Blood

I’m at the Hotel Northampton waiting to give blood with two other friends. I would take some pictures, but I think that would be a violation of people’s privacy.
We filled out a short form, and now have to have an interview with Red Cross workers before we actually get the blood drawn. When we got here, they told us the wait would be about 45 minutes; this was about 25 minutes ago. The three of us got food before we came here, and I’m meeting my family afterwards to sample a new hamburger joint in town.

Still no end in sight

I pulled an all-nighter last night, and I’m still not done with my homework. I am about to get started.
I also recently discovered a fabulous new webcomic, Questionable Content. The character development is amazing, the artwork is wonderful, and it takes place in the town where I live.

Papered!

I have finished the first draft of my paper. Editing time.

Grounded

Well, now it’s officially a war. Israeli ground forces have moved into Gaza. There doesn’t seem to be much information on what they’re doing or where they’re going, but they’re there.

The problem is, is there really another way to stop the rockets? Wouldn’t we do the same ifsomeonestarted shooting rockets at us? The people firing those rockets aren’t doing it out of retaliation to Israel’s strikes. Would a ceasefire really happen? I don’t know if those people would ever agree to stop shooting. Perhaps, grim though this is, it is the only way.

Half day

I have only just woken up, so I have only have the day left to do homework. This is alright with me. I am very excited for this afternoon, however, because for Hannukah, my parents renewed our family’s membership to the YMCA, and I will be going this afternoon. It has been over a year since our membership expired, and I have missed it. Especially in the winter, when I don’t get out of the house or bike as much.

Google-izer

I’ve spent months trying out free iPhone RSS readers, and comparing specs and capabilities of all the paid ones, trying to decide if I should invest, continue using one of the free ones (I’ve tried NewsGator‘s NetNewsWire for iPhone and Simon Oualid‘s Free RSS Reader), or write my own once I get an Intel Mac. Last night I realized that I should just use Google Reader. This has the advantage of being an online service, so I can get to it from anywhere and not have to read the same articles over and over. It’s fast, powerful, and the mobile interface is very user-friendly.

Occurrences of this nature seem to be rather common. I become frustrated with the available options for a certain task, and begin looking for other solutions. I spend a while jumping between solutions, beating myself over the head, and considering writing my own (which is not always feasible), and then realize that Google makes a free product that is better than any of the others. I had this experience with Gmail and Google’s movie showtimes tool. Picasa, Google Calendar, and Google Docs aren’t quite there yet, but I think they will be soon.

Here’s to the next generation of web-based apps. Centralization and reduction of client-side data processing are the way forward.

Tranquility

My house is very quiet, as all of my friends have left. I am actually enjoying the silence very much. I like having people here, and we had an awesome time, but I am exhausted.

Last night was awesome. We went to all kinds of shows, ending with Zoe Darrow, a fabulous local fiddle player, and the Gypsy Wranglers, a fabulous local folk/swing band. There was much dancing. Then we watched the ball raising (it goes up instead of down here for some reason), and walked home. We stayed up for a while hanging out, and then went to bed. I had to get up 6:30 to drive someone to the train station, so I got very little sleep. But it was worth it; I was glad to spend some time with my friends and be in town a lot.

After having a long discussion with several friends about the continuing situation in Gaza, I have a lot to think about. One of the issues we touched on was that for every settler who has actively usurped land from its rightful owner, there are those who have been born there, and have lived there all their life. Do we have a right to take that land from them? Ultimately, I think the answer is still yes, but there are complications. What did that person do to deserve having their property confiscated?

Chicken HVAC

This evening I built a water heater for our chickens to keep their water from freezing. It is a cookie tin with an incandescent lightbulb inside; the bulb provides a fair amount of heat. It was a rather straightforward process, except that the bulb socket I was using wasn’t grounded, and I didn’t like the idea of an ungrounded device near water, so I had to replace the cable with a grounded one, and run a ground wire to the cookie tin. This took some time, but I’m proud of the end product.

Here are some photos of the process.

First Night

Tonight I am going to Northampton’s First Night celebration. My friends from the NHC Summer Institute are all here in full force for our annual Recodion. At the moment we are hanging out, and we will be heading downtown soon; I am performing at 3:00 and need to be there at 2:00. It is snowing like crazy. Six to ten inches by the end of the night. It is going to be an excellent New Year’s.

3G to the rescue!

We’ve had no Internet access all day at my house. Verizon terminated our DSL for some reason. Hopefully I will be able to convince them to turn it back on tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I have WordPress for the iPhone, and a cellular data connection, so I’m still connected to the tubes.

More?

The situation in Gaza has worsened significantly. More than 275 have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
I for one have had enough. Enough of people who claim that they are entirely right and that the ends justifies the means. To Hamas and the militants firing rockets, I say stop harming and harassing civilians. No cause is worth that. To Israel, I say the same. No matter who think they are right. This is the twenty-first century. Humanity has come so far. We do not need to fire explosives at each other over territorial disputes. Sit down and talk it out.
America has the power to end this. Rather than just condemning Hamas’ “bringing this on themselves”, America should step in and mandate a ceasefire.
I’ve also had enough of peaceniks who think we can just ask for peace over and over and it will work. Decisive and definite action is required. I propose the following terms of a ceasefire:

• Israel stops all airstrikes and infantry operations.
• Gaza halts all rocket attacks.
• Israel lifts the blockade entirely.
• Egypt opens its border with Gaza to allow refugees a place to run to.
• All Israeli settlers be given a forty-eight hour deadline to pack up and leave. If they are not gone by that time, the IDF should forcibly remove them.

This is pretty harsh. Especially kicking the settlers out of their homes. But it’s necessary. Their continued presence is an insult and an affront to Judaism, Zionism, Arabs, and regional stability. As a Jew, I will not permit those who share my faith (even if only by name) to stain it with their fundamentalism. These people are no different in ideology than suicide bombers. They believe that their religion and heritage give them more access to the truth than others.

Enough, I say. Let this end. If Israel and Hamas can’t end it on their own, we who call ourselves civilized countries must. It is the only the civilized thing to do.

Boxing day

I am going to a friend’s Boxing Day party this evening. Boxing Day is a rather archaic holiday, still celebrated in Europe and other parts of the world, but not America. It has its origins in the tradition of giving presents to those less fortunate than yourself; it may have roots in the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which involved masters and slaves switching roles.
I am not really sure what a Boxing Day party will entail, as I’ve never really experienced it before, but I am interested to find out. I think there will be food.

United States Patent Application: 0070078663

United States Patent Application: 0070078663.
This is pretty much the most awesome thing ever.

Goodwill to all men

With last week’s expiration of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the rocket attacks and cross-border strikes have begun again. I, for one, am getting tired of this, and I can only imagine how the residents of those areas are feeling. The Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has asked residents of Gaza to stand up to the militants themselves, who he says are acting against the ideals of Islam. This is true, as no religion really encourages violence in its name. So I appreciate a leader of a religious state recognizing this, even if only in his enemy. But he’s missing the point. What about all the Israeli settlers who use anti-Semitism as a justification for their occupation of Arab territory? The ones who, when questioned about their motivation, say that the Arabs just want Jews off of the land. Of course they do. It’s the Arabs’ land.
The international community should step in at this point, and demand an unconditional ceasefire from both sides. Israel must halt all raids and airstrikes, and the Gaza militants must halt all rocketfire. Israel must entirely lift the Gaza blockade and keep it lifted. And every single Israeli settler must yield their land to its original owners, with government intervention if necessary. This process has already begun, but the Israeli government must put more resources and effort into it. I read an article on the BBC saying that, while almost all of the settlements are illegal under international law, a certain one has recently been found to be almost entirely illegal under Israeli law.
This has gone far enough. No more usurping of land in the name of Holocaust reparations, or the securing of Jewish identity or destiny. For thousands of years, Jews have not had a homeland. And we’re still around. We don’t need these territories that much.
Today, let there be peace on earth, and goodwill to all men; Arab, Israeli, and otherwise.

Various holidays

I just got back from a friend’s Christmas party, which was excellent. Today was our last day of school; we are off until January 5th. I had a bunch of people over at my house for the third night of Hannukah, and we were here until about ten, so I only was at the last hour or so of my friend’s party, but it was a fabulous evening overall. At my house we ate a lot of food, and played Charity Dreidel Smackdown, a game we invented last year where you play a normal game of Dreidel (which is entirely luck-based) and whoever wins gets to choose which charity all of the money gets donated to. My youngest sister won and chose Heifer International, so we are donating all of the money (and matching it ourselves).

Apparently I missed sledding at my friend’s house, since the party started at seven and I got there at ten-thirty, but I did get there for the present swap (I brought brownies, and received a rubber fish for putting over a trailer hitch), and I saw A Charlie Brown Christmas for the first time. I feel like much more of a man now. Also, I surprised everyone by knowing all of the words to the Christmas carols they sang. Christmas carols are awesome. For many years, I have gone caroling with some close friends, and I hope to again this year. It is a ton of fun.

Tomorrow I will be sleeping extremely late, and getting a leg up on a rather daunting homework load. My old Calculus BC class might have a reunion this weekend and go out for Chinese food, which would be a lot of fun.

I am glad to have a vacation.

Vacation!

I slept nice and late this morning, and have been hanging out being unproductive. I think I will probably not do any homework today, but I am going to work on Mock Trial as we have a lot to get done in a very short period to be ready for the season. I am postponing my trip to Staples and Acme Surplus for my yearly supply of pens, legal pads, and some sort of folder/briefcase for another day or two because it will probably be a complete mob scene over there, and I do not really want to get in the middle of it.

One really awesome thing I did today, though, is that I installed the Mint.com application on my iPhone. It took me a little while to set up my accounts there, but now I have full access to all of my financial records, live-updating, at all times. I can view my balance, transaction history, and more. I can also create monthly budgets for various different expense categories, and track how much money I’ve spent on what and how much I have left. My setup is not optimal for this capability, because I have a Statement Savings account, and my ATM card is therfore not usable at POS. So all of my withdrawals are from an ATM, not from a store. If they were from a store (i.e. if I had a debit/credit card), I could set up Mint.com to automatically sort my transactions by category, assigning different merchants to different categories, and thus automatically tracking my budgets. If I bought groceries at Stop&Shop, Mint.com would immediately update my monthly food budget, or whatever budget I had assigned Stop&Shop to, and show me how much money I have left to spend on food this month. Once I get a credit card or checking account (when I turn 18), I am definitely going to take advantage of this feature. This program is going to be incredibly useful.

A bind

It is true that the short-term solution to a recession may be some sort of stimulus package. To this effect, I am glad that the Obama team has articulated a plan for this. What I’m more concerned about, however, is long-term investments. Not in the incoming administration’s desire to make them, but its ability to. Facing, as we are, a huge national debt, I don’t know if we have the capital on hand to make the necessary investments. And there are a lot of them. Obama talks about education, but we also need penal reform, social services reform, transportation reform, and that’s not to mention energy, which is a cover-all. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem; this is what government bonds are for, but no one is buying government bonds. MA has recently put off a huge bond sale, and I think a lot of states are doing the same. Whether it’s federal money or federal mandates to redirect local money to specified projects, we don’t have enough. I suppose we could borrow from other countries, but considering the state of our internal mortgage and loan infrastructure, and the global recession, there isn’t going to be much money on hand.

Ultimately we need an international solution for an international problem. Car manufacturing is just the first of many important international industries that are going to be hit or even fail completely. Governments need to come together and present a unified front to the crisis, in terms of short-term stimulus spending and long-term goals for reconstitution of the global economy. We need to lift trade barriers and embargoes, encourage domestic production of important goods, and discourage outsourcing. We need to address the human rights issues that allow such practices to be profitable, and provide incentives for businesses to do their work at home. In the long term, this is the only way to create a stable economy.

Milk and others

Milk was WONDERFUL. I think I will go see it again after New Year’s with a friend who couldn’t come with us on Friday. I also might go on the 30th or 31st with my friends who are going to be here from out of town.
I had an interesting day at work yesterday. I though I had heard every strange sound that computers make when they are broken, but I was proved wrong. A gentleman brought in an iBook that, when turned on, made an shrieking noise like a soul in torment. Although I can’t be sure without a diagnostic, it sounded to me like the hard drive; it was coming from that area, and I think it could have been the read/write head physically dragging on the surface of the spinning disk. It was incredibly loud and sounded as if the computer was crying out in pain.
I think I will not be able to go into work today, as I have a lot of homework to finish, and an igloo to build. If the construction goes well, I may sleep in it tonight with my youngest sister, who started building it yesterday.

Hanukkah

Tonight is the first night of Hannukah. I am looking forward to the food more than anything else, but I did find some very interesting information on what historians now believe to have been the circumstances of the traditional Hannukah story.

Snow day!

We have no school today. I am so far enjoying this day very much; I’m still in my pajamas, drinking tea and eating a bagel. I am going to see “Milk” this afternoon with some friends. I will also be doing some present shopping and a lot of homework this afternoon.
I have a lot cleaning to do before I go, which I am now going to begin.