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deepstateofficeplant t1_jdl8r30 wrote

Are you ethnically Jewish or did you convert? What happened in college that made you religious?

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RidiculousBadger OP t1_jdl95qd wrote

I am ethnically Jewish. My parents met on a Kibbutz in Israel when they were in their twenties. I grew up attending synagogue a few times a year. In college I came across an ultra orthodox synagogue on Yom Kippur (a very solemn holiday) and they seemed to be so much more motivated on that holiday than happy holidays at the conservative synagogue I grew up attending. I began attending more and more. Part of my personality is that I like learning very detailed skills/philosophies/topics, and ultra orthodox Judaism is just about as complicated as a religion can get. My curiosity was met with acceptance so I got more and more involved.

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deepstateofficeplant t1_jdl9j38 wrote

That's funny. My conservative synagogue took yom kippur very seriously, but I'm sure not as seriously as any orthodox one!

It's really interesting to me that your curiosity and philosophical thinking for you in to an intense religion – I'd think it's usually the other way around 😬 what other extremely detailed topics are you into?

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RidiculousBadger OP t1_jdlax9c wrote

They were super into singing-- I was attending college to get a music therapy degree (I switched to music composition eventually). I was always more into music theory than I was into performance-- it's the math of music.

As a kid I was into Star Wars and got involved in online gaming in the 90s, before there were traditional online multiplayer games... had to do P2P connections. I read a lot of Star Wars.

As a kid I built my own PCs...

I became a meat cutter... Went down an artisanal bread rabbit hole...

I'm a foodie and I work as a specialty food broker (spent some years working for a specialty food distributor)

I'm on the Discord Hype Squad and I work with companies to build Discord servers (some as workspaces, some as community hubs).

I used to stream mobile games on my Youtube channel, specializing in theorycrafting explanations (if you're bored: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBiVyhKnpqs )

I got very into Classic World of Darkness TTRPG and started the first CWoD community server....

I'm sure there's more but there's a limit to how much random stuff I feel like listing before it becomes ridiculous (and I am certainly an expert in ridiculousness)

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alexs001 t1_jdlvu2m wrote

I definitely identify with your fascination with complex systems. I got involved with Waze when I visited Israel the first time. Now I’m a community leader in Canada. I get more personal reward out of that as a volunteer than my real job. We use Discord as our community hub. Strange to have so much overlap with a stranger on the other side of the world.

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RidiculousBadger OP t1_jdns4tj wrote

Totally!

I'm a huuuuuge Discord nerd. I've been building and managing community servers for 7 years. It took me a long time to get to a place where I could charge for my services, and it has been one of the greatest professional joys of my life to have been contracted by a company to redesign the server they use as their workspace.... don't tell them but I would have done it for free in a heartbeat 😄

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alexs001 t1_jdnvjf7 wrote

Hope you take the bot’s advice and do another AMA. Your story is quite interesting.

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RidiculousBadger OP t1_jdo53ys wrote

Thanks, after reviewing the rules I'm not sure what the issue is, exactly. I think the mods have an issue with the proof I provided. I saw many people show a picture of themselves holding a note, although I'm not sure why that would be better proof than showing an image of a religious text I own. It seems to me that showing I own religious Hebrew texts would be stronger proof than a picture of my face. If you have any insight into what I did incorrectly, I would be appreciative.

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alexs001 t1_jdo7hqa wrote

I suppose it’s this:

“AMAs should NOT be about:
Common topics. This includes: Your day, your girlfriend, being bored or drunk, weight loss, your opinion on something, your gender identity, your religion, or your psychiatric disorders, needing sympathy or support, etc.“

I’d grant an exemption considering how uncommon your path is, but I’m not a mod. Perhaps they don’t want to open that door.

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moodpecker t1_jdl96yz wrote

Stranger placing a dollar bet it was the campus Chabad house. You wouldn't expect Shabbos dinner with an orthodox family and a bunch of strangers to be as fun as it is.

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deepstateofficeplant t1_jdl9cfd wrote

Man it's been ages since I've been to one of those but...yeah totally. The chabad of a college near me actually got in a bit of trouble for partying too hard!

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RidiculousBadger OP t1_jdl9nuu wrote

You catch more flies with honey... errr... more non-religious Jews with vodka ;)

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moodpecker t1_jdnff5u wrote

Or peach schnapps, in my experience

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RidiculousBadger OP t1_jdnqvpt wrote

First liquor I ever tried as a kid when I swiped a bottle from my parents' liquor cabinet-- love that stuff lol

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