It looks like this apartment comes with a flatmate. I've got a lovely little yellow-striped jumping spider crawling the walls here, and I've been seeing it quite frequently over the past few days. It's only thumbnail sized, so all of you that were terrified of the palm-sized hairy brown beast that made cameo appearances in my last place can relax. It appears to be unable to spin webs and rather roams around to proactively hunt its food. I wish it great success because I don't have any screens on the windows to keep out unwanted insects. I'll be taking suggestions for a name for this new buddy. Gender-neutral names are preferred since I've practically no way of sexing the creature.

In the celebration of Pesach cleaning season, here's a very short video. This little clip is not new, since it's been floating around the Internet for long enough for me to remember it from a previous year. But it's still worth a few chuckles.

So I'm sitting around in the downtown Tel Aviv apartment of the guy I'm dating, hacking on the computer while he's away at work, when suddenly amid the traffic noises outside the window I hear the sound of high-pitched male voices melodically chanting "Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'uman" to the accompaniment of electronic, heavy-beat, dance club music. Blasted out of automobile speakers. At top volume. I laughed not because this could be considered a strange occurrence in my life, but because I realized that events such as this have become part of my version of normalcy. Baruch habah la'aretz.

Yikes! I've been tagged by Steve, so now I must participate in this silly game. Apparently the rules are as follows:

Like Phil!, I think tagging other people borders on obnoxious, but I'll encourage anyone who thinks this is cute to reciprocate. And also, I'd replace "lj" in the rules with "web log of your choice" to be a little less ethnocentric.

1. I prefer to sit in very unusual positions, such as with my legs folded right up against my body so that my knees are at my chin, or with my legs folded in any number of odd ways, really.
2. I write in a very non-linear fashion, jumping back and forth between the various components of a composition, concurrently growing them from initial stubs and skeletons, swapping sentences and paragraphs in and out and around. This applies both to writing in English and to writing in formal computer languages, though the habit may be considered less weird in the latter case.
3. When I type something like parentheses or HTML tags or anything else which has both an opening symbol and a closing symbol, I'll type out both the opening and the closing symbols before going back to type the content in the middle. I think this is mostly motivated by a strong drive to maintain correctness when the nesting gets deep.
4. I prefer text-based computer interfaces, as opposed to GUIs. By this I mean "verbal" interfaces in which I communicate with the computer with words strung together according to well-defined syntactical rules instead of by pointing at pictures. When I feel like being insulting, I'll refer to GUIs as "playing charades".
5. I'm mildly synaesthetic. Mostly with respect to music that occupies my attention, but potentially to anything.

You're a Ravenpuff!: You are a very analytical and ingenius person, someone that likes to invent new things. The way you look at life is with wonder, and sometimes you're even a little naive. But people love you for that trait and they feel the need to protect you from the harsh facts of life so that you can retain your innocence. You are very capable person and when there is trouble people turn to you because you're able to stay calm and collected. You like balance in your life and you try not to make many waves. Even still, if there is something that you believe strongly in, you will commit yourself totally to that cause. Your weakness is that sometimes you can be indecisive and perfectionist, especially about little details and you drive people crazy sometimes with these traits. With the innocence of a Hufflepuff and the calm of a Ravenclaw you will be loved in life!

Which Mix of the Hogwarts Houses are You?
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