Marathon 2013

I don't understand what just happened. Explosions at the Boston Marathon's finish line. The area is in havoc. Nobody knows anything for sure.

My friend Yinuo posted about this on her blog, but I think I need to talk about it too.

Boston is one of my homes. I love it dearly, and the Marathon is of course an important part of our city. To have something like this happen - I just don't know what I'm supposed to think.

Right now nobody knows who did it and why. I heard that one bomb went off at the JFK Library, and I hear that another one was found at Riverside Station, which is three train stops from my house, but I don't know if anything is true. The train (or as we call it, the T) is, of course, down at the moment. Facebook is exploding, and I'm honestly terrified. Not really for myself but for other people and how close it is to me. I am not invincible, and no one I know is invincible. It takes something like this to realize that.

The worst part of this is not the injured or the dead, although both are absolutely terrible. No, the worst is that nobody knows anything for sure and nobody knows where more bombs might be found. Everybody is terrified because nothing is certain.

And another thing - it seems so horrifically planned. There are enough bombs that no one knows if there are more, and they are in strategic places. Whoever did this must have spent ages thinking about it. The fact that there is someone who will target this area and be so focused on it is truly frightening.

It seems so surreal. It's something that seems like it would never happen here - and now it has. And I don't know what I'm supposed to think anymore.

Nerdfighters, Nerdfighters everywhere

On Sunday, I went to a Nerdfighter gathering at the Prudential Center in Boston.

I arrived shortly after 2 with my ukulele, etc. and some Nerdfighters had already taken over one corner of the food court. They had already hijacked a lot of tables and made them into an L-shape. I helped more people (because more and more were arriving) make a little island in the middle of the L. We talked about fandoms and ages and things we'd done, tried to play Munchkin Space, tried to play Bang, and then I migrated to another corner. Then my girlfriend and her friends arrived and then we played a game with a beach ball covered with questions that somebody had ingeniously created. Then we took a group photo and thoroughly freaked out the rest of the food court by shouting, "DFTBA!"

Then we migrated to Barnes & Noble and played the "In Your Pants" game. If you're not familiar with it, it's the theory that if you add "In Your Pants" to any book title, it instantly becomes hilarious. Some of the best selections include:

That's the Way I Blow

Justin Bieber

Katy Perry

The Dust Bowl

Fire

World War II

The Casual Vacancy

You've Gotta Have Balls

and more, which I can't remember just now. We looked around for a while before finding "Must-Read Books by John Green."

Worship at the altar, worship at the altar.

And Harry Potter.

Worship at the altar, worship at the altar.

Then we went and looked at books and the rack of hand puppets which included a Hedwig-style snowy owl and a puffy hedgehog and a dog and a squirrel.

After the Barnes and Noble people were well and thoroughly freaked-out (and a lot of Nerdfighters had started to leave), we went and sat in a corner and played more beach ball question game. Then I had to leave, and everyone exchanged hugs.

I think it was one of the best days I've had lately. I've been told how lucky I am to have Nerdfighteria, and I really am. I think the whole world is lucky to have such a beautiful community. There are so many bad things in the world, so many people who say that we're only getting worse, that we're getting more and more apathetic. But then there's Nerdfighteria. And just as one lamp can light a room, Nerdfighteria gives hope where there might not be as much.

DFTBA!

Le fin du voyage

I suppose this was always coming.

But now I'm not typing from our living room in Tel Aviv but from our (notably larger) living room in Newton.

It's strange being back, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it yet. Weird. Now I won't have to put the tag "Israel" in the labels...

I just don't want things to be exactly as they were. I want that time in another place to matter.

Anyway - here goes for summer! If you're American, happy fourth of July! If not, happy fourth of July anyway!

(The French title means "the end of the journey.")