So, again in a skipping-lots-ignoring-ongoing-conversations-and-poking-my-head-for-a-short-time manner, it's that time of year again, and, yeah, still in a risk of sounding a bit strange:

On Tuesday evening (as most of you clever people probably already know) starts the Jewish holiday of 'Yom Kippur', which means 'Day of Atonement'.

This is a day of soul searching, of trying to better define our faults to ourselves, and try to accept it upon ourselves to become, at least a little, better people. A day of repenting past wrongs we did, looking and finding it in our hearts to forgive wrongs done to us, and trying to remember to learn from this process in the rest of the days of the year. The holiest day of the year for practicing Jews.

On a rough division, there are two kinds of wrongs people can do: against G-d, and hurting their fellow human beings. In Jewish tradition, if the person committing a sin against G-d is truly sorry for what they did, repenting and taking it upon themselves to try and avoid repeating it, G-d forgives those sins.

The deeds which hurt other people, though, are not so 'easily' and personally forgiven. If somebody did anything to harm another person, they would not be able to cleanse themselves from that deed, no matter how much they'd pray and be sorry and repent and try to do good in the future, unless they make amends with the person who was hurt by that deed. As long as peace between people is not achieved, the 'sin', so to speak, is not 'erased from the books' above.

Regardless of the date in the year, I'd hate to think I'd offended somebody here (or everywhere else, for that matter). I don't think that the attempts of becoming a better person than one already is, is something that needs a date or a certain holiday for it, of course. It's just that, for me, having a certain day in the year to stop my daily runnings around, and think of nothing else but the really important things, is a good reminder of the order of priorities I'd like to have in my life.

So, since Wednesday will be, for me, this day of soul-searching, of trying to create a new start in my on-going effort of 'becoming a good human being, or at least a slightly better one', I would like to ask all of you here, if I offended anybody, or hurt any of you lovely people, to tell me about it, and give me the opportunity to apologize, fix it if possible, and also learn from my mistakes, and try to not repeat them (there are so many new ones to practice, why repeat old ones, you know?).

In case I offended anybody, and can't communicate directly with them about it (for whatever reason, especially with my lately irregular internet connection), I can already say that I'm truly sorry. I can honestly say that I didn't mean to - you're all so considerate and thoughtful and generally all-around lovely, that there's absolutely no room for such a thing here. However, I might have had a slip of a keyboard, or mistaken somebody's intentions, or many other possible so forths. Y'all are so understanding, you probably tried to find excuses for me and didn't take offense anyway, but I want to make sure, all the same.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm definitely not trying to go around in a 'holier-than-thou' show off, or force my personal beliefs on others, or make statements which may be understood as criticizing anybody else's beliefs (or lack thereof) and way of living. If anything, being around here, among such a rich versatile group of kind and clever people, has exposed me to a lot more ways of choosing to lead one's life than I've ever had a chance to see before, and has shown me much more of the beauty and richness that is the world we live in.

[Edit: this is especially true this year, with my oh-so-short computer time and internet access, which gave so way too many opportunities to unintentionally miss stuff or seem to ignore (undeliberately!) people or their posts or even the one thing I tried to maintain posting, their birthdays. While you guys are always so there-for-anybody-who-needs (including little me). So this is a chance to also post: Thank you.]

I love Nilly.

That is all.

I liked Kelly Osbourne's dress and hair. And I thought the lipstick was fine but clashed with the dress.

I loved Tina Fey's dress. I also really liked Sofia Vergara's dress. I think it fits her personality.

I *love* Homeland and was happy to see it win all the Emmy's that Modern Family wasn't nominated for. (But poor Mad Men! Such a great season, but it's not the hot new thing anymore.)

I haz purple hair. My bathtub looks like I skinned a Muppet in there, but at least my hair will look good in the wedding photos!

I *love* Homeland and was happy to see it win all the Emmy's that Modern Family wasn't nominated for. (But poor Mad Men! Such a great season, but it's not the hot new thing anymore.)

I was looking at the list of nominated dramas, and there is some superb television on the air these days. (Very happy about Homeland's win.)

I got distracted from the post, as I do when I get past my bedtime, came back, thought I was finished...yeah.

I meant to say basically, in a typically late night long winded over conversational way, that I hope she was having the same issues meshing with a designer that Jennifer Garner or Emma Stone does, not that she was dealing with professionals who found her rules hard to work with. Because they're not all that restrictive.

I'm looking at applications to help organise my life. When you look at something like file this or Manilla, why should I feel comfortable typing in my passwords? I did with mint.com, for reasons I can't actually articulate, but these apps will allow me to have downloaded digital copies of my bills (as opposed to emailed ones, or links I follow), and that fits with what I'm trying to accomplish right now. But I get to "enter your account info", have a mild panic attack, and back out of the app.

I don't think getting to up and dressed and leaving the house is supposed to be this hard to get to, even on a Monday.

I hope she was having the same issues meshing with a designer that Jennifer Garner or Emma Stone does, not that she was dealing with professionals who found her rules hard to work with. Because they're not all that restrictive.

FWIW that's what I thought you meant.

I don't think getting to up and dressed and leaving the house is supposed to be this hard to get to, even on a Monday.

It's a sign. The gods want you back in bed.

Of course by the same token the gods must want me to head into work. Isaac got dressed and ready early today with no complaint so he could play briefly on the iPod before school. Whoa. That was unexpected.

I hope she was having the same issues meshing with a designer that Jennifer Garner or Emma Stone does, not that she was dealing with professionals who found her rules hard to work with. Because they're not all that restrictive.

Here's the article: [link]

The Emmy gown was specifically, and painstakingly, selected to cover Ms. Bialik’s arms and much of her chest, conforming to the religious modesty guidelines she has embraced. Last year, she wrote in her blog about the arduous quest for a suitable dress, which she called “Operation Hot and Holy.”

It succeeded only after Ms. Bialik, frustrated with her stylist (“It was not a meeting of the minds,” she said), bought her own dress online. This year her new stylist, Alison M. Kahn, chose the gown, by the designer Pamella Roland. (“I don’t know who she is,” Ms. Bialik said in August, “but I don’t know who anyone is.”)

Even so, stylist and client had a back-and-forth about the contours of the neckline, with Ms. Bialik acknowledging that she “rather subjectively decided” that the original version was too “plungy.”

“It became about it being plunging, which to me is just one of those distinctions of modesty that I’ve decided to stay on the other side of,” she said. A compromise was reached.