2 Сына Raamatud

Asking Pandora why it was playing a certain song, I got this answer:

Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features electronica roots, a smooth female vocal, a laid back female vocal, ambiguous lyrics and use of tonal harmonies.

Must admit it, I'm a sucker for ambiguous lyrics... (wtf??)

Estonians just love the fact that they have trouble telling the difference between 'b' and 'p'. The best known example is the word "pank", which originally means "cliff" in Estonian, but also is as a loan word meaning "bank". The 100 crown banknote has an intentional pun on its back side - it says "Eesti Pank", which can be understood as "the Bank of Estonia", as well as "an Estonian cliff".

Yesterday my brother sent me a further joke on the subject. It uses ad campaign slogans by Hansa Pank, a well respected Estonian bank, but changes the wording from "Hansa Pank" to "Türisalu Pank" (the cliff of Türisalu, where the 100 crown picture was originally taken). The revamped ad says: "Get rid of your loan payments today. Türisalu pank - when you can take it no more".

I cannot conduct my life in a normal fashion. Poof! I disappear, poof! I reappear. And regrettably, not always in the same place. *disappears* *reappears*  Have you seen it? Now I'm gonna show you a few episodes from my life, so you can see where it leads.

STAYCATION, n.

A period of time in which an individual or family relaxes at home, or takes day trips from their home to area attractions. Staycations have achieved high popularity in hard economic times in which unemployment levels and gas prices are high.

Don't you just love people who write:
#define BANK_A   (7)
?

Someone told them that macros are sensitive to operator precedence errors, so they're not taking any chances.

A friend of ours wants a website editor that needs no HTML knowledge whatsoever. Something user-friendly, WYSIWYG style, that allows easy FTP uploading. Any ideas?

Summer has arrived, and in Israel summer means heat, lots of it. In order to fight the heat we go swimming. We have two choices, either visit the local pool, or drive twenty minutes to the beach. This weekend we did both.

The Kfar Yona pool belongs to the local council. Most days it operates as a regular mixed swimming pool, but on Fridays it has two hours allocated for the "male only" visitors (there's also a "female only" time on Sundays, but that's beside the point). Practically this means that on Fridays between 4 and 6pm the religious men and boys of our town have the pool to themselves. Surely enough, Yahel and I arrived at the pool at 3. The guard at the entrance told us that we'd have to leave at 4, but we said that we are men, and there was no reason why we should quit early. "So you want to swim with the religious folks?", he made sure we understood what we were doing. "Yes, they don't bite, do they?" I agreed. "Suit yourself". So we had the pleasure of watching the "changing of the guard" ceremony. At 4 the regular pool patrons were told to leave, and kindly requested to come back the next morning. Yahel and I climbed out of the water, and sat down on a nearby bench. And indeed, the water became clear and smooth. People dressed and left the premises. At quarter past four, however, the "dossim" swarmed the place. Men with long beards, boys with payos, but other than that - regular looking people. Yahel asked me if I knew their language, and I said there was no special language, just speak the way you usually do :) I was the only man without a beard, so when we finally left at 5, there were some suspicious glances. One man approached me and expressively wished me "a good Shabos", I returned the greeting. We got a few laughs from the life guards for "leaving early", but that was it. Strange, but doable.

The beach on Saturday is a big collection of families with kids, chicks, toddlers, old folks, sportsmen, swimmers, sunbathers, you name it. We came to Poleg with a bunch of friends. I watched Yahel and his friend playing in the water, when I suddenly saw some small black object swimming towards me. At first I thought it was some kind of a fish, but then I got closer, and fished out ... a woman's pair of sunglasses. I held them in my hand for a while, looking around for the forgetful owner, but nobody came to claim the item. After a while Yahel came out, and I showed him the unusual find. At that moment, the life-guard made a public announcement, that someone had lost his or her sunglasses, and if anyone would bring them to the station, that would be super cool. Yahel grabbed the glasses and rushed to the station. The life guard announced "what a great kid, thanks!", and the woman got her glasses back. She was so happy, that she promised Yahel and his friend to buy them an ice cream each. Yahel, with his good business sense, exchanged that for 20 NIS (around $3 each). I asked the woman why the generous gift, and she replied that "good citizenship must be awarded". Well, who am I to say no :)

Whenever I stop by the hair salon to make an appointment, the hairdresser's sight rests above my eye level. I feel like a piece of badly cut hair.