in my life

And by 'poll' I mean open ended questions, but please answer even though they don't come with a fun ticky box.

1. When you think about the zodiac signs, which sign do you mentally classify as the first? I don't care what the "true" first sign is, which there probably is - but I'm curious which is considered first to you, because I realized today which one I consider first and why, and am wondering how unusual it is.

2. MORE IMPORTANTLY:

How do you pronounce 'ugh' in your head (or out loud)?

Brought to you by the horrifying discovery yesterday that - apparently many people - pronounce it entirely differently from the way I do I don't understand. HOW. Ugh.

Continuing tonight's theme of me failing at language, I just discovered that paisley isn't a color. Why do people always write "He was wearing paisley" instead of "He was wearing paisley print"? I'd always thought it was a kind of pale pastel-like pasty pink, probably because of all the Ps.

This past year has been full of insights for me. Plaid is not pronounced "played"! GSF is not Gerard Sobriety Fic! Etc etc. (I am inventing the etc, as one does when one cannot think of more concrete examples.)

Yesterday was the Kochav Nolad final. I watched. And flailed. (Temporarily unlocking the post, will re-lock tomorrow.) And was disappointed.

Just now I watched the season premier of the Israeli Wife Swap, where the two families participating were a secular family from a kibbutz up north, and a male gay Reform couple from New Jersey. Israel!Mom Dina flew to Jersey; Ian came to the kibbutz. And while Dina's husband was an absolute sweetheart and it seemed like things were mostly going fine in the kibbutz, Dina was one of the most bigoted, close-minded, fucking outright rude, and completely oblivious to the fact that her ass was showing all the way across the Atlantic characters I've ever had the dishonor of seeing on TV.

Really, the kind of fail (LGBT, feminism, racism, religion) she exhibited was just so infuriating and extreme that I can't really be articulate about it, the kind that's just so out there that it's not even worth being angry over, just sad. I feel so much second-hand mortification for her daughter, who is forced to witness her mom's ass showing on national TV.

Okay, I wanted to paste excerpts from my chat with miarr watching this, but I just browsed through it and all we say is variations on: "oh. my. god." "stfu" "omfg" "jfc stfu" "omjfcg" "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT BITCH" and... so forth. That was an emotionally taxing hour of television.

To end this on a happier note, apparently my Remix fic (Trek/SGA) was translated into Korean (and TY forever, thedeadparrot, for linking me). I used Google Translator so I could read the comments left there. I still have no idea what the comments said, but Google also reverse translated my fic back into English, and oh my god, I have not laughed out loud so hard for a looong time. Here's the translation. Highlights include Bones apparently being names 'Bonds', Kirk being referred to as 'the king', and then I remembered that there was a little bit of porn.

Plan have been met with challenges.

( YES IT HAVE, JIM KIRK, YES IT HAVE. )

I finished reading Kings III today. I was going to write a huge post of squee, in enormous capslock, raving about just how much this book was written for meeeeee and oh my god I love it so much and oh the characters and oh the story and oh the meta and so forth, but for the people who are interested and can't read it in Hebrew that'd be mean, and for the people who are interested and can read it it would be spoilery. At this point, then, all I will say is that I am full of joy for having read it, and am totally nominating it for Yuletide next year (if I remember), and lomedet, if/when you read it, I'm dying to know what you think.

(I'll just say that one thing that cracked me up in the book is that there's a line in the Bible which I've always taken to mean as this character literally saying "I have a bigger dick than X's", and I was psyched to see the book gave the line the same interpretation I did.)

Jumping from one Biblical book to the other (and of course it helps that this is finals month and therefore Procrastination Month), I've started reading Meir Shalev's In the Beginning: Firsts in the Bible, which is a collection of, well, firsts in the Bible :-) Meir Shalev is mostly a fiction author, and this book combines his commentary (on events, characters, intent) with his with almost narrative prose. I'm only in chapter one -- the first love in the Bible (literally, the word love, not the sentiment) -- and I already want to quote:

( Yeah, okay, I'll spare you though they're beautiful. )

I was going to move on to a different subject, but no, I just remembered I actually had two questions to ask! Okay,

1. For those of you who live in countries which have experienced civil wars: how do you feel when you read (or watch movies, whatever) about them? Do you choose sides? Do you identify more with the side that won? That lost? That your family belonged to?

Reading Kings III has been really weird for me, in that aspect. I'd never given much thought to the Biblical Israel/Judah split. I mean, I knew about it and studied it, but I never actually gave it thought, and this book made me identify, without a doubt, with the side that feels morally right, and in the long term lost and disappeared into history. And it was really weird, reading the story, feeling like these characters were mine and at the same time not, because my people are portrayed as the bad guys. I was wondering what others felt like semi-similar situations.

2. Unrelated, for reals: saying that something has "plusses and minuses", instead of "pros and cons". Is that actually a phrase in English? ETA: Okay, so yes :-)

Okay, done now, bye.