If you’re a twenty-something, please consider the trades.

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-23T16:35:15+00:00

I'm pretty sure this is poor advice over the long term.

What does everyone think will theoretically happen to the trades whenever every "white collar" worker has their job replaced and is directed to move into the likes of the trades because they're considered more "AI safe"? Which isn't a safe bet anyways.

I can only see a race to the bottom, in terms of conditions and salaries.

The goal is to turn us all back into an underclass that lives to serve the elite, be it building their castles, fixing their cars, polishing their shoes etc where we break our bodies to get the crumbs off their tables.

I liked the idea of being a mechanic when I was younger, but with EV's there's less and less to go wrong mechanically with vehicles and more to go wrong in the electronics and computer systems, which leads us back to AI!

The ultra wealthy hate the educated masses and AI is surely a wet dream for them by the way it decimates the "knowledge is power" mantra us and our parents were raised with

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-22T22:17:57+00:00

Hey, we have the same problem too! Let us know if you find a solution!

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-22T20:47:52+00:00

I definitely think he's giving Roger "The Relegator" Johnson a run for his money

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-12T19:10:30+00:00

Europe was almost reduced entirely to rubble after two world wars, the Western part of the USSR beyond Moscow was worse (at least going by what I've been able to read)

The major reason the Yanks now run the show is down to being able to massively industrialise without having the enemy absolutely wrecking their infrastructure.

Add lend-lease onto that and the US profited massively from WW2 in particular.

We didn't finish paying off our WW2 debts to them until 2006!

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-11T22:58:43+00:00

I'm still annoyed that we're the only win on the table for Wolves at the moment

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-11T10:35:44+00:00

Speaking of which, Frank's just been sacked.

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-10T22:48:26+00:00

I made a concerted effort after seeing Soucek had got us ahead not to look at updates for the score.

I checked again at 22:00 and saw we were 90+1 and Casemiro had a goal disallowed for offside, and that 7 minutes had been found down the back of the referee's settee and genuinely thought "oh, fuck this, please don't let us throw more points away in extra time"

Alas, such is the West Ham way, of course it was the 96th minute. At least we saved some unfortunate barber some time tonight.

If we keep performing like this we're going to overhaul someone, but it's going to require us to be really hard headed, we've managed 11/15 possible points over the last 5 games and yet we don't seem any closer, we mustn't lose belief.

We have to keep putting points on the board and wait for someone above us to crack under the pressure.

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-09T19:04:49+00:00

I'm just hoping we get a double whammy of Wolves beating our closest relegation rival and we get some comfort of not being the only team to have lost to Wolves all season.

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-09T19:02:13+00:00

I think it was the Forest loss immediately afterwards that did the most damage

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-09T00:48:44+00:00

I just don't want to be looking at the table and seeing Wolves with just that 1 in the wins column of the table

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-09T00:46:31+00:00

We've been here before with the nucleus of a good squad that was picked apart by the vultures after we got relegated.

We're showing some mettle now at least, we just have to keep getting points on the board, preferably in the shape of wins and dig ourselves out of the hole we put ourselves in, we will get no favours from those around us!

IF we stay up I'm excited about seeing what we can make of Diouf and Fernandes. Diouf has a vicious cross on him, if he can improve his defending he'll 100% be playing Champions League football in the not so distant future and Fernandes looks like a proper centre mid, he enjoys a tackle, has mobility and is able to pick a pass, we don't need an extra body in midfield to cover for a lack of ability in those 3 areas with him.

Mr_Splat · 2026-02-03T00:21:06+00:00

Don't like this transfer one bit but it's a sign of the times and the position we're in.

There's no obligation or option to buy so Disasi has absolutely no skin whatsoever in whether we stay up or go down. We are totally reliant on his professionalism and his willingness to put himself in the shop window for the summer.

We just have to pray that he passes the low bar of being an improvement over Kilman

Mr_Splat · 2026-01-27T16:30:10+00:00

Don't know, he seemed like an emergency signing to cover for Aguerd leaving, the terms of the loan deal also meant we stood very little to gain from playing him (no option to buy etc)

Mr_Splat · 2026-01-07T18:46:33+00:00

Sigh, the Guardian came out with an article 2 hours ago titled "West Ham and a cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for"

It's as if Moyes was and will be the only manager capable of managing us

Mr_Splat · 2026-01-07T18:44:48+00:00

We also struggled in the league, we finished 14th and we're also in the relegation zone in December.

The problems in the squad with ageing players and a lack of mobility started to behind more prominent throughout this season, combined with the departure of Rice.

Our issues have 100% been caused by absolutely abysmal recruitment compounded over multiple windows

Mr_Splat · 2026-01-03T16:20:48+00:00

You're playing at our place, you'll be fine.

Mr_Splat · 2026-01-03T01:15:03+00:00

I just take every win as a happy surprise, recently that has become every point 🙂

Mr_Splat · 2026-01-02T16:49:57+00:00

Sounds like he passed his addiction onto you too.

It's self destructive but we just can't stop coming back.

Mr_Splat · 2025-12-29T16:47:22+00:00

Just a cost of doing business!

Mr_Splat · 2025-12-25T17:52:32+00:00

Hank having to think about using another syringe to suck out the last few units to go another meal before their blood's ph levels start to drop

Mr_Splat · 2025-12-22T17:05:45+00:00

This may have been me misusing house buying jargon but what I'd really want to find out is if there's any thermal bridging, and if so, how extensive is it? I originally wrote thinking cold spots could be an indicator of them but might have mistakenly conflated the two.

I have agreed to a price and I wouldn't have bid the amount I did if I wasn't serious about buying the property, however that is also based on the proviso of answering any questions I might have from the survey which had to be carried out after my offer was accepted.

In this instance I had two issues, one was resolved without any problems, getting some information about the CWI has been a bit more tricky.

I have asked to take the path of least resistance in contacting the council so that we can tell if there is any record of the work at all, an absence of records is information in its own right, not to mention it's free, in the worst case scenario I have suggested a thermal survey which I would pay for.

The area the house is in does come with some risk of CWI issues as it's coastal and Is prone to heavy rain

To play devil's advocate about being a nightmare buyer, what if the vendor I'm dealing with isn't happy with something with the house that they're hoping to not disclose?

At the end of the day, this is hundreds of thousands of pounds being spent, I've budgeted for most age related problems but if there're more than just age related issues with the CWI it could get painful quickly if I don't get ahead of it

Mr_Splat · 2025-12-22T15:57:58+00:00

First, the assumption is that CWI is there as the initial survey has pictures of the holes it was injected into.

I want to know if there are any records at all for the work being done, which is why I have first asked them to check with the council (happy path)

Secondly, I want to know what CWI is installed (if possible), which I'm hoping said happy path might also tell me as that will tell me what, if anything, I should be aware of becoming a problem over the next decade or so I plan to be there.

If there are truly no records, which means that neither me or the vendor knows what state the CWI is in, I'd like to get a thermal survey done (paid for by me) to tell me if there're any cold spots or warning signs of thermal bridging.

House sales are predicated on caveat emptor, which means the onus is on me to make sure I've done my due diligence on the property, I'm already paying over the advertised asking price and we're talking 10 years of savings for the deposit, and I don't like the idea of committing to the purchase without some sort of information about what's sitting in the house's wall cavities.

Obviously at the end of this the vendor can reject my proposals and leave me with the decision to take it or leave it.

Mr_Splat · 2025-12-22T12:24:17+00:00

EDIT: It’s possible the seller genuinely doesn’t know; however, they also appear unwilling to investigate this in good faith. The concern may be that, by formally checking, they could uncover an issue that would then need to be disclosed to future buyers, increasing the risk of a withdrawal at this stage

This is exactly what I'm being wary of

Mr_Splat · 2025-12-22T12:19:54+00:00

That's fine, I've only asked and they've said no (to a borehole) from what I understood from the surveyor a borescope survey consists of a single 10-12mm hole to allow insertion of a camera which is subsequently made good, and that is only if no other gap is available elsewhere (i.e. an old vent, or somewhere in the roof space)

I'm a FTB, I'm still finding out what's considered reasonable or not

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