Palace 1-0 Wolves

That feels like an incredibly important win for Palace.  It doesn't matter how ugly it was (against the bottom side, who missed a penalty, and only scoring in the last minute), a win is a win.  Especially a first home league win since the start of November.  Even if it is only a momentary respite from what has turned out to be a really downward spiraling season.  The prospect of relegation was unthinkable when we were in the top 4 - which doesn't seem that long ago - but here we are.  But a lot has happened since then - not least selling our best player and captain (without replacing him), our main striker being injured and wanting to leave, our manager already saying he's going to leave at the end of the season (if not forced out before, which is wild to think about considering how well regarded he was), a pitiful run of form (including an extremely embarrassing FA Cup exit), and having a new awful co-owner of the club.  What an epic collapse in such a short amount of time - I guess this is what it really feels like to be a Palace fan.         

Annual Pay Raise

This year, my annual pay raise was 2%.  Perhaps the lowest I've ever had.  Rest assured that it's not a reflection of my performance - which was "strong".  No, I think this is because I'm already one of the top earners at my particular level.  And yes, I could probably rectify this by getting a promotion - but I really am not seeking one, because I don't want the extra stress and responsibilities that come with that.  I did get a fairly decent bonus to make up for the measly increase in base pay, but still this pay raise is less than the current US inflation rate - which means that it is effectively a pay cut.  Which is disappointing to say the least.  Not surprising, but definitely disappointing.  Even more so when you consider how hard I've been working since the start of the year, and how stressful it's been.  But what can you do.  There just isn't the abundant job market out there for my kind of position any more.  

Hockey

I tried to watch the USA vs Slovakia ice hockey semi-final today.  Perhaps the only occasion I've ever wanted a US team to win, mainly because I really want to see a showdown between Canada and the USA in the final (with every chance of lots of fights, lots of hard hitting and some serious political undertones).  However, the game today was unwatchable because the US and Slovakian jerseys were the same colo(u)rs.  I couldn't tell one team from the other - they both played in red, white and blue.  Including the same color helmets and pants (excuse the Americanism).  Utterly ridiculous.     

Winter Olympics

I've been watching a little bit of the Winter Olympics recently.  Not much, because the American coverage is nauseating.  But enough to know that I hope we beat the cheating Canadians in curling.  But let's be honest, curling is not worthy of being an Olympic sport.  It is ridiculous.  If curling is good enough for the Olympics, then all other kinds of "sport" should be.  My other observation is that this isn't really the Winter Olympics, more like the White Olympics.  Because the vast majority of sports seem to consist entirely of Caucasian athletes, with perhaps a few Asians thrown in for good measure.  Apart from the Jamaican bobsleigh team, are there even any black athletes competing?  Forgive the stereotyping, but you'd think there would be more black athletes in something like speed skating.  Instead speed skating is inexplicably dominated by the Netherlands.  Didn't we used to be quite good at it?  If we're going to win more medals, that's the kind of specialized and niche sport that we should be throwing more money at.  Like skeleton.  Fun fact was finding out my alma mater - the University of Bath - is where they train in skeleton.  I don't remember those facilities being there when I was a student there.

New Bond

I don't think this has been officially confirmed yet, but it appears that Jacob Elordi is going to be the next James Bond.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Admittedly I know very little of him as an actor.  But I know he is Australian - which is a serious red flag.  He wouldn't be the first Australian to portray Bond, but George Lazenby is arguably the worst Bond (or at least the worst actor to portray Bond, I actually think On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best Bond films).  As I look up Jacob Elordi's filmography, I haven't seen anything he's been in.  I have recently seen him in some trailers for Wuthering Heights, but that doesn't tell me anything.  And he apparently appears in Euphoria - a show that I started to watch but stopped after a while as I just couldn't get into it.  But I guess he must have a good American accent, as he portrayed a high school American football player in that show and has also portrayed Elvis before.  Let's hope he also has a good British accent.  

Lunar New Year

Happy (Lunar/Chinese) New Year!  I didn't celebrate it.  I would barely acknowledge it if it wasn't for my Chinese colleagues.  Apparently I should have cleaned my house before today, in order to sweep out bad luck.  Perhaps I should have, as I didn't feel very well today.   

President's Day

Happy President's Day!  Another of those weird US bank holidays which are too early in the year to really capitalize on.  However, because I need a break after what has been a very intense period of work, I am also taking off Tuesday and Wednesday.  And with typically spectacular timing, this looks like it is going to coincide with the coldest days and some possible lowland snow for the first time this winter.  Great.  I was thinking about driving over to the Olympic peninsula to do some hiking over there on one of those days off, but that seems very unlikely now with the forecast.  I hope I can at least make it to the coast.