stiffed

yesterday:

i couldn't sleep. i went to bed at around 3.30am, and i lay there wired for most of the next five hours. it started off "good" wired - my brain was hyper-aware and active and although i was considering and solving problems i didn't want to get up to scribble things down because i didn't want to risk disturbing pg and i didn't want to ruin the chance that i might be closing in on a sleep phase.

bad call, perhaps?

i was totally useless by the time my alarm clock went off. the last thing i remember is from a speech i was giving to first years at the start of next year's orientation course (in potentia): "do discussions of sex and god offend you? well, good luck with that."

i now live a bus away from my post-office, even though i've only moved a five minutes' walk. i wasn't looking forward to having to catch the bus and then deal with whatever the new branch was going to surprise me with, but the bus arrived just as i stepped under its shelter and the entire post office procedure took less than a minute! it may be further away, but it's a MUCH better branch :)

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i had to wait a long time for the bus to herzeliya though. a woman pushing her child in his pram was so busy talking on her phone that she slammed his precious little feet into the bench i was sitting on... she promptly stopped, horrified at what she'd done, to helpfully pat him on the back. the only problem with that was that she had stopped precisely where she was, taking up exactly the amount of room between the bench and the wall so that nobody could pass her without *squeezing* by.

do you think she moved, after the fifth, sixth, seventh person made faces and shoved past?

that takes me to an argument with our secretary that took place over lunch: *i'm* the one who has to do anything connected with recycling in this office, because i'm the only one who cares. when i became offended at the most recent incident - i had to drag out a whole bunch of cardboard boxes - i was asked: "what do you expect? if you want people to recycle then you have to make it easy to do so and make laws to support it." i was irritated not only by the attitude, because it's stupid, but because the recycling station is right next door to our office.

the argument went a couple of steps further, though, and i came to a conclusion that really pains me. most people... most human beings, around the planet... most people are stupid. that's the "wizard's first rule", and it's correct about each and every one of us. the thing about israelis, though, is that by and large they're not just stupid, but they're jerks too. not everyone, of course, but it's a generalization that's simply too accurate to be ignored.

that's the most difficult thing about living here.

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the bus driver was a little confused about the new tariff system, and at first wanted me to pay the full fare from tel aviv to herzeliya even though i'd swiped my student card that covers me for the greater tel-aviv area. he felt bad about it, though, and he reduced the fare to the difference and informed me that if anyone asked he'd claim ignorance. i spoke to tahoma, who's volunteering to help the public transport organizations with the transition, who informed me that what the driver did is what's supposed to be done, which i promptly passed on.

the new system is actually pretty good, all things considered, but the way the changes have been presented to both the drivers and the public is nothing short of shameful.

heck, most people don't find out there've been changes until they've gotten lost.

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is the project i've been working on done? it's hard to believe. my boss did make me feel like an idiot, though, when he stood over my should and pointed out a number of typos that were causing all my problems. *facepalm*

i was called to confirm my dentist appointment, and i answered with a "sure! i'll definitely be there!"
it was just as i was putting down the phone that i realized that i'd made plans a little earlier that totally conflicted with that, and i spent several minutes being referred to different numbers to eventually get back to her and reschedule. that sucked.

mmf suffered a sudden and aggressive attack of pain from his slipped disc, and walking to the car with him evoked nothing but pity.

i went to my old office, and found my team-mate sitting there with news. i have to say, there's something about that place that i find comforting, and not just the big corner office and the espresso machine. we ran a couple of tests and discovered another svn hiccup that had actually saved us... the first thing i did for the project was transfer some of the functionality from the client to the server, and the guy i replaced did the testing and put it into production. we figured out last night that at some stage the svn merge had reintroduced the code we'd removed from the client, and that was the only code that was producing the results we need because the server code doesn't work on the production server - it has a time zone issue. *deep sigh*

i got home, showered*, and received an sms from my aunt telling me to join them at the old port. i took one of the new lines to the port, and found my way to the cafe pretty quickly. my uncle advised going with the fish 'n chips, and they were excellent, and i called up our kibbutz cousin to arrange a visit that would work for everyone.

* my hair is at precisely the length that it really gets in the way, but isn't long enough to tie up properly. it's makes me just as happy as it makes me crazy :)

as we paid the bill, i checked my events and learned that los caparos was scheduled to begin playing at levontin 7. knowing that the shows usually start an hour late, i convinced both my cousins to check it out and we took our time taking a shuttle down there. we arrived with about half an hour to spare, which was good because if the silliness with the cashier had been under pressure i might not have gotten my change: i handed her an NIS 200 note for the 150 entrance fee for the three of us, just as one of my cousins handed her a 50. she gave me back the 50 and then couldn't figure out why i stood there demanding more, and it took no less than four explanations before she gave up trying to figure it out and gave me my change...

"i'm not very good at maths" - well, clearly. but should you be working the cash-box then?

the performance itself was amazing! i remembered hearing them at a battle of the bands a long time ago, but couldn't recall what genre they played and what language they sang in. insanely good ska / reggae, sung in russian, english and hebrew, absolutely brilliant and amusing and funky... and long. they performed for almost two hours - that dude's got one hell of a mouth on him.

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today:

i'm well pleased that all three of us enjoyed ourselves. when i got home i had no energy to do anything, so i went to bed (itching like crazy, thank you mosquitoes) around 2am and overslept, waking up around 10 - 10.30.

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i spoke to my insurance company, and they're astounding. they've transferred control of my account to another company, and aside from not informing me they've totally ignored my attempts to update them via their email address. they're supposed to have called me back by now...

... i have a feeling i'm switching to another insurance company. this is the same one i had trouble with over health insurance.

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i had a quick breakfast, then waited for a while until my bus arrived. work? work's been alright. the last of the non-cosmetic stuff has been done, and my job for the moment is to configure my linux installation properly and learn modx.

cool.