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Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor – Part 5
"Remember Thatcher's Victims", George Square, 17th April 2013
They planted Thatcher today. Actually, I think they burned her. Either way, I do not care, and I suspect neither does she. The BBC and most of our media and politicians seem to be eulogising her to the point that it would be more honest of them if they just stood there masturbating while shouting her name. It sickens me. This woman was anti-gay, condemned Mandela, and befriended Pinochet – and those are just the first three that spring to mind, while trying to avoid the mention of steel, and unions, and pit closures.
This was an event set up to remember the victims of her years in power, and the injustices propagated and communities blighted by her endeavours. It was not another "death party" as seen on the day the news broke, being fully organised with the agreement of the council and the attendance of the police. It would be a peaceful rally, a chance to reflect on the pain she heartlessly and relentlessly inflicted, and a call to arms to rise against the still-living Tories who continue to assault us with Thatcherism. Tories who cannot fund care for disabled people, but have no qualms about spending ten million pounds on a public funeral for a stateswoman who was extremely unpopular. That is obscene, and must be strongly condemned. As must their plan to spend fifteen million quid on a museum in her name.
When I told my friend that I was going to a protest rally, she warned me to stay safe. "It's peaceful protesting!" I told her. "Rallying, chanting, listening, with banners and placards."
She replied with a statement and question that amused me for the inherent absurdity that is implied: "But she is dead! What can that do?"
Indeed, what can it do? It gave me visions of protestors demanding Thatcher's resurrection, as if that was the cause of our disquiet. Instead, I answered in a series of short sentences that – even when I come to edit this for the blog – sum up my opinion succinctly:
"She is dead, Thatcherism isn't. The Tories continue to destroy lives with policies that do not and cannot work. This is visible dissent. That people are not happy. That we will lock arms and prevent evictions if people can't afford the bedroom tax. That Scotland does not want, does not need, and cannot afford nuclear weapons. That the defence spending on Trident would cover ALL benefit cuts. That there is no money to prevent homelessness but they spend ten million on a funeral. That a YES vote next year will rid us of the Tories forever. Fuck them, fuck their dogma, fuck their propaganda and their lies, and fuck all they stand for. THAT is why I will be protesting"
And that is why I was protesting. I have had enough. I want my voice to be heard. I want all our voices to be heard – this government is shamelessly hypocritical, appallingly self-serving, and cruelly destructive. I will be taking every justifiable opportunity to swell ranks and provide visible evidence of discontent. We will succeed in reversing their unworkable decrees, we will oust them permanently from power by declaring ourselves independent next year, or I will gradually lose faith and heart (in whichever order) and see where life takes me. The one thing that strikes me, though, is something I posted earlier, after someone looked at a picture taken today and jokingly branded us "losers." That is: if you don't stand and fight for what you believe, who will?
Above: Lynne, me, and Grant. Photo: Adele McVay Photography Ltd
After three previous protests where I had held my "F_CK THE TORIES" flag aloft, struggling to fold it and grasp it against the wind to keep it readable, I knew I needed to adapt it. Either I could run some kind of weighting device along the bottom edge, to prevent it flapping loosely in the breeze, or I could use the provided channel and mount it onto a pole. This afternoon, I bought a bamboo torch in a low-price shop, cut out the torch, and then found that the diameter of the cane was too large to fit. It would affect the aesthetic to merely staple the flag down the length of the pole, and I live near to a small garden centre. I quickly nipped round there, taking the flag with me.
The proprietor was very helpful, and I explained straight away what I wanted and why. He ably assisted me, watching as I attempted to thread the flag onto the end of the pole he provided. It was finicky, but I could see that it would comfortably fit. As I persevered with it, he gestured to another customer, with whom he had been chatting at the counter. "He's trying to read what it says," he told me.
I looked at the other customer. "I could tell him, but he might not agree."
"I can read it," retorted the man, adding without malice "But you can add the other parties an' all!"
I asked the salesman how much I owed him, anticipating it to be a few pennies, and not more than a couple of hundred. He graciously waived the cost, and I thanked him by telling him to watch out for it on the evening news. He said that I could tell them where I got the cane. True to that, and in the spirit of supporting local business, please visit Anniesland Garden Centre if you are looking for something they might have. I am not sure if it made the televised news, but the online report is here.
Above: Screen grab from the STV video on their site, showing Grant and me.
I headed into the town to meet my friend Grant, who was already in a pub adjacent to the square. I shy away from naming most businesses in my blogs, as I detest advertising and try to avoid helping any national corporation make money. I briefly considered naming this particular pub though, due to the incredibly rude manager I encountered there today. I shan't be back.
I had been at the bar with Grant for twenty minutes or half an hour, and we briefly wandered over to the window to see if things had started outside. Back at the bar, leaning against it and facing the door, I was accosted from behind by a member of the staff. He was a short and stand-offish wee man, who would have looked more at home in a cap and tracksuit than in his shirt and tie. He asked me to remove my shirt, and it is to my regret that I didn't playfully comply while whistling "The Stripper."
Instead, I enquired why – being a rational man capable of reasoned debate, and curious as to what offence he could have taken that nobody in the local contabulary, in a handful of shops, in the streets, or in any other pub has. He belligerently told me that he "didn't want it in is pub," revealing himself to be the kind of Napoleon-complexed prick that life is too short (pun fully intended) to bother engaging with. I told him that I was just leaving anyway, and said that I couldn't see what the problem was. This was all in good humour on my part, as I am interested in hearing intelligent views that challenge my own. Instead, he threw some further glares at me and ranted that there were children in his pub.
I didn't see any children, but I also didn't waste much time looking. I could argue that we should educate children as to why a great many of us accept and agree with the sentiment behind the "Fuck the Tories" statement – and that words are just words, it is context that gives them meaning – but the interruption from this aggressively rude interloper had already bored me. I left Grant to finish his pint, and walked out into the square. In future, I will be taking my custom to pubs who cater for an exclusively adult clientele.
Once I have caught up with the blogs, I might write the company a letter of complaint for my own (and perhaps your) amusement.
[Edit: I have, and you can read it here. I managed to rewrite this in a far more tongue-in-cheek way for them.]
Above: The offending shirt. Photo: Mean Street Photography
Contrary to my other recent experiences, there were almost no flags to be seen in the 200-strong crowd. I caught up with my friend Lynne, Grant joined us, and we stood near the south-west corner of the square, listening to the speakers. Thanks to the length of cane I had elected to buy (and then been gifted), this saw me standing at 6-foot-2 with my arm raised, hand clasping a 4-foot flagpole – like some living Glaswegian Statue of Liberty.
I had thought the back of my shirt was popular photography matter, but this paled in comparison with the flag. There must have been two dozen snappers took photos of it – the camera-phone owners, the hobbyists, and the professionals. With a strong breeze that kept changing direction, I did what I could to aid their shots, trying to hold the flag at an angle where the wind would keep it flying straight and the wording visible. This worked with some degree of success, the downside being that in most of these pictures I am looking gormlessly up at the flag. I think I became the second-most photographed person in the UK today, the first being dead.
With all of the attention that it was receiving, I soon found myself approached by a two-person camera crew who asked if they could interview me for STV. I agreed, and they immediately asked my reasons for being here today. I answered as honestly as I could, making the pertinent points that leapt to mind and that I have detailed above. I know that I hesitated at times, and did not answer as eloquently or as articulately as I had when pressed (by the Scotland On Sunday) as to my involvement at the weekend's Scrap Trident demo. In hindsight, I wish I had told them that the Bedroom Tax "does not affect me, and yet it does, as it affects us all" – inasmuch as it is to the detriment of the welfare state, it will cause untold rises in homelessness and crime, and will have other knock-on effects too. Their published report, with a handful of inaccuracies, is here.
They describe me by saying of the crowd "some [were] clinging to flags … criticising the Tories with scrawled expletives." It may be an expletive, but you can clearly see from all of my photos that the word is censored, which was deliberate on my part precisely so that it could be shown or published in news reports. As for it being "scrawled," that must be the neatest scrawl in the history of doctors' signatures.
Photo: Lynne McKinstray
I thought I may be able to make my point about the tax to the circulating BBC crew, but they steadfastly avoided me twice – firstly to interview Lynne, and then to interview Grant. Sometimes, the BBC post on their site that they are looking for audiences for debate shows. These generally request that membership of any political organisation is made known, along with information about whether your mind is already made up on that specific issue. This is in their pursuit of balanced opinion, which has been sorely lacking in their sycophantic news coverage lately. I can only presume that they decided against interviewing me as my opinion was written firmly across my attire.
It turned out afterwards that it had been BBC Alba, so fuck it, no-one will ever see it anyway…
Above: Tommy Sheridan and posters naming the victims of Thatcher. Photo: Mean Street Photography
Tommy Sheridan was one of the speakers, and said what I wish more people in the public eye could have said recently:
"Some have said it is distasteful to celebrate the death of an old woman. And I was brought up to respect people, but it's clear Mrs Thatcher did not respect us. She didn't respect the workers she sacked, or the hunger strikers who died, when she was in power. We're here to say 'We don't respect you either'. We won't shed any crocodile tears over her death. But now we must look forward. Just as we united to fight Thatcher's poll tax, I would urge you all to unite and fight Cameron's bedroom tax as well." – Source.
We left after the rest of the speeches, once the final musical act was on, and headed to a pub that was not the one I had been in earlier. Lynne and her friend were already there, having left before us, and as I sat down she brought up the potentially-offensive nature of my shirt. I called the barman over, showed it to him, and asked if it was okay if I continued to wear it in his pub.
He looked at me quizzically, smiled, and said that it was fine. Crisis averted.
Later, when I called into the nearby supermarket on my way home, someone else came up to me and smilingly told me "Great shirt! Be more assertive."
Be more assertive.
I think that is the purpose of writing these blogs. I know that many of you are unhappy. I know that, at a basic level, most of us want to see the same things. Over on Facebook, I just read the gripe that "I'm still annoyed at £10m being spent wining and dining millionaires at MT's funeral."
If you are that annoyed, protest. Channel the anger. Show them they are not popular. If enough of us do it, they cannot deny us.
Photo: Mean Street Photography
At the time of writing, it is three weeks to the day since the Daily Record published my tweet and the story of the retweet that started this ball rolling. As it did not adequately convey the fulllness of my disillusionment, I have resorted to taking direct action where possible. I have decided to stand with my fellow countrymen and fight for the rights that our forefathers battled for; to strengthen the numbers of the disaffected taking to the streets and proving that there is a problem with this government and their policies. This problem can only be addressed if enough of us make our opposition heard.
It has been twenty-one days, and I have taken part in two marches, a hastily-arranged protest, and a rally. In that time, the items upon which I have written "Fuck The Tories" have been photographed at least a hundred times. I have been printed by the Record, photographed by the Record, interviewed for the Scotland On Sunday newspaper, and for Scottish Television. Maybe it is because I stand out that people think I have something to say. I don't want to stand out.
I don't want to stand out, because I don't want to be the only one proclaiming these views. I want, in the spirit of the original punk movement, a growing number of people to join me – physically, and in wearing their contempt for all in the street to see.
I will continue to demonstrate where and when I can, because I believe that we are in the right. I believe that we can make a difference. There is strength in numbers. I did not get here overnight, I got here when years of anger forced me to take action.
If you are angry too, then I hope you will soon join me. One way or another, we can change this.
April 18, 2013 | Categories: Absurd, Axe The Tax, Bar, Bedroom Tax, Complaint, Conversation, Customer Service, Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor, Dole, Drinking, Facebook, Fight, Flag, Fuck The Tories, George Square, Glasgow, Glasgow City Council, Helpful, History, Housing Benefit, Humour, Jobcentre, Life, Money, Photograph, Politics, Poverty Line, Protest, Pub, Scotland, Scottish, Scrap Trident, Social Media, Street, Twitter, Work, Workfare, World, Writing | Tags: Bad Attitude, Bar Manager, BBC, BBC Alba, Conservative, Daily Record, David Cameron, David Cameron Is A Cunt, Evening Times, Flagpole, Glaswegian, Iain Duncan Smith, IDS, Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, MSP, Museum, Napoleon, Parliament, Pinochet, Ravenscraig, Remember Thatcher's Victims, Scotland On Sunday, Scottish Government, Scottish Independence, Scottish parliament, Scottish Television, Statue Of Liberty, STV, That Cunt Cameron, Thatcherism, The Stripper, Tommy Sheridan, Victims of Thatcher, Vote Yes, Yes Scotland | Leave a comment
Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor – Part 4
Scrap Trident, George Square, 13th April 2013
I had to do a bit of research before deciding whether or not to join this demo. My previous excursions into public protest had been based on long-held beliefs: that the Bedroom Tax is unworkable and must be abandoned; and that David Cameron is a reprehensible cunt and that I should seize any chance to let him know in person.
My knowledge of Trident is less intricate. While I am opposed in principle to Scotland housing nuclear weapons, it is not something that I previously felt strongly enough about to merit my presence at one of their many protests. Every so often, there is a story on the news about activists (or maybe they should be termed deactivists) being arrested for blockading the naval base at Faslane where Trident is housed. These people invariably look slightly "hippier" than me, and while I am glad they are prepared to make their resistance known, I had no interest in joining them.
As previously asserted, I have recently reached the conclusion that the best way to oppose the Tories is to visibly oppose the Tories at every opportunity. This was undeniably an opportunity, to once again show that public opinion runs contrary to their policies. I do not want to blindly march for causes I know nothing of, and so I did a little background reading in advance. It paid off.
None of the friends who had made previous marches were able to make this one, and so I went along by myself. I had posted on Twitter, hashtagging various relevant terms, to see if I knew anybody who would be heading down. That was later picked up on and retweeted by some unknown accounts, resulting in my first trolling. Somebody composed a tweet to me, wrote "RT" at the start of it to make it look like they were simply forwarding what I had written, and then put their own words in my mouth. I forget the exact phrasing now, having blocked all those involved, but trust me when I say that "Keep Trident. We need Trident. RIP Maggie" is not the kind of thing I am likely to post.
I had not been in George Square long before somebody with an armful of them offered me a placard to carry, and I accepted. I had my flag with me too, although it was still folded up in my back pocket. Looking around at the assembling demonstrators, I was happy to see my friend Alasdair in the crowd, and I went over to join him. He was marching alongside the red banner of one of Scotland's socialist parties, although I had to rely on the photographic records below to check which one. As far as names go, sometimes it can get a bit "People's Front Of Judea/Judean People's Front" when it comes to parties using the words "Scottish" and "Socialist."
As we began marching, it became apparent that we were amid the quietest section of the crowd. There was little in the way of mass chanting or protest songs, but with Thatcher dead and not yet buried there were a couple of attempts to start a singalong of "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead." The key problem there was that nobody knew the lyrics, which did nothing to prevent a few valiant and enthusiastic renditions of what might be the correct words. Whereas, for reasons I am unable to explain, I think I do know the words – at least to the second line, which is where they kept falling down. I kept this information to myself, however.
Soon, and somehow, we had migrated into the realms of another Disney film. In what I think was a group effort, as lines were added by different people until the best ones came together, we began singing "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Trident's got to go. Now Thatcher's gone let's ban the bomb, Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Hi Ho." It lended itself very easily to repetition, and quickly caught on around us. There was a good sense of cameraderie, and an upbeat atmosphere, although less of the anger and sense of civic pride I had felt during the anti-Bedroom Tax march two weeks previous. Somebody with access to the Scrap Trident Twitter page must have been right behind us, as they posted a photo of my shirt.
Once we arrived back in George Square, having marched through and around the city centre, we spread ranks and listened to the various speakers. Then there was music, and more speakers, and more music, and more speakers. They just kept going, and by the third section of speakers a sizeable protion of the crowd had dispersed. Two sections would have been plenty.
As I stood listening to the first couple of sections of speakers, somebody else got a photo of my shirt. This is about the fifth picture I have found online, and that is a tiny fraction of the number actually taken – all by different people. I hope at some point that more folk will join in, and customise their own clothing. I would rather see heartfelt political messages walking up the high street than the names of a dozen faceless corporate brands.
Photo: Ritchie James Patton
While standing in the square, I was approached by a woman who introduced herself as being from the Scotland On Sunday newspaper. She asked if she could interview me, and I agreed. She wanted to know why I was there, about the statement on my shirt, and what I hoped to achieve, and I made her aware of the views that I have expressed in this and my other recent Anti-Tory blogs. She was familiar with the film "Network" and seemed to appreciate my "Mad as Hell" analogy. When she asked if I thought Thatcher's death had helped drive support for this particular movement and protest, I answered honestly that "I don't think it has hindered awareness."
I was glad that I had read up on the history of Trident before leaving the house, and managed to remember some of the pertinent facts from this particular article. There were a couple of instances where I looked to my friend Al to confirm what I was saying, and he ably assisted by adding points. Like, for example, how they refuse to relocate Trident to Plymouth because of the risk to life, yet at Faslane it is closer to the nearest densely-populated area. It is these double standards, and contempt for Scottish life, that help fuel my dislike of Westminster rule.
Above: Being interviewed for Scotland On Sunday. Photo: Alasdair McDougall
Having handled myself well and answered fully and eloquently, Al approved. I posted about the interview on Facebook, and soon received a reply from one of my comedy friends who tagged her journalist friend and asked if that was who had questioned me. I looked at her profile, and it was. Small world.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, I posted about being interviewed and how, if you write "Fuck The Tories" on your shirt, it is useful to be able to articulate why. A friend asked if this was "Off the back of Tweetgate?"
"No, it is off the back of my shirt," I replied. The press interest had been totally unrelated, a coincidence.
"Do they not know you are Tweetman?!" she asked, before telling me that she would buy a souvenir edition of the paper, and would I sign it?
"My secret tweet identity is safe! Unless they read this," I told her, agreeing that "I will happily sign anything for you, except cheques."
In the end, the paper ran nothing of what I said, not even twisting my words to suit whatever their agenda may be. Instead, they printed a column reporting on a 12-person conga line that formed an hour after the end of the rally, in "celebration" of Thatcher's death. I guess that is more newsworthy than a two- or three-thousand-strong march against nuclear weapons and unpopular government mandates. There is a video of the march here.
Above: Al and me, in the crowd. Photo: Scotland On Sunday.
On the Monday following this Saturday protest, there was a scheduled blockade at Faslane, with several hundred people present and forty-seven arrests. I was not part of that protest, although I took the time to read the briefing pack that was issued. I canot now find it to link to, but it is a thorough document detailing precisely how and why to protest, and how to avoid arrest if you want to show support without risking a blemish showing up on future Disclosure Scotland checks. They have done this before, you see.
As much as I disagree with Trident, my priority just now is to urge a rethink of the Bedroom Tax. That ill-thought-out piece of legislation is imminently about to leave people homeless, which will result in increased levels of crime too, as well as damaging families and communities. I also want to help stop the cuts on the welfare state, in particular the immoral activities of ATOS, which are seeing increasing numbers of affected people resort to suicide.
Meanwhile, That Cunt Cameron has just approved plans for a £15 million Thatcher Museum, while the privatisation of the NHS will directly profit a huge number of MPs. As for the myth of benefit "scroungers" – "Most benefit recipient – 60% – are working people who are so poorly paid by their employers or so exploited by their landlords that they can't manage without state assistance." Source.
This government is corrupt. It was not democratically elected by majority in England, and it certainly does not represent the views of the people of Scotland, who did not vote for it at all. I do not know how much more I can do, but I do know that – until the referendum in 2014 – I will do what I can to ensure that Scotland votes Yes and breaks away to fully govern itself. Westminster has consistently proved that they do not have the best interests of Scotland or its people at heart.
The next protest will be on the day of Thatcher's funeral. Then there will be speakers at the May Day Parade in Glasgow, and an Anti-Bedroom Tax day of protest on 18th May. I plan to be at them all, and anything else that crops up in-between. I am angry, and I am fed up, and I hope that if you are too then you will join me, as I have joined the thousands of others who got here before me.
"I believe [an independent] Scotland would legalise same-sex marriage. I believe it would reject Trident. I believe it would refuse to accept the victimisation of the poor, the ill and the weak."
– Source.
As far as the current balance of power goes, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more.
Photo: Robyn Ramsay
April 17, 2013 | Categories: Absurd, ATOS, Axe The Tax, Bedroom Tax, Conversation, Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor, Dole, Facebook, Fight, Flag, Fuck The Tories, George Square, Glasgow, History, Housing Benefit, Jobcentre, Life, Money, Photograph, Police, Politics, Poverty Line, Protest, Scotland, Scottish, Scrap Trident, Social Media, Street, Twitter, Work, Workfare, World | Tags: 2014, Anti Bedroom Tax, Arrest, Ban The Bomb, Clyde, David Cameron, Ding Dong, Disney, Faslane, Government, Hashtag, Hi Ho, I Want You To Get Mad, IDS, Judea, Judean, Life Of Brian, Mad As Hell, Maggie, Monty Python, MSP, Museum, Naval Base, Network, NHS, Parliament, Peopel's Front, Plymouth, Remember Thatcher's Victims, Scotland On Sunday, Scotsman, Shirt, Small World, Socialist, That Cunt Cameron, Thatcher Death, Thatcherism, Trident, Tweetgate, Victims of Thatcher, Vote Yes, Westminster, Witch, Yes Scotland | Leave a comment
Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor – Part 2.
Thales, Govan Road, 4th April 2013
I awoke and checked my phone, as I always do. Near the top of my Facebook feed was a post from a friend saying that That Cunt Cameron would be visiting a local contractor involved in Trident. It was a last-minute announcement, based on the schedule that had been released that morning, and I reposted it as "unconfirmed" on a couple of relevant Facebook and Twitter pages. I also reposted it on my own page, mostly because it allowed me to tie it back into this whole tweet thing (asking someone to hit him in the face with a shovel) and make a joke about it.
When he was unelected but nevertheless appointed himself in charge of the UK (including Scotland, where his party returned one solitary MP – the joke being that Scotland has more pandas then Tory MPS, and the pandas have a better chance of increasing their numbers), I had a box of eggs in my fridge. I don't eat eggs, and they had been left behind by a friend who was staying with me. I let them go out of date, having decided that it would be worth the guaranteed arrest and publicity for the sheer pleasure of pelting them at That Cunt Cameron's smug face. They sat languishing in the back of the fridge for six months, carefully undisturbed, before a house move meant I had to throw them away. It surprised me none that, in avoiding Scotland (and especially Glasgow) for as long as he possibly could, That Cunt Cameron had revealed himself to be more of a chicken than the original layer of the eggs.
It didn't take long to look through various social media feeds to find that this was in fact a confirmed appearance, and that there was a hurried effort in place to assemble protestors to greet him. A few texts and phone calls, and I found that my friend Matt had decided to head down. Given the time, my need to shower, and then jump a train, the subway, and walk for twenty minutes, I realised I would miss The Cunt's arrival but could be there waiting for him to depart. I was in Govan less than ninety minutes later.
I missed his arrival by mere minutes, and it turned out that most of those already present had missed it too. In a move analogous to the way in which he became Prime Minister, he had been quietly slipped in the back door while nobody was really looking.
After having some group photos taken by a couple of pro snappers – one from the Daily Record – it was decided that we would split up, some people waiting by the gate through which he had gone in, others maintaining a presence by the main entrance. Yet others positioned themselves at the roundabout between the two points. However he left, he would see some form of dissent.
Above: Shortly after his arrival through the rear gate. I'm at the back, somewhere under the flag to the immediate right of the banner.
The guy from the Record asked if he could get a photo of the back of my shirt – proudly emblazoned "Fuck The Tories" – and I offered to give him a shot of me holding my flag, a saltire, which is more publication-friendly as I blanked out the "U" in the word "fuck." He agreed. There is no "u" in "fuck the Tories" because you wouldn't fuck them with a shitty stick. Not when you could use the claw end of a hammer. There's an idea for a future shirt – "Fuck the Tories in the head with the claw end of a hammer." The imagery is more violent than my chosen form of protest, don't worry. This disclaimer is true, and is also for the benefit of the inevitable government departments who will eventually find and follow my online posts.
The man from the Record then borrowed and handed me a "Yes Scotland" flag, on a pole, and took several dozen shots of me facing various ways while he captured the slogans on both shirt and flag together. To my knowledge, and I have looked, none of those pictures have been published online or in the print edition of the next day's paper.
My awareness of Scrap Trident protests is probably the same as yours – every so often, there's a news story about protestors being arrested at Faslane. I disagree with Scotland housing nuclear weapons, especially when we can't even house all of our citizens, and I think the cost of them is obscene. However, I had never felt strongly enough about it to register any form of support for the disarmament campaign. Buoyed by the experience of marching against the Bedroom Tax five days previously, I decided that any acceptable reason to demonstrate my disgust of the Tories is fair game. This was also my first opportunity to hurl abuse directly at That Cunt Cameron's smugly disaffected, overly-wealthy face. In theory.
With a couple of hours to kill, bearing in mind that he wouldn't be leaving immediately, and with the photos all taken, Matt and I walked from one site to another. We talked to some of the other protestors, the mood being generally upbeat despite the close verminous presence of the Prime Monster. Somebody down by the roundabout wrote "Honk if you think David Cameron is a cunt" on the back of a poster. She stood on a traffic island, holding it aloft and eliciting cheers for every passing motorist who sounded their horn in agreement.
After an hour of not much happening, three police meatwagons turned up – riot vans full of brightly-clad cops. I heard that, at the start of the demonstration, the police had asked a couple of people "who's organised this?" Met with general shrugs and the admission that it had been a last-minute protest pulled together by social media, they'd said "keep it peaceful, eh?" Testament to the attitudes of people who want to ban weapons of mass destruction, it was a very peaceful protest. The arrival of these three riot vans meant that there were now about as many polis as protestors. "Maybe it's a buddy system," someone said to me. I concurred, likening it to a game of football where every player is marked by another. "Man on!"
I think the polis lining the gate we were at must have loved overhearing our deliberations, as we watched the vans progress hawk-eyed. "They went down there, but nobody got out, and now they are parked up over there, so that means he will come out this gate – or maybe that gate – and then he will have to go this way, unless he goes that way. Wait, what about over there, is that a way he might go? Hang on, they're moving. Right, so that must mean he's coming out that gate, or maybe that gate." And so it continued, everyone trying to second-guess police tactics that maybe the police themselves weren't even fully aware of. It bordered on the ridiculous, and I hope the fuzz enjoyed it.
After a while, we spotted movement in the compound, cars mobilising in a way that suggested an imminent departure. From the other side, a protestor on a bike and others using the less physically-strenuous and faster method of smartphone communications confirmed that the TV crews and journalists were all leaving from the front entrance. Unsure where to stand, not knowing if the sleekit cunt would sneak out as he had sneaked in, Matt and I stood with a dozen or so others at the rear entrance. That was when we saw the entourage pull away and head round the far side of the building.
We ran the short distance along the street to the roundabout, past a bus stop of bemused commuters to where the others were chanting and waving placards, and got there just as the motorcade reached it and pulled away. At first, it wasn't clear if it was them – they had made it up the street from the main entrance far faster than expected – but who else would be in a sleek motorcade of tinted windows? I did all that was left in me to do, the only thing I really could do in the circumstances, and shouted "BASTARDS!" as loudly as I could. The polisman next to me smiled. I think he saw that it was simultaneously cathartic and pathetic. Therapeutic but, of itself, futile. It was, however, heartfelt. I don't know what anyone else in my position would have done, and all but one of the people I know weren't in that position to find out.
They must have hared it up that street to the roundabout, and one of the protestors (with a megaphone) loudly accused them of reckless and dangerous driving, claiming they had sped up on the wrong side of the road. Then there was cheering, and thanks, and the knowledge that we had done something to show that Cameron, his party, and the expenditure on this weaponry are not welcome in our country. Fuck The Tories. I went all that way to see him, and the cunt blanked us.
The photos taken of me never surfaced, despite the potential story there if the Record was to assimilate their article about my tweet with my appearance at protests wearing this slogan. I don't really need or want the publicity, it just amuses me that they have now been involved twice in my one week of taking action. My one week. The first week. There will be more. At the very least, we need a radical rethink from Westminster. At the very most, a Yes vote in the referendum will see us rid of the Tories for ever and able to govern our own people based on what we want and know we need. And not based on what some far-off millionaire is doing for the benefit of his school chums.
April 16, 2013 | Categories: Absurd, Axe The Tax, Bedroom Tax, Complaint, Contract, Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor, Dole, Facebook, Fight, Flag, Fuck The Tories, Glasgow, Govan, History, Housing Benefit, Life, Police, Politics, Poverty Line, Protest, Scotland, Scottish, Scrap Trident, Social Media, Street, Travel, Twitter, Work, Workfare, World | Tags: Banner, Bastards, Clyde, Conservative, Daily Record, Faslane, General Election, Govan Road, IDS, Journalist, Meatwagon, Motorcade, MSP, Naval Base, Photograph, Photography, Referendum, Riot Van, Scottish Government, SNP, Southern General, Thales, That Cunt Cameron, Tinted Windows, Tory Scum, Trident, TV Crew, Vote Yes, Yes Scotland | Leave a comment
Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor – Part 1
George Square, 30th March 2013
There comes a point in every man's life – or, at least, I hope there does – when you realise that clicking "like" on shared Facebook photos and statuses is not an adequate or forceful form of protest. My own study of history leads me to believe that women received the vote as much for the roles they fulfilled during the First World War as for their widely-known protest movement. Yet, it is is hard to believe that Emmeline Pankhurst would have been quite so powerful and historically renowned a figure had her cohorts not chained themselves to the railings of Downing Street and instead merely hashtagged #Suffrage on Twitter. On Twitter, due to the limitations of hashtags involving punctuation, it is not even possible to accurately tag it #Women'sSuffrage.
I was aware, through Facebook, of an actual physical protest being held in my city on Saturday 30th March. This was the end of the week in which, as previously documented here, I had sent out a Tweet requesting that someone hit That Cunt Cameron in the face with a shovel, which was subsequently retweeted by an MSP. It was reported in the Daily Record, and then raised at First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament. My involvement, the reasons for my tweet, and the sentiment behind it were not discussed, and the full (lack of) reaction can be read in the follow-up post here. It seems that I had violently and abusively summed up the consensus of growing public opinion.
I can't remember how the protest first came to my attention, although due to the political motivations of several of my friends and mutual friends, it began appearing on my pages with some regularity. I have since joined the Anti Bedroom Tax Protest In Scotland page, and have long been a follower of the "The last person to enter parliament with honest intentions was Guy Fawkes" page.
Last summer, I had bought a couple of Scottish flags, saltire crosses upon the centre of which I stencilled the logo of my favourite band. One of them ended up on stage with them at their Glasgow gig, held aloft during their encore at The Arches to loud cheers. I had planned to do something similar for another band I was seeing in Berlin at Christmas, but never got round to it. With this "spare" flag still in a drawer, I looked it out and wrote "F_CK THE TORIES" across the middle of it. While the back of my shirt has the same phrase uncensored, it occurred to me that self-censoring the first word would make it more publication friendly, should any photographers or cameramen happen to record it. The message is still unmistakeable, and I deliberately used an underscore in place of the "U" so that, if I decide to, I can fill it in later. The task, which I had started when I got in from a late-night comedy show, was finished by about 5am. I slept a few hours, and then dragged myself out of bed and down into the town.
I knew a few people who had said they were going, and another couple of dozen who had clicked "attending" on the facebook page with no real intention of showing up. One of the former, my friend Matt, was also attending his first ever protest, and I had provisionally arranged to meet him. The overall plan was to assemble at the Green, march to George Square, and rally there. I was running a little late, thanks to the company who – due to the frequency with which they announce it – may be known to the uninitiated as "Scotrail Apologise." This same company is better known to users of social media as "Fuck Scotrail." Thanks to their sterling inability to run trains to anything even approaching the timetable they set, I made it to the Bridgegate just as the march set off. Matt was, he texted me, next to a large black Scrap Trident banner, and I stood on the corner of the street until I spotted it. This being a protest march and not an orange walk, it was very easy to infiltrate the ranks to cross the marchers and join him.
It fair fills you with civic pride to march alongside hundreds – thousands – of others who all care passionately about the same thing. Especially when you know you are in the right. This "Bedroom Tax", to use the accepted colloquial term, is completely unworkable. The government are demanding people downsize into homes that just do not exist – it has been widely reported that there are tens of thousands of people who are now required to move into a couple of thousand homes. The housing needed – affordable single-bedroom homes – is not physically available in anything even approaching the numbers necessary. Those affected, therefore, will have to make up the resulting shortfall in their rent, on the back of this cut, and if they can't keep up payments they will face eviction. On the face of it, this does not affect me. I live in a one-bedroom flat. However, on the back of all the other ill-thought-out strategies – involving Workfare, ATOS, the NHS in England, funding for Trident – and the general hypocrisy of Tory rulers who are, largely, millionaires and have little or no idea what life is like on the breadline – I have had enough. This party has one MP in Scotland. One. That is not a mandate to rule, and when That Cunt Cameron installed himself as the Prime Minister I immediately wrote "Fuck The Tories" across the back of a shirt, in the DIY protest spirit of the original punk movement.
With growing anger, I have watched as the Tories have systematically undermined the entirety of the welfare state – rights that were hard fought for by our recent ancestors. On the back of my infamous tweet, mentioned in the blog already linked to, and the general apathy with which it was mostly met, I realised that it is time to protest in a more visible form. I don't mean, and am not advocating, masks and molotov cocktails, but just being on the streets and marching and swelling the ranks by the number of one. It is my belief that people are taking to the streets to protest the Bedroom Tax, because if they don't then inordinate numbers of people will be forced to LIVE on the streets. That's when homelessness increases, and then crime increases, while businesses fold as people divert disposable income into living expenses. It's time to stand and fight.
This is how I came to find myself in the midst of three thousand people, wearing a shirt and holding aloft a flag that both state my view clearly – Fuck The Tories. I didn't join in with any chants, partly from being self-conscious, and largely because everything I wanted to say was clearly written upon my person.
To my mind, this is the part in the film "Network" where he says "I want you to get up right now, go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!' I want you to get mad!"
I want you to get mad. This affects us all, directly or indirectly. You don't have to support the SNP or want independence to realise that this whole Bedroom Tax fiasco is unjust and totally unworkable.
When we got to the Square, I bumped into or met up with another few friends. My friend McGovern is no stranger to socialism and protest marches, and he joined us to listen to the various speakers being introduced by comedian Janey Godley. I found the pair of us in one of the photographs that was circulated online after the event.
At least four people took pictures of the back of my shirt – they got my best side – and three of them had the courtesy to ask first. When I went home afterwards, I stopped at a local shop to pick up some messages. A wee woman came up to me from behind and said "Do we just add a tick if we agree?"
Like I said, the feeling is widespread. If you feel that passionately, then do something. Make yourself heard. Stand up for what you believe to be right. Stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves. Today, for the first time in my life, I realised that I feel prepared to lock arms with people and prevent evictions, if it comes to it. I've had enough.
I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more.
April 15, 2013 | Categories: Absurd, ATOS, Axe The Tax, Bedroom Tax, Better Together, Bills, Bridgegate, Briggait, Complaint, Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor, Dole, Facebook, Fight, First Scotrail, Flag, Fuck The Tories, George Square, Glasgow, Glasgow Green, History, Housing Benefit, Jobcentre, Life, Money, Politics, Poverty Line, Protest, Public Transport, Scotland, Scottish, Scrap Trident, Social Media, Street, The Arches, Twitter, Universal Credit, Work, Workfare, World | Tags: Anti Bedroom Tax, Axe The Tax, Berlin, Chained To Railings, Conservatives, Cutbacks, David Cameron, Derek Mackay, DIY, Downing Street, Emmeline Pankhurst, England, Fight Back, First Minister's Questions, FMQ, Fuck Scotrail, George Square, Guy Fawkes, Hashtag, Honest Intentions, Housing, I Want You To Get Mad, Iain Duncan Smith, IDS, Janey Godley, Lock Arms, Mad As Hell, McGovern, MSP, Network, NHS, Not Gonna Take This Anymore, People Power, Prime Minister, Punk, Ratbag, Saltire, ScotFail, Scotrail apologise, Scottish Government, Scottish Independence, Scottish parliament, Suffragette, That Cunt Cameron, The Arches, Yes Scotland | Leave a comment
Repercussions Of Retweeting Abuse.
This is a follow-up to my 21st Dubious Claim To Fame post, in which my request that someone smack That Cunt Cameron in the face with a shovel was forwarded by an MSP. The story was published in the Daily Record on Wednesday 27th March (page four.) On the Thursday, I received the first – and so far only – criticism for what I had written. It didn't attack anything I said in the original tweet, or talk about the subsequent minor publicity, instead picking me up on a sentence I'd written in the blog post linked to.
I googled the email address and name of the commentor, discovering him to be an apparently well-respected author of (it seems) books on subjects as diverse as marketing techniques and the Titanic. He appeared to be accusing me of instigating anti-English racism because I had suggested that the majority of Cameron's supporters live in the south of that country. I maintain that it is not possible to be racist to a specific geographical district, as the very term suggests an inherent prejudice against all of a country's inhabitants. I have also made no mention of (nor exhibit) any general dislike of English people, or of their national character traits, and my statement related to the voting patterns of a particular area. The nationality of these voters does not factor. Here is what I believe to be the contentious sentence:
Show me a person who approves of, likes, or voted for David Cameron, and I will show you somebody who lives in the south of England.
I amended this accordingly, and inserted the word "probably" in front of the word "lives." I also replied to the poster's comment in full and offered to engage in further discussion. To date, as I write this a fortnight later on 14th April, I have heard nothing more about it, (or about the fact he posted it against the index of articles and not the blog in question.) This makes me glad, as to be racist against the English I would have to decide whether to base it on birthplace, current location, parental nationality, all of those, a combination, or some other criteria. Frankly, that is far too much effort, and involves far too many decisions. I'm just going to stick to hating the majority of all humanity, and in particular hypocritical or patronising figures of authority. With that in mind, you can read the comment and my response here (opens in new window) or in the screenshot below,
I have also heard nothing negative (and, in the interest of balance, nothing positive from people I don't already know) despite having my Twitter username published alongside my tweet. If anyone disagreed with the sentiment of my words, it was very easy to let me know. Simply searching online for the story brings this blog up at the very top of the results page, and yet that one comment is the only feedback I have received. In the meantime, it started to bother me that – of all the things I write online: the carefully-worded and thoughtfully-edited blogs; the one-liners and jokes; the pithy statements, insightful observations, aggressive criticisms – the piece of writing getting most attention just now, comparatively, is neither very clever nor very subtle. It is far from my finest work. Hopefully it is not the epitome of my writing career. It did, at least, allow me to have a bit of fun – see the screenshot below.
On the Saturday of that week, I went out marching in protest against the Bedroom Tax, wearing my "Fuck The Tories" shirt which was much-photographed that day. There is a dedicated blog about that protest, the first in a series as I join and write about further protests against this Tory Government who, with only one MP elected in Scotland, do not have a democratic right to rule here. As I was posting on Twitter that day, I got a message from a girl I know. She told me that the issue of my tweet had been raised in Parliament, where she works, brought up at First Minister's Questions a few days before.
I asked her if there is a public record, like Hansard, and later checked directly. The Public Information Office replied quickly to my email and informed me that: "The Scottish Parliament equivalent of the Hansard is called the Official Report and is generally available within four hours of a meeting of the Parliament finishing. You can find the Official Report on our website at this address: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/OfficialReport.aspx Chamber business is also recorded and made available to watch online here: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/newsandmediacentre/30931.aspx."
To save you some time, here is a YouTube link to the exact point where the Tory Ruth Davidson MSP mentions it, and the full transcript can be found in the Official Report for 28th March 2013. As I later discovered, the Tories are not blameless when it comes to ill-considered tweets, in their case sectarian ones. This hypocrisy, of course, did not stop the Tories from gloating about it on their website. The Scottish Express printed an article about it too, but it all focussed on the issue of the retweet and the actions of MSPs rather than on very much of what I wrote, far less why I wrote it. I am very glad that I did not mention Robin Hood Airport, this is a level of publicity and scrutiny that I am comfortable dealing with. I don't really need a two-year criminal trial with multiple appeals and vast press coverage.
My friend further elaborated on her message to me, explaining why she felt unable to tell me publicly about it and saying that the MSP in question, Derek Mackay, had been present in the public gallery at the time and "looked mortified." Despite it being a casual throwaway (yet heartfelt) remark, I do seem to have accidentally generated quite a lot of hilarity among my friends. I don't think that's a bad thing.
As for the original blog, it has had 109 views as of today, and (excluding encrypted searches, which don't show up in the stats) nineteen people have found it using the search terms below.
What this whole thing has been, apart from an unintended but appreciated source of amusement, is a personal catalyst. It has become clear to me that – except perhaps for the work of Anonymous – online revolution is close to no revolution at all, and that it will take physical action and organised protest to make our voices heard. The Tories have no mandate here. They are enforcing unworkable policies that affect us all. People are taking to the streets to protest the Bedroom Tax, because if they don't then inordinate numbers of people will be forced to LIVE on the streets. That's when homelessness increases, and then crime increases, while businesses fold as people divert disposable income into living expenses.
Somebody, somewhere up the line, decades before I was born, stood and marched and shouted and rallied so that if I got sick, or lost my job, or had been born (or became) less abled, then I could still live without having to starve and freeze and sleep on the streets while I found my feet again. Someone I don't know fought for that – for me, and for you, and for all of us. Now it is under threat, I consider it my duty to fight for it too. These were hard won rights, and we can't let that count for nothing. If you too have had enough, then lend your weight to the peaceful but increasing public protests. It's time to fight back.
April 15, 2013 | Categories: Absurd, ATOS, Axe The Tax, Bedroom Tax, Better Together, Diary Of An Anti-Tory Protestor, Dole, Facebook, Fame, Fight, Food, Fuck The Tories, Glasgow, History, Housing Benefit, Jobcentre, Life, Money, Politics, Poverty Line, Protest, Scotland, Scottish, Scrap Trident, Social Media, Twitter, Universal Credit, Work, Workfare, World, Writing | Tags: Blog, Conservative Party, Cutbacks, Daily Record, David Cameron, Derek Mackay, England, Express, Fight Back, First Minister, FMQ, Google, Government, MSP, Official Report, Parliament, Public Information, Questions, Racism, Racist, Retweet, Ruth Davidson, Scottish parliament, Search Terms, Sectarianism, SNP, Tories, Tory, Tweet, Twitter, Vote Yes, Westminster, Yes Scotland | Leave a comment


text:
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text: COUNT BLECK. (Bet you thought I was gonna say Ridley, huh?) C'mon, you know he's awesome. He's a monocle and top-hat wearing vampiresque gentleman who happens to have an entire dimension up his cape (like Cloak from Spiderman, and we all know how cool he is). He has a book that predicts the end of the world, has an awesome theme song, and controls something called a Chaos Heart. I mean, you can't get cooler than that! :lol: What do you think?


text:
DSA makes a milled aluminum top cover that does not need the "para cut". The cover has the scope rail, so it eliminates any possibility of original appearance. The para cut can be made in any receiver, but this cover eliminates the need to do any extra work.
DSA also makes a para bolt carrier. This thing isn't cheap, but it does get you another U.S. part.
I bought the top cover, para recoil spring set, and bolt carrier to go with my Sarco folding lower. These parts set me back about $235, but I had been unable to find a para carrier and I really like the DSA scope rail top cover on my Imbel. A para rear sight will run you another $55 to $60 from DSA. You can get various other sights that can be adapted to the para lower, as seen on the FALFiles.
The Sarco lower is stripped, but you can reuse the latch parts, hammer strut, and triggerguard from your parts kit. Be careful when you get around to refinishing it. There's a post on FALFiles showing the Sarco buttpad melted during a refinishing episode.
I bought 3 kits from Gunthings, and every one was underrated according to their descriptions. The kits are ugly on the outside, but cleaned up nicely. The bores were great and there wasn't excessive play once the bolt and carrier were installed in the receiver.
After looking at the Ammunitionstore.com ad, I would probably go with the Gunthings.com South African kit. It's a few dollars more, but it's not a jumble of mixed parts.
If you go with an FSE trigger group, U.S. piston, U.S. charging handle, DSA carrier, and U.S. floorplates, you'll have your 7 parts. This would allow you to use a cheaper Imbel imported receiver. Tapco carries the gas pistons, charging handles, and furniture (if you want to swap pistol grip and handguards).


text:
True geniouse
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College students in western New York and north-central Pennsylvania are gearing up for the annual Undergraduate Research Conference.
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Undergraduate college students in any field of study are invited to submit their research for presentation, particularly those in the behavioral and social sciences; biological, computational and physical sciences; health-related and applied sciences; and the humanities. The projects can be in progress or completed and presentations may be a 12-minute oral presentation, a poster presentation or an exhibition of artwork. {View and download a flyer here}
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text:
Reported adidas Deal With Andrew Wiggins Sets Precedent Very HighPosted by David Harten on October 17th, 2013
According to various media reports on Tuesday, adidas is already stocking up to make a play on current Kansas star Andrew Wiggins, with the shoe giant ready to the throw a 10-year, $140 to $180 million contract at him when he goes pro after this season. Wiggins is widely touted as the top prospect in the 2014 NBA Draft, so let's move past any issues or claims of amateurism and instead look at the how and why of this supposed deal. Looking at the immediate future, when Wiggins is selected in the first round of the draft next June, he will get the guaranteed four-year contract that comes with selection as a first round pick, per the NBA's recent collective bargaining agreement. Breaking it down to a simple annual take of salary ($4 million-plus per year) plus endorsements, Wiggins will make a minimum of $18-$22 million per year beginning next summer, assuming of course that he lives up to the overflowing hype while passing through Lawrence.
For comparison's sake, let's look at some of the more lucrative endorsement deals offered to young professional basketball prospects in the last decade. It's tough to find a good benchmark, but you have to start with LeBron James' deal with Nike in 2003, which was reportedly worth over $90 million at the time. In terms of one-year collegiate wonders, Kevin Durant signed a seven-year, $60 million deal with Nike when he came out of Texas, and lest we forget, Derrick Rose signed a monster "lifetime" (actual: 14-year) contract with adidas last year worth $260 million.
And yet, none of those deals are as important as the one that Wiggins could reportedly sign. There are certain number of factors that go into it. First, a company being publicly locked and loaded with such a deal (of course, neither adidas nor Wiggins can confirm it) could set off a behind-the-scenes bidding war and set the stage for preemptive moves like this in the future. Everyone around the game knows that the business of basketball begins when top players are still in the AAU ranks. With the shoe companies having such deep and prolific roots in the summer circuits and associations with the major prep schools, it's easy to understand how and why many players are predestined for adidas, Nike, Reebok, and so forth from the beginning. Kansas is an adidas school. Wouldn't it make sense for Wiggins to represent the shoe company on the court this season with such a tremendous payoff waiting for him in the wings? Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA, Dream Vision and adidas all say hello.


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Do you use your kids' names as a password? Your pet's name, that you talk about on your blog? You might want to rethink that strategy. Seriously. I have a friend right now in shock because she had an easy-to guess password. Someone hacked her gmail account. She lost everything. This includes her email, her blogs (which were on Blogger, owned by, who else? Google). What's more, her passwords were in a folder, in her gmail account. So, the person who hacked her has it all. She is left with nothing and is scrambling to undo the damage that can be done all over the Internet. Meanwhile, she is locked out of everything Google. Can you imagine? Another reason computing in the Cloud has me a bit a-skeered...Google owns my life.
It is easy to get lax, but here's the deal, from me to you. If you have a word from the dictionary as a password, change it, RIGHT NOW. I'll wait. ...
...are you back? This is why: there are programs that just run dictionary words and common numbers trying to hack your password. Make no mistake, there are people out there, right now, as I write this, trying to hack you. A combination of letters, numbers and upper and lower case characters are the best chance you have to keep those out who want in to your accounts. Go ahead, make use of that shift bar. Also, while I am on the subject, make a new password for every single service you use online. I know it's a pain, but this way, if someone gets into one, they don't necessarily get into everything.
I know, I know..it's hard to keep track of that many passwords, but you have some options. If you are on a Mac, you have Keychain to help you. You can store passwords, but also generate them as well. On a PC, you can use Password Safe, an application that you download and use locally. It creates files for your passwords, and a master password to protect them all. What's more, it is open source, so you don't pay anything for it. As for what you find on the Internet, I would be very, very wary of any online password meters. How do you know that your password is not being snarfed? Keep it local! It's also smart to write those puppies down in case you have a hard drive crash. This actually happened to me in July, and I lost half of my passwords. Luckily, I did have most of them written down, and backed up.
I don't want to hear that you have been hacked, so change that password. Change it often. And store your passwords locally, not ONLINE where they can be hacked. Your online identity, treat it the way you would your bank information. Treat it the way you would your first born child. Guard it.
Consider this my public service announcement to all of you. Much love. Peace out.
T, who changed mine the minute I heard about this


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We had dual visions of this card when we created it. On the one hand, we figured there would be parents with children who at times are both naughty and nice. And on the other hand, we figured there were those of us "bigger kids" who really deserved a card for ourselves – we'll choose not to define the exploits that would qualify in each category. Printed on paper that is all nice and 100% recycled.
See how Paper Culture compares to Tiny Prints, Minted, Shutterfly, & Snapfish
- Card Type
- Flat Card
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- Cards 6.0" x 4.3" - Flat
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- 130lb, 100% post consumer recycled paper
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$0.49 plus the cost of the stamp
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$8.99 flat-rate (via Ground)
- Price Per Card
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I am a designer/Illustrator who finds inspiration in contemporary art and design. I find imagination to be one of the most wonderful gifts that human beings posses and love to use mine to create charming and fun characters that take a life of their own. My color palette is influence by my upbringing as a first generation Latino in the United States. My work is consistently shifting and morphing into new and exciting worlds, which I have created from the perspective of my inner child.


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Today's announcement comes at a critical time, as organizations look to consolidate their existing data centers and shift greater workloads to the cloud. In fact, one study has determined that by 2014, businesses will have migrated more than 62 percent of their existing database workloads to the cloud. [1]
These additional Flex Systems products deliver the features that provide clients with the choices they need as they seek to reduce costs and invest in technologies that provide future scalability. The offerings consist of three systems built on both IBM POWER7+ and a "double dense" x222 system built on x86 technology. Additionally, IBM has upgraded the Flex System Manager so that clients can monitor and manage up to 5,000 infrastructure end points and do so from any location utilizing iOS, Android and Blackberry mobile devices.
Swedish manufacturer Tomologic, in collaboration with the global cutting machine manufacturers and researchers from the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, KTH and Uppsala University have moved to a cloud environment on the new x222 Flex System. Tomologic will use this environment to deliver their Software as a Service that optimizes cutting metal and material through the use of advanced and unique computational algorithms. The algorithms will help Tomologic's clients to offer more units being cut out of the same sheet, reducing the amount of waste; and enabling more efficient use of the machine capacity. Because they are based in the cloud Tomologic is able to continually improve the efficiency of the algorithm and service without disrupting end-user production.
In addition to cloud deployments, many clients are choosing Flex System to enhance their infrastructures as they replace legacy environments.
For example, Libra Internet Bank, one of the leading banking services providers in Romania, is announcing that they will replace the legacy systems used currently in their production infrastructure. Libra Internet Bank anticipates that the new Flex System data center will increase the security, performance and efficiency of the banking services they offer clients.
Tomologic and Libra Internet Bank are just two examples of the thousands of clients in key markets who are increasingly turning to Flex System to replace their legacy blade infrastructures and deploy new cloud environments. Companies such as Ricca, Harris Farm Markets and Redcentric have all seen significant performance increases and cost savings since consolidating their data centers on Flex System.
The key elements of today's announcement include:
- Flex System x222 – A new double density design built on x86 architecture that allows support for up to 2,800 Windows 7 user images in a single chassis;
- Flex System p460 – Delivers POWER7+ performance for clients with larger workloads;
- Flex System p270 – A POWER7+ option that is designed for medium-sized businesses and delivers performance for technical computing and data analytics;
- Flex System p260 – A new entry-level POWER7+ node ideal for IBM i workloads;
- Flex System Manager – Provides management of more systems from a single point of control and the ability to do so from any location with iOS, Android or Blackberry devices; provides a new utilization fuel gauge to help clients monitor the status and availability of their infrastructure manage; and has been expanded with the ability to manage the System x HANA-optimized x3950;
- New switches and fabrics that help enable Software Defined Networks (SDN) and improve connectivity and performance by increasing infrastructure bandwidth up to 40Gb.
SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE FLEX SYSTEM OFFERINGS are located at this link
Since the introduction of Flex System, IBM has been committed to supporting its Business Partners. As a result, there are now more than 4,500 channel partners for PureFlex and Flex System. Today's announcement provides additional choices for Partners, and reinforces the role of Flex System as the premier platform for providing solutions to clients in the x86 and POWER market segments.
Expanding on this commitment, IBM Business Partners worldwide can now select from Flex System bundles that are specially configured and priced for their local markets. [2]
The IBM Flex System goes beyond competitor's blade configurations and provides the building-block elements for IBM PureSystems. IBM Flex Systems are built-to-order offerings for clients who want to custom build and tune configurations to their specific requirements. This allows them to select the specific compute, systems networking and optional storage and management required to support their specific workloads.
For more information on IBM Flex System visit: www.ibm.com/flex
[1] Morgan Stanley Cloud Perspective
[2] For more information, contact your local IBM channel representative for details.
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Flex System management is possible via Android, iOS or Blackberry
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New IBM Flex System products allow clients to build larger clouds with smaller data centers (Credit: IBM)
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James "Jimmy" Walthall, who died Feb. 22 in Lafayette, Ga., was a three-sport standout of the 1940s at West Virginia University.
The Princeton native earned seven letters in football, basketball and baseball. He excelled in all three sports.
Walthall, who was 85, also served as an assistant coach in football under the late Gene Corum in the 1960s.
After playing as a freshman on varsity teams in 1944, Walthall served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Then he returned to WVU and competed in 1947-48-49.
Among his most memorable achievements was a 28-27 upset victory at Penn State in 1944. And he tamed the Nittany Lions almost single-handedly and he was just a freshman.
Walthall also guided the Mountaineers to a 17-2 win against Pitt in 1947 at Pittsburgh. That was the late Bill Kern's final game as head coach. He had told his players before the game that he had resigned.
Walthall also engineered, under head coach Dr. Doug DeGroat, a 21-12 victory over Texas Western in the Jan. 1, 1949, Sun Bowl at El Paso, Texas. That capped a 9-3 season.
In all, Walthall posted a four-year football record of 24-16-2.
He played only two years of basketball under the late Lee Patton, who also had coached Walthall at Princeton High School.
The late Ira Errett Rodgers was his coach in baseball. That was his senior year of 1949. He helped his team to a 13-8 record.
As an assistant coach in football, he was responsible for those at the backfield positions.
Walthall spent some 30 years coaching and teaching in various high schools in Georgia, where he resided after retiring.
He was so outstanding in sports at Princeton High that the West Virginia Sports Writers Association twice voted him State Amateur Athlete of the Year.
Walthall was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. However, he was unable to attend because of illness.
He was also named to the school's all-time team for the period of 1940-49.


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Of course there are.
Incidentally, I seek out and shop in stores with good prices but I wouldn't patronize a Walmart.
It's a matter of principal. Plenty of the people in that neighborhood might feel the same, give them some credit. In fact, oppsition to Walmart in other areas of the city shows a general disdain for the effect their presence would have here, and for the inconsistency of their labor practices with New York expectations. Pathmark has a contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union so the logic is flawed:because Pathmark and Walmart are very different, and perceived differently by many people. There exists particular disapproval toward Walmart's way of doing things.If their opposition is truly a result of losing an affordable place to shop, then they'd embrace Wal-Mart in a new condo development.


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Dannijo Fall 2011 Jewelry Collection Photos
Dannijo Brings the Bordello to New York for Their Fall 2011 Jewelry Presentation
>> Statement necklaces are here to stay if Dannijo-designing sisters Danielle and Jodie Snyder have anything to say about it. Offering refuge from New York's bitter cold last night in a Chelsea gallery space, the sisters showed knotted oxidized brass bracelets, intricate necklaces adorned with turquoise, and glittering Swarovski-dotted collar pieces against a western-inspired bordello tableau — complete with a token sunglassed man puffing on a cigarette. The Fall 2011 Dannijo collection was inspired by two American eras — "the pastoral frontier of the Wild West with the shameless opulence of the Roaring 20s," according to show notes. And Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock popped by — the Snyders collaborated with Vena Cava on '90s, working girl-inspired pieces for their Fall 2011 runway.
Photos Ryan McCune/ Patrick McMullan


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NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Research In Motion declined 2 percent before the market opened Wednesday with Bernstein Research predicting that the BlackBerry maker won't measure up to Wall Street expectations in the second half of the year.
RIM's stock has climbed 25 percent since the start of the year, as buzz for the new BlackBerry 10 device ramped up.
Analyst Pierre Ferragu said that his research suggests that consumers have been slow to move to the BlackBerry 10.
"The initial enthusiasm that we observed for BlackBerry 10 devices now appears to be waning," he said.
The analyst also believes that there is an increased risk that only some corporate customers will latch on to the new technology.
"BlackBerry 10 is being tested at only 60 percent of Fortune 500, which implies the share of defectors could be very large," Ferragu wrote.
Based on that prediction, Bernstein lowered expectations for shipments, gross margin and service revenue "for the second half and beyond."
Ferragu cut RIM's rating to "Underperform" from "Market Perform."
A representative for Research In Motion Ltd. did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The company's stock fell 36 cents to $14.48 in premarket trading.
The BlackBerry arrived in 1999 and had been the dominant choice for corporations and high-end phone purchases by individuals before Apple Inc.'s iPhone debuted in 2007, and showed that phones can be used for much more than email and phone calls. RIM faced numerous delays modernizing its operating system with the BlackBerry 10. During that time, it had to cut more than 5,000 jobs and saw shareholder wealth decline by more than $70 billion.
But RIM surprised Wall Street in March by returning to profitability and shipping about 1 million touch-screen BlackBerry Z10 phones in the quarter that ended March 2. It will take several quarters, though, to know whether the Canadian company is on a path toward a successful turnaround.
The BlackBerry Q10, which has a physical keyboard, went on sale in the U.S. in early June, months after the touch-screen versions went on sale.


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Precio habitual
Special Price :)
Reference picture. Due to the calibration differences between computer monitors & tablets, etc. the color of the garment may vary slightly from what you are viewing.
*NOTE: Your bikinis may not exactly replicate the one pictured. The placement of the patterns may vary due to fabric cut. Every kind of HelsBcn is unique!


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Your boyfriend Coop-a-doop and Jennifer Lawrence have both earned acclaim for their performances in the upcoming David O. Russell-directed novel adaptation Silver Linings Playbook. The film concerns a man, recently released from a mental health facility after a breakdown in the face of his wife's infidelity, moves home with his parents (Robert Deniro! So nice to see you playing a dad without having to spit out bad dead-eyed jokes about Ben Stiller's testicles!) and meets a fetching widow.
The two bond when, if you go by the random twist in this trailer, she needs him to be her partner for a dance competition. Which seems a little bizarre, but I'll buy it, since it has been proven that every serious adult relationship problem can be overcome with a good:


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In order to be sure to select the right size for you child or yourself, use the tables below. Our clothes usually have a rather tight fit for children, if your child likes large fits, our advice is to pick one size above it's regular size.
|Clothing size
|Baby size
|Average weight in kg
|3 months
|60 cm
|5 à 6 kg
|6 months
|67 cm
|7 à 8 kg
|12 months
|74 cm
|9 à 10 kg
|18 months
|81 cm
|11 kg
|24 months
|86 cm
|12 kg
Clothing size
Child height
Waist size
|2 years
|83 to 89 cm
|48 cm
|3 years
|90 to 97 cm
|50 cm
|4 years
|98 to 104 cm
|52 cm
|5 years
|105 to 110 cm
|53 cm
|6 years
|111 to 116 cm
|54 cm
|8 years
|123 to 128 cm
|56 cm
|10 years
|135 to 140 cm
|58 cm
|12 years
|141 to 152 cm
|60 cm
XS size is a 14 years fit
|Clothing Size
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If you are not completely satisfied…If you are not completely satisfied with a purchase or gift for any reason, you have 15 days to communicate us that you want to return an item and exchange it. You are responsible for return shipping fees, but if you want to exchange an item, you will get a new one for free. Please go to the "Questions?" link present on each product description or in the terms and conditions to get more information.
Any doubt? Any question? Do not hesitate! Please contact us!
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To make this cotton voile girl's blouse, we worked with a factory in India, in the Uttar Pradesh region. We have been working for a long time with our Indian partners, whose expertise in the subtlety of colors, the quality of cotton voile and finishing touches (like embroidery) is inimitable.
100% cotton.
Machine wash inside out up to 30°C/86°F gentle cycle.


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Sideshow Bob wrote:Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Tesl wrote:What is wrong with Jovetic again? Last I heard he got sick so couldn't be on the bench against Leicester, did he go and injure himself again after or something??
Zabaleta sounds like hes recovering fast, any chance he could make it against Liverpool do we think?
Jovetic took ill the day of the Leicester game but was fine for training the day after that.But yes he did suffer a recurrence of a thigh injury but it won't be a long term one.
his situation is seriously wtf.


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Flu From Your Cellphone? How to Avoid Virus
There are more than 320 million cell phones being used in America and according to Nielsen, about 50 percent are smartphones used heavily throughout the day.
But what if the portal to your work, entertainment, and social life could make you sick this flu season?
During this time of year, the flu is everywhere, including cell phones. There is a much greater chance of catching the flu via airborne transmission, but doctors say people should take precautions, including washing their hands and properly cleaning their mobile devices.
"Cellphones are 10 times as dirty as a toilet seat," Chuck Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, told ABC News.
Cellphone users are faced with a conundrum. If you want to clean yours, wiping it with a damp terry cloth will not eliminate germs, bacteria, or viruses. And most manufacturers do not recommend using anything stronger - solvents, household cleaners, or alcohol-based solutions. People often don't clean their phones very thoroughly, even though the little gadgets follow them around offices, gyms, bathrooms, and eventually into their beds.
AT&T has recommended using a hands-free device, which will minimize your phone-to-face exposure. While they're at it, they advise their customers not to use their cellphones in the bathroom. 11mark, an integrated marketing agency, surveyed 1,000 Americans last year and found that 75 percent of respondents admitted to using their smartphones while on the toilet; it's grimy and, sometimes, rude.
To clean a phone, some people apply a small amount of alcohol-based cleaner to a cloth before wiping down their phones. This method has been shown to be the most effective for removing germs, though it can harm a phone's finish. Many companies, like S.C. Johnson, have begun to offer products specifically designed to clean and sanitize electronics.
But bugs like the flu are not often carried on your phone. Instead, the problem is germs on your hands from other people. In one experiment, Gerba placed the flu virus on an intern's door handle in an office building to see how quickly it would spread.
"If you don't share a cellphone you don't have to worry because it's only your germs," said Gerba. "But if one person has the flu virus on their hands, it will be on the hands of 40 percent of the other people in the office within four hours."
Doctors highlight the importance of washing your hands properly with either soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer before touching your phone or other high-traffic surfaces. Keep in mind, the average adult touches their face 16 times per hour.
With a little caution, you can ensure a squeaky-clean phone and a reduced risk of illness.


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Primer is the unsung hero of beauty. It can seem like an unnecessary step and expense, and I usually steer clear of pushy add-on purchases when I'm already spending a lot on makeup. But primer makes a huge difference in how all your other products work. Makeup artists point to primer again and again as the secret to a more polished and long-lasting look.
What is primer? Think of primer as your base coat to help products adhere better and last longer. As you would prime a wall you are painting for best results, so you prime a face you are painting. It will make a smaller amount of foundation go a lot farther, saving you product and money. Foundation goes on more smoothly for a more flawless finish, and without a doubt, it last more hours and through more environmental effects. For instance, with primer, my blush is still perfectly applied at the end of the day. And, while it doesn't completely eradicate sweat, my makeup stays put better in hot and humid weather.
The primer I talk about when I'm listing these benefits is one of the most popular on the market with makeup artists and plebeians alike: Smashbox Photo Finish, $36. The price is steep, but one bottle lasts me more than a year and saves on foundation costs. With the success of Photo Finish, Smashbox branched off with several more specific primers. They have a hydrating primer, a dark spot correcting primer, a luminizing primer, the list goes on and on so it is definitely a great place to go if you're looking for the right primer for your needs.
It might also be a good place to look when you think about the change in seasons and how it affects your skin. I often apply primer directly to clean skin without a moisturizer, since my skin tends to be oilier. In the winter, I'll often use a hydrating moisturizer to protect against cold weather — give this a think if you're exposed to harsh office heating all winter, too. If you have dry skin and definitely need a moisturizer in the winter and even year-round, you might want to consider a more basic primer, or something mattefying if you feel the moisturizer can leave you shiny.
MAC's Prep + Prime line (around $30 – $40) offers quality primers combined with other cosmetic products like Prep + Prime Highlighter and Vibrancy Eye Primer. These products are great multi-taskers that save you the time and money of using two separate products to achieve the same effect. An eye primer, in particular, is important because not all primers are meant for use on eyes, and it makes a huge difference in helping eye shadow last longer.
The fall and winter season is a great time to try primer since you don't have to worry about the wild card of excessive heat and humidty, and layering products isn't as much of a chore. (Though a good primer like the ones above don't feel heavy.) Consider them for a special occasion and you'll find yourself using them in everyday life.


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This week I am a guest mom at Design Mom! So come and visit me. I also promise to have some new and exciting things around here too. Stick around. It's going to be fun.
Come visit me here
4 Comments
LynnieApril 13, 2009 at 12:11 pm
This IS fun. 🙂 I'm proud of you!
nikkiApril 13, 2009 at 3:45 pm
hey amy! burke sent me a link to your blog. i am so impressed! what beautiful projects you have done. i wish we were closer so that i could get some sewing mentoring. i just made eliza an easter dress. considering the hours it took me, it's probably worth about $200!
your quilts are beautiful–am enjoying your posts on designmom. take care!
nikki
whirligigdaisyApril 13, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I just found your blog. So wonderful. I've enjoyed it all!
Little B BunnyApril 13, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I just found you through Design Mom. I am learning to quilt, slowly, but surely and am so excited to start reading your blog.