Blog/January 2008/Jan 11th

January 11th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

Realizing that our cellphones are more expensive than they need to be, we decided to get different ones. That should be simple, right? Go to the store, get information on the plans and phones, make a choice and sign up. What could be easier? Well, we went to the Cellcom store in the mall here, because their plans are less expensive than the main rival Orange's plans. The man behind the counter explained the plans - after ten minutes we finally understood what he was saying. Then we asked which phones were in the plan, and he pointed to the entire display case. So we looked for a while and picked phones we liked. He then told us, "Sorry, that phone isn't in-stock". OK, so when will it be in stock? "We haven't had it for two months...". OK... so which phones do you have? "All the phones on this side, besides those two." So we looked and looked, and finally made our choices. He said, "That phone isn't in stock, I'll have to order it for you." We spent an hour of our time, and ended up with nothing. Now I ask you, does this sound like a person who is interested in selling phones? Doesn't Cellcom care they have nitwits selling their plans?

Of course, the big news this week is the visit of King George II. Well, given the extreme security measures (key avenues in central Jerusalem shut down; over 10,000 police deployed to protect him; all 237 rooms of the King David hotel bought out to prevent "outsiders" getting close to him) it seemed like he should be called "King". Some in the Looney Left in Israel seemed to think a, well, much more intimate relationship with the US is desired. Then again, our whacky "partners for peace" could scarcely contain their joy.

Even our humble town got in the act. Not only did we get specifically mentioned by the Court Jester -- eh, I mean our Prime Minister -- but the city stuck these notices in all the cars parked around town, the day before His Highness came to visit. The translation is: "Attention, residents of the city! Due to the visit of the President of the USA to Israel, there will be traffic problems, rerouting of traffic, road blockages and exacting examinations at roadblocks." That's just the part in black background at the top! As it turns out, traffic for me wasn't so bad; in fact, it was better than usual since people were frightened into skipping work because they feared sitting in traffic jams.

The city of Jerusalem put special information on their web site. I'm sorry, but that has got to be the most poorly designed site I've seen in years. Who designed it, the mayor's five-year old nephew? It doesn't work in IE or Firefox... just who is supposed to look at it? Compare it with the Maaleh Adummim site, which is ugly but at least it loads properly...

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Shabbat shalom!

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