Michael J. Radwin's blog

Yael Goldie photos

Professional photos from the Simchat Bat taken by Natasha Valik.

Not-so-professional photos taken by me and other family members.

A letter to Yael Goldie Radwin on the day of her Simchat Bat

Dear Little One,

Welcome to the world, to the community, and to our immediate family. We are overwhelmed with the joy of seeing you, of holding you, of loving the you that you are and the you that you will become.

You have made such a graceful entrance into our lives, sharing with us with the sweetness of your face and surprising us with your vibrant auburn red hair. We have spent many hours this week looking at you, thinking of both what we know of you and what we hope for you, and choose for you the name Yael Goldie.

In the womb, you were so active. We would watch and feel you kicking, and wonder who was in there! When you were born with the shock of red hair, we recognized the biological imperative of your feistiness. We have chosen for you a biblical name of one of the most feisty women in our tradition. Yael the Kinnite woman heroically defended the Jewish people by pinning a tent pin through the head of an enemy general, Sisera. She was a brave military heroine, resourceful enough to be both seductress and warrior as she broke through the rules in zealous protection of her people.

The name Yael has three other meanings. First, and most famously, a Yael is a mountain goat, or ibex. This desert animal certainly is no match for your beauty, but is sure-footed and steady on rough desert terrain. Secondly, Yael can also mean to ascend, or go up. The letters of "Yael" are from a similar root of "aliyah," moving towards Torah, Jerusalem, or God. We hope that you find your own aspirations of height, and move towards them with the sure-footedness of your namesake.

There is yet one more possible meaning of Yael, perhaps one of the foremost considerations when picking your name. While Yael in Hebrew is spelled yod-ayin-lamed, the syllables suggest a different spelling of: "Yah"- "el"-- two names for God. The name said out loud is in itself an affirmation of God. It also shares something in common with both of your parents-- the names Michael and Ariella both use "el" to refer to God. We hope that you will find meaning, as we do, in a name that carries within it the name of God.

Your middle name is Goldie, which we know is an unusual name for a little girl born in 2008. Your namesake, Goldie Kassel was born 110 years ago, and yet you are the first little girl to be born in the family since she passed away in 2001. Your grandmother will speak to you more about her own grandmother, but we just wanted to reflect the very gentle way that Goldie Offenbach was, in her own way, an incredibly fesity woman. She possessed about her an incredible zest for life, and she found her own feistiness giggling her way through life. We hope for you the same infectious fun.

For your Hebrew middle name, rather than choose a translation of "Goldie," we choose the name Gila, which means joy. It seems a rather fitting tribute to your great-great-grandmother, and also a fitting name for you, named just a few days into the month of Adar, a month of rejoicing.

And it is indeed a month for our family to rejoice in the addition of you.

You enter our immediate family as a second child. Your older brother Noam has been awaiting your arrival so eagerly, rehearsing over and over the narrative of how you would be born, where you would sleep, and the love you would bring. Eleven days into your life, he is eager to hold you, to give you hugs and kisses goodnight, and to always account for your whereabouts. Enjoy it the best you can. Enjoy the close relationship you have with him, even though it is occasionally perilous these days. Nonetheless, we hope that as you grow, you continue to hold onto that closeness and share your life with him.

You are also blessed to have a large extended family which is eager to love you. Today you have celebrating with you aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, great-aunts and uncles and great-grandparents who have come together to witness the miracle of you, to welcome you and bring you much love.

As we write this letter to you, we also want to take a moment to reflect to you our hopes and prayers for what we hope will be a wonderful life in front of you. We know that we will have many more opportunities to speak to you, but today we are struck by the family, the community, and the world, and how you may change the places where you tread.

We ask you to be a good citizen in the world around you. Be mindful of other people, and strive towards righteousness. Take care of the planet. Take care of yourself-- of your body and of your emotional state. Make good friends, and keep them forever. Do acts of justice and kindness. Study hard, learn things, and use the knowledge to make the world a better place. Share your wisdom with the greater community, become a sage, be a person that others admire. Thrive.

We know that these are tall orders for a little person just 11 days old, but we hope that you will have a long healthy life to carry them out. Never stop trying.

Who you are will leave an imprint on the people around you and the world at large. You will leave a unique mark on the world simply by being the best version of yourself that you can be, by finding your calling, and pursuing it. As your parents, we pledge to support the paths you choose in whatever ways we can.

We are so happy to welcome you to our family. Welcome, welcome, Brucha ha-ba-ah, Yael Goldie.

Love,
Ema and Abba

It's a girl!

Baby Girl Radwin was born January 31, 2008 at 2:40am. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 8 oz and is 19 1/2" long. Mom and baby are doing great, Noam is a proud big brother, and Abba is on cloud nine.

I want a DadGear Cargo Baby Gear Jacket

Costco DadGear Cargo Baby Gear Jacket
Changing Pad, Diaper, Wipes and Bottle Pockets
$69.99
Plus Shipping & Handling

Fatherhood hasn't changed my general consumerist lust for new things. It has merely shifted it to a whole new class of products I didn't know I needed until now.

The concept behind the DadGear style is simple - a masculine look combined with high quality materials and thoughtful design. The goal for DadGear products is not just neutral or unfeminine, but style that reflects who we are - guys. Guys who take pride in caring for their kids.

Oh, and I want an iPhone, too.

Purim 5766: Two Hawaiians and a Lobster

Michael, Noam and Ariella at Purim last night. Noam is wearing a lobster costume that he borrowed from Madison Kirkland.

Leave of Absence

I'm taking a leave of absence from Yahoo to take care of Noam for a few months. Thanks to President Clinton for signing the Family Medical Leave Act in 1994.

My leave of absence from this blog is hereby over. At least for the next 11 weeks, I expect to blog at least once a week.

Here's a picture of Noam in his stroller at the park by the California Ave train station, taken with my brand new Nikon D200.

Noam and his parents looking at the Hanukkiah

Happy New Year, too!

A letter to Noam Sidney Radwin on the day of his bris

Dear Son,

At this exact moment, one week ago, you were negotiating your way into the world. You made quite an entrance! Now you have been with us one Sunday, one Monday, one Tuesday, throughout the week, and most recently, one holy Shabbat. Now that you have tasted of the world, you are ready to take your place among the Jewish people and receive your name in Israel.

As we named you, we thought of who you might be, the aspirations we have for you, and how your name connects you to the larger Jewish people. And as we sit here writing this to you on the morning of your Brit Milah, we choose for you the name Noam Sidney, Noam Zaydel ben Moshe v'Ariella.

The name Noam means "pleasant, gentle, sweet, kind, and tender" and these are all qualities we have seen in you this week, as well as in your gentle behavior in the womb and through your birth. We hope that it is a name that suits the personality that will develop and emerge throughout your life.

We also gain some inspiration from our liturgy. As we put the Torah away in the Aron, we affirm the presence and importance of Torah in our lives. We say "Etz Chayim hee l'mahazikim bah", it is a tree of life to them that hold fast to it. But we also say "derachehah darchei noam" -- the paths of Torah are the paths of Noam. While the liturgy means to say that the paths of Torah should be paths of gentleness and sweetness, we also read the line to hope that the paths of Torah are the paths of you, our Noam. May you always find her paths to be paths of peace.

The last line of that prayer asks God to return us to God, to renew our days. This line is said throughout the year, but it is especially applicable given your entrance into the world during Aseret Yemei Tshuvah. God, please call us back to you and we will return, renew our days as of old. Noam Sidney, we hope that throughout your life, you will remember the possibility of drawing close to God, return and renewal.

We also want to share with you that although your name is Noam, and there's nothing wrong with being docile and sweet, your mother wants to insist that there's nothing wrong with being a little bit feisty either. Be not dissuaded from being passionate in the world, from finding a path that rocks the world a little bit, makes it a little bit better, even if that path is not such a sweet and gentle one. If you wanted to look to Noam Chomsky as a role model on that front, that would be okay by your parents.

Your middle name is in memory of two special men, on both sides of your family.

Your great-grandfather Julius' older brother was named Sidney. He was a remarkable man, with a lifelong love of learning. The library he left when he passed away was vast and varied, reflecting a tremendous intellectual curiosity. We hope that this love of learning is passed to you as you live a life of Torah. Your great-great-uncle was a lawyer by profession, in Washington D.C. in the 30's. He was a passionate champion of social justice at the forefront of the civil rights movement, and we hope that this too is something you share with him. Great Uncle Sidney was a devoted friend, husband, and father, and he is much missed and loved as we pass on his name to you.

Your fathers's grandfather, Sidney Landsman, was a mentsch of the highest degree. He loved babies and he would have loved you so much. He loved his wife and children. He was a hard worker and a successful businessman. Grandpa had his idiosyncrasies too -- he was compulsively neat and he paid his bills the day they arrived in the mail, and he was always warning his grandchildren not to poke their eyes out, with whatever they were playing with. Most of all, your great grandfather was a very generous man. If someone he knew needed money, he would write them a loan, never expecting to be repaid. And he was as unstinting with his time as with his money. We hope you emulate some of his fine qualities of generosity and love.

Your Hebrew middle name is also a name you share with him: Zaydel. As a Yiddish name which derives from the word for Grandfather, we will always be reminded of Grandpa Sidney. Even though you look like a little old man this week, we know it's funny to name a baby "grandpa." Nonetheless, we choose this name for you to connect you to the yiddishkeit of the generations that came before you.

We have much more to say to you, and we God-willing will have many years together to say it. But before we end this first letter, we want to give you one small charge, also from the liturgy, albeit newer English liturgy.

There is a line in the prayer for peace that we say on Shabbat, which speaks to us powerfully. We say, "We have not come into being to hate or to destroy. We have come into being to praise, to labor, and to love." In some sense, this is all we do in the world: we praise God, we labor hard, and we love passionately.

Today, we praise God in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers. We thank God for the creation of you -- a new person, a new body, a new soul joining the Jewish people. Your presence reminds this entire congregation to praise God for the miracle of life. And by adding another voice to our immediate family, we now sing songs of praise to God in 3-part harmony.

And as you labor in this life, draw upon the resources and wisdom of your family, which has a wealth of experience with various careers. Your family legacy includes lawyers and scientists, businesspeople, Rabbis, bakers, teachers, Kosher butchers, psychologists, urban planners, salespeople, and even perpetual students and software engineering managers. You too will someday find your unique contribution in the world, and we pledge as your parents to do all we can to help you do this.

Lastly, we ask you to find the love in the world. We recommend to you now to live your life to the fullest. Explore, engage, interact, grow, and thrive as you make your path through the world. Love people, be loved, have your heart broken and mended, and draw strength from all the people around you who love you already.

We feel so blessed. Welcome to the world, little Noam Zaydel.

Love,
Ema and Abba

It's a Boy!

Baby Boy Radwin was born October 9, 2005 at 1:18pm. 7 lbs, 4 oz. 20 inches. Ariella and Baby are doing great.

It's 80 degrees in Mexico

Yeah, baby.

AMR27

Happy birthday, Ariella!

Palo Alto Green

We went to Mitchell Park last night to hear a jazz/swing concert and stopped by the Palo Alto Green Energy booth. We just moved in on Sunday and didn't know that the municipal utilities offered a wind and solar energy program. So we signed up on the spot (and got 3 free compact florescent light bulbs, too).

It's going to cost us an extra 30 cents a day, but I'm willing to pay a premium to be environmentally friendly.

Goodbye, 310. Hello, 650.

Goodbye, LA Times. Hello, San Jose Mercury News.

Goodbye, Shtibl Minyan. Hello, Congregation Kol Emeth.

Goodbye, Ralph's. Hello, Safeway.

Goodbye, Yahoo! Santa Monica. Hello, Yahoo! Sunnyvale.

Goodbye, the 405 and the 10. Hello, 101 and 280.

I'm an uncle!

Yesterday I became an uncle!

Ruth Lydia Radwin was born yesterday at David & Kara's home in Berkeley, CA. She was born with a full head of dark brown hair, weighs 10 lbs 10 oz, and is 22.75 inches long. Both Kara and Ruth are recovering well and are in excellent health.

Mazel Tov to David and Kara!

The long journey home

After two weeks in Bangalore, I'm heading back to the US. It's been great fun meeting the team here; these guys have got a lot of energy and talent. I hope to be able to come back again, perhaps as soon as the end of this year.

Aside from the days where I was battling the Indian equivalent of Montezuma's Revenge, I ate the best Indian food I've ever had. When I get back to the US I'll sill enjoy TastyBite but now that I've tasted the real thing it will never quite compare.

I leave in about 3 hours but I won't be home until Wednesday afternoon.

Kayaking photo from Portland

Back in July we went Kayaking on the Willamette River in downtown Portland with the Portland River Company.

Ray finally got around to posting his digital pics from the trip. Here is my favorite (click for full-size):

View image

Sascha the Cat

We adopted a cat a couple of weeks ago.

She's grey tiger-striped, about 3 years old. A very sweet cat.

We have a מחלוקת about whether her name is spelled Sascha or Sasha. So we've taken to calling her by her nickname "Sushi."

Crime in Beverly Hills

Real Nice Clambake

This was a real nice clambake,
We're mighty glad we came.
The vittles we et
Were good, you bet,
The company was the same.
Our hearts are warm, our bellies are full,
And we are feeling prime.
This was a real nice clambake,
And we all had a real good time.

(See also Hukilau)

7500 Songs

Ariella surprised me with a wonderful present this week.

Now I've gotta get a Mac, too.

My brother-in-law

Apparently I haven't been mentioning my brother-in-law enough in my blog.

No, he's not a janitor, but this is the goofiest picture I could find of him.

Yoav and Ariella in SF

This photo of Ariella and her bro in San Francisco is from a week ago. I finally transferred a batch of images from my digital camera today.

Intermediate Beard

I'm growing a beard.

It's in that funny intermediate state where it doesn't look quite like a beard yet. I'm past the "scratchy" stage (that was earlier in the week) but not yet in the "actual beard" stage either. It will take a few more weeks to fill in completely.

I'm growing a beard because we are counting the Omer now, and since it's a time in calendar that's considered partial mourning, haircuts are avoided.

Perhaps I'll buy a beard trimmer next week. It should arrive just in time for Lag B'Omer when it's OK to have a trim (and probably around the time when my beard starts to get into the "unkempt" stage).

Jacuzzi J-350

We bought a hot tub yesterday!

Jacuzzi J-350

Ariella has been wanting a hot tub for as long as I've known her. She is thrilled!

Photos from Israel

We're back home. A few pictures from Israel that you might enjoy:

Taken on Ben Yehudah Street, a pedestrian-only promenade in Jerusalem. Business has been very slow the past 2.5 years.

Due to the threat of Iraqi chemical weapons, Israeli citizens have been issued gas masks. When you arrive at the Tel Aviv airport tourists can purchase one from the Post Office. Eerie. Here is a close-up of the piles of gas masks.

Ariella is checking her email from Daniel & Miriam's computer. Their computer room doubles as their sealed room. All of our friends have one room of their apartment ready in case of biological or chemical attack.

We did lots of schmoozing and eating with our friends. Here's a photo taken at David & Laura's on Saturday Night as we were watching a tape of West Wing episodes.

More Israel Photos are in our Y! Photos album.

Italy, Hungary and Israel

Greetings from Jerusalem! We arrived in Tel Aviv early this morning, took a nap, and have been visiting with friends today. I'm typing this from a sealed room -- Daniel and Miriam's second bedroom serves mostly as a computer room but also contains supplies and has windows taped shut to guard against a chemical or biological attack.

We've got many pictures from the past week in Italy and Hungary. I'll post them online soon. I'll also take some pictures of Israel over the next few days before we head back to the States on Monday.

Here's a cute picture from the Coloseo in Roma:

If I can get the internet connection to work, I'll post more online at our Yahoo! Photos album.

Spring Break!

We're leaving this afternoon for a long-overdue vacation. It's Ariella's spring break from UCLA. Here's our itinerary:

Thu, Mar 20: arrive in Rome.

Wed, Mar 26: depart Rome for Tel Aviv. Stopover in Budapest.

Thu, Mar 27: arrive in Tel Aviv. Travel to Jerusalem.

Sun, Mar 30: travel from Jerusalem to Ramat Gan. Overnight in Tel Aviv.

Mon, Mar 31: travel from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles. Stopovers in Budapest and London.

We're really looking forward to seeing our friends in Israel. They've been gone for months, and it will be fantastic to visit with them (even if we're wearing gas masks).

The adventurous side of me is looking forward to flying Malev Hungarian Airlines. Before we bought our extra-cheap tickets a couple of weeks ago, I had never even heard of that airline!

Olympus Camedia C-50 Zoom Digital Camera

We bought an Olympus Camedia C-50 Zoom digital camera yesterday.

We were at Best Buy and Costco yesterday looking at the various cameras. Based on some of the comments we got last week, we decided we wanted something small. We seriously considered the 3.2 megapixel Canon Elph S230 and the 4.0 megapixel Canon PowerShot S45.

About the same size as the Canon S230, the Olympus C-50 packs a whopping 5.0 megapixels into an 8-oz size. That's smaller than the Canon S45 and it seems a little easier to use. It lists for $699. Best Buy sells it for $599, Costco for $569. We got it for $510 + shipping at 17th Street Photo.

We found some online retailers claiming to sell it for $444, but it turns out that is the "international version" which doesn't come with some pretty important things like the battery, battery charger, USB and AC power cables, 32 MB of memory, and software. Most of those places wanted an extra $100 for the "USA version." Very deceptive. I know from past experience (buying Nikon SLR lenses 10 years ago) that 17th Street Photo is a reputable merchant. I guess the only reason I didn't think to start with them in the first place is that somehow I equate digital cameras more with computers and less with traditional film cameras.

The major disadvantage of the Olympus is that it uses the less-common xD-Picture Card memory format (seems to be used only by Olympus and Nikon). It's about twice as expensive as CompactFlash, the format that Canon and Pentax use. We paid $130 for a 256 MB xD-Picture Card, but you can get a SanDisk 512 MB CompactFlash Card for the same price.

Digital Camera Recommendations?

I need to buy a digital camera. Does anyone reading this blog have any recommendations?

Ariella and I are going to Italy for a week and a half at the end of the month and we'd like to to take some pictures.

In the past, we have been schlepping our 35mm Nikon and getting a CD burned when we get the film developed (like we did last year at my college reunion). But we'd rather go about it the opposite way: take digital pictures, post online, then order selected prints from Shutterfly or Ofoto for our print album.

If you've got a digital camera that you like (or dislike), post a comment so we know what to buy (or what not to buy).

[Update: we ended up buying the Olympus Camedia C-50 Zoom]

Peach-colored bathroom

We just completed our first optional home improvement project. Our master bath is now coral cove, which is really just a fancy name for peach.

In the six months we've lived here, we've done other improvement projects, like hiring someone to fix the oven three times and the dishwasher twice, but I don't exactly consider those to be optional. This we decided to do just because we could. We're homeowners, darn it, and we'll paint our bathroom whatever color we want!

We hired a guy named Armando to do the job. He did some painting for us in July so we knew he did good work for a very reasonable price. Err, reasonable might be an understatement; he's dirt cheap and does high-quality work. If you're looking for a painter in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend him.

And yes, someday we're going to buy a real digital camera that actually takes decent pictures.

Pagong Chair

Ariella and I assembled our Pagong chair from Ikea last night. It's beautiful and bouncy.

We first visited Ikea in 2000 during the first season of Survivor and were tickled to see that Ikea had named a chair after one of the tribes. But we waited almost three years before making the purchase.

Sitting in the Pagong chair last night, I smiled as I thought about the first Surivor season and how we watched with Gil & Becky every week. Maybe I'll get a Rudy action figure for my birthday.

(Yes, I know that the rest of the world mistakenly calls it the Poäng chair. They're wrong. If everyone else decided to jump off a bridge, would you do it, too?)

Psychoanalysis and the Palm Zire

I have some new insight on the Palm Zire I bought last week.

As I was talking to my shrink today, I mentioned buying the Palm and not the PocketPC as an example of the "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" mantra. Au contraire, he countered, it's actually the perfect example of not wanting to move out of my comfort zone. I'm too afraid to try something new.

"Michael," you say, "Surely your choice of what PDA to buy isn't nearly that profound. You picked a the best product for the amount of money you wanted to spend, so don't try to read more into it."

Maybe not. My therapist might have stumbled onto something important here. So much of what goes on in life is completely beyond our control. Sure, I'd like to delude myself into thinking that I can control my own destiny. So I gravitate towards the familiar. It gives me comfort. It doesn't challenge me. The status quo is just dandy. I couldn't ask for anything more.

When I got my annual performance review last month, I was really surprised. Exceeds Expectations. What's shocking about that was I wasn't giving it my best. Not even close. So what the hell? How was it possible that I was exceeding expectations?

Perhaps I'm so talented that a mere 50% of my effort still knocks their socks off? Fat chance. More likely everyone else is doing a lousy job because the company got so huge and nobody knows what they're supposed to do. The fact that I average about 20 lines of code a week and can reply to emails within one hour looks good in comparison. Corporate America is all about predictability and mediocrity. Anyone who does too much or tries something too new threatens everyone around them. So I'm doing my part; I've got the mediocrity thing down cold.

But I'm afraid to do more. I don't want to take it to the next level. And I'm not just talking about my job here. I'm talking about the emotional and spiritual stuff, too. What would happen if I really was committed? What would that look like? I'm freaked out about what's behind door number three.

So I resolve to fix myself by embracing my anxiety head-on. (How's that for a 2-weeks late for New Year's resolution?)

Even though it's going to bring up a bunch of shit that I'd rather push deep down inside of me and forget ever happened, it's far better than the alternative. The way I see it, if I don't confront my fears, I'm either going to end up depressed (ha, as if I weren't depressed already) or the anxiety will fester, magnifying itself to a point where things really start to fall apart.

Duraflame and egg nog

We lit a fire tonight in our fireplace. It was the first time we've had a fire in our new home. A chimney-sweep came out a few weeks ago and said our chimney was OK to use as long as we didn't have a fire for more than 8 or 9 hours.

Avital drove out from Malibu with some Egg Nog-flavored frozen yogurt. We blended it up with some Captain Jack's and rice milk and it turned out absolutely delicious.

I captured some video of the fire and was going to put it online, but it's 222K for just 2 seconds worth (48 frames). Something is screwed up with this AVI compression. Why doesn't my cute Logitech webcam offer an MPEG export? Oh well.

Dog-sitting

We're dog-sitting this week. Our friends Rob & Lamelle are in east Asia, so we're watching Chaya, their Israeli mutt.

I've been told by friends before that dogs are much more work than cats. You've gotta walk the dog two or three times a day! Luckily, Ariella has been taking mornings (I like to sleep in) and I've been doing evenings.

I managed to get Chaya to sit still long enough to grab a couple of grainy frames with the webcam.

Back at Home

After a long week in Vegas, it's wonderful to be back in LA tonight.

Ariella arrived late Thursday night, and we checked out of the Alexis Park hotel on Friday morning. We got a cheaper (and nicer) room at the Monte Carlo, so we checked in, walked along the strip, and enjoyed a leisurely brunch at the Flamingo buffet. We were hoping to see the last few minutes of Comdex, so we took a taxi over to the convention center. We arrived at around 2pm, and the place was deserted. Oh well.

We ran around Friday afternoon getting ready for Shabbat -- bought some sandwiches for a picnic lunch, donuts for breakfast, purchased movie and show tickets. By the time we got back to the hotel, we had just enough time to order room service for dinner and then made Shabbat. After dinner, we saw the Blue Man Group at the Luxor.

Saturday we had some donuts for breakfast, davened Shacharit, saw the new James Bond movie, then ate our now-soggy sandwiches for lunch. We took our usual afternoon nap, then woke up just in time to visit the pool and hot tub. After the pool closed, we headed back up to our room and made Havdalah. We went out to a bar and got some 99 cent margaritas. They were watered-down, but it was fun nonetheless.

This morning we rented a car and went to see Hoover Dam. It's an engineering marvel. The real deal. Definitely worth the 45-minute drive from Vegas. Next time, perhaps we'll get to see London Bridge (in Arizona).

On our flight home, we were surprised to see cousins Diana & Baird board the plane. We'll see them again on Thursday for the traditional T-day dinner in Malibu.

Messin around with my Webcam

We bought a webcam a couple of months ago so we could use Yahoo! Messenger to video-conference with our friends Rob & Kelley in Israel. I just discovered the Still Photo feature today, and I'm screwin' around.

Ok, I'm gonna go back to work now.

Ariella has a blog

Ariella started keeping a blog today. I guess after seeing me waste a bunch of time with this thing she decided to give it a try, too.

I've long been a skeptic of blogs, but I'm starting to be a believer. Last week, wrapped up in my own egocentrism, I searched Google for the text "Making the Case for PHP at Yahoo" to see if the buzz had spread beyond slashdot. I was astonished to find something like 47,000 entries -- most of them on random people's blogs.

This was enough to convince me (and eventually Ariella, too) that keeping a blog is not such a marginal thing after all.

New Home!

We moved into our new house! Here are lots more pictures.

Living the American dream. :-)

UCLA Grad School

I justed started a part-time masters program at UCLA's Computer Science deptartment. Whoa. I'm a student again.

Wedding Anniversary

Ariella and I just celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. We've been living in Los Angeles for the past year. I'm continuing to work for Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, and Ariella is studying to be a Rabbi at the University of Judaism here in LA.