DJKillaQueen

Ty Binary...I'm having an afternoon of listening to Abba....exactly what a 21 year old would be listening to of course *cough*

Of course their time is limited, but if you can make that kind of money, that young, and be sensible with it then it's a pretty good start in life. Good luck to them I say.

lol...take a break indeed....they are making the money from TV/ advertising and merchandising work (which Simon Cowell and Talkback have no claim over), not music - where as you rightly say there is 'payback' first. To give you an idea...that includes; A six figure deal with Rowntree's Randoms ads. ?250,000 from Nintendo's Chrismas ads. Deals from I'm a Celeb and Talk Talk. They are doing pretty well.

Apparently they are already more than half way there.

I agree that it is a sausage factory where all acts come out looking the same. A good case in point is Danyl from last year. A great audition, unique style, a 'cockiness' that all great performers have, then slowly all squeezed out of him. Absolutely the wrong show for him. But just because it is the wrong show for some artists doesn't mean it is for all artists. For someone like Cher for example...it is the perfect show. And Jedward (whom I absolutely hate with a vengenace) now have a three album deal with Universal (go figure that one). Leon Jackson who hated every aspect of how he was packaged after winning now does his own thing. Performing and writing the music he likes. Ironically they packaged him like a kind of Michael Buble but didn't promote his album very hard, even though imo it is the best album put out by any X Factor/ Pop Idol winner. X Factor is what it is. It's looking for a 'pop' artist that can have chart hits, a chart that is determined mostly by young people with specific tastes. The charts have always been like that and there have always been Simon Cowell's packaging and marketing acts/ artists to fit that mould.

Dang....even my Birthday is controversial.....is nothing sacred ;-) ? Ty Karter....I intend to be drunk within the hour and stay that way for the remainder of the day! *therefore post a disclaimer for anything I may post during that time*

They call me 'Highlander'

I beg to differ. Millions of people like many of the acts and watch the show every week. It's one of the biggest rating shows, so I guess those that make the show know something you don't.

Yes my second birthday is on Friday ;-) :)-D

No they don't all flop. Some of them are multi millionaires several times over.....

YAY It is now indeed officially my BIRTHDAY................. I want cake NOW ! lol.............

Maybe the boy's school can make use of the facilities.

Squatters cannot be charged with breaking and entering if a building is left unsecured So is locking your home not considered as secured? Because that means anyone of us could lose our home to squatters legally every time we leave the house.

Was she a Vegetarian Thomas?

lol good point.

I've found many bargains in charity shops, bought a suicase and trolly for a fiver recently and was more than happy knowing it was going to the Red Cross. Clothes, I tend to give the decent ones away or to shops and the rest I put into the recycling bins where they are recycled to make rugs and other scrap based items. There is a way to recycle everything.

I just had a leaflet drop through my door from 'Tree of Hope'. It has a valid charity Reg no. on it that I could check and it is a bona fide charity, along with a bona fide address, website etc and information on what they raise as spend as a not for profit organisation. Took me less than a minute to find out who they are and what they do. At the bottom of the leaflet it says: 'People operate illegally in this area. DO NOT donate if your leaflet has no contact address, telphone no. and registered charity no.' Seems like good advice.

Makes me think the two are NOT connected.

I agree on the decent living wage......because I think everyone that works deserves to have a decent living wage. On the essential job front.....that doesn't mean that Royal mail can't be subject to the same performance demands that any business needs to achieve to stay in business. We all remember the poor service of the gas board before privatisation. I think Royal Mail is in a similar place in that it doesn't make enough money to pay for itself, and the expensive pension aspect is part of the problem. But it can't raise prices because private delivery companies would be cheaper. So the downward push has always been on jobs and efficiency - which eventually reaches a breaking point and so on. Privatisation would bring profitability but not without some loss of job security and pension rights etc. It's one of the real dilema's of our economy and it's changing demographic nature. When all of these things were put in place, jobs with fixed pensions and so on, we had a demograhpic model and Labour force that could pay for it. Fifty years on...we don't. So it has to change. The good times are over.....incuding for the baby boomers who were promised everything and have done very well.....the rest of us just aren't prepared to pay for it whilst we get nothing in return.

They are not great wages (and I have argued for a long time that the minimum wage needs to be raised to ?8) but they are at that pay level because it is an unskilled job. And like all inskilled jobs employees earn lower salaries and often need overtime (if they can get it) to make ends meet. Let's not start pretending that being a Postman is somehow on a Par with beign a Nurse or Fireman etc. It's not.

DJK, what happens if kids fail because the teacher is crap? Should they still lose their EMA? If the teacher is cr@p then the fail rate will reflect that and it can be looked at. It's not hard to see which teachers are good or bad....the difficutly comes in firing the bad ones, as anyone in the teaching profession will tell you. I am also proposing that you can fail one assessment before losing EMA. Only if you fail the second term should it become an issue which I think would give plenty of opportunity to establish if the teaching standard is at fault.

I had a run in with an ALF activist when the circus was in town (there were two at the gate before the performance). She was trying to tell me that the horses, that were in good sized shelter and looked more than healthy were being ill treated. I had a conversation with her about horses that work and pointed out that both Police and Funeral horses travel and work more and that she was putting the general issue of animal cruelty (which obviously has merit) before the individual case (and very good condition and welfare) of the horses at this particular circus. She wasn't interested in anything I had to say and as I walked away she said, and I quote - 'Thank you for SUPPORTING animal cruelty'. Not only was that extremely insulting but I am absolutely the wrong person to be so patronising to. So I then gave her a piece of my mind on what animal cruelty really is and suggested that she should spend her time picketing elsewhere instead of intimidating those going to the circus. They are extremists, and like all extremists they can't accept any view outside of their own extreme views, which in themselves are sometimes devoid of any real perspective. There is definitely more that can be done to stop unnecessary cruelty to animals but it is never ok to threaten people. Because of that, even though I would agree with some of the views of animals rights organistaion, I would never stand side by side with any organisation that is so extreme.

DJKQ, go have some Sambuca, it will help with your footie injury. Knowing me, it'll only encourage me to pole dance on my crutch........nooooooooooooo - don't even picture that...... And Dita - you may not have drunk any Sambucca but at least I wasn't acting out my bedroom seduction techniques in the middle of The Actress on a Friday Night! Killer wine that was eh ;-)

No I still have flashbacks to my last Sambucca adventure - 'Post Traumatic Sambucca Disorder' will be with me for a while yet......!

My tongue is numb - that last Sambuca was over the top. You don't drink sambucca when you are out with the footy gals!