does it wash?

the washing machine seems to be working, but i'm distrusting.

today was primarily focused on context, shared culture and the scientific method.

this vindication thing is becoming ridiculous: for the last couple of weeks things keep going wrong, and i'm positive that i'm doing things incorrectly... and invariably somebody shows me that i'm fine and whatever i'm working on has "features". nuts!

donations unhappening: a few of us tried to give blood, but the line was preposterous. we weren't going to give up, but at 2pm we were behind people who'd been waiting since 9am, and even though our hopes were raised when they stepped across the threshold the very same hopes were dashed by their being thrown out when somebody fainted.
they didn't need to close shop to deal with him, one nurse would've been enough.

while waiting, we argued the scientific method... to be discussed in a separate post.

movie madness lunch stats: how popular is star wars? it's impossible to argue the concept of global pop-culture with people so far removed from the western world! as an immigrant, it's not easy for me to get israeli pop references when i didn't grow up on the same children's stories and movies. i do make an effort to catch up, though - but when i make a reference there's a great, big, smelly chance that nobody's going to get what i'm driving at, and considering the fact that there are more people like me out there it's advisable for these guys to pull out of isolation, if only for the "big deal" items.

and that all started with a couple of us humming the theme tune for freakazoid. nystire reminds us very much of the lobe.

carded for an irrelevant building: i had to be fingerprinted and photographed for a security tag for a building i don't need to be in. ever. great use of resources!

an argument between the kinder and nystire over online gaming:
nystire: "playing games on vista is like standing in the middle of the road with your pants down yelling 'here i am!'" [the firewall needs to be taken down]
the kinder: "and playing games on linux is like making a copy of yourself and then standing in the middle of the road with your pants down yelling 'here i am!'" [virtual machine]

house inspector's tariff gambit: the less the appraised value, the less i have to pay the inspector. either he's going to add value (good for mortgage), or he's going to get less cash on the day.
speaking of which - i was pleasantly surprised to discover that the cost of household insurance is lower than i expected, so it's not going to break me! :)
the municipality charges will hurt, though.

door-code buttonmashing: the kinder and i are in constant competition to block each other from our respective offices - it's rather amusing. today's was a bit eerie, though. i'd managed to tap in the first few keys, and he mashed his hand over the buttons to screw it up... only he somehow managed to hit the combination, and the door buzzed open!

nystire and i had arranged to meet one of the girls from the birthright program, so we got a ride together to tel aviv and milled around a bit until she rocked up. this included having coffee at a shop next door that i've always walked past and thought "hmmm, this looks nice". they were playing pink floyd and the décor's pretty sweet. the coffee's alright, too.

we had dinner at etnachta, the salad was delicious and arrived in serious bulk. we talked a lot, about a lot of different things, and it was very pleasant.

on the way back, we ran into egg and his girlfriend - it was a really funny encounter, with two near-misses with his woman: both of us shouting "bitch!" when referring to the dog that needed surgery, and all of us mishearing his girlfriend's "i'll thank you!" as a slightly shorter word. awkward!

a quick coffee break