Jamaican, but Ordinary

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You must be wondering why I havent posted anything in a while – or maybe I have nothing to rant about hahahaha – yeah right not so. I’ve been busy with my work and several things came up but no time to rant about it – so this may be more than my usually rant ramble – I may divert all over the place.

I’m Jamaican but I’m Ordinary

Respect Due!

I know people all over the world know about Jamaica – and yes we have white sandy beaches – we LOVE to laugh – we have athletes – we have Bob Marley – we have Reggae & Dancehall and a whole host of famous artistes and popular dance movements. They also know the bad parts, lotto scam, gun & violence(cringing just writing this) road accidents, a weakening economy, yadda yadda yadda. If I didn’t write the country’s name this could be about any country. However this is just 20% of the whole country – 10% of the popular things 10% of the bad things(wish there was none) but the other 80% is just us ordinary folks doing ordinary things in our everyday ordinary life – just like everybody else in the world.

I heard someone was coming to Jamaica to do yet another documentary on the lotto scam – I got soooo annoyed as well as embarrassed for my country – I know how I feel when I get those annoying emails from some country saying I have billions of euro to get – yeah right!!! Then I started to wonder when is someone coming to do a documentary on me and my friends and family – you know something nice!!!  Not just about the bad apple making look bad for the 80% bunch!!! Yes we have had some good documentaries done – usually about the inner city and what they are trying to do to elevate themselves. That’s nice – but that does not represent me either. Oh I get it there is no shock value in my ordinary life because:

• I am NOT a part of the lotto scam – WILL NEVER BE
• I have never touched or held a gun – and the only time I see one is in the holster of the police – or on TV
• I don’t have a famous reggae singing Daddy – My Daddy was a Public Health Inspector
• I have never smoked weed – Don’t want to, probably can’t anyway – Smoked cigarette twice, and each time I was coughing and coughing my eyes were runny and red and so was my nose I started sneezing and thought I would pass out – yep my sinusitis kicked me in the face. (sorry mommy I never did it again)
• I’m not a famous Athlete – although I use to run very well in High School – and I was pretty darn good too!!
• I don’t have dreadlocks – don’t want it, cant handle it -Do you know that some countries do not think you are a true reggae artistes unless you have dreadlocks – so I find that most singers (especially male) as soon as they start to tour, in order for them to get the accolades they deserve they start to locks – hmmm shallow?)
• I love reggae music – not so much a Dancehall fan – it’s a little too, risqué for me
• Although we’ve adopted Carnival – I don’t like it – gonna get cussing from some of my friends for this one

SEE – ordinary – some may even say boring BUT…

• I love the work I do – Contractual Graphic Designer- so I work for myself – fun and something different and new happening all the time
• Most of my friends have their own businesses too – Some even going international (big up Cabbie Chronicles)
• I love traveling – only been to 3 countries though the UK , US & Antigua – I’m hoping to go to all the main continents one day.
• I love traveling all over my island – I’ve been to all 14 Parishes, stayed over in 9 of them(10 if you count the one I live in), gone all around the island once – went one direction one weekend and the following direction the other weekend – LOVED IT want to do it again with my camera this time!!
• I love staying in hotels – especially all-inclusive Jamaican owned hotels – so does my daughter – the kid’s got her mama’s heart!!!
• I love going to any ‘Food’ festival – we have a lot – I like going to the Jerk Festivals and to any Sea Food Festival – I am yet to go to the Yam Festival
• I love going to the beach, but it has to be a road-trip beach-trip kind of thing - I don’t get to do it often – you think just because I’m an islander I’m there all the time huh? not so.
• I love going to Craft Markets and Expositions, Gallery opening – or Exhibition Launch (that’s when they have the food tee hee hee)

You see it’s like this for the 80% of us – ordinary things an ordinary life -  But now that I look at it, I think we, the 80% are more than that, I think we are MORE THAN ORDINARY!!

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Girl Who Rants in Blog

PS. No, I don’t want a documentary on me – I’m just ranting – I’d more likely like to Design the credits!!

New Year Rant-olution

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So it’s a new year – what could I possibly have to rant about? This time it’s not totally a rant let’s call it observations. So over the years I’ve observed that I have stopped growing vertically but the horizontal growth has continued. I have also observed that others have observed it too – some make nicey nice comments, others say nothing  - but you can read it on their faces. One person had even ‘promised’ that I would be ‘big’ like my mother – SO now that my mom has lost a lot of weight – why is it that, that person is not ‘promising’ that I will lose it like my mother too, hmmmmm? (Those people sometimes forget that they too have expanded since they were 20, maybe in a non obvious way). When I was growing up I was told I was too skinny, and that I needed to eat. In high school I was even told, in a ridiculing way, that I don’t have a ‘belly’. What a strange turn of events!

In this overloaded world of keep fit, stay healthy, don’t eat this, cut back on that, count your calories, and lower your cholesterol one can get confused or even intimidated when you attempt to get healthy. Good thing I’ve been doing my reading from long long long time ago. Nothing surprises me anymore. First it was said do not eat butter – eat margarine – then they said don’t eat margarine eat butter now I’ve lost track of what we are supposed to use on our toasted bread. It’s all a conspiracy!! Some say you have to exercise 1-2hrs everyday and do abs – others say you just need 10 minutes a day – huh? They’re trying to mess with our minds I tell ya!

I think I know most of the exercise infomercials.(a side-effect of working late sleeping late) From the one that sounds like a ‘law office’, to the ones that want you to ‘go crazy’ and put you in a ‘loony bin’ – geeez What’s the world coming to? There’s one that tells you that you can eat anything up to 5-times a day and lose weight – quite misleading in their presentation, but I understand what they mean. Then there’s the one that says one big meal a day with ‘shakes’ to replace the other meals huh? One set says stay away from processed food – then there is a group that packages your food and sends it to you. Now before you say, that’s not ‘processed’ food – think about it, anything that has to go in a box and you just take it out and heat it up – is ‘processed’ – preservatives MUST be in it. Now I’m not saying it wont work – it probably does it’s just that I’m getting a lot of double/mixed messages.

Yes I have had the green juice – It’s not bad at all!

There was even a lady that said we could use breathing techniques and that stretchy thing to lose weight -huh? It’s all a conspiracy!! I watched the Dr Oz show recently and there was a Nutritionist on it that called some healthy foods ‘devil food’ her theory is that some people can gain weight on 5 stalks of asparagus or even almond {Check it for yourself}- so you need to lose weight via your body chemistry not calories. Seriously lady, tell me, who sent you?  They are messing with our minds I tell ya!

All in all when it comes to weight loss – I mean healthy lifestyle – each person must choose what works best for them – and they definitely don’t need input or reminder from others what the mirror tells them everyday or in some cases the scale!! If I have ever done that to anyone my apologies(at least I don’t think I have). The fads come and go anyone remember 8-min Abs from the 80′s or was it 90′s? We have just the one body – I don’t think we get do-overs so we just have to take care of it as best we can without fear of persecution or ridicule if we so happen to have expanded. We women have enough to contend with in this world.

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Girl Who Rants in Blog

PS. IMO Skinny people should not be in the gym – I know I wasn’t when I was skinny-er!!

PSS. Read also a less paranoid Blog through my business with additional resolution at http://messageboardtee.wordpress.com/category/blog/resolutions

PEOPLE…O my O my!

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So I wanted to write about this long ago – but there’s just some things I REALLY, REALLY can’t talk about. But alas there are somethings that I can and so I will.

Ahhh People, people, people what would the world be without it – void and without certain atrocities, that’s for sure. But we have to live with them we have to learn to get along with them and yes, yes it’s true we have to LOVE  them. Eeeeeeee, just felt a chill down my spine. Anyway I’m learning day by day to let people be. I can’t change them or fix them or make them see that what they are doing is crap. So I’m allowing them their fair share until they realise how far deep in it they are.

I like to advise people as a matter of fact I sometimes feel that’s part of my duty here on mother earth – To help in any way I can especially if I am equipped with the knowledge of the situation. In my line of work I advise people a lot (I should start charging – Oh I have). Now with clients it can be tricky – they want your advice – they ask for it – BUT if they don’t see the competitor doing it they don’t want to venture into it. They want first world – high-class and ‘top-of-the-line’ work but don’t want to pay for it.

I once quoted a client a DISCOUNTED figure for a job and the person said to me “So what can you do about the price?” In my head I said ‘increase it to its rightful amount’ but outwardly I said it was already discounted plus I have to pay my supplier as well. I was so annoyed these are the kind of people who spend oodles of dollars on shoes – something that’s going on the ground for heaven’s sake! (Ok so I like shoes like any other woman but I would rather get a fancy shoes for a bargain price) Not to mention the company had already spent money on a project that they didn’t go forward with – sigh – I was so annoyed I went to Facebook and did a mini rant:

[BTW - Mega Mart is similar to Wal-Mart]

So I went off the beaten path a bit – but I was pretty mad that day I had to share this – but that’s just how Client-people are especially with creative people. I don’t think they have ever asked their Doctors for a discount or even their Lawyers. Oohh I would love them to ask Oscar de la Renta or Gucci or Cartier to ‘do something about the price’. I know bargaining has always been on mans road to life – but when it is constantly done with creative people – especially in THIS country – then soon we wont be even on the road to life – just sitting in the bushes along the wayside. Sigh PEOPLE!

OTHER PEOPLE

On a number of different occasions I’ve seen people either doing something or about to do something that I get a ‘feeling’ maybe they shouldnt. So I may say it to them. Sometimes I am met with harsh criticisms – or shunned completely – or worse ignored, they don’t even acknowledge what I’ve said some even change the subject. And believe me 85% of the time I was right – something ‘bad’ happened or a ‘good’ opportunity was passed and every fiber of my being wants to say I TOLD YOU SO! Because I got that ‘feeling’ you know. Sometimes I do say I told you so – years after when the ‘wounds’ been healed and not so harsh as how I wrote it.

So let me confess here – I can be a little, little, little insistent with my ‘advice’ that may come off a little, little, little bossy – so maybe that’s why some of the advice was never taken – As I said I am learning to let it go and allow people to learn on their own in certain matters – like I did in certain matters. But isn’t it really hard seeing someone about to step into dirty water, for example,  and not want to tell them WATCH OUT? In each situation although I want to say I TOLD YOU SO, I still feel bad for the person, especially if it’s something serious, costly or more so affects me!!!

However I have come to the realization that PEOPLE will always do what they want to do, I can’t change that, I can only give my advice and hope it helps and if they don’t take it hope that somebody else can help them, before they step into the dirty water.

As I hope somebody will stop me before I do. WARNING: I have been referred to as one of those stubborn-people!

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~Girl who Rants in Blog

Work Place Woes II

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I should probably rename my Blog “Rant when I feel like” or “My Monthly Day-ly rant” I can’t believe that it’s been a month – sometimes life gets in the way of life.

“So meanwhile back at the lab……”  (old cartoon humour)

Last Blog I ended with the clique boss, who loved to gossip about the other staff who were not in the clique. That Boss thrived on the oohs and the ahhs of the worker bee. Since I wasn’t that easily impressed – I didn’t ooh or ahh much so I was not in the clique. Let’s talk about different…..

Bosses:

• The Don’t know the industry Boss: They didn’t come up in the particular industry they are in – they only know management – so when you would explain something to them, you can see the back of their head through their eyes because nothing is registering.
• The I know a little but pretend to know a lot Boss: They know some jargons/terminologies they always remember the catchphrase from the last seminar – and use it repeatedly, they sometimes become autocratic – my way or the highway -highway please!
• The Control Freak Boss: They may be autocratic also, but wants to be over you shoulder every minute to see what you are doing even though they have checks to sign off on or some other mundane managerial stuff. (I can call it that because I know – I now do the mundane managerial stuff for myself)
• And then there’s The taking the Credit Boss – need I say more.

Let’s move on – it’s not the Bosses alone are an issue at the work place. Coworkers: some do become great friends for years – BUT then there are those that you don’t even want to pass on the street.

Coworkers:

• Have you ever seen crabs in a barrel? They try to climb on each other’s back to get out but they can’t, usually it’s because their claws gets snagged by another crab trying to get out. That’s what it’s like at some work place “Crab in-a barrel” we use that phrase to describe people who pull others down to get where they want to go – but alas they get nowhere. Especially in a small company where can you go really. And yet come the very next day they try the same foolishness again. Silly crabs!

• The SPY – who is also the YES-MAN – they use people, to get what they want and to get on the good side of the boss. How do they sleep at nights? I’m not sure there are any other kind (apart from the ‘good’ ones) Because the one that will ‘stab you in the back  - is a spy and a yes-man. The one that takes the credit for departmental work – is a YES-MAN. And yet you can still call them crabs. Hmmmmmm I’m still thinking of other kinds….

Bullying:

There is a lot of talk in the media these days about bullying – this is not a new phenom. Bullying happens more often among adults than children – in my opinion. Bullying from the boss, bullying from fellow employees – and bullying doesn’t have to be the physical It’s the Psychological when it comes to the work place. It’s the subtle talk, whats insinuated, being berated for not being one of them or not even dressing like them. For example coworkers like to go out for drinks after work – or stay back and play games, or go to the latest network buzz fest. Personally I don’t drink, so why should I go out with you after seeing you for 8 hours of my life, which I can never get back, to have a drink? I don’t mind playing games – that can be fun. But if you are going to use this as apart of my evaluation about socializing then that’s just a bunch of malarkey! And the whole networking thing sometimes does not align with my personal belief and so therefore I avoid certain settings/situations. These are the things that are used against you sometimes, “Oh she doesn’t come to office functions, she’s anti-social” or “She only go to church functions” AND SO…. What I do with my personal time is my prerogative. It does not affect the quality of my work. Besides the point is I did socialize only with MY select few but ‘they’ didn’t know that. Tee hee hee.

6-Week Job

Anyway I said I would talk about the 6 -week work place. I think I left one job and ran into the other one too fast. “Out of the frying pan into the fire” Or INFERNO. That place was a work house – they would work late, late, late. Unpaid (yes unpaid) overtime is somewhat of a common place in the Advertising Industry here – especially if you have certain clients.  I was not able to live up to that – I would rather come in as early as possible to work – but alas the AE’s wouldn’t come in til late plus they sometimes didn’t understand what the client wanted – so you would sit there and wait from 8 am until about 12pm to finally get an assignment, do it send it off and the response comes back at 7pm when I should be home eating my dinner with my family. So 3 weeks in I knew it was not the job for me and was weighing doing things on my own. However, because of divine intervention – a job presented itself to me working with someone I had worked with before (a good guy) And so I gave my two-week notice and said Adios! I wont even mention the flirtatious supervisor or the porn surfing guy or the boss telling us when the client say jump we ask how high. huh? What decade are we living in.

All my experiences have helped me and taught me something, I am going through new ones now being my own boss. One particular workplace taught me 65% of what I know and use now, because of the other set of people the ‘good’ ones – and I still have friends there that I go back to and visit time and time again. No matter how you are treated in a workplace its best never to burn bridges.

SIGN OFF

~Girl who Rants in Blog

Work Place Woes

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I was browsing the web and I came across an article that said – “Don’t blog about the office” (strange I can’t find it now) and I figured since I don’t work in a traditional office anymore – why not?

So I’ve worked at several places in my time – should I count them out …. naah. However one particular one was for 6 weeks!!! It’s not as bad as it sounds. I’ll explain later. All of these Jobs I thought I would be doing them for awhile but certain circumstances made me move on. I left one job because it was rumored they were going to fire people because the company was ‘over-staffed and inefficient.’ They moved me from one department to the next, you know how they do stuff like this to frustrate you, because it wasn’t a promotion. I figured I would be going out because I was the last one in – so I jumped ship. I was young (ger) and didn’t want a bad ‘stain’ on my resume little did I know I would have gotten some money for their treachery. Another job was because I was over worked and underpaid – who isn’t? Seriously though I was doing things I never signed up to do – I was thrust in a role of leadership without training – I learnt on the job. It was hard telling people what to do and how to do it – Why? you ask, because I’m a girl, and I’m not very tall! Now, don’t get me wrong it’s not that I don’t believe I can lead as a woman – it’s that others think they should be leading. You get my drift. So I got the 7-year itch after about 3 years and jumped ship! And another job I was fired! Oh they call it being layed off or made REDUNDANT. Isn’t that a daunting word REDUNDANT (say “tun tun duh” after – see what I mean daunting) Do you know what that word means: redundant  |riˈdəndənt| adjective no longer needed or useful; superfluous oohh that’s harsh no longer needed. It took me awhile to get over the word – not the place I was glad to move on, reason was I didn’t want when I said REDUNDANT to people – they look at me with the ‘sad face’ awww like it’s the end of the world, which would make me feel worse. Anyway I knew then as I know now that I was being led to where I belong and would be needed.

Moving right along, in most jobs people are afraid of the boss – that shouldnt be. We all need to remember as humans we all put the food in one end and it comes out the other end. So they are no different from us. But when the boss is coming we scramble and get back to our desk, we pretend like we are doing something when they pass us and try to be the first to answer their question when asked…yeeesh tiring! I know of a particular Boss who ‘befriended’ everyone and asked about family etc you know what I mean they were ‘nice’. However I was ALWAYS uneasy around that boss. And I didn’t know why. I remember I once asked for permission to do something and I specified the amount of time I would take – well I went over the time and was a little late. Then a speech was given the next day I think, in an impromptu staff meeting to talk about tardiness and personal time etc… seriously….I don’t think I’m that paranoid, but was that speech for me? So I did a mature thing I rendered my apologies written of course, cause I’m a professional – only to be told, in a whisper of course, the speech wasnt for me but for another staff member….yeah right I can just picture the boss talking to the other staff member, in a whisper of course, ”it wasnt for you it was for the new short girl.” That Boss proceeded to tell me about the other person and the ‘bad’ stuff she does. Hmmmmmm but correct me if I’m wrong but is a boss suppose to do that? Ahhhh Now I see why I was uneasy. That particular boss eventually found the kind of persons who would listen to the ‘stories’ and they would sit together and talk and talk for hours at lunch time – nothing wrong with that right? However whenever you walk in the room, it would go deadly quiet, and one of the cohorts would say something silly like, ‘hey girl I like those shoes’ or they would start talking about their food or looking out the window at some random person – because they don’t want you to figure out anything. Hahahahahahahahahahaha “silly rabbit tricks are for kids”

Awww lookee here I’m almost at the end of a , self-imposed, alloted amount of text to use in a rant, and I’ve got lots and lots and lots more to rant about. Like Food in fridge, watching the clothes people wear and the ever-present spy that’s in every traditional office. Stay tuned for part 2 and maybe even part 3! Tun tun duh!

SIGN OFF

~Girl who Rants in Blog

Don’t You Hate it When…..

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Hate is such a strong word

DONT YOU DISLIKE IT WHEN….

(it doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily but it will do)

….You have all these things to write in your blog but when you sit down to finally do it you go blank?

….You see someone you know from high school and you raise your hand and wave ‘Hi’ and they look at you as if they don’t know you?

….The teller at the bank decides to go on a break when it’s your turn?

….You are the second person in a line and two friends come in chit-chatting to the person that’s in front of you and suddenly they are in the line?

….You are shuffling from one foot to the next in the line and feel the person behind you body parts touching yours? eeeewwww!

….The person behind you sigh’s and you feel their breath on your neck? eeeewwww!

….You are in a hurry and the system/cash register goes down when its your turn?

…You are driving in a merry mood and mistakenly stop too far out in the road for the other traffic and the other driver decides to ‘cuss you out’ and you only figure out a plucky comeback when he’s 20 feet away? (or is that just me hmmmm)

….You stop for a pedestrian to cross only to see them talking on the phone and walking slower than a snail?

….the light changes to green but the traffic is not moving only to notice the person in front of you is on their cell phone?

….You are in a long line of traffic and  someone decides to over take everyone only to cut in front of you? (Why do I have to be the nice one? Better to be safe than sorry)

….You sit down to lunch, to try out the food from the new restaurant and someone comes in and say “The food there is awful”?

….You are eating your yummy meal and someone says “How dat look so?” (Translation Why does that look like that)

….You are eating and someone decides to tell a story of the time they got sick eating what you are currently eating?

….You just finished cleaning and washing up – only to go back and see a dirty plate in the sink?

….You just sweep the front of your yard and then you neighbour decides to prune his hedge?

….Someone drives into the quiet community and decides to honk their horn to the get the attention of your neighbour? Seriously!! use your cell phone, call them DUH or better yet get out of the darn car!!

SIGN OFF 

~Girl Who Rants in Blog

Customer Service

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So I decided to lay off the traffic thing for awhile …just for awhile.

I’ve always been a stickler for good service. I simply feel that if you give me good service I will keep coming back for more of your product, business etc. My main area of woe, is fast food customer service. Not because it’s ‘fast food’ does it mean the service should be nill. Besides, fast food joints have more people going through it than peak hour at a toll booth. So one would expect that they would have perfected the art by now.

One Saturday morning we took our daughter to her favourite breakfast spot. I went in and politely said “Good Morning” and ordered what we wanted, with a smile and such pleasantries – and all I got back was a drawling repeat of my order and no return of my greeting – while she looked over at another customer – who was complaining about something. Hmmmmm interesting. After awhile the customer began to annoy me – she sent back something twice(her prerogative), but she spoke very loudly and condescendingly to the staff, that’s not nice. I’m standing there thinking oh, that’s why I can’t get a ‘Good Morning’ and such pleasantries, because they feel everybody will treat them like that. Sometimes it seems as if when you are loud and boisterous you get somewhat of a better ‘service’. What kind of crazy mixed up world do we live in? And you know, people like me are paranoid about doing crap like that. We fear extra protein-filled moisture would be added to our meal. Plus, we would end up feeling bad afterwards anyway.(awww shucks sometime we too nice!) So instead of being loud boisterous and condescending, I do what my mama taught me – Be polite.

Sometimes I feel like the ‘good-guys’ are losing….(will deal with this a next time)

So this past weekend I went to a pastry place in the food court of a popular mall (no I wasnt buying pastry, this time). I ordered a smoothie from the young lady that was standing about two feet away from the cash register. She turned slowly looked at me and nodded that she had heard me and went back to fixing what she was doing before she started gathering the ingredients for my smoothie. It was obvious something was wrong, maybe she wasn’t feeling well – so I wasnt mad at her. However I know that when working in the food industry especially with direct contact with your customers you have to be Ms-Mary-Sunshine and they need not figure out you are ‘sick’. Management should be aware of these things and take her off cashier duty and at least allow her to recoup before dealing with customers. Still not mad at her, I think.

I always seem to get the  - ‘sour puss’ or the ‘mad at the world’ or the ‘I-cant-stand-you-cause-you’re-on-the-other-side-of-this-counter’ persons to deal   I go to fast food joints. I once thought I was doing something wrong – but then I realised I’m not the only one who gets this kind of treatment. Maybe it’s a sign I should quit eating fast food hmmmmmm food for thought!

I remember when my husband and I use to go to ‘fancy’ restaurants, that’s before diaper, baby cereal and now school fee. There’s one particular place we always go back to for Birthday’s or Anniversaries. We would get the same waiter every time and he was goooood. He would make suggestions whenever we were indecisive, and sometimes I don’t choose so quickly, he would check back with us at just the right time, he just made us feel like a King and a Queen and we would amply show our appreciation. We will definitely go back to that restaurant – and not just to the take out section either.

There are places in this country, that have excellent customer service. I find that they’ve trained their staff well and it tends to sometimes have an exclusive feel (it’s all the rage dah-ling) and in some cases expensive. Why is that? You get what you pay for? I don’t fully believe this one bit – cause in my line of business clients get MORE, WAY MORE than they pay for (maybe I should increase my charge) because I believe in giving them the best quality customer service sometimes beyond my call-of-duty. I want to keep them coming back – isn’t that the first rule of business? Everyone should feel like a King or a Queen when they walk up to the counter of a fast food joint and say “Could I please have a number 3 with a large soda?”, besides it’s money being spent that could be spent at the other fast food place right?

SIGN OFF

~Girl Who Rants in Blog

MERRY NEW YEAR!!!

Here’s to MORE in 2013

MORE love

MORE peace

MORE harmony

MORE EVERYTHING THAT’S GOOD IN 2013!

From ~Girl who Rants in Blog

Ps More Rants tee hee hee

Reality TV….uuggh!

SIGNON

I have been avoiding this topic for awhile but a show I watched last night was the last-last straw that broke the camel’s back, foot  etc etc.

Ok let start from the top – Reality TV has taken over main stream television – that’s for sure – fans/viewers etc basically made it top viewing telly. Here’s the reality , REALITY TV IS NOT REAL – I can hear some people gasping. They are all scripted to a point because in real life we humans don’t behave like reality TV people.

So I watch a few reality TV shows – I have cut back on some for moral reasons and I am cutting back on regular TV in general (I hope – I’ve been doing this for awhile it’s kind of hard) Need to get back to some reading cause I have piles and piles of literature to go through that pertains to my spiritual and moral being as well as to business cause I need to know more about running my own business. Also I joined a book club sometime ago bought the first 4 mandatory books and  have read only one – yes, yes I know that sounds bad – I wont even tell you what year I bought them. (Just checked my book shelf….yep they are still there in semi-mint condition) Anyway I like watching crime fighting shows cause I believe that the bad guys need to get it in the end and GOOD MUST prevail!! I love watching Food Network and HGTV – whether it is a challenge/competition or just watching people use different techniques to do something simple.  I guess you can consider those ‘reality TV’ as well I am not sure if the industry refers to them as that. Those for the most part doesn’t seem to be scripted. I have to watch Disney because of my daughter and any other kids show that comes along – as a matter of fact I have my faves in those too. I don’t mind watching it with her at least I know what she’s watching.

TALK ABOUT THE REALITY SHOWS ALREADY!!!!

Ok I watch Biggest Loser – don’t judge me – Dancing with the Stars, The Amazing Race (my husband and I love this one we would go on it in a heart beat and be the cussing couple that make up in the end – not bad-bad cussing just the my-suggestion-will-work-yours-wont kind of argument) America’s Next Top Model – don’t judge me – I watch it for the photography section – really. I use to love Dog Whisperer  - I think that Cesar is cool at what he does – training the owners!!

Seriously though who thought of the Bad Girls Club – never watched it, only saw the ads, everybody fake-fighting, in each other’s face and pushing and bad words bad words bad words is that what makes you bad? I thought that if you were bad there is a ‘particular’ place that you were sent – so who are these wannabe’s???? Don’t get me started on Jersey Shore either, never watched it, but every news channel made sure I saw something from it!

I think there needs to be another warning label on shows –  Rated S for STUPID may cause massive loss of brain cells!

Anyway BREAKING AMISH advertised on TLC some time ago – wasn’t interested – scripted I thought. Then I saw a marathon going on one day – I got caught up in it – I should have gotten a book to read instead – I wasted brain cells and eye power on that….uuggh!!! It’s beyond scripted they probably left the Amish community years ago – they painted such a bad light such a bad bad light on the Amish. They made me so mad I wanted to run away and join the Amish. Now normally I talk to the people in the TV – don’t judge me you know you do it too!! But at their reunion show I saw last night (the back-breaking straw) I was saying “LIES, LIES you are all lying – Shameful, You’re a disgrace” Well suffice it to say I was a disgrace for getting caught up in such malarkey. All was revealed – DUI records – hidden marriages, hidden children, assault charges, basically hidden lifestyle and I am not talking about their Amish community – I think they were living ‘English’ all along. Oh my brain cells my lost lost brain cells! I have only myself to blame for getting caught up in something I said I wouldn’t get caught up in. One part of the show I dare to remember was when one guy went home to talk to his Mom and was so called ‘shunned’ at dinner and when he left the camera’s were still in the house and the Mom says in Pennsylvania Dutch(their language) ‘Why are they still here if he left?’ – which is what I was wondering – ahhh finally an unscripted part!

TLC, you don’t have to do another one of THAT again. Who owns TLC again – oh yeah Discovery channel the same people who bought Fit Tv and took off ALL THE FITNESS SHOWS!! I rest my case – ahhmmm where’s my book again??

SIGNOFF

~Girl who Rants in Blog

I’m Blogging!

SIGNON

Hey all I am finally into the blogging thing – well I’m not sure yet – we’ll see. I’ve been concerned about a number of things, such as traffic on the roads – bad roads – bad drivers – traffic officers – taxi drivers – bus drivers etc etc etc(are you depicting a theme here hmmmmm) Anyway injustices in life annoys me – it annoys me so much that I rant about it to my family’s poor unsuspecting ear. I can hear you saying ‘but thats life’ – I dont think so, some of the issues that takes place in this world that creates injustices are totally unnecessary.

Ok that was a mini rant we’ll get back to that – I’ve always liked to write stuff down – to remember it mainly – but I use to write short stories as a child, I still remember some of them I still have some of them. I attempted it as an adult but kept changing it around – until I saw the title of ‘my original story’ as a TV series – ugh – story of my life. Suffice it to say – it doesnt remotely resemble my story and I think mine would have been pretty darn good. Yeah I boasted about my story – its my opinion and we haven’t started paying taxes for opinions….yet. So thats the extent of my ‘writing credentials’.

So where do I start……

DRIVING: MY TICKET ORDEAL

Based on what I said before you would think that I do a lot of driving…well not really. Its just that when I finally do I have numerous stories to tell – and right now I am not remembering any…..except for the last ticket I got – dont judge me! Its not for speeding….this time.

It was a warmish mid morning – I was annoyed at something or someone (yes, I get annoyed easily don’t worry I’m being worked on) and I was driving in to a meeting with a client. I decided to take a short cut from Maxfield Road to get to Cross Roads – everybody knows ‘short-cut draws blood’.  So it was a BAAAD idea – there’s been a strong presence Police and Traffic Wardens on the road lately but I wasnt really worried, my papers were fine and my tag was up-to-date. So, I went on my merry way trying to deal with why I was peeved. Then suddenly a man crossed the street and waved at me – so I kissed my teeth and said ‘knuckle-head’. Lo and behold he was warning me about the cop around the corner – crap, I thought – too late to send up a prayer now huh? She waved me to the side of the road and I complied and switched my engine off.

She told me her name, cant remember it now, couldnt remember it then either – does anyone ever really remember what they say before they say ‘papers’? And aren’t they soppose to tell us their badge number so I can know that she’s really a cop, aside from the precariously poised hat and the waist cinching pants.

Ah yet still, I digress, so I gave her the car documents and hoped that that would suffice – then the Transport Authority dude came over – looked at it, looked at me, looked at the car , looked at me again (he was probably wondering why I was driving a car like that – they all do) He checked the lights – the break lights – the brand new tyres and I felt a little relieved, because nothing was wrong – so I figured I would reach my 10:00 meeting on time. “Open the bonnet” he said and I was nervous now, he made me rock the steering wheel from side to side in quick succession – seriously, who drives like that on the road? He told me something was wrong with the steering wheel – that its too loose in the______ (cant remember) and its not fit to drive on the road and that he would be taking off the license plates. [insert frightened internet cat here]

At this time I was beyond peeved – the day wasnt going well at all – but still I remained quiet not calm because inside I was jumping, kicking, screaming and a little cussing(no not bad words).

My ‘unfair’ ticket

I tried talking to him by saying the car is fine when I’m driving it – it was inspected before yadda yadda yadda – nothing worked. WHY? Because they had a quota to fill and they were targeting certain cars – yes, I said it and I believe it – convince me otherwise. They had me waiting for about 15 minutes in the now, BLAZING HOT SUN, burning up, before they finally wrote up the trumped up ticket. WHY so long you ask, you….know….why. In the midst of all this while I was pleading my case, someone brought a screw driver and was handing it to me to hand over to the transport dude……seriously, I looked at it looked at him and went right back to talking. In hindsight, I should have taken it and threw it across the road.

So, I stood there with my head hanging – trying not to look up to see their callous faces, and also to prevent myself from sinning. And I guess the female officer felt ‘sorry’ for me and was calling another ‘knuckle-head’  I mean, officer to come and explain things to me again. He said “she hear it already, besides she look like she…” I didnt hear the last part but I assumed he thought I was going to cry. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Poor thing, doesn’t even know the mayhem that was taking place inside me, and that he was being saved by a Powerful source, from the wrath of my unbridled tongue. (no no no not bad words – there is too much words in the English language to resort to that). So like I said 15 minutes to write a ticket…hmmm what does that say about the Education system…lets save that rant for a next time.

So I drove off, yes they made me drive off in the ‘defective motor vehicle’ – funny huh?

Without plates

24hrs to rectify the vehicle and

A dumb (expensive)  ticket

I have no problem with people doing their job – let me state that now, I probably should have said that at the beginning. I guess I was hoping for a warning, seeing that I was made to drive off in the ticketed vehicle. I don’t know everything about my vehicle, maybe I should, but even when he was pointing out the thing to me – he called the name – I had to ask him what that was. He should have realised my limited knowledge about my vehicle and exercised his discretion – I guess he thought I wasn’t being truthful – and I guess I thought he would be ‘nice’, I guess we were both wrong.

Anyway, now when I see Traffic Authority people on the road I’m a little annoyed/nervous, but alas they ARE on the road for a reason and I should respect that, but like I said I’m being worked on it’s gonna take time because there’s still a void where my money use to be. Plus I keep working out how much gas I could have gotten with that (about a week and a half). Well, funds collected via traffic tickets goes toward the countries infrastructure, I think, so I hope that MY money, actually goes towards fixing the roads. [insert sarcastic face here]

So I end with a disclaimer: I try my best to be a lawful citizen – I respect the offices of the Police Force and the Transport Authority, and I DO NOT under any circumstances purport to be a person who abhors authority, that is not what my rant is about.

SIGNOFF

~Girl who Rants in Blog

Gov’t Projects More Than $1b From Traffic Tickets