SpursRiot2012

9 hours ago, The Duke said:

Has any one played Kingdom Come:Deliverance looking for a game like the witcher 3 which I've just completed and came across it. Would be for pc and looking for a recommendation 

I heartily recommend though I haven't actually finished it or played any games in a while and I think it's still quite buggy.

3 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Surely you'd have to be at the midway point of season four to be in the middle of the whole run, not the start?

2 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Don't make me bring back the Redknapp Scale.

That's my bad. You were right to pull me up on this. I have lost face.

I really want to change my phone's ringtone to the Seinfeld theme song but a) only dickheads have their phones not on silent most of the time and b) given that I am now going to be both promoting a standup show and doing a lot more standup myself, I feel like having that as my ringtone would make me seem real twattish.

I'm literally in the middle of watching the whole run for the first time - have seen individual episodes over the years, but never all the way through. Just got started on Season 4.

12 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I'll not be complaining about the heat for however long it lasts. After the shitarse of a winter we've had up here that feels like it started in early September and ended today without interruption, I'll be grateful for any and all days I don't have to de-condense the windows in the house in the morning and blast the heating all night.

I agree with this. Prior to last week, when we had some sunshine but temps were still in the low teens, I felt like I hadn't seen the sun shine since around September. I honestly think it affected me mentally.

2 minutes ago, mim731 said:

Ok cool, I noticed it's available on my Now TV box, so I might give it a whirl while I wait for Discovery to return. 

I recommend that you power through any early feelings of "this is shit" because I truly feel it becomes a decent, very watchable homage to TNG and I'm really looking forward to season two.

The Orville, for me, is like comfort food. It reminds me of simpler times, somehow.

6 minutes ago, mim731 said:

I generally find Seth Macfarlane quite irritating when he goes particularly OTT, does he play up his usual schtick in The Orville or does he play it relatively deadpan and rely on the jokes?  Very curious, but him having a major role in it puts me off a bit. 

I'd say the latter in Orville, for the most part. Also, in the earlier episodes there are a lot of jokes, there are a lot less in later episodes and they land much more smoothly.

7 minutes ago, mim731 said:

Sorry Spurs, fat fingers and not paying attention to what I'm doing, that was supposed to be an upvote for the job interview (fixed now). Good luck!

No worries. It's a very low paid job, so may not even be worth the upvote!

My office is quite airy so t-shirt and jeans, plus my desk fan, and I'm quite comfortable. Sweltering when I go out for a fag break though.

I have a job interview tomorrow just off Oxford Street, so it'll be in a suit, in this heat, in that fucking area.

13 minutes ago, Wrasslin said:

Is it paid?

The performers? Not technically. Bucket going round at the end kind of deal. Though I'm hoping it goes well enough that I can turn it into a ticketed event and pay everyone - it won't be much but its something. I've made it clear to those who've contacted me asking me for bookings that it's unpaid for the most part and everyone is mostly happy with just helping to grow the night.

Although im going to be getting a semi pro closer for most nights who will likely be paid out of my own pocket to start with.

3 hours ago, Wrasslin said:

What kind of night is it? Pro / Open Mic / New material?

I'm going for a night of quality comedy in the first instance so new matetial is a no. I am leaving two open spots available for those without much experienced.

Eventually I want to run either two shows a night  or alternate weeks - one week open micers and those trying new material and the following week established acts with well practiced stuff.

Oh, and I will have walk-in's available most weeks if anyone from here has a half decent five minutes.

For any North Londonders: for the forseeable future, from May 3rd, every Thursday I'll be promoting a stand up comedy show at the White Hart pub in Stoke Newington, upstairs. Please do come along if you're nearby and have the time. No entry fee (yet) but we will be passing a bucket at the end!

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/comedyatthewhitehart/

I think you all should give the full season a chance. I know it's a lot to ask to watch a full season when you've watched 4 episodes and disliked it, but please do try. I'm not on commission or anything.

Anyone pining for the old Monster of the Week style Trek series should really give The Orville a shot. It takes a few episodes to find its feet but I reall enjoyed its first season.

5 hours ago, Tommy! said:

While I don't dispute the core point, and NoUseforaUsername is a blight on planet earth, I recall reading a few articles proposing that the easy access to porn from a young age and the array of harder stuff without barriers to escalation is killing a standard libido and arousal for some people. 

With stuff like that, you need to go and actually read the studies before making any conclusions. Headline writers `are twats for that: "Watching internet porn may, under the following list of 1,000 different circumstances causes a decrease in the male sex drive."

4 minutes ago, Grecian said:

@SpursRiot2012 as someone who doesn't suffer from anxiety or depression but does know uni stuff, I apologise in advance if this comes across as me being flippant or belittling the condition in any way, it's not intended as such...

I suspect that wording is more aimed the people who do not have anxiety or depression, have delayed doing their work and now realise they're going to miss deadlines to hand stuff in. If you've not been to a doctor and have no medical evidence to support the claim of anxiety, it's difficult to prove or disprove that you have it, or have suffered to the extent it's affected your ability to do your work. My uni tends to give the benefit of the doubt in such cases, but if your uni has had a lot of people all claiming the same condition without any medical evidence, then the uni will clamp down on it. Such wording is it aimed at the people genuinely suffering, its aimed at deterring the people trying to get an easy extension. 

Yeah, that probably is it, actually. I could see how that'd be an issue.

In your experience, how do they work out - when mitigating circumstances are accepted - how long an extension to give? I've been told my mitigating circumstances board won't meet until May, after my deadline, so now I'm not sure if I should submit my project late, but at a standard I know is representative of my abilities or if I should submit what I consider substandard work that isn't, due to external medical factors. Issue is, if I submit late and my mitigating circumstances claim is rejected, I think I'm capped at 40% due to late submission.

I think it's in this thread I was talking about how I was panicking about uni and that an increase in the severity of the depression and anxiety - and what that tends to lead to - has made my uni work suffer. 

I am now up-to-date, in terms of module assignments. All I have left for uni is my final year project. I have talked with the admin department and was told to submit a mitigating circumstances form to ask for an extension, which I am doing. What I find quite odd is what they list under examples of circumstances that would NOT normally be considered mitigating circumstances: "feeling generally anxious, depressed or stressed (unless medically certificated and notified in advance i.e. at least 2 weeks)"

I don't quite know what they mean here. "General" anxiety and depression can be quite severe. I assume by "medically certified and notified in advance" they mean ahead of the deadline by a doctors note, which I am doing. I don't know, just seems a bit iffy of them to write off the idea that "general" depression and anxiety would potentially be a mitigating circumstance. 

11 minutes ago, Kaz Hayashi said:

As mentioned in the WM thread, it’s the best looking card in years. People aren’t shitting all over it and many are genuinely looking forward to it, whether on here or on twitter etc. 

When I hear that kind of chatter, mixed with my initials feelings on the card, I’m well up for it this year.

Oh, I'm sure I'll watch - I just haven't watched any wrestling since the Rumble. Whereas last year I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Mexico trying to get good enough WiFi to stream with.

For the first time in years, I don't know when WrestleMania is. Kind of a wow moment for me.

The only report I saw on the Rosanne revival was from The Hill and they were focusing on how Rosanne, in show as well as in real life, is a Trump supporter. How does that go?

Hipster. 

Ha, awesome.

8 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

In my experience (Higher Education administrator with responsibility for a range of degree programmes, and liaison with two partner universities, for the record), you're pretty likely to be granted an extension if you have extenuating circumstances - regulations vary depending on university, but I know several will allow one "self-certified" extenuating circumstance; i.e., you don't need to provide a doctor's note, or any supporting documentation. That said, given that there's a medical element to what you're going through, just provide every bit of paperwork you can to support your claim, no matter how tenuous, just to be on the safe side. Bear in mind that the university will always be on your side, though - they want you to succeed, so it's unlikely that they'd turn anything down.

This is really reassuring. I'll have to see what the course director says on Wednesday or whenever he replies - I'll chase him up myself on Wednesday anyway. I've got a doctors appointment April 10th to review how my new medication is working etc so could documentation at that point. Cheers, BombPat.

Thanks for all the advice, all. I emailed my media law lecturer on the off chance of an informal extension and as expected that was refused. However he did say there is an official process through the department by which we can apply for deadline extensions, which I wasn't aware of, and that I should contact the course director. I've sent a pretty detailed email explaining what my situation is and asking what, if any, the formal process for requesting an extension to my final year project would be. They're shut until Wednesday now but if I could even get a week or two week extension to the final year project, I'd be ecstatic. We shall see. 

Thanks, @Fog Dude, that is helpful - just hearing about other people's experiences of their final years and hearing that they've had similar issues does help, in a way, weirdly. I really like Birkbeck as a uni in terms of the teaching quality but it's very easy to become something of an island when you're studying there. The most contact hours I've ever had in a term has been six per week, over two modules. Some lecturers are better than others - I find the academics to be a lot better about communication than the actual journalists who are just teaching for some extra cash.

My grades over the three years have been fairly good. I have never done an assignment - bar one essay, that I completed while recovering from a broken leg and hadn't been to hardly any lectures for - that I haven't got a 2:1 level grade or above. For that essay, I asked for an extension, was told by the lecturer via e-mail that they aren't allowed to give informal extensions and that I could submit a Mitigating Circumstances form if I wanted afterward. Went to the form, saw how dense it was, and just figured I'd be better off submitting what I and taking the shitty grade and moving on to my project. Ended up with 56, I think, for that. It's just so frustrating knowing - knowing - that if I could just get my head right, or rather had gotten my head right earlier in the year, I'd be surely on my way to a 2:1 without doubt, and potentially a First. I've actually already been accepted onto a masters course from September and I impressed so much in the interview they they gave me the condition that I simply pass my undergraduate degree, so I think mentally that also made me take my foot off the pedal a bit in my final year. Being cooped up for basically two months during the winter with my leg added to it, not to mention the fact that I'm also in opiate replacement treatment, on anti-anxiety and anti-depression medication - it all just led to this point.

Well, I've got my whiteboard - I'm going to try and finish my 2,000 word essay tomorrow, a day before the deadline, giving me enough time to then do the 3,000 word essay that's due Monday and then, come late 2nd April, look at my project. That's all I can do, really.