Thoughts Entering 5774

This has been a bit of a hectic couple of weeks for me, leading up to today and tonight, the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Consequently, you will not find me near a computer for the next three days (Jewish holidays begin at sundown and end at sundown as well — since Rosh Hashana runs right into the Sabbath, that means that I will be AFK effectively from tonight until Saturday night…) and so I wanted to first wish all readers who celebrate the Jewish New Year a happy and healthy one.

The year 5773 on the Jewish calendar was certainly an interesting one for me from a writing perspective, particularly the last few months. Specifically this is the case because three months ago I shifted my blog writing model from that of writing for someone else’s blog to writing for my own blog — giving me greater flexibility in my writing schedule and choice in topics. I must stress that I would not have gotten anywhere near where I have come in the last thirteen years without writing for another person’s blog — but the time had finally come for me to do this. There are a number of experiments I would not have felt comfortable doing which you will G-d willing see unfold over the next number of months.

The year also had a lot of development in terms of my son as he grew from a nearly two year old to a nearly three year old. Where before he was timid in speech, perhaps due to the nature of my wife and I speaking two different languages to him (Romanian and English) he now seems a lot more comfortable in both and knows which to speak to whom. I have tested this sometimes by asking him, in Romanian, to say something to his mother — he responds not by parroting the same thing but by saying the translation of what I have said. To me this means he genuinely understands the words I am speaking to him and is not just mimicking the sounds.

I have come quite far in terms of physical fitness, a subject I will explore further on this blog in upcoming weeks and months.