Difference between revisions of "Blog/May 2009/May 22nd"

Latest revision as of 15:17, 28 May 2009

May 22nd (See this week's devar torah)
Send Ron feedback on this blog

Hi again!

You can help feed the hungry in Israel!

This has been a very good week. The best thing is that Daniela came back (today!) from New York and will be here for the summer. We'll update you next week about her year, after she's had a chance to decompress a bit. Then yesterday, my product finally became "live" -- that is, people can now download and install it. So that's a weight off me and makes my shabbat that much more restful. And then today is "Yom Yerushalayim" - the anniversary of the liberation and unification of Jerusalem in 1967. Without the events of Yom Yerushalayim, we wouldn't be able to live where we do.

We have rented a car for a month, to make it easier to "do things" while Daniela is here. We'll see how that goes. It may be we end up leasing a car for a longer period, if we can justify the expense. Now that gas is over 6 sheqels a liter, we need to be more careful about how we spend our funds.

In techie news: I am making progress towards a Mac version of my Reva Forth programming language. This has involved changing the assembler I'm using for the 'core', and which had the benefit of pointing out some bugs I wasn't aware of before. I hope to have the "new version" working within a week or so. Not that you care ...

Israel is notorious for bad signs. People who failed the bagrut in English seem to be the only ones writing English signs. My favorite so far is the one inside Egged buses, which states: "Smoking is prohibited. Breaking this law leads to fin." -- a nice, ironic multilingual message. But this week there was an ad in the local paper, from the Mayor's office, directed at the English speaking population: "We hope to include all english speakers in our invitation malling.please give ypur cantact details to xxxx un the mayorws office" [sic]. "...on the anglo furom committte.after reciving the invitation. Please let us know if you gope to attend" [sic semper stupidus]. This is the very worst one I've seen so far, but no matter how bad something is, someone can do worse.

We have been buying from our butcher for almost two years -- he's been mentioned in these pages several times. Last week a notice was published in a kashrut paper, stating that he is not in fact under any hashgacha, which makes it impossible for us to use him. So we found a different butcher shop (in the Bucharian shuq), which has not only a much better selection, but is cleaner, cheaper and has the hechsherim clearly displayed on all the products. Caveat emptor -- especially regarding butchers!

That's it for now -- I've got to clean the house and get ready for a relaxing "family shabbat". So until next week,

Shabbat shalom!

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 {{blog}}
-{{bheader|May 15th|Devar/5769/Behar-Bechukotai}}
+{{bheader|May 22nd|Devar/5769/Bamidbar}}
 Hi again!
-This week the country was in the throes of {{wiki|Lag BaOmer}} -- an essentially made-up holiday.  Preparations actually started before Pesach -- with marauding bands of kids taking any wood that wasn't nailed down (and some that was) for the traditional bonfires.  We went out for a walk on Lag BaOmer night to see what was going on.  There were bonfires all around our area, including right behind our house -- so we didn't have to go far.  The sheer quantity of combustibles brought by people is alarming.  So is the [http://ourshiputzim.blogspot.com/2009/05/smoked-tuna-and-other-er-delicacies.html quantity of food] prepared by the celebrants.  I guess inside every Israeli is a pyromaniac awaiting release.  The aftermath was disgusting -- all sorts of food debris and smoldering fires left over the following morning.
+You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!
-Unfortunately, the "{{wiki2|Pope_Benedict_XVI|pope}}" graced us (Israel, not us personally) with a visit this past week.  So traffic in Jerusalem was terrible, the bus lines were rearranged, and parts of the city were sealed off from public access -- all to accommodate a priest of idol-worship and former {{wiki|Hitler Youth}} member, who has not seemed to set aside his anti-Semitic early training and attitudes.  I [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131376 have not yet encountered one Israeli] who was happy about this visit (based on my informal surveys conducted during my daily bus-rides to and from work).
+This has been a very good week.  The best thing is that Daniela came back (today!) from New York and will be here for the summer.  We'll update you next week about her year, after she's had a chance to decompress a bit.  Then yesterday, my product finally became "live" -- that is, people can now download and install it.  So that's a weight off me and makes my ''shabbat'' that much more restful.  And then today is "Yom Yerushalayim" - the anniversary of the liberation and unification of Jerusalem in 1967.  Without the events of Yom Yerushalayim, we wouldn't be able to live where we do.
-Sarah has recovered from her bout with strep-throat, B"H!  She also seems to have very good luck... before ''pesach'' she had taken out books from the local library, to be returned just after ''pesach''.  But up until today (a or so month later), she hadn't gone to return them.  So today we prevailed on her to make the arduous journey and return the books -- and pay whatever the fines were.  When she got there, they told her she doesn't have to pay a fine, because ''it was her first time''.  Mighty nice of them!
+We have rented a car for a month, to make it easier to "do things" while Daniela is here.   We'll see how that goes.  It may be we end up leasing a car for a longer period, if we can justify the expense.  Now that gas is over 6 sheqels a liter, we need to be more careful about how we spend our funds.
-Next week is Daniela's last week of the school-year, and we wish her lots of success in her finals.  She plays in a chamber ensemble on Tuesdays, so anyone in the New York area -- drop her a line (until end of this coming week, that is...) and she'll tell you when and where they play.
+In techie news: I am making progress towards a Mac version of my [http://ronware.org/reva Reva Forth] programming language.  This has involved changing the assembler I'm using for the 'core', and which had the benefit of pointing out some bugs I wasn't aware of before. I hope to have the "new version" working within a week or so.  Not that you care ...
-I was able to make excellent progress on my work project, so hopefully this will translate soon into lots of income for the company, and if they want to give me a bonus, I won't object.  At all.
+Israel is notorious for [http://www.whatwarzone.com/2009/05/bat-yamno-holonwaitwhere-hell-are-we.html bad signs].  People who failed the ''bagrut'' in English seem to be the only ones writing English signs.  My favorite so far is the one inside Egged buses, which states: "Smoking is prohibited.  Breaking this law leads to fin."  -- a nice, ironic multilingual message.  But this week there was an ad in the local paper, from the Mayor's office, directed at the English speaking population:  "We hope to include all english speakers in our invitation malling.please give ypur cantact details to xxxx un the mayorws office" [sic].  "...on the anglo furom committte.after reciving the invitation.  Please let us know if you gope to attend" [sic semper stupidus].  This is the very worst one I've seen so far, but no matter how bad something is, someone can do worse.
-We enjoyed our ''shabbat'' guests last week -- unfortunately, we have none this week.  But that's ok, 'cause the weather has turned really ''sharav''-y and it will probably be hot and uncomfortable this ''shabbat''.  As I'm writing this, I can't even see Jerusalem due to the dust in the air.
+We have been buying from our butcher for almost two years -- he's been mentioned in these pages several times.  Last week a [http://www.jerusalemkoshernews.com/ notice was published] in a ''kashrut'' paper, stating that he is not in fact under any ''hashgacha'', which makes it impossible for us to use him.  So we found a different butcher shop (in the Bucharian ''shuq''), which has not only a much better selection, but is cleaner, cheaper and has the ''hechsherim'' clearly displayed on all the products.  ''Caveat emptor'' -- especially regarding butchers!
-You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!
+That's it for now -- I've got to clean the house and get ready for a relaxing "family shabbat".  So until next week,<br>
-Until next week,<br>
 Shabbat shalom!
-{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2009/May 8th|May 8th||}}
+{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2009/May 15th|May 15th|Blog/May 2009/May 29th|May 29th}}

Difference between revisions of "Blog/May 2009/May 22nd"

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Latest revision as of 15:17, 28 May 2009