Commercialization

I now know why the World Cup games are having forced hydration breaks.  It's absolutely nothing to do with making sure players are hydrated enough.  It is all so that Fox can have an extra few advert breaks during the game.  And I'm sure the length of the hydration breaks is being dictated by the sponsors.  Absolutely disgusting.  I think it's the first advert break I've ever seen whilst a game is still being played.  Not even a picture-in-picture advert break - nope, we fully cut away from the game.  It feels very American to try to turn the game into 4 quarters rather than 2 halves - and this is the first step in that direction.

World Cup Preview

We're finally at the eve of the World Cup starting.  Some thoughts on the tournament:

- I hope the US has a really bad World Cup.  Like not even getting out of the group stage.  It's not the team's fault, but thanks to their president they are the pantomime villains and everyone hates them and wants them to lose.

- I don't think England are going to have a good World Cup.  They won't get past the quarter finals.  And their games are going to be painfully frustrating to watch.

- In fact, I think generally the quality of football is going to be very low during this World Cup.  This is courtesy of searing temperatures and a bloated tournament full of too many countries who shouldn't really have qualified.

- Trump has and will ruin this World Cup in much the same way that he is ruining America's 250th birthday.

- This World Cup will be looked on as a disaster, and the US as a terrible host.  The football will be overshadowed by all the off-the-field issues.

- Attendance will be poor at many of the early games, and I fear a Superbowl-like artificiality to the atmosphere of most of the later games.

- I don't have any predictions on who the actual winner will be.  One of the usual suspects.

- It's going to be interesting to see whether the pitches hold up.  Most of the stadiums normally have artificial turf, so they've had to replace this with specially engineered grass - which has the potential to be awful.

- Some of the new rules being implemented for this World Cup will be ridiculous, and I expect at least one major VAR controversy.

- The US "soccer" coverage is going to be interesting.  I've already seen that the first US game will have a 3 hour pre-game show.  Good grief.  But at least the studio host is Rebecca Lowe, who has been the Premier League host here for ages and does a great job at that.  And I notice that Zlatan is going to be one of the pundits - which should be entertaining at least, even if he doesn't exactly provide any interesting insights.  I don't hold high hopes for the quality of commentating - but thankfully they are mostly British.  

   

Team Meeting

I've got a dilemma.  There is a team meet up taking place next Wednesday in Seattle (well, strictly speaking, in Bellevue - but that's the same distance away from me as Seattle is).  I don't really want to go.  It's at some Chinese restaurant where I don't think I'm going to like the food.  But some key people in my department are going to be there - including my manager's manager's manager's manager, my manager's manager's manager and my manager - so I feel some obligation to attend.  I don't really know why some of these people are flying up from California to be here.  This feels like nothing more than a brown nosing event, rather than them actually having some news (good or bad) to impart.  But there is an extra factor to consider.  England are playing their first World Cup game on the same day.  And I would miss it if I was to go to this meeting.  So I honestly don't know what to do.  I can almost guarantee that someone will spoil the score if I record the game and go.  But do I really care that much about watching the game live?  And how important is it for me to go to this meeting?  At no time has anyone said attendance is mandatory, but I feel like it is.  Or at the very least, my absence would be noted.  But do I really care?  As stated previously, I wouldn't mind getting laid off.  I've got until tomorrow to decide whether to go or not.  Let me sleep on it.   

Home Entertainment

I've taken my first steps to substantially upgrading my home entertainment system.  I've just ordered a new soundbar.  I found it new for less than half the retail price, which was too good a deal to pass up on.  And this is, by all accounts (or at least according to many of the online reviews) one of the best systems out there.  Even at the reduced price, it wasn't cheap.  But it features a 11.1.4 channel setup, which should result in some incredible sound.  Calling it a soundbar doesn't do it justice - it's more like a home theater system, with a wireless subwoofer and wireless rear speakers to go with the actual soundbar.  Now I need to pair it up with a high quality telly - I've got my eyes on a particular model, but it ain't cheap...

Vertigo

I can talk about this now, because I'm more or less over it.  But for about a week, I have been suffering from dizzy spells.  Not the more serious low blood pressure, fainting type of dizziness.  No, this was more like occasionally experiencing a spinning sensation.  In certain situations where I moved my head suddenly - especially when I moved position in bed, something I do a lot of - then I was getting really dizzy.  There is something deeply, fundamentally disturbing about experiencing a really spinning room while you're stationary and gripping hard onto whatever you can before things settle back to normal.  Fortunately these spells only lasted for a few seconds, but still very unsettling.  I think I was suffering from something called BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) - where, apparently, tiny calcium crystals get dislodged and go into the wrong part of your ear canal.  Isn't the human body a crazy thing.  But apparently this is quite common, especially for people over 50 (which I nearly am).  And fortunately I didn't have to live with this condition for too long.  But an unwelcome reminder that I'm going to experience more stuff like this as I get older.  

An Unexpected Visitor

I moved my trail camera in the hope of seeing new wildlife.  Well, my decision has paid off.  And in quite spectacular fashion:

Yes, that is a black bear going up my driveway towards my house.  And quite a large one at that.  I had absolutely no idea it was even possible for there to be any bears in my neighborhood.  It's not like my neighborhood is overly developed, but neither are there any big wilderness areas nearby.  I certainly haven't seen any bears here before, and I haven't heard about any here before either.  And judging from my landlord's reaction when I sent him one of the above photos - "Holy sh*t!!!" was the text I got back - I suspect he hasn't either.   

Watch Repair

It took me 3 days to notice that my watch had stopped running.  And I'd been wearing it for most of those 3 days.  Is it weird that I don't look at my watch that much?  Either way, I need to get a new battery fitted.  I took it in to a jewelers today, and the price they quoted just for a battery replacement was outrageous - almost the cost of the watch itself.  So I declined, and instead went home and ordered a very basic watch replacement kit from Amazon instead.  I'll do it myself - I think (hope) it isn't too complicated.  I think I just need to use the right tools to unscrew the back of the watch, and simply replace the battery (which I also need to order from Amazon).  It'll probably end up being a lot less easy than that, especially with my very limited expertise when it comes to doing fiddly things, but we shall see.