I finished watching the West Wing. For those that don't know, I finished watching all but one episode of the West Wing in January. I watched the final episode yesterday. It was time.

I'm fairly sure that just before I die, I will look back on November 8th 2007 as the day I saw the greatest stand-up comedian I will ever have the chance to see live. Comedy is art, and Stewart Lee is the master.

Measures to give the police more than 28 days to question terror suspects may be neccessary in some situations. For example, if a terror suspect in seriously injured as the result of an attack, rendering them unconcious or comatose, it may be very difficult to question them within a 28 day period. For another example, arresting a terror suspect, then placing him on a plane and sending him to prison in Egypt where he will have the life beaten out of him for a year before mysteriously disappearing from all records, may be very difficult to achieve within a 28 day period.

Decapitated are a Polish technical death metal band that I like. One of the amazing things about the band is that when they released their first album in 2000, to critical acclaim, the average age of the band was 18. High amongst the reasons I liked them so much was the drumming of Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka, which was always complex and incredibly intricate, while still being utterly brutal.

On 29th October, their tour bus collided with a truck carrying wood in Belarus, injuring Vitek and singer Covan. Vitek died from his injuries on Friday. Though considered one of the best drummers in metal, he was only 23 - he was only 12 when he joined the band in 1996. He leaves behind a wife and two children.

RIP Vitek (24.01.84 - 2.11.07)

We shall remain and dream again,
Our moment of awakening is too short to recognize

We went to Amsterdam, and it was very pleasant. The whole city is really laidback and, well, Dutch. Not laidback in the Carribean way, which is "that thing you wanted doing? It'll be done some time. Chill". More "that thing you wanted doing? It's already done. It was no problem for me at all. Chill".

There was art. Art is good. I enjoyed some of the art.

We went to see Boom Chicago, who are the all-American cast Amsterdam improv group. They run different shows each night - we went to see "Me, Myself and iPod", which combined sketch and improv and was based around a theme of modern technology. The setup was really cool - for one scene they took someones Myspace page and improvised as scene based on their friends page. They improvised video weblogs based on a brief chat with a member of the audience. They improvised songs which were played as if one a video iPod. All very neat and original. The standard of the improv was Comedy Store-ish - very funny, gaggy, but without really doing the stuff we try for in the Imps (charachters, emotions). A pleasant evening.

We did not smoke any weed. I'm all in favour of people being allowed to use drugs if they want to. However, I'm not so much of a cliche that I'd do it just because I can do it legally. I find that a bit tragic.

We did walk around the Red Light District. It is remarkably, and unexpectedly, jovial, with parents walking around with children, waving cheerily and smiling at the prostitutes in the windows, who wave back, look happy and healthy, and negotiate prices with the father. It's such a better arrangement than here in the UK, where we make criminals out of people who aren't. Here, we push the vulnerable underground which allows them to be exploited and stops them receiving the help they may need. What we really need is to offer help and protection for people being abused, and acknowledge that for some girls, it really can just be a job that they were not forced into, that pays well, and that really need not be anyone elses business. But no. It's sex. Therefore, it must be wrong and should be stopped immediately before society falls apart.

Thankyou, by the way, to all the people I just removed from Facebook. It was cathartic. You see, you are all the worst kind of human being. I am really happy to say hello to old friends. But adding me to Facebook only not to say hi? Would you call a person up for the first time in a decade and then put it on mute? So I'm glad I was able to increase your friends numbers for a while, but now you have to go. I don't want anymore of your ridiculous facebook invitations to become a vampire, or exchange music, or touch each other. I want you gone, and for you to know that you are gone.

By the way, some people on the list just stayed on it because I remember you being very nice. Pretty much, I can do what I like.

We have booked a wedding. This is the venue. The date is the weekend of the 9th May 2009. Do not book anything for then, unless I don't like you.

This is not the actual invite, of course.

Last night was the first Wheatsheaf Imps show of the term, and my first proper bit of improv since June. And you know what? We rocked it. Not perfectly, by all means, but I thought everything came together wonderfully. In the second set I did not one but two scenes that I personally think were a couple of my all-time favourite, so thank you Becca and Andy.

I don't know if its noticeable from the audience, but the show seems to me to have a different feel to it. I think this was inevitable, given the people who have left the group, but I certainly noticed the change. Yesterday felt like a show about everyone on stage. I like it.

Come to the Ministry tonight. It'll be excellent, and then you will be as well.

I've been listening to a lot of music recently, and I thought I'd share it with the world.

First, my favourite album of the year is "Harvest" by a Swedish blackened melodic death metal band called Naglfar. Try "The Darkest Road" which is actually really accessible. The title track is one of the best tracks I've heard in a long time, and is epic in the most evocative meaning of the word.

Next up, progressive black metal band Negura Bunget, who actually come from Transylvania. Last year's "Om" is a really impressive piece of music, blending the Romanian heritage of the band and the traditional music of their homeland with a more recognisable black metal aesthetic. The result is an hour of the most hypnotic and mystical extreme music I've ever heard. "Tesarul Di Lumini" is a good introduction. For fans of post rock as well as extreme music.

Moving up the extremity curve, Birmingham's Anaal Nathrakh are part black metal, part grind and part industrial. They sound a little like the end of the world. Get blasted with "When The Lion Devours Both Dragon and Child", off of last year's "Eschaton".

And finally, winning the name prize, Rotting Christ are twenty year metal veterans who I only heard for the first time this year. They are Greek, and their ethnicity is apparent throughout their music. I recommend anything on the player, as "Theogonia" is a great album from start to finish, but "Sign of Prime Creation" is my favourite track (mainly because it was the one that made me notice the band).

There was a spider the size of a dog in our sink this morning. That is the second one in a week. I hope this does not become a pattern.

If anyone is after a listening experience, you could do much worse than Be'lakor. Melodic and dark, like the Finnish.

...The term 'Beefeaters' apparently comes from the traditional meal given to Yeomen of the Guards, and reflects their regular culinary habits. In these more enlightened times, however, most people think it is cruel to serve up the feet of a bee, which are needed as part of the bee's distinctive walking style. Today's Guards tend to prefer a more ethical bee foot substitute that, while similar in looks and texture, in made of cow...

For more of this, head over to Project Brainstorm, later today or in the year, and learn.

Went to watch a few bands at the Wheatsheaf last night. There was a clear split in the lineup between bands made of kids and bands made of adults. The first two, Fee Fi Fo Fum and The Youngs Plan were probably fine at what they do, if I had any interest or connection to either Biffy Clyro-like indie rock (the latter) or what I am going to label wank-core (the former). The drummer in Fee Fi Fo Fum was pretty good though. As Charles said, its hard to talk about the band, because you knew all their friends were probably standing by you.

Red Paper Dragon were great, and their burly, bearded slabs of heaviosity in between the more delicate softer builds made me think of bands I love (Isis, Cult of Luna). Their set marked the point where the children left, which tells me that they were not as rock as maybe they would like to believe. I bought their CD, and I'm sure I'll have it playing a lot over the next few weeks. This band should be big.

City Lights Just Burn were a lot of fun, combining punk and post rock traits to varying degrees and making a sound that didn't fit under any label I'm familiar with. I would go watch them again, and if they had any CDs to buy (even though it was their EP launch party) I'd probably have picked one up as well.

More gigs in Oxford, please.

I am engaged to be married.

Cath is as well.

We are thinking about doing it together.

A small pin fell from then power socket of my laptop. Hewlett Packard believe this should cost £385 to replace. I tend to disagree. A man in London says he could weld it back on for £140. I have sent it to him in a box. I hope he is right.

I wish I was in Edinburgh. Everyone seems to be having a great time. I could be performing at the Cellar one Monday night, but I seem to be having a case of performance jitters that I'm sure the only way to combat is by going on stage. Ain't that always the way?