Oh Behave!

Now everyone and his momma has heard about the brawl that involved Ron Artest, a couple of his Indiana Pacer friends and some of the basketball fans at the Detroit Pistons Auburn Hills Palace Arena.

Artest was suspended from the NBA for the rest of the season for his part in this melee and his name has become synonymous with what's wrong with today's sports stars. He has been cast as a villain, who for no apparent reason went after a fan in the stands. Oh ok well he was not without provocation although some would want to think that he just blindly charged into the stands for no reason at all. Its my opinion that its simply he was attacked and he responded. Did he overreact? Maybe. But attack any high strung individual out of the blue in the heat of an adrenalin filled activity like basketball anywhere at anytime and tell me what happens.

Artest's problem was that earlier in the season he had been acting a fool; asking for time off to go promote the rnb group on his record label instead of focusing on his NBA career. The critics said a player making his type of cash should be more focused on his game and his teammates rather than his fledgling foray into the record business and I tend to agree with them.

Add to this that Artest was long perceived as a hothead and as my mother says "when a dog duz suck eggs anytime eggs missing he gine be the first body ya look fa". So add these things up throw in this brawl and bram, Artest must be evil, he's public enemy number 1 without the flavor flav style hype man, and he must be the scapegoat for all the ills of today's NBA basketball players who are overpaid and spoilt and don't respect fans. Hence the full weight of the book must be thrown at Artest and so far it seems to have been.

Ok so what about the fans?

Here is another recent incident in the same arena that wont get alot of publicity. I barely came across it tucked away on the ESPN page today but it shows the same type of fan behavior if not with the same disastrous results. Game 1 Pistons vs Philli in the first round of the playoffs; Pistons winning by quite a bit if I remember correctly, Allen Iverson is sitting on the Philli bench and some johnny in the stands hits him with a coin. Now should Iverson have run into the stands and bust his ass? Yes clearly he could have, he would have been justified but luckily he didn't or we wouldn't hear the end of the so-called thug behavior that has taken over the NBA.

But is the fan judged with the same harshness as the players? Has the North American sports fan taken a page out of the book of his European counterpart and decided to be more than a mere spectator and become an actual part of the game? Where are the endless rounds of criticism of such behavior or is the criticism not allowed for fans but only for black basketball players to be stereotyped?

Clearly fan behaviors is becoming out of place. Words may not harm a player but sticks and stones or in this case drinks and coins may indeed break his bones or cause some other physical damage so cheer, jeer, boo, curse or extol but please do not throw items at players. A line is being crossed. One where a athlete's actions in response to being targeted are being generalized but a fan's actions which generated the incident are seen as being out of the ordinary and not a reflection on his fellow fans.

Face it fans are more aggressive these days. These incidents may be indeed those of one fan getting carried away but how long before it becomes the norm and we have soccer style fans throwing flares at players as happened recently in an Italian Serie A game between AC Milan and Inter?

We are already seeing more and more cases of parents and fans in school, minor and peewee leagues accosting referees, each other and players and don't tell me that's because of alcohol sold at those games. Nope, there just seems to be more anger and intensity to win , more hatred of the opposition. Sports are no longer just a game.

So here' some criticism from me to the fans. Try and behave. You blame the athletes with their greed and their use of drugs and their criminal activities for ruining the purity of our sports but look yourselves in the mirror as well because frankly your hooligan style actions are ruining the game. You guys suck.

Old School New School

Just going to post this article I got in my email from Davey D. You can peep it here at Davey D's Hip Hop corner as well.

When does new music start being considered old school? Well if you watch BET I'd say after 3 years lol. Seriously though its crazy for me to think that BDP released Criminal Minded was released like 17 years ago or that Lovindeer was singing Doan Bend Down about 18 years ago. Whoa! Imagine that. Thats like most of the lifespan of the fans who are into Hip Hop and Dancehall right about now. No wonder kids can compare Lil Weezy in a favorable light to Rakim at Humanity Critic's Barber Shop. Ok well naa aint no excusing that unless you're a crackhead but still.

Anyway read the article, its about how kids dont really know the old hip hop and soul stuff but I think it could apply to any type of music Oh and the story about the record label person is hilarious if you know hip hop. No wonder our music is in such a state.
------------------------------

WHEN IS OLD SCHOOL TOO OLD TO PLAY?

Somethings to Ponder: When is Old School Too Old to Play?
by Davey D

As a deejay you will inevitably have some memorable experiences that
not only shake up your world, but will also loan you keen insight into
the hearts and minds of the American public. Case in point, this past
weekend I attended the annual Hip Hop Conference at Oberlin College
which is outside of Cleveland.

For those who don't know Oberlin is a pretty progressive place
considering the town is smack dab in the middle of the mid-west and
only has 3-4 thousand people. Here you will find folks who are hip to
the latest fashions and newest music trends. This is further enhanced
by the fact that many of Oberlin's students come from places like New
York and Chicago.

It's important to paint this picture, because what I tell you next
shook my world. I was hanging out with a couple of deejays. One does
mix tapes the other is on air. The one who is on air has just started
deejaying and had expressed interest in singing. She has an
incredible voice. While eating dinner, she noted that she was not a
song writer and had been making her way by doing covers and
adaptations of popular songs. It was at that point that I suggested
to her that it would be dope if a female singer remade the Earth, Wind
& Fire classic 'Reasons'. My suggestion was met with a blank stare.

"I heard of Earth, Wind and Fire' but what song is reasons?", the
singer asked?

Knowing that she was two weeks from her 20th birthday I figured she
was trying to be funny, so I persisted with my suggestion when I
realized she honestly had no idea what I was talking about. How in
the world does some one not know the song 'Reasons'? It is considered
by many to be one of the greatest love songs of all time.

The singer noted that she never heard the song and she was up on all
her music. So imagine my surprise when our waitress who was not much
older also confessed to knowing EW&F but she too did no know the song.
The mixtape deejay who was around 23-24 and had turned me on to lots
of new music in the past, also plead ignorance to not knowing this
staple song which is heard every other hour on most adult contemporary
stations that our parents check.

Throughout the weekend I spoke to folks and asked them about some of
these 'classic' songs ranging from old James Brown to Sly Stone and
found that the groups were known but the records were unfamiliar.
What was even more eye opening was when I started naming off what I
considered classic cuts by Hip Hop artists who ruled during the so
called 'Golden Era' between 87-92.

Yes everyone heard of artists like Chill Rob G and Kool G Rap, but
when I started ringing off songs like 'Court is Now In Session' or
'Future Shock', the blank stares returned. When I went even deeper
and started naming off groups from the early Run DMC era like Divine
Sounds, Dimples D, Bad Boys, Just-Ice and even the Boogie Boys (Fly
Girl), the lack of familiarity was more then apparent.

Were these people 'not Hip Hop? Were they not true to the culture?
At first glance one would be tempted to come to that conclusion, but
the reality is they were born at a time when many of these groups were
first coming out. As the singer explained, she was born in 1986 and
really didn't become aware of the music until the early 90s. Old
school to her was early TLC (Hat 2 the Back) or Ahmad (Back in the
Days). Even Master P's Make 'Em say Uuugh is seen as an old school
classic for her

The conversations at Oberlin reminded me of another eye opener a
couple of years ago, which I thought at the time was unique. It
occurred when I spoke to a woman who worked at a record label. She
was 25. She remarked that she had heard 'her favorite song' on the
radio that took her back in days and brought back fond memories. I
asked her what was the jam and she said it was 'The Vapors'. I agreed
with her that cut was an all-time Hip Hop classic. Who could front on
'The Vapors'? The young lady asked me if the song was on the artist's
first or second album. I told her it was on his first.

She questioned that and asked if I was sure? I told her 'no doubt, I
recall clear as day when 'The Vapors' first hit'. She told me that I
might be wrong and she proceeded to check on her computer. A few
seconds later she said The Vapors was on the second album. Her quote
to me was "I knew Snoop didn't do the Vapors until his second album".

I laughed and told her. "Oh you're talking about Snoop's version of
the Vapors, I thought you were speaking about Biz Markie".

She then says to me, 'Biz Markie? The fat guy who does the song
'She's Just a Friend?. When did he do the Vapors?"

Homegirl had no idea that Snoop's version of the Vapors was a remake
of the song made famous by Biz Markie. 'Back in the Days' for her was
not during Hip Hop's famed Golden era. But she was like the folks at
Oberlin reminiscing about 93, 94, 95.

In 2005, those aforementioned years are in fact old school, cause that
was 10 years ago. I guess what was troubling was the fact that in
today's throw away culture, there are very few radio stations that
play 50 Cents and Game who will go really digging deep in the crates
to play a classic jam by Kool G Rap like 'Talk Like Sex'. The
prevailing wisdom amongst radio programmers and executives is that
those types of songs although old school are simply 'Too Old to Play.
Why play a song by Public Enemy or X-Clan that's damn near 15 years
old when the audience they are shooting for is 20-24?

There used to be a time when radio was such that everybody both young
and old listened to the same stations. Hence it was inevitable-you
were going to hear songs that your parents considered the bomb and
they would forever be lodged in your memory. So I grew up hearing
James Brown, Sly Stone, Teddy Pendergrass, Barry White and Lou Rawls.

As for my 'singer' friend, she grew up having a radio station that was
only directed to her and she had a walkman so she could peep it day in
and day out in private and avoid having to hear her parents
complaining about not liking all that TLC or Bel Biv Devoe. Unless
the radio stations or MTV were going to play some of what I considered
old school classic cuts or her parents were insistent that she get a
music education and forced her to peep what they grew up on then what
I experienced at Oberlin would be the norm.

It's hard to believe that in 2005 that artists like Steady B, Hashim,
or Three Times Dope are as ancient and foreign to today's 20 year old
as was artists like Joe Tex, Cannonball Aderly or Shorty Long was to
me when I was 20 years old.

My singer friend was like one or two years old when Public Enemy said
they wanted to 'Bum Rush the Show' and EPMD told us 'We Gots to
Chill'. She never knew a time when Hip Hop wasn't on the radio. And
she barely recalls the days when MTV had Yo MTV Raps. She was born
after movies like 'Beat Street', 'Krush Groove' and Wild Style. Her
awareness of Hip Hop came about when it was a full fledged commodity
controlled and ultimately redefined by corporate interests who only
cared about a Kool G Rap or Big Daddy Kane if the were helping make
the bottom line. And that bottom line had best be on par with the
bottom line being netted by artists like Lil Jon or Kanye West.

Is there a solution to all this? I will have to think about it. What
I do know is that at 31 years old Hip Hop is all grown up now and now
has kids of its own.And like most kids they aren't really checking for
their parent's styles and tastes. They got their own thing going on.
Some of y'all reading this may be laughing to yourself and saying
what's the big deal, but mark my words 5 years from now y'all be
writing a similar essay wondering why people are giving you blank
stares when you ask about classic jams like Lil Jon's 'Get Low',
Jay-Z's 'Big Pimpin' or Usher's 'Yeah'.

Now that's something to Ponder about..

See n Blind, Hear n deaf

Going to ramble a bit today. Sort of a continuation of yesterday's post.

Dr D had a point in his comment to yesterday's post "takes nutten for a man to feel 'dissed' nowadays and retaliate how him feel". I was thinking for a bit that maybe this whole feeling dissed thing is a new thing but then I remember going out as a teenager back home and if ya step on a man shoes it was bacchanal. You had to quickly say sorry or it was likely to explode into some sort of stupidness as if you did it on purpose. I mean is a big ram packed fete and incidents like that will happen but some fellows would take it real personal like you put on your clean clothes, set out from home and pay good money to come into a fete just so you could deliberately stand up on some ugly screw-face man shoes. As if that was your idea of fun. And not even stand up but barely clip his corns by accident. chupse! Mind you we aint had no real access to guns back then so it was ya either get lik wid a bottle or big rock or stab up which could be equally as dangerous but at least the bystanders to the incident were fairly safe since most of the violence was targeted at the actual persons involved in the incident. One man could only pelt summuch big rocks or bottles in a minute cause first off he has to look around and find them in order to pelt them as opposed to now where you got a gun and it loaded and you can let off 10 or 15 bullets in 5 seconds. Actually I had a few bredren that get lik wid bottles but for some reason I would always leave the fete or street fair about 5 to 10 minutes before anything jumped off. I guess I should be thankful that God was/is watching my back.

Anyway I'm trying to understand why people react so violently to these so called perceived disses and realize its not really a new phenomena is just that the weapons used to respond today are more explosive and more likely to kill. Also I guess it used to be just one or two igrant fellas that you had to watch out for back in the day and you could always just give them alot of room but nowadays seems like its more igrant fellas in the fete than sensible ones. I mean in my opinion the average person going out to a club to relax, to chill not to be all tense up and ready to buss out a big machine gun at the drop of a hat. At least speaking for myself I know that's not why I go out.

But when you think of the disses that lead to such violence it is usually small things like a man look at you the wrong way, or step on your shoes, or checking your girl, or accidentally bump into your brother and and spill his drink. Then you look at the disproportionate responses to these disses and you cant help but think that some of us really overreacting to some petty ish in alot of the cases. Ya mean to tell me that if you see a fella staring in your direction in the club that you gotta pull out a gun? Why supposed a fella got a lazy eye? That mean he cant go nowhere near a club cause men would be shooting at he from all angles talking bout "Man everywhere I go he eyes was following me bout ya kno". The lazy eye fella would got to do like Slick Rick and invest in an eye patch to even walk in front a dancehall. So to me when you see how easily offended guys get I think to myself we duz get offended and worried about some really trivial stuff.

Now mind you I aint saying that's what happened with this girl's murder cause for all I know could be two drug gangs or some other illegal thing involved but what I'm saying is in cases where people get into incidents over silly stuff it really shows that something wrong with our mentalities.

The other thing I wanted to comment about that happens here in Toronto and I think is derived from having a siege mentality and a deep fear is this whole thing I like to call a "See n Blind, Hear n Deaf" mentality. Me naa see nuttin, me naa hear nuttin even though the gunman was so close to you that he could reach across and take a sip out of your cup before he start shooting. Anyway this mentality is not unique to Toronto as I know it happens in alot of other places too.

Well Urban Sis commented "And all the blasted people who saw who killed this woman need to open their mouths and say something or this ignorance will continue." I think that pretty much sums it up. How can so many people get shot and no one see anything? What is this fear that people have about saying what they saw? Ok I guess I can understand the fear cause you don't want a gunman coming after you but still if we continue to be silent on these matters they will continue to happen. Its a vicious cycle. You keep silent, the crimes increase. At some stage someone who saw the incidents has to step up and say what they saw and try to get these criminals off the street. Yea its a scary thing to do but if someone doesn't stand up to these guys then this stuff will only get worse.

Ya cant even leave home these days

Boy to tell ya the truth me 'fraid a clubs in Toronto these days. To be honest I aint been to nuh sorta club unless it is a calypso fete or an actual live performance in donkey years. I remember going to the Guvernment night club a few years back, probably the last time that I went to any sort of club night and my bredren was chatting wid the bouncer that he knew from high school. Fast forward a few months later and that same bouncer was getting killed at that club and I was like damn!

Today's story is about how this 26 year old mother of 4 (a wha she doing wid so much pickney at 26 doah? She tek this be fruitful and multiply thing a lil too serious?) got gunned down in a night club here in Toronto. Livette Miller's friends invited her to go out with them and have a night on the town to forget her troubles as a recent widow and current single mom raising 4 kids. Well boy trouble don't set up like rain and today Livette is no longer with us as she got caught in a hail of bullets, an unintended target in a violent shoot-out. She left home to go forget her troubles but ran headlong into bigger problems.

See dat is why anytime ya leave home and arrive back safely ya have ta say thanks to the father cause like Buju say 'only 'im know how we get thru every day'.

It aint safe no more. Especially in the club. Too many punk ass kids with access to weapons who don't even feel no way about opening up and spraying the place. Is video game and movie fe blame? Or is lawless parent who aint training dem children properly? Now because of that 4 kids are orphans today. Damn! Too much rass foolishness a gwan! The madness never ceases.

Rest in peace Livette Miller.

Strip!

Caught this news story in the Barbados Daily Nation the other day. For those who wont link its basically a story about how a 22 year old South African decided to streak across the field at Kensington Oval on Thursday on the first day of the West Indies vs South African test. Boy if Kami had gone over two days earlier she would have gotten a bit more bang for her buck so to speak lol. Was going to link a picture but said me no put no naked man on my blog if ya want to see him check the first link above!

Of course the 22 year old was caught by police, spent a night in jail and was fined 3000 dollars for his act of public indecency. Then in today's Nation he apologizes and says he hopes his mother doesn't find out.

I wish he was younger and that his mother could find out and give him a good cut ass. Or that the police had treated him like a terrorist and rough him up and pelt some lashes in him. Send him to Guantanamo. Chupse!

Ok now my question is why do people do dumb ish like this at sporting events. I mean you've seen it done before and you know that the perpetrators are usually caught so why do it? You know that even if the police don't arrest you and charge you then security will at least throw you out of the arena or stadium. So why pay your money to see a game and then get thrown out halfway through it? You have money to waste like that? Are you advertising that you look good in the nude, is this some cool way to attract women that I'm not familiar with, were you hot in your clothes and wanted to cool off? Man if he was hot Brandons beach is just a 5 minute walk away from Kensington so he could have gone for a quick dip at lunch and not missed a ball.

Was it a bet, was he drunk out of your skull? Was the match boring and he wanted to liven it up? Why why why?

Now I know we have prison issues in Barbados lately but I would have had to teach this yout a lesson and deter other would be streakers, prison issues or not. Would have given him at least a week in jail. Argue that all the judges at cricket so he got to chill in the holding cell or something like that. Pure lawlessness that's what it was.

And how come its always guys who streak at these events? Women have more sense nuh? And if I as a man was going to streak why would I streak at an event with 80% men? Ya think most other men want to see you running around naked? Ya think they get a kick from that? We might want to see somebody running around naked but not no other man. Man his rass want pelting with sum bottles or something so.

Actually this particular story is interesting on another level too because it clearly speaks as a case where tourists come to a Caribbean country and think they can get away with crap that they would not necessarily get away with in their own country. They think because we may be a bit more laid back they can break the law and no one will do anything about it. Dat cant work! It naa go so star! When you are in a foreign country find out what's acceptable and what's not. Don't think that you can get away with your b.s just cause you caught a cheap charter down for a few days in the sun.

Same case with the youth that will go down with their stash of weed and then get upset because they get arrested at the airport. You moron, you cant do it in your country what makes you think its acceptable in mine. Learn the rules, read up on where you're going before you leave home, ask questions before doing something, follow the laws or pay the consequences.

P.s: had to post this last part. This was the final paragraph from the initial story of the streaker

Some of his friends captured his daring dash into history on video, while one young woman who was sitting in the Kensington Stand, said she was excited when she saw the youth run out, but was not too impressed with “what little he had to offer”.

Cuhdear!

Nothing to say

But yet I blog, lol. Actually had that feeling all week like I was forcing the posts. Need to stop doing that. Anyway today is a nice rainy day here. The temperature is more like the average spring temps than the 27 Celsius we had on Tuesday I think. Actually it could be a bit warmer but the earth needs the rain.

Was going to do some stuff outside today but with the rain there's not much of a chance of that so I'll probably just stay indoors and watch TV. Got to do something about the lawn, heard that's a big deal with house ownership so I'm going to try to will myself to get into the game. Cant lower the value of the neighborhood anymore than I did by moving in lol. Damn black folk lol!

Been actually looking at Home Depot, Rona and Canadian Tire flyers to see what's available out there. Got to resow parts of the lawn, trim a tree and all that sort of stuff. That's all I'm doing though, I'll leave any other landscaping options to the wife. She's the outdoor flower person while I'm the indoor plant guy lol.

Its NBA playoffs time again so go Pistons and Spurs! Actually this playoff season is not too bad as in there aren't any real teams that I dislike alot like last year with the Lakers. Well there is the Vince Carter Nets who I hope have a quick exit but on some other level I still hope Vince puts on a show. Should be a fun playoff, I'm thinking if Duncan isn't 100% the Nuggets could be the first 8 to knock off a number 1 seed since well umm the Nuggets were the first 8 to knock off a number one seed back in the 90s when they had Mutumbo and they beat Payton, Kemp and the Sonics.

Anyway I'm rambling again as usual. Week was crazy busy and I worked late the last three days so I'm looking forward to the rest. Next week will probably be as busy if not busier too but its all good.

Had to actually take the computer in last weekend which sucked. Thought the CPU fan was dying but turns out my computer was overclocked. What the? Boy when I first heard of this overclocking thing a few weeks ago when I was talking to some computer friends the first image that popped into my mind was Flava Flav from back in the day with the big clock around his neck going "Yeahhhh boy!" So I merge that image with the one of the fella in I'm going to get you sucka who died of over gold and came up with a picture of a guy with about 25 clocks on his body, lol. But seriously, I understand the whole computer overclocking concept but I'm not sure how I was able to overclock the computer since from what I can tell you have to mess with the hardware to overclock and I haven't really messed with the hardware. lol. At least it wasn't anything serious and these computer problems are actually teaching me alot about these machines. Always had an interest in them and I've always wanted to learn how to put them together and fix them. Hmm maybe I'll take a course.

Oh well, this is the last post for the week. I'll try to post some better stuff next week. Maybe I should force myself to finish that three part story I was working on or something. Have a great weekend.

1,2 Pass it

A million and one rhymes compete for position in my thoughts
but only one can emerge is it the one that I sought?
so I caught myself slipping
but never mediocre
I meditate on music
jazz, hip hop through soca
and reggae
Jah wont give the power to a baldhead
but I'm hot like Peppa seeds and neva will I mock de dread
instead
I give respect to the tribe of Nyabinghi
set ish off like alarms
and tell brothers to simply bring de
pain
what's to gain by pretending to be iller
I hit 8 points in 10 seconds like that man Reggie Miller
and if you want the rough stuff
I bring pain like pulling molars
without novocaine
but I'm deadly like the Ebola
Virus
no joke I take you out like I don't know ya
I'm a lyrical terrorist blowing spots like Oklahoma
so don't step to me if you don't know how to act
I'm blinding you with my science so you can call me cataract


LOL damn they just don't make hip hop like they used to! lol. The above is actually a rhyme I did way way back in the day on a mix tape that had limited release in these parts. Hey we got it into Traxx (now alas a damn Quizno's) and Play De so that was kinda cool. This was prior to the mix tape phenomena really blowing up so I think we sold maybe 5 - 10 copies but it was still like maybe one of the tightest mixes I've ever heard and no I'm not just saying that because I was involved because my involvement was limited except for a few rhymes.

Been surfing the web tonight and checking out a few music blogs. Checked out Oliver Wang's Soul Sides which has a really cool article on the history of the song Apache "Tonto Jump on it, jump on it, jump on it!". Check it out if you're interested.

He also has a link to a DJ Spinbad mix of 1,2 Pass it and that tune just brings back the memories of this mix tape cited above because we used that tune. We did pretty much the same thing Spinbad did, took the acappella and put some instrumentals from the artists under their parts of the song. I remember us clearly using Mad Izm under the Krs-one segment, Represent under the Fat Joe section and I think I convinced homeboys that "Come Clean" was a better choice under the Jeru segment than 'Statik' although 'Statik' was kinda tight too. That was probably my only non-rhyming contribution to the project.

Super Scientifical Madness
My Status is the badess
Every Time I bless the apparatus
You wish to take me out so you study
Meanwhile my clothes mics and foes are left bloody
Cruddy
filthy from the ground all up
When I plan my attack I doubt that you're ready
Rain on competition like razor sharp conffetti
Kung fu Techniques from the Perverted monastary

Man I love that Jeru rhyme, that and his rhyme from the Crooklyn Dodgers Part II off the Clockers soundtrack where he goes "chips that power nuclear bombs power my sega". Yo that was kind of deep.

Yea the memories are coming back as I'm here listening to the DJ Sconeboy mix that Obi linked. Much respect son. Ol Skool like whoa!

And then I think does today's music get me going like that? I can recite line for line most of Eric B and Rakim's catalogue, BDP's catalogue but damn if I can remember more than one line from a Luda or 50 song. I guess I had more time to analyze and listen to music back then too but still at the risk of sounding like an old fogie this new stuff just cant compete or as the Beatnuts would say 'Your mic and or my mic come on man No Equal!"

Oh well I guess I'm being too harsh on the new stuff. I'll give it a chance. Who knows maybe I'll be singing some of it in 10 years. Naa probably not.

Split Personalities

Previously on ANTM. Read here

Well the show is down to seven girls. Its almost over thank God cause. I'm struggling to watch it.

Last night started off with the girls still in shock over the previous week's drama of Tyra vs Tiffany. I mean it would be a bit disturbing to you too if you are a contestant and you see the person running the show basically flipping their lid and getting into an unnecessary shouting match with a contestant. Its just not professional is it? Which leads to my first diagnosis: Tyra got mental problems send she ta Jenkins (that's the place they send crazy folk in Barbados for those who don't follow).

So this week Tyra goes to visit the girls and basically explain her prior behavior and be all nice and friendly with them. "I'm not an ogre" she seems to imply. She speaks about not giving up and how depressed and sad she used to get back when she was first starting out and was away from home. Cue the visuals of Tyra as a young definitely not so buxom lass so many years ago. Awww aint that cute. Hey wait a minute do you notice what the new Tyra has that the young Tyra didn't? Hmmmmm! And the transformation is pretty astounding don't you think? Oh well its a brand new compassionate, loving Tyra today so who am I to complain. Big group hug with Tyra and all the girls. Aint that touching.

Second diagnosis: Tyra got split personalities. Last episode she was wilding out, this one she's all soft and tender. What gives? Cause of split personalities: I aint sure but I'm wondering if anyone ever looked into a direct correlation between silicone and personality issues. Hmm that's all I'm saying.

Anyway going to rush through this review because this week's show as rather mild. The girls got to meet Jann Carl from Entertainment Tonight who showed up in what appeared to be her lingerie. She was giving them tips about how to give and take interviews. Needless to say the girls were pretty dismal. Two of them sat there and used the word actually about 10 times in one little pretend interview segment. Actually it was terrible to actually watch them actually pretend actually I almost barfed actually.

Actually I'm ready to rename this show America's Next Dumbest Model because clearly these girls are not the sharpest tools in the shed as was proven when the Tyra mail this week said something about be ready at the crack of dawn and they stared blankly at the paper trying to figure out what crack of dawn meant. Sigh! Smile and look pretty for the cameras just don't ask them to use their brains

Oh well, hurrying on, Keilan (sp?) found out her friend from high school had died and was very upset most of the show and then to make matters worse their photo shoot was conducted in a graveyard and the girls were lowered into an actual grave. Still she performed like a trooper and actually did the shoot so kudos to her. As an aside is it my imagination or have these girls pictures been getting progressively worse as the show goes on?

Oh they also had to do interviews with the rapper Eve somewhere along the line yada yada yada, some sort of pretend interview thing with the judges and then Janice Dickerson had her little 2 seconds of spotlight just in case we cared and then Tatiana was eliminated. Good riddance to her I say. And then they were 6 models left.

The end.

Seasons Change

Mad things rearrange
but it all stays the same like the love doctor strange

Just felt like quoting some Lauryn Hill today.

Well the season does seem to have changed. Got to love that Toronto weather. One day its freezing the next its t shirt weather and the day after that it raining cats and dogs.

Well this weekend the weather was great and yesterday we had a high of 27 degrees Celsius (81 F for some of you guys). Of course that means that today we are going down to 7 degrees tonight and we are getting quite a bit of rain. You just never get consistent weather here unless its consistently crappy. Oh well! 7 is still a hell of a lot better than it was a month and a half ago when it was -15 , -20.

Anyway just some randomness today.

Yesterday I went to Starbucks and realized that they are selling cds now. That was a shock? I saw some John Legend up in there, I was like whoa! So maybe next time I go for a non fat extra tall no foam latte (actually random trivia I rarely go to Starbucks or drink Coffee for that matter) I could link up with some nice vibes from Starbucks. I wonder if they carrying Bashment Megamix Vol 25 yet? Maybe I should pre-order. lol

And speaking of music, the TTC, our public transit providers has ads on some of its buses and streetcars for Snoop Dog and The Game's albums. Hmmm. Nothing wrong with that though its just kind of stand out to me. Still dudes got to get their money somewhere so I say go with it.

Actually the TTC is stupid in my opinion. When they started putting ads on their vehicles back in the days one of the first set of ads they had were ads for Ford cars. Now follow me now. I never see a Pepsi ad in which they say that Coke is the illest softdrink out and you should buy it and I never see a Jehovah's Witness come around and tell me man 'I feel you should become a Muslim ya kno' so I dont understand how a company that want people to use the bus would advertise cars which if you think about it logically are their main competition? Its just unreal!

Oh and speaking of the bus and thing so today I saw a girl on the train with a bright blue head of hair bluer than the photo in my header. Look like somebody straight out of Dancehall queen. All I could ask myself is why?

I don't care

Or ah doan care if you want to pronounce it in Bajan.

What am I talking about? Well more or less I'm just talking about the news these days. Usually I'm somewhat of a newsholic so I like to be up-to-date with all the goings on in the world. Just collecting info I guess. Its just something I've become accustomed to. I'll scour the internet, read the newspaper and watch the news on TV. People come up to me and say oh did you hear such and such happened and I've usually already heard. I got my hand on the pulse. I may pretend I haven't heard or just be like yea I heard but sometimes especially if its an annoying person I always have that option to hit them with "but wait whapart you get that stale news from, you real late den! lol"

But now, for the past couple of weeks I've just been in a news funk. Haven't been checking the news sites, haven't been reading anything besides sports in the newspaper, haven't been watching the morning or nightly news. I blame it on the stupid Terry Schiavo thing. Couldn't turn on the TV at one point without hearing some reference to that case. It was just blanket coverage of what I perceived to be not that major a news item that just started my slippage into a news coma. Ironic isn't it, a woman in a coma put me in a news coma. I'm not trying to diss her news as being insignificant but the overkill was just totally ridiculous in my opinion.

Then there was the Pope thing, again my synopis; Pope sick, Pope dies, Pope buried, Cardinals meet to choose new Pope, ps: he wont be black. Ok so he was a great man and deserves his tributes and accolades but I'll admit that the choice of a new Pope is a significant event but again I am just all Pope-d out. Michael Jackson case, same thing. Did he sleep with them, fondle them whatever I really don't care. Liberals money scandal here in Canada; big deal, its not like we didn't know that politicians are shady. Come on now! Boring! Boring! Boring! I just cant deal with news stories these days.

Maybe I'm of the belief that there are probably bigger more important new stories out there that need to be told and fixated on. Forget Terry Schiavo whats happening in Iraq? How's the rebuilding going for those dudes in Indonesia and Sri Lanka who had the Tsunami? How is the US economy actually doing? Forget Michael Jackson, how important is that ish.

Anyway that's about all I have to say for now. I'm hoping that by discussing it, I've taken the first step towards slipping out of my news coma. I need to do it soon cause knowing my wife she wouldn't hesitate to pull the plug on me, lol

Brand New Second Hand

Well it's that brother coming six billion feet from beneath
And you should be peep-in how I get smoked-out on the weekend
I swing it to my crew or down to my fans
Schoolin hell of stackas like final exams
Cause, it's the (UH!) Funkadelic, hit you with the irrelevant
elements, and it's coming through your block
Can't you smell it trick?
Wanna copy-cat my whole format
So you get funk tracks, punch lines and skull hats

Rockafella - Redman

Dare iz a Darkside currently in the deck.

No your eyes do not deceive you. You are in the correct spot. Decided I would give the site a nice new look for the spring. Hope you guys like it.

Been fiending on Nikki's site for a minute now so I decided to use Fallout's Template. Big up to both of these guys. Nuff respect!

I may still mess with the design a bit as time goes by, for one I want to get rid of the bit of unused white space at the top but I haven't figured that out in the code yet.

Anyway wow Saturday was a great day weather wise here in Toronto. Think it got up to close to 20 degrees Celsius. I was actually outside doing some work in a t shirt around 3 in the afternoon. Who would have thought it. Oh well! I hope it continues to be warm and in fact get even warmer.

Anyway yesterday I talked about the Cookie Monster issue and I got into a couple of tongue in cheek conversations about how Sesame Street is just corrupting our youth. LOL.

Let me break it down for you. Well I already talked about Cookie Monster and his encouraging our youngsters to eat unhealthily. Well he is just one of several questionable role models on Sesame Street. Where should I start. Well we have Oscar the grouch. First off he's encouraging our kids to have a grouchy attitude what's up with that. Then he lives in a trash can and rummages through the garbage and I never hear he say he tekkin a bath. See dat teaching the yout dem uncleanliness! Look at what the Children's Television workshop teaching.

Then I wont even go into any detail on Bert and Ernie cause the rumors was flying for years now about the two a them. Shame shame shame. lol

Big Bird was clearly on drugs as well. How come he was the only one seeing Snuffleupagus for years. Dat is called Hallucinations and is mainly caused by psychedelic type drugs. Big Bird was clearly a junkie high on acid. I hear he would even sell he mudda feathers for a hit, lol.

And finally we have the one Elmo. Now I really don't know too much about him but I find it disturbing that he want everybody to tickle him when we're trying to teach the children not to let strangers trouble them.

Ya see how dangerous Sesame Street could be if you think of it from a certain angle?

What's next?

Well the computer is somewhat fixed. It was actually a hardware issue, fan needed cleaning (well at least that's what my google search turned up and it seems to work for now).

Also we have photos? Thanks to Soli for linking me with the "so fresh so clean clean" little jdid icon as well. much respect sistren!

Anyway not sure you guys heard about cookie monster. They don't want him singing about cookies anymore well at least not all the time.

Now the monster supposed to be singing a new song called "A cookie is sometimes food". Big big chupse!

what's next? Are they going to change his name to "Low fat yogurt with a slice of fresh apple" monster or something of the sort? I tell ya these people duz go too far. Next thing cookie monster need therapist and psychologist cause he got self-worth issues and he contemplating suicide or becoming vegan or something so.

And no way is this song going to be as good as "C is for cookie that's good enough for me". I mean ya want lil children ta sing a song that got in the words "sometimes food". Come on now! Dat aint no fun at all.

Do you guys remember that song C is for cookie though? Boy I remember some youts I grow up with had their own version when we were like 7 or 8. Real wufless lawless fellas going around singing about "P is for pussy that's good enough for me" and little me singing along, innocent little naive me, because I didn't know that the word had other connotations from a different perspective. Well well well! Shame! See how me get corrupt from early, lol.

But back to cookie monster. You know it would be easy to blame Sesame Street for this change but ya know who I blame? I blame all the little fat ass obese lil children running bout America that playing video games, sitting in from the tv and the computer and wont get up off their couch and go and run around outside. chupse! Man go and play some football or baseball or juss run around for no apparent reason. Play hop scotch, hittey tightey, red rover, red light green light. Something so nuh. cuhdear!

And the parents that allow it too. Man if the kids aint into sports or dem like me and too ugly ta have friends, at least mek them run to the store and bring back two tins of evaporated milk or a tin a corn beef or something so. Oh I forgot in our suburban reality the corner store is about 12 miles away so you always have to drive. chupse!

And look who getting unfair. Poor cookie monster. A man after my own heart that aint trouble nobody. Now ya trying ta change the man diet after he been eating cookies since Adam was a lad. Dem aint know that when ya change old people habits dem duz soon start to pine and next ting ya know dem dead. Watch and see ya gine soon be hearing Cookie Monster obituary. Real high class foolishness if ya ask me!

Testing photos

Ok you photo pros how do I change my photo size an stuff like that?

Tyra vex

See previous America New Top Model updates here.

Well people this week it was more drama on the American Idol set.

First off the girls had to do some acting and Boris Kadjoe was their acting partner. They had to use Cockney accents and say things like "G'day Guvner! Fancy sum fla-rers?" and stuff like that. Well lets just say that no one there should be considering an acting career. Even Michelle who claims she had some acting experience was terrible as she totally overacted her part. Only Brittany and Naima seemed to even come close.

The worse of the bunch was Tiffany. As I mentioned before Tiffany has an image problem. Its not an attitude problem, don't get it twisted, she aint all diva like and stuff like that. In fact its the complete opposite, her attitude suggests she doesn't think she belongs there. It stems from her having a bit of an issue because she is probably the girl who seems to have had the least fortunate upbringing. This seems to play on her mind as she seems to think that away from the runway she cant run with the rest of the fashionistas. That was made clear last week when she basically tried to become invisible at the Cover Girl Party.

Tiffany's accent in the acting was not cockney as much as it was "Gone with the Wind" down south style speech. And it appeared that Tiffany had given up and lost confidence as she appears to have given upon trying. Maybe she is carrying alot of weight on her shoulders as she thinks of all the folk she is representing here like her grandmother (who bought her swimwear for the show using her electricity money) and her son. Still one wonders what one doesn't see behind the scenes of these shows. Who knows what the interactions were with her and the other girls.

Oh well! Now the photo shoot was a wonderbra shoot where they got to roll around with a male model. Some girls loved it, others just didn't feel comfortable especially Rebecca (the girl who had fainted a while back). She was all on some I cant be rolling around with a strange half naked man because I'm engaged type ish.

Ok again I say this. When you joined this show did you consider what models do? Its not all just being on a runway. There is some interaction with other models, did you realize that models wear skimpy clothing and brush up on other models and are placed in provocative situations? You cant be prude and model is what I'm saying. You have to be half nekkid sometimes, change in the backroom wid nuff people lookin pun ya, rub up on people, hold certain poses that might not be you so if you choose this as a career you have to realize what you are getting into.

Anyway speeding through it all, it came to judging time. 9 girls remaining one will be eliminated. First they had to do a task for the judges. They had to read a teleprompter and pretend they were television persons doing a fashion show. Well lawd ave mercy! Is where dese girls come from. You know I was a bit skeptical about their model aspirations when a few shows back they didn't even know what haute couture was but now hearing them read and mis-pronounce the names of some of these fashion designers and other stuff like that I just wondering about these girls. I wont tell you how charteuse was pronounced or Hermes (actually I din know how ya duz pronounces that myself but I aint on tv saying I wanta be a model) but the worse was when one girl looked at the name Christian Lecroix and pronounced it Chistian Lack-roy. Oh gosh!

Me hear bout Glenroy, Leroy, Fitzroy, Elroy, Delroy, Gilroy but I neva hear nuhbody name Lack-roy yet den!

We need to get these girls hooked on phonics or something so. Tyra really needs to put these girls in school because they are straight up not the sharpest tools in the shed here.

Now Tiffany started to read and she decided she couldn't do it but the judges convinced her to continue. Again it appeared that she has given up. I think she was just overwhelmed with the situation. Fear is a thing that will bring you down and I think that was her issue. She was afraid because this modeling thing was a new situation so removed from her reality.

Anyway Tyra and the other judges met and the names were announced. In the end it turned out that Rebecca and Tiffany were BOTH eliminated. This is where the drama started. As the two eliminated girls said goodbye to their fellow contestants Rebecca was full of tears while Tiffany was all like whatever and laughing and smiling. I think she knew in her heart that elimination for her was inevitable and she had issues with having a sense of belonging in the fashion world. Its pretty sad but sometimes one's upbringing can hold you back in certain situations and I think this was the case here.

Anyway Tyra stopped the goodbyes to call the girls back and then Tyra the Tyrant turned red and start to cuss my girl Tiffany. Saying how she joking around although she got eliminated and she should be upset and she think its a joke and she gave up and she shouldn't give up because of where she's from and she real disappointed and all that. Now Tiffany tried to explain herself and say that she was sad at being eliminated but its not in her to just be crying and the like but Tyra wouldn't have it and she went on in a tizzy telling Tiffany to shut up and shouting loud, loud at the poor girl.

Now here what me ave fe say. I wish Tiffany had told Tyra to go to hell. They eliminated the girl and then upset because she wont give them the satisfaction of crying on national tv so they can be happy that they broke her spirits. chupse. Tyra can carry she fake ass self wid dat foolishness. Everyone responds to setbacks differently. Some people weep and bawl, some just put on a brave face and try to go on instead of showing their emotions outwardly. Shame on Tyra for cussing out Tiffany because she put on a brave face. I dun cause if it was me I woulda had ta 'buse Tyra well an propa.

Anyway dat is dat!

5 years and counting

Ok had a nice long post to link today but never really got a chance to go over it properly. Why? Computer on the blink again. Looks like virus or Trojan horse or something so. No idea where it came from. I installed ad-aware on Sunday and every since the computer just play the tail. Oh well! Such is life.

Anyway today is my 5th wedding anniversary so I was going to link a big post on marriage and all that but I think I'm going to pass now. All I'll say is we've survived 5 and I hope we survive many more and thanks to my wife for putting up with me this long cause I aint the easiest person to get along with.

Also unfortunately today is also one year since Jonathan Niles died. Who is he you ask? Well I wont say alot but he was a family member who died at the age of 99 just a few short weeks away from the century actually. Really nice guy, told some great stories. So I just wanted to say Rest in Peace.

Transit peeves

As someone who uses public transit every day to get to and from work there are a number of things aside from the bus running late or the subway breaking down in the tunnel that get on my nerves.

Today was one of those days where some of these things came sharply into focus so here are a few of my transit peeves. Feel free to add.

Loud Cell phone conversations on the bus. So today I'm coming home , why is it that although I'm listening to my discman I can still hear the phone conversation of the lady across the corridor from me in the bus. Why do I have to hear her getting loud and hostile on the phone? I just gine home from work, I tired, I stressed I really don't want to know your problems or get caught up in your drama. Keep that to yourself. I heard talk of them setting things up so that cellphones work in the subway like they do in Hong Kong. Lawd ave mercy I hope that day never come.

I'm afraid to sit next to the black man on the subway. Think I mentioned this b.s before but today it was so blatantly obvious. Women gets in the subway and sits down ahead of me, I go and sit next to her because well it wasn't like there were any fully empty seats. Woman stays for a few minutes looking a bit worried then she gets up almost immediately and moves. Yea f you too ya blasted idiot!

Rowdy kids. They usually come in bunches, I guess its a peer pressure trying to be cool thing. However its not really cool to have to listen to loud obnoxious little brats with their silly asinine little jokes and behavior when you are just trying to abide the damn train ride. Now before you think I'm saying they are all bad that is simply not the case. In quite a few cases there are kids who you would probably look at on first glance and think oh they are going to be bad behaved or they unmannerly or whatever but it turns out those kids are actually rather mannerly if you have any interaction with them.

Poor personal hygiene. Nothing worse than being in the subway with a some of those dudes who like they were never informed about the uses of water. Lawd ave mercy. Them fellas will clear ya sinuses faster than vicks, benalyn, robatussin, any of them sort of medications.

People who put their bags in seats and then act like you are asking them to give you a kidney when you ask them to move it so you can sit down.

People standing who refuse to move to the back of the bus hence leaving you or some poor chap stranded at the bus stop because the driver wont fill the bus anymore. Meanwhile about half the bus empty. This happens alot in the new buses where folk wont go stand in the back.

Unnecessary conversations. There are just certain conversations that one shouldn't have in public in my opinion. Some people just don't understand this on the bus or train. They will have some of the most explicit, disturbing conversations within your ear range. And no its not that you are eavesdropping but they usually don't do it that quietly and you know there are certain words that if you aren't even listening and you hear them your ears will suddenly perk up and be like wait wha dem talkin bout. I wont mention which words but y'all may get the idea.

Anyway you may say I'm bitching so don't take public transit. Well my tax dollar goes into their service so I feel it is my right to take it if I choose. Plus its just a microcosm of our society in a way and is pretty interesting. Anyway I'm just stating what goes on. Let me know what annoys you on the bus or train.

Aint you the Master?

Yep he's the master!

Tiger Woods won his 4th Master's tournament today at Augusta Georgia. I caught the last couple of holes on replay last night and must say that it was actually pretty exciting. It was a neck and neck battle for supremacy between him and Chris Demarco all the way over the back 9.

Tiger hit one phenomenal shot from the edge of the rough on the 16th where the ball changed direction about 3 times before actually going to the brink of the hole and suddenly stopping only to then achieve one final revolution which placed it in the hole.

That gave him a 2 shot lead over Demarco and with 2 holes to play I thought it was over but Demarco came back to tie it and send it into sudden death.

All in all considering it was golf it was actually pretty heady stuff. Tiger coming back after overhauling his swing and not winning a major for about the last three years proved that he is still amongst the worlds best. Tiger in the place is a bam bam!

Still boy them need to spice up the golf thing a bit. Starting with the music. Why is it that the music played as the commentators chat or between holes sounds like stuff I would hear at a funeral home? Come on now pick up the pace a bit. Still I cant complain too much because Tiger won. Yea I know some people got issues wid his not saying he's black or his marriage to the white gal which I dealt with a while back and get cuss but say what ya want the man can still play golf so congrats to him.

No TTC strike Tomorrow

The transit folk here in Toronto are working tomorrow, thank God. Last minute aversion of the strike.

Skin out!

(Thought it had been lost but I found the top model blog that I started on Thursday so I'll finish it up)

All wunnah must be saying how come I aint blog on America's Top Model today. Well the truth is I really wasn't going to. The show is just real foolishness in my opinion but sigh since I watched it on Wednesday I figure I might as well continue to blog about it this week. Cant promise you about next week though.

Anyway in case you missed it last weeks review.

So this week started off with them talking about Michelle the 18 year old who looks like 45 (notice every week I'm adding to her age) who has the skin problem. Apparently the problem is clearing up but she is still contagious and she still has marks on her face and shoulders as well.

The girls received the Tyra mail and they were taken to some location where this older black gentleman gave them some legal documents to sign. Without reading the documents or asking what they were about all of the girls signed. Shame! No one said models were smart I guess. I was secretly and not so secretly hoping they had just signed away their lives but oh wait a minute they probably did that already when they signed up for this show. Oh well one could hold out hope that they were selling themselves into some sort of indentureship and this would be the last episode.

Alas it was not to be as they were taken into a room where Tyra the Tyrant was sitting. She told them the papers they signed were not binding but this was a lesson to show them that they should read stuff before signing it in the model business. Hmmm maybe they should have given them this lesson before they signed on for the show.

Also turns out the older black gentleman was Tyra's dad and that Tyra's mom was also there. Anyone besides me notice that Tyra's parents are kind of big boned to be semi politically correct. Oh all right them got size them fat. Got me thinking that Tyra must really duz starve out sheself when the day come to maintain that figure......or go to the plastic surgeons regular hmmm. Makes one wonder about Tyra's fat potential for a few years down the line though.

That night the girls decided to go out to dinner. Now we all know what happens when these girls go out to party now don't we? If not check this. Yep whenever they go out someone gets piss drunk and acts a fool. This time it wasn't Tiffany though it was Brittany.

Now Brittany is like the coolest girl in the group. She reminds me of the types that would be into sports, go to the game with the guys, hit the pub and throw back a few drinks. I lie? But Brittany get real real drunk on last night's show. She started dancing on the restaurant's table , dissing some of the other models because they were more reserved and then finally on the ride home my girl skin up her dress and mooned passing motorists.

Well well well! Looka how the woman skin up she boxie at de people. Dat is de sorta behavior dat Tyra encouraging on this show? Well I thought these women supposed ta be classy models and ting so. Sophisticated ladies. I din realize they was supposed ta be so brawling ( by the way brawling means loud in Bajan) and common class. Looka this ting fa tru.

Anyway the next task for the girls was to go to a Cover Girl party and mingle and meet some covergirl models and others in the business. Keenyah came off like a champ. Homegirl knows how to mix, mingle, make small talk and chatty chatty all up in de big up people face. On the other hand Tiffany definitely does not. Tiffany stand up in the corner pose off looking at the cosmetics on the wall and hoping that no-one would talk to her. Seems to me from this and from some comments she made to Tyra last week that she is a bit afraid of being in the model world outside of the runway and the photo shoots. A bit of a self confidence problem I think.

Also at the party Brittany was just loving the alcohol. I think the girl has a potential drinking problem. She couldn't even finish one drink properly before she on another one. The person who took the cake for me though was Michelle. I guess to distract from the skin problems on her face she decide to wear this one dress with a big able split up to about her waist line. Seriously when she was walking down the stairs I seeing her legs all the way up to her stomach then. One good blow a wind and all of her business expose on national tv. Again I say wha happen to this top model thing. I thought the girls was supposed to be showing class not ass. Tyra like she aint running a tight ship ya know. This thing getting outta hand, pure slackness!

Keenyah won the challenge and got a night of luxury for her and one of the girls and she chose Brittany to go with her. Tiffany was not happy at all with this choice. What ever happened to the sistren sticking together. Oh well.

The rest of the show is a bit of a blur to me. They did a photo shoot in the desert with wind and rain around them where Michelle looked like she wanted to cry Then at judging they had to sell some cologne idea to the judges. In the end Lluvy finally got the boot. Third time running in the final 2 and this time she got the heave-ho. Personally I thought that Brittany would get the boot for her less than professional behavior but Lluvy was living on borrowed time anyways. But ya know what I a little sad to see her go. Cuhdear! Who else left for me to diss?

Ok so now let me inject my own personal take on this show. First off its a given its silly and a bit annoying at times but I've been watching too much so now I have favorites. I'm hoping either Keenyah, Naima or Kahlen wins and I would hate to see Rebecca or Tatiana win. There those are my stated biases. Brittany, Tiffany and Michelle don't really stand a chance and Christina could be a dark horse. Actually I didn't notice Kahlen till this week to be honest, somehow she snuck under the radar.

Oh the washed up judge Janice Dickerson said all the girls too fat. I wish she would just go on to the Surreal world and disappear into the sunset.

There kept my promise from yesterday.

A so it go

Wouldn't you just know it. Today I can think of about 5 things I want to blog on but time just real short. Need to rush out this morning and run some errands and also do another pan recital. Somehow I ended up in the beginner class again. Don't ask lol.

We playing Fly by Destra this time. I hope dem playing that for Caribana because at least then I would know one song. Actually I'm still undecided about the playing for Caribana thing. Its quite the undertaking and commitment because they practice for at least a month in preparation and I mean practice 3-4 hours ever night. An de man nuh pay nuttin I mean cuhdear if them gine wuk me like dat dem cudda at least pay me. I lie?

Missed another domino tournament last night but with good cause as I went to one of the events at the Toronto storytelling festival. It was wicked! Will give you guys more details later since there is one particular story that was told that I wanted to share. Actually not sure if I'm allowed to write the story but the lady say we could share them so I think I can share this one with you.

Oh my back has been killing me for two days. My calf muscles are seriously tight and its transferring pain to my back and even my feet. Will have to do some serious, serious stretching today. Didn't even play squash yesterday because I was afraid I'd pull something then.

Yesterday was nice and warm though. I think this time of year is rather interesting in Toronto just because everyone dresses differently. Some of us, myself including are a bit tentative in the way we dress when it starts to warm up because we think the warm temps aren't really that warm. I mean 10-13 degrees is a really chilly night in Barbados but here for alot of folks its weather in which to undress. So see me still in my jacket and sweater but I seeing people in t-shirts and shorts around me. Not complaining because at least some of the girls starting to look nice again. If it ever get 20 degrees though watch and see how all of them will overdo it and all the low riser and the pum pum shorts and batty riders will start to come out.

And I don't know who tell people without batty to wear batty riders. lol.

Anyway morning is starting so I hope all you have a great weekend. I may come back and post the ANTM update later today. Enjoy

To Strike or Not to Strike

That be the question.

Today is D-day for us here in Toronto who depend on public transit to get to work. The Transit workers have given the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) management until noon to come to a contract agreement or on Monday there will be no bus or subway.

Its the usual argument between management and unions in regards to salaries, benefits, pensions and the like so we all wait with bated breath to see what the outcome will be.

If the TTC goes on strike on Monday the city will be a mess. Torontonians use public transit in greater amounts than most North Americans so alot of us will be in real trouble trying to find a way to work on Monday without transit.

Mind you, I must say I like the way the Unions have played this one. They were in position to strike since April 1st but they gave management more time to negotiate. The Unions had said that they were going to strike from yesterday but they gave management another deadline of noon today to settle or not they will strike from Monday. This gives employers and employees some time this afternoon and over the weekend to enact contingency plans. Well played I say. A good way to soften the impact or to make oneself not seem as villainous. If you look at it from that perspective they are being actually quite nice since they would have been justified to go on strike earlier. Great P.R on their part. Still they will get cussed when they do strike. No doubt about that.

They also picked a nice time to go on strike with the university exam period about to start or already started at the numerous colleges and universities around Toronto. Nothing like a captive ridership to pick on.

Oh well cold have been worse at least they waited till it has warmed up a bit to strike. Imagine them striking in February. Lawd ave mercy!

I always wonder about strikes and their timing though. I always give props to the postmen. Their collective agreements always seem to run out in November or October so they can threaten to strike for Christmas. That leads to quick settlement because the government does not want to have to deal with anyone upsetting Christmas.

On the other hand the Teachers seem to strike in September. For educators them fellas real stupid ya kno. If you are a teacher you should be striking somewhere from March or May and upsetting everyone's plans for the end of the terms. Why? Because end of term exams and the completion of the curriculum would be in jeopardy. All sorts of reports and marks to go on to other schools would be in trouble. Parents (both voters and tax payers in the eyes of politicians) would get on government's case. The teachers would have a great position from which to bargain but noooo they strike in September when children now coming off of summer holidays and no one really too interested in school. Ya mean people with this sorta logic is who teaching the youngsters? Lawd ave mercy this generation in school aint got a chance then.

Anyway, Monday will be hell on the roads if this TTC thing isn't resolved successfully. The press conference is going to be held at 2:30 today to let us know what happened. I am just imagining how crazy the roads will be on Monday. I've got a class which I hope will be cancelled because then I'd just take the day off and stay home instead of dealing with the drama on the roads. Unfortunately that's not an option for most folks so lets hope for the best.

p.s: for all the ANTM fans sorry about the lack of a recap this week. I may still do one tonight or tomorrow though if you guys really want one.

p.s 2 - its now 2:55 and the word is the strike is on. DAMM!

So wait Japan aint got no fat people?

Wanted waitress must answer to the name fine twine. lol. Just saw this article and felt to share with you guys.

Row Over Petite Ad - Wednesday 06, April-2005
WANTED: Waitresses between sizes zero and six for a Japanese restaurant.

Classic Japanese and Thai restaurant, Zen, located at the Crane Resort, St Philip, is recruiting petite women as waitresses at the restaurant.

In an advertisement on Page 9 of yesterday’s DAILY NATION, Zen advertised for a waitress who “must comfortably fit in a traditional, Japanese Kimono (United States dress size zero to six), [with] minimum fifth form education, no experience necessary, will train the right candidates”.

However, questions have been raised as to if it was discriminatory to specify that prospective employees be a certain size.

Attorney-at-law Ralph Thorne said it was, though it’s not unlawful.

“It is not unlawful because there is no anti-discriminatory legislation in Barbados,” he told the DAILY NATION.

“And even if there was legislation, it probably would not cover dress size. It would more than likely cover age, race and gender.”

Director of the Bureau of Gender Affairs, Sheila Stuart, was outraged when the advertisement was brought to her attention.

“This is outright discrimination. One cannot discriminate [on the basis of] dress size, looks and things like that, and this really should stop,” she said.

“However, you find that people get away with this through the selection process and this leads to stereotyping. This is seen in other areas too, where women in certain professions dress in a way to attract male customers.

“Like gas attendants for instance. [They] wear tight skirts above the knee and this is wrong. The Labour Department should point this out to employers . . . We have to be careful about that.”

Repeated efforts to speak with human resources manager at the Crane Resort, Sean Alleyne, went unanswered.

However, a source within the department said they did not see their request for petite women as discriminatory.

According to that officer, the traditional Japanese outfit, the kimono, was “small and slim and could only fit petite people”.

I aint see wha all de argument about. A bony girl cant enter the miss big n beautiful so what is the point? I just want to know if they trying to say that Japanese women don't get past size 6?

Telemarketers

I think somehow I mistakenly got on some list out there which said that Jdid had spare cash to give away. Why? Well every other day some telemarketer is trying to sell me some product or service or trying to get me to contribute to some charity on the phone. They wont give me a break at all.

I mean my phone doesn't ring that much at home and when it does ring its usually for the wife so anytime I hear the phone ring and the person on the other line asks to speak to me I duz start to get a little worried because either I do something wrong and somebody looking for me or somebody trying to take away what few dollars I have.

And once I hear a call and the person is asking all proper like for one "Mr Jdid" and I don't recognize the voice then I know full well what's coming next. I know the next words out their mouths will be along the lines of "I'm calling on behalf of so n so to offer you this that and the third" or "I'm calling on behalf of the poor underprivileged unfortunate sick need help everywhere to ask you to donate to such and such." They like they don't realize that I also poor underprivileged, unfortunate and often sick sick too so they should be calling on my behalf.

No bosie not me and this telemarketing thing. I mean really sometimes if I can spare it I will donate to a charity and I don't really mind giving if I can if I think its a worthwhile cause. However as for the ones selling services I aint want nun a what they trying to sell me because the way I look at it if they were selling such a great service I would be calling them or they would be too busy with the phones ringing off the hook from other people wanting to volunteer to buy their service and they wouldn't have no time to call me. That don't make sense?

I mean when I wanted that first credit card no credit card companies were calling me now all a them running me down to offer me a million cards. Oh you want to put me in debt and take all my money. Ok I understand that.

To make matters worse these telemarketers are always calling me at the most inopportune times as well. A fella trying to get a lil nap and they waking me up, ringing down the place, I trying to eat a little food and they wait till my belly growing and I got the fork in mid air and then beep beep there is the phone. Last two minutes of a basketball game, team down by 3 and making a big play and they gine mek me get up and miss the last minute heroics. chupse!

Now let me step back here and say that I'm not sure how I got on the list. Maybe its because I had a little pity one day and decide to give a charity a little change. Well to be honest it wasn't really any pity its just I heard that it would help me out tax wise to give a fella pieca change but no one ever tell me that it would cause me to get a million calls from people begging me for money because if someone had warned me about that I would have taken the tax penalty in exchange for the confusion these people giving me.

Plus the telemarketers real real persistent! I don't know if you've noticed but when they start off a call they have this technique whereby they don't make it sound as if they're begging you for money or begging you to buy a service. Oh no they make it seem like its already a done deal. They make it seem that this is just a mere formality because you have already agreed to buy whatever they are selling and they are just there to confirm it. I admire the confidence but usually I just don't want to waste my money on what they are selling.

For instance the other day, Saturday afternoon, I'm home alone half sleeping and this fella call. Now normally I would just not answer the phone but the wife was out and I figure just in case its her I will answer. So I jump up out the bed and run the phone half dazed.

"Good day may I speak to Mr Jdid?
I'm still groggy but that was the first clue so I saying oh oh what they trying to sell me now
"This is Mr Jdid."
"Good afternoon sir, I calling on behalf of so n so bank and we are offering you life insurance for which you are already pre-approved at a cheap rate of $8.95 per month."
"I am not interested."
"Ok sir but let me tell you that you are already pre-approved and this coverage will provide you with up to 10,000 dollars if you are in hospital which you can apply to your medical bills or pay your mortgage and if you are unable to work for a specific period of time due to accident you will also receive up to 50,000."
"I am not interested." Just in case he didn't hear me the first time.
"And when you die you are covered for up to a lump sum of $100,000 which will be given to your beneficiaries but if you die a really horrible accidental death such as you are run over by a TTC bus we will give your next of kin 4 times the amount for which you are insured."
(ok so he didn't say the part about really horrible death but he did offer the 4 times benefit for accidental death)
"I am not interested."
"And just so you know you are already pre-approved because you are a valued customer at so n so bank and we will just send you out this kit which you can look over because the first two months of premium will be paid by us. Just let me take down you inform....."
"that's great but I am just not interested."
"And .....
" Am boss man which part of I am not interested you cann understand?"
"Ok sir but could you tell us why you are not interested? Do you have other life insurance? Because our life insurance coverage provides you with the secur....."
"looka why you calling me ta sell me insurance for? I ask you for insurance? Ya aint see that I already say dat the wife trying ta kill me and you trying to give de wuman more incentive now to speed up the job? Ya want me ta get this policy and she find out I got a policy paying 4 times more fa accidental death and nex ting ya hear I get push infront a truck or sumbody pelt big rocks at me when I up on the roof and leff me pun de ground catspraddle? I look like I ready ta met the maker to you? uh? You cant realize you tryin ta get a innocent man killed?"

click!

North Carolina

Excellent NCAA championship game tonight to culminate an all around outstanding basketball tournament. March madness indeed! University of North Carolina behind 26 points by Sean Mays came out victors over University of Illinois 75 -70.

Coach Roy Williams finally won a college championship and now with Carolina winning speculation as to how many of their underclassmen will go pro can begin. Such is college basketball.

Oh and I finally had a decent NCAA pool after years of having my sure pick teams lose over and over again.

March Madness has got to be one of the best sporting events in the world. Why? Its win or go home. No well we lost the first game but we regrouped to win our zone. Nope you snooze you lose, you mess up you're walking. Every game is do or die. It gets no better than that in sports.

Interesting side note to this win was that Mays was following in his father's footsteps as his dad won a championship with Indiana back in the 70s in a game in which he also scored 26 points. Pretty weird coincidence huh?

Guess who's bizack

Yep that's right folk its old man winter. Just couldn't leave us without a reminder of his power so we've had a freezing rain/snow mixture here in Toronto for the last two days. Just when you thought it was safe and spring was here its time to break out the old winter gear. Oh well. Its all part and parcel for these climes and I had told everyone that we would have at least one major storm in April anyway. That doesn't mean I don't hate it still. Its damn annoying but all I can do is accept it or move.

Well the Pope died. May he rest in peace is all I say.

Day Light savings time started on Saturday night. That means I lose an hour's sleep tonight and just my luck that Monday morning I want to get to work early for once. A so it go I guess.

Had this whole blog on tact that I wanted to do for no apparent reason but as I wrote it, it wasn't making any sense so I must "wheel an come again" some other time.

Actually it was basically about how tact has become co-opted by political correctness to the point where nowadays its harder to tell whether someone is being truthful with you or if they are just afraid they will hurt your feelings or say something that you will perceive as negative even though they may not necessarily mean it in that way.

And I'm talking about in polite friendly situations as opposed to the business world where everyone is not your friend and anything less than tactful is probably to just to avoided.

Oh well (rambling again should just give up on this) I guess we just live in a kinder and gentler world or maybe a more fraudulent one where people "smile in your face, behind your back they talk trash".

Now mind you alot of Caribbean people are pretty free with their words. Freer than most North Americans anyway. Tact is an acquired trait and many a we aint even know what it mean furtherless where one would look to even acquire it from. Some of we will insult ya, cuss ya, let ya know how much eediat ya is, if ya lose tummuch weight, eating tummuch, gain tummuch weight, ya face fall away, if ya look obzocky, ya clothes look bad, ya doing something wrong and aint got a clue, and tell how we really feel bout ya in a quick minute. And this is just chatting with friends and family lol. And the cool thing about it is that in most cases its all said without a great deal of animosity. Its just like I'm just calling it as I see it, straight shooting. On the other hand some people just harbor animosity towards others but pretend that all is well. I must admit that I prefer just knowing what's going on and the straight truth and find the way some of our Caribbean people operate somewhat refreshing as you're not searching for hidden agendas from the other person or trying to decipher double speak and hidden sarcasms.

But then again I think any child that grows up in a Caribbean household is accustomed to that. In a Caribbean household as a child growing up if you mess up and sometimes even when you don't parents are completely devoid of tact and will break you down and make you feel small or at least let you know in no uncertain terms when you were wrong. When a Caribbean parent admonishes his/her child there is no mistaking that the child has been reprimanded.

Contrast this scenario for example; a child breaks a piece of furniture or a window or something like that. In a North American household you would get something like this. "Now Billy, I've already told you that you really mustn't throw stones in the street. Its just not nice! Now daddy's going to have to go over to miss so n so and pay for the damage you did. But before I do I want you to go over there and apologize to her. And if you do that again you're on time out mister. Ok? Now give me a hug."

Now if it was a bajan child who did that it would be like " Billy! Cheese on bread den! You! Dis chile is really my chile doah? Wha I cant believe dat. Boy you is a idiot or what? uh? uh? chupse! Looka why you brek miss so n so window fa? That window trouble you? uh? Answer me! I tell you a hurnrud (100) times not ta pelt no big rocks bout hayso. But no you is a hardears poppit! Now I gotta find muney ta fix she winda. You feel I mek outta muney or wha? Looka I so blasted vex den! Look bring dat tambrind switch from cross deyso"

Ok ok I exaggerate the cultural responses (that probably not politically correct) but see you just cant mistake those types of comments for kudos, lol. Ok got sidetracked about the tact thing but the point was that people need to call it like it actually is more often because sometimes the political correctness goes to far. And I'm still trying to figure out what inspired this post so don't bother asking, lol.

Have a good day and a great week.

Run!

Uh, down-shiftin' on 'em like I got gears on me
(Run!) Besides that, I got about 5 years on me
(Run!) Scared to death, runnin' like I got bears on me
(Run!) My Timb's start feelin' like they Nike Air's on me
(Run!) It's hard for me to slow down, it's like I'm on the Throughway
My belt's in the crib on the floor by my two-way
Now I'm try'nna hold my hammer up, and my pants too
If they don't kill me, they gon' give me a number I can't do
Rather it be the streets, then jail where I die at
And I'm ashmatic, so I'm lookin' for somewhere to hide at

Jadakiss on Ghostface's Run

Last night we went to see Bruce Willis new film Hostage. Wicked movie dat! Let me tell you that is the first movie in a while that I have watched in cinema where I didn't feel like cussing about the money I waste going. Mind you I might be a bit biased since I've been a Bruce Willis fan since the man was moonlighting but to me this movie was almost like Die Hard 4 (which is apparently in pre production for you fans out there, yi-pee-ka ya yo!). Bruce was back to playing the role that he plays best; washed up has been dude in a desperate situation. Only thing is here he wasn't a wise ass like in all the other movies so maybe he had to stretch to play the part. Come on don't tell me you haven't noticed that at least 80% of his roles he plays exactly the same character? Think Die Hard trilogy, Last Man Standing, Striking Distance, Fifth Element and this list goes on.

Anyway it was a good movie so if you get a chance check that one out. May looks like the month of good releases. Star Wars Episode 3, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Unleashed (featuring my man Jet Lee and Morgan Freeman) etc etc oh and Paris Hilton has a movie coming out called House of Wax. I guess some folks cant just be happy with their 15 minutes of fame and go on to do Surreal life or something. No! She has to be in movies too. Oh well!

Mind you going to the movies here is a whole different experience from going in Barbados. Watching movies in the Caribbean is like going to a sporting event. Movies are a spectator sport and patrons will heckle, cheer, laugh, cuss and express every emotion known to man at the characters on screen. Last time I went to the movies in Barbados was Christmas Eve 2003 to watch return of the King. Lawd ave mercy. I think the crowd participation was better than the movie.

Oh my bad, back in the day when Eaton Centre downtown had half price Tuesday's or as it was known on the low n*** Tuesdays (yea what I said it you know thats what they used to call it so why hide it) every black person in Toronto would go to the cinema it was a similar experience. Lots of background noise, folk talking to the screen, cracking jokes, cussing one another etc. It was like watching two dramas unfold at the same time. And I know bredren personally that say no to the high priced movie food and used to sneak in subs and pizza and all sort of serious food into the movie, lol. We not paying no 5 dollar for two snickers or 10 dollar for just a popcorn and a watered down drink. Dat naa gone mek it when a convenience store and a KFC next door, lol.

Sometimes the crowd participation is a bit annoying but at other times its rather funny to experience. Mind you here its different. The noise here is cell phones and last night one particularly annoying prick with a bag of popcorn. Ya telling me every blasted time ya go in the popcorn bag ya have to shake it like a Polaroid picture? eeediat ting dat! Big Chupse!! I did really feel like if I had two big rocks I woulda pelt them at he. chupse.

However even before the previews started at the movies I had my share of drama last night. We went to the theatres at Kennedy Commons in Scarborough. Its this big strip mall where it takes about 20 minutes to walk from one section to the other. If you going to the supermarket you have to park one side and if you then want to go to the movies you have to drive across to park the other side, lol. Parking lot big big big!

So we got our tickets early and we decided to go browse around some other stores till it was closer to movie time. This meant 10 minute walk across parking lot but we ended up going to the book store Chapters.

While there my wife said she say the security guy giving us the eye. Whatever! Yes I must look like a criminal. I wunda why? nudda big chupse! Anyway two minutes later we're about to step through the door and begin the 10 minute trek to the cinema when this white couple head out just ahead of us and the Chapters security guy heads to the door right behind them. Next thing as I'm looking through the door I see the woman touch the man and both take off flying out into the parking lot. I'm thinking they just joking around with each other ...Until I see the same Chapters employee take off in hot pursuit. A wha de ???

The fellow started dropping books left, right and centre. RUN! I guess he had them hidden under his jacket or something and the two of them sprinting like Ben Johnson to get away from the Chapters guy. Oh might I say that it was pure black people in the parking lot just watching in disbelief like "but wait wha gine on?" as this thing unfolds. My man didn't stop at all, dude had some speed we could use a yout like him on the Canadian Olympic team. Great acceleration out the blocks. Might have to steroid test him though. The man fly across the parking lot in no time at all without looking back (and this is a large parking lot) then run across the road and change to 5th gear. All the while at random intervals books falling to the ground and no little paperbacks either its big hardcover copies of Da Vinci code an stuff like that that falling to the ground. He left the woman and the Chapters guy both in his dust. The woman out ran the Chapters guy too but it was a bit closer. I think the Chapters guy just ran out of steam or decided that they probably don't pay him enough to be chasing igrant people in the parking lot.

So as we head across to the cinema we see him coming back to the bookstore picking up books at different spots. And what I have to say to that. Ya f'in moron if ya did watching the right people instead a looking at a man like me dat aint gine teif nuttin ya might a had a chance to ketch them. Serves ya right, I hope ya ketch pneumonia and pull a hamstring too from all dat running out in the cold wid only a cotton shirt on.

And as we got closer to the cinema we actually saw the girl he had chased. She was just walking around with a big handful of books and was talking on her cellphone. LOL.

The blues

Maybe you noticed but I just wasn't feeling the blog this week. Just been feeling rather uninspired and ready for this week to end. Also been crazy tired for no apparent reason. Maybe its the change of seasons, maybe my minds not in the right place as I've not been sleeping well either.

Just been feeling blah, rather jdid actually. Didn't even have the energy to properly criticize the Top model gals. Good thing too cause I wake up this morning with a lil ting deyso coming out on my face next to me nose. Imagine how much worse it could be if I had diss the gal whose face was peeling. LOL

Its finally warming up here. We went from the - temps to the 6s and 7s and apparently there was a 14 or 15 thrown in there the other day too but now its raining. I aint complaining, I'll take rain over snow any day and the snow on my lawn has finally melted or been washed away. Amen.

Johnny Cochrane died the other day. Rest in Peace Johnny. Rappers, Black sportsmen and black entertainers throughout North America must be bawling their eyes out right about now. Who's going to defend us when we do dumb ish? lol. Rappers must now straighten up and fly right because what was the first news you hear after Johnny dead? C -Murder's appeal get turn down. Dey aint even wait till Johnny cold to jack up a yout. Cuhdear. Mind you if your name is C-Murder and you charged with murder if I am a judge then you already starting out behind the count just for having that name. That is why if they ever charge me for anything and send me to court I making sure one of my aliases is "C-Not Guilty Your Honor".

Terry Shiavo dead. I aint even going to link to her story. I didn't see why it had to be such big news personally. She was in a coma for years, her husband said she was as good as dead so pull the plug, the family disagreed. In my opinion its just an exaggerated family squabble with the inlaws no need for all the CNN coverage. If my wife in a coma my inlaws can do whatever dem want wid she doah, me not gettin into nun a dat drama. I would tell them straight, I argue wid wunna enough when she was living so I aint arguing wid wunnah now she in a coma. :-)

Now the Pope on his death bed. Wow! I wonder how much longer he will last. Not being callous here but I don't know if you've followed the Pope and illness because for the last 4 or 5 years it has appeared as if he has one foot in the grave. I remember about 2002 or 2003 there was this big youth rally for Catholics from all over the world and the Pope was here. He looked really fragile then and I was just afraid that the man was going to come to Toronto and die here. Anyway I know the Pope's not going down without a fight. So lets see what happens next.

Oh and did you guys know that an African priest is in the running for next Pope? Oooh I just had a bad vision of a Roman Catholic next pope (RCNP) reality tv show. Sacrilege! I'm going to hell for that thought! But hey the way reality tv is going these days it could happen.

Anyway yep this African guy Francis Arinze is in the running for Pope. In 2003 they were calling him the top candidate now they are saying some Italian guy is the top candidate. I don't think Pope John Paul wants to die until he see him move down to number 3. Ok lets be real now. We aint getting no black Pope. Come on now. If punks online are getting pissed because Mos Def got a white dude's role in the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy movie out this summer (big up Moistworks for the link) imagine how riled up people would be about a Black Pope. Think about it! (Personally I don't even think the Mos Def role pays up for the Cold Mountain role that they gave to Renee Zelweigger the other day)

The prison riot thing in Barbados seems to be under control now. One guy died on Wednesday after the riots and the fires flared up again. I'm just wondering where they are going to be housing these prisoners until a new jail is built. They were talking about putting them at the National Stadium but to me that's just madness. Why? Several reasons:

• The National Stadium is the easiest place in Bim to get into or out of. I know so many youth that scale dem walls at Interschool sports its not even a joke.
• The perimeter real real big so you would need alot of guards to defend it.
• Its big and open and is a place where you go to run and jump. I don't think you really want to have prisoners thinking constantly about running and jumping.
• Its like the coldest place in Barbados at night and sometimes during the day as the winds come whistling in off Waterford Bottom. I would riot just to warm up from the cold of that place.

Hey did I ever tell you guys about the time I got hit with the dart in my head just outside the Stadium? Was a teenager coming home from a Carifta meet one summer night and just walking down the street outside the stadium when I heard a quick soft whistling sound and all of a sudden I just felt something hit me in my head and give me a sharp pain. Touched my head to find a flipping dart embedded in my skull. No joke! Some little kid had been playing with darts outside. I was so blasted vex but at the same time really glad that he hadn't hit me in the eye. Taking the dart out was rather painful too but I took it out swore a bit and walked away with a handkerchief to my bloody head. Couldn't really do anything else, it wasn't my area and I was alone and it loked like his family had all just gathered waiting for me to do something stupid like try to start something. So I said no permanent damage done and just walked away to catch the bus.

Hmm mild trauma to the head maybe that's when I started going crazy.

Oh well. Lastly test cricket started yesterday. West Indies vs South Africa. A depleted West Indies without stars like Lara, Sarwan and Gayle. Well as I duz tell everybody no one man bigger than anything. Same way work will get done if you or I quit or dead is the same way West Indies cricket can go on without Lara so don't feel that he name West Indies cricket. He may be great but if he cant play or isn't allowed to play West Indies cant just cower up and say cricket dun cause Lara not here. Its not like when ya is a chile an one fella bring the bat and balls and when he get out he gine tek dem up an go home. No star everybody at test level got dem own gear so Windies cricket just will go on with what we have.

Anyway that's it for now. Hope everyone having a great day.