Leighton

Getting drunk watching Chavez host his three-hour "Hello Mr. President!" show was compulsory viewing, every Sunday. https://youtu.be/g5fjZJPAuXk Haha, you know, it's funny... All this time I've been watching Trump's little tirades and outbursts and anti-media rhetoric, all I could think was he'd make a damn good dictator. Convince everyone that the media/world is lying to them and hold them in fear. At least he bothered to learn enough English to ridicule Bush in his own language. Don't think Trump will extend the same courtesy to "Rocket Man".

I've often said this. f**k national service, just make everyone go and live somewhere else for a while, somewhere not "first world". Let people see what "poor" really means and how nice it is not to have to choose between bankruptcy or having to let someone die. Let people see others working as long as they can still walk just to make ends meet. Let people see that having internet and a big TV is a privilege, not a right. Let them see how foreign local news differs to what the western media portrays. Live somewhere where you are the foreigner. /ranty sermon

China. Job, Was young and couldn't say no. Didn't learn anything beforehand. It was worth every moment, even when it didn't seem like it.

I think part of the problem is the Sky Q part. I told them I was leaving a while back because it only gets used when my mum visited. They told me if I was willing to keep my old box that I could have the basic package for little over a tenner a month. Figured that was better than trying to get my mum to figure out how to use netflix/amazon via the PS4 or chromecast (wasn't working, I tried many times!). I've no idea if it's possible, but do people flog old boxes on ebay? perhaps replace yours that way?

All of these stories regarding random charges for insurance have me slightly concerned... I don't own a bike yet, but I've had zero problems doing such things with my NFU car insurance before (3 address changes in 4 years and a change of car). Is this normal?

If this is right it is absolutely shocking... I wouldn't want good knees when I'm in my 70's, I would want good knees when I'm young enough to bloody enjoy them

I mean like for similar price points. The £100 logitech mouse feels better than the £100 razer. The mouse was a razer naga, it can be used wireless or wired, I liked the flexibility - wired for gaming, and wireless for when I was randomly browsing crap on my laptop. Not exactly cheap! Was going to post images, but imgur's being a pita.

"Disliked" for no gif splendor Oh wait, can't do that... Where's my forum hate button!?

Hrm, I hope Razer build better laptops than they do peripherals... . Hmm? I've been buying razer stuff since the early deathadders, never had anything go wrong on me... one of the most highly respected high end peripheral companies in the world. It's one of many reasons why there is such a cult following - people getting the logo tattooed on themselves etc lol. In fact just about every pro gamer in the world uses razer products. Personally I use a tournament mouse, black widow tourney keyboard and the Tartarus. What's the deal? You had a bad experience with them? They feel cheap. I've had several of their mice and none of them felt as solid as the logitech ones. I had the battery go on one of their rechargeable mice, it just slowly grew and grew it pushed off the cover and became really quite alarming, I chucked it out before whatever was inside had a chance to leak. Despite providing them with photos and it being <1 yr old, I never got a replacement. Headsets feel cheap too, never bought one because I couldn't get past the feeling that it wouldn't last long. I figured they had the cult following purely because they sponsor the crap out of tournaments and twitch gamers so people assume they must be awesome. I bought the hype a few times and was disappointed each time.

Oh really? Hrm, I hope Razer build better laptops than they do peripherals...

This is kind of my problem... I have loads of fully working (but redundant) mac hardware, it lasts forever. My current desktop is 7 yrs old, and this is the first issue I've had with it. I haven't found anything windows-esque that looks to be even remotely like that quality. My other problem is that pretty much every windows desktop I've seen either looks like a boring corporate box, or it looks like it was designed by some 13 yr old who's just discovered Star Wars. The Microsoft Surface grabbed my attention, however, the price tag made me throw up a little. I'm not spending mac prices on microsoft crud

Mine's still in the garage, along with the CRT This isn't helping to convert me.

I'm starting to feel that way, I've used Mac's for over 20 years now (wish I hadn't binned my old G3 clamshell), but they are becoming more and more infuriating as they "dumb them down" so that they are more appealing to grannies and hipsters. Trying to figure out what was causing my display issues because a monumental faff because they've locked down the system so much I couldn't install the diagnostic tools that should have been there anyway, but weren't because I reformatted and reinstalled a newer OS instead of using my ancient discs that came with the computer. Had to figure out how to turn off all of their protective shit. I miss how flexible macs used to be I've been dual-booting into windows 7 for quite some time now (mostly for steam/games), and a part of me thinks I should just give up and go to the dark side... but ugh.

Trying to decide whether or not to blow money on importing a flashed video card for my 2010 Mac Pro that I can't bring myself to part with... It's a thing of beauty Perhaps I can get another 7 yrs out of it...

This. Facebook drives me batshit. Random reposts of crap videos/images alongside stupid inspirational bollocks and pictures of everyone supposedly living perfect lives, all of it delivered in whatever order facebook deems I should read it in.

Sounded interesting, but on closer inspection it looks like it's £80-£100 a week, not a month. The "keep it in tip top condition" part would scare me as a learner... If I drop it would I get hammered with fees? I think I'd rather pay the cash up front and know that I can't be hammered with random fees at the end. I'd be terrified to ride it in case it ended up in less than tip-top condition

I'm not at the mod1 stage yet, but I have wondered if the size of the generic "mod1" school bike has anything to do with it. A fair few of us ladies are on the shorter side... trying to do tight turns and such on a bigger bike that we've not had much experience of after a 125. It has been a concern of mine tbh, the 125 is fine, but they did say I may find the bigger bike difficult if I was 5'3" or under - I'm 5'4" The difference psychologically between knowing that you can just stick a foot down and "fail, but hey ho", as opposed to not having that much of a safety net? Who knows. They were my first thoughts about the mod1 logistics though.

Sadly carries more truth than you probably realise!

Thanks for the info, hopefully I can sort something

Thanks for this. The setup looks perfect, however, it is a fair distance, I may well consider it though

Skipton would be closer than Northallerton, would love the details!

I think the problem is that I'm having difficulty finding places that will do one to one. I'd love proper lessons but everywhere near me seems to focus on pushing for day courses to get you through the tests and little else. Looks like I am going to have to do a lot of calling around. I'd been avoiding going on a scooter as I have it stuck in my head that the left lever is a brake and didn't want to reinforce that Perhaps that may be a way forward though.

I'm just over the border into North Yorkshire from Lancashire, about 30 mins from Lancaster

I did ask at the time if they did one to one lessons and they basically said no. They only do bikes at the weekend and are busy as hell atm.

so yesterday I did my CBT in the stifling heat and it didn't go too well... There were 4 people, 1 instructor (for the paddock part). We started late due to a late arrival, but cracked on with the usual stuff once it got going. To begin with in the paddock things were ok, I was slowly getting to grips with things, however, each time we were doing something we would get maybe one or two attempts and that was it. The instructor was getting slowly more frustrated with "hold ups" and towards the end the instructor realised we were getting short on time and essentially rushed us through the whole junction section. The other instructor had arrived and he needed to get us out on the road. I really wasn't comfortable at this point, but we all went out anyway after having no lunch. Roads were fine, but junctions were a mess. I'd had barely any practice and was quite frankly scared shitless and wishing it was all over. Unsurprisingly, they didn't sign me off (I would have been worried if they did), however, this has left me with a problem... My confidence is shot, I need actual practice time on the things that I need to focus on. Doing another CBT I feel will probably leave me in the same position, wasting 2 hrs on talking about gear and buttons, and getting in maybe 4 laps of a paddock to practice the things I need before being flung in at the deep end again to flounder. I've looked at the bike websites for the places close to me (by close I mean within 1.5 hrs drive, rural north of England) every single one of them just does "courses". I don't want courses, I want a one to one lesson that can focus on the things I need so that I can get my confidence back and get my head around all of the info we were given. Christ, I'd be happy to pay for an entire day if I knew it would be focused on needs rather than trying to stick to a timetable and forcing people through, if I spend that entire day in a paddock doing circles that's absolutely fine... I left yesterday badly shaken and hating bikes, however, this is something I've wanted to do for a long time and I don't want the "system" to be the thing that I abandon it all for. When we learn to drive cars we have one to one training and focus according to our needs/deficiencies. I seem to be unable to find such a thing for bikes... Anyone have any advice/suggestions?