Chindie

It's one of those things that I'd never do, and I'm shite at pulling (and relationships generally - apparently I don't put in the effort), I've actually 'been pulled' more than I've pulled. I dunno why, it just doesn't quite sit right. I see those E-Harmony ads and cringe a little. I can see the point and understand that theres a lot of people out there that they suit down to the ground for one reason or another, but no, not for me.

One of the regulars we get in the shop has a bit of a condition. I've no idea what it is but it's clear he has some form of complaint. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, we have to explain things to him a few times for him to get it, and even then it's not clear he really completely understands what we're telling him. He especially struggles with the idea of trading something in, he sees it as swapping things and we have to be really careful to tell him it's not quite like that. He also seems to act generally like he's slightly over-excited all the time, and when he's speaking he struggles to get over words sometimes, the best way I can describe it is its a bit like a record skipping, not quite a like stammer, like his brain is running ahead of his mouth and he just gets caught in a sentence. Everything he says is rapid fire and loud and then he'll stumble and get stuck for a few seconds before carrying on in this break neck excited speed, and because of that he also spits a bit when he talks and so on. He often comes in for more of a chat than anything which almost makes it worse, he's very enthusiastic and I think he likes to just come in and talk about something that interests him a lot of the time. He's a nice chap, and I feel a bit sorry for him because it's clear that he's slightly annoyed in himself that sometimes he struggles with what he wants to say or do, but the thing that I find annoying is that because of his trouble with words and not being totally on the ball, he's very difficult sometimes to deal with, especially when it's busy, and it always seems to be me that serves him. When he's running ahead of himself I subconsciously want to drop in the word he's stuck on so we can get to the point, and it starts to grate when we're having to go over the concept of him trading in something for this amount so he get that for this amount again and again in more and more simple terms. This then pisses me off even more because I know I shouldn't feel like that, he can't help it and frankly some of the other customers who have nothing wrong with them are as bad if not worse (as spending 5 minutes explaining the concept that I can look up someone on the system so they can earn points but they can't use the points without their card will attest). It pisses me off that sometimes it pisses me off that this fella, a nice guy, is a bit awkward for us :|

Why can't you see him arriving at Man Utd? They definitely need a top keeper (as distinct from a project like Lindegaard) and Neuer is definitely on the move; and they have had him watched IIRC. I think it's very possible he'll end up there. Just to return to Neuer a moment, he puts it quite plainly that he won't be playing for Manchester United next season, stating 'England is not an option' for him currently. ...So that's Bayern's keeper sorted for next few seasons then.

What made me feel more stupid about that moment of being stuck, was that I knew I needed to use the slanted wall to fling myself across, and I knew I was high up, but it never clicked in my head to look down the elevator shaft to gain the momentum. I also got stuck at the entrance for a while, where you first hear Cave Johnson for similar reasons.

I think a poll on what people think the skys colour is on a clear day would be as shocking as that one Tony I don't think the inevitable No vote will change anything. Clegg might get some flack but the Liberals haven't got the balls to topple him just yet, they'll worry it'll threaten their last lingering taste of power. They'll dump him when they're down and out, and they'll appoint someone who is what they perceive to appeal to the left end of the party. I also think that suggesting the results of this referendum would seriously affect or represent a waivering support for any leader probably gives the importance of this subject to a great many members of the public rather too much credit. The common man who doesn't really care about politics will vote against it because of the sterling work the No campaign has done to put them off (or they just don't like the sound of the change), and they'll continue to support and vote the party they did before. Labour supporters voting No will vote for Labour in the next election, and so on. The level of... caring in the populace for this election is pathetic in my experience. Almost no-one our family knows knows a)how to vote and whether they care enough at all.

That's a fair bit more than when I was looking into it. It was around 10k whilst training with accommodation, then 18k after training, but jumping to a massive 50k after 2 years. That can go up to near 100k with 10+ years experience as well. It is ridiculously hard to get into though, the testing is extremely rigorous, and it's one of the most pressurised jobs going as well (strangely not that stressful apparently, but I guess that goes hand in hand with ensuring the people who get the jobs can do the jobs), even with all the technology in aviation today air traffic control is no walk in the park. (Yeah I went through a "I want to work with airplanes" phase, I still would if there was actually a decent route in that wouldn't require me to sell body parts) Aye. I don't know how long ago you were looking but this was about 8 months ago when he was looking at it. Incidentally the trouble actually being successful was why he didn't pursue it. The application process if you made it past the initial interview was apparently absurd, went on for a very long time and was very involved. And even then it wasn't a certainty you'd get the job even if you passed all the application with flying colours (boom boom). The fact they straight up told him this at the interview put him off entirely. You could dedicate pretty much a year of your time to it and at the end of that not even be taken on to begin training.

The Yes campaign have an ad that basically is exactly the same as that Coffee v Beer picture, fronted by Dan Snow. It's the kind of thing they should have chucked to the forefront of the campaign, rather than push it out at the end. Though I guess the idea is the heavy hitter is at the forefront of peoples minds instantly. Had another 'NO' leaflet the other day, delivered with a campaign thing for the Tory hopeful (good luck love, you'll need it round here). Heavy on the 'But only bloody Papua New Guinea are happy with it, and they're shit!'-esque argument.

If you want to make money in the air transport world, get into air traffic control. A friend of mine from uni was interviewed for an air traffic control position with a starting wage of £35k after completing training.

Portals worth recommendation alone. I do think a lot of the jokes work without having played the first game. Not on the same level of course, but the narrative reveals enough straight off the bat for a lot of the jokes to still work. You just don't have quite the same knowing familiarity with the characters that really brings out the grins imo. But yes, if you can, it's well worth playing the first game and if your PC can run it, theres no excuse.

That is a good point. The first game was released as part of a bundle called the Orange Box, it's about 3 hours long and if you were worried about about whether Portal 2 is for you (after all it's a new release and at retail it's still £35 preowned, a decent wedge to risk) it might be worth trying out the first game, it's a more perfect experience and sets up some of the second game (the second game does, imo, stand alone quite well however). It's introduces mose of the mechanics you'll use in the second game. Only issue might be I'm quite sure that Portal was never released on it's own for the PS3, so you'd need to track down a copy of the Orange Box, which on the High Street still commands a decent amount (about £18 IIRC) and you'd probably not be interested in the other titles in it (Half-Life 2 and it's expansions mostly, great games but I get the impression you're not a shooter fan?) so it might not be worth your while. You could borrow it from someone I guess, as said you can clock Portal in an afternoon.

It'll be well worth your while. If you want an example of one of the moments that I got stuck on, this is an example, from one of the areas which your traversing rather than solving straight puzzles. You're in a big open space, and have gone up an elevator, but at the top of the elevator theres nowhere for you to go. You can see the exit door, but you can't portal over to it (you have a gun that create portals between places provided the surface is the right type of surface, which the game makes very obvious). You can portal over to another area across from the door, and between them theres a drop that you can't jump over. On this area there is a slanted piece of wall you can place a portal on. Bingo, thats the clue. You place a portal on the slanted wall, and the connecting portal on the floor underneath the elevator, and fall from the top through the portal, out of the slanted wall portal, and because of your fall you're going really quickly which lets you fling yourself to the door and onwards.

Certainly. It's effectively a puzzle game hidden in a good narrative and FPS view point. The game presents you with problems and a simple series of 'rules' (for want of a better word) to overcome them. It's not difficult, sometimes you may sit there for a moment and have to logically think through what is being asked of you, but usually it becomes clear quickly. Your usual aim is simply 'Get the door open and get to the door', and the general extent of the puzzles is activating the door by manipulating portals to move a box onto a switch, or line up a lazer onto a receiver, etc etc. The game is surpremely good at getting you into a mindset of the 'rules' and the equipment it gives you to solve things. It's often just a case of being methodical, and theres nothing to really threaten you in the game, the only 'enemies' are quite comical turrets, and they are used as another part of a puzzle rather than as threat. I really think you should give it a try, it's truly a joy of a game. Not as good as the first one, but a longer and more developed experience thats still better than 95% of the games on the market. The only time I could see someone who isn't someone who plays a lot of games getting a bit stuck are a couple of areas where your aim changes from completing puzzle rooms, to traversing areas. These suffer from sometimes not making it quite clear enough what you need to do or how you might do what you need to - there were a couple of these moments that got me, but when you see the solution you instantly think 'Aaah yeah! That makes perfect sense!'. And these are a comparitively small part of the game that are just intended to mix up the puzzle rooms and give the narrative a bit more room to flesh itself out.

I really don't know if I like that or not.

No, not at all.

Bench leaves a bit to desired. I'll be very surprised if Odemwingie doesn't score, sadly, which probably means we'll get a draw. I'm calling that a slightly hopeful prediction.

Happy Birthday Si and AVFC_Hitz.

He needs to set up his own club so we can find a team crazy enough to buy him.

I don't think I'll believe Thor is a good film until I see it myself. It's a shit comic, based on a shit character, the costume looks shit and it just has the whiff of '****, if we really want to do this Avengers thing we've gotta bang this rubbish out'. I'm surprised Branagh's even involved. And it's got Anthony Hopkins in it, which these days means 'Anthony Hopkins coming in and chewing the scenery for 10mins whilst vaguely demeaning the script and running off with a cheque'.

Oh, it's a woman then.

Welcome lusiassiscuff. I can't think of anything witty. Though having an ass for a cuff is probably a problem. He can type. I have the PM to prove it!

Zele Ismail is allegedly going to be 'the shit', so I'm told.

I think it'll be a quite a crap summer. I've little faith in our ability to bring in a good manager.

Personally I think there is a world of difference between Moyes calling Houllier and asking for his opinion on a player which is what happened in the case of Gueye and him working under Houllier as a DoF. They get on well apparently dating back to Houllier's time at Liverpool but I personally can't see Moyes being the sort of manager who would accept anything less than total control of a football club. He has had total control at Everton for years and I find it highly unlikely he would accept less than that here should he be interested in the role at all. In addition to this I've seen nothing from Houllier in his time here or from his time at Liverpool that suggests he would make a good DoF. Further, I'm yet to have seen an example of this set up working within British football and remain puzzled as to why people think Houllier would be the man to change that or why Moyes would accept it despite having asked advice on a player. Agreed. Houllier has done the DoF thing in England before. He ended up in the managers seat. And I agree that I see little to dictate him as a good man for the role. He'd perhaps work better in an ambassador role but, frankly, we don't need one. I see a mention of Jol earlier as a man who has worked under a DoF before. He has, of course, in the Prem even. He didn't like it and it contributed to him getting the shove. No to any DoF role for me. And when Houlliers time in the managers seat is done, I'd like to see that be the end of his dealings with Aston Villa.

Oh I wasn't saying it was the phones fault, I'm saying it was fate letting you know you shouldn't buy a Blackberry . The Torch seems to divide people - people that like Blackberrys like them because they think it's like a Blackberry but up to date, and people who don't like Blackberrys think they're quite laughable.

Don't order a Blackberry this time