Timing

I'm pretty crappy when it comes to timing things. Be it giving time for how long something will take to setting a time and date with someone and actually sticking to it. Things with you are the exception to the rule. I don't know why, but with you the majority of the times (and I remember only one time) I was punctual and good with timing. With the rest of the universe, timing and me have no relation or is purely coincidental (ask my friend G.). Today I discovered that I have another friend (yes I have a lot of friend ;-)) that has worse timing than me. He called me this afternoon (thinking that I was in Israel) to offer me a job. The job was setting up a big data center based on Linux. The job is in San Francisco. 2 things that would make a dream come true. But as luck would be I'm not looking for a job. I have one. I love what I do and I'm enjoying it. This isn't the first time that he approached me with an offer. He did it twice more in the past. Both times I wasn't looking for job either, so it fell too. Actually it's my timing that sucks here and not his. Oh well.

hasta mañana

Initiative

Following Deviant Brainwave's suggestion (be sure to check her blog at: http://www.deviantbrainwave.org), I here by declare February 30th as the Unlikely Pilgrim's special day. You can find information about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_30

Enjoy

hasta mañana

Just another day

One day one of my previous dogs (Tony) was resting and lying in my parents living room enjoying the cool floor in a hot summer day. Not having anything better to do I decided to bug her a little (not in any harmful way). So I got on my hands and knees and got close to her. I started barking at her and nudge her with my head. She opened her eyes looked at me: What the hell does he want with me now...? Since she didn't play along and tried to ignore me I decided to stop, but before I got on my legs I looked around. The world looked very different from that angle. I, unfortunately, don't know how to express the difference. I looked back at my dog and tried to imagine what does the world look to her. The sights, the smells, tastes, noises and sense of touch... I don't know why, but the thought of what day it was came to mind. While we know what day of the week it is (usually) and each day has a special meaning, dogs do not have that notion. For them each day is the same and doesn't have a name or a meaning. I new that the names of the days and their meaning was man made but only then it struck me just how artificial the name days and their meaning are artificial (it was also a corner stone in me becoming an atheist but that is a different story). I decided then that for me there isn't, and won't be, really a difference between the days. Not I think that each day is like the one before or the next, but rather that I won't let something artificial influence my behavior in one way or another. This belief I act on myself and not on others. I know that the rest of humanity does not share my belief in the matter so when it comes to other people I act normal and fuss about special days: Birthdays, Weekends, Holidays and any other celebrated day or date.
Why am I writing this? Because other people tried to fuss about me yesterday and I tried to down play it. I feel I owe an explanation why.

New life & do no evil

As you know I decided to be selfish. I brought my dog over here. He is actually already here. He passed the flight just well. He did create havoc: On the way to the plane, the box fell of the cart and opened up. Not being a sucker and missing an opportunity (unlike me), he jumped out and started running on the airport runways. They did manage to catch him (something rare they succeed to do). They called of the plane my friend and since he knew her a little bit trusted her and got back into the box and onto the plane. 15 hours later I picked him up from the airport. He didn't understand what was going around him and was pretty much in a state of sock.
His new life in America started on the wrong foot, not because of him, but because of his owner (that would be me). I still don't have a house for myself and thus don't have accommodations for him. With that the only thing left for me was to put him in a kennel. So now he's sleeping in another cage. So instead of having a great life in a new place and enjoying it. He is now in a jail...
Yes, it's temporary, but the first step in this is sure crappy one.
Google's slogan is a simple one: "do no evil". As a geek this slogan presses all the right buttons. Though I doubt that a commercial company can actually be a good guy and do no evil. I would like to be the same, but I keep missing the target. And missing the target sucks. BIG TIME.

Now

The following was written on Thursday around 1AM Israel time...

Just about now there is an airplane taking off from Ben Gurion airport. In the cargo bay of that airplane there is 1 box. This box holds 1, probably very scared, dog. My dog. I don't understand what is going on with me right now. So many things are going through my head now because of this little thing. Most of them are worries about the flight, the landing and the new life that I forced on him. I hope that all of them will be for nothing...

Bicycles

In my farewell letter to the bicycle group I wrote that the rides on the weekend gave me the fuel to deal with all the crap that one has to deal with during the week. Only in the last couple of weeks I learned how accurately this sentence describes what those bike rides meant to me and helped me mentally. There is a park just around the corner (literally) and since I got here I always told myself that I will go rent a bicycle and ride across the park. My initial thought was that it would be more like a ride in Park Hayarkon, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this isn't the case :-) The park has 25KM of bike trails for all levels of mountain bike riders. The initial ride was actually pretty much like Park Hayarkon. Once we (My friend G. came along) entered the trail's area a big smile spread on my face: There are some real bike trails here :-) I immediately entered one that was label "novice" thinking that since it's labeled "novice" I would be simple to everyone. From my point of view there was nothing challenging in the trail, but from G.'s point of view this was very hard (to say the least). He did warn me that he hadn't ridden a bike in years, but I translated it to: you never forget how to ride a bicycle. I didn't take into account that the sentence is only true to the part of "keeping the balance on a bicycle" and not to things like switching gears and adapting yourself to the fast changing nature of a bike trail. G. had to tell it to me a few times before I understood what he meant and fitted the bike ride to something that we will both enjoy and leave him with a taste of: I want to do it again. It was a short ride, but a lot of fun non the less and a great reminder of how much I love riding bicycles in nature. Unfortunately I still can't go and buy a bicycle for me :-( I still don't know what kind of bicycle I can afford. What and where I can ride etc ...
Just a little more patience ...

hasta mañana

And the Oscar goes to...

We have a winner. Well actually I made a decision which house I will rent. It wasn't an easy decision and it was made harder because for once I decided to go against my instinct and listen to what (the majority of) people around me that heard about or saw the place(s) (either one or both). So without any further ado... I decided to rent the house from chapter 2: The town house with the small patio. There are numerous reasons and I will try to write them down. Feel free to comment on them (i.e. I want you to comment on them):
1. Doesn't matter what the size of the back yard. My dog would have gotten bored pretty quickly and would simply find a corner and doze off and sleep. Not because it's not big enough, but rather because there is nothing note worthy to attract attention and react to it.
2. It's a nicer neighborhood which means more and longer walks for him.
3. It's closer (and very close in general) to work. I will be able to go home in the middle of the day to take him out for long walks.
4. It's better architecturally. This one is for me. I think I will enjoy more being at home there. From the perspective of my dog it means I will be more at home (regardless of the mid day walks).
5. A woman told me that girls will feel better if they come to the second house rather than the first house. From my dogs point of view this is bad news ;-)
6. It's closer to work, less to commute. I don't like to commute in heavy traffic for 45 minutes in the morning. It requires too much attention when I still don't want to be totally awake.
7. The landlord is someone that I actually saw and know (though superficially). We after all buy with our eyes and the majority of inter personal communication is through body language. I hope that the fact that the landlord is a stunning young woman has nothing to do with it ;-) Actually it has nothing to do with it. She's not my type.


Privacy is just around the corner. In all 4 dimensions ;-)


hasta mañana

dilema

It turned out that the landlord of the house (from hats chapter 1) is willing to drop the background check if I give him a bigger security deposite. I received this information yesterday, while I was busy filling up the application for the 2nd house (from hats (chapter 2)). This started a dilema in me (that is still unresolved): Which of the 2 places should I rent. Obviously I can't rent both and not because I don't want. I would if I had the money, but my financial situation isn't one that allows me such a laxury, and if it did I would be renting something totally different. Back to the dilema: On the one hand I have the house (from chapter 1). The good things about that house are: It has a very big fenced back yard. It has a garage (I know it's stupid, but I always dreamed of having a garage for a car). It has a gas stove (I know I don't cook much, but it's never too late to start and I do want to start). The bed things about that house are: The neighborhood is not as nice. It's further than work (not by a lot but commute will be a problem). The house is smaller.
The good things about the 2nd house are: It's in a very nice and well maintained neighborhood. The inside of the house is nicer. It's bigger. It's very close to work, It's better architected. The drawbacks of the 2nd house are: It doesn't have its own dirveway. It only has a small fenced patio. It has a dog size limit that I will pass, but the owner assured me they don't check the size of the dog.
The perfect thing would be if you took the back yard for the 1st house and put it instead of the patio of the of the 2nd house...
I know that the real question is where will my dog have a better life? It's not so easy to answer and here is why: The 1st house has a big yard where he can go about. But I think he will get bored by it eventually. Since the neighborhood isn't really nice I feel that I will limit my walks with him to the bare minimum. Since the house isn't near he will see me less and I won'y be able to take him for walks as much. The 2nd house is near and I will be able to get home in the middle of the day to take him out for a walk instead of only in the morning and evenings. The neighborhood is nicer which means longer walks.
I narrowed the question a little more during the writing of this post: How much will I take him out on either of the houses? I don't have an anwer to that. Time to go check....

Hasta mañana

Hats (chapter 2)

Since I was not very successful in house hunting and most of the places I contacted refused to accept me because of the size of my dog I decided to use the moto: If you build it they will come... I posted on a website what I was looking for and received replies from renters that will accept big dogs. The house from the previous post is one such reply. Another reply I received was about a nice house not far from work. The Israeli equivalent would be to live in Raanana and work in Herzlia. Here it's almost unheard of (right now I drive 40KM to get to work from my friend's home). It's a very nice house. Very well maintained in the middle of a very well kept neighborhood. So my dog would have a great place to walk. My cosigner was very pleased with what he saw and was inthusiatic about the place. The only drawback in the place was that it doesn't have a back yard. It has a small fenced patio (about 3 by 5).

Hats (chapter 1)

After thinking about it I decided to be selfish and bring my dog over here. I even found the perfect place: A small private house with a very big fenced back yard that would have been perfect for me and him. The neighborhood was nice and it was in a good place in the middle of the region I'm looking for. It was a little expensive but my original post on the internet claimed that I'm willing to pay 15% more than this house was for. My friends and boss that saw the place said it was perfect. Armed with their feedback I went ahead and decided to rent the place. I filled the paper work and was missing a small thing: A cosigner. You are no one if you don't have a good credit history and since I just moved here, I have nothing. This makes my old dream of absolute anonymity come true. But as much as I love anonymity it also limits one's possibilities. Since the owner lives in another state and has to protect himself. He wanted to receive assurances that he can sleep well at night and that the renter (that would be me) whom he never met wouldn't screw him up by getting away and leaving the owner in debt. I also learned that the owner has a mortgage on the house and he's paying for it by renting the place and mortgage payments influence immensely one's credit history. Fair and square. My cosigner on the other hand is afraid of identity theft: Since it's a big country there must be a method to be able to be identified without appearing in person. This is done by giving social security number, driver's license (equals to ID) and other information. Giving this information to some unknown stranger that you never met before is a wide open door to the stranger to assume the identity of my cosigner possibly ruin my cosigner's life. Both sides in the argument are right and neither is wrong. Still I got stuck in the middle without the ability to rent the place and live happily ever after. So I was very unhappy (and that is no small understatement) yesterday evening when my cosigner and the landlord didn't reach an agreement about the lease. A friend offered To be my cosigner and give his information instead. I refused the offer, because I didn't want to expose him to a possible identity theft.

Hasta Manaña