Inauguration Day

                      This is my first post in about a month because I’ve had some important decisions to make and wasn’t that interesting in writing about it here. Well I’m back and ready for the Inauguration Day of Barack Obama. Before I get to my thoughts, I would like to iterate if I haven’t so done before that I don’t have any feelings towards nor against the vote of Mr. Obama into office and I will decide if he was successful or not after his term or two. If I was an American citizen I would likely vote for him or not vote at all. With that understood lets get to the inauguration.

               I feel that this Inauguration Day is like an episode of American Idol or MTV’s The Real World (which I watch regardless of the hypocrisy). What Mr. Obama and his people have made of this day is in actuality a reality show. Mr. Obama and his advisors ran a successful campaign which captured not only people who actually knew what they were voting for but also a boat load of the ignorant American population who jumped on the band wagon because voting for Barack Obama (who has a pretty cool name) was the cool/hip thing to do. Correct me if I’m wrong but how many people that voted for Mr. Obama actually have a clue as to the intentions of his foreign policy or his plan for somehow saving the American economy through enhanced monetary policies? I wouldn’t think many. And for you’re info fixing the American economy will mean doing the same to the global economy because as we know or should know, now a days that domestic economies are affected by the global market but enough about that. It doesn’t seem that the average american who voted for Mr. Obama took any of these matters into consideration. What voters took into consideration was “Yes We Can,” a genius marketing tool which has a plethora of meanings.  What voters took into consideration was the skin color of Mr. Obama. What voters took into consideration was the young, cool, hip, and at the same time sophisticated look of Mr. Obama. And believe me I am proud for Mr. Obama for having these characteristics, however I think voters should have put more into consideration when voting, and less into achieving the idea of the worlds most watched reality television show. Lets give credit to Barack Obama after we see what he’s accomplished four years later. Thanks to Fox News, last night I learned that white house staff will have 6 hours to move in the Obama family belongings and hang up pictures on the wall. Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssseeeeeee STOP.

Lets play ball in Gaza?

 So finally done with all the negotiating and all the paper work and have pretty much finalized a buy out from my contract that I had with Nazareth Illit. What now you ask? Well I had a tryout with a team in a kibbutz pretty close to Gaza. If you go to The Star you will see the road I drove on to get to the kibbutz and at the same time will realize that that was the road where the camera was standing filming an air raid on hamas militants. When I drove that road I was a little scared but then realized that hamas blasts about 10 rockets a day and the guys I was with seemed pretty cool and relaxed about it so I became cool myself. Thats about it. The post today isn’t to long because I don’t have to much to post. Just wanted to let you know how close I really was to a crises that is global news and to let you know that actually being there is scary when you start to think about where you actually are, but I spoke with a lot of people and they say the way they deal with it best is to just not think about it. On that note i’m blasting off.

 

BYE BYE

I’m Back

 I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaack, it’s been about two and a half weeks since I posted and a lot has happened during this time. For starters, things with my team have not gone so well for both sides. This happens a lot in basketball and other professional sports. As a player and/or a coach you have to be ready for everything, especially change. In Israel if things don’t work out from the start you don’t get very long to prove yourself. So in my case certain things happened and the team chose to go in another direction. I had an offer to stay but in the end I figured that my best option would to opt for a buy out. I am still currently negotiating with my agent and the team. Hopefully things get sorted out soon. Besides that I’m going to look for another opportunity with another team.

               Moving on, one of the reasons I didn’t post for a while was because as I previously said my father was coming for a visit and so I spent a lot of time with him. It was a good visit, besides the 4 days he spent in the hospital but I wont get into that haha. Any time you get to see familiar faces it makes you feel good. He mainly came to see his brother as well as me, but the reason he came at this time was because my cousin was getting married. The wedding was WICKED, it was mostly one big party with great food and a chupa (where the ceremony takes place). It was a pretty big wedding with about four hundred people, and I got to see my whole family which was great and even met some new family dow the tree that I didn’t know I was somehow related to. Goooooooood times.

            Besides that I’m not exactly sure what’s next. I have to make a couple decisions about my future. Even though this is not what I expected, it’s life and I can appreciate that so I’m taking it day by day. I know in the end I will be fine one way or another. Anyway I want to wish every one happy holidays, happy chanuka and merry xmas. Have a good one.

 

BYE BYE

All Smiles

 It’s the sixth of december, ski season right? But I find my self on the beach of Tel-Aviv in 30 degree weather. Does life get any better than this? Well I’m sure it does but I didn’t think I would be on a beach in december, pretty incredible. Hahaha sorry to anger some of you who are writhing in the mid December cold but worry you not, it is supposed to get a bit colder this week to the high teens. I have a couple of things I went to discuss in this post, I have a cute article for yous and a documentary hit.

             I stumbled upon this article about the affect that smiling has on society. PEOPLE, wrap your mind around this phenomenon, if you smile then its likely that you’re friends friend will also smile. Smiling is contagious within three degrees of separation. How incredible, remember to smile it makes the world a better place and people enjoying being around happy people not around people that feel sorry for themselves. SMILE DAMN IT. hahah ok enough of that, but smile.

            Moving right along, you all know from previous posts if you’ve been following along, that I watch my fair share of documentaries (aka docs). Well I recently watched the most powerful documentary so far and I’ve watched quite a few. This doc is called God Grew TIred of Us. The brief of it is about the Lost Boys of Sudan who are a group of refugees who escaped the civil war and/or genocide in Sudan and after walking over one thousand miles, made it to a refugee camp in Kenya in very bad shape where they have been living for 10-15 years. Some of these refugees are relocated around the United States. This becomes interesting as you watch them learning how to use a light switch. One of the many themes in this movie is that moving away from friends and family for a life of “better” opportunity and higher standard of living, does not always end well where loneliness begins to set, you refer back to old habits etc. Honestly I think everyone needs to watch this doc because it truly makes you feel fortunate and it may motivate you to try and make a difference in the life of others as it has motivated me.

I leave you with this:

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

I have no idea who said it, but I want to comment that this is the first time in my life where this quote makes sense. Every time previous to this that I heard the phrase learn from your mistakes, I didn’t take it seriously. Now that I am in the real world I am quickly learning that if you fail at the first chance, learn from it and be careful not to make that mistake twice. Many times in life people get a second chance which is given because people giving you that chance believe that you learned from your mistakes or that you are a changed person. This message is mainly for young people, but for adults as well we must remember if we get a second chance make the most of it because they say threes a charm, but a third chance rarely comes around.

BYE BYE

One-point Triumph

 I want to start this post by paying all my respects to grandma who past away this week after suffering for a long time. She was a very strong woman with great memory of her life up until the end. It was amazing how well her brain functioned although her body couldn’t keep up. It’s hard for me being away from home and not being with my family but at the same time I also don’t feel the full affect of it being so far away, kinda hard to explain. My family has gone through a lot during the last couple of months but with all the events we have become closer and stronger collectively. Safta you are loved and will be missed.

             This past week we ended our losing streak with a one-point come from behind victory against a good team in Nes Tziona. With about eight seconds left we hit a game winning 15 footer from the baseline that sealed the victory and the gym as ballistic, people ran on the court and everything, it was pretty wicked. So that ends one chapter and starts a new one in our season, one where we look to have a renewed passion and intensity that we didn’t have before.

           Also this week I went to my second Israeli weekend of one of my teammates. I must say that Israeli weddings are quite different from the North American Jewish weddings that I have been to. In Israeli weddings you have a short ceremony under the chupa and from there its non stop dancing with some food in between. North American Jewish weddings are a lot more ceremonial with less dancing and a lot more sitting down from what I have experienced.

         That’s about it for this week, I’m happy to be reporting that my father will be joining me soon for two weeks and for my cousins wedding in about three weeks. It’s always really refreshing to see recognizeable faces especially when its your immediate family. I also have a friend coming to visit who I haven’t seen in my a long time and he has family here. J-lips I’m giving you some blog lovin’. So I’m looking forward to the month of december.

 

Have a frosty one.

Three Month Anniversary

Well well folks, beginning to feel that holiday cheer even though its about a month of dreary eyed work days away? To me it feels like mid-September with 25 degree sunny days because for the past 17 years, mid-November has been light snow falls and early dark nights. Now its relatively warm sunny days with early dark nights. It’s been about 3 months since I got to Israel and it feels like the time has passed by quite fast, yet to slow. Before I began this journey, and one of the reasons I did it, I knew I would learn a number of qualities about myself. Also for the experience. 

          And what have a learned about myself? in short, tons, but I made this blog so I could give you more than the half of it. For starters I’ve learned that it’s difficult to just pick up and leave to another country even when you have things set up and you know you are coming back. Second, I’ve learned that family and friends is what will truly make me happy in the future. Being away from that makes you realize that the people that care about you are the people you want to be around. They are also the people that won’t judge you, and if they do judge you, it will be based on the type of person you are (character, moral etc) and not as the professional position you hold. ie. computer programmer, athlete etc.  I think this experience made me realize that no matter what I do in life I will know what makes me happy which is probably the most important goal a person (in my opinion) can achieve. So ask yourself what makes you happy? And if there is an experience you need to go through to reach that goal then do as you will. Also, as much I love basketball, I realize that there are many other things in life that I want to accomplish but I’ll leave it at that. 

          Beyond this is the basketball. My team has been struggling of late and with that came some change. Our coach recently stepped aside and handed over the reigns to our assistant coach. So far practice have been more intense so we’ll see where things head from here, hopefully for the better but time will tell.

        Besides that things are cool and hopefully if we start winning I will update this thing more often even though my updating shouldn’t be based on our winning or losing but that’s life folks.

Much Love.

A Call for Change?

 I just received an email with a pretty powerful interview that was broadcasted on Al Jazeera television and the email said to watch it as soon as possible because it likely won’t be on for much longer so check it out it MUST SEE. Click HERE to watch the video.

ummmmmm…

Ummmmmm usually when I write a blog I have some sort of theme going on that I think of before hand and then I just go crazy with my fingers. This time I figured I haven’t been keeping up with the blog like I should and my dad told me he is proud of the way I write hahaha (a joke and I take it as a compliment at the same time). Honestly this time I just came on here without thinking about anything to really talk about so I will just let my fingers flow as energy is transcended from my fingers to the keyboard. Oooooooooooo did you like that one, not quite sure it made sense but I hope so. You know how I always get you guys to read my blog by posting something stupid (which is actually pure sophistication)? Well I think if it was my job to come up with a new catch phrase everyday for some sort of product I believe I would do a fine job. So goddamnit someone hire me as a catch phraser and you will be happy hahah. 

            Besides going a little bit crazy, my basketball team has been losing as we are now 1-3. We lost a game at home which we were leading for most of the game and couldn’t close. Kind of annoying as we felt it was a must win but we are just not clicking right now. It will come though. Anyway don’t wanna talk to much about it.

         You know when you get into a conversation about religion and someone asks the question…Are you religious? well my answer is no, but to be honest I’m not quite sure why I’m not religious. Maybe because I was raised in a secular household, although I consider myself to be very open minded so I’m not sure it would be because of only my upbringing. Well maybe its because I’m very open minded, a characteristic that doesn’t blend with religion. Anyway sometimes I understand the idea behind religion but other times I’m just dumbfounded by how naive religion makes people. To me to be religious means also having a peaceful state of mind but religion is the seed of wars, hate etc. Some of you may have caught this in the news already but where a fight between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out at the proposed tomb of Jesus. Boggles the mind what religion can do sometimes.

           Well thats it for now and I haven’t had sushi in a while and I want some sushi. And a quote by none other than:

  ”Make the decision that will benefit you, not the one you think will affect others.”

    -Eylon Zemer

bahahahah I swear I came up with that one. What I mean by it is don’t be afraid to make drastic decisions in your life which will benefit you because you think they may affect others but in the big picture the decision won’t really affect them and will greatly benefit you. Also you are afraid that you will be judged when in reality people look at you in a brighter light when you a decision that another person would be scared to make. Hope that made sense.

So long peeps.

Happy Halloweeners

 Well Hello, I’m back after another pit stop and I apologize for taking so long. I want to start by wishing my bro LAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVIIIIII a happy birthday. Every year my brother has a birthday something very weird happens. We’ll usually go out for dinner or something and when we come back home we see little kids going from door to door dressed in these scary costumes, its one of the weirdest things i’ve seen in my life. Then we’ll go out to a bar or something at night and everyone is dressed up in all these outlandish costumes. Shit I guess people are happy to celebrate My bro’s birthday because everywhere we go people are dressed up for him.

           We had a game this week and lost. We played away in what I hear is the best home court advantage in the league. We were up all game then made a few mistakes in the last couple minutes to give the game away. We are now 1-2 and have a couple of must win games to stay atop the league. We play every tuesday and I will try to update after every game. The problem is that after we lose I don’t feel like writing so hopefully we win and I write.

         Movie update, last week I watched one very good movie and another great movie. Wanted, with Brangelina was a very good action thriller for those of you who enjoy those kind of matrixy animations with the slow motion bullets and shit like that. The great movie was Boy A, this is a must see. Not sure how to even describe it, I guess its a drama with a great plot line. See it.

        Onto something a little more important. I wasn’t sure if I wanted talk about this or not but I feel like if I do it might help me and maybe the whole situation. My mother recently underwent a procedure to remove lymph due to breast cancer. For those of you who pray please pray that everything will be okay and that she will only get better from here on out. Thank you. I know my mother is tough and so I will dedicate a quote to her.

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

         -Michael Jordan

Enjoy.

Documentaries

Lately I’ve been watching a lot documentaries that touch on a number of different issues. Well some of them are just entertaining and the issues they touch on, to me are not worth discussing. Thus I will comment on a couple I finished watching starting with King of Kong. Honestly, this is one of the best productions that I have ever witnessed in my short or long lived 23 years. Not so much that its a great story but the production takes a plot that is something to be laughed at and turns it into such an intense situation that gets the audience fixated on a battle of two nerds and video games hahah I mean come on. The documentary is about a group of nerds who have formed a classic video arcade association that they swear by and this movie somehow makes the audience believe that there is something great going on here when really its a battle for a world record of a video game. Anyway I don’t want to ruin it for you but it is one of the best documentaries I have seen that truly hasn’t taught me anything.

            Another fairly (pretty good) documentary I just finished watching is called America: Freedom to Fascism. This one was overwhelming with information for Americans, I’m not sure how this information would work in Canada. It’s a documentary about how americans are controlled by the american government and the federal reserve (a privately) owned bank and basically how americans don’t have to file a 1040 which is an income tax form. The doc proposes that there is no law in the amendment implying that Americans have to pay income tax. Anyway this is a topic i’m very fascinated with and I could write about it forever and bore you to death so I’ll spare you and let you watch and learn for yourself. Highly recommended.

         Moving on to Jesus Camp. Wow where to start? This doc is about evangelicalism in the United States. This documentary exhibits so much irony in that its about the evangelical movement of children starting from a young age. Why do I say it’s ironic? because I find the brainwashing of young naive children to be an evil movement. Why not teach kids that there is a possibility that they were born by the powers of God or that they may have been born through the process of evolution and ultimately let them choose. I get very irritated when I witness actions like these by adults who somehow consider themselves to be responsible. EVIL. At the end this doc also shows connections of how the politics (the state) and religion are one of the same. This one is somewhat boring but very powerful, watch it.   

Aright aright thats it for my film watching I’ll though I will be getting at you with more soon. I want to leave you with this quote, a quote by GOD himself that I feel strongly about haha.

If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome. 

-Michael Jordan (its known that around NBA circles he was called God)

peace in the middle east…for real

ps. haven’t edited my writing so forgive me…or don’t