I live in a most wonderful city!
If you live in the metropolitan of the city and you have a library card (which is free, of course) you can sign out passes to any museum in and around the city. This pass is also good for the zoo as well!!! By pass I mean that you can go into the museum free of charge. This is an incredible opportunity to do things around the city and not spend a dime on it. I should also mention here that the pass is for the general admittance, anything extra is not covered. Which usually means IMAX movies or something of that nature.
I happen to really love the Aquarium. So last week I went to the library and was lucky enough that the pass (only one pass per library per museum) was still there! Naturally I jumped at the opportunity to see my favorite exhibit, the salt water tanks and of course NEMO and DORY! I know I sound like I'm 3 but its true I really love the salt water life, its just vibrant and full of color!
To my dismay and pure horror there is ongoing construction at the aquarium and as a pure money making tool they took away this exhibit and put it in an area that costs extra to get into.
I know, some people maybe thinking: "common you paid nothing to get it, you can spend a little and see the fish that you like". Although that is partially true and I did think about it, and my husband even approved of the extra $15+tax for both of us to do so, I still felt ripped off!
They have an entire section which cost $7.50 extra with salt water life, but they had a small (Very small a couple tanks really) on the general admittance area where you can feel like you are a part of the salt water life but not needing to pay extra!
I know this is a gripe but I really feel if you take an entire section and completely remove it and force people to pay extra to see it its just UN-AMERICAN!!!
Leave NEMO alone!!!
Showing posts with label Americans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Americans. Show all posts
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Calendar year
As we usher in the new year, I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. May this year see the coming of mashiach and the end to all arab created wars without a victory. May this year be victorious, fruitful and filled with peace.
For everyone out there who does not celebrate this pagan holiday but does however celebrate the onset of a new calendar year I will be posting what we did 12.31.08 shortly. For everyone else, I'll be posting what we did on 01.01.09
Take care of yourselves, and each other.
Happy New Year
For everyone out there who does not celebrate this pagan holiday but does however celebrate the onset of a new calendar year I will be posting what we did 12.31.08 shortly. For everyone else, I'll be posting what we did on 01.01.09
Take care of yourselves, and each other.
Happy New Year
Thursday, December 11, 2008
America (the UN-Loved)
Some of my readers may know that I am Canadian, therefore I'm going through the immigration process to become a citizen in the United States of America.
Part of the process is to be finger printed. I had to go for my second finger printing appointment today. What a difference from the other two times when I was at that office.
The other times it was packed. If you came early, to bad you had to wait for your appropriate time. Then, you would have to wait a good hour to hour and a half to be seen! Today I was in and out in 15 minutes.
There was no line, there were just the workers and two other people in line!
Well, what could it possibly be? Could it be that nobody wants to come into America anymore? Could it be the lack of jobs?
I spoke to the lady who was finger printing me. She said that there has been a substantial drop in traffic that comes through that office. She also said that it could be the season.
I think its probably a little bit of both, although I've got my money riding on the awful economics of this country!
How sad :-(
Part of the process is to be finger printed. I had to go for my second finger printing appointment today. What a difference from the other two times when I was at that office.
The other times it was packed. If you came early, to bad you had to wait for your appropriate time. Then, you would have to wait a good hour to hour and a half to be seen! Today I was in and out in 15 minutes.
There was no line, there were just the workers and two other people in line!
Well, what could it possibly be? Could it be that nobody wants to come into America anymore? Could it be the lack of jobs?
I spoke to the lady who was finger printing me. She said that there has been a substantial drop in traffic that comes through that office. She also said that it could be the season.
I think its probably a little bit of both, although I've got my money riding on the awful economics of this country!
How sad :-(
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Bonus!
As an employee you are an asset not an expense.
Not only is this true for us, it is also true for people that we employ.
Now, remember the holiday season is upon us. Like you, everyone likes getting bonuses. Keep this in mind this time of year.
Not only is this true for us, it is also true for people that we employ.
Now, remember the holiday season is upon us. Like you, everyone likes getting bonuses. Keep this in mind this time of year.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Awesome city!!!
Yesterday I had to go downtown to meet with a placement agency. I had so much fun!
My experience getting to the agency was so nice. I was holding a map and every time I stopped to look for street names there were at least two people asking me if they could help me find my way. SO NICE!
The agency was good too, I want to take pictures and post them next time. Its actually really fancy and for me its free to use their fancy facility.
Woooohooooo
Now, all I need is a job.
My experience getting to the agency was so nice. I was holding a map and every time I stopped to look for street names there were at least two people asking me if they could help me find my way. SO NICE!
The agency was good too, I want to take pictures and post them next time. Its actually really fancy and for me its free to use their fancy facility.
Woooohooooo
Now, all I need is a job.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Activism!
Driving home from work yesterday I was interested in a little talk radio. Since all the FM talk stations are full of garbage in the afternoon I tuned into AM 560 with Michael Medved as the talk show host. Usually I like what he is talking about and yesterday was the case as well. His show was focused on the fact that Cultural decisions matter. That what we do as a culture and what an individual does to fit into a certain culture s(he) wants to belong to, matters. Some of his examples included: that some people choose to send their kids to private school, others give donations to their spiritual organizations and other still do nothing. His main point was that Cultural decisions have more impact on your day to day life then politics do.
Well, I could not agree more! It happens to be that as orthodox Jews we have some cultural decisions that are expected of us. One of these decisions is sending children to private schools. Another cultural expectation is for women to wear shaitals (they range anywhere from $10-4000+). Now, let’s think about politics. Will it affect me one way or another if McCain gets elected over Obama? Absolutely not. Both are crooks as all politicians are. They will both implement “changes” and stimulus packages that are dictated to them by the house and senate. So will it effect me personally, maybe but on a much smaller level than if all of a sudden beef Jerky became Kosher!
How then are cultural decisions impacting my life? Well, one other interesting point that Michael Medved had was that if you are poor in America it is your own decision to stay poor in America. He mentions cultural and societal pressures and influences that will keep you down and will keep the poor, poor. At first I disagreed with him, and then I thought about being an Orthodox Jew and what that entails culturally. Then I went back on some recent discussions I’ve had with a variety of different people, and some interesting blogs that I’ve read about TUITION!!! That is when what Mr.Medved said started to become absolutely true. People in our communities complain about tuition. They complain that they cannot get on top because they have to pay tuition, no matter how little the amount it is still larger than public school which is FREE. They complain that they can no longer maintain any resemblance of the life style that they once had because these tuition bills are burdening them and are really keeping them down. So then here it is, is it a cultural decision of the orthodox Jews to keep people poor? Is it a cultural decision to work hard, and then still have to tell your child no to something that you would rather say yes to if you did have a disposable income? Is it that we as a nation in America and in other parts of the world other than Israel, are doing this to ourselves? Well, according to Michael Medved, yes we are. And I for one agree with him. As orthodox Jews we cannot send our children to PUBLIC school because of all of the negative influences, yet private tuition is not something that everyone can readily afford. What are the options? On the blogosphere there is talk about people who are at their ropes end, unable to stand it any longer have pulled their children out of private school and have put them into public school with tutors on the sides for Jewish education. Eliminating the stress of paying tuition, lifting that weight has strengthened their perspective on life and in some cases has saved marriages that were very fragile from all of the financial stress. Not everyone is built to be able to stand the stress of being in debt and unless you can afford tuition for all of your children it seems(1) that the average working middle class Orthodox American is in debt.
It seems that Americans once upon a time had an aura of Activism. America in general stood for something and somebody! Today a statistic on the Michael Medved show said that 78% of College aged Americans believe that recycling is a form of Activism! Oi is what I have to say to that. Yet, at least there is some understanding of doing something for someone else, or for something else such as the environment. So, if I were conducting a poll: what would the average Orthodox Jewish person say activism is? And, what are they making a stance for? What do you think they will say?
1. From my personal experience which includes reading blogs, papers, and speaking to people on a daily basis. Papers include: Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, CNN.com, MSN.com, bbc.com.
Well, I could not agree more! It happens to be that as orthodox Jews we have some cultural decisions that are expected of us. One of these decisions is sending children to private schools. Another cultural expectation is for women to wear shaitals (they range anywhere from $10-4000+). Now, let’s think about politics. Will it affect me one way or another if McCain gets elected over Obama? Absolutely not. Both are crooks as all politicians are. They will both implement “changes” and stimulus packages that are dictated to them by the house and senate. So will it effect me personally, maybe but on a much smaller level than if all of a sudden beef Jerky became Kosher!
How then are cultural decisions impacting my life? Well, one other interesting point that Michael Medved had was that if you are poor in America it is your own decision to stay poor in America. He mentions cultural and societal pressures and influences that will keep you down and will keep the poor, poor. At first I disagreed with him, and then I thought about being an Orthodox Jew and what that entails culturally. Then I went back on some recent discussions I’ve had with a variety of different people, and some interesting blogs that I’ve read about TUITION!!! That is when what Mr.Medved said started to become absolutely true. People in our communities complain about tuition. They complain that they cannot get on top because they have to pay tuition, no matter how little the amount it is still larger than public school which is FREE. They complain that they can no longer maintain any resemblance of the life style that they once had because these tuition bills are burdening them and are really keeping them down. So then here it is, is it a cultural decision of the orthodox Jews to keep people poor? Is it a cultural decision to work hard, and then still have to tell your child no to something that you would rather say yes to if you did have a disposable income? Is it that we as a nation in America and in other parts of the world other than Israel, are doing this to ourselves? Well, according to Michael Medved, yes we are. And I for one agree with him. As orthodox Jews we cannot send our children to PUBLIC school because of all of the negative influences, yet private tuition is not something that everyone can readily afford. What are the options? On the blogosphere there is talk about people who are at their ropes end, unable to stand it any longer have pulled their children out of private school and have put them into public school with tutors on the sides for Jewish education. Eliminating the stress of paying tuition, lifting that weight has strengthened their perspective on life and in some cases has saved marriages that were very fragile from all of the financial stress. Not everyone is built to be able to stand the stress of being in debt and unless you can afford tuition for all of your children it seems(1) that the average working middle class Orthodox American is in debt.
It seems that Americans once upon a time had an aura of Activism. America in general stood for something and somebody! Today a statistic on the Michael Medved show said that 78% of College aged Americans believe that recycling is a form of Activism! Oi is what I have to say to that. Yet, at least there is some understanding of doing something for someone else, or for something else such as the environment. So, if I were conducting a poll: what would the average Orthodox Jewish person say activism is? And, what are they making a stance for? What do you think they will say?
1. From my personal experience which includes reading blogs, papers, and speaking to people on a daily basis. Papers include: Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, CNN.com, MSN.com, bbc.com.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Americans!
American Jews
The problem with Americans is: they think they can relocate to anywhere in the world with no problems. Talking to a few friends and not believing what I was hearing I’ve decided to talk to a few co-workers. My co-workers are not Jewish and for most I am the first Jewish person they have met. Most of my co-workers have 4 year degrees; the others have some education out of high school. Overwhelmingly, most think that there is no big deal to just up and move to Canada, or in fact any other country in the WORLD.
I find this to be absolutely absurd.
Maybe because I grew up in Canada I have an appreciation for what it means to immigrate into another country such as the United States of America, whereas Americans take this as a granted right.
This I find is one of the problems with Aliah advertising. The people for the PR of Aliah need to take a look at this Phenomenon. One reason Americans aren’t interested in making Aliah is because they feel that they have the same rights that they do in America all over the world, so why would Israel be any different? As someone pointed out to me “People don’t realize that Israel will let you in, let you be a citizen with all rights the day that you land. This has been the case for the last 50 some years and people don’t appreciate that”. My response to that is OF COURSE THEY DON’T APPRECIATE IT. How can you APPRECIATE something when you think that you have it all over the world?
Just a thought.
The problem with Americans is: they think they can relocate to anywhere in the world with no problems. Talking to a few friends and not believing what I was hearing I’ve decided to talk to a few co-workers. My co-workers are not Jewish and for most I am the first Jewish person they have met. Most of my co-workers have 4 year degrees; the others have some education out of high school. Overwhelmingly, most think that there is no big deal to just up and move to Canada, or in fact any other country in the WORLD.
I find this to be absolutely absurd.
Maybe because I grew up in Canada I have an appreciation for what it means to immigrate into another country such as the United States of America, whereas Americans take this as a granted right.
This I find is one of the problems with Aliah advertising. The people for the PR of Aliah need to take a look at this Phenomenon. One reason Americans aren’t interested in making Aliah is because they feel that they have the same rights that they do in America all over the world, so why would Israel be any different? As someone pointed out to me “People don’t realize that Israel will let you in, let you be a citizen with all rights the day that you land. This has been the case for the last 50 some years and people don’t appreciate that”. My response to that is OF COURSE THEY DON’T APPRECIATE IT. How can you APPRECIATE something when you think that you have it all over the world?
Just a thought.
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