Sunday, March 25, 2007
the good, the bad and the plain bloody ridiculous!
The good and the bad: Last night I went to see the movie "The Last King of Scotland". It was pretty damn good. The guy who played Idi Amin deserved all the awards he won and the other principal actors were good as well. It was good enough that it made me come home and look up the life and times of Idi on the net; of course I'd lived through those years (though from the safety of the Sydney suburbs) and remembered that he was a real bad bloke who committed atrocities on his own people and murdered thousands, but reading the details again and seeing the times fairly faithfully portrayed on the big screen was quite arresting.
I'd never realised what a charismatic character he was and what a good sense of humour he had - pity about his dark side! I mean a guy that could think up these titles for himself had to have a sense of humour right?
'conferred on himself the decoration of CBE which, he said, stood for "Conqueror of the British Empire". Radio Uganda then solemnly read out the whole of his title: "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Alhaji Dr Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE".' As usual Wikipedia gives an interesting overview.
I think those of us who live in a peaceful and prosperous country and have never put ourselves into the middle of someone else's civil war or dictator-ruled land just can't comprehend (on an emotional level) what it is like for the people who live there. You can read the words and look at the pictures and intellectually you are horrified and have sympathy for the people - but to really live it - well I at least can't comprehend living with that sort of fear.
The totally bloody ridiculous: Tonight I watched "Miss Marple" on TV. This silly old biddy and her complex detective stories set in England (I think between the two great wars). It has to be satire - I want to either sneer or laugh all the way through except when it's putting me to sleep with boredom, but I know people who actually seem to enjoy the "mystery". The hour felt like a year in prison. Sorry Miss Marple, I'm never going to waste another hour of my life watching you, even to be polite. If I'm at someone else's place and they turn you on - I'm outa there!
In other news - the workshop finally found a fault with my computer after looking at it for 3 weeks. They say it was the video card getting hot. This is the third time the video card has been replaced in three years. I'd say that is the problem, but gee, maybe there is something causing the problem? Still, they assure me this is a better video card and it will fix the problem permanently. Yeah, yeah!
The downstairs neighbours advised me the ceiling is still dripping below my bathroom. The first plumber never came back and after waiting a month we called in a second. The second reckoned he'd found the problem after about 20 minutes and fixed it. Not so it seems! Third time luck perhaps?
I'd never realised what a charismatic character he was and what a good sense of humour he had - pity about his dark side! I mean a guy that could think up these titles for himself had to have a sense of humour right?
'conferred on himself the decoration of CBE which, he said, stood for "Conqueror of the British Empire". Radio Uganda then solemnly read out the whole of his title: "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Alhaji Dr Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE".' As usual Wikipedia gives an interesting overview.
I think those of us who live in a peaceful and prosperous country and have never put ourselves into the middle of someone else's civil war or dictator-ruled land just can't comprehend (on an emotional level) what it is like for the people who live there. You can read the words and look at the pictures and intellectually you are horrified and have sympathy for the people - but to really live it - well I at least can't comprehend living with that sort of fear.
The totally bloody ridiculous: Tonight I watched "Miss Marple" on TV. This silly old biddy and her complex detective stories set in England (I think between the two great wars). It has to be satire - I want to either sneer or laugh all the way through except when it's putting me to sleep with boredom, but I know people who actually seem to enjoy the "mystery". The hour felt like a year in prison. Sorry Miss Marple, I'm never going to waste another hour of my life watching you, even to be polite. If I'm at someone else's place and they turn you on - I'm outa there!
In other news - the workshop finally found a fault with my computer after looking at it for 3 weeks. They say it was the video card getting hot. This is the third time the video card has been replaced in three years. I'd say that is the problem, but gee, maybe there is something causing the problem? Still, they assure me this is a better video card and it will fix the problem permanently. Yeah, yeah!
The downstairs neighbours advised me the ceiling is still dripping below my bathroom. The first plumber never came back and after waiting a month we called in a second. The second reckoned he'd found the problem after about 20 minutes and fixed it. Not so it seems! Third time luck perhaps?
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