pap

Ramirez ate my hamster.

My only real hope is that she does something she enjoys and suits her personality. She likes a good debate, is almost incapable of backing down. Much like her Dad in that respect. I've been lucky enough to do a career I enjoy, but I know I'm working within myself and that there are attributes I'm kind of fond of that I have to suppress in a professional environment, whereas they'd be quite handy in others.

My particular favourite monster is the p!sshead/cokehead/maniac combo.

Hmm. Drugs freely available in country that has decriminalised drugs? Blimey.

She hasn't completely decided yet, although the A levels she's taking would be pretty good for a law degree. I'm 37, she's 17. I'm one of those idiots who had kids before he could afford them. Worked out alright, as I recall.

I've been out on a Friday night in the UK many times. Massive alcohol problems. No example to uphold.

You been to Portugal? Drug use, particularly hard drugs, fell after five years.

Word. And make a big thing of it. People don't go to Amsterdam for the canals or clogs.

Welcome to my world, mate. Got one kid who'll be off to Uni in 18 months, another will go in five years. I thought I was hard done by when I ran up a trifling 11k of student loan debt. I suppose it depends on what you think the priorities of the system are. If the priority is to promote social mobility, we're doing badly. If the priority is to get people into debt, jobs a good un.

Criminalising stuff like cannabis is a complete waste of money. Better education is required, I think. The only people I've seen suffer long term effects smoked a lot of weed in their teens. Stop that from happening and you stop the vast majority of the mental health issues.

There's the thing though; how on earth do you decide? The Conservatives have gone for some very crude measures that exacerbate the problems instead of solve them. And guess what? People on the right loved them when they were announced. The problem for the vast majority of people espousing these views is that they have no understanding of how the underclass works, or how self-defeating it ultimately all is. Take some recent examples; HB capped at £400pw. The right loved it. The consequence? Families moved into overcrowded B+Bs. Kids growing up with sh!t lives ready to begin all over again. Now, a politician of real conviction would have attacked the root cause; gone after the banks and landlords that are fleecing so much money from the state. They won't do that, though. They'd rather have the lot of us knifing each other in the back for the scraps that trickle down from the banqueting table. We shouldn't be angry with the poor. We should be angry with successive governments who have failed to produce a society where the poor can generally improve their lot and where it doesn't pay to work. We should be angry with the banks for irresponsible lending, or the captains of industry for sending jobs overseas for a better shareholder return. We should be angry with the whole damn financial system, and the inexplicable primacy it seems to have over all else.

We've lost ours. Not going to moan about it as there are clearly people who are worse off. Have to say though, I think that anyone getting on their high horse about the so-called scroungers is suffering from a case of misplaced envy. I have no idea whether you've ever had to live on benefits, but it really isn't fun. I saw my old dear worry over sums that even adjusted for real terms, I'd spend without thinking about. So as someone who was brought up on benefits, let me assure you that it isn't the land of milk and honey you think it is. Always worried about money; know for a fact that the old dear went without food so she could feed us. If you think it's all beers, ciggies and Jeremy Kyle, you're very much mistaken. It's crap, and 9/10 people I know on long-term benefits would rather not be.

Not sure about that controller yet. I like the idea of having a separate screen (Nintendo have got a lot of form in this area, Pacman vs, four swords, etc). But those face buttons are underneath the right analog stick. Looks like it may be counter intuitive for FPS games.

If you want an extreme example of that, you need look no further than China's one child per family edict. Leaving aside the horrors visited upon some female children for a second, the long term consequences mean that grandparents have fewer descendants to support them. Ok, we work slightly differently in the sense that a lot more of the "care" the young provide to the old goes through the abstraction of the tax system. Your point holds though, irrespective of the directness of funding. Immigrants to the rescue?

I couldn't afford kids when my first came along. If I'd taken some of the sterling advice on here, I'd have a lifelong regret instead of a 17 year old daughter.

So what do you reckon on chain of events then, hypo? Has Boris always been anti-EU and said we'd be mad to leave last week because of pressure from the Conservative Party leadership?

Boris calls for EU referendum. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/dec/04/boris-johnson-uk-renegotiate-eu Wasn't he saying we'd be mad to leave the EU last week? Guess that didn't go down too well.

There is definitely wriggle room for specifics, Tokyo. Just just trying to establish whether it is feasible or desirable. Do you have a title in mind?

Some interesting views. I have to admit, being a little down on the policy, I didn't see any potential positives, such as property prices potentially going down as a result of BTL lenders leaving the market. Going to be carnage in the short-term and will definitely cost more money than it is designed to save.

To the tune of Ra, Ra Rasputin. Go go go Luke Shaw Your defending is top drawer We love the crosses that you like to send Go so go Luke Shaw Watching you is not a chore We like the fact you can f**king defend

According to this month's PC Pro A-List, the baddest boy on the block is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680. £400 notes matey! Yaargh, etc. Mind you, that's about the same as a Wii U, and will give you performance so good I suspect you'll spend half your time rubbing your eyes in confused wonder at the framerate. Not bad for the money/ Their honourable mention goes to another Nvidia card, GTX 660 Ti £230.

Hoi admins, I recently mentioned on another thread that I'd like to make Whitey Grandad the official grandad of SaintsWeb. saintbletch has agreed to second that motion. Have to say though, when thinking through the implementation (I'm a coder) I did come up with an even cooler idea. Custom user classes. See, the way I envisaged you making Whitey Grandad the official grandad of SaintsWeb by creating a new user class, essentially a clone of Full Member, that just has a different name. You would then put Whitey Grandad into that user class. You could probably create a few more to cover other scenarios. How about a "Naughty Step" class? Or even a "Tolerated Muppet Show Moderator" class for Bearsy and Tokes. While I'd shy away from the military style ranks you see on other sites, I do rather like the idea of spinning up custom user classes for special occasions. Bit of respect for those where it's due; and perhaps offering light-touch moderation options. In all seriousness, is this something you could easily accommodate or would be willing to implement?

I wish I could claim this for myself, but I can't. Mate on Facebook reckons December is to the year what Friday is to the week. I can live with that.

Rocket Queen. Guns 'n Roses all out best track, imo. Still gets listened to once or twice a month. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9hdZmaYIT0

Ah, Rage Against The Machine. Listened to this band in my formative years. Yes, I agree - this explains a lot.