Goodbye 2020 ...

 ... and good riddance, you sucked.  

In addition to several subjective new year's resolutions, most of which I will undoubtedly quickly break - so I won't bother sharing them here - I have also made one objective and quantifiable new year's resolution.  And that is to lose 24 lb in 2021.  That is only 2 lb a month, in theory quite achievable.  But everything in my history suggest that it is going to be next to impossible.  Yes I have lost weight before, but I've never been able to keep that weight off.  And so this is going to be tough.  Exercise, diet, blah blah blah.  But the biggest thing for me is willpower.  I have to want to lose that weight enough to commit to better choices, and stick to them.  That's always been my problem, and something I need to overcome.  And when I take a step backwards, I can't give up.  Which is why I can't totally change all my terrible habits and lifestyle choices overnight.  It has to be a slow and gradual transition to something better.  Let's see how I get on.  I will aim to revisit this resolution in this blog on the last day of every month.

Song of the Week #38

For the end of the year, something from one of the best bands of their era.  Maybe not one of their best known songs but one that has been covered extensively, one that has been used extensively in TV show finales, and one that seems appropriate to welcoming in a new and hopefully better year.

Sense of Humor

I don't know whether this is a symptom of this year, or whether my sense of humor has evolved over time - but I'm finding that things I used to find funny are no longer funny.  In particular, I'm thinking of Channel 4 panel shows.  For example, I tried to watch the Big Fat Quiz of the Year on YouTube.  I've enjoyed these in the past, and this one featured some comedians who I have traditionally liked - but this time round, I found it almost unwatchable and couldn't finish it.  Same goes for 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.  Has my sense of humor changed?  Has it disappeared?  No, that definitely can't be it because there are still some shows (Taskmaster) and many podcasts that I enjoy and find very funny.  But the vast majority of these tend to be American now, so perhaps my sense of humor has become Americanized?  That is disturbing.  That might explain why I'm spelling humor instinctively without the u now.   

Resolution

My last burger and fries of the year today.  And it might also be my last burger and fries for a while.  A new year's resolution is to eat more "sensibly".  I've purposely made that subjective and ambiguous, but I do want to make more of an effort to cut down on fast food - especially when the weather stinks and I'm not going out for any exercise.  I'm not going to eliminate fast food totally - but I will have it less regularly, and I will be more sensible in the size of portions.  I give it 2 weeks before I totally break this resolution.       

Palace - oh dear

The less said about the Palace results over the festive period so far, the better.  Never a high scoring team, it's a bit alarming that we've gone so long without keeping a clean sheet (and shipping a lot of goals at the moment).  On the opposite side of things, lots of fireworks in the neighborhood tonight as Seattle won and sealed their division win.  I think the NFL playoffs are expanded and different this year, and only the #1 seed gets a bye - and Seattle are not the #1 seed on the NFC side, so much tougher to get to the Superbowl if you're not the #1.  A very interesting year for Seattle - started as an offensive juggernaut with a shockingly poor defense, and now they don't score nearly as much but have a much stronger defense.  If they can put it together, they could go far.   

And an update - feeling very pleased with myself, as I think I fixed a lot of my TV audio issues.  I realized that a splitter I use might be causing the issue following a firmware update on the TV.  And sure enough, when I eliminate that then I don't seem to get the intermittent sound issues anymore.  I notice I still get some stutter in the picture when I try to watch Wonder Woman via HBO Max on Roku - but I think that is more to do with the volume of people accessing their server, than anything to do with the equipment on my end.  I don't think this is going to stop me from upgrading my telly and soundbar - kind of fed up with having to deal with one issue or another.  The only reason I use the splitter in the first place is because of an another issue to do with audio lag - nothing more annoying than not being able to get a picture synced with the audio.  You'd think TV companies would latch onto the fact that if they included a decent sound system with their product then it would be so much more appealing - seems like a terrible oversight (though I suspect more an unofficial agreement between the TV manufacturers and the audio equipment manufacturers).

12 Films

A bit convoluted, but my version of the 12 Days of Christmas is to watch 12 films over the Christmas period before I go back to work.  I've done 3 films so far.  Ford vs Ferrari - a good old-fashioned, if somewhat one-dimensional, film - 3.5 stars.  Doctor Sleep - a perfectly okay film for what it was, but loses a star because it is sacrilegious to make a sequel to The Shining 40 years later - 2.5 stars.  And yesterday I watched Wonder Woman 1984 on the day of it's premiere - a perfect example of the serviceable but ultimately vacuous and unmemorable film from one of the cinematic universes we have today - 2 stars.  I wanted to watch it in 4K and with Dolby Atmos sound - because I have the telly and soundbar that play these formats.  But after much faffing around, it doesn't appear I have the actual combination of equipment that enable me to do so.  Which is extremely disappointing.  And then I got trapped down a rabbit hole of playing around with all my settings to see what my set up can and can't do.  And I have come to the sad conclusion that my TV isn't even compatible with my soundbar for playing any sort of Dolby Atmos sound.  Worse, I don't seem to be able to play audio from any of my streaming apps without the sound cutting out intermittently every 10 seconds or so.  Which is devastating.  I've been having a lot of doubts about my telly already - despite not having had it that long - and I think this might be the final straw.  This is undoubtedly going to consume so much of my time over the next week, as I am convinced it is fixable - though it is just as likely to be a bug in the firmware somewhere.  I might refine this - but I think I'm going to make it a new year's resolution to combine all of the following next year: cut the cord, get a PS5, get a better telly and get a better soundbar.  Let's hope I get a decent annual bonus to pay for all this (unlikely).    

Merry Christmas

A Christmas alone.  Not how you want to spend it.  You know what I missed most?  Maybe waking up to a sackful of presents from Santa at the bottom of the bed.  Maybe playing cards with all the family, particularly Grandpa who played with such amusing reckless abandon.  But no, I think it's the food I missed - and miss - the most.  I think the Christmas Day meal was, and is, my favorite meal of the year - something that Mum slaved over for hours with so little appreciation.  Well I appreciate it now!  Exactly like Thanksgiving, I wasn't prepared to cook a massive meal with all the trimmings just for myself.  Unlike Thanksgiving, there are a lot less places here that offer take out Christmas dinners.  In the end, I picked up a pre-cooked dinner from a local Irish bar/restaurant a few days ago - so all I needed to do was heat it up today.  It was perfectly nice, but it doesn't compare to Mum's home cooking!  As with a lot of American meals, it came with a side salad that was almost a meal in itself - so much so, that I had the salad for lunch and the main meal for dinner.  I doubt it was a real Irish Christmas meal, here is what it consisted of (verbatim from the website):

- Hand Cut Holiday Glazed Ham

- Au Gratin Smashed Potatoes

- Broccolini with Bacon

- Cider Spiced Braised Cabbage

- Emerald Salad with Fruit and Candied Nuts

- O'Donnell's Soda Bread

Make of that what you will.  They don't do Christmas Pudding in America.  So I also ordered some Bread Pudding, which is about as close as I can get.  I'm feeling pleasantly stuffed now, but of course a Skype call today can't make up for the lack of company.  I'm going to try to ensure that doesn't happen again for any future Christmases.

Childhood Memories

I went for a Christmas Eve walk round the neighborhood today.  It's still extremely cold, so this turned into a treacherous adventure with plenty of opportunities for me to "hilariously" slip over and fall on my ass.  I'm not going to have a white Christmas here, but there's still plenty of icy snow lingering on the ground long after I mentioned that snowfall we got a few days back.  But encountered a few things that triggered some nice childhood memories.  First of all, heard the shouts and laughter of some kids and encountered them sledging down a hill on what was left of the snow - brought back a good memory of doing the same thing in Hertford on the rare occasion it snowed there.  And a bit later on, saw and smelt some backyard bonfires - and that brought back some nice memories of bonfires at the bottom of the garden growing up.  I think as a kid you're always kind of drawn to fire, but I always like that distinctive bonfire smell and I kind of like the fact it lingers in your clothes long afterwards.  I miss that.  And I miss the innocent joy of youth.  

Song of the Week #37

Something seasonal is required.  I think I've previously posted my favorite Christmas song, so time to go for something different.  So here is an American Christmas song that I'd never heard of before until the last few days when it was recommended on one of the podcasts I listen to.  And I have subsequently found out that a cover of this topped the UK charts last year, which I had absolutely no idea about and had never heard (and still haven't heard!).  However, this is the original and I'm sure it's better.

Rain (follow up)

A quick weather update - ended up getting somewhere between 1 and 2 inches of snow last night.  Fortunately it's warm enough that most of it had melted away today - but still a dusting of snow all over my yard.  Lynnwood, where I live, made the local headlines by having some of the worst flooding in the region after this storm.  A lot of major roadways - including ones that I frequent quite regularly - were flooded and closed yesterday.  But things have settled down now, and no more rain forecast until Christmas Day.

The governor of our state proclaimed a 14 day quarantine for visitors from the UK yesterday.  Now I'm really confused about what kind of restrictions were in place before then.  I know there were, and as far as I know still are, restrictions on the UK side when it comes to travel between the US and the UK.  Either way, I am not even going to consider international travel (or indeed any sort of air travel) until it is safe to do so and has returned to some semblance of normality (whatever that is).  And that probably means after I've been vaccinated.  I did get an e-mail from my doctor's office today saying that they will be one of the region's first health care organizations to receive doses of the vaccine.  I have absolutely no idea when they'll start giving them to us muggles, I'm sure I'm a long way down the priority list.  Surely having high blood pressure must count for something?!        

Rain

It didn't just rain today, it poured down today.  Just a really miserable day.  It was so dark that I don't think my outdoor Christmas lights, which are controlled by a light sensor, ever turned off.  At least it was just rain, at higher elevations towards the mountains and out towards the Canadian border I think that rain turned into snow.  But that hasn't stopped flooding and landslides - along with an official weather alert.  When you get rain like this, you notice the issues where you live.  I could hear water dripping in my fireplace - so my chimney has a small leak.  And my gutters need clearing, as I was getting torrents of water coming down off the roof where they were full of debris and couldn't handle the volume of rain.  How can I make this blog more positive?  Well at least it's just today that we have this bad weather - the rest of the week leading up to Christmas Day looks like good walking weather!      

Addendum: it is now a couple of hours later, and I've just looked outside and it's snowing heavily.  How very festive!  I don't think it's cold enough to really settle, but we shall see tomorrow morning.  

Positivity

I have, once again, been accused of being too negative in these blog posts.  I have a number of responses to this slanderous hit:

(a) Suck it up.  I am not a positive person, so this blog is only a reflection of who I am.  I'd rather be honest than write with fake positivity.

(b) With everything that has happened in 2020, it has not exactly been a year that promotes positivity.  In fact, you could probably go as far as saying that this might be the worst post-Second World War year in history - at least for first world countries.

(c) I've lived in a country that has had a leadership for the last 4 years that has promoted an agenda of hatred and divisiveness.  Hardly conducive to promoting positivity.  I do think that it will help when Biden takes over (accompanied with an end to the pandemic) - not just for me, but I hope for the country as a whole (marginalizing Trumpism is key).  

(d) Whatever this is:

Restrictions

With the news that a load of new restrictions are going to be imposed over the Christmas period on a significant part of the UK, I feel bad for all the people whose Christmas plans have been ruined.  Especially those who really need the company of others - that's tough.  I'll only say that a family get-together doesn't need to be restricted to just over Christmas - so as soon as the restrictions are lifted, hopefully you can have that get-together then.  To go to the extreme, I like the idea of having a Christmas type meal and then playing some card games and having some drinks outside on a nice warm summer evening.  So I'll just preach some patience!  At least the UK has some transparency on how it's handling the pandemic.  You certainly don't get that from the incompetent and thankfully outgoing leadership here.  I don't have a clue what's going on with the spread of the virus here - on either a national or local level.  I'm not entirely sure what phase I'm under now (which is our local equivalent to the tiers you have in the UK) and how much the rate of infections/deaths has increased over the last few months - and I have no idea how Washington or Seattle compares to other states or cities (I don't think we're a hot spot thankfully).  I doubt we'd ever be told if or when there was a variant and more infectious strain of the virus.  We don't have an "R" number here (I actually had to look it up just now to know exactly what it stood for).  I mean people are still refusing to acknowledge that there is even a pandemic going on.  I know that Biden wants to do some kind of 100 day mask thing when he goes into the White House, but good luck with that when a lot of people will never wear a mask let alone have a vaccination (inexplicably considering them an infringement on their civil liberties, or some such BS).  To the surprise of no one, the distribution and availability of vaccinations has already been totally botched by the federal government - much like PPE protection and other hospital equipment, making it the responsibility of each state to acquire it's own supplies is a recipe for disaster.  I still have absolutely no idea how it's being rolled out.  It's absolutely shocking how bad the American leadership has been in dealing with this tragedy.  And all Trump is doing is still, excuse my French, f*cking whining about the election that he lost.  It enrages me.  As does all the Republican leadership who still refuse to acknowledge Biden's win.  It's mind-blowing.  You think the Republican-controlled Senate is going to accept a single one of Biden's nominees for various positions in his government?  And don't even get me started on the lack of federal response to the large scale Russian cyber attack on American government.  It's treasonous.        

Random List

A random list of 10 presenters/comedians who I really don't like (a lot of whom are American and you've probably never heard of).  Give me a month or two, and I could probably come up with a list of 10 new people I don't like.  And if we're talking about anyone related to politics, then give me 5 minutes and I could probably come up with about 50 names.

Jimmy Fallon

Rutledge Wood

Scott Aukerman

Daniel Tosh

Erin Andrews

Dana White

Graham Norton

Jay Leno

Peter Kay

Brandi Kruse

Christmas Lights

I don’t go all in for outdoor Christmas decorations, especially not the tacky inflatable eyesores that Americans seem to prefer.  It's not a big deal because my home isn’t visible from the road, but I do have some lights hanging outside my front door.  They are basic cheap lights that I’ve had for quite a few years, so I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise when they stop working.  And sure enough, today I noticed that a large section of the string wasn’t lit up – it was working when I first hung them up, but not now.  I tried replacing each bulb in that section one at a time, but no luck.  I don’t know if there is anything else I can do to try to figure out the issue – I didn’t notice that a squirrel or a raccoon or something had chewed through a wire – so I think this particular set of lights is done for and is going right in the trash in January.  I've just ordered some replacement lights (better, but still cheap), which I should probably have waited until they were on sale because I don't think I'll get them before Christmas.  Fortunately the section that isn’t working is at the end of the string, and the string is long enough, so I can kind of readjust how I hang it up so that the dead section is on the floor and the lighted sections hang symmetrically around my door.  But it still makes my “effort” at putting up lights very shameful, especially as my landlord next door (or at least one or more of his sons) has put up some very extravagant decorations that I don’t remember them having in years past. 

Shopping

Took a brief shopping excursion to Target this morning.  Even if it’s perceived to be the fashionable alternative to Walmart, It’s not a department store I tend to frequent too much – I find it overpriced and overrated.  But, for whatever reason, I wanted to have a wander round it this morning.  And once again I was remarkably underwhelmed by what it had to offer – yet it was inexplicably very crowded.  It seems to be the store of choice for soccer moms – nothing like the blue collar/Trump supporting crowd you get at Walmart.  I’m trying to think about how to compare it to the UK – if Walmart is Asda, then Target is Sainsburys (and Whole Food Market is Waitrose and, I guess, Kroger is Tesco).  But walking out of Target empty-handed, I decided to check out the Cost Plus World Market next door.  Now this is a weird store, seemingly selling only home furnishings and some international foods – I have no idea how it is still in business, especially during a pandemic.  But, much to my delight, I was able to get some nice UK-themed treats for Christmas – some After Eights, some Quality Street and a Terry’s chocolate egg.  As I was checking out the Terry’s packaging, I was stunned to notice that it was made in France – what the hell, I thought it was a quintessentially English confectionery?  Some quick internet research reveals that they haven’t been made in the UK since 2005.  So at least you can’t blame Brexit for this one.

Song of the Week #36

This is long overdue, but it's time to go hard.  Feel the emotion and fury on this classic - another song that hasn't lost any irrelevancy over time.

 

Impact

I’m not an expert on the latest happenings with regards Brexit – if you’re in the UK, then I’m sure you’re consuming a lot more news about it than me.  In fact, you’re probably generally consuming a lot more news than me – I just find current affairs too depressing, particularly American politics and anything to do with Trump and Trumpism, so I am considering most of it just noise and ignoring it.  However, I encountered something at work that relates to Brexit, and I found it kind of interesting.  I am working on a clinical trial that is due to start recruiting subjects next year.  The plan was to include subjects from the UK in the clinical trial.  But – and this was explicitly stated multiple times in meetings – due to Brexit, then the UK will no longer be considered for recruitment in the clinical trial.  Too much additional work and too many unknowns when it comes to dealing with the UK in a post-Brexit world.  I know this is the tiniest of tiny things – but if you consider that there are probably millions and millions of similar decisions being made across all manner of fields and industries, then the overall impact in the UK will surely be felt.  2020 has unequivocally been a sh*t year.  But I think 2021 could be equally bad in the UK as the consequences of Brexit start to hit.  Good luck with that. 

Cookies

I was looking for a small storage container among all my other stuff today, and came across a couple of old seasonal Cadbury Cookies tins.  And I quickly got a real yearning for buying another one of these.  "An assortment of delicious cookies covered in Cadbury milk chocolate."  But after a frantic internet search, I can't find these things anywhere - I don't think they're sold anymore.  Not even in the UK, not even when I substitute biscuits for cookies in the internet search.  This is devastating - how am I going to satisfy my craving now?  There are alternatives - think McVitie's Victoria Classic Biscuit Collection or Fox's Chocolatey Selection etc.  But these are all overpriced UK imports that won't arrive by Christmas - I got these Cadbury's tins in the US, and probably from somewhere like Walmart.  One of the tins has a best before date of 2016, so this wasn't that long ago.  But alas I guess they didn't sell well and American consumers' tastes have moved on, even if mine haven't.                

Suspicious

It would have been my office Christmas party last night.  Sometimes I go to these, most years I don't bother.  I think I would have gone this year (if I wasn't back in the UK), because it was being held at some venue featuring trapeze artists - the idea of eating a Christmas meal with some trapeze artists flying above you sounds kind of cool.  But obviously it didn't happen this year.  Instead, I think every full time employee at the site is being given some money.  But the math (yes, intentional Americanism alert) doesn't work out.  Supposedly we are getting $25 each.  I don't exactly know how many employees in the Seattle office we have now, but it's certainly no more than 200.  And 200 multiplied by $25 is $5000.  There is no way that the cost of the venue, the cost of the food and drink, the cost of the raffle prizes, and the cost of everything else that goes into the party is anywhere near $5000 or less.  It has to be way way more.  So somebody somewhere is pocketing the rest - very dodgy.  It's not the only instance of this at work.  I know that the table tennis club has a budget - but that has had zero outlay this year.  I'm very suspicious of the Chinese guy in charge of this money - in previous years he's spent most of this money on things we don't need (like a new table and a table tennis robot), over the objections of me and several other people.  We haven't even had any gift cards through the club (that I know other clubs at work have had) - so where has all that money gone?  My cynicism is through the roof on all of this.        

Raffle Winner

Hooray, I just found out that I'm one of the winners of a raffle at work.  Before I tell you what my prize is, this needs some context.  The raffle was part of "Safety and Sustainability Week" at work, and I was entered because I completed a stupid quiz and attended a crappy talk about recycling or something that I don't even remember.  Also, it's important to know that I didn't win the first place prize or the second place prize - I won one of the 60+ third place prizes.  So dampen your expectations.  And dampen your expectations even further when I tell you that the first place prize was an emergency roadside kit, and the second place prize was a filtration water bottle.  Considering that, any ideas what I might have won?  I almost guarantee that you will never guess it.  I won ...... some wool dryer balls.  Just what I've always wanted - to "help eliminate the use of fabric softener and reduce clothing drying time".  And a quick look on Amazon reveals that my prize retails for the huge price of $7.99.  But I'm a winner, baby!        

Tennis Elbow

I'm going to sound like an old man, but as I've got older I've started to suffer from all kind of aches and pains.  Back ache, migraines, muscle aches, digestive trouble, coughs, and so on.  Obviously when some of these are covid-type symptoms, and more than one of them are occurring simultaneously, then I start to worry.  I've either been very lucky or I don't think I've been infected with covid yet, because I've certainly not shown any severe symptoms.  But the ailment I'm currently suffering from is, I think, tennis elbow.  And it is giving me a lot of grief - it can be quite painful, and I do notice a decrease in muscle strength in that arm.  If it persists through into the new year, then I shall have to see a doctor about it.  And it'll have to be a new doctor - since I don't think my current doctor is practicing any more.  As I get closer to a time when I start needing to have regular prostate exams, then I need to find a new doctor I can trust!  

Song of the Week #35

A classic from a band who is great and whose music crossed all kinds of genres.  This is an early one from their punk rock period, and you will definitely recognize that iconic bass line.

More WFH Expenses

As part of my company's working from home assistance, we can expense for "increased utility costs" due to WFH.  This is not something I'd bothered with before - the increase in the amount I was paying seemed negligible, maybe due to year-to-year variability or an increase in how much they charge.  But that changed when I got my electricity bill today, which was shockingly high.  The cost of keeping my house heated all day has seemingly made a big difference - something I would obviously not notice during those warmer months.  So, after consulting my manager about my intentions, I have submitted an expense report today for the difference between what I've been paying since starting WFH (9 month ago! - good grief) and the equivalent months from last year (which added up to not an insignificant amount).  It will be very interesting to see if these expenses get approved...    

Hiking Etiquette

I think it might be time to start wearing a face mask all the time even when I'm hiking outdoors.  I went to a nearby state park for a walk over lunchtime - and it was a lot busier than normal.  I don't tend to put a mask on unless I see a family approaching me - but when I don't, typically there are 2 extreme reactions of people when I encounter them on a trail.  They either grapple for their own mask and scramble into the undergrowth to get as far away as they can from me.  Alternatively, they don't change their path - not even going to the side of the trail - and brush past me.  The first is ridiculous, the second is just plain infuriating.  So I've just got some breathable masks for exercising, which I'm going to start using - and I don't want the hassle of taking the mask on and off all the time, especially considering the number of people I encountered today, so I might just keep it on no matter how stupid I look.  Not sure why it was as busy as it was - perhaps because I hiked a bit later than normal, perhaps because we have a lot more rain in the forecast.  I also wonder whether it was some kind of day out for a local loony bin - I encountered a lot of strange people: someone who was inexplicably carrying a lot of fern that they'd hacked from the forest floor, some guy who was in way too short shorts and some crazy lady who was wondering about way off the trail chattering to herself.  Very odd.  What was also frustrating was that I was walking the trails in the "correct" direction - i.e. following the signage.  So almost all the people I encountered were walking the "wrong" way - I guess there is no way of enforcing this (though I know of at least one popular trail where they are doing this), but it's tempting just to make the trails 1-way to avoid this kind of contact.  It's sad when even the most simple form of exercise - a walk - is so compromised nowadays.       

Christmas Cards

I need to step up my Christmas card game.  The cards I'm sending out this year are decidedly mediocre and decidedly cheap (I got them in the post-Christmas sales a while ago) - and that's not acceptable when I'm shelling out so much money just to post these things to the UK ($1.20 is the current going rate for an international stamp).  When the stamp is far more expensive than the card, then you know that something is fundamentally wrong.  So my apologies for anyone reading this who receives a card from me - I know I can and should do better.  Contrarily, the whole exercise of sending out Christmas cards seems quite unnecessary and dated in today's age - wouldn't just a simple e-mail suffice?  I don't know, it's nice to get something personal via slow mail nowadays and I like getting a Christmas card where clearly someone has made a bit of an effort.  However, rest assured I won't send you a card in the future with my ugly mug on it.    

The Islands

My landlord has gone away to Hawaii for 2 weeks, and I was kind of thrown by that.  I thought Hawaii had a 14 day quarantine period for any visitors, even those traveling from the mainland - so I looked it up.  And apparently, to visit most of the islands (not all of them) you can avoid the quarantine period with a negative COVID test.  Which is interesting to know.  I'm not sure I'm prepared to face the joys of an internal flight just yet, but Hawaii is somewhere I would like to go and definitely an option if winter here starts to become too much of a downer.  However, it is kind of depressing to read about a couple who recently took a flight there with their young child despite knowing that they had positive COVID tests - they deserved to get arrested, and I hope they get locked up for a long time.  Imagine you were on that flight and found that out...

Beach Hikes

We've had some unseasonably pleasant weather here for the last week - for the most part beautiful sunny clear skies.  So with a light workload, I took the opportunity to take a few days off work to make the most of the weather.  And I did a couple of exposed hikes to get some natural Vitamin D - one hike on Whidbey Island (Deception Pass State Park), and the other on Camano Island (Cama Beach State Park).  I've been to both parks before, but not necessarily the specific hikes I did this time.  In both cases, wanted to do quite a lot of hiking by the water - because nothing beats having an entire beach almost to yourself with the sun shining down on you.  Very therapeutic - it makes me so want to live by the water when I retire.  And walking on a rocky beach is definitely better exercise than just normal walking - my legs were plenty sore afterwards.  I'm sure I've posted some variants of the same views in previous blogs, but here are some more photos:

His Dark Materials

Having just watched the most recent episode of His Dark Materials today, I have reached a sad conclusion about this show - it isn't particularly good.  I want to like the show, I really do, but I have to accept the simple fact that I don't.  Maybe that's too harsh - I mean it's fine, but it's not like really good and I wouldn't miss it if it was canceled.  Kind of reminds me of one of those early Sunday evening dramas on BBC1 - maybe because it has children as the leads, maybe because it still feels kind of cheap despite the huge production costs.  Personally, I think it would have been much better with less kids and more adults - don't take away the importance of the kids, but only have them as secondary or peripheral characters.  Either way, I've heard so much about how good the source material is that I've recently ordered the trilogy of books from Amazon.  I need to start reading again more regularly, so what better choice than some (young adult?) fantasy novels with some big themes.       

Scam Phone Calls

The frequency of scam phone calls I've been getting recently seems to have significantly increased.  And I'm so fed up with it.  To the extent that unless it's someone I know, I don't even bother answering my phone anymore and instead let it go to voicemail.  That seems to do the trick most of the time.  That changed this morning, when I received a phone call before 7 am (!) from a number I didn't recognize that originated from Jesup, Georgia (?!) that actually did leave a voicemail.  The computer voice (what, not an actual real person?!? The shock.) told me that they were calling from my "legal attorney's general office" to "put aside my work immediately" and to call the number back so they can "discuss resolution of my legal case" otherwise "an arrest warrant will be issued against my name".  What a load of horseshit.  I think in the past they've told me that my social security number has been suspended due to criminal activity, or some other such nonsense involving my social security number that needs my immediate attention.  Jeez, can't these phone companies who are raking in these huge profits do something about this.  Kind of ridiculous.  Having seen someone close fall victim to a scam, these people really are scum of the earth.    

Song of the Week #34

Back to the well with something from the late 90's/early 00's.  And, fun fact, they are yet another band from the Pacific NW, but Portland rather than Seattle.