Brian Haw arrested 7 pm this evening

Looks like a new chapter in the continuing harrassment of Brian Haw - the only man keeping the anti-War protest alive and in the faces of those who voted for an illegal invasion.

Keep up to date with the following links:
http://mylondondiary.co.uk/
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/10/440918.html

picture show

I bought some old horror DVDs this week - the original Thing in a double set with the remake - Creepshow advertise with commentary by Romero (which wasn;t on there!!! *angry face*) and yesterday a three disc set of 1930s Dracula films starring Bela Lugosi...undead undead undead.

Creepshow's got it's good points and it's not really what's on the screen, more what is coming out of the speakers. The soundtrack for the segment that Romero wrote - the zombie sequence, funnily enough - is absolutely excellent - electronic, tense, reminscent of both Dawn and Dead in parts.

And then, last weekend I bought a 5 disc box set of all Romero's excellent zombie flicks, knowing full well that number six is already out there, but at £22 I couldn't resist. Dawn, Day and Land all have commentaries and Diary is full of extras. Second watching of Diary - with much less expectation and on a small screen and it seemed to work much better.

Day looks superb - I've only ever seen it on tv - and with it looking a bit grainy.

I also got to see Dark Star this week. At first I was taken aback with low quality picture and sound - looked like a VHS! But soon forgot that and got taken with the film. It is really funny - not so much the beach ball alien scene which is silly, but talking to the bomb about phenomonology; and the interaction between the astronauts. The scene with the dead captain being visited is pretty spooky and reminds me off the PK Dick's dead half life idea in -----.

How Twitter Warps Your Mind

I've been neglecting the blog again - still I've not had a lot to say. One thing that doesn;t help is when I go reading other people's blogs. Most of them cover the same sort of stories - recent ones have been Nick Griffin, Balloon Boy, etc. I've commented on all these things in Twitter, but to be honest I don;t do this just to write about the same stuff that everyone else is.

Twitter has been a revelation for me. I'm following about 400 odd Twitterers. Many of those I'm following are news streams: Independent, Financial Times, Guardian, New York Times, etc. I'm following quite a few comedians, environmental twitterers, and people that I've discovered by chance - some live near me - some clicked to follow me - some I turned up on random surfs.

I was really enjoying myself last weekend following the action using #swoop to find relevant posts. I even posted encouring tweets, and retweeted interesting #swoop tweets to others including the 130 odd who are following me at the moment.

Now I have a Twitter app on my phone I'm Tweeting every day - morning, noon and night.

Wake Up!! It's Yer Mugshot In The Arm...

SchNEWS Issue 697, Friday 30th October 2009

Read this issue online (from noon Saturday):
www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news697.php

We encourage you to print, copy and distribute the SchNEWS
wherever you can...

Third Class`Road Users

This is the rare example of a useful cycl lane - providing a buffer against reasonably heavy traffic you get long this Thameside route - but in the year I've been using this route the cycle lane has been available for about 2 weeks in total.
This is the A102 flyover in Greenwich - it's a huge roundabout where lorries and buses run red lights regularly and cars ignore the ASLs laid out to protect cyclists. A girl died here earlier in the year - killed by a hit-and-run lorry driver - hence the ghost bike.

This is the ASL at the junction - and as you can see from the state of it - Grenwich aren't exactly committed to protecting cyclists - a bit short sighted considering a young woman died here so recently.

CIA caught out again

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/karzais-brother-on-cia-payroll-1811154.html

beautiful pain

clocks change make everything just a little bit more miserable. Still getting back on the bike more often and fitness returns. still wondering if it was a mild case of swine flu that knocked me out at the beginning of October - the only way i'll know is if i eventually get a less mild dose of swine flu.

still listening to brian eno cds, and quite a few country women now - Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn, Nanci Griffiths, Roseanne Cash, Gillian Welch; also got the latest British Sea Power (not sure); Franz Ferdinand (their best), divine comedy (genius!), Pillows and Prayers compilation (an old favourite, still as good as when i was 14). I've even got U2's greatest hits on here - there is good styuff among their early stuff marred by the fact that old tit face is singing. Never Mind.

Wake Up!! Wake Up!! It's Yer (earlier than usual) Izzy Whizzy..

SchNEWS Issue 696, Friday 23rd October 2009

Read this issue online (from noon Saturday):
http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news693.php

We encourage you to print, copy and distribute the SchNEWS
wherever you can...

New SchNews

schnews New Issue
- Anarchists bombers on the loose in Mexico,
#Mainshill camp attacked,
#EDL in Manchester, and more... www.schnews.org.uk/n/695

Power station protests have started

Information as it happens on Twitter
http://twitter.com/home#search?q=%23swoop

Twit pics from the protest
http://twitpic.com/k8b4c

IEMA over

hooray!! that's done with and i might have done alright, the questions i answered were all pretty straightforward.

After I left the venue I cycled back to Windsor to look around and get the train back to London. Had a bit of a flashback to my visit in 1977 - the tourist gift shops i remember by the castle looked just the same though all the other shops, pretty much, have changed. Security round the castle is a bit more serious these days too.

IEMA blues

I'm into the second week of studying and devising new and inventive ways to avoid it. I even signed up for a new mobile phone last week - which ended up being the ultimate diversion since I've spent most of my time since workng out what it can do and how I can make it do what it claims to be able to do.

although I have managed some work in between and am probably as ready as I ever will be to retake my IEMA on friday.

Got to go into work today - even though I'm on leave - need to check my emails and get in touch with Connaught who are providing/ administrating (?) the IEMA exam.

So - back on the bike - the weather's superb for it, I've got 900 new tunes on the pod-player. all systems go....and remember kids...

New Music

I've got a backlog of music now - still hooked on those Brian Eno CDs froma couple of weeks back - and the Fleet Foxes, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris are all still on the pod player.

This box-set is keeping me occupied - I'm on disc two at the moment - there's 4 music discs in the set, and a DVD all of excllent quality, featuring duets with Dolly Parton, Gram Parsons, Elvis Costello, and more.

This is last week's haul - a live Elvis costello album featuring jazzed up versions of old songs, Chemical Brothers Greatest Hits collection - which is very fine indeed, and Loretta Lynn's latest CD, produced by Jack White from the White Stripes.

And this week's - Divine Comedy; Funkadelic; Franz Ferdinand; British Seapower. all this is now on my pod-player.

Against cuts

The conservatives are always crying for more cuts: in good times and in bad. If you like me are a public sector worker then you'll know that it's always jam tomorrow. Now health cuts, welfare cuts and local authority cuts will ensure a fast track to banana republic land - a land of extreme wealth and privelege side by side with increasingly large pockets of extreme poverty.

So why do we need the cuts?

As usual the Independent manages to provide the voice of reason in an increasingly hysterical debate.

Wake Up!! Wake Up!! It's Yer Fuel To The Fire...

SchNEWS Issue 694, Friday 9th October 2009
Read this issue online (from noon Saturday):

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news694.php

Testing

Well a new epoch in blogging begins as I post from my phone.

Atheists Will Inherit The Earth

Middle america doesn't like it - buit their sons and daughters are throwing off the shackles of religion, and refusing to believe the 2000+ year old myths peddled in america's churches, by america's increasingly bonkers fundamentalists.

We all thought there was going to be a war between islam and christianity a few years back, but perhaps christians and rational people will end up fighting for supremacy?

Christians are hardly going to sit back and take it are they? They are not meek and they rarely turn the other cheek. They insist that atheists shut their mouths and compromise on their believes while the christians themselves become nuttier and ever more intransigent in their beliefs. soemthing's got to give.

Black Faced Idiots

I would not have believed this if I hadn't sen it with my own eyes. It appears in racism terms the Aussies are where we were in 1974 with Black and White Minstrel, Curry and Chips, Love thy Neighbour etc. It takes Harry Connick to bring a reality check and even then, I don't think the presenter really gets it.

Still Ill

I'm off work this week and next week...only due to go in on Monday to wrap up a few things and handover to my boss for the i had off. However, I immediately fell ill: Aching joints, sore throat, bad stomach, headaches, sneezing, lack of energy. It was a bit like flu in fact. I had yesterday off work as a result. No temperature though. Now today - I thought I was recovered...got up at 9.30 and did very little - cooked breakfast - played around on the internet till 12.00. Then I spent a couple of ours studying my IEMA notes, shaved, tidied my bedroom up a little, and realised I wasn't up to my full strength.

Still - needed to get out as I was cooped up all day yesterday. Went up to Welling to buy essential supplies. There was a quite nice blonde lady staring at me across the vegetable display in Lidl's but apart from that - uneventful. By the time I got through the checkout I was zapped of all strength, but didn't have my bus pass so had to walk. It was extremely slow progress, but got home exhausted. A nice little look forward to old age.

So I'm still ill. Tomorrow I want to go up to Bexleyheath library. Watch this space to see if I make it and home again.

Wake Up!! It's Yer Offence Is The Best Form Of Attack...

SchNEWS Issue 693, Friday 2nd October 2009

Read this issue online (from noon Saturday):
www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news693.php

We encourage you to print, copy and distribute the SchNEWS
wherever you can...

Amnesty Book Sale

I picked these books up at the Amnesty book sale in Conway Hall - all this for £6.50.

On the way home noticed this. Abilty to solve problems not required to be a bill poster then.

5 years of Dispatches From The Cat

Well, blimey. Looks like I've been blogging as The Cat now for just about 5 years. How time flies.

My first proper entry in October 2004 - originally in my AOL Blog

Here's to the next 5 years!

I found a good website

This is an absolutely fascinating and interesting website about the history of televison studios in London

News of The world

More evidence to show creationists are morons

Fundamentalists Go Fuck Yourself - Gay Penguins Rule!

Why Do We Always Have to be Like America ca ca ca?

SCW Blog

http://esseedoubleyou.blogspot.com/