Song of the Week #12

There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep, for such a simple man.

Note: a close second best sax solo in a pop song ever.  I'll do the first next week.

Toxicity

If it wasn't already blatantly obvious, the US has become an extremely toxic place to live in right now.  Political divisions, cultural divisions, economic divisions - and a contagious virus totally out of control.  And all the bad blood stoked by the most toxic presidency in a lifetime, and undoubtedly inflamed further online by Russian bots and right-wing Reddit forums.  It seems even my neighborhood app has been infected.  What was once a simple forum for restaurant recommendations, local crime, things for sale and other gentile local news is now just full of aggressive and hateful discourse about masks, community gatherings and social distancing, inevitably ending up in right versus left mud-slinging.  It's sad, it's nasty, and this is just a small microcosm of the same kind of divisions present in every other neighborhood and on a national level.  This is not the kind of America I aspire to live in - and I don't think it is for the vast majority of Americans.  But sadly the voices of reason and compromise and sanity are drowned out now by loud extremist ignorance, particularly on the right.  And I still think Trump is going to win re-election.  It shouldn't be possible - but such is the mad reality we are currently suffering through.       

Social Distancing

I had a neighbor visiting me today that totally was not following social distancing guidelines.

Face Masks

A brief entry, but I just want to say that the politicization of wearing face masks in the US is very disappointing, if utterly predictable when you have a president who refuses to wear one.  The surge of infections in the US is sadly also disappointing and predictable when scientific advice is ignored by the government in favor of reopening the economy too early to curry political favor before the election.  It's not just the sun states either - we're also seeing increased rates in our state.  We had some Seattle site meetings this week, and it was implied that our return to the office was likely to be delayed even beyond Labor Day depending on how things go. Which is devastating.  But at least my company is now providing free testing to see whether you have, or have had, the virus.  I haven't signed up yet, but I'm sure I will.     

Forecast

There seems to be a strange but predictable pattern to the weather here over the last few months - sunny during the week, wet at the weekend.  This weekend is no exception with rain in the forecast and much reduced temperatures, despite the week being gorgeous and I think I wore shorts every day (maybe the only good thing about working from home!).  The problem is that my house gets so uncomfortably hot when it's sunny, especially upstairs - too many windows, and not enough circulation.  And so I have not had a decent night's sleep for what feels like a very long time.  Maybe there are other contributing factors - stress (from both work and current affairs), bad habits (being on my laptop or iPhone in bed), bad diet (eating too late, or drinking too much soda) all come to mind.  But I hope things are better this weekend with the reduced temperatures (though staying up late to watch Aussie Rules Football will not help!).     

Rabbit Hole

After yesterday's post, I got sucked into a rabbit hole of trying to work out what is the greatest western ever made.  I spent a very enjoyable evening watching loads of great scenes on YouTube.  I think, for me, it is between Once Upon A Time In The West and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  I definitely favor the spaghetti westerns over the Wayne/Ford type westerns - better atmosphere, better cinematography, better soundtrack, much more memorable.  But it's been a while since I've seen either - so that's one of my goals for next week. 

Song of the Week #11

Well, it's on.  The Great Mole War 2 has officially started.  With this in mind, I need a classic film soundtrack to a classic film.  What better and more appropriate than Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone.

Teeth

What I thought would be my final visit to the dentists for a while today.  I got my teeth cleaned - and this was the kind of dentist's visit I feared and hated with the hygienist scraping 25 years worth of buildup from my teeth.  But alas despite being told at previous visits, and this visit, that my teeth are in good shape, they need more work.  Specifically, 3 fillings.  And on top of that, I apparently have a receding gumline as well.  Which I guess goes hand in hand with my receding hairline.  So yes, 2 more visits required next month.  I'm slightly suspicious of the timing, and expense, of all this extra work required - but I can't be too critical since I've only got myself to blame for going so long without seeing a dentist (and all things considered, it could have been a lot worse considering how long it's been).  Next on the list, I need to find a decent optician and get a handle on the state of my eyes (and get some new glasses, which is something long overdue).

I also want to add that it is now a requirement to wear face masks in Washington state.  This means you have to wear them whenever you're in an indoor public setting and also some public outdoor settings, or risk a fine and/or jail time.  Which is something I do anyway.  But I can't tell you how much it annoys me when I encounter people that don't - so this is good.  And I can't tell you how much it annoys me when certain people in the most "at-risk" population don't bother wearing face masks when they go shopping, even if there's not a specific requirement to do so.  Why take the risk?  It's utterly stupid not to do so, and there's no excuse not to do so.     

Bites

It doesn't matter how many times I wash my bedding, somehow every time insects get under my duvet when I sleep and bite me to hell.  I must have about 30 insect bites on my legs right now - and all of them are incredibly uncomfortable and itchy.  This has historically always been an issue with me - my blood must be intoxicating and addictive to them.  One bite, and they can't get enough.  I've got some insect repellent for when I go on certain hikes, but I don't particularly want to resort to using it every night (and it stinks).  It's times like this when I wish I had central air-conditioning (a rare commodity in this particular part of the US) and wouldn't need to leave my windows open and let the little buggers in.  First world problems right.     

Holes

I started putting together some ladder bookcases I purchased recently.  They're nothing flashy - quite cheap Ikea-type products that require screwing together some wooden and metal pieces.  I wanted something to display more of the various pieces of junk I've collected over the years, but a decent display cabinet is just too awkward and too heavy for me to put together by myself.  So you'd think and hope that these simple bookcases would be a cheap compromise and fairly straightforward to construct.  But then I noticed something - see if you can spot the problem in the photo below of what should be 8 similar-looking pieces of wood:

Yep, that one 2nd to the left doesn't have any holes.  How the hell does that happen?  I've ordered a replacement part online, but if I even get a response then I've got no idea how long it's going to take for me to get it.  Great - once again I pay the price for being a cheapskate.  Even though I have enough disposable income that I don't need to be.  Serves me right.     

Bournemouth 0-2 Palace

Well, that was a pleasant surprise.  First ever live sporting event on the Peacock streaming service - which I get for free - and Palace looked good in winning their 4th in a row, especially in that 1st half, 4th clean sheet in a row, and comfortably easing past a hapless opponent who looks to be in serious relegation trouble.  I guess a 3 month layoff hasn't slowed down our momentum.  Though I suspect our next game - against Liverpool - might be a bit of a different proposition.  But now we're past that 40 point threshold, time to look forward rather than look back.  Europe?  No, I think that's beyond our reach.  Top 10?  Now that's what we're talking about.   

Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth Day!  Is that even the right thing to say?  I have no idea - until this week, I'd never even heard of it.  And now it's an unofficial company holiday - we were encouraged to take the day off to celebrate it however we wanted.  Which I don't think would have happened until all the civil unrest recently.  It's apparently a day to commemorate the end of slavery in the US - so not without some significance.  I suspect it will become a more universally accepted holiday in future years.  But for the time being, nice to have a day off work for whatever reason (though I've felt like I've had most of this week off anyway, as I haven't had much work to do.  And don't suspect it's going to be any busier next week, because after that it's our one week summer shutdown.  I should enjoy the downtime whilst I can!).   

Song of the Week #10

I'm not letting my slow and painful death by allergies (hopefully just an exaggeration) stop me from posting another tune.  This time, I feel I need to post something a bit more "fun".  Enjoy!

Added crowd noise

Isn't it great that the Premier League is back on?  I've missed it - and it's absence definitely left a void that things like Korean baseball could not fill.  But oh boy, how bad is the "added crowd noise" that the coverage here has added to the matches?  I've no idea whether this is something specific to the US, and I've got no idea if this crowd noise is specific to the TV coverage or something that gets piped into the football stadiums.  I suspect it's just for the TV audience, but boy is it unsettling and ridiculously out of sync with the actual happenings on the pitch.  And there seems to be an awful lot of buzzing.  Along with the clear goal that somehow goal line technology and VAR missed in the first half of AVL vs SHU, then perhaps we have some kind of big technology failure in this restarted season.  I wish there was an option to turn off the artificial crowd noise - but I fear that a complete lack of crowd noise will be even more unsettling.  And what's this now - an official water break?  In the tropical and humid climate of Birmingham in June?  Good grief.  And if you're going to have some cardboard cutouts of spectators in the crowd, or a video of some fans in a Zoom meeting, you need to have a lot more than just a dozen or so in a stadium with a maximum attendance of 40,000 plus.  And "substitution windows"?  Whatever.  I fear these "temporary" changes to the game will quickly become permanent.

Settlements

Over the last few months, thanks to living in this litigious country I have been the recipient of settlements from 2 large class action lawsuits.  One from Ford and one from my health insurance company.  I don't remember ever voluntarily being a part of these lawsuits - but apparently I'm automatically included in them as a former owner of a Ford car with a defective transmission (which I definitely agree with - I remember having all kinds of issues with my automatic gears) and by having my data stolen via my health insurance company being hacked.  And what was my big compensation for these egregious failures?  $20 for my transmission, and $12 for the data breach.  Yes, I really hit the jackpot...     

Chop

Seattle has been in the national and international news recently for the neighborhood that has turned into a police-free zone.  Originally called CHAZ - Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, I think it has now been renamed CHOP - Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.  Although not too far from my office, not an area I frequent much at all.  Either way, Trump hates it and has threatened to send in the troops.  Yet another shallow threat.  And of course it has been pilloried by stations like Fox News, who see it as some kind of hippy lawless commune.  I really don't give two hoots about the whole situation - let them do their thing, but I think there are much more constructive ways to protest policing or whatever.  Historically Seattle has loved it's counterculture, and this is yet another example of it. 

Slugs

What is going on with the slug population in my neighborhood?  Over the last week, I've founds loads of them on my patio and deck that I've had to remove.  And I can see loads of disgusting trails where they've been.  And these are not small slugs - these are big horrible banana slugs.  Fortunately I haven't found any inside my house yet - that has happened once in the past, and still gives me nightmares.  Is this just the time of year when they start to roam around to mate or whatever?  I guess the wet weather we've had recently may be a contributing factor.  But they are horrible things - I would hope that there would be more predators in the neighborhood to deal with them.

And a quick update on the mole war.  Hasn't really been much action recently.  I've found a few molehills, but they were much smaller than ones I've had to deal with before and may indeed be old and no longer used.  I did actually discover a dead mole in the grass a few weeks ago - it was very strange because the day after I found a dead mouse in the exact same spot.  I suspect my landlord's cat, that I still see roaming around and who spies on me when he thinks I can't see him, might have been leaving some offerings out for me. 

Roger Murdoch

Our company had another “celebrity” chat yesterday – one of our few black employees had a virtual chat with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  Naturally, I hoped he would talk about his role as Roger Murdoch in the film Airplane (which is how I most think of him – in much the same way that I think of OJ Simpson as Norberg from The Naked Gun), but sadly that was never going to happen given the serious state of race relations in America right now.  Does it make me a racist that I wasn’t really interested in too much of the conversation about race?  On some level, maybe (and my overt racism is definitely more yellow than black).  I certainly believe that American society is still intrinsically racist, and it needs to change – and that just starts with policing.  And I believe in the right of peaceful protest – including taking the knee during the anthem.  And as much as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest basketball players ever, I also know him as an erudite and intelligent activist and author. I’ve read many of his columns in Time magazine.  However a lot of the topics covered in the chat were things I already knew or had inferred, and I think there are many more Americans in their small-minded white bubbles who would be a better audience for this than me.  This seems like an important time in the state of race relations in the US – will these sustained protests actually make a difference?  I suspect not under the current president.  But I think it’s right to protest and to keep these issues at the forefront of the American consciousness – unfortunately there are so many other issues that are just as important that also need to be addressed, I’m thinking particularly of the environment and climate change.  As someone of non-American white privilege, and someone without any black friends or colleagues, I feel very uncomfortable and uninformed about writing about race in any amount of detail.  But at least I can explicitly state that I support the black lives matter movement.


PS A big hooray for the New Zealand Super League being aired here last night - for what has to be the first time ever.  3 reasons why it's great: (1) it's rugby union, by far the best form of rugby, (2) it's rugby union, my second favorite sport to watch, and (3) because New Zealand is virus-free, it's the first sporting event I've watched for what feels like forever that actually had spectators.   

Song of the Week #9.5

I need to finish this week of music on a high - so I've picked a bona fide stone-cold classic.  Enjoy!

Song of the Week #9.4

Looking at my posts this week, I probably could've got away without having to add a music video to each one.  Good to know - there is still life in this old dog.  Had a weird moment yesterday - took the opportunity to wash my car in a rare sunny break this week.  The aim was to get rid of the pollen that has accumulated on my car, which I momentarily succeeded in doing before leaving the car out to dry.  Naturally loads of pollen collected on it once again.  Oh well.  But the weird thing was that I noticed that my car didn't have any mud flaps.  Did it ever have mud flaps?  Did I have them, and they got stolen and I never noticed?  Why has this only caught my attention for the first time now?  This has really thrown me.  Looking at a photo of my car when I first got it, I don't see any mud flaps - so it seems that I never had them.  But I'm still not sure.

Today's song is a number one from the 80's, that sounds more like something from the early 90's.  Hello early British house music!

Song of the Week #9.3

If you want to get an inkling of the ugly and toxic racism that prevails throughout the US, could I direct you to the comments section of any article talking about how NASCAR honored black lives matter over the weekend.  There's another race tonight, and apparently the only black driver in the competition is going to drive a car with lots of black lives matter imagery over it.  It will be interesting to see if one of the other drivers sends this car into the wall early on as some kind of statement, which would definitely appease the typical fan of this sport.  Let's just say that the type of people who follow stock-car racing are not the type of people who take kindly to the protests going on throughout America right now.  Understatement.

Today's random song is a surprisingly good one-hit wonder from the late 70's.

Song of the Week #9.2

I have tended to try to do my grocery shopping when it's early and less busy - but I made an exception today as I went to Walmart this lunchtime to pick up a new Nintendo controller (yes, I'm ready to kick ass and take names at Mario Kart again!).  And when it's busier, I expect people to follow the one-way signs on grocery aisles.  And do people do that?  Do they heck.  Very frustrating - it's just impossible to keep your distance - and I suspect some people are intentionally not following the directions.

Today's "random" song is one of my favorites from the Britpop era.

Song of the Week #9.1

I'm doing a week's worth of "random" songs - since I don't have anything better to write about.  Maybe just a work week's worth - let's see how it goes.  I'm not going out much, I'm working too much, I don't have sports to comment about (I watched some rugby league from Australia last weekend - I love rugby union, but I remain extremely indifferent about rugby league even when there's nothing else on), current affairs is just too depressing, and I didn't think it was possible but my already unexciting life has got even more boring.

So first up, a song that is a lot more familiar to Americans than Brits - and has featured heavily in shows like The (American) Office and Family Guy.  No it's not great, but it's got a catchy chorus.

Weeds

Among all the typical weeds growing round my house, some huge and beautiful lupines have sprung up:

However, now I can't help but see these things all over the place whenever I go out for a walk.  I think they are just another weed in this part of the world - even though I don't think I've seen them in my yard before.

Rocketman

After yesterday's post and for what feels like the first time in weeks, I did watch a film last night - Rocketman.  And I really really wanted to like it.  I tried so hard.  I think Elton John's life story is an interesting one, and his music is great.  But the film just didn't do it for me.  I've been trying to work out why - and think it's the simple fact that it's too theatrical.  Better suited to the West End than for the big screen.  I don't know, I'm very conflicted about this one.  In some ways I think it's better than similar films, in other ways it isn't - I'm thinking in particular of Bohemian Rhapsody - but I just didn't like the way they constructed this film.  I'd rather just see the songs performed rather than forced into scenes - or more accurately scenes forced out of the songs.  Rating - a possibly harsh 2.5 stars. 

Tired

So, so tired.  I feel physically and mentally spent.  No energy, no motivation.  I feel like working from home is just rotting my brain away.  And 3 months of it still to go.  At least.  And what's going on in the world right now is just demoralizing and soul-destroying.  These are tough times.  I've definitely had a bad week, where a combination of work-related stress and lack of sleep have sapped all my drive.  This affects all aspects of my life, whether it means I'm eating lazily and unhealthily, or I'm not doing the chores that I need to do to keep my house clean.  I know it's bad because I'm struggling to hold my concentration to watch a film or even read a magazine or book.  Or write a blog post.  I hope I'm able to recharge this weekend.

A Churchillian Moment

This wasn't it.

This photo op, and everything that took place to achieve it, made me sick.  Inappropriate, offensive, appalling, and iconic.

Song of the Week #8

Or should this be songs of the week #8, since this is two sides of the same coin.

We start with a fun early 90's dance hit.

And then, interesting fact, this dance act evolved into an indy darling, who released a couple of really good albums in the early 00's.  I used to really be into them.  This is a beautiful and hypnotic track from that time.  Aside - they never broke into the US, but the one time I went to Coachella I saw them live - they were on REALLY early, like lunchtime/early afternoon early, and there was practically nobody paying attention to them so I think I watched and listened whilst leaning up against the fence that separated the stage from the crowd.  Surreal.

Blackout Tuesday

⬛

Odor

Oh no, it's that time of year when my home starts to omit a very unpleasant musty/moldy smell.  I can't locate the source.  I can't get rid of the smell.  And it's driving me crazy.  I suspect it's coming from behind one of the walls - but then I started smelling it when I left the window open, so does it come from outside?  For sure, the outside of my home could do with some serious cleaning (something I probably suggest to my landlord).  A quick search of my blog reveals I've posted almost the exact same observation for at least the last 2 years.  So this is clearly a regular occurrence now, but hopefully this means that the smell should go away soon.