It's a working lu...
It's a working lunch with Mitzvah, the Mutt. Although I'm having Japanese Pan Noodles with tofu and Mitzvah prefers burgers!

B is for Branding
I've been reading a lot about branding lately, and no, I don't mean the type that involves hot fires and cattle. I mean personal branding, that new Web 2.0 idea that you're not just a human being, you're also a brand.A personal brand is essentially what you're super-good at and why you're unique, and the best personal brands also identify their target audience/market/customers. When I worked at a local food shelf in the mid-90's and was the only one who could sweet-talk a computer into coughing up needed info from our database (I eventually created a new database for them), they started calling me "Techno-goddess" and I will admit that affected to some extent how I

New Reads for the New Year
I recently read two books that I think of almost like opposite ends of a spectrum. The first book, The New Jew: An Unexpected Conversion by Sally Srok Friedes, was one she sent to me after reading this blog (Hi Sally!). The second, The Shiksa Syndrome, I found in the new fiction section of the local library.The New Jew is a true story of a former Catholic who pursues conversion to Judaism despite her husband's reticence and the less-than-welcoming attitudes of rabbis she meets (see my review). In The Shiksa Syndrome, a born-Jew

The New Jew: An Unexpected Conversion by Sally Srok Friedes -- Book Review
"The New Jew" has become very personal for me. It came along at just the right time to highlight what I have and what I’ve lost, what being Jewish means and what being part of a Jewish community means. It is a love story with Judaism and Jewish community, complete with awkward beginnings, pass

The Shiksa Syndrome by Laurie Graff -- Book Review
When I first finished reading "The Shiksa Syndrome," I wanted to say that I didn’t like it. I wanted to say that because it frustrated me. On far more than one occasion, I was arguing and groaning in irritation with Aimee Albert, the main character and the woman through whose perspective