Mazel Tov. My sister got engaged on Friday afternoon to a nice Jerusalem boy (American born) named shlomo. This was the official engagement announcement, prior to that they had agreed to get married but would not call it engaged as my parents had not spoken to the boy yet and you can't marry a girl without asking a father for his daughter's hand. So they had a couple weeks of that awkward stage of being more then just dating but less then actually getting married.
This Friday we went to a place in the Bet Shaan valley called Gan Hashlosha. Gan Hashlosha is pretty much an oasis in one of the hottest places in Israel. There are huge pools of water and waterfalls that you can sit under. We spent 3 hours swimming there and the girls actually showed me that they know how to swim. We went into water that was probably 12 feet deep and we swam the length of the largest pool (Not all at once, we did stop at a number of places on the way).
I am reading Harry Potter 6 right now. I like to read what my daughter is reading so I know what she is up to and I don't think she is ready for this book yet. Book 5 started with the whole boy/girl relationship, and book 6 is not really taking it that much farther, but ... I have to come up with a good age that it would be ok for her to read about dating/kissing someone because you are mad at someone else.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
tisha b'av
The 9 days culminates today with the 9th day of Av. The day that the bais hamikdashes were destroyed. The day that the Jews in the desert cried for no reason so God said (what parents everywhere have been repeating since then), "I'll give you a reason to cry."
For those of you fasting, have an easy fast.
For those of you saying kinos, try to actually read an entire one with the translation. Maybe it will talk to you.
(For those of you who don't know what kinos are it is the main cause for depression on tisha b'av Reading ancient depressing poetry that we don't understand.)
For those of you who are not doing anything for tisha b'av, please take a couple minutes and reflect on the state of Judaism as it exists today.
For those of you fasting, have an easy fast.
For those of you saying kinos, try to actually read an entire one with the translation. Maybe it will talk to you.
(For those of you who don't know what kinos are it is the main cause for depression on tisha b'av Reading ancient depressing poetry that we don't understand.)
For those of you who are not doing anything for tisha b'av, please take a couple minutes and reflect on the state of Judaism as it exists today.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Day 4
Warning: Religious Post
Do bad things really happen specifically during the 9 days? I was discussing this with my brother who got into a car accident. He wanted to know what I thought about those people who got a "pass" during the 9 days and nothing bad happened to them.
Here is part of my general philosophy (I've heard bits and pieces of this floating around various rabonim, so it isn't completely made up) - If you include God in your life and attribute events that occur towards his presence then God makes his presence more visible. If you attribute events that occur to coincidence and you take a more natural approach to life, then God's presence is not as visible to you.
In other words, part of our freedom of choice includes whether we live a spiritual life or a natural life. One story that exemplifies this freedom of choice happened a number of years ago before we moved to Israel. We were in Toronto for shabbos and someone smashed my car window. It cost me $250 to fix and a bit of aggravation. We drove back home without further incident until we got to the border. My wife gave the border guard her temporary resident papers and he looked at it and said that it was expired. We talked to him for a bit and he said this time he would let us go, but normally it would be a $250 fine. I was struck by the fact that God had let me know in no uncertain terms that I had to lose $250 that weekend. It didn't matter whether it happened by my car being broken, bad paperwork or the refrigerator breaking.
However, it is just as easy (or maybe easier) to not relate the 2 events at all. Bad Luck on the car (what did you expect from Canadian hoolums), Good Luck with the border guards (they did admit that the immigration office was 2 months behind in their paperwork so there was no way for us to have gotten the current documentation).
I believe that if this time you say they are unrelated then you have chosen to diminish God's presence in your life and therefore the next time he won't make it as obvious. (ie the border guard will just let you pass without giving you a hassle and telling you how much you would have had to pay.) If you attribute it to God then you have chosen to increase Gods presence in your life. That lets you more easily see the connection between 2 events in a spiritual way.
During the 9 days, God spits at people, but only those people who have chosen to have God in their life will know that they got spat on. Not everyone gets spat on, but those that do got spat on because of the 9 days. Those that don't include God in their lives are more or less ignored by God. Personally, I prefer God to be involved all the time and I am willing to take 9 days of getting spit on in return for getting taken care of the rest of the year. We have lots of examples where things just happened to occur at exactly the right time or didn't occur until we absolutely needed them. (Like finding a job the week we ran out of money)
Do bad things really happen specifically during the 9 days? I was discussing this with my brother who got into a car accident. He wanted to know what I thought about those people who got a "pass" during the 9 days and nothing bad happened to them.
Here is part of my general philosophy (I've heard bits and pieces of this floating around various rabonim, so it isn't completely made up) - If you include God in your life and attribute events that occur towards his presence then God makes his presence more visible. If you attribute events that occur to coincidence and you take a more natural approach to life, then God's presence is not as visible to you.
In other words, part of our freedom of choice includes whether we live a spiritual life or a natural life. One story that exemplifies this freedom of choice happened a number of years ago before we moved to Israel. We were in Toronto for shabbos and someone smashed my car window. It cost me $250 to fix and a bit of aggravation. We drove back home without further incident until we got to the border. My wife gave the border guard her temporary resident papers and he looked at it and said that it was expired. We talked to him for a bit and he said this time he would let us go, but normally it would be a $250 fine. I was struck by the fact that God had let me know in no uncertain terms that I had to lose $250 that weekend. It didn't matter whether it happened by my car being broken, bad paperwork or the refrigerator breaking.
However, it is just as easy (or maybe easier) to not relate the 2 events at all. Bad Luck on the car (what did you expect from Canadian hoolums), Good Luck with the border guards (they did admit that the immigration office was 2 months behind in their paperwork so there was no way for us to have gotten the current documentation).
I believe that if this time you say they are unrelated then you have chosen to diminish God's presence in your life and therefore the next time he won't make it as obvious. (ie the border guard will just let you pass without giving you a hassle and telling you how much you would have had to pay.) If you attribute it to God then you have chosen to increase Gods presence in your life. That lets you more easily see the connection between 2 events in a spiritual way.
During the 9 days, God spits at people, but only those people who have chosen to have God in their life will know that they got spat on. Not everyone gets spat on, but those that do got spat on because of the 9 days. Those that don't include God in their lives are more or less ignored by God. Personally, I prefer God to be involved all the time and I am willing to take 9 days of getting spit on in return for getting taken care of the rest of the year. We have lots of examples where things just happened to occur at exactly the right time or didn't occur until we absolutely needed them. (Like finding a job the week we ran out of money)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Day 3
I called a friend last night in California. They lived in Israel for a number of years, he joined a kolel that teaches kiruv and then they send the kolel families to places out of Israel in need of Torah. I actually hadn't talked to him since they moved away, though I have thought about them and wondered how they were doing. Last month his mother died, and I called during shiva to make a shiva call. The problem with making a shiva call to someone you haven't talked to in a while is that you feel like a real shmuck. It's as if you only call because you feel some sort of obligation, and then when you call you can't ask how he's doing or any of the other things you would have talked about if you had called at a normal time because the answer is he's feeling lousy and he thinks life sucks at the moment. So I called, spent an uncomfortable minute on the phone, offered my condolences and hung up. It's not the first time that I've made a shiva call to an oldl friend who I hadn't talked to in a while, s I decided on a policy that after a month or so I would call the friend back and talk to him about normal things.
I got his cell phone number and a good time to call him from his wife, who I saw online one day. Then I put off calling him for 2 weeks because I was busy until last night I decided that I was going to call. I waited until 11PM which is lunch time in California and I called him. I said hi and asked him how he was doing. He sounded a bit stressed and said, "You probably didn't hear the news" I asked what news. He said he was on his way to a funeral. His grandmother passed away that morning. Now I felt like a double shmuck, so I quickly said, I guess this is a bad time and I will call back another time.
Day 3 of the 9 days.
I got his cell phone number and a good time to call him from his wife, who I saw online one day. Then I put off calling him for 2 weeks because I was busy until last night I decided that I was going to call. I waited until 11PM which is lunch time in California and I called him. I said hi and asked him how he was doing. He sounded a bit stressed and said, "You probably didn't hear the news" I asked what news. He said he was on his way to a funeral. His grandmother passed away that morning. Now I felt like a double shmuck, so I quickly said, I guess this is a bad time and I will call back another time.
Day 3 of the 9 days.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Day 2 and counting
I was talking to someone at work about the ways that we are sad during the 9 days, he had never considered things this way before so I thought I would share them with my readers as well.
1) We don't eat meat. This is to remind us of the korban shlomim, which was considered the ultimate happiness.
2) We don't listen to live music. This is to remind us of the levites who would sing in concert every day.
3) We don't go into water for pleasure. This is to remind us of the water that we entered to become spiritually pure before entering the Beis haMikdash (BhM).
4) We don't drink wine because of the wine that was poured on the altar.
Joe Settler wrote on the Muqata blog that he has a hard time with forced seasonal emotions, such as becoming sad during the 9 days. In a lot of ways he is correct because in our reality nothing has changed from last week to this week. There was no BhM then and there is no BhM now.
What we are doing by adding on these symbols of sadness is more then just making our lives less comfortable, we are putting the things that we are missing in front of us and saying, look this is what we used to have and we don't have it anymore.
With that you can begin to feel the loss, not because of an artificial forced sadness, but a sadness based on a reality check that we imposed on ourselves so that we remember what we lost.
1) We don't eat meat. This is to remind us of the korban shlomim, which was considered the ultimate happiness.
2) We don't listen to live music. This is to remind us of the levites who would sing in concert every day.
3) We don't go into water for pleasure. This is to remind us of the water that we entered to become spiritually pure before entering the Beis haMikdash (BhM).
4) We don't drink wine because of the wine that was poured on the altar.
Joe Settler wrote on the Muqata blog that he has a hard time with forced seasonal emotions, such as becoming sad during the 9 days. In a lot of ways he is correct because in our reality nothing has changed from last week to this week. There was no BhM then and there is no BhM now.
What we are doing by adding on these symbols of sadness is more then just making our lives less comfortable, we are putting the things that we are missing in front of us and saying, look this is what we used to have and we don't have it anymore.
With that you can begin to feel the loss, not because of an artificial forced sadness, but a sadness based on a reality check that we imposed on ourselves so that we remember what we lost.
Monday, July 16, 2007
8 dairy dinners
The 9 days before tisha b'av started last night. The past two years we had real tisha b'av experiences (as the deejays on the radio say "לא עלינו").
Last year, we got bombed. We lived as refugees in Jerusalem. Of course we did the refugee bit Jewish style, as friends and family took care of us pretty well.
The year before we were in Jerusalem for the fast and we decided to go back home in the middle of the day.
The first thing we noticed as we left the old city was our flat tire.
It went on from there.
This year we are hoping to have a meaningful, but uneventful tisha b'av.
Last night we went to a goodbye party for friends who are going to England for 3 years. I believe the concept is to help build the connection between Israel and out of Israel. I spoke of Jeremiah and exile and how appropriate this was to send them off during the 9 days. An Israeli spoke about what a great opportunity this was and how this is the best thing that could happen to anyone.
Different perspectives. I suppose if I hadn't lived in America I would probably want to experience the life outside of Israel. They are planning on coming back eventually, but 3 years is a long time and their kids will be teenagers when they are ready to return. It will be a tough adjustment both ways.
I was planning on going to a meeting of the local tzedaka group because we really want to get more involved and they asked us to come. Dinner was scheduled for 8:00 PM and the meeting was at 8:45. I figured that it is an Israeli meeting, it won't start until 9:15 and if I get there before 10 I will be there for most of it. That would have been fine, except that dinner works the same way as meetings and the Israelis didn't show up until 8:30 and then the women didn't like the way the table was set, so we went for a walk on the beach until they got it all set up... we left at 1/4 to eleven because of our babysitter and I completely missed the meeting.
It was a nice dinner and I got an electric sander from the guy leaving. In Hebrew it is called a mishayefet.
Last year, we got bombed. We lived as refugees in Jerusalem. Of course we did the refugee bit Jewish style, as friends and family took care of us pretty well.
The year before we were in Jerusalem for the fast and we decided to go back home in the middle of the day.
The first thing we noticed as we left the old city was our flat tire.
It went on from there.
This year we are hoping to have a meaningful, but uneventful tisha b'av.
Last night we went to a goodbye party for friends who are going to England for 3 years. I believe the concept is to help build the connection between Israel and out of Israel. I spoke of Jeremiah and exile and how appropriate this was to send them off during the 9 days. An Israeli spoke about what a great opportunity this was and how this is the best thing that could happen to anyone.
Different perspectives. I suppose if I hadn't lived in America I would probably want to experience the life outside of Israel. They are planning on coming back eventually, but 3 years is a long time and their kids will be teenagers when they are ready to return. It will be a tough adjustment both ways.
I was planning on going to a meeting of the local tzedaka group because we really want to get more involved and they asked us to come. Dinner was scheduled for 8:00 PM and the meeting was at 8:45. I figured that it is an Israeli meeting, it won't start until 9:15 and if I get there before 10 I will be there for most of it. That would have been fine, except that dinner works the same way as meetings and the Israelis didn't show up until 8:30 and then the women didn't like the way the table was set, so we went for a walk on the beach until they got it all set up... we left at 1/4 to eleven because of our babysitter and I completely missed the meeting.
It was a nice dinner and I got an electric sander from the guy leaving. In Hebrew it is called a mishayefet.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
disagreement
I had a fight with a guy at work on Thursday. He thought that it was entirely appropriate to ask me to do his work for him because he was very busy. Except that he didn't exactly ask me to do his work, he replied to an email that someone sent him that they should come to me to solve the problem and I would change the process if it needed it. I looked at the system from the perspective of the developer and it all looked like it was working. The problem was that the user didn't fully understand the process. So I said to the guy, the system looks fine to me and the user doesn't know what needs to be changed, if you would like any changes please send me a detailed change request specifying what you want. He replied to my email that he would expect that for small things I would know what to do on my own. I still had no idea what he was talking about, so I went to him and asked him to open up the screen and I asked him what I am supposed to know how to do on my own. It all looked normal. He said well if there was no problem then you should just explain to her how the system works. So I asked him if he had looked at this at all when she asked him the question. He replied that he figured there was a possibility that it was a system problem and even if it wasn't, at least I know how to use the system so I could explain how it works. I explained to him that I was also busy and that I would expect him to look at the issue and then decide if it is a bug in the system before sending a user to me. He failed to grasp the concept that we each have our own jobs and that I am just as busy as he is. If this had been the only time that he asked me to do his job that would be one thing, but its not. On previous occassions he has asked me to make sure the equipment in the conference room was working every time he had a meeting. I told him where the batteries were for the wireless keyboard, if he needed to switch them, and he sent back a nasty response. So I suggested that he should check everything an hour before his meeting and if there was a problem that he couldn't deal with then he could come to me and then it wouldn't be a problem in the middle of a meeting.
In any case, we yelled at each other for 15 minutes and then I went and discussed it with our boss. He agreed with me that it was inappropiate for the other guy to keep trying to pass off his tasks onto me. And today he had a 45 minute talk with him. At the end he said to me, it seems like he wasn't trying to pass off tasks to you, he just doesn't understand the line between your job and his. (We work in completely different areas.)
Tonight we are goin out to dinner with a couple that is going on shlichut to England for 3 years. Shlichut is when an Israeli family goes to "israelify" an area of "out of israel" and convince them to move to Israel. This family doesn't speak any English, so their absorption will be almost as amusing as ours was here. Because the 9 days starts today, we are going out for dairy :-(
In any case, we yelled at each other for 15 minutes and then I went and discussed it with our boss. He agreed with me that it was inappropiate for the other guy to keep trying to pass off his tasks onto me. And today he had a 45 minute talk with him. At the end he said to me, it seems like he wasn't trying to pass off tasks to you, he just doesn't understand the line between your job and his. (We work in completely different areas.)
Tonight we are goin out to dinner with a couple that is going on shlichut to England for 3 years. Shlichut is when an Israeli family goes to "israelify" an area of "out of israel" and convince them to move to Israel. This family doesn't speak any English, so their absorption will be almost as amusing as ours was here. Because the 9 days starts today, we are going out for dairy :-(
Monday, July 09, 2007
anniversary
Apparently, my anniversary was on Shabbos. I found out Friday afternoon about an hour before shabbos (when my mother called to wish me a happy anniversary) and I couldn't even go out and get my wife flowers because all the stores were closed. In my defense, nobody bothered to remind me.
10 years.
I've been with my wife for almost 1/3 of my life.
One question that people ask married people is what they think is the most important aspect in a marriage.
The answers that I have heard include the following:
Anyways, we went out to a fancy restaurant last night to celebrate the occasion, Decks in Tiberias. There we feasted on lamb ribs, lamb steak and lamb kabob. For drinks we had the lemonana slushies and for dessert the pancake. The drink and the pancake were more then 1/3 of the bill. I would recommend to anyone going, to forgo dessert and drink water. If you are still hungry have another piece of steak for 35 shekel.
After dinner we headed down to the kibbutz lavi hotel for what has become an annual tradition. No silly. We visited people there. We actually got 2 for the price of one, because while we were sitting down and shmoozing (My spell checker says shmooze has a c in it, but what does it know) , Rabbi J walked in and sat down with us, which was a big surprise for both of us.
It's always fun watching rabbis network.
10 years.
I've been with my wife for almost 1/3 of my life.
One question that people ask married people is what they think is the most important aspect in a marriage.
The answers that I have heard include the following:
- communication.
- who controls the money
- individuality
- common goals
- food
- sex
Anyways, we went out to a fancy restaurant last night to celebrate the occasion, Decks in Tiberias. There we feasted on lamb ribs, lamb steak and lamb kabob. For drinks we had the lemonana slushies and for dessert the pancake. The drink and the pancake were more then 1/3 of the bill. I would recommend to anyone going, to forgo dessert and drink water. If you are still hungry have another piece of steak for 35 shekel.
After dinner we headed down to the kibbutz lavi hotel for what has become an annual tradition. No silly. We visited people there. We actually got 2 for the price of one, because while we were sitting down and shmoozing (My spell checker says shmooze has a c in it, but what does it know) , Rabbi J walked in and sat down with us, which was a big surprise for both of us.
It's always fun watching rabbis network.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
daughter at work
Yesterday, I brought my daughter to work. I had a vry good reason for doing this, it was my wife's turn to have the 2nd daughter's friends over in the mother's camp she is part of and we didn't want the older daughter fighting with all of them and bossing them around.
We have stuff for children to do at work, we have 2 computers dedicated for children and YES, satellite television. As an aside, I read an article a while ago about how the russian olim relate to the television options. Russians read an H like we read an N, so from their perspective there are 2 options, "YES" and "NOT."
I didn't want my daughter using the children's computer, because it is in an office not near anyone and she likes to search the Internet. I'm not worried that she will look for inappropriate things, but I am worried that she will find them by accident. So I grabbed a spare computer and set it up in my office (one of the advantages of being the IT manager) and gave her enough desk space to color and do whatever she wanted to do.
It took her a couple hours before she got bored, but she was very good and we went out for lunch together. My wife asked her what I do all day at work and she said I write emails and talk to people (which is moistly what I do, I suppose) .
We have stuff for children to do at work, we have 2 computers dedicated for children and YES, satellite television. As an aside, I read an article a while ago about how the russian olim relate to the television options. Russians read an H like we read an N, so from their perspective there are 2 options, "YES" and "NOT."
I didn't want my daughter using the children's computer, because it is in an office not near anyone and she likes to search the Internet. I'm not worried that she will look for inappropriate things, but I am worried that she will find them by accident. So I grabbed a spare computer and set it up in my office (one of the advantages of being the IT manager) and gave her enough desk space to color and do whatever she wanted to do.
It took her a couple hours before she got bored, but she was very good and we went out for lunch together. My wife asked her what I do all day at work and she said I write emails and talk to people (which is moistly what I do, I suppose) .
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
telemedicine
The telemedicine deal went through!!!!!
The work is part time and can be done concurrently with another job.
If you know any doctors who are licensed in the following states and would like
to augment their income, have them send their CVs and/or any questions to teledoctors@gmail.com
Feel free to post this message on your blog or forward it to your friends if you would like to help olim doctors.
You do not need to live in Israel to apply.
Immediate Needs:
Connecticut
DC
Hawaii
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
Nevada
New Hampshire
Oregon
Utah
Vermont
The work is part time and can be done concurrently with another job.
If you know any doctors who are licensed in the following states and would like
to augment their income, have them send their CVs and/or any questions to teledoctors@gmail.com
Feel free to post this message on your blog or forward it to your friends if you would like to help olim doctors.
You do not need to live in Israel to apply.
Immediate Needs:
Connecticut
DC
Hawaii
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
Nevada
New Hampshire
Oregon
Utah
Vermont
Monday, July 02, 2007
north american olim statistics
My brother called me up today and asked me hwo to figure out the average of olim from north america, given statistics he got from the Department of Absorption. I told him the average was 28. He still wanted to figure it out statistically, so I gave him a suggestion as to breaking down the categories and figuring it out with the numbers.
He called me 10 minutes later and said the average was 28 and he wanted to know how I knew. I told him that I made aliyah when I was 28 and since the world revolves around me, there couldn't be any other answer.
Next Sunday I'm meeting a future oleh in the high tech field so that he can network with me before making aliyah. I did this before I made aliyah, I met with a bunch of random people and I learned absolutely nothing. So I thought about what I could possibly tell this guy that would make it worth his time to come up to Haifa and talk with me. I realized that the only thing I have to tell him is that there are a lot of available jobs in Israel and that he can ignore anybody who tells him there aren't.
He called me 10 minutes later and said the average was 28 and he wanted to know how I knew. I told him that I made aliyah when I was 28 and since the world revolves around me, there couldn't be any other answer.
Next Sunday I'm meeting a future oleh in the high tech field so that he can network with me before making aliyah. I did this before I made aliyah, I met with a bunch of random people and I learned absolutely nothing. So I thought about what I could possibly tell this guy that would make it worth his time to come up to Haifa and talk with me. I realized that the only thing I have to tell him is that there are a lot of available jobs in Israel and that he can ignore anybody who tells him there aren't.
nice day for a picnic
Today is our company picnic, which should be a lot of fun. We had a company picnic 3 years ago and they made the whole thing treif, except for our family the caterer bought glatt kosher meat, special grill utensils and a separate grill, opened the packages in front of me and showed me . If I had known I wouldn't have gone. But I didn't know and we had a very good time, except for telling the children they couldn't eat most of the food and that they had to eat on paper while everyone else ate on china. (Why they would have fancy china in a forest picnic is beyond me, but they did).
This year we have 4.5 kosher people (minimum) and so they are making the whole thing kosher. We are also having the picnic before the 3 weeks start, which is also good religious-wise. Go Jews.
I didn't post yesterday before I left, so....
The picnic was very nice. We got there first (on time) so my kids got to run wild through the forest and claim it as their own before any other children got there. The activity was a competition between a number of groups in which we had to use team-building skills and intelligence to complete a number of physical and intellectual tasks. On example was we were standing on a rug (8 of us) and we had to turn it completely upside-down without stepping off of the rug. It included having everyone jump at the same time a number of times so we could pull out the part of the rug they were standing on.
The food was excellent.
Now that the President has resigned and we are stuck with peres as president it has been revealed that the main complainant consistently lied throughout the investigation. This is the reason the police felt that couldn't win on a rape charge and settled on a plea bargain. Why Katsav agreed to the plea bargain is beyond me, but he must have felt that they had something. Maybe he didn't want all his dirty laundry to become more public then it already was. Now that he will only be convicted of sexual harassment, he can become vice premier. At least that is the position being offered to Haim Ramon (according to a ynet report), who was recently convicted of sexual misconduct. At least they're not offering him anything important. It is the position Sharon created to get peres off his back.
This year we have 4.5 kosher people (minimum) and so they are making the whole thing kosher. We are also having the picnic before the 3 weeks start, which is also good religious-wise. Go Jews.
I didn't post yesterday before I left, so....
The picnic was very nice. We got there first (on time) so my kids got to run wild through the forest and claim it as their own before any other children got there. The activity was a competition between a number of groups in which we had to use team-building skills and intelligence to complete a number of physical and intellectual tasks. On example was we were standing on a rug (8 of us) and we had to turn it completely upside-down without stepping off of the rug. It included having everyone jump at the same time a number of times so we could pull out the part of the rug they were standing on.
The food was excellent.
Now that the President has resigned and we are stuck with peres as president it has been revealed that the main complainant consistently lied throughout the investigation. This is the reason the police felt that couldn't win on a rape charge and settled on a plea bargain. Why Katsav agreed to the plea bargain is beyond me, but he must have felt that they had something. Maybe he didn't want all his dirty laundry to become more public then it already was. Now that he will only be convicted of sexual harassment, he can become vice premier. At least that is the position being offered to Haim Ramon (according to a ynet report), who was recently convicted of sexual misconduct. At least they're not offering him anything important. It is the position Sharon created to get peres off his back.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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