SixBoysJ

Kidney Failure

2008-08-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

This note is a cross-post from my more active (at least until now) blog: weekendhospitality.blogger.com. I'm going to try and move most of my posts to this blog because it has a more general audience.

In February of this year, My second oldest son, Asaf was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. Simply put, both his kidneys are damaged and scarred from some infection or defect that happened years ago. They will likely cease to function sometime within the next six months.

The good news is that there is no immediate danger to his life. Kidney Dialysis is a viable option and can maintain his health for up to ten or more years if necessary. Unfortunately, the process is not easy and there are potential side effects. Given Asaf's generally excellent health and age, Kidney Dialysis is considered only a stop-gap measure and not a long term solution.

The best solution for Asaf is a kidney transplant. Many kidneys are donated postmortem. Cadaver kidneys are the most common form of transplant. These organs are allocated on a priority basis to eligible recipients. In Israel, you must already be on dialysis and meet a
specific set of criteria in order to qualify for one of these rare organs.

The other option is to find a live kidney donor. Most people are born with two healthy kidneys. The human body is a marvelous machine and can comfortably get by with just one kidney. I am a living example, having been born with one kidney. Live organ donors are considered the best option for kidney transplants. The percentage of successful transplants is higher from a live donor and the transplanted kidney has a longer chance of surviving in the recipient's body.

Unfortunately, after we discovered Asaf's condition, upon testing the other kids, we found that kidney disease has manifested itself in various non-threatening ways in our other children as well. Because of incompatible blood types, kidney disease (including one aunt who
also has one kidney), and age, all of Asaf's siblings, parents, aunts and uncles, and all his first cousins have been eliminated as potential donors.

The first step to being a kidney donor is to be in perfect health. The second step is to have a compatible blood type. Asaf has a blood type of B negative. That means that possible donors are people with B or O blood. We recently learned that Rh factor is not an issue in donor transplants, and that should make our search somewhat easier. B- is one of the rarer blood types, occurring in only %2 of the general population. B+ is a bit better at %9.

Donating a kidney is not a simple undertaking and not one to be taken lightly. There are potential complications, but most donors live long and successful lives, knowing that they made a difference to someone in need. The cost of a transplant is covered for both the donor and the
recipient for Israeli citizens. We don't really know about the rules in the US, but we are beginning to learn. The medical and legal community has ruled that it is illegal to sell a kidney. As such, any payment of any kind to the donor will disqualify them. Kidney donations from live donors must be 100% altruistic.

Please contact us if you know of anyone who might be willing to donate one of their kidneys to Asaf. The process takes about six months and requires numerous meetings with doctors, social workers, psychologists and committees to make sure that the decision is freely made and will not jeopardize the donor or the recipient. The recovery time for the donor after the transplant can be as fast at 3-4 days.

Right now, Asaf has no symptoms other than very poor blood tests and some slight fatigue. He has recently changed his diet in an attempt to delay dialysis for as long as possible. There is no cure for Asaf's existing kidneys. At his current rate of decline, he will need a kidney transplant sometime in the next 12 months.

Goodbye Randy

2008-07-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

Randy Pausch passed away on Friday after a two year struggle with Pancreatic Cancer. I am proud to have worked with Randy and CMU and to have been his friend. CMU posted a short obituary here.

Randy was a first class researcher in Operating Systems, Computer Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces. As a current PhD candidate, I can only hope that I could approach his level of contribution.

The last time I saw Randy was back in the 1990's, but he will always be remembered by me for his PhD thesis and for his "Last Lecture".

May you rest in God's Lap, and may your family be comforted.

Goodbye Randy

Predictions: Applicable for the next few months

2008-06-05T02:54:00.001-07:00

I want to get this prediction on record. Here is the current situation:

A) PM Olmert is under investigation for receiving unreported cash from a US citizen. At the very least, there is an ethical problem, at most, he is guilty of a number of criminal offenses. Olmert's political situation is very weak.

B) Rocket and mortar fire from Gaza continues and is inflicting not only "damage", but also maiming and killing Israeli citizens.

C) The keystone of Olmert's coalition is the ultra-orthodox Shas party which is threatening to bolt if the government refuses to increase child support payments. The government is against this because it wants citizens to be productive workers and not sponges.

D) Olmert is in the US talking to the US government. The US government is a lame duck presidency with less than six months to go. There is no significant cost to the US for looking the other way if Israel does anything.

Prediction:

Within two weeks of Olmert's return from the US, the Israeli army will enter Gaza and restart the active war with Hamas. The initial attack will cause significant collateral damage and will cost lives on both sides.

As with all Israeli wars the opposition will understand that it must support the troops and hence the current government. This will delay any proceedings to schedule new elections and will effectively silence any discussion about the Olmert investigation.

If Israel recaptures Gaza and/or destroys the Hamas leadership, then the government will claim success and Olmert will be viewed as a hero. Olmert's criminal investigation will be delayed for two years until he finishes his current term, at which point he will be indicted and convicted. Of course, he will receive a pardon as the Israeli hero who restored Israel's power to the Middle East.

If Israel fails to achieve its objectives and suffers major losses OR if Hizbalah and/or Syria get involved, then Olmert will go down in history as the man who started two loosing wars and Israel will be hard pressed.

Olmert is betting that:

The Israeli army is prepared and ready for Hamas
The Iranians are all talk and will back down from a fight, hence Lebanon and Syria will stay quiet.
Olmert has nothing to loose. His political career is over the minute the Knesset gets a chance to vote on new elections. This way, he has a chance to come out smelling like roses instead of poop.

I sure hope I'm wrong.

Randy Pausch

2007-12-22T08:36:00.001-08:00

In the 1980's I attended Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) as a undergraduate on Mathematics. I followed that with two stints as a Staff Researchers, first in the Psychology Department and them with the Camelot group in the Computer Science Department. I spent three years working with a group of stellar doctoral students. They got their degrees while I earned a living and learned about systems and software engineering.

One of our students was Randy Pausch. He arrived in 1982 and received his PhD in 1988 and went on to bigger things. Randy came back to CMU and created a program called the Entertainment Technology degreee which merges Virtual Reality, Computer gaming, Art and Industrial Design.

Randy is one of my heros. He found a way to do cool, fun things in Computer Science without treating it as Applied Mathematics.

The bad news is that in September 1006, Randy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The doctors don't give him much more time.

This fall, Randy gave a last talk at CMU.

I'm very sad that I have not been in touch with Randy and the others from those years. I wish him health and happiness.

How not to do backups

2007-12-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

I am religious about backups. I bought a large USB hard drive and made sure that my laptop was backed up to the hard-drive every week. I used a tool called SuperDuper, which performed perfectly, even making the external drive bootable in case I totally lost my laptop or its internal disk.

In addition, I recently upgraded to Leopard and I set up a partition on the external hard drive for its 'Time Machine'. I never had to use it, but I did notice that it created very nice incremental backups.

On my wife's computer, I use Xdrive to backup her data to the Internet. It works very well given that she has relatively little data. The 5GB storage limit is plenty. My laptop was approaching 50GB of personal data. The data files for my thesis research add up to more than 20GB.

I made one major mistake. NEVER EVER PUT YOUR BACKUP AND PRIMARY SYSTEMS IN THE SAME ROOM. What, you think I'm talking about a fire or natural disaster. Think again. Its human error (sic).

This week, someone broke into our house in the middle of the night. My laptop was setup in an office on the first floor with an external monitor and the aforementioned external backup drive. The thieves took everything. So, now I have nothing. No laptop and no backup.

We are slowly piecing our life back together. The biggest problem is that all of my writing and research was on those disks. I also had our family images on that system. IPhoto is a very nice tool. Well, its all gone. Hopefully next week, I'll come out of mourning and get my life started again.

Definitions of attack and defense

2007-10-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

I caught the following chart from Digg:

I was bothered by the fact that there was no distinction between whether Country A was the attacker or the defender. So I worked up my version of the chart:

A few items became clear. First, what is the invading army's response to a guerrilla? I believe that once a civilian becomes involved in a military action (attack), they loose the protection of being a civilian and become no different from the defending army. Terrorism in this circumstance is a civilian militant attacking a civilian from the invading nation. But, this attack opens the terrorist to retaliation just as if they were part of a formal military.

It seems that the definition of a crime is one native civilian attacking another native civilian. Society has many names for this attack: robbery, homicide, murder, rape, etc. In some circumstances, I believe that a civilian may put themselves in the category of "militant civilian" by attacking other civilians of the same nationality. This is another form of terrorism. It is not a revolt because the militant targets innocent civilians.

I'm not sure this is an advance, but it helped me to organize my thoughts.

Lisa 2007

2007-10-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

I will be presenting a paper at LISA 2007. Its the 21st Annual Large Installation System Administration conference. When I used to work at Transarc, this conference was the high point of the season. We got to meet all our customers. Transarc used to run training sessions and BOFs (Birds of a Feather sessions) for all AFS adminstrators. I never attended these events because I was part of the development side and not sales.

Well, here is my chance. As part of my research work, I have been building and administering a large distributed cluster in 9 locations across Europe and Middle East. Its been a frustrating but satisfying experience. I'll be talking about the system and our experiences on Thursday, Nov 15th. Please attend my session, I would love to see you!

Ein Bokek

2007-10-03T06:27:00.000-07:00

This it the season of hiking and vacationing. One of our good friends invited us on a hike at Ein Bokek near the southern tip of the Dead Sea. The description of the hike was: "Family hike, but not for strollers". Ok, it was listed at 4 to 4.5 hours, but many family hikes are listed long because the kids drag it out.

The place was in the middle of the dessert. My wife loves the desert. Its her favorite terrain and the Dead Sea is her favorite place on earth. I'm not a desert person. It is too hot, it is empty and there is no shade.

I think that this is the first really long hike we have taken since coming to Israel. We started hiking at 11am and finished close to 5pm. I was very nervous about this hike because I have a history of getting ill in the desert. Not to worry, I was fine! We drank many liters of water (26). The biggest problem was that the final hour of the hike was basically a climb down the mountain at the beginning of this post.

My wife does not do well downhill. She is not spry or light on her feet. About a third of the way down the mountain she tripped and fell. After a short timeout to pass out due to shock, we cleaned her up and helped her down the mountain. That last hour took just over two hours. I am very proud of my sons. They basically held my wife's hand the whole way down, searching for the best placed to walk and for the path of lease resistance.

After I drove two hours back home, I called in our oldest son to take his mother to the emergency care center. We were concerned that a deep cut on her elbow might need stitches. Thanks to God, everything is fine and all she needs is a few bandages and some rest.

It is wonderful to have kids, not only will they help us when we grow old, but they are always there for us in times of need!

Large families

2007-09-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

There is a very nice article in Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/907695.html

Its about big families and how parents of these families deal with things in mass without worrying the little details and holding items or people under a microscope. The authors contention is that these families create a strong sense of community and group within the children. Small families tend to create individuals.

My friends frequently comment that my children seem to be the best of friends. Part of that may be because they are all boys and there is little long term friction. Yet another part may be because they are part of a large family and they have no choice but to find ways to get along.

I'm happy that my house is full of people, my own kids and others kids who happen to be hanging around. I would not have it any other way.

Food Rationing by Race

2007-09-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Bob Grosso reposted this except from September 18, 1942. It was originally in the blog The Old Foodie. It is labeled: Decree Concerning Food Supply for Jews.

Read the original. We are told that in Nazi Germany, Jews were not considered people. This post reinforces that message. Why waste rationed food on a populace that you are planning on killing.

At this time of year during the 10 days of redemption, we can only pray that such an event never happen again and further that somehow, the Jewish people and the world gained something from those times.

I don't think I could be an atheist, because then I would have to say that bad people can do bad things with no repercussions. Death is the great equalizer, but sometimes, death is too easy a way out. Sure, you don't get to kill other people anymore, but there is no way to bring them back. You "won".

I would prefer to believe in God and the soul. It would be fitting if those who were killed had the chance to come back and try again, while those who did the killing were summarily destroyed!

May we never experience such times again.

Escape Pod

2007-09-04T03:19:00.001-07:00

Every half a year or so, I get hooked on portable media. During a family trip, we listened to audio cd's (The Destroyer was one of our favorites). For a while, I was listening to Daf Yomi every day, but I find that I loose interest if I'm not up-to-date.

Now, I'm listening to Science Fiction stories. I've discovered Escape Pod. Its a well presented audio podcast of science fiction (and some fantasy) stories. For better or worse, I like it best when I'm driving. My commute is about 40 minutes, which is perfect for this podcast.

The Escape Pod team has decided to focus ONLY on sci-fi. They are spinning off a podcast called "Pod Castle" for the fantasy stuff. I'll probably subscribe to that one also.

It is soooo much easier to stay up-to-date on fiction when you get weekly updates and reminders. I'm a big fan of space opera and was excited to hear about a lot of new stuff coming out of the UK. Its good to know that sci-fi is still alive and kicking!

Corporate Website

2007-06-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to building a web site for my consulting company; http://jaffestrategies.com.

Surprisingly, the reason for putting the site up had nothing to do with marketing or presence or advertising. I needed a domain for a test server that I'm working on. In order to get it up and running, I wanted a reasonable URL that I owned. Well, I own JaffeStrategies, but I havn't bothered to put the web site up. Until now.

I used Joomla and its was reasonably simple. The biggest problem is that CMS systems don't think like developers or writers. They have their own internally consistent notion of how things should be arranged and how they should work. Once I got my brain around it, the implementation was not that bad.

I don't think this is where the site will end up. I have lots of ideas for making it better, but right now, it's just not worth my time tweaking it.

Microsoft Religion

2006-11-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

A number of years ago, Microsoft Marketing people started using the title Evangelist. The idea as I remember it was to preach to the masses about the wonders and joys of Microsoft products. I'm here to tell you that it worked.

Growing up, my father use to tell me that it was important to use the right tool for the job. He then proceeded to use any old thing lying around to get the job done. We NEVER had the right tool for the job in our house. We used screwdrivers as scrapers, hammers as precision force tools and masking tape instead of duct Duct tape. We got the job done.

I took this philosophy with me when I left the house. I am a tool nut. I love to cook and so, Williams Sanoma is one big toy store. I can't walk in without buying that special olive pitting tool or a new melon baller. I love to get the right tool. My father was correct on all counts. Using the right tool makes the job easier, safer and faster. He was also correct in that sometimes buying the right tool is a waste of money. The extra cost for the tool does not justify the improved productivity. Just as long as the job gets done.

I recently worked in a Microsoft shop that had three programmers. They used Microsoft tools and systems to build a very nice IT infrastructure. Their web site was built on a third party product on top of ASP and it was severely hampering their ability to maintain, improve and change.

I suggested that they consider splitting the system into two parts. The back end part would be 100% Microsoft, using all the productivity and management tools that Microsoft has developed over the years. For the front end, I suggested that we look at all the alternatives and consider Linux and open source options in addition to .NET.

I was treated as a heretic. Why would I even consider those other heathen platforms? Microsoft was the best. It enabled rapid development, reliability, easy maintenance and strong management. Those other tools were just has-beens and even considering them was anathema.

One employee told me that if we used a MYSQL database, he would leave the firm. His Microsoft religion allowed no other systems to be used. Only in a pure Microsoft shop could he improve his technical background and resale value.

Leaving aside the issue of why other systems might or might not be appropriate, since when did Microsoft become so strong that all other systems are worthless? Has Microsoft built a system and associated tools that are so strong that there are no alternatives? How did Microsoft build such a strong cult?

The Microsoft philosophy is to provide one tool that does everything. By definition, it is complicated. There are so many demands on it that the documentation fills multiple DVDs. If you had to choose only one tool, then choose Microsoft. It may take a while to find the right function or feature, but you know that it exists.

The alternative Unix philosophy has been to build small custom tools that do one job well. You aggregate these tools to get the job done. This has the benefit of allowing a developer to replace one or more of these tools with something faster, more robust or cheaper. The drawback is that there is additional overhead in communicating between these components.

My preference is for small tools. They can be blindingly fast or slow as molasses, but a developer can choose pick the right tool for each job. It may not be the best tool, but it will work, just like my fathers masking tape.

I don't have all the answers. I accept that some people believe that Microsoft is the future and that all other options are dead ends. I clearly disagree. If that makes me a heathen and unbeliever, then so be it. I will continue to build the right system for each job. Not the best, not the faster, not the cheapest, but just right.

Poland

2006-11-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

I took a trip to visit Poland with my oldest sons 12th grade class. The following posts are notes that I sent from Poland on my Blackberry during the trip.

The trip is not easy. Its emotional and over-whelming. I learned many lessons from this experience. Amongst them are:

You are the product of a long history of people. They lived and died so that you might be born. Remember them and honor their memory.

There are bad people in this world. Bad things happen in this world. Some things are so bad that they defy understanding. We need to respond even if we cannot grasp the magnitude of the event.

We tend to think of far away places as different. Oh, that could not happen here! The more I travel, the more I see that the world is pretty uniform. Location is no barrier to events.

6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. We must make sure that they did not die in vain. We must remember their courage and their loss. We must make sure that they are never forgotten.

Israel is a response to the Holocaust. Like it or not, it is a direct result of six million deaths. It is irresponsible to walk away or give up. It is our home.

Poland #5 - Oct 26, 2006 - Lizensk

2006-11-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

Once the home of Rav Elimelech from Lizensk, this was the first home of Hassidut in Poland. All that is left is a reconstructed cemetery and mausoleum for Rav Elimelech's grave. More than 6000 followers come here every year on his yartzheight. We came to dance.

As we travel through Poland, I understand more clearly why Cleveland has such a huge polish community. The earth, the trees, the weather are all familiar to me. It is just like home in Cleveland. Birch, oak, maple and evergreens, all the same trees. It is now fall and the colors and smells are all the same. Did the Poles and Jews come to Cleveland for the same reason?

Poland #4 - Oct 26, 2006 - Belzec

2006-11-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

The forgotten death camp. 500,000 Jews were killed here in 9 months of 1942. The camp received trains from southern Poland, aka Galiciana. Green road synagogue's membership came from this area before the war. Less than a handful survived this camp. Only one gave testimony.

When I leave a graveyards in Israel, I join the others in washing my hands. I asked Rav Adler why we do not wash our hands when we leave a death camp in poland. He answered that all of Poland is a graveyard. The roads are only paths between the cemetery plots. We wash our hands when we leave Poland.

Three years ago, Belzec was excavated as an archaeological site and rebuilt as a monument. The boys on our trip started the morning joking and annoying. At Belzec, they understood the impact of the moment and we had a moving ceremony with the standard set of songs. For the moment, we were united.

Once we got back to the bus, the boys resumed their ways. Oh well. This is a special group.

Poland #3 - Oct 25, 2006 - Majdanek

2006-11-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

Like the women and children who arrived here 65 years ago, our group arrived and went straight to the bath and delousing room. In the first room, the womens hair was removed. They removed their clothes in the next room and then entered the showers, with hot water or cold depending on the whims of the guard on duty. Like these women we walked from the showers into the next room. Unlike them, we didn't die from the poison gas. We sat, we talked, we sung songs of strength and belief in God.

This was my first time in a gas chamber and I have no need to do it again. You can see the remains of the Zyklon B gas. Its a blue-green splotch across most of the ceiling. Most of the Jews who arrived here die in this room or its twin next door in the mens delousing building.

On the far side of the camp which by the way is surrounded by the buildings of Lublin, we saw the crematorium. I shuddered to see the furnaces and the racks which were used to load the bodies. The Germans were good at removing any uncomfortable sights. A dead Jewish body looks no different from a dead Nazi. after cremation, only ashed and a few bones are left. With a little crushing, even that is just dust.

I thought that the tour was over. Wrong again. On Nov 3, 1943, Himmler decided that he was tired of the Jews rebellions in Treblibka, Sobibor and Warsaw. On the day, all of the Jews who worked in and around Majdanek were taken to the far side of the camp near the crematorium and shot. 18300 people died in the camp that day. Their remains were buried and then burned.

When the Russians captured the camp in the summer of 1944, all that was left of the jews was a pile of ashes. The Russians built a monument: a huge dome covering an open mound of 7 tons of ash and bones.

Our group walked through the camp as free men. We proudly wore our sweatshirts with the star of David. Many of us wore Israeli flags. I had the privilege of carrying one of the flags on a pole. It was cold and windy, but the flag stood straight and proud. The Nazis are gone. Only we remain.

I had the honor of reciting the El Male Rachamim over their graves. The boys read a selection of texts from the holocaust. As is becoming our standard, we sung Hatikva and Adon Olam.

The questions remain, but the imagery is too overwhelming.

Polnad #2 - Oct 24, 2006 - Treblinka

2006-11-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the plan. Make a big clearing in the forest. Two or three football fields in each direction. Run train tracks from the nearest major city, say Cleveland. Now ship trains of 60 cars with 100 people per car. Put the trains in a holding area and break then up into sets of three cars each. Send each group of cars every 30 minutes to the station. Get everyone out. Split them up into men and women and children. Tell them that they need to be deloused. Have them strip and cut the womens hair. Send each group to "the showers" and pump in poison gas for 30 minutes. Clear out the bodies to one of three open pit mass graves. Repeat until done.

Nothing is left of Treblinka except the open clearing. 870,000 people were killed here. 72 survived. This was a death camp, not a work camp. Himmler decided to remove all evidence so he had their graves dug up and the remains burnt and ground to powder. Why? If you succeed in wiping out whole communities, can you believe that it can be forgiven or forgotten by removing the evidence?

Consider the numbers. Take every person in Cleveland. The shop keepers. The teachers. The utility workers. Every household in every neighborhood. Send 6000 people every day for a year until no-one is left. The city is empty.

How, why?

Poland #1 - Oct 24, 2006 - Tiktin - Tykocin

2006-11-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Tiktin. A small town that use to have 5000 residents of which about half were Jewish. It was a Shtetl with a big Shul that was built in 1640. There are lots of pictures of the residents from the early 1900's. There was a big Shomer Hadati community. Our guide was surprised to learn that my father and uncles were active in Shomer Hadati in the states. According to him, it was a very eastern European organization.

The town was ceded to the Russians in 1939 and then captured by the Germans in 1941. The Jewish population was collected one morning and walked and driven to a forest about 4 miles away. It was a place where they used to play and where they gathered wood.

The Germans took groups of 50 deeper into the forest and had them strip next to a large pit. The people were then shot and fell dead and dying into the pit. No Jew survived the killing that day and the searches that the Germans made over the following weeks.

It is hard to understand the Germans. Why play with your victims? Do we play with a cow before we kill it? Even if you believe that Jews are not humans, what benefit is there to humiliate them?

We visited the forest and the mass grave. It is quiet and peaceful. I was saddened by the useless deaths and by the loss of continuous tradition. What rules did the rabbi's of Tiktin follow? None of the pictures show women with covered hair. Were they all wearing wigs?

We sung Hatikva at the graves. A witness says that the victims were asked by the Germans to sing this song as they left the town. I can see already that Israel was built on anger and conviction that this kind of activity shall never happen again. This message was never verbalized to or by the boys that I am with. I wonder if and when its going to hit them.

We are on our way to treblinka. It cannot be any better.

Sara Roy : ‘A Dubai on the Mediterranean’

2006-02-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Someone I know just sent me a paper copy of this article by Sara Roy. Yes, its about 3 months old, but I felt that it needed a response.

I believe that this is a very one sided document. I will not argue with her points, but from my perspective, she puts all of the blame on Israel. Even internal Palestinian in-fighting is Israel's fault. Basically, in her view, Palestinians are angels, trashed for years by the nasty illegitimate Israelis.

Let me try and present a different view.

The Palestinians and the Arab states need to decide what they want. If they want Israel's destruction, then there is nothing to discuss and whatever happens to them is a consequence of war. You take your chances when you start a war and sometime you lose. I don't recall hearing that the Germans at the end of WWII were oppressed. Certainly their economy was totally destroyed, their travel restricted and their cities leveled. They lost. They made the best of it and are not a major power in Europe. They never gave up.

The Palestinians have spent the last fifty years fighting a war that they lost fifty years ago. In contrast, Fifty years ago, Germany had just lost a their biggest war. The challenge for the Palestinians is to create a stable or even first class environment for themselves and their children. They should be looking to gain economic and cultural assets. They should start of with infrastructure. First and foremost is a safe culture where children, adults and foreigners can walk the streets safely. It doesn't matter what kind of employment levels you have, or what the average resident earns. It does matter if they can utilize their earnings to improve their life.

There are currently attempted kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza, where there is currently no Israeli presence. Gaza is controlled by warlords whose existence is directly tied to lawlessness and chaos. A stable lawful environment is great for business. It is the antithesis of anarchy.

If and when a culture of the rule of law occurs, then infrastructure comes next; Schools, Roads, Electrical power generators and Sewage systems. This is what the Americans are building in Iraq. They to have a problem with anarchy, but the US is trying to impose order. I wonder is post war Germany had similar problems? Were they so totally defeated that the only option was to rebuild?

I don't believe that the Palestinians need to or should depend on the Israelis. They have their destiny in their own hands. Its time to stop passing the blame and to start working for a better future.

I find myself on the horns of a dilemma after the recent PA elections. From what I've read, Hamas ran a slate of honest businessmen. Local people who had proven themselves to the people. What a refreshing option this must have been to people who had previously been offered a slate of politicians who have been feeding off of their condition for the past thirty years. I applaud the result of the election.

On the other hand, will these newly elected officials find themselves towing the party line of destruction to Israel, reneging on all previous agreements and continued war with Israel? If they do, then at least there is now a clear battle. Its Israel vs. The PA, winner take all. As I mentioned earlier, you take your chances in war.

If the new parliament members choose to rebuild and focus on getting themselves out of their current state then this is a golden opportunity. Olmert and his Kadima party will be only too happy claim that a cease fire is their doing. The international funds will funnel money into infrastructure is they believe that the money is really going to good use. Perhaps the PA should hire foreign corporations to manage the accounts and the rebuilding. It has a better chance of being fair and evenhanded.

The ball is in the PA's court. The Israeli's should do nothing until it becomes clear how Hamas will jump. If its war, then accept the outcome. The Israelis will loose soldiers and civilians. The PA may loose even more land than it currently believes it should hold, not to mention the incredible loss to lives both innocent and guilty.

Stop crying and start working for yourselves. Social Workers argue that one of the major steps to health is to admit to having a problem. Once you do that, you can look for a solution. The Palestinians problem is not the existence of Israel. Its how to build for themselves a better life. There is a major voting block on the left and center in Israel that will be more than happy to help.

Stockholm

2005-12-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

I'm just outside of Stockholm, Sweden for a professional workshop. It is a very interesting place. When I got here, I went to a hotel called "Mr. Chips" in a suburb called Kista (pronounced Chista). It was a nice, clean hotel with furnishings from Ikea. In the morning I went to the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS). More Ikea furnishings. For lunch, we went to a local food mall where they had Lebanese, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Greek and German food. Of course, the decor was Ikea, but the place was jumping. Every seat was full.

This evening, we left Kista to go to the Stasaholme Conference Center. It was a different world. The snow was falling. The lights were low, and the furnishing was Country Cottage. Old world, wood moldings, wall paper. A totally different atmosphere.

The people are happy and personable. Everyone speaks some English, and I only fall into a Swedish Chef imitation once every 15 minutes or so. In the US, my family name is Jaffe with a hard J. In Israel, we are called Yafe with a soft e. It turns out that in Sweden, J is a Y and the final e is naturally soft, so that call be Yafe but write it Jaffe. Interesting place.

As far as the countryside is concerned, I feel like I'm in Minnesota. It the same rolling hills, evergreen trees and snow. I can understand why the Scandinavians moved there. It was just like home.

Thanksgiving Song

2005-11-24T01:54:00.000-08:00

The Pilgrims they came over on a boat,
They came that way because the couldn't float.
After coming all that way they decided to stay,
and name the place they landed Plymouth Bay (ay, ay, ay)

I learned this song in elementary school 40 years ago. I recall there being other verses, but I can't remember them.

Happy Turkey day!

I hate Windows

2005-11-20T00:31:00.000-08:00

I am a teaching assistant for a Masters-level Computer Science course. My current task is to grade 45 papers submitted digitally by the students.

To make my life easier, I opened all 45 papers on my laptop and then switched between them as I graded each question. My intention was to first get a sense of the level of the answers by grading all of the answers to the first question before going on to the second and third parts of the exercise.

My laptop is not new. Its a PIII 900Mhz with 512Mb ram. Initially opening these files took about 5 minutes. With modest delays, I was able to review the first answer on all 45 papers. Then I put the computer in sleep mode (since I was by then tired).

Today, I opened my laptop to try and start grading again. After 30 minutes, I still could not open Firefox, Explorer or my instant messenger programs. The screen was on, my mouse worked, but the machine was hung.

After many such experiences, I now know to first try and shutdown the computer cleanly. This of course did not work because there was too much going on for the machine to handle. So I powered it off and restarted from scratch.

Why oh why does this happen? The machine was responsive before I put it to sleep. Is Windows like a person now? It takes me at least half an hour to get up in the morning. Maybe computers need the same amount of time to shake off the lassitude of sleep.

Bar Mitzva Events

2005-11-20T00:06:00.000-08:00

It amazes me how many different ways there are to celebrate a Bar-Mitzva. My third son had his Bar-Mitzva in October. As he is one of the older boys in his class, this means that the season has just begun. So far, we have been to at least five different Bar-Mitzva events in the past two months. Each one is different, and they span the gamut from simple to extravagent.

One boy this summer took the simple route. He read the torah, and had his extended family in town for Shabbat, but instead of a community event, he asked his parents to donate the money to charity. At the other end of the spectrum, we went to a Bar-Mitzva dinner at an upscale wedding hall, complete with a live band and shmorgashboard.

I have a large extended family, with over 80 people in the area who are happy to attend any family event. Housing these people for a weekend on our community would be painful, so we have choosen a different route. There is a chain of field schools in Israel. Their purpose is to provide inexpensive housing for school trips to learn about geography and nature. Each of these schools is in a beautiful part of the country with exotic scenery. We rent out the whole field school for the weekend and invite our family and close friends to come and share with us.

Our Bar-Mitzva's are low key. The focus is on being with family and friends. The food is basic with no pretensions. The rooms sleep six to eight on simple bunk-beds with foam mattresses. We believe that children are an important part of the family, and hence at least 50% of the people at our weekend are children. The result is a boisterous event where kids can play, parents can relax and we can all renew relationships.

This past weekend my wife and I attended a similar event at the other end of the scale. The Bar-Mitzva family invited 40 couples to the Dan Acadia hotel in Hertzilia for the weekend. The location is wonderful, right on the beach. The hotel catered all of the meals (five in all, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner again, and a separate dessert spread for the live party after Shabbat was over).

What struck me was not the difference in venue. Yes, this event was nicer, the food was first class, there was a live band at the Melava Malka, and the hotel beds had real mattresses.
The real difference is that children were not invited. It was a quieter event. We spent some time with a few of our friends, and the meals were long with interesting conversations. But is was not about family, and I don't know that my attendence really contributed to the event. It is certainly the case, that my wife and I feel closer to the boys family. It's unusual for us to be invited away for a weekened.

My feeling is that the family was satisified and the Bar-Mitzva boy had a weekend to remember. That's the only way I can judge a Bar-Mitzva event. They are so different, that there is no other common ground for comparison. The most important thing is to take pleasure in event, and to help each boy remember this day positively.

Got to Start Somewhere

2005-11-16T00:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the SixBoysJ blog. As you may note, we have six boys and life in our house is never quiet or boring. I'll be posting about our family, my work, studies and hobbies. Comments are welcome.