Fri, 30 Sep 2005

Turkey Frying Pictures
Here are a few pictures, in case, like me, you need some help visualizing the turkey frying process.

posted at: 11:43 | path: /living | link

Turkey Frying- Wha!!!!
As readers of Colin’s blog know, he had some challenges with our stove when making his beer. The darn thing just doesn’t pump out enough heat to boil 5 gallons of wort (<— check out my fancy beer lingo). While looking for a single burner set up that could provide sufficient heat, he came across…. a turkey fryer. Ahhhhh! An entire fried turkey?!!!! Am I the only person whose mind simply boggles at the thought? Although, I have to say, the method does have the advantage of being able to cook a twenty pound turkey in about an hour.

posted at: 11:40 | path: /living | link

Mon, 26 Sep 2005

Pizza Ottawa
It’s been too long since I made a blog entry. I’m not sure what’s going on- I really haven’t been surfing the net that much. It’s most unlike me. Still, in an effort to order pizza last night, I did find Pizza Ottawa, a site that reviews pizza places in Ottawa. It came in handy, because it had the name of a new pizza place that opened on Bank St. this summer- Forno Antico. These guys cook their pizza over a tradional wood burning stove, which makes it taste awesome.

posted at: 18:02 | path: /living | link

Sat, 17 Sep 2005

Making Couscous
I always thought making couscous would be a hideously boring, time consuming task. It turns out that it’s a bit easier than I thought- you don’t have to make every single little couscous pellet by hand. Here’s a description of how to make it- although I notice that the commenter did not rate the description as very effective. Here’s another similar description. It sounds like one of those things that takes some practice.

posted at: 14:48 | path: /living | link

Couscous! Couscous!
Doesn’t that sounds like the cute cry of a small woodland animal? Instead it’s a type of easy to cook pasta. Here’s a bit of info on it, and some recipes.

posted at: 14:39 | path: /living | link

Tue, 13 Sep 2005

Parenting as an introvert
I’ve recently taken a job working with a bunch of people I would describe as extroverted. It’s actually been great- I get to observe a bunch of extroverts in the wild and polish up my pseudo-extravert skills. Also, since I get two full days of sitting by myself working on my thesis each week, I can still get my oh so needed recharge time in.

Still, it’s gotten the ole introvert-extrovert wheels turning. One area of life which I think is really challenging for us introverts is parenting (hi friends who are currently parents!). Here’s a nice blog entry where the blogee muses on the challenges of parenting as an introvert.

posted at: 13:47 | path: /living | link

Update on Fish Perception
Here’s a more ‘scientific’ discussion of fish senses- it doesn’t really give much more information than the angling site, but it does provide a useful reference to a scientific review paper on modelling fish.

posted at: 12:38 | path: /school | link

Primer on Fish Senses
Heres a bit of a primer on fish senses, as discussed by someone who wants to catch fish.

posted at: 12:34 | path: /living | link

Modelling Fish Perceptions
Hey! Here’s someone who, for their thesis, created an artificial fish, complete with fish perceptions. Interestingly, this person’s PhD was in the field of Artificial Animals for Computer Animation. This only further confirms my suspicion that people doing advanced movie animations (think LoTR) have a lot to contribute to this area of scientific research- it’s just that neither they nor the scientists know it.

posted at: 12:22 | path: /school | link

Schooling Aquarium Fish
I’ve been looking for ways to do some experimental research on animal aggregates. It looks like the the number one resource I would need to do that- namely the animals that aggregate- is only a petshop away. No, I’m not talking about giant herds of rabbits. I’m talking about schooling aquarium fish.

posted at: 12:14 | path: /school | link

Sat, 10 Sep 2005

A Brief Return to Touchy Feely Stuff
Okay- I found one more article on processing shame. Powerful stuff! Here’s the page’s explanation of what shame is. I think it’s quite evocative : “Shame is a fear-based internal state [of] being, accompanied by beliefs of being unworthy and basically unlovable. Shame is a primary emotion that conjures up brief, intense painful feelings and a fundamental sense of inadequacy. Shame experiences bring forth beliefs of “I am a failure” and “I am bad” which are a threat to the integrity of the self. This perceived deficit of being bad is so humiliating and disgraceful that there is a need to protect and hide the flawed self from others. Fears of being vulnerable, found out, exposed and further humiliated are paramount. Feelings of shame shut people down so that they can distance from the internal painful state of hopelessness.”

Yikes! Fortunately this site also offers some constructive suggestions for dealing with shame.

After reading the description of shame just given, I became curious to know if shame was considered to be one of the universal emotions. Apparently there is some debate about this.

posted at: 23:52 | path: /living | link

Fri, 09 Sep 2005

Plum Recipes
Okay- enough of that touchy feely stuff! Here are some plum recipes.

posted at: 15:00 | path: /living | link

More on shame
Wow- that article on guilt and shame really hits home for me. Not to get too personal on my own blog or anything, :) but I do experience shame from time to time- perhaps more often than I might like- and I think that article really nails it when it discusses some possible reactions to feelings of shame:

“
*Attacking or striking out at other people. In an attempt to feel better about their shame, people will oftentimes strike out at others in the hopes that they will be lifted up by bringing others down…

*Seeking power and perfection. Others attempt to overcome their shame by preventing the possibility of future shame. One way in which they do this is by aiming for perfection… Another manner in which people cope is by seeking power, which makes them feel more valuable.

*Diverting blame. By blaming our faults or problems on others, we can avoid guilt and shame…

*Being overly nice or self sacrificing. People sometimes compensate for feelings of shame or unworthiness by attempting to be exceptionally nice to others. By pleasing everyone else, we hope to prove our worth…

*Withdrawal. By withdrawing from the real world, we can essentially numb ourselves to the feelings of guilt and shame so that we are no longer upset by these sorts of things…
”

Yup- check, check, check, check and check. Been there, done that.

posted at: 14:42 | path: /living | link

Thinking positive
I just edited my blog entry on Wood-air bathing because I thought the end of the quote could be received as shaming/blaming or induce environmental guilt. I like it better the way it is now. As I’ve said before in this blog- I feel it is very important when dealing with environmental matters to avoid the shame/blame game.

Now, a person might ask- if we just focus on the positive, how will we get people to change their behaviour when it comes to environmental concerns? Well- that’s a good question! All I know is that shaming people, blaming people and judging people could easily cause them to run in the other direction, as this article about guilt and shame suggests.

Interestingly, the article does note that feelings of guilt, when appropriate, can lead to people trying to make amends- to mend the perceived damage- in order to alleviate the guilt. However, that would also mean that, to alleviate that guilt, people need to feel like it is in their power to make amends, and understand what is required to make amends, which is a real challenge in the case of environmental guilt, I believe. Some useful stuff to think about.

posted at: 14:34 | path: /living | link

Cornucopia
Well fellow Ontarioians, the harvest has arrived! Woohoo! Actually, it’s been arriving for a few weeks now. So now is when we can go into the grocery stores and buy huge baskets of fruits and vegetables that have actually been grown here, in Ontario! It’s an exciting time!

This week I bought a basket of pears, a basket of plums and a basket of potatoes. But what to do with these huge baskets of produce? I discovered after buying large quantities of peaches a couple of weeks ago that I don’t know what exactly to do with large quantities of fruit or vegetables. I realized that I can’t just eat them all. There’s too much!

So, to get me going here’s some pear recipes. I like the sound of the pear conserve.

posted at: 10:45 | path: /living | link

Thu, 08 Sep 2005

Wood-air bathing
A friend of mine (hi Jay) just tipped me off to the concept of shinrin-yoku. This is the idea that walking through forest air can be healing. Apparently, this came up recently because some scientists discovered a small stand of ancient forest in Maryland, and noticed it had an amazing smell. A quote from the New Scientist article (taken from a blog that quotes the article): “What could be in forest air that makes us feel better? Researchers working in the Sierra Nevada of California found 120 chemical compounds in the mountain forest air, but they could identify only 70 of them! We are literally breathing things we don’t understand…”

posted at: 22:19 | path: /living | link

Searching for a Coarse-Grained Theory in Biology
Oh those physicists! They’re always jumping over to biology and neuroscience, trying to help out. Maybe it’s more fun in biology and neuroscience, now that you need super-colliders and giant tubs of water buried in the middle of the earth to test anything in physics. Here’s a fun essay on the universal scale of life. Mostly, I like the fun artsy diagrams that go with the essay. Shows what a scientist I am.

posted at: 18:49 | path: /school | link

Lotsa Knots!
Lots of blog entries have come out of my various conversations with Dan, from when he and May and Noah were visiting. Here’s some information on macrame. I must confess that I feel intellectually intrigued by macrame but not so aesthetically pleased by it. It’s probably like knitting and quilting, though. I don’t always like the trad forms, but, digging a bit deeper, there’s some amazing stuff out there.

posted at: 14:30 | path: /living | link

Thu, 01 Sep 2005

Gasoline FAQ
I also found this interesting gasoline FAQ. I know- I haven’t gotten to diesel yet. I’m approaching it from an oblique angle.

posted at: 18:27 | path: /living | link

Car Engines
I was having a conversaton with Dan the other day about what happens when diesel burns. I thought that was a really good question. As part of my search for the answer, I started reading about how car engines work.

posted at: 18:23 | path: /living | link

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