a goodbye 25.30 km - until october!

although i've been informed that new york has a small group... i'll have to check that out :)

i slept really badly last night - my legs were hurting again (lactic acid? no.), i had sudden snack attack and then found myself reading translated ye olde poetry about gawain out loud (it was fun! i got into a groove :P).

when i realized that i wasn't tiring myself out, i resorted to regular reading - slaine - time killer's intro comic. very cool, and did the trick. i woke up around noon :)

i had fried eggs for breakfast and killed my netbook's battery with facebook, horrified when a roach languidly crawled over my foot - what audacity! i'm still irritated because i didn't have any roaches until chc stayed here :( [intriguingly, she referred to herself as a cockroach a couple of times]

getting to work was sweaty - i didn't feel like i'd be ready for the blading group. the boss caught me and the new dev guy for a chat when i walked in, and got so into it that by the time it was done i couldn't recall what time i'd arrived :P
i thought we were on our way to an unpleasant misunderstanding, and we had a quick meeting to ascertain our positions on the amount of work i'll be putting in once i return from the vacation... it appears we're all good, but i was worried there for a minute or two. it's amazing how much difference phrasing makes.

i didn't achieve anything today; once i'd tried (what i think is) everything, i heeded some of the boss's advice and switched computers. the other dev pc is really personalized for the lead, and it took me a while to figure out what was going on...
i ate lunch (zinc's chicken liver - gooood) while searching for the website settings, then gave up and sent a mail to the lead before calling it a day and heading back home.

quote of the day: "from 1898 to 1910 heroin was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children" (wikipedia)

i'm fascinated by how different my lounge looks with the new stand! not only am i able to tidy up better, but it's inspired me to make more changes and fixes when i get back. erm... and have cash to spare :P

ru55 came over and we spent an hour or two going over a project of his... i'm quite jealous of him. he's about to apply his engineer's brain to the world of programming, and that's going to turn him into a powerhouse of "can build anything". he doesn't get why i'm being modest about my software skills... because that's all they are.

i mean, yeah, i'm proud of my abilities, but i do feel limited to a certain degree.

i played some crash bandicoot while waiting for chm, who i had a very interesting chat with. we were discussing the sad fact that relatively few of the members of the israeli trance scene are actually hippies, but they dress in bright colours and dread their hair and behave like in any other scene in this country.

at least there are a few good, caring people... he's off to ozora and i'm only planning on next year's easter vortex, so he's going to touch base considerably sooner than i am. i wonder what the tokyo scene is like?

tonight's blade was serious exercise for me - i'm *really* glad i could make it!
the only negative incident occurred when i put myself in the way of some old-timer because he drove straight into the thick of our two-hundred-strong crowd, and i was shocked when he began to push me with his van. there's me, calmly asking him things like "what are you trying to do?", "are you running me over?!", "is there a reason for you to endanger me? or all these other people?", and so on. eventually - when the tail was just about to pass - he gave up and stopped. i still don't get it, though.

as for the positive stuff - it was a really social and fun evening! the pretty girl? i actually managed to have an interesting conversation with her and i've now invited her to come and see daphna and the cookies with me: the impression i got when we said goodbye was definitely positive ^_^

on an awkward note - i went for waffles with another of the girls. on the way we bumped into gn1 (that was the awkward bit), and after the two of us reached the PNR and wished each other the best of luck, the other girl and i spent the next hour chatting about relationships; my incident with lake from last year was exhibit A.
the waffles were fantastic.

i returned home to find a reserve duty envelope waiting for me. i now, for the first time, understand the terror that accompanies those envelopes. i think i'll give them a call tomorrow and let them know that i won't be available for the next couple of months... didn't i do that? to think they caused such panic with just a status update!

some of my blinds are broken. did that *have* to happen now? seriously?!

---
to the chorus of chronic, compulsive critics of israel: this is the most lucid, eloquent and accurate depiction of our situation to date. i wish everyone could get this off their chests in such a direct manner...
please everyone - read and pass on. if it makes you uncomfortable to read it, that's because it's 100% accurate and decidedly unpleasant: as is our daily security situation