Join me on the web! Bring your lunch, a computer (with wifi or internet), a phone line and we’ll do a little learning together through a webinar. I will be teaching today, November 3, November 10, and November 17. You do not have to attend all of the sessions, you can pop in as you are available! If you need the log-on information for the 10th or 17th, let me know and I will get those to you. Here is today’s information.
This program is brought to you by Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto.
And if you use foursquare or thought about it, check this out!
Foursquare Checkins On Election Day
2010 October 27by Lisa
You know the dandy little sticker you get after voting, “I VOTED!”? Foursquare, the popular mobile-based geo-location game has collaborated with Rock the Vote, Pew Center, Google and the Voting Information Project to create the digital version for the upcoming election. “Every day we see new examples of Foursquare encouraging and reinforcing positive behaviors,” said Foursquare’s Eric Friedman in a statement. “We’re excited to harness the power of Foursquare to drive civic engagement through the ‘I Voted’ badge.” Foursquare currently has over 4 million users. You can download the app to your phone, and/or sign up online.
To pull it off, they’ve collected data on 107,000 polling places. When users check in at these locations and include the hashtag #ivoted, they’ll get the “I Voted” badge in Foursquare, and be added to real time maps and data collected from around the country.
The Foursqaure project builds on the 2008 Twitter #VoteReport, a project that allowed users to share information during the presidential election about their polling places (what was going well, and not so well) in order to make sure everyone was able to vote in a timely and accurate way. Data from the Foursquare project will be used to plan additional initiatives to increase voter turnout and ensure smooth voting experiences for the 2012 presidential election. You can follow the project on election day here.
Allison Fine, one of the co-creators of Twitter #VoteReport, and co-author with Beth Kanter of the excellent book The Networked Nonprofit, will be presenting a webinar with Darim on November 3, from 1-2pm in celebration of our 10th anniversary. All are welcome to this free webinar (though space is limited). Register here!
I’ll be checking in on election day. Will you?
I’m confused. I remember Halloween taking place on October 31, as a kid I remember trick-or-treating, the Halloween parade at school, and carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds. I have zero recollection of Halloween greeting cards, wearing costumes for a week, and it being in any way acceptable to stop regularly scheduled activities (like Sunday School!) for Halloween.
Don’t get me wrong, the kids walking around in costumes and stuff is very cute. I even understand a Halloween party the night before (it is so Jewish to start holidays the evening before) especially on a Sunday.
It has gone too far. Looking around the Sunday School today it seems that numbers might be slightly down (this is unofficial). Of the 13 grade 10 students I prepared to teach, only three showed up.
The commercialization of every celebration, no matter how big or small is horrifying to me. Are we really modeling something to the next generation or are we preparing them to rebel against us?
My favorite Halloween tradition is the one that I learned about in Spanish class every year, Dia de los Muertos (I know there should be some accents in there). This is actually the origin of Halloween to some extent and has deep important meaning for the families that go to the cemeteries and remember the deceased in preparation for tomorrow, All Saints Day. These celebrations are not part of my faith or cultural tradition but I think they are very interesting to learn about.
So, Happy Halloween, I guess. Please let it be over when it is over. Oh, and happy November!
Happy birthday to the best father I’ve ever had (yes he’s the only one, too). In honor of your birthday, I’m going to write a list of 29 reasons I love you! (Why anyone in my family couldn’t be born at the beginning of a month is beyond me!)
1. You like to spontaneously call in the middle of the day just to say ‘hi’.
2. You are a devoted father and ensured that THE DIVA and I were independent women and knew how to do things like fix toilets and check the oil.
3. You are really good and researching purchases (specifically electronics) and ensuring that you get the device you really want. I make no comment about using said devices.
4. When I was little (we’re talking really little) you used to take me on dates and not get mad when I would eat only the cucumber out of a cucumber roll.
5. You think you’re really funny. Sometimes you are.
6. You’ve become a professional volunteer in your retirement, a reminder to everyone that perhaps the real reason to work is to be able to retired and give back to community.
7. We are both left-handed ensuring equality at our family dinner table.
8. You are always concerned there will be something on the menu for me to eat.
9. You are immensely talented and creative. Your latest foray into the world of ceramics is a testament to this!
10. No one can worry as effectively as you.
11. You LOVE to read and always know a good book.
12. Though I did not attend a university with a football team, you ensured that I know who to root for at all times. Fight on USC!
13. Once, THE DIVA and I found your secret stash of candy and we hid it from you. You didn’t get ‘mad’ and you never got even 🙂
14. No one can pretend to detract squirrels from a bird feeder as effectively as you.
15. There is not a coat that exists in the world that you don’t want to own (yes this man has more coats than anyone I have ever met).
16. You are really good with children and they flock to be around you.
17. We used to make the best chocolate chip cookies together (this was long ago) and you made sure that THE DIVA and I got equal parts of the batter.
18. You have exceptional taste.
19. You are an excellent nurse. I know it from when I had my ACL replacement.
20. You are the king of schmoozing.
21. You are really good at driving the speed limit.
22. True story: “I went to see _____ movie. I couldn’t figure out why it was so dark. When the movie was over. I realized I still had my sunglasses on.” Hilarious!
23. You are really good at trivial pursuit. Really any game that requires lots of knowledge about random things. You passed this skill on to me.
24. You lived in Japan for a year. This is cool because it meant we were eating sushi before it was trendy, and you can spy on Japanese people and tell us what they’re saying.
25. You really like getting your back scratched and shoulders rubbed.
26. In 1984 you took me to the Olympics in Los Angeles to see women’s team finals. You got to see lots of other cool things, too.
27. You’re fun to go on a road trip with, especially when you spring for massages.
28. You wrote me my very own lullaby.
29. Since later today it will also be Shabbat, I am comfortable telling the world that you created the phrase “Shabbat Salami.”
So Shabbat Salami, Dad! I love you!
Today was a very sad, yet simultaneously happy day. It was the final day of the Pri Adamah season. As you probably know, Pri Adamah is the Temple Sinai Community Supported Agriculture program that I have blogged about before. It was sad because it was the last day of four months of an amazing opportunity to walk outside and find amazingly fresh, organic, locally grown, beautiful produce. It was also immensely happy because it has been such a wonderful experience for me personally, for all of the Pri Adamah members, the volunteers who helped, for our farmer Daniel Hoffman and his team, and for the Social Action committee that worked tirelessly to make this project a reality for our community.
Don’t fret Temple Sinai and Pri Adamah! The social action committee is already thinking about next season. Only 8 more months until next season starts!
(If you have positive things to say about Pri Adamah, please feel free to comment on this post or email me privately. It will help the committee with recruitment for next year!)
Torontonians, today is the day! There are only 3 reasons you should not vote today:
So get out and do it!
There is a great article in The New Yorker. Here is the most interesting part.
Polls show that Americans have also become steadily more critical of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted earlier this year, seventy-five per cent of Americans think that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly. (The same poll showed sixty-two per cent in favor in 2001, and forty-four per cent in 1993.)
15 years ago (according to the Hebrew calendar) today I was doing my brief foray in retail sales. I got home in the afternoon to my mom sitting in front of the television. She told me that Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated. It was the year several of my friends and I were traveling to Israel as part of the Alexander Muss High School in Israel program and I thought immediately of my friend David who was there. I prayed for his safety even as I felt numb to the fact that this man, whatever his faults, was killed by another Jewish person for attempting to make peace.
I’m pretty sure I have the newspaper from the next day with the headline of the assassination. I remember thinking, “I will always remember where I was when I heard this news.”
It seems ironic to think about that 15 years later. I have lots of ‘what if’ kinds of questions. I think that we all do and if we don’t we should. But not today. Today we should remember a man who showed us that another way might be possible. One who was dedicated to his country, to our beloved State of Israel and to an idea that peace might be a reality if we stop fighting and start talking.
Zecher tzadik livracha – May the memory of the righteous be a blessing.
Hello blogosphere. It has been awhile. I am not sure why I haven’t been writing and perhaps there is no good reason. Sure work has been busy.
I was in New York City (technically just Newark, NJ) for a nanosecond for a CCAR meeting.
I got a new wii game (Super Mario Bros., anyone?).
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Netflix CD so that I can stream movies to my television. 
I have taken a new liking to bubble tea. I’m not sure why it is so satisfying to chew my drink but it is. Don’t worry, eventually I will find this idea repugnant again.
I have read a bunch of good books and I even read last week’s New Yorker before this weeks edition arrived. Don’t worry. I still have the new Vanity Fair and several weeks of The Forward that are piling up.
I bought more k-cups and I’m happy to report they’re working on making them more green.
When I was in New York with the grade 10 students I bought 3 packs of Biblical Bandz (Jewish silly bandz). I have them spread out on the table in my office. I notice that more people are now stopping by my office. Is it because I give away the bandz?
I am completely enthralled by the baseball playoffs. I don’t really have a favorite team. In solidarity with my sister, I could root for the Yankees. I think I will just stick with watching and enjoying the fine baseball. It feels wrong to root solely for the Yankees.
By the way, my sister is going to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks for interviews. Have you thought about hiring her yet? Did you forward her resume? Been in touch?
Enough random musing for now. Cherrio!
New York was really wonderful. I am sorry that I didn’t get to see VeggieBerger, KosherBerger, SliderBerger, my favorite CPA, RVT, Mr. and Mrs. Margolis, and pretty much everyone else that I didn’t get to see. The grade 10s had a wonderful time, that was most important, and I did, too.
If you’re in NYC, you should see Memphis. It is wonderful.
I also was so appreciative of seeing C-Ro and Tamaraleh who both suggested they should bring me tubes of Tom’s of Maine toothpaste (fortunately they didn’t because I didn’t check my luggage and it would have been confiscated by the TSA). It truly is the thought that counts.
I also am immensely pleased to say that I saw THE DIVA. We discussed art, we ate pickles, we shopped. Nothing like being sisters.
Unfortunately the trip did not end swimmingly because we were delayed forever (or 3.5 hours) and I now need to catch up on my sleep (and I also need a new pair of walking shoes. Suggestions welcome).
