Gotta fly....

From Instapundit, check out kite flyers! They

are basically go-karts bolted to hang gliders, with giant engines on the back driving pusher props.

Ooooh that sounds like fun....
The main thing I miss about living in California is being able to fly... It's not impossible here, just inconvenient and expensive. So I haven't really flown since.. well since 2001. Wow, it's been too long. I've gotta go flying.

Gaza

It's hard to tell from the little reporting coming out of Gaza what's really going on. I presume we'll know more once it's all over.
My thoughts have been with the Israeli soldiers doing what they are good at in Gaza. May they and the 2 kidnap vicitims return home safe and sound... And it certainly looks like this time the IDF has been given the go-ahead to clean up a lot of the mess that has been festering in Gaza.
Hamas leaders arrested! I like that.
Sonic booms over Baby Assad's palace in Damascus! I like that too.

Like all (or nearly all) Israelis, I hope and wait for the day when the Palestinians establish their own free, democratic state side by side with Israel, with fill economic, political and cultural cooperation.
But this is not possible with crazy Hamas in power who want to kill all the Jews.
I'm afraid that there's only one way to solve this mess, and that's with war. It can be long and drawn-out, or it can be short and decisive.
Let's hope it will be short so we can get on with more constructive activities.

In the meantime all my thoughts are with the IDF soldiers, go and do a good job and come home safely, so you don't have to go back any time soon.

Socca

I'm not much of a sports person, but it's hard not to get caught up in the world cup madness. People here are going nuts, but in a good way, about the soccer (or 'socca' as the Aussies say). They stay up all night to watch the games, and then half the country takes a sickie on Monday because they can't get out of bed in the morning.
It's all good fun, and while everyone wants the Soccerroos to win, it's all done in that wonderfully light-hearted Australian way. "Goooaalll!!! Wait, who scored? Ahh, have another beer mate!"
I was happy to see the Ghanian player wave the Israeli flag, and not at all surprised by the childish and stupid reactions from the rest of the world.
I was also very happy that Australia lost to Brazil "only" by 2 points. I was worried they would get totally creamed. Nobody seriously expected them to win, but after the sensational win over Japan, people are starting to get optimistic. Even the Brazilians admit that the Soccerroos played a great game. All they need to do now is win or tie with Croatia, and we're off to the next round!
Go Soccerroos!

Baby Boom

The Australian government wants us Aussies to have more babies. At least three, in fact ("one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country"). Two years ago the government started paying new parents $3000 for every new little Aussie brought into the world. And it worked! People were cynical, and said that nobody would have a baby just for the $3000.... true, I don't think anyone did, but it sure helped them decide to have one when that was added to all the other reasons. In fact, more babies were born in Australia on July 1, 2004 than on any other day in the last three decades.

When the baby bonus policy was first announced, in the big-spending pre-election budget of 2004, the families minister at the time, senator Kay Patterson, was asked whether it would have been better to have announced and introduced the policy on the same day. She said: "Well, I don't believe mothers would put (their babies) at risk."

Yeah right!! Hardly any babies were born on June 30!
This year the baby bonus will be increased to $4000 and this time they are expecting another mini-boom.
I just hope the government is planning to increase the number of day care workers and centres because even now there is a 2-year waiting list for some of them, especially in Sydney.
I know what would make me keener to have another bub: better maternity leave benefits at work. The only reason I'm waiting with #2 is because if I wait a bit more, I'll get better benefits. I couldn't imagine having nothing more than 12 weeks off. What am I supposed to do, put a 12-week old baby in full time day care so I can keep my job? As it is, with the waiting lists I wouldn't be able to even if I wanted.
Having extra cash to help with the expenses involved in caring for a new baby is great. But I need more than that; I need to know that I'll be able to raise my kid and keep my job, if only part-time, until I'm ready to go back to full-time work.

Home?

I spent waaay too much time this morning reading this article in ynet. It's written by an Israeli who has been living in Canada for 10 years and will soon be moving back to Israel. Most of the time I spent reading many of the hundreds of comments. Roughly half say what I figured they would say: you are crazy for wanting to come back here, and can I please take your place? I was quite surprised to see quite a lot of comments welcoming the writer back home and telling her she's making the right choice. But the comments that scared me most were those that said "your children will hate you for forcing them to leave their home and growing up in a much worse country".
When we think of leaving Australia of moving back, the most important thing (well, the only thing really) that we miss is our families and good friends. It's hard to raise a child so far away from his grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousins. And it's not fair to our parents to raise their grandchild so far from them. But will my son really have a better life there? What with the terrible education system and all? I look at Israeli kids and I see spoiled brats who walk all over their parents and teachers. I'm not sure I want that for my son.
I'm very, very keen to see with my own eyes what things are like "back home". I'm glad we have the opportunity to be in Israel for a much longer visit this time, because you don't get enough time to see and do much in the standard 2-week family and friends whirlwind visit tour.
I'm hoping that our visit later this year will answer a lot of questions, but I have a feeling that it will only create many new questions instead...

Henna

Sometimes I get an idea in my head that makes me do slightly crazy things. hmmm must be the 'compulsive' bit of my OCD...

Anyway, the latest craze was that I wanted to dye my hair with henna. Some of my friends used to henna a lot in high school but I was never into it. I think it was my hairdresser who gave me the idea, she offered a coupon for $5 a semi-permanent dye job and I took one look at it and threw it away. I don't dye my hair.

One week later, I'm in the Indian grocery shop buying $1.90 worth of authentic Indian henna.


I mixed it all up yesterday based on some recipe ideas I got from this great site, with lots of black coffee, some tea tree oil, a bit of ground cloves, and chamomile tea.
After brewing all night I finally got my chance to spread the stuff all over my hair. Junior finally went to bed for his nap, and I got all my plastic gloves and saran wrap and other gear and proceeded to smear goo all over my hair, and also my face, hands, sink, mirror, floor, and the inside of my ear. I think I made it too watery cause the foul stuff kept oozing down my face and neck. I finally managed to get it under control with a shower cap, 5 meters of saran wrap, and 2 towels.

After spending an hour cleaning up the mess I finally had a chance to sit down and turn on the TV. At that moment Junior woke up, so much for the relaxing bit.

Anyway, I'm done rinsing and cleaning and laundering towels with Nappy San, and now have rather orangy tinted hair. Hubby can't see it at all cause he's colour blind. The orange stuff is supposed to fade in the next couple of days and then the final colour will settle in. Good thing it's a long weekend, I wouldn't want to shock anyone at work with my new orange look.

Ding Dong, the Murdering Scumbag is Dead

I don't usually gloat over people's death, even of "enemies", but I was mighty happy to hear that the Zark finally got a big dose of karma, in the form of 2 x 500 lb laser guided goodness.
The only thing I regretted was that he died so quickly he never knew what hit him.
But!
Turns out he did indeed know exactly what hit him, and had a few coherent, if blood soaked, moments to have a bit of a think about it and to look into the eyes of the Iraqi and American soldiers who got him.
So now I'm even happier.

Next Year in Jerusalem

So a while ago I was reading through the automated emails that I get from the research office with scholarships, postdoc positions, and all that. And something caught my eye: a scholarship for exchange programs between my uni and the Hebrew uni in Jerusalem. They had postponed the deadline for application submissions, probably cause there aren't too many people lining up for a free ticket to Israel. So I applied.
And I got it!
They will pay for my airfare and accommodation... and I get to do some work in collaboration with Hebrew uni which is by far the best uni in Israel.
We're planning to fly on Christmas day, hoping for a less-than-full plane (at least for the first leg).
By then it will have been nearly 3 years since we visited.
I'm not looking forward to such a long flight with a toddler, but I am excited about seeing family and friends, and having junior spend time with his grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. And seeing all my old friends. My Sydney friends are nowhere near as close as my friends from high school whom I barely saw in the last decade. That's the way it is.
But I'm also excited to see what it's like to work in an Israeli uni. I have very little experience working in Israel in an "adult" job (ie not babysitting and fast food work). After all, we left very shortly after finishing the army and hadn't had much chance to really live there as, you know, adults.
So it will be an interesting experience....
And if I get a paper published to boot, then that makes it all the more worthwhile.

Sometimes I need something to remind me why I love Linux

I've had the unfortunate need to use a couple of our Windows workstations for some serious number crunching that I had to do. What a pain in the neck! Jeeeez! I forgot how much grief working with Windows can bring.
On my desktop running Linux, I could open 2 files and crunch them at the same time. It took many hours, but it crunched until it was done.
On Windows, with much better hardware (an extra CPU, tons of memory), it would crash half way through one number-crunching session. And no, it did not save anything.
Luckily I'm married to a genius programmer who wrote some code to bypass the need for this time-consuming and cpu-consuming stuff.
So now I'm back with my lovely linux, and enjoying every bit, even though I do have to work on the weekend.

Army Fashions

Iran's crazy president backed by an entire army of men with the same unshaved stubble.
This reminded me of the old Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, where everyone had the Saddam mustache. And the Syrian army where everyone has the Assad mustachio.
I don't think anyone in the Israeli army is going to take up the new defense minister's mustache style.

However, it looks like the IDF is having some trouble keeping the women's pants waistlines from plunging too low. (Yahoo News couldn't resist the pun...)
I remember, way back when, I took my army skirt to a tailor to have it shortened. It looked like a potato sack originally. And there were specific rules as to how low you could go. I reckon it's time to set some new rules regarding pants. Although, what with all the bureaucracy in the army, by the time they figure something out (or redesign the pants), low-riders will be out of fashion.

From Darkness to Light

After 14 days trapped nearly a kilometer underground, the two Tasmanian miners have finally been rescued.
What an amazing story! I must say that when I first heard the news of the mine collapse two weeks ago, I had very little hope that they would be found alive, especially after the body of their colleague was found.
It's rare to hear any good news lately, but this is an amazing story and the whole of Australia were watching and hoping for the miner's return to safety.
I think that's a primal fear that all humans share; the fear of being buried alive, with no air, light, water, and not knowing if you will be found and rescued. I don't know how those guys survived for so long. I'm sure they will write a book about it and maybe a movie will be made? They deserve whatever the get in royalties!

Happy Birthday Israel!

I was reflecting yesterday on the differences between the memorial days of my three countries.
When I moved to the US I was quite surprised that Memorial Day is not really about remembering those who gave their lives in the defense of the country, but rather a day of shopping and sales and barbecues. It really made me feel that I was, indeed, in a different country. I couldn't understand it (and I still can't), but it was nice to be living in a place where most people are quite removed from war and loss.
What a contrast to Israel's Yom Hazikaron, which affects everyone in a very direct way, simply because virtually everyone knows someone who lost their life.
Anzac Day was recently commemorated here. Australians are not as directly affected as Israelis are, but still they do not treat the day as a shopping spree. There are dawn services, and interesting documentaries, and parades. People share a sense of pride in the sacrifices and achievements of their soldiers.

Don't worry be happy?

It's impossible to read the news in the last few years and not be terribly worried about the state of this planet. Being Israeli, I think I have a good understanding of how this world works, and especially the middle east. Living in a sane country like Australia gives me the chance to look at things "from the outside". And yet, even oceans away, I can never be truly disassociated from what's going on over on the other side of the world. And especially so today, when events and happenings have a truly global significance.
Iran's nuclear threats worry me a great deal. I really believe them when they say they want to wipe Israel off the map. But at some point I have to force myself to stop worrying, since there's really nothing I can do about it. And I take solace in the thought that there are people who can do something about it, and I'm pretty sure they are worried too and are doing something about it.
This interview with the former Mossad chief helps to calm my nerves a bit; just knowing that there are good, intelligent people doing their jobs.
It's a rather long interview but highly recommended reading.

Political Compass

I've seen this one around before, but it's come to my attention again today. And seeing as it's the end of the week, and I have a lot of work to do but I just don't feel like doing it for long without taking a break, I decided to take the test.
The test aims to find your political compass, and show in which quadrant of the economic and social scale you are situated.
So what were my results? Not surprisingly, I'm not in any quadrant. I'm smack in the middle of the economic left-right line, and leaning toward the libertarian on the social scale.
I had always considered myself left-leaning when it comes to social matters. In the last few years my political views have seen me drift from left to centre-right without actually changing much themselves.

Positive thinking follow up

This article on the growing prevalence among psychologists to focus more on happiness and wellbeing reminded me of my own efforts to change my attitude to a more positive one.
I just wanted to let you know that yes, I'm still listing 3 good things that I did during the day, every night before I go to sleep.
It is indeed addictive. It totally changes my thoughts and my mindset as I get ready to sleep, and it forces me to think about all the good things that happen to me and that I do. I'm often surprised at how much good there is, although I usually have to think a bit to remember what happened even on the same day.
It's so easy to overlook the good and focus on the stressful and bad. I'm not ignoring the stressful, just balancing it out a bit.

Weird beard

The big story in Israel now is what to do with 3 MKs who met with leaders of Hamas.
Interesting enough, but all I can think about is, dude - WTF is up with that beard??

I mean, is it natural? Or do you colour it? Is it some new fashion among metrosexual Palestinians or something?
Whoa.

OK, so I was being a lemon

...but I got over it.
Passover was briefly cancelled due to extreme stress and hurt feelings. But luckily things did not escalate into anything too nasty.
We ended up having a lovely Sedder with friends, at our place, with lots of food (all vegetarian! except for the gefilte fish) and even a Ma Nishtana sung by the kids.
I love Pessach, and I'm so happy I didn't end up missing out this year.
Chag Sameach.

Wombat's Rule of Working Mothers

There are three things in life: career, home/family, and sanity.
Choose two.

Actually, it's not quite like that. You can have varying degrees of each.
For instance, in my case, my current status-quo in life has the following:

Work: 75%.
Why? Because by the time I drop off Junior at day care, and hubby at work, and find a parking space, and get to my office, I have about 6 hours left to work before I have to leave to pick up Junior. (This includes lunch.) So, if I work 6 hours out of the 8 I'm supposed to, that comes out to 75%. At most.

Home/family: 60%
Why? Well, Junior is at day care five days a week, 9-5. I pay a lot of money for cleaners to clean my home. I hardly do any yard work so it looks like a jungle. I do grocery shopping, and basic cooking and cleaning, and lots of laundry. So let's call it 60%.

This leaves me with:
Sanity: 65%
(200 - (75+60))
which is about right, and a level I'm willing to cope with.

This Passover I offered to host the Sedder, and the balance was tipped quite heavily towards the home/family side of the triangle, which would have caused a small dent in my work, and a huge dent in my sanity.
So I decided, bugger it all, I want my sanity, and so declared, one day in advance, that Passover has officially been canceled this year.

I'd write more but I have to go pick up Junior.

Gold fisks Fisk

Here's an interesting review of two recently published books: The Great Ear for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by none other than Robert Fisk, and The Long War For Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East by Barry Rubin.
The reviewer, Alan Gold, proceeds to fisk Fisk:

...he cannot see beyond his prejudices. To compound matters, his book contains serious errors of fact. To describe King Faisal of Syria (later he was made king of Iraq) and his brother King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan as members of a Gulf tribe denies them their birth as Hashemites in the Kingdom of the Hejaz, which is the other side of the peninsula; the Iraqi monarchy wasn't ousted in 1962 but four years earlier; and the UN Security Council passed Resolution 242 in 1967, just after the Six-Day War, not in 1968 ... and so on.

Minor points, perhaps, but it shows that Fisk's ungovernable rage gets in the way of his need to check facts.

...

...instead of looking ahead, Fisk dwells alongside his Arab victims on the past.

...

Rubin, on the other hand, believes that every Arab country as well as Iran has been led by dictators who have failed to deliver any promise or substantive benefit to their people. They have succeeded by repression, corruption, the use of anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric and playing ethnic politics.

Radical Islamists who share this world view are today challenging these dictators and want to substitute Islamism for Arab nationalism. But, according to Rubin, a small band of liberals in these despotic societies has begun to emerge as a weak yet important alternative.

...

Rubin believes these liberal voices, rather than an imposed democracy of the West with its sometimes anti-democratic outcomes, will provide a long-term solution to the dangers of Islamism. He is confident Arabia will be democratic within the next 50 years, but not within the next 10.

Hiatus

Wow, it's been a while since I had time to write. I've been quite busy.
Last week was the official graduation ceremony where I got my PhD diploma. It was nice, the ceremony was not too long, and it was nice to see everyone celebrating with excited friends and proud parents. I was one of only four PhD graduates, and got to wear the funny hat and everything.
I've been busy at work too, but in a good way: the kind of busy that makes you look at your watch for the first time and gasp because it's already past 16:00 and you have to leave but have so much more to do.
This weekend I was wondering, as always, what to do in those precious 2 hours when junior has his nap. Should I cook? Clean? Paint? (I recently took a short course in abstract painting.) Yesterday I took the easy way out and took a nap myself. Today I decided to use the time to make some jewelry (I also just finished another course at the evening college: beading and silver wire work), and I even have some time to blog!