short takes

We had a clear sky for last night's eclipse, though things were darker than I expected. Yeah, duh, "dark" is part of the definition -- I mean that I was somehow expecting the moon to be closer to red than it was.

There are only two classes at the upcoming Academy (SCA event) that specifically interest me. (Thanks, dagonell, for the list.) Naturally, they are scheduled against each other. Sigh. (They weren't on the previous draft.) There are some classes that I wouldn't mind taking so it's probably worth going, mind; I'm just a little frustrated. (The advance information doesn't include names of teachers [update: just added, yay], which could make a difference for classes I wouldn't attend just based on title. A good teacher can make all the difference, and we have some of those in this kingdom.) Still, it looks like a weaker slate than I'm used to.

A news story reported that someone was convicted of "attempted first-degree intentional homicide". I thought the difference between homicide and manslaughter was intent, meaning there's no such thing as unintentional homicide. So I'm assuming sloppy writing here, though I'll admit to being a little confused at times about the degree thing, which might be relevant. My impression is that "first degree homicide" means "I specifically meant to kill you, in cold blood if necessary, you scum", that "third degree manslaughter" means "I was doing something I should have known could kill someone, but I sure didn't mean to kill or hurt anyone, let alone you specifically", and that everything else falls in between.

To the writers on West Wing: we want our characters back; could you repeat the ransom demand?

The relevant network [1] moved Jack and Bobby into the same time slot as West Wing. That's a smart move, as the show seems to be aimed at the same viewers (though the shows are very different) and WW is floundering. But I also wonder how much scheduling actually matters these days; doesn't just about every TV-viewing household have at least one recording device? Competing shows aren't the problem they once were.

[1] Yeah, branding is real effective on me... I notice the intrusive logo on the screen but just don't retain the data, and the VCR takes care of remembering what channel it's on.

another attack on a citizen

Big brother is watching (and more). The article quoted here gives no indication that the feds would have had a reason to be watching this person (a novelist doing research) from the outset, so the information that led to the raid came from non-specific snooping. Thanks to mamadeb for forwarding the link.

leading services

I've been leading part of the service at the weekday morning minyan (on Thursdays), and a couple of the folks there have been really encouraging me. I know, though, that I'm not as good as the person who would otherwise be doing this, so I took him aside to make sure it's ok. I figure that if people are going to complain (or just grouse) they'll do it in his direction. He said he's heard no complaints and I should just keep working on it. There is one page of dense Hebrew that's blocking me now; if I can get past that, I should be able to do most of the service. (That is, I can do most of what follows it, but I don't want us to be bouncing back and forth between two leaders. So I start and when we get to that point the regular guy takes over.) I'll get it in time. I wish I could read more smoothly.

Tonight my rabbi had to teach so he asked me to lead the evening service. For a while there were just two of us (sigh) and the other person is fluent, so I invited him to lead. He's very good with Hebrew but hasn't been around long enough to pick up some of the nuances of leading, which I didn't really think about (so not his fault). So when five more people (one family, in mourning) showed up partway through the Amidah, I found myself wishing for telepathic powers so I could tell him to drop some English in for them. (I could tell that some members of the family were struggling with the Hebrew.) But he didn't notice, so that didn't happen. I hope we didn't alienate them. There's a natural break point between the end of the Amidah and the next part (Aleinu), where the rabbi often puts a two-minute talk, so I stepped in at that point and improvised a bit.

After the service one of the members of that family took me aside. He had this book of Tehillim (Psalms) that he had been given in 1936, and he didn't need it any more and wanted to donate it to a synagogue. I tried to very gently push back on that "don't need" part, but he was firm. So I accepted the donation and told him we would add it to our library. If he changes his mind in the future, I assume we would be happy to return it to him. There's got to be a story there and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious, but he didn't offer and I wasn't going to pry. I hope I did the right thing.