all I ever do is watch documentaries…

Just finished another one.  This one is called Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, and its sequel is Paradise Lost: Revelations.  I STRONGLY recommend you try to get hold of a copy (I watched them on YouTube but it was cut up into 47 different parts which was a tad annoying).  Basically, it’s about three teenagers who were convicted in 1996 of killing and mutilating three 8 year old boys in Arkansas, and it scared the hell out of me.  These guys were convicted based on absolutely no physical evidence whatsoever.  There was absolutely nothing linking any of them to the scene of the crime or any of the kids, with the sole piece of evidence being a confession obtained by police from one of the boys, who is borderline retarded with an IQ of 72 and who got most of the details of the crime wrong.  Two hours of interrogation, prior to his confession, is unrecorded, and in the parts that are recorded, the police pretty much get what they want out of him by leading him wherever they want him to go.  The idea was that the killings were part of some cult ritual sacrifice, and because one of the defendants, Damien Echols, had a bit of a goth thing going on, he had to be a devil worshipper capable of cutting the penis off an 8 year old.   Anyway, read about it, if you’re at all interested in that kind of stuff, or don’t – I’m not really that bothered.  Go to www.wm3.org, the guys are still sitting in prison, 16 years later, with Echols on death row.

So, that’s my rant.  The justice system has so many cracks.  I guess it comes with being human – there is no such thing as an impartial jury.  Everyone is influenced by their emotions and those of the people around them.  In a country town in the US, where children have been murdered, a goth teenager has no hope of a fair trial, no hope at all.

It’s over now, promise.

So, two weeks and three days left until I jet off to another new life!  I’m stupidly excited, and luckily moments of fear and doubt are few and far between – and when they come they are easily dispelled by the techno music coming from next door, or the dogshit minefield on the footpath outside, or the sewage stench coming out of the kitchen sink, or the irritating northern accents on the telly, or the lack of rice crackers, or the pubes on the toilet seat.  Any one of these elements, amongst many others, easily prevents any great deal of regret from surfacing.  I will, however, miss the people I’ve found over here – there’s no escaping that.  And strangely enough, going home is scary.  I’m starting life all over again, in what will in effect be a strange place.  It’s not as if I can return to an old life, I really do have to start again, but I’m so excited it’s crazy! 

I’m also irrationally excited about going on an A380.  My dad had a go in the Qantas simulator and he said it basically flew itself, and was impossible to stall.  HOW COOL IS THAT!  That means that any old drunk fool could get me to Sydney, and provided a wing doesn’t fall off it’s pretty much like Light Rail!  Not to mention that everything inside will be all state of the art.  I am kind of imagining that I’ll have my own room with couches and champagne, which is obviously a fraction unrealistic even for an A380, but this is a plane that’s so big that needs winglets just to keep the wings short enough to fit into an airport.  The wingspan needed to get it off the ground without winglets would be too big to fit in a hangar, or to park at a normal terminal gate.  That is cool! 

So, now that I have alienated any of my readers who aren’t interested in forensics or aviation, I’m thinking I might toddle off to beddy-byes.  I’m so hungry all the time at the moment I am thinking I’ve got some kind of syndrome.  You know that one where they have to padlock the fridge and cupboards closed to keep the kids out?  Where they have violent tantrums if they don’t get their food and are enormous by the time they’re six?  I think I have that.  So maybe I’ll go get a snack before I go to sleep, just for good measure.

Night night loves!