Not For The Faint of Heart

The long weekend is over and i come bearing gifts. Well, a gift. But it's a nice one. A shiny, new article at Sprocket Ink.

Your welcome!

I should warn you, though. If you are somewhat-um-sensitive to certain animals of a reptilian nature (You know. The kinds without any limbs), you'll need to brace yourselves for this one. Plus, there are pictures. Fair warning.

You'll probably have noticed that I said long weekend. While we don't celebrate Memorial Day here in Trinidad & Tobago, Monday was Arrival Day which is also a holiday for us. Basically, it commemorates the arrival of the first indentured laborers from India over 160 years ago.

This has contributed for a major percentage of the country's (as well as my own) ethnic composition. Yeah, yeah! I know. I'm all educational and stuff today.

As with just about all events here, we celebrate with food. Mrs. C, who owns in the kitchen, kept up with the tradition after which we all spent the rest of the afternoon in food induced comas.

Just the way it should be. I may have to devote some extra time to working out though. Just to make sure my pants to fit.

Just Where Have You Been This Week? - Helluva Week

This is one week I'm glad it flew by so quickly. There is only so much a guy can take.

I'll be keeping this one short. Mostly because I'm spending the entire day in bed shunning the world. You understand.

- I started this week off with a recant of another funny conversation I had with the infamous Mrs. C.

- Then, of course, I did my weekly posts over at Sprocket Ink where I revealed an automaker's foray into the world of social networking (Because, let's face it, everyone is into it) and then I raised the alarm on the dangers of the senior-level executive mindset. There's still time to go and check 'em out if you haven't yet.

- I found an old motivational poster that truly defined how I've felt this week month year.

- Finally, I revealed that my boss had finally gotten tired of screwing with me and declared me redundant.

Good times.

Anyway that's it. Go check out those Sprocket Ink posts. I'm going back to bed.

First Fired, Then Promoted, Now...

Redundant?

At least, that’s the gist of what I was told this Monday. According to Bossman there’s no need for the position they were training me for. Please note, no actual training ever took place during the past two months (Except for the training I gave my replacement, of course). Opportunities to use me in the capacity he envisioned just weren’t materializing as quickly as expected. So, essentially, I finish out this month and proceed with my previously scheduled firing from two months ago.

“Unless something happens to pop up,” he said.

What the hell kind of bullshit is that!?! I’ll say this much: Once I leave, there’s no way in hell I’m going back. Thanks for the free coffee, asshole! Sayonara! On a side note, if you haven’t read my article at Sprocket Ink from yesterday, he inspired it. Go see.

Anyway, it seems like I’m going to have me a little free time next week so I’ve started compiling a list of activities to keep myself occupied while I seek new employment.

- Gaming: In an effort to be more focused during a grueling semester, I disabled my World of Warcraft account.

I know! Crazy, right?

Well considering the financial hit we just took I consider it prudent to leave it as is for the time being *sobs*. I’ll have to settle for other options like...

Regaining the gold trophy I earned in Plants Vs. Zombies – I accidentally deleted my profile when my old netbook died. This has been a source of great irritation to me. Up till now, I haven’t had the time to start over.

Get those last two golden eggs in my PC version of Angry Birds. Getting all three stars in those the levels is HARD

If nothing else, I can see what the replay value really is on the titles I have stacked aside.

- Heavy alcohol consumption (along with, but not limited to): Crying, breaking things, feelings of reduced self-worth and self-confidence, binge eating, more crying, etc.

Nah! Just kidding on this one.

Sorta.

- Blogging and blog reading: There are a ton of blogs I follow but I must admit to being a very crappy follower. There just never seems to be enough time to read them all and even comment on all the ones I do read. I guess, for now at least, I’ll be able to catch up.

- Books: My library card has been feel ing a little neglected of late. Time to rectify that.

- Movies: I have a stack of them that I’ve been getting around to. Is that Vince Vaughn/Kevin James movie any good?

- Fixing the leaky kitchen faucet: Okay, really! It’s been months! How hard is it to change a washer? I know there are others like myself who know all too well the inherent dangers of DIY projects but really! Wish me luck on this one.

- Finding another job: That one’s important. Gotta remember to do that one.

In truth, most of these will only keep me occupied until the end of next week. I’ll have to play it by ear from there.

That is unless one of you guy have something for me to do.

No, really! Skills include witty comments and ability to laugh at self. Throw me a bone here, guys.

Guys..?

Wordless Wednesday - What I Feel Like Saying

Just Where Have You Been This Week? – Attack of the Toons

A week flies by so quickly. Didn’t I just do one of these?

I did a lot of tooning this week. I started off with another installment of Always Remember.

Tuesday and Thursday I did my usual thing over at Sprocket Ink (Yes, there’s even a toon in one of those). If you missed them, be sure to check ‘em out. On Tuesday I had a sit-down with some important to me to try to reach some common ground. Thursday I let my inner geek show with a look into some Japanese pop-culture.

I also mentioned on Tuesday that I made a bold step and changed majors at school from IT to Journalism.

On Thursday Sprocket Ink got a new look and I did some pimping on behalf of the site. I was named "King Pimp” and a new era of peace began in the blogoverse. Just make sure you got my money!

Ahem...

Anyway, on Friday I participated in the Studio 30 Plus weekly prompt which was on the phrase: The Do Over.

I'm in the middle of an excessively hectic weekend so pardon my lack of comment responses (No, it has nothing to do with that whole Rapture nonsense). Mrs. C and I did have a late-night last night (No,it's not for the reasons you think. Behave! No, really, stop it!). Today we rest and recover because tomorrow Mrs. C was asked to guest perform for a benefit concert for a friend's church (I did mentions that she sings, right?).

I really hate busy weekends.

Luckily, school’s out for the semester and I can get my evenings back for a few weeks.

See y'all on Monday...

I hope.

What Could Have Been.

I haven’t attempted the weekly prompt from Studio 30 Plus in a while. I’m taking another crack at it this week with this week’s – THE DO OVER:

We all have regrets. Things we look back on in our lives that we wish we could change. There were a lot of times in my life, especially after my brief unemployment, where I used to wonder about the things I could change if I could go back.

I know I used this earlier this week.
It just seems appropriate.

But every time I really thought about it I realized that there would have been things I would have to sacrifice to have those do overs.

One of the questions I used to ask myself was if I had the chance to do it over, would I have overcome the personal obstacles and found some way, any way to continue my education right after graduating secondary school? Of course!

Only… then I wouldn’t I wouldn’t have gotten that job on the fabric store where Mrs. C and I met.

Then, after my banking “career(?)” ended, I would often sit at home and wish I could just have another chance to prove them wrong. If I could only get another chance I would make better decisions. I just know it.

But if I stayed in banking, would I have gone through all of the emotional turmoil that forced me to take an honest look at myself? Would I still be harboring a deep sense of self-loathing and denial? Would I have kept gaining weight as quickly as I was? Would my marriage have lasted?

UGH! Too many unknowns.

Here, in Trinidad & Tobago, romantics like to say, “What is for you, is for you.” If something has to come your way, then you’ll have it no matter what. So, even if you do go back and make good on your mistakes, life will still find a way of bringing about the right set of circumstances to allow you to receive what you were meant to have. (Even the bad things?)

I don’t know. If I think too much about such things I get dizzy. What I do know is that I’m here now. Circumstances aren’t always ideal and I do have many imperfections to deal with within myself. But one thing I know now is, except for making sure you don’t make the same mistakes again, that there isn’t much profit in looking back.

So I’ll focus on moving forward.

Sprocket Got All Sexified

This is just a quickie to let you all know that I’ve got another post up at Sprocket Ink today.

There are two treats in store for you when you get there.

Remember this:

Well, it's gone.

BEHOLD!!!

The new badge of authorized Sprocket Ink correspondents (Ooh! That almost makes me feel all official and stuff). And it doesn't end there. It's a complete overhaul! Yup, we've got a sleek, sexy new look. Really! Go see.

We make sexy time with your eyes.

The next thing is that I did another drawing. Just one, nothing special. Only this one’s a little… different.

So go over and check it all out. There are awesome posts there too. Let’s not forget that.

Major Change

It's Tuesday so you know what that means. Just click on the link to go on over to my post over at Sprocket Ink. Go ahead. Click it! Do it! You know you want to. I dare you. What's a little peer pressure between friends?

Aside from that I've been doing some thinking lately. Yeah, I know, I said I'd try to stop doing that since it always leads to trouble but, what can I say? Bad habits are hard to break.

Anyway, I've been giving some thought these days to the direction my life has been taking.

From this thought came a decision. I've decided to switch majors from IT to journalism. (See? Nothing but trouble, that damned thinking!)

Truth is it's actually something I've been something I've been considering for a long time. I love computers and technology but not enough to see myself as someone who sits and writes code all day.

Journalism was actually my first love. Long ago, I put the idea on the back burner due to different things going on in my life and forgot about it over the years. When I finally decided to get a degree, I wasn't really thinking about the direction I wanted to head in. I decided on IT because I'm a gadget geek and thought it would be a lucrative field to get into.

In the back of my mind, though, I always had doubts and the final nail in the coffin - so to speak - came the other day when I was talking to Mrs. C about making the switch. That was when she said something to me that I didn't expect to hear. She not only agreed that it wasn't a bad idea but she also said that she thought that IT was too restrictive of my personality.

Huh...

I'll be the first to admit I'm not exactly a wild and free spirit so to be told that something could actually be restricting my personality, that's actually a new one.

With regard to the logistics, switching majors at this point won't cost me more than an extra semester or two so I won't take that much longer to finish. All-in-all, I think I'm doing what's right for me.

Let's just hope I'm not making a colossal ass of myself.

Always Remember (Communication Issue)

While you may not always be keeping track...

She will subtly let you know when she's going through PMS.

Just Where Have You Been This Week? - The Day Blogger Stood Still.

Testing! One... Two... Blogger? You here?

Okay, it looks like everything's back to normal. At least, as normal as things get around here. For those of us Blogger users who haven't trashed our computers over the whole 20-hour crash, we've survived to the end of another week so I guess it's time for my weekly accounting of my whereabouts:

- Sunday was my birthday! Woohoo! A few blogger buddies did some really cool stuff for me which I gushed on about and thanked them for here.

- To be honest, aside from that, I've been a bit quite this week. This was mostly because of some more on-the-job stress which I rambled about here.

- I also relayed a conversation Mrs. C (aka Diva) had with a really dense dude. Anyway, this post was done on the day of Blogger-Crash and went mostly unnoticed.

- Of course I did my weekly articles on Sprocket Ink where I wrote on an earthquake that didn't happen and ways to deal with personal online security or the lack thereof. If you haven't checked them out yet be sure to. They're awesome!

In my opinion, anyway.

And that's a wrap. Weekly wrap, that is. Next week I plan not to be as stressed as the AWOL coworker I've been covering for is set to make her triumphant return to her desk on Monday.

See y'all next week!

Unless Blogger crashes again... Or the world ends (That's next weekend, right?)

Can A Stapler Be Used As A Deadly Weapon?

Before I say anything else, I've got a new post over at Sprocket Ink this morning.

Go on over and check it out. While you're there, make sure and hang around a while and see what the others are up to. A lot of great stuff going on over there.

You know all of the crap going on here where I work? Well it's just getting piled higher and higher, so much so that it  actually caused me to end up posting an hour late today.

This pisses me off in ways I can't even begin to describe. And you know my vocabulary.

source

Remember when I said I was fired then promoted? Well since then my supervisor also got canned. Only they didn't keep her. Added to that, I'm being asked to cover two desks since another coworker went AWOL.

But, you know what? I've made a decision. I have decided that I'm they don't deserve me wasting any more time ranting and complaining about them. And I won't. That was the last bit of space here I'm going to give these assholes.

That's the update. Now get on over to Sprocket already. I'd much more prefer you had a good time and, trust me. It's waaay more fun over there.

Ain't No Party Like A Virtual Party.

Hope all you moms out there had a good day yesterday. So what if the one day for the year where I can say I'm supposed to be treated all special and stuff got overshadowed by one of the biggest days of the year? I'm not holding on to anything. Nope. It's perfectly alright. I'm not bitter in the least.

Not in the least...

Seriously, though, I have some really cool friends here on the interwebz. From all of you who have been clicking that follow button over the past few months (Don't think I haven't noticed. Welcome to you all), to you who have wished me kind birthday sentiments over on Facebook, to you guys who have even made the effort show some love through your blogs as well. Specifically:

Nubian - who found me a World of Warcraft machinima (If you don't know what that is, click for info).

A littleSprite - who found a glass-blowing video and made me a poem. A POEM! About ME!!! Sweet.

dbs - made mention of my stick drawing fetish no skills uh-uh attempts and did a stick version of himself. His has a chin. I never even thought about giving them chins. Awesome!

Also, Antares Cryptos elaborated on my continuing battle with my mortal nemesis, the dreaded Carib Grackle. Then he made me this:

I'm both appreciative & nervous at the same time.
Is it just me or does it have a slightly homicidal look about it?

Thanks, guys. You are all totally awesome! All of this made the day all the more special.

Speaking of birds, since yesterday was also Mother's Day, I visited my parents for a few hours yesterday. After I got all caught up on what was going on with the clan, Momma C said she something to show me.

"Something for your blog." she grinned. And then...

I was introduced to my youngest niece's new-um-pet(?)

Hey! Haven't you guys heard of "free range"?

Why, yes, that is a baby chicken in a birdcage with it's head dyed green. I felt it best not to ask questions.

Momma C knows me so well.

New: Just Where Have You Been This Week? - Weekly Wrap-Up.

Welcome to my first ever weekly wrap-up post! I’ve been meaning to get this thing started for a while now but I’ve been just so damned indisciplined busy. Besides, I needed a graphic! Everyone has a graphic! Right?

Anyway, this proved to be the biggest setback since, let’s face it, I’ve kept things pretty basic around here. This actually caused me to procrastinate delayed me for a few more weeks. But I think I finally have something worked up.

Behold! I present you with the “I Suppose I Should Explain Just Where I’ve Been All Week” Weekly Wrap-Up Graphic-uh-thing:

Okay, let's face it, Micael Chadwick I ain’t. But stick drawing is all I got. That was somewhat anti-climactic but you can blame Mrs. C as well. She helped me come up with the idea.

Anyway, like I said, this a weekly wrap-up post so let's move on, shall we?

- I started off this week by (like everyone else) throwing in my two cents about the whole Osama bin Laden getting killed thing.

- I did my weekly posts at Sprocket Ink where I discussed boob cheese and some guy in Germany who got lost. Hard hitting investigative topics, for sure. Be sure to go check out those and all the other great articles from the Sprocket Ink team.

- Then I had my long-overdue post to officially accept some blog awards and forwarded them to some worthy recipients you guys should definitely be checking out.

- Finally, I gave the old blog a touch-up (Told yo I'd do it! Serves you right for doubting...)  Anyway, it's nothing too fancy but I thought the header especially needed a do-over. Let me know what you think.

And there you have it. That's what I've been up to. Now go check out those Sprocket posts. They're all awesome! One of mine has stick drawings in it.


Hope you guys know that tomorrow's a really special day. Better have your gifts already bought. Oh yeah, it's Mother's Day as well. That's also very important. Buy gifts for that too.

This Will NOT Be The Blog Where Awards Go To Die!!!

I've got some unfinished business to take care of and I refuse to put it off any longer. Seems I've been a bad blogger these days when it comes to awards. But I intend to fix that right now.

Last week my bloggin' buddy Antares Cryptos, passed these my way:

The "I Count On You" blog award -

This one's a re-gift but that's cool. Means I can just add a link to where I followed the rules before. Like this. And, in turn I forward it to Heather (aka Sugar Free) of Sugar Free Thoughts.

Next is the "Cherry On Top" award -

Then, he gave me his custom made "I'm A Great Commenter" award -

For now, I'll pass it forward to another great commenter, pattypunker.

********

Also, Vicki from Glitter Frog served me up my second helping of the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award:

There are rules to this one which I followed here. 

See how easy that was? And I've been putting that off since March. The shame...

This, I give to Nikki Rules from my cyber house rules because, when you're talking irresistible, you got to be talking about her.

Now I know I don't have to tell you guys how great these two are. But, on the off chance you don't already know them, feel free to go check 'em out. Trust me, I've never steered you wrong.

When It Rains...

Just A Quickie:

Got a new post up at Sprocket Ink. No, really. It's there. Go check it out if you don't believe me. It's been up since 12:00PM but I'm only just posting to let you all know about it.

I just spent the last 45 minutes stranded outside in the pouring rain and I'm soaked. Now I'm back in the air-conditioned office (I smell a sick day coming).

Anyway, I should probably also mention that I included some stick-art(?) in it. That should help sweeten the pot.

Soooo... like, head on over and check it out.

P.S.: Someone care to explain what the map thingy Blogger put down below is all about?

[UPDATE] This map thingy:

See?

Go With What You Know.

Psst! Hey… Guess what. Rumor has it that I have another post at Sprocket Ink today. It’s also been speculated that I’m going to talk about boobs. People seem to think I’m a bit preoccupied with boobs.

 I don’t really know where they’d get that idea, though.

Anyway, I think you should go on over and check it out. Just sayin’.

The Day It All Changed

THEN:

Before this job, before banking, I was employed as a customs clerk and worked in a company’s shipping department. On that day I was on Queen’s Wharf, the main shipping port in north Trinidad. I was the main administrative building. I had just paid some storage rent for the cargo the company I worked for and was killing some time while one of my coworkers was coming to meet me. The TV was on and it was some boring local talk show that I wasn’t paying too much attention to. I was too focused on getting a new high score on Snake on my old Nokia 5160.

Soon I noticed a commotion going on around me. I looked up. Everyone was gathering in front of the television that was fixed to the wall. I looked at the screen to see what was going on. On it, a building was on fire. It took me only a few seconds to recognize that it was one of the World Trade Centre towers. I heard the reporter saying something about a horrible accident with a plane.

He had hardly finished saying it before the second plane came flying into the other tower.

“It good for dem!” another customs clerk shouted when realized that this was no accident, “Dem blasted Americans always interfering in other people business.”

I wanted to hit him. I don’t care what your opinion is, this isn’t the kind of thing you said was “good” for anyone.

“Aye, boy!” another clerk shouted back at him, “You can’t say dat! It have Trini’s there too you know.”

“Well then dey deserve what happen to dem!” said the first clerk, “Why dey leave sweet T&T to go up there? Ent dey look for what dey get?”

I left. I couldn’t stand listening to that conversation any longer. What was happening? Everything was normal up till that moment. In my mind, I knew everything was going to change. The world wasn’t perfect but at least, right up until I saw the news, I could fool myself into believing the world was a safe place. It had happened so far away, but I knew everything had turned upside down by this event. The game had changed and nothing was ever going to be the same. I hated whoever was responsible. My sense of safety and security was gone.

NOW:

Today I, along with millions of others, heard the news that the man responsible for those attacks almost ten years ago was killed in an assault on one of his compounds. Just like that, he was no more. I don’t celebrate his dying but I’m not going to mourn his death either. Of course, it isn’t over. My naive sense of safety was long since diminished since those days. At the very least, there’s one less instigator of fear and hatred in the world.

That will have to do.