Yeah, me again.

I know I keep saying "I'm back," and "NO, really, I'm back." And then, "Okay... NOW I'm back."

I keep thinking of the Robin Williams Live at the Met routine about Muammar al-Gaddafi:

Here's a man who had the audacity to say
"This is the line of death. You cross it, you die." {Pause}
"Okay, you cross this line, you die." {Pause} "Okay, you
cross this line, you die." "This line, you die." "Okay,
you're knocking on my door, I'm not coming out.
Naaaaah"

So okay. Here's the deal: MAYBE I'm back. We'll see.

"It is better to say little and do much," quoth the Avot D'Rabbi Natan (13:3). Or, as any number of motivational speakers and financial analysts will say it, "Under Promise, Over Deliver."

A couple of technical/administrative matters...

1) I've got a new address! Woot! I can still be found at frumdad.blogspot.com, but please move all links, etc. to http://frumdad.com.

Right now I'm using Blogger's FTP publishing, though I might switch to the Blogger custom domain system. I'm trying to suss out the benefits to each. I'm with the FTP version because I've got the hosting package and I can set up email addresses for myself here at frumdad.com. Leading to...

2) I've got a new address (part deux.)! Woot! The hotmail account is now secondary to the new address. The following is obviously masked to avoid harvesting; lose the _ and ^ and # insertions, and translate the bracket-y bits:

fr_um^dad [at] frum#dad [dot] com

3) I was going to clean up the blog by getting rid of some old administrative posts and all the "I'll be right back" posts. But it turns out I didn't even apologize all that often, and when I did it was usually twisted into something worth keeping, if only for purposes of linkity goodness or administrative whatever. Also I don't like losing comments, and I'm a little obsessive about deleting anything. So they've stayed in, where they were. You can use the new Blogger tags feature to ignore them or whatever.

4) In order to help defray the costs associated with having my own site, etc., I'm going to sign up with AdSense and put Ads in the sidebar, once I figure out how. Sooner rather than later. I'm not morally conflicted about this, but thought it worth mentioning.

5) Technorati, Digg, Del.icio.us buttons coming soon. I'm not 100% sure what good they are, but all the cool kids are doin' it.
          5a) Look, Ma! A link to my Technorati Profile!!


If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to say something.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you'll come back. (I hope I give you a reason to come back.)

--FD

Hosed by the Google Dance

Grumble grumble grumble.

As of about a month ago, if you did a Google search for "Orthodox Jewish Father," this site would come up as your first hit. Not least because whenever I commented elsewhere, I would put in a Google Wangle, where the comment would end as follows:

{insightful, pithy comment}
--FrumDad
Google Wangle: Orthodox Jewish Father

The link, obviously, would be to this blog right here.

Well... it seems that Google has tweaked its algorithm to down-weight the link text itself. It's an attempt, apparently to defeat the Google Bomb pranks. See articles here and here. (The second link is a NYT article, so you might have to register or something; think BMN.)

In the NYTimes article, the originator of the Bush/Miserable-Failure Google bomb implies some nefarious shenanigans in the tweak. I don't know if it's so, but if it is, could someone tell Google that I was bombing myself, and if they could put mine back, at least, that'd be cool.

--FD

I was going to be clever, but it turns out... no.

Blah blah blah Torah. Yaakov avinu (our father) and favoring one sibling over another and sibling rivalry and fairness. Blah blah blah deep Torah about joy and sorrow and mourning the destruction of the Temple and celebrating in times of happiness.

I haven’t been blogging for oh, the last nine months or so because every time I’d sit down and try to write about some profound Torah concept I’d picked up from my beautiful wonderful exquisite daughter Rachel I’d end up hitting the elephant-in-the-room thing that I wasn’t blogging about -- for reasons I’m also not blogging about. At least not right now.

Anyway.

Zugt mir a mazel tov!
(Yiddish: Tell me “mazal tov!”) (And I’m not even going to try to translate “mazal tov.”)

FrumBaby2 has landed. It’s a boy!

The bris is soon (IE"H), and I’ll give him a pseudonym shortly thereafter.

(IE"H = Im Ezras Hashem = With the help of Hashem.)

And then, hopefully, the elephant will leave the room and I can start writing again.

Love to all. Thanks for sticking with me through the dry spell.

--FD

I know, I know...

Substantive post, no really, any minute now. really...

But right now, I have to say...

SVGHH
(Something Very Good Has Happened)

Something... Wonderful.

There's been a glitch, but I feel confident that it's only a minor one.

Mazal Tov.

--FD

UPDATE: I told you it was just a minor glitch.

PS: Welcome Visitors! I've had a serious uptick in hits, most coming from Danae's site. Sorry I don't have anything fresh for you, but Yes is a world should give you an idea of what I do here, or More than animals . And for those of you with less religious interests, I should probably point out FrumDad gets Political

Thanks for stopping by!

The lights are blinking.

"Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions."

Samuel Johnson.

Sorry for the disappearing act. First of all, I've been extraordinarily busy. I got a new job a couple of months ago, and they're just pounding me.

Also, there's a lot bouncing around in my head, and it's kinda like when ten people try to get out of one small door...

With any luck, this has been only an intermission, although no one would argue a short one; I hope I have not escalated to "long absence."

Anyway, the lights are flashing. Now fork over your $8.50 for the Milk Duds and get back to your seats.

--FD