POTD: St. Mark's Basilica

"Gold mosaics shine,
stories looted from the East,
Faith wrapped in conquest."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 11 Venice

Today's photo-of-the-day is from St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy. "It is dedicated to and holds the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of the city...The present structure is the third church, begun probably in 1063 to express Venice's growing civic consciousness and pride. Like the two earlier churches, its model was the sixth-century Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople...Middle-Byzantine, Romanesque, and Islamic influences are also evident, and Gothic elements were later incorporated. To convey the republic's wealth and power, the original brick façades and interior walls were embellished over time with precious stones and rare marbles, primarily in the thirteenth century. Many of the columns, reliefs, and sculptures were spoils stripped from the churches, palaces, and public monuments of Constantinople as a result of the Venetian participation in the Fourth Crusade. Among the plundered artefacts brought back to Venice were the four ancient bronze horses that were placed prominently over the entry."

Random Thoughts: Random NextDoor Post

2025-07-14: Random NextDoor post: "Want to know how many times I get pulled over for nothing. There about to break there previous record."
There's a sentence there with two uses of the word "there", both spelled wrong. Impressive.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 4 of 4)

This is the fourth part of my thoughts on the City of Richardson's Goal setting meeting. Let's see if I can get through Strategies and Tactics in this one.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 3 of 4)

This is the third part of my thoughts on the City of Richardson's Goal setting meeting. I'm finally getting to the Goals. The Council reviewed the existing goals:

Goals

To effectively, efficiently, and transparently manage city resources while maintaining and enhancing city services

To have residents and all stakeholders choose Richardson as the best place to locate, contribute, and engage

To have clear, effective, efficient, continuously improved, and consistently applied processes and policies that make it easy for residents, employees, and all stakeholders to interact with the City

To have well-trained, engaged, and innovative employees who deliver an exceptional customer experience while working in a safe, inclusive, and equitable environment

Source: City of Richardson.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 2 of 4)

The City of Richardson's City Council spends a day at the beginning of each term developing its Goals, Strategies, and Tactics. For the last several years, this was facilitated by Rick Robinson of Ramsey Consulting Group. He explained the terminology involved in strategic planning that would be used in this exercise. He started with Mission. He explained why he doesn't do mission statements for cities: "because every city has 99% the same mission — to create a clean, save place for people to eat, work, stay, play, visit, blah, blah, blah, alright?" Exactly. So let's move on.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 1 of 4)

My business management training came an eon ago at Texas Instruments. TI called its management system "Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics" (OST). An example of an Objective is to improve profitability. An example of a supporting Strategy is to focus on high growth markets. An example of a Tactic is a specific product development initiative. TI aligns its corporate goals with day-to-day operations throughout the company with a process called Policy Deployment.

POTD: Interior Design of a Lost Age

"City of canals
built its dreams in travertine.
Why not Richardson?"
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 11 Venice

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Doge's Palace in Venice, Italy.

"The Doge's Palace is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace included government offices, a jail, and the residence of the Doge of Venice, the elected authority of the former Republic of Venice. It was originally built in 810, rebuilt in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries."

Imagine if the new City Hall being built by the City of Richardson had an interior design resembling this. Imagine if the new City Hall being built by the City of Richardson was being built to last a millennium. The last City Hall didn't last 50 years. We live in a throwaway society. That includes our architecture.

POTD: Bridge of Sighs

"Bridges often join,
but this one parts soul from sun.
Venice once wept here."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 11 Venice

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Venice, Italy. It shows the famous Bridge of Sighs connecting "the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace...It was built in 1600...The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge's English name was bestowed by Lord Byron in the 19th century as a translation from the Italian "Ponte dei sospiri", from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells."

POTD: Horses of Saint Mark

"Replicas above,
but inside the real ones prance,
bold, undefeated."

— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 11 Venice

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Venice, Italy. It shows the original Horses of Saint Mark's Basilica. According to Google and ChatGPT, the horses are "from antiquity (believed to be Classical Greek, 2nd or 3rd century AD). But some say the evident technical expertise and naturalistic rendering of the animals suggest they were made in Classical Greece of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. They were looted from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and brought to Venice. They stood atop the main balcony of St. Mark’s Basilica for centuries. In 1797, Napoleon took them to Paris after conquering Venice; they were installed atop the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. They were returned to Venice in 1815, after Napoleon's defeat. In 1981, due to conservation concerns, the original horses were replaced with modern replicas, and the originals were moved indoors to the Museo di San Marco, where they can still be viewed today."

A bonus photo is after the jump.

MurderBot (TV 2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

MurderBot (TV 2025): A security robot on a scientific mission to another planet hacks its own "governor module" and gains free will. He doesn't have anything interesting to say. Everything he knows about being human comes from downloading a soap opera, "Sanctuary Moon." C+

AppleTV+