The movie The Graduate is fucking tedious to watch. Being a 60s time capsule is one thing, and it is. But the plot of a 40 year old cougar popping her friends' son's cherry is far less entertaining than I remember from last watching it 20 years ago.

>>466409

I like to remind people that the Samurai liked to practice Zen meditation so they could chop the head off a peasant without a moment's hesitation.

>>466416

I remember my parents never finding it funny and treating it like it was some sort of harrowing tale of isolation so much so that I've had an argument with them when I tried explaining it was a comedy, I remember my father in an act of ego defence when faced with the Wikipedia page saying "oh it says it's an american comedy" as if American was some kind of expiatory quality based on his own prejudices as opposed to a geographical descriptor of where it was made.

To a certain extent I can relate to this, As I get older I find myself relating a lot more with comedic foils to the point where I see nothing but their pain. I always found del boy too much of a selfish cunt to enjoy only fools and horses when he just constantly fucking over the happiness of the people around him over a few quid I tune in on others pain too much. Conversely my parents love that prick.

A lot of the comedy in it is derived from position of relating with characters anxieties and feelings, maybe you can't relate to those characters or being in those situations anymore either because it is too real or the psyche too alien. Partly these things can be a shift in social norms but also just the position in life changes the relatability, there are jokes I found hilariouswhen I was younger that I now find no humour in now and the reverse is also true.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vs55Z7t7bk

Did we have a podcast thread somewhere or did I dream that?

>>466418

I think there are just far better American social satire films than The Graduate.

I really liked The Ice Storm when I saw it again a while ago. It's a 1997 movie but set in the early 70s, and it does a great job of satirising the dullness, and more than that the darkness of middle class suburban life. It wasn't commercially successful at the time it came out, but it has held up well, partly thanks to good perfomances by Tobey Maguire and Sigourney Weaver.

>>466419
There was a short list of podcasts recently, check last 50 posts in the day/end threads.

>>466419>>466422
Might as well make a dedicated thread on /beat/?

I've lost almost a stone since late August just by avoiding beige foods (with the exception of boiled potatoes or mash) and sweets. I'm still overweight at 17 st, even considering my height of 6'1'', but I'm chuffed with myself.

>>466528
You should be, that's ace. I've been compulsively chewing gum in order to not chew things that aren't gum, like food. My arms are definitely more sinewy and my trousers don't fit anymore, so I think I'm losing weight too.

>>466531

For me, it was caused by all the everyday stress, which is a lot, even now. Eating a bag of Haribo or a pack of chocolate chip cookies in one sitting was my daily endorphin high. And for some time I was addicted to fish and chips and other high calorie take aways. It just felt like my comfort food.

I don't really have health problems, despite my weight, but just losing that one stone has meant that I now feel much less strain in my knees and feet when I get up or walk.

My goal is to lose another three stone, which, according to the BMI calculator on the NHS web site, would put me on the threshold of a healthy weight.

https://www.nhs.uk/health-assessment-tools/calculate-your-body-mass-index/calculate-bmi-for-adults

Just been out for a nice walk. Lovely weather, I really enjoy this time of year where the air is crisp and fresh but the sun is still nice and warm. Then when you get back home after you've worked up some body heat, and the radiators are still a bit warm, you feel extra cosy.

Going to have a big steak for my dinner, which I think I will start doing for a weekly treat, and then probably play some Skyrim in VR, because there's still no better game for Autumn when the nights start closing in. With the VR version I don't even play the actual game, I can happily spend two hours sat by the fire in my house or at a tavern or up on a mountain, reading my massive collection of lorebooks.

Fuck it I think I will purchase some mead to drink while I do and make the experience all the more authentic.

The Tesco Extra in Milton Keynes can go to hell, I went in there for a piss and everything was fine, but I couldn't wash my hands. There was some urinal-looking contraption that was meant to be the sink, the tap and the hand dryer combined into one, and it didn't work. I put my hands into it expecting soap, then water then air to come out. What did I get? Nothing. A red light shone onto my cock germ covered hands and that's it. Actually, all of Milton Keynes can go to hell, what a shithole.

Moving house is a lot of hard work and stress. It's like a second job and I'm only renting.

Firstly, I've got to sort out someone for my current place which means dealing with my flatmates admin vortex. I could outsource this but I have no faith in her pulling it off.
Secondly, there's finding a new place but my property agency has emailed me telling they've not even spoken to the landlord yet to confirm he's happy with the change. Which is a bit uncomfortable if I need to put a deposit down somewhere.

I've had moving bollocks before so I've given myself over a month to sort it and for HL to give me my money, taken a week off work to do the move but even as a middle-income bloke it's a massive headache.

>>466528
>>466534
Good going lad. I remember how proud I felt when I escaped obesity.

I don't know if you've noticed this as well but a proper few hours walking is where I lose the most weight. To a much more efficient level to even going to the gym. I can look at graphs of my weight loss journey and see noticeable dips when I'm dating someone. Answers on a postcard as to why.

>>466531
>I've been compulsively chewing gum

Watch yourself, pal. Your dentist is going to give you a massive talking to the next time you visit. The proper passive-aggressive-questions-while-he-has-his-fingers-in-your-mouth-so-you-can't-answer treatment.

>>466537
>Your dentist is going to give you a massive talking to
That's not going to be a problem for me, Baron Richman of Moneyford-upon-Cash.

Did you know that if you buy a power washer, it doesn't come with a hose so you have to go back out to buy one? However, the recommendations for what water pressure is needed to clean things are total bollocks; you can use a weaker one than you officially need and it works just fine.

In other news from me this weekend, it turns out my patio is meant to be yellow! Also, everything else except my patio is considerably dirtier than it was this morning.

Have you seen this #keepwinterfuel video? - https://x.com/i/status/1842167118990823595

What I don't understand is that the video shows a number of pensioners being interviewed on the horror of having to pay for their heating over the winter months. All the while sat on expensive sofas, in decorated living rooms, surrounded by lovely dogs, talking before an array of books and literature about their hobbies in tennis and the wonderful activity of their communities, drinking from branded coffee machines with CRAVENDAL MILK THE CUNTS. They clearly have saleable assets, but they want a handout?

I think it's fucking disgusting that a political party would pander for votes from people like this, suggesting they're hard up, when there are actual poor people about.

Although saying that, maybe getting the old middle class fogies onboard is the most reliable way to campaign for winterfuel allowances for everyone. I guess more people turn a blind eye to homelessness and povos sleeping on mouldy mattresses on the floor.

>>466540
You'll never believe which thread it was posted in, but yes, that video has already been posted here. I wouldn't expect someone to sell their furniture to heat their home, but the woman who plays tennis can absolutely fuck right off. I can't wait for her to freeze to death. It's the political equivalent of that friend I had who asked on Facebook for someone to buy her a games console because she couldn't afford one without dipping into her savings. That's what savings are for, you entitled bitch. It must have been about eight years that she posted that and I'm still angry. But yeah, any pensioner who spends her money playing tennis instead of heating her house only has herself to blame.

>>466540

>suggesting they're hard up, when there are actual poor people about.

That's the part that annoys me. People are up in arms about taking away a handout from one group of people but nobody is complaining that they already took away the same handout for people on child tax credits, low income, universal credit, etc etc when that group is by far in greater need. There will be kids sat doing their homework in rooms that are so cold they have condensation dripping off the walls, but oh no poor Edith with her four bedroom detached.

The vast majority of pensioners just simply aren't poor. The ones that are, are still getting their handout. BUT THE POOR PENSIONERS THEY PAID IN ALL THEIR LIFE REEEE

>>466540

It goes back to the central argument in the BritMonkey video that lad posted in the YouTube thread - for fourteen years, we've had a society that has been run wholly in the interests of well-off pensioners. The Tories could be sneaky about it in government, they could slyly rig the system in ways that other people wouldn't notice, but now they're in opposition and can only say rather than do, the sheer obscenity of it all is laid bare.

I'd also re-iterate a point I've made in various threads - that the wealthy bastards who are bleeding the rest of us dry aren't some far-off elite, but ordinary people who live down the road from you. They're the millions of people with posh houses and fat pensions who still incessantly demand handouts and perks that the rest of us would never dream of.

>>466543
My mum would like a word:

"I've not taken anything from the state and have worked 45 years paying taxes and insurance contributions throughout. My maternity benefits were for 6 weeks only and a fraction of what is now granted to this generation. Yes I have had the benefit of tgd nhs but so does everybody... not only that but I started off disadvantaged in the work place because I'm a woman and the prejudices for promotion that existed then were far greater than even now. I did not go to university so did not receive the free grants that were available then, but it should be remembered that only 10% of students managed to go to uni back then and they tended to be from the more affluent families who had access to better education and financial support from there families. I have grafted hard all my life and am entitled to a private pension ... yes which I paid into ... not the state... when we were encouraged by the state to save and make provision for our retirement we were not told that having done so we would be deprived of our right to the pension state benefits that we had paid into... I as a waspi have had to work 6 more years than I expected to work and therefore have paid in for more than female generations of the past, indeed the middle class women generation before me tended not to work and got their state benefits off the back of their husbands contributions... so don't show me this generations winging and sense of entitlement... they fucking don't know what it is to work ... the sort of benefits that can be claimed now was never in existence when I was their age... they can go fuck themselves... the withdrawal of the winter fuel payments is nevertheles morally unjust as there are many pensioners who will suffer greatly over the winter... thankfully that's not me ..."

>>466544

Pensioners and the soon-to-be-retired rely on one basic untruth - that they've "paid in all their life". There was no money set aside for the state pension. There is no pot of money that's being paid out of. All the money your mum has paid in tax has already been spent. The state pension is a benefit paid for through general taxation, just like Universal Credit or Child Benefit. The working people of today are directly paying for the pensioners of today.

If we accept that basic fact, then the unfairness of the system becomes obvious. There's no Triple Lock for workers, children or disabled people. The income of pensioners has been entirely protected from the effects of austerity and inflation, while wages and other benefits have fallen well behind the cost of living. It is very literally one rule for them and another for everyone else.

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-pensioner-incomes-and-poverty-changed-recent-years

That's not the fault of any individual taxpayer or voter, but it is their collective responsibility. They voted for successive governments that built our economy around a gargantuan pyramid scheme. That pyramid scheme is slowly starting to collapse; over the next 30 years, it'll take down the entire British economy with it. Working-age people today are already paying higher taxes than your mum did at the same age and that problem is going to continually get worse until something snaps. We cannot continue to insulate pensioners from basic economic reality simply because they feel that they're owed something.

Is it because I was a child at the time, or was Free Willy actually massive in the 90s?

>>466546
Huge. The '90s was definitely the height of its popularity.

>>466546

Everything was massive in the 90s apart from the women, sadly.

Everyone was watching the same four or five channels, so there was a dominant mainstream of culture that you couldn't really avoid. Everyone knew who the Spice Girls were, everyone could name half of the England football squad, everyone could recognise Sally Gunnell and Colin Jackson. Half the population watched either Coronation Street or Eastenders on a regular basis; both soaps frequently got higher viewing figures than the coronation of King Charles.

There are still occasional mega-hits today that approach that level - maybe Taylor Swift, maybe a new Bond film - but nothing like the kind of cultural common ground that we used to take for granted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/71934.stm

>>466545
She isn't having it.

"Not in a position to influence how government structures its funding of the pensions and not my fault that the majority of the time the tories have been in government. Nor is it my fault that successive tory government's have ransacked the country and sold off the family silverware..

https://forcespensionsociety.org/2021/04/how-do-uk-pensions-compare-with-those-in-other-countries/

Taxes are taxes... I have paid council tax, vat, income tax, stamp duty, etc etc and paid for the pensioners that came before... you don't hear our generation complaining it wasn't fair... It's how it is... This generation has all the modern day luxuries that we never had but still think they are hard done by... I had an outside toilet and no hot water until I was 7. Didn't have a working tv in the early days. Tv was regarded a luxury and you had 2 channels which came on in the evening. Food was pretty basic in the shops. We rented until I was 7. We moved to the house in wood green which was a tip in 1969. Dad spent all his money on the mortgage and pretty much rebuilding from scratch. He also rented out rooms to make ends meet.
This generation think the boomers had it easy..but we didn't... its only in the last 15 to 20 years that things have become easier for us yet they resent us having that in our old age...
We didn't have holidays abroad every year... the working classes didn't have central heating... we didn't have a bath when we lived in south london
This generation don't have a clue about the realities"

>>466549
>You don't hear me complaining how it's not fair! [long rant about how it's not fair]

>>466541
>You'll never believe which thread it was posted in, but yes, that video has already been posted here.

>>/b/6964
>Rate my Rolex lads.
>https://x.com/Conservatives/status/1842167118990823595

I figured X.com was redirecting me to an ad, or something.

I don't think these are real old people, mind. They're actors for the capaign, probably sat in sets rather than actual kitchens and living rooms. You can see most obviously from the smile/snear turned into a cry at 02:45. It makes me wonder about product placements and sponsorships - I saw at least 2 brand names throughout.

>I wouldn't expect someone to sell their furniture to heat their home
I've probably been reading too many victorian novels showing people pawn their clothes and furniture to make rent for the week. Incidentally, why and how did so many people apparently live in short-let hotels in those days? Even more recently in American cities you hear of down and out people staying at hotels. Is it just the last of their funds desperately keeping a roof, or was there some economy to it?

Someone roping their mum into a cunt-off is possibly the most deranged thing that's happened here.

>>466549

>the working classes didn't have central heating...

So why is she suddenly arguing that she's entitled to it now?

Somebody cleverer than me just needs to do the maths and make a graph of "how much you paid in" versus "how much you're getting out". In black and white, show these boomers that they are getting more than they paid in, and if we just gave them what they actually paid in, it would be far less.

I posted a graph that shows something similar, but not quite, in the Labour thread. But what I want is a concrete hard number saying "look you entitled old cunt, you paid in £200 grand over the course of your life but you're getting £500 grand out, now shut the fuck up with your moaning while I pay for it."

>>466554

I don't know where we'd get numbers showing what those who come after boomers have paid in over their entire lifetimes as I don't think they exist yet but there's plenty of evidence that we're significantly worse off economically speaking.
https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2023/11/An-intergenerational-audit-for-the-UK-2023.pdf

>>466553
I just happened to be discussing the winter fuel thing with her at the same time you lads were. Be honest that what was missing here was some input from a certified boomer.

>>466549
Okay, so it's not your fault. But it's not our fault either. And you can't tell the government how to run things. Neither can we, apart from maybe the poster who clearly works for the government.

I'm afraid you have been lied to by the government. It's okay to be angry about that; the rest of us are angry too. Let's be angry together. But don't be angry at us.

>>466557
Well the source of her anger was this tweet I showed her, which was itself responding to the Conservative's video. It did sound like it was stoking intergenerational conflict.

https://x.com/NiallHignett/status/1842484729657827473

>>466552

Historically, people were much more mobile, going wherever there was work available. This created a lot of demand for cheap short-term accommodation. This hasn't entirely died out and there's a subset of the lettings market that exists purely to serve itinerant workers in sectors like construction and energy.

There's also the phenomenon that's sometimes referred to as the "sachet economy" - people buying things in small quantities because they're very limited in cashflow. A Victorian labourer or a modern-day homeless person might be unable to scrape together enough money to pay a month's rent up front, but they might often have enough to pay for a bed for the night.

>>466552

I'd assume those are not "hotels" in the same way as we think of, like a hotel intended for tourists to stay at for a week or two. They're essentially just short term lets, where you pay more overall but it's smaller payments, and if they are in precarious work that pays them in cash weekly, for instance, they'd have little choice, even if it means they are paying more overall.

That's that thing again about how it's more expensive to be poor; you often don't have the option of buying the better value thing because it's more expensive than you have available right now. The cheaper one is worse value in the long term but it's the only one you actually have the cash on hand for.

Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday.

I've got a lot of things to learn.

Do you reckon any of these are not complete and utter wank?

https://forbiddenplanet.com/catalog/?offers=5-for-5-on-paperback-books

>>466563
I certainly wouldn't pay for any of them. The one I want the most is the collection of short stories, because at least then you maximise your chances of finding a good story in there somewhere.

The cruel irony is that I probably would enjoy a couple of them; there's just no way of knowing which ones.

>>466563

There are probably a couple of decent books that got in there by mistake.

>>466548
>Everything was massive in the 90s apart from the women, sadly

Chocolate bars have gotten smaller, but people have gotten larger.

🤔

>>466566

Portion sizes have increased. In a lot of places you cannot just buy a basic hamburger. The base version will be 2 patties with bacon and cheese.

Shrinkage isn't the only way of obfuscating inflation part of it is trying to sell luxury versions of the same product, which in food terms because the masses are unsophisticated gluttons means they think luxury means giving them more slop. This is why pubs all suddenly decided they were gastro pubs 10 years ago and sold you the same bad quality crap but in larger amounts.

>>466567

>This is why pubs all suddenly decided they were gastro pubs 10 years ago and sold you the same bad quality crap but in larger amounts.

I don't know lad, I think you might be talking out of your arse here. Every time I've been to a "gastropub" they've given me the kind of portion that suggests they think they're a Michelin star fine dining restaurant, so you end up getting a roast dinner with a two baby carrots, a quenelle of mash and a thimble full of gravy.

>>466571

This. "Gastropub" is almost always the attemt to make yourself look like you're a step up from regular pub grub, and be able to charge more for smaller portions.

There was a pub where I used to live that had a huge plate of bangers and chips for £7. Granted, it was pre-Covid and pre-inflation, but you really got your money's worth. It wasn't fine dining, but it was very enjoyable.

Pubs with exposed brick walls, bartenders with manbuns, minimalistic ikea furniture, ironically kitschy posters and fancy beers no one has heard of or cares about came here from America and are now spreading like a disease. I can't imagine how anyone can sit inside one of those places, see the prices and the types of insufferable idiots that frequent them and not want the Russians to follow through a little with their nuclear war threats.

>>466576

It's about the money. Either be a shit pub like you always have been but which can afford to serve up bangers and chips out of a run down kitchen for seven quid, or spend £30K on a new interior and serve half your previous portions for double the price. Add a little avocado toast and some dishes that vaguely have the words "bruschetta" or "balsamico" in them, put some obscure craft- or microbrews on your menu that cost £1 more per bottle to buy but which you'll sell for double the price of your Stella. And you've got a money machine.

>>466576
They're usually not too busy from what I've seen. I think that's the real logic to it, you can either be a place that gets high-traffic or a place that has to rely on gimmicks and you don't really get to choose.

There's a couple of wanky beer places in London that are alright if done right. Go out in Shoreditch and get a few random beers from the Mikkeller Bar and then when you've had your fill head to Beigel Bake and get the salt beef bagel. It's okay.

>>466577

In fairness, it's really difficult to keep the lights on if you're just running a normal pub that charges normal prices. I hate the twattification of pubs and cafes as much as anyone, but the cost of doing business is just unsustainable if you aren't charging rip-off prices for pretentious crap or a big chain with massive buying power.

>>466588
I'd take any pub that had interesting people drinking there. In my experience, nowadays the only people in pubs are depressing barflies. Even ten years ago, all sorts of people would go to pubs, but either I go to worse pubs now or pubs have worse patrons than they did. Something has poisoned society and even if you can excise the poison from yourself, and start going out again, you won't meet anyone worth meeting any more.

>>466594

Pretty sure that were the pandemic.

Healthier and more well adjusted people found better things to do, the only people left going to pubs for their social life are poorly adjusted delinquents like us, who were raised by borderline alcoholic working class parents and genuinely don't know how to really do anything else. Or at least, even if we do know how to do other things socially, we'd still prefer to bookend it with a couple of pints, because that's the ritual we are accustomed to, and we feel lost in a world where people don't want to do that any longer.

I know I am saying we and really just speaking about myself but I assume at least a couple of you can relate.

Trying to figure out how to keep Google from indexing pictures on a web site. I've had pictures of me taken for my business (I'm self employed), but I don't want Google indexing them in its image search. In fact, being somebody who lives a very private life outside my job, I don't want any association between my personal name and my business in Google's search results. So one thing I've done is that I've replaced my name wherever it appears on my site with an image file with the same font, so that somebody browsing my site will be unaware that it's not just text. And I want to make sure my new pictures are only visible to somebody who directly goes to my site.

Google's own advice to keep images hidden is to make a robots.txt file with the command:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /images/disallow/

and then put your images in the /disallow/ folder. Or whatever name you want to give a folder.

I've given that a dry run the past 10 days and sure enough, some dummy pictures I've put in that folder don't show up on Google's image search, despite being linked in HTML page files.

Call it paranoia, but I want to maintain control over what happens with information about me and pictures as tightly as possible. And with some success, in that there isn't a single picture of me on the web. Or in other words, every search engine I've tried draws a complete blank. Which is just the way I want to keep it.