Category: SDSU

  • Israel activity on and off campus

    This is an eventful time in Israel-related activity in San Diego and beyond, and I wanted to get some of my thoughts and resources in one place for my own and others’ edification. In no particular order, most people know that US President Barack Obama visited Israel this past week for the first time since…

  • Forty kilometers (25 miles) from the border

    To make it easier to imagine yourself in southern Israel over the last several days (not to mention the last 10 years or so), as Palestinian terrorists fire dozens of deadly rockets every day on civilian population centers, here’s a handy little map. If Gaza was Tijuana, this is the area of San Diego county…

  • Professional development/putting myself out there

    Last week I participated in an IT Careers Panel organized by our colleagues across town at the UCSD Career Services Center. There were three other panelists (all UCSD alums), and a whopping TWO students attended. So, yeah, it wasn’t a resounding success in terms of attendance, but the two students who were there sure got…

  • Playing around online

    My buddy Avraham has provided a lot of great intellectual (kosher) meat for me to chew on ever since we met in grad school way back around the turn of the 21st century (can you believe it’s been that long, dude?). He challenged me again recently by asking how I keep up with news of…

  • Quality time, and Spider-Man 3 pre-review

    We spent time tonight with E and S, good friends with whom we have a weekly dinner, rotating between our two houses. We were scheduled to go up to their house, but S called to let us know their laundry machine is on the fritz again, so we switched the date to our place, and…

  • Parenting, literally and figuratively.

    Parenting is hard. I’m not complaining, mind you, just stating a fact. Allow me to illustrate with two anecdotes. Having a fever of 102°F sucks. Being less than 13 months old with a fever of 102°F sucks a couple of ways. First, you have no idea why you feel so crappy; you have no life…

  • THIS is how you spend Shabbat?!

    Well, not normally, no.. er… wait a minute! Why am I making excuses? This is MY blog! Yeah, well, I decided long ago that Shabbat observance for me was not going to look like the traditional, Orthodox version. The key elements in the concept and point of Shabbat for me were the separation from the…

  • Things that make me sad…

    Sad in a cosmic, global way, not a “boo-hoo” way: Evangelical/fundamentalist Christians who co-opt Hebrew, specifically Hebrew sacred texts and liturgy, without understanding or respecting their meanings. I was prompted to post this by an example I ran into today, which itself reminded me of another from a couple of years ago. Today I manned…

  • People who love burritos.

    I and a few friends are Chipotle fans. Perhaps “fans” is not a strong enough word for our passion, actually, for here is what Jill wrote in response to Elissa’s note informing us of this most worthwhile fundraiser: Uniting reading and burritos. Seriously, has there ever been anything more beautiful? A fresh dew drop on…

  • Hooray for Hillel!

    Hillel of San Diego is having a good month. Last night, the San Diego City Council brought a half-decade-long legal and logistical process to a close by voting to approve the sale of an unused parcel of city-owned land to Hillel at UCSD. Up until now, UCSD Hillel has not had a home, and many…