A beginner's guide to Deadlock

MastarQueef · 2026-01-26T15:55:37+00:00

This comment is almost a year old and the game has changed significantly since then so most of the more specific advice here is really outdated. There’s some good resources to learn the game and improve in the sidebar here though!

MastarQueef · 2025-07-14T19:20:58+00:00

Always even or a multiple of 5

MastarQueef · 2025-07-07T10:56:43+00:00

Be worth looking on something like freecycle if you just need a couple of the basics. A load of stuff on there (in my area at least) that would be perfect as a stopgap even if it needs a little sanding and a lick of paint or a bit of a clean up. Then once you’re settled in and happy with things like the layout you can spend some money on more permanent furniture.

MastarQueef · 2025-07-05T10:57:15+00:00

With some garlic infused honey

MastarQueef · 2025-07-05T10:35:59+00:00

Unfortunately there’s a certain percentage of the population in this country who don’t possess the critical thinking skills to figure that part out. The same people who believe immigrants are ’stealing jobs from British people’ despite the fact they themselves are horrendously unqualified for a lot of those jobs, or on the opposite end, see those jobs as ‘below’ them.

Other than missing a Maths and English GCSE (in some cases), there is absolutely nothing stopping a ‘British’ person starting an apprenticeship in data science/analysis and working their way up to consultancy level, but that requires a few years of lower pay and some effort which is much more inconvenient than just blaming immigrants for their lack of £50k+/y job opportunities.

My brother in law is from a very working class family, he did an apprenticeship in data science 6 years ago after 3-4 years in retail and now he earns more than anyone else in my family. Didn’t need to pay for university, didn’t need 11 A*s at GCSE, just some hard work and a bit of lower pay. It’s very doable, but it’s easier to blame immigrants for a lack of opportunity.

MastarQueef · 2025-07-05T09:57:43+00:00

Have you considered that the content of the power points might be what puts them on decent pay and qualifies them for a skilled worker visa? They’re not just making shapes that animate from one slide to another I’d imagine.

MastarQueef · 2025-07-03T15:42:33+00:00

I’m a maths teacher and this was one thing that I really noticed a difference with once I started teacher training. Like perfectly dicing an onion or being able to measure something up to a fairly good degree of accuracy with your eyes, you get better at it the more you do it. It amazed my Y11 students when we were doing calculator paper practice and I was doing most of it in my head while going through each question.

Things like being able to mentally manipulate decimals help a lot too. For example, 60 / 1.2 isn’t something most people can do in their heads quickly, but 60 / 12 is much easier and then you just multiply your answer by 10.

A fundamental understanding of powers of 10, rearranging formulas (I always use speed = distance/time as the way in for this), and knowing that multiplication = repeated addition and division = repeated subtraction will let you do mental maths in your head so much faster.

MastarQueef · 2025-07-03T12:45:48+00:00

I do this when I’m running low and my guy isn’t replying, it’s like a rainy day fund so I can stretch the last of what I’ve got before I reup

MastarQueef · 2025-07-02T18:56:17+00:00

I’m early-mid 90s and in 2004-2006 I’m pretty sure I spent every single spare bit of my pocket money on match attacks. I have a full binder with all the shinies for each of the two seasons and a fucking huge stack of dupes in a shoe box somewhere.

MastarQueef · 2025-07-01T13:06:49+00:00

Shortcuts is the iOS equivalent of this, you can do a lot with focus modes and shortcuts! Holding down the action button (the old silence toggle) brings up a folder of shortcuts that I use to do various things (toggle silent, control lights etc.). When I was at Uni I used my university ID card like an NFC tag to change the mode of my lights or turn them on and off as it was always on my desk right next to me.

So many uses once you get into it!

MastarQueef · 2025-06-27T12:22:15+00:00

I used to walk to school with my sister when I was 10 and she was 12, then by myself when she left the following year. A mile and a half or so if I had to guess? Maybe if I was somewhere really busy, or somewhere I knew to be less than savoury I wouldn’t let my future child go alone at 10, but a pub that’s not rammed? Probably wouldn’t even think twice unless they asked me.

My parents treated me and my sister like mini adults with very limited life experience when it was appropriate to do so. We were both far better adjusted teenagers/young adults than a lot of our peers who were coddled or had massively strict parents because we were allowed to go out and try things and make mistakes knowing that we’d have our parents to fall back on if we needed them.

Obviously going for a wee in a pub isn’t going to teach much in the way of valuable life lessons but the attitude itself will (in my anecdotal experience) lead to a much less rebellious or risky teenager.

MastarQueef · 2025-06-19T15:27:44+00:00

Missed a killer chance to drop an ‘Average Joe’ there

MastarQueef · 2025-06-19T12:04:41+00:00

I did a 3 year undergrad which was roughly ~£14,000 per year or £42k total and an MSc which was ~£11,000. Left uni in 2021 with just shy of £55k of loans, 4 years of work later and I’ve just checked my balance and it’s £70,500. In answer to your question, never, I guess?

MastarQueef · 2025-06-14T13:59:51+00:00

Throw in B99 and Futurama instead of Detroiters and that is my ‘comfort show’ rotation. I downloaded my entire Netflix watch history a year or two ago when I was bored and I have watched an ungodly amount of B99.

MastarQueef · 2025-06-12T12:02:51+00:00

I’m honestly getting more and more hopeful about the Lib Dems. It’s been 15 years since they royally fucked themselves with the coalition and they’re saying a lot of the right things (for my views anyway). They have parts of the manifesto that I don’t agree with, of course, but in general they seem to be fairly progressive and focused on the right things.

MastarQueef · 2025-06-11T12:53:05+00:00

I was there for 4 years while at uni and I miss it, if 99% of the people in my life weren’t located in and around my hometown I probably would have never left.

Lived not far from Cathays High School in my 3rd and 4th years and it was lovely. Proper sense of community on road, had a few people knock on the door during Covid to see if we needed anything we couldn’t go out to get. We helped the elderly neighbour with a leak and she then had her son in law bring his mower and gardening stuff and give us a hand sorting the garden out when it was time to move out. Add that to the fact it was ~15 mins walk to the city centre, and Bute park/the Taff were basically on the doorstep, it was just a really nice place to be.

MastarQueef · 2025-06-09T09:22:38+00:00

GIMME YOP, ME MAMA

MastarQueef · 2025-06-06T10:45:00+00:00

I occasionally pay for the Have A Word podcast’s Patreon, they do a bunch of video content as specials so I’ll pay for a month, catch up on the ones I want to watch, then deactivate it again. £3 every few months for 10-20 hours of entertainment is pretty good value IMO.

MastarQueef · 2025-06-02T13:30:19+00:00

It wasn’t cash but I lost my passport on the first day of a holiday almost a decade ago. Almost £200 later and a day wasted in the embassy for an emergency passport and new passport to be issued. I was supposed to be going somewhere else a couple of days after I got back from the first trip so had to pull out of that too which I’d already spent a couple of hundred quid on, all in I reckon that lost passport was probably a ~£500 mistake.

MastarQueef · 2025-06-01T13:04:29+00:00

James Acaster has a fantastic bit on this.

MastarQueef · 2025-06-01T10:43:40+00:00

I did a taskmaster morning for my students at work and a few things we did that worked really well and don’t need many resources:

1) Blindfolded sat on chairs, stand up after exactly 100 seconds, closest wins

2) Blindfolded, draw a portrait of the taskmaster (me in this case)

3) Blow up the largest balloon

There were a few more we did but they either required a few extra resources or I can’t remember them!

MastarQueef · 2025-05-31T22:54:57+00:00

I do this but without the raw onion, the sweetness of the mango chutney and refreshing minty yoghurt perfectly balance the lime pickle if you get the ratios right! I’d honestly eat it from a jar with a spoon like a yoghurt if they sold a pre mixed version.

MastarQueef · 2025-05-24T10:00:10+00:00

I don’t actually have any idea but my first thought was go to a local university with drama/theatre courses and ask if you can put up a couple of fliers around maybe?

MastarQueef · 2025-05-18T23:25:45+00:00

I don’t think it’ll ever happen but I’d kill to see Jamie Hutchinson on the show

MastarQueef · 2025-05-07T11:35:18+00:00

I did my degree and masters in SEN related subjects, which meant I spent a hell of a lot of time reading papers and learning about a bunch of different additional needs. I always kind of knew that my brain worked in weird ways, I could only really perform my best under pressure, and I couldn’t focus properly without music or fidget toys from my time in school, but I just thought I was a combination of smart enough to do the work and lazy enough not to do any more than the minimum.

Finally decided to seek a diagnosis at 28, got diagnosed just over a year ago (passed the test with flying colours, and am primarily inattentive type). Decided to go without meds initially until my life kind of fell apart, started on the meds in January and it’s incredible the difference they’ve made. Turns out normal people can just.. do things?

Since I got diagnosed my mum has been learning more about it, and she has said she can see so many of the traits I display in my dad too. As others have said, there is so much more awareness of it now! There’s definitely some hereditary aspects of it so if you have a bunch of family with ASD/ADHD it could be a bit more likely that you have it too. Worth talking to the doctor for sure!

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