World Cup Ticket Prices

I had a quick look at the current marketplace cost of tickets for the Round of 32 game and the Round of 16 games at "Seattle Stadium", and they are even more expensive than when I last checked.  It is ridiculous.  So I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not watch a World Cup game in person here.  The exception - and I think the only exception - is if England is drawn into Group G.  In which case, they may well end up playing several games in Seattle - and I might consider splashing the cash for one of those games.  I think the draw is on Friday, so that is definitely something I will be keeping an eye on.  But I expect the cost of tickets - at least for any half-decent game - will only go up.  The next phase of ticket sales is going to occur about a week after the draw - but I haven't had any luck in the previous lotteries, and I don't expect this time to be any different.  Screw FIFA.    

Full Inbox

You know it's Black Friday, or indeed Black Friday weekend, because I think my e-mail inbox has never been busier.  I'm getting constant e-mails from different companies telling me about their various Black Friday deals.  I've been fairly good at unsubscribing to lots of mailing lists, but apparently not good enough judging by the number of e-mails I'm still getting.  And, annoyingly, it includes multiple e-mails from the same sender.  I get it, you have lots of things for sale and you want everyone to know - but you don't need to send me 10 e-mails over just the last 2 days.  Unsubscribe.      

Lego Sets (Boxed, Large)

The only item I bought in the Black Friday sales - which was not on sale, and I didn't actually get on Black Friday but on Thursday evening - was the Lego Star Trek USS Enterprise set.  It is currently sold out, so glad I got it at the first opportunity I could.  It is yet another Lego set that will probably remain boxed indefinitely, and I took the opportunity today to do a quick inventory of all the Lego sets I still have in their boxes.  I know some of you might be curious as to what I have, so here goes:

Titanic, The Endurance, Jaws, Back to the Future Time Machine, James Bond Aston Martin, Indiana Jones Temple of the Golden Idol, Jurassic Park T Rex Rampage, Ghostbusters Fire Station, Home Alone, Harry Potter: Hogwarts, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Express, Harry Potter: Gringotts, Harry Potter: Diagon Alley, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Icons, Harry Potter: The Burrow, Harry Potter: Hogsmeade, Lord of the Rings: Rivendell, Lord of the Rings: Barad-Dur, Lord of the Rings: The Shire, The Simpsons: House, The Simpsons: Kwik-E-Mart, The Simpsons: Krusty Burger, Star Wars: R2-D2, Star Wars: Death Star, Star Wars: Millennium Falcon, Disney: Train Station, Disney: Castle

Yep, that's 27 sets - 28 with the Enterprise.  Yikes.  No wonder I'm running out of space as to where to store all these boxes!  At some point I will also do an inventory of all the smaller boxed sets I've got - typically ones that came with the bigger sets e.g. I will also get a Lego shuttlepod with the Enterprise - plus all the sets I've actually constructed and got on display.  All in all, way WAY too many.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  I had ordered a pre-cooked Thanksgiving meal, and picked it up today.  It was supposed to be a 1-person meal.  It was not.  It was huge.  There was more than enough for 2 people.  But that didn't stop me eating most of it, and I am feeling stuffed!  It consisted of some massive cuts of herb-roasted turkey, some massive cuts of honey glazed ham, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts with bacon and breadcrumbs, and traditional stage stuffing - plus a dinner roll, cranberry source, American gravy and a slice of dessert (sweet cream berry biscuit).  The meat was great, the sides less so.  I had a choice of sides and I wonder whether I should have chosen one of the other options - I think they were candied yams and green bean casserole.  Both of which are very American but very unappealing to me.  I also skipped a slice of pumpkin pie - I just don't like the taste of pumpkin, which is almost sacrilegious to say to most Americans.  I'm probably going to order a pre-cooked Christmas meal as well - so it will be interesting to compare the typical Thanksgiving meal with the typical Christmas meal here, because I don't know if and what the differences are.  

Thanksgiving Eve

It's the biggest holiday of the year in the US tomorrow.  Yet today is still a working day.  I'm sure I've talked about this before, but in years' past we've received an e-mail saying we can log off early in order to enjoy the holiday.  But nope, nothing today.  And nothing like this for quite a while now.  Which is a shame, because it doesn't take much effort, most people are not doing any work this afternoon anyway (I certainly wasn't) and it just goes a little way to showing that management cares about it's employees.  Instead, my distrust of new management remains (I don't know whether this is a Chinese thing, or whether it's something that goes all the way to the top) - as does my opinion that the work culture here has significantly worsened compared to how it used to be.  Nonetheless, a few extra days off work is always welcome.  I don't have plans to do much - I certainly have no intentions to do a load of Black Friday shopping (apart from staying up late tomorrow in order to try to secure a Lego USS Enterprise).  Instead, I'm just going to try to take it easy, not think about work, and do some chores around the house.  Exciting stuff right.            

AI

In a depressing sign of the times, my company has made the adoption of artificial intelligence a strategic priority.  In corporate language, they want to "build an AI-enabled workforce and implement AI across the value chain".  Whatever that means.  In practical terms, the most immediate impact is that they have made completing some online courses in artificial intelligence mandatory for all employees.  What do I think about all this?  Frankly, I think it's a load of horsesh*t.  I don't like AI for 3 reasons - the elimination of many white collar jobs, an increase in artificial intelligence coming at the cost of a decrease in human intelligence, and the very real threat posed by the singularity (when computers take over the world inevitably resulting in human extinction).  I have never used ChatGPT, Siri or Alexa, I don't like it when AI autocorrects my spelling or grammar mistakes, and I don't even like looking at the AI Overview that appears now when I google something.  I'm sure AI is affecting me in all kinds of ways that I don't care to think about - like the ads that appear on the websites I browse or the TV I watch, or the content of media that I consume.  I certainly don't use it in my job - and I don't see any scenario where I would use it.  However I can very easily see a scenario where AI could completely take over what I do in my job.  And that is scary.  And I also don't find it coincidental that I was chatting with an ex-colleague of mine the other day, and he was saying that his company is also adopting a similar strategy when it comes to AI.  I fear this is a coordinated effort across different biotech/pharma companies, agreed upon at some clandestine meeting between the various CEOs.  And it's going to irrevocably change, and shrink, the workforce.  The future is bleak.  If I had children of my own, I think I would actively encourage them to pursue a blue collar profession - something that is beyond the reach of AI.    

Chilling

Sometimes you just have to chill out to a great dance track.  Born Slippy may be their most well known song, but I think this one is better (and, incidentally, it is also on the Trainspotting soundtrack - arguably one of the best movie soundtracks ever):