Italy

They may have beaten us in rugby and made the World Baseball Classic semi-finals, but at least we qualified for the World Cup.  Again.  Shocking.  

You Shall Not Pass

 "You shall not pass!"

DVR

I've found another reason to cut the cord.  I was having a look at the recordings on my DVR, and I noticed some episodes of a TV series that I had recorded a while back were no longer there.  And something else felt off - like there were other recordings that were missing.  And then I realized what had happened - which I was able to confirm online.  My DVR automatically deletes recordings that are a year old.  Something which I didn't know it did.  This is outrageous.  Yes, perhaps it is telling that I have not felt the need to watch something for a year.  But that doesn't mean that I don't want to eventually watch it - and it should be my choice if and when to delete it from my DVR.  Especially a DVR that is nowhere near full.  Now I needlessly feel the pressure to watch some of the older stuff on my DVR before I lose it.  

Spam

I don't think it's just me, but I've been seeing a noticeable increase in spam recently.  E-mails telling me to click this link because I've won a prize, text messages telling me that I need to pay a speeding fine, phone calls from numbers I don't recognize that even my carrier recognizes and flags as "Spam likely", even e-mails that tell me they've hacked my webcam and have compromising videos of me that they'll send to all my contacts unless I pay up.  We can probably thank AI for all this.  It feels like a thankless task continually blocking and reporting all these e-mails - but I shall persist.     

State Visit

Why haven't they canceled the King's state visit to the US yet?  Trump continues to slag off the UK leader and the UK military.  There have to be consequences.  Trump's behavior is pathetic and embarrassing - he is throwing toys out of the pram because nobody supports his war.  And the consequential rises in gas price are making him unpopular even with his own base.  There is another "No Kings" protest planned for tomorrow - expect it to be a big one across the country.  I'm no fan of large crowds, especially large crowds with the potential for violence, but I'm even tempted to join this one.

More Sports Thoughts

It was opening day of the baseball season today.  Don't care.  March Madness is going on right now.  Don't care.  I see that the final set of World Cup qualifying games are underway.  Don't care.  No, there is only one sport I care about right now.  And that is the welcome return of Australian rules football.  I think it has now officially become my third favo(u)rite sport, behind only football and rugby union.  And unlike football, where I frequently fast-forward through games just to get to highlights, I tend to watch AFL games in their entirety.  I think it's now top of my bucket list to see a match in person.  In Australia.  One day I hope.  I still don't really support a team in Aussie rules - there are teams I like, and there are teams I dislike (mainly due to certain players I dislike).  But I think it's okay just being a fan of the game rather than of a particular team - particularly a niche sport that is only played on the other side of the world.       

Supersonics

Good news on the sports front.  We are one step closer to Seattle having a basketball team again.  The various team owners have voted to pursue expansion teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.  Nothing is set in stone yet - but the chances of the Seattle SuperSonics returning to the NBA in a few years time seem good.  Fun fact which I didn't know - Seattle is actually considered the largest metropolitan area in the US without an NBA team.  There are definitely a couple of opponents that I look forward to Seattle facing - the "local" derby with the Portland Trailblazers, and what will likely be an intense rivalry with Oklahoma City Thunder - where the SuperSonics relocated to in 2008.  

Windy

An embarrassing incident this evening.  I popped out to get a few things at the local grocery store.  It's been a windy day, so I wore a baseball cap (my SPECTRE one as well, one of my better ones).  I stepped out of the car, and a big gust of wind took the cap right off my head.  And proceeded to blow it halfway across the car park.  With me chasing it like an idiot.  Humiliating, and just glad I was able to eventually catch up to my cap and grab it before someone ran over it.  My takeaway - I clearly need to tighten up the strap.

Interior Design

I rearranged the furniture in my living room over the weekend.  Exciting stuff right.  What does that really mean?  I swapped the positions of my sofa and loveseat so that the seat with the busted recliner function is on the end and the one I'm least likely to use - so it can stay unreclined.  Although the new seating arrangement will take a bit of getting used to, it works.  And, somehow, it has made my living room feel a bit more spacious.  Though that didn't stop me looking at new sofas online today...

Last One Laughing

I've been seeing lots of clips of Last One Laughing UK on YouTube, so when I found out the full episodes were on Amazon Prime then I decided to check it out.  And it's pretty good - enough for me to binge the first season this weekend, and I've just started on the second season.  More than pretty good, it's actually really enjoyable - frequently making me laugh out loud.  It's basically a competition where a bunch of comedians try to make each other laugh.  A simple premise, but the quality of comedians is what makes it work.  It's a murderer's row - all the usual suspects that you see on every popular game show and panel show.  But that is what makes me worry about the longevity of this show.  In the first season, there was only 1 of the 10 comedians who I didn't know.  In the second season, it was 2.  By that logic, I'm not sure I want to watch by the fifth season when half of the contestants will be unknown to me.      

Mousetraps?

I've currently got 4 mousetraps set up under my house.  I had baited them last weekend (my bait of choice - peanut butter) but no takers when I checked today.  Which I think is a good thing - it means there are probably no critters under my house right now.  But last weekend when I checked the traps for the first time in months, I achieved a 50% success rate.  But interestingly, I didn't actually capture a mouse with my mousetraps.  No, in fact it was a couple of moles.  Which shouldn't have surprised me given the amount of mole activity I've seen outside the house.  I've almost given up trying to fight the moles, it just seems to be an endless battle - so this was a rare win for me.

Jaws

I feel like I succumbed to a bit of peer pressure to obtain this new addition for display.

I probably overpaid for something that is a lot smaller than I thought it would be.  But at least that means it fits on my shelf quite nicely. 

Statistics

A well known quote on statistics goes: "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination".  A perfect recent example:

I suspect this "poll" consisted of interviewing 1 person who happened to be a Trump-supporting MAGA imbecile.

Doomscrolling

I was just watching a YouTube video of a very excitable Australian cleaning drains, and it dawned on me that perhaps I'm watching way too much inane online content.  I seriously need to cut back - and watch a film or read a book instead.  Sadly when it comes to self-improvement, this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Sleep

I might as well write something else, just to make up for the one I missed yesterday.  But for the last few weeks I've been doing something I don't think I've ever done before.  I've been consistently sleeping through my alarm.  Which is weird.  I think this is partly due to the clocks going forward, but my sleep patterns have also slightly shifted so that I'm going to bed later and waking up later.  I thought that when you get older you're supposed to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier - so I have no idea why I'm doing the opposite.  But I don't like it.  I feel like it might be a reflection of my stressed out state of mind, or my very sedentary lifestyle.  I need to get into healthier habits - in particular exercising more regularly.  Maybe the lack of exercise is causing me to be less tired in the evening.  But even if I go to bed late, I think I'm still getting good quality sleep.  So it's not like I'm suffering from lack of sleep.  Weird.     

Whoops

Just noticed I didn't write a blog yesterday, and I nearly went to bed today without doing another.  I don't really have much to say and I don't really have much motivation to write anything.  Perhaps I'm just saying that because it's so late.  Perhaps it's also because I'm still incredibly busy and stressed out with work.  I'd hoped things might have eased up a bit, but nope.

Refund

I completed my tax return today, earning a bit of a refund which is nice.  However since I've been making estimated tax payments throughout the year, this is maybe not as good as it sounds.  All I know for sure is that (a) rather than complete the tax return myself using tax software, next year I think I'm going to pay a little bit extra for someone else to do it for me, and (b) I decided to celebrate completing my tax return by ordering a pizza from the local pizzeria.  I was already wary about how expensive it was (the prices have maybe doubled in the last few years), but the quality seems to have gone significantly downhill as well, so I don't think I'll be eating from there again. 

Backyard Action

I realized I hadn't checked my trail cam for a few months, so here are the highlights.  Lots of deer action - no surprise since I've also been seeing them often for myself when I look or go outside.

Winter Has Come

Despite the clocks having gone forward and it almost being spring, look what I woke up to this morning:

This is the view from my bedroom windows.  It's quite unusual to have our first lowland snow of the winter so late in the year.  And boy was it coming down thick and heavy.  Fortunately it was warm enough that it didn't really stick to the roads or driveway.  

Shaving

When I was working in an office, I shaved roughly every other day.  Then when I started working from home, I shaved roughly twice a week.  And the last few months, I've been shaving only about once a week.  I think that's a fair reflection of my state of mind and how much I care about my appearance.  That's not good.  I'm also in serious need of a haircut.  And my clothes suck.  I really need to start caring more about how I look.  

Wake Up

Look what I ordered which finally got delivered today - a flashy 4K release of a cult classic film from 25 years ago, and one of my personal favorites.  I haven't seen this film in a long time, so I'm very much looking forward to rewatching it.  And another great addition - or more accurately an upgrade, since I already owned the film on Region 2 DVD - to my film collection.  A collection that I'm really proud of.

Income tax

Washington is on its way to introducing a personal income tax for the first time ever.  Fortunately it shouldn't impact me - it's being called the "millionaire's tax"because it proposes a 10% income tax on households earning over a million dollars a year.  Which I don't have a problem with - but I think a lot of people do (unsurprisingly, mostly Republicans).  I don't mind as long as it's not a gateway to imposing income tax on everyone in the state - one of the key benefits of living here.  It's one of the few states that doesn't have income tax - but makes up for that by having one of the highest sales tax rates in the country (10.6% where I live).  With the taxes and the Iran War, we now also have one of the highest prices of gas (petrol) in the country as well.  All this tax talk reminds me that I haven't done my tax returns for this year yet.  Which is always a "fun" way to spend a weekend, and something I need to do before the end of the month.      

AI Questions

We've got an all-hands meeting this week with the topic of "Scaling and adopting AI to transform how we work".  Horrifying.  In advance of the meeting, we have been asked a couple of questions to "help shape the discussion" and to create some stupid word clouds.  Here are the questions, and the answers I submitted:

Q. What word(s) come to mind when you think of an organization that is successfully utilizing AE?

A. Singularity

Q. What word(s) come to mind when you consider the AI change journey ahead?

A. Layoffs

It said that the responses were anonymous - I really hope that's the case.   I just checked the word clouds, and neither of my words appear anywhere.  Of course AI is going to ignore my responses.

Spring Forward

So now the sun sets at 7 pm, thanks to our clocks springing forward this morning.  Which should mean the start of nicer weather.  Nope.  Today was a rainy, miserable day - one of many coming up over the next few weeks.  And the day was made worse by losing power this afternoon.  There was no indication that this was coming, but something knocked out the power for my entire neighborhood for a few hours.  Maybe a convergence zone formed?  That is when westerly winds that are split by the Olympic peninsula converge and cause intense localized weather conditions.  There was definitely a brief period of quite windy weather during the outage.  Maybe that was enough to knock some trees down and take out the power?  Either way, the power cut has had one positive effect in that my TV signal seems to be a bit better now.  Let's see how long that lasts...!   

Oh yes, and a happy International Women's Day.

Cable TV sucks

I finally got someone from the cable company to come round to my house today to look at my ongoing cable box issues.  For the last few days, my TV signal has been noticeably bad.  Not bad enough to stop me from watching TV, but bad enough for the picture quality to affect my viewing experience.  The "technician" was here about 5 minutes, and all he did was swap out my cable box.  I've now got a wireless one.  But has it fixed my issues?  I'm not sure it has.  As far as I can tell, the only difference is that instead of my picture breaking up, now the screen goes black briefly whenever the signal drops.  So I think there is still a fundamental issue with the signal strength coming into my home - which I don't think the "technician" who came here even checked.  And if it persists, I'm going to have to see if I can get someone else out here.  Hopefully someone who actually knows what they're doing.  And if there is still a problem after that, then I am officially cutting the cord.  Something I should probably do regardless.   

This week

For the first time this week, I've actually managed to remember to write a blog entry before I go to bed.  Says a lot about my state of mind this week.  Totally fried by work.  I feel like they're wringing every drop out of me before laying me off.  And I'm getting into some bad routines and bad habits when I'm busy and stressed like this.  But at least the clocks change this weekend here - a welcome sign of longer daylight hours and better weather.  Though the upcoming forecast would tend to disagree - not a single sunny day in the next 2 weeks...

Downtime

A fun day at work today.  Loads to do, and our programming environment was down most of the day.  So couldn't and didn't get anything done.  Do we get any leeway in our timelines for a delay that was out of our hands?  Of course not. 

Nostalgia

I've just been watching a new episode of Scrubs.  I didn't think I'd be saying that in 2026.  And as far as reboots go - if it's even called a reboot when most of the original cast have returned - it's pretty good.  But it feels out of place - apart from the cast looking a bit older, it seems almost exactly like an episode that would have aired 20 years ago or whenever it was.  Not something that belongs to the America of today.  In the same vein, we've got new episodes of Malcolm in the Middle being released next month - again with most of the original cast returning.  It just goes to show that there are hardly any original ideas in Hollywood any more.  But I don't mind these kind of reboots if the original was good and the reboot is also good and does justice to the original.

Cold

I was wondering why I was so cold in my home today.  So later in the day I checked my thermostat, and realized that I had never turned on my heating this morning.  Despite me doing that every single other day.  A worrying lapse.  And perhaps a reason why I should program the thermostat to turn the heating on and off automatically without me having to manually turn it on every day.  But for some reason I like the control of doing it myself - particularly because the times I get up and go to bed have been all over the shop recently.  I've noticed I've done the same thing a couple of times with the heating in my bedroom - but what I've also discovered is that I sleep a bit better when the temperature is lower.  So I will happily sacrifice waking up cold if it means I got a better night's sleep.  I guess I should be thankful I live alone in this respect - because all of these little quirks (and this is probably just the tip of the iceberg)  would probably drive someone else crazy.  

Pancakes

Dangnamit, I missed Pancake Day this year.  It's not really a thing in the US and so I keep on forgetting it's on Shrove Tuesday.  And even then, I don't know when Shrove Tuesday is.  Apart from it being on a Tuesday, obviously.  I think what is also confusing me is that tomorrow - a different Tuesday - is National Pancake Day here.  Why that isn't also on Shrove Tuesday is a mystery.  And nonsensical.   

Sport vs Entertainment

I've just been on the ESPN website, and the headlines and highlights feature the usual assortment of popular US sports.  But it also includes features on WWE - simply because ESPN recently bought the rights to air some of the WWE pay per view events.  Wrestling is not a sport, and someone needs to let the people in charge of ESPN know that.  The clue is in the name - World Wrestling Entertainment.  It is entertainment and not sport - and it should be treated as such.  It is closer to pantomime than it is to sport.  Don't pretend otherwise.  But then it has just dawned on me, what does ESPN stand for?  Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.  Hmmm, maybe I'm the one in the wrong here.  They are only delivering on the "Entertainment" part of their name.  Still, don't try to treat professional wrestling like it's a real sport - it just comes across as stupid and naive.