Douchebag

Yet unbelievably, given everything that has happened and is happening, my money is still on Trump winning a second term.  Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people.

Mariners

They said it would be cold this week, and boy they weren’t wrong.  Although I’ve resisted so far, it might be time to start turning on my heating – it was SO cold last night and this morning.  But not as cold as Saturday night, when I went to see the Seattle Mariners play.  Good job I brought some layers with me, because it was utterly freezing sitting in the stands.  It was the last weekend of the regular season – and our company has corporate sponsorship or something with the Oakland Athletics, who were the team playing the Mariners, so we got free tickets.  And on level 2 – which I think is some kind of corporate level because we have our own concessions, nicer toilets and what seemed to be wider and better padded seats.  No executive suite for us though!  Baseball still sucks however, and this game was about as meaningless as it could be (Mariners have one of the worst records, the A’s were already guaranteed a wildcard spot in the playoffs).  And, to be frank, it was an awful game – it finished 1-0 to the A’s.  One solo home run, and that was the entire scoring for the game.  It seemed to be a really poorly attended – maybe a third full at best, with next to no atmosphere, and it looked like most of our company’s allocation never showed up.  And a lot less people left by the end of the game – I certainly didn’t stay to the end.  I didn’t like the location of the seats either – down past the first base line, too far along to get any foul balls heading in our direction and really difficult to actually see strikes and balls and so on from where we were (judge for yourself from the photos).  There was a TV you could watch, but it was on a slight delay so it was really disorienting.  I think perhaps the highlight was the national anthem – which was a guitar version of The Star-Spangled Banner performed by Pearl Jam, one of Seattle’s finest.  I did promise myself I would try one of the food delicacies that the stadium is known for – and I’ve included a photo of it below – grasshoppers!  Not worth it – tasted “dusty” for want of a better word  That was definitely a strikeout.

Football Has-Beens

I recorded Man Utd versus Arsenal, and watched it when I got home tonight.  I say watched, when what I really mean is fast-forwarded because it was an awful game.  I mean, truly dreadful and totally devoid of any quality.  It just goes to show how far apart Liverpool and Man City are from everyone else.  I frankly think both Man Utd and Arsenal might even struggle to make the top 6.  It was shockingly poor for 2 teams that used to be real giants of the game.  They have both got a long, long way to go if they think they can challenge for the title again.  How the mighty have fallen.  And because I hate both clubs, this brings me great joy.

More rugby

So, what matches did the ingenious folks in charge of NBC Sports decide to air this weekend from the Rugby World Cup?  Japan vs Ireland?  Nope.  Australia vs Wales?  Nope.  We got Argentina vs Tonga on Friday, and Scotland vs Samoa tonight.  And that's it.  Great.  And I don't see any more England games being aired as I do a quick search of the TV listings in the weeks ahead.  Really great.  I might have to consider alternative means to watch the games (VPN?).  It's not helping that the official extended highlights of the games provided by NBC Sports are absolutely dreadful - half the time taken up by conversions, kick attempts, replays and pre-match stuff and very little actual "rugby", not good when the highlights are only 10 minutes long.  I despair.   

Consumerism

I was in Walmart this morning and they already have aisles with Christmas stuff in them.  In September.  That is profoundly depressing.

Blur vs Oasis

It's been what nearly 25 years since the Britpop war between Blur and Oasis peaked.  Let's cut to the chase - there was, and is, only one winner.  By a country mile (not a country house - because that was their only serious misstep), Blur won.  Their music is better, more varied and stands the test of time.  I still listen to Blur now - There's No Other Way is great, and Coffee & TV is one of my favorite tunes ever (and the album that is from - 13 - is great as well) - whereas I don't listen to Oasis at all, and am totally indifferent to any of their stuff now.  Oasis may have won karaoke with Wonderwall, but Blur won sports stadiums with Song 2. 

Forecast

Well, this is depressing:

Apparently an “unusually early and intense Arctic express” is arriving this weekend.  I’ve already retired my air conditioning unit for the year – but now I might have to check that my heating is working and replace my fans with heaters.  It seems that over the mountains and the Eastern part of the state and beyond, there is going to be a lot of snow.  And it’s not even October yet (so you have been warned if you want to visit me at this time of year!).  Not expecting snow where I am, nor will it really get that close to freezing, just much colder temperatures than normal and it might get quite windy – so I expect my leaf blower will be getting a lot of use if it isn’t raining.  It looks like there is going to be snow at Crater Lake – so that probably ends my chances of going there when I can eventually take a few days off work in October.  I really hope we don’t have a winter like the last, where I spent all those days snowed in and working from home.  The early indications are not good.