cloudy skies

photo 3.jpg, originally uploaded by Erika_Herzog.

i love the skies of new york city… i think i’ve spent a long time living in new york not looking at the sky. when i got my sidekick a few years ago, my first cellphone with a halfway — and i mean halfway — decent camera, i started taking many more pictures, especially if i was walking somewhere new or if something caught my eye.

fastforward to now, when i have an iPhone 3GS, where the camera is shockingly great, well, i take pictures a lot.

some current obsessions are the buildings and sky around madison square park near where i work, as me and my friends wait for the new atrocity at http://www.onemadisonpark.com/ to topple over (and hopefully not kill us); pictures of dinner; pictures of different textures, especially pavement / the ground; cool graffiti; cool subway station art.

as jen says in THE IT CROWD, “I could go on….” (mouse, mousing, emails, sending emails….)

philly2009 hotel floor plan

philly2009 hotel, originally uploaded by Erika_Herzog.

i got this from the website for the hotel…

Philly2009 hotel floor plan

Philly2009 Program is Live — And Available in Calendar Form!

the program for the 29th IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies International) Conference on Jewish Genealogy 2009 in Philadelphia has been put into to a public google calendar.

please note that the program data for this calendar was downloaded on July 12, 2009. as with any schedule, there area always last minute mistakes, updates and changes. so please double check your events at the conference.

PLEASE SEE THE POST BELOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DOWNLOAD THE WORD DOCUMENT THAT HAS THE ENTIRE PROGRAM IN ONE TEXT FILE.

HTML

iCal

XML

one of these formats can be imported into your own personal calendar.

i will try to update this calendar as i find out about corrections.

Philly2009

By request, I am in the process of uploading the program for the 29th IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies International) Conference on Jewish Genealogy 2009 in Philadelphia to a public calendar (google calendar).

As a preliminary step I put the program into a Microsoft Word document, which is available for download here:  Philly2009

I will post again when I’ve got a link to a google calendar.

Enjoy!

erika

warm fuzzies

P050809PS-0264

Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream

on a day when i could use some warm fuzzies this photo really made everything seem hopeful, touching and meaningful.

between this and the pictures of the young girls hugging Michelle Obama this new presidency is so meaningful on so many levels.

words are not working today, but the images are…

IMG00051.JPG

IMG00051.JPG
Originally uploaded by Erika_Herzog

a rainy day

smoke break! transparency, guilt, stress — and blessed fiber

IMG00360.JPG
Originally uploaded by Erika_Herzog

i joined blue moon fiber arts’ 2009 rockin’ sock club.  i know. more yarn for my already overflowing stash. i don’t need more yarn.

the big hairy but…:

i wanted to see what blue moon’s yarn experience was like (purchasing, shipping, etc.). and i need to make amy a gorgeous and soft scarf in her colorway — pictured at left — which i don’t have.

and i really REALLY want to learn how to knit socks.  they seem ideal: small projects that you can give as gifts.  a subculture in an of itself in the fiber community, one that seems uber cool….

i’m a sucker for variegated yarn. it’s like dumplings.

—

been thinking a lot about transparency, guilt, stress. and how fiber just cuts through a lot of the b.s. of all that.

in the old days, i used to go out for smoke breaks with smoker friends to stretch my legs and get some fresh air. it is something i miss doing.

anyone who knows me know i work really hard at whatever i do. i’m a perfectionist and when it has to do with computers i’m end-user proficient / savvy. due to nothing but my gene pool i’m pretty sure, seeing as me, my bro michael and sister claud are all computer people (michael a programmer, claud a marketing for back-end systems). and the computer savvy gene runs through my cousins and extended family.

so i can’t really take credit for this gift i have with the computer. and i try to utilize it and enjoy it for good. but as i was winding out this yarn from skein to usable ball (need to either repair or figure out another swift solution) i was worrying about using flickr and this blog and ravelry in its most transparent way because i don’t want anyone to get the misapprehension that i’m not busier than “a one legged man in a butt kicking contest …” (as Dolly says….) when i’m at my money job.

indeed, the whole environment at ibanks has contracted and condensed. last night i barely had time to go to the bathroom, mondays, thursdays and fridays are now all go go go (with rare exceptions). now i’m on a speed desk at least these three nights a week — and heavy ones at that — it’s nonstop work. water indeed coming from stone, surprising even me how much is possible to get done, with me going as quickly as possible and with the help and support of my coworkers. it’s a miracle, and it needs to be said that i don’t deal with the stress as gracefully and diplomatically as i could.

i could be maybe less transparent in my interactions. and less stressed. so to balance it out, on rare times when i have a human minute, touching fiber calms me right down. touching this merino with its touch of mulberry silk (!) and nylon. the hand, just one quick clutch of it, and something inside just goes pffft.

so i take my responsibility for my work and any job i do very seriously. ownership is key. some would call it control. some describe me as rigid. i like to think of myself as a self-schooled problem-solver. i get a system going i can work with and then that’s it. it’s not really my way or the highway — it’s just whatever works for me in a methodical and organized way (as far as my brain goes at least), well, that’s what i do…. it isn’t right for everybody but it’s what i suss out for myself, so that’s it.

i hope that the changes and plans that Obama is working to put through will restore some confidence in business, that things will calm down in the investment banking world and the feeling that the other shoe could drop at any time and everyone i know loses their jobs (including and especially myself), well, hopefully that feeling will go away.

i am concerned with the idea of touching fiber at work, because i don’t want it to be misperceived or be a problem. i’m realizing the more i think about it that it’s the equivalent of a smoke break for me.

so i’m going to continue to work as hard as humanly possible at all things i do. and take my breaks at work to touch fiber.

zaida, or my friend Frank

Frank shared photos of his — i think relatively recent — trip back to Poland for Holocaust Remebrance Day. he went with his wife and grandchildren.

i love this picture because it shows the ethos and gravitas of the day.

Frank was fortunate to survive the Shoah — he was a young boy during the war. his whole family was killed.

this is his website:
http://internex.net.au/~fdobia/

zaida
Originally uploaded by Erika_Herzog 

because of the time of my extended family’s emigration (somewhat early — abt 1895 to abt 1910), i have no Holocaust surivivors in my immediate tree. there are extended family members who were killed, of course, knowing how large Jewish families were in Poland. plus there are Yad Vashem records for some of the branches. the daunting thing is that i’m sure there are more people in my extended tree who were killed, but the records are very difficult to reconstruct.

anyway, Frank is my first firsthand exposure to a survivor. i’m amazed at his innate sense of humor and his ability to tell stories that move me to tears. Frank is a gift.

2009 01 27 status update

702 837 – 1835 akt 00 cover.JPG
Originally uploaded by Erika_Herzog

it just occurred to me that i could try and use my blog to update the status of some of the genealogical work i’m currently focused on working on — in hopes of motivating and making me think about what i’m doing and how i’m approaching things….

this week Frank Dobia and i have been working on the indexing of the photocopies of the Radzanów, Poland records i photocopied at the Jewish genealogy conference in august 2007. yes, i am only now getting to them! ugh.

Frank is doing the heavy lifting: the Polish translations. during the course of our discussions about these records it has become clear that i need to drop my research and really help Frank get his information organized. his stuff needs to be the priority because as he gets older he’s going to forget more and more stuff — it’s of paramount importance to get his information recorded and indexed and organized.

so i’m going to go to YIVO and try and track down Golub-Dobrzyń  (formerly Dobrzyń nad Drwęcą) microfilm and see what a little Dobraszklanka-Kufeldt research brings up.

i’m hoping that as i help him we can establish more connections between our families. the Dobraszklanka-Gutglass connection is there in the town records of Radzanów and other common shtetls. it’s just a matter of seeing if we can string together the records to bridge the gap. those records may or may not exist. but i’m going to attack it from the Dobraszklanka end first.

so i am officially adopting Frank and his surnames and shtetls. it’s official. by ownership i hope to help him — and me. we are mishpucha. i feel it. now i just need to prove it somehow.

and maybe some time soon i’ll be able to visit Frank in Melbourne. go for a month or so and be his genealogical assistant and learn more about Poland, where my family came from, what it was like there. that would be amazing.

happy holidays

DSC_5369

Originally uploaded by Erika_Herzog

while this december has been more than a little bleak and joyless, this afternoon was pretty sublime. i got to hang out with a shockingly huge number of folks that by some divine intervention of the stars were all available and in town for a last minute getogether at aunt ruth’s apartment on central park west.

grateful to ruth for a great food spread — and with the apartment not being finished with construction, etc.!

very grateful uncle stanley felt well enough to make the trek down from connecticut via train — and go for the walk in central park.

much love to everyone who could make it. i know there are some folks that were missing but i think we’ll need to figure out something else if there are more than this many people — it was A LOT of people!

nb: the camera was passed around to anyone who would take it so a lot of these photos in this set (http://www.flickr.com/photos/erika_herzog/sets/72157611858339016/) were taken by alec, mariel, emma, jessie and i think josh — as well as me (see trees and drains).