Happy New Year!

My only New Year's resolution is not to make any more New Year's resolutions. 😏  And to never use an emoji in this blog ever again. 

Padilla Bay (Again)

Since I wanted to get a few things at the big Walmart north of Seattle, I took a detour to do the hike along Padilla Bay today.  This is one I've done before - in fact, just about a year ago as a search on my blog revealed.  A cold, wet, windy, overcast day didn't make for a particularly fun 4 mile trek - sadly no bald eagles to be seen, but lots of big flocks of migrating geese overhead. 

Some Highlights from a 30-Minute Trump Interview

"Virtually every Democrat has said there is no collusion.  There is no collusion."

"I think it's been proven that there is no collusion."

"There was collusion with the Russians and the Democrats.  A lot of collusion."

"I won because I campaigned properly and she didn't.  She campaigned for the popular vote.  I campaigned for the electoral college."

"Paul Manafort only worked for me for a few months."

"There was tremendous collusion on behalf of the Russians and the Democrats.  There was no collusion with respect to my campaign."

"What I've done is, I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department."

"I'm the one that saved coal.  I'm the one that created jobs.  You know West Virginia is doing fantastically now."

"They made the Russian story up as a hoax, as a ruse, as an excuse for losing an election that in theory Democrats should always win with the electoral college.  The electoral college is so much better suited to the Democrats."

"I was for Strange, and I brought Strange up 20 points.  Just so you understand.  When I endorsed him, he was in 5th place.  He went way up.  Almost 20 points."

"I endorsed Roy Moore.  It became a much closer race because of my endorsement.  People don't say that.  They say 'Oh, Donald Trump lost'.  I didn't lose, I brought him up a lot."

"We have spent, as of about a month ago, $7 trillion in the Middle East.  And the Middle East is worse than it was 17 years ago. .... $7 trillion."

"I know the details of taxes better than anybody.  Better than the greatest CPA.  I know the details of health care better than most, better than most."

"We've created associations, millions of people are joining associations.  Millions.  That were formerly in Obamacare or didn't have insurance.  Or didn't have health care.  Millions of people."

"Now that the individual mandate is officially killed, people have no idea how big a deal that was.  It's the most unpopular part of Obamacare.  But now, Obamacare is essentially... you know, you saw this, .. it's basically dead over a period of time."

"We see the drugs pouring into the country, we need the wall."

"They have a lottery in these countries.  They take the worst people in the country, they put them into the lottery, then they have a handful of bad, worse ones, and they pull them out.  'Oh, these are the people for the United States'.  We're going to get rid of the lottery."

"I like very much President Xi.  He treated me better than anybody's ever been treated in the history of China."

"North Korea is a problem that should have been handled for the last 25 years.  This is a problem, North Korea.  That should been handled for 25, 30 years, not by me.  This should have been handled long before me.  Long before this guy has whatever he has."

"When I campaigned, I was very tough on China in terms of trade.  They made - last year, we had a trade deficit with China of $350 billion, minimum."

"We lost $71 billion a year with Mexico.  Can you believe it?"

"$17 billion with Canada - Canada says we broke even.  But they don't include lumber and they don't include oil.  My friend Justin he says 'No, no, we break even'.  I said 'Yeah, but you're not including oil, and you're not including lumber'.  When you do, you lose $17 billion."

Overrated Films

I want to mention 2 films that I've seen in the last few days.  The first is Get Out.  This is, by all accounts, one of the best films to come out in 2017.  Universally acclaimed, appearing in most critics best-of lists, with many having it as #1 film of the year, I had DVR'ed it a little while ago and finally got round to watching it recently.  For the life of me, I do not understand what the fuss is all about.  I mean it was alright and everything, but nothing special and entirely unmemorable - maybe just not by cup of tea, me not being the biggest fan of horror nor stupid plot devices.  The second film I want to mention is Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which I finally got round to watching today.  A good film for sure, and certainly a lot better than The Force Awakens, but it didn't really blow me away as much as I had hoped.  Some good action, some good melodrama, a satisfying and twisty plot, and unsurprisingly it looked great, but still a bit too formulaic, too many one-dimensional characters, and I absolutely HATED the porgs - clearly included only and entirely for cuddly toy marketing purposes.  Would love to see a darker version of this film - but then that wouldn't be the film that all the kids want to see and wouldn't make billions of dollars.  I've always been a cynical person, but I fear that as I'm getting older I'm getting more cynical if that's even possible - at this rate, I'm going to reach a time point soon where I don't get enjoyment from anything whatsoever.  That is a scary thought.

Mercer Slough Nature Park

Went to Bellevue (the boring cousin to Seattle) this morning for a walk at Mercer Slough Nature Park.  A perfectly pleasant park including some wetlands, a blueberry farm (very much NOT in season!) and a lot of detours because they are building a new light rail station next to the park.  Still a lot of snow on the trail, so the 2.5 mile trek seemed longer.  But made for a very serene walk, especially with the lack of other trail users - maybe saw about 4 other people on the entire walk (though, unsurprisingly, one of those couples had an unleashed dog...).

Happy Boxing Day

Still cold - so spent some of the day shoveling snow to clear my driveway.  I don't think I've ever had to do that anywhere I've ever lived before.  Not how I would like to spend Boxing Day!  But at least I got some exercise and think I did a pretty good job considering it was my first time - enough to actually be able to drive out of my driveway.  Hopefully this means I won't be snowed in another day - though another freeze overnight probably will turn my driveway icy tomorrow morning.  Not good when your driveway is quite long and quite steep.  I hope this isn't going to be an issue all through the winter.  I definitely need to start paying more attention to the weather forecast.

Merry Christmas

Look what I woke up to this morning.  Pretty!

Christmas Movies

It's a Wonderful Life.  Miracle on 34th Street.  White Christmas.  Nope, I've never watched any of these.  For me, Christmas is about Home Alone.  Trading Places.  Elf.  Is Uncle Buck a Christmas film?  I don't think so, but I'd rather watch that at this time of year than Die Hard, even though Die Hard is the much better film and ostensibly a "Christmas movie".

North Creek Park

The first of what I hope will be many walks over the holiday period (though maybe not over the next few days with snow in the forecast!), today I went to North Creek Park.  Not too far away from where I live, this is a park I have frequented before for it's convenience - basically a series of boardwalks over some wetlands.  Probably not a good idea to go there on a cold day such as today, since the boardwalks end up becoming very slippy - but I wanted to go somewhere this afternoon.  It's not even a particularly good walk - short (about 1.5 miles total), flat, not particularly photogenic (there are some spurs off the trail signposted as "viewpoints" - but as far as I could tell absolutely no views at the end of them!) and quite busy (including 2 of my pet hates - dogs off their leashes, even though the park rules clearly state the opposite, and loud and obnoxious Asian people on the trail - thanks Trump's America for enabling my covert racism!).  But lots of bird life (including some circling bald eagles) and a short but much-needed invigorating stroll on a frigid day. 

Temporary Respite

It was like a ghost town in the office today.  Most people have stayed home or gone away for the holidays, and only a handful of people – including myself – bothered to come in.  Eerily quiet – a perfect time to get stuff done, if I actually had stuff that needed to get done!  We’d already been told that we could leave at noon – so after a few of us went out to get some chowder for lunch and had a few games of ping pong, departed the office and a welcome 10 day break from work to look forward to!  Might actually be the last time I play ping pong for a few months – they are remodeling the ping pong space into more offices and cubes, so we are temporarily homeless.  Probably for the best, I need the break as my current form is abysmal.  As well as finishing runner-up in the tournament, I also remain ensconced in the #2 position on the ladder – absolutely incapable of beating the #1, no matter how many times we play.  And recent matches have not even been close.  In addition, a right-hander has started to play left-handed due to an injury to his right shoulder and has even managed to beat me playing left-handed.  That was totally humiliating, and not the way I wanted to see out the year!  The curse of being competitive but being useless at sports strikes again….!

White Christmas

Snow is in our forecast!  We've got a weak winter storm hitting our region tonight, and another stronger one lined up for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.  The weather forecasting is notoriously poor round here, so every chance this will be a bust - but it would nice to see some snow on Christmas Day.  But only Christmas Day, because I don't want icy roads and bad driving conditions any other day - otherwise it's going to be a very boring holiday break of not getting out very much!  At the very least, I want to go out to see Star Wars.

Season of Goodwill (not)

Work continues to rile me up – getting me in a mood that is hardly becoming of the festive season.  Yet another lengthy team meeting scheduled for tomorrow by my manager, where we “discuss” some issues – but really, in effect, there is absolutely no discussion since my manager makes the final decision on every single little thing – classic micro-managing.  So we don’t even need to have a meeting – an e-mail would suffice.  And on the penultimate day before the company shutdown next week – what an absolute waste of time.  I know I shall be checking out during this meeting, and imagine I won’t be the only one.  Stupid to have it right before everyone is out of the office for 10 days.  And then, on top of everything else, I have discovered that I am being severely underpaid for my position.  Entirely by accident, I was checking out open positions at my company and I came across a couple of postings for positions with my job title – and I decided to take a look at them.  They weren’t really open jobs, but were both a “notice of filing an application for permanent employment certification” – essentially a token effort to advertise the job to anyone when they want to bring in someone with a work visa.  No surprises, yet another Chinese or Indian is going to join our group...  But what is interesting is that this notice has to specify both the minimum requirements and annual salary for the position.  The minimum requirement is shockingly, only 3 years of experience with a Masters degree.  I’ve got over 5 times that!  Very, very depressing how much my career hasn’t advanced.  But what was even more distressing was the annual salary range specified.  I am, very much, at the bottom end of that range.  That means that (a) I’m being very underpaid for both my experience and expertise (at least relative to other people at my company), and (b) that I’ve been lied to on multiple occasions by my manager saying that I am being paid a competitive salary.  As you can imagine, I’m not happy.  Once again, I have to question if this job is worth it.  Something has to change next year or I don’t see myself staying. 

The Curse of Intelligence

I’m not sure whether I’m still “highly intelligent”, but at the very least I used to be (intelligent enough to be a member of Mensa anyway!).  I came across the below article – which although very dry and very poorly written, does contain some truths that I can definitely identify with.  It’s fair to say that I exhibit more than my fair share of mood and anxiety disorders.  Perhaps this is just because I’m too intelligent.  Boo-hoo to me and my big brain.





There are advantages to being smart. People who do well on standardized tests of intelligence — IQ tests — tend to be more successful in the classroom and the workplace. Although the reasons are not fully understood, they also tend to live longer, healthier lives, and are less likely to experience negative life events such as bankruptcy.

Now there’s some bad news for people in the right tail of the IQ bell curve. In a study just published in the journal Intelligence, Pitzer College researcher Ruth Karpinski and her colleagues emailed a survey with questions about psychological and physiological disorders to members of Mensa. A “high IQ society”, Mensa requires that its members have an IQ in the top two percent. For most intelligence tests, this corresponds to an IQ of about 132 or higher. (The average IQ of the general population is 100.) The survey of Mensa’s highly intelligent members found that they were more likely to suffer from a range of serious disorders.

The survey covered mood disorders (depression, dysthymia, and bipolar), anxiety disorders (generalized, social, and obsessive-compulsive), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. It also covered environmental allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disorders. Respondents were asked to report whether they had ever been formally diagnosed with each disorder, or suspected they suffered from it. With a return rate of nearly 75%, Karpinski and colleagues compared the percentage of the 3,715 respondents who reported each disorder to the national average.

The biggest differences between the Mensa group and the general population were seen for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. More than a quarter (26.7%) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20% reported an anxiety disorder—far higher than the national averages of around 10% for each. The differences were smaller, but still statistically significant and practically meaningful, for most of the other disorders. The prevalence of environmental allergies was triple the national average (33% vs. 11%).

To explain their findings, Karpinski and colleagues propose the hyper brain/hyper body theory. This theory holds that, for all of its advantages, being highly intelligent is associated with psychological and physiological “overexcitabilities”, or OEs. A concept introduced by the Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dbrowski in the 1960s, an OE is an unusually intense reaction to an environmental threat or insult. This can include anything from a startling sound to confrontation with another person.

Psychological OEs include a heighted tendency to ruminate and worry, whereas physiological OEs arise from the body’s response to stress. According to the hyper brain/hyper body theory, these two types of OEs are more common in highly intelligent people and interact with each other in a “vicious cycle” to cause both psychological and physiological dysfunction. For example, a highly intelligent person may overanalyze a disapproving comment made by a boss, imagining negative outcomes that simply wouldn’t occur to someone less intelligent. That may trigger the body’s stress response, which may make the person even more anxious.

The results of this study must be interpreted cautiously because they are correlational. Showing that a disorder is more common in a sample of people with high IQs than in the general population doesn’t prove that high intelligence is the cause of the disorder. It’s also possible that people who join Mensa differ from other people in ways other than just IQ. For example, people preoccupied with intellectual pursuits may spend less time than the average person on physical exercise and social interaction, both of which have been shown to have broad benefits for psychological and physical health.

All the same, Karpinski and colleagues’ findings set the stage for research that promises to shed new light on the link between intelligence and health. One possibility is that associations between intelligence and health outcomes reflect pleiotropy, which occurs when a gene influences seemingly unrelated traits. There is already some evidence to suggest that this is the case. In a 2015 study, Rosalind Arden and her colleagues concluded that the association between IQ and longevity is mostly explained by genetic factors.

From a practical standpoint, this research may ultimately lead to insights about how to improve people’s psychological and physical well-being. If overexcitabilities turn out to be the mechanism underlying the IQ-health relationship, then interventions aimed at curbing these sometimes maladaptive responses may help people lead happier, healthier lives.

California Dreamin'

Just booked a work trip to California in January.  Not particularly happy about doing so, this is not going to be a fun trip.  Which is the main reason I’m not going to stay the weekend to take in San Francisco – I’m going to be in no mood to do so.  Basically, it is because my manager wants to have a face-to-face meeting to discuss my performance review.  Well I definitely haven’t got a promotion, otherwise I would have found out by now.  That is disappointing but no surprise – to get a promotion I need to have shown that I can successfully lead the statistical programming deliverables for a study (which I haven’t had the opportunity to do so for a very long time) or show a willingness to take on direct reports (something I don’t want to have to do).  And I suspect that for the second year in a row, the performance rating I gave myself (2 out of 5 – where 1 is very good, and 2 is very bad) will be downgraded by her to a 3 (or, god forbid, worse).  This is undoubtedly going to piss me off, no matter how much I know it’s coming, so then the question comes how do I deal with that.  At the moment I’m thinking that I have to flat out tell her that I’m unhappy with how I’m currently being used, I’m unhappy with her as my manager and that it simply isn’t working out between her and me.  This is not going to go down well – but if I want to continue working here (which I kind of do, though I still plan to apply for any suitable positions I find in SoCal next year) then something has to change, and that means a change in manager and a change in the programming group I currently work in so that I, hopefully, don’t feel as undervalued, underappreciated and underused as I currently do.  I hope I can articulate that well, but in the heat of the moment I don’t know whether I will.  I hate her management style (micro-managing every little thing; lots of stupid, pointless and time-consuming meetings; doing so many things to undermine my position, my responsibilities and the way I like to work) – but as much as I’d like to, I can’t really tell that to her face.  I might see if I can schedule a 1-1 with her manager whilst I’m there – I’ve heard jack sh*t from him since I let him know some of my concerns and unhappiness earlier this year, so I need to follow-up on that (though I expect he will continue to do nothing to help my situation – I get the strong impression he is useless).  Otherwise I will continue to be stuck and unhappy in a job going nowhere with a manager who doesn’t respect me.  That’s not good. 

The Deuce

I finally finished watching the first season of The Deuce today.  A good show for sure, which I would recommend if you don't mind watching a dirty and seedy depiction of a dirty and seedy early 70's New York (and I think this show particularly pushed the boundaries of nudity and sex).  Since this series was by the creators of The Wire, the "best television show ever", I obviously had unreasonably high expectations - which I don't think it quite met (though it would make a great drinking game to have a drink whenever you see an actor who was in The Wire!).  But it was definitely watchable and engrossing, if at times very bleak, and it has been renewed so I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes next (as opposed to Vinyl, which was also on HBO and also set in New York in the early 70's - but I guess music/drugs is not as good a combination as porn/prostitution!).

Tree Debris

I HATE tree debris.  It gets all over the place, and I am treading it into my home and into my car.  It's meant that I have to vacuum my floor well more often than I really want to.  And I have a lot of outdoor cleaning to do - just check out my deck:

And this is after I had cleaned it once before.  Then we had a stormy night and a load more crap fell down off the trees again, making it a big waste of time.  I could sweep it up, but I'll probably see if I can borrow a leaf blower off a friend which will make things a bit easier.  My landlord might even have one I can borrow - I'm pretty sure he has used it to clean up some of the leaves on my driveway (or at least someone has!).

Dusk at Lake Union

I can feel myself developing a cold – the last few days have seen me develop a sore throat and the sniffles.  No coughing yet, but I’m sure that is to come.  Apparently it’s been going round the office, so thank you to my colleagues for spreading it to me.  The weather probably hasn’t helped – it’s been cold, with temperatures regularly dipping below freezing overnight.  This has made for nice clear days – so here are some photos from when I went for a brief “dusk” walk (i.e. around 3.30 pm) around Lake Union from the office a few days ago.  I think we are back to rain this weekend.  Boo.

Great American Baking Show

The “Great American Baking Show” got pulled from the schedules this week due to harassment claims made against one of the judges.  I never trusted Mary Berry.  I jest, because just like the British one Mary Berry is no longer a judge on the show.  So it must be Paul Hollywood then?  I always thought he was a bit of a creep.  But no, it isn’t him either.  It’s the American judge who I’ve never heard of who has had the harassment claims made against him.  And so – in this climate of high profile males being accused of all manner of unsavory and unpleasant behavior – the network has just yanked the show from the air.  Disappointing, yes.  Unsurprising, no.  With the sheer number of allegations being made against high profile people, including the President, then the slightest whiff of scandal is enough to scare any network into extreme action like this.  I do believe in “innocent until proven guilty” – but the sheer scale of sexual misconduct on some of those accused is shocking and inexcusable.  And that includes the “pussy grabber” President of the United States.  How he has continued to get away with this, when a lot of the other high profile “celebrities” who have said or done a lot less worse have not, is beyond me. 

Bama

Perhaps I’m too cynical, but I’m not as overly impressed with the Alabama result yesterday as most of the liberal media.  Yes, it was unusual for a Democrat to beat a Republican in an extremely red state.  But then, this was hardly a usual election.  The losing Republican still got 49% of the votes, even though he was a sexual predator of teenage girls and ridiculously far-right of far-right on many of his beliefs and issues.  If thing were “normal”, he should never have been allowed to run (let alone receive support from the President) and then should have been crushed at the polls.  I hope this is a wake-up call for both the Republican Party and the President – continue on their self-destructive agenda and they will continue to lose, and lose heavily, in subsequent elections.  But the Democratic party is still a mess – divided, directionless and lacking leadership.  This was not a win for the Democrats.  This was a vote against and a loss for Trump and the Republican party.  Do I think he will change?  No, he is a petty and vindictive man-child who will say or do anything to stay on the front page of newspapers – no matter how controversial, how untrue or how ridiculous that might be.  But perhaps the Republican Party comes out of this even worse – unable to put forward a decent candidate, unable to pass meaningful bills, and unwilling or unable to stand up to the President.  If more of them did, then perhaps they would earn more of my respect – but since they don’t, even though privately I suspect most of them hate Trump, they are just going to meekly concede power through losing one election after another.   

Ugly Sweater

The first and only day in my life when I missed owning an ugly sweater – it was ugly sweater day at work today.  Maybe I can pick up one for cheap after Christmas?  Seems like there are absolutely dozens of great ones to choose from on Amazon.  I might see if the price goes down on this one:

Christmas Plans

I’m kind of disappointed with myself – I haven’t made any plans to go anywhere during the Christmas break (we have the week off work between Christmas and New Year), and although I probably haven’t left it too late to book something up I don’t really feel particularly motivated to do so.  I’m not really sure why that is – maybe another expense I don’t want to have on top of the car I’ve just bought, maybe because the weather has been so good here for the last week or so that I don’t feel the need to go away (guaranteed it will be wet and miserable when the time comes!), maybe because I didn’t really have anywhere specific in mind that I wanted to go to.  There are places I thought about as good winter destinations – Florida, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, parts of California I somehow have not visited yet (in particular, Death Valley and Joshua Tree) – but I might just stay put.  As long as I keep myself busy and as long as I’m not alone all the time – I’m fairly sure I have some friends not going anywhere either – then I should be fine.  Really, I haven’t had any significant vacation all this year – which is something I definitely want to rectify next year.  And I suspect that if I might actually be used correctly in my job and have more work to do next year, then I might actually need to take a vacation!  So I’m going to use a word I truly HATE, but it looks like my Christmas break this year is going to be a staycation.  I suck.

Nothing

Well, I forgot to post something yesterday.  But it's not like I had anything important to say.  Or at least, nothing new - my thoughts on things like work or Trump have not changed in the least bit.  But I've been accused of being too negative in some of these entries, so I've tried to limit my rants on such topics.  Though I feel a work one is brewing up - I'm normally in a foul mood after a 1-1 with my manager, which is next scheduled for Wednesday, and she has really started to get on my nerves recently (just in time for the performance review time of the year.... which means me desperately trying to bite my tongue when talking to her, and needing an outlet for my frustration) - so you've been warned.

Hangover

What happens during a drunken night out stays during a drunken night out!  I was not feeling good this morning at all - a pounding headache after imbibing quite a bit last night thanks to the free bar.  It was a good night - indeed turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected - but didn't get the long lie in I really wanted.  It seemed that when I went to bed in the early hours, before I knew it I was wide awake with this thudding headache and I only got a few hours of heavy sleep at best.  But at least I didn't throw up!  So hardly the most constructive of days today, and still feeling a bit rough around the edges this evening.  I don't generally drink much alcohol nowadays, so on the rare occasion that I do then I think it hits much harder.  I missed out on winning any raffle prizes, though my friend sitting next to me at our table - and who wasn't even going to come the party until I persuaded him - won $1000.  He'd better at least treat me to a meal next week!   

Holiday Party

Unusually, I'm not writing this at work or at home but actually from a room in a downtown hotel.  This evening is our company holiday party, and it's been held in a downtown hotel called The Arctic Club (it's apparently "historic", or some such nonsense).  I decided to splurge and book a hotel room for tonight.  It's not like I actually enjoy these shindigs - lots of painful and awkward small talk with people I don't care much for, made worse by the fact that most people bring their partners so I'm often a third wheel.  But at least I can let loose and have a few drinks tonight without having to worry about driving home (as long as I don't get too drunk and make an ass of myself! - but I doubt that will happen),  But I'm hoping also for a decent night's sleep on a comfortable bed (the room seems very nice) - but that might not happen as one of my colleagues has threatened to drink and will want to crash in the room as well...  We shall see.  Now to make use of the whirlpool bath before heading to the party.  Nice!

Sunset yesterday evening:

Self-centeredness

Sometimes I’m totally oblivious to things around me.  For example, I only realized this week that I hadn’t seen 2 people around the office for some time.  These were people I wasn’t close with, but enough to recognize them and say hello if we passed each other in the hallway – I didn’t remember their names, and one of the guys I only knew as “stretch” because he is incredibly tall.  Well, after finally recalling their names – I found they were not on the company directory and are no longer employed here.  And for quite a few months.  I am so clearly out of the loop on the comings and goings in the office – I used to be very well informed by a colleague who dealt a lot with removing online permissions when people left, but now he has left I haven’t got a clue what's going on in our office of approx 200 people.  I suspect there are more people upstairs that have also left but again I only had minimal interaction with and who I don’t even think about now.  And having just scanned some e-mails and tried looking up a few more names that I have worked with in the past but who I haven’t seen for a while, there are at least 2 more people who are no longer here and who I had no idea were no longer here.  And they left about a year ago.  Jeez, I am just totally clueless.   

Do I have to heat my home?

My electric bill for the month of November was nearly 4 times what it was during the month of September.  That seems like an awful lot.  I hate forced air heaters.  It appears that I need to reprogram my thermostat to heat the house less, and either wrap up more or try to get a natural fire going in the fireplace downstairs (apparently the tenants before me tried that unsuccessfully, so with my limited household skills I'm more likely to burn the house down).

Car Doubts

I’ve had my new car less than a week, and I’ve already encountered a number of bad omens:
-          The low tire pressure warning came up on my dashboard on my first significant drive, which spooked me out.  Checked the tire pressures, but everything seemed OK.  Then after recalibrating, it came on again.  I took the car into the service center this morning and they just topped up my air, but this is something to keep an eye on.  It has been very cold last few days, which might be affecting the tire pressure – but still, don’t expect the sensor to be quite this sensitive.
-          Already, there has been a time when the car did not recognize my iPod.  This is alarming – without a CD player, and a reluctance to listen to radio, my iPod is my only desired audio source, so it has to work.  I reset my iPod and the car seemed to recognize it again, so hopefully all is good.  But again, something to keep an eye on.
-          I officially do not like lane assist on the car.  I have done some freeway driving now where on a couple of occasions my car has decided to take on a mind of its own and adjust the steering itself.  Even though I’m comfortably driving within a lane.  So the jerk to the steering wheel is both unnecessary and unexpected.  And incredibly off-putting.  If this continues, I might just have to turn off this feature.
-          My car doesn’t come with a cover for the boot area behind the rear seats, so everything that I leave there is exposed for anyone to see.  I had this cover when I bought my last car, so I didn’t even think about it for this car – so I’m disappointed with myself for not realizing that it wasn’t automatically included when I bought it.  At the moment I’m just using a spare comforter I’ve got to cover everything in the back, which is probably sufficient but not anywhere near as nice as a properly fitted cover – but I was looking at prices of covers and they are not cheap ($200).  I could have used this as a bargaining chip when I bought the car, so I’m kind of annoyed that I missed it. 

Voicemail

My work extension is x2000.  A horrible number, because it makes my direct line to the outside world look like a main number – so I get all sorts of weird wrong numbers, which is why I tend to never pick up the phone on any external numbers.  So, this morning I noticed I had a voicemail.  Oh boy, it was an interesting one.  It was from Ron, and he wants to be a member of the Trump team.  He basically described his experience, his height (???), his education, his availability and how much he wanted to help Trump, for free.  Bizarre, amusing and slightly scary.  Clearly from Trump’s target demographic – old, male, white – I have no idea who he thought he was leaving a message for, but I hope he calls again as I might actually answer and tell him where to stick it.  I’m particularly not happy with Trump at the moment – of all the awful things he’s done so far, reducing the size of national monuments to allow mining companies to exploit the land might be the worse.  Reprehensible, and unforgivable.  I hope Native American and environmental groups can delay this action in the courts indefinitely until someone sensible is in charge of the country and can rescind this.  The best thing about America is the landscape – from the mountains to the desert and everything in between – and to threaten that is outrageous and repugnant.  F*ck Trump and his horrible sycophants. 

Christmas Decorations

I'm in a quandary.  Now I live in a house, should I make more of an effort with Christmas decorations?  But then my house is hidden from the road, so nobody would see my decorations apart from me and my immediate neighbors - so it just doesn't seem worth it.  I just don't know.  I've got some fairly basic decorations which could easily be sufficient, but probably a long way short of really getting into the holiday spirit.  Definitely can't say that about work - our admin assistant has been putting up tinsel and decorations everywhere, so the office is looking very festive.  I think there is also a competition for the best decorated cube, and I think there is also an ugly sweater day coming up.  They had none of these things last year, so definitely seems like somebody has said something about the holiday atmosphere at work or the lack thereof.

New Car Part 2

Well, here she is - my "black mamba":

Sorry for the not particularly good photos - it's been raining all day and I didn't want to get in the rain or take the car out of my car port!

So what is new compared to my old car?  Lots and lots of cameras.  The rear view camera is I think now compulsory on all new models, but is new to me - and this one is multi-view.  It's also got a camera under the right wing mirror - which comes on whenever I signal right, which is kind of weird because it's not normally necessary to check that mirror when I signal.  There is also another camera at the top of the car which is used for lane assistant - one of the many safety features on this car that I'm unfamiliar with.  As we get closer and closer to self-driving cars, I guess these kind of features are just going to become more prevalent.  The other nice touch for this car is that it is a hatchback, but the back seats can fold down flat which gives a lot of storage space.  I've also got a nice touchscreen display - it doesn't come with built-in navigation, but when I connect my iPhone then I do essentially have navigation on the screen via my phone. 

I've still got a sunroof and I've still got automatic transmission (and I'll never go back to manual!).  Compared to my old Fiesta, I'm missing the blind-spot mirrors on my wing mirrors which I kind of got used to and liked a lot because it meant I didn't have to look over my shoulder to check the blind spots.  I also think my Fiesta had seat warming - although I don't remember ever using it! - but I no longer have that.  I think maybe also the Fiesta had a bit of a quicker engine - although I am using the "Econ" setting on my new car to save on fuel mileage so maybe I'm not getting the full power available to me, and I'm maybe also holding back a bit as I get used to the car - but I definitely won't miss the horrible transmission on the Fiesta.  I will miss the CD player...

 

World Cup Draw

So - Belgium, Panama and Tunisia.  It will be a national disgrace if England can't get through that qualifying group.  Then a potential "easy" first knock out match against a team from Group H.  I will be disappointed if England don't get to at least the quarters.  But then, I have learnt never to underestimate how bad England can be at major tournaments.  Let's be honest, we have absolutely zero chance of winning the World Cup - so let's at least hope we don't play as badly as we did in the last Euros (i.e. get knocked out by a footballing powerhouse like Iceland).  Now, we can look forward to all our best players picking up injuries at the end of this season so that we end up with a beat up squad who in no way can fulfill our potential.

New Car Part 1

Yes, I have a new car.  Details and photos to follow - it's a 2018 Honda Fit EX.   Am I happy about getting a new car?  Yes.  Am I intimidated by the amount of technology you get in cars now?  Yes.  Am I disappointed that my car doesn't have a CD player, but I shouldn't be since I can just download all my music onto my iPod or iPhone?  Yes.  Do I hate going to a car dealership and dealing with slimy car sales people?  Yes.  Do I think I probably overpaid?  Yes.  Do I think the car buying experience should be more simpler, more straight forward and more transparent?  Yes.  Hopefully I won't have to do this again anytime soon.

Rice Cooker

I bought an automatic rice cooker several months ago, yet still haven't used it once even though I've had plenty of opportunities.  Clearly I'm a creature of habit.  And afraid of change.  Jeez, I'm even starting to sound old.

Monopoly

Another day, another tidbit from the internet.  This concerns Monopoly – a game I’ve apparently been playing incorrectly for 30+ years.  Probably much like the rest of the world.  This is in the official rules:

- According to Monopoly's official rules, when you land on a property space and you choose not to buy it, the property must be auctioned off by the banker, and the other players can bid on it.

I don’t think I’ve ever played it like that.  That makes the game decidedly quicker, and potentially more strategic – and hence more appealing.  Though nothing beats Stratego – the best board game ever.   

Logical

An interesting logical puzzle that wasted way too much of my time at work today:

Imagine that these six words have been written on a chalkboard: cat, dog, has, max, dim, tag. Three students—Albert, Bernard, and Cheryl—receive a piece of paper with a different letter written on it. Each letter is included in the secret word, which is one of the words on the board. The students need to determine, using logic, what the secret word is.

Their teacher asks Albert if he knows the secret word. After looking at his letter, Albert says yes. Bernard takes a moment to think, and then says yes, he also knows the secret word. Cheryl is the last to say yes. Which one is the secret word?

DON’T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO TRY TO WORK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF.















My logic goes as follows (with NO help from the internet – HONEST!):

Albert must have a letter that is unique across the 6 words.  Therefore the magic word CANNOT be tag – which has no unique letters.

The magic word also CANNOT be max.  If it was, then Albert must have had an x, in which case Bernard must have had an m or an a.  But if Bernard had an m, then he wouldn’t know if the magic word was max or dim.  And if Bernard had an a, then he wouldn’t know if the magic word was cat, has or max.  Therefore max cannot be the magic word.

The magic word also CANNOT be dim.  If it was, then Albert must have had an i, in which case Bernard must have had a d or an m.  But if Bernard had a d, then he wouldn’t know whether the magic word was dog or dim.  And if Bernard had an m, then he wouldn’t know if the magic word was max or dim.  Therefore dim cannot be the magic word.

This leaves the potential magic word as either cat, dog or has.

If the magic word was cat, then Albert must have had a c and Bernard must have had a t, in which case Cheryl must have had an a.  If the magic word was has, then Albert must have had an h or s and Bernard must have had an h or s, in which case Cheryl must have had an a.  But if Cheryl had an a, then Cheryl would not know whether the magic word was cat or has.  Therefore, by elimination, the magic word has to be dog.

Car Decisions

My totaled Ford Fiesta was towed today, so I am now officially - but hopefully only temporarily - without a car.  Though I am driving a rental - a Nissan Sentra, which in theory is a compact but which seems more like a mid-size car to me.  Which is why, when it comes to a new car, I think I will go for a sub-compact much like the Fiesta.  But not another Fiesta - because the transmission sucked.  I am remarkably unsure about what budget to give myself for a new car, and which year, make and model to go for - do I even consider a pre-used car, or specifically a certified pre-used car, in the hope of saving a bit of money?  Or do I even consider upgrading to a compact - I have been looking at the Honda Civic, which has remarkably good reviews.  This may be a performance upgrade from a Honda Fit, which is what I have also been looking at and which I think is still my first choice, but I think I prefer the size of a Fit - for example for squeezing into the tight parking spots in the work garage.  But I don't have much time to make a decision - insurance will only pay for 10 days of car rental - so I really need to decide, find, haggle and buy a car this week.  Fun. 

Darts

In an unexpected and welcome development, it seems that there may be at least one Christmas tradition I might not miss out on this year.  I saw a trailer on BBC America for World Darts!  As long as it's the PDC World Championship, and not the far inferior BDO World Championships, then I am happy.  I know that Sky show the PDC, and BBC show the BDO (do they still show it - does the BBC even broadcast any sports any more?  I don't know and I don't care) - but I wouldn't read anything into the fact that BBC America is broadcasting it here - the fact that they advertised it starting in December implies that is the PDC.  Which is great.  Only thing is that if they show it live, then all the matches will be during mornings.  When I'm at work.  And there is a good chance I will be out of town between Christmas and New Year, with no guarantees of staying somewhere with access to BBC America.  So who knows how much I will actually end up watching, but good to know it is being broadcast here.  That is more than can be said about the Ashes currently going on.

Movember

I gave a lot of consideration to not shaving my upper lip this month for Movember.  But I just couldn't bring myself to doing it.  I have spotty facial hair growth at best, and there is no way I would be capable of sculpting a decent looking mustache - and certainly not in combination with a goatee or suchlike.  And although it would be for a good cause, it's a bit too hipster-ish for my tastes.  And I hate hipsters. 

Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day!  I didn't actually have any turkey, but did have a chicken curry - so at least I was in the ball field.  Since I am housebound and there was nothing on TV today apart from some decidedly mediocre American Football games, somehow kept myself busy doing stuff around the house - including going through some boxes that I hadn't even unpacked since moving here.  Realized that I have way too many Lego sets for a grown man - which is kind of sad.

T-Bone

So, this is what happens when a Tacoma truck blows through a red light and t-bones a Ford Fiesta:

I was lucky - just think how serious the injuries could have been had it hit my door rather than the passenger door behind me. 

It was a horrible commute - dark, wet and slow with lots of traffic because of Thanksgiving.  So I'd finally got off the freeway and was on my way home.  On the way is a 4-way intersection that I go through most days at least once - about 3 miles from home.  The traffic light is red so I'm stopped first in line, and then it turns green so I go.  Suddenly I see these headlights approaching me very quickly to the left (the driver's side!) - and the thought "Is this it?" flashes through my mind.  I don't remember much about any noises - whether of brakes or the actual collision - I just remember turning my head slightly to face the headlights before being struck and spinning round.  This is where time gets a bit hazy - I must've remained in the car for about 5-10 minutes, definitely shaken up and in shock - with my car horn beeping and my airbags deployed.  Gradually get my senses back - realize that I'm not seriously injured thankfully - and open the door to get out of my car before a woman tells me to stay seated whilst police and the paramedics are on their way.  I can hear another woman calling 911, and the woman who told me to stay seated is telling me she is a medic and to stay where I am, and that she saw everything and that I wasn't in any way at fault.  So it feels like ages that I'm just sitting there in the car before the police and paramedics turn up - they take all the statements and details from myself, the Tacoma driver and the many witnesses.  Finally they clear up the mess, I'm able to drive the car into the parking lot of a nearby corner store (where I parked next to the car that hit me - that didn't seem to have any noticeable damage - I just asked if he was the one who hit me, and he apologized and asked if I was OK, and there's where I saw that he had a young daughter in his car as well - I imagine it must have been quite traumatic for her as well), and once I get the exchange of information details from the policeman, I'm left to my own devices.  First call the insurance company and give them all the information I need to start the claim, and then call AAA for a tow truck to take me and my car home.  And after a long 2+ hour wait for the tow truck, finally get home late in the evening.

I'm a little sore today - I've got some bruises on my arm, a nice welt on my neck where the seat belt cut into me and some general soreness on my left side, but nothing that I think warrants medical attention.  Fortuitously.  What I've also regained is some faith in humanity - from the many kind people who helped me right after the accident, to the professional demeanor of the emergency services, to the nice insurance woman talking through the process, to the Pakistani guy working at the corner store who let me stay inside whilst waiting for the tow truck.  That was all quite touching - especially in light of having just gone through what could be considered a near-death experience.

I was told that it can sometimes take ages to deal with these type of insurance claims - but this has gone surprisingly quickly today.  Presumably they have spoken to the guy, who admitted fault and accepted the liability.  I think having the same insurance company probably helped.  So I've already had someone inspect the damage on my vehicle - and assessed that the cost of repairs is more than the cost of the car, so it's a total loss.  Which means goodbye Ford Fiesta, and hello new car.  Unfortunate that I've recently splashed out on new tires and brakes for it, but hey it is what it is.  I'm stuck at home now until I pick up a rental car on Friday, then I guess I've got to look for a new car.  I wonder if I can get something for good value in a Black Friday type deal?

 

Accident

A brief entry, since it is late and I just got home, but I was in a car accident this evening.  I'll tell you more about it tomorrow, but the important thing is that I think I'm OK - if a bit shaken up - but my car less so.

Christmas Adverts

It's not even Thanksgiving yet, and I'm already sick to death of Christmas adverts on television.  They seem to start even earlier each year, and are just even more awful each year - cloying, overly sentimental and a horribly unrealistic depiction of the perfect American family enjoying Christmas, yet somehow contriving to advertise a car or some other crappy product or store.  I have no idea why the John Lewis Christmas advert has become a big deal in the UK - I don't think I've ever seen one in however many years they've been doing it - but the American ads are simply obnoxious and cynical.

Unhandyman

I tried to put together some Ikea furniture today.  Much to my chagrin and frustration, I had to give up.  It's not that I can't follow instructions - I did everything I was supposed to, but something was amiss because things weren't lining up and not everything was fitting together.  Ridiculous.  It was driving me crazy, so I just unscrewed and dismantled everything, and I'll try again this week.  I've never had trouble like this before - just within the last 6 months I've put together a chest of drawers that was way more complicated.  But it's clear that I have absolutely zero DIY skills - and renting probably doesn't help because I can just call up my landlord if something goes wrong and needs fixing, rather than trying to deal with it myself.  This just goes to show that I will make a terrible home-owner - and if/when I ever decide to buy a house, it will have to be modern and low maintenance - no fixer-upper for me.

Grudge Match

It seems that playing table tennis with a grudge and a chip on my shoulder really suits me.  Since losing the final of the tournament, I have played my victor 3 times.  And beaten him 3 times.  And quite comprehensively as well - to the extent that when we played yesterday and I beat him 6-1, he threw his paddle in frustration and broke it.  I can't begin to tell you how satisfying that was!  But it seems that defeat has galvanized my focus when I play him now, and I'm probably playing the best I've ever played - it's a great feeling when you're playing "in the zone" and nothing can get past you and you're pulling out all these great shots.  Shame it came a week too late...

Contrails

Americans love their military – hence all the furor about kneeling during the anthem at sports games.  However, look what appeared over the skies in part of our state yesterday:

Yes, nothing like the US military putting all their resources and expenses to good use.  By drawing sky penises.  Classy.

Dick's

I’m a big fan of the Doughboys podcast – ostensibly a podcast about chain and fast food restaurants, but really a funny podcast about a dysfunctional and increasingly brittle and deteriorating friendship between 2 comedians.  But the episode that dropped today was a must-listen to me because it was a live show from Seattle and they featured the eponymous Dick’s Drive-In – a local burger place that I frequent way too often!  And they were surprisingly flattering about their simple and old-fashioned menu – giving it 4.5 forks out of 5 (and membership of the Golden Plate Club!).  Personally, I don’t think it is as good as In N Out – which is somewhere I have to go to whenever I’m in California.  But yes, I also like Dick’s cheap and satisfying burgers.   

Tires and Brakes

My car has been handling really poorly recently - it feels like I'm driving on ice, and it's making me an extremely tentative driver.  I haven't had new tires on my car since I bought it 5 years ago - they seem quite worn, so I took the day off today in order to get new tires fitted and hopefully run some other errands.  All the more important and timely to get this done with the wet weather we're currently having, and cold weather expected for this winter.  It's always a dilemma to know where to get this done and not feel exploited.  So I went to one of the big chains with good Yelp ratings.  After they first tried to sell me some top of the range expensive tires, I finally settled on the cheapest ones.  But a pre-inspection also revealed that I needed new front brakes.  This didn't come as much of a surprise, since again I haven't had new brakes since I got my car and they were definitely getting worse.  So this turned out to be a very expensive day.  I feel like I was ripped off, but I probably wasn't.  It was also a horribly time-consuming day - just fitting the tires would only take an hour or so, but with the brakes it meant I was without my car all day.  At least they offered a shuttle service to and from my home, but I didn't get my car back until late in the evening - scuttling some plans I had to go out tonight.  A bad day indeed.

Number Two

I have a number two problem.  Not medical, but psychological.  I can't do number twos at work.  This is nothing new, I just cannot and never have and don't really know why - number one is no issue, though hardly pleasant because somebody at work has a serious aim problem.  This might be racially insensitive of me, but I suspect one of my Asian colleagues might be more used to a hole in the floor than a urinal (wouldn't that make your aim better?).  Anyway I digress, not being able to do number twos at work can be a problem.  Like today.  There was some free lunch going at work.  But the vultures are prevalent, so you have to act quickly.  Unfortunately the e-mail about the food went out at 10.30, but by the actual time that I went there it was 11.30 and all the best food had gone.  But there was some left, if a bit cold (think rice and veg), so I was able to have a little something.  However, a short time later I could feel my stomach turning.  Something was amiss.  Something was seriously disagreeing with me.  I don't know if I was the only one suffering - but I wasn't going to wait around to find out.  So hopped in my car, went home, and did my business there - and not a moment too soon as I'm not sure how longer I could've held it in.  But at least in the comfort of familiar surroundings.  And then worked from home for the rest of the afternoon.  Yes, a lot of time and effort just to avoid going to number twos at work - but c'est la vie (and a LOT pleasanter commute at that time!).  No regrets.  This is the least of my problems!

Windy

Most of the greater Seattle area is under a high wind warning today, with gusts over 60 mph.  Accompanying the wind is heavy rain, making for a nasty commute – so I don’t know what time I’ll be leaving work today (I’m writing this at work).  Living where I am now surrounded by trees, I get a bit more worried about this kind of weather than I ever used to since there is a much bigger chance of my being impacted now – whether by a power cut (from the online outage map, looks like my neighborhood is OK so far – but tens of thousands of people in the region are not), stuff coming off the trees (hopefully just leaves, but always paranoid about something bigger) and the increased chance of damage to the relatively old house I live in.  With the amount of stuff that has come down already – I should take and post a photo of my deck – I will probably need to do a lot of clearing up after this storm comes through.  I’m not going to bother raking up leaves, though I might have to clear my driveway if that gets much worse.  I still take having to deal with the kind of stuff anytime over living somewhere like my old apartment!

T-Shirt

I can't decide whether to get an Ivan Drago t-shirt

... or a "British" t-shirt.

What an unimportant dilemma.

DVR Films

I can't watch films on US broadcast and cable channels because they are constantly interrupted with adverts, modified to cut out or dub over swear words, and sometimes even cut entire scenes or parts of scenes (don't get me started on why they can't broadcast a swear word, yet all manner of fighting, shooting and violence is deemed acceptable for broadcast).  However, I subscribe to a few premium cable channels (like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz) and these show films uncut and unmodified, as they were meant to be seen.  So I've been recording quite a few films that I will eventually get round to watching - just tonight I'm recording The Lego Batman Movie and Trainspotting 2.  Also taking up space on my DVR: Get Out, Split, John Wick 2, La La Land, The Babadook, Hacksaw Ridge, Carol, Crimson Peak and It Follows.  So in addition to all the TV shows I am watching and recording, I have plenty of films to watch.  All the more reason why I need to get a new sofa, because it seems clear that I'm going to be spending a lot of time on it!

Lake Union

Still suffering a mental hangover from yesterday - I shouldn't let a stupid table tennis game bug me so much, but it is.  So since I wasn't get much done at work, and since it was also the last day without rain in the 10 day forecast, I decided to go for a long lunchtime walk around Lake Union.  I've done most parts of the walk before, but never the entire circuit in one go - even though my office is right by the lake.  But it is about 6 miles, and took me about 2.5 hours, so it was a very long lunch and a decent workout.  You get to see a lot of the houseboats like Tom Hanks lived in in Sleepless in Seattle!

Final

Finals today.  Of the office table tennis tournament (advanced bracket).  I gave myself a 1 in 5 chance of winning, against a not always better but certainly more consistent player than me – and the same guy who beat me in the 1st round of the last tournament we did.  The final score, I lost 3 sets to 2.  From leading 1-0, and then 2-1 up - yep, I still contrived to lose.  In a close one.  Devastating.  I was even up in the last set, and then I proceeded to tighten up and lose a string of points to give the game away.  I don’t think I’ve ever won a trophy before, even as a kid (?), and this was as close as it comes.  I’m gutted, destroyed, broken.  Perhaps it would have been better to have been blown out 3-0, rather than getting as close as this.  It was somehow inevitable – I’m not a winner, never have been, never will be (especially when it comes to sports).  The psychology of the game was probably fascinating, whereas my opponent was steady as a  rock I was fluctuating wildly in my form – sometimes great, sometimes really bad.  What was also interesting is that the crowd (and it was a sizeable crowd of maybe 50) was relatively quiet – I don’t think the standard of play was particularly high (and certainly not as high as we’ve played before), but I’m sure it was an engrossing match and made for a good spectacle.  It might take me a while to get over this, but as I said in my e-mail to the table tennis group afterwards – “It may take me months of therapy to get over losing the final, but it was fun!”.  More fun if I'd won.   

Wooooo!

ESPN do this fantastic sports history documentary series called 30 for 30 – I might have blogged about it before, and I highly recommend watching any of them if you get the chance.  Although they feature predominantly American sports and American athletes, most of which are quite interesting because I’ve never heard of them or their stories, they also occasionally go international – they recently did one about George Best.  The one that aired last night covered a “sport” and a sporting icon that I remember fondly from my teenage years.  I say “sport” because we are really talking about “sports entertainment” – yes, wrestling.  They did a feature on The Nature Boy – the Rolex-wearing, diamond ring-wearing, kiss stealing (WOOOOO!), wheelin’ dealin’, limousine riding, jet flying son of a gun Ric Flair.  A larger than life character, this was a must-see documentary for me – I might not watch wrestling as much as I used to, but I still follow it and Ric Flair is a legend.  It’s an interesting look at how a fictitious character can take over a real person – he claims to have lived the life that he bragged about in all his promos – hard partying, hard drinking (15 drinks a day for 20 years!), supposedly having slept with 10,000 women (!!!).  It’s difficult to know what is truth and what is not, but it made for a fascinating look at his life and how he lived it through his wrestling character to the detriment of his family, his wealth and ultimately his health.  The more you find out about these famous wrestlers from the 80s, the more you appreciate how alarmingly real the film “The Wrestler” was.

Round 2

Round 2 – semi-finals – of the ping pong tournament (advanced bracket) today at work.  My opponent was something of a wild card – someone I had never played before, and never even see play before.  The result: 11-8 11-6 11-4.  A comprehensive win, where I wasn’t really challenged and didn’t need to go out of second gear.  She was advanced enough to use a penholder grip and had a wicked forehand if I left it short on that side.  Unfortunately, that was the only good shot she had and so I was able to play around it – so it proved to be a comfortable, but ultimately unsatisfying, win.  The final is going to be a different proposition against the pre-tournament favorite, and during a happy hour at work with a much bigger crowd.  Yikes.

Why Texas Sucks

The all too common response to a mass shooting in America that drives me absolutely nuts:

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

So very frustrating and totally illogical, but not especially surprising in a place like Texas where guns and concealed carry permits are particularly prevalent – the only place I’ve ever worked at where it was actually necessary to have a sign at the workplace entrance to ask people not to take firearms into the office.

My Mood

Another mass shooting, another cycle - mass shooting, pleas for gun control from democrats and celebrities, silence from republicans, nothing happens, forget about it, until the next mass shooting.

Bills

When it rains it pours.  My electric bill was double what it was last month.  And probably going to get even worse with the amount I'm running the heating now.  My TIME magazine just got automatically renewed at over double the rate that I've seen it advertised for.  My internet/TV bill has increased this month because some of my bundle discounts have expired.  My car insurance rate and car registration costs are outrageous.  What am I, made of money?  And why do all these things seem to happen at the same time?  And I need to buy a load of new clothes since my current stuff is falling apart - just this week I lost a belt, a top and some jeans through wear and tear.  It might be time to cut down on my more material purchases (says the person who just ordered a few new Blu rays from Amazon!).  I also really need to buy a new mattress and a new sofa.  In fact, I would really like to buy a whole new lot of everything.  Oh boy.  For those of you who want more positive blog posts from me, you're going to have to wait!

Round 1

Today was my first game in the work table tennis tournament – Round 1 (quarter-finals) in the advanced bracket.  I’m probably seeded number 2 in the tournament – 3rd best player at work, but our best player is out injured so I've a reasonable chance of making it to the final.  Or so I thought.  The final score in Round 1: 7-11 11-4 11-5.  The only saving grace, I won.  But much, much closer than it should have been against a much inferior opponent, and a terrible, terrible first game – I was tight, I was nervous, and I couldn’t hit anything.  Fortunately got over it in the 2nd and 3rd games to avoid the shock defeat, but a tragic reminder of just how bad my glossophobia is (something I’ve come to recognize that I suffer acutely from).  This wasn’t speech anxiety, but a similar kind of anxiety that manifested itself when playing table tennis in front of a bunch of people.  I’m going to have to cope with my nerves a lot better if I’m going to progress.  Especially since my style of play should be crowd-pleasing – I’m a power player who likes to go all out on my shots.  Sadly, that style is very susceptible to nerves, and I refuse to adjust my style to the dark arts of spin.  You live by the sword, you die by the sword.     

PS It snowed today.  SNOW!  This is much earlier than normal.  It was quite pretty, and fortunately didn’t accumulate in most places.  But still, a bad omen for this winter.  I’ve already bought some ice melt stuff because I’m worried about being able to get my car down the long and steep driveway in icy conditions.

Job Update

So, it might be possible that my job satisfaction has reached a new low now.  And, I fear, this might be having the effect of making me into a bad employee.  I am miserable, unmotivated, unenthusiastic, slow and lazy – and this is starting to eclipse whatever skills and smarts I might possess, especially when I’m given so little opportunities to show my skills and smarts.  And I hate this.  This is not how I want to be.  Without a radical and extremely unlikely career change, I know I am never going to be as passionate about my job as I’d like to be.  But I would hope to get some degree of job fulfillment, and perhaps the thing I crave most is respect.  And that is something I don’t have currently – it’s not that I don’t deserve it, I’ve just had no opportunities to earn it.  It is very dispiriting – especially with a manager who, intentionally or unintentionally, I’m just not very compatible with and who simply doesn’t get me.  I fear my mental faculties are waning, I fear complacency, I fear irrelevance.  It’s, once again, making me seriously question my future.  Especially as I don’t see change coming to my position any time soon – there has been absolutely zero feedback so far since I made some of my concerns known to management about my situation.  And that is incredibly disappointing.  Those meetings went well, and I came away optimistic that something would change for the better.  I should know better when it comes to this place.  This is the same place that agreed upon and then rescinded a leave of absence I requested when I worked there before, so I quit.  Without change coming next year, I don’t see any recourse but quitting again.  It’s déjà vu – I don’t want to leave, but what choice do I have?

Thermostats

As the weather starts to get colder (some possible lowland snow is forecast for the weekend!), I am discovering new issues with my house.  I don't have central heating - but I do have a digital thermostat that controls the main heaters downstairs.  This works like a dream.  However, I also have other heaters that are controlled by analogue thermostats (such as in the kitchen and main bedroom) - and these do NOT work like a dream.  They are supposed to be temperature-controlled, but they don't seem to be affected by changes in temperature - essentially they are either on or off depending on how much I turn the dial.  That is frustrating - particularly for the one in my bedroom.  I can either leave it on and wake up way too hot or leave it off and wake up freezing.  Not good.  I think I need to let my landlord know, in the hope that he can do something about it. 

Washington Park Arboretum

As promised, I went for a 3 hour lunchtime walk from work today.  I don’t know how many miles that was, but it feels like quite a lot because my back is aching since coming back (just in time for the work ping pong tournament coming up – I play my Round 1 match on Friday).  I went to the Washington Park Arboretum – in the hope of catching some nice fall colors, but I think I probably missed the best of it.  This is kind of place you could go to a 100 times and never walk the same route - a big park with lots of trails crisscrossing it.  I stuck to a fairly basic route –  along the waterfront and then up and down the main paths through the park – but with so many different areas to explore I probably missed out on the best views and the best photo opportunities.  And just looking at their website, I should have printed out a map of the monthly highlights – oh well, next time I’ll know better (and I think I would like to come back at different times of the year, as it’s a nice place to go – and perhaps I can drive there so that I don’t spend quite so long away from work!).  Just a couple of photos:

Lack of Momentum

I feel like I'm running out of steam on these blog posts.  Perhaps reflective of my mood as the nights get longer and the weather gets gloomier - though having said that, we have had some really nice weather the last few days.  And it's nice to get out on a fresh autumnal day with all the fall colors.  If nothing comes up at work, I'm going to sneak out tomorrow afternoon and go for a long walk.  And that gives me a chance to get back to work and stay late, hopefully avoiding any potential trick and treaters - though my landlord said we don't get many where we are.  I have bought some candy just in case - sadly, I've ended up consuming most of it myself already.  Hence the need for the exercise!

NFL

I've been a fan of American Football a long time before I moved to America.  And although I am still a fan of the game - though probably not as much as I used to be - I am no fan of the NFL organization.  I hate the cover-up of brain injuries.  I hate the predominantly old, white, rich, pro-Trump team owners.  I hate the fact that they blackball a player who takes a knee during the anthem, but a free pass is given to all the players guilty of assault, domestic battery, etc.  I hate the ridiculous schedule that includes long trips to London, meaningless exhibition games, a Thursday night game that doesn't make sense when everyone else plays on Sunday or Monday, and only one bye week per team per season.  I hate that advertising and business interests have slowed the game down even more than it already is.  I hate that they can just take a team away from a city.  I hate the inequality of wealth in the game.  I hate the over emphasis and over-exaggeration of fantasy stats.  I hate that the game just doesn't seem as enjoyable and entertaining to watch as it used to be.   

Ballz

I am playing a lot of Ballz on my iPhone currently.  But I shall resist engaging in lots of double entendres with that fact.  Sorry.

Road Rage

As the traffic only gets worse in Seattle, so does the quality of driving, and so does the instances of road rage.  And, sadly, I am guilty of this as well.  There are so many bad drivers, but worse there are so many clueless drivers that don’t think they are doing anything wrong – signaling is apparently not something they teach at American driving schools.  It’s no wonder there seems to be a fender bender or some other crash that snarls up the commute most days.  I haven’t been involved in an accident yet, though I’ve had my share of close calls.  But I have been involved in multiple instances of road rage – and I probably don’t help myself in that regard because I follow a philosophy of “no signal, no space” and also if I see someone behind me lane weaving, I will close the gap to make sure they can’t get in front of me.  But also, there have been several instances where someone has just started tailgating me for no discernible reason – and that happened again this morning.  Perhaps they see the GB sticker on my car and don’t like me as a foreigner, perhaps I inadvertently did something to annoy them, perhaps I’m going too slow for their tastes.  Whatever the reason, whenever it happens I am prone to slowing down to annoy them even more.  And I am prone to gesticulating – which normally results in an exchange of middle fingers.  Perhaps I shouldn’t do this – I wouldn’t be surprised if someone I exchange pleasantries with in this manner has a firearm in their car or truck (and truck drivers are the worst).  And it’s probably not worth the hassle or the stress – I hate going into work flustered, blood pressure raised and pissed off at something that has happened on my commute.  I need to chill out.

PS If I develop cold or flu symptoms in the next week, I know exactly who to blame.  I was in a company-wide meeting this morning, and a person sitting directly behind me had the sniffles and was constantly clearing their throat and loudly sniffing throughout the meeting.  RIGHT BEHIND ME.  As you can imagine it was beyond annoying, yet I’m too gutless to actually say something.  I could almost feel their germ-infested breath on my neck – shockingly selfish and inconsiderate.  If you’ve got something contagious, don’t go to a meeting with 100+ people in attendance.  Some people… and this was someone who has an office and so has some degree of seniority and importance (more than me), so you’d think they’d know better.  People suck.

JFK

So they've released some documents that will probably reveal absolutely nothing new about the JFK assassination - a not subtle distraction from whatever calamity the "mentally deranged US dotard" has said or done now.  I despair. 

Baseball

It's currently the "World" Series between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  I don't care, baseball sucks.

Live Web Class

I’ve been doing some training via a live web class this week – and it’s nowhere near as bad as I feared.  I’m taking the class from my cube (which doesn’t tend to get too noisy because all the people around me appear to work from home most days), and basically you’re connected so that you see a video of the instructor from her home office, a Q & A panel where you can communicate with the instructor, a copy of the slides as she is presenting, and a “virtual work area” where you log in and perform exercises as part of the training.  It is a surprisingly effective way of doing things – and certainly cheaper and less hassle than everyone having to travel and stay somewhere in order to attend the training in person.  My only criticism would be that it is very time consuming – 6 days of 3.5 hours training, when 3 full days would maybe be better.  But I like the course and what I’m learning – part of my desire to improve my technical skills, and something that should look good on my CV.

Fortune

A fortune I received today: “Today is the first day of the rest of your reading time”.  I don’t even know what that means.

Ikea

I braved the crowds to go to Ikea this morning.  Even just after opening time, it was packed.  It's the kind of place I could easily spend a lot of time wandering around and spending a lot of money at.  Despite the blandness, I quite like Ikea's fixtures and furnishings - they're cheap, functional and last a long time.  And there's a lot of stuff I could really do with upgrading.  But I just couldn't tolerate all the people there (I dread to think what its like on weekend afternoons), so I dived in and out of the store with just the things I wanted (a hallway bench and a rug) - I didn't even get any Swedish meatballs....!

Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner is one of my favorite films - definitely in my top 10, maybe even in my top 5.  So naturally I wanted to watch the long overdue sequel - and this finally happened today.  And I have to say, I really liked it.  It's obviously not going to be as groundbreaking and as much of a classic as the original (there are only 2 sequels that have ever matched the original - Godfather Part 2 and Aliens).  But it was a great tribute to the original, and a good film in itself.  Great sound design, looks great (as any film does which has Roger Deakins as the cinematographer), a worthy continuation to the original and I would highly recommend watching it on the big screen.  I watched it at the Cinerama in downtown Seattle - and one of the few films that I've been to where there was a spontaneous round of applause when it finished.  And make sure you use the restroom before you watch it - it flew by, but it's a good 2.5 hours long!

PS We still don't get an unambiguous answer as to whether Deckard is a Replicant or not.  It seemed pretty obvious from the original that he was, and there is nothing to suggest otherwise in the sequel.  But still, one of the great sci-fi questions of our time. 

Flu Shot

I got a flu shot this week.  I get one every year, but this appears to be the first time that I've had a reaction to the shot - it's red, sore and swollen around the injection site.  This seems to be quite a common side effect, so hopefully nothing to worry about - but I've started to get a bit paranoid about my health at the moment, so this is just one more thing to add to the list.  I generally haven't been very good at going to a doctor regularly, but now I'm in in my 40's I think I might need to change my attitude - especially making use of my work healthcare plan whilst Trump decimates Obamacare...

Pop

Gregg Popovich - coach of the San Antonio Spurs - is one of the greatest ever basketball coaches.  He is well respected, has won loads of championship rings with the Spurs and is hilariously terse during in-game interviews.  And, unusually for someone as white privileged as he is, has some strong opinions on our current presidency that not many other coaches share or voice (contrary to the players):

"I’ve been amazed and disappointed by so much of what this president had said, and his approach to running this country, which seems to be one of just a never ending divisiveness...This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others.... We have a pathological liar in the White House, unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office, and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this president should be ashamed, because they know better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all."

Hear, hear.

Storm

Today, a rainstorm hit the Pacific NW for the first time in what feels like ages.  Lots of rain.  Lots of wind.  Lots of downed power lines.  Lots of power outages (including me).  This is where living somewhere now with lots of big trees surrounding me makes me a bit a nervous - some branch, or god forbid a whole tree, could come down and cause some major damage.  I heard and saw something big go down just in the gully next to where I live.  Yikes.   

CRT

The Cognitive Reflection Test is known as the world’s shortest IQ test, and consists of just 3 questions to tell if you’re a genius

1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

2. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

I confess that I got the last question wrong when I came across this quiz this morning, and I shouldn’t have done – a classic case of jumping to a quick conclusion without giving any proper thought to the question and answer.  Shame on me.

Yorkshire Pudding Burrito

I love Yorkshire pudding.  I love Burritos.  I love the idea of combining them.  I strongly approve of Yorkshire pudding burritos that I’ve been reading about, such as the beef brisket Yorkshire pudding burrito which Aldi will sell over winter – I must insist on having one of these when I’m next back in the UK.