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.  

The Odyssey

Talking about physical media, I found out too late today that The Odyssey was available for pre-order.  There are a couple of limited edition versions (including a $300 premium limited order edition - which is just a ridiculous amount), but both were already sold out.  They appeared to be sporadically available on Amazon, but when I tried to checkout then I ran into problems and the item became unavailable.  So I've decided to give up trying to get it.  This feels exactly like trying to watch the film on an IMAX screen - just impossibly popular.  Part of the problem is that when I see the words "premium" and "limited edition", then out goes all semblance of sanity and rationality.  In those circumstance I will pay the crazy amount of $300 for a copy of a film I haven't seen yet, plus some stupid extras.  But no, I should wait until some superior (and better value for money) version of the film gets released in a few years' time.  And I should watch the film sometime before then to see whether I actually like it or not. 

Zavvi

I was shocked to discover today that Zavvi had ceased operations and entered administration.  I've bought a lot of stuff - predominantly physical media - from them over the years.  Indeed, I had an outstanding preorder with them which I'm unlikely to ever see (a 4K deluxe edition of The Untouchables).  Fortunately, at the time of my order they were only charging you at the time of dispatch.  So I haven't lost any money.  That is especially lucky because earlier this year they changed to charging you at the time of the order.  Good luck in getting your money back if you pre-ordered something after then.  I'm glad there are still some good US and international retailers of physical media - I still like to add to my film collection.  Indeed, just recently I ordered a collector's edition version of Memento from a retailer called Umbrella - who I think are Australian!