Camano Island

A rare sunny and warm winter day yesterday.  And perhaps even rarer, I actually went somewhere in the afternoon to make the most of it.  Drove over to Camano Island, and took a hike around one of the state parks there.  There were lots of people on the beach and coastline, so stuck to the trails on top of the cliff.  Some great views - and it was so nice that even Mount Rainier was "out", as you might be able to tell from some of the photos.  Even took the opportunity to find some easy geocaches along the trail - something I haven't done for a very long time.

Distractions

I may not be under a lockdown, I may not be snowed in, but whilst I'm still working from home then I need distractions.  On a nice day, that might be a walk.  On most days, I am prone to watching a lot of stuff on YouTube.  And obviously I'm still watching way too much telly.  But I also like to keep my hands busy - which is why I like solving a good jigsaw puzzle or putting together a Lego set.  I just finished my last new jigsaw puzzle (which was a bit too easy):

So what next?  I'm expecting a new Lego set to get delivered this week, and I've got the perfect space lined up for that.  But after that, I don't know.  Ring Fit Adventure is an obvious candidate to pass time playing - and a healthy distraction at that.  I keep on getting asked to play golf - but I just can't bring myself to do it, it just doesn't appeal to me enough.  I've got a ton of unopened Lego sets upstairs but nowhere to put any of the finished builds.  I'm also thinking about turning my "billiards room" (i.e. my 3rd bedroom which currently has the pool table in it) into a "home gym".  My pool table gets next to no use now, so I might as well put that room to better use by having all my current exercise equipment, and any future exercise equipment, in there.  Maybe I may actually use that room then!

Calcutta Cup

One match, and I'm already over the Six Nations.  What a disappointing loss today - and indeed one of many disappointing results for England in recent years.  It must surely be time for a coaching change - we have the better players than Scotland, much more possession and territory, yet at times seem totally aimless.  And this is definitely not the first time this has happened.  The tactical ineptness starts at the top.  Losing to Scotland twice in a row - well that's just embarrassing.  But I'd also add, since when did the Six Nations start using southern hemisphere referees?  Some of the refereeing decisions were extremely dubious.  I think England need to start the next Six Nations with a home game against Italy - get an easy win and build up the confidence for the rest of the tournament.  Rather than an away game against a fired up auld enemy.  At least Palace won today - we are long overdue an FA Cup run (though not at the cost of getting embroiled in a relegation fight).         

Bread

I timed an afternoon visit to a local supermarket perfectly today - in addition to getting some of the free N95 masks that the government is giving out, I was able to get a reduced-price freshly baked baguette.  And there are few culinary pleasures as great as a warm chewy baguette with a crispy crust.  As an Englishman I'm expected to have a love/hate relationship with France and the French - but boy, they sure get it right when it comes to bread, cheese and wine.    

Class Action Lawsuits

Everyone knows that the US is an extremely litigious place.  And as proof of this, in just the last week I became a claimant in 3 class action lawsuits.  And if I'd kept my service records from my old car, it could have been 4 class action lawsuits.  So how does this work?  Basically, you get an e-mail notifying you about a class action lawsuit and you have been identified as a potential claimant.  Normally this e-mail looks like junk - so it's a good job that I regularly check my Junk e-mail folder.  The e-mail points you to a website (which is kind of suspicious, so I always do a quick google search to ensure it is a genuine lawsuit), and it takes just a few minutes to enter your information here and submit your claim.  So the 3 lawsuits I am currently part of are (1) Martin vs Safeway - because apparently I used a Safeway gas station between 2017 and 2019 and the receipt may have displayed more digits of my credit card than it should have; (2) Plaid Privacy Litigation - apparently I used an app that took certain "improper actions" in connecting to one or more of my financial accounts; (3) Zoom Privacy Litigation - there were privacy and security issues with Zoom meetings between 2016 and 2021.  Ridiculous right!  Now my knowledge of class action lawsuits is not great - the most I've probably got is from reading a low-brow John Grisham novel a long time ago.  But from what I can tell, these lawsuits have reached settlements - normally with the company settling at paying many millions of dollars towards a settlement fund.  A huge proportion of this money will obviously go towards attorneys' fees - the vultures.  And the remaining amount gets divvied up between the claimants.  And since we are talking about thousands or millions of potential claimants, we are not exactly taking about big money here.  So I'm not expecting much, but for so little effort I might as well submit a claim.         

Mail Delays

The mail service in the US and/or the UK is an absolute shambles right now.  Some cards arrive in less than a week after posting, other Christmas cards arrived well over a month late - not exactly in time for Christmas.  The unpredictability is shocking.  I've also got some items I've ordered from the UK that still haven't arrived, and because the tracking history on the package I'm waiting for hasn't been updated in over a month I had to contact the seller to see if they could locate my package (they have launched an "investigation").  I'm also expecting a Christmas gift package from work - that was ordered before Christmas - but I still haven't got that yet (and I don't think any of my colleagues have got theirs yet either).  Yes, we can blame COVID for a lot of these delays.  But I would also blame some serious underfunding - I'm surprised that the postmaster general is still the Trump appointee.  Makes you wonder who else wildly unqualified for their position is still in government.  

Song of the Week #95

This week, one of my favorite artists from the 80's.  And someone who is criminally overlooked beyond one song with a memorable video.  In actual fact he has released many great songs and albums, and is a major pioneer and proponent of early progressive rock and later world music.  At university in Bath, someone told me that he lived in one of the houses on the hill between the city centre and the university campus - but I have my doubts how true that is.  However, he definitely has many ties to Bath - and indeed this song is named after somewhere just outside the city.  And this is a live version, because I find it particularly uplifting.