FAN-tastic dedication

I'm happy for Bostonians that the team has made it to the big show yet again. But there are some desperate people out there.


More from Craigslist Boston:

Looking for a couple of ladies to watch the game, fetch beers from the
fridge and relieve some *ahem* tension if the game gets close. Be willing to
follow orders...have creative suggestions of your own. I've always loved
watching the ball game at a strip club and would like to combine it with the
comforts of home. Please be willing to undress to impress.

How lazy and/or cheap can some guys get? And what kind of woman would do this (for free)?

At least this post offers to take you to the game.

And here's an altruist (posting under the title World Series Tickets (FAKE vs. REAL).

And I guess the Sox are way more important than Bulls memorabilia or even some Red Sox goodies.

While St. Louis residents are not nearly as desperate I give props to this creative guy .

A little late.....

....but too funny not to share, as seen on Point of Pinchas.

Kabbalah karma?

Rabbi Phillip Berg of the Kabbalah Center in LA has suffered a stroke. I wish him a speedy recovery. However, it seems somehow karmic that a man who has made his money making a profit on a most mystical and rather sacred part of Judaism has been humbled. I give him credit; he’s certainly made Kabbalah (and thus Jewish spirituality) mainstream- as per this listing in the Wichita Eagle newspaper:

Kabbalah lecture series, presented by Nissim Wernick, for 10 weeks starting at 7 p.m. Tue., Hebrew Congregation, xxxx N. Woodlawn. Cost $100 for series. To register, call 685-xxxx.

(Kabbalah in the heartland? “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore”)

I guess that I just feel that there is a reason one is not supposed to study Kabbalah unless they have a strong background in the requisite Jewish texts. There are concepts that can be taken the wrong way or completely out of context (ex: Kabbalah water?). Turns out that those trendy red string bracelets that are so popular with the glitterati are not even mentioned in the true teachings of Kabbalah.

Some Kabbalah factoids to help set the record straight: (from Beliefnet)

• Tradition teaches that one must reach the age of 40 before beginning to explore Kabbalah. Younger people are not considered to have the necessary background or emotional maturity to be able to deal with the topic.
• Kabbalah is a mystical way of interpreting the Torah, the primary Jewish scriptures, and of attempting to understand God. Practitioners believe the study of Kabbalah can help unlock the secrets of the universe.
• The Zohar, a mystical commentary on the Torah, is the primary Kabbalah text. It is usually traced to 13th century Spain. Most scholars believe it was written by Spanish kabbalist Moses de Leon, though some claim it was penned by the 2nd century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
• Kabbalah literally means "that which is received." The teachings of Kabbalah, at first never written down, were supposed to be received directly by word of mouth from teacher to student.
• In Kabbalah, God is called "Ein Sof." In Hebrew, Ein Sof means "without end." The name symbolizes God's lack of boundaries in time and space.
• The golden age of Jewish mysticism occurred in the 16th century in Safed, a city in northern Israel, when Jews expelled from Spain during the Inquisition gathered there. Great kabbalists and scholars during this time included Rabbi Joseph Karo, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, and Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz. Rabbi Isaac Luria is often regarded as the greatest kabbalist. He is known by the acronym of his Hebrew name, Ha Ari, the Lion
• In the eighteenth century, Ba'al Shem Tov used kabbalistic teachings as the basis for the formation of his new sect, Hasidism.
• The modern study and scholarship of Kabbalah was spearheaded by the work of German-born Gershom Scholem, who lived from 1897 to 1982.

How much do you know about Kabbalah as it relates to celebrities?- a fun quiz on Pop Kabbalah.

Dating, shmating.

Below are some excerpts from an article I wrote for a local paper about my experiences using a popular online dating website.

It's mid-January right now. This means that just around the corner lies Valentine's Day. This isn't really a holiday, but this does not mean that we humans are immune to the pressures of the retail industry to not only be paired up with somebody, but to shower them with candy, cards, silly stuffed animals, and trinkets.

This race to pair off by Feb. 14th is tough on any single person. After all it's hard enough to meet someone in this workaholic day and age. So, what option(s) do(es) this rat race leave us young, unclaimed, attractive twenty-somethings?

That's right. The Internet.

I was one of those people who thought that only freaks and geeks met people online. Then I found out that friends of mine had some really positive experiences with online dating. This culminated in my friend D and I looking up a mutual friend's profile on one of those ubiquitous online dating sites. To do a specific search you needed to set up a profile. We drew straws. I lost. And forgot about it until one day when I was notified that I had email. It was from someone in the nearby metro area who I have since become good friends with.

So what have my overall experiences been with online dating? To being with, it's entertaining. The wackiness of others is amusing to me (see Internet Dating Stories, Way Too Personal, and JDatersAnonymous for some examples). Especially when it comes to profiles. There is even a company that does consulting for your online dating profile .

I've met some nice people through this particular site and even connected with some old high school friends who ran across my profile (no, it was not Friendster). Which brings me to my first piece of advice for those of you thinking about jumping online- put up a picture with your profile. You will get many more responses, and if you don't it seems like you might be hiding something. Honesty is always appreciated.

Which brings me to advice #2- trust your intuition. My weirdest experience so far began when a young man emailed me. It was a basic email, nothing too scary. But something just felt off. So I decided to wait a few days before responding.Sure enough in a few days I then saw this guy's picture on TV (same picture he posted on the site, incidentally) because he was arrested for trying to smuggle something illegal into the country. This guy was one of the few bad apples I've encountered. But always be safe. Screen your emails. If you feel as though you're being coerced into giving out your phone number, don't give it out. Trust your gut.

Above all else, keep a sense of humor about the whole process. There have been some nice guys who've contacted me with whom I have since established friendships. I've had some proposition me (for which I have kindly pointed out that there are better sites to help them find what they are looking for- none of which fall within the realm of this article). A lot of the profiles you read sound like résumés- I'm not going to date you just because you went to Harvard or something. Most of the men who contact me seem to be from the neighboring large metro area- which tough because I'd like to meet someone who I would not have to endure a commute to have dinner with.

Now all of the above might make me sound like I'm in some sort of husband hunt. I'm not. I have my own job, car, and my own 401K. But I do like meeting new people and if there happens to be chemistry, all the better. As a very wise friend (who I met online) writes in his profile "The day that I meet my soulmate through an online ad is probably the same day that I should buy a lottery ticket and take care not to walk outside during a thunderstorm". So I haven't met Mr. Right yet. I'm taking it with a grain of salt and enjoying the process.

October obsessions

Being a transplanted NYer in New England can be tough. I have a real beef with the people I meet who, upon finding out where I grew up, instantly assume that I am a Yankees fan. (I am neutral. I don't really like baseball. Too slow of a game for my taste.) However, this happened a number of times since I've moved here around 3 years ago that I find it worth mentioning.
What's up with that?


Addendum: Yesterday my mother nicely reminded me that she did not raise me to be a Yankees fan. She informed em that she had been rooting for the Red Sox and was happy that they beat the Yankees (and therefore I should be too).

communication

Communication is an important thing in any relationship/friendship. Thinking that your partner can read your mind is not going to get you anywhere. Except maybe pissed off. My old roommate once told me something that I consider a valuable peice of advice. She said "...men are stupid. They need things to be explained to them to really understand how you feel".

Meaning- you cannot expect your partner (male or female) to know how you are feeling at every single second of the day. You must communicate those feelings, whether they consist of love, frustration, adoration, confusion, or insecurity. If you think about it you don't know how they feel all the time, how can you expect them to be able to do that for you?