a little bit of yiddish

A friend of mine commented to me recently that he is "culturally Jewish." The discussion moved on to cynicism, genX, and my friend's refusal to engage in the former despite being a member of the latter. Later though I reflected, "Am I culturally Jewish?"
I more commonly identify as a "New York Jew" than (just) as jewish; my membership in this sub-sect is mainly signified by my sunday morning ritual, involving lox, bagels, and the New York Times. That is certainly the jewish tradition in which I most consistently participate. I also often think about attending friday night services; ambivalence about participation in religion seems to also be part of being a New York Jew. (I don't think my dabbling in Unitarian Universalism (very cool) or TM (sigh) particularly excludes me from the Tribe.)
My most Jewish daily behavior, though, is invoked as a habit when someone else sneezes. I say gesundheit when all around me everyone else says bless you or god bless you. "Gesundheit" means "be healthy!" in Yiddish. "Gesundheit" is pragmatic; why invoke the blessing of a god that neither I nor the sneezer are sure exists and cannot characterize as a being capable of nor interested in issuing a "blessing"? [In my various lives as an east coast academic or a silicon valley salariman, I assume that most of my contacts are agnostic, atheist, or unitarian universalist.]
So to all of you I say, unprompted by a sneeze, cough, or elevated low-density lipids in your blood work, gesundheit! Because no matter which god you or I do (or don't) believe in, no matter which god we were raised to identify as the One and Only God, no matter whether we cynically or sincerly identify as a member of a particular religion, I do sincerely want you to be healthy and happy. So far as that goes, I'm willing to be a New York Jew, and I claim my heritage with this daily invocation. Gesundheit!

cognitive-behavioral therapy for controlling anxiety (about terrorism)

As has been said many times before, the "war on terror" makes no sense; terror is an emotion, and attacking an emotion or defending againstan emotion is best left to cognitive-behavioral therapy. In the parlance of CBT, we challenge a possibly irrational emotion (say, "terror") with rational thoughts. "The city where I live has never been a target for terrorrism. The city where I live is not an icon of american expansionism. Most people bring harmless beverages onto planes. Most people wear harmless shoes on planes."
The "homeland security" efforts, the boots-on-the-ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reactionary travel policies, the color=fear scale, reinforce the (questionably rational) fear of "terrorism." It actually would be pretty rational to infer a real risk of danger from huge efforts by the government to "protect" us -- if we stipulate that "the government" will behave rationally. Which, sadly, it does not.

surfing in water

I spent the first part of yesterday trying to grind through various paperwork and online bill-paying and bookkeeping and such. These activities brought me to a fairly familiar state of low-grade anxiety and self-recrimination. (Lately I haven't been doing many financial things about which I later feel guilty. Quite the opposite.) Then some new Pacifica friends took me surfing; they provided a wetsuit, a longboard, and encouragement. We loaded some boards into the Element (finally this car fulfills its purpose in life!) and drove to Linda Mar. My anxiety at this point was directed at something about surfing, but honestly I can't remember what at this point. Got into the wetsuit, carried the board down to the water, got in, started paddling out...

Then
everything
else
disappeared.


Whoever created the pacific ocean, thank you.

musings on small pieces of paper

I tried the hipster pda with vanilla 3x5 index cards, $4 for 1000, popularized by Merlin Mann. I tried it, but the cards were too white trash for me. Literally. While I was planning my third cross-country move, I splurged on Crane pure cotton 3x5 cards. They were beautiful and strong, but really, $22 for 100, that's insanely expensive. I looked lovingly at Levenger cards; they register higher on the quality-meter than supermarket index cards. I indulged in these when studying for the MCATs, and I'm glad I did. I made a few hundred flashcards and kept them for a year; good design makes it easier to tolerate endless drilling. But Levenger cards cost too much ($44 for 1000) for GTD-style short-term disposable usage. I find Post-it index cards incredibly offensive, design-wise. The rules are far too dark, and the sticky backing literally attracts dirt and lint, which then ends up marring the face of the card behind the dirty/sticky card. The Real Simple index card deck caught my attention, but it suffers from horrible colors and too-wide rules. I honestly don't understand how the people who fetishize moleskine notebooks can tolerate all these loud, rough-edged designs.

My favorite so far: Paper Source business card blanks. Except that (ye gods!) these are $1.50 for 25 cards. Six cents per card? Yuck.

I just bought a deck of long, thin, oval index cards by Umbra and found them entirely the wrong size to play Freecell. (Which is a whole 'nother blog post: why it's better to have time-wasting fun activities that don't involve the computer.) Now I'm experimenting with combining them with a fisher space pen for a cool-shaped hipster pda. Thinking about it in the light of day, though: I paid maybe $5 for 52 cards. This is not a good long term plan.

My latest greatest innovation is using Umbra Meow Playing Cards as bookmarks. Each card has a lovely illustration of a different cat breed, and they're a great form-factor for bookmarks. $5 for 52 cute-as-a-button bookmarks is a big win.

And, ahem, Kitty Spangles Solitaire is really the bomb for mac os x solitaire.

american flag

Sometimes the mac shows a tiny american flag in the menubar. This bothers me. I don't want to think about the United States of America and all the issues surrounding the american flag every time I check the time in the menubar. I certainly don't want to program myself with the jingoism that (these days) images of the flag connote.
The way to turn this off is to go to the International preference pane and uncheck "Show input menu in menubar."