Archive for August, 2009
further notes, beginning with the most important
1. Met the new sister-in-law (then, SIL to be) Wednesday: Alex did good. 2. I was prepared to love her anyway – she makes my brother happy and treats my parents as if she’d been waiting all her life to be related to them – but I’d have liked her if I met her on […]
notes from the road
1. Some pretty good turbulence on the flight here, though the worst of it didn’t last too long. 2. Only in America would someone serve a dish consisting of french fries topped by chili topped by cheese whiz topped by sour cream topped by bacon. Bacon and chili just seem redundant – tasty, though. (I […]
workday thoughts
The hazard of wearing an especially flippy skirt is the random urges to do twirls and tour jetes. Unfortunately, I must report that though there is just room to do one when no one else is in our office pantry, my tour jete is not what it once was. (I can still do it, just […]
plain talk
Barney Frank may have one of the most annoying voices on the planet. Nonetheless, I like a lot of what he uses it to say – and my admiration for him has just gone up a notch.
speechifying
I think my first Toastmasters speech went fairly well, last night. The first speech is supposed to be introducing yourself and letting people get to know you a little. So I themed it on my three names: how I got my English and Hebrew (actually Yiddish) names after my great-grandmother, with a bit about how […]
Why have I not heard about this until now?
The following is excerpted from an article in The Times Online; I have omitted the sections not directly pertaining to what’s in the law. You can also Google “Afghan rape law” for many more articles on the topic. The story is so outrageous that I had to make sure it was real before passing it […]
Dedicated to various people
We’ve had that talk, and had that talk, and HAD that talk again. I promise you, it’s not the case that I don’t understand. And really, it won’t help if you just say the same thing loudly. You won’t look any smarter if you wear your stupid proudly. This concept isn’t easy, but you’re going […]
extraordinary ordinary people
Before each Toastmasters meeting, I offer to help the speakers by either reviewing their speeches or listening to them. A few people have taken me up on this. (I have to give my own first speech tomorrow and drafted Ted to be my first audience. Since the 4-6 minute speech took me 11 minutes, it’s […]
us, glamorized
Funny; we just had to get new ID photos taken to have our ARCs (Alien Resident Certificates – an ID for foreigners residing here) renewed. For some odd reason, the photographer decided to ‘airbrush’ them, so now when we get the new cards we’ll have the glamour photo version. (Pity I didn’t know in advance; […]
making me proud
Neither Taipei, where I live, or Linkou, where I work, had much damage from Typhoon Morakot. However, as I think the international news has made crystal clear, things are a lot worse in some other places of Taiwan. There is still at least one entire village buried under a landslide, and the numbers of the […]