eveglass | Entries tagged with religion

1. Holidays: The Jewish holidays have come and (mostly) gone, consisting of five family dinners and a TON of leftovers (and one day of fasting). One consequence of all this is that I haven't had to bake bread in a week. Wow.

2. Freezer cooking: I'm planning on doing a big freezer cooking prep day this weekend, of the "put ingredients in bag, freeze, defrost, and throw in crock pot" variety. I generally have a lot of trouble coming up with the energy to cook at the end of a workday; hopefully this will help.

3. Gaming: Continues apace. Three games that are pretty solidly in the weekly/bi-weekly camp, and some on-the-side gaming with Marc to help him prep for his new Werewolf game, which is actually proving to be a lot of fun. My made-on-the-spot character is a jaded kinfolk who's been tasked by her extremely important cousin with conducting the first census of the garou nations. It's lots of fun. Or did I mention that?

4. Les Miserables: Because one of the villains in our 7th Sea game is based on Inspector Javert from Les Miserables, I finally decided to sit down and watch the whole thing, which I've never done before. I was surprised at some of the songs I knew but hadn't realized were from Les Miz, and also surprised at how often the same tunes are used wholesale for multiple songs.

5. Fasting: Every year, I wonder why I do it. Every year, I struggle with the little voice that says, "You could just eat something right now and no one would know but you. You wouldn't have to tell anyone." One of these years, I might decide to stop the tradition, though the time to make that decision is not in the middle of the fast, so I stuck it out until almost the end yesterday. (About 6:30.)

6. DragonVale: I very nearly spent real-world money on my stupid dragons game. I was about 12 hours away, and the only thing that stopped me was that I got the dragon I'd been working on for over a week at long last. Stupid addiction. This is precisely the reason I left FrontierVille, you fools!

7. Work: We're in our slow season now. I really should be using the time to prep stuff for when the busy season picks up again, but I'm feeling kinda lethargic. Stupid shrinking hours of sunlight...

1. Promotion!: Today I finally signed the paperwork that gives me a spiffy new title ("Executive Assistant") and a 20% pay raise. It also entitles me to 5% matching on my RRSP... so I really should get around to getting an RRSP sometime soon, huh?

2. New Year!: Today is Rosh Hashana! May your year be happy and sweet, and may you be written in the book of life.

3. Gaming!: Thank God I'm back and can start gaming again. After a several-week hiatus, I have now picked up again in pretty much all my games, and they're all going really well. Marc even bought me a package of new d10s because my old ones were rolling so crappy in 7th Sea this past weekend.

4. Spices!: I recently discovered a way cool spice store about a 10-minute walk from my apartment, on Monkland. Earlier this week, Ian and I went on a shopping expedition and came away with many, many bags of Cool Stuff (tm). I look forward to using them all!

5. Crash!: The bad news is I was in a car accident last week. The good news is no one was hurt, and the car is insured. I'm just glad I wasn't working and could rest and recuperate without stress.

6. More Gaming!: For pretty much the first time ever, I spent this weekend coming up with a custom character class to use in an upcoming game. It was a lot of fun, even if the GM is forcing me to change quite a lot of the stuff I came up with.

7. Dragons!: Ever since Kyn got me involved with DragonVale, I've become a bit addicted. I get addicted to social gaming, what can I say? It's why I try to only have one active social media game in my life at a time. (Unlike, say, roleplaying games, of which I try to have as many as I can comfortably fit in my life at a time.)

Unlike years past, I did not have a true break for the holidays this year. Instead, I've got two 4.5-day weekends, the first of which just ended. Despite that, it was quite pleasant, consisting of many of my favorite holiday traditions. One of these is the Christmas Eve drive with my dad, brother, and boyfriend, in which we drive around looking at the pretty Christmas lights and listening to The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth, and then we go find somewhere that sells donuts. (A far easier proposition now than it was when I was a kid.)

Christmas Day was spent with Ian's family up in Laval. I took a preventative Benadryl, and while it knocked me out for a while, it worked as advertised: I was able to spend two five-hour stints in a house with two cats, with only minor discomfort. Yay! I gave out all my cookies, which seemed to go over quite well. (Ian's cousin Asha was very vocal about liking them; her favorites were the snickerdoodles.) Marc and I got a few presents as well: some throw blankets, a couple of tear-away day calendars, two heart-themed mugs, and a lovely sectioned serving platter. We also saw The Adventures of Tintin, which surprised me by being highly enjoyable and a great movie to get in the mood for playing 7th Sea.

Monday I spent the day conquering the pixelated world of Civ IV with Eric, and Tuesday I cooked for the week. (Something I sadly didn't do last week, and my wallet is lighter as a result.)

Also yesterday, I went with Marc to Alpenhaus to celebrate our five-year anniversary, which will be on New Year's. Tasty food, good company, actual wood-burning fire... life is good, my friends. Yes, it is.

And now I'm back at work for a 2.5-day week, and then I'll be on my second mini-vacation. I suppose I should actually attempt to get some work done, huh?

It's been a long time since I've been so happy to have pie. This is a direct consequence of the fact that this is the first year in a long time where I actually tried to stick with the rules of Passover.

For the last few years when I was living with my mom, I didn't bother to keep kosher for Passover. She didn't care, and neither did I. But Marc does, and since moving in with him, I've tried to be supportive. Last year, this meant that I kept kosher for Passover while I was at home and ate what I wanted outside the house when I wasn't with my boyfriend. But this year, we decided we were both going to try to be good for the full week of Passover.

Well, for certain values of "good," anyway. We used our regular dishes, because we don't have a second set and using paper plates for a full week would be wasteful. We didn't get rid of any chametz (foods forbidden for Passover) in our pantries, though we did refrain from eating them. We're both on a tight budget, and buying all that food again after Passover would have been a rather large expense. As a concession to taste buds and practicality, we decided to stick with the Sephardi rules that allow rice, corn, and beans, even though we're both Ashkenazi (whose traditions are much stricter). Finally, in a display of complete irony, we didn't try to stick with the regular-for-the-year kashrut (kosher) laws; we had plenty of meals with both meat and milk, for example.

That said, those laws that we agreed to, we stuck to. It was hard to break a lot of my traditions. I forwent my usual breakfast of oatmeal or toast with peanut butter (both of which are forbidden, even by Sephardi rules) in favor of mazto or mazto brei. I had to figure out what to do about snacks when downtown; my usual standbys are generally bagels, muffins, or Jamaican patties, because they're cheap (less than $2.00). Nothing else I could eat was nearly that cheap or accessible. Even when my Thursday night GM very kindly made a quinoa pilaf for the two players observing Passover (quinoa is kosher for Passover, despite being a grain), he *also* tossed some Italian bread into the oven, and it was a physical effort of will not to eat any. I can honestly say that there was not a single day of Passover when I wasn't tempted in some way or another.

I did cheat once: I went to Ben & Jerry's and the "milk and cookies" flavor was calling to me. It's got cookie dough in it, meaning it's definitely not kosher for Passover. I had it anyway. But only one cheat is far less than I normally do, and I consider the week to be an overall success.

Marc and I celebrated the end of Passover by going out to Rockaberry's for pie. It was excellent. And I've already done groceries and picked up a loaf of bread so I can have toast for breakfast tomorrow. Because while I'm all for solidarity, I'm also all for baked goods, and it's time to bring them back into my life.

1. How to make a bug out bag -- if a natural disaster hit your city and you had to "bug out" for a few days or a few weeks, do you have what you'd need? This article about how to put together your kit is interesting, even if I find it way overblown.

2. Like and dislike stamps -- for those of you who don't get enough of Facebook when you're online.

3. Feynman: Rules of chess (3-minute video) -- physicist Richard Feynman has a lovely analogy about scientific discovery being like discovering the rules of chess.

4. Musical Rube Goldberg (3-minute video) -- yes, it's an ad. But it's brilliant anyway. I want one in my living room, but my living room would probably need to be several hundred meters long.

5. Google Exodus (2-minute video) -- in the same vein as "Social Media Nativity," which I posted around Christmas, this is a cute video about how the Exodus might have played out in the age of social media.

6. How much is a dragon worth? -- how did Forbes come up with their list of the wealthiest fictional characters in the world? Go behind the scenes and see how they calculated the net worth of Smaug from The Hobbit. Fun stuff.

7. A gentlemen's duel (5-minute video) -- have you ever wondered what would happen if Victorians got into a duel over a lady, and decided to fight it out... in Steampunk giant robots? Wonder no more!

1. Hi-Fidelity Star Trek Quartet (3-minute video) -- a barbershop quartet spoofing Star Trek! Too funny! (And if you like this one, check out part 2.)

2. The proliferation of a virtual species (you'll like this alot) -- for those Internet grammar mavens who get frustrated by people spelling "alot" instead of "a lot," this is your site. You'll like it. Alot.

3. Welcome to the Dark Side: British Isle Named Skywatching Paradise -- when I was younger, I used to do amateur astronomy. This article makes me really want my next vacation to be to Sark Island.

4. Norse problem flowchart (picture) -- anyone with even a passing interest in Norse mythology owes it to themselves to take 10 seconds to view this 4-item flowchart. (Warning: may not work for non-Facebook users.)

5. Life-size Settlers board for Burning Man (pictures) -- I'm an avid Settlers player, and when I win my millions and buy a mansion in some tropical paradise, I'm putting this up in the backyard.

6. Tim Minchin - If I didn't have you (4-minute video) -- hilarious and catchy. Be sure to watch until at least 0:50 before making any snap judgments.

7. The Iowa House v Zach Wahls and his moms (3-minute video) -- I don't often delve into US politics, but this one's worth watching. When I have kids, I want them to be this articulate and persuasive regarding their beliefs.

1. How to history (videos) -- for the SCAdians among my friends' list, a collection of videos on how to do historic crafts. Looks nifty, though I haven't explored in-depth yet.

2. Senatory Bernie Sanders speech (13-minute video) -- a really well-presented argument that the big war in the U.S. isn't between the right and left, or the democrats and republicans, but between the rich and the poor. And the rich (the top 1%) are winning. (Text here, for those who prefer to read.)

3. Straight No Chaser: Christmas Can-Can (3-minute video) -- I love Straight No Chaser. So I was thrilled to see another of their Christmas videos. (Obviously recorded quite some time ago, but it's the thought that counts.)

4. How to multiply numbers by doodling (2-minute video) -- for the geeks among us. I'd be interested in learning whether this will work for all numbers, and why, if there are any huge math geeks among my readership.

5. The digital story of the nativity (3-minute video) -- the story of the Annunciation and the Nativity as told through social networking media. It's cute. Not Earth-shattering, but quite cute.

6. Silent monks singing Hallelujah (3-minute video) -- another one for the holidays, this time put together by some clever high school students. How can silent monks sing? Watch and find out!

7. Marching band forms giant football player (1.5-minute video) -- speaking of cleverness, this is also quite clever. I'm hugely impressed by the precision work that must have gone into this.

Merry festival of light! May it be celebrated with light and with lots of greasy food!

Now... where did I put those candles?

"This whole thing reminds me of Jesus' parable of the mustard seed and the prisoner of Azkaban, passed down to us as St. Paul's letter to the editor. In it, Jesus and his apostles Kramer and Newman must collect bottles and drive to Michigan in a mail truck to take advantage of the higher deposit fee. Then Moses raises his hands and separates the plastic from the glass, clearing a path for the Israelites to walk to Applebees and make the desert bloom with onions. Amen." -- Stephen Colbert, Sept. 10, 2010, in response to the abysmal scores on the Pew religion survey.

Those friends of mine who have been reading this LJ for a while know that I used to write a blog called Daily Breadcrumbs, in which I systematically read through the Bible and blogged about my reflections. I got as far as 2 Samuel before giving up the endeavor in late 2008, but in the past few months I've picked it up again. No, there aren't any new blog posts, but I've been reading nonetheless. Late last week, I finally finished the Old Testament (hallelujah!) and started in on the New Testament.

Now, I've read some of the New Testament before. I've read the Gospel of Matthew, a few of the Pauline letters (Romans, at the very least), and Revelation. Earlier this week, I reread Matthew, and read the Gospels of Mark and Luke for the first time. It sometimes felt like playing a broken record (I totally understand those people who say there must have been some "Q source" for some of the shared stories), but they were enjoyable reads. I like the parables, though I don't necessarily agree with them. I can see why Christians find these books so compelling.

Today I'm reading the Gospel of John for the first time. I'm almost done (midway through chapter 19), and... wow, just a bit antisemitic, aren't you, John? Also preachy and convoluted. But particularly antisemitic. I feel icky just reading it.

At least next is Acts, where we get back to the fun supernatural-type stories. And (hopefully) less antisemitism.

May you have an easy fast, and may you be written in the Book of Life.

Rosh Hashana dinners were lovely, as always. I went to my dad's place on Wednesday night (tasty brisket! tasty cakes!), my mom's place last night (tasty rib roast!), and I'm going to Marc's parents' place tonight (tasty cookies!). Oh, and my entire fridge and part of my freezer is full of leftovers, and I expect them to be even more full after dinner tonight.

Today will be taken up by tidying and cleaning. I've let the apartment get into something of a disgusting state over the last few weeks, and I'm hosting games this weekend. So... cleanup time! Woot! Also on the agenda for today: shopping, pick up a package that I apparently missed yesterday (not sure if my buzzer is broken; I'll have to check that), and of course playing more Echo Bazaar. (My nightmares increased too much and I've fallen into A State of Confusion. Oh, no! The lizard will help me track down the manager, I'm sure.)

Job hunting goes... slowly. Well, more like not at all. Though I've been trolling the job boards and letting people know that I'm actively job hunting again, I haven't sent out a single CV. I really should get around to doing that.

Anyway, nothing exciting going on. I just figured that since I haven't updated very much lately, I probably should.

Happy new year to everyone who celebrates it. May you all have a happy, healthy, and sweet year.

(Paraphrased from The Black Swan)

Even if we accept that 99% of modern terrorists are Muslim, that does not mean that 99% of Muslims are terrorists.

Someone please remind the media of this fact.

Thank you,
A Jew who wonders if this whole thing has gotten out of hand

1. Global Rich List -- Enter your income and it'll tell you where you sit compared to the rest of the world. I was extraordinarily surprised that my entry-level income put me in the top 6% of the world's richest. Where do you fall?

2. How to build a pencil crossbow (pictures) -- I can just see the havoc this one's gonna cause. I wonder how many people are gonna bring pencil crossbows to Crown Tournament?

3. The history of the English language -- Very funny, but maybe only for language and history geeks.

4. Old picture generator -- Want your pictures to look like they were taken a hundred years ago? This is your resource! (Click on the "English" button in the top-right corner.)

5. What if Starbucks marketed like a church? (5-minute video) -- Exactly what the title says. Very clever.

6. If children's drawings were real (pictures) -- Artists take kids' drawings and sketches and draw them realistically. Very cool stuff.

7. John Cleese vs. Extremism (2-minute video) -- John Cleese explains the benefits of extremism, in his typically wonderful style.

The good news is that I can go back to my usual breakfast of toast and peanut butter. Yay, end of Passover!

The bad is news it that it's going to rain all week, which means I can't do my usual walk into work. (I refuse to walk in the rain and have my feet be wet all day.) I suppose it's walking through the underground city for me.

According to last week's Montreal Gazette, quinoa is kosher for Passover. (Or, at least, many rabbis consider it so, and that's good enough for me.) So when I was trying to find some sort of a not-rice, not-pasta side for my dinner, I decided to try out quinoa.

I found the recipe on various different sites that all say more-or-less the same thing: cook it like rice. So I dumped 1.5 cups of quinoa into a pot along with 3 cups of water, 1.5 tsp of salt, and set it to boiling. Once it boiled, I turned down the heat, covered it, and let it simmer. When all the water was absorbed, I took it off the heat and let it sit for another three minutes, and then I ate it.

While most sites I saw told me it should take 10-15 minutes for all the water to be absorbed, it took closer to 20-22. I think this is because I used 1.5 cups instead of 1 cup, like most of the recipes I consulted. Another note for next time: skip the salt. The final product is just on the good side of being too salty.

Served it with some cubed, boiled sweet potatoes, and it works surprisingly well together. Quinoa's more expensive than rice, but definitely tasty and a good way to scratch my "I can't have any grains" Passover itch.

Oh, and 1.5 cups of quinoa makes lots of leftovers.

So, because it's Passover, I can't have pita, roti, or tortillas, but between the two seders, I counted at least a dozen cakes and cookies, all technically kosher for Passover. There's something messed up with this holiday. That, or we've got a spirit vs. letter of the law problem going on here.

(Says the girl who tried desperately to find something *not* matzo for breakfast, and failed.)

Today, I was at a screening of Jenin: Massacring Truth, which was hosted by the CIJR. The movie was interesting and thought-provoking (albeit with a clear bias), and afterwards the conversation among the dozen-odd attendees turned to how to show it to a wider audience, particularly a wider Jewish audience. Someone suggested hosting it in a synagogue, another said that it would never happen because Montreal Jews are "passive." The bitterness in his voice was shocking. If only those Montreal Jews would stand up and DO something! If only they'd be more vocal and supportive of Israel!

The statement went unchallenged, as everyone silently nodded their heads. Those passive Montreal Jews...

I was disturbed at this statement, because I don't find Montreal Jewry passive at all. They donate to Israel. Almost all the Jewish households I know either donate to Israeli charities or have a tzedakah box (where you collect spare change and then donate it to Israel when it gets full).

The Montreal Jewish community sends its youth to Israel to experience the country first-hand. They fund the Birthright Israel programs, letting young Jewish adults travel to Israel for free. They support the March of the Living, which I participated in as a high-school student. Montreal routinely sends the most students from a single city in the world! (249 in 2008, according to this source.)

Montreal Jews educate their children in being Jewish. According to this source, there were 7,000 students enrolled in 33 Jewish schools in 2009. (Caveat: I don't know where they get their numbers.) I went to one of those schools, and we definitely learned about the history of Judaism in general, and of Israel in particular.

Yes, granted, Montreal Jews don't go out on protest marches or even pride marches, flags a-waving and voices raised in chant. That might be because the average Montreal Jew is 41 years old. Let's face it: when you're in your late 30s and early 40s, you show your support by donating money, influencing business and politics where you can, and writing letters to the editor. You don't start shouting the street and screening controversial movies in your synagogue.

Is the Montreal Jewish community passive towards Israel? Hardly! Just because they're not setting up tables next to the Palestinians on campus doesn't mean they're not doing their part. Or at least, that's the way I see it. Anyone else have any thoughts?

I'm in awe of Albom's writing style. He uses simple, easy-to-read words, and manages to convey the nuances of everything from mourning to elation. While I was reading Have a Little Faith, I found myself both emotional and pensive, pondering over the questions that Albom himself struggled with: Why do good things happen to bad people? Is there really a God? Why do people choose to go into the ministry? Can people really, fundamentally change? Heavy stuff, but it doesn't really feel that way as you're reading it. It just feels like an excellent, thought-provoking story.

The plot revolves around two men, a suburban Jewish rabbi in New Jersey, and an inner-city priest in Detroit. The two men couldn't be more dissimilar. "The Reb" came from a family of rabbis and wanted to be a history teacher. The priest grew up as a drug dealer and did a 7-year jail sentence for a crime he didn't commit. But both of them embody their faith and inspire the people around them, both in their congregation and beyond it.

Every year, I'll read dozens of books from the library and happily return them when I'm done. I'll want to own only a handful. Have a Little Faith is one of those books I want sitting on my shelf, so that I can reread it. You should read it to. And then we should get together with some hot beverages and talk about it.

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March 2018

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Random Ramblings

A journal dedicated to nothing and everything

Entries tagged with religion

Seven things from my life

Seven things from my life

How I spent my Christmas "vacation"

Pie, pie, pie! (Or, reflections on Passover)

Grab bag of links

Grab bag of links

Grab bag of links

Happy Channukah!

Too funy!

Wow...

For those who are observing...

A general update

Shana tovah!

A logical fallacy

Grab bag of links

Good news / bad news

Adventures in cooking: Quinoa and sweet potato

Lemme get this straight...

Are Montreal Jews passive?

Books of 2010: 14. Have a Little Faith, by Mitch Albom

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March 2018

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