fighter, poet, preacher

i wonder how much of my personality is based on song lyrics i've ingested over the years. on my way back from gym this evening, i thought about a kid in seventh grade who labelled me a fighter, and i guess he was kinda right. and i call myself a poet, and i'm definitely a preacher. in more ways than one. so... bon jovi?

---yesterday:

i'm very glad i went to the gym! even if the jump rope upset me, i worked out a lot of stuff on the punching bags and i came home feeling good about myself. i had just enough time to shower, do the laundry, eat and even rest a little before heading out to paintball with some of the guys from work...

... only the pain returned and drove me nuts, and then when i went down to get my laundry out of the dryer it was wet. again. this time it was the other machine. the caretaker wasn't in, so i left a really angry message on his answering machine while trying to find places to dry my clothing; then my mother called, and at the same time pg called, and my plans for the week got complicated and my stress levels rose and i got irritated.

---paintball was a welcome break. getting there was a bit confusing (i was supposed to get a lift, and then i didn't, and then they tried to pick me up at the metro when i'd already found the place) but not difficult, and i was a little nervous until we actually got inside.

that was the most fun i've had at paintball since i was a kid! there were a lot of combatants, arnold's is a very cool setup and it's run by people who take safety seriously but have a sense of humour. we had some funny moments, and some desperate moments, and most of us walked out with tender welts and an increased sense of camaraderie.

a few of us had dinner at my favourite downtown chinese restaurant - our experienced intern from myanmar agreed with my choice - and we ate a lot of delicious food and shared a lot of laughs.

on the metro home i was so content that i sunk into the plastic seat and it was tough for me not to fall asleep... i worried that showering would break the spell, but i was still in a dream-state while i brushed my teeth and i floated into bed to enjoy the softest, easiest sleep i've had in ages.

---today:

i woke up slowly with the warm sunlight just sneaking into my room, got ready for the day and headed to the israeli consulate to sort out a power of attorney for pg. there was no map or instructions on how to find the actual office, the security guy was pleasant but bumbling, the people there were either behaving badly or were trying too hard (like, wasting time speaking hebrew when both sides could handle english), i had to wait for ages to be noticed, at first i wasn't actually helped (at least the second person i dealt with made a bit of an effort)... it was great! if the experience was supposed to make me not miss israel, it did the trick.

---there's nothing worse than losing faith in your boss. the cto is behaving in a way that screams "amateur" and he's interfering with the systems and processes that we've been putting in place specifically to get around the side effects of his lack of professionalism. as a developer. cto's shouldn't really be coding, but that's another story.

he called me today to ask me about something, and the way he described what he wanted to do raised red flags and alarm bells sounded in my head. i tried to clarify, and the response i got was an aggressive "you don't need to tell me how to handle it, i *know* how to handle it. i deal with these things all the time!"

yes. badly. and now i have to walk on eggshells?

...

you know, i'm probably not going to quit but if i did, i'd feel really bad for abandoning everyone else.

---i took a break to mail the morning's document to pg. according to google maps it should have taken me ten minutes, but when i arrived at the post office it turned out to be a police station, and the pin had disappeared from the map. the next closest pin was at least a bus ride away, but i'd already committed and wasted my time so i gave it a shot.

after a bit of a mission, i arrived at the place and... nothing. and hey! look! that pin had disappeared from the map too! what the hell, google?!

thwarted, i hopped on the bus back to the office. it's a good thing i was paying attention, because halfway back i spotted a post office! nope, no pin on the map. what the hell, google?!

[i just had to retype that all because "you have logged in from a different location" - no, i didn't. :S]

at 6pm i signed out and headed to the cafeteria for a pre-training meal and some pool. i only stayed for a couple of games, but they were good games :)

boxing tonight was really good - tough, really tough, but fun and satisfying.

---hungry for change is very preachy and air-fairy towards the end, but at least half of it is worth watching. i'd go so far as to say that some of it should be mandatory watching.