Is baseball ... enjoyable?

Only when this kind of thing happens (a bad language warning, but it is the best breakdown I've seen):

Hope this video doesn't get blocked wherever you view it - this is definitely better than the normal handbags you see (but ice hockey has the best fights).

Best Laid Plans

Well, this is disappointing.  Had plans to go sailing, fishing and camping this weekend.  I’ve never sailed before, I’ve never fished before, and it’s been many, many years since I last slept in a tent.  But today, saw my friend’s sailboat for the first time.  Oh boy.  It is a LOT smaller than I thought it would be.  With 4 of us on this boat, and 4 “heavyset” guys at that, and with at least 6 hours journey time on the boat to look forward to, plus however many hours fishing and whatever, that seems like an extremely long time in an extremely cramped space.  I’m having major second thoughts about doing this.  Despite my preparations – I’ve bought a tent, a sleeping bag and an oversized folding chair for the trip.  But with one friend having already pulled out claiming it is due to suffering from motion sickness (I don’t believe him, I think he just wants to play golf), me having doubts and my other friend not seeming particularly keen and having already said he might have other plans for the weekend, it doesn’t look good.  I was looking forward to it, but now having seen the boat I am a lot less enthusiastic – I think my friend who owns the boat and his dad (who was going to replace my friend who has already pulled out) will do the trip regardless, but I don’t want to be a third wheel in that situation.  Perhaps I am exaggerating about how small it is, and perhaps it is my total inability to step out of my comfort zone that is affecting how I see this, but being confined to this small and uncomfortable seating area for the entire journey and not being able to move around the boat (because with my total lack of dexterity, lack of sense of balance and a lack of railings then there is every chance I would fall into the water), I’m not sure how relaxing the trip would be.  It’s probably the kind of thing I will regret not doing – but I’m thinking going out in the boat for a 1 or 2 hour cruise might be a better idea to see what it’s like before committing to a weekend.  I’m too old for this ship.

Boris

Recommend you check out John Oliver's feature on Boris Johnson on last night's episode of Last Week Tonight.  Enjoyable and not exactly flattering.  But then Oliver ruined it by denigrating prawn cocktail crisps.  Nope - sorry Mr Oliver, but they are the best flavor crisp and I dearly miss them here.  Shame.

Movies

Been watching a series called The Movies recently, which basically goes over the movies of each decade.  We've had episodes on the 80's, 90's and 2000's so far - a period of time that is right in my wheelhouse.  Inevitably it's very open to debate as to which movies they should focus on in each decade.  For the most part they've covered the films that I would.  But today's episode was a more interesting one because it featured the 70's - a decade I'm obviously a lot less familiar with, but is arguably the best decade for films ever.  At least that's what I think - too many classic films to list here.  But my overriding sentiment coming out of watching this episode - how the hell how I never watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind?  Ever.  Call myself a film fan?  Shameful.

Comcast, at it again

Comcast - my least favorite company in America - has done it again.  Just for some history - I have had issues with Comcast ever since I've had to use their service as my only choice of cable and internet provider for all the time I've been in Seattle.  From connectivity issues, to reception issues, to excessive billing, to extraordinarily bad customer service - it's just been one thing after another.  And the latest issue may be the final straw that finally pushes me over the edge to cutting the cord and fully embracing streaming.  I pay a ridiculous amount of money for the TV package I've got, which includes something like 260 channels (of which maybe 220 are totally redundant to me).  But as I was channel-hopping last night, I was getting an error when I got to one of the channels I do watch - and then after resetting my cable box, it told me I had to subscribe to watch this channel.  What the hell?  I thought I was paying for this channel and that it was part of my package.  Then some quick internet research reveals that Comcast have taken this channel out of all their packages recently, and charging extra to subscribe to it.  This is absolutely disgraceful, but apparently it's something they're allowed to do.  I'm frankly surprised that there wasn't a lot more attention and righteous fury about this on the internet - but perhaps that's because less and less people bother with a cable service.  What is most frustrating is that I have been watching a series on this channel - but now I'm going to miss the last couple of episodes.  Just great.  I can't deal with their customer service and trying to speak to somebody about this over the phone - but I think I'm going to make an appointment at the local Comcast store and try to speak someone face-to-face about trying to get this channel back and reducing my bill.  Which is going to be fun.       

Watch

I finally got round to getting the strap adjusted on my new watch so that it fits me, and it looks good – nothing flashy, just an Invicta Pro Diver.  Probably the chunkiest watch I’ve ever owned and worn, for an automatic it seems to keep remarkably good time so far – certainly better than my last watch, which was an automatic Seiko which I had to correct the time on every few days.  And it is definitely a “James Bond”-esque watch – if I was to replace the metal strap with a colored nylon band, then it would look similar to the Rolex that Bond wore in Dr No and Goldfinger.  But I probably won’t bother – I’m not really into the whole James Bond watch thing, and I’m certainly not going to shell out thousands of pounds on one of the licensed James Bond Omega watches.  But even though I’ve only been wearing my new watch for less than a week, I’ve already noticed some wear on the clasp.  And I’ve discovered why – it is the underneath of my wrist, right where the clasp is, scraping on the desk when I’m typing.  I’ve got a wrist rest, but that doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference.  That’s unfortunate – but I’m not going to take my watch off every time I have to type, so just something I’ll have to live with.

Rutger Hauer

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

Classic scene.  Classic film.  I need to rewatch it (especially since I’ve got a limited edition DVD of it).