yay diet

thanks to a new diet i've lost 10 pounds.  yay.  as soon as i get cleared to exercise, that number should keep rising.  woohoo to me.

things i'm looking at

for our anniversary:

just a note - i tried to post pictures, but pictures still won't upload.

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=12&f=7484 the green one
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=12&f=5195 the quilt, although avs will hate it, so...
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=11&f=9459 - i LOVE it
http://www.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=23611&PseudoCat=Search&trackingCat=Search we need 3 more sets of our purple fleish dishes
http://www.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=16497&PseudoCat=Search&trackingCat=Search 12 settings, one of each color (hee!) for our milchik dishes
http://www.tableandhome.com/prodeabfi 12 accent plates for the purple fleish dishes (LOVE)
http://www.anthropologie.com/jump.jsp?itemID=4132&itemType=PRODUCT&iSubCat=454&iMainCat=381 i have some of her other stuff and i ADORE her functional designs
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=8201&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=336&iSubCat=593&iProductID=8201 it makes me think of a beautiful uncluttered home
http://www.anthropologie.com/jump.jsp?itemID=4758&itemType=PRODUCT&iSubCat=596&iMainCat=380 so pretty!
http://www.anthropologie.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1536&itemType=PRODUCT&iSubCat=401&iMainCat=374 oh, nigella.  you have to stop with the excellent stuff!
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=ord_cart_shr/602-4182117-7886239?%5Fencoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00026036I&nodeID=&merchantID=A1VC38T7YXB528 for our dining room

and this concludes this episode of dani wanting to buy many many things...

ra

long day of back hurting-ness

good day yesterday with my family

my poor little nephew got hurt and can't stand/walk right now

but he can crawl.  and let everyone know how very much he wants to move and stand right now

i wish there was a drug i could take that would make me feel nothing yet keep me normal enough to do work

Spoiler Alert - Sith Review

I totally meant to take a pen and paper with me into the movie and write down my thoughts…  I apologize for all misspellings of names; I’m not a Star Wars reader, just a viewer.

 Annakin proves himself to be a little boy who never got over losing his mother’s love when she was killed.  He now is so terrified of losing love that he will literally destroy the world to ensure that he feels good about himself.  This correlates perfectly to the fact that as soon as he perceives critique from someone, it’s proof that this person has stopped loving him.  And in Annakin’s childlike stupid head, this marks the person as his enemy.  Following are a couple of examples:

       Padme, the woman he loves.  The woman he risks it all for.  The woman he can not live without.  Padme gets scared when she sees final proof that Annakin has turned to the dark side, and begs him to turn back.  He says that he can’t, obviously, because if he does he might lose her.  She says if he stays he will lose her because she can’t follow him down that path.  He says he wants to run the empire.  Um, OK…  So when he sees Obi Wan standing there, his first instinct is to try to kill the woman he gave everything up for.  He sees Obi Wan’s presence as a betrayal and betrayal means lack of love, and therefore he has no problem trying to destroy her.  It’s literally 5 seconds after he declares tat he gave the world up to save her.  Asshole.

       Obi Wan, his tutor, his master, his brother.  Annikin aligns his fate with Obi Wan, refusing to leave him behind when he’s trapped under a wall, even at the risk of his own death and the death of the chancellor.  He carries Obi Wan out, saving his life.  Obi Wan, in return, blindly adores him (gross).  But the minute that pouty Annakin gets a critique from Obi Wan (to the extent of “you’re not ready to be a Jedi Master yet, but you will be soon”) he starts to doubt him.  When Obi Wan asks him to spy on the Chancellor, all it takes is about a minute of the Chancellor buttering him up before Annakin spills the secret.  Moron.

 Annakin repeats over and over that he will not lose Padme the way he lost his mother.  Which, you see, he doesn’t – in the end, he kills Padme.  So it’s not like his mother at all.  And I think that that is the point.  If Annakin is going to cur disfavor and ‘lose love’, he’s going to make sure that there are no reminders of it.  He will be loved, and that will be the final chapter of that person’s interaction with him.

 I find it amazingly ironic that when Annakin finds out that Padme is dead, and that he killed her, he doesn’t realize 1. that the Dark Side is destructive and 2. that the Emperor is the one who constructed this situation.  Of course, with Annakin’s psychological profile as I understand it, he may have already adopted the Emperor in his mind as his family, and therefore can’t turn against him until given reason to (Jedi, when he has to choose between his natural son, and the man who brought about Padme’s death).  I still expected him to at least say “YOU DID THIS!”

 What I really hate about this is that Darth Vader of my childhood now is much much weaker than I thought.  If you had asked me yesterday how I would react if Darth Vader showed up at my door, I’d tell you that I would pass out or totally pee myself from fright.  Today?  I’d say “Darth Vader!  You are so powerful and so brave!  The Empire owes it freedom to you!”  And then I’d skip away, knowing that I’m safe cause, hey, I just complimented the guy.  Because in Lucas’ quest to make Annakin a complex character, he actually made him simplistic – think ‘me want love, me kill for it’.

 Off of Annakin for a moment – Yoda could sense when each Jedi was attacked/killed.  He could sense the attackers behind him.  Now Avraham makes the point that the force has a lot to do with how open you are and how much you already have pre-judged something (excellent observation).  But I still find it strange that Yoda of all people (can I call him a person?) didn’t sense that the Chancellor was the Sith Lord.  I get that the Chancellor probably had some block-y powers that kept them from sensing him, but come on!  Also weird that the Jedi ‘spidey-sense’ wasn’t there when the Empire’s army turned on them.  One Jedi was shot in the back.  Again, you can make the point that they were involved in what was happening and had assumed the people behind them to be on their side, but that seems a really silly flaw for this class of people to have.  Or were they all just so far behind Yoda in their training?

 I also wonder at Annakin, who needed family so badly, needed love so badly, not looking up his aunt and uncle.  Yes, he’s Darth Vader, and they may not like that, but wouldn’t he in his very strange mind expect to find love and thanks there?  Also, I question the decision to hand over baby Luke to the family that raised Annakin – they’re not so good at it, people!  And why split them up?  It’s not like Annakin knew to look for twins.  Again, he didn’t even know to look for one baby.

 As Avraham quoted on his blog (www.thebronsteins.com), it is the suckage that they’ve now created a construct in which Annakin’s appearance at the end of Jedi was possible not due to his salvation, but instead to the abilities he learned from the Emperor.  Also, if the Emperor is able to come back, who’s to say they’re ever safe?  Just a thought.  Considering that in the new DVD release Annakin’s ghost is back to his young self, it would totally make sense that Annakin was there just to see his children who now adore him (cause he DID have some good in him!  Har har).  Although I still say Luke would have no reason to recognize young Annakin.  But young Annakin’s appearance makes a stronger case for the idea that Annakin never achieved salvation, and that instead everything we saw him do was self-serving because it negates (Annakin’s favorite!) all the evil, and therefore make impossible the very achievement of salvation.  Doesn’t it suck to have an English major watch a movie with you?

 But the final proof of Annakin’s blindness is the fake out when Samuel L. Jackson was killed.  If Annakin had been at all honest with himself, he would have run the Chancellor through right then.  Instead he (and the Dark Side he readily accepted) twisted what he himself saw, and made it all about the Jedis turning against him and his buddy the Chancellor.

 I would have much more interested to see Annakin fall into this some other way.  Or maybe take longer to make the choice.  Or even to see a truly evil side of him emerge before the Chancellor starts in on him.  But instead, he is a weak, malleable man-child who never grows up, never accepts responsibility for his actions, and even in death can be said to have made the choice to be loved over the chance of living.

 I prefer to think that these first three episodes are not really the back story of the first trilogy, but instead a fan fic of sorts.  And one I don’t have to take as gospel truth.

annoyance

my payment on one of my cards was a few days late because of all the expenses ralted to the move.  i called them to tell them, and the first thing the guy says to me is "this is an attempt to collect debt."

and i'm like "no it's not, bucko!  this is the phone call to tell you that i just made a payment online.  and, if I called YOU, how exactly are you attempting to collect a debt?  do you owe me money that i should be demanding?"  so i grit my teeth and tell him nicely that we just moved, etc.  he tells me taht as long as the payment clears, my account will be back in goos tanding (my payment was for $30).  considering how much i've racked up and paid off on there already, if he's gonna be a prick about $30, he's either too dumb to know math or really not someone how's job should be talking to people.

he ends the conversation with "i have a quick question -"

i say ok

he says "are you financing a car?"

do you really want to give me money for a car when you're 'collecting' my 'debt' for $30?  asshole...

(i called back today to tell them they suck)

also

apologies for no movie yesterday - can't upload files because they're upgrading the system.  will go up when i can post it.

hee

yay abbit graduating!

i want pictures of all my people who got advanced degrees this year so i can post them in my new gunnt hats collection.

ha ha

checking my email and i have alot of spam.  much of it related to penis enlargement,.

reminded me of the time that my friend checked his email, turned to me, and woefully said "i'm getting a lot of email about penis enlargement.  how do they know?"

i love free things!

Avraham still needs a few referrals for a free PSP. 

Our anniversary is coming up.  HINT, HINT

re: the sefira chart mistake

as opposed to what you may have heard elsewhere, 5,000 poeple were not screwed up the mistake.  many of the people who would otherwise use the printed guide instead subscribe to the daily email service (I can tell you because i set it up, so i have access to the numbers.  booya).  also, the OU sent out a corrected version to OU Shuls immediately.  regaridng the halacha of it, in case anyone missed it, it's posted on the site that people shoud continue counting without a bracha.  and last, but not least, when the mistake was discovered, they opted to send out the Pesach Food Guides anyhow, because to re-print them would mean they wouldn't arrive at people's homes until after Pesach.

so yes, it's ok to write in and be annoyed; no, it's not okay to write in and demand personal phone calls with apologies because your wife is upset.  also not okay to reach me and yell at me about it and then hang up - do you really think the lowly webstaff-er you reach on the phone typesets, edits, proofs, and prints these things?  what can i do besides apologize a lot for a mistake i didn't make?

twop comments

teh funny:

j5cochran Channel Surfer

Yesterday @ 09:51 PM   Anchor   Email     What everyone else said . . . In the car, at the end, when Michelle said, "Are you sure you're okay?", I expected Jack to answer, "Sure, I've been dead before."

24

funniest thing i've ever seen.  well, til the last 5 minutes.  but that show is all kinds of weird/fakeness.

also, did anyone else watch CSI:Miami last night?

one of their best eps, which is strange, cause it veered so far from their usual formula (which i really enjoy)

ok, back to reading TWoP

more things in my inbox

A 26-year old man decided to have a cup of coffee. He took a cup of water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had done numerous times before). I am not sure how long he set the timer for, but he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When the timer shut the oven off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup, he noted that the! water was not boiling, but suddenly the water in the cup "blew up" into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of his hand, but all the water had flown out into his face due to the build up of energy. His whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face which may leave scarring.

He also may have lost partial sight in his left eye. While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to him stated that this is a fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave oven. If water is heated in this manner, something should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such as a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc., (nothing metal).

It is however a much safer choice to boil the water in a tea kettle.

General Electric's Response:

Thanks for contacting us, I will be happy to assist you. The e-mail that you received is correct. Microwaved water and other liquids do not always bubble when they reach the boiling point. They can actually get superheated and not bubble at all. The superheated liquid will bubble up out of the cup when it is moved or when something like a spoon or tea bag is put into it.

To prevent this from happening and causing injury, do not heat any liquid for more than two minutes per cup. After heating, let the cup stand in the microwave for thirty seconds! before moving it or adding anything into it.

Here is what our local science teacher had to say on the matter: "Thanks for the microwave warning. I have seen this happen before. It is caused by a phenomenon known as super heating. It can occur anytime water is heated and will particularly occur if the vessel that the water is heated in is new, or when heating a small amount of water (less than half a cup).

What happens is that the water heats faster than the vapour bubbles can form. If the cup is very new then it is unlikely to have small surface scratches inside it that provide a place for the bubbles to form. As the bubbles cannot form and release some of the heat has built up, the liquid does not boil, and the liquid continues to heat up well past its boiling point.

What then usually happens is that the liquid is bumped or jarred, which is just enough of a shock to cause the bubbles to rapidly form and expel the hot liquid. The rapid formation of bubbles is also why a carbonated beverage spews when opened after having been shaken."

booga booga

am having this strange obsession with tomatoes after a lifetime of hating them

last night's dinner - tomatoes (quartered, scooped out) with tuna fish and mozzarella cheese topping them.

if the tomatoes had been smaller, i would have stuffed them for extra prettiness.

today's news

i seem to be a rather bad klutz. over thanksgiving i had an encounter with my mother's cleaning lady that ended with me having strained a tendon that pulled a muscle (on and off bed rest for a month). then over Pesach after getting off the plane in florida, my back was in hard core pain. i finally got in to see a specialist on thursday, and the nice man prescribed for me muscle relaxer, hard core anti-inflammatory, a patch that has lidocaine in it (the stuff they shoot into your jaw at the dentist to make it numb), and 12 weeks of physical therapy. oh, and we determined that the back pain is possibly related to an injury from 10 years ago when i fell down a mountain. no, really. this was the summer before 9th grade. which is only funnier whhen i recall that i spent most of 10th grade on crutches (once when i fell off the sidewalk). and the year before that, i fell off of a bus.

all of which i can handle (you really do get used to falling, you just have to learn how to do it properly to minimize the damage). it's the expense that goes with it that's driving me crazy. my estimate for this round of fun:
$911 out of pocket (i cringe to think what our insurance is paying in balance to all that).
oh, i forgot the heating pad... $948.

avraham is a VERY good person.

hi

no movie this week due to move, will be back next week.

am tired and in mega pain.  thougt you should know.

going to see doctor today, hope he can fix me.

ra

PSA

In the next couple of weeks the FCC will allow distribution of all cell phone numbers to telemarketers.  You will be charged for the incoming calls from these people.  Here is the  "Do not Call" hot line number to eliminate the calls from these people.  You must make this call from your cell phone and it only takes about 30 seconds.  The number is 1-888-382-1222  or online at www.donotcall.gov .

LIVER TRANSPLANT DESPERATELY NEEDED

Liver transplant desperately needed for Dr. Michael Harris, chief of pediatrics hematology at Hackensack University Medical Center and a member of Congregation Ahavat Torah, Engelwood, N.J.

 

He contracted hepatitis C from a needle stick while treating one of his pediatric cancer patients. He needs a cadaver liver blood type A or O. 

 

If you can help at all with this great Mitzvah please call Joel Budin, M.D. at 201-567-4891 or Annette Jotkowitz, R.N. at  201-692-1861 or cell#201-446-1274.

 

Please feel free to pass this on to your friends and other email lists.

cute!

tana, tana, tana

best observation thus far:

It made me think of The Office, original UK version. The strutting yet ineffectual and yet strangely oblivious and psychopathically self-satisfied boss, passive-aggressive employees, and all the rest, including the look that the governor's aide gave to the camera when she was patting him down, all 'there, there, mommy will get him a doughnut".

how is she going to hold her head up next week in front of those people?

*sigh*

so here i am, ridiculouly awake at 1:44 am, trying to figure out why i didn't go to bed when i was tired at 10.

oh, poo.

Season Finale - Veronica Mars

In place of a movie, I'm going to run through thoughts and reflections on this show, which no one else watches (but noam).

Veronica Mars is a high schooler whose best friend's death set off a chain off events leading to her becoming a socila outcast.  If you don't watch this show, please don't bother reading this, as it will make no sense to you at all.

I can't say I"m surprised that Haaron was dick enough to sleep with Lilly, who was not only underage, but his son's on again off again.  But I am shocked that Lilly would sleep with Haaron.  Some ofit makes sense - he's older, hot, rich.  But he's a skeaz, and why would she hurt Logan like that?  Also, did she not know that Haaron was abusing Logan?  How could she have missed the belt marks? Even Lynn knew.

Which, btw, would make it very interesting if Lynn was the one who showed up at Veronica's door last night.

So sad that Logan is losing his mind.  First Lilly dies, then Lynn jumps off a bridge.  He cracked a bit.  So when he and V got together, it was so good.  You got a glimpse of why Logan was one of her best friends before all of this, and why Lilly kept coming back to him.

But to be betrayed by Veronica...  I was disappointed that she didn't come out and say "Logan what was the deal with the creepy cameras?  and why didn't you tell me that you saw Lilly that day she was killed?"  She would have resolved her issues with him quickly and figured out that itwas Haaron much sooner.  and then LoVe would still be together.

Duncan - he's a bit weird.  I havent' really seen redeeming value in him other than V loved(s?) him.

When he couldnt  find Haaron at the party he shoudl have known something was wrong.  Why didn't he come for her right then?  Why did it have to wait until Keith got worried and chased her down?  This is the girl he claims to have been in love with during this whole awful year (when he also stood by while people treated her like shit).  He is the most selfish lover I've seen in a long time.  I get that he has issues and he's immature, but that doesnt make me want to see him and V together again.  ugh.

lianne.  theif!!!  bitch!!!  how could she walk out of rehab like that?  did she not notice that V spent every dime she had for college on trying to get her clean?  one thing that may redeem Lianne slightly is that she thought V could get money from the Kanes, so when she stole the $50G at the end, she didn't think she was leaving them with nothing again.  But let's bear in mind - the only reason V could have gotten money from the Kanes is because Lianne was being a total whore and cheating on Keith with Jake.

Yay to Keith for getting the paternity test done and ending eveyone's misery.

Speaking of the Kanes - how much do they suck for assuming Duncan killed Lilly?  It was a bit much to see Jake go after Haaron when he realized he was the murderer.  It's like "DUDE!  if you hadn't LIED about it for the past year, it all would have come out much earlier!"

Officer Fuckface is still a fuck face - he displays no loyalty to ANYONE.  unreal.

Logan - poor logan.  he's so hurt.

I wonder what Weevil found in Lilly's pen.

BTW, if anyone didn't understand, that was Haaron hiding in the closet.  He either picked it up from the tapes o Logan and V from last week or figured it out when the cops said to check Logan's vents, but he was in there checking, which is why V found one of the screws loose already.

So - was Weevil there to kill Logan, or to save him?

And what is our mystery for next year?  RT said that something that happened last night will be our mystery next year, we just don't know it's a mystery yet.

Does Logan disappear?  Is Lianne dead?

Side point - happy Alicia and Keith are together.  Good to see him smiling.

I was kind of numb while i was watching he show last night, but after, i couldnt sleep.  Haaron LAUGHED when he flicked the lighter at the gas.  He wanted V to die.  And he really beat the crap out of Keith.

Did Haaron actually think he could get away with it?  Did he think he would kill V and Keith and Duncan?  and that NOONE would wonder why?  Duncan's kinda dumb, but woulnd't he have told someone else by the time Haaron got there to kill him?

I hope Celeste also gets arrested.  And Weidman.

Last night was the first time i notices the abel/kane thing.  i'm slow.

also, does abel koontz get an obstruction of justice charge for falsely copping to lilly's murder?

good morning

it simply must be said that i have not stopped thinking abou the veronica mars finale

so much to think about.  will go in to detail later.

info needed

Has anyone here moved to or from NYC with professional movers?

Who did you use?

What was your experience like? (Would you recommend them?)

israel travelogue

Wednesday
Early morning drive to airport - don't remmeber much, just that Eddie didnt' think he needed to sleep.  Then he fell asleep.
shachris at the JFK gate; those people staring at Dani takig pictures of Avraham.  Annoying high school girls - one pulled off her skirt.  yellow underwear!
good flight to heathrow.  : )
saw the village and the forgotten
decided that we like boeing 767s
get to heathrow
walk three miles to get to the shuttle train to get us to the building where we have to walk to the connection gate.
buy shot glasses at duty free
get to the gate at 9:30, flight leaves at 10:30
allowed into the gate at 9:55
we see the people leaving our plane from the previous flight in at 10:15
they announce a 15 minute delay
takeoff at 11:30 london time
cramped el-al 737
dani's seat is broken, guy in front of her reclines into her lap
watched wimbledon -- bad movie, cute, kirsten dunst (who looks like claire danes, who bumped into dani ont he street in NY).
get to israel and out of customs/immigration sometime around 6:30 AM
savti thinks that we're getting in afternoon as opposed to morning
we end up taking a sheirut with fruma, others, dispatcher gets into a fight with dani as to where graetz is
driver starts cab without closing the back door.  I'm almost ready to go home.
we get there and fall asleep

thursday
wokeup really late
walked through town
bought jewlery for sisters
bought skirts at holeinthewall
met bayla at bus stop - totally random!
went to their apt - watched their wedding dvd - so cool.  bayla walked around JJ 9 times...
went to joy, ate too much food, took all the money!
walked down emeq
went to mike's place - had bad drinks.  really really bad drinks.
took ridiculous pictures

friday:
wokeup late
went to chevruta (bookstore), met elliot/benyamin.  dani wanted to buy one of each art piece, avraham wanted to buy one of each book
saw the boys' apt
shabbas prep
benyamin came by for fri night meal -
talking - us, aylana, benyamin, bayla/jj
we slept at 3:00 AM

shabbas:
8:45 chovevei - bar mitzvah, lots of talking
kiddush
lunch with nadav and old people
sleep/read
sat night
yosef: sbarros, walked around
slept/read/tv -- jets game ended 3:15

sunday:
445 wakeup
545 leave
708 train be'er sheva (crowded) soldiers everywhere!
830 arrive
845 tel sheva
910 ami's house, kids, dog, nadav and gf
1230 lunch at good meat place with all of the salads
250 train back
400 ticket incident - who knew you were supposed to keep it til you got home?
sleep
1130 chevra, pizzameter, game

monday:
wokeup late - finished pizzameter
went to town - tried to find #15
bought earrings for dorothy
saw trachtenbergs
bought tichels
walked to maalot dafna to see rivky and co
saw trachtenbergs
bussed back much later
bought breslov CD cause we're suckers
met benyamin/elliot, had pastry
went to bookstore
maimed dani with heavy book to the head (she got upset)
went home

tuesday:
went to neve: savti drove
said hi to rabbis (winter, smith, azar)
took pictures with fewer rabbis
lots of screaming girls
taxi to home and garden
went to gruss
tried to find moneychanger
had issue with bank - need an account to get money?!
had lunch with resnicks and shmoo
saw all the gruss people
saw litwak
davened mincha
walked/taxied to Uncle Leibel
ate pie
ate more pie
serenaded by elimelekh golani the taxi driver who ate our smashed mocha krembo
went to ezras torah
saw adina and kiddies
saw shalom and howie
saw shalom run the world over the phone while playing with baby
compared cameras with howie (who didn't have one, but compared anyway)
savti picked us up
went to maalot dafna
got lost in parking lot
got 19th birthday present from rivky (including $50 handy dollars from g-ma and g-pa)
went home
met she and shim at rimon, too cute.
came back
skeezy guy/aylana/pictionary/camera

wednesday:
woke up late
had brunch at some cafe on emek
went to sleep -- missed she :(
burger's bar - got magnet

thursday:
went to OU
met rabbi kuber
aliyah pressure from goldi (devoire's cousin)
shoe incident on yafo - successful inadverdent bargining
suq - dried strawberries and 100 NIS of candy/gum
Sara Tova meetup
chwarma at Melekh Falafel
big dog
changed money/got shotglasses
went to el al - pointless frustration
supersol and instant soup ($40 worth/ 3 for 13 NIS)
bus stop incident - let's take a taxi there!  (we were a block away)
tour of outer reaches of gush etzion
eftata and gershon/elanah and big kids
dinner
pizza bathroom
bus back with more dried strawberries
goodbye to aylana
pepper with gun
bayla/jj/elliot/dan/uzi/nachum joel at schnitzel bar
guy at bus stop - dani yelled
more discussion

friday:
savti drives to kotel
contemplative moments
archeological survey
walk through rova
choshen necklace
narrow avoidance of arab suq (dani has to stop wandering into the arab quarter...)
walk to sbarros
buy expensive qiddush qup
bus almost back
walked rest of way

how stuff works

How Lightsabers Work

and in other news

stupid stupid stupid stupid back.  it went into a spasm of pain as we landed in florida, and i got to visit the orthopedist while we were there (yes, we took pictures).  I was at work for about half a day last week, then out because of the crunchy pain.  i'm back today (i somehow feel like i should  be here) - in the middle of all thew back annoyance, i also got sick.  so i'm drowning in my own bodliy fluids (direct quote from avraham), and in too much pain to sit all day.  not that i can stand and do work, although i'd like to try.

so i'm in a foul mood at the moment due to all that, but mostly i'm just happy about life.  weird, no?

also - i'm weirdly polite on the subway and won't cough or blow my nose.  WHY?

Movie - This is Spinal Tap

Genre - Mockumentary Rockumentary
Stars - Rob Reiner, R.J. Parnell, David Kaff, Tony Hendra, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer
Key Points - Cucumbers, Combustable Drummers
Points to Ponder - Well, there's not  much to ponder here.  Just enjoy.  But feel free to sit back and laugh in the knowledge that people asked Rob Reiner why he didn't use a more famous band in the film...

it's so crazy...

... it may just work:

http://web.mit.edu/adorai//timetraveler/

UPDATE FOR ATTENDEES: Convention events now start at 8pm for present-time attendees. It will start with lectures and/or music, and at 10pm the moment of truth will arrive. No need to modify any existing publicity efforts, as time travelers can come at 8pm or 10pm.

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We need your help for...

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The Time Traveler Convention

May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)

(event starts at 8:00pm)

East Campus Courtyard, MIT

42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W

(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)

non-sequitor of the day

email I just got:

The primacy that your communal organization places on kosher food prompts me to remind you that the Jews are not in the Exile these 2000 years because they didn’t pay attention to kosher food laws.

I have in my hand a product called Gefen Grape Drink. Although it indicates 4 times (!) that the product is kosher, nowhere does it indicate which blessing should be recited over it (shehakol or hagefen).