shabbat shalom 24.07.08

Hi everyone, It has been a broiling hot summer week in Jerusalem.  Not as hot as it will get in August, but we are in summer mode, avoiding the midday outdoors and active in early morning and after sunset.  Even my Dutch grad student abandoned his midday weekend walking after getting a little bit too much sun.  It's an experience you don't want to repeat, illness from sun and dehydration.  I've been plugging away in the office and didn't go anywhere this week.  We migrated the database to SQL-Server and I am testing it.  Been waiting for this ten years.  I'll need to learn the new software, but it seems smooth enough. Also guiding the student on analysis of data.  He's gotten as dizzy  from number crunching as he did from the sun, and periodically veers off in a direction that makes no sense.  I have to catch him and point him the way again, and off he goes until he veers off again.  He's a hard worker but he prefers to work rather than think. That's a difference between scientists and technicians, by the way, and you can usually separate them pretty early in their careers.  The one who is curious and is always asking why we do something or why we think something is pointed at being a scientist.  The one who is getting pleasure from seeing the accumulation of data or seeing work accomplished is pointed toward either being a technician or a teacher.  It's the insatiable curiosity that makes the difference. This guy is really nice, a good devout Christian, a hard worker, comes from a big family and really gets along with people beautifully.  But he doesn't have that fire of curiosity.  What he is told is good enough for him, and he's not inclined to challenge accepted wisdom.  He will be a technician or more likely a teacher, given his love of people. I've got another student working for me, an Israeli.  He's crabby, hates to be around people, eccentric, works between 10 pm and 2 am in the office, challenges me constantly (when he sees me), and is wrapped up in his own thoughts.  He also does brilliant, creative work in the tasks I give him (which is why I put up with him).  That one is destined to be a scientist whether he like it or not.  He can't help asking why all the time.  He's driven.  Sometimes it is his crabbiness, but always there is this element of curiosity. If this gives you the impression that real scientists tend to be eccentric, crabby, inquisitive types, that's pretty close to the truth.  We like to get together to share ideas but we have a hard time standing each other for very long.  And yes, I fit the prototype very well. I didn't do much except work this week, but last weekend I took in another film from the Jerusalem Film Festival.  It really is nice to do this; we have very good films.  Next year I'll probably subscribe to several and make a day of it.  At the Cinemateque they make a regular party of it with outdoor cafes and events around the films.  Very nice. I also had to deal with the AA treasury business.  Our secretary got socked by the city, which confiscated his bank accounts for back payment of parking violations.  (I finally got the story on that: he was parking a commercial van in a residential building.  Got a ticket and took it to his lawyer.  The lawyer said to ignore it since the van was his and he lived there.  So he did, for half a year....ended up with thousands of shekels in fines.  At which point the city took the next step, to freeze his bank accounts.  Unfortunately our AA treasury account was one of them.  I was thinking he is a real deadbeat to get this far, but it seems his mistake was trusting his lawyer to sort it out.  I think it is time he shoots the lawyer, but that's his problem. Meanwhile, I came to my bank with more money and another cosigner to start yet another checking account.  The bank of course knew about the city confiscating the last one so now they are beginning to wonder what the heck is going on.  I had some explaining to do....a real challenge because my cosigner, a veteran AA, is one of those who doesn't want her own mother to know she is in AA.  So I had to explain to the clerk that the funds are for a "philosophy club that meets once a week in Rehavia".....while my AA buddy was sitting there waiting to stick a hatpin in my butt if I so much as mentioned AA..  The bank probably thinks I'm money laundering now, but they opened a third account for me....Trust drunks to complicate the hell out of a simple matter. That's it for one week.  I'm off to Beersheva next week and it's been so quiet and boring that I'm actually looking forward to the Negev in midsummer....That's extreme... shabbat shalom, Linda