weakend

yesterday:

7am, waking up to read a fascinating paper on a picture of dorian gray.

that was followed by a short telephonic interlude to suffer at the merciless hands of a bureaucratic system which denies easy communication of needs to the provider: i was trying to make an appointment to see a doctor. eventually, after much frustration and venting the woman on the line got what i was going for and handled the majority of a second call to one of the clinics. all this to organize something i already have a (seemingly) clear referral for :S

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i was most intrigued to see posts from dirk diggler living it up: seems he's getting his shit sorted out as well, and getting his priorities straight. i see this as an amusing reflection of my own life; i've been out of the fire for half a year now, and am slowly but surely finding my feet and rediscovering my heart.

it's amazing how the world can adapt itself to your needs when you know what it is you want out of life.

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first class: learning about the penopticon (very mad max) - we were discussing the perceived dangers of being non-normative in modern society. let's send all humans to prison.
i was reminded of a disturbing section of the union (purchasable, too) that reminded me of system of a down.

Our legal system is a dangerous institution enforcing a method of madness - convincing everyone that we're all harmful to society in direct contravention to what we have only recently begun to understand as a standard deviation in human nature - an ideology subverted by a perverse desire for machine parts while misguidedly double-speak-praising "individuality".

later in the day i discussed the idea with our lecturer, having been reminded of a specific case that i presided over, and he stated that prisons are a re-education system: teaching our run-of-the-mill law-breakers the skills they need to become real criminals and providing them with an underground contact starter-kit.

who's paying for the upkeep, again?

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the lecturer returned my midterm paper untouched, after telling me unequivocally that he would never have taken off the marks his assistant did. considering the fact that he's doing me a pretty big favour by allowing me to write a paper for extra credit, i'm not sure if i should bring it up on monday... :S

we had a study group afterwards, with one of the arab girls taking command - she's one tough cookie. we got into a bit of a political debate which will need to be resumed at some stage, but all in all we learned some interesting stuff. she was really funny at the end - she wouldn't let us out the class until we agreed to take preparations for the next session seriously :)

i carried on reading the paper i'd begun the day with over lunch, then hurried to complete my six straight hours of the italian's studies.

what caused this to pop into my head? maybe it was the thought of the use of marijuana as an anti-fragmentation device: a necessary coping mechanism for modern living. [it has been suggested that the use of marijuana shouldn't really exceed weekly doses]

i upset the italian by referring to a general "you" instead of to "one" - i find the use of "one" contrived; would i use it if i hadn't thought of "you" first? it may simply be cultural.

i finally came up with a seminar topic, and our lecturer appears to be enthusiastic. he was a bit awkward saying goodbye afterwards, though. kind of like fes' "good day!"

the poetry class was great, and decidedly surprising. as in, i missed quite a few nuances and was thoroughly satisfied to have learned stuff. and we got our papers back - go me! another 100 (^_^)

i've decided that the old annoying dude in our class is a plant by the lecturer to demonstrate to us the concept of "the other" in a more direct context: i'm not the only one whose skin crawls whenever he opens his mouth :/

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tgtbt's little brother got fantastic matric results! it's always nice to hear of my cousins doing alright :)

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on the way home i was shot a dark look by a girl i asked to walk outside of the bicycle track: i wonder how long it's going to take for people to learn how the system works...

i was entertained by the techno jeep and picked up by khaos sektor vs k. lapso - evil no see before heading out to dinner with pg's family; great dinner.

after the meal i was lying with my neck at an auto-massage angle when my body began to shake - it would be really nice to have some assurance that i'm not actually damaged :(

once home i was made horribly aware of the damage done to my leg by my rollerblades on tuesday night, and then of the damage done to my bearings by riding in the rain and irresponsibly not cleaning them immediately afterwards. price: NIS 45 to replace the three bearings lost and two bus rides.
*sigh*

pg and i walked the long way around to see SxS before he left - it was a boys' night at actually's (one of ze germans), and we had an amusing time. the negative side of the evening was regarding ru55 - things with him seem to have come to a head.

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we slept deeply last night, with great ambient in the background. i snuck out to replace the water filter, came back to say good morning, took my blades to the park to get them sorted out, came back to shop in the rain (and be driven nuts by a phone call from pg - i don't deal well with cryptic women-stuff, and although she apologized afterwards i still couldn't shake off the frustration), remembered to organize rum and on my way back witnessed a cat threesome beneath a car surrounded by a drizzle: it takes all kinds, i guess.

i spoke to yogi's dad and we're all cool about me accepting the role as CTO (assuming the guy's willing to pay me what i need). that's groovy.

now i'm off to pg's for coffee, then i guess i really should try to get some studying done :P