Comedy Charity and Wine

It was a fine evening with the temps hovering in the sixties that evening. I was invited to join a group of business partners for a evening spent at a vineyard, supposedly listening to some local comics with wine to dull the senses. It turns out one comic was on stage with the wine. Apparently that had also dulled his delivery since nothing much happened in the first few minutes of his arrival and improv. He tried a few masturbation and dead roach installments but they went nowhere. Personally I was enjoying some olives and cheese not so much the wine. Then a group of people that we did not know joined us at our table. The good news was they got some Thai take out. And I took advantage of it..turns out a lot of folks were sweating bullets with the ginger and beef preparation and trying to focus on the bad joke that just came whizzing by; meant more for me. I had my priorities straight. I did not care much for the Savuignon that was offered - benig a dessert wino myself - but instead made the most of all the heat coming out of the Thai. That delivery was then interrupted to announce some local charity and urged the audience to dig deep to fund the basket being passed around. I am not sure that combining drinks with jokes and charity is a brilliant move.. perhaps the host thought that the wine might affect the sensibilities of the yokels and they might end up dropping their 100s in the platter. I for one was getting a bit antsy with the direction the evening was going and decided to bolt early having just heard a joke about a handicap that was running late after losing his prosthetic leg.

Comments

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...

Costa Rica

Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry. Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while. Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...

A few good books

On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...

Brown Motion

Search This Blog