Got 91% average score, including extremely stupid stuff. Real coding grades are > 95%. Personally still ok. Must sleep. Week was intensive, especially for people who actually had to learn this stuff. Next week will get more than 10% of the people out of the course (statistics based on previous classes). I *HATE* coding in Hebrew.

Weekly diary entry: all is well. Still not the smartest.

Hosting is dead, have no time to look for new one. Will switch to dumb template. If someone misses the old one - "tough, deal" (© IDF. By "deal" I mean get me a hosting service that supports remote images (I use it for remote .js files)) Classes are peeking up speed and will soon take 120% of my time, which is cool, but also sucks. I rediscovered why I hate VB and human-tongue algorithms. Semitic languages were NOT meant to be used for programming, and no amount of Sumeric legends will convince me in the opposite. The positive news is that people are proving to be as good as I expected. Moreover, I'm still the nerd. Makes me wonder where I have to get to find more people like me, and then consider the possibility that I am truly unique or at least my type is very rare. And then I have to wonder if I should try to fit in. There are 10₂ kinds of nerds in this world: those who grow up to be geeks and those who don't. I sometimes wonder which kind am I. Ramblin' Rover by Andy M. Stewart CHORUS: Oh, there're sober men in plenty, And drunkards barely twenty, There are men of over ninety That have never yet kissed a girl. But gie me a ramblin' rover, And fae Orkney down to Dover. We will roam the country over And together we'll face the world. CHORUS There's many that feign enjoyment From merciless employment, Their ambition was this deployment From the minute they left the school. And they save and scrape and ponder While the rest go out and squander, See the world and rove and wander And are happier as a rule. CHORUS I've roamed through all the nations Ta'en delight in all creation, And I've tried a wee sensation Where the company, did prove kind. And when partin' was no pleasure, I've drunk another measure To the good friends that were treasure For they always are in our minds. CHORUS If you're bent wi' arth-i-ritis, Your bowels have got colitis, You've gallopin' with bollockitis And you're thinkin' it's time you died, If you been a man of action, Though you're lying there in traction, You will get some satisfaction Thinkin', "Jesus, at least I tried." CHORUS There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't. Also, there are those who can live according to that song and those who can't. Do I contain something important for the human genome?

Coders In Arms Part Deux. LOL.

Never format and install OS' when braindead. Naturally, I've accidentally deleted the only copy of the bleeding edge version of the DHTML work (blog V.2). The backup is weeks old and completely useless. Oh well, I don't have time to deal with it and I'll definetily want to rewrite the whole thing after the course because of all the neat stuff I'll learn. Everything is for the best. $^%&%$#%*&^^#&*%#^$^@#%$&%^(*&(^^$^%&^*%#%#$^&%&&^!!!!!!

Must reinstall windows, have no time. Will now make time.

We had gym class today. In civilian clothes. Made me reevaluate my opinion on the uniform and the reason there are girls in the course - let them be, I'll even do their homework. All they have to do is shut up and keep doing those warm ups and stretches. >;-)

First day of school. Boring. Some folks are either dumb or uniquely good at acting it. Discipline needs work. I believe it will get better. If only because we know 25% of the class do not reach the finish line. The two-three smart girls I've spotted only prove the point about the regular girls - they shouldn't be there. So I'm a chauvinist pig, so shoot me. Ha - you can't, you're civilians. ;)

Saw all the people. Opinions wary. Some seem very nice, some very interesting, a few will definitely go far. Others have not made this impression yet. In any case - much better than techs. Coders 0wn. Schoolkids (people who got to this course the usual way, before enlisting, unlike me) are very funny, not knowing how to wear the uniform or salute to officers and stuff. They'll learn. Supposedly the six months will count as part of the 36 I owe the army, meaning I get more paid months of service (or an earlier discharge), but we're not sure because it's unlikely the army won't find a way to screw us over. I don't mind, much. Got divided into our permanent groups (companies, platoons - classes). I'm Red. Red are rumored to be better. Unit Pride! :-)

RIP Ilan Ramon, and the other six astronauts whose names I don't know by heart but are not less important. Let's wait and see if they say it's pilot error. I can just see the conspiracy theorists' heads spin.

The right to vote wrong. I love Democracy.

LMAO. My mom's office (civil engineering, telecommunications) is transferring to ISO9002 compliance. Leslie, I guess you understand. For everyone else: imagine Percy as head of the QA department in WWW. It's a dawn of a new age in the roughneck infrastructure industry. What a joke.

I'm on leave till Sunday, elections are tomorrow, I must meet some people or else I'll never have the chance.

Practicing some perl for the heck of it. I hope to de-rust my l33t c0din9 5|<1llz LOL.

Forgot to blog about my cousin whom I've met, however briefly, on Wednesday. He went to some tests while I went to the previous session/year's graduation ceremony (which R0X'd BTW. Ever seen a hundred programmers march in complex formations, salute and shout, accompanied by a live military band? Didn't think so.) to help setting it up and cleaning after they were done (cheap labor). He had to be there at 7am and he lives more than two hours away, so he spent the night at my place. Anyway, dude is so clueless it's sad. He is half a year and a day younger than me and therefore leaves high school this year. He doesn't want to go to college although he easily can and he has no idea about what's going on in the army and what kind of position he can get. Or at least what kind of assignment he wants to get. He can get so screwed over, it's not even funny. 96.125% on the SATs and I'm telling you - unless he gets his act together, he'll be driving trucks for three years. For next to nothing, let me remind you. Clueless underage stubborn idiots. I sound frighteningly like my dear mother. :Q

I'm probably missing my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity now, but I still can't believe it's actually happening. There I sat in a bus and enters Girl: thick long dark red hair, all the right shape, right size, freckles on cute face, non-baggy sweater, school bag on shoulder. Sits down in front of me, takes the sweater off (interesting lyrics on shirt), puts it into bag, takes out a copy of the Silmarillion (in Hebrew unfortunately) and starts reading without obvious signs of utter boredom.

She's sitting straight with her back on the back of the chair and her legs on either side of the schoolbag. The effect is tantalizing. I'm staring. She is either deep inside Tolkien's world or makes a point of not noticing. I'm chickening out, pulling my notepad and writing this.

It took a bump on the road to divert my attention from her to the window and see it's my stop. I swear I would have missed it otherwise. I kept on looking at her while the bus passed me. It was probably pretty pathetic, but my resolution is to at least start talking to her next time I see her (which is very convenient because it's probably never).

*Some time later*

Been told I'm guarding the base on Thur-Fri-Sat. we'll see how nice it is. Maybe will have some time to listen to music and read. And talk to people. I still don't remember most of the names.

Most unpleasant was to see the most annoying person from BT in out group. I sure hope we won't be in the same class. Actually, I'm going to talk to our temp. commander about making sure I don't.

Edit, four years later. The annoying guy just disappeared. Don't know what happened to him, but I haven't seen him since. Nor the girl from the bus, unfortunately.

Armed again. Volunteered to be on guard duty. So I have a gun and I don't do anything. Nice.

Note to self: don't lose touch with the nice people you get to meet - they're well worth the time spent on the occasional phone call.

I'm wet for the fifth time today and yet I'm happy. I was transferred to the base and got the shoulder insignia thingies. I'm in the course (until I'm thrown out ;-) ) and I have free time till it starts (about two weeks). I'll be home every day (I asked to be in the lodgings everyone else is getting but they said I live too close) which means I can't copy homework but also that I'll have internet access. Statistically, that lowers my chances at successfully getting through, but I guess I'll just have to work harder. It also sucks from the socializing point (there are girls in the course. Non-stupid and non-ugly ones!), but then again - we have twelve hours a day, five days a week (dunno about Fridays) for six months, to be together. Thank god the people seem nice.

Can't believe I'm blogging now. Anyway, I think I'm in. I was sent home to fetch some papers and we'll see what happens next. The weirdest thing happened on the way back: I was crossing a street and a cop approaches; I'm already considering whether he can or can't file a complaint for jaywalking when he says: "hi Ze'ev, wassup?"... I tripped (or, more precisely, slipped) and he caught me by the collar before my arse got into the puddle, I looked up at his face and of course, it's a guy from my tent in basic training. He wanted to be a "blue" cop, got it and he's already on the job. Awesome for him.

Still home. Apparently they are in a serious shortage of coders, because they send everyone who's not completely dumb to do the tests. Well, the short version at least. What I got was two hours long, not the full seven hours usually associated with the course. No answer yet, but I'm coming back there tomorrow, so we'll see. The word is that those who fail it get the operator/tech course, which, at this point, suits me fine. Met some people from my school who are already there. If I fail and they pass, it would be truly sad.

Talked to a guy I know through my mother's connections that has been through that thing I'm going to try and get into on Sunday. He says the tests are easy, the course is hard, the job is boring, the people vary and the paychecks when you're done are fat. But he said it's extra three years, not two like I thought. Ouch. Then again - I'll definitely have time to get a degree from openu and maybe even take a break for a masters, if and when I decide I want one. So I still want to go. Now, I hope my brain has not completely deteriorated.