packed? packed?! packed!

right, i have a blanket, clothing, toiletries, alcohol in plastic bottles, munchies, music for the car, swimming gear and most importantly - my hat and mask. i have it all in two small bags and a cooler bag, i'm feeling much better than yesterday (although i was a bit worn out today) and i'm ready to go HARD.

(^_^)

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i had to take the dreaded bus to base this morning - at least i picked the right place to wait with my marshmallow coffee :)
i'm very glad i didn't have to push, and i even managed to calm the immediate area around me with a well-placed elbow. i tried to read on the way, but i couldn't concentrate so i closed my eyes - i wasn't feeling sleepy until we arrived and i had to open them again :P

one of my team-mates brought amazing brownies to work today... the most military expression ever to pass my lips came out in response: "dude, you have to make the brownies less scrumptious so that less people will want them and i can have more for myself - or even that i'd be less desiring of them". it was a joke, but even so - not cool!

i did some shopping in the central store, for the kind of stuff that one never thinks of until it's too late to pick it up at those prices. i did that under the assumption that the end of my service is nigh - only i still have no guarantee.

speaking of which, nystire's brother contacted me with some work and i got in touch with mmf as well, so those are two open lines of inquiry that make me feel a little better about my situation.

today was the first day in a while that the skies were clear, but it was still hot enough that walking into my office was unpleasant. i didn't want to work much anyway - a couple of power outages gave me an opportunity to get stuck into the intro to the odyssey - but aside from a visit from captain incompetent* there wasn't much in the way of distraction...

... which wasn't really so bad - my hungover plan from tuesday began to find its feet, and it's a *good* plan. the wonderful thing about working on a project alone is that there are no restraints; when i discover a better way of doing something, that change can propagate throughout the code. today's modification has far-reaching consequences, and although it's been tricky integrating them it's also been a lot of fun!

* i hadn't planned on talking to him, but he asked how i was feeling and whenever i get on topic i find it really difficult to stop. aside from the fact that he now understands why he should leave me be, i was intrigued to discover just how much he appreciates the project i'm working on and he hasn't even seen the advances i've made in the past three months :)

the guys were discussing donnie darko again today, and it appears that i'll need to see the director's cut. i can't recall if i've seen it once or twice, but i'm well impressed with the clarity with which i remember it and the fact that i didn't miss anything. i'm going to have to thank brian greene and terry pratchett for making it all clear retrospectively :P

the sentence that i ended up throwing at the guy who didn't get it:
in a time-loop, even the first time you choose you're not really choosing because you've chosen already

today i learned never to argue with a female about calories. i misread the package, taking the kilojoule figure as calories; so it turns out that i wouldn't need to run 60km for a packet of tim tams, only 25 :P

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aargh! something just bit my leg and it itches like crazy!

...

i'm on my way out, ready for a solid session. whoo-hoooo!!!

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i'd like to thank my sister for reminding me what i missed when i was in cape town... balkanology!