Brown Motion

Owning real property is fraught with pluses and minuses.  I guess one cannot be fraught with pluses so let us say there are pluses and minuses to this endeavor.  Of owning.  Parcels. As in a home. Of the minuses is notices that your city sends you - more like missives - that alert you to sudden tax increases and obligations for which your reaction generally tends to be a shrug. Not a happy shrug more like - oh heck - what am I going to do with this?  They figured it out so it must be right.  Not really.  Being dismissive is to your own detriment to an extent in that you never know how any cost basis was derived and whether it is truly applicable to you. Largely things are transparent (better than third world countries) but due diligence can help.  I tried to do it by attending the City Council meeting for which an invite was included in said missive. It had an agenda item wherein the citizenry could ask questions surrounding this mystery t...

A selfie stick that is.  Another supposedly great idea to help with taking pictures where no man could go before, it has morphed into a safety hazard.  On our recent excursion into the Sierra wilderness we encountered these hoards of teenager zombies that were intent on capturing their grins amidst the verdant canyons.  Perched on ledges or rock precipices they were not only risking their own life and limb in so doing they also started blocking traffic with this cane like object protruding at weird angles in the path where others tried to tread. If there was an invention to aid in self admiration since the mirror, it has to be this telescoping stick that can hold a cell phone that allows to take pictures of the stick owner- specifically with backdrops that vary depending on how insane you are.  Instant sharing of the same follows with the chick finding app now popular across 1.5 billion citizens.  Vanity thy name is humanity. Some were newbies to the whole s...

This Memorial Day Holiday we took to the mountains - again.  We visited two most amazing pieces of real estate that are managed and maintained by the US Department of Interior - the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Both parks are located around 150 miles due south / south-east of the SF Bay Area and reside amidst the southern flanks of the Sierra Nevada mountains. As parks go these amazing stores of information and beauty are all over the United States and California has a large share of them.  We visited Kings Canyon first and Sequoia NP the following day. Kings River and South Fork merge in the valley in Kings Canyon NP Entering Sequoia NP   As one of the plaques noted (image below) it certainly is a treat to simply visit with nature and gape.  As an aside I find that the word Sequoia (named for a Cherokee Indian credited with defining a written language) is fascinating in that it contains all vowels and is only ...

My employer sponsors various Employee Groups that are aligned to a certain ethnicity or heritage.  I am a member of all the various geographic representatives because I find that by attending these events I get a sip of cocktails of culture right in one place adding to my mental trivia of things, cultures, history, foods. One of these entities represents the Asian region and Pacific Rim countries.  Last night was a celebration of the companies that participated in the Chinese New Year Parade of 2015.  Celebration was a dinner invitation in China Town for members of all financial sponsors of the parade.  The event was hosted by the Bay Area Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Getting into SF's China town from any points outside of it is an exercise itself.  Esp if you are walking it.  It sits on a hill in the middle of the city where locals (who want their choice Durian) and foreign yokels (who come to gape at so many red lanterns in one place... and ...

That is three days of my life spent at a Loyalty conference in muggy Orlando this April.  Loyalty - as in the stickiness a consumer builds towards a brand not much different than a dog that follows his owner around. So it was with the onset of the dog days of summer that I had an opportunity to attend and listen in on what the smart marketers of this world are thinking.  What new bottles (in a manner of speaking) are they filling this time?  Venue was a Polynesian themed resort smack dab in the middle of Universal Studios.  Faux Hathi and suggestions to recline (the humidity seriously makes you want to take lot of naps) Well it turns out that Gamification as a way to engage audiences to spend more is big.  That is the art and science of conning them to use their gadgets to earn virtual badges and stars so that they feel they are part of a game (in which they are getting duped but never realize) and continue to open their wallet for mo of the same....