Wednesday
Red Deer, Pitt Street, Sheffield. Can’t remember the last time I walked into a pub and there were so many men inside and no women. This is unusual for a pub normally notable for its wide mix of drinkers. As is now standard practice, the bloke from behind the bar (new landlord, I think) picks up his guitar and starts playing acoustic covers of rock and metal standards. The place empties fairly quickly, which may be just coincidence.

Thursday
The Benjamin Huntsman, Cambridge Street, Sheffield. Wetherspoons pubs can be a convenient option when you’re accompanied by a one-year-old child, although it is challenging to simultaneously drink a pint of Jaipur and stop a one-year-old child destroying a Christmas tree. It’s New Year’s Eve, and I’m just here for a quick one in the afternoon with Dan from my band, and my little son (who stays off the beer in favour of a banana sandwich). These days scarcely a soul who likes pubs can bear to go near one on the actual night of 31 December, deeming that the carnage of part-time drinkers is best avoided altogether. Unless, of course, you know different (as Esther Rantzen used to say on That’s Life); post a comment below about your NYE routine if you like.

Friday
Walkley Cottage, Bole Hill Road, Walkley, Sheffield. Just to get out of the house for a bit on New Year’s Day, a couple of afternoon drinks with my girlfriend and our son in the family-friendly Sunday dinner pub at the other end of the suburb. Quite a few people seem to have had the same idea as us. In the six or ten times I’ve visited this pub since moving to Walkley, this is probably the nicest atmosphere I’ve experienced so far. A place like the Walkley Cottage comes into its own at a time like New Year’s Day.

Saturday
Rutland Arms, Rutland Street, Grimsby (featured here). A few drinks before the football, as normal. We are filled with foreboding, fear and Old Mill Bitter.

Sheffield Tap, Sheffield (featured here). A few drinks after the football, as I hope becomes normal: the sooner you’ve a pint in your hand, the sooner you can forget your team’s failure to have won any league game in the past three and a half months. Football, it emerges, is also the explanation for the door into the pub from platform 1B being closed and locked, this apparently being the edict of the station manager on match days. They must have their reasons, but by nine in the evening their reasons no longer seem applicable.

Red Deer, Pitt Street, Sheffield. Hello again. The University Arms is closed, I guess for the university holidays, so we end up here for another pint or two before curry time. It feels familiar again now – no extraordinary gender imbalance, no acoustic rock covers – and the Timothy Taylor Landlord is on tip-top form.

The Texas Progressive Alliance would like to thank everyone for reading all of the weekly blog roundups this year. This is the last roundup of 2009, and we are all looking forward to 2010.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants everyone to be afraid of drug cartels buying our politicians. We’ve all seen what money and power did to health care reform. Imagine all that drug money buying power here. It’s time to legalize drugs and take away the profit.

You can’t make this stuff up at Bay Area Houston. GOP “Bubba” white supremacist wanted for murder.

Barnett Shale Communities can breathe easier after a VICTORY last week when TCEQ issued a new emission policy following the release of Texas OGAP’s Study: Shale Gas Threatens Human Health. Read the study and view documents TCEQ will use to record odor complaints and take necessary enforcement action.

WhosPlayin picked up on the TCEQ policy change, and also weighed in on strange comments by a Flower Mound Councilman explaining his vote not to impose an oil and gas moratorium. Speaking of councilmen, Lewisville has a teabagger councilman who wants to turn down a $913,000 stimulus grant from the federal government.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the potential for a contested party chair race in Dallas County. And, it is among the Democrats.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men, on Robert George, the conservative Christian “big thinker” who dresses up old prejudices in new rationales.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog is terribly excited that Gordon Quan is running for Harris County Judge.

Off the Kuff writes about Harris County Board of Ed Trustee Michael Wolfe, the silliest officeholder in Harris County.

Escalation in Afghanistan, a health care reform bill lacking a public option, and another climate change bust in Copenhagen has left a lot of Obama believers stranded at the intersection of Hope and Change. PDiddie has stepped off the bus; read why at Brains and Eggs.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the GOP property tax swap has fixed nothing, as most people knew back when it passed, The Texas GOP and the Texas budget.

Neil at Texas Liberal said that all of us in life seek the 60 votes of hope and kindness to defeat the filibusters of despair and anger. The Senate of life is always session so that we can rustle up the needed votes.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Once again it’s time for the Texas Progressive Alliance to bring you the highlights from the blogs.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men airs out some thoughts on the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and some painful lessons learned blogging about the war in Iraq.

Bay Area Houston claims The Race for Houston Mayor is Now About Race.

Texas is the first state to conduct testing of citizens to determine if their health symptoms are caused from exposure to drilling toxins. But TXsharon is not sure this is such a great idea. Find out why on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees a political disconnect between incarceration and rehabilitation within America’s “big business prison system”. Follow through and accountability are casualties of creative budgeting in the criminal justice system with furlough programs, commutations and pardons BACKLASH. Maurice Clemmons was but a single example of a mentally unstable felon. Where was his follow up? Where was his parole officer? Where was the mental health infrastructure that could have defused this violent explosion?

Neil at Texas Liberal asked who are the Democrats running for Houston municipal offices in the runoff election, and who among the Democrats is someone a liberal can support. The post also features pictures and paintings of scenes of gambling as any election is little more than a spin of the wheel.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees tea parties and general batsh*t craziness in Nueces County with Club for Growth guy leading the Republican Party.

Teddy at Left of College Station covers the political maneuvering in local Republican primaries, and writes about Obama’s War: Choosing Escalation and Occupation. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

nytexan at Bluebloggin clearly states “I’m Sick of War.” As I listen to Obama’s speech to increase troops in Afghanistan, all I can think of is, the US has been in some kind of war my entire life. Just so you know, I was born between the Korean War and the Vietnam War. We are a war nation. No way to get around it.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts about a conversation over Thanksgiving weekend with two Houston Republicans, or Why Bill White can win.

This was Dickens on the Strand weekend in Galveston and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs took a break from politics and spent the weekend on the island. Here are a few photos from the festival.

Charles of Off the Kuff spent much of the week engaged in an email debate on the Texas Tribune with conservative blogger David Benzion over the merits of Bill White as Mayor of Houston and potentially Governor of Texas.

liberaltexan reports on Political Maneuvering Begins in Republican Primaries. It seems that the race for Texas State Senate District Five is gettting compicated. Check it out at TexasKaos.

The Texas Cloverleaf offered it’s prediction on whether Bill White would run for Governor. 1-0! Yes!

WhosPlayin thinks the Texas Railroad Commission is on a ‘power trip’, intervening in the placement of power lines bringing renewable energy to Texas population centers – ostensibly because the lines might cross over abandoned oil and gas wells, or land that might be used for oil and gas wells in the future. *** Citizen Sarah says, an excellent read!!

1.Monday I had Sarah, Kevin, Anika and Soren as well as my nephew Eli (Mary’s son)  over for a large thankful dinner. I really enjoyed it.

2. Mom, Dad, Alyse, Joseph, Brooke, Simon and many others are celebrating the Family Missions Company Thanksgiving down in General Cepeda, Coahuila, Mexico.

3. Sarah, Kevin, Anika and Soren are down in Pensacola, Florida with Kevin’s family who are reuniting with a son of Kevin’s brother whom they never knew before recently.

4. I went by my maternal grandfather’s house and my maternal aunt Rachel’s houses yesterday for a Thanksgiving Day related visit.

5. Yesterday’s post on this blog gives some ideas and thought about the history of this holiday.

6. I sent out 41 e-cards for the holiday yesterday and my first response was from my dear niece Alyse.

7. Some notes about the holiday:

i. Most Roman Catholic missalettes have a mass for Thanksgiving Day in the missa of readings, antiphons and themes on the datel even though it is not quite an utterly official holiday in this Council of Bishops domain but it has often been proposed and much of the basic work has been done. It is complicated.

ii.The Thanksgiving Day Macy’s Parade, Advertising for Black Friday sales, two NFL football games on TV, and the National Dog Show (not the Westminster) are traditions to many people.

iii. The menu at Plymouth is the general inspiration for many regional, familial and personal repertoires from which individual meals are drawn. In my experience this is what the repertoire in the Acadian region of Louisiana more or less:

Turkey (with cranberry sauce), ham, rice dressing,  corn bread dressing, potato salad, some kind of congealed or frozen or fruit salad (or several), vegetable casserole, yam or sweet potato casserole covered with marshmallows,  pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Not all tables have all these things and many tables will have an additional set of family specialties but these are the core.

 iv.People pray for the members of the Armed Forces and often listen to some Christmas music on this day at some point. 

 8. I hope to be eating Thanksgiving Dinner with my Dad’s family who are gathered in force.

9. I will try to reach my other family members by phone.

10. For a good number of my non-American friends I am the main reminder they have that there is a Thanksgiving Day.  

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

1. Sarah Palin’s book Going Rogue and her book tour have been launched to apparently great success. I have not bought or read the book yet but I hope to  do both soon enough.  I have enjoyed watching some of the interviews sh has given.

2. Obama has held a Veteran’s Day ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetary, has set things in motion to position a cadre of hardened terrorists in the heart of New York City for a long time (as prisoners) and has seen his administration witness to a terrorist traitor shooting up Ford Hood.

3.I have been neglecting certain therapies I usually practice with regards to my feet and so they are hurting me enough to shorten this blog post.

4.Joseph’s house has been delayed several times but is supposed to arrive today at Big Woods.

5.The Opening of Parliament today showed the new Supreme Court of the UK in their new robes. It was the most notable change this year.

6. We have had really cool and clear weather here for the last few days.

7.Joseph heads down to Mexico tomorrow and my mother flies down Saturday.  I hope they will have a good trip.

8.Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day.

my name is leigh and i am pleased to bring you the first entry in a weekly series on sandwich news from around the web. though you may scoff at whether a sandwich warrants its own blog, let alone a news feature, the humble sandwich actually makes its way into more stories than you’d think.
this week alone, sandwiches have caused sickness, crime, and  even hope. i couldn’t make this up.

so, this week in ‘wichy news:

• the fight to save delis (there has actually been quite a lot of deli-love around the internet in the past couple months. a piece in the atlantic here and the times here and at KGO-TV here).
• check your subway sandwiches for knives before you eat.
• celebrities love sandwiches!
• new trends in sandwich breads.
• gross.

and some notable recipes from around the blogosphere:

• pulled pork sandwich with apple bbq sauce and fennel apple coleslaw
• grilled turkey and brie sandwich with cranberry chutney
• white bean avocado sandwich
• waffle ‘wich!

The Texas Progressive Alliance is ready for the start of the World Series, and it presents to you its weekly highlight reel as we await the first pitch.

quizas of South Texas Chisme wonders about the US detaining a Mexican human rights activist.

WWJD on Carter Avenue? TXsharon wants to know if Chesapeake Energy or anyone in Fort Worth government has stopped to consider the answer to that question. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Bay Area Houston wonders if the Hispanic community will dump their endorsement of Gene Locke.

WhosPlayin lost a fight with the Lewisville ISD, whose board voted unanimously to define media as print and broadcast only and give itself permission to shut out bloggers. (includes video of meeting)

The Texas Cloverleaf picks up on the “Pay to Play” system, alive and while with Rick Perry and the TABC.

Problems for the Democrats in 2010? Harry Balczak at McBlogger uncovers something that says that’s what we’re exactly heading toward.

Dembones at Eye On Williamson Posts on TX-31 Rep. John Carter’s latest hypocrisy Carter’s income disclosure problem spoils GOP tactic.

Progressive Coalition candidates for Houston city council (and a Socialist running for mayor) are the subject of PDiddie’s post at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at Texas Liberal suggested that voters in Houston consider Progressive Coalition candidates running for Houston City Council. It is hard to see how voting for Democrats year-after-year in city elections has been of great benefit to the people of Houston.

Over at Texas Kaos, libbyshaw provides a public service by providing a Republican hypocrisy score card. Check out her Texas GOP Hall of Hypocrites. You can’t tell the hyprocrites without a scorecard. Wait, you can almost. If there is an “R” beside their names, the odds are better than even….

Off the Kuff notes that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit between Democrats and the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office over allegations of voter suppression.

Had an as usual ace Saturday.  Still suffering from the no work - can’t sleep syndrome, but I’m surviving.

Feeling like a pimp with Modeselektor Body language playing in the back, but hey I’ve figured it all applies as Adam’s got out his bass guitar to play along with.

This week, this day no more bizarre than normal.

Ooh this is awesome Body Language Pon de floor

Woke up – read Raymond Carver short.  A short good thing. A boy’s birthday, an unpicked up cake, an angry baker, a run of the mill accident.  The boy dies, the baker leaves ridiculous calls.  The parents Ann & Howard are somehow saved a smight from their anguish by the baker who gives them some hot rolls with melted butter.  Franklin a black kid dies.  Basically the essence of what being human means was illustrated to me before 9 am.

This week I have injured my lower chest, it is alas not broke, but damaged soft tissue, which has led to a mild chest infection, the bruising is minimal to my disappointment, as it hurts so fucking much. 2 x rays know the reality, I’m no wuss as I proved by me igniting a boiler I knew nothing about in the morning wearing a stripy Jasper Conran man’s dressing gown.

Fell again in love with the child I will have one day, she loves parsnips and has a stick insect called Rashmid.

Ps had an awesome take away from the Nepalase Nemaste Nepal, which is the sister of the brother of Kathmandu Didsbury West, and sister of the sister Kathmandu East Didsbury, awesome smell and I’m smell sensitive, and also the bread was awesome, which I can be sensitive too, but was a beauty, we’ve said so much for now, going to drink our Dark island beer curtousy of Ames.

I’ve decided to cull my favourite links and this one, I am not to touch, except to get back into the realm of writing. I have become a dead blogger, which is a sight that makes me sad.  When I see people’s Myspace or WordPress accounts dried up and becoming a memory of what once was, I feel an eerie sense of an uncompleted task.  I’m sure this phase will happen again, but until then I return . . .

The inspiration, naf as hell. Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in Julie and Julia.

I went with my mum last night to the Savoy Heaton Moor, as I love those bungle seats and raffle ticket stubs.               We saw the above film due to a drunken phone call where I said I wanted to treat my mum to the cinema, treat being in the fact that I would take her to something I would prefer to bite wool rather than see.

Anyhow, I watched it and it was naf, but actually warmed my cockles to the fact that self made achievements and deadlines are not to be poo poohed too harshly.  So today I return, to write in whatever way I can and for my own self and I think sanity might be the right word, but not sure.

I have pulled the plug on Facebook, as I have decided I don’t like it at all and the fact that it was so complicated to delete my account made me even more intrigued to do it.  Once they’ve got you, they’ve got you good.  So goodbye nositus,  a word coined for my nosing in on people I don’t want to, which in turn makes me feel like a perverted little ferret.

I will get back to a slightly higher sense of what I like.

P.s. sorry if I spell things wrong please do tell, as I get carried away and write too quickly at times. That is assuming anybody reads this thing

As you can see from my title I have now completed the first week back at uni! There had been plenty of excitement throughout the week, Ive met lots of new people and had some very exciting proposals of work to be carried out this year!
So here’s a list of my best times this week:

Introduction to “advertising and design proffessional practice” – wow! Such an exciting soundin modual loadz of work to do and I am so excited to discover we get to work with representatives of Tequila London, with these people as our mentours we will have an amazing year!

Introduction to “Internet marketing” not all about the Internet but an amazing modual about how the Internet can be used as a communicative tool for many aspects of marketing!

All my flat mates have finally moved in! A lovely group of people … Someone even did my washing up!!

Night out with the rugby girls, the night ended fairly early for me but it was great to be back out there!

Started to learn a tango routien! Love the tango as a dance but I need to learn to keep my knees softer!

Skiing at the Milton keynes xscape with Jenn, student nights every wed 7-10. We improved techniques an I did a fee jumps!

A lovely Indian meal with my boyfriend in a nice and modern Indian restrant “tamarind” a big menu with plenty of choice and the food had great flavour, the company really made it and we had a lovely evening.

Finally I came home to sleep in my home bed, see my brother and do some work.

Another busy week for me and I’m sure plenty more can be expected throughout the year!

Thank for reading!

XxX

As the title says, here’s some cool stuff i’ve found recently through no fault of my own:

Zakta – cool new search engine I found via Jason Falls.
The Arts Desk – awesome art news site
xkcd – wicked web comic which provided me with the picture you see above
Brand New – London-centric social media networking event blog
Web Ecology Project – all about the sicence of online interaction
Linus In Hats – tumblog about a cat and different hats via Sarah
Red Jotter – All about design and making stuff work better
Bulletproof – all about brand crises

Anything you guys would like to share?

1) Goodbye DRM, Hello Stealable Digital Personal Property, Ars Technica

Paul Sweazey has a new idea for the DRM, which actually sounds kind of like an old idea, treating digital content more like physical content to permit sharing.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/goodbye-drm-hello-stealable-digital-personal-property.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

2) Boston’s amazing Papercut Zine Library needs a home

Papercut Zine Library got evicted from their space and is looking for a new place to live. www.Papercutzinelibrary.org for more info. on the place itself.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/08/bostons-amazing-pape.html

3) Dudes! Did You See The Library They’ve Got Here?

*Read Me*

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/9/29yoder.html

4) 10 Free Google’s Custom Search Engines for Librarians

http://lipsconcerns.blogspot.com/2009/09/10-free-googles-custom-search-engines.html

5) Asus Plans Dual-Screen E-Reader

new E-reader to more directly imitate a book, and the turning of pages.

http://handheldlib.blogspot.com/2009/09/asus-plans-dual-screen-e-reader-pc-mag.html

Site: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/

scans of old and obscure illustrations.