not so hot

awww, man. i was invited to take a test for a company i'd love to work for; they're using this really cool online tool called interview zen whereby they can watch you code as if in real-time. no pressure. the questions they asked were interesting but not mind-bending, but it's been so long since i've actually done any serious coding that combined with the time pressure i simply crashed and burned. i made an effort to demonstrate my intentions and i really hope that my methodical approach and attitude to problem solving shines through, but i'm not expecting an enthusiastic response.

what a bummer :(

but my curiosity has been piqued and i just solved the final part (that i didn't get around to) for myself. i really should be playing more.

---
scrapper's been in touch and he sent me some of the texts he's been working on - it's really good! but i kinda expected that.

it felt like i woke up, had breakfast and then suddenly it was afternoon already. time is seriously on a mission this week - i can't believe it's friday already!

i'm very awkward about sending emails about work to people i barely know asking for favours that i'm neither certain they can perform nor whether i actually need them to.

i braved the extreme cold to go to the distant supermarket yesterday, primarily to pick up turkish coffee. which, inexplicably, they no longer seem to stock. nooooooo!!!

on the way i ate the very last subway falafel they're planning on stocking at the local branch. nooooooo!!!

after the perfect nap - and by perfect i mean not only that i enjoyed it, but that i woke up without an alarm and felt very, very good for a long while afterwards - i chatted with k-twang who had exciting news and rushed out to the closer supermarket to pick up two items i'd forgotten earlier.
i then met with badger at the gym and we did four drills, three of which changed my game and left me with a *lot* of practicing to do. moving forward and backward while striking, responding to crowding and fighting off the ropes or out of the corner is bloody exhilarating!

i watched a fair amount of television while eating and then went to bed. today was relaxed until i did the test... and now it feels like the day is blown. or the week. ah, shit.

i should be posting more - part ii

[... continued]

i had a quick shower, heated a frozen dinner and chatted with k-twang before heading out for drinks with kgb. we hit a french version of an irish pub which is really cozy, and talked non-stop until it was late for both of us. it's weird talking to someone with so many similar and similarly weird experiences.

i was having difficulty deciding between vfmp's halloween party and seeing neil fight. the two excuses for doing the latter were not having a costume (mandatory costume party) and not being sure that the party was really happening, but vfmp assured me that there are spare outfits and that everything's proceeding as planned so oh, well, i'll dress up and party :)

today i actually managed to find a reasonably priced frankenstein make-up kit so i guess i'll be fine.

...

after last month's excess i'm now a little more cautious about my internet usage. i'm also rather shocked to discover that in less than a week i've blasted through 35 gigabytes... i'd like to blame that on setting up a new pc, but i doubt it had that much effect. is it netflix? i just dropped my settings from "auto" to "medium", we'll see. is it the failed ios update download? that's certainly a factor... the fact that the download cannot be resumed is insane. it turned out to be safer to perform the update directly from my phone. i hope my phone didn't switch to 3g or i'm in for a really big phone bill :S

---thursday:

after the last couple of training sessions, today was definitely laundry day. i was absolutely exhausted for most of it, two strong cups of coffee in class didn't really help me much. i walked out of there desperately hungry - thank you subway - i passed out on the metro and then crashed when i got home. not before putting in the load of washing, and each time i had to get up for that was harder than before.

eventually i balanced out a bit. i started watching eddie murphy - raw because i'd never done that. it's outdated, but even then it was nothing but pandering to socially accepted stereotypes and the humour was no more elevated than making fun of people for being human. it's misogynistic and homophobic, uninspired and unintelligent, and i'm kinda glad i missed it. comedians (in my world) are supposed to hold a mirror up to society, murphy was holding up a megaphone instead.

i got ready to go to jiu-jitsu class, figuring i would only do that as it's low intensity. i was a block away from my apartment (running in the rain) when i realized that training was not a good idea. i started returning, hesitated, walked a little further and then decided that i definitely needed to rest. or eat something, post this, go to the shops because i'm out of food, and then rest.

---shane koyczan and hannah epperson - remember how we forgot is an experience you probably don't want to miss out on. just saying.

healing

1. jiu-jitsu partnered with a man slightly shorter than me and about twice my weight. i couldn't get my legs around him and my leg was hurting so much i had to pause to breathe through my teeth a few times.

2. kickboxing totally loosened my up and by the time i got to working on the bags i was ready to kick the shit out of it. i think i might have relieved myself of a little of the work pressure that built up this week, i walked away totally satisfied and ready for more.

3. wall stretching: the tall, strong dude i was partnered with was working harder than i was, to the point where someone else noticed and laughed because it was clear that i was using him to stretch myself instead of being stretched. and he was shaking more than i was :P

4. during a break i asked a question and got a really helpful answer. plus a solid shot to the liver for my troubles.
"that's so you remember".
scrapper's influence on me: stumbling, not falling, and wheezing "thank you sir, may i have another!".

---the day began with a double "you done good" from the cfo and aota: the way i dealt with botswana was appreciated by everyone. i also had a little chat with my team and made it clear that they're to report to me both professionally and personally.

the network will be down at least until wednesday, so i took ceh out to l'artere to eat and use their wifi. firstly, their vegan take on shepherd's pie (sweet potato and lentils) was delicious and too much for me. secondly, ceh's attitude towards documentation and project constraints doesn't fit with mine and it's going to take work to bring him to a compromise. at least i think he realizes now that i'm not simply being anal about everything.

while he was playing with a remote server i was being told by k-twang how bad my blog design is. so i took his advice and modified my template accordingly, i hope it's a better experience for everyone.

the cto arrived and we had a number of different talks throughout the day. they were all positive and i think he'd forgotten how organized i am since he's started interfacing with megaman. one of our talks was quite exciting, especially as i had his attention long enough to pitch an idea i had ages ago that developed into something even more awesome as i was speaking. we may not see eye to eye on everything, but there's a shared vision for where our tech should go that makes me feel like all the annoying and frustrating things that have happened over the past couple of months were totally worth it.

the rest of my day was broken into small fires and management. overall things are going smoothly and i'm happy with how this week's ending. also, amazed at how quickly it's gone by and how much i feel has happened!

on my way out i realized i could control my limp at the cost of each step hurting (which is subconsciously where the limp came from). the last thing i wanted was to stop using my muscles correctly.

---right, it's 11pm and i've had much less sleep this week than i've wanted. i've also got a big stack of things that need doing, including making dinner.

revisiting: thursday

i'm splitting these up. it's been a crazy week.

---thursday:

the extra half hour's sleep was perfect! i woke up curious about overtraining, but considering that i'm still feeling good after training (even if i'm completely exhausted) i don't think i'm quite there yet.

it was my uncle's birthday on thursday. what's a good birthday gift for an uncle one doesn't get along with? does laughing at his inappropriate jokes count? k-twang's response to my question made me laugh: "one of those bags people without colons use... with a feedbag attachment". a rather literal take on a figure of speech our uncle is wont to use :P

things vegans in training get excited about: jsk pumpkin snacks. delicious (like peanut brittle), high protein and better value for money than dairy protein bars? no way!

i was asked to interview another guy who's worked with megaman before, and i was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of common ground. not just experience-wise, but attitude-wise as well. how many rollerbladers are we going to have in one office?

out of three interns, two are excellent. one is... well, he's certainly better than any of the previous ones, but his english isn't very good and he makes bad calls.
*sigh*

moonlighter's gifts just keep on giving: it's like he created our database with a book in hand explaining all of the mistakes one can make, just so that he wouldn't miss any. once i'd dealt with one of the issues i felt like i was running away to train as opposed to running to training.

jiu jitsu was hardcore, i was with a guy who's twice my size and not much more than half my age who spent most of the session patiently explaining what i was doing wrong. unfortunately, it took until the end of the session to really start getting it, but there was definite progress made :)
and lots of sweating done.

kickboxing was rough - though not as rough as tuesday - and i returned home broken and in need of a rest. i was appalled at my inability to finish my dinner: i knew i needed it but i couldn't swallow another bite! i felt awful turfing the last bit out :(

i didn't want to but i really had to work on thursday night. it involved collaborating with moonlighter, and he was much more pleasant to work with than usual. we got through the urgent stuff in about two hours, and it didn't take me long to fall asleep after that.

extra long weekend

when i began this post i was locked in to my apartment and the building's water pipes were closed. i'd just gone for a walk to do some shopping, and came back with a sensation that spring is here. i'd just got off the phone with godmother, who had let me know that considering everything i've been through it's really okay to just wallow for a bit. that was confirmed by my mother later. i'm very, very glad that i get passover off.

i am resuming this post after returning from the second passover "seder", very nice, if a little awkward (i was, at least). the continuous loud buzzing in the background is me attempting to run down the charge on my clippers, which i used today and which come with an advisory to empty the battery once every two months or so. the battery life appears to be really, really good!

---thursday:

the day began with the faculty dean; the man is a phenomenon, with the most fascinating personal history and incredible achievements. he's the real deal, fighting corruption and playing the game simultaneously - talking to him is inspiring. talking to him about his plans for our product was reflexively inspiring: our product has tremendous potential, and the developers are so deep into tweaking its core that we don't get to appreciate the forest for the trees.

the shock of the day was discovering that the woman i'd ranked as dumbest in class is the woman in charge of the phd program - i spent a good deal of time replaying our quick q&a's in my mind and hoping that i hadn't been too flippant. so it wasn't that she'd been struggling to figure out our system; she was observing and evaluating. damn she's good.

after a long day at the end of a long week, i returned to the hotel and immediately shaved off my beard. i then sat by the pool and consumed half a bottle of myers's. which is a heck of a lot of rum. it wasn't too late when i stumbled back to my room and collapsed.

---friday:

it was a tough stomache morning, and i'd be in pain and uncomfortable for the entire weekend. the moment spent staring out the window at the fog-blanketed rainforest was not enough. my only meal in panama that wasn't amazing was that last breakfast, which was awful.

we were almost late for the flight, and the double security and frisk (!) wasn't appreciated. the flight itself was long and sucky. i felt horrible when we arrived in newark, my head felt screwed off and i just wanted to get home. five hours of nothing, with a touch of irritation with the idiot tsa guys forcing me to remove my plastic belt and raise my hands to go through the machine.

shit! i'm such an idiot!
*facepalm*
here i am complaining about indignities, and what i *should* have done is simply removed my pants and put them on the conveyor. what would they have done? arrested me for indecency?

the short flight to montreal was spent in agony. my belly was hurting, and no amount of time spent in restrooms was having any effect.
regardless, immigration into montreal was such a surprising pleasure! their welcome back made me feel really good. i was so happy to be back!

---saturday:

aside from household chores and a bit of fallout, i spent my day with k-twang and cls who were visiting. cls showed me that my projector issues were focus related and not resolution related (hooray!), our visit to godmother was amusing and silly, dinner was huge and drinks were fun (i hope i didn't talk too much, but i think i might have :( ).

---sunday:

brunch with godmother: it was hard to get into tiffany's, but the food was good and it's a comfortable place. afterwards we visited the old jewish quarter in an unsuccessful quest for kosher-for-passover gifts.

the rest of the day was a day of nothing: george carlin, star trek ii, a little bit of shakespeare in busan's to be or not to be and johnny mnemonic. only a little of to be or not to be because it kinda sucks.

i finally went shopping, and the slow, quiet walk was time for reflection, on my being alone and on my motivation in general.

---monday:

monday was full of woe. work-wise, i had a few meetings and a training session for a new developer who i'm excited about, and the director and i had an important chat about my responsibilities.

i tried to transfer cash to pg to pay my imaginary social security fine, only to discover that her bank branch has two SWIFT codes. why does everything have to be complicated?!

leaving early on such a beautiful day made me feel a little better, and i was amused by the beery pub smell of the guy entering the metro in front of me: it was the perfect afternoon to be out drinking with friends.

the passover "seder" was really nice, not quite what i'm used to but fun nonetheless.
i played fallout into the night, and was totally exhausted when i finally dragged myself off to bed.

---tuesday:

i already posted about the important stuff.

---gun control: oh, shit. in one fell swoop, the case for controlling firearms has just been relegated to the irrelevant box. our options? have full government control of all technology and our uses of it, OR try to educate and instill values so that we can be free and reasonably safe.

we'll never be 100% safe, but as long as we can offset the dangers we can maintain a good balance. that offsetting cannot include big brother without causing more dissatisfaction and frustration and thereby increasing the threat level.

junk and relatives

let this post begin on a sad note, discussing k-twang and our aunt. on wednesday afternoon our aunt and i spoke about the website she wants to put together, and she ranted a little about how unhelpful k-twang was. i thought to myself that it's a good thing she's so tolerant (she really is) as it's nigh impossible for her to put herself in others' shoes. asking a designer / web developer about putting together a site is like needing an apartment and asking a construction engineer or architect when you should be looking for a real estate agent. lucky for her, i said, i'm both an engineer and an agent, and that's how i knew what kind of solution to look for.

the thing is, there's something that's tough to ignore and that's k-twang's (alleged) response to her being along the lines of "i've decided not to take on private work". assuming that's the case, there's no need to say it like that. and an attempt to direct her wouldn't have cost anything.

---
thursday:

i was up early to lie in bed thinking about immigration officials and how i'm going to present myself. and, of course, how i'm going to deal with being on the wrong foot when i'm grilled for the second time. not that we've been wasting time or not enjoying ourselves at all, but we've been in limbo since november and to be turned away after all we've been through would be very disappointing indeed.

not to mention that my initial impressions of montreal weren't wrong: it really is magic.

---
i got up with the name "kurt vonnegut" in my head without recalling who he was, and never having read any of his work. i found some quotes of his, some of which are a bit meh and some of which are very clever indeed.

sometimes "early" means "on time". i may have mentioned this before, but i used to be excessively punctual until i completed the officers' course.

the day felt a little colder - it simply *must* be psychological. that sentiment's reinforced by a weekend shivering in much warmer weather.

sensation of the day: time flies, and automation is awesome when it works properly.
obstacle of the day: php by reference is mind-numbingly horrible and made me feel like i was trapped at the event horizon of a black hole.
lesson of the day: "only one focus" doesn't mean that marketing executives won't unleash surprises.

bets are interesting things. aota organized a nexus 10 and used $1000 hyperbole to describe how difficult it was to obtain. "you're on", i said, and opened a chat session with overclocker to ask if he could get one to me by the end of next week. "sure," he told me.
"how about that $1000?"
"we didn't shake on it."
not that i would have taken her up on it. if i'd thought it through i wouldn't have tried, as i really didn't mean to belittle her achievement and i hope i didn't have any less than humorous effects.

...

there's something special about saying goodbye for a long weekend and receiving a note of appreciation from my hopefully-soon-to-be boss.

---
pg and i headed off to take the accreditation exam, and we were a little nervous about the knots. our examiner was a really friendly guy whose only interest was in seeing that we were confidently competent, and we did fine! no tricks, no tough questions, and we were good to go ^_^

it was crowded until late, by which time we were already grimacing with sore arms and fingers. in the future we'll be arriving later to get a better selection. i was super proud of myself for some of the routes i managed :D

---
observation: it's now 2013, and some of my favourite items of clothing are a freebie troop jacket i acquired as a teenager and double-lined baggy mr price pants i bought before emigrating in 2000, both of which i'm happy to rate for weather reaching temperatures in the "****ing freezing" range.

---
after the wall we treated ourselves to our favourite chinese place, finally remembering to only order one meal (okay, and a starter) that was still too much for the both of us. absolutely delicious.

---
the following incident is still haunting me, it's deeply troubling to see just how far a person can fall and consider just how easy it is to do so. please don't read this if you're eating. a beggar was shuffling around the metro platform on his knees begging, which in itself is decidedly undignified. he then got up to approach two girls standing next to us, but he didn't move on when they refused. instead, he got this pained look on his face and doubled over for a second, after which some pee dribbled from his crotch to the floor. just then a well-dressed black man walked up to put some coins in his still outstretched hand, and told him to pick himself up and get a job: "three years ago i was where you are, man, and look at me; i got a job, and now have a home, a wife and three kids." the veracity of his story notwithstanding, one must question his assumption that this man is in the same position as he was. the beggar threw away the one cent coins and limped away with one hand cupping his butt. i presume that he didn't only piss himself.

---
friday:

we definitely didn't get enough sleep. after super quick packing we headed down to the grand central station, then i thought about the bus not being a train and google maps showed us the way.

getting on the bus was easy enough, and i spent the next hour or so quite disappointed that we'd picked seats that made it impossible to take photos of the majestic scenery.

i spent most of the trip finishing on the rain-slick precipice of darkness (the wrong way) and posting. my belly ached and i couldn't sleep comfortably. i felt exhausted but fine by the time we arrived in toronto, and after stopping for coffee we headed out to discover that it's not easy to get lost in downtown toronto. also, that the toronto underground isn't heated and that's just bloody weird. it's not nearly as cold as montreal, but i was feeling it more keenly :S

friday night with the family was great, minus my pouring far too much whiskey for myself.

---
saturday:

yesterday morning was slow and easy. two items seen on facebook increased my faith in humanity: people are awesome 2013 and j.k. rowling being awesome.

on the way to the bus my cousins took us for a really good thai lunch, and then we said goodbye.

conclusion for the day: niagara is prettier in winter. another google map fail scored us a short walk, but we found the hotel easily enough and the automated check-in was a pretty cool short cut. we got a nice hotel room - it's been years since i last stayed in an actual hotel room! - and we caught the view of the falls at dusk, walking along from opposite the american until the horseshoe, then taking my cold camera fingers to heat up while pg and i enjoyed delicious vegetarian mexican food and drank too much tequila (just kidding! it was a fine amount) at "tacos 'n tequila mexican cantina". we passed through the frankenstein haunted house (the live dude was pretty creepy), hit the house of fudge for double dark chocolate, then returned to our room for an extremely comfortable and elderly early night.

---
sunday:

i suffered violent south african dreams involving matric mates, new weapons tech and genocidal anti-semitism, then one about working on two start-ups with two people who turned out to be friends (this almost brought both down). i woke up to starbucks coffee and fudge for breakfast while snapping pics of the view and filling out more of this post.

for second breakfast i had hot oatmeal and home fries to balance things out, after which we were joined by k-twang and his fiancée for a glorious afternoon of tourism: pics by the falls, the games arcade (we won fingerboards! haven't played with them since we were kids), very funny bowling, an insanely huge indian lunch and air hockey. when they had to go we continued in the same vein, taking a turn on the ferris wheel and hitting another games arcade (i rule at dance dance revolution, pg kicks my ass at pirates of the caribbean pinball). afterwards i realized that we didn't have too many opportunities to get to the bus station left so we headed here; soon we'll be departing for montreal.

all in all, niagara was a silly, fun experience that has no relation to anything and afforded us an opportunity to catch up with family. not a bad weekend at all.

week flip

i'm cross-eyed and mind-melted and feeling tremendously uplifted from watching "het leven uit een dag". what a fantastic movie!

---yesterday:

i've come to the conclusion that if it's hot enough to rain instead of snow, it's too hot for me.

on the metro i stood next to a little kid crouched over a giant book of calvin and hobbes, and i wondered how a kid calvin's age appreciates him. i read a bit more of food of the gods, and once terrence mckenna got me considering the transition to agriculture as the fall from eden i got stuck in a downward spiral. his argument is stupefyingly logical and yields so many interesting and compelling implications that i find it hard to focus on any one aspect. i do believe that i need to list this book as a must-read, and i'm still near the beginning.

i sat in on a video conference, presumably to bear witness and nod sagely at appropriate times, but at some point in the middle there was a long pause, and then someone asked me directly what i thought. i kind of fumbled, because they were waiting to hear the answer to a question that didn't make sense. i think i side-stepped well, but it made me nervous.

i've been trying to build something for weeks and i've been distracted non-stop - yesterday, i finally completed it! and it was extremely satisfying. i could feel the stress that the week had begun with simply melt away, as if there was some sort of connection. the art director came to take a look, and i think that was the point where he decided that we think alike :D

i spent an hour with pg's photos, cropping and resizing them so that they'd be just right for photo-quality passport prints. then i hurried home to change and visit the printers at walmart.

did i mention rain? it was raining. it wasn't cold, though, implicit in the previous statement, so i put on my ski-jacket and relatively water-resistant pants, tucked my disk-on-key with the photos into a dry corner and my headphones into my ears, fast-walked to the metro and from the metro to the walmart.

i must have spent forty-five minutes with the guys there trying to print. firstly, my cellular internet sucks and it's even worse when i really need it. secondly, they will print almost any size except passport size. so if i want to print passport size, i'd have to resize the photos to pad them enough and then cut them back down to size afterwards. it was all rather silly.

this seems like a great time to point out one of the iphone's most remarkable flaws: if i close my phone while i'm reading a web page in safari, and i unlock the phone to continue reading that page, safari will attempt to reload it. even if i have no internet connection. that's the sort of behaviour that makes me want to step outside and find out just how far i can fling the phone.

having nothing better to do, and already being in that area, and wet, i decided to locate the dollar cinema. has google maps ever led me wrong? yes. do i have much choice? not really. so i walked under the bridge (it was really beautiful), and found myself in the medical center. google maps said it wasn't there, so i walked south before finding myself too far south even for google maps, and then walked back north to discover that the medical center was the right place after all.

great! he says sarcastically.

i went in through a different entrance and walked around the ghost-mall, never finding a single sign that so much as suggested at a cinema. i hit the dollar store for a couple of things, then headed home. the walk back seemed to take much longer, but that might be because it rained a lot harder and by the time i returned to the metro even my ski-jacket was beginning to soak through.

i'll be honest, though: i did enjoy walking in the rain.

i chatted with k-twang, whose troubles with canadian bureaucracy seem quite intense, and then made dinner. i'm fairly certain the salad would have come out better with cucumbers, but the entire pack was soft and mouldy. ugh. and to think i'd eaten one the night before - perhaps i shouldn't have let the softness slide...

either monday or tuesday the skin in front of my thumbnail split, and it's very much like a cracked heal: it hurts like crazy, and it's lekkerseer, and it's just not healing :(

---today: wednesday: how the heck is it wednesday???:

it occurred to me this morning that my while my statements that got me into trouble on monday night were valid apropos general psychological troubles, they weren't so valid regarding autism. because autism really is a disease. umm. as far as regular humans are concerned. umm. it's debatable. anyway, i think i need to mention my hesitation to the doctor i was trying to discuss it with when my uncle got upset.

i can tell exactly at what point my day got good - as i was getting ready to leave i was compelled to open the glove box [sorry, i had to]. the gloves cost me more than i expected, but still far less than my old ones, and holy-crap-they're-great-gloves-and-a-perfect-fit!!! that's very, very exciting, by which i mean that i'm greatly relieved that i have such a good excuse to keep them and not regret having to sell them off after all i went through to get them.

i sat with the art director this morning to discuss icon design; the concept art that he produced off my little script was nothing short of astounding, and if the big boys like it i'll get my name tagged as "copywriter". i like the sound of that :)
on a different note, icon design is complicated.

"there aren't a lot of guys like you," he told me.
"well," i responded, "i guess we need to make some more!"

after he invited me out to a great little indian restaurant next door - i ate far too much - aota got focused on my permit application while i essentially backseat-drove. that woman is an absolute blessing, i tell you: after a back-and-forth with all the bureaucrats and my personal information, she discovered that for various reasons i'm exempt from everything except the application that i've already made! win!!!

i might still have to go to new york, but we're not sure, and there's actually the possibility that i'll be sorted out and can start working in one or two weeks' time! hooray!!! now i just need to make a good impression on the officer at the border crossing. i considered taking him doughnuts, but if i was him i'd grab the doughnuts and kick me out.

it fascinates me how, in jobs-speak, i can connect the dots and see how important every little step along my way has been. from the trial-and-error svn abuse that i went through with -someone to the git expertise i gained from the tail end of my last job i have become a repo-master. this is a very good position to be in indeed. also, the junior came to sit and discuss his future plans, which involve running a gaming company. as i've told him, when i have a say in things i'm going to want each developer to dedicate a portion of his time to building apps that we're going to use ourselves, and it doesn't matter if they're tools or games. we kind of got side-tracked and i pitched the idea i've been sitting with for about twelve years now (inspired by neal stephenson - snow crash and johnny mnemonic), and the thing is is that everything is not only doable and has been for decades, but it's now so simple and feasible that it would be silly not to do it!

i spent an hour or two going through open-source solutions to see if i could find anything interesting, established my next goal and then left to come home. since lunch i'd been suffering a bit of a sore belly, and it intensified to the point of agony as i travelled on the metro, then relaxed just before i arrived home.

*sigh*

how is it so late already? all i did was watch a movie and write this!

---my favourite part of the form i need to return to hydro-quebec:

important information to ensure the safety of our meter readers
your file indicates that you do not have a dog.

happier already

i just had quite a long chat with my mum, and to summarize:

all good on the holiday front (no shit :P) - the tent from last year is fine and ready. it looks like she'll have moved to the new apartment by the time i get there. i'm getting there on a friday night, so it looks like it'll be even more insane than last year's (i was trying to play it cool, and even that didn't work so well).

i told my mom that this year she's not to throw ice over the balcony. apparently it won't be possible from the new place. safer ;)

my family's really amusing: k-twang brought his very not-jewish girlfriend to the new year's dinners
^_^ good on yer'! (and i heard only good things about her, so it's not just him)

the air force transfer solves all my problems in one go, gives meaning to the six years of hell i've gone through, and makes my mommy proud. w00t!

so anyway, the conversation made me feel much better. i'm kinda stuck as far as work is concerned, so i reckon i'm off "home" soon. tomorrow, aside from tons o' work, we're gonna have to find some kind of a solution to the housing problem... but find one we will!