Blog/September 2018/Sep 14th
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September 14th
The holiday was very pleasant this year. We had guests on both days, managed to survive two days of lengthy synagogue services, and the weather was fine. All good! Daniela et. fam. spent the holiday in Baltimore with Jeremy’s parents.
Because of the holiday, there’s not much to report on our end. We both worked on the non-holiday days, but it’s not easy to work more than we already work. So nothing special there.
Sarah was chosen as one of the “star employees” this week; recognition but, sadly, no raise. To be fair, she only just started working there…
My users noticed a few bugs which I promptly fixed. Nothing to see here!
In the wider programming world, there’s a purge going on. The terms “master” and “slave” as applied to technology are apparently causing too many sensitive young’n’s trauma. Therefore the words themselves, being insensitive and insensible (not to mention taken out of all context) are being expunged and replaced with less “triggering” words. The search for analogues which will not offend someone, somewhere, continues; I doubt we’ve heard the end of this asininity.
Just wondering, when will the word “triggering” rightly be considered to be, itself, “triggering”?
Speaking of asininity: have you considered The Disruptive Possibilities of Plant Milk? You haven’t, really? Well, hoist a glass of “mylk”, my Politically Correct and Revolutionary Hardies, and overturn the Evil White Male Patriarchy which foists “milk” on the masses. And lest we forget, “milk” is used by the Far Right™ as a dog-whistle to signal racial purity. You heard it here, mates!
Rounding out the asininitude this week: a Jewish-American left-winger was detained at the border. Israel’s border, that is. Because “they” are a trouble-maker and we take our border-control much more seriously than Americans do. Even our Leftists do, for the most part. Unfortunately, “they” was1(sic.) allowed to enter the country. I’m pretty sure Gaza would have welcomed “them” with a 21-gun salute. Or something.
<rant>
An aside: I’m all for respecting people’s choices and being “live and let live”. But the whole “use my pronouns” thing really pisses me off. Why should I change my entire mode of speech to accommodate your pathology?
</rant>
Some Jewish content: a recent article entitled How NASA proved the Rambam wrong really only serves to prove that the author hasn’t read or understood Rambam (Maimonides) sufficiently. It is certainly true that the astronomical truths Rambam wrote in the beginning of his monumental work “Mishne Torah” are not true according to current scientific knowledge. However, they were considered true according to the best current scientific knowledge of Rambam’s time. Were he alive today, he would undoubtedly have updated these couple of chapters to reflect modern science, because he stated that we must accept the truth from whatever source: and his sources for the science were contemporary, non-Jewish ones.
So, no: NASA didn’t prove Rambam wrong; long before NASA, Copernicus proved Rambam’s scientific understanding outdated. But then, Copernicus lived a couple hundred years after him.
In good news, the US is defunding UNRWA and taking multiple other punitive actions against the terrorists. Finally!
Anyway, we’re done with Rosh HaShana but moving quickly towards Yom HaKippurim (the “Day of Atonement”), which falls on Wednesday this coming week. Fortunately it’s only one day. I don’t think I could manage a two-day total fast!
The weather looks to be pleasant for the next several days, becoming a bit warmer for the fast. Hopefully that forecast will only trend downwards, but despite claims to the contrary, Jews don’t control the weather. Yet.
After the holiday crowd, we’re going it alone this shabbat. We’ll have:
homemade ḥalla,
grilled chicken breast,
matsa-ball soup,
multi-veggie soup,
various salatim,
and banana-muffins.
Until next time,
shabbat shalom and gemar ḥatima ṭova!
1 I don’t know for sure, but I’m following the rule that one applies the singular case to a single entity, so therefore “was” is more fitting than “were”. But hell, I would have used “she” and “her” rather than “they” and “them”!
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