All packed. Except my shaving kit, pda, airplane book.

Almost packed

Almost packed. Leaving in 3 days. Garage is almost clean. Bought new hiking boots.

I'm linking to this article. Why? Because I think this can become big - the administration revealing the identity a CIA operative in order to punish the operative's husband for speaking his mind on the fake Nigerian uranium sale documents. I'm also linking to it because google - the number one search engine on the net - ranks its searches based upon how many people link to a site. So if many people link to this article, the article will show up more often on searches for say "WMD". This will cause more people to see the article.

I will not be putting links to every political thing in the world here...this blog is about our experience in Shanghai and keeping in touch with friends/family. Once in a while though, I will include a link to an article I read.

Rosh Hashanah

On Rosh Hashana we planted a tree, then went to temple:



Originally I wanted to go to San Diego for this service. We couldn't do this because of the timing of our trip to Shanghai. And I pissed Haga off because I made her feel that I can only "feel Jewish" with my parents/siblings. So I decided that I have to practice Judaism wherever I am, and I need to include Haga in my faith.

We went to San Francisco to the Beyt Tikkun synagogue service on Rosh Hashanah. I selected this service because the rabbi, Michael Lerner, is a big voice in the anti-war movement and founder of the Jewish left-wing magazine "Tikkun". Note that I was not really against the war and political events didn't have anything to do with why I wanted to celebrate Rosh Hashanah at this congregation; I just like the idea that this rabbi tries to make a difference by publishing his (mostly) noble, articulate political and spiritual thoughts to people outside of his congregation.

The service was actually held on the University of San Francisco campus - a Christian school. I was stressed out when we arrived. Haga reminded me that we were late and I had not prepared well in advance. It was difficult to find the place. It didn't look like a Rosh Hashanah service should look like. The "choir" played accustic instruments that made it sound like a hippie Jewish Lorena Mckennit. I know that appeals to some people Jeremy, but when I first walked in, I thought it was wrong and sounded out-of-key. The rabbi sounded wrong too. Everything about it was wrong.

But I listened to the rabbi. He said on this day I need to leave all cynicism behind. He said that we try to improve ourselves and judge ourselves everyday, but on this day we do it as a group. He said we must reject the “immorality of lesser evilism” and the cycles of hate that is destroying the world. He said “How do we know that God is the god of love and mercy? Because he created us, who can envision a world in which our society, our economy, our culture is governed by the principles of love”. Now that I write this down, it may seem a little cheesy.

I realized that I have this problem; I get a little bit bitter and resentful when the world is not the way I think it should be. In the moments when I get over this problem, things work out better even if the things still are not the way they should be. This sums up my experience at this service.

Then we danced. The rabbi said we “show our thanks to God through dance”, so we must go dance to outside. We all did this line dance, singing “lai lai lai lai…lai lai lai lai…la la la lai”. Past all the Christian sorority /fraternity students walking around. Haga saw my shuffle dance and said “Jesse…are you really showing thanks to God?” A bunch of people chuckled at this. She also commented “This is why people danced that Macarena at our wedding!”

When we were outside, we sang some more, and did this visualization thing…close eyes…imagine you see yourself and the congregation here…now imagine you see the city of San Francisco, but you can still see yourself…now the US….now the world…and imagine that you see these 6 billion people in the world…some are very happy….many are going to work…many are sleeping…many are poor and hungry…many are full of hate and lured by the twisted dreams of hate…many are praying as we are now…now imagine you see the Earth in relation to the sun…but you still see yourself….now imagine you see the galaxy…This is what we have to be thankful for.

Haga said she used here Yoga stance and her “Qi” to help her with this exercise. She also said the Science Fiction books/TV shows/movies she watches with me helped her visualize this.

We went back inside, sat down, and meditated. Close eyes again. Rabbi said to visualize you soul. See your soul is good. It is the way you want to be. Tell your soul that you can be more like it. Tell your soul you will be a generous and kind person. Tell your soul that you will make the world a better place. I didn’t see my soul. I don’t know what my soul looks like. So I told the nothingness that I saw that I will be more like you. I will be generous and kind and not selfish and prepare in advance. Haga later said she saw colors which represented her moods. I was supposed to have abandoned cynicism, so I didn’t tell her those colors were an effect of stray electrical impulses on her optic nerves. She said its OK I didn’t see my soul…but I will need to take taiji (tai-chi) classes in Shanghai to learn how to better meditate.

Osey Shalom started. It should have been the last prayer/song of the evening, but hey, I’m not going to be resentful about it. I was a little overcome with emotion as we sang it. I pray that my resolve to be a better person will last till next Rosh Hashanah. Then the tempo became up-beat. High-energy. Cool. And a bunch of people jumped up and started doing this hippie dance in the isle. Wow. I don’t know what to do or say or think. This has gone beyond beyond. So I dance a little – not, mind you, a hippie dance.

Haga watched this and said “I want my kids to grow up in Berkeley. I want them to be well educated and free-spirited. I just don’t want them to dress like a hippie…that’s all”. The world turns in funny ways. On this day I have learned some new things about myself and what I would like to do. I have decided that I’m going to be more active in a congregation (probably not Beyt-Tikkun…to far away). And I have come to realize that Haga is going to help me become a better man and a better Jew.

Trivia

I'm already getting heat. Apparently, some people are keeping tabs on this blog and complaining that I don't update everyday. I'm happy people are already reading this. But I'm not even in Shanghai yet. This is supposed to be a blog about living in Shanghai! So I need to decide if I should update this blog daily with trivia, or wait till I have a moment of inspiration.

OK. Here is the trivia. I'm behind in my teaching work. I need to catch up before we leave next Wednesday. People are calling me up to remind me to call my grandparents...Although they don't say it, they are worried he won't be around when I come back. Lucia almost sat on Unagi and I kept my cool about it...Although she thinks I over-reacted and yelled at her. (what does she know? I do not over-react!) I have confirmed that I can use Yahoo! IM chat as a cheap Voice Over Internet (VoIP) solution for communicating with loved-one in the United States. Haga has decided that I never take good pictures of her. My POS Sony laptop can't stay connected to the internet for more than 2 minutes. Special thanks today to John Pasden - a citizen in China - who has confirmed that China bloks blog*spot, but does not block the toolset at blogger (which I use to create this diary thingy). Ingrid's going to Hawaii. I have told several friends that I will call them before I leave, and I do not know if I really will. I still need to cast my ballot in the California recall election (no on the recall. Period. I don't like Cruz...he's a commie. I don't like Arianna. I don't like Arnold...too cheezy. I should have ran for governor...).

Is the trivia that spews forth really worth reading?

Palm Desert

Haga and I went to Palm Desert resort to visit our family. On the way down stopped off to meander in Santa Barbara. Had a good time. Everyone seems doing good and we were happy to see them before we left for the Orient.

Palm Desert sucks though. Its a town built up for the purpose of giving Mother Nature the bird. Japanese virtual reality: carefully manecured moss and bonsai gardens built to encapsulated the spirit of nature. Palm Desert virtual reality: lunar landscape planted with swaths of living artificial grass golf courses designed by failed 60s Hollywood actors.

There was a Spring-Break thing going on at the pool. It was ugly. I needed an accomplice. I tried to get my sister into the idea of getting in a wrestling match in the main pool, so we could splash water on the smoking sun-backed alcoholics that took up space in the otherwise pretty pool area. She wouldn't go along

We also attended a conference where I learned what "thermogenisis" is. And bought two pairs of shoes for the SH trip.



Mission Santa Barbara

Reconnoiter

Dropped off Visas for processing today. The girl who helped us was nice. She didn't have her own "booth" though...she had a desk placed in a doorway to the back of the consulate. I think she was nice because she had so little power that she couldn't even get her own booth window.



I inconspicuously reconnoitered the consulate before proceeding to infiltrate.

And today...
Cut my sage plant into two/ tuned the irrigation system / shoveled gravel.
Caught up a little with my University of Phoenix work
Learned a lot about CSS style sheets and used the knowledge to create this new layout for the site.

I did a bunch of other stuff too. Tomorrow Haga and I are going to San Fran to pick up the Visa.

So...
I got my new world phone today...
I got that POS laptop that Tony left me (yes...thank you Tony!) working.
I published my last years travel story (at least, what I finished of it)
Haga got finger-printed so that the FBI can keep track of her.
Online bill payments set up.
Taught Lucia how to use the sprinkler system.
Will go to get Visa on Thursday.
Still need to plant the lime tree in the back, clean up garage...
I'm really tense. I'm forgetting something I'm sure.

This is a pic from Tony's "Get the hell out of here II" party at Korea House on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale (last week). Good food. Great friends from my fabulous days at Acer. Tony is in the too tight white shirt sitting in the middle... The guy in the foreground (in front of me) was trying to enjoy his Hot Tofu pot, but the waitress shoved him aside to take this picture.

Need to prepare the following:

Paperwork/ Billing
Phone
Heat - done
Electricity - Lucia will do
Mortgage - done
Car What?
Garbage - done
Mail - don't know
Announcement - need to write it
Taxes - pain in the ass! Done.
Visa soon
Immigration - Damn immigration! They schedule interview for October 7th!
return phone

Things I care about
Unagi - I will miss you!!!
Make plan of action for Shanghai.

Improvements
Sprinkler - yup...i did it!

Packing list
Cloths for Haga
Jesse's stuff

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