hanging on

^{[this is what i saw, it just needed some emphasis]}
i spent most of this morning beginning next year's vacation and study arrangements, which are all rather bureaucratically complicated. it was only in the afternoon that i managed to find a loophole as far as the studies are concerned, a loophole that will allow me to take more than the maximum number of hours per semester with army permission (the maximum is little more than half the university-required amount).

the woman in charge is the very same person who screwed up my transfer at the beginning of the year, and i will never cease to be amazed that the person with the authority doesn't appear to have any real academic experience. and by academic i mean a pass mark for the 8th grade.

unfortunately she totally outranks me so i'll just keep my sneer to myself.

noon without siesta kills me.

we lit candles on base tonight for hanukkah, and it was only as the captain placed them that we noticed that he has a miniature christmas tree set up in the corner... explaining the concept of a "hanukkah bush" to a russian immigrant is a waste of time.

i left base around 8pm, and had a chat with my mother about a number of things. she primarily phoned me up to inform me about shadowslight's condition, and we wound up doing our usual status update. she's finally feeling more secure after her company's government takeover (which i'm really glad to hear), and i had a lot to say regarding my return to academia.

i'm exhausted, and really grateful that tomorrow's the last day of the week.

shout to shadowslight

get well soon, buddy. i wish you a speedy and solid recovery.

i thought i was strong

i thought i'd seen some pretty messed up things, online and off, and when someone in my unit described the youtube clips of the reactions of people watching the video in question i thought that there was no way i'd be that grossed out.

i was wrong. vile doesn't begin to describe two girls one cup, a video that's making the rounds at a frightening pace and i'm not even bothering to try posting a link.

i think it'll take a few days to get over the shock. back to my reality:

today had a hot start [sorry]: i called them up and fought a bit, and the second woman i spoke to managed to calm me down. i'm not happy with the situation, but it's doable.

my entire junk-food and chocolate consumption for the day can be listed for once:

• 1.5 teaspoons of sugar (for the oats)


• 1 tiny chocolate brownie


• 2 teaspoons of hot chocolate powder


• 1 bag of marshmallows

i'm rather proud of myself!

lunchtime was terrible. we tried to eat with the regular soldiers and the food was pitiful, measly and gross. a few of us went to eat humus, and i have no idea what was going through my mind when i let one of the guys convince me to share a portion. not only am i bigger than he is (and i require a whole meal, all by myself), but the portion that he got served wasn't enough for him alone and we had an unpleasant experience trying to get the serving increased.

i'll be voting with my feet for this one.

i finally (only two years later) made an appointment to get my tat's colour redone, so that's next week's mission :)

i feel like a bit of an idiot for not calling the university to arrange an appointment: i'm amused and impressed that i'm feeling under pressure to get under way - finally!

training tonight was good. supper, shower, bedtime.

too fast for me

Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, the change to your order could not be made, as it has already been processed and shipped. If you would like to send it back for a refund or an exchange, please address as follows:

Penny Arcade Returns

great. just the shipping alone will be 150% of the shirt's price. what the hell do i do now? where do i find an over-sized yet beautiful woman with an appropriate sense of humour on short notice?

and why do i have the beatles - back in the USSR stuck in my head?

just working

today was much more productive, in spite of the fact that our commanders all took a day off together.

a group of us took a rather long lunch in honour of that fact... i was annoyed that they felt that because they'd sat down already they couldn't leave, and a few of us weren't too impressed with the menu.

the food was mediocre, the management's attitude sucked, but at least the music was good and our waitress really made an effort - good service in this country is so unexpected that it really does catch one's eye.

i had a fight with the guy who called me from hot (cable / internet company), and when i caught him bullshitting me he wouldn't put me through to his manager because, as he claimed, he was the highest up available. apparently i have to pay until the end of the month when a technician will be able to arrive at a convenient hour, and once they disconnect me they'll reimburse me for the month.

they're a bunch of thieves, and if the other companies weren't just as bad i'd be furious. unfortunately it didn't help to have him agree with me that what he was saying was stupid.

lunch didn't sit well with me, and i'm still not feeling 100%. in any event, i went through to herzeliya to sit with my old boss, and after throwing around the product ideas i've had recently and playing with some of his gadgets (he's a total freak and always has the coolest / latest gear), he's agreed that if i can find a willing engineer then he's willing to help me get a prototype together...

on my way back home a girl who served in my first section called me up to say she'd be in the area, and after i got home and changed she called again to say she was in my street. i went down, we had a pleasant chat, and then she pulled an agel cd on me.

i'm definitely not the right person to do that to. really.i told her exactly how i feel about it, how it works, and how it doesn't, and told her how sorry i am to hear that she got caught up in their web of lies. i wished her luck and came back upstairs.

pondering another cold morning

each morning i forcibly eject myself from the womb
to the precise, cold tones of my bright red doom
though unlike the first time, i do not scream
not that anyone else can see
they're all sound asleep
like i should be

on religion

t'was a dark and stormy morning, lightning flashed and thunder rolled reminding me to take my brolly, which was a stunningly good idea.

this morning was slow going, and then nystire and i headed off to beit shemesh after lunch so that i could bear witness for him in a spiritual matter.

it kills me that i'm going to have to make up those hours this week :(

it's been an odd evening, i'm upset that i can't find any of my university books (i have / had a linear algebra book and an incredible book for discrete mathematics), and on my way to the supermarket i suddenly had a flash of spiritual recognition that i haven't felt in years... maybe i can defeat this semi-nihilist state and cook up something positive that fits my world view.

it's much easier to think godly when the weather's unpleasant.

headplay looks too good to be true. i wish these companies would stop teasing me.

expensive lesson for the day

penny arcade doesn't do fault-tolerant take-backs, and their customer service website was down. so i sent tycho an amusing mail, then ordered the three science of discworld books from amazon.co.uk.

the day was chilled, with a short (okay, not so short) break to go to the gym and sit with our neighbour and her friends at a coffee shop. now that we've caught up with heroes, it's time to brush my teeth, tidy my room and get back to some sleeping.

i've done a lot of that this weekend :$

i just checked, and the customer service site is back up. maybe this package won't suck.

calmer

correction: in english the band's name is matboojah (with a squiggle over the j), which is far more palatable. singer's sister sent me their original pre-release album for my birthday, to which i'm now listening - it's such good stuff!

it took me a while to calm down yesterday, and i'll just have to keep dealing with the random flashes of self-disgust.

we finished most of the snowboard shopping and hurriedly didn't find a decent trash can for the kitchen. i walked into the english book store and the irish guy took one look at me and began piling on the books - i eventually walked out with only four of them, all looking good (he kept the sequel to keeping it real hidden away just for me).

i bought myself half a kilo of beef sezjuan on the way home, in a classic cardboard chinese take-away container, not realizing that it didn't include any rice or noodles. not that it wasn't supremely satisfying, but next time i'm going to remember to add something to it :P

i napped a few hours, and in the evening paid singer a short visit. i went back to bed for a couple of hours, which turned into the entire night... i'm a bit embarrassed, to be honest.


the amount of effort put into this key generator is impressive - the little pirate dances!
it even places the key automatically into the appropriate textboxes during installation. the big companies have a lot to learn from little groups like razor - it's not too much to make the user's experience a good one.
[NOTE: THIS SCREENSHOT IS NOT TAKEN FROM MY PC]

muslims: THIS is the point EXACTLY.

here's a link to a link provided by moonflake - i couldn't stop giggling!

i just bought something online through paypal - i finally broke when i saw this.
OH NO!! i just realized that it's a ladies shirt! SO BLIND!
i have no idea what i'm supposed to do with this now.

now that my cherry's popped, i guess it's time to get onto amazon.

mental diarrhea

aside from the soon-to-be-described event, last night was great... okay, also not counting the horrible reaction i had to the quantity of caffeine i required to deal with not having gone to bed early.

matbucha, for all their displayed lack of marketing skills in choosing a name for themselves^*, are an awesome group. the sound system wasn't too good, but even that couldn't detract from the highly skilled and inspired use of bagpipes, didgeridoos, pipes, flutes and an ensemble of oddities (including the people) accompanied by solid electronica.

and now for the main story:

on the way out of jaffa (and i don't like jaffa), we were faced with a situation in which a girl needed protection from some ars, and i really didn't know what to do.

i lie - i did know what to do, but in the heat of the moment i wasn't sure enough of myself to go ahead and do it. i can make all the excuses in the world, but the truth is that i let the bastard go when i should have beaten him senseless. my problem is that i think too much, and i'm incredibly upset and disappointed with myself for not acting immediately and correctly.

it doesn't help that i won't let that happen again, because i let it happen now. so aside from feeling sick this morning (leftovers from last night's imbibing coffee and redbull), i'm also right pissed off.

^* look it up in google if you're not sure why it's a bad name

resistance is rubbish

i saw the tag "refuse - resist" this morning and the scrawled sentence is what immediately popped into my head.

the kid and i trained hard yesterday, and i felt so much better for it (that's one way to get over the glasses issue).

it sucked that i could've woken up half an hour later this morning. i went in to sign something, the signing took five minutes and the service took twenty. the day had its ups and downs (one of the downs being fighting with orange about my phone bill), but overall was okay.

especially the bit where a friend tried on my glasses and discovered the same effect... i went to the optometrist immediately after work and she explained to me that it's normal, and that it might take a while to adjust (up to a month, she said) seeing as it's my first time.

i'm tired, but i'm off to the lincoln and then to a concert...

similar symptoms different day

today was completely skew. it turns out that my screen isn't as bad as it appears, it's just the effect caused by my left eye seeing a compressed image... so my world is turned into a trapezoid.
the headache i suffered today was... different from my regular one. i expected the wearing of the highly-amusing ultra-not-cool semi-harry potter glasses to fix the problem way faster than the two weeks everyone's been telling me about, and today was rough going.

i forgot to mention the argument yesterday after our space-cadet attempted to enlighten us as to the dangers of vaccinations. a quick search of moonflake's blog reveals a ton of data and links that will explain the general frustration.

i bought cable ties last night, which in hebrew are called azikonim (mini-handcuffs). this was the purpose they were put to today, although i didn't close them enough around the victim's legs and he managed to break out. not before being completely doused with muck, though.

i just made it in time for the best part of the event - everyone was closing in on him and he dropped his mug full of coffee as he turned tail and fled >D

some girl from the birthright program called me up to interview me about the week in june. great timing, really. it took about half an hour, and couldn't have been the most useful they've received as the majority of the questions were aimed at israeli-born soldiers.

i broke today as i did yesterday, and had a cup of coffee in the afternoon. this was totally justified as i was launched into an hour long meeting for which i really did need my wits about me - and having them made my day much brighter.

ashita wa moku-youbi desu! i can't believe tomorrow's the end of the week already!

clearly.

right, the important news first. for the first time i'm noticing that my screen's skew, because i'm looking through my naff new glasses and i can actually observe things. it's really weird.
and i now have a super-nerdy alter-ego to protect my true identity.

the optometrist called me up to let me know my glasses had arrived, and after a day spent really feeling the strain i literally jumped up and rushed over to pick them up. i just hope the strangeness wears off quickly.

dammit, it's late again and i haven't done everything i wanted to do. at least this time i have an external excuse - the kid and i had dinner with a few of the guys from our old section, which was quite fun. we've just arrived home having had a long argument with piles over the differences between reality and how he views himself :P

i slept in twenty minutes this morning, so i didn't have time for breakfast or sit-ups. i've been so damn tired lately, here's hoping it's just the eye-strain...



someone passed around a leaflet concerning ergonomics this morning, and i took up the issue of chairs with our SC... he wasn't too impressed. the army's supposed to care about these things. i suppose i should practise what i preach and buy myself a computer chair instead of sitting on this damn stool.



today sucked. i was tired and weary the entirety of it, it took me the entire day to get somewhere with one of my assignments, and i completely forgot about two others in the process. i came home with plans, and after a really awkward experience handing over spot's mail to his grandmother i lost my nap-time to the gimp and facebook. i still need to shower and brush my teeth, and i know i'm not going to get enough sleep tonight :S

that explains the eye

the walk to my office from the bus was a killer - i woke up desperately needing to pee and i had to step gingerly :(

it takes twenty minutes to get to the base hairdresser - who's an ars - and he informed me that there was no way i was getting a haircut. i was pissed, and it was too late for him to explain that he was just kidding. his response to me shouting at him made me even angrier, and i should know better than to fight with these idiots (especially seeing as one of them was about to close in on me with a razor blade), but i couldn't control myself.

the actual haircut took place in silence, with him avoiding my stare and trying to be as unoffensive as possible (which is quite something for an ars).

after giving me a standard army buzz, his parting shot [sorry] went something along the lines of "why stress? as a civilian you'd pay NIS 50 [R75] for that haircut."

no, i wouldn't. i'd shave my head myself. i'll probably have a dreadlock phase when i'm released. either way though, i find it horrifying that these ****ers are earning over NIS 100 per hour. that's more than *i'm* earning as an educated and experienced software engineer!

who lets these idiots get away with this?! another case of severely bad consumerism.

after lunch i went to buy an ice-cream, and someone asked how i was going to fill the event in in my hours - i didn't hesitate to reply "mandatory military activity".

i was asked to use the shredder today, and i figured out a method so efficient that the machine broke down with smoke pouring out of it.

oops.

half an hour later, while i was wondering how i was going to explain this to the authorities, someone came in and discovered that it was working again. it just needed a breather, apparently.

i've spent the last couple of days struggling with a unix script that wasn't working properly. our resident unix fetishists had plenty to say, but couldn't figure out the problem either... then i discovered that if there's any whitespace after a line-continuation slash it invalidates the line.

whoever's responsible for that pernicious [regarding mental health] shell feature should be shot, twice.

the shuttle arrived late and there were too many people. the solution to the problem is well-defined, but some religious private began griefing and it took ten minutes to get rid of him. the sad thing for him is that instead of unhappily taking the bus one day, he's probably going to spend the rest of his service taking the bus because he pissed everyone off.

i went to see the optometrist, and was absolutely appalled at just how bad the vision in my left eye is. i spent ages trying on different frames, eventually settling for something particularly geek chic, and discovered that prescription glasses cost a bloody fortune.

so in a few days time i'll see if i become any smarter.

i received an sms from number 6969, then another, then a couple more - i don't take to spam very well. i called up orange twice (both times the menu confused me, the second time i just made a lucky guess), and eventually got through to a guy who was helpful enough to inform me that it's actually possible to block all messages from companies like b contact. my newfound freedom will be activated within 72 hours ^_^

the kid and i trained hard tonight. when we got there he discovered that his right glove was missing, and i lost my left one on the way home so we've got to organize another pair now.

yet again the topic of what / when to study raised its ugly head.

we've now eaten a serious supper (which means i got the dishes, yay), and i've been asked by songbird to go over something for her when i've got three other things i wanted to sort out before bedtime.

i'd make a remark about how wonderful it would be to have another couple of hours in the day, only i know that if they were squeezed in we'd use them for work.

early to bed and early to rise...

... indicate mental illness and a lack of wisdom if they're by choice.

wow - i even did sit-ups this morning.

today was a fairly decent yet demanding day. i did learn something about myself in terms of definitions: there are apparently four types of people and primary methods of dealing with them.

it's hard for me to objectively view myself, but the guy who introduced me to the concept labelled me of the type that will not simply accept an instruction, but will try to find a better solution.
apparently the best way to deal with me as a manager is to tell me to solve the problem, and then select your solution from the list of possibilities i produce.

the discussion that ensued from my expression of disgust at the type called "supporter" was hysterical, made especially so because one of the guys involved in the conversation is of that type, and that's the type most likely to be offended by my lack of patience for them.

i love our ability as humans to box people arbitrarily and at our own discretion and to be able to justify such trollop to ourselves.

i think i'm going to go train in a bit - i made an absolute pig of myself this evening while experimenting with porridge, cookies, honey & mustard sandwiches and yoghurt.

some interesting support
some great points on creationism
garry kasparov - rebel and russian prisoner: one thing he knows, it's strategy :P

positive outcome - or is that ingo?

after a quick clean and a run, we settled down to watch the big lebowski, and now i've got to tidy up my room and get ready for the new week. fantastic weekend :)

there's still a part of me that believes that owning something like this is a good idea. i think if i acquired it with a copy of one of those classic japanese vertical-scrolling aircraft shooters i'd be a happy little boy man.

something like this, i guess. although i couldn't find any of the ones i used to play :(

it's about bloody time

half do-youbi

last night my mother informed me of the existence of reading lenses exactly suited to my eye-strain problem, which i think i should be checking out this week. i'm wondering how much the army will contribute towards my acquisition - or not.

the kid joined me on a mission to obtain sushi, and i enjoyed it while we watched a few great episodes of how i met your mother - the bar exam password episode is spectacularly good :)

after watching american history x again, i made my way to the lizard for what turned out to be the lowest alternative line turnout in history. it was nice and all, the music was great, but there was hardly anybody there. afterwards i joined the kid and his friends for belgian waffles and arguments until bedtime.

i woke up wondering what would happen if there were a blanket ban on arsim, hip-hop and mizrachi ("oriental" music), specifically in tel aviv. i have a feeling that the average weekend about town would improve dramatically.

our new flatmate baked today - the results were good, but the mess terrified me.

and i've finally finished with my first non-experimental painting! it's definitely not as good as i wanted, but it's a lot better than i expected ^_^

how i can save my own life

not that my life needs that much saving... but i certainly know what i need in order to improve it. i need to get my attitude back in order, i've been letting my body get the better of me for too long. this sleep disorder thing is too much, i woke up again at 6.30 this morning, even though i was so tired that after breakfast i passed out for another few hours.
i don't want to return to substance-abuse, but if drinking coffee is what it's going to take to stay awake at night then i will do so with gusto.

the other item on the agenda is to reduce eye-strain. i have simply got to start resting my eyes more. i'm beginning to worry about vision-impairment (22 years in front of a monitor can do more than just give me a slipped disc, i'm sure), and i'm contemplating reinvestigating the idea of buying an HMD.

thursday:

it took about four hours of investigative efforts to determine that one of the items on my to-do list has already been done by someone else. immediately afterwards, the sun shining down on a lovely day, i asked the guys to wait for me for lunch while i went into a meeting with our big boss.

during the meeting i received a lecture that left me quite chastened. once past that and a more friendly conversation, i was asked a question that involved incorrect usage of the word "bottleneck". having taken offence, i responded in a manner that somehow gave him the impression that i didn't have any work to do - not at all the case, and he called up my direct commander and organized me another lecture, this one on the topic of keeping my mouth shut.

by that stage i was ready for lunch, everyone else was unhappy with me for making them wait so long, and rain that hadn't been on the menu was pelting down.

post eating, i was completely wiped out and incapable of having my neurons fire in any meaningful fashion. i think it might be related to my recent inability to breath normally, although i'm not certain if it's a function of allergies or simply my body being weird. maybe it's an age thing.

eventually i got my head back together, not hindered by my having finally opened a window (it was a bit stuffy, too), and i tied up a task that's been tugging on my belt for a while now. a lot of it was wasting time using microsoft paint, the new plan is to try and get hold of a copy of the gimp at work.

i was going to be on the kibbutz this weekend, but it suddenly became rather inconvenient. my cousin proposed that i come over just for thursday night, an idea that worked out fairly well. the only problem was the horrendously uncomfortable bus ride to afula, and the squished bus from there to the kibbutz.

although i did stand next to a guy with a pet ferret, they're friggin' awesome!

thoughtless design really upsets me.
i'm most upset by the fact that when the bus driver turned off the main lights, the standby ones were bright blue, and made it impossible to see the stop button. at what i assumed was the last second i requested that the girl sitting in front of me (i was standing by the door trying to protect my face from the next guy's elbow) press the button, and she also struggled to find it.

and then when i stepped out i discovered that i'd gotten out a stop early :(

i began chilling out as soon as i got out of uniform. my cousin gave me a fuzzy platypus [above] that she bought for me in oz... she was a bit embarrassed about giving me something so childish, and i assured her that it was a perfectly suitable gift for me ;)

i thought my cousins were exaggerating, but breakfast this morning really was the best i've had in israel. it was the kibbutz's birthday, and they celebrate in style.

i spent a whole lot of time today sitting outside on the grass, not focusing on anything specific and just letting my mind and camera meander... which is just what the doctor ordered. i was a bit spaced out on the way back to tel aviv, but was too relaxed to care.

it's the first time i've shaved with foam in ages, and i kinda used too much, with amusing results.

wow - i had no idea that the intro song to human traffic is a remix of jimi hendrix - fire. i be gettin' edumacated!

when i got home i spent a few minutes with gimp playing around with my painting idea. i've succeeded in deciding what i'm going to try to do with acrylic...


i went out on my blades for a bit of a mission, and came across a new chinese-goods shop. after they gave up harassing me they let me shop, and i discovered that they're bringing in cans of coconut milk! with pulp! i didn't know that coconuts had pulp! but it was very tasty!

now if only they could acquire white rabbit sweets... they said they'd try.


i was going to make myself some insta-soup, but this is how the powder crumbles. or doesn't.

i think i've overdone my computer usage for the day.

electric blanket

today was a beautiful winter's day. i found myself staring at the sky at every opportunity, fascinated by the natural play of light, clouds and massive lightning storms.

today was a confused mess of miscommunication, wasted haste and frantic consultations regarding the potentiality of nystire and i being sent off for half a year at a moment's notice... but it turns out we're staying where we are, so i guess i'll just have to deal with snowboarding and coming to south africa ;)

in other news, i screwed something up today and i'm going to be sorry about it for a good while. it was innocent and understandable, easily forgiven but not easily forgotten (for me, at least).

i would've taken more photos on the bus, but i was too embarrassed.

spot's left for the states, with no intention of coming back. he came over to pick up his media and share insights. i have this feeling that now that i've been sorting my life out properly, he's forced to leave in the same manner as "tyler not here. tyler gone".

i worked out in spite of still being tired, the kid and i have now eaten a proper meal and it's (as usual) half-past my bedtime.

"sounds like a freak of nature to me"
"yeah? can't wait to meet him"

*drool* huh? what?

i must've been truly wiped out (hopefully not sick), because i just woke up after nine hours having passed out fully clothed.

i began yesterday fighting with the sat phone company because they sent me a warning that they were going to shut down my service, and then they couldn't find a reason for doing so.

the company sits in my old neighbourhood, and almost every person i saw on my way out of there brought to mind the words "mouth-breather" or "bottom-feeder". talk about sentimentality.

slowly moving in the right direction
recycled hash
moonflake's added another movie to my to-do list

top ten con-gadgets