I apologize greatly for the total lack of new content here at The Four Questions recently. Life has been full to overflowing, and my sporadic blogging has become even more so. We took a trip to see family last week and I hope to be able to post some info and pictures of that soon. I also plan to do some much needed picture organizing here and actually put up some new pics of the kids.

Now, on to the subject of today's post. My good friend Israel and I have decided to begin studying the Talmud with thousands of other students around the world. There is a cycle called Daf Yomi that involves reading one page of the Talmud (front and back) every day. Due to the sheer size of the Talmud, these reading cycles last 7 1/2 years. We are getting in on the current cycle about half-way through, but that's okay, since we plan to continue after the next cycle starts.

I found a few very good web pages that talk about the Talmud and how to study it, and I thought I would pass them along. First, a website called For Every Jew has a great introduction to the Talmud, with some historical information and other background info. Second, My Jewish Learning has a good description of how the Talmud has been studied for centuries. Last, I'll leave you with some thoughts from OHR Somayach on the Talmudic method, a glimpse of what the study of Talmud involves and the type of questioning I hope to become much better at.

Confronted with a statement on any subject, the Talmudic student will proceed to raise a series of questions before he satisfies himself of having understood its full meaning. If the statement is not clear enough, he will ask, 'What does the author intend to say here?' If it is too obvious, he will again ask, 'It is too plain, why then expressly say it?' If it is a statement of fact or of a concrete instance, he will then ask, 'What underlying principle does it involve?' If it is broad generalization, he will want to know exactly how much it is to include; and if it is an exception to a general rule, he will want to know how much it is to exclude. He will furthermore want to know all the circumstances under which a certain statement is true, and what qualifications are permissible.

By the way, if you live in Austin and would like to join us in our study, just let me know. Having more people is always great. Also, feel free to just drop in and join us periodically if you like.

Labels: Judaism, Personal

I have become more involved in our local neighborhood association, the North Austin Civic Association (NACA), in the last year, my biggest contribution being a presentation I gave to the City Council opposing a zoning change to a piece of property around the corner from the duplex we lived in before buying our house. The zoning change would have impacted the whole area negatively, and was in complete contradiction to our Neighborhood Plan. Thankfully, we were successful in our attempts to have it blocked, with a 7-0 vote from the Council in our favor.

Well, I have now been asked to represent NACA at the Austin Neighborhoods Council (ANC), a position I happily accepted. I'm really looking forward to filling this role, and I'm hopeful that it will give me an opportunity to have a bigger positive impact on Austin's future development.

Labels: Personal

If only I had known about CSS Reboot, I might have put off my redesign for a few more months. Then again, I probably would have never actually done it...

In the months leading to a Reboot, people who want to participate in the CSS Reboot sign up and upload information about their website. During the signup process you can visit cssreboot.com to see who is planning on rebooting.

Then on Reboot Day at 18:00 GMT, all participants launch their new website redesigns. Thousands of visitors swarm to cssreboot.com to view, comment and visit their favorite new redesigns. This in turn creates a lot of buzz, many blogs write about the event and feature top redesigns in their galleries. This brings even more recognition for the participants.

Labels: Personal, Technology

I ran across a great quote last week, and thought it would be a great way to start off the week:

But war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice—a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice—is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.

This quote comes from John Stuart Mill, a liberal British philosopher who lived in the 19th century. (Source: bottom of right column)

Labels: History, Personal, Politics

Back about a year ago I posted a little script on here for logging your time on projects. The script was okay, but it was definitely lacking features. Well, I have developed its amazing big brother, QuickLogger 2.0. Please take a minute to check it out and let me know what you think.

Labels: Personal, Work

Jim at PaleoJudaica pointed to a personality test, and I was hooked by its perspective... The Which Ancient Language Are You Test. Hmm... apparently I am Akkadian. I would have preferred Hebrew, but schizoid and long-lasting works for me, too...

You are Akkadian, a blend of the incomprehensible symbols of the Sumerians with the unwritable sounds of the early Semitic peoples. However, the writing just doesn't suit the words and doesn't represent everything needed, so you end up a schizoid mess. Invented in Babylon, you're probably to blame for that tower story. However, crazy as you are, you're much loved and appreciated, and remain actively in use by records keepers long after schools have switched to other languages.

Labels: Biblioblogging, Personal

I have decided to re-design The Four Questions. Some of you may ask, "Why do that? It looks fine now." I think my best responses are:

1. I am not happy with the current look, and would like to make the site more Web 2.0/contemporary-looking.
2. I have been unhappy with the lack of new content on the site, and I hope that if I make the site easier to update I will actually post on it more often.
3. I am compelled to make the code on my site as clean and valid as I possibly can. I am not happy with the non-compliant code Blogger adds to my blog, and I would love to move to an XHTML-compliant engine.
4. I want to integrate Chaya and Emuna's websites into my own or possibly combine their sites together. That will make picture galleries easier to put up, since many of our pictures are of both of them, and that will become even more common as they grow up.
5. I want a new challenge.

So, the question for you, my dear readers, is, "What do you want to see? What can I do to the site to make it more accessible, more interactive, easier to navigate and to read, etc.?" I want to make sure that you are all happy with the end result, so please add a comment to this post with your ideas and requests.

Labels: Personal, Technology

I have been noticing for a while now that this website is on the first page for a wide variety of Search results, especially on Google. I thought I would post some of those searches here and also tick off some other stats about the site while I am at it. Skip this post if unabashed self-advertising is not your thing. ;)

Stats

• New Visitors Since 11/14/06: 7843
• Pageloads Since 11/14/06: 12,923
• Most common browser: 73.31% IE6 and IE7 (Why?!?! Switch to Firefox!
• Average Daily Pageloads: 66
• Month with the most traffic: April (Hmm... might have something to do with Pesach...)
  
• Interesting Recent Countries: Pakistan, Australia, Venezuela
• Visit Length: Most people get scared off pretty quickly...
  
  (out of the last 420 people to drop by)
• Most Popular Pages:
  • Master Links
  • Photos
  • Glossary
  • Hechsherim
  • Real Messianic Judaism

High-ranking search results

Some of these are searches people have used recently when finding the site, and some are searches that I have done just out of curiosity.

• fringe christians - Google Canada - #4
• reasons judaism is real - AOL search powered by Google - #1
• origination of the Hebrews - Yahoo! España - #2
• issues of kashrut regarding milk - Google - #7
• Messianic Judaism anti Christian - Google UK - #7
• four questions in hebrew - Google - #1
• torat hashlichim - Google - #1
• meshuval - Google - #3

Conclusion

"How do you get so many visitors and high-ranking search hits?" you may ask. Frankly, I don't know. I think that the biggest factors are:

1. Content, Content, and more Content: I spent a lot of time putting togther the Glossary, Links, and Hechsherim pages, and those have contributed substantially to the draw. My photo albums are also popular.
2. Clean code: Remember, a robot program reads your website and tries to gather information. If it cannot figure out what you have, your rankings will be lower. This site is compliant to XHTML Strict standards and uses CSS for formatting. I firmly believe that helps tremendously.
3. Word commonality: Lots of people come here looking for the four Pesach questions. The other four questions are not so commonly known...

Update: I have been asked to add a reference on this post to how many people use the Opera browser to visit The Four Questions. As I suspected, Nick, you are the only one. Standing all alone on top of a lonely mountain. Even the Safari users have you beat seven to one. So, does the site look okay in Opera? If so, I should probably add their logo to my homepage.

Labels: Personal, Technology

David Bogner over at Treppenwitz posted a great story about a past Thanksgiving that I think everyone should read. Being observant of the laws of kashrut is not always the default in Jewish communities, or even in extended families, but this family goes to a huge effort to make sure that there are no hindrances in the way of everyone joining in. While Lindsey and I have been blessed in the past by some family members and close friends making efforts to ensure that we can eat the food that they are serving, the vast majority of our friends and family members do not know or even care about the restrictions in our diet.

I really wish that the Messianic community would learn from this example. Just because you don't follow the laws of kashrut or don't observe them as strictly as someone else, does not mean that you can't accommodate those that do, especially in synagogue-related activities. Defaulting to the highest observance level is not about condoning that observance. It is about making the event accessible to everyone, just as much as putting in a wheelchair ramp or having Spanish translations of the service.

Labels: Judaism, Messianic Judaism, Personal

I just registered for my first college course in the last 5½ years! I will be taking a class on the Normans via the Distance Education program at the University of Houston, where I transferred after earning my Associate's Degree and where I completed my Junior Year. I got married after that year was over and had to go to work to support my new family, but life has settled down considerably and I now have the money and the need to go back and finish my degree. I originally considered transferring to UT, but I would have had to take my Junior Year over again since UT requires that your last 60 hours be completed on-campus. Then I found out that UH offers 5 degrees via Distance Ed, one of which is History. I think I will be able to take all of my remaining classes here in Austin by purchasing the DVD's from the school and interacting with the professors online. I have been told that I will be able to take my 6 hours of foreign language at UT since I want to take Hebrew and UH does not offer it. The only thing I am worried about now are the classes I lack for my minor, which was Religion. I might have to switch to writing a senior thesis or some other option besides having a minor to get around the lack of Distance Ed classes in Religion, but that will be fine. I just want to finish these last 36 hours and go on with my graduate work. This class next semester is my chance to get my feet wet and get back into the game. I have the full support of my wife and my rabbi, and I hope all of you, as well.

Labels: History, Personal, School

As a result of history being my field of study, I am a big fan of alternate history stories. It is interesting to consider the "What If?" that comes with those stories, and many of them have time-travel and technology aspects, which are also among my favorite story elements.

I just finished reading a book called In the Presence of Mine Enemies by Harry Turtledove. He is one of the most prolific alternate History authors, and by far my favorite. He always picks interesting story lines and his plots are usually somewhat plausible (if you don't count the time travel and invading space aliens in some of his novels).

In the Presence of Mine Enemies is set in an alternate earth in 2009 where Adolf Hitler and the German Reich succeeded in defeating the Allies during Word War II. All of Europe, the US, and many other parts of the globe are under German rule, and the Germans have kept up their extermination of the Jews and other "undesireables" for that entire time. All known Jews are dead, Washington and New York are nuked, the blacks in the US are almost all gone, and Germany rules its conquered lands with an iron fist.

The book follows one main character, Heinrich Gimpel, an analyst for the Wermacht (the Army), and his wife, three girls, and friends. They are part of a small number of Jews living under cover in the middle of the German Empire, right under the noses of the SS. Turtledove does a good job of portraying a plausible storyline, and seems to have a decent handle on how Jews think and what they might do if placed in that situation.

There are a few annoying aspects of the book, the most notable being that Turtledove seems to think that his readers will forget who the characters are, even when the book is almost over, so he is constantly reminding you of the characters last names and other small data. He also constantly repeats his little explanations of why the characters are hiding and the fact that they are keeping information secret from others. It becomes annoying at points, but I guess he is making sure that the reading level is not so high that he loses some of his audience.

Despite these annoyances, I encourage you to check out Turtledove's books. You never know what might have happened until you look into the what if's...

Labels: Books, History, Personal

I have switched over to Blogger Beta, and I am quite impressed. The transition was not a long process, and I now have the ability to add labels to every post. If you are a Blogger user, I highly suggest you switch over!

Labels: Personal, Technology

LifeHacker, a blog that I find amazingly informative and interesting every day, posted a link to a great little Web 2.0 website called Wishlistr. The website allows users to set up a wishlist with links to other websites via an easy-to-use AJAX interface. The service is ad-free and comes with a variety of design templates. The wishlists can be accessed on the Wishlistr website or through an RSS feed, and there are other neat functions that make it a worthwhile registration. I have set up my own wishlist there, so feel free to browse and buy me something... =)

Labels: Personal

Welcome to all of you visiting here from TheKurths.com! Derek and I work together, and I am glad that his sudden popularity for making homemade frappuccinos has had an impact on my number of visitors. Please feel free to look around and stay long. Be sure to check out the menu on the left for sections of the website beyond the blog.

Labels: Personal, Work

I have become increasingly curious about who actually reads this blog. Please do me a favor and add a comment to this post with your name (first name is fine) and where you are from (state or foreign country is fine). If you want to add more info, you are welcome to do that, too. I would just like to see who (and how big) my audience is. Thanks and Shalom!

Labels: Personal

Well, I have been back from Norway for a few days, and I have published my pictures from the trip for everyone to look at. I also decided to add an entire Photos section for your enjoyment. There you will also find photos of Chaya, photos from Beth Chaim's Chanukah parties from the last two years, photos from last year's Purim Party, and (when I actually finish making the album) photos from my trip to Israel last month. Enjoy!

Update: You should also note that I have added a "Photos" item to the navigation menu at the left. You may need to refresh your screen (hit F5) if you do not see it.

Labels: Personal, Work

I am sitting in the hotel lobby at 5:30 in the morning local time. I am not usually up this early, but I'm having trouble with the whole jet-lag thing. When I was in Israel a few weeks ago this was not a problem. I did not get any sleep the night before I left, I slept little on the plane flight (I find it impossible to sleep sitting up), we landed at 8:00 local time, and we spent the whole day touring and stuff. I was able to go to bed at 8:00 that evening and get a full night's sleep, waking up refreshed and adjusted.

Not so with this trip. For some reason I have just not been sleeping very much. I got about 4 hours of sleep the night before I left, and had a hard time sleeping any time during the 23-hour trip (including during the two 3-hour layovers). I got a nice nap yesterday afternoon in the most comfortable bed I have slept on in a long time, and I slept for about 2 hours last night. However, i woke up at about 3:00 this morning and was unable to go back to sleep. I went ahead a took a shower and tried to go to sleep again, but that did not work. Then I tried watching some TV to bore me into sleeping, but that did not work either. Now here I sit, posting some long-needed blog entries from a computer in Norway with a keyboard layout that is frustrating to adjust to... Maybe my body is deciding to move into polyphasic sleep mode of its own accord. That would be cool.

Labels: Personal, Work

Well, it looks like I'm on a roll... one post each month for the last few months. I've been up to my eyeballs in work, trying to get my budget up to speed with the needs of my upcoming trip to Israel. I'm still working 70-80 hours each week, spread across 5 jobs. It has been very draining, but it will all be over in about 3 weeks. Lindsey and I are going to Houston on December 30th, and I am flying out of IAH on January 2nd.

I am really looking forward to this trip to Israel. The opportunity G-d has dropped in my lap astounds me. I just hope my mind absorbs and retains as much of the trip as possible. I will be taking pictures, and I will be sure to create a picture album when I get back. My main concern there is only having 512MB of space on my SD card...

I found out today that there is a very good chance that I will be going on a week-long trip to Norway right after I get back from Israel. My company is working out a deal with another software provider, and I am probably going to be sent over there to train some people on the finer points of creating books in our eBook format. That means that I will fly back from Israel on Monday and leave for Norway on Tuesday. Wow...

Speaking of Norway, does anyone know anything about the Jewish community there? According to the all-knowing Google, there are two synagogues: one in Oslo and one in Trondheim. I think I will be in Farsund, which is close to Kristiansand. Apparently that is a 5 hour train ride away from Oslo, so I guess I won't be able to visit the local synagogue. Does anyone know if there is a synagogue or minyan closer to Farsund?

Lindsey and Chaya are doing well. Chaya is still not walking on her own, but I am sure she will soon. She can easily pull herself up and is taking a step every once in a while. I just hope she doesn't start walking while I am gone in January. Three-plus weeks is a long time.

I'm going to try to post a bit every few days until I leave. Keep an eye out!

Labels: Personal, Work

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. I have been terribly busy the last few weeks; here is a summary:

• We sold our car and spent a week trying to find one to replace it. I finally found a 1990 Honda Accord EX that needs some work, but is at least running.
• We moved into our new home last week, which was quite a chore. We are still unpacking and trying to get settled, but that should be done soon.
• We had a birthday party for Chaya in Austin two days after we moved into the new place.
• I am working about 60-70 hours per week, which is great because I am pulling in some much needed extra cash, but is draining on top of everything else.
• I am finalizing plans to go to Israel in January on an archaeological dig. That is where most of that extra cash is going right now.

I think that's about everything. I'm just glad that the holidays are over! I hope to post more later.

Labels: Personal

I have been taking a look at the visitor logs for the last few days, and there are some interesting people coming to my site. I have logged at least one person from Belgium and one from the Philippines, both of which looked at my Master Links page. Some one in the US searched Google for "tying tzitzit nusach chabad" and got my Links page, as well. Someone else used AOL's image search to look for "ultralight planes", and I show up on the first page of results because of my awesome Father's Day present this year. Someone in Turkey found me on a Turkish Google search. They looked at my page about the Shem Hameforash (a.k.a. the Tetragrammaton).

I decided that this traffic is interesting enough to warrant an account with gVisit.com, so here is my Visitor Log. I just now updated the rest of the pages on my site to be logged by gVisit, so my blog will not be the only page listed within a few days. This should be fun. :D

Labels: Personal

Lindsey and I have signed a lease on a duplex here in Austin. It is a really great little place that Lindsey found while she and Delanea were looking for temporary housing for Richard and Delanea. It is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath (800 sq.ft.) duplex in the same subdivision that the rabbi lives in, only .8 miles from his house and 2 miles from my office. The kitchen has stainles steel countertops:

and the house has stained concrete floors throughout:

Here is the view from our back yard:

Yes, you are seeing a farm! They even have horses! :)

The owners live in the other side of the house and seem to be a very nice couple (with a 2-year-old boy). They are holding the house for us until November 1st since our lease here at the apartments does not end until November 13th, and they only wanted us to sign a 2-year lease in return for the wait (Don't throw me into that briar patch!). I'll get some better pictures once we actually move in. We are probably going to scrape and re-paint the kitchen cabinets and probably also re-paint the bathroom, but the rest of the house will not need much to get it ready.

The greatest thing about this whole venture is that we will only be paying $725 per month for the first year and $775 for the second! We are paying $550 for our current lease, so that is not a bad increase at all.

Labels: Personal

Hurricane Rita decided that the best place to come in from a nice swim in the Gulf was right over Beaumont, but, of course, she had to fake a trip to Houston first. So, Lindsey and I put up Robert (her dad), Toby (her brother), and Nick (a friend) from Houston, in addition to Richard (my brother), Delanea (his wife), Mel and Macy (their two cats) from Beaumont. The Houstonians got in at 1:30 in the morning on the Friday before the storm hit after driving for about 10 hours and left at 1:00 AM the following Sunday morning (to miss some traffic going back to Houston).

Richard and Delanea have not had such luck, unfortunately. It took them about 19 hours to get here from Beaumont. Now Beaumont is without power and other necessities (even more than a week after the storm hit), and the government is not letting just anyone back in yet. My dad was able to get in after a few days (he works for ClearChanel and has a press pass), and he reported to my brother that a tree limb fell in Richard's back yard, ripping the power off the back of the house and damaging the Toyota that they left in the driveway. Since Richard's company has an office here in Austin, they decided to stay for a few weeks and wait until everything gets back to some form of normalcy.

After staying with us for a week, Richard accepted an offer for them to stay in a garage apartment that someone at work had available for a few weeks. The only problem with that setup is that the apartment has no internet connection, so my brother's blog is currently down. He mentioned that he might move the server to his office, so it might be back up this week.

My dad and Carol seem to have endured the storm fine. The house I grew up in apparently had a bunch of windows blown out, but is probably not damaged otherwise. It has endured at least 12 hurricanes since it was built, so I'm not concerned about it falling apart. (You can see the hurricane tracks here; search by the zip code 77630.)

My mom is in Mineola, Texas, which is West of Longview. I have not actually talked to her yet, but she left a message for us today saying that she is okay and is staying with a friend of a friend.

That's about all on the hurricane front. I hope you are all safe!

Labels: Personal

My friend Barry (who is also one of my co-workers) is now, in his own words, "a part of the 21st century." He has a blog! Anecdotes from a hick should prove to be a very interesting and funny read because Barry is an interesting and funny guy. Welcome to the blogosphere, Barry!

Labels: Personal

The blogosphere is alive with commentary and information on the disaster that affected Louisiana and Mississippi last week, and I don't know that I have much more to say than has already been said. I will state unequivocally that I think the local and state governments are to blame for quite a bit of the after-effects since they left hundreds of busses sitting there without using them to get the poor, sick, and elderly out of New Orleans. The real culprit here, though, is the nature of our government at all levels. We have a bloated structure that cannot handle the most basic tasks, like getting aid to victims and taking control of crowds that are becoming animalistic. I don't think that the founding fathers had the current system in mind when they designed our government.

Anyway, if you have not seen The Interdictor's blog, I encourage you to check it out. He is an employee at a web hosting/colocation company in downtown New Orleans who has been blogging since the beginning of this disaster. Very good reading

Our hearts go out to the victims of that storm, and I pray that Hashem will bring them the help they need quickly. If you are looking for a place to donate or help in Austin, check out Kesher Talk.

Labels: Personal

I have made a few minor adjustments to the main website (probably nothing you can see). Also, Chaya's website has been updated extensively, with a new Gallery added to show off our beautiful baby girl.

Other than that, there is not much going on in our lives. We are still selling our car, and our congregation is making plans to build a mikveh in the next few months.

One of these days I will get into this blogging thing...

Labels: Personal

Lindsey and I are selling our car! It is a 2000 Honda Accord EX (V6) with only 95,000 miles. I am asking $9,500 for it, but that is negotiable. If you are interested, see the information page for more pictures and details. I also have copies of the NADA and Kelley Blue Book pricing reports up there for you.

This is a great deal, and I am even willing to drive it to you if you want to buy it. Seriously! Just shoot me a note and we'll talk.

Labels: Personal

Yesterday was my first Father's Day, so Lindsey and Chaya decided to make it a really special one. First, I went in the morning to pick up my sweet ride for the day, a 2005 Cadillac DeVille.

I had originally wanted to drive a MINI or a Mustang GT, but apparently they don't rent those out...

While I was gone, Lindsey cooked me buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. Yummy! Then while Lindsey put together stuff for the day's events, I played with my cute little girl. (That's what Father's Day is for, right?)

I had been wondering what Lindsey had up her sleeve for a week. What she had decided on was flying! We went to a little private airport close to San Antonio and I got to fly in an ultralight:

These little planes are very cool. They have a top range of a few thousand feet, though under 1,000 is the normal operating area. Their normal speed is about 60 MPH. If the engine ever quits for some reason, or the pilot passes out or something, the ultralight will slow to an optimum speed (about 35 MPH), turn into the wind, and slowly descend until it lands lightly on the ground (barring any trees or other obstacles, of course). The pilot offered to let me fly it, but the controls were a little more sensitive than I excpected. Here is a view from the air:

Here is a view of the little ultralight airport. It looks remarkably like the Google Maps Satelite image.

There was a powered parachute pilot there who offered to take Lindsey up at no charge. Here is a picture of her taking off:

Here is the best picture of the day:

After flying and schmoozing with the nice people at the airport, we drove back to Austin and I rented Assault on Precinct 13. Great movie!

Overall, it was a wonderful day. Lindsey did a great job of keeping everything a secret, and she chose greatly entertaining activities. We even got a certificate for a free ride out of the deal and I got Chocolate-Peanut Butter Fudge!

Of course, next year I will get a tie or a homemade card, but that's fine by me. This was a wonderful first Father's Day present, so I don't expect the same thing again.

Labels: Personal

Once again, my lack of posts in the last few weeks is indicative of my busy schedule and the fact that this blogging thing is still not normal for me. Pesach was great, and we are now in the middle of counting the Omer. I am trying to figure out whether or not I should go to the Young Scholars’ conference next month. The cost is pretty high, and I am not getting the information I need from the guy in charge. Hopefully I will figure that out in the next few days.

My web site is coming along nicely. I will hopefully be finished with it soon, and I will be moving my blog to it once it goes public.

Chaya is growing like a weed, and it looks like she is starting to really teethe now. Her attempts at crawling are not all the way there yet, but she is not far off. Before you know it, she’ll be running around getting into stuff. Golly, we need a bigger house...

Labels: Personal

Lindsey and I had our 2^nd annual Chometz Party tonight, and it was, in my estimation, a decent success. We only had three people show up, but that's enough for our little 600 sq. ft. apartment. We ate lots of pasta, cookies and breads (getting rid of the excess in preparation for Pesach in two weeks) and played Farkle. Final scores:

• Lindsey: 10,000 (winner)
• Virginia: 7,000
• Michael: 6,850
• Judy: 5,450
• Joshua: 4,750

Yes, I lost... I kept on getting 250 or 300 points and having 2 dice left over. Then every time I rolled those two I lost all my points. This happened at least 7 times in a row. :-(

Anyway, now comes the real fun: preparing for Pesach. Lindsey and I will be cleaning the house next Sunday, and I plan on kashering the kitchen on Monday-Wednesday of the following week.

All of this makes me sure of one thing: Spring cleaning has its roots in Pesach preparations.

Labels: Personal

This evening I took Lindsey and Chaya to stay with Kathi for the weekend. We had hoped to get her down there to Houston for the entire week, but Kathi's family was dealing with a bug of some kind.

On the way down to Brenham (where Kathi met us), We ran went right through a pretty bad cool front, with lots of rain. By the time we reached Giddings we had made it in front of the storm. Well, on the way back to Austin, just this side of Carmine (other side of Giddings), I met the storm coming back. Boy was it tough driving! for about 5 minutes I was wondering if I was going to get hit by hail.

Anyway if any of you Austinites want to get together Saturday evening after Shabbat or Sunday sometime, please drop me a line. I'd like to take advantage of my lack of responsibilities... in addition to getting a lot done on my project at work, that is.

Labels: Personal

Lindsey and I are trying to get rid of a few items, so I thought I would post them here in case anyone was interested...

First up is a Commercial Champion Juicer with Grain Mill attachment. It is in need of repairs, which the manufacturer can perform (should cost about $50, if I recall correctly). It was bought new in January 2002. The going discount price for these juicers is $230.00 (see Discount Juicers). We will sell you this one for $130.00 and throw in the Grain Mill attachment for free (sells for $65.00). We even have all the original paperwork and instruction book.

Next, we have about 5 gallons of Hard Red Winter wheat (about 30-35 pounds), plus a small bag of Soft White wheat. If you have a grain mill and grind your own grain, this would work great for you. Of course, you could also buy our juicer with the grain mill attachment... A great bargain at $10.

Third is a West Bend Slide Thru “The Ultimate Toaster”. This toaster allows toast or bagels to slide through onto a cooling tray. It is in great condition, works well, and is clean. Retails for $58 (see DoitBest.com). We will sell it for only $25.

Last, we have “Kirsten”, an American Girls doll, in her original outfit (blue calico dress and apron, bloomers and shoes, no socks). She is in good condition with no markings on her face or hands, but her bangs have been trimmed a little bit. We will part with her for only $40.

If you are interested in any of these items, I would be happy to discuss getting them to you. If you live outside Austin or Houston, shipping should not be a problem. Contact me at .

Labels: Personal

Lindsey bought some buttermilk last week for something or other, but it has been sitting in the fridge without being opened. I was hungry earlier, so I started looking for recipes that use buttermilk. It was not long until I ran into this one:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 Tablespoons oil

Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the egg, buttermilk and oil together and add all at once to the dry ingredients.

Stir until slightly lumpy. Cook in a hot non-stick and lightly-greased or buttered skillet.

Makes about 4 regular-sized pancakes, or three with a 6" diameter.

Surprisingly, the recipe did not need any tweaking! (Unlike the peanut butter fudge recipe I have been adjusting for the last month or two.) I highly suggest that you use Earth Balance (or butter, if you must) in the skillet. I found the pancakes irresistible, and I ate mine without any syrup.

Labels: Health, Personal

So, I have been a little too busy lately to post anything, what with playing Call of Duty on an all sniper server and doing research for my TOVAH paper due next week...

My brother posted today that he has been quoted in an article in eWeek regarding his stance on the IsNot patent application Microsoft filed recently. If you are remotely interested in technology stuff, check it out. Congrats Richard!

In other news, I will probably have my web site up and running sometime in the next few days, hosted here on my home computer. I am still trying to get the DNS server to route my domain name correctly, and I expect to have an interesting time keeping that up to date with a non-static IP address. What I might do is add a link to my current IP address here on my blog, and you can access the site that way.

I also have a lot to fix and add to the site, so I am somewhat cautious about posting the address just yet. Maybe I'll let you all salivate for a little while...

Labels: Personal

As my brother noted, Enterprise has been officially cancelled by Paramount. I was very hopeful for this show, since it has a cast that makes DS9 and Voyager look like the stupid shows that they were. I was really hoping for something that would succeed like TNG.

From what I saw, Enterprise has the right idea. It is a serial, so you have to stay tuned in to keep up. That is why I never kept up with it. I don't own a TV...

Anyway, if you are interested in working to save the show from the trash bin, check out EnterpriseFans.com. I think it would be worth it to let the show continue for a few more years. We might even get a few decent movies out of it and breathe some new life into a dying franchise.

Labels: Personal

My brother linked to another great article. It's not surprising that he finds this stuff more quickly than I do. I have a kid... ;)

Paul Graham writes about the issue of high school students and their approach to life in general and learning in particular. I think Paul has inadvertently developed insights into school that John Taylor Gatto and John Holt propose in their teachings about the way children learn.

Lindsey and I have had an ongoing discussion about how we plan to "school" our children, and I think Graham has summed up the general approach we will take quite well (though I am sure he did not intend to): “The important thing is to get out there and do stuff. Instead of waiting to be taught, go out and learn.... And you don't have to wait to start. In fact, you don't have to wait to be an adult. There's no switch inside you that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution. You start being an adult when you decide to take responsibility for your life. You can do that at any age.”

Now, to take those words to heart myself...

Labels: Chaya, Personal

Labels: Personal

Labels: Personal

Labels: Personal

Labels: Personal