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Notes from a bemused canuck

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Category: uncategorized

Great Yarmouth, by the sea

Posted on August 21, 2006 By admin 3 Comments on Great Yarmouth, by the sea

I had my first taste of a traditional english seaside town this weekend. The Grogan clan took me to Yarmouth.

Pics are here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/yarmouth-aug2006/

Apparently, the place hasn't changed. It's hard to describe. Well, actually, it's not :) Tacky comes to mind. Every shop by the seaside sells deep-fried, salty or deep-fried sugary food. All the side-streets are packed with shops selling the same old cheap and nasty souvenirs that they've always been selling and that you'll find in every other seaside town (except the name printed on the crap will be different). It's tawdry, it's touristy, and people love it :)

Katy's IQ and mental age practically dropped by half as soon as we got out of the car. While I don't have the historical background to fully appreciate the seaside experience, I had fun. The SeaLife center was amusing (though I was disappointed that it was no longer possible to pet the manta rays) and the crazy gold (North Americans, read mini-putt) was a good laugh (except for the small child that kept getting on our putting greens and made me lose by a swing when I had to pull a shot to avoid hitting her. I should have, because Katy's dad won and was unbearably smug about it. I do have the bragging rights for the first hole in one though, but I digress).

I was disappointed by the fish&chips, but that's because the place we had lunch was apparently crap. Still, Katy won me a Tasmanian Devil plush toy from one of those grappling-claw type games (and one another toy for her dad, which impressed the hell out of me because I've never seen anybody win anything from those machines, let alone twice).

It started pissing it down with rain at one point, but it didn't last long and cleared the air. All in all, after a good day's walk and generally goofing off and eating too much crap (though I now want to get a waffle iron for home!), we all headed back home. I'd do it again, but I honestly don't get the same out of it as a true Brit :)

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Excuse me while my head goes boom now.

Posted on August 17, 2006 By admin 1 Comment on Excuse me while my head goes boom now.

This was waiting to ambush me in my inbox this morning:

Your paper “THE ONTOLOGY LOOKUP SERVICE: A CENTRALIZED POINT OF ACCESS FOR INTERACTIVE AND PROGRAMMATIC CONTROLLED VOCABULARY QUERIES.” has been selected as an oral presentation for a special symposium scheduled Monday evening, October 30. Additional information will follow in a later email.

I'm going to be giving a talk at HUPO. This is huge, and is rather freaking me out.

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Another reason why I like redheads!

Posted on August 16, 2006 By admin 11 Comments on Another reason why I like redheads!

Redheads have more sex than blondes or brunettes

Blondes may have more fun but redheads have more sex, according to new research in Germany. The study by Hamburg Sex Researcher Professor Dr Werner Habermehl looked at the sex lives of hundreds of German women and compared them with their hair colour.

He said: “The sex lives of women with red hair were clearly more active than those with other hair colour, with more partners and having sex more often than the average. The research shows that the fiery redhead certainly lives up to her reputation.”

He added that women who dyed their hair red from another colour were signalling they were looking for a partner, and added: “Even women in a fixed relationship are letting their partners know they are unhappy if they dye their hair red. They are saying that they are looking for something better.”

Psychologist Christine Baumanns said however that it may not be the women who were to blame for the better sex lives of redheads. She said: “Red stands for passion and when a man sees a redhead he will think he is dealing with a woman who won't mess around, and gets straight to the point when it comes to sex.”

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Now that's annoying

Posted on August 14, 2006 By admin

Security 'bad news for sex drive'

A woman's sex drive begins to plummet once she is in a secure relationship, according to research.

Researchers from Germany found that four years into a relationship, less than half of 30-year-old women wanted regular sex. Conversely, the team found a man's libido remained the same regardless of how long he had been in a relationship. Writing in the journal Human Nature, the scientists said the differences resulted from how humans had evolved.

The researchers from Hamburg-Eppendorf University interviewed 530 men and women about their relationships.

They found 60% of 30-year-old women wanted sex “often” at the beginning of a relationship, but within four years of the relationship this figure fell to under 50%, and after 20 years it dropped to about 20%. In contrast, they found the proportion of men wanting regular sex remained at between 60-80%, regardless of how long they had been in a relationship.

Tenderness

The study also revealed tenderness was important for women in a relationship. About 90% of women wanted tenderness, regardless of how long they had been in a relationship, but only 25% of men who had been in a relationship for 10 years said they were still seeking tenderness from their partner.

Dr Dietrich Klusmann, lead author of the study and a psychologist from Hamburg-Eppendorf University, believed the differences were down to human evolution.

He said: “For men, a good reason their sexual motivation to remain constant would be to guard against being cuckolded by another male.” But women, he said, have evolved to have a high sex drive when they are initially in a relationship in order to form a “pair bond” with their partner. But, once this bond is sealed a woman's sexual appetite declines, he added.

He said animal behaviour studies suggest this could be because females may be diverting their sexual interest towards other men, in order to secure the best combinations of genetic material for their offspring. Or, he said, this could be because limiting sex may boost their partner's interest in it.

Professor George Fieldman, an evolutionary psychologist from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, said: “These findings seem to fit in with anecdotal studies and his explanations seem plausible.

“The rational for why a woman's sex drive declines may be down to supply and demand. If something is in infinite supply, the perceived value would drop.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4790313.stm

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Move over Deliah Smith!

Posted on August 13, 2006 By admin 5 Comments on Move over Deliah Smith!

Today, I cooked! It was good.

Let us first start off with scotch eggs, something that Katy has been telling me about for over a year. It's hard boiled egg, surrounded by sausage meat, breaded with seasoned breadcrumbs and then deep fried. Bad for you? yes. Good tasting? Hell yeah!

Then we have sausage rolls, which is sausage meat in puff pastry and then oven-baked:

And finally, we have beignets, which are evil deep-fried yeast doughnuts, inspired by what I had at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. Deep fried and covered in icing sugar while they're still warm:

 

We're going to be hitting the gym big time tomorrow to get rid of all that fat, but having said that, we did fry the stuff in sunflower oil (which is not that bad) and the food didn't feel all that oily (meaning that though it probably was, it didn't feel like a “window to weight gain”). Still, this will remain holiday and special occasion food.

But damn, it was nice!


In other food news, we went to Chilford Hall to confirm the reception menu. The lady in charge of the venue was really nice and we were able to accomodate all the wild and wonderful dietary restrictions that are in place for the guests and I.

Finally, in the penultimate food news for today, Katy and I went to the River Farm Smokery in Bottisham today. It's the place that is interested in making smoked meat for me. We bought smoked chicken breast (which we had on thick-cut bread with a honey and mustard) and smoked duck breast (which I'm keeping for tomorrow).

That is all, going to digest now :)

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Yoinked from <lj user="cadhla">

Posted on August 10, 2006 By admin 4 Comments on Yoinked from <lj user="cadhla">

With regards to the kerfuffle at the airports, this has to be one of the better rants about it so far:


All you're doing is hurting whatever causes you claim to be supporting by pissing everyone the fuck off. What, do you think that eventually we'll all be flying in hospital dressing gowns with no sharp objects (potential weapons), electronic equipment (makeshift tasers), liquids (apparently, might explode), pants (modifiable into garroting equipment), books (paper cuts are bad!) or small children (they could be encouraged to scream at a frequency that jams radio transmissions, thus allowing someone to take control of the plane), and you'll be able to open a competing airline that doesn't do all this shit but runs the risk of blowing the fuck up? Because there are better business models.

None of this shit is making us safer, it's just making us crankier. Soon, we'll be able to kill and eat terrorists, just to give us something to do. My coffee will not blow up the plane. My toenail clippers will not allow me to kill a man. There are much better ways to do that, which I will not detail here, because I don't want the FBI visiting my house.


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Am I just being cynical

Posted on August 10, 2006 By admin 8 Comments on Am I just being cynical

So the UK is now at DEFCON -1, condition red, all-hands on deck which means that something somewhere is supposed to blow up.

It's currently at the point where all flights coming into Heathrow have been cancelled, hour-long delays are expected for all flights that *might* be leaving. The plot was supposed to blow up 9 (that number keeps increasing) flights headed to the US. Because of that, all hand luggage needs to be checked in the hold. You're only allowed to walk into your flight with a clear plastic bag holding your passport, keys (minus your electronic car fob), glasses (minus case) and essential sanitary and medical supplies. If you're traveling to the US, it's even worse.

Jeez, I'd prefer to cancel my flight rather than flying long-haul without a book, my ipod some earplugs and some food. All of which would not be allowed under current panic levels.

Now here's where the cynicism kicks in. Has Tony Blair taken a page from Dubya's Idiot's guide to governing by fear? The US masses are constantly being bombarded by messages of FEAR! FEAR! WAR ON TERROR! FEAR! GOD! FEAR! political kickback scandal FEAR! FEAR! WAR ON TERROR! GOD! MORALITY! FEAR! economic scandal FEAR!!!!

The department of homeland security in the US keeps the threat alert always at or above “elevated” (or 3 out of a possible 5). I'm pretty certain that it'll never be low, or even guarded. In essence, it's worthless at meaning anything useful, except to keep people worried and distracted so they can, essentially, be shafted by the powers that be.

Does the fact that this bomb plot happened now, when Swiss Tony is currently under pressure about his position on the current middle-east crisis and his government is being accused of being lapdogs to the Bush administration have any significance? Is that just the universe being its funny self again? I don't know. And that's where the cynicism kicks in…

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Put "wedding" in front of anything and double the price

Posted on August 9, 2006 By admin 1 Comment on Put "wedding" in front of anything and double the price

It's a really annoying trend, but it's true. For the same exact service or product, simply putting the word “bridal” or “wedding” in somewhere in the description will double the price.

Example: a car hire service normally leases its cars for £35 per hire. If it's for a wedding, they now charge £60, for a minimum of 2 hours. If you're doing multiple stops, it now goes up even more. And even more if you're getting married on a weekend (as most people are, except us weirdos).

Have these people no shame in the amount of price gouging they can inflict?

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Oh yeah!

Posted on August 8, 2006 By admin

I've contacted a local smoker (http://www.saltandwoodsmoke.com/) who provides our local pub with smoked duck breast. He's going to try and make proper smoked meat for me :) I've provided him with a recipe and he says he's intrigued by the project and wants to try it out. Garlic-free homemade smoked meat, baby!

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Because my readership demands it.

Posted on August 8, 2006 By admin 2 Comments on Because my readership demands it.

http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/tolstoy/07_08_2006/

He's taken possession of the back of the couch as his domain.

   

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