jayseven

My mate had seemingly bunked school (he was fine the previous day. We didn't have mobile phones yet). Figured I'd check on him on the way home. I then remember sitting with him with bowls of bolognese while he played Ultima online, and I looked up and saw on the tv the buildings falling down... and my mate just said "yeah it's pretty rad innit" whilst staring at the computer screen.

But if the parents aren't doing a good job of it, the state should invest. Do it for a generation and if it's done well the next generation won't need to spend their valuable education time doing it. I think it's, at the least, a nice spin on education, which has, for too long, been about growing the most economically viable produce out of the classroom rather than addressing social issues that are too ingrained by the time they leave school. After which, there's little methodology to deal with altering perception aside from the media -- which isn't socialist :P Breeding a batch of 'decent citizens' from the grass-roots level can pay dividends in future, not only in terms of economic stability through denizens having a deeper understanding of service but also in encouraging a charitable, sharing and neighbourly attitude. Which will help when we're at war with nature and living off rations, or whatever. Or maybe it's overreaching into the past and trying to bring back those sepia-toned scenes of post-war Britain, In It Together.

@Ashley what are the exclusives on the swedish netflix? I think I only watched 3 seasons of Chuck so thanks for the reminder I've not watched any movies yet, oddly. Going to have an explore on the weekend with the ladyfriend. Probably going to end up watching some shite. And I still gotta try check the US netflix -- mostly to see if there's an extra season of some of the shows i wanna watch on the UK version. I do have to say... I've not laughed much with the new Arrested Development... Don't have the energy to watch the original series 4 times over just to feel like the new series is working. Only watched two episodes so far though.

Rent doesn't show up on credit checks, just some landlords may opt to do a check before letting to you. I shall look into how credit ratings are actually measured, as it'd be good to know what kind of finance is 'worth' a better rating.

I've not watched the video, just as I've not read the bible. I think we'd have alot less da vinci code's and other nonsense if everyone had actually read the bible, or, at least, had admitted to having no prior knowledge to the subject before listening to someone's obviously-mis-interpreted version of the king james version of the arabic word of god. I really, really, really want to have the various religious scripts enscribed to my brain. So many people arguing about shit they don't know about.

So after a nice weekend I get home, let my gf in to pick up her hair straighteners and a head suddenly pops in the door - some guy called gavin that I've never seen before... now I lodge in a house with a mature couple so they have people over from time to time but this guy was... weird. GF manages to leave then I get a message from one of my landlords saying "ignore x! He's [the other landlord's] brother and will leave soon..." ... So I decide to go talk to him. He shows me his Man U tattoo and I outwit him with football trivia, deal with the fact he's been a heroin addict, has a dead family relative and four kids that aren't reallly his whilst realising we both have teh same lighter. It's all a bit weird and on the bad side of things because I DIDN'T PAY MY RENT TO DEAL WITH THIS SHIT. He literally entered teh room without consent while my gf was here and so I don't feel massively comfortable having him in the house while I try to sleep. As some people know my 'overall' landlord is a mate I went to school with, so I'm struggling with how I'm supposed to tell him about all this. My mate has basically NEVER told me about his family - his dad (one of my 'landlords') only reappeared recently to claim this house... and this dude in the house was starting to tell me all sorts of crazy shit about the family. I think I need to move out.

It's getting close to official; my ex-ex, also ex-ex-ex and ex-ex-ex-ex giflriend and I are getting closer again. Inside i'm prettyl GLEEEE about it. Had a good weekend playing cards against humanity and BLANK and going to a farm that does cider and mead and has animals and stuff.

^probably a kind of heat rash. Most years when we get the first wave of heat I get it on my fingers, then it goes away and I guess my skin's 'toughened up' for the rest of summer.

@bob eat lots of kidney beans and fightfart back. Get a deskfan.

Anyone watching the Talking Bad show on Netflix? Just watching the first episode and 'superfan' Julie Bowen (Claire from Modern Family) is actually fairly accurate with the way the final episodes have gone, and it's fun watching the producer Vince someoneorother trying not to give anything away EDIT: I just watched episode 4 of talking bad and I have no idea if it's a joke or not but there could be a potential spoiker..? If it's true then it's a fairly big spoiler, but if it's a joke then... perhaps still a spoiler as it kinda removes one of the potential thingsthatarehappeninginthenext4episodes. I'd advise people to skip it if they want to remain untainted.

Not that I have an extensive experience of trying to fix anything (mostly because I don#t own my property or furnishings), but I do think it's the lack of appropriate tools that would stop me -- more than effort or knowledge. You can google/youtube HowTo just about anything. I fixed dishwashers and washing machines in the past; blocked windows and pipes and all that shit - but if you have to makeshift the tools then you're already a step closer to failure. So I like to think, anyway.

Yeah it can be just that you've got no proven history. If you've never been on the electoral roll in your addresses then, to the financial institutions, you don't exist. Thrip coming up shortly. No idea what it'll be about. Sorry to ALL for any confusion - I'm sure most people didn't even notice - I read ashley's suggestion of thrip, then just assumed when I got home that there was no thrip yet and went about from the bottom-up trying to do some thrippage, only to learn @Shorty was on the ball and had done it all already. I did wonder why I couldn't find half the posts I was sure I'd seen... Student housing has really impacted not only property values but also the available space for non-students. Landlords would buy up a 3-bed house and 'convert' it into a 5-bed student property that no family would ever want to live in. It means that existing properties are sized up by studenty-landlords and snapped up for above-rate because they know after a few years they'll make the difference back - plus students are easy to cater. Essentially after a year you are faced with a) gut the place or b) replace half the stuff. More money more cheap. Sigh. I'll stop now, it was pub quiz and Im not sober again.

I've spent most of my adult life in love with someone who is vastly different to me. i've dabbled in others more similar and more different, but ultimately I think the perfect partner is the one who is equally conscious of the difference, and equally willing to compensate for it. You can talk about compromise but that always seems to end up like a kind of legal battle. Being with someone who expects the same thing from a relationship seems to trump everything else. This is the fluxic unity between successful relationships.

(I mentioned that in my post but thanks for the back-up :P)

Though I love this, from the bbc stream:

lol :P of the series of videos where a rather decent chess youtuber reads the book whilst playing out the various parts. The book is out of copyright, which is nice. I would still recomment you play a few games with me where I'll narrate my intentions and general thoughts. I;m not a massively strong player so it'll give you some ideas! I can pass on a lot of beginner theory. I've played a lot with other forumers who have enjoyed it (and flaunted their victories) but yeah, let me know if you get on with that book. If you want better suggestions then reply back and I'll see what I can do. I work with someone who, after playing a few games with me, revealed he once played for England as a youngster. My record against him is 6 losses and 2 wins! I'm proud of those :P Anyway he may have some other book recommendations.

I've always been too afraid to call teh landlord up about broken stuff :P I never really thought about the 5-year thing (or knew it existed!) but I think if I had a home then I'd have something to send teh rest of my life into orbit around. If that makes sense. I remember when my dad told me he'd lived in 9 places. Nine, I thought, aged 11, but I've been in this one place for over a decade! Why bother!... since then I've had 9 postal addresses in the following 15 years. But I think it's supposed to settle down! Peope move because of new jobs or new girls (or boys) or new rats infesting the place. If you have a decent place you can afford and a job you've been in for a while, then why not stay and pay less? I'd thrip but I'm drunk and I'll make a mistake.

^is the (kind of right) kicker. Mortgage repayments still can be adjusted by inflation but typically mortgage repayments are cheaper than rental prices (in the south of the UK, I can confirm this, anyway :P). The other advantage of a mortgage is that you can still move house and refinance the mortgage, as your income improves or as your circumstances change. If the choice is either paying rent forever or eventually owning a property where you don't pay any monthly installments and if you wanted you could sell it for hundreds of thousands of poinds? It's the dream. I would dread being retirement age and renting and worried about all that shit. Renting is the no-ties, free-to-roam ideal. If more people rented then house prices probably wouldn't be as expensive :P I don't know. I mostly just like the idea of paying less money per month and slowly accruing assets.

If you can provide previous addresses for the last 3-4 years then you should be fine - they can run a credit check on each address.

@drahkon that's not an easy question. How are you with notation? Are you familiar with any particular chess players over the years? Beginner chess is about a) the rules of the game and b) the general 'maxims' that one should follow (control the centre, try not to move the same piece twice in teh first 8 moves, don't trade equal pieces if you lose territory/position, controlling files, pawn structure, etc). If you feel like you know what each piece does and which pieces you want to keep on the board then, really, the best book to read is My System by Aron Nimzovich (apologies for the .co.uk link); this book is basically read by all serious chess players. It's a well-worded and often funny book written by the man behind the Nimzo-indian defense. I haven't finished 'reading' it yet. I found a youtube channel that was 'reading' the book but it has an annoying background hum that is difficult to deal with for several 13-minute videos, however I watched each section then went and played some games with the chapters in mind and... well I've won 20 of my last 23 games and my rating's gone up from 1398 to 1477 so it's done quite well. Bobby Fischer was one of the greatest players of all time (if not the best) and his book my 60 memorable games is a great way to see into how he saw the game. This book is best read with a chess set playing through the games. I find this to be a bit difficult (due to my eyes) and my understanding of chess notation is ridiculously backwards considering how often I play. I'm much better with the old-fashioned notation (king's pawn, rather than e4 or whatever). If you fancied playing chess I'd gladly play a bunch of unrated games on chess.com, then review them with you. The best way to improve your game is to go back through your own game and try and figure out how the opponent lost or won - what moves did they do wrong? Which moves did you do wrong? A fun book is The Even More Complete Chess Addict which has lots of great stuff in it; games with famous people (humphrey bogart, einstein, churchill); game variants; chess history; chess trivia, stuff like that. Good fun. I have to say that, personally, it's very difficult to read about play styles and strategies without wanting to play. One angle with chess that many players take is to learn two or three openings and defences so that they know 'what to do' for 20+ moves no matter what the opponent does. This can build good structures and result in at least a draw against decent players, but all you're doing is being a robot. Playing fischer chess (a variant) removes the automatic chess play and forces players to utilise the maxims, and really just play chess. In times I've felt too burnt out to actually play chess but still been eager to learn I've found The chess network's videos great fun. He does these 30-min or 1-hour videos where he's playing blitz (1-minute) chess tournaments. He manages to not only win most of the time, but also explain his thoughts and strategies, whilst having a great laugh. In fact, I think I'll watch some of this stuff now. Been a while! So yeah - lemme know if you have more of an idea of what you want. It's difficult because chess is complicated, and it's hard to find books that fit the pacing of your learning. If you don't want to play but want to learn about the ideas behind strategies I would say you should check out the youtube videos above. He also does videos where he goes over classic games, or recent tournament games, and he has a great way of explaining what the thinking behind the moves are. I would be glad to play some games with you (I'm jayseven on chess.com) and if you want to get better at chess I would suggest trying doing a zillion tactics. These are hard to spot during the game sometimes but once you've done a bunch you start getting ideas while you play! No idea how helpful this has been to you, sorry!

To get a fantastic place I'd want to live in for the entirety of the mortgage it would cost £300k easily. I could probably afford about 8k worth of rent a year and still save about 4-5k. If there were two of me, we would need to save for about 6-7 years to afford a deposit of 10% for a 15-20 year mortgage. However I could look at living 5 miles away and save probably £50-80k, and even perhaps afford to save up for a deposit in 4 years, and afford to pay for it myself. ... Realistically the answer is clearly be patient and do more.

Moyes has never won away to liverpool, apparantly! Oh dear.

That's a good point. I feel like having a loan I automatically pay via direct debit will make me feel 'richer' and it'll be good for my credit score. Went to a colleagues house for a BBQ today -- a two-bedroom bungalow with a massive garden and he pays less than £500 a month for his mortgage.... so I want to have a mortgage :P So the kitten is a she. My ex/girlfriend took her off me in the morning with the idea that she'd look after her that day while I sorted out a place for the kitty to stay... turns out my ex/girfriend's allergies were too much, so she took the kitty to a sanctuary! Aaah! The sanctuary chipped her and gave her some vaccines, and basically if she isn't claimed back in a month I can get the kitty back so long as I pay for the treatment (twats), so yeah. it's making me want to move out. I've named her in my head. Also a mate wants to try to holiday in spain so I'll try to do that. The end.

Went to a colleagues house for a BBQ today -- a two-bedroom bungalow with a massive garden and he pays less than £500 a month for his mortgage.... so I want to have a mortgage :P [Thread ripped from good stuff thread!]