Blog/July 2012/Jul 27th

July 27th (See this week's devar torah)

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Hi, again!

It was our first wholly "normal" week in a while. Work, work and more work. Esther returned to work, to find that little had changed though she had piles of work to do. Sarah had to deal with an unusual number of unreasonable people. I had to document a lot of code we had purchased, while mentoring and being in meetings half the time. A busy week all around!

It's not clear whether or not Esther's job will remain, or whether or not she will remain there. The job is pretty standard, but the lack of a sense that the owner cares about the business makes it difficult for her. Sarah's job is drawing to a close as her "national service" term expires at the end of August. But as it draws to a close, it seems the quality of her customers is going down. She's had numerous people come in and immediately start yelling at her (and the other young ladies there). I was happy to hear her relate, however, that she didn't just "take it" -- instead, she politely stood up for herself and her office-mates, and didn't absorb abuse. כל הכבוד!

This week at my job, we hosted a guy whose code we purchased. So the entire week was spent in meetings and code reviews and documenting this new stuff. At the same time, our IT people chose to introduce some "new" technology (wiki, bugzilla) so I was called upon to mentor others in how to use this stuff. I also had to fix bugs in our existing code, help other people design new things and so on. I am very happy shabbat is almost here!

Esther and I did manage to cast our votes in the Washington State primaries, this week. As it happens, as long as you are an American citizen you can vote (and they want you to vote). Doesn't matter where you live, but if you're an expat you need to register to vote with the voter's registration office for the last place you lived in the US. So we are registered in King County, WA ... meaning, essentially, that our votes are pretty much nullified. Still, it doesn't cost us anything -- we can submit our voters entirely on-line -- and who knows? Maybe WA will become more rational... it could happen.

The British -- ah, the British! They are hosting the Olympics this year, commencing this Friday. But there will be no moment of silence for the Israeli athletes murdered in cold-blood by the PLO (now the PA, please remember) forty years ago in Munich. The British strain of antisemitism runs so deep that the BBC had the temerity to show Israel as having no capital at all, while the fictitious state of "Palestine" had its capital in east Jerusalem. That was fixed, but only partially; they're too frightened of "enraging" their Muslim population. So goes what's left of their empire...

Odds and ends:

• The "Arab Spring" is in full bloom! Please view this carefully: this clip from Egyptian TV. That's who we have to deal with, people.
• Is her name Zoabi or zabi?
• Now that Microsoft owns it, there are concerns that they can wiretap Skype. I called it first!
• Are you surprised this geek got beat up in France?
• Israeli inventiveness! bicycles from recycled cardboard

This week shabbat is the day before the fast of Tishʿa beʼav (the 9th of Av, which actually falls on shabbat itself: but since we're not permitted to mourn on shabbat, the fast is deferred a day). Normally we would eat lightly and restrict what we ate on the eve of 9th Av, but since it falls on shabbat there are no restrictions. So we'll have: salatim, mushroom-barley soup, roast chicken, chili, fruit, granola cookies, and apple cake

Until next week,
shabbat shalom, and easy fast (Sunday)!

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