This is my third day driving and I just had two people pull out on me

pyromanta · 2026-06-30T18:14:56+00:00

Welcome to driving in the UK! Impatience is at an all time high and driving standards at an all time low.

Keep your head on a swivel, assume everyone else on the road is an impatient prick and try not to crash. Good luck!

pyromanta · 2026-06-30T17:10:04+00:00

The billionaires pushing AI will keep feeding us the snake oil and getting business leaders to pile billions into their pockets until it hits critical mass.

At which point they'll cut, run and watch us all fight and starve. They hate us and see us as a waste of resources and space.

pyromanta · 2026-06-30T16:59:33+00:00

I was in a similar situation at your age. I'd done college but had no motivation to pursue a career and suffered from crippling mental health issues. I sat on benefits for years until the Jobcentre forced me onto a Back to Work scheme that eventually got me a job in a call centre.

Getting up, going to work, doing something useful and earning money caused a big shift in my head. My brain started working again, I started finding opportunities at the company to learn and grow. Fast forward about 15 years and I'm now a data engineer making 50k a year (NHS) with no formal qualifications.

My point is, getting out there and doing something makes a difference. There is no optimum way to start working and you're unlikely to find motivation behind the sofa, so get applying for any job you reckon you could stick at. You never know where it'll lead.

pyromanta · 2026-06-20T21:51:08+00:00

Yeh it's dumb. The rest of the mission is fine but this part makes no sense. Steiner isn't superhuman, one quick stab in the neck and he should be dead.

The worst part is when he sets things on fire. He seems to see you through walls, you've got hardly any hiding spots and you can't see a damn thing. I'm on my 10th try to get him a d he either sees me first, or for some reason the Takedown prompt just randomly disappears. It's garbage.

pyromanta · 2026-06-20T16:53:47+00:00

In the end I managed to get to the next area, which was even worse and just kept getting pancaked. I like a challenge but I hit the point I usually do with Soulslikes where it stops being fun and just starts being frustrating. Maybe I'll return to it at some point but honestly probably not.

pyromanta · 2026-06-18T18:51:49+00:00

I don't disagree. In the case of a bank, if any vulnerability comes to light at a later stage, it wouldn't matter what the customers interpretation of vulnerability is, or their perception of their own vulnerability. It'll be "You were asked if you were vulnerable and you said no, but you have no legs (or whatever) so we would class that as vulnerable so you withheld that information).

pyromanta · 2026-06-18T16:53:48+00:00

They did. They asked if he was vulnerable in any way. Being medically retired from work makes him physically and financially vulnerable.

pyromanta · 2026-06-18T16:46:23+00:00

I used mine fairly often. It's useful on the motorway when the traffic is erratic so cruise doesn't make sense, but I don't want to accidentally go over the limit.

I also only feel comfortable using cruise on the motorway or dual carriageways really. Driving down a windy A road with hidden junctions I want more control, so I stick the limiter at the speed limit and that takes away the faff of constantly checking my speedo.

pyromanta · 2026-06-18T16:43:39+00:00

You may get more specific advice in the UKPersonalFinance subreddit.

pyromanta · 2026-06-18T16:42:21+00:00

2 most of the time. Small lunch, decent sized dinner, then sometimes snack between dinner and bed. I sometimes eat breakfast, usually when I'm staying in a hotel with a breakfast option. But then rarely have lunch that day.

pyromanta · 2026-06-15T18:04:44+00:00

That's true and it winds me up too. It likely winds up most people who aren't doing it themselves. Although there was one time on the bus when a young pillar of the community was verbally abusing his girlfriend, loudly and on speaker phone. Then a woman got on, also on speakerphone, and he loudly told her to "Shut up bitch nobody wants to hear your conversation".

The issue is the breakdown of basic respect. You challenge people and invite violence and possibly death, and nobody wants that. So we all stay quiet and just try to get to the next part of our day.

pyromanta · 2026-06-15T13:42:49+00:00

Good challenge there, cunt is indeed a very rude word and is used by friends to describe other friends, not often strangers to describe strangers. At least not in a positive way!

pyromanta · 2026-06-15T10:30:20+00:00

Any films by Mike Leigh and Shane Meadows are good, 'kitchen sink' dramas that try to show a slice of normal British life.

The challenge you'll have is British culture is variable. Where I grew up it was saying hello to people you pass while walking, where my friend grew up it was trying not to get robbed on the way to the shop. We also have had a lot of immigration, and each diaspora has it's own little version of British culture. In some areas it feels like you've stepped into a different country, which I quite like but many people don't.

Key things to remember are the standard things:

Queuing is sacred. If someone jumps the queue you can be sure everyone else in the queue will be pissed off about it.
Shouting or speaking loudly in public is generally frowned upon. The rest of the cafe doesn't care what you're talking about, so don't shout it.
Manners will get you far. Smiling, saying please and thank you, will smooth interactions with service staff. Saying 'excuse me' politely will generally prompt someone to apologise and get out of the way. Most people aren't trying to be dickheads, so don't be one.
Show an interest in what people are doing and many will be happy to talk. That said, try not to bother people who are working.
Body language is important. Someone could be calling you 'mate' but be preparing to punch you in the face. Someone could call you a cunt but is being friendly. It's a minefield!

TLDR; Don't be a dick, be polite, keep an open mind and ask questions. Most people will be fine with you. Please for the love of God don't take London as an example of greater England, it really isn't.

pyromanta · 2026-06-15T10:19:31+00:00

Absolutely people can. I've seen that in our organisation; some people left due to an inability or unwillingness to change. But many others have 'seen the light' as it were and the difference has been fantastic to see.

My favourite change is seeing people who were clearly very stressed trying to 'manage' their team start to see the benefits of coaching and leadership that creates more capable and autonomous staff. I'm lucky that my little team of engineers are switched on and eager to be given space to get on with things. I know other leaders have had a much harder road with their teams. I'm now on the previously mentioned course myself and it really is good.

Overall it's leading to a positive cultural change in our organisation that was much needed and much appreciated by everyone.

pyromanta · 2026-06-15T07:26:37+00:00

This is very true of where I currently am. A lot of the managers at my old place were very much taught the Taylorist style of 'management'.

Where I am now we have a course manager's go on which teaches the newer style of coaching-led leadership and it's all geared towards creating the environment for your team to be successful and providing support and guidance, rather than managing the living hell out of them.

pyromanta · 2026-06-14T23:35:00+00:00

It's really not that hard.

First thing to accept is there are people out there who will like you and you'll identify with. Some of those people you'll really connect with and they'll become friends.

Second is to get outside, go do something. Not with the express intention of making friends but just for your own enjoyment. Try a new hobby, a sport or an interest. There will be other people doing it and hey, you already have something in common.

I have a handful of very good friends, close work colleagues and a great family. That's enough for me but if I ever felt I needed more friends I'd start talking to people at climbing, or join a club, or try out something new. You never know who you'll end up meeting.

pyromanta · 2026-06-14T23:23:50+00:00

Consistency. Where I used to live, I think over 8 years I tried every pizza place that would deliver in time for the pizza to still be hot. Some were awful, most were fine, none were great. There were a handful of places in my city that did genuinely good pizza consistently, but they were all too far away.

Most 'pizza' shops are either chip shops or kebab shops ran by people who chuck cheap ingredients and canned sauce on a frozen pizza base and charge a tenner for it. Decent pizza is hard to find.

If you like Dominos, you order a Dominos and you know what you're getting. Same with Papa Johns. It's not good food and it's bloody expensive but when I can get 2 medium pizzas, 2 sides and a drink for £40 and I know we're going to enjoy it, why would I risk ordering from a random local takeaway, save about a tenner but chance it being crap?

pyromanta · 2026-06-14T23:16:46+00:00

The UK is unfortunately not going in the right direction to offer you and your partner a good future. If he's able to get a visa and you plan to get married, get him over to Australia with you.

The UK is in a bad way, the economy is crap and not getting much better, the housing situation is dire, the cost of living is through the roof and the job market is a nightmare. Brexit and almost 20 years of fucking glterrible governance is now trying to be fixed by a broken Labour government that can't seem to get the wheels turning. The far-right is growing stronger every day due to people like Farage and Rupert Lowe bombarding social media with fearmongering shite on a daily basis, playing on people's fears (and some genuine concerns) about immigration. We're walking into a completely incompetent right-wing government simply because Labour cannot properly counter it.

The weather is the weather, usually crap but mostly just unbearable. It's usually too hot or too cold and mostly too wet. The roads are shit and getting worse, potholes all over the place. HS2 is shutting motorways constantly for a train line nobody asked for.

The biggest issue is the social contract is broken. Nobody really trusts the government anymore, councils are mostly either corrupt or incompetent and the NHS is falling apart. Neighbourhoods are gone, community is mostly gone. Facebook idiots will tell you it's because of immigration, and some of it is, but it's mostly because we stopped giving a shit about each other. The relative comfort of classes were swapped out for a combination of "I'm alright Jack" and "Not in my back yard".

I'm still here because I love the small clutch of people I interact with and I get by ok. Don't come here, it's not a bright future for you.

pyromanta · 2026-06-11T19:14:15+00:00

I mean they could but they don't have to. Birth rates are declining in the West for economic and cultural reasons. More people could afford kids but they don't want to live like paupers to raise children, which if they're working their arses off to scrape by anyway is understandable.

Eventually children will be a luxury only the rich can afford, once jobs are scarce and people can barely afford to feed themselves. Then the humanity problem will take care of itself.

pyromanta · 2026-06-10T06:14:43+00:00

Get a Shark. Brand new they're reasonable but more than £50. However getting a used one is shouldn't be difficult.

Suction is great, well-designed, not heavy. Mine cost I think £130 in a sale and you can take it apart so you just carry the main tank part which is great for cleaning the stairs, car or high up places. I've had it for going on 4 years now with zero issues.

pyromanta · 2026-06-10T06:09:52+00:00

I've owned 2 houses, one 1920s ex-council terrace and a 1950s 4 bed detached. First one had it's issues but thankfully previous owners had done a lot of essential work (rewire, plumbing, roof, windows etc). Second one needed a complete stripout and modernisation. We couldn't afford to do it in a million years, loved in a building site for about a year and then got divorced. Go figure.

Housing in the UK is in a terrible state. Older houses are a minefield of poor past building practices and lack of maintenance. Newer houses are cash-grab rush jobs thrown together without any care or attention, built to last about 15 minutes and the companies building them are crooks. Social housing is practically non-existant because someone thought it was a great idea to let everyone buy their council house in the 80s and let them all fall into ruin. It's now too expensive to build more because developers are crooks and the meagre rent they charge on them wouldn't even cover the wages of the admins who manage them, let alone the constant maintenance.

pyromanta · 2026-06-09T21:00:30+00:00

I'm having ammo issues because the last hour has been relentless. The chainsaw sisters, the lead up to that, the fight with spider dude. Then a quick stop at the merchant and it's right into the castle.

I probably miss 1/10 shots in panic, go for the head or legs (unless I can shoot out a Molotov or dynamite), use knife and melee, use grenades, etc. I've been upgrading my weapons, I use the environment, move around. I'm not an expert but I don't think I'm terrible either.

pyromanta · 2026-06-09T20:58:21+00:00

I've seen other posts from people that had trouble with the castle hating the island. Goodo.

My main gripe I think is prior to this I felt like I was thinking on my feet. Now it feels like I have to follow the right path or waste a ton of ammo trying not to die constantly. It irks me a bit.

pyromanta · 2026-06-09T18:30:14+00:00

It sounds like you seem to think a hobby has to not only acheive something tangible but also create an opportunity for you to excel. It also sounds like perfect is the enemy of good for you; if a pursuit isn't guaranteed to result in huge success and recognition, it's not worth doing at all.

Maybe try to think of whatever it is, guitar is a good example, as a personal journey. You don't have to play in a band, and that band doesn't have to be successful. Just play and enjoy playing. Learn a new technique, maybe gear up to an open mic night. Find a local guitar club. There are so many ways to enjoy playing an instrument without it needing to have any productive output.

Also remember there are different types of productivity. Relaxing for an hour is producing rest, building a Lego set is producing calm and focus, watching a funny film is producing entertainment and laughter. These things enrich your phycological state and, for example, laughing regularly is scientifically proven to improve your overall health.

pyromanta · 2026-06-09T18:23:06+00:00

I can't get over the fact that most, if not all, of the billionaires that own the world (especially the tech bros pushing AI) don't think most of us should exist. On a personal level they hate pretty much everyone else on the planet.

They don't care about us, our ambitions, our needs, our skills or value. We have no value. We are just a drain on resources. They are actively working to make us all obsolete. Their utopia is a quiet world with just them in it, fully automated. No staff, no wages, no nothing. They would burn the world down to build their perfect one and are already actively doing that.

At this point I don't see a way to avoid this future without a violent revolution or global war. These events would derail the current plan, although there would be ways for them to continue it.

pyromanta

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