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Mad Bull's Blog
Archived Log - From 2001/09/22 - 2001/10/05

Friday, 2001/10/05 07:30:27 PM - [Link Back]
You know, Jamaica is a really irie (which means very nice) little country, but it has some major problems. One of these problems thats always in your face is crime and violence. Indeed this is arguably the greatest problem facing us today. The criminals are running amok. As a popular song here says, Kingston HOT! Its enough to make your head hurt you everytime you hear the news. I should point out, it seems that the vast majority of the criminal activity takes place in Kingston, although every now and again, something occurs elsewhere around the country.

We seem to have developed some of the coldest, most wicked murderers anywhere in the world. I guess y'all might call them stone cold killers. And the the fact that we have the "deadliest" police force in the world (according to the BBC) seems to have no effect on the problem. Indeed, it probably exacerbates it as Jamaica is well acquainted with the phenomenon of human rights abuses at the hands of the police.

K. D. Knight (the Minister in charge of Security, etc.) doesn't seem to have a clue how to deal with the problem, and I am worried that the members of the opposition may well not know how to deal with this problem either. What do you think we should do about this? If you have any ideas, write and let me know... If I like the idea, I'll publish it on my website. Hey, I'll even give you all the credit!

Tuesday, 2001/10/02 11:32:10 PM - [Link Back]
If only we got as much rain in Jamaica as they seem to get in Florida, at least while I was there... Everywhere would be green and lush like Portland. Since I got back we've been having some rain, but it isn't enough. I went up to the Mona Dam to run today and was appalled to see the level of the water. Its the lowest I've seen it for some time.

I think one of the reasons we don't get enough rain is that we've cut down too many trees. While I was running, I "lifted my eyes and looked unto the hills", er, mountains, in this case. When I was little, if you looked at the mountains, all you saw was wild, tangled bush and trees. It looked wild and beautiful. It still looks nice but the mountains have a distinct tinge of brown showing through the green now. The dirt is showing through the trees. Yes, Hurricane Gilbert and other storms blew down many trees, but there are still lots of people cutting down trees to make coal. This reduction in the number of trees affects the rain, so that more trees are starved of water in the next year, and the cycle goes on and on. The dryness in the resulting droughts lead to fires, which reduce the number of trees further. We cannot discount the effects of construction of houses in the hills either.

As a nation, we need to come up with a plan to combat this. I am talking about the desertification of Jamaica here. The name "Jamaica" was taken from a word in another language, meaning "Land of Wood and Water", but if we continue along this path, we'll have to change the country's name to mean "the land"...

People need to plant trees. By the dozen. Every garden should have a minimum of two to three trees. Fruit trees, regular trees, and even exotic trees, if you so desire... The place could be made even prettier, we should get more rain, and maybe, just maybe, I will stop getting water lockoffs. (yeh right! ). Then the government needs to look at planting of trees up in the mountains. Instead of paying people to build sidewalks and sweep streets to provide work and curry favor, get the people to plant trees in the mountains.

If we don't tackle this now, I fear what my son will see when he get's to my age and "lifts his eyes unto the hills"...

Sunday, 2001/09/30 10:32:48 PM - [Link Back]
Yeah, at one level, humans like change. A long time ago, I was flirting with a woman and she said to me "I can be anything you want me to be... Chicken, steak, fish...". Basically, she understood that humans like change, see what I'm saying. Without some level of change, humans get bored.

Yeah, I know that at another level, humans hate change too. Picture the worker who's being told that a new, more advanced system was bought and he'll have to start using it soon, and it'll require a lot of retraining... More than likely, hes going be pissed about it, but I'm not dealing with that level tonight.

The level that I'm talking about involves all kinds of change too, it can be women, food, where you live, what kind of recreation you want to engage in. In short, after you've experienced something too long, you can become bored with it.

I'm experiencing some of that boredom now, but in relation to my car. Yup, I want to change it! (bet y'all thought I'd be talking about something else... ) My problem is that I need to build up my cash for a while first (bummer ) but the desire to change the car is current... Its an old car... I've been driving it for a while, and I've never been in love with it's looks. Anyway, I'm getting tempted to do rash things.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to have a "hot" car. You get an older car, (which you can easily afford, but preferably a sexy looking older car... stay tuned for an example pic for this too) and fix it up. You buy a bigger engine block, get it rebuilt and drop it into the car you bought. Buy accessories like an air dam, and a spoiler and rims. Buy it a half-race cam, put in dual carburettors, or buy it a more aggressive chip, whatever it takes to boost the horsepower. Put on a performance muffler to give it that throaty roar... Whatever gets your goat, just so you conceive it and possibly even build it yourself.

The problem with this approach is that it can be quite expensive, and trust me, it takes up a lot of time. Its best to be able to take this approach as a hobby, I think. You've got to have another (newer) car, so that when the old one you're fixing up breaks down, you're not stranded. Unfortunately, I'm not there yet... Whatever I get will be my main car.

I guess it'll have to remain a dream for now... I'll just wait until I've got enough to get some semi-sexy newer car, and in the meantime, I'll just have to keep on eating that old "liver".... (sigh).

For another approach to this whole terrorist war on the US stuff, check out this article in the Jamaica Observer. Its by John Maxwell, who I find to be particularly gifted in finding an angle you would never think of (often repulsive) to cover some current event. Give me a shout to let me know what y'all think of what hes saying...

Saturday, 2001/09/29 08:08:00 AM - [Link Back]
Well, even though I was mocking P.Diddy about his name change, I must admit that I like his new song "Bad Boys for Life". It has a nice guitar riff going on. Respect is due!

But you notice that even he makes fun of his name change in the video... New theory. Maybe he did it to draw attention to himself, trying to sell more records... Judging from the new song, such a ploy could well work.

Hmmm. Doesn't it annoy you when someone does something like that? They do something annoying or stupid for the express reason that it'll draw attention to themselves and cause some result they desire to occur, and despite its stupidness and dumbness, it works. I know, nothings more annoying than that, I agree with you.

Maybe I shouldn't have mocked him. Maybe I should have joined him... Maybe I too need a new, stupid name... then maybe I'll succeed in all my endeavers... What do you think of "Mad Anteater" or "Wild Camel" or "Raging Lizard"...LOL

Oh, yeah, I know that he and J. Lo aren't together anymore, but putting up a picture of P. Diddy alone... Nah! I don't think so.Get Real!

Wednesday, 2001/09/26 08:57:43 PM - [Link Back]
look at the potholesRespect to all my peoples... you know who you are. Well, I am back on the Rock. Let me tell you, if I had any lingering doubts that I was back, they were dispelled RAPIDAMENTE when I came down Old Stony Hill Road earlier. I came round the corner and BADAM, I hit a school of HUMONGOUS POTHOLES!! There they are to the right, have a look. Yeah mon, a rude awakening. Listen, I vaguely remember some itsy bitsy teeny weeny potholes when I left, but BWOY. Those lil buggers grow quickly, mon! Anyway, as they say, "cest la vie", right? We had a great flight on Air Jamaica, but then, thats what we expected. We're used to some feather-soft landings at the Norman Manley International Airport.Respect to Air Ja. The BORG (translation, the Jamaican Customs people) didn't give us the expected hassle,Thank God Almighty and we were clear of the airport in way under the time we expected. Pretty decent. Ohh and guess what? They do sell Smirnoff Ice on the "Rock"!

The only problems now are that one of my PCs at home has developed a disk I/O error, probably courtesy of the JPS Co. Ltd., and the National Water Commission has locked off my water AGAIN!!! Aaarrrgh!! I guess I really am back home to rass!

Sunday, 2001/09/23 05:59:19 PM - [Link Back]
Jamaica, hear this. Americans don't need to come to Jamaica for the beach! They can go to the beach in Florida (At least between March and September). I went to South Beach the last few times I was here and was not impressed, at least not impressed with it as a beach. As a place to hang out in the nights its quite nice. But I went to the Haulover Beach near Bal Harbor and it was pretty decent. Nice long stretch of beach, water was nice, either white or near white sand, lots of sea birds and sea life, and the bodys draping the beach weren't bad either. And I am told that plenty of the beaches here are like this. You know, before I went off on vacation, I was speaking to this consultant that we have at work (he's from the U.S.) and he was dumbfounded that I'd want to go to Florida for three weeks. It could be that the Americans don't know how nice Florida is or can be, or that he'd have preferred that I take a shorter vacation, take your pick. But if they don't know about it, let us pray that they don't find out any time soon. They only need to listen to Will Smith's song "Miami".

You know what we have over the US, though? No, its not our friendly people, because, for one, our people aren't all that friendly, and, two, as we say here, Florida is "Kingston 22"... If they want to spend time with Jamaican people, well, there seem to be more Jamaicans in Florida that in Jamaica! No, in my opinion, its our mountains. Bear in mind that the highest point in Florida is some overpass. Our mountains serve as a most beautiful backdrop to our beaches from the water, or on the beach as you cast your eyes around. Also a couple of our beaches are simply more picturesque, at least compared to those Florida beaches that I've experienced. Plus, a lot of our beaches have lots of shade trees so you can take shelter from the pelting sun. In Florida, you'd better carry that umbrella, baby...

Still, the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jamaicans in general had better start marketing our mountains more with regard to their tourism potential, as in tours to different ones, trips to maroon villages, eco-tourism, etc. Thats my advice to them. Anyway, we all had so much fun that we're going to do it all again tomorrow.

On another note, I've "discovered" (in the same vein that Columbus discovered Jamaica ) this delightful drink called Smirnoff Ice. SmirnoffIt tastes a lot like a drink from Jamaica called Ting, but it has in alcohol... Actually, 5% alcohol by volume. It's made from malt so I guess it's kind of like a beer. Its cool. I wonder if they sell it back home? Anyway, me gaan! Respect! (Jamaican for "Bye all").

Saturday, 2001/09/22 01:17:40 AM - [Link Back]
Ok, I've been really busy the last couple of days... Anyway, they say that money is the root of all evil... Sometimes it is the cause of something good too. Back when the telephone was a new technological marvel, the way it was used was this. You lifted the receiver and immediately you were connected to the operator. You then spoke to her, telling her who you wanted to speak to. She would then set up your connection to that person by manually plugging a cable between your cable pair and that of the party you wanted to speak to. (Can you imagine how many affairs this methodology must have forestalled... God!) This method worked well when few people had telephones, but would not work well as the number of phone users increased.

Anyway, the change to the scenario we are used to today came about because a mortician from the American South got vexed bacause the local operator in his town referred all the bereaved to a competing mortician. In an effort to do away with what he saw as unfair business practices, he invented the stepping switch, thus enabling people to reach their phone destinations by turning a rotary dial... See, money rules. (By the way, I got this info from the Tom Clancy I'm currently reading. The man sprinkles in lots of interesting info all over his books... You should check him out, peoples.

Was talking to a friend today. Amongst other things, we were discussing keeping fit, and he gave me an interesting viewpoint. He was telling me that he was now doing 300 pushups at least three times a week (get a life, man!), so I asked him how many situps/crunches he was doing, and he said that he found those to be a waste of time, that he did stretches instead. He showed me the stretches in question, but they'd be hard to describe properly, using my feel test as a base, I'd have to say they work. Anyway, any fitness gurus that read my page, (or if no fitness gurus read it, anybody with an opinion/knowledge on this,) give me a shoutout at madbullfeva@hotmail.com . Let me know if it is true, if it can really work, and what type of stretches you'd recommend. I'll tell any women who compliments me on my sixpack (to be developed by this stretching technology), that their thanks should be to you.

By the way, Bush's speech seemed to be a waste of time to me. He seemed to be repeating things he said earlier in the week. The only new thing seemed to be the demands he made on the Taliban. I think he could have appraised us re his demands in a press release, instead of that speech. Don't know about you, but I was a little let down, as I expected more... Later!

 

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