Garden Wars II

As I was heading out this morning, noticed an irregular shape on the yard.  Went and had a closer look, and sure enough there was a great big molehill.  And a brief inspection of the rest of the yard revealed a few more little mounds – hidden beneath the many, many leaves.  Yep, they’re back – the devious little blighters have apparently been busy under the cover of darkness and under all the leaves that coat my yard at this time of year.  And so we are at war again.  What is extremely disappointing is that I have these solar-powered mole repellent stakes planted around – which are supposed to send out sonic waves and vibrations to scare away these pests.  Fat lot of good they have seemed to do – that looks to be $50 down the drain.  Time to bring out the big guns – I’ve just ordered some more mole poison from Amazon.  Prepare for shock and awe you little b’stards.  I'm turning into Bill Murray from Caddyshack.

Jeremy

Great, I did not want to come back to the UK in the immediate aftermath of another general election.  I’m shocked Labour agreed to it – there are only 2 possible scenarios that come out of this election.  Either Boris Johnson wins a majority, or absolutely nothing changes.  I see NO chance of Labour winning, not with Jeremy Corbyn in charge.  If Boris wins, and wins big, then Brexit will happen and it will be a disaster.  If nothing changes, then Brexit will remain up in the air and it will be a disaster.  Nothing good will come out of this – so why agree to it.  This should be an election about Brexit, but I suspect both Labour and Tories will focus on everything apart from Brexit.  Therefore, I hope the Liberal Democrats do well if they campaign explicitly on remaining.  But they won’t do well, because the Murdoch newspapers will not give them a fair shake.  Interesting aside – Wikipedia does not allow Daily Mail to be used as a source for their website because it is too unreliable.  Both the US and the UK could do with a sensible and centrist third party – but there is about as much chance of that happening as there is of me voting.  Which is low, because I don’t think I’m even on the electoral register, and I’m not sure I’ve ever been

Always the Bridesmaid, ...

... never the bride.

Grunge

I was thinking about putting together a Seattle music playlist - mostly, but not exclusively, grunge.  Nirvana might be the most well known band, but is this the best song?

Coaster

The monster/monstrosity is complete and operational:

... despite my having a suspiciously large number of bricks left over after I thought I followed the instructions for putting it together.

Swing Low Sweet Chariot

Wow.  This is what I felt when the final whistle blew:

That was one of the most intense, most physical rugby games I've ever watched.  Not live - I couldn't stay up for the 1 am start (it might be different for the final),  But the margin of victory actually should have been higher, such was the domination and missed chances for England.  Perfect tactics - we won the game on territory and line speed.  So, so unexpected - we humbled the All Blacks and made them look like a decidedly mediocre team.  And I didn't see that coming.  I never thought I'd say this, but now my only worry is that we used up all our intensity and reserves on the semi-final and don't have much left for the final.

Mystery

We had our annual Benefits Fair at work this week – which is basically a presentation and discussion about some of the changes to employee benefits offered by my company in the year ahead, plus a good opportunity to pick up some freebies from the various vendors that we use for things like savings, insurance, healthcare, etc.  Sadly, very few quality freebies this year – so I wasn’t really able to pick up anything more useful than some pens and some post-it notes, plus a cover thing to put over your webcam that I might actually use, and I don’t even have anything decent to pass on to my nephew and niece, which is disappointing for when I come back to the UK over Christmas.  However, I did pick this up and I have absolutely no idea what it is.  Any ideas?

It is rubber and quite flexible, and that is about all I can tell you.  My best, and only, guess is that you use it to tidy up earbud headphone cables or suchlike by looping the cord round where those circles are – at least that is the only thing I can see myself using it for.  But perhaps I’m missing a lot more practical use for it.

Schmolitics

I used to think politics was boring, and didn’t pay much attention to it.  Boy oh boy, those were the good ole days.  We have the US – riddled by partisanship, corruption, anger, incompetency and one of the most petty, temperamental, racist, sexist, idiotic, ill-intentioned presidents (and administrations) ever, plus one of the major political parties shockingly and inexplicably willing to go on this wild and ridiculous roller coaster ride with him.  Slowly but surely they are eroding American values and destroying America “the Beautiful”.  And then you have the UK – stuck in this Brexit hole that it dug for itself, both major parties having leaders that nobody really likes or trusts, unable or unwilling to leave the EU under agreeable terms due to a referendum that was held without facts, and ruining whatever respectability the country had left on the world stage.  In a mire of indecisiveness, the country is being led into the great unknown of EU independence on a journey that no one really knows the path to and no one really wants to make.  I’m a STRONG proponent for having another referendum – I like to think that the populace is better informed about exactly what the consequences are of leaving the EU, and are able to make a more informed vote than they did however long ago it was.  And if you still feel that the UK should leave the EU, then shame on you.  I liken you to the halfwits that continue to support Trump, no matter how un-American he has proven himself to be.  As a species, the last few years have shown just how much we absolutely suck.

Colo(u)r

It was a rare morning without rain today - so snapped a quick photo of the nice autumnal colors just off my back patio.  I don't think the photo does it justice.

Work Whinge

How do I tell this to my manager politely?  I worked my guts out over the summer, I’ve sacrificed some much needed vacation days, I’ve worked weekends.  Yet, I have not received any sort of recognition of acknowledgement of my hard work.  I’m really pissed off about this – I think I deserve a “value at work award”, and one with a decent monetary reward attached it.  I’ve earned it, and I deserve it.  I have implied as much – I asked whether the key contractor I’ve worked with on a lot of this could get one, and sold his efforts hard, knowing full well that he couldn’t get one because he isn’t a full time employee.  And for all the good work he did, I did the same and more.  So where’s my reward?  I bet if I was Chinese I would have got a reward by now.  I think I need to flat out confront my manager about this (maybe not the if I was Chinese bit).  Another interview today, another Chinese applicant.  They seem to churn these people out like a factory line – almost identical education and experience to the previous person I interviewed.  Another perfectly pleasant person, it would just be nice to have a wider variety of personalities and character in my department – and some people who I would actually see and hangout with outside work.  Fat chance of that.  I think I’ve got lunch with the next candidate, also Chinese, next week which is going to be fun for a whole hour with our cultural disconnect and with probably very little in common – at least it will be a free lunch.

NBC Sports Sucks

Although their Premier League coverage is exceptional, NBC Sports rugby coverage has a long way to go.  First of all, make sure that your TV listings actually match what you're going to air.  All 4 quarter finals appeared in the listings over the weekend either live or as a full match replay.  In reality, it was only 2 matches shown twice - so the listings were wrong.  And, if you can believe this, they also showed a replay of Wasps versus London Irish instead of one of the other quarter finals.  Which is ridiculous, and frustrating.  And why the hell have they started the English domestic league before the World Cup has finished?  Beggars belief.  At least England was one of the matches they did air, but I missed the Wales-France match.  And the NBC Sports online highlights of the game were absolutely abysmal - didn't even show the critical French red card.  I think whoever they have editing the highlights has never even seen a rugby game before.  I have no idea if they're going to air one or both of the semis, or even the final.  But I fear the worst.  But obviously pleased with the England result - even if the final score was a bit flattering.  But lets be honest, they're going to be absolutely blown out by the All Blacks in the semi-finals.  I don't think it's even going to be close - the All Blacks are looking too good.   

Another Sign

Today, I did something I've never done before as an adult.  I wore a body warmer vest.  Don't worry I didn't actually buy a vest - it was a freebie from work that's been hanging on my coat hook for years.  Still, I am officially old now.   

Truth

Yep, this came up on my homepage - and the picture seemed to go remarkably well with the caption, given a certain breed of dog that used to be the family pet....!

Another work event

Although all the upper management of our company has been overhauled, we continue to do these occasional “celebrity” events at work.  And this week was another one – and it featured an interview with Malala Yousafzai.  Of particular note, this one was held in one of our UK offices (Stockley Park, which I don’t really know where it is apart from somewhere near Heathrow) which suggests that my company’s UK presence is bigger than I thought it actually was – I think we also have an office in Cambridge.  And it just goes to show that even Nobel Peace Prize winners can be corporate sellouts (I wonder how much she was paid for this gig).  Obviously I don’t doubt her credentials as a documentarian, assassination survivor and now activist – but my oh my this interview was so boring that I stopped watching after about 10 minutes.  Perhaps because I knew more of her story from her UK presence than your typical American.  Perhaps because the interviewer, who was some uppity UK employee with a double-barreled surname whom I’d never heard of, was awful.  Perhaps because I am a selfish and unsympathetic jerk.  But now I’m kind of interested to watch her interview by David Letterman in his Netflix show last year – to see if it is any better.  She strikes me as the kind of person who is better communicating by actions rather than by speech. 

Goldbach's Conjecture

Every even number (greater than 2) is the sum of 2 prime numbers.

This has yet to be proved.  Since 1742.  Good luck.

Billions of Bilious Blue Blistering Barnacles

I’m not one for graphic novels – the nearest I’ve come to reading one is The Adventures of Tintin when I was considerably younger.  However, I would consider giving Watchmen – generally acknowledged as the greatest graphic novel of all time - a go.  And obviously this has nothing to do with the fact that the new Watchmen series is about to debut on HBO – the early reviews of which are promising.  Which reminds me, now that Game of Thrones has finished on telly I can make a start on the books which have been sitting collecting dust on my bookshelf for years.

Garden Lights

Once upon a time, I used to have some solar-powered garden lights.  When the days get shorter, and it gets darker earlier, it can be difficult to see the entrance-way to my driveway and also stay on the driveway up to my house.  So I lined the driveway with these lights - and they helped, illuminating the way home.  But then things started to go wrong.  Some of them stopped working - not particularly surprising, considering they were cheap Chinese imports.  Some of them got destroyed - either by animals, or I suspect that my landlord's son ran over a couple of them when he was cutting the grass.  And some have just flat out disappeared - would someone really go as low to steal these cheap and crappy things from the bottom of my driveway.  Yep.  After all, they don't seem to have any qualms about throwing fast-food litter on my driveway.  So now I have no lights, and the sun is setting earlier and earlier and it's getting darker and darker by the time I get home - and I nearly missed my driveway entrance this evening.  So I have just bought some new lights.  Let's see how long these ones last. 

Sails Out, Nails Out

Since it aired it’s season 2 finale yesterday evening, let me once again wax lyrical about Succession.  It is just a brilliant show that more people should be watching.  I’m going to say that even after only 2 seasons, it has already cracked my top 10 of favorite TV shows ever.  And if we have a couple more seasons just as good as Season 2, then I think this could easily be a top 5 or even a top 3 show.  Everything – the characters, the plot, the dialogue, the pacing, the acting, the cinematography – is fantastic, especially for the outstanding 2nd season just concluded.  For the last 10 weeks, it has been by far the program I’ve most looked forward to watching, and the one that I most look forward to reading about on the internet afterwards (mainly for the mutual love of the show, particularly by TV critics).  I’m going to desperately miss it until the 3rd season.  I don’t think it’s coincidence that this happens to be an American show with a British creator – and a British creator with some great comedy chops (a writer on The Thick Of It, creator of Peep Show).  Which makes the humor on Succession extremely dark and extremely scathing, extremely beneficial for a show that is as much drama as comedy.  A lot of critics have described it as Shakespearean – which I’m OK with, better that than Game of Thrones, which it has also been compared to and which I consider this to be altogether better rounded and satisfying.  I thought Game of Thrones might be the last box set I ever get – maybe not now.  If you’re a betting man, put some money down on Succession winning a lot of awards next year. 

Sellout

After the latest iPhone software update caused horrendous battery drainage issues on my phone - for example, my battery went from 100% to 7% in just the time it took me to commute from my home into the office on Friday - I decided to give in and I've shelled out on an iPhone 11.  That will teach me to upgrade the software without preparing for the worst - after all, this is not the first time this has happened.  There were obviously cheaper alternatives - such as keeping my current phone, and waiting for the next software update which will probably fix the issues - but this was the push I needed to upgrade my phone, something I was long overdue doing  (I currently have a 6s - so there have been 5 iPhone releases since then, so by modern standards it was a virtual brick).

A brief one

I don't care how unhealthy it is, I miss Greggs.  I really need to learn how to bake sausage rolls for myself.

Interviewer

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had to do this, but I had to interview someone today.  Admittedly it wasn’t just me, I was one of about 8 or 9 people, so I had to make the most of my 30 minute slot.  Do I go hard with some unusual questions (if you were an animal, what would you be?), or do I just lob out some easy ones for the candidate to put away (describe your strengths and weaknesses).  Tough one, as I had already formed some opinions just based on the CV.  If I was the hiring manager, I wouldn’t have brought him in for face-to-face interviews.  I wouldn’t have even given him a phone interview.  His CV was riddled with grammatical errors – a classic example of Chinglish.  However most of the people interviewing him are Chinese, including the hiring manager, so I suspect my opinion doesn’t hold much sway.  So I just went for some standard questions, nothing that wouldn’t result in a decent response with the slightest bit of preparation.  For me, this was mostly about testing his communication skills – if his written English wasn’t great, how would his spoken English be.  And could he handle my accent.  And how did it go?  Well, when e-mailing my completed interview assessment form to the hiring manager – my accompanying e-mail quite simply and bluntly said “I don’t think I can recommend him for a senior position.”.  It wasn’t so much the communication skills, which were perfectly adequate, as it was the elusiveness of his answers – no specifics and no details, I think hiding a major lack of experience for the level he was applying at that his CV maybe didn't make clear enough.  I think the open position must have got posted recently because we’ve got quite a few people coming in over the next few weeks, so expect this will be the first of many similar interviews.

Hagibis

Rugby World Cup Organizers: I know, let’s hold the next World Cup in Japan.  It’s a great idea to hold it somewhere outside the rugby powerhouses of the world.  When?  Why, what better time to hold it than right at the peak of typhoon season when there is absolutely no chance of massive disruption to the tournament.  What’s that, why don’t we make contingency plans like playing the game at a different stadium or a different day to avoid any cancelled games due to weather?  No, no, no that would be far too sensible and fair to the teams that had a chance to not get knocked out of the tournament.

The England-France game wasn’t going to be aired here anyway, so I don’t mind too much.  Also gives us the advantage of being able to rest our players before the quarter-final.  Which doesn’t seem fair.  Now we’ve got no excuses for not beating Australia or whoever we play next. 

And it would be remiss of me not to mention the shameful spectacle of US soldiers pulling out of North Syria so that Turkey can attack the US-allied Kurds – apparently justifiable by Trump because the Kurds did not fight alongside the US in WW2.  Bewildering.  That is blood on Trump’s hands, and he thinks he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.  <Category A swear word deleted>

Under Construction

Yep, I'm at it again.  And I've got absolutely no space for this one once it's finished.

Rent vs Buy

I've been thinking a lot recently about wanting to own my first home.  But after doing some internet searching over the weekend, I'm having second thoughts.  The simple fact is that I don't think I can afford the kind of home I want.  I maybe need to lower my expectations - that might mean something smaller, something older, or something a lot further out.  I don't know how enthusiastic I am with compromising, when I'm relatively happy with where I'm renting now (despite it's faults - but then I'm almost guaranteed to find something to complain about wherever I live!).  So I think I'm going to stay put for the time being.  But this is still quite dispiriting.  The perils of being single with only one income.  And the perils of living in an area of the US where the cost of living and the cost of housing has skyrocketed over the last decade.  Maybe for the best, as I think I'm totally inadequately prepared for owning my own home - having no DIY skills, no electrical skills, no plumbing skills, and generally no maintenance skills whatsoever.   

Tired

It's only Monday, and I'm already tired and fed up with work for the week.  This doesn't bode well for a constructive and enjoyable week ahead.  I really need a holiday.  Christmas can't come soon enough, but hopefully I can take some time off before then as I think I really need it.  Somewhere to get away from the increasingly dark and miserable fall days in the Pacific Northwest - Hawaii maybe?

The Circus

Out of all the news I consume - there is one program that inevitably results in the most expletives coming out of my potty mouth, including a number of Category A swear words.  And that is the Showtime series The Circus.  Because they cover both sides of the political news of the week, the show includes clips and interviews with Trump and/or his supporters.  And it drives me absolutely crazy how mad and delusional and frankly morally repugnant these people are.  It makes me sick, it makes me angry, and it makes me nervous for the future of the US and the future of the world.  I'm sure I've probably written more or less this exact same blog before, but no matter how low Trump goes nothing seems to change.  And that is probably the most worrying thing of all.

Maradona

Watched a great documentary on Maradona this week, focusing mostly on his time playing for Napoli.  As the documentary quite correctly pointed out, you either love the guy or hate him.  I definitely lie in the latter camp - if we consider the 1986 World Cup quarter-final, his cheating will always eclipse his genius.  But the documentary was a fascinating insight into a troubled genius - and someone who was clearly taken advantage of.  I kind of knew about the drugs and women - certainly after the 1994 World Cup manic goal celebration.  But I didn't know much about his time in Italy and particularly about the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where Argentina beat Italy in the semi-finals in Napoli - turning an entire country against him.  What also struck me - and perhaps this is just the quality of the footage - but all the players seem so much older back then than they do now.  Has the game really changed that much?   
PS 4th place!!!  I don't think many people saw that coming.  How long will it last?  (Spoiler - not long)

Soda

One of the perks of my job is free soda - I don't think they even offer that at our headquarters.  And despite the dubious health qualities of soda, they continue to offer it.  But this week, a new soda appeared that I'd never seen before - a brand called Jones.  And it is good.  Some quick internet research reveals that it's a Seattle beverage company.  Yet I'd never seen or heard of it ever before.  I don't know whether it will be a regular choice going forward - I'm sure Coca Cola and Pepsi will have something to say about that - but it is nice to have, at least temporarily, some choices outside of big beverage.

Hair

Still no haircut.  My hair is continuing to grow into an unruly mess, at least the hair that hasn’t fallen out yet.  If I was to have the sides cut, I think I would have a magnificent mullet.  Though my hair does tend to curl up at the back rather than really growing long – so maybe not the absolute best.  But yes, I’m still shedding hair at an alarming rate – and it is definitely increasingly thinning on top now.  Maybe I need to keep my hair short – thereby making the thinness less noticeable.  I don’t know.  I probably need to see a stylist or someone who can recommend something – I won’t get that if I keep on going to the same Vietnamese barbers I always do.

Douchebag

Yet unbelievably, given everything that has happened and is happening, my money is still on Trump winning a second term.  Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people.

Mariners

They said it would be cold this week, and boy they weren’t wrong.  Although I’ve resisted so far, it might be time to start turning on my heating – it was SO cold last night and this morning.  But not as cold as Saturday night, when I went to see the Seattle Mariners play.  Good job I brought some layers with me, because it was utterly freezing sitting in the stands.  It was the last weekend of the regular season – and our company has corporate sponsorship or something with the Oakland Athletics, who were the team playing the Mariners, so we got free tickets.  And on level 2 – which I think is some kind of corporate level because we have our own concessions, nicer toilets and what seemed to be wider and better padded seats.  No executive suite for us though!  Baseball still sucks however, and this game was about as meaningless as it could be (Mariners have one of the worst records, the A’s were already guaranteed a wildcard spot in the playoffs).  And, to be frank, it was an awful game – it finished 1-0 to the A’s.  One solo home run, and that was the entire scoring for the game.  It seemed to be a really poorly attended – maybe a third full at best, with next to no atmosphere, and it looked like most of our company’s allocation never showed up.  And a lot less people left by the end of the game – I certainly didn’t stay to the end.  I didn’t like the location of the seats either – down past the first base line, too far along to get any foul balls heading in our direction and really difficult to actually see strikes and balls and so on from where we were (judge for yourself from the photos).  There was a TV you could watch, but it was on a slight delay so it was really disorienting.  I think perhaps the highlight was the national anthem – which was a guitar version of The Star-Spangled Banner performed by Pearl Jam, one of Seattle’s finest.  I did promise myself I would try one of the food delicacies that the stadium is known for – and I’ve included a photo of it below – grasshoppers!  Not worth it – tasted “dusty” for want of a better word  That was definitely a strikeout.