View source for Blog/February 2012/Feb 17th

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{{bheadernew|Feb 17th|http://ronware.org/devar/mishpatim5772.pdf}}

Hi, again!

This week was [http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/valentines-day-gifts/ Valentine's day], a holiday one would expect to have no traction whatsoever in Israel.  Firstly because in Jewish tradition the 15th of Av has a somewhat parallel rôle.  Secondly because it is most likely a derivative of an ancient Roman pagan festival of licentiousness.  Finally because Jews were massacred en mass on that day.  Nevertheless, it's trickled into the Israeli scene, and this past week we saw stands full of chocolates and balloons.  No, I did not purchase any.

The big weather news is that it's been cold and rainy, and a lot of snow has fallen in the Hermon.  The forecast is calling for snow flurries in Jerusalem on ''shabbat'', possibly blowing eastward to our neck of the cacti... that would be ''really cool''!

Esther is going to resume doing a bit of work for her former employer in the US (from here, don't get too excited).  So in her copious spare time she'll be doing extra work.  I, too, am planning on doing extra work -- writing [http://www.android.com/ Android applications] as a "side line", on my own time. At the moment I have a few ideas to get me started, but I'm looking for more and better ideas. I'm also looking for someone artistic to help with the artwork side of things, someone to help with translations and someone to help with QA.

If you have a non-frivolous idea for an Android app, please feel free to post it in my  [http://dev.ronware.org/p/android/tktnew development site here]; (you will need to 'log in' as anonymous and then you'll be taken to the correct screen). Please do not email your ideas to me, since I may not notice them in my "inbox".  Please ''do'' put your email in the right spot so I can contact you if I decide to use your idea; if I ''do'' choose to develop your idea into a paid product (assuming it's not one already in the system prior to your suggestion) -- I will give you 1% of the price per unit purchased (not of my profit, 1% of the ''sticker price''). Not a bad ROI for you!

Things of interest:
* The ever fun [http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=257686 light rail]
* This week marked the passing of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston Whitney Houston]. The savvy folks at Sony Music wasted no time [http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/02/15/2247240/sony-raises-price-of-whitney-houstons-music-30-minutes-after-death?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29 raising the price of her music].  What, was that insensitive?
* Don't be one of the [http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2012/02/16 negative people]
* Excellent op-ed: [http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/291094/arab-me-lee-habeeb?pg=1 Arab like me]
* And for those of you who haven't yet got with the ticket and made ''aliyah'', it's [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/232074 ''never'' too late]!
* I never cease to be amazed at [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152655#.Tzfpk14tAks how powerful the Jooz are]!

We've got company for ''shabbat'' lunch, one of our friendly neighbors.  We'll stuff them with:
''ḥummus'',
''teḥina'',
eggplant,
beets,
carrot salad,
radish salad,
cabbage salad,
potato soup,
''schnitzel'',
meatballs,
rice,
''tortilla de acelga'',
crock-pot roasted chicken,
''salatim'',
chocolate covered strawberries and
chocolate-chip cookies

Until next week,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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