On the flip side...

So the internet provides alot of anonymity. And it's great! I can search for anything and everything.
Among the few remaining challenges are: how to learn to find the needle in the haystack and what do you do when your needle ain't there.
Today's linkdump will include a few interesting things that I've found recently. To you they may be old hat but I feel they are good contributions to the online Jewish community.

First off is a blog of a New York simcha musician. He gives wonderful insight to what goes on behind the bandstand at your wedding, the frustration of being a musician, and a bit of an insight into being a religious artist.

Next is an alternative to AskMoses.com (the Chabad run ask-a-rabbi site). The BeitEl Yeshiva has open halachic Q&A forums with a Modern Orthodox bent. There were a few other such sites I wanted to highlight but for some reason many were down.

A project that (I think) was just opened is a set of information about fertility treatment and halacha. The Puah Institute has created a site with articles about IUI and halacha, ovulation testing on Shabbat, and the highly identifiable "halachic infertility" (ovulation before mikvah). I think it's a good idea that someone is finally putting all of this information in one place. Warning: it does say that it is currently in beta-test.

I'll close out this post for now with one truly strange little yiddel. A fellow by the name Jonathan Rose has created a news service about himself. So he shares his thoughts, reviews and daily schedule with the world at the JRNS (Jonathan Rose News Service). It seems he even has other people writing articles about him for this news service. Yet again, the internet shows us the best, the worst, and the strangest.