camera

I am new to the ways of USB devices, though I still think it's a documentation failure.

It turns out that when installing the driver, the camera has to be connected and turned on. Never mind that the driver is on a CD and -- in one go-round -- I explicitly navigated to the correct file on that CD. If the camera isn't there, Windows apparently just blows you off and lies about installing the driver.

So I can now download pictures (yay!). It appears that I'm not very good at taking pictures of myself, though, so updated userpics will, for the most part, have to wait a bit. (Arm's length is too close for the flash. Tomorrow perhaps I'll figure out how to use the timer, or go outside if it's sunny.)

(no subject)

It looks like the consensus in the Torah-study group is to go on to Leviticus. Good. We're also going to try to focus more on some of the standard commentaries, to the point where the rabbi would like volunteers who will, e.g., take the relevant Rashi home, absorb it, and present it, as opposed to more on-the-fly stuff. Sounds cool. I'd be happy to help with that. :-)

We have one person in the group who is always looking for "how this is relevant today", and who just doesn't seem to get into the historical aspects at all, let alone the theology and philosophy and stuff. He'll probably be disappointed by our decision (he wasn't there this week, though he was last week), but he'll just have to cope.

Last night we had a congregational dinner after an earlier-than-usual service. It was nice to be able to share Shabbat dinner with like-minded people, and sing songs, and actually bentch in a group, and so on. (Bentching is saying the grace after meals -- after, because the Torah says "when you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall thank the Lord...".)