Album Rating: 3.5

Next year I'm going to try and reduce the ol' screen time again and yes, even the amount of new music/time I spend on Spotify.



I'm already a bit better with screen time than I was the year before - will see how it goes. It isn't easy.



Do respect one of my friends, 46, who just cycles around Europe - doesn't go online and post anything about it, doesn't take a load of selfies, does it on his tod and just for the craic.



Went with all the older lads to Lisbon last year and he cycled all the way but extended that journey into a holiday of its own - not for likes, no Facebook account, no instagram piccies updates every day, fair play.



Just the challenge of it, the enjoyment of it, the solitude of it, the personal memories of it.

Get a job

Album Rating: 3.5

I do feel semi-retired in my current job - nine days a fortnight, can wfh, low ambition to go into management position



The missus has a ridiculously stressful job, Assistant Head at a school with over 2000 kids and she specialises in behaviour management. Two kids had to get sectioned already this term, it's on her if a kid kills themselves during school hours and two suicidal ones (both with attempts outside school hours)



Meanwhile I work in 'data' lol

Two kids sectioned. The world truly has gone fucking barmy.
I find it depressing.

Album Rating: 3.5

Her job is depressing in a lot of ways but there are some victories, some of the 'troubled' kids are actually good kids and she actually bonds with those the closest. Some she says 'he'll end up in prison', they leave, they end up in prison - it's futile.



What I didn't know is there's a last chance saloon/auction of the worst kids between schools to try and stop them getting expelled (having that on their record is often game over) and she has to go to a lot of those. Sounds really bizarre, strange deals. A lot of kids in gangs and dealing drugs at school - the thinking is take them out of their network and they get a fresh start without their environment/peer pressure.



So some of it is rewarding for her but a lot is soul destroying. Some of the parents are beyond belief, personal threats not a rarity, total cunts some of them.

Drugs

'I have a lot of friends approx 5 years older (mid forties) and a lot of friends 5-8 years younger (early to mid thirties) and the difference between the two now due to the Internet is massive.

The older set have no or very little social media presence - the younger lot massive personal branding on FB and instagram. Huge difference with just a 10 year age gap.'

I'm in the younger group regarding my age, but in the older group for social media habits - always knew I was old before my time. I do have a Facebook account although I literally cannot remember the last time I used it. No other 'personal' accounts anywhere, just this place and one other forum I frequent anonymously, or as anonymously as one can anyway. In the current age where hacking, targeted adds and constant nanny state monitoring is rife, I'm sure someone could find out who I am if they really cared enough.

One thing I've never understood is people who are clearly out with their other half having a drink or something, but are constantly glued to their phones. The only time they even think to communicate is when they want to discuss whatever it is they're looking at. It makes me cringe. Whenever it's a 'date' situation (even at home watching telly) me and the wife put our phones down and only pick them up if we receive a message, if a reply to said message is needed in the short-term then (with apologies) we may send a quick response, that's it. No messing about looking through social media and other stuff etc. whilst ignoring the here and now. Live for the moment...

(he says by typing out a massive wall of text on the internet).

The tools of control.

Album Rating: 3.5

'Neither the Conservatives nor Labour are offering "credible" spending plans ahead of the election, an influential research group has said.



The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said it was "highly likely" the Tories would end up spending more than their manifesto pledges.



Labour, it warned, would be unable to deliver its spending increases as it has promised.



Neither was being "honest" with voters, director Paul Johnson said.



The Liberal Democrats were "the most fiscally prudent" in terms of the public finances'



good enough for me, other two parties have nonsense manifestos confirmed

Album Rating: 2.0

wats goin on ere then

Album Rating: 2.0

seems i missed the old men rambling about politics oh bother

Rather nice little thread tbh

Yeah I rate this thread

Are you born and bred Edinburgh John?

What's the deal with politics, amirite

Nope, moved when I was early teens, grew up in a plummy smug patch of the midlands so I have now a weird accent a lots of repressed resentment for literally everyone else in the country :]

Stealing plummy smug as a new insult

Good lad.
Edinburgh is incredible in terms of history lay out and boozers but the tourists are a nuisance and there is a Central London air of arseiness with a few people.

Accurate take, the north-central feel is basically middle-class central/west London transposed (not that I mind lol). I dig the sudden change of atmosphere you get hopping over to Glasgow though, no London vibes to be found there

Plus you’ve got Dundee up the road. lol.

Where in the Midlands were you born? The Midlands is the one area of the UK I really haven’t explored at all. Never been to Birmingham, stayed for a short time in Nottingham. Love Derbyshire and the Peak District but that’s definitely the ‘North’