"Aloysius, the road to hell paved with poom-poom."

Have you ever seen the Jamaican movie "The Lunatic"? (see synopsis below)I stumbled upon it on torrents recently. It's still downloading now, about 86%. Last time I saw this movie I was probably still in High School and I remember enjoying it immensely. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone. In fact, there are a lot of Jamaican movies i would recommend, top of the list would probably be "Dancehall Queen". (see synopsis below)

The region itself has produced numerous entertaining pieces of work, from Guyana all the way to Jamaica. I cannot claim to know them all but I am sure interested in learning of them. So please visit the links below to find torrents for the two movies I have mentioned and point me in the direction of those you would recommend. Hollywood isn't the only place good movies are made.


The Lunatic (1991)

Filmed in Jamaica, "The Lunatic" is the story of a village madman, Aloysious, who has the amazing ability to talk to anything, including trees, cows and cricket balls. Portrayed from a Jamaican prospective with an acute eye for the authentic dialect of the land. Aloysious meets Inga, a German nymphomaniac, who uses her 'pum pum power' to capture his heart.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104777/
Torrent: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4950288


Dancehall Queen (1997)

A single street vendor disguises herself for a dance contest, and pits her enemies against each other.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127497/
Torrent: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5317995

"Although your customers won’t love you if you give bad service, your competitors will." Kate Zabriskie

So this is my idea; The St Lucian economy relies on tourism. Tourism is a service oriented industry, yet customer service is terrible in St Lucia. Well, the tourists do tend to get preferential treatment at hotels, bars and restaurants but locals tend to get terrible service.

I appreciate the point of view that the tourist dollar is important but I should not be treated like a 2nd class citizen in my own home. If I go to a bar I expect the same quality of service that tourist get. The tourist are only here for 1 - 2 weeks. I live here, in the long run I am your most valuable customer if you just take the time to treat me like you want my business.

I called St. Lucia Distillers recently on behalf of a friend to get prices on some drinks. The lady who answered told me that she has customers in front of her and she is too busy to deal with me, then she hung up. I certainly hope you all can see the issue here. I am a customer (potentially) yet you are clearly stating that I am of less importance than the persons in front of you. That is terrible service. My friend did actually buy the drinks from Distillers, so her terrible service did not in the end cost the company but I wish it had. I wish that business owners would feel the effects of poor customer service directly as loss in revenue, because once money was being lost they would surely care.

This is far from the only example I have of poor service in my own home and I am sure many of you have tales to share as well. That being said I offer this simple piece of advice, don't accept this kind of treatment. If you do not like the service you receive speak to the manager or supervisor on duty. Write a letter of complaint, take a stance. Do not allow this sort of thing to continue.

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.

...wait, didn't I do this already?

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.

I live with a memory problem. It isn't a diagnosed problem, just something that tends to piss off the people I interact with regularly. That being said it doesn't bother me. Don't get me wrong, I often feel the negative effects of it. In fact i am sure there a large number of persons out there who think I am snobbish or indifferent because I often pass persons I met recently, or knew very well in the not to distant past without even acknowledging them. Persons often stop to say hi and tell such lovely tales of times we spent together and I look at them with a blank expression, completely clueless. I feel bad at those times, when clearly my bad memory has cost me a friendship.

Often I make grand gestures to say hi or hello to persons on the street because they may have simply glance my way and I fear that it may be one of those persons who I have forgotten. So to all the strangers I have surprised, I am sorry. To all the old friends I have forgotten I am also sorry.

A bad memory on the other hand does lead to happiness. I have no enemies, because I never remember transgressions made against me. Luckily for me, the only memories that seem to stick are happy ones. What more can I ask for. So for those who have to repeat things a million times for my benefit, I am sorry. For those who have to remind me who that person is for the twentieth time, I am sorry. To the person who brings up old stories of our adventures together and I greet with a blank stare, I am sorry. But I am happy.

They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken. ~Author Unknown

Understanding women. Greater men have tried and failed, so I shall not even attempt it. I have learned tricks to dealing with them however, I will not reveal them here though (don't want to give away my secrets especially since I know my GirlFriend reads this blog). There is one piece of advice I can offer to men however; shut up!

It is said that women get the last word in every argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument. This is very true, so the golden rule for a man is even if you are right, accept that you will be proven wrong, shut up and accept that you have lost the argument.

I digress though, this blog was supposed to be in response to the concerns of a friend of mine. A male friend to clarify. He indicated that is class was filled with women who seemed to react to each other with such negativity and slyness that it confused him. He posed this question: why can't women get along with other women? I had no response but it did seem to me that guys had it easier in making guy friends than women did making female friends. I have theories obviously, but like I stated I have a girlfriend and other female friends who read this blog and I prefer to live to see tomorrow so i shall not state them here. Feel free to use the "Anonymous Comment" feature to post your ideas, believe me I am interested in hearing them.

The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.

Since I discovered fishing as a form of relaxation years ago, I must have amassed a total of 4 caught fishes with an aggregated weight of 15 lbs. Many question my desire to continue such a fruitless endeavor (mostly my girlfriend)but they fail to comprehend the pleasure it entails. The calm waters, cool breezes, relaxing ambiance and that tiny suggestion or hope that today may be the day I catch the big one.

After its all said and done fishing remains my favorite pastime. Unlike my other joys; tennis, golf and basketball, there is no competition. Sure I have essentially laid out a challenge to the fishes but quite frankly I don't care whether or not they take the bait. All that matters is when I return home from fishing half my worries have flown away. Wouldn't you agree that this makes it worthwhile?

So this weekend, while the whole island of St. Lucia will be thronging the streets enjoying the carnival celebrations I will be on a quiet beach somewhere feeding the fish...I mean fishing. And who knows, I may just catch that big one after all!

The bill collectors must love poor people…they make so many of them

So even though I knew my car insurance was this month it still got to me when I got the call saying it's time to renew. And despite my efforts to save, life's tendency to throw surprises at you completely dissolved what little I could muster. So alas, where am I to find the necessary funds?

 

It's times like these I wish I had studied medicine or law. My heart wouldn't have been in it but sure as hell my pockets would be thanking me now. Instead here I sit with a psychology degree on governments' salary. Sigh.

 

My optimism will prevail however. Something will work out.

I just ran over a baby ghost...or it could have been a handkercheif.

They say idle hands are the devils playground. I am not sure I agree with that statement (well aside the obvious reasoning that as an atheist I don't subscribe to the notion of a devil) but given the underlying message I still disagree.

Case in point, it is lunch time, I am in my office with nothing to do (cough, cough), well plenty to do actually but it is lunch time after all and I am simply in no mood to do any of it. That being said, my idleness has yet to drive me to any evil deeds. In fact I have been contemplating the possibility of spending the upcoming carnival weekend on a hidden beach somewhere fishing. In theory the majority of Lucians will be flocking the streets looking to catch a glimpse of the bands or actually jumping in the bands. That leaves the beaches empty for me, what more can I ask for?

I have heard it said "It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser", well I hope that I am managing to do both (though at different rates...wiser faster, older slower)My interest in activities like carnival has severely waned over the years, though I still yearn to be a part of carnival in Brazil and New Orleans. My ideal pastimes of late seem to center around time alone to meditate and relax or time with a small group of close friends to enjoy their company. I guess that confirms that old age is setting in.

I also really want to get away from this society for a while. Just to experience something new. The Caribbean has become way too americanized. I need to spend a year or two in Japan or Korea or India or Dubai or even Australia. I need stories to tell my grand children.I need to feel like I have lived and experienced something. I have traveled quite a bit in my lifetime. I have been to America and just about every island in the Caribbean from Jamaica to Guyana. That being said, aside from changes in scenery (which depending on the island is almost negligible) they are all the same. All full of fast food restaurants, all concerned with big screen TV's and cars and sitcoms. I grow tired of it.

Sigh, anyway, I guess since it is lunchtime I should go get something to eat. No point in my idle hands typing out a rather nonsensical blog, they may as well focus on shoveling food into my mouth. So with that being said I will go forth into the wild and hunt down some sustenance lest I perish.

Au revoir.

Golf lesson number 2

So I just came from my 2nd ever golf lesson. I thought lesson one went pretty well. In fact in half an hour I was already consistently hitting about 150 yards with a 7 iron.

Today I played with an 8 iron and the coach decided since I already had a feel for the ball this would be a good opportunity to break down the stroke and get it perfect. This is always the step in any lesson that will break you. Where I thought I was doing a fantastic job the week earlier (maybe feeling a lil cocky too) I now cam to learn that my backswing was wrong, my follow through needs work, my stance could be stronger and my grip slightly off. At this point I am thinking 'what the hell was I doing last week then?'
After quite a few mishits (more than I care to mention) I finally started to get it and boy did it feel good to hit the ball cleanly and see it sail off past the 100 yard marker and tease with the idea of going to the 200 yard marker. Don't get me wrong, I am still far from being consistent but I am getting there. But I had to quit early though. My back started to hurt, not being used to the correct position my body was protesting. Pity. I am looking forward to next week however, especially as a friend on twitter has challenged me, I can't back down from that.

Revival

Once upon a time I blogged. I wouldn't describe my work as fantastic but it suited my purpose. More or less just an outlet for me to say the things that I feel. Well let's consider this round two.

Don't expect too many well constructed paragraphs, articles or stories. More often than not my blogs will centre around random thoughts, scenarios or ideas that cross my mind at any given time. That being said don't expect consistency either, I will write when the mood hits me which could mean four blogs a day or one blog in two months. You just never know.

I am excited to be online again however, and I hope to find and meet a few people who can appreciate my thoughts and who can provide insight into things I may not have considered.

So welcome and please enjoy the read.