Hurricane Ridge

With the nice weather we're having - and with no idea how long it is going to last - I decided to take a day off work and took an afternoon trip to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.  The views are spectacular, so this place gets busy - so not a bad idea to go on a weekday.  Took a walk up the Hurricane Hill Trail whilst I was there - I can just about cope with the elevation gain when you're soaking in the kind of views you get here.  Highly recommended - I plan to come back here again before the road up here closes for the season.

Note: I couldn't get this video to work when viewing the blog from my iPhone, but it does seem to work from my laptop.

GoT S7E3

I'm writing this in the minutes after having just watched the latest episode - and this was very much an episode of getting characters together.  John and Daenerys, Sansa and Bran, hilariously Euron and Jamie.  The pieces are coming together now - and I enjoyed this episode, though doesn't look as though they had much of a budget to spend on the Battle of Casterly Rock and the Battle of Highgarden!  The dynamic between John and Daenerys was "interesting" to say the least, and RIP to The Queen of Thorns - a characters whose withering put-downs will be missed, but at least in her last few words she managed to let Jamie know that it wasn't Tyrion who killed Joffrey.  These episodes are, to no ones surprise, starting to fly along and it doesn't allow much time for whimsy and meandering - which is sometimes a little bit disappointing, but still the episodes are addictively watchable.  Jeez, we're nearly halfway through these set of episodes - that's tragic.

An Open Letter

Dear Mr Twitter,

Please shut down President Trump's twitter account as it is a disgrace to politics, to America, to facts, and to democracy.

Yours sincerely,

Everyone in the world apart from Vladimir Putin

Summer Picknick

Today was our annual work summer picnic - or, in other words, an easy day of slacking off work.  I don't even know why I bother going - it's more for families, and just awkward and boring if you don't have kids.  It was held at the same place as last year - on the shores of Lake Sammamish - and I did more or less exactly the same as last year: show up, grab some food, wander round and say hello to a few people, go home early.  There are some activities, but again mainly for kids.  What I like least is that it's very cliquey - the Chinese stick together, the cool kids stick together, the people who work together stick together, etc.  Because I don't work directly with anyone in my office I don't really have anyone to hang out with, so I don't stay long - my lack of confidence and inability to make small talk to people who I see at work but don't interact with is frustrating...  

Repeal and Replace, or not

What an absolute disgrace the Republican Party is at the moment - the way they are trying to shove through any healthcare bill they can, regardless of the consequences it will have on millions of Americans (and, ironically, the Americans who will be affected most are those who voted Republican).  For a party that controls Congress, the manner they are going about it is disgusting and desperate - no doubt egged on by a President who is desperate to take attention away from his own troubles.  Even within their own party, they are utterly incapable of satisfying both the moderates and far rights - hence this horrible stripped down bill that satisfies nobody and only creates more uncertainty.  The fact that they've tried to develop the bill behind closed doors just goes to show how shamed and/or embarrassed they are about it.  As someone who gets their health insurance through work, it doesn't really impact me directly - but that's not to say that my situation could easily change down the line.  But for a party that that protested against Obamacare so vehemently, it is sad that they are totally incapable of coming up with a suitable replacement.

East of I-5

I don't normally go the other side of I-5 from work on my lunchtime walks - it's predominantly uphill with a daunting stair climb once you go under I-5, whereas it's much easier to stick to the flat paths around Lake Union.  However, I still do take the occasional wander uphill for some different views.

History

It’s going to be fascinating to see how history will judge Donald Trump’s presidency.  I’ve been watching this documentary called America in Color, looking at American history from the 20's through to the 60's via film that has recently been converted to color.  Early to mid 20th century history is fascinating to me because it is so recent and just about relatable, and unless you were directly affected by any of the key events then you probably didn’t really appreciate the kind of history you were living through.  That’s what makes this current time so interesting – we are clearly living in an era of Trump and Brexit that history scholars will look back on for decades with so much to discuss and analyze.  Is this just a blip, or the start of major changes in world politics and world dynamics?  And in my 40 years, what kind of history have I already lived through?   Clearly the advent of the internet, along with electronic communication and the prevalence of mobile phones, has had an enormous impact on our lives – but is the internet the defining invention of our time?  Certainly we’ve had our fair share of historical events – think Falklands War, 9/11, the first black US president.  But perhaps the internet is the one that has changed our lives the most.  But Trump and Brexit have highlighted massive divisions within our society – economic, generational, regional divides that may never be fully healed -  and in Trump, a new kind of president who is temperamental, petty, elusive and not ashamed to make all kinds of false and misleading statements.  I believe a Game of Thrones quote is “a true history of the world is a history of great conversations in elegant rooms”.  The White House may have elegant rooms, but Donald Trump doesn’t strike me as being able to hold a great conversation, so what will history make of him?