Watching Crash Course

That's what I'm doing. I don't really watch the biology ones as much but I do watch world history (because, you know, world history is the single thing that American education up to grade seven or so does not really teach - yeah, I know about the Native Americans and I've learned the American Revolution about three times, don't wonder why I'm not that interested in class).

This week's video was about the French Revolution. I learned all about it in Israel. It was cool.

Then, a picture of Marie Antoinette came up and the little "did you know" thing said "The cake was a lie."

Me: The cake was a lie?
Me: ...
Me: THE CAKE IS A LIE!
Me: LET THEM EAT CAKE!
Me: OH MY FREAKING GOD I GET IT!

And then it was chair happy dance time.

(If you get only half the things I'm saying in this blog post, go see the awesome that are John and Hank Green on Vlogbrothers and Crash Course. Join the Nerdfighters! We are made of awesome!)

(Marie Antoinette never exactly said "Let them eat cake" so the cake WAS a lie.)

(Also, excuse me for being vaguely disconnected with some aspects of popular culture.)

(And excuse the excessive parentheses.)

(I read once in Writer's Digest that you should not use parentheses. At all.)

(I don't really care.)

Beit Midrash

Okay, I went to this thing.

It's called Beit Midrash, which anyone who read the title would probably have guessed.

Now, a Beit Midrash is kind of where orthodox people go to study the Torah. So no, I did not go there. But at school this evening there was an event on Hillel, who was a rabbi a very, very long time ago. (I'm not sure quite precisely when - in the time of the first Temple, if that's any help.) So I decided to go, because my parents said I should, wondering if this was a really, really bad decision, and studied a few of the things he said and stuff he did, part of which we'd already done in Israeli Heritage class. It was obviously quite boring (my hand was thoroughly written and drawn-on by the end), but I don't believe that the decision to go was the worst I ever made. Plus, we had some great cakes after it. That was brilliant and it almost made up for the boringness.

A conversation with a friend from another class:

"Was yours boring too?"
"Oh yes. My parents said I should go because I'll never have this ever again. So I went, even though I was sick this morning."
"Evil."
"I suppose. But it's passed, and I'm not dead."
"It's passed, there's nothing you can do about it, and you're still alive."
"Precisely what I tell myself after every day."
"After every day?"
"Well, you know, being around you people, it's hard not to."
"Why does everyone say that?"
"You do understand the meaning of sarcasm, don't you?"
"Well...takes a bit to sink in...but yeah..."