something new every day

I saw a TV ad this morning for Toro garden tools. I think it's the first ad for garden tools I've ever seen! There aren't enough lawns in NYC to warrant ads of that type I guess. weird.

Vitaaborg update

UN Category: Inoffensive Centrist Democracy
Civil Rights: Excellent
Economy: Strong
Political Freedoms: Very Good

The Federation of Vitaaborg is a very large, safe nation, renowned for its burgeoning Droid population. Its hard-working, intelligent population of 149 million have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Social Equality. The average income tax rate is 35%. A substantial private sector is led by the Cheese Exports industry, followed by Gambling and Information Technology.

The Vitaaborg Automotive Racing Series draws millions of spectators annually while those near the tracks complain about the noise, reporters often lose their jobs over fact-checking errors, voting has become a nightmare since everyone keeps selecting "None of the above", and abortions are routinely performed in Vitaaborg's hospitals. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is well under control, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vitaaborg's national animal is the Droid, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Virtual Borg.

Vitaaborg is ranked 152nd in the region and 56,797th in the world for Most Comprehensive Public Healthcare.

bits of justice

Our office building is located in a pretty run-down, empty part of town and the only parking available is our employee lot, which doesn't have enough spots for everyone in the building. People have actually created illegal spots within the lot (extra car on the end of each parking row). All of the local streets are "no parking anytime" zones, but of course, they are filled end-to-end with cars b/c there just isn't enough space for everyone. As you can imagine, every once in a while cops will come by and probably fill their entire month's parking ticket quota in about an hour.

In January, I got one such ticket (about 10 mins before I came out to my car), for like $95!!! Sure I was parked illegally, but there really weren't any other options. So I decided to fight it.

Today I went to traffic court... my first time as a defendent, teehee. The judge was very nice. She is actually a good friend of the owner of our office building and comes here often. She said she's parked illegally there too! haha. She let me off. Awesome!

there goes my wisdom

I'm getting all 4 wisdom teeth removed tomorrow morning. I'm a little nervous. I've never had any kind of surgical procedure or been anesthetised. I also get nervous when they ask "are you allergic to any medications?" Because I've never taken any medications! What if I say no, and end up being terribly allergic to something?

I also hear conflicting stories about the amount of pain following the procedure. I don't want "dry sockets" and I don't like the possible risk of temporary/permanent numbness of the lower face. But I get to stay home, in bed, for 2-3 days, and that doesn't sound so bad. Yogurt smoothies and frozen fruit pops, here I come!

thank you for smoking

...that's a sarcastic "thank you" to my neighbors, not the movie. A few months ago, a chain smoker (or two or three) moved in next door. So every evening our apartment fills with smoke. I don't know how much they smoke, but it's so much, that the entire hallway and our apartment end up reeking like an ashtray. It's very disgusting and annoying. We've stuffed a towel under the door, but that hardly does anything. Fortunately, if we notice the smell in time (which we always do) we can close the bedroom door and have at least some reprieve from the smell.

It's bad enough that every restaurant in Pittsburgh is an ashtray, but it's nor fair that my apartment smells like one! I want a non-smoking floor. damnit.

I support net neutrality

NYC, oh how I miss thee!

April 30th my childhood best friend got married which prompted a trip to NYC for the weekend. It was a very good weekend overall. Friday I got to hang out with Steve... pardon, "Aris," at (of all places) Brighton Beach!!! That's a place I wouldn't go to with my Russian friends, and here I am heading there of my own free will to hang out with Americans. It wasn't just hanging out though, there was business involved. I hadn't been to Brighton in a few years and was quite surprised to find a massive "upscale" development: Oceana. Apparently, the ghetto of Brighton is getting gentrified. If I had a few million bucks sitting around, I might actually get a condo there. It's on the beach, with a pool, gym and all that other good stuff, and a few minutes from the B/Q trains which take you into the heart of Manhattan in ~40 minutes.

Friday night I went out with the bride, groom and a few of their friends to a hooka bar. Saturday I went to the city to meet up with the lovely ladies of the G&D department up in Washington Heights. Dallas BBQ fun for all! Off to the museum of natural history for the new planetarium show "cosmic collisions" (which was awesome!), a stroll through the street fair outside the museum, a cream puff from Beard Papa, and Thank You For Smoking at the Lincoln Center movie theater.

Being with friends all weekend made me realize how much I miss everyone and how lonely it is here in Pgh. I still don't really know anyone I can call up to hang out :(

On to Sunday, the purpose of my visit: the wedding! Alex and I rode in the limo with Elena and a few others to the restaurant. The ceremony was beautiful. The food was plentiful. I did not catch the bouquet, but I did manage to spill red wine all over my cream colored dress. Alex did not catch the garter, but we're both kind of glad he didn't. The guy who caught it had to put it on the leg of the bouquet-girl. The bride's father intervened, and sat in the girl's stead (the garter-guy was blind folded). We have video of it, it's quite hillarious. For anyone interested, pics can be found here.

silly college students

About half of my building has been given to CMU and Pitt for student housing. Over the past few weeks Pitt students have been moving out, and I think CMU is done this coming week.

Just now I saw a new notice posted above the garbage shoot:

"Please do not throw small appliances such as a toaster, microwave or blender down the trash shoot."

haha. did someone actually throw these things down the shoot? It's not a very large shoot, I can't imagine "small appliances" even fitting into the opening! (Well, maybe the blender.)

Thank You Stephen Colbert.

Thank You Stephen Colbert.

If you haven't seen video of this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner, prepare yourself. It's almost painful to watch. (Painful in a good way.)

it's too quiet

Where is everybody? No one has been posting in their blogs lately. I used to check my google reader every day and have lots to read, but it's been mostly empty for over a month now. What's up with that? Is the blog fad over? Why didn't anyone tell me?

Passover, take II

I feel like I need to redeem the last post with some actual nice things to say about this year’s Passover. The weather was gorgeous! I stayed with a very nice family with a cute baby and a cute 2 year old who was the funniest kid I’ve seen in a long time. He had been part of some school production and he kept showing me the dance he did. Adorable! There were some great conversations, and more babies to hold :)

I love shmurah matzah and marror. The Seders, which seemed to last an eternity when I was a kid, didn’t seem long at all. The food, while repetitive (due to the dietary constraints) was delicious. I love potato kugel. This is also the second year since I’ve realized that one could shower during a holiday, and that made life much easier.

4 glasses of wine… need I say more?

Oy! this got out of hand.

It’s been a while since I’ve written an actual post, so there’s much to update. Lets start with Passover.

Before I start with Passover though, I feel like I need to back up a bit. Having gone to Orthodox day schools as a child, I was always left with a deep respect and yearning for the Orthodox lifestyle. Everyone always seems so happy. The children (as far as I’ve seen) are not rebellious, husbands and wives get along, and there’s so much tradition in the homes that you feel like you are being transported to a totally different place. There’s peace, serenity and even a holiness that you can actually feel in an observant Jewish home. Anyways, that’s what I was taught, that’s what I saw a lot, and that’s what I wanted. Of course with all that comes an almost fanatical sort of religiosity which makes the whole package possible.

Recently (in the last ~4 months or so) I came across the “frum skeptics” (religious skeptics) groups online (isn’t the internet wonderful?) and have begun to see a totally different side of Orthodox Judaism. It has made me stop and think about the underlying beliefs, requirements and sacrifices that come with living that kind of life. For a while I felt like I wanted to distance myself from the zealotry and fanaticism of the “ultra Orthodox” beliefs, which to me meant that life would be shallow and bland.

Then came Passover. Of all the Jewish holidays, except Yom Kippur which isn’t really a “holiday” in the traditional sense, Passover is the most demanding. You have to clean hour house inside out to get rid of all bread – you even have to clean all your books to make sure you didn’t drop any crumbs between the pages while reading. It is absolutely forbidden to have a single crumb of bread in your house for 8 days. In addition, there are the 2 Seders, and 4/8 days of the holiday are “yom tov” which means you can’t do any work. That’s a lot. I also think it is one of the most beautiful holidays. I love the whole Seder – it’s nothing but lots of tradition, which is awesome. This year I stayed with one family and had all my meals at the Chabad House. And at some point I got the same feeling I used to – how beautiful everything was and how much I wanted to be a part of this in the future.

However, this year, in the back of my mind was a more critical observation of the whole event – for example, the Chabad family’s tradition is to not eat any fruit or vegetables that can’t be peeled, and no prepared food of any kind (they even make their own mayonnaise). I thought to myself: why can’t I have the beauty and tradition of Passover without going crazy with all the extras? Why do I have to be limited to not eating kitniyos (rice, beans, corn, soy products, etc) just because I happened to be born into an Easter European family and not a Middle Eastern family? Accident of birth shouldn’t make my life more difficult. I always knew that a lot of the Orthodox laws and customs are just that – customs and traditions. I always knew that, but never questioned it. In school you are taught to accept the law (custom) as law, no questions asked. Well, after listening in on some online conversations (via blogs, comments, message boards, etc) I’ve realized that the core of Judaism is to question everything. So why don’t we question the very essence of Judaism? Why is that off limits? We don’t eat rice during Passover because there was no rice in Eastern Europe hundreds of years ago. That’s absurd. There’s a value in tradition, but turning it into an obstacle is not the solution.

So now I think that I can still incorporate the true laws and reasonable (logical) customs without becoming a crazy fanatic. It all comes down to the fact that Jewish law was derived from the interpretation of the Torah by men. And by “men” I don’t mean “humanity” but “old white men”), whose opinions were the result of their upbringing in a time very different from ours. Why does Judaism inherit from the mother? Because men (and women) would sleep around and move on and it would be difficult to know whether the real father was Jewish, but you always know who the mother was. Why are women prohibited from participating in clerical positions or deep learning? It’s outright sexism and nothing more. The whole “women are holier so they are not required to do X” is just apologetics, and Jewish women have swallowed it for hundreds of years. The fanatical claim that “we adapt to the Torah, the Torah doesn’t adapt to us” doesn’t make sense to me anymore. The Torah was always adapted to the times, that’s the whole point of interpretation, which by its very nature is subject to the time and society where the interpretation is done. Electricity didn't always exist, polygamy used to be legal, a father had the right to sell his daughter into marriage on her 12^th birthday, and you’re supposed to tie your left shoe before your right shoe. Does G-d really care which shoe I tie first? I highly doubt it. And to assert that He does is downright loony. Flipping a light switch is not the same as lighting a match. I could go on and on.

There’s much more to say on the subject but I’m getting increasingly frustrated writing about it so I’ll stop now. I think the last paragraph made it sound like I’m abandoning Judaism, but that’s not it. The point I was trying to make is that I want the beauty and tradition without being a blind follower. Is that possible? I don’t know if it is. But I think I’d like to try.

Link: Pigasus Award

Pigasus Award - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

one of the many wonderous tid bits I've come across on Wikipedia.