Camano Island State Park

With my boss on vacation yesterday and it being a hot and sunny day before a cloudy weekend, I decided to make the most of the opportunity and go for a morning hike by the coast.  Took the 1 hour 15 minute drive to Camano Island State Park north of me, somewhere I've been to once before I think.  Did the loop trail - which is a shortish trail mostly above the beach.  It should have much better views - or at least much better viewpoints - than it actually does, but didn't encounter many people which is good - most people go here just to use the boat ramp.  Though it started to get a bit busier by the time I left, no surprise for a sunny Friday day.  Also took the opportunity to take a bit of a stroll along the rocky beach - something I think I'll do more extensively when I come here again.  I find walking by the water good for the mind and body, so I really should do more of it.  Which is why I want to retire by the coast.   

Allen vs Farrow

I just finished watching the documentary series Allen vs Farrow.  Yes it is one-sided, but it is compelling and devastating.  And frankly I'm okay not hearing the other side of the story, because I don't think there is another side of the story worth hearing.  Woody Allen is - and excuse my language, but I think this is entirely justified for the type of crimes we're talking about here - a f*cking monster.  I've never been a big fan of his films - I find them too pretentious and pseudo intellectual - but after this documentary I shall definitely not be watching any of his work ever again.   The entertainment industry that continues to worship him despite his troubling behavior also has a lot to answer for - but then what do you expect from an industry that has allowed people like Harvey Weinstein (who I also finished watching a documentary series about recently - another monster), Kevin Spacey, Roman Polanski , Bill Cosby and numerous others to flourish and get away with heinous behavior for so long.  Shameful.  

Fortune

I had a fortune cookie this week that said "a challenging and fascinating project is in your future".  Well I hope it happens soon, because I need it.  I feel like my life is just a whole bunch of nothing right now.  I am wracked with indifference and laziness.  My social life is practically non-existent.  And I am not being challenged at work, and have been underutilized at work for far too long now.  I fear without any sort of stimulation that my brain cells are just rotting away.  Maybe the "project" mentioned in the fortune cookie is not work related.  Buying a house, being in a relationship, etc could all be considered "projects", however again all seem somewhat unlikely in the immediate future.  Maybe I need to set myself some kind of self-improvement "project" - I certainly need to.  Either way, I think perhaps I'm reading too much into some crappy fortune cookie message...   

Song of the Week #68

Yep, another classic from the 70's.

Lego Trends

After completing my most recent Lego set today, I noticed a bit of a common theme running through a lot of my sets.  See if you can spot it?  Naturally, it culminated today with the construction of the most detailed model yet.

Wrong Direction

So, according to Dr Anthony Fauci, the US is heading in the wrong direction on coronavirus.  Obviously fueled by unvaccinated Americans.  I have lots of opinions about how to deal with this - from making unvaccinated Americans pay for their own medical costs when they inevitably catch the virus, to making vaccinations mandatory for things like flying, attending concerts or sporting events, etc.  Of course this will never happen.  But if you can't bribe people to get vaccinated, then I think you need to go in the other direction and make the consequences of not getting vaccinated more serious.  And punish the media outlets that promote misinformation about the vaccine.  Which will definitely not happen.   

100 Greatest Places in the World

Quite often you come across these 100 best places to live in, 100 best places to retire in, 100 best places to visit etc kind of lists on the internet.  Often they are absolute nonsense and put together by some company or organisation that has ulterior motives (e.g. a real estate company or something).  However, recently TIME magazine released a list of the 100 Greatest Places in the World.  TIME magazine is a reputable source, and indeed one that I used to subscribe to.  So imagine my surprise when they included Seattle in the list of 100 Greatest Places in the World.  I mean Seattle is perfectly fine, and I've lived in Greater Seattle for many years now, but is it really one of the 100 greatest places in the world?  No.  Not even close - I doubt it's even one of the 1000 greatest places in the world.  It's not even the greatest place I've ever lived in in the US (which would be San Diego).  I can think of many cities, many metros, many natural wonders, many landscapes and environments that are a lot "greater" than Seattle.  So perhaps my decision to stop reading TIME was a wise one, if these are the kind of bizarre editorial decisions they are making.  I had a quick look on their website, and this is what they said about Seattle:

In 1962, Seattle’s Space Needle debuted at the World’s Fair as a vision of the future. Some 60 years later, the city is wowing visitors with the groundbreaking Climate Pledge Arena. This $1 billion project will be the world’s first carbon-zero arena and will play host to the Kraken, a brand-new NHL team hitting the ice in the 2021–22 season—ice that will be made of collected rainwater. The city also has a dynamic restaurant scene, including the first fixed location from Dat Creole Soul, a popular food-truck business from chef Hampton Isom that will serve gumbo, jalapeño hush puppies and fried catfish. For something else old that’s new again, reserve a table at Canlis, a 70-year-old restaurant that just named Aisha Ibrahim as its first female executive chef.

       

What a load of guff - and hardly the criteria to select it as one of the greatest places in the world (a new arena and a couple of restaurants).  Unbelievable.

Internet Woes

An early post, because I'm paranoid now that I'm going to lose my internet connection again at any point.  Last few evenings I've lost my signal and been without TV and internet, and it's incredibly frustrating.  I had a tech come round today, and he did find a potential issue.  Apparently there was tension in the overhead cable that supplies the signal into my house - he showed me the section of cable he replaced where it had been damaged by the tension.  Hopefully this fixes the issue, although I'm not entirely confident that this would cause the intermittent issues I've been having.  But it is feasible - and it's likely that when the tree by my driveway came down during the heatwave, it snagged on the cable on the way down to cause this issue.  Which is why I've never had any problems before.  It's either that, or one of my annoying neighbors is somehow stealing or spoiling my signal.  Either way, it's going to be a nervy evening today waiting to see if anything happens again.     

Olympics

Now that the Olympics has officially started, I’ve got to be honest and say that I don’t care one bit.  I’m not in the least bit excited about it, I question whether it should even be taking place, and I really don’t care how many medals Team GB gets or doesn’t get.  And I shall certainly not be watching much of the jingoistic US coverage.  I have no idea how the time difference works in terms of watching any events live, but it looks like there are going to be replays and highlights every night during primetime on NBC.  And it will be awful.  Normally I wouldn’t be quite so down on one of the premier sporting spectacles, but I think pandemic fatigue has created a lot of indifference in me to it.  Besides, the impact of the pandemic and the year’s delay means that I don’t think it’s a fair competition – it’s not a question of who is the best at their respective sport, but who (and whose country) has adapted best to these new circumstances.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a big Covid outbreak in the Olympic village, the consequences of which could be hilariously dramatic.  No wonder most of the Japanese public oppose holding the games – especially as they can’t even get to watch any of the events.  And the lack of atmosphere is going to make things very weird, and a lot of the fringe and stupid “sports” are going to be almost unwatchable. 

Paine Field

Paine Field is the airport north of me in Everett - it only started offering commercial services in March 2019 (good timing for lots of passengers!).  So obviously I haven't flown out of there yet, but I'd like to as it's much closer and easier for me to get to than Sea-Tac.  Though I don't know what the parking situation is like if I have to leave my car there.  But I have some airline credit burning a hole in my pocket from my canceled trip to San Francisco, and I have to use it before the end of the year.  So where to go?  Obviously if I fly out of Sea-Tac there are a lot more choices, but if I look at Paine Field then the options are somewhat limited: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Spokane and Tucson.  You can't go wrong with an excursion to San Diego, I have a friend now living in Vegas, but I'm quite tempted by a trip to Arizona - really anywhere in the south is tempting when the Pacific NW starts to get dark, wet, cold and miserable at the end of the year.  So I hope to book something soon, and hopefully airport travel isn't problematic by the time I go. 

Song of the Week #67

What do you get when you mix country and rock with a dash of Gaelic and a large heaping of redneck?

Connectivity

A bit of a nightmare yesterday evening and this morning – I didn’t have any TV or internet.  Very frustrating – I noticed it late last night, and managed to snag a service appointment first thing this morning.  But when I woke up today, it looked like everything was okay and so I cancelled the appointment.  Naturally, five minutes later it all went down again and I couldn’t re-book the appointment until tomorrow at the earliest.  The extent of my reliance on TV and internet was, and is, very sobering.  I didn’t know what to do with myself.  I couldn’t work from home – and didn’t really want to go into the office or to a coffee shop or somewhere with internet access.  At home couldn’t go online, couldn’t watch any streaming services and couldn’t watch any live TV – it’s a sad realization just how much of my life relies on connectivity nowadays.  I guess I could have made a start on all the unwatched DVDs and Blu-rays that I own!  Instead I spent hours testing various things to see if they were the cause of the problem – naturally none of them were.  I did take the opportunity to go the opticians to get the scratch on my glasses fixed – these are glasses I ordered online, but they have a retail shop near the University so I drove down there to get the lenses replaced.  I guess I could also have gone for a hike or something, but typically today was the first bit of rain that we’ve had since forever.  Fortunately came back to a message saying that the technicians had identified and fixed a neighborhood issue affecting the internet.  Absolutely no mention of any local service outages on their website when I checked… but so far so good, hence being able to post this.  So much for another constructive day.

Travel

Well, it looks like any hopes I might have to travel to the UK over summer are down the drain.  The project that I was supposed to be working on during the rest of the year has now officially been canned, so it looks like I'm going to have a lot of free time coming up - which is why a trip to the UK seemed like a very real possibility.  However, today the State Department here warned against Americans travelling to the UK.  Officially, the travel advisory level for the UK is now "Level 4: Do not travel".  This was after the UK's risk assessment level was also raised to "Level 4: Covid-19 Very High" by the CDC.  Yikes.  Seems like an inopportune time for the UK to lift most of it pandemic-related restrictions!  It's not like the US is doing particularly well with it's vaccination rate right now - thanks in no part to a certain former president.  Indeed, Canada has overtaken the US - which is why Canada is soon going to open it's border to fully vaccinated Americans.  Which is good news, as I might be looking for something else to do or somewhere else to go over summer.     

Drought

We are now well over 30 days since the last measurable rainfall in Seattle.  And a quick look at the extended forecast suggests that we aren't getting any rain any time soon.  No wonder a drought emergency was issued for most of our state this week.  And this comes hot on the heels of another statewide emergency issued related to the growing risk of wildfires.  Of which there are plenty going on now across Washington, Oregon, California and British Columbia.  We have avoided wildfire smoke so far because the winds have been coming in from the west (hence clouds in the morning, sun in the afternoon, and mercifully a lot cooler), but if they change then the air quality will quickly deteriorate.  And if the winds get stronger, then there is the potential for significantly more damaging wildfires.  With the hot temperatures we've had, there sure is plenty of dry habitat to fuel a huge fire.     

Biotech News

I read an article this week that said GlaxoSmithKline are planning to build a huge biotech and life sciences campus in the UK.  That's good news for my industry in the UK - creating thousands of jobs and becoming one of the largest hubs in Europe.  But then I saw where this was going to be.  Stevenage.  Really?  Of all the places in the UK, they had to select Stevenage.  Stevenage sucks.  Admittedly GSK already has roots there - but still, I couldn't think of many worse places to be located.  And I think this reflects a general problem for my industry in the UK - most of the jobs tend to be located in quite shitty places in the SE of England (e.g. I worked in Slough).  But this isn't a problem unique to the UK - I could say the same thing about the US.  Most of the biggest pharma/biotech industry hubs are located in places that I have absolutely no interest in ever moving to - the Bay area, Boston, New Jersey.  Happy to visit places like that, not to live there.  Clearly the pandemic is not the only reason for an increase in remote jobs in my industry.       

Pizza

A (controversial?) opinion - I prefer a Detroit-style pizza to a Chicago deep dish.  

I shouldn't try to come up with these entries when it's so late and I'm really tired and can't put together cogent thoughts. 

Ants

Oh no, some ants have discovered one of my hummingbird feeders.  And they are all over it like a bad rash.  One of my feeders has got an "ant guard" - so perhaps I need to buy them for my other feeders.  All it consists of is a little cup that you hang between the hook and the feeder, and if you fill it with water then it kind of acts as a moat and stops the ants descending down to the feeder.  Stupid ants.  I don't know how to get rid of the wasps and bees though.  Stupid humans.    

Song of the Week #66

This week, a little something from a New Zealand band - some of whom then went on to form Crowded House.  This is an interesting tune - I recognize the chorus but very little else.  Weird.

  

Candy

• Cadbury Eclairs
• Cookie Crumble Galaxy
• Twix White
• Skittles Giants
• Cheese & Onion Squares
• Ready Salted Frisps
• Roast Ox Real Crisps
• Yorkie Orange
• Dairy Milk Honeycomb & Nuts
• Sour Cream & Sweet Chilli Kicker Flavour Walkers
• Swizzels Drumstick
• Cadbury Chomp
• Haribo Tangfastics Stixx
• Smarties 

For those of you curious, that was the contents of this month's British Candy subscription box that I get.  Most of which are things I've never had before, even if some are variations of things that I have had before - which is why I quite like it.  But maybe with a total retail value of less than 10 pounds, I don't like to dwell on the exorbitant markup that I pay.  But at least its a lot better than the British chocolates I ordered from Amazon a while back - which came in a melted, overheated mess and did not match the selection specified in the description.  What a rip off - never again.

Back to the Grind

Well after 2 weeks of rest and relaxation, back to work.  And I've still got very little to do.  Only about 100 unread e-mails waiting for me, and take away the junk and that is really not very much at all.  And the status of the study I'm supposed to be working on hasn't changed one jot - still up in the air as they discuss a potential safety issue, so it might not even go ahead.  But I can't work on anything else in case it does, so I am stuck in a kind of limbo until the decision is made.  Which is extremely frustrating, because most of the pandemic I've had very little work to do but I've had to be available in case something came up.  And so that goes on, but if the study continues then I'm quickly going to become very busy.  And if it doesn't, then I'm going to be pulled into something else that is also going to keep me very busy.  So I don't think I can escape that, however in the meantime I'm going stir crazy without enough to do.  There is no middle ground.  Which sucks.       

Euro 2020: Final Thoughts

A quick summary of my emotions watching the game, in emoji form:

😄😅😖😣😰😭

There's not an emoji for inevitability - but that's what it really felt like when it got to penalties.  That's the major disadvantage of playing at home as well - the pressure really got to us in that moment.  Shame, but with a young squad I think we can be competitive in the world cup next year and beyond (especially, I hope, the 2026 world cup here in the US!).

Simple Pleasures

It may have been a nice and sunny day, but there is something satisfying about spending a day completing a load of housework and chores on your to-do list.  I could have gone for a hike or something - but Saturday is always the worse day of the week for that because everywhere gets so busy and parking fills up so early.  And I didn't get up early enough today.  So instead I took the opportunity to do a load of things around the house, and actually ended up doing a lot more than I planned.  And I worked up quite a sweat, so I still managed to get in some exercise.  And that included some things I needed to do outside, so I also managed to get some sun.  What a simple existence I live.       

Weather Report

Since our record-breaking heatwave, the weather has still been pretty good but nowhere near as hot.  It's been a very long time since it rained.  We are in a cycle of cloudy weather in the morning, but the clouds gradually dissipate during the day so that by the evening we have gorgeous blue skies.  Which is a bit frustrating since I have tended to do most of my hiking in the morning over the last few weeks.  And it's worse by the coast, my preferred destination, where it might remain cloudy all day.  But at least it cools down overnight.  I should hike later in the day - but the trails tend to be a lot busier then, and even just finding a parking spot at a trailhead can be a hassle.  But with the sun not setting until past 9, and most of these parks being open until dusk, maybe I should try going to a few more places in the evening.  Especially since I'm back to work next week and so morning hikes don't become very practical (I guess I could try very early morning hikes, but I am a very reluctant early riser - especially while a good night's sleep continues to elude me).      

Song of the Week #65

This week, a good tune but one that has been used extensively for comedic purposes (e.g. Smashie and Nicey, Alan Partridge).  And I think I've been watching too much football over the last few weeks, because the only reason I thought of this song is because the Austrian goalkeeper is called Bachmann. 

Euro 2020: Semi-final Thoughts

Well, that was a nail-biter.  The first bit of adversity that England has faced, and we managed to squeak through.  With a dodgy penalty in extra time that was initially saved no less.  But we're long overdue some good luck.  Got to say I wasn't engrossed in this game in much the same way as I have for the last few of England's games.  But the important thing is the result, and we're through to the final ready to be thumped by Italy.  I think Denmark just ran out of steam in extra time - otherwise both teams were fairly well matched.  But a major tournament final at Wembley - can't ask for a better opportunity than this.  Italy will be a real challenge though - they may also have squeaked through their semi-final, but have clearly been the best team in the tournament.  A few other random observations: I like the silver ball they've been using in these knockout games, I HATE the Football's Coming Home song - it sucks, glad they don't play a third-place game which is a total waste of time,  now got to decide if I stay at home to watch the final or venture out to an English pub or sports bar to try to watch the final with some fellow English fans.  I'll probably just do what I've done for every other England game, and stay at home.  Maybe I should invite a few friends over?!  No, I'll probably be too tense and not good company....

What does Hitler think?

My new favorite YouTube channel - no matter what happens tomorrow.  

Eyeglasses

So when I own a pair of glasses that have been treated with a scratch resistant treatment, then I don't expect a big scratch to appear on one of my lenses in less than a year.  Very annoying and disappointing.  I believe they are still under guarantee so I think I can get a free replacement lens - but still a big pain in the ass to deal with.   

Happy Birthday America

... now why don't you arrest everyone setting off fireworks illegally.  Especially the idiots setting them off when it's still light outside.

Euro 2020: Quarter Final Thoughts

I'm going to write down my thoughts as I watch the England-Ukraine game.

- Straight up, let's face it our national anthem sucks.  It's not inspiring in the same way that say the Italians is, which is why they might be playing so well.  I assume we'll have to change it when the Queen finally dies - hopefully to something much more passionate.

- An early prediction - we should win.  We should win comfortably, but I don't think it will work out that way.  I think we will have a lot of possession in this game - so the key is going to be how effective we are at breaking down Ukraine.  Which is why I think we should have played one more attacking midfielder instead of 2 defensive midfielders.

- Wow, goal.  Nice start.  I'm still not convinced by Harry Kane, but at least he's scoring now.  Let's hope we don't just sit on our lead for 85 minutes now.

- Hmmm, England didn't defend that set play very well.  That's probably going to be Ukraine's best opportunity to score, so that's a bit worrying.

- Ir's still early, but I don't like how slowly England are playing the ball about.  Very little movement.  Giving away possession easily.  This is a worrying trend for England - I already feel like we're going to be holding on for most of the rest of the game (and only 15 minutes have gone).

- The game has got a bit messy, so some quick thoughts on the other quarter finals.  Italy were surprisingly impressive against Belgium (or were Belgium surprisingly disappointing?), and have set up a tasty semi-final with Spain.  Somehow Spain continue to progress despite lacking a clinical edge.  And Denmark looked good.  Again.  They might indeed be the most dangerous team left. 

- About 30 minutes gone now.  You can see these glimpses of how good England could be if they inject some pace and movement into their game.  But they so rarely show it - which is what makes them so frustrating to support.  Ukraine haven't really shown much real threat yet - but I still feel they will have their chances (probably from set plays).  Even the commentators are talking about how England look as though they're stuck in second gear.  As they have been for most of the tournament.

- Another half-chance for England.  We could really do with the security of a 2nd goal - Ukraine have opened up England a few times on our right.

- Half time.  A good score, a less than convincing performance.  This should come as absolutely no surprise.  We need Jack Grealish in the 2nd half.

- My god, ESPN's studio coverage before the game and at halftime is absolutely abysmal.  Again.  Just for information, the "studio experts" for this particular game are Steve McManaman and Nedum Onuoha (who I had never heard of and don't recognize at all, even though he apparently played for Man City/Sunderland/QPR in the Premier League), and the host is one of the bland American presenters typical to ESPN, who I don't think had watched a single minute of "soccer" before this tournament begun.

- Wow, goal.  A good start to the 1st half and now a good start to the 2nd half.  Nice.  Just what we needed to settle some nerves.

- It's quite surprising, and quite lucky, that England haven't really faced any real adversity yet.  Not conceded a goal, no extra time, no injuries, no suspensions.  Maybe this conservative way of playing isn't a bad thing - even though it makes our games so less enjoyable than everybody else.

- And another one.  Surely we can't blow a 3 goal lead now.  That was too easy.

- Time to bring in some of the squad players.  Give them a run out - every outfield player should see at least some playing time.  Good for team spirit.  What a luxury to even be able to consider that.

- That's 4 now.  And very lazy defending from Ukraine - I think they've given up.  I think we should play more of our games in Rome.

- 20 minutes to go - let's keep our clean sheet.  No stupid mistakes.

- Let's look ahead - Denmark is going to be a good test.  They are playing well, they are motivated, but they are beatable.  And I think we have the better players.  And we're at home.  But this will be a tighter game.

- I shall not be taking off my England top this afternoon.

- And that's the final whistle.  I feel surprisingly deflated.  Perhaps because I was geared up to lay into England in this post, but the result hasn't necessitated it - especially in this very one-sided and frankly quite boring 2nd half.

Reopening

On Wednesday, Washington state lifted all its COVID restrictions.  Everything is allowed to open to full capacity and return to normal operations.  I think there are some restrictions on very large indoor gatherings, but otherwise everything is good.  I do wonder whether this is a rash decision?  I guess time will tell.  I don't think the state has reached that 70% vaccinated threshold.  Fully vaccinated people are no longer required to wear a mask indoors or outdoors unless requested by the business.  For example, I went to the dentists this week and was still asked to wear a mask.  Unvaccinated people are still required to wear a mask - but no chance they will and no way to prove you are vaccinated, which makes the whole mask thing totally flawed.  Unfortunately all the restrictions were lifted before this 4th July weekend, which means that everywhere is going to be really busy and the traffic is going to be awful this weekend as everyone makes up for not celebrating last year.  We do have a statewide burn ban, but I bet a lot of people will ignore that.  And a lot of people will definitely ignore the fireworks ban in a lot of areas - including mine.  I have no doubts that various neighbors of mine - including immediate ones - will illegally set of fireworks.     

Weather Fallout

Finally, a relatively normal day weather-wise here - still quite warm, but clouds have pushed in so the sun didn't come out at all today.  Time to assess the impact of the recent hot weather - and there was a casualty.  A tree next to my driveway came down a few days ago and blocked my driveway - it had been dead for a while, but I had noticed it drooping on the hottest day and it came down the next day.  Heard the crash, had absolutely no idea what it was initially - thought maybe a mini earthquake or something.  Actually really lucky that it didn't bring down any of the electric cables going into my home.  What else?  Well, since the hot weather the local birdlife has been going crazy.  Making a lot more noise, being a lot more active, generally behaving really strangely.  And, regrettably, the crows came back yesterday evening and this morning.  There were about 40 of them right outside my bedroom window making an absolute racket and driving me crazy - especially when they woke me up at sunrise this morning.  I should have videoed them, and then you would have some idea of how bad it gets.  No idea why they randomly congregate like that - they seem to have gone away, but now I dread when they'll be back next.  I heard another tree come down somewhere nearby yesterday evening - I'm wondering if the crows somehow either cause or celebrate this destruction.  Also, had another visitor as I was sitting on my back patio yesterday: