#trutharchivist

[hyperpotamianarch]

טכנית עברתי במספר משתמשי ישראבלר שפגשתי ביום אחד מכנראה אפס לארבע. זה היה באייקון, ורק שניים מהם, שהם במקרה הדדיים שלי מודעים לזה.

מצד שני, עם האחרים זה עובד רק אם מרחיבים מאוד את ההגדרה של פגישה.

[hyperpotamianarch]

I may not remember much from studying Hilchot Kiddush HaKhodesh, nor did I understand much, but it's due to my interest in that that I can now roughly tell where the moon would be in the sky at a given time depending on the time of the Hebrew month.

It is a bit more of a "knowing intellectually", but that means I know that for the next two weeks or so the moon won't be rising before sunset. In just about a week, you'd need to be out at around midnight to see the moon rising. Also, you might be able to see it in the morning sky.

That was a random moon fact with Arch!

[hyperpotamianarch]

I am a person functioning on Rules. Sometimes, these Rules are stupid.

[hyperpotamianarch]

Some Jumblr blogs only allow replies from users they follow. Which makes perfect sense - after all, they can curate who they follow perfectly, they know they won't find wild hate comments this way. Good for them.

It becomes funny, though, when they follow my side blog but not my main. Because then, when I open the comments, instead of seeing that I'm unable to comment as is usual for me, I see that I can comment from my sideblog, and only from my sideblog. And my sideblog is a gimmick blog, I can't really use it to write thoughtful replies about antisemitism, so I just don't, but it's kind of funny. This sideblog is barely active, and I don't hide the fact it's a sideblog of this blog. It makes sense for people to follow it and not my main, but the result of me only being able to reply from it sometimes is kind of funny.

[hyperpotamianarch]

All right. Let's do it one more time.

This is my Jewish post.

I shall reblog it every time my dash gets flooded with Christianity, including posts about Christians' religious experiences, posts about Jesus and fanart of Jesus.

If I reblogged this post, it means I probably want to get my dash more Jewish. That means I would like to get asks, preferrably related to the Tanach, possibly Gemara or Halacha, Jewish history or just Judaism in general. Piyutim and Nusachim are also topics I have a degree of interest on. Alternatively, you can just send my way Jewish posts you think I might be interested in.

This is at least the third time it's happened. The count will go up with every reblog.

If you find yourself in a similar bind, feel free to reblog this post to present your feelings. I recommend you add your personal interests and what asks you'd prefer getting. It doesn't necessarily work, but I got one or two asks from previous posts I've made on the topic.

[hyperpotamianarch]

you're Wrong

In capital letters, no less! But you see, the problem with just saying that is that it's overly general. I literally have no idea what you think I'm Wrong about. Or maybe you're trying to say that at my very essence, I am a Wrong thing to exist? That would be a whole lot of judgement, but also interesting - especially if it has reasoning behind it.

Here's the thing. The quickest way to make sure people aren't Wrong anymore is explain to them where they were Wrong. They might hold onto their beliefs and be certain you're the one who's Wrong, but they might also change their minds or admit they made a mistake. But for them to do that, they need to know what they are Wrong about. Without such an elaboration, I can't come to any conclusions from this ask.

Also, lizards aren't necessarily this cool, I have no idea how to proceed with the darn cypher and further hints will be more helpful (but also if you were referring to that you'd have written in Hebrew), citizens are citizens even if they ideologically support evil things, the read more button should be distinct from regular text and being in bold words works awesomely on the browser, and the Elk being the General's dæmon was a suggestion, I'm fully open to criticism on it! The concept of the Plague of Frogs being of Crocodiles is something I honestly have seen, though the first reference to that I remember seeing is from a Haredi comic book in the context of the converso children sent to São Tomé. This is actually a fascinating historical story and you should look it up. And I know now that fairies can be Christian, no need to push on that. And... Yeah, that most of my currently on-surface stuff that might be relevant.

[hyperpotamianarch]

I never should've reblogged a post about Christianity. To actually balance it, I need to write something about Judaism - problem is, I don't have a topic in mind currently.

So, IDK, maybe send tanach/judaism asks you think will be interesting to me? Please do before Shabbat enters here, though. There's a long while until that happens, but still. And obviously, if it's already Shabbat where you live and you're Jewish please don't send asks.

[hyperpotamianarch]

So. I've returned to reading the Secret Commonwealth after a long and unreasonable break, that I can only explain by saying that wow, I actually needed to reread La Belle Sauvage before. I think that's the deal, at least. Anyway, I now have a complaint.

You see, I found it quite nice, that Pullman keeps use slight variations on familiar words, taking an unfamiliar direction that nonetheless makes sense linguistically. Like anbaric power instead of electricity, or Cathay instead of China, or Nippon instead of Japan. All have reasonable sources, and could have been used for the concept they're describing in an alternate timeline. Their sources are decent enough and make sense: Anbar is what amber is called in Arabic, and the Greek name for the same material - Electron - became the source of the word electricity in our world. It could happen that the influence will go the other way around. Cathay is the Roman name for China, sort of. And Nippon was used as the word for Japan in the past. It might even be a closer transliteration to how it's called in Japanese. All that led me to believe Pullman pays a degree of attention to etymology, but perhaps I expected too much of him.

You see, at the point I'm currently at, Lyra is telling herself that she lacks the Chutzpah to do a certain thing. The trouble I have with that being as follows: Chutzpah is a Jewish word. It came to English through Yiddish, though it's originally Hebrew. In particular, it came into common usage around the end of the 19th century in the United States, following a wave of immigration by east-European Jews. They, in turn, emigrated due to pogroms. Anyway, I see no persuasive indication from anything Pullman wrote in this world that Jews were in a position to donate words to the English vocabulary in this world. Frankly, there's little to no evidence that Jews even exist in this world. Leading me to question the source of this word.

This might seem innocuous enough, admittedly. But if you followed this blog long enough, you know how much I care about the concept of Judaism in the world of HDM. And having that exist feels like a slap in the face. Now, Miriam Jacobs - a girl who appears at the start of this book - could be Jewish, considering how rarely do people spell this name that way. But she studies in a Christian college, with no indication of any degree of Judaism - something that could have been so easy for Pullman to pull out if he wanted! - so it feels more like I'm headcanoning her as such without much basis, and the question returns: if you pay so much attention to the sources of words, why was this word, so unlikely to exist in this timeline, in this book?

Thank you for reading my half-coherent ramble.