Book of Days: asher553

Last week was a busy week. Last Sunday evening I attended a Charlie Kirk memorial in Beaverton. It was well-attended, quiet and dignified, and I saw a number of friends from the local conservative community. The ceremony was short, about a half-hour, with about an hour of social time afterward. We didn't have any trouble from the other side.

Thursday night I attended a fundraiser dinner in Beaverton, again running into a number of friends from the conservative community.

On the work front, I learned that my current contract will be ending at the end of this month (my manager had extended me for as long as his bosses would let him), but almost immediately after getting this news, I was contacted by a recruiter for a very promising opportunity in Hillsboro, only about a mile from my front door. I should be learning more this coming week.

Also in my professional life, I finally scheduled, took - and passed! - the first of two exams required to get a fresh A+ certification (the entry-level professional certificate for IT support). I'm taking the second exam tomorrow morning, so I'll need to set aside some time to cram.

And I finally started the online Hebrew course I'd signed up for months ago, and which was postponed twice. It is an Ulpan-style conversation course, and I think I'm going to be very happy with it. I took the placement test and they put me in Level 6 (of 7). We are reviewing the Pi'el conjugation and practicing vocabulary and dialogs related to art and design.

And with that, time to get back to studying. [270]

I didn't have time to throw together a cholent this week, but I did have a nice restful Shabbat. The upcoming week's Torah reading is Vayetze, beginning the second half of Genesis with Jacob's flight from his brother Esau and his marriages to Rachel and Leah. In Daf Yomi (I started keeping up a couple of weeks ago) we're in Bava Kamma, studying different classes of damages.

In the news, I see the second Starship launch got a little farther than the first, with a successful booster separation, but still ended with the old Rapid Disassembly. Try, try again.

Meanwhile, down on Earth, I see Elon must be over target because a bunch of establishment bigwigs have suddenly accused him of "anti-Semitism". IBM getting on its high horse about anti-Semitism is particularly rich. I'll probably have more to say about this in another post. The left only pretends to care about anti-Semitism when it wants to smear its enemies as "anti-Semites".

Thanksgiving this week! I don't have any plans and will probably just have a quiet meal at home.

RELATED:
https://asher553.dreamwidth.org/504002.html

FINANCE, PART 1. Shakia, the fraud agent at Wells Fargo, listened patiently while I unfolded a tale of fraudulent charges to my Amazon Prime account. Quite likely she was thinking "Oh shit, another customer who signed up for too many Prime Video channels." She would have been correct: about five minutes after I hung up the phone, I finally found my way to the webpage where all my premium subscriptions are listed (they don't make it easy to find), and sure enough, I had signed up for about ten channels. I was the author of my own distress. I've got to hand it to Amzaon, they've got a good business model going there: each of those channels only costs around 5 or 6 dollars a month, so it doesn't look like a lot of money, and you never see the whole amount in one place. Also: each channel you sign up for is a SEPARATE recurring monthly charge, so if you sign up for 10 channels, that's 10 charges you've got to keep track of every single month. Better late than never, I immediately unsubscribed from all, so I've now started to save myself a bunch of money and headache. And no doubt I gave Shakia something to talk about with the other phone agents.

FINANCE, PART 2. Signing up for a lot of premium video channels might not have been the best idea, but one thing I did do right was to start keeping a daily ledger. It's just an Excel spreadsheet where I track my activity on my main bank account from day to day. Using the spreadsheet allows me to track pending and scheduled charges and deposits, and of course it makes me more aware of my financial activity. I find I'm enjoying keeping the ledger, and I get a nice feeling of satisfaction from seeing the numbers match up with the bank statement. And it was by keeping the ledger that I first noticed all those Prime Video charges - so the practice has already shown its value.

TECHNOLOGY. After just two months, the USB connection on my new Samsung appears to have failed, and I can no longer charge the device. It's at about 47 pct battery power now. I'll have to take it to the ATT shop at the mall and see if I can get it replaced under warranty.

SOCIETY. The Farmers' Market season is back, and I've started tabling at the local one, along with a new volunteer, D., a woman who contacted us through our website. While sitting at the table last Sunday, D. and I struck up a conversation with a woman, H., who was visiting the Farmers' Market and expressed interest in getting involved. I followed up with H. by email and now she's on the volunteer list too! This weekend's tabling session had to be scrubbed (all three of us had other commitments, mine being the phone) but I'm hoping our new recruit will be joining us next weekend.

LIFE. My Hebrew birthday, 5 Shvat, fell last Friday, and on the civil calendar it's tomorrow: I'm turning 60 years old. This means that, even by the most optimistic estimates, I have already lived at least half the time allotted to me in this world. I find this fact a little sobering, but by no means depressing; rather, I feel energized. ("Concentrates the mind" and all that.)

HOUSING. The now-former roommate has cleared out the last of her belongings, and I now have the place - and the rent payment - all to myself. I've had a couple of responses to my posting that haven't quite worked out for one reason or another; here's hoping the coming week will bring success.

SCRIPTURE. In these troubled and uncertain times, I've found it helpful to renew my commitment to studying the Bible. This week's Torah reading includes the climactic moments of the Exodus from Egypt, with the pillar of fire and of smoke and the splitting of the sea. We've had pandemics, bugs in our food, blood diseases, and the destruction of livestock, crops, and progeny ... it all sounds eerily familiar.

In the broader Hebrew Scriptures, the 929 Project covers I Samuel 24, where King Saul takes a rest break in a cave, unknowingly coming within striking distance of David and his men who are hiding there. What I love about the Saul / David narrative is how carefully David walks the moral tightrope of asserting his claim against a monarch who has lost the mandate of Heaven - yet still respecting the person of Saul, and the office, and the nation, and ultimately G-d.

On the 929 web portal, the Spanish-language lesson (by Salomon Michan Mercado) following the English reading points to the inscription on men's restrooms - 'caballeros' - as a reminder that like a knight holding the reins of his horse, the human soul has the power to control our animal instincts.

Anyway, I'm going to grab the reins of my life and move ahead ... or go back to tilting at windmills, as the case may be.

LINKS
https://www.929.org.il/lang/en/today
https://soundcloud.com/929-bible/JPS_Audio_Bible_I_Samuel_Chapter_24_read_by_Jonathan_Roumie
https://soundcloud.com/salomon-michan/quien-lleva-las-riendas-en-tu

Here it is, almost a month since the holidays ended, and I'm just now geting caught up on journaling.

Besides the holidays, I've been staying busy with politics and social stuff. I'm hosting the conservative meetups every 3 weeks now, and I've got one scheduled for this afternoon. I've also gotten involved in a local election integrity group; I'm fortunate in that I live a short distance from the County Elections Office and can easily participate in the poll-watching.

Reading continues apace with I Samuel, Psalms, Proverbs, Asimov, Borges, Tolkien, Peterson, and Sowell. Plus a couple of nice scoence fiction collections that I'm exploring.

Have still been neglecting knitting and drawing, but I'm planning to mend that shortly.