The Happiest Guy in the World!

Dear Friends,

It's official!  This past Sunday afternoon (22 Kislev, 5772) Melanie Harris and I became engaged!  I'm most certainly the happiest guy in the world!  

And my kallah?  With what words can I describe her?  She's the most amazing woman I've ever met.  I couldn't possibly ask Hashem for anything more.  The more I get to know her, the more I want to know her, and the more I see there is to know.  Her neshama shines forth like the hidden light of creation, facilitating relationship and connection with all of Hashem's works.  Clearly, I'm also the most fortunate man in the world.  

Melanie and I are so joyous and grateful.

We're grateful to Hashem, of course.  We hope to build a bayit ne'eman b'Yisrael that helps us become worthy of Hashem's extraordinary kindness to us.

We're especially grateful to our shadchan, Lori Palatnik, and to Aish HaTorah.  How else might Lori and I have met, if not on an Aish mission to Eretz Yisrael?

And while we weren't yet ready for one another several years ago when Hollie Karr first introduced us, Hollie also gets chizuk for being totally on target.  Her navua was just a little ahead of Melanie and I!

Last, but by no means least, we can never repay the love, nurturing, support, teachings, and steadfastness of our family, friends, colleagues, teachers, rebbeim, and others, who have given us so much throughout the years.  But stop us from trying!  May we give to others at least what has been so generously given to us.

Melanie and I are planning a March chasunah in New York.  

B"H, the best is yet to come!

--Brian, a.k.a, "The Happiest Guy in the World!"

Glossary:

B"H - B'ezrat Hashem, "With G-d's Help."

Bayit Ne'eman b'Yisrael - Torah home.

Chasunah - Wedding.  

Chizuk - Encouragement.

Eretz Yisrael - The land of Israel.  

Hashem - G-d.

Kallah - Bride.  

Navua - Prophecy.  

Neshama - Human soul.  

Rebbeim - Rabbis.  

Shadchan - Matchmaker.

My First Experience with OS X Lion!

Hi!

I've Tweeted quite a bit today about my first hands-on experience with OS X Lion.  Some of what I've learned may be helpful to others working with Lion for the first time. Check out my Tweets at:

    https://twitter.com/brianlevine

Enjoy!

--Brian

My First Ride on a "Big Boy's" Bike!

Wow!!!

This afternoon I took my first ride on a bike that's larger than my Suzuki GZ250!  To date, 250's have been the largest bikes I've ridden.  Today's "Big Boy's" bike was a Triumph Sprint ST, a 955cc, British, sport-touring bike.  Thanks again, John S.!  Here's a photo John took right after I saddled up:

(Click Photo for Larger Image)

Cool, eh?  

The experience was the same as on my GZ250, and yet enthrallingly different.  

Everything I learned in last summer's Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) BasicRider Course at UofI's Motorcycle Rider Program certainly applied.  As did my 1000 plus miles of riding and practice that I've put in since on the GZ250.   

In contrast, the Triumph is huge compared to the GZ250.  Everything about it is bigger:  the engine, the brakes, the seat height, the handlebars, the weight, you name it.  The sport bike riding posture is totally different, too.  The handlebar is more forward.  The foot pegs and controls are more rearward.  (When I got back onto the GZ250 afterwards, my feet couldn't find the pegs or controls!  They kept going behind me, instead of in front of me where they needed to be!  :-))

The handling of the two bikes is totally different, too.  The GZ250 is much nimbler in slow and tight corners.  It requires relatively little pressing of the handlebars at higher speeds to change lanes and such.  In comparison, I found it much harder to turn the Triumph tightly at slow speeds, and at higher speeds more handlebar pressure was necessary to change lanes. A lot of this has to do with experience, I'm sure.  I'm equally sure that some of this is just basic difference between smaller and larger bikes, and between cruiser versus sport bike form factors.   

The Triumph really shined at higher speeds.  I felt a lot more stable, secure, and comfortable on it at Interstate speed.  Of course, where my GZ250 tops out, this bike has a LOT more room to breathe!

Baruch Hashem, owning a larger bike is in my future!  In the meantime, however, I'm going to get that new windshield and those new saddle bags onto the GZ250, and keep practicing with it.  When the time comes for that larger bike, I'll know it, and I'll be all the better prepared for it.

Here's to many more miles of good and safe riding!

--Bri

My 8 GB of Happiness!

It doesn't take much, folks.

On Sunday afternoon I ordered an 8 GB memory kit for my MacBook (unibody, 13-inch, late 2009) from Ramjet.  It arrived Tuesday afternoon. A half hour later, I had it installed.  8 GB bliss!  That's pretty quick gratification.

This upgrade doubled my MacBook memory from 4 GB to 8 GB.  It also enabled me to increase my Win7 VirtualBox VM from 1 GB to 2 GB.  And what a difference in performance this makes!  Personally, I wouldn't buy another Mac without at least 8 GB of RAM.  Of course, YMMV.

Now I've got plenty of space to run my Win7 and Ubuntu VMs alongside all my regular native Mac OS X programs, but without all that nasty paging to hard disk.  Sweet!

The price of this particular upgrade was great, too.  It was around $150 plus shipping and tax.  I don't recall the price being anywhere near this good the last time I checked.

Kudos to Apple and to iFixit for making this upgrade so painless!  In addition to the memory modules themselves, all I had to deal with were eight screws, three clips, and a battery connector.  I didn't even strip any screws in the process!

Interestingly, I experienced some difficulty on the first boot after the upgrade.  The MacBook had apparently forgotten its date and time and such.  I was surprised.  Normally, CMOS batteries maintain these settings.  Perhaps these newer MacBooks with non user replaceable batteries don't have CMOS batteries?  In any case, resetting the PRAM and NVRAM and then connecting to the network fixed this up.

I'm a happy camper right now.  *smile*

--Bri

Modeh Ani (Texas Style)!

Boker Tov, Chaverim!

My dad, z"l, used to love getting up early in the morning and getting the day off to a good start.  B"H, this is one of many wonderful things I've inherited from him.  Starting off the day well can set a positive tone for the entire rest of the day.  For years now, when I arise in the mornings, the first thing I try to think of and to say is Modeh Ani:

    מודה אני לפנך, מלך חי וקים, שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה, רבה אמונתך.

    I thank You, living and eternal King, for giving me back my soul in mercy.  Great is Your faithfulness.

(This English translation is from the Koren Sacks Siddur.)

I confess that I'm not always entirely successful.  Frequently, the first thoughts in my head and the first words out of my mouth are more along the lines of, "Crap!  Again?  Why didn't I go to bed earlier so that I could get up earlier?  Now I have to rush.  Arghh..."

I'm workin' on it.  :-)

In a recent CTN Torah Minute, Rabbi Moshe Katz comments on the meaning of the last couple words of our pasuk.  What does it mean to say to Hashem, "Great is YOUR failthfulness?"  What does the Omnipresent and the Omniscient have to be faithful for?  Rabbi Katz's answer is surprising.  He answered that G-d believes in us!  Imagine that!  The Creator of the universe believes in us!

Hashem has so much confidence and belief in us that He returns to us our souls each morning.  He provids for all our needs.  Indeed, He sustains all of creation from moment to moment.  Therefore, all the more so should we have confidence in our ability to fulfill His desires for us in this world, to make a difference, to make the world a better place, and to not disappoint Him.

This appeals to me.  I try to keep it in mind now each morning as I say Modeh Ani.   

Now permit me to share with you an entertaining YouTube video that recently came across one of my social networking feeds.  It's "Modeh Ani (Texas Style)!":

Enjoy!

--Bri

A Quick Plug for the "cRc Kosher" iPhone App.

Hi,

I thought I'd put in a quick plug for an iPhone app I have from the cRc.  It's their, "cRc Kosher" app.   Currently, it's available for free on Apple Inc. iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices, as well as on HP webOS devices. (Davka develops the iPhone version.  I'm not sure who develops the webOS version, since I haven't seen it.)  It's not available at this time on Android and BlackBerry devices.

Here's a nice little YouTube video:

I like the "Agencies" section best.  It contains a list of recommended hechsherim.  There have been a few times now when I've wondered about a particular hechsher on an item at the grocery store, found it in this app, and then made an informed purchase decision.  

However, hechsherim can be rather small and difficult to read.  Scrolling through this app's list of hechsherim to find the correct one (if it's there at all) can be an exercise in vigilance.  It would be really cool if this app could scan hechsherim and locate them (if available) automatically. Maybe I'll suggest this in the App Store!

Enjoy,

--Bri

P.S. - I also have an iPhone app from RustyBrick called, "Kosher".  It provides a list of hechsherim as well as a lot of additional functionality. Currently, it's available in the App Store for $4.99.  I haven't used it much, though.  Perhaps I'll try it out some more and write it up sometime...

Monitoring CrashPlan Backup in Real Time on the Mac OS X Desktop!

Hi,

In recent weeks, I've taken to using CrashPlan+ for personal online backups.  I'll write more on CrashPlan proper at another time.  For now, I'd like to share a nice little method I've got for monitoring CrashPlan activity in real time on my Mac OS X Desktop.  Folks in the CrashPlan User Forums have been asking developers to add such functionality to the native CrashPlan client.  But for Mac OS X users, at least, there's no need to wait!

It's done very simply with the free and awesome GeekTool.  Check out a couple of screenshots.

This first is of my Desktop.  Note the CrashPlan History Log data:

The second is of my Desktop with the GeekTool System Preference Pane open to the configuration section for the CrashPlan History Log file:

My Mac has a standard CrashPlan install.  The History Log file is at:

    /Library/Logs/CrashPlan/history.log.0

GeekTool updates the log file display continuously.  I press F11 (Exposé Desktop) to glance at my logs unobstructed by other windows. Afterwards, I press F11 again to resume what I was working on beforehand.  What could be simpler?

While I haven't tried it yet, similar monitoring can probably be done on Linux Desktops with the free and open source Conky.

I don't know how this might be done on Microsoft Windows Desktops.

So why don't you give this a try on your Mac OS X machine with CrashPlan and let me know how it works out?

--Brian

New Avatar!

Hi, all.

I'd like to thank my friend and colleague, Kenn Wislander, for my cool new avatar photo!

Given the subject matter he had to work with (ahem, i.e., me :-)) he did an awesome job!

Check out Kenn's main website if you'd like to see more of his work.

--Bri

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!

I'm experimenting a bit, and trying to learn Blogger.

I hope to have some nice content here soon.

Stay tuned!

--Bri