Computers are absolutely amazing. I think the art work being created on computers is nicer than half the stuff I've seen in the museums in NYC. (Keep in mind 75% of the MOMA is junk, and the Whitney has a lot of garbage too.)

These are the results from one photoshop contest. I think some of them are terrific.

(And no, this is not the dream I had. Although that would have been pretty cool.)

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Some Youtube videos I have seen lately that I must recommend:

All of Jeff Dunham:

Understand subprime (and laugh):

And A Whitest Kids You Know

This guy took my flipping idea!

I recall telling several of you a few years back that I when I turned 25 I would change my name to The Dan Miller Experience. And I was very serious about this too.

Unfourtanetly this guy (article) stole my great idea! Now I can't do it. It's just not worth looking like a copy cat. I guess it's back to the drawin board for a new awesome name.

I'm not the only Dan Miller upset about this:

http://www.planetdan.net/blog/index.html

I don't usually remember my dreams. Truthfully, when I try to recall dreams I've had in my entire life I can recall only three. One must have been some 14 years ago after playing Wolfenstein 3-D for several hours I had a dream that I was the hero in the computer game. It was quite frightening.

My second and third dream were the same and happened last week and last night, respectively (obviously).

Being the internet savvy guy that I am, I quickly googled my dream today to see if anyone offers any interpretation of it, and scary enough they do! I am not much of a dreamer so I was surprised how many dream websites there are, but I guess it makes sense. I still find it crazy that people have had the same dreams as me with only slight variations. That gemara interpreting different symbols in dreams makes a lot more sense now.

My dream was scary, but the interpretations of the dream make me not want to go to sleep again lest I have the same dream. The interpretations all were so relevant to me too. I am really just freaked out by the whole thing.

Maybe I just need more sleep. Or less....

As you all know (I hope) George W. Bush will be visiting Israel tomorrow. Considering the welcome Jerry Seinfeld received, one would expect Israel to do something really drastic for this visit – along the lines of painting the Kotel red, white and blue and having Bush’s face engraved on the wall. Well, they are not going that far, but they are definitely laying out the red carpet for him. Bush will be staying in a $2,600 suite at the King David (the entourage will be taking up the rest of the hotel), $400,000 is being allocated to clean the streets and walls of Jerusalem, the lights of the Old City will stay on longer, and more than 10,500 policemen (1/3 of the entire Israeli police force) will be deployed to protect Bush. It is estimated that it will cost Israel over $25,000 for every hour that Bush is in the country.

Worth it? You bet!

Bush has been the strongest supporter of Israel EVER. All of Israel’s problems have been due to our own government, not America’s. Bush has given full support to Israel and the Israeli government and we blew it.

“"He hasn't put pressure on this country to make concessions," said Michael Oren, a senior fellow at Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institution. "The almost limitless latitude he gave Israel in countering terror was instrumental in aiding us to survive years of suicide bombings to reach a point where we had just seven terrorism fatalities last year.""

It is unfortunate that many of the articles in the press have been about how to get Bush’s attention focused on Pollard while he is here and how they are going to protest other issues. The goal of Israel during this visit should be to welcome Bush and thank him for all of his support over the last 7 years. First off, and most importantly, we owe him the hakarat hatov. This is reason enough to support him. Secondly, and he would deserve a big welcoming based just off the first reason, it is a great motivator for him to continue to help Israel. What kind of motivation is it for him if he comes and everyone protests policies? Don’t you think he is more likely to support people that he feels welcomed and supported by?

One blogger recently wrote:
“I personally like George W. Bush. I think he is a sincere person, a serious person, a good person and a real and down to earth guy who has the best intentions. In contrast to the portrayal made by his opponents, he is not some simple-minded fool being led by dark forces in his administration nor is he some evil, calculating dictator bent on power and destruction. He has reinstated America as a military might in the world and his policies have led to reforms of one kind or another in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and North Korea. He led the country out of a bleak economic situation and a devastating terrorist attack into a strong, vibrant economic machine, no longer content with the status quo in how we handled our enemies.”

I agree.

“What's so great about George W. Bush? His patriotism, his resolve, his principles, his steadfastness, his belief in America, his optimism, his refusal to get in the gutter...
Character is king. Again.”

Shabbat was absolutely terrific. I stayed at my cousins, the Reidlers, in Jerusalem and it is always great to see them. Shabbat day I ate with S. Stern and 5 other guys I went to Gush with Shana Aleph including three that I haven’t seen since (about 5 years). It was really exciting to see them and catch up. (For those I went to Gush with… It was Leron, Chananel, Rafi, Hershkovitz, and Stern. I also saw Ettinger at Shul, and Zarbiv for the 3rd meal.)

It is remarkable how many people from Shana Aleph are in Israel now. There were about 70 people in Shana Aleph (including South Africans, Australians and Brits), and at least 10 (15%) have stayed in Israel since. Then there are also bunch that are here now either for a year or moved here – without counting individual people I guesstimate it’s about another 10 making it about 30% of my Shana Aleph class is in Israel this year. Gush should be very proud of their success in instilling a love of Eretz Yisroel in their students. While in Yeshiva I remember reading one of their brochures claiming a high percentage of their students make Aliyah and I didn’t believe it, but judging from my year, it was most likely true. (Keeping in mind that more people make Aliyah later in life and some people from my year still haven’t finished college yet.)
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Saturday night a friend of mine in Givat Shmuel organized a very nice and well-attended dinner in Bnei Brak to launch a regular shiur/dinner club thing once a week. (Which I will most likely never attend as I am generally at work…)

At the dinner there was a shiur given by a very articulate and captivating English Charedi rabbi, who unfortunately chose the forum to deliver a Charedi style message.

I will address his main point later, but I first wanted to address a minor point that I think many of you will find interesting. He stated that after Yom Kippur the BBC, a blatantly anti-Semitic media source, regularly says, “trading volume was slow today because of the Jews celebrating Yom Kippur. The Rabbi views this an anti-Semitic attack on the Jews, implying that such a small group of Jews could actually control the trading volume of the world’s largest stock exchanges.

I don’t understand how anyone can see this as anti-Semitic. It is a well documented and statistically proven truth. The BBC, in this case, is not being anti-Semitic, they are stating a fact. Just like Vanity Fair recently listing 52 out of the 100 most influential people as Jews, or Forbes listing a large portion of Jewish Billionaries or the Nobel Prize being given to a disproportionate amount of Jews. The BBC doesn’t say, “trading volume was down today because of the cursed Jews!” Would you prefer if the BBC said “Trading volume was down for some unknown reason, even though we really know…” Why should we be embarrassed that we are an important group in the world of Finance?
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His main message, without the pathos, was that if you look at history, secular intellectuals have been able to rationalize anything including acquitting Nazi killers due to their misunderstanding that they were actually committing genocide while they thought they were defending their country. Because of this, we should ignore their thinking and only follow in the way of the “Torah”.

What he failed to address, and understand, and this was clear from speaking with him after as well, is that Torah is interpreted by people as well. Different poskim come to different conclusions based to a large part on their personality, behavior, and environment (this has been studied extensively). While a secular scholar looks through his sources, which likely include some Jewish sources, and weighs each according to his own accord, Jewish scholars look at Gemara, poskim, Tanach and other Jewish sources, and weigh them according to their own thinking too. Many people in our history have done a lot of terrible crazy things in the name of "Torah." (Note: This is not a criticism of halacha.)

His speech is a very Charedi and unhealthy message because he is saying that you should remove your own thoughts and follow your rabbi blindly. A rabbi’s advice should be considered strongly, but one rabbi’s opinion of what the hashkafa one should follow should not be the end of an individual’s thought process. It is important to seek the advice of several rabbi's as well as outside sources.

The Gemara says, if I remember correctly, that anyone that says there is no knowledge outside of Torah is stupid. (I can’t remember the phraseology exactly, but I am definite that that sentiment is there.) To say that secular thinkers don’t have anything to add is foolish. We need less people saying “follow the Torah” or “follow the Rabbis” and more people saying become an educated person. We need to learn to weigh the knowledge of the world appropriately in order to live and promote a proper way of life. Obviously everything needs to be done lishma and under the rubric of Torah, but it is foolish to say that secular sources have nothing to add to the conversation.

Earlier this week I received an email with the subject: "Facebook Social News."

My first thought was that Facebook has decided to become even more invasive and actually email everyone when someone is no longer listed as in a relationship, but unfourtanetly it was not. Apparently there is a new program where people rank their friends based on everything from "who is nicer" to "who is a better dancer".

Needless to say, I was very intrigued to see what my "friends" really think of me especially after the email told me I was ranked 7th in "Who I am more jealous of" and 13th in "who is more athletic". (This must have been someone that knew me pre-Israel, as my Burger's Bar diet has really been takin a toll similar to that McDonalds diet guy.)

The rankings I am most proud of:
15th - who would i rather be trapped on a desert island with
18th - who is more generous
19th/20th - who is kinder and nicer

Rankings I would like to contest:
100th - who is more likely to do a favor for me (Ouch!)
66th - who is a better dancer (Depends what kind...)
66th - who is more useful (Are you saying I am useless?)
71th - who is more likely to succeed (I think that has to do with how you measure success...)

My favorite ranking is that I am #6,719,395 most likely to win a fight on the entire Facebook. Facebook must have at least like 30 million users, so that means I can beat like... a lot of people. I have never thought about it, but wow, I am powerful.

I can't wait to see what Facebook comes up with next. (I am hoping they take my idea for the Facebook social news updates...)

I cannot believe this country does not celebrate New Years! X-mas I understand. But c'mon, New Years?!

I have been complaining about this for days to friends, coworkers, taxi drivers, random people on the street - basically anyone who has the time to listen to me whine. The most common answer is that "we have Rosh Hashana!"

Let's be serious people are these holidays in any way similar? On New Years we have champaign, on R"H we have fish head. On New Years we listen to Prince and party like its 1999, on R"H we listen to the Chazzan sing about who died this last year.

Don't get me wrong, I think R"H is excellent and the irreligious are unfourtanate that they don't have it for many reasons. But I don't think we should have to get rid of December 31st new years. If R"H is our calendar year end, then New Years is our fiscal year end and we should celebrate.

The more times we have set aside to reflect on our lives the better. Some mussar seforim recommend doing a cheshbon hanefesh every night, others weekly. Most of us I believe don't do it enough.

New Years is a great time to reflect on your accomplishments of this year, as well as set realistic goals for the coming year. I realized that the goals I listed previously are too much for me, and I have to cut them down. It's a very upsetting thing to do, but better to accomplish a few than fail in all, IMO (in my opinion).

New Years really is a new year for finances as well as taxes are based on it and most companies close their books on December 31. I HIGHLY recommend everyone take the time to review their finances and set their short term and long term goals. Last year I did this and started using Yodlee as my personal financial dashboard and it has really simplified my finances. (It's a program that links to all of your bank accounts and loans so you can see your net worth calculated and keep track of it. It also lays out the information in helpful graphs.)

I hope you find it helpful.

May next year be twice as good as this one.