Thursday, June 28, 2007

gonjers

I just saw an ad for the sale of the domain name jurjy.com and jurji.com
If you're going to take a name that is not based on anything, why would you buy it from someone. Make up something else that doesn't mean anything and buy that domain.
As of this moment, gonjers.com is available.
Publish Post

going to jlem

We're having a hoedown tonight in jlem, well maybe without the fiddle and the square dancing. The last time we were supposed to meet the sister's boyfriend they broke up the day before. This time we're not waiting for him to come up and visit so we're heading down south to get with the rest of the local family for an introductory dinner.

I'm starting to build up my professional network on www.linkedin.com if anybody would like to join, shoot me a message. It is more professional then facebook.

If at first you don't succeed...

I have been working on a business idea for over a year and a half now. As I listened to katyushas slam down last summer, the other CEO told me "The country of Texas stands with Israel." I've given up on it at least 3 times. Two weeks ago their CEO told me that he didn't see it happening. Yesterday he sent me an email saying, that maybe we can actually work this out. This is pretty much the last chance and I'm very excited about it.

Our former President admitted that he sexually abused the women he was accused of abusing. Now they are working out a plea bargain so that he doesn't have to go to jail. As I said before, we should not judge him until he is proven innocent or guilty. If he is admitting that he committed indecent acts, then we should throw him in jail for a long time. Plea bargains for political criminals are bad for this country. Now that he's admitted it, he can run for head of Likud.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

shekel and terrorists

When writing a price, is the shekel symbol before or after the number? I asked my secretary this question when I had to add a shekel amount to a report. She told me it goes after the number. So I put the symbol after the number. I showed her the report, she looked at it and said, "I told you after the number, not before the number." I looked at it and said it is after the number, I had put it on the right side after the number. She said that in Hebrew after the number is on the left side. I explained to her that the symbol is part of the number, so after the number would mean that it goes on the right side. In any case, all of the Israelis disagreed with me and said that after the number is on the left side, which is before the number from all other perspectives.

MK Rabbi Yitzchak Levi announced today that he would not have any problem freeing the prisoners who killed his daughter if it would bring Gilad Shalit home. He then qualified the statement in a letter he sent to the prime minister that any release of prisoners must be conditioned on them not returning to live in Israel, including the west bank/gaza strip.
On one hand, I am against this kind of idea. Letting people out of jail who have attacked you in the past and have no intention of stopping sounds foolish. Getting back one soldier, which is extremely important, for the price of a lot of terrorists who will try, as soon as they are released, to kill/maim more Israelis is not in this country's best interest. Sending them away tells arabs that the price for terrorism is a free ticket out of the west bank to a nice European country, where they will not sit in jail. They can still attack Israeli interests from their host country, including spreading hatred for Israel (in essence giving the PA hundreds of new ambassadors) and physically attacking Israelis who are traveling.

On the other hand, maybe we can send their wives and children with them and slowly emtpy out the west bank and gaza strip.

I would take a very hard look at where all the released terrorists from the last deal are today and what they are doing in exile. I'm sure someone must be keeping tabs on them.

Monday, June 25, 2007

shema

This morning I got into my car a minute early and I got to hear the announcer recite Shema Yisrael, as is appropriate to say before the morning news. The rest of the news wasn't that great.

It seems like our prime minister has decided that now that Hamas has taken over the gaza strip it is the perfect opportunity to accept the failed abu as our returning peace partner. Now that we have seen that he has absolutely no control over what goes on in his land, we know that it is the perfect opportunity to offer him guns and armored vehicles. There is a slight chance that those weapons will not be used against Israel, and the prime minister is prepared to take that chance.


Does anybody know anybody who works in the Israeli Treasury department? I'm looking for a little free proteczia.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

just another day

I'm busy working on my new software for home care doctors. If there are any home care doctors who are interested in hearing more about the software, please drop me a note. The plan is to open source it, and charge only for the service I'm providing. I think we can provide a strong viable service for the home care industry, based on the software and including billing, marketing and business management as well.

I read in the news today that there was a car bomb in Hilla. One of our kidnapped soldiers is from that moshav. That kind of shocked me because Hila is a 5 minutes drive from our house, right in the back of Miilya, a village that has existed since the time of the crusades (with a crusader castle and all). After reading the news again, I realized that the Hilla that had been car bombed was actually in Iraq and our Hila is still safe and sound.

An older couple (in their 60s) from Las Vegas just moved to our village last week. They are not religious, though they do keep kosher and part of shabbos. He's originally from Oklahoma so he wanted a place that felt like home. I asked him, "Isn't Oklahoma kind of flat?" He said, "yea." They didn't know anybody when they moved in and for some reason they never emailed me to say they were coming, as most people who consider Maalot do. So we heard there was a new American couple so we brought over some cookies. Nice folks, and its good to hear proper English again.

My neighbor did his reserve duty last week and the report we got back was that they didn't feed him very well. I guess the Winograd report didn't make that much of a difference.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

A sunny day

If anybody knows anything about or where I can find information on gambling laws in Israel, such as if a charity organization wanted to have a raffle, please let me know.

Ynet had an article that makes sense for the situation in Lebanon. It is along the lines of what commentor Bella Who was suggesting in that we give them a strong warning, while at the same time it is a warning with teeth and a demand for action against the perpetrators.

It seems to me that Israel is going to ignore it, which will just bring about more rockets.

In other news, the people of homosexual orientation (gays) are still planning on marching in Jerusalem. The last time they planned to do this there were a lot of threats of violence and then a war broke out. In an about face, the head rabbis of the black hat world have called on their people to refrain from protesting against the parade. They are afraid of what the police will do to their students. That is what is being said publicly. I believe that they want their students to be far away when the ground opens up to swallow them alive or if a large explosive happens to be planted on the path of the parade. Or something like that.

Syria has offered to allow the Jewish residents of the Golan stay there after it is returned. Someone just told me that a law in Syria forbids Jews from owning telephones.
On that note, I was talking to someone at lunch about the proposed State of Judea which was explored during the Gazan expulsion. I reminded him that one of the great tragedies of Jewish history was when the kingdom of Israel broke off from the kindom of Judea. It would be a mistake to try something like that again. Jews need to live together.

The weather is hot in the Galilee and the kids spent an hour in the pool today. Thank God and the parents for the pool.

Monday, June 18, 2007

tremping boys

Yesterday on my way home from work I gave a ride to 2 teenagers from Acco to Nahariya. We're talking as we're driving and one of them asks me if I know where Khanita is. I told him it is right on the border. He completely starts to flip out. What, they think I'm a fighter, are they crazy, there's no way. After he calmed down he explained that they told him he was doing gaurd duty on Khanita, and he had no idea where it was. Apparantly, he is in the army and not in a fighting unit. He wanted to know which border it was on. I asked him if he knew where Nahariya was? Because we were 15 minutes from the border at that time. He answers, how am I supposed to know? This is a completely Israeli kid, sefardi, wearing a kippa asimon, and he has no idea where in the country Nahariya is. I dropped them off and told him that the border was getting hot and he should enjoy his time in Khanita. Poor kid. I laughed the entire way home.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

a nice hike

I had a very enjoyable day today. By Thursday afternoon I knew that I was going to have to work late on Sunday because I was reworking the telephone and network infrastructure and that can only be done on Sunday evening. So I told my boss that I was going to be coming in late on Sunday and he obviously didn't have a problem with that. My wife graciously agreed to accompany me on a hike this morning (canceling her other plans) and we went down to nachal kziv, because the place I wanted to goto in the Golan was too far away if I wanted to get to work at a decent time. The kids were all in school and we went with the littlest, who went in the backpack for the first time.
We brought our flashlight because I was thinking of going into the cave, which I have been planning on exploring for a long time and haven't had a chance yet. But when we got to the natural springs (where the cave is), we decided to continue walking because we had never really been past the springs. It's a half hour walk without the kids and with the kids by the time we get there there is no desire to continue onwards. So we walked on for another hour. The forest was green and full. We saw a bunch of fig trees and a couple grape vines, though none of the fruit was ripe yet. The river was full of water and there were some pretty large fish swimming around.
Definitely something that should be done more often.

Tonight there were 2 katyushas fired at kiryat shmona, about an hours drive from us. The apologist government, with Ehud Barak as defense minister, have decided that it was a rogue palestinian group shooting them, not the hizballah or the lebanese so that makes it ok.
When will they wake up and figure out that any rocket coming from Lebanese soil is Lebanese responsibility. Lebanon allows groups to have rockets. If they can't control their population then we will have to control it for them. Any attack on sovereign Israel from Lebanon must be answered with attacks on Beirut. The people there will have to demand that their government prevent militants from using weapons.

If a group of Israeli militants tried to harm another country they would be hunted down with the full force of the Israeli military and police. There would be no excuses that it was a rogue group and there was nothing we could do about it. A government is responsible for anything that happens on its soil. If they can't handle the heat, they should ask someone else to do it for them.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

its getting noisy

I've taken a hiatus from blogging because I really have no time to write anymore. Work is keeping my overbusy right now. I have been taking on more responsibilities and I barely have time to breathe, let alone post.

The skies of our village got pretty loud tonight. We had dozens of low flying fighter jets overhead. I can't tell you which direction they were flying in because the military censor would be unhappy with me. Nothing is being reported in the media yet, so I don't think we bombed anyone. There were no loud booms, so we haven't gotten bombed. This might just be an evening out for the airforce boys. The wondows shook a little as one flew close by, but at least there was no sonic boom. That would have freaked out the kids.

In any case, the almonds are almost ripe and taste delicious. The girls school put on a nice performance for the parents last night and the principal announced that the school won an award in traffic safety. I think I'm going to talk to the principal about going for an academic award. If we start working on it now, we can probably get in good enough shape in 2 years to take math or science.

We are getting ready for shmita next year. Trying to learn all the laws involved.

I'll try to keep posting on a semi-regular basis. Obviously if the security situation heats up, I'll be letting you know.

Update

Ynet reports that the air force is just training, and there was no security incident. It was 10:30 PM here, a good time for practicing flying in the dark.