TV Theme Tunes #53

Ah yes, I remember this one from the early 90's.  Mainly because I remember singing the theme tune to a friend at school who had big feet.  Charming.  

Halloween

I will NOT be wearing a Halloween costume into work tomorrow, even though I'm sure a lot of people will do so.  Halloween is a kid's holiday, so when you don't have kids it sucks.  At least I shouldn't get trick and treaters bothering me where I live.  

Candy

As a diabetic, this is a bad time of the year.  The supermarkets are full of Halloween candy for trick and treaters.  And when I went into Walmart today, the Christmas candy was also already out on the shelves.  The temptation just to treat myself to a little something is difficult to resist.  But I must try to do so.  I am on the right path.  I had a doctor's appointment last week where they measured my A1C.  This is a simple blood test that measures your average blood sugar levels over the last 3 months.  And my result was very encouraging - significantly lower than the last time I had it measured (which was when I had to go to the emergency room with my high blood sugar level, so that doesn't come as a surprise).  No, the surprise was that my level is low enough that I am no longer classified as diabetic but as pre-diabetic.  Nice.  Mind you, that probably won't stop me being on diabetes medication (plus high blood pressure medication, plus high cholesterol medication) for the rest of my life.  

Avatar 2

I finished watching Avatar: The Way of Water today.  Technically amazing, but lacked any substance whatsoever.  It looked pretty good on the small screen, so I imagine it looked really good on the big screen and especially on IMAX 3D (which I think is how I watched the first Avatar film however many years ago that was).  But that doesn't make up for the simplistic plot.  It really felt more like a non-playable video game than a film.  I don't know how it got nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  However, I can sort of understand how it became the third highest grossing film of all time as the first big post-COVID release.  What I will say is that despite the ridiculously long running time (over 3 hours), it did actually pass quite quickly - but admittedly I didn't watch it all at one sitting.  3.25 stars.  

Evans Creek Preserve

Some photos from Evans Creek Preserve - another of my semi-regular places to go for a hike.  This is somewhere I used to go to quite often when I was working from home all the time, but less so now that I have to go into the office 3 times a week.  This is because it can be up to a 45 minute drive away in normal traffic, just a little bit too far to make it a regular lunchtime destination.  Though with my current light workload, that didn't stop me this week.  And also because I know I won't come here again until next spring at the earliest - this trail can get slippery in colder and wetter weather, and indeed the best part of the trail will be closed for that reason soon enough.

Icons Unearthed

Icons Unearthed is an anthology documentary series on Vice TV.  A decidedly small basic cable television channel, but this particular series has covered some big franchises.  The first four runs featured Star Wars, The Simpsons, Fast & Furious and the MCU.  So why am I mentioning it?  Well, the current fifth series covers the James Bond franchise.  You'd think this would be right up my alley.  But one episode in, and I can already tell this is going to be a drag.  For a start, the series is so dry - reminds of those late 90's poorly produced DVD extras.  And it doesn't help that I already know most of the stories and history of the Bond franchise.  There are already numerous documentaries and books and whatever else covering the same ground.  Regardless, it's an interesting history that should make for entertaining television.  But somehow this documentary series is incredibly boring.  That is something you should never have to say about anything to do with James Bond.  But being a glutton for punishment, I will persist.     

Karens

Note to self - stop watching YouTube videos of Karens and Kevins.  It's just plain depressing.  I have encountered more than my fair share of these awful individuals in the real world.  One particularly memorable incident was when some Karen had a go at me out of the blue for not helping her retrieve her bag from baggage claim.  It was the classic example of the symptom that every Karen and Kevin possesses - and which is why there are so many of them in the US - entitlement.  Sadly, I think there are also certain situations where I can exhibit Kevin traits of my own.  I particularly detest dog owners who blatantly ignore signs telling them to keep their dogs leashed - it's nearly enough to turn me into a deranged nutcase.   

TV Theme Tunes #52

An extremely obscure one this week, from perhaps the creepiest and most disturbing character to ever appear on children's television.

And a bonus clip.  This is one of the first songs I can ever remember.  Is it possible that this is where I first encountered it rather than on radio?  That's very unsettling.

Winter Storm

Apparently the first winter storm is already forecast this week for the mountain passes.  This is much earlier than anticipated - I had hoped to take a trip to Central or East Washington before the winter weather hit (you have to take Snoqualmie Pass over the mountains to get there from West Washington), but I might have left it too late.  With winter weather comes travel restrictions - like having to carry traction tires and/or tire chains.  Neither of which I have, or ever plan to get.  So I guess any day trips I plan to take from now until April will have to be to the coast.      

Bridle Trails State Park

I haven't been very adventurous with my hiking recently - sticking to local walks near my home or near my office.  Although I'd like to change this and go to some new or more scenic walks further afield, whatever I'm doing at the moment seems to be working because I'm gradually losing weight and I'm slowly feeling fitter.  Bridle Trails State Park is one of my regular haunts, and I took the opportunity to take some photos when I hiked there over the weekend:

Backyard Wildlife Update

A selection of the better shots from the trail camera on my patio over the last 3 or so weeks.  The usual gamut of creatures, plus the unwelcome addition of somebody's house cat.

Alone Australia

Alone is an American survival competition series which I quite enjoy.  Basically contestants have to survive as long as they can by themselves in the wilderness with limited survival equipment.  Well, there's currently a spin-off airing here which is set in Australia.  Specifically, in Tasmania.  And it is ruining my preconceptions of what Tasmania is like.  With all it's weird wildlife, I always imagined Tasmania had some kind of tropical rainforest climate.  Nope, it appears to be considerably colder than that.  You don't really think that Australia gets any snow, but apparently Tasmania does.  I suppose that shouldn't come as a surprise considering where it is geographically located, but I've never really given it much thought until now.         

American Politics

What do I think of the current state of American politics?  In particular the Republican Party?  I'll keep it brief.  What a sh*tshow.  Let's cut to the chase and instill Trump as the speaker of the House.  And president.  And fuhrer.  And while we're at it, I think we need to drop the "United" in "United States of America".

Fed Up

Work is very stressful at the moment.  And not because of my workload.  It's having to deal with people.  People who haven't got a clue what they're doing.  Twice this week, got some ridiculous timelines foisted on me - totally unfeasible for me to meet them.  I push back, creating some drama.  And have since found out that in one case these timelines were impossible to begin with due to other factors.  So they were wrong when they were given to me.  And in the other case, some digging reveals that I'm expected to do in a week what was previously done by a team of people over months.  Really?  But I'm still unfairly judged as the lazy one.  It's just a whole load of needless stress.  On top of this being the time when we do our annual performance review.  A pointless exercise when I know I'm not getting promoted.  No wonder I've quiet quit.      

TV Theme Tunes #51

The best game show on TV?  A test of both the physical and mental.  Though I suspect it hasn't aged well - you can get better quality flight simulators on your watch nowadays.  And clearly a game show of it's time, as judged by the abject failure of it's revival in the 2000's.  Fun fact - Gordon Burns is cousins with Ed Sheeran.  I've included both the intro and outro, because the outro doesn't feature random contestant introductions.

Breaking Geodes

There is an art to breaking geodes cleanly.  I have not mastered it yet.  I opened some over the weekend, and clearly need to work on my technique.  Maybe I need some new tools?  Putting the geode in a sock and smashing it with a hammer is the simplest blunt force method, but not the best.  You can't see when cracks start appearing in the geode and you end up smashing it into too small pieces.  I improvised by putting the geodes in freezer bags instead of socks, which helped a little bit in seeing what I was doing.  But I lack patience and nuance.  If I was to take up lapidary seriously, I'd buy a saw.  I do want to buy and break some more geodes, so maybe I might at least get a chisel and see if that helps.  Saying all that, I did manage to do a good job on one really beautiful geode (which the photo doesn't really do justice to):

Rugby World Cup

Now that we're at the business end of the Rugby World Cup, I've started watching/streaming the games.  Sometimes on replay, or live like today (thankfully the time difference is not unreasonable - 8 am to watch England's quarter final).  And, obviously, England are clearly the best team in the Northern Hemisphere as the only team from the Six Nations to make it to the semi finals.  The way we crushed the mighty Samoa and demolished the mighty Fiji, we definitely won't get absolutely annihilated by South Africa in the semis or the All Blacks in the final.  At least we progressed further in the tournament than the likes of Australia (hilariously not making it out of the group stages), Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France.  And obviously it was an absolutely fair draw with the 4 best teams in the world playing each other in a couple of thrilling and high quality quarter finals, where either game would have made a perfectly legitimate final.  

Missed a Trick

It is shocking to me that the Succession box set that was released last month is DVD only.  Not 4K.  Not even Blu-ray.  Just DVD.  For such a brilliant series, I was hoping they would make more of an effort on a decent box set.  But nope, this is not it.  So this shall be a hard pass.  Hopefully at some point in the future they will put together a better release.  But if this is the future of physical releases in the age of streaming, then that makes me very sad.   

You Plonker

I have no intention of watching this totally unnecessary revival of a comedy classic, especially with its mixed reviews and the fact that it is streaming on a service I don't subscribe to, but it is weird to see a very old-looking Rodney Trotter in the trailer for the rebooted Frasier show.

 

Safety

According to a recent study, "Seattle quite unsafe for its residents".  Yikes.  In the "Safest Cities in America" list, Seattle was ranked 158th out of 182 cities.  That isn't good.  Of course you take these kind of articles and "studies" with a massive grain of salt.  But apparently in 2020, Seattle was ranked as high as 116th - so I guess it's on a bit of a downward slide.  The statistician in me would like to actually critique how this data was collected and analyzed - I suspect it's flawed.  The article I read stated that the study examined threats to safety from public health crises and natural disasters to mass shootings and traffic accidents.  Having just experienced an earthquake, and not so long ago having had my car deemed a write off after a traffic accident, maybe the study is less flawed than I think.  Apparently Seattle was rated particularly badly in thefts and hate crimes, and home and community safety.  That sounds suspiciously like how the right-wing media networks perceive Seattle with it's "socialist agenda".        

Sportswashing

While channel-hopping between sports over the weekend, I encountered something I wasn't expecting.  Fox Sports 2 was showing a live game from the Saudi Pro League.  That is disappointing, to say the least.  Shouldn't this league be shunned in the same way that LIV Golf is?  Footballers well past their prime being exorbitantly overpaid by a government (who own majority stakes in the clubs) guilty of appalling human rights abuses.  And if any network was going to buy the TV rights, it had to be Fox in another egregious display of hypocrisy.  Naturally I didn't watch any of the game.        

TV Theme Tunes #50

#50 probably deserves a better theme tune than this - but this is the one that inexplicably sprung to mind this evening.  It must have been some dark and little accessed corner of my mind that I managed to dig this one up from, because I haven't thought about this cartoon and this theme for an absolute age.  Weird.

Geodes

I got my nephew some geodes to smash open for his birthday, and I've got to be honest and say that I'm kind of jealous.  So I think I'm going to get some of my own.  I've always been interested in geology - I like visiting and photographing interesting geological features, and I own plenty of rocks and crystals.  Did I miss my calling?  I only got a B in GCSE Geography, so I never really considered pursuing it further.  I already regret dropping A-Level History for A-Level Physics.  Maybe this is another regret?  I always wonder whether there was ever a career out there for me that I would actually be passionate about - geography and history are definitely more interesting to me than math(s) and the sciences.           

Earthquake

While living in California, I used to feel earthquakes quite often.  No so much here.  But just experienced one this evening.  Not "the" big one, but big enough to shake my house and for me to actually notice.  I can't remember the last time I felt one here - it's been a very long time.  And thankfully I've not gone crazy and imagined it - a quick look on the internet confirms that it was a 4.5 magnitude earthquake about 40 miles NW of where I am.  I wonder if it caused any damage?      

Fall

I was going to start taking photos of some of the Halloween house decorations I encounter on my local walks, but most of them are just too tacky that I simply cannot bring myself to do it.  So I think I'll just stick to some autumnal colo(u)rs.

A little statistical joke

... that I suspect not many people will get:

A statistician is at the doctor’s office.  The doctor says, “I’m afraid you have type I diabetes.”.  The statistician replies, “Well, that’s a relief. I thought I had diabetes.”.

Glasses

Over the last few months, I've had some serious vision issues due to changes in my blood sugar level.  But thankfully my eyesight has more or less returned to how it was before.  On the day after I got back to the US, I had an eye test with my optician that confirmed this.  And I took the opportunity to use my vision care health insurance to get a new pair of glasses.  I ended up picking out quite a nice pair of glasses (i.e. expensive), so although my insurance covered some of the cost I still ended up paying quite a bit.  Well I picked up those glasses today.  And noticed an immediate problem.  When I put them on, my vision was once again blurry.  Now I might expect some blurriness with a new pair of glasses as my eyes adjust, but I wouldn't expect this much with a prescription that is close to how it was before.  So, frustratingly, I am about 95% sure that the prescription is wrong.  In particular, I think one of the lenses is wrong - if I close one eye I can see fine, but if I close the other then we have extreme blurriness.  I'll give it a few more days, just in case I am being over-sensitive to changes in my vision, but I suspect I will need to take them back to either get the correct lens or the correct prescription.  Annoying.

National Alert

Had a minor heart attack this morning.  I was in the office, actually doing some work while listening to a podcast through my earbuds.  When all of a sudden my phone started blaring a test alert.  It was incredibly loud, and extremely unexpected because my phone's silent mode was on.  It was so loud, that I couldn't tell whether it was just me or whether everyone else's phone was going off.  Well, apparently, it was everybody.  This was the US government's big emergency alert drill - sending an emergency alert to all radios, TVs and cell phones.  Hopefully I won't ever hear it again, otherwise we'll know we've reached the end times.   

TV Theme Tunes #49

It is sadly an urban myth that Bob Holness was the saxophonist in Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street.  But I choose to believe otherwise.

River Wey

I was going to post some photos captured by my trail cam over the last few weeks, but it didn't have any.  I think I had the camera positioned too high and angled incorrectly.  It's not like the local wildlife has suddenly disappeared - I saw a rabbit out of my back door just yesterday, and there is plenty of evidence of squirrel activity (they leave broken shells on the driveway).  So instead, I was going through the photos on my phone and there are ones from Godalming that I haven't posted yet.  Well, not so much Godalming as from the River Wey towpath between Godalming and Guildford - a pleasant and scenic place to take your dog out for a walk.

Allegiance

I hate golf, I hate watching golf, I hate people that play golf, I love it when Europe kicks America's ass in the Ryder Cup.  If and when I become a US citizen, it is going to be tough to take the Oath of Allegiance at my naturalization ceremony (which is mandatory):

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

Would I Move Back?

I often get asked - particularly when I'm back in the UK - whether I would ever move back to the UK permanently.  And sure, it is something I have considered quite a lot.  What is interesting is that if I'm asked while in the US, my answer is most likely that I would consider it under the right circumstances.  What those circumstances are I keep quite vague, because I don't really know what they are.  However when I'm asked the same question while I'm back in the UK, then I more definitively say that no I wouldn't consider moving back permanently.  I'm not sure which is the more honest answer, but probably the latter.  I'm more than happy to visit regularly or on more extended visits, but I feel my permanent residence belongs in the US rather than the UK now.  To the extent that I will become a US citizen at some point.  And if I think about where I would like to see out the rest of my life, I can picture that being in the US a lot more than in the UK.  Not necessarily in the Pacific Northwest - I think I will move to warmer climes at some point - but nonetheless in the US.  I guess going back to the UK only emphasizes the fact that the UK doesn't feel like home to me anymore.  There will always be things that I miss from the UK when I'm in the US, but as I've got older I think these things have become less important and the things that I would miss from the US when I'm in the UK are a bigger deal.