Some Tweets

"Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart."

President Douchebag

"Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works."

President Insecure

"The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th."

President Beyond Unbelievable

Bills

A dark day - I had to pay bills for water, refuse, electricity and TV/internet today.  And at least 2 of these were the highest they've ever been.  I found out next week what kind of pay rise and what kind of annual bonus I'm getting.  I don't have particularly high expectations.  But I need whatever I can get, as my bills and expenses continue to add up and continue to bother me.   

Bomb Cylcone

It has been relatively mild here since the snow over Christmas - which is a big relief.  Thank god I don't live on the East Coast - they always seem to experience big and devastating weather events.  And now they've been hit by this "bomb cyclone" (apparently, an inaccurately named meteorological term for what they're experiencing, but one that is easiest for the American media to latch onto) with high winds, flooding, snow and ice.  It looks like an absolute nightmare - and a big reason why I don't think I could ever choose to live in Boston, even though I have previously interviewed there.  I've been thinking a lot about where I'd like to live - and there really is no ideal compromise between location, weather and cost of living.  Something always has to be sacrificed.  At least in the US.  Unsurprisingly, the places with the best climate are the most expensive.  And naturally, some of the biggest hubs for my industry are in locations that suck - Boston, New Jersey, and the Bay Area - none of which I want to move to for numerous reasons.  I don't particularly like the climate in the Pacific NW - too often overcast and depressing, but at least we don't experience too many extreme weather events like this.

President-Elect Trump 2032

I didn’t think Donald Trump would become president.  I was wrong.  But I feel a lot more confident in saying that Ivanka Trump will never become president, no matter how much she might aspire to it.  This is just one of seemingly many juicy tidbits to come out of the book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, which is being released tomorrow (apparently Trump’s lawyer issued a cease-and-desist, so the publishers pushed the release date early – a good sign!), and excerpts of which have already been released.  I’ve been thinking of purchasing the book, but I suspect I won’t need to as anything of interest will quickly find their way to the internet and the news.  Expect some serious revelations in the next few days – perhaps mostly tabloid gossip, but also perhaps some factoids which will hopefully have major and far-reaching consequences on his continuing presidency.

Office and World Domination

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, work has not started well in the new year.  I’ve got a new neighbor in the cube next to me – and she is Chinese.  And I hate it.  I had purposely moved to where I am now in the office to get away from my Chinese colleagues – their food stinks and when they speak Chinese to each other it is loud and obtrusive.  But there is just no getting away from them – they are taking over my workplace in much the same way that they are taking over the world.  The one that has moved next to me is nice enough and relatively quiet, but not quiet enough to not annoy me.  So sadly I’ve got to get used to the disruption all over again.  I think my iPod shall be getting a lot of use this year!  I have jokingly told my friends at work that if I going to stay in my career for years to come, I am going to need to learn the Chinese language.  I no longer think this is a joke.  The influx of Chinese and Indians into my field is a problem that should be right in Trump’s wheelhouse to do something about, but he is more obsessed with Mexicans and Muslims.  And if anything, the big companies only want to bring in more cheap foreign labor – and we all know how Trump likes to suck up to big business.  This is a topic that definitely brings out the inner racist in me – my humble apologies if you are offended, but us working Caucasian males are not having the best of times at the moment (though you could in no shape or form accuse me of any sexually inappropriate behavior at work – in fact, I could argue the opposite since I remember a time when my ass was pinched in the workplace by a female colleague.  Imagine if a male did that to a female in today’s environment?  He would be fired and ostracized in an instant).   

Harry Potter

It's been a long time since I read any of the Harry Potter books or watched any of the Harry Potter movies.  I have definitely read all the books (and frankly could do with re-reading them sometime soon), but I am extremely unsure whether I've watched all the movies.  But then beginning on New Year's Day, and continuing into today, HBO decided to air every single movie one after the other.  So now I've got 8 movies on my DVR that I need to get through.  Obviously, they are incomparable to the books - but I am going to get through them because I like to get immersed in the joy of the Harry Potter universe (even if the films get decidedly darker in the later stages!).  I just finished the first one: Harry Potter and (cue sad Americanization) the Sorcerer's Stone.  Jeez, my immediate thoughts from watching were how weirdly young the kids looked in it, and how many of the older cast are now sadly deceased (a special RIP to Alan Rickman's melodious voice).  I had to look it up, and the film came out in 2001 - which doesn't seem that long ago, but really was.  I mean, 17 years ago I had absolutely no inkling that the US was in my future.

Too Much Football

There has always been loads of football on over the Christmas period, but it has seemed even more extreme this season.  I think this is because it feels like there has been at least one match on almost every day - even this week even though the holiday period is already over.  In fact, a quick check of the fixtures reveals that from Friday 22 Dec through to Thursday 4 Jan, there were/are only 3 days where there wasn't a game on.  And two of those were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  They televise all the games here, so that has meant a LOT of football on American telly - and I have neither the time nor desire to watch all the games, so a lot of fast-forwarding just to watch highlights.  The English league is clearly slave to the TV market - for better or for worse.  They also televise some of the rugby here, so if you include those days then there was only Christmas Day where there wasn't any British sport on.  Jeez, they even televised the Darts final live here today (though it was only live on the East Coast, we had a 3 hour delay on our "live" darts - I've never seen or heard of the guy who won).  The controversy over the guy allegedly coughing whilst the other guy was throwing their darts even made the "weird news" part of the sports roundups!  This all goes to show that American sports suck - and that they are even turning Americans to follow soccer.  When strangers hear my accent, they always ask which Premier League team I support - the English league is a big deal here, and only getting bigger.