originally, i was just going to comment...

[copied and pasted from the comment i was intending]
nope, not even worth a post.

the date was pleasant, but a bit weird. it ended with a semi-make-out session that didn't really do it for me.
now i have to try not to be too much of a bastard when it comes to not continuing.

i'm trying on "i like you, but you're really not for me" for size.

and i keep thinking about an (i hear, from the mongoose, fantastically good-looking) english bird i'm going to meet on the weekend - she's looking for a clubbing partner. i'm game.

-- pause --

i just spoke to my mom for half an hour, mostly about leadership and my army experience. i was *REALLY* proud to learn, about an hour ago, that the scout succeeded in the project i gave him, and is extremely pleased with himself. this is all the more impressive because he didn't know a damn thing about this stuff until we taught him.

and the dog has managed to come up with an exceptionally good solution to a huge chunk of our problems. all i'm trying to do is teach him to focus, because when he does he really can carry his weight.

not only that, in general during the past couple of weeks i've worked with a lot of people - mostly going over to ask for help with things in their areas of expertise - and mostly ended up teaching them a thing or two and generally being appreciated.

it's not only nice to have grateful contacts, but i feel as if i'm doing something worthwhile and leaving a bit of a mark.

all this in spite of our commanders. we're going to walk away with good experience - the dog and the scout having learned tons, and me reinforcing valuable life lessons learned (up until now) only in theory.

in other news, one of the women who works with my mom is pregnant, and my mom found her struggling - recognized that she was experiencing contractions, and rushed her off to the hospital in time. my mommy the midwife :) the child was born a few hours later.

i'm feeling backwards

as quickly an update as possible:

wednesday night - the girl didn't rock up to the party. nobody did. it sucked PILES. at least i got a ride home.

thursday:

i was totally broken for the first half of the morning. i eventually scrambled and did some work, but got stuck on something very annoying just before going to get my weapon.

the weekend in general:

i was put on reserve for the weekend - so i had solid plans for sleeping. unfortunately the group from the courses sucked badly, and i didn't feel good at all in general. especially due to a serious argument with lactose. i finished the robert rankin book - great story, and i started on lolita, which is every bit as stunning as the mongoose described.

friday night some kid started whining and got sent off to the "city officer", which meant i had to take his shift. and a sucky shift it was. i then had to replace someone else last night, from 10pm - 2am. that was okay. i was then woken, roughly, at 6.20am to go off and guard bus shelters on a day when nobody uses them (it's holidays).

i suppose all in all it was a good enough weekend. oh, and i watched a beautiful mind a couple more times. nice. hard not to cry.

after my shift this morning, i snuck off before i could get told i was on alert. every moment i wasn't in my office i was carefully avoiding the guys responsible for us - fortunately by the time we returned our weapons they seemed to have forgotten about me.

aside: it was super weird using an uzi after the previous incident. i was fine, but very, very conscious of it at all times.

today:

that annoying problem was grating my nerves the entire weekend... so i was highly motivated when i returned to my office. after struggling with every possible combination, it turns out that jdbc DOESN'T SUPPORT certain oracle / java datatypes. WTF?!?! it took me ages to find a solution, after giving up and dismissing everything i found online - and the solution was so simple i was kicking myself the rest of the day. ironically, none of the online solutions were as elegant, and all i did was take advantage of an obvious built-in.

go me. and again: i hate oracle.

i'm also quite proud of myself: i gave the scout a side-project to do that i really wanted to do myself. even though it was hard for me, i found it most pleasing to watch him at work with it, and he looks to be succeeding. it's his first time using these languages, and i'm impressed :)

i just got home, am about to hit the shower and then bookworm's coming to pick me up for a date of sorts. maybe later will be an interesting post.

new t-shirt

for gamers everywhere:



all rights reserved. do with as you wish.

doggy-style

a tragic wake-up this morning - almost killed me. got to the base and immediately crashed. i woke up in time for lunch. it's nice being team-leader again.

just before lunch i spoke with the mongoose, who made a painful point. the only girls i've met this year have been through the lizard. that's just insane.

lunch was acceptable, straight afterwards i went through to the "city officer" for my dental appointment. i was out of there after 20 minutes, with another appointment to get fillings sorted out. i walked through - it drizzled on me - to SB's, where i had coffee and set up her cute new mp3 player.

i then met with mmf for amazing white-chocolate coffee, and we discussed some awesome ideas i've been having, and he seems to be sold. this might turn out quite nicely.

i then went back to the base, and worked with the dog until 8.45pm. and actually achieved quite a lot - the way things are going, when we actually begin building the system we're going to be enjoying ourselves. minus a couple of brick walls, which is why i decided to call it a day.

it was a good day, at that.

i'm now at the dog's, in about half an hour or so i'm off to the lizard - i blew off the bookworm because i hear that a supremely sexy girl, who i only know by sight, is interested in meeting me there. i hope she makes it. i could get used to this "dating" thing.

c-c-c-c...

cold. so very cold, that it's difficult for me to type. it's also very late, and i have to be up early, so it's gonna be brief.

great breakfast at the dog's, awesome shower (hot shower on a cold day), and took a taxi home. worked a few hours, got it looking rather nice. then walked to the lincoln, met up with firefighter and freshmeat, and then went to the lizard.

bookworm (this girl i've been referring to recently) met me outside the lizard. she's cute enough. we went to a nice bar, had a couple of drinks, and talked a LOT for two hours. she's definitely cool enough, and smart enough, so i think i'll go for it. kind of toned down after the last girl though... bottom line: it's all good.

went to the lizard, sat down for a few minutes, and then mmf rocked up. been AGES (many months) since i saw him. i introduced him to the mongoose, we took a look into the party, and then went off to the coffee shop for an hour or so, discussing all sorts of things, and then some business. i pitched him a couple of ideas, and he's gone off to think about it.

i just got home, and am now finishing a lollipop before brushing my teeth and going to bed. i don't know how i'm going to wake up in the morning.

oh, alright then

we began the evening with coffee, and then moved on to baked goods. we took a walk through florentin (all this in search of a good bar), and finally ended up at the awesome bar that SB took me to on our first date.

500ml guiness later, and we found ourselves at our favourite coffee shop. spent about an hour ogling the gorgeous waitresses, about fifteen minutes messing with their heads (with amusing results), and then went on to a well-known but seedy pool bar cum restaurant.

we were served by a girl who was simply a phenomenon on two gorgeous legs. i'm still pining, and her telling me that there are other girls didn't really help.

a whiskey and another guiness later, crasher having joined us fairly early on, we left - and ran into magist and two girl-friends of his, who joined us. and our welfare officer, who didn't. we walked to the balcony, which for three of us was rocking, and for the remainder was definitely not. after a beer and some really silly discussions, the girls decided that they couldn't take it any more and we were forced to move on.

i think now is appropriate to mention that one of the girls - most definitely shaggable - spent the entire morning playing both me and the dog. as if we wouldn't notice. i suspect that nothing will come from this, but we've agreed on first come, only served.

we went back to that first bar, and sat down to relax and listen to good music. we left when we got given seriously bad attitude from the waitress (who'd previously been most pleasant), when she realized that we weren't interested in paying a minimum of NIS 40 each. sods.

we somehow got back to our favourite coffee shop, where the coffee was acceptable, the music was great, and the company pleasant - and at 5 / 6am returned home.

not exactly the greatest of nights, but not bad.

sleepy, but pleasantly so

we were prevented from working this morning by a lack of communication infrastructure, so i slept a couple of hours extra in the office.

i had a major fight with the xmldom, and only learned upon leaving that i was using it all wrong. i wouldn't have been using it incorrectly if we had internet access from our office so that i could ******* CHECK online.

and the dog and i had a fight about his "time-wasting" superpower. i was a bit worried by how intense it got, but it seems to have been dissolved. it got me to come up with a solution to a problem that the mongoose and the dog have been having for months with excel files. don't ask how.

no, really. not even as a joke. it will upset me. stop thinking about doing it. i'm not going to respond if you do. i'll delete your posts. and then send horrible viruses to your pc. and your mum. and i don't actually find your mum that attractive. in fact... well, let's not go there.

the two of us did our monthly shopping, came back to his gran's, ate an amazing canneloni lunch, had a beer, and i've been napping since.

i woke up with a call from the previously mentioned girl - i was half-asleep and didn't once have to say "could you say that in english?", so i'm impressed with myself. we talked arbitrarily for 20 minutes, which was a bit awkward because i don't know how attractive i find her... i'll find out on wednesday, it seems. we're going to a concert.

the dog and i are on our way out, to do some drinking and chilling, and then some heavy partying. i'm rather keen!

smiling moon spitting down

the walk to the lincoln was amazing. it was drizzling just a bit, with a cool breeze gusting. it was just getting dark, and altogether tel aviv was simply beautiful.

knowing how the weather was outside made the lincoln cooler than usual. i played some awesome pool, had a fantastic butterscotch milkshake, and then walked home with the moon shining brightly down.

nice.

i've thoroughly enjoyed the syndicate missions i've been playing, just had a chat with my mum, and am now showering and going to sleep.

my day and the weather exhibit congruity

autumn's here! and the weather she be fine, fine, fine.

i was fine this morning. all good. two thumbs up and all that. i learned how to do something crucial to our new project - very AJAX like, lunch was good, and i spent the afternoon dealing with JSP. a bit complicated to get set up, but we did it, and we learned stuff^TM.

including something very important, that we were told wasn't possible. it seems that the rest of unit that uses JSP (most of the unit) doesn't produce output in real time, but saves it in strings for later publishing... because they don't know about the out class.

that's just absurd. as soon as everyone's back from the holidays i'm going to check that out (eh, bad pun), 'cause it's rediculous that something so simple and basic has been overlooked by so many hundreds of people.

i got that phone number on my way out of the base, so i'll give her a call tomorrow and see what's happening...

just arbing now, gonna play some pool later on, then crash in preparation for a nothing day tomorrow. w00t!

a doozy!

at least, i think that's the word i'm looking for...

didn't go out last night, so slept like a log until roughly 10am. i spent the morning / early afternoon working (and actually completing quite a few important things), and playing oodles of addictive and compelling syndicate. i'm more taken with it than i was when i first played it (maybe i was too young to fully appreciate it), and i actually enjoy it more without using the cheat. which i haven't. at all.

i'm well impressed with myself, at any rate.

and i still haven't tired of watching people walking around on fire and screaming intermittently.

the mongoose and his sister picked me up, and we went through to a t-shirt bazaar / festival thing. there were some VERY weird people there. VERY. and some very appealing girls. VERY.

oh, yeah - there were some cool t-shirts.

we then took a walk to the place i sat at on friday night, and had belgian waffles. i had banana / coconut this time... i was extremely satisfied.

we walked back - including a stick fight - and then drove through to the mongoose's place. i spent the evening watching tv, and playing chicken invaders 2, and then we got a ride to the lizard.

the party at the lizard was KICKING. i'm SERIOUSLY unhappy about leaving early. great music, great vibe, and the girls were fantastic. i was quite enjoying dancing with one in particular when i realized the time... at least i can get her number without too much hassle...

i'm about to shave and shower, and then it's bedtime. luckily today's one of those days in the army that nobody really takes seriously, and then it's vacation for two days. g'nite.

the return of power

yes, yes... tank's song IS playing in the background. but i feel re-energized, locked and loaded, ready to paaaaaaaaaaaarty!!

i began my day with ben and jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice-cream. i'm lactose intollerant, and i have sinusitis, but no-one, and NOTHING, is going to stop me.

the day was most pleasant. similar to capetonian spring. i walked to point A, where i was meant to meet up with the girl who has my post... but she'd forgotten it. so i continued my walk to SB's, and spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping in a hammock on her balcony, reading, and coffee-ing with her and a friend of hers. it was a VERY nice day.

i walked to the dog's grandmother's, got some phone numbers for use when he's stupidly forgotten his charger and is uncontactable, and then took a slow walk back.

very slow. it included stopping for belgian waffles (apple and cinnamon, and banana) while reading and chilling on ibn gvirol. i felt very, very j'ush. suave, sophisticated, cool, snobbish. a toff, basically.

the rest of the walk home was pleasant enough. i sat down to some syndicate, which is MUCH cooler without cheating - cue fond memories of cheating as a kid - and i pulled out some serious whip-ass. i love every second.

i've been arbing internet-wise for the last hour or so, and have decided that i'm going to continue syndicate-ing until i go out for some fun. no work tonight. uh-uh. no bloody way!

robert rankin, ruben rybnik, make for a good end-of-week

two days ago:

i miraculously got up early enough to make the bank. sorted stuff out. in spite of horrible people who can't figure out how a queue works. i finally put some money away in a savings account - i don't really think it'll make much difference though, at 1% - and drew my salary.

the mongoose came over, did some work, and then we went to the comic book store. on a whim, i did a rescan of the place... and i found some 2000AD stuff!

w00t!!!

so i now have judge dredd - goodnight kiss, and rogue trooper - fort neuro. and i am *CHUFFED*.

we went through to the mongoose's, and spent the afternoon chilling. supper was amazing, and then the (semi-)fast began. semi because we cheated a little... i crashed for a bit, and the mongoose dragged me out of bed around 10pm (and i REALLY needed sleep) to walk through to bat-yam.

we spent a couple of hours with a friend of his, on an EXTREMELY empty main thoroughfare, chilling and talking and smoking and munching and drinking (damn, not very good at fasting!), before shuffling back (all exhausted) and going to sleep.

yesterday:

i woke up around 1.30pm, and spent the afternoon finishing blood of the fold (hence the ruben rybnik reference), and getting my ass kicked in backgammon by the mongoose's sister.

the breaking of the fast was fan-bloody-tastic. i had a sample of each type of foodstuff, and ended up completely stuffed. and it was all great food.

watched a silly jennifer lopez movie with one eye while reading the first couple of identity comics - great bloody series that.

another friend of the mongoose's gave us a ride to the lizard, and after a few greetings i walked to the lincoln to meet up with firefighter and freshmeat. they were playing snooker - doesn't blow my hair back at all.

amusingly enough, our team leader was there - refused to play me on the grounds that he doesn't like losing - and scout rocked up with a couple of friends. scout and his friends joined us for a couple of doubles games (pool balls on a snooker table, not cool), and shortly after freshmeat gave me a ride home.

today:

by which point i was completely exhausted. i woke up about 1.5 hours ago, have done some internet arbing, and reading of the witches of chiswick (which my mom assures me is pronounced chissick. damn brits. i'm off to do stuff^TM, so i have to leave a quote i'm taken with... robert rankin is a king.

'... But God has never really been what you'd call a forward planner. He gets stuff started, then He sort of loses interest and goes off with one foot in the air and one hand behind His back and does something else.'
'Why with one foot in the air and one hand behind His back?'
'He moves in mysterious ways,' said Barry. 'I thought everyone knew that.'

4.41. and i was SO wrong.

i can't believe i'm still awake. firefighter and the dog left my place a short while ago, and i couldn't help playing one more syndicate mission. and i've finally finished archiving my blog (notice all the 2004 entries have been moved).

i was on my way to shower and crash, when the dog called to tell me the two of them had arrived at the coffee shop next door, and had already ordered me cappuchino. can't argue with that. we sat and talked for an hour or so, then came back to my place for LOTS of tekken, little bits of programming, and syndicate.

NOW i'm going to shower, and crash for a couple of hours. today's going to be harder than i thought.

woozy, as usual

long day.

getting up and ready was traumatizing this morning. specifically because i once again got the days confused, and so over-prepared... and then missed the bus.

stopped off at my base to pick up some things, got to the emg appointment right on time.

emg: hours of being shocked with 100mA in EXTREMELY sensitive places, then being stabbed with oversized needles in extremely sensitive muscles and told to flex them. i ended up bloody and sore.

they ended up with bent needles.

i got the result after about 20 minutes: being a soldier is the only time where the last thing you want to hear is that you're okay. my results all came out as "normal".

except the alien hand thing. the nerves in my right hand kept alternating their responses, between normal and what-the-fuck. that cost me an extra half-hour of experiments - which they eventually gave up on.

got back to the base, and had a really interesting heart-to-heart with the gorgeous girl in the prefab next to ours. her boyfriend cheated on her, and she wasn't sure if she was right deciding to end their relationship (and it's only a couple of months, too). so hopefully i've convinced her that she's correct... now i have to wait a bit, 'cause i want to move in but i don't want to be the rebound.

problem is, is that we're already fairly intimate - so i have no idea how to cool things down without cooling them down. dammit.

spent the rest of the afternoon honouring the scout's new rank (we're all the same rank again), and giving a farewell to a great guy who's just left the mongoose's section. funny thing that - stories came out in front of our previous branch commander that REALLY shouldn't have... he's going to be in deep shit when he's called back for reserve duty (the branch commander has no sense of humour).

i'm most upset that winter's arriving. and quickly. the sun set around 17.30...

i went straight to work, to give them a form to sign so i can continue working there, and got a ride to my boss' place. had coffee, gave him a form too, and learned how much pressure we have to be ready for second-stage beta. oh, well.

caught the second bus to tel aviv - the first drove straight past us. the second bus was filled with people complaining about that. and the guy had passengers... the bastard.

got to the dog's place - we'd agreed to do coffee when i got back - to find out he was at the lincoln. i'm not, and wasn't, in the mood, so i came straight home. i'm about to try out the original syndicate on my pc, then shower, then either make an attempt at working or go to bed.

more is nog 'n dag, ek sê.

outrageous -> outrageously sad -> just plain fun

saturday evening:

went to the dog's, dropped off my gear and played syndicate off the original cd. *MY* original cd! the bastard!

we bussed to the lincoln, played GREAT pool for an hour. that amazing waitress was being super-friendly. and she's STILL never been our waitress. i guess that's a good sign. i never find a good opportunity to hit on her though... after we played we sat down at the bar for a while, and i was exhausted. much silliness ensued, and then we farked off to the lizard.

sunday:

the party at the lizard was cool. the crowd was a bit young, but it was fun nonetheless. i was on the dancefloor most of the night. the mongoose has been promoted to manager, and now that he's responsible there're no more free drinks - but the owner did tell me to come to the post-yom kippur party, so he's obviously not phased that i never pay to get in (well, for myself, at least).

near the end of the party a guy who'd been drinking heavily (and generally stumbling around) fainted. what creeped us all out was that he fainted with his eyes open. the mongoose asked me for advice, and i explained that while i can deal with drug problems, i'm clueless as far as alcohol is concerned...

we got a ride to the dog's, where we spent a few hours drinking coffee / playing syndicate / reading / showering / getting ready for the trip, and then took a bus to the base. we made it *just* in time. i was wearing my overalls and a vest that showed off my tattoo - elicited some interesting comments, and our section commander was most suspicious of my getting inked during my service.

an incredulous "what?! you've never seen it before??" seemed to work.
the mongoose and i got sent off to fill huge containers with ice and water. we got caught having an ice fight next to the ice-machine, which was rather embarrassing. but the fight was fun ;)

got to the buses, only to discover that our systems had crashed - i then had to RUN back to our office to fix it. fortunately it didn't take too long, but it was frustrating.

the first leg of the trip was alright - read and slept. when i got off the bus my nose and throat were dry as hell, and it took a bit of spitting to return to "okay". i thought it was because of the airconditioner.

we then went on a long hike, with many amusing moments. i also got badly sunburned. including my tattoo. that was not a good demonstration of foresight. i got to carry an m16 for the first time since basics, which was actually quite nice.

a good lunch, a long bus ride, and we arrived at the jordan river for kayaking. my nose and throat were at it again, so i went to the bathroom to sort that out. i was busy making some disgusting noises, when i heard the dog call my name. when i answered, he screamed: "what the HELL are you doing in the women's bathroom?!"

whoops.

we were some of the last people to leave dry land. i was with the mongoose's section's new kid - freshmeat - and the dog was with the officer i keep rollerblading with (shorty) .

general: i was surprised at how well i coped with paddling. my arms are much stronger than i anticipated, and i paddled hard the entire extent of the course. and it was one hell of a long course. i also proved fairly skilled with manoeuvering :) throughout the course, we kept coming upon masses (5-10 rubber-dingy things / kayaks) engaged in combat - splashing each other (and passer's by) and bumping / blocking / attempting to overturn anyone in sight. a few times we just hung our feet over into the water, and relaxed, but that only ever lasted a half-minute or so... we simply stormed our way through the course!

first contact: we caught up to the dog and shorty quite quickly, bumped them into the side of the river and sped on. they were not amused.

betrayal: the dog and shorty snuck up on us from behind, and the dog launched himself into the water and attempted to get onto the kayak. we wrestled and fought for ages, and we were both commited - it was quite brutal. after a few minutes the dog went around and came up on freshmeat's side, at which point i took both our oars and jumped over to shorty's kayak. we fled, leaving them without a paddle, but weren't fast enough for the dog swimming, and he caught up. i went back to my kayak with our paddles - freshmeat was quite upset :D

rapids: we went over smoothly and easily, and so craved more. we saw the mongoose's crew walking their dingy-thing to do it again, and we wanted to as well! we successfully paddled upstream, but were blocked by an official and had to continue :(

boarded: one of the guys from our prefab was swimming around harrassing people, and we invited him to join us (his crew had long gone :P), which led to many amusing encounters. three people on a two-person kayak was fun!

sumo: the highlight of the trip. we passed a dingy-thing with the mathematician kid (sumo) who used to be in our team. so we paddled up, and i jumped over to throw him off. i'd just begun wrestling with him when another crew member jumped over from the other side to assist. for a while i held my own against the two of them, but it then became apparent that they were succeeding in throwing me off.

good thing i looked before jumping back to the kayak, because the two bastards had paddled away and were watching with great amusement from a distance. so i did the only thing that came to mind. i grabbed sumo by his life-jacket, and as i fell overboard i THREW him clear over my head into the water. now, i've seen shit like that in the movies, and always wondered what it would feel like to actually do it. and let me tell you, with authority, that it feels frikkin' AWESOME. it's like the whole world is tilting in slow-motion, and my momentum assisted me in the throw. he just sailed over my head, and i heard the splash before i hit the water.

that's a memory that'll last a lifetime ^#^

in retrospect, it was rather dangerous - i had no idea the depth of the water, and there could have been rocks. so i'm REALLY grateful that all that happened was the two of us getting soaked. i didn't realize sumo couldn't swim (:$), so i gave him a lift back to his dingy-thing, boosted him up, and then returned to our kayak.

we finished the course, and returned to some great munchies, then changed into dry clothes and hopped on the bus, on our way to the soldier's hostel.

it's a nice hostel. why did WE get the mouldy shower? that really sucked. spent a couple of hours amusing ourselves playing pool, eating dinner, and running around the mall being silly. i'll publish all photos as i get them, and there are some BRILLIANT ones.

i got to carry the shortened m16 for a bit, and it was a PLEASURE. i checked it out, it's not actually the m4a1, it's an israeli modification to the m16a1 that looks almost identical. i repeat, such a pleasure :)

we all showered (not a great shower) and went to the party. really nice venue, but the dj sucked ASS. he was horrible. but we WERE at a party for OUR branch, so we couldn't not try, and most of the party was actually a lot of fun. danced a lot (got hit on a bit), but then started feeling totally shite - the dry nose and throat was a precursor to a serious sinus infection, which i'm still struggling with.

today:

i left the party around 12 - 12:30, had a quick cold shower and put myself to bed before fainting. i slept REALLY badly, and waking up was hell. disturbed the others getting up, too. had a real shower, dressed and packed, and went down to the buses.

breakfast was served before the first hike, which i declined to join on the grounds that it was wading hip-deep in water, and my sinuses, nose and throat were KILLING me. so i stayed behind and caught up on some sleep. did me good.

we then went off to a beach near tiberius, which was super chilled. relaxed on beach chairs talking the whole time. our section commander joined us at one stage, and we had a long (and for him, unpleasant) discussion, before becoming civilized and talking like human beings. it turned out quite pleasant, actually.

calculated risk: another highlight. i saw freshmeat and the mongoose sitting on chairs in the water, throwing pebbles. so i snuck up behind the mongoose - freshmeat didn't hint that he'd seen me - and saw from close that they were sitting about a metre into the water. so i pulled up a way-too-convenient chair, quietly place it in the water behind the mongoose's, made sure it was secure, and stood on it to tip his forward. i would have taken off my shoes and socks, but my window of opportunity was closing.

i wish i'd had a video camera.

standing on the chair, i leaned forward and pushed his chair up, but without enough force. his chair moved, he turned around, and said "what are you doing?? leave me alone!". he turned back, and i then made a serious effort.

unfortunately, my chair slowly tipped forward, which resulted in me standing knee-high in the water on the back of the chair. "DAMMIT!"

i convinced one of the guys from our branch to give me a piggy-back ride (i'd taken off my shoes and socks, OBVIOUSLY) to the buses when we left, which caused much amusement. i'm still amazed that he managed - i weigh about 10kg's more than him!

the bus ride home was hysterical. plenty of raucous singing and bad jokes, and we really were unruly. unfortunately, i picked on the other south african, and he took it seriously - a bit of a downer. and i didn't leave myself a way out that would seem sincere, so i'm gonna have to go apologize to him tomorrow morning.

after getting dropped off at the base, i went with the dog for coffee near his place. cute waitress, seemed interested in me so i left a hint when signing the bill for her to use my phone number...

bussed back, the laundry has just finished, and then i'm going to shower and crash. it was a long, long weekend - but absolutely terrific! and made me take an hour to type this all in!

-- addition --

there was a problem during posting, and i only JUST discovered (20 minutes later) that the full post was saved. when i clicked back and recovered the post, i only got the first bit, so here's how i resumed:

we then went on a long hike, with FUCKING HELL I JUST LOST THE REST OF THIS POST AND IT TOOK ME A BLOODY HOUR TO WRITE THE REST OF IT AND I FORGOT TO FUCKING SAVE IT BEFORE PRESSING PUBLISH me demonstrating incredible lack of foresight...

who knows?

what the future? will bring?

spent the afternoon reading, GREAT book. i've now done some serious (and most efficient) packing, and am off blog-duty for the next two days.

*everything goes dark*

...cushioned... is the music still playing?

my ears register nothing but a dull moan, my mind and body have slowed down to a crawl, i'm ready to shower and crash.

i actually tried posting earlier, but the dog's grandmother's machine made sure to cancel everything i wrote. i HATE second posts.

yesterday:

overall weather / atmosphere: stunning. a perfect summer -> autumn day.

i woke up early, drank coffee, put on my uniform, and got a ride to afula. the bus to tel aviv was practically empty, and i comfortably read and rested the journey away. i bought my favourite israeli children's book (lake [my first girlfriend here] introduced me to it) at azrieli, then got a call from the mongoose to meet him at the lincoln. so i hopped on a bus and got there.

we had humus for lunch. really cute waitress, i couldn't help but flirt. i felt like a bit of an idiot when we left for not having at least asked her number - and she was flirting back. i'm such an idiot sometimes. oh, and the humus was AWESOME.
i then found out she's a bit of a celebrity. what is it with me and celebrity types? and what the hell is she doing waitressing?

we took a slow, pleasant stroll through ibn gvirol. THAT's the way to spend a nothing afternoon :)
we found an incredible little bookshop near the dog's place - tiny, filled with all manner of brilliant english books, and run by an ex-irish philosopher. it was an interesting while that we spent there. i bought lolita, and robert rankin - the witches of chiswick, for practically nothing. i've *JUST* started on the rankin book, because i left blood of the fold at the dog's... the language itself is most amusing. so far, so good.

i came home, really appreciating the afternoon, did some laundry and some work, and then showered, dressed, and caught the last bus to herzeliya... and i didn't have to pay for it! but only because the driver was being a nice guy. i really need a "fighter's certificate" so i can travel free without depending on generosity.

i stopped by the boss. i got an interesting check: half of my hospital project fee in advance, plus 4 hours at NIS 20 per hour for the university project. now fair's fair, not giving me a salary when the university project's almost over, but 20?!?! for helpdesk support i get 36!!

so i have a check for about 3 grand, instead of 5.5. that kinda blows a hole in my plans.

supper at the cousins was grand. the couple i stayed with in london are here to sort out an apartment, which we went to see. now, understand that i grew up in a fantastic house - 5 huge floors on the side of the mountain. so when i say that this apartment was STUNNING, take it as fact. huge, stylish, and with a view of most of tel aviv. that's a city away. bloody amazing.

i got a ride to the marina, where i met up with the dog and a friend of his (magist, he's the guy who has the job *I* wanted... running around all day with a machine gun). we chilled for a bit, ran into an old friend of mine from ra'anana (she invited me to her house, and the guys were upset with me for refusing. she's not my type!), and then got taken for a ride by a sneaky taxi driver to get to the dog's place.

today:

had coffee, then walked to the maimad. and DAMN, but the party there was good tonight. fantastic music, we were joined by crasher and some friends of his, and i just went crazy until 5am. at one point this incredibly sexy, cute, hot, beautiful, all-of-the-above girl was dancing next to me, and she had these two long, umm, things hanging off the back of her dress (i'm guessing it was to tie the dress with). so i caught them and tied them to myself, with amusing results.

she seemed to enjoy herself, and a bit later on (after i'd released her back into the wild), i asked if i could steal her number. she gave me a mischievous look, and said "you're really cute! but no."

dammit.

anyway, crasher wasn't in a good state to drive, so i did the honours. i dropped one of his friends at home, and then myself, and am now off to do as i said. i can't get the gorgeous girl out of my head. buggrit.

today was just... today.

i was on my way to my base, when i decided it would be silly to go there and then go back to the "city officer", when i was already passing the place. so i went to have my stitches removed.

the same guy removed them - he'd tied them too tightly, so he had to cut (without anaesthetic, with a very sharp knife) them out. he had a different assistant, and she didn't expect my sense of humour and attitude from before. so when he cut, i didn't move, and i didn't make a sound... but she got VERY upset when she saw the tears coming out my eyes.

and then got MORE upset when the dentist and i started making jokes about it. i wish this guy wasn't permanent force - when i'm discharged i want him to be my personal dentist. i'm getting more comfortable with the tooth, and my lips are doing alright ^#^ (i still like the smiley, suck it up).

i spent the morning looking for witnesses to sign the report - and found the guy who's gun had been involved. the dude was STILL apologizing... i took advantage of that and got him to agree to the stupid story we'd concocted, so it seems i'm all secure.

having said that, i heard a TERRIBLE story of a girl who, during the holidays, left her guard duty (not during a shift, during the "on alert" period from which girls are exempt) to go to a party. and some bastard called the officers in charge *from the party* to rat on her.

DAMN.

that shit's not supposed to happen anywhere, and ESPECIALLY not in the army. that's a seriously diseased mind.

finally figured out what our project is, and it's basically reproducing our system, as closely as possible, in JSP. all that means is that i learn the syntax of JSP as opposed to ASP. which boils down to "nothing special". oh well. at least i'll have another acronym to add to my cv.

the dog and i left early, and took the same bus. i got off just before afula, got a couple of buses to arrive at the kibbutz, and have had a chilled evening. with french toast. REAL french toast. with cinnamon and sugar - which is NEVER used in israel. w00t!!

i just spoke to yogi on the phone for 45 minutes - i have no idea what we discussed. i'm not good with telephones. i'm going to shower now, go to bed (or watch harry potter 3 first), and then early morning i'm off to tel aviv. it's such a short visit, but so nice to catch up with the family!

wasted again

i'm so foolish. but that's alright... innit?

went to the relatives in modi'in / jerusalem for lunch. it was AMAZING food. a serious braai. very chilled afternoon. she was looking sexy as hell. but i did have occasion to remember why we broke up in the first place... silly, silly arguments.

once back, i spent the afternoon / evening reading, and backing up (unsuccessfully, i don't know why) and cleaning my pc. didn't do anything of value. went with an old friend and the dog to play pool, just got back now. strange, but my lip's looking all icky, and tonight the absolutely amazing waitress kept smiling at me and stopping to chat. i don't get it. maybe it's like the original crash, and she has a thing for injuries...

the old friend - crasher (we all have memories of a terrible pointless car accident with him years ago) - and i were seriously talking about finding an apartment in tel aviv together. sounds like a plan.

i'm gonna shower, shave, and drop off to sleep - busy day tomorrow. i've decided i'm going to our base first to "check in" before going to get the stitches removed. maybe breakfast with SB? i hope so.

erg-lee

my word. party was KICKING. it sucked that most of the time i was dancing with my hands over my mouth to protect me from further injury.

and i gave in to the cigarettes, but to be fair, i WAS at a party. and they tasted disgusting. but they picked up my mood, and quickly. damn dependency.

due to my current speech impediment, i tried hitting on a girl by typing what i wanted to say on my phone. with hilarious (but rather unsuccessful) results. there were a LOT of sexy girls.

i'm gonna shower, then gonna sleep. i reckon i've got about 6 hours coming my way before i go off with the relatives to jerusalem.

-- added: right, forgot about the title. erg-lee, 'cuz that's how i'm feeling right now. --

inspiring

PostSecret kicks ASS.

still haven't smoked. still want to. going to bed for a few hours, then deciding whether or not to go to a promising party...

note to self:

DON'T get peanut butter in an open wound. okay, it's only slightly open, but still... i've been SO uncoordinated the last few days. i must be sick.

first things first - if i'd been more able, i would've checked my mail yesterday [translated]:

subject: the photos from the (central army base)... dental clinic

(my real name)! hi this is (the sweet girl's name) the assistant from the dental clinic. i've sent you the photos as i promised! have a good and sweet new year! happy holidays, and take care of yourself and take care not to break more teeth! because i don't have the energy, and neither does the dentist, to sit another 2 hours building you another new one! (lolololol)

feel better ;)

cute :) here're the photos (i look at these and feel like forrest gump's bubba):





if anyone can fix the lighting in the first photo - here's the original. it would be nice if it was possible to see the broken tooth in all it's glory, and the gory bits being stitched...

and PLEASE notice that the new tooth (the right incisor - MY right NOT yours) is less wonky than the natural one.

i tried installing vb6 today - the guy who did me the "favour" of burning the installs to disk somehow managed to cock it up, and no matter what i did, it just refused to continue installing. even when it HAD the damn files.

all he had to do was save the files to cd. nothing more, nothing less.

i think tomorrow might be complicated - i've accepted an invitation to go to my relatives in jerusalem, and i can't remember if i was invited to the mongoose's family at the same time.

so basically i slept the whole day. and it's damn near two days without smoking.

dull throbbing

supper was amazing, but the best part was crashing on the couch. the food was great, AND i managed to eat without too many problems.

her father kept cracking jokes about my accident, her mom was most upset (she was a colonel up until january) that i was "playing with a weapon" (although i believe that's not quite the way the phrase is generally understood).

two realizations:

1) it's possible that i've been this exhausted for so long because i'm sick, and haven't been taking care of myself. of course, being this exhausted makes it kind of hard to tell. and i've been getting used to being tired all the time.

2) my chin is painfully bruised - didn't notice until my lips began feeling better.
big parties tonight - i'm going to bed.

i haven't had a cigarette in 27 hours. i'm already noticing the smell of the ashtray. i got another few days to go before i can smoke again... and i'm hoping i'll be able to keep it together and quit.

*crash*

i hate hallmark

actually, i really hate whoever came up with greeting cards. i bought three, one for each section of the family that'll be at the jewish new year's "do" tonight. not only have i nothing to write, aside from complete rubbish of course, but i really do find it awkward to hand out cards as if they're some kind of prize.

it feels stupid. and i'm sure i'm reading too much into it.

today was a bit difficult. from waking up with my face covered in blood... taking an HOUR just to shave and shower this morning... having odd jobs to do on base, when practically nobody's there... trying desperately not to laugh at the jokes about the incident...

i did sleep a bit, though. and i had a meeting with the med supplies contact, which went well.

i came home and crashed, after eating whatever i could that doesn't have colour (banana? couscous? pita?). in ten minutes her father's picking me up for the "do". i look like shit, feel like shit, and don't know what to do about the cards.

sucked metal

my clocks are right, so i only slept two hours before going to the base. i was seriously agitated, short-fused, and con-fused.

i spent the morning struggling with java awt images. we were informed by our team leader that our project isn't going to be awt, it's going to be web. which completely defeats the purpose of the project. i'm totally sick of working for incompetents.

i replaced scout's "on alert" yesterday so that he could leave early. i prepared a bit for a meeting i was to have later, slept a half hour or so, then went to return the weapon. one of the guys forgot to bring the walkie-talkie, so we were laughing at him and telling him to go - otherwise nobody leaves. i told him i'd carry him, and when he called my bluff i tried anyway. all in good fun.

i couldn't carry him. unfortunately, by quickly shifting his weight (and forgetting he's armed) i managed to get hit in the face, hard, with a "tamak" uzzi (not a personal dinky toy). my mouth exploded with pain, blood flying everywhere, and half an incisor disappeared.

it bled a LOT more than i'd expect. my lips were ripped and i cannot express how shocked and upset i was about the state of my smile.

i went to the clinic, who sent me off to the "city officer"'s dentist rooms. the people on the bus looked in every direction but mine...

i got an appointment, and was waiting when the first-aid room became available. some guy went in, and assured me it was only for a minute. i hate it when people do that.

he came out an hour later.

during the administration of anaesthetic, "comfortably numb" was playing on the radio. i got three stitches, and my tooth looks almost identical to the original. i wanted a photo during the stitching, but i think it came out badly. i'm waiting for that to get sent to me.

the whole procedure took two hours, and then i had to give an official story - and try not to get anyone, including myself, in shit. that was more complicated than it should have been.

i joined the dog, firefighter, and one other at the lincoln. i couldn't smoke, drink, or eat... so that really sucked. i was also completely wiped out. i ended up have fries for supper, and then waited AGES for the bus - i was literally falling over i was so tired. crashed well when i got home, though.

brushing my teeth is HARD. so is the general morning procedure. and i just wanna go back to bed.

the return of lipgirl

and her fantastic friend. i actually had to search my blog to find a reference to her so i could remember what i called her - and it took me three tries. i find it weird that i've barely used the word party on my blog.

the mongoose called me, to tell me to call his friend and tell her to fetch me, and then go with her for coffee. that was a bit odd. she picked me up, and we went for coffee. then we strolled to the lizard, where the party was AWESOME.

we were dancing, and someone poked me. i turned around, and was looking at lipgirl! "how strange," i said to myself, "i sms'ed her last night and she never responded". turned out that she and her friend had come to the lizard just to see me.

sweet ^_^

i showed them my tattoo, and her friend suddenly recognized me from last week's party. i'd THOUGHT i knew her from somewhere... we spent the rest of the night dancing away, and it was all great fun, and very amusing.

and the two of them are dead sexy when they dance together. i decided i'd take home either of them... or both. i'd be happy no matter which.

they gave me a ride home... and then continued on to rishon le'zion (how sad for me)... and we may do something during the week.

i feel good about how tonight went.

please notice the time i'm posting. is now a good time to be going to bed? when i have to wake up at 6.30am and get in uniform?

slow motion sideline

my head's a bit fuzzy - it's been a weird day. i hope i'm not getting sick or something.

the day itself was fantastic - the weather was *just* right. i had a mango this morning that i bought a week ago when it was still too hard... and today it was, also, *just* right. first thing in the morning covered in, and dripping, delicious mango bits is DEFINITELY the way to go.

i arbed, reading and catching up webwise, for most of the day. in between i cleaned my apartment - so now i can walk comfortably barefoot again. i've become stupid the past couple of days. i'm assuming it's the deranged sleeping habits, but you know you have a problem when you tell yourself "careful, you're about to do something really dumb", and then do it anyway. case in point: dropping flaky rice cakes on my newly cleaned floor, immediately after noticing that the cables of the wachine machine were periliously close to the bowl that contained them... and continuing to move said washing machine.

dammit.

i did get a bit of work done - then crashed completely and am now going out for supper. i played some counterstrike while waiting for the hot water cylinder to heat up, and got totally destroyed by ze germans. right. suppertime.

i - am - VERY - DISAPPOINTED!

ok, maybe not as much as mr. zerg was, but still...

it took me about an hour to get to work - including the use of a bus for merely a single stop. that sucked, 'cause i was hoping to get a NICE bus driver who'd accept my soldier's id card without the fighter's certificate... i have to get that sorted out. i know it's scaly, but it's not fair.

work was alright. we watched the 40 year old virgin, which is a VERY amusing movie.

i walked through to the center of tel aviv - failing attempts to get in touch with people from the area, and i'd gotten to rabin square when the mongoose called me to tell me that the lizard was having a doof party. tired as i was, my excitement for another good trance party carried me a looooong walk to the other side of the city.

the mongoose hadn't left his house by the time i arrived - and it definitely WASN'T a doof party. the music was alright, but as far from trance as it gets, and not the type of people i was expecting. quite a lot of talent, but i'm not in the right headspace for that right now. so i walked home.

i'm bombed, and disappointed. i'm going to bed.

i am EXHAUSTED. no ways i'm going to work before going to work :P

i've been using limewire for the last couple of months... and have just experienced emule. i'm uninstalling limewire as i speak. i feel i've been jipped!

anger management

the first shift ended at 9pm, but the mongoose crashed his car so the plans got all screwed up. ended up sitting and chatting with the guys, then watching igby goes down. great film.

the second shift saw me at the first phone, and i was inconvenienced by a number of calls. it was a weird group, too. unfortunately, the last call i took was an abusive caller, who caught me totally off-guard and unprepared. i didn't have enough information at my disposal, and we're not allowed to be anything less than polite. and he was *just* not aggressive enough, in my opinion, to warrant disconnecting the call.

he seriously aggravated me, first by telling me i should maybe look for another job, then by constantly making cracks about me being a siberian. i hate stupid people. i hate stupid people even more when they're arrogant and offensive.

got some time to calm down, and played heli-attack 3 on miniclip. a change of style, and far improved.

i had to walk home, and so had plenty of time to contemplate. my attention has been riveted by the incident yesterday when being released. in fact, the girl in question showed me her arm today, and the marks are not only there, they've turned blue.

i am RAGING that that motherfucker, and people like him, exist. i keep wishing, as i'd hoped at the time, that he would have gotten up to fight. i've been playing the scene over and over in my head, and i'm frustrated at the loss of satisfaction i would have gotten from breaking him. in a way it IS selfish of me, but i don't care. he managed to trigger of surge of pure hatred, a total desire to see him learn a lesson in the most crushing way possible.

the situation has drawn up a montage of images in my head, of all the similar situations i experienced, all the suffering i've watched at the hands of these creepy fuckers, throughout my childhood, adolescence, and relatively short adult life - each image reinforcing and fueling my anger.

yeah, i'm a dweller. but next time i know to be more provocative. i'll come up with something better.

i'm going to shower and go to bed now; i gotta be up "early" (around noon) to go shopping. and run laundry. those two things are seriously high up on my priorities list for the weekend. and cleaning my apartment. i only noticed at midnight last night that the mongoose got sesame seeds EVERYWHERE, and i can almost feel the cockroaches on their way over.

a paneful day

yep, not a spelling error. a window "fell" (all by itself?) from the fifth floor of one of the buildings on base, and landed on a soldier fresh from basic training. the last thing reported is that he was moving and kind of able to speak.
let me tell you, getting around the crowds of observers was a BITCH.
a lot of those kids left the base scarred today. one of them left to intensive care (critical condition).

back to my day:

i had to read my own blog this morning just to remember what was going on. now THAT'S dependency. i've completely supplanted my long-term memory.

it was a very social day on base for me, most of the jobs i had to do were out-of-office, and i know enough people on base to keep me seriously entertained and occupied. i finally got to the end of my quest for code, and it turns out that nobody has a clue how to do what i need.
the dog and i came up with some interesting class designs too - so i have plenty to think about :)

turns out i CAN go on the unit trip - they changed the dates! w00t! but we have to sort ourselves out into rooms of 3, 5, or 6 people, and nobody knows who'll be in which configuration. that's kind of stupid.

i came straight to work - working until 9pm, going out to celebrate a birthday at the balcony, then coming back to work for a shift from 2am - 3.30...

i was me but -now-, he is gooooooone...

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desert pics!

and in no particular order:

all good on the home front

i don't know why, but i felt less exhausted when waking up this morning. i got to the base on time, and didn't desperately need coffee!

highlights from the army today:

1) running into java (jar file) problems, and feeling like an idiot. i then consulted with a group that develops enormous java projects, and they scratched their heads and asked me to let them know when i figure it out. i went online, took the first thing that looked liked a possible solution, and played with it. took a while, and a bit of frustration, but i got great satisfaction from going to aforementioned team to teach them how to do it.

2) finishing my Really Sweet Java App, and getting started on the awesome project i was raving about. i'm totally chuffed. i've got two months to develop the required wrappers and templates, and to report on the amount of hours i spend on each phase

3) having to choose between a fun trip with the entire unit, or getting my EMG test done. sucks to drop the trip, but i've delayed the test long enough

4) the mongoose's female friend bringing in WAY too many people into our office to make a movie clip for the jewish new year. THAT was amusing.

5) turns out my commanders both spoke to the dog today, and asked him why i have more financial problems than he does. aside from the fact that he gave them the reasons, and there are plenty - there's also the truth of my "living beyond my means". to be fair, if i wasn't in the army, i would be coining it. i'm kind of happy to suffer when i get immediate results.

the dog joined me for tekken, and then i had to work. so he sat here watching shaun of the dead, and then fahrenheit 9/11. i got through a large portion of the preliminary design, enough to send my contact an email saying that i'll be taking the job, and that it'll take two months.

are two new projects, both two months, coincidental? i dunno. i reckon it just figures. no - i *DIDN'T* mean the literal definition of the word coincidental. at least one of them will cover my expensive habits. and they're both interesting and important.

i got contacted by my relatives in herzeliya, so i'm finally sorted out for the holidays... i was getting worried there for a bit.

i also feel a hell of a lot better about SB. the crushing blow part is almost over, and i felt good enough to have a quick sms conversation with her this morning.

aaaaaaaaaaaaand i'm spent. i'm guarding tomorrow, so wednesday night i'll be back in the real world. i have to be on base early tomorrow, 'cause our systems crashed this evening, and i have to sort it out before working hours.

*blank stare*

saturday:

approximately 00.30, ru55 picked me up with a friend of his from germany, and we drove about 3 hours to get to our destination.

which really was in the middle of the desert. it was absolutely mind-blowing to get out the car, and hear absolutely NOTHING. no ambient sound, whatsoever. and it was so incredibly beautiful.

when we arrived at the party itself, there were about 20 people, and the music was thumping. the dj began playing tunes with a rolling beat, which is nice and driving, but after one or two tunes with that beat it really becomes boring.

apparently the dj didn't have any other beats in his collection.

about 5am i lay down, and woke up suddenly at 6.30. with about 2/300 people around, and a packed dancefloor. even though it was still the same beat.

i milled around a bit, ran into ru55, and we went to the car to pick up some gear we'd forgotten. we got back at 7.30 - and they'd changed the dj. and the music - was - to DIE for. powerful, driving, and totally hypnotic. honestly some of the best trance i've ever heard.

the music continued like this until we left, which was around 11. i couldn't leave the dance-floor... as tired as i was, my body just refused to give up and i went HARD. and had a huge grin on my face the entire time.

hell, there were even pretty girls there, which generally doesn't happen. and all this digging was taking place in the middle of a -real- desert, and it's been two years since i've experienced anything like it. i haven't had that much fun in longer than i can remember, i really let go and got my mind cleared.

and my body a little sunburned... but who's counting?

ru55 got us to the closest petrol station, which was about 20km away, and i drove the rest of the way back. i enjoyed that.

i dropped myself off close to SB's, and walked to her place. it was REALLY nice seeing her again. i had a quick, and much needed shower (i was filthy), and we sat down to talk.

and talk we did. including a few VERY uncomfortable silences, and we were both awkward. eventually i got it together to ask the question that was spinning around and around in my mind: "what about us?"
and although it was anticipated, i still didn't like hearing the answer, and it hurt me a lot more than i expected. whatever the reason(s), we're not happening. we discussed some other things, and she then invited me to join her at some event she was on her way to - which i declined. not only is my heart still bleeding (more sadness that this story has ended like this, for both of us, than anything else), but i was totally broken from partying on top of general exhaustion.

i went for a walk through tel aviv. i found a games arcade, and for a short while distracted myself with machine guns. now there's an arcade machine that i need to OWN.

i got to the lincoln on my way home, and played an hour of pool. i was so down, that i couldn't even look in the eyes of the two cute girls at the next table who were hitting on me (at one point, one scaled my just-lit cigarette, the other then came over, all smiles, to apologize on her behalf. my responses were kind of lacking in humour).

i left the lincoln, and as i was walking out the mongoose called me to say he would be arriving at my place within ten minutes - when it takes me twenty to walk. so i walked until i could catch a taxi - which happened to be VERY close to home. and it cost me as much to get home as it normally does to get from my place to the lincoln, all the way.

that sucked. but the mongoose had been waiting already.

we spent a while talking, and listening to good music. he told me he'd kick my ass in tekken, so i beat him with EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER. and badly, too. he got upset, so i let him play counterstrike - which he's REALLY good at. i was very surprised - i'd been worried he'd give my nick a bad name... terrible pun that.

we then took a cab to the lizard. now, i had reached the verge of total meltdown, but a very good female friend (tiny, dead sexy, and seriously lacking in self-confidence) of his had been treated horrifically by some bastard the night before, and he was supposed to be going there again. my job was to beat the shit out of him.

i was horribly dejected, and hadn't eaten anything since the night before. and i did have a half-litre of beer at the lincoln. easy now, this story's not gonna be THAT exciting. i forced myself to eat what would have been a very tasty sandwich, while staring dejectedly into space. actually, the staring into space pretty much defines my evening.

sunday:

the guy never rocked up, so about 00.30 the girl gave me a ride home. i sat down in the car and feinted. suddenly i was home, and i had to take the stairs up to my apartment very, very carefully. i flopped into bed and slept until...

my alarm went off at 6.30. i have no clue how i got up. got to the base almost on time, and the first thing that happened was i got jipped by the coffee machine, which gave me smelly, foul-tasting water. i got seriously weird looks when i tossed it into a potplant.

i had breakfast with the mongoose. caffeine is the only reason i'm still breathing. i then went to have a chat with my section commander. we shouted at each other for a while. he described a possible project we'll be getting that would be AMAZING, if not for the fact that none of the projects he's promised us have ever come close to fruition. i went to the mongoose's section leader, had a talk with her about possibly moving to their section, and the results were most positive.

and then i spoke to my team leader. i told him everything that had transpired, and he's told me to get cracking on a prototype for the system the section commander described. and that's my job right now.

THAT - is the SHIT. i'm actually excited about doing it. i don't know how things will pan out, but at least for the moment i'll be okay. i'm not in the slightest bit under the illusion that everything's now peachy-creamy, but it does give me hope. if it all goes sour, which is a definite possibility, then i'm going to go crazy and do something irrational.

how's THAT for foresight?

i resumed work on my Really Sweet Java App, and then ran off halfway through a function change to a meeting with the guys from herzeliya pituach, about the SCM system. the meeting was an absolute pleasure, and the work is definitely interesting, but not too complicated. it's a serious system, and these people are talking serious money.

they want the system yesterday, so i've got to begin the basic design right away, so i can estimate time. once we've agreed on design, we'll talk money for real.

it was really nice to meet and have a serious discussion with real businessmen, who know what the hell they're doing. and can see past my uniform. it's always nice to be treated like a professional, and they were most impressed by the things i pulled out of my business science hat as well as my technical expertise. i know i sound like i'm blowing my own horn, but that's only because i am.

i spent the rest of the afternoon working on my Really Sweet Java App (completely forgetting about that function change, and getting bitten in the ass badly), and it's complete. and it turned out even sweeter than anticipated. not only does the damn thing work, and work NICELY, it looks pretty stylish too. i finally gave up on being clever with the other awt layouts, and stuck with the GridBagLayout. not too simple to "get", but easy enough to use. once i realized it works exactly the same as html tables, of course.

i came straight home... dozing off and waking up in a cold sweat every now and again, and have spent an hour working on a problem that's developed on the new hospital server.

after much pain and deliberation, i decided to test the same stuff on mine, and came up with an interesting result: the woman i work with ran exactly the same test on my machine, and NEVER CHECKED THE GODDAMN RESULTS. i have exactly the same problems from here. and we were going through all the code to see what was different between our machines.

FOOLISH HUMAN.

so i'm going to get back to that, and the design for the new system (med supplies). and then i'm going to keel over and die.

i haven't spoken to SB today, and i want to, but i have nothing to say. that kills me.

[added later] aaaaand i discovered that the mistake lies with me. there was something different in the database, and it wasn't all her fault. whoops. at least that's dealt with.

how?

how does this work? why is today so much better than the others? why does the universe conspire to assist me today, but i have to suffer for so long?

i watched austin powers 2, which i still find extremely amusing. and i've always enjoyed watching series' backwards. there's a good chance i'm off to a desert party soon - the only party since the doof festival. sad i had to wait so long, but AWESOME that i might go.

and it looks like SB and i will be meeting up tomorrow. w00t!

gonna shower, and then look forward to a good evening. either the trance party, or there's something happening that the mongoose was telling me about, so i'll be alright both ways.

superb! yeah!

nothin' wrong with goldmember. i rather enjoyed it - every inch of it, in fact o_O

i slept well... but realize that considering the amount of time i was awake and active, i've only slept the amount that i should have last night - so i'm still down a good night's sleep.

weird, that. and i'm not tired enough to crash now - hopefully i won't be completely wasted tonight.

i was woken up by the boss, he's set up the server, but i think his IIS settings are wrong. at least, that's the kind of response you give when your eyes are halfway open due to sleep deprivation, and you're asked to get out of bed and test a remote server. on the plus side, since the second the server's been set up, my work's become easier.

not that i'm actually planning on DOING any today. fark off.

SB called me, which was a pleasant surprise. doesn't mean a hell of a lot, but hopefully things'll be cleared up by tomorrow evening. i feel so girly: "i just wanna know"... i'm such a wanker sometimes.
*shakes head* (almost typed heads - freudian typo?)

erm - the mongoose never called me, and it's already 5.30pm... so i *guess* i'm not having lunch with his family. so i'll just arb, and chill. life's hard sometimes, y'know?

i need to clean my apartment - but i need to start cleaning in the morning. i wonder if i'll get around to it, the wossnames - dust devils, that's it - are getting unwieldy. one of them knocked me over on my way to my pc this morning (and my apartment is TINY).

i was reading articles concerning our levels of intelligence due to the technology we have available. it interests me that we've changed our evolution track due to the freedom of information. i'd like to think i'm better because of it. and smarter. but i've always been proved wrong before, so maybe i just fit my theory - only dumb people THINK they're smart. i notice a paradox in what i've just said, so i guess i'm experiencing smart flushes (whoops! there i go again! i'm styoopid, duh...).

sunrise: pretty, pretty sunrise

always a good time to be on my way to bed.

not including travel time, and about an hour where i crashed at work, i spent 9 hours in the army, and then 11.5 hours at work.

WOW.

we had a lot of calls, and a lot of them were REALLY stupid people. some were amusing though - one guy kept saying "i understand what you're requesting" after every instruction. i think he'd fail the turing test.

it's now 6.13, which means i finished work an hour ago. SB arrived at some point this morning, and has made no attempt to contact me. i get the feeling it's going to be a harsh weekend, because i plan on calling her at some point today...

i need to shower, then crash. yup, that's my game plan.

what a day!

what - a day!

i woke up this morning having slept enough for the first time in the-elder-gods know how long. i was actually able to open my eyes BEFORE getting to the base!

a pleasant beginning, i got to the base on time, and immediately set about working. minutes into my Really Sweet Java App, i was told we had a problem requesting someone to come and fix our team leader's air-conditioner. normally i wouldn't care, but it's always fun to get things done on base - especially non-work-related things.

office A told me that they don't deal with these problems, i had to go to office B. B told me that they're not responsible for problems like these that occur in OUR unit, and sent me to office C. C put me on the phone with someone who really knew the procedures, and explained to me - in no uncertain terms - that A is responsible. back to A, who then showed me office D, where i finally found the guy.

the guy i had to speak to is one of the base commanders. when i got there, he asked why i didn't come straight there - there's a sign and everything. so i explained to him (in front of his team) that i don't (well, i said can't) read hebrew. much laughter ensued, and then he requested that i take exams for him in english :P

i look forward to that. being owed favours is the cornerstone of any army.

i'd forgotten that we had another volleyball match today, and had left my clothes at home. my section commander was hungry, so he gave me a lift home, i got my gear, and we went for an early lunch. i had a toasted sandwich that was OUT - OF - THIS - WORLD. they had a special going, so i stuffed every kind of meat they had for only NIS 15 (about R20). it was huge, and delicious.

got back to the base, fed the dog fishfood (he was sleeping in his chair with his mouth open, snoring. he had it coming), and then went for my first interview with the new commander of our wing.

-- crazy incident: his secretary made him coffee, i made for myself at the same time. she gave me a funny look, spat in his coffee, and continued stirring. that totally creeped me out, and i really didn't know what to do. --

it was supposed to take half an hour, but i spent an extra half hour repeating to him how dissatisfied i am with my job, and how disappointed i am that the army's wasting me. i actually stumped him completely a few times - he really wasn't prepared for someone with my attitude to show up. i don't think he's going to want to talk to me again.

after a quick coffee break, we had volleyball practice. i'd spoken to our "coach" in the morning, and we came to a good understanding about switching around players. straight after the practice we had the match, and we beat the team everyone was worried about.

two good teams meant lots of enjoyable rallies, and plenty of crazy moves and strikes. we were impressed. i didn't get much game-time, but what i did get i made use of. the switching in general was quite good.

spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out java calendars and dates - not too complicated once you get the hang of it - and finally my Really Sweet Java App is almost ready for testing. i just have to play around with the panels to make it look nicer, and wait for the database to become available so i don't do any accidental damage in case i forgot something important.

i came straight to work, even though my shift only begins at midnight - and they had a use for me. so now i'm sitting and "working", and chilling and catching up net-wise. i'm always amused that the more time i get to surf, the more there is for me to catch up on... "hey all you drug-addicts..."

last post for the day

i like being at home all day. i like multiple blog posting. i think i may need to get that fixed.

i'm off to bed soon, just felt the urge to describe (especially after synk's scathing remarks) an awesome counterstrike experience. after finally logging onto a decent server, i was getting my ass handed to me. repeatedly. didn't feel so good.

my score was 1-8. one round with the machine gun, and just going absolutely crazy and firing like mad (true terrorist style), and my score was up to 7-8. and the victims were PISSED. i truly enjoyed the moment, and was totally satisfied as they made it their mission to hunt me down for the next few rounds.

now for the next terry goodkind book (although it's in pdf format, which kinda sucks). and tomorrow's my first inspection in a long, long time. yippee.

before i forget...

the most insightful comic i've ever read: crfh

the dog bought himself a harmonica today. he said he was thinking about me when he bought it, but somehow TOTALLY FORGOT TO $!@%ING BUY ME one. maybe this is his form of revenge. and he's used it already, so i'm not swiping it.

FSCK.

anyways, i've updated my profile. i listed all my Favourite Movies Of All Time, but the list was too long. i tried cutting it down unsuccessfully - there're just too many that i can't leave out. and i forgot to copy and paste, and i'm NOT compiling that list again. sorry.

i think my fix for the new bugs worked, so i'm back on my own pc. it's like a security blanket for me. *sucks on the corner*

*spits*

that tastes FILTHY.

i think that's as interesting as my night's going to get.

later that day...

and then i remember that a not-quite-ripe apple is the only way to go.

we worked hard today - and we're in beta! FINALLY!

just before we finished, i went out and got a hot-dog, that turned out the be the best hot-dog i've ever eaten. i walked back munching in a daze.

i crashed hard, woke up almost 2 hours ago with a call to say that the university system's in shit again. programmatically, i don't mind learning things in order to create something. what i loathe is having to learn something completely new in order to fix a stupid screw-up that belongs to someone else. and i can't test the results directly, so i have to wait for my boss to become available. so i'm stuck using the work-machine until this is resolved, which means blogging and checking mail is all i can do with my time.

i'm missing the unit event. i don't care. i'm sure i'll find out how wonderful it was tomorrow morning. i went and did some shopping, had an unpleasant experience with some old woman who was convinced that if she could sneak things into my pile, i'd pay for them. i opened my mouth to say something scathing, and then thought better of it.

i was still a little cloudy-headed on my way back home, and was jarred into alertness by the sheer agony of the oracle development i do on a day-to-day basis. i don't know why, but an incident flashed into my mind that occurred a few days ago, where i got so frustrated that i scared the shit out of scout by screaming and storming out.

hmmph. at least the java dev's fun.

i'm home! i'm HOOOOOME!!!!

from yesterday:

8am sharp i arrived in my office. 8.15 the dog arrived. fortunately for him the commander

was a bit late, so he didn't notice.

we had a meeting where we got crapped on, and punished in all sorts of unpleasant ways.

not the least of which is that we have to remain in full uniform even when in the privacy of our office. with spot checks.

fugging prick.

yesterday was the first day since i began serving that i REALLY got to program. way better than the crappy c xml parser i wrote once upon a time, and for the first time i've actually worked with java's awt and database stuff. and it's not NEARLY as complicated as the tutorials made it out to be.

i suppose if they'd just been coded better... nevermind. i finally understand what it's all about, and i'm THRILLED. i actually ENJOYED working yesterday.

i had to choose between staying an hour and a half on base last night, or staying on thursday night. i'm working night-shift on thursday, so i had to accept. the 1.5 hours became working until 2/3am. i - got - FUCKED. not nearly as badly as our connection on the induction base, 'cause due to all my guarding, i'm always ready to sleep on base.

i spent a couple of hours with friends (and very pretty girls) while they were guarding, so it wasn't all bad.

while the dog was still with me, i got a call from a crazy kid who used to train with us... he's being inducted into the army in a couple of months. we're going to try to get him to join us - that would kick ass ^_^

and he'd kick ours', he's a brilliant and strong fighter. not just that, he's now officially the first person i know who trains in "tricking", which is absolutely the SHIT. maybe i can learn some funky stuff from him. after all, he was my primary teacher in taekwondo for my first year... (which also means he's caused me an incredible amount of pain)

so eventually i crashed, and woke up at 9am this morning. after brushing my teeth, i went for coffee with some buddies, and then left the base. i just got home, sweltering heat once again, and am currently working. looks like we just might get to beta this week!

w00t!!!

finally doing some laundry, and gonna try to get out of some arbitrary unit event tonight. i got a call about a new project, so i'm meeting the guy on sunday, and there's a chance that a friend of mine might be able to pull a few strings army-wise to get me the hell out of where i am. i actually reminded my section commander yesterday that he's a bastard and knows that he can't justify keeping me around.

must - rest... must - shower...

i'm passing out.

i was so tired between last night and this morning, that i woke up certain it was tuesday. so i woke up late, then missioned off to the bank, assuming i was on a half-day holiday.

hell, i even had breakfast on the way. thoroughly enjoyable belgian waffle, with oodles of chocolate, and good coffee. things were going well.

i never made it to the bank. for some reason - which nobody's been able to explain to me - all the bus routes were changed this morning. it took me ages to get the right stop... and after waiting half an hour (in terrible heat) i noticed a sign saying that the lines i was waiting for have been closed until the end of the year. or something to that effect.

by that stage, i had to return to base. and even if i HAD made it to the bank, for what i need to do i can only go on tuesdays, so it wouldn't have helped.

but i didn't know it was tuesday yet.

i found out when my team leader phone to scream at me for being late. i argued with him, but when i realized what had happened all i could do was laugh. he eventually found it amusing too. sad that i've had to cancel the half-day holiday for tomorrow, but i wouldn't have made it to the bank anyway.

i did a smidgen of work, then went for a humus lunch with the mongoose. then worked a bit more, then went to volleyball practice.

between practice and the match, i had a long talk with our section commander, and unashamedly told him how i feel about my job in the army, and reminded him that he doesn't need me - any monkey can do my job, and that i want to leave. he's still sore about it. i still can't officially talk to anyone about it.

the tournament: match 1. we should've stormed them, instead beat the 2 - 0, leading with 6 and 3 points respectively. and for two reasons only: because our "coach" switched players badly (which we'd discussed before the games, and he thought he knew better), and because players had difficulty returning to their positions.

i was surprised at how satisfying it is to be the person who wins the last point - they couldn't respond to my serve. extremely gratifying. that on top of a generally well-played game.

the dog got a call from his mom, so i grabbed the phone from him and gave her a FULL REPORT, from my perspective, of how he's been. the dog's face went from shock to horror, and he didn't know what to do. i've been waiting for an opportunity to speak to her in front of him for AGES, and this had hilarious results. he was with me when i promised to keep her informed, and i think he conveniently forgot that he was part of the deal.

i couldn't stop smiling for the next half hour, while listening to him defending himself (unsuccessfully, his mother's insane and cannot listen to reason) as his mom went on the attack.

i really am a bastard sometimes.

we (the dog, scout, and myself) hung around a bit while waiting for firefighter (can't be arsed to look up what i called him last time), and then we all went off to the lincoln. due to confusion with bus routes, this took a LOT longer than expected, and involved much silliness and singing together at the tops of our voices.

the pool was fun, and scout's improving dramatically after only a couple of times playing with us. nice to see that :)

we then went for supper to the zinc. i had the best roast-beef sandwich (well, vertically challenged sandwich, anyway) of my life, the others seemed happy with their meals too. and we drank beers, even though in uniform (it was the waitress! she made me!). aside from the food the atmosphere was great as usual, and we all told funny stories.

i took a bus home - broken from the moment i left the table - had a cool shower, and HAD to blog before going to bed. we have a meeting at 08:00 sharp, and we've been warned about being late. i get the feeling the dog's going to fuck up, and i've been told by both commanders that if he does, he's gonna be in deep shit. i don't know if i'd feel more sorry for him than amused by him, but he's had it coming for a long time now.

only when it counts.

i'll begin at the beginning - waking up bright and shiny in the morning.
a sweltering morning.

arrived on base and resumed my task from last weekend, and learned some nifty ms word stuff in the process.

i went to talk to my welfare officers about my situation, to see if they could help me out at all. the result of which: i have a choice. i can continue to live more-or-less close to tel aviv, and close enough to be able to see friends and go out every so often (more often than less, lately ^_^)... OR, i can move to a cheap and nasty apartment near the base, and be able to quit working so hard.

big decision, that one. at least i remember now what it is i'm suffering for. i'm suffering so i can have a semblance of quality of life.

the guy in charge of guard shifts called to say he hadn't got my note, so i had to go over there and point it out to him (it was on his desk, in front of him. he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer).

what i found quite disturbing was that even though we've never spoken, he knew exactly who i was from the moment he saw me.

i guard too much.

so we had a friendly chat while sorting everything out, and i'm in the clear.

spoke to the guy i'm doing the data haven project with, and we ended up with an understanding that my current situation is not condusive to the work... hopefully i'll be discharged relatively soon, but there's no betting on that.

lunch in the mess hall was actually pleasant. THAT was surprising.

the dog was up north, so the other guy in my team - i really should come up with a good name for him: i'll call him scout - and i went for ice-creams and arbing. got called back by our team leader to deal with an emergency. another oracle emergency. i LOATHE oracle.

this time, we have a deeper understanding of what's wrong. and it's TOTALLY illogical. basically, everything's been running fine, after a WEEK the code develops an infinite loop. all by itself. if we run it manually, there's no problem. but once the problem's started, there's nothing to do but kill all the sessions and redefine everything.

i ABHOR oracle. i actually let my commander know EXACTLY how i feel, not only about oracle in general, but about our systems specifically. he was shocked. i actually BEGGED him to let me in on his secret for dealing with this shit, and it turns out that he actually agrees with me, but is too lazy to care as much as i do.

great.

i finished the ms word job, and then ran off for volleyball practice.

it was boiling hot, and we worked HARD. we were absolutely revolting afterwards, and my eyes were crusted with dirt and dust, and i got mildly sunburned. and dehydrated. but a few of us did well, and managed to teach the hangers-on a thing or two. hopefully the match tomorrow will be dealt with correctly. if we choose the correct team configuration, we'll kick their asses. if we don't, we'll be humiliated.

i dealt with the guys responsible for fixing our servers... a few weeks ago, we requested that they fix one of them. it doesn't MATTER what's wrong with it. every few days, they've called to make sure that we still want them to fix it. today, they'd finally called in an external techie, and wouldn't let him touch it until i'd given the go-ahead. so i explained to them in no uncertain terms that i didn't care how, the server would be up and running and better than before.

they finally fixed the damn thing.

and it's up and running and better than before. amazing what a little aggression achieves in the country. i hate that it's necessary.

i bussed to the lincoln, got there all smelly, but in time for coffee and a chill before warm-up. i SUCKED for half an hour, then began the first round.

the guy i played was REALLY good, and i still wasn't in game mode. he made a few mistakes here and there, and i was on/off the whole time. eventually, we were 4-4, and it's first to 5. he was going for the black, and i still had 5 balls on the table.

and i got into the zone. i cleared the table with absolutely fantastic shots, and off the last one lined up perfectly for an easy shot on the black.

i focused, i KNEW what to do, i exhaled... and shot. and put the black ON THE GODDAMN POCKET. he couldn't have missed unless he was trying. i GAVE him the match. when it counted the most - but REALLY counted - i fucked up. that KILLED me.

i said my goodbyes, then went to wait for the bus.

waiting for the bus gave me an opportunity to reflect. it rained - RAINED!! - while i waited, and the atmosphere gave me a moment to collect my thoughts and to get back to my natural state. felt GOOD.

after missing a couple of busses due to overloading, i finally got home, and still haven't showered.

why haven't i showered?

because i've been working. i was totally stressing at all the changes that needed to be made, had a crazy argument with the woman i'm working with, and then we discovered that she's been misusing the stuff i wrote, which resulted in us arguing about different things. turns out what i've done is just fine - more than adequate, really - and she's just begun testing. now to wait and see.

and shower. and go to bed, at some stage. i'm bloody exhausted.

a nice ending to a chilled weekend

i got my ass handed to me in counterstrike. then sammy came over, and i handed his ass to him in tekken - although in his defense, he DID get a match in on me at the end.

we then went to play pool, which was great fun. played like crap, but was time well spent.

he dropped me off at the lizard. the music was good, but not for dancing. i spent a lot of time chatting and drinking, then made my way home. i had a long conversation with my mom, and the conclusion of that conversation is that it would be best if after my EMG on the 11th of october, the army decided to let me go. i could get a real salary, move to an area i'd be happy in, save money, work on my projects, and sleep.
oh - and travel a bit, including south africa.
all of which sound absolutely SUPERB to me.

i just posted something important to me on slashdot: here.

going to shave, wash dishes, and crash...

blown away.

terry goodkind - stone of tears is without any doubt the most powerful, enticing story i have ever read. and SO well told.

FLAWLESS VICTORY.

i'm completely gobsmacked.

*wipes tears*

slashdot post about a man who allegedly burned carpets and plastic (?!?!) due to static buildup

i got a response from the email i sent back regarding the phishing scam. not only did i NOT get the photo i requested, but it was a lame autoresponse with all the details and some more crap.
i must admit, i'm disappointed. well, if nobody's prepared to actually READ my email, then i'm not going to participate.

in other news, i have done nothing of value so far. and i'm PROUD of it!

now... to continue...