Brown Motion

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...