Blog/January 2013/Jan 18th

Jan 18th (See this week's devar torah)

Comments or questions? Click here!

---

Hi, again!

Laundry, laundry laundry. Lots and lots of laundry! After having guests in and out of hotel Aaron for the past month or so, and with the inclement weather -- we put off laundering. So this week we (Esther, actually, but who's counting?) must have done a dozen loads of laundry. It's cold outside, so the clothes and sheets and towels take a long time to dry on the line (no, we don't have a dryer). That pretty much sums up Esther's week, but at least we now have clean clothes!

After shabbat we took our nephew to the airport and sent him on his way back to the land of Hope and Change. He had a great time here, and we really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know him better. We all wish him a successful school year!

The next day, the insidious cold which had been creeping up on me in a most cowardly manner finally attacked and laid me low. So I took a sick-day on Sunday, but was able to recover (thank you very much) and go back to work the next day. From there on out it was work, work, work all week long. B"H!

And speaking of cold, the weather was very cold at the beginning of the week, but has progressively warmed up so now it is chilly but not terribly cold. It was clear or partly cloudy all week, and next week promises to be similar.

Last night Esther and I went to yet another political event (our third so far!). The elections are taking place this coming Tuesday, and of course our minds are made up; but we wanted to show support for our candidate, so we walked to the event -- getting exercise as well as getting out in the fresh air. Though I've heard Aryeh Eldad speak numerous times, we heard him speak in English last night. I was impressed with his good command of the language as well as with his humorous delivery. But the important thing was the "Q&A" session, where people asked some interesting questions.

The recurring question is: "By voting for a small party, won't we be throwing away our vote?". It's interesting, because that indicates to me that lots of people would be interested in voting for the party, but are simply afraid that their vote "won't count". The truth is that that isn't the truth. In the Israeli system, if a party does not get sufficient votes to enter the Knesset, the votes which were cast for it are distributed among the other parties in some sort of proportional manner. What that means is that your "lost" vote will actually potentially give Likud another seat (being the biggest party, they get the most "lost" votes). Likewise, "excess" votes are spread out (depending on agreements between parties and other things, its quite complex). So since 50,000 votes are required to get one seat in the Knesset, if a party gets 60,000 then the 50K are credited to it and the 10K "excess" are reallocated. So even voting for the party you want and which will get into the Knesset for sure, your vote can be "lost" (by going somewhere other than where you intended). Yeah, it's a strange system.

In any event, a party needs 2% of the vote to make the "minimum bar" to get into the Knesset. That amounts to 2.4 seats (which is 2 seats and 20K votes left over). The polls claim that my party (Otzma Leyisrael, in case you forgot!) will pass the bar; I assume they'll get 2 or 3 seats. For the small parties, each vote is especially critical -- so whether you're (Heaven forbid) for Meretz, Likud or whatever, cast your vote on Tuesday (well, if you're Israeli). In a week we should know just what the composition of the next Knesset will be, but one way or the other, Bibi the Spineless will be the Prime Minister.

I made a new release of my zemanim application for Android this week. It's got almost 2,400 installs so far, and for some reason I can't fathom the installation rate has doubled in the past month. I wish I understood why. Other than that, I also finally got my "long term project" code stabilised and passing all the self-tests. Now I have to hook up a nice user-interface and unleash it on the world. That will still take me several months, but good things come to those who wait, or so they say.

Last but not least, a hearty mazal tov to my cousin Shoshi Rose on the birth of her daughter!

This shabbat we are alone, just the three of us, for the first time in what seems like years. We'll have a simple menu this time: vegetable soup, baked chicken, roasted cauliflower, chard pashtida, various salatim and brownies.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

---

Top: Blog

Prev: Jan 11th

Next: Jan 25th

---