My name is Lisa Liel. You probably already know that if you’re reading this, but an introduction seems worthwhile. I’m an aging (a few months away from the big 6-0) computer programmer who lives in Israel with her partner. Our daughter moved out this past year (she’s in college), but I still feel like she’s just away for a bit.
I’m an Orthodox Jew. That means I think the Torah, both written and oral, was given at Sinai, and has been transmitted faithfully over the past 3000 years plus since then.
I’m an Objectivist. That means I’m an advocate of the philosophy espoused by Ayn Rand. I think that reason is the primary tool by which human beings survive. That emotion has its importance, but it is not — never — nein — not in any way, shape, or form, a tool of cognition. You think with your brain. You feel with emotions. Get those mixed up, and you get… well, something a bit like the world we currently live in.
I’m a Zionist. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it means that I recognize that the Land of Israel was given to the Jewish People as a right and a responsibility, and that we are the exclusive owners of every grain of sand in the place.
I’m a fangirl. My brain is an absolute wasteland of pop culture references. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I could store important things in those little nooks and crannies in my cranium. But I read SF and fantasy and comics and historical novels and I just absorb them. I watch way too much TV, and I suspect I always will.
I’m stubborn as hell, but even at my grouchy old age, I’ll switch my whole position on something virtually on a dime if I see an actual convincing argument for why I’m wrong about something. It’s happened more and more infrequently as I’ve grown older, but I chalk that up to the fact that there’s not much left that I’m wrong about.
I used to have a blog. I used to write notes on Facebook. But the blog hasn’t been updated in dog’s years, and it just feels really antiquated. And Facebook got rid of the notes functionality, so I don’t write a lot of long-form stuff.
And I kind of miss it.
So I’m starting a Substack. It’s liable to have a lot of different subjects, some of which might interest you, and some of which might anger you. And some of which you just won’t care about. But like in all things, I’m only really doing it for myself. And if you happen to get something out of it, that’s just gravy.
I’ll write about politics, both the American kind and the Israeli kind. I’ll write about comics, though mostly the DC kind, rather than the Marvel kind. I’ll write about programming, and I’ll sometimes post a piece on a Jewish holiday or weekly Torah portion or just some thoughts that I have on this or that issue in Judaism. I’ll write about culture or technology or whatever I feel like writing about. I’ll write about grammar, and why I think it’s fine that I ended the previous sentence with a preposition (Hint: English isn’t Latin).
I’m going to try and write regularly, though. I guess we’ll see how that turns out.
So that’s it, really. Questions, comments, suggestions, are all welcome.