Italy

They may have beaten us in rugby and made the World Baseball Classic semi-finals, but at least we qualified for the World Cup.  Again.  Shocking.  

You Shall Not Pass

 "You shall not pass!"

DVR

I've found another reason to cut the cord.  I was having a look at the recordings on my DVR, and I noticed some episodes of a TV series that I had recorded a while back were no longer there.  And something else felt off - like there were other recordings that were missing.  And then I realized what had happened - which I was able to confirm online.  My DVR automatically deletes recordings that are a year old.  Something which I didn't know it did.  This is outrageous.  Yes, perhaps it is telling that I have not felt the need to watch something for a year.  But that doesn't mean that I don't want to eventually watch it - and it should be my choice if and when to delete it from my DVR.  Especially a DVR that is nowhere near full.  Now I needlessly feel the pressure to watch some of the older stuff on my DVR before I lose it.  

Spam

I don't think it's just me, but I've been seeing a noticeable increase in spam recently.  E-mails telling me to click this link because I've won a prize, text messages telling me that I need to pay a speeding fine, phone calls from numbers I don't recognize that even my carrier recognizes and flags as "Spam likely", even e-mails that tell me they've hacked my webcam and have compromising videos of me that they'll send to all my contacts unless I pay up.  We can probably thank AI for all this.  It feels like a thankless task continually blocking and reporting all these e-mails - but I shall persist.     

State Visit

Why haven't they canceled the King's state visit to the US yet?  Trump continues to slag off the UK leader and the UK military.  There have to be consequences.  Trump's behavior is pathetic and embarrassing - he is throwing toys out of the pram because nobody supports his war.  And the consequential rises in gas price are making him unpopular even with his own base.  There is another "No Kings" protest planned for tomorrow - expect it to be a big one across the country.  I'm no fan of large crowds, especially large crowds with the potential for violence, but I'm even tempted to join this one.

More Sports Thoughts

It was opening day of the baseball season today.  Don't care.  March Madness is going on right now.  Don't care.  I see that the final set of World Cup qualifying games are underway.  Don't care.  No, there is only one sport I care about right now.  And that is the welcome return of Australian rules football.  I think it has now officially become my third favo(u)rite sport, behind only football and rugby union.  And unlike football, where I frequently fast-forward through games just to get to highlights, I tend to watch AFL games in their entirety.  I think it's now top of my bucket list to see a match in person.  In Australia.  One day I hope.  I still don't really support a team in Aussie rules - there are teams I like, and there are teams I dislike (mainly due to certain players I dislike).  But I think it's okay just being a fan of the game rather than of a particular team - particularly a niche sport that is only played on the other side of the world.       

Supersonics

Good news on the sports front.  We are one step closer to Seattle having a basketball team again.  The various team owners have voted to pursue expansion teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.  Nothing is set in stone yet - but the chances of the Seattle SuperSonics returning to the NBA in a few years time seem good.  Fun fact which I didn't know - Seattle is actually considered the largest metropolitan area in the US without an NBA team.  There are definitely a couple of opponents that I look forward to Seattle facing - the "local" derby with the Portland Trailblazers, and what will likely be an intense rivalry with Oklahoma City Thunder - where the SuperSonics relocated to in 2008.