text messaging

I hate text messaging with a passion. The entire concept of texting is so impersonal. But I use texting, why? Simply because texting is practical.

My friends all text. Before I had texting (I hated it, so I avoided making it part of my plan for a LONG time) my friends would "forget" I didn't have texting, and they would text me anyway. I would yell at one of my friends, and then about a day or two later, another friend would text me. Then some random classmate who needed HW would text me, and then BAM, I would owe a few dollars extra for texting. So for obvious reasons, I got a plan for 300 messages a month.

My parents agreed to continue on paying for my cell phone, but I would have to pay for the texting separately. Ok, fine with me. $5 for 300 messages is not bad at all.

I went over in texting almost every month. More acurately- every month but one. And I didn't go over by enough to go into the "unlimited" texting plan, which would be about 3 times what I pay now (including the over-texts).

And anyway, I need texting now. Its no longer really a "because my friends would text me" issue. At work I sit right infront of the manager, If I want to make plans with my friends, I either call and keep the convo realllly short (and be meanish cuz I'd have to get super talkers off the phone really quickly), or just text these people. I think texting is much simpler. PLUS PLUS, my very close friends (the ones I text most) actually have lives and can't chat all hours of the day either, so texting them is waaaay more convenient for both sides.

So anyway, my father receives the bill and he freaks out. "YOU WENT OVER YOUR LIMIT AGAIN!"

I ask you people, WHY on earth does it matter? I fail to understand why he cares if I'm paying for these messages on my own.

ERRRRR

anyway...I'm going to go back to writing a post that actually has to do with frum people being wacko.

Too smoke or not to smoke, has an obvious answer

Here is guest post, by non other than my sister. We were in the Dominican Republic last week, with hundreds of Europeans. And those bastards literally smoke ALLLLL the time. My sister even had her "favorite" cigar guy. Anyway, she was flipping out the entire vacation because she cannot handle the smell of cigarette smoke. So, I told her to write a post. Here it is:

Now-a-days in the year 2008 there is a lot of awareness on the dangers of smoking. In terms of awareness, I am not just talking about the T.V. commercials that would give anyone chills or the huge bold letters on cigarette boxes (especially at the duty free shops at the airport) which read anything from: “Smoking Kills” to “ Smoking harms you and others around you”, but the awareness in public schools which start in 2nd grade, which I have personally been through, which would scare most kids from even touching a cigarette. My question is, why would anyone smoke?

People give various excuses as to why they choose to smoke. These people say “it’s cool” or “I only smoke socially” or “it relaxes me” or “Only Americans think it’s harmful." Obviously these excuses are full of baloney, because:

It’s Cool – Don’t know about you, but slowly killing myself is not on my list of cool.
I only smoke socially- Fine so I only jump off a bridge socially.
It relaxes me – Try drinking chamomile tea or taking Valerian root, because killing yourself is never the answer.
Only Americans think it’s harmful – The guy that said this is from Israel and as far as I know they have the same letters in bold print which reads “Smoking kills” or “Smokers die younger." Maybe the awareness outside the U.S isn’t as strong, but it’s definitely there.

Other than people harm themselves by smoking, they also harm others with 2nd hand smoke. Whenever I smell smoke I start coughing and my stomach churns. So if people don’t care about themselves and want to kill themselves, go ahead, but don’t do it at the expense of others. Don’t smoke around people that don’t, even if it is outside. Don’t smoke in your car, because it still stinks it up. Most importantly when you go to the beach, do not just light up. Smoke travels and people want fresh air from the sea breeze not a smokey death breeze. When you’re at a resort that allows smoking, don’t smoke during the meals, you can wait 45 minutes to pop another death stick.

Bodily problems caused by smoking:
Cancers:Lung, bladder, esophagus, mouth, throat, cervical, kidney, pancreatic and stomach. acute myeloid leukemia.
Gingivitis, yellowing of the teeth and nails, periodontitis, loss of taste, Cataracts, emphysema, asthma, pneumonia, abdominal aortic aneurism, Lung desease, Heart desease, Heart attack, and Gangrene.

Ingredients in cigerettes:
Tar, nicotine, Carbon Monoxide (no point in installing an alarm for it if you inhale it anyway), ammonia (might as well drink windex), formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic (let’s go poison ourselves), DDT, acetone (mmmm…I love nail polish remover), Carcinogens: Nickel, Benzene, Aniline, Cadmium, etc. Vinyl Chloride, Nitric acid, Hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, citric acid, acetic acid, oxalic acid, ulmic acids (since we can’t touch most acids because it’ll burn our skin, lets inhale them instead so we can slowly burn our insides!).

Just some Facts:
12 million Americans died of smoking since 1964
Smoking kills about 440,000 Americans per year
On average, smoking men lose 13.2 years of life and women lose 14.5.
Lite cigerettes- not any liter than the regular ones on your health.

Sunglasses

While randomly reading blogs my mom sounf one that discussed how many frum girls these days do not dress tzniously. The post had many comments by men. One lady came on and said something like "Men, why don't you just put on your dark glasses and not look at the women."

That line reminded me of my HS teacher who was going on for hours about the importance of tznious. She would say that men are easily tempted and it is our (the girls') job to prevent sin and to altogether help prevent them from looking. The way this is done -dress tzniously-

One girl asked the teacher "But guys look anyway, what are we supposed to do?"
The teacher replied "Well, my husband told me that when he goes out he wears sunglasses specifically NOT to look at women."

Is it only the pair of sunglasses I own or are all sunglasses only tinted yet still transparent? What the hell kinda lucky guys are these to have such stupid wives that would buy :
"No Honey, I wasn't looking at that scantly dressed woman, can't you see I'm wearing sunglasses?"

No Really?! What kinda morons are these wives? I came home that day and told my parents what the teacher said and my father was like "Hahahaha I wear sunglasses so the girls DON'T see ME checking THEM out!"

Here goes another reason why frum men do not want woman educated, they may actually gain some commonsense!

Some girls in my class applauded her for having such a great husband!

New Kolel-like program

You know how they say that some people should be learning Torah all day long because that is how Hashem wants it? And you know how the people who "cannot" learn all day are told to give tzedakeh to full-time learners to support them in lieu of their own learning? The idea is is that some people can learn full time and others cannot. The ones who cannot are supposed to give money to support the full-time learners. By doing this they get the zchus of a full-time learner even though they aren't actually full-time learners.

So anyway I decided that a few other types of kolel's need to be implemented. After all, there are many mitzvahs in the Torah which people miss out on because they are busy being useful in the household and earning money and/or doing housework.

My idea is to institute "kollelim" for travelers and food tasters. Hashem afterall created the world for people to see and enjoy it. Hashem wants man to enjoy the beauty the world has to offer, and he wants people to say a bracha. However, a problem arises in that many people just cannot travel (motion sickness, home-sickness, and way too involved in work) and other people cannot try new foods because of their inability to travel or because of allergies or diseases/sicknesses. These people (like non-learners) should set aside a portion of their income to provide money for those willing to sacrifice their comfort to fulfill the mitzvah of seeing the world. After all, these people are so immersed in Torah that they would be willing to quit their jobs and travel and try exotic foods for a living.

So here is my proposal. In order to get this program started I would need to volunteer myself to be the "full-time" traveler and food-taster. In order to do so, I need funding for the travel and food expenses. So I ask of you to please donate some money* to this great cause. I am willing to go to Europe/Israel this very summer. If you sponser my trip, and my ambition to flood the world with many mitzvot, I will make sure to keep you in mind when I say each bracha (starting from tfilla's haDerech to the bracha for seeing mountains) I would even bring back pictures so you get the full-merit of seeing the world-and not just vicariously.

If you're interested in instituting such a program I strongly urge you to e-mail me and I will let you know who to make your check payable to.

* maaser money is accepted

Tizku l'mitzvos

Pregnancy Pact

Of all the stupid things teenagers do, this is by far the dumbest. A group of 17 teenage girls at Gloucester High School -the oldest being 16- made a pact to get pregnant and raise their children together. If you read the article on msnbc and other articles concerning this issue, it will seem as if these girls became pregnant because they thought it was "cool." One girl even paid a 24-year-old homeless man to get her pregnant.


Some say that the pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears is what inspired these girls "This trend was highlighted Thursday when Britney Spears' 17-year-old sister Jamie Lynn, star of Nickelodeon's popular TV show "Zoey 101," gave birth to a baby girl, according to People magazine." They also say that movies like Juno and Knocked Up helped inspire these pregnancies.

Truth of the matter is, is that "Birth rates for teenagers aged 15 to 17 rose by 3 percent in 2006, the first increase since 1991, according to preliminary data released in December by the National Center for Health Statistics." Meaning that this trend started way before any obvious forms of pop-culture could've effected them.


It's just mind boggling how ridiculous these actions are. Why the heck would a bunch of teenage girls get pregnant? It cannot possibly be TV. TV doesn't make it sound easy one bit (and I watched Gilmore Girls where mom & daughter ended up having it really good). I mean, seriously. what the heck is wrong with people these days?


I'm going to be frum and blame moms for not spending enough time with their children. Darn working moms! If they only paid attention to their young instead of sticking them infront of TV's and allowing the schools to be the only forms of education, these retarded teens wouldn't be- as retarded-!

Be comfy

I was linked to an article on Cosmpolitan called 40 Girlie Moves That Make Guys Melt. One of the guys said:

"Like most chicks, there's a big difference between how my girlfriend looks when she's out and dressed up, and when she's in dress-down mode, hanging out at home. At first, she was shy about pulling back her hair and putting on her glasses instead of her contacts. But I love how she looks when she's relaxed. Maybe it's because I'm one of the few people who get to see her that way."

I found what he said absolutely fascinating. Why? Because of the mere fact that B'Y and probably kallah classes as well, teach girls that they should care more about how they look inside the house than they do when they are out. I remember the teacher at my HS who used to teach about shalom bayis and such was very into the fact that woman should always look nice. She told a stories (which I heard from many other teachers) about these ladies who would apply make-up more often while at home than while they were out. These women would greet their husbands every day in make-up and nice clothes (the same ones they wore to work, not sweat pants and a huge t-shirt). And supposedly, these husbands were the ones that were happier in their marraiges.

Honestly, I'm no feminist. I understand that guys are attracted to femininity and all sorts of lady-like behavior. The thing is, is that some of those behaviors are SUPER uncomfortable (ie, wearing heels, itchy sweaters, and fitted clothes - especially -around the house). Not only that, but being dressed up inside or all the time is just super impractical. Wearing make-up is really bad for the skin, constantly straightening/curling hair can damage it, and wearing above-decent clothes around the house can damage them (as if guys don't complain enough as it is that women spend to much time and money on shopping).

I do love to dress up on occassion, and I like the attention I get when I do, but I sure like my baggy pants and over-sized sweatshirt ALOT more. While I cannot wear the pants and sweatshirt out (faded, stained, worn-out) I feel really bad wasting such comfy garments on the garbage, so I'm keeping them.

So ladies, next time you're at a speech and the speaker tells you that it is crucial to constantly "look-good" for your husband, remember what the guy said in Cosmopolitan, go home, put on your sweat-pants and your over-sized sweatshirt. Then go and put your hair up in a pony-tail and take your contacts out. If you're single, make this a habit, if you're married, don't worry about it- your husband probably doesn't pay attention to what you're wearing anyway.

Just dumb

The other day I was online chatting with a girl from HS. We haven't spoken in about two years, and thats mostly because we never really liked each other. I never really didn't like her, it was more of the fact that we had nothing in common. Anyway, the other day I found out two things about her, the first being that she's just really dumb (I didn't think she was very sharp, but def not this dumb) and the second that she didn't like me, while I was just indifferent to her. So anyway, what I did was, while chatting, I decided to send her a link to a previous post I had written called If I Rule the World.

The conversation went something like this:

me- Are you busy?
her- no, not really.
me- K, u wanna read something funny i had written?
her- sure


and I sent her the link. A few minutes later this girl is FREAKING out. She was literally "yelling" at me on IM (sounds funny, but come on, you can so tell someone is yelling!). And she says:

You sound exactly like Hitler! HOw can you even write something like this?? No wait! Its you, ofcourse you can write something like this. You don't understand how evil it is. And you're only saying you aren't serious, but i know you, and if it were up to you, you really would rule the world like that. And thats evil. You can't just have dumb people pushing rocks up hills. You can't separate people based on how smart or dumb they are. thats not right. YOu aren't Gd. Only gd can divide people, not man.

So I replied to her something like 'Um. Its my fantasy, I didn't say " you wanna read my political science paper?" I said "want to read something funny?'

So she goes, No, I Know you, you'd really do that.

I was like "are you seriosuly getting upset about a hypothetical situation?!"

She was like But you'd do it. thats the thing! You'd really do it like that!

So I realized that I was speaking to an idiot, and I was like "Ok, you got me, I would do it like that, I made it funny for the readers."

Then the convo ended. And I took her off my buddy list. She's still on my facebook, but thats only because of the gossip :).