(no subject)

This morning I finally asked David (the Torah reader at Tree of Life) if I could chant a weekday portion (or at least one aliyah of one), and he said he'd be happy to have me do so. (I've noticed that people other than him occasionally do so.) I asked for Behar, which is my "birthday" portion (so to speak). It's not until May, so I've got time to learn it. He'll make me a tape, and I'll keep working on learning the trope. Presumably when Rabbi Gibson starts teaching this that'll help, too, but with a specific goal I can also learn on my own.

This'll be neat. :-) I've only done this once before.

(no subject)

As, requested by LJ, a link to the message explaining the paid-account glitch. (Short form: they know about the bogus email warning of expired accounts, and it's fixed now.)

December music

I wonder if there are any restaurants in Pittsburgh that are not playing steady streams of Christmas music. Besides the kosher restaurants, I mean, which don't work for lunch or post-Shabbat excursions.

I actually don't mind the better Christmas music so long as it isn't blaring and thus intruding on thoughts/conversation. Basically, don't make me become involved and I can ignore it, or even appreciate the occasional piece's craftsmanship. I think the insipid stuff is a lot worse than the religious stuff. The radio stations or muzak sources or whatever seem to be going entirely for the secular stuff, like "Rudolf" and "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", to name three I heard at Sushi Too today. Sheesh. I think if I were a Christian I'd rather hear *no* music than hear *that* stuff. I can empathize with the people who are unhappy about the secularization of their holiday.

The best compromise IMHO for places like restaurants and public buildings would be to stick to instrumental renditions and lose the cheesy stuff.

banish HTML from Outlook

Somebody finally wrote a plugin for Outlook to get rid of HTML infestations from incoming email. If you're stuck using Outlook, this should substantially cut down on your virus exposure.

(no subject)

I guess according to Ashcroft we're all just a bunch of whiners or something, criticizing his plans to end terror at the expense of civil liberties and all that... See this story.