I've got a job interview.

Well done. For the comics book one?

Excellent, MaliA. Good luck.

Excellent news. Good luck.

I think red shirts are for when you're trying to have sex with someone.

I think red shirts are for when you're trying to have sex with someone.

And Sky just sent me a £25 M&S voucher due to the broadband taking ages to come online.

There's a slightly sinister letter from the student loans company. Apparently, I must provide evidence of how I support myself financially, and reply within 28 days, otherwise I may be liable ' to pay a penalty of up to £150'.

Whenever I read a "may" in those types of letters, I mentally replace it with "won't"

Same thing in these cases I find

Some common circumstances are:
You are unemployed and in receipt of benefits
Please provide us with a copy of a letter, dated within the last 3 months, from the DWP confirming your benefits or a copy of your current benefits agency book.

If your benefits are paid directly into your bank account, please provide us with a copy of your most recent bank statement which shows your name and the benefit being paid to you.

You can also ask the Benefits Agency to stamp the form and have someone there record their signature and the current date beside the stamp.

You are being supported by a 3rd party
Please provide us with a signed letter from that person confirming that they are supporting you financially. they do not need to specify any amounts, only that they are providing you with financial support.

You are still studying
Please return the form to us if you are currently in receipt of financial support from the Student Loans Company. Write your Customer Reference Number on the form for the grant or loan that has been paid to you.

You must have received at least the first instalment of any grant or loan in the current academic year for this to be counted as your means of support.

If you are not in receipt of further support from us, please provide evidence of your means of support while you are studying, e.g. 3rd party support letter, copy of a bank loan agreement, copy of a grant award letter etc.

You are living from savings
Please provide us with a copy of your latest bank statement showing the funds you are living from. Please note that your name must be shown on this statement.

On receipt of your fully completed UK Form, confirming you are not currently in employment, we will record this information on our records.

You should advise us immediately if you become employed or go overseas for more than 3 months. We will contact you again regarding repayments if HMRC advise us that you are in employment in the UK.

Good luck and well done, sir.

What's the position doing?

That's not intrusive, that's just checking whether or not you should be repaying them according to the loan agreement, which seems sensible, no?

On reflection, yes. but it still means I've to do shit.

Can't you just get MrsA to write you a note?

I want sand for christmas now.

If you do Secret Santa this year your Santa is going to have *quite* the postage costs to cover.

That's not intrusive, that's just checking whether or not you should be repaying them according to the loan agreement, which seems sensible, no?

It seems overly intrusive to me. The deal with student loans is that you pay it back when you earn over a certain threshold, which is easily dealt with through the current tax/paye/whatever automated systems.

If you don't go over the threshold, you don't pay until you do. How somebody supports themselves if they don't go over the threshold is nobodies business except their own, assuming it is legal. If it isn't legal, then it is up to somebody to prove that you are doing something illegal, not for you to prove that you are legal. Innocent until proven guilty and all that...

Yeah, on reflection I agree with you actually.

You are just awful at internet arguments.

In other news, you might want to check out "Pants Are Overrated" comic strip if you haven't recently (can't give you a link as it is blocked from here) they have finished their strip and as an ending they did two more Calvin and Hobbes tribute strips, the second one of which is really nice

Mali - don't tell them anything!

Okay, firstly, what is China up to?

http://gizmodo.com/5859081/why-is-china ... the-desert

Also, the comments are funny, as always.

It seems overly intrusive to me. The deal with student loans is that you pay it back when you earn over a certain threshold, which is easily dealt with through the current tax/paye/whatever automated systems.

This depends on when MaliA took the loan(s) - when I did mine, I had to deal with repayments myself.

Obviously this meant my forgetting, then being lazy about deferring, then shitting myself when they sent me a letter saying "pay us £450 within 14 days or we sue you for £6400."

If MaliA's on the new HMRC-managed system, then the correct response is to write a letter saying "No. HMRC aren't bothering me (and it's their actual job), so why are you?"

This depends on when MaliA took the loan(s) - when I did mine, I had to deal with repayments myself.

Obviously this meant my forgetting, then being lazy about deferring, then shitting myself when they sent me a letter saying "pay us £450 within 14 days or we sue you for £6400."

1998-2000. I pay them back when I earn money, and don't have to pay Xpcm. I was just a bit surprised by the tenor of the letter, it seems to be very distrustful, and a bit odd, given I've not heard a peep from them since 2008...

Off work today. Sick wife and child. Not feeling great myself. Just had an argument with a binman.

Oh, I didn't even know he did stand up. I thought he was just a kids TV presenter who ruined Buzzcocks.

I hope you called him a trash-eating stinkbag.

Simon Amstell is 100x better than The Lesser Spotted Smugfaced Cunt.

Simon Amstell is 100x better than The Lesser Spotted Smugfaced Cunt.

Bargain, quick:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/saddle-retro- ... _500wt_689

Stupid 'never having the installation disc when you need it most' strikes again. Office 2003.

Bargain, quick:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/saddle-retro- ... _500wt_689

Hmm.. found out that our Christmas party is to be a masquerade ball this year. Think I'll stay at home.

Hmm.. the amount of stick I've had a work for deciding not to go to this has been surprising. At these functions I barely say a word so no-one would notice if I was there or not. I've resorted to telling folk 'I'll think about it'.