sink or swim

wow! how did another holiday weekend disappear so fast? without me blogging at all? i must have been busy :D

i'm currently uploading my mars one application video after an evening spent with an ice pack on my leg and stuffing myself silly on a really good salad and dessert...

---friday night:

the wolverine! just what i like in a comic movie. very, very cool and a lot of fun :)
we did nothing after that but crash in front of the telly until braindead.

---saturday:

we got up early in the morning to join some friends of SxS's on a boat. i wore a peak cap for the first time since childhood, and i'm told it suits me.

we began the boat ride drinking gin and tonic. fort lauderdale's really impressive when you travel past its houses on the water! it's also pretty cool from the ocean. has it really been that long since i was last in the ocean? damn. we stopped for the perfect swim (my first since the operation), and the captain had just finished attaching the tube to the back when the storm broke. massive, threatening black clouds swarmed the inlet accompanied by drenching rain and lightning. driving into that to get to a dock was pretty damned intense! and quite fun ^_^

after half an hour eating and drinking to while away the time (yuca fries and bottomless iced tea) the skies cleared and we continued back. suddenly we found ourselves amidst a group of anchored boats blaring pop music and sharing jello shots, so we joined them for a beautiful afternoon in the water tossing around a hefty coconut and playing fetch with very cute dogs.

afterwards we went to a raw vegan restaurant. raw vegan restaurants are not my cup of tea. they're definitely not SxS's :P

we returned home exhausted. i watched some ufc before my cousin picked me up for a cup of coffee: i haven't seen her in twenty years! we talked for hours, and could have talked more but she had to get back to her family.

---sunday:

SxS and i were both broken after the previous day, so aside from shopping for sports equipment and eating a large and delicious meal at chipotle, we spent sunday on the couch with a friend of his watching americans playing soccer and enjoying moshe kasher's stand-up.

my israeli apartment: not only did i want pg's agent to manage my apartment's rent and sale, but my tenant woke up at the last minute and realized that he needed a couple more days. those cost me a lot of email time typing in hebrew on a canadian macbook. not exactly fun.

we ate take-out and watched pirates of the caribbean (the third one) to round out the nothing day. not good for the eyes, but definitely good for the soul :)

---monday:

monday was such a beautiful day! i *had* to go to the pool. i was on my way there with my hands full of towel and book and keys, thinking to myself that i had better remember to take my cellphone out of my pocket before getting in the water.

i didn't.

iphones can't swim.

i enjoyed the afternoon in spite of this, continuing to read kevin mitnick's memoirs and alternating between feeling like a complete imbecile and laughing at myself and the world.

[oh, man! i just realized that i scanned a photo my cousin brought of twelve year-old me and her kids and it's lost now...]

i picked up lunch at 4th generation, which is a pretty cool place. putting a veggie patty on a bagel surprised them, but it was absolutely delicious.

the drive down A1A (i wasn't allowed to put on ice ice baby but i really wanted to) was cool, that's one impressive stretch! i arrived at the airport on time, the only surprise was having a tsa official look at me and go "eh, what's up, doc?"

i hoped he wasn't talking to me, i looked away. then down, and realized i was wearing my bugs bunny shirt. i looked back up at him and signaled that i got where he was coming from.

"yeah, you looked at me like i was crazy or something."
"sorry, i forgot what shirt i was wearing today."

he wouldn't be the only one to comment. otherwise, boarding was smooth and we paid for it by waiting on the runway for over an hour. the delta staff were very careful to explain that the connecting flights would be made aware of the delay without even insinuating that they'd actually care enough to wait for us. this happened a few times, including just after landing.

detroit is beautiful from above in twilight.

we ran (with me flap-flapping my flip-flops) to get across detroit airport in time. we had plenty of time. that sucked.

after arriving late and close to midnight, it only made sense that they'd park the plane on the side of the airport furthest from passport control. i made it out just in time to not be able to make the metro home.

---tuesday:

it was late, and i made a terrible decision to take the bus and then night-bus from downtown. the bus took forever and without google maps i couldn't find the right bus stop so i ended up taking a cab anyway. all told i lost an hour and saved $5. not exactly worth it.

...

no phone meant no alarm clock, but i woke up at alarm time on the dot this morning.

wr is dating a friend of scrappers?!?! how did that happen? [she's one of the slow couple which i guess broke up] i was most amused by the background check i was asked to provide :)

my new old iphone (refurbished) isn't ready, so i was given the same galaxy that made me love iphones more before. on my way out i was given its big brother, which might be better but i think it's too big to be a phone :P

---the big meeting: our cto didn't like what i had to say at all, and megaman backed him up.
"no, we're going to do it this way. it's a fact, it's already been decided."
"oh, okay then."
... everybody else talks until they finally arrive at the same conclusions and suggestions i'd offered in the first place...
"oh, so all i had to do was agree with you guys to get what i wanted in the first place?"

i realized that wasn't necessary the second those words left my mouth. i'm very glad my "i told you so" was ignored.

---i've been mixing the creatine and the protein powder, and while it doesn't taste bad it does make me feel a bit sickly. i can't explain it better than that.

---finally - back to training! my skipping was horrible, i kept managing to somehow smack the back of my head. my legs weren't responding correctly to kick signals. my back and neck were a bit sore. there were only two of us, so we got an ultra-light sparring session which proved to me that i have a long way to go. it also made me think about the fact that sparring involves being hit in the head, even if not at full power.

hmmm.

the other guy wasn't satisfied with the intensity level when we were done and so got sent back to the punching bags to do a hundred roundhouses with each leg. i decided to join him, and while i'm really proud that i finished them i'm not so proud of my technique (directly related to that lack of a kick response). i also managed to connect on the wrong part of my shin a lot - i didn't count those - so that's what the ice-pack (frozen peas) was for.

i had to go shopping afterwards, and in addition to the usual i picked up fairly cheap microwave stir-fried veggies: *that's* how i'm going to make my salads from now on!

i can't believe that i've spent more than two hours on this post and my mars one application. i've got shit to do tomorrow!

---prosthetic advances usually inspire me, but everyman advances really make me happy. for this message i'm proudly south african ;)

counting down

i have to do this backwards... bear in mind that the weather today was absolutely wonderful, sunny but comfortable with a light breeze.

i just watched dimensions with pg - it's a very clever and well made film.

i faxed through my details to our reserve duty office to remind them of my existence. apparently, not updating them once per year would have me transferred, which might have me end up doing reserve duty. heck, no.

the climbing wall was painful, but in addition to being told by one of the trainers that i'm a decent climber, i made it over the overhang without doing anything desperate (my leg's still recovering from my first time). yep, the pride in getting it right is quite strong.

i napped and read some more john dies at the end; i'm almost done, and OMGOMGOMGOMG the dude is just brilliant.

i took a slow meander home after a delicious lunch (hybrid fruit/green salad) after doing some gift shopping with pg.

we'd spent the early part of the morning on campus, handing in pg's final (ever) papers, and then had coffee with her folks. her sister and the twins were there, which made for a busy and fun extended moment that we could enjoy with no pressure whatsoever.

we went to bed early after watching the end of romeo x juliet. with all its faults, it's a great series and full of surprises.

wr and i sat watching monty python's flying circus, i've apparently never seen the majority of it and after the first couple of meh episodes it launches into a level of insanity that's even more intellectually astounding than it is funny.

before he arrived i'd been sleeping deeply - i was completely exhausted just as i'd been the day before. pg and i had had a busy day, having a notary authorize our prenup and its translation and then eating lunch at a cafe on bograshov.

i'd gotten up early to apply for more jobs and finally get around to fiddling with sorter's project.

it's been a trying week. we've done almost everything that needed doing and the guy who replaced me at work seems to be holding his own. all that's left is a weekend and a jewish new year and we'll be outta here!

creeping mindwarp

ye gods - john dies at the end has crawled into my braincase and is wriggling around. i'm halfway through and addicted, and my consciousness is trapped in its lucidly eerie world. you can call it escapism... and i'm definitely enjoying it... but it feels like a trap. i have things to do, and half the day has been spent with my eyes glued to my kindle.

even the jokes he tells are only funny in context; meaning that i would find them funny and perhaps laugh out loud if i was actually in the story with these characters, as opposed to merely observing as a disembodied entity. jason pargin has written an alternative reality device that feels very much like the soy sauce he describes.

---i began the day early enough, hitting campus to sit with wr for a few minutes, return some of my study material and ensure that i don't have any books outstanding in the library.

i had a choice of remaining there to do some research for my thesis proposal, or returning to my neighbourhood to comic script on the avenue. i chose the latter, it made me feel like i'm on holiday.

i read over a delicious pasta lunch, then suddenly felt exhausted and went back home to nap. once i'd rested enough i hit the avenue again for coffee; i got some scripting done, stumbled upon thesis proposal material by accident, learned that pico sucks but that using a non-graphical terminal makes awesome use of the netbook's battery, and otherwise enjoyed a pretty, breezy evening that was only intruded upon by occasional honking idiots and irresponsible dog owners.

then i returned home to read more on the couch.

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.

a full weekly - part i

[post divided retroactively]

sunday:

the week began with a terrible, sleepless night (my feet were particularly achey), followed by early french class for which i was half-asleep. while i was resting on a couch at the coffee shop afterwards:

---the blind man is seated across the table, and immediately i am struck by an overwhelming sense of curiosity: i can spy on this man as he eats and drinks without fear of being observed back. i refrain, however, because i'd hate to be watched like that. i am simultaneously aware that i am possessed of a sense of protectiveness that this man probably doesn't need: i look away but keep his coffee cup at the edge of my peripheral vision just so that i could react faster if he does clip it.

why?

i guess it's because whatever his sins may be, he has already paid dearly for them.

---that little experience was followed by a big one: a meeting with my advisor concerning the continuation of my seminar into a thesis. having submitted my seminar only a few days before, i was greatly and gladly surprised to receive my grade, which was higher than i expected. amusingly, i received it with a choice: i could resubmit, correcting it according to the comments in order to achieve an even higher grade, or continue with him and convert it into a thesis.
he made some very convincing arguments as to why it's in my interests to do the latter.

now that the week has gone by, my certainty has increased to the point where i'm about to fire off a mail to him and the MA advisor informing them of my decision.

what's behind door number two? a thesis that's already half-written and an advisor that believes in the work after seeing its foundation laid. in spite of a few harsh comments on the seminar paper, there was one word scribbled near the end which when i read it made me hear an angelic choir singing: "wow."

---an hour later, it was with a fast-beating heart that i made my way to work. the stir created by my new look was a bit disorienting. the afternoon sped by fairly comfortably, and i returned home to rest in front of the telly before going out with pg to watch the avengers again.

it did not disappoint the second time. in fact, i was able to pick up on a few nuances that i'd previously missed and that made it even better.

---monday:

my legs were feeling a bit better and i took a melatonin pill, so i had a much better night. i spent some time refining a world without flowers before paying the bank a visit*, and began catching up on oglaf comics (nsfw - so i'm not linking to them) on the bus to class.

* i know i should use the machine to cash cheques, it's cheaper and doesn't involve standing in line for half an hour. but the process of using the envelopes makes me uncomfortable and i'd rather not suffer the paranoia that i've messed something up and wasted the thing.

i was nervous during the reading, and breathless. in a strange way, it felt like the words took control and whenever i attempted to use my hands (as part of the piece's performance) i was surprised to see them visibly shaking. that said, the response was excessively positive and gave me a rush. now i must learn these words by heart.

the afternoon was spent on headachey web development and learning that i'd received bad requirements :(

i left early, heading to campus to meet wr... when i arrived, he was nowhere to be seen and wasn't answering his phone. also, my nose was blocked and the combination didn't put me in the prettiest of moods. at least he rocked up eventually.

i decided that i was going to pick up flowers for pg, and went on a mission that lasted way too long in the heat. i discovered, eventually, that there wasn't anywhere within a reasonable distance from our apartment - not knowing at the time that flowers can be picked up in the supermarket. on the way, i ran into one of my classmates and he tried to help: it was only later in the week that we realized the humour in my doomed quest for flowers after reading my poem that morning.

i rested a little and then ran, in silence because i haven't purchased replacement headphones yet. i'm beginning to think it's better that way - it's good time for reflection.

when i arrived home, we watched the seinfeld finale and did no homework.

[continued...]

probably saturday - part ii

[... continued]

later, pg and i needed to do some midnight snacking: covering the lentils with fire sauce made them far more interesting. i had a quick chat with my sister, which turned into a conference call with her daughter and ric's mother - it was girls-only shopping-induced hysteria, to which i quickly said "good night" before resuming my studies. i had a lot of theoretical texts to wade through, and i got most of it out of the way.

---thursday:

did i get plenty of sleep? not enough to sort me out. our first class has begun to bother me, not because it's not social and entertaining and not because we aren't learning interesting things, but because we don't seem to be focused on the course topic and that's kind of what i'm most interested in hearing about.

the first class of the new course (what we lost in the number of weeks we make up for in the number of hours per week) was interesting. the lecturer's cool (if a little too cool sometimes), and i once again find myself the only guy in a class filled with girls (same story with one of last year's classes). i feel a bit outnumbered and there are feminists about... but so far, at least, we seem to be off to a good start.

---in the hour between class and the anime screening, i stopped by wr with intent to chat - he's been in hiding for months. he was occupied with smoking and strumming his guitar, and very defensive when i asked how things were going. when i finally got an answer out of him, i found myself very disappointed:

he's been studying for many years, dragging out his (undergrad) degree with various excuses (some quite justifiable), and the last semester was supposed to be his final one wherein he discharged the only requirement remaining: a seminar paper. he was in almost every class, sitting next to me, sometimes paying attention and sometimes not... but there's no way he walked away from the course with nothing. hearing that he hadn't handed in anything on tuesday shocked me. it's one thing to hand in a sub-par paper, but nothing???

life is short, you only get one, and making mistakes is part-and-parcel of living. but if you're making the same mistakes over and over again, you're doing it wrong. unless you don't want to succeed in whatever you're attempting, in which case by attempting it at all: you're doing it wrong.

---we had a good anime screening, even though i missed a few minutes here and there when i couldn't keep my eyelids open. read or die's "special operations division" amused us greatly.

...

thoughts on the bus to a private lesson: this living life shit is tiring - and i'm not sure if this even counts as "to the fullest" - how did i survive this week?!

the private lesson on web development: i came away with a handful of cash and feeling like a fraud. i mean, everything's documented online. the kid seems to have (more or less) a handle on things. i showed him stuff he didn't know, and gave him a few important pointers, but really? most of that he could have gotten with a google search.

---friday:

having entered sweet oblivion a couple of hours before, i woke up at 3am to make sure that my fellow students (in the new course) had access to the movies we have to watch before tuesday. while handling the stuff that was going to take a few minutes, i came across a set of funny animal videos. i usually don't post those, but this one actually made me laugh out loud so i have to share it.

i returned to bed to have horrible nightmares, but an otherwise great sleep. it was free-comics-day friday! and little did i know, i wouldn't be out there acquiring free comics. i began the day watching the man who shot liberty valence (one of the assigned movies), absolutely enthralling, and it was just about over when pg came in to tell me her sister's water had broken and so we headed off to the hospital to pay her a visit.

why are hospitals signed so badly? we must have blown half an hour wandering the halls trying to find the right division. nobody could help us, and i'm not sure if it's like this world-wide or if it's just an israeli thing. sure, you don't see this sort of thing in the movies... usually in the movies, when someone's in a rush to see someone else in the hospital they find the room with no trouble at all. you never see them running through the hallways, half-crazed and out of breath, harassing anyone in sight in a desperate search because they might be too late to witness the miracle of their child's birth or to receive the awe-inspiring, heart-warming final speech...

in spite of having tons to do, i spent the rest of the day either eating or sleeping. i needed that.

lots - part i

[post divided retroactively]

what a week! most of it tough and uncomfortable. all of that from work: fighting fires, performing a massive technology migration... there were a couple of good moments, though. and there's almost a sense of satisfaction from a job well done.

---tuesday:

waking up at 6am "naturally" to do a tough translation for french class was ugly - amusingly enough, after driving myself (and pg) crazy figuring out how to express certain things in hebrew i was informed by our teacher that english is not only acceptable but is actually preferred. score!

french class: i spent a lot of it fighting the falling of my eyelids. afterwards, i passed out on a couch for fifteen minutes (it think it's going to become a "thing"), and once again didn't meet with wr because he was busy. i'm not offended because i think he doesn't want to talk to me, rather because i suspect him of being incapable of taking enough control of his life and situation to be able to do simple things like take a five minute break.

after lunch our database had a meltdown and i learned all about microsoft sql's concurrency handling. it's AWFUL by default, and i had to go through each and every function and stored procedure to correct for it :(

i had terrible problems to solve, and one huge meta-problem: no matter how urgent the current task is, a hundred other things seem to pop up, each demanding more attention than the last. i ended up leaving late, with the boss upset with me for having other plans.

i arrived at my cousins spaced out and worn out for a quiet(ish) family dinner. i was mostly pretty awkward. afterwards, i was off to ra'anana to meet with SxS, and i'm glad i called him before getting on the bus because he turned out to be having dinner with one of ze germans at etnachta.

people who whistle on the bus should have their lips sliced off.

ze german is no hippie, and he really doesn't get my lack of consumerism. he goes so far as to ridicule my lack of interest in becoming enslaved to a career... i guess that's part of the reason we're not really friends. grootbek joined us later, and i left soon afterwards.

---wednesday:

after a long, long sleep, i awoke to discover that the internet was down for the second day in a row... and urgent work needed to be done...

it was a day of important meetings (with a salad on rothschild in between): the first about my shakespeare paper, which was far more positive than i'd anticipated, and the second about signing the prenup. pg and i are now more or less hitched, i guess.

we celebrated with soya ice cream.

office biltong? the guy i share an office with lived in pretoria for many years, and learned to make biltong at home. what he brought in was really, really delicious. in fact, it was superior to most of the biltong i've eaten in south africa over the past few years.

scr and i began the migration to microsoft azure, and while the actual database stuff was fairly easy to handle (ie i sat next to him bored out of my skull for an hour or two) i ended up having to rewrite and repackage most of our services and the process of getting everything up and running again was infused with a sense of terror. the clock was ticking, and i could hear it.

we left late, having eaten on the office account (mike's place in herzeliya made a huge stuff-up of our order, it was weird), and i was broken again. i unfolded on the couch while pg watched angel, and was ready to go to bed when the boss called (around midnight).

i spent the next two hours certain that he was going to cry. i wanted to cry, too. the errors we were seeing were really weird and distressing. eventually, i spent a half an hour adding detailed error reporting to *everything*, and after another half an hour of testing determined that checking for the errors was enough to get rid of them.

that doesn't make any sense, but it let me get to bed (2am).

---thursday:

i got up at 7.30am, and it took me a few minutes to realize that an sms from scr had woken me and that i hadn't registered it consciously. "oh, well," i thought, "i may as well go for a run."

weird, huh? i've had running every two days on my calendar since last week, and this was as good an excuse as any. the weather was ideal, it was foggy and a bit nippy, and i changed my route a bit so it'd be easier to measure distance. this time i managed about 8.5km fairly comfortably, and while my legs are stiff and sore the satisfaction i derived was immense. what was odd was my disconnection from enjoying it totally; i kept thinking about how i would describe the morning's beauty to others instead of just focusing on enjoying it in the present.

anyway, i hope i can keep it up. running fits my schedule perfectly.

[continued...]

strange day

backwards!

1. just read a friend's (doctoral student) criticism of my shakespeare paper, and i'm left with a slightly bruised ego and a prayer that i can easily reconcile his criticism with my advisor's...

2. i've just spent the morning in bed, even though i was awake early enough to get up and get stuff done. i did get up, in fact, but then decided that an opportunity to simply do nothing for a while couldn't be missed.

3. i passed out on the couch reading the comic version of othello, pg waking me after a couple of hours of angel interfering with my dreams.

4. leaving work at 11pm after a twelve hour stretch of fire-fighting with a single half an hour break for dinner and no coffee: soul-crushing. but for some reason, i was more wired than tired.

5. ordering a giant americano and then realizing that i didn't particularly want coffee in the first place. wr let me down, we'd arranged to meet on his break and he didn't take one because the big bosses of another company were in the area. i fail to see a logical connection. i used the time to work on my fan fiction short story, doing some exciting fact-finding...

6. french class. early. i was a bit out-of-sorts, but it was alright nonetheless.

---nutritional info for the day:

broccoli and cancer - and not EVERYTHING needs to be raw (although broccoli does)

no such thing as low fat?? say it ain't so!

egg measurements - i'm with her.

hah! i just read the alt text for http://xkcd.com/1028/. xkcd: always right.

summary fire too

it was really tough focusing on things today. the amusing bit is that i only realized two important things at the end of it that would have made me waste a lot less time earlier:

1. i *did* have the details i needed to get started on transferring our department's website. when i did remember, i got started and it's such a pleasure to work with joomla!

2. visual studio's c# express has more than enough power to create and manipulate an sql database (even though it's not designed for this, and requires ignoring a lot of "this is all wrong" alerts).

the kak bit of the day - a rehashed argument (and not an enlightening one) with an annoying girl in our department forum on facebook. the excellent bit - going to the tmuna with wr (with him carrying a book of shakespeare*, that doesn't happen as often) to hear some didgeridoo artists, groovy funk music and then excellent trance.

* edit: this was more amusing when i used to refer to wr as shakespeare.

liking murphy

wednesday mornings are nasty. 8.30am class with the professor who makes our heads spin at any time of day. after that, hitting work (the old office) for a busy few hours including a Very Important Meeting in which i discovered that the project we've been working hard on for the past half a year or so has been rendered obsolete by a decision from the head office...

back to class - nim is offensively lacking in critical thinking skills. otherwise - great class in spite of my having been forced to skim most of the material. both the communist manifesto and wilde - the soul of man under socialism are enriching, but boy did they miscalculate the human propensity for not doing things properly. and for requiring incentive.

home for a quick nap, missing the alarm and being woken by a call from nemesis to say he was on his way. drinking tea and listening to his version of japan on the avenue. arguing the Big Philosophy Questions as he drove me to work.

a late shift, the trainee's a bit slow on the uptake. only got about half the things i needed to do done. got a ride from sorter, didn't swing by a friend's birthday bash because it was 3am already. spent an hour reading instead - relearning the invaluable lesson that sparknotes might give you all the facts summarized, but when you read the text itself the tone and nuances transform the text completely.

slept about four hours, then woke up for the shakespeare course i'm auditing. awesome class. no time between classes to prep for the orientation course. the sonnets seminar is fun. hurriedly (including a bit of running, when i'd forgotten to print my lecture notes) getting set up for the orientation class (same room as our anime nights used to be, with the same reservation issues), then setting about teaching. could've done it better, didn't matter, the kids were enthusiastic and appreciative and hopefully there'll be more next week.

wr and myself running in the rain with a beer keg trolley; the rain began just after we acquired the trolley and stopped just as we found shelter. the picnic was moved to the bomb shelter on account of the weather. long talks, great cake, beer. running the trolley back to the student union, rushing off to bus home, going straight to pg's mum instead. we all went out to great dinner at segev express to celebrate pg's sister's birthday; i ate lots of dumplings.

been back for a while trying to knock things off my to-do lists. mmmmm...

the weirdness of a clear schedule

whoa! i slept in, had a chilled morning, waiting for on-my-honour to swing by with my ticket for the big doof party coming up. it was two hours later than the time we'd agreed upon when i suddenly remembered our last experience - she's the girl with the watch problem - what reminded me was an sms informing me that the queues in the hospital were a lot longer than she'd expected.

WTF?!

i left for work, and by the time i arrived she and pg had met and traded. the work day was very short and i completed all my tasks, leaving early so that i could take pg to see the doctor. the only trouble with that plan was the reliance on public transport from herzeliya to tel aviv; i arrived at london ministore just as pg was walking out of it after having been seen. i was feeling drained, so we stopped somewhere that i could drink a beer and down a good meal (exquisite chicken salad), after which i handed her my bag and grabbed a bus to the university.

science night. too many interesting lectures, not enough time. i shouldn't have gone to the space il presentation because i didn't really have much to learn; i should have gone to the lecture on spinal development and back pain instead. after that i sat in on a fascinating lecture called "education reform and social justice", which, as edifying as it may have been, had unfortunately little to do with the given topic. from there i went to an "international" lecture (given in slightly-broken english) on the ramifications (if any) of the recent arab uprisings, and lastly i hit the arts school to hear about photography's importance as an artistic form.

and to think i'd almost skipped all of these to run home to pg, who was struggling with her eye-drops. i was just on my way off campus when she called to tell me she'd finally gotten it right :P

the last lecture really inspired me - i'm going to try and convince urchin to work with me on a photographic series that i think could make a difference :)

wr worked the coffee stand, so he was quite busy the entire evening (although he did pass me a couple of cups), but we left campus at the same time so i got a ride into tel aviv. i've now performed some of my webmaster duties, pretty much wrapped up the day and i'm ready for a shower and some reading before bed.

i'm not certain i'll be joining the organizers' meeting at 8am in south tel aviv...

twingling nerves

yesterday was exciting! well, the second half at least.

i got up stupid early (7am) to get some work done on the event website, and was fairly productive until i had to leave for work. the meeting with the insurance guy was set for 11am - it was only about noon when he finally rocked up. turns out he's from the same company :S

i got a bit of work done, but not enough that i don't have to do anything on the weekend. my 4pm meeting on campus had completely slipped my mind... boy, were we all surprised when i jumped up at 3pm, explained the situation, hurriedly handled most of a meeting that had been deferred from the morning while simultaneously packing up...

i made it to the university in good time. unfortunately, i arrived without my beloved phone cover: i'm guessing i must have dropped it on the bus. as soon as i realized it was missing i called up the bus operators, who registered the details but explained to me that they have no way to contact their drivers.

REALLY?!?! and this on the bus line that has wi-fi? so the drivers have internet, the drivers have cellular phones, but the company can't get in touch with them??? bloody liars.

the worst part of this story is that the bus line goes past our apartment, and i only realized that i could have simply called pg and asked her to hop on and check after i'd finished talking to the monkeys. by that time it was too late :(

it was super-heated on campus. the walk up had me disgustingly sweaty. i was surprised to discover that the girl that i thought i was going to meet was the *other* girl-with-the-same-name from the master's students...

the hand-over was very different to what i expected. i thought i was going to get a bunch of info, tips and tricks, who-knows-what - instead, i was informed that i already know everything there is to know about the content management system and that i already had the keys to the department's blog (it's on blogger).

i gave her a lot more info than she gave me: i'd been talking to the head of the faculty's IT department in the morning and the english department on the way from the office, and i've secured permission from both sides to join the faculty dev team for the express purposes of moving our website from the completely unusable and unsupported cms to joomla. the alternative? waiting for them to get around to it during the first semester... i don't think i'll really have enough time to do stuff then :P

on the way to meet the dev team, i ran into gco's girlfriend and she offered to arrange the meeting for me (it turns out everyone had left for the day anyway) - then i headed to the bus stop to go to the old office.

that didn't work - wr and co-conspirator caught me waiting for the bus, and there went an hour of my day. it was a fun, interesting hour, though - we've got a candidate for class rep and a platform on which to push her; wordsworth and i have found a way to let co-conspirator participate in the orientation course (i had reservations at first, but we resolved them in the interest of avoiding group politics), and she taught me a thing or two about the master's course registration process... it's good to know people who have time to harass the entire faculty :)

our enthusiasm for the course is contagious, apparently: wr, now going into his final - no really, his FINAL year* - wants to take the course too :P

* he has one course left to go to complete his degree... he's been studying the same degree for about seven or eight years now.

it was on that note that i left (again) for work. the first person i ran into was sorter, and we sat outside for coffee and business for a short while - i was happy to report progress, he had a lot to say about financial sources, and between the two of us this little project has rather a lot of potential. the best part is that as soon as this month is over i will have time to dedicate to it, and it's fun regardless of whether it succeeds or not. we don't have to invest in anything else until we're ready to release an alpha version... so an even split of the profits might be good pickings :)

i'd had a long email argument with -someone in the morning about the way i'd written one of the classes, and it continued as soon as the two of us were sitting together. much flurrying on the whiteboard later, and i finally managed to untangle my proposal into a flow diagram. it's funny how the second it was drawn up properly it became so simple and sensible! and how important it is to have two people working on the same code.
that freed up my next hour or so for documenting things before grabbing the bus home.

i decided i'd spend some time with pg before working, and we sat reading together after dinner, then playing tekken... tekken was interrupted, though, by a phone call from pg's ex. she disappeared for a while, then returned with a pile of cash, a guitar, and a retelling to raise the hackles. at least she told the creep off, and explained that she never wanted to see or hear from him again. story over - i'm glad i didn't have to intervene.

we played a bit more, and then i did a *little* bit of work... but sleep overpowered me. and not just any sleep - a complete, deep, *satisfied* sleep in appreciation for a week well done and *knocks wood* my life being in a good place right now. it's taken what seems like forever, but i'm financially stable and doing jobs that i like, i'm reading and gaming again, i'm making time for friends in addition to being in a fantastic relationship, and i believe that if i work really hard i might be able to keep this up ^_^

---getting up at 7am was night impossible, and 7.30 was only slightly easier. i've now posted, done the translation for the event, and am off for breakfast with urchin.

[twingling]

slightly less complex - part ii

[... continued]

i slept pretty well, and dreamed a lot. and vividly. then i got up to make rounds. i waited a long time for the bus to ramat aviv to meet with wr - i had coffee and a discussion that blew my mind. it made me really, really angry and frustrated and for the first time i have seriously considered fleeing this country. i'll write about it in a minute [or two, or three - i need to rest from writing for a bit after this post]. the conversation carried over to my next meeting with scrapper, and i got him all fired up too.

unable to find decent grub in the ramat aviv mall (or, at least, decent grub that didn't cost an arm and a leg) scrapper and i made our way to tel aviv. we were joined halfway through by a mutual friend, and the breakfast was almost as enjoyable as the conversation. unfortunately, by the time i was done i had less than an hour before training...

there's a reason one should eat more than two hours prior. for most of the training i felt like i was about to taste breakfast again - not nice. otherwise training was great! we worked well, and things definitely seem to be improving. not on the list of improvements: having the damage from tuesday increased; my forearm's a bit swollen and very tender.

the mongoose and i had agreed two weeks ago that he'd pick me up at 5.30pm and take me to see his new home, but instead he came by just as i stepped out of the shower and we chilled here until he decided he was calling it a night. pg and i continued playing crash bandicoot until i got motion sickness (some of those jet-ski levels are a bit much) and we switched to watching the rest of the alice mini-series while eating great sushi.

i passed out on the couch while pg watched friends, and eventually put myself to bed and had big dreams. the entire night.

---today:
i'm done re-visiting my ripped albums, and i'm done with this post. i'm considering paring down my posts (i think i hear grateful sighs from anyone who reads this), because it's now about 3pm and i feel like i've done nothing that was on my agenda for today: playing gabriel knight and transcribing from my travel journal.

---from an online conversation i witnessed yesterday morning:
"sometimes you just have to make a decision to be happy. just realize that things aren’t going to be what you hoped they would be. the only thing that separates one kind of person from another is that there are some who stay angry about it and there are some who accept what comes their way."

a seemingly benign sentiment, but i had to interject:
"i'm concerned that there's another thing that separates that isn't mentioned: that there are some who face the immediate trauma of choosing a different path for the benefit of their long-term happiness. there's very little in this world that's truly didactic"

slightly less complex - part i

i have great plans for this post. this is said while feeling absolutely nothing. i'm spiritually asleep, emotionally exhausted in spite of having gotten a great (and long!) night's sleep after an intense end to a long week that was only relatively less trying than the one before.

and now i have to re-digitize all the minidiscs i've already spent so much time on, because i used the wrong jack and both the quality and the volume are too low. suck. all i want to do is play computer games and - AAAAAAAAARGH! the battery metre on my minidisc lies! it LIES!!! and now i have to find a new set :S

[okay, that worked to my advantage - using line out is even worse because it cuts off the bass. i'll just stick to the crappy boosting provided by kanssoftware's "sound normalizer"]

---wednesday:

ubuntu automatically located our office network printer. with one or two clicks, the appropriate drivers were downloaded and installed. with another click, i printed the pdf. i walked to the printer, and retrieved the output. it was a garbled mess. after examining it for a few seconds, i took it to the boss who told me he'd look into it.

about two minutes later he was crouched next to the printer, perplexed, holding a fat stack of repeat garbled prints. thank you, ubuntu. [isn't the background music inappropriate?]

...

our secretary and i don't seem to communicate on the same level - just in case i hadn't mentioned that before... i cannot fathom what would make her prance up to my desk and ask me my opinion on her toenail polish. there's harassment in there - not sexual, just... just cultural harassment.

we had lunch at avazi's, stuffing ourselves on the pre-lunch spread and being unable to get through even half of the main meal.

our secretary introduced me to a service that allows one to disconnect from companies like cable and internet without the stress of dealing with their horrific customer "service" lines and without their insane penalties.

no more netvision! no more hot! the fact that we require such a service is shameful.

on the way to the other office, mmf introduced me to the songify app for the iphone. i can't decided if it's really cool or simply amusing...

---the poetry world is very strange subcategory of the literature one, and i can't figure out how things work. i took an extremely presumptuous step by posting first on an attempt at a collaborative poem targeted at EVERYONE, and was expecting to be lambasted for being a nobody. until the first response came in - a continuation of my beginning - my temperature rose. dramatically.

---work was hard and fast, and i made such a complex series of changes that i couldn't leave it half-finished. i left much later than i'd planned to meet pg at the movies, and of course there were *no* buses for the next twenty minutes...

... but we walked in in time for the 3D trailers. you know what blows me away? tool - forty six & 2 on the captain america soundtrack.

---pg had made my day when she'd called in the afternoon to ask if i wanted to see transformers in the evening.
"what else is on?" i asked, being unable to remember what other cool films are on circuit.
"nothing."
and then i smiled, remembering that she really likes transformers.

...

so the new movie is great! it's a lot of fun, beautifully done, and the plot and characters work really well. except for one thing. two things.

1. the new girlfriend is a little weird. a little strained. i don't know how much is because of bad acting and how much because of a bad script.

2. if there's one thing i've learned from joss whedon: someone important needs to die when there's that much action and danger. the movie contained no reality checks; the people who died were barely introduced and when a lot of people died, that wasn't what the cameras were looking at. i found this to be a terrible flaw, and it substantially detracted from my overall enthusiasm.
*SPOILER ALERT*
(select text to view)
especially when megatron doesn't kill the girlfriend. WTF?!?!
and apparently all of the wing-suits that survived until the release point made it all the way to the happy reunion at the end, in spite of the ridiculously dangerous building collapse. and with all those falls... not even a sprained ankle? nothing?
*END SPOILER*
---on the way back from the cinema, we ran into pg's ex and his girlfriend. i didn't find out who he was until we'd parted company, but the encounter had a weirdness all its own even without that information.

i don't like him. he borrowed money from pg before they broke up, and he still hasn't repaid it. this wouldn't be such a big deal if he simply didn't have the money to return - but it is a big deal when he's chosen to invest the money. it's a textbook example of the current vs future value of money that we learned about in finance studies, and in my book it's precisely the definition of theft.

---thursday:

after a brief sleep, i hurried to the bank to sort out a standing order for the university.
"wanna loan?" the man asked.
"why is it that when i need a loan it's hard to get one and the conditions suck, but now when i don't you make it attractive?"
"sorry, what?" he replied, confused.
"never mind."

the bus stops for the lines heading south from ibn gvirol have been switched. that was confusing. i stepped onto the bus and stood behind a woman playing solitaire on her ipad, which i found pathetically amusing. of all the apps - my phone rang. it was the guy from my neighbourhood that i used to serve with, and i couldn't figure out why he'd call me so early in the morning until i answered and he told me that he was keeping me a seat at the back of the bus :P
we rehashed our usual conversation about studies and professional satisfaction, and i'm pleased to hear that he's not only found a job but that it's one where they're happy to let him study when he decides that the time is right. good for him!

my first civilian dentist in seven years is very sweet, and she surprised me by informing me that all's well. i was shocked, however, to discover afterwards that regular, run-of-the-mill x-rays cost me NIS 50, more than a quarter of the price of panoramic ones. i would have thought that my insurance would cover the basics :/

the woman flossing unabashedly in the waiting room made me shake my head in wonder.

modx drove me completely nuts the entire day. after a raging success with the first installation, the second one has hit every bump and twist, failing and breaking non-stop. i didn't realize that i had sudo permissions on the dev server until the afternoon, but even that wouldn't have helped me because i suspect that the primary problem was with the vhosts file that i couldn't physically locate. my boss informed me later that i hadn't looked in the standard location - thank you, helpful internet forums, you tried.

combined with extremely loud persian / arabic inter-office relations in a small space with no partitions, i spent my day pretty tense. my boss had given me a job to do and i ended the day no closer to finishing it than when i'd started - the sad thing is that the only thing that disappointed my boss was my getting stressed by it all. as he said that, i realized that he was right and i left the office quite embarrassed.

i played angry birds while those inter-office relations continued in the smaller space of the car throughout the drive back to tel aviv - i was in need of a stiff drink by the time i got home. and a shower - it was hot outside. i was *just* about to commence chilling when pg called me to let me know that she and her parents hadn't yet left for the "opera in the park", so i scrambled to join them.

---the opera was wonderful, the atmosphere was great and we were in time to pick a good spot. pg's mom is right - it's far more comfortable to sit for a long time on the grass than it is on plastic chairs. the only problem is that i was tired and holding myself up was a bit tough, so occasionally i leaned back and just listened.

1. thank you, mosquitoes, for driving us all nuts.
2. i should have brought my glasses. and binoculars.
3. are they called "subtitles" if they're live and displayed above the stage? i'm fairly certain i'd have been happier if they were in english.
4. no beer?! dammit!

all in all, i'm really glad i went. i *did* like the music, and the set was absolutely incredible. they projected the backdrops onto the stage screen, and combined with the excellent lighting the effects were gorgeous. i really appreciate good stage design.

---we watched i love you phillip morris when we got home - i didn't realize until the end that it's based on a true story. that's... that's pretty insane. and it's the second "serious" movie with jim carrey that i've enjoyed.

...

damn you, ben & jerry's. damn you.

---friday:

quote of the day: "stairs out of order, please take the elevator"
no, seriously. when i went to visit wr the stairs were cordoned off. were they broken?!

[continued...]

good show!

two in one week? it's been a while - a LONG while. but hatachtonim (התחתונים) were absolutely incredible tonight. their sound was even better than usual, in spite of (or perhaps due to) a couple of changes (the drummer and the bassist), and even though misha's voice sounded a bit hoarse he still carried it through a great evening.

it was also great seeing some of the guys; it's been a while since we all got together. and botchman gave me a ride home, and tel aviv on a (real) bike is always fun :)

---the bad with the good, because there almost invariably is... i won't be going back to the sublime again. they're assholes. and not just because they're expensive and have rude waitresses. i arrived late, considering that enough to keep me "on time," only to discover that the previous act was running so late that they weren't willing to let us in for another twenty minutes.

in case we "steal" the tail end of the show? the one they weren't going to see any more money for anyway? so we had to lurk outside, not even able to sit on the chairs that are reserved for those who have paid to get in already? i might've bought another beer to make up for it. now i won't be paying anything for the show i was going to go to next week. or any of them. because they're nasty money-grubbing misanthropes.

---it was a bit of a "F*" day besides the sublime hassle. [Note: "F*" rhymes with "duck stew".]

after getting into bed a little after 4am, i had trouble sleeping because i hadn't stretched properly after training - this is happening a lot more lately than ever before. it's become a "thing". and coupled with my foot muscles being perpetually tender i'm beginning to become concerned that there's something unusual... *ahem*... afoot. [sorry] F* getting older and being out of shape.

i went to meet wr at his work, which is close to my old office, but as usual he wasn't answering his phone when i arrived and that left me standing outside in the baking heat wondering which way to go. if he wasn't so gorram awful with giving directions... F* heat wave, and F* wr for being so disorganized.

i was in my old office for about two hours, most of which were spent trying to understand an email enigma. F* smtp, F* exchange server, F* active directory. the first told me that my email had been sent successfully, the other two made the mail disappear and refused to tell us why.

thank you, microsoft. [here, "thank" can rhyme with "duck" too.]

so i waited an extraordinarily long time for the bus to arrive, slowly roasting and with energy drained so low that when it eventually did come past it was difficult to extricate myself from the shaded corner i'd settled into. things in heart of darkness have just gotten exciting. i can't stop comparing it to apocalypse now. it's good they're so different :)

i spent the next few hours going crazy with a jquery plugin called sexyselect; its basic functionality works fine, once you've gone through three different forums just to find out how to run it. it breaks the second you try to use the methods it's supposed to have, though. the best part: everything's trial and error; the documentation is *so* bad that reading through it seems to do more harm than good.

it didn't help that my boss couldn't figure it out either. F* jquery plugins.

i got a ride home with mmf, and we had an argument about the existence of god that at first grated on my nerves and by the end had us not-quite-agreeing but in a better place than we'd started.

F* nihilism.

i was still upset over the two work-related F*s, so i had a shot of rum and played abe's exoddus for a bit. i had straddled the new chair (it's a fun shape, pg's sister made it) and was wearing nothing but my underwear, eating doritos and getting totally into slapping sligs and squeaking along with my blind friends in tow... pg's brother was supposed to come pick something up, and when i asked if i needed to put on pants i was laughed at.

but pg's brother didn't come. her mother came in his stead. i would have just said hi and continued playing, but i'd set a playtime alarm and i had *just* shut it off. i couldn't get up to cross the room to put some clothes on, so i sat as nonchalantly as possible and tried to blend in benignly with the background. only she stood in the entrance, and looked right at me. "wow," she said, approvingly.

i stared at her.

she stared back.

after a long moment she realized what was making me feel so supremely awkward, and explained: she'd been appreciating the chair i was sitting on.

---i read up some things for the shakespeare exam, then made my way to the bus. at least i've now officially opened a book :P

today is thursday

i must admit to being a bit confused about such things as "days of the week" - there were a brief couple of days when i felt like i suddenly had time to breath, and then i began with antibiotics and exam fretting so it's all a bit...

---tuesday night:
the route was great, although pg was quite impatient with me and we sat in silence over the post-blade frozen yoghurt. the sense of drama on heightened when she discovered that the shower door's damaged - neither of us know how but i'm considered the prime suspect. it's the kind of damage that requires a professional :(

---we went to be early, around 2 - 2.30pm, and i got up early to go to the bank and sort out a money transfer. the woman presented me with one of the unfriendliest forms to fill in, one that contained far too many unnecessarily legal terms and even post-translation was unclear. i became progressively more tense, and then the poor clerk got upset because she thought i was angry with her.

well, i should have been. she didn't offer me much assistance with the damned thing, and to make matters worse i got a phone call a few hours later explaining that there were a couple of details i hadn't filled in so i'd have to come in and do it again. very professional, lady. very professional.

---pg was super-weird yesterday morning. we walked to the bus in uncomfortable silence, and then we stood on the traffic island and she accused me of putting ideas of awkwardness into her head. i can't say i'm completely innocent, but i've been sensing strange cues the whole week...

the day began with a headache. the first class was a two hour preparation for mark strand's later appearance, and it was fairly interesting. after lunch with wr (who proposed some interesting ideas for the september event) and a few minutes sitting with one of my study groups (some of whom were engrossed in linguistics homework, which looked really familiar... it resembles discrete mathematics, actually) i went out to wait for a friend of mine to pick me up.

after two hours discussing politics, the arts and how to approach the problems in israeli society - two hours during which i learned about all sorts of surprisingly awesome projects that don't get promoted at all - he dropped me back on campus for mark strand. on the way i spoke to nystire, who made a pretty good case for why i shouldn't return to training until i'm over the antibiotics. no, i don't really want to risk kidney troubles :S

---a certain professor gave the introduction, and some members of the faculty were as shocked as the rest of us to hear her obscure analysis of mark strand's poetry. quite presumptuous. one of the poets who introduced him (there were a number of hebrew translations read, and they were very good) told us how he used to publish strand's poems on the back of the magazine he was working for, without informing readers that it was poetry - shock poetry? apparently it was surprisingly engaging.

mark strand was absolutely inspirational. everything he read was magic - few poems, but it was all poetry: he's very funny on the topic of prose form. riveting stuff, presented with such easy humanity that i was touched. and all of this appreciation in spite of the splitting headache; i only managed the reading on the wings of the chocolate and coke that i'd arranged at the last minute :P

---from art to politics: i walked to the building next door for a talk by noam shalit. while waiting for him to arrive, a man with a really cool t-shirt walked in.

i'm really glad i went to hear him speak. noam shalit just gave me a whole new perspective on an issue that i had taken a rather solid stance on. i'll discuss it more in detail at a later stage, but the bottom line really is that gilad shalit has been in captivity for almost five years and it's past time that we should bring him home.

trading terrorists is not a perfect solution, but it is the right one. it's time.

---i spent the way back home stuck into my phone, learning about twitter. i have begun providing a service that i'm hoping will take off, and there's a certain amount of journalistic responsibility involved...

i took pg out for sushi - for the first time this week things are back to normal ^_^
we ate way too much and it was really good.

the scar on my lower back (i had a mole removed a couple of months ago) is itching, and driving me crazy. i wonder if that has to do with the antibiotics?

...

i went straight to bed afterwards, and woke up early thinking to post this and get some reading done... so much for the reading. and what's here only made up about 50% of my notes; i have a daunting to-do list...

---gay parent bashing. in texas. this is quite touching.

another riddick? i can handle that.

silent nights

i'm excited. and feeling good. i was feeling exhausted and horrible until i left campus, but when i plugged in my earphones and pumped up the volume on my house collection my spirits rose and things have been smooth since. i had a good, productive day in the (new) office*, had a very positive chat with mmf on my way to the old office, and life feels like it's on track.

* aside from tax issues: the fact that i work two jobs means that both my employers have to pay more taxes for me, and i get paid less to boot. i'm "fortunate" enough to be earning below the next tax bracket, and if i earned more than that such a large percentage would go to tax that it would reduce the incentive to work more hours to zero. what an intelligent system we live with.

---thursday night:

this thing about letting people know how much petrol it takes to start a car... it's like the starfish story.

intimacy on the bus: i was standing reading from my iphone in the middle of the practically empty bus when a man walked in, stood on my left and put his arm across to the pole on my right, leaving me approximately an inch of breathing space. after glaring at him for a minute, i asked him to let me out and stood on his left. i don't think he got the hint.

i wrapped pg's birthday present while she got started with pitch black: a movie that you just *know* came out of an rpg. it's awesome.

---friday:

at midnight, i presented the gifts - a nordstrom snow globe (why are decent snow globes so hard to find? and the shipping made this expensive) and a cute snow-globe keyring with santa claus inside - then we ate cake, i drank whiskey, we watched one piece (my legs got super-stiff again, it's very frustrating) and then passed out.

we woke up comfortably, made good pancakes, argued about the value of judaism and then went on a shopping spree. i can't stand shopping, but i figure that only going once a year on a birthday trip is acceptable. it was tough, but i survived. in the last shop we went to i overheard some old lady talking about a "one piece" and wondered if the manga could be interpreted as some sort of fashion metaphor, where the king of pirates is... yeah, it's a bit much :P

i bought something for myself on the way; two pairs of strap-on pockets. only i forgot to try on both for size, and one of them's too small :S

we had japanese for lunch, which was pretty good - although both of us suspect it had something to do with our not feeling quite well for the remainder of the afternoon.

...

---saturday:

it's weird having constant munchies. and distracting. i spent saturday working. aside from a strange hassle accessing my apache server which resulted in my reinstalling it, only to discover that it was a problem with chrome redirecting my queries to www.localhost.com (good grief!). i was treated to the new version of internet explorer when the auto-updater kicked in. WOW. it's now chrome. it's like microsoft just gave up. yes, i know i'm behind the times, but still...

i took a long walk in the middle of the day to meet with a guy from the completion course so that he could hand-deliver a wedding invitation... i took the opportunity to shop for meat and beers for the evening. those beers turned out to be pretty heavy going on rollerblades, in addition to all the other gear i took with. the spot co-conspirator had found wasn't bad, until the huge function next door put on loud, crappy music* and not even our megaphone could save us.

* a pretentious, emotionally dyslexic child in rishikesh drove me nuts one day playing a song repeatedly on his cellphone, and when i heard it last night i immediately asked what it was.
justin bieber, i hate you.

the barbecue was alright, but i was upset that during the first round of poetry readings barely anybody volunteered and the march hare had joined us. he felt bad because he thought he'd ruined the party, and in the end it turned out that all that was missing was alcoholic lubrication. next time, i'm going to request that everyone starts drinking before they arrive.

the evening was mostly fun, although i was really tired and i'm glad that wr's cocktails weren't particularly strong. the most upsetting part of it all was the end, when i replaced the mat i'd brought and discovered that i hadn't taken out the meat. it had defrosted, so we gave it to some revellers close by and i felt silly.

on the way back home i went past the spot that we'd originally thought to sit at (that wasn't sanctioned by the authorities) and saw that nobody had a problem with barbecuing there, the lighting was better and everywhere was more or less quiet.

dammit :(

i was absolutely exhausted when i got home. pg and i had a number of miscommunications in a row and i went to bed broken and unhappy. at least things were better in the morning.

---today:

i got some work done before heading out... i'd planned on starting my antibiotics courses today, but the pharmacist hadn't put stickers on the pills and i appear to have lost the script. that's quite annoying.

first class was cool - i enjoyed the material and amused myself with the list of common misconceptions. one of the girls gave me a copy of the second gabriel knight game, and pg and i had lunch together before i left campus.

...

now i've got to get some work done.

poor me: a weekly review part ii

[... continued]

i was planning on blading to campus, but i felt a few raindrops on my way home to pick up my bag and made an extremely wise decision to put on my shoes and take the bus. that meant literally running for the bus :/

i'm been reading aldous huxley - brave new world on the bus and i couldn't figure out where i'd read "multitudinous seas incarnadine" until second class... how fortunate that we're studying macbeth :)

i spoke to someone in the morning on my way in to get coffee, and somehow the notion of summer vacation was raised... good heavens! i'll have time to actually *DO* stuff! that totally energized me, and i would have remained quite bouncy if first class hadn't been so uninspiring.

i picked up a couple of students interested in joining our anime group, and the lecturer invited me to a lecture that was going to take place in the afternoon.

i was dead again after first, but second was a great class that began by explaining how woody allen misunderstood shakespeare, and ended with me being distracted and agonizing over a rather embarrassing mix-up with my calendar - i'd okayed pg's birthday barbecue for the same evening that i was organizing a poetry reading, because she'd given me a date and i hadn't associated it with the festival we're latching onto (lag ba'omer)... embarrassing and unpleasant.

after engaging one of the poetry lecturers to invite him to the reading i was in a bit of a hurry to get to the student union to organize a bullhorn when i ran into a friend of scrapper's that i used to serve with. a fascinating chat that took far too long; he agreed with me at first, but then got defensive and began tying himself into logic knots. it's tough trying to give hope to someone who understands on an intellectual level but whose emotions cannot bring him to keep it together. we ended with an argument over choice, about which i have far too much to say to include here.

what a pleasure to receive the cash from the alternative ride to compensate me for my having to repurchase thursday after he lost it. and now i feel stupid because the link i just added is to the director's cut and it's cheaper than what i found on ebay. i didn't even *think* to look on amazon :S

on my mission to inform israel that one should turn off the engine when idling for more than ten seconds, i have received three classes of response. the first, the majority, is a postive "thank you!" and the turning of the key. the second, much less, is a blank, uncomprehending stare, with eyes glazed and mouth agape. the third, only one, i got on my way to visiting wr from someone who obviously (by his look and tone) considers himself something of an intellectual: "what a waste of your time."

i didn't think of it quickly enough, but that deserved a "what a waste of your money." what a dumbass.

the lecture that i'd been invited to was really interesting! what a bummer they always have them when i'm completely exhausted. half the lecture i couldn't tell if i was awake or dreaming, every now and then starting and wondering if i'd closed my eyes, snored or drooled... i don't know how the scene began to form in my mind, and i wrote it on my way to the bus.

walking down the road near our apartment: the pinks and yellows and purples of a tiny road after the sun-bronzed facades of the main street were peeping, glowing, through the foliage - but why were all the metals purple?

i arrived just in time to help pg and her parents erect the serious gazebo; afterwards i rested, had dinner and a shower and we walked to the cinema to see thor.

i saw the poster for the fast and the furious 5: oh gods no. it's like tropic thunder just became real. on the other hand, i believe priest, real steel and the fourth pirates of the caribbean are all going to be amazing :)

as for thor: dude. awesome. i don't think there was anything i didn't like, i had fun the whole movie and i was shocked by the tidiness of the fight scenes after having read a review that stated that it wasn't a good idea to watch in 3-d because there's too much motion to make sense of things. 3D was *just* right, thank you very much. gorgeous film, go see it.

i was shocked when i received a refusal to participate in the organization that's getting going; not because i expected participation, but because i hadn't asked for it. i found myself angrily clarifying that all i was seeking was advice and contacts... why does everyone have to make things so complicated?!

pg and i went thursday night shopping, and had an amusing little "no *i'm* paying" scene that wherein the cashier intervened on my behalf and was then embarrassed to have done so.

i can't recall what made me think of it, but i wonder if anyone misheard and thought the chant was "what's that smell?"

rum works with redbull, and it works with orange juice. we had a drink or two and made our way to the zizi club. we met a few people i know on the way in, had an unpleasant moment with the bouncer who didn't understand that i'd heard what he'd said and was actually planning on complying, and walked in to discover that this was where pg and i had come a few months ago, also on the date when we celebrate our x months together. interesting timing :P

the music was frikkin' AMAZING. but the place was crowded and eventually we left because pg was having to work too hard to defend herself; i wasn't faring too much better.

i was startled by a taxi driver on the way home because he so enthusiastically received my explanation of the evils of idling. sometimes you really don't know who'll surprise you the most.

---friday:

i woke up with a skew neck, and was planning on rollerblading to the park to scout for a spot when it began to rain... to REALLY rain. i was sensing a pattern :P

i bought meat from the butcher, for the first time ever, thinking i'd bought *just* about enough to cover everyone. on the way back, inspiration struck:
i have it! the police don't know - that's what they told me, at least - how to stop people from using the horn in inappropriate situations; if every israeli car's horn gave a little electric shock, it wouldn't stop people from emergency use but they'd think twice before holding it down for more than a second

i really do believe that that could be done.

pg and i went to buy strawberries, and passed by a supermarket on the way to pick up breakfast. the donuts looked pretty good, but the girl at the counter couldn't spell donut in any language and i eventually had to shout at her to get her to give up and let me go without :S

an old lady was being really pathetic about blocking the road so i got involved as i walked past and the woman she was griefing was quite grateful. how embarrassing to get home and realize that the old woman is our neighbour, and have to explain all the way up the stairs why what she did was wrong. awkward.

the weather had cleared a bit so i strapped on my blades and headed to the park, purchasing a bicycle bell on the way (quite a story, sadly) that can fit on my finger like a large ring. it's bloody helpful - and funny, too.

after a while of scouting i realized that daylight snaps were not particularly productive, and so i returned home. on the way, i travelled parallel to a cyclist with a dog running after him. when his dog ran to the side to relief herself, i asked him if it's legal to let one's animals relieve themselves freely in the park.
"no, " he answering without hesitation.
a second passed.
"but my bitch is allowed."

the audacity astounds me. i harrumphed (there's a hebrew word for that that i used loudly and abrasively) and sped along.

i watched measure for measure when i got home, and it was a far sight easier than reading the damn play. i don't know why i found it so confusing.

[continued...]

when throats bite back

and much like michael jackson, osama died too long after i stopped caring about him for this news item to move me.

---how could i forget the great rollerblade railgrinding i walked past last night? i tried to sneak a video, but i think they noticed and suspected that i was going to report them because they disappeared immediately :(

...

i had an early wake up, an awkward shower around the stitches in my leg, and i've been sensitive about it all day. especially after scratching it in the middle of the night: that *hurt*, and for a while. i can't believe the hole required is more than an inch long sewn up.

i read a touching story while waiting at the clinic about siblings who were separated during the holocaust and only recently discovered that they weren't the only survivors. pretty crazy.

the breath test went fine, and then i discovered that the pills i'm supposed to take contain lactose so i immediately went to harass the doctor. i don't need that shit again.
good heavens, i finally made it to the doctor and forgot to discuss getting my iron levels tested :/

it was fortunate that i went to see him, though, because i caught obama on osama while i waited.

campus: i almost stopped to donate blood, but they told me they'd prefer it if i had breakfast first. i thought of returning afterwards, but then remembered that i'm not feeling well so while it might be good for me, it might not necessarily be so for whoever receives my blood. i ran into bt when i went for breakfast - i don't think she recognized me :)

i read some more over breakfast, then headed upstairs to class and got caught in the passageway when the sirens sounded. i was distracted and annoyed because there were girls in my class who didn't stop talking loudly the entire time :@

i missed half the lecture because i simply didn't have the energy to follow. not good. i was going to copy someone's notes but a really annoying girl was busy with the copy machine, and her idea of "not long" is worlds away from mine. i gave up, and went to the graduate lecture on publishing articles.

it was fascinating.

it ended with an inspiring conversation with another student about studying in canadia, which was so interesting that the cookies i'd had my heart set on had disappeared from the table by the time we were done.

i went to visit wr, the only man i know who can get lost within the simplest of architecture. he's had my book for almost a year, still hasn't read it and can't seem to remember to bring it. no more lending him things.

i had a great, albeit expensive lunch (and continued reading), then went to (old) work. i met with the boss, then discovered that the test server was still down so i busied myself with other stuff. after an off-the-wall meeting with one of the clumsiest communicators i've struggled with (although at least he didn't stop trying), i sat with a co-worker who's so good with communication that a short time later he'd produced his first (dirty) ambient trance track. and it's decent. we have plans.

i had some trouble with flex, but worked through it and was most pleased that my changes held up in spite of their speculative nature - i couldn't find appropriate documentation anywhere :P

i tried working on my paper for thursday when i got home, but i was distracted. primarily by my throat, but the crappy movie pg watched didn't help at all. it was so bad that i couldn't keep my mouth shut - and then we discovered that i'd actually seen the ending once before.

pg called me a "looseless user" earlier. she has a thing for spoonerisms...

i eventually did the test i was dreading, and it's much easier the civilian way. the army made it terrible.

*ah*, the civilian life. i do so like it ^_^
*cough* *cough* *hack* *cough* *painful swallow*

---a dark matter primer: simply brilliant!

netless - part ii

[... continued]

dinner and musings with scrapper, botchman and eidetic at maker's. good sandwich. good evening.

---sunday:

i went to bed early but still had a hard time getting up. no class as such, just a screening of william carlos williams - interesting, but no howl.

pg and i had lunch together, discussing ways to celebrate wr's birthday this year :)

---my health insurance company. as mentioned before, the first communication i received from them was a threat of legal action. after a week of trying to get hold of someone who would actually talk to me, i gave the salesman a call.

he was annoyed that i didn't come to him first - his was not the number on the document i received. when he heard what i had to say, he seemed almost genuinely angry himself, and agreed with everything i'd said.

1. if you call from a blocked number and don't leave a message, it's as if you didn't call. you do NOT cross off "inform the client that he owes money" from your checklist.

2. if the bank doesn't grant a standing order and it takes more than a month for you to discover that - that's YOUR problem, not the client's.

some apparent (yeah, right) big-wig called to set things right and convince me not to cancel my account. at least i get a month "free" - because they're not charging an arm and a leg - but things weren't 100% by the end because my complaint concerned not having been treated as a human being and i'm not sure if the message got through.

there're only two strikes available, and if i get any more shit from them they're out. i hate been screwed with.

---nystire came over for a visit, and we talked all sorts of rubbish. after he left, i got some ugly work done (SVN troubles) and then left early to play frisbee on the beach with pg. because that's what we do. and she's good.

some woman walking along the beach interrupted our exercise to remark on the wonderful sunset. i agreed, and was then informed (hello, Miss Tact) that it was even more wonderful because she'd been reading psalms, and wouldn't i like to... then she noticed the look on my face, and hurried off apologetically.

psalms. when you don't want people to think, make them read shit they don't understand. read them into submission. better yet - have them read themselves into submission.

---we had frozen yoghurt instead of dinner - it was awesome. and there's now an app for loyalty cards (rewardy), so less wasted paper and less "shit, i left it at home". on the way, i explained to a guy who'd left his bike running outside that it's not so efficient - why does nobody know about this???

an evening of readings (hemingway), plus rum, marzipan, and wire-fu. no, not *that* wire-fu: making a fishing rod out of wire.

cool.

---today:

6.10am wake-up, and i got up realizing that through all the shit of the past ten months, i really have been landing with my bum in in butter. i'm dating a great girl, living in a great place, i finally have a decent job, i'm still loving my studies (enough to apply to be a TA next year) and party season's about to begin. it may not have been easy, but, to quote my otherwise misguided brother, when you're on a mission the universe does conspire to assist you.

i had a quick nap before getting ready for class, instant dreaming and intensive.
on the bus, i avoided eye-contact with an italian wearing a hat only to be accosted by botchman's friend and sucked in to a political debate about exporting water in the form of flowers and fruit. i was kinda grateful when the woman sitting on my right asked us to pipe down, and i returned to my readings.

i don't know who it is, and i'm beginning to suspect someone i'm fairly close to - figuratively - but every first class on mondays and thursdays has had a smelly entity and it's not okay. i'm considering moving away from the usual suspects because it's tough to concentrate when a moment of bad breath or BO strikes.

[continued...]