Learning Hebrew and PowerPoint

I went down to Abbie's house yesterday for the next stage in my training as a quiz master. I left feeling somewhat bewildered. Unfortunately, as a migrant to the computer age, there are still lots of things which someone younger than me would probably do instinctually which merely confuse me. I also have one of those brains which takes almost nothing in when things are being taught theoretically. In order for me to learn, I have to be doing it. I have to see what the point is. And whilst doing it, I will ask a million questions which I probably already should know the answers to, but that's the way information filters in! Old dogs. New tricks. 

This afternoon was hell as I tried to put things into practice. Abbie gave me a cable which enabled me to plug my computer into the TV and practice all the super-duper multi-media aspects, but it kept going wrong. Part of the problem is that I'm having to relearn how to use a PC, having gone Mac a few years ago. Buttons are in funny places. I keep randomly pressing the number lock which makes me die a little inside. I'm sure I'll get there, with time, but I'm just not hugely time rich right now!

Ho hum...

The other thing I have to learn is Hebrew pronunciation, as I've joined a choir which occasionally sings in a Synagogue. Obviously I'm there for the music rather than the religion, but I've always had a sneaking respect for the ancient, noble and, to me, mystical cultures of Judaism. There's obviously Jewish blood somewhere down the line in my mother's family history, so perhaps I'm simply embracing something which is latent in me. I've always written music which many people tell me can sound a bit Jewish, whatever that means. Arnold Wesker refused to believe I was anything else, "my dear boy" he'd say, "melodies like that don't come out of goys!" "No, they come out of gays" I'd say.

I suppose what I most like about Jewish people is that they don't proselytise. You're either Jewish or you're not. No one's gonna tell me I'll go to hell if I don't embrace God and accept him into my life. Born again Christianity is actually the reason why I'm a card carrying atheist. I had a friend called Sarah when I was about 16. We had a car crash, and I called her, feeling somewhat shaken: "I'm so pleased you didn't die" she said, "I wouldn't have been able to cope with the fact that you'd gone to hell." Bye bye Christianity. Go bother someone else.