april 1st

there's a man outside with a leafblower going up and down the parking lot and making a lot of noise. i watched him for a few moments, fascinated by the fact that there're no leaves to be seen anywhere. he must be doing a particularly good job.

---it's gotta be the yoga, i woke up yesterday feeling indescribably relaxed and comfortable, and "well"... i didn't want to get out of bed at all. i woke up this morning feeling the same. is this a thing? i really want it to be a thing.

i wanted to do something for april fool's, and settled on posting what i thought was ridiculously obvious: i've decided it's time for another tattoo... i'm thinking on my lower back this time. something tribal, maybe? what do you guys think?
some of the responses were in on the joke and hysterically funny, some of them were just as funny but surprised me with their seriousness - it was such fun! i got a few good laughs out of it, which i'd soon discover that i'd really need...

---the h&r "specialist" i had an appointment with is a russian with bad english. for an hour we talked at cross purposes and struggled over all the tax rules and the documentation that i'd brought. half the time she was trying to explain things to me that didn't need explaining, generating immense confusion. the entire process was tedious to say the least, but eventually we got through it.

now, the way people here have been talking about tax returns i understood that it's something that you have to do, but that by and large the tax that's automatically taken out of each salary payment is usually too much and that if one does things correctly one can expect a bit of cash back. the only disappointment i was expecting was to walk away $120 poorer (the 80 that i was quoted for the filing, and another 40 for reprinting the supporting documentation).

i felt like my chair had been pulled out from under me when she explained that i owe the canadian government $1000. i was shocked, i was unhappy, and it took the woman a while to explain this to me (albeit unsatisfactorily) - i even sent messages to aota and newk'd to verify that what she was saying made any sort of sense. before they could respond, though, the woman hit me with a bigger surprise.

i felt like the ground had opened up beneath me when she explained that in addition to owing the canadian government $1000, i owe québéc $2000. i went from shocked to traumatized, and was horrified when both aota and newk'd told me that this kind of thing is normal. then how the hell has nobody even mentioned this before?!?!

why is godmother, who's lived here for thirty years, also surprised?!

this was all bad enough, but to add insult to injury i was then informed that having h&r fill out my forms for me would actually cost $300.
"i'm so sorry," she informed me, "but it's the system, not me."

beneath the distress, anger bubbled. i will not be robbed on top of being robbed. i explained that they'd quoted me at 80, and that i wouldn't be paying more than 80. she seemed genuinely sorry, and i tried to explain that i was grateful for her services but that i would be taking my custom elsewhere. i took all my documentation and i walked. thinking about how very stupid they are for being dishonest... or at least not forthcoming with their quotes... because the poor woman just struggled through an hour of providing me the best service she could and nobody's going to see a cent for it.

*shakes head*

i kept hoping she'd call me back and yell "april fool" into the phone, tell me that it was all a shitty prank and that i should come back to finish filing and receive my return :(

---i sat in the food court forcing myself to eat and breathe and re-evaluate my position. i cooled down a bit when i realized that this puts me into my worst-case scenario of having to find a job within a month and a half before having to leave. not much consolation, but consolation nonetheless. i had a date scheduled for the afternoon and i would've cancelled otherwise. there's no point going on a date in a distressed state.

so i had my first coffee and reworked a bit of my comic script, then hurried home. i had little time between arriving home and leaving for the date, and most of it was consumed with communicating. the most important call was with my mother, who's offered a backup plan that relieves a solid layer of stress.

---the date? i thought it was really nice and that we had a good time. she was more attractive than in her photos, she's fascinating and she speaks in imperfect english with a really cute british accent (she's french but lived in england); when we said goodbye she sent me a massively mixed signal by gripping my arm in a way that could either mean she didn't want to let go OR that she's pitying me because she did. considering the fact that she hasn't responded to a message i sent her last night i'm guessing it's the latter. which is a bummer.

...

when i wanted to pay and leave there was a sudden influx of customers - one of whom shamelessly cut in front of me, which was weird, and even weirder when she apologized after she'd paid. then i was facing the girl behind the counter with a long line behind me, trying to explain in french that i wanted to pay for our coffees and "delay" a bowl of soup. there was nothing complicated about what i was saying, but she couldn't understand me and after trying twice i said it in english.
so then she got loud. "OH. YOU WANT TO PAY? FOR YOUR COFFEE? THANK YOU! AND YOU WANT TO DELAY A SOUP! THANK YOU!" she shared with the entire building.

i was so embarrassed :$

---rush hour on the metro. ugh.

for the first time in ages i went to jiu-jitsu. i really had trouble with last night's exercises and i was feeling a bit stupid. then there was an exercise where i was sure that my partner was doing it wrong. i tried to explain it to him but he showed me why i was confused, so i apologized for wasting his time and gave him some of my "turn" as compensation. then zahabi called us all in to explain that a few of us were off, and in slow-motion showed us precisely what i'd been trying to explain in the first place.

so there was that...

the dude destroyed me during rolling, i just couldn't get my shit together. i cut early to prepare for kickboxing. i was telling the jolly moroccan about my april fool's prank and my yoga instructor asked me what a "tramp stamp" is. when i told her, she was mortified because... she has one.
*facepalm*
between that and the shark thing, i'm going to need to vet everything i say in front of her before i open my mouth :P

the amount of leg kicks we had to absorb last night was ridiculous. i walked out thinking "the beatings continued and morale improved", went home and spent the next hour or so applying ice packs and watching thérèse. it's weird seeing audrey tautou playing not-amélie right after seeing amélie. i barely understood what was going on. i'm going to need to re-watch it until i do.

---i was supposed to meet with vfmp this morning but he's been unreachable. instead, i applied for a couple of jobs and wrote this. now i'm going to do some studying.

a short week in review

to summarize, it's taken most of the week for my body to recalibrate after the shock of the weekend. and all i want to do is do it again.

---monday:

it took half an hour to get out of bed and try out my legs - usually the first pains go into another day of boarding, this time it would be into "the usual". really not as good.
i had a happy morning, but the rest of the day was a bit meh. i tried the salad counter for lunch but was taken by surprise by both dairy and chicken in otherwise vegetarian-looking dishes, and then messed about with a website in frustration because every bloody platform (this time it was android) has its own way of making the web not work for its users.

in the evening i was disappointed to receive positive news too late to act upon it. i spent that disappointment on a fun project and built a really cool little api.

i got home in time to catch the superintendent, who took one look at me, stopped, and said "i know, i know - you're mad at me." i didn't deny it, and he promised that come wednesday he'd sort things out.

i lazily spent my evening clearing email (i really didn't have the energy to actually think about anything), and went to bed early.

---tuesday:

on tuesday we had serious snow, and waking up was slowed down because i just wanted to lie there staring out the window. it was beautiful, a total white-out.

on the way to the metro hardea - mr f*cker came on and the appropriateness of the lyrics made me smile. well, some of the lyrics. the bit about people on the sidewalk. when i came out the other end, it was even better: dj vimo - arise, and it was all i could do not to stop and just dance in the middle of the street, so excited was i by the crazy snowfall and the beats accompanying "it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me". because, well, in the grand scheme of things it really is.

weird: a connection between two cellphones was only half-duplex, and the other party was talking at length without pause. i tried to interrupt to clarify something, was ignored, got suspicious, and began yelling "hello? hello!" into the phone, and he just kept on going. when he finished i asked if he'd heard me; he hadn't. we switched to skype after the second time.

i hopped in the car with one of the guys on a delivery mission, and couldn't help but take a whole bunch of photos. a couple of them came out really well with instagram filters, demonstrating that one no longer requires any talent to capture something decent.

we drove a lot and didn't get very far: montreal's public transport system is great, but the infrastructure doesn't really support private car ownership too well. i see this as a huge advantage.

on the way, i learned that one can overheat wearing polyester blends indoors, and followed that discovery with wasted coffee. it wasn't a good hour. the rest of the afternoon was pleasant and relaxed, though.

...

sidewalk snow has a way of melting in the most fascinatingly inconvenient and sneaky fashion. no small irony in stomping through the slush to "i am the god of hellfire".

...

another mega-salad. i have reached a conclusion: the magic's in the dressing.

---wednesday:

i got a late start and added to it with a pre-key-handover tidy. after more banking woes with pg, i delivered my key to the superintendent and was on my way.

my bank, bank leumi, has taken customer service and consideration to its negative extreme. the next time i'm in israel - although i hope that's not soon - i'm going to withdraw every last cent and close my account. those bastards are either too stupid to handle my money, or too thieving, or both.

the first email of the day was about holidays; i was told that according to quebec labour law only certified christians get days off. i'm used to the idf's way of dealing with the different holidays, so that sounded legitimate to me. they laughed, and laughed, and i probably should consider getting revenge.

i began the day with a breakthrough, and working around the latest issues that ubuntu has with self-signed ssl certificates on the server side means no more headache on each of the clients. i celebrated with a big lunch with the art director; my spicy vegetable briyani was a grand idea. just as we were finishing the cto walked in, hurried over to our table and told me he'd like to see a certain proof-of-concept on an android device. i've never developed for android before.

excited, i paid for our meal and we returned to the office (discussing the mass allergy to snowstorms that quite a few quebecois have, and the treatment on ski slopes that justifies missing a day of work) and i began to play. it took a heck of a lot longer to get the damn thing built than it had to get the source code written, but eventually things came right and i was quite excited about my success, albeit a simple one.

after that i completed an interesting api design that i've had sitting in the back of my head, tweaked the in-house wiki a bit, and left the office on a high.

i picked up my keys from the superintendent's wife, and walked in to find... nothing had been done. was he making fun of me?! i left a message for him, and later he came up to explain that they'd taken the keys to make a copy of them for the locksmith, and that they'd do everything soon. fine.

---pg and i spoke briefly a couple of times today, and she left a short while ago for switzerland. she'll be back in a week and a day - and none too soon. as i've said before, i think: it's not hard to be a bachelor again, but it's undesirable. it has its advantages, but it's a bit surreal and it constantly feels like i've been transported to an alternate reality. i miss her.

trauma tune: sharing - part ii

[... continued]

friday:

i woke up early and got to the pharmacy only to discover that i've lost a prescription somewhere along the way... swak. on my way there i got to thinking about military logic, how people justify their choices: attractive and comfortable vs effective and uncomfortable. it's much easier to lie to oneself that the "strategically do nothing" option is meaningful.

i've actually seen that before, "strategic do nothing", on an official army letterhead.

i arranged a few things at home, and became nervous, excited, and a little confused. then i rollerbladed to the poetry meeting, where we sat in the hot sun for too long, with stupidly expensive cookies and praise and comments that seemed to go on forever. not my favourite meeting.

i then bladed to the climbing wall, for a psychologically stimulating (bi-directional, i think) climb with a friend, and just missed botchman and another friend as i had to rush to join the rollerblading group. that was a good route! although an angry driver with a baby in the back put everyone at risk with startlingly dangerous driving, then couldn't understand why we were upset with him... we made up for that with a few rounds in the underground parking lot, freaking out the old lady who was waiting for an elevator that we all rolled out of :P

i took my broken brain home to pg's, and helped out with the cooking that we were taking to her sister's.

---facebook fool!

i didn't think it through. as i said, my brain was broken. and i'd had a bit to drink. just excuses for my insensitivity, that led me to post an unfunny april fool's prank letting the world know that i was shirking off this mortal coil.

---after dinner we went to a friend's place for his birthday. the mongoose was there - and we had a huge fight (no, not the kind that you stop being friends for :P) when he discovered how little my new job is going to pay me. he's offered to pay me twice that, and couldn't understand why i was upset when about half a year ago they wouldn't employ me because i'd asked for too much money, even though i'd TOLD him i was flexible and desperate.

i hate the fact that employers hold the cards and ask the questions regarding cash in interviews, instead of making offers first.

---a depressing non-laugh: co-conspirator tried to call me in response to my death threat, twice, and i hadn't heard the phone ring. it turns out she was close to a couple of people who'd off'ed themselves, so it's understandable why she was upset with me. i apologized to all those offended and upset, but still felt really bad when i saw some of the responses and realized just how hurtful i'd been.

---saturday:

i had trouble getting to sleep because i felt so bad. in the morning, i went to my place to begin tidying and sorted the issue out with a final post:

the suggestion to take down the previous thread has been noted and accommodated - although usually i have a thing about not deleting posts, even if they do make me out to be a giant douche. just to be clear:

X, i was in a bit of an evil mood, i didn't mean to bring up anything like that, and for that i'm truly sorry. and Y and Z are right - TOTALLY not my style. for those who called - thank you! and everyone who said that someone should call, always right. and for anyone who ever contemplates suicide, it's really not the best option. EVER. it's the one mistake you will never be able to know how much you SHOULD regret, and it's making all the other mistakes that makes us human.

sorry i upset you guys, i wasn't really thinking too deeply about it and it was pretty insensitive.

X - there is no cry wolf on suicide with me, unless *gods forbid* i end up facing a degenerative incurable disease. i've known enough who did it - even one is more than enough - and i cannot identify with a person who can't see that there's *always* a better alternative.

so yeah, that was pretty crappy / stupid of me. sorry. not the best way to express my feelings on the topic, but i promise i wasn't intending anything harmful.

being human is awesome - screw all the vegans who say otherwise.

---cleaning house cleans heads, and a day filled with mechanical scraping and rubbing and packing was good for me. so was a phone call from my mother... it's weird that her wednesday had been awful too, though :(

i wonder how much practice one needs to blow up a long balloon. it's tough.

i was completely bombed by the time i finished cleaning in the afternoon*, and napped blissfully for a while before being woken up to go pick up marathon identifiers and eat waffles.

* i don't believe my apartment's ever been so clean! i even recovered that patio after the last sandstorm had rendered it unusable...

question for the day: what do you do with eggshells and glycerine? :D
pg and i finished digitizing my japanese experience, which has taken just a little longer than anticipated. perhaps we'll pick up the pace now that we're living together.

at 2am i met with dp to hand over the keys and give her the rundown of my home. we chatted far longer than was good for my sleep patterns :P

[continued...]

anti-valentine

i quickly post before hopping to the comfort to jump around a bit, still waking up from what was supposed to be a power nap on the couch and felt more like a nightmare on the couch - imaginary creepy-crawlies eating me and not even managing to complete watching the colour of magic.

now i need to bounce even more to make up for it.

---i *just* missed the bus this morning, but was fortunate to make the second bus and was only five minutes late to meet with our pointy-haired boss, who was kind enough to wait for me.

for someone who'd slept only two and a half hours after feeling terrible all weekend, i was doing just fine. breakfast with nystire was alright, and was completed by brownies one of my virtual team-mates made (i'm not certain how i fit in organizationally anymore). i spent the morning chatting [including to wr, who surprised me with a call] and practising with the guitar.

[i paid a visit to the doctor, and walked out having received both good news and bad news]

---i heard that one of the base discipline officer's cronies (a civilian "contractor") was holding one of our soldiers' id cards, and took offence. it's not only an illegal thing to take place from both sides, it's bloody stupid because without it a soldier on duty's got problems. i walked into his office, and asked him to show me the directive that makes his action legitimate.

"it's definitely okay, don't worry."
"show me."
"they're doing it on other bases, too."
"then that needs fixing. show me."
"okay, okay. here - i'm sending an email to verify."

i got him to cc that email to us, and if he can't back it up he's in deep shit. *and* i'll file a personal complaint, i don't like it when people lie to me. i don't like it at all.

---lunch wasn't particularly good, and the effects were felt almost immediately. i was still a bit lost (swimming in a sea of slipping consciousness as my digestive system was taxed to the max) when gn1 called. it had taken me forever to formulate an appropriate sms.

it then took forever for us to get through a breakup talk that was really painful for both of us. i think more for her than me, though. she had me feeling like a bit of a heel, actually.

i got a terrible haircut - counting off one closer to the last i'll have in the army - and was surprised by what appears to be the new trend. for the first time, i managed to explain to the guy not to "tidy" my fringe and temples and be understood. he didn't even try to trim them. however, without warning he swiped a blade between my eyebrows and temples - an area i definitely didn't need touching. frack, next they're going to start offering bikini waxes and shit.

...

i gave nyah-nyah her first guitar lesson, which went well. my TL rocked up, and discovered that the cd i needed to begin working was already sitting on the keyboard next to me, so i could've been productive from the morning already. if the idiot who'd organized it had *said* something about it to us, it might've been useful.

before setting up my new pc, i went shopping for myself, nystire and the kinder - i managed to leave wearing my undershirt and jacket only (regarding the top half of my uniform), and i'm really lucky that the discipline officer didn't catch me shirtless. especially after the morning's incident :/
i'd also forgotten that there aren't any plastic bags at the local, so i had quite a time trying to carry all the orders at once :P

setting up was amusing, i'm now sitting at the unit commander's secretary's desk. the makes all of us feel awkward. at one point i had to return a cable to nystire, and i threw it at him from the other side of his partition shouting "snake!" - which suitably freaked him out :)

a quick chat about the breakup with my TL in earshot, and he made a very good suggestion. on it, i've written a short list of the basic criteria for any girl i date, and i should probably [not] present it to any potential suitor in the form of a written questionnaire.

it poured with rain most of the day, and a few of us were caught in it trying to leave the base. as soon as the rain slowed, the sun came out for a gorgeous sunset. i went past dizengoff on the way home, bought a costume for tomorrow's base celebration (i'm dressing as a spy), and walked home (again in the rain) to try to nap before going out.

now i'm going out :)

it's *NOT* my birthday!

the most important item first: the hebrew production of a midsummer night's dream was mind-blowing: beautiful, inspired, and seriously convincing! the acting and choreography were magnificent, and the production was seriously slick. it was also superbly situated. i didn't even know the tmuna theatre sported a real one, hidden in the back and boasting a really authentic atmosphere ^_^

it was a bit rough following the hebrew - the translation wasn't direct and i was quite impressed by the liberties that were taken and how they maintained the playwright's style . the interesting thing was hitting a shakespeare play that i'm not at all familiar with in a high level of a language that i'm not totally fluent in and still thoroughly enjoying it and getting everything. damn. yeah!

a pity that we finished off in a restaurant whose style i don't like (i compared it out loud to another one that i didn't fancy, and the waitress crept over to chirp that it has the same owners). the guys enjoyed my cringing at the loudness and clapping so much that they convinced our waitress that it was my birthday... bastards!

i'll transfer the rest of my day to a new post, right now i have to focus on sleeping enough before another Big Day. i hope i can chill this time.

* door smack reminder
* temporary fix, glued fingers, too late for the weather
* missing buses
* gift appreciation
* the ambulance issue(s)
* japanese pseudo-buddy
* on health and climate
* gentle rinse
* paper waste
* guest flyer-ing
* fondue shopping

****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)

exploding sheep

i don't know where to begin, so i'll start with last night's horror: [the news links i posted are no longer valid, so here's the wikipedia entry]

everyone is shocked, the community is angry and frightened, and all i can think of is this:
any monkey can pull a trigger. not every monkey can communicate. what can we expect from a country where education is replaced by laws or religion (which is the same thing, really)? what have we done to ourselves?
and to think that last week we mourned the destruction of both temples, the primary cause being "senseless hatred".

my morning's response:
johnny's a bit slow, can't tie his own laces
so give him velcro instead

he can't handle a knife and a fork
let him eat with his hands

our johnny will never go very far
maybe just as far as the local pub
he'll never be a shining star
nor president of the debate club

the poor kid just couldn't manage to read
so put him in front of the telly

he'll always be a little short on love
he thinks he knows what he deserves

and anyone can use a gun

---
a thought struck this morning: how can one be successful when one has developed a culture of dishonesty?

my upper arm's been hurting randomly, and i don't know if i've strained something or if it's got to do with my neck - and my neck's been very sensitive of late: i'm constantly terrified that my slipped disc is going to press on an important set of nerves...

ha, that reminds me that the man in a suit recommended i go to a chiropractor :P

the pilot episode of house got stuck in my head :P

this morning was spent pulling off the craziest prank - we totally got him. half the unit participated, i captured some brilliant footage (he didn't even realize he was looking at a camera, i was distracting him with my other hand ^_^), and i got into character completely and didn't even feel like laughing. the guys are still giggling whenever someone quotes from my little speech halfway through :)

nystire and i ate lunch on our old unit's base with his first SC, which was quite pleasant. i was surprised to be brushed off by the kid's brother, but whatever...

i got back in time to teach the new kid about my first big project, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting so much work done that my eyes were sore when i left the building.

---i don't know what came over me, but wr and his cute new friend were here and they began reading my latest: why would i try playing it for them? i suck! and i was super embarrassed. oh, well, back to the beginning of that story:

there was a small march and a vigil held at the gay community centre, and i met wr and a girl he met on the bus on the way to join them. it was a very sombre experience, and afterwards we got coffee and went to sit in the park. the conversation got very interesting, including an amusing misunderstanding - blow-up sheep / exploding sheep sounds the same in hebrew - hence the title of this post.

anyway, i'm undergoing surgery tomorrow to remove something from my leg, so i should be getting to bed soon. i'm annoyed that i'm going to miss training :(

survival of the week

wake-up yesterday was a far sight better than wednesday! i didn't even need coffee, let alone the energy drink :) [although i took it with, just in case]

i actually enjoyed working again yesterday, and got a lot done. i even managed to sneak in an hour on a project whose lack of completion has been embittering me for months. in fact, the only downer of the day was coming up against the wall of visual studio 2008's network security management: why can't it just use the user's rights automatically?

i've been focused on a sort of a diet that i'm not quite sticking to. i definitely need to exercise this belly off! at least i can be proud of myself that the two guys i've been doing push-ups and sit-ups with weren't in and i still did mine... usually the lack of external influence brings about the "gym contract effect".

i know that the kinder has received the gooey package, because he sent an sms asking me to thank everyone and letting me know that he hadn't opened it yet. i'm going nuts, i can't wait to hear his response!!

i went to the bank, but the interest rates have dropped to the point where i'd need another 200k to earn .1%. apparently i'm not the only person passing on that one.
i bought a non-slip mat for the shower... and managed to get it right! now not only am i not worried about sliding, but i get a foot massage at the same time :)
i went to buy a spare battery for my cellphone, but they didn't have in stock. so i bought a super-funky orange-spiralled phone cover instead.

my fingers and my guitar are beginning to talk ^_^

i slept for an hour and a half, and the trauma of getting out of bed after midnight more than made up for the morning's ease :/
wr and friends picked me up and we went to a fetish party. the music was excellent - there weren't very many people though, and only about ten actual fetishists... i only caught one "show", which i found to be kinda sad. at least a perfect circle - hollow playing in the background was appropriate.

we missioned off to the party at helga, had a lot of fun and more booze, then went back to the fetish party and walked in to tool - eulogy, for which i was in an absolutely perfect place and mood and mindset - that actually made my night. we left a few songs and a bit of rum later, back to helga where i *think* ptsd finally got the idea that we're not, haven't been and won't be sleeping together.

wr offered the mystery girl a lift home this morning, so i now know her name and the fact that although she looks early-to-mid 20's she actually 36... he's now quite smitten :P

i'm trying to decide how to begin my day... my neck's quite sore from the last few days' action and i'm always too lazy to clean, but it's needed.

anachronistic utilities

have i mentioned that i'm slightly aggro? i spent four hours this morning losing iq points to that tool i spoke about yesterday. after wiping off the drool when hauled out to lunch, i'd managed to up myself back to that of my shoe size.

the day could only get better.

the afternoon was spent not understanding my nemesis' hebrew documents, and amusing slapstick which progressed from ice down the shirt through to dirty suds, and on to grimy wet towels. work was not top priority for anyone, apparently.

i showered as soon as i got home, then bought tickets and met up with wr for coffee. he doesn't seem to have the attitude required for classy coffee shoppe's, and managed to miss a cute girl flirting with him... i was getting annoyed on his behalf :P

spot joined us, and we went to see pirates of the caribbean: at world's end. words fail me, it's just as beautiful - and beautifully told - as the others.

i have to go back to playing all the monkey island games now, keeping the trilogy's visuals in mind :)

if you've seen the movie, YOU MUST READ THIS, and the label on a bo'el o' rum.

we had coffee and crappy cake (i got ripped off on a "deal"), and it's now time for bed.

oh right: i kept trying to figure out where i recognized bill turner from. "bootstrap" indeed - SO monkey island.

all business

now that i've thrown my entire evening to google's reader, i'm feeling up to the immense task of documenting my day.

1) maybe inspired subconsciously by fight club, but last night was sponsored by a well-timed bout of insomnia.

2) i moved SUPER-slow this morning, and somehow made it on time anyway. heck, i even managed to make breakfast and do some sit-ups.

3) i can count six cigarettes i smoked today, which is far less than the last couple of days, but far more than it should be. i've reached the conclusion that quitting smoking right before hitting a major transition phase wasn't the smartest idea ever.

4) i ate too much chocolate today. there's no hope for me.

5) i decided to pull a lame april-fool's on piles; an hour or so later the kid called me up, because it had filtered through to him and caught them both out - and the kid was at home on holiday ^_^

6) at the beginning of the day, one of my co-workers taught me something new and then jokingly warned me not to forget X, where X seems like a ridiculously obvious thing to do and quite hard to skip. i laughed, thinking that i wouldn't be caught out like that, but i suddenly realized this evening that i now have egg all over my face.

7) i was totally hyped by the time i left the office; it was a good day at work. i stopped by azrieli to buy gifts for tomorrow night (passover with kc's family at her parents' place), but there were so many crazies jamming the mall that i just did a quick pass through and escaped as quickly as i could.

8) met up with spot on the bus home, and we stopped off at the cafeneto for an animated recap of the last couple of days. sunshine spared me five minutes, most of which was consumed by a slightly awkward silence.

9) a journalist who remembered me from a previous job over a year ago caught me on my way out, and i sat and chatted with him for a bit before going shopping for chocolate. chocolate makes an appropriate gift, but i think i need to wrap it :S

10) as i said, i totally wasted the evening. and now it's time for bed. during the last couple of hours i've been considering the possibility that i really have changed a lot since i arrived in this country. it's not that i'm not interested in the same things, or don't maintain the same viewpoints (in general, of course): it's that i've finally gotten my life prioritized and i've gotten used to denying myself things that i desire.

so used to it, in fact, that i need to unlearn making myself miserable - i don't need to keep such a tight leash on myself anymore.

universcale is cool. i need a bigger screen.
cute video, ridiculous concept: the wiihelm

moo.com: after a couple of great-looking designs, i scrapped them because i have that much faith in online credit transactions

a space junkyard, for the child in every one of us