sprayed

after finishing up with the waterproofing, it was time to pull out the spray-paint. i'm *really* pleased with the effect of the bright, fun colours i used on the wall outside our bathroom window, although i couldn't reach all the visible angles so i need to find a better way of painting.

then i went upstairs with our coat stand to spray it orange (it took an entire can to cover it properly) and then put a cleaner, prettier coat on the board we found to use as a table (after taking the nails out). i got a bit of a reddish colour on me as i was up there exposed a lot longer than i'd anticipated :(
it was *hot*.

i then took the thesis (and my kindle) to lunch at the coffee shop next door, which was really pleasant, before heading off to visit SxS, serj tankian - elect the dead drumming his magnificent poetry into every fibre of my being. we ended up in the park with a couple of friends who'd taken their kids out to learn to ride their bicycles - their kids were mostly fine, but the hundreds of others tearing about, screaming their heads off and not looking where they were going? where the heck were all their parents looking?!

i drove back a bit later than i'd planned, had a super-fast shower and got dressed so that pg and i could head off to kc's parents' for dinner. dinner was great, loud enough that i barely got a chance to talk (so i felt better about myself), and for the second time (last night being the first) i found myself saying shehecheyanu and really, really meaning it.

---
this last year has been absurdly stressful, tough and exhausting; it's been filled with problems and issues and near-disasters... but all of that stuff happened on my terms. and there was so much good stuff that all the unpleasant bits seem petty and short-lived. i've successfully completed my catch-up year, having made a good impression on the faculty and on most of my fellow students, and having thoroughly enjoyed such high-intensity learning; i've managed to find work that affords me a fairly comfortable standard of living, i'm living with a girl who i've been with almost a year and who makes me happy, and i'm writing poetry and i'm not the only person who thinks it's good.

contrasting all of that to the four ugly years of studying as a poor foreigner, followed by six nightmare years in uniform - or even just the traumatizing experiences of 2009 / 2010 - and it's all i can hope for to have another year as good to me as this one's been.

maybe... maybe this year the herd will start turning away from the cliff? may the new year bring us all improvements, in all spheres.

---
after dinner we went to visit SxS, who wasn't home yet. his sister and cousin and their spouses were in, though, and we had a good time both before and after he arrived. it was a bit late when we finally left, but i'm guessing that i can thank the last pseudo-ephedrine tablet for that not being too much of a problem.

shit - it's 4am, and i need to run off the unbelievably delicious pavlova before it gets too hot :P

verbal overdrive

hoo boy. we had a great dinner last night, driving there was pleasant and driving back only a bit of a mission (i was super-tired). some of my cousin's ex-south african friends were there... and it turned out we had a lot to talk about. and when things get political, i can't not step up onto the platform.

not that it wasn't appreciated, but i did feel a bit guilty nonetheless :$

i didn't have the energy to drive to ra'anana at 1am to visit SxS, i didn't even have the energy to sit with pg and watch domino, one of my favourite films.

...

i woke up this morning at a reasonable hour, took the thesis up to the roof with breakfast, and got most of the way through before being commanded back downstairs to waterproof some cracks in the external walls. so i've had a bit of sunshine, and bit of exercise, and now we're taking a break before finishing the job and deciding whether or not to do anything productive today :D

new academic goal: to write a thesis at least as interesting as the one i'm reading. it's about fan-fiction, video games and comic books, and it's really thought-provoking!

a little yellow tablet from goa

i'm watching garbage warrior, and michael reynolds is a hero. we need more of him, and desperately! i wonder if i can find architects doing that sort of thing in israel... wanna make a positive change? watch the video, consider supporting sustainable housing. or better yet, get involved. (for a summary review, look here)

---
i slept well last night - i almost didn't get to sleep because i got stuck into reading a friend's thesis paper and it was riveting... i stopped myself because i knew i'd have to be up early. my nose was still gunked up, and i found the last three pseudo-ephedrine tablets that i bought in goa. their expiry date is 9/2011, so technically it's still good... the one i took was quite effective.

i bladed down to george to meet with wordsworth and urchin for breakfast and one hundred thousand poets for change debriefing. when wordsworth left urchin and i did some planning apropos the photography project i'm so excited about, and then it was time to return home. i finally got some work done - nyromodal is the only jquery lightbox solution that actually works. a deep sigh later, and since then i've been chilling. getting ready for a lot of driving this evening...

congested

by dose, der hode day. i did manage to get into the office early, and spent the next few hours performing dark arts and almost got everything done. i left at precisely the right time to have an opportunity to eat before my doctor's appointment - i finally finished the last book, and it was with tears still in my eyes that i graduated from hogwarts and began reading ayn rand - for the new intellectual.

[edited: whoops, didn't know that ayn rand was a "she"] where the hell was this woman all my life?! i probably should be reading her fiction first, though...

the doctor's office: my across-the-board blood test results are in, and it turns out that i'm healthy. awesome! and (surprise!) have a high h. pylori count. i didn't need to do the breath test again to figure that out... anyway, he finally gave me a referral to a gastroenterologist.

i went to the second office, for a productive meeting with the boss and to fiddle around with php and pear until i could get our webserver sending mails through gmail's smtp. it fascinates me how complicated the procedure was, all because the effective php.ini wasn't in any of the expected locations.

rule to remember: always, when installing something or tweaking something for php, run phpinfo() to make sure you know which ini file needs to be updated. otherwise it won't matter how correct everything is :S

i eventually decided i needed a break if i was going to get more work done (for my main job) and go rollerblading... i came home and got settled, only to be roused by pg to go shopping with her. pre-holidays shopping is intense. i read a bit, scribbled a bit, then ate dinner with her, then passed out for an hour. i woke up feeling crap. i needed another half an hour just to have enough energy to shower and drink a cup of tea, make my apologies to SxS for not seeing him tonight and churn this out. and now i'm about out again.

being a man

holy crap - i got a whole night's sleep last night! the melatonin tablets may have contributed.

the day: a long workday in the herzeliya office, fairly successful. i took off early for lunch, preferring to eat alone so that i can read instead of not read and be unimpressed by the conversation... good thing. i won't say which part, but while the movies couldn't bring tears, the books? i didn't want to freak out the other customers, so i tore my eyes away and let the sounds of idiots honking their horns close off my inner tap. j. k. rowling is my hero.

---
yogi made a remark about women maturing faster than men, and the thought irritated me from the moment he said it until the moment that pg agreed with me: maturing (mentally) has nothing whatsoever to do with age. and - to counter yogi's wonderful example of my being immature because i have piercings - being mature does not mean submitting to societal norms. being mature is about responsibility, it's about considering and respecting the world around you in addition to taking care of your own needs.

or is that only in my reality?

---
the end of the workday involved lots of shouting, and then a long discussion on the drive back to tel aviv about recycling. what i said to mmf: "if you agree with everything i've said so far, and you acknowledge that what i have to say is perfectly correct, and yet you *still* refuse to recycle... well, then you're a jerk." the obligation to behave responsibly environmentally is not an obligation to other people, it's an obligation to other people and yourself, and your family, and your future. if you're not trying to offset your ecologically expensive lifestyle, then you're being a complete ass and that's not a mere opinion.

---
the work in the other office was fun. an argument from an old google+ post was rehashed because the guy who started it was visiting one of the managers, and the others simply *had* to know all the juicy details. :S

on a better note, both offices were fairly generous with their new year bonuses (new year's is on wednesday) :)

we went out to the closest coffee shop for dinner and shakes. i'm eating a lot of salads lately, this no-carbs dieting kinda sucks. at least i'm not doing it long term... we returned to watch the imaginarium of doctor parnassus, which is a cool, fun film.

now... to get ready for an extra-specially early morning.

still not

finally going to bed at 4am, once the pictures were uploaded, then waking up soon after to go to work, wasn't right.

i felt horrible today.

i might not be the only one.

at least the remnant puddles of rain in the relatively quiet street while i waited for the bus, with groovy beats pouring out from my earphones and down my spine, moving my feet until my calves ached, reflected the trees to affect a sense of being surrounded by nature, all the better to contemplate the triumph of yesterday.

highlight of the day: a comment that the organizers received that was so much more than mere praise that most of us were quite overwhelmed - this whole ordeal was so well worth the trouble, that even now as i sit here exhausted and feeling broken i can't help but smile ^_^

most of the work day was uninteresting, but the end had a twist - i spent two hours completely redoing something fundamental, only to be told afterwards that that wasn't what i'd been asked for. "i never asked for that," says mmf - and after much frustration and explanations i found the email with the new design, approved by both bosses, and suddenly inner gears clicked and whirred and everyone realized what i'd been asked for, and it's not what anyone had wanted.

at least the changes weren't a complete waste. still aggravating, though. and those clowns don't understand how to use a whiteboard - we have two of them, both requested specifically by me, and both filled with calendars and items from to-do lists instead of being free to sketch - so i had to jump up and act out the changes i plan on making.

you know what? i like mmf, and my boss, and working with yogi, and i'm exceedingly grateful to have a job that pays the bills and lets me do my own things as well, but i don't think i'm going to be completely distraught if something better comes along - there are things in the office that simply aren't right. not the least of which being the attitudes of all involved... from ethics and culture to professionalism.

the second office was a pleasure, though. i had a productive chat with sorter, another one with our office musician, and my co-worker and i made headway. i arrived home a couple of hours ago, had a quick and insufficient dinner, and didn't really talk much with pg because my head's been spinning - i can read just fine, but actively participating in conversation has been too much effort for most of the day... now i'm going to try to get some sleep.

lessrest * 100k

i couldn't sleep again, so much so that i took a couple of melatonin tabs to get through the night. i didn't feel entirely rested when i got up this morning.

the day was hot, humid, rainy, windy, and on my way to the first event things weren't looking good. in spite of that, the sun came out and people began to arrive, someone bought me coffee and random passers-by participated and we ended up having quite a bit of fun - even if i did get a bit sunburned... we're constructing a poem made of words "donated" to us by people on the street and poets; some of the choices were fascinating.

great english breakfast, home to change (and discover that i'd put an open permanent marker in my pocket), then waiting under the municipality building for a ride through to bookworm. things were looking good when wordsworth and i left to set up the park event. which didn't happen in the park: cafe lavender in gan meir didn't have what we needed, not least of which being the right attitude. fortunately, cafe cafe across the road were more than willing to host us, even at ten minutes' notice, and for that we were only too happy to deal with the fees when the evening was over.

dinner with well-known israeli poets, then a night at pappa's with the cream of the crop. some of the evening was a bit boring, but by and large it was excellent and entertaining.

it was all a bit stressful, but i don't think i had as much to do as most of the other organizers. all in all, i'm well pleased with the day; i'm happy with how it went, glad that it's over, and intrigued that in spite of all the things that didn't go smoothly only one person was upset, and quite a few are looking to see how we can get balls rolling.

---of course, of primary importance to me is what *i* read and how it was received. at the cafe cafe reading, i went through my first double dactyl, the wrapping, and should i compare that to the summer's thrust?. my poems were received positively, but not with nearly as much enthusiasm as my first double dactyl, lava people, death song revisited and evolution when i read at the main event! additionally, i dedicated should i compare that to the summer's thrust? to the march hare and the head of our department caught a look; i was touched by their responses :)

titus

titus - is - incredible. i've never read the play, but the combination of shakespeare's raw cruelty with the director's mad visions is aesthetically spellbinding and in all senses disturbing and wonderful.

and now that i've been through the march hare's introduction to shakespeare course, i know to listen really carefully to ol' william's dialog. i'm left speechless.

still restless

so i was the only one awake on time for the meeting that didn't occur this morning? at least i didn't presume that it was actually going to take place... i simply couldn't get back to sleep, though. i spent the day either reading, or in front of the computer, when i wasn't shopping for bristol boards, saying goodbye to the taekwondo instructor* or sitting with urchin.

* she asked if i wasn't going to train, and i said: "nope, this is where we part ways; i've come to say goodbye." i thought that was pretty dramatic, but she didn't so much as bat an eyelid. "okay," she said, "come take your book before you go." that totally surprised me.

the bristol boards are for tomorrow morning's promenade event - as i was purchasing them the clouds opened up and it rained. proper rain, after two minutes of which the streets were made practically impassable without galoshes. bloody israeli street planning and lack of sewerage :/
none of us organizers had seen this coming, and we hurried to find alternatives to reading poetry in the park tomorrow. that cost a lot of phone calls and things still aren't finalized :S

i spent a while trying to convince urchin to go ahead with her plan to open shop; she's lined up all her ducks and the only thing interfering is her mother, who doesn't have a clue what's up. in other news, she's very excited about the project i conceptualized last night, and we should be getting started soon :)

pg's been in a bad way today - her one eye's been giving her a hard time and her successes with the eye-drops are often offset by the misses. i can only do so much when she closes her eye on me as the drop falls :P we just had delicious dinner down the road, but she spent most of the time with her eyes either closed or weeping. my pity for her didn't transfer to her mother's dog, though, who i still have no patience for... we had to walk her a lot to get her to relieve herself.

i'm most of the way through titus: holy crap. tough to watch, but absolutely astounding and brilliant in every way.

---
this is absolutely mental: reading pictures from one's mind. if they manage to take this research down the course they're intending, it could open up so many possibilities that the mind boggles.

body or mind?

i stopped working on sorter's project - after much breaking through with the java - because i knew i needed to get some sleep to meet the requirements of a busy day ahead.

the legs are stiff (or is it my entire body?), the mind's stuck in problem-solving mode, and i'm pretty sure that trying to sleep was the worst thing i could i have done. i feel awful.

the weirdness of a clear schedule

whoa! i slept in, had a chilled morning, waiting for on-my-honour to swing by with my ticket for the big doof party coming up. it was two hours later than the time we'd agreed upon when i suddenly remembered our last experience - she's the girl with the watch problem - what reminded me was an sms informing me that the queues in the hospital were a lot longer than she'd expected.

WTF?!

i left for work, and by the time i arrived she and pg had met and traded. the work day was very short and i completed all my tasks, leaving early so that i could take pg to see the doctor. the only trouble with that plan was the reliance on public transport from herzeliya to tel aviv; i arrived at london ministore just as pg was walking out of it after having been seen. i was feeling drained, so we stopped somewhere that i could drink a beer and down a good meal (exquisite chicken salad), after which i handed her my bag and grabbed a bus to the university.

science night. too many interesting lectures, not enough time. i shouldn't have gone to the space il presentation because i didn't really have much to learn; i should have gone to the lecture on spinal development and back pain instead. after that i sat in on a fascinating lecture called "education reform and social justice", which, as edifying as it may have been, had unfortunately little to do with the given topic. from there i went to an "international" lecture (given in slightly-broken english) on the ramifications (if any) of the recent arab uprisings, and lastly i hit the arts school to hear about photography's importance as an artistic form.

and to think i'd almost skipped all of these to run home to pg, who was struggling with her eye-drops. i was just on my way off campus when she called to tell me she'd finally gotten it right :P

the last lecture really inspired me - i'm going to try and convince urchin to work with me on a photographic series that i think could make a difference :)

wr worked the coffee stand, so he was quite busy the entire evening (although he did pass me a couple of cups), but we left campus at the same time so i got a ride into tel aviv. i've now performed some of my webmaster duties, pretty much wrapped up the day and i'm ready for a shower and some reading before bed.

i'm not certain i'll be joining the organizers' meeting at 8am in south tel aviv...

discretion

how strange to read about a kid who used to be in our taekwondo group dying, without any context. i was sitting next to him on a bus a short while back, and he seemed alright to me...

also, i forgot to mention that anti-1 resurfaced... only to disappear again. and nobody seems to know what's up.

---
i left work in a bit of a state - i'd rewritten a whole bunch of code in my attempt to clear up the mystery of the untouchable database, and was successful. it turns out -someone had turned off the auto-commit feature of the database connection in order to solve a particular problem, and hadn't thought that this could possibly affect every other use of the database.

the mail i sent him was as explosive as i was feeling, but that didn't help me to calm down.

...

pg post-surgery is in dire need of assistance... i came back from the supermarket half-crazed by the infuriating stupidity of all involved in its operation, made a chicken-breast salad and took off an hour or so to drink a screwdriver and read more harry potter.

oh, and i went through the books i got back. all sorts of great stuff, in particular the cookbook that my grandmother bought me and the funkiest book on discrete mathematics: rosen - discrete mathematics and its applications. *boy* was i upset about losing those!

---
i've only just started watching garbage warrior, but i've already decided that this dude is made of win.

emailed out

tuesday:

after an actual night's sleep - i was still in a pissy mood. i spent the morning shuffling the papers that have been stacking up over the past few months, and then dealt with loads of emails and telephone calls. some went better than others.

---
i went to taekwondo, looking forward to at least *something* worthwhile in my week, and was horribly disappointed and angered from the get-go: not only do collective punishments make everything less fun, but those punishments making everything else more difficult is just silly. after about 200 push-ups i could barely use my arms, which only got me into more trouble as the class proceeded...

and then there was the other thing that totally drove me nuts. our teacher made no sense, her responses were completely unrelated to the things we were saying and she stubbornly made a point of teaching us things that are so obviously wrong that by the end of the lesson all i could think of was "i didn't come back for this". the "self defense" lesson was offensively useless.

i don't think i'm going to be going back to her any more. i just wish there were something else that could provide me with all that's good about those lessons.

---
i had a quick shower, took out a lot of hair with the comb, ate a quick dinner and dealt with more emails. then pg and i dressed in green and went rollerblading. the route wasn't too tough, we had fun and i thoroughly enjoyed the frozen yoghurt afterwards.

---
wednesday:

what's with the loads of lucid dreaming lately?

it was a regular morning wake-up and bus. i finally got an appointment with the dev team from the humanities faculty, but the appointment is so close to the start of the academic year that it doesn't seem like there'll be any point in my joining them :S

and while i'm on the subject of things that aren't going my way - i'm responsible for an event in the park on saturday, and i realized this morning that i haven't any way to provide seating...

lunchtime with mmf and my boss: we were all on our phones anyway, i should've taken my kindle with me. in spite of the fact that they make fun of me for reading, in the same way that our secretary makes fun of me for recycling. the graphic designer got upset when i made a comment about israelis and basic responsibility, until the secretary joined in and the designer realized that i wasn't wrong :(

too many mails, too many people asking questions for which the answers are all available... oh, brother.

thought for the day: if css was a man, i'd take him outside and shoot him. coming from that set of issues to one of java / mysql *pretending* to update the tables without committing, and i've had a wonderful, joyous afternoon.

the CTO caught up with me for a chat over coffee - his innocent attempt at interrogation backfired because he asked me to tell him a little about my history, and i obliged. from there he began asking my opinions, which i was only too happy to share, and all in all i think he was pleasantly surprised.

and i didn't even need to make anyone look bad :)

---
pg is supposed to be undergoing laser surgery on her eyes around now - i'm waiting for an update...

a quick moment

my aunt sent me a link to emmanuel kelly - the x factor 2011 audition - this is the first time i've seen it, and it's too wonderful not to pass on.

wanna break something

i feel terrible - tense, stressed, aggravated, frustrated, expertly sleep-deprived and with a list of things that need doing yesterday, a week ago, a month ago.

i got up super-early this morning, had a fairly pleasant breath test at the clinic, went past gan meir to beg the manager for use of their electricity on saturday (no final response as yet, but they tentatively agreed), stopped at home for a quick breakfast and to wish i could just go back to bed instead of heading back to work.

the work itself was fine, almost fun: i achieved pretty much everything i needed to, and the first stress test went great. i was stuck in the office late, though, and spent the extra time running back-and-forth with co-conspirator because wordsworth's out of action.

BAD TIMING.

it feels like everything's out of whack, people are getting annoyed with us promoting the events, nobody knows who's running the show and all i can think of is that i need a (now another) stiff drink and to pass out. maybe i'll be better prepared to get my shit together in the morning.

---
at least there's good news out of petach tikve: identifying those responsible for dog crap on the sidewalk. and the tests totally pay for themselves!

weekend something

it's late, i gotta be in bed already. a list! a list will solve the problem!

---friday:

friday's early morning meeting at cake art. i'm fairly certain the waitress was flirting with me. the keish was great.

one-legged beast-fighting: i couldn't use my left foot and was made to fight, one-legged, against the big dude. that could've gone badly, but it didn't so i feel good about it.

buscope (bush cafe?) dinner with pg: it's a place right close by that does steak and eggs breakfast all day. it wasn't the best steak, but the service was sterling and the music was great.

i was in time to get a ride with scrapper to his and botchman's farewell. we made it up to botchman for nobody having rocked up to his twelfth birthday party, only to discover that the story he'd told us was meant to be a joke.

---saturday:

another early morning meeting. this time at landver, with a good breakfast but a terrible table vibe as co-conspirator and wordsworth had... words. all sorted out fairly quickly, though. the second part of the meeting bored me to lots of angry birds.

i promised pg i'd take her to the "luna park" - and so i did. it was a hot day, and my system doesn't handle quick direction switching at high g's. i managed four rides, having saved myself for the big ones, and enjoyed them even though they made me feel horrible. it took coke to fix me up after the first two, and another coke and an ice-cream after the second - it was the only thing i could consider eating :P

watching the people was an experience and the cultural incompatibilities were blatant. also - the games are a rip-off.

we had frozen yoghurt for dinner, which was delicious, and then i left for gasoline's house-warming. most of the evening was awkward - especially with her flatmate - but some of it was a lot of fun and overall i drank too much.

---sunday:

another stupid-early meeting. i was barely functional and then the coffee machine, as is its wont, stole my shekel. we spent an hour building the presentation - the good stuff was all mine. everyone loved the "0 = A LOT" slide. the head of the department even quoted that after we were done :P

the talk with the new students was long and i'm fairly certain i wouldn't have understood much if i hadn't studied this last year, which only makes the case for us giving an orientation course that much stronger. during my bit, i really did need the guys standing near me reminding me not to leave things out: of course it's an actual course! didn't i say so?!

back to work. still tired. the boss found the flaw that was annoying me last week, the fix was quick. lunch with harry potter was more fun than lunch with the girls: they spotted me and i couldn't not join them :/

jquery's sexyselect add-on is a bitch. after much struggling to tweak it according to the design i was given, i gave up and performed all the bits manually. it took about half an hour; setting up the add-on has cost me at least a day or two so far.

i was under time-pressure to save my work and pack up at the end of the day; that sense of urgency didn't leave me until... nope, still here. after doing some quick editing in the other office, i rushed off to return to tel aviv to meet with kc's father, who'd brought a couple of boxes of books that i'd left with them in 2004.

and i'd been wondering where some of them were, and automatically assumed grootbek had sold / lost / stolen them. [the discussion that led on from that got pg really angry with me for still being friends with him - what??? we went to his wedding after he did all that horrible stuff to you?! - i suppose she's not entirely wrong...]

nothing more frustrating than finding my old copy of shakespeare's complete works after spending a semester squinting at the shakespeare iphone app... *sigh*

i took apart, after more than five years - marathon man's computer. i've tried enough to contact him about it, it's now on its way to being recycled. it had a internal zip drive that might work.

facebook lists don't help: you have to manually click on everyone you're trying to invite. and some of those invites don't get sent, so you have to do them again. and i'm trying to invite a lot of people to saturday's events...

i was fasting for tomorrow's breath test, and pg offered me watermelon when i wasn't concentrating. i double checked the amount of time i needed to fast, and it's changed from ten hours, to six, and now one. one hour. i could've relaxed about food this evening :(

echoes

i had a huge fight with mmf yesterday, because i hadn't been informed of an issue that arose - and that issue arose because the guys we're working with have cultural problems and nobody's got the balls to say "the design is bad" and "this is what we want".

not only that, but i stopped working on the project under the impression that mmf and my boss would send me feedback and that the third party would check to make sure that everything was in working order. none of that happened.

i was impressed this morning when i tactfully brought up the subject and my boss immediately explained all the bits of the loop that i hadn't been in on and apologized, taking full responsibility.

at least we all know where we stand - and also what needs to be done to fix the situation.

---
i rocked up at the other office in time to catch my co-worker and boss for a status meeting; i had just enough time for a quick code fix before returning home to take pg out to hear mindless echoes at bar giora. we'd planned on arriving half an hour late, but had the time wrong and walked in as it was due to begin... so we had to wait more than half an hour until it actually got started...

the sound was a bit shit, but the band kicked ass and we had a lot of fun.

sleep was peaceful.

i began reading the final harry potter on the way to work: the opening is darkly exquisite.

i had a great day at work, even though there were tons of issues. most of them were resolved by the time mmf gave me a ride home, and the conversation in the car was totally disconnected from work for the first time in a while.

pg was busy cleaning when i arrived; i sat reading over dinner and napped for about an hour before blading to the night shift. i'd planned to arrive early, but my co-worker's earlier update was incorrect so i discovered, to my dismay, that i'd slid in two hours late...

at least prepping took much less time than usual. it appears that the mail i sent out at the beginning of the week asking everyone involved to please do their jobs was worth it.

---
three items on the brain:

1. i caught the tail end of boney m - ma baker on the radio this afternoon, and was certain that i'd caught an undertone of arabian pleasures. our secretary thought i was mental and called me names to that effect, but i proved it by pulling out my ipod and finding it. an hour or so ago i discovered the following quote from the wikipedia article:

‎"most notably, it became the basis for the boney m. hit 'ma baker'"

2. we have one week left to organize the event that's been months in the making. it doesn't look like it's going to be particularly spectacular. i'm disappointed.

3. sorter and i are going through the course lists for my next academic year. there're a lot of classes to choose from...

payment due

i didn't sleep much this morning, but it was a sleep filled with warped dreams. i woke up feeling good, although very tired. the way to work was blurred. it's been a productive day - but i'm physically feeling about a strong as a warm putty.

listing

wake up: early.

dermatologist: quick and simple, only slightly painful.

my old base: gasoline's farewell began about half an hour late, which was precisely when i arrived. unfortunately, it was hot and i'd walked fast and i was so disgustingly sweaty that i could touch anyone to say hello :P

it was nice to see everyone.

campus: a long lunch meeting (i took minutes). quite fun.

one of the girls came home with me to pick up a bunch of textbooks from my diploma studies. i've been carrying them around for long enough, i'm glad somebody thinks they have a use for them :)

i was bombed, so i took a quick nap before taekwondo that i simply couldn't get up from. instead, nystire rocked up for coffee and a fascinating chat. and he finally took the stuff we brought him; it's not easy ignoring an unopened packet of biltong sitting on the counter...

scanning documents at pg's parents': her father is really tough on people using his computer. i understand he's trying to be helpful, but he really stressed both pg and myself out. the coffee was great, though. and i got it all done fairly efficiently.

arbing, then rollerblading. pg wasn't up for it, and for the first time in a while* i chatted with a bunch of people, some of whom i don't know very well. it was an interesting, fun and tough route - i felt a lot weaker than usual, which is why i hadn't gone to training. i feel really good about having completed it.

* i think i made it sound like it's pg's fault. it's really not.

stuff to do, not least of which being uploading photos from south africa. i'm fantasizing about that deep, calm sleep that's been so elusive of late.

couples night

arkham horror kicks ass. complex to learn, simple enough to play, and loads of fun.

it was a bit awkward arriving there to discover that cm's girlfriend had prepared dinner - and there we were arriving empty-handed except for pirate fluxx :P

oh, well, at least there was rum on the table.

we stayed a lot later than we'd planned because it's a *big* game, and even though we couldn't finish it we all wanted one more round. i've now spent some time transcribing my travel journal, and i think that whatever i don't finish before one of my managers leaves for india i'm just going to scan for her.

focus wars

i suddenly remembered a rather big issue i had on friday with pg watching star wars. i neglected to mention that she was re-watching them. and only the first three, because she also thinks the news ones suck.

it was a constant distraction: i consider myself to be a very lucky geek.

hosts

early morning wake-up for blood testing. a bit of time to read, a bit of time to appreciate just how badly parents can handle a little girl terrified of blood tests, and the woman taking the blood not being an actual nurse and not holding the needle steady: i was a little freaked out when my vein made gurgling, sucking noises, and only relaxed a little when i got online afterwards to read about embolisms.

the new guy was on the bus i hopped on; he's a bit awkward. he took out his headphones even though he didn't have anything to say. i said hi, waited a moment and then walked through to the back. on the way from the bus i managed to pull a few words from him, at least.

i had breakfast at buono, which was pretty good, then had an incredible idea that requires an engineer.

i've received basic approval from a cafesito manager to host a writing workshop there on saturday, taught my co-workers about conspiracy theories over a decent enough hamburger lunch, and gotten some actual work done.

i shouldn't get all excited when i save the file i'm working on and can immediately test, on my own machine, to see if it works :P

on autism

because it's not old yet. i read the truth about autism when the article was published, but only on saturday did i watch the video it refers to in the opening paragraphs.

and today tahoma posted the following excerpt:

‎"until 1974, psychiatry's bible, the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, described being gay as a mental illness. someday, mottron says, we'll look back on today's ideas about autism with the same sense of shame that we now feel when talking about psychology's pre-1974 views on sexuality. 'we want to break the idea that autism should definitely be suppressed,' he says."

then the other wired article popped into mind, inside the battle to define mental illness, that i read when pg and i were on our way back from austria.

now that is a revelation.

aches and fortune

i got to work early this morning, and spent most of the work day finally getting my development environment set up. it works! now i need to back that shit up. no clue how to do that simply in ubuntu :P

my wrist's been hurting me since last night, so i included it in the check-up with the orthopaedic surgeon. so now i have to organize a cream for tendinitis and an ultrasound scan of my feet; the latter puzzles him as much as it does me.

work this evening was fun; not only did i make some good progress, but i discovered that -someone's mother is an architect and she was most helpful over the phone - she's even offered to have a look at my building plans so she can let me know who i should be in touch with ^_^

pg and i did some heavy shopping when i got back, so my hand's hurting even more now. i'm left with a department website to update, a journal to transcribe and... something about sorter's project...

good thing i've been fasting since 8pm for the blood tests tomorrow :P

screen time

i spent today in front of the computer, or with my kindle, or at the cinema. very healthy*. i got a fair amount of work done this morning - i can't remember in what, specifically - and i finished the sixth harry potter. that shit is dark and edgy, and i can't believe the movies suck so much. after watching the pacing episode and pondering how authors always let us know a little bit more than the character to keep us engaged, i've decided that j. k. rowling is hardcore.

* let's not discuss the gigantic popcorn and coke i went for after dinner, alright? thanks.

we were supposed to go to the luna park (rollercoaster and fair) today, but pg decided at the last moment that it was too hot. i didn't mind much either way.

there were too many guys in pink shirts at cinema city. we watched cowboys and aliens with at least two rows of arsim in front of us, yelling pre-show about football teams and yelling at the screen during the movie itself. in spite of that, however, and in spite of the guy next to me hacking and coughing for the first part of the film, it was excellent entertainment with a great cast and a superb, intelligent script.

that was a lot of fun :))

i've progressed a bit more with sorter's project, and it's now bedtime. this next week's gonna be... i have no idea how it's going to be, but i'm excited for it :D

---
yet another one through: twingling (inspired two posts ago) :)

working friday night

blading to breakfast with urchin was sweaty business, but the guys at the coffee shop (george) didn't seem to mind. i won't lie, the breakfast was uninspiring, but aside from regaling her with tales from south africa we talked about the company she's trying to start up. it looks like she's got a good thing lined up, if she manages to maintain the confidence to go ahead with it...

... and if she does, then it ties in quite nicely with something i've been wanting to do for a while now...

i came back home, stopping at cafesito on the way to ask after the owners regarding an event we want to hold there. a quick chat with the dreaded dude there, and suddenly i'm in with a bunch of activists and poets who seem to be pushing for similar stuff to what i'm always harping on about.

uncanny.

i got around to calling urchin's friend from tuesday night (she'd promised him i'd get in touch today), was much satisfied by his enthusiasm to participate, then crashed on the couch for a perfect twenty minute nap that was only disturbed by my own snores.

training: training was tough, but i handled it much better than on tuesday. not including the weird business of us all being handed crayons and paper and told to write something for the kid whose birthday it was - it's his eighteenth birthday, for crying out loud - the exercises were good and my fight with the new guy who terrifies us with his size and strength actually went well.

on the way back from training, i stopped at cafe ben gurion to get contact details for the owners. the owners are out of the country, says the sandwich man, and he's not comfortable giving me the manager's number. even after i've explained why. that, sandwich man, is bad business and makes you all look like idiots.

after post-training nutrition, i read a little and then continued with the organization's website while pg watched star wars iv and v (the original movies). i was pretty much finished by the time the sushi arrived, watched episode v for a while, then returned to complete the site; while pg watched episode vi, i had interesting discussions online and got a whole bunch of work done on sorter's project.

now it's late.

---
i got another word published: swineancial. please vote it up if you like it :)

twingling nerves

yesterday was exciting! well, the second half at least.

i got up stupid early (7am) to get some work done on the event website, and was fairly productive until i had to leave for work. the meeting with the insurance guy was set for 11am - it was only about noon when he finally rocked up. turns out he's from the same company :S

i got a bit of work done, but not enough that i don't have to do anything on the weekend. my 4pm meeting on campus had completely slipped my mind... boy, were we all surprised when i jumped up at 3pm, explained the situation, hurriedly handled most of a meeting that had been deferred from the morning while simultaneously packing up...

i made it to the university in good time. unfortunately, i arrived without my beloved phone cover: i'm guessing i must have dropped it on the bus. as soon as i realized it was missing i called up the bus operators, who registered the details but explained to me that they have no way to contact their drivers.

REALLY?!?! and this on the bus line that has wi-fi? so the drivers have internet, the drivers have cellular phones, but the company can't get in touch with them??? bloody liars.

the worst part of this story is that the bus line goes past our apartment, and i only realized that i could have simply called pg and asked her to hop on and check after i'd finished talking to the monkeys. by that time it was too late :(

it was super-heated on campus. the walk up had me disgustingly sweaty. i was surprised to discover that the girl that i thought i was going to meet was the *other* girl-with-the-same-name from the master's students...

the hand-over was very different to what i expected. i thought i was going to get a bunch of info, tips and tricks, who-knows-what - instead, i was informed that i already know everything there is to know about the content management system and that i already had the keys to the department's blog (it's on blogger).

i gave her a lot more info than she gave me: i'd been talking to the head of the faculty's IT department in the morning and the english department on the way from the office, and i've secured permission from both sides to join the faculty dev team for the express purposes of moving our website from the completely unusable and unsupported cms to joomla. the alternative? waiting for them to get around to it during the first semester... i don't think i'll really have enough time to do stuff then :P

on the way to meet the dev team, i ran into gco's girlfriend and she offered to arrange the meeting for me (it turns out everyone had left for the day anyway) - then i headed to the bus stop to go to the old office.

that didn't work - wr and co-conspirator caught me waiting for the bus, and there went an hour of my day. it was a fun, interesting hour, though - we've got a candidate for class rep and a platform on which to push her; wordsworth and i have found a way to let co-conspirator participate in the orientation course (i had reservations at first, but we resolved them in the interest of avoiding group politics), and she taught me a thing or two about the master's course registration process... it's good to know people who have time to harass the entire faculty :)

our enthusiasm for the course is contagious, apparently: wr, now going into his final - no really, his FINAL year* - wants to take the course too :P

* he has one course left to go to complete his degree... he's been studying the same degree for about seven or eight years now.

it was on that note that i left (again) for work. the first person i ran into was sorter, and we sat outside for coffee and business for a short while - i was happy to report progress, he had a lot to say about financial sources, and between the two of us this little project has rather a lot of potential. the best part is that as soon as this month is over i will have time to dedicate to it, and it's fun regardless of whether it succeeds or not. we don't have to invest in anything else until we're ready to release an alpha version... so an even split of the profits might be good pickings :)

i'd had a long email argument with -someone in the morning about the way i'd written one of the classes, and it continued as soon as the two of us were sitting together. much flurrying on the whiteboard later, and i finally managed to untangle my proposal into a flow diagram. it's funny how the second it was drawn up properly it became so simple and sensible! and how important it is to have two people working on the same code.
that freed up my next hour or so for documenting things before grabbing the bus home.

i decided i'd spend some time with pg before working, and we sat reading together after dinner, then playing tekken... tekken was interrupted, though, by a phone call from pg's ex. she disappeared for a while, then returned with a pile of cash, a guitar, and a retelling to raise the hackles. at least she told the creep off, and explained that she never wanted to see or hear from him again. story over - i'm glad i didn't have to intervene.

we played a bit more, and then i did a *little* bit of work... but sleep overpowered me. and not just any sleep - a complete, deep, *satisfied* sleep in appreciation for a week well done and *knocks wood* my life being in a good place right now. it's taken what seems like forever, but i'm financially stable and doing jobs that i like, i'm reading and gaming again, i'm making time for friends in addition to being in a fantastic relationship, and i believe that if i work really hard i might be able to keep this up ^_^

---getting up at 7am was night impossible, and 7.30 was only slightly easier. i've now posted, done the translation for the event, and am off for breakfast with urchin.

[twingling]

rise of the brain buzz

we just got back from watching rise of the planet of the apes, and it completely blew my mind. it's articulate, and elegant, and terrifyingly real. i feel like i haven't been sucked in to a movie like that since forever, even though i can already think of fantastic movies that have wow'ed me over the last couple of years.

when they get it right, they get it right.

---
i must have gotten to bed around 4am, and was out of the house by 10.45 to meet with wordsworth at the tel aviv harbour. i had to wait a bit, during which time i discovered ingenious graffiti. we had a very productive meeting - which began with flattery that i found rather touching - and i have two pages filled with things that need doing. i was going to do some of it tonight, but i reckon sleeping first is a safer option :P

i then met up with my kibbutz cousin and two of her kids; we went for lunch at max brenner and it was delicious. it was a very pleasant early afternoon, and our timing is great because the zoo biscuits i brought over for her son will have arrived on his birthday :)

i went straight to work after lunch, and it was an uninteresting day. the evening other-work session was fun, and i returned home just in time to drop off my bag so that we could go and see the movie. on the way, pg updated me about her day: her ex-boyfriend is such a complete asshole about the cash he owes her that i was dumbfounded when pg repeated a bit of their conversation. i'm not sure if it's my place or not to do so, but if he upsets her that much again i might just step in in spite of her instructions to the contrary.

now: sleep. another big day tomorrow.

checking off todos

i almost stumbled over pg's mom's dog on my way out of bed this morning. i didn't take too long to get going; the heat outside was unbearable.

i sat with the department secretary on a couple of items: it turns out there's nothing i can do about my courses next year until the end of october, we had a long discussion about student exchange and i grabbed my seminar paper on my way out. it turns out that the comments on the paper don't match the comments the lecturer sent me by email...

i went through to the faculty's computer department to present myself as the webmaster - it was a bit awkward, but it didn't take too long to find the girl who could help me. turns out she's seeing gco! strangely small world. she's very pleasant, and between the two of us we devised a good plan for sorting out all our present woes. also, i was provided a rather useful bit of gossip :)

i stopped by the library to borrow a thesis written by someone i know, then went to wait for a bus. it turned out that the buses that have replaced the ones i used to take were replaced by egged (and i'm not comfortable with egged lines now that i use studan), so i took one with a driver who initially told me he wasn't going my way, then reversed himself.

it turned out to be the right bus, just the wrong leg of the journey. at the reading station, i found another line that could take me even closer to my destination, and inadvertently discovered the real replacements for another useful line that has been modified beyond recognition - score!

when i got off the bus near the nokia stadium, i knew i had to eat something pre-training, so i stopped at the first place that looked alright: sirim. when they eventually deigned to talk to me, and after being asked explained what was available, and then after that explained how the lunch special works (seriously, i didn't see a menu anywhere), then at my request explained the stuff that they'd forgotten about, then provided me with the soup that i wasn't sure i really wanted, then the food, i found a seat and made myself a soda out of their crappy, unidentifiable syrup before sitting down to read off the kindle and be not-entirely disappointed with the meal.

the experience was up to shit, though. as a south african, my entrance into that place was a cultural error.

i bought laces for my blades, tried on a pair of powerslide skate & walks - the size 44 was a little too tight, but otherwise i was impressed enough to consider buying them anyway. then i thought better of it... now i have no idea how i'm going to get hold of a pair because the shop's not interested in ordering any more :(

while there, mmf called me to fish: apparently, the new boss of the old company is nosing around, asking grootbek (who still works there) questions about me. i've never even met the guy!

i stopped at home for a quick rest and to prep for taekwondo. training was tough. really tough: two thirds of the way through - rather conveniently, in terms of my evening plans - my whole system slowed down and i began to overheat. the last exercise we did was particularly trying, and i gave up when i realized that i was pretty much crossing the line.

i'm guessing it was the lack of oxygen and the heat, because i felt much better when i entered the mall's air-conditioned environment. even if my limbs were still barely functional :P

after a shower and a quick meal, i left for the "little prince". the coffee shop / bar is awesome! urchin joined me, we took our drinks and a couple of chairs outside and listened to the poetry recitals. some excellent, most horrible. hami rodner was great. we weren't on our best behaviour, giggling and such, but we were listening: there were two tables near us who spent most of the evening doing a fine job of drowning out what we were supposed to be appreciating :S

we were a lot more effective catching important people for the month's event than i'd anticipated, and i was quite excited when i called wordsworth to tell him the good news ^_^

i returned home for an evening on the roof with pg, araq, sour worms, fluxx and great music. i've just spent the past hour Doing Stuff, and i'm going to try to get something productive done before bed.

ah, beans man

actually, i'm pleased with netbeans. some of it's a bit confusing, but all in all it's pretty solid. it's taken me forever to get nowhere, i've had fun getting there, and it's now time for bed.

playing turkey

fantastic: turkey's looking for a fight after we allegedly did something wrong. the timing, of course, is spot on to distract the authorities from any efforts to fix our home situation.

if we don't take care of shit at home, there'll be no point in defending it from external attacks.

not a nice day at work

once again, a day devoted to discovering nuances in linux that shouldn't be necessary. worst of all was one that was a rediscovery. and all-in-all, i still can't ssh in to the servers i need to use to get some actual work done.

i would probably have left ages ago if i hadn't been asked by the secretary to wait for a consultation with a consultant who never arrived.

yecch.

i hate computers.

not so late

i had to get up early to pay the doctor a visit, so i stayed up just long enough to install netbeans and get a basic handle on it. i was still scratching sleep out of my eyes when i got to the doctor's office, he saw me early and very quickly decided that the podiatrist is off his rocker, giving me the name of a good orthopaedic doctor instead. in the meanwhile - another breath test for h. pylori: he tells me he doesn't like to be defeated. i told him i'd like to sort this out before the holidays are over, including whatever visits to the gastroenterologist may be necessary...

i returned home, packed my bag and headed over to the old office just to drop off the chocolates and fizz pops that were supposed to get there a week ago; then i bussed through to the bank to sort things out before taking another bus to the new office.

i was well pleased to note that my bus pass "remembers" when i last travelled, so even though i forgot that i had a valid ticket from my previous ride i wasn't charged for swiping :D

...

there's something strange about pulling out a rather long, definitely grey hair from my head. something... quietly satisfying.

...

the orientation course for next semester's first years is now finalized, we have a classroom and will now be getting to work on preparing classes. sweet!

efficiencies

i'm so glad i'm not working corporate, because otherwise today's work efforts would have been quite the boo-boo. i got way more done on my list than i anticipated :P

i arrived early at the other office, but went for a meeting with sorter (the manager who spoke to me on the sunday) to discuss the hows and the how muches. we both returned quite satisfied, we have a plan of action and if this works we'll both come out very well indeed ^_^

my co-worker and i spent a couple of hours debating and planning and fixing and testing, then i scurried off home so as to get some time to work on job no. 3 (sorter's). after shopping and dinner with pg, and inspecting her first attempt at a kindle cover*, i sat down to work. i've now made some headway with the event, and am *just* about ready to get started on sorter's :P

* aside from a slight width miscalculation, it's brilliant! and it's a great colour, too :D

not so much resting

yesterday:

i managed to not do anything other than watch friends and read harry potter yesterday afternoon - not until 7pm rolled around and it was time to join the protest. we took our time, which worked out well because the marching began way after the scheduled starting time...

i perched myself on the side of the road with my "capitalism is good" poster, and watched so many thousands of people walk past that it made my head spin. it was a pleasure having so many people smile, nod, give thumbs up and even share a good word or two; it was even more of a pleasure having a couple of people ask me questions, and even more so when other people who were listening in on my explanations enthusiastically agreed with what i had to say.

it didn't do me any good to see people pulling rude faces or making rather negative hand-gestures and carrying on with no intention of discussing things. it was terrible to have a man with low personal hygiene and no sense of personal space walk straight up to me to tell me about "piggish capitalism" - he wasn't having any of this "rational debate" rubbish, and he forced the discussion closed with an abrasive "i'm a professor of economics": because if you lie, to yourself and to others, you'll get REAL progress.

professor my ass.

pg had only joined the protest because of me - so i guess i've at least done *something* positive - and i'd stood on the side while she waited nearby for long enough. we walked all the way up to kikar hamedina where things were absolutely crazy. we were there for a couple of minutes on the assumption that that was what was required of us in order to be counted*, then walked down to ze sushi for dinner.

* apparently what's counted is the number of cellular phones located around the area of the march / central event. i haven't a clue if that's really the case.

gods - this diet has me hungry a lot of the time. primarily because we haven't done the right shopping. we stuffed ourselves on excellent sushi, which was better than usual because there was no red tuna available and the replacement was delicious. we then shuffled home, showered, and chilled in front of the telly until bedtime.


---
today:

i haven't been feeling too good today. i was on time for the podiatrist, only in the wrong place. apparently that happens a lot, judging by his reaction when i walked in. he couldn't find anything wrong with my feet, and sent me back to my g.p. with a list of tests to run...

not excited

thursday night: the movie was madagascar. i'd seen the first few minutes of it once, and decided it wasn't particularly interesting. now that i've seen the movie in its entirety: i'm totally unimpressed.

another restless night ensued, only this time i discovered that my feet hurt less when they're not exposed to the fan, but i still can't sleep unless the air-conditioner is on because no matter how strong the fan is, it doesn't adjust the humidity and it doesn't really help the parts of my body not directly exposed.

---
friday:

i woke up early to meet with tahoma and his fiancé over breakfast, to trade travel stories and discuss politics. it was a pleasant start to the day, although all i wanted to do when i got back home was rest, not get ready to head off to training. the training itself was fun, although i think a muscle in my back got pulled when our instructor forced me, in spite of my anguished cries, to touch my forehead to the mat while i was sitting on my ass. also, one of the kids kept blocking my kicks with his elbows, which is rather bad form. he did quite a bit of damage to my left foot.

i napped a bit after showering, played a bit of gabriel knight 2 (after discovering that my system had fumbled when i turned it on for the first time in over a month - that required a disturbing reconfiguration and i'm not sure what's not right now), then skipped off with pg for dinner with her family. dinner was okay - my lamb was a bit overcooked, in my opinion - and afterwards i did some heavy shopping to ensure that there'd be enough drinks for the evening's munchkin.

we played a lot of pirate fluxx, then played munchkin until it got to be too late. we decided that munchkin just isn't as much fun as fluxx - a part of it was a completely unnecessary rules lawyering by eidetic that relied on such an obscure technicality that we had quite a big fight about it: if we let him have his way, the game would have been completely imbalanced. if not, he packs up and goes home.

it was a really unpleasant way to handle things, and it's not the first time he's done that; we let it slide in the interest of keeping the peace, but i couldn't sit easy and when i looked up the card in the online forums i discovered that eidetic was definitely in the wrong.

---
saturday:

i slept on the couch under the operative air-conditioner this morning, at least until i woke up shivering from the cold and took myself to bed. it wasn't the greatest night's sleep ever, but it was a far sight better than not sleeping at all.

i've so far spent today performing my webmaster duties, both for the english department and for the event at the end of the month. i want to rest now.

last night, i came home soon after posting for a great cottage pie dinner (delicious, although very different from what my other mother makes. MOM!) before chilling for a while so as to have enough energy to see captain america. my concerns were unnecessary, though, because that movie totally knocked my socks off and all potential yawns dissipated into merely gaping at the beautifully transformed comic.

and here i always thought that captain america was a bit of a toss. he's just been made AWESOME! it's not a good idea to skip this one if you're planning on watching the avengers next year.

the only things that weren't cool were

1. the kids working the popcorn counter unabashedly tossing half our popcorn to the floor, then going to fetch us another one

2. the kids (i assume they work there) making a tremendous amount of noise in the back of the theatre during the previews, worrying us that they wouldn't stop

3. the odd issues the projectionist seemed to be having with the previews

4. the movie glasses at cinema city aren't suitable for wearing over regular glasses, unlike the rav chen theatres

5. the fact that the 3D movie we paid a lot more for was, in fact, a 2D movie. at least the manager offered us a refund on that basis - although we'd have to come back in the morning to pick it up

6. the workers who were fooling around in the bathrooms could have waited until the theatre-goers had gone...



---
today's a day for complaints:

1. i couldn't sleep last night because my feet were killing me again. i've made an appointment to see a podiatrist already, but that's only for sunday and i'm terrified that i'm going to suffer until then.

2. inter-city public transport SUCKS. out of the four and a half hours that it took me to get from home to my office, three and a half of them were spent waiting at stops, riding on the bus, or walking the rest of the way because the stops are so isolated. and i'm not even going to begin discussing the issues we have with the trains.

3. the previous issue mentioned contributed to my getting sunburned.

...

aside from the early morning (three hours after we went to bed) mission to find a parking spot for the car, the first task of the day was to retrieve the promised tickets. it took longer than it should have because the day manager had to call the night manager to discover that he'd forgotten to send through the information before going home. the day manager was very nice about everything, he even joked a bit and then apologized profusely in case i didn't have a sense of humour :P

the second mission was taking the gifts for her family; we sat and chatted for half an hour or so and it was nice to see them.

i went to work, which was fairly uninteresting, and was so exhausted that i figured i'd go straight home... only my boss dropped me off in the usual place and i figured i may as well go to the other office. i cleared mail with my co-worker, then rushed home to eat dinner and do nothing. i think doing nothing is about to involve a movie before bed.