Conclave re-cap

My mom and I drove up in her car, because she doesn't go on the bus and I don't like to. We arrived at least half an hour before any of the buses, because even though we left at almost-one and hit a bunch of really irritating traffic, we know all the short cuts (our record drive is about two hours).

Arrived at about 3:40, and I ecstatically jumped out of the car, grabbed a bag, and headed in towards Manor House. With Manor House came...Elana! Elana's a very good friend and sometimes Teva (nature program) director. Hugs all around, and then the much-missed smell of Manor House, which I certainly hope is not lost with all of this planned renovation.

I ran around a bit in an empty Manor House (unheard of!). I kept expecting to run into a whole cadre of Machon (CITs) sitting in the Great Room (which we called the Living Room this weekend), but of course I didn't, which was very sad.

When the first buses arrived, I jubilantly volunteered to be the one to lead the eight and ninth graders up to bunks eight, nine, and ten, where they were staying. It was cold. Very, very cold. And I did it at least four times, because I'm a dork and a loser. But a loser who loves Eisner!

Bunk eight, where the boys were staying, was very difficult. I kept looking at the wall, expecting to see a massively huge Israeli flag and a creepy stalker, but thankfully it has been several months since he returned to Israel, and with luck will not return.

Weekend, as a whole, was very very enjoyable after this point.

Sarah and her brother were on kitchen staff for the weekend, and it was fun to hang out with her a bit.

Saw this very cool documentary called Mechina: a preparation, and I shall be joining the facebook group for it as soon as I get home. The film was about six kids around our age getting ready for the army in Israel, and it really brought the human side of Israel to a lot of the kids in Hebrew school.

We (meaning just the seniors) led Havdallah (the Saturday night service that separates Shabbat from the rest of the week). My reading, which was supposed to be about how great Hebrew High is and how much it has affected us, basically consisted of: "I have this song stuck in my head, and because I am uber-Jew it is in Hebrew. The first line is 'Ani v'atah n'shaneh et ha'olam', which means 'You and I will change the world'. What we do here does that. We also have fun." Good times.

After that, we participated in and then led a program (when I say we I mean the eleventh and twelfth graders). The first was a heated debate, and I'll go into it another time. Suffice it to say that one particular senior is kind of a bitch and I really don't like her in any context, as she radiates an aura of hatred wherever she goes and whatever she says. The second was about development of hope and Israeli music. Don't ask, I don't know. We played HaTikva ('The Hope'; Israel's national anthem), then a song by Rick Recht called 'The Hope' (Video here, and tell me if you can figure out the venue without looking), followed by Tikva by Subliminal and the Shadow, an Israeli rap duet. Good videos, I'd recommend the songs.

And I never thought I'd miss Louie, but our song leader was awful. He was conservative, so we didn't know any of the same melodies, and he didn't precisely make an effort to sing things our way, even the songs we all knew.

While in the Beit Am (theater-type building), I found a Grease playbill from this summer. 'Twas hilarious.

Another discovery: In the library, in one of the locked cases, is a binder that looked very familiar, and, peering closer, I discovered that it is, indeed, a Machon binder; it's Robbie's, in fact. I couldn't get the case opened, though, so I couldn't look closer.

I've got lots of pictures, but those will have to come later, as I don't have a connecting cable for my camera on me at the moment. Speaking of, my mom and I went up to Lookout Point.

Oh, and Danny was there at the end of the weekend, which was nice.

And now I've written more than I have for any other post to date, so I'll stop.

Slow

I'm apparently slowing down my posting (which Jordan will probably be grateful for). And it's going to get even slower over the weekend, as I'll be at EISNER CAMP for a Hebrew school retreat. No internet access. So if I don't get back to anyone right away, that's why.

Peace!

Cheating

Last week, I spent the entirety of a badminton game in gym class arguing about cheating. My doubles partner and I are both reasonably intellegent people, if I do say so myself, and our opponents were, shall we say, not. They were attempting to convince us that we were really mean because we wouldn't give them answers on tests. The girl we were facing kept on tossing around the phrase "share the wealth!"

What?

Roleplay

I miss roleplaying. I miss having time for it, and I definitely miss Corruption. That, I think, was the worst casualty of the original Unbinded dying. Of course Corruption was already pretty much comatose by the time Ogu shut down the forums. But still. I've got the file on my (broken) computer, so if I recover the files I'll have it. Hopefully Ogu still has the Unbinded files and can send them to me again.

Another new EverQuestII expansion comes out today, and I'm still not back on the servers. I sort of want to re-up my account, but I don't have the time, the money, or the working computer to run it properly. Well, I have the money, but I owe my mom too much, and I need to save for a computer. So it's a bit circular.

I miss the guild, and I definitely miss roleplaying. I'm going to fall even further behind, since they're bumping the level cap up to 80 with this expansion, and I'm still at 50-something, maybe even just 50. I've got the cash to buy proper armor and weapons, which will be nice, considering the fact that I just moved up a tier and most of my stuff is quite a bit behind.

My mount makes me want to shoot myself some times, though, since it's only a 10% run speed, and as a human paladin I'm not all that quick to begin with. All of my groupmates always have much faster mounts and other speed increases. I'm onto my carpet quest, though, and Muqali's home so he'll probably help me out, since he's really nice. I need to be powerleveled, really, but I'd settle for being dragged through the carpet quest.

Back to roleplay. I'm trying to get into Laik's new roleplay on the new Unbinded, Staring at the Sun, but I'm confused. And I'd be happy to get into Frecyo's Shattered Sea thing, but that's even more confusing.

And on top of all that, I've still got work to do.

Dammit.

Rabbits

Fluffy, adorable animals, right? Everybody loves them, and only a few people love them for their nutritional assets.

But oh my god, those that do eat them: Gross. Really, really gross. And mean. Really, really mean.

We were just watching Michael Moore's first documentary, Roger and Me, in economics, and there's this woman in it who sells rabbits for food and pets to try to make ends meet. And you know me, I'm all for people having enough money to feed their families, but I shudder at bashing a bunny's head in, tying it to a tree, and skinning it, all in front of a camera. Way to make me nauseated.