Knight of Swords

My dad plays guitar in my current band and played guitar in my last band. He's a really good musician and that fact that he had twenty years on the rest of the band didn't come into it.

Gigging is boring. I enjoy the time you're actually on stage if the gig's going down well, but generally it's a lot of hassle for me.

I like recording because I'm not into music for anyone else's benefit, I don't need to leave the house and I always enjoy listening to something that I've invested a lot of time into. I also have more control over what I'm doing when I record.

I wouldn't say the article is lying, just that it is wrong. It definitely isn't telling the truth, but I would say that's merely another example of why "not telling the truth" is not always the same as "lying".

Not being from Aberdeen, I always found it friendly enough, esepcially compared to the south west of Scotland, where I live. Right enough, it's fucking cold compared to down here.

All by herself?

Most people I know don't like hearing the truth. I think we'd have big problems if people were honest. However, you also don't need to lie to people, you can just not saying anything. I don't think this is the same as telling lies.

If you're getting shite from your boss, I wouldn't say it's a lie if you accept it and don't put him in his place, but it is, "not telling the truth". I think the article didn't draw the distinction between "lies" and "keeping your mouth shut".

I've only ever been to one pub in Aberdeen. Haven't got a clue what it was called, but it somewhere in the vacinity of Pittodrie. Think there was a big amusements/ arcade type place near it, which was also next to a small children's park and it was practically on the beach.

I'm sure I saw an American programme about Rome and it was terrible "Rome was the capital city of a very big and ancient empire in Europe (which is across the ocean from our wonderful nation. The people who lived in Rome were called Romans etc"

Honkey Tonk Woman - Stones

That's what I'd go for as well.

They played a few new songs at The Arches on Tuesday. Reckon this album is going to be a lot heavier than usual.

Gig itself wasn't as good as I was expecting, but it was still a good night. Think a combination of sleep deprivation and crappy venue killed a bit of the fun, everyone else seemed to think it was brilliant. And the tix were only a tenner, so I can't complain.

Unfortunately, because it was a charity gig for Asylum Seekers, they had the unbelievably stupid Dozy Kane MSP giving her usual rant-to-no-end. Apparently the treatment of asylum seekers is "fucking shite". "Oh really Rosie? We hadn't noticed. But tell me, what are you actually planning to do about it?"

Nah, don't really dig her that much.

And the fact that regardless of anything else, Burns would still have been racing had this not happened. Far too young to be taken by something like that, especially considering the danger in motor racing.

I would say general tips for a comparitive essay would be to mix up the two books in your essay, don't write about one then the other then compare them afterwards. Pick something you can compare the two books on, and write about both books in the same paragraph. Then on the next paragraph, pick another way you can compare them and do the same. I think when you do it this way, it improves the flow of the essay.

And regardless of what you think of the two books, try to keep your essay objective and do your conclusion based on what you've written as opposed to what you think. Sometimes, you might stronly believe one answer, but find it hard to express. Sometimes when you look at your essay, you'll realise it suggests something different to what you believe, so for the sake of integrity, you want to go with what you've written, or it looks like you've just rambled and haven't supported your arguments properly.

What I've written looks like rambles and I'm giving advice on essay writing. I had to do a lot of essays at uni, so I know what I'm saying works, even if it looks unlikely.

My favourite drummer is still Billy Cobham.

He's not dead. As somebody says, this rumour turns up from time to time. The sex story is true though, he shagged someone's wife in her car, then her man found out so she claimed she was raped. Someone as kooshty as a Chuckle Brother will have burds all over the place, wouldn't need to rape someone.

The interviews were always good when the two of them were competing, although I got the impression they kind of sided with each other when Marcus Grondholm (or however the fuck you spell his name) was winning a lot. I liked the fact that everyone that was interviewed was crabbit and generally unpleasent about their colleagues.

It's a real shame he died when he should still have been out there racing.

Erm... the fact that you mature massively perhaps...

none of that changes what I said.... shit loads of people have gap years' date=' shit loads of people work for a bit... nobody forces you to go directly to uni... and if you're not sure but do want to go... do a generalised course, then you can sample a few things and find what you're better at.[/quote']

If you read my initial post about how I think uni courses should be run, I actually said that in the majority of cases, students should all have generalised courses. At the moment, arts faculties are the most generalised (certainly at the older unis). I'm glad you agree.

Well considering how many people I'm sure you and I probably know who are at uni and even teaching at the uni... I'd say you could get a pretty good idea. It's hard work... you don't work hard' date=' you fail... there are tutors etc who are there with office hours which you can drop into for help.

Considering beeker has been to uni and my other half is a tutor at aberdeen... I'm sure we can form some form of idea between us.

What is it you are trying to argue? You're spinning off on tangents... you were talking about jobs after uni.... I have a job... and have always worked since I was 16... be it in school holidays or full-time as I do now. Beeker here has a technical based job.

What I'm saying is...[/quote']

Actually, you argued with something I said which had nothing to do with jobs (to be honest, it had little to do with what I was talking about). I know what you're saying and I don't agree with what you said. I've already wrote why.

No jobs? That's funny... there's a huge shortage of nurses' date=' doctors and engineers in the UK. So erm... oh wait you mean a shortage of arts based jobs? Well... you see... industry doesn't depend on arts students so there will always be a shortage of jobs in this sector.[/quote']

Actually, most arts graduates don't go into arts based professions. Apart from this, there aren't enough university places to accomodate every student in the few fields you mentioned.

As for going to uni at 17? Who said this is forced upon you? If you don't know what to do then be mature enough to take a year or two out until you do... doing something you're not even sure about is basically going to uni for the sake of going... thus wasting not only your own time but using up a place someone else who truly wants to do the course could use.

The government have already stated that they want to see about 50% of school leavers going onto higher education. People are being actively encouraged to go to uni or college. Considering the education system basically carries you along till you're in 6th Year' date=' plenty of people are happy to stick with. And why do you think that if you don't know what you want to do when you're 17, you'll have any more idea when you're 20?

You're really shooting yourself in the foot here, thousands of people take years out. I didn't realise it was inforced that people HAVE to go to uni at 17.

Is this sarcasm? Refer to my last paragraph.

Hahahaha... vote Labour? That's set me up in giggles for the week.

Well you sound like a troglodyte, so it was an educated guess.

i'm betting a serial year repeater.... " i just can't make up my mind"

hehe' date=' shortage of jobs my arse; anyone on this forum could go and work in McD's probably starting tonight. Difference between not getting a job and not getting a job you like. not everyone can paint for a living!.[/quote']

I'm betting a Sun reader for you.

Also... I am wrong to think that people would actually reserach what they are signing themselves up to for four years of their lives?

You really are living in cloud cockoo land... are you a drop out by any chance?

Erm, no actually. Perhaps if you'd actually read what I've written you'd have noticed that.

And as I said, nobody who hasn't been to uni can appreciate what it will be like. You can research the type of work you might be doing, but that's it. It seems more like you're the one who knows bugger all about this.

It's my belief that if someone truly wants to do a course and do have a degree of intelligence that you'd actually reseach what the course holds (go figure). This information can easily be accessed from any university. You can even try speaking to older students on the course (again... this can be easily arranged) to ask what the course holds in later years. Staff members from each department are also good people to ask.

You are wrong. How many seventeen year olds have the maturity to make a decision which their entire life potentially rides upon?

Also... what you fail to realise is that in this day and age you don't need a degree to get a good job.

I fail to realise this because in the majority of cases' date=' this is not true.

Also... it's the governments fault that there around a million jobs out there for music students? That's nonsense... all industries are based on a demand and if you want to access an industry where the demand for employees is incredibly low that you have to take into consideration that the most likely scenario is that your dream job won't fall on your lap..

It's called reality.

This is quite easy. There are no jobs. The government push everyone to go to uni. This keeps unemployment figures down. Graduates come out of university and there are still no jobs. The only difference is they now owe money to the government. Is this situation created by the student or the government?

This is called reality. What you described is called "Blame Him - Vote Labour".

This assumes universities are there to prepare people for employment which by and large they are not. This has derived from the fact that for many years a Uni education assisted you in getting a good job. But it wasn't the reason for it. Universities are places where you go to learn' date=' the expectatioon is no greater. Governments teachers and parents have a belief they are a kind of pre-employment training which for medicine engineering and so on they are but they are also there to maintain the culture and academia of the world and allow individuals to learn what they wish to.[/quote']

I did make that assumption. I was at Glasgow Uni and it definitely doesn't work like that there (at least in the context of the arts faculty). I'm assuming the same is true for the old unis in general. However, most unis do seem to have a strong focus on finding work for their graduates.

I agree that what you've described is the way things should be, I just don't think they are to the extent you described.

I think there's another way to look at arts degrees that nobody has spoken about yet (this is a majorly condensed version as the forum keeps logging me out when I try to type this)...

Employers agree that any new employee (graduate or not) doesn't have the ability to come into the workplace and carry out their job in the manner of someone experienced in the same profession. This demonstrates the pointlessness of vocational training at degree level (maybe apart from something like medicine or law, where there's a hell of a lot of work to cover before you're allowed to actually practice). If universities are wasting time with vocationally based degrees then what purpose do they serve? The only answer is to filter students capable of attaining a certain level of achievement from those not (a degree shows that a graduate is capable of working to a certain level).

So what does the university teach students under these circumstances? I would suggest as broad an education as possible would be the best way to go forward (why specialise when nobody requires it). Arts degrees by far and away contain the most broad ranging array of subjects available to any prospective student. In this, it can actually be seen that arts degree courses are far more useful than the multitude of vocational degree courses available (for example, contrast the amount of music students in this country compared to the amount of available jobs in the music industry). The lack of jobs in this country extends to the initial statement with regards to arts degrees. Is it the fault of the university or even the graduate (as some of the slower-witted amongst us have claimed) that the government is doing its best to destroy the job market? If we look at an this from an international perspective, arts graduates can easily find work abroad. The problem is simply that most people don't want to leave (again, this is no fault of the arts degree). If, after all this, you still want to claim that an arts degree isn't worth the paper it was written on, blame the government.

From my description of higher education, you can see I'm looking at a classical model. Most universities don't approach education like this nowadays. Where has this got us? Unless you're in the government and are desperate for every teenager in the universe to go to uni in order to keep the unemployment figures down, there have been no benefits to the shift from academia to vocational training.

Incidentally Lester, you keep saying that people who fail their course should have to pay back money. They already do. And it's so wonderful to see these people, whose only mistake was to pick the wrong course, being stuck in a job which doesn't befit their intelligence, no degree, no career prospects and a debt to rival a gambling addict realising that for them, this is it and all because nobody exaplained to them that psychology was actually all statistics or that most of their computer programming course was theory and essays. What a model for society.

Someone told me they played some of the new stuff at the ABC but I don't remember. It was probably good though because everything was.