Ellen

My favorite talk show host of all time is Ellen Degeneres. Not only is she funny but she includes the audiences and member's at home as well. The prizes she gives away are awesome and she infiltrates charities to give on her show as well. Every morning while getting ready for work I play through my DVR from the day before. It starts my day in a great mood because after all laughter is the best medicine. I hope to one day go out to California and get tickets so I can see it live but for now I'll enjoy her on my 32"

Shavuot

The holiday of Shavuot is coming up next week. This commemorates the time the Jewish People left Egypt and were in the dessert for 40 years when Moses finally received the 10 commandments from Gd. The best experience I ever had on this holiday was in Israel. Late at night after we eat a big festive meal with family and friends we start our "walk" towards the western wall. Some people live very far so there walk takes longer but as we are walking we sees Jews coming out from little alleyways and eventually join the masses in the streets. It is the only time of year that it is understood for the Arabs to "leave us alone" and we are allowed to walk through the Arab quarter in the old city. When we finally get there, the courtyard is filled with thousands of Jews from all over, of all ages. There is barely room to move but there are hushed tones as we wait to watch the sunrise. Finally the sun starts to rise and people begin their prayers together. Their is such a holiness that is spread it is hard to describe. But one of my most memorable experiences to date.

Reality T.V. when its not scripted...

Some post back I already talked about reality T.V. a little and how most of them are scripted. But some are actually real. For example: "First 48" which is a homicide detective show that takes you through the crime and eventually a confession from the criminal. The show makes the faces of people in suspect fuzzy but the one who is guilty is fully shown. The producers have to get permission from the victims family to allow them to appear on the show but apparently the criminal has no say in the editing. It makes me wonder if it's exploiting the criminal? Although I feel pretty strongly that a person who can take a life in front of G-d basically disowns any rights they have on privacy laws.

Stabbing on my street

The other night I was lying in bed falling asleep. I get a text from my roomate who is actually at the airport waiting to board a flight to Israel. her text said " ummm did u hear what happ. on the corner of our street?" I started to wake up a little more, "Uh no I didnt", I replied. My roomate then sent me a message back basically saying our neighbor had texted her he parked down the street and their were a bunch of cop cars and yellow tape. He found out there was a stabbing about half an hour previously. I ran into the other room to tell my third roommate and we both peered through our porch window but couldn't see anything. We immediately locked the double lock. Our neighborhood is becoming more dangerous and it's causing me to want to move.

Lost

I drove to Baltimore today
not using a GPS because I always know my way.
The passenger next to me talked to no end,
15 minutes from my destination, I missed the last bend.
It lead me into unnecessary traffic,
all the while I was starting to feel sick.
I landed downtown in the city,
my passenger appeasing me with jokes somehow now didn't seem witty.
The signs and streets looked vaguely familiar,
but I couldn't quite place on the map where we were.
There were bars and drunkards walking the streets,
not necessarily the best place to meet.
Picking up my cell I called a friend for directions,
getting nervous I was in the city's bad section.
He traced me from my exact location,
and was finally able to get me to the correct destination.
The only LOST I like happens to be on T.V.
Otherwise, once in a lifetime is enough for me.

Torture device

One torture device is called "necklacing". Basically created in the 80's and 90's in South Africa as a lethal death sentence. The idea is to use a tire filled with petrol and force it around the victim's chest and arms and set it on fire. Causing a long and painful death with severe burning. This practice of lynching is also found in the Carri bean country of Haiti from 1986 to 1990. Necklacing returned to South-Africa in 2008 when people turned against immigrants from Zimbabwe. The influx of immigrants led to violence, looting and murder in some of South Africa’s poorest areas, this violence included necklace lynching.

A walk through Far Rock

The neighborhood I live in now is as different as night and day from where I grew up. I live in Far Rockaway, NY now and walking around the neighborhood I feel very enclosed. The buildings, houses and apartments are right next door to each other. Some city dwellers say that Far Rock is "out of town", but if they visited Atlanta, they would know what a real out of town neighborhood looks like. No matter how much I am getting used to it, it will never be as green and as beautiful as Atlanta, Georgia.

Walking down the narrow sidewalk I glance down at the broken pavement, the ridges move up and down, almost as if they were dancing in a pattern. There are parked cars on each side of the street since most people are without driveways here. Looking back at my three story apartment building, it’s much newer than the rest of the houses or buildings on the block, and I am thankful for that. As I walk along I notice all sorts of different people of color and cultures. Closer to my home are little Jewish children riding their tricycles up and down the sidewalk, almost knocking me over out of excitement to be out of their small family homes. But, as I walk down I see more people of ethnic decent. Hispanics and Blacks mostly. Some gathering around an ice cream truck because it’s never too cold for ice cream. I personally have grown to hate the music it makes since it’s reverberating and annoying while I try to relax in the evenings. About two blocks further, as I turn the corner, it is completely ghetto looking. There are no more Jewish kids and no more run down houses even. It all looks like government housing to me. There are metal bars on the windows and the doors of some apartments look worn and tattered. There is a gated tiny convenience store I walk into. It’s owned by Arabs. All the jokes start running through my mind now. “A Jewish girl walks into an Arab convenience store..." I giggle to myself. No worries, I know these guys since I come here in a pinch sometimes for milk or OJ. They smile at me and say, "hello, how are you", in their broken English. I smile back and slide around the clustered line forming out the door and isles, to find what I need. I leave with not yet ripe bananas and a carton of Tropicana. Walking back home I notice even though the neighborhood seems more sketchy to me, there are still people going about there business outside. Little black girls jumping rope while chanting poetic songs, a Hispanic mother dressed like she's going to a fiesta, clutching her little boy's hand so he doesn't run in the street. It gets me to thinking, that even though they don't have yards to play in and they need to watch their children more because they are without fences; they live their lives like any other person would. As I get closer to my building I see warn down houses again, some have yards and fences, others do not. There is a red bricked public school behind the houses that I notice through the driveways. We don’t have schools back in the ATL behind our houses. I close my eyes for a minute and think back to Atlanta, the green plush grass, big driveways, renovated houses, and no one parking on the street...unless you’re having a party. The sprinkler systems watering the gardens people work so hard on with beautiful colored roses and lilies and…” BEEP, BEEP, BEEP”, I am rudely interrupted by the sound of cars incessantly honking their horns at each other. I begrudgingly open my eyes. Once again, I am back in Far Rockaway.