Coachmakers Arms - Titanic Stout

Titanic Stout - 4.5%ABV





***/5. Titanic always works!


-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Winter Solstice

Derventio Brewery - Winter Solstice - 5.0%ABV





Quirky. **/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Frankie & Benny's

A "New York" Italian Restaurant. ...

It's really not, check Wikipedia. It originated in Leicester in the 50s and there's not a single Restaurant in NYC with the name.

Fraudsters. Foods ok. Treating Macca and Kim for Christmas. Whey.

-- Post From My iPhone

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Not even TangoBurst and M&Ms could keep me awake during this film.

I never seem to stay awake during films in cinemas.

I can add this to my list of films I've fell asleep to while watching in cinema:

The Ramones (in Manchester)
Black Book (in Sarasota) - that was funny, thinking about it.

Yay

-- Post From My iPhone

Royals

I dropped my cigarettes somewhere so I resorted to:





Royals - it's like smoking Camilla!

-- Post From My iPhone

Jaflong - Cobra

A nice Cobra Beer whilst I'm waiting for curry.





*/5 - it is lager afterall!!

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Top Trumps

Rudgate - Top Trumps - 4.3% ABV





***/5. Not quite top trumps.

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Jaipur

Thornbridge - Jaipur (Indian Pale Ale) - 5.9%ABV





Strong!!! ***/5


-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Farmers Belgian Blue

Bradfield - Farmers Belgian Blue - 4.9%ABV





Fruity. ****/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Underground. 29:12. Epic.

Me and Mikey!

Epic night.

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Westgate Gold

Clark's - Westgate Gold - 4.2%ABV





Looks a bit cloudy. Hmm... **/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Straw Beer

El Goods - Straw Beer - 4.6% ABV





Social Glue at Lunchtime - **/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Are you drunk?

Classic humour from the Coachmakers...




It's placed on the ceiling! Brilliant!

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Deck the Halls

Titanic - Deck the Halls - 4.2%ABV





I love my beer. But noone loves my blog! (Apparently) :( ***/5


-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Turkey Trauma

Banks and Taylor - Turkey's Trauma





Festive. ***/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Tartan Terror

Houston - Tartan Terror - 4.5%ABV








***/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Eddie Hitler?

I look like the guy, according to James. Great!




-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Snowman's Revenge

Wentworth - Snowman's Revenge - 5.5%ABV





****/5! Bloody Nice!

-- Post From My iPhone

Port Vale v Rochdale - Full Time

Jubilant scenes at Vale Park. 2-1!





Chance for Vale!





1-0! Danny Glover!









2-1....














-- Post From My iPhone

Port Vale v Rochdale - Half Time

Bit dire. And my bet won't go through. Vale best win at least!

-- Post From My iPhone

Port Vale vs Rochdale Pre-Match

Have a £25 accumulator today.... Might be a rich man tonight! Come on Vale!







Half finished Lorne! Legendary! About 15 years now?




-- Post From My iPhone

iPhone Tip: Get SMS Delivery Reports

Tip!:

Every wanted to know if someone's got your text message on your iPhone?

It drives me mental when I text people and they don't text back after ages cause I never know if they get the message anymore.

Well now I found out how you can get SMS delivery reports.

For O2UK users, simply start your text message with *0#

ie. *0# Hello.

See this website here for the iPhone and other networks for SMS Delivery Reports.

This is really something that will make ME feel better. :)

For Macca and Kim: Giant Goat burned down (again)

Macca and Kim, have said that if I were to be any animal, it'd be a Goat. I snore like one, apparently! I found this bit of news very funny and it made me think of you guys, so here you are:

Festive goat up in flames again

Authorities in Gavle had tried to fireproof the goat

A giant straw goat erected each Christmas in a northern Swedish town has been burned down - yet again.

The 13m-high (43ft) animal in Gavle has been torched 23 times since it was first erected in 1966. It has also been hit by a car and had its legs cut off.

The vandals are rarely caught, though in 2001 a 51-year-old American tourist spent 18 days in jail after being convicted of setting it alight.

In 2007, the goat managed to make it through the festive season unscathed.

Goat committee spokeswoman Anna Ostman said this year's unlucky creature was set on fire early on Saturday morning.

The 7m-long (23ft), three tonne goat was originally designed to attract tourists to Gavle, which is 106 miles (170km) north of the Swedish capital.

GOAT HIGHLIGHTS 1966: The first goat is burned down - beginning the tradition 1970: It is set on fire six hours after being erected 1971: Tired of arson, the project is abandoned. Schoolchildren build a miniature. It is smashed to pieces. 1976: A car crashes into the goat 1979: The goat is burned down before it is finished 1987: The goat is treated with fireproofing - but still goes up in smoke

But in its first year it was burned down on New Year's Eve and since then has been attacked regularly.

In 2005, it was torched by two arsonists dressed as Father Christmas and the Gingerbread Man.

Authorities in Gavle have tried to protect the goat using fireproofing chemicals, security guards and a web camera.

But just 10 of the goats, which are built in the town's central square, have survived beyond Christmas since 1966.

Goats have a special place in Swedish tradition. According to folklore, they delivered festive gifts before Father Christmas took over.

So it would seem that Goats are very important. They snore but they also give out festive gifts.
I almost feel cool to be called a Goat.
God forbid I ever go to Sweden though, or I'll be burned to death or smashed to pieces by vandals or a car.
Amazing!

Sex, Cigarettes, Drink and Rock 'n' Roll

Young People ignore anti-binge drinking campaigns, apparently. Quite rightly so when you watch the advert above that the Home Office put out recently, as part of a £4 Million campaign to cut down on drinking. (See BBC Source)

"A study by Birmingham and Bath universities suggests the government must stop "demonising" young people in its attempts to promote safe drinking."

Quite rightly so. It seems to me that the P.C. brigade are shifting from tobacco to alcohol.
"Professor Isabelle Szmigin, who assisted the study, told the BBC: "For young people, drinking is very much a part of their social life but we feel that a lot of the government literature tends to present a picture of it being an individual responsibility rather than a social one.

"Young people do engage with the idea of responsible drinking but far more from the social side. They ensure there are designated drivers; people looking out for each other and that their friends are safe."

Ms Szmigin said shock tactic adverts did not always work and had risk of alienating the very people they were meant to target.

She said future government policies on alcohol-related harm needed to tackle cheap prices, how drinks were marketed but without being "heavy-handed" and recognising the role of alcohol as a "social glue"."

There are two things here I want to mention and comment on - the idea of alcohol as a 'social glue' and the comment on shock tactics.

Consider the recent smoking legislation - banned in most public places in the UK in 2007 and now there are some rather vile pictures on cigarette packets, like these:

Now, I'm sure if I could find the latest, (though the BBC search engine is rather crap) that the numbers of smokers (In Scotland at least) is as bad as it was 10 years ago, and it would appear that the anti-smoking legislation hasn't helped either.

I'd argue that the Swinging Sixties generation, (a decade known for its 'free love', drug taking, sex and liberal lifetstyles) and all the medical findings of recent times into the effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco have led to this PC brigade and campaign against booze and cigarettes and sex. Some of our best loved, most famous people have fell ill to various related illnesses (George Best to alcohol, Freddie Mercury to AIDs, Warren Zevon of REM after a history of smoking).

But I think it is time, like Smzigin says, to stop demonising young people. Do we really want a straight-edge society? It's all well and good for the government to educate people into the dangers of smoking, drinking, etc. We can't be expected to just 'know' the dangers. But it is wrong to be shamed for lifestyle choices that do not correspond to the masses.

I'm a drinker, and a smoker. And in both cases I've made friends and had many good times through social smoking of cigarettes and going out to the clubs. Sometimes, yes, I've made an arse out of myself and some of these tales are legendary and still spoken of, years after the event. But that's part of the fun. I never committed any crime (other than the obvious there), just made an idiot out of myself. Making people grow up feeling they can't experience the same fun I have had or anybody older than me (I'm looking at the likes of Professor Smzigin, I'm sure she got pissed once in her young days at university), is not the way to go. We'd be making our children of this generation not really knowing how to have fun, scaring them so much that before we know it, kids won't be going out and getting themselves into trouble and learning better from the experience.

It's like hypocondria gone mad. If we molly-coddeled our babies, made sure they were always well so they never contracted an illness as small as chickenpox, we'd never have a good enough immune system in our later years to fight infection.

By the same token, not allowing people to make their own choices, not letting them embarass themselves in public to create social tales that last a lifetime and to learn from the experience - we would lose our ability to interact with each other and socialise. People need this outlet, not to live in a society of moral panic causing everyone to stay at home and play World of Warcraft instead.

By all means, teach us the dangers of life. Not patronize us and make us feel criminal for a life choice that we can choose to act out responsibly. Sex, Drugs, Drink, Alcohol, all can be experienced in life to an effect that is responsible. Don't try and take things away from us just because the media sensationalises everything. There is a place for legislation and a place for education. That is the goal:

Ensuring Responsibility, not inducing fear.

Jet!

I realise it's 7AM. But I woke up 4 hours ago after a bad dream. With Vale playing the Dale today, I need to stay awake.

I went to Jet, and bought:





Relentless!





Snickers ice cream.


Mmmm. The joys of single life and going mental. I can go to Jet at 7AM in the dark, buy crap and sit on the street alone like a bum and indulge.

Whey.

And there was no point to this at all. I'm just bored!
-- Post From My iPhone

Social Networking or Spy Networking?

I am becoming increasingly convinced, that Social Networking like Facebook, Myspace etc. (these two being my main mediums of outlet) are nothing more than Spy Networks. ... or Spy Networking, I would like to call it. Just a while ago, I blogged on giving myself the "challenge", just to stay away. Needless to say, it wasn't a brilliant success, or indeed one at all. But it resulted in deletion of people that I'm sure will just be, temporary for the time being.

The main reasons, I think why social networking tools like these on our beloved interweb are really spy tools are two things - the Twitter-inspired Status Update revolution and the "Who You May Know" Tool.

Over the course of the year, it was reported that Facebook has overtaken MySpace, globally as the main media for social networking, so this is where, I think the first reason, the "Status Update", comes into play more dramatically. It comes mainly from Twitter, which now you can sync the two using various web applications within Facebook. Log into Facebook, and you will see what I mean:

John Doe is eating his breakfast (two minutes ago)
Oprah Winfrey is having a bath with the dogs (1 hour ago)
Ms Blobby misses him even though he hates me (2 hours ago)
Anita Ball is getting pissed with Montel tonight (4 hours ago)

These are just randomly made up examples but they are not far off the mark. Some people post many of these a day, where it becomes like a diary, and you can have mini-conversations by "commenting" on a status update as if it were breaking news. One particular example I observed was a girl celebrating her 10 week anniversary with her boyfriend, with no less than 36 replies to the story where they had what I cannot describe other than a "<3 fight". You can see where it gets extreme.

I probably haven't been immune to this kind of criticism either - I like to bitch and moan, as much as the next person. And I've been the culprit of PM's on MSN Messenger from people asking me if I am "okay" because my statuses don't seem too happy. So there's a more personal, objective peice for me to give to this argument. And if you have facebook, log in now and you will see exactly what I mean. You will have a page of "news stories" and "items" all from people you have added to your facebook, because you either went to Primary School with them, met them at a Star Trek convention once, or tangeled your tackles together on one fateful night on the town. Put simply, anything you say, if you added someone who knows you, they will know too what you are doing with your life if you care to tell Facebook. Tell Facebook, tell the world.

I must prefer to entertain myself grading beers, noting humourous stories I find on the interweb, or writing long, rant-like articles such as this one on LucasWeatherby.com.

Still though, I find I update my facebook status, probably once or twice too many times when I'm awake. I mean, who cares if someone's getting drunk every day on the town or who you spend your time with? Sometimes though, these things can get personal, simply annoying, a headache. I've rarely ever seen things I find entertaining on facebook status updates.

Somehow, this brings us to my next point. I'm not quite sure how, but I want to move on.

MySpace and Facebook has over the past few months, recently rolled out a feature called "People You May Know", basically its friends of friends, a listing of people that if you have a few friends in common, you can find them this way. It's ingenious, isn't it?

But then if you know just one or two people, you can be seen by other people lurking in the background. Personally I add 99% of people to my facebook that I know or met because I'm not too bothered what they know about me or not. I only ever seem bothered when I know a little too much about them. You can always block, delete people and ignore their "friend request", but doesn't the "People You May Know" tool imply it being more of a spying tool than a social networking? I mean, you "may know" them, not actually be friends with them. That strikes me as a little bit strange, and still does really when you can see that people have contacts for "friends" when you know clearly you never really liked them in school or cared about them.

For some, I guess, it poses for a bit of humour (it does for me) - at least, where appropiate.
Sometimes when there is the need, you've always got your block and delete options, you might want to be friends again one day.
But Facebook as a social networking tool? Pfft.

Spy Networking, more like.

Viagra gives CIA intelligence on Afghan warlords

Apparently, the blue pill is getting warlords hard and sexually satisfying their polygamous lifestyle, reports the BBC in return to giving CIA Agents intelligence on Afghan warlords. (read here)

Well, it seems like everyone's a winner then!

In one case, a 60-year-old warlord with four wives was given four pills and four days later detailed Taleban movements in return for more.

....

In the case of the 60-year-old warlord - the head of a clan in southern Afghanistan who had not co-operated - operatives saw he had four younger wives.

The pills were explained and offered. Four days later the agents returned.

"He came up to us beaming," the Post quoted an agent as saying. "He said, 'You are a great man.'

Sex sells, it seems.

Brilliant.