zen.org Communal Weblog

Literally.

Just back from Nantes, where a good time was had by both, and thought I’d make a post about some smoked salmon that Jim had as a starter.

Now, smoked salmon is not a rarity in our household, and I’ve even had it fairly often when eating out, but this smoked salmon was the ur-smoked salmon – it was “welcome to the mother-fish” time.

Within its succulent walls your tongue could track the route that smoke had swirled around the fish’s body; the taste was so clearly defined, you could roll the history of the flavouring process back and taste the individual knots of wood that been used up during the smoking. It was like realising that previously you had only been eating in 2-D, and now whoosh! – here was a third dimension of flavour.

It wasn’t the strength of the taste, it wasn’t particularly strong in fact, it was more the precision and the degree of definition that it possessed. I hadn’t imagined that a taste could be like that…

“accelerated learning” outfit (whassatwhenitsathome?) The Training Camp, have determined what type of music professionals in the wonderful world of computing listen to.

Are you in the right job?

M
(currently listening to FolkAlley.com, and therefore well beyond the pale… )

Those results in full:

Job: Microsoft-certified professionals
Favoured genre: Mainstream pop

Top three bands:

Britney Spears
Dido
Beyonce
***********************

Job: Security
Favoured genre: 60s “Alt” Rock

Top three bands:

Grateful Dead
The Doors
Hendrix
***********************

Job: Linux
Favoured genre: Electro

Top three bands:

The Orb
Underworld
Kraftwerk
***********************

Job: Developers
Favoured genre: Heavy Metal

Megadeth
Iron Maiden
Slipknot
***********************

Job: Database administrators
Favoured genre: Indie

The Smiths
Haven
Suede
***********************

Job: Project manager
Favoured genre: Rock

Pink Floyd
Queen
Rolling Stones
***********************

Job: CIO/IT director
Favoured genre: Classical

Mozart
Handel
Vivaldi

For all you conspiracy theorists out there:
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Black Americans suspect HIV plot

…with an alarming twist towards the end.

…of Graham Norton, may I present: You are what you eat – ebaumsworld.com. My job takes me to the most interesting places!

I loved this page – some are truly poetic… It reminded me of when I was a TEFL teacher and asked a Spanish boy if he had any pets:
SB: “I don’t have any pets now, but when I get home my parents will get me a dog.”
me: “What sort of dog will it be?”
(We had been talking about different breeds of dog. Spanish boy surreptitiously leafs through illegal dictionary concealed on his lap, and confidently announces to the class:)
SB: “My dog will be a little bastard!”

Exam Howlers

Quick test post. Somehow I’d imagine all my posts will be logged under ‘accidental’, just the nature of the beast.

I saw the little pictogram pop up in the browser bar and scuttled off to my Kanji dictionary. It took a while to find as I thought it was a 12 stroke character, but it’s a 13-er – there seems to be a horizontal stroke missing from the square box on the right (it should be divided up into quarters according to the dict.).

Anyway, naturally enough, it’s the character representing ‘Zen’, which consists of the root element ‘god’ (the bit on the left), and a phonetic element ‘Sen/tan/dan’ (the bit on the right) which means ‘single’ when it appears on its own, gets pronounced ‘tan’ and is supposed to be a picture of ‘a single weapon with a forked end’.

Interesting, but will not help you get a cab when you step out of the arrivals hall in Tokyo…