Highmoon's Ponderings

I got an email from the Ireland Tourism Board of a contest they are running where the lucky winner wins a one-week tour of a part of Ireland (Northern Ireland, Dublin/East/Southeast, West/Southwest) with air and ground transportation, accomodations, etc. and they get to podcast their trip for the Irish Tourism Board! I sent in my application faster than I could say slainte!

They ask for a 250-word or less entry telling them why you’d the a good choice, and here’s my entry:

Ireland calls to me like a siren; it always has. I visited Ireland for my honeymoon in 2002 and have been yearning to return, to experience the beauty of the land and the warmth of the people once again, to relive those happy memories, and create new ones along the way. Though I loved the whole island, I particularly long to return to the West, to wander Dingle’s pubs and lose myself in witty craic, to smell the sweet scent of burning peat, to drink a real Guinness like only the Irish know how to pour. It was in Dingle that we spent the bulk of our honeymoon, and where I left a little piece of my heart. I wrote an online journal of our trip to Ireland, and four years later, I still get emails from people who have read it and tell me they have fallen in love with the land as well, and from those getting ready to go thanking me for increasing their enthusiasm for their trip. I will talk to anyone about the wonders of Ireland, in person, by phone, by email, and if chosen, then by podcast as well. I already produce a short podcast called “The Gamer Traveler” and Ireland is on my list of upcoming topics. An opportunity like this would be fantastic to generate new content and truly be a chance to tell the world how much I love Ireland and why I think everyone should visit, too.

It’s a bit on the dramatic side, but it is all true.
Who knows, maybe something good will come my way!

Boy, I am the cosmic shitbucket right now. I am at my mother-in-law’s and someone broke the driver-side rear passenger window of my car and stole my laptop bag, which was inside the car, behind the driver’s seat.

Not all is bad, though; my laptop computer was inside the house at the moment, so the most precious item that would normally have been inside the bag is safe and sound. I did lose, however, the power cord (which I had just bought about a month ago after my cat bit through the original one), a Dell network card, my Palmpilot, my two checkbooks (personal and Highmoon Media Productions account) and (and this hurts so much) my Holland/Belgium travel journal and my personal daily journal. Somewhere in Miami, some asshole has my personal thoughts of my recent trip and my most intimate thoughts ranging from the day of my wedding ’till just two days ago.

The cops came and took all the pertinent information, and CSI also came by, but as expected, there were no fingerprints, given they just smashed the glass, reached in and took the bag. And I heard it all happen, too.

I am so mad right it’s not even funny.

I do thank G-d that the computer is safe and sound, but the loss of my journals feels like a dagger plunged straight into my heart.

My one hope is that they will have realized there is nothing of value inside the bag (they can take the Palmpilot and the network card for all I care) and threw the bag out the window somewhere, and that maybe, just maybe, I can recover what is truly important.

Argh.

People really need to pay attention when they choose a domain name. These are all real:

• A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name (wait for it) is www.whorepresents.com
• Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com
• Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net
• Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com
• Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator Company at www.powergenitalia.com
• And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales: www.molestationnursery.com
• If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always www.ipanywhere.com
• Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is www.cummingfirst.com
• Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website: www.speedofart.com
• Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at www.gotahoe.com

There was a Bake Off today at my wife’s work (Telemundo Network) and she decided to enter. Last night she prepared a scrumptious Maple Cake from a recipe she got in Nigella Lawson’s Feast. She had done this cake twice before, once for my birthday, and I can attest to how delicious it is (it falls in the sinful category).

She just called me to tell me she won the Bake Off!!!

The prize, unfortunately, is a gift certificate to a really expensive restaurant that we cannot eat at because it isn’t kosher, so she’ll see what she does with it. But bragging rights, those are all hers (and her department, too, since they were all cheering for her, given they know full well how good her baked goods are).

So finally the UN makes a statement about the situation in Israel, and (surprise, surprise) it condemns Israel!

From Yahoo! News: Annan criticizes both sides in conflict

UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Thursday for an immediate halt to the escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia but said there were “serious obstacles to reaching a cease-fire.”

Annan said Hezbollah’s actions in launching rockets into Israel and abducting Israeli soldiers “hold an entire nation hostage” and set back prospects for Middle East peace.

Wow, he came up with that conclusion all by himself?

But he also condemned Israel’s “excessive use of force” and collective
punishment of the Lebanese people, saying it had triggered a humanitarian
crisis.

“While Hezbollah’s actions are deplorable, and Israel has a right to defend itself, the excessive use of force is to be condemned,” he told the Security Council.

I love how everyone throws that word around, “excessive,” like this is some sort of game with established rules that dictate how much firepower one can throw down based on an attack. It’s very easy to be so high-and-mighty when you are safely tucked away in New York enjoying all the ammenities diplomats get in this country while the people in Israel are hiding for their lives. As far as the UN is concerned, Israel should just take the rocket attacks like a big boy and like it, not do anything about it. What is not excessive, is what I want to know. A ground assault of Southern Lebanon? No, that would be invading another country. Teams of Mosad agents infiltrating and doing targeted killings? No, that would be inhumane. What’s left, throwing rocks with a sling? Seriously!

Annan said mission members reported that many of the people they spoke to in the region noted that “whatever damage Israel’s operations may be doing to Hezbollah’s military capabilities, they are doing little or nothing to decrease popular support for Hezbollah in Lebanon or the region, but are doing a great deal to weaken the government of Lebanon.”

“In short, the very government which Israel wants to extend its control has itself become a hostage to the crisis and is less able than ever to deploy its forces” to southern Lebanon, which is controlled by Hezbollah, he said.

Boo-freakin-hoo, okay. The people want to rally behind a terrorist organization, hide them, protect them, support them, then they are part of that organization, period. And please, spare me the drama about the Lebanese government not being able to do anything; they weren’t doing anything to begin with, letting Hezbollah run the southern part of the country and have a political voice in their government. So much for declaring themselves a democracy. Act now, show that you have the balls to take on the cancer in your own country, and Israel will back you up so that you can erradicate these fanatics. Lebanon is as much a hostage of Hezbollah (unless they are secretly aiding them) and they either fight or by innaction share the blame.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman told reporters immediately after Annan’s speech that there would be no cease-fire.

“We will do whatever is necessary,” he said. “We have no timeline.”

Gillerman said he was “disturbed” that Annan’s report never mentioned the word “terror” or referred to Syria and Iran, which Israel accuses of being Hezbollah’s sponsors.

Funny, no, that the UN never seems to want to recognize terrorist acts from any of these militant groups; as far the UN is concerned, Hamas and Hezbollah are just troubled teens acting out their teenage-angst bullshit.

More and more it is evident that the UN is a joke and a completely useless political entity, especially its Security Council (as far as I’m concerned, UNESCO and UNICEF are the only two branches of the UN worth keeping around). I want to see once these Islamic terrorists start dropping rockets and bombs on each of the opposing member countries how long will they just take it before retaliating. Because, please understand, it will happen; these militant fanatics will eventually go to every single free country in this planet of ours and do what they do best there. Even moderate Islamic countries like Egypt and Jordan are not safe, not for long. The sooner everyone realizes this (Chiraq, I’m looking your way), the faster we’ll be able to effectively excise this cancer that is now growing rampant and threatening to kill us all. This is a battle for civilization.

Something strage happened this morning. After prayers, the Rabbi asked me to please put up some little plaques that had arrived in the mail from being engraved. I opened the box and there was one yartzeit plaque (in memory of someone’s anniversary of death) and two little leafs for the Tree of Life (a tree-like board with leaf-shaped plaques for any kind of event one may want to memorialize). One of the leafs said, “In honor of Daniel Perez for his commitment to our shul.” Eh? I read it twice; yep, that was the message. Someone paid to have one of those little leafs engraved in my honor.

I felt weird. Yes, honored that someone would think like that of me, but weird. I’m just a regular guy that does what he supposed to do, nothing more. I go to prayers, I help out in the synagogue, I help out the Rabbi, but that’s what we’re all supposed to do, why we’re a community. I don’t think I’m doing anything beyond the ordinary. What’s more, I sometimes complain in my head about having to do X or Y, just as I am marching off to do it; I’m only human, after all.

So yeah, I’m honored, but more than anything I am humbled by the small honor. I put it up and didn’t say anything about it. Someone saw it and I just smiled and kept going. I just told the Rabbi that, I don’t know who paid for that (nor do I want to know), and that though I don’t think I deserve it, to please extend my thanks.

I still feel strange about it.