pittsfield-jew

The first post says it all Shalom, This is the home of the Pittsfield Jew. Sure its neat to read about Jews in Brooklyn who are very observant but how about a not so observant Jew who lives in the Mid West?

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Z broke the PC

Yesterday's post I had to redo because yahoo sent it and blogspot didn't get it.

Blogger could not process your message at this time.
Error code: 6.1464DD6
Original message:
From: Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:47:29 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Forgot bread
I hate it when I forget stuff. ...
href=" href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=36035/*http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/" target="_blank">http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=36035/*http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/">Try
it today.

Tom sent me a cool link a couple of weeks ago. Since I am here in blogspot I'll post here instead of yahoo for a change. We saw a link to cover letters from hell. This is a recruiter who keeps a log of some really bad ones. Tom went to and sent me an excerpt of one he thought I would think funny.

From: Tom Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 2:39 PMTo: Subject: One of the better cover letters from hell

"... But that's the past. I've given them a year of my life in a minimum security work camp and I'm nearing work release status where I'll be for the next 15 months or so... I need to connect with open-minded people like myself! My crime was a 'non-violent, victimless' one. I'm hoping this letter is reaching people who have or do smoke weed ..."

I was really laughing hard at that one.

Not much to do here and everyone wants to leave early for Halloween.

Talked to Mom. S called. She said "Z broke the computer and why are you cranky"? Nancy wants the UM file program redone. Went home and fixed it. I got a chance to see S and her organizer working on the toys. Read up to page 200 of The Dark Tower. Read Plain English at Work Chapter 10 Executive Summary. Read Isaiah Chapter 18. Only 48 more chapters to go. Listened to Brachos 5b by Grossman and Lech Lecha also by Grossman. Read PL/SQL by Rosenzweig Chapter 16 Gathering Stored Code Information.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Forgot Bread

I hate it when I forget stuff. Today it was the rye bread for the M-T-W roast beef sandwhich trilogy. Up to page 172 of The Dark Tower. Read Chapter 17 of Isaiah. Nancy had a question about the claim type in the UM proprietary file. I was given a new project to fix the resubmit program. Same program I worked on last week now needs a new fix. The resubmit program doesn't delete the input file. It will now delete the input file. Next it creates an error file. If the error file is zero bytes it will be deleted.

Over the weekend the last field hockey game for R was played. She went to a special practice before the game. This was cancelled so she and S decided to go home. Also over the weekend R had a soccer game indoors. It was the first indoor soccer game of the winter season. They played at High Velocity in Canton.

When I got to work I decided to go to Bush's and get rye bread for $2. I also had the free coffee they have at the store. I ordered a new printer toner for the laser printer we have at home. I did a lot of school work over the weekend. S is meeting with an organizer tomorrow and I have an interview on Thursday.

I listened to Lech Lecha Grossman. Some of the day I read PL/SQL. Some of the day I slept. I took a relax and let go break and then just fell asleep. We adjusted the clocks over the weekend. Didn't talk to any of my relatives. Talked to S's mother. Didn't watch any movies either. The tigers are out of the world series. I had to do the religious school drop off for the carpool. We are getting rid of three videos in the mom-to-mom sale S and the carpool mom are doing together. The movies are one barney extra copy, one ernie learning to read and one elmo learning to share. The reading one is from the 70's for sure and I got it at a garage sale.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Friday

Sleepy as usual. Raining. Tigers lost. Printed out 20 postings I want to apply for. Read chapter 16 of Isaiah. Listened to Chumash Noach from Grossman again. Also listening to tape 5 of Brachos. They seem to talk about everything and anything on these Talmud tapes. Up to page 170 of The Dark Tower. Almost finished this UM proprietary electronic remittance advice file extract modifications. Just finishing up the paperwork. It is getting chilly here.
 
Something I have been meaning to do. Can you name the ways you think of the Holocaust. Here are some for me. When i see the letters s and another s together. When I get dressed up and move really fast with dress shoes on a hard floor. It reminds me of the hard boot sounds the gestapo made. If i see broken glass it reminds me of the broken glass store fronts. Sometimes when there is a group of people and we are rationing a small piece of bread or crackers it reminds me of the book night. I must admit most of what I know comes from that book and the tv show hogan's heroes. If you take and endless walk or march in the snow and you can't get back home for awhile. I sometimes think i lived through the holocaust and was reincarnated to remember. I eat fast because of something in another life. Or more likely the people in my family have this Holocaust remembrance gene. It is a little like evolution or something really difficult to explain.
 
Last night I picked up some strawberrys at Kroger's. Z eats them alot.


All-new Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Thursday

Today ny neck and hip hurts. So I took some motrin and it feels better. Mailed the package today for the book we sold. Something like beginner's guide to C++. Listened to the Talmud Brachos 4a from Grossman. I was listening to the Noach chanting today. Not much to do. Big news I talked to my brother today. He can now call me anytime because he has Verizon also. The QA position called today and they want me to come in for a phone interview. It is building 3 of the Arbor Lakes at 9AM. Unfortunately I will miss Z's oncology appointment. S is going to talk to Z's Urologist about the programmer job in the pediatric department. She is also going to talk to Z's oncologist about the the programmer job in the radiology oncology department. Feelers out everywhere. There are 60 programmer jobs up there and I have applied for only 20 of them. I feel I should just go ahead an apply for all the rest of the other 40 just in case. I really want to get out of here. So much gossip. Everyone is talking about everyone else. They all got letters stating whether they will be offered a position with BCN, kept for 90, 180 or 270 days.


Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Z's appointment

I forgot to mention that Z's cancer check appointments are this week. His radiology appointment went well. The only problem is his connection between the bladder and kidney is bloated again. This is a physical problem not a cancer problem. The Blue Care Network people were here today. They gave us letters telling us if we will be retained or not. Mine says 90 days. So at this point no BCN job offer is in the cards.
 
In other news. I lost my dental flosser at work. Up to page 407 in the PL/SQL book by Rosenzweig this is chapter 15 advanced cursors. I got a new project today. I am up to page 108 in The Dark Tower. I did a quick technical review for project 16228 task 1.
 
Tonight is pick up at religious school. Then I have to pick up R at the JCC. She has started a red cross babysitting class. Maybe that is what she is doing tonight, who knows I am the last to know anything. The Tigers lost last night.


Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Tuesday

Hard to be creative again. Tired as usual. Working really hard this morning on resolving the EFT crisis. I was reading Oracle literature for two hours last night and this has been troubling me since at least September 28. I just had a chat with Z he answered the cell phone. We had a meeting earlier today to discuss the NPI. I am still working on this mega tech review. And hopefully I can finish the SHPS turnover tomorrow. But I doubt it. I really screwed up the syllabus and due dates for Monday's class.
 
Ah Monday I had half the day off. I went to Rosh Chodesh. I was a little sleepy and go there around 9AM. First I took R to school. Then I took L to a friend's house. Then I slept in the car before the assembly started. R was in a play about charity and the 8 kinds of giving. It was really nice.
 
Speaking of nice. I talked to my parents, Aunt Sylvia and brother over the weekend. Also was nice was a trip to the zoo with Z's pre-school. Only here is the thing, the pre-school didn't show up. The weather was nasty, bad and rainy. So they cancelled. We had to choose. We choose to stay and buy tickets. We had a really nice time.
 
Yesterday I watched the end of the movie Open City. It is about Italian resistance against the Germans in WW2. Of course everyone is so excited about the Detroit Tigers. Tonight they are on again. And I was up to page 74 of The Dark Tower. This is book 7 and the final book in the Dark Tower series. I finished Friday the Rabbi Slept Late over the weekend and S returned it to the library. I read some of Friedman's Noach parsha. I have been listening to RG's same. Noach is like baseball and the reward is steak. He would have been good in his generation we don't know how good he would be now or in a golden generation like Avram Aveniu. See I am even talking like a Posack now. Finally his reward for caring for the animals was he can now eat them.


How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Crazy busy days

The last day has been crazy. The cat Leo was sick. He was throwing up. S called me and wanted me to take him into the vet. So I went home to get Leo. On the way I went to the dog groomers. There I picked up Lucy and Dexter. I took them home. Next I fed the dogs and Leo came over to check things out. Then I put Leo in his cat cage. I put the dogs in their dog cage. Leo and I went to the vet. Finally I made it back to work. After work I went to school. I gave the homeless man a breakfast bar on the way to school. He told me the other homeless men are all in jail because he is the only one who is not a Heroin addict. After class I filled up my car with gas. Then I went to Lowes and picked up a spark plug. I went into the self check aisle and used my gift card. It was $2.10 and then I had ~ $35 left on the card.
 
Today I was tired again. I was mega cranky this morning. L wanted me to adjust a watch on her arm and I kept yelling. It was a cheap piece of plastic. I dropped off R at school. At work I slept again from 8:30 to 9:00. It rained a little. By 9:30 I discovered there was an EFT problem. The program is not updating the check status for the EFT checks. It also needs to update the check numbers to the EFT check numbers. Tom and I left at 10. We went to Burger King. Then we went to Harbor Freight tools. I got a cool screw driver bit set and another set of bits for it. Each was $3.99 and then they give you another discount. Including tax it was six and change. Then we went to my house and got my bike. We went to Washtenaw Fitness and Cycle and they fixed the odometer and mirror. Now I have to put the bike onto my bike carrier and go home. I didn't quite finish listening to the Grossman Bereshit. I listened to the first half about 5 times.


Do you Yahoo!?
Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Hacking

As usual I am having trouble breathing. Today it is worse and I keep hacking. The good news is most of the people in the cubes around me are hacking too. Hack hack.
 
I stayed up too late and now i am tired. I took a nap 8:30 - 9. Up to page 142 of Friday The Rabbi Slept Late. Can't really listen to Bereshit Shiur again today. Working on a technical review of project 16087 task 2. This is like reading so I can't listen to a lecture at the same time. It is mainly an upgrade to current standards. I think the programmer has been working on this since September. Which come to think about it was only last month. Wow I better do some nasal irrigation tonight.
 
I just got back from an errand. I went to Carpenter Brothers. It is a real rip-off hardware store. But it is good. You just are paying for the convenience. I went to Evergreen and ordered food then to Carpenter Brothers to get a lint trap. It was $2.59 plus tax. The food was $7.41 including tax. There went part of my $20 allowance. I wanted to pick up some vodka but chickened out. Last night I had a screwdriver and now I have enough to make one more before I am out.
 
Wow I thought I wouldn't have much to write about. And I need to go back up and change a few things. Tonight is class and we start Excel project 3. I might let them do it independently instead of doing the whole homework in class. Might do some steam cleaning tonight. When it rains it really brings out the cat pee odor.


How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Wednesday

No luck making up a good subject line. Finished Song of Susannah. Page 60 of Friday the Rabbi Slept Late. Page 383 chapter 14 - Packages of PL/SQL book. This is the non-O'Reilly book. I switch back and forth between the two. Chapter 8 - Punctuation of Plain English at Work. I have nothing to do at work. Too bad too because I like to listen to the Berish Shiur while I work. But I can't since I don't want to stare at the computer and pass out listening to the Shiur. I began a technical review of Project 16237 task 1. It was severely flawed so I kicked it back to the programmer.
 
Future plans include driving. It is Wednesday. I have to pick up L and the 4th grade girl who is our neighbor at religious school. Then home for dinner. After dinner back out to pick up R and the 6th grade girl at soccer practice. The other girl is our soccer car pool girl.
 
S called she wants me to go to Lowes and get some lint socks. These are metal drain bags for the laundry sink. They catch the lint from the washing machine. This drains into the laundry sink and could clog it up. So with the metal bag over the drain only water gets through. Periodically the bag gets replace. The hardware store calls these link socks.
 
S called again. She wants to take us all on an all expenses paid trip to Bear Lodge. This is I assume because of Z's cancer. She is probably doing this because she feels justified. He had speech therapy and her father paid for most of it. Recently she found out there is grant money available for Z to have gotten it paid for. But since it already happened we are out of luck. No such retroactivity is possible.


How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Raining

Here it is raining. I didn't write yesterday and I don't know why. I listened to the bereshit ôøùä and i started listening to the sermon for it. Not much work to do here. Yesterday I was on page 240 of Song of Susannah. Today I am nearly at page 400. I also started Friday the Rabbi Slept Late. Now I am up to chapter 3 of that book by Harry Kemelman. S called about the number of minutes on the cell phone. I forgot my apple, and glasses and textbook for Monday's class. But class was all right I winged it. I checked in project 14140 task 65. I mailed the package for $3.51. S called again she got Junie B Jones tickets and Charolette's Web tickets. Today I was on page 700 of PL/SQL. I finished the triggers chapter. I was really tired and took a nap.


Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Friday

Sorry again for the uncreative titles. I had my phone interview today - yeah. It was with a manager names Andre's and 4 of his underlings. They are managers of two other projects Care Web, Care Link and Order Management something. It was all very interesting. Yesterday I was very sleepy and didn't write anything. I took few notes and they are included here. I watched the movie Fort Apache the Bronx Wednesday and Thursday night. It was very cold yesterday and continues to be very cold today. I was up to page 136 of Song of Susannah. I bought some vodka and some vanilla extract for making soap. I got to the religious school pick up an hour early. My workload here is so light. I need to get motivated to read some more PL/SQL but this novel is so nice. It is also a little cold to be napping in the car. Have a good weekend and a good Shabbat. This is also the big holiday Simchat Torah. I am listening to Ki Tasvo right now. I was listening to tape 3 of Brachos Talmud Daf. Rav Dovid Grossman also supplied the same web site with Chumash sermons for lack of a better word. So I listened to that and was hoping to listen to it again after listening to the Hebrew chanting. Yesterday Wendy's chicken filet combo and today Zoup coupon with Tom. The lawn mower was fixed and we might get to use it this weekend. Also I want to take the weed whacker apart and remove the spark arrestor. If nothing else I will learn how it works. Alas there are so many ways to screw around and so many missed opportunities to do something constructive: like creating and practicing answers to imaginary interview questions; working on a java program to teach Hebrew; sorting digital photos for possible burning to a CD; organizing the toys so sets are together; installing the odometer on my bike.


Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Wednesday

I am really angry at S. She has been very rude. Dexter the dog wasn't hungry. He started puking in the dining room. Lucy the dog and I tried to coax him into the kitchen. We figured this would be less clean up. He spittle trails all around the dining room table. He was heaving and heaving getting ready to unload his hot foul smelling contents of his stomach. I blotted it up some of the spit looking trails and they left yellowish stains on the paper towel I used. I said forget it and put his leash on him. Meanwhile I was screaming at S to give me some support. She claims she was in the garage and couldn't hear me. Next thing I know she was very rude.
 
Bill asked me about the decision flag in the explanation of payments. The two of us looked at the code and decided it looked right. S called and she asked about the string trimmer. I told her it needs the spark arrester removed. I am listening to Radio Shalom Montreal. I did 80 sit-ups and no hand weight exercises. Spell check doesn't like the word arrester. Today I do the religious school pick up of L and the neighbor girl who is a grade ahead of L.


Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Tuesday

I can't think of a good subject line. Tired. Stayed up too late. Feeling lazy and unmotivated. Bill says the checks are not correct. S called and she is leaving at noon. She called again and said Z's flu shot is delayed because the Dr's office ran out. I investigated the check issue and it is a non-issue. I turned over the eob 30 record problem. Now I have another small tweak to the 835 program. I am done and just testing it. I had to take another nap today. I listened to Rav Grossman again. He has Chumash mp3's too. So he has one for this week. This week is a special go back through the Torah to a section about the holiday of Sukkot. I hate spelling Hebrew words in English. It is the parsha for Ki Tasav or something like that. I mailed a package today for a book we sold. It was only 2.07. I need to get L to call my parents. I need to get R to listen to a voice mail my parents left on my cell phone over the weekend. The foreign news looks so gloomy, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Darfor. Well I am really psyched about this phone interview. Maybe this is my ticket outta here. Up to page 46 of Song of Susannah.


Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Monday

Not much going on here. My boss won't be in until noon. I was tired so I took a rest from 8:30 to 9:10. Then when I got here I checked my email. There was a posting I applied for that wants me to call. I set up a phone interview for Friday the 13th at 10 AM. I plan to go to my car and wait for them to call me on my cell phone. The position is for Quality Assurance Test Engineer. Besides being way outside of my experience they are looking for IT Health Care experience. Hello that's me. I put in a PTO request for Rosh Chodesh and Z's oncologist appointments. Well I only have 11 minutes until my boss gets here. I was going to mail a package at 11 and then when I got to the post office to mail this Ottoman Empire book I found out they are closed for Columbus Day. It smells like airplane glue in here. They are fixing the roof with the stuff? Started the book Song of Susannah. There were two soccer games. Got the book at the second from one of the soccer moms and she loaned me another book, the 7th and final book in the same series as the book I started last night. We took all the kids to the second game. Z walked someone's dog and L played catch with me and watched the game with me.


Do you Yahoo!?
Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Friday

I finished the movie Get Smart, Again. It was my first DVD from my collection. Previously I watched a DVD called Ladder 49, but it was my mother-in-law's and I returned it to her. Today I got $50 for being in a flu shot study. I used my Burger King coupon and got two double burgers for the price of 1. Most of this week I have had nothing to do. I started a design for a new project on the FSA SHPS. This is a reimbursement account. I had the meeting today and my design was approved. Lately been trying to test this EOB program and having all kinds of environment problems. I finished the second side of the first tape of the Berchos Mishna. I might listen to the ôøùä he has too. Let me clarify. This is the work Rav Dovid Grossman. He gave these tapes out loud from 1985 to 1992. It take 7 years to listen to one page of talmud a day for 2711 days. Rav Meir Shapiro began the cycle in 1923 and we are now in the 12th cycle. So I think what I am listening to is mashecta downloads. They are available also from a program called mascheta downloader. This program indicates there are 53 tapes for Brachos and on the website there are 64. Also on the website is another portion called Mishna for Brachos with only two tapes. They have holidays and ten commandments too. Our lawnmower is ready to be picked up at Lowes. No charge.


Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

wednesday

The usual stuff. Today I have been listening to the Mishnah. It comes from dafyomi.org and this is brachos tape 1. I had to look up what krishma means. I even emailed ask the rabbi dot org. I finished scary movie. The star is ann feris. She stars in the next 4 sequels. How to spell the pluralization of sequel? I was right just wrong about pluralization. It is fixed now though. Today is religious school pick up and then later soccer practice pick up. I went to the library with a China project for R. My parents called me twice and left two messages. R said welcome to my world of annoying parents. Not sure I understand but annoying has two n's. Finished chapter 15 of Isaiah. Nothing to do at work again. Read from pages 653 to 680 of PL/SQL the chapter on triggers. Started new contacts. Had a power failure and was very tired because of it. Since it happened pre-dawn. Quickly finished a turnover to fix the EOB issue. Applied for a UM job in the biostatistics department. Changed my dice resume to say I am avail after 1/1/08. I am now completely finished with all my VHS movies. I plan to keep the Scary Movie as I deem it a classic. Going to take my CMU alumni magazine to Beth Israel and go. Oh and by the way Krishma is another way of saying say the shma.


Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Tuesday

I am back from vacation. Not much has happened so I'll consult my notes. Ken says 835 must be fixed asap. Saw the movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Saw the movie Just Visiting. Talked to my mom. No time for nasal rinse this morning. Too hot to test the furnace - ideally it needs to be cooler. It can be tested it will be uncomfortable. Finished chapter 17 packages in the PL/SQL book. Started reading a Carnegie Mellon University Alumni magazine. This was a product of cleaning my in-box at home. Finished chapter 14 packages in another PL/SQL book. Well that's it. Trying not to gossip. Practicing my answers to my interview questions. Describe yourself. I am a hardworker. I am a Jew. I am a homework helper.


Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.
 
Listed on BlogShares