An Israeli Jew's perspective on the terrorist attacks

Channel 11 News (NBC) is reporting that Atlanta was a primary target of the hijackers. I don't know what will pan out of this, however, its a scary thought. I work in a high-rise in Midtown... its a scary thought. As I write this they have begun reporting that all "major transportation hubs are still in danger." When will this end?

Last night Steph and I sat on the couch watching the news. Well, she was watching, the personal stories I heard sent me straight to tears. Again.

On a completely different note, Body For Life is going well. Today is the end of 2 weeks, so far I have lost 5 lbs and I can see a huge difference! Other folks can too, a number of people have asked me about it. Woohoo! 10 more weeks to go!

When I posted earlier this morning, I never thought the day would turn out like this. The events of today are terribly distressing, there is not much more I can say. My deepest sympathies go out to the friends and families of those who have been injured or killed in the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

When I posted earlier this morning, I never thought the day would turn out like this. The events of today are terribly distressing, there is not much more I can say. My deepest sympathies go out to the friends and families of those who have been injured or killed in the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

I feel so much better this week! I have lost another pound since my last post, however, even more exciting to me is that I can see a physical difference in the appearance of my body. Woohoo!

I just got off the phone, calling Europe for the first time to make reservations for a bed & breakfast in Amsterdam called Maes Bed & Breakfast. The ouse is located in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam, between the Herengracht and Kierzengracht canals, close to the city center, museums, red light district and anything else we could hope to do! I'm so excited... is it November 2 yet?

Time to head to the gym...

I'm still sore, though the workout I did this morning has made me less sore than in the past few days. I'm happy to be able to say that I lost 2 lbs during my first week on Body For Life! Its that type of positive reinforcement that I need to keep going for the next 11 weeks.

Ow. I'm *very* sore this morning, I can feel every muscle in my upper body... even ones I didn't know existed. Time for a quick breakfast, then off to the gym.

Ow. I'm *very* sore this morning, I can feel every muscle in my upper body... even ones I didn't know existed. Time for a quick breakfast, then off to the gym.

Today I started Body For Life. Actually, I started with the diet last week and the exercise this morning, I couldn't get it all together last week. So far the diet is not too tough, I can always find something to cook for myself and the leftovers are always great to take to work. However, the exercise is going to be difficult. I have not actively worked out or exercised in any fashion since I was in grad school when I was running 3 days a week for a few months. Of course that and a sedentary job would also explain why I am out of shape. This morning's upper body workout was supposed to be difficult, however, I overestimated exactly how much I can do... I was shocked to discover exactly how easily I wore myself out.

In 12 weeks, at the end of the program, I would love to be able to transrom my body like some of the participants in the Body For Life Challenge. Only time will tell...

The trip to Amsterdam is scheduled. I leave 11/1/2001 and return 11/7/2001. Now I just have to wait...

Bitch, bitch, bitch, that's all I do here anymore.

Tonight I was watching That 70's Show, the premise was everyone going to Canada to buy beer. They go to Canada, buy the beer and on the way back Fez realizes he has lost his green card. Of course, they get stopped by immigration at the border and many goofy things happen. However, one thing stuck out: Canadian Immigration.

Why would Canadian Immigration officers stop people leaving the country? Wouldn't the Immigration and Naturalization Service do that since they would be entering the United States?

Looks like plans may be coming together for a trip to Amsterdam at the end of October... Woohoo!

Apparently some people are too stupid for their own good. Earlier today I received an urban legend in an email from a relative. I responded to everyone that the story is an urban legend and that people should not believe all that they read.

One of those whom I replied to sent me this note:

"This is a child's e-mail address - take my child off or I will report you!"

Now, what I want to know is what do they plan on reporting me for? Telling their child that he/she shouldn't believe poorly constructed urban legends about hypodermic needles in movie theater seats? Do AOL users really believe AOL's TOS ("Terms of Service") enforcement is enforceable across the internet? And people wonder why AOL users are generally disliked by long-term internet users.

On a completely unrelated note, summertime in Atlanta has made me sick. Each summer for the past few years I suffer from bad sinus headaches, coughing and sneezing thanks to our wonderful pollution problems. I've been miserable off and on for weeks. Unfortunately, it won't get any better in the near future as the suburbs creep ever further away from the city, people drive more and bigger vehicles and prevent any reasonable chance of regional mass transit to alleviate some of our problems. I've been contemplating leaving Atlanta for a while... with each summer that passes I get a little bit closer to being driven away from Atlanta permanently.

Last night was the final 99X On the Bricks concert in Centennial Olympic Park. Ben Folds was playing and my friend Steph and I were destined to go to the show. But not before stopping by Marc's place. Due to the parking situation, we decided to take MARTA.

Imagine the scene, me and Steph and a 12 pack of Sweetwater 420. Before getting to MARTA, I mused about how many folks would ask us for beers on MARTA, I knew we'd be the most popular people there. And we were. As we arrived in Inman Park and entered the station a younger male who was on the pay phone put the phone down long enough to insist that he deserved a beer. I ignored him and continued on with Steph.

Down on the platform, it happened again. A guy slowly approached up, caught my gaze and said hello. I replied, being polite. He then started in on a long conversation with us, eyeing the 12 pack the entire time. The he sat down on the bench with us (the station was otherwise devoid of people at the time), placing the beer between him and I. Again, I ignored the ploy for our beer and we continued on.

Why is it that people feel entitled to whatever it is that I may have? Why should I give you something I have worked to be able to afford, except for the truly needy (who don't need my beer anyway)? I have no problem helping people out, I have given to charities in the past and will continue to do so in the future. However, beer is not a charitable donation.

I'll step off my soap box...

I've been doing a poor job of keeping up with this site lately. Full Frontal Nerdity is in depserate need of a redesign and I have not put any time or thought into that yet. Lately I have been busy trying to get my life together. I've managed to conquer a few of the things which I have been struggling with, such as spending more time cooking and less time eating out, controlling my spending habits, cleaning up my garden, etc. However, I still have one major task to accomplish which I have been struggling with for as long as I can remember. I am horribly disorganized both physically, one look at my desk will prove that, and mentally. I've realized that my lack of organization affects me more than I thought. Due to my organizational challenges I have a very difficult time prioritizing my time, prompting me to always feel rushed in everything I do. I spend a lot of time procrastinating, particularly on tasks that I have to do for myself, which is a waste of time. In the end I always feel overwhelmed with all of the things that I should do and a majority of those things never get done.

This is all going to change. Its time to pick up my Palm V, dust it off and put it back into service to manage my calendar and my tasks. Now if I would only stop procrastinating long enough to actually get my calendar, task list and phone book up to date I'd be ready to go...

Speaking of ready to go, its time for work...

I would have never known that there is actually a product called Beef Bung if it were not for Todd. Nor did I know that its used in the making of "Capocolla, Veal Sausage, Large Bologna, Lebanon and Cooked Salami." Contrary to the inebriated conversation last night, this has nothing to do with the ass of the cow.

In the past few weeks I have been spending a lot more time cooking for myself. Somewhere along the way, I lost my desire to cook for myself at home. When I am at Todd or Dirk's house, I'll jump right in and help out, but never for myself. I'm not sure when or why it happened, though I think it was partly due to living alone for the first time in many, many years and not keeping the refrigerator stocked with enough food to cook myself a meal. In fact, I usually had nothing more than some carrots, celery, various condiments and lots of beer. Typical bachelor.

For the past three weeks or so, I have been turning that around and remembering why I cook at home. Not only is it significantly cheaper than eating out, I am eating much better food cooking for myself. Not to mention the fact that I really love spending time in the kitchen, its certainly much more productive than wasting my time on irc or watching Cops. ;-)

Since I am continuing to harvest more cucumbers than I could possibly eat, I have decided to start pickling them. Today I made a gallon of Bread & Butter pickles with inspiration from a recipe I saw on a The Food Network show called Good Eats. I enjoy the show tremendously, and it certainly doesn't hurt that the show's host, Alton Brown, is an Atlantan.

Finally, I have managed to post the wedding pictures. I have the full size, 1600X1200 uncompressed images which are suitable for printing if anyone needs/wants them.

Damn, its been almost two weeks since I have even thought about writing to my weblog.

During those two weeks my employer laid off 23 programmers. I was not one of them. *whew* The teams were also shaken up with some new team leaders and rearranging some of the programmers within the new teams. So far so good, especially since my team is still tasked with a large amount of new development under a different architecture (J2EE vs ColdFusion and C++) which will put us on the "cutting edge" of development within the company. I'm going to take this opportunity to work my ass off and over-deliver on the promises we are making to management. Management has laid down a date when the development will be completed and the product released, its an aggressive schedule, but not impossible to meet. Failure is not an option... although there is a backup plan in place, just in case things go awry.

I've been doing a lot of soul searching recently, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, again. Thankfully, I'm in a great place right now, I am happy with my job, made a number of new friends and generally I have been enjoying life tremendously. However, I feel something is missing in my life and I am not sure what I need to do to fill that void. So, I have been considering joining the Peace Corps. I have lots of reservations, such as what to do with my house and my animals, how I'll manage to find work when I come back and if I am strong enough to spend more than two years of my life as a stranger in a strange land. The application is sitting on my coffee table staring at me, one of these days I will fill it out or send it to the circular file... Even if I apply and I am accepted, I won't be leaving for a year or more, giving me plenty of time to figure all of this out.

The garden is coming along nicely. These cucumbers would make a porn star blush!

Tomorrow I am going to North GA with some of my friends to spend the day waterskiing, jet skiing, drinking, eating and relaxing on Lake Burton. Now if I can only get all of my yardwork and housework done tonight before I leave...

Todd and Alli came back from Tortola yesterday bearing the gift of Caribbean drinks known as pain killers. Rum, pineapple and orange juices, Coco Lopez coconut cream (I think?) and nutmeg. Stir and drink.

I felt no pain. Yummy. That's the new 4th of July drink.