Brown Motion

As January 2014 already goes into the history books I realized that I (along with the known humanity) are that much closer to the oven.  Or box or hole in the ground or wherever your final destination takes you.  The announcement - hope you had a pleasant flight - is not far away. That I did not get to use the dirty yellow cups on strings or assist my fellow passenger to exit the tube was testament to the times I lived in.  Not much reason to do something in an emergency.  Not many emergencies. Inspite of the air bag may not inflate warnings or supplemental restraints that I was ensconsed with but that never came to life, the fact that nothing really got in the way (so far) of my approaching my oven in my own sweet time is good news. Or is it?

These days with GPS as ubiquitous as apple pie (at least for those in the heatland) it is hard to really lose sense of direction - actually its hard to lose oneself direction notwithstanding. For those millenials more importance is attached to One Direction than any other directions whether on behavior modification or actual arrival instructions. Now this directionless banter aside, I got to thinking if there was some significance to the erstwhile notion of describing certain cultures from the Orient vs. the Occident.  If I am Oriented a certain way does it make me less Western?  What if I was in the Orient and wanted to describe the natives - would we then be the Accidental Occidents?  Who decides what the Orient really is?  Same goes for Midwest and Mideast and all points in between - frankly there is no point to this and its best to enjoy the journey than worry about qualifications based on someone's random idea of disorienting the readership. Al...

Not converting to a new religion or anything that dramatic.  Merely an expression to blog the latest lunch episode with colleagues.  We went to a local Korean restaurant.  Why? I am a fan of fermented spicy foods. It was close by. Its better to hear your colleagues over mouthfuls of stuff they may not have tasted before and see them embarassed with the flying sauce drops and chopstick trickery than talk business strategy. Someone picked the place for me. Someone drove me there. We settled in and ordered the food, which I found was mediocre but the service was friendly - it usually is if there is a large group because the owner sees a chance to cross sell and up sell easier than if its a loner that looked like he came in due to lack of options. As expected some of us were suitably impressed or not with the fare but then there was an assortment of folks going red in the face, Kimchi what? Some were still trying to figure out what meat he said was on th...

Having returned from the roaring version (the latitudes in the southern hemisphere) recently  I find myself at a crossroads.  In terms of my present life spent on the planet as measured in years and if there is anything remotely roaring about that.  Not quite a mid life crisis it is a time to ponder what was but I have concluded /decided to focus on what could be.. Coincidentally happened on a couple of movies recently that shed some perspective on this very situation - in a kinda sorta way.. One from Hollywood called 'This is 40' starring Paul Rudd (who I recently became acquainted with - in some other role and who is one of the protagonist in the said title) with some woman who I have never seen before but played her part well of a vain somewhat spoilt mother of two (and happens to be the real life wife of the director - who I suspect also threw in his kids in a kid role to save dineros).  My fave (one of) comedian, Albert Brooks lent a nice supporting cas...

Because the identity thieves had an identity crisis? Because they wanted to try to be the ones going bankrupt? Because they could not find publicity in Russia?  Snowden beat them to it? Because there is no Target in Russia? Because Walmart sucks? Because some vested interests could make a better lock? Because there is no vaccine for a Hack Attack?  OR Heart Attacks are passe? Any other theories?

Or an insect or a toad?  You get the idea.  I am simply putting things into prespective and comparing our species and what it has done in the millenia that it has occupied the planet.  Or in a different frame of reference was Raja Harischandra depressed without an iPad?  Or was Henry the VIII losing it in the absence of Twitter? We have for one convinced ourselves that we are the most superior of living things that existed. We have gone to lengths to continuously educate ourselves that consuming more is good.  And inventing new things to consume is better. We have killed for everything from spices to metals to women to pieces of paper or just because of a belief that we are guided by an unknown entity in doing so. We continue to be paranoid that the others of our species are out to destroy us. We continue to destroy ourselves through use of cornucopia of chemicals natural and man made and strive to find other ways to hasten the process. We add m...

From the local flightless purple swamp hen to the frisky and naughty parrots there is an abundance of wings on the islands.. Here are some that crossed our path.. some were domestic (grounded flights) and some (species) were international like the Starlings..    

These days its all about the next idevice. Have you noticed?  No more Michaels or Angelos or Bernini or Picasso. What is happening is all the marble is going to fancy gourmet kitchen counters and islands or foyers or bathrooms and there is no more left for scultping.  Or is it that there is no more space left to sculpt? I would highly encourage an enterprising soul to go to Australia, specifically the Null Arbor plain and find himself a rock to work on.  There is space.  It is indeed amazing to see that people used to carve patiently or paint at leisure and produce works of art that we have to pay good money to go gape at when today there is simply no desire to pursue this hobby. I mean there are some modernists who will crank out an occasional frame or a skyscraper or bridge but what happened to the relative preponderance of statues and fountains that used to crop up when Ceaser and Napolean were walking about? Now more attention goes to scu...

Pretend I am a fancy Harvard grad (with an impossible to pronounce last name) associated with a think tank (not tanked thinking) based in Washington.  Therefore I am about to postulate a lot of mumbo jumbo but this might just be true. As I was doing my usual inane driving to work I got to thinking of how many people were being transported from point A to B to C and beyond (if they were not paying attention...) on American highways as compared to a recent trip to the isles of New Zealand where a four car sighting is cause for concern - is that a traffic jam?  Also posted road speeds in aggregate are much lower in New Zealand (perhaps a sentiment shared by their airports where if you show up couple hours ahead of your flight the monitor display actually says 'RELAX' for flight status) compared to the American highways. So going back to the thinking - I get to run through the many roadway experiences in different places I have had the fortune to visit and it points to ...

The title is cryptic by all means to a large % of population since it is a unique event or occurence that only certain folks in a certain zip code or two might witness if the lunar alignments are right.  This winter as the Indian diaspora celebrated Navratri (nine nights per prescription) in the bay area - one of many good over evil celebratory events in the Indian mythic calendar - I also saw a possible attendee of said event at a local Costco.  She was in a garb called Nauvari sadi or a nine-yard multi colored piece of fabric draped over her frame waddling amidst the crowds, following her offspring that had setup shop to sell software for a local employer. Whilst she gaped at the warehouse wonders of modern day America she failed to see a large native in a Forty Niner jersey officially called a Niner fan ram into her as he tugged a large bag of hamburger buns and beer bottles for a late night event somewhere.  Both then repeatedly gaped at each other to co...

First we met Mitre (5,000 feet tall peak) at the Milford.  Sound that is.  Created by a Fjord many moons ago.  One of the many sounds along the Tasman sea where it enters into the valleys left behind by glacial activity. Mitre Peak in the entrance to the Sound A quick shower on the way back to the docks was just what the doc ordered... many waterfalls make an appearance from the slopes as the boat cruises the sound.. Also on the south island one trip we went past Mount Cook the tallest mount in the country.  At 12,300 feet Aoraki as the locals would have called it sits just east of the Tasman Sea part of the Southern Alpine chain of mounts.  Here is what it looked like on a particularly balmy summer day.  Its in the distance past the Lupens and the lake in the foreground. Up close it looked like this.. Or like this where Sir Edmund practiced before his epic Everest expedition... above pic is at the visitor center where they show fil...

As the intercity buses, coastal trains and inter island boats plied we got off and trekked and hiked too.  Here are a few samples of what we gaped at, dipped in, slid over to emerge 10 pounds heavier than how we left .. Hopefully the balance of earth has not tilted. Above is a view of Lake Taupo - the largest lake in NZ.  In the far distance to the right is Mt. Ruapehu that last erupted in 2007. Few views of the Waikato River as it rushes to Huka Falls (above) Much of the Maori names remind me of some Indian Epic - I bet there are some rivers that ran deep! Waka is a boat - this one is a big one that hauls people, livestock, trucks for the livestock and cars for the people - the only link between North and South Prized meat or wool..baaa

It is quite a task to curate and select what to share with others when you think there was just this overwhelming abundance of sensory delights. So I will try to do justice and share vistas nature created both large scale and small, wild and domesticated life, then some of man's creations some edible and some not to add to the kaleidoscope that was the islands of New Zealand. Tropical Bottlebrush also called New Zealand's Christmas tree as these bloom in summer when NZ celebrates its Xmas.  Quite spectacular and seen in all parts - this specimen was in front of the government buildings in capital city of Wellington. Taking Terns at the sunny rock Zollywood fans rejoice - none in our family was particularly keen to see any of the Hobbits so we stuck to what was freely visible aka humans Lot of places have LOTR messaging so that you do the right thing and buy some of the magic in a bottle or a shirt or something... Local 'May I help you' comes in the f...