TV Theme Tunes #6

Another iconic theme this week.  One that instantly makes me want to go to Jersey.

Wales 0-3 England

I sacrificed a free lunch in order to watch the match today from home.  Besides the actual game, I had a good excuse for not going into the office.  It's been snowing since 8 am.  And it's been accumulating.  Not by a huge amount, but enough to be a problem.  And in the end, I didn't really watch much of the match.  I was distracted by work and other stuff during the first half, and then when England quickly went 3-0 up in the second half I decided to turn over and watch the US hang on by the skin of their teeth to also advance.  So obviously that is the only result they were talking about afterwards here.  As I said to a Welsh work colleague, it seemed to be more a case of Wales being really bad rather than England being really good.  But we were clinical when it mattered.  And we advanced, which is the main thing.  Although I think the African champions will be a stiffer test.  

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I wish I had something intelligent, thought-provoking or interesting to say today, but I don't.  Sorry.  Just counting down the number of working days I have left in the year (we're into single digits now). 

Trailhead Sign

With the upcoming bad weather, wanted to get a hike in this weekend.  Went to a forest trail on Camano Island that I'd done before, but I don't remember noticing this sign before.

That's not something you want to see!  But I risked it anyway (wearing a blue fleece, I like to think I wouldn't be shot at), and thankfully didn't encounter any hunters.  Indeed, didn't encounter many people at all - just how I like it.

Best Laid Plans

I'm starting to get nervous about my trip back to the UK.  There are the rail strikes - which look as though they are going to disrupt my plans.  That's if they go ahead (which they probably will, thanks to those selfish union assholes).  But even if I can't travel everywhere or see everyone I want to see, it's not a total disaster.  What I'm much more concerned about is the weather here.  We have some really cold Arctic air coming in next week, and a very strong likelihood of lowland snow and a big freeze.  This is exactly the kind of system that will result in my not being able to drive anywhere.  Including driving to the airport.  And that would be an absolute disaster.  The forecast - as it stands - does not look good: snow from Tuesday through the weekend next week, and then more snow the following week.  And some very cold overnight temperatures, which in combination with the snow will ruin the road conditions.  Yikes.  There still seems to be a lot of uncertainty in the forecast, but I think the uncertainty is more to do with how much snow we will get rather than if we get any or not.  Based on how bad it was here last Christmas, I am worried.          

England 0-0 USA

For all the hype - and I don't know what it was like in the UK, but in the US this game had some seriously big hype - that was a tight and cagey affair.  And frankly England were lucky just to get the draw.  Clearly the first match was a fluke, this was exactly how I imagined most of the England games going - slow, predictable, entirely unable to break down the opposition.  And arguably the US had the better opportunities to win this.  England were stereotypically turgid and insipid.  Sadly, this was the first game I watched live.  The first game I watched in 4K.  The first game I watched with a beer.  And the disappointment and frustration with England's performance is overwhelming and will ruin the rest of the day.  I don't know how many other games I will watch live - if only so that I can easily fast forward all the halftime studio awfulness.  This World Cup has been a weird one for me so far - I haven't watched many games in their entirety, mainly just highlights and the occasional replay.  And I have to confess a certain indifference with the tournament - perhaps I'm somewhat conflicted about wanting to enjoy the football, but not with a host country so guilty of corruption and human rights abuses.  But at least my expectations for England have been put firmly back in place - they are not going to win this thing, and I am okay with that.     

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  Let's see, it's traditional to say what you're thankful for.  I am thankful for having 3 Thanksgiving meals in 3 days.  Meals that required no preparation on my part, only re-heating.  Yes, they didn't come cheap, but they were all delicious - though I'll probably get more turkey in one home-cooked Christmas dinner than I did over all 3 of these meals combined!  One came from a supermarket, one came from a catering company, and one came from one of the few restaurants open today (and when I went to pick up the meal today from the restaurant, the car park was full and it was absolutely packed inside -  thank god I didn't have to linger long, as I have no doubts this was a super-spreader event).      

TV Theme Tunes #5

Here is an iconic theme from Sunday nights on BBC1 in the 80's.  Another show that I don't remember anything about, but the theme is familiar and instantly makes me think of yachts and the waterfront.  This particular audio is great, because as well as the starting theme it also transitions to the jazzy end theme!

Criterion Collection

I think they have released more than a thousand special-edition DVDs and Blu-rays, but I got my first ever Criterion Collection release today:

I've been wanting to upgrade my DVD collection for a while now, and the Criterion Collections is a good place to start since they have such a good reputation.  I have so many old DVDs, including many from the UK, that have had better releases since - special editions, better quality audio and video, etc.  Not all the films I own are good films - but some of them deserve better (even if they end up just sitting on the shelf collecting dust!).  I was scanning through the Criterion Collection, and many of their releases are films I haven't even heard of let alone haven't watched.  But there are a few that caught my attention, so these will probably be next.       

England 6-2 Iran

I guess my ability to predict football matches is about as good as my ability to predict election results.  6 goals?  I was convinced it was going to be a goalless draw, with England creatively incapable of breaking down an ultra-defensive Iran.  What a pleasant surprise it was to be proven wrong, though I think my prediction was exactly how Iran expected it to go.  Was it as much about Iran being really bad as England being really good?  It doesn't matter, it's the result that counts.  The game was somewhat ruined by knowing the final result whilst watching my taping of the game.  I need to either watch the games live or totally turn off my phone.  But this is the way England have to play - our strength is going forward, and we simply have to score lots of goals to overcome our defensive deficiencies.  Having later watched Wales vs USA, I'm not worried about either of them.  

What else do I take away from the World Cup so far?  Well, the amount of injury time they're playing at the end of each half is utterly ridiculous.  It's way too much.  And I already have my concerns about bad refereeing - you'd think that VAR would mitigate this, but we've already seen some dodgy and horribly inconsistent VAR decisions.  And is it me, but does the atmosphere at the stadiums seem fake?  I don't think the fans are anywhere near as loud in person as they sound on TV - I think they're "enhancing" the crowd noises on the feed, much like they did during those COVID games with no crowd.  Sober fans do not make as much noise as drunk fans.  I suspect there are an awful lot of locals who couldn't care less about the game, or the occasion, being brought in to make up the crowd numbers (hence them all leaving at halftime).  And, as feared, the coverage of the games on American TV has been awful.  I don't want to watch crappy games like Qatar vs Ecuador all the way through, but did they show any highlights of the game later on?  Did they heck, not that there were many highlights to be had.  And the studio coverage is just dreadful.  So, so bad.  Way too many adverts, and way too many "experts" who don't have a clue about the game.  I can't watch a second of it.  And the commentators are not much better - I almost switched to the Spanish-language audio during the Netherlands-Senegal game, if the Scottish commentator said "Oranje" one more time I was going to throw my remote at the TV.        

Catching Some Z's

Note to self - if you plan to go for a Sunday afternoon hike, don't: get up early to get some groceries and do some chores, play video games with your nephew, have a big lunch, fall asleep on the sofa and don't wake up until it's dark outside.  What a waste of a day - I clearly need to catch up on some sleep over Thanksgiving.  I've definitely not been sleeping well - and I know this because I've been consistently waking up in the middle of the night, and in the middle of a dream.  For someone who doesn't normally recall any dreams, my subconscious is very weird - I should keep a notebook by the side of the bed so that I can write the dream down while it's fresh in my mind, and because it would make for some good blog content (and some deeper psychological analysis of my psyche),  

Deer (Night)

Here are the night shots:

Deer (Day)

Some photos of deer from my trail cam.  I have some nighttime shots that I'll include in a separate blog.

World Cup Preview

It feels somewhat surreal that the World Cup is starting this weekend.  Maybe because the time of year is wrong.  Maybe because the location is wrong (thanks to corruption).  Maybe because I have extremely low expectations of England.  The good news is that all the games are on US TV.  The bad news is that Fox have the rights - so who knows what the quality of coverage and commentators will be like.  What is hilarious is seeing some adverts on TV here asking why the US can't win it.  Ermmm, I can tell them why - because they suck.  They won't get out of the group stages.  I predict that England will grind out a 0-0 draw with Iran in their first game, in which they play over-conservatively in an awful game.  But I think we will beat the US on Black Friday - that feels like a game we should be up for.  But will we go far in the tournament?  No.  We can't avoid the better teams in this draw, unlike previous tournaments, and there are many more better teams than us.  Who's going to win it all?  The safe bet is probably Brazil, but I can't see it going to anyone outside the usual contenders from Europe or South America.  And although I think it very unlikely, it would be nice if England made it to the semis because then I can watch them play when I'm back in England!          

TV Theme Tunes #4

I liked this theme tune as a kid.  I like this theme tune as an adult.  Short but sweet.

Deja Vu

Forever the bridesmaid, never the bride...

For the 4th consecutive ping pong tournament at work, and the first one since we returned to the office, I was a runner-up.  But this one feels different - it doesn't feel deserved.  I shouldn't have even been in the knock-out stages of the tournament - but with other competitors being absent due to work or illness, I was asked to fill in and duly made the final.  Where I was thoroughly beaten, by one of my Chinese colleagues who took the tournament way too seriously.  But the much better player won, so I can't feel bad about this one. 

Tire pressure

Electronic tire pressure monitoring - great for detecting if you have a puncture, not so great when you have a spell of cold weather and the low tire pressure warning keeps on popping up on your dashboard even when you've manually checked the tire pressures and they are fine.  I've had the warning pop up 2 days in a row now, even after recalibrating the system after the first warning.  Classic overengineering.  Perhaps I'm just a Luddite, but I don't understand or care for all the bells and whistles that come with newer cars. 

60th Anniversary Coin

Another James Bond-related item for sale, but I might have to pass on this one.

The coin may look very pretty with all it's gold and diamonds, but it's price sure ain't pretty.  That's a 22 thousand GBP coin.  Yikes.  

Axis of Evil

Dang those mice.  I checked the mousetraps I had set yesterday, and I discovered that the cheese was missing from both but neither trap had gone off.  They've outsmarted me!  Am I the Tom to their Jerry?  I haven't heard any scrabbling behind the wall today, so I'll have to check again tomorrow.  But I do have a backup if necessary - I bought another glue trap, which has proved successful in the past.  But I fear the mice have formed some sort of coalition with the moles to make my life miserable.  I'm fighting a losing battle against the moles - the molehills are popping up all over the place at the moment, with no discernible pattern - so I hope I fare better against the mice.        

More Animal Activity

It is perhaps a sad indictment of how little is going on in my life that I am doing so many blog posts about the local wildlife.  But here is another one.

- Mice are back.  I can hear the scrabbling behind the walls - specifically behind the downstairs wall right near where I work from home.  Naturally.  So often within earshot, hence driving me absolutely crazy.  I've put some mousetraps down underneath the house - but I think I might need better bait than just some regular cheese.  Apparently mice love peanut butter, so I might have to go out and get some tomorrow if the traps don't catch anything tonight.

- The hummingbirds are going crazy right now.  Very loud, very territorial - I am frequently seeing them chase each other off the various feeders.  I don't know what was going on with this particular hummingbird, but I saw her (I think it's a female Anna's Hummingbird) just sitting on the step underneath one of the feeders.  I thought she might be dead, but she moved a little bit when I got near.  Perhaps just tired or injured after a territorial battle, I let her be and she had gone when I checked later on - so I hope she's okay.

- And lastly, there was some more deer action today.  And as you can tell from the antlers and bigger size, this was a buck.  You don't tend to see them so much - so that was kind of cool to see him just hanging around by my patio.  I haven't checked my trailcam yet, but there might be some interesting photos since he was lying down right in front of it.

Is it Thanksgiving yet?

Only 2 weeks until Thanksgiving.  How time flies!  Thank god, I think I need the break from work - which has got a bit more stressful recently.  I don't have much planned for the Thanksgiving break, but if the weather is cooperative then I might consider crossing the border for a short trip into Canada.  And I think I will order another pre-cooked Thanksgiving meal - which has worked out before, and I'm too lazy to cook for myself!  

Contradictory

We had an "employee information session" this week at work, to discuss the new rules for working from home.  And it didn't go well.  Basically, our company now has 2 policies.  The first, as they made abundantly clear, is unchanged in that we are allowed to work from home for up to 3 days a week.  The second policy, the new one, is that we have to be in the office for 3 days a week for what they are terming "collaboration days".  And they said that these policies are complementary.  Ermmm, no they are not - in fact they are the polar opposite of complementary, they are contradictory.  One says we are allowed to WFH for 3 days a week, the other says we are only allowed to WFH for 2 days a week.  It's farcical.  What else did I pick up from this meeting?  Well it was interesting that there wasn't a single mention of COVID, despite its continuing presence (and risk) and despite it being the cause of all these new flexible work procedures.  It feels like - once again - these are the kind of decisions being made by people with offices, with little to no consideration of the increased risk and inconvenience for those of us in cubicles.  I could perform my role 100% remotely - I shouldn't be required to go into the office at all.  Even if I'm not a fully remote employee, most of the people I work with are based in California - so I have no necessity to go into the office.  Basically, one rule for all DOES NOT WORK.  And the core collaboration days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - which guarantees that everyone who doesn't have to go into the office every day will only come in on those days and not Monday and Friday.  I don't even know whether we have enough spaces in the garage when everyone is there, but conversely Monday and Friday will be absolutely dead in the office.  Ironically, if it wasn't for the free lunches on Tuesday and Thursday then Monday and Friday would be my preferred days for going into the office.  If I have to go in at all...        

TV Theme Tunes #3

Ronnie Hazlehurst.  If it's not a name you're familiar with, you will do - because I suspect he will be featured heavily in this series.  As BBC's "Light Entertainment Musical Director", he was involved in making many of the most iconic and well known theme tunes of our time.  This is the first one I'm going to feature - from a sitcom that I barely recall (Language Timothy!).

Are the Seahawks ... Good?

A quick comment on the Seattle Seahawks - who are shockingly and surprisingly on a 4-game winning streak and top of the NFC West standings.  They have a 6-3 record, which is not bad for a team that was predicted to win 5 games in the entire season.  And from the snippets of games that I've caught, they seem to be a pretty decent all-round team who are doing way better than anyone thought.  They are definitely one of the feel-good teams in the league so far, and a lot of the analysts think they might be for real.  It will be interesting to see if they can sustain it.  And that starts next weekend, with Seattle being part of the first ever game in Germany.  And against the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers no less - who will undoubtedly garner more support.  With the time difference, it is an absolutely ridiculous decision to have a West Coast team play there - with the game starting at about 6.30 am our time.  Though pretty good if you want to watch the game in the UK!

The Week Ahead

This week is going to be a bad week.  For starters, I definitely won't win the $1.9 billion lottery jackpot (the largest in the world, ever!) even though I'll undoubtedly buy some tickets (as I have done for the last few drawings).  And then, of course, we have the midterms.  I predict an absolute massacre for the Democrats - they are going to lose control of the House, the Senate and all kinds of state-level and local-level government.  We are going to have all kinds of nutcases, conspiracy-theorists, election-deniers, etc. in positions of power.  I don't consume much political news nowadays - it's too depressing - but I still scan the headlines, so why do I make this prediction?  I am basically judging things by what I see in our state - and that is some very competitive races, in what shouldn't be a competitive state.  If Republicans have a chance of winning here, then they are definitely going to win in the swing states.  I will be glad to see the back of the political ads - which are always on, and which are almost exclusively attack ads or fear-mongering.  It's really awful, and we've seen the consequences of it when people start getting attacked.  And then following the midterms, I predict Trump will be gloating about the results - taking unfounded credit for them - and will declare his candidacy for the presidency.  If the American people are dumb enough to vote him into one term of office, then they are definitely dumb enough to vote him in for another.  Despite everything.  It makes me sick to my stomach.         

Thar She Blows

Boy it was a windy night last night.  Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, including a lot in my vicinity (I was regularly checking the outage map).  But despite numerous occurrences of flickering lights, miraculously mine stayed on.  I was planning to go on a fall hike near Yakima this weekend, but huge amounts of snow fell in the mountains overnight and chains were required on the Snoqualmie Pass this morning - so that was a big no no.  So instead, here are a few photos I've taken recently from my regular hikes:

Musk

Not that I am, or ever was, a prolific Twitter user - I definitely shall not be using it now that Elon Musk owns it.  I hate this guy - a total douchebag.  And his actions since taking over Twitter only confirm that.  It's for the same reason that I shall never own a Tesla car.  I'm clearly no fan of billionaire tech CEO owners (see also my reluctance to use anything to do with Mark Zuckerburg).  

Mother Nature

Mother Nature is a fickle mistress when it comes to the weather.  It was only a few weeks ago that we were still enjoying an Indian summer.  We are currently under a flood watch and a high wind watch, with an atmospheric river pointing right at us.  I left work early today - knowing full well that the evening commute would be a wet mess (which was the right decision - I passed 2 separate accidents already on the opposite freeway lanes) - and by the time I was home at 3 pm, it was already dark, damp and miserable.  And the clocks haven't even gone back yet.  This is a depressing time of year.  And guess what we have in the forecast next week?  Yep, snow.  Oh joy.  We are going to get much colder temperatures than normal, with the very real possibility of some lowland snow (particularly if I'm in the convergence zone).  The mountain passes are definitely going to get hit hard.  I think these weather extremes are the new norm.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I miss San Diego's climate.

TV Theme Tunes #2

Here's a memorable theme tune from a show that I have absolutely zero recollection about.  From the title, presumably it was about a policewoman in some sexist police department (a la Prime Suspect) - but I don't remember any of the actors, any of the storylines or even if I ever watched the show.  But this is about the theme tune, and this is a good one.

Drain Flies

Have you heard of these things called drain flies?  I hadn't until recently, when I looked up "black flies in bathroom".  I'd been seeing quite a lot of them recently, having rarely encountered them before, and didn't know what they were.  They are quite small and harmless, but with very distinctive heart-shaped wings - they almost look like small moths.  Apparently they thrive in stagnant and standing water - and with the plumbing in this house, it doesn't surprise me that I've got them.  I don't exactly have an infestation of them just yet, but if I start to see them more regularly then we might have a problem.  Despite the fact that they are also called sewer flies, they are apparently quite common and don't spread diseases or anything.  Thank god.