My heart is in the East...

Meet the blogger

2009-10-29T23:24:00.000+02:00

On Saturday night, October 17th, I attended a blogger's night out that was organized by Hannah who blogs at A Mother in Israel and Cooking Manager (ooh, ambitious) and hosted by Mimi of Israeli Kitchen. You can read Hannah's account of the evening here and Mimi's account here, as well as read what One Tired Ema, Risa (aka Isramom), Baila of I'll call Baila (note the apostrophe please), Commenter Abbi (who brings you Confessions of a startup wife), and Robin from Around the Island had to say about the evening. Others who attended but did not blog about the event are the Baroness Tapuzina, Sarah from Food Bridge, Pesky Settler who's In the middle. On the right, Sarah of Oh so arty, and the xy chromosomed representatives, David of the Terror Finance blog, and Jonathan of Shomer Shekalim.

Hannah said something which gave me the idea to showcase some of the blogs I follow. If you look to the right you'll see my blogroll divided by theme and though it seems incredibly long, those are only some of the 175 (!) blogs I actually follow in my Google reader. I know though that you can't really look at that long list and easily say, hm this one looks interesting, so I decided to choose some of my favorites and highlight them for you. If possible, I'll try to include a short interview with the person behind the blog.

I can't remember how I first became aware of Jonathan Degani's blog, Shomer Shekalim, but it was most likely a link from another blog I read. Jonathan is an American oleh who blogs about budgeting and living within your means in Israel and is highly recommended for anyone living in Israel (or planning to make aliyah), no matter how long you've been here.

Jonathan graciously agreed to answer a few of my questions so without further ado,Heeere's Johnny!

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am an American Oleh from NY and Chicago. When I made Aliyah, I decided to go to business school and was met with a financial crash 20 minutes after graduating. Since then I have been building a system of budgeting that has helped me budget my way through this recession. I am now following my new calling to help others learn to live within their means and find happiness in moderation in life.

2. How long have you been blogging?

Back in high school, my friends and I would blog in a livejournal group. I left blogging for several years until I used it once again to document my time in the IDF. I only started blogging about finance and budgeting about 5 months ago.

3. Why did you start blogging about finance and budgeting?

The idea originally came when I asked my Rav if I could give ma’aser with my own professional time if I could not afford to give money. He said “yes” and so I dedicated 4 hours a week to trying to help others with money issues in Israel. Since then I have used blogging as a wonderful tool to use to interact with others. I enjoy talking with other American Olim.

4. What are your goals for your blog?

When I came to Yeshiva in Israel years ago, I noticed something strange. Most items in Israel cost about the same as they do in the US, yet Israelis live on a lot less. How could they do it? It is not a simple answer, and in my mind, it is one of the issues that American Olim struggle with the most. My goal is to try to help Olim adjust to life here and break out of a “consumerism” mentality that American put them in.

5. What goes into the preparation of a typical post?

Depends on the post. When I make a list (how to save on shopping, vacations, holidays) I write a list as a document and leave it on my desktop for a few days to add to it when I have the time or when I think of something. When I write an argument or economic analysis, I go through the old essay style of preparation and research. Alternatively, some posts are just off the cuff stories of economic survival that came across my eye that I try to use to illustrate a point.

6. What blog post are you proudest of and why?

I have two favorites:

How to pay less for your purchases despite the increase in VAT and How to save 1000 NIS on your next vacation. I think that these two posts exemplify my goal in blogging. They are simple ways to learn how to switch to a more frugal mindset.

7. What have been some of the highlights of blogging for you?

Arutz Sheva did a cover story about my blog when I wrote about saving money for Rosh Hashannah; I guess every blogger likes to be noticed. But by far the greatest highlights come from interactive talkback and encouraging feedback from the readers. It makes me feel like I am making a difference and serves as a major source of encouragement.

8. Anything else you want to share with readers?

The most important thing you do in life is interact with people you care about. At the core of frugality is reallocating time and money to what is important. We often get caught up in the technological buzz of only approaching one another via e-mail and checking on one another through status updates and twitter. These tools are nice, but without seeing a person, hearing a voice, and regular interaction, the internet becomes a cold world. When you value what is truly important, you may find that you are richer than you thought.

I just want to add that I enjoyed Jonathan's posts on celebrating the holidays on a low budget, including Rosh Hashana and Sukkot, and look forward to what he has to say about Chanuka (no pressure, Jonathan!). And since both Arthur and I are job hunting (not fun!) I've appreciated Jonathan's series on job searching in Israel - part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

Although I hope the economy improves I hope Jonathan will continue to supply us with tips on managing financially in Israel. You should definitely add Shomer Shekalim to the blogs you follow, and if you don't read blogs, Shomer Shekalim is the place to start!

Money Grab 2, by Steve Wampler, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license

The winter is heating up for e-book readers

2009-10-25T23:31:00.000+02:00

Amazon isn't going to be rolling over for the nook or any other ebook readers. In November, Amazon plans to release a free software application that will allow people to read Amazon ebooks on their computers. According to the LA Times, the software will run on Microsoft's new Windows 7 as well as the older Vista and XP, expanding Amazon's customer base exponentially.

In January, at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Plastic Logic will unveil the QUE. The QUE is geared toward businesspeople and will support PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel and "features the largest touchscreen in the industry."

In February, Entourage will start shipping the eDGe, a dual ebook reader with a netbook on one side and an e-reader on the other. According to Fast Company, the eDGe will support the open e-Pub standard and read PDFs. And via ghacks, I learned that the eDGe has a webcam and microphone, built in speakers, allows you to browse the internet and write e-mails, and supports Mp3, MP4 and 3GP file formats. It also comes with a hefty price tag of $490, more than $200 above the price of the Kindle or the nook.

One thing seems to be certain - we'll be seeing more and more manufacturers coming out with e-book readers as the market heats up. According to Forrester Research, 3 million e-readers will be sold in 2009 and up to 10 million will be sold in 2010 (via Read Write Web).

If you're confused by all this talk about e-readers, check out this cool graphic on TechFlash of the ebook universe, as it is today.

(Hat tip to Helene Blowers of LibraryBytes for the info which inspired and informed this post.)

Barnes & Noble VS. Amazon - meet the nook

2009-10-21T11:36:00.001+02:00

Meet the nook. Yesterday afternoon Barnes & Noble held a coming out party (in NY of course) for its ebook reader, nook, which can be pre-ordered for delivery in November. Amazon definitely has the better name (nook takes me to places I'm not going to mention on a PG-rated family blog) but other than that, it looks like B&N is going to give Amazon a run for its money.

One of the biggest differences between the nook and the Kindle, according to Wired and Read Write Web is nook's LendMe feature, which will allow users to share a book with a friend for up to 14 days. And that friend doesn't need to own a nook; any smartphone or computer with B&N's ereader software will do.

The nook also supports epub, an open format which will give users access to thousands of free e-books, and though I haven't seen anything yet about reading library ebooks on the nook, it seems that if the ebook is in PDF format, it would work on the nook.

The nook is priced at $259, as is the Kindle, still a hefty amount of money for a luxury. One advantage the Kindle still has is that Amazon came out with an international version that can be shipped to users outside the U.S., though it's not available in Israel.

The nook has a small color touchscreen for navigation and a removable back panel that you can customize with four other colors. From November 30th, you can test drive a nook at your local B&N.

You can view a comparison of features between the Kindle and nook on the B&N site.

In more ebook news, the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco which is building an online library, announced the creation of Bookserver, an open system to allow users to find ebooks to buy or borrow. According to Read Write Web, you could search for a book and find out all the places where the books is available to buy or borrow, including libraries and directly from the publishers.

I enjoy watching these new developments in the world of ebooks. I love all the new ways it's now possible to read or listen to a book and can't wait to see what else the future holds.

Google editions or why I'm glad I haven't bought a Kindle yet

2009-10-18T10:16:00.003+02:00

(Please click on the photo to see the full size comic on Milt Priggee's Web site)

If you follow my blog (and if you don't, why not) then you know that before we returned to Israel from California I debated about getting a Kindle. Of course, right before we left the states Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle making me very tempted to buy one but in the end I decided against it. One reason is that at $259 it is still expensive for an indulgence that is not a necessity and that I can't use on Shabbat (when I do the bulk of my reading) but the even greater deterrent is the whole digital rights management (DRM) issue. DRM is how companies protect content and restrict its use. They use a proprietary format that can only be used with their firmware, as in the case of the music downloaded from Apple's iTunes store which could only be played on Apple products before they started offering DRM free music this year.

When I want to read a book I have the option of borrowing it from the library or a friend, buying it new from a bricks and mortar store or an online shop, or buying or mooching it secondhand. If I've bought it, when I'm done with it I can do what I please with it. Loan it to a friend, donate it to the library, swap it, or leave it on my shelf so if I feel like it I can read it again. And again.

Not so with an Amazon e-book. There's a limit on how many times you can download an Amazon e-book that you've paid for before Amazon forces you to pay for it again. That's what Dan Cohen found out to his surprise when he tried to move some of his books to his new iPhone via the Kindle app. And after talking to a customer representative he discovered that "there’s no way to find out in advance how many times a book is able to be downloaded."

And with the Kindle you're limited as to what books you can read. You have to buy them from Amazon. You can't download an e-book from your library and read it on your Kindle. There is a hack to allow you to read MobiPocket books on your Kindle but Amazon threatened to sue the site which linked to it.

With the Kindle, you can't share your e-books with friends. So even though you've bought the book and it's supposedly yours, you can't do what you'd like with it. Not only that, in July, Amazon really brought this fact home when they remotely deleted George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from users' Kindles (ah, the irony).

So I decided to wait and see what develops in the e-reader market before shelling out a few hundred dollars for a Kindle. And I've been heartened by the articles I've been seeing about other alternatives to the Kindle, including the iRex, the cool-er, Plastic Logic, Cybook, and the Sony Reader.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, Google announced that they will launch an e-store, Google Editions, that will offer electronic books that can be read on ANY web enabled device including laptops, smart phones, and e-readers. Consumers will have the option of buying the book directly from Google Books, from a retailer, or from the publisher. This will give users freedom to buy from whomever they please and read it however they please. Once the book has been accessed once, you'll be able to read it offline.

If you're not sure that e-books are for you, and you want to just stick with the paper version, check out the NY Times commentary, Does the brain like e-books, in which five professionals weigh in on whether reading is different when done on paper or a screen.

As for me and my Kindle, I'm still going to watch and wait but I am looking forward to the new developments that seem just around the corner.

(Please click on the photo to see the full size comic on the Social Signal Web site)

That Was The Week That Was

2009-10-10T22:44:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow begins the Israeli season officially known as "acharei hachagim." Nothing much happens in Israel beginning in mid-August when any arrangements you managed to find for your kids ends and people go on vacation as they attempt to survive the last weeks of summer vacation and ending when the fall holidays are over (even though the kids don't go back to school till Monday).

Hopefully, job hunting (or job finding) will get easier though Arthur gets annoyed at me when I say that. But I'm optimistic (hard to believe, but true) and wanted to share some of my reflections about our Sukkot holiday.

First of all, only one day of chag!!!!! Can I say it again? Shout it from the rooftops? It is so great to have one day of chag and not be penalized for living in galut (Yes, that's right. As good as you think you have it you are in galut). It's weird to think that in our old community of San Jose they are not even done with shul yet on their first day of chag while here hakafot shniyot with a live band are in full swing (pun intended).

We were home for the first days of sukkot and our sukkah went up in record time thanks to the help of our neighbors. We were invited out for both meals and had a great time at both meals.

Although Arthur would probably disagree, one nice thing about being unemployed is that we were both at home during chol hamoed, which doesn't usually happen. This gave us the opportunity to visit friends and family and tour the country a bit. On Sunday evening we headed to Yokneam for a barbecue with friends, one couple we've known from our days on Kibbutz Beit Rimon and a couple from San Jose who made aliyah 2 years ago. It was great seeing them all again (and borrowing some books of course) and catching up. Both friends have businesses and web presences, so if you're in the need of a live band or DJ check out the Joel Abramson Simcha Orchestra and if you're looking for silk rose petals, spices, gifts from Israel, or pearls and semi-precious stones check out HolyRoses.

Monday we met Arthur's cousin in Beit Guvrin and checked out the many caves before heading to Beit Shemesh for pizza followed by Shemeshfest. We ran into some old friends, enjoyed the music, and headed home tired and satisfied.

Tuesday we headed to Akko with our neighbors where I stupidly managed to get lost and missed out on most of the fun but I think Maor had a good time.

Wednesday Maor and I headed to Nes Harim for a barbecue picnic with my aunt and cousins (Arthur wasn't feeling well and stayed home). It was great to hang out, eat, and celebrate my aunt's birthday (ad 120!) together.

We headed to Beerot Yitzchak for Simchat Torah, an almost annual tradition. Hosted by my best friend, Esti, who I've known forever (since first grade - you do the math), we also got to see people we haven't seen for a long while. I spent my year after high school on Hachshara on Beerot so it's always nice to go back. We got back to Zufim in time for hakafot shniyot and will take down the sukkah tomorrow. Maor already has plans for tomorrow, her last day of chofesh (vacation) before school starts up again.

For those of you not on Facebook, here's a link to some pictures from our Sukkot adventures.

Being back after 3 years in the states made me aware of some of the things I love about living in Israel. Not huge cataclysmic things, just small mundane ones.
1. The news broadcasts begin with "moadim l'simcha"
2. The electronic highway signs that announce traffic jams also wish me a happy holiday
3. National parks and restaurants put up sukkot so their patrons can eat there
4. Local councils and cities trim palm trees so people can take live schach (and sometimes dates) for their sukkot
5. Not only did the rock and soul concert at Beit Shemesh include a dvar Torah, the Rabbi who delivered it also had the crowd repeat a prayer for Gilad Shalit's release

If you haven't had the opportunity to spend Sukkot in Israel, I hope next year finds you here celebrating with us. Or even better, consider Aliyah today!

Shana tova

2009-09-17T00:23:00.001+03:00

Our first holiday back in Israel, Rosh Hashana, is almost here, and even though it’s a two day holiday even in Israel I’m glad that we’ll be celebrating here. There’s something special about knowing that most of the country is celebrating along with you (each in their own fashion), having supermarket cashiers wish you a “chag sameach” or “shana tova” and being able to find all the unique foods you need (for simanim) with little effort.

Job hunting is going very slowly and is very frustrating, particularly for Arthur, as you can imagine. I’m hoping it’s due to the chagim and the Israeli way of doing things (hurry up and advertise, go out of town for two weeks, decide when you come back if you really need the position filled after all). We send out lots of resumes and get little feedback and it’s very difficult. I’ve told Arthur that I’m going to send him to kollel just to get him out of the house.

Maor is doing well, B”H. She likes her class and teachers and besides the awful 6am wake up time so she can make the bus at 6:50 seems happy to go. Ulpanat Lehava, in Kedumim, seems to invest a lot not only in the girls’ educational experience but the social experience as well. On the first day of classes they had a performance by Eti Ankari, an Israeli musician who found her way back to religion. She spoke about her experience and also sang both new and old songs, including מיליונים, a favorite.

This Monday night the 9^th and 10^th grade classes went on a tiyul slichot to Yerushalayim. They began in Kever Rachel where they davened mincha before heading out to Yerushalayim. They then had a performance by Miri Or, another Israeli musician who became religious. This was followed by a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter and a final stop at the kotel (where it was still too early for slichot) before heading home (arrival: 2:30am). Tuesday morning Maor woke up early (!) and went to the beach with two friends. After getting thoroughly ~~tan~~ sunburned they went and hung out at the Ra’anana mall and arrived home via bus and “trempim.”

Our biggest news is that today our lift arrived! I was worried that it would get here late and at about 6:55am I got a phone call from the driver saying they were almost at the entrance of the yishuv. Turns out they went to Zufit and not Zufim, a common occurrence but by 7:45 they were in the right place. It took them about 45 minutes to get the seal open and then another 45 minutes to unload! Arthur and I were quite productive today – we put together Maor’s bed (very nice but too big for the room and her mattress is too high), our bed, nesting tables, and the dining room table. We also unpacked the couches, the dining room chairs and a lot of the kitchenware.

So the house is beginning to look familiar, including all the clutter which at least for the moment we have an excuse for. I’m looking forward to sleeping on a real bed instead of a thin mattress on the floor. While watching Arthur unpack pots and pans Maor excitedly named her favorite dish that was cooked in it and expressed her desire to be served them soon.

We will be out for most of our meals on Rosh Hashana but are having the first night at home, just us. I’m looking forward to settling in and hoping that the new year, 5770, brings good things for our family and for all of Am Yisrael. Wishing all my friends and family both here and abroad a very happy and healthy new year. Shana tova!

And for my friends abroad, a special thought just for you:

There's no place like home...

2009-08-20T01:11:00.000+03:00

We've been back for about a week and it's great to be home. Our house is in good condition and we're grateful that we had two sets of tenants who took care of our home while we were gone and were a pleasure to deal with. We returned to neighbors, friends, and family who are happy to have us back and though we miss our California friends (you know who you are) it's good to be back where we belong.

We've been taking care of bureaucracy while we wait for our lift to arrive and search for jobs. Arthur is a bit (can you say understatement) stressed about not having a job and has forgotten that in Israel nothing happens overnight. The country is practically shut down during the last two weeks in August and then not much happens till "acharei hachagim." Since the chagim are late this year, hopefully things will start to pick up in September. It's frustrating to send out resumes and not get results but hopefully we will find employment sooner than later.

We spent our first Shabbat with family in Ramat Beit Shemesh and we'll be home for this coming Shabbat. Today we bought and took possession of a car, a white Hyundai Getz. Hopefully it will serve us well.

I know that I always go on about how great it is to live in Israel but I'm not always able to explain why. It's by no means perfect or close to perfect but it's ours and it's home. Some of my experiences this past week have reinforced why I love living in Israel.

While waiting for the car service to get to the airport in NY, I discovered that my Israeli passport was expired. When you're an Israeli citizen you're supposed to leave and enter Israel with an Israeli passport. I was a bit nervous about what would happen when I got to Ben Gurion airport, but my worry was unnecessary. I sent Maor through on the line for Israeli passport holders and waited in the line for foreign passport holders. I handed over my American passport and started to answer the questions the passport control agent asked. When he asked if I had ever lived in Israel I said yes and he asked if I had an Israeli passport. I switched to Hebrew and said "I have a bit of a story." (What Israeli doesn't?) He said: "you talk Hebrew, that's already good." I told him that my passport expired and I hadn't noticed and I was worried they wouldn't let me in to the country and he said "Ma pitom! From our perspective you're coming home; how could we not let you come home?"

For those of you who have been listening to me complain about having to shop in 6 different stores to find everything I want/need and how I hate deciphering the various hechshers, I don't have to tell you how great it is to walk into one supermarket where everything is kosher and the variety and abundance of what is available is amazing. I wanted to take a picture of the dairy aisle but didn't have my camera. The prices are not cheap but you can find almost anything you want.

The first day we went car shopping one of the places we went to (and where we ultimately bought the car) was the Ra'anana branch of a company that rents and leases cars. The salesman asked us where we live and when we told him, somebody else who was in the office (not sure if he worked there as well) said my neighbor moved there. Really? Who's your neighbor. And sure enough it's somebody who we used to live next door to before moving into the house we live in now. It really is a small country and we truly are one big family.

When Arthur and I were walking around Kfar Saba, every time I saw somebody wearing a kipa I would do a double take to see if I knew them. I had to remind myself that I wasn't in San Jose anymore and here many people wear kippot and I probably don't know any of them!

If I haven't inspired you yet to at least think about packing your bags and moving to Israel, maybe this news article will. 366 North American Jews have just made aliyah with Nefesh B'Nefesh.

Hoping to host all of you in our home in Zufim, Israel in the very near future (but not all at the same time)! L'hitraot!

Tisha B'av at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

2009-07-31T00:42:00.000+03:00

Today we went to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. This was quite fitting as today is not only Tisha B'av, when we mourn for the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, but also the 18th yahrzeit (anniversary of death) of my father, Mayer, a holocaust survivor.
I don't usually "do" holocaust if I can avoid it. I know nobody enjoys it but ever since I've been old enough to equate those atrocities happening to people I love, I try not to see Holocaust themed movies, read books about the Holocaust, etc. But I really wanted to see the Holocaust Museum in Washington and it was so fitting to do so today.
I was really surprised at how crowded the museum was and what a wide variety of people seemed to be visiting. From young children to older adults and many different nationalities. There was a group of young adults wearing GYLC tags, which I googled once I got back to the hotel in order to learn that the "Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) is a unique leadership development program that brings together outstanding young people from around the world to build critical leadership skills in a global context." I find it amazing that all these people chose to spend a day (or some hours) learning about the Holocaust.
The museum is organized chronologically, from the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party through the creation of the state of Israel. It doesn't mince words when relating America's refusal to help the Jews during the Holocaust and also relays the military course of the war. There are audio recollections of Auschwitz survivors discussing life in the camp, stories of the uprisings and partisans, and the rightgeous who helped save Jews. Also remembered are the political dissidents, gypsies (or Roma as they apparently prefer to be called), and other groups targeted by the Nazis.
At the end of the permanent exhibition there is a registry of survivors. I found an aunt and uncle but not my father. Maor and I filled out the form for my father and two of my aunts and when we handed it in the staff member glanced at it and said, "Buchenwald. We have extensive records for people from Buchenwald." [My father was liberated from Buchenwald] When he was done helping someone else he searched for my father and found my father's records from Buchenwald which includes information about when he arrived, from where (Auschwitz), prisoner ID number, and more. He explained some of it since it's written in German. One of the pages is stamped "liberated by US army." There is also his DP registration record. Interestingly, his Buchenwald record and his DP record each have different birthdays, neither of which were the ones we celebrated. The museum staff member explained that it was common in the camps for people to make themselves older so they would be deemed old enough to work and to make themselves younger on the DP records because kids got better placements. So on the Buchenwald records his birthday is Nov 6, 1927 and on the DP records Oct 6, 1929. I always thought his birthday was Oct 6, 1928. Anyway, as you can imagine, it's pretty incredible to have copies of these documents and I can't wait to get to NY and Israel to show them to my cousin and aunt, respectively.
We left the museum and walked to the White House since this would be our only opportunity to get a glance and Maor really wanted to see it. We were standing not directly by the fence but across the street which meant we didn't have to move when the police cleared all the people away from the fence. Why? Because the Obamas came out to walk Bo, on the lawn. Maor says it was the whole family together but I could only clearly see the girls (both wearing red). Of course Arthur did not have his camera (and zoom lens) so we missed our chance to get a great picture to sell to People magazine for big bucks. Another opportunity lost.
In any case, it was definitely a full day and we are now waiting for the fast to end back in our hotel room. Tomorrow we take the train to NY.

Packing day (part 1)

2009-07-15T05:09:00.000+03:00

Once again, we have packed up our house (ok, apartment) to move across the ocean (our stuff will go across the Pacific, we'll go cross-Atlantic) to Israel. I CANNOT believe I am doing this again. I'd like to say I'm never moving again but I know I said that emphatically when we moved into our house on Zufim and obviously, I didn't stick to it.

The movers came to pack up our stuff and though Arthur thinks we don't have a lot of things it looks like a lot to me. It's amazing how fast the junk accumulates. Tomorrow they will finish packing and load it onto the container. And then we'll be "stuffless" for a while.

We'll be staying with friends in San Jose till Sunday and then begin our journey East.

I am internetless (currently using the wifi at the library - have I mentioned lately how much I'm going to miss the libraries? I have?! I'm sure I'll mention it again.) so not sure how much posting and Facebook updating I'll be doing.

Will try to keep writing from California, Florida, Washington, NY, Israel, and wherever else I wind up.

Take care and l'hitraot!

The final countdown...

2009-07-12T08:04:00.000+03:00

The final countdown has begun! Not to the new Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which opens Wednesday July 15th, though I am looking foward to that. In 7 days (for the exact count see the sidebar) we will be leaving San Jose after 3 years.

The shippers come on Tuesday to pack up our stuff (I cannot believe that I am moving again, and from the US to Israel for the second time). We'll stay with friends for a few days including our last Shabbat in San Jose.

Contrary to my previous post, Arthur will be coming home with us after all. After some more soul searching we've decided that this is the best route to take and even though we are both going home without jobs, we have confidence that with Hashem's help and the help of our friends (hint, hint - if you know of any job opportunities, pass them along) things will work out for the best.

We've finally solidified our vacation plans and though we won't be doing the cross country trip we had hoped to do (Maor REFUSES to be in the car with us for that long) we will be visiting a few places and people before our return. Next Sunday, we fly to Orlando for a Walt Disney World visit. We were there 14 years ago when Liam was 6 and Maor was a baby and Maor has yet to forgive us for taking her when she could not experience the Disney magic. And for those of you who know Maor, she never lets you forget a thing! Two trips to Disneyland in the past 3 years have not eroded her belief that she's been wronged!

After Disney (which will be a boot camp experience so we can see as much as possible), we will head to Washington D.C. We'll spend Shabbat at my cousin in Maryland and then try to cram in as much of Washington as we can. Maor knows that Washington museums are the price she must pay for Disney fun (theoretically, anyway).

After Washington we head to NY to visit friends and family and do some touristy things. We head back to Israel on August 10th.

I have to say that in all honesty I am not incredibly sad to be leaving San Jose or America. After living in Israel for 18 years, and Brooklyn before that, I've definitely been spoiled and have found being orthodox in San Jose to be challenging at times. I will miss the San Jose community and the good friends I've made here. I didn't think when we came that I would get close to people but they have a way of worming themselves into your affection (you know who you are!).

Despite northern California's wackiness, there are definitely things the rest of the world can learn from the tree-hugging PC crowd. You can be nice and friendly to people (though, please, less hugging folks!). It's okay to let people into your lane on the highway. It's very rare to hear honking in Northern California (I'm actually very nervous, ok terrified, about driving in Israel again). Recycling is not a dirty word and once you get used to it, it's not such a big deal.

I'll try to keep you updated on our vacation but for now, signing off.

To our Israeli friends and family, see you soon. To our American family and friends, l'hitraot!

Booking thru Thursday - unique sorting

2009-06-26T02:34:00.000+03:00

Browsing through my blog, I found a link to this post about the "Sorted Book Project." Go read it. I’ll wait.

The idea is to take a few books and physically sort them in such a way that the titles make some kind of sense … something that I’ve never quite gotten around to doing and photographing, but which fascinates me.

What title/combinations can you come up with? (Bonus points if you actually assemble the books and photograph them, like in the original post.)

This was just too much fun not to try. Though I get my books from the library I do have a stack of books waiting to come home with me (patience, Baila). So I did two stacks of sorted books. The first is titled professions:

In case you can't read the titles they're: The Poet, The Cellist of Sarajevo, The Piano Tuner, and The Sportswriter.

My second stack could not be more appropriate for a day that saw the deaths of both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

This picture unfortunately didn't come out as clearly so here are the titles of the books:

Die Trying

Everything Changes

Gone, Baby, Gone

Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

Long Way Down

How to Talk to a Widower

Plan B

If you'd like to participate in Booking thru Thursday, post your sorted books on your blog and leave a comment on the BTT Web site.

And ye shall count…seven weeks…

2009-06-03T04:22:00.001+03:00

Yes, I know Shavuot is over and no, it’s not exactly seven weeks but the final countdown has begun (not to mention the shopping spree). On July 26th Maor and I fly to New York and on August 5th we head home to Israel. For good. As usually happens in life, things haven’t turned out exactly like we thought. I haven’t graduated yet since I bit off more than I could chew last semester and I still have my final project to complete. I’m a little more than halfway done and it’s not a problem to finish up online. I’m actually trying to work on it through the summer while I still have access to the library but I am highly unmotivated. I’m also trying to finish up a tutorial that I’m working on from my internship.

The biggest news is that Arthur will be staying in San Jose for another year while Maor and I return to Zufim. It is purely work related – he doesn’t have a job in Israel and he does in the U.S. We’ve been advised that the matzav being what it is, if you have a job, it’s a good idea to hold onto it. So for now we’ll return to our roots and have a long distance relationship, though this time the distance is a little bit further.

Maor will be graduating from elementary school, South Peninsula Hebrew Day School, on June 17th so if you’re in the area, feel free to come and witness this ~~miraculous~~ joyous event. I have to admit that I will be happy to not pay Jewish day school tuition anymore.

I’m hoping this won’t be my final post from California. I’m trying not to get overwhelmed by all there is to do (do I really have to sort and pack AGAIN?!) and to actually get started on doing some of it. So for now, signing off.

Blog post bingo wrap up

2009-02-15T06:58:00.001+02:00

Well I didn’t manage to do all 10 posts that Kim listed in her blog improvement project but I had fun trying. I learned that I agonize over what I’m going to write whether it’s a blog post or a school paper, 200 words aren’t very many and 700 words are.

Here is a list of the posts I did complete for the project:

A link post: But I just joined Facebook

A list post: 10 things not to say to a bereaved parent

An opinion post: What not to say

A question post: Kindle – necessity, luxury, or hype

A how to post: How to edit and share photos with just a few clicks

A review post: Wicked

Free space: Twittering the day away… or not

And another one that doesn’t really fit the categories – since I couldn’t get to over 700 words or keep any of them under 200: Vint Cerf – father of the internet

It made me realize that it’s tough to blog regularly, but it is a great way to avoid schoolwork. I’ll see if I can post on a more regular basis. Thanks for this fun challenge!

Twittering the day away… or not

2009-02-15T06:38:00.001+02:00

So by now you know that I’m a bit of a tech geek and heavily addicted to the internet in general and Facebook in particular. But one thing I just cannot get is Twitter. If you’re not familiar with Twitter (ie. you live under a rock) it’s a micro-blogging tool that lets you send short updates (140 characters) to your friends and family that basically answers the question “what are you doing?”

Here’s a short video by Sachi and Lee LeFever of Commoncraft explaining Twitter in plain English:

Twitter has become this insane phenomenon and I definitely feel like I’m on the outside looking in. According to Read Write Web, Twitter has just raised another $35 million, bringing their total to $55 million. The Pew Internet and American life project just released a report stating that 11% of online American adults use a service like Twitter. And it seems like everybody is tweeting. These twitter guides list the top twitter users though I don’t know how up to date or accurate they are. The top 150 Twitterers includes Barack Obama (#1), Wil Wheaton (#6 – he played Weslely Crusher on Star Trek: The next generation), Darth Vader (#13), and Bill Clinton (#67 – I know what you’re thinking) while Twitterholic lists Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Lance Armstrong, and Al Gore in their top 10.

While the Twitter sensation is astounding what’s even more amazing are all the Twitter applications which are being developed to post to Twitter and follow others. In the various tech blogs that I follow not a day goes by without Twitter being mentioned repeatedly.

What can I say? Even though I’ve read Twitter: Why So Many People Don’t Get It I’m still not convinced and not a convert. Though if I ever do jump on the bandwagon I’ll definitely need this article : HOW TO: Live Inside Twitter and Still Stay Productive.

If anyone wants to weigh in on this, I’d love to hear from you.

Kindle – necessity, luxury, or hype?

2009-02-13T10:15:00.001+02:00

Ever since I first heard about Amazon’s e-book reader (or wireless reading device, as they call it), I’ve wanted one. Then I decided I would wait for them to come out with a new model so some of the kinks would be worked out. After all, with the hefty $359 price tag, I want something I’ll be happy with. This week Amazon debuted the Kindle 2 which will be released on February 24 and the web has been aflutter with reviews, blog posts, feature wish lists, and of course, controversies.

The big appeal of the Kindle for me is that I am a voracious reader and English books are hard to come by in Israel. And they are expensive. You can download a book for the Kindle for $9.99 which is comparable to what I pay for the newer books in my favorite second hand bookstore in Netanya. The biggest drawback for me is that you can’t use a Kindle on Shabbat. I personally think I should get a heter – it’s definitely pikuach nefesh if I don’t have what to read on Shabbat.

But as I read the various posts and articles online I wonder if maybe I should wait a little longer. The NY Times Gadgetwise has four suggestions of what we need on a Kindle and 64 reader comments weighing in with what they think the Kindle is still missing. Some valid ideas are the ability to read PDFs, borrow e-books from the library, Wi-Fi, and backlighting.

One of the big complaints about the Kindle is that Amazon has chosen to be “the Apple of eBooks, not the Google” (Blankenhorn, 2009). Currently Kindle books can be downloaded and read only on a Kindle, and Kindle books cannot be read on other devices. Books whose copyright has expired and are freely available in the public domain from sites such as Project Gutenberg or e-books that can be downloaded from your public library cannot be read on a Kindle. Blankenhorn says that the money is not in the hardware (the readers) but in the books themselves. Ironically, Amazon sells music without copyright protection (as opposed to iTunes) so you why not copy that model to their book?

A new feature of the Kindle 2 is the Text-to-Speech feature, which allows the Kindle to read your book to you. Though the quality is not comparable to having an actor perform a book as an audiobook, it is supposedly passable. This feature is generating controversy as the Authors Guild feels that this might cut into the publishing industry’s audiobook sales, which was more than one billion dollars in 2007. The guild’s executive director, Paul Aiken, is quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying, “They don't have the right to read a book out loud. That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law."

What do you think? Is the Kindle just an overpriced gadget that nobody really needs? Or is it the wave of the future and you just have to have one?

How to edit and share photos with just a few clicks

2009-02-12T07:07:00.001+02:00

Congratulations! You just got a new digital camera and you can’t wait to share your photos with friends and family. Too many people just download the photos to their computer and send them off via e-mail or upload them to their Facebook page without giving any thought to what happens when the recipient tries to see the pictures. Huge photos that take ages to download and make Uncle Bob scroll to see Junior’s smiling face will not endear you to anyone.

If you don’t mind parting with your money, you can try one of Adobe’s Photoshop products. I have Photoshop elements and I’ve been happy with it though I don’t think it’s that intuitive or user friendly. Recently, I found Picnik, a great online tool for photo editing and sharing that makes it inexcusable for anyone to send unedited photos. If you do nothing else, please, reduce the size of your photos!

Picnik allows you to upload photos from your computer’s hard drive or from several sites including Facebook, Flickr, Myspace, Picasa web albums, and Photobucket. You can upload 5 photos at a time with Picnik’s free account while a premium account for $24.95 a year allows you to upload 100 pictures at a time and gives you some advanced effects.

Once you’ve uploaded a photo you’ll see 5 tabs: Home, Library, Edit, Create, and Save & Share. The edit tab allows you to autofix, rotate, crop and resize your photo, as well as fix red-eye quite easily.

Good sizes for sharing pictures or for posting online are 640 x 480 or 800 x 600. You really don’t want to go larger than 800 x 600.

Picnik’s Create tab lets you add all sorts of cool effects to your pictures, as well as text, stickers, and a variety of frames.

Finally, the Save & Share tab allows you to save the edited photo to your computer, e-mail it directly from Picnik, or upload it directly to a social networking site such as Facebook, Flickr, Myspace, Photobucket, or Picasa web albums. This is a great function that cuts out the step of first saving it to your hard drive before sharing it either by e-mail or uploading it to a Web site.

With a few clicks and a short amount of time, you’ll be sharing photos like a pro. Give it a try!

Vint Cerf - “Father of the Internet”

2009-02-11T16:46:00.001+02:00

Tuesday night I went to hear Vint Cerf speak at Temple Emanu-El in San Jose. I heard about this great opportunity from the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley whose updates I get via e-mail. I was thrilled to share the experience with my SJSU SLIS instructor, Debbie Faires, who has definitely helped foster the geek in me. It was great to actually meet in person as opposed to in Google talk, Meebo, Second Life or Elluminate.

Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google, is considered one of the fathers of the internet. He spoke about the past, present, and future of the internet and while much of what he said went over my head, it was an incredible experience to hear him. In the 1970’s Vint Cerf co-designed TCP/IP with Robert Kahn. He talked about those early days of discovering that they could successfully move packets between 3 networks and watching that network expand and explode into today’s internet.

Dr. Cerf spoke about how the nature of the internet will continue to evolve as the population of internet users expands in Asia. Currently, there are about 1.5 billion internet users with the largest percentage (73.6%) being from North America which represents 248.2 million users. 15.3% of the internet users are from Asia but this translates to 578.5 million people. Dr. Cerf said that as the number of users from Asia approaches 70% the nature of the internet will be more heavily influenced by these users and will change. One change is the possibility of internationalized domain names using non Latin characters, though there are still issues that need to be addressed. Dr. Cerf said that mobile phones will continue to shape the internet as more applications are written to allow users to fully access the internet’s powers, particularly the geographic capabilities and possibilities.

Another change coming to the internet is IPv6, the next generation of IP protocol needed because we will run out of addresses sometime in 2010 according to Dr. Cerf. He takes full responsibility for this and says it was his fault as when he had to give a number of addresses they would need, TCP/IP was basically an experiment that they weren’t sure would work and he thought 2³² addresses would be enough. He further said that IPv6 will provide enough addresses to last through his lifetime and then it’ll be someone else’s problem.

Dr. Cerf finished his talk by talking about interplanetary networks, which I can’t really explain but has to do with developing a protocol that allows communication in space and he explained how the Mars rovers transmit data back to Earth.

Dr. Cerf told amusing anecdotes (and a corny joke) and it was amazing to listen to him discuss both the beginnings of the internet and where he sees it going in the future. He could probably rest on his laurels quite happily but is involved in all these cool projects. You don’t get the chance to hear a legend every day. It was aweome!

What not to say…

2009-02-11T09:13:00.000+02:00

Aliza Hausman, a native New Yorker of Dominican descent who converted from Catholicism to Judaism, writes a blog Memoir of a Jewminicana, that I discovered when I read her article My uterus is none of your business on Beyond BT.

Her newest post, What to say and what not to say to a convert, talks about how converts are asked, often publically, why they converted. Besides this being a halachic no-no, as Aliza points out, it’s just plain rude. Besides being asked outright if they’re converts, Aliza says that people will say things like “That’s not a very Jewish name” to elicit information that they don’t deserve. I have to admit that I did something like this once, but it wasn’t to get a confession. I met someone from some hicksville place and said “oh, I didn’t know there were Jews there.” In my defense, I’d like to say two things:

1. I’m from New York. I didn’t know there were Jews anywhere till I was almost 18.

2. When I grew up, nobody was a convert. And if they were, it certainly wasn’t talked about. It’s not like today where I know many people who are either converts or in the process (maybe it’s a California thing). It never occurred to me that the person I said that to was a convert. I was just being a stupid New Yorker.

Even today, it’s not really on my radar. Unless I’m told I have no idea whether someone is or isn’t Jewish and whether they were born tribe members or joined later. I will admit to having uttered “Why would anyone convert to Judaism?”

Aliza’s previous article, My uterus is none of your business, talks about people asking her if she’s pregnant or trying to get pregnant. Another incredible invasion of privacy. It seems that today people feel it’s their right to ask whatever they want and get answers. Sometimes they’re bold and ask directly and other times they just try to stare you down. I’ve felt this personally after answering the dreaded question “how many kids do you have?” In the orthodox Jewish world having 2 children is suspect but having only one means either you’re selfish or there’s a good story lurking there. So if I say I have one child usually the other person will just look at me like they’re waiting to hear why I only have one child. And if I say that I have a daughter and I had another daughter who died I’m inevitably asked what did she die of. Well, first of all, it’s a hard question to answer and certainly not in one short sentence. No “she had cancer” or “she died in a car accident” or “terrorist attack” [almost expected since we lived in Israel]. Life (and death) don’t always fit into neat little boxes. And secondly, chances are, I don’t want to get into it. I know you’re incredibly curious but I don’t want to talk about it.

Now that I’m working among the world at large for the first time (the gentile world), I’ve noticed that it’s only Jews who seem to ask these intrusive questions. The people I have told at work about my daughter greeted the news with an I’m sorry. And that’s it. They didn’t feel the need to pry. So Aliza, while some think the Jews are better than everyone else it seems that there are some midot we can learn from our gentile friends.

Wicked

2009-02-09T09:30:00.001+02:00

This afternoon we went to see the musical Wicked in San Francisco’s Orpheum theater. I kept hearing how great it was and as soon as I heard it was coming to San Francisco I signed up for SHN’s e-mail updates so I could find out when tickets were going on sale. And so, I was able to get Orchestra seats (not as close at it sounds) for today’s matinee.

Written by Winnie Holzman and based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, Wicked, stars Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda and Teal Wicks as Elphaba, and tells the story of rivalry and then friendship between the two women who become Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West in the land of Oz. We learn about Elphaba’s childhood and meet the incredibly popular Glinda who first ridicules but then comes to love the misunderstood Elphaba.

Supporting characters include Carol Kane as Madame Morrible, the college headmistress, David Garrison as the Wizard of Oz, Deedee Mano Hall as Nessarose, Elphaba’s younger sister (who famously grows up to be crushed by a house), and Nicolas Dromard, as Fiyero, the love interest of both Elphaba and Glinda.

The play opens with the citizens of Oz celebrating the death of the Wicked Witch of the West, confirmed by Glinda the Good. When one of the Ozians asks Glinda if it’s true that she knew the Wicked Witch of the West and was actually friends with her, the story backtracks to Elpheba’s birth, her arrival at Shiz college where she meets the beautiful and popular Galinda, and the road from hatred to friendship that they travel.

When Elphaba fulfills her dream and meets the Wizard of Oz she is disappointed and stands by her convictions which turns her into a hunted outcast. Do she and Glinda remain friends till the bitter end? Who winds up with the handsome Fiyero? What is the truth behind Elphaba’s death at the hands of that farm girl? For those answers you’ll just have to go see Wicked for yourself.

I thought the music was great (though sometimes it’s hard to hear/understand the lyrics) and the costumes were wonderful but then green is my favorite color, and as you can imagine, it features prominently in the Emerald City. I also think the story idea is brilliant – it fills in the unanswered questions you might have about the Wizard of Oz and it’s wonderful to think about the women behind the personas of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

I asked Arthur and Maor who they liked better – Glinda or Elphaba. Arthur was undecided and Maor liked Glinda. I preferred Elphaba, the difficult, misunderstood outcast. Hm.

I have to say that the highlight of the day was the kiss I got from Maor at the end. She has a science fair project due this week and was upset that I got tickets for this Sunday (to my defense, I got them before I knew when the science fair is). She was angry at me and said she didn’t want to go to some stupid play. I told her that it was supposed to be great and I expected her afterwards to tell me I was right and give me a kiss and a hug. And to my incredible surprise – she did! Really made my day.

10 things not to say to a bereaved parent

2009-02-08T06:00:00.000+02:00

When your child dies, people are often at a loss of what to say. I know that people don't mean to be cruel or thoughtless but many times, their comments just add to your pain. Remarkably, there is no statute of limitations on 'stupid' comments and 6 years later, we still hear them, although not as frequently. So to help the well meaning, here are 10 things not to say to a bereaved parent:

"He's with God now/he's in a better place." Maybe. But we want our children here with us. Call us selfish.
"You're young - you can have more kids." Well, maybe yes maybe no. But one child does not replace another. We want the child we just lost, not a different one.
"I know how you feel." (often followed by "I lost my mother/uncle/dog") Unless you lost a child you don't know how we feel. Losing a parent (or pet) is NOT like losing a child.
"I wanted to come by/call but it was too hard." I'm sure it was. But it was hard for us too.
"It will get better with time." Not really. As time goes by you realize more and more that death is forever and you will NEVER see/hug/kiss/talk to your child again. That doesn't make it better.
"Aren't you over it yet?" You NEVER get over the loss of your child. NEVER. Full stop.
"This must be so hard for your wife." Men are often shafted in the grief department. Guess what? Men love their children too. I've seen fathers fall to pieces while their wives "seemed" to be handling it.
"You're so strong/I could never go through what you're going through." Well, nobody gave us a choice and there aren't any other options.
"At least you have other kids." See #2. One child is not a substitute for another. We are thankful for the children we still have but it doesn't diminish the loss.
"God doesn't give you more than you can handle." First of all, this is not necessarily true. Many people collapse under the weight of a tragedy. Secondly, we are not more special than anyone else, didn't sign up for this, didn't ask for it.

So what should you do? Listen. Mention our children by name. Just because they're gone doesn't mean we don't think about them or want to talk about them. Understand that grief is a lifelong journey with ups and downs - today we might be fine; tomorrow getting out of bed is a chore. There is no rhyme or reason to this. Understand when something is too hard for us. It's not that we're not happy that your child is celebrating, it just reminds us that our child never will. Call. But don't be angry if we can't answer the phone and talk.
And if you do say something that might be insensitive (we all do it, including bereaved parents themselves), apologize. It goes a long way.

"But I JUST joined Facebook!"

2009-02-05T07:49:00.001+02:00

"But I JUST joined Facebook!", originally uploaded by dstaffen.

If you're one of my two hundred or so Facebook friends, you probably know that I'm incredibly addicted to Facebook. Last semester when I was taking a class in Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools I could hang out on Facebook and claim I was doing homework... and sometimes I actually was. Unfortunately, this semester when you see me on Facebook I'm just slacking off and you should refuse to talk to me and tell me to go work on my e-portfolio.

Like many others, my Facebook world includes an eclectic group of people - friends, newly found school pals, co-workers, family, former employers, fellow SJSU SLIS students, and instructors. One benefit of such a diverse group is the varied and interesting links and opinions that get shared. But that is also one of the danger zones - you can call me paranoid, but these stories show that Big Brother IS watching, and nobody is safe, no matter where you live or whether you're low down on the totem pole or at the top of the heap.

Personally, I think that what happens on Facebook stays on Facebook. No, you can't call in to work and say I need the day off to go to my grandmother's funeral and then post pictures of yourself sitting on the beach with a drink in your hand. Do that and you deserve to be fired. You're too stupid to be gainfully employed. But everyone has a private life, from the janitor to the CEO, and we're all entitled to kick back on the weekend and expect to show up for our job on Monday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed without worrying about being fired.

But why take chances? How to friend mom, dad, and the boss on Facebook...Safely and 10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know will explain how to share your information only with those you really want. I admit that I haven't done most of these - I'm on Facebook because I want to be found. If my profile wasn't searchable how could the boy I had a crush on in first grade have found me? [I'm not disclosing that info; he knows who he is]

Ever wonder what it would have been like had Facebook been around centuries ago? Or if some of your favorite people or deities had Facebook? Check out the Facebook of Genesis, explore Hamlet's Facebook page, find out what if the USA had a Facebook page during the Civil War, and finally head over to see Sarah Palin's Facebook page.

Finally, listen to the Facebook anthem, to the tune of We didn't start the fire, by one of my favorite artists, Billy Joel:

Blog improvement project: blog post bingo

2009-02-04T09:18:00.000+02:00

Yet another way to avoid schoolwork - which I don't want to talk about but thanks for asking.
I found out about this from Suey's blog, It's All About Books and then found the original project on Kim's blog Sophisticated Dorkiness.
This week's activity is:

Blog Post Bingo!

Take a look at the 10 types of blog post below. Over the next two weeks, try to write as many of these different kinds of posts as you can.

A Link Post - share a series of links your readers might find interesting
A Short Post - less than 200 words
A List Post - simple as it sounds, a list of some sort
An Opinion Post - take an event, news, or another blog post and share your opinion on it
A Poll or Question Post - post a poll or ask your readers a specific question for feedback
A How-To Post - You’re an expert in something; big or small, share how to do it
A Long Post - more than 700 words
A Review Post - self-explanatory, I think
A Definition Post - show your expertise about a topic related to your blog
FREE SPACE - a type of post of your choice (that is not the same as one of the previous posts)

If you decide to participate and sign up on Kim's blog you can even win prizes. Stay tuned for my upcoming posts!

2008 reading roundup

2009-01-04T07:47:00.000+02:00

2008 was the second year that I kept track of all the books I read and listened to on audio, still using librarything. As the final project for a class I took last semester, I created a readers’ advisory wiki resource using Google sites, called Recreational Reading. You can use this site to help you find what to read next, and if you have additional sources, feel free to add them to the site – it’s very easy to use. I felt like I got much less reading done this year because I was so bogged down with school, and in fact, I finished 2 books less than in 2007 but three times more were audiobooks. Here is the list of books I read or listened to in 2008, in the order I finished them.

1. The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman

2. The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown

3. Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs

4. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Stephen J. Dubner

5. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

6. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

7. The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood

8. What the Dead Know: A Novel by Laura Lippman

9. Atonement by Ian McEwan

10. Learning to Breathe by Karen White

11. Beaufort by Ron Leshem

12. The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

13. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

14. The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller

15. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

16. Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward

17. Betrayal by John Lescroart

18. Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez

19. Double Cross by Jame Patterson

20. Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman

21. Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

22. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

23. Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman

24. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

25. The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland

26. Eleven Days: A Novel of the Heartland by Donald Harstad

27. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

28. Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein

29. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

30. Ellington Boulevard: A Novel in A-Flat by Adam Langer

31. The Burnt House by Faye Kellerman

32. The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

33. The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

34. Hold Tight by Harlan Coben

35. Phantom Prey by John Sandford

36. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

37. The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

38. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

39. Escape by Robert K. Tanenbaum

40. Nothing to Lose by Lee Child

41. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

42. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

43. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

44. We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin

45. The Other by David Guterson

46. March by Geraldine Brooks

47. The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffery Deaver

48. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

49. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

50. Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy by Shmuley Boteach

51. Belong to Me by Marisa De los Santos

52. Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days (No Excuses!) by Douglas Brown

53. The Sister by Poppy Adams

54. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

55. Mekimi by Noa Yaron-Dayan

56. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

57. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

58. The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman

59. The Mercedes Coffin: A Decker and Lazarus Book by Faye Kellerman

60. The Attack by Yasmina Khadra

61. The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King

62. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

63. Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert

64. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky

65. The Condition by Jennifer Haigh

66. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

67. Halfway House by Katharine Noel

68. I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass

69. Heat Lightning by John Sandford

70. A case of exploding mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

71. The plague of doves by Louise Erdrich

72. Kissing Games of the World by Sandi Kahn Shelton

73. The Beach House by Jane Green

74. Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany

75. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

76. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

77. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

78. The Gate House by Nelson DeMille

79. Testimony by Anita Shreve

80. The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer

81. Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell

Of the 81 books I consumed in 2008, there were 7 authors who I read more than one of his/her works in 2008, 32 were audiobooks, 13 were non-fiction, one was in Hebrew, 5 were ‘young adult’ fiction, and 5 dealt with the Holocaust to some degree which is unusual for me since I usually run the other way from Holocaust books.

Some of my favorites and books I would recommend are People of the Book, Bridge of Sighs, The Glass Castle, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The book I most looked forward to reading was Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed and I did enjoy it but thought it was too long and had a few too many plotlines going on. It would have been better I had he stuck to the main storyline. I read several books that included a supernatural element and was able to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy them but one that I particularly disliked (immensely) was Cecilia Ahern’s I see you everywhere. I decided to give Patricia Cornwell another chance after finding her last books so awful that I stopped reading them and found Scarpetta an okay read. Not great but not terrible either. I read (actually listened to) Twilight because I was curious about all the hype it was getting and I just don’t get it. Too long and nothing happened. I do not plan on reading the other three although I did buy the set for my daughter for Chanuka.

You can find me on librarything, reading social, or goodreads which I'm trying to use just because a fellow reading buddy has friended me there.

Although I have a pile of books from the library, none of them seem to be holding my interest so I plan to head over to the library tomorrow and get started on 2009's list.

Booking through Thursday - time is of the essence

2008-12-11T09:55:00.001+02:00

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?

(I’m guessing #1 is an easy question for everyone?)

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

Well, this is certainly a timely question - my semester just ended (at midnight) so I actually have time to answer.

Does anyone get to read as much as they'd like? Of course my answer to this is a resounding no. I'd like to blame it only on school, work, and home responsibilities but the truth is, I'd very addicted to tv and the internet so that too cuts into my reading time. During the semester I do most of my reading on Saturdays, which is my Sabbath, so electronics are off limits. I actually have a bunch of holds at the library that I've timed for my semester break so hopefully I'll be able to get some reading in before the craziness starts up full force.

Well, I definitely wouldn't read anything educational. I read mostly modern fiction, sometimes an interesting nonfiction book I come across. I'm not really into chick lit so when I've been reading too many downers I throw in some suspense or mysteries to lighten it up.

If you'd like to participate in Booking through Thursday, post your answers on your blog, and leave a comment on the BTT Web site.

History in the making

2008-11-05T10:09:00.000+02:00

John Gress/Reuters

One of the advantages (finally) to living on the West coast is that you don't have to stay up till 2 a.m. to find out who won this historic presidential election. It's hard to be in America and not get caught up. In America, they might be a bit less in your face about politics than in Israel, but people still feel very strongly and speak their views passionately.

I think that no matter where you stand or how you voted, it is hard not to be swept up in the feeling that history has been made. America has elected her first African American president, with a feeling of hope and the promise of change.

"That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow." -- President Elect Barack Obama, Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 2008.