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I am fascinated by this programme - I find AI and lifelike androids to be both repulsive and compelling, so I keep having to hold my stomach when they start peeling the hosts apart. It's a slow-burn story and I am really enjoying the build.

I am ... Batman?

Here's the thing - when my parents divorced, I made it clear that I wanted to be with my father because my mother was an alcoholic, had stolen from us both and was quite violent (wow, that was a painful sentence to type ) but the social worker assigned to the case was insistent that "Mother Knows Best". The result of that was needless court battles and us eventually moving out of the family home one night when mum went crazy attacking us. ...rambling, but the fact is, the court system and support system automatically assumes that the mother is the primary caregiver, which is not always the case. Nor is it ideal for the mother to be so in some circumstances.

I very strongly hate the phrase "Man Up". To me, the speaker might as well be saying "Conform to my perception of what constitutes a man!" And that could quite be anything in the context - be less emotional; open a door for me; pay for everything; punch that other man; have more/less sex. It's such a nebulous phrase, but it's still incredibly offensive. I don't believe in rigid gender roles, so if you enforce or try to enforce them on me, it just makes me angry. Exactly this. You want me to "Man Up" you better "Be more ladylike" and submit.

Thank you, Andrew. Sincerest condolences to you and your family.

Seems like you've landed in the "Too Important To Promote Category" - it's the working equivalent of "The Friend Zone". All of the responsibilities, none of the benefits.

Yeah, I did an internship at the BBC, it led to a job offer, but the starting salary was way too low to commute or live in London. For voluntary work, you must be super-specific about your availability. Try to get it in... legal form...

@Animal @nightwolf This all sounds pretty horrible. I hope you both feel better soon.

I know it's going to sound silly: hold on to the job. Getting a new job is actually much easier when you already have one. And there's no temptation to jump on the first offer. If you're genuinely feeling depressed, go to your GP.

Guys, thanks all for your well wishes and advice!

Thanks all. I really needed to vent that.

Sorry to hear that @Cube I'm just about ready to throow the towel in on my marriage. The only thing keeping me from walking out this minute is that we work together and her relationship wuith the upper management will see me get fired. As soon as I have a new job nailed down, I'm gone. It's sad to say, but I never truly realized how terribly, horribly selfish this woman was until this year. My birthday - she took me out for dinner, complained about the price so I paid part of the bill and she tried to give me a woman's Coach purse that she had generically picked up last year as one of the many random thoughtless gifts she uses to butter people up with. I apologised to her and said "it's a little too feminine for me" plus it was about 20cm x 10cm so there was no way to fit it in a pocket, so I might as well just carry around a bag. Also, and I can't emphsise this enough: This was something she picked out among about ten other things that were on sale that she intended to give t whoever, whenever. Zero thought. Her response was a day of ranting and raving at me and sh flat out said "I'm not buying anything else for you." Which I didn't expect anyway. Fast forward to her birthday: I bought her some Swarovski earrings in the US when we were there. Her response? "I don't like them, and they're too cheap. I want to change them for something else. It's another $50." I said okay, and didn't even get a thank you. The she said "I want to go on a staycation to Suzhou" I said fine, but I have a limit of 1000 RMB (about 120GBP). She promptly booked something for exactly that much and said "Where's the money for food, entertainment and petrol for getting there?" I ended up paying double the amount I had originally intended. Then on the day of her birthday she asked "Why aren't you spoiling me? It's my birthday." I give up. I really do. Yesterday there was no food in the house (I give her "support" money every month which covers the mortgage and 90% of of our bills, in addition to paying all insurance, taxes car services) and I had an appointment with my GP for a prescription refill early on so I went out without breakfast (she had eaten the last of the food). Got to the GP, and by the time I was finished, the typhoon had hit. GP is a ten minute drive from our apartment or a 30 minute underground ride plus 15 minutes walk to the nearest station. Called her... could you pick me up? Nope, she's looking at cosmetics on the internet. I get soaked to the skin walking to the underground station where I get a really shitty sandwich and cup of coffee. Now I have a cold. And the urge to divorce. She's been pestering me about helping her update her WeChat and Facebook statuses because she wants an English translation. When I said "Can you wait, I'm actually doing something work-related?" the response was "You don't care about me you only think about yourself. You should feel lucky to have me." No. I don't.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge. RIP.

IGN gave it a hard time, but the impression I get is that it's still better than that horrible, terrible, nightmarish, dull, worthless piece of cinematic fecal matter that was BvS.

Try being a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jewish Native American Celtic hybrid. I get the most wonderful stares when I write "Other" for my ethnicity on forms! Haterz be liek " Yo' brah, you a white dude." I be all "Nah my bromide, I be many terrible fings, but white ain't one uf em." China it's worse though: they automatically assume every foreigner is French or American. In the end I had to grow really thick skin. Fucking accusing me of being Fench... whoop your stupid ass...

Try being a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jewish Native American Celtic hybrid. I get the most wonderful stares when I write "Other" for my ethnicity on forms! Haterz be liek " Yo' brah, you a white dude." I be all "Nah my bromide, I be many terrible fings, but white ain't one uf em." China it's worse though: they automatically assume every foreigner is French or American. In the end I had to grow really thick skin. Fucking accusing me of being Fench... whoop your stupid ass...

I want to shave them all bald, take their over-priced sponsored shoes, wrap them round their neck and ring a bell shouting "SHAME!" as they walk from one end of the country to another.

...is it me you're looking for?

You're absolutely in the right on this one. So long as you were professional, respectful and polite to your manager about the non-payment, the company has no leg to stand on, morally or contractually.

Stepfather was always "Dad" from the get-go, I actually can't remember a time when he wasn't in my life. I think he entered into my world at around 18 months old. He asked me to call him dad one day and he was just dad from then. He was a pretty good father for the first 15 years of my life, but as soon as he and mum divorced and he remarried, things got shit. He just became hugely emotionally distant, unhelpful and dismissive. I begged him to come to mum's funeral when I was 16, but he refused. He was always late for meeting me at school when there was an event on, he would rarely come and watch choir or band performances. I know he was working hard at the time, as the divorce was financially draining. But still, it continued and never really improved - there were several times that I was locked out of the house late night because he forgot I was coming home. At university I would get a phone call on my birthday, maybe another one at some point during term. There'd be a text message to confirm when I'm coming home and he would come and meet me. At age 23 I had a minor argument with Stepmother - I was off out on a date and they asked me to babysit for an hour at about ten minutes notice, then they were away for two hours. I asked for a lift and the response was an upper-class "go fuck yourself." Next day dad told me to move out within six months. Then I moved to China. More of the same really - when they remember I'll get an email or a text. Though things have picked up recently: Dad even told me he was desperate to see me this Christmas and missed me the last two. Of course, I won't actually be able to stay at the house as they are unwilling to make room (They have four bedrooms, three people with grandma visiting for whole of Christmas). So I have to stay in a guesthouse or something. Biological father - I only met this man for the first time when I was 18. I remember being told a story of how after I was born he had literally run through the streets of our small town screaming "IT ISN'T MINE!" and that story being corroborated by several other people. At the time, I had no idea who this man was, but to hear that he didn't want me and had disowned me without even meeting me... was horrible to say the least. As it turns out, he wasn't my father. He just had better career prospects than my actual biological father. For years I had no interest in meeting the man that had been so disrespectful and inhuman. Then one day, at my grandparent's house, I saw a newspaper clipping of a guy I knew called Chris. He had saved someone's life after they threw themselves off the pier. I said "I know that guy, he used to come to the cafe when I worked there... Why did you keep that clipping?" ... "...he MIGHT be your uncle." Off I trotted to my great aunt who told me the whole story: how grandma shut my biological father out of my life because he had no career, education or future - even though he was desperate to take responsibility. She tried to trap the other guy into taking me on because had - in their estimation - a future and would be able to take care of us. I went through the first 18 years of my life convinced that my father didn't want me. So I met him just before I went to University, and yep, one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Absolutely never had much of a life or future or so on. But described as a wonderful person by everyone who met him. We kept in close touch until I left for China and we have since not spoken for 9 years. I lost his phone number when I lost my phone 9 years ago.

Just saw the Russian goal - what in the hell was the goalkeeper doing?

Unpleasant at work recently. We're all fairly jokey in the office, and everyone gets involved - including me - ripping on everyone else. However, I've felt recently that it's gone mostly in my direction. There are days when they'll infer I'm in a relationship with a specific member of the male staff in the other section because we had brunch once, or there will be gay jokes, or height jokes, or general physical appearance pisstakes, or the way I pronounce certain words. When that's not in currency, it'll be something like a compliment I give to someone and get called an "Asskisser". Then I'll criticise and get called a "dick". And if not that, then I'll just get told I'm not allowed an opinion "because (insert spurious reason here). Came to a head yesterday when the lunchladies refused to give me any more food at lunch (they should give you three from a selection of 8 and I had only taken 1) so I just put my tray down and said "Fair enough, I'll eat elsewhere." I told the guys in the office and their response was "Suck it up.". Then the coordinator walks into the office laughing calling me a "diva" and I just had to leave the office. I've never felt more like quitting than I did last night. We were in a meeting and discussing the creation of a handbook on team teaching - who was going to write it etc. I wanted to join the writing team, but everyone in the office had already been pretty snide about it, so I just didn't put my name down, despite the pointed looks from the management who know I have a history as a writer. The coordinator apologised, but made out it was my fault for joining in. If I don't like it, I should tell everyone "professional language only" and reciprocate. It's just awful.

Amen, brother. Here's your $20 bill. Plus the Tax. So another 10%. Oh, do you want to give a gratuity? - because we pay our staff minimum wage and then push the responsibility for boosting their meagre incomes onto you.

Vegas. I played Fallout: New Vegas and enjoyed it, then when we came to do an anniversary/her 40th birthday trip last year, I just went ahead and booked Vegas on a whim. The city fascinates me, its history, how it works, the logistics of these super-resorts, its geography and climate. I'm not much into gambing, but it's an entertaining diversion - as long as you just consider the money lost before you've spent it. So I'm going back there again this summer for a more extended visit, this time I'm going to do the things I missed last time - the Atomic Testing Museum, the Neon Boneyard, the Mob Museum, the historic casinos downtown, the more out-of-the way resorts on The Strip, Red Rock Canyon, Lake Mead, Bonnie Springs. I'm probably going to do those crazy-ass thrill rides on the top of the Stratosphere tower where they dangle you over the edge.

I will remember him.