At any rate, Shabbat was not my favorite day of the week. I never really observed it seriously, and eventually didn’t even pretend to do so.

But of late, I’ve found Shabbat to be more important to me. I don’t follow the rules at all strictly (I’m typing this on Shabbat, for example), but I still take the day seriously. Lawrence Kushner, in his essay “Thinking Shabbat” in A Shabbat Reader came up with a term for liberal Jews who are serious about Shabbat: “Zocher Shabbat” (in contrast to those Jews who are obsessive about the minutiae of Shabbat, who are called “Shomer Shabbat”).

Tonight, we spent Shabbat evening at Congregation Shir Hadash; first, we helped set up the Oneg (which definitely qualifies as work!). Then Jeff went to the regular service, and Diane and I went to the “Service of the Soul”, led by our new assistant rabbi, Yitzhak Miller. This was a very different service; we started with six niggunim, then six psalms, and then much more music. There were no spoken prayers at all, but there was time for silent contemplation. I surprised myself by enjoying the service quite a bit, though I wasn’t able to give up looking at the clock from time to time, since we continued for a good while after the regular service ended.

When we finished, we went out to the Sukkah for Oneg — Jeff had helped carry everything out at the end of the regular service and was cleaning up in the kitchen while he waited for us. We made our Oneg and then went back to our duties as Oneg volunteers and finished the cleanup.

And now it’s definitely time to call it an evening. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sukkot!

I spent most of the day, as expected, in the Board Room at IBM Corporate Headquarters, attending the first meeting of the “CIO Tech Board”. It was interesting and possibly productive (I got a homework assignment, which is probably a good thing), but that’s not what I want to write about. I don’t even want to write about David Weinberger’s talk, at least not at the moment.

Instead, I want to talk about the Board Room itself. I wish I’d had a camera with me — it is quite impressive (as befits the Board Room of a major multinational corporation). It’s loaded with technology, most of which is nearly invisible (for example, there’s a wonderful speakerphone setup; the mikes are very inconspicuous little bumps around the table). Something which surprised me was that the table is a round table (bigger than the one in Winchester, England, which is supposed to be King Arthur’s Round Table) — I would have expected it to have a clear “head” where the CEO would sit.

The Board Room is also very nicely furnished, and there are rules which help to keep it that way (at least for mortals like ourselves). The chief rule: No Eating in the Board Room (no, there wasn’t a sign — but the word was passed). And No Briefcases on the Table (for that, there was a sign). Neither of these was a problem.

And, of course, there was plenty of connectivity — both wired and wireless.

Now, I’m sitting in the Admirals’ Club in Terminal 8 at JFK. It’s a nice place, but as a haven for connected travellers, it sucks. Most of the phones are voice-only and cost Big Bucks, even for local calls; there are a few data-capable phones hiding in the back of the lounge, some of which even work. There is one wired Ethernet port which costs 25 cents/minute; there’s also wireless (T-Mobile), but that’s expensive unless you have the monthly plan, which I don’t (yet, anyway). Fortunately, I’ve only got a few minutes to spend here — because the Club is also very stupidly located outside security. *sigh*

Time to head for the security line so I can go home!