Music

It's been years since I bought an album.  And I'm increasingly bored by the local radio station I listen to and their extremely small playlist.  And there are very few audio-only podcasts I listen to now - most I watch on YouTube.  So I've been thinking it would be nice to get into music again. Not necessarily new music, but there are a lot of old albums that I would like to add to my collection.  In much the same way that I went through a phase of reading classic novels, I think I would like to start a phase of listening to classic albums.  Maybe by purchasing one new album every month?  Should I ever go on a decent length road trip (hopefully sometime next year), then it would be great to go on the road with some decent tunes on hand.  I am kind of old-fashioned - so rather than just play stuff on Spotify or some similar streaming service, I'd actually like to own the music.  It's the same mindset I have when it comes to films and books - I much prefer physical media.  

I Hate Mondays

A day where I felt like crap, had too much work to do, didn't get out of the house at all today, my manager tried to give me even more work to do, didn't eat well, didn't exercise, and reached new lows in my level of job satisfaction.  In other words, a typical Monday. 

Brighton 5-0 Palace

How worried am I about Palace?   Very.  I was worried before the start of the season.  And I am just as worried now.  We are not going to stay up if we keep on conceding goals like this (the most of any team in the Premier League).  Especially 5 goals to our main and fiercest rival (though Forest might be a close second).    If we don't tidy up our defensive woes, and soon, then I don't see our manager lasting for much longer.  But I don't think he is entirely to blame.  After all, he wasn't the one who sold all our best players - especially at the back.  But, for the love of the game, please don't let it be Sean Dyche coming in. 

The New Trailcam

Here is the first set of photos from my new trail camera.  I don't think it's quite as good as my last one, but it still does the job.  And apparently it also captures the usual suspects:

Lurgy

Think I'm coming down with a bug.  I've had a sore throat for the last few days, and today I developed a bit of a cough.  Hopefully nothing serious, I haven't had my flu shot yet.  But it couldn't come at a worse time - I've got so much work to do next week.  Both projects I'm working on have deliverables next week, which means things are bound to get hectic and stressful.

Mornings

I wish I was a morning person.  Someone who gets up early and gets stuff done before the day even starts. Someone who exercises before work.  But nope, I am not a morning person.  I might occasionally get up really early to use the toilet - but then I just crawl back into bed.  And then I might not get up until after 9 am, even on week days.  But the new project I'm working on means that I need to change my patterns.  I now have one or two meetings a week that begin at 8 am.  Not good.  This is courtesy of working with colleagues on both the east coast and - joy of joys - my first time working with our outsourcing team in India.  Sometimes I struggle to always understand my Chinese colleagues in teleconferences, but I've got to say that Indians are a lot worse - there was someone on this morning's call who I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying even though I think she was speaking English.  Perhaps it was because I was still half-asleep.  But it doesn't bode well for this project going forward.     

Midterms

Less than 3 weeks until the mid-term elections.  And naturally every other advert on telly seems to be political in nature.  There are all kinds of elected officials being voted on at the local and state level, plus a bunch of proposals and initiatives.  Unfortunately I haven't been paying attention to exactly who or what they are, since I can't vote.  All I'll say is that I won't make any predictions about what happens in the mid-term elections.  Such is my deep distrust of an open and fair democracy in Trump's America.  I hope the Democrats take the House and the Senate, but they probably won't.  It's a sad sign that so many of the races aren't even competitive.  And what is particularly tragic right now is seeing how more and more unhinged Trump is becoming as, hopefully, he starts to lose his grip on power.  He is taking the country down with him.