The Yorksher Gob

PSA

2009-06-29T02:45:53Z

Just a quick note to remind anyone who is still subscribing to this blog that I have now moved over completely to Dreamwidth.

The url is: http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org/ and it's syndicated to LJ as miss_sb_dw, for those of you whose preferred mode of reading that is.

Please to be updating your bookmarks, RSS readers, and blogrolls. Thank you!

Dreamwidth Pimping (sorry)

2009-05-04T18:53:13Z

I have now completely moved over to Dreamwidth, and this will be (probably) the last post to this journal. Please, please, please update your links, RSS readers, and blogrolls to reflect the change. If you are on LJ, the relevant syndicated feed name is miss_sb_dw. I know it's a pain in the arse to ask you to do this, but I won't be changing blog platforms again, or if I do it won't be for a long time, since I have top-whack-permanent-seed account on DW, and will be the premiumest of premium users over there.

If any of you are checking out Dreamwidth, by the way, there are a bunch of politics comms you might want to join/add:

UK Politics community.
Real Ale lover's community.
Liberty in the UK - a non-partisan community for UK Liberals of all parties (name shamelessly nicked from Rob Knight - sorry Rob!).

I am also watching lots and lots of politics-related feeds - too many to list here - check my DW profile for details (for those of you who don't know, DW works as a feed-reader and blogging platform in one, so most of you will probably see your own blogs being fed to DW if you check).

PSA: This Blog is an Ex Blog.

2009-05-02T14:40:46Z

As from today, I will no longer be posting to The Yorksher Gob, and my LJ account will only be updated with crossposts when I remember to do them and twitter updates (to make absolutely sure that my large LJ f-list will be notified when I post and won't miss anything unless they choose to). This is mostly what has been happening for the last week or so anyway. I will still be reading my LJ f-list and commenting and things. I am not abandoning my friends on LJ, or deleting my account, or anything over dramatic like that.

My new home is at http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org Please update your bookmarks and RSS readers as necessary.

If you have any questions feel free to ask them - but bear in mind that from hitting post on this to midnight I will be at work and I might not get back to you immediately ;)

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth blog. Please comment there using OpenID.

Swine Flu

2009-04-27T06:43:25Z

We're not actually going to be able to STOP swine flu, are we? Surely it would be better to LET it spread, get it over with, and then we would have herd immunity? Why are we prolonging the agony? It's not like the world isn't over-populated anyway...

Why yes, I AM feeling particularly grumpy today. I suspect it is something to do with having woken up at half past five in the frigging morning. Still, at least I have heard News Briefing and Farming Today for the first time ever.

This entry was originally posted at http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org/883162.html. Please comment there using OpenID, and add the feed of my DW posts to LJ at miss_sb_dw.

Beer Festival!

2009-04-25T11:47:05Z

It's a Festival! Of Beer!

Less than a week to go to beer festival at work, and the nerves are starting to set in. Vicky and I have decided on wearing some kind of May Queen getup, since it will be MayDay on the first day of the festival. This might mean a trawl through the charity shops on Monday to find some not-black clothes...

Anyway, if anyone is free next weekend, and in the area, do feel free to pop in. We will have lots of beer and you can come and point and laugh at me behind the bar.

The Barge and Barrel Spring Beer Festival - May 1st - 4th inclusive. Bring your own Maypole. Wicker Men not supplied.

((X-posted Dreamwidth Real Ale Comm, here; miss_sb_dw here, theyorkshergob here. Comments disabled on all but the Real Ale post))

Question Time & This Week.

2009-04-23T23:39:18Z

QT was remarkable in that I mostly agreed with David Starkey, even though he was somewhat hyperbolic. The Everyone Loves Vince thing continued (even on This Week where the party got a celebrity endorsement -YAY! ... from Janet Street-Porter -Oh dear) and the Tory was a complete non-entity, so I was fairly happy with it.

This Week went Star Trek MAD (Huzzah!) even to the extent of putting Quentin Twat (and his beer belly) in a Spock outfit (he SO should have been a nameless Redshirt) but Lord, David Gest, Janet Street-Porter AND Quentin Twat in the same show? That's got to be illegal under the Geneva Conventions, surely?

I have had much gin, and am down to 54 unread emails...

This entry was originally posted at http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org/882246.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

State of the SB

2009-04-21T00:13:01Z

Isn't the new Lib Dem tax policy grand? We got real proper news airtime and everything!

There, that's political blogging out the way for the moment. In other news, I have been v v v busy ~~not posting all the stuff I keep promising to do and falling further behind~~ setting up for the shiny new internet future! I have mentioned Dreamwidth already. The plan is to move over there lock, stock and two smoking barrels when my paid account on LJ runs out, in August.

At the moment, this is having a number of effects:

I am not posting at theyorkshergob as much, because I am over at DW setting stuff up and such

I have transferred all of my non-f-locked reading material over there as of today.

I am randomly squeeing on twitter lots

I have already started making substantive posts over there, but so far mostly memeage

This means that if you're not yet watching my Dreamwidth blog, you've not yet missed much. But you will, if you don't start watching it soon.

If you are on my personal LJ f-list:

You don't have to do anything. Courtesy of twitterfeed, everything I post will be shipped in once per day by LoudTwitter. Of course, if you have an irrational phobia of clicking twitterfeed posts, you'll miss stuff, but that's entirely your choice and I, as a Liberal, won't deny it to you. And besides, you can just add miss_sb_dw to your f-lists and then you won't miss a thing ;)

If you are not on my LJ f-list:

Then you need to start following the DW blog as well as theyorkshergob. I shall try not to crosspost too much, which means that you will inevitably miss stuff if you follow one but not the other. Eventually I shall be going over there completely, but not just yet.

Either way, if you fancy a DW account of your own:

Comment on one of my posts over there. Or Mat's. Or somebody's. Because (as Mat says in the comments below) they will offer accounts to validated openIDs as soon as possible when the site goes live.

I realise that this is a pain in the arse for many of you, but I promise it'll be better in the long run. Dreamwidth works kind of like I always hoped LJ would. The OpenID stuff actually works. Lots of other stuff actually work. I am deeply in love with it.

Oh yeah, and I already have a queue for invite codes. Ozzy, Del, Scarlettgirl, in that order. As soon as I get some, they shall be handed out.

Smeargate Redux - The Mahon Connection

2009-04-18T12:11:22Z

So the Westminster Bubble is all still wittering on about smeargate, despite the fact that we now know that Ian Tomlinson died of abdominal bleeding and there are lot of other important things in the news. Still, smeargate has had one welcome effect. Alice Mahon, one of the wonderful and principled people who was still suckered into supporting the Labour party, has seen the light.

Come to the Lib Dem side, Alice. We have cookies (homemade by my own dear wife).

118 247...

2009-04-16T20:50:32Z

... ARE UTTER BAR-STUDS. Whose bright idea was it to make an advert for them based on the Magical Trevor song? I've only seen the bloody thing twice and now I can't stop going round the house going:

Everyone loves Magical Trevor
Cos the tricks that he does are ever so clever...

It's almost as bad as badgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadger mushroom mushroom... But still nothing like the Little Red Monkey:

Bye Bye Clement

2009-04-16T10:41:09Z

RIP Clement Freud: Liberal, wit, and raconteur.

:(

If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer.

Radio Four

2009-04-15T10:36:50Z

This morning I are been mostly wondering whose bright idea it was to commission an extremely unfunny sitcom about arms dealing...

Writer's Block: Looking Back

2009-04-14T23:09:24Z

LiveJournal is turning 10 and we're feeling nostalgic. What was your first LJ post about?

View other answers

I shall copy and paste the text of my first ever LJ entry, for those who don't have access to it. It's entitled So I finally made an LJ..., and is dated the 19th of April 2004:

* fiddle fiddle fiddle *

Can't resist poking about to see how things work LOL

I think I got the colour scheme sorted anyway

:D

Now I just have to think of a use for this LJ thing... I mean, I pretty much use my website as an LJ anyway, right? I think it is probably best for me to use this to chronicle my attempts to become a proper biker. It's something I've dreamed about for a long, long time, and finally looks like it will become a reality sometime in the next month or so. I have costed out EVERYTHING< and I mean EVERYTHING, down to visor wipes for my helmet and a little mini alarm for a mini bike garage... And I reckon that even factoring in a brand new bike I can get myself legally on the road for a lot less than £4k. Which is good news :D

Now comes the hard part... persuading 'im indoors >: (

* Tags: bike, lj maintenance
* Groups: Posting: Everyone
* I am feeling: curious
* What? I can't hear you over: Miss Dynamite-ee-heee

So, what has changed for me since then?

Well, I have a lot less money to play with.
I have passed my bike test, bought and lost two motorbikes, and am now bikeless.
I have a different home, a different job, and most importantly, a different 'im indoors.
I have an extra doggie, and have gained and lost two snakes.

And despite all that upheaval, and the lack of cash? I am much much much emotionally better off.

LJ, meanwhile, has started having adverts, has sold out and sold its userbase down the river, and if anything better had come along before, I'd probably have been off a while ago... So I am really crossing my fingers for Dreamwidth.

I Dream of Jeannie, she's a Light Brown Hare...

2009-04-14T18:27:14Z

Hullo world! I am still trying to catch up with my mammoth backlog, and this is complicated by the fact that I have taken the plunge with Dreamwidth. So you all still know I am alive etc., have some linkies:

Firstly, my beloved explains why Dreamwidth is so awesome and why we are both so stoked about it. Another clue is in their diversity statement, which reads like the preamble to the constitution to me...

We are having a Beltane Beer Festival at work, and you're all invited, if you can get to it!

Perse posts a nice discursive post about the writing of New Who in dw_academy. Also, Daddies Richard and Alex might want to nosey at this post ;)

Mr Quist strikes again in his puncturing of government.

And finally, Lidl's most tempting offer yet - via huskyteer. Suspect hairygit will be especially interested in that one.

And now I must go watch more Batman with my Small Person. Oh the trials of motherhood...

#amazonfail

2009-04-13T13:35:11Z

So, amazon are enabling LGBT and disability discrimination. It are all over the internet. Is there any reason why The Party is still supporting and promoting them via the affiliate scheme? All the ethical people are disabling theirs.

Oh yes, perhaps it's because all the Westminster-based Lib Dems are still banging on about the complete non-event of a bottom-feeding, muck-raking Tory blogger being holier-than-thou about a bottom-feeding, muck-raking Labour blogger bandying about some silly ideas in an email, and hasn't noticed that something important regarding actual oppression of actual people by a huge commercial giant is happening..

For fuck's sake.

The reason people pay attention to this bollocks is because we are all talking about it. You can't spend your life talking about Draper/Staines and then complain that people talk about them too much. Find another frigging topic. Preferably something that actually matters.

Have Been Tagged for a Meme

2009-04-10T10:43:33Z

1. What time did you get up this morning?
I haven't, yet.

2. Diamonds or pearls?
A pearl necklace O:-)

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Can't remember

4. What's your favourite TV show?
Am currently working my way through the box set of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
I can't have the same breakfast two days running. It's wrong.

6. What is your middle name?
None of your business.

7. What food do you dislike?
Kippers.

8. What is your favorite CD at moment?
Butchering the Beatles

9. What kind of car do you drive?
I don't.

10. What is your favorite sandwich?
BLT with black pepper and mayo

11. What characteristic do you despise?
Wilful ignorance

12. Favorite item of clothing?
Comfy underwear - harder to find than it sounds.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
The idea of going on holiday is so far into the realms of the impossible at the moment that I honestly don't know.

14. Favorite brand of clothing?
I don't do brands in clothes. Possibly New Rock Boots?

15. Where would you retire to?
Wigtown in Scotland

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
30th, when Moodie and El and lots of other people turned up entirely unexpectedly.

17. Favorite sport to watch?
Rugby. Similarly to the boys on figure-skating, it's all about the thighs.

18. Furthest place you are sending this?
I dunno. Geography is not my strong point.

19. Person you expect to send it back first?
I don't expect anyone will.

20. When is your birthday?
27th December

21. Are you a morning person or a night person?
night person.

22. What is your shoe size?
6UK 39Eu

23. Pets?
Two doggies. Visiting rights on two snakes.

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us?
Alix Mortimer is a Southern softie who can only manage a pint and a half of beer, but she still eats all the pies.

25. What did you want to be when you were little?
Captain Kirk.

26. How are you today?
Not great, but well enough for work. I hope.

27. What is your favorite candy?
Flumps

28. What is your favorite flower?
White lilies.

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
13th June, start of the FFW

30. What's your full name?
Tarquin Fim Lim Bim Tim Ecce Ecce Ecce F'Tang F'Tang Biscuit Barrel.

31. What are you listening to right now?
Radio 4

32. What was the last thing you ate?
20mg Citalopram

33.Do you wish on stars?
No, but I look up at them lots.

34. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
Today? A nondescript dull grey.

35. How is the weather right now?
Haven't looked yet.

36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today?
Nobody yet.

37. Favourite soft drink?
Juice.

38. Favourite restaurant?
La Romantica.

39. Real hair color?
Mousy brown

40. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Diggum

41. Summer or winter?
Winter

42. Hugs or kisses?
Plenty of both.

43. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Vanilla

44. Coffee or tea?
Neither

45. Do you want your friends to tag you back?
What would be the point?

46. When was the last time you cried?
Can't remember but it's not that long since.

47. What is under your bed?
Four sealed boxes containing towels, sheets, duvet covers, and naughty toys; Roxy

48. What did you do last night?
Went to Liberal drinks and overstretched myself after being ill. Nearly fainted on the way home. Wished I had been more sensible.

49. What are you afraid of?
Getting dragged through the courts for financial cock-ups.

50. Salty or sweet?
Depends.

51. How many keys on your key ring?
Lots.

52. How many years at your current job?
2

53. Favorite day of the week?
They all have upsides and downsides, but I can say for sure that Saturday is the worst. Monday is quite nice if Mat takes Small Person to school, because then I get a proper day off.

54. How many towns have you lived in?
4

55. Do you make friends easily?
Sort of. I am quite open with people, but I'm very garrulous, and I think I talk too much and listen too little. I'm also rubbish at remembering things that other people think are important like birthdays and anniversaries. I have genuine affection for a lot of people, but I'm not good at showing it in traditional ways, so perhaps they don't all realise. I'm overthinking this question, aren't I?

56. How many people will you send this to?
The whole wide internet, via the medium of Livejournal.

57. How many will respond?
Who knows?

And now I guess I'd best be off to work...

I have written an email to Woman's Hour

2009-04-09T09:31:06Z

Quarter of a bloody hour on male pattern baldness? On WOMAN'S HOUR? FFS! Here is the text of my email:

Why on earth is Woman's Hour devoting a large part of its broadcast time to male baldness? It is, by definition, not going to be of direct interest to women. Even those women who find it of INDIRECT interest are going to need to persuade their men to listen to a bit of Woman's Hour.

I hate to come over all feministy here, but the vast majority of the broadcast media caters to the male point of view and things that men care about. Why are we letting them take over the one hour per day we women get? It's just not cricket.

I bet you a tenner that item was suggested by a male researcher.

Still, the item on women who do falconry is interesting...

Still poorly, still off work, but better than I was.

Bleargh...

2009-04-08T23:36:23Z

Today, I are bin mostly puking. With occasional bouts of the dire rear. And then more puking. Oh, and did I mention the puking? There has been a lot of puking.

Mat, also, has been puking. In fact, earlier, there was comedy synchronised puking. Meanwhile Small Person has a cough LOL.

I have had some interesting temperature fluctuations - feeling as though I am freezing while Mat tells me I am burning up is odd. I appear to be getting back to what passes for normal, though - I am not shivering AND sweating right now, at least - and I don't feel particularly hot or cold.

I rang in sick to work today, and will be doing so tomorrow as well, I think. I'm managing to keep water down at the moment, but haven't attempted anything solid yet; every muscle in my body aches from tensing-while-retching; and I don't think I will have the physical strength for work even if (as it looks at the moment) the puking is passing.

Still, in the past 48 hours I have eaten a slice of toast, a yoghurt, and a Clementine. Hurrah for a healthy balanced diet!

Ian Tomlinson

2009-04-07T19:59:35Z

So now there is a video, showing Mr Tomlinson being batoned and shoved by a police officer in riot gear. Even if you agree with this kind of treatment for protesters, even if you think they are asking for it, surely you can't think that a man walking home from work deserves it?

Like John Q Publican says, it's time to set aside partisan bickering and stand together, with one voice, to call the Establishment to account for the death of an innocent man.

And another thing! (poll)

2009-04-07T13:07:27Z

(inspired by a discussion with James and The Munchkin on Twitter)

View Poll: Kippers

Make Your Own Anti-Terror Poster and Other Linkage

2009-04-07T12:40:01Z

Click to Embiggen

Make your own here, or look at Millennium's and Mr Quist's efforts. Thanks to the Award-Winning Alix Mortimer for breaking this to the LibDemosphere...

Speaking of terror posters, witness Helen Duffett's horror that she is a textbook terrorist, given that she fulfills every last one of the criteria on this particular poster... Of course, she's not brown, so she ought to be OK.

As an inveterate scratcher (apparently I do it in my sleep as well), I found this article on why scratching helps to relieve itches really interesting. Claude doesn't think it should ever have been published, but there we go.

You'll find two of the above on today's netcast, which went up late today, partly because I was finding it REALLY difficult to pare down what I wanted to link to. I had 12 links which I thought were really interesting and well worth linking to, and I have a self-imposed maximum of eight in the post... Still, I'd like to ask for more people to send tips in ~~because if I have more than eight I have a watertight excuse for rejecting some of them~~. Your tip will be given more weight if you are not tipping yourself but recommending someone else; although tipping yourself is allowed, even if it gets annoying if it's every five minutes.

First Day of the Easter Holidays

2009-04-06T20:51:39Z

... And aside from walking the dogs, cooking food, and going to the opticians, I have spent the entire day snuggled up with small person watching Batman. My apologies if I have missed anything urgent, but spending the day with Small Person was lovely...

Just a Quickie

2009-04-05T10:36:09Z

If you have a spare £8 in the next few weeks, and you're vaguely either Liberal or Feminist, I urge you to spend it on this quarter's issue of The Journal of Liberal History, which is a special issue about the interactions between liberalism and feminism, and is going to be great fun for me, as both, to pick apart.

:D

I am going to bang on about this a lot, I think.

2009-04-04T12:26:08Z

(from Boing Boing)

The mainstream media are avoiding reporting what actually happened in London at the G20 protests as much as they possibly can. Most of them have withdraw from their websites, without explanation, the stories about the protestors hurling bottles and bricks at the police as they tried to help Ian Tomlinson. Only the Metro, so far as I am aware, has actually admitted that this might not have been true, though.

Here is a video by two of the people who were actually there when Mr Tomlinson collapsed:

Please spread that around. I have just heard Hazel Blears repeat the lies on Radio four, and that shit needs countering.

Stephen Tall on LDV has a good dissection of the attitude of the dead tree media to this. We've got our view and we're sticking to it. We've got our view and we're sticking to it. LA LALALALA WE CAN'T HEAR YOU. Anyone who doubts that the mainstream media will either have to change radically or die needs to pay attention to this. In that respect, they are kind of like the current political system... Speaking of which, are any politicians other than Tom Brake going to say something in public about this?

Other news about the police: I wouldn't bother handing in any stolen property to them if I were you. You'll end up being arrested and held for four hours, fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA. Way to encourage public-spiritedness there, Merseyside rozzers.

Still, Jesus and Mo is laugh-out-loud funny today, and the barmaid continues to be my role model.

Kettling - a Counterproductive policing technique

2009-04-03T09:37:48Z

Tom Brake MP was one of those caught in the Climate Camp by police yesterday. Here's a video he has uploaded to YouTube:

The Graun seems to be the only paper not regurgitating the official police line. The blogs and twitter are telling a very different story to the official police line. My thought last night was that the truth was probably somewhere between the two camps, both of them having a vested interest in presenting things in a particular way. The more that comes out, the more I lean towards the police brutality line advanced by the protestors.

Seriously, people, it's time to back the Freedom Bill. How much further do we have to slide down this slippery slope?

I Love the NHS

2009-03-31T18:14:01Z

You'll hear a lot of British people bitch about the NHS. Not me. I know how lucky I am. I read the blogs of my USian friends, and I thank Cthulhu that I live in the UK, and even though I am completely brassic, I can still get medical treatment.

This is, of course, a general state of affairs, but what has brought it to mind today is that Small Person is due for her eyes testing. So, we went around town and visited each optician to see if they had frames she liked. See, because of the NHS, she gets a voucher for free eye tests and for free glasses up to a certain value, and that can be redeemed at any optician.

So, we looked in lots of opticians. And we found... BATMAN GLASSES! She's booked in for her eye test on Monday, and she is incredibly excited.