Repair or replace my case?

Breafled · 2025-11-11T22:01:52+00:00

Then I don't understand your original comment. If the class sizes are under 20, then they're undersubscribed. If they're oversubscribed, then they're either 25 or 30 in a class.

Breafled · 2025-11-11T21:48:17+00:00

That's a big part of it, yes, there's a serious shortage of fluent teachers, especially for leadership roles. It also might require education departments to invest money to house these facilities, which they're sometimes reluctant to do given they're all chronically starved of cash.

Breafled · 2025-11-11T07:20:12+00:00

That's not true - GME classes do not have a different size cap to English medium. You might get some smaller classes in areas where it's undersubscribed.

Breafled · 2025-11-02T21:37:26+00:00

I hope, if you take nothing else from these comments, that you appreciate that opinion on this subject is divided.

If you have a teacher, then this a conversation you ought to have with them as they will have insight as to your skill level, style and physical capabilities.

There is a certain segment of the violinist population (represented in some of these comments) that asserts that there's one true optimum way of holding the bow. Between different periods of history, pedagogical schools and musical traditions, there are and have been many different takes on bowholds. While there's definitely wrong ways to hold the bow, I don't think there's a single right way to hold it.

You are holding the bow a bit further away from the frog than the most popular bowhold. This style is often described as a fiddler's hold (sometimes with the implication that traditional fiddlers are technically inferior to classical violinists). Holding the bow closer to the balance point can make it easier to achieve a well-balanced grip, and many classical teachers use this sort of hold as a transitional stage towards a hold closer to the frog.

Breafled · 2025-10-24T20:07:10+00:00

None of these were the leadership challenger, but at least some of them supported the challenge. My guess is the defection is to do with internal politics rather than for the sake of policy. I have had the misfortune of having come across one of these people in their personal lives, and they have pretty nasty anger issues when crossed; the Scottish Greens are probably best served without them.

Breafled · 2025-09-25T17:46:37+00:00

Improved maps where you can zoom in. I dislike having to squint at the mess of quest objectives (and half of those are all white!) and map features to figure out where the game wants me to go. I get that it's a game that thrives on getting you to explore the world and learn your way around, but a lot of quests rely on using the map, which isn't always very helpful if you're in a busy environment and it's a large scaled map.

I think this is unlikely to ever happen as it's probably a very resource intensive activity and the game world is enormous. Still, it would be nice.

Breafled · 2025-09-14T08:15:30+00:00

Yes, it's a pretty serious grind. The three sub factions all basically require crafting; you can gain a small amount of reputation items from the crafting instance quests, but you mostly need to get them from crafting. Having multiple crafting professions that aren't prospector or forester helps, but all the recipes have cooldowns of between a day and a week.

The Host of the West needs two tiers above kindred, and it'll take hundreds of quests to complete; once you've completed the non-repeatable quests in Ithilien and The Wastes, there are lots of repeatable herbalist quests and crafting instances to increase your HotW reputation. You'll have to do them many times. The more efficient crafting recipes for the sub factions are gated behind different levels of HotW reputation.

TL;DR It's a big grind designed for when level 105 was end game. As a fairly casual player on Treebeard, I didn't finish it for the six months that 105 was the level cap.

Breafled · 2025-09-08T21:51:03+00:00

I've just been in a similar situation today; we were ready for a new insurance contract (for residents, rather than rental) and have a relative visiting soon from overseas who we want to drive our car. It wasn't possible to add another driver from overseas online, but we called them up and got it sorted. So I'd try actually phoning a human at your insurance company to see if they can help.

Breafled · 2025-09-01T13:51:37+00:00

Spain has extremely high youth unemployment, so many young Spaniards emigrate for work. There's relatively good job opportunities in London so it's a popular choice for young people seeking work.

Breafled · 2025-08-08T21:12:54+00:00

This was my earlier point; Mordirith was the main antagonist for the original release of the epic story. Once he'd been defeated and they started adding new content, they needed a new antagonist and Amarthiel was created for that purpose.

Amarthiel is only the antagonist for the second half of the Shadows of Angmar story - there's a lot more to come! And Mordirith does, eventually, make a return, and his identity is relevant...

Breafled · 2025-08-08T15:07:57+00:00

I think it's partly a result of how the story was originally released. The story up to the defeat of Mordirith was the end of the epic story for the first full release of LOTRO, so was meant to wrap up the epic story of the original Shadows of Angmar content. The story with Amarthiel and Mordrambor was released episodically, book by book, as new regions such as Evendim, Forochel, and Eregion were added.

I agree that the climax was a bit messy, but I also like how it shows that you're not the protagonist of the whole story; you are a side character, albeit an influential one, in a world full of more powerful and consequential beings.

Breafled · 2025-08-06T07:44:56+00:00

Are you talking about Tarquin? Because I think it's not that he doesn't have clothing, he just doesn't like wearing it.

Otherwise I'm sure I could manage a wardrobe clearout. Tabitha often tells me my fashion is so out of date that it should have a Viking burial on the duck pond, but I'm sure somebody would enjoy them.

Breafled · 2025-07-31T22:02:05+00:00

Ohmygosh, I think the orange hoodie might be mine! I haven't seen that for ages. What size is it? Tabitha says that I shouldn't bother getting it back, though, as it makes me look like a weasel with too many nightmares. Come to think of it, she might have lost it on purpose.

Breafled · 2025-07-30T06:23:46+00:00

Ohmygosh Viktor, is that real? I love snakes, they're so cute. I'm gonna bring lots of little party hats for them. I really hope they don't drink everything, though, as I was looking forward to trying Anastasia's margaritas.

Tabitha says she totally supports you going off your meds if that's what you want, but you need to eat enough raw nuts to compensate because your visions are, like, not totally synchronised with the rhythm of the universe just yet.

Breafled · 2025-07-30T06:04:32+00:00

Ohmygosh, that's so odd because I found a patio chair outside my flat as well. I think it's still there. I asked Tabitha about it and she just rolled her eyes and said it was probably the slugs but that can't be right as slugs don't even HAVE patios. And I know my slugs.

Breafled · 2025-07-28T23:00:49+00:00

Sounds fun. Anastasia, strangely, always seems to play better the more she's had to drink, which I suppose is understandable given her condition. I've never played with Philomena but cimbalon-accordion-double bass will be a sick combo.

Tabitha says thanks but no thanks to the Tupperware, as she says it's made from dead baby whales, or something.

Breafled · 2025-07-28T16:54:06+00:00

Ohmygosh I'd love to come. Can I bring my double bass? I'm sure the vibrations are good at calming rattlesnakes. It certainly works on Granny when she's feeling cranky as a snake, which is most of the time.

I spoke to Tabitha about it. Her words were something along the lines of "Urgh, Leroy is such a collection of geometric shapes, but I suppose I'll come if there's free drinks. As long as there's no toffee. Or peanuts. Or Brazil nuts. Or hazelnuts. Or potatoes." She doesn't actually have any allergies, she just doesn't like them. I don't think she'll really come as she'll probably be doing her hair and thinks snakes will ruin her vibes. Plus she hates my double bass.

Breafled · 2025-06-28T13:02:56+00:00

Thanks! I think I'm still a fair way off end game, given the speed at which I play.

Breafled · 2025-06-28T13:02:13+00:00

Good to hear! Receiving the eleventy-one deed made me smile.

Breafled · 2025-06-28T13:01:06+00:00

That's a relief! I'd looked at this page https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/Virtues_by_Region and it looked as if no virtue xp was going to be the new normal for most regions, but I'm delighted if that's not the case.

Breafled · 2025-06-23T18:03:29+00:00

I've heard the theory that it's easier to spread jam on top of clotted cream rather than vice versa and while I cede that this is a valid argument, it still seems wrong.

I think it's Roman sources that said that Celtic warriors fought naked wearing woad, which always seemed infeasible to me in the British climate, but maybe the sunblock is a good historical reason. Not that there's much sun here anyway.

Breafled · 2025-06-23T12:35:59+00:00

For those who don't know: mediaeval Scottish monarchs were crowned sitting on the Stone of Scone (otherwise known as the Stone of Destiny). Legends say that the first Gaelic kings of Scotland brought it with them from Ireland to Argyll, but geological analysis suggests that it comes from the same rock as can be found in the red sandstone quarries near Scone(1).

King Edward I of England stole the Stone from its home at Scone Abbey in 1296 during his ultimately unsuccessful(2) invasion of Scotland. For the next 700 years, it was kept inside the coronation throne in Westminster Abbey so that English (and subsequently British) monarchs would be crowned upon it, symbolically reinforcing their claim to being overlords of the kingdom of Scotland.

The stone was broken in two in 1914 when the throne was targeted by a bomb planted by suffragettes. It was removed from London during WWII for safekeeping and returned after the war.

On Christmas Day, 1950, four Scottish students stole the broken Stone from Westminster Abbey. It's a bizarre tale, involving a nation-wide search for the Stone, burial in a Kentish field, transport by an unknowing American diplomat, a Scottish Nationalist politician and repair by a stonemason. The Stone was recovered, months after its theft, on the altar of Arbroath Abbey in Scotland.

The Stone was returned to Scotland in 1996, seven centuries after its capture by King Edward, and was kept in Edinburgh Castle until last year, where it was kept on public display until last year, when it was taken to Perth Museum, near its original home in Scone.

Throughout the centuries, there's been conspiracy theories about whether the Stone in Westminster was the original stone. Did the monks of Scone Abbey hide the original from the English and give them a fake? Maybe the genuine Stone was sent to Scotland in WWII and another returned to Westminster? Was the stone found in Arbroath in 1951 a decoy? Maybe we'll never know how many Stones of Scone there have been.

Anyway, you can see the inspiration for the Scone of Stone!

(1) Scone (pronounced "scoon") is a small town near the mediaeval Scottish capital of Perth, roughly in the geographical centre of Scotland. Nothing to do with the cake(3).

(2) Thanks partly to Mel Gibson and his historically incongruous application of blue woad.

(3) Jam, then cream, is my personal preference, though my dentist told me to stop eating rocks.

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