fantastic ending :/

godsdammit. i was having an awesome end to a good day and it came to a close with a really stupid fight over bullshit [ie miscommunication, as always] :(

---i didn't go back to sleep this morning; instead, i went through to the university to officially put my studies on hold. i think they're going to return the full amount that i paid, which would be awfully nice of them. they're actually a surprisingly helpful bunch sometimes.

on the bus my new installation of ubuntu crashed, this time refusing to log me back in. really? they call this a stable release?! and of *course* i did this right before needing it to travel with. superb timing.

i sat with wr over a great cup of coffee and then headed to work. the new guy? i was terrified i'd have to teach him basics, but it turns out he's a proper azure expert. some of the knowledge transfer was spent with him asking "why the heck did you do that?", and some with him just nodding knowingly - the latter made me feel like i know my shit. as for the former, considering the time constraints i seem to have done, if not a great job, then at least a reasonably good one.

also, it was nice to have someone else put the idiot in his place - and this guy does it so unwittingly that i almost felt sorry to see the asshole humbled.

anyway, i had one bug to fix and by way of introduction i told him to familiarize himself with the code and help me fix it; help me he did. i went around the office wishing everyone a happy new year and expressing my desire not to see any of them before i leave, and stopped by the ceo for a quick goodbye in which he appeared to have understood that this is it for us.

he was actually very gracious and even offered to put me in touch with friends of his in canada should i run into any trouble; he also expressed his appreciation of my single-handedly putting together the entire project over the past year. i refrained from mentioning that working alone means less chance of being derailed by assholes.

i met for coffee with nystire, an enjoyable hour or so spent chatting while he tended to my poor little netbook. either he's fixed it or the presence effect kept the bugs at bay. either way, it's not in an unmanageable state and that's good enough for now.

i ran into the kid on the bus, and then read some more john dies at the end. crazy stuff, and well-timed considering my present mental state (semi-burnout, desperately in need of a vacation). i ate quickly and rested, then geared up for the fast rollerblading group. i was just pouring myself coffee when i realized that i was on the verge of jitters: i'd consumed more than my usual daily dose of caffeine already and that might have combined with the excitement of clearing my pc and removing my mug from the office.

i poured it anyway, and set out with groovy house tunes to accompany my ride. between the two energy sources i powered through (sometimes dancing), and overall i enjoyed the route and finished it feeling physically pumped and primed.

i showered and ate, did some things that needed doing, then settled down to watch hancock. then pg and i had an argument about watching hancock, and it ruined it (watching it now, not the movie) for me so i started posting instead. then we talked and we're all cool again. i guess i'll read some more.

back to siesta

i'm after lunch, after laundry and after a good run with the kid on the beach. i'm more surprised at how much more fit i am than he is, as the biggest problem i have with the course i'm doing is that i'm not allowed to run.

i've learned to walk really, really fast (4km in under 26 minutes), but i'm not allowed to run.

last night's dinner was great, we all over-ate as per usual and the meringue was fantastic. the company was really good too.

on the way home i stopped by singer's for a visit, and i ended up sleeping over as i was completely bombed. one thing in particular that i dig about her apartment is that it's perfect for just zoning out while listening to music - i put on nagual sound experiment, and it just doesn't sound as good out of my (relatively) tinny speakers.

the third last quick break

and we're counting backwards, so we're typing backwards (and this is just the quick summary):

i shouldn't have eaten 300g of ben & jerry's cake batter ice-cream. i'm already paying for it with a solid headache. the kid's appropriately snarky comment came too late to stop me. in my defense, the idea was to go out for coffee but all the coffee shops are closed due to tonight being the jewish new year. i'm nicely surprised :)

i shopped for the next two days and made myself a tuna salad while browsing online - it's shocking to be back in the real world again. here's the killer:
i booked myself onto the snowboard trip today. YEAH! i don't know how i'm going to organize the payment, but it's good that my name's down :)

i got my to-do items sorted today. i made a really awesome shirt as a goodbye gift for our commander, it's pink and sporting a really funny photo of him. he's not supposed to wear it, but it's funny as hell.

dedication - after searching almost every single arbitrary store on dizengoff, bograshov, king george and sheinkin, i accidentally walked into an oddities shop containing exactly what i was searching for: strap-on pockets for my overalls. with a cute and neither-here-nor-there design so it's good for all occasions.

i bought really shite gloves for the cold week ahead, but seeing as i'm not going to wear them for more than a few nights i didn't think it was worth investing. not like last time, when i bough a really nice pair and promptly lost them.

i went by the gym, and the manager gave me an extension (not free, but outside of the context of a contract) because i've been away doing military things for the last half a year. rather nice of him.

the post-office was closed. that sucks. but the kid did bring back my copies of men in black and its sequel, and after testing the sequel i'm convinced that i don't remember anything from the entire film. good buy!

i stopped by the bank to discover that the message that they left me really wasn't important. the thing i need to prepare for november will cost me NIS 700 if i get it from the bank, and pretty much nothing if i organize it at the post-office. i'll get around to it in november, then.

wake up at 4.30am, hurriedly cleaning for an inspection that never happened, and fairly pleasant bus / train rides home. the most complicated part of the day was and is answering all the wishes for a good new year - there's a bunch i really should have sent out but i don't have the energy.

yesterday we had our peer review, and i'm really glad it's over and there's nothing more to be done about it. there's a bunch of assholes who probably screwed the rest of us over, but as usual i couldn't be arsed to be involved and i hope that my score works out to be at least relatively fair.

yesterday morning we ran an orientation exercise in a small town, which was a lot of fun. the weekend was relaxed, and i got a lot of work done - i was meant to give a lecture yesterday that never materialized, so now i've got some time to practice. i still have to write that book report, so that's my plan for the next two days at home.

last week we ran simulations [like we did before], and i got put into two really uncomfortable ones. the first one was kind of alright, but not good, and the second one was so frustrating that in the middle of it i slammed my hand down on the table just to shut my fellow participants up, and broke my pen. my staring at the table and muttering "dammit, i broke my pen" wasted the effect that i'd managed to achieve.

oh, and volleyball over the weekend was a great success - i got picked for the sport's day team because i took a bunch of misfit beginners and explained the game to them, techniques last. by explaining strategy first and suffering a few learning losses, i got them to a point where nobody could get us off the court... including one of the commanders, who's quite impressed ^_^

there's a bunch of other things that happened during the last two weeks, but kc's coming to pick me up for the family dinner so i'll have to continue another time.

happy jewish new year!

on maggots and sunsets

a quick summary:

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

friday:

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

saturday:

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

fresh start

yesterday morning i read for a bit before passing out again, then woke up a couple of hours later and almost bust my fingertips completely. new strings, newbie, frighteningly sensitive. but i do feel like i'm making some headway :)

the kid and i watched lots of how i met your mother, interspersed with good food and ice-cream*. it's been too long, and damn that series rocks! the bits with ted's mustache and robin's giggling nearly ruptured my spleen!

* going out for ice-cream was a good idea, as we realized what a great day it was and missioned down to the beach. we didn't stay until sunset, but it was a pleasant walk and it's always good to have sand between one's toes. and a breezer in hand. and eye candy in front.

i talked with my mum for a bit, and then left the building to meet up with egg. we walked to levontin, had a drink, made an awkward escape from some guy who just didn't *get* that i wasn't interested in him, and returned in time for einav jackson cohen's performance.

she's great, she's really great, and the only problem is trying to stay awake with such lulling music. and maybe we drank too much. and maybe having a drink with wr at the smith bar on the way home wasn't too good an idea.

what was a good idea was washing all the dishes and shaving before going to bed (1.30am). that was a fantastic call!

getting up at 5.30 this morning hurt me just as i'd expected. i had the most horrible hangover, and was absolutely exhausted, and i still haven't recovered.

our new team-member arrived, she seems really quick and she's pleasant, which is an excellent start :)

my quote for the day: "one what-the-f*** is better than six"... but i managed to find a few more as the day wore on :(

i got a ride home with my favourite SC (not mine, obviously) and another couple of guys from our unit, and it was educational. when there're organizational problems, it's always better to know you're not alone.

before leaving the base i left an instruction with my agent to stick to her guns, and on my way in to the apartment she called back - with a reasonable final offer. since speaking to my mom i've called her back to let them know it's acceptable, and now i'm really excited and i can't calm down long enough to get some much-needed shut-eye :/

i really hope everything goes through smoothly! and that i can sort out most of it before disappearing on sunday!

like suing microsoft as a user

i went out last night to the israeli line, which turned into just another beer with buddies. today went alright, considering the fact that i'm doing the most horrible sideline work i've ever come across.

can i sue a software house for mental anguish? it's an application that requires me to perform minimal actions (generally about two or three) before saving, closing, and reopening to continue. if i don't do this, everything hangs and repairing the files takes a while.

if it worked then the job would take me a day or so. as it is i've already wasted a week just figuring out a work-around for the major issues :(

the food today was disgraceful. our meal consisted of one blood-jelly chicken leg each, and no more.

i worked late, watched an episode of the unit with the kid, received singer's guitar so that i can make my fingers and ears bleed, and then went with her and her cousin to levontin 7. when i discovered it was a jazz orchestra type thing i bailed to play pool with SxS and egg - a good call, as apparently they were simply atrocious.

pool was good, and now i'm late for bed. at least i didn't drink too much tonight :P

the army never actually gets rid of anyone, especially not "academics" who've been invested in... except for the dentist who screwed me up - we all bore witness to her bullshit "the time has come" bawling today - way too early into her career. i'd wish her luck, but that's reserved for her future patients.

belated post-concert, now post-coccoon

first item: the eatliz performance. i know now that their name means "abattoir". for anyone who's missed my previous impressions, they're an art rock group with simply fantastic ideas. and until wednesday night i hadn't actually noticed how much their songs have tunnelled into my head.

the eerie power of a band that sounds identical live to their studio-recorded album while maintaining such a high level of emotion was simply awesome.

aside from a bunch of new material that we were treated to, they had a jamming session that was surreally synchronized. it was disappointing that the experience had to end, and a bit odd that i was still going to be in bed in time for the following workday.

the club itself is great - it's underground with incredible sound, although the lighting caused the band to prove themselves on a number of occassions when everything went suddenly pitch-black.

upstairs is a bar out of futuristic noir, and they're purists meaning that anyone sitting down in sitting down to drink. they have decent live performances every night, so i'll definitely be visiting there more often.

my thursday morning post-concert wake-up was quite tardy, but i managed to get to base at the usual time in spite of the too-much-guinness-induced cotton wool in my head. unfortunately, for the second day in a row, the guy selling slap chips and i were out of synch, and i had to go without in spite of sNv being exactly what i needed.

after a number of weeks of waiting those of us who ordered finally received unit shirts. after my last experience with long-sleeves i expected them to be comfortable, warm and elastic enough to roll up quickly. the horrid-sleeved shirts we received proved to be quite the opposite, to the point where later on i didn't feel bad using one of them as an impromptu towel.

on the flip side of the release coin for the soldier i mentioned on wednesday, we talked over lunch about the perfect (and perfectly mean) gift. we had such fun with the idea that we couldn't stop laughing, and suddenly one of the mess-hall staff rocked up and asked if we could please stop enjoying ourselves because other people were waiting to be seated.

superb.

i had my hair cut by the new hairdresser, the first female practitioner i've seen in the army. she's not very good although she did me something passable, but i have to admit that it's the first time in years that i wasn't happy about having my hair trimmed. yesterday specifically it was simply splendid, and rather symbolic of a level of freedom that i'm not due for a very long time.

a few of us worked late yesterday, and i discovered that nystire (who's my project's primary resource) has apparently returned to working with me... without informing me. so he managed to waste a workday and the next couple of weeks are going to be rough time-wise anyway. i really expected a little more maturity than that, in spite of his being a right jerk the last while.

i caught the pointy-haired boss for a little chat regarding project limitations, and reminded him again that i'm going to be on holiday in a couple of weeks.
so? that's not a problem.
i'll be in france.
who authorized your taking vacation??
YOU did. and i've been reminding you ever since the deadlines were redefined
can't you defer it a little?

NO. we've been planning this snowboarding trip for ages, you need to book well in advance, and we're NOT deferring it. i'm praying that he now understands that if i say we might experience future difficulty with something that he should probably pay attention instead of giving me the "it'll be fine" line.

the bus i took back home was similar to that scene in invader zim - walk of doom. all the characters come out (or in) when the weather's miserable.

i discovered when i arrived home that my chequebook is invalid. i only ever pay attention to it when rent is due... so i defaulted on the rent payment and will have to get organized on monday. our landlord seemed in good humour about it, but i feel awful about the whole deal.

for almost four hours singer and i sat working on her cv. i wasn't expecting to need more than twenty minutes to finish it up, and we just kept running into problems. i was stressed out and already not feeling too hot, and when she eventually left i just passed clean out.

i wasted an hour or so on moo card designs this morning, and i'm completely unsatisfied with the results.

this morning i was stupidly freezing cold because i childishly couldn't bear wearing anything over my new penny arcade shirt on its first time out. the chilly twenty minute walk to the center, hopping from sunbeam to sunbeam unhelpfully, was an unnecessary mistake. i went to check something out and had brought the wrong thing (i might have a better explanation in a couple of weeks).

i walked into the disc center and bought the two alter bridge discs by quickly greeting the guys but not giving them a chance to talk :)

i frozen-meat-popsicled my way to meet with the kid for a great breakfast, although sitting outdoors after walking cold was not a good idea. after quick shopping, i got into bed and shivered fitfully until just before 6pm. i still have a headache but at least i've managed to turn the external aircon on.

singer introduced me to a band called ozric tentacles (not osric testicles - singer couldn't figure out why i wasn't taking her seriously when she tried to find one of their videos).

i'm trying to decide if i'm going to send fn a message - i haven't spoken to her since last week, and that's unusual for someone i'm sleeping with... unless we're no longer doing the bad thing. i'm a bit ambivalent myself, you see.

my head aches.

*cough*
*HACK*
*spit*

as james brown said...

on the way to the meimad we stopped for ice-cream. the whole experience sucked, from the place being badly arranged, to the quality of the custom (in-your-face arsim all over the place), to the lack of texture and flavour of the ice-cream itself. i won't be going back there.

the party was great. the only thing i regret is not hitting on a really cute girl, and the reason i never do is because i never have anything to say (and if i do, it'll be misheard or misunderstood).

after five hours of rocking the kid and i gingerly walked to benedict's, for (no way!) eggs benedict. it was a good meal, but did cause us to wonder about poaching eggs.

this morning was stunning, we got home and both went to bed immediately after showering. and i still managed to wake up early :S [okay, around 11am, but that's still only five hours' sleep]

i sat online until about 2.30pm, and convinced the kid to get up so that we could clean. we did it fairly quickly, and then walked to the gym. i had a really good session, and once we were done we came home to change and went for a run.

now post shower, dinner's almost ready and we have some important television to watch and ice-cream to pursue. it's been a hard weekend ;)

useful inventions: a stove design being awarded for helping the environment and emerging nations
freakin' BEAUTIFUL: controversial tilt-rotor craft

much improved

the rest of the afternoon was spent learning pthreads, and through the learning process i inadvertently finished that stage of the project :) [it was really nice to see it all working]

when i realized how late it was, i walked to singer's. her brother arrived a little earlier than expected, so i unhappily tossed half a cup of coffee. shameful waste, that.

it was a splendid evening, really nice with good food and i quite like her family. and in explaining tic tac toe to singer i figured out the exact rules for the game AI ^_^

when we got back we decided to nap for a while, and didn't wake up on time... i was startled awake at 1.15am and rushed to dress. spot was almost at the meimad when i called him, he hadn't thought to get in touch, and he'd let the kid go to bed (after we've been talking about this party for the last week).

i'm really disappointed with spot. as a friend. he's incapable of thinking about anybody but himself, and as such has just removed himself from the pool of people that i consider friends. i can't stand people like that. i can't believe it's taken me this long to realize that about him.

fuck him.

singer and i took a taxi to the club, and it was a great party. we walked back here (her place) with wr, which was great fun. we're both a bit sore, though - i'm just waiting for the shower to become available and then it's sack-hitting time.

songs that stood out for me tonight (that i managed to find, at least):
enter shikari - sorry you're not a winner
lamb of god - red neck
audioslave - show me how to live

pre-fallout

quick post, i've definitely run into overtime...

singer and i went out for coffee last night, and i stayed at her place to be closer to the bus station. i managed to miss the damn shuttle anyway, but fortunately one of the guys from my section was coming past and he picked me up.

i was still locked out of my system for a while when i got into work, and when i finally got back in i discovered that i had five minutes to get to the doctor... i got there in time, had an easy chat with the guy, and walked out with the hospital referral i needed.

[there's a story about teabags that i feel needs telling.]

after extended mail checking we went for lunch, and i got back and found some actual work to do.

we cleaned our section, with a 90-week brainfuck that i feel needs explaining.

i took the ramat gan shuttle again, ran into a couple of guys from my old base, and then walked through azrieli looking for inspiration for the kid's farewell gift.

i just got back from singer's place, completely wasted, after an exhausting evening watching the wonder years. and then passing out to a perfect circle.

last morning before the vacation! and the kid has done his last day in the army. i'm gosh-darn proud of him for having gotten it behind him the right way.

frustration - over.

i got a long way through the fifth harry potter book, but there's plenty left for next time. it sucked having to leave the kibbutz... i was just getting comfortable. i want to go back again soon.

i met a sweet girl from uruguay while waiting for the bus, and the rides through to tel aviv weren't too much of a problem. i dropped off my bag at singer's, went home to pick up my charger, had a fight with the kid about laundry, and in a bad temper returned to singer's.

we watched the fifth element, and i slept over. this morning i made the shuttle easily, but the day did not go well.

i have sod-all to do. i'm actually going to have to come up with something to make tomorrow productive. after going through everything i could, and then sitting in an entertaining design meeting, i got locked out of my system and could no longer even pretend to work, so i spent the rest of the day working on a tic-tac-toe algorithm that's a reasonable emulation of a human being.

nystire and i caught a ride to petach tikve, from there we split up and i bussed to singer's, where i had just enough time for a cup of coffee before rushing home to meet up with a friend to work on his project. we had an amusing run-in with spot on the way, and ended up shopping, but after we'd eaten we sat down and cleared everything up in no time. we comfortably have until thursday to finish typing it all (and i have to learn how threading works in linux c, never done that before. i was convinced it was all simple forking.), so we're all good :)

now that i feel like i've accomplished something today, i'm going to try and have some fun, too.

beginning on the bench

csn called me up to join her for a cigarette downstairs, and i found her and her friend (darksmile) lounging on the bench. her friend was massaging me, i was lying with her between my legs, and aside from a lot of sensual humour and flirtatious silliness, we spent a long while freaking out passers-by and occasionally drawing them into whatever ridiculous discussion was going on.

suddenly spot appeared, and i had to rush upstairs to put some clothes on [more respectable clothes, that is] - we went with a couple of friends to the cocktail room, where spot's sister's friend pitched up with someone else from her hostel (a french engineering student who doubles as a tobey maguire lookalike). we had a really nice evening, although i was exhausted before we got there - and hadn't eaten anything all day, and i got home around 2am completely incompetent and incoherent.

horrible early wake-up this morning, and unpleasant waking up the others. spot and i bought a shower-head and then wasted forty minutes walking around looking for the right bus stop because he hadn't read the bus route correctly. we quickly found the place we were looking for in jaffa - but they didn't have beach umbrellas either. we bought a couple of things for the apartment, then crossed the road to yet another place which had to have stock.

nothing doing. i was upset. the guy working there got totally offended because he thought i was pissed off at him. spot was pissed off because every mission for the last month has resulted in abysmal failure. i couldn't even obtain one at the damn petrol station.

we returned essentially empty-handed, hot, sweaty and tired. we bought meat at the butcher's (great place), i bought two new books that look highly amusing (jon ronson - the men who stare at goats and jennifer rardin - once bitten, twice shy), and then the kid joined us and we went to benedict's for breakfast.

good thing we'd brought something to read (well, me and the kid anyway), because we had a long wait to get inside. a friend of spot's joined us, and we sat down for a great breakfast. we all ordered english, and as satisfying as it was spot and i were disappointed because the portions are way smaller than they were last time.

on the way home i got ice-cream - whiskey, bitter chocolate, espresso and white chocolate with cardimon all mixed up. fantastic ^_^

our new shower configuration rocks, the kid and i made a cute hex-editor style file reader, i'm figuring out gimp things (yes, the above is an example) and karl schroeder - lady of mazes has kept me occupied. now i need to nap because it looks like i'm going up north tonight, on condition that i dress up as an orange ninja again.

wisdom and padding feet

these are jack's lungs. jack's lungs are fully buttered and abused.

to run backwards through the events of the past 24 hours:

just bussed back home and showered, after really good iced-coffee at hdg's. i'm chewing gum that i grabbed earlier from a girl at the flame bar offering to her friend.

this was after sitting with her friend (my "date", as it were - bd) while she closed up shop, after the two of us had met up at the flame bar around 4.30.

until then i'd been sitting with spot, wr and ta2 at the cocktail room, listening to the second dj playing an incredibly eclectic selection of oldies interspersed with hip-hop, to which one of the sexier girls had removed her shoes and begun dancing in a fashion that could be described as vastly sexy and slightly adorable.

we'd come in from the flame bar, where i was visiting rockon and meeting a girl who turned out to be friendly with people from the programme i was on in '98, in addition to her cute friends. the kid left us about halfway through our visit.

the flame bar was our second stop, the cocktail room being the first.

between the two we said goodbye to spot's sister and friend after organizing freshly squeezed fruit-juice that didn't merely hit the spot, it impacted causing it to explode into a million pieces. we were all too full from such a large quantity of liquid to move, let alone drink some more.

it's great having ta2 back, we let him know just how bad his replacement was and did a bit of socializing before heading out again to continue with the "white night" deal.

i haven't mentioned how much drinking and smoking was being done for a reason.

we walked down rothschild, viewing all the strange people and shows (and ogling all the pretty girls), and lost csn and her friends just before we turned off the road.

we stopped by the hdg's work to eat, and the hot dog i took damn-near killed me. it was way too much food after the run.

spot's sister proved to be just as clumsy as spot, after spot proved incapable of opening beer-bottles gracefully.

we walked from our building to king george as soon as the kid got home. i'd just showered after getting home from the run, and i'd gotten home disgusting. i believe (i haven't got access to the results) i managed the 5km run in half an hour, even though i'm sure that i walked about half a click when i began to feel dizzy. i'm still proud of myself for managing relatively comfortably without any training and having been feeling sick and stuffy for the last couple of days (especially this morning).

my primary mistake was trying to keep pace with a friend of mine who's obviously been working on this run. the first kilometre was fine, but after that my body began drifting and squealing and i had to slow down.

i started the race with kc's sister and a couple of friends from university, after having been abandoned by my team-mate and missing the start for the 10km race which i'd signed up for. huh, that would've made for an amusing story.

tahoma and i spent some time with spot in our neighbour's apartment, after putting on our spanky new shirts in ours. we'd walked there after registration, and i found out at the end of the race that we'd actually had a choice of shirts, and because they didn't tell us we got given the "regular" ones and not the unit ones. and the unit ones were nice.

i'd run into him while registering, which i got to on time after changing post-cafeneto, where i'd eaten a serious meal to prepare for the exercise (you're supposed to eat about two hours before). spot joined me and we chatted about NM.

everyone passed out on the shuttle to tel aviv, one of the guys actually missed his stop and i had to direct him back - it sucks when that happens.

by the end of the day i was using the tool i'd written, and i'm an extremely satisfied user. especially because all of the current problems reside with the application the tool is meant to test, so nystire and i are in the clear.

i spent the whole day (that i was on base, at least) working on the tool and feeling wasted from the lack of oxygen and possible throat / chest infection i'm nursing. in the meeting that i missed in the morning the tool had received extremely high praise - i think that praise is even more deserved now that the "about" dialog box contains an easter-egg displaying a picture of the dick who wrote the first version in a pink dress, clapping his hands with a silly look on his face and captioned (by me) "good job".

i arrived late to base, had a really good chicken-breast and eggplant-spread roll for brunch. at 6am i'd set my alarm for 6.15, and all i remember is waking up unhappily around 9pm. and fighting with a bus driver over the amount of time that a vehicle with an official frequency of 20 minutes should not exceed.

like a minute.

back to the present: i'm completely bombed and my body aches tremendously.

plumbing problems

that's how the day began :/
spot just fixed our shower with a plunger, though, and i'm well impressed.

the rest of the problems concerned me spilling black coffee all over myself...

twice.

that was just shameful. and i spilled in all sorts of strategic places.

i was late this morning, and considering that i began typing this at 1.30 after having had a beer too many i'll be late tomorrow again. at least i'm pretty much done with the work for the week. after a mad rush when i got in, nystire and i managed to have a presentation version on time, and by the end of the day i had pretty much all the bugs panel-beaten out.

and i made it stylish ^_^

so that took us a total of two days, as opposed to months that that idiot spent providing us with useless trash.

i went with nystire to azrieli, and then with him to meet his brother on our original primary base. we split up on the way out, after arguing over the word "mediocrity" (they were convinced that the word was "mediocracy", i tried to explain that that's something else), and i walked in the searing, sticky heat (goddamn AWFUL) to dizengoff, where i bought myself a huge, hard pillow and the first album from fools of the prophecy (shotei ha'nevua), then waited half an hour for the cramped bus home.

i would've made it faster walking, but it was too hot and the shop next to the stop had its doors open with the aircon blowing out full blast. very conservation-aware.

i spoke to j-girl, who's apparently serious about coming here this weekend, then hurriedly change, grabbed a pillow and walked to rabin square.

the pillow fight was intense, and great exercise for tomorrow evening's 10km race. the girl whose number i got the other night (hot-dog girl, hdg), her boyfriend and another friend came to join in the fun, and after we'd all beaten each other up (all soaked and wasted) we went back to my place so that i could shower, and then to her and her boyfriend's place.

stunning apartment.

we sat chatting for a while, then met up with hdg's boyfriend's super-cute and awesome sister and another friend, then a german and a swede, and went to the flame bar.

fun evening, but i had to go early :(

i shuttled back home, caught the kid and spot with our neighbour and a couple of her friends, had a good laugh, then finally came home to be a good netizen before bedtime.

DONE. (in half a hour, i blame the pictures [removed] and the fact that my regular host is down)

sweet vision

yesterday was great, although there was definitely an edge to it with something uncomfortable in the air. that is, it was all great until i was almost at home.

pointy-haired boss, with whom i'd had a long personal interview in the morning, called me up to inform me that he was being pressured by our unit commander to have us (nystire and myself) removed from the birthright program. because of a frikkin' unit sports day, one of the most irrelevant dates in the army calendar.

i was PISSED. actually, i get pissed off now every time i think about it. i'm exceedingly grateful that ink's co-worker (i can't think of a good name, i'll go with "vision" for the moment) was late for our date, because it gave me time to
a) sort shit out in my head and get over the annoyance
b) meet up with my tattoo artist
c) discover that the comics store has moved to our area
d) find out where to acquire goodies for my revenge

i said goodbye to spot's girlfriend A, had a nap and a shower and walked to dizengoff center, planning to arrive fashionably late. i keep forgetting that we live so close, and after walking slowly still arrived twenty minutes early. this innate south african time-culture kills me.

i've been so disappointed over the past few years with the girls that i've dated, and i wasn't expecting anything more from this one. i was also concerned by having met her in the relative dark, expecting her to show up with some glaring beauty handicap (i'm a fucking champion at finding tiny, irrelevant "faults").

i also have a thing against "dates", specifically brought on by s'belle (and we met up at the same place).

i have to say that a) vision's gorgeous and i simply couldn't find that niggling detail and b) the date was GREAT. we sat at a really nice coffee shop, then spent a couple of really romantic hours on the beach, and then simply walked around tel aviv before she got on the shuttle home.

i want to describe her, but i keep getting stuck in my thoughts. beautiful, fragile, together, with deep eyes and a delightful smile. my life is finally sorted out, and i've met a girl who's totally distracting? i couldn't ask for more.

i returned to the cocktail room afterwards to send everyone her regards (our favourite barman offered to hook me up with her when i mentioned her name, and got all excited when i told him he was too late), and have a few drinks with spot, his girlfriend B (that was fast), wr and magist.

<rant>magist and i fought for a while after we left because of something an old friend of mine taught me many years ago: the difference between being a man and being a male. in fact, i live by the definition of being a man as much as possible (although i'm not infallible - there's still a male in here somewhere) - a man has the ability to suppress his male urges in order to derive satisfaction from the finer things in life. i would rather be lonely trying to find myself with quality than get it on with a cheap slag.

okay, i'm exaggerating for effect, not all the girls i turn down are cheap slags, but i expect a little more from life than a series of shags. and i'd rather enjoy the music than spend every party moment hunting women.</rant>

and i think (i hope) that i've finally succeeded, because vision's coming over for a movie a bit later on, and then we've agreed we're going to a "carrot party" at the zamir. everyone's supposed to dress up as a redhead. spot, the kid and i have been discussing showing up looking normal, then offering to show the doormen a made-up fire-crotch >D

so spot, g/f B and i arrived home around 5am, i had a quick shower to remove the sand* before going to bed.

i woke up around 10.30, and the kid and i went for breakfast before going shopping. it was a pleasant breakfast, but i forgot to use honey until i was almost done and the fruit was a tad sour :S

i put on my blades when i got home, and went out to enjoy the stunning day. as i hit the yarkon i suddenly realized i'd forgotten to do the fun shopping i'd planned from yesterday's mill around the mall, so i scrambled back home to change and get organized.

comikaza still rocks :) i ordered slaine: the horned god (both parts), and bought desolation jones, which is so far stunning. i bought the pink fluff for my nemesis' desk just as i'd planned, and a redhead wig and make-up pen for tonight.

i met up with spot and g/f B at the cafeneto, and we just got back from an excellent and amusing lunch. i'm going to nap now.

* i'm SO impressed with my boots - while on the beach i suddenly realized that i'd been standing in a puddle of water for about half an minute, and not a drop got in ^_^

renewed hope

<rant>spot and i were discussing writing a multi-player game using a serious shell script earlier, and he just suggested that i check out source code for the game online. he can't figure out what i find so offensive about not writing the damn code myself.</rant>

so i napped until 00.30, and then we took a minibus-taxi through to allenby. we began walking towards the cocktail room, when spot suddenly remembered that there's a girl who lives around there that he wanted to get in touch with, so he disappeared and the kid and i continued.

it was practically empty, and we enjoyed a nice, chilled and pretty much private evening drinking and talking. wr introduced me to the girl who works there - if she wasn't engaged my life would be even richer for the encounter :P

we began comparing tattoos, which resulted in a piercing conversation that got pretty detailed - enough that i'm now seriously considering a prince albert. that wasn't the only thing that i got out of the conversation though, and we kept chatting ... at least it's good to know that girls like that do exist, now i just need to find my own. or hope that she breaks off the engagement >D

the kid and i joined ta2 and wr at a gay restaurant in the area - really nice place, good food, and we were only hit on once by some weird french guy. then we got a ride home.

fly and burn

i'm not sure if anyone interested missed the update, so here it is. i'm always intrigued that there are people who don't know me personally who find my blog interesting; the hits have been peaking these last two months (O_o)

yesterday's post delayed due to lack of connectivity and need to sleep:

on friday night we did our traditional movie-ing thing, and as is becoming the norm i passed out during the movie. fortunately the movie was jarhead. i like jake gyllenhaal, i'm a total fanboy of military movies, but i'll be damned if that wasn't one of the most boring movies i've seen this year.

i spent a large part of my day stuck in fallout 2, having epic battles and really enjoying my story ^_^

the kid went for a run, so i kept pace with him on my blades (i wasn't in the mood for real exercise). it was highly entertaining, ignoring the upsetting bit where i was focused on the wrong traffic light and almost got myself run over, and ended with excellent ice-cream and much amusement with the super-cute ice-cream girl :D

unknown was a good movie. barry pepper drove me nuts because i couldn't figure out where i recognized him from :S [we were soldiers and battlefield earth]

i had a long chat with my mom, and i'm still smiling about the fact that we're both doing just fine. it's been such a long time, and if i actually spend time thinking about it all i think i might weep openly.

the kid and i went to return the movies, and we met a really cute american girl (my age) whose company was most enjoyable. we ended up sitting there for an hour longer than was smart sleep-wise, but it was great fun.

we rescued the kid's car from the impound lot, and i ended up getting to bed around 2am. bleargh. and i didn't sleep well at all.

today:

sleep deficit! not only did i miss my shuttle to the base (although i somehow made it on time anyway), my day began with me stepping outside and having some inconsiderate, six-legged and winged little bastard land in my coffee. i dabbed it with a finger to remove it, and it came out a lot faster and less visibly than i'd anticipated - i was convinced i'd managed somehow to dunk it deeper and that was a serious waste of much-needed caffeine :'(

i got through about four hours of work in the nine i was there today. i was extra-specially slow. but it was a more or less fun day nonetheless.

regarding the officer who broke the dog-tag:

a) we were discussing pan's labrynth today, which he saw on friday night. he laughed, recalling the scene with the mandrake root as hysterically funny. the man needs therapy.

b) the poor kid came back for his dog-tag in the afternoon. he took it remarkably well, i was totally embarrassed about the incident (in contrast to the offending officer's smugness).

back to the present: starting soon is the memorial day for israel's fallen soldiers. i'm off to see if there's a ceremony at the rabin square. a part of me is considering going in uniform, but i think that's just unnecessary.

post-holiday trauma

i began yesterday by staying in bed three hours longer than i needed to. just because i could.
i watched casino royale, which wasn't totally awful.
the kid went for a run and i bladed alongside to carry the water and egg him on.
the three of us had a double lunch.
the kid and i went out for ice-cream. the girl at the gelateria is adorable!

i suddenly realized that now that i have all this free time, and summer's coming and i'm going to be able to enjoy it properly for the first time in many years, i have time to think about stupid crap and prepare for an early mid-life crisis! yay!

all the cafeneto girls were on duty yesterday, and i found one who could help me out with advice regarding clothing and accessories. i've decided to get myself sorted out with an actual clothing style :D [and yes, it's me, it'll be an odd assortment of goth / geek / hippie]

our landlord came over for the rent, and i wrote out my first cheque. odd!

spot and i went by the atm, and i discovered that the army seems to have sorted my salary out. seems to have, i'll have to check it out further, but it makes this month a lot easier :)

last night i was preparing to write about having found "a warm puppy", but that thought was smashed by the frustration of having my net connection going down in the worst way. we only just got it sorted out, and that's after discovering that one of my apps managed to change my damn settings :S

fight club led me to believe that insomnia can be caused by dissatisfaction. i guess on a subconscious level i don't know how to cope with my life being good, and this restlessness is driving me demented!

today things on base got back to normal, and i'm totally happy with where i am. and i managed to cause a flurry of mass emails through my old section with one well-timed phone call ^_^ [the kid would kill me if he knew how self-satisfied i am about it]

i wore ankle-weights the entire day, but as i wasn't really very mobile i didn't pay much attention to it. i went shopping when i got back to tel aviv, and bought myself a proper keychain (although i'm shocked as to how much it cost), and then went home to change into running gear.

including the weights. for the first twenty minutes or so i wasn't certain that i was going to make it, but then i got comfortable and carried on for another ten. i stopped to stretch, then turned around and my return home including a full sprint for about four hundred metres, and i didn't slow down to walking until i was a few metres from home... i'm TOTALLY proud of myself!

my legs are TOTALLY killing me!

i stretched, showered, met up with spot and had falafel for supper, we sat over coffee, and now that i've satisfied my addiction and calmed down a bit i'm going to take a look at installing ubuntu.

go figure, huh?

predictions from the british ministry of defense: para-NOI-a
george lucas EAT YOUR HEART OUT! serenity named best sci-fi movie

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

watch out!

brush teeth:	CHECK
shower:	CHECK
sleep:	CHECK
wake up on time:	*ERROR*

i got up two hours late, late enough to be able to wake the kid up. i hastily readied myself and called egged (the bus company) to find out which line to take. i double-checked and was informed that the line goes from the station near my apartment, so i bussed there and went to the information area.

i found the line on the board, where it was written that it leaves platform 51. heaven forbid they should provide a map. i asked the guy behind the ticket counter where platform 51 is, and he impolitely informed me that he's not information.

i found a bus driver, who told me he was sure that the platform was on the east side of the train station - a bit far, pretty suspicious. so i went to get a second opinion, but information consists of two payphones that you pick up and it dials immediately.

being in a hurry (i had four minutes to get to wherever i needed to be), i did so. i'm a bit obsessive about hygiene, have i mentioned that? the idea of putting a public handset to my ear does NOT appeal to me. to discover that the volume is seriously low, and that i have to squeeze it to my ear didn't make me feel any better about it. and being in a hurry, i didn't think to wipe the earpiece... so once i was on my way to the platform that's on the complete other side of the station that the bus driver thought, across the road in fact, i was wiping my ear frantically and generally being pissed off.

...

i didn't manage to force my way onto the first bus that came past the second stop, and i managed to pick up a kid who had no idea how to get to her base. while waiting, a car pulled up. a couple of the kids looked at me expectantly (huh. senior officer, they probably thought. not quite.), and so i removed my earphones and stepped up to the window.

"anyone want a ride?"

WTF?! this woman might have meant well, but no. i stepped back, and was replacing the earphones when i caught another kid saying something in my direction: "they've kidnapped a couple of soldiers from this stop."

"yes. and that's why we're not getting in the car... that, and that it's illegal to take rides from strangers."
"yeah. did you know you can get 28 days in prison just for having stepped up to the window?"

i gave this kid a once over, and told him i'd like to see someone try court-martialling me for being helpful.

i escorted the girl to her base, made a detour on my base to pick something up from the quarter-master's store (cute girls!), and arrived in my office at least an hour after the kid arrived in his.

#$@%!

in spite of all that, today was pretty productive.

once home, spot and i went for coffee at another shoppe in our area - nice place, they do a communal movie viewing on saturday nights, decent vibe, cute girls... only the coffee i had tasted like bad soya. :S

we did some quick shopping afterwards, then joined a group to try and come up with a solution to the problem we've all been experiencing the last couple of weeks: every couple of nights, between 2 - 4am, some fucker rides past on his motorcycle. and lights and throws MASSIVE firecrackers that make the entire area sound like it's under attack.

all humorous theories aside, the guy whose place we met at is extremely dodgy. and even by my standards the music he put on while we sat around talking was weird. and he photographs squished fruit.

nabaztags. awwww - it likes me!