Favorite TV Themes

#1 in a series of many (particularly when I don't have the time or inclination to write a decent blog entry!)

Modern times

A small but interesting observation from work - I work on clinical studies that involve a lot of subjects and we always have to summarize the demography of these subjects, you know things like age, gender, race and ethnicity.  In a recent change to our standards, we now summarize "Sex at Birth" rather than just "Sex".  I thought this was a small but significant reflection of the progressive nature of our times, and an acknowledgement of the T in the LGBT community.  I approve.

Empire Magazine

I’ve subscribed to Empire Magazine for a while now – but perhaps in a sign of the times, I do not think I want to renew my subscription any more.  I don’t think I can justify the expense or the lack of timeliness (I receive my magazine in the mail about a month after it has been released in the UK shops).  If I really wanted to continue reading it, I could probably get an electronic subscription and read it on my Kindle or Ipad (if I had either of those!).  But honestly, I consume my film news and reviews from any number of other online sources now – so there just doesn’t seem any point to continuing to get the magazine, especially in paper form.  I think the final straw was the latest edition, where they’ve revamped the layout and content in a way I don’t like at all.  The rotating cast of editors they’ve had recently and the recent “modifications” remind me so much of the last days of the Spectrum and the fantastic Your Sinclair magazine as it made desperate changes to try to survive as long as it could.  I hope Empire doesn’t go under, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.    

I'm turning into Victor Meldrew

Another day, another complaint about my apartment.  Since the office said they couldn’t (more like they wouldn’t) do anything to address food odors, I decided to take the matter into my hands and left the following note to my neighbor:

Hi,

I”m a neighbor and I hate to write this but I have to say something - but the smell of food odors when you cook on your patio can be quite strong and unpleasant, and it’s happening quite frequently now.  It’s bad enough that I cannot go on my balcony, and I cannot even have my door or windows open otherwise the smell gets into my apartment.  I know I cannot stop you cooking, but anything you can do to reduce the frequency or impact of the smell would be appreciated.

Thank you!

I hope this is polite enough, not too passive aggressive, and I hope I haven’t just made the situation worse.  I don’t think so – better to say something in the hope that it might make the situation better, rather than not saying anything and letting it continue, and they might not even be aware of how much their cooking affects their neighbors.  They are 2 apartments below me, and it seems like they cook using their BBQ almost every night – and the stink goes straight up onto my balcony and into my apartment if I have the door open.  About the only redeeming feature of my apartment is the view, so I want to be able to relax on my balcony.  And I certainly want to be able to leave my door open – since my apartment is exposed to a lot of sunlight (which the blinds are totally ineffective at stopping) it gets very hot, and the ceiling fan is utterly useless at cooling down so I need to let the heat escape somehow.  Of course, all of this is totally meaningless because I have to shut the door to drown out the sound of kids shouting and screaming whilst playing outside, and I cannot relax on my balcony because the neighbor immediately below decided to put in a window AC unit which is really noisy and remarkably annoying (and something I’ve also complained to the office about and that they said they would do something about, though I don’t think they’ve said anything because there hasn’t been one jot of difference in the noise yet).  I hate this place.

Brats

Found this on my door yesterday:

Some observations

-          Some parents really need to teach their kid about punctuation and spellcheck

-          2 “partys”?  Really?  Is just the one party not good enough?  Jeez.

-          Possibly the most disturbing thing to me “at the park”.  If they see the strip of grass which my apartment overlooks as a park, then that would explain the shocking amount of noise these ghastly little brats have been making almost every afternoon and evening since the start of summer.  Just because it has a small playground (which is really only for little kids), that does not make this a park – and there is certainly not enough space for all the ridiculous races they are proposing.   Thank god I’m not in one of the apartments on the ground floor next to this grass strip – I’ve seen these group of boys running roughshod over everyone’s patios, peering into people’s homes and generally invading any personal space you might hope to have. 

I guess I shall have to make myself scarce during these times, because I have a feeling the noise and disruption could be unbearable.  I hate this place.    

President Trump

Oh Bernie supporters, it's time to move on.  He didn't win, so get over it and get behind your candidate.  Otherwise this a-hole is going to win and become President

Mount St Helens

I went to Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument yesterday.  And I must have taken about 200 photos – it was a gloriously photogenic day with (relatively) clear blue skies and about as colorful landscape as you can get for a volcanic environment , with lots of wildflowers blooming.  For those who don’t know, it’s an active volcano between Seattle and Portland that last had a big explosion in 1980 but is now more of a tourist attraction.  It’s about a 3 hour drive to get to the main visitor center, so I got up nice and early to get there and do a scenic hike there before the crowds really start to swell.  Including lots of photo stops on the way up, a 5 mile hike and some time at the visitor center – I think I spent about 5 hours there.  I’ve been up there a few times before – but never when the wildflowers were out as much as they were yesterday, and I haven’t been for any significant hikes there before – so this was worth it.  And the hike was spectacular – very scenic, very beautiful, quite dicey at times going along narrow trails with steep drop-offs, and quite tough going – I was wearing shoes without much grip and was slipping and sliding a lot, and it started to get very hot so the last half mile uphill in the heat was a real struggle.  But as you can see below, the views were worth it.

Only downside – a bit of sunburn, but I think a lot of that might have been from when I was sitting in traffic in the car on the way home.  The traffic was an absolute nightmare getting back into Seattle, no surprises there.  But I’m not going to let that spoil my day.  And it’s made me determined to go to the less accessible but even closer view of the crater on the west side of the volcano, maybe later this year.  I might even do the helicopter ride over the volcano one day – this is one of the few places where I think this would be worth it.