Time to refocus

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  I went up to New Hampshire to celebrate the holiday with the gf and her family.  Needless to say it was freezing.  Beside that, I had very pleasant experience.  It was def to refreshing to be out of the city and not check my email on a hourly basis even if I have a blackberry.  The holiday was full of cooking, eating and conversation.  The highlight of the trip was by far learning how to play chess.  Despite my abysmal record of 2 and 15, I still think I'm hot issh for learning how to play.

Being in NH for the last couple of days, made me realized that I've spread myself to thin and I lost focus on what I want to do and what's important.  I enjoy being busy and having a lot to do and being constantly on the go.  However, I've come to the realization that it's not really leading me anywhere fast.  So I will take the remainder of the year to close up and a couple of outstanding projects on focus most, if not all, my energy on breaking in the public policy field while staying financially afloat and Class.  Web Dev has been great and I learned a lot from many people.  In reality, I will not be completely out of Web Dev for while.  Since entry level jobs in public policy don't pay much,  I will probably continue to do work on freelance basis.  That being said, short of starting my own company, I've lost the interest to do it full time for an extended period of time.  I enjoy  being a geek on  my own time much more than in an office.  It's time to commit more time and energy to  my other passion, politics.  Wish me luck.

My first time in a Synagogue

This past weekend I got a chance to a attend a Jewish service for the first time.  Although I have a number of Jewish friends and I've dated several Jewish girls (I can hear you saying it DK4), I've never attended to a Jewish service.  Over the weekend, the gff's grandfather celebrated his 83rd birthday and decided to have a second Barmitzvah.  I was invited along and decided to go.  For starters, Upstate NY is beautiful in the fall.  I could have spent all weekend walking around and taking pictures. If you haven't done  Upstate NY in the fall, I highly recommend it before it becomes beach front property.  The service itself was nothing like I've experienced.   It is hard to put into words what made it so different.  I've been to church where there is descent amount of singing and I've attended church in Latin so the Hebrew didn't really get to me even though it was a bit a difficult to read and sing along. I think the atmosphere is really what made an impact on me.   Everyone seemed genuinely happy and not just relieved and putting up a front, which is a feeling I often get when I attend church. The relative lack of curiosity about me and my background, though I stood out, was very refreshing.  Two parts of the service that stood out the most were when the gff's granfather mentioned me as part of the family in his remarks, tough I've yet to be receive a ring from a certain someone, and when he read a story he had written about the death of his mother when he was 14.  It was a very touching piece.  It brought a tear to my eye -- there goes all my manliness.  All in all, it was good a experience and I would do it all again. I'm not sure it's for everyone but I do encourage visiting a place of worship outside your religion. However I've been warned not all synagogue are as "liberal" as the one we attended.  Next stop: a Mosque.

And if you were wondering, I wore a yamaka too.