathroom - i was feeling a bit asleep so i put out a hand to the wall to support myself, and i totally misjudged the wall and almost landed teeth-first on the toilet bowl (seat-up, and i'll bet porcelain's more painful).
that got my eyes open, and flashes of "what if?" (like swallowing broken teeth, or falling sideways and being stabbed in the neck with a toilet-brush, and helplessly spraying blood all over the bathroom) going through my head make a great start to any day.

when i got up properly, and had made coffee and screamed at the kid a little (i'd intended that to be in good fun, but i was still a bit out of it and it just came out mean; i think i properly upset him), i jotted down everything up until the previous paragraph and then went off with spot to do a quick shop before scrambling to do all the things that needed doing.

i pulled out my wallet to pay, but it didn't contain my credit card. quick panic and double-checked pockets, but no dice. i had *just* too little cash to cover the shopping, so spot used some of the money i loaned him to help out. as i walked outside, i realized where the card went.

i'd left it in molly bloom's. in my search for the slip i was supposed to sign amongst all the other slips (another credit card was used and each one produces three of the damn things) and change, i'd missed it and walked out. that's never happened to me before, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time:

a) i thought i'd woken up early enough, and on the way there was reminded that last night we switched from daylight savings time, and it was an hour later than my watch and clock were reporting.
b) other bank branches (same bank) are unable to determine whether an account number is valid, so i couldn't draw cash.
c) my bank branch is closed on fridays. and really far away besides.
d) the kid was at work, spot didn't have enough cash to loan me (although i took a twenty back from him for the bus).
e) molly bloom's doesn't open until 14.00 on fridays (and it took a while to figure that out, they've pasted a pamphlet over their posted opening times) and i needed to be at yogi's at 14.00.
f) i hadn't sorted out a gift for yogi, and i hadn't sorted out gifts for my relatives for monday (no pressure, no pressure...)
g) i'd just been shouting at the kid for doing something stupid, and leaving behind my credit card was exponentially worse than misunderstanding a marshmallow directive.

the only plus side was that while i was walking around the area (to molly bloom's, to the bank and back) i finally pieced together a couple of chunks of tel aviv that i've been familiar with but unable to connect on the map in my head.

i got dressed, took a bus and a walk to yogi's parents' place, and spent a really nice afternoon gorging myself and chatting with all my friends that i only ever see at gatherings. it really is like family. the only weird thing is that just this morning my mother was making noises about me settling down and having kids, and for the first while after i got there so many friends were rocking up with children that i began feeling bad about not having brought my own.

the weather was great, the company excellent, the food most satisfying both quantitatively and qualitatively. an irish friend informed us that apple pie isn't irish.

around 5pm i got a ride back to tel aviv. i shaved my head this week, and getting sunburned with short hair is really silly and really painful. so i now have mild sunstroke. go me!

i got home, put on a hat, and managed to convince the kid to come with for the mission. we had a nice walk, i got my financial independence back, we detoured and had coffee at movieing, rented two movies (a scanner darkly and underworld), and got ice-cream on the way back home. i had a cone filled with a flavour that incorporated hel (cardemon), green-tea and orange vanilla with orange strips, and it was devastating.

we've just watched a scanner darkly, and as messed up as i am i couldn't nod off - it's a fantastic film.

freegeen-whyyyyyrrrrred

half of the day was lost on anger, anguish and general unpleasantness when the kid informed me that tomorrow is the last day to pay our water bill...

i definitely consumed too much coffee today.

i showed the flat to a potential replacement for spot. i told spot exactly what's up from my point of view, but as always he has a reasonable-sounding answer for everything, and it doesn't matter so much that what he said seemed to make sense.

i've decided that i'm somehow going to come up with a way to define okay vs. not okay, put it all in writing and use it as a continuous test to see how we're doing, and if we lean into the not okay then we're solving the problem dramatically.

i just *know* that in another year or so i'm going to look back on this post and think about how childishly it reads. that's how i feel about most of my posts regarding dealing with flatmate incompatibilities and the stupid lengths i've gone to throughout the years for peace of mind that simply never features.

at least my work-life is finally getting itself together, i'm feeling way more confident after this week.

after warming ourselves at cafeneto, we went to yogi's to meet up with SxS, and having just showered after some fun good-old-days style tekken with the two of them i'm jumping into bed.

waking up at 7am just sounds so GOOD all of a sudden :P

past my bedtime :(

but it was a fun night out. i met a cute girl from the neighbourhood by sitting down with the kid's ex-shag, then walked to mike's place. the evening was a lot of fun, most of it telling hysterical stories.

now to worry about the morning :P

nystire sent me this link: promises to be entertaining }:)

assertion

oh, so full of it. both yesterday and today i began the day with a good breakfast and sit-ups and push-ups. a good start to the day. today i discovered another bus line that puts me on time if i miss the first one :) [although it was a harrowing experience waiting for a bus i wasn't sure hadn't just passed before i arrived]

yesterday:

over the first cup of coffee (the norm is four) i decided that i would definitely get some exercise in the evening. i just had to figure out how. the day was split into work, and helping out with translations.

the whole way home, when i wasn't chatting, i was pondering my exercise options... by the time i got home i *still* wasn't sure, but i put on my rollerblades anyway (it was a clear night), and went out. i warmed up after a few minutes, and wended and wound my way until i found myself in unfamiliar territory. i'd been out about 45 minutes, and decided it was time to turn back.

just then, i feel some drops of rain. i like rain, i'm on my blades and feeling good, i'm all warmed up, i take off my shirt and enjoy it a bit. i know, somewhere in the back of my head, that it's not a good situation to be in if it gets any wetter, but there's not a hell of a lot i can do about it aside from returning home as fast as i can.

who could have guessed? just as i began approaching home base, i was blasted with a mind-bogglingly mid-winter downpour. i couldn't stop to wait it out, because i'd cool off even quicker and there was no telling how long it would last, i couldn't continue full-tilt because i'd either destroy my blades, die, or both, and so i ended up relatively cautiously skeeting my way through the back-streets, constantly searching for chains of less-wet and sneaking under over-hanging bushes in the dark.

it's a bloody miracle i didn't kill myself last night. but there was something in all that that just felt good. cleaning my blades for an hour afterwards certainly wasn't it (although i'd put on the juluka collection nystire brought me and that did help), but picking my way through rain-drenched streets forced me to such a high level of concentration that i zoned completely, and that was great.

it's not often that i enter the moment, and i appreciate it fully when i do.

spot joined me in watching for all mankind, which i've decided is my new preferred treatment for insomnia. when i did manage to keep my eyes open what i saw was stunning ^_^

i put myself to bed relatively early, a snug, warm end to a rather nice day. after taking a most disturbing and fascinating look at the 70's.

today:

i discovered this morning that the guy i'd translated for had managed to un-correct things when i left, so i had to go over them again today :P

today was an excellent one. i got through a lot. and the kid made me proud by taking issue with his commanders over all the crap that's being going on since i left. now i'm off for a friend's send-off to officer's course.

a DOS day afternoon

wow - i just passed out listening to bill gates' 1989 speech - a history lesson that's amusing and insightful.

this is bloody impressive!

today was much better - i took my own advice and chilled out; i discovered that i actually learned a lot more than i thought during the past couple of weeks, and i got through quite a bit today.

we had one major incident - we had to return the working uniforms we used for last monday's painting, and we were between 10 and 15 pairs short. the problem is that the person who signed out for them initially didn't count them, and we trusted them so we didn't count them, and nobody knows how many we received.

for things like this, somebody has to be court-martialled. the guy in charge put us to work short-sheeting the stacks. i know how many things are wrong with what we did, and i simply hope that nobody gets proper-fucked for this. i feel pretty bad about it.

i got a ride home in a particularly smelly car - i don't know what that smell was, i only noticed it a few minutes after we got on our way, and i can't express what a relief it was to discover that it wasn't me. i'm always paranoid that it is, it never is, and i don't know if that's normal.

i couldn't be arsed to do anything tonight, so i didn't. now it's bed-time.

backing into reality

i've lost track of a lot of cash over the last month, and that worries me. a lot.

i don't really remember much of yesterday... or today, for that matter. it's mostly a blur of fallout 2, chilling, or walking with the kid and feeling sorry for myself.

i'm stressed because i don't have much to stress about. and my being in a hurry at work is slowing me down. and i'm feeling down because i'm not really getting where i am in life, only where i've been.

to steal a concept from stanley kubrick - i need to unfuck myself ASAP.

rahzel - ironman
good luck, america
well-made, and sod the background
pretty

getting off the trolley

thursday. the last day of an excellent week.

excellent, except for the fact that work-wise i achieved sweet bugger-all and i'm not satisfied at all.

for all that, i came back to tel aviv excited and upbeat about going to the easy star all stars concert. then a couple of rounds of tekken with spot took a bit of the wind out of my sails - it was an incredibly frustrating experience :(

so we went out for an enjoyable cup of coffee, then began walking through to the barby, stopping for supper on the way. we were still making good time when we got absolutely lost - we'd taken a detour through an abandoned and decrepit strip-mall of old that must have been really nice in its day, and come out in an unfamiliar side of florentin.

we eventually found ourselves way further away than we should've been (and late for the concert), and shamefully took a taxi. hah! we thought we were late arriving half an hour after the scheduled start time, but they only got up on stage around 23.45!

the concert was absolutely stunning - their sound is amazing and their performance was superb. particularly memorable were the female chorus vocals from dub side of the moon - she just blew us all away.

so i bounced around like an idiot the entire night - that is, until i suddenly started feeling woozy. green fever! i hadn't noticed the number of people all toking around me, and our whole section had gone up in smoke. it took me a while to find my feet again after the initial knock... can we say cheap date?

one of the gorgeous promo girls was really friendly, but even on the way out i couldn't think of something to say. i think i think too much. i think. i'm not totally kicking myself because i've gotten used to this sort of thing.

so spot and i, leglessly making our way back home. we met up with magist's ex-girlfriend, sat with her over coffee for a while while we regrouped, and then hit home around 5 - 6am. i desperately needed that shower. and the sleep, while short, was excellent.

funday smiling

we went on a trip today, and it was awesome.

nystire and i had coffee with spot until around 4pm, then after kicking spot's ass in tekken i went out to buy the kid a ticket to the marty friedman concert. aside from tekken-schooling spot some more, we've ordered tickets for tomorrow night - i invited the girl from st. paddy's day, but she declined and invited me out for supper instead.

we must see this movie.
nifty! [link broken over the years]
cute [link broken over the years]

good stuff. [link no longer relevant, something about spacex] but i have to say that i'd be way more impressed if they'd found an alternative method...

and there was a FIREFIGHT!

spot has finally seen the fireworks cyclist, and i forgot to mention it. around 2am he saw him stop in the middle of the road, fire what seems to be a flaregun with an exploding cap FOUR TIMES into the air (approximately our height, which would explain the decibels) before fucking off.

i can't find any logical hook in that story - what the hell is he doing?!

<rant>
and speaking of the boondock saints, spot informed me yesterday that it's been noted for its "unwarranted" cult following. it's one of the most beautifully directed pieces of art i've ever come across, on what friggin' basis can critics claim "unwarranted"?!

oh, i know. it's obviously not realistic enough. whatever. i seem to recall the movie industry being a subset of the entertainment industry, and i haven't met one person who's seen the movie and wasn't THOROUGHLY entertained.
</rant>

pool was a lot of fun tonight. that dead-sexy waitress has promised me a game this weekend ;)

post implosion

i really need to get my shit together. i spent today trying to think and failing repeatedly. it's like my corpus callosum has imploded, leave an untraversable hollow. i'd love to blame the over-consumption of sugar, the lack of cigarette consumption, the weather, lack of a girlfriend... but in the end it doesn't matter.

what matters is that i need to perform and the only thing i'm focused on is switching off.

that meeting i wrote about took about five minutes and went alright - nothing more, nothing less.

i went back to my old team to help brother bear out - his system environment's totally screwed and it took a while to figure out how badly. the two section TL's and i decided that pool would be a good idea, so spot and i are on our way to the lincoln.

i mean, why sleep? <shameless slav quoting> sleep is for mortals!

a total whitewash

i was on my way out of my bedroom this morning, 6.05am, thinking about how comfortable my working uniform is. and natural, and normal. i reviewed my quick checklist of "am i ready to leave?", when i suddenly remembered that today was the first day i've worn a working uniform where i've had to wear my rank with it.

...

so i had less than five minutes to rush my usual uniform on, and pack all my stuff (including working uniform) into my large backpack, before scurrying out angry at fate and myself for not remembering when still able to deal with it :S

today was a day of community service; our team was a fun one, and we painted some old people's apartment. i met some interesting unit members, learned all sorts of things about where i am (always good to get a slightly broader perspective, i barely leave my office), and all in all had a decent day.

i was too lazy to do anything tonight. tomorrow afternoon i'm supposed to be having a chat with the big boss; i wonder what their view of my last month is.

nystire's:
kinda like hamsterdance
inventive

my two left feet

one of my teammates sat with me to go over something - and sent me into shock as he went over code i'm totally unfamiliar with and fed me a big line of bullshit that confused me to the point of complete lack of confidence. bastard, he got a kick out of that >@
i recovered quickly enough to get it when he got serious, but DAMN that was frightening.

today could have been defined in terms of coffee, cake, and handling signatures.

this evening i finally did it - i finally got it together and met up with songbird at studio b, and took part in my first lesson. "hip hop", sounded a bit silly to me but i can see now that it's going to take me a while to get into the rhythm of the class - i was so busy trying to remember the steps and get my body to perform them that i couldn't feel the beat. hmmph :(

on the plus side, i by far wasn't the suckiest person there, and there was more than enough eye-candy to make it worth the punishment ^_^

sci-fi now:
photon trap
i was once master of orion [shameless game reference]

this hurts

fun-looking film
awesome-looking film

little people?

we cleaned, we ate, we watched the breakfast club (cute), we watched how i met your mom, and then i turned in for a nap. i slept well, but woke up feeling like crap - i think lunch disagreed with me. i still have a headache, although it's a tad milder after all that guinness - we went out to molly bloom's, which was extremely brave of us (heck, we even ventured inside) and quite fun.

on the way there i had a long chat with my mother, who basically told me the same things i've been thinking for the last while. it's been six years of high-stress, and it's going to take me a while to adjust. just to figure out what adjusting means, even. this is the most justified laziness ever ;)

i just came home early with a cute girl next door (literally and figuratively), and it's WAY past my bedtime. but it was a good day, all in all.

bowling

so... bowling. it was fun - i managed to move up the ranking from stone last (of eight people) until the last frame to fourth place :P
to be honest, i was more focused on speed than accuracy, and i managed to average about 31kph with the 11 ball. and only once did i almost crack the floor.

we went to nuffy's for eats, and around 3am my commander gave me a ride home. i crashed completely once i got here.

i began the day tekken-schooling the kid, then spot and i went shopping. shopping late on a friday is not a good idea.
we sat chilling at cafeneto afterwards, having unpacked all the food and commented on the wonderful weather and how good an idea it was to hang the clothes on the lines outside, until a sudden darkening occurred and we realized that it was about to rain again - we scooted immediately to bring it in, and i for one am extremely glad that we hadn't gotten adventurous and gone somewhere further away... or even worse, simply taken a nap when we got home. i *hate* soaking washing on the line. who doesn't?

the remainder of my afternoon was poured into my online fixation with having an idea of what's happening in the world [yet i somehow managed to miss the important news, and some even more important news (!!!)], and when the kid got home we watched another episode of how i met your mom and then walked to movieing, the coffee shop we were at last weekend.

what is the accepted procedure for flirting with patrons of a coffee shop? is there such a thing?

we rented a couple of movies, after milling around their selection for a while simply oohing and ahing over their stylish collection, then walked home, stopping for ice-cream on the way. the following excerpt from there:

spot on the phone: you're coming on thursday night if i have to drag you by the balls...
the kid and i: what kind of woman are you bringing?!
spot: the kind that fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
me: that sounded more like ugly bungee-jumping...
me a silent moment later: i don't know what that means.

clerks 2 was just as good the second time; some of the deleted scenes were well worth watching, especially the diatribe on their way back from go-carting.

it's today! tura lura lura!

what were you doing back in high school?

interesting quote:

There are drugs that were developed to be used — and are used — for other purposes that are, on rare occasions, used for date rape. And then there’s alcohol, which has been the more easily available and frequently used substance of choice for date rapists since time immemorial.

- 10 zen monkeys on "narcotic shrooms"

childhood dreams hitting the dustbin
anti-team co-operation

flashback corner!
the original
some time later
still awesome

for the children!

the kid helped me out last night, enough that i didn't require an escort this morning ^_^

so i got up around 6am, readied and bussed through to the bus station i had issues with a couple of days ago. as i stood there beneath the shelter, post hailstorm, watching the splashes merging over the paint on the tar, with the beatles, sixto rodriguez, jefferson airplane and other golden oldies [;)] sounding in my ears, i wondered if maybe i should simply ignore the bus and enjoy the moment some more.

i was dropped off right outside the school, but i didn't know that. apparently neither did anyone else - when enough people told me they didn't know i began sarcastically asking which way was north, and i got some very odd answers. i walked about for 50 minutes, got hailed on, until i eventually came to the edge of the suburb and found a map. an upside-down map, with north at the bottom.

maybe that's why everyone who lives there is so confused. and it truly is an extreme form of suburbia - not a single shop / cafe / kiosk / store anywhere. they've got foundations for a mall going up, but that's really it.

i got to the school, and was greeted by the principal and the teacher in charge of security. they were very pleasant to deal with, and everything went smoothly. during the tour of the classes a lot of the kids got very excited, some saluting, some asking some very amusing questions and some getting frightened and having to be calmed down.
by far the funniest question of the day came from a tiny kid who shyly walked up to me during their break: "are you - are you in the artillery corps?"

i'd forgotten what primary schools (kindergarten -> grade 7) are like: the kids were simply charming, and i must admit that they were way better behaved than i'd anticipated.

i arrived back on base around lunchtime, just in time to get hit by another thud of rain and hail. i spent an hour being responsible for working uniform logistics (our unit is performing some colourful community service next week), then a few of us went off to nes tziona [again?!?!] for lunch.

one of the guys ordered a 440g hamburger, then the next guy, then the next; suddenly it was my turn, and i thought "what the heck" and ordered one too. it wasn't bad at all, and i impressed myself no end by demolishing it and all the extras without any trouble :D

then the guy who began it all asked if anybody else could handle a mcflurry. that just screwed me up, instant desire and we didn't pass a mcdonald's on the way back... AND our base store was all out of ice-cream.

a fairly well wasted hour, and then it was time to come home. i sat with spot at cafeneto, but none of the girls were around so it kinda sucked, i think we'll begin properly moving on to greener pastures. i've been 'netting since i've been back, and it's now time to get ready and snark off to petach tikva [loved about as much as nes tziona] to get a ride back to rishon letzion for a team evening.

oh, and Stephen Hawking Says Universe Created from Nothing.

a quiet evening

apparently it's a couch-potato cat. i don't buy it.

i found myself spending a lot of today with eyes focusing about 20ft behind my monitor, which was very useful. i don't even know what's running through my mind, but i do know that something's bothering me. maybe i have a cold. maybe it's the lack of exercise, and please note that right now i'm not getting any.

cute: i meant exercise, but i'm not getting any "female companionship" either. [i do, however, have pearl jam - you are playing]

i've been in my current posting a month already, and only today my commander and i had an introductory interview. generally positive, some of it really awkward because we were discussing things that really should've been talked about when i arrived. at least we could laugh about that, i must admit the talk did put me more at ease.

we cleaned our offices this afternoon, and i volunteered to organize the suds. i took the bucket back and went to the toilet, and nystire's commander began cleaning our side of the offices. he was mid-sentence complaining about the state we'd left it in, when he suddenly let out a scream that frightening the crap out of everyone (except me, of course, i wasn't there): i hadn't controlled the water as well as i'd thought, and it was steaming hot. he'd stuck his hands right in.

i gotta admit, that as horrified as i was to discover my mistake (when i returned and he began cursing me out), i (and i wasn't alone) couldn't stop myself from giggling while he steamed at me. he's the mildest, most polite israeli i've ever come across, and everything was pricelessly out of place. i do feel bad though.

i think i'm going to nap a bit, and when the kid gets home i'm going to abuse his translation skills and sort out everything i need for tomorrow - i'm totally not prepared.

like it's a bad thing?!?!
yeah, right.

watch out!

brush teeth:	CHECK
shower:	CHECK
sleep:	CHECK
wake up on time:	*ERROR*

i got up two hours late, late enough to be able to wake the kid up. i hastily readied myself and called egged (the bus company) to find out which line to take. i double-checked and was informed that the line goes from the station near my apartment, so i bussed there and went to the information area.

i found the line on the board, where it was written that it leaves platform 51. heaven forbid they should provide a map. i asked the guy behind the ticket counter where platform 51 is, and he impolitely informed me that he's not information.

i found a bus driver, who told me he was sure that the platform was on the east side of the train station - a bit far, pretty suspicious. so i went to get a second opinion, but information consists of two payphones that you pick up and it dials immediately.

being in a hurry (i had four minutes to get to wherever i needed to be), i did so. i'm a bit obsessive about hygiene, have i mentioned that? the idea of putting a public handset to my ear does NOT appeal to me. to discover that the volume is seriously low, and that i have to squeeze it to my ear didn't make me feel any better about it. and being in a hurry, i didn't think to wipe the earpiece... so once i was on my way to the platform that's on the complete other side of the station that the bus driver thought, across the road in fact, i was wiping my ear frantically and generally being pissed off.

...

i didn't manage to force my way onto the first bus that came past the second stop, and i managed to pick up a kid who had no idea how to get to her base. while waiting, a car pulled up. a couple of the kids looked at me expectantly (huh. senior officer, they probably thought. not quite.), and so i removed my earphones and stepped up to the window.

"anyone want a ride?"

WTF?! this woman might have meant well, but no. i stepped back, and was replacing the earphones when i caught another kid saying something in my direction: "they've kidnapped a couple of soldiers from this stop."

"yes. and that's why we're not getting in the car... that, and that it's illegal to take rides from strangers."
"yeah. did you know you can get 28 days in prison just for having stepped up to the window?"

i gave this kid a once over, and told him i'd like to see someone try court-martialling me for being helpful.

i escorted the girl to her base, made a detour on my base to pick something up from the quarter-master's store (cute girls!), and arrived in my office at least an hour after the kid arrived in his.

#$@%!

in spite of all that, today was pretty productive.

once home, spot and i went for coffee at another shoppe in our area - nice place, they do a communal movie viewing on saturday nights, decent vibe, cute girls... only the coffee i had tasted like bad soya. :S

we did some quick shopping afterwards, then joined a group to try and come up with a solution to the problem we've all been experiencing the last couple of weeks: every couple of nights, between 2 - 4am, some fucker rides past on his motorcycle. and lights and throws MASSIVE firecrackers that make the entire area sound like it's under attack.

all humorous theories aside, the guy whose place we met at is extremely dodgy. and even by my standards the music he put on while we sat around talking was weird. and he photographs squished fruit.

nabaztags. awwww - it likes me!

"watashi no me" revisited

okay, today was normal, including an hour or so of not being able to keep my eyes open - my commander walked in and commented on me looking "buried".

partial conversation with nystire in the afternoon:

nystire: but i like the taste of my own feet...
me: i would like to dip your still-attached teabags into a cup of sulphuric acid, and then make you drink from the tea that, unlike in the case of boiling water, will actually be produced.
you can think of it as consuming your young - in its healthiest form
nystire: while i enjoy trying new things, i'm not too sure that i would be able to enjoy that more than once. so thank you for your kind and selfless offer, but i'd rather not.

the rest of the conversation revolved around shaved donkeys.

i got home to find all the windows wide open, mosquitoes on the prowl. i'm so getting eaten tonight, thank you spot. you bastard. in addition to that i found a couple of roaches hanging out, so i'm kinda unimpressed.

i slept a couple of hours, and then went off to ta2's birthday bash - i had fun. drank, but not too much, enjoyed some good views and pleasant company, and the mongoose and his girlfriend just dropped me off. after this is a quick shower and bed.

specifically of interest to me because i was just reading about it in war made new:
current news
current views
be all that you can be... and a lot more

to bolster an argument with nystire:
caffeine
more caffeine
still not quite enough caffeine

military shine

i was volunteered to prepare our unit's kitchen for inspection this morning. it hasn't been cleaned in about a year, and it looked that way... i told the guys over lunch that they picked the right man for the job - i'm slightly OC, and found myself washing my hands every couple of minutes :S

i made sure that it was all nice and shiny, and i received some pleasant co-operation from the girl from last week - it's a start ;)
now that i've spent some time face to face, i can say that she is stunning, although to be honest with myself i really don't see anything happening. i feel like coop from human traffic: "it's all about the fantasy, man... yeah!"

the afternoon was a bit rough, i couldn't keep my head together and i consumed way more sugar than was wise.

spot and i did a bit of missioning, gave up and chilled at cafeneto, and since we've been back i've been sitting online (healthily, of course), and am now hopping to do dishes, shower and crash.

i caught myself catching a cute girl's eye at cafeneto. i think i know what a part of my problem is - i don't give anything away when i do. that can't be helpful.

sounds interesting
23 years later...

good finish

after the last post i actually *did* manage to get back to sleep :)

in the afternoon i woke up, visited both yogi's new and established family, bussed home for a ridiculous quantity of lasagne, walked with the kid to return the video (and sit down for coffee), walked back home past the gelateria...

i even slept well this morning. so yeah, it was a good weekend.

IX NAY ON THE TIA

how could i possibly forget something that irked me so much?!

who the hell says "TIA"? i'm personally more familiar with "welcome to africa", but either way i find it hard to believe that there are africans who would shorten it.

if ever there was a TIA, i'd put forward that that had to stand for "this is america".

unless i've become so far removed from my origins? has anybody from the continent actually used the contraction before the movie was released? it does sound like something tour guides might make up to please the tourists: "hey, there's this, like, saying that every african knows, from cape town to timbuctoo^*, i'm not making this up, we have this unified continental culture."

good grief.

^* not the capital of mali. does anybody know what caused the name "timbuctoo" to be so well-known?

a not-bad leo?!

my word - he's improved a LOT. he gave a 24-carat performance in blood diamond. solid movie, but it's always difficult to stay focused on the story when familiar places pop up!

and there's something totally cool about having an entire theatre for three people.

we went to a coffee shop that SB once introduced me too - great place. it's a really good video store too, so i opened a contract and rented the aristocrats, which i've been informed is excellent.

under covers

i managed to get in about half an hour's worth of kipping before i was rudely informed that we needed to go shopping.

i hate shopping.

i crashed for another seven hours, woke up to tekken, snacked and just had my mind blown by episode 18 of heroes.

some genious posted an artistic piece on slashdot. the comments bring the word "recursion" to mind.

moonflake's midweek cuckoo just put me in stitches - MUST READ!

radioactive jam

i left the base early yesterday, and made my way to the soldier's hostel where my previous unit was celebrating purim (a tad late, but alright). it was extremely enjoyable, great to see everyone, and my previous TL gave an absolutely STUNNING lead performance as the unit's band covered pearl jam - alive.

i joined a couple of the girls from my old team and we found a nice little pub downtown, and then returned to meet up with my flatmates for waffles - actually, the mongoose's ex is now working there and we *had* to visit :)

we then took a taxi to koltura. the crowd was awesome, it was all enjoyable... and then suddenly the penny dropped that we were going to be treated to a live performance. a band calling themselves radioactive.

they actually doubled their alloted time due to their supreme performance. just pearl jam covers - i thought i was familiar with the music, but damn, was i wrong! we jumped up and down for hours, these guys just kicked ass from the get-go and got better and better as the night went on ^_^

an hour or so after they were done we taxied back home, and i fortunately had the presence of mind to shower -before- crashing (i don't wanna know how smelly i was). i was woken an hour ago to give our landlord his mail, and deciding to have breakfast and read mail has kept me up until now. so sod this, i'm going back to giving my hangover a rest.

styling
true
*wonders out loud*
friendly gesture
it works!
beery nice robotics!

it's a miracle! that anyone stays there!

today was a fairly good one - until i went off to be "educated" about a drill i'm involved in next week. we went off to a base situated in bumblefuck IL ("a zion miracle", where mpe lives), and for an hour sat trying to hear from a girl who refused (no matter how impolitely asked by far higher-ranking officers) to use the microphone. so most of us haven't a clue what's going on, and i have a ton of material to go through. in high hebrew. and i'll be responsible for any inability to perform the drill.

this is going to go badly.

i came back to do coffee and good asian food with spot, came home to arb, we had a drink and played some tekken (although the controllers definitely need to be replaced - i guess they have lasted a good six years).

now it's bedtime. and tomorrow's the last day of yet another week that's simply flown by... too fast! i'm joining my previous unit for an event - i'm replacing the kid (who'll be at work), and i've been told i have to dress up as a smurf. brilliant.

just what this world needs

going, going...

i discovered today that we're being downsized, in a manner of speaking... which means more pressure on me. a part of me is quite excited.

i decided to leave a little earlier than usual, and bussed to my old base.

it was really odd trying to pay the kid and songbird a visit - every few steps from the bus i was stopped by someone i know - pretty much what i've been complaining about not having. i sat chatting with the two of them for a while, and then we went to sit in on rehearsals for a unit event on thursday night.

it was worth waiting for OaG to arrive, to hear him playing pearl jam - alive. it was even better to see the look on his face when he saw me :D

-- on the bus home i ran into somebody i haven't seen in many years --

i just discovered that weird al yankovic - young, dumb and ugly is an original. i always thought he only did covers.

froody ties
more chic
apparently this is a good link, but it's /.'ed so it's hard to tell
looked useful... but wanted too much information

quick costume

so my costume was lame - until i added ranks and called myself "Darth AO".

social:
i did something REALLY stupid this morning - i sent an email to a cute girl that could have easily been misconstrued as sexual harassment. the more i thought about it, the more i stressed, until eventually she responded with "??". i just wrote back "nevermind - have a good morning" and i pray that that's enough.

the more i've thought about it, the more i realize that i got extremely comfortable on my previous base, and the fact that i'm new and don't know anyone is totally uncomfortable. it's not just that i miss the people on my old base, it's that nobody on the new one really knows me and i don't really fit in.
couple that with not having any non-work duties (such as guarding), and i'm not meeting anyone either.
having to go back to the beginning again isn't fun.

health:
i consumed very little sugar today. i'm very proud of myself. relatively little coffee, too.

i didn't go do the aerobics thing. it began with me being frightened after what i saw last week, then thinking "wait! i can handle that!".
i got ready, and was almost out the door when i registered that my head's still fuzzy, and i don't actually want to do myself an injury. but i'm definitely feeling more confident.

*shivers* - beautifully put

waited out

two more hours wasted today before i could see a doctor - who prescribed me some headache tablets and told me not to worry. super, doc!

i took things slowly today, unfortunately that meant that i didn't get through as much as i would have liked. i made a conscious decision to lay off the sugar and chocolate that i've been consuming in mass quantities the past week (as have we all), and then my target dumped a giant container of sweets on my desk.

i'm SO going to develop diabetes.

i couldn't find a costume for tomorrow's dress-up bash on base, so i'm going to be lame and do the usual :S

i waited for the kid so i could finally let spot know how i feel - it felt shitty saying it, but it had to be said, and it's definitely better that it's off my chest. i'm not prepared to live in an environment that i feel like i have to be someone's mommy, no matter how much i dig the digs.

sammy passed this on to me:

HELL EXPLAINED BY CHEMISTRY STUDENT

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term.

The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic
(absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law
(gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

and this keyboard is far out.

just chilling

i went to the city officer yesterday morning, and waited an hour and a half to find out that it would take another two hours at least before i could see a doctor. ignoring how bad i felt, i couldn't take another minute sitting with the horrible stench from the bathrooms next door; when i spoke to one of the kids who works there he got that look on his face that says "the last thing i want to do is acknowledge that there's a problem, because i might have to solve it".

i hate that. it's not really comforting to think that he'll have to suffer the smell, because all weekend long there aren't going to be any janitors and many sick kids are going to have to deal with it on top of what they're already suffering. it's almost possible to assume that a kid rocking up there on a weekend really is sick.

afterwards i walked through azrieli - i was going to buy a teddy bear or something for yogi's daughter, but then i realized that whatever's making me feel sick could be contagious, so i'm not going there until i've seen a doctor. i had breakfast, then came home.

i've been sleeping and eating the entire weekend, and that's what i'm about to continue. unfortunately i have to get up early in the morning :(

some pretties

down with the sickness - the lost battle

i got on the transit this morning, and the driver was blasting mizrachi whining ["eastern" "music" that no-one should have to suffer. ever.]:
no headphones = no protection.

the day was spent coffee-ing and riddling and struggling and head-aching.
suspected aneurysm.
a good lunch was pretty much the only positive, that and chatting with a girl from my previous base over the phone and having a laugh about a discussion that we had two years ago.

the riddling:
1) i received neither gift nor riddle today. i can only assume that it's someone on holiday.
2) i received an email from my target's commander (after yesterday everyone knows except him) informing me that my final riddle had upset him and asking me to please send something simpler. i replied in the negative, explained to him exactly how to decode the riddle, and that if his soldier couldn't get it, so be it.

i got a ride to ta, changed when i arrived home, and shambled to studio b. i got all my questions answered, and stood watching some classes - these people are INSANE. enough energy that it was tiring watching them, one class was going through a sequence that seemed composed of hundreds of steps repeatedly... i hope i can reach that level soon. it's the kind of thing that really can make you feel stupid and awkward.

heck, i'm nervous just about entering the stretching class. and i guess it'll take a while to get used to being surrounded by that much estrogen in tights.

i spoke to my mommy, who busied herself long-distance mommying when i told her how i've been feeling the last couple of days.
in spite of my knowing better, i joined the kid, spot and a buddy of his for pool at the lincoln. after the last few days, i have no sense of humour and i'm dead-tired. i'll go to the doctor tomorrow.

news:

not even starting on gore. i don't know if he is or isn't behaving as he should be, but his message isn't invalidated in any way.

e-mail farmers on the way
maybe - but can you make him talk?
for developers only
case in point
and this is for my flatmates

funky bowling balls and good stuff