fantastic!

i've got quite a bit to blog, but i just got back from a really great night rollerblading and i had to share my excitement! one of the mongoose's friends joined us, the weather was superb and the route was beautiful and much longer than usual. in addition, a bunch of people who haven't bladed with us in a while rejoined, and the night was a lot of fun ^_^

socionetric

while i was getting ready for breakfast, the pointy-haired boss called: he wants me to come back to base to do the sociometric (peer review). i told him "absolutely not", then remembered that he is still my commander so i explained to him in slow, short words (like a small child) why i'm not doing it.

then he started pleading, and i sort-of caved. i told him i'd do it if i'm there already and it fits my schedule :P

1. the chef was in, breakfast was brilliant!
2. i couldn't get the formatting right, so i got to reading some of wr's university notes instead.
3. in general: great idea. will pursue.

afterwards, i sat going over a protocol definition (i need some examples, though - the descriptions are pretty generic) while listening to psychedelik.com. in particular, ix lam at - plant attack came on while i was taking a break to hang up laundry and got me grooving and grinning ^_^

i think i may have overpacked for the kibbutz... my bag's pretty heavy. i decided that for NIS100 it was worth shaving and getting into uniform :P
i learned two important things. firstly, using a netbook on a bus is weird and makes me feel like an asshole. secondly, travelling up north on a weekday is an absolute pleasure compared to what i'm used to! the bus was practically empty :)

i arrived in my cousin's office, plonked down my bag and went for a mission to find a snack. the "messiah tank" isn't limited to tel aviv, apparently - some of those crazies had parked on afula's main street and were playing really solid trance... the track that was playing when i stopped for what turned out to be an amazing laffa (pullet) was the green nuns of the revolution - megallenic cloud - one of my all-time favourites that i haven't heard in years!

the policeman and the soldier waiting in line seemed to be avoiding looking at me because i was smiling and slightly bouncing... i wanted to be jumping up and down with the religious nutters, but one can't do that in uniform :/

it took me two seconds to get back to human when we arrived on the kibbutz. i gave my cousin a package (some rands, airport tax, and great biltong) and we sat chatting and watching telly for a while. she showed me her son's photos from thailand and india - amazing stuff - and then we chatted some more. now that she's gone to bed i'm going to play with my netbook a little more, and then i'll be turning in myself :)

smile

ahh - a languid, lazy wake-up, a hot chocolate and ambient trance morning while continuing to transfer 2005, finally taking a step to insure my netbook, planning on taking the netbook for breakfast... and receiving an sms from girl no. 1 (gn1) telling me she'd like to go with me to a trance party.

erm. okay... is this a joke? am i being set up?
i'll just have to go along for the ride :)

a long four

aaaaand i was wrong again - i don't get this girl, and i don't get her in a good way! i sent her a copy of what i wrote earlier, and she responded with an interesting interpretation that i hadn't thought of.

after watching a couple of episodes of battlestar galactica - *DAMN*, the last season is nuts! - i got back to her with a brief mail which resulted in us actually talking on the phone. i really hope i'm dealing with the kind of person she's coming across as :)

i went from being semi-productive with my 2005 entries to flipping through all my facebook photos. what did we do before facebook? just forget everything? even with the plethora of superfluous, nobody-cares albums, there're enough gems to make it all worth it.

spiraling down

i've made a bit of progress with the stuff for mmf, and i've made some headway with 2005... discovering in the process that the mongoose and i have known each other for five years and five days. i just *had* to send him an sms to congratulate him :P

i spoke to my kibbutz cousin, and was complaining that i hadn't had a chance to visit her when i suddenly realized that i can go tomorrow, so i will :)

i shopped, and decided that purchasing hummus (i did so on friday night) is a bad idea, because it forces me to buy pita to eat it with. pita and hummus are filling, and tasty, but not so much a healthy meal :P

on the way back, i heard one of the neighbours practising the tuba. cacophonic, but so amusing that i can't imagine anyone complaining :P

---
i definitely spend too much time in my own head. i couldn't figure out if i'm supposed to be in touch with girl no. 1 or not. i never get the rules of engagement, and i don't want to be pushy and i don't want to make her feel like i'm disinterested. i probably shouldn't have facebooked her.

i couldn't pick a smiley, so she just got this message:
hi! i wanted to send you something, so i looked you up on facebook. then i felt bad for doing so, and didn't send it to you. now i don't know if i should laugh or apologize, so i'm doing both

aaaaand i have a feeling that that's not going to get a positive response.

---
robber dog? that's just wrong.

tall paul vs billie - because we want to popped into my head, and this version is just a little bit faster and got me smiling a little bit wider :D

slow spiral

slow spiral
up
or down
moves me
pushes
pulls me
to dizzy abandon

i hear soft voices
whispering sweetly
to go back, or forward

but none are yours

and none are mine

my own sweet whispers
long ago silenced
by the spiral
moving me
pushing
pulling me

medicinal rolling

i began the day with a clearance sale purchase for our SC's release: the ineptitude desktopper. seeing as it's not possible to make a purchase of less than $15, i added the mistakes mug... and international shipping only doubled that amount :/ (at least i'm not buying it alone)

i hope it arrives to the correct address, because israel doesn't have state codes and i couldn't place the order without one. so i live in TEL AVIV, NONE, and i hope that's alright.

i made a good call for bus stops, and could choose between the close-enough bus and the perfect one. i thought that the people who use the new magnetic cards could walk through automatically, and got dark looks from the driver when i tried to pay him over the hand of the girl who was busy swiping hers...

"and i would've gotten away from it [the bus] if it wasn't for you kids!": i had to ask twice for the crowd of soldiers at my destination to let me out. it appears the kids are being raised stupider all the time. i was contemplating taking id numbers and filing a complaint, but there were simply too many of them.

i barely had to wait for the doctor, but i needed the green license form first so he turfed me out and agreed to let me in later between patients. on my way out i tried calling the guy who i'm going to be fighting with about my release, but he didn't answer. i called his superior (we're now talking about big boys), to discover that the two of them were in a meeting. they promised to call me back.

i found a photo shop in azrieli, but it was closed. while waiting, i had coffee and a chocolate croissant (that turned out to be difficult to digest), and bumped into one of the girls from my old team... she's been called up for reserve duty to organize a unit celebration. i think that's awesome :)

the photo store couldn't help me. they couldn't even point me in the right direction. i went across the road to the one next door to the ministry of interior, where they had to have official forms... or not. the revolving door, the only entrance / exit available, was stuck. i was the first to ignore the huge signs saying "automatic - don't push!" and excused my disgusting behaviour by explaining to the old lady who'd been standing sadly, waiting, that if they wanted us to not push then it would need to move by itself.
i bit the bullet and walked all the way to dizengoff center. on the way, i called the inferior - when i told him i wanted to meet with him, he corrected me: "you mean you're requesting to meet with me?"

i see that this is going to go well. on the plus side, he can't meet with me before wednesday so that gives me another couple of days to get organized. and not shave :P

i picked up the green form, and headed to the optometrist for the eye test. i didn't have my glasses with me, and for a motorcycle both eyes need to be perfect. i felt awful failing the exam.

i was on my way back to the doctor when i hit ibn gvirol, and decided that it would be far more efficient if i was on rollerblades. i walked home instead, switched out and rolled back - it was far more comfortable. it's a hot, sticky day anyway :P

the doctor signed me off quickly, and i went back to repeat the eye exam - this time with my glasses. i passed quickly and easily. now i'm considering contact lenses or laser surgery.
i bought spraypaint on my way out.

i had lunch at coffeeholic with the professor, which was extremely pleasant, and when she left the chef was looking for someone to see avatar with so i volunteered to go again. while we were talking i got a phone call from the unit that wants to interview me, so i told them i'd get in touch with them after wednesday's meeting. i headed off to brush my teeth, and bladed to the dentist.

same dentist as last time, this time i spent most of the session suppressing my gag reflex every time the suction hit the side of my tongue and annoying her by not turning my head in her direction. i couldn't look at the light, so i either had my eyes squeezed shut or stared at her jugular. she's not particularly attractive, but she has beautiful eyes - when she wears a surgeon's mask the transformation is astounding.

blades on, back home. i sprayed my display cabinet, conscious of the need to keep the room ventilated and hopping back and forth between the bathroom and bedroom to take deep breaths, but forgetting that eyes don't deal with the paint cloud either. i registered the dryness in the shower i had afterwards, but i think i rinsed it all out because a couple of minutes after i'd dried off i was feeling fine again.

i finally got around to continuing the testing for mmf, but that's not going so well so i took a break for this post and am about to return to it. i'll be able to snack again in five minutes or so, and feeling's just beginning to come back to my lips :)

not sleeping in

a night filled with dreams
a warm morning
too comfortable to get out of bed
but the alarm will not be ignored

girl no. 1

i read a bit of wired, napped, shaved - cutting myself twice, played a round of crash bandicoot 3 - sucking at it, and walked out with marshmallow coffee.
everything's better with marshmallows. and pirates.

fortunately the bus was empty, so the bus driver wasn't impatient with me when he realized that i needed to be one stop away from where i'd asked for, and that made it a different price :P

i spent the ride considering just how much of a difference the past week has made - i have discovered that the world outside is as i expected it would be, that i am just fine and that i have a ton of shit to do that i'm going to thoroughly enjoy doing ^_^

the date: it was definitely a date. once again i'm forced to ask myself if i screwed it up, because the goodbye was a bit awkward... but in general, it was great: we entered the movie half an hour late because we'd gotten so wrapped up in conversation over beers, and we both enjoyed it anyway (the men who stare at goats - they did a good job, especially with the soundtrack and the cinematography is great).

right - i've just spent over an hour transferring my records of 2004 to an editable format, and it's definitely time for bed.

spirit was mentioned during the conference - xkcd says it better, as usual :)

the order of the stick - because i just don't read enough webcomics

digging out, sliding fortune

the rough news from thursday evening stuck with me. it stuck with me while i sorted out my backup drive, and while i deliberated over what to get the german birthday girl; it was the primary motivator for the chat with my mother, and it lent its flavour to the sandwiches i made for dinner; it hovered while i purchased the southern comfort reserve and walked it to the party, where i was both late and far too early.

it held my hand as i went ice shopping with the girl i sometimes play frisbee with, who was on her own pluck which wasn't interesting enough to distract me. it brooded with me while i sat awkwardly trying to find an "in" with the girls speaking in german, or the group chatting in hebrew about stuff that i had nothing to add to.

it didn't help when i was asked what i do for a living, either.

a couple of ze germans rocked up late, and with them an excuse to talk about other things for a while. we all went to some random bar, and on the way i got chatting with a texan who's also a fan of bill hicks and shares some of my opinions concerning the importance of the war against the war against drugs. one of the israeli girls from the second prohibitive conversation was kind of flirtatious, but our conversation didn't really go anywhere positive. the music was kind of okay, but the dj's mixing sucked and some of the other patrons were dodgy as hell.

ukko gave me solid psytrance, loud, and i took a walk south. i arrived at comfort 13 ready to stomp. it was a bit expensive to get in, and the crowd wasn't much to get excited about, but i bounced for an hour or two that included a few solid tracks before deciding that it was time to go home.

the whole walk home had me going over what i'm going to be saying to all the wonderful, caring people i'm going to have to be in touch with during the coming week(s). the longer i walked, the longer i thought about it, the angrier i got. i'm in fight mode, and i'm ready to take on the entire gorram army if needs be: enough is enough. i need control of my body back, and more importantly i need to start getting to work on saving the world.

i have shit to do, and it's in nobody's best interests to hold me back.

i decided to give tony vespa's pizza a try. not bad. not bad at all. considering that i'd had a lot to drink, i'm not sure how objective my tastebuds were being, but i'm fairly certain i'll be trying it again.

---
i slept incredibly comfortably yesterday morning, and even waking up was a pleasure. i tidied my apartment - less of a mission than i'd anticipated - and loaded my netbook with things that will render it useful. i did that on my patio with the shutters open - it was an absolutely wonderful, sunny day!

someone reminded me that it was another street party day - i'd completely forgotten! i hurried to coffeeholic to be impressed by the chef's breakfast while continuing to enjoy the introduction to poetry that remains on their shelf. as soon as i was done, i walked to rothschild to wrangle through the throngs until i eventually made it to the thick of things.

it was really, really loud.
it was really, really packed.
the sun was shining, the music was great, i ran into a couple of friends and was invited to a couple of parties, and i stayed there until 4pm when it shut down and one of the city council members gave a really sweet speech - "this is how tel aviv should be all the time!"

damn right ^_^

i stormed through the crowd double-time in order to get home in time to join the sunset rollers. i made it in good time, but not good enough - they'd left about ten minutes before i got there. i tried calling heeblet, but she wasn't answering - and i had to rely on a hunch.
on a day like today, i figured that if i was calling the shots i'd go back to the little hill where we stopped a couple of months ago on the ramat gan side of park hayarkon. it just made sense.

and i was right! as i got about halfway up the hill everyone else started down it, so i quickly turned with a smile and greetings to everyone. the nice thing is that that's the second time that's happened, and both times were this week. i think it's my week :)

the route was excellent - we did a couple of sections in the opposite direction, which made it quite interesting. the weather was great, the group was vibing, and we pushed hard.

the shower afterwards was perfect. i went shopping (i hadn't had an opportunity to go during the day), and the experience was overshadowed by the fact that on the way out of the building i was met with fresh dog crap that some kind owner had thoughtfully left right outside our entrance :/

i had a nap after i ate, and had to drag myself off the couch to shave, get dressed and go. i'm really glad i shaved.
the club is really cool, two levels underground and superbly styled for deep house. the music was great to begin with, even though it took a while for people to start moving.

girl no. 1: damn. damn fine girl, pretty *and* intelligent. we danced a bit together, then had a drink and went outside to sit on a bench and debate all sorts of stuff. i think i may have screwed things up by awkwardly not kissing her at any stage... and i think her friend was irritated because they left soon afterwards. [i scratched that sentence because she *just* sent me a positive reply to an invite out tonight :)]

once she'd left, a girl-friend threw girl no. 2 at me, who's not my cup of tea and i suspect had had a few cups of something harder than tea before we met. i was amiable, and brushed off her advances as sympathetically as i could... which didn't seem to work very well. but i didn't want to say something along the lines of "listen, you're not doing it for me" because she's a friend of a friend and that would make things (at least, so i thought) even worse.

the music improved dramatically, and we really danced for the next couple of hours. in particular, awesome remixes of personal jesus and josh wink - a higher state of consciousness really got me grooving ^_^

the girls left. not in a good way. girl no. 2 got mad at me because i played dumb and ignored her invitation to take her home... the music got a bit static after they left, and it was 5am already. i walked slowly home, the full moon accompanying me along with my beloved house collection [ah-ha! i couldn't remember anything about this track except that it was from the same period as eiffel 65 - blue]. i had a quick shower and passed out, certain that i'd be awake a couple of hours later.

---
SUCCESS! i slept until afternoon ^_^

i've just spent a couple of hours typing all of this [and the previous conference notes], watching ninjai (it takes a couple of episodes before it gets awesome), planning movies with girl no. 1... now it's time to relax a bit. or play frisbee :)

conference first part 2

thursday began with my rediscovery that i'd made a bad backup. the data was fine, but i'd formatted the drive incorrectly :/

i made the 7.27 train easily this time, possibly because i knew which platform to wait on. i had a sudden insight on the way to the conference, which i had to share with nystire as soon as it struck me: "i'm being paid not to break anything". that's not really true, but it's the only narrative i can give to my present situation :P

my course buddy from yesterday sat with me for the rest of the conference, which was good because there were a lot of times where we needed to prop each other up :P

lieutenant colonel lullaby opened the day with a long-winded explanation of "responsive space", and was met by exceptionally irrelevant questions from some old guy who'd read something or other in a newspaper that had bothered him.

i suffered a few coughing spasms during the day. the timing is always just right (murphy-wise) to cover something interesting.

someone mentioned "dr evil": it took me a few seconds to realize that that was an italian accent making an attempt at "dr evans". it had a slight effect on the meaning of the sentence :P

spacex's "time is money": christophe bauer really did make all the governmental types look bad. his presentation was interesting, short, sharp, to the point; it included a brief summary of all the cool stuff they've been doing, and made up for the boring, long job-justification shit that had preceded it.

after a quick break, the futron programmer / salesman gave a presentation on their statistics package. i'm not usually a big fan of such things, but with the handful of examples that he threw out to make his pitch he provided an interesting picture of the space industry at a glance. one day, when i'm big, i'll most likely be paying for that.

aside from an amusing verbal typo of his, wherein he listed the swedish space budget as being €100 [instead of 100 million], i found my train of thought wondering the back-country and i was feeling generally inspired by the end of his talk.

the amos satellite excitement: all i could think of was "i'd rather read it all than hear you drone". don't read your damn presentation, you monkey! they could've handed out a flyer, it would've been easier on the mind. i think half the audience was drooling.

the laser communication lecture that followed was a lot more interesting.

thinking that the head of the fisher institute would speak before lunch, we sat through the discussion on defensive solutions. quite easily the most pointless of the lot. if you've got nothing to say... stop. please.

for me, personally, the important note for the day was borne my conversation with my previous TL's brother about 24 hours earlier. it took me that long to register that something that he'd said was indicative of a void in the israeli industry - one that's exactly what i've been meaning to fill since i first got enthusiastic about scaled.

[i just found myself amused by the fact that "scaled" is a south-africanism for "stolen"]

so the bottom line for me:
1. my ideas are still extremely relevant
2. there's a strong demand for them
3. sitting through the boring items gave me plenty of time to ponder the interesting stuff, and i walked away from the conference with my ideas more finely tuned and a lot of inspiration.

we had dodgy chinese for lunch, and i suggested that my course buddy apply to fill the vacancy i'm about to produce in my section before getting on the train. i decided that i didn't need to attend the "youth education" section of the conference.

getting off the train, the doors opened and everyone crowded round them from the outside as usual.
"can i exit freely, please?" i asked - and was amazed that at least one person took half a step back. how hard is it to let people out first?!

my arrival back in tel aviv was greeted with dust. it was time to get indoors and stretch out on the couch while i reformatted the backup drive.

karmic comeuppance

the report back on the rest of the conference has lost priority:

i just awoke from a great nap, my sat-phone was buzzing and creeping off my bedside-table (that means that i had to pull myself off the couch to walk over there)... my SC enthusiastically gave me the bad news, and no matter how i tried i couldn't get him to understand that it is bad news.

whoever's in charge has decided that i'd be perfect for "job x". that means that i have to interview for the job, in spite of the fact that i don't want to be in the army any more. now i'm going to have to make a noise :/

as i told my SC - he really shouldn't have spoken highly of me. not because it'll make things difficult for me, but because he's going to look a bit foolish when they discover that i'm not as nice a guy as advertised. i told him he got it backwards - he's only supposed to give me a good reference if i ask for it. in that case, of *course* it should be glowing :P

[note: now that i know there are people out there - and that includes friends of mine - who have an issue with my non-traditional usage of the word "karma", i feel the need to specify that i use it in its accepted form because i do believe in the rule of three]

conference first part 1

everything was alright this morning - i'd left myself a buffer so missing the first bus wasn't an issue. the woman at the train station's counter told me i needed to be at platform 2, though, when i was supposed to be at platform 1. this wouldn't have been a problem if i hadn't been standing on the wrong end of the platform, where there are no signs and the speakers don't work properly... i only realized something was amiss once the train had left, and had to wait another twenty minutes for the next one :/

on the plus side, i still made it in time without having to take a taxi.

it didn't take too long before the audience's silence was broken by someone raising the translation device's volume too high... hearing everything simultaneously dubbed in english was rather distracting.

double-dark matter: a prize was awarded to a student pursuing dark matter. the man giving the prize gave a speech explaining her research... which she then repeated on acceptance. wasn't she paying attention?!

i find the difference in wearing my glasses astounding. i'm actually surprised when i can make out the tiniest details on a face half a lecture theatre away.

the minister of science and technology spoke, and i can't recall what he talked about because his delivery was decidedly boring.

nasa's charles bolden gave an excellent talk. one thing that i found a little weird was that talk of the challenger tragedy caused goosebumps, but the columbia disaster merely brought sadness. i would've expected it to be the other way around, and i'm thinking that maybe it's got to do with the age i was when it occurred.

he then joined a panel with enrico saggese (a.s.i.) and thierry duquesne (cnes), run by zvi kaplan - who might be perfectly good at what he does, but that's definitely not public speaking. it wouldn't have hurt him to prepare some more. he shook and stammered, and was only made to look alright by the french lullaby... there was a man even less prepared.

i ran into a buddy from the first leg of 2008's course, and we hit the tent to discover the israeli space scene. i had no idea. there's a bunch of people who might be able to help me :)

dr diane evans vs professor nir shaviv - the co₂ debate. climategate aside, there were a number of solid points made.
1) the fact that nothing is known doesn't mean there is no problem, but it also doesn't mean that there is a problem
2) point 1 refers to climate only. continuing to pollute our planet and carelessly deplete its resources is going to cause us other problems that will be at least as bad as global warming.
3) regardless of our behaviour regarding the environment, the apocalypse could be triggered by any number of factors, including external ones. we need to have a backup plan ready. i don't want the taliban wiping out our history. [how's that for a random, anachronistic example? or is it?]

"i'd rather not look at the sun through a telescope" was what went through my mind when he was done. surely that's a harmful way to search for sunspots?

we had a sad lunch* [repeat], and i took a walk to the mall hunting something more substantial. i ran into my previous TL and his brother (who i've been reminding myself weekly to get in touch with for just under a year now), whose initial advice was fairly straightforward: get a degree in the field. considering the fact that that's impractical for someone who needs to work for a living, i'm going to have to pursue the way i was thinking of. at least now i have a matching external opinion.

* running into my unit commander when i'm on paid forced vacation pending release was just a bit awkward.

i rushed through the supermarket for oreos and coke, then returned just a couple of minutes late for the virtual tour of the i.s.s. by one of the astronauts. wearing his flight suit, we were joking that when you're an actual astronaut you never take that off :P

an interesting presentation made me ponder the possibility of transferring parts of venus' atmosphere to mars.

i saw a demonstration on what might one day be the basis for a cosmic router. cool stuff.

the rest of the afternoon was covered by our air force commander's half hour of nothing - he didn't really talk about space, just mentioned it as an aside while describing basic military needs that nobody (in the current forum) gives a crap about. the applause he received was perfectly delayed, and he walked off with his confidence visibly shaken.

in sharp contrast, four-star general kevin p chilton's speech was excellent. he spoke about space debris, and when he got to his final points he drove a personal one home unintentionally: i seem to have been a few years ahead of the pack in my thinking, but the pack is catching up. as i've always maintained though, i don't care who does the stuff that needs doing, just that it gets done.

nystire's previous TL called me up, she's arranging a section breakfast. aside from some advice, i gave her my assurance that i'd make it :)

the first thought when i hit the sidewalk: "is that security officer hitting on me?"
i think she was. we had a pleasant chat until we got to the train station, at which point i hurried past her... only to meet up with her again on the platform. that was only slightly uncomfortable :P

the fourth sms from urchin regarding going to the ozen bar got me fed up, and i silently uninvited her. i'm glad i did, she would have annoyed me. i don't think we're going to be friends anymore.

blue / blonde hair, blue stockings on the train, eyes meeting and lingering but not so much as a flicker of a smile, and so i walked away.

i walked and bopped the whole way home, awesome rock (mostly jimi hendrix and jefferson airplane) and a pleasant evening. i went shopping for a frying pan, realized that meat packaging is a skill that demands practice and not merely an explanation (the new meat counter lady isn't too good at it), and made slanted eggs to go on my smoked beef sandwich.
why slanted? because it appears that the counter has a very slight slope :P

at least i was right about one thing - using a pan in good condition allowed me to manipulate the eggs properly, and they came out great!

OH NOES!!!!
between penny arcade, xkcd, sinfest, and schlock mercenary, i can't choose :S
why can't i add a quarter of a vote to each?

[pauses to walk (bopping) to the ozen bar, meet the artist i shot down in the tail end of this post, thoroughly enjoy einav jackson cohen being wonderful, meet a pretty girl and actually invite her for a drink]

wow - i can't believe i've had a lot of fun *and* arrived back home in time to pretend to be a normal person (more or less) in the morning :)
i also can't believe that it's taken me two hours to finish this post, but to be fair i did watch half an episode of battlestar galactica and had a shower.

now - to sleep!

cool runnings

very cool - i can't believe i couldn't find my mask... only i just rediscovered it, and i'd left it in such a "clever" place :/

i napped a bit, then tried cooking spaghetti again. the second hot-plate took forever to bring the water to an almost-boil, which kinda sucks :(

i experimented a bit more with a java app, then suddenly realized that i was late to meet the group... i sprinted to get there, and arrived second to last. the only problem is that both of us had missed them by at least five to ten minutes. fortunately he had a phone number, and the two of us made a mad mission to catch up, with only a couple of terrifyingly dodgy maneuvers before suddenly finding ourselves in the middle of the group, but going the wrong way!

the route was excellent, the group was great, and that included a pleasant run-in with a new pretty girl. the end of the evening was overtaken by a philosophical conversation with an israeli-arab in the group, which was closed with a discussion over whether or not i'll be able to make the race in omer on saturday.

now that i've cooled down, i think it's time to shower and get to bed so that i'll be somewhat awake for the conference :P

chattered teeth

good grief - it's cold enough that i'm sitting here with a sweater under my ski-jacket while i wait for the room to heat up (i knew i forgot something, it was to turn on the air-conditioner).

the day began with a stranger reminding me of something that i'm used to thinking about other people - i made to get off the bus before we arrived at the stop, and there really wasn't any reason to hurry.
"not now, sweety," she said, and i just sat and admired the view for a bit instead :P

i walked into the deserted consulate, pulled out the forms and suddenly remembered that i needed passport photos. in spite of having sought them unsuccessfully within the last couple of days, i turned out my wallet again and was irritated that they were most certainly gone. that cost me a mission to get them redone, and a coffee shop breakfast while i waited for them to be printed.

of course, i found the old ones when i put the new ones in. they were exactly where i'd expected them to be, and i can't figure out how the hell i missed them. needless to say, i was feeling slightly confused, helpless and frustrated.

[just discovered that biting into an apple is a bad idea. more on that later]

the forms were hell. i'm usually not particularly good with them, but these ones were tricky and i needed a lot of help - i think the lady was glad to see the back of me. it looks like it's all done, though, and now i have to wait up to half a year to get my new passport. and probably a day until the ink comes off my fingers :P

on my way out i got in touch with the fisher brothers institute. i'll have to pay (although the nice woman managed to wrangle me a student discount), but i managed to score one of the last available places, and i won't have to wear a uniform ^_^

on my way home i picked up my hoodie, which is back to its bright whites :D
i came back entranced by cream - n.s.u....

i did a little shopping (eggs and munchies), and made myself a sterling fried egg + corned beef sandwich. it would have been even better had my old flatmates not ruined my frying pans... i'll have to get new ones tomorrow :/

i was in a hurry to make my dentist appointment, so i walked up and down the stops at the city garden looking for a line to take me closer. bus drivers in this country are wonderful. if they don't have a stop in the road you're looking for, the answer's no. even if they have a stop fifty metres before it. that's bloody unhelpful.

i was only a couple of minutes late, and was hurried into one of the rooms with a cute blonde dentist who was hands-down the most gentle i've ever experienced. i didn't even feel the needle go in, the filling itself was almost comfortable, and i can't really blame her for the pain while cleaning.

at least, i don't think i can blame her for the inside-facing gum above my right incisor being sliced [checked a bit later, i think it might be her bad :(] - the apple just reopened it. i don't mind that so much as i did the fact that she needed to separate my incisors to file the constructed one - i made it perfectly clear that i am terrified of gaps, and although she did a good job of not giving me one i'm still extra-conscious of it.

i met nystire outside, still bleeding, and we hopped to azrieli. after harrassing the poor sod at the bug store, i decided that the asus eee pc that was on special was a good deal, and it's now charging next to my bed. it's definitely solid enough to serve my pretentious writing-at-the-coffee-shop needs, and it'll definitely carry me through my studies: ignoring my recent memory upgrade, it's even stronger than my pc :P

we walked back to my place, plugged it in, then walked to coffeeholic. nystire didn't stay longer than he needed to warsit, and i enjoyed my coffee and wired until the chef arrived, at which point that turned into chatting over cake. that cake is awesome.

just before i left, he asked me if i'd noticed it getting colder. on the way back i really did - it's ridiculous how quickly the weather shifted from cool and wet to frigid and clear!

i've done the online thing, now to try and be productive. or nap first ;)

semicolon usage!

i've seen the first chapter - what a nice little ninja! [quoted from mac hall]

caught 22

i can't recall what kept me up for the next couple of hours, but i'm fairly certain i was in front of the pc for most of them.

another day begun by coughing my lungs out. yippee. i got in touch with mmf as soon as i could breathe fairly consistently, and hopped a bus to pay him a visit. seeing as i'm currently interviewing on the assumption that i'm going to be released soon, i expressed my terms (a full starter-salary for half-days) and was glad that the ceo's taking it under consideration :)

i should possibly mention the weather that we experienced today: fast switches between sunny and drizzly. i enjoyed it thoroughly :)

i got home, hung up my laundry, prepared a sandwich and walked it to the driving instructor. the religious secretary (reading psalms between people*) was new and uninitiated, so she had to pass me through to someone else to get the details.

* i find it most distressing that the religious fill every spare moment with psalms. it's a great mechanism to distract themselves from the secular world (and protect them from cognitive contamination), and it's a wonderful way to control people by not providing them with a chance to do any actual thinking.
surely, if one finds oneself using every spare minute to convince oneself of one's "beliefs", then they're not so much "beliefs" and may need to be re-evaluated?

back to the story, learning for a motorcycle license is a bit more complex than i anticipated. i now need to evaluate how serious i am about actually purchasing one, otherwise the license might be a bit of a waste...

i walked with solid house accompaniment today - there was a specific moment that needed to be highlighted: nrg - he never lost his hardcore got me thinking of hyperviper's trademark quote, "the harder, the darker, the louder, the faster... THE BETTER!"

and through all the shit, i don't think i ever lost my hardcore ^_^

i saw the dentist, which wasn't particularly painful, and i'll be going back tomorrow for a filling. i came home, hurt my fingers with my guitar, and took catch 22 to coffeeholic with intention of completing it.
in spite of the fairly long conversation with the owner, a telephone conversation with a training buddy about forming an alternative group, and being momentarily distracted by each pretty girl walking past (and saying an awkward hello to aya zahavi feiglin), i managed to finish reading catch 22 - and i'm truly sorry that i didn't read it before serving.

the usual summary of the book does it no justice whatsoever.

i ran into the chef on the way back home, picked up a shelf on the sidewalk that doesn't fit, and spent the evening in front of the screen - at first with a beer, popcorn and battlestar galactica, then fiddling half-heartedly with java.

now it's bedtime. i got in touch with the south african embassy, and i think tomorrow's a good day to sort my dual citizenship and passport out.

cooked!

it's been a long day. it began with my first reminder to call our SC and make it absolutely clear to him (however much that's worth) that i want out completely. i have no idea why i thought that i'd put on my uniform (i guess i was a little sleepy), and i shaved completely unnecessarily. i felt like an idiot about two minutes later, while i was picking out clothing to wear.

everything took a little longer than it should have, and i guess an hour had passed before i left the apartment the first time, delivered a misdirected letter to a neighbour, and returned because i'd suddenly realized that i had time to deliver my penny arcade hoodie for dry cleaning.

having done that, i caught the bus to the city officer (thanks, mum! apparently i did need the reminder). the medic pushed me through to the doctor, and i only had an hour and a half to wait until i got in. a couple of times my cough got so bad that i had to run up the stairs to the bathrooms, tears clouding my vision and in agony... let's just say that i wasn't having the time of my life.
at least during the moments of calm i got some rough planning done, and was inspired to consider purchasing a netbook so that i can be one of those assholes who sits in the corner of the coffee shop all day long ignoring everyone.

the doctor almost made me throw up by abusing my throat with a tongue depressor - i *hate* those things. eventually, he gave me a script for two different types of sinus-dryers (sudafed to keep me awake and nussidex to put me to sleep), plus an antibiotic in case those don't help, plus medical marijuana for the chest pain.

i might be kidding about one of those.

i trekked to mmf's workplace, a bit of a mission in the sun and not at all worth the effort on account of it being a sunday, and him working normal weekdays. i felt a bit silly, but it wasn't like i was in a hurry to do anything else :)

i stopped for calzone on my way home, ate a couple of oranges*, took a sudafed (thinking it would probably keep me awake), put on an episode of battlestar galactica, and passed into the deepest siesta i can recall. i dreamily answered the phone when my cousin from the kibbutz called (i promised myself years ago i wouldn't do that, but it's hard to think that rationally at the time and my phone-answering imperative is pretty well-formed), to hear some really good news - she's decided to go to south africa soon, and i think that that's a superb idea :)

* i've reached a point where i feel that eating the oranges is a better idea than squeezing them for juice. you get *all* the juice, plus all the other bits that are healthy, tasty and just don't work in juice, and it's less mess to clean up.

it was dark and stormy when i left to visit the hardware dude - it took a couple of missions (one to return and take measurements), but i acquired electric hot-plates and a decent locking solution for the perspex toy protector. i also passed by the computer store to get a quote on a netbook - it seems like a good deal.

my taekwondo instructor called me back just as the skies opened up. i felt like a bit of a heel, but i explained to her that i'm done. i explained exactly why - exactly what's been bothering me and how i've reached the point where i'm too frustrated to continue.

when i got home and had the hot plates set up, i installed the perspex cover. as soon as i was satisfied that it was good, i opened up my bobblehead judge death and my invader zim home base figures and began playing ^_^

it's been a few years since i received them, and i'm so glad that they're finally on display! i'm only upset that one of the spider legs broke, and my mad superglue skills were no match for the fracture :/

i uploaded some photos, then went shopping for the first time since before i left for south africa. i bought the usual basics, included pears (very nice pears), and spaghetti. i haven't cooked spaghetti in years. it may be incredibly easy to prepare, but in my case self confidence is everything and i need to ease it gently out of the gutter.

the first-use smell wasn't too bad, and the spaghetti came out nicely. i am very proud to say that i've just cooked my first meal in my new apartment :)

!sdrawkcab lla s'ti

the day began well enough - i woke up comfortably around 9am, painted my bathroom mirror (the half-assed red stripe at the bottom was irritating me), and sat online until karnaf decided that it was time for breakfast.

breakfast was excellent, and we were joined by two cute girl-friends of his. we all chatted for a while, and i enjoyed that too.

i made a navigational mistake and walked down ben yehuda to meet with egg - that road just keeps on getting longer and longer :P

egg and i missioned and talked, eventually ending up at a nice bar with a really cute bartender and an eight-hour happy hour. the chilli con carne proved too hot for me, but the afternoon was great. i think i made an ass of myself by giving the bartender my card when we left - i thought there was some kind of a click, and now i'm fairly sure i was wrong :/

aside from the earlier navigational error, i found myself walking very, very slowly today. as in, no hurry to get anywhere and rather deeply stuck into my own thoughts. most of those thoughts centered around the disbelief that my present status has changed so dramatically, and every now and again i giggle when i remember how awesome that is :)

i didn't nap when i got home, although there are blank spots in my memory of the episode of the prisoner that i watched, but i followed that up with an episode or two of battlestar galactica and then got stuck into catching up on comics - in particular, schlock mercenary. i'd have bought the box set immediately if it had cost less than $100 - i'm trying to sort out finances in my head and i'm wary of any and all purchases.

having said that, tonight was quite expensive. i had a cup of coffee while debating urchin's sanity and our extreme communication failures on a bus stop bench, enjoyed ma'ayan hirschbein's performance at levontin (she just gets better and better) with a rum and coke and then a jägermeister, and afterwards caught a shuttle and a mars bar to the ozen bar for daphna and the cookies (they're fantastic!) and a half-litre of murphy's.

i'm still bitter with myself for having walked away from a really good-looking girl who was actually being friendly - i got awkward and i don't know why. meh.

on the way back home i stopped for a half-pita of shuwarma, and was surprised by the guy working there when he exclaimed that he'd thought i was on blades. i think he might have recognized me from before. i turned around and bumped into one of scrapper's friends, and an idiot friend of his who serves in my unit that i've never met before. we sat talking, arguing army, debating music, and then went our separate ways.

my cough has been most horrid today, my lungs feel quite tender and i'm fairly wheezy. on an unrelated note, i spent the day amused by the way i was dressed: mac hall logo shirt, my red red sweatshirt (open), black fingerless gloves, and my new, cheap black shoes with red and black laces. the effect was rather... tidy :P

i'm going to go continue to try to empty my lungs, shower, brush my teeth, and pass out. in the morning i have a few things to do, not least of which being to call up my SC and make extra-doubly sure that he understands that i want out completely, and not a unit transfer.

dilbert's monkey model makes me smile

t'is a lonely friday night

and it's lonely because i don't particularly feel like doing anything, or seeing anyone. i'm tired, i'm pensive, i'm lazy... but most of all, i'm actually pretty relaxed.

---
thursday morning was beautiful, pouring but with peeking rays of sunlight and softly framed pictures all around. i watched the bus i needed drive past, but still made it in time to be rained on by the usual ride's tardiness. when he pulled up, it took some convincing hand-signals to get him to move closer to the curb... if there's no drainage, well, it would be nice if i didn't have to jump a metre to get into the car.

the ride was fairly pleasant, which i attribute to the fact that we're all in "saying goodbye" mode.

i had very little to do in the morning, and even less when our great SC decided to ban guitar playing in the office. @#$%!

after lunch, i finished a presentation with nystire (he managed to cause powerpoint to crash repeatedly) and was done for the day. umm. for good, it seems, as i was told i could go home until further notice.

yep, that's a pretty good sign.

i managed to catch the early shuttle to the train station, which meant no awkward pre-farewell goodbyes with the rest of the unit [as it was, the people i did see before i went began to get emotional] but at the cost of having to ride with some unruly moron shouting and beating his chest trying to impress anyone who would listen. i judged it not worth the energy to get him to pipe down, but only because i knew that with his segment of the population it's very difficult for me to communicate with effectively.

the train ride would have been fine if not for the most appallingly timed telephone survey - apparently the army does that, requesting that random soldiers answer questions about the services it provides. i think it's great that the obviously new russian immigrant [the accent gives her away] who speaks at no less than lightning speed calls strangers to discuss "behaviour". i initially thought she meant mine, which put my back up immediately.

at least i didn't *have* to participate.

after changing out of my uniform, i had lunch at coffeeholic and paid the bank a visit, then stopped by the hardware dude for a chat before picking up my taekwondo gear and hopping the bus to ra'anana.

i'm going to only briefly mention the two kids i made cry:

1. i was asked to make the first one move during a fight. every time he kicked, i jumped back. demonstrating a wonderful inability to learn, he repeated the exact same mistake [not moving] for two full minutes before bursting into tears. i'm guessing it was the frustration.

2. i was asked to stretch the really annoying girl with the big mouth. she seemed to be doing fine, but when i pushed her legs back the second time she panicked, jumped and started crying all at once.
erm - didn't she notice that the rest of us were making squealing sounds and whining? it's a painful thing to do. yes: that means that one will probably experience pain. there's something about her surprise that worries me.

on an entirely unrelated note (okay, not entirely): our instructor has demonstrated to my complete satisfaction that since i've been away she has compromised everything that made her great in order to pander to the mediocre. i do believe that that's the last time i'm going to train with her.
i haven't a clue what i'm going to do to replace taekwondo. i left practice unhappy and with a damaged ankle.

i met scrapper's father and sister, and his family is really nice. they've invited me over for saturday lunch, but i must admit to being a bit awkward about going there. the mongoose and i were supposed to meet a friend of ours, but the two of them cancelled fairly last minute.

one of ze germans contacted me to let me know he'd be happy to recommend me to google. i sent him my cv, but i'm looking for part-time work so i don't really expect there to be a fit.

...

i slept alright last night - my nose is better even if my chest is still full of irritating bits. i was almost late for the social activism meeting at my old university. i grabbed a quick cup of coffee, and spent the bus ride talking to my kibbutz cousin. at the central station in herzeliya i ran into the medic who was with the birthright group i joined, and we discussed the rationale behind purchasing housing as opposed to renting.

while waiting for the meeting to begin, i had no luck getting my visa details from their information line and urchin had no luck with getting in touch with me:
the last communication i received from her was wednesday night, which prompted me to call her up to share my bewilderment and attempt to impress upon her how unappreciated it was:
So i got a question for u: a
friend of urs sends you a
message about a
presentation for her end
of semester. What do u
do?
A - you send her a
message on the same day
of luck because u couldnt
care less.
B - shit! U only
remembered now but well
sure she ll be fine dont
need to do anything.
C- shit u forgot and u send
her a message saying ur
sorry and promising her a
back massage next time u
guys meet because u
know her back is killing
her?

well, it's certainly not going to be C. when i told her i wasn't happy with what she wrote, her response was "it was a joke!". ha ha, no.

alright, back to the meeting: it wasn't quite what i expected. we had a lecture about the prophets, and what their ethics and values were about, and then another lecture on the primary issues at hand in israeli society. some of the debate afterwards was meaningful, some less, and i'm really glad that someone else made the point i wanted to - i would've stuttered and stammered and possibly forgotten what i was going to say :P

from there i skipped off to my mum's bank to deliver something on her behalf, then bussed back to tel aviv where the mongoose picked me up for lunch. i haven't seen his family in ages and today was the perfect day. lunch was great, and it was an afternoon well spent doing not much :)

he dropped me off at home around 9pm, and i got straight into watching battlestar galactica - razor (i didn't realize it was between seasons, but doing a flashback episode doesn't really matter). i've done a round of laundry, eaten badly, and i'm about to shower and go to bed.

---
i'm well impressed with youtube's music discovery project and playlist creation tool, and specifically with the first video it pulled up for me.

sitting can kill you

this man is an asshole.

in other news: i'm very proud to read a slightly cynical look at israelis in haiti.

wrestless

wow - i just watched the wrestler: hardcore.

it's early, but i think i'm going to bed already. i'm completely exhausted, and i think it's more emotional than anything else.