TV Theme Tunes #20

This week, a theme tune from a BBC sitcom that I haven't thought about for 25 years - when it last aired on BBC1.  I seem to remember that I quite enjoyed the show, though wouldn't exactly call it must-see TV.  It would be interesting to revisit an episode to see how well it has aged.  Or not.

Big Brother

I don't have any meetings tomorrow, my manager is at a conference, so why am I still thinking of going into the office tomorrow?  Well, this is unsettling, but apparently our in-office attendance is being tracked by our key cards.  This is why they have started sharing information with management about how many days of the week people are going into the office.  And, as was presented at a recent all-hands meetings, a relatively large percentage of our department are coming in less than they should do.  I have this horrible feeling that they are going to insist on us coming into the office more often, and that individual people may start getting warnings about their attendance if they don't.  This is a ridiculous level of oversight that I don't approve of - treating employees with a lack of respect and a lack of trust.  If working from the office or working from home doesn't make any difference to how good a job we do - which is the case for almost all of us - then it shouldn't matter where we work.  And if the next step is to start monitoring the actual number of hours we spend in the office, which would seem logical, then I am in real trouble!    

Birdlife

A couple more photos from my trail camera.

It's a bit difficult to make out, but I think this is an owl (though what kind of owl, I've got no idea).  Considering the photos are taken about 3 am, I don't think it's likely to be any other bird of prey.  Hopefully they caught a mole or a mouse.     

Madness

A little US factoid for your pleasure: Madness are considered a one-hit wonder in the US ("Our House" was their only hit over here).

Graupel

I thought the last of the winter weather might be over after waking up to snow on Tuesday.  It was only a trace amount - a lot less than the couple of inches forecast - and quickly melted away.  But imagine my surprise when I came back from the office yesterday to be greeted with this:

I took the photo this morning, these little balls of ice hadn't melted yet.  I think this is graupel.  Or maybe not.  I cannot really tell you the difference between hail, graupel or ice pellets (and even more confusingly, ice pellets are called sleet in the US).  Either way, you don't get them that often.  This was an extremely localized event - on the drive back from work, I didn't see any evidence of this stuff coming down anyway else until I got to a few blocks away from my house.  And it was certainly not in any weather forecasts that I saw.  At least we might finally see some better weather next week.        

So tired

It's been a tough week work-wise.  Office politics, ill-advised initiatives, communication breakdowns, flawed resource management, more talk of "standardization", putting out fires, incompetent colleagues, having to brave the rush-hour commute multiple times, a wildly fluctuating workload.  I'm not sleeping well, I'm stressed out and I can tell that my blood pressure is inflated.  This shouldn't be happening - I'm incredibly apathetic to my job right now.  So why am I letting things get to me?  It's not worth it.  I need to chill out.  And maybe I need to prioritize my well-being.  The idea of taking a sabbatical from work is getting increasingly appealing.  And important.   

Weird Photo

I was checking my trail camera, and came across this "interesting" photo: 

Kind of looks like either The Smoke Monster from Lost, or He Who Must Not Be Named from Harry Potter!  I first thought this might be a snake, but now I'm guessing from the trajectory that it is a bird.  And from the black chest patch - I'm guessing it is a Northern Flicker (I had to look this up - I'm no expert on the birds of Washington State - but this one seemed suitably common and is one I've seen around before).