nondeterministic . net

Mohamad, Intisar, Salam, Sima, Firas, and Rola took Jake, Dylan, and me on a visit to the Old City of Jerusalem today. [continue reading “Entrance Forbidden (Only Fair)”]

Let’s see: I should have bought a video camera, still photography just doesn’t do it for me. I haven’t written in a very long time. There are many things to say. For the interesting bits, skip to paragraph “yesterday.” [continue reading “Entrance Forbidden”]

(New pictures up) Not my intention to go this long without a post, but it has been a busy week. Java methods, a quiz, introduction to objects, final recitation assignments, managing all these kids, forgetting to call the Technion, and a lack of sleep come to mind. [continue reading “If you post entries, what do we do with this entry?”]

We’ve had our first and a very successful week of MEET, during which our apartment flooded, we visited the Technion, I lectured on control structures, and the kids really started to get into the material. And we’ve just returned from a weekend in the south, camping overnight in the Negev and stopping at Metzada. From that I have only one great question: why didn’t somebody tell me there are so many stars!? [continue reading “Stone Barriers Artificial & Natural”]

Over these last three days, I have gone from davening at the Western Wall on Shabbat to giving our thirty kids what was for most of them their first introduction to programming and Java. I was up there for a sort of Linux/Java demo today, as well as questions in lab, and I loved every single minute of it. [continue reading “Balls to the wall”]

We’ve been working long hours to prepare for tomorrow, the first day of MEET. From everything I’ve heard about the kids and seen about the preparations, this is going to be amazing. And by tomorrow afternoon, I’ll have stood in front of this class — fifteen Israelis and fifteen Palestinians — given them an introduction to Linux, and helped them write their first programs in Java!

I have been accepted to the graduate program at the Technion. This does not mean that I will go: I have yet to see any of the details, which are being mailed to me in a package that I can hopefully redirect to my Israel address. Better yet, a MEET trip with the kids to the Technion this Tuesday will give me the opportunity to try and discuss things in person. [continue reading “This just in”]