glazy - part i

[post divided retroactively]

hooooooooo boy. it's been a busy couple of days! and i don't have much time to write this down. i've just walked in, pulled my student card out of my mailbox (^_^), cracked open a beer and realized that i have to be outta here within the hour...

---
yesterday:

i began the day with an inappropriate shirt. it's usually not a problem, but my lecturer for two classes was wearing pink and the guy who interviewed me has a penchant for the colour as well... on the plus side, however, it made someone on the bus smile and laugh out loud :)

the first class was fine right until the last half an hour - i was sitting in the front row, and we were all freezing. i looked behind, and it was only us. too close to the air-conditioner. lesson learned.

i don't care if people looked at me funny: the first sunbeam i found i grabbed :)

after seeing the sports club with wr i went to be interviewed. i needed a seat and the place was packed, so i asked for and was given one by the people next to me.

---a minute before the interviewer arrived they decided that they needed it back. two of them were discussing the problem when the third, a Real Nice Guy, took command.
"of course we can take it back. we don't need to ask permission. just take it!"
i raised an eyebrow at the woman who needed it, who returned my look with an appropriate level of embarrassment. i got up and walked a few tables away where i found another chair.
when i got back, the woman thanked me, and the first guy apologized for the hassle. we'd only spoken in english up until this point; i guess they assumed i couldn't understand hebrew. the first guy then told the second, in hebrew, that it would be nice if he apologized too.
"i don't need to apologize! what for?"

charming.

---the interview seems to have gone well. it's a man i've worked with before and he can see the value of bringing me in, but while he's accepted me on my terms he's informed me that nothing is definite yet... tomorrow i'm supposed to hear if we're on, and even then i need to make a good connection with the CTO in order for it to be final.

i *really* hope this works out, because the deal is good for all of us and would save me from having to deal directly with the tax bureau.

i got off to a friendlier start with the all-girl class - they seeming to be warming up to each other as well as to me. i left that class with a *big* assignment, and the need to find a source for pratchett's explanation of the image production technique we employ: we allegedly work off the edges we've detected and fill in the textures afterwards. as our lecturer is a cultural anthropologist, he understandably mistrusts any metaphors for how the brain works.

i was informed of a work emergency right before the next class... bummer. the class itself was fantastic - a poetry reading by elaine feinstein. she's wonderful, and it was a great experience... but it wasn't easy to come up with questions for her afterwards.

when struck by sudden inspiration, i raised my hand and asked something that did, in fact, interest me. i asked if her husband's presence as a non-literary mind (he was a scientist) had any influence. i was pleased with her answer, but then she got a distant look and the session was called to a close.

i really hope it wasn't the lack of tact that did that :(

walking off campus into a beautiful autumn sunset made me fantastically comfortable with the world.

a sweet moment: an elderly woman on the bus producing a cd she'd burned for her friend.

one of my co-workers is a bit anti-social, although he seems nice enough. as part of the issue-detection process i had to ask him to check what processes were running on his machine.
"there's nothing interesting running."
i've never met anyone who could speak on behalf of the windows operating system, so i asked him to show me.
"yes, yes, of course i'm lying to you."

i really don't like the attitude. i don't like the fact that i had to explain to him that he has no clue what's running through my head and that his inference was not only incorrect but decidedly offensive. sheesh.
where do all these ultra-sensitive types come from?!

---then dr evil happened. since urchin called me up with the news his behaviour angers me even more - it turns out that the Big Deal stuff didn't happen, and that he simply needed to tell her to stop taking medication that she's on.

the bastard could have done that over the phone.

when she called him on his awful bedside manner, he made it worse by being flippant. wtf?!

---i hunted the bug until my eyes glazed over, and i carried myself home in zombie-state. pg and i started walking to the cinema... as we crossed ben gurion, a mangy-looking old woman caught my eye and began to raise her hand; i raised mine and smiled in greeting. she was displaying a photo of a pretty young woman; she received my acknowledgement with much pleasure, laughing loudly and mirthfully.

[continued...]