for a personal recommendation?
Sean Penn praised by Venezuela's Chavez
One can only assume that Ahmedinajad and Osama himself are also writing letters on Mr. Penn's behalf to all the colleges he's applying to.
Remember, folks - who you idolize and associate with says a lot about who you are.
The great grand-daddy of us all (many of us, anyway), El Possumo, Dr. Possum hisself, is hangin' it up.
Personally, I fail to see why something as meaningless as a job is more important than the way I waste my day when I should be working.
The fact is, Terry blogs in part so I don't have to. Looking around here, you can see I've fallen off the wagon a bit myself over the last few months. But I could always count on Possumblog to check three or four times a day to see something weird, interesting, intelligent, or ever so slightly off color. And that was only in the quotes he put up every week.
I'm only blogging here because of him and Jim Smith - the two of them noodged enough that I started this here steaming pile of crappy electrons. Though truth be told we can lay some blame at Jordana's feet - I only found Boss Possum after seeing a link to her blog from National Review's Corner blog. It seems odd that I should continue when he stops - seems like the chain, broken at the top, should fall apart.
But that, in essence, is the point of blogging - once started, no matter who egged you on, you're on your own. This isn't meant to be a moralistic tale of an aging, balding Jew, raised by his PossumPappy to finally blog on his own two feet. The heading for this post is, in fact, completely mistaken. It is fair. It's entirely fair that the real Terry - not the entertaining raconteur of my bloglife - should continue to grow as a person and live the life he needs to lead for himself and his family.
That it will impact part of my life is noticeable, but in essence irrelevant. Blogging is a pastime for most of us, not a fungible career. And when advancement calls, pastimes have to take second place. I will miss the daily conversations of Possumblog, which is where the real fun was for me. It was a chance to talk to folks I find entertaining, a place to trade one-liners and gently snide insults with a group of people I would never have met otherwise.
Look, nobody died here. Terry remains around, and emails are always available. Heck, I might even start blogging regularly again, in the hopes that I won't lose touch with the crowd I "met" over at PB. It's nice to call you folks that I've never even met in person friends, leaving aside the oddities of a New York Suburban Hebrew palling around with a Southern Rednecked Christian Goober (hmmm - I sense a sitcom plot in there somewhere...)
Life will continue, and there's no "forever" here in the blogosphere. There's no reason Terry won't someday return, even on a semi-regular basis. But in the meantime, the internet has just become a less interesting place to hang out, and that makes me sad.
Shalom, Possumblog.
will set you free:
A Senate Immigration Update
Or just prove that you're the big babies we all knew you were.
Is the detail in this story really necessary?
Bush to have colonoscopy at Camp David
While I appreciate knowing that the President is being cared for, and that he's taken care of the constitutional needs of the nation, how much value is there in knowing that "The 2002 procedure began at 7:09 a.m and ended at 7:29 a.m. Bush woke up two minutes later but did not resume his presidential office until 9:24 a.m., after Tubb conducted an overall examination."
It's wonderful that the procedure only took twenty minutes, but let's face it - that's one event I for one would rather not have covered in quite such minute detail.
Terry notes in an email that there have been no updates to you, my great unwashed masses, about my ears. The fixed one is in fact working perfectly fine, though I think the change is less noticeable than it was in the beginning. I notice things are much clearer in noisy situations than they were, although there are still times when conversations are a little hard to make out. I'm probably going to get the other one done at some point, which should help.
Updates on other body parts as events warrant.
Harry Potter as much as the next Muggle. I just finished rereading the first six books in anticipation of the last book in the series (though I have to wait until probably early next week for our British edition to show up). But this is a bit much:
U.S. college students seek the magic of Quidditch
I guess there are stupider ways for college students to entertain themselves, but is this really why these folks are spending upwards of $30 grand a year? I like geeks well enough, but can't they just go out and play an actual sport?
I can only imagine it's a short time before the "Co-ed, Naked Quidditch" t-shirts and sweats start appearing on campus.
I love people with a sense of humor:
AIRPORT ATTACKERS TO BE CHARGED UNDER ANTI-SMOKING LAWS
It all comes full circle (H/t to the Corner)
Check this out:
Drury, Gomez agree to deals with Rangers
This is unbelievably big - they were two of the top three free agents available, and the Rangers got them both. But it's a LOT of freakin' money, and long freakin' contracts. I think I'm happy about it, but the Rangers have gone this route in the past with terrible results (Eric Lindros / Theo Fleury / Valery Kamenski etc., etc.) They have to sign Lundqvist, and I really want them to sign Shanahan and Avery, so I have some concerns that they've picked up two guys and ignored the rest.
What's also up in the air is Jagr's desire to play with either Drury or Gomez. He played well with Nylander (who I am sure is now gone), and he can be tremendously temperamental. If the pouty, whiny Jagr shows up instead of the committed player of the last two years, it's two steps forward, one step back.
I'm pleased with the signings, but concerned. Thus a word to the lunatics - let's not award ourselves the Stanley Cup just yet. Buffalo's performance in this most recent season should serve as a warning - unbelievable regular season, followed by a disappointing post-season. When Drury and Gomez help the Rangers win the whole shooting match, I will happily apologize for being an unbeliever at the start of this.
Friends are scheduled to leave for an international trip this week. Friends sent in passport applications (renewals, I think) more than 14 weeks ago.
Friends do not, as of this moment, actually have passports in hand.
10 Hours in line on Friday in a building where no food is allowed, the guards are well beyond rude, and they still have nothing to show for it. With any luck, after a return trip to the office today, they will get what they need.
This is a basic document here, folks. I can't imagine any way this entire transaction should take more than an hour and a half. You should walk in the door with two passport photos, a birth certificate, proof of current residence within the US, and walk out the door with a passport. You could build a house in 14 weeks if you needed to - you can't print up a document in less time?
I'm telling you - they should have just gone to Tijuana and entered illegally - they'd have been welcomed with open arms by our federal government. Actual citizens? %$#@ you, get in line and wait like the losers you are.
to irrelevance:
Fast amateurs give ad makers hits and headaches
If you read the story through, several things become apparent. First, several companies including Pepsi, are allowing their consumers to produce their advertising for them. Hence, the expensive advertising firms they're paying bajillions to are getting suckers customers to do their work for them. Meaning someone, somewhere, is going to realize that it's pointless to spend those bajillions when they can have those same suckers customers volunteer to do it.
Another thing I noticed is that, as usual, the corporate types just don't get it. There's talk of mad scrambles to buy up media & technology companies to handle this kind of marketing. But anything done in a scramble is usually a bad idea - you haven't thought through the consequences of the mergers, or the needs, or how you're going to make it work. An ounce of strategic planning is worth a pound of edgy new media.
Finally, did these yokels really get to go all the way to Cannes to sit through dopey seminars? How the heck did they explain this one to the bean counters and get away with it? "Uh, yeah, Frank, I'm going to a conference on New Media and advertising - I'm gonna need a speedo and a wine budget for this trip. Plus a suntan lotion allowance." I am definitely going to the wrong conferences.
One dopey Reuters article does not necessarily a trend make. Regular ad firms will continue to swindle willing corporations out of millions to write and produce ads that make you want to put a sledgehammer through the TV (yes, I am talking to you, the 1800 Sleepy's folks and the creator of every car commercial ever filmed). But I think there's something happening here, and I think the ad folks should start thinking about this phenomenon in a methodical, intelligent way if they want to still mean anything to anyone but themselves.
Or they'll just keep churning out crap - what do I know?
This story gave me two distinct reactions:
15-year-old performs surgery in India
The first, naturally, is that I wouldn't trust the average 15 year old to take out the garbage properly, much less perform surgery. I accept that there are teenagers with exceptional abilities, but this strikes me as the most irresponsible act a physician can allow. I'm sure the father was there ready to take over if necessary, but this is clearly not something in the best interest of either patient. Yes, all doctors have to start somewhere, but home surgery is probably not the best idea.
That aside, I have to admit a second reaction - a certain admiration for the father breaking free of the constraints of the establishment to teach his son a trade. Granted this is not plumbing, but historically, I don't think every physician went to medical school. It was a trade you learned by apprenticeship to an established practitioner. I'm not suggesting medicine should return to the 18th century, but there's a hubris about the medical establishment that deserves taking down a peg or two.
Oh, I understand that medicine is not the same as blacksmithing or carpentry - people's lives are more generally at stake here. But I can appreciate a father wanting to pass skills on to his son. And I don't think that modern medicine has a stranglehold on absolute truth of the medical world. I believe the father deserves to be punished for what he's done, but it doesn't hurt to remind the medical world that it ain't entirely brain surgery.
I am beginning to understand how Bill Murray felt in that movie. Only because I continue to repeat the same conversations with certain people over and over. Things I (wrongly) assumed we had clearly established are open to conversation again, as if we never discussed it in the first place. As if the mockups we designed never existed, where we clearly laid out what we wanted.
As I said to my colleagues who were on the call with me - we have one action item. That's to go through this identical conversation again the next time they ask us to revisit.
to ask that all crises, large and small, be held in abeyance until my current head cold is gone?
The leaking ceiling in one of my storage rooms at work was an unexpected (and, naturally, unwanted) surprise this afternoon. I am glad, in retrospect, that someone called looking for something in that room. I have on occasion gone several days, even weeks, without needing to go in there.
I was wondering why the door was opening with some resistance, until I got the light on and found a ceiling tile in several soggy pieces on the floor. And a steady (thankfully slow) drip drip of water coming down. I found one wet box on the floor outside the room (reason #1 not to store anything directly on the floor) where the water clearly seeped out from the VCT to the carpet. Happily the contents of the box are quite dry, reason #1 why things are stored in boxes.
I have no idea why there's a bleeder in the ceiling, or how this one went bad, but it's just example #3,765 of the problems I've had with the HVAC in this space. I might be more willing to work with this, but my throat feels like they just ran a road grader over it, and tea is not helping. Not even the swiss alpine-horn blowing cough drops are working.
I know, it's not quite a Swedish Crisis like some people have, but it's still interfering with life as I know it.
it occurred to anyone threatening this lawsuit to actually keep an eye on what their children were eating:
Kellogg to raise nutrition of kids' food
I'm glad that the company decided to improve the nutritional quality of the food they sell. But this is just example #45,681,298 of the continued lack of a)parenting and b)personal responsibility afflicting the world these days.
My kids get treat cereals. Only on the weekends, and only if they let us sleep in. A few bowls of Froot Loops once or twice a week will not make your kids fat. Especially if you take care of their nutrition the rest of the week. A bowl or two a day will make your kids fat. Solution? Don't let your kids eat too many sugar cereals or snacks.
Again, I'm delighted to see the company work towards making its products healthier. But threatening a lawsuit is the sort of crap that weaselly, mealy mouthed busybodies pull long before they ever bother approaching these companies with a reasoned request.
'Cause it's for the kids, you know.
I have a beef with the media, no question about it. I live for the times when their self-parodying existence turns around and smacks them in the face with a juicy piece of karmic response for the rest of us to enjoy. A little schadenfreude is not a bad thing, huh?
On the other hand, once in a while I feel a small amount of pity for journalists. Not the Katie Courics or Dan Rathers of the world (and don't think I only have a beef with CBS, they're just the convenient punching bags) to be sure, but the working stiffs who actually try and do their jobs with decency. Perhaps occasionally there's even a bit of integrity, hmmmm?
So that makes this story my rare example of sympathy for the fourth estate:
Kiss Me, Katie
Fairy tales can come true. Why, they can even win you an award from Dallas' less-than-vigilant press club.
The story is amazing - how a person with enough chutzpah can hoodwink hundreds of people and create a life that never really existed. I don't feel that bad for the people who hired her or the Board Members who let her do her own thing - they got suckered, and some of them should have been more vigilant. But I do feel bad for the people who entered their work for the awards. They worked hard on their stories, and deserved a real chance to be acknowledged for their work.
Give it a read - it's quite a tale. (And hat tip to the Corner for the link.)
that race remains a touchy issue for a lot of people. And as a rule I have no real interest in discussing comparative suffering and its ramifications. But I have to ask this question - who on earth appointed the various hucksters that claim to speak for the entire black community? And why do these shysters continue to defend the indefensible?
I ask because of the following: Group announces support for Jefferson
When the William Jeffersons and Marion Barrys of the world are compared without irony to Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver (I am grateful at least that they stopped short of Martin Luther King comparisons), you have to assume that the moral stance of these defenders is awfully skewed. I'm frankly disappointed that any man of the cloth would step up and defend a man caught red handed. Innocent until proven guilty, to be sure, but this is hardly a Republican plot.
Can I also ask that people stop using the term "justice" when they mean "we want our guy to go free regardless of his guilt"? Justice has become a buzzword for the disaffected when they don't get what they want. Stage a protest or a news conference, scream "no justice, no peace", and wait for the news buzzards to lap it up like the trained dogs they are. Justice as it used to mean would suggest that guilty men pay for their crimes, and the innocent are cleared.
Let me also note my two favorite lines in the story. First, from the Feds:
Asked to comment on allegations aired at the news conference, Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, said "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."and this one from a "supporter" of Jefferson's:
he said his confidence in Jefferson was strained by some of the evidence, in particular an allegation the FBI found $90,000 in bribe money in the congressman's freezer.
"That's hard to explain," he said.
there wasn't anything to blog about, a gift from the fourth estate:
Fox reality show roils Texas town
Here's what I consider the critical part of the story:
"One of the last sacred grounds of integrity in local television is the local newsroom, so I guess I would say I'm disappointed to see a station, much less one in our own community, that has evidently sold its integrity," said Brad Streit, vp and GM for KLTV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tyler.
Adds KETK-TV GM Mike DeLier of the NBC affiliate: "I see this as a stunt, and it's a self-admitted stunt and not a journalistic endeavor."
Al Tompkins, broadcast group leader for the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., is more blunt: "It devalues the work of real journalists who are trying to do real work. It doesn't do anything to help the reputation of journalists there and around the world."
that I'm not going to disappear completely, here's a link of interest to the historically, architecturally, or technology minded folks:
Experience ancient Rome, virtually
What I love about such an effort is the sheer cleverness of it, and the ability to put technology to use to understand history. It's so much more useful for people to have a physical representation, even virtual, of a space at a point in time. It's all very well to show people a ruin of a column, but it's so much more meaningful to show that column in it's proper setting - part of a building, or the base of a monument, whatever.
No, the electronic version of the forum or the Coliseum is not as powerful as seeing the actual space; but it's much easier for most people to see it in it's proper context when you can see all the surrounding buildings and spaces as well.
This seems to happen to me sometimes. I get into a period where time does not permit blogging, or I just run out of stuff to say. I think the last three weeks has just been one of those times.
I think the hiatus started because of a terribly sad event at work - a young woman I worked with on occasion suddenly passed away. She was 37 years old, and perfectly fine a day or two before, and then she was suddenly gone. We weren't that close, but I knew her well enough, and I liked her a lot. I had some thought about blogging it, but I found I just couldn't think of anything to say.
So, for good or ill, I ended up on hiatus. Any number of things have happened since - we've taped a podcast for our intranet, which I think will end up being a really neat addition to the site. It was a lot of fun to record, and the editing portion has been fun as well. We've also finally begun the work on moving to our new platform for the site, which does not look like it will be any fun at all. The three days of training I just went through for it were not entirely encouraging.
Mrs. Skinny's cousin got married this past weekend in Rhode Island, which created any number of logistical issues. The wedding was on Saturday, and began three hours before Shabbat ended. So we stayed in the hotel/wedding factory (we saw three others besides the one we were there for) for the entire weekend. It was mostly fine, though for various reasons we had to switch rooms in the middle of the weekend, and the water closet in the 2nd room was down the hall and also had an electronic lock on it, which is a problem for Shabbat.
We managed fine with the hotel, and the wedding itself was lovely. Mrs.' cousin is a little older than many brides, and we're delighted that she found someone. More importantly, the guy is a terrific gentleman, and we like him a lot. Two other pleasant aspects of the trip - we found gas for $2.91/gallon in RI, and we stopped for lunch in both directions at a kosher restaurant in New Haven, CT. that has fabulous cake. And extra buttercream frosting.
So that's the update. I'll try and be more on top of things, since I'm sure you've all been pining away for more blogging from me.
happened today at work. First off, we got to talking about new things to add to the Intranet. One of which was a blog, possibly for senior management. So we got to talking about blogs a bit, and I kept my mouth shut about my own little corner of heaven here. No point in making it easy for folks to see this crap - especially as one of our number has recently been outed. I just thought it was a funny conversation to be having, but I couldn't tell anyone else.
The other bit was the next part of that same conversation, where it appears our merry band of intranet geeks will soon be starting a podcast for our employees. It actually sounds like it could be a lot of fun, and my two partners in crime are more gung-ho about this than almost anything else we've done. I don't imagine it will be treasured by history as a podcast for the ages, but it still seems like it will be fun for us to do and I hope interesting for the audience.
I don't know which box we're trying to think out of, but I hope we're making some progress.
to say the least. My first full week back since the ear surgery, and frankly I feel like I've been running from one end to the other.
The ear thing is part of the problem. I have times where I feel like I can hear less than before, times when I can hear a pin drop (or my kids pounding on a window in their room, which actually happened), and a lot of time when I feel like I'm inside a tin can. I saw the doc on Tuesday and he says everything looks great, and I'll see him again in three weeks (though I can't play hockey until then - grrrr), but in the meantime I'm feeling a bit frustrated. It's actually hard to be in crowded, noisy areas - I'm getting sensory overload.
Which, naturally, is why I was in a succession of crowded, noisy places this week. I went to services at the high school near work, and while I knew the kids were yakking during services, I didn't realize just how loud they could be. Happily it quieted down, but still...
Tuesday was the big day. I went to a conference in Manhattan on streaming media, largely as one of my colleagues was presenting. We ended up schmoozing for a while on the vendor floor, and boy oh boy was I surrounded by noise. I was still able to follow the conversation, but it was a bit rough after a while. We made up for it (despite my elevated cholesterol) at the kosher steakhouse I go to when I can, which was a lot less crowded than usual (there was a recent controversy over the kosher practices there which have killed a lot of their business, apparently.)
Followed that with a visit to the old job to see a buddy, and the elevator ride to the 48th floor added to the weird ear thing. That was capped off with a dinner for my kid's school, where the noise levels were both disconcerting and not quite bad enough to drown out several unfortunately long thank you speeches by the financiers honorees. We did, however, win something in the raffle, which made up for the fact that they got my name wrong.
A 26" flat screen TV will make up for a lot.
It does lead to the "give a mouse a cookie" situation where we could really use HD cable service to take advantage of the TV, but I think I can survive until next hockey season starts up again (oh, and the Rangers really could've won that series with Buffalo, but them's the breaks.) Regarding the raffle, I don't feel like we're particularly lucky on these things, but we've now won something the two times we've gone to this school dinner thing, so I think we'll keep buying tickets every time we go.
The rest of the week has been work stuff and arguing with IT and all the usual crapahoola. Oh, and our neighbor had a baby last Saturday, so we had their older kids after they called us at 2AM to say they were going to the hospital. And we made them dinner on Sunday as well while mom & baby were still in stir. So it's been a long week.
Last of the season, apparently.
1) If you could hang out with a famous living person for a day, who would it be, and why?
I guess Mark Knopfler would be my pick of the "celeb" world - he seems like a decent guy, and maybe in the course of a day he could teach me to play guitar like him. I'm not terribly good at this kind of question, partly because I feel guilty for not picking a Torah scholar or something. Some parts of my schooling are hard to shake off.
2) What sort of plans do you have for summer vacation?
Lots of family weddings, none of which are actually involving kosher food or simple Shabbat arrangements. No big plans otherwise.
3) Blake or Jordin?
Blake? Or Jordin? I'll pick Blake - definite Hall of Fame candidate, and Jordin's a third line player at best.
I must be feeling better if I can handle a Thursday Three.
1) What three things do you think are (or were) your mom's best characteristics?.
She is remarkably generous with her time; she's talented at a number of things including sewing and baking; you can have an extremely intelligent conversation with her on most things.
2) And although we're trying to honor Mom, we still have to know--what is one thing she does (or used to do) that drives you absolutely insane?.
To quote Daffy Duck in Birth of a Notion, "You're a Slovenly Housekeeper." 'Nuff said..
3) If your mom is still in circulation, do you have any plans to do anything special for her this weekend?.
No - we never seem to make a big deal about it. Maybe if I'm up to it we'll take a trip to Brooklyn to say hi.
Well, here I am, not much the worse for wear. I feel surprisingly good to this point - no dizziness, and relatively little pain. My ear still feels like the novocaine from the dentist's office, but as things go I feel alright.
Not going to work tomorrow anyway, but I feel OK.
Mrs. is currently sleeping next to me, so I'm blogging in a high-risk zone. We had to be there at 6AM local time, and we're all a bit wiped out. Since I slept for two hours during the Main Event, I guess I have a little more energy. Heck, I sent out an email to work buddies right after I got home. We were in the recovery area for a while, but home by 12:30 or so, and I guess things went well.
Though the doc said I have small ears for my size, whatever the heck that means.
In any event, there may be some blogging during recovery after all. Dunno if there were prayers for me out there in Blogovia, (not that any of you were obligated to), but I guess the Lord has plans for me yet, for which I am grateful.
With any luck, those plans will involve me hearing whatever instructions I am to follow.
Astronaut Wally Schirra, fifth American in space, dies at 84
I admit my first awareness of him was on Actifed commercials in the 1980's, but he frankly deserved a longer obit than what he gets on CNN. It's the only no-register link available that I could see, so I'm posting it anyway.
Hat tip to Tony Kornheiser on WaPo radio for tipping me off to this news.
UPDATE: Let me note that the NY Times has a much more detailed obit (Click here for help with registration), and I didn't know Captain Schirra was from New Jersey.
Some times you catch a break, and the Rangers did last night. They played, on the whole, a wonderful game. Attacking offense, stifling defense, great goaltending.
Until. Until.
King Henrik, their otherwise outstanding goaltender, made a purely boneheaded move by going behind the net with about 20 seconds left when the Sabres had an extra man on. More importantly, he had a defenseman already headed towards the puck. I love Lundqvist, but he's done this a couple of times and it nearly bit them last night. Drury made a smart play, and probably had a goal. Thanks to replay, which was inconclusive, no goal for Buffalo and the Rangers get a win that I think they deserved on the whole.
Other comments? Poor choices by the rest of the Rangers in the last minute - they had more than one opportunity to clear the puck properly - get to center ice and fire towards the empty net. Either you get the goal, or you force them to go the length of the ice to attack again. Instead two players (Avery was one and I forget the other) ice the puck the length of the rink and force two faceoffs right in their own end. C'mon fellas, think - each faceoff creates more trouble, and it nearly cost them.
Buffalo looks average. Best team in the league all season, most goals, yadda yadda yadda. I said this about their series with the Islanders - they didn't look like a team that could steamroll an 8th seed, they looked ordinary. Certainly they won in 5, but they gave the Islanders every chance to stay in that series, but happily the Islanders suck and didn't take advantage of it. The Rangers have taken advantage twice, and I think if Buffalo doesn't get some urgency they're going to find themselves in a tough spot, and I still believe they can lose this series.
I certainly hope that's the case.
be careful what you put on the internet - it can come back to haunt you, or at least make people look at you funny.
A colleague points out a young person who recently joined the organization. Apparently, YP decided to announce on their Myspace Page that they had joined the organization.
Independently, an announcement of a new position naming the company and a myspace page with personal information are perfectly acceptable. The combination of the two, however, is a bad idea. Your new colleagues should probably not know certain things about you, and your employer may not wish to be associated with those things.
Skinnydan's First Law of the Internet - Don't publish anything there you would not be comfortable sharing with your mother, grandmother, daughter, or other genteel relative. These things always come back to bite you, and they never, ever disappear.
crow a bit, my beloved NY Rangers are in the second round of the playoffs, while certain other people's teams (::cough cough Jim cough cough::) are well into reducing their golf handicaps.
Yesterday's game nearly killed me, but despite poor officiating they pulled it out. I have high hopes for tomorrow's contest, and some hope they'll be able to win this series. Time will tell, but it's nice to be able to watch hockey I care deeply about in May.
I'm back, no thanks to blogger. Mr. Possum emailed today to find out what in blazes happened to me, and the answer is that I &^%$$ed up. Not dramatically, but I messed with the template of the site and it caused lord knows how much trouble.
So I went ahead and solved it through a very ridiculous procedure. I made a new blog, built my template back up (including labels and links), then copied & pasted the whole shebang back into this site. So no more expanding posts (and no, I don't think I want to try & fiddle again, at least not for a while), no more duplicate posts, just the clean fresh scent of boring blogposts.
So why no posting? Blogennui, irritation at Blogger for the problems, unbelievably busy with work crapahoola, and finally, I have decided to bite the bullet. It would be literal if we were in the 19th century, but thankfully anesthesiologists have learned a few things since then. I'm going to go ahead and let some maniac with a scalpel cut my head open next week. At this point I'd be surprised if they found anything of consequence up there anyway.
No, not the lobotomy a friend suggested. They're going to give me some kind of bionic plastic ear - though it could be old legos they're sticking in there for all I know. I think I've mentioned before that I have otosclerosis - fused bones in the middle ear. So they're going to pop in some plastic ones that will do the vibrating that the natural kind are supposed to do. But don't because the warranty on my body ran out last year.
So, I seem to be back. I could do a complete wrapup of news, stupidity, and random thoughts of the intervening month since I last posted, but frankly I have more useful things to do and you're bored already.
Is here, I am with friends, and matzah is doing its usual number on my innards.
So that's the update.
In the interests of not gumming up the works, I am dispensing with the extended posts for now. Perhaps they'll return when I feel like trying to fix the &^%$# thing.
Irregardless.
1. Do you still live in the town where you grew up? If not, what do you miss the most? If so, what has changed the most?
No, though Brooklyn to Long Island is not the greatest stretch (or culture shock) in the world. I don't actually miss a ton about Brooklyn. The Jewish parts have become "black", which in my world means hat. The more right-wing orthodox have spread throughout, and I really don't care much for the NY yeshiva-world type of neighborhood. Everybody knows everybody else's business, and you have to be as frum as your neighbors, and I really don't have a lot of time for ignorant narrowminded busybodies. That's what relatives are for.
I do have fond memories of the park near my parent's house, and it reminds me of home when I'm nearby.
2. Does your family still own the house you grew up in? Either way, what was it like the last time you saw it?
Oh yeah. My folks have been in that house nearly 40 years (which, not at all coincidentally, is nearly my brother's age.) They will probably never move, unless the neighbor they share a driveway with moves out. My dad sharing a driveway is a nuclear meltdown waiting to happen, and that's one of the few things I can see shaking them out of the neighborhood.
The house itself is a wreckage, but that has a lot to do with my mom. [ed. The rest will be removed for therapeutic purposes. This is a long-running psychological issue - you decide on who's part.]
3. What is the biggest change in the last 5 years where you live now?
Since we've been there five years, I guess I can actually answer this. I don't actually think a ton has changed. Obviously it has for us personally as the kids have grown, but the neighborhood is largely the same. Since we like it this way, that's a good thing.
I guess the one thing I'd note is that our particular street has gotten very popular - since we moved in 5 years ago I think 13 or 14 other orthodox families moved on the block, including oldest's best friend who moved from the other side of town. It's nice to be popular.
I seem to be having a problem with my extended entries - I at least can't expand any of them. If anyone else can do it I'd be grateful to know - it will mean it's a problem on my end, not Blogger's.
If anyone's desperate enough to read all my crap, click on the post title and you'll get the full entry.
Grrr.
I've been going to sleep too late, I'm busy at work, and I think my life is out of control. Blogging has taken a backseat to trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing. There are any number of balls in the air, and while nobody's life is at stake, I'm having a hard time keeping everything straight.
Boohoo. Poor me.
To make up for it, below the fold you will see several fun Pesach-related news items, the last two are courtesy of my friend Stupid.
The first apparently puts to rest a story that was floating around here:
Kosher l’Pesach Gasoline?
There were rumors around here about that, and it sounded so bizarrely ridiculous that I was prepared to believe somebody actually wanted to remove the ethanol from gas to make it kosher for Pesach. Kitniyot may be owned on Pesach, and I believe you can benefit from it, so it struck just the right tone of a crazy Hebrew who wanted to be holier than the rest of us. I'm almost disappointed that it's fake.
Next, some genuine craziness from Genuinely Crazy Jews:
NY bus converted into oven for matzos
Leave it to some nutty chasid from Monsey to decide that a flaming school bus 10 feet from the house with an illegally tapped gas line was a good idea. Think of it as the Partridge Family with peyos, unleavened bread, and a complete disregard for safety and building codes.
And finally, thanks to the Israeli Chronic Lobby, we get this one:
Israel group nixes pot on Passover
Once again the specter of Kitniyot appears. Loosely translated as legumes, this is essentially an Eastern European minhag that is meant by non-fried people to refer to corn, beans, peanuts, and various other foodstuffs. These items are, again, not forbidden for ownership during Pesach by halacha, and I guess one can argue about benefiting from it.
So I guess the only thing to take from this is that Pot is essentially acceptable to those who eat Kitniyot during Pesach, and that one should be extremely careful during attacks of the munchies to eat only kosher L'Pesach certified snacks.
We report, you decide.
I'm a comin', I'm a comin' - keep your shirt on.
1. What are you supposed to be doing RIGHT NOW? (Aside from answering these questions, of course.)
I'm supposed to be figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing. I have plenty of stuff I'm supposed to get done, but I can't remember any of it.
2. How long is it going to take you?
Long enough to answer this and get some breakfast, which I always do at work.
3. What do you have to do after that?
I get to reprise my role as hand model for the A/V guys. Last time with Purell, this time with actual soap and water. Presumably for those benighted souls who can't use jelled alcohol.
But you can play T3 if you're stuck in traffic.
1) If you only had one hour to show a visitor something interesting in your hometown, where would you go?
Depends on what you mean by my hometown. Out here on Lawn Guyland, I might take them to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale. Despite its proximity to the home of the despicable NY Islanders, the museum would be a good introduction to the critical role Long Island played in the development of Aviation. Numerous aviation companies were based out here (Grumman, Republic, Sperry), and a lot of critical events happened out here. If my hometown means NY/Brooklyn, you could spend an hour on almost anything. A walk across the Brooklyn Bridge would be a nice start, and then you could wander anywhere.
2) If you then had to find that friend a great place for a quick bite to eat, where would you go?
Many years ago I would have taken them to the late, lamented Shmulka Bernstein's deli on the Lower East Side. It was THE kosher (NOT kosher style, where they treyf up food by adding nonkosher ingredients) deli/Chinese food place, the food was good & fast & sorta cheap, and the atmosphere was unbeatable. The place closed down years ago, and I still get sad thinking about it. Today I might suggest Mr. Broadway, which is along the same lines, but not as good and can't figure out what kind of restaurant they are.
3) Now that you’ve entertained them and fed your friend, it’s time to send him on his way. You’re not sure which way he’s going, but he’s got a fast red convertible, and you want him to see something nice as he drives. What route from your home to someplace else, either to the north, south, east, or west would you recommend to him as the most scenic drive?
For scenic I'd send them up the Taconic Parkway to the North through Westchester and up to Albany and points north. The other route that's not bad once you get up into Connecticut is the Merritt Parkway, which has some nice stretches. Don't use either if you're in a hurry or you don't like curvy roads, I'd find another road.
Thy name is Queen Rania:
She asks "What are you doing to empower women in your community?"
A wonderful question coming from a faith where women are routinely abused, neglected, etc. As a counterbalance, may I suggest this post from Breath of the Beast?
Look, you're a cute chick and all, but spare me the lecture, OK honey? When the women in your part of the world can go out in the street by themselves and not get beaten or raped, we can talk about what the rest of us are doing for women.
I'm awake! I'm awake! No I'm not.
1. Do you sleep on a feather pillow or foam?
Feather. In fact, I sleep on a pillow that's probably older than I am. Mrs. thinks it's hideous, but it is as mushable as a minutes old-marshmallow, and I actually take it with me on trips to sleep on. The underpillow is also feather, but much newer.
2. Do you like a firm or soft mattress—or other if you're an old hippie?
I'm not actually sure - I used to love a firm mattress, but increasingly I keep waking up with aches in various places. I can't tell if it's the pillow-top mattress, the way I twist & turn in my sleep, or that the mattress is now several years old.
3. Do you keep it cold and sleep under lots of cover, or hot and only a sheet?
I'm always hot, though I adjust to temperature well. Mrs. is always cold. I've managed to avoid the humongoid eight-foot thick down comforter only because we now have heated mattress pads - she keeps hers on "inferno" and mine is usually on "gentle warm breeze." In the summer time, mine is off completely.
I'm mucking with the template a bit - trying to reduce the margin size and not feel so cramped.
Whaddaya think?
I finally have some time to talk about what was a truly spectacular success with Mishloach Manot this year. Mrs. says the idea was hers, but I don't think she's entirely correct. Both of us certainly contributed to the execution, so either way we both deserve credit.
It was truly a fabulous idea, and it all began simply enough two and a half years ago with a brief conversation with our then new neighbor...
Neighbor, you see, works for the Orthodox Union - one of the main kashruth supervising agencies in the world, certainly in North America. As one of their food
supervisors, he goes around certifying various products and manufacturing facilities. One of the tiny perks of his position are many rolls of kosher tape - like the big rolls of "caution" or "police line tape, only it's sticky and it says "the enclosed product is kosher unless the seal is tampered."
Now, whichever of us thought of it asked neighbor for a roll of the tape (which they had used to seal moving boxes) for some Purim deviltry. The idea was to apply kosher tape to a food product, or simulation of one, that would not normally be kosher.
Like, say, a McDonald's bag with a cheeseburger inside?
Indeed.
So was born an idea that it took us two years to execute - we just couldn't get it together in time for Purim before. But this year, Mrs. happens to have a cake decorating magazine with directions for something called candy clay. You take candy melts, add corn syrup, and Presto! - a moldable hunk of chocolate. Said magazine also contained instructions for? A BBQ grill, including burgers and hot dogs, made entirely out of candy.
How fortuitous.
Add the idea of yellow-chocolate dipped pretzels, Drake's apple pies, and a visit to a faraway Golden Arches to secure the bags and...
Well, look at the pictures and you'll see the results:
| The Burger, assembled |  | |
| Y'want fries with that? |  | |
| Three essential food groups |  | |
| Open bag, with press release visible |  | |
| And the deal, sealed |  |
So, that's the deal. There were several pieces that would have put this into the stratosphere of legendary Shalach Manot - a happy meal toy inside (considered from Oriental Trading, but shipping would have been more than the toy itself), and as a friend pointed out, me in a visor & MickeyD's shirt delivering it, but I think we did pretty well all considered.
No, I will not try & top this next year. We're going back to simple, I think.
Pay no Attention to This test.
This was only a test. If this was a real blogpost, your local emergency services department would arrive to provide you with educational tools and copies of Pride and Prejudice to make up for the brain cells you lose in reading this blog.
Thanks to Hackosphere for this new feature.
got an off-campus meeting which I will be late for if I don't walk out the door right now.
See you l'machar, or sooner if I check in from home.
I think worth looking at - Breath of the Beast. Tough reading sometimes, but important reading is often difficult to face.
Hat tip to the Corner.
Many thanks to Kitchen Hand for hosting this week. I've had a hankering to visit Down Under, and now I can do it without flying 29 hours.
1) Here, it is the first day of autumn - Wednesday 1st of March. However, in some parts of the world, the new seasons do not arrive until the 19th of the month, or later; due to large cattle breeds called solstices and equinoxes that issue huge amounts of methane, which increases global warming and makes the seasons run late. Question: what is your favourite season, and why?
Early spring, which is increasingly in short supply around here - we get a few weeks of really pleasant, 65-70 degree temps (that would be 18-21 degrees for those of you in the Celsius/Centigrade part of the universe). It's usually a fairly quick turnaround from there to Bloody Hot & Humid, so I enjoy the brief respite of no jacket, no AC weather.
2) When you started your weblog, did you deliberate over whether to choose a nom-de-blog or use your real identity? What swayed you either way?
No deliberation at all - I went directly to nom-de-blog. I have a New Yorker's inbred paranoia about people knowing too much about me. Heck, my wife doesn't even know my last name. The only downside is I've chosen to use the name that covers most of my email addresses and other online names. It's increasing the odds that someone who actually knows me will stumble across me and I will be outed. But living on the knife edge is just how I roll, homey.
3) Discussing religion, politics or sex has always been impolite at cocktail parties, because of the risk of embarrassing face-to-face arguments. However, this is not a cocktail party, but a blog. And since the whole point of a blog is to have robust discussions, make a comment on the first thing that comes to your mind about religion, politics or sex. Pour yourself a martini first, if it helps. Don't forget the olive.
Try not to have sex with a minister who is also a congressman.
a poor, unsuspecting woman submitted herself to a life of shameful enslavement to a skinny, unpleasant, sorry excuse for a human being. This poor woman has had to spend 8 years dealing with an expanding gut, a receding hairline, and more snoring than any person should be forced to listen to. In return, she has provided joy, sweetness, light, and several unmentionable activities. She has done it without consideration for the complete lack of respect from her partner and his utter inability to hear anything below an opera-singer bellow.
Happy anniversary, sweets - I'm a lucky, lucky man.
via Terry:
| You Are a Smart American |
 You know a lot about US history, and you're opinions are probably well informed. Congratulations on bucking stereotypes. Now go show some foreigners how smart Americans can be. |
I got my ears electronically scoped. I had a CT scan today to see what's doing inside my ears. I don't know that I'm definitely having surgery to address my hearing loss, but in order to make the decision the doc thought it would be a good idea to see what's what.
They told me on the phone the whole thing would take about 45 minutes, so I made the appointment for 7:30 AM. What I did not know is that the actual imaging would take about 5 minutes, and the wait time was 40 minutes. I was in fact out of the office by 8:15, but I didn't get in to be scanned until about 8:05.
It was, on the whole, an entirely painless experience. No blood, no needles, no clothes off - just lie on the table and wait for it to move in & out as they take pictures of my cranium. I'd be much less disturbed by medical procedures if they could all be that simple.
Why? The A/V guys needed a hand model yesterday to demonstrate how to wash your hands for some kind of screen saver project.
So I Purelled my hands about six times yesterday until they got the shot they wanted. But they're reallllllllly clean now.
Busy weekend in most areas. Oldest had a pajama party Saturday night, meaning she got home at 9:30PM, two hours later than usual.
Which would have been fine, except we had her own birthday party on Sunday. Yes, her actual birthday was in December, but we couldn't get the place until this week. Why? Because she wanted a Build-a-Bear party, and they're impossible to book between Christmas and New Year's.
So we shlepped her, youngest, grandma, grampa, cousin and 10 of her friends to shove packing materials into animal-shaped bits of cloth. It was entertaining enough, and odd that at least four of the kids picked the St. Patrick's day bear to stuff. I imagine there were a few raised eyebrows at home when the kids got back. They behaved well enough, but it was still a bit stressful.
Anyway, the family came back with us, grandma paid for lunch from the local pizza joint, and all was well until about 6PM when youngest started upchucking everywhere. I don't know if that's what caused it, but it put both me and Mrs. off our food, so only oldest had dinner on Sunday. It was a rough night for Mrs., but she was nice enough to let me sleep in the guest room so I got enough rest.
Of course, I spent two hours on Monday morning shoveling the inch and a half of snow we got. Sometimes a corner property has its downsides.
This comes from the AP:
Democrats move to limit Bush's authority
Look, all you stupid people. WHAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO DO, OR WHAT THE AP THINKS YOU CAN DO, IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
The Constitution of the United States unequivocally gives the responsibility of Commander in Chief to the President. The Congress does not under any circumstances have the right to limit the rights of the president in waging war. The only right they have is to provide or not provide funding for the wars the president wants to wage.
Why does nobody else get this?
What, I'm here to make you laugh? I'm here to amuse you? What is so ^%$%#@ funny about me?
1) Who is the funniest person you know personally in real life?
I would say my brother is probably the funniest person I know personally. He's extremely clever, and it mostly manifests itself with projects like his Mishloach Manot. As I said yesterday, I have a great idea for this year, but it can't hold a candle to his work.
2) Who is your favorite comedian (living, dead, or both)?
I never really thought about having a favorite comedian, but I guess if it's anyone, Bill Cosby takes the nod. If we extend it to musical comedy there are any number of choices - Spike Jones, Weird Al Yankovic, etc.
3) Which type of comedy do you find most humorous?
I think clever speech makes me laugh the most - probably why I like Gilbert & Sullivan so much, as word play is critical to making it work. A good pun always works for me. I can do without dirty/scatological humor, and I've never been a big fan of slapstick.
over here these days. I haven't felt the urge, and I'm lacking inspiration anyway. There's plenty going on workwise, but in most respects it's just more of the same confusion and conflicting directives.
Life is fine personally, though the number in our bank account was an unpleasant surprise to me. Nassau County's stratospheric tax rates will do that to you, as we dropped more than our fair share of green for the County's special "watch us blow all your cash" program. I imagine the bleeding would feel lessened if we took out the money every month, but I don't see why someone else should be sitting on my money in escrow for months at a time.
So I guess I just have the winter blahs, and last night's Ranger game did not help matters. On a positive note, I have what I believe is an enormously clever idea for this year's Mishloach Manot. I am, in fact, tremendously pleased with myself for the idea, which I think will be worth many laughs. The full tale will have to wait a week and a half, as I don't want to ruin the surprise if anyone I know manages to find this blog between now and March 4th.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
and the Associated Press finds another way to make sure we understand what's important in the world today.
This year's Oscars are the most diverse ever
Look, diversity's fine in so far as it goes - I'm not disturbed in the slightest if all the nominees for the Oscars are black or hispanic or asian or whatever. To begin with, the Oscars are a celebration of narcissism and kindergarten politics. Second, I'm in favor of the awards going to people who performed best in the movies that year, and the color of their skin or their background is completely irrelevant.
The undertone of the whole piece, however, strikes me as the kind of pie-in-the-sky, look we're all one world crap that the diversity mafia have been cramming down our throats for the last thirty years. The fact is, the Oscars were created by the American film industry to acknowledge the best in American film. It happens to include all these other people now, and that's fine, but I feel like the AP thinks this is how things ought to have been all along.
Maybe it's paranoid, but I feel like next year there'll be a story complaining if the nominees aren't as diverse as this year. The industry remains overwhelmingly American, near as I can tell. There are plenty of foreign actors to be sure, but if there's a new crop of movies starring American, white actors, will there be a complaint that it's not reflective enough of world society?
I guess what's bugging me about the headline and the article is the pursuit of diversity for diversity's sake. By itself, diversity is merely a vehicle for hucksterism and not-at-all veiled racism. What I want out of people is competence, regardless of skin color or ethnicity. In a truly diverse and open society (as America is now, whatever some may say) the diversity of the candidates would not need to be mentioned. It only has to get brought up by people hyperconscious of the ethnicity of the people they're covering.
Ah, maybe I'm just being overanalytical.
marks my 500th as a blogger. I've been aware of it's impendance for a while, and I resolved not to try and pad my postings just to get to it. Clearly it has arrived anyway.
As a historian I note anniversaries in a way I guess other people don't. There's nothing especially notable about 500 moreso than any other, and when you're talking about blogging, the relative value is lowered as compared to say, the 500th toothpick used at the annual Mango Lover's International conference.
Either way, when I started this nonsense I had no large plans beyond distracting myself from stuff I'm supposed to do. Blogging in most cases (this one included) is largely an exercise in online onanism, which is appropriate given the most common use of the internet. I clearly had 500 posts worth of stuff to say, and I leave it up to the rest of you as to whether any of it was worth reading.
Blogging has made me some virtual friends, and given me an opportunity to talk to folks and read things I would not have otherwise. Sure, I could do that without writing my own crap, but this way no one can say I'm only taking useless garbage off the internet and not putting any back.
Pass it forward, right?
is what I would recommend for anyone out on the roads today around here. It's mostly freezing rain, and my office is at the bottom of a fairly significant hill, so I hope the tires are OK. The place is more than half empty, and I haven't done a single useful thing all day. There's a conference call at 3PM, so I won't have to break my streak of uselessness.
Incidentally, the bandwidth stormtroopers were blocking access for much of the AM to my very own blogsite, for reasons I can't figure out. They were claiming it was inappropriate content, which I think is ridiculous. Useless and boring I grant you, but inappropriate?
Ridiculous. How's a guy supposed to waste time around here?
AKA, Moron-in-Training.
After the school thing, my folks came over and spent time with us. I also had my dad listen to the attempt to start Mrs.' minivan.
Why, might you ask?
Well, someone I am related to either by birth or blood seems to have left one of the lights on in the van all Shabbos. Naturally I couldn't turn it off, so it stayed on. Right after shabbos I went and turned the light off and the car on, and it started right up. I should've left it running, but I didn't, turning it off after a minute or so. Yesterday morning, rushing to get to school... tick tick tick tick.
We take my car instead, and when I get home I ask dad to take a listen to make sure it's not something more serious. It is, as you car people know, just the battery. The car had been to Honda a few weeks back, and the guy told us there was a battery problem. He jumped it enough so we could pass inspection, but I told Mrs. not to have him change the battery - there's no point in letting them charge me $95 labor when I can do it myself. Incidentally, the terminals were crusted with crud - I don't understand why the Honda guy couldn't take two minutes with a wire brush to clean it off, but I guess that would've been another $95.
So off to AutoZone, where as it turns out I had bought the thing originally. He tests it, and I don't know how many amps it is supposed to turn out, but near as I can tell it was actually producing less than one. He checks the record, and the battery is about 2 1/2 years old. Not new enough for complete replacement, but enough that they gave me $30 off the cost of a new one. Went home, got the battery in, and then skinned several knuckles trying to get the stupid hold-down bar thingy into position. I've done this replacement several times in the past, and this part is always the one I hate. It always comes off easy enough, but never back on.
Thank the Lord for barbecue tongs - I had to use them several times to retrieve various bits & pieces that fell into the engine compartment. I'm clearly not cut out for self repair of major items. I had enough trouble with the minor ones. The other dopey part is Honda's security code for the radios. Like a lot of others I imagine, they protect the radios by requiring a security code before it can be used. Naturally, every time the battery is disconnected, you have to reset the radio. No problem, as I wrote the code down on the computer somewhere.
Didn't I? Wait, I know it was in this file? Or this one? Where is the &*^%$ thing?
Happily, it was still buried in the back of my head, and on the third try I got it right. I am going to write it down again, but we'll have to see if I can keep track of it this time.
Yesterday began with oldest child's Siddur party/play at school. Each first-grader is given their very own prayer book to keep, which they will use to learn the prayers as well as Hebrew. It involved a lot of singing, and each child had a short paragraph to say in Hebrew. Not only did I borrow a video camera for the event, but we even managed to get front row seats near where she was, so I had a good view. I have many doubts about my skillz as a videographer, but nobody expects academy award winning cinematography at a first grade performance.
She was wonderful, as were most of the other kids. The most rewarding part for me was watching her after she received her siddur. Like most of the other kids, she was sitting on the floor, poring over the text and reading to herself. It was all unrehearsed - apparently this was built up so well by the teachers the kids couldn't wait to look it over for themselves. Her teacher actually saw us at another school event last week and said she had mentioned something in class in passing and they all picked up on it - I saw it in action as oldest went right to that page to look it over.
My parents even made it, which is tremendously impressive given that it started at 9AM, which is the middle of the night for my dad. I'm glad they did. The whole thing was done so nicely, and it reassures me that we're spending all these gazillions of dollars on yeshiva for a good reason. Mrs. said to me in the car on the way home that she's even more pleased that we decided to send the kids to yeshiva. Yes, we could save money by sending them to public school, but this experience of learning the language and faith of our people is so much richer in this environment. We really like the school a lot, and she is clearly learning to be the Jew we want her to be.
Nice job, kiddo, and may this be the start of a deep and abiding love for Torah, Tefila, and the faith of our ancestors.
over the last two working days, which I hope excuses my absence. (nothing can excuse my presence, so I'm not going to even attempt it.) I zoned out of much of the class - he got into stuff that I certainly will never need to adjust. Unless I suddenly have to rearrange the servers and access permissions, in which case we're in a whole heap of trouble.
Happily, after six months talking about the Magic Software that would be worth all the cows we could trade for it, I finally got to try & make it grow into a beanstalk. The results are somewhat encouraging - I have been able to get the thing to do some of what I want. Navigation out of the box (and by the way I have grown to loathe the phrase "out of the box") kind of sucks, but that's why we have to learn to do our own stuff.
The best part? I now have a Virtual PC setup with a virtual server, and I can finally get in to muck about with the software anytime I want. It has no practical effect on what we'll eventually be doing, but now instead of asking "hey, can we do that?" I can actually see for myself if we can do it.
There's work ahead to be sure (and several more training classes to go), but I'm no longer flying utterly blind.
I am actually around. I'm simply trying to figure out why no fewer than six people need to spend 5-6 weeks working on rebuilding functionality that exists natively in a particular piece of software. Especially when the whole purpose, saving some people a single click on a mouse, will easily be defeated as the scale of this effort grows.
I'm trying to be circumspect about this, but the bottom line is this is a huge waste of time, and I'm extremely PO'd about the whole thing.
1) What is the last product you recommended to a friend?
Probably the database program I use for archives work, which I have recommended repeatedly for its ease of use. I also recommended switching hosts to the Board of a local Archives group (I serve as webmaster) and they finally agreed to do it this week. Besides saving us more than $300 a year, there's a lot more I can do with the new host.
2) What is your favorite section of the grocery store?
I think I agree with Steevil that it's all of them, with the exception of the paper goods/cleaning products/pet supply areas. Ice cream and cookie sections are always fun.
3) Joe Biden--lunatic, or idiot?
What about bigot? Oh, right, white liberals can't be bigots or racists.
I bother listening to the radio in the car - it just makes me mad.
Harry Reid is either the biggest dunce in a carnival of dunces, or he's a disingenuous sack of horse manure. Granted in the senate it's all one and the same, but this jerk is supposed to be helping lead the free world.
Schmuck says this morning on Imus that he's "not going to defund the war, but he wants Bush to change course from our failed path"; in other words, he doesn't have the guts to use the power he's been given to actually make the change - he wants to dance away and not have to commit to anything.
Far more serious in my mind, coming from the #1 guy in the senate, was his observation that the way to solve the Iraq problem, and the Middle East in general, is "we have to go talk to all of them. Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and make it a regional issue, where we don't have to carry all the burden and they take some responsibility for resolving these things."
You read that right.
Saudi Arabia.
Syria.
Iran.
The exporter & financier of the Wahabbist Islam we're fighting, the supporter of destabilization forces in Lebanon & Iraq, and the single most pernicious influence on the Middle East (sponsors of terror and exporter of Jihadists) are where we need to look to solve the very problems they created. These people LOVE what's happening in Iraq; they want us to lose; they want us to suffer.
How can Reid be considered the leading light of half the country? How can anyone so simpleminded be given control over an automobile, much less the foreign policy of this nation? He seems not to understand how our enemies think, assuming he believes they are our enemies. Talk is a gambit to Iran, not a serious discussion of resolving problems. Talk is weakness to them. Talk is a way to buy time, and a sign that your opponent has no real interest in beating you.
Reid quoted Baker - "sometimes we had to go back there [the Middle East] fifteen times just to get them to sit down. You have to try & talk to them." So you went back 15 times - what did you get out of it? An agreement on a round instead of rectangular table? You certainly didn't negotiate peace with them; you simply encouraged them to attack us, by showing them we will take all kinds of punishment and not respond. Talk to Syria? Why? They're suddenly going to wish us well? Why do you people think you're dealing with people who want the same thing we do? I'm sorry, it's not universal. Not all men desire peace above all else. Some want power, influence, and an Islamic world more than they want peace. And they don't care how many people die in the process.
One other note - the bastard had the nerve to bring up Ronald Reagan (darling of the left throughout his existence, right?) Reid said "Reagan had his people talking to the Soviets all the time, he didn't just use military force. We should talk too." Look, stupid, let me say this only once. Reagan could talk because he told the Soviets that he was fully prepared to step outside if he had to. Reagan also had to deal with a power that had nuclear weapons - you have to step differently than with these terrorists. And finally, Reagan was dealing with an opponent who felt the same way as we did in one key respect - they actually wanted somebody to survive the Cold War. You can negotiate with people who agree on that basic premise. Our enemies today don't care about who lives or dies, them or us, and it makes a hell of a lot of difference.
May God protect us from leaders who talk as Harry Reid does, and from the head-in-the-sand policies they choose.
if all those people screaming bloody murder about record oil company profits would care to retract their statements now that oil is down $20-$25 a barrel since its highs. I heard on the radio this AM that crude is down to around $54/barrel. Is it possible, however unlikely, that the communists in the media and entertainment would recognize the basic economics of high prices when supply is scarce, low prices when it's not?
I didn't think so either.
Weird is my specialty, so I really ought to play. And it's even still Thursday!
1) Do you have any peculiar rules about the foods you eat? Not stuff like religious dietary restrictions, but stuff like having to have the crusts cut off your PB&J sandwiches, not having the peas touching the carrots, having to eat foods in a particular order--stuff like that.
I'm glad you clarified - my life is full of religious dietary restrictions. I wasn't even going to play today until Sarah's post mentioned mushrooms. Which reminds me that I posted a while back that I may be the only person on the planet who loves mushroom barley soup, but won't eat the mushrooms. Tomatoes remain the devil's fruit as far as I'm concerned, though I eat more tomato products than I used to.
2) What about your personal grooming? Do you have a particular way of brushing your teeth? Do you have to always put on your left sock and shoe, then the right? Tell us please!
There is actually a Jewish way of putting on shoes which I've forgotten - something about right foot first, then left, then tie the left, then tie the right. I don't follow it personally, so I may have it wrong. On the grooming end, for whatever reason I always shave my neck first, then chin, then right side, then left. I don't know if it's weird, but it is my routine.
3) Have you ever embarrassed yourself with the public display of any of your peculiar habits? Details appreciated, of course!
Not that I can think of. I have made a spectacle of myself during shaving on a few occasions. There are a few periods of mourning for Jews (including the Three Weeks I have talked about before) when men don't shave if possible. Work rules mean I do shave now during them, but in ages past when I had no job I would let my facial hair grow. At the end of those periods, I used to shave different sorts of ways and go show my mother (and at least one girlfriend, as I recall) the results. Mutton Chops, goatees, one half of my face at a time. I found it amusing to demonstrate my temporary facial coiffures, but I don't know if they did.
UPDATE: And I just remembered - I cannot stand the feel of frosted glass. A number of people I know have these little cups they serve out the kiddush wine in on shabbos that are made from frosted glass. Just the thought of it gives me the heeby-jeebies, like fingernails on a blackboard. Matter of fact, just last week at lunch I switched drinking glasses with one of the kids because I had gotten one that was frosted. Nobody said anything, so either they just let it pass or I snuck it in under their notice.
I type these posts on my old computer which has been wiped completely and utterly clean of everything else I had on it. For all intents and purposes, there's no remnant of all the years of crap I used to have on it before. I used something called Darik Nuke & Boot to wipe everything off.
WARNING!!!!
I do NOT recommend this unless you have an actual full copy of an operating system available to install. Or if you actually want to save anything on the hard drive in question. In my case, all the files were moved to my new(ish) laptop probably close to a year ago, and I'd been meaning to clean the old one up for months. Unfortunately, the disks they give you with a new laptop are recovery only, not install on another PC.
So with my Microsoft bux, I got a clean version of Windows XP Pro, and after three installs, including the aforementioned nucular meltdown, I have a pretty clean slate here to install all kinds of different junk from the junk I had before.
On the downside, I checked out a memory site online, and apparently I've maxed this thing out at 256 (!?!?!?) MB of memory, which is not going to cut it if I want to do much of anything. I wonder what would happen if I put a coupla 1GB chips in...
there are reasons only certain members of my family are permitted to pack.
Exhibit A?
Someone left for DC this afternoon with a car full of stuff.
With the notable exception of my bag and the clothes therein.
So I will now have to take a bag full of said clothes on the train with me tomorrow, which is not something I either planned or wished for. Fortunately it's a small overnight bag; unfortunately, there was also a suit for shabbos which was going to be hung in the back of the car. So, in the end, the pants will go in the bag, my slippers will not make the trip, and I will need to get over my distemper by the time I get there tomorrow.
All this after I ran home in the middle of the day since I forgot to move the kids' booster seats back to the van from my car. I suppose I should've checked to make sure the stuff made it in, but alas I did not.
Again, some people are not allowed to pack anymore.
We have not, in fact, made it to the Isle of Manhattan for a day of gallivanting. No, the folks in The City will have to make do without the Skinnydans for another day. It's cold, we didn't get moving quickly enough, and frankly none of us really felt like a trip in.
So instead we're hanging around the house, cleaning various offices of eons of old paperwork, and possibly going to the movies this PM. I am also attempting to install Windows XP on my old desktop to make it a bit more usable - possibly so the kids can play dopey Dora video games online.
I actually did the install once already today, but I screwed it up and put it on the wrong partition. I actually WANT to wipe out everything that's there, and I didn't. So now I go through it a second time, and this may take a while. I don't much care what happens to it, but I really want to get rid of all the crap that's on it now. The XP is a copy I got for going to Microsoft training last September - they didn't give it to me, but I got employee pricing on it which was extremely discounted.
Anyway, I seem to be making progress on that front, and I can see the floor of my office, so it's a good day all around.
AWOL at the moment, but the kids are on school break this week and I told Mrs. Skinny I would take off some time to keep her and them from going insane.
We had thought of another ski trip, but with one thing and another (including the financial burden) we didn't get it together. So it's a local vacation instead. I baked cookies with the kids on Sunday, went ice skating yesterday, and they went to a Jewish Children's museum (this one in fact) with my folks today while Mrs. & I did some shopping for new dining room furniture.
I'm not personally unhappy with what we have - my plate sits fine on the table, my tush sits fine on the chairs - but Mrs. needs the change, so we went looking. No decisions made, but a fruitful enough trip I guess. I detest Borough Park as a concept, but considering how I've seen the neighborhood on other trips, this wasn't too bad.
Tomorrow I think we take them into Manhattan, and Thursday they head to DC for the weekend while I take a day at work as a rest. Big fancy meeting with big fancy muckety-mucks, and I have no idea what we're going to tell them as some major bumps in this project have come up. We'll see. I'll follow the family down by train on Friday, and we should have a nice time with our friends there.
So updates will be as infrequent as ever.
not listening to this conference call I'm on. We spent half an hour talking about something that's not the vendor's responsibility, and the rest of it I'm not paying attention to at all.
about Canadians. They seem to better understand the need for tradition and memory than we do here in America. Case in point - the Edmonton Oilers are planning two days of celebrations as they retire Mark Messier's jersey sweater.
I happen to think Messier's impact on New York was far greater, overall. The psychological issues with no cups in 54 years were immense for the team and the fans, and regardless of all the other great players that won the Cup in '94, that was Messier's team. He taught them how to win, and carried them when he needed to.
His impact in Edmonton was lessened to my mind by a number of factors: they hadn't been around as long by the time they won it all; it was a team full of other phenomenal players; and of course, Gretzky was King (well, he became a King later, but you know what I mean.) Don't get me wrong - I think he meant an enormous amount to the Oilers, but I think Messier owned New York for a while in a way he never quite did Edmonton, if only for the fact that NY is a different level of stage.
I don't think the Rangers have shortchanged Messier in any way. I watched his retirement ceremony, and it was a wonder to behold. Yet leave it to the Oilers to take two days to do it right, and to make sure the Coyotes are in town so Gretzky doesn't have to make any special arrangements to be there. Moose's jersey joins some of the greats of the game in the building where he honed his craft (Rexall Palace indeed - Northlands Coliseum as it used to be before they had to name everything after a corporation, including I imagine the urinals) and they do him the honor he deserves.
Good on ya, eh?
messages on the dashboard I bumped into Boston 1775, which looks like an entertaining place if you're interested in the Revolution.
Memphis pandas get privacy to mate
Ya think that might help set the mood a little, Sparky?
In all this talk of corporate greed and misbehavior, it's nice to run into a company that still knows how to take care of its customers. I have been wearing Rockport shoes (not the same pair, mind you) for close to ten years. They're the most comfortable shoes I can find, and they're moderately enough priced that I'll replace them once every three years or so. Generally I have two pairs - one for work and one for shabbos/special occasions.
Well, surprise surprise, about two months ago in the middle of a shabbos I noticed something felt weird on my shoes. They have a separate piece of leather in the front half that sort of looks like a cap - I look down, and the right shoe cap has completely separated from the rest of the shoe. All the stitching came out. So I get on the phone with Rockport (after shabbos, naturally), tell them the shoes are less than two years old, is there anything they can do for me?
Boy, was there.
The lovely person on the phone tells me to send them in by UPS or some other trackable method. If they determine it's just normal wear & tear, they'll send me back my shoes & I'd be off to Zappos for a new pair. If they determined their was some kind of manufacturing error or problem, they'd send me a new pair in the same price range.
So what shows up at the house yesterday? A brand spankin' new pair of Rockport Dress shoes. Not quite identical to my old ones, but near enough. So for the $12 it cost me to ship the shoes back, I got a new pair.
It's rare enough to find polite people on the phone when you call up a company. It's even rarer these days to find one with this level of customer service. They still take care of people at Rockport, and I'm glad the shoes are so comfortable that I can continue to support a company that cares about keeping their customers satisfied.
and why I hate them. Terry notes in a comment that I'm spending too much time in meetings, hence the poor attitude. Allow me to demonstrate the problem.
This morning was supposed to be a conference call. It was to take two hours, but since I had called a meeting of my own an hour in, we said we'd be there for the beginning. So we get on the phone, and participants on the other end begin showing computer stuff we can't see. We're OK with it, but they insist we'd really be better off coming over to see what they have up. Fine. I haven't got my car, as we're headed into Manhattan tonight (more Gilbert & Sullivan!) & I got a ride in so Mrs. could pick me up & we'd have one car.
So we get in colleague's car, drive two miles to another site, park, get told by a security guard we can't park there, drive all the way around the construction site that used to be the parking lot, and find a reserved spot that we park in anyway. Wander halfway around the building until we find an open entrance. Get in to the conference room where they are looking at...
a screen we could easily have called up from where we were in the first place.
Some discussion, promises of more paperwork, (the two hour meeting lasted about 45 minutes, so we would've had plenty of time for the one we actually needed to have) back outside to the car. Drive around for five minutes trying to figure out where the hell the exit is. Finally guess we need to go into the lower parking levels (which look like a wonderful place to get mugged), and eventually three levels down find an exit ramp. Back to the office, where we find a parking spot a mere five miles away.
And this doesn't even begin to explain the problems with the actual content of the meeting. So if I sound irritated, there's a good reason. Based on one email yesterday, a colleague said I was thisclose to having a brain hemorrhage. I told him I was much more likely to go postal. He asked if I'd wait till he was gone, which I assured him I would.
focuses on the grand gatherings of our time - trade shows. The grumpy part is mine and not everyone else's, and is based on yet another pointless meeting. I understand that's repetitive, but in this case it's appropriate.
Regardless...
1) What do you think is the most significant product introduced at the Consumer Electronic Show?
Digital dental floss, clearly. Revolutionizing the War on Tooth Decay.
2) What is the biggest surprise of the Detroit Auto Show?
Oddly enough, none of the, ummmm, "floor hostesses" have PhDs in Biochemical Engineering.
3) What one thing are you most excited about at the Farm Show?
Hmmm. Not going?
for so many reasons.
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Can one post a Thursday Three? Let's find out. (I realize I could date it yesterday and no one would be the wiser, but it's not really in the spirit of things.)
1) What new thing would you like to attempt in the New Year?
Like many of the others I too would love to learn to play an instrument. Having gone through the process badly as an eight year old with a clarinet, I'm a little wary. My dad is a musician by profession, so I have a bit to live up to. In reality I probably won't do it this year, so a more realistic goal is to learn to puckhandle better than I do now.
2) What one new thing do you really, REALLY need (not want, but truly need) to have?
A discount on yeshiva tuition, and a much more generous raise than I finally beat out of them last year.
3) What grungy old ramshackle thing do you have that you should replace with something shiny and new but just can’t bring yourself to make the switch?
Probably the middle ear bone in my left ear that's not working right. Getting it put in would require surgery, and I have many, many issues with medicine and medical procedures.
a psychotic terrorist?
Mullah Omar says hasn't seen bin Laden for years
"I don't understand" the red-eyed lunatic cleric sighed. "He said we would be together forever, even in Heaven. He said we would even share our virgins. But I guess it was just a come-on line to get me to give up my RPGs and share my 4X4s with him." "Maybe he sent me an email to my old AOL account, and that's why he hasn't called..."
Seriously, how in the hell did Reuter's get Mullah Omar's email address? Madmullah7654@gmail.com? And why? He needed more hits to his Myspace page? Ridiculous.
that by the third conference call of the day, I'm a little weary of listening to ten other people on the end of their tin cans with strings?
And since each conversation is directly contradicting the previous one, I'm even more confused than usual.
that cartoons are among the highest form of art. Apparently that's not all they are:
After the Danish Cartoon Controversy
As often happens in these sorts of cases, the highly offended "religious leaders" turn out to be shameless, self-promoting hucksters. Public indignation over manufactured controversies usually has a short shelf life. You wonder at what will happen when the "muslim street" suddenly realizes their promised virgins in paradise turn out to be yet another case of snake oil sold by charlatans.
(Hat tip to Michael Rubin at the Corner)
