routine friday

i woke up fairly early, and took the new wired to breakfast at coffeeholic. the chef was around, and i found a great spot in the sun. i ate well, enjoyed my coffee, and was joined by urchin. we came up with a cunning plan while she ate, and as soon as she was done we headed off to south tel aviv.

we should've taken a bus - walking took much longer than anticipated. and we almost got run over twice, both times while walking on a pedestrian crossing. what's wrong with these drivers?!?!

the exhibition we went to see was brilliant, in a really cool gallery. we weren't there for very long, but i came away well impressed.

i'm very glad that i remembered that she was holding my wired when she got off the bus; in particular, i spent the rest of the ride back being inspired by an article on the ipad. i think it may give me a way to do one of the projects i was considering a while back :)

i arrived at the climbing wall pretty much on time, and scrapper and i got to work right away. we were warmed up by the time we were joined by the others (including two girls, one super-cute, intelligent and unfortunately gay, and the other sweet and pleasant), and soon after they arrived i attacked the incline wall that none of us have managed to finish before.

my finger's were locking up by the time i made it halfway, and every inch of me was straining and under stress. i made it to the last few feet when i slipped for the first time, and i was distraught! then i realized that i'd chosen the more difficult of the two sides, and i went up the right... i cannot express just how satisfied i was to touch the wood at the top ^_^

i paid for the achievement, though - for the next hour i could barely grip even the simple courses, and i had to take a few breaks (a good thing the girls were there to keep me company). it was during one of these breaks that i pulled out a bottle of bubbles; later leaving it on the bench to ascend the wall, and forgetting it...

around 5pm it was time to leave - i didn't want to, but i'd promised to get to the cookie monster's birthday picnic. i hunted up and down the park, but didn't give up, and eventually found them sitting in a good spot for frisbee.

i was welcomed, i congratulated, then removed my blades and threw down the frisbees as if they were gauntlets. a pity that nobody accepted the challenge: there was good food, lots of booze, but a lot of the awkwardness that bringing together different groups of friends for a birthday party usually entails. even more of a pity that a lot of those groups were composed of very good-looking girls; as i didn't know anyone except the birthday girl, and nobody was introducing me, i didn't know what to do.

scrapper and co arrived, at least, bringing me the empty bubble bottle and a third frisbee. after meeting the cookie monster's parents and chatting for a bit, i got sucked into a really wild game - three frisbees for four people... nuts! more so because my hands were still smarting from the wall - usually i just can't shake hands for a day or two afterwards, but yesterday even holding a beer was trouble :P

i ran into an old co-worker on the way home, who works for the people i interviewed with shortly before entering the permanent force and who has agreed to reconnect me.

i had a hot shower and got stuck into facebook until urchin arrived. we went to pick up sushi, and bubbles on the way. a beer while waiting, and we returned to the boondock saints. always nice to introduce someone to that :)

she helped me remove a splinter from my foot, then played with her camera to produce a profile picture for me. then we watched a couple of episodes of firefly.

everything up until that point had been great: a perfect friday! but halfway through an episode one of the characters got injured:
"is he gonna die?"
"you're not really asking me that"
"come on! is he gonna die??"

it irritates me when people want to know how something ends. watch the damn thing - you'll find out. this is not the first time we've fought about this, and she left irritated with me because i was irritated with her.

...

i woke up fairly early, and spent the morning online, or watching rome, or preparing a character for a potential game of vampire the masquerade that i've been invited to join...

i'm rather pleased with how my garlic eggs on matza came out :P

as for my hands: they're still straining, even as i type this. good thing for me that it's that pleasurably "i've done something great" strain, that hopefully means stronger fingers for next time :)

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dr horrible's sing-along blog: in 8-bit gaming glory!

from wired:

under the influence: he-man available artwork has absolutely phenomenal pieces; as i scrolled down, my "now that's my new favourite one!" reflex was overtaxed :)

tom shannon kicks ass.

scott brown's instant relics is a beautifully written and highly amusing look at tech in the movies