Addiction

I have an addiction problem ... a LEGO addiction problem.  Some sets are investments and will remain in their boxes until such time as they are hopefully worth a lot more money, but others I will actually build.  Here's my latest:

I've even fitted a motor to this set so that the wheel is powered.  How sad is that.

Office Politics

I am thankful that my promotion has already been confirmed, because I fear that I am about to become a victim of some bad office politics.  I’ll try not to get into specifics, but basically there’s this regular task I’ve been working on for over a year that has come under closer scrutiny with implied criticism that I have not been following guidelines on how to perform this work correctly – despite my doing everything that has been asked of me, despite my raising the kind of criticisms being leveled at me now at the onset of the work, despite getting reassurance from management that it was okay for me to continue doing what I’m doing etc.  Unfortunately, I’ve been desperately searching my email folders but I cannot find the proof to confirm a lot of this.  I think the immediate people I work with know that I haven’t done anything wrong, but it’s other people I’m worried about and how my not following guidelines will be perceived and criticized.  And if this work ever gets audited, then I may be in a bit more trouble.  I hope it doesn’t come to that – but at least I can try to address these things now before it’s too late.  I don’t think any of this is serious enough to threaten my job security or anything like that, but just that I might not come out of this looking particularly good as other people cover their own asses. 

Karaoke

It’s been several years since I’ve done karaoke, but when I’m on a YouTube music dive I find that I keep on coming back time and again to the same songs to belt out to myself.  Think tunes like: 

Cracker – Low
The Cars – Drive
Tears for Fears – Head over Heels
David Bowie – Space Oddity
The Cranberries – Zombie
The Kinks – Lola
Weezer – Say It Ain’t So
Radiohead – Creep
Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
The Smiths – How Soon is Now?
Blondie – Rapture (TOUGH!)
Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls
Martha and the Muffins – Echo Beach
Aqualung - Strange and Beautiful
The Zombies - She's Not There

And that excludes some obvious crowd-pleasing choices, including some that I may or may not have covered years ago under alcohol-induced courage with an actual audience, like Livin’ on a Prayer, Bohemian Rhapsody, Losing My Religion, Hey Jude, Wonderwall, California Dreaming.  And, I hasten to add, my favorite karaoke songs do not overlap much with my actual favorite songs - there's a big difference.

Outlook

This is what I like to see – whilst most of America suffers from cold weather, it’s looking good for us.  The Midwest is about to be hit by a polar vortex which will likely cause chaos – wind chill temperatures in the minus 50's (Fahrenheit – though that is probably about the same in Celsius).  That is cold.  Expect a certain president to say something uninformed and inaccurate about global warming.

Best Opening to a Film Ever

No contest.

Where to start - the music, the green screen, the stunts.  Classic.

Trouble Comes in Threes

Over the last few days, a lot of things have started going wrong in my house.  It started when I came home from work yesterday to find my fridge leaking.  The leakage looked like it was coming from a water filter cartridge in my fridge, so I've had to shell out on a replacement today to see whether that solves the problem - let's hope so (it wasn't cheap).  And then I got woken up in the early hours by the loud sound of scratching in the wall behind my bed headboard.  That freaked me out - definitely sounded like I've got some kind of pest problem, like mice or rats or worse (a raccoon?).  That's the first time I've heard anything like that (minus the wasp nest from a while ago) - maybe because I sleep with earplugs in so I might have missed any earlier noises - but that is definitely something I need to let my landlord know if it happens again.  I did a thorough check around my house today, and at least I don't see any evidence of droppings or anything.  And then when I was outside earlier today cleaning my car, I heard the sound of water and then was hit by this horrific smell - I suspect it was my septic tank.  It stopped after a little while, but I've got no idea how septic tanks work and whether that is normal.  I maybe need to landlord know about that if I smell it again, in case the tank needs emptying or something is wrong with the system.  Just thinking about that smell again makes me gag.  All these things just confirm my belief that if I ever buy my own place, it has to be new or newly built - I don't have the capacity to deal with these kind of issues on my own.

Division

I’m going to say it, but I think wearing one of those red Make America Great Again caps is akin to wearing a KKK hood back in the day.  They represent the same thing – a symbol of hate.  And so if you are kids caught on video wearing these hats and mocking a Native American guy, then you deserve to be the object of hatred and vitriol – and people have every right to find you and your hat offensive.  I don’t care if you were provoked and didn’t start the confrontation, you’re asking for trouble wearing those hats.  And you know it.  And, just to make it even worse, you were attending an anti-abortion rally – yet another source of confrontation and controversy, supporting a cause that I – like many - find abhorrent.  At least it looks like we’re not going to get this ridiculous wall, for the time being anyway.  I’m enjoying Trump having to eat a slice of humble pie for a change – you just know he is fuming.  Guaranteed every single petty thing he can do to get back at Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats he will try now – I expect more tantrums and a very divisive State of the Union speech.  And probably another government shutdown in 3 weeks time.

DVR Disaster

I'm facing a potential catastrophe with the status of my DVR.  It appears that my DVR is not recording any new shows or films correctly - skipping constantly, like a scratched DVD or something.  What I suspect - and what I fear - is that my actual DVR hard drive is messed up - and the only solution would be to get a whole new set-top box and DVR, losing all my current recordings.  And I have a lot of stuff saved on there I haven't got round to watching yet but I want to - and that's even after having purged it of some stuff that I'll never get round to watching.  What a disaster.  And what it also means is that for the moment I have to watch programs live - having to endure all the commercial breaks live as well.  That is almost intolerable.  Maybe this is the wake up call I need to giving serious consideration to cutting the cord.  Unlikely. 

Who Do You Think You Are?

For no apparent reason, I have developed a hankering for watching genealogy programs on telly for the last few weeks.  Think programs like the American version of Who Do You Think You Are?, or a better alternative to that called Finding Your Roots.  Both have more than their fair share of big name American celebrities with interesting family histories.  Perhaps because America is a country of immigrants, I could see how this kind of stuff has a particularly strong appeal here - perhaps even more so in light of the current political climate.  It makes me mildly curious about my own history - though I suspect there is very little intrigue or surprise to be found - and perhaps my curiosity also comes from the fact that it seems like I'm going to be at the end of my particular branch of the family tree.  But maybe I'm not quite as invested in it as say the American actor I've just seen getting emotional about his 12 x great-grandparent from the 16th century.  It might be interesting to know, but I just can't see how you can have an emotional connection with someone that far back.  But going back 3 or 4 generations could be enlightening.  But watching these shows I'm definitely disappointed to have never been asked to have my DNA tested to see whether I might be distantly related to a celebrity trying to trace their history - which is why I suspect my family history may be entirely mundane.             

Underwear

I normally wear cotton boxer briefs, but I've been trying out some different underwear that are made more of spandex and have a totally different feel.  And they feel good, very comfortable.  But they have an unfortunate side effect - they are very slippery.  What this means is that if I don't do my belt up tight enough, then when I walk around - particularly up stairs - then I can feel my jeans slipping down.  Which doesn't make for pleasant viewing for anyone who happens to be behind me!  And I end up constantly tugging up my jeans before I can get to a restroom (toilet) and adjust.  So now I am very conscious of making sure my belt is done up tight all the time - and the strain on the holes on my belt is starting to show.  I'm not sure all this effort is worth it just for fancier pants...   

Lord Hill Regional Park

Today is MLK day, and I believe it's the first time that our company has made it a company holiday.  Which is good, though I wish MLK day was in the middle of summer rather than the middle of winter!  So how did I spend my day off work?  I went to Walmart.  However, I did take a bit of a detour on the way there to get in a hike at Lord Hill Regional Park, somewhere I'd never been to before.  It's kind of in the middle nowhere, and I have absolutely no idea who Lord Hill was - if he was anyone.  But the park is full of hiking paths - so did a bit of a loop on one of the muddiest trails I've ever been on.  Perhaps it just gets a lot of rain here - despite today's forecast being sunny, I still got caught in a brief but heavy rain shower.  It was supposed to be about a 3.5 mile hike, but ended up being a lot more as I kept on going the wrong way because the routes were so poorly signposted.  Not exactly the most photographic of places, this is not one I would particularly go out of my way to go to again - though plenty of side trails I could explore another time.

Super Blood Wolf Moon

After a cloudy day, fortunate that the clouds cleared away this evening resulting in a great view of the super blood wolf moon lunar eclipse tonight.  Tried to take some photos - naturally, my iPhone failed miserably but had better luck with my actual camera.

Viadoom

Last weekend, Alaskan Way Viaduct closed in downtown Seattle.  This was one of the main routes through Seattle, so all the local media and officials warned of "mega commutes" as traffic adjusted.  Since this is on the waterfront side of Seattle, not where I work, I wasn't expecting to be impacted as much as others - though the volume of traffic that uses I-5 as I do was expected to increase.  And what happened over the week?  If anything, the traffic was better than normal.  I don't know if this was because more people were working from home (I know a lot of people at work didn't come in last week because they live in neighborhoods like West Seattle whose commutes are directly affected), more people were using public transport, more people were adjusting their commute times to leave earlier (and I was leaving later) or whether this was just a storm in a teacup.  Either way, with the closure it is going to be interesting to see how the Seattle downtown waterfront develops - could become very nice down there.  It will also be interesting to see how much use the tunnel gets that was built to replace the viaduct - it opens in few weeks' time, but is going to have a toll.  After SR-520 added a bridge toll - one of the main routes east out of Seattle, and incidentally the only place I've ever been pulled over for speeding - I've never been on it since.

A Gift to Myself

Come on now, how could I not get this door mat?

Promotion

It’s official, the e-mail got sent out today with the list of promotions in our group – which included me.  So my job title is now Senior Manager, Statistical Programming.  Whatever that means.  And got quite a few e-mails of congratulations from various people, which was nice.  Ironically one of them was from my previous manager, who I heard tried to jeopardize my promotion.  Talk about two-faced.  Quite a few people in my group in the Seattle office got promotions – so a good day here.  Though how deserved all of them were is questionable.  The Chinese girl in the cube next to me also got the same promotion as me – even though she has nothing like the same experience or competency as I do.  But she happened to work on something higher profile than anything I’ve been working on, and I suspect was also the benefit of some Chinese favoritism, so my relief at finally getting a long overdue promotion is still tempered by some major skepticism at the entire process and the office politics.  Coincidentally, I’ve been invited to participate in an Employee Survey focus group here, with the aim of trying to address some issues in collaboration, impact and inclusion that came up from our employee survey.  I didn’t volunteer, so not entirely happy about being roped into doing this – I haven’t decided how much I’ll share about the lack of opportunities and promotion I’ve experienced when you work in a group where I am in the strong minority and most work collaboration is not even conducted in English…  Jeez, I even manage to turn the positive news of a promotion into a negative, and borderline racist, commentary.  Sorry about that. 

Spam

For some reason, the number of spam e-mails I’m getting sent to my work e-mail address has exponentially increased since Christmas.  Just look at some of the subject lines in the spam I got sent just yesterday:

I have no idea where these people got my e-mail address from – especially my work one, which I don't share with outside companies at all.  And it just seems to be getting worse – personally I blame Russia.

Historic Defeat

I thought the government shutdown here was ridiculous, but then I followed today’s events concerning Brexit intently.  My oh my, what an absolute shambles.  I’m going to assume that Theresa May will survive the vote of no confidence – although if she had an ounce of integrity she should have resigned immediately after that overwhelming rejection of the deal.  But what next?  Is there a different Brexit plan on the table?  I doubt it – which means the hard exit at the end of March.  Which would be a disaster.  I guess they could ask the EU for more time to negotiate a new deal – but then what the hell have they been negotiating about for the last 2 years?  Then you have the options of another referendum, or even a general election.  So much uncertainty – talk about digging a hole for yourself.  It’s times like this when Britain needs and is sorely lacking a strong leader – instead you have a weak leader, and an even weaker opposition leader.  Tragic. 

Fort Ebey State Park

I was a naughty boy today - it was a nice day, so I took a sickie and went for a hike.  I'll probably regret this for the rest of the week as I have a lot of work to do.  Whatever - I'm not wasting an unseasonably sunny day.  Wanted to go somewhere I hadn't been before, so went to Fort Ebey State Park on Whidbey Island - so called because it was the site of some Second World War coastal defenses.  The guidebook said it was an easy 3 mile hike.  Lies on both counts - it wasn't an easy hike, lots of elevation change and quite tiring, and it felt like a lot more than 3 miles, I should have tracked the distance on my phone.  Glad I went today though - hardly anybody there, maybe encountered 3 people on the entire hike.  Most of the trail was through forest - weirdly heard and saw a load of woodpeckers - but the main reason was to get to the part of the trail that's on the edge of the bluff with great views over the water and where you encounter the remnants of the coastal defenses.  I need to spend a weekend on Whidbey Island - lots of nice coastal hikes to be had here.

I Hate Sports

One of those weekends where it was just one disappointing result after another in whatever sports I happened to be watching.  Palace blew a halftime lead against Watford - just can't seem to get that gap opened up between us and the relegation battle.  I don't like being in the situation of having to hope teams I hate get a result against other relegation-threatened teams, makes me feel very conflicted, but such is life in the bottom half of the table.  And then the Chargers got blown out by the Patriots - not so much about by questionable support for the Chargers as my intense hatred for the Patriots.  And I really truly hate them at a level comparable to, or even more, than my hatred for Arsenal.  In fact all the divisional games were won by the home team/favorite - I don't think it's coincidence that they all had a bye the previous weekend, which makes a huge difference in American Football.  Time to fix the playoff season - the fact that the Chargers didn't have a bye and had to play in New England despite having a better regular season record than the Patriots is messed up.  Yes, I'm a sore loser. 

Paddington 2

Today I watched one of those rare films with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes - Paddington 2.  Although a charming and enjoyable film, hardly a classic and not exactly the kind of film I'm going to rewatch any time soon.  Perhaps that shows how flawed it is to pass judgement on a film based on it's Rotten Tomatoes score - which is just a binary good or bad opinion.  That's why I tend to prefer Metacritic, which actually gives a more quantifiable score (in this case, 88% for the film, still not bad).  Either way, I agree that it is a good film, a great kid's film, but maybe not quite up to the real classics of the genre - like say ET, Toy Story and probably my personal favorite WALL-E.     

Shutdown

The shutdown, that shows no sign of ending any time soon, does have an indirect impact on me.  I was thinking about going for a hike on a trail that is on federal land (part of the National Wildlife Refuge System) over the weekend – but now I don’t even know whether it will be open.  It probably is, but the website is no longer getting updated and because it is a lot of effort to get to (I would have to take the ferry) I just don’t know whether it is work risking.  I might choose to go to a state park instead.  Thanks President Trump - you petulant baby.

The Sopranos

Today is the 20th anniversary of the first episode of The Sopranos – definitely in the top 10 of best TV shows ever.  And I say that haven’t not even seen every episode – including the infamous last episode and it’s fade to black.  I think I’ve seen the first 3 seasons, but not recently, and I’ve got another 3 to go.  I never watched it when it actually aired, but why I stopped catching up with the episodes (which I did via DVD, prior to the explosion of streaming) I’m not sure, so this is one of many shows that I need to revisit and see through to the end.  It is that good, and worth it.  Since there are now podcasts available on almost every TV show, which normally provide good insight and discussion, I should watch the series from the start in conjunction with a podcast that goes into each episode in a bit more depth – unsurprisingly, there seem to be plenty of podcasts to choose from.  I already listen to podcasts that talk about films that I’ve never even seen, so this seems like a worthwhile exercise.

25 Million

Did you know that there was a sporting event on Monday night here that about 25 million people watched?  And I bet virtually nobody watched it outside the US.  It was the college football national championship game - where Clemson defeated Alabama.  I couldn't even tell you where Clemson is geographically in the US (a quick google search reveals it's in South Carolina, so there we go).  College sports are popular and controversial - just as exciting as any pro sporting event, but controversial because none of the vast amounts of money and revenue go directly to the actual students competing who are unpaid.  I don't care much for college football - especially this game that was a disappointing blow out - but I can't deny this game is one of the bigger US sporting events, even having a halftime show like the Superbowl (this one featured, I think, Imagine Dragons).  And it's not a bad side dish to the pro NFL playoffs currently going on, last weekend (the wildcard games) and next weekend (the divisional games) are the best weekends of the year for American Football, even compared to the overblown spectacle that is the Superbowl.   

Early 90's

Sometimes you just need to find your favorite version of a track you really liked back in the day in a genre of music that you don't normally care much for.  Sweet.

Primetime

I'm a little bit surprised that all the major networks are going to air Trump's request for a prime time address to the nation tomorrow.  Expect him to talk about the border wall and probably declare a national emergency - even though it isn't one - just to get the funding for the wall that he so desperately wants.  Absolute nonsense, an absolute waste of money, and expect his address to be full of misinformation and scaremongering.  He says he plans to address the country on "the humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border".  Well the humanitarian crisis is entirely of your own making when you break up families at the border.  Stupid.  These prime time speeches are supposed to be apolitical and only given for moments of significant national interest, and this most certainly is not one.  The least the networks could do is air it on tape delay, and cut out all the falsehoods he makes - that should make for a short address.  Or give the opposition the opportunity to air their side of what is clearly a politically charged topic.  Either way, I don't expect it but I hope Trump goes off script - that is always good for a laugh.   

Home Gym

I didn't go out for a hike today, but I did the next best thing - I unpacked and put together an exercise bike I must have bought about 5 years ago and never even got out of the box.  And boy, just putting together the thing and getting it to work was utterly exhausting and frustrating.  But I've done it - though sadly part of the digital display is not working.  Not much I can do about that now since it's been sitting untouched in a box for so many years!  Oh well, at least the bike does work and I do plan to start using it on those rainy days when I don't go out for a walk or hike.  If all goes well, would actually like to get some other pieces of exercise equipment for some variety - things like a rowing machine or an elliptical.  It's nice that I actually live somewhere now that I've got the space to be able to consider doing this! 

Redmond Watershed Preserve (Again)

I've done this hike recently, and I'll do it again regularly because it's convenient (30 minutes away), it's a decent length (5 miles), it's easily doable in the rain, and it's in Redmond, which means that I can go to the British shop in Redmond town center afterwards and get some sausage rolls for lunch.  It's also a nice walk among moss-covered trees, and enjoyable as long as you are out of earshot of other people.  I'm a bit angry with myself because I encountered a guy with an unleashed dog - and dogs aren't even allowed on this trail.  I should have said something, but I wasn't 100% sure about the rule.  Next time I won't hesitate.

Hypocrisy

Classic hypocrisy - Trump can spout all manner of sexist, racist, homophobic and vulgar slurs and the Republican Party says and does nothing.  And then a newly sworn in Democrat congresswoman pledged to "impeach that motherf*cker", and the Republican Party gets outraged.  Get over it.  It's no worse than, say, calling Haiti and some African nations "sh*thole countries", calling Colin Kaepernick a "son of a bitch", or bragging about grabbing women "by the p*ssy".  Generally, I would politically call myself center right - but in American politics, I think I more and more identify as center left.  And I actively oppose the Republican Party as it currently is - sadly the moderate Republican, who I would probably most identify with, is an endangered species; I think Mitt Romney may be one of the last ones left, at least he has actually publicly criticized Trump, but even he supports building this f*cking stupid wall.  I despair.   

Current Affairs

2 big news items that I care about but probably nobody else who reads this blog does.  The first, one of my company’s big competitors has just been bought out for $74 billion.  I suspect that means that they probably also considered buying us out as well, which would have made things very interesting.  This might be the first indication of some more pharma mega-mergers, so we shall see what happens this year.  Although the share price bump is good with rumors and speculation that we might get bought out or merge with somebody, the future of a small satellite office such as we have in Seattle is always a cause for concern if this were ever to happen.  The second bit of news, which even less people will care about, is that a different trading card company has acquired the rights to James Bond trading cards.  I don’t know what exactly this will mean for the quality of future sets, and my burgeoning collection, but apparently the first release under this company will be later this year.  I suspect I will still end up shelling out exorbitant amounts of money to further my collection, regardless of who owns the rights. 

Nose to the Grindstone

Depressingly back to the routine and monotony of work today.  It has been just over a week off work, but it feels a lot less than that – where did all my free time go?  It doesn't feel like the festive period is over just yet.  I should really have also taken this week off, oh well.  And surprisingly quite a lot of people in the office today – I was sure it would be quiet, but once again I have to plug in my earbuds and listen to podcasts to drown out the overly loud and annoying Chinese being spoken by my colleagues.  More deadlines this month, so it's going to stay quite busy at work for the time being.  And got a stinking headache after just half a day back - after a somewhat sickly Christmas break, that doesn't bode well for the new year. 

Meadowdale Beach County Park (Again)

Happy New Year!  Since I didn't go to any parties last night, I went for a morning hike today - despite not exactly having a restful night's sleep thanks to lots of neighbors (illegally) setting off fireworks all night.  I went to Meadowdale Beach County Park - which, searching my blog, I last went to during summer 2017.  It's only 20 minutes away. but still way too busy even on early New Year's Day.  This hike reminds me of how much I'd like to live by water when I retire, since the sound of the tide or even a bubbling stream is so tranquil.  I'm also reminded of just how unfit I am when I make the uphill slog back to my car from the beach.  And I mentioned this in my previous blog about this hike, but it's kind of weird just how many Chinese you encounter doing this hike - I don't know of any others like that.