To Screw The Mooch

With the heat comes fire.  I woke up this morning to a faint burning smell, and apparently the whole region is enveloped with smoke from a load of wildfires burning in Canada that has carried south.  It’s nowhere near as bad as that time in San Diego when my office had to shut for a few days due to the really bad air quality resulting from nearby wildfires, but still not pleasant.  It’s definitely very hazy today and did notice that sunrise was more orange than normal as a result of the smoky atmosphere – I should have taken some photos…

I realized I haven’t even touched on the meteoric rise and fall of “The Mooch” in these blogs.  It’s clear that reality-TV star President Dump is turning the White House into a reality show.  Or at the least a very dark comedy….

My podcast intake seems to have exponentially increased – to the extent that I’ve started trying out more and more new shows.  The most recent permanent addition to my library – Ear Hustle, produced by prisoners within San Quentin – is very good so far.    

I want to see the film Dunkirk in IMAX 70mm – supposedly the  best way to view the film – but sadly there isn’t anywhere in the state of Washington where you can do that.  Disappointing.  Instead, I will have to resort to watching it in IMAX with Laser.  That’s for next week.  Over the last few weeks, I’ve had to give a history lesson on Dunkirk to various uninformed Americans and Chinese.

Thank god the noise from the wasp nest behind my downstairs wall has finally diminished – the sound of the wasps chewing the wood or doing whatever they were doing behind the wall was making my skin crawl.  Hopefully my landlord will soon cover up all the holes he put in the wall to drench the nest in chemicals.  I maybe should have done more to deal with the situation myself, but my DIY skills are limited to putting together Ikea furniture.

My daily step count has taken a bit of a knock recently – and the hot temperatures and bad air quality will not help my chances of averaging 15,000 steps a day.  As long as I record enough steps and activity to earn the Gold Prize (a $75 gift card) then I will be satisfied!  I’ve already resorted to watching some godawful and dated videos about dealing with stress and suchlike in order to add some more points to my total.

Some mid-year promotions were announced today.  Every single promotion in Statistics and Programming belonged to someone with a Chinese name.  I’m not sure if this is just reflective of the make-up of my department or some nefarious display of favoritism within my department, but I don’t like it  one bit and once again makes me question the lack of equality and the lack of inclusion that I have to endure in my current workplace.

Just finished watching the second season of The Expanse.  I do like a good Sci-fi show – and although it doesn’t quite reach the gold standard of say Battlestar Galactica, it is a very watchable space soap opera with nice Battlestar Galactica-esque visuals and a touch of political intrigue very pertinent to today’s highly charged political landscape.  Makes Doctor Who look like the cheap and dated show it really is (which I haven’t watched in years, and couldn’t give a monkeys about what sex the next Doctor is).