I'm here.

i made it. not much else to say at the moment. more later.

a long damn drive

i'm freezing my ass off. no, literally, my ass is really cold. the wireless internet connection only works in the lobby and outside on the patio. the lobby is occupied by a creepy and talkative desk clerk and the only place to sit outside is on the concrete stairs. my ass is really cold...

so today was a long day. i slept in San Antonio, TX last night instead of Houston. I just didn't feel like stopping so I just kept driving. Today, I left San Antonio and was planning to spend the night in El Paso, TX, but again didn't feel like stopping and just kept driving til I hit Phoenix, AZ. All in all, it's been a long day. The highlights of driving through TX include a desert covered in ice and rest stop trash receptacles that read, "Don't Mess With Texas". pictures were taken but i'm too tired and too cold to upload them now. i swear that when i settle somewhere for more than 7 hours I'll post all the pics taken between NC and LA.

As for tomorrow's plans, I think I'll move to Los Angeles...

internet withdrawl

i was driving down the highway when I began to shake. my eyes were just about to roll back into my head when I saw a billboard for a Fairfield Inn that clearly stated "FREE WiFi" and I promptly swerved across 3 lanes of traffic in order to sit in their parking lot and blog.
Here I am, after 2 days of absolutely no access to email and an inability to blog , drooling at the beauty that is 21st century connectivity and the horrible realization that it might just be worse that drugs.
Having gotten my google fix, a brief update of my whereabouts follows.

I am on the road between New Orleans, LA and San Antonio, TX. I have removed Houston from my sleeping itinerary in order to remove an extra day in Texas from my schedule. I sincerely feel that 2 days is more than enough.
Many photos have been taken between Stamford and my current coordinates but no time has been available for me to post them. I swear I will do so at the earliest convenience.

Wish the Jew luck as he ventures into lands unknown to him...

goodbye boca

Tonight is my last night in Boca Raton, FL with my aunt and uncle. While I've been here I've bought jeans, fallen asleep reading a book poolside, listened to the Boca Raton Symphonia (apparently they aren't large enough to be a full-blown symphony), went to a casino and didn't gamble a cent, had my car fixed (minor electrical issue in the dash), and spent time with my cousin Adam who recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

If I can I will expand on some of these activities in my next post but right now I have to go to bed. I leave for Tampa early in the morning. Goodnight and good luck.

blue moon & bosoms

What's better than drinking your favorite beer? Drinking your favorite beer while patronizing an establishment known for objectifying women. (Notice how I didn't say that I was objectifying women, but only patronizing an establishment meant for this purpose. Having covered my own ass with regard to this picture I have run out of things to say about it.) Moving on.

As some people may know, my birthday took place a few days ago and among the best presents I received was actually being robbed. Having brought my car into the dealership for service before my big trip, I was forced to leave my beautiful vehicle (i.e. "home") overnight on the dealer's lot while it waited for a new part to arrive and be installed. After two days I was told that the part was on back order and it would not arrive in time for my trip. As I picked up my car and drove off the lot I realized that my brand-new top-of-the-line radar detector was missing from my windshield. I promptly turned around and went back to the dealership to find out where it was. It turned out that it had been stolen. Happy birthday, indeed.
I then proceeded to rip the dealership a new asshole and was issued a check for the cost of a new one plus overnight shipping charges so that it could meet me in Wilmington, NC. It has arrived and I hope to avoid further encounters with state troopers. Although I have to say that Trooper Johnson was relatively jovial while scheduling my court appearance in Clinton, NC. I was only doing 83 in a 70, but apparently anything over 10mph above the limit requires a court date. Sad to say I have no intention of returning to the east coast, I'll have to figure out some other way to pay the piper. At least I wasn't doing 106 in a 65. Sorry, Vermont...

Let it go...

I didn't think it would be so early in my trip that the first sighting of a confederate flag would take place. In fact, I didn't even make it past my first destination before proof that the "battle is still being fought" slapped me across the face.

Richmond, VA: 1
Reason & Sanity: 0

A Journey Begins...

This post will be short and fairly boring. You've been warned...

I officially left Stamford, CT today to begin my trek down the east coast and then across the country to settle on the west coast in order to start life anew and search for a job in the film industry.

I picked up Hobbes this morning at the vet where he was being boarded and hit the road, stopping for a late lunch in Marlton, NJ with cousins from my mother's side of the family. I then proceeded to drive down to Glen Allen, VA, just outside of Richmond to visit and spend the night with a former neighbor from the old Dundee neighborhood. Tomorrow I'll spend the morning here and then head south to Wilmington, NC to see other former neighbors from Dundee.

Stay posted for more updates with perhaps a video clip here or there. I haven't quite decided yet if i'm interesting enough to put on video...

Thanks to everyone who joined in the festivities this week, whether it was just coming out for a drink on my birthday (Thursday the 4th) or surprising me at my going away party on Friday. Much love and thanks to Gillian and Darcy who planned the party and managed to convincingly deceive me up until the very last possible moment. It was a wonderful note to go out on...

Return soon for more info on the exciting tale of the homeless filmmaker and his dog as they make their way across the continent...

Halloween 2006

Halloween 2006

Sam Harris on CSPAN2

An abridged version of a speech by Sam Harris in New York City, November 2005. Harris outlines much of the content of his bestseller, "The End of Faith."

Too Little Too Late

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/nyregion/21campaign.html?th&emc=th

god bless vhs...

You thought literary memories were cool? Last night I found videotapes dating back to my Grandfather's 70th birthday. I WAS 3 when Pop Pop turned 70.

I even have a tape of David Hermelin's video tribute to his wife on her 5oth birthday. Who is David Hermelin you ask? David was a friend of my father's, a huge supporter of ORT, the organization my father ran, and oh yeah, he was also the U.S. ambassador to Norway... during the Oslo accords... Yeah, well I think it's cool...

I also have audio tapes. An audio tape of me, singing Oklahoma! at a Florida flea market at age 4. An audio tape of the Safam song I played at the unveiling of my father's head stone when I was 9. An audio tape of the last family interview with my great-grandma on my mother's mother's side, Eva. She was one of 9 kids and the bearer of numerous stories about each of them and their offspring.

On 8mm, I have my bar mitzvah trip to Israel in 1995. Hobbes' first days as a member of the Klein family. A science project I did with Ethan Schwartz, casting Ethan's little brother Alex as an alien from Alpha Centauri. My mother played the news anchor. Somewhere, I also have 4 tapes, totalling 8 hours in all, of footage from Poland and Israel. The photography is terrible, but it is a chronicle of the 2 weeks I spent visiting concentration camps in Poland and, with new eyes, travelled to Israel to celebrate Israel's 50 year anniversary in 1998.

My memory is shit. If you asked right now what it said in paragraph one of this post I wouldn't be able to tell you without scrolling up. To have such a plethora of memories, captured on a variety of media, is a blessing. But also a curse... I am not looking forward to transfering everything to DVD and MP3...

Family History in a Box

Since the insanity hit fever pitch I've been tossed into the frey of cleaning out my home. Forced to segregate everything my mother and I owned into one of three categories, I am forever making little decisions and seemingly forever avoiding the big ones. The three categories are as follows: 1) Stuff I Want To Keep, 2) Stuff I Don't Want To Keep, and 3) Stuff I Want To Keep But Can't.

Among the stuff ensnared in category one I have compiled a full 2 boxes worth of various writings, letters, notes, poems, songs, articles, cards, invitations, announcements, and other items involving ink and paper, that have been exchanged over the years between the most important people in my life. Love notes from my father to my mother. Love notes from my grandfather to my grandmother. Articles sent from my grandmother to my father about various things of mutual interest. Poems written by my mother to my father. Poems written by my grandfather to my mother. Letters from my uncle to my mother regarding his college applications. Letters from some guy my mom went to college with who then moved to Paris and continued sending her notes that appear to be harmless but infer some sort of relationship may have taken place.

The most interesting of my discoveries comes in the form of The Nothing Book. The Nothing Book started out once upon a time as just that... a book with nothing in it. The cover of the book asks a simple question, "Wanna make something of it?" Scrawled on my Nothing Book's pages are a chronicle of the first months of my parent's relationship, pre-marriage. Upon its pages I have found notes to one another following momentous occasions such as the first dinner meeting of my mother and her future mother in-law or perhaps more daunting at the time, the evenings on which my mother was introduced to each of my father's children. Between its covers, The Nothing Book hold an extraordinary insight to the love my parents held for one another and furthermore, a roadmap for the early stages of their life-journey together.

Perhaps everyone has one of these. I do not know. I hope not. For the moment it makes me feel as if my parents have left me with something positive. Something I don't have to make a decision about. Something no one could not keep.

info overload

Talk about time gone by...

As it stood last time we spoke my mother had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, had undergone her first chemotherapy treatment and was optimistically on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, the road to recovery was under construction and we got lost on the detour.

On May 24th, 2006, Thea Klein, my mother, died from complications due to ovarian cancer. Complications implies that it wasn't actually the cancer that killed her, but all of the lousy symptoms and ancillary diseases and whatnot that did her in. From the beginning people have asked, "Lung cancer?" when I have failed to state its ovarian nature up front. To these people with a gift of intuition, rest assured, emphysema was ovarian cancer's accomplice. In short, following her first chemotherapy treatment, mom's immune system shut down and welcomed with open arms, every possible infection it could.

Sure there are gory details. Sure there are heartbreaking moments. Sure, there are even devastating recollections from these few weeks of my life. The last few weeks of hers. I find them unneccessary to share, and moreover I find myself not wanting to share them.

As blogs seem to be for updating a faceless public with pointless information about oneself and oneself's schedule, activities and future plans, here are mine to date:
I am liquidating almost all that I own. Some out of desire but mostly out of neccessity. A 23 yr old who graduated with a degree in film is in no position to make a mortgage payment and furthermore has no ability to house and store everything his parents and their parents aquired from birth.
I obtained a temporary position with a large corporation (actually a small contractor at a large corporation) and have been working at UBS for almost 6 weeks. I do not love it, nor do I love when people ask if I love it. It will do for now. I work with nice people in a tolerable environment. (I am also compensated handsomely.)
I bought myself a present. I am the proud owner of a brand new Scion tC automobile. I deserve it.
I fully intend to sell my mother's condo by October and am currently planning on moving to Los Angeles to pursue an actual career.
These are my immediate plans and activities. I'm not sure what it accomplishes by posting them on the internet, but there they are.
Also, worth mentioning, since my last post, Israel has become involved in a war on two fronts, one with Hamas in the Gaza strip and the other with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Both began following unprovoked kidnappings of IDF soldiers. In a few short weeks Israelis have once again been backed into their bomb shelters with unprecedented attacks reaching farther into Israel than previously thought possible. Our friends are in shelters. The college campus we stayed on has been hit by several missles and students we worked with have been quoted by international news agencies. Gillian and I have been incredibly sad lately, and furthermore, I have almost felt guily for not being there to experience it with them. It must sound nuts, but it is how I feel. If nothing else, I hope you stay glued to the news and follow the story. Ignorance is inexcusable.
As I am quite busy these days, packing, sorting, dumping, working, nervously rocking in corners while sucking my thumb, etc. updating my blog is not of the utmost importance. I do hope you understand. I will try to return to it when things settle down. If they settle down.
Take care.

"Why Did You Drop Off The Planet?" & other queries...

Wow... been a while... don't you hate those awkward moments when you run into a friend you've known forever but haven't spoken to in a while and neither one of you really has any clue what to say to the other past the usual formalities?

Anyway, I ought to just cut right to the chase (a movie-world cliche if you break it down...) and let you know what the hell has been going on these last few weeks. While my last blog entry clearly places my whereabouts in the lovely country of Israel, more specifically the Dead Sea area of Israel, I am no longer there. Nor have I been for quite some time. After leaving the Dead Sea, Gillian & I travelled down to Eilat as planned, spending 5 wonderful days in the sun, beaching it up, eating great food, burning our skin, swimming with dolphins and crossing the border into the country of Jordan to visit the city of Petra. All were excellent experiences (sans skin burning), each with their own detailed description that can only be obtained at the moment by picking up a phone and calling me directly for further info. The reason for glazing over such events will become apparent in a paragraph or two...

After Eilat we worked our way up to Jerusalem, staying with friends, determined to get in one last visit to the holiest city on earth before packing up and heading home. The plan as it stood was to spend 5 days in Jerusalem, 3 in Holon where we would celebrate Pesach (Passover) with Dan Ziv and family, then move on to Tel Aviv for 3 days to visit more friends and explore that city one last time and then head back to Karmi'el where packing up our stuff could leisurely take place over the course of approximately 2 weeks, interspersed with various final day trips in the North and possibly a rafting or kayaking trip down the Jordan River.

But here's what really happened...

During our stay in the Dead Sea & Eilat, I was in constant contact with my mother for various reasons, the least of which was that it is a national law in Israel for Jewish sons to be in constant contact with their Jewish mothers. The main reason was that for a few weeks she had been complaining of stomach problems and had pretty much been feeling sorta lousy all around. While we were in the Dead Sea she decided she had had enough and finally started seeking a doctor's opinion. Long story short (and trust me, it is a VERY long story), my mother was prediagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. Just in case any of you readers are focusing on the wrong part of that last sentence out of confusion over what a prediagnosis is, let's just get that definition out of the way, shall we? A prediagnosis means that the doctors made their best guess and a "final diagnosis" would be forthcoming after many more tests. Moving on to the part of the sentence that matters, yes, I used the "C" word.

So, at first, my and Gillian's schedule proceeded as planned, mom not wanting to inconvenience our travel arrangements with her little "condition", but once common sense set in sometime around our 3rd day in Jerusalem, a Monday, she called and asked us to come home. By Monday afternoon we were back in Karmi'el, and by Wednesday morning we had packed up our whole apartment and on our way back down to Holon for Pesach. After spending many hours on the phone with British Airways, conning them into changing our flight itinerary and failing, Mom spent 20 minutes on the phone with them and struck success. So by Friday afternoon we were on a plane headed for London. London, you say? When did Thea pack up the condo in CT and move to the UK? She didn't. We had an unfortunate 12 hour layover in the world's greyist city and stayed at the Heathrow Hilton a short walk off Terminal 4. By Saturday morning JFK welcomed us with open runways.

Since we've been home, mom's final diagnosis came in and yes it's true it's ovarian cancer, they think. Apparently these cancer diagnosis' can be rather tricky. They won't really know if it's ovarian in nature until they see how the cells respond to chemotherapy, which by the way we started this past Thursday. 5 more sessions to go...

Overall, things have been ridiculously hectic around here as I'm sure you can all imagine. So far I'm ok and mom is doing alright. We're just glad to be moving forward and finally beginning the treatment so that all of the shitty symptoms she's been experiencing go away as soon as possible. This post hardly does the ups and downs of this journey any justice, but it ain't easy cramming all the pertinent info into such a condensed form. As always I welcome questions or comments just in case you've got any.

3 min. left...

i'm at the sole computer at our hotel at the Dead Sea and only have 3 minutes left on my 30 miunute card i purchased for an extravagant $4. crazy.

quick update on what we did today:

Woke up at 3am, climbed Masada, a famous mountain fortress, in pitch black and then watched the sunrise at the top.

After a great breakfast back at the hotel we headed to Ein Gedi, an oasis, and swam in a spring under a waterfall. then i took a nap which was followed by a Swedish massage.

What did you do today?

Israeli Elections: Part Two

Final Outcome...

Kadima: 28
(Former party of Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister until he suffered a stroke and slipped into a coma. He defected from the Likud party last fall. Ehud Olmert, acting Prime Minister as a result of Sharon's ill state, is now the legitimate leader of the country. Most people seem to think he's as boring as humanly possible. Kadima was originally polling at 44 seats and although still the winner, 28 knesset seats is pretty pathetic.

Labor: 20
Headed by Amir Peretz, the Labor party represents the main-stream left wing of Israel. Peretz is mostly known for his Stalin-like mustache and most people don't seem to take him too seriously. Of course, he now heads the second biggest party in the knesset, so who knows?

Shas: 13
As I understand it (which by no way means it's true), Shas is a quasi-religious party founded by Sephardic Jews who thought they were being discriminated against by Ashkenazi Jews. No, that does not mean Germans. If you're really confused, just email me.

Israel Our Home: 12
The party of the Russian Immigrant. Originally supporters of the National Union party, then supporters of Likud when Sharon was still a member, then supporters of Kadima when Sharon was still conscious, these former USSRers are new to the scene and their strong showing was quite a shock. No one has any idea what to make of it.

Likud: 11
The disaster party. After Sharon's defection this party had trouble keeping its pants from falling around its ankles and tripping on the stairs at the entrance to the Knesset Prom. Lead by former Prime Minister Bebe Netanyahu, Likud was once one of the most powerful parties in the country. Now, they're sort of the right-wing red-headed step child the whole family enjoys beating to a bloody pulp.

National Union-NRP: 9
National Religious Party. If you like God, a lot, cast your ballot here. Or so I'm told.

Pensioners Party: 7
Never before have the old people held a Knesset seat and here they are with 7 of them. Some say it was a protest vote. If so, it seems that the geriatric crowd was protesting an early death by boredom brought on by lousy candidates from other parties.

United Torah Judaism: 6
Ultra-Orthodox party. To vote here you not only have to like God a lot, you have to be willing to wear an all black suit and black hat every day. In the desert.

Meretz: 4
By far the party with the best posters, this party featured the leaders of other parties and the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkeys. Classic! Oh yeah, and they're left-wingers...

Arab parties:10
Funny, I couldn't really find any information on this party. Seems they represent some group of dissaffected individuals who aren't thrilled with the current state of affairs in the region. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine...

So, 120 seats filled in a Knesset that now has its work cut out for it. Good night & good luck.

Israeli Elections: Part One

With Israeli elections taking place tomorrow I've been looking for an article, a story, an angle, anything to convey the way I'm perceiving the general atmosphere of the country during this time. I never thought I'd find it in a New York Times Op/Ed, but I did, so here it is.

Stupor in Our Time

By ETGAR KERET

Published: March 27, 2006

Tel Aviv

THE parties my father votes for never get into Parliament. One year he'll vote for some economist with thick glasses who promises a revolution in tax law, the next year for an irate teacher with a ponytail who advocates a revolution in the school system, the year after that for a restaurateur in Jaffa who explains that only a new culinary approach can bring peace to the Middle East.

The one thing these candidates have in common is a genuine desire for fundamental change. That and the naiveté to believe such change is possible. My father, even at the age of 78, is naïve enough to believe this, too. It's one of his finest qualities.

In the last elections, my brother, a founder of the Legalize Marijuana Party, asked my father for his vote. My father found himself in a quandary. On the one hand, it's not every day that your son founds a political party. On the other, my father, who had a taste of the horrors of fascism during World War II, takes all his civic duties very seriously.

"Look," he said to my brother, "It's not that I don't trust you, but there are all these serious people who claim that grass is actually dangerous, and as a person who's never tried it, I can't really be sure they're wrong."

And so, about a week before Election Day, my brother and one of the senior members of the party rolled my father a joint. "What can I tell you, kid?" my father said to me that evening during a slightly hallucinatory phone conversation. "It's not half as good as Chivas — but to make it illegal?" And so my father became the oldest voter for the coolest party in the history of Israel's elections. From the minute he said he would vote for it, I knew it wouldn't get into Parliament.

That's why I'm really surprised that my father, an enthusiastic supporter of underdogs, is going to vote for Kadima, the party of Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The polls say Kadima is a shoo-in. "This is the most boring election campaign in the history of the country," he explained, "and I'm telling you this as a person who's been here since it was founded. I won't even turn on the TV on Election Day — well, maybe for the weather forecast, but that's it. These elections are one big sleeping pill.

"In past elections, there was always a little suspense, something to raise your blood pressure. And it didn't matter whether it was Menachem Begin burning up the town squares with his speeches, or the fuss over Ehud Barak and that brilliant remark of his: 'If I'd been born a Palestinian, I probably would have joined a terrorist group.' This time, there's nothing. Sure, Olmert's smug. But one look at his face and I'm already yawning. Forty years that man has been in politics and he hasn't done a single thing anyone can remember."

"That's not exactly a reason to vote for somebody," I said, trying to argue.

"The hell it isn't," my father replied. "Listen, we've had so many Rabins and Pereses and Begins, people who tried to galvanize everyone with their charisma and energy. None of them ever really managed to bring us peace. I'm telling you, what this region needs is Olmert — someone who'll bore us and the Palestinians so much that we fall into a kind of stupor. A stupor that's a kind of co-existence. A co-existence that's a kind of peace. Forget all that 'peace of the courageous' stuff Barak and Arafat tried to sell us. Even a child knows that courageous people go into battle, they don't make peace. What this region needs is a peace of the tired, and Olmert's the man to put us all to sleep."

On the way home from my parents' house, I began to think that maybe my father was right. And that it wasn't exactly good news. If, after all the hopes and disappointments, all the accords and intifadas, the best a whole country can wish for is a politician so nondescript that the pundits are still arguing over whether he's on the left or the right — if we want a non-event on Election Day — then we really must be exhausted.

Etgar Keret is the author of "The Nimrod Flip-Out." This article was translated by Sondra Silverston from the Hebrew.

Playing Catch-Up...

I am so far behind it's a crime. Truth be told, I have such an abundance of things to write about and pics to post, I'm simply overwhelmed. Gillian and I have been very busy the past few weeks, travelling all over the place and taking an insane amount of photgraphs everywhere we go.

Here is a quick overview of just one trip we took a few weeks back:

We visited an old friend of my parents named Dan Ziv. He is a teacher and former principal of several ORT schools in Israel.

Dan lives in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The picture above is not of Holon or Tel Aviv. It is of Ashdod. Dan took us there our first day staying with him. It is south of Tel Aviv and has lovely beaches.

Ashdod was only the first stop on our whirlwind tour of the southern coast of Israel. Our next stop was Ashqelon. On the way we passed this sign...

Ashqelon is very ugly.

Good thing Gillian is very pretty. Life always seems to have a way of balancing itself out, doesn't it?

Gillian looking through a man-constructed cave-ish structure. Ancient dwellings are everywhere in Israel. This place is old.

I guess, when I look back on it, Ashqelon wasn't all that bad...

Dinner took place at Dan's home. We met all three of his children. From left to right (not including Gillian & me): Asaf, Etai & Maya.

The next day started off with a trip to Mini Israel. As one might assume from it's name, Mini Israel is in fact a compilation of replicas of major sites around Israel, only mini. The pic above is of the mini BaHai Gardens in Haifa.

This is Tel Aviv. A mini Tel Aviv. Notice the giant green human Godzilla and his "Zilla-kids". This should inform your perspective.

After wondering around Mini Israel and a great afternoon hike, of which I have no pictures worth showing here, we were treated to a walking tour of Tel Aviv, guided by Dan's daughter Maya. While there were many wonderful things seen during our very long and ultimately painful tour, the most important stop for me was in Rabin Square (above).

Just over ten years ago, on November 4th, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, then Prime Minister of Israel, was assasinated after giving a speech in this square. It has since been named after him.
On November 5th, 1995, myself and 27 members of my family traveled to Israel to celebrate my bar mitzvah. Dan Ziv picked my mother and I up at our hotel the night we landed and brought us to this square to witness the outpouring of emotions during that difficult time. It was a night that will stay with me forever.
To return 10 years later with Dan's daughter as my guide was quite an experience for me. Where once thousands of people stood crying, now is empty, only a few photographs of graffiti memorializing Rabin's death remain to remind an entire nation of one it's saddest moments in history.

After our fantastic visit with Dan and his family, we headed home. But on our way we stopped in Caesearea. An ancient roman theater still stands there and is quite an impressive sight.

This is the Caesearean coast. The site is home to many ruins and was lots of fun to explore.
Gillian and I climbed down to the shoreline and went shell-shopping. Not only did we find some beautiful shells but pieces of ancient pottery embedded in the beach wall almost out-number the shells.

So that's the low-down on only one of our recent excursions. I have so many more pics of this trip and lots of other outings to relay, but it's 4:30am and I'm gonna crash. I'll try and catch up some more as soon as possible. I promise.

David's House of Cards... Seriously...

I title this work, "Pure Boredom, Pure Bliss".

MySpace & other things...

I've only got a few things to post about this evening, the first of which is Gillian. My lovely girlfriend has decided that the blogosphere (I think that's what they call it) was only getting half the story from the holy land and has begun posting to her very own blog. Hosted by MySpace.com, her blog is accompanied by a personal profile, giving you a window into her mind.

Just a word about MySpace.com. If you have yet to browse the mindlessness that is this website network, perhaps you should direct your browser to it's url right now. No, wait, perhaps you should visit the site after you're done with my blog. Regardless, whenever you do check it out, you too will be sucked in and wake up days later wondering what happened to all of the hours you wasted away browsing people's profiles, creating your own profile, finding long lost friend's profiles, posting comments on their profiles and last but not least, posting bulletins to all of your friend's profiles. It really is an amazing site, much like friendster and facebook once were, but it should be noted that practically EVERYONE IS ON MYSPACE. Since joining I have managed to reconnect with a ridiculous amount of people, including my best friend from before nursery school. It's a frighteningly powerful tool...

Anyhow, back to Gillian's blog... you can catch up with her and check out her musings at the following address: http://blog.myspace.com/gilliansocks. Go there now. No, wait, go there after you're done here... but go there.

New info on the wire: We're going down to Holon this weekend to meet an old friend of my family. He used to be the principal of an ORT school here and knew my father quite well. He has promised to take us to "Mini Israel". When I know what the hell that is I will fill you in. Otherwise, we're just going to spend some time there and get out of Karmiel for a weekend.

Speaking of getting out of Karmi'el, wonderful plans are in the works for a great trip to the south of Israel. Another family friend here in Israel is a travel agent and he has been kind enough to go to work on our behalf. Let me tell you, it is good to have a friend with connections to the tourist industry. Especially when you're a tourist. The planned itinerary should be a lot of fun. For the first three days we will be staying at the Dead Sea. I'm not sure what we're gonna do there besides marvel at our inability to drown, but it is a beautiful place and some time in the sun with a good book is a welcome change. After the Dead Sea we're driving down to Eilat, the southern-most city in Israel. There we will stay for 5 nights, soaking up more sun and enjoying the resort city to its fullest. However, the highlight of the trip will be the one day we depart from Eilat and cross the border into Jordan. Once across the border we will meet up with a tour guide who will lead us to the ancient city of Petra. I was there 10 years ago when I came to Israel for my bar mitzvah and I desperately want Gillian to see it. I can honestly say that although it isn't the eight wonder of the world, it should be. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures when I go to explain what I mean.

Other than that, not much has been happening. I'm back to teaching and tutoring and still have no idea how to teach a class. I have no problem commanding a classroom and interacting with students, I'm just not so sure that I'm the most effective way to learn English. Oh well.

Hope things are well with each of you. Drop me an email so that I know you're all well.