Brown Motion

 Such a joyous title. But not quite a Tintin comic. A recent trip to the earliest of Euro bloc political alliances called Benelux was the reason to run into the above mentioned art. Benelux so named for the three countries that formed this union allowing free travel across their respective borders eventually merging with the EU and adopting a single currency circa 2000. The Thanksgiving break is a good time for wife and I to hit the proverbial road not traveled and has happened each year barring covid. With no family or tradition to hold us to our base camp coordinates we have found this time works for us with generally mild climes across the planet and less of a crowd. Or so it used to be. This time the crowds were out with a vengeance as witnessed by the clogged arteries of cities in the Benelux when we visited. So this Benelux is made of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Belgium is bigger in size and curious sights; Netherlands is a sinking ship - quite literally half the country

 This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest.  Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one.  Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list.  Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD  - school f

 We moved to the Charlotte area not knowing where exactly our new home would be. Turns out it was by a popular lake formed by the damming of the Catawba river which flows north to south in the Carolinas. Local electricity generation utility built a series of dams along the waterway for hydro and couple nuclear plants as well to supply the state grid.  The lake our house butts into is Lake Wylie. While tract home build has picked up in the Carolinas the developer often carves out parcels that they can get their hands on leaving behind privately owned lots that the individual owner may not want to sell. Our house is part of a subdivision but backs into actual lake front yardage that has always been part of legacy family owned properties who chose to build a cabin or getaway and did not sell to a corporation wanting to build in the hundreds. As such we can see the water through the year but it does not afford actual water access.  That privilege is to our neighbors who still maintain thei

 City by the lakes. Two big ones.  Mendota and Monona. State capital of WI.  Madison.  A school town. Largely just that and seat of government.  The Capitol itself, a 100 some years old sits on a high hill in the middle of an isthmus that separates the two lakes that straddle the land on the north and south ends.  The city is compact otherwise. The Capitol is like many US state buildings a sight to see.  This one claims to have the largest dome by volume among the 50 capitols including the one in DC. Dome is topped by a statue of lady Wisconsin. Her motto 'Forward'.  by day and night It is also a unique design where it has four wings, one each in the primary cardinal directions. One holds the Assembly, another the Senate, one has the Supreme Court and another a hearing hall. All in all it has some pretty impressive stats and features.  Marble from six countries adorns its interior walls as well as featuring a variety of tropical woods and a bell that resembles the Liberty Bell

 I like to wear comfortable clothing based on the climate I am spending time in. It is functional and to a degree soothing to my own eye in terms of its color and assembly. Some might describe the latter as style. Okay so be it. Beyond that to me clothing is not a topic of interest or discussion. Of course affordability of said item is critical but here again the functional aspect manifests. More durable the item the more value I derive from its lifespan spent protecting me from the elements. To a large body of humans that is not as cut and dry. Garments worn take the form of self expression and to a degree help in defining these people. Dress for success is the slogan.  Always wear clothing for who you aspire to be one exhorts. And so on are cliches I have heard growing up and they echo a certain reliance on vanity of the species to make sure you are heard in a crowd. While I might not subscribe to such silliness I do appreciate what the authors of that expression were trying to commu

 As unimaginable it might sound the British are at it again. After a 70 year gap they have the temerity and chutzpah to crown another dude a king of Britannia. Charles went from being in line to the throne - that's right a glorified chair if you ask me - unclear how comfortable this old wooden contraption is given these days you could spend few more shillings and get yourself a NASA developed space age foam padded brand with massagers and what not to make work easier - to being anointed King of England and her territories. But wait. He does not work.  He merely wears a funny hat. That is called a crown. And pretends to have powers. And asks people refer to him as King Charles.  LOL. The spectacle to put him in timeout for a long time on this chair, wearing all manners of weirdo sashes and uncomfortable garbs and garlands must have really tested his 80 year old heart. Then some even more wizened dudes wearing even funnier robes and frocks show up and ask him to hold on to golden spe

 Brands have staying power. Some do. Some not so much. There is even a value assigned to a pop brand (in the case of Coke literally) that is shown on balance sheets as either Goodwill or some such entry that can offset some of that businesses' liabilities. There is yet another wondrous ranking of most valuable brands that some marketing so and so publishes to rank these companies. As one can imagine the top 10 are worth their weight in gold. Or crypto or whatever their worth one wants to measure it in. As of 2022 the collective value of top 100 brands topped out at a cool $3 Trillion.  That is 3,000,000,000,000. The top 10 represent largely well known entities that also happen to command some of the largest market caps and are purveyors of smart technology that runs our daily lives. Some happen to be more pedestrian like Coke and Nike. graphic courtesy Interbrand I got to thinking what life during the prior yugas (aka time periods so vast and prehistoric that no tangible records ex

 Many of the readers of this blog have experienced this. Strange sounding messages popping up in your text or WA or emails all day long from some exotic sounding locale with an out of this world individual looking for love, sex, money or other paraphernalia to get a high. I mean granted that electronic spamming is a low cost enterprise and all but the sheer volumes and the variety in these exhortations is beyond imagination. Having a desire to engage you in some sort of sexual payola or invest in some arcane crypto scheme must be a profound algorithm that someone from Oklahoma to Odessa is cranking on through the night and watching one in a few million fall for. Otherwise this nonsense would not exist I suspect. It would be funny to watch the lifecycle of some such persona that creates said content and that of a prospect for this invite becoming an unwilling or willing participant. Then that whole thing could go on some social channel and earn likes and subscriptions for someone else a

 Of this earth. That is what we say to describe all that we see on the planet.  From cardboard to spaceships to the trash we create to all living beings, flora and fauna on land and sea, we are all part of this very earth. As humans we are but one of millions of species that have come to be around for some time and many more that might come after. But without doubt the most arrogant and self absorbed among all are us humans. It is evident from the fact that we continually seem to analyze the condition of our surroundings and come up with slogans and agendas that indicate we WANT TO SAVE THIS PLANET.  What? Some of us cannot even find our own butthole in a manner of speaking and we have the audacity to think we are going to save this planet?  From what and whom? The planet needs no saving. It frankly does not give a broken red cent to what our existence means. If it so desired it has the ability to get rid of us. But we seem to not dwell on such trivialities. We the greatest race of ape

 Most people imagine a politician as someone who is pursuing it overtly. As in a member of some government whether local or federal. Siding with or authoring some arcane policy and making promises of some sort to placate a demographic he or she believes will ensure their continued success in retaining whatever mantle they hold. Campaigns to boost coffers that ultimately get used to market their value to those that may be in doubt of their imagined prowess; to adverts to attack the opposition are all fair game. But a politician is not just a person in public (dis)service.  Rather they are all over and all around you. If you are a corporate type (cog in a large machine somewhere) you have no doubt seen these kind. At town halls or leadership forums or whatever other jargonified assembly that you might have witnessed. They are C-level execs or middle management. They are always politicking their agenda to ensure they retain the value in the eyes of the beholder. And ideally the beholder p

 I might have waxed poetic on this topic not long ago. Well I figured enough acts of insanity have since taken place on this planet that it warrants revisiting this rather important premise. That of thoughts and prayers. Those that seem inclined to open the gusher of them both and start sending them across the ether to specifically (not sure where) some general affected area around where the insanity or tragedy took place.  Actually with people's geographic sense being what it is I am not sure their target lat/ long are really accurate but we will work on that later.  While also not getting into the exact nature of the thoughts or the prayers has it occurred to anyone that maybe the version that these yokels are employing (for said thoughts et al) is the wrong kind?  I mean the disaster has already struck. Too little too late maybe? Just maybe? Thusly, how about turning a few pages in your thoughtopedia or prayer book and reading some newer edition or version, then post haste sendi

 Named for an erstwhile Governor of Florida a couple centuries ago, Jacksonville was my destination for a work trip for couple days. Situated on the north east corner of the panhandle of Florida state it is the largest city in the state with over 1M residents calling it home and also the largest city by land mass in all the United States. The trip was at the onset of spring and the temps locally were downright balmy to humid at times.  It reminded me of Hawaii with its random showers that punch down to cool the atmosphere a tad then followed by those seaside breezes. The downtown where most of the commercial hub is sits on either shore of the St John's River which has quite a wide swath and criss crossed by about six bridges that I could see.  I was able to walk over the Main Street bridge which is a bascule design that splits open to allow tall sail boats to pass without hitting the deck. The downtown is somewhat compact with increasing gentrification visible as you start walking

 It rained hard past week. Which means the rivers were swollen. Which meant we could drive to see the Reedy river in Greenville in it’s bubbling glory. So we went out west on a fine spring like day - make the most of it. View didn’t disappoint.. Lunch at the bistro overlooking the water was somewhat underwhelming but that wasn’t enough to dissuade us from enjoying the wonderful walk we had.

 Welcome to Germany. When one notices the quirks of or in a region or country compared to what your recent baseline has been, it always give you pause. And so it was with Germany. I have known this about many of the large European states that I had a chance to visit in the past where bathrooms or restrooms or WC as they are called are not available for public for free. Even the ones on public transport vehicles like the ones on the local and express trains in Germany are available to paying customers. And these customers know it. This winter as I traveled on the DB system I saw many of the new set of travelers board at a stop and first make a beeline to the loo. Not having one operational (which I noticed on couple trains -  es ist geschlossen ) got people peeved when they wanted to pee and could not. German efficiency does also break down at times. Most certainly before disembarking the savvy crowd hits the loo on board a train and then leaves at their stop.  Finding a clean loo is no

 1 week trip. Helps to have a direct flight into München or Munich. Capital of state of Bavaria. In the very south of the country.  This was one of those inspired solo wanderings bereft of specific timetables but just enjoying the journey. It did help to have handy tech in the pocket in the form of a DB planner that ran on my iOS enabled phone.  This is an app that is hosted by the national railways in Germany. The railway is branded Deutsche Bundesbahn or German Railway.  A complicated network of rail that supports both passenger and goods traffic over 20,000 miles of track. DB can shuttle people all over the country from its northern fringes by the ocean to the southern borders and lands east and west. Some of its trains run right into neighbor states like Switzerland, Austria and Belgium to name a few. I happened to visit in its south and western borders for the week I spent. Below are some stunning stats to show how quick one can travel with an efficacious transit network. Train mi