Madlug. Well made, not expensive, doing good work by donating a bag to a child in care so they don’t carry their belongings in a black plastic sack between homes

http://www.endeavourproject.org.uk/services/pet-fostering/

We have two cats at the moment but they aren’t ours, we look after them for a charity – a brilliant way to have a cat(s) and help a charity – no pictures obviously, they are great fun although they usually take a while to come out of their shell, super friendly when they do. If you are near to Bolton I’d totally recommend and there is always a waiting list of cats needing shelter

I could never understand what made a trainer cool or not, I remember when air jordans came out and a handful of kids had them in school and the crazy prices of them just automatically put me off the idea for life. If I ever owned cool trainers it was a coincidence :)

Personally I wouldn’t foam block as a beginner – muting is a key part of playing the bass so  better to be aware of that as part of the core technique and sound

Rusty – do HiTec ;)

As others have said – I really can’t stand people who start talking about it in the middle of october, this happened when the kids were in nursery and  junior school after-school clubs, it really hacked me off because it’s not considerate of those who don’t for religious, personal, financial stress reasons.

But in december it starts to become fun, I quite enjoy getting the tree from the garden centre and the kids make it fun when it does get here

apparently someone played it on the tannoy at a footy match at half-time for a league 1 match and there were about 7000 in the crowd – lots of people were apparently very very angry which is kinda odd and also funny that someone would  be so bothered about a song game

MattOAB – drink it in, it’s a stunning series and 86 and 89 are brilliant also

If you like that then I’ll bet you’ll like The Lives Of Others but leave that for another time separate to the series’ because it’s a similar topic

I’m doing slow horses catch-up, very good

I have a fairphone 4 and bought it right when they brought that model out – it coincided with needing a new handset

it was a punt to a certain extent because I didn’t do tons of research, I bought on principle.

It’s a good phone and I’ve had no issues with it, although it’s not a slim as a pixel and the chip will be the limiting factor if nothing else goes first, but it’s running fine so far. Would I buy another? right now I don’t know, if it proves to be rocksolid over time then would swing to be a yes. It helps that I dont give a monkeys about cameras

Why not some steel toecap shoes and then use an elastic lace or one of those toggles you get on jacket hoods

won’t be there at the start but may be there a bit later…

Pedals: get a TC electronic Flashback Delay – this has a looper in it as well as lots of good delays, get a good overdrive like a Boss BluesDriver or a NobelsODR and a pedal tuner is handy, these will be permanent on a pedal board as others come and go

as long as there’s no dead pixels (which as it’s a display model it probably won’t) I can’t see what the problem is.

Just ask to play with the smart interface to see if you like it and if it works glitch-free, will also make sure they have the remote

No don’t sell them, that’s just going to make the UK look even worse, you just hand them back – get laser cut copies made and no-one would care.

As far as the argument goes about ‘well yeah but that would set a precedent and then the BM would be emptied’ well yeah, doing the right thing isn’t a finite act

Have a look at tier1online.com they do refurbished business PCs with some good deals if you’re willing to flex a bit on the quality, even the non-pristine ones are in good condition lots win11 compatible not just old junk

nah because you’d lose it all very quickly – the odds are stacked against you  – and then you are stuck in vegas with no money waiting for a flight and feeling crushed.

the trip itself would not be cheap and then the ramifications of dealing with the loss at home. very bad idea.

Remember how Brenda tried to get a fund that provides help for oaps to heat old buildings to heat her palaces? 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queen-tried-to-use-state-poverty-fund-to-heat-buckingham-palace-2088179.html

Holiday house I went to this year had a kettle with different boiling temperature control, I’d use the opportunity to get one of those because it’ll save money (I’ll probably get really angry at the cost of them if I ever found one on the internet)

-7.5 for both measures so hard lefty as well. Although I think we need proper applications for the big jobs (I reckon I’d have a go at foreign secretary) 

Hannah for president! 

I’ve not watched it yet but it’s on the mental list of stuff to plough through at some point

I’d imagine that F1 attracts a super-ego-driven male personality, drivers and money men and team bosses alike; Bernie Ecclestone is probably understated in that telly prog of how much a **** he is in truth, I woudn’t trust him one little bit.

You really don’t need to watch lots of Wes Anderson films, they are all the same so go The Royal Tenenbaums and then ignore the rest. 

Little Miss Sunshine is good

Zombieland is brilliant 

3rd attempt 

Kahoot ? You could use that and it means there isn’t time for cheating 

Because no-one else has said it

The Lives of Others

and in support of recent films:

1917

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Blackkklansman

Tram into town and bundobust – great beer selection as well as very good Indian that isn’t too expensive. 

Salvi’s for Italian

Loads of good options in Chinatown 

Yeah – I’ve only started recently and I now realise how much I don’t know (47 yo bloke decides to have a go at chess) I never played as a kid so I need to learn about openings and avoiding early blunders etc so a tournament is run before walk 

Apologies chaps but I’m out, I really haven’t a clue what I’m doing

point well made NickC – also Zappa is influential, just because he isn’t played on the radio a lot doesn’t mean that it’s not important, very few people have Picasso repo prints hanging up in their houses but you can’t deny that he’s not a great artist.

I like Now and Then, (I think it’s better than real love and probably better than free as a bird) although there is some slightly incongruous guitar on the second verse that I think is George taken from the 90s sessions that they’ve kept in for completeness that if he was here to re-track would have been discarded  

I like the fact that it isn’t yet another 4chord trick that is so prevalent on the radio at the moment

“why people go to the gym and ONLY use the treadmill – when it’s a nice day outside”

I suppose the answer to this one is partly habit, if you are used to going to the gym and find it easier to keep that habit – or you find that the places to you aren’t conducive to running like loads of unhelpful dual carriageways etc and you don’t have to worry about carrying drinks etc – or if you are doing interval or high effort training and don’t have the confidence/skills to do that. Also it’s fairly rare it seems to me that people go to the gym and don’t use anything other than a treadmill

anyway – back on topic, I don’t have space in the house so don’t have any kit but I will use the gym bikes during the winter to do intervals to stop my fitness levels completely evaporating, I also run in the winter rather than take a bike out as I’m time crunched usually

Have registered 😁 thanks for organising 

you missed me :) whitefieldrouler

the ‘no decorations, no knock’ is pretty much a universal rule

Penny for the guy won’t work any more – so few coins in circulation in a cashless society – it also used to be that the smallest kid in the family/friend group would get dressed up in all kinds of old clothes and get barrowed, haven’t seen a ‘guy’ in years

I’ve never played a person on Chess.com so this will be an easy win for someone – I’m whitefieldrouler

The one where the woman wants to quit being a scientologist and they harrass her all her life

… ah sorry not a film that’s real

if green day and blink 182 are your thing then a Pbass is probably a good starting point: P means Fender Precision bass, just like the one that OldTennisShoes has just pictured above, simple controls are great for a learner and the guy from green day plays one.

J means Fender Jazz bass, which is slightly different, they have a different shape neck – but if you are going to shop to try, have a go on all the different shape ones and buy the one that makes you think ‘yeah !’

High court judges? 

There are probably a few lawyers and the odd barrister… According to wiki there are 108 in the UK 

If you want somewhere hilly you could always look at Uppermill but would need to factor the travel to Salford, if you need to have a short drive then Culcheth could be an option but it’s flat so road bike from the house rather than MTB for the other options like Rammy etc

I don’t do AV for my phone

For my home PC I trust Windows defender it’s as good as anything else out there because MS, love them or hate them, have a lot of computing power and people doing analysis of threat and pump out AV signature maintenance all the time, they do this for all their corporate customers and consumers get the benefit as collateral because it’s in their interest to have personal protected also (ecosystem innit)

Cougar makes a good point here “Because consider what’s on your phone these days: all your cached passwords, a banking app, your MFA stuff, your “reset my password” email account set to auto-login…” but the answer to this isn’t AV, it’s a password manager and being really careful with the password for your email as this is the entry point if someone tries to hack you. Also be smart about where you use your email address and don’t lose your phone

Lefty here – I’d also agree to go to a guitar shop and try as many as you can, depending on where may be tricky with Lefty in-store often limited selection but there’s always a squier strat and epiphone les paul of some variety which is as good a starting point as any – as much to get a feel for what he likes the look of. You may well end up buying a harley benton as they are decent guitars for the money.

I’d also recommend going to a local trusted technician and get them to set it up as this makes a cheap guitar a lot nicer to play because the string height and intonation etc can often need tweaking

good luck and let us know how you get on

I think marvel films are all going to look pretty lame now that endgame is done, I didn’t like eternals and the antman was poor as well, just too formulaic and thor was dull also, spiderman Shang-Chi were  the last ones I enjoyed and I haven’t been bothered to watch GOTG3 yet either

Tried John Wick4 and couldn’t raise any enthusiasm on that either..