Second Richest Man in the World

Elton John, Alicia Keys - and today, Bill Gates.  I thought they were only doing these things at work for the company's anniversary, but apparently it is an ongoing thing now.  No, he didn't give a musical performance.  Just a brief interview - quite entertaining, came across as someone who is incredibly intelligent and incredibly hardworking.  Perhaps that is the key to making a shedload of money.  I actually thought he might be interviewed in the Seattle office here - what with it being in his backyard and everything - but nope, he was interviewed in California.  Quite scary really how much wealth one person can have, and with the only person in the entire world with more money than him also residing nearby, that is a remarkable concentration of power and wealth in the Pacific Northwest.     

Superhero Movie Fatigue

I don't care if it just had the biggest opening weekend ever, there is no way I'm going to bother going to the cinema to watch the new Avengers movie.  It didn't exactly have glowing reviews, and I've already read a load of spoilers for the film on the internet.  I haven't seen several of the more recent movies from the Marvel universe - Black Panther ,Thor 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - there are just too many of them, and I am just too indifferent to them.  I'll catch them on TV if they happen to be on and don't cost me any extra money, but between Marvel, DC and the various related TV series the market is really just over-saturated with superhero movies and shows.  It's a business now, and that is kind of sad.  I think most of the film are OK, just totally unmemorable and not particularly distinctive from one another.  I think the new Star Wars and Star Trek universes suffer from the same problem.  Thank god James Bond hasn't gone that way yet (Danny Boyle better do a good job on the next one!).

Palace 5 - 0 Leicester

2 games to go.  38 points.  11th place.  Goal difference very much helped by today's result.  6 points clear of the relegation zone.  Do I feel Palace are safe?  Not totally yet - we're not quite at that magic 40 point safe mark.  And most of the team's below have 1 or 2 games in hand - but there are enough teams below Palace, and enough of them playing each other in the remaining games, that I am fairly confident that Palace will stay up.  Considering how they started the season, that is quite an achievement.  The last 2 games are against Stoke and West Brom - both in the bottom 3 - so at the very least, we'll have a big say on who does go down.  As long as it isn't Palace, I don't care who it is.     

Information Dissemination

At a recent department meeting, the number of times where one of the presenters said something like “You should know this by now …” but which I did not know was alarmingly high.  What am I missing?  Have I missed or ignored e-mails, am I not on the correct e-mail distribution list, have I not completed training that I should have by now (and might not even be aware of), is my manager not sharing or passing on information (likely), is the dissemination and sharing of updates and initiatives absolutely appalling in our department (absolutely)?  The joys of working for a bigger company where so much stuff that directly impacts you is totally out of your control and often you are not aware of.

When the weather is fine

Best day of the year so far yesterday.  First time this calendar year that I’ve worn a short-sleeved shirt to work, without a coat.  First time I’ve used my “One-Touch Power Moonroof” on my new car.  Not the first time I took a long walk at lunch to enjoy the sunshine!  I seem to be developing an unhealthy habit of photographing flora - if I ever decide to fulfill my pledge of taking at least one photo a day in a given year, then I fear there would be an awful lot of repetition.

As an added bonus – as I was taking my muddy shoes home to give them a clean, I discovered my missing t-shirt in the plastic bag for my shoes.  What a relief – that has been nagging me for a long time!

Fruit and Bagels

On Wednesdays, work provides fruit and bagels for breakfast.  I don’t indulge in bagels, but I do pick up some fruit – normally just a couple of bananas to last the rest of the week.  But every other Wednesday, I also have an 8 am meeting so I get into the office early.  Which means that I miss out on all the prime pickings.  So 7.45 today, as I’m getting some water, the fruit was all laid out and ready to help yourselves – but no e-mail sent out to say it’s ready.  What harm would there be from just my grabbing a couple of bananas before my meeting?  I mean, good grief, they even give them away outside the Amazon office buildings just down the road.  But no, just as I’m reaching for the bananas I get told not to by the person who has set everything up because they are not “officially” available to everyone yet.  I mean, come on.  Are you really going to be that officious over a couple of bananas?  I explained that I was going to be in a meeting shortly, and their counter-argument was that if I started helping myself to some fruit then everyone else would follow.  But that is going to happen anyway when the e-mail gets sent out (in maybe 10 minutes time).  Just ridiculous, and such a petty power play.  This person just really pissed me off and I’m definitely the kind of person who holds grudges – so well done for that. 

Deja Vu

Apologies in advance, but there is every chance that this blog is exactly like one or more blogs I’ve written in the past – I’m fully conscious that I sound like a broken record.  But my job still sucks.  Still stuck with my old manager, who is driving me to new levels of frustration and irritation.  At least 3 e-mails today I started writing today with “I must respectfully disagree” concerning one thing or another, but in the end I don’t bother sending because they totally fall on deaf ears.  I’ve had managers in the past who treat me with massive levels of indifference, but this is something entirely different with new levels of being patronized and condescended to.  I don’t like it one bit, and to be honest I feel like it has knocked my confidence and made me question whether I am quite as good at my job as I think I am.  Given the right amount of motivation and encouragement I think I am, but those have been sadly lacking over the last few years.  But hopefully I will finally transition to a new manager and a new group within a few weeks.  Just waiting for my new manager to return from vacation, and then hopefully it will become official.  Of course, given past experiences at this place there is absolutely no guarantee that things will work out how I want or expect them to.  Which is why I have to continue biting my tongue and continue to endure this awful work environment and management for at least a little longer...   

Nice Spring Day

The kind of day that makes me sad and depressed that I was ensconced in my work cube most of the day.  Bright blue sky, no clouds, sun beating down, gentle breeze, birdsong, flowers and trees blossoming.  I should have taken a “mental health day”!  It wasn’t as nice as this over the weekend, but at least it was dry for a change.  Sadly, not making the best use of the nicer weather we’ve finally been having – I could make lots of excuses (notably lots of work, chores and housework I need to do) but really inexcusable for me not getting outside as much as I should do (testing out my new leaf blower on the patio doesn’t count!).  That needs to change.  Predictably, not so good weather forecast for next weekend.  But at least one of the trees outside my house is showing some nice color (I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to what type of tree this is).

Best Time of Year to Visit ...

... Yellowstone: May

... Crater Lake: Jul/Aug/Sep

... Chicago: Sep/Oct

... Hawaii: May or Sep

Oh what to do this year - these are among the places I've never been to and want to go to in the US.  I will probably aim for Crater Lake in September - I wanted to go there last year, but then a particularly bad fire season kind of ruined those plans.  We shall see.

Missed My Calling

Just watched the film Tinker Tailor Solider Spy again, a good film and an absolutely stacked cast.  It made me want to (a) read more John le Carre novels, and (b) watch the BBC series with Alec Guinness.  What with my love for James Bond, it has dawned on me (perhaps 20 years too late!) that I wish I had a career in the spy game.  I think I would have made a great analyst.  Admittedly the chance of me being recruited were (and are) slim to none - I have neither the upper class breeding nor the Oxbridge education.  But I can dream. 

Car Insurance

Auto insurance in the US is a total rip off.  America being the litigious society it is, insurance is extensive and expensive.  My insurance is due for renewal this weekend, and I’ve been with the same company for quite a number of years.  But the quote they gave me to renew the policy seemed extremely high.  Yes, I was in an accident last year but it wasn’t my fault – and I’ve got a new car now with many more safety features, meaning the chance of another accident is diminished, and it’s not like I have to leave my car overnight on the street or anything so it’s not at risk of being broken into.  So despite having very good dealings with my current company when my car was hit last year, that doesn’t justify such a high cost of renewal so I decided to ship around to get some more quotes.  Thank god I did.  I got quotes – from the other major insurance companies no less, so nothing dodgy – that were substantially cheaper but with the same coverage, saving me nearly $50 a month.  I was stunned – how long have my current insurance company been ripping me off?  So much for all the years of loyalty.  So I’m changing insurance providers this weekend.  Hopefully I won’t have any need to use them for the next 6 months, when it comes time to renew again (though some of the awful driving I saw on the commute into work this morning makes me worry and despair).  But this is probably something I should have done years ago.  If you know your American adverts (which readers of this blog probably don’t!), then it’s goodbye Gecko and hello Flo.   

Streissguth Gardens

A rare sunny day (at least until it started clouding over this afternoon), so went for a lunchtime walk from work to somewhere I’ve never been to before – Streissguth Gardens.  As the crow flies, it’s not very far away from work at all (0.3 miles according to Google Maps!) – but in reality feels a lot more because it is ALL uphill, so a brief but intense workout just to get there (so I took a more circuitous but less steep route just to get some more steps in).  It’s kind of interesting – basically a well-maintained garden sitting on a hillside with some nice views over Lake Union, that was once private but is now public and crisscrossed with some small trails.  Main reason for going – there was a geocache to be found there, which took much longer to find than it should have given I had a clue to where it was.  I’m clearly out of practice.  But find it I eventually did, though no good treasures to be plundered.

White Collar

Today was the launch of an Asian employee support group at work.  Something, I have to be honest, that I am bitterly opposed to.  If there were only a handful of Asian employees at our company, I would understand the need.  But there isn’t.  Our company probably has more Asian employees than non-Asian employees – or at least it seems that way.  Certainly, my group is dominated by Asians.  So I’m the one who feels like I’m in the minority (which I am).  But do I have a support group?  Do I heck.  If my Asian colleagues were more inclusive, then I wouldn’t mind.  But most of them are not – one of my biggest pet peeves at work, and one that has been there from the very first day I worked in the US, is that all work and business discussions should be conducted in English.  Unbelievably I have been at group meetings which at times have broken down into Chinese – highly rude and highly disrespectful to me.  But even work talk in the office should be conducted in English – if a couple of colleagues are talking in Chinese to each other about an issue on a project that I’m working on, or even that I’m leading, then I want to know exactly what they’re talking about so that I can chime in.  Instead, I feel left out.  And I can’t say anything for fear of being labelled a racist.  But I bet they won’t discuss that at the Asian employee support group meetings.  I personally feel a lot more threatened by the Chinese than I do by the Russians. 

Late 80's/Early 90's Terrible Music

I can't get this monstrosity out of my head.

Can you believe they had 3 Number 1's!!!!  And not even particularly well mixed, what a joke.  And with the Stock, Aitken and Waterman factory churning out one mediocre pop song after another, this really was a low point for chart music in my formative years.  Thank god for Grunge and Britpop.

Wet

It's already the 4th wettest April in Seattle since records began, and we're only halfway through the month!  I really want to go out and start doing some hiking again, but it seems like ages since we had some decent weather.  If I could I'd take a drive out to East Washington to find some better hiking conditions - but despite it being April, the wet weather has caused winter advisory warnings and bad driving conditions across the passes in the Cascades.  So that's a no go.  Great.  I was also hoping to check out some of the tulip fields north of Seattle, but apparently all the fields are really muddy and wet and there's no parking because they normally use spare fields for parking.  So that's a bust as well.  Spring has sucked here so far.

Documentaries

I've been watching a lot of documentaries recently on famous people from various fields.  This has included David Bowie, Bruce McLaren, Garry Shandling and, most recently this weekend, Elvis Presley.  The documentary was kind of interesting for someone like me who didn't know much of the history of Elvis, particularly the early years, but I don't think it was particularly insightful and I'm sure there was nothing new to the Elvis aficionado.  However, I think a documentary on "Colonel Tom Parker' would be a LOT more interesting. 

Operation Desert Stormy

I'm not going to discuss the pros and cons of the US (and France and UK) actions in Syria.  All I'm going to say is that Trump's teasing of action all week and the eventual airstrikes do seem like an awfully convenient distraction from all his current woes at home.  Think porn stars, FBI raids, resignations, former FBI director memoirs.  If and how Russia retaliates is going to be interesting.  It feels like this is the closest to World War III we've even been in my lifetime - and having Trump in charge hardly inspires confidence that this is going to end well.  I bet China is loving it.

Commonwealth Games

I noticed on the BBC Sports website that the Commonwealth Games is currently going on.  Absolutely no mention of it whatsoever on any of the other (American) sport sites or programs I peruse.  Why is this still a thing?  What a pointless waste of time and money.  A ridiculous relic of a falsely glorified Empire, and a third-rate sporting event to boot.  A Commonwealth Games medal has practically zero value and meaning - so I don't know why anyone bothers to compete.

Dodgy Pedometer

I’ve been recording my steps for the last week.  The recommended amount of steps is supposed to be 10,000 a day.  I am averaging closer to 20,000.  I don’t think this is an accurate reflection of my “athletic” lifestyle.  In the past, I have kept the pedometer in my pocket and I think it has been fairly accurate with recording the step count.  This time, the pedometer was supplied on a wrist strap so I’ve been wearing it in place of my watch.  I’ve either got a crappy pedometer or it being on my wrist is causing a huge disparity between the actual number of steps I’m taking and what it thinks are steps when it is just movement of my arm.  For example, on the course of getting dressed this morning it recorded me taking about 100 steps, which is just preposterous.  And I even see the step count going up whilst I’m sitting at my desk just typing away, including whilst I’m typing this now.  Stupid.  So although my step count over the course of this 8 week challenge is going to look impressive, sadly I don’t think I’m going to be able to read too much into the numbers. 

Two Come Along at Once

Some interesting developments on the work front.  Firstly, it is almost certain now that I will be transitioning into a new team and a new manager (who hasn’t resigned yet!).  I spoke to my manager’s manager today, and it seems like it’s a go – what a relief!  Once my new manager is back from vacation, it should become official.  This would mean getting a Chinese female manager – but this is someone I’ve known since I first started working for this company in 2008 (?), she is also based in Seattle, and someone who I actually like and respect (and of all the Chinese I work with, she is definitely one of the ones who can actually speak good English!).  It’s someone who was at the same level as me 5 years ago, so it is a bit humbling to now be reporting to her – but this is a sacrifice I am more than willing to make in order to escape from my current manager.  And then, extremely unexpectedly, and on the same day that these things are happening, I finally heard back from the San Diego company I applied to and I think they are interested in me!  I wonder why they took so long to get back to me – it feels like ages since I applied there?  Regardless, I suspect they will want to set up a phone interview very soon.  I think I’m definitely going to go ahead and interview – no guarantees of anything coming from it, but I feel like I’ve got nothing to lose.  It is an opportunity, and a seemingly good opportunity – anywhere else I wouldn’t bother with given these positive manager developments, but San Diego is the exception. 

VAR

I HATE the system of a video assistant referee.  One of the best aspects of football - particularly in the English league - is the pace and flow of the game.  Having constant (or indeed any) interruptions to review video is going to absolutely ruin that.  The game doesn't need it.  Especially if you have a half decent referee who can manage a game properly.  I'm OK with something like goal line technology that makes an instantaneous decision.  But video review is slow and disruptive to the game - the last thing we want to do is make football stop and start like American football. And the fact that it is going to be used in the World Cup is bound to cause at least one big moment of controversy during the tournament - just wait and see.  Technology is already ruining our lives, now it is ruining the beautiful game. 

Expensive Week

Taxes.  Flights.  Mattress.  This week is going to hit my bank balance hard.  So why did I just impulsively buy some movies on blu-ray that I won't get round to watching any time soon?  If at all.  Whatever.  Even more inexplicably, 2 of these contain ultra-HD blu-ray discs.  Even though I don't (yet) have a TV or system to play 4K movies.  Hopefully this won't be a waste, like the 3D blu-ray discs I also own even though I've never had and probably never will have the capacity to play them.  Especially now the 3D fad is seemingly dead.  Oh well - it won't be the first time and it definitely won't be the last time I waste my money on pointless extravagances.  When I should be spending or saving my money much more sensibly...

RIP Laptop

My old laptop hasn't been the same since I upgraded Windows on it to Windows 10.  Incredibly slow, especially when downloading and installing updates, and recently it has started crashing giving me the following screen that you never want to see:

So after backing up my music and my photos, I have officially retired this laptop.  It won't be missed.  Let's see how long my newer laptop lasts before it too dies a slow death...

Tax

I've left submitting my taxes very late this year - I think the deadline is in something like 10 days time.  So I completed and filed my tax forms today.  And once again I owed the federal government a load of money - about the same amount as last year.  Actually thought it was going to be much worse - the amount I owed was a lot higher when I entered my info into the software late yesterday.  But when I checked the numbers and corrected a few of my responses today, it reduced the amount quite significantly.  I think I entered everything correctly - I hope so anyway, in the slight chance that my tax return gets audited!  But it has made me distrust the software I use to submit my taxes, as well as it being too expensive, so I might use a different one next year.  I hate doing taxes - what a pain in the ass.  But at least I live in a state where I don't have to submit a state tax return as well as a federal return.  I think I much prefer living somewhere that has a higher state sales tax rather than a state income tax.

Space Needle and Tree

Is this a magnolia?  I have absolutely no clue, not my area of expertise - but I like the color of the blossoms.

A rare break in the miserable weather we've been having recently - lots of rain.  And they've issued a wind advisory for tomorrow - so much for getting out and about and keeping my steps up.  At least I can play ping pong at work - just got my pool table at home.

Champions League

I recorded the Liverpool versus Man City game yesterday night.  Very frustrating that they didn't show the game live here, inexplicably they showed the other tie instead, but a replay of the full game was being aired in the early hours.  So I made the Herculean effort to avoid all the sports news all through yesterday afternoon and evening, so that I could watch the game first thing this morning before work without knowing the result.  Amazingly, and surprisingly, I managed to do this.  But as I started watching the game this morning, the ticker scrolling at the bottom of the screen with the sports headlines announced Liverpool won in a rout just as the game was kicking off.  Great, so all the effort went for nothing.  Curse you Fox Sports.  Though still, it was a very entertaining first half.

On The Move

Another 8 week step challenge started today at work.  So I’ve got a pedometer strapped to my wrist and have started recording the number of steps I’m taking every day beginning today.  As part of setting up the pedometer, I had to provide my weight – and this was the first time I have weighed myself for quite some time.  Oh boy, I definitely could do with losing a few pounds (i.e. a lot!).  As feared, and as expected, I have put a little bit of weight on over winter – so this step challenge couldn’t come at a better time!  Though I suspect the bigger impact on losing some weight has to probably come from changing my diet – and that won’t be easy.  Baby steps – and that starts with less snacking and less soda.  I’m also giving serious consideration to trying one of those meal kit delivery services like Blue Apron – so at least I can control my intake that way.  That also has the benefit of potentially broadening my culinary skills and tastes – something I’d like to do, especially when it comes to home cooking.  We shall see – I plan to track my weight a bit more closely over the next 8 weeks, so hopefully I will see some improvements.  Though with a lot of rain in the forecast, I don’t expect I’ll have the most auspicious start when it comes to doing some lunchtime and evening walks and getting my step count up.

And a late addition to the blog.  What is the saying – just as you see light at the end of the tunnel, the roof comes crashing down?  Well, just found out that the guy who was probably going to be my new manager has resigned.  Great, so once again I’m in that area of uncertainty without a clue about what is going to happen, with the fear that nothing will happen.  That will teach me for being too optimistic about my job situation just yesterday….

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

Lots of meetings at work today.  There was a meeting that we were asked to attend in person, but which I decided to take from my desk.  Why?  Because it was an hour and a half and I didn’t want to be stuck in a room with other people pretending not to be bored out of mind.  Instead, at my desk, I can spend my time more constructively e.g. by composing this blog entry, and playing Candy Crush (which I think, sadly, I’ve grown something of an addiction to), whilst listening to the presentations on my headset and occasionally checking out the slides.  I can think of lots more reasons not to attend – the meeting room chairs are notoriously bad and if I’m stuck in one of those for 1.5 hours then I am guaranteed to get a bad back.  And also, we have had more than one e-mail concerning meeting etiquette where we are told not to bring our laptops to meetings like these – so you don’t even have the distraction of that.  Since it is a video conference, everyone in the Seattle office can apparently be seen on a huge screen in the Californian meeting room where the bulk of the meeting attendees are.  So you can’t even doodle, roll your eyes or anything obvious during the meeting because everyone can see you.  Because we are a satellite office in Seattle, we are frequently affected by audio or visual problems at these big meetings since they don’t realize in California that there are issues for the people calling in to the meeting.  Take today’s meeting where they didn’t share the screen until well into the first presentation, so we couldn’t see any of the presentation slides to begin with.  But there are some perks to all these meetings.  At lunchtime we had a Seattle site meeting, which means lunch is provided.  Bonus!  And when these site meetings happen, often because someone in a significant leadership role happens to be visiting our office, they are normally good to provide a lot of info that we (and a lot of the other muggles across our company) wouldn’t otherwise know about concerning company developments.  Regardless, it seems inevitable that the bigger a company gets, the more meetings there are, and the more of your time is wasted.  One of the reasons I don’t like my current manager is because she has set up so many recurring meetings at the study level, on top of all these departmental and company meetings.  I consider most of these as totally unnecessary, but symptomatic of her overly controlling nature.  And it all means that you end up having so much less time during a normal week to actually do proper work.  However, there might be good news on the job front.  Nothing confirmed yet, but it seems more likely than not now that I will be changing groups and manager soon.  Hoorah!

Podcasts

I have a new favorite podcast, and surprisingly it comes from BBC Radio 5 Live.  It's the Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy podcast.  It's more than just a sports podcast, it's a genuinely funny and entertaining podcast between guys with great chemistry.  Andrew Flintoff is a surprisingly good personality, and Robbie Savage is blessed with honesty if not brains, and the whole thing is held together by the straight man Matthew Syed (who played table tennis for the UK - hence the Ping Pong Guy).  Until the next season of My Dad Wrote a Porno starts again, it's probably the podcast I most look forward to listening every week. 

Sunday Night

Counterpart (season finale), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy, Homeland, whatever English drama is on PBS (today it is The Child in Time), The Last Man on Earth, Silicon Valley, Billions, Trust, Barry, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.  That is close to 9 hours of TV just tonight that I'm either watching or recording.  Jeez, that is disturbing.  And a rather sad reflection of my lifestyle - my priorities need to change...