the pause

life feels like a hurricane at the moment, so it was nice to be able to spend a day in the eye of the storm.

yesterday:

our friends (plus parents) actually tried the challah-lina reaper with me, and it was a great success. both in that nobody suffered too much, and in that i wasn't the only one to go back for more.

dinner was great, the kids had a good time together, and although gd and i are always on our guard with the parents due to the political divide, we had lots of interesting conversations with zero friction. it was a lovely evening overall.

we got home pretty late, lit the candles (with my mom), and got mr smear into bed before passing out ourselves.

today:

the early morning was slow (we all got up late), and i spent a little time checking out last call BBS which i picked up last night in the steam sale.

cm got back to me with an invitation to bring mr smear over to play with his kids. getting mr smear out the house is complicated at the best of times... but he came, willingly, and aside from a section through the park that felt too much like a hike to him, we enjoyed a pleasant walk and he kept us both entertaining by singing psychosocial's chorus with ice age's sid's lisp the whole way there.

since mr smear's finally conceded that speaking hebrew has utility, he had no issue communicating with cm's kids and the bunch of them got along well. so the kids had a fun afternoon, the few times they didn't had nothing to do with mr smear, and the adults had a fun afternoon.

eventually, we said our goodbyes and i walked mr smear to his other friend who lives close by, and then i came home, rested a bit, did some dishes until mr smear got home, when he very begrudgingly helped with the drying, and then it was chill time (balatro, it's dangerous) until dinner, and then we enjoyed dinner and the end of equilibrium, lit the candles (with my mom), and got him through bathtime / ingrown toenail treatment time / bedtime.

i spent the next couple of hours balatro-ing, showered, spent a little time last call BBS-ing, and am now about to put myself to bed. i've got a haircut scheduled for tomorrow morning, and gd's developed another dental issue (obviously she's bored) so we'll have to deal with that, but otherwise tomorrow's all about preparing for my technical interview on monday.

clearer

 a bit clearer, at least, but still suffering coughing fits and frequently blocked sinuses.

this morning had some rough edges, but it was okay, and we discovered professor kliq (there are two accounts [1] and [2]).

around noon we took the bike and my blades and rode to the pump track, meeting cm and his kids there (i kept my distance). it was a loooong slog to get there, as mr smear was struggling more than usual, and about halfway back i realized that mr smear's bike was stuck in a high gear. brought it down from sixth to third, absolute gamechanger, but he was already exhausted.

we both enjoyed a really nice rest stop, sitting on the grass at park hayarkon listening to a busker playing along to relaxing songs.

we stopped off for ice lollies on the way home, then jumped in the bath when we arrived, then chilled for a while, then wrestled a bit of a dent in one of the couch cushions, then investigated dnd character creation, and then watched the the float episode of the looney tunes show.

holy crap, that was an amazing episode! mr smear was so cut up about daffy duck being so utterly repulsive and detestibly mean to porky pig, that it served as a perfect platform to tie in with all the lessons we've been trying to teach him over the course of the past week. that being good parents is making sure that he doesn't end up a daffy duck, and that we'll know we're doing well if he's got a good heart, and is capable of following his dreams and dealing with whatever life throws at him.

it was truly a huge relief being able to have a calm, comforting conversation like that. now for the bedtime battle.

the staycation: over

i'm starting this post at 2.15am on tuesday morning. i've spent more than two hours lying in bed, the first hour or so reading and the last stretch just trying uncomfortably to sleep.

friday:

we went to the tomorrow exhibit at the ramat gan museum. the AI-assisted videos were mostly amazing, but we could have experienced that at home on youtube. the female pop icon NFT thing (women ape yacht club?) was dramatically unimpressive and the icons themselves so remarkably uninteresting that we rolled on by, the VR experience was interesting for all of two minutes (the games we've played on the mongoose's setup were incredible, this seemed like an attempt to suck the joy out of the technology), and the "classics" stuff was hebrew-only; one section was boring, the other was cool for gd and me but unnerving for mr smear.

i hard napped when we got home, then dragged myself out of bed to walk with mr smear to the beach to join cm and his family. we had a really great time!

overall, it was an excellent day.

saturday:

we started walking to the port to meet up with ric and his family, but a quarter of the way there gd realized she was in too much pain so i walked back to pick up a car and we drove there instead.

driving in tel aviv? not recommended.

we enjoyed our outing with them, their little one's super cute. mr smear was mostly cool until just before we left, and we ended up with a bad vibe on the way home.

we stopped at home for a short while, then i took mr smear to ra'anana to meet up with dod* and his family. mr smear wasn't being particularly social (we have to teach him that the concept of "strangers" in israel works a little differently), but he thoroughly enjoyed the ninja obstacle course.

* divan orange dude. i've just learned that le divan orange closed down a few years ago and that makes me a bit sad

we left just after a gangly kid wearing glasses tried to run up the side of the ramp mr smear had been using, and i looked on in horror as he slipped and smashed his glasses into his eye socket. dod and his wife helped tend to him while his grandparents made phone calls, the cut looked awful and i hope his eye's still functioning.

sunday:

sunday was accompany gd to the pain clinic day. it was a long day of doctors and bureaucrats. some of it felt constructive and promising. between clinic visits she got her nose piercing switching out and mr smear and i had a huge hummus breakfast at mashawsha. it was expensive but delicious.

monday:

back to work! aside from a tedious day of completing reports (two down, one to go) interspersed with multiple distractions, it was a good day and i must admit that it feels good to feel welcomed and appreciated.

gd had a rough day (feeling nauseous), but i was pleased to hear that mr smear had a very successful playdate.

...

the other day we watched a compilation of child comedians on the got talent shows, and mr smear is trying very hard to be funny, with results that are sometimes hilarious but usually for the wrong reasons...

...

i've been re-reading neuromancer for the last while, there's soooo much i'd forgotten and it's really, really amazing in spite of the anachronisms. during the staycation i also started reading the elements of eloquence, and it's very enjoyable!

...

of course, i got side-tracked writing this. i wonder if i'll be able to get to sleep soon.

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.

taking a beating

list time - i'm in a hurry to start sorting my pad out.

phone troubles - iphone vs e72. i don't know what to choose, although i think i might hold out for the iphone just so that i'd have my own testing platform (i've just registered as an apple developer for an offer i received yesterday)

i went to campus early to meet with cm for pre-class coffee, but he got stuck in traffic... our first class was on dante and petrarch: the girls next to me are totally disinterested (it's a mandatory course) and didn't cease with pointless banter the entire session :(
they kind of reminded me of these girls. [for the non-hebrew speakers - these two girls fail at figuring out which direction on the compass lies between north-east and south-east...]

i spent a large part of the day thinking about doing things for money. i've even applied for a job as a marketing intern and will be calling someone up on sunday to offer to be his lab assistant. the thought has occurred to me that i may have to drop a course or two, bite the bullet and work full-time - but i'd rather not.
it appears that i have enough cash for the rest of the month (and in retrospect, i've only been job-hunting for a couple of weeks), i've just received a contract for a guy who wants me to freelance and last night received an american offer that would be *awesome* if it comes through...

it's a bit tough not to stress at all, though.

while waiting for the secretary after her office hours (at least i had reading to do) i chatted with our seminar lecturer, and he's quite interested in my idea for a topic, so i have some direction now. once i discovered that i was waiting for nothing, i went for lunch with comixer and we sat discussing the translation of comics to movies.
he's right - comic style doesn't usually translate well. so far, kick ass and watchmen are the closest. i like a lot of the comic movies, but they're just not at the level of their original art form.

pg made me laugh - there was a random, long blonde hair on my bag and she snidely suggested i've been hanging around with other girls... i laughed, because there's no way to prove her wrong :P

i was *WASTED* by the second class. i started zoning out about halfway through, and at some stage yawned audibly, and was so tired that i couldn't stop a mini-burp from escaping... the embarrassment (we're about twelve people in class, all seated around the lecturer) woke me up a bit :$

the concept of the class was the similarity between the 19th century's attitude towards art and today's attitude towards artificial intelligence. and something about alternative realities. either way, i found myself suffering from a sleep-deprivation induced lack of articulation. at some point i spaced out, only to tune back in when asked a question about book-keeping... once back on planet earth, i returned to the game again... even that bombed, i'm still full of the useful and weird :P

i really have a lot of prep-work to do this weekend.

the second coffee (and cookies!) helped me through the last class... at least that was an interesting one. i was quite edgy about the whole "work" thing, though. sitting afterwards with wr and a glass of araq watching what the frack? took some of it off, though.
he introduced me to somebody as a disciple of timothy leary... and he's right :)
[i recommend reading leary on drugs to everyone - it's most enlightening. also, i have my own thoughts on social reform and how we operate]

i haven't mentioned something that's been driving me nuts with my netbook since i got it, and was finally resolved... why the frack isn't it indicated anywhere that the right side of the trackpad is a frikkin' scroll bar?!?! now that i've learned to manipulate it (and not to touch it when trying to move the mouse), usage is *way* more comfortable...

there was no bus 27 - that's half an hour of work i missed :(

it suddenly struck me on my way to work that smashmouth - all star is a decidedly appropriate song for describing the way i run my life...

---the first question at work: what's a girlfriend? i don't recall quite how the discussion started, but it got me musing. i'm *knocks wood* very happy with pg ^_^

not only does my girlfriend make good chocolate chip cookies, but when she's bored she's happy to come to my place and watch movies... and clean areas that annoy her... i walked in around 2.30am to join her in giggling at the tail end of big trouble in little china and find my bathroom tidied and my bookshelf organized... a bit strange, but very cool.

---when i got to work my mum called me up and we talked a bit about the practicalities of studying and working... soon after that a friend of mine contacted me from the states and i now have a fun-sounding job offer on the table...

the most important item on the evening's agenda: i got some work done! as in, i had an idea for a solution (a clean work-around to a php / ajax problem) and managed to test and integrate it. i haven't felt actual success in a while. in addition, i began documentation clean-up (so that i could understand what the hell the guys were doing in a section i need to work on) and i took it upon myself to formalize coding practices for our development team.
my justification for such measures comes in the realization that i find it easier to read chaucer without a glossary than i do reading my predecessors' code.

at some point i tried to roll to the door of my janitor's closet and i managed to snag the vacuum cleaner's cable - i was lucky i fell alright. it's eerie timing.

why doesn't flex builder allow searching through the project scope?!?! it's an important feature for a complex system and it's driving me demented :S

---four hours' sleep later...

i went to the doctor - either i got the appointment wrong or the guy i spoke to did, but it worked out alright. it turns out my h. pylori story isn't over - i'm not prepared to do another course right now, so we're deferring it for a few months. i hope i haven't passed it along to pg, but the likelihood that i contracted it from her is just as strong :/

i bladed to cafe george - arriving moments before urchin - for a good breakfast and rambling. she has a project for next week and was out of ideas... i was only too happy to oblige. the problem is that i'm so enthusiastic about what i came up with and i'll only be able to hope that the results are something like what i had in mind...

i ran into pg's mum and we laughed about something pg described this morning: her father was accosted by her nosey neighbour and asked if i'm a "serious" boyfriend.
"serious?! i haven't even met him yet!"
oops. and he's just left the country again - i've passed on my apologies :$

i sat laughing with the hardware dude for a bit, and was on my way out when a customer arrived. i said goodbye, and as i turned around he grumbled something unintelligible at me. i looked at him quizzically, and he turned up his grumble to a shout:
"what, am i a dog?!"

what... the... fuck...

it's taken me a *lot* longer to post than i expected (although i have had the occasional distraction), and it's past time for me to be sorting out my papers and cleaning my apartment. i don't *actually* want pg to do it for me, even if it does make my life much easier :P

---
weird and wonderful:
eye fix
eye tattoo

political:
campus anti-semitism
a public service announcement

simply sweet:
the calvin and hobbes from yesterday is really sweet [4/11/2010]
an amusing look at problems with back to the future

gliding - part ii

[... continued]

thursday:

eating grapefruit near a netbook is a mistake.

the day began chilling with wr and reading an informative introduction to beowulf; icg's back on campus and we happened to be sitting in her building. yay for awkwardness! wr was asked about music by some girl who ended up with a short list from me of must-listen-to's. one of the items on the list is lihi sagi. she's gonna be good ;)

i arrived at the conclusion, during our first class, that the introduction wasn't actually necessary - although there's no such thing as a waste. the first reading was performed by an american girl... beowulf with an american accent is unkind. i took the second, and felt far more comfortable than i had three days before. soon i should be breathing comfortably :P

i had a couple of questions after class, and bore witness to stg being unkind to the kindess of lecturers by asking trivialities that he didn't know what to do with. i tried to help out, then took her aside and told her to annoy me with the silly stuff and save the big ones for the instructors. i hope she wasn't offended, but i'm uncomfortable with her making herself look foolish even though i know it's her first week in academia.

i had lunch with one of the guys from the rollerblading group (canadian munchkin - cm) and then parked myself on the grass to read hiawatha. it's the same meter as cream - the tale of brave ulysses and so i cannot read it without (in my head) singing it to that tune...

pg surprised me and sat down with me for a few minutes - she was in a weird way. we ran into her brother on the way to class, but whatever that weirdness was still manifesting and the whole encounter was awkward.

---i've been made fun of for carrying around the metal cup i bought in india.
"what, are you still backpacking?"
the reason i replaced it on my bag is that wr gave me a heads-up at the beginning of the week: it has now proved to be an invaluable addition to my gear! i can now obtain decent coffee for one shekel, *and* i'm not damaging the environment by discarding disposables.

---the discussion on portraits and exprasis was most enlightening. in particular, i have discovered that i'm spot on for the course although i'd been feeling as confused as everyone else. i *like* knowing what's going on, i *like* seeing my questions causing other people to go "hmmmm...." :)

our last class for the week was a lot of fun! i had our lecturer laughing out loud when i described the american attitude to the native americans as akin to having confused the order of "rape, plunder, pillage" - you don't want to set fire to the house with the loot still inside it (he says, tactfully).

one of the girls i'd been speaking to on monday didn't seem too impressed with the class, and i asked what was up... she claimed to have thoroughly enjoyed it, and i claimed to lack a sense of irony. i wonder if she was offended?

the kit kat catastrophe: on my way out, desperate for chocolate, and the sneaky machine pushed the bar *just* onto the edge. there's a sliding mechanism to ensure that one can't tip the machine. this happened outside of the company's telephone support hours.

the pile-on for the bus reminded me of my favourite army line... although at least there were no fists involved. i squatted in a corner and read my magazine until getting to my stop, bought wine gums (wine gums! in israel! w00t!!!) and walked to the clinic.

it took a while to get in to see the ophthalmologist, but she was very efficient. apparently all my eye trouble can be blamed on allergies. we shall see.

a quick pre-wall nap turned into a little death; i was hopelessly bombed. around midnight i was visited by an angel, who had vanished by the time i woke up this morning. maybe i'd only dreamed that.

now to meet with a potential employer.

i'm REALLY happy with how this first week went! here's to a weekend of preparing for the next one ^_^