pap

The state of the pub industry is a national tragedy. Go abroad and foreigners will immediately switch the word "bar" for "pub" in your presence. Why? It's because we're famous for it. It is truly gutting to have witnessed the collapse of so many local pubs, either repurposed or outright demolished. Some will argue that the smoking ban is a just a factor in a wide range of causes, but it does happen to be massively coincidental that so many pubs have closed since the law's introduction. People forget how valuable local pubs are in gelling a community. About half the people I know in Liverpool are people I've met in local pubs. We've lost innumerable social hubs where people could just turn up for a quiet drink and a chat. There is literally nowhere to have a drink for people on my side of the estate - and part of our community is gone. I was saddened to see the Gate on Burgess Road flattened the last time I went to Southampton, and not entirely surprised when I met half of Bassett drinking in the Mitre, Portswood. The night-time economy is moribund. Taxi drivers have had poor business for years - I'm constantly meeting people who've waited hours for a fare. Contrast that to the good old days when you'd have fleets of vehicles ferrying slightly merry people from the local joints to the clubs in town. I still go out occasionally, but it's always to town and as a consequence, always feels like something of an event. Seems like there's no such thing as a nice quiet drink anymore. Like I said, a national tragedy. I don't think we'll ever get them back.

Great post from someone who knows a lot more about this sort of thing than me. Still not as good as he thinks he is, though However, definitely right to point out the brutality of improbability. Probably played one of my best games on Fri - a couple of mis-steps, for sure - but certainly didn't get knocked out on a stupid hand. You're also right to point out the lack of patience. Seen it so many times - people wanting to deliver quick knockout blows and getting utterly destroyed. In many ways, less experienced players will do you more here - they'll call anything and for emotive reasons - whereas the seasoned card players will be warier about sticking their stack out there in marginal situations. Have to say though - absolutely love the game. The sort of sums I play for mean that it's never really about the money ( unless you like playing for sub-minimum wage! ). As I said before, the buzz is awesome - and unlike anything else.

Online poker is a lot harder for me to play. I'm missing a whole range of information that you get in a live game. Half the fun of poker is trying to work out if someone is bullsh*tting you. Some of the best fun is had when you have the nuts and you know they are

Funny you should mention that. I said the exact same thing to my boss when he started playing online poker, adding 'within a year you'll be down on the docks wearing a cardboard sign that says "will w*nk for chips"'.

Anyone play it? I've played in a couple of live tournaments this week. Got knocked out early on in the first, but came 4th out of around 30 in a deep stack game on Friday night. Don't really play online that much, certainly not for cash - but a night of card-playing has become my go-to night out lately. Not exactly expensive either. Think I spent £20 on Tuesday night and due to my finish on Friday, actually made money. Good fun, bit of banter and a massive buzz. Does Southampton have anywhere that does a Texas Hold'Em night?

Has she killed before? Perhaps under the influence of a few triple espressos?

Sotonian, grew up in Bassett (as the locals would call our little bit of the Flower Estate) and moved to Liverpool for Uni in 1994. Met Matt Le Tiss when he was about 17 at the Southampton Flower and Balloon Show. The Saints youngsters were doing training sessions with the local toe-rags - got to have a little kick-about with him for 10 minutes or so. Very cool to see him go on and become a Saints legend. First ever Saints game was in December 1998. My dad took me and my brother up to Wimbledon when they were still at Plough Lane. We lost that 2-1, and the cheeky Dons were charging £4.50 for kids. Plough Lane was a craphole too First ever home game was Oxford United in January 1990. 1-0 Saints. Lived quite near the Dell when I was 15-16, so went quite a bit. Remember getting in for £3 as a "boy" ( there are some advantages to being a short-arse ). I also used to wander in to watch the odd reserve game. Best game was in 1998 at Anfield, where we won 3-2, just because I was living there and Saints had done them on their own turf. These days, mostly go to northern away games - although looking to come down to St Marys more. That said, atmosphere at away games is usually brilliant. I take my daughters or nephew to games with me. The eldest daughter claims to be a supporter, but don't think she's really that bothered. The younger one is disappointingly a Red. Still, one out of two ain't bad.

I love the stuff. I've got one of those pots you stick on the stove. Stronger the better, imo. Be warned though. Drinking 75 cups a day has a 50% chance of killing you.

Bearsy, don't listen to Special K. He's talking nonsense. He should stick to being an aspirational breakfast cereal for dieters. His plan sounds good in theory, but the outcome is most likely to be you trying to wedge your limp and uninterested member into a dry clam. You'll be humiliated, and you'll be known as the "little bear who couldn't". Even the fit one will think you're a loser if you fail (and let's face it, the motivation is not there). Your best bet to emerge from the threesome with credit is to poke while the iron is hard. Special K probably tried his plan once himself, probably ending up having to move towns or something. From my experience, it's the complete opposite. In fact, the dirtiest girl I ever went with happened to be one of the best looking. I think it's got something to do with their confidence levels. "Hey, I've got this super amazing hot body and I know how to use it". Of course, there are probably hot girls who think they're hot enough to just "plank" while doing the deed, but that is a criminal waste of resources, in my opinion.

There you go, proven with a mixture of science and wrestling! Defo not a threesome, Bearsy. Nice one, referee Bletch.

No problem, and apologies for the delay in providing a swift judgmental response. I have had other demands on my time of late. It does sound as if there was something fishy about text girl. As for the video, it's a possibility. You might even be on the Internet now. At this very moment, someone could be furiously masturbating using Bearsy's non-threesome sexual congress as inspiration. If you were going to try and find said video on the Internet, what search term would you use?

Strictly speaking, I wouldn't say that's a threesome. More accurately, you slept with two separate women in a short space of time. I think they both need to be involved at the same time for it to be a threesome. Strictly speaking, you can't 'do' both at the same time without being a genetic curiosity, so an element of time slicing is required. (see below) And this is where you went wrong my friend. You should have had them both involved from the start. Doesn't matter that you've only got one wanger. There are other things you could have done (I believe there are plenty of educational videos on the Internet you can reference), and personally, I think making the less attractive one wait for slippery seconds was a bit out of order. In that situation, you should have done your preferred one for a bit, and then whenever you're near the vinegar strokes, swap over to the one you aren't as attracted to until you're repulsed enough to have calmed down a bit. By alternating like this, both girls will be happy and you will emerge from your threesome looking like a sexual leviathan. Plus there's more chance of them getting it on too.

Some legislation was recently proposed to give people a statement of where their tax money is going. We would expect a breakdown of any other large purchase, yet one of our biggest monthly outgoings disappears into a black hole with almost no accountability. Mental.

Netanyahu on Iran : "We can't afford to wait much longer" Interesting article. The Israelis apparently wanted to get the US to commit to military action if a number of "red lines" were crossed in the development of its nuclear program. The present dynamic between the US and Israel is very interesting. Netanyahu clearly doesn't like Obama, and has dressed him down in public. Obama has said three times in the last week that the "US will always have Israel's back", yet they have politely refused to be tied to any "red line" justification for a pre-emptive strike. Seems a bit weird that Obama is proclaiming very loudly that the US will have Israel's back when they've trampled on his peace plans and dissed him in public.

Definitely some good points there about the perils of settling down young. It is tough, and the one thing I want for my girls is that they get to live a good portion of their life without being weighed down with the commitments that I had at that age. Life gets turned upside down and you lose a lot of mobility across many areas of life. The kids weigh into every decision, as they should - but I've had to turn down life-changing opportunities to serve the best interests of the girls. There are a couple of advantages - energy levels for one thing; I had no problem with the sleepless nights when I was in my early twenties. Starting to see some positives now. As the eldest is now sixteen, Ms pap and I do have a freer hand in how we spend our evenings. We came to the startling realisation that we could go down the pub any night we liked the other day. That's a magical moment. Plus we'll both be in our very early forties when Juvenile Unit #2 zooms off to Uni. The weird thing is, I'm not sure that Ms pap and I know what the hell we're going to do when that happens. Raising kids has been a central and almost constant part of our relationship. It is going to be very weird when both have flown the nest.

Difficult question to answer, as morals are pretty relative. Your biological purpose is actually pretty simple. Live long enough to procreate and produce offspring. Personally, I'm not sure if we are supposed to be monogamous as a species. It's pretty rare in the animal kingdom for a species to mate for life, and its evidently getting rarer amongst humans. It's essentially a clash between an invented bundle of various strands of human morality versus biological imperative. Or more simply, your mind tells you to do one thing while your body tells you to do another. Reminds me of a joke:- "Why do men always think with their dicks? Because they haven't got enough blood to service brain and boner at the same time".

No, I'm talking about an actual, practical example of a club that refused to pay high wages. Theory = an unproven idea Practice = an idea that has been implemented and observed Which one would you call Blackpool?

The Flower Roads is actually divided up into lots of little sub-kingdoms (at least when you are ten years old). Unfortunately, I can't place Alps even with his road-drop. The key line of demarcation is Lobelia Road, which splits Daisy Dip into 'first' and 'second' fields. Carnation Road spills over both ends, so I don't know if Alps is Frying Pan End or a First Fielder.

I'm equally surprised that you see high player wages as inevitable. I don't see how that stands up to the example of Blackpool.

For anyone looking to get into IT, here's some advice from someone who has spent around fifteen years doing it, if you include my placement year at Ordnance Survey, which I do. 1) Be prepared for a life of study. The industry doesn't stand still, and nor will you. You'll either to constantly update your skills, or do what I stupidly do, learn ten at about the same time and play whack-a-mole with all the different factors at play. Bonus tip: don't do what I do. 2) An MCITP is temporary. Degrees are permanent. A lot of firms place great stock in official Microsoft qualifications, but they need to be updated to be of any use. Great, you're an expert on Windows Server 2000. See where I'm going with this? I have really mixed feelings about my degree. On the one hand, I know its the first thing that recruiters look for in a lot of IT roles. On the other, I've only been asked for documentary proof of my qualifications twice in fifteen years. I have been an active part of the recruitment process for several hires, and unfailingly, questions are asked when someone doesn't have one. Don't get me wrong - it doesn't exclude you from positions - but it requires significant research on the part of the employer to determine whether you're of a standard. Mate of mine, very smart - doesn't have a degree. Before he started his own company, he had tremendous trouble getting work because of a degree. He even joined the Merseyside branch of the British Computer Society to add some oomph to his credentials. Like I said, extremely capable and as for those companies that did discriminate along the lines of his degree, it's their loss, but the bias is there and it happens a lot. 3) Don't do it for the money If you're looking to get into IT just for the money, I'd look at doing something else. The money is very good compared to a lot of sectors, particularly if you've the balls to take the risk and go contracting. Thing is, even though you might be doing it for the money, you're going to be up against people who are passionate about what they're doing, and will eat a 60 hour week for breakfast. If your heart isn't fully in it, you're always going to come second-best against people with this level of commitment. 4) "No one part of the Internet is complex" Advice I was given by a former mentor (with NASA on his CV ). True, as well. I know it seems like computers are an unfathomable well of functionality, but they really aren't - they're mostly a collection of individual programs, each doing a very specific, pretty simple job. Don't get overwhelmed by all the things computers can do, and don't ever personify the actions of a computer ( "it's temperamental" - No 1 phrase guaranteed a 5 minute put-down from me in a workplace environment ). 5) Learn your trade in a small company Seriously. You'll get more exposure to a wider range of problems, and have to wear more hats. The corporate world is a lot more restrictive - large enterprises tend to run to processes that skew toward "don't bring the enterprise to it's knees". You can learn to fill out meaningless paperwork at a later stage in your career. 6) If you're still reading after all that... Don't mean to discourage anyone here - rather attract the right people into the industry. Computing is a very good career to get into. Let's face it, irrespective of which field you play on, you're getting paid to solve puzzles, which is something I see a lot of people doing in their own time on their breaks. Due to the speed that changes can be made, you can become an instant hero - but it can be hard work, and can't strictly be seen as a 9-to-5 job. Me? I just buzz off the fact its all so new. Hopefully, history will remember us IT nerds with as much reverence as the road and rail people of old. I rather suspect that they'll consider us a bunch of retrobate perverts with highly questionable search histories

Probably. Many people enter relationships with unrealistic expectations, that they'll often make worse by ascribing qualities to their partner that they hope exist, but probably don't. Personally, I think chick flicks have a lot to answer for, especially those that depict a perfect couple coming together against all the odds. People think that the grass is greener on the other side. If I learned anything during the 2.5 year break-up from Ms pap, it's that all women are mental. They just have different things they're mental about. I'm sure they'd say very similar things about us.

Difficult to watch, but came through in the end. A brillant 3 points though. Over to you, West Ham.

Seconded - and mentioned somewhere way way up the thread. It's a proper character arc, is all I'm saying

I have just started as a lower league manager, taking the helm as Eastleigh manager. So far, so good, although some would consider my strategy somewhat dodgy. There is a small French colony called Reunion, who happen to have a lot of very good players for lower league sides. Many will join Blue Square Bet South Sides. Going alright so far - using the tactics posted above ( Minimal Fuss ) - although I'm picking up a lot of fines for disciplinary problems. £500! That's a tenth of my transfer budget!

A lot of the transient stuff ( alien of the week, etc ) does look pretty dated - but the set of the Enterprise looks excellent from the first episode onward. Haven't seen any of the HD remasters they've done ( 4 episodes so far ) but I'll probably be on board for the lot if they do it.