Impostor

Without the definite article (my mistake yesterday). But definitely with the Real Article!

For some reason (though it is all my fault, according to Photobucket, that both my computers have simultaneously developed problems uploading) only half this album would upload. I changed the ratio halfway through as the one PowerDVD chose was out of proportion, but now I can't give you the benefit of the difference.

On a more serious note, AnyDVD, which allows me to play DVDs of any region, is apparently no longer doing its job, despite my having actually paid them money for the HD update, and my computer is telling me I only have 4 more region changes before it locks.

Life sucks.

Major Hathaway doesn't. Oh, crap, I just looked at the pictures and they have come up TINY! YOu can click on them, though.

Who's Protecting Whom From What?

In yesterday's Guardian newspaper, there was an article about Omar Deghayes, a British citizen who was held for 6 years in Guantanamo.

Omar was born in Libya, but his father was opposed to Gaddafi's regime, and the family moved to the UK ( having already visited several times so that Omar could learn English) after his father was taken away and killed by the Libyan authorities.

And there I was thinking opponents of the regime might be considered to be friends of the US.

After a secular upbringing, Omar started practising Islam. He studied Law at a British university. He longed to return home, but his name prevented that, so, to experience Arabic cultures, he left on a round-the-world trip. He visited university friends, including some in Pakistan. He was tempted across the border to Aghanistan, where his knowledge of languages offered him some interesting business opportunities. He married an Afghani woman, set up a school in Kabul, helped various NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations), began an apple export business, and looked set for a good life, until the start of the war.

The family was smuggled out to Pakistan for their own safety. That's when the Americans offered bounty for the identification of people who had recently been in Afghanistan. He was "detained" and spent some months being ferried around by armed guards. He was beaten and interrogated, sometimes by CIA personnel, sometimes by Brits.

Next stop was Bagram military airbase, where the torture continued. He was so sick he did not eat for 50 days and almost died. Two months after his arrival at Bagram, he was sent to Guantanamo. The only "evidence" against him was a video of a Chechen rebel that they said was him. But no one was allowed to see the video, so no one was able to tell those responsible for his kidnap and imprisonment that it clearly was not him, and that the person who was in it was actually already dead.

While at Guantanamo, Omar was attacked by guards, who held him down, while one of their number tried to gouge his eyes out. He was blind for some time, before recovering sight in his left eye, but remains blind in his right.



If this was done to preserve "freedom", then it was a huge miss. You can't do this to innocent people on the offchance they might be guilty of something if you can just torture them till they admit it. Other prisoners died in Guantanamo on the day Omar was blinded. Who knows the cause of their deaths?

I wonder how many people who either underwent, or have been horrified by, this kind of outrage, have been moved to become militants when otherwise they would have lived normal, peaceful lives? Who could blame Omar if he decided to blow up a US or UK target?

I hope for his sake he manages to live the rest of his life free from problems.

Let's Bark a bit

I should post either Bark or The Impostor today, but I'm too busy watching Purgatory to cap either. So I thought I'd recycle this video:

The First Cut

I took my curtain rail to work today and got the design technology teacher to cut it for me. All I have to do now is hope my measurements were right and that I can fit the bastard thing with no more ado. If not, you will be able to hear the shouting and cussing all the way across to the west coast of the US of A.

As for the aviary - train a climber to cover it? I have a honeysuckle that I can't STOP climbing over it! But it takes up too much room, and I'd really like shot of it now.

Of course, even if I had someone to dismantle it and take it away for me, they'd have to chop their way through the jungle first...

Chelsea Walls

A strange and, I think, rather tedious film. Frank is so sweet and shy and diffident. A bit like I imagine the real Vincent D'Onofrio to be.

The Cell

For the second day running, Botophucket has failed to allow me to upload and access my pictures online. What's more, by posting them from my computer directly on to Blogger, I have lost both the order and the MASSIVE size I did these in.

Grrr.

However, if you click on them, they do get huge.

Ultimate DIY NIghtmare

Having just read Eliza's TV stand story, I felt I had to share this miserable failure of mine to illustrate how appalling my DIY skills really are.

Forget the new sink I fitted that needed a slightly longer wastepipe and fittings, because of the position of the drainhole, and the failure of the old and new to marry up because one was Imperial measurements and the other metric. That was small beer.

I bought a small aviary for my dear Henry so that he could spend quality time outside with me in the summer. It came in 6' by 3' panels with a steel frame, but no instructions. I spent a Sunday putting the great big heavy thing together as best I thought. But when I came to use it, I realised I'd actually constructed it inside out!

Next weekend I had to take the whole thing apart and reverse each panel.

And then Henry didn't even like it.

It's still in the garden. Well, you try unscrewing nuts and bolts that have rusted shut over the years.

Aviary, anyone?

Happy Accidents

Well, what an interesting evening I have had trying to cap this!

Firstly, I discovered that my DVD is double-sided, one side widescreen, the other "normal". But apparently, if you put the side labeled "widescreen" into the Play position, you get the normal version!

Then, when it came to uploading the pictures on to Photobucket, I couldn't access my album. The FTP upload facility failed repeatedly with a loud "boing". It denied I had permission to access my own album!

So here we are direct from my computer - the lovely Sam Deed, suitably shuffled by Blogger: