Difference between revisions of "Blog/August 2009/Aug 7th"

Latest revision as of 16:10, 14 August 2009

Aug 7th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This week we went to the wedding of a family member of a family friend of my father-in-law's. Confused? OK - the bride is the granddaughter of my father-in-law's friend. The groom is studying at the famous Merkaz HaRav. Both are Mexican (though the bride's family is from Argentina, hence the connection to Esther etc.) There were a lot of people there, mostly from Mexico -- I think we might have had the entirety of the orthodox community of Mexico there. The chuppa was nice, though the rabbi talked too long -- I'm used to short-and-sweet chuppot. Next week we have another chuppa to go to, this time my cousin's... we'll update you B"H next week on that one.

The next day (yesterday) was my father-in-law Victor's birthday - so we took him to the Israeli Wine Tasting Festival, held at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Interestingly, we met up with several people we knew from Maale Adummim, and also met the daughter of a long-time acquaintance from the US, who made aliyah a year or so ago. Daniela also met a couple friends of hers. And we got to try wines we might not otherwise have tried. Afterwards, we took him to dinner at Ticho House which I just found out is also associated with the Israel Museum. I think he had a good time; I know we did.

Esther, Daniela and Sarah went to the beach (at Rishon Letsion) one day. Esther enjoyed the beautiful Mediterranean, Sarah enjoyed the sun, and Daniela enjoyed the shade. Something for everyone. That day, Victor was visiting one of his friends, so they didn't have to worry about what to do with him at a women-only beach.

Over the past weeks there has been a lot of discussion in the international media about "East Jerusalem" and how those evil Jews (oops, I mean "Israelis") are oppressing, cheating, and otherwise maltreating the innocent heroes of the West, the "Palestinians". I invite you to read an interesting article about how misleading media about Jerusalem are. I have already mentioned elsewhere that those same heroic "Palestinians" (or as we call them by their correct name, "Arabs") are persona-non-grata in every Arab country. Where is the Western outrage at (for just one example) Kuwait, who doesn't permit Pallys to acquire Kuwaiti citizenship? Ah, well, it's an old story by now, isn't it?

Aliyah from the US is proceeding apace; this week another NBN flight arrived with 238 hopeful new immigrants from the goldene medina. According to Prime Minister Netanyahu (who met the new immigrants at the airport), soon the Jewish population of Israel will be greater than that in galut. I'm not sure how he's counting, but regardless of aliyah he's correct. For the Jewish people in our Land are quite prolific; whereas those who remain outcast among the nations have a dwindling birthrate (and skyrocketing rates of intermarriage and assimilation).

Geek stuff (or, "and now for something completely different"):

I have a long term, love and hate relationship going on with Linux. I use that free and stable OS for all my private work (and even for paid work, now). But I get smacked in the face from time to time by things that still don't work. For example: this past week we were trying to set up my upstairs computer with Skype so that my father-in-law could "phone home". Skype works "ok" on Linux, though not as well as on Windows -- because the development of the Linux version lags two major versions behind the Windows version. Whatever; I accept that. But Skype also can do "video" calls, and for that it needs a web-cam. We have three web-cams in the house, but not one of them works well with Linux. So finally, I did some research and got my hands on a very nice camera (which works splendidly on Linux), the Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe. The integrated microphone even works excellently, so now my mother is happy she can see me when I call!

In further geek news, my Reva Forth project is now working very nicely under Mac, Windows and Linux. It's free, small, fast and fun. Next stop: making a "universal GUI" library for it which runs "out of the box" on all three OSes. Not an easy task.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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-{{bheader|July 31st|Devar/5769/Vaetchanan}}
+{{bheader|Aug 7th|Devar/5769/Ekev}}
 Hi again!
-RETURN OF THE DONKEY:
+This week we went to the wedding of a family member of a family friend of my father-in-law's.  Confused?  OK - the bride is the granddaughter of my father-in-law's friend.  The groom is studying at the famous {{wiki|Merkaz HaRav}}.  Both are Mexican (though the bride's family is from Argentina, hence the connection to Esther etc.)  There were a lot of people there, mostly from Mexico -- I think we might have had the entirety of the orthodox community of Mexico there.  The ''chuppa'' was nice, though the rabbi talked too long -- I'm used to short-and-sweet ''chuppot''.  Next week we have another ''chuppa'' to go to, this time my cousin's... we'll update you B"H next week on that one.
-We were minding our own business last shabbat, just sitting at home reading; when all of a sudden we hear a loud banging at our back door.  Not sure whether that was actually someone knocking on the door or not, we waited a minute.  Then we started hearing a loud banging on the front door, accompanied by the doorbell ringing.  By now you probably know we don't use the doorbell on shabbat -- and neither would anyone we know, except if there were an emergency.  So on the off chance there was an emergency of some kind, I look out the peephole of my front door -- to see an Arab youth in a T-shirt, banging on my door.
+The next day (yesterday) was my father-in-law Victor's birthday - so we took him to the [http://www.jerusalem.com/discover/item_1663/Israeli-Wine-Tasting-Festival Israeli Wine Tasting Festival], held at the [http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/htmls/Home.aspx Israel Museum] in Jerusalem.  Interestingly, we met up with several people we knew from Maale Adummim, and also met the daughter of a long-time acquaintance from the US, who made aliyah a year or so ago.  Daniela also met a couple friends of hers.  And we got to try wines we might not otherwise have tried.  Afterwards, we took him to dinner at [http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/htmls/Ticho_House3.aspx?c0=13392&bsp=12940 Ticho House] which I just found out is also associated with the Israel Museum.  I think he had a good time; I know we did.
-Needless to say, I don't know many Arab youths, and I certainly didn't know this one.  So I yell out to him, "Who are you?".  He answered, "''bedouwi, bedouwi, mishtara''!" (Bedouin, Bedouin, police!).  Not being sure if he were trying to say he was a Bedouin policeman, or that he was running from the police, or what -- I told him to go away.  He said, "''beHiyat dinak!''" (oh, come on!), to which I replied "leave me alone!".  And he left.
+Esther, Daniela and Sarah went to the beach (at Rishon Letsion) one day.  Esther enjoyed the beautiful Mediterranean, Sarah enjoyed the sun, and Daniela enjoyed the shade.  Something for everyone.  That day, Victor was visiting one of his friends, so they didn't have to worry about what to do with him at a women-only beach.
-Daniela came down the stairs, and said the guy had a stick of some kind in his hand.  So we were trying to figure out what exactly was going on, and whether we should call the police or not (after all, nobody was hurt -- but the outcome could be different for someone else).  In the end, we decided to call the security detail for the city after shabbat was over, since there was no more "excitement".  I went over to my neighbor and asked if this guy knocked on their door, but it appears we were the only people he tried to "visit".
+Over the past weeks there has been a lot of discussion in the international media about "East Jerusalem" and how those evil Jews (oops, I mean "Israelis") are oppressing, cheating, and otherwise maltreating the innocent heroes of the West, the "Palestinians".  I invite you to read an interesting article about how [http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=105779 misleading media about Jerusalem] are.   I have already mentioned elsewhere that those same heroic "Palestinians" (or as we call them by their correct name, "Arabs") are persona-non-grata in every Arab country.  Where is the Western outrage at (for just one example) Kuwait, who doesn't permit Pallys to acquire Kuwaiti citizenship?  Ah, well, it's an old story by now, isn't it?
-Anyway, after shabbat I called the city and told them what happened.  They said, "is this about the donkey?", to which I replied, "no, that was last week".
+''Aliyah'' from the US is proceeding apace; this week another NBN flight arrived with 238 hopeful new immigrants from the ''goldene medina''.  According to Prime Minister Netanyahu (who met the new immigrants at the airport), soon the [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249275687846&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Jewish population of Israel will be greater than that in ''galut''].  I'm not sure how he's counting, but regardless of ''aliyah'' he's correct.  For the Jewish people in our Land are quite prolific; whereas those who remain outcast among the nations have a dwindling birthrate (and skyrocketing rates of intermarriage and assimilation).
-BACKGROUND:  Two weeks ago we heard a donkey braying in the neighborhood, and our neighbor (the one I just mentioned) found it in her backyard (which is actually a common area shared by all of us).  She called the city, they took the donkey away, end of story.  Back to the main story ...
+Geek stuff (or, "and now for something completely different"):
-So the security person said, "No, today someone reported an Arab looking for his donkey".  And then I understood - the guy was frantic because his donkey had gone missing (but I wonder, who parks a donkey in someone else's backyard for two weeks?).  Our neighbor was the one who caused this guy a near stroke.  The Bedouin banged on my back door, because he came from the common area (what he mistakenly assumed was a donkey parking-lot) and descended the stairs which lead to our house -- and the back door is the first one he came to.  If he had only mentioned the word "donkey" (which is basically the same in Arabic and Hebrew), I would have made the connection and maybe been able to help him out.  As they say, "only in Israel!"
+I have a long term, [http://xkcd.com/619/ love and hate] relationship going on with Linux.  I use that free and stable OS for all my private work (and even for paid work, now).  But I get smacked in the face from time to time by things that still don't work.  For example: this past week we were trying to set up my upstairs computer with [http://www.skype.com Skype] so that my father-in-law could "phone home".  Skype works "ok" on Linux, though not as well as on Windows -- because the development of the Linux version lags ''two'' major versions behind the Windows version.  Whatever; I accept that.  But Skype also can do "video" calls, and for that it needs a web-cam.  We have three web-cams in the house, but not one of them works well with Linux.  So finally, I did some research and got my hands on a very nice camera (which works splendidly on Linux), the [http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/webcam_communications/webcams/devices/3057&cl=us,en Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe].  The integrated microphone even works excellently, so now my mother is happy she can see me when I call!
-Grampa Victor is here -- he arrived the day before the fast of Tisha Be'av; so he didn't get a very exciting welcoming meal.  But we'll try to make amends today, with the upcoming shabbat.  He's already been blessed by being able to experience hot (!) Israeli summertime (in the desert, no less).  Next week we are going to all go to the wedding of his friend's granddaughter (I think it is), whom I have never met.  The week after, we're going to my cousin's wedding.
+In further geek news, my [http://ronware.org/reva Reva Forth] project is now working very nicely under Mac, Windows and Linux.  It's free, small, fast and fun.  Next stop: making a "universal GUI" library for it which runs "out of the box" on all three OSes.  Not an easy task.
-Sarah landed a job helping new immigrants learn Hebrew.  Even though it's only a two-week job, it's good experience and will give her a little spending money. Daniela is going to be returning to the States very soon, which makes me sad.  My dream of retiring early and bumming off my children is still looking pretty unrealistic.
-We just observed the fast of Tisha Be'av -- which commemorates, among other things, the destruction of both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem.  Our Sages tell us the second Temple was destroyed because of ''sin'at Hinam'', usually translated as "baseless hatred" (but see my friend Fred's [http://alittlebiteast.blogspot.com/2009/07/harvest-has-passed.html excellent article] on this topic).  In any case, just in time for this national day of mourning:  [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1248277915988&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull baseless hatred, Tel Aviv style].  Not that this is really unexpected, but it should be.
-Today (on the secular calendar; Tu Be'av on our calendar) is the two-year anniversary of our return home to our Land.  We came on the same plane as our aforementioned friend Fred and his family.  Like all major life changes, there have been ups and downs -- but at least in my opinion, mostly ups.  Except for "Mister Zol", that is.  That's a supermarket here whose name ironically means "Mister Cheap" -- and has been the recent target of an email discussion on the Anglo chat group for Maale Adummim.  As far as I can see, nobody likes the place.  But one fellow's opinion seemed just a bit extreme.  I quote: "I've always said that I hope that when I die, it'll be when I'm shopping in Mr. Zol.  That way, even if they send me to hell, it'll be an improvement...".  Wow!  I think living in the Land helps you express yourself in a more... forceful ... manner than you might otherwise have been used to.  Just a tad.
-Signing off for today, need to finish preparing for shabbat.
 Until next week,<br>
 Shabbat shalom!
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+{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/July 2009/Jul 24th|Jul 31st|Blog/August 2009/Aug 14th|Aug 14th}}

Difference between revisions of "Blog/August 2009/Aug 7th"

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Latest revision as of 16:10, 14 August 2009