Greetings and salutations!

I guess anyone who actually reads my blog may have noticed that I've been posting a lot more frequently lately. Well, I certainly have and there is a good reason for it - I have far more time on my hands of late. I'll get into the 'why' of that momentarily. Regular readers may also have noticed some technical problems with the blog and I've been tinkering around there lately too. The main issue (aside from Blogger's total lack of customer service and a useless new layout system) was that the server holding my CSS was down. This has now been addressed but there are other repairs to make. Ah the fun never ends.

On Work & Daily Life

September/October is known as the High Holiday Season so things around here have slowed to a near standstill. This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that EVERYTHING in this country is done slowly. The concept of 'customer service' doesn't really exist here; neither does 'fast food'. A perfect example is McDonalds. Yes, the burgers are much bigger here, but you're going to pay more for them and you're going to wait between 10 and 15 minutes to get your food - that's WITHOUT a line up. The added irony here is that many Israelis I've encountered seem to have no patience and are always in a rush. They seem to get annoyed or even angry if made to wait even a short time for the simplest things. I'm speaking in generalities here and not everyone is rude or anything like that; it's just another part of the culture I have to get used to.

Anyway so not much has been happening with work, hence all my free time. I've been to the office in Karmi'el once or twice, I put together some online marketing materials, but that's about it. I did go to the company's annual BBQ today in Hof Habonim which was nice. While there I was informed of an editing project I might take on in Petah Tikva next week. This should be a nice, transitional project and there is the added bonus of being able to see my friend Liav, so I'll keep you posted on that. Did I mention that my boss was actually robbed? Someone broke into his house and took his laptop, cell phone, wallet, etc. So that set things back a bit too.

I tried to order some electricity this morning. There is a very strange system here that involves an automated, electronic meter and it's associated private codes (no billing). Apparently I am the only one on my floor using this system. This morning I tried to order some electricity credits - this was an exercise in chaos to be sure. I must have spoken with 4 different CS agents. Anyway, hopefully it's all sorted out now.

On the End of Nova

There are some other things which remain to be sorted out. My landlord still needs to deliver my washer as well as my sofa. Nova (Japan) still owes me money but I'm not really expecting to see any of it as, apparently, they're now on the verge of bankruptcy. Yes it's sad but true, Nova seems to have pretty much imploded due, primarily, to shoddy business practices and is now going to hell in a Hello Kitty decorated hand basket. You can read more here and here. It even made Canadian media which was fairly impressive. What's not so impressive are the staff that have not been paid, or even evicted because Nova has failed to pay their rent. I feel tremendously concerned for my many friends waiting it out in Japan, and very grateful that I left when I did.

On Random Stuff

According to recent surveys,   Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East. Calgary actually ranked 1st for health and sanitation but only 24th overall, which isn't that bad, really. Vancouver was 3rd overall for quality of life. No Israeli cities made that list.

As usual, there's a lot happening in the world which relates to Israel. I hope to get into further discussion of such issues in the future, but for now you'll just have to put up with my more mundane narratives. I know I haven't posted any pics yet but I did want to leave you with one last thing though, and that's a link to a Missionary Positions, a documentary that was filmed about the birth of xxxchurch.com, a site I've mentioned here before. Be sure to check it out.

With Hope,
Joseph

High Holidays | Blogger Problems | Nova Bankruptcy