Sam

A few months back the area we live in was hit (not devastatingly) by the Thames levels rising so Borough Council distributed these sand-bags. I'd have no issue with them staying but they're filled with this awful gel material that expands with the rain and they've begun to burst and leak. Landlord is pretty wound up about it.

I'm just concerned about it because I'm not prepared to touch it. I didn't ask for them and now they're spewing this hazardous viscous substance. Our neighbours have cats and the last thing I want is to find a dead feline in our garden because it's swallowed this stuff.

Should I contact the council to clean this mess up? Is this my landlord's problem?

Any help you can provide would be fabulous. Thanks!

30 Rock has got to be the funniest sitcom I've ever seen. It's literally BAM BAM BAM and you have to pay attention. Everything else just seems dumb in comparison. I have about ten episodes left before I hit the end of season seven (so sad!).

Are there any post-30 Rock replacements out there or is comedy doomed now?

I've just finished the first season and it was okay. Just okay. People make out that is/was the best show ever but I'm really not that impressed. I don't see how Walter White transitioning from quiet teacher to cancer patient to meth dealer to intimidating gangs and stealing from security-guarded warehouses and changing personality type three times an episode is supposed to feel like good character development.

Is season two pretty much the same thing? Should I just give up on it? I just don't think it's as good as everyone says it is - certainly not the best thing on TV.

Three episodes into the first season and so far I can't see any reason to keep watching. It just seems like the sort of show that tries too hard to be edgy when it isn't. People keep saying 'wait until season 2 it gets so much better' but you have to watch the first season first and it's really not as good as everyone made it out to be.

At my new job, I'm contracted FOUR hours, which imo is derogatory, but they always give me more because they need me there more than that. However, over Christmas and New Year I plan to go home and spend time with my family. If I ask them NOW to only put me in for four hours for both weeks as that's what I'm contracted to do and it completes the terms of my employment, do they have sufficient grounds to fire me (bear in mind I am still on probation as I'm new) or not?

So far I've worked 28 hours in one week, 19 and 33. So I've shown them how flexible I can be if they want. I just can't be flexible for that week.

I'm currently studying at University, so that's the main focus and priority right now. However I've got myself a part-time job in a cinema. This was a-ok until they started putting me down for shifts until two o'clock. I agreed to some because of half term but now it's not half-term they're still putting me down for unrealistic shifts midweek. I'm contracted for FOUR hours per week and Iast week I worked 28. When I signed up for this job, I envisaged 12 a week maximum but that is obviously not the case. I don't want to come off as rude or give them any encouragement to fire me for being awkward but they clearly don't understand that I have priorities, and the cinema is not my absolute.

Any advice? Cheers.

If the Bible tells people not to judge but that certain lifestyles are wrong, is that not a fallacy? If you think someone is living in a way your belief system is disinclined to agree with are you not simply pretending not to judge?

Writing my notice (Going to university in September!).

I’m in a predicament, however, where I know who to address my letter to but I don’t know how to address it. I call my manager Dave because we’re all on first-name basis where I work but I assume he needs to pass it further up to whomsoever handles employee information in the company, which is a large chain of shops, and I imagine the the key interface to that must be the regional manager.

My question is: Would it be too informal to address my letter ‘to Dave’ or should I use his surname? or should I use ‘to whom it may concern’ because other people will inherently be seeing the letter?

A hundred different religions must be wrong for yours to be right.

How can you be certain the god you believe in is not a fabrication too?

On Tuesday, our new kitten Freckle had his second bout of injections. We also have some ear drops to combat mites that were there when we first bought him. Today, however, he's been sleeping a lot more than he usually does. I'm guessing this is because of the drops (are they antibiotics?) or because of the shots. His appetite is good and when he does wake up he likes to have a run around.

The poor guy is just a little bit drowsy at the moment. I am wondering if the shots are causing this, or maybe his ear drops? I'm a little worried.

As far as I'm aware there can only ever be ONE version of the truth. Otherwise it's not the truth, is it? If the original book was written in Hebrew, how can you attribute a potentially wrong translation from hundreds of years ago with any sort of accuracy or validity?

If two homosexual individuals took out a civil partnership, they would not receive the same legal benefits they would have done had they taken out a marriage. As such, they would miss out on pension rights, recognition as a legally-bound couple in certain parts of the world, like countries such as Sweden, Argentina and Portugal that do not recognise civil partnerships as marriage nor synonymous with it, and adultery would not be recognised as grounds for dissolution with a Civil Partnership as it is with marriage.

Why have an issue with the religious integrity of marriage when legally people are not being treated as equal?

Do you find Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh or Wiccan marriage as valid as your own, or do people of these religion need to marry before your god for you to accept them?

I'm usually pretty computer savvy but I can't get my head around this. I love my music and because I have an iPod I like to manage my library with iTunes. However when I play my music through iTunes the speakers make this ugly scratching noise. If I plug my earphones/headphones into the jack it makes a similar noise. If I play an MP3 through any other program (or YouTube videos/online streams) they don't make this noise so I'm convinced it's a problem with iTunes.

Does anybody have any advice about this?

People have written about thousands of gods over the years but really, none have any more of a valid claim to reality than any of the others? So what distinguishes God in the Bible from Zeus and Allah and Shiva and Visnhu and Brahma and Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Surely if you refute the others on certain bases you must have to acknowledge people say exactly the same thing about the god you believe in, so how do you know that the deity you believe in is the right one? All this supernatural stuff is essentially firing a gun in a pitch black room and hoping to hit a target you can't actually see.

Europe (mostly) seems way looser with regards to religion than the US. Why is that?

Silly question, and I'm not sure how to ask it without sounding stupid.

On October 27 I need to get from Witham to Billericay via bus operated by Greater Anglia.

As that's a bus run by a train company, will it just stop at Billericay Station or will it pause around Essex? I only ask because I'm terrible with buses and I don't want to get lost somewhere I don't know when I'm meeting people from the other side of the country.