9.09.2009
Uh, yeah...
Although I am a woman, not a man, and I learned a little Spanish in high school (not French), this rang resoundingly true. Except for the last panel!
Hat tip to BZ and mazal tov on his recent marriage! (And move to a new city and starting grad school!)
Labels: fun 'n games, meta
6.26.2009
The serious drinking problem of our generation
Hah hah hah! "You still drink out of metal, huh" is the best line I've seen in a comic in awhile. I just discovered "Pictures for Sad Children" because this one was "Digg"ed. And it is pretty funny, but nothing is as funny as "You still drink out of metal, huh" because it's so particular to the current time and place in which we find ourselves.
Until last spring (2008), I was drinking out of bad plastic water bottles like everyone else. You know, the thick plastic kind you can buy for $0.99 at CVS/Duane Reade/Long's or empty Poland Spring (or generic) water bottles refilled over and over again with tap water. Like everyone did! I even had a Nalgene (before they made them BPA-free), although I never managed to drink out of it without spilling water all over myself, even with the special insert for uncoordinated people.
Last spring, amidst all the BPA brouhahah, I switched to the new safer metal but...ugh...there was the cockroach incident. The cockroach incident was the one wherein I washed the bottle out and put it upside down to dry in the dish drainer overnight. I refilled it in the morning, screwed the top closed, and drank out of it all day. When I opened it to refill it later in the day, I saw a (live, skittering around) cockroach inside. That convinced me not to drink out of anything opaque. Ever again. (I did receive a lovely birthday present of a fancier, insulated, metal water bottle with a mesh cover that one could drink through--called an ice guard, I think--which could also be left in while drying, thus denying entry to wily, water-resistant cockroaches. It's too heavy to shlep around Jerusalem, but I hope to use it when I'm at a point in my life where I am sitting in one place for long periods of time and want to drink safe, chilled, cockroach-free water.)
Anyway, so after the traumatizing cockroach incident (which, incidentally, caused me no harm at all), I switched back to the old bad plastic. Specifically, refilled Mey Eden bottles with the colorful sports caps. They're a good size.
While in the US this past March/April, I got a new, good, BPA-free plastic bottle. But it seems to unscrew itself and spill everywhere, so I will ultimately need something newer/better to drink out of. Recommendations welcome. I want something I can drink out of without spilling all over myself (i.e., smallish opening), that I can drink out of quickly (not a sports cap that requires sucking rather than guzzling), that has or accepts a clip for attaching to the outside of a backpack, and that can be opened up fully for a thorough cleaning every once in awhile. I thought this bottle was it, and it was, except for its unfortunate tendency to open and spill everywhere.
What's does your drinking history look like?
Incidentally, when people started walking around with water bottles all the time (late 1990's? I don't really remember when it started, but know that people didn't used to walk around with water all the time, even in the summer when it was very hot), my maternal grandfather, z"l, commented to me about about how silly it looked to see adults drinking out of bottles like babies. I guess the ubiquitous sport-top water bottles reminded him of baby bottles. (They do look similar.) I told him that I preferred screw-top bottles, because they were easier to drink quickly out of, and he said that was better, but not by a whole lot.
Why did people start drinking so much water? Or at least, carrying it around with them? Are there fewer drinking fountains? Was there a spate of illness/death due to dehydration? Was it after the 8-cups-a-day thing was first publicized? (For more on this, see #4 here, #1 here, and this--she convinced me. If you don't trust random personal blogs written by people you don't know--and I don't know why you wouldn't!--see this.)
I don't drink eight cups of water a day, but I hate being stuck somewhere, very thirsty, without water. It happened earlier this year, when I was delivering food to people before Purim, after I had eaten two slices of salty pizza and had nothing to wash it down but a cup of Coke. I was so thirsty and there was a sink but nothing to drink water out of--it drove me crazy. I also walk a lot in the hot Jerusalem sun, so I think that dehydration could be an actual issue.
Labels: fun 'n games, history, science/health/environment
8.18.2008
For kids getting ready for their first day of school...
This brought back memories. Mostly of watching TV, not of going to school!
If you've got a kid on your hands who somehow already hates school (shame!), try this. (The "Teeny Little Super Guy" animator, Paul Fierlinger, animated this as well.)
And for those of you looking for a full-on nostalgia experience, this. I don't recognize most of the stuff after 1987 or so, which is understandable. I was surprised by how much of the old stuff I recognized, until I remembered that Sesame Street reuses old clips all the time. I wonder if they still throw stuff from the 1970s in just to shake things up a little?
If you've got a kid on your hands who somehow already hates school (shame!), try this. (The "Teeny Little Super Guy" animator, Paul Fierlinger, animated this as well.)
And for those of you looking for a full-on nostalgia experience, this. I don't recognize most of the stuff after 1987 or so, which is understandable. I was surprised by how much of the old stuff I recognized, until I remembered that Sesame Street reuses old clips all the time. I wonder if they still throw stuff from the 1970s in just to shake things up a little?
Labels: childhood, fun 'n games
8.05.2008
Amusing recycling tip
This appeared at the top of my gmail today:
I just got my first digital camera in May, and it's thrilling. I am taking far, far too many photos right now, but, still--how fun!
I wonder what other passe, no-longer-culturally-relevant recycling tips are out there? I think we need to recycle more than ever, but not things that we no longer use!
___________________________________________
1. Also, metal Band-aid boxes. I miss those--they were great for storing little treasures as a kid! I was sad when they switched over to cardboard boxes, although it was probably for the good of the world. (I am pretty sure that it takes less energy to produce cardboard than to produce metal, since its raw materials don't need to be extracted from the earth. On the other hand, metal may be cheaper to recycle, since it can be melted down.)
Film canisters can be reused to store nails, screws, buttons and pins.I remember using film canisters for all kinds of great things1, but how many people use film these days? I feel like film, if used, mostly takes the form of disposable cameras left for the use of guests at weddings or purchased when one's digital camera was left at home.
I just got my first digital camera in May, and it's thrilling. I am taking far, far too many photos right now, but, still--how fun!
I wonder what other passe, no-longer-culturally-relevant recycling tips are out there? I think we need to recycle more than ever, but not things that we no longer use!
___________________________________________
1. Also, metal Band-aid boxes. I miss those--they were great for storing little treasures as a kid! I was sad when they switched over to cardboard boxes, although it was probably for the good of the world. (I am pretty sure that it takes less energy to produce cardboard than to produce metal, since its raw materials don't need to be extracted from the earth. On the other hand, metal may be cheaper to recycle, since it can be melted down.)
Labels: fun 'n games
2.20.2008
Wiki of obsolete technical skills
1.09.2008
Sorry to waste your time on nonsense, but...
if you ever played a lot of Tetris (say, in the late '80s and early '90s, before Snood stole your soul), this should make you smile. Thank God for YouTube--now I don't have time to play Tetris anymore. (And that is a good thing, as anyone who ever had "Tetris dreams" can attest.)
Speaking of YouTube, there is now also JewTube and GodTube (the first is self-explanatory, the second is by/for evangelical Christians).
Speaking of YouTube, there is now also JewTube and GodTube (the first is self-explanatory, the second is by/for evangelical Christians).
Labels: fun 'n games
12.26.2007
Reading Rainbow and other TV shows you may miss from your childhood in the 1980s!
Do you remember Reading Rainbow? Do you remember that lovely intro song? Well, now you can relive at least one of your childhood memories and watch it here. It's cool to see something you haven't seen in fifteen or twenty years. (Apparently, Reading Rainbow ran from 1983-2005. I had no idea they produced new ones until two years ago.) It looks just like I remember it, and I remember what a great show it was. Ah, books!
I don't think that this show made me enjoy reading any more than I would have otherwise, though, in respect to my earlier post about why some people become avid readers and others don't. My brother watched the show with me and he never became an avid reader by any definition. Both of my sisters are avid readers like I am. That breakdown might suggest that it is a gender thing, but my father read a lot, as did both of my grandfathers.
While you're at it, here is the intro to 3-2-1 Contact (why does Wikipedia call it a "reality" show, though?), although the part I remember starts from the middle of this video. Here are some snippets from the actual show. I haven't had time to watch them, because I've been engrossed in Square One TV. See below.
Here is the intro to Square One, although it was nothing special in my memory and my memory was apparently correct. Much more enticingly, there are many little snippets of Square One TV on YouTube. I think I spent a whole afternoon watching them once. So, go have fun! I remember many of the songs fondly.
This is one of my favorites from Square One, but I think it's more my favorite now than it was when I was a kid. It has taken on new meaning since 1990! (Also, the '80s-ness of it just kills me.)
"Magic Number Nine" and "Tesselations" were two of my favorites as a kid. Come on, admit it, you like songs about math, too!
(Parenthetical tangent: Note that I don't discriminate. I also like songs about reading. For example, I am quite fond of Tom Lehrer's songs "Silent E" and "L-Y." Especially "L-Y." That's a great song. You may remember them from The Electric Company, but I am just six months or a year too young to remember it. It stopped airing in reruns in 1985, when I was 5 and 6 years old. I remember a lot of things from when I was five and six (the Challenger disaster, the summit meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev), but not this show. I am also about six months too young to remember when Snuffleupagus went from being imaginary to being real. This also happened when I was six, but I guess I always remembered him as being real because I kept watching the show for awhile after that. (I watched nothing but public television until I was 9, and because I had younger siblings, I probably watched Sesame Street and Mister Rogers for longer than some peers.) Classmates who were born six months before me definitely remembered him being imaginary. It's funny to think of what I remember and what I don't remember from when I was between the ages of, say, 4 and 7. After I was 7, I think I remembered a lot more.)
Good Lord, you can also watch Mathman all over again! I loved those! Maybe even more than the music videos, with the notable exceptions of "Magic Number Nine" and "Tesselations." Without further ado, some Mathman (much more available on YouTube):
Likewise, I don't think that all that watching of Square One made me like math any more than I would have otherwise. For years, I was both afraid of and hated math even though, based on things I've learned about myself since I stopped studying math formally (about halfway through 12th grade) would indicate that I probably have some natural aptitude for math.
It would be a tautology to say that I never liked math because of my fear and hatred, but I think it's safe to say that if I had not been afraid of and hated math, then I might have gotten good at it and thus learned to like it. Between sixth grade and twelfth grade I moved, more or less against my will, from the lowest math group into AP Calculus, but math was never a happy subject for me, unlike, say, English, history, Talmud, biology, or art appreciation. I learned some statistics from a book and thus managed to place out of the math requirement in college, but another placement test I took my freshman year indicated that if I were to take math in college, I would have to take remedial algebra, i.e., relearn whatever it was I learned (or didn't learn) in 9th and 11th grades. (I think 10th grade was geometry, which I aced and also sort of enjoyed. Proofs! Yay! What fun!) Numbers still fluster and scare me to some extent, and I wish they didn't. The real question is: Why was I afraid of numbers when I was as young as 6? I think I know the answer, but I'll save that for another post.
I don't think that this show made me enjoy reading any more than I would have otherwise, though, in respect to my earlier post about why some people become avid readers and others don't. My brother watched the show with me and he never became an avid reader by any definition. Both of my sisters are avid readers like I am. That breakdown might suggest that it is a gender thing, but my father read a lot, as did both of my grandfathers.
While you're at it, here is the intro to 3-2-1 Contact (why does Wikipedia call it a "reality" show, though?), although the part I remember starts from the middle of this video. Here are some snippets from the actual show. I haven't had time to watch them, because I've been engrossed in Square One TV. See below.
Here is the intro to Square One, although it was nothing special in my memory and my memory was apparently correct. Much more enticingly, there are many little snippets of Square One TV on YouTube. I think I spent a whole afternoon watching them once. So, go have fun! I remember many of the songs fondly.
This is one of my favorites from Square One, but I think it's more my favorite now than it was when I was a kid. It has taken on new meaning since 1990! (Also, the '80s-ness of it just kills me.)
"Magic Number Nine" and "Tesselations" were two of my favorites as a kid. Come on, admit it, you like songs about math, too!
(Parenthetical tangent: Note that I don't discriminate. I also like songs about reading. For example, I am quite fond of Tom Lehrer's songs "Silent E" and "L-Y." Especially "L-Y." That's a great song. You may remember them from The Electric Company, but I am just six months or a year too young to remember it. It stopped airing in reruns in 1985, when I was 5 and 6 years old. I remember a lot of things from when I was five and six (the Challenger disaster, the summit meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev), but not this show. I am also about six months too young to remember when Snuffleupagus went from being imaginary to being real. This also happened when I was six, but I guess I always remembered him as being real because I kept watching the show for awhile after that. (I watched nothing but public television until I was 9, and because I had younger siblings, I probably watched Sesame Street and Mister Rogers for longer than some peers.) Classmates who were born six months before me definitely remembered him being imaginary. It's funny to think of what I remember and what I don't remember from when I was between the ages of, say, 4 and 7. After I was 7, I think I remembered a lot more.)
Good Lord, you can also watch Mathman all over again! I loved those! Maybe even more than the music videos, with the notable exceptions of "Magic Number Nine" and "Tesselations." Without further ado, some Mathman (much more available on YouTube):
Likewise, I don't think that all that watching of Square One made me like math any more than I would have otherwise. For years, I was both afraid of and hated math even though, based on things I've learned about myself since I stopped studying math formally (about halfway through 12th grade) would indicate that I probably have some natural aptitude for math.
It would be a tautology to say that I never liked math because of my fear and hatred, but I think it's safe to say that if I had not been afraid of and hated math, then I might have gotten good at it and thus learned to like it. Between sixth grade and twelfth grade I moved, more or less against my will, from the lowest math group into AP Calculus, but math was never a happy subject for me, unlike, say, English, history, Talmud, biology, or art appreciation. I learned some statistics from a book and thus managed to place out of the math requirement in college, but another placement test I took my freshman year indicated that if I were to take math in college, I would have to take remedial algebra, i.e., relearn whatever it was I learned (or didn't learn) in 9th and 11th grades. (I think 10th grade was geometry, which I aced and also sort of enjoyed. Proofs! Yay! What fun!) Numbers still fluster and scare me to some extent, and I wish they didn't. The real question is: Why was I afraid of numbers when I was as young as 6? I think I know the answer, but I'll save that for another post.
Labels: books/reading, childhood, fun 'n games, gender
11.27.2007
Don't click here if you have work to finish.
Well, not there, exactly, but here, on freerice.com. It works on the same principle as those sites that promise to cure breast cancer, etc. (Do you remember those? I think from the late 1990s?) You click, they charge advertisers per page view (and more per click-through), and the proceeds, minus overhead, buy rice for poor people.
But that's not what's fun about it. No. What's fun about it is that you get to test your vocabulary skills. You get harder words in response to correct answers and easier words in response to incorrect answers. Sort of like the new, computer-based GRE. (Or so I hear. I've never taken it.) You also get a score between 1 and 50. Apparently it's very, very difficult to get above a 48. The difficulty of words is constantly revised depending on how many people define them correctly.
If you like big words, and like trying to figure out what words mean based on their presumptive roots, and are highly competitive--like I am--then this can keep you busy for hours on end. Not that I've spent hours on it today. Not at all. There is no time limit, so you can go back to it as time allows. You feel sort of noble for using your down time at work to improve your vocabulary and help feed the poor.
I got as high as 44, but am now hovering around 40. I definitely used some sort of intelligent guessing on many of the words, mostly based on some clearly related word that I was more familiar with. I am constantly surprised by how many strange words I've picked up over the year from reading old English translations of Tanach [the Bible]. Most of these words I know from reading. God only knows where I learned was a cuspidor was, but I somehow do. (Little House on the Prairie, perhaps? I think that's how I knew what eider was.) I got ambuscade right only because I guessed that it was related to the word "ambush." You can't be too picky, though. Does periphrasis really mean "circumlocution"? I chose circumlocution because periphrasis sounds too much like peripatetic to not mean something like "walking around," which I only know from History 10a in college, when we had to read some Aristotle. A "bodega" is most certainly not a "wineshop," but that was clearly the correct choice. [Ha! I just looked it up, and it is a wineshop! It's just that everyone I know uses it like the third definition here, like the American equivalent of the Israeli makolet. People also call such stores "delis" here in New York, which threw me at first.]
The definitions from which you get to choose are quite expansive/blurry, so you have just pick the best and go with it, even if you know that they aren't exactly the same thing. This also helps me get things right that I otherwise would not. You don't have to use the words in a sentence, for example, which would be much more difficult.
Another thing I noticed, which I also noticed when I took the SAT, is that I tend to have a very immediate feeling that a word is either a "good word" or a "bad word." I have a sense that a word expresses something negative or something positive much more often than I can correctly define it, and also much more quickly than I can define it, even for words with which I am pretty familiar.
I think I can raise my score a few points if I slow down rather than clicking through quickly. I was trained to take standardized tests as quickly as possible and then go back to work on the hard parts, so it's hard for me to take the time to stop and think when I'm not immediately sure. Also, I'm used to trying to outsmart the test-makers, so if something seems too obvious to be the right answer, I choose something else. Sometimes test-makers aren't trying to trick test-takers, and sometimes they are.
I've given away 1560 grains of rice so far.
Ahem...and now, back to work!
But that's not what's fun about it. No. What's fun about it is that you get to test your vocabulary skills. You get harder words in response to correct answers and easier words in response to incorrect answers. Sort of like the new, computer-based GRE. (Or so I hear. I've never taken it.) You also get a score between 1 and 50. Apparently it's very, very difficult to get above a 48. The difficulty of words is constantly revised depending on how many people define them correctly.
If you like big words, and like trying to figure out what words mean based on their presumptive roots, and are highly competitive--like I am--then this can keep you busy for hours on end. Not that I've spent hours on it today. Not at all. There is no time limit, so you can go back to it as time allows. You feel sort of noble for using your down time at work to improve your vocabulary and help feed the poor.
I got as high as 44, but am now hovering around 40. I definitely used some sort of intelligent guessing on many of the words, mostly based on some clearly related word that I was more familiar with. I am constantly surprised by how many strange words I've picked up over the year from reading old English translations of Tanach [the Bible]. Most of these words I know from reading. God only knows where I learned was a cuspidor was, but I somehow do. (Little House on the Prairie, perhaps? I think that's how I knew what eider was.) I got ambuscade right only because I guessed that it was related to the word "ambush." You can't be too picky, though. Does periphrasis really mean "circumlocution"? I chose circumlocution because periphrasis sounds too much like peripatetic to not mean something like "walking around," which I only know from History 10a in college, when we had to read some Aristotle. A "bodega" is most certainly not a "wineshop," but that was clearly the correct choice. [Ha! I just looked it up, and it is a wineshop! It's just that everyone I know uses it like the third definition here, like the American equivalent of the Israeli makolet. People also call such stores "delis" here in New York, which threw me at first.]
The definitions from which you get to choose are quite expansive/blurry, so you have just pick the best and go with it, even if you know that they aren't exactly the same thing. This also helps me get things right that I otherwise would not. You don't have to use the words in a sentence, for example, which would be much more difficult.
Another thing I noticed, which I also noticed when I took the SAT, is that I tend to have a very immediate feeling that a word is either a "good word" or a "bad word." I have a sense that a word expresses something negative or something positive much more often than I can correctly define it, and also much more quickly than I can define it, even for words with which I am pretty familiar.
I think I can raise my score a few points if I slow down rather than clicking through quickly. I was trained to take standardized tests as quickly as possible and then go back to work on the hard parts, so it's hard for me to take the time to stop and think when I'm not immediately sure. Also, I'm used to trying to outsmart the test-makers, so if something seems too obvious to be the right answer, I choose something else. Sometimes test-makers aren't trying to trick test-takers, and sometimes they are.
I've given away 1560 grains of rice so far.
Ahem...and now, back to work!
Labels: fun 'n games, links, words
8.01.2007
Just the thing for relaxing after four hours of packing.
This is neat. I wish it went a little bit slower so I could really see the faces (and remember where more of them come from), but maybe the speed is part of the point.
I am happy to report that in four efficient hours tonight, I packed seven boxes (five large, one medium, one small) tonight, in addition to stuffing some more into and sealing three already-mostly-packed boxes. I even managed to eat a somewhat balanced dinner! (God bless my freezer.) I am also happy to report that I have continued to add things to the Goodwill pile throughout the evening.
I am sad to report that there is still a lot to be done. Those of you who are following along at home, please send efficient packing thoughts this way! Thanks.
I am happy to report that in four efficient hours tonight, I packed seven boxes (five large, one medium, one small) tonight, in addition to stuffing some more into and sealing three already-mostly-packed boxes. I even managed to eat a somewhat balanced dinner! (God bless my freezer.) I am also happy to report that I have continued to add things to the Goodwill pile throughout the evening.
I am sad to report that there is still a lot to be done. Those of you who are following along at home, please send efficient packing thoughts this way! Thanks.
Labels: fun 'n games, life, links
7.31.2007
Replace "Saturday" with "Sunday" and you have a sneak peak into my life.
It's time for an update on all the stuff I mentioned here.
I have packed, with the help of several kind, generous, and lovely friends, and one mother who motivated me to get started way early, all of my:
- books
- CDs
- DVDs
- stereo
- papers
- office supplies
- arts and crafts supplies (I used to be quite the crafty type, and often think wistfully that I will go back to it one day)
- pots and pans and plates and glasses
- assorted travel gear (luggage tags, neck pillows, eye masks, collapsible sun hats, luggage belts, tiny bottles of Purell for all those times you have to pee on buses without running water)
- about half of my linens, used at padding in boxes
- about 2/3 of my photos and photo albums
- about half of my bags, purses, and backpacks
- and almost all of my food
I still need to pack all of my:
- clothing (in drawers and the closet, with everything I'll need for the next two weeks separated out)
- shoes (with what I need for the next two weeks separated out)
- coats
- files boxes of papers from 2005-2007 (so I guess I was wrong about having packed up all of my papers)
- one drawer of files from file cabinet (ditto)
- tools
- jewelry (with what I need for the next two weeks separated out)
- medicine (with what I need for the next two weeks separated out)
- toiletries (with what I need for the next two weeks separated out)
- framed photos/pictures
- dustpan
- the rest of my food, including one bottle of champagne and three bottles of wine (suggestions? wrap well and pray for the best?)
- cleaning supplies (only bottles that are more than half-full? everything? nothing? only a few essentials? silly to throw it out and buy it again in the new place)
- assorted detritus from around my bedroom.
So, um, I have what to do tonight. What am I not going to do right now? I am not going to go back to YouTube and watch this clearly talented cartoonist, Lev Yilmaz's other videos. I am not. Instead, I will go home and pack. Oh, and do one final load of laundry. And deliver my two much-beloved houseplants to their temporary caregiver.
Labels: fun 'n games, life, links
6.05.2007
Introductory Dating Tips for Men
I mostly resist posting YouTube videos because it could really get out of hand, but I saw this at Attention Frumster Shoppers and it gave me a bit of a chuckle.
And who couldn't use a bit of a chuckle, when all is said and done?
Also, this is much, much preferable to engaging in any more lengthy discussions about how various women friends should cease and desist contact with various men who are wrong for them--so wrong for them, and also preferable to engaging in any more lengthy discussions about where a smart girl can find a smart guy who--get this--actually respects her complex, multi-faceted intellectual, emotional, and religious being, and, finally, certainly preferable to engaging in any more discussions about any so-called shidduch-crisis. I'm not bitter. I'm not even feeling all that cynical about dating right now. This is me being perky and optimistic!
Oh, yes. A bit of chuckling about basic dating dos and don'ts (do's and don'ts?) is infinitely preferable to all of that. Especially if it comes with a crisp British accent.
P.S. Is it your birthday? I had a distinct feeling all day that June 4th was someone's birthday, and now that it's past midnight I have the distinct feeling that June 5th is also someone's birthday, but I don't know who. If it's your birthday and I totally should have known, please accept my sincere apology and for the love of God make yourself known to me so I can stop trying to figure this out. Thanks!
P.P.S. Kudos to Mechon Hadar for the fabulous Yeshivat Hadar kick-off event tonight!
P.P.P.S. To continue the curious vanity plate sightings, right outside the Pakistani consulate today, I saw an SUV with a vanity plate on it that read IND PAK. What do you suppose that means? Aren't Pakistan and India mortal enemies, more or less? Anyone who reads more than the headlines of the front section of the newspaper care to enlighten me?
And who couldn't use a bit of a chuckle, when all is said and done?
Also, this is much, much preferable to engaging in any more lengthy discussions about how various women friends should cease and desist contact with various men who are wrong for them--so wrong for them, and also preferable to engaging in any more lengthy discussions about where a smart girl can find a smart guy who--get this--actually respects her complex, multi-faceted intellectual, emotional, and religious being, and, finally, certainly preferable to engaging in any more discussions about any so-called shidduch-crisis. I'm not bitter. I'm not even feeling all that cynical about dating right now. This is me being perky and optimistic!
Oh, yes. A bit of chuckling about basic dating dos and don'ts (do's and don'ts?) is infinitely preferable to all of that. Especially if it comes with a crisp British accent.
P.S. Is it your birthday? I had a distinct feeling all day that June 4th was someone's birthday, and now that it's past midnight I have the distinct feeling that June 5th is also someone's birthday, but I don't know who. If it's your birthday and I totally should have known, please accept my sincere apology and for the love of God make yourself known to me so I can stop trying to figure this out. Thanks!
P.P.S. Kudos to Mechon Hadar for the fabulous Yeshivat Hadar kick-off event tonight!
P.P.P.S. To continue the curious vanity plate sightings, right outside the Pakistani consulate today, I saw an SUV with a vanity plate on it that read IND PAK. What do you suppose that means? Aren't Pakistan and India mortal enemies, more or less? Anyone who reads more than the headlines of the front section of the newspaper care to enlighten me?
Labels: dating, fun 'n games
4.01.2007
Deliriously exhausted + generally gullible = believed Google's April 1 joke
Before I realized the date, I thought, 'This is a stupid waste of time/energy/resources, but boy! Do I know a lot of people who would happily utilize this service!" It looked as official as anything from Google ever does. Then the part of my brain that is actually still functioning kicked in and I realized that it is April 1, a.k.a. April Fool's Day.
As a joke, it reminds me a bit of a piece that I read years ago about a fantastic "new" technology that could get wet and still retain all of its data, that was highly portable, required no electricity, would never become unreadable due to reader obsolescence (unlike various forms of tapes and disks), from which data could be erased and rewritten with a simple auxiliary instrument made out of lead with a bit of pink rubber at one end...paper!
Oh, and if you click on "Learn more about Gmail Paper" up top, you get to a page with this information:
Sleep tight, my fellow pre-Pesach cleaners...
Labels: fun 'n games
3.02.2007
Some lighter Purim fare
Nothing original, I'm afraid.
BZ describes the menu of yet another kosher, vegetarian Indian restaurant. Click on the links therein. You won't be sorry.
This isn't Purim-related, except that Purim is the time when people wear unexpected gear. Behold hatam_soferet's Tefillin Barbie! It all started fairly innocently last October, when soferet [scribe] Jen Taylor Friedman was taking a halachically-mandated break from sofrut during chol hamoed Sukkot. You can read more about Tefillin Barbie's journey here. I mentioned her before, but lots more has happened to her since then. Check it out.
This isn't exactly Purim-related, nor is it Torah, but it is pretty funny. Psychotoddler shares some JPGs he received of kids' math and physics answers.
From mail.liberal-Judaism listserv archives from 1999, here are Arthur Waskow's contributions to the "How many x Jews does it take to change a light bulb?" Two of my favorites are:
This, alas, is not really translatable, since it's based on Hebrew puns.
Finally, don't miss the lunar eclipse tomorrow night!
BZ describes the menu of yet another kosher, vegetarian Indian restaurant. Click on the links therein. You won't be sorry.
This isn't Purim-related, except that Purim is the time when people wear unexpected gear. Behold hatam_soferet's Tefillin Barbie! It all started fairly innocently last October, when soferet [scribe] Jen Taylor Friedman was taking a halachically-mandated break from sofrut during chol hamoed Sukkot. You can read more about Tefillin Barbie's journey here. I mentioned her before, but lots more has happened to her since then. Check it out.
This isn't exactly Purim-related, nor is it Torah, but it is pretty funny. Psychotoddler shares some JPGs he received of kids' math and physics answers.
From mail.liberal-Judaism listserv archives from 1999, here are Arthur Waskow's contributions to the "How many x Jews does it take to change a light bulb?" Two of my favorites are:
Here is some older Purim Torah:Q: How many Orthodox Rabbis does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change?
Q: How many congregants does it take to change a light bulb in a synagogue?
A: CHANGE? You vant we should CHANGE the light bulb? My grandmother donated
that light bulb!!!
המן מן התורה מנין? (בראשית ג) המן העץ. אסתר מן התורה מנין? (דברים לא) ואנכי הסתר אסתיר. מרדכי מן התורה מנין? דכתיב (שמות ל) מר דרור ומתרגמינן מירא דכיא
This, alas, is not really translatable, since it's based on Hebrew puns.
Finally, don't miss the lunar eclipse tomorrow night!
Labels: fun 'n games, Jewish holidays, links, Purim
11.09.2006
How to give a "good" dvar Torah
Here are some hilarious instructions by the husband of a good friend of mine.
Sorry it's been so long. I can't believe I haven't posted in a week. I feel lazy compared to those people who are posting daily for the entire month. Or maybe I'm just conserving my energy for better purposes. Life has been busy. In a very good way.
Sorry it's been so long. I can't believe I haven't posted in a week. I feel lazy compared to those people who are posting daily for the entire month. Or maybe I'm just conserving my energy for better purposes. Life has been busy. In a very good way.
Labels: fun 'n games, how to, links, Torah (broadly defined)
8.28.2006
Daily dose of cuteness
If you missed yours today, try these links from Cat (who has her own humanoid cutie).
If that's not enough for you, check out Cute Overload. (That might be too much, though.)
If that's not enough for you, check out Cute Overload. (That might be too much, though.)
Labels: fun 'n games, links
7.11.2006
unexpectedly funny joke
6.30.2006
Supersizing sodas
Funny. And true. I don't drink too much soda, though, so this doesn't really affect me.
See what The Onion had to say on the topic almost ten years ago. The comments on Defective Yeti's post are also somewhat interesting if you to know all the reasons you shouldn't drink soda either. At least if you're looking for ways to procastinate doing your work they are.
Have a peaceful Sabbath! I have been busy with work and will continue to be busy for at least another week, so posts may be sparser than usual.
See what The Onion had to say on the topic almost ten years ago. The comments on Defective Yeti's post are also somewhat interesting if you to know all the reasons you shouldn't drink soda either. At least if you're looking for ways to procastinate doing your work they are.
Have a peaceful Sabbath! I have been busy with work and will continue to be busy for at least another week, so posts may be sparser than usual.
Labels: fun 'n games
5.05.2006
Dr. Seuss Bible
This is funny! I would like to challenge others to write other parts of the Bible (especially Genesis and Exodus, and maybe Jeremiah or Isaiah, too) in Seussian verse. Anyone up for it?
Labels: fun 'n games
2.13.2006
A Computer Parable for the Jewishly-minded
Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi has written a wonderful article in January's issue of Zeek, comparing the history of computing to the history of the Jewish people. It is simply terrific. Go read it. You are hereby warned, though, that there are many terms used there that the average American Jew probably wouldn't be familiar with. For those who "get it," though, it's great. (Thanks to SNSM for pointing it out.)
You really should read it in its entirety--it's only two pages long--but for my non-reading brethren (or brother, as the case may be), some highlights:
You really should read it in its entirety--it's only two pages long--but for my non-reading brethren (or brother, as the case may be), some highlights:
"My first computer, with the awesome memory of 36 K and a cassette tape drive to save the data, was a revelation for me. Now, word processing software had the power to take the written Torah of paper and ink and make it flexible -- soft-ware -- as if it were Oral Torah. The mind of the computer freed me from the fundamentalism of the script once written."For the rest, you'll need to go and read yourself. It's really lovely.
......."Who could resist the lure of MS-DOS -- Emmes-Dos (Emmet Dat in Sephardic pronunciation), truth and religion? Once learned, it proved much more flexible than either the Exidy’s CPM or Apple’s PRODOS. New manipulations of text and data as well as communication were now possible, and da'at was more portable than before. At the same time, the lingo was neither intuitive or accessible. This was the Talmudic era of my computer life, the time of the rabbinic hegemony."
......."I needed a virus detector to keep my drive - the bayit of my bytes -- kosher. And every year, at least twice - before Rosh Hashanah and before Pesach -- I needed to delete old obsolete files and clean up my drives."
Labels: fun 'n games, history, Torah (broadly defined)
12.29.2005
It's a Wonderful Internet and other funny stuff
It really is, isn't it? This is a clever remake of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, which I finally saw a few years ago when I decided to become culturally literate (or start, anyway).
I also thought this, "Christmastime for the Jews," was kind of funny, especially the part about playing for the Lakers.
I also thought this, "Christmastime for the Jews," was kind of funny, especially the part about playing for the Lakers.
Labels: fun 'n games
