Crazy Diamond

I remember hearing in a documentary that we were a day or so away from defeat and we got lucky - as DellDays has said in a previous post. Interesting though and it all makes a lot of sense. Hopefully the Argentinians will have the sense not to try and take what is not theirs, again... As for nifty bits of kit, my personal favourite is the Blackbird.

I'll take your word for it, given your profession and experience, but why is that? My knowledge of the Falklands conflict is limited, but from what I gather we were only about 24 hours from defeat at one point. Given that our numbers have been reduced, would it not be harder?

Is it inevitable? I don't know. I hope not, we are not in a fit state to enter into yet another conflict. Only last week I heard on the news that the Falklands are being eyed up by the Argentinians still, and should there be a conflict, our prospects would not be all that good. We barely won last time, to my knowledge.

I believe degrees have been devalued, so I quite agree with you when you say degrees are worth less these days. I attended the best university for my course, it was accredited by the best bodies and I was forced to pay my own money to take exams that I didn't even have to pass - it was just to be a part of the course. At the end of it, what do I have to show for it? I could just as easily have gone straight into work and in the same three years ended up in a better position. It's now almost impossible to get work experience, let alone a job. I quite agree, sorry, didn't want to make out that you said I was a rioter, not my intention at all. A friend of mine watched in college as I did A level Media Studies - which, having done the course, I can confirm its a load of balls, but wanting to be a journalist I had to do it - and decided to not do hospitality at university and instead do Media & History. He graduated a year earlier than me and is being turned down for full time jobs on check outs in supermarkets. Not because he's over qualified, because they just don't want him. Apparently a graduate is not a good prospect, which says it all. Media & History? How will that get you anywhere in life? Very much agree with the statement in bold too. You cannot be afraid of hard work. I for one am not.

So I'm 22 and unemployed. Does that make me a rioter? Am I not worthy of being offered a job? This is exactly what Ken Livingstone was saying. Apparently because I'm unemployed and unhappy about it, I'm likely to be a rioter. I actually asked his people for an apology but didn't get one. And the last I heard, most migrants in London particularly were actually coming in from France. The number of Poles has fallen sharply.

I think I can offer some insight here. I graduate in November, my course finished back in May. I have been looking for a job for four to five months and there simply aren't opportunities in journalism at the moment - I'm told it's the same in any other profession. For me the problem lies with the previous Labour government that made it easier for anyone to go to university. A great idea in principle, more opportunities for people to go into higher education and improve their prospects. Practical? No. Universities as a result are over subscribed, courses such as beach combing are set up to give students just a subject to study for three years, and at the end of the studying there are too many people competing for a limited number of jobs. The solution for the oversubscription thing to me is pretty simple, don't bother raising tuition fees to £9000 (which realistically is not as big a problem as my fellow students made out, in my opinion, given how its repaid if at all), just get rid of stupid courses like beach combing and football studies. Then make the grades required to get to university higher. When I applied for university I needed 3 B's - that's got lower year on year. You can underachieve at college for two years and still get a place at university, the same as someone who got three A's. Just my opinion of course but I'm a part of it and I'm penniless. I'm currently working voluntarily to get my name known at the BBC. A friend of mine dropped out of uni for personal reasons, and has been on the dole for about a year. He is genuinely trying to find work. My old flatmate on the other hand bragged towards the end of uni how he would move to London, live with some squatters and join the dole. He's done just that and is using the money he's given to buy gig tickets and go out on the **** every night. It's a bad time for all of us and each individual has a story to tell. The reality for me is that this is a problem that has been coming for a long, long time.

Yeah I think that's a tad silly. 11/24

Speaking of Marc Wilson, I fear for the future of this 'academy' the Skates apparently have. Andy Awford (aka Andy Awful) once said Wilson would be playing for a Champions League team within about two or three years of his move to Stoke. An incredibly stupid claim to make given Wilson is a perfectly average player, especially from a bloke who is meant to have an eye for talent. I say 'fear', I couldn't actually give a toss.

Same here.

Best thing to do now is to not play him in these upcoming friendlies. Without Rooney we're a completely dismal side (when we're not going out of our way to look like one when at full strength) and so its time to learn to play without him. Leave him out, explore the other options, find a game plan that does not rely on someone who is unreliable with a mentality and attitude like that.

He hates being called Dave. Anyway, cheers for the heads up Mr. Hamster.

Finally got Steam to install but it still asks for an update each time I open it. Oddly I can get around it by just quitting and starting it again, but the speed to download the demo was so pathetic I gave up. I'll just wait for the game itself to come out, but I just think it's a massive mistake to make using Steam compulsory. There is always a way round copyrighting, this won't solve it the same way keygens and disc protection didn't. We shall see. Anyway. 12 days to go now isn't it?

Not for me. I've had a look on the forums and one other person suffered the same problem, countless others find that they open Steam and it runs an update each time, no obvious fix and a load of solutions that are suddenly unsolved with a new update. I've managed to find a link to download the programme with the update already on it, downloading it now at a painful 14.5kb a second...

How utterly ridiculous. I got to 35,000kb out of 38,000 and it stopped and started over again. PATHETIC. What a giant backwards step SI have made.

Right on cue, I get a third of the way through after about 40 minutes and it tells me I'm offline. When I'm not. So now I have to start again, although there's no point seeing as it'll only cut off again. What a joke.

I can't even get Steam to update. It gets so far then just starts again. Doesn't help when the broadband where I live is apocalyptically slow. I realise a certain someone will disagree with me but I don't think compulsory Steam use is a good thing by any means.

It's pronounced Telegraph. Let's try and get the basics right.

Which day was that then? I have to hold my hands up and admit to a rather stupid one, I've literally no idea why I said it. My dad bought me an office chair, it was obviously a flatpack construction in a quite small box. I said to him upon receiving it "I take it its self assembly then?"

I was called a retard by a Manchester United fan today. Pretty stupid.

Having worked at FourFourTwo, I can tell you there isn't an awful lot of science to this list and it's always inaccurate. I think Gary Parkinson, the FFT Online Editor, was on TV this morning talking about it. At 2am this morning he hadn't even finished it...

Christ. Hope it works out for you mate. Sounds like a proper nightmare.

Urgh. Steve Wigley... I have nothing but contempt for that man.

Sounds plausible. Not sure when I'm next due to cover a game but I'll make a note to find out.

There could be an element of truth in that, I'll see if I can find out. Unfortunately that's not possible - the camera that supplies the feed of the game is the BBC camera that records the game for the Football League Show.

Martin O'Neill the favourite. I'm about to ring every estate agent in Nottingham. Might be a while.