TGIT

Woke up at several strange times last night, had some vivid dreams, woke up at least twice talking back or shouting at someone in the dream, but each time I woke with a WTF feeling. WTF was I dreaming about that for? Can't remember any of it now.

Raining lightly, took my time getting out of the house, about 15 minutes later than usual, and it was clear sailing right up until my exit, which was three lanes of nobody moving much for about 2 miles. That last 2 miles took 15 minutes. The idiots who designed the new! improved! exit took two lanes dumping into the freeway from the main E-W freeway, and made it one lane exit-only for the next two exits, so two lanes of freeway are trying to merge right while two lanes of incoming are trying to merge left.  And the signage makes it look like there are two lanes of exit-only until the last 20 feet, where magically the rightmost lane disappears. The only good thing to say about it is it's new, so the roadway is fresh blacktop. With the rains, that probably won't last.

Took my stuff to my desk then went across the street and grabbed a banana and HB egg and a cola. Remembered to bring my egg slicer yesterday, and the good news is sliced egg, the bad news is now I know the eggs are old and dried out. Possibly previously frozen, because the plastic wrap they are sealed in is 1/8 water.

Boss didn't come to visit, I didn't expect her to with the crappy weather. It's a nasty walk. I spent the day mostly exercising the antenna feeds, and found this wonderful Korean show on one of the 26-x channels called King of Mask Singer aka King of Masked Singer. They take the basic idea of The Voice to another level. I like it. A lot. The setup: There is a panel of judges, apparently a core of 4, but as many as a dozen, a live studio audience in 3/4 round, and a pair of singer contestants. Each singer is dressed in a costume meant to hid his/her figure, and each one wears a unique mask/headgear arrangement, often cartoonish, always totally hiding their face & hair but allowing unmuffled sound to come through. Each singer does one number, the judges choose a winner, and the winner walks to the back of the stage, facing away from the audience, takes off the mask and turns around to a 5-count. The judge and audience reactions are priceless.

During the singing, judges may shout comments, or make faces in response to the level of talent, and there is a video graphic artist who can paste hats and other funny stuff onto a judge or three.

They do two contests an episode, and the next episode those two winners face off. There are solos and duets as well. Today's big winner turned out to be, as apparently is often the case, a ringer. Gorgeous voice, she sang a Korean language version of a Broadway musical number, I think. I was too busy being awestruck by her performance and the quality of the antenna feed to figure out what the song was. It was live, so no chance to rewind & replay, and today's episode won't be online for 2 more days. Rats! What I did get is the singer was one of several excellent voices from a K-pop team called Apink. They often dance up a storm cheerleader style as they sing. Impressive.

Here's a sample of the Mask show. I love her voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44kkdjKtEFY
And the reveal
https://youtu.be/I_yZmLApF5o

And in looking at music videos, I got caught up with Thai pop music a little. Seems there is a song called แพ้ใจ (PaeJai) [Surrender] which has dozens of covers, and pretty much every teen girl in the country can sing the words. The original video is very sweet, and has more than 18 million views:
 https://youtu.be/3fR09DsFByk

( Thai, transliteration, translation hidden here: )

Was watching the PBS news hour over-analyzing the travel ban when the decision came in. The two judges they interviewed pointed out that this is how our government is supposed to work, and the next step is the appeal to the Supreme Court. And they both noted that the President is perfectly within his rights to say rude things about the courts, and added there have been Presidents in the past who actually ignored Supes rulings.

Home in a drizzle, lots of slow drivers, too many aggressive drivers barging into lanes they were too impatient to line up in. 

Delivered was a big container of cat treats, just in time. I would have run out by the weekend.

Watched an episode of Match Game, dinner was chicken wings & creamed corn. And ice cream sandwich. Lunch had been shrimp fried rice, Famous Amos & chocolate pudding. Some of the usual suspects conferenced around the cereal bar, seems they work upstairs. Meanwhile my building is getting more populated.

Tried to watch on Tivo an episode of Genealogy Roadshow I saw at work, but it was a poor signal, and after I caught a couple of words I'd missed live, I nuked it. Next episode will be recorded from channel 54 instead of 9. Also went through the Tivo one pass settings and deleted anything which needs cable.

Did I mention that I demoted SlingTV from $40 everything package to $30 not-ESPN? Not interested in anything they have to offer. My favorite talk show is not available on Sling.

Another day without reading Facebook, blood pressure is lower and I'm typing less.

Plans for tomorrow:

Work
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