bunch of stuff
The laptop has returned with a brand new 60 GB hard drive and all the factory crap loaded back on to it. I almost wish I had left them instructions. “No, don’t put MS Works on there. And leave the AOL crap off, too. And the AT&T Worldnet Offer. Yeah, the Free Gift from Toshiba was stupid the first time, too. Nope, not that either. Nope. Nope. Okay, just put the OS and the Experience Pack back on it, and I’ll install OneNote myself.”
Kvetching aside, it only took a few hours to download the 53 updates from Windows Updates and then upgrade the OneNote trial with my product key. All the other functions I used to put on the laptop, I’ve moved to the desktop. So no email, ’cause T-bird takes up shitloads of memory (not as much as Outlook, but still…) and the laptop has little to spare, and no Dreamweaver for the same reason.
I thought this bit of homebrew for the PSP was kinda neat, so I briefly tested it out. Couldn’t find my E2c’s so I used some uncomfortable buds and ended up taking them out so I could sleep. Even with the E2c’s, I have to wonder if sleeping with earbuds in can be comfortable at all. My favorite bit of homebrew so far has been the SNES emulator, but I liked the novelty value of the Universal IR Remote program that lets you control all manner of televisions, VCR’s, and DVD players.
Found a cool “Potty Bench” that serves as a bench, a stool, and a training potty. Probably need to look into that soon. How time does fly, eh?
comfort
“It is much more comfortable to be mad and know it, than to be sane and have one’s doubts.”
-G. B. Burgin
’cause…
…nobody’s life, liberty, or property is safe while Congress is in session.
Dream
I was shopping with Lil in some shopping center. It was large and dirty. (I think old, and probably in a large smoggy city.) There were many police officers out in the parking lot when we came out. There was a Dollar Tree store directly in front of where I was parked. The Prius was a bus sized thingy, and I was supposed to be shopping with girls like the ones I worked with at Grace Homes. When the girls began to come out of stores the police were stopping them and asking to see reciepts and search the contents of bags and pockets. Many were claiming diplomatic or some similar immunity to the search. I also could do this. The girls were then heading towards us and getting ready to get in my car. I got out and called the police over, they had not searched me as they knew who I was and that I was immune. I volunteered to have the search anyway and told the girls that they could not get into my car unless they were willing to also work with these officers. One girl ran and a large shadow swooped down around her. There were horrible cracking noises. When the darkness lifted there was little left of the girl. The girls who completed their searches came into the car sobbing. The rest lined up to be searched.
Best Baby Compliment Ever!
Lil and I took a trip to Fresno today. On our way home we decided to stop at the Target to get trip home munchies. We were rang up by a very nice, very gay, black man. He was lovely and chatted with us for a second. As we were getting to walk away he took a look over at Lil in her stroller. This is what he had to say, and I quote, “Your baby is so cute it makes me wish I was straight so I could have one!” I have decided that this is the best compliment you can get on your baby.
Principle
“There are many prayers, supplications and petitions that have already been composed. The Destroyers and Denouncers know of them and therefore lay in the way to ambush these prayers.
You can travel on a path that is well-trod, known and publicized to all. But murderers and robbers also know of this road, and lay in wait there. But when you travel on a byway, taking a route that is as yet unknown, robbers are also ignorant of it.
The same is true here. Your personal prayers before God are like a new route. They are prayers that have been composed in your heart, and are not being expressed for the first time. Therefore, no Denouncers lie in wait for these prayers.
Nevertheless [your own prayers are not enough]. You should also be very careful to say the other [standard] supplications and prayers.”
- Likutey Moharan Tinyana 97, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov; quoted from Meditation and Kabbalah by Aryeh Kaplan pg. 313
Oy vey.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/world/middleeast/19contract.html
“Some of those discussions have led investigators to potential new cases in Baghdad, where Mr. Bloom and the companies he controlled also did extensive contracting work. A United States official in Iraq said documents and other evidence in the case also cast strong suspicion on a range of other officials who ran the Coalition Provisional Authority’s local headquarters from the Babil Hotel in Hilla.
“It just seems like everybody associated with that place, there was just a dark cloud hovering over that hotel,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.”
Just last week I was wondering about the aftermath of some of Aikeena’s darker workings in regards to the War in Iraq, and of course the universe gives me an answer. It certainly looks like his style, although I have to wonder if these effects haven’t taken on a life of their own – magical fallout, so to speak.
Me and Lil hangin’ out
The cuteness abounds now that she has enough hair for two pigtails.
Joined the Tribe
I am officially a Jew. We did the Beit Din and the mikveh on Friday. I was apparently very visibly nervous, as everyone tried to tell me it would be okay, including the URJ Rabbi, Linda Bertenthal (who was VERY nice to us, BTW). We got to the proceedings pretty quickly and they asked me about how I practiced, which I detailed out for them. I basically let them know I am committed to doing as many of the mitzvot as are practically possible for us in our current location (if we move, that may change). They seemed impressed by how we had rigorously educated the children, so that they would know what we were getting into. Eventually the kids had decided to convert with me, so they talked to them, too. Boo was excited and was pretty perky, but Drayton was kind of nervous. They both were able to answer questions and recite the Shema from memory, and that impressed the Beit Din as well. Then they had us do our Declaration of Faith, and the paperwork began. We had many papers to sign, and more that had to be signed after the mikveh. So then we headed over to the Petersons’ house for the mikveh. It was raining before and after we did our skinny dipping (+ b’rachot) and once it thundered, but there was no rain during the tevilah process.
So I went first (so that the kids would be Ben/Bat Gavriel) dropping my trunks and doing my blessings, while Mike Seltzer made sure I went all the way under. Then I did the same for Drayton, who was scared and cold. I tried to be reassuring and I think it helped a little. He cried, and then Keren whispered “Welcome to the Tribe” and he started laughing with tears rolling from his eyes. I started to cry a little bit myself. So we changed back into our normal clothes, out of our wet bathing suits, and then went back out so the girls could go. Boo was excited to dip, although she had a little trouble with the blessings, ’cause water in your mouth and nose seems to distort the speech a little. 
 But she did good, and we did another round of “Simin Tov U’Mazel Tov”. Then we dipped the baby (my wife blew in her face and she would hold her breath) and everyone was done. We got them out and they went and changed, then came back for maccaroons and KFP snacks. Keren gave us an amulet to hang in our house that she had gotten in Israel the last time she was there. We thanked her and stayed to chat for awhile. Then we got ready and went home to discover that the rain had knocked out the power. So we got ready to go and went to eat dinner. Of course, as we left, the power came back on, but the lightning and thunder were beautiful, so it was worth it to go back out into the weather.
That night we stood in front of the congregation and sang the Shema, then I did my first aliyah to the Torah. The letters seemed to swim on the scroll, black fire on white fire, and I knew I had come home.
In other news, my laptop’s hard drive is slowly shredding itself in a mass of bad blocks and read failures. I backed the whole thing up to one of my firewire drives (USB 2.0 seems really slow after getting used to firewire) and I’m taking it in today to see what we can see, since it’s still under warranty.
Dream
Dreamed of a man with a giant mantis hand who was attacking people. He seemed to be attacking people who had angered him or girls that had broken his heart, and he had replaced half his torso with an iron bar, so that he wouldn’t have a heart. He was somehow linked to a movement which had been commandeering fire trucks and ambulances to take supplies out to a group of hidden people, especially food and medical supplies. The police had just tried to arrest one of the fire engines, but the driver took a turn down an alley, flushed the contents, and ran. The cop noted that it wasn’t the first time that they’d almost caught one, and that these people were very good at getting away.
