Today's Goofy News

No beer? Then lunch is off, Belgian official says

Parliamentarian objected to Iranians’ insistence on alcohol-free meeting

Updated: 5:29 a.m. ET June 30, 2005

BRUSSELS, Belgium - A lunch meeting between a leading parliamentarian in Belgium and counterparts from Iran has been cancelled because the beer-loving Belgian could not stomach a ban on alcohol.

“Even for the tolerant Herman De Croo, that was a bridge too far,” De Croo, a Dutch-speaking Liberal, told De Standaard daily on Thursday.

De Croo, president of parliament’s lower house, had been due to entertain the speaker and members of the Iranian parliament on Friday during their visit to Belgium -- famous for its diversity of beer brands.

But he said lunch had been cancelled because the Iranians, who as Muslims do not drink alcohol, wanted their hosts to do the same.

“I did not receive such demands in writing. But ... I was indirectly asked not to serve alcohol,” said De Croo.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8413439/

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Whenever you think that your mistakes are crappy, think about how much this one must have sucked... at least it wasn't her own money I suppose. :-)

Oops! Trader mistakenly spends $251 million

Taiwan stock trader looking for a new job after accidental share purchases

Updated: 1:13 p.m. ET June 28, 2005

TAIPEI, Taiwan - A Taiwan stock trader mistakenly bought $251 million worth of shares with a mis-stroke of her computer, meaning her company is looking at a paper loss of more than $12 million and she is looking for a new job.

The trader with Fubon Securities made a typo while filling in a small order from Merrill Lynch on Monday, creating confusion when many small firms inexplicably surged past the 7 percent trading limit.

“Something like this is difficult to explain to superiors,” a Fubon executive said on Tuesday.

Fubon said that the trader was unfamiliar with new computer systems and would be fired.

“There is a paper loss of more than T$400 million,” said the executive.

“However, with a good outlook for stocks in the second half, there are no plans to sell the shares in the near term.”

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8382753/?GT1=6657

Traffic Tales III

On the way home today in traffic on Balmoral Avenue I had a rasta man perch two boxes of jelly doughnuts on my windowsill and ask if the "browning" wanted any to buy. Normally they stand on the dotted lines and sell their wares but this man was right up almost inside my car, so I just murmured, "No thank you," and willed him to walk away quickly.

Luckily, he obliged but as he walked off all I could hear was, "bwoy dem lip deh look kissable eh?" Now I know I've been suffering from some hellish cramps but the suddent lurch my stomach took could only have been because of that comment. It's a good thing I'd only had a patty and a cocoa bread for lunch some 5 and a half hours before else I would've certainly brought it all up over the steering wheel at the horrifying thought of liplocking with that grungy rasta man... I always wonder why they need to make these comments outloud. :-(

• Mood:annoyed with myself

Dream Interrupted

Have you ever had a good dream interrupted and wanted to just take out your frustrations on the alarm clock or the phone? This morning after I woke up to tell my father that the garbage truck was here I fell back into a deep sleep and started to dream about being in a desert war zone and I mean complete anarchy. It was like a stone structure that was being defended but there was schrapnel and all manner of burning debris all over the place. For some reason I was following around this white British journalist guy, who seemed to be covering what was happening. I knew I was walking around looking for J but I couldn't find him... for some reason I wasn't too worried though because I just knew that he'd be okay, so I wasn't even checking any of the bodies on the sand to see if any were his.

Anyway, this walking around goes on and on and something finally culminates in a helicopter crash but once again I'm not concerned because I know J is okay. The British journalist turns to me and asks me if I'm not going to pick up this medic uniform patch that's lying and a broken down wall. I ask him why ever for; first of all it's not J's patch and I know he's okay so I don't need any momentos. Then I look across the sand and I see my Aunt Peggy's green corolla approaching at knots, with her in the passenger seat. It comes to a stop and my Moms gets out in this killer summery pants suit outfit... I dash over as she gets out and get my hug... and then the phone rings...

Now, okay, I've thought about this and the phone ringing might not have been a bad thing. Normally the few times I've dreamt about my Moms a few minutes into our interaction, I get upset and tell her that she's dead, not supposed to be here, gone and left me, something like that and then she leaves the dream and I get very upset and depressed for awhile. So ending on a high note like this is actually a good thing... it was cool to see Aunty Peggy as well (she died in 1999); I know Moms is up there socializing and having fun and now I'm in a VERY good mood :-)

• Mood:nice and happy

Kenyan, 73, kills leopard with bare hands

The following story made me think of my friend Helda from my UCU days. Mind you, it's not that I envision Helda killing leopards by pulling our their tongues, but she is Kenyan after-all :-) And I haven't spoken to her in ages and this reminded me of all the time we spent together hanging out with Juju and kicking it in Dance Co... "Assume the position!" heheheh

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Kenyan, 73, kills leopard with bare hands

Grandfather turns tables on attacking cat by grabbing tongue

Updated: 12:55 p.m. ET June 22, 2005

NAIROBI - A 73-year-old Kenyan grandfather reached into the mouth of an attacking leopard and tore out its tongue to kill it, authorities said Wednesday.

Peasant farmer Daniel M’Mburugu was tending to his potato and bean crops in a rural area near Mount Kenya when the leopard charged out of the long grass and leapt on him.

M’Mburugu had a machete in one hand but dropped that to thrust his fist down the leopard’s mouth. He gradually managed to pull out the animal’s tongue, leaving it in its death-throes.

“It let out a blood-curdling snarl that made the birds stop chirping,” he told the daily Standard newspaper of how the leopard came at him and knocked him over.

The leopard sank its teeth into the farmer’s wrist and mauled him with its claws. “A voice, which must have come from God, whispered to me to drop the panga (machete) and thrust my hand in its wide-open mouth. I obeyed,” M’Mburugu said.

As the leopard was dying, a neighbor heard the screams and arrived to finish it off with a machete.

M’Mburugu was toasted as a hero in his village Kihato after the incident earlier this month. He was also given free hospital treatment by astonished local authorities.

“This guy is very lucky to be alive,” Kenya Wildlife Service official Connie Maina told Reuters, confirming details of the incident.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8317484/

1 Tank of Gas, 2 Country Runs

Run One, just about half a tank of gas.

Yesterday myself, irish, wolfsburg, ira_fbi and tha doc (all from Wheels Jamaica) headed out of town to Margaritaville in Ocho Rios for the VW Rollout. While a bag of people posted in the two threads how they were coming, who was going to cut who and who was going to be driving their mother's car because their Dub was in the shop... there were only 5 of us that rolled out--and wolfsburg had to wake tha doc out of his bed to come! Slackers... but apparently is so them stay. We had a great time though, sometimes hanging out with a smaller number of people can be great.

In Ocho Rios we parked at Island Village and then walked to the Burger King. We spent a long time there because it started raining but we were running beeeeer jokes and carding so it was really hilarious. Back at Island Village I discovered a store that sells Swarovski! And not just the crytal figurines but the jewelry as well! Good thing it's on the other side of the island *rofl* Honestly we didn't even touch the beach. After buying one drink each to be able to use the facilities we spent the rest of the day around the pool, chilling in the jacuzzi or zipping down their waterslide. We stopped at Faith's Pen on our way back and had some soup, fish and festivals. Then when we got back to Kingston we rolled through the Boulevard Shopping Center to say hello to the guys at the Mitsubishi Linkup. Stayed there for awhile then I dropped off irish and headed back to my dad's house to talk to J online.

Run Two, gas tank now on E.

I'm not going to go into the reasons why I wanted to avoid Kingston today but Zara, Nadia and I ended up making a run to Mandeville to look for my friend skatta. Pretty much we took over the KFC for the day and sat there reminiscing about our various high school experiences (the girls and I went to the same highschool), including the infamous "give us us free" incident that occured when our highschool went to the movies to watch Amistad. Max was being a crotches because the passenger window took FOREVER to wind up and it looked like rain was going to pour down at any minute. Funnily enough, it hasn't rained yet but thankfully the window eventually wound up. On the way back we got stuck in some blow wow traffic from before Porus proper allllll the way to the traintracks by the Juici Beef patty factory. Let me tell you my right leg is just a long mass of pain and tension. Can't wait to get into bed tonight and just pass out. This kind of exhaustion is good, no thinking, no crying, just sleep.

• Mood:exhausted in an ok way

"Love one another" ODB 26June2005

Lord, when I learn that someone is hurting,
Help me know what to do and to say;
Speak to my heart and give me compassion,
Let Your great love flow through me today. —K. De Haan

A little love can make a big difference.

Poems...

Here's a poem one of my friends sent me that I really liked. Thanks Rreky! *hugs*

But a short time to live.
Our little hour, - how swift it flies
When poppies flare and lilies smile;
How soon the fleeting minute dies,
Leaving us but a little while
To dream our dream, to sing our song,
To pick the fruit, to pluck the flower,
The Gods- They do not give us long, -
One little hour.
Our little hour, - how short it is...

By Leslie Coulson

This is one that my Mom liked alot that has always stuck with me:

I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud

I wondered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils ;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in the never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay :
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced ; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee :
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company :
I gazed-and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought :

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude ;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth

And here's my all time favorite poem, it's from either Alice in Wonderland or Alice Through the Looking Glass:

The Lobster Quadrille

"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail.
"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle - will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?

"You can really have no notion how delightful it will be
When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!"
But the snail replied "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance -
Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join the dance.

"What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied.
"There is another shore, you know, upon the other side.
The further off from England the nearer is to France -
Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"

By Lewis Caroll

Traffic Tales II

Today I felt like a snack while I was stuck in the inevitable traffic leading into Half-Way-Tree so I signaled the peanut cart man to rope in. I could've sworn he said JA$30 for the peanuts but I only got back a ten from JA$50, didn't want to press it though, no sense getting verbally abused or dragged out the car for JA$10 (the exchange rate is currently approximately JA$60 = USD$1).

So the peanut man says to me, "Hey baby you know I like your smooth hands." I just smiled tentatively because I was too intent on opening the peanuts to care. He continues on about how he wouldn't mind having them rub him down when he came home from work in the evenings. I start looking up the line of traffic willing it to move but as my luck would have it -- gridlock. So I shove some peanuts in my mouth and start chopping. Not taking the hint he continues, "Yes man, is you I'd a like to be my wife." I look at him, shuffle the peanuts over so the band of my ring is showing and say, "Uhm sorry, I already married still." If I want to share? I nearly started to choke. Luckily the light up ahead changes and traffic starts to creep forward as I fire back, "No sah, I not into the sharing thing at all."

• Mood:tired and really feeling down

Thursdays...

Thursdays = article deadline day and the Lord knows I'm behind with this one. Did the interview last night, came home and idled online, then woke up late this morning (because of PMS grrrr!) anyway, let me publish this and get on with it.

OH! And then I broke the switch to turn on the fan in the dining room so in here jus HOT, at least the electrician is here fixing it but this just shoots my concentration in the foot *sigh*

• Mood:rushed & under pressure

Quiz fever

I once read somewhere that you can tell a women's magazine because they're chock full of quizzes :-)

Browsing around here on LJ I found a blog where someone had a personality quiz posted on their page. After a quick google search I came up with QuizYourFriends.com, where I created a quiz for J and I:

How well do you know the Andersons?

Then after logging out of my Hotmail I saw this one on the MSN homepage:

Test your Internet IQ

• Mood:really tired & missing J alot

Baby me'd a buy yu a topless Hummer...

There's something to having a car with a non-functioning air conditioning unit, is nuff joke you get in traffic at evening time. Don't get me wrong there's also a scary side to it, with all these people selling stuff, walking up and down between the cars, who knows what might happen but that's why I tuck my handbag on the backseat out of sight... Anyway, today on Maxfield Avenue--or maybe that part before Half Way Tree is still Eastwood Park Road--and I had this man who was selling air freshners telling me how he was going to buy me a Hummer. So I said, "No thank you, I'm fine."

Man: Alright then, a topless (convertible) Hummer.

Me: No, really I'm okay.

Man: Is what you want then...

Me: Nothing... I'm good.

[as I was driving off] Man: I'll buy you a private jet then! You can get a small plane.

Remember there are three lanes of traffic on this road and let me tell you everybody else was cracking up with laughter. And poor me I was just looking for the doughnut man to get some jelly doughnuts to take home. PMS has me craving all manner of sweets. The daaaarling that J is he brought me not one but three packs of fun size Butterfinger bars. So I've put them in the fridge to firm up and I'll snack on those later rather than going out to buy a sundae.

• Mood:tired & sad, i miss j!

Mobay to Kingston in 3 hours flat

So far I've already had one person flop my show about how that's slow using the Chalky Hill through Linsteda route but I don't care. I think I did damn good consider the traffic, mad taxi and bus drivers, the insane trailer head driver round by Moneague and the assortment of goats and dogs that were in the road... not to mention the amount of 'pavement ends 300m' that I had to deal with and the everlasting pot holes that only Jamaican roads can serve up.

Chalky Hill took nerves of steel. The last time I was up there J had to kiss off the side of the road to avoid a crazy oil tanker driver that was pelting up the hill and we broke the left control arm on my old VW Vento. Luckily there was a man in an Isuzu Big Horn that I was able to follow for most of the way. "Max" (the new fastback 240sx) handled very well. He slides through corners so neutrally that I was able to save my brakes (which is good since they're not back at 100% yet, J needs to bring me a brake master cylinder when he's coming back next week).

I had a truck man stop beside me on the 1st Spanish town roundabout and tell me that I can go and drive at Dover Raceway *lol* I couldn't help but grin. Apparently he was shocked that I shot around him at the roundabout. "So is where you come from?" he asked me. I pointed out that I'd been behind him for quite awhile but I'd been on my cellphone (with J who was running to catch his connection from Miami to Dallas) so I'd eased off until I finished my call and could concentrate. He just shock his head and said that for a female driver I'm definitely not ordinary :-)

• Mood:missing J alot

It's been a long, long day...

Wow, I'm exhausted... I can't begin to imagine how J feels though, he's had a full day at work including a couple of runs and now he's home finishing up packing to fly down here tomorrow. I woke up early (as if I ever sleep past 6:30am these days anyway!) and got to work finishing off this week's article. I had it pretty much wrapped up by midday and then it was down to the newspaper to fine tune it and load it onto the servers.

After I got done at the newspaper I decided to go and check Victor (the ultimate Nissan mechanic) since his shop is down the road from the paper. He said the car seems solid and sent me up the road to a front end and alignment garage to let them have a looksee under the 240SX. Well, damn good thing I did that because I have a front caliper leak... in layman's terms that means my brakes could fail. My blood ran cold when I realized that tomorrow I'm driving pretty much to the other end of the island to Montego Bay to pick up J, a drive which involves a lot of uphill and downhill and sharp corners.

Thankfully a supplier in town had the seal kit I needed and I was able to get there (with the help of an ex-taximan's directions) in time to get the parts. So tomorrow morning I'm up early again--well more like out of the house early because I'll be up anyway LOL--to be at the garage at 8:30am so that they can repair the calipers so I can be on my way to Mobay by 10am.

I'm just really glad that I went by Victor and I'm even more glad that I finished my article today so that I don't have it hanging over my head along with this trip to the garage for tomorrow morning.

• Mood:tired & my back hurts
• Music:rain falling outside

Be strong and courageous...

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 (NIV)

In the mornings I read the Our Daily Bread devotional from their website. They have a handy like to Bible Gateway, which brings up the day's reading right away, in this internet and computer age I've found that I'm more likely to read it if it's on the computer than if I have to go and hunt through my Bible. That said at night I read to J from the Couple's Devotional Bible. It has daily passages and commentaries geared specially towards married couples. It's very good, I'd recommend it to married couple actually because it also has 'Marriage Builders' tasks that you can work through together to strengthen your bond.

Anyway my point with this is that this passage from Joshua is from today's ODB devotion but it's also from last weekend's CB readings (June 4 & 5). It's really interesting how these two seem to go hand in hand almost and to the best of my knowledge they're not published by the same company.

Just had to blog this, in my own nerdy way I think it's quite interesting :)

• Mood:calm...
• Music:a radio somewhere playing MJ "You Are Not Alone"

Doriftoooooo!

Recorded my first proper drift in Jamaica about 15 minutes ago at the intersection of West Kings House Road and Constant Spring Road. Last week with Thunder I guess I contemplated trying but then I remember what Basil said about his clutch so I backed down everytime my fingers tingled to go for it. And that's fair enough, I'd ragged on the man's car all day. I did stupidness at Vernam but put my foot down otherwise. No, not street racing, I wasn't racing anybody, just driving Thunder. So now I have this 1990 Nissan 240SX. It's an pignosed S13 fastback with a KA24E engine (the single cam to the one that originally came in my baby Q - Mommy misses you Q!)

Yes, I'm a gear-head and I'm not ashamed I tell you! The tint at the bottom of the windshield is a bit annoying to be honest with you but at least it's not crappy tint link Andre's old hatchback (the 1993 that I drove while Q was laid up last year that eventually we bought and swapped its SR20DET into Q). The only three things are:

1. The A/C compressor doesn't work. It's been cooler recently but I'm going to get a used one put in right away, I'll melt otherwise. And I know J would be miserably if he came here and had to drive under a combination of no air conditioning; and
2. The passenger side window doesn't go down because the window lock switch on the driver's console is busted. Easy electronic fix, hopefully it doesn't need a new switch; and
3. The right headlight comes up automatically but has to be wound down manually. At least they come up and work I say. We have spare headlight motors on the crashed car so that won't be all new parts to buy.

Other than that there's just some cosmetic bits but like I told the previous owner, the car is one color, I can drive around with some paint missing... after all I remember red, white and black and spraypaint Q :) And I can drift it!

Drift total: 2 L <- left hand drifts (somehow I haven't gotten right hand ones down yet)

• Mood:happy and tired
• Music:CNN news about the MJ's aquittal

New layout... slightly narcissistic?

Not quite sure if that's the correct spelling but I'm too lazy to open M-W.com right now and check. (How lazy have we become these days, I have it in my links barely two clicks away). About this layout though, not sure if I like my picture beside each post. I wish there was a way I could just chose a picture for each post, the way hi5.com has their blog section set up.

I'm a lot calmer today. Fighting off the edges of panic, for some reason I always go into a panic when I think about jobs, employment and work. I now know why my Mom always used to say that there are many poor journalists out there. Freelancing is going to have to supplement another form of income, so I'm shoving myself off into the job market. It's scary though, this wll be my first time applying for a job. I'm trying to approach it like applying to go to school, I've done that 4 times and never been rejected once, so I'm trying to calm my nerves that way. Ahhh, but this is just one of those things that makes me miss my Moms I tell you but then it's helping me be independent because I can't just run to someone for help, I have to sit and sort this out and come up with a plan of action and execute it by myself. I have friends and family who will help, but like this MSN Career Article I was readings says, "you're CEO of You & Co." :)

Time to go grab the Sunday paper and look through the job listings...

• Mood:calmer than i felt yesterday

when it rains it pours...

Now you'll never hear me say, "It can't get any worse." other than as an example statement because I'm a firm believe that it can. But can you tell me why when I was looking forward to going and practicing driving around cones in Thunder today it decides to piss down with rain? *sigh* At least the power outage awhile ago was only a brief blip so I can come online and talk to J and surf the net and whine and whinge in my journal... thank goodness for the little things :)

• Mood:sad

... and to top it off

I feel even more crappy now because the article that I wrote for this week wasn't published. The lady that I had emailed questions to which I needed answers to still hasn't emailed me back and she said she would've replied on Thursday afternoon. Neither is there an email from my editor pointing out what could've been wrong with the article, actually I didn't expect one of those I guess I'll hear next week. Thank goodness I went to church this morning, it's kind of steeled me for today.

• Mood:crappy

Injustice...

Right now I'm so distressed and upset my pulse is racing and I have a headache that just started instantly. So Jason's father's funeral is this coming Saturday. Yesterday my father annouces that he's heading to the country on the Friday and he won't be back until Sunday. He has a meeting to attend for his high school alumni association but he'll be back in time for his niece's father's day event at her house. I want to cry from sheer frustration. It's just not right :(

• Mood:distressed
• Music:some gospel on the radio (it is Sunday)

These feelings are very familiar.

These days are bringing back memories. I want life to stop for J. Everyone should just stop because he's having it so hard. He shouldn't have to go work, no one should pressure him, everyone should just tune in to his needs because he's lost someone dear to him. And these feelings are very familiar I tell you. But from experience I also know that nothing like this happens. Life goes on, some people even wonder why you're so cut up and you're still expected to work, deliver, function and cope. At the moment I'm proof reading a story I have due today. Someone I had to interview is supposed to email me back with some information but although I've conveyed the fact that my deadline is today to her several times she doesn't seem to care. So I'm going to have to plan for worst case scenario, while sitting at the newspaper until the 12th hour hoping she'll email me. One part of this writing business is definitely being dependent on people and running people down for your story, I dislike it intensely but that's the way of the game I suppose.

• Mood:infuriated, people distress me

More articles

This is all just so hard to grasp. I stopped at the ESSO yesterday to buy a phone card and I had to stop myself from asking for Mr Brown. I always did when I came by there (this gas station is at the top of my street) and I nearly started to cry but I held it back because the cashier and everyone in there looked so upset. It's hard for me too because technically I didn't know him so well but no one deserves to die the way he did and on top of it all J's thrown completely into limbo. Mr Brown and his mother had been separated for awhile and then got divorced, so there are all sorts of technicalities because of that but it doesn't take away the fact that Mr. Brown raised him and is the only father he's ever known. Then you look in the paper and you see that Mr Brown is survived by his two children Donovan and Keena which is true but where does that leave J, is it that he doesn't have a right to mourn? He wants to go up to the house when he gets here but he's so afraid he's going to be rejected but at the same time he just has to go because step or divorce or whatever, Mr Brown still raised him. And it all tears me to pieces. I mean yes I've lost my mother tragically as well but I didn't have to deal with all these complications...

More articles

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050607/letters/letters3.html http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050607/lead/lead3.html http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050607/lead/lead1.html http://jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20050606T220000-0500_81913_OBS_MORE_TRIBUTES_FOR_LG_BROWN.asp http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20050606T040000-0500_81862_OBS_CONTRACT_HIT.asp http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050606/lead/lead5.html

Some of the ones from the previous entry have been repeated.

• Mood:saddened

Very sad news.

Yesterday morning right before the drivers were given their instructions for the day's dexterity event, my Dad called to tell me that Jason's stepfather was murdered earlier in the morning.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20050606T040000-0500_81862_OBS_CONTRACT_HIT.asp

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050606/lead/lead5.html

http://www.radiojamaica.com/news/story.php?story=17693&category=2

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20050606T040000-0500_81855_OBS_A_CRISIS_OF_CRIME__A_CRISIS_OF_LEADERSHIP.asp

Back to the Grindstone

Going to get back to this article that I hav due tomorrow. I'd taken a break earlier to just relax, chat online. And I made some tuna casserole and watched two episodes of the Golden Girls on Lifetime TV.

J gets off work soon and I hope when he gets home he gets himself a tall glass of Koolaid and sits in front the PS2 and just plays. He's had a really bad day today :(

• Mood:back to work!
• Music:CSI on Spike TV

No more movies like there used to be

My Mom and I used to go to the movies practically every Wednesday when I was in Jamaica. If it was a kung-fu movie or a good action movie, her best friend would come along too. We generally went to Carib 5 in Cross Roads. I mean, since even before it burned down when it was the largest cinema in the Caribbean. We had our own special seats, up the left stairs, right at the top of the stairs. Moms and I would go see everything together, even animated movies, for a long time we didn't miss a single Disney movie. The last one's we saw together were Pocahantas, Mulan, Antz, Toy Story...

After my Mom died I said I was never going to the movies again. Luckily for me, my friends at UCU weren't about to have that and dragged me off to the cinemas to see movies like Bad Boys II, Lord of the Rings II and III, The Passion of Christ, Van Helsing and The Day After Tomorrow. I've only been to Carib 5 once since Moms passed away two years ago. And I barely realized anything because J and I were on our honeymoon all bubbly and happy... besides we'd gone to see The Village and I was scared witless, plus there was some old flame of J's that was there who I wanted to beat to a bloody pulp, so I didn't have time to dwell on Mommy.

But her best friend now hasn't been to any move theatre since the last time she went with Moms. When I just got here I went to see Star Wars Episode III and even though that was at Palace Cineplex in Ligunea there were times when I had to fight back tears. Like when the National Anthem was playing (in Jamaica we play our National Anthem at the start of all movies and we have intermission) Moms would tell off people so that they stood up and showed proper respect. I always told her to be careful and mind that one day somebody wouldn't box her over but no one ever did, everyone always stoof up.

Her best friend and I were supposed to go to Carib this evening to see Kung Fu Hustle but she said she didn't think she could go through with it, so we've taken a raincheck for Saturday. I was hoping we could've just gone today so I wouldn't have time to think about it but I won't force her to go because I'm scared too and I know how hard it's going to be.

• Mood:sad

Long Muggy Day...

Today was viciously hot in Kingston. When I left the house this morning it looked as if there was a dirty haze over the city. I guess that's what smog looks like! I went down to the Jamaica Observer today. I got my first assignment for a story that will go in this Sunday's Financial Observer. Spent most of the day doing leg-work and tomorrow I'll be up bright and early to write more of the story, as well as, do more background work. The deadline for this is Friday at noon, which means I have about 48 hours to do this. Talk about pressure! The next story will be due on the regular deadline of Thursday at 4pm, which will give me more time. I'm really nervous about this actually because I've got so little time to put together what will be my first article for this editor. I think I've got the ball rolling because I've got my major sources lined up. I just wish that I'd have more time to write the story and then review and tweak it. Normally I don't start writing until I've done all the legwork but this time I have no choice, just in case I freeze up like I did today when I first sat down behind the computer, I want to make sure that I get started on writing from now. Well, let me get back to it.

• Mood:nervous and twitchy
• Music:CSI on Spike TV