Entries this day: 50_things_to_do_besides_watch_TV Today zzzHitomi's_13,000th_day

50 things to do besides watch TV

HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! I found this today while digging through some old stuff from my bayou account at UH. Karla, an ex-YRUU advisor from Missouri and I wrote it. This was written back in the days that I was compiling The Feel Good Net. (1992 and stuff)

  "50 things to do besides watch TV."
  
1.  email to somebody
2.  go sail with somebody
3.  make dinner for a friend 
4.  fly kites in the wind
5.  climb a tree
6.  skate with me
7.  write a letter
8.  eat some cheddar
9.  do some mending
10. or money lending
11. find a trail
12. follow a snail
13. find the grail
14. chase a whale
15. climb a mountain
16. jump in a fountain
17. bake bread
18. melt lead
19. jump rope with a stranger
20. help out a park ranger
21. learn a new dance
22. get some green pants
23. play pente
24. pick lint, eh?
25. localize recycling
26. with the guys go cycling
27. dye your hair
28. make a chair
29. buy some silk underwear 
30. leave 'em off and go bare
31. write a song
32. sing along
33. stitch a quilt
34. wear a kilt
35. paint your own Mona Lisa   
36. then go out and get some pizza  
37. build a green house
38. praise a keen mouse
39. try an EOB
40. pay by C.O.D.
41. recycle all that's used
42. and smile away the blues
43. bring spring with pagan rite 
44. spring clean with all your might
45. plant some herbs
46. chant some verbs
47. write a poem with a friend  
48. play pente for days on end
49. find a new word
50. go hiking

Today

6:48pm JST Tuesday 06 December 2005

This morning I finalized the switchover of robnugen.com to the new machine. It seems everything is working fine. Ironically, I was unable to get the google-sitemap python script to work because I use virtual URLs for the bulk of my site.

I worked on what I've begun calling the Executive Summary of my Palestinian adventure, basically by summarizing my journal from that time.

Today I wrote

The Faisal Hostel is where I based most of my activities in the West
Bank.  It's located right across from Damascus Gate of the Old City in
Jerusalem.  I had arrived during Ramadan, meaning the Old City was
more crowded than usual as people went there to pray in the
evenings. One of my first nights in the hostel, several of us spent a
lot of time looking out the window, watching the activity of soldiers
running around and riding horses with flashing red and blue lights. It
was pretty neat, but a bit scary to wonder what they were all doing.

------------

One day, Rami invited me to go to Nablus with some other PalVision
volunteers.  I was keen to visit new places, and looked forward to the
trip.  We planned to go on October 12th in the morning.  There was
some concern that we would not be able to come back that evening, if
we tried to leave too late.  Yom Kippur, a Jewish national holiday
would start, and it was possible the Israeli border police would
simply close the checkpoint outside Nablus.

No one said the checkpoint was scheduled to close during Yom Kippur,
but just warned that it could close, at the whim of the border police
and their holiday plans.

----------

In Nablus, we met several people from an NGO that partners with
PalVision.  We were given a tour of the Old City in Nablus.  It seemed
a lot like the old city of Jerusalem, but smaller and no Israeli
soldiers. Still plenty plenty of shops selling food, brushes, clothes,
electronics, phones, fans, foul, and everything else.

We were told about the recent history of violence in the city.

No soldiers were present at the time, but the evidence of violence was
clear.  Bullet holes in various stone walls, rubble filled lots where
houses had been, posters of "martyrs," Palestinians who had died
fighting for their own freedom.

One memorial looked a lot like a public phone box.  Previously in that
location had been a public phone which had been rigged with an
explosive.  A man picked up the phone to use it, and was killed by the
bomb.

----------

During the day we learned the checkpoint would be closed, so we left
Nablus early to 'escape' before they closed it.  There were many cars
lined up to get out, and hundreds of Palestinian men in a line.

We just used white privilege to get through the checkpoint at
Nablus. Though the Palestinians were trapped behind the barrier, we
just walked out through the in gate, briefly showed our passports to
the soldiers and got through.

The border would close in a couple hours for Yom Kippur, and stay
closed for 24 or 36 hours.

I wondered what action is appropriate.  Should I refuse to go through
unless they let everyone else through? Just wait in queue? Simply ask
why they can't go through???

------------

Every Friday there is a demonstration near a village called Bil'in,
where a section of the separation barrier was being built.  In this
case the barrier is a fence, with tracer roads as described above.
The demonstration was described as a "game" by a man named Jason, who
has been there taking pictures every week for some months.  He had
been enough times to state with certainty there are 45 speed bumps in
the 20 kilometers between Ramallah and Bil'in.

I went to the Friday Demonstration in Bil'in three times during my
stay in the West Bank.  Two of those three times we encountered a
flying checkpoint (temporary blockade) set up by soldiers on the road
leading in to Bil'in from Ramallah.  They said it was "a closed
military zone," and would not let anyone but residents or people with
PRESS passes in.  Both times my group was stopped at the checkpoint,
we would turn around and go back about 1/4 mile, then simply walk
around the checkpoint.  One of those times we were able to get a ride
with some locals once we had walked around the checkpoint.

Once we arrived in the village we found basically the same set of
events each week: Palestinian villagers from Bil'in, along with
Israelis and other internationals sympathetic to the Palestinian cause
met around the mosque around noon.  With a different theme each week,
the group would begin walking to the site of the fence construction.

   Themes on days I was there:
      Carrying large black "snakes" to represent the wall
      Large scissors and cord to represent people being cut off from their land
      Playground equipment to allow children to play in the demonstration area

Villagers would chant in Arabic as they walked, and end up in a
standoff with soldiers who would be waiting at the top of the hill
where the road suddenly ends at the new fence-border.

The demonstration would be peaceful, and then invariably some
Palestinian youth would throw rocks (using slingshots) at the soldiers
as the demonstrators walked back home.  The soldiers would respond
with tear gas and rubber bullets, the resulting melee sometimes
resulting in hospitalization of demonstrators or rock throwers.

One of my friends was hit by a stone and had to be hospitalized for
over a week as his spleen had been ruptured.  I personally was hit by
a stone on my upper shoulder, thankfully where it did no damage.

One of the days was a bit different.  Demonstrators arrived earlier
than normal, and were able to lock themselves to the fence before
soldiers could drive up and begin pulling them off.  The locks were
not very effective, but served to make a point and got some good media
attention.

Other than that, it was the same game, and the fence kept being built.

which isn't *all* that much for a day, but it's definitely faster than I had been going before.

Also did the dishes and chowed some chow. At one point I went downstairs to the conveni with an exact idea of what I wanted to eat, and they didn't have either item. I wanted peanut chocolate and milk pudding. None of either. Stunned. But saved some money.

Right about now I'm going to go meet Satoko in 二子玉川。

11:06pm

It took 7 minutes to ride from Jesse's to Futakotamagawa station.

Met Satoko and ate a bit at Kentucky Fried Chicken; we didn't talk a whole lot, but chatted some about random stuff and about how cold it is! She invited me to a gig her band is playing near Musashi Mizunokuchi this Sunday. Showtimes are 1pm and 3pm. I'll probably choose ultimate instead cause I haven't been out there a single time since Palestine.

Satoko walked me to TJ Bike, and then we walked her to the station.

zzzHitomi's 13,000th day

1:05am JST Wednesday 07 December 2005

Today is Hitomi's 13,000th day!