#last summer I got covid and I’m STILL recovering

[daezedglownut]

Also, my holiday has literally started today, and my throat hurts 8C

Every fucking time is2g ;_;

#can I enjoy my time off for ONCE #last summer I got covid and I’m STILL recovering #JFC #8C

[dietraumerei]

Weekly(ish) Writing and Reading Update

hiiiiiii! Sorry, I live! I am just having a very PNW summer which means I’m either doing All of the Things or at home recovering from same. (I slept in today and went grocery shopping and sincerely felt like I’d been hit by a truck, rest days are just rough I guess.) I have a lil staycation this week so don’t know what day it is which is wonderful beyond words.

Also the Tour de France is lowkey eating my life, because it is maybe the best one in years! We all said that last year, but here we are again! Pogaçar and Vingegaard are maybe the best rivalry of my lifetime. (I am technically old enough to have seen LeMond and Hinault*, but have no real memory of them, other than LeMond being a kind of minor god of my childhood -- and let’s be honest, adult -- home.) I have dreams about pro cyclists and parcours and mountains. I love it so much. I am unspeakably grateful today was a rest day, which makes me totally exactly the same as Wout van Aert.

*I got into cycling properly during the Schleck and Contador years, but contend that didn’t last long enough to make an impact, other than my deep and enduring love for Andy Schleck. We’re gonna be arguing Pogi v Vingo** until 20-fricking-30.

**I had originally thought Vingegaard would win GC with Pogi becoming stronger in the third week; now I think they are perfectly equally matched but Vingegaard will still win. I don’t see more than a second or two moving between them, even back in the Alps. I have absolutely nothing to back this up other than vibes.

Anyway. You can imagine how much else I’m getting done. Writing sorry to this man

Reading

I finished, appropriately enough, Ned Boulting’s 1923 which is a beautiful book about the Tour de France and the nearly-forgotten Theo Beeckmann, and about the covid pandemic and history and tracking people and places down through time. I am an enormous fan of Ned (and David and Pete for any other Never Strays Far fans), and although this book very rarely pushes just a touch into bathos, it is mostly beautiful and wonderful and I’m glad he wrote it and I’m glad I read it.

(I finished it on June 30th, which is rather an important day in the book so I’m proud of my timing too.)

I also read A Half-Built Garden which I have a lot of very complex emotions about. I don’t know if I liked it, but I like how it made me react and think and feel and get grumpy. I’m not even sure it’s all that great, but it sure did make me think.

#weekly update

[startrekwintergiftexchange]

Hi so I know you had an update in February about this, but it's been over a month and I never received a gift from the exchange, even though I made one for my recipient. Are we ever going to find out what happened with that? Thanks!

I’m so very sorry. I did (and still do) intend to wrap up the last strands on this. I unfortunately caught covid soon after the last update and then as I was recovering, work and life in general got quite busy.

I am unfortunately a human being who, this year at least, has apparently over-committed myself. But I do intend to finish this. Even if it ends up being more of a spring/summer exchange by the time it’s done 😅

#and then of course as it’s been longer #guilt has gotten in the way as well #i cannot reiterate enough how sorry i am that this has gone the way it has

[belovedapollo]

Hi! Sorry, I wasn’t active the past couple weeks 😔 Life has been going crazy and I had to deal with several panic attacks and meltdowns. On top of that my summer term came to an end and now I have vacation (thank god). Last week I got covid and I’m still recovering from it. With all these said I’ll to be more active 😣

[my-one-true-l]

Hello hi how are you?

How’s your week been?

I’ve finally left the house in over a week. I caught covid last monday for the second time and oh my goodness has it messed me up. I’m all better now more or less.

I was already pretty bad to begin with, my physical health is not the greatest I will admit. But Covid basically wiped out all of my progress on my lungs and now i gotta start all over with the exercises, ughhhhhh. It’s not all bad though, I get the exercise on walks throughout the day;

Though the UK right now is just not amicable for walking or breathing in general if you have breathing problems. It’s gonna reach like 35 Celcius by Sunday (95 Fahrenheit i think) plus it’s so humid - we’re built for cold and miserable weather which means no air conditioning in literally any lovable building, plus our buildings and roads just ABSORB heat.

Forgive me for complaining but I am not a summer person. I much prefer Autumn, not too hot not too cold and my allergies won’t try and suffocate me before I leave the house lmao.

Ok enough complaining for one day, onto some good things. All this time not being able to leave my bed has allowed me to think of the rest of the plot for Janus Quirinus, now it’s just a matter of actually writing it! Also i’m hoping to go to a flower garden soon, i really want to see some sterling silver roses but no matter. I love plants but it appears they do not reciprocate lmao.

Also i’ve managed to get my boyfriend into black butler, somehow. I’ve forewarned him of any messing around in the fandom, though he hasn’t really got much intent to interact. But overall he seems to enjoy it so far and wants to read the manga too since the manga is objectively superior (I will fight on this /j)

Anyways I hope you have a wonderful week, I hope the weather is amicable for you. Also i hope your plants are growing healthily and bountifully. Stay safe and hydrated! Much love <3

Hi Ace,

I'm sorry to hear you caught Covid. I know how bad it is for people with breathing problems. I'm glad you've recovered and I hope it doesn't take you too long to make progress again.

I never thought of summer being something England wasn't equipped for, but that makes a lot of sense. I love summer, but I will admit I am not a fan of the sun beating down on me lol.

Ooh, I'm intrigued at how JQ is going to wrap. A happy ending or angsty? I will have to wait and see! I think visiting a flower garden soon sounds lovely. Maybe you aren't as bad with plants as you think. Roses are notoriously difficult to raise.

Oh, Black Butler! One of my favorites! I still need to read the manga! I have so many theories and I've heard that the manga delves more into those things than the anime and movies ever do. I don't blame your boyfriend not caring about the fandom. Honestly, I don't go in it much either lol. I tend to rather have a small group of friends that share the same interests to discuss the things we all love lol. It feels like a more authentic fan experience if that makes sense lol.

I hope your week is wonderful and you continue to feel better! Much Love!

~Rae

#Letters with Friends #Sweet People #Ace-13

[fluffairy]

In 2018, I lived with my grandma in NJ for about 7 months, as a new college graduate. We went to a museum every month, until she fell and broke her pelvis in June, a few weeks before we had planned to go to The Met Cloisters for the first time: a museum of medieval art & multiple transported European cloisters perched on a hill overlooking the Hudson River in uptown Manhattan. The next year I was in Italy — admittedly, where there ARE a lot more INTACT cloisters, but still. In summer 2020, clearly COVID happened and no one was going anywhere. In summer 2021, my grandma fell AGAIN and broke some bones, right before we had planned to go to the Cloisters. This year, we planned to go to the Cloisters a week before my birthday, and then I got COVID myself the week before that, and it just felt like it was never going to happen, ever — but then, I recovered from COVID, it was a beautiful day on my birthday, we decided to just get in the car and /do it/: I cannot express how emotional it was to drive up the hill of Fort Tryon Park and see the imposing and massive stone structure of The Met Cloisters looming above, and thinking: oh my God, I’m finally here. — and, to finally be able to see it with my beloved Grandma!

I turned 26 today and I’m so thankful for the love & grace & patience I was shown today (my aunt driving us from NJ to NYC being one of the first on the list lol) and for all of the love & beauty I’ve experienced in the last 26 years; all the places I’ve been & all the places & adventures & paintings & sculptures & love & books & movies & coffees I have yet to experience. On my last birthday I had sort of resigned myself to a half-life where I knew I had to be thankful for the good things I had but still nothing felt good enough; now, I have a full time job, health insurance, and a car, and I know that things come in waves (still don’t have my own place, for one thing) but I’m proud & feeling very very thankful for so many things. today was so, so good and I’m so glad I finally got to see the Cloisters. I truly thought it would never happen, and today it did. 💗

#nyc #mine #cloisters

[hobidreams]

damn babes, life is really putting us through the wringer huh😭 post-covid effects are truly wild right?? i remember for my mom, the effects were similar to yours, but for me it made me more sensitive to tastes?? if it’s any consolation, it went away completely for me n my mom after a couple weeks!!

about summer plans though, i’m def not taking summer classes this time around💀 it sorta sunk in that i haven’t gotten a proper vacation ever since i started uni in 2020, so i really wanted to just take a break. had a conversation about it w my mom n she supported my decision to take a break this summer and i honestly don’t regret a thing🥳 anyways i’m just gonna take it easy!! planning to finish crocheting my tote bag (oh did you ever get the pic i sent of the lil hat i made for my cat or did tumblr eat it😵‍💫😵‍💫), and reading a lot of books!!! i read “the girl who fell beneath the sea” last week and i absolutely LOVED IT!! i blame you for starting my obsession with historical fiction/fantasy💀 it’s based off of a korean folktale with a couple of twists, and i think you’d really like it!! i also got the book that joon and yoongi read on in the soop s1 (almond!!), and it’s been an interesting read so far. i’ll update you hihihi. also finally started watching the red sleeves?? i already know the ending but it’s actually so fun to watch even though i know it’s going to hurt like a mf💀

ok that’s all,, sorry this ended up being way longer than i thought it would be💀 but anyways how are you babes!! any fun updates (wedding updates👀)??? what are your plans for the summer?

the spacing is still whack i genuinely don’t know how to fix it lmao

-🌿

my answer got long soooo cut!

omg more sensitive?? cant even imagine what thats like. im glad thats gone for u now!! yeah i think im mostly recovered from the taste thing now.... but also like... glad i didnt get the thing that some ppl had where everything tasted like gasoline. but my random dry coughing came back two weeks ago and its only just starting to fade again 😬😬😬 im worried and have to see a doctor abt it 😭

HELL YEAHH im so glad you got to take the summer off!! fr, so many people are rushing to do their degrees in 4 years and 🤷🏻‍♀️ most ppl i knew did it in 5 and it wasnt a big deal at all. take ur time and do what makes u happy 💗 honestly, relaxing in the summer prepares me better for the winter term so it works for the best! the tote bag sounds amazing! pls show me it!!! and no i never got the pic of ur cat hat 😤😤😤 fuck u tumblr

omg ive heard of that book before! tbh i dont read a lot of fantasy bc i prefer straight historical but i will have to check it out. my backlog of to-reads only keeps growing. oops. i hope u enjoyed the books!!

ahhh never apologize pls. i love and appreciate ur long messages!!! my plans are in effect rn haha im away at a cabin sort of place, that has VERY bad wifi so im doin my best here. but its meant to be very relaxing and lowkey so im gonna do my best to recover. ive also been getting these headaches on and off since covid, but i think theyre getting worse and idk skckwkfnkemfm. i just have to fix this before school starts.

no wedding updates for now bc unfortunately our venue isnt booking yet for 2025 and thats when we have to have it (bc of my school + timing of other big, unmoveable family events). but we've picked a place + contacted the wedding party and everything is a go for that!! oh my god its so expensive. we've made a modest budget but im afraid ppl will judge us if its not super luxurious 💀 i also have a friend (more like "friend" tbh... its a long story) who put some doubts in my mind about our small budget akdmekfm so idk we're still sorting it out. doing our best to fit in everything we want while still saving for our first home 💀💀💀 but im very excited and looking forward to it!!

#the spacing is fine for me btw!! #at least on laptop #rain reply #🌿 anon #❤️❤️❤️ #stay well love

[evadventure]

The ghosts of Barcelona

More or less accidentally, I’m standing on one foot in a train down the coast from Barcelona. Since I can’t do much, just hang on the rail, I can contemplate the weird mix of familiar and strange.

Skies are yellowish-gray, dense with Sahara sand. When I attempted to live here, it rained. But in the last three years, in some places here not a single drop fell.

I still haven’t caught even a glimpse of a big reason Barcelona was calling me back at the end of 2019 — the sea. This beautiful coast — up north it’s Costa Brava, the wild coast (much like patatas bravas can be wild) — used to see us heading to a beach every weekend. The sense of normality amid the covid chaos. Me, desperately doing anything to keep the illusion I was brought here for something more than anxiety, loneliness, and the evergrowing sense of not belonging.

What started as an adventure spiced — by a heavy-handed wrinkled Indian cook who no longer measures the amounts of chilli because he can eat any amount — with the sense of the world vanishing, was followed by careful re-discovery, re-building, re-claiming, re-connection.

And it was easy for a while since there was nothing else to do. As Leonard Cohen sings, I loved every morning and pretended it was new. Or, I tried.

So I’m traveling down the coast to see my friend Dylan and his family and I find relief in the notion that I no longer have to try to fit in. It’s not an age thing, no, this is Spain. A sixty-year old women (who’s in a better shape than me) doesn’t mind taking a seat on the floor in the crowded train. No one around me complains about having to stand. But when I take down my Sony headphones that cancel most of the noise, the world seems somehow quieter than it used to be.

It’s the yellow sky and the sense of doom and the lacking rain. And I don't belong. Have I ever? My dream was to go south, follow the sun, live by the sea. Covid turned it into a nightmare that I slowly recovered from, but I don’t feel like I’ve recovered my travel lust. Fernweh, that I’ve got. The hidden lump of gold in the shit the covid years have been — it’s four years since I moved here and I just can’t fucking believe it — is the fact that the sense of the passing time scares me less. An ability I never had, to prioritize, to embrace I can’t be in all the places at once. Alles was ich immer wollte war alles.

Now we’re passing the rocky coast and it starts to feel as a pleasant memory as I’m no longer really remembering the summer heat with a mask on. The sea reminds me of someone dear, someone I first wanted to bring, but now I’m glad to be alone. This is my world. None of it can be shared. This path alone commemorates all those days here, countless days I can’t tell apart because they all melted together.

I was here because at some point I wanted to change scenery. Run from myself. I’m here now because I wanted to feel the pleasure of changing scenery. Solitude perhaps. How symbolic is it that I chose to come here? (Well, voucher tickets.) It only hits me when I leave the train: I’m here to re-concile with the person I was here.

With the person I failed to be here. I’m here to see ever so clearly what I have found since then. I don’t have to force myself to belong. I no longer need everything.

[wwarren]

2022

Finally (finally) getting to my annual year recap. Between this one and last year I’ve been slacking and not getting to them until damn near halfway through the year. But like I said before, better late than never.

So this year was very interesting. Very interesting. What could’ve been the worst year of my life actually turned into one of my favorite years in recent memories, second to 2015. I think the main contributing factors to that was that I was pushed very hard to do and try new things. As well as foster and build a stronger relationship with my inner circle of friends - all of whom helped me get through what otherwise would’ve been an extremely challenging year with out them. So to start, in January I caught COVID. It was absolutely awful in the sense that I had the most bizarre side effects from the virus. I remember being like oh god, this is awful. It lasted about a week. Thankfully, nothing too severe happened as a result and I got over my symptoms in a decent amount of time.

Shortly after I recovered from COVID, my mom had passed away from the very same thing. She had a lot of health issues that were probably exacerbated by the virus. I’ll never forget that morning I woke up from a text from her, drove to her place frantically, the the ER, and then having the news delivered to me by the doctor. It was such an out of body feeling. My worst fears had came true and I realized then that from then on out the only person that’s going to look out for me is me. I was officially alone. Mentally, I had prepared myself for this day for a while because I knew it was inevitable. But it still hurt a lot. Healing from such a thing isn’t easy and is never in a perfect straight line. You’ll have days where you’re fine and days where you’re not. Sometimes you’ll be triggered by the smallest thing that takes you back to a memory and you’ll start to cry. With all this being said, I found what helped me the most ultimately was having a good support system. In my case, that was my friends.

After that and dealing with cleaning out her apartment, stopping all of her services to the apartment, and the funeral, I was in a weird space. It’s almost like something was set off in my body and spirit that told me to make the most of this year and try to form as many memories as you can. And I did.

I did a lot of traveling, spent a lot of good quality time with friends, and made some good memories. I traveled to Chicago/Boystown for the first time which I absolutely loved, went to Wisconsin, went to Mexico again for the second year in a row, experienced the Indy500 for the first time, was the man of honor (maid of honor) for one of my good friend’s weddings and gave a speech in front of 100+ people, went to New Orleans for the bachelorette party, wine tastings, Halloween parties, fun late nights in the summer riding scooters, pedal bars, Lollapalooza, picked up a new hobby of roller skating… there’s just so much. I was pushed outside of my box by myself and my friends and made so many great memories that truly filled the void that was there from grief. Of course it wasn’t complete smooth sailing but my close circle made me feel loved and appreciated. I grew closer to so many people and those relationships and memories are ones that I won’t forget. If it weren’t for them my depression probably would’ve taken away so much of me. I’m proud of myself for my resilience and willingness to be positive despite the hard time I was enduring.

2022 was in the top 2 favorite years. It was just fucking amazing. My main goal moving forward into the new year is to keep that momentum going. 💛

[jreynoldsward]

Writing Accountability Post #24

The summer front porch evening office is BACK! Doesn't quite look like this for 2023, but it's close.

I sat down and did some looking at the first and second quarters of the year as far as sales were concerned, and was pleasantly surprised to see that Q2 sales were significantly better than Q1--however, that's also reflective of a new release in February that got some much-appreciated support from Deborah Ross, amongst others, and reflects March sales that didn't get posted until April. What doesn't show up necessarily is the degree to which both Ingram and Amazon have supplanted Draft2Digital as my primary sales sites. D2D just went completely flat for sales in Q2, and I'm still not sure why. Barnes and Noble is now a complete and total bust, where previously it used to be my best venue. I suspect it has something to do with changes in their management, because it was pretty dramatic. That, plus the Books2Read links became unreliable. Sigh. I think it's time to tackle Linktree.

Ingram has been a complete and total surprise this year. I hadn't been selling much there until suddenly, with the release of A Different Life: Now. Always. Forever. books started to sell. Well, the paperback of Beating the Apocalypse did decently, too, as have some of the Netwalk paperbacks. I'm somewhat falling down right now because I haven't really been keeping up with the process of editing and getting those paperbacks OUT. I swear, there's something in the air that keeps holding those books back. Too bad, because as my first series, I really like those books and I think they're pretty decent. Oh well. We shall see.

But this isn't the first year that I've foundered on the rock of April-May-June when it comes to productivity, especially when it comes to promotion. Oh, some of it is due to health issues--cataract last year, reacting to Covid shot and a couple of other things this year--but that doesn't really explain other years. I really hit the shoals in April. Possibly due to the time and seasonal changes. April is all about the time change, followed by the need to adjust the horse schedule to later in the day to reflect more daylight and warmer weather. Then comes May and June, with woodcutting and recovering from woodcutting days in between those woodcutting days. We shoot for anything from six to ten pickup loads in the spring, depending on the state of the woodshed and our health. This year, we hauled nine loads of wood.

This year, we also had work on the Portland house, which sucked up a week of time working hard and not doing much fun because we were either a.) working or b.) recovering from physical labor. Plus two weekend virtual conventions. One involved paneling, the other one didn't, but that still took up time.

Essentially, what seems to happen from April-June is a lot of disruption at about the time that any new routine I might institute needs to be revised and reconsidered. And I think that's where I flounder in the whole organization thing. I don't always get back on track as a response to the disruption, and that's not a good thing.

Still another piece is that my office setup for winter doesn't always work for summer. I instituted some changes in ergonomics and rapidly became unhappy with the layout. I've since fixed it, but it's entirely possible that I may need to reorganize my office twice a year to reflect the different needs of the season as far as what lives in my office, what sort of paper-sorting organization I need to set up due to what's happening, and what my responsibilities may be, as well as expanding places where I can work (in summer) and contracting spaces (in winter).

When it comes to promotion, I really need to get my act together. Part of "getting my act together" includes reducing complexities. I sat down and made a list of my social media platforms, sorted them by "these platforms I can post something somewhere in some group on a daily basis," those where "targeted promotion once a week" is appropriate, and those where "only when something new--blog post, cover reveal, new release--is to be posted." I sorted them out, grouped 'em, and made that list part of my monthly promo plan list. We'll see how well it works.

The other piece with regard to promotion is that I really, really need to organize how I solicit reviews and interviews. I'm very hit and miss on that aspect of organization, and I need some sort of system to make it function. Some of that is a result of dropped emails--I need to set up a daily time to review and either respond or delete responses. Not sure how I'm going to set that up.

My biggest problem is that I've written and published a lot of work without building the supports I need for easy promotion organization. Now I'm playing catch up, and it's making me a wee bit frustrated.

Ah well. It just takes time. Deep breath. Onward.

[fullsunstrawberry]

OKAY WOAH NEW THEME ALERT???? I LOVE ITT

ALSO YES IM SO HAPPY FOR YOUR COUSIN!!!

girl it just set in that next year is my last year of university and then i’ll probably move to chicago because of my job 😭 i’ll going to miss nyc so bad even though i hate it here…

also SUMMER PLANS??? tell me all about girlll

i think im going to just chill this summer! last summer was pretty bad (my uncle passed from covid and even though i was never that close to him i felt like i lost a part of me)

also did i ever tell you why my middle name is an english name??

so erin is my grandma on my dads side name (he’s half assamese half english) and they gave me erin because my grandma was like about to die or something (she survived and is still healthy tofay) so they gave me her name to preserve her memory but my mom didn’t want me to be named and english name so they compromised on middle name.

ANYWAY SORRY FOR JUMPING OFF TOPICS IM REALLY HYPED RN BECAUSE OF YOUR COUSIN AND ALSO MY BROTHERS FIANCÉE GOT A PUPPY AND HES SO CUTEEEE

lots of love and make sure to smile :)))

💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓

vampire haechan will forever be in my heart 😍

thank you so much!! he’s doing great rn, just recovering from surgery!!

one more year of university!! that’s crazy 🎉what kind of job are you looking for?

chicago to nyc!!! that’s a big change, but i love chicago <3 it is cheaper to live in chicago than nyc. but moving from where you spent most of your life is scary but exciting

i have no idea what i’m doing for the summer 😭😭 i’m thinking of getting a job because for my first spring break in college i’m going to nyc with my friend 😍

wanna go to universal studios for harry potter world but i might do that for winter break instead

do you know what your gonna do?

wait that’s such a cute way to get a middle name! my middle name is just my moms name (elizabeth) which is literally one of the most common middle name

and than my name is from a portuguese soap drama but a lot of people online call me strawberry because i used to have red hair

OKAY WAIT NOW I WANT PUPPY PICS !! i have 2 dogs and a cat,, im more of a cat person but shhhhh

love yah <;3

#my fav #love yah <3 #ask answered #❤️❤️❤️ #love your paragraphs #<3 #erin-calling <3

[simplesweetness]

So I haven’t been on this in months and months and months. I better catch you all up! ;)

Last year (my second year at uni) I finished 2 marks of a first class grade which, yes, was annoying, but also I was petty proud of myself for getting so high.

My mental health ebbs and flows and there was a lot of ebbs in the last year for sure but I’ve also had some good times. I met friends at uni (omg!!) and I’ll be living in student halls come September which will hopefully mean I get to meet even more people. I’m nervous and excited about moving but trying to stay positive. I’m still with my boyfriend, I’d say he’s a major reason I even got through the year okay. I’ll not gush too much but I really am thankful for how happy he makes me lol!

As I type this I am lying in a super bubbly bath “dying” of covid :( which sucks but nearly fully recovered now thank god!

Next year will be full of newness and I have my dissertation to start in September, I’ll probably talk about that more when uni starts back up.

I am quite lonely at the minute, my boyfriend works and lives up in my uni city while I’m back home for the summer, although I try to see him as often as I can so I’m not super super lonely. I don’t talk to the girls I lived with for the past two years that much anymore and I don’t know why exactly but I’m just trying to let myself be more independent and move on from people that make me feel like poop.

Don’t know why I started a whole heart to heart there but I suppose there you go, now you’re all caught up. I’ll hopefully be more active on this in the next year to keep myself accountable but we’ll see teehee

S xx

[brotherbo]

Blog Post 7/24:

It’s Sunday night, the first day of the week here in Israel and I’m sitting outside my dorm in northern Tel Aviv under a half cloudy grey and blue sky. The temperature is warm enough that when a breeze hits I’m is confronted by the refreshing feelings and memories of romantic summer nights. I seem to already be feeling nostalgic, for my time here is about to come to an end and I’ll continue with my travels and adventures elsewhere.

This past week was full of emotion and adventure. Because both of my professors were sick with Covid (thankfully they’ve both recovered and are negative) we had class on Zoom. One the one hand this gave me the opportunity to spend a bit more time with Kayla in Jerusalem and spend time at our favorite places. On the other hand, it was a total bummer to not have classes in person for a week when you’re supposed to be in Yiddishland!

On Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Kayla as she’s going back to NYC. In the evening I went to a yorzeit memorial for my friend and hevruta (learning partner) Yonim Schweig Z’L. It’s been two years since his tragic passing, entirely unfathomable when I think about how much has happened in my life since then, and how much would have happened in his as well. The Schweig family was visiting Israel so they put together a gathering of sorts for Yonim’s friends. I met friends of Yonim that I hadn’t known before and saw the familiar faces of friends who till then, were frozen in memories from four-ish years ago when I was still in Yeshiva. On this blog it doesn’t look like so much time since then but in reality it’s been some time.

At the gathering another hevruta of mine, an Israeli fellow named Yonatan (but known to me by his strong last name “Tzubery,”) invited me and another friend, Zev Mishell over for shabbat by him in Tekoa. I had stayed by Tzubery’s previously for a shabbat when I was in my second year at yeshiva, and made it back there for (at least what I can remember of it) what was a wildly spirited and joyous purim (with Yonim too!)   Tekoa is in the West Bank, about 20-30 minutes south east of Jerusalem. It’s mammish a hilltop settlement. There are four established neighborhoods (Tekoa Alef, Bet, Gimmel, and Dalet) and a farm/mini settlement in Tekoa “hay,” which was only erected in the past couple of years. Though it was founded by Rabbi Menachem Fruhman with a sort of bridge-building approach: forging relationships with the surrounding Palestinian villages and “radically” integrating both secular and religious Jews into the same community, it has turned into a more established settlement and stands blatantly as another example of the inequity between Israeli citizens and Palestinians. (If you’re wondering why click here) Nevertheless, I couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity and comfort of being hosted by a friend in their home – the cotton candy pink of the Jordanian foothills and the sweet sounds of a kavonodik (intentional) welcoming of the Sabbath Bride reverberating through the space of conjoined caravans. Chatting with Tzubery was pure delight. And getting to spend the weekend with Zev was more than I bargained for.

Jumping back a bit, Zev joined me in the shuk (Mahane Yehuda) on Friday during peak market hours to help hawk some of my ShtarkShirts. With T-shirts on hangers we walked down the street amidst hundreds of Jews and called out:

 “Love Torah? Love Mishnah? Have I got a shirt for you! T-shirts with illustrations of mishnahs on them! Ever seen something like that before? No, you haven’t! Why? Because I made it! Nothing else like it exists friends! Get it here! Get it now!” 

I’d say it was a smashing success of a couple hours. A bunch of people turned their heads, gave us thumbs up, told us it was a cool idea, were asking for stickers, and were even interested in buying them. Ultimately I made one sale to a mizrahi mother excited at the prospect of gifting her 10 year old son a shirt that no-one else in community will have. One or two people who I approached said they’d seen the T-shirts before – online. Another one said their friend actually has one of the shirts and dropped the name of a mutual friend. Hawking in the market is a right of passage, and occupies not a small amount of space in the stories recounting the Jewish market places of yore.

Back to classes in person for my last week of this program and then I’m off. This evening we had an open mic at which people performed songs, declaimed and recited poems, and told stories, all in Yiddish. A majority of the group got up to perform something and I myself did a couple recitations. I began by showing my mishnah Bava Metzia shirt and then reciting the beginning of that mishnah in Hebrew and in Yiddish. Then I recited an excerpt from an S. Ansky epic poem named after the arch-demon “Ashmodai.” I ended with a small poem written by Celia Dropkin.

I remain curious about the insights I can glean from this last week in classes, and look forward to everything that is to come.

But more on that later,

Bloaz

[aci32]

HYPOCRISY/HIDEOUS DIVINITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone here is my 6th review of 2022, Hypocrisy/Hideous Divinity!!!!!!! This was my 3rd time seeing Hypocrisy as I last saw them 3 years ago at the Opera  House with Fleshgod Apocalypse and that was on Wednesday April 3rd, 2019. That was a great show at the time and last night was awesome, even though there was one opener who I actually enjoyed and another who I tolerated, but one I found boring and out of place.

Let’s begin the festivities!

First band up was HIDEOUS DIVINITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 2nd time catching this Italian death metal quartet as last time I saw them was almost 27 months ago with Abysmal Dawn and Vader, which was a month before Covid had shut everything down. It felt great seeing them again as they put on a great live show, even though the crowd was moshing here and there. It would’ve been more ideal if they were 2nd last when the crowd was getting all fired up, but it is what it is. Also at one point during the set, frontman Enrico “Hater” had said “Mama Mia” which then drew a funny reaction from a crowd member and a funny reaction from Enrico.

Second band up was The Agonist. They weren’t too bad, even though I’m not the biggest fan of their material as I never really got into it. This was also current Arch Enemy frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz’s original band before she joined Arch Enemy and was replaced by current frontwoman Vicky Psarakis, and she was fantastic. I’ll be honest, Vicky definitely gives off more of a personable vibe than Alissa as Alissa has a giant ego capable of choking out not just rooms but whole venues. Even though I was saving my energy for Hypocrisy, The Agonist were still fun to watch live.

Third band up was Carach Angren. I’ll be honest I wasn’t impressed at all with their stage setup as I found them to be boring and out of place on the bill. I mean the frontman Dennis “Seregor” Droomers had good stage presence and was funny at times, but on the whole I wasn’t digging them as their theatrics were done wrong and it was more of a reason for me to save my energy for Hypocrisy.

Final band up was HYPOCRISY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 3rd time seeing them live as it had been 3 years since I last saw them at the Opera House. Funnily enough in lieu of them playing Lee’s Palace, they were not far from the Annex Wreckroom now called Coda, which was the first time I saw them live. They always put on a great show and I’m never disappointed each time I see them live. At one point there was a drunken idiot who tried to stage dive but was denied entry by other patrons. I definitely look forward to seeing them at Wacken this summer. I’ll also point out this was the first time I saw Hypocrisy live since it was announced that longtime drummer Reidar “Horgh” Horghagen had departed the band, which shocked me, but new drummer Henrik Axelsson has definitely stepped up to the plate with his awesome drumming skills. Here’s what their setlist looked like:

WorshipPlay Video

Fire in the SkyPlay Video

Mind CorruptionPlay Video

EraserPlay Video

Inferior DevotiesPlay Video

Chemical WhorePlay Video

Until the EndPlay Video

Don't Judge MePlay Video

End of DisclosurePlay Video

Weed Out the WeakPlay Video

Children of the GrayPlay Video

War-PathPlay Video

The Final ChapterPlay Video

Encore:

Fractured MillenniumPlay Video

Impotent GodPlay Video

Adjusting the SunPlay Video

Roswell 47

Overall a great show and a great way to blow off steam from a hectic Monday and as well to end a double shot, even though I’d rather do double shots on Thursdays and Fridays or Fridays and Saturdays so I can rest and recover properly.

HEAVY METAL FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[swampgallows]

The State of Things at blizzard aside, heroes of the storm has been a “dead game” for several years now. it’s blizzard’s answer to a genre spawned from within one of its own games—a MOBA, originally fan-created as a custom map titled “war of the ancients” in blizzard’s warcraft 3. unlike popular albeit more complex mobas, HotS has the advantage of being more user-accessible with no items, shared exp, simplified talent trees, and a character list populated by their world-renowned IPs. at blizzcon 2018 their first in-universe hero, Orphea, was announced, complete with a fully-animated hybrid 2d/3d cinematic trailer and potential for HotS to expand as a franchise with more original characters and lore. but shortly after, in december of 2018, blizzard discontinued HotS esports and content generation for the game slowed to a trickle; for instance, the most recent winter seasonal event lasted well into summer (24 weeks) and the event that followed eclipsed it at 29 weeks.

I mention all of this just to say that, as a result, a niche community has built up around those who still enjoy the game. while the “true” game lies in quick match, i mainly play vs AI as a way to chill out while listening to music or podcasts. i end up seeing the same names over and over again, and we start to recognize each other. HotS also has a perk of giving bonus xp if youre partied up with friends, so there’s incentive to add people and group up with them again in the future. compared to the splintering in world of warcraft, seeing my regulars during late night hots binges was a reprieve from my other depleted social circles and communities.

within the last few months i made a friend. J was planning to buy an exp boost and “dive hard” with me in the week between christmas and new years, but didn’t show. last week during exams J said one of the students had tested positive for covid, so i naturally feared the worst. tonight, i got a response:

[removed for privacy]

we will probably still keep in touch; this is more of just a reflection on, well, i suppose the aforementioned State of Things. i want to keep in mind our conversation that followed and let it inspire me to return to the things that i love, even if i’m not very good and i’m all alone. creating something, whether petty or pithy, is better than stagnating, floundering, wallowing. 

i dont have a poetic end to this. just wondering how difficult it will be to remove all the shrapnel, and how long it will take to recover. 

#blathering #ok to rb #hots #heroes of the storm