there's a to-do list in there somewhere

how fast can i do this? i don't really have energy for posting lately, which i guess is a good thing.

---thursday:

getting up earlier than my alarm and no snoozing afterwards - what gives?

a horrifying moment on a conference call with the cto, trying to explain to him that what he's instructing us to do is totally wrong without actually saying it that way. it's like standing in the engine of a train with a drunk driver and trying to convince him that playing chicken isn't a good idea.

why is it that the person in front of me in the line at the bank always has one more thing they need to ask? or doesn't want to understand when they're told that what they want is impossible?

the supermarket? does pushing your shit into someone else's payment really happen?? what an annoying old woman.

it was a beautiful day, so standing in the sun for a few minutes while waiting for someone was a pleasure.

we interviewed a developer who seems really promising; he's worked with megaman previously. this kinda bolsters the conspiracy theory i proposed to aota that megaman is actually a mole, attempting to take over our company from within. he's now informed me that he has an entire team from the same company that he'd like to hire as a unit, and that they're known for being anti-social so not to worry about them not integrating.

...

in the morning i told everyone that i needed to be left alone to focus on some high priority tasks, and could only be bothered if something was blocking them. that was around 11am, and they only let me get around to my tasks around 3pm. in any event, i worked through at a good pace, though, and i left the office quite satisfied.

training was solid, and i went to bed early.

---friday:

again with the early up and no snoozing?

friday's strip search was disappointing; i guess not every episode can be awesome...

friday was really relaxed. i spent it in management mode, and i'm definitely finding my groove.

at lunch i told a couple of the guys the story of the psychotic american; they were totally shocked. perhaps i should write that story down sometime.

aota, megaman and i were on time for a conference call with our panamanian clients; they eventually contacted us an hour late. excusing myself on grounds that i was the organizer of the company happy hour and i don't speak spanish, i collected everyone else in the office and we went off for *three* happy hours. we left when the stage was taken by a couple who were speaking in french; something about sexuality, but i could only understand about half of each sentence. i wasn't the only one, so we exited on mass.

i was a little tipsy.

i spent some time trying to install the android version of wired magazine (for which i have a paid subscription) on my bluestacks emulator; android sucks, people. i gave up.

i was introduced to an html 5 port of dune 2. holy crap!

i played a bit more of on the rain-slick precipice of darkness, then passed out watching the dictator. meh.

---saturday:

i got up early and read the rest of dar, which is really good. i was worried that i'd somehow managed to offend the cleaning lady, but she eventually got back to me and she'll be coming in this week. she doesn't really need to, but i see it as a relationship-building exercise; afterwards it'll be once every two weeks.

the lachine experience (in a nutshell):
it's not that tough getting there. arriving there is an experience, it's very much the sticks. i have some great photos of just how sticky it is. the main reason for eating lunch at dagwood's was to use their toilet and drink coffee before rollerblading; i'd already decided i was blading home from the shop. the shop experience was pretty good - i had a couple of good options and i actually had to sit a while just considering how i use my skates most of the time. i tried on the hypno sts, clipped the boots in and out a few times, rolled around the store a bit, read a review, and made the call.

first test: returning from lachine to montreal. the roads aren't great, the sun was beating down, i had a large backpack and i got lost (thanks, google maps!), but for my first 10km in half a year i think that went really well! they're decent blades, the ankle support is sufficient, and the best part was getting to the place st henri station and taking the metro home without any hassle or having to lug heavy blades around. and to get home from the my station, it's so easy to clip back in that it was worth doing so for the minute ride to my door.

win!

after a shower and lunch, i enjoyed the ultimate afternoon nap. i don't remember when last i passed out in a sunbeam, and it was grand.

my uncle was on form last night - i was talking to yin and yang when he shouted at me to shut up because nobody was interested in what i was talking about. he then shouted at them when they said that they were interested, and there went the great mood established by the rest of the day. supper was a mixture of amusement and aggravation.

he misidentified my irritation with him as my being tired - i mean, it seems like i'm tired all the time, but the blank look i was giving him whenever he said anything uninteresting or outright offensive (which is most of what comes out of his mouth) wasn't that.

google tells me "digs" are "living quarters", and that's how i used the word last night. yin and my uncle were shocked because they've never heard the word and thought i'd said "dick". hilarity might have ensued if the context hadn't been "you can check out my digs" and things got awkward.

i watched prometheus last night, and the only horror i experienced was caused by how bad the writing was. the plot was holey and the characters were entirely unbelievable: apparently humans become so stupid by the year 2090 that the best and brightest that we send off to discover our origins are complete morons. the scientists don't understand science, for one thing. what?!

i watched a good section of a documentary on hair, then went to bed. i slept well until this morning, when my sleep was disturbed by my current health issues and they've been driving me crazy since. i can't tell if my meds are working or making things worse.

poor me: a weekly review part iii

[continued...]

i slept like the dead on the couch, and was woken a bit later to vacuum, and take a call from co-conspirator. i didn't have the energy, but i told her i'd update her once i'd done the park at night.

after having discussed things with ru55, and then grabbing some tips online, pg and i took her electric grill up to the roof and i cooked my first steak. it came out beautifully. it was a perfect night and we smoked a nargila for dessert, and life was good.

it took a while to set up the subtitles for shaun of the dead for pg, but i got them going eventually. i then set upon my poetry paper before going to bed around 2am, not making it there before discovering that i wasn't in a good situation.

it took a while to get to sleep.

---saturday:

pg transferred me a temporary solution and i got stuck into finished my paper. that was a tough paper, and made tougher by my previous failure. i managed to finish before pg's family started arriving...

the afternoon on the roof was great, everything went well except for the fact that her family aren't really big into meat. her father considered his steak to be underdone, and the truth is that the electric grill cooks so slowly that you'd have to double-kill the outside to get the inside bloodless, and i don't know if i'm psychologically capable of doing that. i enjoyed two steaks, and still had another two as leftovers by the time we were done. add the chorizos and i was stuffed - finishing the lunch with pg's exquisite triple-layer cream cake, great 60s folk music, a good cup of coffee and a nargila was fantastic.

i found being thanked at the end for hosting to be awkward. i don't feel like i did very much, and even though i live here now it's odd for me to consider myself as a host.

pg and i spent a while cleaning up, and i then bladed over to my old neighbour for a delightful and conspiratorially productive visit. i continued on to the park and figured out where we'd be. i was on my way back when i reported my success to co-conspirator; i was home already when she informed me that she'd done a round herself.

i was irritated, because she'd sent me a message during the day to ask if i'd gone and i'd ignored it because we'd talked and agreed that i would report when i had - i don't like how pushy she is. to then go and see without telling me, when i have other stuff to do, is not very nice.

when i approached her about this this morning she told me she'd only been during the day, so i guess that doesn't count, even though it was quite aggravating at the time.

i worked quite late,

---today:

and got up quite early (6.40). i finally finished the first draft of the file i'd been working on just before i had to go, and it was eerie seeing it run successfully first time. i checked my mailbox (no mail for me) and then began to use all my travelling as an opportunity to read the book i was told about on tuesday. the author is a guy i studied with (my first degree), and when i asked him what he was up to he proudly exclaimed "i've written a book!" our mutual friends claim to have read it and gave it rave reviews - i felt it worthwhile to pay the $7 to check it out on kindle.

so far, not so good. as far as style goes it's the second worst thing i've ever read*, and as far as content goes... well, quite frankly it's offensively stupid and miserable. it's a real page-turner, though. it's so bad that i *have* to find out if there's some character development, if there's a complete reversal. the protagonist is such a complete and utter douche that i feel my gorge rising at every utterance. this is what happens when a work of fiction is written by someone who has no talent, doesn't read and has zero appreciation for literature. but i'm hoping he's just really, really good at constructing completely foreign characters and then destroying them.

* psychotic american's efforts were even worse

i had a chat with mmf before class; now i understand the way the tax works, i think, and he's wired me the cash. the only problem left is that i need to find out whether my mortgage payment went through today because the internet access doesn't reflect changes fast enough. and it turns out that we had a misunderstanding concerning the amount i need to earn, so we're already up for our first renegotiation.

after class we made a promo video for this weekend's poetry event, and while it took much longer to produce it came out just as well. i'm quite pleased.

i stopped by (old) work for half an hour before going to physiotherapy; prior to the electrotherapy i was falling asleep, and i thought that would help me during. when your back's arched unnaturally and your eyes and teeth are shut tight, it's not so easy to nap.

my physiotherapist and i haven't gotten along from the start - today she really threw me when she stated that in order to treat me she "has the right" to shave parts of my beard (i forgot to shave again, and the tabs don't stick well). i do believe i "have the right" to not be treated if i don't want to look like an asshole. this isn't exactly life or death.

the rest of the workday was long and mostly uneventful. i returned home for steak leftovers (^_^) and have been working until stupid o'clock, and for most of the time my brain's been fuzzed. so i'm finally getting to bed.

i can't believe i've finally gotten all of this down!

1.5 days

the weather's gone all dusty and icky - this sucks. and i was so cold this morning i was walking around in a jacket... weird.

yesterday:

work *sucked* yesterday. really sucked. i felt horrible, i didn't get much done, i was generally unhappy.

i went to take another look at one of the first apartments, and i've decided that i'm putting in an offer. at least this time i took photos for my mom.

on the way out i was walking and talking with the agent when i noticed a cute girl in a taxi, who looked back at me... and the two of us stared at each other for about ten seconds before something clicked in my brain and i mouthed her name - she rolled down the window and gave me her number as the driver pulled off.

i met her at a party a long time ago, her first words to me were "so you're the guy who burned down his school!" - she was one of psychotic american's flatmates and had heard nothing good or true about me. i haven't seen her in four years!

the agent and i talked real crap for about fifteen minutes. unbelievably, i didn't lose patience completely even though i was itching to go - i'd like things to remain comfortable at least until a sale goes through.

waiting for the bus on the way to meet up with egg and ssf, i was given an odd complement by some old woman. we started talking, and when her bus came she needed help to get on so i happily obliged. the weird thing is that when i'm at a party i have no problems with touching strangers, even sweaty and icky ones, but in a regular situation it drives me demented. i couldn't shake the urge to wash my hands.

the concert last night was awesome - the only reason i went in the middle of the week was because eatliz were listed as playing at 9.30pm, so i figured it wouldn't be so bad. panic ensemble warmed up for them, going on at 10.30pm and finishing a little before midnight... so yeah, that was well planned...

i really enjoyed panic ensemble - they're a talented bunch with great potential, and it's music i would definitely put on in the background when sleeping. and eatliz... well, i've talked about them before, but last night i registered that aside from the singer and the drummer the other four band members are all guitarists. and amazing ones at that. i didn't notice at levontin because there was a pillar in the way.

this morning was a nightmare - i got home around 3am, and thank the gods that i had the presence of mind to shave before going to sleep. when i woke up three hours later i was in deep shit.

not to mention the general state of disarray and dishevelled hangover, i managed to drop my trousers on my boots and they got black all over them. i missed the bus because i was busy scrubbing them after spazzing out while discovering that the only other pants i have are on base in case of rain.

genius.

i was lucky enough to catch one of the guys in my unit as he was leaving the city, but the pain of the awakening was too much.

i had a fight with my TL today - he wanted me to give him an amount of hours until the end of this craptastic application's use, and i couldn't get him to understand that if i've been doing the same shit for over a month with the expectation not changing, then whatever bullshit figure i give him isn't going to tell him anything.

other than that it was a pretty good day.

the next .5 involves napping, and either rollerblading or drinking. good times :)

bzzz *bop*

damn - i have a sunday AND a monday to recall, and my brain's been offline for both of them...

firstly - the apathy. the sheer, utter, and complete apathy. secondly - the weather.
both of them have caused me no end of sighing.

yesterday, the entire day, was a blur. sometime during the afternoon i developed a headache, which turned mean during the evening. spot went missing, and our section commander screamed at me for not being in touch with him, so in the evening i went to his place.
and found him. my commander called me a few minutes after he'd explained to me that we've been successful in bringing him to our section, to tell me the good news. good timing.

we went and played pool, then we waited for the bus for about half an hour, and my head was exploding.

i woke up this morning feeling better, but the weather did a superb job of bringing me down. the morning sucked, as we had to do an extra-strength clean of our office, but i did get plenty of time to read - i finally finished a study in scarlet, and i started reading terry pratchett - eric - i found the whole stuffed parrot thing too much, and my teammates kicked me out, still giggling hysterically and wiping tears from my eyes.

i met up with spot at the main gate, and started helping him with his "form hike". too bad they screwed something up at the main base, and now he has to do it all again tomorrow.

never mind.

oh - by the way - i scored 59% on the purity test. i'm actually quite embarrassed, and vow to improve my score. somehow.

spot and i then went to his "old" base - and like everyone in the region were attacked ferociously by gnats. gnats, gnats, EVERYWHERE. inhaled a few, got some in my eyes, my ears, clothing and hair were full of them. i hate gnats.

we had supper there, i stole some beautiful pictures from the psychotic american's new desk (he's green, he had it coming), and watched the closing ceremony for some course or other. stopped by spot's place on the way home, for coffee, and then made my way back here.

shower, and bed. that's all i have to say about that. i have this nagging feeling i'm forgetting something important, but never mind.

cool cool.. the weekend!

right - today was weird and wobbly.

a) did as anticipated, arrived on base at 7.15 and left at 7.18, made my way to the medical base, and got my xrays done. cool sounding machine. luckily, through all the travelling and waiting, i got through the user manual for the RFID chips i'll be wrapping... a french company definitely in need of a better technical writer. in fact, if i hadn't taken so many computer science courses i wouldn't have understood a damn thing.

after waiting for the results for 20 minutes, i went to ask if i had time to get some breakfast - i got told the average wait for results is 1 - 1.5 hours.
fsck that.
so i went back to the base... stopping at the bank, quickly running home to get a change of clothing, and making it in time for the most awful lunch.
that didn't help much, considering i wasn't feeling good at all when i arrived. it's summer again - dehydration!!

b) first mails i received were from our absent commander - explaining to everyone in no uncertain terms that i am in charge. nice. and my team-mates' attitudes were noticeably improved.

spent the afternoon fixing bugs, cleaning the room, and working on important things, like my grid game. i missed the volleyball, but considering the state of my hand, it doesn't really matter.

c) dropped off my things at work, and met up with spot and the psychotic american (in uniform too), and we had coffee on dizengoff. it was actually really nice!

after the psychotic american left, i showed spot where a mutual friend of ours' lives... i was quite surprised to find it myself... and on the way to the bus stop we ran into a really cute, really nice french girl from his base. i HAVE to see her again.

d) made it back to work in time, and haven't shut up since. gotta work though... and i'm missing a good party tonight, which kinda sucks...
and i have no idea yet whether i'm staying in tel aviv tomorrow or not...