Hannukah – The Story
December 6, 2012
I found this article today that I thought gave a clear and lucid account of the history behind the channukah story. It’s something that many people overlook and especially for those of you out there less familiar with Judaism, it’s definitely a fascinating read.
The lesson of Hanukkah is that even the struggles that saved a people are dappled with tragic irony, complexity and unattractive choices.
Reflecting on the meaning behind the festival brings a rather different set of issues to light than when examining Christmas and its origins. At least from my perspective a much more down to earth, gritty and almost painful reflection of sacrifices we make.
Sunday/Monday – Day 129/130
Before I proceed with today’s post, I have to make a little advertisement for the campaign to save The Butterfly Club, the dearest performance venue to me in Melbourne. It’s a small cabaret outfit with retro style that supports upcoming actors and has kickstarted the careers of the likes of Sammy J and Tim Minchin. Take a look here and here to see what I’m on about, and, if you’re reading this from Melbourne, check out the place and if you like it, please help save it!
Sunday I woke up sick. No surprises there. With finals coming up though, there was no time to dawdle, it was straight to work! The majority of the day was spent split between my various subjects as they all had bits and pieces that needed doing. Probably the one I most enjoyed was starting my final project for my algorithms class.
Monday began another ramp up in load, as my various exams and homeworks drew closer. Nothing special here, just another day packed with work. However, in the evening PGC began the process for trialling directors for the upcoming spring show, with the club. Rehearsal was thus more lively than normal and we engaged in theatre sports and dance alongside our staple singing.
Following that was a usual choral society rehearsal, that ran, as usual, too late and as usual, left me a little drained. However I didn’t let it get to me as I had been graciously allotted by a Miss Stephanie Li, one half hour of her time, in which we were to play and sing through some of my sheet music. Half an hour quickly turned into an hour and a half and, were it not for work and sheer exhaustion, it likely would’ve turned into much longer.
Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Shabbat – Day 124/125/126/127/128
December 5, 2012
You probably noticed that I’ve practically rolled the entire week into one. I can assure you, that’s how it felt to me. One giant, long, torturous day. Tuesday I was not yet fully aware of how my week would good, so I woke up at a decently late hour before physics at 10:30AM. However as the day wore on and the Operating Systems group got together it became clearer and clearer that we weren’t on track to finish the project. Tuesday night also marked the long glee rehearsal, from nine to midnight. However, even after completing that, I had to walk the twenty minutes to the engineering buildings to work till around five AM. Wednesday I was already out of it, and didn’t attend my algorithms lecture in order to scrape an extra hours sleep. I did make it bleary eyed to Rails class, but with so little focus, I may as well have been in bed. After Glee rehearsal, 5-7, it was another full night coding, five AM again. Thursday I was up at 7AM and was barely hanging on to the remaining threads of life, and the file system component of our OS was still nowhere near to being done.
By this point I was getting a bit aggravated and irritable with some of my other team members, which was not wise, and this further exacerbated the various existing problems. I did make it to all my classes Thursday, which was a miracle if I might say so. Thursday night however, was one of the worst things I have ever done to myself: nineteen hours straight of coding. We worked through the night, and didn’t slow, even as the sun began to rise, in the Rodin ninth floor lounge we pounded away at the keys and scratched our heads, as others scratched theirs in amazement as they woke up to see us the same way we were as the night before. This was surely an intensity of work not matched by any course at Melbourne Uni.
Friday morning, I was death incarnate. I reaped my way through what lines of code I could, before dragging my hollow body across Locust Walk for a final presentation of the lines that had so drained my life. Though our demo was passable, I knew that our code was a mess and our team in shambles. However, finally, it was over. I trudged back in the direction of Rodin and was caught on my way to my room by lunch at Hillel. However, I didn’t last long there, and soon I was wrapped up in bed. To stay there for twenty seven hours. Fast asleep almost the entire time. And just like that Shabbat disappeared.