Yes, yes, very funny.

What was wrong with the old thread anyway? It had only been up for a week. There isn't meant to be a weekend thread for each individual weekend.

Hold on; that was the new weekday thread. Oops. I can't believe I've ruined the new weekend thread already.

>>464418
You maniac.

I tried to lock the other three threads as this one actually has engagement and it crashed the entire website for a little while, sorry about that.

Hm. I think I might have just made a connection. Do you reckon these kid's TV puppets are actually the true origin of the "soyjack" face trend?

(I don't mean the MSpaint memes, I mean the real life phenomenon where it's apparently the only face a certain kind of chap can make in photos, which I gather the memes were based on.)

>>464422
Sounds like a bit of a reach.

>>464422
I do the soy face in pictures, and it's because I want to look like I'm having fun and because smiling can be done wrong and can look stilted and forced and awkward and weird. It's really just an insecure smile. I have seen people rant about when you tell a woman to do something funny, and she just sort of pulls an adorable face; the male equivalent of that is the soy face.

That belgian bun looked dead nice though. Fuck, why doesn't Greggs stay open later.

>>464424
>I do the soy face to avoid looking weird

I overheard two blokes in a clothes shop yesterday. One was telling his pal he "walked fast everywhere", to which the other replied that he "can't stand soywalking". Not only is talking like this embarrassing on the face of it, especially for grown men who looked thirty-ish, the cunt had scraggly unkempt hair, shite clothes and a patchy beard. I don't judge people based on how they look unless they're actually filthy and/or adorned in extreme symbols, but by his own bizarre aesthetic standards, surely this guy was a fuck-up?

>>464427
My 63 year old father won't walk fast because he says "it looks gay".

>>464428
How times change, eh? One day you're sauntering around town with a masculine energy not even Duke Nukem could hope to rival, the next a lad who wouldn't know conditioner if it hit him in the head is calling you a "soywalker".

I had to delete my LinkedIn (I barely used it, had no info on it, just had it to read posts from business people) because a friend from school I haven't spoken to in 12 years viewed my profile. I don't know why he found me - we have no social media links (I purged my Facebook a decade ago), we live in different countries. He must have actively decided out of nowhere to look me up randomly. My name is fairly distinct/uncommon so there's no combing through hundreds of "John Smiths" to find the right one. I can be found instantly.

>>464430
Someone did the unthinkable and found you by your name?

>>464431
It means they were thinking about me independently without my input allowing them to think about me. And they did not just think about me they sought me out. That implies intent.

It probably happens on Facebook all the time it just doesn't tell me. It's a curse having LinkedIn email me that they viewed my profile. Forbidden knowledge.

>>464432
You sound like you need professional help.

>>464432

Don't tell us you've never gone on Facebook when you can't sleep and just randomly started looking up your old schoolmates, colleagues and exes.

There are dozens of people you used to know, and no longer have contact with, and any one of them at any point could totally innocently think "Oh, wonder what Anon is up to these days". Admittedly LinkedIn isn't the first place I'd look but it says as much about them as anyone else, I think. They probably saw your Facebook, wanted to know more, were just being nosey.

This exact thing has happened to you and all of us many times over by now. We're on t'internet. I was throwing sticks off a mountain for a robot dog in virtual reality this morning. It's the future o'clock. Get used to it.

The chocolate in Aldi's version of Magnum is nicer than the chocolate in Lidl's version of a Magnum, but Lidl's version has a far more satisfying snap when you bite into it.

>>464435

I like Lidl's off brand ice cream better.

>>464432
I think LinkedIn is indexed by Google but Facebook isn't, so your LinkedIn profile will show up in a Google search but your Facebook profile won't. Someone still looked you up, of course, but isn't that better than being totally forgotten by everyone?

This thread has got weird toxic insecure 4chan energy so far. Reminds me of when my fat unkempt 30 something virgin friend started talking unirronicly about weak chins.

Soy walking and freaking out 'you were noticed by someone' are topics a healthy mind should not actually be entertaining. The very consideration of the ideas at all seems like a ruminating sickness.

Were people alway this insecure? I look at my parents and they might be brash over confident idiots but they don't strike me as ever having second guessed their public perception. The thought wouldn't even occur to them. Sure my sister might never talk to them again for the rest of their lives. but at least they aren't self crippling in basic actions, and the fact that they don't blame themselves for their estranged daughter probably does wonders to cope with the situation.

>>464434
>Don't tell us you've never gone on Facebook when you can't sleep and just randomly started looking up your old schoolmates, colleagues and exes.
I've been thinking alot lately about this one dude from highschool whom I only ever knew as Lee Turtle (for his short, round body shape). He was a such a sweet guy, I think I probably fancied him without realising it.

>>464438
>Sure my sister might never talk to them again
>they don't blame themselves for their estranged daughter
..there something you want to talk about, mate?

>>464439

>something you wanted to talk about

Not really I just wanted to make the point that one end of the spectrum you've got this thread filled with crippling over analysing insecurity that is deeply unhealthy and on the other end you've got the over confidence of narcissists that is deeply unhealthy for the opposite reasons.


If I didn't mention the counter point of my parents being bastards I feel like I might be giving an unfair account of the virtues of not self questioning at all, when I know there are drawbacks. Even though I think a lot of people should as a rule be more self assured.

LinkedIn just glows really hard. All social media does to some extent but that fact LinkedIn shows up on Google searches is worrying. Not to mention the corpo fucks spouting business philosophy being annoying. Like if someone had my name and Googled it and I had a LinkedIn and I had filled it out they'd have my job and educational history, my musings, my business contacts. It's dangerous information to have so readily available. I don't fill in LinkedIn and I reduced FB to 35 friends but even then I only use it to follow news I don't post on there. X is fun for laughing at schizo conspiracy theorists and also for wanking to evangelist christian korean youtubers.

>>464440

>one end of the spectrum you've got this thread filled with crippling over analysing insecurity that is deeply unhealthy and on the other end you've got the over confidence of narcissists that is deeply unhealthy for the opposite reasons

They aren't mutually exclusive.

Back in the 60s, there was a popular notion among social psychologists that violent criminals just had low self esteem and would stop acting like bastards if they just liked themselves more. That turned out to be disastrously wrong, because criminals actually have higher self esteem than the rest of us - you have to think quite highly of yourself to believe that you've got a right to rob a bank or kick someone's head in for looking at you funny. Violent criminals have high but fragile self-esteem; they think of themselves very highly, but they don't have much to back it up, are hyper-sensitive to perceived attacks and will do pointlessly self-destructive things to reinforce their perceived status.

Insecurity isn't the opposite of narcissism, it's a facet of it. Whether you believe that everyone loves you or everyone hates you, you're wildly over-estimating how much people think about you at all. The grandiose and the paranoid both fundamentally believe that they are of special importance. The inc*l feels shame, envy and resentment because he believes that by rights he ought to be a chad. The cure for insecurity and for grandiosity is fundamentally the same - to spend less time thinking about yourself.

Are we just going to let Michael Mosley's death slide?

>>464442

There are different ways of looking at self esteem. You could argue that you can teach a would-be criminal a kind of self esteem that will have them thinking of themselves as better than that, and striving for a life without crime.

Violent crime is a lot about the (wrong) kind of upbringing you've received. It's not all about a fragile sense of self worth. If you grew up with physical violence and were taught that violence solves problems, then that will be your go-to.

>>464443
I don't have much to say about it, except that it does terrify me a fair bit. I am unhealthy enough that I could potentially get into difficulty while walking, and I would be adventurous enough to try and walk around on a tourist island if I went to Greece. It could easily have been me. Knowing me, I would only barely survive, and smug twats would lord it over me forever about how what a fool I was for attempting to go on a walk on a nice day without taking whatever weird precautionary luggage that hindsight will reveal that I needed, like a sleeping bag or a flare gun. Stuff you would never go walking with on a small island on holiday, and I would point this out to them, but they'd just point out that I nearly died and all laugh at me. Fuckers.

But indeed, RIP the healthy telly man. He was found by a fence on the other side of the beach, too; he very nearly made it back and he would have survived if there had been a gate there.

>>464442

I didn't make the most nuanced position as I was largely offering up an explanation for why I was bringing up what might seem like a haunting issue to me in context. So I largely agree with you, and co-narcissism is a thing people general don't immediately understand and doesn't fit into the pattern described, but I was merely waxing lyrical about how seeming emotional insensitivity actual was to some extent empowering even if I stubbled on my phrasing.

As a counter point though I must question your conclusion

>The cure for insecurity and for grandiosity is fundamentally the same - to spend less time thinking about yourself.

I would say in modern society this is simply not observably true, the rules for making a faux paus have become increasingly obnoxious in the last few years and it makes people hyper aware of others in a way that is crippling.
"did you just assume my gender" and "triggered" might be absurdist extremes for jokes but they speak to a very real anxiety, most people have become increasingly anxious they might perform a hate crime or do psychological damage for speaking without a filter.

I misgender and 'dead name' people all the time, give a cheap apology and move forward because secretly I do not give a shit, but I could imagine it being haunting for people given how much the ideas are hyped as unforgivable sins.

The same is true and probably worse for triggers, if you read the horror stories online and accept them at face value you could never leave the house as there has probably been for every perceivable variant of normal human behaviour an instance online where it was treated as hostile and demonised by the general community it is in. The recent example of meeting a man vs a bear instantly jumps out. The conclusion being if you are a man you should never engage a woman ever. If you treat these people online as having valid thoughts and feelings you couldn’t live in society.

The logical virtuous position of not trying to harm anyone leads people to be crippled not by a care for the self but a concern for others where they are afraid they might impose themselves on someone else. I would say as a society we have turned empathy into a weapon for self-flagellation.

>>464447

>"did you just assume my gender" and "triggered" might be absurdist extremes for jokes but they speak to a very real anxiety, most people have become increasingly anxious they might perform a hate crime or do psychological damage for speaking without a filter.

This is totally foreign to my experience. I imagine that people of that ilk do actually exist in the real world, but I can't imagine how I'd ever end up interacting with one. If anyone is sincerely worried about being cancelled by the woke brigade, I would counsel them to spend less time on Twitter, stop hanging out with knobheads and get a proper job.

>>464443

I'm just glad it was a mystery disappearance type of death because if it was just a plain heart attack or kidney implosion or whatever, that would have been awfully embarrassing for him.

Still pretty weird though, like had he been drinking all day or was he on some kind of psychedelic bender they're keeping hush? Or do we just have to accept you can get caught out in the sun, get dehydrated and a bit lost, and that's you fucked? It's far too easy but you just never really consider it a possibility..

Should I be calling the police?
I've just been propositioned by a 13 year old who looked high as shit and slurring thier words, from among a group of kids larking about, one of whom was sobbing to themselves.
A few days ago a bunch of lads were hopping fences and acting in a mildly hostile manner.
The other week a woman was walking the street screaming herself horse about pedos and bestiality while turning up garden pots and telling everyone to fuck off.

These events are unusual for my locale, and each time I've wondered if I should notify the police. In most cases for the wellbeing of the individuals, but I'm not sure I imagine somewhat for my own entertainment.
I don't want this sort of thing to become too regular, so call, but then again would I be being a busy body?

Particularly the kids proposition and the screaming woman - someone might get assualted or taken advantage of.

>>464450
Yes. Why are you even asking this, call the police NOW.

>>464451
And say what exactly?

>>464448

I have interacted with at least 10 people of shall we say "novel gender" in the last year right down to my neighbours a couple who are both theys and an old housemate who is indeterminate gender by their own admission that i keep in touch with, that has the biggest cock I've ever seen but also grew themselves a pair of tits.

In terms of real cancelling I have had the experience being on the committee of a convention where people started a campaign to get one of the guests of honour cancelled, through means of innuendo that something inappropriate behaviour had happened. It absolutely was a shower of bollocks but you have to treat these things in a serious poe faced manner on the risk that there is any substance at all. I incedently never went back to said convention and the abuse of systems designed for safe guards was a key component of that.

I regularly get reactions like yours maybe I have fallen into a weird pocket dimension. Because I would say I encounter more they thems then I do then lads who like to watch football. Which I assume can not be the norm. It isn't like I seek these things out I just somehow end up in these spaces.

>>464451

Snitches get stitches

>>464449

It's highly likely that he did have some kind of medical episode, possibly caused or exacerbated by the heat. His body was found about fifty metres away from a busy beach. It seems like he collapsed in exactly the wrong place - just a few metres in any direction and he would have been clearly visible to a load of people on sunloungers.

>>464450

You can call the police if you want, but I wouldn't expect them to do anything.

>>464452
>Oh yes, hello, I have crippling autism. There are some teenage kids who appear to be high, one of them appeared about age 13 and propositioned me and another was clearly distressed. Please go and sort them out. I also heard some woman screaming about pedos the other week so might be something afoot innit.

Then you go on the cop website and report the rest as antisocial behaviour before they start robbing garden furniture and bikes.

>>464450
I'd be more worried about the fact that you're in your thirties and still watch TV shows made for 6 year olds.

I wasted my entire weekend on the internet and didn't even get to the gym. There's need for me to break out of the rut I'm in but I don't know how, I'm like a deer caught in the headlights I guess. My best strategy is to make sure I start filling out my calendar to plan my day hour by hour like I'm a child again.

>>464441
>that fact LinkedIn shows up on Google searches is worrying

I don't know anymore. Don't get me wrong, I only have one for industry conferences/conventions but it's incredibly useful for verifying that a match from a dating app isn't a nutter before I go further.

Although obviously for me I don't touch it and only have a facebook I never update because I don't have any friends but the basic functionality is still there.

>>464458
>I wasted my entire weekend on the internet and didn't even get to the gym.
Put a film on your phone and watch it when you're on the treadmill. That's what I've been doing, I've gotten through a good chunk of Breaking Bad.

>>464450
There was a woman screaming and waking up our whole street a few nights ago. I opened the window to see what the commotion was, and she was slurring her words too and someone sounded like he was trying to help her, and she started accusing him of trying to rob her. He sounded confused by this, so in the end I decided she was having some kind of mental health crisis and the other guy was helping, so I went back to bed. This is, however, not that unusual for the area where I live. I have also had children make weird comments to me, but they always sound like they're trying to entertain their friends rather than anything horrific.

I think a child slurring their words and appearing to be on drugs while also propositioning people is enough to warrant a phone call to 101 at the very least.

Just had pasta shaped like condoms. Wouldn't recommend it.

I thought of a story where a man falls in love with a pregnant women but doesn't want to raise another man's kids so he disguises himself and falcon punches the woman in the stomach to abort the kid and the shock of the dead baby causes the woman's relationship to break down then the protagonist swoops in and charms her but then feels guilt for aborting the baby and ruining her life and he must fight with his feelings of does he confess he aborted her baby and ruined the life of the woman he loves or keep it hidden and have the guilt eating away at him for the rest of his life while he stays with the woman he loves?

>>464460
I remember a few years ago I was walking home from the shops and a man eating a pack of custard creams (who was also wearing a fur coat in the summer) came up to me and said "Sorry, do you know where [street name] is?", I said "sorry no" and carried on walking and then saw the street sign, and told the guy that he was on the right street. He started shouting at a house about some woman, still munching on his custard creams. That's the most bizarre thing I've seen.

>>464459
I put an audiobook or podcast on and stare at the wall for an hour. That part isn't such a problem for me so long as what I'm listening to is good. The problem comes with it suddenly being midnight and I've wasted the day away.

Father's day on Sunday. What do you reckon, would it be an imposition to buy my dad a vape kit?

He's smoked all his life and obviously needs to stop but at the same time it seems like one of those things where he would've moved to vapes already it if he wanted to. Or maybe he's never bothered because he's never understood what to ask for.

>>464465

I don't think it's too much of an imposition, no. A lot of older people haven't tried vaping because it just seems weird and confusing and like something that's for young people. As a convicted vapist, I've had countless conversations with people who were completely sceptical about the whole malarkey until I got them to have a puff, at which point they were asking me where they could buy one of those things. Smoking is a really deep-seated habit and a lot of people just need a tiny push to try something different.

Advice if you aren't a vapist yourself: Disposables are a perfectly reasonable option for a first-timer. They're completely self-explanatory to use and cost less than a fiver, so you could just tack one on to another present and he'll probably give it a puff out of curiosity. It might be sensible to go for one in tobacco and one in another flavour. The psychology is a bit weird - a lot of smokers are put off by the idea of non-tobacco flavoured vapes, but almost everyone who takes up vaping immediately switches to some sort of fruity flavour when they realise that fags don't actually taste very nice.

If you want a reusable device, the Vaporesso XROS Mini is the obvious choice. It's cheap, dead easy to use and it vapes beautifully. There is a tiny bit of explaining to do, but it takes literally two minutes to show someone how to use a pod system. For someone coming from cigarettes, I'd recommend 20mg nic salt liquids, because that gives the most cigarette-like nicotine hit.

https://www.vapeclub.co.uk/vape-pods/vaporesso/vaporesso-xros-mini-pod-vape-kit

>>464465
>>464466
Wouldn't nicotine pouches be a better option if you're trying to quit?

>>464462
That's horrible.

>>464466
Thanks I'll give it a go. I opted for an Innokin Endura T18X Vape Kit as it's what I used to quit and I think the bigger throat hit will be something he'd need - I went for a mixture of sweeties, coffee and tabacco juice in 12mg 50/50.

Hopefully the package comes with a receipt so he can see how much cheaper it is too. It's blowing my mind thinking about how much of my inheritance he must be blowing away in smoke but also I can tell my mum is starting to get anxious as his brother died recently and has been making him go for medical tests.

>>464467
My dad is 65 years old and has been smoking all his life. At this point we're well into mitigation rather than ever expecting him to quit.

>>464467

Possibly, but probably not. I've used and enjoyed pouches, but they don't replicate the habit of smoking, which is integral to the addiction/enjoyment. Pouches satisfy your nicotine cravings, but they don't satisfy the hand-to-mouth habit, they don't give you an excuse to go and stare into space for five minutes.

>>464467
You can't have a can of Monster and a Peperami while using a nicotine pouch, it'd be a horrible taste nightmare. But I can have a bit of Peperami, a swig of Monster, then a toke on my OXVA blackcurrant aniseed vape and all flavours remain distinct. Nicotine pouch means 30 minutes without drinking.

>>464469

>My dad is 65 years old and has been smoking all his life. At this point we're well into mitigation rather than ever expecting him to quit.

Maybe he won't, but even for a lifelong smoker of that age, there are undeniable health benefits to quitting.

Going on a long beach walk this weekend. Hopefully see some crabs.

>>464489
Well yeah but if you want an update he's using the vape and my mum thanked me for it. I'm not vapelad but let's not let perfect become the enemy of the good.

>>464539
HEY, BEACHER, LEAVE THOSE CRABS ALONE.

>>464542

Just in case that one lad does pop up, here's what the chief executive of Public Health England had to say about it, and the report it came from.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b6c3f57ed915d30f140f822/Ecigarettes_an_evidence_update_A_report_commissioned_by_Public_Health_England_FINAL.pdf

Just getting him to make the switch to vaping is a big win, it's a massive improvement to his health, and you should be chuffed. Good on him and on you.

Just been given £150k. Not really sure how to invest that, I've never had more then £10k in my bank in my life. Any advice?

>>464546
It's not really possible to say without knowing your overall financial position and what your goals are. Once you know what you're actually aiming for you can look at how you can allocate the money to try and achieve this.

The cherries on the tree in the back garden are coming in. They still need about a week to ten days or so. They're already pretty sweet, but it's nothing compared to the sweetness when they are a dark red, almost black.

Maybe I'll make a cherry pie next weekend.

>>464546
S&P 500 exchange traded funds. Vanguard do one.

>>464546
I wouldn't mind being given £150k myself. Did he also pay for your flight to Dubai?

>Not really sure how to invest that

Easiest way would be to open a Vanguard account, max out your ISA and open then a separate share account for the remainder. Invest nearly all of it in VUAG and/or VT. Then forget about it. Or stick it on some FTSE100 dividend stocks and make about £500 a month.

Numbers will go up and down. Don't expect 6 figures to mean much more than a rollercoaster for your emotions.

>>464546
Buy whatever you need, new car, new fridge etc.
Don't get any ideas about it lasting a long time.

>>464546
Pay off all your debts and use the rest to avoid accumulating any more. It's a nicer feeling than any earthly possession to not owe anyone else any money, and to know that you could quit your job if you wanted to.

>>464551

Don't be a daft twat. £150k will buy you a decent house in the north or start off a good pension pot. If you're sensible, it's an amount of money that can give you some real financial security.

>>464546
>>464554
Yeah couldn't you just buy a house up norf and become a rentier, earning an easy 12k a year?

>>464555

Or use it as a deposit on the mortgages for half a dozen flats and become a BtL bastard.

>>464546
Give me £10,000.

>>464546
My father and sister got into an arguement the other day because they couldn't find £50 for travel expenses to buy a 5th hand car.

>>464558
It's not like they can use more than four hand cars at once between the two of them.

Bit wet out.

Are you able to grow a beard? I've had long hair, don't cautre for it. But hair that grows out of my face? Above the face is a flavour saver, no. Cheeks for me just does not grow, so chin it is.

Simple braid, and that I got into knitting;.

>>464561
AI, surely? I've actually considered monoxidil or whatever that hair growth stuff is - wouldn't mind having a full face of hair rather than what I've got.

>>464561
Several years ago I was going to say "a couple of years ago" but then I worked out it must have been 2015, I grew one of those giant goatees that you can plait. It took about two years. Once I had my plaitable goatee, I plaited it two or three times and every time, it went crooked and the plait curved off to one side. Also, plaiting a beard is extremely difficult, and the plait was only about as wide as a pencil anyway. So I wouldn't recommend it. Nevertheless, yes I can grow a beard.

>>464561

I have had a beard since I was about 20-21ish, I think? I feel like it never filled out properly until I was about 23-24. I used to like having a beard because it made me look older, but now I'm in my mid 30s I've started appreciating how it makes me look younger without.

I very rarely have a proper wet shave, but I keep it trimmed down to stubble around my mouth and chin. I did keep massive sideburns though, because it matches the rest of my 1970s throwback kind of look.

>>464561

By the time my beard was dense enough to grow it out, it was starting to turn grey. We're talking late 20s/early 30s by that point. Now at 50, I've got decent beard growth but it's almost all grey except for the areas on my chin and upper lip. So you barely see most of it. The upside is that I can now go longer without shaving before it looks untidy.

Patchy beard growth isn't necessarily a sign of low testosterone. A lot of the time, it's a genetic insensitivity to testosterone of the hair follicles on your face. So your testosterone blood levels will actually be fine and in the normal range, and it's just that your facial hair cannot be stimulated by them. Nothing you can do about it. Additional testosterone shots might help a little bit, but the side effects aren't worth it.

Pretty rainy this week. I don't mind it too much though!

Started to notice how my hair is thinning out by looking at old pictures. When it gets bad enough i'll just shave the lot and buy a selection of novelty anime wigs.

I've had hot dogs for me dinner. What have you had?

>>464571
Had half a big bag of monster munch for breakfast. I think I'll make a cheese omelette for dinner with gorgonzola, peas, broccoli and tomato.

>>464561
No it just grows patchy, like you it grows on the neck (uneven) and chin but my cheeks never grow out and there's a gap in the middle of my moustache. I still leave a dirty beard from some electric clippers though because I'm too lazy to properly shave everyday and I think it hides my fat face.

I should shave. I probably look dirty.

>>464571
>>>/nom/15879
Thank you for reminding me to reply to that post, by the way.

Went to an arcade and set the daily high score for Crossy Road. Feel like I've actually accomplished something today.

>>464575

It saddens me that thisis what arcades are nowadays.

What happened to fucking... Time Crisis, and House of the Dead. It's just phone games on a big screen now.

Grumble grumble.

>>464573

You're welcome.

>>464576
What's wrong with Frogger Crossy Road at an arcade? They still make numerous shooters - infact the latest House of the Dead is only 6 years old.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXqzaFvimqM
Oh wow, what a trip. This game terrified me as a kid, I had nightmares and everything.

>>464577
I remember watching a kid pump coins into this at a hotel in Benidorm, probably spent about 20 quid getting through the game because he died every 30 seconds or so.

Aldi now do choco shells. That means there's pretty much no reason for me to go to Lidl now.

Just came back from a couple of days in Ireland. Not wanting to pay train prices or, worse, ferry prices to feed myself for the day, I figured I should stock up before heading to the terminal. In the UK, my usual shout for this would be to hit up a local convenience store, since some of them now have better prices on some things than the supermarkets. In Dublin? No such luck. Thankfully there is for some reason a Lidl right in the middle of town, in exactly the sort of place you don't expect a Lidl to be, and for a little over €10 I had enough drinks, snacks and sandwiches to keep me going for the following 12 hours.

Got sacked today. No big issue, I was expecting (and hoping for) it. I find sackings very weird. I've only been sacked three times - once because the business essentially went under, and twice due to disability. Today was the meeting discussing whether adjustments/redeployment/dismissal were appropriate. I was sort of given a subtle choice of "not get dismissed today and have more formal meetings to discuss things before a decision", or "get it over and done with". I went for the latter.

It all felt quite unceremonious. I handed over my IT equipment, gave my manager my badge and lanyard, and fucked off. Not that I'd expect some grand exit like Nostalgia Critic quitting his job, but still a bit odd the whole "yeah you're done goodbye" curtness of it all.

>>464675
If your dismissal involved disability in any way, take those fuckers to the cleaners at the Employment Tribunal.

>>464678
It was more that even with special treatment it still wasn't viable for the business to keep me on. I have other irons in the fire so was wanting the sacking for that severance pay, then I could move on to greater things. If anything I'd have been more disappointed had they gone for redeployment.

This is my only day off until next Monday and I don't have any idea what I want to do. I don't really have the money to do anything, but it still feels like I'm about to waste the day.

>>464687
Go for a walk. All day. Just set off and see where you end up, then get a bus or train home. It's the ultimate bargain day out for when the weather is lovely, which it is.

>>464689
Funnily enough I did go for a walk to nowhere in particular about an hour after that post. The thing is, I do this shite all the time. It was fine, but I would rather have the money to mooch around charity shops and go to see a film. Actually I'd rather have a wife and a flat and no belly fat, but I think I'm getting distracted.

Had a giant tapas platter for lunch today and haven't eaten since. Generous portions of calamari, king prawns and chorizo sausage with dip sauces.

80-100 thousand people marching in London today. JSO have a hell of a turnover rate. Hasn't been all that long but didn't recognise a single one of them. Not surpring really.

>>464698

Good on them.

But where do they think petrol will come from if we ban oil.

>>464698
Blow up oil create wind turbines
I heard that there're some significant drawbacks to wind turbines not least their reliance on the weather.
I think people don't realise how complicated the situation is. There must be more to our reliance on oil than mere corruption. Isn't the Americandollar essentially backed on oil? I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.

>>464700

>Isn't the Americandollar essentially backed on oil?

I mean, if we're being really candid about it, this is the entire reason we're not ending reliance of fossil fuels any time soon, no matter how much of a biblical apocalypse it causes. Then there's also the fact that a good chunk of American politicians get fully rock hard over the idea of biblical apocalypses anyway.

America bad sounds reductive but really. I mean really. Is it?

For the first time I'm exercising, but not to the point where I feel like dying. I've started, and promptly stopped, using weights and doing squats probably once or twice a year since 2017, but only now have I realised my previous errors. It feels nice.

What do you think of modern Jordan Peterson and why?
I listened to his early stuff when it felt like a mutual exploration, but these days his content feels authoritarian and I feel a mild disinterest, as though I'm being peddled something beyond a worldview.

I wonder if his content has become merely a platform for others to sell their latest book (etc), or whether it still has value. The topics are generally on theme but something seems very different from where it began.

The video I'm currently listening to is about an untold history Karl Marx, specifically how He MaY HaVe BeEn A sAtAnIsT - they gotta clickbait a certain demographic, I guess.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw44mdee0zzo

>Stonehenge covered in powder paint by Just Stop Oil

I don't disagree with the idea in principle that we need to stop burning fossil fuels, but this lot are a bunch of self important tone deaf autists. What the fuck does a revered ancient monument site like Stonehenge have to do with climate change.

>>464704
I do find it mildly amusing that Jordan Peterson is nowadays talking the sort of nonsense that would make actual audio recordings indistinguishable from deepfake narrations of content generated by ChatGPT.

>>464705
Can I ask a question, of you and everyone else with similar queries regarding the JSO protest? Are you being daft on purpose? It's a protest, it's about garnering as much publicity as possible. If I scaled Blackpool Tower and tied a Palestinian flag to it, would you assume I held ballroom dancing somehow repsonisble for the actions of the IDF?

Apologies if I sound a little terse, but I've really had it with people making out like Stone Henge was going to crumble to dust because of this protest. They got some powder on some giant rocks, they didn't launch a torpedo into HMS Belfast.

>>464707

Yes yes yes publicity. But then what does that publicity do? It makes people think they are wankers. So what's the next step on this, well it doesn't matter as long as the message gets out, no publicity is bad publicity" yadda yadda. But I really don't think it's true here, I mean literally what does this do for them? How does it further their aims?

I genuinely think Just Stop Oil might be a false flag, like PETA are for animal rights.

>>464704
I saw a clip of him complaining about Pride, saying something about pride being a cardinal sin. And I found him a total joke for saying that, because to allow a several millennia old text written by numerous different people in a different country/climate/time period/culture dictate your morals is fucking retarded. Having issues with Pride is fine as people have differing opinions, but to act like biblical shit holds any weight or is some kind of "gotcha" is pure delusion.

>>464698
>JSO

Most of the protest pictures I've seen are from members of the RSPB, Wildlife Trust, Woodland Trust, etc, so I'm not sure why you're claiming it as a JSO march.

>>464708

This article written by a psychiatrist in 2014 explains the whole thing:

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/

>>464708
At worst I think it's massively naive on JSO's part to think they wouldn't be pilloried by the right-wing press for this. However, if you protest in a way that doens't raise to ire of The Mail, Telegraph, Express, etc. no one will give a shit. Maybe Are Stew will give you a nod in his weekly Observer piece - brilliant. Despite all the kvetching and demands for retribution from Britain's Forces of Reaction, the reality of what happened was that some powder was on some stones, and it was cleaned off before the end of the day. I find myself feeling half-insane when I see widescale media coverage that would imply a potentially fatal blow has been struck against Stone Henge, because it's just not true. However, it benefits The Forces of Reaction to lie their arses off, even in the face of all known reality.

So no, I don't think the protest makes them look like "wankers". What stokes negative sentiment towards them is a mass conspiracy amongst crypto-fascist news publications, controlled by billionaires and millionares, to report anything organisations like JSO do in the most negative light imaginable. And I don't care how that makes me sound, that's what's happening, I can see it with my damned eyes.

>>464710
I'm not, they were simply present like many other activist groups. The activists combined certainly outnumbered the NGO reps combined, massively, but for various reasons NGOs are more palatable to media.

>>464712
I don't think any of them have any illusions about the nature of our right wing press.

It's like this. I don't disagree with the idea and the goal of of phasing out oil. But I also enjoy things like Stonehenge. And some extremists sullying Stonehenge, even if it's just with temporary paint or dye that will come off without damage to the monument, just isn't right and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And does nothing to make me respect somebody like that or what they're on about.

>>464714
How do you feel about the plans to build a permanent motorway tunnel through the heritage site and various unexcavated parts of it? Has there been much reportage of that in the conversation around this?

>>464715

The A303 tunnel won't go directly "through" the site but past it. It's not like they're going to dig right under the monument. And one of the express goals of the proposal is actually to improve the view of the landscape by moving a busy road under ground.

>>464716
It does risk damaging the site, as protesters and UNESCO point out. Really though, why are you being made to feel like your feelings about the protesters are the central concern here? Spinal Tap have done more damage to the henge than this lot. Who's encouraging you to focus on being angry at them and why? Why are you going along with it?

>>464717

>Who's encouraging you to focus on being angry at them and why? Why are you going along with it?

Not everything is (worthy of) a conspiracy theory, lad.

There's a fine line between raising concern and public awareness about an issue facing us all, like climate change, and becoming complete cunts about it by damaging or breaking things that the rest of us enjoy and would like to see preserved and not vandalised, despite our agreement with the overall idea of saving the planet.

The world doesn't revolve around you and your bored white middle class extremist views that lead you to believe that it's ok for you to do things like that. Most people have more moderate views than you and you have to accept that you are not speaking for them.

>>464719
That various interests are openly pushing an agenda and it's working isn't exactly a conspiracy.
>damaging or breaking things
You know that's not what happened here.
>The world doesn't revolve around you
I'm not the one claiming my feelings are the end of the conversation.

>>464720

So you're essentially implying that any opposition to JSO is the result of a right wing media social engineering shill job to reverse the waning of support for continued oil extraction? Come on, lad. You can't be that daft.


>I'm not the one claiming my feelings are the end of the conversation.

They're not just my feelings.

>>464721
I'm implying that the opposition which is largely voiced by the right wing media and echoed online is. What do you think the oil industry is spending its marketing billions on? Big billboards that are always just out of sight?
>They're not just my feelings.
No, they're Murdoch's.

>>464722

>No, they're Murdoch's.

Sigh. Go on then.

>>464723
Is it not Murdoch's opinion then? Does he support JSO's aims? Does he not have a media empire pushing that stance down to the exact language ("bored middle white class extremists")? Is the same angle not used of deliberately implying real harm has been done by them, knowing it hasn't? What speaks like a duck and walks like a duck but is convinced it isn't a duck?

>>464724

Your problem isn't what Murdoch tells the sheeple to think. It's that you think JSO are sacrosanct and that any criticism of them cannot come from a person's capacity for indepedent critical thought. Because if they were capable of it, they would side with you.

It's that kind of opinion autism that is going to erode support for JSO all on its own, without any help from Murdoch and the right-wing media.

>>464725
You have no idea if I have criticisms of JSO or not, only that I don't share them with you. What we do know is that out of all the nuanced possible opinions it is possible to have, you share yours exactly with those voiced by proponents of the fossil fuel industry.

>>464726

>What we do know is that out of all the nuanced possible opinions it is possible to have, you share yours exactly with those voiced by proponents of the fossil fuel industry.

Guilt by association, eh?

You're not disproving my point from >>464725 . Not by a long shot.

>>464727

Not guilt mate, I'm sure it's just a billion-to-one useful coincidence.

In the words of MLK: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action."

>>464728

>Not guilt mate, I'm sure it's just a billion-to-one useful coincidence.

You're just digging your hole deeper.

They shouldn't let Donald Trump, the known sex predator and grifter, peddle his right-wing ideologies. If anything, it's going to harm right-wing ideology to see him on the news all the time. It makes everyone actually turn against right-wing politics. Because of how obnoxious he is, lots of former Republicans who previously wanted to Build A Wall are instead queuing up to fill their homes with Mexican immigrants. This just shows that introducing ideas to the public in an odious way turns the people against them, and the racists should instead keep their mouths shut.

Oh, wait. That's not how it happens at all.

>>464731

>It makes everyone actually turn against right-wing politics.

And that is a bad thing how?

Or are you conflating right-wing with conservative?

>>464732
What I was doing, was pointing out that if you make a political point and are a total cock about it, it doesn't harm the idea itself at all and it actually benefits the movement. People say, "I don't like Donald Trump as a person, but I will re-elect him anyway because he's right about the Mexicans", and there's a genuine chance he could wind up as president again this November. So the argument that people will say, "I don't like Just Stop Oil as people, and therefore I now support the destruction of the planet just to get back at them" doesn't really hold up, because that doesn't happen with other political bellends. You can look at various polls and prove me right if you want. Therefore, Just Stop Oil being twats is actually a good thing for the green movement, because it has been shown that the population at large has no trouble separating the idea from the wanker espousing it.

>>464733

>Therefore, Just Stop Oil being twats is actually a good thing for the green movement, because it has been shown that the population at large has no trouble separating the idea from the wanker espousing it.

Just a while ago today, you were arguing that if I don't like Just Stop Oil, regardless of otherwise agreeing that we should phase out oil, I'm probably part of the Murdoch sheeple who have bought into pro-oil propaganda spread by the right wing media.

So which is it, lad. Or was that otherlad?

Just had a wank with my earbuds in. Not sure if I'll do that again, porn directly into my brain.

>>464735
I'm someone else, and >>464731 was my first post. I thought you were the one I was agreeing with, but at least you're actually the one I don't agree with. So that's a relief. But yes, I disagree with you.

>>464735

Nobody was arguing that, they were arguing against whining about it online using Murdochian sheeple talking points that you know to be based on misinformation. Remember how it was mentioned that you don't know if they have criticisms of JSO or not, just that if they do they're not airing them here? Absence of evidence not being evidence of absence? You can separate between the two, right?

>>464714
That is fine, right. I get that, I disagree, but I do get it. However, that's not what the right-wing press were doing. They made out like the "rare lichen" was doomed and a national monument was in mortal peril whilst simultaneously underreporting the JSO protest where they broke into an airport and doused a bunch of private jets in orange paint. And that was paint-paint, not powder.

>>>464713
>I don't think any of them have any illusions about the nature of our right wing press.
I said "at worst". But if they don't they should probably focus on the protest I mentioned latterly in my above paragraph.

>>464736
I have terrible news about visual stimuli.

>>464739

>They made out like the "rare lichen" was doomed and a national monument was in mortal peril

That, indeed, falls under a reader's capacity for critical thought or in other words their ability to at least spot the daftest of daft right-wing propaganda and talking points. Even a bootload of rattle cans and a bunch of them going at it all night long wouldn't have obliterated Stonehenge into non-existence.

I still don't think they had a moral right to decide that because we're all burning oil and dooming the planet, we shouldn't get to look at Stonehenge in its unsullied state. That is not something they should be allowed to decide for all the rest of us. And besides, how is a direct-action stunt like that actually going to make one single person consume less oil. In all likelihood, they either took a bus or their own car, either of which probably with a combustion engine, to get there.


>whilst simultaneously underreporting the JSO protest where they broke into an airport and doused a bunch of private jets in orange paint.

But again, I don't think they've got a right to destroy somebody else's property. Even if that property is one of the most harmful ways to pollute the atmosphere.

>>464739
>they should probably focus on the protest I mentioned latterly in my above paragraph.
The reason they don't is also covered by that same paragraph. They went through a phase of actively focusing on blocking refineries and the traffic of oil tanker trucks but it didn't get anything like as much traction in the press but more punitive sentences for those involved so the activist burnout rate was high with lower recruitment. Not sustainable.

>>464740
>still don't think they had a moral right to decide that because we're all burning oil and dooming the planet, we shouldn't get to look at Stonehenge in its unsullied state
You still can, why can't you make a point without lying?

I just had the urge to watch aush0k telling me to have a fuckin' whinge there cuz, and on searching for it discovered he was arrested for hacking with alleged ties to LulzSec, which is hilarious.

>>464740
>we shouldn't get to look at Stonehenge in its unsullied state
You're probably several thousand years too late for that, lad.

>>464707
>JSO

Call me a pervert but I find these sort of acronyms very misleading on internet. It's almost as bad as the infamous 'naked burrito'.

Can we keep conversation about the outside people off the weekend threads? Not least as the thread on the eco topic we had got everyone banned at some point and the other political ones are always agro.

>>464736
My housemate has recently started using my bluetooth speaker when she's cooking. I set it up one day when we made dinner as I usually use it when I'm cooking but now I live in constant paranoia that my laptop will connect when I'm watching some razzle-dazzle.

A lot of people have complained about this autoconnect feature but Microsoft refuse to do anything about it. Probably because they can't have us shutting off certain things that connect without us knowing.

>>464746

>My housemate

Is this the one who's actually your girlfriend, and you're still in denial?

>I live in constant paranoia that my laptop will connect when I'm watching some razzle-dazzle.

And this is exactly how you'll end up breaking the shag barrier. Guarantee you.

I was going to complain in the other thread about having a super-king size take up a load of space in my room but then I remembered that it's ace. I cannot understate how nice it is to have a big bed that let's you sleep with someone but still have all the space you need to sleep and, because you have to buy larger everything else you never have to fight over the covers.

The catch is that your bed becomes more-but-not-totally square which makes changing the covers a pain in the arse to get right and bed sizes lock you in as you need to have everything fit. And obviously my side tables are completely squashed up against the wall and it's slightly awkward to navigate the corners.

Big Bed; a conspiracy to sleep on.

>>464748
I don't think we've seen anywhere near the true power of Big Bed. You might say Big Bed is a sleeping giant.

I had a letting agent put their handheld stuff on my bed once, while they were inspecting my bedsit. I found it so embarrassing, I've been using a horrible sofa-bed since.

>>464747
She's an evangelical so I think that would lead to an entirely different kind of conversation to your Japanese comics. She's already told me to reach out if I have any questions about God and revealed how she spoke in tongues and saw the holy spirit.

And she's not my girlfriend.

>>464770

100% of evangelicals are insanely horny.

>>464771
Under 50s, maybe, numbers vary, going by Church attendance. Not just Evangelicals, but there's "My hhusband died, but the heart has needs". Not easy pickings, that phrase implies that needs have been taken care of by self care and "romance" novels. Because those Are Not Porn, just books, literature, don't you know?

This is a charity shop, we sell books by the spine: 5 for £1. Take them! Good lord, please do not tell me how you intend to use them!

>>464771
I think this is probably true, but I also think he could have said she was anything or anyone and you would have made the same claim.

>>464781

Anglicans and Presbyterians aren't horny. Catholics can go either way. Methodists are horny, but they're into weird stuff and not in a sexy way. Jehova's Witnesses aren't horny, but ex-Jehova's Witnesses are dangerously horny. Mormons are so horny that they invented soaking. Quakers are horny, but they've got social justice brainworms so it's pot luck as to whether you'll get "do you consent to me touching your arm?" or some deranged BDSM stuff.

>>464782
So everyone is horny and at any moment our 'shag barrier' could fail leading to a writhing mass of bodies intertwined in ecstasy? Unless of course as >>464780 suggests we recharge our shields using pornography?

This sounds like quite a predicament.

>>464801

We spend all week pretending we aren't horny, then get blackout drunk and rut like animals. The fundamental energising force behind all of British culture is pretending that we aren't horny enough to shag a stranger in an alley behind a Wetherspoons. It's the only explanation for the D*ily M*il.

>>464801

Divert all power systems to primary thrusters, Mr LaForge. Our mission is to go forward.

The prison officer who was filmed getting fucked by an inmate is on OnlyFans.

The woman who threw a milkshake over Are Nige the other day is on OnlyFans.

Is almost everything in the news becoming a stunt for women to promote their OnlyFans accounts?

>>464884
>The prison officer who was filmed getting fucked by an inmate
I don't know this story. Can you provide a link? Ideally one with a photo? Or a video?

>>464885
No wonder I haven't seen it; every news article is from the sort of tabloid websites that I feel so smug about never, ever reading.

>>464887
The video link doesn't seem to work, but I genuinely thought "x.com" was a going to be a porn site.

>>464884

>Is almost everything in the news becoming a stunt for women to promote their OnlyFans accounts?

Pretty much. As with most social media platforms, the days when you could make serious money are over. A few years ago, when OnlyFans only had a handful of performers per niche, it was a viable way to make a living. But now it's just overcrowded with lasses struggling to build fan bases and get attention.

>>464884

I really think OnlyFans might be the worst thing to have happened to society since social media in general. I think it will decline in it's ubiquity once people realise porn is, believe it or not, a pretty fucking saturated market already, but for the time being the temptation is still too great for a lot of women to realise it's too good to be true.

>>464891

It's quite sad really.

I have some amount of distaste for the kind of woman who goes on OnlyFans, because ultimately their motivations for doing it is that they thought it was easy money. You know? That says something about a person, fundamentally, if you ask me. I understand when times are hard and people start to get desperate, but that's the unique thing with OF, it's never been "fuck I lost my job, I'm going to have to get my tits out to pay the rent", it's always been much more like "ooh, I'm young and fit, I bet could be loaded like that bathwater woman".

But it turns out it was just another pyramid scheme Nigerian Prince scam, and it doesn't matter how fit you are, it's only a very specific kind of man who pays for something that is so easily available for free. You got duped, but it's too late now, that video of you taking a horse dildo all the way up your arse is out there forever.

Lots will regret it.

>>464892
I don't think being a camwhore is anything new, they've just figured out how to monetise it better.

When I was a teenland I remember one of my friends kept going on about how she was going to pose topless for Suicide Girls when she turned 18. Never went through with it in the end. It's all about attention.

I remember in the pub, a male friend joked about it to a female friend, and she said nobody wanted her and looked genuinely sad. The conversation moved on, but it stuck with me, because think of how OnlyFans is described:

"Ladies, do men chat you up constantly? Of course they do; there's a whole wave of fishing primarily focused on precisely that! Well, why not turn your situation into a positive, by only doing what you want to do, and becoming a millionaire? All the other women you know are making money off it, and you're better looking than them. It's free money!"

Literally 0% of that is true. Most men aren't going to pay to simp for you when they can get the same thing for free. You need to market yourself very aggressively, or you'll be completely overlooked and nobody will ever want to pay to see your bum. Especially if it's just some cheeky haha bum-cheeky photos of you in an uncomfortable corset. So women, in a society that tells them that everyone wants to shag them, put this idea to the test and find that no man wants them. Meanwhile, of course, they're still being told that all the other women are raking it in, so the problem must be with you, it's obviously you who are defective, you're too fat, too ugly, even when you put on your best corset, you're hideous, you're worthless, you should just die and hopefully die face-down to spare people the horror of having to look at your revolting sea-monster ugliness for even one second more. Consider that women who get into pornography have a reputation for mental health issues and poor self-esteem anyway, and the whole thing is utterly vile. I've made myself so angry just typing that out. And it's really not being helped by Otis the Aardvark laughing at me as I type. Fucking predator.

>>464894

Well yeah, that's just the thing though. What it is is porn, same as any other, just with a bit more of a parasocial element maybe. Porn has been around as long as the technology to create it has existed. I am fairly sure that after pioneering early artist Ugg made the very first cave painting and all his cave-peers marvelled at his incredible technological development, the very next thing he did was monetise it with cave-commissions of everyone's cave-sonas fucking cave-waifus with massive cave-tits.

But OnlyFans seems to have had this sort of buzz about it, a brief hysteria that I can't say if it was artificial marketing hype or not, but which a lot of women who wouldn't ordinarily consider doing porn fell for. If you tell them "you know you can make an okay wage doing porn" and offer them the figure that an average but successful porn actress might make, they would not find that appealing- But with OnlyFans it was the prospect that they could become a huge millionaire, independent and self made, just by showing off their tits. It was alluring because it promised women they were such a special, desirable and attractive example of femininity that they'd never have to work again, and all they had to do was sign up for this website and take a few selfies.

That seems to be explicitly part of the business model, hence why I call it a pyramid scheme. Like how Facebook wants you as a user so it can sell your data, OnlyFans needs new "models" signing up and then essentially acting as free promotion when they go around spamming their links everywhere. They might only ever make a tenner, but they've done a lot more for directing new customers to the site and the established models who have much better content to sell that people might actually buy, and therefore still making money for the company.

>>464892

>You got duped, but it's too late now, that video of you taking a horse dildo all the way up your arse is out there forever.

I'm not sure if that means you'll ever find a serious job again though. As such, onlyfans is still very niche. You don't just have people working in an office looking each other up to see if they are on it. I'm sure usually the way people get doxxed (if that's the right word here) is that their livestreams get leaked to porn tube sites, and that's where you will then see Anne from accounting whipping her jugs out and shoving ten candles up her arse before lighting each one of them. But then there's still the hurdle of admitting to her or your coworkers that you're the kind of person who wanks to tube sites.

>>464903

I mean, the impact on your career isn't the only thing to be worried about. Having said that it does rule you out of a surprising number of fields; not that you wouldn't be able to get a job, but that you could find yourself getting disqualified later down the line if it comes to light. There's also the possibility somebody could find it and use it to blackmail you, that sort of thing. What if it affects your future love life, if you find someone you really want to be with, but you know they wouldn't like it if they found out about it. Hell your future children could get bullied for it. All sorts of ways it can affect you down the line.

Obviously not everyone is going to be bothered, but it's not without reason that porn is typically a career people only go into either because they really want to, or because they have to. It's not often people just fall into a porn career by accident.

How do I learn to really cook? Somehow at a decent restaurant even the vegetables taste more intense than they do at home. How?

>>464908 even the vegetables taste more intense than they do at home. How?
Salt, butter and possibly better veg?

>>464907

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/veteran-teacher-fired-over-onlyfans-32509481

>A teacher fired over her x-rated OnlyFans account has admitted she was forced into producing adult content after she struggled to help provide for her family.


I don't buy it. There are other jobs if money is tight. Especially given that Onlyfans really doesn't pay all that well these days. Why not work in a call centre or a Burger King during your ample time outside the classroom.

You're not a victim here. When will people take responsibility for their actions.

>Jennifer Ruziscka, 50, was an English teacher working within the Springfield, Ohio, Local School District for nearly three decades. However, she was forced to resign after school officials discovered her “pornographic/sexually graphic website" on OnlyFans and Fansly.

She doesn't look young 50.

>>464918
>There are other jobs if money is tight. Especially given that Onlyfans really doesn't pay all that well these days.
Right, but here's my point: women don't know that it doesn't pay that well. They see all the stories of women just like them becoming millionaires, and that's all they see. Men hate these stories, because it's men being exploited and men being played for fools, so men always look out for stories of it not working. We want it to be harder than this to make money. I made the post before about someone feeling crushed when she found out it was so much harder than she'd been told, but I have another friend, a much closer friend, who did a load of OnlyFans stuff and did indeed make a fat wedge. It's entirely confirmation bias and personal mistrust of the company that tells me that more women make fuck all than make loads. I could be wrong. Women want my other friend to be the norm - or at least some of them do - and they're the ones who buy into the marketing hype. Actual hard numbers are hard to come by I sure am saying "hard" a lot in this post about OnlyFans, so we can all apply our own narrative to some extent. I wouldn't be surprised if OnlyFans is taking steps to keep it that way.

>>464918

To me the tone of the article seems as much like part of the propaganda for sites like OF as it does a sob story for a poor hardworking teacher just trying to catch a break (in the porno industry).

It's that subtle slant of "working all hours day in day out and still unable to make ends meet, don't you deserve better?" and making sure to point out she was able to bring in good money with "just 20-30 minutes a night creating content". Above all, it makes it sound like going on OnlyFans works. It's not like part time selling Avon or signing up for one of those referral ad sponsor things. This one really works.

>Why not work in a call centre or a Burger King during your ample time outside the classroom.

To be fair having kids might be something to do with it. I don't know how people manage having two jobs at all, I just about manage to get home from work and make some dinner and have a shower and I'll be falling asleep not long after that. If I squeezed in another few hours every evening behind the till at a shop or whatever I think I'd have a breakdown.

The first thing I was asked when I met some my extended family today was whether I had gotten married yet - in the slightly exasperated tone of 'oh surely he has someone to bring to these family gatherings now and he should bring her along sometime.'

I'd also posted a picture on Facebook at a wedding with two other lads, we had our arms on our shoulders, a few days back and my brother had shared with my mum and commented that it looked a bit gay as they two other lads were dressed the same. Even my mum pointed out it was bollocks given it was the groom and his best-man. So I guess we've gone full circle to me being 15 and everyone thinks I'm a poof again. Which, as I said back then, if I wanted fuck a bloke then I'd fuck a bloke.

I guess I should start bringing random women I meet to family gatherings now that I'm in my mid-30s rather than saving those introductions for when I'm ready to propose. I'm quite saddened by my life now, I'm where I might have wanted to be 10 years ago.

>>464918
It's a bit different in the US, the public education system has been cut to the bone and fast food doesn't pay a living wage. Teachers really shouldn't be forced into low-grade prostitution to make ends-meat and it's a shame on the US that this doesn't cause a great deal of soul-searching.

>>464921

> I made the post before about someone feeling crushed when she found out it was so much harder than she'd been told, but I have another friend, a much closer friend, who did a load of OnlyFans stuff and did indeed make a fat wedge.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

It's the same with youtube. Plenty of younguns still want to be youtubers or other influencers for a living, but the reality is, unless you really work hard on it and hit on a formula that produces consistently watchable content and thus manage to create a following, most youtube channels end up going nowhere and even if you're lucky and you get monetised, it will make you a couple hundred quid at best.

Many of them, both lads and lasses, think it's enough to film yourself sitting on your bed wandering off into random ramblings, and before you know it you'll have a million subscribers, and sponsors will send you shitloads of free stuff.

I've got a friend whose teenage son tried his luck at being a gaming youtuber for a while. His channel mainly consisted of streams of him playing first-person shooters and some less than captivating game reviews. After about a year he had less than 100 subscribers and eventually gave up.

Even the real powerhouses among youtube channels have felt the pinch in the last two or three years that you just can't make money as easily anymore. The 8-bit Guy, one of the most popular and most respected (retro) tech channels on youtube, complained in a recent video that even he is struggling to make the kind of revenue he would get five to ten years ago. It's still lucrative enough for him to do as his full-time day job, but views and ad revenues have gone down because there is just so much competition from other channels vying for people's attention.

My PC is dated and I have no consoles. Do I build a budget (but still with the specs I need to play modern stuff) PC, and buy a Series X for graphically intense stuff and backwards compatability; or forgo the console and build an upper mid-range PC though I know the ballache that PC gaming can be with drivers and tweaking settings to get games running.

I find playing on consoles a different experience from PCs. I'm on my PC all day. With a console I have to look away from my PC and play on my telly. If I game on PC I have my browser and Discord up on my second monitor.

>>464925

There's really no point having PC and a console these days, because everything worth playing is multi-platform. You might miss out on maybe one or two exclusives a year, and even then they'll usually get a multi-platform release a year or two later.

The only consideration really is budget, consoles and the game pass or whatever Sony call theirs are undoubtedly the most wallet-conscious way to do it. Gaming PC hardware costs a lot more than it used to, sadly, so while it used to be that you could build an absolute console-killer rig for £300-400, you're hard pressed to build anything worth building for less than £600-700 nowadays, assuming you're starting from scratch. What would swing me on it is backward compatibility- It's a giant swindle that they keep charging people again and again to have 15 year old games just so they can be played on the latest iteration of the console; but with PC, you get access to the last 30 years of games just as a standard expected feature of the platform.

Personally I've not owned a console in about a decade; when I upgraded my computer one year, I got a small tidy looking enclosure and made a second PC out of all the spares, and plugged it into the TV in my living room with a wireless keyboard and a PS4 controller. Over the years every time I upgrade my "main" computer I pass the parts down to that one, but frankly, I should just swap them around at this point. I spend far more time on the sofa playing games on that than I ever do on the "real" PC in the office spare room.

>>464926
I've been researching building a PC for a month or two now, have three potential builds - £830, £1050, and £1300 are the prices. The £830 has a 4060, an improvement on my 1060, but that will likely need updating in a couple of years. Other two builds are midrange and high midrange.

But then thinking about it, if I did the budget build, and got a Series X, that'd be around £1300 so it's a false economy.

>>464927

I think we are in a weird place at the minute, middle of a console generation and with hardware seemingly slowing down a bit, where it is actually better value to get a high end machine, which will just last you longer before it needs upgrading, than to get a midrange machine and plan for upgrading. When things cost as much as they do now though I prefer that they last instead of becoming e-waste.

When you look at the benchmarks and numbers in new PC hardware review it certainly seems that we're still making big leaps with every new generation. But it just doesn't quite feel that way like it used to. Games aren't as demanding relative to the hardware, and the only reason people struggle to run things nowadays is if they're trying to go for 4K at 120hz or something silly like that.

post the builds

>>464928
They might be shit, I'm basing a lot of my choices on rudgwicksteamshow.co.uk and those autistic blokes who review things on YouTube.

I'll need a new PC by September regardless, the tier I end up going for is based around whether I can get a job before then.

>>464928
About two decades ago we started to reach a point where things stopped getting cheaper. Instead, price points settled down and what you got for those prices got better. I suspect we've now moved past that to a point where prices have been driven up by various factors for long enough to result in "sticky inflation", where the underlying factors that caused prices to spike (e.g. credit crisis, flooding in Thailand, etc.) have all mostly gone away but prices aren't falling because tech companies are greedy cunts.

If you want to feel ancient, talk to a 14 year old who only has to loosest grasp of a what a CD is.

What is the fucking point of Love Island.

>>464932
Fucking, mainly.

>>464932
I think it's like a Carry On film for zillenials.

>>464947

That video is powerfully unerotic. I got whatever the opposite of an erection is.

>>464951
You don't want to shag a prison 10 while your bunk mate makes a home video and assures you no one (else) is going to see?

>>464951
See also: the Tulisa blowjob video.

>>464953

God, don't remind me. In retrospect, that might have been one of the key influences in turning me into a committed chubby chaser. You wouldn't get that kind of bleakly perfunctory performance from a fat lass.

>>464947
gs mods: redistributing content published on OnlyFans is revenge porn
gs mods: posting screenshots from illegally filmed videos of illegal sex where the participants aren't known to have consented to publication is fine

(A good day to you Sir!)

Is Fender Play decent? Looking at buying a starter guitar set that comes with three months of it. Never used an electric guitar before.

>>465010

Yeah, it's really good. It's one of the better options to get you over the initial hump and get you playing real songs.

>>465010

I've been playing guitar going on 20 years now and I started with a DVD by Fender. Armed with those basic chord shapes and the pentatonic scale I proceeded to play in various bands and have a half decent run at a weekend warrior career, and not learn anything more advanced for about a decade. I only started taking theory seriously when I was bored out of my tits in lockdown.

Fender historically have very good learning resources. You can probably get better starting gear in terms of price/quality ratio if you shop around, and I will always endorse that having a good starter guitar (not a genuine Gibson '59 reissue or a PRS private stock, I mean just something not shit) will play a major factor in smoothing some of the things that are likely to put you off in the early stages, but you can never go wrong with their teaching stuff. They're not so much a guitar manufacturer anymore as a sort of lifestyle brand, but nonetheless part of the lifestyle they're selling is playing guitar.

Anyway in today's world of YouTube lessons and backing tracks and what have you, I can imagine new players today making it to the position it took me the best part of a couple of decades to get to within four or five years pretty easily. Most of my struggles with guitar were when I'd learned something and had the eureka moment over one thing, but then found myself wondering "okay- What next?"

Just as long as you pick it up at least every other day, preferably every day, and do half an hour of exercises you'll be alright. But it's not easy, it's a slog at start. Just make sure you grit your teeth and brute force through it. It's shit, but things really do eventually start coming together.

Was going to have a lie in today but Jehova's Witnesses were at my door and rang me out of bed at fucking 9:45. I only spoke to them through the kitchen window, but they insisted on putting a leaflet in my post box.

My dad is getting arsey I didn't wish a happy anniversary to him and the woman he cheated on my mum with. I have no issue with them, it's just I think anniversaries should be very personal to the people within the relationship, and also it's weird to expect me to celebrate the woman who wrecked my parental home decades ago.

For the second weekend in a row I'm working overtime. I spent about £60 in the Hollister sale this morning, so at least it'll cover that.

>>465015
In my experience, the type of person to have an affair is extremely obsessed with keeping up appearances/making sure people think highly (or at least not badly) of them. I think she's going to finally move out in the next six weeks, possibly by the end of this month.

My language course provider unexpectantly went under this week and all I got was an email that went into my junk mail - I've clawed my money back for lessons and I can just go to be taught at the embassy which will probably be better value but it's an annoying process of doing tests to assess my level.

Oh well, I guess I have plenty of time to study up and book as classes start in September but it leaves me in an odd place. I really enjoyed having my own thing, something where I can just go do something different and get away from my troubles in life for a few hours with something different. Having a hobby is nice is I guess what I'm saying.

>>465015
I have never nor will I ever wish my parents who have been happily married for 40 years a 'happy anniversary' and if I did I'm pretty sure they would start to think I'm tapped. Not that I'm some sort of cunt, I just agree your dad might be mental.

For some reason my brain an't get used to seeing pictures of Starmer in No.10.

I'm that used to it being Tory politicians my brain seems think it's like an edit or something.

The weather said it was going to be a washout all weekend, but it's been quite nice both days.

I've impressed myself with the cake I've baked this afternoon, it's extremely light and fluffy. I'm guessing this is because I used an electric hand mixer.

Making my text alert sound the info link noise from Deus Ex was such a cool idea. I'm just like JC Denton now (asocial, potentially violent, ultimately cursed never to truly embrace free will).

>>465026
Well done on the cake. I'm too scarred to try again after I tried making my mum a birthday cake a couple of years ago and made nothing but a giant, rubbish, biscuit. I actually can't believe how gutted I was/am.

>>465027
I changed my ringtone to Shadows by Juan Trip. Nobody ever fucking rings me but on rare times they do I think it makes me sound cool and interesting.

I, for one, always have my phone on vibrate.

I used to have various different songs as my ringtone between which I would alternate, but I've now put the Matrix ringtone as my default ringtone. That soundfile was surprisingly hard to track down in decent quality, as most sources online including youtube are simply an audio rip from that moment in the film. Which means there's plenty of background noise, in a frequency range that's hard to eliminate on your average smartphone speaker without muffling it to death. So I took the sound off my own old Matrix DVD, loaded it into Audacity and isolated one of the pulses in that ringtone sequence that sounded relatively clean and cloned it, so that it's pretty uniform now without much noise. Adding a soft-fade envelope to that pulse before cloning it got rid of some harshness that could produce artifacts when played on my smartphone.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpFUtMeulc

>>465030
Good god, that was the first phone I ever had.

>>465030
Is it me or are the left right channels on that clip a bit odd?

>>465032

They are, and it was the same on the audio that I pulled straight from the Matrix DVD. The sound wavers left-right-left or something like it. So the first thing I had to do was convert it to mono.

Not sure if this is useful to anybody, but I've just uploaded my edited, cleaned up version without background noise and channel waver to the web:

https://easyupload.io/y4xmv0

There's a few seconds silence at the beginning because I like to have a chance to answer before I annoy people around me with my ringtone. Any ringtone.

I think I've over-milked my scrambled eggs.

I'm trying to keep a diary. This is probably my third or fourth attempt to do so, and so far I've got two entries across four days. However, I think not forcing myself to write in it every day is probably for the best, because, frankly, my life's not currently close to being interesting enough to justify that level of imput.

>>465097

I kept a diary from age 15 to about 21, 22.

Now as a middle aged adult, it's a great way to get back in touch with my teenlad self. But I'm also glad I'll never have to go through all that adolescent angst and self doubt again, which is dripping from almost every page of it.

>>465097

Fuckssake. Stop posting cat memes.

>>465097

My nan kept a diary consistently for nearly 70 years. We had a read through some of them after she died. The later years are very bowel-heavy.

Back to work Monday after two weeks off.
I don't want to go.

>>465097
I had one while I was at university. It really was just a list of things I did each day. I eventually set myself the challenge of devising a new euphemism for wanking, for every single wank I had. It might be worth reading for that, but otherwise I doubt it. There's minimal emotional openness because almost every entry was written out of a humourless sense of duty. If I ever did something cool and exciting, I was too focused on that to go home and write about it. Nevertheless, two entries in four days is probably a decent rate if you can keep that up, and even if you drop it after a couple of months, you can always come back and reread the snapshot of your life from these months, many years in the future.

>>465101
>The later years are very bowel-heavy.
Is that just a polite way of saying they were shit?

>>465103

I remember a few times when I was writing a diary entry as a teenlad, it would end up being ten A4 notebook pages long. How the fuck do you do ten pages. The way my attention span is nowadays, I'd have trouble stretching my thoughts over two or three pages at a time.

It'd probably be unfair to my teenlad self to just call it all senseless drivel, because apparently those thoughts mattered enough to me that they warranted ten pages. But still. Why didn't I just get a life and get laid.

I've become a little obsessed with this tiny girl.

The other night I dreamt about my parents' cocker spaniel. I hadn't thought about him in ages and remembered back when he was a puppy and I lived with them when I'd play with him and he'd jump on my bed sometimes to have a scrap.

I found out he died last night. He's not been in good health for a long time so it is what it is but it's a spooky coincidence I guess.

Do you think we've reached the cultural peak of Japan mania now? On a personal level I feel like everyone these days is in Japan, talking about Japanese things, raving about this or that. I've also noticed just how many media things have a Japan theme now, be it some travel hack thing, a new game set in samurai times etc. Anime seems more popular than ever. I just really can't imagine us wanking over Japan any harder than this.

>>465108

The kids are into Korean shit nowadays, granddad.

Any of you lads take the little blue pills?
Do they work?