Dealing with the death of a close friend. Might go out clubbing tonight. Not sure.

Life is strange.

>>384207

sorry to hear, mate.

But how can you go clubbing with that on your mind?

I remember when my nan died, I was too sad to do much of anything for a week.

>>384209
Not the guy you're replying to, but: different people grieve in different ways. More importantly, grief tends to find enough ways to make people feel shitty without you implying they're somehow less sad than you were just because they process things differently.

>>384211

I'm not being full of myself here;

probably very much because different people process grief in a different way, I simply offered my perspective that when somebody close to me died a while ago, I really had no mind to go partying.

Indeed some say the best way to cope with grief and mourning is to go have a little fun. To clear your head and think of different things. And if that is true for you, then bless you...

but I for one couldn't just pretend that something very sad didn't just happen in my family.

>>384213
I didn't say you were being full of yourself, I said you were implying that someone who goes out clubbing after losing someone is, basically, grieving wrong, which you've just done again ("pretending that something very sad didn't just happen"). How do you know that the dead person wasn't an avid club-goer, and that every drink won't be a tribute to them? Or that rather than pretending nothing's wrong they're just desperate to try doing something normal after a week of howling misery? Or whatever else?

My point was that losing someone is fucking awful, and that grief will generally find ways to make people feel worse about themselves and tell them they're not grieving enough/properly/whatever, and that in general it's not a great idea to add to the shit someone's going through by suggesting that they are wrong for doing things differently to you.

I'm going to go see Teh Internet is Serious Business, which despite the cringe-worthy name is apparently quite good. I'm disappointed I missed seeing this
http://www.youtube.com/v/KpGiLPF5BxQ
but there were scheduling problems.

Off to Wales for my nan's 80th this weekend. I'm looking forward to this as I know that my family are a bunch of raging pissheads and I fancy a bevvie or 8.

>>384206
Slowly nibbling my way through the stuff from the Food bank today. ARE IAIN DUNCAN SMITH eh? What a top lad.

Getting my drink on and watching The Wire tonight. Boxing tomorrow morning. Driving home that afternoon. Visiting a Crossrail site for shits and giggles the next day.

It's a man's life.

I'm meant to be buying an engagement ring but I have no idea how you're meant to do it while Mars and Earth align. Is Amazon my best bet or should I try actual shops?

>>384222
I'd go and consult a range of online communities. Jewelry is a con game for the most part, the rings/etc are worth very little relative to the price tags.

http://www.youtube.com/v/N5kWu1ifBGU

>>384222
Argos, Elizabeth Duke, so you can be the Skywalker, to her Luke.

>>384222
You could do what I did, which is go to the shops for a cheap but pretty silver-and-zirconia type job that looks enough like an engagement ring that your meaning is clear when you pop the question, and then buy the proper ring together after she's said yes. You get points for both the romantic gesture and being thoughtful enough to consult her, and minimise risk of picking the wrong ring - it doesn't matter if the proposal ring isn't to her taste as it's only for a few days and is about conveying a purpose rather than personal taste.

I don't know how many pathetic autists Paradox fans there are on here, but there's an excellent (up to 80%) sale on for their Steam collection right now. It ends on the 8th.

Anyway, I'm finally getting a hair cut, and probably going on a bike ride to a place called Stoak.

>>384227

Stoak Oan Troant?

>>384237

If you're coming anywhere near this shit hole, keep cycling lad. Keep on cycling.

I just logged into my Neopets account. My Skeith is 4650 days old now.

Work, and not going out. Hurrah.

Had my night out on Thursday in a dead 'Spoons with a mate, his 18-year old girlfriend and her friend, who spent the night looking at pictures they had taken together and giggling, before being ridiculously twatted for the little they had drank. I think she said more words in her Facebook message apologising for being a shit than actually in person.

Also, Karoo are so shit an ISP that my purchase of a month's Xbox Live to play some GTA online with a friend was a mistake too. It's literally so shit a connection that even now at midnight it lags. Fuck Kingston Communications, monopolistic cumrags.

Sage for sob story shite.

>>384244
Do you live in the city? Try sniffing the air and see if you can get a better connection off the neighbours.

Might be worth investing in a cantenna too, for emergencies. The two in the picture are mine. The rounder one has a wider sweep, and the antenna looking one is for longer distance higher accuracy pinpointing.

I don't need to to use them at the minute for any piggybacking so I'm just using the round one to set up an ad-hoc network for my house.

>>384246
That's amazing. Would you mind explaining a bit more about what you use those for? I'm a bit thick with this kind of thing.

>>384247
They are wifi signal amplifiers. The wider you can cast your net, the more fish you're going to get.

I'll be putting off work, masturbating, gloating about fixing a laptop, hitting the gym on Saturday night because that's when it's quiet, and trying to stave off a weird feeling of vague dread.

>>384246
Do you live opposite some kind of outdoor armchair storage facility?

>>384248
It seems a bit precarious to do that kind of thing from your own home. I thought you meant that you played Xbox games with your m8 using a LAN delivered over your own broadcasting system or summat.

>>384250
It's a student house.

>>384250
it's much like the secret steam reserve, but with armchairs.

Spreadsheetlad from the previous weekend reporting. My budgeting system is working really well, I'm spending well below my budget and I'm putting money aside into emergency funds. I'm setting aside money to fund a PC build, which I aim to have funded within 2 months from now (maybe sooner since my birthday's in November).

I'll spend the weekend training and catching up with m8s who've moved onto careers of their own.

>>384249

>trying to stave off a weird feeling of vague dread.

I have that pretty much all the time. Dunno why. Reckon the doctors will give me some happy pills for it or am I just a melancholy individual who listened to too much alt-rock growing up?

>>384251
The only time anyone has been arrested for breaking wifi encryption (to my knowledge) has been when they've done stupid things like send death threats pretending to be the neighbour. There was a case where that happened in America. Can't find it on google now...

There's plenty of cases of people getting caught using open wifi, but then I guess people know to be looking for it. Or it's some idiot in a McDonalds carpark for 8 hours leeching.

If you break encryption, no one really expects it, and as long as you don't affect their ability to use the connection you will probably go undetected. I've even been a good host and reconfigured people's routers for them when their ISP's DNS was ballsed up and causing nothing to work.

It's only a last resort, liek when you're waiting for your own connection to be installed, or you're staying at a mate's house and they have no wifi, or whatever. Nice to know how to do it, for emergencies.

>>384256
>emergencies

Is being without internet for an evening or two really considered an emergency these days?

>>384257
I was without it for a week recently and it felt like half my life had been shut off.

How did it come to this?

>>384260

All the interesting shit moved online?

>>384257
Yes.

If I don't have access to the internet then I don't miss it at all and I'm quite content reading, watching DVDs or actually being active, but the moment I have it I'm all over it like a tramp on chips and spend most of my spare time on it. I should probably ration my internet or summat.

>>384271

I'm pretty sure the internet is going to be responsible for the downfall of society. In two or three generations we'll just be jabbering wrecks with huge dilated eyes from staring at screens all day, rocking back and forth muttering about hashtags.

>>384273
Have you just leaked the plot for the Black Mirror Christmas Special?

>>384277
It's no secret - all the episodes are like that.

Tax credits have overpaid us by just over £400, but they've said we can repay it over 3 years and interest free so we've agreed £11 a month. Result.

>>384216

It does have a pretty terrible name but I might go see it as i don't really have much better to do. I'll be sure to look out for the guy in a trenchcoat who has a faint whiff of hammers on him...

Watched a man throw up last night. He wasn't even that drunk, he stuck two fingers in his throat and wanted me to watch him to prove he was a proper lad.

Also desperately trying to get a girl to kiss me because I played truth or dare last weekend and one of my dares was to kiss a guy. I'm too old for this shit.

>>384281
>Also desperately trying to get a girl to kiss me because I played truth or dare last weekend and one of my dares was to kiss a guy.

Are you worried you might have caught the gay?

>>384281>>384282

Embrace your new identity, Anon!

>>384283
This post caused a real kerfuffle in Firefox 32.0.3 . When I hover the second referenced post, it continuously reformats from having the text below the image, to having it beside the image, and then back again.

>>384279

It's (probably) too late for you to do anything about it now as you've agreed a repayment plan, but this might be useful for you or anyone else in future.

Depending on the circumstances of the overpayment of tax credits it's possible to have it written off or reduced. In the case of official error, where you have fulfilled all your responsibilities listed in COP26* but HMRC has not fulfilled theirs, overpayments are generally written off.

Similarly, if you delay reporting a change of status (going from a joint to a single claim or the other way around) and you get overpaid as a result, you can have the overpayment offset as you're notionally entitled to be paid from the time you should have made a new claim. To do this, make the new claim with the right details and ask the tax credit office for it to be offset. It's not automatic.

Finally, if you can prove (i.e. budget) that repaying the overpayment would cause hardship for you or your family you can ask the tax credit office to reduce it or write it off entirely at their discretion (i.e. be nice on the phone).

This bit might be relevant to you - a reduction in tax credits (if that's how they're collecting it) won't necessarily increase the amount of any means tested benefits (income related ESA, IS, income related JSA) you're currently being paid to make up for it. If you're in receipt of CTC and a means tested benefit, and HMRC is recovering the overpayment from an ongoing award, they should only collect at a rate of 10%. If you're in receipt of housing benefit and your tax credits are being reduced to recover an overpayment you may be entitled to an increase in housing benefit, depending on circumstances.

As always when dealing with benefits in general, don't deal with it yourself. Go to an advice centre and let someone handle it for you. It's free, and you're actually supporting the advice centre by doing so because more successful cases for them means more funding. HMRC, the DWP et al will do their best to convince you to talk to them to "get it all sorted out" but you're entitled to representation, don't let yourself be paid less than you're entitled to just because you don't want to say no on the phone.

>>384279 while it's probably too late to do anything about it now, it's always worth having a go. Look up a local advice centre or CAB and go to their drop-in if they have one. Make an appointment if not.

* http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cop26&l=1
I'm not being a dick with the LMGTFY thing, I just remember someone on here talking about not wanting to link directly to HMRC because of referrals or summat.

> OP pic
Mirth.

I have forgotten what I've wanted to post. Damn.

>>384285
That's not new, I come across a post that does that every couple of weeks

Mate's stag do this weekend. I'm waiting for him to turn up in spoons.

My parents are demanding I present them with a new router recommendation by 'showing them a comparison of numbers' because the internet is shit at the top of the house. They genuinely refuse to believe that a netgear router from 2008 isn't going to be beaten soundly by an award-winning product from years later.

They're smart and educated people but why are those of that generation so fucking retarded when it comes to domestic appliances?

I'm already pretty stuffed with sweets for the next two months and I've just been presented with another box of chocolate. Damn. I'm not that person with a sweet tooth.

Sage for /101/.

>>384290

a) It shouldn't take you more than five minutes to give them a few bullet-points (manufacturer-quoted speed and range figures etc).

b) In a large house, you're probably better off using powerline adapters to provide multiple APs and run ethernet to any fixed equipment.

Grow up lad, they just want you to help them make an informed decision.

>>384282>>384283
No actually.

Just that I know how socially awkward I am and will probably have my last kiss in a long time being a gay one. Also I admitted to another group of people of my woeful sexual history last night so there's that.

>>384293
>a) It shouldn't take you more than five minutes to give them a few bullet-points (manufacturer-quoted speed and range figures etc).

You'd think that but 'range figures' are non-existent as far as I can look and there's no fucking way I'm going to convince them to start fitting cables throughout the house (though that is what I'd do, and what my computer science grad godfather did).

I might just get him to advise them because they'll actually take what he's got to say seriously.

>>384290
Just recommend an ac router. A few of the new ac features theory mean better signal (in theory) if the other end is also ac. Eg beamforming.

Thing is ac routers are fairly new and expensive right now, and not many devices use it, so I would personally wait before upgrading.

>>384296
aint got no clue what you're on about blud

>>384249

Slight amendment to this: I just stuck a new version of Ubuntu on said laptop and discovered that Rhythmbox has a radio feature. So with that, I'm going to sit around throwing shapes like a twat on my own in my bedroom in my parents house because it makes me laugh when I catch myself doing it in the mirror.

I think I need a weekend job.

>>384285

Didn't Firefox get into a PR spat over a homophobic programmer a while ago? Seems he's still at large.

>>384294

There's nothing gay about true love!

Sat in most of the day waiting for a delivery from Yodel. Kept an eye on the tracker. Received an update - driver attempted delivery and has left a card. AKA driver couldn't be arsed, fucked off and made shit up. Went out in the afternoon and found out that I can't take any money out from the ATM. I've just purchased a new bike and the transaction was collected twice, spent couple of hours trying to sort that one out. Now in spoons on the cheap ale / 2.35 for the 1872 Porter.

Doing my washing tomorrow.

>>384300
Yodel reportedly offer a dire service. I've never heard a good thing about that company.

>>384299
I'm assuming your referring to the JavaScript genius Brendan Eich, who someone for whatever reason thought was somehow not entitled to his own opinions. The entirety of his supposed homophobia was giving a small amount to a referendum campaign.

>>384300
>>384301
Agreed. Never ever use Yodel. Never.

>>384303

They are a puss filled boil on the face of home delivery. If a company uses them to deliver something to me I make a point of not buying things from them after that.

Bored.

Want to test how much the uni accommodation techs actually look into what their tenants do on their ISP. So far my plan is to google suicide techniques and rope merchants at some point.

This is partially due to not even looking at porn for a good three weeks.

>>384300
>>384301
>>384303
>>384304

I've never had a problem. They even send me a text message on that morning warning me they're coming. It's always the same nice brummie guy. Maybe he's just an unusually efficient yodeller.

>>384306
From the other side of the table - my business uses Yodel for most of our orders and we have 100% feedback on ebay, over about 3000 orders. You can search for any delivery company on the internet and you will find people bitching about their service (except maybe DHL, but you get what you pay for).

>>384307
People bitch about it because it's not fucking hard. Most of the time the complaints are nothing to do with the insane details of logistics. It's the delivery driver who throws packages over fences, or the delivery driver who tries to force a package through an inappropriate slot, or the delivery driver who won't deign to deliver, preferring to drive around with a stock of cards pre-filled ready to post without actually bothering to knock the door first. The great irony of logistics is that generally the complex bits are fine, but they keep falling down on the simple stuff.

>>384304
>>384301
>>384303

Yodelmiserylad here. It seems that their business model is based upon thus-

Online order is made
Order is consigned to Yodel
Yodel make shit up / leave delivery in bin on bin day / throw computer monitor / telly over 6 foot fence into pond
(If can't be bothered to throw telly or monitor over fence, courier takes home and signs as received by John from number 2)

>>384308
Right, but you're complaining about unskilled cheap workers which you can find at every budget delivery company. If you want to use a company with properly vetted drivers you will pay significantly more for the delivery (see: DHL).

It's the same as the bullshit with people complaining about Ryanair, but not wanting to shell out for an airline with a good service. You can't have it both ways.

Holy crap, I just checked when Doctor Who starts and I noticed Strictly Come Dancing runs for [i]two hours[/s].

It's so weird how things like that and the X-Factor manage to get millions of viewers, despite most people being able to download last week's blockbuster in half an hour.

>>384305

Have you considered taking up auto-erotic asphyxiation? That'd be a real two birds, one stone situation.

>>384311

>despite most people being able to download last week's blockbuster in half an hour.
That's a bit of a misleading argument. Having the technological capability to do something and the actual ability to do it is not the same thing. A lot of people are only just getting in to things like lovefilm and netflix, and their user interface is designed to be easy with no technical knowledge required with help at every stage, they also advertise a relatively large amount.

On the other hand, torrents are still a mystery to most people, you have to remember that not everyone in the world is in their mid-20s.

TV is a dying medium, but it's only going to die slowly along with its entrenched demographic of 30+ year olds who just know that they can watch whatever they want without fiddling about. As long as people grew up with TV, it will be around.

>>384310

Most of the time, the consumer doesn't get to choose who delivers it. If I did have a choice, I'd use UPS, DHL or Royal Mail Recorded. In a pinch, Mercury.

That rarely, if ever, happens. I've ordered things off of companies on Amazon before, selected Next Day Delivery before 1pm, and a bloke turned up at my house at 10 to 1 in a Ford Fiesta so full of parcels that he had the boot open and had secured it with bungie ropes.

The package was here in time and undamaged, but it was not at all comforting looking at what he was using to deliver people's parcels (I'm sure one of them was a washing machine, and it had a long box which looked fragile stuffed in between the driver and front passenger seat.

>>384310

I heard you called Yodelmiserylad a cunt.

>>384309
Their business model (not unlike many other couriers, mind, e.g. City Link) is thus: the drivers are self-employed people who get paid by delivered parcel. Many may do other man-with-a-van related jobs on the side, so for them time is money. If they're delivering to a staffed business address, then they can't pull much shenanigans, but a domestic address? No point wasting the time first time around, might as well mark is as no answer (if you get a complaint, then you can be reasonably sure the someone will be there the second time around) and rush through the jobs to make it in time for the 4pm house move or whatever. It's a direct result of people's unwillingness to pay for delivery, ultimately, to the point where some shops don't even give you the choice any more because they know it'll put enough people off to make it not worth their while.

>>384313
I used to work for a small building trade related wholesale business and had to take delivery of stuff on a fairly regular basis. Some drivers would literally walk all over the parcels they had in their lorry to fish out ours. If I didn't get to their vehicle in time (we got prior warning thanks to CCTV) they'd just chuck parcels out of the back of the thing (even things like fragile marked fluorescent tubes). It's a testament to the packaging quality that things didn't break more often than they did.

I've also worked for major online retailer and how parcels are loaded into trucks closely resembles http://www.youtube.com/v/ysvrWoOsDds

No one gives a shit about your parcel except you and the people sending it, but neither party wants to pay for it. As a result, the system creaks and is breaking at the seams... just not enough that the people it affects are willing to do something about it.

>>384312

Slightly unrelated but the only reason I still have a TV at all is because there's no other cost-effective way to get a ~50" screen that I can plug my xbox/laptop/whatever else into. The sooner large-screen monitors for entertainment purposes become affordable the better.

>>384316
I think you touched on the solution in your post. The person sending it should just package everything on the assumption that it will be treated like shit, and add that cost to the price of the item (which will be much cheaper than paying for a better courier).

>>384310
>unskilled cheap workers
Which I'd precisely the skill level required to perform a task as complex as picking a parcel out of the back of the van and carrying it to someone's front door.

On a related note, I've got a colleague at work who ordered a package delivered there, only to get the "nobody home, card left" notification. He went down to reception and asked what was going on, only to be told that not only had no delivery driver handed them anything, they hadn't even had anyone request to be buzzed in through the gate.

In most cases, at the consumer end we generally are asked to pick a service level and pay for that. This is not the consumer's fault. It is the suppliers' fault for choosing providers that employ such idiots. They could easily choose another. This also applies to letting agents - most charlatans get away with the shit they do because landlords keep paying them.

>>384320
>They could easily choose another.
Which would cost more, meaning they have to raise their prices and thus put people off ordering in the first place.

>>384320
>Which I'd precisely the skill level required to perform a task as complex as picking a parcel out of the back of the van and carrying it to someone's front door.

You're missing one important step there: "giving a shit". Delivery people don't hate you, they just operate on the same principle everyone else does: what makes them the most money based on, sometimes, humanly flawed decisions. I very fortunately no longer work in the business, but if they were better off bouncing the parcel until you have to get to the depot to collect than actually delivering it... why the heck would they go out of their way to deliver it? "Because it's their job"? It's not. Their job is to make their ends meet, your parcel is incidental.

>>384322
Oh, how silly of me, thinking the job of a delivery driver might be to deliver things.

Received great news: I'm not at work at 7am as previously feared.

As we speak the Żywiec is being uncorked

>>384325

That is his occupation, yes. Like most though he probably just wants to get through the day without too much shit and get home in time for The Chase. Your satisfaction doesn't really bother him, as it doesn't in most service sector jobs.

Yodel were a bunch of useless cunts when I used them, but I was trying to send rather than receive. I stayed in all day, attentively waiting for the knock/doorbell, but at some point in the afternoon found a calling card. I then found out that they only try and collect once and that I'd have to complete the whole order online again.

I used someone else.

>>384321

When given the opportunity, I always choose to pay for delivery because I've had so many bad experiences. I'm probably in the minority, but if enough people get pissed off with the free delivery service they'll pay for a reliable courier if given the choice. Just give people the choice.

If I get the option of free or DHL, et al, I'll choose to pay every time.

Mail-order customers hate paying for postage. They want it 'free', or as cheap as humanly possible. This has turned consumer parcel logistics into an insane race to the bottom, in which nobody can afford to care about quality.

The two biggest companies in terms of mail-order parcel volume are Hermes and Yodel. These companies don't use salaried staff for their doorstep deliveries, but instead use self-employed drivers who are paid per parcel. Many of these drivers are part timers, who do deliveries in the evenings for a bit of extra cash. The rate per parcel is so low that you're doing well to make minimum wage even if you rush around like a lunatic.

Being paid per item obviously encourages drivers to rush their deliveries; Both companies also offer bonuses for timeliness and reliability, which encourages drivers to pretend that nobody answered the door when in fact they couldn't find your building or couldn't be bothered going up to the fifteenth floor.

The established firms with salaried drivers are also piling on the pressure with unrealistic work quotas and bonus structures.

Some mail-order companies still offer the option of a quality delivery service at an additional cost. Others have just stopped bothering, because so few customers opt for it. We get what we pay for.

>>384326

I was trying to do the Stoptober / Sober for October whas-a-thingy.

A 20-bottle case of becks has fucked all that though, and thank The Great White Whale for that. Being sober is fucking awful.

Stocked up on shitloads of Jus-Rol croissant and pain au chocolat dough because Heron are selling short-dated ones 3 for £1, so I have just breakfasted like a King.

End of an era, lads.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29496903

>>384339
A moment of silence for the loss of a national treasure chest.

>>384339
I always preferred her arse, like when she was climbing up somewhere in her little action shorts.

Oh well, at least it wasn't Katy Hill.

>>384341

> I always preferred her arse

Looks like that little gorilla chap did too

Turns out I forgot to budget in my arrears pay, so I've got an extra £300 to spend on something frivolous invest. I'm probably going to put it aside for PC parts.

Didn't go through with testing the Uni accommodation internet just yet.

Had the bright idea to co-ordinate something which involves me looking like I'm actually an undercover cop investigating the campus of a previous crime and "accidentally" leaving evidence of my ties to the police to my flat mates.

this is what happens when I don't have a wank for a month.

It was Freshers' fair today. Some of my acquaintances tried to get me to sign up to fisherperson soc, instead I shouted "Smash the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society!" and raised a fist into the air, whilst walking past their stand. I feel a bit silly now.

>>384347
Huh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Shepherd_Conservation_Society

>>384349

Odd, wikipedia won't load at all for me. Anyone else?

>>384350
Works fine for me.

>>384349
It's a wordfilter you reconstituted pork product in gravy eskimo

>>384347
Don't get me started on uni societies.

I'm on the committee for one moderately popular one, and 70% of the committee is so fucking apathetic and bored that I'm regretting in joining.

I just wanted to do this as a nice break from my sometimes hard PhD, but instead I'm baby sitting toddler undergrads, and explaining the most basic shit to my idiot colleagues.

>>384353

>> It's a wordfilter you reconstituted pork product in eskimo gravy

FTFY

>>384358
Genius. Proper Halal gravy innit.

>>384297
He's probably talking about those new 802.11ac routers.

Yesterday's evening I went to one of local unfinished buildings and just sat on the roof for a few hours, contemplating the view. A nice, serene place although a little dirty.

>>384360

Did you take pictures perchance?

>>384354 Ah yes... my mates and I became members of a society at uni that reached out to underprivileged children and youth in the area to get this funny idea into their heads that they too should aspire to higher education. You know, the whole malarkey that the world would forever be at their fingertips with a university degree under their belt.

But even if you were less cynical than that, almost half of the people in that society were law and business students looking to put something on their resume to make themselves look like less of a narrow minded careerist money grubbing right old twat. They would regularly wrinkle their nose at all the unwashed council flat misery that we encountered, and they were clearly most of all after the face-value prestige that they hoped would come from "helping the poor". Without ever really getting in "the thick of it" and actually showing any sort of heartfelt commitment to making a difference in the life of a budding young mind.

>>384363
No. I am a very lousy photographer. That and I don't even have a camera.

>>384390
That's probably part of the reason.

I attempted to kick off my weekend with 8 cans of John Smith's, but the shop didn't have any so I took 8 Tetley's instead. They're fucking dire.

>>384525

Belhaven Best is basically the same as John Smiths, if you can find it.

>>384528

I've put that on a sticky note so I remember it tomorrow. Thanks.

I'm still pissed. At least I'm not hungover yet...

I'm still pissed. At least I'm not hungover yet...

This weekend, my girlfriend's parents are visiting from Scotland. She is from Glasgow and moved here for work, that's how we met. Nice people, they already very much consider me their son-in-law.

I need to take the door of my car apart to see if I can fix the window regulator or if I'll need to find a replacement at a breakers.

Just checked a weather radar though and there might be some showers heading my way soon so I'll probably be leaving it til tomorrow.

The annoying thing is though that it has been running slowly ever since I bought the car, I had thought of taking the trim off and greasing the runners, that little bit of easy preventative maintenance would probably have saved me the hassle of possibly needing to replace the whole thing now.

I wish I was a bit more confident with DIY. I generally have the tools I need, and all the know how, and I'd say I'm probably skilled enough. The only thing stopping me is anxiety about what happens if things go wrong.
I would have gone out and bought a jack and some axle props and given my car an oil change by now. But the only thing stopping me is silly little fears like what happens if I spill some oil (I'd have to do the oil change on a shared driveway), or what happens if I accidentally strip the thread on the sump plug and can't get it fixed in time to get to work on Monday.

>>384545

That's nice. I have a similar relationship with my "in-laws", but I've been really distant with them recently because they were ascerbic, obnoxious No voters harping on about the Union Jack, etc, in the run up to the referendum.

It's put me off them a bit, which is sad because I don't have a good relationship with either of my own parents, non-existent in fact, and it was nice to have someone who cared about me in my life again after my grandparents died.

Sage for /blog.

>>384547

well my girlfriend's parents voted no (possibly because their daughter lives here in England), but they're kind of relaxed about it. They're more like, oh well, our side won, good for us, but now they just get on with life and no longer think much about it anymore.

They're good people, and great in-laws to have. Everything about them is relaxed and easy-going, and they never really make a big fuss about anything. They made me feel like part of their family practically from day one. Which is also why I don't dread them coming to visit us this afternoon, as you do with some in-laws.

I'm real sad, guys. As I'm currently going into the final year of my PhD, there is very little in my life besides work. I work in a lab by myself and have done since switching universities last September, so I haven't met any other PhD mates, I have only one hobby outside of work and that's ice hockey which takes a massive break through the entire summer and is only just starting up again. I've spent since yesterday evening tirelessly trying to organise someone to come and see me in the delightful little suburban home I commute from, but nobody is obliging. I'm half way through cleaning the place, I keep taking breaks to lay on my bed and mull over how shit my current situation is from a social standpoint.

I would normally write much more eloquently, but I'm sure you've all been in situations in the past where you just can't put the way you're feeling into an order that makes any sense. Plus, I have a cup of tea stewing downstairs.

Pic isn't related, but is the first picture I saw the first time I ever came onto .gs for the first time.

>>384551

>124464964917.jpg

that just looks rank, m8t.

>>384546
>I need to take the door of my car apart to see if I can fix the window regulator or if I'll need to find a replacement at a breakers.

Update:
It just had a screw loose.

Well one loose screw was causing the problem, but there were another two screws which had dropped out completely and were the cause of one of the numerous rattles in my car.

The Japanese are bloody brilliant engineers, but someone really needs to show them Loctite®

After being told 0 points on my ESA claim, I've waited 3 weeks with no money for a decision on JSA. today I got a letter telling me I wasn't entitled to contribution based JSA, when I applied for income based in the first place. Fucking DWP.

>>384576

Go down to your local CAB and have a chat with a benefits adviser about appeals.
Also, take a look at this link. It's got very good advice regarding the appeals process and other things DWP-related.
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/

Whinge for /job/

My mate isn't even back in Hull till midnight, so on the Lech and playing some Cawadooty until then.

I'll probably doze off before I plan to go out. Need longer batteries at 22...

>>384576

Fucking beansontoast lad.

Shopping in Lidl's living on beansontoast.

Rise up beanfucker.

>>384581
Go to the fair and stock up on brandy snap, flavoured fudge and nougat.

>>384583

Indeedy, leaving it till midweek myself so it's a little less rammed.

Might give the Dodgems a once-over too. Picked the wrong one last year and had a jobsworth Pole telling me I was going the wrong way round.

This weekend I've mostly been:

Eating Rennies like it's going out of style
Eating some weird pink speed that may or not be amazing
Getting overly exited about Ebola
Watching lemurs jump around on youtube
Drinking piss-water beer and cellar-level red wine in intervals
Looping teenlad music like I'm 16 again
Delving massively into Office 2013's use of drawingML and VML (don't ask)

All in all, not the worst weekend. Not the best.

Can't complain.

I wish I was transgender, I'd totally pass.

Sadly that kind of macho arrogance makes it self evident that I am, unfortunately, cis.

Eating Rennies like it's going out of style - Rennies = polari cockmuncher
Eating some weird pink speed that may or not be aimazing - polari willy suck code
Getting overly exited about Ebola - Ebola / see above
Watching lemurs jump around on youtube = sick filth hide yourselves
Drinking piss-water beer and cellar-level red wine in intervals
Looping teenlad music like I'm 16 again - Gay Village Manchester fantasist
Delving massively into Office 2013's use of drawingML and VML (don't ask) - total bumsex

>>384594

I have to say, you do make my my prosaic drug-and-booze software researcher life sound a lot more interesting. Time to move to vauxhall?

>>384593

I've never been with anyone in the T part of LGBT, but this young CD keeps checking me out on a dating site I'm on.

I'm sort of tempted. In the grey area between passable and not.

>>384596

I've been idly eyeing Penny Tration for maybe a year now. I would get bummed by that in a heartbeat.

>>384596
Go for it. We're all going to die of ebola soon enough.

>>384597

I'll hold your hand whilst it happens. £20

Soothig arse jojoba rub with whale sounds from the Amazon £30

Full video for the family £100

>>384596

> In the grey area between passable and not.

Best area.

>>384600

The taint.

>>384601

Taint?

See Mr Bridger

>>384599

I'm allergic to aloe-vera and jojoba, but other than that that sounds pretty ace.

>>384596

Just say yes, sie is fit as fuck.

>>384597

Penny is a little bit past her prime, but she really does live up to her name. If you've never taken it up the harris before, she'll break you in gently. Sammi Valentine is just down the East Lancs and Liberty Harkness regularly tours the northwest, if you'd like the full pornstar experience.

>>384206
Gf got me this for my birthday.

What a superb piece of kit, inexpensive, no electricity needed, filters are dirt cheap on Amazon... Above all makes a sublime cup of coffee.

Possibly the best gift I've gotten in a long long time.

>>384605
Nice.
I want one myself, but since I've reached that age where I already own pretty much everything I want apart from a better car and a house, I've asked my parents to get me one for christmas so I can experience the joy of unwrapping something.

>>384607
Even if you do own a fancy espresso machine with all the bells and whistles, this is really portable you can take it wherever. I'm surprised I never heard of it until now.

>>384607
You might get something out of setting some disposable income to charities like Amnesty or MSF, if you think it will for your financial plan.

>>384609
Mirth.

>>384609

I said there's nothing I want, not I have a load of disposable income with nothing to spend it on.
Although I wasn't being literal by that, I do have more things I want, I just mean nothing "gifty" at that sort of price range

(I am expecting my income to rise next year and I was planning to start a DD to a charity then. I'm not giving any money to third-world-hugging cunts like Amnesty or MSF though.)

OH NO! BIKE THEIF LAD!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-29583550

>>384614
To bad he couldn't back pedal out of that situation.

>>384614
Would've thought he'd have stepped it up a gear by now.

>>384616
He seems to be caught in vicious cycle of theft and debauchery.

>>384614
He should've shimanoed up a drainpipe to safety.

Today I was in Sainsburys, and I bought some expensive apples, but at the self-service checkout I claimed I bought a cheaper variety, by selecting a different apple variety, saving about £2.50.

Does anyone else do this?

I don't feel bad at all, as I think Sain's is a rip off of the highest order, and there is nothing better near me. I will keep doing this until I'm told otherwise, upon which I will feign ignorance and walk away swiftly.

>>384624
I don't do that but I don't see why you shouldn't.

>>384624
I found that at one Tesco the "2 for £2" on soft drinks inexplicably does not include Coke, Coke Zero or Diet Coke, but does include pretty much all the other drinks in the cabinet (including the diabetes-in-a-bottle that is Coke Vanilla). On the rare occasion that I'm in there buying lunch, I'll grab one of the many other bottles and scan it twice. Surely it doesn't look suspicious, since if you have multiples of anything you'd surely just scan the one repeatedly in one hand while bagging the other units with the other.

>>384624

Liverpudlian.

>>384626
Thats far more risky, I was in during a very busy time and there were far too many people milling about. I thought they wouldn't give a shit - and even if they did, they have no proof whatsoever.

>>384627

HOW VERY DARE YOU, THAT IS AN IGNORANT SLUR.

We nick things the good old-fashioned way, and we don't eat fruit.

This week I landed my first job aged 26. Being successful in a commission-only door-to-door sales charity fundraising role was always a tall ask, what with my terminal autism, refusal to engage in small talk, low confidence and reluctance to lie. On my fourth day I shadowed someone so alien in his bravado, endless banter and selfish fakery, it dawned on me that I couldn't change so profoundly to meet the demands of this work even if I wanted to. I desperately wanted to put my life of idleness behind me, so this realisation fostered feelings of inadequacy that seemed curable only with suicide. I brushed off a second enquiry about why I looked so sullen with some bullshit about "resting bitch face". I didn't bother turning up on my fifth day. Worried that this would spell a six-month-long JSA sanction, I headed back from the CAB to a friend's house for a smoke.

After a few hours he remembered he'd invited over a girl. She'd travelled a long way and he anticipated she wouldn't be over the moon upon hearing I was to gatecrash their plans for the night. I was therefore briefed on the plan to tell her I was autistic and to somehow use this fact to smooth the waters. This excuse was later reused in reply to her observation (or should that be complaint?) that I'd been playing with her feet for much of the night. In my defence this behaviour was attributable more to two other factors, specifically the MDMA and alcohol we'd all taken and my friend's plan to engineer a situation in which this girl would give me a blowjob. I never got to witness how that would have turned out. What actually transpired was an impromptu sexual encounter with my homophobic friend of a decade that began "you can't tell anyone about this", included the question "is it normal for your dick to bleed like that?" and ended with me mutely staring at his flaccid penis.

Worst of all, I left my bank card at his house and was forced by an unaccommodating bus driver to purchase another Oyster card.

>>384627

Wool.

>>384632
Hipsterlad strikes again! Whatever will you do next, Jeremy?

>>384624

In Tesco I quite often say I've got four bananas when I might have as many as five or six. If rumbled I'll just say I miscounted. And smile.

Fight the power.

This weekend I drank far too much and took coke at a house party, then ended my night puking up a chicken sandwich into a toilet. I hate coke and I am a vegetarian. I have work in the morning and can not sleep for mulling over the embarrassing memories of chatting shit to bemused foreign students and awkwardly resisting the advances of a leery Asian man who tried to get me into his car on the walk home.

I am far too old for this shit.

Pretty happy with mine.

Had a nice dinner with mates in Friday.
Helped at a knackering but satisfying volunteer event with year 10 pupils on Saturday.
Had a nice day with my mum today, doing DIY and watching Monsoon in HD with the fire on.

Feeling nice about the week before me. See you in the next thread lads.

>>384635

Indeed, as I walked out with my apples, my heart was racing, my buttocks tight, sweat forming on my brown, fist clenched. Not in anticipation of being caught, but in defiance, fuck you Sainsburys. I might not have the money to afford eating them regularly, but my Pink Ladies are a right.

>>384638

All joking aside, as long as you don't start passing off random items as loose fruit and veg you can get away with pretty much anything. I wouldn't recommend it ahem but even if rumbled as long as don't act like a hyper-petulant teenlad, smile genuinely and make comments about how this technology is so complicated you will fine.

I mean obviously you're not ripping them off by any real amount, and it's in an entirely unprovable way, but it at least makes me feel a bit better about 5p over the odds for a sodding banana in a Tesco Metro.

Yes I realise that I get all my joy from perverse sources. No, I was not aware there was an alternative.

If you want to be extra brave pick up a magazine and tuck it under you or your girlfriends' arm with a bunch of "offers of the week" fliers. Never been pulled up on this (that said, I've done it maybe three or four times in my life) but if I was it's easy to feign absent mindedness. Btw this one works better at manned checkouts.

Sage because here at britfa we like tea, not tea-leafs.

>>384632

This is what happens when you let Skins raise your children, people!

>>384639
I've done it with bananas a couple of times since it's piss easy.

As for actually getting caught, I'm in my later 20's, and have a pretty non-threatening demeanour, so I can very easily woo any elderly drone supervising.

I don't care a bit if I am ripping them off, food in this country is outrageously over-priced. Luxury items have completely lost their order of priority in this country, with the ability of getting bladdered and stuffing your gob with muck under for a £15 - over eating fresh decent food.

I quite like my little racket, as it's probable that supermarkets focus on people stealing expensive meats/sweets/alcohol, rather than bloody vine tomatoes and apples.

Fight da system, fuck da fedz.

>>384641
>with the ability of getting bladdered and stuffing your gob with muck under for a £15 - over eating fresh decent food.

With the ability of getting bladdered and stuffing your gob for under £15, as opposed to eating fresh decent food.

Fixed for the pedants.

Went out Friday night. Pretty enjoyable night even though all my chances to pull went predictably pear shaped. Early on a mate thought it would be a good idea to chop two thirds of a bottle of Captain Morgan's - he actually did it with only minor help (and predictable results after). Saturday we had a friendly footy game, won 1-0 mostly thanks to our keeper's outrageous saves. Today has mostly been recovering from the week's combined hangovers and footballing pains.

Trued making noodles in the kettle by taping down the switch so it didn't stop boiling. It went better than it should have done but now the kettle needs a bloody good clean.

>>384632

I enjoyed your tale.

>>384645
Which is more than can be said for his friend by the sound of it.

Feeling stressed about shit completely out of my control, so instead of doing anything about it I've started compulsively tidying my room whilst listening to contemporary jazz. I'll be 'right soon.

When you're a student, every day is the weekend.
Insofar as no one day has any less shit that needs to be done at least.

I'm aware it's no longer the weekend but I've picked up a cold when I really should be doing other things.

I'm also thinking of swearing off any idea of long term relationships with lasses, but that's for /emo/ I'm sure. Never thought I'd still be dealing with silly stuff like this so many years on from my first experiences with love and sex.

On the other hand, 99 problems, etc.

>>384648
Long term relationships are tawdry alright - I'm with a decent girl, but I'm really bored at the moment. Figuring out what to do on a weekend basis is tough, I can't fathom a week's worth of time together.
Sex is boring as hell, super mundane, and she isn't very "sexual" as she describes, she's by no means a virgin, but never gets turned on, or gets creative. It only happens when I want it to, which is very one-sided and puts a lot of pressure on me. I've read a bit about guys being in a similar situation and they've all been told to hit the bricks if sex is an integral part (every 20-30 year old should crave it).
The one thing going for her is that she's extremely thoughtful and smart, but in a "motherly" sense. You know the sort, looking out for you, giving advice on things, etc.

I really don't know what to do any more, I have said I'd want to spend New Year's Eve with her, but I don't want to waste money on tickets I won't use.

sage for emo invasion

>>384649
You'll crave her as soon as you get past 30 yourself. I say shag around now, and find another version of her to settle down with when you hit that magical 3-decade mark.

Double sage for /emo invasion.

>>384649

Kind of in a similar position myself. It's getting to the stage in the relationship where the little niggly things are just really starting to get on my tits.

I can't be arsed listening to her talk about fucking banal shite whilst using that tone of voice and facial expression that seems to insist that she's delivering a speech about climate change at the G8. I can't stand the way she tokes a cig and then talks with her sinuses closed before tapping the thing about six fucking times over the ash tray. And I'm starting to crave a lass who's just a bit thinner, has a bit of a tighter cunt, and who's capable of exciting, interesting foreplay rather than just telling me she's horny and then expecting a shag.

But, alas, you never know how much of a good thing you have until it's gone. Cheating on her would probably wrack me with guilt for ever. Such is life.

>>384653
>you never know how much of a good thing you have until it's gone.
When you break up with someone, you get a wave of regret for a while but it's not objectively "knowing" that you had a good thing. It's like you might feel a bit sad after you jerk off but you're not actually any worse off, it's just a trick of perception. It fades soon enough.

>>384654
>It fades soon enough.

Hahahahaha. I fucking wish.

>>384655
Maybe you're not drinking enough.

>>384655

It takes 5 years to recover from the effects of infatuation.

Basically, your brain poisons your mind to stop you from running a mile if you have kids. After 5 years, that should wear off and you can think clearly. By then, if you've had kids, you have bonded with them and the mother on a deeper level or at least that is the plan because family units have an evolutionary advantage. Most relationships break off between 3 to 5 years as a result of this though because they haven't bonded, with their partner or their kids.

I truly believe within the next couple of hundred years we'll have forgotten how to maintain relationships with people.

>>384657
>It can take up 5 years to recover from the effects of infatuation and that's if you're actively trying to maintain it.
I think this is more accurate.

>>384657
>I truly believe within the next couple of hundred years we'll have forgotten how to maintain relationships with people.

Reminds me of the expression 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. The nature of courting and relationships changes, but the reasons people continue to pursue them seem to stay constant. Validation, companionship, sex, and so on.

>>384658

There was a Horizon special on how love works and there was very strong evidence to suggest that some people have no control over it, it persists whether they want it to or not.

It's biology's way of keeping us around when things get tough so it needs to be an extremely powerful effect, as with all things though biological evolution hasn't caught up with the times and hasn't realised that a single mother with two kids can get a house and £150 a week if the man fucks off.

>>384660
Hence the qualifier "can".

>>384652
I don't really know, hopefully I'll settle for someone who at least maintains a bit of fun and sexual appetite as we age.

I felt like an awful fool writing all of that, in the space of writing and now, she's messaged me asking when I'd like to come over for supper, what to do before she leaves on her conference, and general chit chat. It's very warming, inviting, and makes me feel wanted.

My previous relationships were nothing like that, not a single text was exchanged, besides when we should meet to shag.

>>384657

>I truly believe within the next couple of hundred years we'll have forgotten how to maintain relationships with people.

Finally, I'm ahead of the curve for once.

>>384657

>It takes 5 years to recover from the effects of infatuation.

If you spend those five years sat in your bedsit cry-wanking over lost love. There are plenty more slags in the sea of vomit outside Wetherspoons. Nobody is "the one", they're just someone.

Heartbreak is a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, because of how memory works. Recall emphasises our subjective evaluation of a scenario - if you often think about a happy memory, your recollection exaggerates all of the positive traits and vice-versa. You don't recall your initial memory, but the last time you recalled that memory, which is successively skewed by your emotional state at the time of recall. The memory of a breakup tends to go round in circles, with the joys of the relationship and the trauma of the breakup being distorted beyond all reason.

Most people lead quite constrained and familiar lifestyles, in which there is little opportunity for the formation of vivid new memories to displace old ones and plenty of environmental cues to trigger their old memories, trapping them in deeply ingrained cognitive and behavioural habits. It's remarkably easy to quickly get over a failed relationship or similar unhappy situation if you just roll the dice and radically change your lifestyle - move to a new city, take up a new hobby, go out with girls who are nothing like your lost love. New experiences stack up in your memory, increasing the psychological distance between "then you" and "now you". For entirely understandable reasons, a lot of people naturally tend to do the opposite, retreating into themselves and their memories or rebounding into a facsimile of their old relationship.

>>384657

> It takes 5 years to recover from the effects of infatuation.

Please don't say that. If I'm still getting drunk, listening to "our songs" and looking at her newer and happier life on Facebook in five years I may well just end up hanging off the lampshade.

>>384666

Take it up with the BBC, m8.

>>384669

It can take, should have been clearer.

>>384666

>It's remarkably easy to quickly get over a failed relationship or similar unhappy situation if you just roll the dice and radically change your lifestyle - move to a new city

The documentary covered this, it's not always the case. There was a specific example, moving to a new city, and it made no difference. I'll reiterate; sometimes people have no control over when infatuation passes as it has everything to do with the biology of love and the neurology therein and nothing to do with psychology of a break up in those particular cases.

Even if you are aware of what is happening.

It concluded there are 2 very distinct versions of love.

>>384666
>go out with girls who are nothing like your lost love.

Yeah, sure, but why would I do that? I don't date slags or harpies, so why would I be attracted to these girls in the first place?

>>384683
There is a greater variety in female personalities than slags, harpies and your ex.

>>384687
This. There's also bints.

(A good day to you Sir!)

>>384689
I'm not sure there're works, mods. Although you were very quick on the mark with that one; keep it up if any more CP is posted.

>>384692
I am glad for many things in my life, but one thing I cherish very much is that my life doesn't have a kind of vacuum that would make me want to be an unpaid internet moderator.

>>384693
Low standards, huh?

>>384693

Why do house work when you can pay a guy to do it for you?

>>384693
On the contrary. I love this website more than any of my real life friends, which are real, and would gladly give up my valuable wanking time to scour these boards for typographical errors, and I'm the coolest person I know. Why else do all the mods do their jobs drunk? They're cool.

>>384700
Few people know this but when you're made a mod, purple sends out a USB breathalyser you have to use to login.

>>384701

Drunk mod gets his dog to blow into it for him.

>>384706

It's not the only thing I get my dog to blow for me.

>>384706
No, the implication was that it only lets you moderate if you're not legally safe to drive.

>>384707

Oh, you are awful, but I like you.

>>384708

His dog is an alcholic? Poor thing.

Where did all this shame come from? I just want to go to Asda at 2AM but something deep inside just won't let me.

Maybe if I was buying milk and bread instead of milk and sweets and ice cream I'd have more courage.

>>384712

It's okay lad. You can go to the robot checkout.

My own shopping this week had a critical lack of crisps, and I'm suffering for it. I don't want another muller corner or orange club, and I can't be arsed knocking up anything "real" to eat. I knew I should have got the doritos.

>>384713

I like a man who likes a lot of chocolate on his biscuits, iykwim.

It's my birthday.

WHERE MUH HAPPY BDAY AT.

>>384713
I have a similar problem.

Sort of.

I buy all my food to cook, so when I can't be arsed I just end up starving. If I buy any food that's shit and instant I'll eat that all the first day.

>>384716

Yep.

>>384713>>384716

They were... closed. Some man with a human mouth was all "sorry, we're closed", but their doors were open and... God damn it, I just wanted some pre-dawn eats.

I'm so confused and disappointed. I was going to buy something for Birthdaylad as well.

>>384720

I had some sclerotic, moribund old sod a security guard pull this on me last week at 11:48 at a midnight closing Tesco. Luckily I was able to convince him I'd be out before midnight and I was - in and out in six minutes. Good job too or else I'd have spent a night in the cells for shoving a shopping trolley right up his arsehole. Never get between an alcoholic and the last alcohol they're getting before mid afternoon the next day. Really.

>>384720
Thanks all the same, lad. I think I can just do without.

>>384721
On .gs even the alcoholics have good vocabulary.

>>384726

I'd imagine he's still lucid enough by half 3 to appreciate most of Countdown, but still drunk enough by the end to throw something at his TV because he never gets the conundrum.

>>384721

It's horrible, I've been in that boat before but failed to talk my way out of it. Or into it, as it were. While I'm trying to get out of the whole alcoholism thing, I need it for now since I stopped smoking weed last month (Had a few puffs with friends after work, but I haven't bought any since September 1st, which after 3-4 years of smoking almost every day has made me pretty proud). Drinking every day is the duty of some men, it's a heavy burden but one to be borne with dignity.