Hi this is Cat's journal. The entries are friends-locked because that's just the way it is.

I'm 26 years old, I work in London (commuting sucks). I love watching TV, listening to music and taking pictures. My journal is mainly about what I do with my time (which isn't much, to be honest), but also contains a bit of fangirly squee.

If you'd like to add me, go ahead. Comment here to let me know though. I'll more than likely add you back, but if it turns out you don't update your journal and you don't comment on mine I'll probably remove you after a while, you weirdo.

IF YOU GO ON ABOUT ENQUIRIES ONE MORE TIME I WILL DRIVE YOUR FACE INTO THE WALL AND THEN MURDER EVERYONE IN THE OFFICE.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

"It doesn't seem right somehow, seeing that kid run across the football pitch with his head sprayed gold, turned into a robot, knowing he has to get home and scrape off the paint before his brain boils and head explodes."

From 'Human Punk' by John King.

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Remember to tell them punkfunkdisco told you :)

There seems to be an attack of the blues going around my friends list at the moment. I think it's the time of year. The darker evenings, cold temperatures and gloomy weather always make me feel a bit low. So this post is a:

Positivity Post!!

Leave me a comment with something positive in it, something that makes you happy, something you think might make other people happy. A picture, a recommendation, a video, something nice you thought about someone else recently (doesn't matter if it's a stranger, someone no one knows, I always think hearing and feeling positive things about others make me feel better), a link, your favourite smell. WHATEVER, as long as it's positive.

It can be an anonymous comment if you like. I'll start.

Milton Keynes (where I live, in case you didn't know) is really pretty in the autumn. I'm not saying it's like New England in the fall or anything, but the roads that criss-cross town are lined with trees to protect the housing estates from the traffic. In the autumn you drive along and all you can see are rows of gold, brown, green, red, orange, yellow and it's a lovely sight.


This is a picture I took a couple of years ago at the bus stop, it's not one of the roads I'm talking about because it's on my estate but you get the idea!

Now watch as I fall flat on my face while no one comments :D

I've just done a friends cut. I don't think I've removed anyone who'll be offended, but if I have, I'm sorry and it'll be for a combination of these reasons:

You never update your journal
I've grown increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of journals on my friends list that are never updated. I like to know who's able to read the information I share about my life and a bit about their life too, that's why my journal is "friends only". I'm well aware it could all be made up, but it's better than nothing, at least I know you have an imagination.

Or, you do update your journal, but I can't see the entries
And if this is the case - friendship: you're doing it wrong.

You added me to your friends list and have never/hardly ever interacted with me
This I just find weird. Why ask to be my friend?

I'm not really interested in your entries
And you're probably not interested in mine, because you never comment. It doesn't make you a bad person, it doesn't make me a bad person. It just makes us different.

After complaining about ONTD being on the homepage, the political spin-off actually comes up trumps with this post:

"Hello, I'm a Mac, and I'm helping to fuel the war in the Congo"

This is an issue I was actually going to post about. I saw an advert for Tesco mobile that guarantees you a new phone every year. It disgusted me because that's so wasteful. If you think of all the thousands of people, possibly millions, in the world who get new mobile phones every year - why? It's not necessary at all, except for vanity's sake. And besides that, control of the minerals in phones and other gadgets are one of the main factors fuelling the war in the Congo. The mineral that makes your phone vibrate is what the rebels and government are fighting over.

And people just don't know about it.

I don't quite know why the campaign featured in the post is really only targeted at Mac, but any awareness is good awareness. Hopefully people will think before automatically upgrading at the end of their mobile contracts.

Links
Raise Hope for Congo
VDay - stop raping our greatest resource
Oxfam - stop the killing in the Congo

And thanks if you read this, I know I go on sometimes but this is something I really care about and I think that apathy is how the corporations get away with things like this. I'm guilty of it myself, massively so, but I try and do my bit where I can.

I watched a programme called 'The World's Most Dangerous Place for Women' yesterday (pretty much right before Doctor Who, it felt...odd) and I wanted to talk about it.

It's a documentary about a girl called Jude who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but was sent to live in England by her parents when she was 3. Twenty years later, she's going back to visit them, not having seen them for all that time. She's also going back to discover more about her country. Specifically, the conflict in the Eastern region and border with Rwanda.

In that part of the world women are being systemically raped as a weapon of war by rebels and soldiers from the Congolese army alike. Men are killed, women are made to watch and then they're raped to destroy their lives and spirit.

I keep reading, watching and finding things out about this situation and every time I do I feel so helpless. I feel like I should be doing something to help, but what can I do? The one thing I can do is spread the word, so that's why I wanted to talk about this. Jude visits women affected by the conflict and the women that are trying to help. I'm not an expert, by any means, but the programme seemed like a good introduction to what's going on in the Congo and I would recommend watching it earnestly. It's perspective.

Didn't get on the postgraduate course you wanted? Oh, that's a shame. There's a woman in the DRC whose community have completely disowned her because she was raped by Congolese soldiers.
Your brother hasn't done the washing up again? Oh, that's a shame. There's a three year old in the DRC who was raped and then her twin was killed. Then she was diagnosed as HIV positive.
Feeling lonely because everyone's got a boyfriend except you? Oh, that's a shame. There's a woman in the DRC whose husband refuses to let her back in their house because he thinks she's contracted HIV after being raped.
Sprained your ankle? Oh, that's a shame. There's a woman in the DRC who was raped so violently that she couldn't stop bleeding. Medical facilities were days away so she shoved grass up herself to stem the bloodflow. (This story wasn't in the programme, but I read about it through VDay and it's stuck with me ever since, as you can imagine.)

Jude is a really likeable young character through which to experience what's going on in the Congo and she never comes across as patronising, like the celebrities you see on Comic Relief or whatever. I really recommend watching the programme if you get a chance. Unfortunately it's only on iPlayer for a couple more days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rvbsj/b00rvbs6/The_Worlds_Most_Dangerous_Place_for_Women/.

It's suddenly dawned on me that I can no longer keep up with my friends list as much as I would like so I've had to do a friends cut. It's nothing personal, I promise, I've just had to delete the journals of people who added me and then haven't talked to me, or those whose entries I don't read and have nothing in common with, or those who rarely update. Along with a few communities.

So please don't be offended, it's not because anyone's done anything wrong -

Happy birthday Billie Joe Armstrong!

( This man is apparently 37.Collapse )

I've briefly mentioned my Tom Riley love, but I think it's getting obsessive now. I want to share with you all just how lovely he is. So have a picspam of Tom as Wickham in Lost in Austen. And it's not even just that he's rather dashing, I'm quite in love with his acting style too.

( You're a bastard, but you're the right bastard at the right time. Or some such other LiA quote.Collapse )

To celebrate the creation of dominic_cooper, I decided to do a slightly odd picspam of why I love Dominic.( Read more...Collapse )