RIP Skype and Ukraine

Well, it looks like Trump's half-arsed attempts at diplomacy have blown up in his face.  Massive respect to Zelensky for not "bowing to the king" like every other world leader, but the results could be catastrophic for his country.  I think we can safely say that Ukraine is not getting any more US aid.  Trump is only interested in resolving the Ukraine war because (a) he wants all of Ukraine's resources, and (b) he thinks this will get him a Nobel Peace Prize, something he is immensely jealous of Obama for having.  

The day had already started on a downer with the news that Microsoft is shutting down Skype.  Because I'm a dinosaur, Skype is my first choice for video calls.  Of course there are alternatives - Zoom, Teams, Slack - but they all come with limitations (particularly when it comes to the length of free calls allowed).  But I shall miss Skype simply because I like familiarity and don't care for change.  Though I have noticed a distinct increase in the amount of spam on Skype recently, so perhaps it is for the best (or, more likely, Microsoft have already given up on Skype and are not doing as much to block the spammers).     

 

Random Music

I haven't bought any new music for absolutely ages - we are talking years.  But I am thinking of buying the album which I've included the title track of below.  It's not exactly new (released over 11 years ago) or popular (peaked at #39 on the UK charts, #150 on the US charts), but the album was met with critical acclaim.  And I do like the band and I do own and like one of their older albums - though apparently the band has undergone loads of changes (notably their vocalist/guitarist/primary songwriter leaving) since then.  I do like me some folk rock.

Reunion Lunch

What's this now?  A calendar invite for a reunion lunch with some of the people in my department in Seattle.  That sounds nice.  A chance to catch up with colleagues I haven't seen for a while, most not since the office closed.  But wait a second, where is the lunch being held?  Shaoshan Impression.  Never heard of it.  Let me have a look at the menu online.  Oh no.  Authentic Hunan cuisine.  In other words, weird Chinese food that I'm not going to like.  Especially since so many reviews of this place mention how spicy the food is.  A direct quote from one of the reviews: "I didn't spot a single non-Chinese customer in the whole restaurant".  Disappointment.  I don't think I'm going to go.  Disappointment turning to anger.  Who chose this restaurant?  I know there's not many of us, but thanks for considering your non-Chinese colleagues.  Inconsiderate, and makes me feel like an outsider within my own department.  Again.  The Chinese Mafia strikes again.  This does appear to be a quarterly reunion lunch - apparently the budget stretches that far, even though many of us are going to get laid off to save money.  Is it always going to be Chinese food that I'm not going to like?  Probably.              

Suits LA

I've been on a bit of a roll recently when it comes to blogging about TV shows, so here's another one.  I watched the first episode of Suits LA this evening.  I think I watched most, if not all, of the original series Suits.  A show that was fine for what it was, if entirely unmemorable, apart from (a) the premise (a guy becoming a lawyer even though he never went to law school) and (b) featuring a certain pre-Royal Meghan Markle.  The show became inexplicably popular on Netflix, hence this sequel.  And so far, so blah.  This was clearly written as a show about a talent agency that has been hastily reimagined to be about lawyers in order to capitalize on the popularity of the original.  And so far it has none of the charm or joy of the original.  I'll give it a few more episodes, but I suspect this will quickly get dropped from my viewing schedule.            

The Americas

 A big prime-time TV series that premiered last night on NBC was The Americas - a nature series in the vein of Planet Earth (it looks like it will also air on Sunday nights on BBC 1 in the UK).  And since this series is also produced by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, it's no surprise that the visuals are absolutely sumptuous.  Though unfortunately everything else is a little disappointing.  A folksy-sounding Tom Hanks is no match for Sir David Attenborough.  But most grating is the horribly simplistic commentary - it is clearly dumbed down for the American audience.  And it doesn't seem particularly original - I'm sure I've seen most of the featured animals before in one of the many predecessors.  And something I don't remember from any of the BBC shows is an accompanying score (perhaps they also had this, but no way did it feature as predominantly as it does here).  I'm not sure how I feel about this - it adds a cinematic quality, but detracts from the naturalness of what you're seeing.  I probably will continue watching, if only to find out what animals they feature when they cover "The West Coast".          

All Creatures Great and Small

PBS aired the most recent Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small tonight.  Yep, they aired a Christmas episode in late February.  And this is not the first time they've done this.  I don't approve.  If they are not going to air the series at the same time it is in the UK, then time it so the Christmas episode actually airs around Christmas.  Certainly not 2 months after Christmas.  All Creatures Great and Small is one of those British series that Americans - particularly elderly and female Americans - seem to really like (see also Downton Abbey).  I can see why, because it appeals to me as well.  It is the very definition of a comforting drama - beautiful setting, simple storylines and characters, and major nostalgia.  I don't care if it's depiction of rural Yorkshire life during the Second World War is wildly unrealistic, it is charming and heartwarming and a necessary and welcome respite from the real world.        

Sleep Interruption

I woke up in the middle of last night, and wasn't quite sure why.  I thought I'd heard a big bang, so I did a quick check around my house and immediately outside my house but didn't see anything untoward and so went back to bed and eventually back to sleep.  I didn't think anything more about it until this evening, when I read an article stating that there had been a 3.4 magnitude earthquake last night in the Seattle area.  Not a big one, but enough for the shaking to be felt throughout Western Washington.  So I wonder if this was the reason my sleep was interrupted last night.  That certainly sounds better than all the more obvious reasons - diet, exercise, stress, poor sleep habits, etc.  

Compensation

Got my compensation statement for the year from work this week.  And there is a certain irony that despite getting the highest performance rating I've had in several years ("outstanding"), I got the lowest percentage increase in pay that I've had in several years (just 3.5%).  At least my bonus was bumped up a little bit to make up for it (although I end up losing most of that through taxes).  And at least I was warned that this was coming - because I haven't been promoted for ages, I think I've ended up being one of the higher earners at my level so I'm not going to get any big increases in pay.  In all honesty, I'm not overly disappointed with all this.  I think I'm quite overpaid for what I do, and I'll just take what they give me before they inevitably lay me off.  If and when I get a new job in the future, I doubt my starting pay will be so much.      

007 Prime

In the current environment, it's tough to keep this blog even remotely positive.  And it doesn't get any better with the news that Amazon have acquired creative control of the James Bond franchise.  This has the potential to be an absolutely disaster.  We've seen how the Star Wars and Marvel universes have seriously diminished their standing by the over-saturation of films, TV shows and spin-offs, and I fear the same will happen with Bond.  The fact that it's Amazon does not exactly inspire confidence - I still haven't got round to watching any of their not exactly well-reviewed Lord of the Rings series.  Perhaps the biggest thing to fear is the "Americanization" of a British icon.  Maybe we should just treat the Amazon version of Bond like we do the unofficial Bond films (e.g. Never Say Never Again) - the less said the better.

Asteroid Hit

NASA has said that there is a 1.5% chance that an asteroid hits Earth in 2032.  Further research reveals that it is only a "city-killer" asteroid rather than a "planet-killer".  Which is a bit of a shame, because the planet is really going down the toilet and humanity kind of deserves to be eradicated.  Things are especially bad in the US, where President Musk is systemically destroying the federal government from the inside.  It is outrageous what is happening right now - the wanton layoffs, the brain drain, the brazenly discriminatory policies.  It makes me sick.  And what makes me even more sick is the apparent apathy from the American people.  Are they really that stupid to not see what is happening right in front of them?  Do they not see that the current policies are weakening the US for generations to come?  I guess not, if they're stupid enough to vote for this fool into office again.  But he is just the face of the administration - it's the people pulling the strings that worry me the most.  The right-wing think tanks funded by white billionaires.  And where is the political opposition?  The Democrats have been virtually invisible since the election.  Trump's only been in charge for about a month, and it already feels like an eternity.  And he's only just started.  It's truly disturbing that with this avalanche of policy changes, there's so much awful stuff that him and his administration have already done that have slipped through the gaps with little to no push back or media coverage.  The future is decidedly bleak.          

House of the Dragon Season 2

I've just started watching the second season of House of the Dragon.  There's no sugar-coating this, but it is a drag.  The show is just relentlessly dour.  I'm not invested in the characters, and when you don't care about the characters then you don't care what happens to them.  It's incredibly disappointing - the show seriously lacks heart and seriously lacks humo(u)r.  It doesn't compare to Game of Thrones at it's best.  And even when Game of Thrones was at it's worse, particularly towards the end, at least you were still invested in the characters.  There is another Game of Thrones spin-off due to air later this year.  I'm not exactly enthusiastic about it.      

President's Day

Another bank holiday today - this time for President's Day.  It feels like such a waste having all these holidays at the start of the year - when the days are still relatively short and the weather is very crappy.  So it just ends up being another long weekend that I didn't make the most of.   

4 Nations

Outside of the Winter Olympics, international tournaments in ice hockey do not have a high profile.  There was an exception this weekend.  There is currently a 4 Nations tournament going on between Finland, Sweden, Canada and USA - featuring most of the best professional players from the NHL.  And yesterday we had the big border rivalry matches: Finland vs Sweden and Canada vs "Team USA".  And I happened to catch quite a lot of both games.  Finland vs Sweden was good - it was airing early in order to be on during prime time in Europe, and went to overtime with the underdog Fins winning.  But then Canada vs US was even better.  The game was being held in Montreal, and so there was a bit of a partisan crowd.  And when I say a bit, I mean a lot.  Thanks to Trump's tariffs and his talk of making Canada a US state (I would fight alongside my commonwealth brethren to stop that ever happening), the atmosphere was electric.  The US national anthem was heartily booed - unusual for the normally mild-mannered Canadians.  And then we had 3 fights in the first 9 seconds of the game!  Ice hockey is great in still allowing fights - the refs only stepping in when the fighters go down to the ice.  And generally it was a really competitive, hard-hitting, brutal game that the US managed to win.  There is still a chance of another Canada vs USA game in the final of the tournament - bring it on.  

More Things Breaking

Only a few days after my sofa broke, my thermostat decided to stop working today.  Bad things come in threes, so I fear something else will go wrong soon.  I have absolutely no idea what happened to the thermostat, it just kind of died.  But I averted potential disaster - if it had happened when my landlord was still on holiday in Hawaii, then I might have gone without heating for an extended period of time during the coldest temperatures of the year.  As it was, he popped round and replaced the thermostat in a matter of hours.  This is where I'm grateful to be renting, and not having to deal with this kind of thing by myself.   

Happy Valentine's Day!

Maybe my least favo(u)rite day of the year.  A day that rubs my single status in my face.  Of course I'm not happy that I'm single, but it is what it is - I can only play the hand that life has dealt me.  But I particularly hate a day that commercializes relationships in a wholly unrealistic way.  It's a consumerist scam.  If you're in a healthy loving relationship, then Valentine's Day is totally redundant.  Don't waste your money.  But I'm hardly the best person to offer advice on this...        

Sofa Woes

Disaster stuck today.  The reclining mechanism broke on the sofa seat that I use the most.  I've only had the sofa for just over 5 years, so not happy that something has already gone wrong with it.  I'm totally unable to fix it, so that leaves some options.  Buy a new sofa, get someone to come round to fix the mechanism, move my furniture around, buy an ottoman, keep the seat reclined, or keep the seat unreclined.  None of these are ideal options, aesthetically or practically - and obviously some are a lot more expensive than others.  Since I mostly sit in the seat watching TV with it reclined, for the moment it is staying in the reclined position.  But I don't think that is the long term solution.  At some point in the next few weeks I might try to take a trip to Ikea and take a look at the ottomans there.  But this weekend I think I'm going to try rearranging my furniture so that the optimal TV viewing position belongs to a seat whose reclining mechanism does work.        

Sleep

I fell asleep in front of the telly this evening.  Who or what do I blame it on?  The weather.  Because it's so cold (we've been under an official cold advisory since Tuesday - and the overnight temperatures have been dropping to well below freezing, for example about -7 degrees Celsius last night), I've been bringing my hummingbird feeders inside every evening to stop them from freezing solid.  However, that means I need to get up just before sunrise in order to put them outside again - otherwise I'm not sure the various hummingbirds out there (and there are at least 4 of them around using the various feeders) will survive.  The hummingbirds are very vocal whenever I step outside, so I think they are staying close to the feeders during this cold snap.  It's actually very impressive, and quite surprising, that these birds don't migrate south for winter.       

Google Maps

Shame on Google for caving in to the ravings of a deranged lunatic.

Animal Tracks

One of the few good things about snow is that you get to see the tracks that the animals make in it.  Over the last week I've seen tracks for deer, rabbits and dogs (coyotes) - confirming what my trail camera captures.  So I was curious to see what was on my camera - and it revealed quite a lot of cat action (both of the domestic and non-domestic variety).

Puppy Bowl XXI

It's Superbowl Sunday today.  I'm writing this blog with the game about to start.  I'm not sure how much I'm going to watch it - I don't really care who wins (if I had to choose, I hope it's the Eagles because I don't care for the numerous times during games that they cut to Taylor Swift cheering on the Chiefs).  And I don't care for the halftime show this year - I don't really know who Kendrick Lamar is, and I certainly don't know any of his music.  And I don't care for the Superbowl ads - it's ridiculous that that's a thing.  I've already made a mistake today.  I watched some of the Puppy Bowl earlier in the day.  Congratulations on Team Fluff narrowly squeezing out a victory against Team Ruff by the score of 68-66.   It'a basically an extended ad for a load of cute puppies that are up for adoption.  And it got me really depressed.  I really would like to get a dog, but I can't do where I live now.  And that makes me sad.  Especially now I'm working from home full-time, I could really do with the company of a dog throughout the day.  Maybe I need to give more serious thought to moving - just so that I can get a dog.     

Bills

What do you get when you combine one of the coldest winters in decades, working from home full-time, and a steady rise in electricity rates due to greedy utility companies?  You get the largest monthly electricity bill that I've ever had.  Not sure there is much I can do about it - I'm not going to work from home whilst wrapped up in a ridiculous number of layers.

The Dollars Trilogy

I've already put my pre-order in:

I'm a big fan of the Spaghetti Western, but I've only ever owned the Dollars Trilogy on video (probably recorded from telly, I don't exactly remember because I got rid of all my video tapes a very long time ago).  So it will be good to revisit these classic films.    

A Snowy Morning

I woke up to these views from my house today.

We've had quite a bit of overnight snow this week, but this mornings was the worst.  This was the second day in a row where the local schools were closed, which is never a good sign.  The only positive thing about this weather is at least I can get some good exercise by clearing my (long) driveway of snow.  This took a little while, but fortunately the daytime temperatures eventually got above freezing so it wasn't so bad.  I'm glad I did, because the roads were drivable by the afternoon so I was able to pop out to get some groceries (and I wasn't sure whether my Amazon order would get delivered today, but it did).  We're now under a cold weather advisory, with really cold temperatures expected overnight.  I expect road conditions to be very icy and dangerous tomorrow - so I'll be stuck at home.  And it looks like this wintry weather is going to persist for at least another week.  The weather is clearly a nightmare for forecasters - since no one seems to be able to provide an accurate forecast of when and how much snow we're going to get.  In their defense I think the weather is very localized - with some neighbo(u)rhoods getting a lot more snowfall than others.  All I know is that I have to be up early to either clear the snow from my bird feeders, or bring them inside to unfreeze them.  This is not good weather for hummingbirds.

TV Theme Tunes #94

I wasn't going to do one of these for a while, but I found myself inexplicably humming this theme tune whilst I was brushing my teeth this morning.  I have no idea why, it was a totally unconscious decision.  Even took me a little while to recognize it.  It's a sad reflection on the state of broadcasting sports rights that this show ended almost 20 years ago.

iPhone 15

My iPhone 15 got delivered today.  Only one major problem that I didn't anticipate.  It didn't come with a power adapter.  How stupid is that.  But apparently that is a thing that smart phone manufacturers do now.  I shouldn't be surprised that you need to shell out even more money just to be able to charge up your phone.  What a swizz.  The biggest joke is that Apple claim not to include the power adapter for "environmental reasons".  Of course, absolutely not for financial reasons.  

Winter Weather Advisory

We are currently under a winter weather advisory through tomorrow morning = with snow and slippery road conditions expected.  When I checked my weather app earlier today, this advisory was not there.  It seems like the forecast is changing all the time.  The snow that was forecast this weekend never materialized until this morning.  Woke up to a dusting of snow, then it started coming down heavily in the morning, and then by the afternoon it had all melted away.  But it seems like tonight is going to be worse - with 1 to 3 inches of snow in the forecast.  But who knows what we'll actually get, and how long it will last for.  All I know is that I am glad I stocked up with some food, I'm glad I don't have to commute to to work, and that I'm prepared to shovel snow off my driveway tomorrow if need be (which I did today, though ultimately it wasn't necessary).     

Man Utd 0-2 Palace

I'm always happy when Palace win.  But I'm particularly happy when the win is against Man Utd.  Admittedly this might be the worst Man Utd team I've ever seen in the Premier League era - but a win is a win, and the result takes us above them.  Deservedly so.  Our away form is particularly good.  After some early season jitters, Palace have corrected the ship and it looks like it's going to be another comfortable mid-table finish.  A more solid defensive unit accompanied by an in-form striker is a great combination (see also Nottingham Forest).  I wish we had started the season a bit better, because I think we could have been up there with the likes of Forest and Bournemouth.  Without the threat of relegation, maybe we can go on a bit of an FA Cup run now?     

Contradiction

Been thinking about whether I would ever return back to the UK permanently.  It is definitely something that has crossed my mind, particularly if I get laid off from my job.  The problem is that I'm kind of not opposed to the idea when I'm in the US.  But when I go back to the UK, I just don't see it happening.  So I just don't know.  It's one of those things I shouldn't really think about seriously until my current circumstances change.  But I suspect I'll stay in the US regardless.