Empire

I used to subscribe to Empire Magazine, even when I moved to the US.  But I stopped subscribing and I stopped reading it a while ago – for lots of reasons: I no longer go to the cinema regularly, it seemed like the quality of the magazine had deteriorated with a high turnover of editors, and the expense and lag for when I received the magazine in the US was too much.  But even so, I like to keep an eye out for their end of year issue and particularly their list of the best movies of the year.  But having just seen the list this year, I am officially and totally done with the magazine.  When a supposedly credible film magazine ranks Avengers: Infinity War as the best film of 2018, that is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  There is NO WAY that this is the best film of the year, it isn’t even a particularly good film.  No wonder print media is dying, this is a disgusting slap in the face for film aficionados who might actually still consider subscribing to your magazine.  Who makes this kind of decision?  I feel vindicated for no longer reading your crappy magazine.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

It’s that time of year when either everyone is busy or coming down with something, so couldn’t find anybody to play table tennis with me this afternoon.  So decided to go out for a stroll, and fortuitously timed it for a spectacular sunset over Lake Union.  Nice.

Traffic

The commute to and from work has been absolutely horrific since Thanksgiving.  Has it historically always been this bad?  I have no idea - but I think the wet weather is not helping.  At least it hasn't been cold yet, which makes it even worse.  But with the higher volume of traffic comes a higher volume of bad drivers, and I am very prone to road rage.  I've definitely exchanged a few hand gestures with some other drivers over the last few days.  I may not be a particularly great driver, but at least I know how to stop at a stop sign and to signal when I change lanes or make a turn.  Apparently that isn't something they teach at American driving school.  I read somewhere that Seattle drivers are considered to be some of the worst in the country - that comes as absolutely no surprise to me.  Thank god we don't have that many roundabouts round here - I've seen drivers go round them the wrong way, they just don't have a clue.   

Cheapskate

I’ve just found out that one of the websites I frequent on a daily basis is moving to a digital subscription service.  I don’t care how relatively cheap it might be to subscribe - $5 a month or whatever – I absolutely refuse to pay to read news articles (in this case, culture/entertainment news) on the internet.  The Seattle Times – the best, and only, daily paper here - also works on a subscription service, and I hate the fact that I can’t go online to read it’s local news stories for free.  Yes, yes, the internet is killing journalism blah blah blah, but there are plenty of other ways to create income from online content without resorting to charging the consumer – I’m no fan of digital ads, but I appreciate their necessity.  So once again I will have to find an inferior website to fulfill my entertainment news fix.  Tragic.   

Nonsensical

I don't know whose stupid idea it was to have a deadline for a deliverable on the Monday after the 4 day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but such are the joys of working at my company.  I had completed all my tasks well before Thanksgiving, but naturally was busy today working on a load of updates requested by other people because they had left their review of my work until the very last possible moment.  Utterly predictable, utterly frustrating.  I've actually been working really hard recently, and I think I've done more than enough to earn a promotion at the end of the year.  If I don't get it, I will really not be happy.  At all.

Quote

"It will be a fight that is blow for blow, with each of us trying to get the upper hand, trying to impose our will on the other guy."

What is being talking about?  Boxing?  Nope.  MMA?  Nope.  The World Chess Championship?  Well of course.  Something that I wouldn't have even known about if it wasn't for the fact that one of the competitors is an American.  Apparently they've drawn 11 straight games so far.  Thrilling stuff I'm sure.


I'm trying to keep politics out of this blog, but what a disgrace that a big climate change report got released on Black Friday afternoon by the Trump government.  A classic holiday news dump, despite the important and dire information it contained.  Apparently Fox News spent an entire 30 seconds of it's coverage on it.  When you have Republican Senators saying stuff like "We know that our climate is changing.  Our climate always changes and we see those ebbs and flows through time.", you see how little these people care about our planet, which is shameful and repugnant.   

Forrest Gump

I was watching Forrest Gump today, and I reached a somewhat controversial conclusion - I really like it.  It may have been very successful and won lots of Oscars, including Best Picture, but time has not been kind and it is kind of critically reviled now.  But I find it extremely watchable - though whether it is better than Pulp Fiction or Shawshank Redemption, both of which came out at a similar time, is extremely debatable.  But drop your cynicism and just enjoy it for what it is.  Definitely one of those films that if you're channel hopping and you come across it, as I did, you're happy.

Winter Storm Warning

Today is the Apple Cup - the college (American) football rivalry game between the University of Washington (go Huskies) and Washington State University (go Cougars).  Check out the conditions they are playing in:

This is my state!  No snow or winter conditions where I am though, just rain.  This is being played in Pullman in East Washington, and it looks bad.  I wouldn't want to be a University of Washington fan braving the mountain passes to get to and from the game - apparently there have been lots of spin-outs in the icy and snowy conditions at the higher elevations.  I think the passes may even be currently closed due to the number of accidents.  Nasty. 

Happy Thanksgiving

... more like Happy Nopantsgiving, as I didn't do much today.  However, I did have a roast turkey dinner with all it's trimmings - thanks to a trip to the supermarket yesterday where I unexpectedly found a prepared meal I could buy, rather than having to actually cook a whole turkey for myself.  Lazy.  I feel like a cheat, so I might go all out on cooking a whole Christmas dinner for myself.  Wishful thinking perhaps!

One of America's Great Mysteries

... why are there so many country music award shows?  The Academy of Country Music Awards, the Country Music Association Awards, the Country Music Television Awards - just to name a few.  For a genre of music that absolutely blows, that is way too much. 

Monday Night Football

Normally I don't bother watching the Monday Night (American) Football game - the game starts when I'm still at work, and it normally features one or two mediocre teams.  Yesterday was an exception - it featured the 2 teams with the best records (both 9-1), and was a really high-scoring shootout with about a thousand lead changes, ending with a victory for the Los Angeles Rams over the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 54-51.  Entertaining?  Yes.  Will both these teams reach the playoffs?  Yes.  Will either team win the Superbowl?  I'm saying it now - no.  Offense wins regular season games, defense wins championships.  And as you can tell from the score, neither team has any defense to speak of.

Wettest Day of the Year

"Statistically", today is supposed to be the wettest day of the year in Seattle.  And what was the weather like today?  Naturally, clear and sunny and absolutely no rain.  So go suck that statistics.  But apparently we have a wet and windy Thanksgiving in store later this week.  I had vague plans to go up to Canada for Thanksgiving, but I doubt that will happen.  And that's not just due to the weather, but I've been working so hard recently that I just want to do nothing but chill out for a few days.

American History

I've watched or recorded a number of documentaries recently on various aspects of US history that I am not overly familiar with - think things like Watergate, Jonestown, the Wild West, the history of the FBI, Bill Clinton's presidency.  Even a documentary called A Murder in Mansfield - which randomly caught my attention for obvious reasons, but was actually a really interesting look at family and grief.  I think it's coincidental that these documentaries are all airing around now - but it is kind of weird that there are so many of them currently.  Perhaps it is enlightening to see that we haven't learnt any lessons from the past when we look at the present.   

Takeout

My oven went kaput yesterday evening.  Or to be more precise, the keypad on the oven stopped working and I couldn't turn it on or change the settings.  The kind of thing that I would have to fix myself if I ever owned my own place - but when I had a look at the electrics I didn't have a clue what to do - but thankfully I don't own my own place so I could ask somebody else to take a look.  So whilst my landlord tries to jerry-rig a fix, to avoid shelling out on a whole new oven/stove unit, I am not able to do any cooking (minus what I can microwave).  So eating out or getting takeout it shall be for the time being (I've been promised it won't be for long!).

England 3-0 USA

Goddammit, not a single person said anything to me about the game and the result.  Even though we cruised to a comfortable victory.  I think the casual soccer fan here cares more about whichever Premier League side they arbitrarily choose to support than they do about their national side.  Probably for the best, because they suck - and it's one of the few sports Americans can't claim to be the best in the world at.  It probably didn't help that the Seahawks were also playing a Thursday night game, so that's where most people's attention was at round here.  I didn't mind, as it made the commute home significantly better than a normal Thursday night!   

The Perfect Christmas Present

Yes, this is apparently for real.  And yes, I have ordered one.  I’ll say it is for my nephew or niece, but really it is for me.

Bottom

I'm clearly on some kind of 90's British TV comedy kick at the moment, just been watching some clips from Bottom.  The perfect childish blend of violence, profanity and fart jokes for the teenage me - no wonder I loved it.

6 Months

 A bad day at work was redeemed by learning that the new, and last, series of Game of Thrones will be on in less than 6 months time.  At last, thank god.  I read a load of interesting fan theories on this last season - I won't list them here for spoilers sake, since I think some of them will probably come to pass, but inevitably I don't expect all the loose strands to be neatly resolved so I must manage expectations.  However knowing how Game of Thrones doesn't care for a happy ending, I expect the White Walkers to win the Great War.

World War I Movies

What with it being Veteran's Day today - not a company holiday so I had to go into work, which is kind of disrespectful - plus the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War I yesterday, it got me thinking about World War I movies.  Why hasn't Hollywood embraced this genre?  There have been plenty of World War II movies, but no decent World War I movies that I can think of in my lifetime - even though there are so many great stories to be had.  In fact, the only classic World War I movie that I've seen that I can think of is Lawrence of Arabia.  But that is over 55 years old.  When I think of World War I in television and films, only the last Blackadder series comes to mind - though I'm sure there might have been a few others.  But I don't and can't understand why there hasn't been a recent big budget big picture concerning World War I - is it really because America's entry into the war was late and less meaningful than for the Second World War?  Shame.  I'll stick to the books for the time being - I want to read All Quiet on the Western Front, supposedly the greatest war novel of all time but somehow has passed me by.

Accents

In much the same way that I sometimes don't notice or don't recognize different American accents, Americans don't have a clue about the different British accents.  Even worse, most of the people I work with don't have English as their first language - so even struggle with distinguishing my accent from an American one.  I'm never going to develop an American accent, though my vocabulary has definitely become Americanized.  But when teaching some friends about different British accents, my go to is to tell them to look up British comedy clips from the 90's.  For example, "Scousers" "Calm Down".  Classic.

Feeling My Age

For the last few days, I have been suffering from one ailment or another.  A lingering cough, fatigue from the lack of a decent night's sleep, a weak bladder, digestive issues, a bad back, and now a bad shoulder.  Is this the new norm when you get older - a continuous conveyor belt of things going wrong with your body?  That sucks.

I still hate meetings

Nothing worse than a tedious early morning teleconference.  I had one today at 8.30am.  This means that I need to wake up and leave home extremely early in order to avoid traffic (I was in the office by 7am).  I’m tired and irritable anyway with the amount of work on my plate at the moment, and I don’t need to waste my time attending pointless meetings.  And this was definitely one of them – it was so bad, I couldn’t help “resting my eyes” at my desk.  I’m not sure if a room was set up to have the meeting as a videoconference, but I was always going to call in from my desk since I didn’t want to be seen on camera being unable to mask my boredom.  And I could actually try to get on with some proper work if I’m at my desk.  This month has started busy at work, and will continue to keep me busy through to Thanksgiving.  Not fun but rather now than during summer or when I have some proper vacation planned! 

Nomovember

So much for Movember.  Having left it untouched for a week, I shaved off my mustache – if you could call the bum fluff on the top of my lip that – yesterday.  It looked like the kind of growth you see on Hispanic teenage boys, or elderly Hispanic women.  I was embarrassed by it, and hated going into work with it – so it had to go.  I feel great shame in my inability to grow decent stubble and facial hair – does that make me less of a man?  I think I was probably just being too impatient – I think I needed to give it more than just a week for it to grow in properly, but I just couldn’t get past the straggly phase.   Probably the saddest thing was that not a single person commented on what was there – it was obvious I was trying to do something, so was it that bad that people were embarrassed to say anything?  I doubt I’ll try this again, so we’ll never know.  Here is a very unflattering close up photo of the mess before I shaved it off:

Tremendous Success

If you thought the last 2 years were bad for American politics, just wait for the next 2 years.  With a Democratic House of Representatives, expect even more conflict and division.  I think the “blue wave” should have and could have been a lot bigger than it actually was, and send a proper message to Trump.  But it wasn’t, more of a “blue splash”, just going to show how even more divided and polarized the country is.  Especially since there are practically no moderate Republicans left in the Republican Party – this means an even more right-wing agenda, that will be continuously blocked by the Democratic House.  I find it interesting that Trump has already issued threats and warnings about being investigated – a somewhat redundant threat since he is already being investigated (and as a write this, I read that Jeff Sessions the Attorney General has been fired – so expect developments on the FBI probe front).  And his “wish” that Democrats and Republicans should set aside partisanship to work together is just absurd – these are two parties going in the opposite directions with increasingly limited mutual interests, and most of that is due to him, his rhetoric and his actions.  I despair for America.  And of course, Big Oil and Big Soda won both initiatives in our state – no surprise given the huge amounts of money they spent campaigning.  Capitalism always beats democracy.

The Tipping Point

We had another “celebrity” talking at work today – not quite as high profile as previous guests like Elton John, this was Malcolm Gladwell.  Who I’m not sure many of you even know who he is.  Someone I know as an author and whom I’ve heard on several podcasts, and I think came up with the 10,000 hours thing for how long it takes for someone to become good at something (which is why I’m not good at anything!) amongst other things.  I’m trying to remember if I’ve read one of his books –I have a feeling I have, but a long time ago.  I enjoyed the conversation, maybe because I find the kind of topics that were discussed, things like sociology, psychology and statistics, very interesting – and he is a good thinker and a good communicator.  Definitely makes me want to revisit one of his bestsellers, or maybe give his podcast a listen.  Kind of odd to have this talk on the day of the mid-term elections, but whatever.  I shall not be following the election coverage tonight... the fact that anyone from the Republican Party gets elected at all is profoundly depressing.   

Job Harmonization

Today, my job title changed – I am now a Manager (I used to be an Associate Manager).  However, only my job title has changed.  My job scope, responsibilities and more importantly my salary have not changed.  The decision was made to upgrade a load of our job titles to supposedly become more in line with industry standards.  Kind of unnecessary in my opinion, and the timing to do it just before the end of the year is kind of weird, but it is what it is – and so long as it doesn’t impact my chances of getting a promotion at the end of the year (which would now be a promotion to Senior Manager!) then I don’t really care.  Apparently there is a good chance I might get a promotion – I know they are discussing it within our department leadership meetings at the moment, and I think my manager is pushing quite hard for me getting one (there are only a limited number they are allowed to give out, so it sounds like a bit of a dog fight to get one approved).  However, she mentioned that my previous manager was passive aggressively casting doubts on whether I’ve done enough to earn a promotion – which comes as no surprise, since it doesn’t make her look so great as a manager.  I haven’t made many good decisions when it comes to my professional life over the last 5-10 years, but pushing hard to not have her as my manager was by far one of the best things I’ve done – I was never going to get a promotion under her.  B*tch.

Christmas 1988

I was just reminiscing about getting Operation Wolf for my Spectrum on Christmas Day (Christmas 1988 apparently - jeez 30 years ago!), and subsequently completing it on Christmas Day.  Oh to be a youth again!  Classic game, I miss the simplicity and playability of games from that generation.

 

Coyotes

I actually saw some coyotes today.  About 3 or 4 of them ran down beside my house, down my driveway and out of view.  I'm not sure how common that is to see them during the day - admittedly it was a dark, rainy and depressing day, but still.  Didn't have nearly enough time to grab my phone and take a photo - it was only by chance that I saw them because I was doing some vacuuming downstairs and caught the movement through the window.  Another exciting weekend day spent doing housework...   

Cornhole

I am easily annoyed by things.  As absolutely nobody who knows me would be surprised by.  And I’ve got a new one at work.  My cube window looks out onto another building perpendicular to my building, and contains a different company to mine.  From where I sit, I can just shift my eyes above my computer monitor and look directly into one of their breakrooms.  There is a coffee machine I can see, plus some tables and chairs where they sometimes have lunch or occasionally look like they hold meetings.  This has never been a problem to me until last week, when they inexplicably set up a game of “cornhole” in their breakroom right by the window.  For the uninitiated, “cornhole” is a basic game where players take turns throwing bean bags into a raised hole.  A classic beach or lawn game – I think they normally have it set up at our company summer picnic.  The problem is that it is SO distracting when I’m trying to work and they are playing their stupid game, and the movement of these fricking bean bags being thrown around keeps on taking my attention away from my monitor.  I could shut my blinds, but I shouldn’t have to.  So it’s been driving me crazy – and it’s not like I can just tell them to stop.  I have just Macgyvered a bit of a fix – I’ve taped some bits of paper to the bottom of my blind to try and block my view of their window.  So let’s see how long that lasts for, before I ask to relocate to a different cube!

Movember

Do I do it?  Do I attempt to grow out a mustache for Movember?  I think I might give it a go - although it might not go well.  My facial hair growth is patchy at best, and I have no desire to spend loads of time on facial hair grooming.  I give it a week before I can't take it any more and have to shave it off.