honestly. sorry.

I’ve used the Google bundle I set up here

The twitter account (link) should tweet whenever someone on the list posts on their blog. I used the RSS function on Hootsuite  the excellent site ‘if this then that‘ to make it happen.

If you are a Lewesian and would like your blog to be added, or removed, please do contact me via my Contact page or on twitter at @mrmzholland

I’ve changed my Youtube username. This involved deleting my old one.

So my new channel (nothing up there yet) is here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mrmzholland

I am very excited to be playing a small part in organising the second ever TEDxBrighton event. Keep an eye on the website (and the Twitter feed, and the Facebook page) for the latest news…

I made crumpets this morning – using this Delia Smith recipe.

Inspired by my friends Scuff and Duncan (whose blogs I heartily recommend) I decided to blog about it. I might even do more food blog posts as and when – and improve the quality a bit!

Here’s how they turned out

…and here’s a video of one cooking

I had a great time at the tweetup last night. We went to the Snowdrop, which is one of my favourite pubs anyway.

We had fewer people come that last month (which was, I think, the busiest one so far) – twelve people in total came along. It was quite nice actually because it meant that everyone got a chance to talk to everyone else, which was nice. Great to see that even after over a year’s worth, people were still meeting new people and making connections.

I’d be hoping that we could play Toad, and we did! There were a few people who hadn’t played (or even heard of the game) before, but under the careful guidance of @mdkent, we had a very fun game. Even if my team did lose. And even if we spent twenty minutes looking for a lost toad (for the full story, see @scrapperduncan’s blog)

Here’s a video which is incredibly poor quality but if you squint you can just about make out some toads and a board…

Another highlight was a very interesting discussion of the ins and outs of hot air ballooning from the ever-fascinating @richardwiles.

So – great evening all round, top fun. Looking forward to the next one!

Here’s the ‘register’:

@tcbarrett
@dnatkinson
@scrapperduncan
@mdkent
@librarypigg
@yackety
@leilanimitchel
@mark_head
@mrmzholland
@richardwiles
@katharinawin
@arnoldgoldman

@mrmzholland since when did you believe in ‘Lent’? You’re a rubbish atheist sometimes!

— Sarah Lady (@Sarah_Lady) February 20, 2012

I’m really enjoying reading my current book, Religion for Atheists.

I think that I’m going to have a bit of pop at doing something commonly associated with a religion and give something up for Lent – caffeine.

It’s on a bit of a whim really but it’ll be interesting. I don’t think I’ve gone without coffee for more than a day for many years. In fact these days (and especially since quitting drinking last December) I drink more of the stuff -and tea! – than ever, so much in fact that I’m sometimes disturbingly wired.

So really it’s not a Lenten thing, as it’s something I want to stop doing anyway, if only for a limited time, and not really an act of penance. But Lent (which in 2012 is 22 February to 7th April) seems as good a time as any, and I can do it along with a new twitter chum, @laurahaddow, who is giving up coffee (and presumably my fellow atheist Rob, who usually forsakes alcohol every Lent, I believe).

And if I save up the money I would have spent on coffee and tea in the 40 days, I’ll probably be able to afford a new (well, secondhand) teapot and *drumroll* the Aeropress I’ve been threatening to buy for ages. BONUS!

—

Actually, the fact that I’m using a season that traditionally “should” be used as a time for penitence to do something that I in fact *want* to do (and without feeling penitent at all – I’m not sure I really understand the concept in this context) reminded me of the bullshit “Until Abortion Ends” meme where people pledge to give up things that they clearly want to give up anyway and then try and dress it up as some kind of political protest. Awful and dishonest.

Here’s Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine who says it better than I ever could…

My Friday treat is a nice cup of coffee in one of my favourite cafes, Red Roaster in Brighton. It’s on the way to work and if I catch the 6.39 bus rather than the 6.59, I’ve got the extra time to linger over a double espresso and catch up with Twitter.

 This morning, however, I was able to start on my new book, “Religion for Atheists” by Alain de Botton. It’s the first time I’ve bought a new hardback (for myself) in ages, years probably.  Matt from Skylark Books in Lewes has recently got onto Twitter (here he is!) and is currently offering a 15% discount for orders made by tweet, which I was very happy to take advantage of.

  The book looks very promising, and chimes with a lot of things I’ve been thinking recently. I’m not a religious person by any means, and would describe myself as an atheist, but I’ve come round to thinking recently that there are certain functions, social and psychological, that religion has performed very well for years, and which ‘the secular world’  has no current way of addressing.

 I remember recently hearing someone (was it on the radio? in the pub? I can’t remember…) describing the work of the Church as ‘organised kindness’.

 I really liked that term. I believe that a secular society would be best – I can’t abide the thought of policy being based on what I view as arbitrary ‘religious’ values – but I wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  I often think about how we could organise ourselves and our kindness better, and create spaces and institutions that help to do this (I’d like to think that #LewesTweetup does, for example), and I think that de Botton has a good point that maybe the best idea is to “steal” from religions (after all, that’s what all the geniuses do - right?). I’m very interested to see exactly how he thinks we can we pull it off.

Anyway, I won’t second guess the book but suffice to say I’m really looking forward to reading it over the next few days (or weeks, looking at my diary!).

I will report back.

Please do add a comment if you have anything to add, I’m very interested in this stuff and would love to hear what other people think.

At #lewestweetup with some men, some red wine and a dog #win

— Rachel P (@archelina) February 8, 2012

I know I say this every time but – really – it was a great #LewesTweetup last night. What a fantastic and interesting bunch of people.

It was a shame we had to divert from the Dripping Pan (the Lewes Ladies’ match we were meant to be meeting at was postponed due to a frozen pitch), but the cosy atmosphere of our short-notice host pub, @kingsheadlewes, made up for it nicely. They’d reserved the ‘snug’ (the bit behind the fireplace) for us but we soon expanded out of there due to lack of space, and took over half the pub!

Lots of familiar and well-loved faces came out, as well as some lovely new ones.

Special mention goes to @gingeraction (James) and @sarah_lady (um, Sarah), who were both celebrating their birthdays yesterday, and @lacatchat who had a birthday this week too.

And extra-special thanks to local legend @ArnoldGoldman who very kindly arranged for @crumbslewes to make them a cake:

Numbers-wise I think it was a record-breaker, with 31 tweeters and 4 non-tweeters coming along over the course of the evening. Blimey.

Here’s a list of the twitter profiles of everyone that came:

@richardwiles
@archelina
@scrapperduncan
@ianeiloart
@robkread
@mrmzholland
@sarah_lady
@pinkyandnobrain
@richiedeepsky
@gingeraction
@dnatkinson
@barmyrob
@lornearmstrong
@mdkent
@rowstar
@lewesskeptics
@lewessounds
@michellecporter
@lewesnick
@lacatchat
@robshepherd
@joemattinson
@anthonyhead7
@clairekirtland
@martinpporter
@katharinawin
@leilanimitchel
@mark_head
@lord_lush
@docodin
@stumpyduck77

 Huge thanks to everyone for coming and making it such a top night, and to everyone who retweeted the announcements, without whom I would likely have been sat in a pub on my own.

See you next month!