not quite a cease-fire

well for everyone who may have been wondering...here is some video footage of what was happening here in haifa during the fighting in july and august.

this little video shows skilled director yasmine showing off her talents as me and anyssa attempt to add a bit of humor to a situation we had no experience reacting to. at any rate, here it goes...a siren-alert went off, we stayed in protected areas, then we looked out the window to see a large cloud of black smoke coming from a nearby location. anyssa and myself thought we were having our photo taken, hence the stillness to our reaction...but somehow i think the video of us trying to "pose for" a picture with fear is brilliant. at any rate, we had a good laugh or two at it...and i hope you do as well.

re-connecting

ahhh what a wonderful day today. and by wonderful i do not mean the weather. summer has finally arrived on us here in haifa, and as unbearable as it is right now i cannot imagine how this would have been a few weeks ago when there were rockets being shot at us and we had to be in our safe protected areas (usually areas with no windows, if you get my 'drift').

but on a serious note - today i finally entered the 21st century and am now the proud owner of a DSL connection in my flat. a very exciting day for me indeed...and here is my story:

there was a large number of us all to sign up for DSL at the same time. and about 2 weeks ago they started installing it in various flats. i thought, for sure my time will come soon. everyone kept getting these phone calls. so then i find out that my appointment is on tuesday the 29th of august, almost 3 weeks after they started to install...and trust me, there weren't that many of us in this batch (18 to be exact).

so i find out that a friend of mine, who lives no more than a 2 minute walk door-to-door was getting his DSL installed over lunchtime. so i just "happened" to be at his flat and when the technician arrived i acted a bit surprised and asked if he had time could he just come to my flat, across the street, and install my connection. turns out he had my information in his car, along with one additional modem. perfect!

so we head over to my flat and let me just tell you what the "installation process" entails. he brings the modem into my flat. he opens the box. he unrolls the cables. he plugs the modem into the electric socket. he plugs one cord into the phone jack and then he plugs the ethernet cord into my computer.

at this point my computer is on, and i am assuming in order to feel like he is not so useless...he sets up a new internet connection using the 'new internet connection wizard' on my computer. then we use my friends log in details because i have conveniently forgotten to print mine out, and i'm on my way to the wild world wide web. and to think i was going to have to wait another seven days for this?

needless to say, i am very happy today and even the disgusting weather isn't doing much to drag me down. now, if only i were at home....

killin' time

in case you stumbled here because you were mind-numbingly bored and wanted something to distract you....

try this game. cute little story puzzle. basic plot: bird steals satellite from little mouse. little mouse has to try to get it back by chasing bird and ends up in random open areas with strange tools he has to put together to make contraptions to get him out of there. you can't go wrong, seriously, the game won't let you make a wrong move. but it is a fun way to kill some time.

Hez dispensers...

enjoy

tomorrow

will this be over tomorrow?

title: i don't know
by: exploding dog

the blitz-meister

forgot to mention this.

one of the benefits of being in a country that is a hot topic in the news is that you get to see loads of reporters, tv crews, etc. all around. in haifa, there are lots of these vans set up with satellites and mini reporting stations. you will be in your house watching sky news for example and they are interviewing some expert of blah, blah and then you go to where they are broadcasting from to get a coffee and there you see the expert and the guy that was interviewing him. it is pretty cool. and by cool i mean - when your life has been put under martial law and there is nothing left to do in town and you can't really go anywhere anyways, even the most minimal of activities becomes the highlight of your week or 'pretty cool'.

anyways, the other day i was at the airport waiting for some people to arrive and out walks wolf blitzer of cnn. wearing jeans and a dark blue blazer, he had 2 small suitcases and a gucci bag. well done, wolfie.....

mighty mo???

moritz, the main star of this "film", is the father of a 1 and a half year old daughter. i know, i know...
poor mitra (his wife). love ya, mo...only you could pull this off!!!

enough of this boring "war"

as distractions have earned their weight in gold around here, it has forced a higher level of creativity in order to keep yourself entertained in this situation.

as my office has temporarily relocated, i am now sitting in an office next to the famous bwc "vegan". for those that don't know, it has become a regular part of my day to find flaws in his vegan-ness, which is not that difficult considering the leather-wearing-cheesecake-tasting-and-macaroni-and-cheese-eating habits he so often displays.

the other day, as work was winding down, i saw that his office has a whiteboard in it, which was filled with a to-do list. i quickly wiped off the list (it couldn't have been that important) and rushed into my office to unleash the creative power of my dryboard marker.

i returned minutes later and presented the "vegan" with this:

here is a photo of the artist (moi) presenting the painting to the "vegan":

and just to prove that he is not infact the "vegan" many thought he was, i present you all with proof of his desire to chow down on some animal carcass:

so tell me folks, are these the behaviours of a disciplined vegan?