Blog/February 2012/Feb 24th
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Feb 24th (See this week's devar torah) | Comments or questions? Click here! |
Hi, again!
Another action-packed week at beit aharon! Well, maybe not so "action-packed" -- but it was indeed a week! Mostly we just went to work and came home, which is what 99% of the rest of you probably did as well. But that 1%! Speaking of the 1%, if you are interested in buying a home in Maale Adummim, our next-door neighbor is selling her house for 1.7 million NIS (about $450K). Same size house as ours, basically (about 150m2, six rooms), with the same view... it's literally the house adjoining ours. You might think that is expensive (and you are right!), but it's what houses cost in the Land -- or at least, in our patch of the Judean desert.
Sarah's been fighting a sinus infection, and it shows no signs of wanting to go away. The doctor prescribed another course of antibiotics for her, but these new ones "messed her up" pretty badly and she didn't want to continue taking them. We're hoping for a complete and speedy recovery for her, רפואה שלימה! Oh, and by the way: she is annoyed when Americans assume she's going "back to the US" for college or whatever. She has no such plans, so get with it and realize her (and your) future is here! She's actually started looking into schools for next year, we'll update you when she's updated us.
Esther started doing extra work for her former employer, long distance. After a somewhat rough start getting the "remote access" working correctly, she was able to put in a few billable hours. We're thinking that what she's able to earn on that job will help defray our travel expenses in the summer when we attend Daniela's wedding בשעה טובה ומוצלחת. In any event, Esther likes working so much I'm hoping to retire early...
... or maybe not. My work week was ok, although a change I made turned out to be subtly incorrect -- and cost our company a lost opportunity to make money (not quite the same as losing money directly, but bad nonetheless). I was quite embarrassed about it; although my boss had reviewed my changes before committing them, and another fellow and I tested the changes -- we still missed a certain condition which was hit in practice. The moral of the story is just as our Sages ob"m said, "don't believe in yourself until the day you die" (mishna avot 2:5).
I mentioned last week I was going to start doing small Android applications. I'm still taking product suggestions, in case you want to make some money from my efforts! Anyway, my first "get your toes wet" project is a port (e.g. a "translation") of my trusty "zemanim" application. Of course there are already other "zemanim" applications out there for Android, but none of the ones I looked at were very good (in my not very humble opinion). And since I already have code of my own, I figured it would be relatively simple to "port" it to the Android environment. Turns out that porting the code over was easy, I've done that. But now I have to get into the graphical side of the Android and make something visually pleasing as well as functional. Hopefully I'll be able to point y'all to something useful in about two more weeks (remember, this is only done on my own time ... so progress is slower than usual. If you feel like investing $50k in my Android projects so I can quit my day-job and dedicate myself to writing code for six months, I will listen very attentively, and you can make a profit -- I hope).
Amazing, astonishing and just weird:
- The US budget explained in simple English even politicians can understand.
- The search for the "God particle" continues. Actually, the research really is going on, and significant progress is being made.
- Is it true that men are rotten?
- Purim is almost here, so self-hating-Jew and anti-Israel activist Norman Finkelstein slams the BSD movement and calls it a "cult".
- In accord with the megillah and ונהפוך הוא (the situation became reversed) Israel is poised to become a water exporter in a few years. Apparently it's real, so be happy!
- And even more ונהפוך הוא: investors believe Israel is a safe place to invest, even with the threat of war. You know that when people put their money where their mouth is, they really believe what they're saying. So what are you still doing "over there"? Huh???
Friends will be joining us for shabbat evening, I will finally have a zimun! The menu will include: salatim, baked salmon with herbs, chicken soup, baked chicken, roasted veggies, empanadas de carne, cholent, ful, poached pears and oatmeal cookies
Until next week,
shabbat shalom!
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