archives

Saturday, April 06, 2002  
Sniff, sniff... Everyones taking leisurely baths now, as they begin the ritual of getting ready for a "Frenchmen" event... and WAAAaaaahhh! Sob... We're not going... Natty hurt her knee on the exercise bike earlier in the week, and I've decided to stay with her. So I won't be able to give you a firsthand report on the "loveliness". I've decided to ask Sheggy to write up a l'il sup'n sup'n so that I can keep you informed on what will have happened.

Hmmm... I wonder if we can lay our hands on Diego and Bombay for a game of Kalooki?
posted by Mad Bull at 7:53 PM - [Link me]  

 
Like all two year olds, MB. Jr. can get quite hyper. This can be fun to watch, but it quickly ceases to be fun when you're trying to get them to do something, for instance, change their diaper. So this morning I was changing MB. Jr. and he started to act up, and, as usual, I admonished him to "Calm Down!" So he replies "Don't say that to me Dad! Don't tell me to calm down!" So I asked him why? "Because I don't like you to tell me that!".

So I was telling Natty about it, and she laughed and said that she had told him that. Apparently she was "having a firm word" with him, shall we say? Out he comes with "Calm down nuh, Mom!", same tone that I would use and everything . And so she told him not to say that. I found it funny... You notice how hes using what I tell him against her, and what she tells him against me?

It reminds me of this movie I saw once. It was about this con woman who met the two top chess grand masters who just happened to be on a cruise together, after playing to a draw against each other for the umpteenth time. She told them she could at least draw with them even if she was playing them both at once. They took up her challenge, and she laid down the rules. They would each have to play in separate rooms, and no one watching the game in one room could enter the other room to watch that game. Then she used each grand master's move against the other, and indeed, "played" them to a draw. Neither of them knew, because they couldn't see the other games progress in the other room.

But you see how kids are awesome though. Scamming me already, and hes only two years old.
posted by Mad Bull at 7:57 AM - [Link me]  

Thursday, April 04, 2002  
You know, that singer Imbruglia is a beautiful woman, y'know? And she can sing too! When I see people with such an abundance of talents, I have to wonder. See, I believe (or would like to believe) in BALANCE!. I would like to believe that the world is a balanced place. If someone really has it going on for them (ie. they look good) then since I believe in fairness, I think "Maybe they have an awful character, or maybe they live an extremely hard life." It makes you wonder when you think that someone is simply blessed and someone else didn't seem to get any blessings. It just seems unfair, somehow. How does it make you feel? This BALANCE thing I've been talking about... You think its just a crock of shit?
posted by Mad Bull at 11:47 PM - [Link me]  

 
And now Blogger won't let me post my blog entry. AAAaaarrrggghhh!! I'm going to be moving to my new domain soon. I decided to use Movable Type 2.0 to produce my blog once I've moved to the new domain. I was about to work on my new layout yesterday, but the site where I'm going to be hosted went down. I decided to load MT 2.0 up on a PC I have at work running Apache (My l'il test box). Its running Win NT, and it had an older version of perl on it, so I attempted to load a newer version of perl on the PC first. Who tell me fi do dat? (that I should have done that?) I got into all sorts of problems and the box wouldn't run any CGI processes at all for the whole day today! Anyway, I finally got it straightened out this evening. Because of my usual work, it took me all day to find out what the problem was. Hopefully, I will have my layout uploaded into MT ver. 2.0 by tomorrow. Then when my new domain is 100% ready, I'll just move the layout there. One Love, y'hear?
posted by Mad Bull at 10:18 PM - [Link me]  

 
Ohhh, let me keep you up to date on some of the Carnival goings on. The Beach J'Ouvert had party patrons "feelin' HOT HOT HOT!!! Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but apparently it really was a nice lime. A few people from my apartment complex were singing its praises, and it got a good write up in the Jamaica Star Newspaper. Check it out, y'all.
posted by Mad Bull at 10:08 PM - [Link me]  

 
Talk about putting your foot in your mouth! The Star Newspaper printed their version of the accident-murder that I blogged about yesterday. Nothing wrong with that, right? Unfortunately, they ran it under the headline "Chi-Chi Bus Driver Killed!"! Can you imagine how his family felt?!?! For those of you who don't understand, let me explain. The term "chi chi" has taken on mega-negative connotations here. Did I mention before this that Jamaica is an extremely homophobic society? Well it is. Long ago, buses such as those used by the J.U.T.C. used to be called "chi-chi buses", some say because of the sound the loud hydraulic brakes made. I am not familiar with the term being used in this way currently.

More recently, the term "chi chi man" has come to mean a homosexual man. Now it seems to me... and to a bunch of other people, apparently... that some fools at the Star Newspaper decided use this odd happenstance to come up with a sensational headline... "Chi-Chi Bus Driver Killed!"!, as the driver was driving a so-called "chi chi bus". Well, no one thought it was funny. The J.U.T.C. bus drivers withdrew their services (read strike) for the day, stranding many bus takers all over the city. Thay did this because of the Star headline, which they felt was obnoxious, and which they felt called the sexuality of the bus driver into question, and which cast some kind of shadow of homosexuality upon them all (this last bit was really stretched in my opinion). The other reason they withdrew their services was that they wanted additional security measures put in place for their own protection... They are now back on the road, because the Minister of Transport spoke with them and, I believe, promised to put some additional security measures in place.

But what of the fools at the Star, you ask? Well, I hear they suspended two employees over it. Personally, I think that someone high up in the organisation should be punished for this. I mean, they all must have known that the headline was going out on the road as it did, and nobody did anything to stop it. They seem to have adjusted the headline on the 'net, and they published an apology (see the extreme right hand side of the webpage...). Still, that was a major gaffe for such a well-thought of company. Anyway, mi gaan! (I got to go now, see you later).
posted by Mad Bull at 9:30 PM - [Link me]  

 
They're baa'aack! And they're badder than evah! The web server upon which they were all hosted blew up on them, and now they're in the peocess of moving house... But they've decided to feed their fan's addiction never-the-less... If you've been missing the likes of Christine, Robyn, wKen, et al, (and I know I have) they've set up shop temporarily HERE! A huge BIG UP! goes out to them. They've shown you can't keep a good blogger down. Go and show them some love...
posted by Mad Bull at 12:22 AM - [Link me]  

Wednesday, April 03, 2002  
When Halle Berry won the Oscar for Best Actress, there were a few bloggers out there who expressed a dislike of her, because of a couple of hit-and-run motor vehicle accidents she had been involved in. Well, all I will say about that is that Halle Berry is lucky she didn't have those accidents in Jamaica, because it is apparent that we "nuh pet and powder" (do not take kindly to ) perpetrators of hit and run accidents here. Not that I'm saying that I agree with the punishment meted out...
posted by Mad Bull at 7:06 AM - [Link me]  

Tuesday, April 02, 2002  
Chukka Cove seems to have gotten off to a brilliant start, boy! I am sorry I missed it. Actually, it has always been touted as the best fete for the Carnival every year, but I have never been to it. I can't deal with the crowd and the problem to find parking, I guess. Maybe one year I will take a helicopter there, in the same manner that the DJ Shabba Ranks (of "Mr. Lover-Lover" fame) made his entrance to the Reggae Sunsplash show once... Thats probably the only way I'll go to it. I am dying for the Frenchmen's "Afterglow" party though . I decided not to go to the "Glow" party last night, but I will endeaver to find out how good it was for you...

I noticed that Alozade didn't serve the whole nine months of his sentence. He is one lucky dude! You know, one of his hit songs goes "Bad Man nuh Pet Gal". It would seem that Bad Man nuh Pet Policemen either. Imagine, you're hauled before the courts because you did a show (along with many other DJ's) which was filled with so much profanity that you offended the sensibilities of a city. At your trial, you (again, along with other DJs) are found guilty and fined, at which point you attack your lawyer and the police officers in the courtroom!?! I really believe him when he said he was sick that day. He must have been! I just hope he doesn't do something stupid again and end up back in prison. I guess we'll just have to wait and see though, because he seems to have said he is not sorry for the actions that landed him in prison...

I like the look of that dress Ms. Violet Chang wore during the Miss Jamaica Universe Coronation show. So did at least one reporter from the Jamaica Observer, who wrote an article mainly around the dress. I must have one like it created for Natty. I guess some of the Oscar attendees would have done better to have beaten a path to Guyanese designer Roger Gary's door.

Updated (Sep 4, 2002) : For more info on Violet, click here. Check it out!

At least the powers that be are attempting to do something about that seven year old that I mentioned recently (the one caught with the gun). What I don't understand is that they don't seem to have found out yet who gave him the gun. Can a seven year old be so hardened as to resist the efforts of the police to find out who gave him that weapon? If so, we are in big trouble, baby...
posted by Mad Bull at 5:10 PM - [Link me]  

 
Jamaican parents face an awesome responsibility right now, but I'm not sure if they understand it. The Government's decisions with regards to teacher's pay packets is driving our better teachers to foreign shores. I am not angry with the teachers, because, like myself and indeed, everyone else in the society, they want to be able to "eat a food" (enjoy a decent standard of living). No, I blame the Jamaican Government, both the current and past administrations. The current administration's solution to the problem is to attempt to work out a structured recruitment program with overseas officials, but this is a method which is doomed to failure. The overseas recruitment agencies break no laws by trying to recruit teachers here. If they need teachers for their education systems, they will be doing whatever it takes to get them. They seem to understand that education is key!

We the parents need to send our Government a message. We need to impress upon them how important our children's education is to us, and the gravity with which we view the situation! They need to understand that we think it is imperative for them to find an approach which is more likely to work. I believe the best approach is to make it more attractive for the teachers to remain here. Teachers need an increase in their remuneration, so that they will find it possible to continue to give of their best to our education system. Poor schooling will not auger well for Jamaica as a whole, or for the children individually. This is an election year. Now is the time to make the point... But I wonder if they understand that?
posted by Mad Bull at 1:55 PM - [Link me]  

Monday, April 01, 2002  
Hey! This morning Diego went down to his office, which is on the Kingston waterfront, in the heart of downtown Kingston. He needed to spend about an hour there, ensuring that things were prepared for work tomorrow. As I have mentioned, today is another public holiday here, and I was just hanging around, so I decided to follow him. A lot of the people who live in this area are quite poor, but that doesn't mean they can't enjoy themselves. There was a group of boys and teenagers having a lot of fun jumping and diving into Kingston Harbour. It was fun to watch. I snapped a couple of pictures and will soon put them up on the website for your viewing pleasure so look out for them (if they come out well).

Diego has a number of pictures up in his office and the all have some inspirational material on them. There was one I liked in particular and thought I'd share it with you.

You cannot discover new oceans if you do not have the courage to lose sight of the shore

There! Short and sweet. You like it?

Later I will take MB. Jr. up to his grandparents for a little visit. I don't know whats on the agenda for this evening, but I'll stop by tonight and give you an update... See you.
posted by Mad Bull at 3:21 PM - [Link me]  

Sunday, March 31, 2002  
As I said, I didn't make it to the beach today. We invited Diego, Phillip and Bombay to our house and we played three games of Kalooki instead. It was fun. I didn't do well. I was last (from five players) in the first game, fourth in the second and third in the third, but at least I was always on the improve, right?

One important things that the game of Kalooki highlights for you are that life is uncertain. You might be doing very well now, and think that every little thing is fine, but eventually you may come to realise that all that feeling of wellbeing was a crock of doggy doo. You just never know whats going to happen, you know what I mean? Natty made this observation to me the other day.
posted by Mad Bull at 11:31 PM - [Link me]  

 
Its official. The existence of a mild sunburn precludes the Road Trip to a beach in the country for this weekend . I know y'all were dying to read my post about that, don't panic yet, it'll still happen, just not this weekend. Hush, now. Dry those eyes. If theres anything that gets my goat its the sight of a adult crying. Stay tuned for an update as to when to expect that particular broadcast... Check back frequently! I won't say when to expect the broadcast, so the only way to ensure you don't miss it is to tune in regularly, ok?

In the meantime, lets go check up on whats going on in the Jamaica Carnival... Today begins the "Carnival Week", baby! I guess a Carnival Fete won't affect a sunburn badly... Later.
posted by Mad Bull at 9:02 AM - [Link me]  

 
Ok, here are some pictures I took at the beach today, as well as one I took of the Mona Dam, where I run in the evenings (when I can). Enjoy them, let me know what you think? I mentioned to Jaded Ju that she should come down to Jamaica next Passover and sample the Escovitched Fish and Festival instead of the Gefilte fish that was mentioned here... So, Jaded Ju, or anybody else who'd like to come, send me an email, I can recommend some good hotels on the North Coast with beaches of the same standard or higher (much higher, actually)... I think it could potentially be your happiest Passover ever!

Now this is totally unrelated, but if you want to experience a l'il bit of Heaven here on Earth, while you're in Jamaica, be sure to visit the Guilt Trip restaurant and order the Strawberry Gateau. It is sure to take you there! Later...
posted by Mad Bull at 12:37 AM - [Link me]  

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