Today was the 11th September, 9/11 – not a good day for more than one reason as most people could attest. It was an unusual day at work, mainly because hardly anyone was there! Most of our production staff had gone to a big defence show in the Docklands, London aside from me and a few others. In general I was hoping for a Friday in which I could do a lot of work for once. Every Friday normally goes tits up for me. Well today NOTHING could go wrong because there were hardly any production staff in the first place…

Well the peace didn’t last long when two mates texted me saying that all hell had broken loose in Harrow, as there was a 9/11 protest outside Harrow Mosque, which I believe is in the final stages of construction.

Upon checking various websites I realised that this protest wouldn’t be a dozen or so people waving placards around screaming at the top of their voice, it was rather serious.

The English Defence League (EDL) have already been protesting in Luton and Birmingham recently, mainly because they are opposed to Islamic Extremism. They believe the religion to be extreme in it’s own right. Today they were due to arrive at this mosque in large numbers.

On the other hand, the UAF (Unite Against Fascism) were there in even greater numbers to rally support. Now it’s fair to say that the EDL wouldn’t have stood a chance in Harrow. I’ve lived here all my life, and the town at present couldn’t be more bloody ethnically diverse if it tried. We have all pretty much got along for many years now, although tensions are high just outside Harrow, in my home town of Wealdstone – the very place I was trying to reach today so I could go home and just eat after a hard day at work with no money for food! In short, the UAF didn’t need to go looking for support – it came to them.

I sat in the 140 bus counting the number of hot chicks I saw as it passed through a busier than normal Harrow Town centre and then right outside Debenhams got stuck in a typical traffic jam. The mosque was 6mins away down the road, so I ended up getting off the bus and walking down – I had to get through the protest just to reach my town.

It was madness and it was clear that there were young kids from outer boroughs pretty much looking for trouble. I had already made my mind up that if anyone would cause trouble it would be most of the hyper-charged young Muslim kids who were here for reasons not related to the protest.

My iPhone along with Twitter kept me abreast of the news here as people were tweeting all over the shop. ControlB was a star and kept regular updates on twitter. I popped into Skippers for a bite as I was starved. The place was getting colossal amounts of business today and the chap behind the counter was all over the place. Nomnomochipsnomonom! Christmas had come early for this shop.

I realised that I still had to get home and by now the UAF led protesters had gathered in size. Most watching from afar, whilst the central group occupied the main road despite community leaders asking them to allow vehicles through. Chants of "Whose Streets? Our Streets!" rang out.

It was now 5pm, the time at which the EDL were due to arrive. I believe I spotted Tony McNulty, Harrow East MP although I could have been wrong. There were well over 2000+ people here, it was a mixed race affair for the most part.

A group of ‘outsiders’ did arrive, weather they were the EDL members is unknown but they were kept away by the riot police and prevented from moving forward. At one point a large crowd of muslim youngsters charged up the Bridge road but I never saw it. No idea what that was about. There were clashes with the police though and bottles and bricks were sadly thrown. I wasn’t too pleased – so much for the ‘peaceful’ protest.

These clashes can be viewed in two ways, were the kids goaded by the ‘outsiders’. Pictures taken at JessHurd.com seem to suggest so, then again why were people ‘armed’ with bottles of bleach amongst other thngs?

I had been joking around with the police just moments before as I spotted a young asian copper who was about 4ft tall, she looked like Yoda looking ultra cute in her helmet setup.

One thing was clear, the EDL really didn’t stand a chance of coming to Harrow and getting their point across. However having said that I do get a distinct feeling that on the day, the EDL may have got the last ‘laugh’. Our town came to a standstill and the riled up kids clashed with the riot police – all this without the EDL having even been there.

I finally reached Wealdstone and did some shopping for food before walking home with my face firmly planted on the iPhone as I read the latest goings on via Twitter. A lot of thicko’s over Twitter kept referring to ‘RIOTS IN HARROW’. Last time I checked, the term RIOT didn’t refer to a couple of people chasing another bunch of people about. All in all, this wasn’t the Friday I was expecting – yet again.

Other Articles…
http://throughthescarydoor.blogspot.com/2009/09/nazi-scum-humiliated-in-harrow.html
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/09/english-defence-league-humiliated-in.html
http://www.uaf.org.uk/news.asp?choice=90912
http://www.demotix.com/news/unite-against-fascism-demonstration-harrow-london-0

On a spanking Sunday morning at 08:55 I am currently listening to what could be the most relaxing track ever – Stir It Up, from Bob Marley & The Wailers Legend album. I had forgotten how sublime this album was.

Blood Test Woes

Recent life updates would most notably be visiting my doctor for the first time in 18 years to have my first ever Blood Test. I have a severe aversion to needles and even threatened my dentist at the age of 15 so suffice to say that I was shitting bricks. I am no stranger to knives or being stabbed but if you come at me with a needle, I’ll run a bloody mile whilst screaming like Carlton from Fresh Prince. The whole process went by really fast even though the doc was doing the procedure in my left arm, my right arm was clenched ready to let rip. My mother was there to keep an eye on me though! Sad yes, required? Hell yes.

Carphone Warehouse iPhone Woes

What else? A week after its release I am still trying to get a flamin iPhone. I seem to be blessed with living amongst retards in my home town. They seem to exist everywhere right now. I have only been with Carphone Warehouse for 13 months now and I never knew how crap an experience it was to get any sort of information from one of their employees in a store.

I played a blinder on Friday though. I had visited various CPW stores in my town over the week and came to the conclusion that they were only selling iPhones to new customers and not those wanting to upgrade to one. Sounds silly but bear with me here. For days I had been told that they wouldn’t be getting stocks for weeks now and they had computer problems. I can understand that…to an extent, just don’t play me for a fool here.

Me: I’d like to sign upto CPW for an iPhone and an 18month contract please if I may.
Salesman: Sure, if I can take your details, proof of address then I can <checks computer> yes get an iphone delivered to you on Monday. What colour would you like sir?
Me: Oh you have them in stock? In that case could I upgrade my other current contract to an iPhone, and then let my girlfriend know that you have stock?
Salesman: Er, let me just check if we can get you an iphone sir. Hmm, our allocation system isn’t quite working and won’t let me set you up with one.
Me: I can see the reflection of your screen in that cabinet behind you mate, I see either a figure of 400 or 500 on the screen.
Salesman: …but the system isn’t really working and I can’t order one for you.
Me: But you could when I wanted to sign up as a new customer?
Salesman: Sir if you could call the CPW Customer Helpline here they could possibly upgrade you…
Me: Right, cheers.

You could repeat the above about 4 times as I had repeatedly visited various CPW stores around my town. I had read of other CPW customers being in the same situation so I had an idea. Why not ring up their Helpline and say I wanted to ‘leave’. I am out of contract so why not? Mobile phone companies would do anything to keep a customer. To cut a long story short I phoned up and requested a PAC code (a code used to port your phone number to a new network), and they asked why I was leaving. I fed them the story and they right away asked what iPhone I wanted and what colour. So I now have 2 months free on a £35 month contract and an iPhone coming on Monday. Sweet!

WordPress 2.5 = A Whole Lot of Headache

Can I even give myself in to liking WordPress 2.5? I can’t stand the damn thing and no matter how much I use it, I just can’t get with the stupid admin screen! It is a mess! I am not the only person with these views it seems. WordPress development is progressing at such a rate that plugin/theme authors can barely keep up – this isn’t good. I’m still trying to sort out compatibility issues with Internet Exporer 5/6/7 and now WP2.6 is out!

Thieves/Expenses/CatCams

That thieving tart PR has stolen the theme I was going to move this blog to. This current K2 theme doesn’t feel as robust as it used to any more although I guess WordPress 2.5 is mostly to blame here. So theat tart who is too lazy to find a good theme for himself has stoled the one I was going to mod! Thieving Apple fanboy scum!

What else? Oh I have just spent £1200 on a bloody prayer ceremony at my house. This lasted over two days and really cheesed me off. I hate things like this and I’m not even flipping religious in the first place. It was mainly for the parents though so I can’t complain. Actually I can because I’m about to buy them a 42″ HDTV for a £1000 ffs.

What else? Oh Mr.Lee has his own CatCam! Ever wondered what your kitty cat gets up to when it leaves your house? Well Mr.Lee’s owner stuck a camera on his collar and the results are great!

Apple’s App Store arrives

Worra load of crock. Apple’s big iPhone launch as well as Firmware 2.0 launch has kinda backfired on them. Firmware 2.0 is an utter buggy pile of poo right now, with features such has widely reported high battery usage, repeated apps crashing, phones/touch’s automatically freezing etc. One list (here) just highlights even more stuff.

Luckily the App Store, accessible via iTunes and a small application on your device is rather good. I wish I could say the same for the quality of apps there because they are all rubbish aside from a few. Installer.app via Jailbreak has way better third party applications so far.

Twinkle: The Twitter client from Installer.app makes its way to the store with a bang. This is basically a location aware chat client that lets you leave twitters (140 character messages) to others in your area. It is a great idea that works so well.

Spinner Prologue: A maze game that makes use of the accelerometer present on the iPhone/Touch. Frantic, fun and you end up waving your device around like a llama.

Remote: Apple came up with this free masterpiece. It turns your device into a wifi remote allowing you to fully control iTunes on your computer, or even AppleTV. Doesn’t sound all that – until you try it that is. Eats up battery power though!

ZinTin: Now this is another location aware app. It allows you to exchange photos, share information with other users in your area. Every user has their own ‘wallspace’, which can contain your own photos as well as images from other users. A great idea that is strangely addictive.

]]> http://kainzy.org/2008/07/20/updates-rather-long/feed/ 8 http://kainzy.org/2006/06/24/what-a-week/ http://kainzy.org/2006/06/24/what-a-week/#comments Sat, 24 Jun 2006 16:27:20 +0000 Darren/Kain http://kainzy.org/2006/06/24/what-a-week/

High! Not updated things in a while, mostly due to being occupied with the World Cup taking up almost all my time, as well as me about to become an uncle, along with work/promotion matters getting in my way. This week has been more then hectic!

The Uk has been gripped by World Cup fever, as has every other country I can surmise, except England, despite having a good team on paper just haven’t gelled together as well as everyone had hoped. So far they’ve yet to put on a solid performance to raise everyone’s spirits over here. The pathetic recent second half performance against Sweden which saw them pile 3mins of solid pressure during the last few minutes of the game showed how poor and disorganised the England squad were as they let in a goal to bring the game into a 2-2 draw. To add to the misery someone stole the two St.Georges flags on my fathers new car so he’s angry…very angry, infact you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

The weather over here can only be described as ludicrous of late. It’s hot as hell most of the time, and I’ve got a tan…which makes me even more browner then I already am. Things became so absurd that the road surface in some areas of my town of Harrow began to melt, which resulted in half the town being closed off for a few days. I ended up jumping off the bus to walk home and instead stepped into a patch of melted tar on the road

Yesterday, my new Altec Lansing FX6021′s arrived. I’d slightly made a balls up because I underestimated how large the satellites would be! These things are so tall that they dwarf my 20" LCD! They sound incredible though, thanks to three amplifiers powering three pairs of drivers in each satellite. It’s InConcert technology is stunning and the audio is so loud, clean and feels so tight!

Just to conclude my quick bit of babble, after recently being promoted at work again, I received my new paycheck yesterday…all I can say is ‘life feels good!’

In typical style I’ve left all my work related stuff to the last minute including work on this blog, so I’ve now got to prepare for returning to work in just two days time! I’ve had a great two weeks xmas holiday and its back to the same old work routine ]]> http://kainzy.org/2006/01/01/happy-new-year/feed/ 0