Pushing through

Everyone in Israel knows the most difficult part of the school-year is between Sukkoth and Chanukah, because it's the longest stretch without holydays.

Well, I just got back from a week-long conference in Eilat :-)

I really had fun: although I feel guilty about sitting through only 50% of the talks, it was the first time I've enjoyed myself in Eilat. Since it's December, the weather was incredible - despite the fact that it was quite bleak - temps where around 25 at all times… I went drinking a few times, and I even rented a bike from the hotel one day and went for a ride along the coast. Speaking of the hotel - the Herods is supposed to be a really luxurious hotel - but I was dissapointed: maybe my expectations where too high, but the room I had above the conference center wasn't really that impressive.

All-in-all, people were nice, and it was time well spent career-wise.

The hard part is crashing back to reality - I have two mid-terms right after the one-day-Chanukah-break I get from the University, and I bet the boss will NOT let me have a few days off..

Discipline

I know I'm not a diligent blogger - It's been three weeks, and this is only my fourth post - oh, the shame, the shame.
Although I don't feel the frequency of the posts is gonna change much in the future, I do believe this week I've had reason enough for not updating the blog: one of my lab-mates has gone Dr., and now he's leaving us for a Post position at Utrecht University. I tell you, he's one lucky SOB: I'm not sure he's gonna accomplish much there, but he's going to have the time of his live NOT doing it, that's for sure.
Well, that left me pretty busy, taking up some of the workload - which I'm sure is gonna continue for a while, till everything evens out again (or I just collapse - whatever comes first).
I'll spare any reader any Hapoel updates - it's better to live in ignorance for now, I hope things will turn around.

Didn't I just have plans to do the coolest thing ever?

I think the last time I went out for a beer, or movie, or anything at all for that matter, was 2.3 million years ago. I feel sooo old!
Now that the semester has started, and I actually have to get up early every morning, by the time I get home, 7 or 8 PM, I'm very very tired. And it's not like I go to sleep then and there, I just chill in bed and watch the stupidest show on TV, or just some basketball game, or maybe something I downloaded that day. And weekends are even worse: Friday is very PG-14 almost everywhere in town, so if we don't drive to Tel-Aviv there's nothing to do, apart from catching a movie maybe. And Saturday - well, let's just say I usually just see some friends in the afternoon, and we don't have the momentum to keep going into the night...
Maybe if I had more money, I could go out for something more then a beer, like a good dinner or something, and that would give me the push I need. Then again, if I had more money, I'd find something else to spend it on.
What I need is a good women to drag me out of my cave - or better yet - give me a better reason to stay at home :-)

Monday morning bl..em...reds?

Ok, so Hapoel won last night, but the game was the ugliest I've seen in a while. Defense started looking good only late in the third quarter, and offensively we where awful - relying too much on personal efforts then on team plays. What bugged me the most was the attitude of the crowd, especially the people around me - after two minutes they started yelling at our star player to go home, cursing our team more then our weekly opponents. I just can't grasp how anyone can be that short-sighted: we really have a good team this year, and the downside of building a team from scratch is the prolonged adjustment period. We just have to wait a couple of month before passing judgment, that's all. Oh well...
I'm now at work, and my prof. is driving me crazy: he started using a small sync program, after windows briefcase started failing him. At first everything was working like clockwork - I explained everything to him: showed him what every button does and so on. Now, after two weeks, the thing is demanding money, because it thinks we're using it commercially. So, my newest mission is to convince him to pay them 20 bucks. Cheap bastard.

No, it's not judgment day yet.

Finally, after much thought, I decided to through my thoughts out to the blogosphere, and see what sticks.
I can't promise any newsworthy posts, or even funny musings - I just feel compelled to take part in this huge new culture being created around us.
The framework I've taken upon myself dictates that everything I'll post will only be personal to me: you won't find me publishing names, personal info or just dirty secrets. I tend to vent when pushed to write, and I don't want to offend anyone, so If I do say something like that - I'll try to leave it as generic as I can...
What I will write about is stuff I think is interesting, along with my personal thoughts or feelings - as you might have already guessed I'll tend to rumble just because it's cheaper then therapy :-)