#pesach is my favorite holiday <3 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

umichenginabroad · 5 months ago

Text

Week 13: Frühli-cking Around

Ciao all,

This week was filled with festivities topping off the semester before finals kicked in. I’ve got a TON of work to do over the next few weeks, my assignments are detailed in the “Finals Season” section below. The other sections are more lighthearted and fun! Skip around as you wish, thanks for reading!

Surprise :)

This weekend, my favorite person in the world (and best friend) Miss Lydia Kim surprised me with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. She knew I’d been a bit stressed and just felt like treating me. Gosh, I love her! I’ll be honest, our friendship is probably the best thing to come out of this program.

Pesach, Abroad!

This week I celebrated Passover along with some of my Jewish friends here in Prague. Brandon and I signed up for a Seder at the Prague Chabad to kick off the holiday. It was extremely expensive ($70 per person) which I found ridiculous, but we paid it anyway because we felt a strong need to go to at least one seder this Pesach holiday.

We opted for the English service over Hebrew so we could both follow along, and we ended up getting sat at a table with 3 other Michigan students and the parents of one of the students! It took ~5 minutes to make a connection with the parents - the Dad’s brother is my cousin’s girlfriend’s Dad. Classic Jewish geography. For those who don’t know, the Seder calls for the drinking of 4 cups of wine, so our table got pretty chatty relatively quickly. And, one of the Rabbis started handing out shots of their homemade vodka, so we surely had a lot of fun. We actually ended up leaving early because it was a long service, at the idea of the parents, who treated us to drinks and food at the guys’ favorite bar afterwards! Overall, it was definitely a night to remember, Brandon can attest. I usually go to one of my friend’s houses in Michigan to celebrate the Jewish Holidays at school, so it felt good to connect with other Jewish people around this time of the year.

The rest of the week I kept Kosher for Passover loosely, by consciously avoiding non-kosher ingredients. However, there wasn’t really much I could buy that was certifiably kosher because Prague is so secular, so I just had to use my best judgment. This made it more difficult than usual to keep Passover this year, that’s for sure.

Finals Season

This week we were informed of a ridiculous amount of work we had due over the next 2 weeks. I’ve listed all of the assignments below, by subject, so you all have an idea of our workload.

Communications in the Tech Sector:

Reflective Development Paper #3 (2-3 page paper on interpersonal/professional/social development abroad)

10-minute Individual Lesson (recorded presentation over zoom)

Final Executive Summary (informational catalog detailing our challenge project background, objectives, contributions, and results; this assignment has been a work-in-progress throughout the semester)

Challenge Project Infographic (required new addition to the executive summary)

Final Reflective Development Paper (fortunately, our professor Gray is the GOAT and changed this paper to just submitted our updated resume and a cover letter for review)

Leadership Development in the Tech Sector:

Leadership Development Plan (Independent reflections on in-class activities and our challenge project experience, an additional 1200 word paper on personal development abroad)

Pitch Presentation (10 minute group presentation pitching a venture of your choice)

Challenge Project Final Deliverables and Presentation Panel (Final SEO strategy for the company; 10-15 minute group presentation to client)

Tech Ethics & Public Policy

Group presentation (10-15 minute group presentation performing a risk assessment on a chosen technology)

Group research report (~20 page report detailing the promises, perils, risks, and current/future regulations on the technology)

Individual reflection (2 page reflection on takeaways, group work experience, and contributions)

Architecture & Design in Prague

Final research paper (3-4 page report on a architectural site of choice)

Essential Czech

Travelers journal (3-4 entries per week of key insights about life abroad; my blogs definitely will come in handy for this one!)

Database Management Systems

In-class final exam

Wish me luck in completing all of this… rip.

Munich

This weekend, Alisha, Mihika, Lydia, and I went to Munich to celebrate Springfest!!! We took the early bird FlixBus again this weekend, but it was 6 hours instead of the dreadful 8 it took to get to Budapest last week. Springfest in Munich is a slightly smaller Oktoberfest, resembling an American county fair with rides and food trucks serving up everything from classic Bavarian pretzels to international street food. There’s also a maze of tents, some more traditional than others, but each bumping with folk music, clinking steins, and locals dressed in lederhosen-clad swinging to oompah bands! I wasn’t expecting so many people to be dressed up, I honestly thought it would distinguish us as foreigners from the local population if we were to rent outfits, but I was wrong… literally everyone was wearing them! We met a lot of Germans our age while mingling within the tent and also while waiting in line for the tents, which took like 3 hours too long. Although we didn’t dress up in dirndls, the traditional dress worn by women, we definitely got a unique, authentic German experience at the fest.

We also found time to wander around the city of Munich, and found it to be pretty modern with booming outdoor markets and shopping centers. I made sure to try the different types of wursts from the street vendors and other traditional foods like a full, slow-roasted chicken!

We also toured an aristocratic palace in the heart of the city, but we pretended we were 15&under and didn't get ID'd to get free admission. Score! Pretty much everything inside was a replica though due to WWII bombings, so it was kind of underwhelming.

There were a couple Bachelor parties too while we were there, which made for some funny interactions. One of the guys literally tried to get us to spank the *bent over* groom with a branch… umm no thank you! We laughed but afterwards decided that Springfest would actually be such an ideal setting for a bachelor party for many reasons, especially the plentiful beer! It’s a super festive atmosphere, hosting numerous live bands and dance floors, and is typically much less crowded than Oktoberfest. I’ll definitely be keeping it on my radar for the future!

Now for some ins and outs:

Ins

Lederhosen: All the locals (and many tourists) were dressed in traditional clothing for Springfest, it was awesome! And, the Bavarians are not offended by tourists wearing lederhosen, just make sure to buy the real thing, e.g. go to Angermaier.

First Seder Abroad! I was excited and a bit nervous to celebrate Passover abroad due to the state of the world right now, but it felt nice to be a part of a Jewish community after being away from home for so long.

Outs

Academics: All of my classes seem to be piling work on us over the next few weeks as the end of the semester approaches, which is extremely overwhelming. We don’t typically get any class time to work on them, and I’m not going to have much free time to do homework when my family comes to visit next week. Going to have to lock in.

Wipe(outs): Crowds of people watched as people river surfed at a park in Munich. Lots of falls but it was cool to watch the group take turns jumping in and even coach the newbies.

Thanks for joining me for this week’s blog, I’m looking forward to catching you all next week!

Mach's gut (German for “do well” or “take care”),

Reese Liebman

Computer Science and Engineering

Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA) CS Tech Career Accelerator in Prague, Czechia

#ReeseLiebman #UmichEnginAbroad #IPEcsPrague #IPEWinter24 #CzechRepublic

0 notes

yanzinator · 7 months ago

Text

my favorite part about religious judaism, is how we all collaboratively pretend we're excited for all the holidays as if they aren't 2-3 days of torture with pesach being 8.

I feel dread yet I celebrate.

#I am assuming everyone else is also like this because like people who enjoy this has gotta be the minority yet there are no people who'd #admit they don't like it.

1 note · View note

beshert-bh · 5 years ago

Text

My journey to/with Judaism

***This is a super long post, it’s the FULL story, not a brief overview, but it would mean the WORLD to me if you read it***

Upbringing: very much Not Jewish™️

I was born into a Catholic family. I have a goyish last name. I was baptized as an infant, and my parents took me to church each week as a kid.

In kindergarten — back when I still went to a secular private school — one of my best friends was Jewish. He told me all about the traditions his family did...told me all about the kippahs they wear, and how they had their own game called dreidel for this holiday they celebrated, called Hanukkah. (Of course this convo was at a basic-kindergarten-level of knowledge.) When I came home from school I was fascinated with Hanukkah, (this is cringey to admit but my 5-year-old self tried to integrate the traditions together and so in order to do this I drew up a “Christmas dreidel” complete with Santa Claus’ face on one side, a present on another side...you get it)

And that is when I was promptly put in “parochial” schools. I went to Catholic school from 1st grade to 12th grade. I went through Holy Communion and Confirmation like all the other kids did. My elementary soccer team’s mascot was an Angel. My high school’s mascot was a Crusader. Our high school was located on Rome Avenue. I went to a Catholic youth conference. I considered becoming a nun because I was single all throughout high school.

Growing up, around Christmastime we would always travel to visit my grandma, and she would always say we’re “German Jewish” — but I would write her off. In my mind, I was like, Yeah ok like 1%? .....It felt like my grandma was acting like one of those white people who takes a DNA test and says, “Look! We’re 1% African!” So I would dismiss her and remind her how we’re Catholics and she would drop the subject.

Falling away from Xtianity: my first 2 years of college

My freshman year I changed — politically — as I was only conservative in high school because of the ‘pro-life’ agenda being shoved down my throat. I really aligned more with liberal and leftist policies and views, though. Once I became open to new political ideology, I began to question my theological beliefs.

I always had a strong connection to God. My whole life. But I struggled with connecting to Jesus, Mary, the saints, and so on. So obviously my freshman year of college I began to fall away from Catholicism.

You see, Catholics are “bad at the Bible” as I like to say. Other Christians do a better job of teaching and analyzing the writings. They actually require school-aged children to memorize Scripture passages. Catholics mostly just teach the same stuff over and over. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, blah blah blah. Catechism, liturgical calendar, blah blah blah. Parts of the mass, fruits of the spirit, blah blah blah.

So since I was already doubting Catholicism, its corrupt leadership, and its mindless traditions.... I thought maaaaybeeee I would find purpose, truth, clarity, etc. in plain-old Christianity. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The other Christian churches I went to baptized people (which is a BIG LIFE DECISION) on the spot. For example if a newcomer felt on a whim that they wanted to be baptized, the church would do it right then & there. No learning, no planning or preparing, that was it. They promoted blind faith and circular thinking. I began to realize these were both normal attitudes and cognitive patterns within any and every Christian community that I encountered.

Even the Christians who exhibited curiosity mostly just asked questions in order to be able to understand, and then accept, the doctrine as truth. Questions never ever challenged anything.

Oh and let’s throw in the fact that I’m bisexual. Homophobia, transphobia, biphobia (and more) are rampant in the church. So needless to say, with all my observations about the lack of logical thinking in the church (and considering my sexual orientation) I fell away. I stopped going to church unless my family made me when I was home from college.

Enter stage right: Judaism

In retrospect I happened to have a lot of friends in my sorority and my favorite fraternity on campus who were Jewish (the frat happened to be a traditionally-Jewish one). Thought nothing of it at the time. Fast forward to junior year when I met this cute guy on Tinder. He’s now my boyfriend and we’ve been dating for over a year. He didn’t tell me this on Tinder, but when we went on our first date, he revealed that he’s Jewish and wanted to make sure that’s something I was ok with. Clearly I had no problem with that. I wasn’t too into Christianity anymore but I still identified as one (and I was still surrounded by Christian friends in my sorority) so I told him I was Christian/raised Catholic and asked hypothetically if he would be comfortable with a “both” family. He said yes.

We started dating during an October, so of course Hanukkah came up soon. There was a mega challah bake at our local Chabad, which he took me to, and we had a blast. From then on I decided I wanted to show him how supportive I was of his Jewishness. (The last girl he dated dumped him after 3 months BECAUSE he was Jewish... so I felt that I needed to be supportive)

We started going to shabbat services and dinner every week. We did Hanukkah together (we bought our first menorah together, he taught me how to spin a dreidel, his mom bought me Hanukkah socks...lol). At some point in our relationship I told him I may have Jewish ancestry from my grandma but it’s distant and my whole extended family is Christian so it really wouldn’t even matter. I don’t remember when I had that conversation with him.

Eventually, after another few months of Shabbat services and Shabbat dinners, Pesach came around.

We went to the first seder together. The second seder is what changed everything.

Deciding to convert

At first I wasn’t sure if I belonged at this second seder. My boyfriend had always brought me to every event. I had never attended anything alone at Chabad before. But I went anyway. Throughout the night I felt increasingly comfortable. I had never felt more like I was a *part of something* than I did at this seder.

I sat near a friend who I recognized. (He knows I’m raised Catholic.) Then he & his friends welcomed me. We all took turns reading from the Haggadah, we drank the four cups of wine together, and we laughed together as I had maror for the first time.

Then the familiar faces left to go home, and one of them even went to another table to sit with his other friends whom he hadn’t had a chance to see yet that night. Naturally I thought I was alone again. I almost left, but something tugged at my heart to stay until the very end of the second seder. Something told me to keep going and keep taking in this wonderful experience.

The rest of the night consisted of many songs (most likely prayers, in retrospect) I did not know. Everyone stood to sing and we all clapped to the rhythm. I knew none of the words but I still clapped along, alone at my own table. Then one of the boys — the one who had been sitting with my friends and I earlier — motioned at me to come over and join his other friends. I approached this new table full of people I’d never met, feeling awkward as ever, and they not only hoisted me up to stand on the table with them as they chanted, but they also included me in their dance circle. (no, I don’t think it was the Hora, we just spun around over and over. lol.)

This was the first night I felt at home with Judaism. Going through the Jewish history with the Haggadah, remembering the important occurrences and symbolizing them with various foods, ending the night by being welcomed into the community... it was transformative. After attending shabbat services for months and learning about Jewish values, it changed something in me when I observed Pesach for the first time last year. I knew this path would be right for me. I felt as if my soul had found where it belonged. The Jewish history, traditions, beliefs, and customs resonated with me. It all just... made sense.

I told my boyfriend I wanted to convert. I wrote three pages of reasons. But I sat on the idea of converting and did nothing for a while. I did do some more research on Judaism, though, as I continued to attend services each week.

The exploration stage

I began to actually research on my own time. If converting was something I was genuinely considering, it was high time I began actively learning as much as I could possibly learn. It was time to dive deeper than just attending the weekly services and googling the proper greetings for Jewish holidays.

I started digging deeper into Judaism and Christianity so I could compare and contrast the two. I needed to understand the similarities and differences. And BOY are they different. That was surprising at first, but the more I learned about Judaism, the more I loved how different it was from the Christianity I was indoctrinated into.

Not only are the values and teachings of each religion vastly different, but the Tanakh (which is “The Old Testsment” in Christian Bibles) actually contradicts:

The entire “New Testament”

The gospel books specifically

The Pauline letters specifically

How did I realize this? Some bible study of my own, but mostly through online research. And, of course, I would have gotten nowhere without the help of Rabbi Tovia Singer and his YouTube videos. He debunks everything there is to debunk about Christianity.

Here were some things I came across when researching:

It confused me how the four Gospels didn’t align (like, major parts of the story did not align at all...and supposedly they’re divinely inspired...but they don’t even corroborate one another?)

It confused me how the psalms we sang in church were worded completely different from the true wording in the Bible (essentially the Christian church is taking tehillim and altering it to benefit Christian dogma and Christian rhetoric.)

It confused me how we read in the Bible that Jews are ‘God’s chosen people’ and yet in every Catholic Church, every Sunday, there is a Pauline letter being read which depicts proselytization of Jews, as if Jews are lost and need Christians to save them. As if Jews would go to hell if they fail to accept Jesus.

It confused me why we would pray to Mary and the saints, because praying is worship, and worshipping anyone but God themself is idolatry.

It confused me why Christians make, sell, and use graven images. Idolatry. Again.

It confused me why Christians give absolute power to humans. For example, if you crawl up the same steps (Scala Santa) that Jesus supposedly crawled up before he died, you automatically get “saved” because *some old men who have no divine power* said so (they have a term for this and it’s called “plenary indulgence” lol).

It confused me why Jesus was believed to be the messiah considering he had to have biologically been from the line of Joseph. Wasn’t Jesus supposedly conceived without any help from Joseph? Wouldn’t that render Jesus, uh, not messiah by default? Even if he was from Joseph’s blood, he still did not complete all the tasks moshiach is supposed to fulfill. And even if he DID fulfill all the tasks required of moshiach... we still would not worship a messiah as he is human and not GOD.

These were all new thoughts I developed this past year between Pesach and Yom Kippur. New questions that challenged everything I thought I knew. It was like teaching a child 2+2≠22 but rather 2+2=4.

Hillel

This fall, after the High Holy Days, my boyfriend began attending shabbat dinners at a rabbi’s home. His new rav lives in the community and it’s exclusive to be invited, so I never imposed. We do Shabbos separately now (with some exceptions, we do it together sometimes).

I continued to go to Chabad with one of my friends who knew I wanted to convert. But one month, she couldn’t come at all, and I felt a little judged there anyway.

So I began going to Hillel a few months ago. And I honestly have found a home there.

From Hillel’s Springboard Fellow reaching out to me and taking me out for coffee to get to know me... to running into my sorority & fraternity friends at every Hillel event (shabbat or otherwise)... From getting included in various clubs like the women empowerment group and the mental health inclusivity group... to being the only college student to participate in Mitzvah Day (hosted by Hillel) with the elderly and the local Girl Scout troop... I feel truly welcome. I’ve started to attend every week. I even talked briefly with the rabbi about having Jewish lineage and wanting to convert.

Discovering new information

I went home to be with family during Thanksgiving break. My grandma flew in so she was there when I got home. She stayed with us from then until New Years (and she’s actually moving in with us next year.)

Of course, now I have a Jewish boyfriend, Jewish friends, and I’ve done extensive research on Judaism. So this time I had background knowledge when she inevitably said... “You know, we’re German Jewish!”

I inquired a little. I asked her what she meant. How is she Jewish? I know my uncle took a DNA test this year and came back part Ashkenazi. But I needed a deeper explanation than DNA.

She revealed to me that her mom’s mom was Jewish. We believe she married a Christian man. Together they had my great-grandmother, who I believe was Christian. She had my grandma, who had my dad, who had me.

And I immediately felt like that changed things. At first I was (internally) like, Now I definitely need to convert! But then I was like, Wait, does this make me Jewish? Am I Jewish-ish? ...Can you be considered Jewish if you’re only ethnically Jewish but not raised Jewishly? ...Can you be Jewish if your dad is your only Jewish parent? ...Can you be Jewish if your dad never had a bris or a bar mitzvah?

I joined a bunch of Jewbook groups, began learning the Hebrew calendar & holiday schedule, and found some folks who assist with Jewish genealogy. They did some digging for me and apparently I descend from the Rothschild family. THE Rothschild family.

Who is a Jew? Who “counts”?

This is something I’ve been muddling over.

At Hillel, at my school at least, most people are pretty Reform. They’re very liberal with their definitions of Judaism (they believe in patrilineal descent and not only matrilineal descent).

They accept me and see me as actually Jewish ...and the ones who don’t... they at least see me as Jewish-adjacent, an “honorary Jew” or an “ally to the Jewish people”.

My boyfriend, however, still sees me as Not Jewish.™️ (For context he’s Reform but he’s trying to become as observant as possible) I know he only thinks this was because of how we began our relationship and because of how I was raised. But I’m very confused here.

Do I count?

Do I not?

Do I count *enough* but still need to go through a formal conversion process?

So...now what?

I don’t know how to navigate this odd journey but I have felt for a while that I have a Jewish neshama and I feel a strong need to affirm it. I just don’t know how or what is appropriate. Do I learn Hebrew? Sign up for a trip to Israel/Germany/Poland? Put up a mezuzah? Or go toward the other end of the scale, and head down a path of a formal conversion/reaffirmation process?

Thank you in advance for your responses and thanks for reading. 🤎

68 notes · View notes

heckofabecca · 6 years ago

Text

I was tagged by @alliluyevas

Rules: Answer twenty questions and then take twenty people you want to get to know better.

Name: Becca

Zodiac sign: Virgo

Height: 5′4

Languages spoken: English, some conversational French

Nationality: American

Favorite fruit: Raspberries! But like all fruit, they need to be perfect XD otherwise they’re no good!

Favorite scent:

Favorite color: I like different colors for different things! My preferred colors to wear, though, are red, black, gray, blue, and turquoise :-)

Favorite animal: Cats. House cats. The best <3

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: Hot chocolate!

Favorite fictional character: Gregor Vorbarra (Vorkosigan Saga). I’ll stop there, though I could list a bajillion more!!!

Dream trip: Western European tour :-)

When blog was created: April 20, 2010, apparently... I believe I joined tumblr back in 2008 though!

Last movie watched: My husband is currently watching The Lathe of Heaven (1980) across the table from me, but the last movie *I* watched was Ant-Man and the Wasp!

Songs you’ve had on repeat: “Sueños” by Diego Torres & Julieta Venegas—it’s got an Israeli dance to it that is fun (and also my husband’s favorite). All the songs on this playlist. “Attention” by Pentatonix.

Favorite candy: M&Ms

Favorite holiday: Minus the stress of planning seders... I love Pesach (Passover)! The seders~ I got the best question at this year’s seder that I hosted: “So who is this Elijah guy and why are we saving a seat for him?” Turns out the haggadah doesn’t actually explain who he is :P

What’s something you like about yourself?: I’m organized!

A topic you’re interested in: History

Something you’re proud of: I’m proud of having done 10 paintings in less than 2 days a week and a bit ago XD

tagging: @oenothera5 @decomposion @captainlordauditor @drizzt1211 @nelayn @chestnut-podfic @rivkahstudies @nimium-amatrix-ingenii-sui @thievcsguild @notjustaclone @insomniarama @metimauresse @eighthdoctor @galsinspace @chromatographic @laceandcaramel @theeladydisdain @altalemur @theserpentsadvocate @elf-in-a-mask

#about me

7 notes · View notes

across-the-cypress-trees · 7 years ago

Text

I was tagged for this one by @swilmarillion (a few days ago, sorry).

Post the rules

Answer the questions given to you by the tagger

Write eleven questions of your own

Tag eleven people

1. What’s the first book you fell in love with? Phew, easy question first. Head-over-heels, never-look-back in love with? Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. (I also loved Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid. I talk so much about Harry Potter, but honestly, I could talk a lot about Wrinkle in Time, too; I have a lot of emotional connections to that book as well. Sabriel came a little later.) 2. What’s your favorite holiday? Passover. My family used to have a huge, huge meal in our dining room (off limits for every-day use), with all of the prayers and rituals and readings from The Big Book for Pesach. I loved dotting my plate with wine and the matzos and the cup, everything about the Seder. My mom and I are the only ones left to celebrate now, and we don’t have a full Seder anymore. I miss it a lot. (Passover starts the night of March 30th this year. In case anyone was wondering.) 3. If you had a whole day to yourself with no obligations, what would you do? No obligations? Read a lot, cook a big meal at my mom’s house, and be lazy outside on the porch with sweet tea. 4. What are you most proud of? Going to Agnes Scott and getting through that college with honors despite all the crap that happened those four years. It’s kind of silly, but when I look back at how difficult my coursework was and the bad stuff that happened while I was there not related to school - yeah, that’s an achievement. Also some other more personal things. 5. What’s a skill you would like to learn, if you had the time? How to speak Polish. Ahem, @naamah-beherit But it’s a part of my family history that’s been lost, and I would also really like to speak kind of know the first language as one of my closest friends? Is that weird? (Yiddish is in there, too, as a language that I’d like to learn.) 6. Coffee, tea, both, or neither? Both please! 7. Share a random interesting fact! (not a question, still fun) I have had two encounters with wild black bears in my hometown in metro Atlanta. The first literally walked up my driveway during dinnertime, and my dad immediately went running after it, barefoot, through the woods with a camera while my mom called Animal Control (who did not believe her, a veterinarian, when she told them yes, it was a bear; they brought a humane trap too small to fit a raccoon). I was about ten for that one. The second time I was in college, out over the summer with some friends late one night when a bear ambled across the road and hopped a fence into someone’s back yard. I called Animal Control myself for that one. 8. What’s your favorite aspect of fandom? Being able to interact with so many people all over the world about one common shared interest. I’ve made so many friends through so many fandoms over the years, and it’s still kind of amazing to me how a book or movie or tv show can do that. 9. What’s the weirdest thing you believed wholeheartedly as a kid? Okay, this wasn’t exactly a belief? But I saw Poltergeist way too young and for years and years afterward I was absolutely terrified to go downstairs after dark because I was afraid the tree outside the front door would come to life and eat me. My mom’s house is in the woods and it is so dark there. It was really scary, okay. 10. What’s something you would like to achieve this year? I want to at least start my novel. I know what it’s going to be about, and I have a pretty decent idea of who the two main characters are, I’m just having a difficult time getting the whole things started.

Thank you for the tag, @swilmarillion! I’m too tired to think of questions myself, but this was a lot of fun to answer.

7 notes · View notes

autistic-katara · 1 year ago

Text

ty for the ask :3

Name(s): Ryan

Pronouns: he/him

Star sign: cancer

# of siblings & fun facts about them (if you have any): 3 (all younger :,))

# of pets & their names: a cat named Kiki

Fandoms: too many to go into rn

Favorite color: can’t choose qwq

Favorite song: uhhhhhhh i also can’t choose 😭

Favorite author (of anything readable-- books, fanfics, zines, webtoons, whatever!): rick riordan ig (idk, i haven’t read much in a while)

Hobbies: writing nd art :3

Favorite fic type: those 4-digit word count hurt/comfort fics where my blorbos have the same mental illnesses as me and gets comforted so hard abt it (bonus points if it gets triggering abt it)

Favorite holiday: Halloween nd Pesach/Passover (srsly underrated for something that’s one of our most important holidays)

Do you have any partner(s)? (romantic, qpp, anything!): i fucking WISH (nothing more than a horrifically one-sided homoerotic friendship/gay crush tho :,3)

Fun facts about you / anything extra you wanna share!: cant think of anything :333

open tags as always bcz i’m always stressed abt forgetting somebody :D

I got bored so here's a little get-to-know-you tag game I think could be fun :3

Name(s)

Pronouns

Star sign

# of siblings & fun facts about them (if you have any)

# of pets & their names

Fandoms

Favorite color

Favorite song

Favorite author (of anything readable-- books, fanfics, zines, webtoons, whatever!)

Hobbies

Favorite fic type

Favorite holiday

Do you have any partner(s)? (romantic, qpp, anything!)

Fun facts about you / anything extra you wanna share!

────────

Name(s): Loki (highly preferred), Elye

Pronouns : they/them mostly, he/she okay too

Star sign: Pisces

# of siblings: I've got 2! An older sister and a younger sibling. The fun fact about them is that they're also both queer; in fact, my mom is too. The only non-queer person in my immediate family is my dad.

# of pets: 4 cats! Phoebe & Frankie are our girls, Lenny and Murray are our boys :3

Fandoms: MCU (kind of), BSD, OFMD, Ranboo (does his fanbase count as a fandom?)

Fav. color: Don't have one

Fav. song: Aurora Borealis by Lemon Demon

Fav. author: Alice Oseman

Hobbies: singing, acting, drawing, writing, procrastinating

Fav. fic type: Fluff, definitely. I am a sucker for well written coffee-shop and flower-shop aus, too. Smut's fine, but only if it's romantic. I can't do angst if there's no comfort.

Fav. Holiday: Hanukkah or Halloween! I love autumn and winter

Partners?: Yes! I have a girlfriend (queerplatonic) who I love very much, and a boyfriend (romantic) who I love very much :]

Fun facts:

- Even though I'm a cat person, I really, really want a dog.

- I actually used to play sports. Because I don't do gendered leagues anymore, I don't play, but I've been looking for mixed/gender-neutral/queer sports teams. Baseball and basketball specifically!

- I started questioning my identity in 2019; I'm no closer to finding a label now than I was then. The difference is, now I don't want a label. I just am. :]

tags: @neonganymede @cha0ticlesbian @x-chiara @exceleo @brinnybee @autistic-katara @gandalfthemorallygrey @ohboyanotherlokiblog @roachandrenfri @ourflagmeanslokius @exceleo @edettethegreat @swiftlyspidey

#tag game

2K notes · View notes

starlitservos · 7 years ago

Note

Space asks v2, the nearest and farthest pair of each section with respect to your current location (use your best judgement for any ties or ambiguity)

thanks! I’m implementing some rules of my own to facilitate this, as follows:most data comes from basic googling because if I let myself look at anything other than the little boxes there or on wikipedia, not only will I never finish the questions, I will probably die of thirst before I get to the second one. some of my numbers are probably wrong, but I’ve already spent too much time on this and I don’t want to go in and redo everything, but if anyone sees anything off please tell meties or ambiguity are generally resolved by answering both questions cuz I don’t get a lot of asks so I need to make the most of what I dofor cases in which I am basically part of one prompt, like earth, I answer that and also the next closest, for the same reasondistance to constellations will be measured as distance to the brightest star in that constellation (this may overlap with stars)distances that change significantly, like in the solar system where orbits matter, are averagedokay I think that’s it for preprocessing, it could be a lot and I feel bad cluttering up people’s dashes so here’s a read more:

Planets:Earth: Where’s your home?(average distance 0 mi, I live here) hey great question man. Pluto: What time is it right now where you are?(average distance 39.5 au) it’s quarter past 3 in the afternoon, but I’m answering this one near the start, so. Moon: What are you currently studying/hoping to study?(distance 238,900 mi) currently studying fancy light boxes with buttons, and less fancy human talk stuff. would also like to study a whole bunch of invisible stuff too, and made-up ideas a bunch of people agreed on like fifty-ish(? I don’t remember exactly, it’s probably more) years ago because it mostly makes sense. even if you can clone fake spheres with fake knives. …neither of those are full planets…aaanyway

Stars:Sun: Have you ever had alcohol?(distance 1 au, I don’t quite live there but it’s close enough) yeah, but only a little so it doesn’t really count. Deneb: Have you ever been out of your home country?(distance 2,616 ly) yeah, a few times. thinking I might want to get out permanently sometime if the nazis aren’t all taken care of soon. see, these are actually stars, thank you! learn from this, pluto

Constellations:Centaurus: Favorite holiday? (it’s…it’s alpha centauri, I mean c'mon, the closest star we’ve got; distance 4.37 ly) gosh, I’m not sure. purim’s pretty fun but I can’t eat hamentashen anymore…I do like pesach conceptually but not a fan of the whole family dinner, and I always hated doing the questions and being in the spotlight. I’m not youngest anymore though so that part isn’t really a considering I guess. Cygnus: Favorite weather?(hello, deneb again, still far as hell; in pc, 802+/-66) windy and just around the edge of warm and cool, cloudy but not fully without sun. no mud. sadly this is not very common weather around here.

Galaxies:Milky Way: Who’s your oldest friend?(yeah this is the one I’m in, right there on the edge–that arm there, see? distance 0 pc) probably a guy I’ve known since like 4th, 5th grade. but, I dunno, I guess really just me, since who else was there?Andromeda: Do you consider yourself social?(another gimme, everyone knows andromeda’s right next door, distance 2.537 million ly) sort of. I can be charming, but I’ve only got a couple social skills, and I’m absolutely awful at first impressions. I’m fine just sitting around reading or wandering around empty places all day alone, but I’ve got a decent network of people I’m friendly with. even if I am always surprised when people remember me as anything notable. Comet Galaxy: Have you ever had to leave a relationship because someone changed too much?(real far off, if you thought deneb was far–this thing’s a whole 3.2 Billion ly) I’ve never dated anyone.

Other Stuff:not exactly sure how to measure distance for this one, since it’s not specific things, I’ll just…ignore the annoying ones and get the closest instances of the rest

Asteroid: What does your dream life look like?(our solar system’s got a whole belt of them like, right there. distance like 2.2 au) shit I already answered this one, didn’t I? sorry, I meant to skip it when I was selecting because of that, but I forgot, and I don’t feel like redoing anything now, I’ve already spent too long on this. Quasar: If you could spend the rest of your life with only one person, who would it be?(man these things are cool, the closest one is at the core of the galaxy markarian 231, distance like 580 million ly, along with a pair of binary black holes–look, it’s the last one, I can do extra research if I want) I really don’t know. I’m pretty sure that if I had to be like, constantly around one person for that long, either I would murder them, or they’d murder me. honestly the only exception would probably be a duplicate of me or something–that sounds really self-centered, but really, I just have serious trust issues (that I'm working on).

thanks for the questions, and thanks to anyone who read the whole thing. as always I’m still taking them, and there’s no ask-by time (especially for space ones).

1 note · View note

lesbiansandpuns · 8 years ago

Note

hey if u have spare time pls answer ALL of those jewish/hebrew asks! i'd love to get to know you and your perspective better c:

Can do!

1. Hebrew Name: I don’t have one!2. Mizrahi, Sephardic, or Ashkenazi: Ashkenazi (Poland & Ukraine, mostly)3. Denomination: I didn’t grow up practicing, but if/when I find a synagogue when I have some kind of stable housing situation, it’ll probably be either Reform or Reconstructionist.4. Did you have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah? Nope.5. Can you read or speak Hebrew? No; my sister went to Hebrew school but it didn’t go super well (because my sister was a hot fucking mess) so they didn’t send me and I’m real bitter about it. I’m gonna try to start learning it this summer, but we’ll see how far that goes.6. Do you keep Kosher? Nope7. Do you observe Shabbat? I don’t right now, but I’d like to? Just need to find a place and group of people that I’m comfortable with.8. Favorite Holiday: I really like Pesach, especially when the Haggadah is social justice-oriented. I also like Hanukkah, and I’m pretty sure if I ever experienced Purim I’d like that too? This is a complicated question because, like I said, I didn’t grow up practicing, so there are a bunch of holidays that I’ve never participated in. 9. Favorite Brachot: We’re talking the Sheva Brachot, yeah? If so, the sixth, for sure.10. Favorite Food: I mean, I’m a big fan of babka. If we’re going savory, and sticking to “Jewish” foods, probably matzoh ball soup and/or latkes.11. Favorite Song: This version of the Kol Nidre12. Manischewitz or Kedem: Neither? If we’re talking the wines, I don’t drink; if we’re talking the brands in general, I didn’t grow up in a Jewish enough household to have an opinion lol13. Raisin, Chocolate, or Regular Challah: Regular!14. Hamsa, Chai, or Magen David: Magen David15. Esther or Miriam: Miriam16. Moses or King David: Moses, mostly because when I was reading Exodus for the first time I literally couldn’t stop laughing (ask @ominousroses) because this is how the exchange between God and Moses went in my head:

Moses: “dude this bush is on fire but it’s not burning up?? what is going on”

God: “Hello, Moses? It’s me, God. Dude, stop hiding, I can still see you, I’m literally God. Anyway. I just remembered that covenant thing I made and y’all don’t seem to be enjoying slavery and we should fix that, yeah? So you’re gonna go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites.”

Moses: “Uh… I feel like you missed a step here, God? I’m just a dude, why would Pharaoh listen to me”

God: “I’ll be with you! Calm down, man. So after you free the Israelites, go worship Me on this mountain, cool?”

Moses: “Wait, no, I’m still kinda hung up on this whole ‘talking to Pharaoh’ thing. If he asks for your name, what do I say?”

God, rolling his eyes: “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, but you can just call me Ehyeh. So tell them Ehyeh, the God of your fathers, sent you. And then go to the Israelite leaders and tell them that you’ve released them from bondage and go with them back to Pharaoh and tell him he needs to let y’all go worship Me. But he’s gonna say no, so I’m gonna release a bunch of plagues. Sound good?”

Moses: “Uh… Okay, putting that last part aside for now, let’s go back to the ‘talking to Pharaoh thing’ again. What if he… uh… doesn’t believe me?”

God, exasperated: “Humans are so needy, why did I make them like this?”

(An angel, appearing above God: “You fucked up a perfectly good monkey is what You did. Look at it. It’s got anxiety.”)

God: “… Anyway. Lemme see your staff. BOOM it’s a fucking snake! Wait no stop freaking out you can make it go back to a staff here just grab it by the tail”

Moses, glaring at God: *grabs the tail of this fucking scary snake*

God: “great! it’s a rod again. so they’ll totally believe you. and if they don’t - hold out your hand - I’ll do this!”

Moses: *looks at his hand that is now covered in snowy scales and nearly faints*

God: “man, you really don’t like this, huh? whatever, I fixed it, you’re all good. Stop looking like you’ve seen a ghost, it’s just Me. And if they STILL don’t believe you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and it’ll turn to blood!”

Moses, regretting all of his life choices: “Uh, this kind of sounds like a lot… Look, God, I’m like not even good at talking? Can I not do this?”

God: “Uh, I made you able to talk, so be careful about who you’re insulting, buddy! Calm down and go talk to Pharaoh.”

Moses: “… God please I’m literally begging you to send someone else”

God: “Why are you like this.”(To the angel: “SHUT UP.”)“FINE. Take your brother, he likes to talk. You’ll say what I say to you to him and back him up with your scary cool magic powers when he needs it.”

Moses, muttering to himself: “I really feel like this could be way simpler if You just sent Aaron in the first place, but whatever…”

God: “Excuse Me?”

Moses: “NOTHING JUST TALKING TO MYSELF ANYWAY NICE CHAT BYE GOD”

so anyway def Moses because he’s #relatable

17. Fiddler on the Roof or Prince of Egypt: Prince of Egypt18. Barbara Streisand or Ofra Haza: Man, I don’t feel like I know Ofra Haza’s stuff enough to make an informed choice here.19. The Nanny or Seinfeld: I’ve never seen The Nanny so by default I’m gonna go with Seinfeld20. Ilana Glazer or Abbi Jacobson: Probs Ilana Glazer

So, those are all the asks! Hope you enjoyed my synopsis of Exodus 3 & 4.

#judaism #asks #personal #ask meme #salty pals #i feel like y'all would enjoy this #anon #anons

1 note · View note

lacommunarde · 8 years ago

Note

Magneto, Enjolras, Louise Michel, Marat, Bester. Enjoy! ;-)

Invite to dinner with parents: So my parents are actually pretty chill in very small doses (holidays) when they don’t... I don’t even know, possibly intimidate my dad. 5. Bester would intimidate my dad. Also, my family thinks so loudly (we’re all passive-agressive little shits and make our thoughts obvious), which would probably give Bester a headache. 4. Enjolras would not get along with my family’s sense of humor, and my dad might get into a debate with him, which would involve, one second them agreeing wholeheartedly, and the next Enjolras just staring at him and backing away, and my mom’s in particular with Ryder family sense of humor, well. 3. Louise Michel would like my mom. My mom would generally like her. Then Louise Michel would say something like we should shoot Trump and his cronies. Also, I would not want to subject her to my mom in a “mmm, tasty, tasty meat” mood, because then Louise Michel would speechify at her. 2/1. Marat would be interesting. I think my parents would actually like him. He’s a journalist, and would probably be maintaining a very popular blog. He’s generally right and very well researched. 2/1. My dad would like Magneto, though the two of them would get into debates. Magneto’s speechifying would get my dad on his side very quickly. My mom would probably like him too, actually, but would be a little intimidated by his politics. She would definitely be more of a Professor X person now, but they’d share stories of the 60s. And then discuss their grandchildren. Also Magneto wouldn’t be entirely convinced my mom wasn’t a mutant, because of her ability to tell what the weather’s going to do. So Magneto or Marat.

Shipwrecked on desert island with: 1. Magneto, because chances are he’d determine he liked it enough to turn it into his supervillain lair. 2. Bester - he could call for help 3. Marat- doctor 4.Louise Michel - has been on an island before 5. Enjolras - would be useless on an deserted island

In a car chase with: 1. I would give anything to be in the same car in a car chase with Bester, watching how he handles vehicles with one of his hands paralyzed. We would get into conversations about his left hand and my right hand and various doctors underestimating us (in my case, it healed; in his case, he learned to be a pilot without use of it). 2. Marat would be fun. 3. Magneto 4. Louise Michel 5. Enjolras

Shopping for formal wear with: 1. Bester, he’s the only one who has any real sense of what formal wear is. 2. Enjolras 3. Louise Michel 4. Magneto 5. Marat

On the run from corrupt authority figures with: 1/2. Louise Michel or Enjolras have the best understanding of on the run from corrupt authority figures. 3. Marat, I love you, but like fuck I am getting into that sewer with you, but actually you do have a fairly good understanding of it too. 4. Mags, I love you, but you don’t reallly have a good understanding that “on the run” doesn’t always mean “taking a stand.” 5. Bester, baby, you don’t either, and so you make a great inside man from whom to find out what said corrupt figures are up to.

Trying to fix broken-down automobile in the rain with: 1/2. Mags or Bester. For obvious reasons. Mags would be able to feel where it’s broken and fix it. Bester could just pull it from the mind of a local mechanic. 3. Marat - you would just be able to fix it. Somehow 4. Louise Michel 5. Enjolras

Captured by supervillain with: 1. Um. Umm.... Magneto... is a supervillain and has gone up against other supervillains before.

Wake up handcuffed to: 2/3. Enjolras or Louise Michel. 1. Actually, no wait. Mags, because handcuffs are metal. 4. Bester - probably has lockpicking skills, and if he doesn’t he would soon 5. Marat

Fake-married to for undercover reasons: 1/2. Enjolras or Bester.

To cut and style my hair: 1. Louise Michel 2. Magneto 3/4/5: the others no thanks

To drag them away from a big fight because they’re injured: All of these losers, tbh. Bester I could trust to do ii for himself. The others, not so much.

To drag me away from a big fight because I’M injured: None of these people would do that.

Rewatch my favourite movie/show with: While I would love to subject all these nerds to Prison Break, most of them have had issues with being behind bars and would have PTSD flashbacks. 1. So Marat would probably get a kick out of it. Too much of a kick out of it probably, but he’s Marat. 2. Bester would likely see too much of himself in Mahone, which wouldn’t be good. My favorite movie is With Fire and Sword. 1/2. Marat or Bester would probably like it most.

Leave in charge of my home while I’m away: I would trust absolutely zero of these people in my home while I am away. 1. Louise Michel would just have her cats staying there and would use the place to sleep, 2. Bester or 3. Marat.

Study for an exam with: 1. Louise Michel, who was an actual teacher. 2. Or Enjolras, because we’d be studying similar subjects.

Sent to assassinate me: Umm.. Bester would be the only one sent to do anything.

Cook dinner for: 1. Louise Michel, because she needs it. (Actually I’d first start her off on oatmeal and smoothies and Ready to Use Therapeutic Food and then work up to modern food, because I’d be worried about killing her stomach. 2. Magneto, I would love to have Magneto at one of our Pesach dinners. 3. Bester, would appreciate being made dinner, particularly if I invited him to bring his kid and let her help make it. 4. Marat 5. Enjolras

Get into massive argument with: 2/3. Louise Michel or Enjolras probably. 1. Or Bester. Actually, definitely Bester. 4. Magneto. 5. Marat

Get caught in a questionable position with: any of them!!!

Work as bodyguard for: 1/2. Magneto or Louise Michel. 3. Marat, while I would love this position, Simone Evrard already has it covered, except when Marat told her to let Charlotte past. 4. Bester, I fell I would not be qualified for this position 5. Enjolras, does not need a bodyguard

2 notes · View notes