Month: June 2003

What boredom does to a man…

Well, I’m officially bored.

It seems like every time I’m bored to hell, I go out and get a new hobby of sorts.

A few days ago, I purchased a DIY Model Airplane kit, as can be seen here. It’s not complete, and requires extensive building.

I had to purchase a ton of more tools, devices, controls and what have you.

This is a gas-powered engine, remote controlled sing propeller airplane. helped me with some of the assembly, and it’s taking shape amazingly quickly. (It helps to have gobs of time on your hands, being unemployed and all.)

I am alos heading out of the city tomorrow morning with Ze’ev, a guy I met at the Hobby Shop, who’s been building and flying for a LONG time now, and he’s going to introduce me to flying. Yipee!!

I hope I don’t crash, as these things are tricky. Wish me luck.

A shout goes out to all…

Are one of us?

Do YOU qualify?

I’m sure that if you yourself don’t, you at least know someone who does.

What, you are asking yourself, does he mean by one of “us”??

I am an Anglo-Saxon, born to first-generation USA parents, and early on, my family uprooted and came here. I’ve been here over 15 years. I hold dual citizenship with both the USA and Israel. I am fluent in both languages. I served in the Israeli Air Force for my full 3 years. I have both Anglo and Israeli friends.

Am I still an American? Or am I an Israeli? Where is MY country?

I am what I describe a hybrid, or a person of multiple worlds, yet member of none.

I am no longer an “American”. About 8 months ago, I popped over to NYC for two weeks, and had a chance to rove the city. I am not one of them. Yes, I speak unaccented English, and I know most of the cultural references, but I’m not part of them.

I came back, and it was immediately clear to me that I’m not an Israeli either. I speak unaccented Hebrew, and I know the country well, and hell, I can even out-haggle at the Shuk, but I’m not one of them.

Where do I, more importantly, WE, belong?

I’ve tried relationships with both Anglos and Israelis, but never with a hybrid. I guess we’re THAT different. I have friends that have made it work for them, but why should we have to make that much of an effort? Is it too much to ask that we be with our own kind?

I have created an LJ community here: Feel free to join, or just hang out.

I look forward to seeing y’all there.

Enough with the quizzes!

Ok, call me crazy, but I think after my last post, we can all agree that these damn quizzes have just about taken over our lives (and LJ’s to an extent).

Do they really reflect who we are? Is there any other purpose for them other than to have a few minutes of fun, and let everyone else know what kind of results you got? I mean, really, people, can’t we find something better to do with our time?

I am far from fault. Hell, look at my last post! I’ll leave it there, if just as a satirical warning to the rest of the universe. I mean, really, curse words and genitalia. Now, I don’t think the results are off, especially the first one, as I _was_ that kid once, and some of that is still with me. I can swear worse than an Irish sailor sometimes. But putting that up, now that’s a bit distasteful. I love distaste, and shy away from tact, and I roared with laughter when my results showed up. Do I have to show everyone else? Probably not.

Now that I’ve ranted along for a bit, I’m calmed down a bit more.

Due to the ongoing ranting of regarding Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” comic series, and due to the fact that and his brother are really in to it, AND that has them all, I’ve borrowed a few, to test the waters. Simply put, it’s intriguing. Disturbingly so, considering that the first time I saw Morpheus’ elder sister, Death, without her being introduced, I thought she was a great character, and had no idea what she represented. Just the attitude that brought her “onstage” was enough to keep me interested. Gaiman is a wonderful writer, and I’ve read other works of his, and being in comic form adds to the beauty of this world.

I will read the rest of them, if only to satisfy my own curiosity, and hopefully, I will discover ‘s passion for them.

Another thing, on Thursday morning, I made brownies. Now, I cheated a lot, because I was lazy 🙂 I got some Duncan Hines brownie mix, and added a “special” ingredient. Trust me, if you’ve ever felt “special”, these do it much subtler and less harmful to your body than any other method. My advice: try it at least once, but only if you’re staying home, or somewhere and don’t plan on doing anything extremely taxing for about 8-10 hours.

Let me know if you want some. 🙂

I’m back…

Whoo.

It’s been over three days, and a lot of mileage behind me, but it’s been one hell of a festival.

I set out early Thursday morning, after spending the whole night awake, and got on a LOOOONNNGG bus ride up to Beit She’an. At least it was a dedicated transport, so I didn’t have to trade buses anywhere. JJ, Yed, Elon and Yaakov were with me, and we all tried to catch some sleep. No luck.

When we all finally got there, it was HOT! I forgot that the weather is hotter elsewhere in Israel. Jerusalem’s such a nice temperature.

Well, we found a nice place to set camp, which wasn’t easy, believe me, because there were SOOOO meany people there already, and many more to come. We pitched my tent, took about 15 minutes to raise the “6-man monstrosity” to the awe and amazement of everyone else around. It’s literally an 8- (if not more) man tent, that’s been in the family forever. It’s my home away from home. 😉
So, we set up, unpacked a bit, and went swimming to relieve some of the heat.
Nice man-made “nature” pools, with rocks on the bottom, and nice green water. What every person dreams of! 😉

I’m not going to do a “play-by-play” of the three days, but suffice it to say that there was plenty to do, plenty of time to relax, and personally, I had a great time.

I hope your holiday was as enjoyable as mine, but I doubt it, unless you were at Shantipi as well. 🙂

Well, well, well.

Ok, I’ve finally made up my mind.

This weekend, Shavuot, I’m heading up to the Shantipi’s 7th festival. Check out the details on www.shantipi.co.il .

I’ve called a few friends, and some might make it. I don’t really care if it’s only me, but if they do come, it means I’ll have someone to help me carry my 6-man tent.

Everyone’s invited, let none miss out! Read the site, there’ll be religious and non-religious people there, so everyone can make it.

Hope to see you there!

Now THAT’s the shit…

Woo. Just got down from the roof.

What was I doing there, you ask? Well, it’s quite simple.

It’s a sunny day, and I have a roof, but no porch. I climbed up there, water bottle, towel, music, cigs and suntan lotion. I need to tan, I’m so white, I reflect.

So, once I got up there, found a nice spot relatively secluded from the strret, and set up. In a minute I was down to my shorts, covered in sunblock, music in my ears, for almost two hours.
If I do this every day, I’m sure to get _some_ color. 😉

People, get out, away from the box, and enjoy some of what life has to offer!