Shin-ippets

* For the past month, every single blog entry I’ve written has had a line prefacing it about how neglectful I’ve been in blogging regularly. Now I’m realizing that I’ve been neglectful in posting about how neglectful I’ve been.  This is certainly not a great thing. Also not great: I’m not responding to your comments on my blog entries. Which makes me feel bad because I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t value nor read your feedback. I do.  And I’m hoping to be able to devote more time to it in the very near future.

Things have just been busy — moreso than they have been before. A newer, longer commute which involves dropping Av off at school and picking him up at the end of the day has us out of the house for nearly 12 hours — 2 1/2 of those (for me) are in the car. I’d still love to see some sort of blogging application which would allow me not only to dictate my thoughts by voice and have them transcribed to text (Jott is a wonderful iPhone app for this), but also to have it play back for me and allow for live voice editing.  Either that or something which allows the car to drive itself a la Knight Rider.

* Speaking of Knight Rider — the new show just simply blows.  The only special effect I find intriguing is when KITT turns into a black Ford F-150.  But that’s even growing tiresome.  I do have to admit that they’ve completely captured the cheesy nature of the 80s show, car dialogue and all. The big difference,  however, is that I’m no longer eleven years old.

* When I started writing this entry it was Wednesday morning. Now it’s late Thursday evening.  I just finished observing the 25 hour Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Chances are you can look around the blogosphere and find quite a few entries about this holiday and atonement in general.  Most of the past day (and last night) was spent at our synagogue, which had services beginning at 6:30pm yesterday and reconvening this morning at 8:30.  Then — services throughout the day until about 3:15 with a break until 4:30, and then continuous services until 7:30.  Yes. About as exciting as it sounds.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Jewish High Holidays, think of church attendance on Christmas and Easter — but, perhaps, moreso. In fact, the two holidays of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year, observed ten days ago) and Yom Kippur draw attendance to the point where the main sanctuary of the synagogue as well as a social hall / auditorium are filled to capacity.  In this case, we’re talking about 1400 people.

In order to cover costs — as well as promote community affiliation — these are not simply services where participants can just show up. There are tickets available for paid members of the congregation. If you’re not a member, you can pay a fee for the privelege to attend these services.  And even if you are a member, there’s a hefty fee you can pay to sit in the sanctuary seats up front rather than the “coach” folding chairs in the back.

I hate the system, but as a former Jewish communal professional, I can completely understand why this has to be done.  There are still places around which hold free “drop-in” services where one can pledge a donation after the fact — or not. But the expenses for such a large service can get quite expensive. Which would be a problem if these services were being attended by people who simply disappeared off the radar for the other eleven months of the year.

For some added silliness, do a YouTube search on “high holiday tickets.” Look for the cute film about scalpers.  And the Curb Your Enthusiasm snippet.

* But the services were nice. In past years I was hired out by other synagogues and communities during the high holidays to lead services — either to take on the “rabbinical” role, or to sing, or both.  Last year I spent Rosh Hashanah in Vancouver, BC.  This year I spent both holidays not making extra money in this fashion.  But you know what? Less pressure. Besides — I had quite a few leadership roles in front of the congregation around here anyway. As a volunteer, of course. But it’s nice when people stop you to tell you that you’ve got a good voice, paycheck or not.

* I’ve migrated my main email (with our family domain name) to Google Apps — must mostly Google Mail. The process was pretty simple, and now I have the better part of a gigabyte of mail floating around in cyberspace rather than sitting on one hard drive at home.  Best part: It’s searchable from my iPhone.  Oh — and free.

* I just finised watching ABC’s latest incarnation of Life on Mars. This will be the third LoM pilot I will have watched, following the original BBC series premiere episode and David Kelley’s rough pilot leaked on the internet months ago.  I’m usually a purist when it comes to remakes of shows, but some license has made adaptations flourish. (Case in point: The Office.)  The main storyline is the same in all three versions with some deviations (in each American pilot)  and some qualities which are identical.

I was happy with Harvey Keitel as the new Gene Hunt — although I felt that Colm Meany played it most excellently in the original ABC pilot.

I was not happy with the forced comedic presence of the “Pepsi Free” jokes in this incarnation.  You know the jokes I’m talking about. They’re the ones which stem from Back to the Future where Marty orders a “Pepsi Free” (back when such a drink existed) and is told “You want a Pepsi, kid? You’ve got to pay for it!” There are plenty of them here, including one also about soft drinks. Blech.

* For those of you who played my little “which of these pictures was not taken in DC” contest — the picture in question is this one. (Yes. That link is a spoiler. Don’t press it unless you want to know the answer.) If anyone has any questions, I’ll answer ’em in the comments. (But yes – it was sort of a trick question.)

* That’s all I’ve got for now. Stay classy, Blogopsphere…