Brown Motion

2020. Welcome to the newest year.  Since hindsight had the unique distinction of being 2020 it stands to reason that people will be very judicious this year and exhibit foresight that equals hindsight. No more oh no decisions. Everyone will make money in stocks.  Or no one will lose any. No accidents. No drunk driving. No stupidity. No dumb facebook posts. No weirdo pictures. No insider trading. No outsider groping. Eh? But if they get drunk while still in 2019 will they all wake up with a hangover in 2020?  Does the put a kibosh on the 2020 plans?  Only in hindsight can we tell.

Vexing. Unlike Sell by Dates on egg cartons and milk, do we have a guideline for when something that is labeled new is not new anymore? You could buy a fancy purse from a fancy store for the price of a small sedan and wander off hoity toity.   Get oodles of ahh and likes from Insta and FB. And then at some point that new purse becomes old. When does this transition occur?  Is there a date like the equinox or the solstice? It is even more perturbing when it comes to man made stuff that is completely fanciful. Like Happy New Year. What?  That is so completely vague that I do not know where to begin.  It is one of the top all time meaningless comments in my book.  I am guilty of wishing people back when they do me.  All the times I do it I am very unsettled because I know not what it means. Saying things without knowing its meaning has become a norm in society. Does the year become old at some point?  In which case were your wishes a...

This thanksgiving I was surprised to see that the local grocery store was offering freshest turkey money can buy. Sidewalk to table in five minutes. Can't beat that.. Also the sign on the inbound door refers to - Conveniently Delivered... looks like they mean it. Unless these two guys were stopping by for some Starbucks peppermint mocha?

Businesses throw a holiday bash for their employees come Christmas time.  It is tradition that exists in corporations of all size across America.  Time to tell your peeps that they deserve to stretch out and have booze on the company's dime.  This once. So it was with my employer that hosted its annual event in a contemporary art museum in the city. The rains were upon us so it was a mist covered evening as I stepped out of the BART (our local transit with a meager 40 miles of operable track) to make my way to the festivities. Not sure if any arriving attendees (many from work) were high strung that night but some of the hosts assigned to drink duty were.  Literally.  The audience was greeted with two acrobats in mid air wrapped in silk scarves dangling from the ceiling.  And they had champagne bottles in their hand whereupon they attempted to pour some of it out to passerbys below. It was a spectacle.  Not being a fan of the bubbly mys...

How much a Stanford grad made for selling a brand called Insta to a Harvard dropout. 5 round trips to our Sun in miles. 13% of humans alive on this planet. Population of India  Population of China 3 times the population of America Half of America's land mass in acres Net worth of a 22 year old woman milking people's vanity vulnerability using brands like Insta and Ulta.

Traveling outside of east bay in San Francisco you can be in farm country in no time.  But Sikh farming communities?  Yes indeed. The San Joaquin valley, a stretch of around 150 miles between Sacramento to the north and Fresno down south is prime farming country.  Largely almonds, grape vines to yield raisins, and olive is grown here. Due to historic migrations over the last few decades the Sikh faith from India by way of Canada as well as direct migration came and settled here. The climate is similar to their native Punjab (region where the Sikhs predominantly live in India) and they took to what they know best - farming.  Since then they have moved up in the supply chain by growing, harvesting, transporting and cooking the foods they produce.  Sikhs in America own among other businesses trucking companies, truck stops, restaurants and of course acres of farms. As a result the land is filled with everything from Gurudwaras (temple for their faith), to ea...

After the Israeli historian Harari educated us about our species and its origins in easy to read manner earlier this decade, a Brit followed up with a hilarious portrait of our uncanny ability to cock things up. Humans - brief history of how we fucked it all up -  is a 2019 attempt by British journalist and storyteller Tom Phillips to lay bare the truth that we are not all that smart as cracked up to be. Starting with a condensed table of contents that describes an ape falling off a tree 3.2 M years ago after probably jerking off and dying, the species went on to get to present state aka Wise Man (leaving that moniker in doubt) or Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Contrast Yuval Harari's detailed investigations of historic records and some eye opening data points to Phillips' easy going hilarity, the latter was quite an entertaining read. Indeed we as a species still deal with the consequences of what we now see in the rearview mirror of history.  Discovering agriculture, gasolin...

A children's marching band song that is somehow stuck in my head. I have no idea what the words mean but the tune is catchy.  Recently when I read Rihanna was peddling knickers, I somehow thought that she must have a knack for knickers and the tune kept playing in my head.  If that is not whacky what is? What it also tells me is that America is truly land of opportunity for anyone willing to hustle.  A girl from Barbados who allegedly suffered abuse can go from being no one to a pop star and then turn her charisma to selling unrelated goods. There are many such successful business people in America but when I compare to my land of birth aka India, I cannot think of comparable marketers.  I mean if Asha Bhosale or equivalent singer in India started selling their own brand of underwear it would cause a national uproar or even riots. Can you imagine Aishwarya trying to twerk or a Priyanka selling her own brand of Chopra cosmetics?  But it is possible for K...

A book written merely a decade ago - very relevant if you are a parent and want the very best for your child.  Very relevant if you are simply wanting to figure out what to do that might make you happy.  The title 'The Element' refers to the state where every person trying to find what makes them perform their very best, ideally finds themselves in. A race car driver performing on the track, a ballet dancer on stage or a carpenter in his natural element selecting his wood and working with the grain they all can be extremely accomplished and fulfilled if they are in fact in their element. This thesis is also a rant against what our current educational system has become, a ritualistic and mechanised assembly line of students who are forced into conformity and assessed in their capabilities as a result of standardized tests that measure nothing more than the ability of the parent to fork out large sums of money. This is somewhat in contrast to another book I read in parall...

The internet is a wonderful thing.  So is curiosity.  Put two and three together and sometimes you get more than six. I stumbled upon a lot of interesting people and facts simply reading about a subject online.  Only to later discover that I could actually land a book about that subject at the local library. So it was I discovered a Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos (pronounced Air Dash).  Someone who learned about negative numbers at age three, did not ever cook in his lifetime or learn how to tie his shoes till age 11, he was an odd specimen that graced this earth. I recently read a biography about Erdos titled, 'The man who loved only numbers' by Paul Hoffman.  Born to a set of Jewish math teachers, Paul lived the life of a monk in the pursuit of mathematical truth. After reading the book I am still trying to decipher what I had just read and how this amazing mind was able to see what others could not see.  Similar mind bending ideas came to lo...

Would you like to have a chair? That is what Jason Alexander's character made famous in the Seinfeld sitcom asks a security guard at a clothing store.  Does not turn out well for the clothing store.  Guard promptly falls asleep in his newfound sitting appliance and the store gets robbed. Well guess what?  A national grocery chain got sued by one of its cashiers for not offering them a chair to sit on during their cashiering hours.  It is hard on them feet.  Standing and sliding meatloafs, beer bottles and baguettes across the glass reader for five hours straight. I think I can understand that.  I am not sure what the disconnect was in the first place.  A cashier is unlikely to fall asleep with a customer standing in front of them, even if the former was sitting down. Now mind you this goes against what some in corporations across the globe are demanding.  A sit stand desk for all those folks tapping away at computer keyboards.  Reaso...

California.  Land of dreams. Sunshine, Sand and Surf.  Add a smattering of palms to date - eat em or just have one under its shade, and all the botox money can buy to help the stars shine in Hollywood. Land of innovations from putting a computer in your pocket to having a chariot show up on demand and drive without a driver, to finding any piece of information with a voice command, it is everything a marketing postcard might have and then some. Majestic vistas from close to 15,000 feet to hundreds of feet below in a deathly valley in a matter of minutes, snow in season to waves year round.  Can it get any better? It could get worse.  From our politics to our reality check of unintended consequences to the homeless crisis and crap on the street we have of course many faults.  Bribing colleges for admissions (that sent some stars to temporarily set) to cutting off recycling stations; poor infrastructure coupled with gross mismanagement of capex are all but ...

We knew about normal.  And abnormal.  Normally.  But a new contender to the normal has emerged in the past few years.  Ergo the New Normal. What is it?  It is not abnormal.  What you ask? Trumpeting egos. Global Warming.  Or the human ability to figure out that the globe is warming. Quick buck replaced by Unicorns. Drug epidemic. And not just the narcotic kind. Factory grown food. Obesity. Instant attention replaces old fashioned vanity. Digital friends. 24x7x365. Talking assistants powered by a cloud based superpower. Stress.  Lots of it.  As a result of all of the above. Finally, artificial intelligence since clearly the natural kind is dwindling.

I got to thinking of all the ways American English has evolved.  Current use depending on the user provides ample anecdotal evidence of cliches and verbiage being used with no thought given to said cliche's origins or propriety or relevance to time.  It is a hoot. A recent planned power outage hilarity that ensued in Northern California (more on the topic itself in another blog) led to multiple communication experts chiming in with the play by play. Here we go with the idiom(t)s including yours truly. 'Play by play' is clearly a sport term from the days when people listened to an antiquated device called a Radio. It is aimed at providing the listener a perspective that they would miss not being at the scene of the play.  Local and even international TV channels, Radio (that works when American's drive in their car), Social Media apps (when Americans look at their cell phone when driving their car) and other broadcasts flooded the market. For the people at home ...

Many a story bemoans how half the American public cannot put enough coin together today if faced with an emergency exceeding $400. Sounds downright scary?  It is.  For a rich country and by its own marketing the largest superpower in the world, this glaring stat reads incongruent with what might appear logical. Here is my personal take on where the train went off the rails.  Behaviors manipulated by media and marketing observed in everyday life reveal some obvious scams designed to sell/buy more than one might afford or need - Sense of entitlement (among variety of demographic) - wanting things one cannot afford but lets buyer look Insta worthy Retail Therapy - that shopping is sold alongside the myriad cocktails of legal drugs to the unsuspecting and uneducated masses as being therapeutic - really? Buy bigger - brands from large home improvement stores to auto companies actually touting the notion that bigger is better flies in the face of talk show hosts ...

Initial Public Offering.  A way for new businesses to raise capital.  Legit by all the laws of the land.  Done to death. Yet we get a bunch of surprises each year when these so called entrepreneurs attempt to convince the public to invest in their dreams. Recent history would suggest the irony and the bizarre nature of how the broader market evaluates the worth of any business. WeWork - a business founded on the idea of leasing or buying large square footage in busy metros and then renting it out for hefty premiums to other businesses with 'just in time' or 'temporary work space' needs.   This concept garnered ridiculous amount of excitement from the bankers who touted it as yet another unicorn (more on this later).  Turns out the idea of WeWork being workable was flawed.  At least in terms of its valuation.  Revenue models were broken, but marketed as gravy by Ivy league types working for large brands on wall street.  Someone figure...

Trying something new is the spice of life.  Heck - no spice no life. So this weekend I got to explore a few new things.  And I must say I hit four for four on it. I like to take transit into the city to check out spots to take pictures. SF can offer that if you have the patience and temperament for it. China town in the heart of the city bordering the financial district gives an opportunity to photograph a civilization calling another continent their home.  One of the larger expat communities of Chinese, the SF locale is bustling with fruit and veg vendors along with smells of fresh dim sum.  This picture is of the edge of the financial district showing the now for sale Transamerica pyramid.  I traveled a new Muni Route and got rewarded for it. Sharp lines in the building hardware are broken by smiling 20 year old mural hiding in the shadows as I snapped it traveling down Stockton Street that runs south from North beach. Then it was back in my ho...

These days it is amazing what Wall Street hustle can produce.  Today a stationary cycle company called Peloton (meaning a group of cyclists in a race) hit the stock market in debut trading and attained a valuation (or market cap) of $7.5B ... Put that in perspective it is 20% the market cap of Ford Motor company.  Imagine that. For little over a million people who own this so called stationary bike the confusing world of valuations believes that they are worth a fifth the value of Ford Motor that has been moving people all over the world for the past 100+ years. Dang.  Henry what were you (not) thinking back then? LOL. The world today is made of whatever pipe dream you can sell to consumers of all kinds.  Whether it is to those that are vain and will pay up for any trick that promises instant weight loss and a jealousy inducing gram on Insta to those salivating on the idea of making quick bucks trading anything that IPOs on the exchange. I for one am clu...

A chip off the old block.  That is what people knew.  Like father like son et al. Nowadays there is a race to create a better chip. Latest buzz surrounds China's entry into artificial intelligence market by announcing their own chip. I saw what ho. I am introducing my very own chip made of pure fat and sugars which will make me guess what- naturally intelligent. Besides it tastes real good. I can make them in the millions.  And they are healthy for you.  I can make them lactose free, gluten free, and more importantly Made in the USA. Come one come all and try my new chip - for natural intelligence like you have never seen before.

Corporations entertain their staff in various ways to harness loyalty towards the company.  My employer recently raffled tickets to attend a Football game in our area between the SF 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers. I got lucky and won a spot to attend.  Not just a ticket to the game but to be part of something special.  Many companies rent out large lounge areas with some of the best viewing in the house to host client get togethers as well as employee morale build events.  My employer, as one of the marquee sponsors of the NFL franchise has a suite in the stadium.  This being the relatively new Levi's stadium in Santa Clara. I got to it by driving to a local park and ride and then riding in on a VTA train to the stadium. A swanking massive facility built at the south end of the SF bay it has been home to the 49er brand since their move out of their old Candlestick park on the northern end of the bay. Many businesses rent out specific square feet o...

The world we live in has rules.  And the citizens are expected to obey those rules.  Without order we get chaos.  Fighting entropy is hard.  Very hard. There was an entire TV series based on this notion called Law & Order.  Recently though there have been a spate of incidents where the watchers failed us.  From the near collapse of the capitalist economic system back in 2008 where the rating agencies failed at doing their job to the recent Boeing disasters where the FAA did not do theirs and 400 people paid with their lives, we are facing a scenario where the watchers need watching.  'Collusion' is a word making headlines these days. Coincidentally (I have started listening to podcasts on the way to work) a new podcast by one of my favorite authors, Michael Lewis has a show about umpires.  Or referees.  It is titled 'Against the Rules'.  It covers the topic of 'referees losing their authority'. Fairness and how humans enforce ...

Budapest.  Hungary's capital city.  Cross roads of eastern and western Europe.  Formerly a land of the Magyars it has been inundated with cultures of the invaders and rulers for over 1,000 years to give the country its modern face. From a visitor's viewpoint it can be tad overwhelming.  Depending on where you are coming from and what other places / countries you might have planned in your itinerary there are logistics for a budget minded person that can prove idiosyncratic at times. Currency - The Hungarian Forint is the national currency.  However, hotels often quote prices in Euros.  Euro is used by some of the nations adjacent to Hungary but locally they accept both.  If you come from the US you are left to figure out what it costs in your own money. Food - service fees on meals can vary.  No clear guide on what they are and how they apply.  Same with tipping.   As to the cuisine itself it is a mix of soups and goulash (a ...

Take stump.  It is a cricket equipment and has some specific connotation to the sport, yet it is used colloquially to indicate how vexing the English language can be. Language has one purpose.  To communicate.  Whether to the present audience or to one in the future.  It manifests itself in the form of pictures (going back in time) to audio signals (sent into space).  Most commonly it is the written format that we exchange information in. Here are some common word pairs in written form, where even the pros find themselves in a quandary.  This does not address the pronunciation aspect of words which I can write about in a separate blog. Grammar could take up a book unto itself. Not that I propound to be an expert at any of the above but as I have said before: my blog my rules. Speaking of using words that confuse us - Use or Usage Advice or Advise Principal or Principle Antivenom or Antivenin In spite or Inspite Watch or Clock Stay or L...

I do not watch Hindi films.  Not as a rule but finding a topic I might like and hoping that it is well executed is a gamble.  I am not willing to risk three hours for it. Myriad other reasons.  But my best half screens them and decides to rewatch some if I am inclined.  One of them was a film called Raazi. Raazi means a pact.  An agreement.  It is an Urdu word from which the Hindi language derives a lot of its own. The film was directed by Meghna Gulzar (daughter of famous duo Gulzar, a talented film music director and Rakhee, erstwhile Indian actress).  That intrigued me as did the subject of the film.  The film is about a young girl in her twenties in the Northwest Frontier region of India (Kashmir) being chosen by her father, who is a spy, to continue his work as he battles cancer. The father is a spy for the Indian intelligence services responsible for gathering intel on Pakistan's military movements.  The actors perform the...

The Hindus love their gods and goddesses.  For time immemorial this religion has been gender agnostic when it comes to their deities and super powers.  As may super dudettes as dudes. No discrimination is a tenet of the religion as it were.  This weekend we visited the abode of multiple lords of both sexes in the nearby Livermore compound named after Shiva and Vishnu, respectively the destroyer of the Universe and the caretaker or preserver.  The place is colloquially known to the Indian ex-pats as Shiva Vishnu temple.  These two are part of a triumvirate called Dattatreya, who manifests all three aspects of the universal lifecycle, by including Brahma as the creator of said universe. The temple building houses among its idols those carved from black obsidian and marble and granite.  Some represent the half elephant, half man form of Ganesha, the lord of new beginnings, the Ram Sita duo, Kali or Durga Mata the all powerful she god,  Laxmi the go...

The past week like others was about learning a lot.  About me in particular. Here are few of those in no particular order - I cannot sit and watch baseball among the MLB's relatively top tier teams for more than 1.5 innings.  This with a real nice seat in the house.  The game usually is played for nine innings. A's stadium in Oakland A kangaroo has 3 vaginas and 2 uterii.  Joey when he or she is so ready, slides down the middle tube into the pouch.   Democrats have no strategy to win the election in 2020. Pandora means 'all gifts'.  She was created by Zeus' command but was born of different set of parents and had a jar that contained among other evil gifts - Hope.  All those gifts escaped when she opened it for a spell. Hoping can be hopeless. I am beginning to like podcasts. I discovered what a crop top was.  Hint to the equally clueless - it is not an agricultural appliance. My left butt cheek hurts after sitting in one plac...

Praha aka Prague, the capital of Czech Republic was a brief stop in our summer vacation this year.  It was a tumultuous year to say the least with some family emergencies and such but we made the most of it during our stay in the wonderful Bohemian environs. Situated on the banks of the Vltava River it is a scenic and historic center of Europe.  It sits squarely in the cross road of western and eastern part of the continent.  It was our gateway for some more travels east.  National Pilsner brand welcomes international travelers at the Vaclav Havel Airport on the outskirts of the city. Underground Metro easily gets people from A to B.  Sometimes the time spent traveling underground on fast moving escalators to the deep seated platforms and back is the same as the actual train travel time. A local pastry in the form of a tube called Trdelnik.  IMHO a scam designed for tourists to shell out a few bucks, it is somewhat tasteless and ...

I had no idea who Queen was until I saw the Oscar winning movie titled 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. While bit long in the tooth this biopic showed the ascendancy of a rather unlikely chap from an Indian Parsi family, born in Africa, becoming the rock and roll legend of the 70s and hall of famer after death. As the voice of the band he formed and what came to be known worldwide as Queen, Farrokh became Freddie Mercury, the lead singer.  I do think his success had a bit of luck in that he found the unlikely trio as his support cast to play guitar and drums. The movie meanders predictably at times to show what becomes of success and yet drives the audience into enjoying with the cast.  The guy had preacher like charisma and could get millions to stand on their feet and sway to his voice and music. While similar in tone and tempo to contemporaries in music at the time like Abba or Wham the music did have a high energy to it.  It also tended to not be always predictable and w...

CRV as labeled on recyclable containers sold in the state of California. By law (I presume) it is an IOU, to refund a deposit taken.   Explicitly stated a promise to the consumer that a container deposit will be taken upfront on their purchase of said container, which will then be returned on recycling of empties. Latter is where the scam begins.  Returns.  In order to return said container one must have a facility that processes incoming empties.  In a state with 40+ million people largely scattered across five or so major metro areas millions of empties are generated on a daily basis.  Water, soda, and many other versions of gaseous or non gaseous, alcoholic or non type beverage containers make the majority. Sometimes the cost of the containers is as high as 40% of the product's sale price that a consumer pays at checkout.  Yet to reclaim that back is a process as arduous as perhaps making the container themselves. First job to find a locatio...

This Saturday my kid and I took part in a meditative hiking experience.  At the foothills of Mt. Diablo, the tallest eminence in the eastern bay area of San Francisco the hike was organized by a non profit seeking to preserve the wilderness. This parcel we hiked on is about couple thousand acres and the sun was beginning to warm the morning as 25 souls gathered to be part of the walk.  The non profit purchased this parcel with private donations from a ranching family and has used the reserve to educate citizens and save it from the pressure of over development. You see the memorial stone of the Italian immigrant family who sold their land to the non profit at the entrance to the land. After a brief intro to the agenda for the morning from the lady leader of our meditation and hike we set off. The hike began in a sub division with nice homes nestled on a plateau.  We mostly marched single file on a fire road and then into brush and thistles that were growing...

Life is ephemeral.  We exist only to not.  A family member passed away recently.  It was after a few months battle with the scourge called cancer.  It was in hindsight the best outcome. This is a matter of perspective.  There was immense suffering in the form of chemo, hospital visits and pain and disruption to bowel movement to the point where the patient had to be helped to visit the restroom.  Could things have gone swimmingly different?  Perhaps.  But the reality of level of care and medicine available in urban India to an average person is at best dismal.  With something as critical as cancer and in the case of terminal variety it is appalling.  End of life is a subject that is written about by many a smart doctor in the business including Atul Gawande. In certain parts of India the reality is stark.  While discussing options like hospice etc. that may sound in theory to be a well thought idea, the physical infrastructure ...