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I’ll be honest 85 pages long @Storts I’ll be waiting for the tl;dr version, could only get so many pages in there I’m currently in further education on an access course to eventually study Psychology (or similar, interested in social work) at Uni. I left school with 1 GCSE in which I had to stick around for an extra year to resit. Managed to get a diploma in something ICT based that year but also failed the two other subjects they sat me in. Fair to say I rarely attended. Educationally school was not a good place for me, I’m half deaf and was fitted with a hearing aid at about 5/6 years old. Concentration has always been a difficulty for me and the older I get, the more reading I do the more I feel like I belong somewhere on the Autism spectrum. That’s not to mention my OCD too. So yeah concentration was a massive issue for me, I failed my year 3 SATS and was about 2-3 years behind my age group. Between years 4-6 I was fairly extensively put in the special needs classes where they managed to bring me up to standard in time for the year 6 SATS. Unfortunately it all went downhill from secondary school onwards. I was in a class with a designated class “helper”, the person there to help the kids with special needs...or as you were less affectionately known back then the Soggy Baguettes. We had a special needs set up at the school which I frequented in my early years but by year 9 onwards I was never put in. Partially the schools oversight, partially a 12/13 year old kid trying to avoid being a target. Year 7 and 8 no exams but I was put in set 2 (out of 5) for Science, eventually I’d drop to set 4. Dropped to set 5 for Maths. Set 5 also for English. Failed my SATS miserably, failed my mock GCSE’s, then failed the real ones. A lot of kids throughout school learn the ability to learn, revise, pass exams, work at home, prioritise work and play and work towards goals. I was lost in the classroom size, concentration often disappeared and eventually resorted to type, bit of a clown and didn’t pay attention. The only thing that I learned at school was that I was “stupid”, I learned how to fail exams and stop caring and eventually that’s what happened. Left school, no qualifications, faked them on my CV, got various jobs doing whatever but ironically the type of career I’d like to go into requires a degree so here we are. Ten years after failing the last set of exams I had at school and I’m doing what is essentially your A Levels all in one year. Its a shame I never really had the support I needed at secondary as looking back it seemed quite obvious I only succeeded in smaller class rooms with more one on one learning. My concentration issues seemed to be deemed as lazy more than anything and I like many others, especially deaf children who are statistically less likely to do as well as full hearing children, fell through the educational system. I won’t lie the work ethic isn’t quite there yet as it’s an adjustment going from only knowing how to fail in education, to a decade of work and travel and the back to school as I’m pushing 30 but the material seems understandable. Smart kids being perceived as stupid or not having their educational needs met is fairly important to me so if that document goes onto help future kids who’d otherwise go down the same road I did then there’s another reason for me to vote Labour. Thanks for attending my TedTalk and apologies @Storts for hijacking your moment, good stuff and well done

Ford vs Ferrari (Le Mans '66) - just got back from the cinema. Not as epic as I expected it to be, but still a good movie. Probably felt a bit underwhelming to me as being familiar with the story of the rivalry as well as of Ken Miles and also having seen the actual race, I always knew what was going to happen. A must watch for a racing fan but it keeps it balanced so even those who have little interest in cars should enjoy it; very entertaining. The cars are real eye candy and the sound work is amazing; that Ford GT40 roaring sounds are the real deal and the race shots are beautiful. It's a blast from the past of how proper racing used to be. Still; it's not even close to the brilliance of Le Mans (1971) with Steve McQueen though. 7.5/10

Wenger shits all over Emery.

and they STILL don’t understand that it’s all because there is NO SUCH THING as Brexit. It’s all bullshit!

My housemate said Gomez has a cut above his eye, is that true? If so I have no sympathy for Sterling at all if it went that far. You can always question whether these things should be dealt with in house or publicly, but if Gomez has physical signs of a scrap, people are going to notice Sterling isn't in the side for Montenegro, and with the amount of people who know England players, staff or people who work at St Thingy Park, it's going to get out so maybe it's the best thing that Southgate has just owned up to it and given the full story outright instead of allowing the newspapers and social media to speculate and make things sound even worse. Going back to Sterling though, yes you have to accept that these things happen between young men who happen to be super-competitive athletes, but there also has to be consequences if you bust your team-mate's forehead open or whatever he's done.

Getting somebody by the neck in a threatening manner shouldn’t be just swept under the rug. It was, by the sounds of all reports, an unprovoked ‘attack’ and the clown should be punished public ally like he has. I agree with Southgate making an example of him.

DIsney+ just came out - So I'm starting over all the Star Wars films. Starting with 'A New Hope'

I think they'll both be miraculously fine.

You know certain areas of the media have been waiting for Sterling to make a mistake. Especially after he’s been appointed England’s head of racism. Build them up and tear them back down. Some absolute waffle in here comparing a recent 2 time Premier League winner in one of the best sides to ever grace the league to Tottenham Hotspur, a side with no silverware expectation whatsoever. Also as if Spurs haven’t been utter shit this season because of that loss. He’a been a knob, he’s apologised, let it go. Stop following media narratives that they try to create about him.

So Fortnite has now added Skill Based matchmaking (which I thought is usually the case in the vast majority of online games) and some poxy YouTuber has said he's against this because 'it's puts you against similar skilled players to help you improve and when you do, it puts you up against better players. I'm not a fan, this is the worst addition ever and it's killing the game'. Ummmmm............... what? https://uk.ign.com/articles/2019/11/11/fans-are-divided-over-fortnites-skill-based-matchmaking

@The Artful Dodger

Off to Barcelona on Thursday for 4 nights. Just back from the USA, saw so much.

Mainly misguided predictions To be honest, I do look out for Dusseldorf results because of your support. Likewise Werder Bremen for @nudge & @Devil-Dick Willie, or Schalke for @SchalkeUK etc etc. Dortmund would still be my preferred team. But I have taken a liking to Frankfurt - didn't really watch them play much before last season but their Europa League campaign opened my eyes up to how well they can play and how well they're supported. To be fair, support for German football, in stadiums, is ridiculously good. Even in 2. Bundesliga it's sell outs for grounds up to 60,000?! Can't knock that at all.

Ist das etwa keine Meldung wert, dass der stolze Theodor seinen Vertrag verlängert hat? Ich bin etwas enttäuscht von unserer Werderfraktion.