Okay, here I go

Well, times are tense. I said I'd be back after Chanuka, and the fact is, I meant it. All through our fun-and-family-filled vacation I came across sign after sign, and I was so looking forward to posting them. And then, suddenly, Israel was at war, and the goofy signs that I had amassed didn't seem so goofy.

And, although I don't take myself very seriously, I am an Israeli blogger. Most Israeli bloggers, it seems, are doing their part in getting the real Gaza story out there. From what they've been producing, it seems to be a full time job. Just to give you an idea, Jack has been compiling articles and blog posts since the beginning - check out the latest one here. See, I told you so.

Anyway, I've been holding back on posting, but I came across something at work today that I just have to share. And the end is a bit scary, so it kind of goes with war. Okay? That's my compromise. I'll post some scary/funny printscreen shots, which is what I know how to do, and I'll end by linking to a few good Gaza-related articles that I've read this past week or so, so that you too can enjoy the wisdom that's going around.

***
At work, my boss recently got talked into dropping the relatively expensive drafting program that we've been using at my office for the last 15 or so years, in favor of one that comes free with another program that we have. Sounds like a bad idea, right? And indeed it is.

We all complained, as we came across bug after bug, and somehow, I got appointed "Bug Coordinator." Meaning that all complaints about the nogoodnik program are now funnelled through me to tech support. Most of the answers we've been getting to complaints are in the range of "oh, yeah, that's a problem, hopefully it will be better in the next version," or "Wow! We've never seen that one before!" It's pretty frustrating.

Yesterday, I finally spoke with someone there who seems a bit sympathetic to our cause. This afternoon, he suggested that I join an online forum that they have, which might have some helpful information. It seemed like a good plan, and so I decided to sign up.

I filled in my name, email, position, and so on, and eventually got to a drop-down list where I was asked to fill in my "user group." Now, living in Israel, I'm quite used to not having any relevant options on these kinds of lists. Here, especially, it looked at first glance like a list of various United States. When I saw that there wasn't an "other" option at either the top or bottom, I decided to just read it through once, to be sure. Who knows, maybe Jerusalem would be there?

It looked pretty normal, until I got to this one:

Eh? Pirates on the Bay? What is that supposed to be? And a few lines below, Redwood Empire? Who are these guys?

Whatever, no Jerusalem, or even Tel Aviv, so I moved on. I clicked "accept" quite a few times, and eventually got to this wacky, wacky box:

Wow. Right?
And, if I did fit into any of those groups, which I really really do not, but if I did, and I so obviously posed such a severe threat to global security, do they really think that this nutty box is the thing that would stop me?
Bizarre.

Anyway, please check out these links to well written articles, if you have a chance. And send some good karma our way!

http://www.therazor.org/?p=1269 (I like the effect of the US map here)

http://imshin.net/?p=996

http://www.danielgordis.org/Site/Site_ViewDispatches.asp?id=22

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/01/the-israeli-way.php