Chadica.com

It doesn’t seem possible that we are leaving to live in another country.  It feels like we are on vacation and will be heading back to Cleveland soon.  and the excitement that everyone asks about?  It hasn’t seemed to catch up with us… rather, its somewhere in Israel waiting for us to find in a secret hiding place.  I suppose that this is simply due to the rather long list of things to do before we leave.  Just as we finish one list, we generate another equally as long.  It’s a never ending process. Banking, credit cards, utilities, storage, school forms, Financial aid, student visa etc.  I finally feel like we are really coming close to completing everything.

I suppose that I do not feel like I am leaving yet because Cleveland has been my home for nine years now.  Aside from Nashville, where I grew up, this is the longest time I have spent in one place.  I have made many of my closest friends here, been part of an exceptional Jewish education community and I even met Chad in Cleveland Heights.  

In short, I haven’t had enough time to become truly nervous or excited about this new chapter in my life.  This is something that time will most definitely cure.  

L’hitratot

I just got back from watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So of course, I turned on my ITunes and I’m now typing while listening to the movie score. (Scott…you can have fun with that one!)

So was it great? Unfortunately, the answer to that would be no. I definitely enjoyed myself and was interested in the story and what would happen next. The movie definitely looked and felt like a sequel to the other three. The effects were not splashy, the editing was the same as the others, and most importantly the music was classic John Williams. The movie almost felt like that favorite shirt that you haven’t seen in years and put on. It feels great, but at the same time…you love it more for the memories.

My love of the character and the movies extends back to probably around 1st grade. I can remember playing in the basement with a cheesy rafia cowboy hat as my fedora, a cowboy and indians gun and holster as my gun, and of course, a jump rope as my wipe. So it really brought a smile to my face when you see Harrison put on the Fedora for the first time. Simply iconic.

Should you go see it? Well…did you like any or all of the first 3? If the answer to that is yes, then go see it. Otherwise, save yourself 8 bucks.

So tomorrow is both Jess and my last day of work. For Jess, she is leaving her job of 9+ years. I’m hoping that she’ll log on and write some of her thoughts about leaving, but for now…you’re stuck with me.

It’s actually very weird to be leaving. Mainly because I’m leaving the office and my co-workers, but going to continue the job. For the year that I’m in Israel, I will be telecommuting to Cleveland and will be continuing to do the work that i’ve been doing over the last year. So you can see how I’m a bit at odds about leaving tomorrow. On one hand, I’ll basically be talking with people via email and the phone and will lose the day to day commraderie. On the other hand, I’ll continue to work with a great company, continue to talk via phone and email with my co-workers, and I will continue to do a job that I truely enjoy.

So after tomorrow, I will be officially unemployed until I start working again in mid-July.

So as I prepare to work overseas, I started to run into issues getting the software set-up on my Windows Vista laptop. After hours of searching Google for fixes to the solution I was having, I just got feed up and rebuilt my laptop with Windows XP. I gotta say, it feels like I just bought an entirely new computer. Everything just runs faster and easier. And no more of that ‘Are you really sure you wish to install the software…’ messages. So for those of you thinking of upgrading…don’t. It’s not worth it. For those of you with Vista that want to downgrade…it’s worth the effort.

One of the other big curiousities that Jess and I have is…how do you pay rent in a foreign country? Besides going to the ATM and grabbing the appropriate amount of money, can we write checks? Can we charge it? So far, no answers.

Cue heavy  metal music…..

So a couple of guys from work, Jess, and I went yesterday to see one of the ‘midnight’ screenings that start at 8:00pm. First a quick rant….if the official screenings start at 8pm, doesn’t that mean that the movie opens on May 1st, instead of May 2nd? Maybe that confusion is why the theater was empty. When I say empty, i think there were 15 people including us. Man, I hope it does better this weekend.

I’ve seen most of the Marvel Comic book movies since Spider-Man. I think I missed Punisher and Elektra. I’ve seen most of the DC Comic book movies too. I’d say that the best of all time were the original Superman, Superman II: The Donner Cut version (had the potential to be great….), Batman, Batman Begins, Spider-Man, Blade, X-Men, and X-Men 2. I’m very glad to add Iron Man to this list of movies.

This is the best comic book movie that I’ve seen in a while, and more importantly, it’s a good movie period.  So far it’s the best reviewed movie of 2008.

A lot of people laughed when they heard that Robert Downey Jr. was going to play Tony Stark. Well, let me tell you, he owns the character.

So go see the movie, and then email me and we can chat about what you thought. Or more importantly leave a comment. If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure you stay through the end of the credits.

So planning is in full swing for our year in Israel. It’s exciting, it is a new adventure, it’s logistic hell! Well,  maybe that is a bit melodramatic, but there are a ton of logistics. Logistics that neither Jess or myself are used to dealing with.

The moment that Jess was officially accepted to school, the overwhelming amount of things to do started to settle in. We need an apartment, a plan ticket, let our jobs know that we’re leaving, let our land lord know we’re leaving a month early, etc. Stuff that needed to happen right away. Thankfully, we got those things out of the way within the first week.

We found what sounds like a nice apartment with really 2 incredibly helpful tenants (1 of which is a current HUC student). It’s on the 5th floor and there is not an elevator, so if you plan on visiting, plan on getting a bit of exercise. With the help of Jess’s aunt, we found a decent plane ticket to Israel. Expensive, but has flexibility on the return flight. We talked to our relative bosses and everyone has been incredibly supportive.

So now comes the next step. How do you pack up your entire life, move to a city (yet not have an apartment in that city), see as many of your friends and family as you can possibly see in 1 1/2 months, change credit cards and checking accounts, see doctors, etc. Aghhh!!!

It’s actually not that bad, it’s just you want to front load as much as possibly because I know that with less than a week to go, the last thing we’re going to want to do is run around dealing with logistics. We’re going to want to be see and hanging out with family and friends. Doing the things that Jess and I really think are important as opposed to running to the bank or going to another clothes store to pick up stuff that we may need.

Ah well, yesterday the tenants of our apartment in Israel sold us a ton of stuff, so our logistical lives once we get to Jerusalem will be a ton easier. Not only that, but we won’t have to carry said tons of stuff up 5 flights of stairs. Wahoo!!!

Once we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, I headed over to pick up our rental car. I had reserved an economy sized car. Basically a 4-door fuel efficient little car. My favorite. I got up to the counter, gave them my reservation, only to be told that they didn’t have any cars in the economy size, and that they’d have to ‘upgrade’ me to an SUV free of charge.

Beyond the fact that my grandmother couldn’t possibly get into and out of an SUV, please answer me the question, “Why is this an upgrade?”. In today’s fuel economy, why is it still considered an upgrade to shift from a fuel efficient car that gets 30+ miles per gallon to a car that gets less then 20 miles per gallon? The irony of this is before she told me this she tried to sell me their special ‘gas package’ where you don’t have to refill the tank and they charge you only $3.85 per gallon instead of $3.94.

In the end, I got a VW Jetta, but that was after threatening to go to another rental agency and paying more to get the car that I wanted, as opposed to paying less and getting a gas guzzling SUV. Things cannot change in this society until we get over the idea that big car = better car, and people start thinking that fuel efficiency (compared to all cars and not to say a fuel efficient Hummer that gets 18mpg) = better car.

The last part of this rant is about customer service. The lady behind the desk didn’t offer me choices letting me know the different options available. She was just, “I’m sorry, we don’t have any cars in your class, we’re going to upgrade you to an SUV.” Most customers I’m sure would say that anything is fine, but give the customer the change to voice a choice, instead of pissing him off and then having to appease him. Given the choice, I probably would have said full-size car and been fine.

Ahh, you gotta love car rental companies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg

This is pretty much the best argument I’ve heard about why we need to take action now and stop talking.

He’s got a bunch of other videos, but this one is a follow-up to one he put out  a while back that has fine tuned the argument and also answered a lot of questions that people had of the first video (and subsequent videos).

 If you go to his youtube channel, you will find all of the follow videos that he’s made to this video that discusses all of the more geeky details.

 http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=wonderingmind42

Read it….send it out…make it viral.

So as the new year starts, we are now 2 days away from the Iowa Caucus. Iowa residents are now being bombarded by millions of dollars worth of television ads making each candidate look the end all be-all candidate, yet saying actually nothing. Do I sound jaded?

 My problem with politics is that it is no longer may the best man or woman win. More and more, I’m reading articles that just make me feel like the system is flawed. An example is California Republicans are trying to change the way Electoral College votes are counted in California. Instead of the winner-take-all approach, votes will be decided by district. On paper, this is a great idea….if all 50 states enacted it. California has 55 votes. If this law was enacted it would mean the Democrat candidate might get 30 votes while Republican’s might get 20. In a close election like it has been the last few years, this one rule could completely change the outcome of the election.  (here’s an article about this)

 The good news about such a desperate measure is that it means that the Republican’s are not confident that they can win the next election. The bad news is that they are willing to change rules left and right that benefit their party, but overall hurt the average American voter like you and I.

 Frankly, I’m just tired of politics. I just want to continue being involved in the political process, yet want to feel like my vote counts and won’t be undermined by political BS.

So after years of talking about it, we’re now 45 minutes into Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition.

Official Start Time: 11:15am

Fellowship of the Ring

DISC 1

:45 hours (12pm) – 4 of us now. One meal down. Ever wonder why Hobbits love eating, live in a peaceful laid back town, and like to smoke ‘Weed’? Dude, they are so stoned.

1:20 hours (12:35pm) – Ride Arwen ride! You must save Frodo. As Arwen rides, we are joined by 4 four people. Well, 2 adults and 2 small children. More food arrives with them. I think I’ve now had breakfast, second breakfast, elevensy’s. And am now on to dinner.

1:44 hours (12:57pm) – ANd the fellowship forms as disc 1 comes to a close. 1 down, 5 to go.

First round of trivia goes to Alan. Man, can’t believe I missed a LOTR line that was so obvious.

DISC 2

:29 hours (1:37)The first fight in the mines of moria.I love this fight. Love how the camera focuses on one character but the entire battle continues in the background. Also love the lack of music throughout the fight. Heck, you even feel bad for the cave troll after they kill it. Of course, I hate when they do the whole fake death with the slow mo camera movement and dramatic music, close-ups of all of the friends, and then boom…he’s fine.

1:02 hours (2:17pm) Apparently, there’s not much difference between a dwarf and a 3 year old. She feel in love with Galadriel, to the point where she was like ‘ohhhh’ every time she was on screen. One more person has arrived. So far only one person has fallen asleep (and if she reads this, she’ll deny she was falling asleep), but she has an excuse….she’s been sick and is on cold medicine.

1:19 hours (2:27pm) As we watch the fellowship disband, we have now grown by one. 8 adults (5 men, 3 women) The M & M’s and nuts are dropping like flies.

Second round of trivia goes to Alan, Jeremy and myself.

The Two Towers

Disc 1

0 hours (3:10pm) So one family left as another one arrived. Still 8 adults, 5 men and 3 women. More snacks. Apparently we had one more fall asleep during the first movie. So officially of the 3 people that were around at the start of the first movie, two of us are still going strong.

:37 hours (3:42pm) As we discover the fate of Merry and Pippin, our group has dropped by 3. We are not 4 men and 2 women. In the kitchen we have guacamole being made and a fresh batch of popcorn on the table. I can’t imagine the stomach ache we’re going to have later.

1:14 hours (4:19pm) Just before Edoras can be saved from Saruman, we lost one more viewer. We are now 5. As it stands, I thnk our meal has as many colors as the M&M’s in the bowls. Blue Chips (which are actually purple), grapes and guacamole (green), bread & bagels (yellow), clementines & carrots (orange), and salsa (red). Ok, so we’re missing blue…but do the blue chips count for that one?

Disc 2

0 hours (5:06) We’ve reached the half way point. For some reason after 6 hours of snacking, we’re still thinking about dinner. Bizarre. On a day like today, what else do you think we could order, but pizza.

1:44 (6:58pm) End of the second episode. We are now 2/3 of the way through. Just sarted the next round of trivia and the pizza just arrived. More food. We’re still holding strong at 5 people. Rumor is it that a few more people may stop by. Did you guys know that Arwen is 2780 years old? She doesn’t look a day over 2000.

Return of the King

Disc 1

1:40 (8:55pm) Almost to the end of disc 1. The energy level in the group is fading, might have to grab some dessert during the break. At this point, Anduril is about to be introduced. Maybe I’ll have to go and grab my version off the wall. Yeah, i’m such a geek.

Disc 2

1:24 (11:13pm) 12 hours later, we are now approaching the end of Return of the King. Frodo and Sam saved the world from the evil forces of Sauron. Five of us are still here. Of the five of us, 2 made it through completely without starting to fall asleep, 1 started to fall asleep a little but made it through all three, 1 person missed about 30 minutes, and one watch 2 of the 3 movies.

1:31 (11:20) – Nope, that wasn’t the ending. They survived. Didn’t see that one coming.

1:34 -Nope, still not another. Ah….the king has officially returned. Guess that is why it’s called Return of the King. 11 hours later, and we finally get some smooching.

1:39 – Is it over yet? How about now? Now? Sadly enough, they missed one of the endings that I would have liked to see. I wanted to see Legolas and Gimli go off and adventure together. I liked this this ending though. Shows after all of their adventures, when they get back home things just seem the same. I can kinda relate to that….well, without the whole saving the world part, but leaving for a while then coming home and having all of these adventures, yet everything seems the same.

1:42 – Another ending. Nope, still not over. There and Back Again. For some reason, I don’t think I”m going to go there and back again to watch the whole trilogy again. Man has it been a long day.

1:46 – “I think I’m quite ready for another adventure!” – Bilbo Baggins. I can definitely relate to that feeling.

1:52 – Is it over yet? Nope. ONe more ending…. “Well, I’m back” – Samwise Gamgee

Official Finishing Time: 11:37pm aka 12 hours and 22 minutes later.