Department of War

I saw this on TV recently.  I'll let you judge for yourself what you think of the messaging.  Personally, I find it obscene.

 

End of Summer

I know summer officially ended earlier last week.  But today it really felt like it, because it was the first time I had to turn my heating on this "fall".  And this was accompanied a few days ago by our first post-summer windstorm.  Not enough to knock out power for me, but enough to coat my driveway and deck with all manner of tree debris.  And with the sun setting now before 7 pm, summer is starting to feel like a distant memory.  This is the time of year when seasonal affective disorder starts to be a real threat.  Mind you that might not be an issue this year, because I can't say I particularly cared for the extreme hot and dry weather this summer....      

The Great British Baking Show

Now I've got Netflix, I can watch episodes of The Great British Baking Show (as Bake Off has sadly been renamed in the US).  And I watched the first episode of the most recent series today.  I think the success of each season depends a lot on the quality of the competitors.  Judging by the first episode, this season is not going to be a good one.  The casting seems particularly bad.  There are an abnormally high number of either really annoying characters (in particular the girl who should have been sent home after the first episode) or really dull characters (like the star baker from the first episode).  Where are the "normal" people?  The show has been going on for a long time - has it finally lost its luster (lustre)?  Changing up one of the judges might be a way to help it stick around for a few more years - and Nigella seems like a good fit.  But I wonder whether this is just a short term fix for an increasingly stale-feeling show.   

The Worst Bond Scene

No surprises, this is by far the worst scene across all the James Bond films.  And it's not even close.  A harsh lesson that James Bond and CGI should not be mixed.

Spam

I am definitely receiving a lot more spam e-mails than I ever used to.  And it seems to be getting worse.  I wouldn't mind so much if those e-mails just ended up in my Junk folder.  But nope, some of them have started creeping into my Inbox.  I don't know how because they are clearly spam - some are not in English, some have attachments, some are just the most insultingly obvious phishing attempts.  Naturally, I think we have AI to blame - making it easier to automate sending out these e-mails.  But I think we also have to consider data leaks exposing my e-mail address - and I've definitely been a victim of data leaks, because I have received a few (very small) settlements from some of them.  Whatever the reason, it seems to me that the email providers (specifically, Microsoft) could do a lot better job to filter out this crap.       

Septic Tank

I have a septic tank, and I woke up this morning to the septic tank alarm going off.  Not good.  This is where I'm glad I'm renting and I'm glad my landlord lives next door.  He discovered that the septic tank pump is no longer working.  So while my landlord fixes the issue, I have to be very careful about my water usage.  My yard is currently a mess where they've been digging up where the septic tank is, so I'm going to have to do a lot of clearing up after they've finished.  I think they've also been using a lot of my water - and guess who pays the water bill...  And to make things worse, a septic tank guy came round this afternoon to pump the tank.  But he managed to run over my trail camera while reversing up my drive.  Even the memory card in the camera got destroyed.  At least he ordered me a new camera - but I've lost footage from the last 3 weeks or so, and I don't think the new camera is as good as the one I had (which is no longer available).  And just now I've lost a couple of eBay auctions on some James Bond trading cards I really wanted.  Not a good day.  

Dahlias

On a lunchtime walk today, I came across a colorful display of dahlias that someone had clearly spent a lot of time maintaining.  I had to snap a few photos, because the flowers were really attractive and vibrant.  I'm no gardener, but I would definitely consider growing these if I was.