Portie Trip and A New Notebook

Well Christmas come and gone, and without the usual hype! It seems the Yuletide season has suffered from the global economic downturn also. but despite the drying cash flow I hope you all got a chance to enjoy yourselves over the holidays and the long weekend for you non-shift workers. My holidays... well weren't really holidays as I had to work on both Christmas and Boxing days. But I did get a chance to enjoy the weekend with my spoogie... well one day of the weekend.

Winniefred's Beach Portland.

We went to Portland to soak up some of the warm turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea at Winniefred's Beach and of course to get some of the famous Boston Jerk Pork and Chicken. The North Coast Highway is well on it's way and has almost reached it's final destination at Port Antonio. I must admit, the road feel sweet nuh ratid! driving to Portland has never felt so good, especially since the beginning of the highway construction. The road has been paved all the way up to Norwich, which is only about 10 miles outside of Port Antonio. However, the roadway from Norwich to Port Antonio is nothing to sweat about as it has already been primed for paving so you can still drive with relative comfort. I guess Portland will be seeing more of me next year! Road trip anyone?

My new HP Pavilion dv5

On another note, I have received my new notebook, yay! I decided to get myself the HP Pavilion dv5, which was on special earlier this month. My older notebook is well... old. It was getting a bit slower, but it was also running out of hard drive space, not because of files, but because of the programmes installed and I didn't have a DVD burner. So I decided I need to get a newer notebook with better specs. I found this awesome deal on the HP website and so I decided to grab it. The specs include 4GB RAM, 2GHz dual core Pentium processor, 320GB Hard Drive, DVD burner and a built in web cam, all enclosed in a sleek design. All of this for just over US$600. So I am currently in the process of moving my files as I have already installed my programmes. In fact I am writing this post using my new notebook and the keys feel great as I type. Well of course it is running Windows Vista, as Windows XP is almost extinct these days and the only problem I have with this notebook is that it doesn't warn you that the battery is running out of charge, it just goes to sleep. This should be able to keep me for the next three years... or longer based on this economic climate.

Read More

Yesterday is History, But It Was Great!

Yesterday is history but it certainly was great flashback to the music that was real music! Great music, great vibes and music that you can actually dance with someone to. The music kept flowing from the speakers with awesome mixes of music from the not too distant past, 90's early 2000. The genres kept the vibes going and ensured that no patron got bored: Dancehall, R&B, Hip Hop and Lovers Rock from the days of my earlier youth. Everywhere you turned you could see people dancing to the music that filled the air at the Mas Camp in New Kingston. Forwards were abundant and the chorus of patrons singing along to their favorite songs from the past, while their waists rocked and wined to the beat.

Since it was Heineken Yesterday, Heineken Beer was free all night long, much to the delight of the partying patrons. I didn't have any beer as I am not that much of a beer fan, so it was mixed drink for me. It wasn't as jam packed as it usually is, but it was still a huge crowd. But the turnout is understandable as there are so many competing events at this time of the year. I had a great time at Heineken Yesterday, as was expected. One thing, Yesterday and Good Times are the real parties, parties where you are guaranteed to have fun! The day one of these events flop, it the last day I go to any party, lol! Yesterday was certainly a good day... or should I say night.

Read More

Celly Celly Christmas!

The cellphone market here in Jamaica has certainly heated up in these cooler months, nearing the Christmas season. Ever since the telecoms giant Claro came into the Jamaican market, it has been stirring some serious waves, waves that has disturbed the smooth sailing of the "bigger, better network", Digicel. Both mobile providers have gone all out and have launched an attack against each other with the aim of pleasing the Jamaican mobile consumers.

It is rumored that Digicel went into one of Claro's strongholds and caused an upheaval as it snatched some of Claro's customers. This no doubt angered Claro, who came to Jamaica with one thing on it's mind, revenge! And with that in mind Claro bought out then Miphone, the smallest player in the Jamaican market and has taken aim at Digicel. Now it seems the battle is on as Claro fights to gain customers and Digicel fights to retain it's share of the market. As for LIME (Cable & Wireless), well it's somewhere there in the foggy background trying to grow its market.

This Christmas brought along some serious goodies for telecoms customers in our little cell loving country. LIME started the ball rolling... well, let just say LIME did something first with their single main prize of a whopping US$1 Million! Then Digicel dished out it's Christmas bag with a major prize that promises 14 MIMI coopers for 14 winners, one from each of the 14 parishes in Jamaica. Claro then struck back, by not "mini-mizing", with their grand prize of 9 C-Class Benz! So it seems the Jamaican mobile customers have a lot to look forward to this Christmas season!

Digicel promotions have connected with their market over the past years it has been here and Claro seems to be a quick learner as their promotion looks like it to connects with the local market. With each of these promotions, there are several small prizes, but the main thing is that there are also several grand prizes. This means that everyone has more than one chance of winning the top prize. People are more willing to participate in these promotions when they know they have a better chance of winning something, which works in the favour of Digicel and Claro. Now LIME, seems to be in a completely different world, and seem to be a real slow learner. Well as with the others LIME too has many small prizes, however they are just offering one huge grand prize. Hence only one person can win the grand prize, and not just one person in Jamaica, but just one person in the entire Caribbean! Now what are the chances of me actually winning that grand prize?

One thing is for sure, telecoms customers are excited for the many goodies they can win, as the service providers try to entice with many dazzling prizes. And quite a few customers will be a little happier by the end of the season. Competition is good and we can certainly see it!

PS: There is a related poll at the bottom of the page.

Read More

Drawing Blank - A Random Post

Wow! I haven't posted in an entire week! It seems I have been drawing blanks for the past week. It just seems I could not find a thing of interest to post about, or maybe I was just too mentally lazy to draft up something. I haven't even visited any blogs, I was busy a one point in the week but for the rest of the week I was just feeling... well blah. I haven't even been posting on my photo blog, it seems I am suffering from a total blog breakdown. I guess we all go through periods like these... it's not like I'm running out of steam... right?

I have to admit it, I'm hooked, addicted... yes I am officially a junkie. No, I'm not addicted to any illegal substance like coke, crack or heroine, but to Scrabble! Ever since I discovered Scrabble on Facebook, I have been playing almost every day! I have to be busy not to play Scrabble... maybe they should make Scrabble illegal. Scrabble is one of my favorite board game, just below Monopoly and Chess... wait it may just be above Chess right now! I have been trying to limit myself to only one or two games per day so I can actually have a productive day and not waste away in front of the PC playing Scrabble.

After my last post, I recalled even more cartoons from my past that I used to enjoy watching! I can't believe I forgot to list these on my last post... must be signs that I am really getting old. Anyway without further ado here they are:

• Defenders of the Earth
• Captain Planet
• Mask
• GI Joe
• Paw Paw Bears

Hope you all had a great weekend and are now ready to take on another week as the yeas draws to a close. Can you believe 2008 done already!!!

Read More

The Toons of Yesteryear... Nostalgia

A random conversation at work this evening, sparked of a rather nostalgic moment for me and my coworkers as we recalled the cartoons of our childhood. Yes, the days when we were carefree and the only important things were playing with our friends and of course watching cartoons! I can still recall heading home from school as the bell rang and making a mad dash with my friends to get home to watch my favorite cartoon, and waking up early on Saturday mornings for the cartoon block. I just can't help that feeling of nostalgia as I look back in mind at those days, even though it makes me realize how old I am now.

As a kid of the 80's and only had one television station at the time, Jamaica Broadcasting Company (JBC), I was exposed to a mixture of cartoons from the 80's and some from much earlier. So here are my top 10 greatest cartoons from my early childhood, you can click on the links to see the intro for the cartoons as the post would be too long if I added them all:

1. Silver Hawks
2. Transformers
   
3. Thunder Cats
4. Jayce and the Wheel Warriors
   
5. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
6. Flintstones
7. Tom & Jerry
8. Popeye the Sailor
9. Tiger Sharks
10. Pink Panther
    

Those are my top cartoons, but I know you all used to watch at least few cartoons in your younger days, so what are your favorite cartoons?

Read More

Frog, Soup, Depression

I have been hoarse for over two days now, I am talking about really hoarse! Frog in the throat? Hell no, looks more like a cow in my throat! It seems my sinus has gone hay wire again and this time with a vengeance, mucus overload! (sorry to gross you out) So as a result it has affected my throat, leaving me with almost no voice at all. I had to find myself to the doctor who after inspecting me, prescribed some antibiotics and sinus tablets, so I am now on drugs. I am feeling a lot better now, and I am sounding more like I am talking instead of just making faint, croaking sounds. Hopefully I will be back to normal soon, even though I have decided to take the rest of the week off to rest my throat and stay away from the air conditioner.


As they say chicken soup is good for a cold, and so I swung by Juicy Patties to get some Chicken Foot soup and man was I glad I did! the Chicken Foot soup at the Half Way Tree Juicy Patties restaurant is the bomb! I had bought soup there before, but only the cup and I had wished I had bought a bigger one. But this time I made sure I bought myself at least the small soup, which went well with a beef patty. So if you are in the Half Way Tree area and feel for soup, you can check out the Juicy Patties restaurant.

Well by now most of us have accepted the fact that we are in a global recession, so I have a little quiz for you to see how well you would survive if things get worse and we have a depression. I took it and here is my result, I guess i have some chance, yes? Go ahead, what's yours?

You Are 52% Likely to Survive Another Great Depression

Even though you may not be expecting the worst, you're the type of person who prepares for the worst. You live a relatively modest life. You don't overspend, and you aren't very materialistic. You are also quite self sufficient and independent. You have many useful skills. You can take care of yourself and those you love... which is crucial to surviving another Great Depression.

Could You Survive Another Great Depression?

Read More

World AIDS Day 2K8

Today is World AIDS day, a day when the world pays even more attention to the ruthless killer. A killer disease that knows no bounds and respects no life, man, woman, father, mother, child, it kills indiscriminately. HIV/AIDS has made such an impact on our world's societies, since it first manifested itself and it still continues to claim many lives despite the desperate attempts of our leading researchers.

According avert.org an estimated 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV/AIDS, which is a staggering number! But even worse is that there are a lot of persons living with this infection and don't even know. This is also so true of our tiny island Jamaica and many of our neighboring Caribbean islands. Despite the many AIDS campaign and effort to curb the rate of infection, this malady continues to grow like an unstoppable monster. The indicated global trend shows that the number of infected persons is growing at an alarming rate every year.

While scientist attempt the impossible of finding a cure and the most plausible task of making a vaccine, this disease will continue to ravage humanity, the most we can do is to take steps to protect ourselves from ever contracting the disease. I know we all have heard the three major ones before, but I guess it doesn't hurt to repeat:

• Stick to on faithful uninfected partner
• Use a condom
• Practice abstinence

We are all affected by this disease in some way or the other as it is a worldwide disease and not limited to any nationality or ethnic group. So let us always protect ourselves from this killer disease. Also HIV/AIDS does not discriminate, so neither should we, and as such we should treat people living with this disease as a fellow human beings.

Condolences to the families who have lost loved ones to HIV/AIDS and my sympathy goes out to those who are suffering from this terrible disease.

Read More