Team Building at the JBlogger Conference?

You know it's coming up soon.

You registered. (And I registered my wife too)

The buzz is everywhere.

Mom in Israel already compiled a list of bloggers planning to show up (register with her as well)

Even if you aren't on the panel, just showing up is worth a JIB award.

How can you go wrong?

Great food, meet bloggers, commenters, maybe even learn something new.

Yet, with all that said, I'm still hard at work convincing Nefesh B'Nefesh not to implement some of the "team building" activities that the IDF intelligence division has been using for it's elite officers. The IDF is at the forefront of everything today, so why not follow their lead in team-building techniques as well?

Then this story appears today:

Senior IDF officers from various technology, intelligence and special-operations' units were summoned to a 10-day workshop, which included lectures, tutorials and coaching sessions – as well as a fire-walk.

The workshop and been conducted for several years and with great success, a source in Military Intelligence told Yedioth Ahronoth. The fire-walk, however, was a new addition, introduced for the first time this year.

And walk they did: Three of the officers suffered light burns and were treated on site, a fourth required medical attention, and four others ended up seeking independent medical care.

Sources in Military Intelligence later commented that while the importance of leadership workshops in great, the fire-walk was a redundant, dangerous exercise, which could have ended much worse; adding that the only thing the officers learned from it was that if you walk on hot coals – your feet will get burnt. (YNET)

I certainly hope this isn't what Baila meant when she described the appearance of her feet as a "unexpected bonus" for making aliya?

And yet...I'm still concerned about my anonymity.

Do I wear a smiley face? A Burqa? Tell everyone I'm Rafi...or JoeSettler...or DovBear?

Too many questions.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד