short takes

[cellio]

I'm losing my quasi-cantorial job, except in emergencies or perhaps the dead of winter. They went and actually hired a cantor. Disppointing, but I certainly don't begrudge them a professional. Still, I'm going to really miss that. At least it's coming at a time when I have increased opportunities to chant Torah at my own congregation; that's something I've been wanting to do, and gets me into more of a leadership role there.

I first got this from chaiya: go to Google, type in the query "weapons of mass destruction", and hit "I feel lucky". Don't be too quick to dismiss the results; actually read some. :-)

Interesting article on group dynamics by Clay Shirky (link from ralphmelton).

Update: Man fakes own death to get off Harvard's mailing list, courtesy of browngirl.

Last night Dani and I attmpted to see A Mighty Wind, but we were done in by an out-of-date theatre listing on the web. Pity. Looks like it's gone now, so we'll have to wait for the DVD release. But at least we had a nice dinner with lefkowitzga and tangerinpenguin first. We came home and watched the last episode of West Wing available on DVD; now we wait (supposedly not too long) for the next batch.

Tuesday night's D&D game was much fun. I've been updating the game journal some lately, though it doesn't yet reflect Tuesday's session.

I've been getting spam lately from what purports to be a couple watchdogs of the state government, but are actually just partisan publishers in disguise. I seem to be getting spam from both the Dems and the Republicans. If my cease-and-desist requests aren't honored soon, I think I'll report 'em both to the state spam tracker. Serves 'em right if I do.

I forget who it was on my friends list who recommended preachermanfeed a month or two ago, but thank you. I probably never would have poked my head in at "Real Live Preacher" otherwise, and he writes interestingly and articulately. He writes about his religion with no apologies and no pulled punches but in a way that does not alienate or demean those who do not share his beliefs. That's hard to do, and he's doing it well.

Comments

[goljerp]

I'm losing my quasi-cantorial job, except in emergencies or perhaps the dead of winter. They went and actually hired a cantor.

This is a compliment: you showed them how good services were with a cantor!

Also, you can still go there on days when your home services are unappealing (although it sounds like there are steps being made in that direction even without your throwing your weight around on the religion comittee...)

[cellio]

This is a compliment: you showed them how good services were with a cantor!

:-) They've had a cantor in the past, but not in the last couple years. I don't know how long they'd been doing the rotating-laypeople thing before they asked me to join the pool.

Also, you can still go there on days when your home services are unappealing

Often, yes (though as you say, that's getting better). The main problem with Tree of Life is actually timing; once a month they have the Friday service at 8:15, and the rest of the time it's at 5:45. Their new cantor is doing all 8:15 services. In the middle of winter 5:45 is fine, but at times of year when Shabbat doesn't start until 5:45 or later, that would be a challenge. I'd have to leave work even earlier than normal in order to get dinner going, get changed, and walk over to the synagogue (15-20 minutes) in time for the service. My employer is pretty understanding about Fridays, so I'm not going to abuse it by leaving earlier than necessary just to be able to go to a different synagogue.

Mostly, when I don't want to go to my own synagogue, I go to a different Conservative shul a block away that has services at 8:00.

I wish more congregations followed the sun on service times, but oh well.

(In case you're wondering, the earliest Shabbat of the year here is approximately 4:35. So for a few weeks a 5:45 service is just peachy. :-) )

[goljerp]

I wish more congregations followed the sun on service times, but oh well.

Yeah. I guess that shuls that don't figure that they're more welcoming to newcomers if the time is consistant. My shul recently switched to 6:30 services in the summer, and 5:30 in the winter. It's a bit better, but there are still people who show up an hour early (or late), and when Shabbat starts at 8:06, I sometimes feel like I need that extra hour and a half.

One thing that I used to do when I lived 1.25 miles from shul (and had a car) was to drive to services before shabbat started, and then leave the car until Saturday night or Sunday. This only worked for me when services were a lot before Shabbat started...