Laughter Through Tears

jklfsagl apparently I miscounted the elections? Or I dreamt an extra election between April and September of 2019, because I could have sworn that we had elections three months apart, at some point. It wasn't that, it was probably something like the coalition fell apart (as it does fairly regularly because the Israeli political reality is ungovernable) and they nearly went to elections but instead managed to cobble together a new government with spit and bubble gum.

So, since 2019 we've had four election campaigns. It only feels like we're constantly in election season.

My allergies are hitting me real fucking bad this season (hives, headaches, stuffed nose), so I'm gonna go ahead and blame everything on that.

Monday through Thursday is the online convention event that's replacing the usual annual fall geek con, Icon, which takes place every year on the week-long holiday. Taking the con online has prompted the organizers to switch to a payment model where a one-time cover price gains the user access to all events, which has allowed me and my brother to make last-minute, stress-free decisions about what to watch. For example, there was a GOH event on Monday that I had thought about attending, but it was quite late at night and I was tired. I ended up watching two events on Monday (not quite back-to-back) and two and a half on Tuesday.

Then I was going to take a break on Wednesday and do some intensive writing on The Flower of Fairmont, which is getting very close to being ready for a demo, but alas. After a migraine on Monday night (surprise!) and a worse migraine late Tuesday night (my fault, for playing too much Skyrim), I was a wreck on Wednesday. Not the worst rebound I've ever had, but I was not good to work. And that's with being at home and having all the resources available to make things easier -- shades down, dimmed screen, low volume. So Wednesday was not the productive day I had hoped for, and the first week of October passed without me making much progress on my writing goals.

I did get some stuff done this week, but much less exciting.

Today I have stuff I need to do around the house, but I am also going to try and write a little. The only event I definitely want to watch is in the evening, so I can just make that my dinner break, instead of TV. Oh, I also started watching the Mars show, and I found it... watchable, I guess? I'm not super into it, but I still enjoy the sciency aspects.

Fairmont is still pretty far from being done, but I'm making progress on chapter 4 of TC. Slower than I'd like, but progress.

We're having a deep summer heat wave in Israel this week. Not the first one of the year and not likely to be the worst one, either, but it's fraying in the way that weather extremes can be. For me, it means a bunch of different things. For once, my chilly half-buried apartment is not quite chilly enough. I tired easily.

And two things that I forgot about Deep Summer Heat: one is that it makes me angry, literally. The other is, for some reason, hot weather makes me susceptible to motion sickness.

You know, I haven't used this icon in a long while. I used to blog pretty frequently about LGBTQ issues, but these days most of what I post is reblogs on Tumblr. But I made this icon after, I think, the 2007 parade, when the Jerusalem municipality for the first time hanged pride flags along major streets, in preparation for the annual pride parade. I remember my friends inviting me to join the end-tail of the parade in 2003, on a Friday afternoon when I had only just returned from the base. I remember attending, the next year, both the Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv parades, concurrently with my process of coming out of the closet as bisexual. I remember the first time since coming out that I missed the parade, and how guilty I felt. I even remember the parade two years ago, which happened to be the day I receiving the final failing grade in my incomplete BSc.

And I remember the stabbing in 2005. ( Read more... )

The less said about the elections, the better. Suffice to say, Wednesday morning was rough, not just because of the inexplicable URT infection I've been nursing. I've decided the only cure is video game political assassinations. Plural, if possible.

Meanwhile, I'm keeping up with being sick. Drinking lots of orange juice and tea with honey. Sleeping a lot. Got a doctor's appointment, which will be extremely helpful because doctors can do a lot to treat (probably) viral infections. Making a conscious decision not to think about work until I have to. Also putting off thinking about contracts and deadlines and ugh.

I'm debating between making a post about Skyrim and making a post about family legends.

Today's siren caught me just as I was about to leave work.

I still have this vague feeling that maybe I'm not as anxious as I should be? But then I remember the random muscle cramps and the general lack of restfulness of my sleep.

New dr. sent me for blood tests which I have been putting off. Most of the same stuff I usually get tested for (perennial vitamin D and TSH) but without some of the inflammatory factors. So far I'm pretty pleased with new Dr. although it is a little soon to tell. I am also thinking about other health practitioners and whether I might want to seek them out.

My coping mechanism is refreshing the Flight Rising marketplace over and over, waiting for my smoke tert scroll to show up. And dwelling on things I did successfully. That one's a fun new addition.

So the alarm sounded while I was walking home from the bus station and I didn't hear it because I was listening to Yehudit Ravitz. When I walked in all my neighbors were in the stairwell giving me weird looks.

Yesterday I moved into my new place: a rental, quite costly, much nearer my workplace than my previous home.

For context: today is a holiday, which means yesterday was erev chag - holiday starts at sunset the previous day, and many/most commercial things are closed/unavailable, depending on the status quo. Tomorrow is a workday, but Friday is another such half-day, because of Shabbat. My new neighborhood has a fairly lax status quo. Like, there is a non-kosher cafe across the street from me.

My internet line gets installed tomorrow morning. I was preparing to struggle with entertaining myself and keeping busy all holiday. And I was prepared! For noodle's sake, I packed three boxes of books! Then I discovered a neighborly open wifi connection.

The place is still partly or mostly unpacked, and has a number of unsightly hazards that need dealing with, some stuff of mine I need to replace, and a few necessary chores. Not quite in hosting shape, and I'm still not totally comfortable in it. But that was to be expected. It might take a while to banish that agoraphobic "I need to take a rest from this place" feeling.

So much else to write, but hopefully I can make a proper blog post tomorrow evening.

I was getting nervous so I only went to one class today. I have plenty of work, but that can mostly be done at home, properly huddled for warmth. I'll be more productive if I'm warm (I hope).

My legs are cold as fuck from the tips of my toes to about halfway up my thighs. Smart move, not wearing anything under my jeans.

Snow in Jerusalem always leads to a sort of mass panic laced with exhilaration. Especially at uni, where a lot of the students aren't native Jerusalemites. It's a little tempting to play jaded and be all like, "Yawn, seen one snow seen 'em all." I used to be just as excited but somehow living alone has tamped that down pretty hard.

Okay. So I've determined that the Aeducan storyline in DA:O, while it does contain many (many many) elements from the story of David and Absalom, is pretty definitely not a direct Biblical reference. On the other hand, I am now contemplating whether or not it could be an indirect reference, through some other more recent, popular fictional reworking of the Absalom story, with which I am not familiar. I had to check various sources for the original, since my familiarity is limited by my having been a kid when I studied this shit, and also having cut half the classes to read Michael Ende in the school library.

This, alongside the Surana ultimate sacrifice A/U I've been unable to excise from my head, and my obsessions with whether or not DAIII will visit the Black City, pretty conclusively prove that Dragon Age has eaten my life. Eaten. My. Life. Now, I love being eaten by a fandom as much as the next slightly eccentric internet denizen, but this is getting ridiculous. I know I do this song and dance whenever I get sucked into a new fandom, but I'm telling you this time is different.

ETA: I forgot to mention that the Hebrew Wikipedia article on Absalom is the most ridiculous/amazing piece of Bible fanfic you could possibly imagine. It just goes on and on and on, picking fights with the Biblical author for being hostile to Absalom, throwing fanon left right and center, fanwanking about the length of Absalom's hair. It would defy the imagination if one didn't come in with the knowledge that Biblical interpretation fanfic is 1) a longstanding tradition in Jewish theology and 2) one of Israel's number one exports.