Journal Entries
The Way It's Going (news from LadyP)
Posted Aug 15, 2017
So, haven't been around here in a very long time (my PS is woefully un-updated, and will woefully remain that way, and I'm not even gonna _think_ about all the backlog...). I got all sorts of RL stuff to take care of, and I spend way too much time on Facebook, and this place sort of slipped away. 
I know many others aren't around anymore, too. Online communities do that. But a few of you still are here, so I figured that this bit of news is worth sharing; after all, this is where it all started - this is where Dan and I first met (or "met", but hey, online definitely counts). We've now been together for about 12 years 
and we've had all sorts of ideas to solve the long-distance thing, but nothing that worked well. But we're still working on it - specifically, we've now come to the conclusion that since in the next few years I can't see myself leaving Israel (PhD, work, some family stuff I won't go into right now), it's probably most reasonable if Dan comes here. Maybe after a few years we'll both move to the US, but in the meanwhile we can at least start our life together.
(
The biological clock stuff is a terrible cliché, so I kinda hate to be thinking in those terms, but, well... yeah, we're not getting any younger.)
So to that end, in two weeks, I'll be travelling back to the Pacific Northwest for a much-needed four-week vacation, and at some point during those four weeks we will drop by the courthouse and get married, in order to start the process that will, at a yet-undetermined point later (but hopefuuly not _too much_ later), enable him to come live here.
It's basically just a technical thing - just getting a piece of paper for logistical purposes - but it still makes me happy, which seems a good reason to share it. 
Discuss this Journal entry [15]
Latest reply: Aug 15, 2017
Powder Keg
Posted Jul 5, 2014
I haven't dropped by in a while, and have a bunch of backlog to catch up, but with the recent news from Jerusalem, I thought I should probably let you all know that I'm alright. 
So, yeah, I'm alright, folks.
However, I am currently spending the weekend at my parents' apartment, which is in French Hill, so a lot closer to the various... stuff. It's been rather unnerving, hearing choppers and occasional bangs (we often get firework-bangs from Isawiyya and Shoafat, and I can't really tell them apart from gunshots or something like that, but the _context_ makes it a lot worse) and wondering what exactly is going on, and what will happen next. From the few updates I've seen (I try to avoid the news), some other places have seen stone-throwings and people lighting things on fire and general violence and horribleness.
I'm trying to be optimistic. My parents went to their regular greengrocer in nearby Wadi Joz, today, and saw some remnants of yesterday's mess (thrown stones, overturned garbage, things like that), but said things were quiet otherwise. So perhaps the crazies on both sides will settle down soon, and things will go back to normal.
On the other hand, the last week or two has really been pretty bad. Not just because of the actual events (the three boys kidnapped and murdered, the racist hooligans' lynch-leaning riots downtown, the Arab riots in the Eastern city, that murdered Arab kid who might be some twisted act of revenge or it might turn out to be some kind of blood libel... all of it) but the general atmosphere around it. Especially on 'my' side - I mean, not that the Palestinians don't have their share of 
s, they do, but it hurts more, and scares me more, when it's from the side I'm supposed to be on. When it's my people (and however far my opinions might be from theirs, however much I despise how they think and what they do, on some level I can't help feeling it _is_ my people). It feels like the extremists are becoming more mainstream. People calling for revenge. People calling for blood. It feels like all sorts of ugly things that have been festering for a while are now bursting open and bubbling to the surface, and with all this hatred and wrath on both sides, well, that is very scary.
Hence the journal title. I desperately hope things _won't_ get explosive any time soon, but with this atmosphere, it feels like they might, and I don't know if it can be stopped, or if it's past the point of no return.
Kinda makes me want to just get the hell away from here, but that's not really something I feel like I can--or should--do right now. Too many other things going on that I don't feel I can detach from.
And, well, like I said, I hope it'll all settle down. We've been through other rounds of mutual horribleness, before. I hope we'll get through this one, too.
(But I have some money in the bank, and a European passport, and a wonderful man missing me over in the States; these are things I find myself bearing in mind, just in case...)
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Latest reply: Jul 5, 2014
Conned
Posted May 3, 2014
Just some thoughts that I thought of writing down back around Passover, and only got around to doing so now:
First, a bit of an introduction:
Israel has a smallish but fairly active geek community, and so we get a number of geek-cons each year. The biggest one is I-Con, a 3-day event in Sukkot (around September/October), followed by the 2-day Olamot in Passover (around April); both are in Tel Aviv, and are more 'general issue' cons, covering many sub-geekdoms. Then you have a few smaller, single-day ones, like Meorot in Hannukah (Around November-December) in Jerusalem, which is more strictly science and sci-fi, Mythopia in the summer which is more fantasy-oriented (organised by the Tolkienians and Potterists), and the more geekdom-specific cons like Giborim (roleplay gamers), Harukon (Anime/Manga), StarCon (Star Trek), Buffyfest (Whedonists, obviously), and probably some others I can't remember offhand. 
It's really quite impressive, for how small we are!
(There are also some internal politics between and within the different organisations, about cons - some of which even got to litigation at some point - but I am NOT gonna go into that stuff, because it just gets me 
, seriously.)
Over the last few years, I've become a bit more immersed in the Israeli geek community, and the local geek-cons. I've sorta been, before: back in 2006 Neil Gaiman was a guest at I-Con, and I went to hear him speak and get a copy of Good Omens signed, but wasn't really interested in anything around that; then a few years back my brother broke his leg and needed someone to drive him to Olamot, and being the most geek-inclined member of the family I was the one to do so, and happily spent some time there, but afterwards didn't really consider going back. Then, maybe... three years ago? Four? I'm not really sure - anyway, I stopped by Meorot, because it sounded interesting (there was a HHGTTG talk, I remember, about the significance of 42!), and was right here in Jerusalem, so hey, why not.
And that, my friends, was my gateway-con.
Because I met people there, see. I made friends. And then, come Passover, I suddenly found out that some of my new friends will be giving talks at Olamot, and figured that hey, I should go see them.
And then I made _new_ friends, and it just snowballed from there...
It's fun. It is _so much_ fun.
(I don't go to all of the cons, of course; just Meorot, Olamot and I-Con, and that's plenty enough.)
And one of the things I like about it is that, unlike what I know of some of the cons abroad (from the one I visited in London, and from what I've seen about the big US ones like SDCC or NYCC or whatnot), the Israeli cons are very content-oriented. Sure, you have some merch stalls, and you can see some neat cosplayers (more and more every year, and some of the costumes are very impressive), and you can just walk around and hang out with your friends; now and again a con will even have some big-name special guest, and you'll get the standard Q&As and signings and so on.
But what it is all built about is the talks and panels. It could be anything from a discussion of gender in scifi, to an analysis of different military models in Lord of the Rings, to halakhic problems for Jewish space-travellers, to a bunch of science/engineering people nitpicking bad science in movies (all events that I have been to and enjoyed). And almost always, the people speaking will be _from_ the Geek Community. People who simply find a subject they care about, and decide to give a lecture about it.
So the main feeling - and the thing that I absolutely love about these things - is that it is all 'For the fans, by the fans'. It's people you know, doing things they enjoy because they enjoy them, not out of any commercial interest (although at this point things veer dangerously close to the internal-politics issues I mentioned above, so let's stop here).
And... that's it, really. I don't think this journal has much of a point, other than just sharing my thoughts on this stuff (hopefully it wasn't too boring a read ). Have any of you been to geek-cons where you live? I'd love to hear about different experiences from different events/communities.
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Latest reply: May 3, 2014
So much snow!
Posted Dec 15, 2013
I guess many of you might have seen on the news about the recent stroms and snow and whatnot that we had in Israel (and the whole area - I've seen pictures of snow in Cairo!). Here in Jerusalem we had a whole lot of snow - well, a whole lot for us, anyway. 
I'm sure those of you in northern areas will make fun of our paltry three days of snow and half-a-metre, but we are really not used to that. There i much excitement.
I came over to my parents' earlier that week; actually, not so much because I was expecting snow (I really wasn't, lowering my expectations or something), but because my mum went to hospital for a minor operation and I came to hang out with my dad because it's no fun waiting alone in a hospital.
Actually, Thursday morning was the first time ever that I was _upset_ about waking up to snow - since mum was released in the morning, and we were worried it'll be hard to get her back. But dad braved the roads and eventually they both made it back safely, and all is well. We had electricity throughout the storm (unlike people in some other neighbourhoods), the house was nice and warm, we made braised shortribs which were absolutely wonderful (first time I ever tried making shortribs, and while it's pretty heavy food, and a bit of a hassle to make, it was totally worth it), and of course, we went outside for a walk in the snow, and I took some pictures, which are here:
http://public.fotki.com/LadyPennywhistle/the-return-of-snow-2013
(Unfortunately, I also lost a pair of glasses, during the walk; I have a slightly older and weaker pair that I wear when I'm inside, working on the computer etc., because my optometrists said it's better to do so. When we were going out, I switched glasses and for some reason put the box with the inside-pair in my coat pocket, without thinking, and it must have just fallen out somewhere. When I noticed we tried to retrace our steps, but couldn't find it. So, they're gone now, which is too bad.)
(But SNOW!!!)
Things were still closed today all over town, but it's slowly going back to normal. I'll need to head back to my apartment, sometime soon, and get my own matters back to routine too.
Discuss this Journal entry [35]
Latest reply: Dec 15, 2013
Higher education, hee-yas, and Hanukkah
Posted Dec 5, 2013
Yes yes, it's been ages. I know. And I've pretty much lost hope of ever catching up with backlog (I mean, I'm sorta trying, but after a month of people doing a journal-per-day? 
I end up just skipping a lot of stuff).
Still need to finish sorting out my UK pictures and posting them on Fotki, which I hope I'll get to, at some point.
Anyway, updates, divided the subjects mentioned in that off aliterative title:
Higher education - taking some courses this year, for my PhD. French and a research student seminar sorta thing, and next semester there'll be one that I'm rather looking forward to, on the Divine Comedy and the book of Arda Viraf (Zoroastrian work describing a journey to the afterlife). Yes, it's very y of me to be excited about that, but it might fit well, with some of the research I'm considering doing, and in general I just think it should be neat.
Although I have been considering taking a break from the PhD, and finding a way to go live in Seattle for a couple of years. Mostly because of those annoying, cliched - but unfortunately based on fact - 'I'm not getting any younger' reasons. We'll see. Nothing concrete planned yet.
Hee-yas - another course I started this year is taekwondo. There's a place not far from me specialising in martial arts classes for women, and I've been thinking of doing some sort of martial arts class, both for the exercise (although not _just_ exercise, otherwise I'd just do kickboxing or something boring like that) and for the more general benefits, like poise and self-confidence and stuff.
And taekwondo is ing AWESOME! I just love it. It's very energetic, with lots of high-kicks and sparring, and I just end every lesson with a feeling of 'Wow, that was so much fun!'. I really think it's doing me good.
And finally, Hanukkah - well, it shows that I was planning to write this journal way earlier; Hanukkah is almost over. This year, because of the Hanukkah-meets-Thanksgiving thing, me and a friend who's also very much into cooking and trying stuff in the kitchen decided to do a Hanukkagiving meal for some friends, combining food from both holidays (we had things like fried turkey breast cutlets, and donuts with cranberry jam, and so on). It went well. There's been some farntic (and some not-so-frantic) cooking beforehand, we had a bunch of friends over and ate a lot, all the usual holiday stuff. And I found out that pumpkin pie, despite my initial suspicion of the concept, is absolutely delicious.
But now I better finish up, here, because I need to be getting ready for the other great Hanukkah tradition (as of the last few years) - Me'orot Con! It's a small, one-day geek-con in Jerusalem, concentrating on science and scifi. Like most Israeli cons, it's more content-oriented than a lot of what you see in, say, the US; most of it, especially in a small one like Me'orot, is the talks given by various members of the geek community (including some of my friends) about the subjects close to their heart. It's great.
So, off I go! I hope I won't take months to come back this time. Still got all that backlog to take care of, after all...
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Dec 5, 2013
Lady Pennywhistle - Back with a vengeance! [for a certain, limited value of Vengeance; actual amounts of Vengeance may vary]
Researcher U250656
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