Main transcept of Norwich Cathedral.

Woah! What's this? A picture IN the blog, instead of a link to click on!? Yep. I finally decided to give Blogger/Google's free picture-blogging service a try. It won't replace the our usual link method because that's still much more convenient format-wise for illustrating our blog entries. But, because "pictures speak a thousand words", you'll definitely see a random picture here from time to time in lieu of the usual boring text.

-RP-

Just got this random e-mail from a student in Singapore doing research about Blogging and ethics. Of course, I helped him out. If you're a blogger, I urge you to do the same:

"Hi,

I am an undergraduate from the School of Communications and Information, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). My fellow course-mates and I are conducting an online survey to study the practices and attitudes of bloggers on ethics and blogging as part of our honours thesis. We hope you can help us by taking part in our survey.

We have retrieved your e-mail address from your weblog. Your weblog was, in turn, randomly selected using weblog generating services freely available on the Internet.

Your participation in this survey is voluntary and should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete. All information will be kept confidential. We really appreciate if you can take some time off to participate in our survey. You can start the survey by clicking on the link below.

Go to Survey

And if you would just give us a little additional support, you can mention our survey by posting our link on your weblog post, or forward this e-mail to your friends. We are working hard to have our survey disseminate globally across countries so that a wide demographic can be collected.

Upon the completion of this study, the survey results will be made available to all participants at The Singapore Internet Research Centre. You can visit the home page by following this link: NTU.

Thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail. If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at: nes@pmail.ntu.edu.sg

Sincerely,

Andy Koh"

Christmas Pictures

I know it's maybe a little pathetic that it took this long, but the Xmas 2004 pictures are finally up! But in my defense, it is very time-consuming to get them web-ready and then to make all of the links in the blog. At any rate, the pictures appear in the following blog entries:

Dec. 15th

Dec. 18th

Dec. 22nd

Dec. 26th

Dec. 31st

And here are some more pictures that didn't necessarily get integrated:

Smooch
A very lucky horse.

Samurai Horse
The tuft of hair that looks like it's coming out of its chin is actually just the end of its lovely braided hair.

Timid Kitty
This is a very shy stray that is only brave enough to show up for food every day. Any kind of relationship beyond that is out of the question.

Pearl - Posessed Cat
No really... she is posessed.

Samuel, Sam, Samson
Not posessed... just a darn good cat!

Artistic Distraction?
The sun was coming through the window, making this houseplant glow. I liked the picture, but it's also been "Photoshopped".

Cold!
Another one of those "artsy" pictures... ice on a pond.

Fish Pond
Same pond that was in the pictures from our Oregon Summer, but this time the fish are hibernating.

Once A Year
Quite a lot of egg-nog was consumed. This brand was the house favorite. But there's a reason you only drink this once a year.

Fermental
I, however, stuck largely to the Northwest winter ales.

Fluffy Blanket
Another picture taken on the way from London, before reaching Greenland.

Friends
Bob, Margaret and Emma. Friends of ours from Seattle (near there anyway).

Happy Campers
K and J-Mom in the back of the "spaceship". We're on our way to the Markum Inn.

A Sign
The sign at the above-mentioned restaurant.

MMMMenu
Menu from the same restaurant. Just order the Double Jumbo Markum Burger with Fries. You don't even need to consider anything else!

Just What She Wanted
J delving into her Christmas stocking.

Two Fools
But we shine up real nice!

The Gals
J-Mom and her two lovely off-spring.

Me and Dad'n'Bev
One fool posing with K's Dad and stepmom. The tree came for the eggnog.

Godiva's Competition
Still working on the recipe, but we're almost there.

Chocolatiers
In the process of making the above-mentioned chocolates. The filling is made from Danish marzipan.

Advertisement
This Christmas is brought to you by... Starbucks.

Has the bubble of PhD-Funding burst?
Arts and Humanities Research Board - Eligibility

"To be eligible for a full award
A full award covers both the cost of tuition fees, up to the DfES maximum, and a maintenance grant. To be eligible for a full award, you must show that you have a relevant connection with the UK, usually through residence.

To be eligible for a fees-only award
A fees-only award provides payment of tuition fees, up to the DfES maximum, but not a maintenance grant. To be eligible for a fees-only award, you must have been ordinarily resident in the EU for the three years immediately preceding the start of the academic year in which your award will commence."


It sure looks like it, unless UEA can advise me of some other option or lie on my behalf. I'm well short of having lived in Europe "three years immediately preceding the start of the academic year". It will be two years this September. My PhD options now:

1) Take a year off and apply next year
2) Don't do a PhD
3) Do the PhD part-time while I work at an archive

Hmmm...

-RP-

Visitor

We just got back from dropping my dad off at Stansted Airport (a couple of hours south of us). He was flying through London from Ft. Lauderdale, on his way to Denmark. Had a two-day layover because he was meeting with a broadband company in London. After the meeting (yesterday) he took the train up here to Norwich. He came bearing gifts: creamy Jiff peanut-butter, marshmallow Fluff, dark chocolate chips, beef jerky, American gossip magazines, Emergen-C vitamins, and cold-cuts. Most of these things we requested and my mom went out to gather. The meat products were my dad's addition. He was concerned that we weren't eating enough because we keep asking for peanut-butter. But I showed him how full our cupboards and fridge is, so I think he's convinced that we aren't living on peanut butter. We just like it and aren't satisfied with the tiny expensive jars that we can get here.

Anyway, he took us out to dinner last night. We pigged out at Loch Fyne Seafood restaurant. Delicious! Oysters, mussels, smoked Salmon sashimi, scallops, etc. Tasted great then, but I may have gotten some kind of "bug" from it because I haven't felt too hot today (I'll just leave it ambiguously at that).

Today we gave him a walking tour around Norwich, in particular, showing the Viking history. Then I showed him around UEA's campus before we headed down to Stansted. It was a short visit, but we had fun.

-RP-