(no subject)

Have just been taken to lunch to the Mother Church of Organic - the HQ of "Whole Foods". I am awed.

(no subject)

Have just been taken to lunch to the Mother Church of Organic - the HQ of "Whole Foods". I am awed.

(no subject)

Actually, I just found out that Austin is not Texas (having expressed my mild astonishment at the Whole Foods being based here - don't Texans eat mostly beef with some beef, a side of beef, and a little beef on top?) - it is almost militantly liberal, with all the accoutrements thereof (to wit: motorized boats are forbidden in the Town Lake; the most popular floating craft there is single (sometimes double) rowing shell; I've also seen a couple of sweep-row eights), with population consisting for the most part of aging hippies, state government employees (now there's a combination; societal bomb waiting to go off, held together only by the shared hatred of the common enemy), UTexas students and transplants from elsewhere (out of 5 people at lunch, not including myself, all of them American-born, only one was a native Austinite).

(no subject)

Actually, I just found out that Austin is not Texas (having expressed my mild astonishment at the Whole Foods being based here - don't Texans eat mostly beef with some beef, a side of beef, and a little beef on top?) - it is almost militantly liberal, with all the accoutrements thereof (to wit: motorized boats are forbidden in the Town Lake; the most popular floating craft there is single (sometimes double) rowing shell; I've also seen a couple of sweep-row eights), with population consisting for the most part of aging hippies, state government employees (now there's a combination; societal bomb waiting to go off, held together only by the shared hatred of the common enemy), UTexas students and transplants from elsewhere (out of 5 people at lunch, not including myself, all of them American-born, only one was a native Austinite).

(no subject)

Brilliant marketing:
( Read more... )

Thou shalt know and love your target audience.

via dailyWTF.

(no subject)

Brilliant marketing:
( Read more... )

Thou shalt know and love your target audience.

via dailyWTF.

(no subject)

Oh, and the Austin Bats are nothing special. There were about couple hundred people on hand to witness the occasion (split evenly between the bridge itself and the little grassy area on the south bank of the river - sorry, lake; I was among the latter). Without a point of reference (it's hard to tell how high they are above you in the dark) there is nothing for the brain to latch onto in terms of their size, and it falls back on familiar imagery - a swarm of insects, especially considering that this species is quite small. Also, either my ears are equipped for ultrasound or they squeak lower than that.

But there is definitely a metric assload of them under there. They started trickling out in small groups, but almost instantly transitioned to a dense fluttering blanket; I looked at this for about 10 minutes, got tired of squinting and left, without waiting for it to thin out.

Out of my immediate surrounding (3-4 dozen people), there was only one guy who had seen it before, and even he was showcasing (and cheerfully commenting on) the proceedings to a couple of lady friends from out of town. I guess there's no point in doing it twice.

But watching the sun go down (over the roof of the Hyatt) while sprawled on the (patchy) grass under a (scrawny) tree definitely did my (tired) psyche good.

(no subject)

Oh, and the Austin Bats are nothing special. There were about couple hundred people on hand to witness the occasion (split evenly between the bridge itself and the little grassy area on the south bank of the river - sorry, lake; I was among the latter). Without a point of reference (it's hard to tell how high they are above you in the dark) there is nothing for the brain to latch onto in terms of their size, and it falls back on familiar imagery - a swarm of insects, especially considering that this species is quite small. Also, either my ears are equipped for ultrasound or they squeak lower than that.

But there is definitely a metric assload of them under there. They started trickling out in small groups, but almost instantly transitioned to a dense fluttering blanket; I looked at this for about 10 minutes, got tired of squinting and left, without waiting for it to thin out.

Out of my immediate surrounding (3-4 dozen people), there was only one guy who had seen it before, and even he was showcasing (and cheerfully commenting on) the proceedings to a couple of lady friends from out of town. I guess there's no point in doing it twice.

But watching the sun go down (over the roof of the Hyatt) while sprawled on the (patchy) grass under a (scrawny) tree definitely did my (tired) psyche good.

(no subject)

Austin has both Colorado St. and Red River St., running parallel (but not next) to each other through the city center.

That is an interesting concept, come to think of it: in a dual- or multi-language community you can have whole ethnic neighborhoods organized in this way, creating an isomorphic structure, instead of assigning two names, one of them being translation of the other, to the same street (the way they do in Brussels, for example; I've spent several unpleasant minutes figuring out which of the two hotels named Astrid we should schlep to - on Place du Samedi or on Zaterdagplein).

Or conversely, allow for the cultural variation by making, say, Sam Houston St. to be at the same time "Avenida Santa Anna" for the Hispanic population; Lord Roberts for Botha, and George Stephenson Way/тупик бр. Черепановых.

(no subject)

Austin has both Colorado St. and Red River St., running parallel (but not next) to each other through the city center.

That is an interesting concept, come to think of it: in a dual- or multi-language community you can have whole ethnic neighborhoods organized in this way, creating an isomorphic structure, instead of assigning two names, one of them being translation of the other, to the same street (the way they do in Brussels, for example; I've spent several unpleasant minutes figuring out which of the two hotels named Astrid we should schlep to - on Place du Samedi or on Zaterdagplein).

Or conversely, allow for the cultural variation by making, say, Sam Houston St. to be at the same time "Avenida Santa Anna" for the Hispanic population; Lord Roberts for Botha, and George Stephenson Way/тупик бр. Черепановых.

(no subject)

Even though the time here is just an hour away from usual, it is still enough to completely throw off the feeling for its passing and cause me to loose instinctive orientation - I have to deliberately and laboriously count the offsets, both ways, any time there is a need to get a bearing on it anywhere (in addition to being completely adrift when it comes to going to sleep and waking up, that goes without saying). I am not anchored to the time anywhere at the moment - neither here, nor there, nor anywhere else. Which is strange; the second, third at the outside, day of my European trips I am reasonably adapted. Probably it is because the difference is so small; it doesn't feel important enough to expend the (subconscious) energy.

(no subject)

Even though the time here is just an hour away from usual, it is still enough to completely throw off the feeling for its passing and cause me to lose instinctive orientation - I have to deliberately and laboriously count the offsets, both ways, any time there is a need to get a bearing on it anywhere (in addition to being completely adrift when it comes to going to sleep and waking up, that goes without saying). I am not anchored to the time anywhere at the moment - neither here, nor there, nor anywhere else. Which is strange; the second, third at the outside, day of my European trips I am reasonably adapted. Probably it is because the difference is so small; it doesn't feel important enough to expend the (subconscious) energy.