Yehuda

Monday, August 25, 2008

NbN Posts Blogger Participants List

You can now see the list of participants at the 2008 JBloggers conference here. And NbN's own pictures are here.

Yehuda

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Haveil Havalim #179

Hey oh. I just got back from a frielich wedding, and it's pretty late. But I didn't get many submissions this week. I was thinking it might be because of my infamous last stint as HH chair, but it turns out to be because blogcarnival was down a lot of the week.

This week's main event was the Jewish Blogger Conference in Jerusalem. Undoubtedly everyone on this list has already read numerous posts about the conference, but here is a rundown:

Daled Amos
Yourish
Mere Rhetoric
Dov Bear
Mystical Paths
Eva's Notes
Hochma and Musar
Reb Barry's Blog
Israel Plug
Yehuda
hubscubs
Rachel Mauro
me-ander
A Soldier's Mother
Muqata
Rabbi Sedley
Remy
Backspin
West Bank Mama
Radical Moderate
EsaJudita
Debi'Z Blog
Every Day
My Urban Kvetch
Emes V'Emunah
Sense of Events
Humwitz Family
Baka Diary
About Chayim Tzvi Ariel
Israel Matzav
Jewlicious
Kosher Computing
Frum Satire
eJewish Philanthropy
Eye of the Storm
Israel Fix
Ki Yachol Nuchal
Treppenwitz
Hirhurim
Seraphic Secret
Sabra at Heart
Soccer Dad
Israel and the Sin of Expulsion
A Mahjer Makes Aliyah
Hebrew Online Blog
What War Zone
Jerusalem Diaries
Kumah
My Right Word
Elms in the Yard
Jacob Richman

and probably many others that I missed.

Now for the submissions ...

Esser Agorot tells us why he isn't going to attend the conference before it happened. Many bloggers responded to this post.

me-ander feels undiplomatic

Shiloh Musings responds to a NY Time article.

The Israel Situation writes about the history of Jerusalem

One Frum Skeptic attempts some satire: Rabbis Ban Dating!

Leora at Here in HP writes about her favorite soccer coach

Areh Zelasko guest posts on Esser Arogot with a radical plan to empty the banks of money

What War Zone muses on an embarrassing moment in the office, and a funny video on Tu B'Av

Writes Like She Talks writes about an anti-semitism-ridden primary in Memphis

Jack on his daughter dating and why Haveil Havalim is not a replacement for the blogger conference

Seraphic Secret recounts the trip to the conference with the Bogners

The Rebbtzin's Husband complains about complaints about noise in shul

NY's Funniest Rabbi reflects on blogging and Eikev encounters in Jerusalem

Enjoy,
Yehuda

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Shabbat PR Game (I Lose Again)

Rachel, Nadine, and I played our shabbat afternoon Puerto Rico game with the usual substitute buildings.

Rachel opened with Settler/corn, I took sugar, and Nadine took tobacco. As Rachel didn't have a quarry, and we don't play with Small Market, I decided to use this opportunity to try Mayor instead of the usual Builder. This prompted Nadine to take a round 1 Craftsman. And already I was losing.

I decided to continue the trend with a turn two Builder/Hospice. We play that you can immediately move one of your colonists onto Hospice when you buy it, which didn't make much difference in this game, but can help, sometimes. Throughout the game, I used Hospice rigorously, taking several corns and quarries, and preparing myself for coffee.

Let me tell you a little bit about coffee in this game. By round five, we had seen no coffee plantations. No one else was preparing to buy coffee, and in fact both of them appeared to be committing to tobacco, so I took a plunge and decided to buy a Coffee Roaster, even though I had a tobacco plantation already. With my Hospice, I figured on being able to use a coffee plantation the minute it appeared.

There are 9 coffee plantations in the game. There are some 55 plantation tiles. Not a single coffee plantation appeared until there were only 15 remaining plantation tiles. By the time I actually got coffee going, I was able to trade it once or twice, but by then I had lost so much in the waiting that I was too far behind to catch up. Sometimes, that's just how it goes.

Nadine was the only one who bought Factory, and she ended up buying three large buildings. She ended with 63 points. Rachel had Discretionary Hold, and good production, and ended with 53 points. I had good production and a Small Warehouse. At one point, I had every single corn barrel, preventing Nadine from fully utilizing her Factory. But I couldn't get them all shipped. I ended the game with seven corn barrels on my board, and 47 points.

Ah, well. It's always fun to try something new, even if it doesn't quite end up working.

Yehuda

Friday, August 22, 2008

Roundup: Three Years of Thirty Fourth Week Posts

Retheming a game can change it's apparent mechanics, example: the game No Thanks!

My dog ran away at Ben Gurion airport, part 1

The BBC, live in Lebanon

Contra Dancing in Jerusalem

Rachel and I went Contra Dancing this evening. The dancing is usually held at Kehillat Yedidiyah, but this evening it was held on a rooftop in the industrial section of Talpiot.

Contra dancing is an older form of square dancing, where you dance with your partner, your neighbor('s partner), in two couples, and in two lines, working your way up and down the line and dancing with each other's partner in turn. Each step isn't that hard, but it can get complicated, especially if one person gets out of rhythm; then you find yourself lost on a dance floor without a partner and facing the wrong way.

Contra dancing is not something I would normally do, being a religious Jew. My idea of being shomer negiah is fairly liberal: it's not "no touching under any circumstances", but "not touching when tensions could arise". The German tradition of my father, for instance, was to shake hands in business, because that's what Germans do. It used to include dancing with women.

But you know what? I'm 39 now, and I've been married for over 11 years to Rachel. While pleasant enough to hold hands and waists while dancing with other women, I no longer react to it the way I would have were I still 25 or if I were dancing with a woman alone (in the privacy of a crowd, for instance). It's just no longer negiah, for me.

Anyhoo, it was fun and challenging, more tiring than it would appear. There was a live band, and the view on top of the roof was pretty. The caller and organizer was not very good - she didn't explain steps well, messed up calls, wasn't organized - but she was sweet. And most of us were pretty uncoordinated.