The market here has huge sections of chines copies of movies and TV shows.. To purchase one is a gamble, and so here is my confessions of getting stung not once but twice. Ghost in the Shell: This is a 28 disk collection for a well know Amine series. Turns out that the collection they downloaded does not have English subtitles or dubbing. I see friends of mine that know a bit of Japanese getting a present this Xmas. Farscape: This was a eight disk collection that was to have all the episode, now I would think it would take more then that, ether way seven of the disk were blank.


Its been an eventful few days. Lets start with losing my internet for four days as they try to make changes to the network. As I am quite addicted to internet access this left me twitchy. The engineering compound had a little fire and lost one of the storage tents. Its a little scary as it was the same type of tent we use for sleeping and it went up quick with huge flames. All that was left was a smothering pile of melted plastic. On the company's barbecue day, the linemen decided they wanted a toga party, and strappy joined in. Don't worry there is picture but he wanted to put them on his own blog. He seems to look good in a toga so I expect to see some roman garb from him in the near future. The picture of the crane gives a idea of what night is like in the camp, as there is tones of big lights every ware they reflect on the dust and smoke in the air. The net effect is a pretty techno-color glow to the base.

As it seem in this post it's confession time, I have a problem. It seems that I'm developing a Person rug addiction. With my first silk rug purchase in hand I want more... They are gorgeous things and and it would be amazing to decorate with for both for sca and mundanely. The problem is there very expensive and I need to pay dept and save money to survive on for the six month at home next year. The plan now is just get a few got hare, that's if I get there?

My vacation is in doubt. This is frustration. I requested when I first got back to have my leave in November, but the request is in the air, apparently someone in the company or DND wants the extra week I took off back. This was the unpaid week I took to go to my brother funeral back. Arrrg. This last month has been much frustration. A little project on my spare time to get a four tent network going has ballooned over and over again.

Balloon One was getting asked by the IT manager To expand this to eight tents that IT people are at. Balloon Two was getting asked by the site assistant manager to do all 40 and add a movie library. Balloon Three was yesterday when the VIP told every one that he was going to offer this tent network with free internet.This situation has been made more complex as there is a history of two past attempts and the remains from them. The remains include more then just physical equipment but the emotional issues of past work and money showing no return.

Wine and Women

Strappy has been on my case that I should elaborate on the state of drink and debauchery that is at the camp or the lack of. It would be a lie to say there was none. Make note that some of what follows is based on “rumor” and may or may not be true. There is alcohol to be had here if you know who to ask and there is a dozen different scams to get drink here

The primary one is the mouth wash. This is to carefully cut the seal on the top then replace the contents with usually vodka and a little bit of food coloring so it matched the original contents. Close and reseal using a bit of scotch tape and a hair dryer. Then have this mailed to you with other items. If any one finds a honey flavored mouth wash, a bottle of Moniack Mead would hit the spot ;)

The other main trick is to just load up at the duty free store in Dubai airport and hope the MP don't check your luggage on the way in. Now there is more creative matters like wrapping beer cans in aluminum foil then send them with other food good also wrapped in foil. One person pulled this off, he had 24 cans sent to him for his last month, we were eating his grandmothers home made cookies washed down with beer for a week..

Most attempts do get caught officially and so they open your parcel take out said items and send the rest to you with a letter to you and the sender saying that its not allowed in KAF. There is the other rought of playing the system here. You are allowed 2 beer at the monthly unit BBQ. You can sign the beer list using the names of people on vacation, or go to other units BBQ, or just buy other people beer who you know are not drinkers. This can be gotten away for a few extra cans but done so to intoxication will have you waking up at the MP office the next morning. intoxication is easily done after a few months of rationing and you become a cheep date.

AS for what to mix with your mouth wash the military here run on caffeine so there's lots of Tim's Coffee, Coke, and Red bull. All this provided to us by the military more or less free threw different well being programs the Canadian forces has here. CFPSA I'm looking at you.

CFPSA is a group that the forces created to provide services to help the troops. They do things like run the Tim Hortons, the canteens, gyms, bike rentals and other odd jobs. I mention them as they have a habit of hiring college age girls who are looking for a bit of an adventure. Now there not technically allowed to date Canadian personal but they are allowed to date Americans openly and do date the Canadians under the grues of “Just Friend's”

Most of the NATO forces have women members. Now remember there military so there required to go to the gym and other “personal training” multiple times a week. Some of the European countries seem to stand out in this. I have this metal image of an army recruiter in Paris: The recruiter leans over a table to a perspective female recruit. (bad french accent) You see you will be a representative of the French people internationally and that France has to keep its reputation as having the most beautiful people in the world, that's why all the female recruits have to be at least this attractive. Holding up a picture of Juliette Binoche

Now it may sound like this is a feast of women but the odds are agents us guys as there is probably 4 or 5 men for every woman here. I may have mentioned in past post that I suspect a lot of the women that sign up with civilian firms here are hear to fine temporally or permanently a man in a uniform. For them its a buyers market they can pick service men from a dozen different countries from every service. What I said about the women and the gym requirement is also true for the men.

Let the time go by

The days are going quick; I’m making sure to keep myself busy so the time does go fast. There’s a few new thing like how the base is almost twice the population it was when I first came to KAF. This means that you need to fight hard to get prices that they use to start at in the market. The other is that there is huge lines you have to wait in to get anything.

It’s not summer any more, the weather changes fast here. I have mentioned that when the sun goes down here the temperature drops fast, the same can be said about the seasons, it’s not summer anymore and it’s getting cooler here. That still means 40 degrees in the afternoon but that’s not 63 degrees like it was a month ago. Good thing I was on vacation for the worst of that.

We been getting a bit of a light show every so often, some of the harriers have been firing off unused rounds near here at night. I have some movies to show when I get home. ( sorry not suitable for the internet )



Strappy is doing well and flirts it up with the girls here. I should have lots of new pictures for his binder including one of him hanging out with Bruce Cockburn and his brother who’s a military doctor here.

Another batch or recruits arrived last week; we got one new person in the office and five in the department. What gets interesting is one of the new guys here we discovered has an attitude issue I never ran into so bad. He openly curses and insults his new bosses and belligerent to everyone he meets including calling one of the girls at help desk a blond bimbo. So as anything else here we started a betting pool on how long before he gets sent home, my bets 24 days.



I believe the British call it Bogging, It’s the ability to take a few item with a one purpose and to adapt it for a completely different purpose. In Canada and the US it’s referred as “MacGyvering”. Here as a tech we have to do it all the time as supplies can take time and the right tools may not be at hand, this is especially true if it’s not for the military. You really can’t just go down to the local IKEA. One of my co-workers just did up a shelve unit using line racks and Velcro tape. I can’t say much as I have similar rig that I hang from my tents roof rafters using para cord.

Attack of the Birds! There is a small grove of trees near my tents but as its fall here the young birds are now in flight. The grove of a half dozen small trees is home for ten to twenty thousand small birds that come in from hunting in the desert at dusk. What makes it creepy here is that the dust in the air makes it so you can only see small objects so far so these birds as they approach from the observer on the ground it seem that a huge flocks of birds appear out of thin air. A kind of “Field of dreams” effect.

PS It looks like I'll be home for Feast of the Hare

Back to the Sand Box

For those who maybe be wondering I am back in Afghanistan and have been for a week, I would of posted earlier but I just got my internet in my tent up and running and found the time to sit down and write.

My vacation is over and now I am back. What to tell, there’s a lot that happened during my vacation, some good some bad. I try to keep it short. The high light of the vacation was Pennsic as planned. It was truly my best to date, I hung around friends for a bit, took a few classes, and fought a few battles. Now for the bad, for those who have read this blog or journal will know I have two brothers suffering from cancer. Soon after Pennsic one of them passed away. So I had to hurry to Nova Scotia for a funeral, I will try not to bore you with the details.

Back to Afghanistan as that is what this blog is about. Kes and Menkin have seen to let me take strappy along this time. He seems to be very covetable in Air ports. I did lose his new hat when I was loading onto the courier flight to the base. I few days after getting here the company had the monthly BBQ and he was able to chat it up with all the girls that work here. So I have a number of pictures of him flerting it up.

When I arrived to my little tent space a layer of dust had settled over everything, I will have to remember lay down sheets before going on vacation again. Lucky this time I brought a tiny shop-vac with me, it is nice to get the place clean, well clean for Afghan standards.

This time around I am starting my second contract here. The problem with this second contract is a feeling a bit of regret for taking it. I landed here with a somewhat depressed mood and this place doesn’t do it for getting it back up. Not to sound like a snob but for most part my fellow contractors talk about are the places they go to get drunk when they are not here and the activities there after. I few will even go in to details about their misadventures in East Asian countries and the active sex trade there. I have a few windows were I get to sit down and talk about thinks intellectually stimulating like at the SCA chats but there rare and far between.

The big activity now is watching ultra armature boxing show at lunch and placing one dollar bets on the fights. The other options of sitting and reading internet articles online are very much hindered by the slow bandwidth. But it does look like
I will get November off so feast of the hare is in my future to look forward to. Speaking of SCA activities I was able to bring three fencing blades that were donated by Giovanni and Sir Menken. Well we brook one of the blades the first night using them, Opps.

That’s all for tonight and I try to get the pictures ready and posted as soon as I can.