Beyond High-School

Yesterday I've handed in my first paper since high school.
It was the first assignment I got, in the open-university course that started only a few weeks ago - "Introduction to Computer Science, Java and OOP". Even though I knew about it month ago, my natural laziness-instinct forced me to wait just till the very last day.. so by the time the clock showed 2:00AM, my paper was finally done. Lucky for me, you can send them over email these days.

I've never wrote even a single line of code in Java before, but I've been dealing with C# quite a lot in past few years.. which is basically quite the same, with just a few slightly differences (mostly in namespaces and classes' names)
Just like the Microsoft way- "someone else has a new idea or technology? Just wait a few years, and if it turns out as a success - you either buy it, or make a better replication of it."

So it seems that the course, or at least most of it, should be quite easy to accomplish. For now, it's so easy and basic, it's almost annoying. Yet, I'm trying not to belittle the class' chores too much.
For the first time in my life, I'd be really disappointed if I won't finish this course with (very?) high grades. Wish me luck.

I Usually Wouldn't Post Such Stuff..

But the "59% Samantha Fox" was quite funny, actually:
(thanks to Jilli for the link)


Well.. I do hope to be as funny and creative as Ryan Stiles or Nathan Lane [one day?], but who the heck are those other guys?
edit: AHH! Backstreet Boys. yuck. tfu. blah.

Update Ashes

Even when it's just an upgrade to the currently installed version, after installing a new version of Firefox, it opens a new tab, indicating that you now have the latest version of it.
Too bad, they don't remove nor change the old versions' pages - so they all show the exact same announcement:



You might say it's only a minor version update, but hey - it's a security minor update. So the user should know if the version he has just installed really is the latest version.. right?

Purim 2007 (Edited for Link)

I think Purim is now officially the Jewish holiday I like the most. So many colors, clothes, hats and accessories all around, makes it all fun to fool around.

This year I decided to disguise myself as a Domo-Kun. Wearing a cool spiked-toupee, facial make up and a specially-made-by-my-mother dress(?), and vuala!- you've got a Domo!
(click for bigger, more photos will be uploaded later)

What's Up, Doc?

During the last few weeks, I've been both to the gastro and surgeon regular, every-once-in-a-few-months, inspections . If to summon it up in one sentence.. well, I guess everything seems to be in order, at least for the time being.

The first which I went to, was the gastro doctor.
Judging by my looks and blood tests I recently had, he told me I've never been as healthy as I am now (or at least since he first met me). Odd thing is, I've stopped taking my vitamin pills more than half a year ago, yet none of them seems to be missing. Oh well, who am I to argue with that?
I asked him whether or not I should go through another some kind of a gastro examinations soon, since no one has seen my belly from the inside in the last two years. Answer was, that as long as I feel fine, there's no reason to penetrate into the bowel once again - because that might erupt new problems. Though, on the other hand (and I can sure tell that from my experience, that the physical feeling doesn't necessarily reflects what happens on the inside), sometimes a bit more examinations are required, to make sure everything is really OK. Reminds me of the Schrodinger's Cat Paradox, when you come to think of it.
The next question, was whether or not I should change the dosage of the drugs that I get every day (which should be based on my weight). Just like before, he decided not to increase it. Logic says, that if I feel fine now, there's no need for extra treatment. Plus, that way I can increase the amount of drugs when I'll really need it (hopefully, that moment would never come. but who knows?)
So at the bottom line, nothing changed here, just like I said at the beginning. Oh, and my weight (in full uniforms, including the army boots) is around 67kg. Fine for me, but I should really start going to the gym soon..

Next one to visit was the surgeon.
Just like before, nothing really changed here, either. A few kneads around the belly, a few questions about how I'm doing during the every-day life, and that's it.
Asked him if I should try to use some ointments, in order to make the scar look better, but now it's too late to try that again. Though, he did mention there are plastic surgeries, that can make it look much better.. but I should wait a few more years before doing that.

If nothing goes wrong, I'll meet them once again, at the end of summer 2007.
Only now, I think I'm really starting to realize the true mental affects of all that had happened in the past two and a half years. But that's a story for some other time..

The Road Less Traveled By

There I stood, and had to make a choice. A choice that might, or might not, influence my career life (if any, that is) at least for the next few years. Will I continue my army service once more, or finally move to a new life as a "free" civilian?

If there's one thing people all around the world love to hate, it's their job. And specially in israel, when it comes to being a soldier.
"Outside", friends told me, "you'll get more money! You won't have to wear those icky uniforms, and if you're lucky enough- you might even get your own company-car".

But.. is that it? Is that what it's all about? Can person achieve happiness only thanks to the amount of cash he has, the gadgets he owns? If you ask me, the answer would be that money and technology can help you improve your life style, but true satisfaction comes from a totally different place.
And if that's not enough, I'm not an officer either - a fact which leads directly to the well-known conclusion, that at least in this lifetime, I won't get a career in the army. So it's obvious, that eventually (and that wouldn't be too far away from today), I should, and I would, leave the army.

So why should I stay at the army, at least a little bit, despite all of the above?
First, and maybe the most important reason of all, I love my job. I love the feeling of working for something that is beyond money or stocks. I've never been too much into patriotism, but I guess I still got some undisputed values at the back of my mind. Some people might claim that it doesn't worth the effort, but anyone can look from the side and criticize - but it only counts if you do something to make things better.
You might say that I did what I could, and that's it (after all, I am a volunteer to the army service). Plus, it's all nice and touchy to think you can make things better, but you do have to earn your own bread, somehow. Here, comes the profession-related reason: I've been promised to move to a new job, in which I will gain more expirience, soon become some kind of a team-leader's assistant, and get to command in another course.

Still, besides the one last argument, some people might say I could get quite the same job with a better salary if i'd only quit the army. Maybe they are right, maybe they aren't.
Maybe it's because I've had more than one opportunity to leave the army in the past, that the idea doesn't look to me as great as it may seem to someone else. But one thing I can surely say: That I know myself well enough, to tell that I could wait one or two more years for these jobs, outside the army - but for letting go an opportunity to do a second job and commanding a second course at the army - for such an act, i would have never forgive myself.


While most of the people would leave the army, here I am - just like in Robert Frost's poem - taking the road less traveled by. Have I made the right decision? Did i think about it well enough before deciding? Only time will tell..

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

- The Road Not Taken / Robert Frost