Leauki Empire

Current version of Hebrew Conjugator

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:08:37 +0000

I finally updated my programming Web log with a new article on my Hebrew conjugation program.

http://leaukiprog.blogspot.com/2010/01/hebrew-conjugator-current-state.html

Happy New Year!

Sun, 3 Jan 2010 22:53:48 +0000

New article in the Shabbos Blog: Kippoth and Umbrelloth.

Merry Christmas

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:10:04 +0000

Christmas is one of those times when I am seriously annoyed.
Shops are closed. I am not working for four days in a row. I don't know what to do all day.
So every year I come up with a few things to do for Christmas day, the holidays, and the week between Christmas and New Year's.
This year I bought two netbooks.
The first is a 10" screen HP Mini (Intel Atom N270, 1.6 GHz, 1 GB, 160 GB hard disk) which came with Windows 7 Starter and which I have already installed Windows 7 Ultimate on. It's black.
The second is a 7" screen Letux 400 (XBurst MIPS, 336 MHz, 128 MB, 2 GB flash) which comes with a version of Debian GNU/Linux and hopefully will arrive just after Christmas ready for New Year's.
So I have something to play with over the holidays.
I also bought this excellent book about Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic (surprisingly enough it is my first book about Aramaic, although I have many books about Hebrew, Arabic, and Akkadian).
It's a two-in-one volume named "Fundamental Biblical Hebrew/Fundamental Biblical Aramaic" by Pastors Andrew H. Bartelt and Andrew E. Steinmann. Andrew Bartelt is Professor of Exegetical Theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis where he teaches Biblical Hebrew. (His excellent lectures can be downloaded and watched.)
Christmas Day itself I will spent listening to Professor Bob's excellent podcast "History According to Bob". Professor Bob published several episodes about the history of Christmas (and Santa Claus and the Christmas tree and so on) and I will listen to them in order (before going to synagogue in the evening because Christmas Day this year is also the day before shabbes).
Because it's Christmas Day the pubs will be closed and I thus cannot play Chess in the pub before going to shul. This has been a problem last year too if I remember correctly when St. Stephen's Day fell on a Friday.
And for all those out there who like me find calendars confusing: Christmas this year falls on the 8th of Teveth. (They really ought to fix this. The Christian calendar keeps moving up and down the year.)

Merry Christmas, everyone affected! :-)

My Father Died

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:57:25 +0000

On Sunday, 29th November, at 9:45 my father died in Jerusalem Hospital in Hamburg; one week after heart surgery where the doctors couldn’t do anything any more. He was 70 years old.
My father, Gerhard Brehm, was born on May 14th 1939 in Berlin. He spent most of the first ten years of his life with the cold and hunger caused by the situation during and shortly after World War II. Rheumatic fever led to heart disease and heart disease finally caught up with him last month. He underwent surgery before in 1986.
My father started his career as a construction worker in Berlin and became a construction engineer and college teacher. Two months before his death, already suffering from kidney failure, he was still taking the final exams at his college in Berlin. He would have retired years ago but every semester the student evaluations made the college renew his contract for another semester.
He never retired. He always worked. He was the best role model I could have wished for. He taught me work ethics and I wished I had learned better. He taught me the belief in G-d. And he always supported what I wanted to do.
When after a few years of laziness I finally turned my life around, he was ecstatic with happiness. He never admitted that he was disappointed with me for a while, but I could see that he was proud of me in the last few years, especially after I learned Hebrew (at an Israeli university) and visited Israel more often (where my dad spent some time in a Kibbutz long before I was born).
He was also one of the first people in Germany to work with computers. Every time he had half a chance he told me the stories of how he wrote useful programs decades ago. I work as a build engineer/programmer now and it was clear that he approved of my career choices now.
I called him the day before the evening of his surgery, which was planned very quickly and in which he had a 70% chance of survival. He came through, but it was clear that it would be over soon. Three days after the surgery my mother called me at work and told me that the situation had become even worse. I took the next flight to Hamburg and arrived at his bed side within 24 hours.
For the last week of his life my mother and I visited him daily. Before I came my mother also stayed in the hotel opposite the hospital.
And then, finally, the call came Sunday morning that he had died.
I flew back home Monday and went back to work.
A memorial service is in January and I will return to Germany then.
I have a flat in Berlin that is now no longer used. I am considering selling it.
I don’t know what to do.
The worst part is that I can no longer know what he thinks of what I do. He still knows, I am sure, but while he can still see me, I can no longer learn from him.

Introduction to Akkadian

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:14:13 +0000

I wrote a new article on the Not A Linguist Blog.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeh

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:48:25 +0100

I bought a Wii.
Hearing about the upcoming arrival of New Super Mario Brothers Wii I went forth and bought Wii. For 199 quid I got a Wii with all the controllers, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Mario Kart Wii (with the steering wheel), and Mario Strikers Charged Football.
I also ordered Super Paper Mario and the Wii Zelda game. And I bought a two-controller charging station (which turns out is a USB device, excellent!).
Now I am waiting for my EyeTV to arrive. I don’t have a telly.
I also bought, a few weeks ago, Giana Sisters DS, which turns out to be an excellent game if you like 2D platformers.
The game shop recommended Mario Galaxy and the upcoming new Mario Galaxy games (from the Mario 64 series) but I think I have enough toys for now.
Now I really want to learn more about Mono for the Wii.

A Message

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:23:58 +0100

“Then We said to the Israelites: 'Dwell in this land. When the promise of the hereafter comes to be fulfilled, We shall assemble you all together."
“And when Moses said to his people: 'O my people, call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.'"
I have four things to say to Osama Bin Laden and his fellow scarecrows.
1. We Jews will stay put exactly where Allah told us to stay.
2. We Zionists will, as per Allah's command, not turn back.
3. You, prophet Osama, can continue to fight against Allah’s command, but you will live in a cave while doing so.
1. Eat my shorts.

Twitter

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:49:01 +0100

You can follow my boring exploits on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/Leauki

Newest message is about the new article on my programming blog.

(Why is there no Twitter widget for iWeb?)

Two and Three

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:30:32 +0100

I wrote another two articles covering two more Hebrew roots and a short piece in the Shabbos Blog.

Two - Creation

Three - Greatness

Swine Flu

One

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:30:34 +0100

I wrote related articles on the Shabbos blog about the root for and the concept of one in Hebrew and Judaism.

21 Roots: One (Not A Linguist Blog)

One (Shabbos Blog)

The imperial Iranian flag remains for the time being while the protests in Iran continue.

Update: Two - Creation