Blog/September 2011/Sep 2nd

Sep 2nd (See this week's devar torah)

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Hi, again!

Hurricane Irene managed to dissipate its main strength before hitting NYC. Nevertheless, Daniela and a lot of other girls were moved to more secure accommodations prior to the main storm front hitting the area (for which we were grateful, though she might not have been). B"H, she and her fellows weathered the storm just fine, and are getting back into the routine of "normal life".

While the Muslims next to us were celebrating Eid al-Fitr, we were celebrating Rosh Ḥodesh Elul. So we've got a bit less than one month until the "high holidays" begin; and frankly, I'm far less prepared than I should be. Somehow I thought I had more time, I don't know; but teshuva (repentance) waits for no man, and I better get started now!

Sarah commenced her second year of "national service". She will be working in Jerusalem, as a receptionist/clerk at the office of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. So far, she's had two training days and one full day; and has gained a great deal of appreciation for the travails of the "person behind the counter". Now that she's working there, maybe we'll have some protektsia!

Esther decided to try out the new train in Jerusalem. She tried it in the morning, going to work -- and said it was actually a very nice ride at that time of day... almost empty, clean and reasonably fast. It was also free, which it won't be for long.

One day this week Esther and I got serious about cleaning the garden. After a few hours of toil we managed to get the weeds removed, the bushes trimmed, and a semblance of order established. Turns out our neighbor's ground-cover had gone berserk, and taken over a sizable portion of our garden. So now we're contemplating just what to plant; herbs for certain, but what else? We also need to renovate the irrigation system, since it's old and leaky and the timer doesn't work.

Also this week: unknown mysteries of the electrical kind! We had a power outage the other day. That's not very common, actually; but it happens. Apparently the entire city of Ma'ale Adummim was affected. Except for our one neighbor, who inexplicably still had electricity. The same neighbor whose electrical connection caused us problems a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure he's got some sort of illicit connection!

At work I was involved in a maelstrom of activity, with an all-time high of five simultaneously "ultimate priority" emergencies to deal with. I really need to start bringing 100 proof ethanol to work. In other not-exactly-related news, I managed to improve the speed of the SHA1 code used in the Fossil SCM by 25% on average, so the tech-week wasn't a total waste. I'm also making some slow progress in the M"T translation, very very slow indeed...

Techie news:

• Pakistan has banned encryption software. Good job, making it impossible for businesses to work there. Let us all know how that positively affects your economy...
• You may think I'm paranoid about security (and you would be excused for being correct), but this guy beats me by a mile!
• And embarrassingly, the kernel.org repository was compromised. Embarrassing, because it's Linux based (and the source of the Linux kernel), and even more embarrassing because it took them so long to detect the hack.

This shabbat we'll have guests over for dinner, our friends and neighbors (and former residents of the Pacific North-West). We will serve (among other things): tuna salad, salatim, mushroom-stuffed chicken breast, onion soup, roasted potato salad, baked eggplant with teḥina, fresh fruit, plum cobbler, green jell-o mold

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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