Vagabond

Joyce's Ulysses.

You should do a Nick Cave runthrough, but with whiskey instead of daiquiris, and more detailed writing.

How high would you rank Nebraska?

That and The Ghost of Tom Joad are the Springsteen albums I really genuinely like in their entirety, since I'm a sucker for American folk.

I haven't heard the Seeger sessions though.

About halfway through Ulysses, reading some books about learning hebrew.

There's still Billy Bragg.

I like Springsteen, but the only live stuff I've heard, he'd turn 3 minute songs into 12 minute songs. Were the Norse doing the lighter thing?

Oh god, I wanted to get into Shade, but I couldn't, for the exact reasons you said.

And I ended up having to torrent Hitman after like the first 8 issues because the TPBs are impossible to find, and they don't even go that far.

Which is a bucket of piss, because Hitman would be perfect for getting my friends into comics.

Vagabond, you look so YOUNG !

 

:)

 

Glad you are enjoying your trip mate. Watch out for that Sun + Alcohol thing, it will kick you arse!. :)

I actually didn't get a single sunburn, and only one hangover. Thanks though.

And I look young because I'm 16!

At the Western Wall, reciting the Shema. On my head, you can see Tefillin, it's a ritual thing.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3070468,00.html

You ain't look half jew than a friend o'mine who's not jew.

:p

Nice yarmulka! You get it personalized when you turn officially into the religion, right?

Edited:

Moment. Tefillin is not the same as Yarmulka, or is it?

The boxy thing on my head is the Tefillin.

Some do, but usually you get a Tallis (the prayer shawl) at your Bar Mitzvah, here it's a division between Ashkenazi (western European) and Sephardic (Spanish exile and middle eastern) Jews.

Could you show a source on the Ethiopian Jews/Government/Kibbutz thing?

Coz after the extraction operation, they're free citizens of Israel, and the government doesn't control the Kibbutzim.

And the Orthodox people have always had a lot of control in the government, the courts and so on (which is shit if you ask me), not a lot changed in the 80s.

Labour collapsing in '73, deservedly too, was the biggest change Israeli politics ever had.

At the Western Wall, reciting the Shema. On my head, you can see Tefillin, it's a ritual thing.

Standing in the Old City.

Tipsly ranting about something on my birthday, after 3 or 4 drinks.

Much more drunkenly reading Cicero after I lost count. It's hard to read Latin while inebriated.

A lot of the pictures at religious places have other family members in them, I probably won't post those.

The Kibbutzim are amazing to see as well, partly because they've managed to make the North a paradise, and partly because they're functioning socialist enclaves that have existed for 80+ years, which you just don't see elsewhere.

Marx was obviously anti-religion, but his economic ideas were a direct continuation of the Talmudic intellectual tradition, and Jewish socialism was at one point the dominant ideology in Israel, and the Kibbutzim are still going strong.

Next post is entirely photos with descriptions, but don't let that fool you into thinking this is a writeup.

Yeah, they run guest houses now.

Stayed at one for 4 or so days.

Writeup tomorrow, hopefully.

For now, I'll just say that walking down the Jerusalem street and seeing some Ethiopian Jews who would have been slaughtered if not for Israel, Yemenite Jews who would have been slaughtered if not for Israel, Iraqi Jews who would have been slaughtered if not for Israel (ad nauseum), and synagogues on every street is the most stunning experience I've ever had. For more years than the other religions of the world have been around, Judaism has been defined by the Diaspora, and now it's ended, thank G-d.

Ooh, sorry about that, Avaunt.

I've just returned from two weeks in Israel, completely life changing (not just religiously, first real hangover).

I'm tired now but there will be a long writeup soon.

Guys I think we should keep open minds.

Maybe they've moved to SF for an EPIC X-men/Star Trek: TOS crossover.

SPOILERS

Sulu sleeps with everyone.

Vagabond, 13 minutes ago from web

Using the shit and likely keylogged free computer at my hotel in Tel Aviv a few minutes before I check out and hit the North (weee-ooh-oohh).

Tel Aviv itself is a bit crap, it stinks from the sewers occasionally, and it sprawls like LA, but the food's the best I've ever had and I've been assured that the rest of Israel is more Israeli.

Leaving for Israel today, night flight to Madrid.

Won't be posting for a good two weeks.

EDIT

Missed Jay's post.

That's crap, man.

I've never been robbed, but I know the hassle of moving.

Erfworld's great, even if the jokes require a knowledge of RTSs, but it's like 8 OOTS updates to one Erfworld update these days.

It's fine by me.

I've switched to a static avatar.

Finish the look with red suspenders, straight cut blue jeans, and steel tipped boots.

Just don't go to airports.

I would like massive, massive sig limits.

Avatars are fine, I think, though I'd understand if they were to be standardized.

Though I have to admit, I laughed pretty hard at the strap-on scene.

Mazel Tov.

On an unrelated note, I've decided to learn banjo.

I bought a cheap 5 string model (with resonator), it should ship while I'm in Israel.

I've been doing some reading, and banjo looks pretty easy to learn. Plus, I listen to a lot of music that is A) banjo-based and B) not extremely complicated, so it shouldn't get boring. I did a few months of guitar when I was 10, but I don't remember much of it.

Evar.

And never fucking, for that matter.

Great, now it looks like I was taking to myself.

And not even coherently.