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29 Tishrei/17 October, 2009
Oct. 17th, 2009 10:48 pm( Battlestar Galactica )
I finally looked up the lyrics to “All Along the Watchtower” since it will play such a large role in “Battlestar Galactica” from the end of Season three. It is a damn hard poem to understand. Wikipedia gave a link to a useful website that breaks it down. The explanation actually helped me to see how perfect the song was for the themes of the show: the question of worthiness of human life, the repetition of history and patterns, opposing forces of establishment and change and other themes.
Grading today; I have folder review on Monday. I’m spending too much time on each paper; I need to be more efficient and not spend more than half an hour on each paper. I think tomorrow I will just need to stick to a schedule and grade lots and lots with little breaks.
I did start Chapter 5 of the Hebrew: Feminine Nouns and Verbs. Also learning “from” and “and.” I read much faster now and some basic sentences are fun. For example: ‘David listened to a girl from Egypt’. There is a lot of nuance, I just have to not let it overwhelm me and just take one chapter at a time. Guttural letters just cause so many exceptions. Still I can read most prayers easily now. I do need to learn more words to understand them. I did half the exercises for the chapter today, I’ll finish the rest tomorrow if I get the time with all the grading. I do like that in Hebrew letters serve as numbers: first letter of the alphabet is 1, second letter is 2, etc.
Numbers WTF moment of the day: chapters 6 to 10 are about making a special vow of separation, offerings at the tabernacle dedication, setting up the lamps and again emphasizing the special nature of Levites, celebrating Passover and then, finally, leaving Sinai Desert. Much feels like repetition again. The action was described previously and now people are doing it. In the modern storytelling it would just be redundant. Each tribe is also giving identical offerings yet the Bible has to list each, one after another twelve times. And then a summary of all the offerings. I realize this used to be important but it is really boring to read and even write about. At least I learned that everyone can celebrate Passover even those ceremonially unclean from touching a dead body or traveling. And aliens who want to celebrate Passover have to follow the same regulations. This is pretty much how every Passover Seder I’ve ever hosted or participated in went (the aliens part not touching the dead body part, unless dead chicken counts). Sometimes I had more Catholics/atheists at my Seder than actual Jews. I also learned from these chapters that to make a special vow one can’t have anything made from grapes, let his or her hair grow out, can’t go near a dead body even those of family, and in the end have to shave the head completely. It is also kind of fun that the Israelites are pretty much following a cloud around and letting it dictate when they move on.
I finally looked up the lyrics to “All Along the Watchtower” since it will play such a large role in “Battlestar Galactica” from the end of Season three. It is a damn hard poem to understand. Wikipedia gave a link to a useful website that breaks it down. The explanation actually helped me to see how perfect the song was for the themes of the show: the question of worthiness of human life, the repetition of history and patterns, opposing forces of establishment and change and other themes.
Grading today; I have folder review on Monday. I’m spending too much time on each paper; I need to be more efficient and not spend more than half an hour on each paper. I think tomorrow I will just need to stick to a schedule and grade lots and lots with little breaks.
I did start Chapter 5 of the Hebrew: Feminine Nouns and Verbs. Also learning “from” and “and.” I read much faster now and some basic sentences are fun. For example: ‘David listened to a girl from Egypt’. There is a lot of nuance, I just have to not let it overwhelm me and just take one chapter at a time. Guttural letters just cause so many exceptions. Still I can read most prayers easily now. I do need to learn more words to understand them. I did half the exercises for the chapter today, I’ll finish the rest tomorrow if I get the time with all the grading. I do like that in Hebrew letters serve as numbers: first letter of the alphabet is 1, second letter is 2, etc.
Numbers WTF moment of the day: chapters 6 to 10 are about making a special vow of separation, offerings at the tabernacle dedication, setting up the lamps and again emphasizing the special nature of Levites, celebrating Passover and then, finally, leaving Sinai Desert. Much feels like repetition again. The action was described previously and now people are doing it. In the modern storytelling it would just be redundant. Each tribe is also giving identical offerings yet the Bible has to list each, one after another twelve times. And then a summary of all the offerings. I realize this used to be important but it is really boring to read and even write about. At least I learned that everyone can celebrate Passover even those ceremonially unclean from touching a dead body or traveling. And aliens who want to celebrate Passover have to follow the same regulations. This is pretty much how every Passover Seder I’ve ever hosted or participated in went (the aliens part not touching the dead body part, unless dead chicken counts). Sometimes I had more Catholics/atheists at my Seder than actual Jews. I also learned from these chapters that to make a special vow one can’t have anything made from grapes, let his or her hair grow out, can’t go near a dead body even those of family, and in the end have to shave the head completely. It is also kind of fun that the Israelites are pretty much following a cloud around and letting it dictate when they move on.
