Saturday, April 20, 2002
I like Digicel. They are the Cell phone company of choice, in my opinion. (A pox on Cable and Wireless Mobile, they are "too tief"! (They are crooks) Digicel decided they were going to give ONE MILLION dollars (approx. US$21000.00) away to celebrate their first year of operation. They were going to select a series of cell phone numbers at random, and they were going to call them at 9:00PM last night. Whichever one was answered first would win the prize. Now I have two Digicel cell phones, so you done know (you can understand) I was excited! Two chances out of 365,000, (they have about 365,000 customers), how could I possibly lose ?
So, they started dialling numbers. The announcer would say in as dramatic a fashion as possible "3"... "8"... "1"... etc., calling out each number. They had to do this for several numbers, as they were getting busy signals on them all. After thay had gone through several, they decided that they would take a break to research the problem, because it was unlikely that numbers selected at random would all be on the phone or off at the same time. People began to mutter that Digicel had blundered somehow in selecting the numbers, that they had made a big boo boo, and would end up with egg in their face as a result of the problems they were having with this little giveaway.
But do you know what their research turned up? When people heard the numbers being called, if the number wasn't theirs, they dialled the numbers in an attempt to render the number busy, so that the Digicel representative would have to try another number! They did this because they hoped their number would be called next! You see how Jamaican people can be "BAD MIND! (Wicked! Evil! Terrible! and I can go on and on). Now can you imagine if they had called MY number and people had dialled it and rendered it busy! Somebody would have to get hurt for that, you know! Sure enough, they selected a number, they didn't announce the numbers, they just dialled it and Voila! They got an answer... There must've still been something wrong, 'cause they didn't call me. They gave my money away to someone else! WaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!
Anyway, I forgive them. But Jamaican people, that was POOR behavior indeed! NUH RAMP WID MY MONEY LIKE DAT, Y'KNOW! (Don't play around with my money like that).
posted by
Mad Bull at
8:40 AM - [Link me]
We break our regular programming to bring you this piece of advice. Yesterday morning, while I was driving to work, my mind ran across an old friend from way back. He was quite the girls man, or as we sometimes said when I attended St. Georges College, a cocksman. He wasn't really handsome, so I thought he must've had the mouth of a god, you know, that he was full of lyrics. He was the sort of guy that a teen aged boy could look up to. "He is seeing THREE girls at once, you know! And two of them know about each other and they are prepared to accept it! He really must be skillful!". "Yeah man, a di Don Dada dat!" (he is the Don of all Dons, don being a guy who's respected for something) Tales of his exploits have become legend, I tell you.
Then this woman I know in more recent times told me that he tried to rape her. I know her well, and I believe her. It was a shock though, because he always had so many women, you'd never think he would feel he had to do something like that. When I listen to her describe what happened, it dawned on me that my friend was operating under the theory that the girl didn't mean "no" when she said no... He thought she meant "try a little bit harder", or "some other time" or "I'm just playing hard to get". Anything but no!
Here is my view on it... If you accept and live by this theory, you'll eventually rape, or at least come close to raping some woman. Some of the time you may be able to convince the woman to change her mind after she's said no, but one day you'll meet the one who says "no" and sticks to her guns. But you'll continue as you normally do, expecting that she'll soon change her mind and say yes, but she doesn't, and before you know it, you'll have raped her. This is not a good thing!
My advice to you men reading this is to stop once you hear "no", and I think parents need to pass on this advice to their children too, because teenage boys are responsible for a lot of behavior like this. Part of this is not just telling them "When a woman says 'no', she means no!", but also letting them know that 'no' does means NO in their daily lives from when they are young. When you say no, mean it, and enforce it, so that they take the word 'no' seriously. The consequences of not doing so may be vastly more painful than if these steps are taken. Now, we take you back to the programme you were watching...
posted by
Mad Bull at
8:17 AM - [Link me]
Friday, April 19, 2002
How could I describe today in one word? Rain! Thats it. No, it didn't rain all day, but so far its definitely been the dominant feature... The day started out seeming to be another of our hot beachey days, so much so that I was planning to go running today. I left work to go for MB. Jr. and as I turned unto the road that his school is on, it began to drizzle. I put him in the car and drove out through the gates and the heavens opened! Trust me, rain! Heavy, blinding rain. Lightening! Lots of lightening! Thunder! It sounded like a barrage of cannon. During one particular broadside, I actually ducked, because the lightening seemed to flash immediately in front of me, searing my eyes, and the crack of thunder was nearly synonymous. They say that you can tell how far away from you thunder is by the amount of time between the flash of the lightening and the crash of the thunder, approximating the distance at about a mile per second. That particular one must have been very, very near.
The problem with rain in Kingston is not that it is heavy or blinding. It is the effect it has on traffic. Did I mention that Jamaica is a very mountainous island. In addition to that fact, consider that all the roads which were built since the English granted us independence were built without drains. Drains seem to have been considered an evil colonial bit of baggage, or simply inexplicably expensive and most definitely not a necessity. When it rains, therefore, all roads become rivers. Raging torrents, some of them. Luckily for me the blue Mazda can swim. But these rivers slow up traffic interminably. Then they have the people with cars which were never taught to swim. They can slow traffic down a lot as well. You take off at lunch for the daily pickup of MB. Jr. which is usually a 45 minute exercise, and you end up having to change your route twice and still taking over two hours!
Anyway, a so it go. Sometimes its rain, sometimes sun. The rain sometimes provides a bit of humour too. When I finally got back to work, I saw a friend, Davy, who works on another of the company's buildings. He was waiting in the parking lot for a woman that was travelling back to his office with him, and I stopped to say hi. After we chatted a bit, he burst out with "Where is that girl, man? You know how long I'm waiting?" So I said to him "Women have something in common with the rain, you know... Both of them keep you waiting around on them." He grinned immediately and came back with "Yeah, they both keep you waiting, and they both can get you wet!" and he said it really quickly, which I thought was pretty sharp, don't you?
posted by
Mad Bull at
6:33 PM - [Link me]
I have added a search form on the right. This will allow you to search this site only. Y'all have fun with it now, hear?
Updated : Wow, lost my comments there for a while... They're back now though.... Thank God! I've grown quite attached to them...
posted by
Mad Bull at
12:01 AM - [Link me]
Thursday, April 18, 2002
Wow! In the year 2002, Marcus Garvey is still having a positive impact on people worldwide! Who'da thunk it? I have got to visit Afrotravesty again soon to see if she writes anything more on him. Did you know that he was from Jamaica. He is actually one of our seven National Heroes. I think its cool that hes still having an impact. I think he got a lot more recognition overseas than he got at home, actually, except from the Rastafarians. They really big him up a lot...
Raining again... lightly. It was raining when I woke up, and its just now easing up a little. Got to go to work... *** grimace *** Guess I ought to go get ready.
posted by
Mad Bull at
7:35 AM - [Link me]
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Rain. The hardest, longest rain for quite a while, but it was welcome. Mona Dam is showing a lot of "skin", skin normally underneath the water and those bastards have been locking off my water again... I guess there is some basis for it, we really haven't been having much rain, but then on Saturday, rain. And again today! Its all good.
Then for the last few days, the power company has been effing up too. Last night, no power. Today, Natty said they locked it off in the afternoon. Whatever. On TVJ's Evening News, they had a poll. "Do you think that JPS Co.'s customers should get a credit on their light bill when there are power outages?" Ninety eight percent of the respondents said yes! I don't have a problem with this but I think its victimisation of a sort. I never heard such a suggestion on TV when it was Gov't. owned, but now that foreigners own it, oh yeah, CREDIT!!! Rape the foreigners! Why not? ***sigh*** Whatever!
posted by
Mad Bull at
11:26 PM - [Link me]
Ok, heres the last word on Pui trees. Dr. D. saw my blog post where I said you'd have to wait on a picture of the trees, then on his way to work, he espied several, so he took a couple of pictures and sent them to me (thanks, dude). I therefore generated a couple of pages to show you the (now several) pictures of Pui Trees. You may click here to go take a look at them. Oh well, guess I should go get ready for work... Another day, another dollar. Selah!
posted by
Mad Bull at
8:07 AM - [Link me]
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
I guess I just noticed some of the Pui trees that blossomed early, because the rest of them are going NOVA everywhere you look now. Two days ago you might have passed a spot and there was no sign of any activity from them, then today you pass and they're all up in your face. As a service to mankind, I therefore dropped everything, went home and grabbed my digital camera to capture this moment for your perusal. Yeah, I know, I'm nice like that . For those of you who've seen them before but not recently, and those of you who've never ever seen them before, the picture to the left is of a Pui tree, resplendent with its "quilt of gold"... If you click on this picture, a larger one will load that will give you a better look at one example of what I consider to be one of the most beautiful trees I have ever seen.
From time to time, people use Google or Yahoo or some other search engine to find things on the 'net. Theres so much out there that you need a tool to help you search or you might never find anything. I think search engines are possibly the second most important tool on the Internet, after email. The thing is, there are other tools that will allow you to see what people were searching for (i.e. what search terms they typed into the search engine) when they stumbled across your site. Sometimes these search terms can be pretty strange, to say the least. Now the strangest one that I have seen in my referral logs involved a search for "Bull Sex Thumbs". WTF is that? Maybe I can understand why bull and sex are together as search terms (although I still wonder why one would want to see that), but thumbs? Tell me what y'all think they were really looking for. Oh, and if you come back, you that entered that particular search, tarry with us a while... Use my comments link and enlighten us as to what it is that you were searching for, 'k? Later.
posted by
Mad Bull at
5:46 PM - [Link me]
Time to celebrate, guys. I have finally built the main blog template for my NEW BLOG PAGE! Now I've got some CSS tweaks to do, and to change the other templates of course. But at least I'm past the first hurdle. I'm going to have to work on these other areas over the rest of the week, though, because I'm getting tired now, probably from working out a bit earlier.
Got stopped by the police again. I didn't laugh at anything this time, and maybe that is why the treatment meted out was pretty decent. Give credit where credit is due, I always say... It was almost a happy occasion, so much so that I wished them a good night before I went on my way. Anyway, mi tired so mi gaan . (I'm tired, so I am going to go to bed now)
posted by
Mad Bull at
12:34 AM - [Link me]
Monday, April 15, 2002
I had to give a couple of people a lift to the Airport last Saturday, as they were flying out to Ft. Lauderdale. On the way home I decided to take a few pictures. Unfortunately, the camera I had on me wasn't the digital camera, so the pictures aren't yet available, or I would have posted one or two already. Anyway, I came across the most beautiful Pui tree, so I took a picture of it for you. I decided to write about it today, so I went back to get a picture of the tree with the digital camera, and guess what? Almost all the leaves have fallen off already. In just two days, a most beautiful tree had became ordinary, dull even... It is sad. I guess it mirrors how things happen in life. You know, "The Circle of Life" and all that stuff from the animated film "The Lion King".
I guess y'all will have to wait until the roll of film gets developed to see the Pui in all its glory. The Pui tree blossoms twice for the year, once around December or January, and again in April. When I was at University of the West Indies, (the major University in Jamaica and indeed, in the whole West Indies as it has campuses in three of the islands and it serves the whole region) we used to have a saying. They used to say that the signal for when it was time to start studying for examinations was when the Pui Tree blossomed for the first time, and if you hadn't started to study by the time it blossomed the second time, well, dawg nyam you suppah! (A dog would eat your supper, or in other words, you were bound to fail ). I listened well to that saying, and I think it worked rather well for me, even if I do say so myself . I guess I owe those trees a lot, huh?
posted by
Mad Bull at
6:13 PM - [Link me]
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Did I mention that Dr. D is a dermatologist. He did some pro bono work for me, so I thought I'd give him a "BIG UP!" Y'all should try him out, he's good. If you're a blogger and you're nice to me and you have bad skin, email me, maybe I can wangle a fee waiver for you too, right Dr. D?
We went to a kiddie party yesterday afternoon. MB. Jr. went into the Bounce About for the first time. I've always felt that he was too small at other kiddie parties hes been to. He LOVED it! Unfortunately, the party got rained out so his stint in the Bounceabout was short lived. He didn't cry or anything, but you could tell he wanted to go back into the Bounceabout, but first it was wet, then it was overrun with the bigger kids, and Natty thought that it wouldn't be safe for him anymore. "Don't worry baby, there'll be another time soon. Hush!" It's safe for me to tell him that, because the kid next door is having his birthday party next weekend.
I played a rather decent game of Kalooki last night, even if I do say so myself. I walloped the rest of the players... but GOOD!
Sometimes you can find some really interesting stuff in other peoples blogs. Not everyday, of course, but if you search around, you will find them. They can be serious, sad, happy, funny... They can make you feel any of the wide gamut of human emotions. Thats why I like reading them. Below is an excerpt from a blog belonging to someone else. This ones funny... At least, I found it funny.
"Student: What's this C+ grade you're giving me? Me: Just what it looks like. A C+. I was thinking of going for a C++, but I didn't want anyone to think this was a computer programming class. Student: Ha ha, you're killing me. I did everything you told me to--I put in roman numerals on my outline, and I even mentioned the authors of the books I'm using. Me: Take a look at your thesis. "Why it's wrong to dismember other people." Student: Yeah, so? Me: We've went over argument reliability, right? Student: Sure. If what you say is already believed by most people, it doesn't need to be argued. Me: And you don't think yours fits that bill? Student: I'm starting to see what you mean. Maybe I should change it to why it's wrong to dismember people you know. Me: Actually, give me that paper. I'll give you an A if you promise to never come in this office when I'm alone."
Excerpted from The Flannel Diaries 2002 via Random Blog Quotes. Oh, and heres a link to a really funny one: Go to www.dichotomous.org (via wKenShow.com). If you go nowhere else today, follow this last link, it had me laughing and laughing... and if you plan to blog, it renders some good advice to boot. TTYL, kiddies...
posted by
Mad Bull at
9:47 AM - [Link me]
?
Sure enough, they selected a number, they didn't announce the numbers, they just dialled it and Voila! They got an answer... There must've still been something wrong, 'cause they didn't call me. 
They gave my money away to someone else! WaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! 
! Who'da thunk it? I have got to visit 
