Yuletide nominations end in 3 days!
Just a short PSA to nominate your yuletide fandoms before the 16th :-)
I have nominated Younger (TV), The West Wing Weekly (for gen fic but uh I want it), and Captain America (Movies) RPF, because I need more Anthony Mackie fic in my life. Reserving the right to change stuff in the next 3 days, but I think that's where I'm going.
*
I went to the beach for the first time this summer on Friday afternoon. It's a little weird that I hadn't been to the beach in over a year, but as much as I enjoy the ocean, I somehow never end up going too much; it's hot, and there are like five whole weeks when it's blocked by jellyfish, and I'm not a huge fan of going to the beach alone. But we spent some time in the ocean, and paid $5 for a chair and parasol, and I got some floating time, which is my favorite thing.
'Going to the beach' is for me, by definition, going into the ocean with 100% of my body. So like, I might see the ocean other times of the year, might even take my shoes off and stroll through the shallow waves, but it's not going to the beach unless I'm all in, which is why I only do it in the summer, when the water's warm enough. I do know from past experience that what I consider too cold is completely reasonable for others (mostly non-Israelis), and I recently looked up sea water temperatures to understand what the real difference is.
Here's what I discovered:
1. If seatemperature.org is to be believed, it's not just that the Mediterranean is warmer than the ocean, it's that Israel is located along the warmest parts of the Mediterranean.
2. I've always hated going in the sea in Eilat because the water there felt freezing. This same website's map of Red Sea temperatures felt validating for a moment - Israel is at the top right fork of the sea where it branches out at the top of that map and I thought, aHA, you can SEE how freezing it is! But it didn't quite make sense, and other websites show that the water temperature is a lot higher than that. Today for example Tel Aviv has 30c/86f degrees water, and Eilat has 25c/77f, which doesn't seen like it should be quite that big a difference. I wonder if the water in Eilat feels colder because the outside temperatures are usually so much hotter? Tel Aviv is 31c/88f degrees, today, while Eilat is 39c/103f.
I have been thinking about Eilat mostly because I was trying to plan a short trip to Jordan, which can only happen via the Eilat border crossing. My family's never been, and while Dad has no interest, my mom and sisters want to go and I was looking into options for day trips to Petra. The main deterrent were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' travel warnings. They've pretty much had a constant travel warning to Jordan for the past... many years, but it was a medium threat level; something we were worried about but were willing to maybe brave, if not for the super special ISIL warnings that came on top. Then two days ago the government issued a renewed warning, upgrading the threat level to high, and that was the end of that idea. It's fairly futile and a lot to ask for but damn, I wish we can fast forward to whenever this whole thing is over and we can peacefully travel to our neighboring states. At least some of them.
(Researching for this trip, I was interested to learn just how much prices have changed. When I went to Petra 9 years ago, I paid around $170 for an entire day trip. These days, I assume in order to encourage tourists to spend the night, Jordan has special prices for single day visitors to the country: a $60 visa which is waived if you stay overnight, and the price of entry to Petra for single day visitors has risen to $132 - and that doesn't include any of the surrounding travel and transportation costs. It's... a bummer, but I'd be willing to give money if I could, you know. Get there.)
Anyway, here are photos from my last time there, which is what I'll have to settle for for now, I guess.
*
After putting off going to the dentist for, let's not mention a number here but just say years, I've finally started getting various treatments. Have gone to the dental hygienist twice (fun fact: practically no one knows the word for a male dental hygienist in Hebrew, the default is the female word. There 1500 members in the dental hygienists union in Israel out of which 2 are men), gotten my whole mouth x-rayed, and begun the process of getting 4 cavities filled and 2 wisdom teeth pulled, one of them surgically. So far I've just gotten the cavities - starting slow and easy - but I've finally scheduled an appointment to get a tooth pulled that I was told to get rid of 10 years ago, so yay, I guess.
My mouth is currently half numb from this morning's treatment. The doctor is young, probably not much older than me, which is bizarre - that's never been the case in the past but I guess that's where I'm at now. He was a little too hip and cheerful and - something I couldn't put my finger on, perhaps too nonchalant - the first time I saw him, but last week's appointment and fillings went fine so I'm staying with him for now. Today he was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt and put Ivri Lider on youtube and crooning along as he was working on my teeth, singing replacement lyrics like "and howwwwww I like this drilllllll yeahhhhh", which is not something dentists did when I was ten, but it was... odd and okay. Nothing hurt, so hey. I'm a little worried at the fact that he has the same last name as the manager and head doctor of the clinic - was he hired for real or for nepotism? But so far so good.
The best advice I got from a friend who had also procrastinated going to the dentist for years like me, was: don't leave the clinic before you've already scheduled your next appointment. This has proven to be excellent advice, and is 100% the reason I've been following up treatments, so. In case anyone needs prodding: you just need to muster up the courage/energy to make that first appointment, and then don't leave until you've scheduled the next, and you're good.
comments on Dreamwidth.
I have nominated Younger (TV), The West Wing Weekly (for gen fic but uh I want it), and Captain America (Movies) RPF, because I need more Anthony Mackie fic in my life. Reserving the right to change stuff in the next 3 days, but I think that's where I'm going.
*
I went to the beach for the first time this summer on Friday afternoon. It's a little weird that I hadn't been to the beach in over a year, but as much as I enjoy the ocean, I somehow never end up going too much; it's hot, and there are like five whole weeks when it's blocked by jellyfish, and I'm not a huge fan of going to the beach alone. But we spent some time in the ocean, and paid $5 for a chair and parasol, and I got some floating time, which is my favorite thing.
'Going to the beach' is for me, by definition, going into the ocean with 100% of my body. So like, I might see the ocean other times of the year, might even take my shoes off and stroll through the shallow waves, but it's not going to the beach unless I'm all in, which is why I only do it in the summer, when the water's warm enough. I do know from past experience that what I consider too cold is completely reasonable for others (mostly non-Israelis), and I recently looked up sea water temperatures to understand what the real difference is.
Here's what I discovered:
1. If seatemperature.org is to be believed, it's not just that the Mediterranean is warmer than the ocean, it's that Israel is located along the warmest parts of the Mediterranean.
2. I've always hated going in the sea in Eilat because the water there felt freezing. This same website's map of Red Sea temperatures felt validating for a moment - Israel is at the top right fork of the sea where it branches out at the top of that map and I thought, aHA, you can SEE how freezing it is! But it didn't quite make sense, and other websites show that the water temperature is a lot higher than that. Today for example Tel Aviv has 30c/86f degrees water, and Eilat has 25c/77f, which doesn't seen like it should be quite that big a difference. I wonder if the water in Eilat feels colder because the outside temperatures are usually so much hotter? Tel Aviv is 31c/88f degrees, today, while Eilat is 39c/103f.
I have been thinking about Eilat mostly because I was trying to plan a short trip to Jordan, which can only happen via the Eilat border crossing. My family's never been, and while Dad has no interest, my mom and sisters want to go and I was looking into options for day trips to Petra. The main deterrent were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' travel warnings. They've pretty much had a constant travel warning to Jordan for the past... many years, but it was a medium threat level; something we were worried about but were willing to maybe brave, if not for the super special ISIL warnings that came on top. Then two days ago the government issued a renewed warning, upgrading the threat level to high, and that was the end of that idea. It's fairly futile and a lot to ask for but damn, I wish we can fast forward to whenever this whole thing is over and we can peacefully travel to our neighboring states. At least some of them.
(Researching for this trip, I was interested to learn just how much prices have changed. When I went to Petra 9 years ago, I paid around $170 for an entire day trip. These days, I assume in order to encourage tourists to spend the night, Jordan has special prices for single day visitors to the country: a $60 visa which is waived if you stay overnight, and the price of entry to Petra for single day visitors has risen to $132 - and that doesn't include any of the surrounding travel and transportation costs. It's... a bummer, but I'd be willing to give money if I could, you know. Get there.)
Anyway, here are photos from my last time there, which is what I'll have to settle for for now, I guess.
*
After putting off going to the dentist for, let's not mention a number here but just say years, I've finally started getting various treatments. Have gone to the dental hygienist twice (fun fact: practically no one knows the word for a male dental hygienist in Hebrew, the default is the female word. There 1500 members in the dental hygienists union in Israel out of which 2 are men), gotten my whole mouth x-rayed, and begun the process of getting 4 cavities filled and 2 wisdom teeth pulled, one of them surgically. So far I've just gotten the cavities - starting slow and easy - but I've finally scheduled an appointment to get a tooth pulled that I was told to get rid of 10 years ago, so yay, I guess.
My mouth is currently half numb from this morning's treatment. The doctor is young, probably not much older than me, which is bizarre - that's never been the case in the past but I guess that's where I'm at now. He was a little too hip and cheerful and - something I couldn't put my finger on, perhaps too nonchalant - the first time I saw him, but last week's appointment and fillings went fine so I'm staying with him for now. Today he was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt and put Ivri Lider on youtube and crooning along as he was working on my teeth, singing replacement lyrics like "and howwwwww I like this drilllllll yeahhhhh", which is not something dentists did when I was ten, but it was... odd and okay. Nothing hurt, so hey. I'm a little worried at the fact that he has the same last name as the manager and head doctor of the clinic - was he hired for real or for nepotism? But so far so good.
The best advice I got from a friend who had also procrastinated going to the dentist for years like me, was: don't leave the clinic before you've already scheduled your next appointment. This has proven to be excellent advice, and is 100% the reason I've been following up treatments, so. In case anyone needs prodding: you just need to muster up the courage/energy to make that first appointment, and then don't leave until you've scheduled the next, and you're good.
comments on Dreamwidth.