Absolutely. Chris Brown is a prime example. I quite like some of his collab tunes, but I absolutely refuse to give any money - a percentage or not - to that wifebeating spunktrumpet.

In fact, the fact that I’m actively screwing him out of money makes me enjoy the song more.

I think it’s just a three or four hour entertainment show with a bit of American football thrown in every now and then.

Great if you want to see a concert on a field in the middle of a sports game I suppose.

I struggle with cricket.

Great sport, cracking late drama, and I really enjoy an afternoon out fielding and seeing what the batsman comes up with next…

…but TV coverage is just mindbogglingly boring now, even with the integration of interpolated camera angles and live stats and all the bells and whistles that come with modern coverage. At least it is for the British game - I would suggest that if you look east to the IPL or even to the T20 game, there’s a lot more fun and games at play.

Test cricket seems to be born for radio though, there’s something quite relaxing about having a cricket game on Radio 5 in the garage or the workplace.

Or not, if you’re going for those sweet sweet RTA timezzzz

Looks great, bruv. Nice one!

I fucking love AI.

I’ll qualify that with a small personal story on it: I have a colleague in a nearby office the other side of the city, who steps into supervise his team when the actual manager isn’t there. Nice bloke, not much banter, but pleasant enough.

You can fucking guarantee though that when a division-wide email has gone out, or a change of plan comes in… he’s right on the phone to me asking what to do.

The first few times it was cute. A guy must really love his job or hate himself to go into junior management, so walking him through routine tasks he may not have been exposed to may be beneficial to him in the long run.

The problem is, it’s near constant. Every single time something changes, he calls - not for advice, not for opinion, but “can you do this for my team too?”. What really pulls a hair out of my arse is that there’s a 50/50 chance of it being something I’ve already showed him. I’ve spoken to his actual manager at exasperated length but it’s just a can kicked down the road with a “well he’s still learning, isn’t he?”

I suppose he is, and I’m no teacher. When he phones now, I just tell him “mate our org has access to that fancy new Microsoft Copilot, it’s fuckin’ mint bro, solves all your problems”, knowing fine well the disaster that’s about to happen - partly to expose him to new technologies, but mainly to be a smug cunt.

Invariably, he gets solutions that don’t quite work, or ideas that don’t quite fit the brief… and it’s satisfying as fuck getting the follow-up call and saying “sorry bruv, Copilot is smarter than me, which isn’t hard” or “nah sorry dude, it gives you a personalised response so that’ll be outside of my domain, making my suggestions worthless”.

Fucking love it. It has reduced my workload immensely.

I’m in the same boat. My other half has been stuck with me for nearly twenty years now and bigger and better things have come up that have needed the money spent on it.

The bit of paper will come in handy if one of us kicks the bucket though, or even when it comes to claiming certain tax allowances in the UK. I just want to make sure they’re sorted financially when I end up brown bread, and proving their connection to me is going to me one of the last things on the list in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement.

I’m not arsed one way or another about it though.

I’ve been threatening to do this for years. Irregular hours have meant that I’ve skipped this idea, and rugby. I guess I’d love to go just for the workout and for the extra circle of friends, but I don’t want to be wasting folks time when I’m not going to be able to make games consistently.

I enjoyed playing roller hockey when I was younger and I know getting the skates back on after thirty years will be a challenge, maybe I’ll give this a go again.

Out of curiosity, were you on the hook for the entire cost? As it, was any of it covered by insurance?

It doesn’t sound like much fun at all.

Ameeeericaaaaaaaa

DFBs early stuff was much better than Skibidi Toilet.

But yes, every country will have differing approaches to education and it’s priority in the grand scheme of things. My personal opinion is that education and healthcare should be top any country’s list but I’m not naive enough to think there’s not… “competing pressures” on where to spend taxpayer money.

I think it’s easy to get caught up in the negative news that naturally floats to the top of most algorithms these days.

Primary and secondary schools are doing a lot more than they used to, and with an ever decreasing budget too. The quality of teaching is largely better, and the teaching career is becoming more “professionalised” by the year, for better or for worse - the constant wave of bureaucracy surround evidencing decision making and CPD is driving loads of great teachers away from the profession.

I’ve gone back to higher education and I’ve been surprised at the sheer range of support networks and services available to those who need them. I’m lucky enough to largely have my shit together (even if it is held together with sellotape, chewing gum, and prayers) - but there’s not many places quite like this establishment where I could turn and access such a range of guidance and support nowadays. As usual though, most of these ideas and developments have been written in blood after failings have been exposed in the past, which is a huge shame. Even socio-economic barriers are starting to be broken down - I’m getting spanked monthly for tuition fees but I’ve applied for grants that I’m ethically not entitled to and I’ve been given them no questions asked.

That said, the problems are outside the school these days. Mobile phones and social media are the big driver of this - in my day (and I’m decidedly middle age - not young, not old) if you were having a hard time; getting grief off bullies; or made an embarrassing fuckup… that was it, it stopped at 3:15pm and it would have been old news by 9am. Now, shit follows you home and shit sticks when digital media exists of it. It’s fucking horrendous from that aspect and I think now the genie is out of the bottle, only education and common sense can mitigate it - both of which are bottom of your interest list when you’re in your teens!

In short, school experiences seem to be trending upwards, but outside of school is a lot more hairy.

As always, YMMV and I’m in the UK.

My academic institution took the more sensible approach of just making the exams open book, and adjusting the questions to demonstrate understanding and application of the concepts, rather than just recite stuff.

Tinnyday. Comes before or after Wednesday depending on daylight savings, encourages a beer or a wine (or whatever beverage of your choosing) to relax. Business hours the following day do not start until 10am.

Delivery fees from online retailers are ineligible to charge delivery fees, local food orders must include a free canned beverage, people working in entertainment venues get double time.

The HAMBOTVER of the 2000s!

My job is half field based, half desk based. That, and I study part time too, so the simple unhelpful answer is the same: I don’t.

Recently I’ve taken to building a list of five or six games I’m interested in, booking a week or two off work in the summer, buying a month of Game Pass and just hooning through the games, and if I’ve got any time left then I’ll smash through some Doom WADs and that’s me.

Otherwise, I try and stay away from screens and try to read or run more.

Fuck me, that’s kinda awesome… buuuut…

For fuck’s sake, Limited Run Games? Will the discs be on CD-Rs and the floppies be of the 5.25 variety just to really fuck people off? I really like the idea of Limited Run but their attitude to consumers is fucking awful.

I’ve got a massive id collection (up as far as Quake 4 anyway), but I’m really torn on this one.

A bit of both for me. Whenever I dropped a bollock in work or whereever, my head used to go down and I’d be waiting for the hairdryer treatment like I was waiting outside the headmaster’s office.

Now, if some cockwomble decides to mass-email someone with a passive aggressive email about “could the person who…” and it’s quite clearly my mistake, I take great pleasure in absolutely owning it, smashing that reply-all button, and explaining in painful detail how yes it was my fuck up; yes I did do it with good intentions but hey things go sideways sometimes; and yes abso-fucking-lutely thank you for your shitty email that has had all the effect of a silent fart.

I think the best part of adulting is that you can make no mistakes and still lose (yeah Picard boiiii), and realising that nobody’s going to care about it in a week’s time.

Awesome. I am - at best, out of the loop in entertainment news: and at worst, culturally retarded - so I was sat at LCY with a colleague and he was pointing out famous chefs, golfers, public figures every five minutes.

I was still trying to figure out how anyone affords either to eat or drink at the airport without being on business expenses.

For celeb-spotting and transit links: London City Airport. It’s nice being able to check your bags and fuck off into Stratford for a few hours. It’s super expensive though.

For a chill experience: London Southend Airport. Not in London, but loads of seating, decent views across the tarmac, and loooaaads of room.

For getting lost: Washington Dulles. Christ that place was designed by Stevie Wonder in a house fire. The sheer number of destinations is wonderous though fair play, a great place to feel like a tiny cog in a huge machine.

Edinburgh is a banger. Great support for families, spacious, and generally chill - decent transport links too.

The departures lounge is starting to sprawl with retail now though, but can’t have everything I suppose.