RochelLeah's RealLife

NPR : Publicly Funded Hebrew Charter School Opens in Fla.

2007-09-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

NPR : Publicly Funded Hebrew Charter School Opens in Fla.

New Blogs

2007-09-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

As of today, I am moving on to a new chapter of my life and two new blogs...

Bride, Not Bridezilla will share some of my writing from the period of my engagement and my continuing adventures in the new marriage to J.

Rabbi Rochel's RealLife will be filled with less personal items of interest to my students and others who are interested in what I'm thinking about with my rabbi hat on. (Or should that be a kippah?)

Please resubscribe to the blog with your blog reader of choice. I like Bloglines...

All that pacing doesn't have to be useless...

2006-07-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

Some British cities may soon install footfall-powered generators in crowded pedestrian areas. Just think of the home and office possibilities... a version for parents pacing with their infants, trying to lull them to sleep... one for hospital emergency waiting rooms... dance clubs that power themselves...

NPR : Gives New Meaning to the Electric Slide...

My new favorite wine

2006-07-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

When Joshua and I were in Israel, we visited the Carmel Winery in Zichron Yaakov. Carmel has recently developed a new line of regional wines (Appellation Wines), of which we purchased two bottles. We waited quite a while before opening our precious stash. The first bottle we opened was the Carmel Appellation Merlot, 2003. It is awesome. I am not a red drinker... but I fell in love. The Merlot is juicy and I don't even know how else to describe it. It was awesome with beef kabobs, but we devoured the second half of the bottle (carefully stored with a Vacu-Vin) with a Robusto cheese during a recent memorable picnic (more on that later), and I think that might be an even better matching.

At this time, during which Israel needs our economic support (as well as other types), maybe you should seek out and purchase a bottle?

The best price I've found is at KosherWine.com. If you have some bizarre desire to pay more... there are a number of places selling it in the $30 range.

Carmel is also wowing reviewers with other new wines. The ones I still want to taste are the ecstatically reviewed Carmel Sha'al Late Harvest Gewurztraminer and the well-reviewed Carmel Limited Edition 2003, a red blend.

Mother Jones Guilt

2006-07-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

For reasons I don't entirely remember, I subscribed some time ago to Mother Jones magazine. My logic probably was influenced by a desire for vicarious social activism. Since I've been on break from school, I've actually started reading it. I can only do this about an article at a time, though, because every time I read Mother Jones I feel really depressed. And really angry. And really guilty.

The last issue (May/June) featured Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) on eating locally produced food. So I feel guilty about not being as careful about checking the origin of my produce and completely relying on the midwestern Kosher meat and poultry in my local California Trader Joes for Shabbat dinner. Then there was the two-page spread on how the rich get richer. Which, I would swear, raised my blood pressure about twenty points. That spread was followed up in the current issue (July/August) by another two-pager on why the poor get poorer. ("Bush has dedicated $750 million to “healthy marriages” by diverting funds from social services, mostly child care.") The same issue informed me about the ecological harm caused by gold mining (...but I like pretty things... whine, whine) as well as the ways in which infertility doctors are keeping healthy lesbian couples from conceiving (pissing me off entirely) and making decisions regarding accepting patients in order to raise and sustain their success statistics (pissing me off somewhat less).

On the one hand, I feel like I should be an informed person, live a more sustainable lifestyle (althought I really do try...), rail against the government, and volunteer for good causes. On the other hand... it's frankly overwhelming.

Religious Bodies Move To Probe Conditions At Kosher Meat Plant

2006-06-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

This guilt-ridden meat-eater hopes that someone will finally do something to make the Kosher meat plants respect their workers and their animals enough to observe aspects of Jewish law other than just the slaughter of the animals.

Religious Bodies Move To Probe Conditions At Kosher Meat Plant

Contact Lenses vs. Eyeglasses

2006-06-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

I got contacts today, for the first time in probably eight years. I gave up on them when I spent a year in Israel, due to the dryness and pollution of Jerusalem's air. Due to a couple passing suggestions from J., combined with a desire to do downward dog and triangle pose without my glasses falling off my face and do other sporty things without steaming up my glasses, I decided that the time had come for me to go back to contacts.

I had forgotten how different glasses and contacts are. The first thing I noticed was, "Why does everything at an arms' length or closer look so HUGE?" Apparently this is because I'm actually seeing them their natural, undistorted size. Going clothes shopping was very odd... I kept wanting to try on clothes that were slightly too small because they looked like the clothes I was trying on before (which my glasses made smaller). As I speak, my laptop looks enormous. Seriously. My keyboard looks larger than should fit my hands... but my hands look bigger, too.

The other thing I'm noticing is that my eyes have a harder time focusing on written things. I can read fine, but it feels like it takes more work. I suppose that's why my old optometrist told me that, if I went back to wearing contacts, I should wear very mild reading glasses with them.

It's all going to take a lot of getting used to, but I'm excited to see the look on J's face when I see him on Thursday.

Contact Lenses vs. Eyeglasses

If anyone plays me in a movie...

2006-06-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

collette.jpg (JPEG Image, 200x208 pixels)

A few days ago, J. and I were having one of our flirty little IM conversations (may they continue for many years to come...). As I had just watched Capote, I started musing about who I would want to play me. In a moment of inspiration, I said "Toni Collette." I stick by it. Joshua found this photo, which greatly resembles a particularly sexy shot of me. Enjoy!

Capote

2006-06-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I watched Capote on my recently repaired computer (with new optical drive). It was one of the best movies I saw in recent years. Its depiction of the moral ambiguity of writing--particularly journalism--is timely. Moreover, it does exactly what all biopics should do, but (almost always) don't: examine an important transition in a person's life, rather than trying to summarize an entire lifetime.

While reading more about Truman Capote and In Cold Blood, I found an awesome interview that Capote gave his friend George Plimpton when the book was released. Check it out: The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel.

Strange and Norrell

2006-05-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell yesterday afternoon. It is the longest book I have read in a long, long time, and it was well worth the many, many hours I dedicated to reading it. It's world is so absorbing that I (almost) forgot that the Napoleonic Wars were not won by confounding the French soldiers with mud on the Iberian Peninsula and moving Brussels to North America.

I checked out the website for the book (http://jonathanstrange.com) and discovered that the author, Susanna Clarke, has a new book coming out in October (Bloomsbury.com - Bookshop - The Ladies of Grace Adieu). The Ladies of Grace Adieu is an anthology of short stories set in the world of Strange and Norrell. Some of the stories have been previously published, but I still can't wait to read it.

Also, I found out that New Line has purchased the film rights to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and has selected Christopher Hampton to write the screenplay. Hampton wrote the screenplay and stage adaptations for Dangerous Liaisons (one of my favorite films ever) and also adapted The Quiet American (which I also adored). I think he's a perfect fit and can't wait for more news.

Challah Amnesia

2006-05-26T02:26:00.000-07:00

Now that I am out of school for the summer, I thought I might indulge in a simple pleasure I used to favor in the past... baking challah. This was further encouraged by a desire to fulfill J.'s desire for raisin challah three months before they are readily available in stores.

I eagerly looked forward to warm, tasty bread with which I would present J. for Shabbat. Such hopes were a bit naive... I was experiencing Challah Amnesia, a state of being characterized by the following symptoms: forgetting the length of time necessary for challah completion; trying a new recipe, untested by any personal acquaintance; underestimating the extent of the mess challah-making (specifically, the kneading of the dough) creates in the kitchen; and/or believing that the recipe is correct regarding rising times (once just isn't enough).

Moreover, I failed to account for two other factors: the fact that my oven runs hot (since I rarely use it for anything precise) and my own level of exhaustion (since I didn't even start until almost 11 pm).

The results were not inedible. However, J. correctly noted that the consistency and density of my challot were more like bagels than real bread.

Sigh.

Next time, I will use the recipe pre-tested by my wise roommate. I will allocate an appropriate amount of time and start before 6 pm. I will set my oven to a temperature that is about 50-75 degrees F. lower than what the recipe calls for. And I will prepare the kneading location in order to minimize the mess I will inevitably create.

Are you movie literate?

2006-05-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

Jim Emerson of the Chicago Sun-Times has created a list of 102 movies to see before you can consider yourself "movie-literate." Please note that these aren't the "best" movies, but rather the most important for what they're calling movie literacy. I've marked the ones I've seen by putting them in color--my total is 72. I've only counted the ones I've seen in their entirety, since film school, if it does anything, succeeds in having you view parts of a lot of movies (like The 400 Blows, Intolerance, The Graduate, The Seven Samurai, and 8 1/2). Also, there are other movies that really should be on the list, but aren't. For example, I would add Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), due to their importance in defining romantic comedies as a genre. Oh, well. Nothing's perfect, but this is pretty good.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
"The 400 Blows" (1959) Francois Truffaut
"8 1/2" (1963) Federico Fellini
"Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972) Werner Herzog
"Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott
"All About Eve" (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
"Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
"Apocalypse Now" (1979) Francis Ford Coppola*
"Bambi" (1942) Disney
"The Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) William Wyler
"The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller
"The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica
"The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks
"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott
"Blowup" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
"Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch
"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Arthur Penn
"Breathless" (1959 Jean-Luc Godard
"Bringing Up Baby" (1938) Howard Hawks
"Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
"Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
"Un Chien Andalou" (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
"Children of Paradise" / "Les Enfants du Paradis" (1945) Marcel Carne
"Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
"Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
"A Clockwork Orange" (1971) Stanley Kubrick
"The Crying Game" (1992) Neil Jordan
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) Robert Wise
"Days of Heaven" (1978) Terence Malick
"Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) Luis Bunuel
"Do the Right Thing" (1989 Spike Lee
"La Dolce Vita" (1960) Federico Fellini
"Double Indemnity" (1944) Billy Wilder
"Dr. Strangelove" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
"Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
"E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
"Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
"The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
"Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
"Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
"Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
"The General" (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
"The Godfather," "The Godfather, Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
"Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
"GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
"The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
"Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
"A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester
"Intolerance" (1916) D.W. Griffith
"It's a Gift" (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra
"Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
"The Lady Eve" (1941) Preston Sturges
"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
"M" (1931) Fritz Lang
"Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
"The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) John Frankenheimer
"Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang
"Modern Times" (1936) Charles Chaplin
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
"Nashville" (1975) Robert Altman
"The Night of the Hunter" (1955) Charles Laughton
"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
"North by Northwest" (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
"Nosferatu" (1922) F.W. Murnau
"On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Sergio Leone
"Out of the Past" (1947) Jacques Tournier
"Persona" (1966) Ingmar Bergman
"Pink Flamingos" (1972) John Waters
"Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
"Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
"Rashomon" (1950) Akira Kurosawa
"Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
"Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Nicholas Ray
"Red River" (1948) Howard Hawks
"Repulsion" (1965) Roman Polanski
"The Rules of the Game" (1939) Jean Renoir
"Scarface" (1932) Howard Hawks
"The Scarlet Empress" (1934) Josef von Sternberg
"Schindler's List" (1993) Steven Spielberg
"The Searchers" (1956) John Ford
"The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
"Singin' in the Rain" (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
"Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder
"A Star Is Born" (1954) George Cukor
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Elia Kazan
"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
"Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
"The Third Man" (1949) Carol Reed
"Tokyo Story" (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
"Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) John Huston
"Trouble in Paradise" (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
"Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
"West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
"The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming

Quick Show-and-Tell about Trip to Israel

2006-04-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

J. and I had an amazing time in Israel. Here's just a few pictures of the trip. I'll go left-to-right by rows...

Row 1: Me and J. at Carmel Mizrahi winery, in Zichron Yaakov; me and J. over looking Tel Aviv and Jaffa; the Roman aquaduct in Caesaria.
Row 2: J., me, J's sister and brother-in-law outside Max Brenner's chocolate heaven; me and J. in Caesaria, inside medieval ruins; J. threatening to crush the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City at Mini-Israel.
Row 3: J. outside the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem; me and J. on the Wishing Bridge in Jaffa; J. and his sister in Herziliya.

Oh, the places I've been...

2006-03-16T20:16:00.000-08:00

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Knitting disaster

2006-03-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

I have just spent a significant portion of time trying to separate my knitting-in-progress (orange pullover for nephew A) from dried out, moldy grapefruit. And rinse from the yarn all the mold-dust.

How did this happen? Well.... It started with my love of Oro Blanco grapefruits. Which are something special. They grow in Southern California and are available all over there. Oro Blancos are a bit more elusive here in No Cal. Sigh. So, I bought a couple last week at Berkeley Bowl. I took them with me when I went to visit J. last week--one for S. and one for J. S. got hers. J. did not. Rachel left the Oro Blanco in the bag with the knitting.

Thus, knitting disaster.

(Grumble grumble.)

The Oro Blanco basically had dissolved inside into liquid and molded and dried-out outside. The smell was interesting though... very reminicent of citrus-based cleaners.

I'm going to console myself with my as-yet-unfinished Curvy scarf.

Carolina by Pete Krebs & The Gossamer Wings - Find Music You'll Love - Pandora

2006-03-15T17:44:00.000-08:00

I am in love with Pandora.... more on that later. Right now, I'm just going to bask in the brilliance of a system that finds music that appeals to my Blur-Talking Heads-Paul Simon-No Doubt-Robbie Williams-loving eccentricity.

Carolina by Pete Krebs & The Gossamer Wings - Find Music You'll Love - Pandora

I'd blush if I had to explain this ad to a 10-year-old

2006-02-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

This is not a question of censorship. It's not a suggestion that people shouldn't talk about sexual subjects in public. It's just a contemplation on the lack of discretion in our culture.

Today, I was watching Law & Order (aka TV crack) reruns on TNT. (In the interest of full-disclosure, I actually watched four episodes. J. has Tivo, and I'm not ashamed to take advantage of it.) Lately, I've been noticing the presence of ads for erectile disfunction information packets and Cialis. They generally are a bit oblique about what they're advertising. Then today, I saw an ad for a feminine lubricant. No vague comments about "dryness" there... the product claims to correct pH imbalances and the resulting irritation following "intercourse", menstruation, etc. Yes, that's right, it specifically mentions that it's a product to use after having sex.

Mind you, this is not an ad during afternoon cartoons, nor is it during the Late Show. We're talking an early evening during a show that will most likely not interest young children.

Lately, I've also been a bit weirded out by the Good Vibrations bus and BART ads. For those of you from outside the Bay Area, Good Vibrations is a worker-owned cooperative store that sells sexual paraphenelia, erotic literature, and sexual education materials. They also hold classes (in everything from tying safe and effective bondage knots to recovering from sexual abuse) at their two stores, which are Bay Area institutions. The stores are known for being well-lit, helpfully staffed, and friendly to women. During the holiday season, they had a rather simple ad campaign on BART and the buses that had a retro-styled woman carrying one of their bags and had the phrase, "Good things come in our packages." Simple and somewhat oblique. Draws on the existing knowledge about their business that's already around and reminds people "in the know" to stop into their stores for holiday gifts. I thought it was clever.

Immediately after this, though, came the Valentine's Day ad: The "Love lab" poster, as I'd like to call it. Promoting the "Science of pleasure," the ad features drawings of test-tubes and beakers and a disassembled vibrator (a Hitachi Magic Wand, to be precise). Now, I don't think I'm particularly prudish. But I am embarrassed to look at a picture of a vibrator, even disassembled one, in the presence of the miscellaneous people (the vast majority of them strangers, but with the occasional acquaintance thrown in) with whom I ride the train, including children. I'm going to guess that most of them won't really "get" the ad. But I'm still uncomfortable.

It's not that I wish that sexual matters went back "in the closet"--I think that public discourse about sex is helpful and interesting, promotes sexual health and safety, and diminishes our culture's sense of shame and secrecy about sexuality. On the other hand, maybe it's a bit too brazen.

Ahhh... Caffeine

2006-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I relearned a very important lesson. Too much caffeine makes me manic.

Now, I don't mean actual, clinical mania. I mean way-too-excited-can't-sleep-forgot-to-eat-dinner-talking-too-fast manic. It wasn't until after a rather high-speed conversation with J., during which I talked his ear off for about 30 minutes, despite the fact that he told me that he'd had an 11-hour workday, that I realized that I had suddenly turned a little freaky. Then I took an accounting:

I had consumed
one mug black tea
one medium to-go cup of green tea (with mint, if you must know)
one cup of coffee, with three tiny creams and one teaspoon of sugar
one very large Coke.

In other words--I had hit the motherlode of caffeine in an attempt to get myself past feelings of sluggishness and regret about the beginning of another semester of school.

I realized that something was wrong when I turned mildly freaky in the conversation with over-worked J. (who was probably a bit mystified by my emphatic commentary regarding the internet page I found with slanderous remarks about several of my teachers by a rather disturbed former classmate). I realized just how amped-up I was, though, when I couldn't sleep until after 2 am.

I guess it's back to my usual herbal tea and the occasional single cup of coffee. And no more soda!! Even if I want to crawl back into bed. Right now.

Discovery Channel :: News :: Ashkenazi Jewish Founders Traced

2006-01-29T21:54:00.000-08:00

Discovery Channel :: News :: Ashkenazi Jewish Founders Traced

Tripod perform at a Comedy Festival - Google Video

2006-01-11T01:27:00.000-08:00

Tripod perform at a Comedy Festival - Google Video

J. and I might have found "our song"--"Make You Happy Tonight." Just substitute "PS2" for "XBox."

Not that it represents the totality of our relationship... but it is a silly little facet of it.

Jews Love Katamari

2006-01-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

During the restful first two weeks of my "vacation" (the subsequent weeks now being taken up by teaching, preparing to TA in the new semester, and writing two articles), J. and I thoroughly enjoyed many hours of playing his new PS2 game, We Love Katamari . As with the previous Katamari game, addiction was inevitable. I have now downloaded the Prince Buddy feature and an Ichigo (the Strawberry Cousin) desktop. As with my past Katamari "problem," I have been saved from what would be endless hours of time-suckage by the fact that I have no PS2 and must get my fix during visits to J.'s abode.

One morning, while J. was still in Sleepyland, I thought up a new version of Katamari: Jews Love Katamari. For those of you who are not in the Katamari "know" (so-to-speak), the following will make little sense to you. For those of you who, like me, have followed breathlessly the adventures of our young Princeling and his overblown and over-sized father--read on.

"Jews Love Katamari" challenges:

Roll up 10 minyan members and get them to the synagogue in 10 minutes or less.
Gather in your Katamari only Kosher animals--with two locations: zoo or farm.
Roll up all the hametz before Passover.
Roll up as many different hats as possible (from kippot to baseball caps, streimels to Stetsons).
Deliver the mishloah manot on Purim. For this one, the Katamari is actually made entirely of mishloah manot packages. You deliver a package by rolling over a person; the package gets left behind. The idea is to shrink your Katamari as small as possible.
Gather all the hassidim for the Rebbe's tish.
Roll up as many clowns, jugglers, musicians, and dancers as possible in order to entertain the bride and groom.
Roll up water for the mikveh without either under- or over-estimating the correct measure.
Collect the siddurim after services.
Roll up grapes for kiddush wine.
Roll up noisy things to drown out Haman's name on Purim.

The Katamari would have to be rolled through a variety of different landscapes of Jewish interest: synagogues, batei midrash, JCCs, cities in Israel. Presents would include kippot, tallit, tephilin, a streimel, an Israeli flag, a Torah, and a megillah.

Some changes would, of course, be required of the game:

Instead of gathering flowers for ikebana, one would gather flowers for Shavuot decorations.
The boy's room would have to be clean for Shabbat.
Instead of rolling up clouds to clear the weather for a field trip, one would roll up the clouds so that it wouldn't rain on people's sukkot.
The bonfire level would, of course, have a Lag Baomer theme.
Most importantly, the King could not be the King of the Universe. Has vehalilah! There is only One Melekh HaOlam! Instead, the Katamari King would have to be the King of Chelm.

A Blast to the Past

2005-12-20T16:06:00.000-08:00

When I was about 10 years old, I was obsessed with Doctor Who. My sister and I would run in the door after Hebrew school on Sundays, hoping that the show hadn't started yet. We discussed the relative merits of various incarnations of the Doctor, read books, and waited impatiently for fund drives, when Doctor Who marathons would dominate our weekends. Well, the Doctor has been making a massive comeback in the UK. It makes me wish I had a television. BBC - Radio 2 - Doctor Who

S. inspires me again...

2005-12-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

After a very productive 1/2 day (8 am-2 pm), I am taking it easy at the school library. Needing a bit of a break (since I have another class tonight, from 5:45 to at least 8:45), I decided to catch up on my blog reading. S. referred to Time Magazine's top 100 book list, which I apparently missed due to academic absorption or simply not having Time at the register at my local grocery store. (In Berkeley, we are much more likely to have Natural Health, Yoga Journal, San Francisco--or another locally based mag--, and Cooking Light next to our glossy gossip mags, Martha Stewart, Details, and Cosmo. I don't even remember the last time I saw a National Enquirer.)

So, I am once again a copy cat. I will now nod to S. and announce to the world my cleverness or lack thereof.

I have read:
Animal Farm
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
Beloved
Catch 22
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
The Great Gatsby
A Handful of Dust
The Invisible Man
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lolita
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Rings
Naked Lunch
1984
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(I started Pale Fire, but didn't finish it)
A Passage to India
(I think I read The Sheltering Sky... but I might just be remembering the movie)
The Sun also Rises
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tropic of Cancer
(I was supposed to read Wide Sargasso Sea my freshman year in college. Oh, well.)

TOTAL 22/100 (Not including The Sheltering Sky)

I must admit disappointment, both with myself (I haven't read enough of these books, ignoring entirely many authors appearing multiple times on the list) and with the list. Many of my favorite books are not on the list--Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, anything by Barbara Kingsolver (my favorite, Prodigal Summer was published in 2000...), Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club (one of the few books I've read more than twice, and it makes me cry every time I read it), or Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres (which you can't really appreciate unless you've read King Lear). Several other favorite books of mine were not originally written in English, so they don't count. Other of my 20th century faves precede 1923 (the year from which Time reviewers started their list).

I am going to peruse some other Top Novel lists and will report back.

Here's some to start with:
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100rivallist.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/1T2DF8O7BM65S/104-8442152-6663154?%5Fencoding=UTF8
http://www.feminista.com/archives/v2n3/100.html http://www.friendswood.lib.tx.us/bookinfo/frpubtop150.htm

Why are toys so loud?

2005-12-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

NPR : Wishing for a Silent Night in Toyland

NPR : Rite On: An Ode to the 'Bar Mitzvah Disco'

2005-12-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

NPR : Rite On: An Ode to the 'Bar Mitzvah Disco'

Things to Look Forward to...

2005-12-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

As I am entering into this last little bit of the semester, I had to take a breather today. This past week has been exceptionally busy, both with work (school and otherwise) and socially--two of my great friends were in town... one for her grandmother's multi-event funeral, one on a conference. Regardless, my grand plan to complete at least one of the two questions on my sociology take-home exam did not materialize. Instead, today was filled with crossword puzzles, yoga (I feel totally out of shape), and straightening up the apartment. I may not have been as productive as I would have liked to have been, but I feel pretty good.

I have decided that, once again, I will see as many movies as possible during my long winter break. Here is the overly ambitious, needing-to-be-pared-down list. You can learn about them at the New York Times (Current Movies) site.

Brokeback Mountain
Breakfast on Pluto
Good Night and Good Luck
A History of Violence
Paradise Now
Shopgirl
Syriana
Wallace and Grommit

I'm not sure how many of these are (still) playing in the area.

I am also seriously considering (1) seeing Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire again, and (2) seeing Pride and Prejudice. I had mocked the idea of Keira Knightly as Elizbeth Bennett, but I may have to eat my words.

Last-Two-Weeks-of-the-Semester Angst

2005-12-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
I humbly apologize for my recent blog negligence. I have, for (mostly) good purposes, been extremely busy of late. This includes:

a trip to LA and Las Vegas during reading week, during which I did very little reading and much playing. Highlights were seeing all of my LA and LV loved ones and painting the town red with J. in Vegas. The latter included seeing the worth-every-penny-of-the-ticket-price show Avenue Q;
the usual dose of writing and reading for my classes;
teaching;
preparing for an adult-ed class that ended up not having enough students to be held;
more reading and writing;
grading midterms;
frequent headaches and really bad allergies;
another trip to LA, this time for Thanksgiving with friends and family;
taking care of J. following the removal this past Friday of his wisdom teeth;
more reading;
a long study session for a final exam;
teaching Methodists about the Jewish understanding of Isaiah's prophecies (that is, those that are frequently read Christologically);
and trying ro write papers that don't want to be written.

Now, I know, papers can't "not want to be written." But I am really trying to wrap my mind around the material and frame it with some semblance of order, but I'm just not getting There--"There" being that place where my mind does the brilliant tricks it usually does while writing for school. (The immediately previous sentence is an example of the not-so-brilliant writing that has emerged from this computer of late.)

I want to say something intelligent about how the Torah is a collective representation a la Emile Durkheim and that Mordechai Kaplan's framing of Torah is very similar to Durkheim's model. I also (not in the same paper) want to come up with some grand methodological model for combining Faith Development analytical methods with sociological methods in order to study conversion. Unfortunately, I am finding myself quite often staring at my computer screen, fingers to keys, and not producing anything more than one paragraph that has been re-written and rearranged probably ten times in the past week-and-a-half.

I'm in crisis mode. I have a week-and-a-half before most of the work is due. The Durkheim paper is due, however, on Thursday. I'm at the point with it where I am ready to totally trash the brilliant (but undeveloped) topic for something else entirely, just to get myself unstuck.

I feel like I all my newly acquired knowledge from the semester is all jumbled up in my head, and my brain hasn't quite processed it all. At the sociology study session last night, I felt like I knew a good deal about the material we've learned... but any in-depth, clear, well-constructed, and fully fleshed-out original thought seems illusive. And I don't know what to do about it. I just can't get to that critical moment when all the learning comes together.

A Is for Ancient, Describing an Alphabet Found Near Jerusalem - New York Times

2005-11-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

A Is for Ancient, Describing an Alphabet Found Near Jerusalem - New York Times

Aargh!

2005-11-08T22:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note...

I am alive. Just busy. More later this week. Right now I'm too busy enjoying the fact that I have internet again at home. (It's been down for two days.)

The New York Times > Fashion & Style > The Man Date

2005-10-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

The New York Times > Fashion & Style > The Man Date

I'm not sure how much credence to give this... although it does explain why so many guys have closer relationships with (platonic) girl friends than guy friends.

Does that mean it's a sign of sexual security when a man feels comfortable enough to be seen in public, at a restaurant or museum (for example) with just one other guy?

Hmmm...

Any responses?

A bruised eyeball, academic backlog and the Jewish holidays, and whatever else is new

2005-10-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

At the moment, I am sitting in my bedroom, procrastinating from writing a paper on "situational contingencies"and religious conversion. The paper isn't due until Thursday (8:10 am). I'm having a hard time motivating myself. My eye hurts. And--although the actual due date is three-and-a-half days away, I only have one in which to write it. "Why?", you might ask. Because of Sukkot. I HATE having the Tishrei holidays fall on weekdays. I never manage to accomplish very much on weekends (well, that is, during the first half of Friday, Saturday night, and Sunday--the part of the weekend that is not Shabbat). Thankfully, I have not fallen behind in my reading. But getting assignments done has been no picnic. Also, I am already experiencing holiday burn-out. I'm usually OK until Shemini Atzeret and only really out-of-commission for Simhat Torah. This year, though, I feel like it's all-Jewish, all-the time. Even though I've only missed two classes in the past two weeks, I can barely remember what we've been studying.

It hasn't helped that I spent 3 hours today in the emergency room. My generally clutzy behavior has landed me with a minor, but annoying, injury once again. On Friday, while on BART, I was opening a book (Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception, to be precise) when the train suddenly lurched. The book pushed up my glasses and rammed itself into my eyeball. Alas, the injury is not healing as quickly as one might think (since eyes are usually very quick to heal, as anyone who's had either cataract removal or Lasik surgery will tell you). I woke up this morning to find that my eyeball was swollen (yes, swollen) and hurt even more than yesterday. The advice nurse engaged in what was essentially emotional blackmail in order to convince me that I should go to the emergency room today instead of the opthamology clinic tomorrow (it's not open on Sundays).

I now know why Kaiser Oakland is expanding their ER. Just to let you know how small it is, the waiting room is smaller than my apartment. This is in OAKLAND. A big city. And the minor injury clinic is there, too. After all that time, though, the only thing they could tell me was that I did indeed manage to bruise my eyeball and scratch my cornea. I got to have fancy dye put into my eye. They didn't tell me to do anything at home. Basically, all I got was instructions to go to the opthamology department tomorrow, and the comfort of knowing they'd expedite my appointment because of the ER visit. Oy.

Other items of the moment:
J. is in England, and I'm not. Sigh.

I am currently trying to decide what to do about my cellphone... should I switch to MetroPCS, or stay with Sprint? New lower monthly rates at Sprint may make it worthwhile, particularly because cheaper phones are available, due to discounts, etc.

A Friendly Adjective

2005-10-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

One of my more pleasantly geeky friends sent me the following nifty vocabulary word. Apparently, she read the A.Word.A.Day on Friday (see below) and thought of me... I guess I'm flattered. I do have long, thin fingers. More importantly, this is daily list actually has words I haven't heard before (unlike the ones on Dictionary.com, et al). Every week has a theme. This week's (starting today) is words derived from the names of persons.

The entry below can be found in this archive.

> Subject: A.Word.A.Day--leptodactylous
> Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 22:11:54 -0700
> From: "Wordsmith" <wsmith@wordsmith.org>
> To: <linguaphile@wordsmith.org>

This week's theme: words formed using combining forms.

Leptodactylous (lep-tuh-DAK-tuh-luhs) adjective


If you are still stuck to those tired words to describe
your sweetie, here is a new one for you. Leptodactylous
means having fine, slender digits.  No, not, digits on a
bathroom scale or on a bank account. Here digit means a toe
or a finger.

It all sounds Greek to me: from lepto- (thin) and -dactylous
(fingered or toed).
-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

"Hitchock described many examples of strangely-shaped,
thin-toed footprints and classified them as leptodactylous
footprints."
Brendan Hanrahan; Great Day Trips in the Connecticut Valley
of the Dinosaurs; Perry Heights Press; 2004.

פיוט Cool Hebrew Website

2005-10-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

פיוט

Saul Friedman, a fellow PhD student here in Berkeley, gave me a lead on this incredible site, ww.piyut.org.il. It is an awesome database of Jewish melodies from all over the world. This link will take you to the Piyyut of the week: Eil Norah Alilah, which is a beautiful poem for the last service on Yom Kippur. The number of melodies available for this one piyyut is pretty amazing; there are tunes from Morocco, Kurdistan, Italy, Yemen, Iran, Turkey, India, Bukhara... I think you get the picture.

Be aware, though: (1) it is VERY slow to download the music files; (2) the site is in Hebrew only.

In other words, it's not particularly useful yet. But it has promise.

Hag Sameah

2005-10-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, World!

May all on earth experience a year with more peace, more love, more safety, more health, more wisdom, and more joy. May we all enjoy a year of renewal and return to God's roles for each of us.

Important and Depressing Healthcare Issues in Africa, a New Book on Yiddish, and a Timely Salute to Kugel-- all from the New York Times

2005-09-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

Nightmare for African Women: Birthing Injury and Little Help - New York Times

To Provoke in Yiddish...

Kugel Unraveled

20 Things I Wish I Could Do, but Can't (Yet)

2005-09-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

(NOTE: I wrote this a while ago but left it in draft form for reasons I cannot remember...)

A friend (who won't be mentioned due to the privacy of her post) inspired me to start considering all the things that I cannot do that make me feel inadequate. I'm not talking about character flaws, but rather learned skills.

Thus, I "outing" myself as inadequate in the following ways:
1. I cannot ride a bicycle.
2. I have not yet learned when to shut up.
3. I cannot ride a skate board or roller blades.
4. I am an unskilled ballroom and swing dancer.
5. I knit slowly.
6. I have a hard time managing paper--like mail, notes, etc.
7. My spoken Hebrew is currently pathetic despite former fluency.
8. I read modern Hebrew really slowly.
9. I have not yet mastered the proper formatting of research papers, as outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style.
10. I cannot hand sew well enough to fix the fallen hems of several pairs of pants I own.
11. I cannot operate a sewing machine.
12. I am really unskilled with the proper melodies for prayer (I can't sort out all the different musical systems for the different times of day and festive days in traditional Judaism).
13. I lack many basic financial and money-management skills.
14. I am only now learning HTML. And I can only do a few things with it, so far.
15. I cannot build my own computer.
16. I cannot remember the names of all the weekly Torah readings, in order.
17. I can no longer speak Spanish.
18. I cannot skillfully debone and skin a fish.
19. I cannot build my own bookshelves. (Pre-fab doesn't count.)
20. I play DDR really badly.

How much work can one woman do for two classes in one week?: A Kvetch

2005-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

I am only taking two classes this semester. Why, might you ask...? This week I have to:

Read two more chapters of the awesome book How Our Lives Become Stories, by Paul John Eakin
Complete a short-answer homework on the first two chapters of the aforementioned book, which I should have had read for last week but read this weekend instead.
Write a short autobiographical account of a life-changing event.
Read an entire book: The Evolving Self, by Robert Kegan
Compose a class presentation, teaching the material covered in Kegan's book
Read chapters 5-7 of Peter Berger's seminal work, The Sacred Canopy
Finish reading chapter eight of Meredith McGuire's text on Sociology of Religion
Read other assorted articles for the Sociology class
Compose (if I have the time) a 4-6 page paper on a sociological concept (I've chosen "bad faith"), so that I don't have to write another paper during the Jewish holidays of the next month

OK--I've started three of the items on the list. And I've known about the deadlines for two-and-a-half weeks. But still... ARGH!!!! I can't figure out which life event to write about, and I missed class this morning because my intestines are staging a rebellion of some sort without letting me know what will appease them.

Luckily, I already have the material for this week's class for the 10th graders (we'll be covering Jewish views on the death penalty). However, I do still have to prep for the Liturgy class tomorrow.

Gotta get back to work.

Psalm 29

2005-09-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

For a change, I actually made it to synagogue on both Friday night and Saturday morning this week. Friday night services were great... the prayer-leader did a fabulous job and everyone in attendance was singing quite joyfully. When we reached Psalm 29 ("Havu L'Adonai B'nei Eilim..."), I popped out of my seat as usual and joined gleefully in with what is one of my favorite liturgical melodies (from the Carlebach tradition). The next morning, though, I had a totally different experience. The rabbinical student filling in for the congregational rabbi shared some rather moving words regarding the continuing plight of our American brothers and sisters in the Gulf states. Almost immediately afterward, we rose to return the Torah to the ark, once again singing Psalm 29, and I was close to tears:

"The voice of Adonai is over the waters; the Glory of God roars, Adonai, over the many waters... Adonai sat [enthroned] over the Flood; and Adonai will sit as Ruler forever. Adonai will give strength to God's people; Adonai will grant shalom to God's people."

Theologically, the idea of God still being present and ruling during the Flood (of Noah's time) is supposed to be reassuring; the chaos of the Flood was still part of God's plan and not in defiance of it. Somehow, this time, it doesn't sound so reassuring.

More later....

Nextbook: A gateway to Jewish literature, culture, & ideas

2005-09-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

Nextbook: A gateway to Jewish literature, culture, & ideas

Liturgica.com | Liturgics

2005-09-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Liturgica.com | Liturgics

A fascinating web site of liturgical resources for Jews and Christians, including music.

You Know that You Are a Nerd When... (Dedicated to Grad Students in Religion)

2005-09-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

(Some of the following symptoms are limited to scholars of religion. Fear not--one may be certified in academic nerd-hood without meeting all qualifications...)

1. You have favorite books of the Bible--one each in Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Prophets, and Writings. (Mine are Exodus, Hosea, and either Ecclesiastes or Job--I waffle.) For Christians, add one Gospel and one Letter.
2. You lust for multi-volume book sets that you cannot (at the moment, and perhaps ever) afford: the OED, the JPS Bible Commentary or New Interpreter's Bible, a fancy Talmud set, etc.
3. You know more than ten people who can read three or more languages each.
4. There are languages in which you can read ancient texts but not engage in conversation with anyone currently living.
5. You know jokes that require knowledge not possessed by your significant other and/or best friend. (Yesterday, I heard an amazing joke about Philo. I'm going to have to place a long-distance call in order to tell it to good friend who will "get" it.)
6. You actually go back and read the notes you've made in the margins of books.
7. You own books with titles that cannot be understood without having read other books.
8. You can name two or more research databases.
9. You have looked at library holdings which require you to put on gloves and surrender all pens before approaching the book in question.
10. You are over 30, and the percentage of your life spent in school is over 66% and getting larger. (I personally have been in school for 83% of my life.)
11. You have taken an oral exam on material covered over the course of multiple years.
12. Most of what you read cannot be bought in a Barnes and Noble or Borders.
13. You have tried to purchase a book currently in print that is not carried by Amazon.com (and is not child pornography or a book that has been banned in the country in which you live).
14. You can define any two of the following terms: post-colonialism, heteronormative, hegemony, ontological.
15. You have contributed to, fact-checked, corrected, or edited an entry on Wikipedia.

ANY ADDITIONS, FRIENDS?

Another American Disappointment... Something Important I Totally Missed

2005-09-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I don't pay attention very well. In class this evening, I learned that the United States has NEVER BANNED LYNCHING.

What the &#*(*@ ?!!!

Yes, it's true, Ladies and Gentlemen... There are places in the United States where it is still legal to kill someone without a court judgment against them. (CORRECTION: It's not really legal, it just isn't a separate crime that has an explicit and additional penalty. See below.)

In June, the Senate apologized for never having passed a law against lynching. Only 80 of the 100 senators co-sponsored the bill and no record was taken of those who did not vote for it.

That day (June 13, 2005), News Hour featured an interview with the descendent of a lynching victim who came to D.C. to hear the apology. Apparently, a ninety-one-year-old lynching survivor was also present.

J. pointed out to me that lynching is still illegal, since it is murder (or attempted murder, or at least some sort of assault) after all. However, some states (such as my home, California) do specifically outlaw lynching (a group kidnapping and vigilante-style assault) as a crime or civil rights violation, with a penalty above and beyond that of the assault. Moreover, those in a lynching crowd who do not actually perform the injuring or fatal actions are hard to hold liable without such legislation.

School, Venting about Airfares, and Knitting Inventory

2005-09-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

TOPIC 1: I am delighted to report that I have four students in the Jewish liturgy class I am teaching this fall at my school. The four students are all Master's or Certificate students. A three-hour class is really tiring to lead, but I still find teaching exhilarating. Preparing for the class is helping me polish-up my neglected Hebrew skills, and I'm looking forward to exposing my students to traditional Jewish texts. Also, I got to study an apocryphal work, Ben Sira (sometimes called "The Alphabet of Ben Sira" or "Ecclesiasticus"), which was excluded from the Jewish canon but informed Jewish liturgy (including the Amidah). It's a really beautiful piece of wisdom literature and was considered minimally threatening by the Rabbinic Sages. In other words, it's pleasantly "edgy." :)

As for my own studies, I could not be happier with my two classes (ah... I remember when I was in seminary and took four or five classes at a time...). I'm taking one class in Sociology of Religion and another which discusses Faith Development theory and its relationship to personal narrative and identity. This is the first semester in which my classes all have a clear, direct relationship to my research. In particular, I'll be learning about theories of conversion and "de-conversion"--moving from one faith to another. The research on de-conversion, in particular, is really new and could form an important constituent of my eventual dissertation.

Most of all, though, the start of school lands me back among my doctoral student buddies.

TOPIC 2: Somebody needs to explain to me why I can fly for $78, roundtrip (before taxes and fees), to Las Vegas from LAX, but it costs well over $200 from every SF Bay Area airport. It just isn't right... it is possible to fly to the East Coast for less.

TOPIC 3:
1. Nearly done--Cowl-necked chartreuse sweater in Rowan Big Wool requiring attachment of sleeves. For me.
2. Still in progress--Assymetrical poncho in Koigu KPPPM. I bought the yarn for my 29th-b-day (April 2004). Reason for incomplete status--too boring to knit for long stretches of time. It will be beautiful, eventually. For me.
3. Still in progress--Baby blanket in "pieced" log cabin blocks and garter stitch. Similarly boring to work on, although I want to finish for my new nephew, P. To give some perspective, I started it for the 3-year-old nephew, A.
4. Just begun and progressing promisingly--A Knitty wavy scarf of Berroco Denim Silk, in "Mystic," tweedy purple. The yarn was bought very inexpensively (just over $5 a skein) on E-Bay. This is a fun project that is holding my attention.
5. & 6. Two other scarves that I have started and not completed. Both are kinda boring. Both are intended for my sister. Will probably end up sending one to my mother.
7. Not yet begun-Knitty's "chemo" hats (unfortunately named) in Knit Picks' "Shine" for my sister and me.
8. Not yet begun-A simple orange sweater for 3-yr-old nephew (A.) in Knit Picks' "Crayon."

Projects I am fantasizing about... (as the lovely S. would say... drool...)
A. Wool socks this winter for myself and my roommate (and maybe some other folks...).
B. A yarn wig for Halloween (or, rather, Beth's birthday).
C. Hush Hush slip from Sex and the Knitty.
D. Leg warmers from Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.
E. Another sweater for nephew A., from Shadow Knitting by Vivian Hoxbro. Also want to make sweaters for nephew P., brother D., and my sweetheart J.
F. Angelina Vintage Jacket and Heirloom Lace Cardigan from White Lies Designs, but in cotton and linen (respectively) instead of wool.
G. Some sort of adorable purse.
H. A fun tie for my brother-in-law.

Another Update on Cinnamon and other supplements

2005-09-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last week, I added a probiotic chromium supplement (also containing cinnamon, tumeric, fenugreek and some other ingredients) to my diet. Despite carbo-binging over the weekend (OK--it was mostly one meal at Il Fornaio), I've lost one more pound since Thursday. Many people have been asking me about the previously mentioned cinnamon supplement (which I still take on days when I don't get cinnamon into my food)... you can learn about here. I have been VERY pleased with the New Chapter products. They also have a more expensive supplement called "Diet and Energy" that is much more expensive but is similar to the chromium supplement. It adds, however, adaptogens--substances believed to be helpful with cortisol-influenced weight-gain--and thermogens ("fat-burners") such as green tea. A search for "green tea weight loss" on Google Scholar will bring up tons of studies, including some at well-respected institutions such as the University of Chicago. Green tea may (although through different mechanisms) also help with high cholesterol and certain types of hormonally caused conditions and tumors.

All of these supplements are much less expensive than the current prescription treatments for insulin-resistance/Type-2 Diabetes and high LDL cholesterol. Most of them also have little or no known side-effects.

I keep wondering why these simple nutrients are not more widely known. I would think that something as instantly effective as the cinnamon would have been mentioned by one of my doctors at least. My sister told me that no doctor ever told her about either the cinnamon or the chromium. Before she tried supplementing with them, B. asked her endocrinologist about them. He said that they are effective for some people and that she could give them a try.

If the doctor knew that they were effective for "some people," why did he not tell her about them to begin with? The University of Chicago team (in the conference paper on Green Tea linked to above) underscore how skeptical of Traditional Chinese Medicine and alternative therapies most doctors are, despite the fact that two-thirds of American medical schools teach them, including Chicago, Hopkins, and Stanford. In other words, don't let doctors' prejudices rob you of the best care for your health!

More on the cinnamon, diet, exhaustion, and the start of school

2005-09-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

More on the cinnamon... have taken off two more pounds and my weight is still stable. I had to moderate my use of the supplement... it made me feel a little over-energized and anxious. Instead, I've been occasionally taking the supplement and consistently adding cinnamon to at least one food a day.

I've really been feeling great, but today I noticed that I am TOTALLY exhausted. Like I-almost-passed-out exhausted. And the Red Cross rejected my blood today because I was too anemic to donate. :( I think I need to go back to taking a multivitamin and take it a bit easy over the weekend. I spent the whole week pretty much running around. Literally. I've walked up to campus three days (including the big hill) and have been running errands and meeting people.

As for the start of school, I am surprised how excited I am to get back to my real "work." There is the obvious benefit of getting my loan money in. I am still poor, but not brutally so. I am excited about my classes, including one with a faculty member who is interested in my research and is involved with similar work on what she calls "de-converting" (leaving a faith). Seeing my school friends this week has been marvelous. I've spent hours going over progress in our programs, checking in with friends, chatting about life (...the universe, and everything), faculty personalities, and how long we REALLY think our PhD's are going to take us. In particular, I talked for quite some time with my friend and colleague H., a rather endearing, exceptionally intelligent, rip-roaringly funny, and openly gay man who specializes in identity issues, Latin American and Asian culture and religion, and Queer theory and theology. In the last few months, he has settled into a comfortably domestic relationship. And he's been dodging jokes about his conformity to more conservative norms ever since. I told him that he needs a T-shirt that reads: "Just because my relationship is heteronormative, doesn't mean I can't Queer the system."

I only have one complaint so far... There is only one person enrolled in the liturgy class I'm teaching. I'm getting worried what will happen to my fellowship if enrollment doesn't go up by the time class starts on Tuesday. Plus, I've spent a HELL of a lot of time working on the course over the summer, to the exclusion of other things. So, keep your fingers crossed and tell your friends!

Wallace & Gromit : In Theaters October 7

2005-08-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

Wallace & Gromit : In Theaters October 7

Official Site features trailer.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - New International Trailer

2005-08-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Coming Soon! Film Database

On the page, select your format for the new International Trailer. This trailer is much better than the teaser those of us in the States have seen. You get to see fragments of a lot of scenes, including the Triwizard tasks and the Yule Ball.

My little brother, sex, and a case of embarrassment

2005-08-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

For those of you who happen to be acquainted with my brother (or are at least aware of his existence) should not worry that my 11-year-old brother (let's call him "D.") is actually having sex. Yet. However, my mother today had a rather intense conversation with him about sex. And she gave him permission to ask me about it.

Oh, my God.

Let us back up briefly. It's not so much mom-volunteering-me-to-talk-to-my-brother part that really bothers me (although it is a bit of a shocker, since I remember his birth when I was 19 and think of him still as a boy). My sweetie made a good point over the phone... As embarrassed as am talking about sex with my mother probably approximates how embarrassed he might one day be. In other words, I might be the less mortifying person to whom he might direct questions. What really bothered me was that my mother started telling me what she told D. Which meant that I was forced into a conversation with my mother--completely out of nowhere, as far as I was concerned--about sex.

You see, my mother is one of those parents who shamelessly discussed sex with my sister and I. I say "shameless" because she seems to be totally un-embarrassed. No blushing. No stammering. Just a sense that it's a perfectly natural thing for family members to discuss. And it is. Sort of.

Here's the thing: As someone who has participated as both participant and leader in a variety of sexual education settings, I am entirely aware of the importance of parents conveying to their children sexual values and expectations (i.e. "house rules"). In particular, children should hear from their parents from a very young age about such topics as basic health and hygiene, appropriate and inappropriate ways to touch, how babies are conceived (the basic mechanics of sex), and how sex is a healthy and natural way to express love. But then, there are the details: different types of sexual acts, for example. It's not that I want children to learn about the varieties of sexual experience from other children. On the contrary, I think that such information should come from a knowledgable, trusted adult. (I have even played the role of the "trusted adult" as part of my religious teaching.) It's just that I think that there's something a bit inappropriate for children (even as adults) to think too much about their parents sexuality. And talking about it implies some sort of first-hand experience of it when you talk to your parents.

I don't want to think about my mother having sex. Which, in point of fact, I was forced to do at a rather early age. My parents separated in 1979, when my mother was 27. And she definitely was not your typical single-parent with no time for a sex life. She dated like crazy. Then, she unexpectedly had my brother, out of wedlock, when I was finishing my second year of college. None of these things is shameful, per se. It's just that it makes me feel like my mother's sexuality isn't really private. And it's not shame I want her to feel, I guess, but rather shyness or discomfiture.

Maybe I'm just squeamish, but it didn't help that my mother's conversation with D. today was not so straight-forward. I'm not sure exactly how it started, but rather the topics of conversation they hit on. D. just started middle school today, and he spoke about how two girls in his class have already caught is eye and that our cousin S. (who is his age) warned him away from a girl who came over to him at lunch (apparently she tries to get little boys to buy her jewelry... go figure that one out). He's trying to decide which of these girls he's going to "love." Which is kinda sweet, even if I think it reflects a bit on his immaturity (or maybe I'm just jaded after teaching in LA and the Bay Area). Then, they got somehow into social pressures about PDA (kids in the hall making out, and such things). They also talked about how calling someone "gay" shouldn't be an insult, and the kid in one of his after-school activities who has two mommies.

And then comes the kicker--somehow D. asked my mother if it's rape if someone is tied up when having sex.

WHAT??!!!

Basically, he'd never really understood what rape was--he vaguely knew it was an attack that involved something sexual. Apparently, he'd figured out that, if people (maybe on TV) would get tied up when they'd get kidnapped, maybe those tied-up people would sometimes be forced to have sex with their kidnappers.

My mother (who I could tell was at least shocked by this) told him that sometimes this was true, but that sometimes people would asked to be tied up in a caring way, and that could be OK, particularly if they weren't getting hurt. (I now know that my mom sees rope-burn to be a sign of an inappropriate sexual encounter, even if it was consensual.) That's the point of the conversation where I started getting particularly mortified and glazing over... (and here it isn't even the idea that maybe my mother has asked to be tied up)... Finally, what it comes down to is that I really didn't want to contemplate a non-vanilla sex act in conversations with my mother because I don't want my mother to discover my views on any non-vanilla sex act and therefore draw any conclusions about my participation in any of those activities. Basically, I just don't want my mother to think about me and sex in the same sentence.

To sum up: I don't want to (1) think about my mother having sex, (2) view my mother as an expert on sex (particularly if her knowledge is first-hand), (3) be lured into a conversation of sexual content with my mother, without warning, (4) discuss with my mother any sexual act not required for natural conception, or (5) contemplate my sexual activities.

Is this too much to ask?

New Scientist Breaking News - Erotic images can turn you blind

2005-08-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

New Scientist Breaking News - Erotic images can turn you blind: "Erotic images can turn you blind"

"Researchers have finally found evidence for what good Catholic boys have known all along – erotic images make you go blind. The effect is temporary and lasts just a moment, but the research has added to road-safety campaigners’ calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents.

The new study by US psychologists found that people shown erotic or gory images frequently fail to process images they see immediately afterwards. And the researchers say some personality types appear to be affected more than others by the phenomenon, known as 'emotion-induced blindness'."

How to post a comment on RochelLeah's RealLife

2005-08-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

A number of blog visitors have told me that they can't figure out how to leave a comment... so here's a quick "how to":

As you look at a post, you'll see at the bottom of it a link that gives the number of comments and the word "comments" (if there are no comments yet, the link will read "0 comments"). Click this link. The comments, if there are any, will be on the left-hand side of the page. At the right will be an area where you can leave your own comment. You may leave posts anonymously, if you'd like. When you've written your comment, click the light blue "Login and Publish" button below the text area. If you have included HTML formatting, then you may "Preview" the post, but that is really the only reason for previewing.

So... now that you know how... please send your comments my way!

Hunger's Brides | Reading positions

2005-08-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

Quick follow-up to previous post... Here's the link to the "safe reading positions." Be sure to place cursor over each image in order to see photo label.

Hunger's Brides | Reading positions

A Book to Read Carefully, With a Physical Therapist Near - New York Times

2005-08-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

A 1360-page book that people are actually reading. I don't think that'll be a one-nighter. If I do attempt to read it, I'll buy a wrist brace.

A Book to Read Carefully, With a Physical Therapist Near - New York Times

The Miracle of Cinnamon?

2005-08-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

As is known to at least a few of you out there, I am one of the many people who struggles with her weight. I had been at peace with my zaftig self--shapely and strong as I am--until a recent bit of weight gain that many have associated with my return to graduate school.

Due to a rather annoying (but thankfully not dangerous) health issue, losing weight is not something that is particularly easy for me. Fortunately, I do have a bit of an advantage; my twin sister once weighed as much as I do (although she was not nearly as physically active as I am) and managed to lose A LOT of weight. (I would tell you how much, but then I'd probably give away more information than I'd like to regarding how much I currently weigh.) It is safe to say that I would be well-advised to follow her noble example. The main difficulty with such a plan is that my lovely sister is, well, much more disciplined than I am about her eating habits. She basically went on a diabetic diet and ate a number of mini meals every day. I am not quite ready for that level of dedication. I've been trying to limit my food intake and make much better food choices, but apparently that's not quite enough: my weight has continued to waffle consistently by about six or seven pounds but has not stabilized at a lower number.

However, my sister did do a couple of things that are more manageable. One of these things was to add a significant amount of cinnamon to her diet. She simply dumped a ton of it into her oatmeal at breakfast; I'm opting for a supplement (since I tend to prefer the ease of cold cereal). I started taking the cinnamon pills about ten days ago and have already dropped down three pounds below my the previous range of my waffling weight. And I actually had a couple stress-related ice cream binges last week.

Could cinnamon be my little magic pill toward weight loss?

I started checking out the research. A USDA-sponsored study released last year shows that some components of cinnamon are effective not only in stabilizing blood sugar but also cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. The amount needed: one-half teaspoon or less of plain cinnamon, or a comparable amount of cinnamon tea or a supplement. (I've been using one from New Chapter.) Please note, though, that cinnamon oil does not contain the active compound. For supporting research see here. Cinnamon is being considered helpful to those with mild insulin resistance (including that caused by PCOS) to full-blown Type 2 Diabetes.

Cinnamon has also been noted as an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent. Chewing gum containing cinnamon oil not only masks the smell of bad breath but also kills halitosis-causing bacteria. Other research is testing the extent of cinnamon's anti-bacterial ability, and there are some signs that it can kill E. coli, S. typhimurium, E. faecium, and E. faecalis, pathogens commonly present in poultry feed and communicable to humans. For a study of anti-bacterial efficacy of oils added to infected apple juice, see here. For those interested, a number of other spices are also generating interest among conventional physicians and researchers. Chief among these seems to be turmeric and its component curcumin, which has been linked with a slowing of Alzheimer's disease by UCLA researchers. (Ironically, a UCLA on-line exhibit of spices from 2002 was very conservative in its assessment of the medical benefits of spices.) It is also being researched as a possible anti-cancer agent (on a leukemia study, see here).

Live From Gaza: A New View of Israel - New York Times

2005-08-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

A fascinating Op-Ed piece from a Palestinian, on the Gaza pullout. I don't necessarily agree with everything that he says, but I found the compassion alongside his criticism to be refreshing.

Live From Gaza: A New View of Israel - New York Times

Something to hate about California

2005-08-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

I love California. I have lived here for a long time. However, there are a few things I hate about it here. I can't remember most of them. But there is one that is currently driving me out of my mind: THE FRUIT-FLIES.

I have cleared produce items from my counters and am keeping the kitchen garbage outside, on the balcony. But they are not going away. Before I cook anything in the kitchen, I go on a killing spree among the cloud of tiny fly bodies. It's very frustrating.

Anyone know any brilliant ways of getting rid of them? I have done a bit of research on the subject... http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef621.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_fly. Maybe I should start supplying genetics labs. (Don't worry, that was a joke.)

Five Questions from a Friend and Does Anyone Want to Be Interviewed?

2005-08-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Seltsame wrote in her LiveJournal (Wed, Aug. 10th, 2005, 10:52 pm)...

The Rules
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview Me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others asking to be interviewed comment, you will ask them 5 questions.

In response to my volunteering, Seltsame asked:

When (and how if you don't mind answering) did you decide to be a rabbi?

Oy. (This is always a question.) The first time I thought I might become a rabbi, I was 15. It was just a feeling I had during a conversation with my friend Chad. We were standing in the lobby of my old synagogue, Beth Sholom in Las Vegas. I then put that totally out of my mind... I decided instead that I would become the first female, Jewish Secretary of State, and that I would solve all the world's problems and help create an environment of lasting peace in the Middle East. That lasted about two weeks into college. Then I wanted to be a professor of film. Then I wanted to be a professor of Talmud (an important Jewish text that was composed in the fourth through sixth centuries), because God is more important than movies. As a film professor, I'd spend much time watching movies in the dark and writing articles almost no one would read. And I thought that teaching aspects of Judaism would effect people's lives more deeply. And I decided that I didn't want to be a "secular" academic. Plus, people tend to come to me with their woes and seek out counseling. So, I thought, being a rabbi was a logical choice... particularly since I knew a lot of rabbis without pulpits.
In rabbinical school, I got burned out from academia and fell in love with children. So I worked with children for several years, including the first three years after I was ordained. But Jewish educational settings have many of the same drawbacks as being a pulpit rabbi, and I ended up feeling totally consumed by my work and was eaten alive by my congregational board. (OK, not literally.) Plus, I really am a slacker when it comes to many aspects of Jewish law. and practice. (I will skip incriminating details.) And I was really bored working with children. Not enough use of brain (although much use of heart and other important aspects of personality). So, I have hung up my rabbinic hat and reverted to what I really wanted to do: be a professor.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

I believe that ice cream should be chosen to reflect the moment in which it is consumed. In other words: it just depends. If I had to choose one: Ben and Jerry's Brownie Batter.

What other hobbies do you have besides knitting?

I have taken up (and neglected) many hobbies. I have made jewelry. I can paint pretty decently (enough so that some of my friends have wanted to hang my work). I also like collage. But mostly I write. I tend toward poetry and prose poems. I also like to walk, hike, and do yoga. And I read a lot.

Where did you grow up?

Baltimore, outside Philadelphia, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Columbia (Maryland), Las Vegas. Have lived in California longer than any one of those places... 13 years this month.

And just because...sex or chocolate?

Damn that's doozy! (Did I spell that right?) I'm going to assume that we're talking fantastic sex vs. fantastic chocolate.... and I'm going to say: sex.

**WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE INTERVIEWED?**

My New Knitting Books

2005-08-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

Shadow Knitting, by Vivian Høxbro

Last Minute Knitted Gifts, by Joelle Hoverson

The book I wanted, but didn't have sizes big enough... Vintage Knits, by Sarah Dallas

Where I'm going to buy my yarn: Knit Picks.

Super-size Art, not M&Ms

2005-08-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

Painting for a Gallery of Busy City Streets Below
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/arts/design/12bill.html?8hpib

Perfectly Fat
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/opinion/12fri4.html?th&emc=th

A Few Things to Mention of My Busy Day

2005-08-11T00:07:00.000-07:00

Once again, I am house-sitting. Instead of an agoraphobic kitty (see earlier post), I am now charged with the care of one with diabetes. I give insulin shots and the least stinky cat food ever twice daily to Mr. Kiki. (Yes, that's right. I give the cat shots. For those of you aware of my needle-phobia, please pick your jaws off the floor.) Kiki is rather beautiful, but can sometimes be rather annoying at the time of the shots, despite the fact that no shot means no food (well, at least not immediately). I knew I had to chill out a bit when I hissed back at Kiki. Luckily, Kiki does not bear grudges and was happy to receive my petting later that evening.

Today was a momentous occasion: I finally reclaimed possession of several items that had been held by friends for various reasons (largely because of my lack of car). Number one, my gorgeously framed ordination certificates. Number two, my white High Holy Day robe (custom made for me for over $500). Numbers three and four, my ordination tallit and a pair of very comfy black shoes, both of which had been held captive for months by my beloved friend Seri. Number five (which is more than one item), a bunch of books for the liturgy class I'm teaching.

Even more momentous than the reunions with my much-missed possessions, I downsized my storage locker from a 10x5 to a 5x5. I had just barely not fit in a 5x5 before, but now (with the removal of some items to be given away and donated, and other for which I now have room in my apartment) have squeezed in. This could not have been managed without the assistance of the aforementioned Seri, who is known for her superior spatial skills (note to Julie, should she read this--I'm sure you could have done it, too...). I will now save myself $65 a month. Not a huge amount, but one that certainly adds up quickly over time.

Final exceptional item of the day: I finally experienced one of the few roads that goes between Alameda county and Contra Costa without a freeway. This road is Pinehurst, which runs between Moraga and Montclair. I believe that this may well be one of the scarier roads I have ever driven. And I learned to drive on Sunset and Mulholland Blvds. in LA. It is totally pitch-black. It is very narrow most of the time. It is very windy (that's wind-y, not windy). It has those types of woods where, if you're someone like me with an active imagination, you can easily imagine bad things happening. In its defense, there are no sheer drops. But that's about all that can be said for it. It felt like it lasted forever. It was only four miles. In that time, I saw two cars and a really random middle-of-nowhere post office.

Well, that's about it for now. Time to rest up.

Daylight Savings Time in November???

2005-08-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/opinion/09downing.html?th&emc=th

Interesting NY Times editorial. I had no idea about this bit of congressional craziness.

knitty.com contests... don't miss out

2005-08-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

knitty.com

Serious and silly HP fan art by Red Scharlach

2005-07-29T00:20:00.000-07:00

Serious and silly HP fan art by Red Scharlach

Looking for some non-film images of J.K. Rowlings characters, I started browsing for some alternative art. I found this... the first ones are gorgeous, and then they just keep getting funnier, and funnier, and funnier....

Post-Harry Angst (no spoilers) and a Call for Help

2005-07-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I started late yesterday evening (maybe 10-ish), continued until about 2 or 2:15 a.m. Went to sleep about 2:30. Woke up at approximately 10. Started reading by 10:30. Finished reading just short of 4 p.m.

Clearly, this is not a book to pick up without having a lot of spare time on one's hands if you are an individual possessing obsessive-compulsive reading habits (as in, cannot put book down until body gives out). Thankfully, with my schedule so full these days ;) I am able to squeeze it in.

And may I say,
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!

I think that I am finally grasping the full dimensions of a facet of my personality that has been nurtured by technology: impatience. (And I am not alone in this, I know.) I have recently been forced to admit aloud the fact that I prefer to watch television shows on DVD, an entire season at a time. I get really annoyed that, after having crammed an entire season of Battlestar Galactica into less than a week, I now have to wait a week at a time for new episodes, plus however long it takes me to get to Joshua's place, where he loyally Tivos episodes for me (well, I guess he watches them, too...). If I call someone on their cellphone and home phone, and still can't talk to them, a small part of me glowers until my call is returned. It only slightly helps to remember how far we've come since the days long before cellphones, when -gasp- not all my friends even had an answering machine.

I am having a fit of angst at the moment, not because the end of summer is only a month away, not because I can't find the "just right" knitting pattern for a sweater for my 3-year-old nephew, not because of my oft-mentioned and probably now yawn-inspiring poverty, but rather because of the cliff-hanger of a book. (And, for God's sake, it's published by Scholastic!)

I hasten to add that my angst isn't entirely driven by impatience to read the last book in the HP series, although I now feel rather confirmed in my usual avoidance of serialized fiction (Robert Jordan and the like). I just don't think that I could take it.

Why else am I experiencing a fit of pique? Because I must discuss the book... pour over it, analyze every detail, and vent. And neither my roommate nor my sister nor my boyfriend have read the book yet. THIS IS A CALL FOR HELP! Please help me regain my calm by helping me process the book.

And, OK, my state of mind may also have something to do with the fact that I haven't eaten since breakfast and it's almost time for dinner.

Maybe I should fix that.

Planning for the Unthinkable and Unpredictable

2005-07-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I was rather disturbed by the events leading up to Terry Schiavo's death of this past spring. The family strife around her illness, the contradictory claims about her wishes and beliefs, the fact that this drama was played out in public and in a rather fantastic way--all of these demonstrated to me the importance of setting out one's health care wishes well in advance of any obvious illness, even for the young.

How do you know when your preoccupation with planning for an unforseen, devastating illness is practical or just plain morbid? Particularly when you are a healthy 30-year-old?

I used to have durable power of attorney for health care, completed after a class on end-of-life issues while I was in rabbinical school. But that was many years ago, and I don't know where it is. My opinions on such matters have changed, and so have the laws in California.

While I was at Kaiser last week for a doctor's appointment, I walked by the health education center and saw a poster for an Advance Health Care Directive Kit. I picked one up. Inside is the California Medical Association (CMA) materials, which are in harmony with the California laws enacted in 2000. (You can download these materiasl from the CMA, here: Your Living Will.)

Needless to say, completing these forms is not easy. The initial matter that has me in a quandary is who to appoint as my agent and alternate agents. Without any paperwork, the person who would be responsible for my health care decisions would be, I think , my mother. They would possibly also turn to my sister. Anyone who knows either of my nearest and dearest would readily understand that neither of them would be in any state to make important decisions should something catastrophic happen to me. So, neither my sister nor my mother are ideal candidates to be my agent.

That leaves me with two more family members who I might use, both of whom would be a bit more capable of making decisions in a state of grief: my uncle and my brother-in-law (that is, my sister's husband). Now things get even trickier. My uncle is a doctor. He has known me all my life. He has largely filled the hole left by my absent father. However, he's not familiar with the intricacies of Jewish law that I would want to guide my agent.

On to my brother-in-law... I think that this is one area of Jewish law in which we would mostly agree, despite his Orthodoxy and my Conservative ideology. Except one small thing: I'm not sure that I would want the letter of Jewish law followed if I were, say, in a persistent vegetative state for ten years. That is, I would possibly want nutrition and hydration stopped, despite the fact that neither falls under the category of medicine (which may be withheld) under Jewish law. And I couldn't ask my brother-in-law to go against his understanding of Jewish law.

Oy.

I thought in passing of my boyfriend, and whether or not I would trust him to make such decisions for me in the future, should we continue to be together. I was happy to realize that I would, even if it is too early to place such obligations on my sweetheart and not yet appropriate to do so.

Next, I tried to figure out who I would trust to make judgments according to an understanding of Jewish law in harmony with my own beliefs. I thought of a couple friends who are rabbis, whose wisdom, knowledge and compassion I trust. Maybe I will ask them if they would mind being consulted in case there is a lack of clarity on the part of my agent.

With all of these efforts, one of the things that has surprised me most is that I have very specific concerns and opinions regarding plans for an illness I may never have or might not happen for fifty years. Instead of doing a cursory completion of the forms, I feel compelled to delve into my deepest beliefs about life, death, family, and my own mortality.

As I continued to fill out the forms, I realized that I wanted to give more guidance than simple yes/no/let my agent decide answers to a few questions. So, I went to the Rabbinical Assembly (the official body of Conservative rabbis) web site, where an old Durable Power of Attorney can be downloaded in PDF format (mackler_care.pdf (application/pdf Object)). I think I'm going to have to cut-and-paste from that document to create another document of guidance to attach to the Advance Health Directives form.

On a happier note, I am getting closer to completion of the baby blanket, and I have acquired access to a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (since my sweetie is being altogether too patient with starting his copy for me to rely on reading it before I am confronted by the spoilers I have successfully avoided so far).

for those of you who didn't go to film school, this is SO cool...

2005-07-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

Fathom :: The Source for Online Learning

Columbia and AFI have partnered for on-line seminars, along with a number of other affiliated institutions. The location for all these things is www.fathom.com. Check it out!

More thoughts about my summer of under-employment

2005-07-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

I began this post while sitting in the dining room of a house in the Miraloma neighborhood of San Francisco. This was the location of my most recent attempt to earn some cash: house- and pet-sitting for a vacationing family. For a reasonable fee, I took care of the house (mail, garden, etc.) and its multiple non-human, animal occupants for six days. Said occupants include the following: a very active 2-year-old female dog, whose owner even describes as spoiled; a dowager dog of very mellow temperment, but a whiny-sounding bark/voice that sounds somewhat pathetic; and a slightly agoraphobic kitty, with beautiful green eyes and patchy fur that is finally coming back after battles with skin rashes and who rarely leaves one of the bedrooms out of fear of the older dog.

Such is the life of the under-employed graduate student during summer break. Although I continue to be sent solicitations for work during the school year (for which I am pretty full up, at least through January), I am still stymied in search of steady summer employment. Well, actually, I've sorta given up. I've proposed a few more articles for MyJewishLearning.com and am near confirmation of another house-sitting gig. I babysat for one very pleasant evening (leaving with a rather striking portrait of myself, drawn in crayon by a 5-year-old). Then there was my lovely week teaching Prophets to nuns. And I do have other people to contact. But I'm no longer really interested in taking on any sort of regular work schedule.

It's not like I'm being altogether lazy. Unlike any previous vacation time when I have been unemployed, I have been waking up regularly between 8 and 9 a.m. I can barely manage that during the school year. I've been seeing plenty of my friends and have continued to meet more of Joshua's. In fact, our social calendar has been quite busy. I've read a few books and am currently working on The Angel of a Thousand Wings. I've made some excellent progress on the baby blanket for the now seven-week-old Paltiel. And I just worked 4 1/2 hours today--straight through, no procrastination or "breaks"--on the syllabus and reading assignments for this fall's course on Jewish Liturgy. As long as I can eke by financially, I think that I'll stay on this course. Just remember to forward any house-, pet-, and/or baby-sitting offers my way. ;)

Video Game Known for Violence Lands in Trouble Over Sex - New York Times

2005-07-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

Video Game Known for Violence Lands in Trouble Over Sex - New York Times

Of course, all the violence is perfectly OK for kids. Just don't show them the sex.

Fighting Poverty in the Jewish Tradition--MyJewishLearning.com

2005-06-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

MyJewishLearning.com - Daily Life: The Activism of Abraham: "MyJewishLearning.com Home Page History & Community Daily Life History & Community Lifecycle Texts Ideas & Beliefs Ideas & Beliefs"

I'm a (not quite) starving student.... but just how poor am I?

2005-06-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

In the past month, I have been forced to deal once again with my relative poverty. With schools out of session and barely any teaching available, I'm barely scraping by. My numerous job applications have barely been acknowledged, and I've managed to acquire occasional work that is simply not sufficient to sustain my needs. I'm literally counting every penny, trying to make my July 1st bills.

I'm left with a burning question: What is poverty?

The official statistics for the United States, calculated through the US Census Bureau, are here. For the Census' definitions and measurement of poverty, see here.
In 2003, the poverty threshold for a single adult, below the age of 65, was $9573.

An alternate source of poverty statistics in the US is the Department of Health and Human Services. Their 2005 definition of poverty is nearly identical to that of the Census Bureau.
Alameda County's statistics, including those for poverty, can be found on the US Census Bureau site.

However, living in the SF Bay Area, these numbers don't mean a heck of a lot. The cost-of-living here, and the salaries needed to support families in this climate, is outrageous. In my neighborhood (that is, zip code), the percent of individuals below the poverty threshold is 17.2%, almost 5 points higher than the national average. I've tried to get a realistic cost-of-living estimate: how much basic food and shelter would cost... in vain. Well, I did learn that the Cost of Living Index for Berkeley is 144.1 compared to 102.76 nation-wide. Whatever that means. But I was able to discover that there are numerous locations in the country where I could live for nearly 1/10 the money. Clearly, the dollar doesn't go as far here.

Even within the Bay Area, there's a huge variation. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce offers comparisons of salaries, etc., in the various Bay Area counties. The comparison of mean salaries is pretty scary, and the gap is widening. Meanwhile, the median salary is over ten thousand dollars under the mean salary, indicating that mean (average) salaries are pumped up by the very rich.

Regardless, I still consider myself a fabulously fortunate person, rich in resources and opportunities. I may be cash-poor, but I have health insurance, a roof over my head (even if just barely), and a wardrobe that could clothe a small village. And I'm definitely not starving.

For a little perspective, it is worthwhile to check out the statistics section on the United Nations' website, where they list the percentages of national populations who make an average of less than one US dollar per day. (In other words, the $420 I made last week would make a big difference in these people's lives.) UNICEF offers their statistics for the world's children here.

Finally, I am left with a sense that my financial woes are not too extreme. It sounds cheesy, but I really am one of the richest people in the world... if you measure wealth the way the Sages do:

"Who is rich? The one who is satisfied with his [sic] portion" (Pirkei Avot).

I am blessed with students eager for the Torah I teach, a loving (if neurotic) family, and the most beautiful friendships anyone could wish for. And I'm certainly satisfied with that.

2005-06-16T23:03:00.002-07:00

Paltiel with Great-Uncle

2005-06-16T23:03:00.001-07:00

Abba and little Paltiel

2005-06-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Three generations of ladies and a new little boy

New Nephew, Abandoned-Found-and-Left-Behind Knitting Project, and Back to Berkeley

2005-06-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh... Berkeley. How I have missed her. During my absence of two weeks, she has changed little (as one would expect). I arrived just in time for Shavuot to start and managed to be conscious for about half the holiday. Somewhat better rested, I can share a bit about my trip.

The biggest news is that I have a new nephew, Paltiel. (Yes, that is his name. It's pronounced Pahl-tee-el. It comes from I Samuel. Look it up. And you can refrain from the naming-as-child-abuse comments.) He is super-cute, but rather large--he was born at 9 lbs, 10 ozs. My sister finally had the baby on day 9 of the neverending labor (which lasted from Friday to the following Saturday). Baby and Ima are well. Abba is sleepy from assisting with night feedings, and big brother seems very pleased with his baby.

I did not see much of LA while I was down there, but did have some fun with friends and numerous trips with my not-quite-three-year-old nephew to the park, Petco (where we enjoy looking at the animals), and the library. My sweetheart, Joshua, came down from Berkeley for the last weekend of my trip, when he managed to meet a bunch of family members and friends. I am happy to say that both Joshua and I survived his first encounter with my family, including both my twin sister and mother. Thankfully, I do not have the type of family that insists that I be glued to them for the duration of a visit, so Joshua and I escaped to have Shabbat dinner with some of my college friends, go to services at the Shtibl Minyan, enjoy a drink with more friends at the Cat and the Fiddle (in Hollywood), and enjoy a beach visit under the stars.

Upon leaving, I nearly instantaneously started remembering various items I left at my sister's place. Chief among these items is a knitting project that I had recently taken up again: a blanket for baby based on the traditional log-cabin quilt pattern. It's really simple and interesting despite the fact that it only uses a very simple garter stitch.
This pattern is pretty close to the one I've been using: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~yuie/knit/proj/blanket.html. Instead of using Homespun, I'm using a sport-weight cotton in white, lime green, lavender, and canary yellow. Luckily, I have a friend who is coming up from LA next week who will hopefully be able to deliver the knitting bag, nalgene water-bottle, clothes, flax-oil capsules, and whatever else I haven't discovered missing yet.

Absence from Berkeley and the Land of No Wi-Fi

2005-06-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

After hastily departing for LA at the first word that my sister was going to give birth to her second baby, I am now simply hanging around with my frustrated sister, tired brother-in-law, and adorable nephew (who just happens to be going through the terrible twos, including kicking, hitting, and screaming tantrums when he's tired and refusing to sleep).

Oh, and they have no internet access.

(You may ask, how is Rochel Leah composing this entry? Currently, I am at my friends', Beth and Joe's, apartment.)

Now, I am not someone without the occasional need for a computer vacation (I may be disowned by my boyfriend for that comment, but I assure him that I would never require such sacrifice of him). And the lack of television doesn't bother me much, since I don't have a set, either. However, I am more likely to indulge in such retro peace-and-quiet when not trying to find summer employment and trying make my blog somewhat more interesting.

I had thought that my spiffy new wireless card would enable proper access with my laptop. Yet, LA seems to be somewhat deprived of Wi-Fi spots, and there are none in our neighborhood save the T-mobile hot spot at Starbucks (which brings me into conflict with my usual Starbucks dislike and unwillingness to pay for wireless access).

I love my sister and her family. When the baby arrives, I will love him or her, too. And I'm getting to see my LA buddies. But I want to be back in Berkeley. It's not that I'm selfish (I hope). It's just that I miss my bed, my self-chosen sleep- and wake-up times, sweetheart, roommate and dog, and DSL... (not necessarily in that order). And I have to admit that I also miss nurturing my addiction to Katamari Damacy (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/puzzle/katamaridamashii/).

Sigh.

My sister gave me the evening off. So, now, I am enjoying an evening of computer, South Park, and this rather bizarre show "Requiem for a Reality Show" on Drawn Together.

Junk food for the soul. And a little bit of actual searching for a job.

A Little Collage about Me

2005-05-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

RLcollage

Welcome to RochelLeah's RealLife

2005-05-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

(How to start?)

Inspired by a recent class in autobiography, the discovery that my sweetheart has a minimalist LiveJournal page, and the desire to pull myself out of the bad habit of writing only when depressed, I am embarking on a new Internet adventure. I'd like to welcome you to my new blog/journal/virtual RealLife.

(How real is RealLife? or real life?... must contemplate further.)

RochelLeah's RealLife is...
Rants, raves, reflections, and (self-)reflexivity from a surprisingly cheerful Ph.D. student in religion. Contemplations may refer to a rather checkered past that includes significant bouts of self-pity, depression, irrepressible and incomprehensible giggle-fits, irresponsible frolicking, and way too many years of psychotherapy for someone so young. Topics covered may include: writer's block, relationships (romantic and otherwise), the author's Jewish agenda, academia, the meaning of life, and fantasy knitting projects (since these projects most likely involve more time and skill than I can lend them).