I've repositioned my trail camera this week in the hope of capturing a bobcat on it, and I've just checked the footage for the last few days. There are some interesting results. Well, really only one interesting result - this one:
There is a minor scandal going on in the office. Thursdays are when all employees on site are offered a free box lunch - essentially a basic packed lunch. These are available to pick up from about 11.30 am. But what was happening was that people who were in meetings that ran to noon or later were showing up late to pick up their box lunch, and there weren't any left. With enough lunches being provided for all employees, this shouldn't happen. Unless people were taking more than one box. And guess which department got singled out for doing this? Yep, mine. From my point of view, I have never taken more than one box. And the only person I've ever seen with more than one box is one of my Chinese colleagues. And I suspect if one Chinese was doing it, then others were as well. But they must have got spotted, hence our department got chastised. So today was a bad day to head home carrying a box lunch - it looked like I had grabbed an extra one on the way out, even though in actuality I had some Thai food for lunch and my box lunch was for later. Oops.
Don't you just love a bit of controversy in the chess world? That's rhetorical, of course we do. Why else have all these accusations of cheating been making the headlines. Either way, it is kind of fascinating and hilarious stuff - especially when the accusations involve such things as anal beads, artificial intelligence and morse code. It could make future chess tournaments interesting - especially if the competitors have to play naked to ensure no cheating is going on
This week a tune from a band who I haven't thought about for years, even though I own one of their albums and I've seen them live. Coincidentally they are currently touring in the US, including a stop in Seattle. But I doubt I'll go see them, they were never really one of my favorites. But they are probably worth revisiting - as my musical tastes have matured, I suspect their kind of sound could appeal to me more now than it ever used to.
I was feeling nostalgic over the weekend, so I bought and downloaded Return to Monkey Island on the Switch. Back in the day, however many years ago it was (30?), I used to play the Monkey Island games on my PC. I've always liked a good point 'n' click adventure - so it was enjoyable to revisit this genre of game, even if it is a little dated now (and, somehow, this particular series is a lot more Americanized than I remember). Well, I say enjoyable - the same feelings of frustration re-emerged after all these years as my progress in the game stalled. But at least this time they had the good sense to include more hints in the game. Plus, of course, the internet is a much better resource than it was 30 years ago (back then, I think I got all my game hints via magazine).
Since coming back from my road trip, air quality in the Seattle area has been absolutely awful. All the smoke from nearby wildfires has made it's way over here. Even today, when the weather forecast indicated that the air quality would be good, when I stepped out this morning I could still smell smoke in the air. I don't think it was from one of my neighbors - not even the pyromaniac one - I think just the same wildfire smoke continues to linger. It doesn't make it pleasant to be outside, and doesn't exactly encourage one to get out for some exercise. But the weather forecast for the week ahead suggests that finally we might see something we haven't seen for ages - some rain. And boy, do we need it.
Big congrats to the Geelong Cats for thumping the Sydney Swans and winning the AFL grand final. They thoroughly deserved it, riding a 15 game winning streak and finishing top of the ladder. I was able to watch the game live, because it was on at a remarkably and surprisingly convenient time (Friday evening my time, Saturday afternoon Australian time). However, because it was such a blowout it wasn't much of a game to watch - especially compared to some of the thrillers that had preceded it over the last few weeks. Aussie rules football has definitely ascended to be one of my favorite sports to watch, so I'm going to miss it for the next half a year (especially because I'm probably going to watch less rugby this year, thanks to the inexplicable decision NBC have made to make it's rugby coverage exclusive to streaming - which sucks). Note also - if you were to ask me exactly where Geelong is in Australia, I wouldn't be able to answer - I have absolutely no clue.
The value of the pound has plummeted against the dollar over the last months. Currently, one pound is worth about $1.09. We are heading inexorably towards a 1 to 1 exchange rate, which is shocking. But not bad for me, as it means that my dollars will go a lot further when I come back to the UK. Indeed, one of my friends e-mailed me thinking about buying property in the UK. I think he was being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it is interesting to think about. I remember that not long after I first came to the US, I transferred quite a significant proportion of my UK savings to the US at an exchange rate of about 2 dollars to 1 pound. I don't think we'll ever go back to those heady levels again.
So, so tempting:
It's a pinball machine, something I've always thought of getting, and it's a James Bond pinball machine no less. But 8,600 quid is a lot of money (and that's not even including delivery and setup) - though, disturbingly, not a deal breaker for me. There is also a slightly cheaper Dr No pinball machine available at 6,250 quid - but I fear still too much. Though all of this might be entirely moot - it appears to already be out of stock.
Today, a new low was reached at work. It was the kickoff meeting for a 60-day initiative entitled "The Neuroscience of Speaking Up". "A neuroscience-based, interactive learning program that helps participants to speak up more frequently and productively, share ideas with increased confidence, and effectively evaluate decisions when needed". As you might guess, I didn't sign up for the training voluntarily - the word "interactive" sends shivers down my spine. It was kind of foisted on me with no notice, along with everyone in my department at my level or higher, by department heads. And just from this one hour introductory meeting today, I can tell I am going to absolutely hate it. It is the kind of stereotyped American self-improvement fad that I absolutely loathe. I jotted down a few things during the meeting: pseudo-psychology, early NXIVM cult type training, wouldn't get this kind of training in the UK, don't want any part of this "learning journey"/nonsense, I actively dislike and distrust this training beyond mere indifference. From speaking to my manager yesterday, I got the impression that the training was mandatory. But I am not attending any future sessions, regardless of the consequences. Particularly as I found out that the group that I have been assigned to for the more intimate group sessions is being led by my ex-manager. My ex-manager who I do not like. What a nightmare. I am out.
For unknown reasons, the radio station that I wake up to has suddenly started playing this song all the time. Like, every morning. The song is 20 years old and not exactly a classic. A quick google search reveals that it's a TikTok trend. My god, kill me now.
I'm not going to talk about a royal funeral that I didn't watch. Some might consider it a significant historical moment, but I'm no royalist and I think the royal family is an outdated and unnecessary institution in this day and age. So instead I'm just going to mention House of the Dragon, which aired it's 5th episode last night - and which was by far the best episode of the series so for. No spoilers, so I'll just say that in the Game of Thrones universe you can't go wrong with a big wedding.
Last day of the road trip. And no more new photos, thank god! I've got so many to sort out - so many in fact that I got a message about not having much iCloud storage left. Today just consisted of a straight drive home - no mucking about (not even stopping at a tacky Stonehenge memorial that I went past). And mercifully I managed to entirely avoid I-5 - though still hit a lot of traffic coming into Seattle. The final tally on my car's odometer for this trip:
Time driven: nearly 36 hours
Distance covered: 1750 miles
No wonder I feel so mentally exhausted - when it's just me doing all the driving, that's an awful long time to maintain a certain level of concentration. I think I did a good job of breaking up my journey with an appropriate number of breaks and pit stops. That's encouraging - I think I want to do the longer road trip to Yellowstone next year. Priority now is to clean my car. On the first day of the road trip, the front of my car got absolutely coated with bugs. So many in fact that at every stop round Crater Lake, the front of my car was swarming with wasps. And then at some point I went down a dirt road, and the bug remnants kind of acted like a glue to build up a considerable layer of dirt across the entire front of my car. So now I can barely see through my windshield with all the squashed bugs, and my front license plate is barely legible behind a thick layer of dirt. I fear it won't be easy to clean off - I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
I am exhausted. But content. A lot of hiking and a lot of driving is not a good combination, but I got to see everything I wanted to see. Today (and yesterday) were spent at various units within the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument - essentially lands preserved due to containing lots of fossilized remains (plants and animals only, sadly no dinosaurs!). But the main reason I've wanted to come here is for the dramatic and colorful (and photogenic!) rock formations and landscapes. And for the most part they didn't disappoint. The only problem is that these units are separated by considerable distances - so you need to plan your time carefully, also taking into account the limited number of places to eat and fuel up the car. But for the second day in a row, I managed to snag a decent meal somewhere - which is satisfying. But plans don't always work out - such as the saloon next to my hotel being temporarily closed during my stay. As you might guess, I took way too many photos, none of which probably do full justice to how beautiful the landscape is - so let me just pick one from each trail I did (though obviously some trails had more and better views than others - so this methodology is somewhat flawed - whatever).
Painted Hills Unit (the one I went to yesterday, and probably the most popular - and one that I imagine is even better nearer to sunset):
Painted Hills Overlook
Painted Cove Trail
Leaf Hill Trail
Red Scar Knoll Trail
Sheep Rock Unit (the main unit with the visitor center, and where I spent most of today):
Flood of Fire Trail
Story in Stone Trail
Island in Time Trail
River Trail
Sheep Rock Overlook Trail
Thomas Condon Overlook Trail
Mascall Formation Overlook
Clarno Unit (this was a bit of a disappointment - ostensibly the best unit for seeing real fossils, but in actuality most of them have already been taken. And the trails here were not in good condition and not well marked. Fortunately it wasn't too much of a detour out of my way):
Trail of Fossils
Clarno Arch Trail
Geologic Time Trail
A travel day today, as I drove north from Crater Lake up to my hotel in the very small city of Condon in North-Central Oregon (population 682!). It's the kind of place that everywhere closes at 6 pm (just when I arrived!) - so the only place I could still eat was at an Elks Lodge (I didn't even know they were open to the public, I've never been in one before - but the food was actually delicious!). I broke up the trip with a couple of stops - the second I'll talk about tomorrow, but the first stop was at Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Basically, this is an area where volcanic activity has left this surreal landscape. I was only planning a quick stop here - but actually stayed a bit longer by first driving to the top of a lava butte (and yes, I had to look up the pronunciation of butte - a word I don't think I've ever spoken out loud before!) and then taking a brief hike across a lava flow. The landscape is fascinating and otherworldly - it's no surprise to find out that NASA astronauts have trained here in the past. I love me some geology. This is an area worthy of coming back to and spending more time exploring - there is apparently a lot more to see here.
In a shocking variation, I took the rim drive in an anti-clockwise direction rather than duplicate yesterday's clockwise direction. Yes, expect a lot more similar looking photos! That's not necessarily true, because I tended to stop at a few more pullouts on the right side of the road - although the lake may be iconic, the surrounding vistas are still quite spectacular. I also did a few different hikes - the most strenuous being a climb up to a lookout tower with great panoramic views. All in all, I feel quite happy with myself - I feel I've "done" Crater Lake, and don't need to come back again unless I happen to be in the vicinity. I also have a LOT of photos to sort out. Here are a few from today:
The first of two days at Crater Lake - the deepest lake in the US, and the only national park in Oregon. But since I did almost everything today - completed the 33 mile entire rim drive, did a little bit of hiking - I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I clearly haven't planned this trip very well! For today's blog entry, here is a photo from each of the 7 "must-see" stops on the rim drive (debatable, there are over 30 scenic pullouts so plenty of good photo opportunities!)
Discovery Point
Watchman Overlook
Cloudcap Overlook
Pumice Castle Overlook
Phantom Ship Overlook
Pinnacles Overlook
Vidae Falls
550 miles
10 hours
I haven't driven this much in one day since I drove from Austin, Texas back to Seattle. And the I-5 corridor doesn't exactly have a cornucopia of tourist sites. So no photos. Today was just about driving, with the occasional pit stop for food, gas (I have had to readjust to the Oregon lack of self-service and someone filling up your car for you, which is just kind of weird) or the toilet (and it is a bit disconcerting that my bladder doesn't seem to hold in as much as it used to). I did look up a few places I could have stopped at for longer, but it just wasn't worth it - I left later than planned, the traffic through Seattle was horrendous (they had shut down all but 1 southbound lane for "emergency repair"), there were big holdups near the Washington-Oregon border where some roadworks had also shut down all but 1 lane, and I had to take a less optimal route to avoid the massive Cedar Creek Wildfire. So I arrived here at Klamath Falls in the dark, a good hour or two later than planned. The best thing about today - it was my first time having an In-N-Out burger for absolutely ages, it is one of the best. It was good to see that this Californian staple has expanded up to South Oregon.
It was the first weekend of the new NFL season. And, unexpectedly, the Seattle Seahawks won the Monday night game in a nail-biter. And how do I know this? I was actually watching the end of the game. The only American football I've watched over the entire weekend. But unexpectedly I didn't hear any fireworks going off when the final whistle was blown. What's this, is someone actually abiding by the local fireworks ban now? But wait, what's that I hear 5 minutes later? Yep, there they are. Seattle shouldn't have won - Denver went for and missed a 64 yard field goal even though they had loads of time left - so I'll give the benefit of the doubt that my neighbor wasn't ready with the fireworks. And good to hand the traitor Russell Wilson a loss in his return to Seattle - Seattle's former star quarterback. Despite the win, I'm not expecting to hear many fireworks this season - Seattle are not a good team.
Isn't it typical - I go months upon months with absolutely no work assigned to me. And then on Friday, I get asked to complete a task before the end of next week. A week where I'm off work from Tuesday through Friday. So guess who decided to do some work today - yes, Sunday - just to avoid tomorrow being an absolute nightmare. Well it wasn't so much of a choice as a necessity. Don't you just love your job.
We are currently under an air quality alert - which is in effect through Sunday. And it is horrible outside - really smoky, with both the smell and the visibility noticeably deteriorated. It does make for some spectacularly orange skies - but I'm staying indoors today, rather than breathing in all that. Though I'm sure I'm missing out on some good photo opportunities. And then it got worse. This afternoon, I got an emergency alert on my phone telling me to evacuate immediately. Well, that was unexpected. I didn't think there were any fires in the immediate vicinity and I'm not ready or willing to go anywhere. And a quick internet search reveals that the "Bolt Creek Fire" mentioned in the evacuation notice is in the east of the county - I'm guessing the emergency alert accidentally went out to everyone in the county. And indeed about half an hour later another message went out to disregard that evacuation alert. But I think it is this 2000 acre fire which the wind is sending all the smoke from in our direction. The sad thing is that I think it is like this all the way up the West Coast - at the moment I'm still planning to take my trip down to Oregon next week, but I'm keeping a close eye on the situation.
King Charles III. Nope, I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right. I’m no royalist, and I certainly don’t want this adulterer to be on the throne. But what a momentous day – an end of an era. Think of all the things that are going to change – currency, stamps, the Christmas speech, a million other things (big and small) that I can’t think of right now, even the national anthem (and rather than just change God Save The Queen to God Save The King, this seems like the perfect opportunity to get an entirely different and better anthem in place). I believe they’ve even got a name for the changeover process – Operation London Bridge. A process that is probably meticulously detailed and been in place for years now (though I suspect some idiot heir who talks to his plants is not going to make the transition smooth). I also suspect we won’t get the same outpouring of grief as we did for Diana – which was a different time and much different circumstances. Even though the US ditched the royals a long time ago, the death will be felt here. I was in the office today and people have already shared their condolences with me (which is weird for someone who doesn’t really care about the royal family, but saying that I do have a postcard of the Queen prominently displayed in my office cube). We won’t get an extra day off work here, but I imagine those of you in the UK will do so for the funeral and/or the coronation. So at least something good has come out of this.
As I stepped out of my front door this morning, I was assailed by a pungent stench. But not a smell I had encountered before. Not the smell of smoke from my pyromaniac neighbor. Not the smell of cat excrement, left by my feline mortal enemy the landlord's cat. Not the sulfide smell that sometimes originates from my septic tank. No, this was a stale and sweaty smell - the kind that you might find in some grotty locker room. But where was it coming from? A quick look around - and I think I spotted the culprit. Or more specifically, the culprits. There beyond my deck, in the shade of some nearby trees, were 3 deer just lounging around (sorry, no photo...!). Well I'm not really sure if they were just lounging around, perhaps resting after surviving a big chase or the ordeal of crossing the road or something. But I can only think they were the cause of this smell. Is this what deer smell like? I don't think I've been close enough to one to really know. But I haven't encountered this smell before despite the numerous sightings of deer I've had near my house, especially this summer. Weird.
I know nobody but me likes doing these song selections - they are the least viewed of all my blog posts - but I don't care, I will keep doing them. So this week, we have another Bond-type tune. Indeed, this might be the most Bond-type tune I've ever heard that wasn't used as an official Bond theme.
I have absolutely no idea who Liz Truss is. I have no idea what she looks like. I have no idea what her stance on the big issues are, and what kind of character she has. And frankly I don't really care. I barely followed the leadership race - only seeing the occasional headline on the BBC website, but not bothering to read any of the stories. And the leadership race hasn't exactly been making the headlines in the US news - which is singularly obsessed with whatever nonsense is going on with Trump most days. My indifference to UK politics is just another sign that I need to apply for US citizenship - something I'm seriously considering doing next year.
Three episodes into House of the Dragon and - it pains me to say this - but I'm finding it kind of boring. No, not kind of - I'm finding it really boring. Don't get me wrong, I think it's still a quality show - and absolutely appointment viewing for Sunday night. But I'm not excited by it and I'm not drawn into it in the same way that I am for other prestige shows. I think it lacks the heart, the empathy and the humor of early seasons of Game of Thrones. It's too serious, too dark, and has some pacing problems - something that was a serious issue in later seasons of Game of Thrones. Not even the action scenes are doing it for me. But I will continue to watch the show. Whereas I haven't watched any of the Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video yet. This should be right up my street - for example, I own and enjoy all the Lord of the Rings films on Blu-ray. But for some reason I am not feeling much urgency to watch this series yet. Perhaps it is because it's on a streaming service. Perhaps it is because I don't want to conflate the Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings universes by watching TV shows from both at the same time. Perhaps it is because I saw a really bad trailer for Rings of Power. But I feel like I should be watching - and enjoying - this massively expensive show, so I can't really explain my hesitancy...
It's one of my favorite sporting weekends of the year - the start of the 8-team championship playoff tournament in Aussie-rules football. I fast forwarded through all my recorded Premier League games tonight so that I could watch all the Aussie-rules football games in their entirety (and so far, all of them have been close and exciting games). I am determined to travel to Australia within the next few years to see a game in person.
I was in the office today, and went for a lunchtime walk. 2 things about the neighborhood around my office struck me. Firstly, what used to be quite a nice neighborhood has been ruined by gentrification and new construction. There are not many older houses left. When they are sold (or more likely the homeowner has finally accepted an unsolicited offer) - then a lot that once contained one home is converted into 4 or 6 characterless townhomes by some unscrupulous developer. Or worse, they build a big apartment rental building where the units are over-priced, under-sized and lack the necessary parking. Secondly, you can't help but notice the amount of homelessness. Perhaps it was just because it was the start of the month and they got their social security check and already spent it on drink or drugs or whatever, but I seemed to encounter a lot of crazy homeless people today. But even so, the sheer number of campers, RVs and tents that I see around is much more than it ever used to be. They are unsightly, unsafe and don't smell good - it is very unpleasant. So the walks that I used to take regularly from the office are no longer enjoyable - which isn't good, and makes me more inclined to want to become a 100% remote worker. And I think this reflects my general feeling that I no longer like Seattle. It has a homeless problem, it has a crime problem, and it has a cost of living problem. None of these are unique to Seattle, but as I walked around today I could only think how much I miss San Diego. Or at least the San Diego of nearly 20 years ago when I was nearly 20 years younger.
