People seem to think this is cool; Personally, I find it a little suspicious.

I did kinda like this one, though:

(It says: “I’m afraid.”)

If there’s one thing I hate more than The DaVinci Code, it’s… people who drive really slowly in the left lane (with apologies to my wife and my mother). But if there’s one thing I hate more than people who drive really slowly in the left lane… it’s cockroaches.

That said, here is our cockroach story. (Warning: not the Cliffs Notes version.)
…read the rest →

Writing a business plan? Fluffing up your resumé? Applying to an MBA program? Let the Web Economy Bullshit Generator help!

…read the rest →

Found some cool optical illusion images. (My personal favorite is the third one.)
…read the rest →

For those who were losing sleep over this, you can relax: Moti Giladi will live on in digital splendor.

Our CD blanks arrived, and–as you can see–they look great. (Disc image is a photo of our beautiful Persian ketubah, a work of art by Simcha Back.)

The final song list:

…read the rest →

Am I a bad-ass, or what?

Whenever I have a cavity filled (which has happened more often than I’d like to remember), I tell the dentist to skip the pain killers. Yes, that’s right, no pain killers. And I highly recommend this to everyone else.

Why?
…read the rest →

…or is it just me?

I’ve been outed? I wasn’t even in!
—Jerry

Q. What do you get when you combine

(a) a newbie blogger,
(b) ping-o-matic, and
(c) no free time?

A. The unexpected early launch of a rather unprepared (hence beta) «leftbraned.

One day I’ll have free time again and I’ll make this blog interesting and pretty. I promise.

Hey. I set the trends, baby.

• Benjamin Franklin
• Linux
• ABBA
• Titanium rings
• Bollywood
• Chococat
• The color orange
• Toyota Avalons
• ebay
• brown suits
• candlepin bowling (you heard it here first)
• birding (will become cool some day soon… it HAS to)
• Ginkgo trees
• colored footwear
• Antiques Road Show
• …to be continued

Which is more pathetic: that The DaVinci Code is such a poorly contrived and written book—or that it’s everyone’s favorite?

Why do people like this crap? It’s no Harry Potter.

Okay, I’ll admit—sheepishly—that I stayed up til 5am because I wanted to finish it… but believe me, I was cursing at Dan Brown (mostly aloud) the whole time.

Last night we saw the LAGQ (Los Angeles Guitar Quartet) perform with an excellent percussionist (Colin Currie). The concert was good—but let’s face it, when you have a marimba and/or a vibraphone, it’s hard to go wrong.

The program:
…read the rest →

The background:

We bought an iPod for our wedding. The restaurant where we held our reception even let us plug it into their sound system and piped it not only to our room but also to the entire restaurant (which, mind you, was full of unsuspecting diners). It took them a while to realize they were blasting their patrons with an odd mix of Israeli showtunes, Erasure remixes and Celtic reels that was fairly different from their usual musical selections. (They shut the main dining room’s speakers once they figured this out.)
…read the rest →

My latest e-bay purchase arrived today: 6 “new” antique Royal Doulton plates.

???, D5549, D5293,
D5106, D5294, ???

The honeymoon photos are up!

(Travelogue coming soon.)

Okay, I’ve thought MSN HoTMaiL was inferior (to Yahoo! Mail or gmail, for example) for years now.

[Incidentally, CNET Reviews independently agrees with me on this. They scored Yahoo! Mail an 8.3 and Hotmail a 6.3.]

Q. “So,” you must be asking, “why write about it now?”

A. I returned from my honeymoon to find that my account has been “reset” since I hadn’t logged in for 30 days. “Reset” as in “all my emails deleted.” “Deleted” as in “permanently deleted.” “Permanently deleted” as in “What the f**k?”
…read the rest →