friday afternoon homework experience

 well, i'm sitting here [as i start writing this post] helping mr smear with his hebrew homework, after yet another fight about doing the homework, which we only won because i threatened to eat the last ice lollie; once he agreed to sit down, he then protested again but on the grounds that he doesn't want to be in israel... gd and i sat down and (once again) explained why canada and south africa aren't options (the dangers of global antisemitism, and why canada would be worse for him, because he'd be going through all of the same stuff but in french), and now we're moving through the homework pretty smoothly.

good grief.

this morning i woke up at 3.30am, dragged myself out of bed and made a cup of coffee and walked to the car and drove to the airport to pick up our cousin, and arrived only a handful of minutes before she walked out from customs. it's so good to see her again!

we dropped her luggage off at her hotel, then i dropped her off at our place, returned the car, and caught a bus home. everyone was awake and hungry, so we walked to our favorite coffee shop for coffee and breakfast. then i hopped on a bus headed to dizengoff center, called my mom to check in, took her advice and hopped off the bus, and walked to the weizman center instead to pick up a SIM card for a fraction of the price that they're selling them at the airport.

i did a grocery shopping, stopped on the way home for an amazing breakfast bagel, and then returned to crash on the couch. later, after unboxing the care package for my mom (a few packets of salted liquorice and some books, including the one with the song/poem i was looking for ^_^).

i walked her to the train station, organized a ravkav card for her, then we took the light rail straight to her hotel. i said goodbye, jumped on the next one back, and have since eaten and been helping with the homework [at this point we're almost done].

i'm really impressed by today's light rail experience!

yesterday:

the work day was intense. it started with a fight about whether to use jsonb in a postgres database, this time with me on team "yes". i managed to get that done fairly quickly, and i was really happy with it by the time it was merged, but the next part gave me trouble until i eventually went home for the weekend with an unsatisfied feeling.

in the middle of the day, i went to pick mr smear up from the school. i had just enough time to eat too much lunch along the way.

wednesday:

mr smear's school trip (for which we postponed his allergy test): a video was sent on the parents' group of the kids all chanting "shame", and i found out later that the bus driver's license had expired. the kids had a good time in the nature reserve and on its sand dunes; i needed an hour and a half off work to pick mr smear up afterwards, only he decided to head to his friend's place and i made the whole trip for nothing (although we're grateful he's socializing, so that takes priority). after work i picked him up on my way home.

...

my roastie seems to be healing nicely now. my sinuses / allergies / whatever are still a problem. gd's foot's even worse now.

we're still almost done with the homework.

not so much resting or relaxing - part iii

[... continued]
on my way to meet wire for drinks i ran into vector, who convinced me that things were happening; i haven't heard from him since :/

wire and i sat for a while over beers, and he gave me the last of the cash i'd loaned him. it was more symbolic than anything, i'm really pleased that he's properly on his feet again! we enjoyed a stout called pretty bastard that's brewed in bromont and is pretty darned good.

i came home to indian takeout. i discovered that gd is definitely *not* into science fiction, so i guess battlestar galactica is just for me...

... we watched a few episodes of the boondocks and then went to bed.

---last sunday:

during a chat with my mother i learned that she's unhappy with her iphone, for very different reasons from those that i'm unhappy with mine for. i decided that when i get there in december i'd buy hers off her - these things are *expensive* for south africans...

after going through our feeds gd asserted that i have a responsibility to make a short video explaining the israel / gaza conflict. i guess i kind of do? but i need to invest a lot of energy into something like that, so the scribbling i've done since doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast :(
in the meanwhile, there's pat condell. his piece on hypocrisy over gaza does a fairly good job of covering the bases and its description contains a ton of links to important sources just in case you're not convinced of the veracity of his sentiments.

i went on a quick mission to popeye's for powder, gd and i visited aubut for some shopping, i wolfed down a leftover lunch and then we waited for bnw and her husband to arrive. we'd packed enough stuff to go camping, they arrived with an empty car.

the two hour drive there through the beautiful countryside with good music and plenty of munchies was nice. after we arrived, had beers and met up with another couple we all went on a pretty hike that included farm animals. we returned, waited for ages in line and eventually entered coaticook gorge.

bnw's attitude when we began irritated gd (and me too, but i ignored it) and she then did something that was childish and offensive that threatened to ruin our evening. i like bnw and her husband, they're good people and we share a lot of common interests, but i harbour no illusions about their maturity or reliability. i was really glad that afterwards everyone behaved well regardless and we enjoyed the walk immensely! the light show is incredible and the gorge is stunning with or without it.

we'd planned to leave at 11pm and i was shocked when i looked at my watch and saw that that's precisely when we left! the ride back was uncomfortable due to my suffering from rls, and gd's neck and butt weren't too comfortable either.

---monday:

i woke from a dream in which i'd been disguised as an ultra-orthodox jewish shipbuilder to escape a naval base but had been caught. it was a rainy monday morning and i was warm and cosy under the blanket, so getting up kinda sucked.

first fail of the day: showing the team lead something and having an alert pop up asking for my password. i clicked on it and typed away, and felt really stupid when he told me he could see my password: i looked up and saw that the keyboard focus had magically switched to a different app :$

an examination under the hood of javascript feels like stepping through the looking glass.

big junior and i received a mandate to redesign the streaming solution we're working on and a briefing on the political context in which we're operating. the design's been fun to produce and suggests exciting possibilities to come!

after a long day i found myself in the same metro car as one of our designers. he's a nice guy but riding with him was awkward and we were together for almost half an hour :/

[continued...]

permission granted!

achievement unlocked: work permit acquired (the next milestone).

one of the lawyers drove me to the border as my representative, and i was shocked to learn that the previous time my lawyer had given me bad instructions! as it turns out, if you tell the americans that all you want to do is turn around at the border they will refuse you entry and give you a white slip, which you then take to the canadians. as far as the work permit application is concerned you're entering the country from the united states, but as the united states denied entry the border officials essentially have to let you back in because they weren't supposed to let you out in the first place.

that's all very, very weird, and super-bureaucratic. but i guess if everyone's happy with it then i'm happy with it, and the guy who admitted me was really cool and efficient. having been through the process a couple of times before i was a lot less nervous. but still a little nervous: those guys are essentially omnipotent regarding permits and visas, i wouldn't want them to dislike me.

...

i was pleased to learn that i pretty much know my shit regarding the permits and residence application procedures, but i was fortunate to learn that the rules for applying for residence might change soon. this means that i need to pitch a no-hitter for the next four or five months if i don't want to find myself having to fight to stay here...

---saturday:

i forgot to mention a thought i had on saturday about the burqa fundamentalist muslim women wear: its use puts humans on the same level as all the other animals, where the females have drab colours and the males have otherwise useless or counter-productive flash, like the peacock.

with the good news that i'll be working again, i splurged on itunes: i bought foo fighters - greatest hits for $7. and then today i picked up a comedy album whose proceeds are all going to a good cause, but i'm so far a lot less satisfied by that one :/

---i tried to take a nap after lunch, but my ocd was acting up and i began compulsively tidying. which mostly consisted of setting up the old amp and speakers in gd's "salon". we're now one rca-to-headphone cable shy of awesome :)

we watched stake land after going shopping, and were both thoroughly enjoying ourselves right until the end. it's a bad-ass super-cool movie about what are essentially a cross between vampires and zombies, and the ending made me feel like the world had dropped out from under me. in a bad way. other than that, the writing was really good, aside from one scene where it felt like someone had just stopped caring for a moment because they wanted a fun, scary effect that couldn't be easily justified.

gd made a double veggie / daiya cheese burger that was delicious, and we watched a bit of dan cummins - crazy with a capital f until i realized that it was midnight and i needed to be up at 6am.

---today:

around 4am i got up to serious rls, and it took about forty-five minutes to go away. i finally fell back into bed, and had a nightmare in which i watched a large green spider enter an infant's nose. after that i rushed off, barely in time to meet with the lawyer and cross the border, but had to get off the bus i'd just hopped on to return home and pick up forgotten documents. i woke up with that dread still in my chest, and discovered that i'd slept through my alarm and it was ten minutes after i'd intended to leave; it took me half an hour to get out - butterflies in my stomache turned out to be more than just butterflies - and thank all the gods gd had ironed my shirt the night before and knew where the shoe polish was.

of course, my representative would call when i was down in the metro: why does my phone bother ringing if there's not enough signal to talk? then there was a metro service slowdown, but it was only for a few minutes. then i got lost in the building, but the guy found me instead.

...

it was a gorgeous morning and the scenery on the way down to the border was stunning. on the way back, my lack of sunglasses, my lack of sleep and the looooong drive with aircon and no fresh air had me trying to hide yawns all the way. i kicked myself for a while after we said our goodbyes and i ended with "see you soon" :$

i thought i was going to take a quick nap but i crashed hard for an hour or two. gd and i played carcassonne, which she eventually enjoyed, and the rest of the afternoon has been a whole lot of random, including some very unpleasant political stuff with our friends on facebook.

at least there's more good news: vector's back on the project! very cool, that had been upsetting me.

a month of links

politics and bureaucrats

the tsa are still being useless assholes.

speaking of phones, how safe are ours from various governments?

elon musk understands what's wrong with patent law.

tech

THIS is a what a smartwatch should look like!

quadcopters: letting us see fireworks the right way.

jerktech: thoroughly disappointing hi-tech "solutions".

iphone photograph awards: these photos say a lot about photography.

the wheezy asthma attack detector has an interesting history.

environment

rolling coal: conservative americans take pride in being the dumbest people on the planet :(

harley davidson's livewire prototype is beautiful.

massive underground oceans? colour *me* impressed!

education

17 websites that will make you smarter is a great list!

this french tech school seems to "get" it.

business

starbucks college fund: good business.

who should worry about work-life balance?

psychology

recalibrate your reality is an incredibly interesting and well-written article.

conserving energy - part i

it's been a rough few days, primarily because i've been stressed and not feeling at the top of my game: i've been exhausted, my brain's been operating in slow motion and i've been trying to read as much as i possibly can so that i can call up my future boss and be ready for anything.

...

i've been trying out songza now that google's bought it, and i'm listening to coffee shop indie as i write this. pretty cool.

---wednesday:

wednesday morning began with an argument about kendall jones and animal conservation. i originally wrote "she's about as good for conservation as deforestation", but after a couple of articles (here, here and here) i realized that as unfortunate as promoting the killing of wildlife for sport may be, it does appear to be counteracting the disastrous efforts of poachers so from a practical point of view i guess i need to keep my animal rights opinions in check.

the guy i was arguing with was the pro-gun anti-obama moron that i studied with, and on a number of occasions i came pretty close to unfriending him. but i guess the above realization is precisely why we shouldn't ignore people who we disagree with. speaking of which, xkcd's commentary on the ethics of the research fiasco is on the mark as usual. i don't want facebook hiding posts i might not engage with. that's just stupid.

...

i grabbed my ipod to go shopping, and was horrified to find that it's suddenly in its death throes. its screen is faded and crossed with scan lines. it feels like it's too soon since my last one went, but i guess it's had a good run. i don't have the cash to replace it right now and i have to say i'm quite upset that i've no way to back up all the tracks i ripped from my physical cds in israel :(

there were garbage bags outside the apartment building again, i hope we won't have to pay for those. i suddenly remembered that i needed more breakfast shake when i saw popeye's discount bills in my wallet, so i headed over there where i had an interesting conversation about vegan protein with the owner. apparently progressive accounts for vegetable bio-availability when labelling protein quantities, whereas vega doesn't. not cool, vega.

the rest of the shopping was quick and after lunch i read some more dr who comics and took a nap.

...

it had been a tough day so far, primarily because i hadn't the energy to do a damned thing. it was so hot. so far, the best part of my day had been receiving a photo of gd's second journal entry: i've convinced her to try keeping a drawn diary as an excuse to practice. so far, very cute indeed :)

...

i tried studying, and i made a little progress. afterwards i discovered that i can connect humble bundle to my steam account. seriously?! now i don't have an excuse not to purchase their game bundles, previously i simply didn't want to have to add another source to gog and steam. not that i'm in a position to be buying much right now, but in general that's pretty sweet!

i finally updated zombies, run! and ran along the lachine canal. 'cause i live here now, it's kinda silly not to :)
the run was pretty good, considering i haven't simply run in ages and i was being very careful about my form. i'm in serious need of cardio training, and i wanted to get back to the story in any event. my phone won't sync my old phone's missions so i have to begin again, the gps initialized incorrectly so my stats show an average of about 120kph for the first minute or two, and it's not picking up my pace so i never get chased by zombies. aside from that, my playlist is awesome and the route is excellent, so i guess i'm back into running when i don't have it in me to get to the gym.

after yesterday's run, though, i think that i should be listening to french music or podcasts as i go. i'll need something that'll power me as well as alter bridge, foo fighters, godsmack, (hed) p.e., karnivool, linkin park, lostprophets* and marilyn manson.

* as i said, i'm not going to stop listening to their music but i do think about the whole thing with disgust every time one of their songs comes on.

it was so hot and humid that i got out of the shower still sweating :(

[gd surprising me with an uncomfortable discussion that seems to have been about something we don't need to worry about but was a residual effect of an argument we had a while back]

gd and i went to p.m. for dinner, which was delicious but the pad thai was so incredibly spicy that we gave up halfway (made for a good following lunch, at least). we went to bed tired and still sweating.

[continued...]

evaluation

lying in bed this morning, i found myself morbid and miserable. i think it's the first time i've really had an opportunity to think about pg's leaving without distraction, and for some time all rationalization went out the window and i just felt really awful about it.

i'm still not feeling great physically - i'm pretty sure that i'm not entirely healthy but i'm not sure that i'm actually sick as such. my head's definitely not in the right place, i've been feeling stupid and demotivated for a while, and i think i do need to just wallow a little. am i repeating myself? i don't care.

so... i have a list of things i really need and want to do, and zero inclination to do any of it. this is a problem. i eventually pulled myself out of bed, read a long and painful article about gilad shalit, read a very good response to holocaust denial, figured out what's missing from my 2010 travel posts, practiced a bit of french...

---what an absolutely stunning revelation! i'm filled with hope, wonder, and general awe. allan savory's ted talk is a must-see, he explains a breakthrough discovery about climate change that's counter-intuitive and inspiring.

i'm rethinking my veganism / supplementarianism since last night: it's such a mission in these parts. it might be healthier, but it makes life complicated. and, well, if what this world needs is more cattle and sheep...

i believe in christmas

i'm sure i mentioned it way back when (while i was researching a seminar paper), but as soon as i read the sermon on the mount i thought "wait a minute... i must be a christian!". to be fair, i said the same thing when i read the communist manifesto, the fascist manifesto, and the futurist manifesto. the fact that i'm an ordained minister of the church of the flying spaghetti monster (in good standing, i might add) and am a non-practising jew who fully ascribes to jewish philosophy prior to the great rabbis (i'm like a jewish hipster) factors in there somewhere. anyway, all of this just to say that while i might not be a christian, and i certainly don't believe in a christian god (or trinity), i can now say that i do believe in christmas. mine was a wonderful, wonderful day, and a large part of it was being surrounded by the infectious goodwill and cheer that those who do believe adopt.

if they would be this merry all year around, the world would be a little better for it.

---christmas:

the other major factor in tuesday being as wonderful as it was was that i had a great day on the slopes and all the glories of saint sauveur were exposed when the sun came out. it's the first time i've been there without complete cloud cover, and words fail me in describing its beauty. from the icy tips of the trees with the sunlight behind them to the fresh snow contrasted against the varied soft blues of the sky, to the view of distant villages nestled in the mountains made possible by the intensely sharp clarity of the day's air, the experience was one of a seemingly endless series of moments caught in an artist's renderings of a dream of being on the slopes. it was fantastic and stupefying, and a little frustrating because i wanted to share the experience and capture the memories on camera but that would have put my camera at risk (most of the *really* crazy shots were from the ski lifts) or force me to remove my gloves (which wouldn't have been a good idea at a windy -10 celsius).

not that i didn't get any photos at all, but they're certainly not representative of what i could see. funnily enough, most of the time i was enjoying the views through my orange goggles and when i did compare, the tint experience was different but neither better nor worse. ah, and the hour or so that i had my ipod playing psychedelic rock from my jacket pocket might have added to the surreal nature of the day.

my new boots are definitely more responsive, and that made my performance improve dramatically. however, i learned the hard way that they're actually a little bit too small (meaning my shoe size is 10.75 US, and the quarter size in either direction isn't good), so if i tightened the laces properly my left foot would begin to hurt. a lot. like enough to pass out from the pain.

i discovered this because i was totally jamming when the pain started, and was so excited and was so thoroughly enjoying myself that i couldn't bring myself to take break until i absolutely had to. i didn't pass out, but i recognize when i'm on the verge. also an indication that they're too small: i landed off a small jump later on and stubbed my big toe :(

the good and bad that came out of needing to take breaks (fortunately i only got the lacing wrong twice) was that i stopped at avila for a beer and by the time i was finished and had heard enough christmas song covers by artists like enya and bon jovi the lift was closed and the whole place was being shut down. on the one hand, that meant that i had to grab my bag and boots from my locker and walk along the road until i got to one of the two saint sauveur lifts still operational. this was arduous and it was very uncomfortable to snowboard down a black diamond with boots in hand. on the other hand, if i hadn't taken that break i might have continued with my plan to return to avila just before the bus was scheduled to arrive, and by then i would have had a nasty surprise because there wouldn't have been any quick way to get back. and it would have been in complete darkness.

my last runs were excellent, and the walk to the village was pleasant. it was very, very cold, though, and the bus was quite late. the well-dressed local woman waiting with me kept complaining about the cold in french (in both senses), and i kept myself warm by dancing on the spot to dark psytrance.

but the bus did arrive, and we boarded. there weren't many seats available, and a girl towards the back of the bus removed her backpack from the seat for me. i sat down, and she asked me where the bus had stopped, and i told her. she began to talk, kind of arbitrarily, and at some point she said something that made me ask her where she was from.

well, if i didn't immediately switch to hebrew there and then! it took her a slow moment to realize what had happened, and we laughed and spent the rest of the ride talking non-stop. her fellow exchange student (ben gurion / mcgill) woke up after twenty minutes and sleepily asked if she was really hearing a conversation in hebrew; the chances of meeting an israeli on a night bus in quebec are probably pretty damn small. never mind that, she's studying computer science and philosophy, and has a friend who's studying computer science and literature who she can now tell isn't alone.

it was fun, and strange, and very interesting.

---boxing day:

in order to leave my aunt's house early with yang, i'd showered, dressed and picked up a toothbrush when i got home and then went to sleep over there. i was up at the time he'd told me to be, but he wasn't and his parents insisted that i not wake him. eventually, three hours later, yin woke up, woke him up, and he made a big noise about how i should've woken him up :/

we hit the salomon store first, and the purchase was pretty quick. i'm not sure who did a better job of selling me the boots, yang or the salesman, but they look good, they're super-comfortable and i'm assured that they'll keep my feet warm and dry and will last me enough years that the splurge will be worth it.

the rest of the day was spent discovering that yang is a serious shopper. although between stores was fun, when he wasn't chain-smoking, the shops themselves were a drag. and the people! it was nuts. we ran into a classmate of his with agoraphobia, who comes outside once a year on boxing day in an effort to exorcise it because the crowds freak him out more than his phobia so his related panic attacks are easier to control.

seems legit. those crowds and queues and that level of pushy-and-shoviness on the metro were something else...

we got back to my aunt's where my boots received approval, played guitar hero and rockstar table tennis until dinner, and afterwards yang dropped me and my gear back at home.

where i've eaten and done internet things. and prepared emotionally for getting up early again tomorrow.

---something positive in the news: in california, at least, the stigma attached to marijuana use appears to be fading. the war on drugs is more destructive and costly than any drug use ever was - ever - and this gives me hope.

speaking of crowd-funding: stick 'n find is a brilliant idea, but i wonder if some of their raging success can be attributed to reading "clean your mess" as "kick your lover out the side-door".

raspberry pi replacing expensive stuff: good for them! it's a noble goal.

linkage moment

educational stuff for the week, courtesy of just the facts:

cheap new synthetic skin enables product testing without animals
scientists have created genetically modified cows that produce human milk
ten minutes on human empathy that makes a good case for why we need to move beyond the nation state.

cool stuff for the week:

tool artwork for sale
a real (enough) pipboy! (thanks, nystire)

coasting to sleep

it's hard to listen to terrence mckenna and not be impressed by the man's brilliance. so much more impressive is his writing, at once both academic and invigorating. his blurring of the line between medicinal and psychotropic plants and regular nutrition is subtle, but very clever, and the idea that all of these systems are so deeply interconnected with the animal world is at once obvious and surprising. it's less of a question of "what effect will consuming this have on me" than of "how does this effect play a role in the grand scheme of things".

---tabata this morning was as meh as i was feeling before i began: i'm still a bit too tired to be enthusiastically making an effort. not that i didn't make an effort, mind. the day was fairly unexciting, although there's a definite sense of making progress. in the evening i found my way to a really cool bar called la casa del popolo. the atmosphere was awesome and the local beer was great, and the place was packed with cool people, quite a few of them comic artists and publishers.

now if only i spoke french, it wouldn't have been so awkward. i finished my beer, bought a book (an opportunity to support the artist and maybe learn a bit), and walked to the nearest metro. dinner at my aunt's was really nice.

one weird thing, though. for me, at any rate. it turns out that for canadians, people who hit the slopes with knees pads or wrist protection are total nerds; it's just not done! everything i've read and experienced to the contrary. well, i guess i'll just be the nerd, then.


---first-world problems: i can't figure out if i'm supposed to toss all my recycling into the big bins as is, or if i'm supposed to waste plastic to bag it first :S

almost on the money

at least i know where to begin this post: this evening i called up the ceo for a quick status, and it turns out that the amount i requested is not unrealistic. that means that the only thing standing in the way of a job with these guys is my code sample. it's submitted, and if it's not good enough then that's just the way it is. but i really hope it's enough; i mean it should be obvious that i *get* what they've done.

so now pg's decided on the minimum requirements for an apartment, and i'm in dire need of a beard trimmer.

---i was utterly exhausted yesterday afternoon, so i rested. i began reading anna karenina, which was very bad timing considering that david wong - this book is full of spiders: seriously, dude, don't touch it was just pushed to my kindle this morning. decisions, decisions...

my cousin introduced me to left 4 dead on his xbox 360; awesome game, but i really, really don't get the controls. i'm a pc gamer, counterstrike (and quake and so on) is my thing. half the time i found myself deliberating over which buttons needed pressing and feeling awkwardly disconnected from the directional sticks, the other half squinting into the darkness trying to discern friend from foe.

i sent off a lot of friendly fire.

somehow, i made it through the level with the rest of the crew, eventually surviving in spite of amusing moments spent running around in circles like a headless chicken as hordes rushed me while the squad took care of business. apparently i function well enough as a decoy :P

my cousin and i then went for a very long walk, some of which was a discussion and some of which an argument. at the end, though, we arrived at a conclusion. he's very ambiguously minded, and i'm very uncomfortable with that. i guess that that's the sound of me facing my own contradictions because it's impossible not to be ambiguous as a human being; however, his desire to keep it that way places him firmly in the irrational camp. which is fine, i guess, whatever.

---it was hard to get out of bed this morning. i started the day on windows 7 forums trying to figure out how to re-enable an accidentally disabled microphone: it's totally not intuitive and i was totally let down when i discovered the solution (you have to right-click in the area that your microphone isn't showing up). what a waste of time.

i spent the day firing off job applications, with a short break for a rather large leftover lunch. at the approach of the end of the workday, i called the ceo and then sat down with my aunt to discuss how fortunate i would be if this all pans out. it's very exciting.

it was in this frame of mind that pg and i walked downtown to see dredd 3D. pete travis and karl urban are my heroes! seriously, as a huge gushing fan of the comics, the stallone film just irritated me. this? this is a work of art. it's true to form, it's dark, gritty and ultraviolent, it's outrageously fun and its use of 3D was clever and unobtrusive.

we walked all the way home; i don't feel bad about finishing the skittles now.

---a bit earlier i had a spider crawl over my abdomen as i was seated on the can. not cool. i squealed.

first spring: footnotes and links

[footnotes from previous post]

* the argument was political, but it was more of a meta-argument over the fact that the kid, surrounded almost exclusively by pro-palestinian propaganda, holds opinions yet couldn't be bothered to base them in personally verified fact. he basically talked a load of bollocks, and every time i pointed out a flaw - either logical or factual - he shrugged it off as "don't care".

but he cares enough to be a self-hating jew and extreme relativist. brilliant.

** there's a girl who's been at a lot of the parties i've been to in the last year, and i know she's friendly with a friend of mine, but we've never had any contact. at the party on friday, i noticed her smiling at me while i was blowing bubbles at the side of the dancefloor, and i smiled back - but i'm not sure if that counts as a connection.

she's not really my type, aesthetically speaking, but she seems a nice girl. i walked into the club on monday night, and saw her next to the speaker i always use to place my jacket. she was talking to someone, and i tried catching her eye in a non-obvious manner. that's probably a mistake - the non-obvious part, at least - and i got no response from her, not even a slight indication of recognition.

for the rest of the time i was there we danced close to each other, but without any communication between us whatsoever. that was just weird.

---
here are the links for the last couple of days:

sa news:

hiding the homeless for the world cup

so i'm not clued up with sports - this hermaphrodite business seems a bit rough.

visual:

here are some incredible photos of insects covered in dew

we have tested an proved the ability to genetically modify / correct adults - and away we go!

wp's girlfriend gave me her business card, and it's been sitting on my desk since i returned from sa. yesterday, while tidying up, i finally opened the link: she's amazing!

catching (almost) six

i was good today, didn't nap at all. i remembered to take my outfit to "work", too, for dress-up day.

we had to get off the shuttle at the last tel aviv stop, which meant coming in from the other end of the base. i was still feeling a bit hung over, and *had* to do the salt and vinegar chips thing. the owners love me, and excitedly promised that they would be ready in five... they chirped and chirped while the oil bubbled, and about half an hour later the rain began pelting down and i sat down with my fresh chips and bowl of vinegar. i wasn't going anywhere.

at least the rain didn't last very long, although it was incredibly heavy. nobody would really have cared if i'd been late, anyway.

i made a pretty psychedelic background for my workstation, with "RELEASE ME" boldly pasted over it in a random yet funky font. after coffee and a little bit of time with the guitar, i got my work environment mostly set up and then changed into my outfit. everyone loved my spy disguise, and the fake 'tache i wore suits me; i don't think i could grow such a strong one, though. i reminded myself of the stranger.

i didn't speak to the discipline officer because i was dressed amusingly. our SC was terrified that i'd go out of my way to make him feel bad because i was proven 100% right in my assertion yesterday. i told him that if i'm not to file that complaint, then i can at least make sure he knows he has to inform his brethren in the Cabal of the Unrefined that they have to stop that shit.

an exchange of snow stories with one of the guys who just got back from a week at les arcs (where we were last year), and i'm aggravated that it doesn't look like i'll be able to go this year, all because of the weird situation with the army.

suck.

as my mom said, i'll have to make up for it either during the summer (argentina) or pull a serious stint during next year's academic vacation.

lunch was quick, and the whole "carnival" thing was less atrocious than last year's. they had tekken - i don't know which post-tag one it was, and i was beaten twice by some average kid with a shitty attitude... i'm so used to certain basic moves that i was completely thrown when they didn't work.

oh, well.

i spent the afternoon getting back into the swing of working on my project (at least something productive's possible), playing secretary and whining about the fact that the entire unit now has access to whatever munchies are on my desk; that, and whenever someone comes into the office i hear a buzz and a bang right behind me and my nerves are going to be shot if i don't get used to it quickly.

from the base we went to one of our section-mates' new apartment - a cool, refurbished hospital room in sisters' quarters. there was blood pooling in the corridor. while there and drinking (i forgot i was in uniform :P), we watched youtube videos, laughed about ordering pizza online (the user experience is excellent), and talked quite a bit. i left when the guys put a movie on, to catch a bus back home so that i could get some sleep.

if i hadn't been so wrapped up in the news, i would've been in bed ages ago.

an interesting story: prohibition poisoning

octopus using tools: i dunno, it doesn't seem to different from the hermit crab. thanks, nystire :)

a brief glance at the x prize plans

i'm meta-linking to the gore op-ed that says we can't wish climate change away

glorious, neck-twisting sleep

i lay down after publishing my previous post and passed out reading the hebrew comics - i find that reading hebrew makes me sleepier far faster :P

i expected to wake up in time to enjoy the evening, but it was only about 1am when i roused myself, acquired some chocolate and sat down to read news (?) and play around with my guitar.

i can't decide if i should name it "fingernails on chalkboard", or "TIA" because that's the feeling the acronym inspires in me.

i only tired out around 4am, and have been lying awake since 7.30am not wanting to get up, but unable to sleep.

seek irony - singer sent me a link and although the first song on their page didn't impress me the rest were rather good.

battlecorps: aside from news and plucking the guitar i read one of the short stories, and the material is top class. another good link from tycho :)

from io9:

they're making a movie of the men who stare at goats? the kid still calls it "the minister of goats", refusing to read it because he didn't realize that it wasn't trying to convince him that he could read minds.

donald soffritti is a balony-an an artist from bologna whose work includes retired superheroes, like a fat, smoking wonderwoman and an incontinent spiderman.

these are some weird-ass slugs - national geographic has done an exposé on the colourful alienness of these deep sea gastropods.

i do not like the dog

i had a fantastic morning: i let the dog out (not the first time), and he went absolutely nuts and ran around the garden barking. woke everyone up. i had to spend a few minutes running around barefoot in the wet grass before i finally caught the blighter.

i passed out for an hour or two watching tv. when i woke up, i drove my mum and two li'l cousins to the mall. at least i got coffee out of the deal, but the drive back was horrific. i HATE being given bad directions in real time - it wasted time and aggravated me no end.

we dropped off one of the cousins, then the three of us remaining went off to the biodome. it's basically a glorified zoo / aquarium - i would have been more interested if there'd been a little more focus on the science / planned applications... but that's probably just me.

we came back home, packed, sat down for a nice, home-cooked meal, dropped off my mom at the airport, and said goodbye. *sigh*

brought my aunt back home, then i went with the cousins to see superman returns. great fun! now it's time for bed.

niagara falls

i slept really well. like a log, without the woodchips.

we drove off towards niagara, beginning the day with starbucks, and getting ripped off AGAIN with self-service fill-up.

for moonflake, and any other potential touristy types: never use foreign credit cards for self-service, just pay with cash. i'm positive it's a problem on the side of discoverer, but either way we spent $30 both times, and both times got charged $120+ in rand. that's messed up, and according to the guys here they definitely didn't charge more than the amount listed on the receipt.

anyway, it was a long drive to get to niagara-on-the-lake, which is a quaint little tourist trap, but pretty. then we went up to the falls. i must admit, they look impressive in photos but after seeing the victoria falls in zimbabwe... nothing special. VERY tourist trappish. LOADS of tourists. LOADS of tasteless casinos and badly done "fun" things to do. rather irritating, actually.

loooooong drive back, hitting rush hour traffic and taking a wrong turn that added half an hour to our mission. filled up again, this time with cash, and have just gotten back to base. now we're off to eat out.

*yawned* good morning

last night was certainly interesting. the seder itself was kinda nice, kinda awkward - the sound team made sure that we heard constant feedback, so that hurt a bit. the food was good though.

got back to a chilled evening. i was brushing my teeth when i noticed something small and black moving next to my foot - a friendly scorpion! boy, was it NOT happy when i shoved it outside, so i could kill it, box it, and toss it. i spent the rest of the evening paranoid about finding its friends.

just before bed i received an sms from this girl i met a few weeks ago, seems she does want to stay in touch. gonna have to check that out.

i still haven't woken up yet, but i'm looking forward to arbing around properly the entire day :)