Blog/December 2010/Dec 10th

Dec 10th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

Hanuka came and went, the weather is turning cold, the world is insane, and so is work; wheezing and coughing, cheap contacts, Wacky Wikileaks, Spanish is not my second language!

We had a mostly uneventful Hanuka. Though the north of Israel lost forty three people and some five million trees in a blaze started by a couple kids, here in the middle of the country things were quiet. In an amazing display of how things are in the Middle-East, many in the Arab world cheered on the flames, while Jordan and Egypt actually sent aid (as did Turkey and Greece).

We've been awaiting the "turning of the seasons" with some anxiety, since our summer was one of the hottest on record, and there has been no appreciable rain. This week, the rain started (just a bit), and the weather cooled; and the forecast for now through at least Monday is rain and cold, even snow in higher elevations. Yeah!

This week the US officially dropped talk of resuming the "settlement freeze". But in yet another Kafkaesque moment, the UN and EU blame Israel for the "breakdown of peace talks". Could it be, just maybe, that unreasonable demands on the Arab part played a little role?

So for anybody in Israel who uses contact lenses, you should know that Adashot gives free delivery, and is a lot cheaper than buying from your local store. At least it is cheaper than the local store here in Maaleh Adummim!

This week at work I was able to hit a very important deadline for our Big Client, even though I was coming down with a cold. Now I'm in the middle of the cold, and that's unfortunate because my wife and daughter have to suffer me over shabbat.

Last shabbat we had a Spanish extravaganza. First, we had lunch with some Uruguayan friends, and after shabbat was over we met with some Colombian friends. I discovered that even though I learned Spanish before I learned Hebrew, Spanish is most definitely not my second language! I experienced severe Spanish overload; and at the end of the day could only understand half of what was said. Fortunately, that's not usually too important. And I did find out that Spanish is even more messed up than English... in that simple words are completely different in different countries! For example, a "bus" in Argentina is a colectivo. In Colombia it's a bús and in Mexico, a camión. How can an innocent like myself ever hope to understand what people are saying?

The saga of Wikileaks continues to unfold. Still nothing surprising, but there are lessons to be learned. For example, making a web-site immune to attack. Despite the efforts of major governments to take Wikileaks offline, it is still up and running. Those of us who are interested in keeping things going should pay close attention to the techniques used (multiple redundant servers, etc), and governments and anyone else with a secret to keep should also take heed of the fact that once something appears on the Internet, it's pretty much there forever -- for better or worse.

This week in honor of Sarah's birthday: pan de pescado, chicken soup, stuffed veggies, chocolate cake, homemade challah, chicken cacciatore

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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