Not So Good Friday

A rough day at work to end the week.  Or, to be more accurate, another rough day at work to end the week.  The usual culprits - too much to do, too little time to do it, blah blah blah.  I wouldn't say I'm suffering from burnout just yet, only that the job is causing me stress and I'm not handling that stress very well.  But I think I've said all this in previous posts, so I don't need to repeat myself.  I just hate the fact that Easter Monday is not a public holiday here, so it's just a regular weekend before back to the grind on Monday.  Sigh.       

World Cup tickets (Not)

It hasn't even started, and I'm already over the World Cup.  The last official stage of ticket sales is underway, and I just checked and there are no tickets available for any of the Seattle games.  It was first come first served, so this isn't really a surprise.  I tried checking when the window first opened, but I didn't seem to get very far in the queue I was placed in - so I gave up.  Not that I would have bought a ticket at the outrageous prices they are going for now.  So I'm not going to see a World Cup game in person, which is a bit disappointing.  But maybe not, because I think this World Cup is going to be a total bust.  Too many games, too many mediocre teams, an England side that I don't think is going to do particularly well, and the large unwelcome shadow of Trump and his policies lingering over the entire tournament.  

Dramas

There seems to be a preponderance of episodic biblical dramas that have come out this Easter.  Certainly more than I've seen in previous years, and with significantly bigger production budgets.  I'm not sure what that says about the people making these dramas, or the people that consume them.  I suppose one shouldn't be surprised considering the lack of original content being produced by studios.  I am no fan of faith-based content, so I haven't watched any of these shows and cannot comment on their quality - but I can't say I'm surprised at their popularity in the US.

Italy

They may have beaten us in rugby and made the World Baseball Classic semi-finals, but at least we qualified for the World Cup.  Again.  Shocking.  

You Shall Not Pass

 "You shall not pass!"

DVR

I've found another reason to cut the cord.  I was having a look at the recordings on my DVR, and I noticed some episodes of a TV series that I had recorded a while back were no longer there.  And something else felt off - like there were other recordings that were missing.  And then I realized what had happened - which I was able to confirm online.  My DVR automatically deletes recordings that are a year old.  Something which I didn't know it did.  This is outrageous.  Yes, perhaps it is telling that I have not felt the need to watch something for a year.  But that doesn't mean that I don't want to eventually watch it - and it should be my choice if and when to delete it from my DVR.  Especially a DVR that is nowhere near full.  Now I needlessly feel the pressure to watch some of the older stuff on my DVR before I lose it.  

Spam

I don't think it's just me, but I've been seeing a noticeable increase in spam recently.  E-mails telling me to click this link because I've won a prize, text messages telling me that I need to pay a speeding fine, phone calls from numbers I don't recognize that even my carrier recognizes and flags as "Spam likely", even e-mails that tell me they've hacked my webcam and have compromising videos of me that they'll send to all my contacts unless I pay up.  We can probably thank AI for all this.  It feels like a thankless task continually blocking and reporting all these e-mails - but I shall persist.