a good filling in a disturbing sandwich

 i just woke up a short while ago, and i'm sitting here nursing a coffee and a sore lower back. i barely slept last night due to a combination of physical discomfort and insomnia, i was just uncomfortable throughout. and when i did sleep, i had deeply disturbing dreams.

one of those dreams was like an action movie, where we were defending our company from terrorists trying to take over. i don't recall the precise reasoning or sequence of events towards the end, but i used the new sharp knife in the office and decapitated a few people, who then subsequently came back to life and convinced me that i'd lost my mind.

...

i was woken up yesterday morning by a sharp "tic tic tic" sounds coming out of the wall, and i grumpily, foggily posted a video to our neighbor's group. two minutes later, i opened the window and realized that it was the sounds of water dripping from upstairs, so i wrote in the group that it was dripping from above.

hours later, our upstairs neighbor sent me message saying there's nobody else it could have been, and that i could have just messaged him privately. i only saw that message hours after that, so i scrambled to assure him that i hadn't known where it was from at the time and hadn't intended to call him out passive aggressively, and i've been carrying that shit in my chest ever since.

...

aside from "the usual" random shit over the course of the day: i read some more nightwood (a few pages, and then passed out on the couch), gd beat me at battleship in spite of the fact that she dropped all her pegs (it was the third time she accidentally bumped the game 🤣), mr smear and i walked to the park and played frisbee for a while*, and we decided that mr smear's old enough and watched ace ventura last night. of course he's talking out of his ass now :P

* after yesterday's incident, i discussed with him that i think that a big part of a dad's job is to force a child through all the necessary small traumas in life so that they can grow up strong enough to handle the big traumas. and get over themselves and get good at things that don't come naturally to them.

i went to bed early, after taking a short look at some ideas for the interview i'm doing today.

...

i'm tired. like, burnout tired. i'm sore. i'm a little bit resentful that i'm not on vacation today.

the spring clean

 today was intense.

we've been having an issue with mold for the last while, and it seemed like we were winning until gd took some clothing out of our closet yesterday and was distraught to discover that it was covered in mold. so this morning, after i dropped mr smear at school dressed up as a creepy skeleton and apparently understanding that purim is not halloween and scaring the crap out of other kids isn't what today is about, gd and i set about getting rid of this horrible, shitty infestation.

it was heavy work, but between the two of us we'd organized everything we needed and by the end of the day it looks and feels and smells like we got the job done. there's a little bit left to do tomorrow, but this was a huge endeavor and we ended up having to throw some things out and clean and repack a lot of stuff...

...

off the top of my head i don't recall what wednesday was about, but thursday was a long day that felt entirely unproductive until everything came together in the evening, and i ended the work week with a complex sense of a) satisfaction that i'd completed an important piece of the puzzle and b) anxiety from what i expected to be the final piece of the puzzle. today got off to a great start, in that i completed the next piece that had been worrying me, but although what i did worked there's something mysterious that appears to be interfering with me testing it.

one step at a time.

...

the weekend was good, relatively relaxed. yesterday morning was all about me aligning my personal projects and mr smear playing minecraft educational edition, so in the afternoon i took him to the park to throw a frisbee around. we had fun, and he's getting pretty good! but at some point he got bored, and instead of telling me he was bored decided to troll me instead, which made for a bit of unpleasantness. fortunately we both cleared the air quite quickly and enjoyed a good walk back.

i'm reading danny, the champion of the world to mr smear and it's a book i'd completely forgotten reading, only something seemed very familiar in the first two paragraphs and then last night i came across a phrase that caused an *ah-HA* moment: when i was nine i decided that i wanted to be a "designing engineer" and as an adult i've always wondered where that particular combination of words could have come from - now, i know!

...

gd and i have been watching everything everwhere all at once in bits and pieces, and so far it's surprisingly brilliant considering how much praise we've heard from "normal" types :P

where gender wars end frisbeer begins part ii

[... continued]

gd took me to midi 6 for breakfast, and i showed her how to use a swype keyboard. speaking of which... i've been considering how apple's playing political and thinking of switching to android. it would be easier if there weren't so many good reasons not to do so.

camino espresso is insanely, decadently delicious. seriously, i couldn't control myself.

after an indescribably good siesta, gd and i rushed off for more frisbeer (and watermelon, and perfectly ripe mangoes) with vfmp's brother and his girlfriend. after another beautiful afternoon, only darkened by my being hit in the thumb with another group's stray frisbee that continued to hurt for hours afterwards, we headed to godmother's for a wonderful dinner.

everything was pleasant except for a really stupid statement on uncle hate's part that i - even more stupidly - automatically responded to with a statement of fact. he simply repeated his initial dumb statement, godmother and i simultaneously repeated my statement, and this remained circular until i got a kick in the shin under the table from gd which stopped me just as uncle hate was finishing with "i don't even care" and i was repeating "and neither do i".

*facepalm*

then yang arrived and talked shit to us for a while. gd pointed out that i'm constantly poking him. i explained that that's because i can't deal with the dumb.

we stopped at my place for me to shower and pick up some stuff, then returned to hers. we ate way too much ice cream because so delicious' creamy vanilla is practically impossible to put down, while watching dear mr. watterson. it's not such a good documentary but if you're a fan of the comic - like everyone is, apparently - it certainly does bring some added value. it made me want to buy a collection, as opposed to reading it relatively daily from a feed that makes it feel like the series is still going and messes with my head every time i read something i'm sure i've seen before.

...

oh, rls. not so bad, but certainly annoying.

[continued...]

where gender wars end frisbeer begins part i

last thoughts on the shooting:

our sexual assault problem is nuanced, layered, and not easily solved by a hashtag and this is what most kids learn and the news coverage isn't helping.

---friday:

terms and conditions may apply contains a lot of material i was familiar with already, but some of the things i didn't know were deeply disturbing. anyone who uses internet services or has a smartphone should watch this documentary.

boxing: i felt like a machine during the warmup and shadowboxing. i was thrown another new guy and introduced as our coach's "most experienced boxer" without any sarcasm or joking, and was then partnered with an experienced mma guy for pad work which was a relief. after we finished the class with impact, i informed the coach of my neck news and for the first time he took my health seriously. he told me that i need to stop impact as well, and that from now on i need to stick to pads or bags and that's it.

...

one of the boxers is studying his doctorate at concordia, and he told me about a 70k grant they have. that's... that's pretty good incentive to take a year off to complete my thesis. i should listen to my mother and go speak to them sometime, even if i'm not going to be able to go back to university for another half a year to a year at least.

i hurriedly made and ate a salad, finishing just before vfmp and his boyfriend picked me up to go to chimera. chimera was closing, but they gave us a loyalty card with a free drink on it and now we know when to go back :)
we milled around a bit, eventually arriving at kokkino cafe. not only do they have soy and almond alternatives, they're puzzled by the fact that anyone charges extra for them. the owner was really nice and the coffee was excellent, the atmosphere in general is great and the music was excellent. how did i never walk in there before?!

the guys dropped me off at gd's at the end of the night, just in time for both of us to fall into bed, exhausted.

---saturday:

it was a gorgeous 13 degrees! the weather felt perfect for being outside, and it'd only get warmer. i came home, continued fighting with the internet about #YesAllWomen and eventually gave up. i can't keep fighting with people whose interests i care about for the right to fight for them. it's the same with israeli activists, vegans and feminists. and i was reminded of something i say a lot: i don't want to be a part of any club that won't accept me as i am.

that goes for politics as well as nightclubs, i guess.

right after deciding to quit the argument, bnw got in touch and explained that the reason she hadn't been in touch for a while was trouble at work with sexual harassment. fortunately it's all resolved, but the story itself really upset me and at the same time as i said to her "you should have reported him!" i realized that in her position she really couldn't know if that was the right thing to do or not :(

...

so... "the tam-tams" has become the name of the place the event occurs, and not just the event itself? that was confusing. on my way there i stopped at a coffee shop and asked the guy behind the counter if they had soy or almond milk. he gave me a funny look and explained that he didn't understand me, so i tried again, slowly pronouncing the two words and worrying that the way i say almonds doesn't translate in french (it totally does). he called for help and the other guy understood perfectly. while he was preparing my coffee i looked to the right, where a giant sign proclaimed, in french, soy and almond milk available.

i don't know which of us is dumber.

the problem with walking with a covered drink is that you don't see how it's sloshing, and so over the course of the next fifteen minutes i must have spilled about a third of my coffee on myself, with a nice big splash on my shorts and some ugly drops on my shirt. that only fueled my cursing at each bus that i missed, two of them only because they ran red lights. aarrrrgh!

no matter, the afternoon frisbeer and soccer was absolutely brilliant! we all had a great time, and after a couple of hours i left to go to bnw's with a big grin on my face ^_^

i picked up a quick falafel from la panthère verte while pondering my disengagement from the rape culture / sexism discussion.

my metro timing was excellent, and bnw offered me amazing coffee while we discussed the details of her horrible ordeal and then talked a bit about the comics. then i left, hurrying to gd's so we could go and watch a movie.

it's not clear why they evacuated the de la concorde metro station, but it seemed pretty serious as they had running police, paramedics and firemen and the whole area was shut down for about an hour. during that time it became clear to me just how impossible relying on laval's public transport is... if i *had* taken a bus, i would have arrived at gd's about an hour after i eventually did. that's insane.

bnw had loaned me her copy of the sandman: the dream hunters and i read half of it on the way. what a gorgeous work! i arrived in time for us to scramble to the cinema and be able to seat ourselves just as x-men: days of future past began. it's as wonderful as all the reviews say, we had an awesome time and the only thing that i felt detracted from the film was so slight that it really didn't matter.

---sunday:

i'm glad to see that bikers are protecting maya angelou's funeral. i woke up thinking that everyone should picket wbc funerals, with signs saying things like "god hates people who hate in his name". the only thing i have to add on the topic of maya angelou is this article on her pride in her history. it gives some of her poetry even more of an edge than it has already.

[continued...]

lowered gear

in the cartoon, an israeli politician and an iranian politician stand behind opposing podiums with empty, missile-shaped speech bubbles above their heads; their index fingers raised, their eyes closed and their teeth bared while shouting into their microphones. below them, holes have been cut into the podiums and hands reach out from either side to trade red roses.

i find this image very touching. a less-touching observation was made, though:
the image compares between the leaders of iran that call for erasing the zionist entity from the map of the world and actively support organizations aiming at liberating palestine from this "temporary" regime by deliberate murdering civilians, and the leaders of israel whose only narrative is protecting the existence of the state of israel by destroying iran's nuclear facilities. this comparison is outrageous, false, and is nothing but anti-israeli propaganda.

while i agree that a comparison of the speech bubbles does render this off the mark, that is not the point of the cartoon. the focus of the image has to do with war rhetoric vs the people's wishes, and the final statement "and is nothing but" is not valid. wouldn't it be nice if we could all just get along?

it's a nice idea, and worth nothing more nor nothing less. i've read the comments, and it seems that some people are into it and some aren't. and that doesn't make it any less of a good idea.

do i think it'll make a difference? not really. is the israeli war rhetoric the same as the iranian? not even a little bit.

---thursday:

the day arrived. i got up early (i'm still sore at having gotten used to the times), and spent two hours on my paper. i arrived at the poetry conference just as it was beginning, and the first couple of hours were mostly very interesting. the head of our department gave the opening speech, as usual, and i have to say that i was blown away by its poetic nature - the conference title was "poetry in unexpected places", and to hear it in a description of a clinical case was too meta to go unrepeated:

a young woman in an institute for psychotic adults repeatedly takes slices of bread out of her bag, carefully peels them, bites holes into them; periodically, she goes for walks in the institute in which she occasionally touches the walls and mounts the rims of sidewalks, tracing circuits around an emptiness she makes emerge, an emptiness that is the rudiment of signification that for her is never guaranteed but must always be made, poeien, anew. poetry addressed to no-one, in a language, if it is a language, absolute in its singularity. a language for which there is no dictionary, no treasury of signifiers. and yet creating a hole in the real that makes the dwelling of this subject in this world, on this earth, possible.
- professor shirley sharon-zisser

the first session ended with a discussion with one of my fellow students - she's incredibly sensitive (for better and for worse), and lacking in self-confidence for the simple reason that she, like most students, doesn't understand what the academic institution is all about. what i explained to her was then re-explained to me on another level: on my way from that chat to continue working on my paper, i ran into another fellow student who told me that it is possible to resubmit a paper once it's been returned. amazed, and especially hopeful in light of last week's paper being a disaster, i send last week's paper's professor an email asking her if this was the case:

that's the whole point of a graduate seminar - to prepare you for the academy where revision and resubmission are normal.

well, i'll be.

aside from a side-quest to pick up something for a friend of mine, i spent the following three hours working really hard and finishing my paper. my original plan was to cut it down to size - a "referat" submission is supposed to be 10-15 pages, and a seminar paper 15-25 - and then restore the cut elements for the seminar submission due in a month and a half's time.

hah! shortening a paper. that's *never* possible. so i emailed it to the lecturer, printed it out, handed it in to the secretary, and walked outside:

the perfect moment
i step outside
it's quiet, with a light breeze to round of the edges of the suns rays
and my heart quivers
bursting with uncontainable excitement
nervousness
after releasing my son into the wild
sending him off, in the hope that he is ready to do me proud

yes, i know, it's a crappy poem, but that moment was as sweet as all that. i hadn't realized just how much that paper meant to me; it's the first step towards doing my duty to shakespeare, the most innocent and mind-bogglingly intense poet / playwright ever. now that it's all written down and formalized, i've gotten in touch with airplane in the hope that we can turn this into a graphic novel... i already have some wicked ideas ;)

---after a cup of coffee with the friend i'd run the errand for, who made an interested point about most of us being incapable of stopping and reflecting, we went to the anime screening. romeo x juliet: too soon. too soon. it's absolutely wonderful, the mix-and-match shakespearean stories and stories-within-stories, and that being just the first episode, is inspired. and the dragonsteeds? no problem, even if i think that's a terrible name for them. but william shakespeare himself, portrayed as a sex-starved paedo, is offensive precisely because i have just demonstrated that he most certainly wasn't.
speaking of offensive: the boondocks wins first prize. it's horrible, and i will be watching more of it. finally, the japanese x-men is highly reminiscent of akira. which is weird. and not uncool.

i was exhausted, and the guys were a bit too loud for me, but it was still a fun screening.

---one of the guys (a doctorate student) gave me a lot of helpful advice, and as i waited for the bus i checked my email and received the first comment on my paper from my advisor: on the one hand, he's enthusiastic about reading my paper. on the other, there are a couple of points that are going to upset him and i KNOW my tone was arrogant. i need help with that, unfortunately, i don't actually know how to take that down a notch.

pg and i went to maker's for dinner, and after that i wasn't feeling so good. i went to bed early and hoped it wasn't food poisoning.

---friday:

8.30: wake-up

noon: on blades to an awkward picnic birthday party
- i was the only bringer of beers, nobody brought a bottle opener
- most of the time was spent in a circle making introductions
- some of the time was spent with a frisbee. i was the only one who could manage it.

2.30pm: bailing for a sandwich and coffee, with no time to return home
- the sandwich was vegan, and oddly so
- the barista mistakenly gave me regular milk
-- i didn't notice
-- she felt terrible
-- we're both lucky my lactose intolerance isn't serious
-- i had to explain to her that she deserved her tip, in particular because she'd warned me

4pm: a lot of us arrived for the rollerblading
- only to discover that we were supposed to be there at 4.45pm
- we'd all have planned our days differently
- i practised some jumping, and i think that was productive

4.45 - 7pm: a good roll.
- good exercise
- pg's mum and i convinced her to join us, and all in all it was a pleasant afternoon.

*time slows* a shower, dinner, coffee, the rest of astérix et la surprise de césar (i can't believe i remember it so well from the comics!), and scrapper visiting for three hours of music, words and ideas.

hmm: etymology of the word remember, as in to put together the pieces of the bodies? (from the myth, can't recall the speaker's name)

---today:

what kind of day was today? it was a perfect day. it began with a two-hour interview for a british woman doing her doctorate research on the conflicting morality of political views, which is a topic i'm almost always happy to wax lyrical on. if i can get a hold of the transcription i'll be making it available online. from the coffee shop, i stepped out into a beautiful spring day, and it wasn't hard to convince pg to join me for breakfast at our new local hangout, clementine.

i ate far too much, it was all delicious, and read jazz poetry (it's an assigned work for one of my courses) with jazz playing in the background (coincidence?), and i was halfway through my coffee when i began feeling sleepy. i paid, shuffled home, and passed out on a chair in the lounge in the sunlight, woken sometime later by pg telling me to go to bed. what followed was the deepest, most peaceful nap that i recall having for the last while, and i guess on some level i'm still in that moment, hanging on, as it were.

...

pg and i went to pick up our numbers for the rollerblading / half-marathon on friday, i bought running shoes because they look cool and were reasonable priced at %50 off (and i've been looking, it wasn't *really* impulse shopping), and then we stopped at le guffre for a perfect waffle and tea, great music in the background and a warm, european atmosphere: it was more pleasant and romantic than any of our experiences in austria. go figure :P

home, salad, futurama; a chat with my mum, and now it's time to either get productive or crash. tough call, if tomorrow's 6.30am wake-up is to be believed :P

---oh, america. defeating science? that's just sad. it looks even sadder after reading about new firehoses.

piracy economics: rob reid on numbers mythology

elon musk is my hero. speaking of heroes, he almost looks like he's going to cry when discussing neil armstrong.

netless - part ii

[... continued]

dinner and musings with scrapper, botchman and eidetic at maker's. good sandwich. good evening.

---sunday:

i went to bed early but still had a hard time getting up. no class as such, just a screening of william carlos williams - interesting, but no howl.

pg and i had lunch together, discussing ways to celebrate wr's birthday this year :)

---my health insurance company. as mentioned before, the first communication i received from them was a threat of legal action. after a week of trying to get hold of someone who would actually talk to me, i gave the salesman a call.

he was annoyed that i didn't come to him first - his was not the number on the document i received. when he heard what i had to say, he seemed almost genuinely angry himself, and agreed with everything i'd said.

1. if you call from a blocked number and don't leave a message, it's as if you didn't call. you do NOT cross off "inform the client that he owes money" from your checklist.

2. if the bank doesn't grant a standing order and it takes more than a month for you to discover that - that's YOUR problem, not the client's.

some apparent (yeah, right) big-wig called to set things right and convince me not to cancel my account. at least i get a month "free" - because they're not charging an arm and a leg - but things weren't 100% by the end because my complaint concerned not having been treated as a human being and i'm not sure if the message got through.

there're only two strikes available, and if i get any more shit from them they're out. i hate been screwed with.

---nystire came over for a visit, and we talked all sorts of rubbish. after he left, i got some ugly work done (SVN troubles) and then left early to play frisbee on the beach with pg. because that's what we do. and she's good.

some woman walking along the beach interrupted our exercise to remark on the wonderful sunset. i agreed, and was then informed (hello, Miss Tact) that it was even more wonderful because she'd been reading psalms, and wouldn't i like to... then she noticed the look on my face, and hurried off apologetically.

psalms. when you don't want people to think, make them read shit they don't understand. read them into submission. better yet - have them read themselves into submission.

---we had frozen yoghurt instead of dinner - it was awesome. and there's now an app for loyalty cards (rewardy), so less wasted paper and less "shit, i left it at home". on the way, i explained to a guy who'd left his bike running outside that it's not so efficient - why does nobody know about this???

an evening of readings (hemingway), plus rum, marzipan, and wire-fu. no, not *that* wire-fu: making a fishing rod out of wire.

cool.

---today:

6.10am wake-up, and i got up realizing that through all the shit of the past ten months, i really have been landing with my bum in in butter. i'm dating a great girl, living in a great place, i finally have a decent job, i'm still loving my studies (enough to apply to be a TA next year) and party season's about to begin. it may not have been easy, but, to quote my otherwise misguided brother, when you're on a mission the universe does conspire to assist you.

i had a quick nap before getting ready for class, instant dreaming and intensive.
on the bus, i avoided eye-contact with an italian wearing a hat only to be accosted by botchman's friend and sucked in to a political debate about exporting water in the form of flowers and fruit. i was kinda grateful when the woman sitting on my right asked us to pipe down, and i returned to my readings.

i don't know who it is, and i'm beginning to suspect someone i'm fairly close to - figuratively - but every first class on mondays and thursdays has had a smelly entity and it's not okay. i'm considering moving away from the usual suspects because it's tough to concentrate when a moment of bad breath or BO strikes.

[continued...]

trauma tune: sharing - part iii

[... continued]

sunday:

sunday had a tough start. i'd received an inspirational sms from co-conspirator... more so when she refused to even look at me.

the class was about pregnancy, and afterwards i convinced our professor that sonnet 116 is quite possibly about sex. i had lunch with pg, then walked down to the highway to catch a bus... forgetting to draw cash, walking all the way to the mall, returning again... i bought a ticket for the month. i don't know if i should have.

---the first meeting of my new job was really cool. it felt right. i had shit to contribute. the guys are smart and interested. i have a good feeling about this.

---what is it with anonymous phone callers not leaving messages???

on my way to the old job, i was engaged in a bureaucratic battle over classroom bookings. i think i came out on top, by being given direct contact with the person who is actually responsible for the building.

a productive work session, then the discovery that about NIS 1000 was missing from my salary. this is NOT the month for that shit to happen...

leaving with the sun still up?! absurd! pg and i went to play frisbee, but the park we chose was too dark and i wanted to play on the grass... so we returned, strapped on our blades, and did a proper run for an hour or so, wearing ourselves out completely but discovering a good frisbee park on the way :D

i burned the eggs. i gotta get used to the new setup.

---monday:

i studied till late last night, with the sound of thunder and rain accompanying me.
i woke up at 6.30am mid-dream to continue, and felt as prepared as could be by the time i walked in to the exam.

which ended bitterly. "i have come to register a complaint!" i announced, when the teacher left the classroom. most of us had had the same trouble, even though we'd done all the readings...

"hi, friend!" said the stranger as i slowed, raising an eyebrow quizzically. i don't know what he said once he put his hand on my arm - don't touch the south african, dude. he got the message immediately, and only then did i discover that he's in my class...

it was raining, and i had no umbrella, so i wasn't going to meet with our class rep who isn't our class rep...

our second class was on hamlet, and was enlightening as usual. the idea that hamlet could well be a metaphor for the audience is mind-bending.

wordsworth and i had a loud and aggressive argument while waiting our turns at the cafeteria... he made an outrageous claim about shakespeare being nobody special and that took a while to resolve. if we resolved it at all. i think we were interrupted by a confused spectator. discussing literature in the science building? what were we thinking?!

we had a problem with the room for the shakespeare screening - this then became even more of a thing again, and i took it to the woman in charge of the building. i have acquired another direct contact, score!

the screening was interesting, but i nodded off a few times. i'm tired. i arrived at work to discover that the last paycheck is not the only one i've been shortchanged on, so it looks like this month might be okay. and like i shouldn't trust the company as much as i have been trusting them until now.

i've got some work done this afternoon / evening, but not enough to satisfy me. i'm going home, i'll make up for it in the morning.

ah! just got a phone call praising the manifesto... looks like the ball might begin rolling soon :D

thursday, friday, new year - part i

[post divided retroactively]

thursday:

bus drumming has become a habit: reading with good music in the background, i find my feet tapping and my free hand rapping on my leg and i don't care. and i'm not alone; i love seeing other people doing the same :)

i walked into campus with a really cute girl from our class, and our discussion was apparently so riveting that she followed me back out of the class to continue it while i went for coffee. as we got to the machines the cute girl that i'd sat next to the day before (and mentioned) walked past, and stopped to inform me that she'd had a really interesting dream about me... apparently we'd been arguing a lot. all i could do was be flattered, and apologize :P

---the italian lecturer: i spent the lession wishing he'd picked a different profession. what he does to poetry is unforgivable, and i dislike (intensely) the fact that we're to learn *his* point of view, even if there are a plethora of more plausible possibilities. he did redeem himself a little, though. *if* i score 100 on the final exam then i won't have to hand in a work for extra credit. if i don't, it will essentially be a topic of my choosing that can cover the entire history we've studied.

that's mighty generous.

a stray quote from his class: "it was a major major major major shift". reminded me of a certain character from catch 22 :P

i have begun conspiring to put together a study group beginning this week: we have less than a month to go before the final, and half of us haven't a clue what's potting. this course is heavy.

---i went for coffee with a couple of the girls, and as we left the building a guy walked past hurriedly. i *knew* i recognized him from somewhere, but without context i just couldn't place him! i spent the next few minutes driving myself nuts trying to figure it out...

a couple of weeks ago my appointment to see a skin doctor was cancelled on the day. on thursday, my new appointment (for tomorrow) was also cancelled. i called up to say that it was beginning to seem personal, and discovered, quite by accident, that both appointments had been for the wrong doctor.

fantastic.

i had lunch with pg and taught her basic binary arithmetic, then got my exam timetable so that i could figure out when to go snowboarding. tomorrow, we begin to arrange.

second class: i was thinking of watchmen's alien, and trying to figure out how to connect everyone through the massive threat of... humans. i was reading haraway - a cyborg manifesto and thinking about our future, laughing at our lecturer for his claim to be "living perfectly" and thinking about how that unhealthy mindset contributed to all of my polygraph trauma that transformed my reserve duty role to that of an expensive warden (i have no idea what my reserve duty will really be like :P).

after class, metaphor and i found the new anime class and performed a sound check (with only a minor altercation with the lecturer; all she had to do was say "i'm early, and i'm teaching". passive-aggressive is stupid, we couldn't know she secretly wanted to get started).

botchman picked me up on his bike, took me home through crazy traffic to switch bags, and then we continued on to the climbing wall. we hit the wall hard, and i was extremely satisfied afterwards. i think my hearing might have been a bit damaged by all the teenagers *screaming* at each other...

that guy from earlier? he works at the wall! what a crazy coincidence!

botchman gave me a ride to campus, and i arrived *just* in time for the anime evening. we had a whole bunch of new people - things seem to be rolling! ^_^
botchman went back to pick up scrapper, but they took far too long and missed metaphor's presentation on evangelion and why there are so many versions of it. it was an interesting talk, and absolutely brilliant watching it on a big screen.

metaphor asked us to introduce ourselves, and when it came to me i simple said "i like to break things by doing them the way they're supposed to be done". it's a fairly accurate explanation of most of my behaviour :P

---i was irritated by the flash boss - halfway through the movie he called me, and i ignored him. then he called me again and i scrambled outside to answer.
"is this an emergency?"
"no, no - "
"then can i call you back? i'm in the middle of something."
"oh, i just called to tell you that your program's not working. i've sent you an email."

if he'd just have let me call him back, i would've enjoyed the rest of the movie that much more. a little patience goes a long way and in both directions.

---after the movie we had time left over to watch something else, and i'd fortunately remembered to pack my discs on the way to campus in the morning. unfortunately, i'd left my schoolbag at home when i switched it for the climbing wall... :S

botchman and i went to play frisbee at rabin square, and it was good frisbee. what an excellent evening - wall, anime *and* frisbee!

---when i arrived home the first thing i encountered in the online arena was a debate over whether marilyn manson is more artistic than shakespeare. after reading a few interesting arguments, i put mine in:
okay - i've just been studying literature theory and i have what really is the only answer: you can argue and discuss all you want, there's no way to differentiate between any two accepted artists by "how artistic" they are.

the current academic consensus would probably swing the way of manson though, purely on the basis that he forces us to re-evaluate the things we think familiar far more intensely than shakespeare did, but then shakespeare was severely limited by his environment.
(and no, it doesn't matter if shakespeare was one man or many :P)

[edit: boy, was i ever wrong!]

it's always relative to the current condition of whatever society you're referring to. shakespeare was pretty damn roguish in his day, and although (as was stated above) his stuff wasn't original his perspectives and his crossovers (see "the merchant of venice") were seriously inspired and nobody can touch his verse. nobody.

technically, i'd go with shakespeare. provocatively (as in thought and emotional response) i'd have to go with manson. there's nothing like a debate that totally depends on perception: isn't it wonderful that all of us live in such different realities, as do/did our artists?

oh, and [thread owner]: shakespeare was held in VERY high esteem. may i suggest that you obtain a copy of "the norton anthology of english literature"? it's quite educational, especially the bits between the excerpts :)

pg and i watched hunter x hunter, and then it was long past time for bed.

[continued...]

outflow

i'm back from playing ultimate frisbee for the very first time - great game! damn near killed me, though... i'm going to have to practice while i'm away... so i have two things to keep me physically occupied: frisbee and martial arts. it'll be good :)

---
the hardware dude convinced me (with a verification call before leaving work) to get home at 2pm... and then only arrived more than half an hour later :/
he did bring me a going-away present, though (a much appreciated one) and he did good work for less money than the guy who *didn't* rock up the morning before :P

that time was more than enough for me to discover the dirt beneath the couch - i haven't moved it in a while :$

i returned to work, and between the lead and i we finally closed a nasty chapter in our development history :)

i said goodbye to everyone (except the boss, who was busy), and rushed off to tahoma's birthday picnic. on the bus to jaffa, i realized what everyone's been laughing about... the new stickers on police cars inspired the following thought: if i see something that needs to be reported, i'm going to call them up and say "hello! i'd like to participate in the war against crime." before giving them any useful information :P

jaffa has a giant indoor flea market called "supershuk", which translates to "supermarket" :P

i passed a little girl walking in tears, and wished that there was some appropriate / helpful reaction.

the sunset picnic was pretty cool; it was great seeing tahoma and his fiancé, and a couple of the guys from work rocked up eventually and it was nice chatting with them. one of them gave me a ride to the central station - i needed to be at home to meet with someone (who didn't pitch) - the station intrigues me every time as a haven for tangled masses of uncensored and unbleached humanity. the expression "human swarm" comes to mind.

i find it really easy to connect.

i showered and shopped, then went to bed early.

...

i was supposed to wake up at 9.30am on friday to do some things; at 11.30 i got up to a phone call asking where i was. i hopped on the bus and eventually managed to find the place in spite of awfully bad directions... there's a new area in south tel aviv that's just opened up, and it's really nice. breakfast was good, cheap, and fun.

as usual, piles and i had a lot of serious stuff to talk about, like music and studies... i'm still in mentor mode with him :P

he gave me a ride to piercer, who cleaned me up (i haven't been hard enough with my helix) before we did the chilling-on-the-bench chatting and staring at the passers-by. really interesting people :)

i visited the taekwondo group - the instructor just doesn't get why i'm not coming back, even though i keep explaining it to her. i was shocked to see how poorly the students are doing :S

my final sunset roll for the summer was amazing! and educational - one of the guys had a go at me because he didn't like the way i was reacting to idiots hooting. i heard him out, and tried his way - much better. every time someone hooted, we waved and said thanks. the irritated drivers were made to feel silly, and for the rest there's not a lot of positive to be done.

i had thirty minutes to cool down, shower and be ready for the date with pretty girl (pg). the weather wasn't particularly supportive: we walked to the rogatka, and her pace was fast enough to break a sweat :P

strangely awesome vegans? the place is very much to my liking, and the only vegan item they have are hotdogs. everything else is cheap liqor. we drank - and i can drink again! :P

dafna and the cookies gave an amazing performance! two hours, with some really fun and funny adlibbing, and some sounds that were powerful enough to get me high. brilliant! and pg seemed to be enjoying herself, too :)
we had a last round before heading out, and went through my favourite park on the way. i'm guessing we spent at least an hour on the swings, talking and singing and... wait. singing? wow! that *never* happens!

we almost stopped for waffles but continued to my place, where we watched three episodes of invader zim before i walked her home (practically next door). the goodbye was shy but smily, as the entire evening had been. i walked home with a giant grin and a bouncy gait ^_^

---
karnaf woke me up with a coffee call - we sat chatting for quite a while before i went south to have the chef's breakfast with urchin. great breakfast :)
the talk was great too - she's been offered an opportunity to exhibit her photography soon :)

urchin came with me to pick up a key, and made me a really grand offer - she's willing to take care of anything that i don't manage to sort out before i go... *breathes easier*

i was going to begin sorting out my apartment, but decided that a last frisbee session would be a better idea :)

---
i am *SO* glad that i went on that date last night! stupid as it may have been (considering that i'm leaving so soon), i had an amazing time and have met someone that i really like. the alternative was not meeting her, so my only concern is whether or when to be in touch before i go...

---
i dig piraro

comic instructions are exactly what i needed. they don't make me feel any more comfortable with the idea, however...

lists:
weird creatures
super powers
mental conditions

this is how i feel right now :)

no alcohol part ii

[... continued]

after thursday morning's incident, followed by surprisingly pleasant blood and breath tests, i sat on yehuda maccabi eating grand muesli and laughing at leary on drugs. the man was blessed with intense insight and his scrawlings are supremely entertaining and enlightening!

otherwise - no smiles. this week has been down, because my body's feeling kak. no energy, mental cloudiness and almost constant abdominal discomfort.
i've had better.

i had a nap when i got back home, which brought on a strange dream:
i was watching a movie in 3D, with some old lady in the chair in front of me. on the screen was the back of hulk hogan's head, as if he was sitting on a theatre seat in front of the old lady; he turned around to say something to the audience, and suddenly the old lady disappeared - apparently also part of the illusion.

i began to faint, hearing "cthulu, cthulu, cthulu" being shouted from somewhere to my right.

...

and then i was on a roof, talking to some guys before a golden otter rocked up and chased us all away.

i snoozed my alarm way too many times before eventually getting out of bed and heading to work. it was a hot day, my brain was lazy and i almost pasted myself onto the front of a bus... at least the wind tunnel i entered in the industrial area was nice.

filling out forms? terrible! i hate doing it. i hate the incorrectness of the questions asked. i hate the fact that i *need* to do it, and probably soon, in order to be covered for any medical procedures i hope i don't have to undergo.

*sigh*
being a grown-up sucks sometimes.

---i called up the english department at the university (after sorting out more mail problems) and discovered that i can't register because registration hasn't been opened yet. that'll only happen while i'm away, when i won't be able to do anything about it... i began to suggest possible solutions when i suddenly remembered that i hadn't mentioned my status: "but i'm a special student".

"oh! nevermind then. you can register for whichever courses you like up until the day they begin, and you don't need to bother yourself with the bidding process."

sweet ^_^

---i farted around with flex and began to familiarize myself with the apache server, then moved on to wiki editing. the derision coming from the crew discussing parents who give their children terrible names was distractingly hysterical :P

---vampire the masquerade: *BOY* do i have a lot to learn.
before we began, i was feeling weird... we shopped for food and munchies, and in my quest for protein i picked naturally smoked tuna in oil. it tasted pretty good, but what does "naturally smoked" mean? is this tuna from the gulf of mexico? did it smoke naturally in an oil fire?

scrapper's primary concern for the evening: "how much junk food do you eat?! how are you still alive?"

i need to read up on my character stuff; i'm not familiar enough with the mechanics, and definitely not enough with the etiquette. when presented with an interesting opportunity, i screwed it up because i wasn't familiar enough with obfuscation. the next few rounds took a fairly long time to get through - plenty enough for me to figure out what i should have done.

at least that experience set me up for a better attempt:
i angrily stalked up behind one of our targets, super-focused, cloaked with obfuscate and silence of death. three rounds of stalking towards my prey, desperate to sink my fangs into him and tear him apart.

i grabbed his shoulder, and took a deep bite - out of my thumb. the poor thing was left dangling from my hand... as my target felt the pressure, he jumped forward and *just* managed to be out of range when the giant frog landed on me.

i survived, only slightly crushed into the damp ground... and launched myself at my fleeing prey - catching his foot and taking a good bite into his ankle. i'd managed to draw out some blood before we were both caught by a giant, sticky tongue and swallowed... at least i continued to feed.

that was one hell of a botch. there's a perfectly good explanation for the giant frogs, i promise.

---i was tired, i'd just been aggravated by a couple of arsim on my way home and was about to push my key into the lock when the door flew open with chc cheerfully standing there to welcome me. awkward :/

we decided to do the white night thing together. it was a particularly ratty walk - she's pmsing (admitted) and i wasn't in the mood to hear about how her telepathy is improving. i didn't share my thoughts, because they went along the lines of "you're an idiot".

i met up with a guy from my old unit, who was all excited to see me with hair. i showed off my tongue piercing, but exactly at the moment he was looking elsewhere and i felt a bit foolish waiting for him to notice. meh.

rave awkwardness: the party was pretty damn good! what a pity that chc and her friends ditched me with a guy who'd come a long way to meet her, and i didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone. when we eventually caught up with them and i could make my getaway, i milled around and found a bunch of friends...

at least, i thought they were friends. they weren't being very friendly, and i decided that i didn't need to be treated that way (or ignored) and called it a night. i walked back home contemplating the trance scene in israel: it's not like back home. there's so much "show", posing and politics and stuff that i'm really not interested in. it's difficult to meet people, which is exactly the opposite of what i'm familiar with, and i think my bubble has been burst.

there are some awesome people, of course, but most of the community is better appreciated and loved from a distance.

i stopped for a toasted sandwich, and was thrown a comment by a cute girl as i walked past - why is there always a reason for me not to do anything? why could i not have been feeling well?

i managed to get a good night's sleep, and woke up on time even though i hadn't set an alarm... i was sure i had :P
i went straight to the square with a frisbee (just in case), my ducks and my bubble pipe. nobody arrived. nobody. i wasn't in a happy enough place to enjoy either the ducks or the bubbles - and i tried - so after almost half an hour waiting i went to have breakfast with one of ze germans.

i ran into an old university buddy before she rocked up, and hopefully he's a good contact for work - he was one of the nerdier dudes, and i had to smile when i saw him and his cute girlfriend walk off holding hands :)

when she did arrive we talked about relationships and work and interrogations and grootbek, with the most interesting topic being that most of the others (ze germans) are doing fine career-wise but appear to be lacking in the personal growth department. everyone's doing the same things they've always done, or not much at all - that's kinda sad.

on the way to back home i walked through the square, meeting up with a random bubble-loving geek girl who was headed to the water war. things appeared to be under way, and i decided to sit on the side of the fountain and observe. i used my frisbee to protect the pocket with my phone in it and the girl asked me to look after her bag so that she could get stuck in... it was shaping up to be a pleasant afternoon.

and then the organizers pitched up. one of them stood right next to me and called for everyone to gather around - there were a lot more people in the square than i'd noted. by way of explaining the need for a water war, a man dressed as a turkish flag paddled into the fountain making threatening gestures (so it was a little political). he was soon attacked by another man dressed as an israeli flag, and then war was declared!

the initial moments were complete and utter mayhem. hundreds of people letting loose, flinging buckets of water and screaming righteously - my frisbee offered scant protection. i grabbed the purse and the frisbee and ducked and wove through the crowd to what appeared to be a safe area, the first innocent victim of the war and completely drenched.

at least my phone survived; i hid it under the frisbee. i stood observing with my first full smiles of the day and with gleeful fascination - that initial mayhem didn't die down and more and more people kept arriving, with outlandish costumes and feverish enthusiasm.

---that was when i had the revelation - compounding what had happened the night before. we are social creatures, and we *adore* letting loose and being crazy and loving our fellow man. but that's only really possible when we don't know our fellow man. the second we feel some sense of obligation or requirement aside from mutual respect, it all goes to shit. so it's better for the experience if we can maintain anonymity, but that way we'd never really get to know anyone.

---the geek girl appeared from behind me, saw that i was guarding her purse and breathed a huge sigh of relief - she hadn't seen me duck and had thought that i'd scaled her bag :(
i felt really bad, and i'm not sure how i should have handled it. i actually had to make an effort to convince her to head back in and enjoy herself :(

my ducks were missing. i headed home to put down the frisbee, phone, wallet and bubbles (a lot of people had found my "make love not war" prop amusing) and pick up a water bottle and balloons - i was ready for the daring rescue attempt.

a) i never did find the ducks
b) filling a water balloon ain't easy
c) half filling a water balloon turns it into a bashing weapon, and i didn't need to hit more than one person before realizing that it wasn't a cool thing to throw
d) i had a lot of fun
e) i had a lot of fun in spite of feeling guilty about wasting water - we managed to drop the level of the fountain by about a foot :$

i showered out the chemicals when i got home, and sat down to eat lunch and watch house after taking out trash that had drawn gnats.

[continued... (seriously? after all that?!)]

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...]

the ascent

[it's *really* hard for me to type right now]

breakfast turned out to be a bit complicated: the irish member of ze germans and an english friend of ours made it fairly clear that they're not interested in breaking bread with us anymore, so the german birthday girl from last week [breakfast girl] and i arranged to meet at ducks.

it was an ice-cold day, and my sweater wasn't cutting it. i found a table that was more or less sheltered from the elements to wait a few minutes for breakfast girl and her friend to arrive. we sat talking and debating the menu for a short while, and were belatedly informed that ducks don't serve breakfast after 2pm anymore... that's not in line with the general tel aviv attitude.

we missioned up and down dizengof (we went a bit too far due to a navigational accident that i blame myself for) until we found a place that looked good - can't recall the name - and sat down to what turned into a highly enjoyable hour or two of eating really good food and talking a lot. the pace wasn't even broken when breakfast girl's awkwardly quiet sister joined us :P

i was on my way home when scrapper called, and he and a friend were waiting for me at rabin square when i arrived there ten minutes later. we began with "the downing of the snickers" - scrapper has a thing about snickers, which is nothing to complain about - and commenced another frisbee-in-the-rain session that was a lot of fun.
slippery, dangerous fun :)

we missioned to le gufre afterwards for hot chocolate and their fantastic heaters (one in particular worked its magic and caused steam to rise from our hair), and after that i returned home for an amazing hot shower. i don't really recall much between that point and gn1's arrival.

gn1 is particularly critical about my style of living - i have to admit i'm quite amused to hear that i'm living the typical bachelor's life :P

we went for a fairly long walk about the city until we settled at jeremiah's for dinner. their food is always fantastic. we were both absolutely exhausted by the time we left.

...

i woke up an hour or two before i got out of bed this morning, and fairly soon received a phone call from scrapper letting me know that he'd be picking me up soon. i made quick-and-dirty sandwiches, dressed appropriately, and we headed off to the sportec's climbing wall accompanied by system of a down.

i've been wanting to do this since it opened.

it was a great day, we all learned a lot, and we've agreed to try and do this weekly. during my second climb i almost fainted, but some apple juice and a coke got me back into the groove. by my last attempt my arms were simply unresponsive, though... even now i'm still finding it difficult to grip things :P

i got a ride home, read comics and skimmed through some news, and began watching another episode of battlestar galactica before being distracted by preparations for frisbeer with karnaf. by the time i got to his side of the city it had gotten too dark to play, though, so we sat at jeremiah's over beers, whiskeys and soup, and talked for an hour or two. then it was time to head back...

i've just spoken to my mum, had a shower, and talked to gn1 - in about half an hour she's picking me up and the evening events will begin. i think i might require some caffeine :P

****ly, i'm so ****ly...

i find it unpleasant that my friends either aren't interested in the same things i am, and i have trouble connecting with people who are, or they're otherwise occupied by families and jobs. it's all very depressing.

so no frisbee this evening, and no shakespeare at the tmuna.

i would have gone for a drink - ta2's playing next door - but i'm not fond of drinking alone and i'm always awkward about going to bt's bar without company. instead, i've been playing with my guitar and moping.

i came across a ye olde page of mine from many years ago, on a backbone far, far away - and was brought back in time to my initiation into the cape legion of adventurers and wargamers: swordschool and one other accompanying me in my lab coat to harrass and freak out members of the student body attempting to make use of the elevator.

at least the caretaker finally arrived. we sorted out the maintenance fees for the rest of the year, we discussed a pipe that's been bothering me and he explained the renovation possibilities.

at least i'll be going rollerblading in a few.

phd's productivity graph: too true

for the first time ever, gmail's targeted ads hit their mark :P

frank zappa - Don't Eat The Yellow Snow, Nanook Rubs It, St. Alphonzos Pancake Breakfast, Father O'Blivion (or whatever that means)

powerful sunset, powerful frisbee,

and sand everywhere. that was really fun, but i'm wasted. wr called me as i left the beach, and i actually had to put an end to the conversation as i walked onto my block - too tired and too impatient for the phone :P

gonna crash, i was going to go see the ramirez brothers but the girls i was going with aren't up to it either...

not that much better

but the frisbee was really, really good. after a great breakfast at movie-ing post-game, i came back to pass out. now off to a tool party. this should be awesome. and being in an alternative (read: sickly) state of mind can only make things more interesting :P

on maggots and sunsets

a quick summary:

thursday continued:
1. great sushi as usual.
2. a long walk to ramat aviv (!) to catch the tail end of the orange music festival. seeing that many people jumping up and down to an infected mushroom instrumental was nuts.
3. getting caught in traffic on the way out was more nuts, but not as much as considering going out without sleeping.
4. passing out without going out.

friday:

1. trying to sleep in... unsuccessfully.
2. buying the hat i'd ordered last week at dizengoff center.
3. seeing the print of my design come out beautifully. waiting for the actual print. being surprised by the news that the printer managed to put it on upside down - how professional. they didn't charge me for the correction, but the image has an awkward shadow and i'm not entirely happy with it.
4. the gay pride parade. my arms got burned, my chest and back didn't - and my shirt was off most of the time. i've decided that i'm preparing a shirt and a sign for next year... [front] if i could choose i'd be gay... [back] ... but i can't.
the street party was great fun, ssf's boyfriend's a dick and the beach party was excellent until the concert started.
5. after a shower i took my book to the coffee stand and enjoyed a wonderfully chilled read / iced-coffee and roast-beef salad for about an hour.
6. trying to nap... unsuccessfully.
7. watching the forbidden kingdom with the kid. best intro ever! i'm not including the wire-fu mountain scene, but the rest was absolutely beautiful. brilliant film.
8. meeting up with egg and going to the meimad for a rock party the likes of which i haven't enjoyed in well over a year. i was barely capable of walking home, and after a quick shower i flopped into bed at 6am, completely exhausted.

saturday:

1. waking up at 8.30am, trying to sleep in... unsuccessfully. for anyone who's noticed a pattern, i suffer from insomnia at home. anywhere else i sleep like a baby, most easily when i have something that needs doing.
2. i sat online for a bit, then took a walk so that i could listen to the penny arcade / pvp online d&d 4th edition podcast (here's the second episode). there're quite a few chuckles in there, and i really enjoyed myself :)
3. worms. maggots. millions of them. our flatmate has spot-like habits, specifically leaving a mess of foodstuffs around the couch. so our slimy, squirming little friends spent the afternoon giving us the run-around... and the heebie-jeebies. it took forever to clean the apartment; my room is so dusty i only managed the big, obvious tufts of dust before losing my cool, downing a couple of slugs of tequila and going to the beach with the kid.
4. we met up with gco and a couple of his buddies for a great afternoon in the water and playing frisbee (with a real one, not our dingy bastard), then had sundowners at mike's place. it's the first time i've enjoyed doing that outside of south africa.
5. rushing home to change, deal with a bunch of irate / confused fellow vacationers, and meeting singer on the bus to comfort 13.
6. the concert was for the prevention of animal experimentation, but eatliz (butcher) was playing so i didn't care. the first one-man band was a bit horrible. shlomi shaban was great. amit erez (one of eatliz's guitarists) played - some of it was decent - and then the rest of eatliz came on and were superb as usual.
one of my cousins was there, and would have missed their performance if i hadn't convinced him to stay a little longer - he was suitably impressed :)
7. i need to go to bed.

coughing, hacking and doing silly things with energy cells

this chest infection has got to go. it's driving me nuts, but i'm not really so keen on antibiotics.

i was a bit hungover this morning when driving to the farm, but i successfully introduced my young canadian cousins to decent house. once at the farm we did the leisure thing for an hour or two, including a visit to the goats and consumption of the aforementioned goats' extremely delightful cheese.

we got caught in the traffic caused by this fun piece of news, and made a quick detour by my place to close the garage door (oops) before meeting up in town for lunch.

godmother and i said goodbye with a twenty-minute conversation wherein i pretty much sorted out my next few steps. i joined the kids on the beach for an hour or so - i out-frisbee'd myself - and then said goodbye and went home to shower... and returned to the highway in the middle of rush hour to pick up my mom from work.

after driving home and doing some shopping (i felt a bit faint after that), i spent some time fighting with my mother's flatscreen monitor (which seems to have come right all by itself, eventually) and my sister (i'm expected to fake a smile for her boyfriend's benefit, and i don't do that), and then met up with protoplasm and a friend at call-a-pizza.

i bought a new album, amoeba records - bundu bashers, had dinner, and then we all moved off to fiction. the first dj was complete shite, and when slug came on he began with a house set to smooth the transition. good house, but not trance, which he inserted into his set on numerous occasions due to popular demand :S [the psy-trance is where he's at]

so we drank, and we danced, and i hoarsely attempted to communicate, and i've just got home now... all ready for my four hours of sleep before saying goodbye to my mum for the weekend and taking my second mum to the hospital.

mostly woozy

wine in the morning, beer in the afternoon, wine at night. it's been one of those days...

we had a good breakfast, and then wp and i headed out. we stopped to play frisbee at the park, and were in time for a fun taekwondo demonstration - some of it not bad at all.

we then took a bus through to crescent street. we went through the museum of fine art for about half an hour - they have some incredible things there... i was a bit thrown by the digital prints, they really weren't on the list of things i'd expect to see.

we went through the crowds, sometimes stuck on some absolutely mind-blowing vehicles. pure art on four wheels, inside and out!

we went into a pub to watch argentina vs. mexico - it was a pretty good second-half / extra time, and the second goal was superb. even *i* enjoyed watching :P

we then walked around a bit, finding a not-bad comic book store, and then took the bus back.

got back, showered, and then zoomed off to the other side of montreal, to a nice greek restaurant for a great dinner. i've been back for a bit (watching ghost, how sad), and i'm not actually sure if we're going out or just chilling. i'm not concerned though - it's grand prix in the morning!!

lost with a smile

the guys picked me up later than expected. fine. we then took an accidental detour through haifa. not only was the car *PACKED*, and very uncomfortable, but the drive there took about two hours more than necessary.

oh, and we did some serious shopping on the way - my wallet still hurts.

we got there around midnight - i was expecting the ambient trance to be starting, but i was all wrong. heavy, heavy psychedelic trance, the entire time. except when there was silence in the afternoon, or some ambient when everyone started leaving today.

NICE.

also, there were many, many beautiful and sexy girls - that never happens at a trance party!!

lots happened during the weekend, so to sum up - it was awesome. it totally rocked. it was really beautiful, the weather was great, and i stomped till i could stomp no more. i didn't sleep much, owing to my delicate jobnik body - sleeping on hard rock didn't do anything for me. but i didn't get too sunburned, which is not the usual :), and i thoroughly chilled.

and played loads of great frisbee.

so about to jump in a hard-earned shower, then off to yogi's. the girl i've been semi-dating (metalhead, i rate is appropriate) called me today, we're either meeting up tonight at the lizard, or tomorrow (either in my area, or at my place, it wasn't defined properly :P).

so, all in all - all good. two thumbs up for a well spent weekend.