tired again

the sixth sense - absolutely, without any doubt the most awesome tech combination and manipulation yet!

and i was going to watch how i met your mother. how very droll.

ugh. i still have to write out that contract.

more seafood!

i napped again, although it was a disappointing one. i woke up to eat and watch some red band, then went across to my apartment to make sure that i hadn't left anything important lying around.

i got in touch with a friend of karnaf's, i'll call him again tomorrow to invite him to come around and fix a cupboard that's falling off the wall, and then went to meet lake for a drink.

the drink turned into dinner at goocha, so i've now been there twice and enjoyed it both times. we had such fun, and i'm reminded strongly of why i loved her in the first place. she really is a complete match for head-space, but with a totally different perspective.

this puts me in the odd position of constantly re-evaluating how i feel about her. i think i'm happy with us being very close friends, but i can never be sure about anything deeper turning out well.

it's bedtime! tomorrow is a very big beginning. my first time actually doing something with my home. i'm a bit excited :)

it's all binned

ah, the fresh, slightly lemon-scented smell of a job well done. i think the fact that i just cleaned the entire apartment alone earns me the right to never do it again.

the nin/ja sample is awesome. battlestar galactica is killing my weekends.

hearing the near-future: nin/ja!

that innocuous little nap turned into a full night's sleep: i haven't felt this good in a long time. the difference that's been made by having a workable, visible moving timeline is incredible!

i've spent the morning watching battlestar galactica and how i met your mother, throwing out bad yoghurt and thinking about cleaning. i think i'm going to.

oh shit! i completely forgot. i went through my email today, and found a follow-up from eatliz informing us of the change in plans. if only i'd bothered to read it the day i received it... they should've sent in facebook too.
emails. so last year.

NIN/JA! and they may be paying us another visit soon ^_^

validation - this is really sweet :)

i'm a regular passenger brake abuser.

franz kafka international receives a solid evaluation

the no-show

i shopped on my way home, discovering that i've accumulated a lot of supermarket points over the last couple of years and that they haven't had an address to send the cheques to :D

as i packed away the last of my purchases the phone rang - one of the guys who was released from my unit asking me how to get to the eatliz performance: in all the excitement i'd completely forgotten! so i rushed to the bus and hurried over to the port, only to arrive at 15:30 (half an hour late, two days in a row this happens?!) and find that there wasn't an actual performance, they simply played live in channel 24's summer studio.

bastards. that's not the same thing :/

so the guy and his friends rocked up, also disappointed, messed around with a really creepy israeli clown (he was even creepier than normal ones because he didn't have make-up, and then sat down for beers and coffee. we had a fine old time, but eventually the wind got too strong and we left before the storm hit.

i've been watching battlestar galactica, i've sent my mum a military-style update that i'd post here for the giggles if the info wasn't too personal, and am planning on hitting one more episode before napping and then checking out what SxS wanted help with.

on luck, nerves and PTSD

i cannot believe my good fortune! i almost ordered my floor at home center, but they couldn't help me with the panelling so i decided to wait and deliberate with the painter... while buying tiles at another place, i discovered that they not only do the same quality flooring for cheaper, but with less waiting time AND they work fridays - SCORE!

and the tiles weren't expensive at all, and the shower options are just as easy. we have a winner, and a far more relaxed outlook on life :)

this all comes after the morning trauma: the plumber's great, but i need to do the one thing i was terrified of. i need to replace piping.

shite.

at least i've learned about insurance (not covered, the floor needs to be wet for them to extend a hand), and have gotten in touch with the caretaker.

and stressed a little. and canceled my participation in the section trip. and fretted a bit. but my commanders have been singularly understanding and i have decided that i'm not leaving the plumber and painter without supervision - at least i got them to agree to work simultaneously ^_^

and with the budget on contract.

now i need breakfast and a beer.

no panic...

for the first time ever, i was actually too late for an israeli event: it said 9pm, and it meant 9pm - that never happens! so i missed panic ensemble :(

my cousin and his friends were being ridiculously indecisive and that led me to walk around tel aviv, switching directions at every infrequent update. eventually we got the location right and the timing wrong, and i arrived way before they did :S

we were at the same bar that i went to last week - the 70 elephants, i think - and it was packed. and with a lot of south africans, apparently, which was really disorientating o_O

from there we sat down for a while at a pizza parlour that had closed already, and we ran into the girl that shadowslight's mum was trying to convince me to go for... and her boyfriend, who seems like a nice chap. we talked crap for a bit, then moved down the road to olive, where coffee was available and the waitress all hyped up and interesting. apparently the girls caught a vibe between us, but it couldn't have been too serious if nothing happened.

just showered and crashing immediately.

pos/neg

i'm feeling really proud of myself right now - the filler repairs i did last week have to be looked for to be observed :)

my phone's giving me trouble already - there's a memory issue and it's not clear whether it's the card or the phone itself :(

i got some great photos today :)

the indian guy is really grating my cheese - and it's because i grate his. i'm not sure what to do about it, because anything i say or do pisses him off. and talking to him is like communicating with a stone wall. which drives me frikkin' demented. he resents me :(

the book i ordered a short while back has arrived - james hillman - re-visioning psychology... and so far, i've been enjoying reading the introduction :)

the day began with me being shouted at by a number of nothings at the municipality who i swear get off on making others' lives miserable. :(

i spoke to my lawyer afterwards, and she informed me that i don't need to worry about them :)

i tried to find a plumber to come and give me a quote this morning, and they were a real bunch of bastards :(

i got home to find a note in my post-box: "are you sick of being taken advantage of? here's a reliable plumber! quotes without obligation" - i called him up to ask him where he'd been when i needed him, and he's coming tomorrow morning :)

i had to phone and tell the lady from the food drive that we weren't allowed to help :(

i discovered a way to do some good for the community without stretching too much :) [helping out problem homes on fridays]

walking out of the interior ministry's building, an ultra-orthodox fat man cut me off while i was walking out of a revolving door. i gave him loud, snarky thanks, but i'd really have liked to shove him right back outside :(

i've changed my address officially - army and government! aside from the municipality, and i don't care about them, everyone knows where i'm going to be in a month's time :)

i ran into my TL at the central bus station, and a few of us sat going over last night's paintball for most of the ride :)

we arrived in time for lunch, which was the height of free hate and abuse that i've received from the indian guy :(

work sucked this afternoon, and it took us two hours to do the shopping for a section event on sunday :(

i took a post-shopping survey and scored two slabs of chocolate :)

lake got all sensitive because i was unkind over the phone. i really was just kidding around, but she took it seriously. and then we had a serious discussion about it, and i don't want to be serious with her :(

i actually enjoyed the early-evening work i did :)

being stressed constantly the entire way home over all the apartment shit is eating me up :(

i bought yet another duck tonight; it's like every time i bring one to the office somebody else says "oh, wow! can you get me one too?" :)

i just remembered that i gave the instruction to close my long-lost bank account and return all the money to me, but it'll only take effect one month from now :(

i'm going to see panic ensemble now :)

unpainted

well, almost :P
it was fun, but we had a lot to learn - like that wearing warm clothing is an awful idea, that being the first in line for overalls is a good one, and that a mask that doesn't fog up too much is a worthwhile investment.

i am falling asleep on my feet, and i'm still not home :(

we ate in pituach, i had a decent burger but the chutney wasn't mind-blowing, and i am now simply relieved that we finally got it together.

to artistic premises

right now i'm on the bus, on my way to a game of paintball that's been talked about for almost two years...

i'm almost done in, this has been a stupidly hard week. i actually passed out at my desk this afternoon, and was lucky enough to be woken with an interesting lesson so i was conscious for a briefing i had to give.

we went shopping this morning for donations for a pre-passover food drive: we'd planned to give to a tel aviv organization but that was overruled by our unit commander. bummer.

the stupid girl from yesterday is long-term bitter - i find that rather sad.

i need caffeine before play.

changing again

shite - another late night. and tomorrow's basketball and paintball.

paintball: it's a section event. some girl heard about it and asked if it would bother us if she joined. i said yes, stressing that it's not personal and that she's invited to the next meet... she then tried to force her way in, and went so far as to suggest that it's not up to me (the organizer)... she really pissed me off.

in no particular order (okay, it's pretty much chronological):

 the sneaky kid is trying to get into the course again. i'm thinking of writing him to suggest that he quit it.
 the buses:
  i ran into last night's date after spilling coffee on my jacket due to the wind
  stare and stare alike (some weirdo just wouldn't stop)
  another course failure - the green beret, i wasn't sure if i'd recognized him or confused him with his twin but either way we weren't friends to begin with so i don't really care
  perfect bus timing, i hopped on to the bus the seller was riding so there wasn't any stress over being late or getting lost
 it was really hot inside when getting my loan referral, i can't understand how those girls survive the aircon
 i was actually feeling worse than the previous days. i took my temperature, though: no fever
 good electric timing, and excellent that we did the exchange manually: it turns out that i'm still registered as the tenant in my previous apartment in the south african zionist federation's building. i put in a request to cut the power
 i made it *just* in time to meet with the painter, he seems capable and friendly but the quote is more than i'd anticipated
 lake arrived, checked out the apartment with the painter and the two of them arrived at the conclusion that it's too dark for me to use any of the colours i'd been considering, that i should go with white and mother-of-pearl finishes. we had coffee / lunch afterwards, then i had to run off in the rain (with joydrop - beautiful stuck in my head) to bus back to base
 the loan required the creation of a fictitious account at the soldier's bank, which took about half an hour of signing stuff. ugh
 a few days ago i got a phone call from the bank of jerusalem asking me if i wanted to increase my monthly savings transfer - i refused. it suddenly dawned on me on my way back to my office that i actually have enough money in that account to sort me out! what a great surprise :)
 i got the organization blues, i had a lot of non-work-relateds to deal with. i had stupid application errors to get fixed (they claim it's a hardware problem) and stupid "that's how the army is" responses from the only people in the army in a position to enforce policy change. i'm about ready to give up

the constant squeak of my bag as i transported the ducks was identical to gir's outfit in the first episode :P

we worked late - i actually got into it tonight, i hope that energy remains.

at least the excuse for the late bedtime is a good one: my cousin's here from england, and an evening of whiskey, coconut milk and curry seafood and great company was extremely refreshing!

the sleep of guards

in a strange dream, where i was guarding a hospital in civvies, and some guy on his way out started giving me a hard time. i was surprised by him pointing his finger at me, and when i looked at him questioningly with my own finger pointed at me as if to ask the meaning of the gesture he jumped closer and made a threatening remark.
i immediately grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulled his face to within millimetres of mine and shouted at him to show me identification.

his card told me he was a first sergeant, and i held onto it and made him sit down in a nearby chair. i found a nurse and told her to have him checked to make sure that he wasn't too drugged to drive himself home, but she didn't want to have anything to do with it because there was a long queue of people who'd been waiting for treatment.

that was when i began shouting at her to call for someone who actually cares about saving lives... suddenly a siren wailed and over the PA it was announced that there'd been a breach: someone had escaped from the mental wing.

the date went very nicely last night. i'm still exhausted this morning, but i don't have a fever. i'm off to start one of those organizing days.

collapsing

i was absolutely, painfully exhausted today:

1) work hurt. i don't think i did any.

2) after about forty-five minutes, i got in touch with someone concerning the army magazine that i want to unsubscribe from. she seemed to be getting what i was saying, then hung up after promising to call me back immediately. that never happened.

3) paintball tickets: organized :)

4) i went to pick up a bunch of rubber stamps that had been delivered, only to discover that they'd brought us just the rubber bit, we each have to organize the wood and attach it ourselves :S

5) bathroom fiasco: i was helping one of the guys place bottles in the tank to reduce the amount used per flush when my previous TL tried to use the stall we were in. he stopped, shocked, and his reactions (both expression and then physically as he ran away) were priceless when we began rolling off things like "it's okay! it's not what it looks like! we saw it on the internet! do you mind stepping in here for a second? no, please! come back! we need your help!"

6) i was holding the driver's kid's bunny in the car so that it wouldn't fall under our feet; a cute girl who'd scored a ride with us thought that it was mine and that i carried it around wherever i go - hilarity ensued :)

7) rain-walk
i went to the bank to close my monthly savings transfer - and change my address!
after acquiring more rubber ducks i went to "the duck" with a sticker design for my postbox, and got absolutely soaked in the rain. i placed it before coming back here, but it's not quite conforming with all the others (black and white with similar font, mine's black and orange with my middle smiley in between my english and hebrew names).

8) meeting with our ex-neighbour's cute friend in a few for a drink.

---
when i say "bombed", i mean completely. like, my whole system is constantly on the verge of crashing. maybe i'll just have a coke when i get there.

---
i just remembered lunch: an awful experience trying to get the grunts to stand in line without pushing or cursing.

explosively intelligent

i think it's about time i admit to myself that either i'm suffering a chronic illness (would a brain tumor explain the headaches?), or i'm just terribly depressed... i just can't concentrate on anything especially work.

i contacted the lawyer and the bank this morning, and it turns out that the girl from the mortgage bank has now proved herself more hindrance than help - not only did she confuse the transfer issue, but i just discovered that i won't get the fix-up money until a month or two after i've moved in.

what a complete moron.

instead, i've now taken out a short-term army loan so that i can get sorted out before then. it's on better terms than the mortgage, and with the money i'll get back from my current apartment's deposit i can actually make do without them altogether.

the painter is also a bit of an idiot, but i think we may be able to work something out anyway. i find it incredible that israeli's don't understand that people who work for a living find it difficult to make themselves available during working hours because, traditionally, they're WORKING.

that, and this weird phenomenon that the customer needs to know more than the professional so that he can help him do his job right. it's absolutely ridiculous how much better life would be for all of us if everything was properly automated.

i took a good, ten minute long video of one of the guys being "initiated" into his new rank, so now i've got to learn about editing videos. i'm impressed with the quality and even more so with the fact that my battery could handle it!

apropos not understanding the working man's day, i received a call from a hidden number which pulled me out from what i was busy with - only to discover that it was some prick from my old internet service provider advertising an updated anti-virus package.

i let him have it - stupid sods.

speaking of which, according to our online hebrew-english dictionary, the word for "man" in hebrew is defined as, amongst the more traditional meanings, "sod", "stripling", "sprout" and "dick". interesting.

my ride was stuck in traffic this morning, so i had ample opportunity to chat with the beautiful american girl again. i think it went well, i'm going to have to see about inviting her around for the / some house-warming :P
and to continue in that vein ("vain" works just as well), i went to get my acknowledgement for the shooting range and i had an extremely flirtatious chat with the cute girl in charge.

oh! speaking of ducks (we weren't, but the aforementioned girl seemed quite interested in the duck conversation i was having with nystire), one of the squeaky ducklings caused no end of amusement this morning, and one of the guys managed to figure out a way to incorporate it into our work environment }:)

we finally got most of the organizing for the section paintball done, and tomorrow we'll go acquire tickets. i'm surprised it's gotten this far - and there's a chance we might all be playing a team of strangers which would be a total bonus!

a paralysing snowboard could-have-jumped vision hit my consciousness like a truck earlier, i seem to be back in the fantasizing stage...

i called up my cousin from the kibbutz, and we talked for too long (i was supposed to be working) about all sorts of stuff - and i'm finally going to get a chance to chill with them for a few days ^_^

the drive home was vindicating, my ride confirmed that i'm sane and the rest of the country isn't. he also gave me some good advice, some of it too late and some of it just in time :)
it's comforting to know that i'm not the only person who suffers from the israeli stupidities.

like, for instance, the unbelievably aggravating way that israelis manage to position themselves exactly in the way wherever they may be. that was another thing that irked me while shopping this evening, in addition to the realization that it's passover soon and good food will be impossible to acquire.

last shared purchase! i was informed (i'm suspicious) that it was, once again, my turn to buy toilet paper. from now on - i'll be buying just for me! excellent!

...

hot water on my newly shaved scalp did me good, and while in the shower i was hit suddenly by a spark of inspiration: i'm going to deck my apartment out in natural, earthy style, with lots of ancient looking wooden stuff.

yeah, it'll be dark, but i'll offset it with hippie colours :)

digital downward spiral

frack, my neck's out again :/

nystire is a rotten bastard. galaxy online isn't just free and easily accessed, it's essentially an MMO version of one of my favourite games - master of orion. i lost four consecutive hours to it this morning.

it was due to the game that i left late, and had to rush to meet my cousins for lunch. lunch was magnificent, the steaks were brilliant and the desserts were sinful and decadent. the best part for me was seeing my gift so well received, and not only by the birthday girl - everyone else gushed over it too!

and in addition to that, their little brother enjoyed the hebrew comic i got him for his birthday and i heard from his mother that he's been seen in bed reading hunter x hunter after lights-out ^_^

i stopped at home, running into the neighbour who borrowed a perfect circle - thirteenth step a while back and arranging to meet with him soon, and then at *my* place to check out something that's been bothering me:
the water was running fine until yesterday morning, and i figured that i might have left a tap closed. i hadn't. there seems to be a problem with the hand-basin taps.
this, for obvious reasons, upsets me.

i've been browsing through the game, and i was highly amused at the difference that it makes walking with "alpha male" status in mind.
i have begun working on a very interesting project that lake suggested, and it has a photographic element that ran down my phone's battery very fast. as nice as it is to have a decent integrated camera, for serious abuse one needs a dedicated one.

i'm very amused that i managed to lock myself out on her stairwell when i went to take a couple of snaps of tel aviv.

lake and i watched whale rider, i loved it the first time and enjoyed it this time too. it's a great film. afterwards, though, we finally had a chat that i've been putting off... it was a bit uncomfortable, but i think she understands where i'm coming from. i like being intimate with her, but that doesn't include any sexual contact.

it's a very odd situation.

...

i cannot fully express how happy i am to be leaving this apartment soon - i seem to be the only person who cares about stupid things like cleaning and having enough toilet paper.

i'm unhappy about having to wake up in five hours.

stretching back

the original breakfast plan was for coffeeholic, but of late there's been a problem with smells wafting over from an exposed sewerage pipe in the area. when karnaf arrived, i transferred my coffee to a transportable cup and we headed off to what used to be a well-known bakery chain.

the breakfast was great (except for the muesli, i won't make that mistake again), and we sat chatting until after 6pm. by that stage i was completely bombed, and i called up lake to cancel on plans we'd made - turned out she was going to cancel anyway, so i didn't feel too bad about it.

i showered and crashed fairly early - obviously there was a lot to be done before - and woke up at 4.30am. it's a disease, as i just told nystire (who'd done pretty much the same thing). he's put me onto galaxy online, and now that i've finally caught up with all the comics i'm going to check it out.

and then turn back in for another kip.

voting's open for the music video for eatliz - hey - i had trouble with the streaming, so here's the link to it on youtube

of COURSE they found it in japan! either that, or they created it themselves. i'm suspicious.

on the reality of sustainability: we don't have any

coloured fate

what are the chances of finding two cans of paint in the exact shades of blue and green that i want lying in the cupboard? and a good tile sample? AND a ye olde rotary dial telephone?

them's good pickins, i reckon.

measuring took substantially longer than last time, and was much easier to do alone. i sketched out 3d floor plans and filled in the numbers, which was much more orderly.

i took my measurements to home center - it's annoying that i managed to narrowly miss the bus both there and back. i had a pastry on the way there that left a bad taste in my mouth, but no worse than the service i received it with :(

i liked the grey parquet, but i went with the richer, more wooden-looking one. i couldn't place my order because it's cash up front, and i don't have any yet. that sucks :/
on the other hand, it gives me an opportunity to collect gift cards (they have a 30% discount each on NIS 1000) from my co-workers. that'll make up for the fact that i haven't had the card for the last few months and have been missing out on all the deals.

i went to the dance studio b to try and get her sister a couple of lessons as a 21st birthday gift, but it's a really unpleasant procedure (you have to sign the person up).
instead, i took a walk up dizengoff looking for good ideas, and eventually walked into a book store and found the absolutely wonderful robert sabuda - alice's adventures in wonderland, which the girls there agreed with me is a far more appropriate gift for adults.

i've just learned about crack-filling, and am now finally ready for breakfast. then it'll be bedtime.

done for the night

i'm on my way home, just on the verge of total meltdown and having had a really great evening:

1) watching the lock being replaced was the most wonderful experience!

2) i slept on the bus to the concert, one of those warm and cozy shutdowns

3) i ran into an old varsity buddy at the concert and we had a good chat

4) i thoroughly enjoyed איפה הילד‎ ‎‎‎'‎s [eifo hayeled / "where's the kid"] performance - it was absolutely brilliant! their classic stuff was always great, the new material was of slightly higher calibre and quite different.

the only issues i had were one oversized woman attempting to hump my leg and someone nearby furiously and repeatedly releasing poison gas.

5) i got a ride home, picked up the bottle of rum and went off to a house-warming that had been over for a while.

an hour or so of conversation later, and too much rum, and it was time to head home.

almost there!

big doors part ii

... continued...
[previous post was phoned in]

i was completely exhausted by the late afternoon, and at 4pm made myself a cup of coffee to boost the last hour's production. that made sense, until a girl phoned me for advice dealing with an army unit that functions solely to cause grief, and i spent half an hour giving her tips and explanations.

the shuttle home was painful; one of the engineers i work with explained to me that what i do isn't as helpful as i thought it would be regarding space requirements. apparently, it's completely unrelated. that's almost depressing, but the truth is that i'm definitely a step closer than where i started.

i'm going to need to start acquiring other knowledge to get to where i want to be.

i paid the locksmith a visit, and one of his boys is supposed to arrive in another 15 minutes. lock replacement costs NIS 450 - @#$^! that hurts my bank account :(

whatever, i'm off to a concert soon :)

big doors part i

i forgot to mention my irritation yesterday when an orange representative called me to find out how happy i am with my phone and my upgrade... when i complained that they hadn't given me enough of a chance to form an opinion, her response was "i'm glad to hear that everything's perfect!"

idiot.

the day began with my refusal to sign, although i have to hand it to my SC - he really did try hard.
i finally challenged his perception of our section appropos motivation and team-spirit, and have his support in addressing the issue (even though it doesn't really add value).

paintball organization appears to be going fairly well, which is quite surprising! we may not be the saddest bunch of the lot...

we had serious humus for lunch, and when we got back my last TL have me contact details for someone who might be able to help me with my long-term goals ^_^

... to be continued...