Davening from Siddur Torah Ohr

Posted on February 29, 2012 by TK

Well, there have certainly been some changes in nusach-land around here. It’s been a long journey; when I first started embracing Judaism, I prayed from the UJC’s standard Conservative siddur; I then found ArtScroll’s Interlinear Ashkenaz and switched to it; subsequently, I discovered the beauty in Nusach Sefard and again made the switch; during this time I was exposed to Chabad and really couldn’t stand davening from Tehillas Hashem, so I stuck with Reb ArtScroll’s Nusach Sefard.

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Chords for Shlomo Katz’s “Niggun of the Birds”

Posted on February 13, 2012 by TK

Shlomo Katz recently posted a video of a recording of his playing the “Niggun of the Birds,” which he heard early one morning walking toward the Kosel in Yerushalayim. It’s an awesome niggun, so I decided to write up the chords for it. Enjoy!

Shlomo Katz - Niggun of the Birds
Standard Tuning - Capo on 1st fret

Bridge
Am      Dm      Am      Dm
Am      Dm      G       Am

Chorus
Am      G       Am      G
Am      G       F       E

Download the chords here: Shlomo Katz - Niggun of the Birds (Chords) (266)

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Snow-O’s!

Posted on January 22, 2012 by TK

Snow-O’s, they’re taking the breakfast world by storm!

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Early Morning Upcycling with Lea

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Leandra

Just after 7am. I’m stove-topping some oatmeal before Tyler gets home from minyon. Now I have a strange tendency to try and never keep pantry foods in their original bags and containers. Awhile back I got the idea into my head that it looks cluttery and distracting in all the different store packages with their whirl of colors and letters and prefer to keep things in reused glass spaghetti sauce or peanut butter jars and clear bins.

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The Problem with Patents, an Infographic

Posted on January 5, 2012 by TK

As a software developer, Linux user, and human being, software patents and intellectual property suits affect me constantly. The US Patent System™ is largely broken and allows people to patent some of the most ridiculous things. I’ve often considered striking it rich by making a patent for “biochemical respiration for the purpose of the generation of energy” aka “breathing.” In any case, for those of you who aren’t as educated in these affairs, please see this infographic. It’ll help.

Infographic passed along by Phandroid.com, originally created by FrugalDad.

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Polyphasic Sleep: Fail

Posted on November 3, 2011 by TK

So I didn’t exactly make it to polyphasic bliss. It was extremely hard beginning day 2 with my 4 am to 4:30 nap. I think the main problem I had was that I didn’t have stuff to do. I planned on having a really light workload; I mean a really light workload, in order to make the transition easy. It seems that this wasn’t really a good idea, as boredom set in and it was a quick recipe for disaster. I don’t know if I’m physically healthy enough to transfer over to polyphasic sleep at the moment, as I’m kind of still recovering from a cold. I might try again, time will tell.

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Polyphasic Sleep: Day 1

Posted on November 1, 2011 by TK

Well, it’s been nearly twenty-four hours, and I’m still alive and sane. It’s been a little weird, but I’ve been sticking to the Dymaxion Polyphasic Sleep schedule and it seems to be working, at least in baby steps. If anything I write in this post doesn’t make sense, it’s because I’m kind of tired, having only slept 2 hours in the last 24.

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Polyphasic Sleep: The Starting Pistol

Posted on October 31, 2011 by TK

Well, it seems that we are off to the races, or rather the, um, not sleeping. The best opportunity for starting my new sleep schedule recently opened up, and so as of right now, I’m starting my first real cycle. I’ll be using the Dymaxion sleep pattern, as mentioned in an earlier post. This means I’ll be sleeping for 30 minutes every 5½ hours. I just finished my first “nap”, and I’m feeling pretty decent.

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Chords for “Ki Anu Amecha,” a Traditional High Holidays Song

Posted on October 24, 2011 by TK

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were really inspiring for me this year, as every year. A few particular melodies and songs really caught my ear, so naturally I had to find the chords for them and post them so I wouldn’t forget them.

SONG: Ki Anu Amecha

   Dm            G       Dm
Ki anu amecha, v'atah elokeinu,
G   Dm         F    C   Dm
Anu vanecha, v'atah avinu.
Dm              G        Dm
Anu avadecha, v'atah adoneinu,
G   Dm           F    C      Dm
Anu k'halecha, v'atah chelkeinu.
Dm                  G        Dm
Anu nachalasecha, v'atah goraleinu,
G   Dm          F    C     Dm
Anu tzonecha, v'atah ro'einu.
Dm               G        Dm
Anu charmecha, v'atah notreinu,
G   Dm              F    C      Dm
Anu f'ulelasecha, v'atah yotzreinu.
Dm               G       Dm 
Anu rayasecha, v'atah dodeinu,
G   Dm             F    C     Dm
Anu s'gulasecha, v'atah elokeinu.
Dm            G       Dm
Anu amecha, v'atah malkeinu,
G   Dm            F    C       Dm
Anu maamirecha, v'atah maamireinu.

Hope this helps someone keep the holiness of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur a little longer :) If you have an Artscroll Aharon Yaakov Sefard Yom Kippur Machzor, you can find the Hebrew at the bottom of page 378.

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Typeset Tikkun Haklali

Posted on October 24, 2011 by TK

On a tangent of inspiration, late last night I typeset Tikkun Haklali in HTML to be readable. There are a few other versions available on the internet, but I’ve yet to find one that is actually readable. Seeing as that I’m a spoiled Artscroll fanboy, it’s hard for me to deal with less-than-awesome typesetting. In any case, the entire text of the prayer can be found here. In addition, I’ve created a GitHub project to host the source-code and to make it easier for others to offer changes and corrections. I’ll probably make a few changes here and there before I’m happy with it, but it’s generally in the state that I want it, so enjoy. If you have any corrections or comments, please use GitHub or post below.

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