war & peace

 i woke up this morning to an unhinged stream of invectives from the mother of a girl in mr smear's class. it appears that she was so terrified by something that mr smear looked up on the teacher's computer that she was unable to close her eyes until almost midnight. also, the following is the list of "curses" that mr smear name-called her:

1. stupid 

2. miss underpants 

3. a little girl in the nursery 

and that we must keep our child away from hers.

OH MY GOD. considering the rather disturbing vocabulary he's capable of, this is what upset her? as a fifth grader? fucking grow a pair. jesus.

anyway, after calling mr smear (who was already on his way to school at the time) to chew him out, i responded to her that a) his behavior was unacceptable and that would be dealt with accordingly and b) that i'm shocked that the kids have unsupervised access to the internet at school and c) that he claimed that her daughter wasn't entirely innocent in the story, and that i would ask the teacher to try and figure out what happened.

at that point, this woman completely lost it, and sent a stream of messages to the effect that her daughter was completely innocent, that the school has a zero-tolerance policy, and that she hopes they take the appropriate action (the insinuation was clear that he be kicked out of the school).

it was *very* hard to not respond, even to not say "i'm not going to engage any more", and i was in war-mode and literally shaking by the time i walked into the office. i spoke to a couple of coworkers, and one of them said something that made me realize she might actively try to get everyone on her side... i sent the teacher a message explaining that i'd tried to show cooperation, but that she was extremely aggressive.

the response i got indicated that her behavior isn't out-of-character and that we're not alone in our assessment.

...

the legal team guy i served with is now working from the office, so we had a fun catch-up. which included me regaling him with some tales of the bug spray guy who apparently traumatized him with a bike ride.

...

our first weekly lunch hour game hacking session wasn't nearly as successful as i was hoping, but it wasn't bad either.

...

our "daily" meeting was in the afternoon, and afterwards i sat with the new captain for a bit to discuss some things. it was a lot more constructive and positive than i expected. later, as he was on his way out, i remembered that he's from netanya, and i suspect that his nonchalant-but-needs-to-put-his-thing-down affect may be due to growing up around arsim.

...

in spite of the perpetual "urgent" distractions, i managed to focus on my primary task for a couple of hours. i think i made good progress.

...

gd and i talked with mr smear about what's going on with him. it didn't get loud, but it did get intense. i hope to god he stops FA-ing before he FO-s.

...

"i only test my code in production" - i need to get gd a shirt. i picked up some green curry yesterday, so she used it this evening for a really nice dish. only... it wasn't until she's put our entire dinner on the line that she decided that it was too spicy for her. and then, of course, mr smear decided that it was too spicy for him, even though i ate it and it wasn't spicy at all.

except for a couple of random bites, and then it was back-of-the-throat spicy, which i don't like.

in the meanwhile, mr smear decided (after chickening out of the main dish) that he was going to make shit real by loading up onion slices with hot salsa. i don't know which part of that sentence amuses me more, but the results were pretty funny.

bedtime was uneventful - less than it's been for a week at least - we read some more neverending story and then i sat down to post this. the computer's been much, much quieter than usual, though sometimes the fans flare up, but i have no idea what specifically i did that worked :/

fight night

tilt picked me up last night and we went through to le carlton centre to watch the boxing. some of the fights were a bit boring, but some were really good! the guys i went to support did okay, nothing special, and the fight of the night (in my opinion) goes to the last one in which an apparently well-known guy from tristar with huge support was beaten in a great match. i was particularly happy about the decision because the contender had won in spite of a bunch of chavs sitting behind us screaming inappropriate things at him non-stop.

a lot of my classmates were there and regarding them i think it was a mistake bringing tilt. first, the not-knowing-everyone's-names thing made introductions uncomfortable. second, everyone was scattered in groups of two or three so the fact that we ended up sitting by ourselves was fine but afterwards everyone was getting together for drinks and we were taking our date elsewhere...

[good date]

it was a very slow and lazy morning, we eventually got up around 2pm. it's taken two hours to get my day going, it looks like a busy night of hip hop and ufc fights :)

warp-spasm

quick! before the day actually begins and i head off to the pharmacy to pick up my meds for tomorrow's surgery.

yesterday was another great day (today, not so much). great news for the day was that my uncle came through surgery in a decent state - he'd fallen a short while ago and had developed postsurgical psychosis...

anyway, the day was fairly uninteresting with quite a lot of administrative tasks. an email from pg made me laugh out loud, in addition to arriving at the conclusion that purchasing hats is easier than making them she's decided that bournemouth is like eilat: hot and dry weather and chavs (arsim).

infinity - techniques is awesome.

---training.

jiu-jitsu: there was only an advanced class. the techniques we learned were nothing short of mind-blowing; especially as a beginner it's hard to wrap my head around some of these ideas. i learned that my rash guard on a hot day gets me producing an insane amount of sweat. i also learned that i need to train with a box.

it is a really, really intimate sport.

everything was great, though, and i felt like i was making real progress! i even stayed behind to spar with my partner (vfmp) at the end. that was fine until i found myself being flipped over my neck right off the mat.

that was bad. very bad. my neck and back muscles all spasmed in unison, and the rest is suffering.

kickboxing:

in spite of not being able to turn my neck left, it was a solid kickboxing session. not only was i supremely proud of myself for being singled out to the beginners as the right form to follow, our punching bag session went well and i chose the duct-taped boxing bag. this is the bag everyone stays away from, but my shins have toughened enough that i could handle it ^_^

all in all, it was a most satisfying three hours. except, of course, for my neck. i had a hot bath, then sat with frozen peas over my shoulder while drinking dinner alongside a couple of slices of toast.

i went to bed early, but i can't say that i really slept last night. it was more just lying there rearranging my neck.

---guantanamo bay supporters: you're right. years and years of madness, and still going strong.

corruption

damn. it's been a month or two, and i've finally sorted out the piles of papers that had accumulated on my table. that's tantamount to cleaning the apartment. i also got some shopping done, and watched a fun french movie (pièce montée, it surprised me).

i would totally buy the mechwarrior 2 mercenaries soundtrack if it was available on itunes.

---thursday:

have i mentioned not feeling good? it's very weird, and hard to explain. i've been feeling great the last week, except for in the mornings when i feel terrible for the first hour or so after i leave the apartment. it's not cool at all. as soon as i get my medical insurance card i'm going to go get myself checked out.

---thursday began with good meetings, and about halfway through the afternoon i came into possession of a large quantity of bubble wrap and an idea of what to do with it. every time an intern would come to me to report something positive, i handed him a square of bubble wrap. it's ridiculous, and even they found it so, but they were charmed nonetheless. and with that, the atmosphere in the office changed. work is supposed to be fun, and it's been miserable for everyone, and it doesn't need to be that way. that single act of silliness opened the gates, and aota, newk'd and i started relaxing and taking everything (and ourselves) less seriously.

the work will get done at the same pace, but we're not going to stress about it.

aota overheard me babysitting the interns, and asked me "how do you not want to kill yourself? with these interns?"

"we do the best we can with the tools we've got". and by "tools", i meant penises.

---i made an early break for it on thursday to make it to training: i'm definitely getting better with the jiu jitsu. i partnered up with a guy who only speaks french, and it made things, umm, complicated. lots of gestures and repeating unintelligible things.

kickboxing: either training's easier or i'm getting stronger. every time the instructor talks to me i add another item to my list of things to learn, and it's been a very long time since i experienced that positively. about a decade, actually. it's very exciting!

i got home and checked the weekend's snow report: so much for snowboarding, after the snow it was going to rain. i signed up to see warm bodies with a movie meetup group instead. i proceeded to watch the ultimate fighter season finale until late. what a satisfying finish!

---friday:

i lay in bed browsing my rss feeds until late, then woke up at 5.30. for nothing. i eventually got back to sleep, but then my alarm went off. "inception snoozing": when every time you snooze your alarm you get sucked in deeper and it becomes more difficult to wake up.

i watched friday's episode of strip search: it was positively mystifying! all i could think of was "you can't do that!!!", but then i realized that they've taken the whole genre and turned it on its head. the series is as much about mike and jerry as it is about the contestants. and it's so good!

we had perfect snow in the morning, which would all become slush by the evening. the day was relaxed, i played good music for most of it, and the only thing that sucked was getting caught up in something and not being able to leave on time for training. but then i didn't go anyway, because i got invited to godmother's for dinner.

dinner was really nice, and we all laughed as i took home a bag of canned chick-peas that my uncle had bought in bulk because it was on special.

i spent my night doing laundry and watching community and how i met your mother. and then vegucation, but my response to that deserves a separate post.

i was figuratively, literally and repeatedly shocked by the insane quantities of static from my bedclothes and clothing out the tumble-dryer.

---after sharing a video about arsim attacking the elderly, a couple of friends shared their thoughts about my leaving israel. aside from impressing myself with my ability to type in hebrew without letters on the keyboard, the discussion brought out some really ugly feelings. i *am* bitter; i feel betrayed and it's a painful feeling. to live in a country where complaining about someone being an asshole can score you a beating, and where normal people tell you not to waste your time trying to make a positive difference, is really hard. but it's even harder when you've given up the best years of your life in your country's service with nothing better than a kick in the teeth (in my case, literally) to show for it.

reined in

*phew*

by the time the last class came around yesterday, i was totally bombed and had the strange sensation that it was monday and that the week was only beginning.

i'd learned a little during the night, but those hours are all a bit hazy. i think i managed to put my head down for ten minutes at some stage. sorter gave me a ride home, and i arrived around 5am and went straight to bed. at 8.30 i somehow dragged my carcass through the freezing cold between the warm blankets and a hot shower, then headed back to campus.

i was *tired*. the classes were interesting, but it was hard to keep the yawns in and the eyelids up.

after the orientation class i went to the new office - right next door to the old new office - to present my design and time estimate. we sat talking about it all for a couple of hours, and then i was sent home. by sunday i'll have a computer to work on and a contract to sign, and they don't care if i'm in the office or at home, as long as the work gets done.

so: visual studio express is free? i like it!

i napped a bit on the bus, waking up just before we hit my stop. i began the visual studio download before hitting the sack; i woke up a couple of hours later to eat and go to cinema city for the half-past-midnight show with pg and her father. i was horrified to discover that one of the three tickets i'd booked had magically been switched to the previous night, but they were kind enough to find us a seat (the house was packed, so i'm even more grateful) and we went in to watch immortals.

holy shit.

that was, aesthetically speaking, one of the greatest movies i've ever seen. everything else was made of win. even the fact that we were surrounded by arsim, and that the guy next to me had a perpetual nostril-whistle thing going on, could not detract from the magnificent experience. it's very visceral. it's not a family film at all.

---
i slept like a baby, and until late. i got up, played around with visual studio, and was about to go out and cross a few items off my list when i realized that the rain was bucketing down. i went back to bed instead. we got up a couple of hours later, ate a hearty breakfast and did our french homework, and i'm now installing more visual studio stuff so that i can continue.

i'm feeling *so* much better now :)

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) :)

the down-wedding - part i

[post divided retroactively]

thursday:

could there have been any advantage to picking the wrong bus when i was already late? perhaps. i wasn't *really* in a hurry, and five minutes walking through and appreciating a city still half-asleep and beginning to stir at 10.45am was heart-warming. and almost tripping over a door, which in my experience is not a normal thing to find in the middle of the pavement, amused me.

a thought occurred: observing israelis talking on the phone, i'm beginning to suspect that a truly israeli cellular phone design would incorporate a phenomenally solid microphone and no earpiece. i think it's redundant here in enough cases to warrant some marketing consideration.

the place we met to study at is in a really nice little nook just off campus. the only people who showed up were myself and wordsworth, and a study group of three that primarily consists of reading notes because the other two hadn't been in class isn't particularly productive. the home-produced tea was delicious, our host's boyfriend crapping us out for putting our bare feet on their new couch was a bit weird.

quote of the day (completed in unison): huckleberry finn's plot was described as "a circular movement from a to b".
"the only movement i can think of that fits that description... "
"is a bowel movement"

i headed off to work, picking up a falafel on the way. this one was cheaper, larger, tastier, healthier and faster than western "fast food". the introduction of crap fast food into israel is a shame.

i had an argument with yogi about market research, which reminded me of nystire's link to let me google that for you. work was, to quote my boss, pretty blah. some jquery functionality that should be incredibly simple doesn't work. and that stinks.

i was totalled by the time i got up to leave, and i rested on the bus because i failed in my attempt to begin reading joseph conrad - heart of darkness. i had barely enough time to get ready before pg and i stepped out smartly dressed into the bright hot late afternoon sun... i had sweat patches on my back by the time we made it to the wedding shuttle.

as the years go by i find myself more and more estranged from certain people that i used to consider my friends. the bus ride had a few of those. it also took a long, long time to arrive. just before arriving, i discovered that i'd sat on chewing gum. in my nice black trousers. frack.

the wedding: substandard. beautiful venue, great food, but both the ceremony and the reception were a little too enthusiastically "traditional". highlights included contemplating the possible correlation between a shy bladder and an unhappy childhood, the sweets table, and the realization that i'd consumed far too much alcohol. fortunately [he says, sarcastically] the return shuttle only arrived at 2.30am so i had plenty of time to sober up for the relentless attack of the "oriental" music over the speakers in the bus. and not the bus driver's, either, but some ars relative of the bride who hijacked the microphone with his cellphone and maintained a stupid grin while refusing to lower the volume until the very end of our miserable journey. i really, *really* wanted to beat the snot out of him. judging by their reactions to the eventual raising of my voice, i think the austrians would have fully supported me.

pg was even more disappointed and irritated than i was after all of that, and tensions exploded on the way home and it took us a sleep before we could talk them down. *sigh*

---funny story: the guy whose book i reviewed? it turns out he's not just a friend of friends, he's the brother of one of them. it turns out that my assumption that he's "TheThinker" was correct (because it wasn't totally obvious</sarcasm>), and i'm amused that he strongly suspects me but wasn't entirely sure. i was certain he knew. either way, "Listen to me wannabe 'intellectual,'... I would recommend you therapy" after his assertion that he "[does] own a second degree in psychology" is just... well, if you want to read his book anyway, don't say you weren't warned.

[continued...]

reflections upon aging prematurely - part i

[post divided retroactively]

today is saturday. we left for the doof festival last thursday, and this is the first real opportunity i've had to post. and i still have a ton of actual work to get through, a book to read and two papers to write...

my sister called me a masochist yesterday, but while i'm seriously stressed i'm still actually *enjoying* what i'm doing, so i'm sure i'm not. here's a relatively brief summary of what feels like an aeon gone by:

---thursday: travelling

it took us much longer to finish packing than i expected, and i've been informed by pg that this is normal for her so next time: we'll pack the night before :P

to make matters worse, we forgot something important at home and only realized it when we'd finally gotten to rishpon, so we turned around and came back for it... the traffic density in both directions was high, but at least on the way back north we had some music - something else i'd forgotten to pack :P

the kosher-for-passover cookies i bought before we hit the traffic jam after afula were great: marvellously morish, they kept me going for the first two days of the festival :D
we stopped by my cousin's kibbutz for a delightful couple of hours, and left fairly late. we stopped to pick up coffee around 22.55, and this is important because that meant we were *just* in time to purchase araq before sales curfew. one shouldn't arrive at a festival without alcohol, that's just not cricket!

what a difference, being the driver. last year got me so used to stressing about hitching, bussing, and walking... this was a pleasure.

---the festival. d-d-d-d-d-d-DOOF. four days of mayhem. and, all told, about five hours of sleep - the double mattress had a hole in it so resting time was rocky and at awkward angles. we got there the night before and set up without any hassles, except for my own personal awkwardness. on the first morning - which was a bit rainy - pg and i ran around sorting out the sign posting once the police pre-inspection was underway; on friday afternoon, with ten minutes to go until my eight-hour shift as a parking attendant, i wrote out my villanelle on the graffiti wall and then headed out to the trenches.

being a parking attendant in israel is an experience. some of the people were okay, but the vast majority required individual explanations (and we're talking about a *lot* of people) as to why they couldn't park wherever they liked: i felt like a kindergarten teacher half the time. and every time one person gave me shit they distracted me from another two or three who were doing something just as bad or worse.

at some point, i found myself being attacked (verbally) by an ars who was explaining to me why someone "with a job like mine" shouldn't be trying so hard or thinking too much. i don't know why i didn't inform him that i was a volunteer. the thing that bothered me more than his aggressive tone was his racism. i've mentioned before how unimpressed i am by the vilifying of civilization, and this asshole didn't stop calling me "ashkenazi" in the pejorative. when i responded in a way that i hoped would make him realize his stupidity, he continued by slurring his own friend for being of yemenite background. his behaviour was so aggressive that i felt uncomfortable with pg having rocked up at that very moment, because i was terrified that he'd associate us and have a go at her too...

the sad / amusing thing was seeing that same asshole two days later on the dancefloor, obviously extremely high and standing amongst the crowd looking sage and mystical. much like with chc, i often wonder what happens to the stupid / narrow-minded on lsd. i hope i never find out.

to offset the unpleasant people, there were a couple of nice ones and a lot of smiles and waves. i was particularly grateful to the woman whose partner parked in *exactly* the wrong spot while he went to pick up tickets, but made a point of helping me out and before they moved brought me a vodka redbull in a cup and a can of redbull for the rest of my shift. i saved that for another day :)

once the main parking lot was full we were all sent down to maximise the use of the lower one. hours of planning and coercing people to park considerately was edifying; it's incredible how much space you have when people don't leave half-car lengths between them and manage to park parallel to one another :P

i haven't seen dp's nephew in a year, and seeing his dreads was inspiring. i now know that i should be ready to have a go by this time next year :D

notable sets prior to sunday: sensual squeak, dirty saffie

i once again thank india for teaching me how to comfortably use public facilities.

i got a fair amount of reading done in the first couple of days; in retrospect i should have been reading something study-related, but i was on holiday and survival of the sickest is amazing!

there weren't a lot of options as far as food and drinks were concerned, but the selection wasn't bad and pg and i had backstage passes so we ate really well a couple of times.

i was amused to meet a couple of the people on the dancefloor who are staying in my apartment. apparently, my pad can handle four european girls simultaneously, and has surprised them by exceeding their expectations ^_^

on the second evening i'd had far too much to drink, and had difficulty with basic motor skills. that was also when my left arm really began to act up. i'm experiencing pain on either side of my elbow, and it takes me back to what i suspect was the original cause.

sunday morning was *cold*. and i became absolutely convinced that the chemical toilets were much cleaner and simpler to use than the "real" ones which were constantly backed up.

azax syndrome is always a good start; i wasn't too sure about the paganka people though...

and then the fun began. at 2pm i missioned to the dirty beach, entering the water only to walk out soon afterwards because i wasn't comfortable with its lack of cleanliness...

the paganka stage was rocking. i met up with some friends who introduced me to friends of theirs... a couple of dodgy-seeming folk who introduced me to *their* friends... but the floor was anything but dodgy. it was beautiful. the music was mind-blowing, the smiling craziness all around, the perfect sunset through the haze of the sprinklers and mud splashing...

ears, eyes and feet
in this maelstrom of paradise
fantasy turned reality becomes
illusion

a now
forever
all of the nows
and this now,
forever
becomes the reality, is the reality
for it's more real
than the
figment of fantasy
than those outside our
cabal of communication

our whirlpools of discourse
swirling in droplets of rainbow pleasure
drizzling over our
prehistoric
primeval
sunset

[continued...]

unfocused

not only today, but yesterday as well. i forgot to post something i discovered during class that intrigued me.

a couple of us spent about three hours discussing seminars* and reading shakespeare to while away the time until the lecture half the campus has been waiting for with bated breath began. wow - worst event organization ever. disappointing. we all came to see umberto eco; they knew up to an hour before (because when *we* arrived the foyer was completely packed) that there wasn't so much as a quarter of the space required, and instead of setting up for the foyer or moving out to the grass they simply cut us off from the auditorium. wonderful. the ordeal was a bit too intimate. and we were there for so long that we began singing monty python songs :P

according to one of my classmates: "apparently we had been outsmarted - most people that attended the lecture actually went to the lecture before that and refused to make room for the crowd". why didn't i... no, wait. ASSHOLES. to make things more interesting: i just got a message back from one of the organizers - well, sort of back, she forwarded on my mail to one of my professors and cc'ed me. she claimed that the faculty does "not have the woman-power to register people".

really? want me to show you how to use an excel spreadsheet, and how to send out an email saying "sorry, no space for you"?

good thing i introduced myself to the professor this morning - even better that i began by describing myself as "an unintentional trouble-maker". although that might have been offset by her standing right beside me (just outside of my peripheral vision) when i told a girl in our class that one doesn't need an excuse to drink on campus, and that the rest of us were off for free** beer...

* so i discovered today that not only did we suffer the italian's inanity and a crushing semester of boring, high-density 19th century literature, but he kinda forgot to teach us the basics of how to write a seminar and what to write it on. i thought i had a topic. now i've got nothing. this greatly upsets me.

** yes! free! as in beer! and then we got to the designated spot, and not only was i accused of faking being a native english-speaker by some arshat [couldn't resist] but they charged us NIS 6 for a glass. it's cheap, but not cheap enough.

not only did i have to inform the head of the department and the italian that they weren't getting in either, but pg's mom had come to hear him speak as well. at least i got a ride home :)

i wasted a couple of hours on hawthorne - maybe i'll find something to say - then went to pg's parents' for dinner. i'd been warned that everything would be cheese, but there was enough salad and fennel to keep me satisfied. i was surprised by pg's brother's girlfriend's interest in economics (forgot that she studied that) and philosophy, and i pushed re-visioning psychology and in praise of doubt while discussing the wonders of freakonomics and their relation to misguided statistics in the wired article on the definitions of mental illness.

i need to go on a diet. my belly's a little out there of late, and controlling my constant urge to eat with tea is offset by polishing off a bag of marshmallows while my inner voice of reason screamed and shouted at me.

anschluss: meyrhofen

12.02.2011
0640
BREAKING POINT. i tried napping yesterday afternoon, but couldn't distract myself from packing details so i began to prepare. i was pretty much done by dinnertime - dinner was pleasant, but i sense that my silence is noticeable: this week really took it out of me.

- it's a phenomenally beautiful sunrise -

i chatted with my mum, finished sorting things out and packing, then left for pg's. the only interesting thing that happened from that point was having my trouser-leg run over by a cyclist when i went shopping for hot chocolate. waking up was, as i'd predicated it would be, killer. airport security wasn't too bad, aside from the first guy who wasn't convinced i'm me: the new look is pretty... new. gonna have to renew my passport anyway.

my first trip with pg - with any girl, ever - it's a strange and exciting notion.

---ah - the ride to the airport was uncomfortably smelly. also - bellyache. last night's (delicious) feta lasagne? or the half-baked soufflés?

13.02.2011
18.05
god - damn. everything hurts, or feels strained, but we both did our post-snow stretches and it's wonderful to shower when you don't need to worry about wasting too much water.

this post is going to include everything from yesterday as well - i began writing in the flaine diary last night and then suddenly remembered that i'd brought my netbook... it would be silly to think of transcribing these things. as it is i still haven't gotten anywhere with my japan / india notes :$

today began on the wrong foot because our shuttle left the airport at least an hour late yesterday. we were told we were waiting for someone who was being held up by passport control, but i understood later that whoever it was had supposedly been on the bus the entire time... go figure. either way, the three / four hour ride was killer. even the four hour flight was more comfortable, but i suspect that's because i was dead to the world for most of it. the shuttle's tardiness meant that we arrived too late to pick up equipment and sort out classes.

organizing the equipment this morning was a real drag. not only does every map here appear to describe a different place and the locals can't make heads or tails of any of them, it took forever to get sorted and pg couldn't find comfortable boots - the boots she eventually left with hurt her so we ended up back there in the afternoon; that was when i discovered that my bindings had been loose the entire session. that explains a certain amount of my lack of control...

and if i've bitched about the ride to austria, let me not forget the large family with annoying seat-kicking brat and two infants. there were thankfully only short bursts of screaming, but i loved the irony of the mother complaining "this ride is punishment!" when we were suffering the same stiff legs, the same impatience to arrive and her family. she left a used diaper in the poor driver's bin. so cultured.
on the other hand, it would have been nice if our shuttle driver could have been waiting with a sign, just like all the other operators. and like it said on the package details :/

we *might* have managed the equipment last night (with rushing and stress) if we hadn't waited for half an hour for a shuttle to take us the five minute walk to our lodgings. they could have just pointed the way :S
at least i can't blame passport control for any of the delay - munich's is obviously understaffed (they have exactly two booths) and inefficiently friendly, but our bags came off the conveyor just as we went through and we were pretty much the last of our flight.

why do people stand so damned close to the conveyor? and then get upset when someone who can see their luggage has to push through to get it?

weather: from the over-heated aeroplane to the cloud-breath outside, a too-warm bus, cool apartment and absolute freezing (okay, three degrees) streets, my body's totally uncomprehending and waking up coughing at 2am wasn't very reassuring. the rest of the day's been fine, though, so i guess i'm okay. it's almost tradition - i always arrive feeling ill and magically hit 100% on the slopes :D

speaking of 100% - i checked mail when the wireless at the restaurant turned out to be free, and was completely gratified to discover that the post-modernism paper i wrote scored me a perfect grade! ^_^
it's a bit sad that the pop-quiz grades will drag me down, but i'm really happy about it just the same.

accommodation: seems like a semi-private home, and it's a little awkward. petra and the strange dude who appears to be her husband are exceedingly polite, but none too forthcoming with advice and instructions. the toilet design is a bit freaky - apparently it's standard germanic. it collects all non-liquid ejections in a shallow upper bowl, and when you flush it it throws whatever's there at the lower bowl. the first time i flushed i thought everything was going to fly out and hit the opposite wall. i still don't trust it.
dinner is a strange affair too. we have a permanent seat kept for us for three hours, and there's a set menu. it's not bad, mind, but it's a bit snarky that nothing off the set menu, like drinks, are listed. that way you don't know until the bill comes that the orange juice costs twice as much as a glass of wine. we were really pleased tonight to discover that if you order a caraffe of water it doesn't cost. pity about the steak being so tough :P

at least they do let you know (if you bother to bring a calculator) that a bottle of wine is five euros more expensive than the equivalent volume in glasses :P

continued 21.00

my left thigh *really* hurts - i bruised it badly falling off a slide in the snow park. the worst part: i knew what i was doing wrong at the time, and that knowledge didn't help. on the plus side, the reason i was there in the first place is that only beginners showed up to the afternoon session and that left me with a private instructor. she's a french girl from les arcs, and appeared to be impressed with how good i am after only two weeks. i didn't feel like i was doing so well, though... she basically showed me that i've been doing it all wrong. it's a beginner's mistake to control with the back foot, and i don't use my whole body which keeps me perpetually *just* off balance.

the weirdest thing we discovered afterwards: both of us have what appears to be silver paint on the shoulders of our ski jackets. that shit doesn't come off :(

today pg and i celebrated being together four months. and still all good! we were treated to our first sight of snow as it's supposed to be; neither of us had, until today, seen individual snowflakes. freakin' cool, and they float everywhere ^_^

last night we slept beautifully - we were both exhausted and i don't think either of us has had a proper good night's rest since before the exams began. now hitting the sack again, and this time we (think we) know what tomorrow will bring :D

14.02.2011
20.10

happy valentine's day! yep, most valentine's valentine's day i've ever had. including spending the late afternoon eating sweets in bed because pg didn't have the energy to get back on the slopes after siesta and my ski jacket was at the dry-cleaner's - at the expense of the guys who run penkenbahn - to get the silver from yesterday off. it turns out that my instructor and i were on a freshly painted ski lift. bizarre! although to be honest, it was hot enough that i was keen to go out in just a t-shirt.

the day began with a boiled egg - too soft, and unpleasantly so. it does irk me a bit that it seems that our hosts don't offer us anything because we don't speak german, so we only know to order what we see the other tables getting :/

we were both sore this morning, and i was *so* tired that until i was on a slope i wasn't too sure i'd have the energy for anything. getting up there was a hassle - everyone was pushing, but in particular a group of russians who split us up, and i ended up chatting for the fifteen minutes with some dutch guy whose girlfriend was travelling in the same car as mine :P

otherwise - it was a stunning day. beautiful, hot, and only some of the slopes were too icy to handle. i joined a dutch instructor's group; they were doing reds and a bit of jumping, but were easy enough that i could spend the morning practising all the things i learned yesterday. i think... i think i got it ^_^

pg and i shared a long lunch at the bottom of one of the slopes, then hit a few reds together. the pace is mostly okay - i don't need to wait too long for her and i'm beginning to get comfortable with high speed moguls. and flats! whoo hoo!

we spent the evening window shopping: seriously? ski fashion is the most awesome shit around. the crazy hats and shoes and jackets are brilliant, and goggles simply rock. always. even though i've given up on mine - they look amazing but they're always misted up. my combo silly rainbow bobble hat and bright green jawbones are all i need. i was amused when two of the littler kids in the group giggled every time they looked at me :)

the hot chocolate we had before dinner wasn't so special, and quite frankly i prefer the nesquik i just made in our room. dinner was... alright. our waitress isn't all there, i think, and we suspect we may be tipping too much with our ten percent at every meal :P

now for another early-to-bed: this reading and sleeping thing is awesome, it feels like it's been a long time since that was possible.

16.02.2011
21.05

there have been some amazing moments during this trip, not least of which being today's sudden return to snowboarder mode. i went a little crazy, got back into the swing of picking up speed and careening over edges, jumping big and small (even though the one big jump landed me straight on my bum - the same bruise is starting to get ugly) and generally feeling it.

what's beginning to get to me, however, is that pg seems to be miserable. i don't get it - i don't understand if she even likes skiing. she told me today, when i asked her if she was enjoying it or not, that there's a point in the middle: apathy. in my book, that's not enjoying it. she doesn't dig the classes so we travel together instead, and she's too anxious about every - single - turn to just let loose and enjoy the ride. i haven't seen her smile on the slopes. not once. i wouldn't mind waiting for her so much if she was at least having some fun.

---yesterday:

yesterday began as my first day of "good" sore - my body was hurting but it was all healthy using-new-muscles pain. pg woke up saying "i wanna go home". she was specifically complaining about not wanting to wake up so early for classes, but that kinda dampened my enthusiasm.

i walked out into the freezing cold in my ski pants and a t-shirt (with my board and boots, of course), to pick up my jacket from the cleaners. i must have been a strange sight. i was well impressed by the clean - they weren't completely done but for such slight damage (it merely looks a little damp) i wasn't going to hand in my jacket a second time. it was a *cold* brisk walk :P

the guys who were behind us on the plane were behind us in the line up to the ski lift. they cursed so much and so freely that it was difficult to distinguish their hebrew from arabic (most israeli curse words are stolen from arabic), and we would have said something about it if that language wasn't such a solid indicator of the type of people we would be dealing with... how we *love* arsim.

my feet really hurt yesterday morning, and a little today. on one of the slopes i wiped out pretty badly, and almost took a little girl out with me. not cool. at the same time, in spite of what appears to be a weak left leg my control's improving dramatically. as i mentioned earlier - i'm feeling it again. and it feels good.

have i mentioned the scenery? this place is magnificent. it even looks awesome when the weather's shitty. the biggest problem i have with this place is that it's totally overcrowded...

that reminds me - i must be grateful that the iphone has good enough speakers to provide musical accompaniment without headphones. i can't snowboard with headphones, and having a soundtrack kicks ass :))

we shopped for chocolate and sweets at the spar, then hit the coffee shop for hot chocolate and free wireless. pg and i had a fight over a miscommunication, which made the hot chocolate taste less than good and highlighted the waitress' bad service and less than unappreciated tone of voice when asking us to move to the bar.

dinner afterwards was alright, maybe mediocre, but uncomfortably quiet.

today:

i went to bed after reading wired's article on inception theories. i slept horribly and dreamed frustrating inception dreams. the whole gorram night :(

i woke up aching. everywhere. breakfast was standard although i suspect that the germans who always sit at the table next to us aren't so fond of us any more (they didn't respond when i wished them a good morning, and for the first time didn't say goodbye). visibility was shocking at breakfast time, and when we got up to the top of penkenbahn we needed our face masks to deal with the cold.

after a couple of decent warm-up runs, i joined the group again. there was more snowfighting than snowboarding, but it was a great class and involved jumping and speed trials.

pg and i did a couple of runs before stopping for lunch, then another couple before coming back down to the room. i couldn't deal with her being so miserable, even though i was doing brilliantly for the first time in two years. i don't remember ever feeling so confident!

she slept the afternoon away while i read - makes me wonder if she's unhappy because she's sleeping too much or if it's the other way around. that leads me to wonder if the reason so many people suffer from depression is that very few people exert themselves enough physically these days to warrant the amount of sleep they get... where did i read about napolean saying that nobody needs more than six hours' sleep? and i think i'm going to buy the four hour body. apparently according to the author's gathered evidence einstein's twenty minutes every couple of hours is enough, although i think that's a bit extreme even for me :P

is it normal to be so pleased with one's hair when one looks in the mirror? i'm constantly and pleasantly surprised every time i see myself, especially now that my hair's starting to show from behind my ears :)

dinner this evening: pretty good. my steak was bloody: bloody tasty, but was it dangerous? there's too much fear-mongering in the news. the new waiter - he's been around since last night - tries really hard but just doesn't have that professional edge that one seeks in the service industry. when the brits next to us all ordered wine, i could hear "ka-tching!" going through his head every time he poured :P

i wanted to respond, but it would've been rude to interfere: one of those brits made a snarky comment to a couple of his fellow travellers: "when you kids grow up, you'll see that skiing is the way forward."
he's absolutely right! snowboarding, on the other hand, is about enjoying the way.

17.02.2011
21.21

good news, everyone! no, it's not delivering cargo into the sun. both have me really excitable too, but the first even more than the second - item number one on the list: no more italian wearing a hat! except maybe for seminar counselling, where i take my paper to him so that he feels useful. i just discovered that i passed his course with a grade no more than two points lower than i needed (85 - meaning i scored a 92 for the final), and after the meeting i had with the professor last wednesday that means that i passed it without needing to do any work for extra-credit! whoo hoo!!! and that got me thinking about the second semester, where i have one horrible course (but we have all the notes and advice from the second years), one i-shouldn't-be-taking-this course (the intro to poetry, when i just completed an advanced poetry course), one cool course (shakespeare, with a lecturer who's apparently brilliant) and the slapping together of the seminar paper, which is basically cramming in a whole bunch of examples that we've already read in class to make a point that's neither here nor there.

so i'm all good academically ^_^

the second item on the list: pg and i had it out before going to bed last night, and it appears that the two of us simply keep miscommunicating. we spent the whole day together on the slopes today, and it was a lot of fun!

aside from the damage, of course. i went a bit nuts, and although i'm much more confident at high speed on dangerous curves and with low visibility, my balance disappears as soon as i stop and i've had a couple of bad falls on the same damn spot. and one terrible fall on a new spot; isn't my bum fatty enough to absorb the impact?! if tomorrow wasn't our last day i would actually consider buying a protector.

this morning began with me waking up to the revelation that i'm officially a bad boyfriend. pg doesn't agree with me, and when i gave her free reign she chose reds over blues most of the time, but according to the first "welcome to the snow" speech i ever heard, if you take your girlfriend on runs she's not ready for...

---the dream i had before that was of my great uncle who passed away in 2008: last week i took a photo of a photo of him making a face for his grandson, and in the dream i met him and told him about the photo. "that's nothing," he said, "you should see my angry face!"

he proceeded to show me, and it wasn't particularly impressive.

---over breakfast we stared at the screen and couldn't match the sight of the slopes with the white-out cloud cover (in)visible through the window. it turned out that meyrhofen was blanketed in clouds, but we broke through them less than five minutes up the cable car. it was a fantastic sight - nothing but beautiful mountains and a smoky valley. it was a wonderful sunny day, and the only thing wrong with that is that the weather's been too good this week and the routes are all ice and slush :/

the warmup runs were red 3 and 5, and we hate those. steep sheets of ice, which means sore bums and ankles :S
the first blue we hit was amazing, though. i zoomed past everyone, catching a fair bit of airtime on the way :D

so aside from a serious bitch about a ridiculously long t-lift, a very sore upper left arm from a few bad landings and a blue at the end whose stupid lengths of flat expressed perfectly to pg why i hate blues, it was a fantastic day. such a pity we only have one left! noooooo!!!

that always happens :(

i had the tron: legacy ost playing on my iphone on the packed lift down, and one of the guys couldn't figure out where the music was coming from but was bopping his head to it and humming along. it's an excellent soundtrack for the slopes :)

late afternoon: chocolate, marshmallows and ohmigod-holy-shit-i've-missed-a-lot: i can't believe i haven't made time to read wired during the last four months. so - much - info. so many cool things, and so much inspiration!

our second last dinner was a little less than mediocre, and we have our old waitress back. i don't think i've mentioned the bar next door that's a part of the hotel - it appears to be the only after-piste party in town, and it's incredible how much drunken enthusiasm can be garnered for such horrendous taste in music. every time someone walks through the door we're blasted with 'orrible shit, but i can't help smiling whenever we walk past and see the reverie.

after dessert we went to the coffee shop to check mail (and results) - the smell of fungus-covered old feet coming from the fondue pot of the couple next to us was outrageous. then the temperature rose suddenly - freakishly. we high-tailed it out of there, and now that i've gotten this out i'm going to get back into bed. and read until i pass out. and be upset that tomorrow's our last day. and ecstatic that we're both enjoying this. and deliriously happy that i passed that damned course.

18.02.2011
21.05
last night was dreadful. i barely slept, and what little i managed was plagued by disturbing dreams. my stomache was in disarray and all my muscles ached in a bad way. to make matters worse, i woke up with my teeth feeling loose (not entirely uncommon when sleeping with my guard) and i looked out the window to discover zero visibility.

fortunately, it was only cloud cover in the valley again. i gotta say - this week has been the worst weather for snow sports imaginable. everything was ice for most of it, and by today the situation was so bad that i cannot recall a single slope that didn't give me a bad slide and a hard, thumping sit-down on the same spot on my ass. even worse was falling *really* badly on my left arm in the middle of a long, wide red and with no sunshine - ie. impossible to identify moguls - and it's been uncomfortable since. it took me a while to gather enough will to get up and carry on down.

this morning's riding began badly because i was so sensitive and tired from the night before, and it took me until early afternoon to get my head sorted out. and to get my body to respond to basic instructions. it was far too late in the week to suddenly *get* that the entire time i've either been bending into everything or standing up against everything, instead of mixing it up smoothly like my first instructor told me on sunday. soon after i got that right, pg (extremely bravely) chose to go down the insane black slope that we'd been watching with morbid fascination the entire week. the beginning was too icy for me, but once a bit of sunlight peeped out from behind the clouds and i could differentiate between moguls and ice, i carreened down at high speed and with barely a prayer - it was frikkin' AMAZING. that rush was worth every bit of frustration from the rest of the week, every moment of physical pain, and even made up for the fact that my bindings were all screwy from yesterday and my right foot kept falling asleep on the job.

it would be nice if i had videos for the good rides. note to self: acquire helmet-cam.

hmmph - i suddenly realized that when it comes to snowboarding, i'm actually fairly competitive. unlike everything else i do in life, i can't help but try to out-do other snowboarders even when i'm not nearly at their level of competence. in other amusing news: halfway down that black run, i put some music on and forgot to zip up my jacket. a few seconds later i pulled a massive slide and drove straight into the resulting shower of ice - and it was a lot colder than i'd expected :P

so between yesterday afternoon and today's black run, i remembered - completely and utterly - that i LOVE this shit. if i'm wealthy enough by next year, i'm so gonna buy my own gear so that i don't have to go through the rental irritations again...

lunchtime: i made a bad call when organizing lunch for the both of us... she got me back later by dragging me shopping after we returned our gear :P

after stretching and showering - god, that hot water was an incredible way to end the week - i got into bed with my wired and a decidedly sore neck. of all my aches and pains, that's the one that's really getting to me now. at least i can relax about physical performance for a while :P

dinner was okay as usual; pg's a bit wary about the next semester but i'm all excited. and tomorrow, when we get back, i'm going to phone gco and apologize for ignoring all his phone calls and repeated messages to join him for his birthday celebrations tonight. i still can't figure out if we're friends or not. if i can't, i believe that's an automatic negative. when hinting doesn't work, but stating outright is rude - what does one do? we can't all be zim.

this week, as all good weeks, came to an end too soon. i needed it physically almost as much as i needed it psychologically - *this* was a holiday. as opposed to all the travelling i did from august to october, which was a head-shaking demon-exorcizing anthropological excursion. i feel... complete, again. even more so, with pg. this wasn't a hardcore snowboarding experience, it was a chilled let's-do-whatever experience that happened to have some gnarly rides mixed in. and now i'm mostly packed and going to bed.

stressball part i

the last few days - minus yesterday's festivities - have seen me feeling like all of my internal organs are tightly knotted around my sternum. it's mostly to do with work, and facing the realities of my inability to comfortably bring in cash... and that's due to choices i've made, like studying again.
i really hope i don't end up having to compromise.

i began thursday morning at urchin's, having a cup of coffee and then continuing on to lipgirl's. i was on my way home to pick up shoes before heading to work when i decided that breakfast was in order...

---
coffeeholic's owner asked me if i wanted to rent out my apartment to her niece and her boyfriend.

wow! the thought of renting hadn't crossed my mind, and i asked if the amount that lipgirl's landlord wants for the adjoining apartment (almost twice the size of mine) was acceptable: indeed it was. that put me into a bit of a spin; the idea of moving to an area i like, to be neighbours with a girl that i want to see more of and to have more than enough space for myself even if i take in a flatmate (and then i'll be paying much less rent) is only offset by the strangeness of the idea of having other people live in my space...

i must choose. they came to look at the apartment, and seemed really happy with it - of course they did, it's a great apartment :)

---
i spent the day playing with flex, coming home for a quick break and to pay the building maintenance fees. on my way out, chc asked me "is it really that hard to live with me?"
geez.

on my blade back to work i was annoyed by a taxi driver who couldn't take his hand off the horn - it began with a cyclist when i was still a ways off, but then he got onto me when i overtook him. i stopped at the end of the road to stare at him until he went past. i hadn't yet moved when a motorbike almost ran me over, shouting "be careful!".

be careful?! of what? i was standing on the side of the road, and i still don't understand why he had to come within inches of me. *shakes head*

my third night back at work, and our system was overloaded - that meant that i finally got to answer calls. i have now met the basic requirements for my return to the company, and all the rest is optional extra ^_^

during the night i was introduced to a free job search site, and aside from playing with that i found myself floundering a bit with the graphics book. i'll be playing with that tonight, i'm sure some practical application will make things clear.

i came home for a quick shower, then walked to meet up with a couple of the party organizers to pick up the weekend's tickets. i was invited upstairs, and a bunch of us spent the next three hours eating and talking and having a very relaxed time.

i arrived home at 4am, pleased that the door had been locked and distraught to find the telly on. it turns out that i have way more than two rules in my apartment -

• lock the door when you leave
• keep the parquet dry
• don't smoke inside
• don't feed the roaches
• try not to waste electricity or water (although that's a general rule, not an apartment one)
• knives sharp side down

are those unreasonable?

i definitely didn't get enough sleep before heading back to lipgirl's to check out the pad - now i'm excited about it. it's definitely big enough! only the shower's not ideal, everything else is great :)
i'd spent three days trying to organize a ride up north - with no luck. that wasn't helping my stress levels :/
i spent a few minutes on lipgirl's pc, trying to make contact and then trying to rent a car. it was too late for that :(

i returned home to find chc in the mood for a fight, and we let everything fly. how strange, then, to end it with seemingly mutual understanding and a hug!

i went to the sportec to meet up with scrapper and co for some frisbee. we had enough time before the others arrived to play for a bit, and then rest on the grass while discussing the issues of the day... mean grass - that itch is one hell of a defense mechanism :P

i was exhausted, and the heat was too much. i played well, but lethargically. i hadn't eaten anything all day... i was fairly certain i'd pass out on my way home. to circumvent that, i picked up a mars bar and a guarana soft drink on the way: not the best of breakfasts.

i made the last bus to herzeliya, unsuccessfully trying to nap on the way. i arrived there too early, so i stopped at a kiosk and bought juice and a beer - it was as i opened it that someone i'd messaged on facebook called me: "do you have a license?"
"yes!"
"okay, then you can come with us. the girls you're with - are they yours? or are you just travelling together?"

*instant suspicion*
i decided that i didn't care if they were arsim, as long as we had a way to get there. i was friendly, we agreed to speak close to midnight, and all was well...

soon afterwards my cousin arrived to buy cigarettes, and i returned with her to the apartment to crash on the sofa. the classical music was a bit loud for me, so i moved to the balcony and lay about appreciating the stunning sunset until kc's grandparents arrived for dinner.

dinner was grand - too much food, and it was all good. for some reason none of us had very big appetites, which was quite a pity, but the conversation was pleasant and the evening in general was very nice.

---
time to go. time to head back to tel aviv to catch a ride with our "friend". we took a taxi to the shuttles, then a shuttle to tel aviv. we walked to my place, calling him up on the way to finalize the plans:
"hi! we're back in tel aviv, what time are you thinking of leaving?"
"who is this? what are you talking about?"
"am i speaking to kobi?"
"no."
"okay, well, we're going to the party with him. can i speak to him?"
"he's left already"
"what?!"
"yeah."
"and he left his phone with you?!"
"yeah, but he'll be back in twenty minutes."
*sigh*
"oh! okay, then i'll call back in half an hour."
"you do that"

asshole. we came in to find chc lurking about - after a few minutes of awkward semi-pleasantries, the girls crashed and chc and i had a long argument over whether or not she was justified in her anger with some guy she'd had a fling with. i tried to explain to her how attacking him would cause him to become defensive, and that his angry response was not indicative of him being unreasonable or crazy...

when it dawned on me, after about ten minutes of talking in circles, that she'd been looking to me for confirmation and not some attempt at objectivity, i asked if it would make her feel better if i told her whatever she wanted to hear. a few moments later things calmed down.

humans.

around 1.15am, after sending a message and trying to call twice, i gave up. once again: we had a winner. i sent an SOS to a few of the organizers, and one of them called me back - "how soon can you be in a taxi?"

we scrambled, we took a taxi to the central bus station. we arrived there too late for a regular shuttle, and were almost ready to throw our hands in the air when someone else rocked up and we were enough to make privately renting one feasible. we managed to get from NIS 270 (the regular taxi fee) to 200 (renting the special for three people) to 170 (the new guy dropped our price by thirty; it seems a little unfair, but there's no strength to negotiate at 1.40am). the short ride had us in hadera, and our friend was coming to pick us up ^_^

[continued...]

starting to feel the cold

i'm sitting at an arbitrary kiosk next to netanya's central bus station, two hours after leaving tel aviv. i know i have a lift back to tel aviv from the party, but i need to get there first and the guy i'm supposed to be riding with hasn't been in touch...

---i stopped by a kiosk on the way to the taxi rank for very expensive must-haves such as energy drinks and bubbles. it was just my luck that i was crossing the road when the shuttle took on board its last passenger, and i sat worrying for five minutes before discovering that they run every fifteen. i was all good :)

i didn't get mr stress, who made a big noise because the driver wasn't leaving fast enough for his liking, nor the two brothers loud, who chilled out just as i was getting ready to ask them to.

my neck, and the rest of my body, is a bit stiff.

i've been sitting for a while, fascinated by the natives and worried that some random group of arsim will notice that i'm reading shakespeare (or reading at all, for that matter) and assume that i'm either gay or too smart - i don't have the hometown cultural advantage.

come on, i need to dig!

as james brown said...

on the way to the meimad we stopped for ice-cream. the whole experience sucked, from the place being badly arranged, to the quality of the custom (in-your-face arsim all over the place), to the lack of texture and flavour of the ice-cream itself. i won't be going back there.

the party was great. the only thing i regret is not hitting on a really cute girl, and the reason i never do is because i never have anything to say (and if i do, it'll be misheard or misunderstood).

after five hours of rocking the kid and i gingerly walked to benedict's, for (no way!) eggs benedict. it was a good meal, but did cause us to wonder about poaching eggs.

this morning was stunning, we got home and both went to bed immediately after showering. and i still managed to wake up early :S [okay, around 11am, but that's still only five hours' sleep]

i sat online until about 2.30pm, and convinced the kid to get up so that we could clean. we did it fairly quickly, and then walked to the gym. i had a really good session, and once we were done we came home to change and went for a run.

now post shower, dinner's almost ready and we have some important television to watch and ice-cream to pursue. it's been a hard weekend ;)

useful inventions: a stove design being awarded for helping the environment and emerging nations
freakin' BEAUTIFUL: controversial tilt-rotor craft

no rest for the ______

on my way home, i walked past the lizard, and was surprised to find it hosting a party. 8pm? what gives?

turned out to be a bat-mitzva party, so not something i wanted to attend. my mum called, and i chatted to her outside for half an hour, then chatted with wr for a bit while he worked. and then made my way home.

showered quickly, dressed, and taxied to meet up with spot. on my way there, i passed an area that always reminds me of lake. i realized last night that i can't actually be upset with her for not being in touch during the last couple of years - during the first week that i met her, she warned me that she's like that. so i guess i'm back to being ready to marry her at the drop of a hat :P (not that that's ever going to happen, but whatever)

i walked in to spot's gran's place, his cousins were still there. i had excellent cake, we sat around for a bit, and when i got bored i started reading knife of dreams. mistake. now i'm going to have to read it, instead of waiting patiently for the series to be completed.

we went to a coffee shop, and i had a huge (and really good) salad for supper. the waitress laughed at me, asked if i was on a diet. look - i ate a 330g burger for breakfast, i'm fairly confident that it's within my rights to eat a salad for - essentially - lunch, and still retain my sense of masculinity.

spot and i walked through to the zamir, but arrived early. i went to a kiosk to get smokes. they didn't stock gauloises, and when i asked for them, the asshole had the cheek to tell me that i wouldn't find anywhere in the area - so i may as well spend my money there on something that i didn't want. i walked a further 100m to the next kiosk, and bought them there, then returned just to show him. it didn't make a difference to him, but i felt a little better for it. i'm so fickle.

the party at the zamir was awesome. i don't know what the deal was supposed to be with astral projection... apparently it was them playing upstairs from 2 - 4, but when we went up to check, it was shitty. so we spent the night downstairs with awesome track after awesome track.

the only disappointment was a cute girl who flirted with me (and i back), who left in the middle of a great song, when i wasn't paying attention, without even saying goodbye. annoying!

after the party, ta2 joined us (or we joined him, it's his car) for a mission to find food. all the places in that area that are 100% 24 hours a day, ALWAYS open, were closed. we ran into wr at my coffee, and the funny / sexy waitress from last week. she was fascinated by my tat; it makes me feel good to have others appreciate it ^_^

sat for an amusing half hour over chocochino. then moved off to a place ten minutes' walk from where i live, that i've never seen / heard of before. brilliant food - philadelphia steak and cheese sammich, with excellent home-fries (although it was a waste of cash, 'cuz i had about 4 bites before i was stuffed completely... the sammich was HUGE).

ta2 gave spot a ride home, then me, and i was so wasted by the time i arrived home that i simply brushed my teeth and fell into bed.

slept beautifully ^_^

i got up 9 hours later, read a bit, and was then disturbed by some arsim messing around in our parking lot with their lawnmower-scooters. i flicked a lit cigarette at them, but the wind pushed it to safety. for the best, i guess. i don't really want a brick through my glass doors.

i've discovered that i'm going to a wedding of one of my first flatmates on the 19th. i'm trying to decide if i should congratulate them while talking like a pirate ;)
i have no clue what to get them! how much money do i give if i'm a soldier (soldiers are more or less exempt from large amounts), but also working for a salary (and he's one of the big bosses)??

i showered, and took a walk to azrieli, on the way discovering that a kiosk close by sells cadbury's chocolate! YEAH!

i went looking for tool - aenema, but i didn't recognize it because they don't have the name written on the cover. bastards. but i've been listening to samples of the album from amazon, and now i don't think i want it anyway :S

thank you, nystire:
not only do i now have access to those cartoons that i made outside of the army, but i now know the following (from wikipedia):

in ptolemaic egypt, idiotès was a term for soldier

excellent. so we're all professional idiots. at least that explains the general mentality.

oh, and operation acoustic kitty is just awesome.

rob zombie kicks ass. kmfdm too.