Maybe God Should Seek US

Chillin', originally uploaded by Reva49.

Well, why not? Are you tired of knocking on heaven's gate and being ignored? Are you fed up with praying, only to be put on hold (and no Muzak to listen to while you wait, too)? So let Him find you. After all, if Santa knows where you live surely God does. Besides, who has time in this hectic world to look for God? He doesn't hold down three jobs, and since everything's created He's been more or less semi-retired. He's got all the time in the universe---literally! So why can't He look us up? It's not like I have an unlisted number, you know. I mean, think about it. He's God, right? Nothing's impossible for God (unless He's been hanging out way too long with George Bush), so why not get in touch? Okay, I'd probably crap my pants if He did, but it would be nice to know He still cares. Wouldn't it?

Laptop Gets Even---Tis the Season, pt.2

Boy, talk about being touchy. My laptop must be paranoid----or else controlled by some gnome in National Security. It denied me access again, so I had to wipe the harddrive and start all over again. Luckily, however, I had made backups of all my important files, but this is getting to be annoying. Maybe Bill Gates is so scared of "software piracy" he designed Windows to do this? Who knows?
Now, on to my next topic---that time of year again and the so-called "War On Xmas". Get over it, people! I mean, don't we have enough trouble with this War On Terror, we have to add to it? Isn't this season plenty nerve-wracking on its own? Let's just stop for a minute and think. Just because I, as a Jew, wishes a Christian "happy holidays" doesn't mean I'm against Xmas. And, by the way, Xmas is a perfectly proper form of the word, having come from the Greek in which the letter X means christos, the original from whence we derived ours. No, it's not x-ing out the Christian messiah. I got enough of that when I wrote "Merry XMAS" on the board during student teaching and the class nearly crucified me! For those of us who don't celebrate Christian holidays (including atheists as well), there's nothing "hateful" about expressing a wish that all our December holidays (Xmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, etc.) be merry. After all, it's not just my holiday, or your holiday, but a time to be cognizant of the blessings of freedom---which includes the freedom not to believe as well.
Sure, there are militant atheists out there who bring these assinine suits against creches on private property and such, but they represent the lunatic fringe. They're basically "lone wolves", really, who have extremely little influence in society at-large, so they do stupid things to get attention. There is no "war" on religion, people. Let's just chuck all this political correctness and enjoy our holidays, okay?

My Laptop Must Be Treif

No, I'm joking, but I've had nothing but trouble with this thing. One thing you can count on is Windows going haywire, and mine denied ME access! Maybe Al Quaida is making laptops now? The news in cyberworld isn't good, folks. Regardless of whom it might be, hackers are on the move, and the new worry now is----rootkits. Worse, you don't have to be a computer expert to write these things, as the code is open source! Worse yet, you'll probably never know you have one. Rootkits hide themselves so deep in your harddrive that even the BEST malware-removers can't detect them. Think Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, only in cyber terms. Isn't it wonderful what technology can do? Oh, and Microsoft says the only thing you can do to your harddrive once you're infected is to nuke it. I hope they don't mean put the thing in the microwave. At any rate, rootkits are so easy to write that an idiot like me could end up writing code that trashes your machine. Luckily, however, I have no intentions that way. With MY luck I'd end up trashing my OWN computer! Of course, Microsoft advises that rootkits aren't inherently evil----just misunderstood. Yeah, like the Officer Krupke song, I suppose. Well, rootkits are a great way to cloak something you don't want someone else seeing; seems students at college use them for hiding the illicit movies they download over the college server, and have been for years! Microsoft thinks that's an example of harmless rootkitting. Uh huh, and I'm sure those studentsould aren't downloading Disney movies, either.
Getting back to my original thesis, my laptop could be infected, the way it acts. More likely, though, is my wild editing of Group Policy. Most of my expertise has come from hands-on training, so to speak. I could probably tell Microsoft something they didn't know, but as soon as they learned it's some old broad who used to teach English---well, I can hear the laughter now. I figure it's only a matter of time before the world blames rootkits on the Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion, as they have everything else thus far. At any rate, be well. Gam ze ye'avor, this too shall pass.

YUP, HE "ACCOMPLISHED" THAT, ALL RIGHT

Need I say more?

As The Caissons Keep Rolling Along...

I don't think this is what the composer of the old Army song meant, but it's our current reality, and getting longer by the second. Do I support this stupid war? What do YOU think? Frankly, I STILL say Dubya ought to be impeached---for this and other "high crimes and misdemeanors". Sorry if I sound like I'm ranting, but what happened to "Mission Accomplished"?

Opera-Challenged

This is the pill I NEED, after downloading the new free Opera browser yesterday. Sure, Opera looks great, with all those skins and layouts to customize, except I can't GO anywhere, for some reason. I type in an url, and nothing happens! Or the website has a problem with Opera's security configuration---or this stupid cartoon MONKEY pops up to tell me the mods "don't like" certain keystrokes, etc. I think I'll just stick with my Firefox. I know Darwin's right and all that, but I still hate to be lectured by a monkey.

LEAH'S GANTZE MISHPOCHA

The one standing on the far left is Leah, next is her husband, and her son. Seated are her mother, left, and father. Leah's put her photos online, but for some reason the url doesn't work for me. I'll have to copy it down and manually insert it into my browser. Boy, are we getting lazy or what? You can click on the image to get a better view, as I had to reduce it or it would have taken forever to load.