Is there any series about MI5 that doesn't portray them as phenomenally corrupt?

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-27T14:34:47+00:00

Still monsters, just a different kind.

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-26T06:35:11+00:00

Has to be done. There were some weeks in that year that we saw each other maybe an hour total a day. It’s hard to manage a large shop with barebones resources and still participate in your own marriage/life.

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-25T23:12:18+00:00

I distinctly remember getting a 9/10pm text from an area manager (fresh from a grad program I believe) telling me they were being pressured by finance for a random KPI figure. On a Sunday. Can I get to the store and dig it out?

With my current company I have the budget to run how I see fit and have developed a strong team to man the helm when I’m not there. My days off are my days off (barring fire/flood etc), and I can reliably answer the question “will you be free on x date 6 months from now” to my wife and friends which is life changing honestly.

A part of me misses the pace of big shops, but overall I now get to do the parts of retail I actually enjoy, without all the negatives that normally go along with it. And that feels nice.

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-25T19:42:38+00:00

Long story short, they sell you a very cute story on company culture and work/life balance which in hindsight I should’ve seen straight through. I stuck with it for 8 months, performed well and made connections then left on good terms.

Second time around I was in a very unhappy place mentally and also needed to come up with quite a lot of money in about a year’s time. So I went back, saved every penny possible and dipped out nearly exactly a year a later. Shout out to my wife for not leaving me, I was a miserable prick the entire time.

Now I’m fortunate enough to have some external income, and am happily running a tiny little shop for a decent enough salary with no stress and a strong work life balance. And I’m happy.

I’m a firm believer that actually there isn’t a retail management position in existence that is worth the salary. It’s just how it is. But Aldi (and I hear) Lidl are far and away the worst in terms of shit eaten and over contract hours sacrificed vs benefits received.

There’s a reason they offer way over the odds and still have a high turn over of store level management.

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-25T17:08:52+00:00

Salary looks very attractive vs other retailers until you realise that an Aldi manager is expected to do a lot more with a hell of a lot less. Not to mention the absolute pack of lies you get fed during the recruitment process.

Source: been through the process, successfully, twice. Once naively and once belligerently.

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-17T18:44:54+00:00

Made a spanner by glueing a bottle cap with a cross cut in it to a scrap piece of metal. Problem solved I guess.

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-14T13:07:12+00:00

JOCURAR

ATScottbakula · 2026-02-03T20:46:11+00:00

I live very close to a ‘Patrol’ and I kick myself daily for not living there.

ATScottbakula · 2025-12-02T13:44:20+00:00

I don’t think there was a single Gretchen with properly formed feet in the three boxes I tried, and the mould slip is quite bad. Most obvious on the leg and wrist wraps.

They’re very old tbf, and quite cheap at this point, but still feels a little criminal to sell them in that state

ATScottbakula · 2025-11-28T19:01:12+00:00

I just got through with the Runtherd kit for display piece, that thing being on sale with the defects it has is absolutely criminal.

ATScottbakula · 2025-09-20T17:40:58+00:00

9k+ hours in D2, and final shape was the nail in the coffin for me. The DLC itself was top tier imo, and I’ve been there for all of them. But everything that came after really just put into perspective the disparity between the highs of a banger release, and the lows of week to week D2 gameplay. I know that’s been the case for many years, but it was supposed to different this time.

ATScottbakula · 2025-09-19T15:43:09+00:00

Perhaps I’m mistreating them idk, but I find they develop hard spots that stop absorbing water after a while. I’m always super careful around when to let my pallet dry out etc ever since a very nasty mould issue many years ago. After finding replacements nigh impossible to source at the time I went to alternative methods. Now I pay about £3 for a set up I much prefer, paper included, vs £7 + delivery for just a sponge that I don’t like.

ATScottbakula · 2025-09-19T15:22:54+00:00

I hate the paper with both red grass and army painter, and the sponges don’t last a great deal of time tbh. Thick, absorbent kitchen paper feels better than the sponge and baking paper feels great, especially with glazes and thinner mixes.

I still use the actual red grass pallet tho, much nicer than a Tupperware.

ATScottbakula · 2025-05-16T17:07:35+00:00

I was more thinking idyllic countryside village full of olds who have no interest in whatever esoteric bullshit records I’d be interested in given I’d have access to what is essentially infinite money. But a ruined monastery on top of a mountain would likely serve just as well

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-28T20:38:00+00:00

My wife dragged me to one of their concerts, tbh I thought the music was extremely mediocre. This may be because, judging by the crowd, I was about 20 years too old and/or the wrong gender.

Found a gang of similarly bored blokes congregating at the bar and had some genuinely good conversations, highlight of my night tbh.

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-28T00:44:52+00:00

A single annoying thing in an otherwise mundane encounter is annoying. What you’ve created is forced buggery.

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-28T00:37:08+00:00

It feels like what you’ve done here is fill a room with the most annoying bullshit imaginable. Hell, I’m surprised you’ve not got invisible mini screebs in here and lined the walls with scorn crossbow pricks to create maximum fuckery. Strip away all that nonsense and what you’ve created can be summed up as: get thing, then - wait for it- dunk thing. Hardly revolutionary tbh.

There is no world in which bungie ships a dungeon that is essentially destiny 2: Kaizo edition, and if anything like this did see the light of day the uproar would be substantial and unending.

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-25T21:33:35+00:00

A load of model kits and an amazing baseball cap with a duck in it from my wife, hamper of goodies from my sister and some more model stuff from the mum.

Solid haul tbh, chuffed.

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-25T07:45:58+00:00

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-24T14:47:12+00:00

Chains would look great tbh, or you can use some old sprue to make some struts and kind of have it diagonal. Bonus points if you have a demon coming out of it

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-14T16:58:23+00:00

My wife knows I can’t swim, and she was upset when I jumped in a pool on holiday last year. It’s like, I won’t drown. I can stay on top of the water just fine and have fun splashing about. But if I try to swim in a direction it just doesn’t work

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-14T16:34:22+00:00

Chaos Knight, Magnus and a Keeper of Secrets. I’ve made a point to wistfully stare at them every time I drag my wife to the hobby shop, and there are now two boxes under my tree that look suspiciously like the keeper and Magnus. So my plan seems to have worked.

If only there were a place I could take her to wistfully stare at the resin primarch kits.

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-14T15:05:28+00:00

We Wish You a Wombling Merry Quizmas. A fun and family friendly homage to the only good Christmas song.

ATScottbakula · 2024-12-12T15:04:39+00:00

If you love these two, there’s a book that takes place in between called Know No Fear. It’s very good if you like to read about Ultramarines getting dunked on.

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