I'm 3 nearly 6

You can always find some nonsense on YouTube to cheer you up when you're having a crappy day.

Song of the Week #103

Some classic 80's today.  That's all.

State Symbols

Here are a few of Washington's state symbols:

State bird: Willow goldfinch

State fish: Steelhead trout

State tree: Western hemlock

State fruit: Apple (absolutely no surprise there)

State flower: Coast rhododendron

State vegetable: Walla Walla sweet onion

And the reason for this entry, because it was just announced yesterday:

State sport: Pickleball

Yes, pickleball - a "sport" I've never played, never seen played, and have absolutely no idea how it is played - is the new official sport of Washington state.  Ermm, whatever. 

Snapped

A sad day as my 100% record in Wordle was cruelly broken today.  I was an unfortunate victim of circumstance – I guessed pound, wound, sound and bound, instead of the correct answer found.  What kind of stupid language is it that has so many possible answers that end with the same 4 letters.  What can you do.  I was defeated by luck rather than skill. 

North American Open

Sunday is the day I normally play my nephew at Mario Kart on the Switch.  For a long time I was the far superior player, but that no longer seems to be the case.  Am I getting older, or is my nephew just getting better?  I suspect a little bit of one, a little bit of the other.  But I had noticed that a tournament was being conducted this weekend on Mario Kart, the North American Open.  So later on today, I decided to join this tournament to really test my abilities.  What a humbling experience that was.  After entering the tournament code, you are basically entered into random races against random opponents from across North America.  In almost every race I competed in, I didn't come anywhere close to winning - and was frequently the last non-AI player.  I am clearly nowhere near good enough as I thought I was or used to be.  It really was very humiliating losing to all these probably 12 year old kids.  But it reaffirmed my belief that I am simply not good at video games, especially modern video games (which is why I haven't bought many PS5 games, even though there are several that have had rave reviews and that I really want).  It has been a long time since what I would consider to be my peak video game playing years.  Which would be on the Spectrum some 30+ years ago.      

Relieve the Kraken

There's a reason I haven't waxed lyrical in this blog about the Seattle Kraken in their first season in the NHL.  It's because they suck.  They are bottom of the Pacific Division, by quite a long way, and have one of the worst records in the league.  Oh dear.  All that early season optimism and joy about Seattle finally getting a top level ice hockey team has quickly evaporated.  You couldn't get tickets at the start of the season, I think it's now pretty easy to watch a game if you really want to.  Not that you would.  I'd like to go see them play one day (I've only ever been to an ice hockey game once before - I saw the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim play a long time ago), but only when they've actually got something to play for.   

Football Italia

Oh my, it was quiet shocking to find out that Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup.  Again.  That is the European champions, Italy.  Shocking.  But hilarious.  The beautiful game.  At least their rugby team won a Six Nations game for the first time in forever.