Not Anonymous

If anyone was looking outside today at around two o'clock, you'll know that it was pouring with rain and that those who chose to go outside unshielded were drenched within seconds.

That's what I drove in.

It wasn't too bad, since I have been driving for three years now (more, counting the lessons) and have driven in hard rain before, in fact I've driven in the dark, in traffic, in heavy rain. But this was different because this was the first time I'd driven to Terminal 3 at Ben-Gurion Air Port on my own and I was a bit tense on the way because I'd never driven there.
It's a very long way in the rain and the high way was scary, because of the trucks and the fact that it wasn't just the rain, but also the splashing from the other cars and my friends, Geah High way has many, many potholes which cause major splashes.

Anywho I arrived before Mummy came out and bought myself a cup of coffee and read a bit of "Casino Royale" in the bookshop, which they re-issued for the movie, I didn't get a chance to go beyond the first few pages, because people had began to pour out of the doors. Mummy didn't take long and she looked really good.
She decided to drive home (which I was happy about, because I was exhausted from driving before) and after we got home and had a cup of coffee we opened up the luggage and out came many presents for many people.

I got three books: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, You're Wearing That?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation by Deborah Tannen and You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation also by Deborah Tannen.
And since last week was my sister's wedding anniversary, Mummy babysat for the Babies, while sister and her husband spent the weekend in New York City, New York where there was a nice little market where she got for me and some other people a pillow made by Pillows for the People, which has the image of Frida Khalo hand painted on it, filled with Lavndar and made out of vintage cloth, it says "Viva Frida!" So nice. Here's an image of the pillow, isn't it pretty.

Once again this house has turned into a hotel, thankfully I'm only kicked out of my room and onto the Futon for a weekend and not three days in the middle of the week.
My parents have friends visiting from Australia for two weeks, I don't think they'll be spending most of their time here, since they used to live here I think they have some bureaucracy stuff to deal with.
In any event it's a full house again which is driving Mummy up the wall, but luckily Mummy is going to the US to visit Jadie and her family in Philly over Hanukah and New Year, so there will be less stress in the house due to that.
I dunno if Daddy and I will actually manage to keep our cool with these friends since, IMO, two weeks is usually over staying someone welcome no matter who they are and the fact that they're a bit over bearing and as I've mentioned, being overbearing is a pet-peeve of mine in people and I try very hard not to be one myself.

And now a meme:

Year in review
Post the first line of first post for each month this year.

January: I had quite a nice time, actually.

February: Today at the pharmacy I asked Daddy
( Ten more months to go )

Hey, any one else thing the new "Post Entry" layout is odd, I really prefer the old one.
Why does LJ keep changing things!?

Those of you who travel the Blogosphere know that about a month ago Sci-Fi writer John M. Ford passed away and those who read Neil Gaiman’s blog know that Mr. Ford was a dear friend of Mr. Gaiman’s.

That being said, Neil Gaiman asks that all writers (and other people with literarily and intellectual property) do write a will which specifies to whom that very valuable property goes to at the times of our deaths.

You can go to Neil Gaiman’s most recent post where he writes all the important information you need to know about writing a will and has a very convenient PDF file to download which is a draft of a will specifically for that kind of intellectual/literary property.

I intend to print, it copy it and sign it, because I have lots of unpublished stuff which aught to be taken care of in a nice way and you never know when you’re gonna die, so people, if you have property which isn’t of the physical kind… fill this out and when you are able to get it looked at by a lawyer.

Here’s a link to the PDF file: SIMPLEWILL.pdf

Happy Haloween, Good Samhain and may we all have a good End of October Day!

Having no job and no school to go to, I've begun to look up deals on the Internet to go to Ireland.
I don't care that it's cold there right now, it's still green!
And I need a holiday, with any luck I'll find someone to go with, but I can handle alone as well... I think.

Hey, y'all remember how I fought for my country, had a slight nervous breakdown and am now left with emotional scarring.

Fucking Bituach Leumi has decided to reject my plea for the money I fucking deserve!
That's a month's worth of money the country fucking owes me!
Some bureaucratic asshole stamped "Rejected" on my papers.

Oh, no. No, no, no, this government, which I didn't even bloody well vote for, is not going to screw me over again!

They had a war, now they've got me and my Mother! To deal with, they'll be running to Assad after I'm done with them!

Damn it's good to feel angry.

One of my greatest fears is that I am an insufferable person.
That my presence is oberbearing to other people.
I know it isn't so, since I am not that keen on sharing everything with other people and then I end up appearing aloof to a certain degree.

This week I tried very hard... very, very hard not to be an annoying fangirl, I suspect I managaed not to be annoying, since I trust my friends to smack me when I become too annoying, but you never know.
In that respect I only asked Mr. Gaiman for one picture, even though there were more photo ops in later days.
My one picture (eight signed items!) with the Dream King.

( Hanging with the Dream King )

The only reason I'm writing this now, is because I got home last night at around one AM and didn't want to go to sleep at around two.
So I'll writing about the excitement now.
I got to the Cinematueque at around half past one, since I managed to leave work early (today as well) and met up with morin who is staffing the Con and to whom owe a huge amount of favours which I hope I can repay one day.
Thank you morin, for everything you've done for me the past few months, to do with iCon and not.

I saw a movie I really didn't enjoy, with the excessive violence and unnecessary sex scene, so I left the viewing hall as soon as the credits roll, I really didn't want to hear the director talk about what a good movie it was, when I felt queasy after it.
I went to buy tickets for the rest of the week, browsed the booths (didn't have the comic books I wanted *pout*).
morin introduced to too many people, some of whom have LJ's, but I really don't remember who right now and we went to have ice cream and caught up on what we were going to see and how busy she was, I told her to stop apologizing for being busy.
I saw they had a blood donation unit on location, so I decided to do my good deed for the day and went to donate - a little note, my blood pressure is the lowest is the lowest it's ever been and my hemo count at it's highest, who knew I was actually doing good to my body - and while I was waiting to be pocked, morin opened the door to the van and said:
"Neil Gaiman just passed, said hello, shook our hands and told us to have fun"
I almost died.
"Why didn't you call me!?" I demanded.
"I thought you were donating!"
"Okay"
I pouted and went back inside, utterly disappointed.
A few minutes later the door opened again.
"Come quick!" she said "He's coming from the other direction!"
I'm damn lucky my head didn't bash the pavement.
( And I met the Dream King )
And that's how I met the Dream King.

And now a few pictures:
( Group Pic )

( Me directly behind Neil )

Nothing happened yesterday at my new job at the office, which was fairly predictable, since the computer kept crashing, my actual boss wasn't there, so I basically socialized with the four guys that happened to be there, I'm quickly learning people's names (I'm glad I found the company's website where they have bio's for the employees, makes recognition much easier) and did a whole lot today.
Moria (my new boss) made me feel very welcome, she gave me a bunch of stuff to do today and said "I've needed you for years" which made me feel good, it made me feel necessary, which is always a good thing.
So things are definitely looking up.

I was introduced to comic books fairly late in life and I was far more loyal to the cartoons of my favourite comic book heroes than the books, which to me at the time seemed like a waste of time.
But when your eyes are opened to the beauty, mastery and utter genius of this medium you do your best to find the genre you enjoy the most, the characters you like best and you tend to stick with it, at least me.
But the comic book community in Israel is still very much a "boy's clubhouse", I mean when I walked into Comikaza the proprietors took one look at me and said "Neil Gaiman?" I smiled and answered in the affirmative, took my money for the pre-ordering of stuff for iCon and asked me if I was interested in anything else.
I was about to say "Batman" when one of them said "Give her the Jill Thompson little Death book".
It sounded interesting so I accepted the offer and rifled through the little book, I didn't bother to read it, because really Jill Thompson is not my favourite and the art was too Manga for my taste, so I gave it back to them and told them I didn't like the art work so much.
One of them stared at me as though I'd grown another head, I then asked if they could show me some DC stuff.
"You prefer American Comics?" The one who stared asked
"Yes, I don't like the art in Manga that much"
"But, but that's what makes it better than American ones"
*shrug* "I don't like the large eyes"
"But you're a girl!"
A death glare of doom was given to him.
"What does that have to do with anything?" he was obviously new to the business, because the other one rolled his eyes and was about to interject when the new guy said "All the girls like Manga and Neil Gaiman".
I gave him a frosty look and said "I don't think you hang with a whole lot of girls if all the ones you know like Neil Gaiman and Manga, when in fact a majority of the young women I know much prefer the American style comic books for a variety of reasons, in fact, and this may come as a shock to you, most girls actually like not only Neil Gaiman, Manga and Comic Books, but cartoons like Transformers and shows like Star Trek, Farscape and not just *gasp* the Joss Whedon stuff, which I'm sure *all* the girls like".
The new guy gave me a look which basically dismissed everything I had just said and went back to the counter without addressing anything I had mentioned.
The other proprietor shrugged and said he hopes to see me at iCon.
Nice man.

I don't understand this stereotyping and classification of girls and young women within this little community of sci-fi, fantasy and fandom.
Boys like Neil Gaiman, Manga, Star Trek, Transformers AND DC & Marvel, Buffy, Firefly, Anime and more, but girls aren't expected to have more than one or two fandoms, at least 'round here.
What? I like other sci-fi shows that have nothing to do with Buffy other than the fact that they appear in jokes. What? I know the difference between a Galaxy class ship and a Sovereign Class. What?! I know that there were FOUR Robins! Four! Not three, four! Two of them dead. And guess what; I even know their names.
And so girls, young and old are marginalized in the Israeli comic book community, not because there is a lack of presence in the sci-fi community, far from it, as I've stated the sci-fi & fantasy community is very egalitarian and has a very strong female presence, not so in the Comic Book.

What really gets me, is that this isn't really true, at the Animation and Comics festival I went to a few weeks ago there were a ton of girls and many booths run by both men and women and one or two run exclusively by women, but there were still more boys than girls and I couldn't help but feel a bit isolated while I was riffling through Marvel comics searching for something worth while discussing Slash with one of the guys standing next to me, while at the other end of the table there was a group young girls "ooohing" and "Aaahing" into yaoi Manga. And the other girls at the Americana books giving me suspicious looks, because They are the only girls who know Comic Books.
And there are those few who know I've seen Anime and tell me that of course I like Manga, no people, I watched a few Anime shows in High School that were good and even had a crush on Integral from "Hellsing" for a while (thank you Shira for showing me Anime and thank you Taly for showing me Integral), but anyone who will look at my book case will notice a lack of anything Manga-ish.

Maybe I'm over reacting, maybe I'm overly sensitive.
Maybe I'm just observant.

Robbie was the one to introduce me into sci-fi and fantasy, via the best avenues; Robbie would watch Star Trek:TNG and I'd wait for it to end so I could watch my cartoons (Transformers, Smurfs, Thunder Cats, Silver Hawks, Batman, Spiderman & friends etc). One day I noticed Robbie was watching a different kind of Star Trek, one with much brighter colours, short skirts and a tall man with pointy ears.

I was hooked.

Star Trek:TOS is much more suitable for the seven year old brain since it is much, much less complicated than TNG and of course a whole lot more simplistic that DS9, I was fascinated (laugh it up) with Spock, there was something about him, other than his real alien-ness and not just in his appearance (I thought he looked like an Elf... plus the green blood and all), but in the way he behaved, his actions always spoke louder than his words. I always felt a connection with Spock, his Otherness attracted me as a little girl and became actual sex appeal as a teenager... imagine my surprise to find out I wasn't alone in my admiration.

Nowadays Star Trek:TOS is ridiculed and parodied and much to my distress seen, even in the sci-fi community, as something to be hidden, because for some reason people view it as bad, when all it is, is dated.
All the James Dean movies are dated, does that not make them bad, merely old fashioned.

But Star Trek:TOS was ahead of it's time, I mean it was showed long before people landed on the moon, and it pushed the envelope when it came to social issues, I mean it had the first inter-racial kiss on network television, it showed a progressive ideal about different cultures (not all the time granted, but for the most part they did their best to obey the Prime Directive) and it showed relations between Mainstream and Other (Kirk and Spock... strangely enough Shatner and Nimoy are both Jewish), it showed that two people from extremely different walks of life could be best friends.
Not to mention Sulu, Chekov, Uhura, I mean talk about pushing it when it came to political reality at the time.

Gene Roddenberry had a vision (I think he's rolling around in his grave with everything that's happened since he passed away) and it's a vision of a utopia, a future that is possible, I don't think we'll ever really achieve.
So TOS is considered the worst by many in the sci-fi comm (IMO Enterprise is an abomination, but that's just personal opinion) when in fact it is probably the only proper sci-fi in the Star Trek continuum.

There was no actual meaning to this post, just looking forward to iCon :)
Just click "English" or any other relevant language if you are unable to read Hebrew.