Things you want to share with P&B

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

I used to think I was fairly bright but have come to the conclusion that I’m probably not that smart/intelligent at all.

 

Wait until you see the next generation, they're as thick as shite. You'll seem like The Oracle compared to them

[GordonD]

Going into hospital this afternoon for a skin graft on my leg, trying to fix ulcers that opened up following my radiotherapy last year. Op is tomorrow but I'm being admitted today as they wanted me in for 7:30. Told them I couldn't make it from Edinburgh to Livingston that early so they found me a bed for tonight. Probably be kept in tomorrow night as well and home for Friday if all goes well.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

I used to think I was fairly bright but have come to the conclusion that I’m probably not that smart/intelligent at all.

 

A couple of years ago I tried to do an online course through the Open University and just struggled to take things in. I found myself having to read things over and over again and it just wasn’t going in, and I was struggling with various maths components. Admittedly my mental health was in a real state, but I had to stop after the first semester as I just couldn’t do it. Was quite the blow and made me feel worse. I see plenty of folk with a degree and think to myself that surely I can do it, but I just can’t. I’m shit at studying and shit at taking a lot of details in.

 

I attended Aberdeen University for five years and only got to third year, repeating first year and third year. I’d struggle to take stuff in during lectures and would often actually fall asleep. I’d just get really drowsy at times. I was/am atrocious at studying. Been that way since high school. Think I could have got better grades in my highers if I was able to study better, but all I was able to do was just try and read things over and over again. Lectures at university caused me trouble because I tried to take notes whilst listening but ended up not doing either effectively. There were mental health issues here too mind, so that could have played a part. In group sessions and practical classes I found things much better, as physically doing stuff and talking about it with others made things much easier, but then I’d often forget things after, so unless I was doing things over and over I was not having much success (I recall in Int 2 maths in high school that when we’d do things equations I could breeze through them once I got the concept down and did a load of them, but came up against much simpler ones in the OU course and was lost). I probably could have used some help with study skills, but had no idea of the concept at the time.

 

I attended Abertay University for one year way back in the day. Admittedly this failure was much more of a mental health one (boring story), but even then I did struggle with trying to get information down. Lectures again proved troublesome.

 

All that for a student loan that I’ll be paying off for decades for zero return! Could fucking kick myself.

 

Anyway, just wanted to vent a bit. Really in a rut job wise as I simply have no qualifications and really worried I’m going to be stuck in jobs that pay a fairly average to low salary, which each year gets eaten in to by inflation. I want to get a qualification so that I can get a decent job (although that’s another issue as I don’t know what I want to do/study, just that I need to do something or I’ll be stuck forever with a ceiling I can’t break). It’s a frustrating situation! I’m in a much better place mentally now thankfully so would hope that that barrier would be removed, but the reality of not being cut out/not being smart enough is still a tough one to take. Plus I'm shit with money (zero savings) so would need to try and save up to pay for it (I'm hoping to be much better with money this year, although January has not seen the best start to that, but have been reviewing things and can see where I can make a lot of savings; just need to try and do it!).

You should look at adult apprenticeships in your area with learning on the job, I know a few guys that have went that way and loved it.

[Miguel Sanchez]

I've recently started buying sausages from the butcher rather than the supermarket. If you fed them to me blind I wouldn't believe they were from the same planet never mind animal.

[johnnydun]

12 minutes ago, Empty It said:

You should look at adult apprenticeships in your area with learning on the job, I know a few guys that have went that way and loved it.

Is this a thing? Superb if it is. Always wanted to change my vocation but always thought I was too old.

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

Is this a thing? Superb if it is. Always wanted to change my vocation but always thought I was too old.

Aye, guy I know is in his first year sparky apprenticeship and he's 29.

[Bairnardo]

1 hour ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

I've recently started buying sausages from the butcher rather than the supermarket. If you fed them to me blind I wouldn't believe they were from the same planet never mind animal.

^^^ Considerably richer than YOU

[johnnydun]

19 minutes ago, Empty It said:

Aye, guy I know is in his first year sparky apprenticeship and he's 29.

That's great. Want to try plumbing, worked on industrial valves, pumps and instrumentation for my whole working life and reckon I could transfer that to the domestic plumbing, but always thought it was too late.

[Bairnardo]

Just now, johnnydun said:

That's great. Want to try plumbing, worked on industrial valves, pumps and instrumentation for my whole working life and reckon I could transfer that to the domestic plumbing, but always thought it was too late.

I'm in a position work wise where I think I need to start thinking about doing something to educate myself/protect myself against unemployment in the mid term future.... I'm utterly fucked if I know what t do though...

[johnnydun]

1 minute ago, Bairnardo said:

I'm in a position work wise where I think I need to start thinking about doing something to educate myself/protect myself against unemployment in the mid term future.... I'm utterly fucked if I know what t do though...

Yeah, that's why I'm currently studying Sports Psychology with the OU, but f**k knows how I'm going to progress into the field at the end of it.

[BFTD]

On 15/01/2024 at 23:55, the snudge said:

https://bidonline.ncmauctions.co.uk/auctions/8786/ncm-au10932/lot-details/848596c2-6b8c-4bcc-8a46-b0ee00fe94b5

The contents of the Debenhams building in Glasgow are up for auction and this suitably freaked me out.

Several sites at my old employer had a cellar that looked like this, only more of them. One was under an old department store with no power in the basement, and on my first visit I was told to just walk past them all quickly and try not to look  

We had a few of those male ones and, while folk might envy them their abs, you really wouldn't want whatever's going on with their necks.

On 16/01/2024 at 00:02, Richey Edwards said:

Very The Evil Within 2.

I was thinking Bioshock. Sander Cohen can get fucked.

44 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

Is this a thing? Superb if it is. Always wanted to change my vocation but always thought I was too old.

33 is no age TBF.

I'm in the process of career transition at the moment and I'm closer to fifty than forty now. I've known a few folk older than me who went back into full-time education and not all of them were well-off financially, which is something that does help. I get the impression that it's becoming more and more common to transition to other jobs a few times, more out of necessity than anything else.

4 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

I used to think I was fairly bright but have come to the conclusion that I’m probably not that smart/intelligent at all.

 

A couple of years ago I tried to do an online course through the Open University and just struggled to take things in. I found myself having to read things over and over again and it just wasn’t going in, and I was struggling with various maths components. Admittedly my mental health was in a real state, but I had to stop after the first semester as I just couldn’t do it. Was quite the blow and made me feel worse. I see plenty of folk with a degree and think to myself that surely I can do it, but I just can’t. I’m shit at studying and shit at taking a lot of details in.

I attended Aberdeen University for five years and only got to third year, repeating first year and third year. I’d struggle to take stuff in during lectures and would often actually fall asleep. I’d just get really drowsy at times. I was/am atrocious at studying. Been that way since high school. Think I could have got better grades in my highers if I was able to study better, but all I was able to do was just try and read things over and over again. Lectures at university caused me trouble because I tried to take notes whilst listening but ended up not doing either effectively. There were mental health issues here too mind, so that could have played a part. In group sessions and practical classes I found things much better, as physically doing stuff and talking about it with others made things much easier, but then I’d often forget things after, so unless I was doing things over and over I was not having much success (I recall in Int 2 maths in high school that when we’d do things equations I could breeze through them once I got the concept down and did a load of them, but came up against much simpler ones in the OU course and was lost). I probably could have used some help with study skills, but had no idea of the concept at the time.

I attended Abertay University for one year way back in the day. Admittedly this failure was much more of a mental health one (boring story), but even then I did struggle with trying to get information down. Lectures again proved troublesome.

All that for a student loan that I’ll be paying off for decades for zero return! Could fucking kick myself.

Anyway, just wanted to vent a bit. Really in a rut job wise as I simply have no qualifications and really worried I’m going to be stuck in jobs that pay a fairly average to low salary, which each year gets eaten in to by inflation. I want to get a qualification so that I can get a decent job (although that’s another issue as I don’t know what I want to do/study, just that I need to do something or I’ll be stuck forever with a ceiling I can’t break). It’s a frustrating situation! I’m in a much better place mentally now thankfully so would hope that that barrier would be removed, but the reality of not being cut out/not being smart enough is still a tough one to take. Plus I'm shit with money (zero savings) so would need to try and save up to pay for it (I'm hoping to be much better with money this year, although January has not seen the best start to that, but have been reviewing things and can see where I can make a lot of savings; just need to try and do it!).

You ever looked in to having a vitamin B12 deficiency? More than 70% of Scots do apparently, and I was pretty bad at one point - could barely stay awake and taking in information was a huge challenge. I also had to abandon a part-time Open University degree at one point because I felt thick as pigshit. High-dose supplements and one of those wanky SAD lights sorted that right out. Occasionally I'll stop using them out of laziness and feel myself slipping back into torpor.

Also, classrooms/lecture theatres without enough ventilation can cause this too. We were struggling in one room until they installed CO² alarms, which were just going off constantly - turns out we were falling asleep due to lack of oxygen. Windows down full blast and the problem was solved. Making notes on everything helps too, along with active listening - I've noticed that's something that the youngsters don't seem to do so much.

All a bit stable-door-closing, but worth bearing in mind if you fancy giving further/higher education another go and find you're still eligible for funding/loans after enough time passes. I was amazed to find out that I was.

[TxRover]

5 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

I’d struggle to take stuff in during lectures and would often actually fall asleep. I’d just get really drowsy at times.

Plus I'm shit with money (zero savings) so would need to try and save up to pay for it (I'm hoping to be much better with money this year, although January has not seen the best start to that, but have been reviewing things and can see where I can make a lot of savings; just need to try and do it!).

On the sleepy, the vitamin deficiency idea is absolutely worth following up, but do you snore? Sleep apnea is an absolute bitch for causing issues, and you’re so used to the way it makes you feel it seems normal.

Shit with money, no, you’re average in that case. The best thing is “pay yourself first”. Have an account, out of the way, that gets an automatic contribution every payday, and that you never even look at or touch. After you reach the necessary minimum, change it to a better interest bearing account or deposit certificate(s) to earn more interest (that should be your only interaction with it). Over a period you will accumulate a tidy sum to assist in a crisis or opportunity. With the student loan, maximise your return by either paying the least possible when you can earn more elsewhere or the most possible when you can’t. As soon as the loan is paid off, that money gets diverted into the pay me first account.

You sound like you learn best hands on and in person, absolutely consider a trade job. Many offer relatively low entry requirements with apprenticeships and such and then allow serious upward movement if you can learn on the job and qualify.

[ICTChris]

 

53 minutes ago, BFTD said:

 

You ever looked in to having a vitamin B12 deficiency? More than 70% of Scots do apparently, and I was pretty bad at one point - could barely stay awake and taking in information was a huge challenge. I also had to abandon a part-time Open University degree at one point because I felt thick as pigshit. High-dose supplements and one of those wanky SAD lights sorted that right out. Occasionally I'll stop using them out of laziness and feel myself slipping back into torpor.

 

Is vitamin B12 not the one you get in meat and fish?  It's vitamin D you get from the sun.  B12 deficiency is one that vegans have to watch out for, a lot of vegans supplement B12.

[ICTChris]

As for DA, get the sex pram into production.  You'll have so much money that you won't know what to do with it.

[scottsdad]

3 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

I've recently started buying sausages from the butcher rather than the supermarket. If you fed them to me blind I wouldn't believe they were from the same planet never mind animal.

I got a delivery today from Campbell's Prime Meat.

Freezer filled with outstanding stuff.

[Leith Green]

3 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I got a delivery today from Campbell's Prime Meat.

Freezer filled with outstanding stuff.

[Jacksgranda]

5 hours ago, GordonD said:

Going into hospital this afternoon for a skin graft on my leg, trying to fix ulcers that opened up following my radiotherapy last year. Op is tomorrow but I'm being admitted today as they wanted me in for 7:30. Told them I couldn't make it from Edinburgh to Livingston that early so they found me a bed for tonight. Probably be kept in tomorrow night as well and home for Friday if all goes well.

All the best.

I've a doctor's appointment tomorrow for my COPD, and I'm dreading him trying to put me onto oxygen full time.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

Putin expands his influence to Dundee drug dealers.

 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

When one of your mates owes you money, then sneaks back out of the pub.

 

 

[hk blues]

7 hours ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

When one of your mates owes you money, then sneaks back out of the pub.

 

 

Nature's equivalent  of this -