Heat Stroke

It is as hot as hell here this morning. I sat in the car this morning waiting on wifey at the gate and I could not believe that so much water could run off one person in the space of 2 minutes. I had just backed out of the driveway and that was it. You would have thought that I had run a marathon. Maybe menopause setting in still :) I actually used the a/c all the way to office this morning and this is unusual since I am always the one opting for natural breeze. The temperatures are in stark contrast to what we had last week when we got a couple days of rain but that's gone it would appear. The heat seems to be taking its toll on the drivers too because this morning was "silly morning". If I used any of the theories of deductive reasoning, I would no doubt come to the conclusion that all drivers of Toyota Corolla station wagons are idiots, mad sick head nuh good, a$$e$ on the roads. I chalked it up to heat stroke. We drive on the left in Jamaica but many of the roads in downtown Kingston are one ways so you have two lanes moving in the same direction. This morning one gentleman in said vehicle cut across three lanes of traffic in one move, swung through the layby and made a u-turn to head back down in the opposite direction. Can you imagine three lanes of traffic mashing brakes and tyre smoke all bout. Then this lady, in said type of vehicle decides that she is going to turn right from the extreme left lane this time across 4 lanes at the craft market trafic light. Anybody with sense knows that this light is not a place to play hero cuz is not a handful of accidents happen there. I've seen what could be well amounted to at least 1 per day. She picked up a hail of badwords from several of the other drivers. Just around the corner came number 3. Same type of vehicle but slightly older model. left turn from extreme right lane at an intersection that is always busy. More cussing. (I only told them off in spirit.) Maybe I would have been more vocal if I had no one in the car but yuh gots to behave when yuh have company...good broughtupsy. Can you imagine all of this in the space of half an hour. Heat stroke I tell you!!! Today is going to be busy, if for no other reason but the fact that I will not be here tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the break even if it is for exams. Had a meeting at the Tall One's school yesterday to discuss options for those kids who don't do well in their exams, or for those who don't want to pursue sixth form or for those who are unsure of what they want to do or for anybody who wants to have options besides relying on sixth form only. My son does not want t pursue sixth form simply because the options that he wants to do are not really offered. He tends to be technically minded but the grade 12/13 programmes do not really assist them here. I went to the meeting very unwillingly but am glad I made the effort. It was an eye-opener. I benefitted from the meeting and can actually see a path that he can follow whatever he decides to do. It may not be the ideal but it is certainly better than sitting at home and idling for a year while we wait on the other alternatives. We'll se though. After all of that I finally got to office at 10:10. Dem soon tthrow mi out pon mi butt. Nahhhh, I got permission. Anyways I gone for now. Take care and have a great day.

Tuesday is here

Good morning people, one and all...wazzup? Well I can now say 1 down and 2 to go. But that's for later.

The weekend was long but pretty good. Despite the solemness of Saturday with the funeral it was a pretty ok time. The funeral started at 10:00a.m with tributes. These took almost an hour and a half. The actual service was another hour and a half or so so we never left Kingston until about 1:45 in the afternoon. It was not a sad affair but rather a rejoicing in the life of.... There was laughter as well as silent tears. You could tell the calibre of the person from the attendees at the service. The drive to Yallas was under police escort and it was long but uneventful. The graveside mirrored the church and considering that there were so many people who travelled to the country spoke again of the person. I did not get back to Kingston until about 6:15.

Sunday was quiet with a bit of studying and then some socializing in the evening. Wifey's family who had come from overseas for the funeral wanted to meet and greet their family who they had not seen or had never met. This took us into late Sunday night. Quite enjoyable and besides it gave wifey an opportunity to interact with her family who are more dispersed than mine so a rare chance indeed.

Yesterday was my first final exam for the semester. It comprised of 20 multiple choice and 5 true/false questions spanning the syllabus and then 5 working out questions to choose 3 each valued at 25 marks. Well I can tell you that the working out questions were fairly straight forward(too easy in fact). I guessed every one of the multiple choice questions and fudged through a couple of the T/F ones. My thing is do what you are sure of 1st then battle with the unknown. Finished the exam an hour before time. Left feeling like I had left out something. The project that we were worried about Ihad mentioned it some time ago as shooting in the dark was a good result as well. considering that we did not get a chance to input all of the required areas and still came out getting above 80 I am more than happy with that. It tells me that we were bang on target for the sections that we had spent the time on.

Ihave one this Friday and the final one for the semester next Thursday so still some work to do. The one on Friday is a research paper so that one is a no brainer. The one next Thursday is going to take some work but....whatever.

Well the smoke seems to have been eliminated (from up by my side anyway.) I haven't been keeping up with the news but then again who cares really. Today is just work work and more work.

Anyways I'm gone. Before I go thanks to all those who left me their wishes for a good exam yesterday.

Later all.

Friday

Well today is the end of the work week for most of us. This week was more or less pretty uneventful and believe me in today's Jamaica that's a good thing. No more Popes to elect or Michael Jacksons to try. I was up till about 11:30 last night reading stuff because my first exam is on Monday morning bright and early. I was going to get up at about 4:00a.m. to do some more work but at 4:00 I saw the lights on in the living room and .....I saw the light on in the living room.......just before going back to sleep to hold another 2 hours of dreams. To hell with the books!!! Man body know when man body has had enough. It's hard to believe that another semester has ended already. I have another 2 years to go in this programme but a friend of mine says that that sounds awful and drawn out so I replied that I had 7 more semesters to go to finish and smiles all around. It's true although the number is larger, 7 as opposed to 2, the units of measurement plays havoc with the mind. in actual fact 7 semesters is 2 1/3 years. You can all tell by now that I have absolutely nothing to tell you this morning don't it? Got a credit card bill yesterday and never even realised that it had no balance on it. I had vowed some time ago to retire at least two of the little monsters. I had simply been paying the more than minimum payments each month. It has definitely paid off. So on Monday Iwill chop up that card into little pieces and do a return to sender thing. Being able to buy when you need to is one thing but paying back for stuff that you could do without in the first place is definitely not cool. Work yesterday was kinda glum. One of the people that we do business with in Trinidad (they make uniforms for our ladies) called to say that the gentleman who is assigned to our account was killed in a car accident on his way to work in Trinidad. It kinda sent us here into a tailspin because simply because the way we do business lends itself to the staff in my department becoming more than just acquaintances with this type of contractor. This gentleman was here on several ocassions and was entertained by staff here and the same happened when our people went to visit their factories to ensure we were getting what we paid for. It is therefore the loss of a friend. Rest in peace Robert and may your family and fiance be comforted in this time of sudden loss. My wife's uncle will be buried tomorrow. There will be a church service in the morning and then we will travel to St. Thomas (one of our 14 parishes) for the final burial. Tomorrow is going to be a loooooooonnnnnggggggggggg day. Anywayz I have run out of ramble this morning and I'm still a bit tired so I am going to take my leave of you. You won't see me writing on Monday so You will have to wish me all the best from now. Take care and see you Tuesday.

Hey guess What???

Hey all just a quick good morning to you all and here's wishing you a great day. Have been up since 1:00 this morning so right now the caffeine talking bigtime. Side effects are horrible though because now I'm wide awake but half sleeping if yuh get mi. Guess what...WE GOT SOME RAIN!!! Well at least the place will start to look a little greener. I have decided to leave out the news stuff for this week especially the crime situation. Some things are better left unsaid nuh true. Riverton City is creating a bit of havoc this week. Riverton City is our local landfill (dump). It is located off the Spanish Town Road here in Kingston on some 70 - 80 acres of land. Unfortunately a fire has been going on there since the weekend and the authorities are unable to do anything about it for one reason or the other. My neighbourhood is upwind from the smoke and believe me...It not pretty at all. My home is not within walking distance and is in fact not just around the corner but we are getting it good. I feel sorry for the people who live much nearer than I do. I can just imagine what they are going through. I understand some people have had to leave because of the smoke. The rains yesterday are making the smoke thicker so it is causing some discomfort in the midst of the good it is doing for the plants. Ah bwoy...yuh just can't win. Anyway, I'm gone. I will try to post again later but for now..tah tah.

Some employer comments... HR idleness at its best I suppose. Worth a smile even if you've seen them before. 1. "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and has started to dig." 2. "I would not allow this employee to breed." 3. "This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of definite won't be." 4. "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap." 5. "When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet." 6. "This young lady has delusions of adequacy." 7. "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them." 8. "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot." 9. "This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts, the better." 10. "Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together." 11. "A gross ignoramus -- 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus." 12. "He doesn't have ulcers, but he's a carrier." 13. "The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead." 14. "He's been working with glue too much." 15. "He would argue with a signpost." 16. "He brings a lot of joy whenever he leaves the room." 17. "When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell." 18. "If you see two people talking and one looks bored, he's the other one." 19. "A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on." 20. "A prime candidate for natural de-selection." 21. "Donated his brain to science before he was done using it." 22. "Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming." 23. "He's got two brains cells, one is lost and the other is out looking for it." 24. "If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week." 25. "If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change." 26. "If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean." 27. "It's hard to believe he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm." 28. "One neuron short of a synapse." 29. "Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled." 30. "Takes him 2 hours to watch '60 Minutes'"

New Pope

Well the world can now have a little bit of free airwaves. Hopefully the media will give a break until the next media watch event. The Catholic Church now has a new Pope. Pope Benedict XVI was elected today by the College of Cardinals. This brings to an end much speculation as to who, the nationality of and the ethnic background of the next church leader. Cardinal Ratzinger (CNN photo borrowed) is 78 years old and is the 265th Pope. He is obviously not a black Pope as some would have wanted. I trust that the Cardinals have made the right choice and that this gentleman will endeavour to do the will of God. May the wisdom bestowed on him reflect the light that God wishes to reveal to His people.

Monday Again

Well guys it was an intersting weekend fuh real. Before I get any further, guess who was in church on Sunday... nuh the fassy I spoke about in my previous post. Guess he figured he needed some blessing after that budget unleashed from last week. Anyways I won't deny him his blessings. As father so rightly put it, "He doesn't have any friends right now". Last week I decided to go sort out my school stuff. I went and paid my fees on Monday and decided that I was going to collect my exam card on Friday. Knowing my school I decided to give myself the extra time because I know they will find some way to screw up a simple straight forward process. To cut a long story really short I got the card but guess what, It missing something. As a matter of fact all three of the processes saying something different. OK...I am registered to do three courses money paid and all legit. Pick up exam card which only has two subjects on it so somewhere along the line my culture subject is missing. No biggy, completed an add drop form to have it input. Now this form is supposed to be done in triplicate so how is this done...by writing up the form 3 times cuz they ain't got no carbon and the form not carbonized. So much for technology..heh heh heh. So i decide to check the timetable for the exam schedule which is online....ha!!! now I'm only registered for one exam...Very interesting!!! So guess what... half of Saturday morning is spent in the school office completing another uncarbonized, no carbon triplicate form. Asked about the exam schedule and was given a 41 page printout to search through. Anyway, I found my dates so I have exams next week Monday, Friday and the following Thursday. Well spaced out so I hope they don't change it. At least they will have enough time to sort out the timetables between now and the first exam which luckily is the one left on my schedule. I thought I had been rid of this assignment at work but it came back on Friday evening. One day at a time through it though. The inefficiency at school is now so common place that I simply plan for it so it loses the harsh effect it once had. I'm convinced that they can't do any better. Study has started for exams so blogging will now take a back seat until 6th May. That's not to say I will stop but I will pay less attention to how frequently I post and comment so please don't get offended if you see me missing...school. The topics that I need to cover for exams are nuff nuf but for the most part managable so that is good. Anyway leftovers tonight but day old stew peas always taste the best. I gone grab some food people see you tomorrow.

Today

Well the interviews went as predicted. That university needs some *help* seriously. The students are supposed to be leaving with Bachelor degrees in in most cases I get better responses out of high school students. It is really a waste of time to go every year and not find a single prospective candidate. They are childish unprepared in a nutshell...dem nuh ready fi di world yet. I asked one student to give me an idea of how her degree programme has helped to prepare her for the work world and the phrase "dumb blond" comes readily to mind. Only thing is that she was a brunette browning. That fassy has raised GCT. I'm talking about the Minister of Finance, Dr. Omar Davies. I try to be diplomatic on my site and present a stable picture of things but this man has broken all boundaries. Don't be surprised if yuh hear riot break out in Jamaica. The a$$hole has public sector workers locked in a Memorandum of Understanding and even his rate hike has violated the agreement. Let's hear what the unions will say about his latest piece of crap. I am all for locking down this country at this point. Something is up with IE tonight because I can't access blogger from that browser. I am able to do so in Firefox so something going down. Sent an email to support so we'll see. Anywayz I man gone.

Hail up

Good morning all. No I'm not dead, and yes I'm still alive and kicking. Answered both questions in one :). Well I kind of made myself scarce in the face of some serious school work. Major project for my elective and our dramatic presentation were both due last night. Both went reasonably well. The project, which we estimated would be about 20 pages, when complete had 66 pages of useful information. Dr.D., don't even ask useful to who cuz I know you will have something to say.

Our audience for the presentation consisted of our tutor and several passerbys who stopped to tek een the spectacle that unfolded before their very eyes. We were applauded and one young man shout out at the end "Wicked presentation people!". For a one week plan and 2 run throughs that costantly changed we did an extremely good job if I do say so myself.

Went up to school during the day to sort out my registration status. Seems I should be OK for exams. Paid the balance on my fees and I'm good to go. Will pick up my exam card on Friday.

Last night was my last in the week class for the semester. Need to get the research info for my final paper.

Well it seems as if the ridiculous assignment that I was given to do at work has come to an end. Good ridance is my only comment. That company that they employed to conduct the final steps should be black listed. They are taking money under false pretences. All the work has been done in house and all they need to do is just present what we have provided them. I don't think they will even change a sentence.

The Tall One seems to be settling. I think he is still worried about his upcoming exams but it appears from a meeting that I had at his school this week that the majority of his grade are having similar problems. He is from all indications trying to make an effort following his discussions with the counsellor. He likes talking with her so he seems to try to do whatever they agree on. I'm kinda just watching to see where it goes. At least he doesn't look like the world is on his shoulders.

Spanish Town in the news again. Whooopppeeeee!!!!! I ain't goin there this morning.

The by elections to fill the seat left by Mr. Seaga is being held today. It is expected that Mr. Golding will win by a landslide. The PNP representative has a chance that is worse than a snowball's chance in hell of winning but hey politics is a funny game.

Before I leave, funerals are the thing of this year. Can't win. Wifey's uncle died on Sunday. I think his body just said "It's time" because it started out with a heart attack and turned into liver and kidney failure so..... One of my co-worker's father also passed away on Friday. He had ost his mother recently and now his father. As a matter of fact his mother's funeral was listed in the number that I had to attend since the start of the year. Keep them in prayers please if you are so inclined.

I won't be in office tomorrow. It is that time of year again when my job takes me to the other side of the island to interview at the university in Mandeville. We go down annually to look for prospective recruits. I'm kinda skeptical this year because of what we have seen with their programme but we'll see. I'm going with an open mind. A part of the problem that we have had in the past is that the students all seem to be inculcated with the theory that they are at a disadvantage because the school is run by a certain religion. They need to realize that what puts them at a disadvantage is not their religion but the negativism that their perceived disadvantage creates. They would do much better interviews if they came in seeing themselves as equals. We tend to portray what we think of ourselves even without realizing it. Human nature.

Anyways I think I've chatted enough for the morning.

Later all. Have a great day. See you all Friday.

Friday at Last

Well I am just saying "Hi" this morning cuz I really haven't had the time to think about anything that is worth posting this morning. I have been up since the wee hours of the morning working on an assignment that is due shortly. It's group project and I have not seen any of the other parts from my group members. Anyway I gave them until lunch time today to hand it to me so I wait. I am really exhausted so You will have to forgive me if I ramble and cut this really short. Last night I caught pieces of the news and I had to laugh. I mentioned the curfew in Spanish Town in yesterday's post. Well apparently JPS decided to use the opportunity of the police protection to disconnect a lot of illegal connections to the power grid. This lady was on public media complaining that they turned off her light and she doesn't know how she is going to go about her business and how the company wicked. Now the connection was illegal to begin with so what is your beef. What made it worse was that the lady said she was not in a position to get a legal connection because the JPS will not connect power to captured land. I was like "WHAT????" Basically, my girl not paying for anything. She lives on land illegally, gets light illegally and I'm positive that she gets water illegally too because NWC has similar policies to JPS. I think the main problem with things in this country is that quite a large portion of the population seems to feel that the government and everybody else owes them a living, free of cost. I do agree that things are hard work wise and financially but regardless of that fact you are not owed anything. We need to get real. I won't get into the other issue which is that the government(s) have caused this problem by how they have run things and how they have manipulated the people for votes but that is another blog. Have a great weekend guys.

The Morning After

Hey guys, Just a quick howdy this morning. With the changing of age I was reminded yesterday that my drivers permit expired on my birthday so today I take my 3rd trip to the tax office to have it renewed. I don't figure the police will be too hard if I get stopped for anything but I don't like the idea of it not being up-to-date, especially with so mant fools on wheels out there. The insurance companies are just looking for ways to deny claims. Seems that the police have stepped up efforts in some Spanish Town communities to quell the violence going on there. Now they have instituted a lockdown of the area so as to search and restrict movement of anything or anyone. It sound a little drastic to me especially seeing the cordoning methods...razor wire. Then again drastic measures for drastic times. It could be worse. There have been outcry about excessive measures but then one could argue that there is really no other way to address the issues because the police are certainly not getting any help from within the areas affected so they do what they have to do. The main complaints are from people who claim that they cannot move about as they wish and "...don't want police in the area!" and I ask the question why? These are the same folks who complain that they are not getting any assistance from the police and can't go about their business because of violence. My view is Make up your mind people. Which is the better of two evils. Personally I would prefer the police presence and at the end of the day I can live with a bit more peace of mind when they have left the area. I have not heard of any claims of brutality so........then again you don't hear everything. It raned again yesterday...yaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!!! Labour Day is around the corner. Seems that Hurricane Ivan has opened a few eyes. The focus will be to recover faster from natural disaster. The thrust is towards keeping the environment in such a way so as not to promote the effects of a natural disaster. It is something that I have always wonered. 1stly why do people think that the gully is a appropriate garbage disposal system, 2ndly why throw the garbage in the gully and then quarrel that the government not keeping it clean and finally why wait until a hurricane is on top of us to try and clean every gully in the island at a moments notice. People are such strange creatures. It is unfortunate that the people who always get affected by the wanton acts of others are those not involved. The reality is that the garbage is going to wash somewhere down the systen until it joins up with other garbage and can't move anymore and it is the persons down stream that will be flooded out. Oh boy!!!...Life. Anyway no more chatter and garbage from me :) . Later all.

Today is......

Hey all, Let me start by first saying "Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear Scratchie, Happy Birthday to me." Yes folks, today I attain the wonderful age of 40. A milestone if there ever was one. A nuff years to deh bout yuh nuh. Today has been mostly uneventful so far so I'm cool with that. Got a call from my mom and a gift. My uncle from farrin (foreign) sent me a card and a juice money :-). He always seems to have a knack for remembering these things. I don't know if I had mentioned it before but I decided to take the Tall One (at his request) to a counsellor to see if it would get him to see things and life a little differently. The first session was last night. All seems to have gone pretty well since she was actually able to get him to speak for quite a long time I might add. He tends to be on the very quiet side so that in itself is an accomplishment. She has scheduled another session for next week and he seems eager to go so we'll see how that goes in time. School is school so I won't go there today. Had the chance to sit at my window at work yesterday and watch them filming segments of a music video with Capleton. What always amazes me is that these artistes who claim to be so for the African and Rastafarian culture always seem to use the young flighty flighty light skinned girls in their videos. I would have thought that they would have gone for persons closer to their "ideal". if yuh get mi drift. It would appear that even in the black culture and the culturest of culture the preference is still towards the "high" coloured girls....brownings if you rather with the token "African Princess" thrown in for good measure. Maybe I'm wrong but I can only tell you what I see and think. Anyway no long post this morning just a bit of chatter from me. Oh yeah, we finally got some well needed rain over the last 2 days. FANTASTIC!!!!!! The place is so much cooler and I actually saw blades of grass shooting up already. It facinates me that I could water the grass till hell freezes over and nothing and one shower of rain and the place turns green. Unfair!!!! We want justice!!! Roooight, better mi save the water bill and just wait on nature...nuh true? Later guys.

Monday Report

Hey all, Today was just one of those days. We were having some issues with our ISP this morning so I was not able to do any posting today. Probably a good thing because the amount of stuff I had to do today it was unbelievable. I came in and realized that I had to do a report run that should have been done on Friday but the system didn't complete the run although it was sent. My boss asked me to assist with a document she needed for today and since I need time off from time to time it was probably not in my best interest to take a hard line so I helped out. It involved more correcting than new work so it went fairly easily. Exam pressure officially has begun. Exam cards are being issued effective 11th April so exams are right around the corner. idling has got to stop. We made some headway on our final presentation so I feel pretty good about that as well. We have to do a small production but we aren't bothered by it. Everybody actually seems to be quite excited about getting it done. Hope the teacher thinks it is a good attempt. Tonight I am assisting the Short One with her project so mine is on hold. She did a lot of work on it so she asked me to help her tidy it up. I'm impressed on what she has done. The work is reflective of a level way above what a 13 year old would usually do but that's how she does her stuff. She thinks beyond the questions. We hada little rain today at work and God knows we needed it. The place is so brown and dry. Yuck!!!. I am afraid of bush fires even here at home. Water restrictions are now in place and we are without water from about 10p.m. Doesn't really bother me until I need to flush and then it is a problem. Hopefully it will soon be over. The Weather Channel predicts a harder season than last year so Sunshine I think it is time for you and the other Florida dwellers to start moving cuz I don't think you can handle a worse year than last year. One cartoon had Florida moved up into the Great Lakes. I think that might be a good idea. IO'm pretty much exhausted and I have been having a headache since this morning. I think it may have something to do with the gallon of orange juice I drank last night to starve off the heat. I'll switch to good old crystal punch tonight. anyway this is just an inbetween printing post so I'm gone again. Tomorrow will be ruff as well and I'm still not sure the ISP is back to normal so consider this a tonight and tomorrow check in and take care of you.

April 1, 2005

Not a really significant day at all. I'm just feeling kinda low today and I figure the no direction of this post will show it. Before I forget, my day is fast approaching. Can you imagine that on 6 April I will be the big 40. I don't feel any older than when I was twenty. I do feel fatter :) which is agiven. Who knows maybe over the next few days I will feel the effects of the age change. 5 days is a long time when you come to think of it. I came up in the elevator with several persons this morning. It struck me that we respond so differently to the men and women that we encounter on our trip up in the mornings. When the ladies are exiting it's alwayys something to the effecy "Bye Jane, have a nice day." with so much expression and feeling. To the men however it's something like "Easy nuh John" or "Later". What happen? Men don't need to have good days too? It's just that male thing that shows itself , call it the ego thing or the stereotype response. Carnival is supposed to be this weekend but it really seems low-keyed this year. Normally the buzz would be around the various activities and parties but not much of that at all. I guess everybody is being affected by the troubles whether financial or violence or sickness. Speaking of illness, well it would appear as if the Catholic Church is about to go through another transition. Pope John Paul II appears to be on death's door as he weakens daily. The Vatican appears to have gone into preparation mode. The usual idea is to downplay the severity of the situation so we are in a "wait and see" mode. This Pope has been one of the most widely travelled leaders in the churches history. He took an interest in what was happening to the church worldwide and had a particular interest in the youth. There was a large convention of youth in Canada a few years ago and he was there. I think however that his work is now at an end and he can rest after a job that has been well done. His job could not be easywith 63 million Catholics in the US alone. I wonder who will succeed him. Time will tell. Anyways I was just saying "Hi" and telling you all to have a great weekend.