Needed: Subjects for Usability Test

I'm looking for subjects for a usability test. The test will take place in Tel Aviv on Wednesday or Thursday. (Dec 9-10, 2009)

Subjects should be 20-35 with a good knowledge of Hebrew (Israelis preferred) and need to have a nokia smartphone with internet access and data plan.

Subjects will be compensated for time and travel.

Please contact me at LeahGabrielle at Gmail dot com if you are interested.

Please repost this anywhere and everywhere you think someone relevant might be looking!

What You Missed!

For those of you who didn't join me today (that would be everyone except Ephraim), here's what you missed...

First, we had to scale a big concrete wall. Well, okay, it wasn't that big. It was about waist height, but you try scaling it with a stroller. This really nice young lady (late teens, I'd guess) helped me, and it was actually really not bad. This is because the mall isn't open at 6:30 in the morning, and I didn't feel like walking 3 blocks out of my way to get to the train station. The road that goes to the train station should be open by the next time I need to go, and if not, well, my appointment then is at 10am, so I'll be leaving a bit later anyway.

Next, there was a guy wearing a kilt on the train. I mean, a real live Scottish kilt. But here's the funny thing. Usually when you see a guy in a kilt, they're like decked out in full gear... not this guy. He was wearing this blah t-shirt and a North Face jacket. It's like someone secretly switched his jeans with a kilt and he didn't notice...

Ephraim and I played peek-a-boo a fair amount of the way to Haifa, and then we found a taxi and got to the clinic right on time. The clinic staff was fantastic as always, and Ephraim is doing great. They didn't get us a new lens today, but they fixed the one he's wearing now to make it more comfortable, and they'll mail us a new one in the next few days.

On the train home, Ephraim really wanted to crawl around, and there's a bit of clear space where I guess wheelchairs could be, so I let him down, and I closed the door so he couldn't leave the compartment, and I went to sit back down.... only I forgot I had been sitting in a jump-seat (like a movie-theater seat), so I ended up on the floor. Ephraim crawled around for a while, stood up next to some older gentleman (by older, I mean older than my father), banged on the seat next to him a little. I asked the man a few times if it was ok, and the man said it was fine. Then someone left the compartment to use the restroom, so I got up to close the door and when I sat back down, I again landed on the floor! It's too bad there was no video camera on me. I think it could've gone viral. :)

Anyway, we're all home and my chair here.........k;lgj/efgjgjdkf/

(just kidding)

be well.
LeahGG

Maybe I Was Wrong

Back in 1991, my parents took me to my high school's freshman orientation, and my dad ran into an old friend of his. He was friends with her, his parents were friends with her parents, so naturally, he wanted me to be friends with the daughter.

Over the years, he asked me repeatedly "So are you friends with ___?" and each time I'd say "We have nothing in common." or "I have nothing to talk about with her." Over my four years at Frisch, I think I never had a class with her, and I don't think I ever had a conversation with her. I knew who she was and that was pretty much it. Don't get me wrong, I never disliked her, but I never liked her either.

A few years ago, I found out that she lives in Jerusalem and is a writer. A few days ago, I found out she has a daughter named Kinneret. Maybe I was wrong... maybe we do have something in common.

What Some People Will Do to Get a YouNeverCall Hat

YouNeverCall is offering a free hat to anyone who reviews them and lets them know where the review is.

Apparently, that seems too complex for some people, so they did a search, found something I'd written about YouNeverCall on my blog and submitted it as a review to the staff over at YNC.

Here's the thing... Sam at YNC is the type to notice such things, because, well, he's my brother. So he ran this one by me, since he didn't know I had an address in Wellsville, PA. (I don't.)

So sorry, Angie, I think it was a great creative effort, but I think you'll have to write your OWN review if you want to get a YouNeverCall hat.

LeahGG

Must Have

I must have this, and it's Bethami's Fault.
There's no place like...painless, there's no place like painless...

It's All in Your Head - Twice the Suffering, None of the Relief

Some of you know that I've been sick for the last 2.5 months or so. Some of you might even care.

I have fibromyalgia, so it gets the blame for pain and exhaustion long before a doctor will even order so much as a regular blood count. Finally, though, the levels of pain and exhaustion exceeded what my doctor could write off, so I got a whole bunch of blood tests run, and while some of them are off, there's nothing with a big arrow saying "big disease here" so I'm still without a diagnosis, which means that some people (doctors included) are saying "It's all in your head," so not only do they have no relief to offer me, they can also make me feel guilty for my pain, my exhaustion, and the fact that I'm not up to speed.

Ah the sheer joy of it all.

The Chicken Dance Makes Me Cry

No, really. I was at the mall today, and they started playing the chicken dance, and the tears started rolling down my face.

I was thirteen when Steven Orne and I danced to the chicken dance on a Sunday sometime around Yom Haatzmaut 1991. Israel was 43.

I was still thirteen the following January, when Stephen died of complication of hemophilia. I always remember dancing the chicken dance with him, and I always cry when I hear it.

For some reason, "Yesh lanu tayish," which we're dancing in this picture, doesn't make me cry as badly. Yehi Zichro Baruch