They say it sure is fair play. I put up something about me going into a dangerous part of Israel...and then the Confusticate server goes down with the East Coast and I can't get word of what happened.
Was I worred? Yeah, somewhat. I've never been around a hurricane before, but something that can knock down buildings sounds mean enough to me.
Fortunately Rachel'd heard from Matt. So no worries!
Much.
Well, my Yeshiva's taking a little trip to Hebron this afternoon to hand out Tanyas (the great philosophical work by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and the basis of the Chabad philosophy) printed by the Yeshiva.
This might get interesting.
Any of my friends in the States--well, you might not see this until I'm back, so don't worry. And if you see this beforehand--I'm pretty hard to kill.
Although if there's a reporter there, and they find what we're doing to be interesting enough...
No, I'm not going to wave to the camera!
Ran into a guy today here who's a proposal writer. I dunno what brought him to Kfar Chabad (we really are the back end of beyond--no one usually comes here without a reason), but he asked me if I could look over his proposal for him.
It was based around the story of the Jewish holiday of Purim (I mentioned this way back in the beginning of my blog, didn't I? ::rummages around for a moment:: Well, I mentioned it, but I didn't tell the story. Nobody asked me to ::grins:: So I guess you'll have to give Google a little more exercise. Or ask, if you'd prefer.)
"Based around" is pretty close. There were lots of small details that he either made up or changed to better suit the concept he was after (it's to be an animated movie). And not a few major details that either got left out, shifted around, or otherwise edited.
Historically? It's not going to be very accurate (and I have no idea what Persian history says on the matter, but I'm pretty sure it's not the same story we read on Purim). As far as retelling the legend goes? Also not real accurate, although the essence of the story (and the miracle-that-was-not-really-a-miracle, a.k.a. coincidence) is largely intact.
Storywise?
Even though I know the story of Purim, and his proposal was, of course, only a synopsis of his idea--I still didn't really want to stop reading. Not the stay-up-till-dawn grip that's been the death of many a fine grade, but interested.
And he's going to be showing this to Steven Spielberg on Monday.
I got lazy again. And busy.
So, as always, the first thing to go is diary writing. Not that I was ever all that much good at it in the first place...
Did I mention that I tend to be pretty lazy when given the opportunity? Oh, good. Just wanted to be sure.
Anyway, read on for what I've been up to lately...
I think I mentioned somewhere (or maybe it was just in private?) that I was putting together a largish pamphlet, workwise. Well, that's mostly done, except for the graphical work. You know, the overall theming of the thing.
Well, I tried to explain to the guy that that wasn't my line of work, and that the best I could do would be for him to think of something and then tell me what he wanted. He kept saying something along the lines of, "So, show me some examples."
Frustrating. Anyway, in the end he finally got what I was talking about.
There was an alumni reunion here at the Yeshiva, and guess who got tapped for kitchen liason? Yup. I've been here enough that I know most of the people who work there, and am on good terms with most.
Surprisingly enough, things actually went off without any major hitches. Oh, there were small stuffups aplenty, forgotten little things and such, but all the food was laid out when needed. And I didn't blow my stack at anyone this time, either. ::pats self on back:: Maybe because things went off so well, or because I've been working on grinding off a few of the less-attractive sides of my personality...who knows?
Maybe I'll even be able to keep it up.
I've also been taking a look into the White Wolf gaming system. Not an extensive one, really. Just one system in particular, the flip side of Digital Dreaming. They started out with a site based on Changeling: the Dreaming, and they expanded to the d20 system as a 'second side.' I joined the second side first, but you already knew that, didn't you?
I'm busy being mildly corrupted. I still don't have a book on the system though (Israel so totally sucks for stuff like that), so I haven't got a character there.
Yet. Watch for the link on the blog front page. It'll let you know when it happens.
So, I finally went to see Terminator 3 with a friend.
Warning. Possible spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen the movie, please sign here before continuing!
Personally, I think they did a pretty good job. Not only was there plenty of knock-around, weapons fire, and various electronic gizmos, but they even managed to clear up a couple of the niggling time-travel problems that the first two movies had raised.
As usual, there were weapons galore. You just can't take down a T-101 with a popgun, and that goes double-triple-lotsa-times for the T-X.
And one thing they didn't really do all that well in the second movie was very well made up for in the third. Which is, of course, the T vs. T metal-slammaround.
In the second movie, the T-(um...800? 1000? ::forgets::) just bounced Arnie off just about anything around, and that was about it. In the third...
Well, let's just say that a whole lot of taxpayer's money got well-trashed.
The design on the T-X was pretty cool, too. And I'm not talking about using a lady instead of a man...about which, incidently, I'd like to see the possible theories for machine logic behind that little decision.
Nope, just about the technical design. I'd say that they were trying to get around the T-whatever's limitations on weapons and still keep at least some of its morphing capabilities. Although, as shown, the idea was still less than perfect. Maybe a self-repair capability would have helped...and maybe they'll add that to the fourth movie.
Which I've heard rumors of, but not more than that. If they're going to make another Terminator movie, I'd like to see their plot outline. Because with the ending of this one, a sequal will be pretty darn hard.
But then, that's probably what everyone thought about T2.
I'm actually impressed. I didn't think anyone could effectively ruin my morning that early on, because I'm usually not even out of bed.
(Well, impressed in a pretty bad way, that is. I'm sitting here at 9 in the morning typing this and waiting for my coffee to cool down enough to drink. Maybe it'll help stop me from killing someone before breakfast.)
A new student arrived from overseas, and was temporarily going to be placed in my room. You know, just for what's left of the night and morning.
(Side note: I know it's only supposed to be a temporary thing because there isn't any spare closet space in my room at all. Or permanent bed space, either--one of my roommates is still in the country, just on a slightly extended holiday.)
So he ended up in my room for the morning because we're the only ones with a more-or-less made bed. The room he's supposed to be in needs mild--or major--reshuffling.
And no-one told me about this.
Well, that's not quite accurate. For most of the evening I was in a friend's room with my laptop, hooked into the 'net and roleplaying on DD, so when my other roommate (the one who's actually here) tried to find me to tell me about this (and he himself was only told at midnight), I was nowhere to be found.
Net result: at approximately 6am GMT+2, I get woken up. Not by the temporary (from Hungary, by the way) coming in, and not by him moving his suitcases. I managed to sleep through that much, although it probably started shaking me out of whatever dream world I was in at the time.
No, I got woken by him asking my roommate if this was the room he was going to be staying in for the duration of his learning here (approximately two or three months, if my sleep-fogged brain recalls). On being told that it was not, he asked (repeatedly) which room he would be staying in, and could he move his suitcases in there.
After the third time, by which point I was now fully aware and majorly POed, my roommate finally gave up on the velvet gloves (maybe he knew I was right on the verge of making a comment? I can be quite abrasive under the wrong circumstances) and said, "Look, we're doing you the courtesy of letting you stay here for the morning. Your permanent room is still being arranged."
At which point, he got the hint and shut up. Finally. I still had to bite back several comments, none of them nice.
If he'd have been coming in from the States and jet-lagged outta his mind, I could have understood his lack of concern (manners? courtesy? rational thought?) about me trying to sleep at that point. But he's from Hungary, which is close by and more-or-less in the same time zone to boot.
::sighs:: Advance warning, people. I'm probably not going to be in a good mood today unless some things start going astronomically right.