{"id":617,"date":"2001-11-21T05:01:00","date_gmt":"2001-11-21T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/21\/quick_notes\/"},"modified":"2024-11-28T18:30:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T23:30:12","slug":"quick_notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/21\/quick_notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A few quick items before I forget:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I\u2019ve had my fill of squeezing into single beds for the time being. For the rest of the trip, I\u2019m going to remind myself that I\u2019m on vacation and <i>my<\/i> comfort and convenience are important, too.<\/li>\n<li>This is the fightin\u2019est town I\u2019ve seen in a while. I\u2019ve never seen so many black eyes on random people in my life. I suspect it may have a lot to do with the power-drinking that goes on before the pubs close so barbarically early.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"The Las Vegas of the English Coast\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dollsoup.co.uk\/stuff\/blackpool.htm\">Blackpool<\/a> is pretty magnificent, even when mostly closed for the season. It has all the creepy, trashy, sweet charms of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coneyislandusa.com\">Coney Island<\/a> or the run-down parts of the Jersey Shore. I say this without irony: I\u2019m a total fan of midways and carnivals and skee-ball and low-brow amusement fun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Amuse Me!\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/amuse_me.jpg\" width=\"390\" height=\"173\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>The American Midwest may be pretty flat, vast, and featureless, but for sheer lack of visual stimulus, it ain&#8217;t got nothing on England&#8217;s Midlands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Amuse Me!\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/midlands.jpg\" width=\"390\" height=\"173\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>Are we at war or something? There was some big protest going on in London, and all these earnest-looking trendy kids were wearing \u201cStop the War\u2019 stickers in the Tube. Shouldn\u2019t they have been out doing their patriotic duty and shopping?<\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Blech\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/sandwich.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" align=\"right\" \/>There are more cute boys here than you can shake a stick at, but there&#8217;s a sad lack of the hispter-nerd aesthetic I enjoy so much at home.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s the little difference that matter, like going to buy a sandwich at the train station and having to choose between ham\/pickle\/onion and bacon\/mayo\/prawn.<\/li>\n<li>There will be lots of photographic evidence when I get back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few quick items before I forget: I\u2019ve had my fill of squeezing into single beds for the time being. For the rest of the trip, I\u2019m going to remind myself that I\u2019m on vacation and my comfort and convenience are important, too. This is the fightin\u2019est town I\u2019ve seen in a while. I\u2019ve never &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/21\/quick_notes\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Quick Notes&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ultracultural","category-ultrapersonal","category-ultraphotographic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71874,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions\/71874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}