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{{bheader|Dec 24th|Devar/5771/Shemot}} 

Hi again! 

No rain; blasts from the pasts; famous offspring; nihilism in the workplace; special projects and the holy krusades.

After the deluge I described last week, one may be forgiven for assuming the "rainy season" is upon us here in the Land.  Technically, it ''is'' the rainy season.  That noteworthy period commences after the holiday of ''Sukkoth'', now so long behind us.  But the fact of the matter is that no rain -- nary a wee drop -- has fallen since the downpour I detailed last time.  Perhaps a Message is being delivered -- are any receivers tuned to that frequency?

I am proud to present to you Daniela's [http://www.kolhamevaser.com/2010/12/theodicy-in-tanakh-%E2%80%93-a-practical-lesson-in-knowledge-of-god/ most recent article], just published in her school newspaper.  It is a great pleasure to be able to demonstrate how the offspring have surpassed their parents!  כל הכבוד, בתי היקרה!

Sarah was given a "new lady" to take care of -- for the first time, an English speaker.  Her other ladies are native speakers of Polish, Arabic and French.  But the advantage of being able to communicate in her native tongue is offset by the lady's extremely quiet voice.

Esther and I are engaged, as usual, in the ongoing struggle for sanity while working.  Hers is a somewhat easier struggle, I think (mainly because it's hers, and not mine).  From last Thursday until this one I (and another developer) were struggling mightily and valiantly to hit our deadline and satisfy our Very Large Customer's requests.  We succeeded but for one component which was not under our control.  After receiving conflicting priorities from our pair of bosses, we did the best we could -- but the Bigger Boss decided he couldn't send an "incomplete" product to our client.  Never mind that the product is what they want right now.  <grrrr>

Last week I contacted one of my former business partners, with whom I've not been in touch for a long time.  We had a short but pleasant email exchange.  ''This'' week, a former workmate of mine (with whom I had worked at the same company, twenty years ago, as my business partner) contacted ''me'' out of the blue, to discuss potential employment opportunities.  Very odd coincidence.  Nothing more interesting to report, though.

My study-partner and latent Thespian, Fred, is performing in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_and_Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan] comic opera [http://www.encore-etc.com/ Ruddigore] (no, I had never heard of it before either).  So this coming Tuesday we'll be going to see him dance and sing -- that alone should be worth the price of admission!  I wonder if I can bring in a recording device?

The Middle East ''is'' a funny place.  Here's the [http://www.youtube.com/user/LatmaTV#p/a/u/0/VCskBBBBmFw latest from Latma] to prove it, just in time for the Christmas holiday.

I've been working on modernizing a recurring project I wrote over six years ago for one of my clients.  This, because it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain it properly.  As a result, I've recently made a number of improvements to [http://dev.ronware.org/p/reva Reva Forth], and will be making a new release next week, B"H.  In other "geek" news, I am having unexpected success in converting unbelievers to the True OS -- that would be [http://www.kubuntu.org kubuntu] -- and my holy Krusade continues unabated!

THIS week, once again, we are ''not'' eating at home!  What's going on here?  I can tell you my daughter is ''un''happy with this trend... but then, she doesn't do the cooking.

Until next week,<br>
shabbat shalom!

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