modern disconnect

there is a beautiful world outside that window in front of me and i am typing this electronic journal entry. there are birds twittering and leaves rustling and wind blowing a nice breeze. and then there's this glaring screen that i keep staring into because it reflects stimuli that somehow captivate my attention more than the natural world.

what evil deception!

but even though i am aware of this disconnect, i keep coming back to my buzzing vice. a hefty battle-axe swing would solve this problem, but i haven't the heart. i mean, computer and i have had a long and productive relationship, even though computer has been being kind of a soul-sucking leech.

most of my morning is spent gathering up the courage to rip myself from computer's captivating stimulus tentacles. i think it's about time to make my migration once again.

blarg it's another saturday

that feels just like all the other days, cause i gots no job. i've been sitting around in a bathing suit trying to reach lvl 64 in terokkar forest. the routine has been getting a bit old: spot NPC, hurl three lightning bolts, slam the bastard with a flame shock, and then just hack away with my big staff. i may mix things up a bit with some totems, but high lvl ennui is setting in i believe. soon enough i'll get that super-cool-looking fire elemental totem and all of this will change. for then i will be able to "call forth a greater fire elemental to rain destruction on (my) enemies." i've always wanted to do that to my enemies.

i was supposed to meet up with a random girl who contacted me on mixi.jp, but just before i left my house she texted me and informed me that she had just contracted a mysterious "cold." this "cold" has prevented her from meeting me tonight, so now i am a bit more free! and there is actually something else to do, unlike usual. it is cathy's birthday, or something, today or sometime soon, and i was invited to go "party." luckily for me, i was out till the wee hour of SEVEN AM last night and am well recovering thanks to more than a few unintentional mass transit power naps. and yes, these power naps were taken as each vehicle passed my destination, multiple times. well, it's better than falling asleep at the wheel; at least this way when i wake up all i have to do is take the bus/train back, and not peel my face from searing metal.

gtalk convo fun time

let's discover how jamie's dark secrets are revealed when he succumbs to the hypnotic truth-wrenching effects of gtalk!

Dean's away message: Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

me: i hope that's dunkin' yr drunkin'
Dean-Lorenz: not out here i'm sorry to report
but i'm cutting down on the D&D a bit
me: i'm not. i'm already a lvl 7 wizard with magic missile specialty.
ogres beware!
Dean-Lorenz: yikes
me: wait.... you're not an ogre, are you?
kum sanam saleiam tulus!
Dean-Lorenz: i was this morning
me: too late. i just banished you to the Outer Realms.
Dean-Lorenz: i'm sure if i had any idea what the hell that meant i'd be impressed
me: have fun wading in the Blood Pits with your orcish brethren
Dean-Lorenz: this is what happens when we try to have 'real' conversations
me: this is why jamie still has "no job"
Dean-Lorenz: i'll cede you that
Sent at 3:24 PM on Wednesday
Dean-Lorenz: oh.
D&D.
I get it now.

day 9: skipped a few

so as many were wondering what befell me, i feel it necessary to inform my audience of the circumstances surrounding my sudden disappearance. it was entirely due to my inability to reach an internet terminal. oh, and a smoking rocket that crashed through the cloth ceiling of a bazaar booth that i needed to diffuse using but a handful of hummus and a live scorpion.

from the wall to now much has happened, as you can imagine. i will attempt to reconstruct an achronical account of my travels.

-hiked a bit around Ein Gedi, an oasis and nature preserve west of the dead sea. my first experience in a desert ecosystem under conservation. saw a few yellow-spotted rock hyraxes climbing nimbly along the branches of the stout trees and chewing on the green leaves. we bathed in a waterfall nestled in the cavity of a massive wall of cream stone.
-drove to Masada at 2:30 am after a night in the bedouin tent. watched the sun rise over the desert horizon, plunging the hazy blue sky into a brilliant pink that baked the hills of sand surrounding the remains of the ancient fortress.
-caroused the stone alleyways of Jaffa, the old city of Tel Aviv, where hanging plants and creeping vines peek over the arches and walls of the dwellings of artists, who have taken up residence behind the ornate wooden doors. house cats prowled the granite fortifications above, stepping carefully over roots and brushing past forests of leaves.
-ate shakshuka at where else but Dr. Shakshuka in Jaffa. so authentic i nearly bursted out the HaTikvah. an excellent sephardic dish that is like an omelet in a thick spiced tomato sauce.
-more on eating, sampled a Jerusalem bagel in the old city, a much longer and thinner cousin of the NYC version, sprinkled all over with white sesame. once purchased, one pulls open the steaming bread and sprinkles in some zaatar.
-stayed a night in a "bedouin tent," which besides being a nice replica of one was part of a complex owned by israelis in the camel-riding tourism business and was more like the disneyland version of a bedouin camp. i stayed up all night with some of the group, smoked nargilah (hebrew for hookah), and hiked up a tall hill behind our camp with three others to find a sky brilliant with stars and a desert military camp ringed in orange lampposts. we were treated to a show by a group called Jaman, whose musical leader played haunting melodies on a number of indigenous instruments from around the world accompanied by his two bandmates on drums. they were also extremely adept at capoeria and played a mean shofar. like, mean enough to leave all the cantors in NYC in the dust.
-coated ourselves head to toe (as for myself, i did this literally) in dead sea mud, let it dry and crack in the sun, then bathed in the briny green waters. i enjoyed the sensation of floating up straight and watching my feet hover above the seabed, which was white with salt. all around us, the brown faces of arid mountains.

and probably more, but i can't think of them right now. when they come i shall post of them.
-

day three: the wall, the wall, the wall

muslims make a haj to visit mecca, where muhammed founded islam. christians go to a number of places: bethlehem where jesus was born, jerusalem where he was crucified, and basically everywhere jesus did anything. jews come to jerusalem to see: a wall. this is not just any wall though; it is the remaining wall of the second jewish temple destroyed by titus of the romans not long after the birth of christ. this temple, like the first one destroyed by those dastardly babylonians, housed many things, like an altar for sacrifices, a big golden menorah, and a bunch of stuff that priests used to obey G-d's command and to please Him by doing various things with them. but the most important thing in the temple was the shechina, or G-d's physical presence on earth, which was housed in the Holy of Holies (kadosh kedoshim). this wall is the closest one can get to the burial place of the shechina, which supposedly still exists in a secret underground hiding place beneath the...... dome of the rock (big mosque with a golden dome)! ...of all places. according to my guide shani, omar the conquerer and once a representative of sorts of islam, decided to build a mosque atop this site hundreds of years after the second temple's destruction, which was also the ancient site of avraham's attempted sacrifice of his son yitschak, because both it had historical holy significance and the christians left it barren. why? because jesus had made a declaration standing above the impure city of jerusalem that no bricks would be left standing here because of the unholiness of its denizens. therefore, the christians who controlled palestine would not lay one brick upon the site. in addition, muhammed spoke of a dream he had of riding a horse from a mosque in mecca to another distant one on a white horse, where he docked the horse and ascended to heaven. this mosque was to be the one in the dream. and to this day, it is treated as such. biased of course, this story, but it is interesting nonetheless.

anyway, this wall is crowded with jews of all colors, religious sects, and denominations. chasidim walk around begging for tsedaka (charity) and americans with their huge cameras pray clutching its stones. i myself got wrapped up in teffilin (look it up) and said the v'ahavta, aided by some friendly chasidic boys. i also inserted a prayer into the wall. it is said that the female spirit of god (some kabbalistic stuff) floats around the wall and brings all the prayers directly up to heaven.

more later. time running out on this computer.

day two: jerusalem, yad hashem

it is the second day of traveling and i am pleased to be in the holy city. i am finally in the land that i have been singing about since i was introduced to hebrew prayer. we always say, "next year in jerusalem" at the end of our high holy day prayers, and look't! i just came true to my word!

the buildings of jerusalem are all built, by city mandate previously enforced by the previous righteous keepers of this city (the british), with white "jerusalem stone" in order to ensure that the city sparkles like gold at the close of every day. the dome of the rock is the most impressive sight when i gazed out over the city from a lookout point on a mountain yesterday. our guide shani was giving us a energetic speech about the history of the city from the perspectives of christianity, islam, and our own, while below two muslim families were trying to picnic peacefully on the lawn. a young girl kept scowling up at us in between bites of her sandwich while her hajabbed mother was unconcerned. a baby squealed and ran in circles on the grass. this was the closest we have been to the others of israel, and i wanted to give them some sign of friendship. but whenever i stuck out my hand meekly to wave at the frowning girl, she seemed to disregard me. i did not come here to justify my judaism, justify my zionism, or justify anything for that matter. i came to see how things really are. i am starting to see.

we looked out over the gaza border yesterday on the ride to the holy city, and we saw the new wall. according to shani it has already decreased fatalities by ninety percent. he also said that throughout history, when walls are put up for some reason or another, they always come down. well, so too do mountains crumble if a dove with a scarf sweeps its pinnacle over and over for one million years (i think some buddhist medidation exercise).

the holocaust memorial museum yod vashem was very moving. i wanted to stay all day. but more on that later.

day one: tsfat, kayaking on jordan river, golan heights

actually day one was spent enduring a lengthy and trying commute that took us from JFK to Zurich after a 4 hour wait, then Zurich to Tel Aviv after another 4 hour wait. in other words, lots of waiting, lots of sitting in planes, lots of looking at expensive Swiss airport stuff and not buying it, like cans of caviar, designer handbags, 5 dollar espressos, and liver-cheese sandwiches (as delicious as that sounds i did not shell out the 10 dollars). travel, travel, travel. and when we got to Israel, who was there to greet us but a man with a beaming smile warmly saying to each of us, "welcome home." as cheesy as it sounds, and also as untrue as it was, and even as politically loaded as it might be, it still had a profound effect on me.

our tour guide is a yemenite jew (he is brown, not white) named shani with a funny english accent that makes him sound like a british-educated indian man. he has a long black ponytail and is both witty and historically knowledgeable in his speeches. however, approach him for a one-to-one question and he will spit out one-word answers and hiss unfriendly responses. he seems very tolerant of all peoples, but seems to think that muslims are stupid. a slight character flaw in my opinion, as i was expecting a venomous reproach if anyone were to even ask our guide about the muslims that live right across the border. he also believes that columbus and his entire crew, as jews, set out to find a new homeland for their people in 1492 in exchange for bringing new commerce to the spanish throne. i really don't know about that one. i've never even heard that theory.

our personal defender, first aid specialist, and chick with a big gun is Avital. she speaks english that she said she learned from tv. who knew tv could actually educate and not just melt brains like butter in the microwave? avital knew. and she watched and watched until she could kick back with american kids and talk about "hanging out" and "man, that sucks." i asked her at dinner today, "avital, i have been asking you so many questions over these two days. don't you have any questions for us americans?" the table had been silent: the guy to my left was silent as a stone, the guy to my right too nervous to open his mouth. and across the table from me, a scowling israeli girl with a big gun, shoveling cabbage salad into her mouth. she looked at me, and with that signature israeli expression that expresses both irony and intense disinterest, said simply, "no."

tsfat is known as the birthplace of kabbalah, as the zohar (apparently the book that teaches kabbalah) was written there. the city stands on a mountainside, and i was reminded of small mountain towns i hiked through in tokushima. the place is full of hippies: regular hippies, orthodox hippies, chasidic hippies. and probably sorcerers. everything is laid out in gray stone, and long stairways lead up the mountainside. we didn't get to see much of it, but i did have some decent falafel and got to peruse the judaica stands down a pleasant little alley, where sad old men hawk many kinds of mezuzah, kipa, tallis, and paintings of dancing laughing jews. i bought nothing, although i was tempted to get an enormous mural of dancing laughing jews to hang on my wall, to remind myself of happiness, good times, and good ol' fashioned jeweyness.

kayaking on the jordan was gorgeous. the river is not by any means wide; it is more like an american stream. but in israel, everything is bigger, said shani. he further remarked with an anecdote about how crossing the jordan in biblical times was considered "a miracle." there were all sorts of birds flittering about, including colorful doves, piebald crows with cream stomachs, and even a flashy kingfisher with blue patches underwing. the whole experience was serene and refreshing after spending most of the day cooped up in the bus.

and finally, the golan heights. we climbed a volcano, from the top of which we could see both syria and lebanon. it was on this site, below us near the kibbutsim that sprawled across the land, that syria had launched rockets over the border at the onset of the 1967 arab-israeli war. the landscape was saturated with history. we watched the sun set over the mountaintop. i was freezing in my soaked tee-shirt (i had fallen off the kayak after trying to retrieve a fallen shoe and suffering a collision with a fellow vessel. i clung desperately to the side as the vicious rapids tried to swallow me beneath their hungry waves. and then i just put my feet down and stood up.)

that is all for now, and perhaps i shall be more inspired to expound upon some of my party mates next time. shalom~