Catching Up

SerandEz & Friends would like to apologize to its readership for the dearth of posts lately, and again, we hope and believe it will pick up substantially as we get into November. Just to give people a brief update as to how some of us are doing:*

• Ezzie's new job is fantastic, and a large number of his friends believe it's the perfect job for him. He thinks it might be, too.
• Serach's really happy with her job, too, and is really looking forward to spending Sukkos in Cleveland and Los Angeles. So is Ezzie, but he's not loving the driving to and from Cleveland that he's going to be doing.
• Elianna loves school, and her friends, and just about everything and everyone, and Coke. Her Daddy is so proud. She also scored a 1600 on the BSATs. [/inside joke]
  
• Kayla is walking and talking and, much like her sister, slightly too clever for her own good. Their parents are already terrified of how they'll function as a team when they're older.
• POBODY'S NERFECT HAD A BABY BOY!!! (And better bring it to Cleveland for Yom Tov.)
  
• Shoshana got married and moved to the Midwest. {jealous}
• Special Ed got married and is totally whipped. {not jealous}
  
• Da Kirsch made aliyah. {jealous}
• iPayTooMuchForMyHair left the accounting world and followed her dream, went to makeup school, and just opened up her own business.
• Jameel had a baby boy, RaggedyMom had a baby girl, Moshe and FFD are on rotations, Holy Hyrax started to do amazing logo design work for public companies, SJ, Erachet, Chana, Fudge, and the Apple have all graduated and moved onto bigger and better things (or onto paths that will lead them there), G went back to learn in kollel for a bit, Bad4Shidduchim went to Israel on behalf of NbN, DGEsq bought a house, Prof. Justice started writing judge's opinions, we got to hang out with Stam and M^2 one fine rainy morning... it's been a little crazy and a lot of fun for everyone, and we hope that everyone's lives move in the right direction. (And yes, I know I left lots of people out - not sure who would want what included. :) )
  

On that note, we'd like to wish everyone a wonderful g'mar chasima tovah and may we all be inscribed in the book of good life, health, happiness, and peace. Have an easy and meaningful fast, and we hope to see all of you soon, whether out here in the J-blogosphere or at the "real-life" Casa SerandEz! :)

* There are also a few more potential bits of exciting news coming soon, so there may be an update to this in the near future, too. :)

Guest Bios: Moshe

All Guest Bios

As people may have noticed, to the right is a list of contributors to this blog. On each drop down, there is a line for "Bio". This is the second of those Bios, which will hopefully give a slightly better understanding of each contributor.

"Have a quacky day", he tells me. Moshe (WildTumor) is a rather hard man to describe. I met Moshe when I first came to Lander College; he was the new editor-in-chief of the Lander Chronicle, and a member of student government, while I was voted in as the first-year representative and was quickly asked to write for the Chronicle. He actually delayed publishing one edition for a few hours so he could put in a Mazel Tov to Serach and me on our engagement. We became close friends, particularly after Serach and I got married and Moshe took over the green couch after Shabbos meals to lie down. (At least once, this turned out to be a bad idea.)

A few months ago, we had the distinct opportunity to attend Moshe's beautiful wedding. We had to borrow a car to get there, as ours had been towed, but it was well worth it. Now, Moshe & Adina live just up the block from us here in KGH, something Moshe hopes will last long enough for him to win a long-standing bet with me about. (Whether we move out of the tri-state area by September 2010 - the loser takes out the winner to dinner in a restaurant the winner chooses.) Moshe is in medical school, enjoying his perpetual education, while Adina works quite hard in a hospital to let him do so; he's also one of the best people to talk to, to bounce ideas off of, and to go out and have a good time with. He's a thinker but ultimately practical, well aware of his strengths and flaws, and able to pick out that which applies to him while discarding that which does not.

His latest post on his own blog is a good showcase of much of this: Enjoy The Bias of Youth (then peruse the archives).

And oh yeah - he's obsessed with ducks, particularly of the AFLAC variety. But we put up with him anyway.

Bio: Da Kirsch

All Guest Bios

As people may have noticed, to the right is a list of contributors to this blog. On each drop down, there is a line for "Bio". This is the first of those Bios, which will hopefully give a slightly better understanding of each contributor.

Da Kirsch is - whether purposely or not - one of the funnier people I've met. We actually met briefly in Israel, when my CafeNet football team throttled his Melech HaFelafel team (and their league-leading offense) 19-7, but we didn't really know each other until we were studying in Lander College together. Or, more accurately, he played a lot of Madden, and I... well, I did something, anyway.

Da Kirsch is a marketing management major who somehow graduated despite spending most of his time playing video games and listening to sports. You've never seen someone read mock drafts years in advance so religiously until you've met him, and if you ever want to know the 40 times of your team's 5th-rounder, he's the man to ask. Though his dream is to be a video game tester for EA Sports, he currently manages an upscale kosher restaurant in Monsey. Da Kirsch lives in New Jersey.

Teaser Post

All right. So here's the plan for the next month and a half or so on SerandEz & Friends*:

• Update the Guest Bios list to include: The Apple, SJ, Erachet, Squooshball, Special Ed, Cubicle King, Shragi, G, and Moshe.
• Update the J-blogger checklist to include... oh my God, it's way too long. But we're going to simplify it and update it. This should be fun. :)
  
• Try and finish some of the series that I started writing, like How I Met Serach, Childhood of Potential, and whatever else is sitting there unfinished. (i.e. all of them)
• Laugh at G.
• Survive the last 3 weeks (!) of busy season, with Pesach interspersed in the middle of it.
• Not have any more weekend guests until May! (Um, not as crazy as it sounds. Think.)
• Figure out why this blog gets more hits the less I write. (Wait a second....!!!)
• Update the blogroll. No, really!
• Label all the unlabeled posts, at least from the last few months.
• Change the header. :::gasp:::
• Um, and other stuff.
  

Yeah, exciting, right? Thought so.

* Who noticed before they read that? Huh? Did you even notice yet? Ha - didn't think so.

Guest Bios II

Since a few of the guests complained - and you know who you are! - here are the new, updated Guest Bios for all of the wonderful guest contributors we have here at SerandEz. The first edition is here.

You can click on any name to skip down to their bio. Click on any bio's title name to come back to the top:

Family: Serach, SIL, & iPayTooMuchForMyHair.
Long-time friends: DGEsq, Pobody's Nerfect, MordyS, & the holy Reb Abe.
Post-Israel, pre-blog: DaKirsch, FFD, Eliezer StrongBad, & the balding Prof. Justice.
And from around the J-Blogosphere: SoccerDad, ~ Sarah ~, crazy Jameel, Stam, glittery Shoshana, Chana, and of course, the Holy Hyrax.

We've got to start it off with the family, so...

• Serach - SerandEz, a small welcoming independent republic that is not part of New York, though it is surrounded on all four sides by Kew Gardens Hills, NY (via Monsey, NY)

  Serach is my wife, and hence the first half of the name, SerandEz. [Woah!] She blogs and comments under my name, which is of course incredibly confusing, even though I did once make her her own login. Ah well. After two years, she finally broke down and posted - inspired, of course, not by me, but by Holy Hyrax. Hmph. But hey, I can't complain too much, or I'll get in big trouble. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in receiving her Master's in Education & Special Education, and works one-on-one with high-functioning children in their schools.
  

• SIL - Kew Gardens, NY via Small Town, OOT

  SIL is (of course) my sister-in-law. She still loves chocolate, is a working mother of three of the cutest kids alive [the -ens], and she somehow supports my Older Dumber brother while he continues on his grueling journey toward smicha. Or something like that. Perhaps someday, she'll write that long-awaited post about men, women, and sports. In the meantime, enjoy her old inspiring, thoughtful, and happy posts.
  

• iPayTooMuchForMyHair - Kew Gardens Hills, NY via Chicago, IL

  iPayTooMuchForMyHair isn't really related, but we now share some relatives, and she has the distinct misfortune of being an auditor - with me! - as well. She is an avid spender, and dreams one day of being a makeup artist. She takes pride in being a JAP with a brain, and her profile says it well: "I'm not as shallow as my interests make me seem!" Though you wouldn't know it when you see her reactions to commercial advertising and shiny objects, this is actually true. She is a successful, smart, funny, and thinking girl with personality who wonders why a lot of that often doesn't seem too matter much.
  

The next set are the ones who've known me far longer than Serach has other than the people above...

• DGEsq - Kew Gardens Hills, NY via Cleveland, OH

  DGEsq. Oh, where to begin... DGEsq is an ultra-confident law student who will be successful at whatever he does, and he's now working full-time in the field he likes at the same time as he's in school, along with taking care of his wife and really cute baby. He can - and often does - talk anybody into doing anything, and his pet peeves are generally related to (Jewish) economics and how they should be fixed. "No" is not an answer he likes to accept, which is part of what helps him succeed... along with the guts to say what he thinks and sticking things out. Hopefully we'll get some more straight-up posts from him in the future.
  

• Pobody's Nerfect - Flatbush, NY via Cleveland, OH

  Pobody's Nerfect is probably still the guest poster whose posts I look forward to reading the most. She's the epitome of clawing one's way to success, fighting through and against everything that life has thrown at her. She's an inspiration and demonstration of strength of will to anyone who knows her, though she'll never realize it or admit it. Everything I wrote the last time is just as true as ever: She [still] has the distinction of having been of the few people to truly inspire me, when I was otherwise turned off by a lot of things I was around at one point in my life. This, despite being a few years my junior, at a time when I felt that most people my age or many years my senior I was surrounded by were complete morons, and at a time when she was probably troubled by more issues than I was. She is one of the too-rare truly thinking frum young women out there, and possibly the only thing holding her back from greatness is her shyness. And oh yeah, she's hilarious when she wants to be, too. To top it off, Serach plots with her [hmph], and Elianna loves her. :)
  

• MordyS - Monsey, NY

  MordyS is that guy that everyone loves to love. He makes everyone laugh, he's personable, and he has no qualms about speaking his mind. He's honest, self-aware, and a master ranter. He's sickened by hypocrisy, loves people who are honest with themselves, and is constantly trying to work his way up the rock-face on the way to becoming a better person.
  

• Reb Abe - Passaic, NJ via Monsey, NY

  Reb Abe is our resident tzaddik and patriot. He's the one who will go through the cash lanes of tolls to wish the operator a good evening even though he has an EZ-pass, or spend over 2 hours driving back and forth just to save you a little time and money (and at his own expense, too). And nobody knows how to show respect like Reb Abe. One day, maybe he'll come off that marriage high and actually post something new for us to work our brains around. In the meantime, we'll let him stew over his inability to fly his flag on the Fourth due to the constraints of his living space.

Next up we have the group who I met while in Lander and had to put up with me in different ways...

• DaKirsch - Manhattan, NY

  DaKirsch is... well, DaKirsch. He's a video-game playing, sports-obsessed, music and movie aficionado who will spend hours tracking down cartoons from fifteen years ago. He's the best snapping center you could ask for despite his height (or lack thereof), and you can count on him whenever you want an expert opinion on what games to buy or where to find a song online. He's also picked two drafts exceedingly well for SerandEz, and perhaps we'll convince him to write some more technology or sports posts in the future... just not about his fantasy baseball skills, seeing as how he's in 9th place.
  

• FFD - Hillcrest, NY but soon to be The Bronx, NY

  FFD, or FrumDoc, has never yet written here on SerandEz, being too busy with his new wife, his job, and getting ready to move and start medical school. He used to post over at FrumDoc, and we miss him over there, but we'll miss him and FFW more when they move to Einstein. Not that they ever come to visit now either... but I digress. FFD is our perfectionist and worry-body, but that usually works out okay, and he's sensible about when to worry and when not to. For instance, he's also a wonderful procrastinator and can be extremely lazy, in addition to spending excessive amounts of time on the computer. As FFW said, "He's acting just like you!" ...and as I responded, "Great!"
  

• Eliezer StrongBad - Secret Location, Israel via Smelly Dump, NJ

  Eliezer StrongBad is currently in Israel, checking out lots of Israel Baseball League games while he does yet another internship with a top international firm. He always has an interesting perspective on things, noticing the details that a lot of others might miss... and he's consistently a great source of information. He's starting as the SerandEz IBL correspondent, but perhaps he'll parlay that into something a little larger. And boy, he sure does know how to count. Meanwhile, we hope he'll continue to update us on the new league and other Israel happenings until his return to NY this fall.
  

• Prof. Justice - Undisclosed, NY

  Professor Justice has been AWOL for a while, ever since he switched positions from practicing criminal law in some very sticky situations and stings which I can't write about to a job he loves much more, which allows him to utilize his brain - and writing skills - a whole lot more. He's doing all this while still teaching a few courses at different universities in the area. Hopefully he'll come back soon with his (toned down :) ) caustic wit, sharp insights, and of course the sarcasm, discussing politics, terrorism, law, and of course, liberalism.
  

Finally, there are the other J-bloggers out there, a few of which have stopped by SerandEz to visit - whether for a couple hours on a Motzei Shabbos, a couple meals, or even for a couple Shabbosos.

• SoccerDad - Baltimore, MD

  SoccerDad, who blogs at the aptly named SoccerDad, is the first J-blog I ever read... and also, the first J-blogger I ever met as such in real life. He's the creator of the blog carnival Haveil Havalim, which has had one of the biggest positive impacts on the J-blogosphere as a whole, exposing Jewish bloggers to other voices that are out there. And while I know he hates that I focus on this as opposed to all the rest of his writing, I love his fake editorials on behalf of large national papers which he then uses to shred their actual editorials with - gotta love it. He's one of the best pro-Israel bloggers out there, and we hope to get more of his aged (for a blogger!) wisdom here at SerandEz in the future, even if he is a part of more blogs than anyone else.
  

• ~ Sarah ~ - Melbourne, Australia

  ~ Sarah ~, who blogs at Sarah's View, is the official photoblogger of SerandEz, even if she doesn't know it. She's the always funky one with the ever-changing header (really - go check it out, hit refresh), the profile photo that actually changes outfits (and fast, too!), and always has something to make you smile - even when you (or she) are down. We haven't had a chance to meet her - yet - but she's also got the coolest accent on this side of the hemi- err... equat- err... J-blogosphere. She's the one to show you something that will brighten your day when you need a life, and hopefully she'll shine her light, photo, and graphic skills this way again!
  

• Jameel - The Muqata, Israel

  Ahh... Jameel of the Muqata... where to begin?! Should we start with the random phone calls while on counter-terrorist runs? The crazy ideas that actually pan out? The absurd visit at 1am when we lose an hour and Jameel needs to drive to and from Baltimore the next day? Jameel is our Aliyah correspondent, our Holy Hyrax or Ezzie rumor-mongerer, and our riot inciter here at SerandEz. He's always got something entertaining to say, and definitely knows how to get everyone going. We'll surely see more on Israel and Holy Hyrax's proclivities in the future.
  

• Stam - Baltimore, MD via Hicksville, OOT

  Stam is new here, and constantly restarting at JustStam, but I'm confident that she will quickly become the official SerandEz hocker. She's got a car, a Treo, an apartment, and a constantly changing status on GMail, all while hosting her neighbor's guests whose fathers bang on the door when she's trying to sleep in just a bit because she's sick [and was on her computer until 5am]. Nebach, poor thing. But through it all, she keeps everybody happy and entertained, and perhaps she'll even make it up here to SerandEz in the near future. She claims she's "shy". Ha! I'm sure she will be entertaining us all on the blog sometime soon...
  

• Shoshana - Passaic, NJ via Birmingham, AL (and Texas, and Oklahoma, and Canada, and...)

  Shoshana's name is summed up by her blog's name: SweetRose. Her blog is the third blog I read, and the first that really talked about life and life's experiences in a deep, thoughtful way. And that's what Shoshana herself is like - deep and thoughtful, with a healthy dose of fun, purple, and of course, glitter thrown on top. A truly sweet rose in a world full of thorns. She has wisdom well beyond her years, even if she looks 16, and we'll surely see her again at SerandEz sometime soon... or she's in big trouble. She's one of the J-bloggers who is most loved and whose words people actually listen to, possibly because they're so well-measured in a medium that often lacks that, and we always look forward to her insights.
  

• Chana - Stern College, Manhattan, NY via Chicago, IL

  Chana is a very, very Curious Jew. She's a mold-breaking, brilliant young lady who left a terrible experience in a Bais Yaakov-style HS to attend a non-sectarian prep school; a breathtaking storyteller who inspires adults twice, even triple her age; and yet still manages to be a fun-loving, rain-dancing, super-sweet college student who is just high on life. She's not shy about anything, yet had to be dragged here by a wonderful mutual friend the first time, and her funky clothes and bursting personality made her a quick favorite of Serach and Elianna. Now she's becoming a frequent guest and we're sure to see more of her when she returns next semester. If only we could get her to write [with brevity?] over here a little more, too...
  

That's all, folk --- oh, I forgot someone? He's threatening to blow up the blog? AGAIN? Sigh... okay, okay. Acharon acharon chaviv...

• Holy Hyrax - Los Angeles, CA

  Holy Hyrax. Woo. He told me that he "trusts me" and I should "write from the heart". He also threatened to call me up and cry over the phone if I'm not nice to him. Gimme a second... Okay. I got it. Holy Hyrax is living proof that one does not need to be a great speller to accomplish in life. Heck, you can be an atrocious speller, like he is. He is easily the funniest poster on this blog [sorry G], utilizing his natural humor and his incredible skills at graphic manipulation to create hilarious posters, pictures, and storylines for everyone to enjoy. He also will occasionally let out that heart-pulling post that surprises and inspires all who read it, before returning to his normal safe, super-skeptic, joking manner. When I finally had a chance to shmooze with him over Coffee Bean in LA, I recall noting to Jameel afterward that I couldn't help but laugh at every other thing he said. He adds a levity to this blog that not many can, and we all enjoy having him around.
  

We hope you've enjoyed the guest bios; this blog is really not SerandEz, even if that's what the title says: It's SerandEz & Friends. It's a blog meant to be a fun place to see what's out there, read, discuss, and smile - to make connections, make friends, and have a good time. It's also a pretty open blog, so if you want to post something, feel free to ask me and I'll certainly give it a long look. We've had a number of guest posts in the past by people other than the contributors listed above. We hope you enjoy the blog, and thanks from ALL of us here at SerandEz for coming!