Brown Motion

A lot of weight is attached to the terms 'Pass' or 'Fail' in today's society.  Has been for a while.  But truly it is in the eye of the beholder.  Or rather what one makes of the sticker that society attaches to that someone. There are examples of what one might view as a Pass or Win which may be something else when you look closely.  For example history suggests that a  Pyrrhic victory  is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.  That was during Roman times. Today you see these battles fought out in divorce dramas, stock market collapses and government bailouts. But wait.  You also see irony in more immediate surroundings. Example - When someone's heart FAILS they PASS.  To some other world I am told. But on the other hand when someone Passes (Gas) they are considered by Society a Fail (esp when said gas is passed in society). Was this blog a pass or fail?

Prior to our recent trip to Japan I had gotten enamored with the food from that land.  All manners of noodles, fried preparations refered to as Tempura and of course Sushi.  A term generically used to signify a whole plethora of items that have vinegared rice as a common ingredient.  Many contain fish as the next most abundant inclusion and the rolls that are crafted from it are a treat. Japan offered an exclusive variety that was always fresh in taste and ubiquitous from train stations to tourist sites ensuring I was adequately nourished. I recently discovered an 'all you can stuff' in one sitting type of place in Foster City (which is on the peninsula of the bay area).  Typically I am wary of such invites since the food is mass produced and sits there depending on whether someone actually consumes it or not. This place is different.  It asks the guest to limit their selection to four rolls per person and then proceeds to make the rolls fresh with...

If you work in a corporation of some size you know the meaningless banter officers and executives of these companies are always spouting. One of them has to do with holes or specifically the 'going in' aspect of them.  Oft you hear someone say sagely 'let us not go down that rabbit hole'.  Often the type of critter is changed to Worm or Rat. The admonition to not go where no man might have gone before suggests the opposite.  Many among us must have had the unique insight of having been into one of these orifices is it not? To those that did I ask - what is it that draws otherwise normal mortals to visit said hole?  What after visiting it did they find?  The ones urging the others at the table to not visit must have a bias against that visit.  What kind of bias is that? After not going into the hole it is often the conclusion of the same sages that the matter needs to be tabled.  Which table is the tabling being done?  If many a thing in t...

The Centers for Disease Control or CDC has shut down.  CDC was a federal government funded body tasked with researching causes of disease and develop means and ways to control or eradicate the same in the interest of public health. It is a headline I am waiting to see any day now.  What with so many things going viral these days there is just no way to control the outbreak and no dollars to fund the research. Most viral situations these days are directly attributable to a bored public that has experienced never before seen levels of psychosomatic disorders. As early as 10 years ago people did not know of social media and tended to be social on occasion.  Now that social has taken on its own space in society there has been a mass diarrhea of opinions and videos and banter that is simply hard to fathom and speaks volumes of the decaying human brain. From breast feeding moms to space suit wearing grannies to four legged pets of various size, color and...

I have decided it is time to take self admiration to a whole new level.  After all living in Silicon Valley it is how you see yourself that sells oneself. Some of the retarded philosophies I have heard and seen to date include - Liking yourself on Fakebook and other social formats. Having your spouse exclaim that you are hot or looking hot or that by boiling an egg you are so close to achieving a PhD in thermodynamics. Having your spouse that lives with you also make some obvious and not so obvious comments about yourself (like how he/she has put up with you for over eight years of marriage even with the daily dose of farts) that might give the average fakebooker an impression that there is something really cool about yourself that was hitherto unknown to the world.  Like being almost close to obtaining a degree in thermodynamics. Get recommendations and made up felicitations on other social sites from random colleagues by returning their favor even if you forgot whe...

I was staring at the sun today.  It shone after what appeared to be a drizzle.  Why stare at the sun you ask?  It was looking hot. I spent walking my grocer's dairy aisle longer than needed -to be cool. I have a red eye - literally - it is allergy season - hope it is not pink eye.  Better than a black eye. I have noticed couples announce their 'quiet weekend to ourselves' on a social site.  I think they are trying to brag how they scored a nanny for their errant offsprings. Some people who are broke and getting married a third time will spend thousands on a wedding photographer because its a special day. Walk in walk out coffee shops now have tip jars.  Would beggars also carry a separate tip jar for being courteous when begging?  Drop your hard earned cash on my mat so I can continue to laze on my sorry ass.  And oh before you go feel free to tip what you might feel like in this other can. After all I am a vet(eran at this game) - not jus...

Okay so on this allergy inducing Sunday I thought to myself of all the things that drive me nuts.  Here is a sampling - Allergies - Any kind, but mostly those that cause me physical or mental discomfort.  Pollen, pet dander, stupid people etc. are main culprits in no particular order.  Pointless having them in the atmosphere but I guess unless we find a way to pollinate for the survival of the species the tree huggers are gonna want it. Adults who organize surprise parties for other adults - I am not sure if this is a bay area disease but I am often informed of ridiculous events like a spouse organizing a surprise birthday party for their other half.  I mean what sort of mental defective does not know a party is being planned under their own nose?  Got to be some allergy that chokes the nose to not know that?  And they don't just organize it but 'throw it'.  The attending sycophants yam about this event by describing how so and so threw this surp...

In Oakland.  Not exactly the type of town we would venture into.  Largely because of the cliches and the news about what goes on there.  There are some parts one could wander into and not return or so we thought.  It is true in part. But today with our offspring off at a competition the Saturday lay before us like a large chasm waiting to be filled.  With something.  So the better half and I decided to loiter in Oakland.  No particular plan but hit a few things we had heard in passing mentions as a must see. Why not?  So we went to Lake Merritt.  Named for a former surgeon and one time mayor of the City of Oakland circa early 19th century.  He cleaned up what was once a sewer for the city and created a space that now houses a man made lake with drainage to the bay. Gazebo at the north end of the lake The circumference we googled was 3.5 miles which was an important metric before deciding to leave the safety of the automobile o...

'In n Out' is a burger chain in America.  A burger is a meat patty so formed by using raw shredded or ground cow (usually) mixed with binding agents and spices.  This then is grilled or heated via some mechanism and presented betwixt two round buns with or without other accouterments like onion, tomato, lettuce and a sauce. The point of this is that the size of said food item has grown as the calories provided by it.  America you see has been growing.  In terms of every conceivable metric - from GDP to population to national debt to the size of its citizens.  The latter can be explained by another variable that has seen dramatic rise - Greed.  For anything. Everything. That includes food. Thusly the size of donuts and bagels and beef patties.  The carts used in the store to pick up these items.   Also larger.  The cars needed to haul this loot home - you guessed it - gargantuan.  The garages and the homes to house the loot and the l...

Woman dies after plane makes emergency landing - The woman in question was found dead on a sofa in her home when she was half way through a 8 oz bag of Cheetos.  Cause determined by the ME office was cardiac arrest.  The emergency landing of the plane seems to have taken place about the same time in a town 20 miles from the sofa where she died.  Investigators are still putting the exact timeline together to see if the landing took place before or after she consumed the fateful Cheeto.  Current Vegas bets are on 'after landing'. Mercury to pass in front of Sun in a rare event - Apparently the event will be so rare that most folks on earth might likely not even see it.  Some will be in the dark - literally and for some the weather may not cooperate but the public is encouraged to believe in all the astronomical claims made by their tax dollar supported space exploration organization. Rain dampens opening of farmers market - The rain which viewers claim...

There is so much BS in the world we live in yet we seem to be perfectly at peace paying many among us for propogating it and taking up our time in doing so. I vote that we start a movement to get rid of these dimwits.  In no particular order are my candidates for instant firing - Weather men and women - Here is a class of idiots that are trained at an early age to say three words - Live Doppler Radar, while simultaneously waving both their arms in a general counterclockwise direction.  Every so often they are allowed to rotate them in a clockwise direction.  They know not what they speak of and use vocabulary that is meant to confuse.  Take for instance the use of 'on shore flow' and 'off shore flow'.  WTF?  Air moves - we know that.  What is this jargon?  I never to this day know the meaning of those two phrases.  This is one class of losers who get to wear a suit for always being wrong. Politicians in all disciplines and levels of g...

I like Albert Brooks.  The actor, comedian, producer, director, whatever.  I first saw him in a very funny movie called 'Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World'.  It is a fantastic satire on the excesses and vulgar spend of large corporations or governments that only spend to create an aura of being focused on important strategic matters while basically wasting money on something pathetic. The film has scenes that portray in a not so subtle way how meaningless reports that may sound all too important are just that, meaningless; no matter how much effort some minions may have spent to create it. Albert Brooks was born Albert Einstein and famously quipped that the real Einstein likely changed his last name to sound important.  His comedy is sometimes masked, random, and seems like a throwaway but its there if you don't look quick. I am waiting to see an older film he did with Meryl Streep called 'Defending your life'.  Its premise is classic Brooks where he...

An African American man has made a riveting movie about black culture in America.   Born out of the ghetto that is Compton, CA (a burb of the City of Angels) circa 1980s it is the portrayal of a marginalized and maligned race that fights for what is theirs. The story is a biopic of the rap group NWA (niggers with attitude) that gave rise to the likes of Dr. Dre (who sold his Beats headphone brand to Apple for $3B) and Ice Cube, a famous Hollywood actor, producer but foremost a music maker in his own right. It traces the origin of Rap and Hip Hop as a form of musical expression of a hard life lived.  It also puts the realities of fighting for survival in your face where the value of individual life is not held sacrosanct but is lived to its fullest on a daily basis like it was your last. It portrays some of the struggles and challenges of going from a street tough's life to that of national fame and wealth.  The mistakes one might make without a formal education and...

Maggi.  A household brand in India all across the sub-continent.  For decades.  Nestle, the parent company that owns the brand it bought from Mr. Maggi of Switzerland years ago could not be prouder and richer for it. But back in the summer of 2014 something happened that today has become a case study for B-schools.  On how to or not to handle a public relations nightmare. Some government servant tasked with testing packaged goods in Delhi picked up a few samples from a store and sent them for testing at a government lab that may or may not have the cleanest and up to date test equipment.  The test came back showing higher than prescribed level of MSG and lead. It led to a back and forth between the righteous Swiss claiming superior process and technology that vouched for its product quality and the Indian babu bureaucracy with a hitherto unknown motive to lambast the gora gang of selling sub-standard food products to a third world nation. This argument ...

Dentist Whatley to Dalton Trumbo.  Okay let me explain.  One of my favorite comedy sitcoms was a show called Seinfeld in the early nineties (which I consumed through the early aughts).   A character on that show was the protagonist's dentist called Doc Whatley played by Bryan Cranston.  Bryan also plays the lead role as Dalton Trumbo in the biographical movie by that name.  More than two decades since that side role Cranston has dominated the screen in this biopic of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. The story tells of the time when Trumbo and another nine screenplay writers were blacklisted as Communist agitators by the local film making community and therefore treated as second class citizens.  It is an interesting time in American history where this sort of segregation in Hollywood drew some strong sentiment 'for' and 'against' the 10. It is a story of character, family, morality and persistence all in one.  Trumbo's family supports his rights to exp...

Yes the book title 'Sapiens'.  Not for the species per se.  I am almost half way through this 500 pager non-fiction narrative arcing from the big bang to the present day human that has tantalized the reader (me) about a glimpse into how we might spend time in the future. Author Harari is an astute student of many disciplines, including history and anthropology and physics and chemistry and brings what he has learned to bear in trying to provoke the reader to ponder a while.   Ponder about their existence on the planet and if we individually know whether we are making a difference in this world or are merely consuming the resources around us.  While I can vouch for the latter I think (barring the effort with my spouse to send an educated and thoughtful child in the world who might accomplish the former) there are those that are consuming while being oblivious to the facts that surround us.  That is the danger category.  An interesting facet in his think...

There are a number of news stories these days where conversation inevitably turns to discussing some sort of GAP - Gap between rich and poor is growing Gap is losing market share to other clothiers The Dow is Gapping Down (so is the NASDAQ) and the dollar is Gapping Up The guy who advised British public over the PA on dangers of tube travel with the phrase 'MIND THE GAP' has died There is a frightening Gap between our Debts and Savings Gap between Executive pay and Average worker salary is at an all time high All I am doing is listening to all this unfold with my mouth aGAPe. What me worry?

No this is not about the clothing retailer or hoodies.  Rather it is about the CEO types 'stepping down'.  There has been a lot of that lately.  Have you noticed?  Presidents and CEOs of corporations large and small, University Provosts and Deans, of course a number of 'fatherly' figures, comedians,  eminent scientists and the like, the list goes on. And this is not some some stool or ladder they got tired of standing on.  Oh no.  This is a reaction to an allegation or evidence of impropriety they exhibited while holding that eminent position or office. So let me explain what sexual mischief or adultery while in office (or out) has to do with GAAP.  For the uninitiated the GAAP stands for 'Generally Accepted Accounting Principles' and refers to a body of work that a bunch of CPA types put together as a guide for how a business should compile its financial statements. This information is made public to the shareholders of a going concern to ...

As the confusing American election process comes to a head into the end of 2016, it will be the first time a black man will have commandeered (he is called Commander-in-Chief) a predominantly white nation in its 240 year history, for eight consecutive years. That in and of itself is not a marker for anything other than a collective agreement that leadership, empathy and qualities that defined America at one point in history could be found in a person of any color and background.  As the latest installment to anoint a leader of these United States gets played, it is becoming apparent that the gender of the leader also might (not) be a deciding factor, after all. I am not of the camp that goes overboard with leader worship calling the US President the leader of the free world because it is factually wrong, arrogant at best and belligerent at worst.  Suffice to say the policies and behavior of America in a post WWII era has been that of bootstrapping its own economy, driving...