And so it is also written. In the first month of the new year when the sun shone with a cold light and the frost blanketed the fields as far as the eye could see our hero rested. For his earlier quest for the patch had been successful and although the mighty computer was still prone to failure it appeared as if the worst of the battle had been fought and won.
Forsooth our hero had gone on to fight another battle of a personal nature against the mighty and dreaded block which had in times past become a constant scourge on the land. That battle had been fought like the battles of ancient times as heard first hand or even word of mouth by the tellers of tales of when the times were grim and the clash of steel echoed throughout the breath of the land. When titans met and their steel axes glinted with light brighter than the sun and the sparks from their clashes struck the earth like giant thunderbolts from the heavens. And all mortals lived in fear
This battle was one for the ages as the mighty block subjugated through fear and anger. He had captured our hero whilst he was yet sleeping and bound him tightly with chains of the strongest metals. Once secured our hero was roughly transported to the deepest darkest secret dungeons imaginably from which he could not escape for yea unto a fortnight. Our hero panicked and was afraid that all was forever lost for a darkness clouded his mind affecting his sanity (oh yea like we haven't heard that before). However he never gave up and continually sought to gird his loins with courage. And so it came to past that his struggle was not in vain for not only did he escape the tentacles of his adversary but he fought him in the darkest parts of his mind and banished him (not forever) from that place. And our hero was spent .
And once again the sound of joy was heard throughout the land and it was good for the people rejoiced and a time of plenty was about to be embraced by its inhabitants. Blogs for all they shouted. Hurray!Hurray! And the moet chandon and courvouiser and hynotiq and all the other jiggy drinks flowed like water from the Falls at Niagara and the inhabitants were content (which looks a lot like being drunk from a certain viewpoint).For the hero could now rest and recover his strength and write to his heart content and ideas and blogs overflowed like food in Egypt in the seven years of abundance as foretold by Joseph the one hated on by his bredren because of his coat with the bling bling..
But alas there could be no rest for the hero as the Computer once again succumbed to a pestilence like illness for which the hero had no portion or salve to fully heal. In sooth the hero could temporarily return him to consciousness but no sooner had he been revived he would slip into a deep coma once again. And again there was weeping and moaning throughout the land for the hero was saddened by his friend's illness. Our hero still recovering from the almighty struggle with the Block was powerless as it appeared that the 'Hard Drive' was corrupt and unable to be fully revived.
Hence, our hero decided to seek out technicians and soothsayers, wizards and computer persons who could solve the puzzle of this malady affecting the mighty computer. So he planned a journey over strange hills and deep valleys , across rivers wide and deep, through canyons of skyscrapers and in the paths of iron horses with the computer in tow to the land of the wizards and technicians who would attempt to lay hands with strange incantations like BIOS and drivers and DOS in an attempt to fully heal the computer.
And so it is written that whilst our hero would still continue to visit the land of blogs and comment on such items as he saw fit from time to time, alas he would blog no more until the computer was healed. And as that news filled the land some wept whilst others rejoiced and even more saith "chupse! ya feel I really care one way or the odda. ya mekkin sport!' But alas our hero rode into the sunset with the ailing computer in tow seeking healing. And so it is written and there was silence in the land.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Friday, January 07, 2005
Comparison Shadows
Wednesday night for some reason or another my mind wandered back to high school. The thought process was people I dislike, my hit list (oh don't act like you don't have one too! y'all do don't you?lol), prefect from high school who made hit list, trivial incident with prefect at school which led to detention (details; 12-13 years old, video games outlawed from being played at school, brought game to school purely to exchange with friend to play at home, game was not played at school but some other joker saw exchange told prefect, prefect went into bag found game, I got detention for the first time), comparison to other folks.
Then I read Solitaire's post about when Marlo visited her so I thought I'd share a comparison story. (hey don't hate me for trying to find inspiration when the block has me devoid of original thoughts). I'm sure we all have them (comparisons that is).
When I was in high school, actually my bad from the time I was in primary school I was always deliberately or maybe not deliberately compared to this one young man from our neighborhood. Lets call him Peter (definitely not his real name because for the life of me I can only just remember him as miss so n so's biggest boy chile). His mother was a friend of my mom's from church and he had gone to my primary school, done amazingly well, got into one of the so-called top schools in the island and gone on to greater things winning awards and going off to England to study etc. A real role model. Peter was this tall, slim, very modest, quiet and shy, very intelligent young man. What one would call a gentleman back in the day. Sort of like me except for the intelligent part oh and the role model part oh and the gentleman part too. ummm maybe we weren't that much alike in hindsight.
Somewhere along the line my mom and other folks probably saw his path as the blueprint for the path I was to follow so although I wouldn't actually say that I had steady and constant reminders of him I did have quite a few comparisons made and whenever they came up I bristled. I guess from small I just disliked comparisons. You just got to be you, you cant live someone else's life.
Anyway so being pretty smart at primary school (who would have thought it now?) and from the same neighborhood as Peter I lived though many a comparison.
I ended up following his lead to the same high school (he had graduated by then and headed off to England) and so the comparisons and the hopes and dreams of me walking in Peter's footsteps increased in my mother's eyes. So when I got my first detention in high school (above story with video game), I remember the lecture from my mom including a very biting line something like "Peter went to dat school and he mudda say he never get not one detention in de seven years he was dere" accompanied by one of those guilt inducing looks that everyone's mother is capable of. Ouch I guess the bubble burst and although on some level I rejoiced at being out of Peter's shadow, I felt really low because I realized that being in his shadow really hadn't been that bad. At least people had high expectations for me which was a good thing so that meant I had let down my mom somewhat.
Oh well! Life goes on. Not trying to be flippant or anything but I'm sure it wasn't the last let down my mom got from me and while at that age I did strive to please my parents alot now like I said you got to live your life for yourself and not to please others. Yea may sound strange and its not like I deliberately went out there to disappoint moms but just saying I aint losing no sleep over it. Anyway fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective that one detention was not enough to permanently dislodge Peter's shadow from engulfing me.
School goes on, detention goes on, grades weren't that great (at least not like Peter's probably were) so I still got the occasional reference to him. Its not like I was wilding out or anything just that I wasn't living up to those high expectations. I just had too much athletic yearning, not necessarily talent mind you, inside me. Guess I can thank my dad for that lol. I played cricket, handball, football, basketball, tennis at any time I could get a chance and I liked reading fiction from the school library more than I liked reading text books. Think I must have read every Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Famous Five mystery book out there....and then there were the comics and that incident which many many years later is still too painful for me to talk about.
Hey I had got through primary school without major studying why couldn't I get through High School the same way? Oh well the grades weren't that bad, they just weren't as good as Peter's (who had applied himself probably) or they didn't indicate I would be following in his footsteps. (anyways starting to ramble its not a life story I'm giving)
Peter finished his degree in England and came back to work in Barbados and went on to bigger and better things. Nothing remarkably spectacular about his story, no one upsmanship from me, no falling into drugs and ending up a bum for him. Not that I wished that fate on him its just sometimes as a kid ,and as an adult too, you think that the only way to get out of those comparison shadows is for the other person to completely slip up. Especially when they are so deep. Oh come on most of us do so like to see certain people falter, pass the hater-ade son. :-) But no in all sincerity I can say that Peter is/was truly a good guy so I never had those thoughts and it was actually rather inspirational where I'm from to see his success story. Oh somewhere along the line I came to grips with the comparisons I guess. Yea they still urk me a bit but sometimes I think if he could do it hey maybe there's a chance for me. So yep, I endured the comparisons, actually did better than him in certain areas, worse in others but I remember the comparisons occasionally, wonder how he's doing (heard he has a a 'big' job now) and from time to time he comes up in conversation. Me I think I turned out ok, except for the mental issues but I aint went postal yet so I cant complain. :-)
Still I do really not like the whole comparison thing although sometimes that's the only way for people to relate to you as an individual. They compare you to your siblings or your parents or someone who speaks like you, looks like you, has the same profession, came from your background but seems to have achieved more, dresses better, has aged better, mek more money, have nuff pickney an you still no have nun, have bigger car dan you etc. Its just human nature to categorize and sometimes stereotype folks.
I'm sure we all have stories like that where we have lived in someone's shadow as we were growing up and even if we're already grown there is always that someone who is still quick to compare us to someone else. Sometimes its good to see the comparisons, sometimes its not so good but hey don't fixate on them and just do you. Not saying we all shouldn't strive for improvement but we all cant live the same life and when you think about comparisons they are rather superficial in the sense that no one ever knows the full story of the individuals involved.
Could go on and on, the full has never been told
while I'm living, as I'm living
to the father I will pray
only 'im kno how me get thru every day
.......
(man, I fighting the block but is still struggle me a struggle)
Then I read Solitaire's post about when Marlo visited her so I thought I'd share a comparison story. (hey don't hate me for trying to find inspiration when the block has me devoid of original thoughts). I'm sure we all have them (comparisons that is).
When I was in high school, actually my bad from the time I was in primary school I was always deliberately or maybe not deliberately compared to this one young man from our neighborhood. Lets call him Peter (definitely not his real name because for the life of me I can only just remember him as miss so n so's biggest boy chile). His mother was a friend of my mom's from church and he had gone to my primary school, done amazingly well, got into one of the so-called top schools in the island and gone on to greater things winning awards and going off to England to study etc. A real role model. Peter was this tall, slim, very modest, quiet and shy, very intelligent young man. What one would call a gentleman back in the day. Sort of like me except for the intelligent part oh and the role model part oh and the gentleman part too. ummm maybe we weren't that much alike in hindsight.
Somewhere along the line my mom and other folks probably saw his path as the blueprint for the path I was to follow so although I wouldn't actually say that I had steady and constant reminders of him I did have quite a few comparisons made and whenever they came up I bristled. I guess from small I just disliked comparisons. You just got to be you, you cant live someone else's life.
Anyway so being pretty smart at primary school (who would have thought it now?) and from the same neighborhood as Peter I lived though many a comparison.
I ended up following his lead to the same high school (he had graduated by then and headed off to England) and so the comparisons and the hopes and dreams of me walking in Peter's footsteps increased in my mother's eyes. So when I got my first detention in high school (above story with video game), I remember the lecture from my mom including a very biting line something like "Peter went to dat school and he mudda say he never get not one detention in de seven years he was dere" accompanied by one of those guilt inducing looks that everyone's mother is capable of. Ouch I guess the bubble burst and although on some level I rejoiced at being out of Peter's shadow, I felt really low because I realized that being in his shadow really hadn't been that bad. At least people had high expectations for me which was a good thing so that meant I had let down my mom somewhat.
Oh well! Life goes on. Not trying to be flippant or anything but I'm sure it wasn't the last let down my mom got from me and while at that age I did strive to please my parents alot now like I said you got to live your life for yourself and not to please others. Yea may sound strange and its not like I deliberately went out there to disappoint moms but just saying I aint losing no sleep over it. Anyway fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective that one detention was not enough to permanently dislodge Peter's shadow from engulfing me.
School goes on, detention goes on, grades weren't that great (at least not like Peter's probably were) so I still got the occasional reference to him. Its not like I was wilding out or anything just that I wasn't living up to those high expectations. I just had too much athletic yearning, not necessarily talent mind you, inside me. Guess I can thank my dad for that lol. I played cricket, handball, football, basketball, tennis at any time I could get a chance and I liked reading fiction from the school library more than I liked reading text books. Think I must have read every Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Famous Five mystery book out there....and then there were the comics and that incident which many many years later is still too painful for me to talk about.
Hey I had got through primary school without major studying why couldn't I get through High School the same way? Oh well the grades weren't that bad, they just weren't as good as Peter's (who had applied himself probably) or they didn't indicate I would be following in his footsteps. (anyways starting to ramble its not a life story I'm giving)
Peter finished his degree in England and came back to work in Barbados and went on to bigger and better things. Nothing remarkably spectacular about his story, no one upsmanship from me, no falling into drugs and ending up a bum for him. Not that I wished that fate on him its just sometimes as a kid ,and as an adult too, you think that the only way to get out of those comparison shadows is for the other person to completely slip up. Especially when they are so deep. Oh come on most of us do so like to see certain people falter, pass the hater-ade son. :-) But no in all sincerity I can say that Peter is/was truly a good guy so I never had those thoughts and it was actually rather inspirational where I'm from to see his success story. Oh somewhere along the line I came to grips with the comparisons I guess. Yea they still urk me a bit but sometimes I think if he could do it hey maybe there's a chance for me. So yep, I endured the comparisons, actually did better than him in certain areas, worse in others but I remember the comparisons occasionally, wonder how he's doing (heard he has a a 'big' job now) and from time to time he comes up in conversation. Me I think I turned out ok, except for the mental issues but I aint went postal yet so I cant complain. :-)
Still I do really not like the whole comparison thing although sometimes that's the only way for people to relate to you as an individual. They compare you to your siblings or your parents or someone who speaks like you, looks like you, has the same profession, came from your background but seems to have achieved more, dresses better, has aged better, mek more money, have nuff pickney an you still no have nun, have bigger car dan you etc. Its just human nature to categorize and sometimes stereotype folks.
I'm sure we all have stories like that where we have lived in someone's shadow as we were growing up and even if we're already grown there is always that someone who is still quick to compare us to someone else. Sometimes its good to see the comparisons, sometimes its not so good but hey don't fixate on them and just do you. Not saying we all shouldn't strive for improvement but we all cant live the same life and when you think about comparisons they are rather superficial in the sense that no one ever knows the full story of the individuals involved.
Could go on and on, the full has never been told
while I'm living, as I'm living
to the father I will pray
only 'im kno how me get thru every day
.......
(man, I fighting the block but is still struggle me a struggle)
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Soliloquy of chaos
Well its snowing and freezing rain outside today. Not the type of weather one wants to be in really. The train ride into work was uneventful but walking from the station to the office I think one side of my face was power scrubbed by freezing rain. Extreme makeovers nature style I guess.
Seen some interesting blogs this morning, Kami's, Angry Dog's, Dr D , Piggy etc but alas I've still got that writers block. What's my motivation again? In case you haven't seen the writer's block he's like this big Sumo Wrestler looking dude who just follows me around the pathways of my mind. Everytime I pick up an idea he is there to say put that down or if I try to escape he runs after me wrestles me to the ground and takes it back from me. I guess sometimes you write sometimes you just sit back and read and absorb the wisdom that the others are giving. Its all good my time will come. (yea right like I have any sort of wisdom to dispense)
Actually my writers block is probably because my mind isn't really in a good place right now. I so hate Januaries (actually that was the name of a post I have to work on but gathering the thoughts coherently is escaping me). Pure drama a go on and I'm just struggling to keep my head above water. Oh well such is life!
The funny thing is in such times writing stuff like this is mad difficult but writing poetry just flows. Its rather cathartic. Not that I feel like sharing the poetry its usually a bit too dark for most and people tend to misunderstand it and think I'm some sort of crisis case, lost in the deep recesses of depression or on the brink of going postal (sometimes I'm all three but I hate being analyzed anyways) so I choose to avoid the comments by not sharing. I is a only chile I selfish :-)
So I'm rambling because my therapist says that I need to stay in contact with others instead of avoiding people :-) Yea right! Any therapist would probably just look at me one time and write on my chart 'HEAD GONE' and ship me off to the madhouse. LOL
Seriously though its a struggle at the moment, life, work, health, weather, stress you name it but as a born fighter and someone who believes God will never give you more than you can bear I battle on.
Oh what the, blah lets share an unfinished poem I just found, maybe I'll finish it today. Its not the greatest but with some tweaking who knows
I dwell within this beast
and this beast within me
strives to control my every activity
so there’s a battle inside while I battle outward forces
my frame shudders under stress and sometimes takes much losses
my frame cries as frame tries to not be crushed bear the balance
my frame wise but frame dies while its battling against this malice
my frame glides NO not so much as simply staggers
eternal mayhem
my soul long since ceased to matter
my soul long since ceased to gather
hope, ignoring passion
obscure visions loiter on
of scenes thought much too harsh to happen
my tongue much too parched for gabbing
my lungs much too tight for rapping
.
Seen some interesting blogs this morning, Kami's, Angry Dog's, Dr D , Piggy etc but alas I've still got that writers block. What's my motivation again? In case you haven't seen the writer's block he's like this big Sumo Wrestler looking dude who just follows me around the pathways of my mind. Everytime I pick up an idea he is there to say put that down or if I try to escape he runs after me wrestles me to the ground and takes it back from me. I guess sometimes you write sometimes you just sit back and read and absorb the wisdom that the others are giving. Its all good my time will come. (yea right like I have any sort of wisdom to dispense)
Actually my writers block is probably because my mind isn't really in a good place right now. I so hate Januaries (actually that was the name of a post I have to work on but gathering the thoughts coherently is escaping me). Pure drama a go on and I'm just struggling to keep my head above water. Oh well such is life!
The funny thing is in such times writing stuff like this is mad difficult but writing poetry just flows. Its rather cathartic. Not that I feel like sharing the poetry its usually a bit too dark for most and people tend to misunderstand it and think I'm some sort of crisis case, lost in the deep recesses of depression or on the brink of going postal (sometimes I'm all three but I hate being analyzed anyways) so I choose to avoid the comments by not sharing. I is a only chile I selfish :-)
So I'm rambling because my therapist says that I need to stay in contact with others instead of avoiding people :-) Yea right! Any therapist would probably just look at me one time and write on my chart 'HEAD GONE' and ship me off to the madhouse. LOL
Seriously though its a struggle at the moment, life, work, health, weather, stress you name it but as a born fighter and someone who believes God will never give you more than you can bear I battle on.
Oh what the, blah lets share an unfinished poem I just found, maybe I'll finish it today. Its not the greatest but with some tweaking who knows
I dwell within this beast
and this beast within me
strives to control my every activity
so there’s a battle inside while I battle outward forces
my frame shudders under stress and sometimes takes much losses
my frame cries as frame tries to not be crushed bear the balance
my frame wise but frame dies while its battling against this malice
my frame glides NO not so much as simply staggers
eternal mayhem
my soul long since ceased to matter
my soul long since ceased to gather
hope, ignoring passion
obscure visions loiter on
of scenes thought much too harsh to happen
my tongue much too parched for gabbing
my lungs much too tight for rapping
.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Quick quick blog
Alias returns tonight. Yipee. Aside from 24, that's like the only show I've followed closely for the last three years. Time to set the vcr running.
Not much to say today. Made it to work before 10 for the first time in a while (well my hours are flexible and I do work beyond 6 most days so its not like I'm slacking) and had a nice old school hip hop CD to keep me company on the train.
Finished a book last night Rule of Four. Its sort of Like Da Vince Code (no making mumbo jumbo out of biblical stuff though) with better character development but it moves slower in the beginning and the ending could be a lot better.
Also watched Gus and Hera get eliminated on the Amazing Race. I held out hope that they would stick around a few more weeks and maybe the racist Kendra and her partner would get the boot but alas Gus and Hera just didn't play the game well. Week after week they made extremely bad choices on the Detours. So seems like all the semi-likable teams are disappearing week after week leaving the annoying guys. If you watch that show I think in general they made the teams more annoying this season, they also sunk to Fear Factor type crap last night with the drinking pig's blood stunt and they are attempting to show more skin (first episode was like an explosion of breasts in low cut tops) which really does nothing in my opinion for the show.
I'm also reading Earl Lovelace's Salt and I must say I'm enjoying it a lot more than one of his other books I read a few years back The Dragon Cant Dance.
Still fighting the writers block, thought of a few things I wanted to touch on but having trouble remembering my motivation for this blog anyway so who knows what I'll write next lol. The key I believe is to stay loose and just write whatever pops into your head. Anyway I'll be blog, I mean back tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good day.
Not much to say today. Made it to work before 10 for the first time in a while (well my hours are flexible and I do work beyond 6 most days so its not like I'm slacking) and had a nice old school hip hop CD to keep me company on the train.
Finished a book last night Rule of Four. Its sort of Like Da Vince Code (no making mumbo jumbo out of biblical stuff though) with better character development but it moves slower in the beginning and the ending could be a lot better.
Also watched Gus and Hera get eliminated on the Amazing Race. I held out hope that they would stick around a few more weeks and maybe the racist Kendra and her partner would get the boot but alas Gus and Hera just didn't play the game well. Week after week they made extremely bad choices on the Detours. So seems like all the semi-likable teams are disappearing week after week leaving the annoying guys. If you watch that show I think in general they made the teams more annoying this season, they also sunk to Fear Factor type crap last night with the drinking pig's blood stunt and they are attempting to show more skin (first episode was like an explosion of breasts in low cut tops) which really does nothing in my opinion for the show.
I'm also reading Earl Lovelace's Salt and I must say I'm enjoying it a lot more than one of his other books I read a few years back The Dragon Cant Dance.
Still fighting the writers block, thought of a few things I wanted to touch on but having trouble remembering my motivation for this blog anyway so who knows what I'll write next lol. The key I believe is to stay loose and just write whatever pops into your head. Anyway I'll be blog, I mean back tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good day.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
nuff man a dead
Shots go off, mother's cry
Death still rise, homicide
Black on black crime needs to stop
Y'all can't blame it on hip hop
Cause what we say is what we see
What we see is reality
The ghetto's the ghetto you got them livin in sorrow
Soon they won't live to see tomorrow
Wycleff Jean - Industry
Simeon Peter 19 Gunshot
Omar Hotley 21 Gunshot
Elliot Reid-Thomas 29 Gunshot
Elon Rush 27 Gunshot
Brenton Charlton 31 Gunshot
Patrick Pitters 19 Gunshot
Jayvien Piper 22 Gunshot
Kayan Smith 24 Beaten
Curwin Clarke 26 Gunshot
Anthony Walker 24 Gunshot
Ted Erhirhie 25 Gunshot
Ricardo Brown 24 Gunshot
Farouk Musah 33 Gunshot
Lancelot Green 23 Gunshot
Shemaul Cunningham 21 Gunshot
Keino Trotman 32 Gunshot
Harry Asare 22 Gunshot
Andrew Christie 23 Gunshot
Harrison Yiga 20 Gunshot
This is a partial list of some of the young black men murdered (and their ages) in Toronto in 2004 as compiled in the Toronto Star last Friday. What can I say? This urban warfare is real and not only do I occasionally fear for my own life but I constantly fear for the lives of the young people especially the children out there.
I mean I could literally quote a million hip hop lines like the one above asking the youth to stop the violence , to think before they pull the trigger, to try and stay out of trouble, to show restraint. Does it make a difference? NOPE!
Gunshot, Gunshot, Gunshot! No their last names listed above is not gunshot its the way that their lives were ended. When you see the individual names written out and the photos it sort of rings home to you a lot more vividly than just reading the statistics. One dying here and there isn't as tragic as seeing them all lined up together and realizing that almost half the murders in this city were young black men.
You look at the faces and think this kid looks like someone I know, he is the same age as my cousin, he could be my brother, my friend or gee that kid looks like a good kid I cant imagine who would want to take him out, I wonder how his family is dealing with the death.
I could justify these deaths if we were at war, if we were all living in Iraq, dodging mortars and AK-47 rounds but what war is really being fought on the streets of Toronto except one for the survival of black men. Clearly that war is at a crossroads and guns are too easily accessible in this city.
And how do you justify these lives lost? You really cant, its just mainly senseless deaths where someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time or someone mistook someone for another person they had beef with or someone was retaliating for some earlier act of violence or disrespect or someone was vex because they were thrown out of the club. Murdered over nuttin but dumb ish! Senseless, juvenile, asinine behavior.
What happened to valuing life? What happened to make us so quick on the draw like Jesse James and Billy the Kid?
Guns no kill people, people with guns kill people. With all the struggles black men have to face daily in North America killing one another makes absolutely no sense. Its crazy!
This might sound a little strange to you
well here's the reason I came to you
We gotta put our heads together, and stop the violence
Cause real bad boys move in silence
When you're in a club, you come to chill out
not watch someone's blood just spill out
That's what these other people want to see
another race fight endlessly
Boogie Down Productions - Stop The Violence
Death still rise, homicide
Black on black crime needs to stop
Y'all can't blame it on hip hop
Cause what we say is what we see
What we see is reality
The ghetto's the ghetto you got them livin in sorrow
Soon they won't live to see tomorrow
Wycleff Jean - Industry
Simeon Peter 19 Gunshot
Omar Hotley 21 Gunshot
Elliot Reid-Thomas 29 Gunshot
Elon Rush 27 Gunshot
Brenton Charlton 31 Gunshot
Patrick Pitters 19 Gunshot
Jayvien Piper 22 Gunshot
Kayan Smith 24 Beaten
Curwin Clarke 26 Gunshot
Anthony Walker 24 Gunshot
Ted Erhirhie 25 Gunshot
Ricardo Brown 24 Gunshot
Farouk Musah 33 Gunshot
Lancelot Green 23 Gunshot
Shemaul Cunningham 21 Gunshot
Keino Trotman 32 Gunshot
Harry Asare 22 Gunshot
Andrew Christie 23 Gunshot
Harrison Yiga 20 Gunshot
This is a partial list of some of the young black men murdered (and their ages) in Toronto in 2004 as compiled in the Toronto Star last Friday. What can I say? This urban warfare is real and not only do I occasionally fear for my own life but I constantly fear for the lives of the young people especially the children out there.
I mean I could literally quote a million hip hop lines like the one above asking the youth to stop the violence , to think before they pull the trigger, to try and stay out of trouble, to show restraint. Does it make a difference? NOPE!
Gunshot, Gunshot, Gunshot! No their last names listed above is not gunshot its the way that their lives were ended. When you see the individual names written out and the photos it sort of rings home to you a lot more vividly than just reading the statistics. One dying here and there isn't as tragic as seeing them all lined up together and realizing that almost half the murders in this city were young black men.
You look at the faces and think this kid looks like someone I know, he is the same age as my cousin, he could be my brother, my friend or gee that kid looks like a good kid I cant imagine who would want to take him out, I wonder how his family is dealing with the death.
I could justify these deaths if we were at war, if we were all living in Iraq, dodging mortars and AK-47 rounds but what war is really being fought on the streets of Toronto except one for the survival of black men. Clearly that war is at a crossroads and guns are too easily accessible in this city.
And how do you justify these lives lost? You really cant, its just mainly senseless deaths where someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time or someone mistook someone for another person they had beef with or someone was retaliating for some earlier act of violence or disrespect or someone was vex because they were thrown out of the club. Murdered over nuttin but dumb ish! Senseless, juvenile, asinine behavior.
What happened to valuing life? What happened to make us so quick on the draw like Jesse James and Billy the Kid?
Guns no kill people, people with guns kill people. With all the struggles black men have to face daily in North America killing one another makes absolutely no sense. Its crazy!
This might sound a little strange to you
well here's the reason I came to you
We gotta put our heads together, and stop the violence
Cause real bad boys move in silence
When you're in a club, you come to chill out
not watch someone's blood just spill out
That's what these other people want to see
another race fight endlessly
Boogie Down Productions - Stop The Violence
Monday, January 03, 2005
Shirley Chisholm
Reagan is the pres but I voted for Shirley Chisholm
Biz Markie - Nobody beats the biz
I didn't know that much about Shirley Chisholm for years but I remembered her name from a friend of mine back in primary school who always used to speak very proudly about her family ties to Chisholm. (Sadly that friend also passed away last Christmas.) Then I heard that line above by Biz Markie back in the late 80s and followed the trail of crumbs that led me to realize that this lady had some remarkable achievements. Anyway I'll let this story speak for itself.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/267710p-229321c.html
Political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm dies
'Unbought, Unbossed,' undaunted
BY TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Shirley Chisholm in 1997 (below) and in 1972 (above) when she announced her candidacy for President.
Shirley Chisholm, the beloved political pioneer from Brooklyn who became the first black woman elected to Congress, died yesterday in Florida. She was 80.
Chisholm was best known for her historic 1972 run for President under the slogan "Unbought and Unbossed," her fiery oratory and her commitment to women, minorities and the disadvantaged.
"She was an activist, and she never stopped fighting," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said last night. "She refused to accept the ordinary."
Mayor Ed Koch, who served in the House of Representatives with Chisholm, called her a "wonderful woman with enormous courage" and uncompromising integrity.
"We all go, but it's wonderful when you can leave with a name that unblemished," Koch said.
Chisholm was born to West Indian immigrants on Nov. 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, but spent her early childhood with her grandmother in Barbados.
Rejoining her parents in New York, she threw her energies into education. She graduated from Brooklyn College, became a nursery-school teacher in Harlem and later earned a master's degree from Columbia University.
From an early age, she thought of herself as a "fighter" - a quality she shared with her three role models: her grandmother, Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt.
"I met Mrs. Roosevelt when I was 14," she said in 2000. "I'll never forget what she said to me: You are black and you are a young woman, but don't let anybody stand in your way."
She took Mrs. Roosevelt's advice seriously, and parlayed her work as a grass-roots community organizer into a landslide victory for a New York State Assembly Seat in 1964.
Four years later, she made history when she won a seat in Congress, where she hired an all-female staff and championed issues such as federal funding for day care and opposition to the Vietnam War.
A gifted speaker, in her first remarks on the floor of the House in 1969 she vowed to vote "no" on any bill that included funds for the Defense Department.
"My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency," she once said.
In 1972, Chisholm set her sights on the White House, making a bid for the Democratic nomination for President despite what she acknowledged were "hopeless odds."
"I ran because somebody had to do it first," she wrote in her 1973 book "The Good Fight."
She lost the nomination to George McGovern but got 151 delegate votes and returned to Congress with newfound prominence.
After she retired from government in 1982, she remained active in politics and the women's rights movement. A documentary about her presidential bid, "Chisholm '72," was released last year.
She was married twice - her second husband, Arthur Hardwick Jr., died in 1986 - but had no children.
In a book published last year, Chisholm said she hoped her legacy went beyond her race and gender.
"I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself," she said.
"I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America."
With Tamer El-Ghobashy
Originally published on January 3, 2005
Biz Markie - Nobody beats the biz
I didn't know that much about Shirley Chisholm for years but I remembered her name from a friend of mine back in primary school who always used to speak very proudly about her family ties to Chisholm. (Sadly that friend also passed away last Christmas.) Then I heard that line above by Biz Markie back in the late 80s and followed the trail of crumbs that led me to realize that this lady had some remarkable achievements. Anyway I'll let this story speak for itself.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/267710p-229321c.html
Political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm dies
'Unbought, Unbossed,' undaunted
BY TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Shirley Chisholm in 1997 (below) and in 1972 (above) when she announced her candidacy for President.
Shirley Chisholm, the beloved political pioneer from Brooklyn who became the first black woman elected to Congress, died yesterday in Florida. She was 80.
Chisholm was best known for her historic 1972 run for President under the slogan "Unbought and Unbossed," her fiery oratory and her commitment to women, minorities and the disadvantaged.
"She was an activist, and she never stopped fighting," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said last night. "She refused to accept the ordinary."
Mayor Ed Koch, who served in the House of Representatives with Chisholm, called her a "wonderful woman with enormous courage" and uncompromising integrity.
"We all go, but it's wonderful when you can leave with a name that unblemished," Koch said.
Chisholm was born to West Indian immigrants on Nov. 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, but spent her early childhood with her grandmother in Barbados.
Rejoining her parents in New York, she threw her energies into education. She graduated from Brooklyn College, became a nursery-school teacher in Harlem and later earned a master's degree from Columbia University.
From an early age, she thought of herself as a "fighter" - a quality she shared with her three role models: her grandmother, Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt.
"I met Mrs. Roosevelt when I was 14," she said in 2000. "I'll never forget what she said to me: You are black and you are a young woman, but don't let anybody stand in your way."
She took Mrs. Roosevelt's advice seriously, and parlayed her work as a grass-roots community organizer into a landslide victory for a New York State Assembly Seat in 1964.
Four years later, she made history when she won a seat in Congress, where she hired an all-female staff and championed issues such as federal funding for day care and opposition to the Vietnam War.
A gifted speaker, in her first remarks on the floor of the House in 1969 she vowed to vote "no" on any bill that included funds for the Defense Department.
"My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency," she once said.
In 1972, Chisholm set her sights on the White House, making a bid for the Democratic nomination for President despite what she acknowledged were "hopeless odds."
"I ran because somebody had to do it first," she wrote in her 1973 book "The Good Fight."
She lost the nomination to George McGovern but got 151 delegate votes and returned to Congress with newfound prominence.
After she retired from government in 1982, she remained active in politics and the women's rights movement. A documentary about her presidential bid, "Chisholm '72," was released last year.
She was married twice - her second husband, Arthur Hardwick Jr., died in 1986 - but had no children.
In a book published last year, Chisholm said she hoped her legacy went beyond her race and gender.
"I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself," she said.
"I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America."
With Tamer El-Ghobashy
Originally published on January 3, 2005
Saturday, January 01, 2005
In with the new
Once again Happy New year to everyone.
Was thinking about the significance of the new year last night. Resolutions, Goals feelings of a fresh beginning that sort of thing and I came to a realization which maybe I was slow in reaching.
The new year is really all about promise more than specifics isn't it? Promise of a better day dawning, a new tomorrow, a clean slate, living up to potential (damn I used the P word. You don't know how much I hate the P word).
We (definitely including myself on this one) view the new year as a defining point from which we can make statements like from here on out everything will be different and changes will be made. In the new year I wont smoke, I'll drink less, I'll diet, I'll save more money, spend less, be nicer, gain/lose weight, be more aggressive, take a course, find a new job, new man/woman, put more time into relationships, business, win the lottery etc. (by the way this all made more sense while I was sleeping lol)
The expectations for the new year for most of us are that we will progress. No we don't start over with a nice clean slate or necessarily get a do over but the new year offers a chance for improvement. A new chapter can open in our lives. (ok way too melodramatic)
Anyway what I'm trying to say partially is (beats the hell out of me I juss rambling)yes the new year gives rise to a natural pause in which we can make changes and redefine ourselves but if these things need to be done its not necessary that we wait till the new year to start them next time. Every day should give rise to the same promise that the new year brings. (wuhloss this year start out and I killing the melodrama. Is it me or is it like an afterschool special up in here)
All that lotta long talk just to say this: Promise, expectations, goals all look sharp in the light of the new year. Let them always look sharp and not dim for any of us as the year progresses.
Its 2005, Big Tings a gwan!
Was thinking about the significance of the new year last night. Resolutions, Goals feelings of a fresh beginning that sort of thing and I came to a realization which maybe I was slow in reaching.
The new year is really all about promise more than specifics isn't it? Promise of a better day dawning, a new tomorrow, a clean slate, living up to potential (damn I used the P word. You don't know how much I hate the P word).
We (definitely including myself on this one) view the new year as a defining point from which we can make statements like from here on out everything will be different and changes will be made. In the new year I wont smoke, I'll drink less, I'll diet, I'll save more money, spend less, be nicer, gain/lose weight, be more aggressive, take a course, find a new job, new man/woman, put more time into relationships, business, win the lottery etc. (by the way this all made more sense while I was sleeping lol)
The expectations for the new year for most of us are that we will progress. No we don't start over with a nice clean slate or necessarily get a do over but the new year offers a chance for improvement. A new chapter can open in our lives. (ok way too melodramatic)
Anyway what I'm trying to say partially is (beats the hell out of me I juss rambling)yes the new year gives rise to a natural pause in which we can make changes and redefine ourselves but if these things need to be done its not necessary that we wait till the new year to start them next time. Every day should give rise to the same promise that the new year brings. (wuhloss this year start out and I killing the melodrama. Is it me or is it like an afterschool special up in here)
All that lotta long talk just to say this: Promise, expectations, goals all look sharp in the light of the new year. Let them always look sharp and not dim for any of us as the year progresses.
Its 2005, Big Tings a gwan!
Friday, December 31, 2004
Out with the old....
Happy New year everyone.
Well I don't usually make resolutions for the new year. Why bother its not like I actually keep them.
I do like to make a few goals though but usually I keep them closely guarded and this years no different. Only specific one I'll share is the need to really do something with my poetry. Not sure what that is exactly (please no performance talk) but my motivation is continually seeing Tupac's old throwaway material getting released years after his death and going to the Modagliani exhibit and seeing exhibits of his sketches on display that I'm sure he didn't want the public to see. Kind of brought home to me that I don't want the wife and inlaws getting rich off my work when I'm dead when I could get a few dollars off of it while I'm alive. fa real! LOL. Ok that was a joke..........partially. But seriously I'd rather hear how much crap my work is while I'm living that get posthumous praise I cant hear. Still not sure if the work is good or not. Usually I'm convinced it isn't but at least I got to do something with it so I can move on. Its got to be done. Could use some help with editing though. Any volunteers? :-)
Hopefully 2005 will be a healthier year for me. I've never had so many injuries and illnesses as I did in 2004 and I pray to God that 2005 is better. I'll try to do my part on that end and I hope he helps out a bit too.
Oh wait don't want to be all gloom today but lets all remember those who have passed away this year from natural causes, illnesses, natural disasters, violent deaths and everything in between. Rest in peace.
Well goodbye 2004. Personally you weren't my favorite year, not to say there wasn't any good but I had lots of trials and tribulations as well and I think those come to mind more when I think of this year. Still although my mental status is questionable I survived. I'm sure lots of folks in Grenada, Caymans, Jamaica, Asia, Florida, Iraq and indeed all over the world will agree with me on that one. But then no one expects life to be a bed of roses. Its better to be down than six feet down is my motto.
Hopefully though 2005 will be a better one for the entire world. I'm not the most optimistic guy out there but for this one day I'll share those sentiments (tomorrow I'll be back to my the world has gone to hell in a handbasket mentality).
In closing though, one good thing about 2004 for me was my discovery of this whole blog thing. Wicked! Yea I know some folk like Dr D been doing this forever but I think 2004 was the year most of us discovered this blogging. Got to say the Internet was starting to get a bit boring for me but I kind of like blogging (when I can actually get past the writers block). Got some interesting ideas from you interesting folks here in blogworld these last few months. Don't know any of you personally besides Wigit and Campfyah but I enjoy everyone's writing and I find it rather inspirational at times so to all of you keep it up.
And to all my blog friends and readers here's wishing you a happy and a prosperous new year. May God continue to keep you all safe.
Well I don't usually make resolutions for the new year. Why bother its not like I actually keep them.
I do like to make a few goals though but usually I keep them closely guarded and this years no different. Only specific one I'll share is the need to really do something with my poetry. Not sure what that is exactly (please no performance talk) but my motivation is continually seeing Tupac's old throwaway material getting released years after his death and going to the Modagliani exhibit and seeing exhibits of his sketches on display that I'm sure he didn't want the public to see. Kind of brought home to me that I don't want the wife and inlaws getting rich off my work when I'm dead when I could get a few dollars off of it while I'm alive. fa real! LOL. Ok that was a joke..........partially. But seriously I'd rather hear how much crap my work is while I'm living that get posthumous praise I cant hear. Still not sure if the work is good or not. Usually I'm convinced it isn't but at least I got to do something with it so I can move on. Its got to be done. Could use some help with editing though. Any volunteers? :-)
Hopefully 2005 will be a healthier year for me. I've never had so many injuries and illnesses as I did in 2004 and I pray to God that 2005 is better. I'll try to do my part on that end and I hope he helps out a bit too.
Oh wait don't want to be all gloom today but lets all remember those who have passed away this year from natural causes, illnesses, natural disasters, violent deaths and everything in between. Rest in peace.
Well goodbye 2004. Personally you weren't my favorite year, not to say there wasn't any good but I had lots of trials and tribulations as well and I think those come to mind more when I think of this year. Still although my mental status is questionable I survived. I'm sure lots of folks in Grenada, Caymans, Jamaica, Asia, Florida, Iraq and indeed all over the world will agree with me on that one. But then no one expects life to be a bed of roses. Its better to be down than six feet down is my motto.
Hopefully though 2005 will be a better one for the entire world. I'm not the most optimistic guy out there but for this one day I'll share those sentiments (tomorrow I'll be back to my the world has gone to hell in a handbasket mentality).
In closing though, one good thing about 2004 for me was my discovery of this whole blog thing. Wicked! Yea I know some folk like Dr D been doing this forever but I think 2004 was the year most of us discovered this blogging. Got to say the Internet was starting to get a bit boring for me but I kind of like blogging (when I can actually get past the writers block). Got some interesting ideas from you interesting folks here in blogworld these last few months. Don't know any of you personally besides Wigit and Campfyah but I enjoy everyone's writing and I find it rather inspirational at times so to all of you keep it up.
And to all my blog friends and readers here's wishing you a happy and a prosperous new year. May God continue to keep you all safe.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Hectic
lawd ave mercy I been chipping since Christmas aint even had time to blog.
First off the computer mash up again. Think I figured out what the main problem was this time though (something rather simple if I'm right) and I'm trying to solve it. Still it took a good few hours to finally get anything working this morning so I tired. If it crash again though I think I playing football with the harddrive. LOL
Then I was just rather busy otherwise. Doing shopping for things around the house and trying to do some personal shopping too with all the sales on after Christmas. Only thing is I really aint see what all the hoopla was about because most of the socalled sales weren't anything special.
Anyway with all the hustle and bustle plus spending nuff time infront the tv watching the tragedy that hit Indonesia and Sri Lanka and them places I haven't had the time to be really introspective about the past year.
Still I think tonight I just relaxing. Going and read a nice book now and get a nap and think about life and the new year and accomplishments and all that sort of thing.
If the computer still working tomorrow I will blog about the coming of the new year/passing of the old. If it aint well Happy New Year to everyone from now.
First off the computer mash up again. Think I figured out what the main problem was this time though (something rather simple if I'm right) and I'm trying to solve it. Still it took a good few hours to finally get anything working this morning so I tired. If it crash again though I think I playing football with the harddrive. LOL
Then I was just rather busy otherwise. Doing shopping for things around the house and trying to do some personal shopping too with all the sales on after Christmas. Only thing is I really aint see what all the hoopla was about because most of the socalled sales weren't anything special.
Anyway with all the hustle and bustle plus spending nuff time infront the tv watching the tragedy that hit Indonesia and Sri Lanka and them places I haven't had the time to be really introspective about the past year.
Still I think tonight I just relaxing. Going and read a nice book now and get a nap and think about life and the new year and accomplishments and all that sort of thing.
If the computer still working tomorrow I will blog about the coming of the new year/passing of the old. If it aint well Happy New Year to everyone from now.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
The one thing about this Christmas ......
That I missed the most aside from the sunshine and the warmth was the lack of cake. Ya believe that for the whole season I have yet to have one slice of Great (black) Cake, or pudding or sweet bread.
Had Chocolate cake last night and was offering some other pastry things but for a true West Indian like me this thing just not right at all. It just take away from the experience.
Seriously it just takes away some of the seasonal spirit. I suffering! sigh!
Had Chocolate cake last night and was offering some other pastry things but for a true West Indian like me this thing just not right at all. It just take away from the experience.
Seriously it just takes away some of the seasonal spirit. I suffering! sigh!
Monday, December 27, 2004
Dubai - June 23rd 1999
I still having problems with my thoughts but I was just talking to a friend of mine and he told me that I was one of the original bloggers from back in the day because in 1999 when I was in Dubai I used to send out these mass emails to all my friends detailing some of the stuff that I was seeing around me over there. I never thought of it that way but I have all of my old emails saved from back then and I decided to go take a look and post you one or two in the next few days. Some of them are pretty funny and they bring back some good memories so indulge me for a few as I take you back into time to a time when I was as just as mad as I am today. :-) The emails were fairly long so I will try and just edit them down a bit for you.
oh let me set the scene. Think I got to Dubai at the beginning of June 1999 to work on a 3 years contract (which I ended up cutting to 6 months, long long story) so this was after being there maybe two or at most three weeks.
---------------------------------------------
Not try to diss the muslims or anything so but where ever ya go ya duz find a idiot. I realize that some of these people like they not too right in their heads.
Now check this out. I on the road last night on a pedestrian overpass doing some work with some other guys when this couple in traditional Muslim garb walked past us. Now the woman was covered up from head to toe in the loose fitting black outfit that those Muslim women wear with her face cover up and all you can see is her eyes.
Anyway she actually didn't look that bad cause I figure out how to tell what kind of figure the women got even with all that loose fitting foolishness them wearing (necessity is de mudda of invention I tell ya) and I realize that the woman like she
had a few curves.
Still all you could really see is her eyes. Couldn't even see the sandals she was wearing. So we're all on the overpass above the highway and the guy in the couple got to the middle of the overpass and then called over one of us to take a picture of first the woman and then him and then the both of them together. Guess they were tourists to Dubai.
Now I don't know if it was just me or not but what was the point of taking the picture of a woman and all you can see is her eyes. You cant tell her from none of the other
Muslim women, chupse!! I mean ya could replace her with a mannequin in the same outfit and nobody aint gine know the difference. (actually dat gives me sum ideas fa de group photo of my harem hmmmm). I mean, come on now. Even the two Muslim fellas with me were thinking the same thing. An wunnah duz call me foolish. LOL
I mean you could imagine this same fellow 40 years from now with his grandchildren looking at these pictures. "look kids here is a picture of your grandma when we were visiting Dubai, wasn't she something to look at in those days? She looks just like
your mother don't you think, ya cant see the family resemblance?" ........................
On a serious note doah, de fellas tryin ta mek muh understand de traditional woman dress.............
Plus the fellas tell me that the Muslim women wear real pretty clothes under the black thing that them got covering them. Hello!!!!!!! Is it just me or does it matter what they wearing under that. I mean that aint no help to me because all I seeing is the big loose fitting black silk thing. That aint no help to a brother. I mean lets be honest now, if I speaking as a fella, and I got to use my imagination to figure out what a woman wearing under that thing I aint going to waste no imagination wid nuh pretty dresses. Helllll no! I going ta be imagining other things. Dat aint true? But doan worry though I got my pick up lines covered. Just wait I might be the first bajan fella to go up to a woman an tell her that the first ting that attract muh ta she was she eyes an actually mean it.
oh let me set the scene. Think I got to Dubai at the beginning of June 1999 to work on a 3 years contract (which I ended up cutting to 6 months, long long story) so this was after being there maybe two or at most three weeks.
---------------------------------------------
Not try to diss the muslims or anything so but where ever ya go ya duz find a idiot. I realize that some of these people like they not too right in their heads.
Now check this out. I on the road last night on a pedestrian overpass doing some work with some other guys when this couple in traditional Muslim garb walked past us. Now the woman was covered up from head to toe in the loose fitting black outfit that those Muslim women wear with her face cover up and all you can see is her eyes.
Anyway she actually didn't look that bad cause I figure out how to tell what kind of figure the women got even with all that loose fitting foolishness them wearing (necessity is de mudda of invention I tell ya) and I realize that the woman like she
had a few curves.
Still all you could really see is her eyes. Couldn't even see the sandals she was wearing. So we're all on the overpass above the highway and the guy in the couple got to the middle of the overpass and then called over one of us to take a picture of first the woman and then him and then the both of them together. Guess they were tourists to Dubai.
Now I don't know if it was just me or not but what was the point of taking the picture of a woman and all you can see is her eyes. You cant tell her from none of the other
Muslim women, chupse!! I mean ya could replace her with a mannequin in the same outfit and nobody aint gine know the difference. (actually dat gives me sum ideas fa de group photo of my harem hmmmm). I mean, come on now. Even the two Muslim fellas with me were thinking the same thing. An wunnah duz call me foolish. LOL
I mean you could imagine this same fellow 40 years from now with his grandchildren looking at these pictures. "look kids here is a picture of your grandma when we were visiting Dubai, wasn't she something to look at in those days? She looks just like
your mother don't you think, ya cant see the family resemblance?" ........................
On a serious note doah, de fellas tryin ta mek muh understand de traditional woman dress.............
Plus the fellas tell me that the Muslim women wear real pretty clothes under the black thing that them got covering them. Hello!!!!!!! Is it just me or does it matter what they wearing under that. I mean that aint no help to me because all I seeing is the big loose fitting black silk thing. That aint no help to a brother. I mean lets be honest now, if I speaking as a fella, and I got to use my imagination to figure out what a woman wearing under that thing I aint going to waste no imagination wid nuh pretty dresses. Helllll no! I going ta be imagining other things. Dat aint true? But doan worry though I got my pick up lines covered. Just wait I might be the first bajan fella to go up to a woman an tell her that the first ting that attract muh ta she was she eyes an actually mean it.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Apres Christmas
Well I'm having the hardest time getting back into a blogging mood. Something about Christmas seems to have sapped my writing energy. I just feel lawless :-)
Actually Christmas was good for me. We had lots of snow and I still need to go out in the morning and shovel (sigh) and though I missed Christmas in the sunshine and with the folks at home I tried to make the best of it.
Anyway not much to say today. Like I said I'm having a hard time writing. I guess the only thing really on my mind is actually pretty somber for this time of year so I'm kind of wavering on whether to talk about it. Oh well why not.
Well this year's Christmas was rather sobering for me. Thursday night I found out that a real close friend of mine had a heart attack (she's alive and out of the hospital recovering thank God) and then on Friday I found out that another friend of mine here had lost a brother and some other family members this season. So all in all the seasonal celebrations for me have been tempered by a lot of somber thoughts. Think I did a post about death a while back though so I wont repeat myself.
Suffice is to say that while some are celebrating some are grieving and some are recovering. That's life I guess.
Actually Christmas was good for me. We had lots of snow and I still need to go out in the morning and shovel (sigh) and though I missed Christmas in the sunshine and with the folks at home I tried to make the best of it.
Anyway not much to say today. Like I said I'm having a hard time writing. I guess the only thing really on my mind is actually pretty somber for this time of year so I'm kind of wavering on whether to talk about it. Oh well why not.
Well this year's Christmas was rather sobering for me. Thursday night I found out that a real close friend of mine had a heart attack (she's alive and out of the hospital recovering thank God) and then on Friday I found out that another friend of mine here had lost a brother and some other family members this season. So all in all the seasonal celebrations for me have been tempered by a lot of somber thoughts. Think I did a post about death a while back though so I wont repeat myself.
Suffice is to say that while some are celebrating some are grieving and some are recovering. That's life I guess.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Merry Christmas
Just taking a short break from cooking up a storm to wish all a Merry Christmas. Enjoy yourselves folks.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Two days before Christmas
Sing we Noel, Calypso Noel
Sing we Noel, sing sing sing sing
Sing we Noel, calypso Noel
sing we Noel sing
Cant believe I forgot to include that song in my last post. Also cant believe I didn't mention all the shelling of green peas and the preparation of sorrel. Oh well. Like I said I rush that post out.
Ok I know I promised I'd continue the story I started on Tuesday but I just haven't had the time. I think I'll probably do that for next week or this weekend sometime and let you know all about those Church Christmas programs. Hopefully someone out there will still be in the Christmas spirit.
Forgot to change my voice mail to say I'm off work and just checked this morning and saw that I have 2 messages to deal with. Being on call sucks but dem fellas gine have to wait cause it doesn't sound urgent.
We had our first major snowfall of the year yesterday and its still snowing all like now. Someone help , I'm buried under this stuff. Seriously I heard that about 15 inches fall.
Yesterday I did some last minute mall shopping. Some interesting observations. The mall hummed, like it had its own frequency. I guess it was because of the load of folk that were there. Anyway it wasn't as bad as it could have been. All in all despite the talk about how good sales have been this year for retailers I don't see it in terms of the number of people I've seen when shopping. Not that I'm complaining but somehow the figures don't add up. Or maybe I'm shopping at times when others are shopping. Oh well , I aint going to complain if I actually have a little room to breathe in the mall.
Also what's with some of these sales attendants in the female clothing stores these days. Some of them duz be half naked an ting these days. Went in one store yesterday and this girl was assisting me and she was wearing this low cut top and low rise jeans and all I seeing is bare bare skin. Looked around the store and noticed she wasn't an anomaly, all the rest of girls was in the same state of undress with them bellies out, their breast push up and some bottom showing too. Not that I'm going to complain but really. So wait they feel dat gine mek me spend more money or what? LOL. All the talk though I think you might see me have to go back to that store regular to 'shop'. :-)
Oh and the music in some stores is terrible. Techno versions of Jingle Bells just doesn't cut it. Also music that's inappropriate. Like I went in one store and they were playing Sean Paul and then G Unit. The Sean Paul isn't that bad but the G unit every other word was bleeped out. Now as a man that listens to alot of hip hop I'm probably being hypocritical but to me there is an appropriate time and place for this music. The mall at Christmas crawling with kiddie is not it.
Anyway today is sort of a lazy day. Some laundry, some preparation for Christmas, a bit of cleaning and off course a mammoth undertaking of snow shovelling sometime this afternoon when the snow finally stops oh and I guess at some point I'll have to call in and answer those guys at work but I'm also trying to relax some so I am planning on trying to watch all of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Editions sometime between today and tomorrow evening. Lawd ave mercy is like 14 -15 hrs of TV.
Anyway since I assume that everyone is going to for the most part be busy for Christmas in the next few days I probably wont post too much and I'll take this time to extend a Christmas greeting to all my blogger friends and my readers in lands far and near. Have yourselves a merry merry Christmas but don't overdo :-) and remember keep the Christ in Christmas.
And one of you guys in the Caribbean send me a bottle a sunshine, two bottles a sea water and a pound a sand.
Sing we Noel, sing sing sing sing
Sing we Noel, calypso Noel
sing we Noel sing
Cant believe I forgot to include that song in my last post. Also cant believe I didn't mention all the shelling of green peas and the preparation of sorrel. Oh well. Like I said I rush that post out.
Ok I know I promised I'd continue the story I started on Tuesday but I just haven't had the time. I think I'll probably do that for next week or this weekend sometime and let you know all about those Church Christmas programs. Hopefully someone out there will still be in the Christmas spirit.
Forgot to change my voice mail to say I'm off work and just checked this morning and saw that I have 2 messages to deal with. Being on call sucks but dem fellas gine have to wait cause it doesn't sound urgent.
We had our first major snowfall of the year yesterday and its still snowing all like now. Someone help , I'm buried under this stuff. Seriously I heard that about 15 inches fall.
Yesterday I did some last minute mall shopping. Some interesting observations. The mall hummed, like it had its own frequency. I guess it was because of the load of folk that were there. Anyway it wasn't as bad as it could have been. All in all despite the talk about how good sales have been this year for retailers I don't see it in terms of the number of people I've seen when shopping. Not that I'm complaining but somehow the figures don't add up. Or maybe I'm shopping at times when others are shopping. Oh well , I aint going to complain if I actually have a little room to breathe in the mall.
Also what's with some of these sales attendants in the female clothing stores these days. Some of them duz be half naked an ting these days. Went in one store yesterday and this girl was assisting me and she was wearing this low cut top and low rise jeans and all I seeing is bare bare skin. Looked around the store and noticed she wasn't an anomaly, all the rest of girls was in the same state of undress with them bellies out, their breast push up and some bottom showing too. Not that I'm going to complain but really. So wait they feel dat gine mek me spend more money or what? LOL. All the talk though I think you might see me have to go back to that store regular to 'shop'. :-)
Oh and the music in some stores is terrible. Techno versions of Jingle Bells just doesn't cut it. Also music that's inappropriate. Like I went in one store and they were playing Sean Paul and then G Unit. The Sean Paul isn't that bad but the G unit every other word was bleeped out. Now as a man that listens to alot of hip hop I'm probably being hypocritical but to me there is an appropriate time and place for this music. The mall at Christmas crawling with kiddie is not it.
Anyway today is sort of a lazy day. Some laundry, some preparation for Christmas, a bit of cleaning and off course a mammoth undertaking of snow shovelling sometime this afternoon when the snow finally stops oh and I guess at some point I'll have to call in and answer those guys at work but I'm also trying to relax some so I am planning on trying to watch all of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Editions sometime between today and tomorrow evening. Lawd ave mercy is like 14 -15 hrs of TV.
Anyway since I assume that everyone is going to for the most part be busy for Christmas in the next few days I probably wont post too much and I'll take this time to extend a Christmas greeting to all my blogger friends and my readers in lands far and near. Have yourselves a merry merry Christmas but don't overdo :-) and remember keep the Christ in Christmas.
And one of you guys in the Caribbean send me a bottle a sunshine, two bottles a sea water and a pound a sand.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Ol Time Christmas come back agin!
de de do do doo doo doo
I took the role of lead singer
Parang soca in Arima
Fans heard of my parang band so thousands flocked the grandstand
Ne-ville Cook was the mc
When he introduced me
People jumping like carnival
To my rendition of serenal??
Alpacata alpacata
Who no rampu no paratha
Maria Maria Maria!
Me chorosong
From Port o Spain to Faisabad everybody know Jdid mad
Maria Maria Maria
Me chorosong
Was listening to Crazy sing some parang yesterday trying to get myself into the real Christmas spirit. Didn't work lol. Might be too late for me but give me the old time parang, a ham cutter and
"a gallon a rum, a gallon a rum, all I want is a gallon a rum
..........ya bring ya family ta eat me out
and then in January cant even buy a stoute".
So my selector rewind cause, ol time Christmas come back agin if not for real at least in my memories. For me it was all about the music, the food and the Christmas program at the Church.
Christmas back then to me was more that the one day. There was so much anticipation as a child of that Christmas day that sometimes the actual day was a bit anticlimactic. But leading up to that day oh wow!
The music I already touched on and will continue to talk about. In Barbados from the time December 1st hit, bram! Christmas music would be pounding down on CBC and VOB. Big tunes like this one in spouge:
wha ya gonna gi me fa Christmas I need something from you
give me something for Christmas boy and I'll give you something too
and this one in parang
Hurray hurray hurrah!
Hurrah hurrah dey say!
Our savior was born today
It was through his light
While a shepherds (plight)??
for they just could’t believe dere eyes
And when he come a man
Ya kno dem non-christian, get tagetha an pound nails in he hand
And on the third day he rose again
So ya see he shed his blood fa we!
When you heard songs like that it just put you in the proper frame of mind for the season. Everybody painting the house and putting up new curtains, making everything look pretty, pretty, pretty just trying to get everything looking special for that one day. Moving the furniture around and choosing some nice bright colors for the inside and outside walls. All like now, I would have paint in my hair, on my hands, on my skin and be trying to use the turpentine to wipe it off but just ending up with my skin looking dry and scaly.
Verandas and outside walls being painted in bright colors as everyone tries to outdo their neighbor in the painting arena. Everybody turn superstar painter like dem middle name is Picasso.
Santa Clause, do you ever come to the ghetto (ghettoe-oo!)
Santa Clause, do you ever wonder why we suffer so
Santa Clause, When will you come to the ghetto (ghettoe-oo!)
Santa Clause, we would love to see how those reindeers go.
We aint gonna fuss,
We aint gonna fight,
But where are the presents that you brought for us.
The curtains made from fabric that you bought down by Swan Street or Kirpilani or from Miss Ram or that you 'truss' from the coolie man in the suzuki van who would then have hell to get certain folks to pay. Tek care he doan put the steel donkey pun ya! All sort of designs of fabric which the women would sit at night and slowly turn into curtains for each window and of course they had to match the colors of the house. Couldn't have a new paint job without new matching curtains cause that would look like ya aint got no style. But you would wait till Christmas eve or a day or two before Christmas to get up on the chair and put them up.
(baron version)
Mumma mumma
Would you like to join your sonnie
I am over here happy in this cold cold country
Darling for this Christmas
I hope everything is happy
come and join the chorus cause we will be having a party
Meanwhile the fruit for the great cake was steeping in rum, brandy and wine since long time gone in September or even before that. Cherries, Raisins, Currents, mixed peel, that you had to help grind up in one of those old fashion hand mixers, all seeping up the alcohol. I tell ya, If ya eat two pieces of that cake when it dun, ya best not be driving anywhere lest the policeman ketch ya..Matter a fact ya eat two pieces of that cake ya gine sleep cause that thing potent after all the fruit absorb all that liquor.
And that cake taste real nice. Almost as nice as the ham when you cut off three slice and eat wid two sodabix or put it in a fresh salt bread and add a lil pepper sauce. Something bout a Christmas hamcutter that just taste better than any other sandwich in the world back then.
Everything nice, nice and in abundance. Nice n Nuff! About a day or two before Christmas suddenly ya nostrils perk up like when the dog smell he dinner on the way. I talking bout them pot starvers (mongrels) we used to own dat was real dogs not these poor great North American pretenders that cant even chew two bones. Is Kibbles and Bits fa them if ya please! No leftovers! Wha up ta last week I was telling the wife dat back when I was growing up we din need no recycling green bin for leftovers, we had a natural recycling device he did name Rover or Spot or Blackie or Brownie or sometimes he was just de Dog. But nowadays dogs get posh and only eating brand name, store bought food. What a ting! Chupse!
Anyway I digress. Selector bring back some music to set the mood
I've got that old feeling
that seems to fill the air
Its Christmas in my Caribbean land
and though there's no snow or sleigh bells to be heard
this feelings oh so grand!
now soon the bells will be ringing
choirs singing in good cheer
and old forgotten friends are brought to mind
oh tell me of this feeling
why cant this Christmas feeling exist amongst all people through the year (oh yea!)
I going wake up real merry
bake me jug and me turkey........
Not much Christmas lights when I was growing up. Too expensive. Just one or two houses did that but you would sweep up the front yard after ya finish paint and the poinsettia and the snow on the mountain would be blooming so the place looking colorful still.
Two nights before Christmas your nostrils would light up from the scents wafting in over the breeze. It started the first night with sweet bread, Great cake and pudding and continued into the second night with the meats; delicious ham, succulent pork, turkey, chicken with the gizzards as stuffing. Heavenly scents! Everyone in the neighborhood baking at the same time and started a day or two before Christmas because the ovens small and ya baking enough to feed two armies because when anyone stop by the house you got to offer them at least a slice of pudding and sweetbread and depending on how much you like them possibly even some great cake. And all ya hearing;
Maizie in all in this heat
Wine up under the Christmas tree
Maizie I am vex because
ya making movements wid Santa clause
Maizie where is the Reindeer
Maizie I aint see no sleigh
If he have no reindeer no sleigh?
Came on BWIA
And of course as a child you don't want dinner those days when you start smelling those scents because you're hoping for a first slice of cake or meat that night and you staying up late dreaming of hot sweet bread washed down with a cold soft drink from the 2 or 3 cases that got bought from the drinks truck when it was up the street earlier that week by the village shop. A few weeks before ya had to go out in the yard, collect up all the empty drinks bottles to make sure you had a full case. Then wash out all the insects and cobwebs from those bottles cause you couldn't go and give the drinks man no nasty bottles ya kno! It wun look propa!
Then you had to make sure you knew what day the drinks trucks came to the village shop. The Banks truck came on Tuesday and the Ju-C truck Wednesday so all Tuesday and Wednesday ya trying ta keep a look out for the truck or if ya smart ya tell the shopkeeper ta give ya a call when the fellas reach. Tiger Malt and Plus, Sprite, Ju-C, Bim and Frutee in all sorts of flavors from Kola Champagne to Pineapple and Banana and even Sorrel Flavored although the sorrel flavor ones aint taste as sweet as the real thing. Ya wud tell the drinks man ta mek sure he doan gi ya nuh stale drinks cause if ya open dem an dem flat ya gine be vex. But those drinks had to last into January so you couldn't start drinking too early although if nobody looking you might sneak way one and even sneak a lil Falurnum in the drink to spice it up. :-)
But ya din have ta do dat too often cause first ya frighten ya get ketch and secondly ya had sorrel.
Drink a rum an a punch a crema
Drink a rum
Is Christmas morning
Drink a rum and a punch a crema
mama drink if ya drinkin
Christmas eve night everything in full gear. The cakes mostly done bake unless ya run outta gas and din smart enuff ta have a spare bottle in the house. I mean ya kno is nuff nuff baking to do so ya shoulda been prepared. If not ya got to head down to the gas station and buy a new bottle.
Its all the scent of meat baking that you sniffing in the air. And the sky bright with stars and outside chilly but you still pushing ya nose through the jalousie(jealousie) window or sitting down on the step with the rest of kids indulging the sense of smell and being overcome by that feeling of Christmas. The air smelling sweet, the stars looking brighter, the air just feeling sort of tingly on ya body. You can taste the excitement or is that smell it.
You cant wait for the Christmas morning.
Looka though this blog getting too long (and it kinda rough cause I was rushing it). Selector bring out my favorite tune fa de people dem. I coming back tomorrow to talk about the Christmas Church program. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me bout ya Christmas experiences. Bless!
One Christmas eve casually I was walking down the street
One Christmas eve casually I was walking down the street
I was attracted by the voice of a lil boy
as he strolled along the street no shoes on his feet
as he walked he continued to repeat
Listen Mama I want you to tell Santa Clause
To bring a trumpet and a consantina for me
I'm so lonely and have no children close by me
ma you don't kno how happy your son would be
I took the role of lead singer
Parang soca in Arima
Fans heard of my parang band so thousands flocked the grandstand
Ne-ville Cook was the mc
When he introduced me
People jumping like carnival
To my rendition of serenal??
Alpacata alpacata
Who no rampu no paratha
Maria Maria Maria!
Me chorosong
From Port o Spain to Faisabad everybody know Jdid mad
Maria Maria Maria
Me chorosong
Was listening to Crazy sing some parang yesterday trying to get myself into the real Christmas spirit. Didn't work lol. Might be too late for me but give me the old time parang, a ham cutter and
"a gallon a rum, a gallon a rum, all I want is a gallon a rum
..........ya bring ya family ta eat me out
and then in January cant even buy a stoute".
So my selector rewind cause, ol time Christmas come back agin if not for real at least in my memories. For me it was all about the music, the food and the Christmas program at the Church.
Christmas back then to me was more that the one day. There was so much anticipation as a child of that Christmas day that sometimes the actual day was a bit anticlimactic. But leading up to that day oh wow!
The music I already touched on and will continue to talk about. In Barbados from the time December 1st hit, bram! Christmas music would be pounding down on CBC and VOB. Big tunes like this one in spouge:
wha ya gonna gi me fa Christmas I need something from you
give me something for Christmas boy and I'll give you something too
and this one in parang
Hurray hurray hurrah!
Hurrah hurrah dey say!
Our savior was born today
It was through his light
While a shepherds (plight)??
for they just could’t believe dere eyes
And when he come a man
Ya kno dem non-christian, get tagetha an pound nails in he hand
And on the third day he rose again
So ya see he shed his blood fa we!
When you heard songs like that it just put you in the proper frame of mind for the season. Everybody painting the house and putting up new curtains, making everything look pretty, pretty, pretty just trying to get everything looking special for that one day. Moving the furniture around and choosing some nice bright colors for the inside and outside walls. All like now, I would have paint in my hair, on my hands, on my skin and be trying to use the turpentine to wipe it off but just ending up with my skin looking dry and scaly.
Verandas and outside walls being painted in bright colors as everyone tries to outdo their neighbor in the painting arena. Everybody turn superstar painter like dem middle name is Picasso.
Santa Clause, do you ever come to the ghetto (ghettoe-oo!)
Santa Clause, do you ever wonder why we suffer so
Santa Clause, When will you come to the ghetto (ghettoe-oo!)
Santa Clause, we would love to see how those reindeers go.
We aint gonna fuss,
We aint gonna fight,
But where are the presents that you brought for us.
The curtains made from fabric that you bought down by Swan Street or Kirpilani or from Miss Ram or that you 'truss' from the coolie man in the suzuki van who would then have hell to get certain folks to pay. Tek care he doan put the steel donkey pun ya! All sort of designs of fabric which the women would sit at night and slowly turn into curtains for each window and of course they had to match the colors of the house. Couldn't have a new paint job without new matching curtains cause that would look like ya aint got no style. But you would wait till Christmas eve or a day or two before Christmas to get up on the chair and put them up.
(baron version)
Mumma mumma
Would you like to join your sonnie
I am over here happy in this cold cold country
Darling for this Christmas
I hope everything is happy
come and join the chorus cause we will be having a party
Meanwhile the fruit for the great cake was steeping in rum, brandy and wine since long time gone in September or even before that. Cherries, Raisins, Currents, mixed peel, that you had to help grind up in one of those old fashion hand mixers, all seeping up the alcohol. I tell ya, If ya eat two pieces of that cake when it dun, ya best not be driving anywhere lest the policeman ketch ya..Matter a fact ya eat two pieces of that cake ya gine sleep cause that thing potent after all the fruit absorb all that liquor.
And that cake taste real nice. Almost as nice as the ham when you cut off three slice and eat wid two sodabix or put it in a fresh salt bread and add a lil pepper sauce. Something bout a Christmas hamcutter that just taste better than any other sandwich in the world back then.
Everything nice, nice and in abundance. Nice n Nuff! About a day or two before Christmas suddenly ya nostrils perk up like when the dog smell he dinner on the way. I talking bout them pot starvers (mongrels) we used to own dat was real dogs not these poor great North American pretenders that cant even chew two bones. Is Kibbles and Bits fa them if ya please! No leftovers! Wha up ta last week I was telling the wife dat back when I was growing up we din need no recycling green bin for leftovers, we had a natural recycling device he did name Rover or Spot or Blackie or Brownie or sometimes he was just de Dog. But nowadays dogs get posh and only eating brand name, store bought food. What a ting! Chupse!
Anyway I digress. Selector bring back some music to set the mood
I've got that old feeling
that seems to fill the air
Its Christmas in my Caribbean land
and though there's no snow or sleigh bells to be heard
this feelings oh so grand!
now soon the bells will be ringing
choirs singing in good cheer
and old forgotten friends are brought to mind
oh tell me of this feeling
why cant this Christmas feeling exist amongst all people through the year (oh yea!)
I going wake up real merry
bake me jug and me turkey........
Not much Christmas lights when I was growing up. Too expensive. Just one or two houses did that but you would sweep up the front yard after ya finish paint and the poinsettia and the snow on the mountain would be blooming so the place looking colorful still.
Two nights before Christmas your nostrils would light up from the scents wafting in over the breeze. It started the first night with sweet bread, Great cake and pudding and continued into the second night with the meats; delicious ham, succulent pork, turkey, chicken with the gizzards as stuffing. Heavenly scents! Everyone in the neighborhood baking at the same time and started a day or two before Christmas because the ovens small and ya baking enough to feed two armies because when anyone stop by the house you got to offer them at least a slice of pudding and sweetbread and depending on how much you like them possibly even some great cake. And all ya hearing;
Maizie in all in this heat
Wine up under the Christmas tree
Maizie I am vex because
ya making movements wid Santa clause
Maizie where is the Reindeer
Maizie I aint see no sleigh
If he have no reindeer no sleigh?
Came on BWIA
And of course as a child you don't want dinner those days when you start smelling those scents because you're hoping for a first slice of cake or meat that night and you staying up late dreaming of hot sweet bread washed down with a cold soft drink from the 2 or 3 cases that got bought from the drinks truck when it was up the street earlier that week by the village shop. A few weeks before ya had to go out in the yard, collect up all the empty drinks bottles to make sure you had a full case. Then wash out all the insects and cobwebs from those bottles cause you couldn't go and give the drinks man no nasty bottles ya kno! It wun look propa!
Then you had to make sure you knew what day the drinks trucks came to the village shop. The Banks truck came on Tuesday and the Ju-C truck Wednesday so all Tuesday and Wednesday ya trying ta keep a look out for the truck or if ya smart ya tell the shopkeeper ta give ya a call when the fellas reach. Tiger Malt and Plus, Sprite, Ju-C, Bim and Frutee in all sorts of flavors from Kola Champagne to Pineapple and Banana and even Sorrel Flavored although the sorrel flavor ones aint taste as sweet as the real thing. Ya wud tell the drinks man ta mek sure he doan gi ya nuh stale drinks cause if ya open dem an dem flat ya gine be vex. But those drinks had to last into January so you couldn't start drinking too early although if nobody looking you might sneak way one and even sneak a lil Falurnum in the drink to spice it up. :-)
But ya din have ta do dat too often cause first ya frighten ya get ketch and secondly ya had sorrel.
Drink a rum an a punch a crema
Drink a rum
Is Christmas morning
Drink a rum and a punch a crema
mama drink if ya drinkin
Christmas eve night everything in full gear. The cakes mostly done bake unless ya run outta gas and din smart enuff ta have a spare bottle in the house. I mean ya kno is nuff nuff baking to do so ya shoulda been prepared. If not ya got to head down to the gas station and buy a new bottle.
Its all the scent of meat baking that you sniffing in the air. And the sky bright with stars and outside chilly but you still pushing ya nose through the jalousie(jealousie) window or sitting down on the step with the rest of kids indulging the sense of smell and being overcome by that feeling of Christmas. The air smelling sweet, the stars looking brighter, the air just feeling sort of tingly on ya body. You can taste the excitement or is that smell it.
You cant wait for the Christmas morning.
Looka though this blog getting too long (and it kinda rough cause I was rushing it). Selector bring out my favorite tune fa de people dem. I coming back tomorrow to talk about the Christmas Church program. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me bout ya Christmas experiences. Bless!
One Christmas eve casually I was walking down the street
One Christmas eve casually I was walking down the street
I was attracted by the voice of a lil boy
as he strolled along the street no shoes on his feet
as he walked he continued to repeat
Listen Mama I want you to tell Santa Clause
To bring a trumpet and a consantina for me
I'm so lonely and have no children close by me
ma you don't kno how happy your son would be
Monday, December 20, 2004
Retail workers
'I hate my job. I work at bleeping Old Navy and I'm folding clothes till like 11:30 every bleeping day'
Just part of a conversation I heard on the subway on Saturday. I'm actually taking the sentence out of the context it was used in but it got me thinking.
Its hectic for those persons working retail around Christmas. The packed stores filled with customers who want service instantaneously, The hands pawing through the display that you just rearranged two minutes ago and which now looks like a dump heap, the faces which say I have more important things to do so stop holding me up, the tempers that are really short. Its got to be a thankless job on the most part.
So if you are still out in the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, giving retail staff cut eye and causing them headaches just stop and think about how rough it must be for them at this time of year. Of course if they giving you any attitude in the store you still have my permission to give them a piece of ya mind :-)
On another note: Followed Dr D's ham recipe on Saturday and the results are excellent. Oh and its -20 Celsius here today with windchill that puts it around - thirty something. I don't want to go to work.
Just part of a conversation I heard on the subway on Saturday. I'm actually taking the sentence out of the context it was used in but it got me thinking.
Its hectic for those persons working retail around Christmas. The packed stores filled with customers who want service instantaneously, The hands pawing through the display that you just rearranged two minutes ago and which now looks like a dump heap, the faces which say I have more important things to do so stop holding me up, the tempers that are really short. Its got to be a thankless job on the most part.
So if you are still out in the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, giving retail staff cut eye and causing them headaches just stop and think about how rough it must be for them at this time of year. Of course if they giving you any attitude in the store you still have my permission to give them a piece of ya mind :-)
On another note: Followed Dr D's ham recipe on Saturday and the results are excellent. Oh and its -20 Celsius here today with windchill that puts it around - thirty something. I don't want to go to work.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
These are our heroes
Ave fi fly out
me ave fi fly out
Daddy Lizard - Ave fi fly out
Vince Carter finally got his wish and was traded from Toronto on Friday. I wrote my thoughts on his trade wishes back in September.
After giving half hearted efforts for the NBA season so far to emphasize his point that he wanted out we finally gave him the boot. It was pretty much over at the start of the season and so far it just has played out like a long drawn out divorce.
I already stated my thoughts on Vince and players who demand trades so I don't want to repeat myself too much but I'll reiterate that Vince's charges that he wants to go somewhere where he can win are a smack in the face to Raptors fans and the organization who bent over backwards in the first six years to accommodate him.
Thanks Vince. Yes you did give us some acclaim with your high flying 'half man, half amazing' act in the early years but lately you've clearly grown tired of us and have been simply going through the motions.
What kind of example was your pouting and half hearted effort for the kids who sadly look up to you? You are their hero.
Its actually the organization's fault. Rightly or wrongly they probably gave you a lot of leeway because you were the first real star that the only NBA franchise north of the border had and they were afraid that if you left they would fold. Could still happen mind you but at least back in the day people paid to see you play and you were the cash cow for the organization. Now the few fans who go to the arena just go to boo you. Deservingly so I think as well because this summer you hurt their feelings with your trade requests. Now you've become a liability to the franchise.
After years of defending you and your oft injured act it hurt fans to hear you say you wanted to leave in a quest for a championship. Wait a minute didn't the franchise bring you the coach and the players like AD, Alvin,Jerome and an over the hill Hakeem Olajuwon that you wanted to play with? Didn't they get rid of dudes like Keon Clarke on your say so? Were you not being consulted on every move? Oh I get it you were angry that they realized that consulting you and catering to your whims wasn't helping to build the team into a championship caliber club. You were upset that they overlooked your pick for GM in Dr J. My bad son!
And who did we trade you for? Alonzo Mourning, two Williams and draft picks. I guess once again the Raptors will become the league leader in players named Williams. We have three beat that! What an achievement. I hope the draft picks work out for them because this trade just forced Alonzo Mourning into early retirement.
Oh well, I guess if someone is playing with Vince's effort you take what you can get to get rid of him and his annoying mom. I thought we could have gained a better return though but I guess for a franchise that will claim its losing money what we got probably looks best to the big boys.
What'll really be aggravating though will be when he goes to the New Jersey Nets and starts scoring 30 points a night. Then we'll look back and say wow look at that Vince is driving to the rim again. I haven't seen him do that in Toronto since those playoffs against the Sixers 3 or 4 years ago. Now that's when we'll be really upset as we think of how he played us over the last couple of years by phoning in his effort.
Anyway not to be totally negative about the brother I have to 'give jack he jacket'(credit where its due). He did do a bit for the community while he was here and I salute him for that ...Although in my opinion basketball courts aren't exactly what we should be giving underprivileged kids but that's another story for another time. Thanks for helping out Vince.
Also in my years in Toronto I've discovered that the sports writers here seem to have great powers to sway public opinion. They turn against any sports player and sooner or later he's gone. Sadly the sports writers in Toronto turned on Vince long before he demanded a trade . One newspaper dude at points appeared to me to even have a personal vendetta against Vince even going as far as pulling a paparrazi like stunt and writing an article about Vince's relationship with his paternal grandmother. Come on now, that's just not relevant unless you're the Enquirer. What happened to objective journalism?
Anyway Vince, thanks for the memories. We lost two of Toronto's sports heroes this winter you and Carlos Delgado (who actually wanted to stay here). Time to rebuild. I wish you luck in New Jersey. Go with God and good luck to you and your spouse and the soon to be new addition to your family.
Oh well, at least we got rid of you now instead of 5 years down the line where you could possibly have pulled an Antonio Davis and said something asinine like he did about not liking the strange stuff like the metric system that they are filling his kids heads with in Canadian schools.
These are our heroes.
me ave fi fly out
Daddy Lizard - Ave fi fly out
Vince Carter finally got his wish and was traded from Toronto on Friday. I wrote my thoughts on his trade wishes back in September.
After giving half hearted efforts for the NBA season so far to emphasize his point that he wanted out we finally gave him the boot. It was pretty much over at the start of the season and so far it just has played out like a long drawn out divorce.
I already stated my thoughts on Vince and players who demand trades so I don't want to repeat myself too much but I'll reiterate that Vince's charges that he wants to go somewhere where he can win are a smack in the face to Raptors fans and the organization who bent over backwards in the first six years to accommodate him.
Thanks Vince. Yes you did give us some acclaim with your high flying 'half man, half amazing' act in the early years but lately you've clearly grown tired of us and have been simply going through the motions.
What kind of example was your pouting and half hearted effort for the kids who sadly look up to you? You are their hero.
Its actually the organization's fault. Rightly or wrongly they probably gave you a lot of leeway because you were the first real star that the only NBA franchise north of the border had and they were afraid that if you left they would fold. Could still happen mind you but at least back in the day people paid to see you play and you were the cash cow for the organization. Now the few fans who go to the arena just go to boo you. Deservingly so I think as well because this summer you hurt their feelings with your trade requests. Now you've become a liability to the franchise.
After years of defending you and your oft injured act it hurt fans to hear you say you wanted to leave in a quest for a championship. Wait a minute didn't the franchise bring you the coach and the players like AD, Alvin,Jerome and an over the hill Hakeem Olajuwon that you wanted to play with? Didn't they get rid of dudes like Keon Clarke on your say so? Were you not being consulted on every move? Oh I get it you were angry that they realized that consulting you and catering to your whims wasn't helping to build the team into a championship caliber club. You were upset that they overlooked your pick for GM in Dr J. My bad son!
And who did we trade you for? Alonzo Mourning, two Williams and draft picks. I guess once again the Raptors will become the league leader in players named Williams. We have three beat that! What an achievement. I hope the draft picks work out for them because this trade just forced Alonzo Mourning into early retirement.
Oh well, I guess if someone is playing with Vince's effort you take what you can get to get rid of him and his annoying mom. I thought we could have gained a better return though but I guess for a franchise that will claim its losing money what we got probably looks best to the big boys.
What'll really be aggravating though will be when he goes to the New Jersey Nets and starts scoring 30 points a night. Then we'll look back and say wow look at that Vince is driving to the rim again. I haven't seen him do that in Toronto since those playoffs against the Sixers 3 or 4 years ago. Now that's when we'll be really upset as we think of how he played us over the last couple of years by phoning in his effort.
Anyway not to be totally negative about the brother I have to 'give jack he jacket'(credit where its due). He did do a bit for the community while he was here and I salute him for that ...Although in my opinion basketball courts aren't exactly what we should be giving underprivileged kids but that's another story for another time. Thanks for helping out Vince.
Also in my years in Toronto I've discovered that the sports writers here seem to have great powers to sway public opinion. They turn against any sports player and sooner or later he's gone. Sadly the sports writers in Toronto turned on Vince long before he demanded a trade . One newspaper dude at points appeared to me to even have a personal vendetta against Vince even going as far as pulling a paparrazi like stunt and writing an article about Vince's relationship with his paternal grandmother. Come on now, that's just not relevant unless you're the Enquirer. What happened to objective journalism?
Anyway Vince, thanks for the memories. We lost two of Toronto's sports heroes this winter you and Carlos Delgado (who actually wanted to stay here). Time to rebuild. I wish you luck in New Jersey. Go with God and good luck to you and your spouse and the soon to be new addition to your family.
Oh well, at least we got rid of you now instead of 5 years down the line where you could possibly have pulled an Antonio Davis and said something asinine like he did about not liking the strange stuff like the metric system that they are filling his kids heads with in Canadian schools.
These are our heroes.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
laffin at myself
Well I promised everyone a few laffs and who better to laugh at than myself. I've just been thinking about some childhood memories lately. Think they were spurred on by the whole cellphone episode from yesterday. Also I hung out with some bajan friends last night till about 2 in the morning and it just brought back some nice memories.
Ya ever hang out with nuff Caribbean people in a non-Caribbean atmosphere? It's pure jokes. We duz be making noise ...Usually without being obnoxious, we duz be laffing and 'carrying on bad'. Waitresses duz be coming by hoping ya buy more drinks and giving ya all sorta nasty looks. lol. Well Last night we talked from about 9 till 2am about everything under the sun from old time remedies, politics, going school to just good old time bajan food. Anybody ever had shark oil or Scott emulsion? Or eat rice and macaroni as a meal. Not separate ya know I mean that was the entire meal, no meat no nothing else; plain rice + plain macaroni. lol.
The biggest joke though besides ragging on some one else that we knew was when this guy at the bar turned the TV away from facing us. We were in loud conversation but ever now and then we would gaze at the TV as they went on and on about Vince Carter's trade (whoopee, I real glad he gone). Anyway the guy probably thought that seeing as we were well locked in conversation, we wouldn't mind the TV so he turned it to face him. Well to paraphrase Pauls' Keens Douglas "Who tell he do dat?"
Lawd ave mercy. From the time the TV move all I hear was 'But wait, how he cud juss come so an turn the TV? He aint feel we watching? But wait dis is he house? He live hayso dat he cud turn bout the TV from infront a people? wha I cann understand dat den. People watching TV and he juss up and turn roun de screen. chupse! Wha I aint see he bring in nuh TV. Wait he buy dat, he got a receipt fa dat?" and this went on not in the polite Canadian quiet like way but in loud (but not obnoxious) Caribbean fashion so poor guy heard all our comments. We embarrassed the man so much he had to turn the TV back. All like now the man musse got a TV phobia from the ragging he got. He muse 'fraid ta even watch TV this marnin den.
Anyways it was just jokes, no malice intended.
One joke that came up last night was about me when I was a child. Now I do talk to myself like that dude on the bus lol ...and it aint a cellphone I'm talking to. Some people say I must be mad(mad as in crazy for you non west Indians not mad as in vex) but the voices in my head duz tell me "doan mind dem dem aint know wha gine on. we saner dan all a dem so dont fret yaself."
Anyway whenever people tell me I'm mad I always blame it on this one incident when I was at primary school around 8 years of age. Now back then there was the old joiner (carpenter) shop behind our school and there was always wood shavings and pieces of logs and half sawn 2x4s all behind our school. This was back when no one was that safety conscious so there was a security fence in bad repair but no-one cared about who was on school property and you didn't have to really worry about unsavory elements invading the area. We didn't have any drug dealers an guns and bad boy-ism around the place. A simpler time.
So one day a bunch of us were playing behind the school at lunchtime. (Actually writing this its all coming back with amazing clarity which is good since for years now I haven't remembered much but the outcome of the incident.) We were walking around, talking , laffing, mekkin sport as the bajans would say. Out of the blue though this one girl in our group grabbed a 2x4 off the ground and started swinging it with both hands like crazy. Now you know at 8 most girls are bigger than boys so this was a fairly tall girl even for 8 and I was this scrawny little short boy with big thick glasses. I remember now I was thinking to myself this girl just trying to frighten us. No way this girl is stupid enough to hit me. I'm not ducking I'm standing my ground. So she saw me there, the only one not running from her lawlessness and kept swinging and swinging the 2x4 closer and closer to me till she was basically in my face. I'm standing there very still but vex and thinking she cant frighten me so I'm not budging. Actually budging I might have got hit anyways. Now I know she didn't mean to hit me but all a sudden BRAX, I get lik in the middle of me forehead wid a 2x4. (and allya wonder why my head gone eh?) Dat ever happen to anyone else come on show by a raise of hands? Whax !
Man did that thing hurt. Swelled up to the size of Pinochio's nose too. Big big bump on my head. I just remember going home from school and my mom being really upset and her doing like West Indians used to(still?) do and rushing off to find this girl's parents (who of course we knew) to show them how their daughter nearly kill her poor son. She wanted satisfaction (meaning well at the least the parents could put some hot lashes in the girl tail for hitting me) Cuhdear!
My mom also had to use a big tablespoon to try to press down the bruised blood. Ouch and that hurt probably as bad if not worse than the actual blow. Crazy aint it. So when allya say I mad feel some pity for me cause I get lik in my head wid a two by four so it aint my fault. Well actually it is cause I should have just run away or something but 'I aint never scared' so I didn't. lol
Another story I remember from my childhood involves myself falling down. Now as a youngster I used to walk extremely fast. Actually I still do but nowhere as fast as back then. Getting places was like a race to me. I was always trying to better my previous times without running. Anyway maybe it was the fast walking and maybe it wasn't but there were points where of course I had a few falls. Nothing really spectacular, no broken bones just lost pride and embarrassment.
Now anyone who knows Barbados knows that sidewalks are lacking in many places so that always makes walking a challenge. Luckily most of my walk routes on major streets had some sidewalks. However there were always breaks in the sidewalk at various points and these sometimes led to some mishap for me. Actually come to think of it most of my walk mishaps also happened when I was on my way to or from high school. Why is this significant. Well because I was wearing my school shoes. Now all good bajan parents if they could afford it insisted that their child wear leather shoes and some of my leather shoes had absolutely no grip. Yea its the shoes? the shoes? Its gotta be the shoes. I blame them for every fall I ever had.
So for me I had a few real igrant falls on my way from high school in the evenings. Three I can remember vividly but only one is really funny so I will share that one.
I was about 15 , out of khaki (short pants) and into long pants at high school. Long pants, white shirt and a tie. I was a proud 4th former. One evening I was on my way up Whitepark road, walking rather fast in my slippery shoes because I was trying to get somewhere on time. I was on the street walking after having run out of sidewalk down by what I believe was the Wesleyan Holiness Tabernacle, opposite Greenfield's road down by the WIBIX factory that makes Shirleys and sodabix and eclipse biscuits (wunnah know dem right?). And I was heading in the direction towards Passage road/Country Road. Hol tight I just setting the scene fa any a wunah dat wanta recreate my steps.
So I reached the area just opposite the basketball courts for Roebuck High School now called Louis Lynch secondary. This area had a sidewalk but you had to step up from the road onto the sidewalk. Of course you know what happened. My feet caught the edge of the sidewalk and see me all over the ground, with my knapsack, catspraddle on the pavement. Bruggadown Brax! My slippery shoes and the edge of the pavement collaborate to throw me down real real hard.
Being in my long pants and school tie though I couldn't let anyone see me having fallen down especially not school children from another school so I hurried to get up, looked around, luckily no one was on the basketball courts, and promptly took off like nothing happened. Hey I had to retain some semblance of pride. I mean after all I is bajan and ya know we proud foolish. :-)
However these two guys in a truck coming down the road had clearly seen the incident and as they drove past one guy said to the other "Man, nowadays dese schoolboys duz drink tummuch rum and den fall down all bout the place ya kno". Man was I embarrassed.
Ya ever hang out with nuff Caribbean people in a non-Caribbean atmosphere? It's pure jokes. We duz be making noise ...Usually without being obnoxious, we duz be laffing and 'carrying on bad'. Waitresses duz be coming by hoping ya buy more drinks and giving ya all sorta nasty looks. lol. Well Last night we talked from about 9 till 2am about everything under the sun from old time remedies, politics, going school to just good old time bajan food. Anybody ever had shark oil or Scott emulsion? Or eat rice and macaroni as a meal. Not separate ya know I mean that was the entire meal, no meat no nothing else; plain rice + plain macaroni. lol.
The biggest joke though besides ragging on some one else that we knew was when this guy at the bar turned the TV away from facing us. We were in loud conversation but ever now and then we would gaze at the TV as they went on and on about Vince Carter's trade (whoopee, I real glad he gone). Anyway the guy probably thought that seeing as we were well locked in conversation, we wouldn't mind the TV so he turned it to face him. Well to paraphrase Pauls' Keens Douglas "Who tell he do dat?"
Lawd ave mercy. From the time the TV move all I hear was 'But wait, how he cud juss come so an turn the TV? He aint feel we watching? But wait dis is he house? He live hayso dat he cud turn bout the TV from infront a people? wha I cann understand dat den. People watching TV and he juss up and turn roun de screen. chupse! Wha I aint see he bring in nuh TV. Wait he buy dat, he got a receipt fa dat?" and this went on not in the polite Canadian quiet like way but in loud (but not obnoxious) Caribbean fashion so poor guy heard all our comments. We embarrassed the man so much he had to turn the TV back. All like now the man musse got a TV phobia from the ragging he got. He muse 'fraid ta even watch TV this marnin den.
Anyways it was just jokes, no malice intended.
One joke that came up last night was about me when I was a child. Now I do talk to myself like that dude on the bus lol ...and it aint a cellphone I'm talking to. Some people say I must be mad(mad as in crazy for you non west Indians not mad as in vex) but the voices in my head duz tell me "doan mind dem dem aint know wha gine on. we saner dan all a dem so dont fret yaself."
Anyway whenever people tell me I'm mad I always blame it on this one incident when I was at primary school around 8 years of age. Now back then there was the old joiner (carpenter) shop behind our school and there was always wood shavings and pieces of logs and half sawn 2x4s all behind our school. This was back when no one was that safety conscious so there was a security fence in bad repair but no-one cared about who was on school property and you didn't have to really worry about unsavory elements invading the area. We didn't have any drug dealers an guns and bad boy-ism around the place. A simpler time.
So one day a bunch of us were playing behind the school at lunchtime. (Actually writing this its all coming back with amazing clarity which is good since for years now I haven't remembered much but the outcome of the incident.) We were walking around, talking , laffing, mekkin sport as the bajans would say. Out of the blue though this one girl in our group grabbed a 2x4 off the ground and started swinging it with both hands like crazy. Now you know at 8 most girls are bigger than boys so this was a fairly tall girl even for 8 and I was this scrawny little short boy with big thick glasses. I remember now I was thinking to myself this girl just trying to frighten us. No way this girl is stupid enough to hit me. I'm not ducking I'm standing my ground. So she saw me there, the only one not running from her lawlessness and kept swinging and swinging the 2x4 closer and closer to me till she was basically in my face. I'm standing there very still but vex and thinking she cant frighten me so I'm not budging. Actually budging I might have got hit anyways. Now I know she didn't mean to hit me but all a sudden BRAX, I get lik in the middle of me forehead wid a 2x4. (and allya wonder why my head gone eh?) Dat ever happen to anyone else come on show by a raise of hands? Whax !
Man did that thing hurt. Swelled up to the size of Pinochio's nose too. Big big bump on my head. I just remember going home from school and my mom being really upset and her doing like West Indians used to(still?) do and rushing off to find this girl's parents (who of course we knew) to show them how their daughter nearly kill her poor son. She wanted satisfaction (meaning well at the least the parents could put some hot lashes in the girl tail for hitting me) Cuhdear!
My mom also had to use a big tablespoon to try to press down the bruised blood. Ouch and that hurt probably as bad if not worse than the actual blow. Crazy aint it. So when allya say I mad feel some pity for me cause I get lik in my head wid a two by four so it aint my fault. Well actually it is cause I should have just run away or something but 'I aint never scared' so I didn't. lol
Another story I remember from my childhood involves myself falling down. Now as a youngster I used to walk extremely fast. Actually I still do but nowhere as fast as back then. Getting places was like a race to me. I was always trying to better my previous times without running. Anyway maybe it was the fast walking and maybe it wasn't but there were points where of course I had a few falls. Nothing really spectacular, no broken bones just lost pride and embarrassment.
Now anyone who knows Barbados knows that sidewalks are lacking in many places so that always makes walking a challenge. Luckily most of my walk routes on major streets had some sidewalks. However there were always breaks in the sidewalk at various points and these sometimes led to some mishap for me. Actually come to think of it most of my walk mishaps also happened when I was on my way to or from high school. Why is this significant. Well because I was wearing my school shoes. Now all good bajan parents if they could afford it insisted that their child wear leather shoes and some of my leather shoes had absolutely no grip. Yea its the shoes? the shoes? Its gotta be the shoes. I blame them for every fall I ever had.
So for me I had a few real igrant falls on my way from high school in the evenings. Three I can remember vividly but only one is really funny so I will share that one.
I was about 15 , out of khaki (short pants) and into long pants at high school. Long pants, white shirt and a tie. I was a proud 4th former. One evening I was on my way up Whitepark road, walking rather fast in my slippery shoes because I was trying to get somewhere on time. I was on the street walking after having run out of sidewalk down by what I believe was the Wesleyan Holiness Tabernacle, opposite Greenfield's road down by the WIBIX factory that makes Shirleys and sodabix and eclipse biscuits (wunnah know dem right?). And I was heading in the direction towards Passage road/Country Road. Hol tight I just setting the scene fa any a wunah dat wanta recreate my steps.
So I reached the area just opposite the basketball courts for Roebuck High School now called Louis Lynch secondary. This area had a sidewalk but you had to step up from the road onto the sidewalk. Of course you know what happened. My feet caught the edge of the sidewalk and see me all over the ground, with my knapsack, catspraddle on the pavement. Bruggadown Brax! My slippery shoes and the edge of the pavement collaborate to throw me down real real hard.
Being in my long pants and school tie though I couldn't let anyone see me having fallen down especially not school children from another school so I hurried to get up, looked around, luckily no one was on the basketball courts, and promptly took off like nothing happened. Hey I had to retain some semblance of pride. I mean after all I is bajan and ya know we proud foolish. :-)
However these two guys in a truck coming down the road had clearly seen the incident and as they drove past one guy said to the other "Man, nowadays dese schoolboys duz drink tummuch rum and den fall down all bout the place ya kno". Man was I embarrassed.
Friday, December 17, 2004
what more can I say
its friday!
Not much to say today actually. Computer sort of working so tomorrow hopefully you will see a post from me God willing.
Saw a dude on the bus today that looked just like Lil Jon; shades, hat and teeth. Had an overwhelming urge to say 'yeahhhhhhh' OK!! Also saw this one dude on the bus today who I'm not sure was in his right mind. You know one time you could actually say that someone was crazy because they were talking to themselves?( Trust me ya kno how many people look at me talking to myself and tell me my head bad. ) Well now with small cellphones and the invisible headpieces you're not sure if the conversation is with the voices in their ear or the voices in their head.
LOL, anyway keping it really short today. Will try to give you some jokes tomorrow.
Not much to say today actually. Computer sort of working so tomorrow hopefully you will see a post from me God willing.
Saw a dude on the bus today that looked just like Lil Jon; shades, hat and teeth. Had an overwhelming urge to say 'yeahhhhhhh' OK!! Also saw this one dude on the bus today who I'm not sure was in his right mind. You know one time you could actually say that someone was crazy because they were talking to themselves?( Trust me ya kno how many people look at me talking to myself and tell me my head bad. ) Well now with small cellphones and the invisible headpieces you're not sure if the conversation is with the voices in their ear or the voices in their head.
LOL, anyway keping it really short today. Will try to give you some jokes tomorrow.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Its Alive ....Sort of
Day 3,
And it was written: Yet there arose more issues like pestilence to smite my mighty computer. Forsooth he endeavoured to restore all that was golden and insomuch as there was a light at the end of the tunnel all was well but alas it was a mirage for said light was extinguished forthwith with a sudden suddenness. Henceforth when all else had failed he was forced to smite the mighty machine with a twin hammer called reformat and reinstall.
And he arose in the morning on the third day ,before daybreak, after a fitful rest and came forth from his slumber chamber with a sudden swiftness to gaze upon the land. And verily I say unto you the scene was good...sort of. For reinstall and reformat like the champions of old had cut a wide swath across the plains and laid waste to the evil of the registry which had existed. Hooray! However in rid-ing the land of the scourge which had existed , reformat and reinstall had also purged all that was good. BUT all was not loss as the mighty BACKUP was prepared to swiftly rejuvenate the plains as far as the eye could so and so there was much joy across the land.
BUT alas in the midst of celebration, there arose suddenly like a mighty wind from the east a problem with the mother of all boards. For verily it was once written "Asus motherboards like dem got real problems den!" And the mother of all boards denied me not once, not twice, nay not even thrice from entering into the hallowed halls of the internet but verily forever and ever. And despair consumed the land and there was silence..........
Then, being consumed in the grasp of despair,there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as he sought the designer sackcloth and ashes. But when all seemed dark and all hope was lost, one last thought entered his mind and he determined to seek out the mysterious entity called technical support. Naa had he ever laid eyes on him these many moons but in his time of need the technical support had been there for him in times past ...Although forsooth the technical support was best described as "IFFY"
But with not much else to lose, as the sun raised above the horizon, it came to pass that he utilized the Bell apparatus to seek out the Technical support. And after a wait equivalent to the coming and going down of 10 naa I say 15 subways indeed at Kennedy Station during rush hour, on a school day in the winter when it cold and the sun is shining brightly, his supplications were received and the technical support offered him hope in his time of trial. For alas there exists a legendary "PATCH" of the highest order which once applied to the mother of all boards shall cure it of its ails. And the PATCH is like a beacon which shall not forever allow the mother of all boards to be led astray but naa verily I say shall it guide its feet unto the path where Netscape and Mozilla reside. It shall lead the lost back to the promised land which is called Blogger. And he offered loud praises to the tech support "You the man son!, Good looking out G". And so he set out alone on a quest across webpages and internet sites, through html and javacode to find the One called "PATCH" which shall save him. But alas three hours later his quest continues as he still searches verily from The mine of Moria to the Mounts of Doom, over the fields of the Shire to the forests of Fangorn for the legendary PATCH to guide the mother of all boards back to safety.
So it is written. Here ends my flight into fantasy. To Be continued...maybe
All dat is ta say the computer aint wukkin properly yet.
Pray fa muh please.
And it was written: Yet there arose more issues like pestilence to smite my mighty computer. Forsooth he endeavoured to restore all that was golden and insomuch as there was a light at the end of the tunnel all was well but alas it was a mirage for said light was extinguished forthwith with a sudden suddenness. Henceforth when all else had failed he was forced to smite the mighty machine with a twin hammer called reformat and reinstall.
And he arose in the morning on the third day ,before daybreak, after a fitful rest and came forth from his slumber chamber with a sudden swiftness to gaze upon the land. And verily I say unto you the scene was good...sort of. For reinstall and reformat like the champions of old had cut a wide swath across the plains and laid waste to the evil of the registry which had existed. Hooray! However in rid-ing the land of the scourge which had existed , reformat and reinstall had also purged all that was good. BUT all was not loss as the mighty BACKUP was prepared to swiftly rejuvenate the plains as far as the eye could so and so there was much joy across the land.
BUT alas in the midst of celebration, there arose suddenly like a mighty wind from the east a problem with the mother of all boards. For verily it was once written "Asus motherboards like dem got real problems den!" And the mother of all boards denied me not once, not twice, nay not even thrice from entering into the hallowed halls of the internet but verily forever and ever. And despair consumed the land and there was silence..........
Then, being consumed in the grasp of despair,there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as he sought the designer sackcloth and ashes. But when all seemed dark and all hope was lost, one last thought entered his mind and he determined to seek out the mysterious entity called technical support. Naa had he ever laid eyes on him these many moons but in his time of need the technical support had been there for him in times past ...Although forsooth the technical support was best described as "IFFY"
But with not much else to lose, as the sun raised above the horizon, it came to pass that he utilized the Bell apparatus to seek out the Technical support. And after a wait equivalent to the coming and going down of 10 naa I say 15 subways indeed at Kennedy Station during rush hour, on a school day in the winter when it cold and the sun is shining brightly, his supplications were received and the technical support offered him hope in his time of trial. For alas there exists a legendary "PATCH" of the highest order which once applied to the mother of all boards shall cure it of its ails. And the PATCH is like a beacon which shall not forever allow the mother of all boards to be led astray but naa verily I say shall it guide its feet unto the path where Netscape and Mozilla reside. It shall lead the lost back to the promised land which is called Blogger. And he offered loud praises to the tech support "You the man son!, Good looking out G". And so he set out alone on a quest across webpages and internet sites, through html and javacode to find the One called "PATCH" which shall save him. But alas three hours later his quest continues as he still searches verily from The mine of Moria to the Mounts of Doom, over the fields of the Shire to the forests of Fangorn for the legendary PATCH to guide the mother of all boards back to safety.
So it is written. Here ends my flight into fantasy. To Be continued...maybe
All dat is ta say the computer aint wukkin properly yet.
Pray fa muh please.
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