Datsun

This is another lovingly restored classic car that you see once in a while in Miami's streets. It's a Datsun. I am not sure what year it is dated, but most likely in the late 60s.

Datsun was an automobile marque. The name was created in 1931 by the DAT Motorcar Co. for a new car model, spelling it as "Datson" to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. Later, in 1933 after Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. took control of DAT Motorcar Co., the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" (損) in Japanese, and also to honour the sun depicted in the national flag, hence the name "Datsun" : Dattosan (ダットサン Dattosan.) Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in March 1986. The Datsun name is most famous for the sports cars referred to as the Fairlady roadsters and later the Fairlady (240Z) coupes.

For the past 27 years, classic Datsun car owners meet for the Best of Show award. In July 2010, the 26th yearly Datsun Roadster Meet was held at Mt. Shasta. A pristine 1967 silver car from San Francisco won the coveted award. This one does not look as good and may not win that award, but it sure looks a lot better than my car.

Power Serve

There is a championship tennis tournament going on at this time at Miami Dade College in its Kendall campus. It is called the Casely International Championships... and it shows. There is a large number of participants, all looking young, athletic, fit, formidable and exuberant. All the tennis courts are occupied and matches are being played continuously. Take a look at this young woman serving her tennis ball. It looks so professional. I would hate to be on the other side of the court when her ball strikes my racket. It probably would make a hole as large as a cannon ball. Ace! Or something like that is what they say.

Get Their Queen

In Miami, we sometimes have to deal with fire ants. Do you know that fire ants do not bite? Worse, they sting like wasps and bees by holding on with their pliers-like-mouth and inject venom into your skin through a stinger. Ouch! That hurts like the devil. If that's your only problem, you may just stay away from their nests. But... I do grow a ficus tree and the fire ants nesting near the tree can quite quickly kill it by exposing the roots due to their tunneling network. So they must be dealt with using bait. The bait is a mixture of a carrier, attractants and a killing agent or insecticide. Dosage of the insecticide must be measured carefully so the ant workers cannot detect the poison, but it must be strong enough to exterminate the entire colony, including the queen. Easy said than done!

Here is a red ant mound that has been baited and as far as I can tell, the ants have all but disappeared. The yellow pellets are particles of bait. Now my ficus tree can be safe until the next battle with a new colony that may decide to migrate to this place.

Printed Books

The South Miami Branch library is here at the address of 6000 Sunset Drive. Recently, it had an extensive remodeling that included a redesign water fall out in front. With the internet encroaching on every day's life, I fear for the survival of these landmarks. Everyone I know knows that Google is the way to get information... who would take the time to check out and read books from library any more? Mea Culpa! I no longer read printed books, and all my books are either on my laptops or my iPad, sadly so!

Walking Ficus

You can find a large number of Banyan trees in Miami. This one is quite large and it demonstrates well how ficus trees "walk" and grow large to occupy extensive surface areas.

Ficus benghalensis is native of the Indian subcontinent. It produces propagating roots which grow downwards as aerial roots. Once these roots reach the ground, they grow into woody trunks that can become indistinguishable from the main trunk.

Also known as the Indian Banyan, F. bengalensis is the National tree of India and considered sacred. Worship is observed on a day in summer when the full moon occurs near the last star of the constellation Scorpio. There is a huge ficus tree known as the Great Banyan in the Indian Botanic Garden in Howrah. It is considered to be one of the largest trees in the world in terms of area covered.

When a toddler, I believed banyan trees are the home of scary ghosts and always ran as fast as I could when I had to go past them. I think I still believe that is true and would not come near here at night.

Dolce Vita

Look at this Indian peacock (in his blue outfit) perching on this tree. Not an iota of worry in the world... perhaps only about how best to woo the next peahen. Such a good life!

Guys Are Cheap

This is one of the two Starbucks in Dadeland Mall. There are two women buying the coffee here and no men so the score is 2 - 0. There is a theory about the gender gap concerning frequenters to Starbucks coffee shops: Women outnumber men six to one! Speaking for myself, as a male, I only go for this kind of strangely flavored coffee when I have to, but never, ever on my own doing. A theory ventures that women in general are more affluent than men. On the other hand, the majority of guys say that is a waste of money. So what do you think? Me? It's simply sexual dimorphism if you ask me.

In Ius Voco Spurius

This is not quite Christmas, but it's getting close! Macy's has this "Believe Santa Mail" mail box for the kids to send their letters to Santa. I am sure the kids will ask for toys. If I could have it my way, I would force Macy's to answer all the letters with the corresponding toys the kids have asked for. It's too cruel otherwise... to mislead the kids into believing and get no reply or what they asked for. If you are a lawyer and you are reading this... did you get my gist?

Free Samples

This is the food court smack in the middle of the Dadeland Mall in South Miami. This place is always full of people during lunch and dinner time. This is lunch, and the two very popular selections are the Mandarin Express and the Sarku Japan. Let me give you a good tip: You can come here and get almost a free lunch by taking samples from each of the food stalls here. The workers hand out small cups of free samples for passer by to taste. Beware though, you'd be consuming so much salt you may think you are related to the Atlantic ocean. I never spend any money here. I just come for the samples...

Action Shot

You want to see action? Look at this... taken during the woman volleyball match between Florida State University (crimson red) and the University of Miami (green.) Watch out! The "red" team is going for the kill! You see the ball in mid air? It was nicely set up and the lady in red approaching the net is going to jump up and squat the ball over the net with such thundering force that there is no way the three "green" defenders on the other side can counter punch. I hope that was not the match point! Ouch!

Moon Waxing Over Jacaranda

Here is a shot of the "almost" noon moon. Let me explain: The moon phase today is about 35.5 % full, waxing. It rose at 11:22 AM and will set at 11:05 PM tonight. Its "noon" position is at 5:11PM. This photo was taken at 4:11PM, an hour before its "noon." I am sure you know that one does not need to wait until dark to learn about astronomy. Looking up to the sky now, you can imagine you can see the Aquarius constellation to the left of the moon, Capricorn and Sagittarius to the right. Further down the ecliptic, Mars and Saturn have already set. Soon Venus, then Mars and finally the Sun will set. Then night will fall and Jupiter will rise... These beautiful things are all there although you can't see them in broad day light. The tree you see is my Jacaranda mimosifolia.

Extended Cyberday

I used to carry around a big and heavy digital camera... No longer for over a year now because I prefer to use my cell phone for all the photos you see in this blog. Indirectly though, the new technology they invented made it to the cell phones, and the results sometimes are deceptive. Take this photo... it was taken at dusk and the sky was darker than it appears here. That is because this camera can take 4 snap shots to create a final "averaged" composite. That does wonder to the background. What I really want to show you is the red balloon in the sky that says in bold letter "SALE" Do I hate that! I needed some shoes but could not go buy them last Friday because it was "black Friday" and that was the biggest "sale" day of the year... translation: maddening crowd everywhere. That Friday became Saturday and Sunday... That was not enough so they invented "Cyber Monday." That is the day retailers expect big traffic on the web that naturally spills over to the shopping malls. Of course, Monday is extended into Tuesday... I couldn't wait any longer because my shoes look like the ones worn by Charlie Chaplin so I endured the crowd today.. and I blame it on this red balloon. I am happy because I got a brand new pair of shoes that will last me until the "Black Friday" of 2021. Yeah! All rite!

Take a look at the metro rail cars in this shot. You really think the doors have three panels like that? Not my fault that the train was moving so fast!

The Brown People

There are many "The UPS Store" like this in Miami. Before this spreads widely, I needed to drive all the way to the Miami airport area to ship a package using UPS (That stands for United Parcel Service.) This is very convenient, not only to ship packages... because they offer many different kinds of service too, such as: Mailbox Services, Digital Printing and Document Services, Moving Supplies and Packaging Material, Packing Services etc...

This started out as a retail chain of business service centers known as Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE.) In 2001, MBE was acquired by UPS and it became "The UPS Store." These centers are franchises and individually owned. A bit pricy, but very convenient. Looking at their clocks, you can easily tell the time I was there.

Growth

Immediately after moving into the space vacated by the now defunct Borders Book Shop, City Furniture wasted no time to execute its expansion plan. It thinks this economy is ideal for new growth. I guess no matter how tough your life is, and how broke you are, you do need a bed to sleep in... so they hope you'd go to City Furniture.

On the left is the new smaller City Furniture store that is now in full operation. The building on the right is the old furniture main store in South Miami. It is being renovated to add a new story and a new face lift. The brand new orange car blocking my !@#$%^ view is a Porsche Carrera S! This only confirms what I told you repeatedly: tons of cash are in display everywhere in Miami streets in form of expensive wheels.

Go Canes!

Being a fair weather supporter of the University of Miami's "no longer great" football team who just lost the last game of the season last night, I immediately switched allegiance to the woman's volleyball team... because WE are ranked, and WE are number 25th! Go Canes!

Tonight I am among the record crowd of 1,071 fans who packed the James L. Knight Sports Complex for the regular season finale against Florida State University (FSU,) the hated "Noles" who outranked us at number 21st. Tonight's was the first-ever meeting between two ranked teams in volleyball, and the first time FSU and UM have ever faced each other as ranked opponents. So needless to say, we had a lot of excitement. You can always tell who's who by the shirts we wear. We are green and they are red.

The great news is that we upset FSU 3-1. Canes won the match in four sets by the score of 25-16, 33-31, 21-25 and 25-22.

Go Canes!

Black Friday vs Blue Crab

Today is called "Black Friday" and I stay away from civilization (meaning all the crazy shopping malls) as far as possible... To do that, I went into a remote park when I faced this land crab, aka a Cardisoma-guanhumi. To refresh your memory, this fellow (that's a he) is omnivorous. He can see and hear well... He hears by detecting the ground vibrations, and he "sees" with his ommatidia, that is his compound eyes, which react only to that part of the scene directly in front of it. So this land crab does see me... after he picked up my foot steps, and is ready to take position and put up a good fight. And I said to myself "Here's looking at you, kid!"

I guess you want to know where that famous uttering came from, right? Here is the entire context, from "Casablanca:"

Ilsa: "I can't fight it anymore. I ran away from you once. I can't do it again. Oh, I don't know what's right any longer. You have to think for both of us. For all of us."
And now comes the famous sentence...
Rick: "All right, I will. Here's looking at you, kid!"

Ilsa: [smiles] "I wish I didn't love you so much."

You guessed it: that's about a love story. Do you like Casablanca? I bet you do if you knew about that classic movie. Remember, it's not: "He's looking at you, kid!" but it's "Here's looking at you, kid!"

Triplaris sp.

Sometimes, a second look reveals beauty that we missed when we did not pay close attention the first time around. A return visit to the ant tree proved to me that one needs time in order to discover and savor life's hidden treasures. Here is a closer look at the clusters seen from afar the last time. At this scale, I now need to know if these striking pink ladies are indeed still flowers... or are they now precursors on the way to become the T. sp. fruits? I sent out an inquiry to some experts in Panama and will let you know when I learn from them. Stay tuned!

Be Thankful

If you live in the US, you should be thankful that you are not a turkey. What I mean is that literally, you do not want to be a real turkey... the bird... and not a turkey meaning a jerk or some other equally derogatory words. Today is the eve of Thanksgiving, an important holiday in the US. Tradition here calls for an entire nation to give thanks by feasting on turkeys. This year, about 40 million were slaughtered for tomorrow dinners... two of them were pardoned by US President Obama today, which is a tradition started in 1989. I know how the turkeys are farm raised and how they are killed every year for Thanksgiving. Let's not talk about that.

This shot is of a large Publix grocery store and it is packed with last minute shoppers getting ready for the giant feast tomorrow. It is dusk in about 15 minutes... and the fast setting sun shines upon the two Marriott hotels in the center of this photo. The Village of Dadeland sure looks handsome in this view.

Deep Purple

I was ready to mumble something incomprehensible in this space today when I changed my mind due to this sight. Due East in Miami at dusk (5:58PM) today is this breathtaking deep purple sky with a single bright spot of light. There is nothing else in the sky besides the pretty pink clouds closer to the horizon. The sun has already set at 5:30PM in the opposite western direction, so light worked in mysterious ways by scattering to color these clouds. The bright spot of light is our giant gas planet Jupiter, the King planet reigning in our solar system. During the entire month of November, at the latitude of Miami, Jupiter rises at dusk and sets by dawn. It is spectacular to see during the entire night the slow movement of Jupiter and of the Orion constellation, the most conspicuous, and most recognizable constellations in the night sky. Miami is not only spectacular during the days, it is beautiful at nights as well. Come visit, November is the month to be in Miami.

Expansion

Amid the uncertainty of the tough economy and Washington bickering on how to reduce the deficit, the largest college in Miami Dade County, Miami Dade College is expanding its Kendall campus because more space is needed. Since 1997, its student population has grown 35 per cent and this campus has more than 34,000 registered students. The new 136,000-square-foot building will be the new home of the School of Business Administration. The US $31.8 million structure is planned to open in the year 2013, assuming it will be completed on schedule in October 2012.