patiirc

2 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

I always thought Lee Adama from Battlestar Galactica was really fucking boring. 

Helo.. So deathly dull. Uurgh. 

Danerys from Game of Thrones was utterly rotten too, an utter cowbag and a story that was dull as dishwater, Even made the ending which should have been about a descent into insanity, pointless.

Romance? Even Brienne did that better without what seemed like umpteen4 seasons to find 'love' 

Ditto the prick who was in love with her despite his betrayal. Marchant? 

Mind, there's a load of utterly useless characters in Game of Thrones, including Ed Sheeran and Stannis 'what's the point? ' Baratheon, 

Holidays were an odd thing growing up and usually depended on where my Dad was working or not working at the time as he worked away a lot. 

One time he was on a long job in Portsmouth and was staying in a small caravan site on Hayling Island . Because this was cheaper than having digs. We went off more than once to stay in the van and have a 'holiday' there. Rode an open top bus in a thunderstorm too. 

Aside from that, holidays were usually camping near Newquay, Hayle or Bude or Perranporth, Paignton etc. 

Later it was 9.50 Sun efforts 

We were lucky to have Weston Super Mud and Burnham on Sea relatively close, so day trips and weekends away became the norm there, usually camping but eventually one of these tent/caravan things I've forgotten the name of. 

We never could afford a trip abroad, was so glad when mum and Dad got their  month round the world trip in the early 2000s and started going on cruises when the money situation picked up. 

Back to skint now both have retired/nearly retired. 

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

And to think, I got annoyed the other day when my manager used the wrong milk for my coffee.

I don't understand any of what is happening with you @patiirc (I literally can't follow what has occurred) but best of luck to you. 

Cheers @SuperBacon. 

I've no real idea what's going on either, so I've taken myself out of the situation as best I can creating space and distance and to see if things settle. 

1 hour ago, MPDTT said:

@patiirc bringing in an external HR Agency will come at significant cost, more than a Settlement Agreement would to make the situation go away, which tells me there is more to this than you know. This feels like it’s going nuclear, you don’t have a full view of the facts and have been dragged into this against your will.

You are relatively senior and given you have 2 years service, have employment protection. As such, I recommend forgetting ACAS and shelling out to consult an employment lawyer and potentially have them act for you. Check your home insurance policy to see if it includes legal cover for employment disputes.

Totally does feel like I'm piggy in the middle for something bigger. 

Intensely dislike being used in such a way, so took the break away to hopefully let things calm the fuck down a bit. 

I've not got two years, to clarify,  just passed probation so unless there's something regarding protected characteristics I'm not aware of then I'm worried. 

I've a strong suspicion the company will use this to finish me, especially after I've just created a legal and compliance framework including basics like a complaints procedure, or even a Subject Access Request procedure for them when it didn't previously exist. 

They're a small company/3rd sector place that, expanded massively in less than 12 months. They've gone from a local footprint to a regional one and obviously are struggling adapt from that and have no concept of change management at all whatsoever. 

Will definitely check home insurance, keep forgetting about legal expenses cover, doh! 

33 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Would it really be a proper pat anecdote if it was at all comprehensible?

Cheers Chest, thanks for being an awesome human. 

6 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Willie Garson, Character actor but probably best known from the Sex in the City universe, has died from cancer at 57.

Lee Harvey Oswald in 'those' Quantum Leap episodes too if i remember correctly. RIP

10 hours ago, MPDTT said:

Very odd. The Chief Executive Officer doesn't raise a grievance against more junior employees! They may host a formal investigation and if there is a case to answer, then formal disciplinary action. Ive never heard of the scenario you describe.

If there was an investigation, they may interview as a part of that, but can't compell you to raise a grievance.

Sounds like this CEO wants this guy gone, but doesn't want to get his cheque book out and do it via a Settlement Agreement, so instead is trying to throw as much mud as possible and see what sticks.

Thanks for taking time to respond. The whole thing is totally bizarre. Agreed regarding a powerplay, definitely seems like it.  For reference I'm at a level just below directors but above project leads and team management, not quite on the exec but work extensively with them and also parnters, solicitors and wider organisation ceos etc. 

An update since yesterday is that they've appointed an external HR company to handle this. I now have the utterly odd situation whereby myself snd my boss are going to be in the office on different days. we're only in one day a week anyway, remote for the rest of it. 

I cant contact them directly, but they can apparently still send missives to me.  I'm the supposed victim, so that makes no sense either. 

Their email from them stated that I'd raised the  grievance, when I've not. so that's the investigation already subjudiced.

I've confirmed to both the chief exec and the  external HR company  that I didn't want this raised and that there's no animosity between me and my boss. 

The missive stated that they wanted HR partners to be in every meeting we have including with other departments etc basically chucking mine and their privacy out the window as well. as it's a less than 60 employee company too. 

I spoke with ACAS as at this point it's batshit crazy, they've confirmed that it does look like somekind of weird power play and to confirm withdrawal again to all those I can contact., which I have done 

Given the absolute insane nature of this and the utterly ridiculous way this is panning out. I've created space from this and went to my gp. They signed me off in about 0.3 seconds flat, for two weeks.

I've just passed probation, which is something, but It is still dicey for me with the two years stuff for employment rights. I'm waiting for the DARVO responses next and really don't want to go through that. 

In all my years of work I've never come across anything like this. There's no actual communications, and seemingly no regard to privacy or consent either. Absolute and utter mess. 

11 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Fucking hell Roll For It from S1 looks rough. 

Guessing that was a B-team episode. 

Transformers wiki has a very very long article on it https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Roll_for_It

including all the animation errors. I'd assume it was done at speed to get one complete for syndication rather than having qc checks done. 

44 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Successful teams attract fans. I’m sure that sustained success from city will attract out of towners in the coming years. Utd and Liverpool have the generational glory hunter thing going as well, my dad supported them so I do too. City don’t have that, yet. 
 

But ultimately, mocking fans for empty seats is poverty shaming and can fuck off as far as I’m concerned. 

Got to agree with this. I've known plenty of Man City fans and the vast majority are long term fans who've been through the ups and downs of the last 30 odd years plus.

The fans are almost always generational and as far as I am aware there hasn't been an influx of new fans outside of the traditional supporting routes brought on by successes they've had. 

Many  now cant afford or cannot be arsed or are not wanting to return as regularly following the Pandemic. Generally the fan base demographic is also older and have less spends because of the Pandemic. 

One guy I know is a season ticket holder mid to late 50s and puts himself in all kinds of difficulties just to get vfm on his season ticket and keep his seat. I'm sure there's plenty of others and no idea why this has blown up into such a big deal. 

Following football is massively expensive these days. I couldn't follow teams home and away each week. I'd be utterly broke even attempting to try, so gawd knows how everyone else coprs 

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Can’t you say you can’t raise the grievance as you don’t have a grievance? If one is being raised anyway let them deal with it and keep out of it as much as you can. Start noting times and dates of any requests like that and take them to your union if it starts getting stupid. 

Which is basically what I've said to the Chief exec.  As in no idea what's gone on, don't want to to raise a grievance, feel coerced into this point and not sure how it's got here. 

Already recording times dates and bcc ing myself into correspondence regarding this, will have a word with ACAS tomorrow as I'm  feeling definitely piggy in the middle of something bigger between the pair of them. 

Odd doesn't cover it. 

Mick McGinty, the artist responsible for all of the home console Street Fighter 2  box art, Streets of Rage 2 box art, Kid Chameleon box art and posters for Jaws 2, Big Foot and the Hendersons and Dragnet has passed away. Some iconic stuff in terms of game art

 https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-09-20-mick-mcginty-the-man-behind-so-much-iconic-90s-video-game-art-has-passed-away

I'm very confused at the minute. 

My new boss referred me to speak to their line manager, who happens to be Chief Executive, for seemingly no reason last Thursday. 

On friday, spoke with Chief Exec, who wanted me to raise a formal grievance based on some low level normal job stressy stuff when dead lines approach etc that I didnt think much of and the weirdness of Thursday. 

I said I'll have a think over the weekend as at this point I'm confused massively and not sure what's going on

Said to the Chief Exec  today that didnt want to do anything as I'm still bloody confused as it how it's got this far

Chief Exec has since stated is going to raise a grievance  against my boss anyway due to the seriousness of what's been disclosed. 

Apart from being beyond confused and possibly having wandered into the biggest clash of Egos/Battle for power within my organisation, what is it that I'm missing as this whole situation has gone from 0-to fucking hell rather quickly. 

The low level stressy stuff is my stressed boss going on a rant about  their deadlines and workloads, then using some stuff I said out of context, but not maliciously. 

What do I do now as frankly this nuts. 

1 minute ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Nah, actually they handled the autism side of things surprisingly well for a Hollywood action film. Ideally you would want autistic people involved in its production, but it gets a lot more right than wrong.

. 

It was more for me, having Autism  being used as  a 'get out' plot device rather than the depiction that irked and was in bad taste.

Ben Affleck was still portayed as an evil doer, thus fulfilling Autism is evil trope . Perhaps that's just me though. 

Everything that failed in the plot was explained away 'because Autism' or with a 'ta-da' twist and I felt that was in particularly bad taste, given it was a good, if somewhat Hollywood on screen depecting of tics, stimming, repetition, obsessions, non verbal etc. 

Agreed about having more autistic people involved on screen in production. 

1 hour ago, waters44 said:

I watched Akira yesterday and I kind of feel like I was transported to another dimension - I can’t describe it, I just got lost in it.
I couldn’t really tell you much about the plot as I was just in awe of every frame. You could pause it at any point and spend an age admiring all the detail.  There was one very short sequence, a few seconds, where a helicopter was landing on a helipad. Any other animation would just have a helicopter landing on a helipad and move to the next scene. But this film shows the helicopter landing, with something going on in the background, and a chap with bright lights in his hands directing the helicopter during its landing. So much detail for a few second shot that’s not important to the plot or anything.

So yeah I’m a bit in shock to be honest and I need to watch it again ASAP. It’s my first foray into anime, is there anything else I should try? I see the same Director made something called Memories is that any good?

Depends what you are after:-

Wings of the Hominnaise (spelling?) 

Roujin Z, also by Otomo

Patlabor 1 and 2 (gorgeous animation, deathly dull) 

Studio Ghibli films

Venus Wars

Ghost in The Shell (as already recommended) 

Are all lushly animated. 

Cant go too wrong as an intro to. Anime by following the old Manga Entertainment Ident   (Project AKO, Dominon Tank Police, Venus Wars, Fist of The Northstar, Akira)

and watching those, ditto Kiseki releases such as Black Magic Marionette m66, Plastic Little, SDF Macross. 

No idea about more modern stuff as well out of the loop

Gainax, Toei,  Madhouse and Kodansha are some to look out for anime/manga studios. 

Been on a Netflix binge of sorts recently too. 

Robot Overlords. 

Mix Dr Who, The Matrix and Elysium and you get this twee low budget Robots have enslaved us movie. Sir Ben Kingsley hamming it up as the bad guy is superb. Aimed at teens, but fun for what it is. 

Elysium 

Great idea, executed poorly. A rip off of Battle Angel Alita (Anime) and it runs out of ideas pretty quickly. Looks good, shame about the content. Sharito Copley nearly steals it channeling Dolph Lundgren from Johnny Mnemonic. 

The Accountant. 

Yet another that falls apart halfway through. Trying to be Bourne Identity with Autism used as the catch all was in bad taste too. 

Schumacher 

Interesting but more of a light documentary than anything. completely glosses over lots of Schumachers career, the stuff with Mika Hakkinen and what looked like a large boat in his living room was just odd. 

The stuff around Senna and his death was probably the most engaging bit. 

Just now, King Coconut said:

She hasn't been open. Open would've been showing him immediately. What she's done is shift the onus back to him, which is exactly what you would expect from somebody who has something to hide.

She's offered. Up to Mathew to take her up on it. 

Baws to getting bent out of shape over that tbh and  it's not about 'coercive control' on the grounds of 'something to hide' either. 

Phones are private and up to partners to share if they want to, not because it's demanded. 

8 minutes ago, Matthew said:

She has said that she would show me their messages exchanged, however I’ve not wanted to get to that, as I know that’s a slippery slope. 

It's only a slippery slope if there's no trust. 

She's been open here, take her up on the offer. 

Work on your self esteem and look at the free chat on Relate of it is still funded. 

That jealousy /envy /lack of trust thing will kill any relationship stone dead. 

Plenty of people are not happy when exs or sex buddies are on the scene. 

However she's with you and not him, and that is something to remember. 

If that still eats at you, work on why you feel threatened by this as there's a danger of pushing her to him because of fears etc. It becomes self perpetuating. 

ETA

You don't 'own' her  now, or own her past life either. Compromise is going to be key if you want to both get through this. 

Signed up post Farrer Ring Escapades in Blackburn,  and nearly got fired for reading this circa 2007 because of the logo at the time. Oops! 

It's been here for the ups and the downs, the people here are and have been there when it matters. Stuff like business balls linked years ago has been massively useful for job stuff too.

I've met many people from here through PCW and other Northwest  promotions and wrestling or retro gaming shenanigans. Made some decent friends and learnt a lot about life on the way. 

Happy Not Birthday UKFF x

2 minutes ago, Onyx2 said:

Is G1 suddenly on streaming somewhere? 

YouTube by all accounts 

1 hour ago, DEF said:

I'm watching it again from the start myself. It's been about 20 years so that's nice. The thing that struct me is how wildly inconsistent the animation is. My understanding is that it was animated by two studios. One in Japan and one somewhere else (I forget, Korea maybe?) The Japanese episodes look great but the other animators not so much.

It's  Toei for season 1 and 2 and the movie, I think Akon, the guys that animate the Simpsons.. adding in extra episodes. and taking over in season 3 I think. 

Not watched them in ages and not sure if want too as was horrid last time out, only Key to Vector Sigma, War Dawn, Headmasters/Rebirth and Megatrons Masterplan and scant few others holding up. 

13 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

No fucking way that's insane. Why would anyone do this at a show they have paid money to be at? Even if it was just beer it was uncalled for and unnecessary. 

As if hed pe were the main support for it too they always seem to be over here in the uk. I think they did like 4 tours in the space of 16 months a few years ago. I've been offered a date on 2 of their previous tours but they don't seem worth the gamble for a band that are always playing over here. 

Because Preston. 

Hed PE and Sumo Cyco were best things about the gig. AAF were shite 

26 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Where abouts did alien ant farm play in preston? I worked with crazy town a few times including their show in preston about 5 years ago I believe they played at a pub called ships and giggles 

Et voila

https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/2016/10/alien-ant-farm-show-at-53-degrees-abandoned-after-frontman-assaulted/

Moving away from the gig self promotion, Saliva, yes that one, are touring in Feb next year. 

Minus Josey Scott, and probably everyone else too, it is another chance to see a nu metal band in a pub, yay! 

Awfully tempting after seeing Crazy Town a few years ago and the mess that was Alien Ant Farm's gig in Preston too. 

2 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Not having that. Warrior was bollocks by the standards of the time too - that's why he got all those Observer awards, that's why everyone who worked with him hated the experience, why his run on top was cut short. 

Even in the good matches - against Hogan, Rude or Savage and laid out by Pat Patterson, basically situations where it would be nigh on impossible to have a bad match - his timing is awful, he's out of position, he clocks his opponent on the side of the head because he rushes into his clothesline spot quicker than they're expecting, he's blown up two minutes in. It's not about not knowing how to do springboard planchas and somersaults - there were plenty of guys drawing big money in 1998 doing nothing of the sort - it's having an extremely limited repertoire and not even reliably being able to perform that. In 1998 it wasn't that he was an old fashioned worker who couldn't keep up, it was that he never could keep up, only now everyone saw through his smoke and mirrors too.

 

It's hard to call him overrated, because since his retirement his ability has probably been publicly dissected by the likes of the WWE Self-Destruction DVD more than anyone else and his weaknesses are widely known. But it's far more disingenuous to present him as someone left behind by changing tastes rather than as someone who had always been pushed beyond his ability, and therefore necessarily had a short shelf life as people were quicker to see through the bluster and the gimmicks than they ordinarily would be.

He was  'just bollocks' according to da Meltz then? 

The Observer, I was not aware of at the time, we were lucky to get PWIs at that til the Internet took centre stage in the late 1990s. 

The Ultimate Warrior has had oodles of stuff post internet burying him in the ring and it's no wonder it's become the prevalent view. 

It's easier to rag on with today's eyes looking back rather than what was presented at the time.. Since then  Wrestlecrap dissection of the shite angles, Warrior's own mental view points post wrestling sing and the damage the trapdoor did to Davey Boy Smith, have all seen this heightened this.

You've then 3 matches in WCW which are routinely stated as being Warrior's fault for being shite, by the likes of Wrestlecrap because it is easier to do that than attack Hogan and the rest for power tripping, egotistical wankery, and consumate failure to get fireballs right etc. 

The Self Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior box set also has a lot to answer for too. 

No ones ever going to claim he is the best in ring worker of all time and he never needed to be. 

I never went crazy about Warrior's in ring work, and have certainly never seen that ever noted as 'overrated' either. 

He didnt need to be a technician in the ring, he didn't need to have a massive repertoire either. Power, paint, shake the ropes, tell a story and toodle pip. 

Everyone shits on the WCW stuff, wrestling had moved on, Warrior hadn't because he was still an attraction and a draw without having to have technical matches or indeed busting out springboard planchas or whatever else was starting to come to the fore as the star was fading. 

It always bothers me when looking back at this measured against more modern eyes, where everyone seems to have to know about 150 wristlock variations, yet are still doing sequences to finishers in most modern wrestling.

Difference now is that its more artistic rather than Clothesline, Gorilla Press, and and the rest of it. 

There wasnt a need for wrestlers to be amazing in ring then, the stories told were where the magic was, not about in ring ability and I fear that's where wrestling lost itself so much in the intervening years. 

3 hours ago, 5pints said:

Anyone picked up the new Maiden album? If so, thoughts?

From what I've heard, lots of Dirgey X Factor stuff. Assuming that the band, mainly Steve were having a shit time, as it's been a pre cursor on previous LPs. 

Probably their last, and unless there's a dubstep or experimental album in there, they'll never change. Liked Book of Souls, but Dance of Death is their best in the last 20 years, seen as Brave New World is 21 plus... 

7 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I preferred Perfect Dark to Goldeneye. My memories of Goldeneye revolve around my older cousin going Oddjob each time in multiplayer "because it's his game" and me being unable to ever kill him. It soured me on the damn thing before I even got round to owning it myself. 

I hate Goldeneye, but love Timesplitters2, which is effectively an updated version of the same game, go figure. 

N64 didnt do anything for me, hated Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and the Zelda titles, and the controller was problematic. FZero X was great, but as a console, N64 was a no, from me. 

Gamecube however, loved to bits 

Never figured out why there's so much love for the N64:/