A few weeks ago my digital watch went kaput.  It’s a waterproof watch because I put my hands in water on a regular basis, and replacing the battery on those is a pain, because it usually breaks the waterproofness, and most places won’t replace it for you….because they can’t get the seal right either.

At that point I decided I would try again to switch to the more au currant style of just using one of my digital devices to tell me the time. I have an iPod and a Droid on me at most times, so I’m not actually far from a time device very often.  However, all of these do not have the immediacy of tilting my wrist to see the time.

For the first few days I found myself looking and fumbling, feeling almost a panic, as remembered I needed to find a device and turn it on to see the time.  On Shabbat I actually had to go to where a clock was to see it, since I can’t fiddle with my electronic devices to turn them on to show the time.  It was all a bit disorienting.  But now, a couple weeks in, I’ll think I wonder what time it is, turn on a device, and idlely bring up some application without looking at the time.  The “need to know the time” was more of a habit than a real need.  Knowing the time regularly never made me more on time for scheduled events – that seems to be governed by some other factor.  I either have ontimeness or not.

Today, when I once again wondered what time it was, and then found myself playing pocket frogs instead of seeing the time I thought that I should really make a Now watch, and I was reminded  of a story my uncle told me.

So what’s a now watch.  Back in the 70′s my uncle in SF used to make Now watches.  He’d flatten a bottle cap, attach it to a woven wrist band, decorate a round sticker with pen decorated NOW, and stick it on the bottle cap.  He’d give these out to friends.  His now watch however was made from an old wrist watch that had died, so it looked like a real watch but if you looked at the “dial” you’d see it was a sticker with NOW in fabulous colors.

Anyway, one day he was wandering out and about, perhaps near the financial district, and this older man in a suit, looking very professional and serious came up to him and said “Young man, what time is it.”  He did what he always did when someone asked, and looked at his watch and answered “now”.  The man nodded his head curtly and said “I thought it was.”  and continued on his way.

After the patch that brought the Shattering dropped, I hopped onto my new mage to check out the world (and maybe level a bit.)  I logged into Orgrimmar and was immediately lost.  I had no idea where I was.  I stumbled around the city trying to figure out where everything had moved, and eventually found my way to the flightmaster.  I had heard (from trade chat no less) that you could see a great view of the changes to the Barrens by flying to Thunderbluff.  I had wanted to see Thunderbluff anyway so I hopped a wyrven to see.   Off I flew over the new Orgrimmar, over the South Fury river and into the Barrens.  The point nearest to the river didn’t seem so changed, but I watched as the plains swept by.  In the distance I noticed some smoke rising and wondered what I would see ahead.

We flew up over a few trees and as the view cleared…*blink* there was Deathwing, Aspect of Death, breathing fire and…well…death on the plains below.  I watched and looked at the destruction, and then passed over the chasm of the divide.   We kept flying and the wyrvern flew over the hill into the valley of Mulgore safely away from Deathwing.

The phone announces a calendar alarm and I growl “What is it!?”.

I look, and it states, “Pick up meat at Hillel, in 10 minutes”.

“Eeep!”  I exclaim and run to change from workout clothing.  I had forgotten the meat delivery was today.   As quick as I can, I fly out the door and head out to the Hillel parking lot.  Half way there I get a call to verify that I remembered and was on my way.

Once there I feel like I’m in a scene from another country or another time.  The Hillel house sits dark and small gathering of people bundled in winter coats, check books in their hand gather about a van in the parking lot.  The van has its back doors open providing the light for the scene.  Each person comes to pick up their kosher meat that they had ordered that was delivered today, cases going into the back of cars, SUVs and mini vans.

Really I live in a regular city, but this is one of the twice monthly opportunities to pick up kosher meat at a decent price.  Kosher in Colorado means big freezers, it’s as simple as that.

I got back from SXSW last night. What an amazing experience. It was awesome meeting so many people. I wish I had had more time to spend with everyone and that I had caught up with a few more people but I am so thankful for the conversations I was able to have. The sessions were great too. It is good to hear other people’s thoughts on topics and I learned some new things and new ideas as well. Not every session was a home run, but there was something to get from each session (and more than a few I want to catch on podcast.)

Hopefully some of the thoughts and ideas that were triggered by SXSW will come out as posts in the next few days, we’ll see how that works, but one thing that struck me the first night I was wandering around was the grackles.

We left our hotel Saturday night to head to the parties and I was struck by this sound – it was so loud and almost mechanical I was wondering who had some mechanical bird sounds playing on the street. No, it wasn’t mechanical it was 100′s of birds in the trees all clicking and whirring and chirping at each other.

When we went back to the hotel we asked and they told us – those are grackles.

My sound recording options were pretty limited, so below is a very poor quality recording (from my blackberry phone voice recorder) but it gives you a little feel for the sound.

Grackle sounds

When we looked up into the trees they were black with the grackles.

This week we read a story about Maier Amschel Rothschild – the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.

This story is taken from volume 4 of The Storyteller by Nissan Mindel

This week we read the story that is in the epilogue of the book Truths Revealed: Modern Stories of Miracles & Faith which is written by a friend of mine. It is a story about darkness and light.

This story is from the epilogue of the book Truths revealed: Modern day stories of faith & miracles by Tzvi Jacobs

In today’s story we complete the stories from Legends of Judah the Macabee with the story of the Miracle of Chanukah.

If you haven’t caught the whole series here are the links to the series in order.

The Rise of Antiochus Epiphanes
The Hellenizers
Antiochus Takes Action
The Death of Eleazar the Priest
Hannah and Her 7 Sons
Rebellion in Modiin
The Death of Matisyahu
Judah the Maccabee Goes to War

And today – The Miracle of Chanukah

This story comes from Legends of Judah The Maccabee
by S. Skulsky

Today’s story is a continuation of the book, Legends of Judah the Macabee, Today we read chapter 8 – Judah the Macabee goes to war.

This story comes from Legends of Judah The Maccabee
by S. Skulsky

Today we continue the daily story from an adaptation of Aggadot Yehuda Ha Makkabi. Today’s story is about the passing of Matisyahu.

This story comes from Legends of Judah The Maccabee
by S. Skulsky

Today’s story, the continuation of the history and story of a Chanukah – Rebellion begins in the mountain town of Modiin.

This story comes from Legends of Judah The Maccabee
by S. Skulsky