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Glad to see yer sense of humour is still intact, dude. :D


Oh my god, I love Welcome to the NHK. I totally get where you're coming from, though.

In terms of anime series that are a bit difficult to watch because they feel a bit... near the knuckle, mine would probably be The Tatami Galaxy. If you've seen it, there's a bit in the first episode where the protagonist (who is never named) is goaded into asking out a girl he likes during a busy summer festival scene, and shoved across the bridge where she's walking towards him in the opposite direction. He starts to hyperventilate, his vision goes shaky, and he's drawn as a jittering, blocky mess. He achieves absolutely nothing in the conversation, freezes up and then suddenly says something like "Well, I must be going." He then breathes a sigh of relief, turns back to normal and convinces himself "That went well. That's enough for today." That's still me to a tee, that is. And a lot of other people too, I'm sure, given that it's depicted in the episode as it is! And that line... "I'm not going to lose. I'm not going to lose to pining for love."

Episode 6 as well, where he freaks out at the idea of physical intimacy, and vows to protect his "long-protected virginity", much to the cowboy's dismay.
The cowboy represents his penis. :p
I can't identify with the episode where he chooses the love doll, though. That just wouldn't be my bag. :p

And the last two episodes are an absolutely terrifying idea to me.
He's trapped for months in an inescapable maze consisting of countless iterations of the same room.

@Lord Bacchus: I've been re-reading your posts.

I'm sure her hypocrisy isn't lost on you, dude, so I'm sure nobody even needs to point that out. What's supposed to be the point of offering someone you care about encouragement to do something and then lashing out at the result?

Look at how these read when you line them all up:





There's no "probably" about it, dude: you hit the nail on the head. Who needs all of that grief in their life? She's supposed to care about you, for god's sake. All of the above is a funny way of showing it. Like I said, you just don't need any of that in your life. Nobody does.

You deserve better, man. I hope you realise that.


No bloody wonder. That would drag anyone down into the bowels of some kind of hell.


I can't see how it was a fluke. It didn't work out in the end, but asking her out and hearing a yes as an answer was no fluke. What was it Rui said before?

End of!


Well I guess you need to wait for lightning to strike twice. Or even better, put yourself in a spot where lightning will strike twice. I'm not sure about that part yet as I'm still trying find my own way with all of this just now. Anyone got any firmer advice for our Bacchus?

Nope, I can't agree with that at all. You were friends, weren't you? Well, there you go. How was that a fluke?

How did your friends react when you cut ties with them?

Yeah, I was painfully aware of the fact I was being manipulated, but sometimes knowing it and doing something about it can be very different things. :D Emotional attachments can become very difficult to break. What the heart wants and what your reason knows to be true can often be entirely different things. There were many times when the threat of suicide was a very powerful motivator in stopping me from leaving. Ultimately even if I wanted to break it off, it didn't mean I wanted her to die, and the thought of myself being in some way indirectly "responsible" for her actually killing herself would be more than I could take. My family assured me many times that it wouldn't be my fault even if the worst were to happen, but if it did I would still have blood on my hands. That obviously wasn't the only thing keeping me there of course, but when push came to shove it would often cause me to back down when I thought I had had enough.

As for the friends I had made, that's a whole different issue. I stand by what I said, that being that I probably only ended up being friends with them because they were flatmates. It's not that I have difficulty chatting with people, but I don't make proper friendships easily, and haven't really made any new ones irl since I left school (except my ex), so when I was put in a situation where I had to make friends I did see it as an opportunity to possibly reinvent myself. For the first few months I tried to keep up with them, but going to university three years late meant they were all 18 year olds, and all wanted to go clubbing and such, which is like my own personal hell. :D I still went other places with them, but there were a few occasions when my ex took issue with me and it put me off (all of the times I ever disclosed my intent to go somewhere with them really). Two things stick in my mind. One time we were going to be going for a Christmas dinner as a group, and for about an hour before I was meant to go, my girlfriend was in a depression and demanding I keep talking. I told her eventually that I had to go, but I made up a lie and said I had to go shopping, because if I told her I was going somewhere with the flatmates then past experience told me it would end badly for me. I can't remember how, but she somehow knew I was lying and forced the truth out of me. She started screaming at me down the phone and I ended up just hanging up and going anyway, but it made me pretty miserable company.

The other was the worst one. I had been chatting with a girl before a lecture. I can't have talked to her for more than five or ten minutes, but she asked for my Facebook details and saw I had no profile picture, then insisted she took one of me. After I got home, my girlfriend saw I had added this person, saw the picture and argued with me for hours, saying I was cheating, and then also demanded to see the pages of every other female friend I had so that she could test me and see how attractive they were compared to herself. Because I wasn't incredibly close with these people, there wasn't a reaction to me not remaining in contact since I often ended up not going out anywhere with them, and the second year put me in a different building, but I probably would have had a lot more trouble if I hadn't many times been convinced not to go places with them in order to avoid the stress of arguing.

At the moment I am utterly burnt out on relationships. I can't really see myself making it a priority until I have sorted out some more pressing issues with my life, like making sure I finish the degree next year, getting a job afterwards etc. I'm making some plans at the moment though. When I was still shackled in that relationship I wouldn't have ever thought of going to a foreign country after the degree, but since I am now free to do as I like, I have been strongly considering applying to go to Japan to teach English after my degree. The only requirement appears to be that you are a native speaker with a degree, and since my degree will be English I figure it puts me in a fairly good position to apply, assuming I get the grade I want. I've been playing around with the idea of using a good chunk of the time I have between now and going back to university to start learning Japanese so that I could adapt a bit better when and if I decided to go.
 
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Lots of good news! I'm really pleased you had a good chat with your new friend, Neil; it definitely sound as though at the very least she enjoys talking to you. Hopefully our lovely anime industry will serve up some interesting options now that cinema screenings are happening with increasing frequency!

And Lord Bacchus, it's good that you're able to talk so groundedly about that experience; while I doubt she meant it, what she did to you was clearly emotional abuse and you've done terribly well to come through it all. I suppose that's one of the nice things about coming to the party a bit late, dating-wise - a lot of people are not very emotionally stable when they're growing up and shy, introverted people tend to be vulnerable to other vulnerable people (stereotyping us all as typical nerdy types here, but I think it's a fairly safe thing to say). It takes a lot of emotional strength to cope with difficult relationships. I've had some friendships involving just a small portion of the behaviours described and they are absolutely exhausting.

Japan is amazing; I wish I had had the chance to go there and do what you're mulling over. Most people who have done the teaching thing and engaged fully with it (as opposed to hiding in the flats with other English speakers outside of lessons) seem to have got a lot out of the experience.

R
 
What the heart wants and what your reason knows to be true can often be entirely different things.
Yeah, that's too true, isn't it? I've known exactly what you mean.
My family assured me many times that it wouldn't be my fault even if the worst were to happen
And they were right. Call it cold or callous if you like, but my experiences related to the girl from years ago taught me that the only person who can save you is yourself. Other people can offer advice, support or a hundred other things, but the responsibity for pulling through it or otherwise ultimately rests with the individual.
For the first few months I tried to keep up with them, but going to university three years late meant they were all 18 year olds, and all wanted to go clubbing and such, which is like my own personal hell. :D
Oh dear god, clubbing. Yeah. I've never gone, myself. But yeah, that's why not. What a circus that must be.
After I got home, my girlfriend saw I had added this person, saw the picture and argued with me for hours, saying I was cheating, and then also demanded to see the pages of every other female friend I had so that she could test me and see how attractive they were compared to herself.
That's... every kind of wrong there is. Those are not the actions of a rational person.
I'm making some plans at the moment though.
Great. You're doing the best possible thing to start to repair your life, and giving yourself the best possible chances. You're doing exactly the right thing. :)
I have been strongly considering applying to go to Japan to teach English after my degree.
Now that's a hell of a plan! Wow, you've really got something amazing in your sights there, dude. That's awe-inspiring.
I've been playing around with the idea of using a good chunk of the time I have between now and going back to university to start learning Japanese so that I could adapt a bit better when and if I decided to go.
You should absolutely do that. Do you know much Japanese at the moment? I know a usable amount, and it's really not the most difficult language to learn. Maybe Rui can back me up on that claim?

I'm really pleased you had a good chat with your new friend, Neil; it definitely sounds as though at the very least she enjoys talking to you.
Thanks, Rui! :)
It's still way too early to even be allowed to count her as a friend or anything, but I'd really like to be able to. I just like her, however it might pan out in the end. (I know it's early days, but I think I'm smitten. :p) I think I've been able to just gently turn a couple of my cards over and leave them lying face up on the table, so to speak, so she probably already has a bit of an idea how I see her. She hasn't frozen me out yet as has happened before! That's what I went into yesterday fearing most of all.

I'm trying not to spoil things by looking too far ahead, but I had a sneaky peek at the staff roster (well, I say "sneaky", but it's pinned to the wall where you can't miss it) for the next couple of weeks to see when we might run into each other next. I won't see her again until the end of next week. Nooooo! :(

I'm in a bit of a quandary just now: the following week our shifts don't overlap at all. What am I going to do?

I feel like I'd like to try to casually ask whether she has any plans for her next days off, and if she doesn't... I don't know: I don't want to rush anything, but at the same time I don't want to waste the momentum. That following week, our shifts only miss overlapping by a little bit. I feel like if I just dithered a bit leaving work I might run into her. I've passed her before further along the road going in opposite directions before we really spoke properly. But then what? Isn't that becoming a bit stalkery?

Anyway, it's a nice quandary to have. I wouldn't change it for anything.

Lastly, as I'm still kinda new here:
Japan is amazing
I've read bits and pieces in various other threads. How many times have you been to Japan, Rui, if you don't mind me asking?
 
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I'm making some plans at the moment though. When I was still shackled in that relationship I wouldn't have ever thought of going to a foreign country after the degree, but since I am now free to do as I like, I have been strongly considering applying to go to Japan to teach English after my degree.
I have a mate who left to do this for a year after Uni 6-7 years ago and he never came back, he actually just informed us that he is getting married next year and asked if we would all be able to travel over for the wedding. I'm pretty sure he doesn't teach English anymore but he did for a couple of years, I'm forever jealous of him for doing it tbh as if I could, I'd leave today lol good luck with it, sounds very exciting.
 
Changing the mood on this thread to a positive, I have finally fixed my Calendar that I had to put up with for weeks. For days I wanted to pester Teapot for support but I decided I shouldn't, so today I tried to see in close detail what is actually going wrong.

For starters a majority of the code is actually external but it had to be tweaked because it was using MySQL instead of MySQLi and was missing a few things. After adding the code in, the actual Calendar does display. It looked like this (before I added some extra tweaks to the CSS):

Ufgjqg7.png

Then I decided to investigate the SQL database as I thought that was the issue. It did require some minor changes but it wasn't going to resolve the situation regardless. So the first step I did was to use the printf method that Teapot used when he helped me set up the Timetable a few weeks back. It turns out that the SQL does work, but it wouldn't display on the calendar whatsoever. I also was able to do a WHERE AND statement so that I can have a unique ID filter (so that the info only displays whoever logs in) and so that the Calendar can get its Year & Month statements on the Query. The result was able to display the array data within those months so database wise it was working 100%.

gkHdeuK.png
9WhYCXH.png

On the verge of getting annoyed I decided to pay better attention to the feedback from the site where I got the source code from, and I noticed a lot of them had issues similar to mine. So after spending ages reading, I found a user who added a list day function type to their code. And to my surprise this was the key to getting the data to display!

And now it looks like this:

4cGI0sk.png

This feels so rewarding that I literally want to take the day off, but I can't because I don't have much time left to sort out this final year project. The deadline for everything is on Monday 24th April - that's this deliverable and the 8000 word report. I have some CSS stuff to tweak and then I'm calling it there for the deliverable - a polished deliverable is better than an incomplete quantity of stuff.
 
It's been a busy week, a week last Friday I had an interview for a job as an Office, Stockroom and Data Input person, the following Wednesday I got an email saying I got the job which is excellent news, but I was also asked if I could start work the next day, so I worked the Thursday on short notice. The place I work deals primarily with mail order Comics and Graphic Novels and man you've never seen so many of those things in one place, they literally are everywhere (even in the kitchen). In the afternoon I carried a whole load of comic board boxes and those things aren't too heavy (not light either) but when your carrying quite a few of them up a spiral staircase it gets a bit tricky after a bit, that was tough thought I was going to pass out for a moment, I can certainly understand why my new boss said you ache like a mother... at the end of the day, Pretty much fell asleep not long after I got in! But it was a good start to precedings and I look forward to seeing what the week coming throws at me after the rest of the Easter Break!
 
I'm so fed up of everyday practically some company wanting me to change my password. The security of online companies is such total garbage, exactly how many passwords do these companies expect us to have? Because if I were to have a unique one for every company, then had to change those passwords to something different every couple of months then we are talking hundreds of different passwords to remember.

Today it's twitter, supposedly because of suspicious activity. Which is a load of BS, going onto my twitter without logging in makes it clear no one has hacked it. Not a sole has touched it, why would they even, my account is barely used anyway and my name has no value.

Also logging into old email accounts not used for awhile does the same thing, instantly without fail I'm required to change my password due to suspicious activity, this also normally requires a phone for a code to be sent and while this will sound shocking I don't own a phone. I've never wanted to own a mobile phone and never have*, I do own a phone but I've never connected it to a network, I just use it as a digital camera, and I also don't have a landline phone because cold calling became beyond annoying so I got rid of that phone (not the landline) about 3 years ago and it's been great!

Anyway just having a bit of a crappy morning and once again being told I have to change a bloody password has just sent me into abit of a tizzy haha.
 
I'm so fed up of everyday practically some company wanting me to change my password. The security of online companies is such total garbage, exactly how many passwords do these companies expect us to have? Because if I were to have a unique one for every company, then had to change those passwords to something different every couple of months then we are talking hundreds of different passwords to remember.

Today it's twitter, supposedly because of suspicious activity. Which is a load of BS, going onto my twitter without logging in makes it clear no one has hacked it. Not a sole has touched it, why would they even, my account is barely used anyway and my name has no value.

Also logging into old email accounts not used for awhile does the same thing, instantly without fail I'm required to change my password due to suspicious activity, this also normally requires a phone for a code to be sent and while this will sound shocking I don't own a phone. I've never wanted to own a mobile phone and never have*, I do own a phone but I've never connected it to a network, I just use it as a digital camera, and I also don't have a landline phone because cold calling became beyond annoying so I got rid of that phone (not the landline) about 3 years ago and it's been great!

Anyway just having a bit of a crappy morning and once again being told I have to change a bloody password has just sent me into abit of a tizzy haha.

I also hate this. It seems every other week there's some information leak/suspicious activity. I hate it more when companies demand that you put numbers, upper case letters, and unique characters into a password though. I have several very long passwords I use at a lot of places which don't contain all of those things, so when I have to bend over backwards to make a password which meets their requirements I am much more likely to forget it, since it isn't one of the five or so passwords I have permanently memorised.
 
Incoming snap election. Corbyn has agreed to support a motion for one in Parliament, so unless he finds a reason to backtrack it's basically guaranteed. I wonder how many of his MPs will agree with him.

Almost posted this in the exchange rate thread as it's interesting that May saying she would be making an announcement caused the pound to drop, and then when the announcement actually came it rebounded.
 
Finally some politics. Thank god! (o_O)

What the hell do we need a snap election in the middle of Brexit negotiations for? Isn't that just an unnecessary spanner in the works?
 
As much as I dislike the current government, I can't see a snap election going well for Labour in the current climate. Corbyn could have a cure for cancer and dispense free money, and he'd probably still be roasted by the tabloids for having a scruffy beard :D (not saying that's right, but the trend is undeniable). Given the events of the last year within the Labour party, I don't think it's a question of if his MPs would turn on him, but when. I can't realistically see a snap election ending in anything but the conservatives further cementing themselves as the dominant force. Either way, Brexit has royally screwed almost everything up anyway, so I can't see how this will make it any worse.
 
1. It would get rid of the current situation where Theresa May has no democratic mandate for implementing her program.
2. Theresa May hopes that it would result in a larger majority so she finds it easier to push her policy through.
3. With French and German elections coming up means that Brexit negotiations are likely to be relatively unproductive anyway at this time.

On the other hand, it could disrupt various important ongoing events, and also means that we'll have a dissolution of parliament, which means no government except to resolve national emergencies for about 6 weeks. Is this really a good time for such a thing?

I wonder what the effect of this will be on the local elections (as well as the two genuinely competitive mayoral contests) which now find themselves stuck in the middle of a general election campaign for the first time in decades.

Edit: 1 Lab MP who won't be voting for the election:
"Chris Matheson, Labour MP for the City of Chester, Britain’s most marginal seat, said he will vote in the Commons against a general election, the BBC reported."
(quoted from labourlist)
 
Yeah my dream is her majority drops cos of a surge of anti brexit voting to Liberals or labour but FPTP stops that. I believe he should have PR but thats a different argument
 
You make a lot of very compelling points there, @kuuderes_shadow.
... which means no government except to resolve national emergencies for about 6 weeks. Is this really a good time for such a thing?
I wonder if Kim Jong-un already has his finger hovering on the fire button in preparation. (Well, that's me marked for death now. :p)
... he'd probably still be roasted by the tabloids for having a scruffy beard :D
And that's my chances of an election win shot as well, then!
 
I call BS on some of her reasoning though. If there was going to be a GE it should have been right after the brexit vote rather than after they trigger article 50. Prior to that Lib Dems (and possibly Labour under someone who isn't Corbyn) could have gone in with a "Vote for us and we won't trigger" whereas now if they say that they'll just get some rhetoric from the Tories that "It's too late".

She's probably had it planned for a long time. Just wanting to get article 50 out of the way first so she can claim "There's no going back". She's banking on another Majority for 5 more years of power... Damn I hope the other parties can squeeze out her majority between them.
 
My MP's already announced he's not even standing for re-election. Wonder how many more will go? They might as well. Labour aren't particularly likely to win (barring some horrifying revelations about the Tories - Maybe Vlad and his Fancy Bears could give us a hand) but maybe this will at least serve as the great clearing-out of neoliberals in socialists' clothing from the party.

I think my main concern is urban areas going to the Lib Dems due to Brexit. A lot of pro-EU people seem quick to forgive the party that propelled the Tories into power in the first place.
 
^You mean that the electoral arithmetic making it almost impossible for any stable government to be formed that didn't include the Tories is what propelled the Tories to power. That and the fact that the Tories were prepared to make a deal whereas Labour weren't.
I'll accept that the Lib Dems share some of the blame for the existance of a Tory majority in 2015 (as a result of various strategic errors made by the party both during the coalition and during the poor 2015 election campaign), but Labour spending all their efforts during that period attacking the Lib Dems far more than they attacked the Tories certainly helped the Conservatives as well.

That's yesterday's battle anyway, and is not relevant this time. Honestly the way things are right now I see as much chance of a coalition between Labour and Conservative as between Lib Dem and Conservative following this election. Cameron and Osbourne, whatever their faults, were both socially liberal, which was also the main focus of the LD leadership at the time, giving the two parties something to build a coalition around*, and many of the coalition's biggest achievements were in this area. On the other hand there is basically no ideological overlap between Farron and May whatsoever.


*as well as the fact that both believed that cutting the deficit was the best way to get out of the financial crisis (which was the main issue at the time), although Labour was also in favour of this approach right up until the point where a non-Labour government decided to implement it.
 
lol

Incorrigible FCA on Twitter

21 minutes is a long time in politics.

Meanwhile Andrew George's entry for the Most Leading Question of the Year award:
"Do people here seriously want to help me fight the politics of greed prejudice and fear? To effectively challenge those who are driving the UK towards a self-harming hard-Brexit. Or do they just want to divide into protest factions and let a loyal biddable Tory in by default?"
 
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So I'm heading back to Uni in the afternoon, and I only have around 3 weeks left of University.

On Monday I have to submit my Final Year Project report online and on Wednesday I need to hand-in the paper version of my report plus copies of my Final Year Project deliverable. I have a few concerns at the moment:
  • There's a certain percentage that the submission has to determine whether the report is plagiarised or too similar to others which I haven't properly checked yet. If it goes over the limit that's going to be alarming because I won't have the time to fix it. I'm hoping that my report is fine.
  • The feedback I got in the survey I sent out earlier in the week was great but I'm debating on whether I should actually make the changes before I sent off everything. I mentioned in the report I would but I wonder if it's reasonable to do so or not.
  • I have a presentation of my deliverable to my Supervisor and Second Marker at some point in early May. I'm nervous that they might criticise my project just because I had to make some changes from the original project specification and my project is not as comparable to others in my year. I'm not expecting a 70%+ overall mark but I need a 2.1 otherwise I would consider the whole third year of Uni pointless.
Once the Final Year Project is sorted I only have one module left which is group work based due around 18th May.
 
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