06:37 pm Okay hello again. In Hebrew, going endlessly on and on is called digging, so let me try and catch up on myself here without digging too much:
Fandom: juggling between reading fics, watching TV, some movies, and - gasp - even some books or occasionally an audiobook. Would really love recommendations for audiobooks you enjoyed. Fic-wise: kind of still juggling Captain America/Endgame fic and - still, my god - Harry/Draco fic, and also Schitt's Creek fic because I will at this point read anything lettered writes and that show is at least 30% fucking adorable (even if you don't watch the show - watch this clip of David and Patrick saying I love you for the first time, yes it's a spoiler but my god one should infuse every day of one's life with a dose of sweetness like this.
Since it's still summer, I'll take a moment to recommend Linda Holmes's debut novel Evvie Drake Starts Over, which is a small-town Maine romance about a widow who rents a room to a washed up pro-baseball player. It has romance and friendship and is both a good book and a good audiobook, if you are in the mood to read a really well done Hallmark movie equivalent, and I hope we get something come of it come yuletide.
Another fun romcom I recently watched is the Israeli show Beauty and the Baker, which is apparently getting an American version this fall, but you can also find the original on Amazon Prime - down-to-earth baker from Bat Yam and Bar Refaeli-style international model meet, love shenanigans and drama happen. There are two seasons which I binged in about a week.
Work: When I joined this start-up in December 2017 we were 10 people; we're now around 60, and it's been a year and a half of growing pains essentially, and on my end, way too much work and stress. But growth also means I'm no longer directly under our CEO but have a new manager who is really great, and push to get a replacement for me so I can stop managing accounts anymore (thank god) and move to the product team in a few months, which is what I wanted. I've worked with but never been part of the product team, and while I'm a little intimidated - they all come from technical backgrounds and come with experience - I do know I'm bringing value to the table, and I know the head of product has faith in me, which is encouraging. Ultimately, I'm hoping this will give me experience in a new field which I'll hopefully like and be able to grow in, and am also hoping will lead to a healthier work/life balance. So - scared/excited/hopeful. Theoretically, the transition will happen in January. I'll be sad to leave the account management team I'm in now, because on a social level they are wonderful people and fun to work with (and also mostly female, while product - not so much), but hopefully this will lead to good things.
Meanwhile, two girls I trained a year ago have just been promoted to team leaders, and they are so great and so deserving and I'm happy for them - while at the same time feeling this annoying little resentment at how they're getting this recognition and (WELL-DESERVED) applause now, and I'm not. Which is SO DUMB because I have specifically been telling my bosses for a year that I don't want to be a team leader (because I don't!) and want to make a lateral move to product instead, so there is literally nothing for me to be resentful about. I just... want the move to happen and for people to know about it already. (It's still ~hush hush~ for ~reasons~).
Travel: Two exciting trips on the horizon:
1. Aug 20-25th - I'm going to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival again! This time I'll be traveling with marina and another mutual friend. This will be our first trip abroad together, so you know, rooting for success. I am looking forward to some green, some rain, some theater and bagpipes and cobblestones. (I will also toss out there - if you happen to be in the area, do let me know; we also have a spare bed in our airbnb at the moment so it is possible that Things Can Be Arranged.)
2. Sept 18-Oct 10th - NYC/Atlanta! Have I mentioned my new boss is lovely and she not only did not blink when I told her I wanted to fly out during the holidays, she told me "Just let me know the dates and it will happen"? So I bought a flight out for the night of the elections; vote in the morning, will discover the results at the airport. (Yes, in case you haven't heard, we are having elections again, because this country is dumb and elected the Likkud again and Bibi couldn't form a coalition so back to the ballots it is).
Anyway - I plan on working from New York from the 18th till the 26th, taking a vacation to Atlanta from the 26th to October 3rd, and flying back to NYC until the 10th, working from the office there with probably another day of vacation. Would love to meet any friends I can while there, as usual ♥
Life: I'm still going to choir, and have started taking voice lessons as well, to learn how to sing better. Every once in a while I'll go to a play or to improv or to trivia or to an escape room with sisters or friends. I started running again for a while, then stopped, and am trying to start again. I started going to a weekly women's soccer practice, which has been really fun, though now on break for the summer. I just finished a month-long watercolor painting course, which was, more than anything, incredibly soothing. I went on two dates, which were okay but nothing special, and swiped a bunch on tinder but not done anything beyond swiping. I don't feel lonely and have very little energy or motivation to make the effort of working towards having a relationship; at the same time, I'm 34 and should start thinking seriously about whether I want to have biological kids and whether I want to do anything about it, because if I end up not, I would prefer it to at least be my choice and not just something I never got around to (which would be very easy for me; I am very talented at never getting around to things).
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A few weeks ago, I took a day trip to a few monasteries in the Judean desert. This was not long after Good Omens came out, which naturally made every story rife with Crowly or Aziraphale cameos. I will share just 3 photos:
St. George Monastery in Wadi Qelt. The current monastery is from the 19th century; the original was destroyed by the Persians in 614. The only part remaining from the original is a small shrine that holds relics of the monks who were massacred in 614, which were discovered 50 years ago. According to the abbot, the remains had never been found, until one day 50 years ago the monks started seeing a path of snails, all going in the same direction. The monks followed the snails, until they arrived at a small cave, where they discovered the bones of those ancient monks. A chapel was built in the place, with snails inscribed on the door, a monument to The Miracle of the Snails. I think we can all figure out who orchestrated that particular miracle.
Nabi Musa - the tomb of Moses, according to Muslim tradition. In Jewish tradition Moses never makes it across the Jordan river, but according to this story, he perhaps wanted to see the holy land after all so he sneaked across the river at night, and got to the bottom of a red hill, where he happened to encounter a man digging a grave. He offered to help him dig, and the man said okay, and when they were done, Moses lay in the grave to see how it feels, at which point he realized it was his time to die, and the man, who was the Angel of Death, took his soul away.
Deir Hajla/Monastery of Saint Gerasimos by the Dead Sea, or: ~Aziraphale and Crowley on a date~
01:07 am Okay I HAVE to sign up for yuletide tonight but also gah I am TIRED and want sleep and to be rested for the upcoming week! I've just spent 2 hours reviewing the fandom lists and narrowing it down to 29 that I can either request or offer, but now it's time to actually nominate and I have to... do that thing where you choose. And I can't even trust myself to finish this tonight really, because this week I've fallen asleep in the middle of working on my computer every single day, then women up and caught up on work at like 1AM-3AM, and then went back to sleep. It was not fun.
ANYWAY. Sign ups tonight - or tomorrow morning - and then sleep.
Until then I will say 3 things:
1. I just had the best french toast I've ever had in my life. I understand now what it means to say something's melted in your mouth because this melted in my mouth, it was so delicious, and if you're ever in Tel Aviv and are not lactose or gluten intolerant then please, please let me know and I'll take you there. Tragically they only serve this dish on Friday mornings BUT apparently they sometimes agree to make it on other days when there's no rush, hence tonight.
2. Tara Westover's memoir Educated is a fascinating read about her growing up with in survivalist Mormon family (off the grid, no birth certificates, no hospitals, no school) and ended up leaving and getting an education and a PhD from Cambridge - I heard it as an audiobook (which you can apparently borrow from libraries (!!!!!) whaaat), which is read by Julia Whelan whom I now want to subscribe to because she's so good. Can she please record all the books.
3. If all goes well, I shall be in NYC from around November 1st to around November 15th! I'll be working during the week, and have at least one full weekend. Will try to take 1-2 other days off, too. Really hoping there's some foliage left by the time I get there. Looking forward to boots weather. As usual, would love to meet who I can <3
05:35 pm - 6/8 candle lightings in: While I haven't always lit candles every day over the years, it's somehow the one holiday tradition that I actually do find myself following fairly consistently, even when I'm alone. Can't really think of other holidays I'd do that for - mainly, maybe, because most other traditions involve prayer, making food, or having other people around, and lighting candles is something simple you can do to mark the holiday even when you're alone. Also, firelight in the darkness! That's always fun.
Counting the days of Hanukkah so far:
Day 1: had job interview with CEO of a small but growing start-up in the morning. Shopped for groceries. Peeled and grated roughly one million potatoes by hand. SUCCESSFULLY LATKE'D. Successfully hosted partly-extended family for the first time, for the first candle. There was singing, there were candles, there was food and coziness, overall graded myself an A.
Day 2: Baby sister came over in the afternoon. We briefly lit candles together in the evening, then left to meet my aunt and uncle for drinks and a movie - Scaffolding, a fairly depressing Israeli drama.
Day 3: Went to second women web coding class (I officially know a tony bit of CSS now), bought a new menorah at Nahlat Binnyamin, started listening to the Call Me By Your Name audiobook* (*WE WILL RETURN TO THIS), and had dinner + Star Wars: the Last Jedi in the evening (fun times, enjoyed reading people's reactions after.) Lit candles when I got home at 3AM.
Day 4: Candle lighting in the evening with sisters and parents, at my parents' house.
Day 5: Spent the day in bed, basically. Lit candles at home.
Day 6: Had second job interview at same company. Got job offer, and they want me to start tomorrow /o\ Felt overall very strange about this swift turn of events. Received contract draft by email, had a few questions/revisions that I sent back, am currently still waiting for them to get back to me. Lit candles at home. Drove to a town in the center to meet a good friend for coffee, updates, and freak outs about life; ate the best pomela I have ever tasted in my life, and picked another one from their tree to take home with me, no offense intended to my parents' pomela tree.
***
So, job-wise: basically I am waiting for their feedback on my comments and if all goes well I guess I'm going to start tomorrow. I am not unconflicted about this, but I think/hope it'll be okay and prove to be a good decision, and we'll see soon enough.
***
Let me take you back now to Call Me By Your Name because wow. The movie's coming out here next month, and after seeing some adorable clips and cast interviews it was definitely on my radar as both 'to watch' and potentially 'to read', especially after seeing tumblr descriptions of it as "one of the most romantic books I'v ever read" ((c) Someone On Tumblr).
And then suddenly youtube decided to bump up this 7+ hour video into my feed, which is the ripped Call Me By your Name audiobook narrated by Armie Hammer.
NOW. I figured to myself, okay, let's listen to a sample, and if I like it let's go ahead and buy the real thing. FRIENDS I COULD NOT CLICK THE 'BUY NOW' BUTTON FAST ENOUGH. Just a few minutes in, it was very clear to me that I definitely wanted to listen to all seven hours and forty-four minutes of Armie Hammer's gravelly voice in my ear, like a long, slow seduction that is nearly impossible to listen to in public without blushing. Like, imagine walking down the street with his voice IN YOUR HEAD going ( paraphrased quoteCollapse ) or ( and anotherCollapse ), like, WHAT EVEN dude, have some mercy. And I'm only in chapter fucking five. And then he started saying words in Hebrew. Help.
All of which is to say, if you have Audible, books currently have a 50% discount. If you don't have Audible, you can get the 30-day free trial and get your first audiobook for free by using 1 credit. Which I think is what I did. So know that that is out there.
I finished reading Kings III today. I was going to write a huge post of squee, in enormous capslock, raving about just how much this book was written for meeeeee and oh my god I love it so much and oh the characters and oh the story and oh the meta and so forth, but for the people who are interested and can't read it in Hebrew that'd be mean, and for the people who are interested and can read it it would be spoilery. At this point, then, all I will say is that I am full of joy for having read it, and am totally nominating it for Yuletide next year.
Well, happy times are upon us, and the book has been translated to English! You can find it on Amazon, both in print and ebook edition, and I think a lot of you will enjoy it, especially those of you who are into modern retellings of Biblical stories/Bible fic.
It is a book about the house of David and the house of Saul and about a young man who grows up ~in the shadow of dark secrets~ during the timeline of those stories. It has a lot of awesome daily life descriptions, and a close friendship between our protagonist and a certain redheaded boy, and - I want to say a good depiction of Michal, but I'll be real, I read this six years ago and I don't actually remember, but I think so.
So. If you are into Biblical (= Old Testament) era fiction/action/mystery/dramas - give this book a try!
02:07 am - Three things 1. I have about a gazillion photos of flowers and trees because it is SPRINGTIME EVERYWHERE here and nature - be it planted, inner-city nature - is breathtaking, and you can find the first batch of them here. That post is "unlisted" so if you reply there it's actually really hard to get a convo going, so uh, interaction preferred here :-)
2. For dinner tonight, I bought an Ugly Orange, which is an actual real name of a species of delicious citrus, and a kind of filo-pancake-sausage-burrito for $0.7, and a box of fresh pineapple pieces for $1.50. Which is just... unreal.
3. Following marina's rec and seeing a bunch of wonderfulreviews floating around along with some excited twitter conversation, this weekend I started reading, then full-out binged on K.J. Charles' Society of Gentlemen trilogy, and then I went to AO3 and had my *heart broken* at the fact that there are exactly 0 fics for this fandom. Granted, book 3 only came out two weeks ago, but still. I feel so strongly that fic should exist! What can I do to help this? Do we need a prompt fest? Is there one already out there? I WANT TO HELP.
For anyone who might be interested in the books - it is a trilogy of m/m Regency-era romance novels, each focusing on a different ship among a group of characters who know each other. Both of the recs I linked to are for the second book of the series and were written before the third came out, but I actually read the trilogy in order and am very glad for it; the first book started out a little slow but completely hooked me by the time I was a third of the way in, and then book 2 ♥♥♥, and then book 3 ♥♥♥_♥♥♥. Yes, that is my very eloquent rec. It's what it says on the tin, but it's what it says on the tin so well.
So, yes. Fic for this series. Let's see how we can make that happen before Yuletide.
12:49 pm I sent off my passport to the Chinese embassy last week, so we'll see what type of visa they agree to give me, and it looks like I'll be leaving in a month. *inserts a bajillion exclamation marks* *does not actually know how to handle*. I feel like I need to give myself a crash course on Chinese history and culture, and I will attempt to learn... as much as I can in preparation. But I also have so little time before I go, really - four more weeks of trying but probably failing to leave work on time, with one week of vacation in the middle (skiing with dad and sisters) - and in the free time I do have, I want to de-stress and not freak out about leaving? I'm also finally hyped about reading actual books - post Captive Prince, I'm slowly reading through The Song of Achilles and the Nightrunner series - alternating between chapters since I can't decide which of them I actually want to read first - and basically I... want to focus on me and fun and meeting friends before I go, while acknowledging that I should probably actually spend time on preparing to go.
In any case - as of now, I have a flight ticket for exactly a month from now. So, yay/meep.
*
There is a giant billboard that TAUNTS me every day on my way to work, advertising a new play the Gesher Theater are staging: The King David Report. Gesher Theater are brilliant and so incentive, and this looks like it has the potential to be such a good show for me, and of course it is being performed at exactly the dates I'm away. I hope it will still be playing in a few months when I'm back.
And: Is anyone still watching The Fosters? It's back now, and the Stef/Lena relationship these past few episodes, as they navigate around and after Stef's ( spoiler, character healthy issuesCollapse ) has been stunning, and while I do enjoy most of the Foster/foster kids shenanigans, the Stef/Lena relationship is the wonderful, beating heart of that show. Plus: drama! And Rosie O'Donnell! Basically, I am enjoying the show still :)
Some links to wrap up:
1. Did you know of the existence of this Jesus Christ Superstar performed by the Muppets that someone made? Because it is shockingly perfect.
2. There are a lot of amazing Captive Prince art and meta posts on tumblr, and I so very highly recommend the following (SPOILERS for all 3 books): -Xyai's CP comics -kaerb's art/comics, especially the (linked) "Nikandros is a bro" ones
I am basically not reblogging any CP stuff on tumblr because I don't want to inadvertently spoil anyone but lmk if you want me to forward you my favorite bits in a badly formatted linkdump email
03:46 am It's been a beautifully sunny Friday and wonderfully rainy Saturday and multi-rainbowed today, and I am decently caught up on all of my shows; which softens the blow, a little, for the fact that I got home from work today at 11PM.
Here is a fun thing: a person changing her mind about wanting a position in your department, after you've spent an enormous amount of time and energy training them for the job for the past two months; at time while also training another person for a different job, and while doing your own job, and at times while filling in for your boss who was away. Like - it's good that she left now, because better now than in a few months of doing a bad job I guess, if she didn't care and it wasn't good for her, but man, what a stroke of bad luck for the department.
The reason I stayed late wasn't really anything to do with that, but because I finally sent a massive email I'd beet putting off for 2-3 months, so at least that's a giant load off my shoulders. I mean, at least until tomorrow, when I get in the office and see people's responses, but oh well.
I haven't been reblogging Captive Prince things on tumblr because I... don't want to spoil anyone for anything, though I'm pretty sure anyone who might be spoiled has already read the books. And yet. So - some random Captive Prince links:
Captive Prince kink meme on DW! That is a think that is happening :DDD Combating the King fanart lol This manip of Laurent - a lot of people have many ideas about what the characters might look like, and while they don't always hit my tastes, this one struck a chord with me. (I also like this Laurent, though there's something about the expression that feels a little... off.)
I have also been reading some fic, which has been fun; I'm happy that now that the series is over and so many questions are answered, there's also more room for people to write fic with a fuller understanding of the characters.
Also: I have seen someone on tumblr reccing Song of Achilles. Has anyone read it? I had not heard of it, though goodreads has... quite a number of reviews. Any thoughts ("nice" "good" "totally overrated") appreciated.
04:28 pm - Captive Prince 3 I have another post lined up which is basically real time quotes and reactions I had while reading, most of which can be summarized by "oh my god", but until I actually format that, uh, let us talk about this book because it is a book that deserves talking about.
There is a whole range of topics I would love to hear your thoughts on, and this is going to sound like a "discussion questions" list but I don't care because I really just want opinions, so:
I hadn't read the books fully since I originally read them 2-3 years ago, so I had forgotten a loooooot of stuff - basically all of the major politics and plot twists, and also a lot of the bigger details. So it was super enjoyable to read again and yup I cannot wait for Monday/Tuesday (I mean, Tuesday Australia time = Monday for us!) and am seriously considering taking a day off on Tuesday just so I can read at my leisure.
I read almost everything on my kindle and marked a bunch of stuff while reading, so here are a bunch of random reactions under the cut! I marked about three times as much while reading Book 2 so idk if I'll have time to post those, but we'll see. LAURENT! DAMEN! MEMORY LANE! LET'S GO :D
10:29 am - free toesssss *__* While anyone hockey-inclined probably read that title as a typo of some sorts relating to Jonathan Toews - my fingers actually automatically typed 'toews', which surprises no one - I am, in fact, talking about my actual toes!
I have spent the past 9 days traipsing around London and Edinburgh (with the awesome sabra_n in a pair of boots, which I thought were comfortable when I bought them this winter? But I guess I must not have walked around in them at all, for it took barely 24 hours of admittedly hardcore full-on-tourist walking for my toes to rise up in rebellion and cry: NO MORE.
Of course, my toes had no actual choice in the matter, and so, scuffed and bruised, remained imprisoned for the rest of the week, until this morning, when they were finally reunited with their good friends, my sandals. if I had the time I would compose an Ode to Sandals. In rhymes, and probably some kind of fancy verse.
Anyway, the trip was great. Over the course of five days at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we went to 24 shows, a combination of comedy and improv and musicals (and improv comedy musicals!) and theater and dance and... weird stuff. I hope to write a more in depth write-up of the trip later when I am not... at work.
Seeing as hockey is a not-entirely-to-say-the-least-happy-place for me right now, I downloaded a of optional reading material, the only one of which I actually ended up reading was this highly recommended hockey/kink original novel, which, hockey people who are into kink, read it :D
...and then the rest of the time I read Fast and Furious fic - for which I've left zero feedback so far, but I will, it was all super awesome -
and--
dum dum dum
for the first time ever
DUE SOUTH FIC.
Yes, somehow I have managed to be in fandom since 1998 without ever having read a single due South fic, and what's more, without knowing what was the canon explanation for RayK replacing RayV in the show lololololol wow. That's just - amazing.
Anyway, sabra_n gave me a crash course and some recs, so I read Chicago's Most Wanted, and have started reading just a few others. It's so weird reading all these fics from like, 2003, both with regards to style, and tropes, and even the technology, with their most sophisticated piece of tech being at best a palm pilot.
I don't see myself going all in, but it's really nice to have some of these fics to dig into. So: I can find rec lists and such, but if any of you have any particular dS favorites, do feel free to share :-)
03:03 pm News: Here is a story from this week. An IDF soldier was sentenced to 11 days of military jail this week and suspended from his command course for... eating a bacon sandwich. To make the context even worse, this is an American soldier who made aliyah so he could serve in the army, and was living with his grandmother at a kibbutz where she made him the sandwiches to take to the base, which he ate, not knowing it wasn't allowed (I mean, hell, it's been ten years for me, but even I definitely don't remember any actual military rules about eating non-kosher food on base.)
Anyway, while there are compromises that need to be made in order to maintain an (imbalanced) balance between a Jewish and democratic country, this was definitely one of the most ridiculous, dumb, enraging things I've heard the military do when it comes to (not) practicing religion.
Following the public outcry, the army decided to revert the jail time into detention. And then, a few days later, the army canceled his punishment and reinstated him into the course, and -most shockingly - issued an apology, which included the words: "Bottom line, we were wrong."
Guys, I honestly don't remember the IDF publicly issuing an apology that included the words "we wore wrong" for, like, anything ever. This whole ordeal has been kind of a weird farce, and while I really am satisfied with the resolution, this situation shouldn't have happened to begin with, and is just a scary example of the growing... religious-ification of the army, which is not comforting. At all.
Work: Our company has some challenging times coming up ahead. Our CEO gave a company talk today talking about the challenges, and how we'll have to work hard to succeed in the upcoming period. It was basically a motivational lecture encouraging us to, you know, work hard and put in hours. AT the end of the meeting, every employee was handed a gag "survival kit", which included: a laundry bag (for when we need to sleep in the office), towel (for wiping the sweat), band aids, herbal headache eye drops, herbal anti-stress pills, and... rolling papers. The "haha here is a joke because we want you to laugh about working more" is not really my type of humor, but I admit the rolling papers did crack me up.
Book progress: I have reached 100 pages in Ancillary Justice! It is progress, at the very least. SLOWLY BUT SURELY.
Music: I've been listening to nonstop Zulu playlists in the past few days, and enjoying them very much. If anyone has recs for like, artists/albums they like, please feel free to share :-)
Weather: is perfect. There is perfect weather. I don't know how long it will last, but it's so, so nice outside. Y'all should come visit :D
11:37 am - MY BOOK DROUGHT IS OVER Seriously, HALLELUJAH, I am actually reading a book for reaaaaaaal this is so exciting. I started Uprooted over the weekend, and I have definitely reached 'hooked' (='dammit-this-will-make-me-late-for-work') status.
In fact, I was almost late for work this morning because I was gonna get ready and then chapter 11 happened, so of course I had to read that the whole way through. My reaction through that: ( spoilersCollapse )
I'm pretty sure I've seen some posts by people here who've read the book; I have skipped them all for spoilers so I don't remember who wrote anything now, but if you've read it, please lmk so I can hit you up when I'm done :-)
02:58 pm - soliciting book recs Hellooo! SO. I have had trouble finishing books for the past, let's be generous and call it two years or so. And I really, really, really want to read books again.
I'm slowly (sloooowly) making my way through Ancillary Justice, at many of your recommendation - just to provide me with motivation, do any of you who've read it remember at what point it really hooked you in? That would help to know.
Anyway, I figured maybe it would help to read books that are a little more in theme with my current fandom, which means (fictional) books themed around:
*Sports
or
*Canada
If anyone has any recs, old or new, they would be appreciated :-)
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Completely unrelatedly, a friend of a friend is temporarily relocating to Raleigh, North Carolina. If anyone knows specifically any Israelis in the area that might help ease the transition, an introduction would be awesome.
04:31 pm - this weekend, I: 1. Learned that Harry Styles apparently has a thing with Judaism? DON'T DO THIS TO ME 1D FANDOM. I do not need to be drawn in via this.
2. Read a memoir about hockey which was, hey, at least an actual book instead of just reading fic, so it's almost as if I expanded my horizons.
3. Watched The Sound of Music for the first time in at least 15 years. When I was a kid Christopher Plummer was always old and mean and unattractive and watching the film now my mind was blown at the fact that he is hot and sarcastic and witty, WHO'D HAVE THUNK. He's pretty mean but in a... deliciously cynical way. How is this movie still so enjoyable. Also, I want a Sound of Music AU in pretty much every single fandom I've ever been in, but ugh especially now, I would totally read a Kaner/Tazer futurefic where Tazer was a mean embittered single dad with kids both old and young and Kaner is the hockey player/nanny that --
(I still totally want the Kaner/Tazer version though. Could be minus the age difference I don't mind.)
4. Got no writing or primering done :( :( :(
5. But uh, thought a lot about the fic I want to get done?
6. Slept a lot.
7. Marveled at the new video ad of Patrick Kane stickhandling because jfc:
On that note I'll mention that if you're not a hockey fan and you watch that video, I would love to know if it looks impressive or not. Because to me right now it's like O_____o holy shit but I think perhaps two years ago I'd have looked at it and completely shrugged it off? I am lacking any kind of objectivity here.
...Two more September holidays to go. Hope I'll be more productive then?
02:22 am Well, the half-week-long storm is over -- I wore a t-shirt again today, and I fear this will be the last rain we will see this year.
I finished Pratchett's Nation today; since my iPod is gone and my dad has reclaimed his Kindle, I read the second half of the book on my laptop Kindle reader, and that book, man. I was near tears by the end. I love the way he writes about religion and science, and it was interesting to see him do it in a world that is 99.9% like our own instead of on the Disc. I love Mau and Daphne both. And I loved the closing paragraphs; there is something so satisfying in well-written endings, which is something I forget when reading fics, where 90% of the time fics will end with a smile or a kiss or falling asleep.
Sigh, I am feeling a little pissy tonight and am trying not to take it out on anyone. Some links and assorted recs:
help_japan -- you've probably heard about this. I won't be offering anything, seeing as I still owe charity fics from over a year ago and I don't want to not follow up again, but I might try bidding one someone.
Remix 9 sign ups are open -- I love Remix, but I think I'm not going to sign up this year. Which gah, it pains me to say! But. the deadlines are not great for me, and I don't think I even qualify as a participant -- my masterlist is too full of crossovers to be of any use to remix -- so my best hope is snagging a pinch hit at some point and writing something without worrying about it for a month. It's a really fun experience though, truly. Muchly recced. And hey, if you ever want to remix any of my stories independently of Remix, or write prequels or sequels or podfics or whatever, feel free! I should add blanket permission to my masterlist at some point. *is lazy*
Recs:
Contractions and Split Infinitives by P.I.D (Tangled) -- Repunzel and Flynn, PG. Repunzel befriends a few princesses from neighboring kingdoms. Really sweet. (thanks, sabra_n!)
I'm Not a Sucker so I Don't Need a Bodyguard by musesfool (DCU/Angel) -- Cordelia, Bruce, PG. Cordelia's been in the game long enough that she can spot a secret identity from a mile away. Oh, Cordy ♥ I love her POV, and the way her moving to Gotham and meeting Bruce plays out.
We're not playing games, and we're not playing lovers by eleanor_lavish (Bandom) -- Spencer/Shane, NC-17. Brendon fucking Urie, ladies and gentlemen. Boy most likely to turn you queer, and least likely to ever fucking notice. I've loved every one of her fics that I've ever read, and this is no exception; she makes this pairing work.
New Kid Makes a Rule by sinsense (Bandom) -- Spencer/Joe, PG-13, LOLOL. This fic cracked me up so much. It takes a lot (= really good writing) to make me veer off my very singleminded Panic ships when I'm in the ~zone, and this tab was left open and unread for at least a week after sinjah recced it to me that eventually I figured fuck it, I'll never read this anyway, I'll just close the tab and she'll never know. And then I glanced at the first paragraph just to see what I was passing up on and ended up reading the entire thing and it is hilarious and adorable and a really really fun office AU.
And as promised, here is the list of Hunger Games fic recsminglingcrab sent me :D I have't read them all yet -- have hardly even begun -- but it looks like a whole lot of awesome, so here it is in her words (you will also note that she is a far superior reccer than myself): ( 27Hunger Games fic recsCollapse )
02:15 am I've finished The Hunger Games so I'll just get my very minor reactions for the third book out of the way: ( major spoilersCollapse )
I had so much fun reading on the Kindle that when I finished the last book I immediately went and bought another one. I have avoided buying new books for over a year -- mainly because I have a backlog of literally dozens of books I haven't gotten around to yet, so no need to waste the money on yet more books I wouldn't read -- but like. It's so CHEAP and HANDY and THERE. So I bought Terry Pratchett's Nation -- another YA book, but one where I can't complain about the quality of the writing, and one that is actually very fitting thematically; its beginning somehow really ties in with the end of The Hunger Games. So I am at 12% now. Yay for public-transportation that enables reading comfortably :-)
Other media I have consumed includes, inspired by sabra_n, finally watching Tangled, and my god, the animation *___*. SO PRETTY. And Zachary Levi's voice is cute, and the movie is very Disney and really, really glorifies being a white-skinned-green-eyed-blonde, but it is also sweet and enchanting and I enjoyed it muchly. And the other thing is... yesterday's episode of House, because I saw people's reactions and was intrigued. Um. I'm too lazy to code another cut tag so no spoilers, but if you want to discuss it we can in the comments.
*
Thank you so so much for recommending me music the other day! ♥ And now I have another music rec favor: rec me your favorite song covers?
The following, however, I can promise you is excellent: ***Seventeen (Here’s to the Atom Bomb)*** by almostblue. Brendon/Spencer, NC-17, 8200 words. I don't think I've read too much role-playing fic in the past so I don't have too much to compare this to, but I love this take on role-playing so much ♥__♥. So, so much. (So much.)
03:23 am - The Hunger Games I'm 22% through the third book now. I knew nothing about these books except the concept, which minglingcrab told me about a while ago, so this was basically how it went:
1. Open book. Note large font, first-person present tense POV. Begin to suspect intended age-group is not what I'd expected. 2. Double check cover. Confirmation: published by Scholastic. 3. Realize that really, the fact that THE HUNGER GAMES IS AMAZING - Stephenie Meyer was printed on the book's spine should have been the first clue.
And like, I have nothing against Young Adult books, it's just good to go in with the right expectations. I don't think I've read a YA book since I was a teen. Mostly I'm just ignoring the prose and enjoying the plot, though. It was a little disorienting that it took me 11 pages to realize that the POV character was a girl, LOL.
I read the first book on train rides during the week, and then last night I finished it and wanted to start the second. I DL'd a PDF, which I had never done before, figuring I could buy the book next week, when I realized that WAIT. My dad has a KINDLE. And then I just... bought it and it was right there. SO AMAZING. And also cheap -- it cost $8, whereas at the store here it was closer to $17. And I finished that today, so this afternoon I bought the third book, which is also super awesome because everything is closed Friday afternoon -- I would have had to wait until Sunday morning otherwise, or rather find it somewhere during lunch break on Sunday because the bookstore's workday = my workday.
So yeah. I was skeptic because damn, I love the smell of books, the feel of them in my hands, but as far as availability and price go, Kindle is kind of magic.
The strange thing is that -- okay, this is kind of embarrassing, but I haven't read books for the longest time, like, I've read and not finished, and basically the last time I was truly absorbed in a book was over a year ago. So it's kind of fantastic to get back in the game, but I also realize suddenly how used I am at reading online -- mainly, how used I am to reading from devices that have internal light sources. Both paperbacks and Kindle need external light, and that can get really annoying because the location of windows in my room make the angle of natural light really annoying to read with, not to mention that I read in very strange positions, and when I want to read without glasses on I hold the book/Kindle really close to my head, and I have to keep fighting with damn shadows on my text. But it is a small price to pay, and probably healthier for my eyes anyway.
01:53 am I haven't watched SPN since the beginning of the season, but hearing that this week's episode was about one of my favorite tropes ever (episode trailer here) I had to watch Friday's episode, and I don't think I've laughed out loud so many times in a TV show for a loooong time. "Season 6" pretty much says it all, but nevertheless, go show. I don't know the overall arc of the season so the frame story meant nothing to me, but all the rest was :D.
I saw the film Gei Oni yesterday. It's based on the Israeli book by the same, which I loved when I read it when I was 15. It's a historical romance/novel set in late 19th century Palestine, about the people of the first Aliyah -- the first Zionist immigrant wave, Jews who migrated from eastern Europe and from Yemen to become pioneers in the land of Israel. The movie was beautifully shot and mediocre-ly acted, sadly.
One of my problems was the language: the main character was a Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrant who spoke Hebrew for most of the film, played by (I assume) a native Israeli actress, so her accent was neither German nor Yiddish nor Russian nor Israeli -- she just rolled her Rs and flattened some vowels and seemed to think that was enough. Meanwhile, the main guy was a Palestine-born Jew who spoke perfect Hebrew with a perfect Israeli accent, which makes almost no sense: he should have been raised speaking Turkish and Arabic and maybe Ladino. No one was speaking Hebrew as a mother tongue at that point, let alone with a modern Israeli accent. The unfitting accents and language choice made almost everything seem artificial, which is a shame. Ironically, I'm so used to the Hollywood movie convention where a British accent is used for any historical setting/archaic language, that I'm pretty sure that if this film had been shot in English (with a British accent, of course), it would have felt more authentic to me.
I don't know whether it was my problems with the movie, the script, or whether it was in the original novel, but either way the movie kind of felt like a harlequin plot. Naturally my mind began plotting the fannish AU.
Now, of course I could never transpose Bandom to any kind of Israeli historic AU because there is NO END to the kind of pain that would cause me with bonus problematicness in every direction, so like, pretend this is happening in space or something, or like, in a vaguely historical space AU, whatever, anyway. TELL ME you wouldn't want to read about about ( widower Spencer and refugee Brendon? :D?Collapse )
Lastly for real: today at work one of the girls put "Whataya Want From Me" on, and one of the guys commented that it was a great song, and let alone the fact that I've never heard this song playing in Israel outside of my car, it just makes me happy when people I know compliment Adam without knowing anything about him and without me needing to point them at a primer first. Yay :D Also, I just now noticed that the same girl posted Glee's version of "Sing" on her FB wall with the caption: "Brilliant". I am SO CURIOUS what it was that made her think it was brilliant, LOL. Could it be the lumberjack outfits? Is she getting something I'm not getting?
ETA: lest I forget: amazonziti's mom, who seems like a very cool person, is writing a paper about fandom for grad school, so if anyone wants to help her out and answer a few questions (in whatever degree of anonymity you're comfortable with), questions are here. I somehow ended up writing 3500 words, which, wtf. It's like a meme. I couldn't stop. Now, if only I could channel writing about myself into, say. Writing fic.
01:59 am I have Unseen Academicals! Hardcover, American cover (always, always uglier than the British), and only 399 pages long :(:(:( It has now automatically been bumped to the top of my books to read, once I start reading books again, and I don't know whether to be happy or cry.
It was delivered to me by a friend whose dad just arrived from the States, where it cost $15 through Amazon instead of the $40 it's currently available for here. It was delivered along with a candy-filled gift mug that says: "I DON'T PROCRASTINATE... I RESCHEDULE", which came from my friend's mom. Because lol, apparently my friends' parents now know me as Procrastinator Girl, being of course entirely accurate.
Tonight I made one of my favorite dishes in the ENTIRE WORLD: Mom's Corn Soup. I am not kidding guys, this soup* is one of my top desert island foods. This soup was my comfort food for so many years. It was what I asked my mom to make me on my 5th birthday, it was what I'd ask her to make me for my (midwinter) birthday almost every year and it was what I'd ask her to make me during rough weeks in the army, when I was miserable and it was rainy and the thought of the steaming corn soup that would await me at home over the weekend did a lot to lift my spirits.
Last night I asked my mother for the recipe, tonight I made it at the apartment, AND LO, IT WAS DELICIOUS. I'm planning to eat it spoon by spoon, make it last all week, omg my mouth is almost watering just thinking about it.
The truth is, though, that once I tasted it and realized that it was just as good as when my mom makes it, it... lost some of its magic. It's like rainbows: they're rare and unexpected and such a treat to stumble upon, but you wouldn't want to have a remote control that turns them on and off with a click. Mom's corn soup has now lost its mystery and its rareness.
But it's still damn fucking good, so here is the recipe:
*along with Grandma's Tongue with Mushroom Gravy and the timeless Toast With Avocado, Salt and Lemon.
...meanwhile, I have still not signed up for yuletide. I will, of course, within the next three days. And until that, That Meme:
Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any story I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.
(And I'll just add, since it probably won't be brought up but I've wanted to mention it for the longest time now: in Whole New World, there's a line that goes: They might even toss him out of the House for considering to vote for a Democrat next time.
The only reason the word "house" is capitalized is that I wrote this in a rush a few hours before the deadline, on the tail of three years of writing House fic. I get so embarrassed every time I read that line now. That is all.)
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