Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Yehuda's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
1:41 pm	I has office! I went back to work this morning, still fairly jet-lagged. I went up to my old office space and found someone sitting there. She told me they had moved my computer and phone to my new office, which was actually my boss's office up to 2 months ago. I have an office. Its big and empty and echo-ey. Its even in a good location in the building, which I didn't expect at all. Perhaps I should not boggle, as I knew I was supposed to get an office. But it wasn't entirely real until now and I really didn't expect to get this one, I expected something small in a corner downstairs. Also, I'm entirely out of sync due to jet lag. Current Mood: surprised Current Music: The Things We've Handed Down - Marc Cohn (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
6:27 am	Honey, I'm home I'm home. I live! There is Shear and she is here. Mmmmmmm Got home yesterday at 18:00 after 22 hours of traveling. 3 flights between Israel and NYC is just too much. Had a very good vacation. Rested, shopped, saw some people and spent time with friends. Now I need to get back to real life, including figuring out where all the things I bought can fit in the house. Current Mood: happy (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
8:43 am	Last Day in New York Wednesday was a good day. I had a ticket for a Shawn Colvin show at night, so I was looking for something nice for the afternoon. I looked over Broadway shows that had matinees and lotteries(so that I could both have the time to go and afford to) and found very few. I was basically down to Shrek and Wicked. Since the Wicked lottery was first, I went to it and I got in. That makes 3 years in a row of seeing Wicked from cheap, front-row seats. It was actually really nice, because I could compare performances and see different ways of playing the same character. Also, it took them about 20 minutes to really get going, but they were really good. After the show I goggled at Time Square a bit (so wonderfully touristy),did some last bits of shopping, wandered around SoHo and then went to the Shawn Colvin show. It was at the City Winery, which is a fairly new venue and pretty good. The sound was good everywhere and my seat was pretty close to the stage. Unfortunately the tables are communal, namely you book a specific seat when you order a ticket and other people can book the open seats at the table. This meant that at some point I just moved from my seat further back due to the other people at the table being annoying. But Shawn Colvin was excellent. As she said, it was all songs of death and regret, moving, dark and good to hear. Glad I went. Then it was back to Jersey City for some good conversation and annoying packing. I actually need to finish up the packing this morning, so I'll go now and post from home next. Current Mood: happy Current Music: This Must Be The Place - Shawn Colvin (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
8:31 pm	More Vacation Sunday: Wandering around the city. Bought some shoes. Sat in Strand and read several books. Went to Mike's improv show, which was pretty good. Met Erin, who is unfortunately moving to Chicago. Monday: More wandering, bookstores etc. Tuesday: Mailed some stuff for Robert. Went to Housing Works Book Cafe, Columbus Circle and some more wandering. Did some final Duane Reade shopping. Tonight I need to finish up packing so that tomorrow isn't crazy (more crazy then usual). Current Mood: awake Current Music: Reduced Shakespeare Company - The Bible (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
12:14 am	Vacation Update Friday: I rested, introspected and over-thought. Then I went to my aunt & uncle's for dinner, which was quite nice. They insisted I take leftovers back with me to New jersey, which of course I did. Saturday: Jon and I went to see Astro Boy. It was cute but not great, far too infected with the "All technology is magic" meme. There are scientists and robots but anything technological just happens, with some glowing lights and mystical sounds. I then went to visit Mike. We hung out at his place, talked about life, had dinner and watched Casino Royale, the first Daniel Craig Bond movie, which I had not seen before. We watched it off the DVR and were quite surprised when the recording apparently cut out 5 minutes before the end of the movie. We looked on various computers and on Netflix but couldn't find i, so we read the end on Wikipedia. A Halloween trick I suppose. Afterward I walked around the Financial District and Battery Park. I looked at the river and the lady, wandered a bit in the rain and ended up near the WTC to take the PATH. The contrast between the river, the big hole and the city in between them is still striking, especially in the relative quiet and dark of midnight. I've got most of a week left here. I plan on seeing more relatives, some comedy, some music, maybe a Broadway show or 2 and wandering a bit more. Basically vacationing. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
11:14 pm	Ongoing OVFF summary, short version: Met lots of nice people, most of whom I could spend nowhere near enough time with. Felt a little left out of well-knit community, will be better next time I go. Heard lots of great songs. All-in-all, sang a lot - I count 23 songs over the con (admittedly 6 of them were in the last hour or so of the dead dog, when I was basically alternating with Ben and Josh). I enjoyed the con very much and would like to go again. Tuesday: Rest and recover from OVFF and cold. Played Beatles Rockband for the first time - pretty cute. Wednesday: Much rain. Went to see West Side Story on Broadway - got a first-row seat in the lottery. It was ok, too much trying to be the movie IMHO. But some of the music was in Spanish, which is nice. After that there was comic book shopping. Thursday: Wandered around Manhattan. Spent a while strolling around Battery Park and looking at the waves. Then I went games shopping, then comics, then books. Then there was the Blackmore's Night concert. Not the best concert ever, considering the venue was overpacked, the sound system was mixed for a rock band not a folk band and the monitor feed was blurry. We left in the middle, after having spent most of the show not being able to see a thing due to the overcrowding. Current Music: How Again - Blackmore's Night (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
11:00 am	OVFF is over I am quite tired, but I wanted to put some thoughts down now. Disorganized I know, but I can always add things as I remember them, which is safer then assuming I'll remember all I want to in a few days. There will probably be a separate post at some point about what I sang, how much and when. That will mostly be for myself, to figure out what I like and don't like about my performing and how to improve, as well as how to figure out American filk cons. Saturday: several great concerts, including MEW's (OMG the filk supergroup!); The Pegasus banquet - pretty good food and fun for the atmosphere; Open filking all night, until breakfast with Kathy Mar. I ended up singing a fair amount, especially once I realized that I find the HUGE chaos circles where everyone has an instrument(slight hyperbole) overwhelming and prefer the slightly smaller (10-40) person circles; Sunday: Waking up is hard to do; A bit more shopping; Filker "Whose Line", which was hilarious; The closing jam, which was alternately great and overly peoplely for me, so I only stayed for part of it; The Mongolian Grill which was tasty and fun; Dead Dog. The Dead Dog spilt into 2 circles. I spent most of my time in the smaller one. There were some awesome performances, including an amazing Wizard of Oz song, including pigtails and at least 5 voices. At some point Judy Miller walked in, apologized for interrupting and told us that Peter Alway had set his telescope up in the parking lot and you could see 4 of the moons of Jupiter and some of the planet's detail. More then half the circle went outside and lined up to look at the sky. It was very cool. At around 2:00 both circles broke up and recombined into one much smaller circle in the hall. We sang for another hour, doing whatever we felt like. At some point me and Ben Newman were practically alternating song for song. There was singing in Hebrew and various late-night hilarity. We closed up around 3 and went to bed. I'm pretty sure we were the last bunch of people singing at OVFF. It was a really good con. The biggest problem is that now I want to go back next year, because now I know more of the people and it would probably be even better. Current Mood: tired (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
9:40 pm	New Robert Jordan Book Yesterday I bought "The Gathering Storm" by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, Book 12 in the Wheel of Time series (out of 14). I started reading it just before bed. Today I finished it. My response: Holy Crap. Really. Stuff happens. Lots of it. All kinds of it. From "Are you KIDDING me???" to "Yee Haw", with several WTF and stop to put the book down, breath and get less pissed or less shocked. I will definitely be getting the next one next year. The writing style is different but still good. Also there was OVFF today. Current Mood: Boggled (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
3:54 pm	OVFF Day 2 OVFF is fun. It took me a bit, because it feels like everyone knows everyone and I'm on the outside, but I actually do have friends here and know people. There was a chaos circle last night in the ballroom and I sang! Twice! :) Not that I haven't sung before and even at cons, but this feels different. Somewhat more intimidating but also extremely welcoming. Filk as a community is more about the listeners then the singers anyway. Today there were several excellent concerts including Toyboat(filk rock) and Heather Dale. I also got to help Larry Smith set up his book stand and then bought a pile of stuff from him. Currently there is rest, before the Pegasus nominees concert. More later. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Joe Giacoio - Superman's Midlife Crisis (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
12:06 am	On Monday there was much shopping. Muuuch. I got a new coat! and some pants! and some books and comics, of course. Tuesday - Went to see "Where the Wild Things Are" on IMAX in the morning. Blah. Very blah. Wandered around later, sat in a B&N and read a few books, and then on to the evening's entertainment: Hamlet! There's a new production of Hamlet on Broadway with Jude Law as the title character and they have student rush tickets. Being Hamlet, it was 3.25 hours long plus intermission, but it was good. Jude Law did a good job, as did most of the supporting cast and other players, with one exception: the Ghost. He was incredibly over-acted. He did the quiet haunting just fine but once he got to speak he went nuts. (Only bought one book and that was because I wanted to take it out of the store to finish reading) Tomorrow we leave for OVFF. Yay! Now I need to pack. Bye Current Mood: pleased (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 19th, 2009
8:46 am	Trip summary so far Arrived Thursday. Friday- sleeeeeep. Lucy Kaplansky show in the evening. It was fun! Saturday - Sleeeeeep. (Have that, you evil jet lag!) Sunday - hang out with Mike, go to NY Knicks Vs. Maccabi Tel-Aviv expo game. Maccabi got their butts kicked but it was a good show and spectacle. Madison Square Garden chock full of Jews. Monday- Ooh, hello! Current Music: Yeah, I should charge my iPod (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
3:23 am	Leaving for the airport I'll see a bunch of you soon and most of the rest of you in about 3 weeks. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 5th, 2009
9:53 pm	I went to Icon today and it had no life. I can't put my finger on what was wrong. One distinct symptom is that in conversation with at least 8 different people I got told something along the lines of "the con has no heart" or "There are bad vibes". This sensation was strange and unpleasant. Unpleasant enough to get me to go home only a few hours after showing up, instead of staying deep into the night. I'll be there tomorrow, hopefully it'll be better. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
3:33 pm	See you at Icon (and Reverticon?) Icon started today and will be running all week. I'll be there tomorrow afternoon/evening, primarily to see people. I don't have a stand at Icon this year, which is no surprise. Robert & I will, however, have a stand at Reverticon. This is a one-afternoon con that will be held between 1600-2200 around the corner from Icon(literally a 5 minute walk). We're doing this because its entirely unplanned, as in we decided this two days ago, they're asking for donations only and it seems like fun. Come visit if you feel like. We'll have some books, a few games, some cards and various othe sci-fi related stuff. Also, we'll be there and we're friendly. Current Mood: Yes Current Music: I wish I was a Punk Rocker - Sandy Thom (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
5:43 pm	I got the job! I had the psychometric test last week, an interview yesterday and a veracity test today. After that I expected the answer would take weeks, so of course they called me at 16:30 in the office and called me into the Department Head's office. That means that I'm officially an Economist at the Bank of Israel. Also amusing - when I got the student job at the bank I've held for the last 3 years, I told my future boss, who was interviewing me, that in two weeks I'd be going abroad for three weeks. I got this job today and I'm going abroad in two weeks for three weeks. Life is funny sometimes. :D Current Mood: Joy (13 Comments |Comment on this)
1:08 pm	Vacation One of the things I've been doing the past few months is trying to get a job, since my current job ends soon. Its a long and annoying process, but it seems that I'm finally at the point where there's nothing to do but wait for an answer. I've done all the interviews, tests, background checks etc. necessary. One of the things this has been holding up is my vacation, because there was a possibility of my having to be in Israel to interview etc. I don't. :-) I'll be in the US from Oct 15-Nov 5. Most of that time I'll be in New York City and its environs, with a detour to OVFF in Ohio. Want to meet up? Drop me a line. Current Mood: pleased (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
8:04 pm	I have been called many things in my life, but this is just too amusing. Apparently I'm the "Mysterious person who appears to help Hoffmans move". Current Mood: amused Current Music: James Taylor - With the Help of My Friends (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
10:46 am	So there's an Icon soon and I'm not really looking forward to it During Sukkot this year, as it has been every year for the past 11, there will be Icon, Israel's largest Science-Fiction/Fantasy convention. Sort of, anyway.(More and more its a film festival first) I used to really look forward to this. It was a place to see friends I see too rarely, be part of the wider community and have fun. All this aside from the fact that I used to have a stall full of books to get rid of. Now...not so much. I hear and read my friends talk about the con and for most of them its a sore spot, something that used to be good but is now the Evil Empire. More and more people who would come don't out of principle, because they can't stand the organizers or the way it's run or the direction it's taken. I, having my own filters for this, still tend to first look at the con from a dealer's perspective and I don't like what I see. I suppose it is the natural tendency of organizations that survive to grow formal and bureaucratic but its still sad. The prices have gone up again, the con's attitude towards the dealers expressed in its tender of space has gotten worse and the demands are greater. You used to get space, now its tables and anything different requires pre-approval. You now need to define for the con what exact types of merchandise you'll be selling, have the con approve them and are forbidden from selling anything else.(Powers forbid a bookseller might also want to sell some CCGs or toys or whatever) The con requires you to be open from 9:30-2200, requires set-up and take-down to take no more then an hour each and reserves the right to put your stand wherever it wants or move it as it chooses, even after it tells you where your stand will be. There used to be a 2nd-hand stand that the con ran, because 7-8 years ago the conrunners got tired of the fans coming to the cons and sitting on the steps trying to get rid of their extra books and getting in everybody's way. You bring your stuff to the stand, they sell it for you and the con gets a small commission. It probably never paid for itself but it was a great fannish thing. The con decided they couldn't afford it so they issued a tender for someone to run it. Unfortunately, we all know how this stand works, so anyone reading the tender who ran a stand could tell that the tender was way over-priced and that this would never happen. No one applied to the tender, so no 2nd-hand stand this year. Then a rumor started spreading that the con did this on purpose in order to make sure there was no 2nd-hand stand. So we have more denials, more yelling, more accusations and less of a good con. (The fact that I believe the rumor, having it confirmed by trustworthy sources, doesn't help) And here I am, full of bile towards a con I used to love. Is this just a 'grow up' thing? Cons change, the people who attend them and run them change and we should just deal with it? Maybe. But I miss looking forward to the con and talking about it with my friends without hearing complaints about it and having to defend myself for wanting to go. (The con's website went up in the last few days and looking at it prompted this rant) Current Mood: sad Current Music: The House of Orange - Stan Rogers (28 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
1:37 pm	Milestones I just sent in my last paper. I am DONE!!! (numb, somewhat in shock, its actually here, done) Still need to get 2 grades so I know my final average, but there is no more work to give in, no more exams to take, nothing. Shear & I have celebratory plans. :D Current Mood: in shock Current Music: Yom Shishy - Yehuda Poliker (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
5:17 pm	Progress I've been working on organizing my room and unpacking and sorting through boxes, since I was very busy with school for the several weeks post-move. In the unpacking I opened a box that I had, for some reason or another, not opened since the last time we moved. I've been missing a number of things including some swords, some knives and my cestus. Now they are found. :D There is more to do, but the to do list is getting shorter rather then longer for the first time in a while, which is a really good feeling. On a related note, I need more bookshelves. Actually, I need more walls to put shelves on.(Walls being a greater constraint then shelves) You people at Worldcon, enjoy. Me has cestus! Current Mood: accomplished (3 Comments |Comment on this)