Brown Motion

Our child happens to research and write on a variety of subjects of her choosing to participate in speech and debate competitions as part of her curriculum in school. This weekend as with a few in the past was dedicated to her spending time preparing and presenting through a series of elimination rounds to seek the ultimate endorsement from a panel of judges. She did (we think) extremely well, at different venues with a first place win at a renowned national event, more so being an underdog in terms of her naivety to this whole exercise of debating with seasoned students that were coached at fancy academies dedicated to this ancient art form. The other side of this coin is the parent involvement or lack thereof.   As parents we merely provide guidance where she seeks it otherwise relying on her own initiative and drive to engage and pursue this field.  But the contests place an extra burden on students' parents where we are also asked to judge some of the events. As n...

That is what I am turning into.  I cannot stand millenials.  The generation that economists have labeled as ones that are fresh out of college.  Or something close to it. I sat through some workshops cum training a day or two in the past couple weeks to learn about ideas and techniques foreign to me.  e.g. coding in JSON and building a web app to working with concepts like Human Centered Design. I also got inundated with phrases like 'baselining, dashboarding, solutioning'. It basically made me dash to board my bus as a solution to my jargonophobia. These events involved working with or listening to this young breed of employees that have a sense of entitlement that they wear as a mark of honor.   They get hired out of school to work in 'Strategy' and that they think makes them invincible as evidenced by their cocky demeanor.  They do not exhibit the subtle niceties of please and thank you (not all of them but a lot of them) and seem to float in a ...

American businesses especially those that handle or prepare food make it a point to inform their staff through uniquitous signage urging the washing of hands.  Frequently. Cost of doing business can skyrocket if food borne illness is triggered due to unhygenic conditions caused by negligent employees visiting bathrooms for their business and not cleaning up after.  Therefore the signage.  Or employees who might knowingly or unknowingly harbor a pre condition or virus and share it with the guests through food prepared in the kitchen. "All Employees Must Wash Hands" is prominently displayed on the mirrors of the restrooms as an example. Yet in recent memory we had big and small restaurants in the US take it on the chin due to a variety of ills spreading through contaminated food as well as walking pathogen breeding humans that cooked the food or visited the restaurants. Seinfeld once captured this situation in an episode where the pizza maker returns from...

America known for classical marketing techniques, has produced many global brands that people recognize by merely seeing their logos, or familiar colors or other brand attributes without actually having the company name being spelled. Nike, Apple, Starbucks are exemplars of this phenomenon.  Speaking of the latte(r) the brand called Starbucks is now well known across the planet for purveying caffiene in variety of forms often using Itailan sounding names that people consume without thinking.  At least without pausing to consider what a Macchiato or a Cappuccino or a Grande or a Venti means. Starbucks has long known that people psychology can be manipulated using all tools in its box that convey a sense of the exotic and distract the buyer from the price of an item.  Add to it a rewards program that was straightforward until recently and they got them hooked, and craving for a cup.  Now there is a backlash from the loyals.  Apparently they are Venti(ng)....

These days with life at full tilt with lot of meaningless meetings and reports and dashboards and endless traffic and obesity creeping up when least expected and what not, I have been in the habit of emailing myself important reminders and 'To Do' items. That way I can rely on myself to not be stressed out and worry about missing critical appointments or finishing something that has more value long term to me. But realization struck last night as I was dreaming about clipping my big toe nails (I have two big toes hence the plural) that I had forgotten to read all those reminders. Hence a new day is born - a day to focus on responding to my own emails sent to me.  I will work hard this coming weekend to weed through all those reminders some of which with luck might have automatically reached their expiry date e.g. call the roof guy before winter.  This type of message is very favorable in some ways because it ensures that the new date is now next winter. 'Ord...

Ambient was warming as the fog was burning and we timed it well in terms of getting on public transportation to find seats for an hour long ride into San Francisco. It turned out to be a gorgeous day and we with our visitors from out of town revisited parts of the city we did not have an appetite for by ourselves. We started at the Ferry Building and pier 1 on the northeastern corner of the city and went west all the way to see the historic piers that provided home for trade ships over 100 years ago along with some restored hardware. Quite a Parabolic sight - old cargo ship Balacutha in foreground to the Golden Gate Bridge Alcatraz - the rock that is a Tall Sail - or is it? Along the way we also saw the newest addition to the sea faring culture parked at pier 27 that now welcomes large cruisers - over 2,500 of them to go gawk while consuming all day buffets.  The one in the dock belonged to Princess Cruise Lines. We also wandered the birthplace of...

Long lines to see one and get up close and personal.  A Tirupathi Balaji type experience but instead of a darshan of a stone idol of the 'creator of the universe' this one was to witness a Football crafted by Tiffany and Company in Sterling Silver. The Vince Lombardi Championship trophy for excellence in the sport of American Football for 2016.  A team from Denver and a team from Charlotte are vying in a few days (Sunday, Feb 7) to grab it.  A sport so far with an intense national following akin to religion and a day of the week named in its honor. My employer sponsors large sporting events and the NFL's prize championship event called the Super Bowl is no exception when it comes to co-branded advertising.  This year the game came to town.  As in to the San Francisco region and it is the 50th match-up so a Golden Anniversary will be hosted in the Golden State.  Lots of golden banners flying to win the Silver Ball. As an employ...

Now I know even a die hard nicotine addict will find this impossible to do - as in smoke in the mirror.  But when looking at a mirror one hopes to see a reflection or a truism of sorts not smoke.. Reality is often something else than advertised, in many parts of the world and America is no exception. I will cite 3 examples of how bogus the world we live in has become - 1.  General Motors - At one time and for a long time was touted as the world's largest automobile producer.  Fast forward to late 20th century and it had already morphed into a 'General Healthcare enterprise' spending amounts on employee benefits (and their families)  well in excess of what it spent to produce what its moniker said - motor cars.  It ended very badly.  The government had to bail their ass out from bankruptcy proceedings circa 2008 because they became fat, dumb and ill. So a car company can actually become a hospital or healthcare management outfit when no one is payin...