Editors' Recap of 2009

Dear Wonderful and Esteemed Readers:

As you know, this year is almost over, and it's time for our Editors' Recap. And it's time for us to look back in this year, and see what exactly happened throughout this year and talk about the things that bugged us and tickled us, tech and non-tech. So here it goes:

• Obama is inaugurated: and damn, we were expecting our crises to end, and bring salvation from all corners of the Earth, and that leads us to number two on our list.
• Obama is an epic fail: and as soon as we inaugurated, we realized that he isn't the Messiah after all. Bummer.
• We all came to a similar conclusion about the iPhone 3GS: it also sucks.
• The Palm Pre came out, made us gawk, and then we all left it alone.
• People acknowledged that Zune actually exists.
• Windows 7 came out and saved us from the Hell known as Vista

So to all of our readers, have a happy and wonderful new year, filled with many great things!

Sincerely,
Eppis Fun Gornisht

The FCC Finally Cracks Down Hard on us Bloggers

So yeah, now the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is mandating that all bloggers, when endorsing a product or service and is paid to do so must clearly state it on his/her blog.

Of course, this is only common sense. Why would you want to lie to your readers? If you disclose that you were paid to endorse a product, people will completely take your review in a different way. You also have to disclose if the product is free. Again, common sense. So now, the FCC is actually making us tell the truth and not lie to our readers. Tyranny! My freedom of lying is ruined!

So now, let's take a step back and remember, as bloggers, we have the responsibility to tell the truth. The truth that I am paid to say and the truth that I am not have completely different meanings. Without payment, my review is unadulterated and completely mine -- not like a paid review, where one would feel pressured to say only positive (or negative) things about the product or service because you want the money.

Just so you all know: the FCC, is no way, shape, or form, asked or paid me to endorse or review this.

Obama's Newest Sales Pitch

I was just watching the news, where they discussed Obama's speech that he will deliver next Tuesday (8 September 2009) that will be aimed primarily at students about their goals.

And now, I ask you, why are people do outraged about this? This stupidity that Obama is going to turn us unto little liberals that will transform the government? For God's sake, people, it's our choice who to support in elections, what political views to take, and so on? Obama is going to speak about goals, in life, similar to when Bush Sr. lectured about drugs. This speech is going to be about tolerance, and not vilifying the other view for being different.

Anyway, it's still going to be the same speech parents give to their kids: set goals for yourself, yadda yadda yadda. All of the kids -- especially teens -- who read my blog, you all know this talk, and for that all of the parents who read my blog, this is standard issue that you rant about to your kids.

Now, let's all calm down and take a nice step back. We can all emanate from Springfield's example, and give your kids (remember, we're the prime target of the speech) the option of listening to the speech. Chances are, if your kid is mature enough to care about politics and the like, they're mature enough to make the choice of watching the speech, and if they did watch the speech, then the maturity to agree or disagree with what Obama said. Calm down here, people. If this is another sales pitch where the main theme is, "anyone can become president", then it will just be like any other president who said the same thing.

A Beautiful Irony

I have a simple irony that is occuring right now in the ultra-orthodox European community in Brooklyn. In Europe, the Jews were forced in to ghettos, where they were severely and inhumanely cramped together, deprived of food and shut off from the outside world. They come to America, the "Land of Opportunity", and ghettoize once again to the point that on some streets in Borough Park, it is nearly impossible to drive through.

That's not to say, of course, that sticking together isn't a good thing. Over time, the Jewish people as a whole have learned not to expect sympathy or care from outside nations. They come, however, to a country where no one is persecuted for being affiliated to a certain religion or belief, and simply regroup into the tiny, cramped buildings that so closely resemble the ghettos that they hated so much back in the Old World. One would think that it would not be necessary to stick so closely together, to spread apart a little.

Perhaps this is an attempt to shut off the outside world, which is advancing technologically. Living so closely together, resembling how they once lived in Europe, these Jews feel more comfortable wearing the same clothes that they have been wearing since 1200 CE, practicing the same customs. Since these Jews have stuck together for so long, being so involved in a way of life that demands so much devotion, a ghetto-like environment may help them focus on the way of life they hold so dear.

However, what's to say that technology clashes with religion? There are many ways that technology could be adapted to help people. For example, Judaism dictates that we read from a Torah scroll made out of parchment and handwritten. There are scribes, however, who have adapted certain computers and scanners to scan the scroll to detect mistakes. This is just one way in which technology can complement Judaism.

We live our lives in fear of change and adaptation. The key, speaking from the point of a Modern Orthodox Jew, who believes that modern technology and Jewish life complement each other, is to find that balance, but not to shut one side of the equation out. This balance, though, may not be 50/50. It should depend solely on you: how much of one side you are willing to let integrate into your lifestyle, while at the same time not shutting out the other side of the equation.

If Microsoft Didn't Exist

If Microsoft didn't exist, then...

Would Macs be cheaper? Hell no!
Would someone else make a Zune? And in answer to that: people actually own Zunes?
Would Google have created an OS earlier on? Probably
Would Linux be more popular? Um...Yes
Would schools then mandate computer programming classes for Linux? Yeah...
Would Linux be more accessible and user-friendly? One would hope so
Would Bill Gates be famous for some other reason? Probably not
Would the world be better off? That's debateable

Google Chrome OS: What it Must Have

As you all probably know, the Google Chrome OS is going to be open-sourced later this year. The OS is said to be lightweight and is meant to for use with web applications, not downloaded applications like computers have today.

I'm sorry, let me correct myself. When I said "Web applications", I meant "Google web applications", such as Google Docs, Gmail, and just about every other Google service available. (For a full list, click here.) Because, you see, Google is now doing what Microsoft and Apple have both done to Windows and Mac respectively, especially Mac. They are building an OS specifically for their own software. Welcome to the party, Google.

In light of the OS rumored to be open-sourced around September, I compiled a list of things that Google Chrome OS must have for it to be successful:

1. The accessibility and ease of use that Windows offers
2. The nice looks of Mac OS
3. A low price (cough Apple cough)
4. The open-source software development that only the Linux community can offer, and
5. A significant reason that I would choose this over Microsoft, which I am currently using.

Good luck, Google. You'll need it.

Meow

Recently we found another litter of kittens born under our deck, seeking shelter under our bikes. (Previously, we have had a litter of kittens born under our deck and another litter born inside of our compost bin.) We have tons of stray cats, but these were by far the cutest.

It just happened that by coincidence that there was kitten food on sale at CVS, so my mother bought as much as possible with the coupons that she had. We now have a mother cat and three kittens that come up on our backyard deck and sit expectantly by the door every morning and wait for food. (The downside, though, is that these are stray cats, and thus they go hunting. I recently found some spoiled meat on my deck. Ew.)

This gets better, though. The kittens have become so comfortable with us that when we go to get food from the kitchen (which is at the other end of the house), the kittens will come in the house and just walk around. That is, until they see the familiar aluminum tray with their breakfast in it, when they run back out onto the deck and then almost literally jump over your arm to get to the food, while the mother just sits there with this look in her eyes that says, "That's right, you just put it down. Now back off."

Here are some pictures:

Star Wars and Judaism

Yesterday I watched Star Wars Episode III (the last one to come out some two years ago), and had a very interesting discussion with my brother about some of the different themes that emerge from the saga in general, but specifically from this episode. Here, I think, is among the most prominent theme that was brought up:

If you look at the Jedi, they seem to resemble people that belong to a religion. They imposed certain rules, i.e. not to have emotional relationships "for the greater good" -- supposedly to keep Jedi away from the ways of the Sith. If you look at the what Darth Sidius/Chancellor Palpatine says that the Force should be accessible in its entirety to those who want it. In short, he believes that limitations only hurt you in the long run.

I just found this interesting. By the way, is George Lukas an atheist?

Something Interesting I Want to Share

This past Wednesday, June 10, 2009, was my eighth grade graduation, where I "graduated with honors". This same day, 28 years ago, June 10, 1981, my mother and her younger brother, her parents, and her grandmother arrived at JFK International Airport from Russia. I just briefly want to recap a little on their -- in my humble opinion -- quite amazing story.

In communist Russia, of course, there were spies everywhere. Your maid or employer. Your next door neighbor. You get my drift. Though my mother's family was not particularly observant, the simple fact that you were Jewish was enough to have you thrown in jail. Naturally, my grandparents wanted to leave. This was no simple task, though. Living under communism, you must first apply for an exit visa. And wait. And wait. My grandparents were never given permission. In addition to that, my grandmother did not return to work and my grandfather's salary was cut by 75%. He was also stripped of all of the patents he had filed.

One day, though, something happened that would change that decision forever. Russia, like Israel, has military reserves. Once every few years, every male has to return for training and updates in weaponry and technology. My grandfather was summoned to the reserves, but since he was applying to leave, he flat-out refused -- something which could have had him thrown in jail. (If you were in the army, then you obviously can't leave, since you know special secrets.) My grandfather took the risk. Several weeks later, another letter arrived in the mail. It said that my mother and her family had seven days to pack up and get out. (Usually, applicants were allowed several months to sell their belongings and settle all of their business.)

On June 10, 1981, my mother and her family arrived here, in the United States, with two suitcases a person, which was the limit for anyone leaving the country. Here in America, my grandfather got a job as an engineer and my grandmother became a bookkeeper for a business in Manhattan. My grandfather knew what little English he had learned to teach my grandmother and mother. My mother went on to Poly Prep, a high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and from there went on to Columbia.

All the Other Kids got a Week Off of School and all I Got Was H1N1

No, I don't have H1N1 (popularly known as the Swine Flu), but I like the title. But I have one thing to say to anyone who is having panic attacks: get over it! Observe:

• In order for you to be officially diagnosed with Swine Flu, your results need to be approved by the Department of Health -- and this whole process can take ten days to two weeks. By the time you've been diagnosed with your ailment and it has been put on file, you've already recovered and passed it on to a dozen other people who now have to take antivirals.
• In comparison with other influenzae, this is pretty mild. The average flu kills so many more people in the average flu season than the "epidemic" has killed so far. Schools don't close for that, why close now?

I'm sorry, I just needed to get that out of my system. I also want to wish a רפואה שלמה (that's Hebrew for refuah sh'lemah, or a full recovery. It means get well.) to all those who are sick.

Cell Phones in High School: What is This Madness?

In an article Community Magazine, (page 60) which deals with the Jewish community in Brooklyn, one of the articles discusses the "dangers of the cell phone".

What?!

Okay, I can understand that it's not a good idea to give pre-teens (ages approximately 7-11) cell phones, because simply that they would not know how to use it and would end up probably breaking it. But the article says that the principal of a certain Jewish high school (which I do not/plan not to attend) which shall henceforth remained unnamed, says that cell phones, specifically smartphones, such as Blackberries and Palm phones, are especially dangerous.

I am the proud owner of a wonderful Palm Centro, and I love it. As a commuter, I use the phone's games to entertain myself, the music player to listen to music, the news application to look at Dear Abby, the very clear speaker to talk to family and friends, and the QWERTY keyboard to send text messages to family and friends, and use the excellent camera to capture memories. I believe that I have legitimate uses for this phone.

Those are those my personal uses. The principal I mentioned above heads a high school, and obviously teenagers will be going places by themselves, and they need some way to stay in touch. My mother is specifically mortified of me going out on Saturdays, simply because I have no way of letting her know where I am. How can said principal think that cell phones are bad?

On that note, happy Passover!

A Science Project Gone Horribly Wrong

As par curriculum, all eighth graders in my school are expected to produce an astronomy project, basically outlining what would happen if an asteroid of abnormal size were to impact the earth. We have to create a timeline of past asteroid impacts, and extinctions that occurred around the same time, and things like that. However, we are expected all parts of project, but without:

• our parents knowing. There was no notice sent home for parents to notify them, nor was there an e-mail. Our teacher trusted that we would tell our parents. I ask you, how many teenage boys would actually tell their parents that they have a year-long project?
• any guidance from our teacher. The only time my teacher intervened on anyone was to scream to stop playing around with the SmartBoard in the classroom. Sure, the teacher guided us through the steps, but he/she/dog has not reviewed anyone's project to give corrections.
• And for God's sake, how can you just dump a project on six teenage boys and expect them to just magically do it?

Whew! Would you like some cheese with that wine?

So, I've been trying to do my part. Unfortunately, the part I wanted to do was dominated by the person who is in charge of our group. I have been stuck doing the section of the project that attempts to show asteroid impacts as the possible causation of extinctions, the most obvious being the dinosaurs. And I've tried, honestly, really tried to be enthusiastic about the fact that I'm stuck with the hardest part of the project, but for some reason it never came out. Here are some reasons why:

• I have been to two meetings. The first ended up at a basketball court, and there were only two people there. We got no work done.
• The second meeting consisted of four out of the six of us. First we played poker. Then we played "Take Turns Jumping on Ami and Making Slightly Suggestive Noises."

I think I have a right to be upset here, but please, what can I do?

Cyber Bullying: Why?

Okay, I can understand that cyberbullying is common among teenagers and pre-teens. We are insecure. Period. But today, in a completely random tangent, my mother tells us that whenever she decides to post something on a certain message board (which shall henceforth remain nameless), she is continually harassed by other people which she actually recognizes.

Here are some of my hypothesises why cyberbullying is among adults. On the Internet, a person can assume a "screen name" or a fake name. This, essentially, grants these us a new persona, and we can truly be whoever we so desire. In real life, we are bound by our affiliations. Our friends know who we are, and that is almost impossible to change. On the Internet, we can create new people, with new names, and personalities that may not always match who we are in real life. Therefore, people think that they have true "freedom of speech", and can express their true thoughts and opinions -- even if they may not be polite.

This could also be that people have been de-sensitized from other's feelings. After doing a certain thing so many times, we become accustomed to it. If every every day I were to dump a tablespoon of sugar in my coffee, though it may be a little overbearing the first few days, but after a while, I adapt to the sugar, and I crave more. When people cyberbully, they show their insecurities. Though it may not be nice for them at first, they will not care after doing it several times. People have lost all respect for other's feelings. (Okay, that sounds a little sadistic, but it's just a theory.)

Both theories build one another. Because people assume different names, they think that they can get away with harassment and not get caught. People who make names like this for themselves hide under a shield of the Internet. But anything can be hacked -- there is no foolproof protection.

Something Interseting About Purim

One of the many interesting things about Purim is the custom that one must become drunk so that he cannot tell the difference between Haman, who is evil and was attempting to annihilate us, and Mordechai, who is blessed and saved us from certain destruction. For those of us who don't want to get that drunk, here are some alternatives:

• You should drink slightly more than you would on an average day. (Ex: if you would normally drink a beer, today, drink two.)
• You should be able to tell such an obvious difference right off the bat, but if you were asleep, you should still be able to tell someone the difference. If you can't, you took one too many shots.
• Some reverse logic: Haman tried to kill us all, but he brought thousands of Jews back into Judaism to pray to God that they should be saved. Therefore, if one is confused in such a way, he has fulfilled his requirement.

Phew!

By the way, the guy that saved us was despised by the others of his generation. Though he was the head of the highest Jewish court, he was harshly criticized by his peers for his temerity towards Haman. While everyone else bowed down to him, Mordechai simply sat down. He took advice from the story of Daniel, who refused to bow down to a simple statue of the Babylonian king, let alone an actual person.

Just a couple Purim thoughts. That's it.

A Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge

Here's a nice activity that is nice and pleasant, and thus it comes as no surprise to me that the children that I go to school with would not have dreamt of -- not that, of course, video games and three consecutive hours of instant messaging isn't fun. I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. (That is, by the way, a five-and-a-half mile walk there and back.)

And we couldn't have picked a better Sunday to do it. My mother, like all mothers, was mortified that we would catch a cold, but halfway across the East River, we all decided to stall and take of our winter jackets. For some reasons, it was warmer over the East River twenty (about) feet up, then it was on either side on land. Interesting.

Anyway, so we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back. I learned a new fact: at one point, when the Bridge was opened, since it was the first bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan, it actually had railroad tracks -- and at one point it only carried trains and a walkway. Imagine. Anyway, here are some pictures:





This is my favorite picture from the expedition:

Israeli Politics

Alright: here it is. Israeli politics. It's its own separate branch of government philosophy -- right there next to democracy, socialist, and totalitarianism.

The problem is, there is no constitution in Israel. (Believe me, if there was, the whole problem in Israel that we have now wouldn't be, and I wouldn't be writing this blog entry.) Here's a basic run-down of the election problem: right now, we have two main candidates, Netanyahu and Livni. They are both trying to score their party the most seats in the K'nesset (the Hebrew equivalent of a Parliment.), which will then lead them to the position of Prime Minister.

The president of Israel, who servers more as a formality and for diplomacy than anything else, has the option of asking either candidate to create a coalition. The candidate and his/her party has this option, or they can, of course, decline. If both candidates refuse to create a coalition, then the president, Shimon Peres, has two options: he could either create a rotation system, where both candidates will receive time as Prime Minister. He could also choose his own candidate, or he could choose from the two.

As everyone knows by now, I supported Obama in the election. The most-asked question that people asked me was: do you honestly think that Obama will help Israel. The answer: I don't know -- and neither does Obama. He has a choice; he could either "help" them by letting Israel bomb the living snot outa the Arabs, or he could "help" Israel by trying to negotiate with the Arabs. And for Heaven's sake, Israel doesn't know what's good for Israel, and with the current situation with the governent, it doens't have time to.

First of all, if there was a constitution, or any set of laws, Israel would not be in this situation. And second of all, who invented this?

P.S. This may not be neccessarily comforting, but Israel is in a worse situation than the United States right now. :)

Fact or Opinion?

Here is something completely irrelevant to anything at all. It's just a simple question I want to pose. We know that every statement in the world can be divided into two categories: fact and opinion. For example, "The Earth is round" is a fact. "This blog is the best in the universe" is an opinion (even though it should be a fact).

Think about it, though. Man invented fact and opinion. Fact was invented by man. In essence, fact is simply an opinion -- remember, fact is man-made, as is opinion -- that can not be disproven. Going back to my example, "The Earth is round": the only reason we can call this statement a fact is because there is no one that can say anything against this statement. No one today will say that the world is flat. The statement, "The world is round" can not be disporven in our current age. Remember, facts change, too. For example, in the time of Christopher Columbus, the world was considered to be flat, not round. If you lived then, then the statement, "The Earth is flat" would have been true; a fact. Again, in 1492, there was no one that could disprove the statement, "The Earth is flat."

Opinion is the same. Going back to my example, "This blog is the best in the universe," is obviously an opinion. I am sure that someone will come across this blog one day and curse its existence. This opinion was made by man and can be disproven because, like I said before, there will be someone who disagrees with what I write on this blog. The only way for the statement, "This blog is the best in the universe" to become a "fact" is to show my blog to every living creature in the universe. This, as we know, is a physical impossibility with the extent of our present knowledge and technology. One day, many years from now, though, a scientist will be able to travel throughout the galaxy and interview every living organism, and if they all agree to the statement, "This blog is the best in the world," then this statement will escalate to the category of facts. And remember, they all have to agree to the exact same statement -- no variations allowed. Again, man decides what is fact and opinion.

This, of course, opens infinite windows of possibility, not all of them positive. For example, based on my theory, God only exists because man claims that he/she heard God speak to him/her. No one has come back from the dead and told us whether or not God exists. However, as a Jew, I am obligated to believe in God, regardless of proof. This also raises the question of what to believe and what to not believe. For example, I just finished a book called The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. (An excellent book, by the way.) This book discusses the Knights Templar, and raises question of whether or not Jesus was a virgin, whether or not God has a female counterpart. (Again, as a Jew, I am obligated to not believe this theory, but that is another story completely.) He backs up his theories using hints from paintings by famous artists, particularly Leonardo Da Vinci. I am confident in saying that he is not the first to bring up this theory, nor the last. But again, his theory exists only because there is not enough proof to disprove it.

In short, all fact is opinion, and all scientific laws are theories that that can not be disproven. Remember, fact is defined as, "Something that actually exists; reality; truth." The truth is just like history. It changes. New discoveries disprove old theories, and so too can new advancements can disprove, or alter the specifics of, facts. Everything: history, facts, reality, and actuality are all prone to change. The change, however, is something that we are afraid of. Just look at Barack Obama -- people were afraid to vote for him because they were afraid to find out what change was. Similarly, the Vatican kept knowledge hidden from common people during the Middle Ages. Many went by illiterate, and only knowing how to serve the lord of their village and how to worship God. Scientists were killed, as well as anyone who had second thoughts about God.

We live our lives in fear of change. The concept of fact and opinion is just a scapegoat to hide our fears.

2008/5768: My Year in Words (And Some Pictures)

Happy New Year's to all of my faithful readers! Yes, everyone it has been a successful year (in my book, anyway), and there's just so much to write about. Here's just a few highlights.

Let's start with the positive points points of 2008/5768:

• My Bar Mitzvah Party, expertly planned by my loving mother. Thank you!
  
• I now have a third first cousin, Kaia Broadwell, from my family way the heck out there in California. Congratulations!
  
• Our family trip to Canada, including Quebec City, Montreal, and Ottawa. This was our first family vacation (that lasted more than two days) since 2003, when we all packed up and went to San Francisco for a week.
• Several of my writing pieces were published in TeenInk Raw, a website for teenage writers. (Follow the hyperlink and search for my name if you want to fine them, but most are posted here, on this blog.)
• Eppis Fun Gornisht turned one in August, and I broke my goal of having both 35 posts total to this point (this post will be number 41), as well as publishing at least one post a month since January 2008.
• We just received a used, brand-new television, finally. I can now watch TV without all of that fuzz.
  
• I finally got a new cell phone, a Palm Centro. My old Samsung was falling apart at the hinges. To make life better, it was free after mail-in rebate. I now have a phone with a working camera, the ability to sync with my computer, and an mp3 player, which suddenly became much more important, as you'll see soon.
• And, as my father puts it, "The fire-hazard known as Hanukkah."

And now some of the less-joyous parts of my year:

• The stress is on for us eighth with the BJE exams in November. One of two annoying entrance exams to Jewish high schools and Jewish community day schools. I also took the SHSAT (Specialized High School Admission Test), which is an entry test for specialized public high schools, such as Stuyvesant.
• My computer, an old Compaq, is slowly reaching the end of its life. In addition, my old and trusty Toshiba Tecra 8000 is nearing its death, and at eight years old and running the newest version of Ubuntu, I don't blame it. (Mine isn't the only computer breaking down, though. My father's laptop also broke down.)
  
• My iPod was stolen from my car, so now I'm stuck converting all of my music into mp3 (since I actually bought most of my music off of iTunes, these songs are in DRM-free format, which is a pain for me, since my phone can't read that format. -Sigh-) On the flip side, though, it was a first generation iPod Nano, four years old, so it's pretty near worthless, now that you can get a new one with thrice the size for just $150.

Well, everyone, Happy New Year's! Continue reading!