My dear wife wants to replace our traditional Israeli floor tiles with new "keramika" ones. This is apparently going to cost us several arms and legs. Just curious if anyone reading this has any recommendations for people to do this...
Otherwise, hot hot hot... waiting for the summer to end. The twins are in keitana until the 21st, and we'll be taking a few days at the holiday village at Ein Gev at the end of the month.
Looking forward to the first rains... :)
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Keeping it in the family
I just added a new blog to the list on the right - it's the official blog of Mrs Tim, "Cakes & All That Is Fattening" (Hebrew only, sorry). In any event there isn't much text, but some darned fine photos of her cakes. She's happy to take orders (in Hebrew or English), so if you have a birthday, wedding or bar mitzva coming up, just drop an email to her or leave a comment on the blog. Be'teyavon.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Exercise is good for you
The day started off overcast and misty. Today is the day of the Largest Ever Civil Defence Exercise In Israel - or at least the day when the public gets to participate in the fun.
At 11am there'll be an air-raid siren, at which point everyone is supposed to flee to their nearest shelter. The building where I work has two "protected space" rooms on each floor, equipped with blast doors, air filters and so on. Unfortunately, on my floor, one of these rooms is crammed to the gills with broken office furniture, and the other will hold 20, maybe 30 people with a push, Tokyo subway-style. Lemme see, how many people work on my floor - about 70-80.
Additionally, the Home Front Command instructions don't explain when you are allowed to come out of the shelter. Details here in English for the curious. They sent a cute little card to each home in the country, with a map indicating the warning time for each region. This ranges from 3 minutes around the Jerusalem area, 2 minutes on the coastal plain, "immediately" on the border with Lebanon (Hizbollah rockets), and 30 seconds for the communities surrounding Gaza (Hamas rockets). The map is surrounded by little dolphins, camels and boats, to offer some warm semblance of normality.
Some bigwig from the HFC was on the radio yesterday explaining that the army will do its utmost to ensure that the exercise doesn't turn into a real crisis. Gee thanks...
It turns out that our company isn't participating in the exercise. We're just far too busy doing whatever it is that we do.
At 11am there'll be an air-raid siren, at which point everyone is supposed to flee to their nearest shelter. The building where I work has two "protected space" rooms on each floor, equipped with blast doors, air filters and so on. Unfortunately, on my floor, one of these rooms is crammed to the gills with broken office furniture, and the other will hold 20, maybe 30 people with a push, Tokyo subway-style. Lemme see, how many people work on my floor - about 70-80.
Additionally, the Home Front Command instructions don't explain when you are allowed to come out of the shelter. Details here in English for the curious. They sent a cute little card to each home in the country, with a map indicating the warning time for each region. This ranges from 3 minutes around the Jerusalem area, 2 minutes on the coastal plain, "immediately" on the border with Lebanon (Hizbollah rockets), and 30 seconds for the communities surrounding Gaza (Hamas rockets). The map is surrounded by little dolphins, camels and boats, to offer some warm semblance of normality.
Some bigwig from the HFC was on the radio yesterday explaining that the army will do its utmost to ensure that the exercise doesn't turn into a real crisis. Gee thanks...
It turns out that our company isn't participating in the exercise. We're just far too busy doing whatever it is that we do.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake
Our 11th wedding anniversary approaches. I've been looking for one of those fancy industrial-style mixers (Kenwood or Kitchenaid) for the missus. Don't worry dear reader, (a) this is something she really really wants - and quite possibly needs, and (b) the chances of her reading this are slim to none...
I saw one online at the website for Big Bucks, at a price that was ok-ish, comfortable payments, proper guarantee etc, and decided to go and pick one up from our local branch. I'd sort of assumed that the machine would cost a bit more in the shop, but "a bit" turned out to be 500 shekels. Eleven long years in this fair land have taught me some valuable lessons in the art of Not Being A Freier, especially not to the tune of 500 shekels, so I'm busy looking for Plan B. I've seen some nice ironing boards around...
Disclaimer: the bit about the ironing board was intended for humorous effect only, and should not be construed as accurately or otherwise depicting the relationship between Tim and/or Mrs Tim, or not as the case may be, hereinafterforetoward referred to as the Disclaimer.
Addendum: Mrs Tim has no idea what an iron is for, and Tim only does the ironing (a) in the winter and (b) when he can be bothered - i.e. effectively never)
Useful Tip: How to spot Tim - large number of tattoos, and badly creased shirts.
I saw one online at the website for Big Bucks, at a price that was ok-ish, comfortable payments, proper guarantee etc, and decided to go and pick one up from our local branch. I'd sort of assumed that the machine would cost a bit more in the shop, but "a bit" turned out to be 500 shekels. Eleven long years in this fair land have taught me some valuable lessons in the art of Not Being A Freier, especially not to the tune of 500 shekels, so I'm busy looking for Plan B. I've seen some nice ironing boards around...
Disclaimer: the bit about the ironing board was intended for humorous effect only, and should not be construed as accurately or otherwise depicting the relationship between Tim and/or Mrs Tim, or not as the case may be, hereinafterforetoward referred to as the Disclaimer.
Addendum: Mrs Tim has no idea what an iron is for, and Tim only does the ironing (a) in the winter and (b) when he can be bothered - i.e. effectively never)
Useful Tip: How to spot Tim - large number of tattoos, and badly creased shirts.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Voice. Over.
I occasionally get to do voiceover work (and would love to do more, as it usually offers quite good money for incredibly little effort).
This clip really struck a chord with me, having been more than once stuck in a recording booth listening to the wisdom of some bloke who has no idea at all what he wants, other than he doesn't want it to sound the way I'm doing it. William Shatner is king! Go Bill! Take 2!!
This clip really struck a chord with me, having been more than once stuck in a recording booth listening to the wisdom of some bloke who has no idea at all what he wants, other than he doesn't want it to sound the way I'm doing it. William Shatner is king! Go Bill! Take 2!!
Back on the Moxypen
No, not me. Twin #1. She spent most of last year having recurring ear infections. On several occasions her eardrums actually burst. Prior to each event, she was in incredible pain from the fluid buildup. So we finally decided to put her through the operation to fit grommets in the eardrums. No parent wants a very small child to go through an operation under general anaesthetic, however light. On the other hand, it was hard seeing her in such pain, and needing a long potent course of antibiotics each time...
So for the last 6 months or so since the op, she's been absolutely fine. She started walking, and her speech improved dramatically. It's actually quite hard to get her to stop talking. Ah yes, she'll grow into a fine Israeli gal :)
Anyway, we thought the problems had come back yesterday, but the doctor said that the infections can still occur even with the grommets. It's just that they don't become so painful, with a high fever etc, and the fluids drain away rather than build up inside the ear. So the little 'un is now on a short course of Moxypen, which will hopefully clear up the problem.
So for the last 6 months or so since the op, she's been absolutely fine. She started walking, and her speech improved dramatically. It's actually quite hard to get her to stop talking. Ah yes, she'll grow into a fine Israeli gal :)
Anyway, we thought the problems had come back yesterday, but the doctor said that the infections can still occur even with the grommets. It's just that they don't become so painful, with a high fever etc, and the fluids drain away rather than build up inside the ear. So the little 'un is now on a short course of Moxypen, which will hopefully clear up the problem.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Forty-Two
I have to admit that the Wolfram Alpha thing is quite impressive.
It isn't the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything
It isn't Google
It isn't Wikipedia
It isn't really a search engine either, although you can sort-of use it as such
What it does do nicely is computation - mathematic formulas, comparison of statistics and so on.
As a trivial example, type in "weather tel aviv", and it returns in detail, not just the current state, but historical graphs and data.
Now try "us israel population" and you'll see some quite interesting comparisons of population data - not least that average life expectancy is better here in the "Holy" land.
Have a look at the box on the right hand side of their front page "New to WolframAlpha" and you'll see some more possibilities.
You do have to phrase your inquiry quite carefully, and there are some things that I'd expect it to know, but baffle the system completely. But I think this is certainly one to watch. I only wish it had been around when I was in high school. We were bloody lucky to have these new-fangled e-lec-tronic calculators when I were a lad...
It isn't the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything
It isn't Google
It isn't Wikipedia
It isn't really a search engine either, although you can sort-of use it as such
What it does do nicely is computation - mathematic formulas, comparison of statistics and so on.
As a trivial example, type in "weather tel aviv", and it returns in detail, not just the current state, but historical graphs and data.
Now try "us israel population" and you'll see some quite interesting comparisons of population data - not least that average life expectancy is better here in the "Holy" land.
Have a look at the box on the right hand side of their front page "New to WolframAlpha" and you'll see some more possibilities.
You do have to phrase your inquiry quite carefully, and there are some things that I'd expect it to know, but baffle the system completely. But I think this is certainly one to watch. I only wish it had been around when I was in high school. We were bloody lucky to have these new-fangled e-lec-tronic calculators when I were a lad...
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