Geviha was writing about how blogging is lonely, and he asked readers to pin his guest map. At first I thought: Lonely he says. Well there's no need for such negativity! But then I placed my pin on my current location - a 103.000 square km island near the north pole. When I saw the little person representing myself, all alone on that remote island, it startled me a little. Due to the fact that my imaginative head keeps me occupied in a world filled with interesting people, places and things, I suppose I didn't realise how isolated I am.
In 9 days from now I will, in a matter of hours, be transported to another continent. So in a way, isolation is a state of mind. It can be everywhere, I suppose. Or can it?
Hasidic Gentile also placed a pin. He chose to place his pin on Norway. I have no idea why, and I'm still wondering about it.
Perhaps I shall get one of those maps as well. They are quite neat. In the meantime, check out the one on Geviha's site, in the lower right corner.
Update:
I stole Geviha's idea of a guestmap, so please put your pin!
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 5,600 people in six countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal (search), unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra (search).
In Sri Lanka (search), 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 2,425 people were killed, the prime minister's office said. At least 1,870 died in Indonesia, and 1,130 along the southern coasts of India. At least 198 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.
Five Swedish children abducted by their Palestinian father more than six months ago and taken to the Gaza Strip flew back to Sweden for a dramatic Christmas Day reunion with their mother, their family and police said.
The children left from Tel Aviv's international airport and arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, just after 9:30 p.m. (2030 GMT) Friday, their mother, Elizabeth Krantz. They arrived with their father, Ismail Nowajah, in Kungsbacka in southwestern Sweden early Saturday morning.
------------------
Hmm. In the Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet" the article covering this ended with saying "Och polisen säger sig inte heller ha något polisiärt intresse av fallet eftersom pappan inte längre är misstänkt för något brott", meaning that the police has no further interest in the case since the father is not suspected of any crime. Hello!! Earth to Sweden! The guy kidnapped his kids against their own and their mother's will and held them for half a year, and he's "not "suspected" of a crime"??? Is it me, or does this not sound right?
Something tells me that if I would do such a thing, or somebody from a real country (as opposed to the 2 made up choices of i) never neverland, ii) palestine), we simply wouldn't just get away with it. And more importantly, even if we would get away with it, people would at least acknowledge that we had done something wrong.
I am going to allow myself to say that Ismail Nowajah, like countless other palestinians, is having his crime ignored, "because he's palestinian". Not because people love palestinians. No. Lets not live in denial here. Everybody hates Arabs, C'mon. My grandmother is scared of them. But because they have "issues" with Jews (especially Israelis), they have become the world's darlings, putting their behavior above the law, even in a "civilized" country like Sweden.
Palestinian crowd waits outside a polling station during municipal elections in the West Bank town of Jericho
Photo: AP
Hamas made a strong showing in local elections in the West Bank, the first time the Islamic terrorist group competed at the polls, according to preliminary elections results obtained Friday.
Elections for local councils were held in 26 communities on Thursday, with more than 140, 000 eligible voters choosing among 887candidates, including 139 women. Of the 360 local council seats, 16 percent were reserved for women.
According to preliminary results obtained by The Associated Press, the ruling Fatah movement won a majority in 14 towns, while Hamas took control in nine communities. In two, a joint Hamas-Fatah slate won. The outcome of the vote in one community, Yabed, was not immediately available.
However, Hamas officials said they had won a majority in at least 17 local councils, based on reports from their election observers.
My Obiter Dicta's Jeffrey is attending an annual conference of The Association of Jewish Studies these days. As some of you might know, Jeffrey teaches Jewish and Talmudic studies at the Bar Ilan University. Although I was not surprised to read what he had to say about some of the attending scholars, I still felt the need to mention some of it:
..I met a close friend who is by no means a Likudnik. (He still likes Barak.) He was beside himself. He reported that every single speaker did nothing but spew venom about Zionism and Israel. We're not talking about people who hate Sharon/settlers/Yesha etc. We're talking about academics who want to dismantle the State of Israel and lecture (viz. preach) against it's very right to exist. My friend told me that one presenter summed things up by saying that he views his job as being the destruction of the Zionist narrative, with which Jewish students enter his class.
He also makes an excellent point when he says:
The self-appointed task of these Jewish academicians is to destroy the Jewish national identity of the unsuspecting student. In the 1930's 'progressive' College Professors saw their sacred task as being disabusing their students of their belief in God and their attachment to Judaism. Now it's the turn of Zionism and of the State of Israel. Someone should contact Sander Gilman and urge him to add a chapter to his classic work on judische selbst-hass, Jewish Self-Hatred
Well I know nobody's going to read this, since you're all real busy celebrating Christmas, but as a devoted blogger, I will blog even if I'll only I have one reader!
Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Bethlehem under heavy security late Friday for Christmas celebrations, where he was greeted by cheering crowds.
It was the first time a Palestinian leader has spent the holiday in Jesus' traditional birthplace in four years. (Jesus, was probably born in Nazareth though, but nevvvvermind). Beginning in 2001, Israel barred Yasser Arafat from celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem.
Since then, a seat in the front row of St. Catherine's Church on Manger Square was left symbolically empty and draped in an Arabic headdress during the Midnight Mass in respect for Arafat.
The celebration gave an important boost to Abbas, who is the front-runner in Palestinian presidential elections next month. He received a loud ovation when he arrived and was mobbed by Palestinians whenever he appeared in public.
Abbas, a Muslim, also stopped into a mosque to pray.
"We ask God and wish that all the religions in this country will live in peace and security," Abbas said. "I hope next year will be much better than the previous ones."
"We extend our hand to the Israelis. We want to negotiate, to reach peace - a peace built on justice and right," Abbas told a meeting in Bethlehem on Friday evening.
(Ehrm sure, with the condition that you all commit suicide by drowning yourselves in the sea).
Sabbah called on Israelis and Palestinians to put the violence of the past behind them.
"Our situation continues to be a situation of conflict, violence, insecurity, fear, military occupation, the wall of separation, of imprisoned cities and demolitions," he said.
"Palestine and Israel must conquer the evil of violence ... and give birth to a new society of brothers and sisters in which no one controls the other, no one is occupied by the other, no one causes insecurity for the other, no one takes liberty from the other," he said.
(And no one blows the other one up?? I'm no expert, I'm just asking...).
And they say it's Israel that doesn't want peace? How on earth can one define stabbing a mother of four to death in the neck as "freedom fighting"? I'm horrified that there are those who would actually attempt to find "logic" to support it.
Police: Murder of woman near Green Line was act of terror
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Police have determined that the murder of an Israeli woman in Moshav Nehousha near the border with the West Bank on Tuesday was in fact a terrorist attack, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.
The body of Ariela Fahima was found at the entrance to her home by her 10-year-old daughter. The 39-year-old mother of four had been stabbed in the neck.
Police sources said Tuesday that they did not know if the attack was carried out by one or multiple attackers.
A few days ago a woman at work was telling me how much time she spends on the internet browsing websites and chatting. I told her that so do I, and that the internet is such a bloodsucking parasite! To that she said: "Oh yes, I am actually spending up to 2 hours a day on the internet".
So I thought hmm, 2 hours, eh? For me 2 hours would barely be enough for "internet survival". I start each day by spending about an hour online reading Ha'aretz, blog comments, my favorite blogs, etc, while drinking my coffee. It's just how I start the day, unless I have to get up very early. However, while I don't usually spend a very long time online, I am very often online. I am constantly checking my mails, my blog, along with being the world's worst news addict. I could never leave the house without making sure nothing disastrous has happened in Israel. And well, sometimes, I find out that it has.
But anyway, I bumped into this hilarious website with a section called "You know you're addicted when...". It's funny, but it still makes an awful lot of sense. We all know the internet is useful, but lets face it, it has become an essential for the daily lives of most of us. So there are people sitting in front of their computers in USA, Israel, Australia, Iceland and elsewhere, who have purchased internet access to connect to the world wide web, which they now feel like they cannot do without out, regardless of their background, nationality, ethnicity, etc. It is indeed a powerful tool, and it appears to be consuming us all. At least to an extent. Oh and... I don't mean to sound dramatic. I just think it's funny to think of Dave in Israel, Alice in USA and myself over here, brought together by our common interest in modern technology, enabling people worlds apart to communicate with only, a click.
You find yourself brainstorming for new subjects to Google.
You turn up the volume read loud when leaving the room so you can hear if anyone IM's you.
Your dog has its own webpage.
You code your homework in HTML and give your intsructor the URL.
You miss more than five meals a week downloading the latest MP3's off Kazaa Lite.
You wake up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and stop and check your e-mail on the way back.
You have withdrawals if you are away from the computer for more than a few hours.
You double click your TV remote.
You go into withdrawals during dinner.
You rank your friends by the amount of bandwith they have.
You have "Googled" all your friends to try to find out anything interesteing that they are not telling you and you can use against them later.
You message someone via IM when they are less than 20 feet away.
You purchase a vanity car license plate with your screen name on it.
You order pizza online - because you can't be bothered to call.
You're on the phone and say BRB.
Okay this one is the WORST. The words "Live Journal" can be replaced with any personal blog.
If you can't access the site, you have a minor freak out - and a major case of hitting reload.
You found yourself composing journal entries during dates, movies, even sex!
When you're out, you suddenly think of a witty reply to a comment somebody made to you... several days ago.
The first thing you do every day when you go online is check your friends journals - even before checking your email.
When your friends ask what's new, you get mad at them because you already wrote it in your LJ and they didn't check it yet.
You have put more time into LJ than all your assignments for the semester.
You have more friends on LJ than in real life.
You can't seem to call your friends by their real names - only LJ names will do.
You've fallen in love with someone you met on LJ.
You have posted about a party or get together on your LJ... and random strangers showed up.
You are guilty of traveling more than an hour to meet someone with LiveJournal. (Extra points for traveling five hours or more)
You have written posts to notify people you're going to sleep.
You talk about your LJ friends to your real life friends all the time... like they're a part of your group.
You've created a LJ community, and people actually post in it.
You've been recognized in real live by a fellow LJ'er.
Instead of doing research, you post difficult questions on your LiveJournal.
You know, right now, how many people have friended you (without peeking).
You're guilty of posting sexy or nude pictures to get more people to friend you.
You have consoled yourself after a horrible day thinking "At least this will make a great LJ post"
You're jealous of people who have more friends and / or comments than you.
You have written a really great, solid post - only to be disappointed by the lack of good comments.
You're guilty of commenting excessively to get more traffic to your journal.
You give shout outs to all your LJ friends on their birthdays.
You have an additional, secret journal that hardly anyone knows about.
You have gotten mean anonymous comments (bonus points for figuring out who it was via their IP) Like, who hasn't??
You no longer type with proper punctuation, capitalization, or complete sentences...
You begin to say hehehe instead of laughing
You don't break for the bathroom - even though you've got to go real bad - until you think of a witty away message.
You have a few people on your buddy list just to spy on them.
You've had a meaningful conversation with a bot.
You learned Photoshop to make a super cool buddy icon
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends who are addicted to AIM.
Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, right, and Irish 1977 Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire shake hands during a meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday Dec. 19, 2004. Corrigan came to Israel to support Vanunu and to advance worldwide efforts to free him from the restrictions after his imprisonment. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Visiting Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire on Sunday compared Israel's reported nuclear arsenal to Hitler's gas chambers while calling on Israel to lift travel restrictions on nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu. (Could I possibly hate that guy any more?).
Maguire, awarded the 1976 prize for her Northern Ireland peace campaign, was at the prison gates to welcome Vanunu when he was released in April after serving an 18-year sentence for disclosing Israel's nuclear secrets.
"When I think about nuclear weapons, I've been to Auschwitz concentration camp," Maguire said. "Nuclear weapons are only gas chambers perfected, ... and for a people who know what gas chambers are, how can you even think of building perfect gas chambers?"
-------------
Well lets face it. You don't have to be a genius, nor do you have to, by any means, be worthy, to receive a nobel peace prize. In fact, I propose that they drop the prize all together and stick actual achievements.
Oh and hey look. I found an entirely unrelated photo of two dead serial killers. Now that just gives me a pleasant feeling....
Oh man. Having finished my exams makes me waste my time on all kinds of nonsense. I actually took a quiz called "What planet are you from?". I didn't need to do that. I know what planet I'm from. I even know what country I'm from. Or which countries, to be specific. For those of you who don't know, I have an Icelandic mother, a Norwegian father (whose ancestors came from Germany), but I was born in Sweden. Most of my relatives live in Romania, Norway or Sweden, while I myself, however, live here on the devil's island (aka Iceland), where I enjoy the company of noisy neighbors. In fact, they're being noisy right now. They're shuffling snow and ice outside the house in a really noisy way.
Okay so anyway. According to this quiz, I am from Saturn.
You Are From Saturn
You're steady, organizes, and determined to achieve your dreams.
You tend to play it conservative, going by the rules (at least the practical ones).
You'll likely reach the top. And when you do, you'll be honorable and responsible.
Focus on happiness. Don't let your goals distract you from fun!
Don't be too set in your ways, and you'll be more of a success than you ever dreamed of.
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
