Motor Sport

Formula 1 has sucked for years, so I get my motor racing fix from watching NASCAR nowadays.  Yes, they just drive round in circles etc etc.  But not always.  Sometimes they actually drive on Formula 1 type road courses, and when it rains these might be some of the most entertaining races to watch.  Because most of these drivers (a) can't drive on road courses, because they're just used to oval tracks, and (b) can't drive in the rain, because they stop racing when it rains on an oval track.  So when they have to drive on road courses in very heavy rain - as they did this weekend using wet weather tires - it's absolutely hilarious watching all the cars either crawl round really slowly or skid off, especially when they all pile up in the same corner, because they haven't got a clue how fast or slow they need to go.  Apparently they are increasing the number of road courses in the series next year, so I hope we get more rain and more races like this.    

Hurricane Hill

With utterly miserable weather today - really heavy rain, thunder/lightning and even hail - here are some views from Hurricane Ridge, when I did the Hurricane Hill hike earlier this week when the weather was a lot nicer.  I've done this trail before, but I don't remember it being as tough as it was this time - perhaps a reflection of how unfit I am, and how much I don't like elevation change in my hikes when I carry the amount of weight I do.  It's only about a 3.5 mile hike, but about 700 feet in elevation gain.  It's a good job that the views are spectacular, because that gives me the excuse to frequently stop and take some photos when I'm really just catching my breath and giving my leg muscles some respite!  I've posted loads of photos from here before, so let me make this easier for myself by just including a couple of videos I took.  One looking south, where you can see the ridge that the trail climbs up in the foreground with all the mountains in the background.  And the other looking north, where you can see all the way to Canada across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Mass Torts

As everyone knows, America is a litigious society.  Perhaps this is best exemplified by the sheer amount of mass tort TV advertising that you encounter here - typically something like "Have you or your loved ones been hurt by xxx drug or consumer product?  You deserve compensation - call us now.".  This is invariably accompanied by scary music and a dramatic and serious-sounding voiceover.  I've got used to this kind of advertising - in much the same way that I'm used to the ridiculous adverts for prescription drugs (my company is one of the worst for this) which hilariously and legally have to add the most common side effects - "Warning, this drug may cause explosive diarrhea, spontaneous combustion, etc".  However, I've recently come across a new mass tort lawsuit that is being advertised on TV, and it's by far the most shocking.  Are you a victim of boy scout sex abuse?  Were you abused in the scouts?  Are you a scout abuse survivor?  You may have a claim.  You may qualify for a settlement.  And so on.  The reason for this?  The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, because they are facing increasing legal costs from numerous lawsuits from men who were sexually abused as scouts.  Jeez, America is so messed up.  I think in this particular case, the lawsuits are justified - but just to see it advertised so brazenly on TV, and at times of the day when kids are likely to be watching, is quite disturbing.   

Job Security

This is a (partially edited for anonymity) quote from an e-mail sent out to all employees pertaining to the lack of approval by the FDA on one of our drugs that I have been working on.

In order to meet the nearer-term needs of the business, we are realigning some of our U.S. colleagues and resources to other therapeutic areas. Where it was possible to do so, we have considered employees for comparable roles internally. Where there isn’t a role for someone, over the coming months we will work with them to navigate their path ahead – either internally or externally.

Oh oh – “externally”.  What does that mean?  Basically, this is a euphemism for laying people off.  I’ve got a 1-1 meeting with my manager tomorrow – you can be sure that this comes up.  I don’t think I’m in danger – they will let contractors go before anyone else, and my job role tends to be more stable/flexible – nonetheless it definitely still makes me feel a bit less secure in my job than I have been.  Especially in light of how inessential I’ve felt over the last few months with my lack of workload.  I was already fretting about how the pandemic and working from home appears to have accelerated my hair loss – it is starting to become more discernible – and the stress from this news is just going to make things worse.  Great.

To-Do -> Done

A constructive start of the week ground to a halt today.  Monday - took the afternoon off and drove out and up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park to do the Hurricane Hill hike.  I've been there plenty of times before, and I think I've posted photos from there multiple times in this blog before, but it's still one of my favorite places to go with one of my favorite views in Washington State - once I've had a chance to go through my photos from this time, I'm sure I'll post some of these as well.  Tuesday - long overdue, but finally went to an opticians and got my eyes re-examined.  Even with all the flashy expensive equipment they were using to test everything they could on my eyes, ultimately it seems my prescription hasn't really changed over the last decade plus, however I wanted to get a new pair of glasses so I was able to do that there.  Even with vision insurance, the cost of these was still exorbitant - though I did go for a lot of top end features like progressive and transition lenses etc.  Hopefully for the price I paid they are worth it.  But I want to also get a second backup pair, so I think I will order these online at a much cheaper cost and see how they work out.  And today, was planning to take yet another afternoon off work and go to Mount Rainier - but work got in the way of that one, and this isn't a quick trip because the road I would normally take there is still closed due to wildfires so you have to go a longer way.  Which is a shame, because today seemed to be the last sunny day there for a while.  Hopefully I'll have a chance to go up there before the end of the month - once it's November it's winter season there, which means that you're required to carry tire chains to drive up there.  Which I don't have, and have no plan of getting.     

Song of the Week #26

New Order + The Smiths = somewhat disappointing.  But I like this.

Meetings

Who the heck decided to schedule regular study team meetings at 9 am on Mondays?  This is like the 2nd worst time of the week to schedule meetings - topped only by Friday afternoons.  I had some real difficulty dragging myself out of bed and making myself presentable for the meeting this morning - though I never needed to turn my camera on in the end fortunately.  In fact, these meetings are a bit of a waste of time for me at the moment, but I am required to attend them - we're only in the study start up phase, we haven't even got a protocol yet, and it will be a long time, well into next year, until my tasks really start.  So until then, my workload remains entirely lacking (as it has mostly has been since July).  I'd rather have too little work rather than too much work, but I feel my brain needs to be more engaged than it is currently.  And I can see my lack of workload being used as an excuse for me to be denied a future promotion, over others.