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{{bheadernew|December 5th|http://ronware.org/devar/vayishlah5775.pdf}}

Hi, again!

It was a turbulent week here (though the weather was fantastic). King Bibi [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188150#.VH3q1mSUd3o fired Livni and Lapid], which means we’re heading for elections in March.  Again.  Esther made the mistake of [http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/12/03/another_lick_of_lollipop_google_updates_latest_android_to_501/ upgrading her Android device] to the latest version of the OS.  And just a few hours after we had shopped there, [http://www.jr.co.il/articles/shopping-at-rami-levy-in-mishor-adumim.htm there was a stabbing in Rami Levy] near us.

That stabbing elicited a flood of emails, SMS, “WhatsApp” and Facebook queries regarding our safety.  We were a bit overwhelmed by all the well-wishing.  Suffice it to say, we were fine (since we weren’t there when the event occurred).  And despite it all, we’re less likely to be involved in a violent incident here in the Land than any of our friends and family in the USA are.  Something to think about, to put things into perspective.  Just look at the FBI crime statistics for confirmation of this claim.

The fine folks at Google rolled out version “5.0” of the Android operating system. Esther, seeing the “system update available” notification on her phone, clicked to install it.  From there, things went downhill.  For some reason known only to the eggheads at Google, they significantly changed the “UI” (user interface).  So whereas before the phone took one swipe to unlock, now it takes two.  Whereas before one could make the phone silent with one click, now it takes a multitude of clicks.  Whereas before one had a dedicated email application separate from Google’s “GMail” application, now they are united and with a completely different interface.  Esther is not very pleased with this “upgrade”, and I’m not upgrading my own phone in the meantime.

Bibi finally got rid of the two biggest thorns in his side (in the Israeli government, at any rate).  The friction between Bibi and Lapid/Livni has been growing worse of late; but I think the real reason he got rid of them was to topple the government and force elections again.  He likes being Prime Minister, and he will almost certainly retain his seat.  Not that there are any particularly good alternatives at the moment, unfortunately.

Sarah’s (Israeli) friends agitated for us to do a “thanksgiving” meal, so we did that this Thursday (because of scheduling conflicts, it had to be delayed a week from the “proper” date).   We deep-fried a turkey, but the turkey was a little too big for the pot, so we had to move it around while it was frying.  Not the ideal.  But it turned out tasty, and everyone enjoyed it and the various accompaniments.

And I published my first “screen-capture-video”, demonstrating [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrI97yrtb5Y what we mean by “one effort, multiple platforms”].  It was much easier to make the movie than I expected, and Sarah helped me upload it to “YouTube” without making a mess of it.  Apart from that, this week I was working hard to track down and eliminate a number of subtle problems in the product.

It’s just the four of this this week. On the menu:<br>
turkey,
stuffing,
rice ''pilaf'',
candied yams,
''salatim'',
veggie ''cholent'',
roasted veggies,
and pumpkin pie.


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

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