lethargic_man

From time to time, LiveJournal kept changing things which either narked me, or narked other people on my friends' list. Each time it pushed me a little further towards moving my blog from LiveJournal to Dreamwidth (where I am

lethargic_man).

This time I've finally done it. All new content will be posted on Dreamwidth only. The question is, do I:

Keep comments enabled on LiveJournal, which would mean I'd have two separate sets of comments, and would have to keep reimporting comments onto Dreamwidth to keep them synced?
Or: tell people to post on Dreamwidth using their LiveJournal accounts via OpenID

And:

Do I even keep my LiveJournal account content, where people will find it on Google and, if I disable comments, won't know, for old entries, why they can't comment, or:
Nuke the lot and keep my LJ account just for commenting on other people's blogs?

Of course, in order to answer this, I need feedback from my users: If I disabled comments, would you comment on my Dreamwidth posts using the link below, and if I nuked my LJ blog, would you read my blog on DW instead?

(I'm asking this as open questions rather than an LJ poll so people who don't have LJ accounts can answer too.)

Crossposts: http://lethargic-man.livejournal.com/364627.html

( Kidushin 43a talks about agency: If you hire someone to do something for you, and that something is in contravention of a commandment, who is liable for it: the person who commissioned them, or the person that carries it out? )

Wassailing normally involves, so we were told, going around orchards and blessing the trees that they might bear fruit; it's like a cross between carolling and Tu Bishvat (which is indeed at this time of year).

For our urban wassail, organised, or at any rate, promoted, by Moishe House, we wassailed local shop owners, our route punctuated by spoken word artistes, and finished off at a couple of apple trees planted by Transition Willesden a few years ago.

No points for pointing out I fluffed the lyrics slightly whilst trying to balance looking at the lyric sheet with keeping the camera pointing ahead...

When I was growing up in the seventies and eighties, we didn't have liquid soap. I don't know whether this was because it was less available or popular then, or just reflective of my mother's preference, but I was raised with an association that soap formed solid bars.

Nowadays I go to other people's houses and I see an assortment of bottles of glistening ooze, and need to carefully check the labels before using any to make sure I'm applying something capable of lysing bacteria to my hand, and not just moisturiser. And to make things worse, liquid soap bottles are never labelled "soap"; they've always got a convoluted and indirect description instead. "Handwash" is about the simplest they ever get. What's wrong with just "soap"?

Not only that, but liquid soap is inherently delivered in an environmentally unfriendly manner: whilst soap bars are packaged in waxed paper wrappers, or at worst a thin plastic film, liquid soap requires a thick plastic bottle. All being well, the bottle can be recycled, but wouldn't it be better not to require packaging made from fossil fuels in the first place?

Bah; liquid soap? I wash my hands of it!

( Read more )

The last few times LiveJournal have changed things, I've been giving serious consideration to moving to DreamWidth; and this time I might actually do it (particularly as my yearly paid time at LiveJournal is coming up for renewal soon).

However, a quick goosey-goosey at DreamWidth shows that a free account on DW provides most of the functionality of a paid account on LiveJournal; and DW charge almost twice the amount for a paid account that LiveJournal do. Whilst I'd be willing to pay to help DW succeed, I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay twice the price for the benefit of (a) being able to have as many icons on DW as on LJ (though this would be a necessity to import my blog from LJ without losing all of the iconage), and (b) being able to post polls. There's other functionality available for paid accounts, but nothing which I would gain any advantage from, in terms of what I use my blog for.

Can any of the DWers amongst you give me better reasons to part with my cash and get a paid account at DW?

Spotted the hidden message in yesterday's XKCD?

(Hidden message pointed out by

v827; emergence from next to blackness animated by myself.)

( In rabbinic texts there are least six words for gender: male, female, _tumtum_, androgynous, _servis_, _aylani_. So the idea that gender isn't just a binary dichotomy isn't a new idea; and there is some foundation for thinking of it in the talmudic mindset, though the genders there do not map well onto the words we have for non-standard genders today. )

I saw a fox on my way home today, in broad daylight (well, three minutes before sunset at any rate). It was strutting along a central London street, cool as a cucumber, and exchanged a civil glance with me as I cycled past. I've seen lots of foxes at night, and one once at dusk in Edinburgh, but this is the first time I've ever seen one in enough daylight to admire the colour of its pelt.

( It's all gone rather quiet on the comments front; nobody commented at all on the Samaritan text I put effort into assembling for last time. Am I blogging this for my own benefit only? This time: If golden haemorrhoids don't get your attention, what will? )

( If Abram was the first monotheist, how did Melchiṣedeq get to be not only a recogniser, but a priest of G-d Most High!? He's not a son of Aaron [which is the definition of 'priest' in Judaism]! And Abram recognised him as such! This is a big problem, because then someone could step forward and say 'I am a descendent of Melchiṣedeq; let me be High Priest!' )

( Read more... )

( Let's see if you or your browser can read the Samaritan alphabet! )

Is there anyone reading this who has (or has a granny who has) a really old TV, such that when you switch it off, the picture collapses down through wibbly-wobbly horizontal lines into a white dot, which if you look at it for long enough may split into separate red, green and blue dots as it fades away?

I'm feeling nostalgic for seeing that, and can't find any videos of it online...

( Read more... )

Going into my cupboard for mint tea just now, and discovering I was out of it, I saw I had some dried mint leaves for use in cooking, and thought maybe I could use that instead.

If I didn't know the difference between peppermint and spearmint before, I do now. Boy was that weird. :o)

Happy ~~mint tea drinking~~ new year, to one and all.

There's an old man in the Newcastle Jewish community with a big white beard; I've heard more than one person compare him to Santa Claus.

I've just received an email informing me of his passing, and all I can think is: Of all the times of the year for Santa Claus to die...

( Read more... )

Planets observed that have (half-) survived being inside a red giant. How cool is that?

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

FAO of everyone who reads my blog

Notes from Limmud 2011: Can you hire a hitman? Talmud with the back-story left in

Willesden Green urban Wassail 2012

Liquid soap?

A question for the DreamWidth users amongst you

Importing to DreamWidth

anti-SOPA XKCD secret message

Notes from Limmud 2011: Created Beings of our own: Gender Diversity in Jewish Texts

Fox

Antiquities of the Jews, fit the sixth

Notes from Limmud 2011: Melchizedek as a Prototype for Ancient Jews and Christians

Notes from Limmud 2011: Is That בְּרָכָה Really Necessary? Uses and Abuses of the Divine Name

Antiquities of the Jews, fit the fifth

White dot

Notes from Limmud 2011: The Death of the Gods at the Birth of Monotheism

Notes from Limmud 2011: To Wear Is Human, To Live Divine: Cross Dressing and Drag in Jewish Texts

Mint tea

Geoffrey Rossman OBM

Antiquities of the Jews, fit the fourth

Cool science

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January 2012

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