>>23079

>It was way ahead of its time in having a massive ensemble cast and long multi-series plot arcs.

You might also enjoy...

>>23079

I am definitely one of the people who finds before season 3 there are a few too many lazy B-plots about Quarks latest wacky scheme. There are some great episodes and moments in there still but it definitely feels weaker overall compared to where it is going.

>>23079
It's a good thing DS9 nicked so many of J. Michael Straczynski's ideas for Babylon 5 when he pitched his show to Paramount, otherwise it might've been a pile of wank.

The actors in DS9 really elevate the show. For example, the guy who played Garak got so invested in the character that he started writing a journal from his perspective, which he eventually released as a book. The guy who played Gul Dukat talked about playing him not as a villainous antagonist for Sisko and The Good Guys to foil, but as the hero of his own story. His approach was so effective that it made the writers turn him into a cartoonish villain in season seven because Dukat was so popular.

>>23082

>>DS9 ripped off B5

This guy gets it. Hell, they only made the decision to set the next Trek on a space station when they heard B5 was actually going to air.

B5 was always the better of the two shows. DS9 was a fucking snooze-fest for the first two seasons. You'd watch B5 and they were setting up not one but TWO major wars, and then you'd look at DS9 and it was yet another "Constable, it's all kicking off on the Promenade!"

>>23080

We were having a fun conversation at work today about what if Corrie went on a mad one, and had a year long plot arc about the bombs dropping and Ken Barlow and the gang surviving in a post nuclear Salford. Then they wrap it all up with an arc about David travelling back in time to prevent it all, thus reverting the show to the status quo as if nothing had ever happened.

>I think what I'm going through is almost a universal thing people in more prigiledge societies go through, perhaps even particularly at my age. But I get the impression it's a worry that people either work out of, or eventually hide away.

I think you've nailed it there honestly.

If you're realistic, what are the alternatives? You're always going to have to make money somehow, so unless you find a way to become completely financially independent you're never going to be able to escape that feeling that you're missing out on some other aspects of life by sacrificing your time to work, to the god of mamon.

I think this feeling is particularly acute for those of us who have grown up watching escapist TV shows and reading wonderful things about the outer world on the internet, seeing people's travelling photos on social media and the like. This is pure conjecture, but I suspect the existential angst was much less acute for the generations before us who largely grew up, settled, and died in their hometown; in essence because they would be less painfully aware what they were missing.

I was going to say to a lad in another thread but forgot about it- I think what truly gives people contentment in life is having something to work towards. Financially stable lad thought he was happy because he'd gotten himself a good job and started working out, but that's not really true- The thing that made him feel good was the feeling of progress. His savings account is almost directly analogous to watching an EXP bar slowly fill up, the "security" and "freedom" it offers really has little to do with it.

Throughout your life up until adulthood, settling in with your partner and ending up in that steady work week routine, you've always had a goal you're progressing to. Set yourself a new one.

Try meditating in total silence for about 15 minutes a day on the fact that you don't really have any problems.

>I want experiences, I want to learn, I want to contribute to something meaningful and rewarding. The problem is I just don't know what to do.

>I love learning. I think that is my main stat, my strength. I'm good at learning, I have a broad knowledge but not a deep knowledge of anything. I'm technical. I like the idea of working remotely. But doing what?

Just try something. It sounds daft and/or blindingly obvious, but figuring out what you want to do with your time is a process of trial and error. Get the course brochure for your local FE college, pick an evening class that sounds interesting and have a go. Whether you love it, hate it or just think it's kind of meh, you'll learn something about your interests and motivations that will help to guide you in a meaningful direction.

Well start going on some holidays. Not beach crap, but places that might seem interesting or a bit different, just Easyjet destinations if you want to keep the cost down.

>>29420
To elaborate from a still drunk but less bitchy perspective: the human mind has a tendency to grasp toward the future and chase flashy ephemera, ever seeking, ever grasping. It seems to me that a lot of people fall into the trap of perpetual grasping, when what they should really be doing is taking a step back and living in the eternity of the present moment (hippy-dippy language gradually making more sense the more you meditate). There's a nice Zen saying which goes something like this: "What, at this moment, is lacking?"

Try reading something from Eckhart Tolle or Michael Singer and see if their ideas make sense to you. I'm posting this while drunk so I'm far from a practicing preacher, but hopefully you can orient yourself toward a less superficial and materialistic direction.

>>64904

I remember a simular thing in a buisness advice book (might have been how to win friends and influence people) reading an example of someone who was the best sales person for something like general motors, what his opinion about why he is such a good salesman was and his entire wisdom was he 'maintained eye contact'.

>>64906

I think some people are just naturally good at things so never have to analyse how or why, but just as often, once something becomes second nature to us, we simply forget. As a cheflad I have excellent knife technique, but people have asked me in the past about it and I've sort of shrugged and said "I just do it a lot, I guess", completely neglecting to explain to them the actual important parts like the claw technique, sharpening your knife, or the mountains of onions I used to practice on at home when I was starting out.

I suppose it's the same as when some poor fucker on here asks us long-cocked lotharios how to meet women and we just tell them to act confident.

Being able to explain your craft to someone new to it and make them feel like it's actually achievable is true mastery.

>>64904
I haven't read anything by Block, but my girlfriend owns about two dozen of his books so I just naturally assumed he was shite because she has terrible taste.

>>64908

I think his how-to-write books are entertaining. The only thing I've ever read of his fiction is a Cornell Woolrich novel which was unfinished at the time of his death so Lawrence Block finished it. It was good but I don't suppose his doing an impression of another author is representative of his regular novels.

>>64907

As much as this is true, if anyone ever asks me how I got good at guitar, the answer is genuinely just staying at home in my bedroom and neglecting social contact and hygiene for weeks upon end, and this one beginner dvd.

>>21320
>I think there is a fairly new phaenomenon of people feeling depressed after looking at other people's Instagram stories or social media profiles, and not realising that even a person posing at the Grand Canyon usually has a life off-camera that's just as dowdy and boring as fuck as yours.
"Fairly new" being almost as old as Facebook but otherwise correct.

>>21321

I've never really used facebook for much else besides stalking exes.

>>21322

Your own personal behaviour doesn't constitute a "phenomenon".

>>21321

Long before Facebook, we had the Christmas round-robin letter.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7785410.stm

>>21324

Some people still send those out, but it seems to be more middle aged people.

Think of the good and bad qualities you have observed in your own managers over the years. Shape your behaviour accordingly.

Personally, I think the most important quality is to be that manager who just gets things done. People will put up with a range of personalities and management styles so long as they know that if they come to you with anything, it'll get sorted and sorted fast.

I've only managed a shop full of spod teenagers, unless you count running a band as a form of management, but I can only say this:

Manage pragmatically.

By that I mean, don't be that cunt who expects people to just try harder because you tell them to, or expect them to deliver deadlines because you said so. That isn't how people work and never will be in a million billion years. What you instead have to do is give tasks to the people who are most likely to do them, you have to give people the jobs they hate the least, that sort of thing. Your job is minimising friction, not cracking the whip.

The best sort of managers are the ones who are good at observing their people and sussing out what their actual strengths and weaknesses are, and working around it with a bit of give and take. The worst sort of managers are the ones who prioritise petty bullshit like reprimanding someone for being five minutes late, over expending their effort on something that actually makes a difference to your team's outcomes.

That's because it's not a joke, that's actually a language some people speak.

It's west african pidgin, the BBC have been providing a news service in the language since 2017 and you missed the greatest news story ever published.

>>64899
Fucking idiot!

>>4774

It also tastes fine in tea - once you get used to it. It has a very different mouthfeel however, and you need some good thick stuff otherwise you need to add loads.

I feel like dairy milk is just something you get habituated to, like the way you notice tapwater from different areas when you move around.

>>4778
>I feel like dairy milk is just something you get habituated to, like the way you notice tapwater from different areas when you move around.
I've noticed a difference between supermarket milks, before - enough to ruin tea (until you get used to it, like you say). Sainsburies seems to be sweeter. Every time i have a Tesco milk I can't get the idea out of my head that it's full of cyst liquid - kind of salty. Co-Op is obviously be best because it's the one i'm most used to (well, Gold Top is the best but it's pretty expensive).

>>4774
>>4775

Can you recommended any oat milk brands?

>>4780

It's piss-easy to make - one cup of rolled oats, three cups of water, blend for 30-40 seconds and strain through a coffee filter or a fine sieve. Add salt and/or sugar to taste. If it has a claggy porridge texture, you've blended for too long.

>>4780

I like Partly the best, and it seems most people do because it keeps selling out at the local Sainsbury's. There's a 'full fat' version that's the best imo. I suppose the benefit to buying it is they add minerals to make it an actual milk substitute, if your diet would otherwise be lacking (as it probably would be if you're vegan).

>>13360

>So what is it teachers hate so much about being teachers?

80% of them are dossers and inadequates who can't really cope with the real world. Like OP, they had no real desire to teach, they just fell into it because they had a middling degree and no real plan or ambition for what they want to do in life. Some of them do figure it out and fuck off after a couple of years, but some of them get stuck and become increasingly frustrated and embittered.

The remaining 20% are genuinely passionate about teaching, but they're stuck in a totally dysfunctional environment with a bunch of people who don't really give a shit.

>>13352

I find the career teacher a very weird idea. You go through primary secondary college and university and back to school. It seems like an insidious loop where at no point are you exposed to the 'outside world'. And I mean that in the least snobbish way. But if you have no understanding of what the world is like for people outside the institution how could you possibly prepare people for it?


I probably have a personal bias of hating piss poor teaching and a concern of it fucking peoples futures up. My education at school was shit. The secondary school I was at is being disbanded. And as a personal act of vengeance on my application to colleges one of the teachers wrote the single line statement 'not suitable for A-levels'. I dropped out of IT before GCSE at said school and now work as a developer something I discovered by accident I had a passion and talent for and had to self teach long after formal education. So please OP don't become a teacher unless you actually give a shit about improving Children's chances in life.

Facebook wants me to teach, apparently.

OP here.

To fill out my profile a little more, I'm an overqualified bar manager, having worked up from the bar staff job I got at Uni. While I appreciate teaching may be shit, from my perspective I already care for children; just intoxicated ones who somehow still retain the franchise.
I hate my job, replacing it with a higher paying job I may hate equally really isn't much of a problem for me.

Thanks for the advice lads, having talked it over IRL I've decided to still get this application in, but keeping an eye on other opportunities.

I've put up with worse.

>>13365
Good luck lad - hope it works out for you and you should pursue what makes you tick.

That said, is there nothing else that tickles your fancy?

>>22964
Are Ender Chests vanilla MC? If so, that might be your solution.

>>22964

There is, but you'll need to use a hopper minecart. That can collect the beef and deliver it, maybe run it off a Redstone clock so it delivers periodically.

WHY
If you're going to do this please don't do it anywhere near spawn

Here are there any backups knocking about for this world? I wouldn't mind taking over hosting it once I've some more time.
Plus I liked my base.

Not the OP but I just set up a new server. Been playing a lot of MC of late and figured it'd be best to share the wealth a little.

51.89.247.224:25615 for those interested. The host allows automated tasks so sending out occasional backups should be a doddle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMmVpXcW0TU

>>12265
That is quite mad.

LazyTown on acid, which is saying something.

>>12266
Any excuse.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYnvDL0Qcw

>>12265
As soon as I heard the opening I remembered I had booked marked that song ages ago you've started me on a short Odyssey now of going through songs I never went back and re-listen to.


I rediscovered this one by them.


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

you make me wish I had 4 hands.

>>23336 & all subsequent posts

This is lovely. When did you pick it up?

I know the DC had some bloody ambitious ideas but I never knew they went this far.

Also, is that a flusher in >>23337?

It looks to big to fit on a cistern. Hmm.

>>23336
That's adorable.

>>23341
>When did you pick it up?
Nah, these are just photos found elsewhere. I did look seriously into buying one a long time ago, back when they were still around for £400 or so, but the shipping was astronomical. Wish I'd paid it now, of course.

Here's a bonus Sega obscurity, from a few years earlier: a shitty Aiwa boombox, that inexplicably included a Megadrive and Mega CD. I've always thought it looked a bit like a rice cooker. Yours for £2,500 on ebay.

>>23336
It looks like something straight out of Space Channel 5. I'm surprised there wasn't some kind of tie-in promotion (that I can find, anyway.)

>>23345
Ah, Space Channel 5. At a time when advertisers and brands were ditching Michael Jackson en masse (in the wake of the paedo accusations), Sega of Japan decided you should be dancing with him.

Questionable judgement.

>>15273
Whoa lad, do you mind not posting the lezzers in /sfw?

>>23311
>I have to disagree with you on this one, as I think this is very different. This is perfectly honest business in my mind it is just the reality of adding additional time and effort to a product.
But that's the thing, in many cases it just isn't. The new Total War games are litered with "culture packs" that are just making me think about how unfinished the base game would feel, or the way I need a guide to keep track of what's relavent to XCOM2 and what I can ignore. None of this makes the games bad, but it makes me not want to buy them, even heavily discounted, because it puts me off when there are walled gardens within it.

I did buy and start playing Subnautica tonight though, which I'm very intrigued by even if it took me two hours to properly figure out what to do.

>>23313

I get where you're coming from lad.

I think with some games like Total War, it's not so much of a problem because the base game is big enough and will occupy you for long enough that you'll never feel lost because of DLC; you'll just take it as another part of the game you hadn't experienced yet. I mean I have several hundred hours in Warhammer 2 and only completed campaigns with about four of the factions.

With your average single player action game though, I'd say almost 100% of the time nowadays you're better off just waiting for the inevitable GOTY: Blood Covenant- Super Enhanced Murdeluxe edition in the steam sale a year later. For any game that offers decent re-playability, you want to play it in a big chunk and not feel as though you'd already had your fill of the base game, but then those extra DLC tidbits scarcely offer enough new to keep you interested.

Maybe none of you are surprised, Blizzard has been on the mobile and loot box game for a while.

WC3:R, however, is a whole new low. Classic WoW had it's issues but they were, at least, #NoChanges in the face of a decade of optimisation. The "release" of a new WarCraft:3 on the other hand is probably the most cynical cash grab since the Diablo Mobile game.

No ladder.
No MMR matchmaking (curb stomps are no fun for anyone involved).
18 years of ladder got erased (you can still work around this, but wtf).

WTF is going on?

>>23315
Blizzard of old are gone, it's quite sad really. Whoever is in charge over there now clearly doesn't give a fuck.

>>23315
I saw Reforged as their last chance to win back fan support after the Hong Kong thing and Diablo Mobile, but they fucked up even a reskin of a 17 year old game. It's almost impressive how far they've fallen. It's a shame, I was really looking forward to Reforged as WCIII is the only RTS I've enjoyed, but I'm glad I held off on preordering.

>>5056
As someone who spent a lot of time in skate parks (albeit many, many years ago), the speed and the jumps don't bother me per se. All those fucking trees, though! And the generally uneven terrain and lack of visibility. Jesus. It'd be like riding a vert ramp with metal bars jutting up out of it for no good reason, only blindfolded.

>>5057

Visibility is a lot better in real life, don't forget your eyeline will be 6 feet or more on a mountain bike.

Learning to react to the terrain is the whole point, of course.

As an impartial arbiter who has never held any interest in cycling, I can confirm that mountain biking looks like an exciting and challenging hobby for fun people while road cycling looks like an exercise in lycra-clad self-flagellation for office workers too dull to find the sort of girlfriend who'll perform all that genital torture they're secretly craving.

>>5059

Nah m8. If you're reasonably fit, your bike is sorted and you've got a bit of sense, road cycling is gentle and almost effortless. You fall into a groove where your legs keep turning and the miles keep ticking over. It sounds bonkers, but you get to the point where you can go out for a 100 mile ride on a Sunday morning and still have loads of gas left in the tank.

Also roadie birds are much fitter than MTB birds.

>>5060

Are jules does plenty of MTB too to be fair.

All the proper naughty ones also do track/crit cycling too mind. I'd list some names but it's a bit weird since I know quite a few of them.

>>434183

It's all a question of how far you are prepared to go with your forensics.

It is known that the East German Stasi secret police very closely monitored commercially available typewriters, to the extent that a type sample of every typewriter in the country was at one point on file in the Stasi's database. The idea was that this would help easily identify political dissidents who would create pamphlets on a typewriter or other anti-government material.

BBC Four showed the award-winning film The Lives of Others a while ago, which is universally acclaimed for its historical accuracy, and in it, an East German dissident is given a typewriter that was smuggled in from West Germany via underground contacts, precisely because it wasn't in the Stasi's database, and that way, that dissident was able to write secret accounts of life in East Germany that would be passed on to West German media, without being found out.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-51364513

Bit fishy, that story

Immigration: Salary threshold set to be lowered

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51430811

Lower salary thresholds to attract immigrants we actually need, like for the NHS. Perhaps this Brexit malarkey is going to turn out just fine.

>>434251
I'm not racist but; how does the continuing pilfering of the developing world solve actual issues in the teaching and nursing professions? At the very least, a sector with a "skills shortage" should try paying a decent wage first followed by asking why so many critical sectors of our economy have low productivity compared to our rivals.

Also:
>Points will also be awarded for speaking good English

Great time to be running a degree mill I guess.

>>434251

If there's one thing both parties have demonstrated, it's that there's no interest in upskilling workers in this country to equip them to perform the jobs we need doing. It's far cheaper and more efficient to just import labour. No matter what kind of game they talk about immigration, it's never ever going to be reduced by any significant amount by either party.

It's a depressing reality to face but honestly I don't think anyone running the show in this country is bothered about productivity or the like any more. Britain has been long since set aside for asset stripping, essentially. The banks have a comfortable time in London and that's basically the only thing that matters in the eyes of anyone who gets within sniffing range of power.

>>64886
No, I'm talking about the time James Hetfield got a bad papercut

>>64886

CLEARLY IT WAS, HOWEVER I'D LIKE TO PEDANTICALLY DISPUTE TONY IOMMI'S INFLUENCE ON THE GENRE BEING SIGNIFICANT ENOUGH THAT IT WOULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT HIM.

MAYBE WE WOULDN'T HAVE TEDIOUS STONER DOOM BANDS WHO ALL SOUND EXACTLY LIKE SLEEP/ELECTRIC WIZARD, BUT AS LONG AS NO HARM COMES TO RITCHIE BLACKMORE WE'D STILL HAVE THE REST OF HEAVY METAL.

>>64887

NOW THERE'S A MAN OF INFLUENCE. I RECKON METALLICA WENT SO FAR INTO OVERRATED THAT THESE DAYS THEY'VE CYCLED BACK AROUND TO UNDERRATED. IF PARANOID WAS DOOM AND HELL BENT FOR LEATHER WAS QUAKE, MASTER OF PUPPETS WAS HALF LIFE.

>>64889
>HOWEVER I'D LIKE TO PEDANTICALLY DISPUTE TONY IOMMI'S INFLUENCE ON THE GENRE BEING SIGNIFICANT ENOUGH THAT IT WOULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT HIM.
True, we'd still have metal, but I reckon it would have gone in a quite different direction for a while at least. The move to thinner strings with higher gain amps and pickups, combined with low slow riffs was a big influence on the sounds of the NWOBHM.

>>64889
>NOW THERE'S A MAN OF INFLUENCE. I RECKON METALLICA WENT SO FAR INTO OVERRATED THAT THESE DAYS THEY'VE CYCLED BACK AROUND TO UNDERRATED.
I just wish they'd fucking retire already and let people enjoy their old work in peace.

>>64890
>I JUST WISH THEY'D FUCKING RETIRE ALREADY AND LET PEOPLE ENJOY THEIR OLD WORK IN PEACE.
It's about 20 years too late for that though, isn't it?

>>5895

Homeless, eh? Just get yourself some dry shampoo and give your balls a rinse in the public toilets each morning. It's only a couple of months, you dandy.

>>5895
Flying in from where?
The backpacker's hostel by the station isn't a bad place as far as hostels go. I know a lad who got a room in less than three days of looking just over a fortnight ago, shouldn't be too bad if you're proactive about it.

>>5898
>>5897
>>5896
The very day I posted that, I got an e-mail from the college saying I was given a room from the waitlist. Now I'm happily posting from the hall room and not bitching about how it is 30 minutes to where my lectures are and how the bed is squeaky and how I have to share a bathroom.

This is a good start, even though I'll probably have to spend the year resisting the urge to pee in the sink instead of putting on pants and walking all the way down the corridor.

>>5904
Addendum: Apparently they don't give rooms in the nice main college site to graduate students, so I got shipped off to the edge of Norham Gardens. Bit far away from everything.

Well this thread is still here.

I can safely say that after actually going there, being part of a college and graduating I still don't understand its function and can't explain it to anyone.

>>13231
It didn't take long for supermarkets to fuck up sushi did it? It's just rice and fish. I JUST WANT RICE AND FISH.

>>13232

Supermarket sushi is already fucked up from a purist or authenticity standpoint. I still like it but it's very much its own thing when compared to the fresh stuff.

Anyway, my mum likes the duck and chicken sushi packs, so at least we can agree she's fucking mental.

>>13233
> my mum likes the duck and chicken
more like dick and chucken IYKWIM.

>>13234

SMELLS LIKE FISH
LOOKS LIKE CHICKEN
GIVE IT A LICK
AND STICK YOUR DICK IN

Thanks grandad.

>>13234

She probably does, she's been single for a while though if anyone's interested.

>>29396
But that's the point - we'd all like these things but they aren't realistic, so why not focus on things that are to make it a bit more manageable?

The point was 21k salary in the car at a bad point was a low, but those things helped and also led to preferable outcomes too, but you probably knew that.

There's always two types of responses to these threads: those that have some suggestions and those that just want to say how hopeless it is becuase of X,Y and Z which doesn't really provide any help.

This is my first reply in the thread.

I don't mind my job at all - good conditions, alright pay (29k rising to 33k in a couple of years), and work I mostly enjoy, or can at least get stuck into enough to speed the 8 hours along. Still, it doesn't change the 5/2 fact.

On the frugality front, I've only just dug myself out of the debt that comes with moving in to somewhere properly for the first time, but am reliably putting away £300+ a month. Still, as has been mentioned before, at the wages I'm at now, I'll not be able to save anywhere near enough to fuck it off for any real length of time.

I also strongly disagree on the fronts of a) it being a "teenage" mindset, and b) that I should make peace with it; I think most people of all ages are dissatisfied with the system as it is (the national lottery is big for a reason), but are in too deep to change it. Kids, mortgage, etc mean you can't just fuck it off. Making space with it is accepting defeat, and I'm not ready to do that.

On the other hand, if the revolution comes tomorrow I'll just be doing a different 5/2, even the most utopian of fully automated gay space luxury communism will require a generation if not more of both the loss of individualism and hard fucking work.

There's no escape from it, and I can see why people take the one in seventeen million chance in the lottery because the appeal is so strong.

Realistically, I'll probably end up taking as much unpaid leave on top of my paid leave as I can per year, and seeing if I can work 9-hour shifts and take every other Friday off.

On the acid front: maybe. I don't think I would ever be in the right mindspace.

>>29373
>>29399

The dream is to get a job where you can work from home. Once you have one of them you can basically fuck off anywhere your passport will get you in and work from anywhere with an internet connection. I think that's about as close to freedom as any of us will find in this lifetime.

Most jobs of that type are probably freelance gigs; programming and writing, although journalism (which is currently dying in the clickbait gutter) used to be an option - maybe it still is some countries.

I can't name any other professions like this off the top of my head but there have to be a few, maybe try checking out some of those "digital nomad" websites and see if anyone who lives that "lifestyle" (Christ, I hate that word) works in an area that you can maybe shimmy yourself into.

Hobbies.

I don't mind my job, in fact I enjoy it, and it's almost a hobby itself, but even when I had a more taxing one, my interests outside of work kept me from topping myself.

If you have something you're truly excited to go home and do, work seems trivial.

This is really depressing. I feel like I have no control over my life since last summer. I need to reset.