Solid ball of rock

Went to see Saxon last night at the ABC.  Support was from the Quireboys, another band I love, and Redline, who I'd never heard before, but were pretty good, and I'd probably go and see again.

The Quireboys were up to their usual highly entertaining standard, and played a blinder of a set.

Spike and the Quireboys rocking the ABC

Then it was time for the main event.  From the off, it was a blinding set.  Biff announced that he hoped no-one was tired, as he fancied playing for two hours.  And that's exactly what they did.  At the end, he pointed at his watch as if to say "See, told you!".  

It was an absolute stormer of a set.  There was a fair few songs from the new album, which I've not heard yet, but they sounded great, and stood up really well next to the old favourites.

meh

In a bit of a downer at the moment.  Not depressed, just basically can't be arsed.
I think work is to blame.  There's samplers that I need to make for a project, and they need to be ready for May/June.  Now I've ordered in the parts I need, but there's stuff that we can't buy from approved suppliers, and that has to be bought using the project credit card, which I don't hold.
This has been dragging on since Christmas.  I need one part to build a prototype, and I've just been told, if it doesn't work, then we'll have to think about some other way of sampling.

Fine.

Except.  I'm on holiday for two weeks in May.  This was booked before I was asked to make the samplers. They know I'm going away.  So, basically, if they don't get their fingers out, they aren't going to get their samplers.

End of.

Why is this making me meh?  Well, I really enjoy working on this, and it's just frustrating that it's other people holding things up.

I'd scream, but I can't muster the energy.

1984, are we currently living it?

Just a quick thought on the current situation regarding the policing of the upcoming (it's NOT a state) funeral for Thatcher.

In the run up to the funeral, there will apparently be dawn raids on the homes of known protesters, to make sure they don't disrupt the funeral.  Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?  Actions like this are verging on thoughtcrime.  Is it getting to the stage where having a point of view that differs from the ruling elite's is bordering on a criminal offence?

Thatcher - Dividing the country even in death

Yesterday former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher died in her bed in a room at the Ritz hotel in London, where she had been living for some time.  She was 87.

During her 11 years in power, she managed to divide the country, with her supporters proclaiming her as the countries savour, while the rest compared her to Satan himself.

You can see the different reactions across the country from the regional headlines, here.

Personally I think her policies were evil.  The underclass that exists today is a direct result of her policies.  The fact that you have to bow down to corporations for your services is a result of her privatisation of everything.  Her mantra was greed is good, society doesn't exist, and you have to look after number 1.

Personally I won't be shedding any tears now that she's gone.  Various city's had impromptu street parties celebrating her demise.  I can understand why they did.

But now the point of this post.  On Facebook and Twitter, when the news broke, there was the same sort of posts that spring up when a celebrity dies.  However tasteless you think that sort of humour is, initially the posts were pretty tame.  Then people started defending her, saying she was a poor lonely 87 year old woman and deserved some respect.

The fall out was horrific.  People who were friends in real life as well as online, were getting torn into each other.
Today I had a look back over my FB feed.  It's like a war zone.  Twitter wasn't much better.
I've seen three people comment that their friends list is shorter today than it was yesterday, as they de-friend people who's posts they found objectionable.

Even in death she's causing division.