Goodbye summer vacation!!!

We'll miss you!!

I went on the superman ride!!!

Oh yeah.

This post is a little late in coming, since all of this happened more than a week ago, but it is still very fresh in my mind, and I hadn't really thought to blog about it until now.
We went to six flags with my Israeli cousins last week. I don't know if they'd ever been to an amusement park before, but I was sure they had never seen anything like this in Israel. Of course, as we drove up, we saw all the rides that go tall enough to be seen several miles out. And I had the usual thoughts of "there is not enough money in the world to get me on one of those, and especially not if I'm paying them."

Ha Ha.

Well, I've been thinking that ever since I saw the batman ride they have at six flags merely because it went upside down. I've sworn since never to go on the batman ride, and so far I've kept to that pretty faithfully.
I of course had no plans to go on the Superman ride when I came, and we even passed it several times before I ended up going in. We passed it the first time, and my mom, who loves the superman movies, declared "yeah you're not getting me on that thing." I agreed. My past roller coaster experiences were limited to the Wizzer, which was one of the few rides in the park that describe themselves as "family rides". The superman ride had a seat out front that said "Test Seat". I guessed it was a precaution that said something like "this is to make sure you won't fall out of the seat in the middle of our ride, because if you do, it will not be pretty." It also seemed to say "If you fit in this seat, you will be perfectly safe!! Really!!!"
I wondered if there was any paperwork to do while you waited in the 800 capacity line.
After a couple hours at the park, we split into smaller groups, and I wound up with one of my adult second cousins from Israel (who is in the military). He told me he was going on the Superman ride and I should go with him "because it would be fun". I had two thoughts about this: Never ever ever; and "what if it is fun, and I never know it?" I looked up at the screaming people. They looked like they were having fun. I guess. And of course, if I didn't go I would look like a chicken. So I reasoned that I would wait in line, but not actually go on the ride when the time came. Besides, it would probably be too long a wait anyways, right?
It turned out, since it had just been raining, the line was only about %20 full, and the ride seated like 24 people at a time. So I had about a half an hour to get my wits together and go on the ride.
I might have gone crazy watching those people go overhead every 25 seconds had it not been for all the clever distractions they had for you to look at while you were in line. Like giant posters of all the superman villians in world history and their eye colors and life stories.
When we were about five minutes away, my cousin split into another line. This line was only for people going in the front row. It could have said, "crazy people only" and the waiting estimation was four times the other lines. I tactfully decided not to go into this line, but I wasn't about to go on the ride before my cousin did. So I waited. Not exactly on purpose, but whenever the ride came back I would say "Uhh....do you want to go next?" and the people behind me would say "Umm...no you can go." And then I would just walk away, and they would go on.
Right before I got on the ride, I realized that this ride was not any ride. When you sat down, the seat
flipped over so that you were looking at the ground. I was going to go several stories high looking at the ground the whole time. This did not sound fun. I resolved to keep my eyes closed until the ride started going downhill.
Finally I got in, and lucky for me the only seat left was the one on the end. So I sat down next to some guy probably my age with long blonde hair, who was laughing nervously with his friends. I wondered whether or not if my cousin was sitting right next to me I would be saying something along the lines of "I am going to kill you."
So the right flipped over like I knew it would, and it was about then that I closed Omy eyes. I felt wind, and I felt us going up. The guy next to me was saying "Oh this is crazy" I kept my eyes shut. And we kept going higher and higher. I listened for signs of the ride tilting downward so I wouldn't be too surprised when it happened. I got it when the guy next to me said "I don't know who talked me into this OOOOOOONNNNEEEEE!!!!!!!!"
I opened my eyes for a second, then decided it might be a better idea to keep them closed.
I would occasionally open them for a couple seconds. Now, ironically, I wish I had kept them open the whole time, because those moments when my eyes were open were the best parts of my day at six flags. My cousin later said that it was even more amazing in the front row, since there was nothing in front of him and it actually felt like he was flying.
It was an amazing ride, the most amazing ride I've ever been on. When it finished (the ride was only about 45 seconds long) I had two thoughts "thank god that's over", and "I have to go on that again". You see, after a little while in the "stomach position" you get used to it and I think you can enjoy the ride a little more after that. I told my cousin when we got down that I wanted another go, but when he actually agreed to that and started going back in line, I realized maybe I didn't want to go through that again. So I told him I didn't want to wait another half hour for the same ride, and we left.
But when I left, I felt different. I had the feeling like "the first thing I'm doing when I come back is going on that ride". I think when you go on one of those big rides, it becomes less daunting and easier to go the next time.
So, keep an eye out for me up there!

The Nine Days...

Working in an old age home kitchen, one would not think that I would be disappointed about not being able to eat any of their all-meat meals for the next week. But the truth is, the meals at this place are not so bad. In some cases, they're actually amazing. Of course, the only meal I've found to fit the description of "amazing" here would be the beef brisket, which I only had once. But what were the chances of them having that again within these specific days when we can't eat meat?
Well, apparently good enough, because when I checked in today (monday) and looked at the schedule, the first thing I saw was

"BEEF BRISKET"


"Is this a joke?" I thought to myself. How can God expect me to resist the old home's beef brisket? That's like some of the best stuff you can get in milwaukee (without cooking it yourself). Especially when I have to serve it to 5 different floors? And I'm not even so sure why we're not allowed to eat meat during the 9 days.
We better be having something good for supper at home...

pt anatomy

fawnd this up on the fridge.
class is now in session.

coming soon:
"castle slugworth!!"

How did it come to this?

I saw this sign in the elevator where I work today...

"MONDAY- JULY 28th

BLACK AND BLUE JEANS DAY

Wear black and blue jeans...just for fun!!!!"

Is this what we have to do these days?...

funny anyways

funny if you've played the games

Deep thought in the kitchen

Worker 1: Hey, what's the good word?

Worker 2: Oh...Friday's the good word.

Worker 1: Friday? Why is Friday the good word?

Worker 2: Because Friday is payday.

Worker 1: So shouldn't payday be the good word?

Worker 2: Yeah, I guess...payday is the good word.

Worker 1: Why's payday the good word?

Worker 2: Because we get money on payday.

Worker 1: So shouldn't money be the good word?

Worker 2: Okay money is the good word?

Worker 1: Why's money the good word....

I could go on but do I have to? This while spending an hour and a half straight checking lettuce.
No, seriously, I love my summer job as a mashgiach (or as my id badge says "Mashiagh"). I kind of have a thing for cooking and baking, and part of the job is helping the kitchen staff with preparing and serving the meals. So I learn a thing or two on the job, and alot of the workers are nice people. And I get my own office. So things turn out pretty well. The only problem right now is getting there. Of my last two adventures with the transit system, I have been twenty minutes late getting home, and today getting to work. The alternative, which would be to drive (and which I do most of the time) is much more expensive, because I'm not the only one who uses the car, and filling up more than once a week is a killer.

Ho man!

What are we Going to Do without the Xbox? Seriously, I think we paid enough for this thing for it to not break within a year of buying it. By the time the summer is over, the people at microsoft will have finally gotten their feet off the table and started the process of walking-over-to-that-box-in-the-corner-and-finding-out-what-the-heck-is-in-it.
If anyone has any suggestions on a faster way to fix this than shipping it back to microsoft, please let me know.
(we don't have three lights. we have one in the bottom right corner)

The story so far...

You don't give much thought to some things until you have to. During the school year, I would never wonder for a second what I would be doing with all my free time over the summer vacation. But now that it's here, I spend most of the time having nothing better to do than play xbox or drive my sisters to and from their day camp. Which is kind of boring. Yes I have work, but I generally do not work for more than 4 hours a day (not my choice, that's the way the job works), and not even everyday. And I'm still making...lets see... five times what I made last year? If everything goes well, I will have enough money to live quite comfortably during my last year of high school. Which brings me to that. I have a reading I have to write an essay on for AP english over the summer, and I have to study for the SAT'a, because I have to beat my brothers apparently awesome score. And I have to somehow sell 50 raffle tickets for my senior class trip. So it's not like I have nothing to do, I guess. I just don't want to do any of that stuff. I'll just have to face the music eventually.

Some of you old timers may remember we were planning on making a Space- the movie for the summer of 2008.

As of right now I have no idea if this is going to happen or not. I asked them to write a screenplay for me, and I wasn't so impressed with what they came up with. So we'll just have to see what happens with this.
But I can tell you that if we do wind up doing it, it's going to have way more special effects than I've ever used before. Should be interesting. It'll give me something to do.

The end is near

It's June. I've waited all year for it to be June. And now it's June.
You know my older sister can't even remember what it's like to have school in June? She gets out in MAY, while we haven't even started having nightmares about finals until early June. That kind of makes me wonder: doesn't college have a much more complicated curriculum, and yet while we both start at the same time, the college is beating my Yeshiva by a solid month? I do have a chemistry teacher who tells us that we only have two thirds of an ordinary school year since we have so many breaks, but I've never seen that to be realistic, seeing as how we have something like a fourteen hour day.
But anyways, with finals coming up, sometimes I start to wonder about my academic career. Not like what I'm going to major in. I asked my grandfather if he thought I should know by now what I want to major in. He said "No, it's far to early. What, you're going to be a junior next year, right?" To which I had to tell him that I'm actually going to be a senior next year. But I'm not talking about college. Just about how I'm doing now, in high school.
The whole year people in my class have told me how I seem to have it so easy, and I've never really taken it to heart. I do practically no homework at all, study for less than an hour for every test I take, excluding gemara, space out a significant amount of time in many of my classes, and I'm still making honors, albeit barely. What can I say? I'm not terribly motivated in most of these areas. I pay attention when I'm interested, but that unfortunatly is almost never.
I realize that this means if I tried, I could be close to the top of my class. It's true that I was offered to move up last year to the next Gemara class. I turned it down because it would have been much more work. Meaning I would have been challenged. That's supposed to be a good thing, but it wasn't the only factor. I usually don't seem to have the energy to try as hard as I see my classmates trying. At least I think that's the reason.
And of course, when it comes to finals, it's really the ultimate test of if I'm going to be able to get myself to study. There's usually so much material, that I know if I try I'll never get through it all anyway, but for finals I usually put in effort. At the end of the day, though, I always wonder how much good it did me.
Sometimes I think if I make things a little more exciting, I won't have the boredom issue weighing me down, and it might help me get back on track (not that I'm really off track) Like the other day, I biked to my house. It was true that I had multiple excuses to go there, but I think I just wanted to do something new. It worked a little.
Well, I have to go type an english essay...that I finished two days ago...maybe I'll look it over again. You never know what he's looking for in there.

Nuthing lik a barbiku

Last Sunday, my class had a barbecue/baseball game at a local park. The reason was because our newly appointed class president felt we don't have enough "achdus" (brother-ness [?]) in our class. Which is true. My class is split up into several different groups, most of which get along just fine, but don't have much to do with each other. But as our president illustrated with vivid examples (my *cough* room) we are clearly not at the level of the current seniors, which we will need to be if we are going to be seniors next year.
We noticed during our class meeting that we never have any 2 am barbecues like other classes do. Some of us didn't like the idea of eating meat at 2 in the morning, but some thought it was a good way to bring the class together. Both of which are true. We agreed that we needed to do something, so after brainstorming several ideas, we eventually agreed upon the sunday afternoon barbecue and baseball game.
I was not so fond of that idea because I usually go home on sunday and do laundry and see my sisters, but since it got postponed until after an out shabbos anyways due to rain, that didn't turn out to be so bad. To illustrate how the whole thing went down, I have chosen to write my own PT book,

Nuthing lik a barbiku
by rafikee

this buk belogs to
rafikee

In the afternoon, i go to the park
our gril dosnt lik to
not vere

my roommate sleps lat

i cary the gril to the park and its legs fal off
my frends get mad


ware my meat is!!!!
bak at skool, that is ware it is!

("What's on this page?")

This is me striking out at bat.

(What's that in the background?")

Those are the guys at the other field drinking beer upside down.

("They drink beer upside down?")

Yeah, they like to do that!

("Who's the guy in the tank top?")

That's my team's pitcher. He's getting a tan!

wut cind of pich is this?
Wuat!?
You didnt get a gud pcih. You shud hav walked.

Ar you going to leve? Ar you going to call a taksi and go hom?
no, I stil want to hav a barbiku.

(What's happening in this picture?)

Dreaming...do dodo do do do...

(What's he dreaming about?)

He's dreaming a ball is coming his way all the way out in right field.
oh, wait, a ball is coming his way in right field!

I COT THE BAL!

now i gess i wont leve.


Wi do I cep geting bad pichs?
Probably because you're eighth at bat.

Wuat! my stek is so smal!

mabe barbikus ar good,

F for "forgot condiments"

A for alon (in right field)

barbikus are more important
evry other day

the end!

The Crackdown

this video has been removed. Please contact me at rafiskier@gmail.com if you want to get a link.

In Memorandum

Long time readers may know that I own two palm pilots, by some strange twist of fate. One was quite expensive, but old, and the other was new and "school safe"-meaning it had no graphical abilities. Palm Pilots have taught me one thing; I'm very gullible when it comes to these ads and pictures of shiney new expensive electronics. I could see something I could not in my wildest dreams think of a way I could use it, but if it looks cool enough I will buy it. Such was definetley the case with these two gadgets.
After I got the first one back (it was confiscated in freshman year and given back to me at the beginning of this year) I was not sure what I was going to do with 2 palm pilots. I failed to sell either one. The idea of making a raffle for them with 1 or $2 tickets came to mind, but I never bothered. There were some useful things I kept on them, but most of the time they were not used or just unnecessary. I actually tried to return the white one 2 weeks after I bought it, but the return policy for Office Depot is 14 days, and I was on day 16.
So anyways, both palm pilots were sitting in one of my friends rooms over the afternoon (he needed to use the charger), and sometime between 5 and 8PM on April 8th, 2008, both palm pilots and the charger were stolen.
I was pissed off, but not crazy. I didn't use them for much, but collectivly they were worth $300+ and it seemed like a waste of money to let them just be stolen. So I went from room to room, searching. I had some suspects, but they turned out either not to have it, or hid it really really well. It most likley was not a janitor, because they don't work during that time. The Rabbeim were sympathetic, but they didn't do much more than I expected them to.
This is a trend in my Yeshiva now. Over this past year, more stealing has happened than ever before, especially in the last two weeks. As the director of the student kitchen, I can say that thousands of dollars in meat have been stolen this year from the freezers. Someone had $800 stolen over Purim break. Just last week an Ipod was stolen. Something, clearly, must be done.

The movie is finished! Expect a link very soon!

trailer

My Inbox

I probably shouldn't have given the PSATs my email address.

Purim 2008

Have you seen these renegade terrorists?

Sorry about the total lack of stuff

Between schoolwork and creating a major motion picture, I haven't had much time for blogging. I meant to put some material from the movie on the blog, but there are many reasons why I may not make it available to everyone with an internet connection. For one thing I am not so sure the rabb eim would approve of it. At all. It's not a bad movie in any way, but it may paint them in a less than positive light. I can't say they could suspend me for it, or punish me at all, but still...it would probably be best for everyone if they never saw it.
I have part of it on YouTube, but it has basically no tags, and I'm worried about putting any on it. I plan to make a trailer pretty soon, and that's what's going to go on the blog. Expect it sometime between now and Pesach. That's kind of a long time period, but I don't have any time as it is.

The Crackdown

New movie from the creators of other movies!
Coming soon to a computer near you!

Taking a much needed three day vacation

If you need me, don't. I almost died of exhaustion this last week. If I'm up to it, I'll make a post later.