Blog/July 2018/Jul 27th

July 27th

The week started off with the truly depressing fast day of the Ninth of Av. So we went, literally, from feast to famine. Fortunately, 9Av is just one day; and this year, the weather wasn’t brutal.

Things improved over the course of the week…

We were both very busy, as usual: Esther with whatever goes on at a CPA firm, me with programming work and hardware upgrades and repairs.

Sarah started a new job this week! After more than a year and a half at Steimatzky (the oldest chain of book-stores in Israel), she decided she needed to upgrade her situation, and took a job with Nespresso. It’s a pretty big change from her prior job, in terms of conditions and training and overall culture. But she does get to drink coffee, which is a big plus!

We wish her success (as always), and if she decides to give us a coffee machine, we wouldn’t mind…

Daniela’s been busy with the babies, 24/7. Sometimes 25/7. She’s doing a sufficiently good job that they’ve put on considerable weight, and are even smiling about it.

News and views:

• What do you get with more governmental regulations? Nothing but grief!
• Extreme Left-wing policies have ruined San Francisco. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a Gift to the Right. The woman’s a loon.
• “Gender-neutral parenting”? Have a “sickness bag” at the ready.
• Harvard, which had an anti-Semitic policy back in the good-old days, continues their discriminatory policies today — only the targets are different.
• A recent poll shows huge gaps between Republicans and Democrats over Israel. And apropos: useful Jewish idiots.
• A new extremist movement engages in civil discourse

As someone with a professional interest in encryption and privacy issues, it is chilling that the US 11th Circuit court ruled in favor of allowing US Border Agents to search your personal electronic devices without warrant. You can even be compelled to give your password, or unlock your phone for these “agents”. In an era when your data are all in the Google or Apple “clouds” and accessible from your devices, you may want to think hard about how to minimize your exposure to bad actors.

Along those lines, interestingly: how Tinder keeps your location a bit more private (despite it needing to expose your approximate location to others).

The weather was weird this week. We had one extremely hot day (39C/102F peak), but then the weather turned much cooler and we’re looking forward to very pleasant temperatures for the next several days.

This week we’ve got some guests. We’ll stuff them with good vibes and:
homemade ḥalla, homemade sourdough (pitching in as an emergency back-up ḥalla), meatballs with rice, honey-soy chicken, roasted eggplant, tarta de acelga, noodle kugel, various salatim, and zucchini bread.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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