Skip to main content

Birding, Reading and Eating

 All in a weekend's work.

Work had become non-sensical and we (as in my best half and yours truly) were feeling somewhat stressed out.   Just as the tunnel seemed too dark and long, a nice warm weekend presented itself in SF bay area.  

That made the weekend especially joyous.

Saturday was spent scouring our favorite haunt in South Bay for some delectable food, vadas and parathas and sweet gajrela.

All consumed in small tapas style.  First at a local park in the south bay then by a man made lake on the peninsula.

Stop Asian Hate rallies were being held in the locales we visited - citizenry pushing back at the scars being inflicted by an increasingly divided nation.  All in all the Vitamin D got a boost.  

Sunday was a gentle walk along a local lake with birds of a feather and then some spotted along the trail.  An egret and a grey heron stoked the atmosphere otherwise filled with 20 other species chirping and squawking by the lake.  Apparently the egret and heron are the same family of birds, one just is darker - much like us humans.






A side trail had a male turkey (called Tom) urging potential suitors to check his feather display.  

It all culminated with another good set of pages betwixt a hard cover, courtesy of our local library.  This one titled 'The Hidden Habits of Genius', by a Yale professor.

It seems the debate around Nurture vs. Nature is ongoing in trying to determine what creates genius.  A definition though succinctly contrasts Genius and Talent.

Talent is when someone hits the target no one else can.  Genius is hitting a target no one can yet see.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Post a Comment
Read more