Lotto Fever

Its like Lotto you gotta be in it to win it
EPMD (name that tune)

Well Lotto Fever has gripped Ontario. 40 Million up for grabs tonight. Wunnah best be nice to me cause all like now y'all could be talking to a millionaire. lol

Anyway the lottery lines were crazy as far as I saw today. But it got me thinking about some stuff including what would I do with that money if I ever won something that big. Well besides uttering Dave Chappell's favorite comment, I think I could find a lot of uses for that sort of cash. Think Chinchilla son, chinchilla from my bividees to my head to my feet. Wait y'all know what bividees is? Underwear man, underwear,lol. I guess the thing if you won would be to move slowly and not get caught up in the money. Oh yea they say that money doesn't change you, yea right. Think swimming pool filled with Champagne. Ya dun know if any of us won changes would be afoot. Think Hummer with a Nintendo remote control instead of a steering wheel. For me I'd want 'a frog, a dog with a solid gold bone'. Big up anyone who got that reference.

I'm just kidding to show you some of the stuff people waste their money on. I think the key would be to just move slow and talk to some money people instead of rushing off and squandering a god sent gift. Still I think I would get them chinchilla bividees fa true, cause winter going be cold lol.

Last year or earlier this year there was a bit of a lotto controversy here. Well two actually. There was one where a ticket agent tried to steal an old man's jackpot winning ticket and then there was this situation where this dude won the lotto the previous year, then separated and divorced his wife and then went and picked up the lotto money and disappeared. Pretty slick! Homeboy even had her over for a booty call a few days before he claimed the prize.

I probably wouldn't do anything like that but I know that if I won it would be rather nice and I'd probably share my winnings with my people and try not to waste it on anything frivolous. Of course who knows maybe I'd deck my house out in all gold or something ridiculous. Naa

Anyway let me tell y'all a joke. Saturday afternoon, middle of this summer and I found a lotto ticket that I hadn't checked from last year. Made the check and I had 5 of 6 numbers. What! I was like whoa Jdid you came up on loot. I was jumping bout the house cause the wife wasn't home. Boy I was ready to pack up and call she from the airport cause even 5 of 6 numbers might be worth a couple thousand right. She would come home like 'boy Jdid whapart you is?' and I would be like 'gal, me win big money, Barbados calling me, flight 634 leaving in 5 minutes doan call me I will call you matter a fact don't call me cause I aint callin you.' I did feeling sweet boy, sweet I tell ya, plans afoot in me head. Ready to call the Airport taxi. Then something say check that ticket again. Turns out I was checking the lottario numbers instead of the lotto numbers for that day. Chupse! Man ya eva see grown man cry like a cricket ball hit 'im in his particulars? Lawd ave mercy!

Anyway again not much to say today but wanted to tell you guys to check out Brotha Buck if you don't already. Recently he's been doing some great illustrations which relate to family life and I think if you're married or ever been in a relationship you will get a good kick out of them.

What do you mean

Its not Wednesday yet. Well its almost there now but its still not Wednesday yet.

I know everyone out there has probably experienced it at one time or another but I've completely fast forwarded this week. From this morning all the way through the day I swore it was Wednesday when in fact it was Tuesday.

Crazy! Maybe I'm in a rush for this week to finish because I'm tired and its only Tuesday. Three more work days to go and apparently we're getting the remnants of Wilma to continue our wet rainy days here in the T-dot. Someone asked me today if it was wrong to be counting down the minutes till end of work when the time was only 1pm. I said what do you mean I'm counting down those minutes from 8am before I go to work lol.

Anyway nothing comes to mind to chat today. I hope Wilma didn't rough up Sunshine and any other bloggers too much down there in Florida. Another day another disaster around the world and yet another shooting in Toronto.

Rest in Peace to Rosa Parks as well. Another icon of the Civil Rights movement has passed.

To all my blog friends my apologies for not being able to visit your sites regularly these days. Its just been hectic (so hectic I don't even know what day it is) but don't worry I still got mad love for all you and appreciate the comments.

One Love.

Invisible man

(May be going over previously covered info so bear with me)

One of the first things I noticed when I first came to Toronto back in the early 90s was relatively speaking how unfriendly folks were . Coming from Barbados I was taught that it was rather impolite to stare at people. In fact as a youngster if you were caught by your parents just staring at someone for no reason you might end up getting your ears pinched or two slaps pitch upside ya head.

Anyway from the first day I got here I just realized two things. People stared a lot and worse than that they never gave any greetings like Good morning, good evening or even a hello. Imagine that! People staring at you like there was something wrong with your appearance or worse just looking straight through you like you aren't there, like you were invisible. Like you don't even exist. Not even the common decency sometimes to turn away from staring when they noticed you noticing them. Some real brazen bold faced people aint it? A whole bunch of real 'unmarley' people and just for the record being 'unmarley' aint got anything to do with liking Bob's music or even being one of Bob's three thousand 4 hundred and twenty six pickney. Its was just a local bajan way of pronouncing unmannerly.

There was just something so cold about the big city. Something so less community oriented and so individual oriented or was it just that its fast paced nature didn't lend to extending the common pleasentries? Whatever it was it was a different experience for me, one which I might add took awhile to get accustomed to. I still had this deeply inbred nature to want to say Good Morning whenever my eyes connected with random strangers for quite a few weeks after I first came here but as time went on and my greetings were greeted with no response or looks like I was crazy, I was weaned away from this act.

However in the midst of being surprised by this lack of exchange of pleasantries one act of bonding really struck me as being a throwback to what I was accustomed to. That act was the black head nod.

You know the head nod one black person gave another black person who he/she didn't know as they passed on the street. It happened rather frequently back then. It wasn't a verbal means of communication but its meaning was profound. A sort of knowing nod like 'yes brother I see you and you are not invisible to me' or 'a keep your head up son'. It was the black fist, good morning, ' my yout wha ya a say', a pound, a hug and a handshake all rolled up in one and it made me realize back then that despite everything I was not alone in this city. Not that if I got into some sort of distressing situation this complete stranger had my back because we were of the same race but still it was a reinforcement that black folk were/are all brothers and maybe I'm reading a bit too much into it but in a sense it was an act of caring. But greater than this it was just an means to let you know that you were seen. We were going through the same grind, the same hustle, the same struggle but someone had noticed you.

It was an instant act of bonding.

Fast forward a full decade to those days and I'm left wondering what happened to that black head nod? Has it completely disappeared? Nowadays for me its as rare as a warm winter day in Toronto. Like Biggie said 'things dun changed'.

Nowadays my black brothers and sisters are just as apt to stare vacantly through me as if I wasn't there as are anyone else in this city.

Why? What caused that change? What has made us invisible to everyone including our own now? Is it that less of us are immigrants who are accustomed to being friendly from growing up in our birthplaces abroad? Is it that more of us were raised here and have just being immersed in the local customs? Is it that the black head nod has outlived its usefulness? Is it a sign that we are all just weary? What gives?

I have no answers, but its something that I've noticed as the years has gone on. It doesn't affect me the way it probably would have back in the day as I've become accustomed to just the overall unfriendliness of this place where you can live next door to folk for years and never have a conversation with them or where your chummy co-worker can walk right past you on the street because in his/her eyes once you are outside the office there is no context for recognizing you and you are just another random black person.

A so it a go!

We are all invisible men like Ralph Ellison spoke about. But sometimes I wish it was different. At least the black head nod kept us black folk connected by a thread that said I may not know you but I feel connected to you, I can still feel your pain, relate to your struggle and just show you some love with a greeting. Well maybe I'm exaggerating and the black head nod didn't mean all of that but at least it meant every once in a while someone else saw you and you weren't invisible.

Slap!

Oh man I can never leave my job on time. For some reason even though every day I say to myself 'boy you need to leave early after the day you just put in' I still find myself there at 530 or 6pm. Seems like just when I think I'm about to leave there is always some important email or memo to send or document to process.

I'm out! 515pm, that's not bad. For once I should make it home before 7, hell I should definitely even make it before 630, if I'm lucky.

Oh wait I have errands to run as usual. Oh well.

I took a nice stroll up to the subway station. Its drizzling. Just Great. Of all the days to be without a waterproof jacket or at least an umbrella. And my throat was already feeling scratchy this morning after running outside to put out the green bin for the garbage guy in that 2 degree weather. Got to find out if raccoons hibernate so that I can put my garbage out overnight. I sure hope they do. Who was the geni-ass that designed that green bin for the City anyways? Seems like raccoons can pick that flimsy latch open in their sleep.

Anyway, what can ya do.

Almost at the subway and as expected the rain starts to hold up. It figures.

Oh what do we have here today at the subway entrance? Some F.O.I brothers trying to sell that list of books they are always try to sell. As-salam-A-lakim. Salakum A salaam. I always wonder about that list of 'black' books that they have. I think those guys should stick to selling the Final Call or slang bean pies or whatever else they do. I mean don't get me wrong, I got love for them but come on you're not selling the actual books you're selling a booklist. Do you guys realize that this is 2005 and if I wanted to get a list of books I've got google and the internet at my disposal. And I'm not the only one with internet access, its pretty widespread. I mean I can see why you were doing this back in 1994 but yo, wake up brothers, its a new day, you need a new hustle. I'm not paying 3 or 4 dollars for a list that tells me what to read, that 3 or 4 dollars can go towards the actual books.

Step through the turnstyles and go downstairs. Oh man its too early, the subway is going to be crazy packed. Should have bummed around downtown for a while. What luck! There's a train waiting. Seems like its been there a while, must be some delay in the system. Its crazy packed and some folk are on the platform waiting for the next one but since I have no idea how long the next one will be I jump on.

Standing room only. Good thing I brought that discman with the Danger Doom lp. Doom's such a nerd, who else would have a rap line about flux capacitors and Kes and Neelix from StarTrek Voyager. ha ha ha. I've been a fan since he did Viktor Vaughn.

Train starts moving, hmmm I wonder what the crush capacity of this thing is. Will have to look it up. Whatever it is we're pretty close to it. Its hot up in this piece too! That's the reason people get sick. Outside is near freezing and inside is like a sauna.

Wait a minute yo no way! Homeboy over to the side just pulled out a walkman. No not a discman, I mean a real walkman, a portable cassette player. Now that's throwback. What a novelty compared to all the iPods, mp3 players, blackberries, portable dvd players and cd players that I've become accustomed to seeing on the ride home. Whoa that brings back memories of the original mix tapes and the pause tapes I used to make back in the days. Wicked!

Ok we've got a little room to move as some folk empty out at one of the hubs. Looks like I'm standing all the way to Kennedy though. When I leave late I don't have that problem.

What to do what to do. I wish I was sitting so I could read my magazine. Look at that dude sleeping, I wish I was him right now although he looks a little too out of it for my liking. Dune Dune Dune! Well that's what the subway bell sounds like in my opinion. Some sitting folk actually get up this time and leave. Ok some available seats. I'll let the ladies hold those seats first. What's with this dude in the business suit? He just stole that seat from an old lady. Has he no shame. Van Damn some folk just don't have any blasted training. Chupse!

Interesting the types you see on the subway aint it. You've got your readers, your music listeners, your sleepers, your don't touch me I'm a germaphobe-ers, your my bag deserves a seat more than you do-ers, your I just need to unwind-ers, your I'm pretending I'm not here-ers, your I'm too posh to be sitting next to you common folk-ers oh and me your average people watcher. Maybe I'll let out a random sneeze just to confirm who the germophobes are lol.

Ah things to ponder while one is standing holding a subway pole.

Feeling tired. More tired than usual actually, maybe I am getting sick. Oh just peachy! The subway car half empties at Main and Vic Park. Vic Park ah sunshine again or in this case semi darkness since the sun is setting earlier and earlier but at least after Vic Park you see the open air again. You're out of the tunnel. Hmm its Autumn all right, the trees are starting to turn different shades. I'd get excited about that like my wife does except to me it just signals the inevitable that the cold is just around the corner.

So anyway, we pull into Kennedy. I'm standing with my hand high on the pole and bracing for the train to pull in because sometimes the train is kind of jerky in its approach to the platform.

The train comes in rather smoothly as my hand is outstretched behind me holding on and my body is facing the door just waiting for those doors to open so I can escape this underground serpents belly.

The train stops, my hand instinctively releases the pole and gravity drags it downward. A seemingly innocent activity when all of a sudden WHAX! My hand connects with the face of this dude who was sitting in the seat below my hand. He proceeds to give me a screw face. The man vex.

Hey its not my fault I slapped you or as I like to see it you used my hand to procure a slap for yourself. You ran into or rather stood up right in the path of my hand you moron. My hand is on the pole, you see it coming down, wouldn't it have made sense to wait till I moved my hand to get up instead of jumping up immediately right into my hand's path. Dumb ass don't give me that look. Anyway I still swiftly mutter an I'm sorry and head up the escalator. Still got those errands to run. Just another day on Public Transit.

And no flippant comments about the squash game. That was an accident just like this was an accident.

Bang Bang!

First up, thanks for all the congrats and love shown on the last blog. Y'all made a brother feel all warm and fuzzy lol. And the misses says thank you too. She seems surprised that people actually like me but I explained that you guys probably don't know me well so she understands now lol.

'Hey guy, make sure they give you hazard pay'
'Ya kno!'

That was the conversation between my bus driver and his colleague driving the 116 this evening as we pulled out of Kennedy on my way home. It was a way of lightening the moment somewhat after a serious incident which occurred this weekend when a driver was shot in the eye by a stray bullet on that same route.

Its pretty sad actually. Here is a guy doing an honest day's work, providing a public service, and not troubling anyone and he gets caught up in someone else's drama. The result; the lost of an eye. The innocent paying for the sins of the guilty.

Its getting cold here, I thought the gun violence would subside a bit after summer ended but it seems like it may be here to stay. We could be looking at the new norm. How soon before shootings in the T-dot become as prevalent as those in some big cities south of the border and we become desensitized to them?

Quite a shame.

On another note. Yo, my domino bredren was on Jeopardy tonight and won. Knocked off the three day champ even though he clearly had buzzer issues. I know some folk who used to look down on us like we was riff raff when we was always licking sixes! Guh way! Dem never really know the man have superior intelligence and domino is just a stress relief ting. Let me see if those punks have enough sense to even reach Jeopardy let alone win. Big up Dominic! Respect! He'll be back on again tomorrow to defend.

Introducing Jdid Jr

Nope its not a fake. Thought I'd share my news with all you guys here in blogworld. Yep that's right the misses is pregnant and we are expecting a little one ...Specifically that little one in the picture over there come February.

(channeling Kramer) Whoo hoo my boys can swim!

But seriously though if you guys see me on Maury come March you know what that means. The chile aint mine! Lol, I will plead the defense that the ultrasound don't look nothing like me. Look at that picture. That baby head too big! (And I don't want to hear I cant make no sport of the chile, if he/she want to be part of this family he/she better get used to being made fun of. My motto is the earlier I start making fun of him/her the earlier he/she will be accustomed to it.)

I know y'all laughing at my ultrasound defense but I cant claim credit for it. I watched a Maury Povich episode a few years back where a guy used this exact defense as to why he thought the child wasn't his. He came on the show big and bold and said 'this child definitely cant be mine cause the ultra-sound aint resemble me.' Imagine that! Still I may have to use that defense lol.

But yep boy I still remember the day I find out about this baby thing a few months back. Those home pregnancy tests and those damn pink stripes! They let a brother down man lol. I knew I always hated that color.

The above ultrasound was taken around the 3 month mark. You can actually see a fair bit of definition of the baby; lips, arms etc. From that picture, the chile head look real big though must take after my inlaws cause I aint got no big head nor no big headed family. Either that or the wife been cheating on me with Stewie from the Family guy.

But would you believe this, when I went with the wife as she got this ultrasound taken the baby chupse at me!

Yes I aint making it up! The ultrasound lady was showing us the pictures and pointing out arms and head and the rest of the body and the baby lips just puff together just so and let out a big long pouty thing look like a chupse. Well at least we know is a true West Indian baby!

But I did blue vex boy. Imagine me big hardback man, father to be, and a mere embryo dissing de I. What! That is the ultimate disrespect. The chile dissing me before he/she even get into this earth. Start early nuh? When they say that this next generation have no respect at all they aren't lying!

And what get me vexer is see how the mother lay down there and watch the chile getting on so to me and just laughing. Boy it look like I going have to be the disciplinarian and the strict one here cause look how she encouraging bad behavior already. She let the chile get in she belly and chupse up it mouth at the father so. Well well well! Looka muh crosses!

Well boy/girl let me tell you from early, I'm going put some punishment away on credit for you for that chupse. Uh huh, uh huh. Oh ya feel ya bad cause ya hiding in the womb. Well let me teach you this bajan proverb from early 'day duz run till night ketch it'. Boy/girl ya gots to come out sometime and when ya do I will be waiting.

I know y'all over there ready to call children services on me already and saying I cant believe Jdid threatening an embryo. He like he is some sorta big bully or ogre or something threatening a poor defenseless embryo not even born yet. Cuhdear! But see me just cause he/she is an embryo in the womb don't mean I'm going to let him/her get away with this sort of behavior. Yall didn't see him taunting and chupsing at me man. Yall don't know!

Ya have to start from early if not they get out of hand quick quick and next thing ya know I'm on Maury talking about I cant control my 8 year old and I frighten that them beat me and you see the chile there cussing me and hitting me. Naa star nuttin a gwan so! I tekkin initiative from early.

I going to have to be strict. I dont believe in all this beating thing an liks thing but I plan on making sure the chile know which one of we is boss. So he/she chupsing now alright then. Chupse while ya can now cause when ya get here I gine show ya a thing or two. :-)

--------------------------------
Anyway so now I got a embryo dissing me and I also have to put up with a pregnant woman. Women at the best of times are not well understood by me but now this one pregnant so it even worse. Confusion, bodderation, misery. That describes what the woman putting me through all now. Everything that happens she blaming on the baby. Is like she got a built in excuse for everything now and trying to run my blood to water. Well if pregnancy to blame for everything that she doing she must have been pregnant for the last five years or so cause I don't see no change in her behavior. Oh and apparently she would hate if I named the child after me. Boy I don't know how much longer I can deal with this thing, I might not last til February. Come December ya might hear Jdid run way and back in Bim or something so if this thing continue so.

--------------------------------
Before anyone asks me how I feel about the whole baby thing I'll say I'm not as excited as most people expect me to be but I think that's just my way. I'm just not a terribly excitable person. Yes, I realize the magnitude of this event, Its a big big big thing and maybe there is something wrong with me but I'm cool about things. Jump for joy excited no, but thinking about how things will be and all the stuff that the child needs to be taught and the like. Maybe I'm dwelling on the scary things so I cant be as excited as everyone expects who knows. Just hoping and praying that the baby is delivered safely and arrives without any illnesses or defects. So before someone pisses me off like one friend who somehow jumped to a conclusion that I hated children, or didn't want a baby because I simply said I wasn't excited let me just say I'm looking forward to the whole experience. Excited no, looking forward yes. Got it!

Friday

Oh man what a week. Its been crazy so no time to blog although I've had some great blog ideas recently.

Anyway no time to really chat today either but I just wanted to ask how come no one talked about the earth quake in India/Pakistan? Are we all tradedied out? Or is it that it didn't strike close enough to home.

Did you realize that the homeless from this tragedy may actually outnumber the homeless from the tsunami?

And here's a question I just thought was relevant. What happens to the promised aid when another tragedy strikes. I mean countries have deep pockets but its not limitless so if 10 bil is promised for one tragedy but a greater tragedy arises does that means that they pull out another set of money for the other tragedy or do they sort of cut the first aid package. Just wondering out loud because I saw some reports saying that the promised aid to Grenada last year is still just that a promise in the wake of all the natural disasters we've had this year.

Oh and to follow up my last post on phones I just wanted to take a shot at technology in general. Isn't it funny how we've been conditioned to buy a whole bunch of stuff that is really unnecessary? I was referring to camera and video phones last post. This time its the Ipod which now has video. Don't get me wrong I think the Ipod is hot to death! (And if any of my rich blogging readers feel like giving me some gifts like some other bloggers get I aint going to say no.) Anything music related and I've got to stop for a pause. I also know I'm not spending 300 400 bucks on something that small as long as I've still got a discman to keep me company. But now the apple released an Ipod with video this week. I mean having a micro slim music player is cool but how cool is watching miniscule video? I mean last I checked dudes were showing off big screen tvs, no one wanted to watch your 7 inch screen they want the 52" and those type of I'm in the game experiences where you can almost smell the action.

Ipods with video are for posers cause no one can tell me that you are actually seeing with any real clarity any music video on a 1 or 2 inch screen.

Oh just to set it straight I'm not anti technology. I'm just trying to keep things in perspective. I used to be a true technology junkie but then I had a boss many years ago who was totally anti technology and I actually gleaned some sense from what he was saying. I didn't cross over to his way of thinking but it just put things I perspective so while I keep up on the latest I just usually have to ask myself well is that such a useful thing to have first before I go all goo-goo ga ga over it.

Have a great weekend. I'll try to drop a few blogs next week.

By the way was I the last person to hear about Buju going to court for apparently assaulting some dudes.

cellphones

Nowadays everybody and their momma has a cellphone.

And no I'm not here to debate whether that is a good or bad thing although I'll probably mention stuff like connectivity and reminisce on the days back when we had phone booths. (What's Clarke Kent supposed to do now?)

Actually why not let me discuss cellphones for a bit. The good thing about cellphones is the way they keep us connected. Honey I'll be home late, umm hello CAA my car broke down on the 401, Boss man de road dem block up wid traffic ta rathid, I man naa reach work till quarter past 10, mek dat 1030 cause I ave fe stop at Tim 'orton.

Things like that are good reasons why this improvement in technology is a good thing although when you think of it none of the reasons listed above are that life threatening or critical although you could make an exception for the car break down thing. One could always wait till one reached home or work to give an excuse instead of filling the air with all these extra invisible radio wave, sonic rays, infrared beams and the like. Still its good to be connected and to have that comfort with knowing that in an unpleasant situation you have a way to get help. Of course Murphy's law says the one time you do need to make that all important call you'll probably get a message saying no signal or poor reception. A so it go!

And speaking of poor well what's someone who cant afford a cellphone (as well as superheroes) supposed to do now? Phone booths are now all but non-existent. Back in the day a phone booth may not have been on every corner but it was pretty close and gave phone access to anyone with a quarter. Not everyone can afford a cellphone now so that's another divide for the haves and have nots. What like poor folks don't have emergencies? Maybe we need cellphone booths. Hmmmmm.

And think about how crazy its gotten with cellphones over the years as the electronics and telecom companies push their latest inventions at us making us believe we need to buy a new phone everytime they make even the slightest advance in the field. "See the older model was 20 grams but this new one is only 19.5, cant you feel the big difference?"

Yea smaller was better as the giant brick like weapons of the 80s just weren't very comfortable to move around with. But isn't there a limit to how small you really want to go? What's with the devices made for Liliputians these days? Easier to lose so that you need to replace them more frequently I guess. I swear some of the phones are so small that you need a pin or pencil to actually dial a number.

And what's with all the add on features? We have cellphones with cameras, cellphones with radio, cellphone with 1000 ring tones so you can tell exactly who's calling, even video phones. Do we really need any of this? I mean am I really losing out on quality of life because I cant pull out my cell camera and live out my Spike Lee fantasy as I walk down the street. Must every small incident be captured on video for memory? What happened to seeing it with your own eye and re-telling the tale?

Seriously we have so many cellphone add-ons soon we may even have cellphones that will talk to you.

ring ring:
me: 'yo hol on while I answer this rude bwoy. Yes star a who this?
phone: chupse! wha ya mean who dis is? You aint have no manners or what? You mother never teach you bout good morning or hello? chupse! Is de phone man.
me: A wha ya want phone, I tell ya stop harassing de I. Me a busy man ya kno!
phone: But wait. ya mean I tek my time ta hail you up and you getting on so? Well if you wanta be dat sorta way I aint calling you no more. Matter a fact ya see me, doan touch me and expect me ta dial nuh dial nuh more. I aint connecting you wid a fella! all the time you got me calling you pretending dat yu got friends an important business an mekkin you look like a big shot and you getting on so now. Man I dun wid you cause ya aint got nuh sorta manners nor respect fa me. You got me real vex ya kno! You aint know how lucky you is den cause if I had hands I would box ya in ya ears ya kno. You barely lucky dat I is a hands free set!

Imagine that getting backchat from the phone? I'm telling you that's not far away in the future.

And why is it that the more connected we get the more means we use for screening and avoiding people? If you want to avoid folks calling you well you can pay some extra money for caller ID or special rings for individual callers or here's a novel idea turn off the phone, don't carry it everywhere or just don't get a cellphone and you can be inaccessible as much as you like. Oh well.

Wont even talk about inappropriate conversations in public places or phones going off in places where they should be silent as I know everyone who reads this has had that opportunity to see this first hand at least once.

Still like I said this wasn't a blog to diss cellphones. They have their place and I must admit despite all the drawbacks (lets not even talk about the possibility of cancer and all that) that I sort of like them. They are not by any means a necessity for me but I just think its cool how their proliferation means that I can walk down the street and talk out loud to myself without getting weird stares anymore.

Its true! Think about it. Cellphones have made once deviant behavior acceptable or at least given it the appearance of acceptability. I mean honestly when you were walking down the street and someone appeared to be talking to themselves back in the day you were likely to cross to the other sidewalk to avoid them. You would think to yourself 'he head like um off today' or 'I wonder which mental institute he get way from' or as my mother would say when she saw someone talking to themselves 'is de drugs dat got dem young people walking bout half foolishy foolishy.'

But today do you even give someone who appears to be talking to themself on the street a second glance? Nope. You assume that they are on a cellphone so even if you don't see the physical device chances are they have a Bluetooth headset or some other handsfree device plugged into their ear that you cant discover on first glance.

So as a man that duz talk to himself real nuff. I mean have full blown epic conversations, I think cellphones are one of the greatest inventions known to man. No longer am I an outcast (well at least not on the talking to myself thing). Finally I fit in.

And if someone was to ever come up to me and ask who I'm talking to, I can just pretend that my hands free device is really really small and wireless. However I've learned they just don't appreciate the humor when I tell them about my special plan where you get unlimited minutes to split personalities for free.

Girl fight

So yesterday I'm on the bus going across the top of the city when these two little girls get on and run to the back. Looked like two sisters on their way to the mall. Maybe the parents saddled the older one with looking out for her little sister I thought, because I got the vibe that the older one didn't really want to be seen with her younger sibling. She, the older one, was probably about 12 going on 17, trying to look like a little Britney Spears impersonator with crazy attitude for someone her age. Another force ripe yout acting like she was older than she is and like she was cool. The younger one must have been somewhere between 7 to 10 with lots of energy still in that bubbly phase of childhood where you are discovering your limits.

So the bigger one sits right at the back of the bus completely oozing all her self determined coolness and aloofness. Her face says that she so doesn't want to have her little sister tagging along with her. The younger one initially sits on the rails of the bus' back door swinging all around until a lady says to the older sister that that is dangerous and she could get hurt. The older sister gets her to move and the bubbly energetic little girl comes down to the back where the older sister proceeds to try to ignore her. Little sis must be killing her cool vibe.

Not sure who started it most likely the smaller one but they start hitting each other and fooling around on the bus. The younger one had a big mischievous smile on her face all the while as she seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit but the older one still trying to maintain her coolness had this look like cut this out, this is so juvenile and I'm quite a big girl, I really don't want to be involved in this sort of behavior on public transit, it brings down my cool factor by at least 10 points. I was kind of thinking I wish these kids would just calm down but its no big deal I've seen worse on public transit. They'll get tired and it'll stop in a few minutes. It was just one of those sibling tussles I guess but then this encounter became a bit more disturbing. How so? The older sister started cursing the younger sister. I heard the B word once and the f word at least a couple of times.

Folks around me were pretending not to hear and see this behavior but I think everyone noticed. I was like whoa is this kid old enough to be using these words and shouldn't she be looking out for lil sis? I can sort of understand the younger one probably being a little hype going to the mall with big sis but the cursing from big sis. Whoa! What's with the crazy behavior? Instead of fighting back her sister and cursing at her she needs to be setting some sort of example for that yout.

Anyway I think one curse word too many or one punch too many and the little sister quietly drifted to the front of the bus where she disappeared from my view while the bigger sister remained behind trying to regain her coolness. I'm sitting thinking shouldn't she keep a better eye on her sibling. Suppose little girl runs away or gets off at the wrong stop. How's she going to explain that to moms when she gets home.

Lost track of little sister so I have no idea where she is but big sis has shaken off all the hijinks and has resumed her fraudulent 'look at me I'm a cool teenager type' pose.

The bus comes to its final stop and we all pile off the bus. I'm still wondering what if little girl got off the bus before the final stop since in the big crush of standing bodies that came on board since they fought I haven't seen her once since she went towards the front. And shouldn't bigger sister be more concerned about where little sister is. Especially after she done cuss out the yout so.

Well I was rather relieved when I saw little sister at the bottom of the steps waiting for big sister to disembark but imagine my surprise when I realized that she was with mommy and grandmom. Not only that but both mommy and grandmom had actually been on the bus sitting up front. Oh so that's where lil sis ran to! But wait a minute, ya mean ta tell me say your child in the back kicking up crazy ruckus and you on the bus and not a peep from you while one sister cusses the other. Un-frigging-believable!



p.s: Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadian massive.

Hiatus over .....sorta

Its just a blog! Ok got to get back in the game and represent for the T dot. Just going to write for the sake of writing.

First off what happened to my T dot peeps. Marlo's retiring , Star just got back, Urban Sis like she fall asleep, Nat fire the blog, Becks like she unda pressure wid school an ting and Soli disappear too. Oh wait I just realize Soli post. Alright way to go girl.

Yo T dot stand up! what a gwan?

Anyway I'm just brushing off the cobwebs because I 'm rather tired as I write but the urge just hit me so here are is a bit of nothing and some randomness from the mind of Jdid.

Was just reading that Tropical Storm Tammy just formed off Florida

Boy didnt realize dat get post before I was finished.

Anyway as I was saying just realize we down to Tropical storm Tammy. Have we ever gotten that far on the naming convention before? Seems like real nuff storms this year, more than usual.

OK in NBA news my Toronto Raptors traded Rafer "Skip to my Lou" Alston for Mike James prompting this little interlude from me yesterday. Mike James! Who? Mike James! Who? Mike James! who? lol, shut up, its funny to some people.. Just when I thought the Raptors couldnt get any worse. Sigh. So now I've got to decide if its worth the effort to waste cash on a NBA game this season aftermy two year hold out as I refused to put money into Vince Carter's pockets. Hmmmmm.

In other news, I caught Free (formerly of 106 and Park)'s rhyme on the Wait remix with the Ying Yang Twins. Yes I know I should never listen to anything so crappy but it was on a mix I was listening too. Let me just say I think homegirl's been practicing with Lil Kim and Foxxy on the raw to the bone lyrics. Rass my girl came x rated and raw from line one. I had to do a rewind. So she left BET to do this type of crap with those losers. As KRS-one said 'Your career will be as short as my part in who's the man'.

Oh and for the record the Fugees new single sucks big time but then I predicted that last November when I wrote this. They just sound so jaded and believe me I know jdid lol. The song has no life no energy. I mean its sad when Pras is the most energetic dude in the bunch isnt it. Lauren's voice sounds like she's struggling (And I'm not just hating on her this time because I love to hate on her) and there is no chemistry. Stay retired. If you know them tell them read that blog I just pointed to as to why not to come back. You're killing your legacy.

And has anyone heard the first duet from the Biggie Duets albums. Its Biggie and Bob Marley. Chupse! Here I was thinking it was new biggie rhymes cause you know they come out with a new Tupac album every 6 months of unreleased undiscovered stuff. Nope they dust off Biggie's rhyme from Suicidal Thoughts and kinda slow it down and chop it up a bit to fit the beat.

Which brings me to a point (which is a good thing because I was clearly rambling my head off here). Is it a good thing to dig in the crates and release a dudes unreleased sessions when he's dead. I mean ok if he died while recording it and was planning on releasing it then fine I got no problem with it. But clearly some of the stuff was just stuff that a guy did in jest or stuff that he was just practicing at thats unpolished as ever and he wouldnt think is fit for the public. I mean if I died I wouldnt want anyone publishing my unfinished blogs ...especially if I thought they were mediocre and not fit for print. Anyway I think I made this point before on another blog its all coming back to me now. Senility is a thing aint it!

p.s oh i knew there was something else i wanted to talk about. Whats up with Nick Cage naming his son Kal-el after superman? next thing you know celebrities will be naming kids He-man, She-Ra and smurfette. Actually I'm suprised smurfette hasnt made the ghetto baby name role yet come to think of it. These are my two kids Shanenee and smurfette. Ya neva know lol

What more can I say

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down.

"That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down,"

Former Education Secretary William Bennett



Just couldn't let this one pass (still on hiatus though).

The above were comments made by former U.S Education secretary William Bennett on his radio talk show last Wednesday. You can read some more of what he says in defending himself here.

My first thoughts on reading this article on Friday was the more things change the more things remain the same. Like Kanye said "Racism still alive they just be concealing it" or in cases like this revealing it. I mean I think it was a bit shocking that this was said out loud but I'm sure deep down there are many out there who think exactly the same way. The funny thing is, as a friend pointed out, if a similar derogatory comment was made which somehow involved Jewish people myriad calls would be made by now for charging Bennett with hate crimes or something of the sort regardless of whether it was a comment he said in jest, his true beliefs or somewhere in between.

Anyway what more can be said about this comment? I guess the point of Mr Bennett is that blacks are responsible for quite a bit more than their fair share of crime. That actually cannot be denied as numerous statistics abound as to the number of blacks in jail, the number who are ex felons, the number who have been arrested etc and statistics don't lie now do they.

Mind you these stats don't let us into the inherent bias in the North American justice system where various crimes, especially those drug related or more likely to be committed by a person of color or a poor person are dealt with more harshly than those committed by those of other races or other social standing. For example the harsher penalties related to drug dealing of marijuana, months and years in prison, compared to something like the punishment for dealing exstacy for which even caught with bucket loads of the drug the offenders usually get a fine or a very short sentence. No, these stats do not show these discrepancies nor do they show the general suspicion law enforcement has of blacks and the speed with which a black man will be stopped while a similarly guilty white man may escape suspicion and be above the law while doing an analogous criminal act. Oh no these stats don't show this but then again stats never lie.

But on the real even taking these things into example we as black folks do have criminals in our midst. Full stop!

But what leads one to a life of crime? Are black folks born with a greater predilection towards criminal behavior? Is crime a disease like sickle cell anemia which affects blacks at a disproportionate level? As another friend pointed out is there a crime gene which has been detected moreso in blacks than other races? I don't know Mr Bennett is that your real point?

Maybe as a former Secretary of Education you can tell us about the state of education in the urban areas of the U.S? Do you think perhaps the failing of the education system which spends twice as much per student for most suburban schools as it does for its urban schools with a majority non-white student body has anything, anything in the slightest to do with this greater criminal behavior? Do you think that allowing the urban education infrastructure to fall apart over the years and not investing in it has anything to do with producing more criminals than scholars in certain cities? Naa, I'm probably way way off base here I shouldn't even bring that up. Crime has nothing to do with education or environment in your mind does it?

Then I thought a bit more about these comments. The fact that the man who made this comment, even if it was to illustrate a point, was a Secretary of Education just says something really scary doesn't it? Someone in charge or who used to be in charge of education is saying (to my limited black educated mind) or thinking somehow that education probably wouldn't help blacks. Downright scary. Explains a lot though doesn't it. Why bother with the black kids, they'll just become criminals.

I note also that these 'attacks' on black people have actually become a bit more prevalent lately. The justification given is that they speak out to highlight the 'truth' rather than they are racist language meant to demean an entire race. The justification given is that the black race has its head in the sand and refuses to stand up and deal with these issues within their ranks rather than if we make these types of comments often enough more and more people will believe they are the complete truth.

So why have these types of comments become so popular? What happened to the whole political correctness thing i.e lying not to offend others that was happening in the 90s? Or doesn't political correctness hold when one deals with black folks who are quite comfortable with that n word?

I think it has quite a bit to do with the rudderless-ness which has come to characterize our race over the past decade or so. In the past there was a direction. We sought equality, we sought the right to vote, we sought justice. We had purpose. We had leaders, strong leaders who sought these things along with us. Now what do we seek and who leads us? Our leaders have been killed or discredited. Who leads the way now? Jesse, Sharpton, Diddy, Jay Z?

I find the increasing prevalence of comments such as those made by Bennett a bit disturbing. Despite the outcry against them I believe that repetition wins out and justifies them in the public mind. Not only in the minds of non-blacks but also the eyes of blacks as well. Like the kid whose parent repeatedly tells him that he will never amount to nothing these comments gives us ready made excuses to not try, to become apathetic.

Also, when the majority really believes that statements about the threat of blacks to the society are true what will happen then? Is it too much to believe that a time will come when someone will say that those blacks are a menace and were better off in chains? Will the outcry at first be strong but get muted as these comments prevail? When will the chains descend, when will our children's freedom be taken from them, when will they once again say a black is only two thirds or one half of a white man? When will they say 'what about that slavery thing. That's not such a bad idea. That kept them in check.'

From a certain perspective it seems like this is the path we are taking and its just a mater of time.

White girl!

Before you think I'm back I still on break but I was just reading Kami's blog and I felt inspired to rant a tad. Thanks Kami!

So New York Yankees captain and shortstop Derek Jeter is receiving hate mail relating to his being a traitor to his race and dating white girls. You can read it all here.

Well I was utterly shocked by this news. Derek Jeter is black? Really? No! Really? naaa stop joking! For real! Jeter is black? Damn! lol. Seriously though I thought Jeter was one of those guys who would claim he's Hispanic or I'm part French, Iroquois, Dutch, Lebanese, Polynesian, midget and Eskimo mixed or something like that, I never really thought of him as black. No not cause he is light skin is just I always thought he wasn't black. Hispanic or something maybe lol. Of course Hispanic isn't really a racial group but that's another post.

Anyway I'm just making a little joke of Jeter. He's a great player and has done well for me in numerous fantasy baseball pools so I aint mad at a brother. Date who you want to.

Still I think I need to go to the FBI and turn informer. I think I know who sent Jeter that letter. See all now the FBI looking at white supremacist groups, rednecks, and supporters of apartheid, David Duke, Strom Thurman and those sorts of fellows. Pssst listen closely all them law enforcement police bwoy barking up the wrong tree. Is true ya know!

Lean over let me whisper in your ear (but not like them ying yang poppits). The person who sent Jeter the letter is ...Listen closely.... a.... i serious ya know.....Nobody else aint listening right.... alright I gine tell ya....Its a...... BLACK WOMAN!

shhhhhhh! Don't tell anyone I said that.

Is true! I aint lying. It had to be a black woman that sent him the letter. Forget the white supremacist angle for a minute. No one gets madder at brothers for dating white women than sistas? I lie? Tell me I lie?

I call it the 'White girl' issue. It affects black women and it occurs anytime a black man is seen or has even been heard to have been in the vicinity of white girls.

So in this case some sista out there clearly got tired of seeing Jeter with all those white women when she single, eligible and ready to mingle and find a decent black man. She going to the club and all she's meeting is these losers and her last 5 dates have been with dudes who cant put two sentences together. So she see Derek all in the limelight with white girl after white girl (sorry I don't know his dating habits so I'm assuming that's what it is) and she just got vex and send Jeter that letter one time.

Is true man! Think about it. Anytime a black woman see a brother with a white girl, you ever see how her face duz set up like rain about to fall? She will chupse, she will give dirty looks, she will cuss, she will give cut-eye, she will do everything in her power besides throw big rocks (and sometimes she wishes she had a rock or two to throw) to register disgust with that black man.

Let me give you a story. One time I was walking into Chapters book store downtown Toronto and this white girl was walking near to me. I cant remember what she looked like because I wasn't paying much attention. She wasn't with me lets set that straight! I don't want my black female readers to start cussing me so let we get that straight one time. I did not know the white girl. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So I'm at the store's entrance and as we reached the entrance together I just held the door open for the girl, just trying to be courteous. She said thank you. Well at that very minute two sistren was leaving the building. They were chatting all nice and happy when all a sudden they see me holding the door open for the white girl. Boy if ya see how facial complexion change one time quick quick so. If them two girls had anything on them they could throw at me I man wouldn't be here to tell the story. Talk about face look vex! I almost run back through the door but then they might have chased me down and beat me to within an inch of my life. And I'm walking into the store trying to shrug it off and proclaim my innocence without loudly shouting 'she aint wid me I doan know de white girl' but the daggers that shooting from these sisters faces already brand me somehow to be a 'race traitor' and them ready to kill me.

And that's not a one time occurrence for me either. Its happened a few times at least. I think a sisten explain to me that I seem like a brother that would date white women, I don't know exactly what that means one of you sisters will have to explain.

But you know what's funny about black women and this white girl issue. It holds for any situation. How I mean? Well sometimes brothers have the same type of issue when we see black women with white men. However men are more discriminating with who they apply this issue to. If we see Halle with a white man, we would be vex. Brothers would be like 'oh man! Why she have to be with that white dude and leave the brothers, that's just wrong son, that ill!' Same thing if we saw Beyonce with a white man or Janet Jackson with a white man or some other sister on the street who we consider beautiful. Brothers will be straight upset. But say we see Whoopie Goldberg or Grace Jones with a white man ya think bredren a kick up fuss? No star we discriminating about it like that.

Not black women. Oh hell no. A brother could be walking down the street looking musty, smelly, ashy aint bathe since last year. He's the type of brother that you don't want, you're friends don't want, you would even warn off the pretensious chick that's always trying to put you down at the club from talking to him. But somehow even though you know that this man is undesirable squared and you should be happy that he found someone and isn't single and bothering you with his musty self you will still have that white girl issue. Look you know no black woman in her right mind aint going to want the dude why you tripping?

So yes, I definitely think the Jeter incident is an issue of a black woman just getting vex and sending him a letter. Don't blame the white supremacist is a black woman do that. Clearly any idiot can see that (which may explain why I spotted it first). What's that FBI number again, I letting off some info, dem have a reward? I man turning informer!

End of summer

Alas another summer has officially come and gone. Last year was the summer of pink well this year was the summer of the flip flop and the lacy tops.

You know the flip flop, the flippit to the flippit the flip flip flop and it just don't stop. Sorry couldn't resist. But seriously this summer it seemed like the flip flops were out in full force. A lot more than previous summers. Every man jack was wearing flip flops. Well every man jack besides me that is. I man never get with the flip flops or sandals just not my style.

And then there were the lacy tops. Oh my! This summer the in thing for the girls was the lacy tops which looked more like lingerie, more like they should have been worn in the bedroom as opposed to on the street. Not that I'm going to complain, to each his/her own, I'm just saying it was kind of interesting walking down the street feeling like I was in my own personal Victoria Secrets show. Yeahhhh baby!

On a totally different topic I believe I saw someone with piercings in the back of their neck, just below the hair line today on the subway. I've seen face, body, ears but never back of the neck before. It was rather disturbing and looked painful. Ouch!

Anyway this summer was a bit different for me as it was my first summer spent in the wild burbs of Scarborough aka Farborough aka Scarberia, in my own house dealing with house issues as opposed to apartment issues. I much prefer apartment issues I must say, where's the super when you need one lol.

Still the wife said I've adapted to the handy man role quite well. I guess its just a matter of my motto being if it has to be done and you can do it then do it even if you're never done it before. Of course I'm the rather fearless handyman except for things electrical. I've been known to not use gloves with all sorts of crazy chemical stuff, one of these days I'm going to mess around and dissolve off my fingers or something. I think its cause I am accustomed to as a kid helping my dad do stuff and he never wore gloves. Only thing is today's cleaners and thinners and stuff seem to be way more strong than the ones I remember as a kid. Hmmm maybe the warning industrial strength signs should have been a giveaway but bah who reads that ish lol.

I remember quite a few years back when I was doing a weekend job finishing a deck for someone. Did the whole job and then went to clean out the brushes. Not even sure what solution I was using but I thought oh I can just easily put my hands in here and just try and clean out some of the bristles. Nope, it started as a slight tingle, hey that means its working in shampoo terms right, umm no that means that my hands are going to be on fire in 2 minutes and will burn like I dipped them into hell 's deepest pits for the next hour. Well I learned my lesson there but its not the lesson you would think I should have learned. Lesson learned was if you're going to burn off your fingers make sure you do it on your own project instead of crap for other people.

Hmm come to think of it maybe its a good idea I stay away from the electrical stuff. I can just see myself randomly touching exposed wires saying 'no that's not liiiiiiivvvveeee!' and ending up with Don King's hair.

Anyway living so far from downtown is weird though. As a man who has always lived closed to the centre of things all his life its an interesting transition to being this far away from downtown but still no complaints lets just say that a brother learned a lot about skunks, dandelions, raccoons and seeding lawns all within the short space of time.

All in all I cant really complain about this summer when I think of it. It was hotter than last year so I definitely wouldn't complain about the weather and although I didn't get any major time off work I still had time to do a few useful things and enjoy some summer events. Of course that whole month lost to pan practice is just a blur but besides that or rather even including that things were pretty decent this summer.

Anyhow, think I'm running out of things to chat and I'm just not feeling in a sharing mood these days, been depressed and life and Toronto or life in Toronto is getting to me so I'm considering a blog hiatus for a while. Or maybe I'll start to recycle the blogs. I know there are some hilarious ones most of you guys haven't seen yet. We'll see how that works. lol. Still since I haven't given you guys anything funny to read lately the least I can do is link you guys to Thykness' site which has a hilarious post about waxing.

Until the next blog stay safe and have a great weekend.

Popular Media day

Ok I guess I should jump back on the horse and blog about something or the other.

First off ANTM is back and although I didn't know this I accidentally stumbled onto it tonight as I made dinner BUT under no circumstances will I be wasting valuable blog space on that show this year ...although my man Nate Dogg was on so I can confidently say that I watched without sounding effeminate. What?? I'm comfortable with my masculinity, who said that lol.

Hold up wait.... (just had to throw that little Nate Dogg line in) All I'm saying is one girl needs to do something with her eyebrows , Twiggy was harsh on the sisters and my favorite girl is Ebony. I 'm done, I'm a respected blogger I cant be talking about no top models no more lol. Yea lets talk about something sports related or something like that, Anyone see the game? That reminds me I wanted to do a blog about how the Jays continue to get whiter and the Raptors will suck big time this year but with whinny Vince gone I may actually go watch my first game in 3 years.

Secondly, the new Damien Marley cd is kinda hot but if you read my man obi you'd already know that. Today was the first time I got a chance to really listen to the full second verse of welcome to Jamrock. Wicked lyrics my yout.

Come on let's face it, a ghetto education's basic
A most a the youths them waste it
And when they waste it, that's when they take the guns and replace it
Then them don't stand a chance at all
And that's why a nuff little youth have up some fat matic
With the extra magazine inna them back pocket
And have leisure night time inna some black jacket
All who not lock glocks, them a lock rocket
Then will full you up a current like a short circuit
Them a run a roadblock which part thr cops block it
And from now till a mornin not stop clock it
If the run outta rounds a brought back ratchet

Kinda deep. Overall I think I still like Halfway Tree better than this album and I must say I'm astonished that he re-made Pimper's Paradise but its kinda nice although not as good as the original which was one of my favorite Bob songs. He also samples Exodus on Move. I guess its his pops ish so he can use it. One bad move though, the Hey Girl song is pure BET throwaway. Its dreadful, that's probably the one bad point on the album although I got sidetracked and haven't finished the last two songs yet.

Thirdly, its new tv time. Yea if I'm going to do a popular media post why not just do it all one time. I'm just rambling here in case you haven't figured it out yet. I'm personally really not feeling the new tv season at all. I know everyone's raving on this whole Prison Break show. Sorry but I just cant get with this shows premise, I mean what happens once the guy breaks out and how can they sustain this show for longer than one season. If they had straight out said it was a miniseries maybe I would watch but they claim that even after the guy gets away the story will continue. Well duhh then it cant be called Prison Break can it?

I'm waiting to watch the premier of Chris Rock's Everyone Hates Chris but I fear that will disappoint. Only show so far that's grabbed my attention is Steven Bochco's 'Over There' and even that's sorta questionable cause I really hate the dumb black character they have Sticky Fingers playing. Still its sort of like Tour of Duty for the new millennium I guess.

And finally in a previous blog I complained about those striking CBC dudes taking over my local community station in the morning and taking off my favorite radio shows. Yea I know CBC radio is all informative and a great listen but yo the man interrupt soca and dancehall in the morning to inform me. Soca and dancehall man! I man missing some new soca tunes to get me going in the morning first so that then my brain wakes up and I can then take in the information. lol. Well anyway apparently this is the last week for the CBC guys on CIUT and from next week I get my Worldwide and Morning Ride shows back. Yesss!

Ok not my best prose ever. ok tomorrow a decent post. Promise.

Random quote

"Very few people who are not involved with inner-city schools have any real idea of the extremes to which the mercantile distortion of the purposes and character of education have been taken or how unabashedly proponents of these practices are willing to defend them. The head of a Chicago school, for instance, who was criticized by some for emphasizing rote instruction that, his critics said, was turning children into "robots," found no reason to dispute the charge. "Did you ever stop to think that these robots will never burglarize your home?" he asked, and "will never snatch your pocketbooks....... These robots are going to be producing taxes."

Taken from Still Separate, still Unequal America's Educational Apartheid by Jonathan Kozol Harper's Magazine September 2005

Welcome to T dot

Was walking up Yonge street through the rain Friday evening and heard Lil Kim's blatant rip off of Damien Marley's Welcome to Jamrock and thought to myself let me do a T-dot version. So I sat on my subway ride and made this up between sleep and pondering life's eternal question; arent vybez kartel's neva neva and nuttin nah go so by notch basically the same song? why do subway riders stand in the doorway and stop other riders from getting on the train when there is ample room in the aisles? What does Paul Wall mean when he's talking about sitting sideways is he talking about riding in a TTC bus? And the greatest mystery of all can the rumours be true did the Source gave Lil Kim's new album 5 mics and if so why?

Anyway as you can see still I dont feel like saying too much this week, just still jdid today i guess.

Oh and off/on topic why is it if enter Welcome to Toronto in google images one of the first images I encounter is two topless women who really should be covered? Now now guys dont all rush to google now. lol

Anyway here is my first draft 'needs to be edited' or thrown in the garbage Welcome to T-dot have a great week.



Out in the streets they call it murder!

Welcome to T dot
it started getting hot, on my block
nuff black man fi get shot
it look like it cant stop, wont stop
and then some eediat
claim all blacks fe get stop (by police!)
dey say we need more cop
some say that the yout is a bad lot
even parents saying this a bad crop
it seem like a bad plot
filmed in a t-dot backlot
ya dont know what man have in him backpack
cause every day it seems man lost him head
fraid fe walk some street cause the place get dread
gangsta aim at enemy, shoot you instead
bullet dont know rasta from baldhead
welcome to T-dot!

Yea I know I make the place sound like Falujah or something when in reality it is quite safe compared to most North American cities but as I said it was just what popped into my head. Maybe I need to do a Caribana version.

Out in the streets they call it soca!!

Welcome to T dot
I jumpin up till I get hot hot
soca music play non-stop
I on pun the pan rack
i looking an i had to say whats that
dem gals have summuch back back
dem looking real phat phat
man wine an end up wid a break back
faget ta tek him ginseng extract
him neva shud test dat
him neva shudda claim him can best dat
........


or something so..

Ah tired

For some reason this week has worn me out. I sat here at the computer last night with thoughts to write something interesting and then I decided forget that I'm going to go read a bit.

This week has drained my energy like it was a costumed villain who plotted to absorb my super powers. Getting weak....... What's happening? Who stole my energy?

Yesterday was actually a pretty nice day weather wise although I wasn't in the greatest of moods. Went to a spot I hadn't been to for lunch in quite a while (prices went up decided it wasn't worth going there too much) and on my way I passed this store that was playing some old hip hop I hadn't heard for a long time. Couldn't match it with the catalogue in my head though. That's annoying. Then on my way back I got it. LOTUG's second album Keepers of the funk. Cool! That helped to improve my day.

Plus I stopped and talked to the dread about his fete tomorrow night. Not sure I'll reach but the dread is cool people. Been buying 'conscious' reggae from the yout for like a year or more now and its only a few weeks back that I found out that he's in business with a bajan bredren that I've known since like 95. Small world aint it? Like earlier this summer I found out this sistren I've known since University is the cousin of one of my best friends back home. The Caribbean community just too small. Everyone's connected to everyone else somehow.

Anyway as you can tell I've not much to talk about this morning at least not in the short time I have before I go to work. Everyone have a great weekend.

Hijabs gone wild

Sorry guys as a man trying to run a nice family oriented blog I cant give y'all no stripper stories. What wunnah trying to do put me out of business? Get me banned from Blogger? Plus my wife duz read this blog on rare occasion. Knowing my luck she would read this one. Y'all trying to break up a happy home and get me divorce? I aint got no alimony money ya know! She already tek half a mine ya want she tek all now. Cuhdear!

No seriously I could make up a stripper story if you guys want but in reality there isn't much to tell of this one. Like I said last post a stripper lived on our floor in residence for a few months. She was from some small town and was the girlfriend of this biker looking guy who also living on my floor, she was performing at one of the local strip clubs, they fought a lot and at all hours of the night, she stole another floor mates money or something like that and she was drunk a lot and might have taken her clothes off once or twice from what I HEARD (nope didn't see anything and given what she looked like with clothes on I don't think I missed anything). Oh and dudes roommate was well upset about having to share his room with an extra body. There stripper story done!

Ok! On the other end of the spectrum from strippers lets talk about something a little more refined. Muslim women.

Now Toronto has seen quite a large influx of folks from South Asia and the middle east in the last few years and many of them are Muslim. In fact I'd say its safe to say that our whole demographic is changing rather rapidly with the influx of these immigrants. Take Scarborough for instance where a few years back it was mostly Asian, Blacks and Whites. Well now I think the dominant ethnicity is becoming South Asian (Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan etc).

This doesn't sit well with some folks but I think that happens whenever a new ethnic group starts to move into an area. Actually its rather interesting to me just from the standpoint that I wonder if the sort of comments I hear today are the types of things one heard when my Caribbean black folk were immigrating here in the 60s.

Anyway, I'm not here to do any serious social commentary on the face of Toronto, I'm just here too talk about hijabs. Yes hijabs, you know the head covering that some Muslim ladies wear. All do not wear it as I think it depends on how strictly you follow the religion and your personal beliefs etc.

Its sort of reminds me of how when I was growing up it was the norm for all Christian ladies to wear hats to church in the Caribbean. Hats was serious serious business! Lace hats, cotton hats , flowered hats, big brim hats, small brim hats. Hats was style and class! Boy if a lady wasn't wearing a hat something was wrong with her! She would be the focus of gossip and people would think she backsliding. A lady's head could not be bare in church. No joke. That was like almost the ultimate sin. Ya could cuss people all week long and no one would say anything but don't show up in church bare head at all or ya name getting ridicule. It was almost like the person was walking around naked in company.

'hey hey looka she doah, looka how she come in the house a de lord wid all she head expose'
'but wait dat aint miss brown daughter?'
'yes dat is de said one doris, de said one'
'whapart she mudda?'
'oh she gone ova in away ta visit de son that live in Boston'
'so wait ya mean she wait till she mudda outta the country an come inside hayso looking so. wha happen de mudda hide all de hats before she leff home? chupse! wha she aint got no shame looking so this bright Sabbath morning? I know she mudda train she betta dan that. wha even if she couldn't find a hat home she cudda borrow one.'

Well just like the pious devout Christian ladies used to wear hats back in the day I guess its the same with the Muslim ladies and the hijab. And no I' not talking about the veil over the face or burkas or the other stuff. Just the hijabs and only the hijabs.

Now I'm not Muslim but I do admit to having had quite the fascination with the religion at various points in my life. Now from what I can tell and I aint no expert just someone who asked questions, the hijab is worn to cover the ladies heads and to add to the modest dress of the Muslim ladies. No titillating fashions to be worn in public for these ladies. What some who wear the burka wear under those long robes though is another topic for speculation but that is another blog and before y'all ask I don't know. Cheese on bread den! Wunnah real gypsy (nosey) though. lol.

Anyway I just found out that aside from referring to the actual head dress, the Arabic word hijab also just means the practice of dressing modestly. Cant stress this modest dressing thing too much here because that's what its all about.

Why? Well because from what I saw with a few young ladies in Toronto this summer they missed the memo which outlined what the hijab means. Either that or modest has taken on a new meaning.

One day this summer doing a little walk on the main road I passed some young ladies and one of them just shocked me. Beautiful young lady, Hijab on head, belly at de door (exposed), navel ring showing. Hmm not exactly modest dress now is it? I almost didn't believe my eyes. Had to do a double take but yep there it was Hijab, belly ring together in a strange unholy unity. Doesn't showing your belly defeat the purpose of wearing the hijab? Oh I'm Muslim and I'm wearing my hijab to show my piousness and cover my head but all my stomach is exposed. Ok then.

Then a few weeks back I was in a certain mall and I walked past another young lady wearing the hijab. She was a rather voluptuous woman and was also wearing a rather revealing top and tight tight sweat pants with writing across the butt. She was showing every curve of her sizable assets. Nuh lie! Not only that but the woman was walking and wining! Ya know wining? That is when the waist and the buttocks got rhythm and sway and bounce as you walk. I had to say to myself boy I hear bout nanny wine, ten cent wine, dollar wine and a whole heap of other wine but I never hear bout no hijab wine before. That must be the new calypso for next year lol.

Hijabs, revealing tops, tight pants, hmmm again not a combination I had imagined.

Anyway don't get me wrong. This type of thing isn't commonplace. These two ladies and another one I saw were anomalies to the whole hijab thing but I just found it really grabbed my attention because you really done expect to see that sort of thing when you see the hijab. No wonder those fundamentalist people always saying that the West duz corrupt. Lawd ave mercy!

First Day of University

Well last week I did the first day of Primary school and promised I'd talk about my first day of University so here goes.

First day of University for me could actually be broken down into three separate experiences on three different days over the course of that first week. The first experience was the day I moved into residence, the second one was my programs initiation/orientation day and the third one was the actual first day of classes. All of them had that first day feel and provided me with jitters and the feelings that I was embarking on a whole new adventure.

I'll only go into detail about the first one - moving into residence though. The first day of actual classes was basically about my first algebra class and how I totally freaked out and ran to find tutors afterwards as I was afraid I didn't have what it took to be in University. The initiation/orientation experience was basically a run down of the b.s initiation we had into our program and how Jdid was forced to fight off a horde of stupid half drunk frosh (freshman) on his way home because of some silly inter-departmental rivalry.

I won by the way, as the battle stopped after they claimed I was "fighting back too much". Hey I'm sorry I didn't know I was supposed to let 5 strange guys, run up to me on the street on the first day of school and without fighting back let them beat me up, just because I was wearing a t-shirt saying I belonged to a faculty they had some issue with. I didn't get that memo apparently. Oh my bad I wasn't supposed to fight, the sane ones recognize the odds and run away so you can either laugh or trip them up and then beat them up. Actually I know one dude who got his arm broken that year while running away during a similar initiation melee. Well clearly they didn't realize I'm not completely sane. 5 to 1 looked like great odds to me even if they were for the most part bigger than me. That's ok big man have muscles, bony man have sharp elbows and I've been throwing bows way before Luda. He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day maybe but well who said I wanted to fight another day? I was perfectly willing to scrap on their terms cause if I'm going down all I know was I was taking at least one of their punk asses with me. I fought and I fought dirty.

So anyway clearly I still got issues with that crap since it wasn't something I signed up to do at University so I've said enough about that lets talk about my first day in residence.

Residence
So before I get into the particulars let me just tell you all that my journey to Canada and University was actually my first time leaving the Caribbean, actually leaving Barbados, actually leaving home, so some culture shock was expected. I came up to North America about three weeks early and hung around with family here and in the U.S just to get my bearings but going off to residence was still a major undertaking as this was going to be the first time I lived on my own, set my own rules did my own laundry etc etc.

So Labor Day (traditional moving in day at my college) I got my georgie bundle (shout out to Urban Sista) together and one of my family members drove me down to school.

I was a bit nervous since I was unsure what to expect. This was after all a whole new experience and here I was in a foreign land without the usual safety nets I was accustomed to.

The residence building was a rather imposing structure from the outside. A large four story brick building with lots of generic looking windows and a courtyard in the centre. Very institutional like I found. I was still not used to being in places with so much artificial light and found that the long hallways with its artificial light had this disconnected feeling to them like I was cut off from the world. There was also had this strange smell like the carpets had been cleaned but whatever debauchery had occurred in the place had still not been completely wiped away.

I also found that from the first the hallways with their drab colors just gave me this feeling that this place was built for functionality and not for warmth. You know sort of like how they use those creams and other colors at fast food places to encourage the mind not t linger after you've finished eating. This place would be my dwelling but not my home if that makes any sense. But what's a brother to do, just got to be comfortable and remember the task at hand is to go to school and not FAIL!

I thought that the dorm rooms were small although at that time I really had no comparison for dorm rooms. But then again most dorm rooms are small. Two beds, two desks and some clear space in the middle of the cheaply tiled floor. I got there ahead of my roommate so I was able to select the bed where I could roll clockwise without falling off. The beds were small though as I was accustomed to sleeping on a queen sized mattress all my life. How's a brother to stretch out? Oh well at least they weren't too short.

My roommate showed up a bit later. He was actually another black guy and it turns out that the dorm director had paired us up not simply because we were the only two black guys on that floor but because we were the only two guys who had said we liked hip hop on our applications. Mind you roomie was way more into the commercial stuff than I was (Mr Hammer cringe!) although at one point during that year he metamorphosized into this Afrika Bambatta medallion wearing, proud to be black entity but I had no problems with that as I think my Malcolm X shirt might have been the spark to the change anyways lol. (And yes that was after I had read his autobiography so I did know who he was and what he stood for)

Still it worked out pretty well for us and homeboy was/is still cool so I aint got no complaints there.

Anyway speeding up this story, after settling in a bit around 4 o'clock the Don, floor leader, called a meeting so everyone could be introduced to each other. I was meeting small town guys from places like Coburg, St Catherines, Mindon, Elmira, Chatham, Sudbury, Port Hope and a string of Ontario towns I'd never heard of before in my life but then again up to that point I wasn't even sure where Scarborough was. lol

Everyone seemed cool for the most part although you kind of knew that some of the small town guys had never been this close to a black person in their lives and were wondering what part of Jamaica Barbados umm Bahamas umm Bermuda was. It just showed by the way they looked at you.

So the Don asks if we're all of drinking age (19 in these parts) or at least had fake ID's and once that was sorted out it was off to a bar for us.

Now I'll be honest here. Growing up in the Caribbean you see a lot of alcohol around you even if you aren't drinking. Every small one room grocery shop has some stools or side room or rum shop attached where guys go on their lunch break or whenever they find time to hang out and share a snap bottle, or a few Banks beers, slam some dominos and argue cricket or politics. I'd been in or around many a rum shop from young. Actually many many a rumshop. Still I was going to learn that a rumshop definitely is not the same as a bar and up until this point I had never been into a bar.

Actually as we marched up the street, I was a little skeptical about this whole bar thing. Couldn't we just chill somewhere and converse without drinking? Why did I need id to drink, I'd been to parties in Barbados and I'd never showed no id. Sorry I guess that was just my small island naivete showing out.

So we reached the bar and walk in. I was imagining Cheers since that was the only bar context I really knew back then. Instead I walked into this extremely gloomy establishment, where the few lightbulbs were clearly losing the battle against the dark. One could barely see where one was walking. Thick long wooden benches and tables like something out of a medieval viking feast covered the floor and there was an overwhelming smell of stale beer permeating everything.

From the get go I was uncomfortable. I was just fidgetty like whoa this is not the sort of place a nice Christian raised yout like you should be going into. Yea I know I'd been int rumshops but like I said something here was just different, more unholy to me somehow. My senses were on edge cause from my imagination this was the type of place where crazy stuff happened; people got drunk, started bar fights, knives were drawn, people died. Hey what can I say I had a vivid imagination.

I'm not feeling very comfortable with this set up and the seedy looking characters who are here already and as it stands I barely know the people I'm with and I'm one of two black dudes in the place. So nope was not very comfortable.

I could barely see who was sitting across the table from me anyways. We ordered some pitchers but I declined any of the alcohol since the glasses and the pitcher didn't look too clean and I had no intention of touching anything besides the partially sticky benches in that establishment. yuck!

So after chatting for a few minutes when the drinks came I excused myself on the pretext that I was going to the bathroom and I just left my floor mates and that bar. Although I was to live in that area for the next 10 plus years I never went back to that spot (although I heard its cleaned up quite a bit now) and to tell the truth of all the bars I've ever went to that remains the grimiest and dirtiest one I've seen.

Anyway that night everyone came back to residence fall down drunk, puking up their guts. Another smell to add to the melange in the hallway carpet I guess. All the while I'm thinking what have I gotten myself into. It was the start of the craziest year of my life on a floor where drugs, alcohol, strippers and fights were the norm. Yep there was actually a stripper living on our floor rather clandestinely for about two months at one point, long story! Apart from the fighting (I had to serve some fool who messed with me once), I kind of stayed away from it all by spending lots of time in the library (And I've always hated libraries for study purposes). About 3/4 of the freshmen on that floor that year ended up dropping out, transferring university or program or going on probation just due to the craziness that was going on but thankfully I was able to ride it through. After all I had the strong motivation that if I screwed up I probably wouldn't be able to show my face back in Barbados ever again.

Dirty Rotten

SKUNKS!

Last night Pepe and one of his boys were having an epic struggle on my back lawn. I had no idea what the crazy racket was outside until we turned on the lights and there they were beating the crap out of each other and spraying up the place something fierce. And even though all windows were closed somehow that smell still filtered into the house so that the entire place smells like skunk. Dirty Rotten Scoundrel Skunks lol!

Anyway today is just a random mish mash of stuff today. First up big up to Humanity Critic for sweeping the Black Blogger Awards. He probably couldn't have done it without Solitaire as campaign manager though.

And summer is over or almost over and the one and only Starfoxx is finally back so to all her fans go check her out. Oh yea big up all Toronto massive, Star, Urban Sis, Marlo, Soli, Radmila, Big N, Nat, Becky and anyone I forgot. By the way where's the Big N these days has his site been jacked?

And in case anyone feels left out just big up everyone who reads here and all the bloggers out there too numerous to mention. Speaking of which I've noticed a significant increase in the black bloggers out there in the past few weeks. I'm checking comments on other sites etc and just seeing a whole bunch of new names. Is it folks are new or just we getting more connected? Big tings a gwan! Good to see us making moves BUT on another note what's up with my Caribbean massive. No new Caribbean bloggers who are actually in the Caribbean, what a gwan there? I feel like is Mad Bull and Dr D intimidating the yout dem or is just them 'faid of Kami :-)

Had a nostalgic episode yesterday when I was listening to this sort of old country-ish song with some Mexican guitars called Perdoname (don't think I was listening to the original version though) which means forgive me in Spanish on the subway yesterday. Some of you Caribbean folks from my era may know it. That song just brought back memories of my yout and I could see myself listening to CBC (Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation not Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) as a child. It was really a strong vision. Somehow calming. I started smiling broadly but then folks on the subway gave me that 'wha wrong wid you?' look so I retreated back into my headphones.Sigh!

And finally big big big shout out to my brother the one and only Rogue for hitting me up with the new banner. That's my homie from Bim (Barbados). We've known each other since we were like in primary school when I was writing stuff like 'don't copey' through High school when we were discussing deep philosophical questions like if you throw a big rock and chop somebody but nobody see you throw the big rock does that mean that the person was actually chopped by a big rock. Hmmmmm! Actually we never discussed that but I think its worth discussing. Ah the stories I could tell but which I wont. So much respect man, not sure you read this stuff but hey just thought I'd still give you your props. One!

Have a great weekend folks. Monday I'll do the first day of University blog.

Eediat Ting dat!

And here I was saying ok enough talk about Katrina and let me try and lively up the spirit by chatting a bit about back to school (don't worry will still do the first day of University post in a few) when along comes this:

Barbara Bush while touring a facility filled with some of those displaced from Hurricane Katrina had this to say "So many of the people here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them

And although Echo and Humanity Critic amongst others beat me to the punch on this story (yea I saw it Wednesday morning but was just too busy to blog) I just have this one thing to say. EEDIAT!!!! (idiot)

There I said it! sigh. What is wrong with that woman? She senile or she gone dotish or what? Does she think this is a makeover show for the poor where we're sending in an interior designer named Katrina to remodel these people's homes.

Katrina:
"Hmm lets give the room some more space. Those walls must simply go, and that wardrobe must be replaced".
"I think this place needs a bit of tweaking, I'm imagining water everywhere for that new aquatic look that's all the rage these days. Think Venice!"

Seriously Mrs Bush what kind of dumb-ass statement was that? Do you drink? Do you have a drug problem? Well at least I guess now we see which side of the family Dubya takes after.

So the folks were poor do you seriously think they are happier now that they are homeless and have lost all their possessions? What kind of logic is that? You actually believe things are better for these folks now that they are living in makeshift housing? What does that say about America the beautiful, land of a thousand opportunities?

And if these people are so poor that a hurricane striking is actually an upgrade to their existence what does that say about your son's leadership of the country and presidency?

No wonder Kanye said y'all don't like black people.

**************************************************
On another note CBC broadcasting is on strike here. You know Canada land of the strikes. So local community Radio CIUT (University of Toronto's broadcast station) has actually signed one of CBC's regular morning guys to do their morning show during weekdays on a volunteer basis.

I have a big issue with this. Personal but an issue nevertheless.

Why? Cause the usual morning shows on CIUT at least two or three days are West Indian music shows. So Monday morning I didn't get any King Turbo dancehall reggae show (although I usually forget that's on these days) and even worse this morning I wake up in the mood to listen to D'Bandit and Court Jester do the Worldwide show, the highlight of my week radio wise, and bring me some hot soca, dancehall and hip hop and get a brother moving this morning.

Instead I get to listen to some dude with the emotional range of a rock do the morning show. How am I supposed to get motivated by CBC's morning monotone where the man aint even sound like he wake up yet. I listen to 5 minutes and did ready to go back to sleep. Chupse!

And its the time of the year where the Kingdom of Soca djs would be playing all the new Bajan crop-over music too. I think this CBC guy better go hit the picket line and let me get back my shows in the morning cause I want my soca. And no soca or die wasn't a threat ......at least not yet anyways lol.