My thoughts…on stuff

Last week Wednesday, some of the greatest forces in the Caribbean blogosphere were assembled in one place, and for those who missed it, it was great. We met at La Kabana at 7:30. Madbull, Dr. D, Kami, Stunner, Scratchie, Gela, Francis, Owen, Shotta Mark and myself were there. It was nice to see the faces behind the blogs, but I have to admit, at first I was hesitant, because in every social circle, there tends to be a bastard in the bunch. But they were very nice, and I think I made a few genuine friends that day. I originally intended to stop by, introduce myself, then leave. As a result, I walked with a light pocket. Little, did I know that I’d be staying far longer than expected. There were mainly Jamaican bloggers there, with the exception of Madbull and Kami, who were from the Cayman Islands and St. Vincent respectively.

They were older than I expected. I think I was the youngest one there. We talked about everything from blog hosting to Vincymas. And Dr. D announced that he was going to quit blogging. I hope he finds his inspiration again, because I do enjoy his posts. But after four years of posting, it’s understandable. We feasted on wings and chips and drank some alcohol. We took some pictures (the ones armed with digital cameras or camera phones anyway). If you want to see some pictures, check out Madbull’s post on the event. I rather enjoyed it, and look forward to the next one. It was nice to talk to people about blogging and blog related stuff without getting blank stares (blogging hasn’t quite hit the mainstream in Jamaica as yet). I think we should do some promotion for the next linkup, because I told some fellow Jamaican bloggers about the event, and they regretted not going. The next link up will be in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, so I’d better get my travel documents ready and start saving.

Yesterday, I was browsing good ol’ Technorati, and in saw that Lance Bass was one of the hot tags. “Haven’t heard about him in years. Lemme see what he’s up to”, I thought. But nothing could prepare me for what I saw next. As I browsed the blogs, I came across the headline “Lance Bass is gay.” I was floored. But when I thought about it, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. Bad enough he was in a boy band, but I think I kind of always knew, because of that damn haircut! Like the times I teased my ex about their sexuality because she loved the band so much. She must really be feeling it now. Should have figured it out when he wanted to ride that rocket into space. I can just hear the millions of teen hearts being broken all across the world. Or I could be mistaken. *NSync hasn’t been around for ages, and undoubtedly those fickle teens have moved on to something else. I guess their perception of him was the thing I heard breaking.

He says he kept his homosexuality secret because he didn’t want to hurt *NSync’s popularity or his bandmates’ careers. Hello! What popularity? What careers? He is in a stable relationship with The Amazing Race’s Reichen Lehmkuhl. Joey Fatone was the first to find out about his sexuality, and Bass is being backed by The Fat One all the way. I’m sorry. The gay jokes are just pouring out of me today. They’re going to make a sitcom called “The Odd Couple”, in which Bass’ character will be, you guessed it, gay. “Buttsecks in the City” is a more appropriate name, don’t you think? Just what we need, another Will & Grace. So what of the other *NSync members, cause most people think they’re all gay. Or are they just Bi, Bi, Bi? Great, another celebrity reveals he’s gay. Next up, Tom Cruise and Ryan Seacrest.

Yesterday, Mrs. Louise Bennett-Coverley, popularly known as “Miss Lou”, died yesterday, causing Jamaica to lose one of its greatest cultural icons. She was much beloved by Jamaicans, as she taught us to embrace our culture, and never be afraid to be Jamaican. She made us proud to speak patois, which was once looked down on as “bad English”, and made us appreciate the uniqueness and richness of our dialect. Her unique sense of humor and trademark style of storytelling entertained generations of children. She dabbled in just about all forms of cultural activity, such as pantomimes, television shows, poems, and art. The popular kids show “Ring Ding” aired for 12 years, and encouraged children to sing, dance and recite poetry.

She got a fight when she first started, as patois was considered to be the language of the lower class. Through hard work and determination, she broke into the mainstream and into our hearts. She received many accolades for her work, most recently the Order of Merit. Though her time was before my own, I still knew of her work, because she had made such a tremendous impact that if you didn’t know about Miss Lou or her work, you simply weren’t Jamaican. We need a Miss Lou, now more than ever, as our country seems to have lost its identity, as we purse American and European standards and values. We need someone to teach us the value of laughter, to teach us that we should be proud of what and who we are as a people. Goodbye Miss Lou. We’ll miss you.

I’ll be upfront with you guys. I never actually saw the pageant. In fact, I’m still kicking myself about that. Normally it wouldn’t miss me, but with all that’s been going on in my life, especially work, I hardly have time to keep up with what’s going on TV. Usually Jamaican TVs would be fixed on the event. I wonder why this year was different? Did our beauty queen drop out early or something? Anyway, thanks to good ol’ media, I’m still in the loop. Puerto Rico’s Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza was crowned Miss Universe on Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium near downtown L.A. She collapsed soon after. Don’t worry, anorexia wasn’t the culprit this time. You’d faint too if you won that illustrious title. And the dress made of metal chains and hot lights may have had something to do with it too.

As usual, the Trump Organization was in charge of the event. I wonder how he does it. Being close to so many beauties would make even the strongest man consider adultery. I can see why she won. She’s a vision of beauty. Just look at her.
Oh my. No wonder she won. She wants to be an actress, and if this doesn’t get her noticed, nothing will. And guess what? She’s 18! Finally, a beauty queen within my reach! Perhaps my fantasy of getting with a Miss Universe winner isn’t so delusional after all. Congrats Miss Mendoza! Make sure to visit Jamaica on your goodwill tour. I’ll be waiting.

This post is my contribution to Problogger’s Group Writing Project, where readers are asked what they would to if they could start their blogs all over again. If you want to join in on the fun, click here. As for me, I’m pretty satisfied with my blog as it is, but if I told you I had no regrets, I’d be lying. Here’s what I would do if I could borrow Doc’s ride.

1. Get my own domain – I first stared blogging as a hobby, but if I knew what a big part of my life it would become, I would have gotten my own domain. Blogger is fine, and has few problems, but when they occur, they are very inconvenient. And I don’t want to start now, as I’ve invested too much time in this blog to start from scratch.

2. Use a picture hosting service – I usually host my images on Blogger, but I realize that Google doesn’t seem to include them in its image search, and that brings lots of traffic. And Photobucket wouldn’t help, as I post an image on most of my posts, and that would exceed Photobucket’s bandwidth easily.

3. Use Bloglines sooner – I use Bloglines to keep in touch with my favourite blogs. I would have used it sooner so that I could maintain relationships with my readers and their blogs. As my blog became more popular, I found that I couldn’t keep track of commenters and their blogs the old fashioned way (by remembering the URLs). As a result, I have lost a few of my readers.

4. Read Problogger sooner – Yeah, it kinda sounds like I’m sucking up, but if I did, I would have known the tips and tricks that I know sooner, and it might have advanced my blog further in the blogosphere.

That’s it. I don’t have much regrets. My blog is ok as it is. Not perfect, but ok.

Cricket, a game that’s as British as crumpets, crooked teeth and Big Ben. Mainly played by Britain and her former colonies, it is one of the world’s oldest sports, and is desperately in need of a makeover. Enter Stanford 20/20 cricket, a new form of cricket that hopes to revolutionize the game. It is so named because each game lats for 20 overs instead of the usual 50. It is currently in the form of an intra-Caribbean competition. I saw the ads on TV, but never saw an actual match. Not being a cricket fan, I never really followed up on it. That is, until yesterday, when Jamaica faced Bermuda. The match instantly caught my eye, as it was unlike any form of cricket I had ever seen before. The uniforms were brightly coloured, instead of the usual bland white. The bats were black, the balls were orange, and the stumps and bails were silver. The game stats had a futuristic look to them.

But once I got past the eye candy, I still wondered about the match. Would it be exciting? It was. There was remarkable batting, sometimes causing the spectators to duck for cover, not to mention some agile fielding. The fans were loving it, as they burned with a passion for the sport not seen since the Windies’ heyday. And to add to the excitement, Beenie Man performed at the match. In the end, Jamaica won, thanks to Marlon Samuels, Chris Gayle and Jerome Taylor. Personally, I like 20/20 cricket, despite what Brian Lara says. It’s a new spin on the game, and seems to have revived people’s enthusiasm for the sport, just in time for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It truly is cricket, evolved.

On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed a bill to fund stem cell research. The veto was the first of his presidency, and would set back stem cell research several years. Bush cited morality as the grounds for his decision. According to polls, most Americans disagree with him. Great, another reason for the Americans to dislike him. I swear, Stalin gets more love than Bush. This has re-ignited the issue of stem cell research. Its proponents argue that it has the potential to save millions from several life threatening diseases. Its most famous proponents are the late Christopher Reeve and Micheal J. Fox. Some of them only care if America beats other countries in stem cell research. Real unselfish guys. Opponents say that because stem cells are extracted from embryos, which are destroyed in the process, it’s really an act of murder. This also has the potential to re-ignite the abortion debate, as to what is the proper definition of “life.”

People are very vocal about this issue, and the voices grow louder and louder each day. Some say Bush is doing this to pander to the Christian right. Some say Bush should be more concerned with oil prices and the war in Iraq, being fought by fully grown embryos. And others think this is typical Bush stupidity. But in his defense, he does support adult stem cell research. I’m a pro-lifer, but I disagree with Bush’s veto. Abortion is wrong, as there are more humane alternatives such as adoption. But in today’s throwaway society, who cares? It’s an inconvenience, so get rid of it. Then justify your action by not calling it life. Sorry, had to get that off my chest. If the foetuses are going to be discarded, then why not use them to save a few lives? Stem cell research as the potential to be one of the greatest medical breakthroughs since penicillin, and must be pursued. But at what cost? I guess it all comes down to whether or not you think one life for another is a fair trade.

Mac vs. PC, a war that has been waged ever since computers fell into the hands of the average Joe. Both factions have advanced computing as we know it. Apple has made computers and their interfaces more stylish, and Microsoft has made computers available to the masses. And while Microsoft has over 90% of the market share, the little computing company that could still fights on. Its latest success, the IPod, has made the CD player obsolete and is almost as popular as sex, drugs and alcohol in colleges. But Apple’s primary goal is to get you to take the blue pill and escape the Microsoft matrix, and it hopes its new commercials will do just that. They feature two guys, used to portray Mac and PC users. The PC guy is a nerdy, lame middle-aged suit, while the Mac guy is a casual, hip young adult. Is it me or do they look a lot like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? The Mac guy brags about the cool stuff he does, like video and podcasts, and the PC guy tries to compare but always falls short, coming up with spreadsheets and pie charts. Here are some of them.

There have been a lot of Mac ads in the past, but these ones are getting a lot of attention because they insult PC users, comparing them, well, to the PC guy. PC users are being persecuted, suffering insults such as “You’re such a PC!”, worse if you own an IPod. PC users have fought back, creating spoofs of the infamous commercials. Needless to say, there’s a bit of controversy surrounding the ads. That’s probably what Apple wants, as there’s no such thing as bad publicity. MySpace wouldn’t have overtaken Friendster as the #1 social networking site if it never got any bad press. I like the ads, and look forward to seeing them. I’d like to try a Mac someday, as I’m always open to new things (except that). They seem like pretty awesome systems. If my experience warrants me to switch, then I probably will. But for now, I am a PC guy.

Pan in 60 started it and Madbull turned it into a meme. It’s one in which you create a story in sixty words or less, and I’ve decided to take a shot at it. This is the first meme I’ve participated in, and I sort of feel like I’m finally one of the cool kids. Plus it’s an interesting diversion. I’m a lover of sci-fi, so my story will reflect it. Here goes.

Progeny
“She entered the room, eager to learn the secrets of her past. She was adopted, and desperately searching for her parents. She hoped to find answers here. Inside she found large tubes and some files. She read several of them until she found hers. She then realized the awful truth. She was but a clone, part of an experiment.”

Is this Pulitzer Prize material or what?

Aargh me maties! Sit on them yonder barrels while I spin fer ye a yarn about the unlawful reproduction of DVDs in the’ land o’ wood an’ water. No, that’s not a line from the latest Bruckheimer flick, it’s my pathetic attempt to start a post on the real pirates of the Caribbean, pirated CD vendors. Piracy is the one crime that just about every computer user is guilty of. In fact, if the RIAA busted down your doors right now, most of you would be locked up in the pen for three years at least. Pirating CDs and reselling them is an easy way to make a buck, and Jamaican street vendors soon realized this. Thus began the Great Piracy Wave of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Corporate area vendors, especially in Half Way Tree, began selling pirated music CDs, with some having a boombox nearby to draw attention. Even some of my classmates from back in the days of Wolmer’s had their own black market selling these CDs. And for a while, things were good.

That is, until every Jack and Jill learned how to burn CDs, IPods caught on, and the Government started cracking down on them because local artistes were complaining about lost revenue. After that, music CD prices fell flat, and the gushing river of cash was reduced to a slow trickle. That is, until they learned how to get movies off the Internet. Now burning DVDs is in, and it’s so profitable that the pirates have returned to their original numbers, and then some. They’ve saturated the sidewalks of Half Way Tree and Downtown Kingston. In fact, you’d better be careful where you walk or you’ll step on their wares. New movies such as Click, The DaVinci Code and Ice Age 2 are in abundance, along with some sprinklings of Jamaican porn.

This surprised me when I first saw it, because Jamaican porn used to be limited to magazines and websites. Apparently this was triggered by Bluetooth Express, a sex tape involving a female student performing oral sex on a male student, a tape which they profited from. So now you have Jamaican porn videos, whose covers feature scantily clad women showing off assets that only women of ethnicity possess. These vendors have the people skills of a crocodile, shoving DVDs in your face, urging you to buy. And does the government have anything to say about this? No. But then again they rarely respond to anything unless it affects them or people block roads. I think this practice should be stopped, because it sends the message that people’s intellectual property rights matter little when compared to the pursuit of wealth, an American concept that is destroying our society. Now I’m not saying I’ve never pirated a CD before, but when it’s done for profit and on such a large scale, that’s where I draw the line.