(no subject)

Last year, when I went to give a talk to my old school about the job I do, I asked my work for some business cards. I expected to need under fifty; they gave me several hundred. It would appear when I left the Beeb, I left a box on my desk, because I got an email today from one of my colleagues saying:

FYI your old business cards make excellent task cards for the whiteboard. So much so we’re calling them “Michaels”. This sprint is 24 points and 17 Michaels.

:o)

Limmud Fest

I'm back from Limmud Fest, and, to be honest, can't now understand why I hummed and ha'd so long before deciding to go. In a few ways it was the worst organised Limmud event I've been to, but only a few; it generally worked well.

One example of the poor organisation was their asking me at one week's notice to organise the Masorti services. And it was, of course, impossible to find people willing to learn large chunks of leyning in that length of time. But I managed, by a bit of arm twisting, to get six (though failed to double check everyone was learning what I thought they were, which meant two people thinking they were doing sheni and no one having learned shishi, and kol hakavod to Rabbi Jeremy Gordon) for stepping in to sight-read the longest aliyah. For the seventh, I took a leaf from Rabbi Chaim Weiner's book, and coloured in key notes in my tikkun; that way, if the sgan was following with their finger, I only needed the briefest of glances away from the sefer Torah to tell me what I should be singing. And it worked quite well (though I was obviously more error-prone than if I'd learned it properly).

The funny thing was, I got people complimenting me on the service after Friday night, and all I'd done then was ask for volunteers to take the two halves of the service, and given page numbers! I felt better when people were complimenting me after the Shabbos morning service.

One last thing about the services: For the last several years, at Limmud Conference and Fest, they give out on Friday night lollipops with someone's name on; the idea is that you track down the person with that name and give them the lollipop, as a way of meeting people.

I got Jane Cohen. After having failed to find her by the start of leyning on Shabbos morning,^* I announced (with my gabbai hat on), "If Jane Cohen is here, please make yourself known to me and I shall give you an aliyah and a lollipop." That got me a laugh. And though she wasn't present in the service, I got lots of people pointing her out afterwards. (One person said that was cheating.)

* One sarcastic twelve-year-old to me: "Oh, I know that name—Cohen." <rolls eyes>

Dating

[Poll #1451901](FWIW, this poll is not to solicit advice, but to see how people in general answer, after having recently been on the asker side of this.)

Please comment further below if your views can't be reduced to the level of ticking boxes...

Dating (2)

[Poll #1451905]<wry grimace> I'm not sure how worth it is posting this; I'm going to get a skewed response, if any. I wish LiveJournal let you reply to polls anonymously...