Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts

Monday, October 08, 2012

When is a holiday not a holiday?

When you live in the US. Of the many places I have lived (or spent extended periods of time working) the US is the least universal in its observance of public holidays. Sure everybody takes Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas but there are a whole lot of other "holidays" where only a small proportion of people are actually off work (which is kind of inconsistent with the whole concept of holiday if you ask me.)

Columbus Day (today) is one of them. It's one of those holidays that is largely unobserved unless you work in a government office or the Post Office. I know this because Marie just asked me if the Post Office was closed today. So I typed Post Office Columbus Day into Google and had the answer seconds later. Which leads me to the real point of this post, to ask "how did people live before the Internet?"

Friday, May 07, 2010

A builder's truck

The place we've been staying at in South Africa for the past few weeks has been having some remodelling done. This is the truck the builder uses to carry his materials and tools and his workers to the site.


Back home in the US anyone who needs to carry more than a box of tools seems to have a great big F250 pickup truck. We'll this thing could fit in the back of one of those.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Pretentious BS

Apparently the world's best restaurant, El Bulli, is closing because it loses money.

If the amount people pay doesn't exceed your costs, your business is by definition a failure. You however may not be a failure; better to try an idea and fail than not to try at all. But if you've got a massive waiting list and you're too stupid to raise your prices, then you are a failure.

Yet we are supposed to get all excited about places like this, to lust after going there. Personally there's a thousand other things I'd rather do with the time and energy it would take to pursue this or many other over-subscribed events and locations. They may not provide the same bragging rights, but the choice between living your life for your own enjoyment vs. impressing other people seems a no brainer to me.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Land of the robots

South Africa is overrun with robots.

The cities and towns are full of them.

Standing there on every corner at every major intersection.

Yes, "robot" is what South Africans call a traffic light.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Braai

Today we attended a braai. That's what South Africans call a what we Aussies call a barbie. They take the process of burning meat in the great outdoors very seriously. There's nothing quite like visiting a country and eating the wildlife. The impala sausages were particularly good.

My colleague who hosted us lives on top of a hill outside Johannesburg with a great view.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

I'm an American, Mate

Yesterday I became an American citizen.

I'm not one given to overt displays of patriotism, and I believe that chauvinistic nationalism has been a great force for evil in human history. In moral terms I believe strongly that national borders are arbitrary lines on a map. I vigorously oppose policies based on the assumption that a person's moral worth is somehow related to which side of those arbitrary lines they were born or reside on.

That's not to say I believe that all countries or all cultures are morally equal. The culture and values underpinning western liberal democracy are in my view morally superior because they lead to more productive behaviour that creates wealth and, dare I say it, more moral behaviour that creates liberty.

But culture is a funny thing. It's hard to create and maintain societies built on these values. In that endeavour institutions matter, and matter a lot. And that's where I believe that the United States excels, in the institutional structure established in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. So I'm proud to become an heir to the vision of liberty and freedom the Founding Fathers had when they created this country.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Foam or cream?

"Foam or cream?" is the question when ordering cappuccino here in South Africa.

To which my response is "if I wanted a coffee with cream in it, I wouldn't have asked for a cappuccino."

Saturday, May 31, 2008

A big farewell

My father-in-law's funeral is now over after four long and tiring and emotional days. I'm writing this sitting in the Emirates lounge in Dubai on my way to a consulting engagement in Johannesburg that I was supposed to start last week.

On Tuesday the family received condolences at home. Most of the visitors were relatives and close friends so it was quite comforting to receive them. The day was complicated only by the jet lag (we arrived in Beirut after 26 hours of travelling at 4 am and people started coming by around 10 am) and the fact that we had nothing to wear since Etihad had decided not to transfer our luggage in Abu Dhabi (to be the subject of another post I promise you).

Wednesday was the service and burial which took place at one of the churches in the family's home village (now a Beirut suburb) which fittingly we visited last October and which my father-in-law was instrumental in restoring after the civil war. The service led by the Maronite Archbishop of Beirut was conducted in Arabic so I didn't understand any of it, but I found it beautiful nonetheless.

Here's a photo I took of the church on that visit last October not knowing we'd soon be back there under such sad circumstances.


Viewing the body was harrowing but necessary to help us accept that he really is gone and burying my father-in-law alongside his parents in the family crypt was very emotional. So this was definitely the hardest day.

On Thursday the family continued receiving condolences in the salon attached to the church. The process consisted of us sitting in this large room from 10 am to 7 pm, standing to receive visitors and shaking their hands or kissing them on the cheeks (three times).


The visitors would then sit for some period of time (I'm sure the duration of their stay was carefully calculated according to some protocol but I didn't manage to figure out the algorithm) before repeating the process on their way out. This is quite a Middle Eastern thing to do. You'll often see photos of Arab political meetings where everyone is sitting around a room like this.

The process was repeated on Friday in a downtown location where fewer family and more political leaders visited. So I've now shaken the hands and kissed the cheeks of a sufficient proportion of Beirut's residents that I feel ready to run for a seat in the Lebanese parliament.

I always knew that my father-in-law was a man of some prominence in Beirut but I hadn't really appreciated how widely he was known and respected in the local community and in political and business circles.

I also knew that he'd maintained good relations with the Shiite community which is notable enough in a country renown for sectarian strife, but they really went out of their way to pay him respect; hanging banners farewelling him in the street; Shiite leaders coming to pay their condolences; and the overwhelmingly Shiite residents lining the streets and the Shiite shopkeepers closing their stores as the coffin was carried from the church to the cemetery.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Colour and movement

Check out this great photo taken by my nephew Julian. Amazing colours and he caught the dancer in mid air!


Here's the accompanying article he wrote for his university newspaper.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Wikipedia

I believe one of the most remarkable things to emerge from the Internet in recent years, amongst many amazing things, is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

What's so amazing about it? Well it overturns centuries of thought about how knowledge is disseminated, that's what. In the past knowledge was the preserve of a small elite. Until a little over a century ago most of the world was illiterate and even with mass literacy in the 20th century 99.999% of people consumed knowledge but didn't generate it. Whereas Wikipedia is not only available to everyone but it's created by everyone.

So consistent with that theme, yesterday I made my first edit. You can see it here. The sentence on amending the Australian Constitution is my work.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Beijing Olympic preparations

I spent a couple of days back in Beijing this week on business. The focus is now very much on the preparation for the 2008 Olympics with campaigns to get the locals to stop spitting, designating the 11th of each month queueing day in an attempt to encourage the locals to line up in an orderly fashion, and various plans to curb the city's pretty awful smog including banning cars for two or three weeks before and during the Olympics. This would have the added benefit of saving the lives of hundreds of tourists who might otherwise be run down at traffic signals in the mistaken belief that Chinese drivers will actually stop at red lights!

According to my local contacts the smog is actually much better than it was a few years ago, mostly because factories have been moved out of the city and from my own observation the spitting problem is largely under control. But as for the queuing, something that looks remotely like a line rather than entirely like a rugby scrum seems the best that can be hoped for!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Road trip - day 5

The highlight of our road trip so far was today's visit to Mesa Verde National Park located in southwest Colorado.

It's amazing to look at these places and wonder what on earth drove the inhabitants to build them in the first place (they'd lived for the previous 600 years on top of the mesa) and then abandon them completely within two or three generations?

We only spent a few hours today but we loved it so much that we are planning to come back for two or three days some time to really see it properly.

The only part open to visit at this time of year is "Spruce Tree House". I'd read about Mesa Verde and even seen pictures, but this view that greets you as you begin the walk down to the site just blew me away.


It's even better as you get closer.


And just awesome right up close.


While you can't visit the other sites at the moment, you can see them from the road. This is the Cliff Palace which is the largest and most famous of them.


I included that distant shot so you could see where it is in relation to the mesa top and the canyon. Here's a close up.


We started the day in Santa Fe and are spending the night in Durango. You can see our route for today on the map below.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Chartres

Today we visited Chartres which is about 90km (55 miles) outside Paris or one hour by train to see the famous cathedral there.



I find medieval cathedrals quite fascinating since they provide a window into not only the religious life of the time but also the political, economic and social systems. It always amazes me how much could be achieved in stone, and what people living often on the brink of starvation would sacrifice to build churches that would generally not be finished in their lifetime (or even their children's or grandchildren's).

At the same time they provide evidence for the limits of medieval scientific and engineering knowledge and show how slowly knowledge grew before the industrial revolution.

Take for example the towers on the cathedral. The south tower (on the right) was built along with most of the rest of the cathedral in the early 13th century whilst the north tower (on the left) was built 300 years later in the 16th century, and while the style is quite different the engineering limits are fundamentally the same. Yet another 300 years later Eiffel was able to build a tower of steel nearly three times as tall as a temporary structure.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Paris

It doesn't get much better that skiing chest deep snow and visiting Paris in the same week.* I'm here for some meetings Thursday, Friday and Monday (meaning I get to stay over the weekend!)

Of course I couldn't do that without bringing my lovely wife who has been out visiting some of the sites that she missed on our last visit in 2001 (well actually visiting all the galleries and art museums that I refused to go to). Yesterday it was the Musée D'Orsay and today the Rodin Museum.



She also snapped this impressive shot of Les Invalides. A bit fancier than any veterans hospital I've seen in the US or Australia!


We've also been spending plenty of time enjoying the wonderful food and atmosphere of the ubiquitous French cafes, bistros and restaurants, so I'll have to ski extra hard when I get home.


* Actually it does get better because I also found out this week that I'd received a nice bonus as a reward for a successful 2006.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Amazing jobs

I had some trouble with my heating this morning so M.J. from Mountain Resorts came over to fix the valve and replace the thermostat.

We got to chatting about the normal things you do in Steamboat - how long have you been here, where did you move from, what did you do before? I thought it interesting enough that M.J. was an aircraft tech for Delta (which gave me a high degree of confidence in his ability to fix a thermostat) but then I asked him what his wife was doing.

"She sells Pokemon cards on e-Bay," he replied.

"Excuse me," I said astounded. "But I thought you said she sells Pokemon cards on e-Bay!"

"She does," M.J. replied calmly. "She turns over $10,000 a month. $16,000 in December."

I've talked before about being a virtual worker, but I'm still struggling to get my head around this one.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Cultural imperialism? No worries

A lot of people around the world worry that with the dominance of American television, films and businesses their cultures will somehow become "Americanised".

But the shrinking world is a two way street (there's a mixed metaphor!) Parents in America worry that their kids will pick up Aussie accents from The Wiggles*, Aussies are invading Hollywood, and now I'm noticing a few American's saying "no worries" and friends who work at our local college say it's widespread amongst the students.

Clearly it's time to launch my campaign to reintroduce "fortnight" into American English to replace the confusing and inelegant "bi-weekly". Then it's on to four weeks annual vacation, driving on the left and playing Aussie Rules...

* They shouldn't worry. Aussie kids have largely been unaffected by watching Sesame Street, apart from the occasional pronunciation of the last letter of the alphabet as "zee" instead of "zed", but we quickly beat that out of them once they start school.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Another bluebird

Day 28 of my 2005-06 season was another bluebird day - blue skies, perfect packed powder, no wind and warm for this time of year (forecast maximum of 37 F).

I started out about 9.30 am and was surprised at the length of the gondola line, but once the crowd dispersed at the top it was fine. It was a little more crowded today than during the week but nothing like the holidays.

I started out down Vagabond and then the bumps of Surprise and continued on to the Pony Express. As I suspected there was virtually no-one on Pioneer Ridge. I took Longhorn and Wapati back to Buddy's and Tornado Lane.

If you live in the US odds are you'll have a least one friend called "Skeeter" and today the odds caught up with me. I met Skeeter on the Storm Peak Express and since we were both out solo we decided to ski together. Down to the Morningside Chair and then The Ridge to Big Meadow and Buddy's back to the Storm Peak Express.

From there it was Storm Peak, upper Rainbow and Moonlight to the Sundown Express and High Noon, Two O'Clock and Daybreak. By this time thirst and hunger were beginning to kick in so we took Elkhead Chair to the bumps of Norther and then Blizzard to ride the Four Points Chair to the Four Points Hut and some refreshments.

After refueling it was Cyclone and Tornado Lane to the BC Chair and Norther again before traversing Rudi's to Vagabond, Betwixt and Between to the Bashor Chair. Then a run down the right side of See Me (the left side was closed for the Steamboat Winter Sports Club race training). The Christie Chair and Lower Valley View finished off the day and my legs.

The forecast is for a front to come through tonight and bring more snow. The clouds are beginning to form now so I'm hopeful for a powder day tomorrow. The season's been so good to date I almost feel guilty wishing for more. Almost.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Getting high

I normally get my high from skiing but today I got a whiff on the gondola - some young guys in my car were smoking something and it wasn't tobacco.

We only had a couple of inches of new snow overnight, but the snow cats were busy last night so almost everything was groomed. I started out with a run down Rudi's, Blizzard and Ego while waiting for the Express chairs to open at 9am. After riding the BC chair I got first tracks on Sunnyside. Perfect corduroy with 2-3 inches of powder on top so you could clearly see your signature in the snow. Smooth, sinuous, seductive curves. Skiing as a form of artistic expression. Poetry in motion. Awesome.

After that I circulated on the Sundown Express while taking care of the nicely groomed afternoon hours (Three O'Clock, Two O'Clock, One O'Clock) in the morning. Then a traverse across to Storm Peak and Rainbow to the Storm Peak Express followed by upper Buddy's, Big Meadow and Tornado Lane.

Today's a working day so as much as I would liked to have stayed out and played in the quickly accumulating new snow, it was time to head back in. BC Chair to Norther where I absolutely nailed the third set of bumps, across Rudi's to upper Vagabond then a quick run down Betwixt and Shortcut just in time for the Green line bus home.

I'm hoping it keeps snowing all day and tonight and we get a full on powder day tomorrow.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Winter solstice

The winter solstice - the shortest day of the year - is upon us in the northern hemisphere. Here in Steamboat the day is only moderately short at 9 hours 7 minutes of sunshine (from sunrise at 7.28 am to sunset at 4.45 pm) compared to some places like Helsinki which only received 5 hours and 50 minutes today (when I was living in Singapore I discovered through a colleague who is married to a Finnish woman that there are about a thousand Finns living there. Can you guess why?)

Back in Australia it's the summer solstice. Christmas is in the middle of the summer holidays so things really slow down for three or four weeks. Sport dominates the headlines (especially the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and the Boxing Day Test), and the beach is the place to be. Here the Christmas / New Year break is over just as you're beginning to relax. Much as I like a White Christmas, I've decided I really do miss that slower pace for a few weeks when no one really expects anyone to get things done.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Interactive Mountain Cam

It's now less than two weeks (or a 'fortnight' in the British English speaking world) until the Steamboat ski resort opens, so now is the time to start anxiously monitoring the state of the mountain. For those who can't simply look out their window like I can (yes, I am trying to make you jealous) check out the new interactive mountain cams. Here's an example I just captured.


Apart from normal camera controls (pan, tilt and zoom) there are also presets that allow you to quickly zoom to a favourite view. You may have to wait until the previous user is finished 'looking around' (each time you grab control you get 40 seconds) and you'll need to have java applets enabled in your browser security settings.

As a computer geek who loves to ski, as far as I'm concerned this is way cool.