4 Tishrei/ 22 September 2009
Sep. 22nd, 2009 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyThis morning I had to deal with fun little details. First my computer started making this noise in the left speaker. It was mild before but this morning it was really loud. It is probably the fan not working properly since the noise is intermittent. Since my laptop is only six month old, it is still under warranty, so I wasn’t worried too much. And I will get a personalized home visit to replace the fan thing within a week. But reaching the company was a circle of bureaucratic hell. I started with the website and tried to fill in the repair form and it wouldn’t recognize the model number. I clicked on “Contact Us” next and under “repair” section they sent me back straight to repair form that wouldn’t work. Finally I called the number I found, where automatic voice suggested I look at the website for any questions or problems. I held on and after a short time was actually connected to a human being who found my records easily, noted my problem and set up the home visit. It was actually too easy. I’m not breathing a sigh of relief yet until they actually show up and fix it.
After that fun morning activity I had to fix another problem. I picked up my paycheck yesterday and it is a good thing I bothered to go and get it now. I looked at what they paid me and the number seemed a little low. This was the first paycheck, so I didn’t know for sure how much I was supposed to get. I had a strong suspicion that they were only paying me for one class instead of two so I called department’s paycheck person today. Turns out I was right. Good thing I don’t need the money right away. They fixed it, of course, but it just reinforces that I need to double check everything myself.
I started on the Hebrew lessons today. I worked on chapter one which is a review of first half of the alphabet and three vowels. It was the first time I wrote out the letters and I used that iTunes class as a guide. It just reinforces the alphabet and reading since I still have to get used to it. I like when they give English words written in Hebrew letters so at least I would know if I’m pronouncing it right. They don’t always do that, but that is most effective.
The ocean today in the evening has this golden glow close to sunset. It didn’t last long but it was very pretty.
Read more “World War Z” today, mostly about government’s ineffectual handling of any disaster and the panic people are thrown in. This book feels very realistic since people act like people would with both ugly and generous behavior. The only thing that bugs me is the stories from women’s perspectives. There are not a lot of them proportionally which in a way makes sense because governments and soldiers and intelligent communities are not known to be very representative. But we read a story of an architect who in her story is pretty much a mother saving her children, a story of a little girl and a story of a Russian female soldier and it seems underbalanced in the role women play. I’m probably just over thinking this and should just enjoy the book. The book does make me think of what I would do in the situation. Probably get a shotgun, not that I ever held a gun in my life, and get out of the cities. Head north or something.
Genesis WTF moment of the day: Last night’s passages – Genesis 21-25 - where pretty straight forward, some even a bit romantic. The care Abraham took to bury Sarah properly and Isaac seeing Rebecca for the first time after Abraham’s servant fetches her from Abraham’s homeland were both moving moments. And Rebecca’s relatives even sort of asked her opinion about traveling so far from her home to marry Isaac. So the WTF moment has to go to Abraham getting ready to sacrifice Isaac when the latter was young. A familiar story was just weird in little details. We are not really privy to too much of what Isaac was thinking at the time, just him wondering why they were not taking up a lamb up with them along with all the wood. It was Abraham’s nonchalant attitude to God’s request that earned the WTF status. When Sara kicked Abraham’s son Ishmael and his servant mom out of the house, Abraham was a bit upset and uncomfortable with that. Yet God tells him to sacrifice Isaac and he doesn’t even blink. He just takes up the wood for the altar for burning, ties Isaac up on it and is ready with a knife to stab him before God finally stops it. Last night, when Bear and I were talking about this, he just came up with one hilarious script for what God might have said once he stopped Abraham. I can’t reproduce it here, I won’t do it justice, but it was hysterical (God: Dude, I was kidding, Jeez).
After that fun morning activity I had to fix another problem. I picked up my paycheck yesterday and it is a good thing I bothered to go and get it now. I looked at what they paid me and the number seemed a little low. This was the first paycheck, so I didn’t know for sure how much I was supposed to get. I had a strong suspicion that they were only paying me for one class instead of two so I called department’s paycheck person today. Turns out I was right. Good thing I don’t need the money right away. They fixed it, of course, but it just reinforces that I need to double check everything myself.
I started on the Hebrew lessons today. I worked on chapter one which is a review of first half of the alphabet and three vowels. It was the first time I wrote out the letters and I used that iTunes class as a guide. It just reinforces the alphabet and reading since I still have to get used to it. I like when they give English words written in Hebrew letters so at least I would know if I’m pronouncing it right. They don’t always do that, but that is most effective.
The ocean today in the evening has this golden glow close to sunset. It didn’t last long but it was very pretty.
Read more “World War Z” today, mostly about government’s ineffectual handling of any disaster and the panic people are thrown in. This book feels very realistic since people act like people would with both ugly and generous behavior. The only thing that bugs me is the stories from women’s perspectives. There are not a lot of them proportionally which in a way makes sense because governments and soldiers and intelligent communities are not known to be very representative. But we read a story of an architect who in her story is pretty much a mother saving her children, a story of a little girl and a story of a Russian female soldier and it seems underbalanced in the role women play. I’m probably just over thinking this and should just enjoy the book. The book does make me think of what I would do in the situation. Probably get a shotgun, not that I ever held a gun in my life, and get out of the cities. Head north or something.
Genesis WTF moment of the day: Last night’s passages – Genesis 21-25 - where pretty straight forward, some even a bit romantic. The care Abraham took to bury Sarah properly and Isaac seeing Rebecca for the first time after Abraham’s servant fetches her from Abraham’s homeland were both moving moments. And Rebecca’s relatives even sort of asked her opinion about traveling so far from her home to marry Isaac. So the WTF moment has to go to Abraham getting ready to sacrifice Isaac when the latter was young. A familiar story was just weird in little details. We are not really privy to too much of what Isaac was thinking at the time, just him wondering why they were not taking up a lamb up with them along with all the wood. It was Abraham’s nonchalant attitude to God’s request that earned the WTF status. When Sara kicked Abraham’s son Ishmael and his servant mom out of the house, Abraham was a bit upset and uncomfortable with that. Yet God tells him to sacrifice Isaac and he doesn’t even blink. He just takes up the wood for the altar for burning, ties Isaac up on it and is ready with a knife to stab him before God finally stops it. Last night, when Bear and I were talking about this, he just came up with one hilarious script for what God might have said once he stopped Abraham. I can’t reproduce it here, I won’t do it justice, but it was hysterical (God: Dude, I was kidding, Jeez).
