Month: February 2010

  • Koala update: Ten months.

    Koala is ten months old and both his life and mine are starting to fall into place. While Koala does not sleep through the night at this point, he does have a bedtime and he does collapse into it every night, for which I’m grateful. Having a routine is not one of my fortes, but…

  • Camels and TV channels? Hasbara misses the point.

    Israel’s new Ministry of Hasbara and Diaspora is not a shocking development, though probably ten years late. The thing is, it seems it’s completely missing the point. The heart is in the right place, but the message is… a bit off. The videos on the homepage: Do British people honestly think we ride camels? Who…

  • Look who's moving to Tzur Hadassah.

    Somewhere deep inside, I knew this day would come. Tzur Hadassah is getting a ‘commercial center’ – which is basically a supermarket and an ATM – on Rechasim street. I am not for this in any way, but I suppose my opinion isn’t worth much since I moved here two years ago and I don’t…

  • Israeli Innovation.

    When I think of ‘Israeli Innovation’ here are some of the associations I make: micro chips water purification desert irrigation swallow-able pill-cameras Google, Intel, IBM R&D centers Uzis What I don’t think of is… hair conditioner. I did pretty well though for 10 shekel. Product of the year!

  • Hopefully a happy יום המשפחה (Family Day).

    Five years in Israel, and this is the first one where “יום המשפחה” or “Family Day” has caught my attention. Well, it figures. What used to be Mother’s Day here in Israel evolved into Family Day, including celebration of mother, father, grandparents, or whoever is taking care of you. It’s not a Hallmark holiday; there…

  • Take your coffee with extra חחחחח.

    You know you’ve been here a while when you get all the jokes at a Jerusalem Anglo comedy show. Presenting… HaHaפuch! Tonight was the group’s opening night; you may have already heard it of it from such performances as Facebook and YouTube. How about a little description? Our comedy troupe provides the other side of Israeli life, the…

  • Teaching tech, by Israelis.

    Came across this post from TechCrunch and thought it was only fair to share, considering my thoughts on Israeli education a few days ago: Israel’s Time To Know Aims To Revolutionize The Classroom This is the story of Time To Know, an enigmatic Israeli startup that has somehow managed to remain under the radar of Israel’s…

  • Thank you for not smoking. Seriously.

    I work in the Israeli equivalent of a big, fancy office building. That basically means it was built to be big and fancy, but it’s half empty and constantly under shiputzim (renovations). My daily exercise consists of taking the stairs as opposed to the elevator to get to my office, so the ‘no smoking’ signs stuck in the stairwells…