Elegsabiff Blog Comments (9,358)

RE: America, the land of opportunity and freedom

You are truly a lucky woman, LJ, for having achieved your dream, and being in the country you want to be in, and being utterly happy there.

Millions flood into the UK for what they perceive as their dream - not so much opportunity as a chance to live the good life on the welfare state. It isn't quite as lavish as they expect, and some cause riots, and crime rates rise, but many do get their heads down and work to make the best of the slightly disappointing end to their journey.

Millions have flooded into South Africa as being the richest and most stable country in Africa. I don't know that so many do now, with Zuma in power and seemingly set on turning it into a second Zimbabwe.

The US was never an option for me, by the time I was leaving SA I was over 40 and insufficiently skilled to get a green card. I visited, and enjoyed my visits. My best friend emigrated to Canada 30 years ago and loves it. We all dream of a Nirvana. I have no idea how my life will pan out in Spain but there is sunshine, there is opportunity, and there is a better lifestyle than in the UK - I am content.

RE: What feeds us the most?

We come here for different reasons. I came to talk to single people and ask questions for research, I stayed because I met people for real and enjoyed that very much, and I stay now because it is a lively blogging site and although I blog in the real world, there's nothing to match the spirited give and take here on CS.

BTW, I've personally never seen being single as being a plight. Being alone, yes. For those who feel alone, CS is like a virtual Cheers, or a coffee shop, where you know the others there and they know you. That's rather nice.

I made some friends here and right now the friend I see the most of I met through CS so it was a win win all the way for me.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

No pressure

Wen, all this talk these days of digital currencies, I reckon we have been there for a while already

Sports and competition is for sure the way to quick bucks for the really gifted, I don't know what American football players earn but footie players in the UK in the top leagues earn around a million pounds a week for their short sporting lives. I think they're the highest earners, but when you actually look at what the top sportsmen earn generally, sure, why study towards a dull job earning not very much, get out there and kick a ball, or hit it over a net, or drive a car very fast, to take a shot at the top spot

No pressure

Gotta teach. Back later

No pressure

Map, agreed, the future could be alarming once society as we know it has crashed. This blog is really about the crash being carefully orchestrated.

If, of course, one is paranoid.

No pressure

Pat, sounds idyllic, will they forage for you as well so you can keep eating? Having spent your life savings on them, and no more money coming in ...

No pressure

Non, cybercrime is the way forward, sit at your desk and re-route millions into your bank account

No pressure

Molly, what scares the boots off me is that a lot of this is government funded, or government supported, or at the very least not government discouraged.

There was a tax break at one point in Scotland encouraging corporations to hire more people, because they got a benefit for employing more. That quietly went away and staff cuts followed rapidly.

Goes back to my last comment. What do the powers that be know that we don't? They're preparing for a world with far fewer people needed. Er - why?

No pressure

LJ, driverless cars are already in road test conditions, I'd say earlier than 2030 for routine journeys (local shops and back, airport runs, imagine being able to sit in the back of your car on the way to work and drink coffee while you prepare for the day to come?)

It's all very seductive, i'm certainly not knocking progress. I just wonder what our governments and scientists are up to, and what they know that we don't, because no government on Earth should be looking for ways to reduce the ways in which citizens can stop working and stop paying taxes.

No pressure

Non, Pepper's cute

I write SF (not very successfully) so I do read up everything I can find especially on robots, they fascinate me. Right now, they're a novelty, 40 years ago they were pure fiction, in 40 years time they will be actively doing much of the basic routine stuff that bores us humans so much.

Freeing up lots of not fantastically bright people who are only really suited to routine work to do - what?

No pressure

Map, I know human beings are inefficient but is there some giant plague due that we haven't been told about? Because otherwise we're looking at a future with a billion people or more sitting home with their feet up, which is all very good and nice and they'll be fed and housed by the 6 or 7 billion people working.

But - at this rate of progress - it will become 6 billion people sitting home and 1 or 2 billion working. That's not sustainable. So ..... why are people being phased out? What's going to happen to them?

I'm old enough not to really care but I wouldn't want to have a 10 year old right now, wondering what the future holds for him or her

No pressure

Comment in passing - my last class was a 9 year old, studying at 7.30 pm on a Sunday night his time.

My next is a 13 year old, who will be doing an English lesson at 10 pm on a Sunday night her time.

When I was 13 catch me giving up my Sunday night to study ANYTHING. So different now.

No pressure

Z, it was partly you who got me thinking about this, combined with my students and their incredible workloads. It is a little scary.

No pressure

Mimi, there are androids being created that will never get tired, never have a hair out of place, and can smile and smile and smile ...

No pressure

Pat, yup, but at the same time I can't see much emphasis is being put on teaching skills like building, repairing - in fact it isn't long before things won't be repaired. Just print a replacement off your 3D printer ... trade schools should be booming because there is a growing shortage of basic skills. They aren't. There aren't very many of them at all.

No pressure

Molly, agreed. I can't see that people are being freed up for more complicated jobs, because there don't seem to be more complicated jobs appearing?

Hope I'm wrong on that one - maybe someone can put me right

No pressure

Chesney, my point is more that jobs are being phased out altogether - job sharing, and working fewer hours, would be the way forward, to keep everyone in work, but this is going far beyond that?

No pressure

Hi Mimi! keep working on your son, wrestling will always be human but plumbing and electricianing will give him fewer bruises and keep him in work for life

Things Mum taught me

Huit, yes, never heard that at home but my teacher used to say it to us just before she smacked the backs of our knees with a ruler.

I really, REALLY, hope it hurt her more but it was amazing she had such fortitude

Things Mum taught me

pat, it works for you, there are a queue of us waiting for your attention

Things Mum taught me

I still can't see you but I know you will solve the problem eventually. Lots to do, gotta run for now, back later with coffee xx

Things Mum taught me

This is weird, I can hear Molly's voice but I can't see her anywhere

RE: Hiding behind No Comments

Howzit Mimi lovely

your comments are always worth reading!!!!

RE: A you tube find on rejection

And he's worth what, 47 billion now?

Almost makes me wish I got rejected more often

GREAT blog

RE: No fear

Kal, fab pic

RE: No fear

Oh, I am trying to persuade Molly to avoid the silhouette, it is fretting at me. I offered at least a black-haired alternative but she's not biting

Things Mum taught me

And as it is now 1.30 in the morning I am heading to my cosy bed in the storeroom.

(I do have a bedroom I could use. However, the storeroom is lovely and warm )

Things Mum taught me

I just idly did a blank pic of me with red hair. That frees up the black hair for Miss Molly.

Don't imagine the mods would see this comment but for the record - if someone is so completely identified by their pic, after several years, does it actually matter what the pic is? Especially as the blogger who caused the fuss had a fake pic up for quite a while himself. Not on.

RE: No fear

Reading this blog's comments is surreal. Blank faces everywhere.

You're all safe from me. I don't make passes at people without faces

Things Mum taught me

Kal, you tell her!!!