Hi,
Wow, that sounds like it could be a really interesting thing to do. I know what you mean about feeling that you don't have the expertise and the right to give someone that level of punishment, but on the other hand it could give you some real life experience.
Well, my life's pretty boring at the moment. I've finished all my exams for the year but unfortunately I've had to stay on at college until this time next week as I am starting my A2 subjects (the final year of A Level for anyone who doesn't know). In the last few weeks I've had a bit of work to do but not a lot; in between work I've been reading a book in the Morganville Vampires series which I'm finding very enjoyable, and spending a lot more time outside than I would usually. The weather in the UK has rather surprisingly been lovely over the past few weeks. Yesterday it even got to 32 degrees (something I thought would never happen).
Tonight we have our leaver’s dinner or Prom as they call it in some places which I'm rather looking forward to, however I hope it doesn't decide to thunder as it's looking rather dark outside... On Saturday we have our annual speech day which should be quite boring as usual, but after that I've not got much to do and I'm leaving for home next Thursday.
On the 13th I'm heading to Sherwood Forest to go to Center Parcs and I can't wait! My whole family and a few family friends are going, so that should be really enjoyable.

Hi.
I'm still on my winter break, which lasts to around the 20th of this month, I believe.
@Dark, interesting you mention volunteer magistrates; I don't believe this is possible in my country, unless you have the required qualifications. So, out of curiosity, what is required over there to apply for this?
I've heard about your little heatwave over in Europe and apparently some places in France reached record high temperatures. It's still not as hot as it gets in summer over here, though.
Lastly, I'm playing around with the new feature in iOS, IE, Apple music. I know someone else made a topic for this elsewhere, so I won't write too much about it here. I'm just glad this was made available in South Africa from the launch date, as we have to go through other means to access services like Spotify, Pandora etc. I'm trying the 3 month free trial to see if I like it, after which I'll decide if it's worth a subscription.

Hello,
@dark: that is an interesting choice you've made there, it's a shame that theya ren't looking for any new volunteers.
I haven't tried adventure to fate yet.
I recently signed up to a music streaming service called Deezer, and I like that it's more accessible than Spotify for the most part. There are a few things though that can't currently be done, like sharing, but I contacted the support team and the person who responded went so far as to actually install NVDA on one of their systems and start to test the website with it, so we'll see where this goes, I find it really cool that someone's actually trying out the screen reader approach.

@Aarjan, I can see the issue with bias, but firstly remember not everyone can just wander in off the street and become a majestrate. Though it's a volunteer position you still need references and to apply, and you get a year's training. Also, it's not a case that one Majestrate will have to make the decision on his/her own, there is always a pannel of three and they try to balance levels of experience precisely so as to avoid biases etc, and of course there is a clarke of the court who is there to make sure of all the legal points.

In Britain at least a person cannot just "become a judge" usually they will have to be a lawyer or a barister first and usually have worked for an amazingly long time and taken a ridiculous number of qualifications on the job to get there, indeed one of my brothers' favourite sayings is "don't mess with the judge!" sinse generally judges tend to be extremely clever and know what they're doing, which is one reason amazingly miner stuff is dealt with by majestrates.

One problem in the Uk recently is that because the government did away with legal aide, it basically means there are no jobs in criminal law at all, as there are very few paying criminal clients, and it's lead to some pretty serious issues as you'd imagine sinse basically people are going to court and if they can't pay for their own defense, the court appoints someone to handle their case but only allots a small amount of time to it and doesn't really do the work outside the court.

My brother loves criminal, qualified in criminal and did much of his work in it, but with the government's decision he had to change specialization. These days he deals with employment which he finds just as contentious and just as fun.

As to whether, fortunately we had some fantastic rain this morning and some lovely thunder, so the air seems very clear.

Well, as for me I have a pretty full schedule ahead. July is of course right smack in the middle of summer vacation here in the States, and that is also when there is a lot of things to do.

For example, last Saturday was our 4th of July holiday. I basically spent the morning playing games with my son on his Playstation. Then, we picked up a fried chicken dinner at the local IGA. We got fried chicken, baked beans, jo-joes, a chocolate cake, and a bottle of root beer. It was a decent meal all things considered. After that we went downtown to the 4th of July celebration at the town square where my son got to play in the bouncy houses, join in some other games, and ride a mechanical bull. We ended up getting some cups of fresh squeezed lemonade on our way home.

As it so happens my son's birthday is also coming up this month, and I have not decided what I'll be doing for my son's birthday but I'm sure my family and I will throw together some sort of celebration for him. So that too is something to look forward to this month.

That said, I have a doctor's appointment this month I have mixed feelings about. For the last two three years I have been having some serious problems with my face and mouth making it difficult for me to open my mouth to talk or eat. I will be seeing a specialist this month to have it looked at. The problem is this doctor does not accept any kind of government insurance. He does not take Medicare, Medicaid, or that worthless pile of crap Obamacare so that means I'll be paying out of pocket to see him. If he can do something about the problem that will be worth it, but I don't really have the money to spend. If he can't do anything I might as well flush the money down the toilet. So saying that  my financial situation is just now recovering from my divorce I have more than my share of anxt over racking up more debt I really can't afford.

On the bright side things are going better than they have been. I've got ongoing medical situations, but that aside I'm looking forward to this month and getting out and doing stuff. The weather here is unusually rainy, which is certainly something of a bummer, but when I can get out and do things the weather is relatively nice all things considered. So here is hoping for a decent month.

Hmm, I kept meaning to reply to this topic but didn't get around to it.

@Tom, sorry to here about the health issues and the bills, I will say that it is at these moments I'm actually glad I live inBritain with the Nhs, sinse while they definitely have their issues it's far better than worrying about getting important health checks for financial reasons, heck I don't even know if I'd still be able to have any vision in America given my cocktail of necessary medications.

The celibrations sound fun, though what the heck are jo joes? I've had root beer before, and actually it's something I like and don't get much of over here, but I've never heard of jo joes.
@Cinnamon, congrats on the job, I hope it's the fun kind of human resources which actually requires you to think rather than the really boring kind which basically treats employees like glorified computers, I've had friends who've done both before. your comment about clerkes was a little odd until I read it phonetically, sinse obviously like me, orphius is English, it's a similar pronunciation to derby, though I have also seen it written as a r k.
I'll admit the Us thing of calling them clerkes to rhyme with Kirk always sounds weerd to me, but I suppose it would .

Today I went to an informational morning on guide dogs. Guide dogs is one of the few charities over here that I have a lot of time for, and not just because of the dogs. Some of ttheir campaigns, about getting laws inforced regarding pavement parking and audio announcements on busses were interesting to know about and of course I put my ore in, I'll also e helping a little with one of their fund raising days doing a bit of singing.
It's odd, most organizations for the blind over here I don't tend to find work well because of the usual "what we say goes", or "we're only interested in specific people" ethos, but guide dogs don't work like that, or at least they haven't recently, they also gave me some handy suggestions sinse loyds are closing my local branch which is a pain in the arse and means I'll need to walk into the very crowded center of town to find the other Loyds bank.
I know roughly where it is, but "roughly" is the operative word, and unfortunately blind square doesn't seem quite accurate enough to tell you which door on a street is which, guide dogs however do have a service where you can ask one of the trainers to do a route with your dog with you which would be good.
I will also see about contacting another majestrate's court in newcastle, which is about 15 minutes away on the train and see if they want volunteers.

In other news, my book reviews still continue to be popular which is good, I've recently started on articles for the site too. you can find them over at www.fantasybookreview.co.uk. Right now I'm working on one for the first red dwarf novel, infinity welcomes careful drivers, ---- well I am when I can tear myself away from Doctor who audios or adventure to fate, really it's amazing how a game with so little description is so dam addictive! .

On Doctor who, well as you know I think Steven Moffat is a genius with an ever original take on surprising pplotlines which are always satisfyingly resolved and a gift for telling emotional stories with diverse characters, ---- I also think the moon is made of green cheese, free market capitalism insures fareness for all, jar jar binks is the best thing to happen to Starwars ever and coffee is the creation of Satan!

I'm afraid "Moffat must die", or at least "moffat must stop producing doctor who" has been my thought ever sinse season 5.I don't know which gets me more, the constant business about asking unresolved questions that go no where, the super fast storylines that try to be epic but don't have the characters or time to help, the fact that Moffat can only write one female character and we get this same over confident, over flirty ever smug and self centered woman shoved down our throats whether she's called missy or amy or river song.

I think though the single thing that irritates me most with moffat is his kiddy kiddy approach, where nothing bad is ever allowed to happen  ever! this I'm afraid Aaron is why i hated the so called fiftyieth aniversary special, sinse you know the time war, that traumatized the doctor for the past two  regenerations and made the galaxy so wonderfully dark? well by the way there were children on gallifrey and will someone please! think of the children!
And it's not just retconning the time war (though that is bad enough). Look at the Forest of the niht episode last year when oooh, look it starts with a cute child who's lost her sister and of course the sister turns up at the end!
If Doctor who has ever had a single over riding point, it is that you can't change the past even with a time machine, indeed verrity lambert and Cid newman originally had the first Doctor's tardis uncontrollable in the sixties because! they realized how easily time travel could wreck the drama in any story.

This is a point that's reitterated again and again, indeed often the Doctor is asked by people to go back and prevent bad stuff from happening, but at least in the classic series and the audios he refuses, because the Doctor isn't god or father christmas or some sort of magic wizard, he's just a chap trying to do his bestt.

This point is made again  and again in none moffat doctor who, that changing the past is a bad idea. The astecs, The meddling monk, day of the daleks, and in the new series under Russel with waters of mars and fires of Pompay.
Indeed the audios explore this even more, sinse they can! do far darker storylines as they have no sensorship to follow, creatures of beauty, flip flop, not to mention the hole 8th Doctor Charley story where the universe gets screwed over thanks to the Doctor saving someone he shouldn't. Heck, even last months monthly story from big finish, the secret history bought this point up again (quite appropriate sinse it saw the return of the meddling monk).

But not under moffat, because you know, the doctor is magic! or at least he is when his ever smug assistant pushes him into things.

Russel T davies occasionally got to the edge of this line, but at least he still had people die and bad things happen and on the few occasions he really! pushed the reset button (like the sound of drumbs), it had a point, hell sound of drumbs is so bloody dark it destroys one tenth of the earth's population!

Well not with Moffat, sinse now the universe is a shiny happy place where nothing bad ever happens! and really, this harms the hole series.
I like capaldy's doctor as the doctor, he's definitely got the presence and the brooding down, but really it just makes him look like a sad sack if all the time he's trying to be  dark and scottish but nothing bad ever happens  particularly sinse the impossibly smug and self satisfied girl is always pushing him around and never lets him actually be right, ---- really is the title of this series doctor who or the clara show?
Ultimately, however dark and scottish and dour Capaldy tries to be, there's no point him asking "Am I a good man?" if there is zero possibility of the answer ever being no, ever!

In fairness I will say I enjoyed both Jamy matheson episoes last series, mummy on the orient express and Flatline, and I thought time heist had some possibilities as a time travel story with a very unique monster albeit I do wish it had a little more time in plot, so I will still watch new who in hopes it improves, I just seem to be more disappointed than not.

I have to say that's only part of what irritates  me with moffat and I could probably write for a long while on the subject, but I'll move on sinse people probably don't want another anti moffat rant from me and this one has gone on long enough already .

Suffice it to say that I now considder there to be only ten encarnations of the doctor, and yes the time war happened, and Paul Mcgan was in it .

Btw, I've actually this week been watching more classic who with my dad, some pertwee stories. The time warrior, Death to the Daleks and the green death. And I have to say, despite the wobbly sets and occasionally drawn out plots, just in terms of acting, dialogue and pure story moffat is no contest! and that's before we get into the Bf audios, which, even in their more dire moments are still absolutely awesome sauce! (I'm listening to the companion chronicles again at the moment).

@Tom, that's interesting. As you know "French fries" are more commonly called chips in britain, however the distinction is a little less clear. Chips tend to be thicker and more chewy than fries, (very bad and greasy if made improperly but rather nice if done well), usually served as the traditional British Fish and chips (hence Sam's conversation with golumn in Lotr). You also however, do now get a lot of places serving fries, but if they're  called "fries" they  are cooked in the thin, crispy and American style. Like the term "cookies" Fries are also sort of as a specific Americanism and usually to accompany something American like a burger or ribs as opposed to the usual fish or pie or whatever that would commonly come with chips, (you will rarely see a place advertise "fish and fries"

Then you frequently get Potatoe wedges, either served as a starter or as an accompanyment, quite common in pizza places, the odd Italian or mexicons. These are as you describe, like chips or french fries but much thicker and usually also on the crispy side, often served with a coating or a dipping sauce. I wonder if wedges are similar to Jo Joes? then again, I always thought the potatoe wedges thing was an american import! gaaaaagh! Drake should've left the dam things where he found them and saved us all this linguistic  confusion about how to chop up and fry one particular bulbus vegitable! .

Hmmm, free satnav aps over here? The Rnib navigator has a paid subscription, and anyway as far as I know that is just a rebranded version of another program anyhow.
Then again  the only satnav I use myself is blindsquare which isn't subscription, it was a streight up price (I believe about 16 pounds or so), and i'm fairly sure that is out in the Us anyway.

Hmmmm, fish that doesn't taste like fish? isn't that sort of a contradiction? I admit though fish and chips generally is one of these things that many people try but few get right sinse often the  fish just tastes of batter and the chips can indeed be overly soggy, however there is a happy medium you can reach where the chips are still fairly solid but not actually crispy, my local pub does wonderful chips.
Likewise with the fish, if you can get propper, actually court fish that has flavour it can be fantastic! I particularly like place myself, indeed if your into lemon you should try a lemon soul.
I also personally like mushy pease which is like mashed potatoes made of pease and served with mint sauce. It is I think one of these concepts you have to have grown up with, even some of my friends from the southern counties found it very weerd when I asked for some at their local chip shop .

In  general I'm not a fries fan, if I want something thin and crispy, ---- well I'll just go and buy a packet of crisps, though I actually don't eat many crisps either come to think of it :d.
Then again I do rather like sweet potatoe fries, or those little Italian herby potatoes you get in some places.

Oh btw, I'm about to have some awesome curry with all the trimmings, nan bread, bargies etc, so I can afford to start playing the hunger games .

I spent most of today practicing songs, and alternately playing interceptor which is cool! I am learning "no rhyme for richard" which I saw on a musical tribute to tim rice and just had! to have a go at, it's  from a musical called Blondell and is all about wicked prince John (the same one from the robin hood legend), convincing Blondell to write a poem about him instead of king Richard, on the basis that Richard doesn't rhyme with anything where as Johnb  rhymes with (as he puts it), the hole lexi con! it's hilarious and I'd love to get it right for my music school in august.

Lol Tom,  yes, lots of terms for similar things and I'll say not many have made it over here. I've seen curly fries, but they're rare and usually held to be a bit of a kid's thing anyway. Chips oddly enough can be served by even high class restaurants over here though of course quality can vary, for example I went a few weeks ago with my brother to an incredibly upmarket steak house who did chips as a regular side, and just like their steaks and the sauce the chips were lovely!

On the other end of the scale, Don't even get me started on the profound grossiosity that is "cheasy chips", which basically is just a huge hunk of melted chease ontop of a portion of already fried chips and is sort of like an instant heart attack! .

Then again, Franky and Bennies do a thing which they nominally call "cheasy chips" but which is probably closer to the way you describe joe joes in the us, sinse it's a portion of fries with monteray jack sauce on, which are sort of closer to nachos and are actually rather nice.

Usually wedges over here are served with a dip and often as a side or a starter, for example Pappa Jon's who are probably my favourite commercial delivery pizza company (waaay better and also cheaper than dominoes, and far more upmarket than Pizza hut, actually they remind me of how pizza hut used to be in the nineties before it became incredibly low quality). Either way, they serve wedges as a regular side or starter, with a choice of dips such as sweet chilly, garlic, honey mustard or bbq sauce.

I will say though, there are lots of other nice things that can be done to spuds that don't involve frying, at least in britain, for example I love rostis if done well and if I'm having a pie or a roast dinner, indeed my mum has a friend who rears birds for hunts, so we frequently get the most wonderful free range pheasant, goose or duck, and doing the roasties in an oven tray with a little drop of the actual greace from the bird makes them amazing! (not enough to fry, just to brown the edges and give flavour).

I also do like a good gratan, or a lankishire hot pot with the scolloped potatoes on the top as well.

Indeed I'm one of these very odd people that can't abide salad, but loves cooked vegitables, and not just fried, indeed all the things that kids are supposed to not like such as cabbage, brockely, brussle sprouts are all things I'm generally a big fan of when cooked .

To change the subject for a second, last night I heard this months monthly Big Finish Dr. Who story, "We are the Daleks" it was awesome! evil capitalistt Daleks is such a great idea, as is the idea of people playing a computer game that is actually a real war and how they respond to this (a good truck full of quite satyr, but with a very fast, action packed story along with it), , and how they were used was lovely, plus I'm really interested to see where the ending goes given it's got a potentially interesting new direction for the Daleks. It also gave a good idea of why the Daleks referd to the doctor as "the oncoming storm" which was rather amusing too.

I finished buffy season 3 last night, which was very awesome, I thought the mayor was a great bad guy, sort of like Evil bill Clinton . I'm glad though Angel is leaving the series sinse really he was getting on my whick, actually I much preferd him as angellous, his evil self as opposed to just stairing dewee eyed at Buffy all the time, indeed while I'm not aversed to romance plots, indeed I'm something of a romantic generally myself, (the Willo/Sander/os thing is pretty sweet much of the time, especially Willow),  I have to say this one got rather on my whick for the fact it just stalled and basically involved lots of woffle over season 3, really i sort of expected Angel to be out of things this series after his journey to hell in season 2, which was a nice end and resolution. I'll probably be starting the angel series soon, though I'm taking a little time out to watch neverwhere, sinse I've not seen the series for ages and it's one of the best book adaptations ever, mostly because it was written by Gayman himself,  INdeed, I have to say it's one of the instances where I think the tv actors (especially croup and vandamar), are superior to those in the radio play (I just can't get used to mr. Vandamar not being scottish, and Bennedict cumberbach is far too nasty to be convincing as the Angel Islington).

Oooo, forgot about this thread.
@Aaron, I believe the monthly series subscription is for six releases each, though they recently did a deal to get about five years worth at a knockoff price so I did that.

Well things are fun, and even when not doing the wastes. The Guide dogs organization are having a general fund raising on sunday, and i'm going along to do some singing, which will help, I was trying to think of a song that related to guide dogs and in the end came up with the perfect one, ---- you'll never walk alone .

Last night, I was destracted  from playing The Wastes by a friend of mine who I went to see the play everyman with. This is a modern retelling of a medeival morality play about a man (everyman), who is called before god to give an account of his deeds. It had some lovely sections, depicting material goods as basically a bunch of very obviously wig wearing suited shop dummies who were ushering him into a department store was amusing, as was the bit when they pointed out that in terms of lasting effect, they meant nothing so he should leave if he was going to die and they'd follow the next customer.
I also liked everyman's contrition, sinse instead of doing medeval penance he ended up confessing to himself as a child which held a lot more weight.

God was also nice, as a rather world weary lady,  and I liked the depiction of death as a sort of no nonsense snarky irishman who capered about like a clown. The end was hilarious sinse death sat on the stage, said how annoyed he was (sinse everyman had called him a cunt), and then pointed to the audience and said "Well I'm vexed, ---- who's next!  eeny, meeny, miny, mo!"

The only thing I felt a bit off, is that everyman himself was sort of a scuzbag. I don't know if this confirms my general dislike of the collective or not, if this is the idea of what every man would be.

I've also been banging out more articles for fantasybookreview.co.uk, they've just posted my take on the idea of ratings and reviews on their blog, find it here

I am working on an article about literary formula, which should be fun.

I'm rereading the companion chronicles from bf at the moment, and what is odd is some have different resonances for me in different places, for example, hearing nicholas courtney drink a toast to honourable old soldiers  feels a lot more special given that he's no longer with us now.

Hi Tom.

Sorry to here about the medical troubles, I know such things aren't fun and I hope things improve. I am rather tempted though to make a very bad pun along the lines of this proves how much trouble jaws can be .
I'm sorry if that is a little too off, it just struck me with some of the recent arguements about freedom scientific that if you were to say that you had problems with your "jaws"  people would probably assume you meant something rather different.

I have no idea what "shoe string fries"  are, though I can sort of make a guess. Oddly enough over here you do occasionally get what are called skinny chips, though they usually just end up being like ordinary fries rather than the more usual thicker chips we have in the Uk.
On the few occasions I've had curley fries, I have noticed they have something spicy about them, though I don't know if this is the same as you get in the states, particularly sinse as I said they do tend to be a kids thing, often coming with kids party meals etc. I'd probably have them if they were on offer as opposed to normal fries just for the novelty, though sinse "Fries" as opposed to chips only come up in American style places anyway such as T.G.I. Fridays or Franky and bennies, the curley variety aren't too common.

Never heard of long Jon silver's, though as someone who likes all things piratical it'd probably suit me, gaarrr!

I actually will be getting some awesome grub today sinse I've got a train back to my parents and we managed to book a first class ticket. This is great when possible, though how much it costs can vary ridiculously, from 18 quid to over 60, likewise it can sometimes be just an extra fiver for the first class upgrade, sometimes it can be another 30 or 40, ---- train prices in Britain are loopy!

Usually on most train services first class isn't worth much, you just get a slightly bigger seat, perhaps a single cup of coffee if your lucky, and maybe free wifi (though sometimes not even this). With Eastcoast though, it's awesome! you get regular free coffee, or cold drinks, and even some free boose if you want, indeed I sometimes get a wisky and (because it's only average wisky), dump it in my coffee.

You then get free snacks such as biscuits, some rather nice cakes  and crisps, and usually a meal which can range, according to the season or the time of day, from sandwiches right up to stuff like lasagnia, a pie, or chicken terriaki.
They do amazing cooked breakfasts as well.
I did worry that with eastcoast trains taken over by virgin this would stop, but nothing bad has happened yet, it also helps that the staff actually know me and reever noww as well, indeed on the way up north last week even though I didn't have a first class ticket for reasons of space with me and reever I wound up sitting first class, and even though I explained I didn't have a first class ticket I got free  coffee, grub etc anyway, which was very kind and also much appreciated .

It's actually a lovely way to travel, sitting there and listening to some music or reading, or playing a game on my Iphone, being plied with various goodies for a couple of hours .

I think this afternoon I shal try the new Samurai Hyuga choice script game that came out yesterday from Hosted Games. I picked it up while it's on offer, and it looked interesting, though whether I can concentrate on being a lone ronin atoning for past misdeeds while quaffing my coffee and wisky I don't know :d.

I  always thought in America hush puppies were a type of casual shoe, like trainers (what are called sneakers I think over there), so now I've learnt something. I do remember some rather nice fried corn dumplings I had when I last went to a westindian place, I don't know if those ushpuppies you mention are similar.

Anyway sinse we have a topic about grub on the forum (and sinse I'm absolutely starving), I'll stop with the foody discussion and resume it there (when I've eaten! ).

Today I was doing a bit of charity based singing for a guide dog association event. It's the first one they organized, and to be honest the organization was a shambles, I felt rather sorry for one chap sinse he was billed as having a professional standard backing and Pa system and performers were told to use it, however he was newly blind, was a man with a karaoke set, and I felt a little  sorry  for him sinse he got majorly pissed off both at the fact his technology was so much harder to handle, and the fact that he didn't know he was told to back singers.
Luckily I just plugged my laptop into his system, he had a radio mike for me to use and everything worked out.
I also ran into an old school friend (wel  he was my friend some of the time), from my specialist school which was sort of interesting, particualrly when he admited himself that there was a "school mind set" and it never occurred to him I didn't get it and wasn't having a good time there.

I think people appreciated the singing though. Ironically I found the best song about guide dogs, "you'll never walk alone" .
I am now feeling more than a little shattered!