(no subject)
When I told one of the guys at work I was into hockey, he said, right after "Wow, that is one of the strangest things I've ever heard", "A good friend of mine is considered one of the best players in the Israeli national team." (I am sure by the way that he's a good skater, but I'm pretty sure being on the Israeli hockey NT doesn't mean much more than having a few practices a year, though I should investigate further.)
On Thursday morning I heard an interview on national radio with one of the 21yo Air Force cadets who were set to graduate Flight School, the most prestigious training course/position in the IDF. The next day as I was getting a getting a haircut, a woman entered the shop and my hairdresser greeted her with, "Hi! Did you take any photos yesterday? Come on, show." It turns out she's the mother of the cadet I'd heard interviewing.
It's not anything new, but man, sometimes this feels like a really small country.
Speaking of Flight School: the only girl graduating last week's course (and 28th woman to graduate the IDF Flight School since 1995) has such an incredible backstory: born in Russia, immigrated here at the age of 1, grew up in a peripheral city up north with her mother and five siblings after her father split when she was ten, graduated high school at 16 with honors majoring in Physics, Arabic, Comp Sci and Theater (in addition to the two more common advanced majors of English and Math), graduated college with a BA in Computer Science and Information Systems at age 18, was not only a boxer on the potential path to Olympic training but was state champion for seven years in a row among her age group (her older sister was state champion and ranked fourth in the world, and she herself tells about mostly training with boys because there were no girls other than her sisters to train with), and oh yeah - she was also a model. And now she's graduated literally the most prestigious course in the IDF and will be a fighter pilot, navigating an F-16 for the next 9 years.
Like... jesus fucking christ. And ha, I wasn't going to actually make this post about this but I just found photos of her online, so -- with her face blurred out because Israel doesn't release photos of pilots or flight cadets -- photos:
A, with the caption: "I'll do the navigating."
A and M, the two girls who graduated Flight School last week.
A and her sisters; on the right, A boxing. I mean. Jesus christ, or jesus christ?
...so yeah, basically, wow.
Friday evening we went over to my aunt and uncle's for dinner. My uncle -- I don't remember whether I've mentioned him or not. He's an amazing man who was diagnosed with ALS last year, and a few months ago whenever I thought about talking about him (and he's amazing - there's a freaking lot to talk about), I kept thinking I should just save that post for when, well, because things were just getting worse and heartbreakingly worse. But then they discovered that he's been operating on about 50% of the oxygen a normal human needs for months, and found a treatment for that, and what do you know, when people start getting enough oxygen their brain starts functioning again! So things are much, much better than they were last year, though far from perfect. In any case it was nice seeing them, and my cousin and her husband who are my favorite example of an opposites-attract-and-really-freaking-love-each-other marriage.
(Seriously. She's a sharp, smoking, no-nonsense architecture prof who has no patience for religion or sentimentality. He has a lot of love for tradition and poetry, for the kind of music my mom and grandmother like, he's quiet and gentle and meditates every day. He also has multiple black belts in Karate and used to be a spy, which is frankly the weirdest thing I ever learned about him. He wakes up at 6:30AM every morning, does half an hour of yoga, wakes up their boys, makes them breakfast, and then brings them to the master bedroom so they can snuggle with their mom before school and she doesn't have to wake up early every morning. I love them.)
Their kids are getting a great education, too. Their 8-year-old knows all the mythology!
My aunt: "All the mythology? Tell us about Hercules."
8-year-old: "Hercules is his name in Greek mythology! In Roman mythology his name is Percy Jackson!"
My aunt: "I don't think that's right."
8-year-old: "It is! They have different names! He's Percy Jackson!"
My aunt: "Maybe Michael Jackson."
8-year-old: "There's no such thing as Michael Jackson Grandma, they call it Michael Jordan."
I thought there'd be a lot more hockey in the next post I made, especially given that I've been glues to the NHL free agency updates twitter feed for the past two days. But the past three weeks have been soccer weeks (congrats Spain!), so for today I'll give it its due - Soccer(/Football) RPF rec:
Set Me As A Seal Upon Your Heart (30677 words) by
Rave aka dorkorific of Shoebox Project fame, for those of you for whom that means something ♥
Amount of canon/fanon background one needs to read this fic: nothing at all.
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Cristiano Ronaldo/Ricardo "Kaká" Izecson dos Santos Leite
Summary: Cris is a half-demon. Ricky is a priest.
Guys, this story is such a delight. Cris is a half-demon who tries to be good but doesn't guilt trip himself over not being perfect, who struggles with the fact that he's kiiind of a sex-demon and can affect people in certain ways. Father Ricky is the new priest who moved into town and everyone loves him and Cris maybe starts helping him around the church a little bit more than necessary, and. THINGS HAPPEN. I love the characterizations of both Cris and Ricky, the way their relationship develops and the obstacles they face, which in this fic are more their own doubts and uncertainties than the fact that one of them is a half-demon and the other a priest. I also really liked Cris's interaction with the kids at the church, and with his friends, and the underlying tension of his relationship with his father.
Also this fic has the song Ai Se Eu Te Pego, which, I don't know how popular it is outside Europe and Brazil, but if you don't know it it's SO GREAT, and hearing it now makes me think not only of all of the weddings I've been to in the past season but also of this fic, all good things ♥ Also embedded, because... what the heck:
comments on Dreamwidth.
On Thursday morning I heard an interview on national radio with one of the 21yo Air Force cadets who were set to graduate Flight School, the most prestigious training course/position in the IDF. The next day as I was getting a getting a haircut, a woman entered the shop and my hairdresser greeted her with, "Hi! Did you take any photos yesterday? Come on, show." It turns out she's the mother of the cadet I'd heard interviewing.
It's not anything new, but man, sometimes this feels like a really small country.
Speaking of Flight School: the only girl graduating last week's course (and 28th woman to graduate the IDF Flight School since 1995) has such an incredible backstory: born in Russia, immigrated here at the age of 1, grew up in a peripheral city up north with her mother and five siblings after her father split when she was ten, graduated high school at 16 with honors majoring in Physics, Arabic, Comp Sci and Theater (in addition to the two more common advanced majors of English and Math), graduated college with a BA in Computer Science and Information Systems at age 18, was not only a boxer on the potential path to Olympic training but was state champion for seven years in a row among her age group (her older sister was state champion and ranked fourth in the world, and she herself tells about mostly training with boys because there were no girls other than her sisters to train with), and oh yeah - she was also a model. And now she's graduated literally the most prestigious course in the IDF and will be a fighter pilot, navigating an F-16 for the next 9 years.
Like... jesus fucking christ. And ha, I wasn't going to actually make this post about this but I just found photos of her online, so -- with her face blurred out because Israel doesn't release photos of pilots or flight cadets -- photos:
A, with the caption: "I'll do the navigating."
A and M, the two girls who graduated Flight School last week.
A and her sisters; on the right, A boxing. I mean. Jesus christ, or jesus christ?
...so yeah, basically, wow.
Friday evening we went over to my aunt and uncle's for dinner. My uncle -- I don't remember whether I've mentioned him or not. He's an amazing man who was diagnosed with ALS last year, and a few months ago whenever I thought about talking about him (and he's amazing - there's a freaking lot to talk about), I kept thinking I should just save that post for when, well, because things were just getting worse and heartbreakingly worse. But then they discovered that he's been operating on about 50% of the oxygen a normal human needs for months, and found a treatment for that, and what do you know, when people start getting enough oxygen their brain starts functioning again! So things are much, much better than they were last year, though far from perfect. In any case it was nice seeing them, and my cousin and her husband who are my favorite example of an opposites-attract-and-really-freaking-love-each-other marriage.
(Seriously. She's a sharp, smoking, no-nonsense architecture prof who has no patience for religion or sentimentality. He has a lot of love for tradition and poetry, for the kind of music my mom and grandmother like, he's quiet and gentle and meditates every day. He also has multiple black belts in Karate and used to be a spy, which is frankly the weirdest thing I ever learned about him. He wakes up at 6:30AM every morning, does half an hour of yoga, wakes up their boys, makes them breakfast, and then brings them to the master bedroom so they can snuggle with their mom before school and she doesn't have to wake up early every morning. I love them.)
Their kids are getting a great education, too. Their 8-year-old knows all the mythology!
My aunt: "All the mythology? Tell us about Hercules."
8-year-old: "Hercules is his name in Greek mythology! In Roman mythology his name is Percy Jackson!"
My aunt: "I don't think that's right."
8-year-old: "It is! They have different names! He's Percy Jackson!"
My aunt: "Maybe Michael Jackson."
8-year-old: "There's no such thing as Michael Jackson Grandma, they call it Michael Jordan."
I thought there'd be a lot more hockey in the next post I made, especially given that I've been glues to the NHL free agency updates twitter feed for the past two days. But the past three weeks have been soccer weeks (congrats Spain!), so for today I'll give it its due - Soccer(/Football) RPF rec:
Set Me As A Seal Upon Your Heart (30677 words) by
Rave aka dorkorific of Shoebox Project fame, for those of you for whom that means something ♥
Amount of canon/fanon background one needs to read this fic: nothing at all.
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Cristiano Ronaldo/Ricardo "Kaká" Izecson dos Santos Leite
Summary: Cris is a half-demon. Ricky is a priest.
Guys, this story is such a delight. Cris is a half-demon who tries to be good but doesn't guilt trip himself over not being perfect, who struggles with the fact that he's kiiind of a sex-demon and can affect people in certain ways. Father Ricky is the new priest who moved into town and everyone loves him and Cris maybe starts helping him around the church a little bit more than necessary, and. THINGS HAPPEN. I love the characterizations of both Cris and Ricky, the way their relationship develops and the obstacles they face, which in this fic are more their own doubts and uncertainties than the fact that one of them is a half-demon and the other a priest. I also really liked Cris's interaction with the kids at the church, and with his friends, and the underlying tension of his relationship with his father.
Also this fic has the song Ai Se Eu Te Pego, which, I don't know how popular it is outside Europe and Brazil, but if you don't know it it's SO GREAT, and hearing it now makes me think not only of all of the weddings I've been to in the past season but also of this fic, all good things ♥ Also embedded, because... what the heck:
Click to viewcomments on Dreamwidth.