Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Seems I've Been Tagged...Again!!:)

The Rules:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged.

8 FUN FACTS/ HABIT ABOUT ME...

1. I love to cook and bake. I discovered I had a knack for it quite by accident, especially baking. One Erev Rosh Hashana, I simply didn't have time to make my regular dessert of Chocolate Chip Cookies (which, by the way, are amazing, if I do say so myself), so I went across the street to LA's most well-known bakery. I looked around a bit and found a chocolate mousse pie. What could be bad, right? Chocolate Mousse, good. Pie, good. Wrong!! I spend $10 on air and white fluff. It was awful. So, after Yom Tov, I got online, found a recipe for chocolate mousse pie, tried, and have been making it ever since. It's my wife's all-time favorite dessert...Since then, I've experimented non-stop with cooking and baking and have been having a great time! I even learned how to make a better pizza than pretty much every pizza shop I've ever been to anywhere in the US and Israel.

2. My great-grandfather was a leader of the Zionist movement in Bulgaria and his son, my grandfather, was one of the founders of the kibbutz on which they lived in Israel.

3. For anyone who knows me - the obvious: I love Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate (both series), pretty much anything with the word star in it, as long as it's Science Fiction. I and ADORE the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Along those lines, I love the soundtracks to these types of movies because they are beautiful and orchestral.

4. Believe it or not, I daven out of one of the most Yeshivish/Chareidi Siddurim out there - the Bais Tefilah Siddur. I've davened out of many siddurim in my lifetime. I've come to discover I don't like the ones with translations (thank God, I know Hebrew fluently and understand all of what I daven), so ArtScroll's out. I also was never a big fan of their Hebrew siddur, the Yitzchak Yair Siddur. Tefilas Kol Peh is OK, but after much experimentation, including trying out the unreadable (really bad priint) Vilna Siddur, I finally settled on the Bais Tefilah and have been using it (and their Machzorim as well) for years.

5. I love to read. Especially Science Fiction (duh!) and comic books. Superman is my favorite super-hero. I pretty much read non-stop, and some books I even read more than once. Currently, I am reading the Dune Series by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson. I'm also about to finish the Spenser detective series by Robert B. Parker. I had read them all previously, but out of order, so I'm reading them in chronological order now. Most times, I'm usually in the middle of at least three books at one time.

6. Fun Fact: I have a Chavrusa, a rav in my community, with whom I am learning Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat. When I first approached this rav to learn, he said he had no time. Then I mentioned I wanted to learn Choshen Mishpat, and his eyes lit up. He had never learned it before and had always wanted to. The result: We've been learning for nearly two years now and it's been wonderful!

7. I'm a Kohen.

8. I love Macs, can't stand PCs...

Ok, I tag: Esther (my wife), Selena, SephardiLady (sorry, you don't get away this time...), Tzipporah (sorry, I know it's twice in one week...), Rafi G., Cool Yiddishe Mama, CoolJew, and Juggling Frogs!

Have fun!! :)

12 comments:

Rafi G. said...

great list. thanks for tagging me, but I did this one already..a couple of weeks ago.

About the siddurim, ArtScroll has put out a fairly new Israeli siddur with no translation. I think it is called ner naftali.. it is pretty good. By Israeli, I mean it goes according to minhag israel. meanin g it takes out second day yom tov stuff..

the makor bracha siddur I find to be better than the beis tefillah...

Orthonomics said...

Give me a little bit of time. This was another hard day and I'm exhausted but I think I accomplished a lot.

Anonymous said...

A rov that never learned choshen mihspat?

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

A rov WHO :) never learned Choshen Mishpat.

He's young, yet. I'm sure he's learned parts of it. But he never learned it all the way through, which was my long-term proposal.

Right now we're in Hilchos Hal'va'a, which takes up the bulk of Chelek Alef. It's amazing!

Esther said...

Actually, AKO, isn't it NOT a requirement to learn Choshen Mishpat to become a rav?

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

Right. And it should be. In fact, at Chofetz Chaim, it is a requirement. The Semicha there is a double Semicha in Yoreh Deah and Choshen Mishpat. Most other yeshivas only require Yoreh Deah to get Yoreh Yoreh Semicah.

Anonymous said...

AmKsheOref,

I did it! Thank you for inviting me to play!

This was my first ever meme.

Have you put your pizza recipe on the other site? How hot do you get your oven? Here's the pizza recipe I most often use. I make the dough in a bread machine.

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

"I own over a thousand cloth napkins.
Over 1700 when we counted last Fall."

GULP!!

That's an awful lot of napkins. Where does your family sleep? :)

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

Pizza. Next week. Early. I promise. Just in time for the Nine Days...

Anonymous said...

"Where does your family sleep?"

We can always throw a sheet over the unironed ones and call it a bed!

Yes, I iron them. Eventually. (There's a bit of an ironing backlog right now, but that's okay, since I have {ahem} a few spare.)

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

LOL!!

cool yiddishe mama said...

working on it now...only came up with four.