Saturday, March 16, 2002
Would you believe that MB. Jr. seems to have caught another cold! I can't believe it myself. I don't think I'm going to send him back to school again! Ever! That place is rife with sickness and disease! Grrrrr ...
posted by
Mad Bull at
2:09 PM - [Link me]
Women always get breaks that men simply do not! Its true, I tell you! I will give you a couple of examples. Nowadays, we have women's lib. Women are equal to men, right? They should get equal pay for equal work, right? When you take them on a date, however, they would still like you to hold open doors and most of the time, to foot the bill too. I know, not all of them are like this, but most of them seem to be like this to me. Despite this equality, the man is also expected to protect the women. Imagine a man who is awakened by his woman with complaints of hearing a noise downstairs, who hands the woman his machete and says "I went to check it out last time, its your turn now...". Trust me, as we say here in Jamaica, his corner would be very dark. At the minimum, he would never hear the end of it.
Now here is another way women are being favoured more than men: women get away with public homosexual acts in Jamaica. If two men got up to the antics I read about in the Star, they would probably be stoned to death, as most Jamaicans seem to be quite homophobic. But two women, no, thats cool, right? Thats a horse of a different colour, isn't it? Homosexual men must be pissed off at this discrimination... Anyway, I have news for the reporter. From what I have heard, this is not a new phenomenon, nor is it restricted to Montego Bay. Its going on all over the country. Indeed, if its just started in Montego Bay, then they are lagging behind the rest of the country.
But you know why the women get away with these acts in public. Because most red blooded males LOVE to see action such as this, no matter how much they protest otherwise. See, they don't want it to be stopped. Speaking for myself, I must admit that I most likely wouldn't be covering my eyes if I were presented with such a spectacle. So I guess even I would perpetuate the double standards between men and women.
Do you know what I think? The kind of activity described in that Star article has always been with us (in some form or other) and it always will be. I agree with those people in our health sector who want to legalise prostitution, so that it can be regulated. That way, the risk of disease might be lowered. You see, you can fight it, but it isn't going away anytime soon. If you do fight it, all you'll succeed in doing is in driving it underground. If its regulated, you can institute systems which make sure that these people are checked out medically on a regular basis, and which might succeed in making the whole sex industry more healthy, as far as that is possible. To do otherwise in this time, with the specter of the AIDS pandemic hanging over our heads is foolhardy. What do you think?
posted by
Mad Bull at
10:44 AM - [Link me]
Thursday, March 14, 2002
You know, farting (and the whole public bathroom issue) seems to be popular recently (see A Fire Inside, Today and the day after that, and wKenShow's March 11th entry...) I must say, I have a problem with the public bathroom thing. I consider bowel movements to be private... Its just how I am. That is one of the things that freaks me out everytime I visit the U.S. They always build cubicles in the bathrooms that are simply TOO SMALL! You feel like you're sharing your most private experiences with everyone! I've even been in one in Ohio where the crack between the door and the door jamb was wide enough that you could identify who was standing just outside the cubicle! You could see enough of their face to identify them. I imagined they could identify me too.
I had decided to share the hotel room I was staying in with another employee from my workplace, and I didn't know him very well either, so I felt uncomfortable using the bathroom there too.. (After all, he might go in right after I had decimated the place, you know what I mean?) Trust me, that was arguably the worst time I spent in the U.S... I got so bunged up! I couldn't use the bathroom at all!
But whats up with the unfinished toilet stalls? I don't get it. What, y'all think people want to improve their wiping techniques? If not, why build cubicles in the public bathrooms that allow them to watch? In a country where they waste almost everything else, you'd think they would just go the extra mile when building the cubicles in the public bathrooms, nuh true?
posted by
Mad Bull at
10:24 PM - [Link me]
Lol! Listen up, you've just gotta check out wKenShow.com! You've just gotta!!! The man is FUNNEE!!! Go there now!
posted by
Mad Bull at
9:49 PM - [Link me]
I realise that many of you don't click on links from blogs to other sites. Thats ok, but realise, you are missing the good stuff that they link to when you don't. Take the next link for example. You really should follow it. Click here and look at the picture that appears... See if you can tell whats wrong with the picture. It'll take you a while, but it'll be worth it. Later...
posted by
Mad Bull at
12:35 PM - [Link me]
Heard something funny on Fame FM this A.M. Seems that those guys who flew the planes into the Twin Towers actually applied to the I.N.S. for student visas. Apparently they didn't wait for them to start classes, because Francois, the host of the show on Fame that I listen to on my way to work, says that the I.N.S. finally responded via mail to Mohammed Ata... They granted him the Student Visa! Now, there just has to be something wrong with their methods, do you know how many Jamaicans can't even get a visa to visit the U.S., much less a student Visa? This speaks volumes to the beaurocracy and red tape involved in the whole system of granting student visas, and to its utter inefficiency. Thats my view, and I'm sticking to it.
posted by
Mad Bull at
10:05 AM - [Link me]
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
Braeton won't go away, people. The people responsible for this blot on the Jamaica Constabulary Force's history should be brought to book!
In other news, Jana Bent seems to be moving from strength to strength. Krazy-E, what do you think? Natty? Still, she has some things in common with Lennox Lewis. They're both on a time budget. They've got to really go for it now, as they've both chosen professions that are kinder to the young...
posted by
Mad Bull at
6:09 AM - [Link me]
I've told you before that I am a tree hugger. Most of my family is like that. I can remember several of us being indignant when my father would engage a man to cut back trees at our home in Orange Grove, Stony Hill, back when I was a boy. For some reason, he always felt that trees had to be cut back, I don't know why. It seems to have been an idea of his generation, because where I live now, I have a neighbour who is around my Dad's age. He has a simply magnificent tree in his front lawn too. It was truly spectacular, and about a year after we moved here, the neighbour had it cut back. Dad, if you read this, please explain why y'all felt it necessary to cut back those trees like that.
Anyway, trees are important. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Trees impact on the lives of many, and some of them come to be famous. Such a tree was Tom Cringle's cotton tree. The following is an excerpt taken from the Gleaner's "Pieces of the Past Series".
Some 150 years later, on Monday, January 18, 1971, after witnessing the demise of the horse and carriage, the birth of the dual lane highway, the naming of new parishes and the birth of a new nation, Tom Cringle's cotton tree collapsed at 7:30 p.m., blocking traffic for over a day. [more on Tom Cringle's Cotton Tree]
See, some trees are so important that the time of their death are recorded, and their story is written down for all to read. I think this is a good thing. Selah!
posted by
Mad Bull at
5:26 AM - [Link me]
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Well, this week has started out by being VERY VERY BUSY! Computer Operations has been making several mistakes, and my department has had to be cleaning up after them. This is certainly not a new phenomenon and we're all getting pissed off about it.
Adding to the stress, there are a couple of problems, which are not caused by Operations, but which are hanging around despite our best efforts at blowing them out of the water. I had to stay back at work until 8:00PM, and I got called shortly after I left.
Now that I'm at home, I find that the N.W.C. has locked off my water.
AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!
Excuse me... I'm feeling just a little bit frazzled right now...
posted by
Mad Bull at
10:12 PM - [Link me]
MB. Jr. went out to school today for the first time after a week long break due to illness... MB. Jr. is happy. He loves school, he has a lot of fun there. He likes his teachers, and he gets to play with other kids, and there are lots of toys there that he doesn't have at home. Natty is also ecstatic! She will get a three to four hour break, allowing her to rest or to do whatever she needs to do, without MB. Jr. hanging on for dear life to her skirttails. Me, I'm filled with trepidation! What illness will he bring home and infect me with this time? I am almost pressing the panic button.
posted by
Mad Bull at
3:30 PM - [Link me]
I've noticed that people referred to my site from Google, Yahoo and others probably don't find what they're looking for. You see, the nature of weblogs are of such that they are constantly changing. The spiders and robots from Google and Yahoo crawl your site, indexing what they find on the Daily Log on a particular day, say the 16th of the month. Somebody comes along a week later searching for something you wrote about on the 16th, and Google/Yahoo directs them to the Daily Log page, but that information is no longer on that page. I doubt they search through my archives. They must leave annoyed, their confidence in search engines shaken.
This is not a good thing. I need to find a solution. I will be putting in a search feature soon, allowing people such as those described above to type in a keyword, or keywords and search through my archives for them. I don't know if that'll be enough, but I think its a step in the right direction. If you have any ideas for a more seamless resolution of the problem, don't be bashful. Sing out. Use the comments link or go to the "Contact me" page. TTYL!
posted by
Mad Bull at
7:18 AM - [Link me]
Sunday, March 10, 2002
I went to a church brunch, an attempt by the Stella Maris Catholic Church to help the street people of Grants Pen. I saw a lot of people who used to move in the same circles as I did growing up. They all were holding kids, looking like parents and it hit me... We all are the ones who're doing things now. Don't get me wrong, I knew it already, but it just came home to me for real. Its like, I am my parents now. We are the people who are making the laws, running companies, planning charities, raising kids, running generators at the power company, suing people who don't pay their bills, prescribing medicine and advising patients, preaching in church, teaching in schools... We are! It seems like just the other day we were the future, but now we are whats happening in Jamaica. We are the doers, the planners, the thinkers... We run things! But for how long?
And you know, the funny thing is, I don't feel any different than I did back then...
posted by
Mad Bull at
10:25 PM - [Link me]
We went to Bombay's last night. It was fun. Bombay has three distinct groups of friends, and this was reflected in who hung out with who at the party. She had her Kalooki crowd (yeah, this is my group too, and it consists of some of her boyfriend's (hmmm, is he still her boyfriend?) cousins, and some of their friends), then she had a group consisting of some of her boyfriend's other cousins, the ones who the previous set of cousins rarely hangs with, and finally a group of friends having nothing to do with her old boyfriend.The Kalooki crowd played Kalooki (yeah, predictably), the "other cousins" played Chinese Checkers, and the "original friends" played Pictionary. Bombay spent the night flitting from group to group.
She was aware of the fact that there'd be three different groups, so she tried to start out by having a mixer... She had us play a game where a lot of questions were placed into a box. Each person had to pick a question and then to answer it. If they refused to answer it, then the entire group was to collaborate to come up with a dare for them that they would have to perform, kind of like a "Truth or Dare" game. This was an interesting idea, but the questions were fairly light, in an effort to achieve "buy in". If they were really hard questions, given that there were three distinct groups of people, they might have been reluctant to participate. The roughest question was "If you had a chance of enacting your wickedest fantasy with whomever you wanted, without there being any consequences, and with God turning a blind eye to it, what would that fantasy be? Describe it." The guy who got it considered long and hard whether he should answer it truthfully, than chickened out, and the other players took pity on him and allowed him another question...
Still, this adult Truth or Dare game was interesting. It has distinct possibilities, especially if the questions are not so light and people can be persuaded to participate. Adults have too many issues to play this game properly, usually... Thats why its usually played by younger people. But if it could be anonymous... Like if this game was played in Blogland. It would require some thought to set up... I wonder if any other bloggers would be interested in / have any ideas on this? If any of you reading this have any ideas, just sing out. You don't have to put your hand up to be recognised... go for it.
The party was great though, well stocked with food and liquor and the company was good. Let me tell you, they had some roasted pork there that was to die for! I need to negotiate with Bombay's mom to be invited to Sunday dinner on a regular basis
You know, I also noticed that Sheggy was looking rather glamorous last night. Also she seems to have lost some weight, so she was really looking fine... Big Up, Sheggy! Anyway, I'm going to run now... Peace!
posted by
Mad Bull at
9:47 AM - [Link me]
...
. Trust me, as we say here in Jamaica, his corner would be very dark. At the minimum, he would never hear the end of it.
