One Year Later

It's been one year since I passed through the DHS' tourist counter, having to justify my visit to the officer at the desk.

One year since I landed at Adi and Kirsty's place in Brooklyn, ready to tear up Manhattan and learn to make Lasagna.

About a year since I tried to hit on a tattooed girl and ended up with some of the best Nihilist friends I've ever had.

New York was another world, another time. And in retrospect, I'm not even sure what it was, if it was, and what I possibly could've gotten schooled with from it.

Not true. There's lots of stuff. But it's all in the journal.

I'm automagickally letting you know that I'm listening to In The Deep by Bird York from Crash Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Freediving

So I've just completed a freediving course.

 

I managed to hold my breath underwater for 3:11. 3 minutes 11 seconds. Nice.

I made it to 10 meters on the first day, but on the second day, I just couldn't bloody well dive. My ears kept giving me issues. I haven't had this problem SCUBA diving, so I'm hoping it'll either go away or 'll find the correct way to equalize pressure.

 

But it's so great, it's completely different from SCUBA diving, 'cos there's no equipment, but it gives one an incredible sensation of self-control. When you're five-ten meters underwater, and there's nowhere to go, and you've got a lungfull of air you just sit there and wait patiently. And serious divers actually go down to 50-60 even 70-80 meters. The world records are at 100 meters for men.

 

so that's the new thing, is it?

Unification theories

So what happens if and when the String Theory bubble bursts?

Here are some things that Lee Smolin suggests:

1. Deformed spatial relativity
2. Dynamical triangluations
3. Loop quantum gravity

Theoretical Physicists

String Theory has yet to evolve into experimentation.

So when Brian Greene, Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia U., says that he's working on ways to see if String Theory is leaving imprints on the universe, that can be observed astronomically, and trying to devise experimentation to prove that, does that mean he sits in his office and just thinks? Man, that must be tough.

Do you think he doodles?

Listening to: Science Friday at NPR: String Theory

brain drivel

I'm automagickally letting you know that I'm listening to TWiT 66: A Little Dab'll Do Ya by Leo Laporte and the TWiTs from this WEEK in TECH - MP3 Edition

That's so nice. I was slightly unimpressed (Hebrew) with Windows Live Writer when I first installed it, because ultimately it really doesn't do much.

But I've just added a whistle. Bells will be coming Tuesday.

Started working for NRG (Hebrew) this week, as a trial. It's pretty interesting -- basically, I get paid to do what I do anyway. Read news on my RSS feeder. But now I have to put it together into little clippings (More Heb) with the most interesting/important stuff. It's part-time, but hopefully it's going to be something I can combine with school.

In the spirit of "Getting Schooled", by the way, if I'm to follow my intentions for the blog, here's what I learned:

I learned how the business side of doing translation work goes. It's like this:

1. A page is typically defined as 250 words. That means that futzing around with your font to make it smaller and reduce the number of pages you want translated -- will not make it cheaper for ya. Sorry.
2. Standard pay starts around 25NIS per page. That's just under $6.
3. You go from there.

Possibly may be stretching myself a bit thing, so I'm trying to cut back on the work at LMR with the pictures. Brrrr. But I need to find a way to balance these four-five-six things that I'm going to be doing for the next year -- two or three jobs and school. And a blog? I'd love to have any advice from anyone willing to offer it.

May have found an apartment, should see what develops with that.

Note: Blogger.com doesn't allow Windows Live Writer to upload pictures. That just sucks.

Oh, my God. I feel invaded!

I've just launched Microsoft's new "Windows Live Writer" and I put in some details. It quickly analyzed my blog, my writing format, and everything.

I thought I'd be impressed -- and I am -- but I'm also a little bit scared by this.

 

הדבר היחיד שנותר לראות, כמובן, הוא איך התמיכה בעברית.
בינתיים, נראה לא רע. מה אתם אומרים?

Thoughtcrime

דיון מתקיים. משהו שאני לא יכול להוכיח, ולכן כל הדיון הוא דיון סרק.

אני: נו, אז לכי תוכיחי שאין לך אחות

היא: אבל... יש לי אחות...

אני: אז עוד יותר קשה!

היא: כן... אבל... מה הקשר... ולמה אני צריכה להוכיח לך... מה...?

(יוני כובש את פניו בידיו ונאנח)

(English translation:

We're debating a moot point, which cannot be proven.

Me: Well, go prove you don't have a sister.

She: but... I do have a sister...

Me: Well, then, in that case it's even harder!

She: Yes... but... what's that got to do with... and why do I have to prove to you that... what...?

Jono sighs and buries his face in his hands.)

It's not so much that she doesn't know the expression... it's that she didn't even realise that it's a figure of speech ... Or metaphorical. Making a point, if you will. She took it literally.

I occasionally argue semantics with her, and she always ends it with "Nu, you understood what I mean!", so I finally tried to explain to her about newspeak, and how the ability to form an idea, is rendered useless without the ability to convey it. So strange, in fact, that if you try to do so, They might kill you.

Telling her more about Orwell, she seemed puzzled: "The animals rebel against the farmers and take over the farm!? That is so strange!"

Next week, I'll introduce her to "Fahrenheit 451" and "Brave New World".

By jove, I've got it!

I finally figured out what's been bugging me.

The repeated line of the Lebanese is "And you call us terrorists?"
They say we're evil, expansionist, militant imerpialists,
that we're out to kill all of them, that we're taking vengeance against Lenanon.

Well, we're not. We're not evil. We're not imperialist.
I mean, sure, you switch on the news and the paratrooopers and Goaln-chikim that get interviewed kinda celebrates a bit of bloodlust... But that's the soldiers' jobs. You can't blame them for that.

The thing is that the people making the decisions, the people calling the shots and pulling the strings... well they  are not evil.
They may be dumb. And rash, and unable to see two steps ahead of them, but that's just STUPIDITY.

Nassrallah and Ahmedinajad are evil. Ours? They're just insensitive pricks.

Big, big difference. And please don't confuse the two again.

Now, can we get on with the fuckin' peace process?

Am I the only one?

Sometimes, I think that the keyboard solo in the middle of The Doors' "Light My Fire" is the most annoying sound in existence.

holy shit, I forgot how to type!

All my messing around with that freakinw Dvorak keybsard and nos I canqt type correctly in either one...

Dave.

My mind is going.

Dave.

;smdsld rpda;d mavd gk ;ksr

Bloody Hell

I'm so fucking sick and tired.

I'm tired of my government crying for more blood, when the Minister of Defence informs us that the moratorium is just a humanitarian action before further assaults are resumed.

Being constantly bombarded with images of the victims, the constant exploitation of their suffering is only reducing my sympathy.

Everyone is trying to show everyone else how right they are, how much more they are hurting, how much further they are being persecuted.
For fuck's sake, no-one's out to kill all the Lebanese, and Israel isn't an expansionist, imperialistic tyranny. Give it a fucking rest.

Everyone is so preoccupied with showing up the other side, how weak they are and how incompetent and dishonest, that the only fuckers getting anything are the little shits who started it all and are intentionally provoking us and "martyring" other people's children.

Time to use this moratorium to deal directly with the Lebanese gov't and work out a plan of action that will get them empowered and involved . Time to drop the mentality thot "Arabs understand only force", and that we are morally superior.

We can have these debates later, when people aren't being unwittingly, involantarily martyred, and Israel isn't alienating the rest of the world with its PR disasters and setting itself up to deal with more losses every fucking memorial day. What, do we get some sort of kick outta this heroism?

Fuck this shit. Stop wasting my friends and money!