reparations

the fresh festival was absolutely insane!!!

getting there was complicated... it involved spilled beer, a harrowing ordeal with a bunch of asshole cops (hanging around bad signage for a no entry, and while we were there another five cars were stopped too), and nearly getting lost.

we set up the tent - a really, really dodgy tent - and went to see what was happening. i didn't get more than a few steps in before the music caught me up, and i was a goner for the next hour or two, just going nuts on the dancefloor.

i was quite surprised by the crowd - the place was packed, thousands of people, loads of gorgeous, crazy girls, and everyone was having a good time... that never happens in israel!

i crashed for an hour or two pre-dawn, waking up freezing but with my neck feeling a little better. i fixed that almost immediately, by bouncing back in and grabbing myself a cup of coffee. aside from a break to swim, and an hour's nap around lunchtime because my legs were giving out, i spent the day (until they closed up at 2pm) digging away, going completely nuts and having a wonderful time ^_^

after the swim, and meeting our neighbours, i went back in wearing the overalls closed, the ski mask and my hat. the outfit went down incredibly well, so much so that a beautiful girl dressed up in a different-type-of-crazy outfit came over and we danced at each other for a while... and i got invited to a private party, on condition that i dress the same :P

i crossed a line - there was a girl i simply couldn't take my eyes off (pretty face, fantastic body, amazing pixie outfit and stunningly artful and tasteful tattoos), and i tried to speak to her on the dancefloor. that was really stupid of me :/

it was a bit silly of them not to publish or announce the line-up, nobody has a clue who played or when. to be fair, though: during the twelve hours or so that i was on the dancefloor, the music was mind-blowingly brilliant and driving.

my new party pants proved their cheapness - i'm rather glad i was wearing them over my swimming trunks, because otherwise i might have had cause for embarrassment.

i'm a little sad that my sunglasses have seen their last.

i can barely hear, my neck's screwed, i'm astounded and impressed that my legs are holding up, and i'm definitely getting into bed. even if it's only for a little while :P

that was hands-down the best party i've seen in this country in many years, and i'm exceedingly glad that i made it :D

israeli consideration

it's a time problem that most israelis suffer from: they can't tell it. at 6pm the guy said 8.30, which is definitely too little sleep to wake up from. it's now 10pm, and i've just been told 11. if i'd have gone to sleep at 6 - and i was most certainly tired enough - that would've been five - six hours post-training.

i needed that.

instead, i've been keeping myself awake watching house. and even half an hour now will keep me down :S

in the middle of a 39-hour stretch

i must have done something right - waking up at 9am wasn't easy this morning ^_^

i began with the post-office, picking up my delivery of "life prep 101" (the fitzgerald translations of the iliad and the odyssey, edith hamilton - mythology and aristotle - poetics), then bought nice wedding present letter paper, and continued on to breakfast at coffeeholic.

it was a bit awkward explaining to the guy who let me down last week that i wasn't going to take a chance with him again... he did give me a fair explanation of the events that transpired, though. on my way back home to get ready to travel up north for the weekend, i called my cousin from the kibbutz to make sure we were still on - and lo, we weren't. too many people decided to visit them this week, leaving me with nowhere to sleep.

"interesting," i thought, "what if?"
so i went back to coffeeholic to double-check that tonight is definite, then called up the guy for the tickets: he was on his way to return the unsold pre-sales to the organizer. i managed to catch him in time to get hold of one ^_^

i visited the hardware dude, surprised to find a sweet girl from our rollerblading group hanging about - i didn't know she's from our neighbourhood, and knowing her scored me security watch over her kid while she shopped :P

i bought wood glue - i'll try to fix books with it some other day - and then returned home to prep for taekwondo. i arrived in time to have a chat with our instructor, who was glad that i finally made it clear to her why i haven't been able to match the kids for punctuality and remembering korean.

training was great, although i returned into my discomfort zone towards the end; a pity, because my back was doing alright this morning. i was disappointed to meet the really cute girl's husband on the way out. other than that, it was the second time i trained with a groin protector, and i managed fine right until the last half hour. two and a half hours doing alright with it, including the warm-up, gives me confidence. i think it's a good idea.

i got a sandwich on the way, had a shower when i got back, and have now caught up online and packed for the party [and rescued a pick from my guitar's innards, that was quite embarrassing]. we're supposed to be off in an hour or so :D
[shite - i need to do some shopping too]

xkcd puts is succinctly: the freakiness of our age

i think i'm going to do skijar again this year.

swedish saving grace

låt den rätte komma in is beautiful, romantic, different - and most of all, human. i thoroughly enjoyed it, even though the beginning was a little too slow and quiet for my state (i was tired and after a beer, and had to keep forcing myself awake until things started pulling together).

there were a couple of points where a lot of us laughed - almost inappropriately, the director has an excellent sense of irony :)

aggravated damage

it's becoming a thing: i fell asleep before turning off the air-conditioner. i woke up freezing at 5.25, which didn't leave me enough time to warm up before having to jump out of bed and get going. at least i had wired accompaniment, and i managed to kip a little on the buses.

most of the workday was agonizing, it's the first time i've used a piece of software and it has a really non-intuitive interface; it took hours to realize that it was working fine and that the problem lay with me :/

on the way to lunch, we heard a terrible story - the zoo in gaza didn't have a zebra, so they painted donkeys instead. this is as sad as it is amusing... the experts who called in to the radio were explaining that the donkey is actually a really intelligent animal, and that's the reason it's so stubborn. weird, huh?

i discovered this afternoon that i haven't even touched the surface of the things i need to familiarize myself with in order to dm. dammit.

on the plus side, i finished something important in my side-project, and have already begun tidying and rewriting. i'm actually having fun doing it, too. it always feels better when it's planned :)

towards the end, something was buzzing around me but i wasn't going to allow myself the distraction. it turned out to be an asian tiger mosquito, and it got me good - particularly on the face. when i got to the bus stop, there were swarms of them. that's a sight to make one lose faith in our species' superiority...

i walked out of my apartment without enough free hands, so i had the apple held in my teeth. just then, two good-looking neighbours walked i... hilarity ensued :P

i must own a tengu. i understand that that's a big name.

the bus ride was irritating - packed as usual, but with a couple of idiot kids being really loud and quite disgusting. i think i'm feeling my age.

...

i walked in an hour late, which is the usual, and our instructor gave me shit about it. there was no better way for her to put me in a kak mood, frustrated and angry, but i was glad for the excuse to give more than i had.
unfortunately, one of the kids wasn't in fight mode, and it looks like i hurt him :(
i couldn't figure out if it was his pride or something physical.

training with groin protection is uncomfortable as hell.

i got a ride back to tel aviv - unfortunately, the driver is not only young and apparently untested, he's also really aggressive and drives wildly - an accident looking to happen :@

...

showered, eaten, and on my way to låt den rätte komma in. two vampire movies in two days, and i've just discovered someone from training who's into the masquerade ^_^

vampiric

the movie was great! i really enjoyed it ^_^
i find that watching any vampire movie imbues me with a sensation of dark grace. i like it.

i discovered an interesting feature of the n95 - if someone's calling me, i can send an automatic message saying i'll get back to them and the missed call is still displayed. that's very useful.

turned out to be the chef, and it turned out to have to do with his danish friend - apparently there's dating potential. we shall see.

nystire's crazy sister called me up, looking for a place to stay the night. considering the fact that after the longest time that i've been saying "no" she still hasn't gotten the message, i figured that that would end badly. so i let it end badly before she came to the city. if got a very eloquent "**** you" as thanks for my troubles.

edith hamilton - mythology is wonderful, and i'm still in the middle of the foreward :)

i haven't a clue what made me think of bravestar this morning :P

no voltage

i *never* know how i do it; i arrived on time this morning. i even managed a disgusting army breakfast before getting to the office and having to wait about an hour for someone to open the damn door :P

oh, well - milton and a few extra winks went down alright. the first couple of hours were lost bringing the systems to a useable state - it started fine, then the electricity went. we thought that they'd cut the power to the wrong building, but it turned out to be a ups failure :S

i made minimal progress before lunch, but did brush up a bit on d&d; lunch was alright, and was completed with about an hour of instructing my TL and a system engineer on the need to find a balance between the american way of suing everyone and the israeli way of giving up immediately.

after a long and educational (for the others) chat about south africa, we got back to work.
work: sitting around chatting (TL sanctioned) and napping.
the coffee break post-chat was mandatory, the coffee itself was great. then my ex-team-mate sat with me on my side-project to teach me a few nuances in c# and convinced me that a redesign is in order.

...

uh, oh.

...

we got a ride back to tel aviv, which was spent convincing the driver to try larping. i would join in the demo games here, but my hebrew's definitely not good enough to enjoy it fully.

but i do have a ticket to rosencrantz and guildenstern are undead, so i'm going back to icon in a bit anyway :)

pretty numbers

synesthesia, a phenomenon i've experienced temporarily, talked about a lot, and can comfortably connect to my rambling theorizing. an interesting video. that one woman definitely needs to get her teeth sorted out.

i did some shopping and eating after posting (the fridge is full for the first time in a week or so), then bladed off. again with the compliments in the street coming from men only - why can't the women take the same strides? the last couple of months of exercise appear to be improving my aesthetic quality :P

i met up with the mongoose, and we had a good chat even if it only lasted a couple of minutes. one of my co-workers rocked up, and we set out with the group.

the group was great, i've begun to get to know a fair amount of the people in it, and the route was comfortable. i did babysit quite a bit - it was his first time and he wasn't too sure of himself. it's hard work for a beginner :)

i just got back, and as usual am cooling down before showering. ice-cream helps. i hate bananas that are perfect but with sticky skin.

renewed, somewhat

i approximated this morning that i have waited in the hot sun for my ride for more than two entire days as accrued over a period of half a year. that's a lot of discomfort.

aside from back distraction - this morning saw me no better than usual - and finally finishing sophocles i, i began my attempts to learn hiragana and fought over the usefulness of a shared outlook folder.

gremlins wreaked havoc on my workday - the strangest thing has been happening lately. usually, it's personal, but lately every time something goes wrong it turns out to be going wrong for everyone else as well. that makes it difficult to take personally.

binary numbers are annoying me. i'm dealing with negative fraction conversions in both directions, and i haven't wasted brain-space on this in years.

i got back home early, took issue with the rum (i think i'm developing a problem, and i don't think the rum is helping), reached the understanding that the next trance party i go to will most likely be in south africa, and got marilyn manson - coma white stuck in my head for the walk to watch the gamers: dorkness rising.

that's the first time i've laughed out loud in a theatre in a very, very long time, and what made it even better was the raucous laughter from all around me. they really made a great film ^_^

on my way out i bought two tickets for låt den rätte komma in - that's thursday night's, and i'm contemplating going to see rosencrantz and guildenstern are undead. i just watched a bit of the trailer... and advise against watching it and instead seeing the movie :)

i bought a cheap copy of edith hamilton - mythology and the book of frank herbert (about ten short stories). then i walked home, and i now have an hour to go before i return to the cinemateque on wheels.

four-legged yapping

district 9 was fantastic.

i passed out while reading with the air-conditioner on, and was woken repeatedly by phone-calls that i was less than capable of answering. eventually, around midnight, i managed to drag myself off the couch to shower and brush my teeth, and have just woken up... sore as usual, exhausted, and bothered by whatever intangible has been getting to me over the last week or so.

whatever it is definitely includes the fact that the water pressure in my shower has dropped in the last couple of days, that my party planning has been going awry and that i haven't a clue how to manage the rest of the week. things just aren't gelling.

strange sensitivities

it's either alcoholism or an up-and-coming identity crisis. it's the sort of inexplicable aggravation that requires any form of meditation.

this suit session is over, probably to be continued next week. i feel like a complete jerk for having told my commander - so tomorrow's a workday, instead of a free holiday :P

i decided to go back and buy the battlestar galactica box set before entering two lectures, and was so disappointed to discover that somebody else had gotten there first that i just came straight back.

grumpy, edgy, and in the middle of district 9. at least i'm going to get through the rest of it, it's even more excellent than i expected.

mission not-bloody-likely

watashi wa ugokimasen - nebusoku desu
i feel horrible, and even more so for having kipped for an hour. the bus after the one i missed was jam-packed this morning, so i couldn't rest my eyes (and i was being talked at by someone i once studied with), and the man in the suit made me wait.

*has strange thoughts concerning television's role in shared meditation*

*contemplates the potential for documentary activism*

the meeting wasn't very long, and i was sent home for a break. watching some of district 9 didn't help me fall asleep, and once i did begin passing out my world began spinning... but i don't have a temperature, so i must be fine. right?

now i'm unprepared for the rest of the day.

did i say sod it?!

eyeborgs: freakin' AWESOME! gritty, amusingly cast, and downright mean - this is my favourite sci-fi of the year. and to think i almost stayed at home :)

i have only one snide comment, which is caused by the writers' lack of foresight to have the script read over by any 14 year-old with internet access. it's hardly noticeable, and most certainly doesn't damage such a great movie, but the instant i heard it it set my teeth on edge.

must - see!

humourous addition:
one of the icon projectionists jumped over to sit next to me; i think he was disappointed when i didn't flirt back :P

grossly unfortunate

it was the realization that i was missing out on an excellent deal that got me to launch myself out of my apartment and power-walk back to icon in the [vain] hope that the disc stall would still be operating.

no dice.

running on autopilot - i was already here - i purchased a ticket and went in search of frozen yoghurt to fill the half-hour gap.

twisted luck

and neighbourly. explanation to follow.

the day started rough, i slept horribly and there's nothing like an aching neck and exhaustion to get one going. in a daze i shaved, breakfasted, brushed teeth, put on my uniform... i shouldn't have gone in uniform... and took the bus.

as i got there my mum called, and our chat put me in a good mood. i grabbed a cup of coffee, and bumped into the man in the suit. we went to sit in a coffee shop - which meant i had to toss the coffee... anyway, the day went from there to becoming dreary and argumentative. i don't think we understand each other, but i'm trying and he seems to be so there's not much more to be done there.

i was completely wiped out and sore by the time i was released, and then had to suffer the stupid bus arrangement (the area i was in sucks). eventually i landed a useful bus, and started passing out inelegantly. i started coming around in time to get out at my stop, made my way home, and lay down on the couch to rest and watch house.

an earpiece of my sunglasses had broken (nine years of abuse, it kind of figures), so i went past the hardware store for some cyanoacrylate. from there i went to the cinemateque:

icon!!

the first thing on the list was extreme disappointment - the tickets to the screening of district 9 were all sold out :(
when two friends arrived, they gleefully expressed their excitement that they'd bought in advance... i still don't know why they didn't think to call and say "hey - want one too?"...

i almost bought a second-hand battlestar galactica - season four (plus razor), but compared the price on ebay and figured it was completely disproportionate. now that i've done some more research, i think it was a good deal and i hope it's still there when i go back now to watch eyeborgs. [at least, i *think* i'm going back, i'm starting to feel broken.]

after a break for sushi, nystire and i made it back in time for a round of browsing, and i bought sláine - the king; lots of cash, but i was unable to resist. there's so much incredible stuff there!

ooh! i have a ticket to a screening of the gamers: dorkness rising on tuesday! ^_^

with lots of excitement we all gathered for the opening ceremony, which was great (the camerie orchestra played the indiana jones theme and the imperial march, and a parliament member was booed off stage after harping about the bright side of city planning :P

i rushed back home, remembering that my old neighbour had told me he had a copy of district 9 for me... and found his wife and a bunch of others from the building sitting around outside. i had a cup of coffee with them, took the disc home, returned for hot chocolate and an amusing meeting with the hardware dude... our neighbourhood rocks.
i even had a sweet run-in with a cute girl in my building :)

[naaah, sod eyeborgs - i haven't left myself enough time to get there comfortably]

one in three lights

watching the prisoner and house didn't do anything for my restlessness, so i left for a walk. i eventually ended up in a really nice little park, feeding the mosquitoes and laughing at myself, at my hopelessness concerning the next three days i'll be spending with the man in the suit.

my mother mentioned c c cummings, and i've decided i really like him.

aging
i close my fist
and feel a surge
i open my hand again
first feeling,
then seeing
a shimmering
a tingling
an aura of power
which will fade as i grow older

the danish will conquer all

on the way to the beach, i ran into my old neighbour - so i sat down at cafe arlozorov to debate and argue with the group over a guinness. from there i headed to the hilton beach, to sit over a couple of beers with karnaf and repeat my findings (he's doing his master's in philosophy, so it was actually called for this time), and we proceeded with an awesome frisbee session in fantastically clear water.

i was going to sit down at coffeeholic and continue to read sophocles i, but i ran into one of the regulars on the way and he decided to join me. if i was a brass monkey my ears would have fallen off already. the saving grace for the evening was the chef being paid a visit by a beautiful danish girl, who was a lot of fun to talk to. i don't know if they're together - but i hope not. i sent him a message that i hope conveys that without causing offence :P

the bad astronomer and i appear to agree - i just posted a link to my take in his comments, i hope phil reads it :)

while on bad astronomy links - this one on clairvoyance is highly amusing

a beautiful yet slightly choppy look at black holes

disappointment at the nowhere

i didn't sleep very comfortably... it's 11am, and i still haven't been called. i guess that means that i can give up on the plans to bounce to shift today.

i checked my mail today - my credit card's been cancelled! and it only took half a year and resorting to barbarism! and i received a receipt for a donation i made to the university... a small amount, and it's kind of embarrassing that they made a bit of a fuss about it. i did the math on wednesday evening, and i gave about a quarter of the average donation :$

maybe i should take a book to the beach.

tacked on:
something yesterday reminded me of an incident that occurred when i was very young, an incident that had a profound effect on my behaviour.
i was sitting in front of the computer, when i heard glass breaking downstairs. i decided that whatever had happened - not my problem. i carried on doing whatever i was doing. a short while later my mother, freaked out, caught me up and chewed me out: someone had thrown a brick through our kitchen window.
the thought that someone could have been hurt hadn't even occurred to me, and i was deeply ashamed. since then, i cannot bring myself to say "someone else's problem", the second that i've noticed something's gone awry i either have to deal with it, or feel terrible about having to let it go.

miscalculated hours

i made it to the last night of techno on the roof - and i made it at the right time, when there were people digging and good tunes. it was really hot, and the stairs were a bit of a bitch, but it was a good way to throw an hour. probably shouldn't have had the second drink, though :P

i managed to catch a shuttle home, and went to bed having set both alarms to wake me up before 1am. i don't know how i managed to get up, as i was completely bombed - and waited for the call.

an hour later, and i sent a message inquiring as to our status - a short while after that the guy called me: the plan was to go in the morning. dammit. now i've been online for ages, having discovered lots of stuff in a dream-state, so i'm going to post linkage and get back to full dream-mode.

on data and us: this is really pretty

from tycho:
gyromancer: should i be concerned that i've only ever played the initial trial of bejeweled? this game looks pretty cool.
freaky avalanche video: damn.

what are the chances that i'd glance at the news for the first time in ages, to find that it's time for the ignobel prizes?!

an indie series on comic weenies? cute.

going to bed now. i hope i didn't annoy the dude, i really wanna go hear shift :/

the little homo

i was in a fantastic mood after getting the last post out - i still don't know if that was a smart move or a stupid one. i'm terrified that someone would try to steal it (on the assumption that anyone out there appreciates it, of course), but at the same time i'm really proud of where i've come to and i'd be glad if it were disseminated.

i went out for my usual friday's "breakfast against the clock", had the beef parisian and starting flipping through an introduction to poetry that someone (i suspect the lecturer) donated to coffeeholic's bookshelf. i didn't have much time before training, so i skipped off to steimatzky to see what they'd saved for me.

robert sabuda has published peter pan, and it is unbelievable!! i really like the girl there, she's so glad to find good homes for the truly wonderful ^_^

while i was there, i invested in a couple of dictionaries: french and japanese. i wonder if i'll manage to learn katakana and hiragana soon... i also bought the addictionary, because it looks like fun and the army was paying for the whole thing ;)

i grinned all the way back to coffeeholic - running into egg (no more than a wave hello) - to show off the pop-up. everyone was amazed and awed, and the lecturer cracked me up: "oh! i'd forgotten the little homo!". for a second i couldn't figure out if she was referring to me, to her son, to robert sabuda... then it suddenly hit me that she was commenting on peter pan. the importance of context and expectations :)

on the way to training i called up my guy for tickets to tonight's festival (protoculture and rinkadink) - only to discover that it's been moved to next weekend! how screwed up is that? i moved all my plans around it :S
i stopped by coffeeholic again, secured transport to both the festival and another party tonight that i hadn't heard of (shift's playing! ^_^), and then rushed off to the center.

the training today was hard. as in, i had to lie down with my feet up towards the end of the warm-up because my body just couldn't take it any more. we proceeded with insane work on the focus pads (i'm amazed i can still walk, actually) and then finished off with forms. i had an opportunity to take one of the yellow belts aside and teach him about strike completion, and was amazed to discover that the really cute girl who's training with us is the little one's mommy...

i'm about to eat something, then head off for drinks and trance on the roof. i won't be there too long, though - i have to be ready to head out at 1am ^_^

brownies - am i real is deeply playing in the background :)