Sunday, March 30, 2014

Go Go gadget

It's finally here, my own GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition :-) and I am as happy as a child tasting his first ice cream. So say hello to my little friend and brace yourselves, because soon you'll be able (want it or not) to join me on my wild and not so wild experiences...




Sunday, March 23, 2014

How you doin'?

How you doin?
As most of you probably know, thanks to Joey from Friends (and Keith Glassman)
this phrase has become synonymous with New-York Italians. Us Israelis have a similar saying for Passover: Where are you doin'? Which means, where are you doing your Sadder? No one really cares about anything else. Not about what are you planning to do for the holidays (8 days off), who are you planning to do it with or even what are you going to eat in the Sadder (because that fact is already known, everybody is basically eating the same) just, Where are you doin'?
So where am I doin'?
Forgetaboutit



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Lost - season 1 episode 1

As the Malaysian airline flight MH370 mystery deepens, I can't stop wandering about our own ordeal in the desert.
Last weekend a few of us, 26 to be exact (12 of them were kids) decided to go for a "walk about" in the Negev desert. After a night in a Bedouin tent we took off. About 40 minutes drive later, we parked our cars in the middle of f... Nowhere.
Now, there were two trails, and we decided of course on the short 3k one (kids you know).
About an hour and a half into our walk, (which was supposed to be the entire length of the trial) it started to pour and the end was nowhere to be seen. So a friend and myself offered a short cut trough a different path. Well... The group's decision was to listen to their women's intuition and continue on our current trail.
5 hours later we started realizing something was wrong. The fact we had no more food, water or cellular reception did the trick. So the same friend and myself decided to climb a mountain (yes a mountain) in order to see whether we can get any reception and maybe send a distress call. After a 30 minutes or so climb the SMS was sent and we received a message back that rescue is on its way.
Two hours later as we sit around our bonfire a pickup truck arrived with two young men and no room what so ever for us. Apparently they thought we only needed water.

And the plot thickens. We loaded the kids on the pickup and decided to walk back behind it using its lights as a guide. On the way we met with an army jeep on patrol with 3 really nice soldiers that apparently saw our foot prints and followed them to us (we later found out, this trail was only 4k from the Egyptian border and was used by mainly by infiltrators).
We stuffed some more people on the jeep and sent them on their way with a promise to come back for us.
Now, it's dark, we have no water, no food but no kids as well, so we started our walk back. After two more hours we met up with the pickup again and were told we already walked for 8k and all that's left where a couple more.
We arrive to a surreal image. An army jeep with 3 soldiers surrounded by 12 kids in the dark in the middle of the desert.
Now all that was left, was the two hours drive home.
Piece of cake. 


Sunday, March 2, 2014

They have a dream

Later today a massive rally is going to take place in Jerusalem. It was organized by the ultra orthodox with two objectives. The first is to show strength, the other is to go against a law which binds every able 18 year old orthodox to join the army (the same as it always was for every secular 18 year old).
Rallies are of course a legitimate way to make yourself heard in democratic countries.
But what happens when it stands completely against a law which was voted for in the same democracy?
Some may say there is no right or wrong here (at least non partial viewers) but there is definitely something really rotten here. Don't get me wrong, I believe in our democratic right to protest and getting our voices heard but... This rally is backed by decisions to simply refuse to obey the law, plus it's volatile in particular due to the fact it hits a nerve within the already serving secular Israelis.
So let's sum it up: I am of course against this way of protesting. I believe that in order to protest against a law you must first at least abide by it, (and I am not talking about new laws that will endanger us) I just wish us secular Israelis will ones be able to join in such force for something we "believe" in.

Great minds...