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1.07.2010

JOFA conference (and associated blog)...hopefully not missing the point entirely

Welcome to 2010, everyone!

JOFA just announced their upcoming conference.

And associated blog.

The first (and thus far, only) post seems to miss the point of, well, blogging, which is to link to stuff. The text itself is rife with phrases for fun and exciting linkage. Should I offer myself for hire?

The conference itself, in as much as you can know anything before any of the actual sessions are online, looks like it's going to be great (yay, film festival! I hope they show good stuff). The idea of a middle school track is interesting to me. Do they not have a high school track because they assume that interested high school students go to the regular sessions? (Oh, right! That's what I did at the first conference. And it was totally fine. And I thought I was a grown-up. I mean, come on, I was 17!)

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 1/07/2010 12:51:00 AM  1 comments

12.17.2009

Happy Chanukah!

I'm sorry for the long silence. Things have been a bit awry in my life as of late, and this blog has suffered. Sorry, blog (and readers).

I thought that this semi-recent David Brooks op-ed about the Chanukah story was interesting. I always love it when people discredit fairy tales about holidays and talk about the real history behind them.

Parts of this Yoni Brenner Shouts & Murmurs New Yorker piece made me laugh out loud. On the subway. (There were some parts that I liked less.)

Happy Chanukah!

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 12/17/2009 12:53:00 PM  2 comments

10.07.2009

"Understanding the Anxious Mind," New York Times Magazine article

Thought this was interesting.

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 10/07/2009 10:50:00 PM  0 comments

6.28.2009

Losing my early adopter credibility?

Personal tech timeline:
  • 1986: I first used a computer (Mac Plus).
  • 1990: I designed birthday party invitations for my eleventh birthday using SuperPaint. (See this and comments for people waxing poetic about MacPaint!)
  • 1996: I got e-mail and first surfed the web (Lynx!). I remember the first time I saw a web browser with pictures! It was so cool--even cooler than when we got our first color TV circa 1986 (1984?).
  • 1996: I learned Adobe Illustrator (was that the layout program? I can't really remember what it was called).
  • 1997 or 1998: I taught myself HTML from a book and created my own website, hosted on Geocities, z"l.
  • 1998-1999: I had a Mac laptop. Laptops were only just beginning to become popular. Most of my friends during my freshman year of college only had desktops. (Note that I said "had" rather than "used." This laptop was a hand-me-down from my uncle, and the battery didn't work at all. It sometimes would randomly turn off in the middle of working on something, and the only way to get it to turn back on again was to take the battery out and slam it back in quickly while hitting the power on button. Also, I think that it had an Ethernet port, but no Ethernet card, so I'm not sure I could get on the internet with it. In fact, I'm fairly sure that I couldn't. So I mostly worked in the nearby computer lab or in the basement of Hillel.)
  • 1998-2003: I used Pine to check my e-mail in college, even after a web-based interface became available around 2001 or 2002. Pine was so much faster! (Attachments were a bit of a pain, though, since they required opening an FTP program.) When I graduated college, I got a free Unix shell account through Lonestar so I could just transfer my address book and all of my folders over without losing any data. I still have that account, and still (mostly) remember the important shortcuts in Pine.
  • 1998-2003: I backed up all my papers on the server, using FTP.
  • 1999: I got a laptop (blue, ibook, clamshell) without a floppy disk drive. This was seen as fairly insane at the time. I had a readable CD drive, but did not write to CDs. I mostly transferred files on and off using FTP, but I broke down eventually and bought an external floppy disk drive that I used maybe six times in all the years that I had and used this computer. I used this laptop continuously and all over the world from 1999 until 2004, when the "B" key issued it's last dying breath and the "S" and "I" keys were also sticky. Also, it didn't have a wireless card, which started being impractical around 2004.
  • 2000: I got my first cell phone (Qualcomm! Do they still make cell phones?) during my semester off from school. (I used it for about six months, then stopped service when I returned to school.)
  • 2001: I bought a Palm (actually, a Handspring, z"l) so I wouldn't have to drag my laptop around while I was doing thesis research in libraries in Israel and Cambridge. It lasted until early 2006, when I got a Palm T|X with WiFi to replace it. I still use the T|X, but the battery only lasts a few hours, so I don't use it much.
  • 2003: I joined Friendster. (Remember that?)
  • 2003 or 2004: I joined Facebook--one of the first 2200 to join!
  • 2004: I started my first blog (I think it was 2004--might have been 2003--it was a secret one that didn't last long).
So, why didn't I join Twitter until 2009?1 And what compelled me to join now? A client of mine (I'm doing freelance consulting) asked me what a Twitter was, and I felt like I had to join in order to shore up my claim as a young, technologically progressive person.

Here are some useful resources for anyone, like me, just joining Twitter now (so late in the game!):

Here are some recent articles about Twitter:

Here are some fun or useful feeds to follow on Twitter, if you're just getting started. You can click on the links and check them out even without being a Twitterer yourself.
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1. This is not quite a fair account of my life. For example, I did not purchase a digital camera until 2008, mostly because of financial considerations. I did not want to get a lousy one, and could not afford a decent one, so I stuck with my film camera. Also, I have never owned a cell phone that took photos or was smart in any way, shape, or form. Again, entirely an issue of not being able to afford either the phone or the data plan that would make a smart phone smart. There are surely other examples of general technological lag in my life that I am just not thinking of right now.

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 6/28/2009 09:32:00 AM  1 comments

6.13.2009

Read It Later: Savior or Satan?

Back in October, I added an extension to Firefox called "Read It Later," thinking that rather than having twenty million tabs open in four different windows (which was causing Firefox to become unresponsive ("crash") at least once a day), I would just save things to this list and then I would, well, read everything later.

Well. It didn't quite work out that way. It seems that if I don't have time to Read It Now, I also don't have time to Read It Later.

Here is a selection of truly fascinating stuff from my Read It Later, as of April 23, 2009, most of which I still have not read. But maybe you will! (I don't really think you will. I am mostly posting this so I can delete all those bookmarks and get started on a new Read It Later list.)

Science, Health, Etc.

Language

Mental Health

Technology

Food

Gender

Families

Education

Fun

Israel

Judaism

Pesach

Obama, Etc. (remember, I started this list in October)

The Economy

Real Estate

Travel

World News

A Selection of New York Times Op-Eds

Misc

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 6/13/2009 02:33:00 PM  0 comments

6.11.2009

Public Service Announcement: On1Foot

Press release for a fine, new endeavor:
The American Jewish World Service (AJWS) has officially launched a searchable online database of Jewish social justice texts designed to support rabbis and Jewish educators who want to teach about Judaism and social justice.

The database, called On1Foot, is an educational resource that allows users to search and browse hundreds of biblical, rabbinic and contemporary Jewish texts about social justice, upload new texts and create custom source sheets using the texts and suggested discussion questions.

Useful for the development of sermons and divrei Torah, classroom training and volunteer enrichment, family education and Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation, On1Foot was created with the following goals:
  • To make the full catalogue of Jewish texts on social justice available and accessible to users. 
  • To extend the breadth and depth of Jewish social justice education. 
  • To serve a central forum for discussion within the Jewish social justice movement. 
By increasing access to these texts, the site will increase the frequency with which Jewish educators and clergy teach about social justice and facilitate text study in this context. Clergy and educators can now more easily create substantive, expansive and interesting teachings that go beyond the simplicity of pursuing justice and allow for nuance.

On1Foot has brought the expertise of a wide array of Jewish social justice organizations across the United States and around the globe together in one place; the site will facilitate collaborative conversation about issues of justice, equality and social activism. On1Foot is a project of American Jewish World Service and is co-sponsored by AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, Hazon, Tzedek, Mechon Hadar and Uri L'Tzedek.

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 6/11/2009 04:04:00 AM  0 comments

3.10.2009

Purim funnies

This is pretty good, especially if you like Mad Men:



Can I just say that I love having this day between Ta'anit Esther and (Shushan) Purim? It's great! Especially since I have the day off. I hate being hungry for the evening megillah reading and then the temptation of all the junk that's usually available immediately thereafter. I did make the mistake of breaking my fast on pizza last night, though, and then being very, very, very thirsty as I was delivering food packages to some elderly poor.
Note to self: Stop after the water, bell pepper, hummus, and rice cakes. Skip the pizza.

I have one little vent to share. I was delivering these food packages and some of the people we visited wanted to give us something small in return. I felt it was important to politely say "no" but then to take whatever was offered. It must be hard enough to accept charity without your own hospitality being rejected! I accepted an orange from a woman (most were giving out fruit or chocolate), and since I was so incredibly thirsty, I immediately opened it and began to eat it. Sweet tangy juice! One of my co-volunteers was shocked that I would eat it--she actually called me "brave." When I asked her what she meant, she muttered something about it having cooties. This was the same person who was incensed that such poverty existed in modern day Jerusalem, and didn't understand why "the government" didn't do more to help them. If you aren't willing to eat the generously-offered orange of a poor, elderly, Russian woman, I ask you: How is she going to get a job and get out of poverty? Poor people don't have cooties, nor do their oranges. I just don't understand people sometimes. When I feel bad about not doing more to help people (and I do, often--just not often enough to go out and do something about it), I can at least comfort myself with the thought that I don't think that poor, elderly Russians have the cooties. Rant over.

Happy Purim to those celebrating both today and tomorrow!

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 3/10/2009 06:54:00 AM  1 comments

12.25.2008

Miketz and Christmas

Two separate items. I am not suggesting a relationship between them.

First, here is another great American Jewish World Service d'var Torah, this time on Parshat Miketz. I wish it recommended reputable organizations that are doing just what the d'var Torah suggests--preventing hunger and famine, rather than responding to it after the fact. Anyone know of any good places to donate towards this cause?

Secondly, I was in Bethlehem last week, including on St. Nicholas Day, and saw a great Santa Claus decoration. There is no reason at all why Santa Claus should be pasty white--St. Nicholas was from what is now Turkey.


I don't know if I am in a place right now to write extensively about Bethlehem. It was a different world from my world in Jerusalem (West Jerusalem, that is), and many aspects of the trip were quite difficult for me. I was happy to read this recent New York Times article ("Palestinians Work to Jolt West Bank Back to Life," December 23, 2008) about increased tourism in Bethlehem and other West Bank cities, since that seems like it would improve life for everyone in the region.

Happy holidays to all who are celebrating something at the moment!

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 12/25/2008 06:29:00 AM  1 comments

12.07.2008

Public works worthy of investment

This is probably one of the more generally ignorant posts that I'm ever going to publish, but I hope that those who know more can comment and teach me.

I just read this New York Times article ("Obama Pledges Public Works on a Vast Scale", NYT, 12/6/08), in an attempt to keep up with what is going on in the US these days. I haven't really been reading any news online, and, as such, am terribly under-informed. The article basically talks about the major infrastructure spending that Obama is planning in order to create more jobs, in the model of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created many highways and bridges that are now on the verge of collapse.

My main reaction is that I would hope that infrastructure spending would focus on mass transit and alternative energy, both of which I think are incredibly important and too often under-funded in favor of building more roads and bridges.

Cities that have mass transit should have better mass transit, and cities that don't have mass transit should build it. And subways are way faster than buses, people. I don't know about light rails--I assume that they are faster than buses but slower than subways. How did cities like Washington, DC, finance the construction of their relatively new Metro subway system in the mid-1970s? Why aren't more cities building them or improving their existing ones? Los Angeles, anyone? Dallas? Houston? Phoenix? Not only would investing in mass transit create jobs, it would also make cities more pleasant to live in by reducing smog and congestion and lessen dependence on both cars and gasoline.

Alternative energy is also a no-brainer to me. There is a limited amount of gas; we need other ways of running all of our computers, home appliances, subways, buses, and cars. I would hope that investing in alernative energy would also involve investing in education, especially science education, on all levels.

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 12/07/2008 06:44:00 AM  2 comments

12.03.2008

Let's hear it for naps!

I think I would find it much easier to get up in the mornings if I knew that I could take a two hour nap every day.

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 12/03/2008 04:12:00 PM  1 comments

11.04.2008

Prayer before voting from neohassid.org

Enjoy [PDF]! And happy voting. [Hat tip to Steg.]

I voted from Israel with an absentee ballot and I hope my ballot arrives in time--even though I was voting in New York, where it is extremely unlikely to matter.

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 11/04/2008 12:50:00 AM  0 comments

5.16.2008

How to find your misplaced cell phone

I am just a font of useful information these days!

Check this out.

(I saw this while reading this other Lifehacker post, also interesting but less useful on a daily basis, at least for me.)

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 5/16/2008 01:20:00 AM  1 comments

4.29.2008

Volunteers needed for chocolate study

I really have not been keeping up with chocolate-related news on the blog lately. I apologize.

Here is a Reuters piece on a British study looking into the benefits of flavonoids on post-menopausal women with Type 2 diabetes. Note that not all chocolate, not even all dark chocolate, contains these compounds. I think alkaline processing destroys them, so look for chocolate with unprocessed cocoa or cocoa processed in some less flavonoid-destroying way.

Carry on!

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 4/29/2008 05:17:00 PM  0 comments

4.07.2008

Reasons never to blog for money

From yesterday's New York Times: "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop"

In other news, I've been thinking and talking over a lot of really complicated stuff, including things that take considerable intellectual brainpower and things that take considerable emotional heartpower, so I have had less time and energy to blog lately. I sincerely hope that many positive things--both for myself and for the world at large, one day (if I may be so egotistical to suggest that what is good for me may eventually benefit others)--will come out of all of this thinking one day, and possibly even before then, that I will find the time and energy to blog more regularly. When I am busy ruminating over Important Things, somehow blogging the light fluffy stuff seems silly and blogging the Important Things seems a little bit inadvisable from a privacy perspective.

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 4/07/2008 01:41:00 PM  1 comments

3.12.2008

Things for you to read while I am too busy to blog

Or while I'm sick. I've been over the flu and back at work for two weeks now, but I'm still totally exhausted much of the time and my throat has been hurting, on and off, also. So I went back to the doctor today. It's probably nothing, but if it isn't nothing, it may be mono. And how wasteful is it to get the kissing disease without any kissing?

Anyway, carry on. I might have blogged about all of these things (and LimmudNY) if I weren't so busy sleeping and taking acetaminophen. Also, working my paying job. And, you know, reading the newspaper and Scientific American Mind and stuff. (That and Wired are my current two favorite magazines.)

Science fun

Education fun

Eliot Spitzer...fun? No, power-hungry and delusional.

Random fun (if you consider either sadness or shopping to be fun)

That's all I've got for now. Stay healthy and far away from germy people!

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# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 3/12/2008 09:50:00 PM  2 comments

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