Just so you know...

[Warning: Rambling and Ranting are sure to follow]

So I've pretty much gotten used to the idea of being stereotyped no matter where I go.

In Jamaica, I'm the "brown" chick who listens to white people music and avoids dancehall whenever possible.

In America, I'm a black girl who listens to white people music and has way too many white friends.

In the Internet, I'm the Jamaican who likes jerk chicken, ginger beer, calypso music and limbo....wut.

Stereotypes seriously don't bother me as much as they used to. Because I do listen to "white" music and I can't stand dancehall. I love jerk chicken and yes most of my American friends are white (huge surprise, I lived in South Florida...so mostly white Cubans...), but just so you know, ginger beer, calypso and limbo are two of the least accurate stereotypes I've gotten yet.

I hate ginger beer. I can't speak for all Jamaicans here. A lot of people love it. I just hate ginger in general. It's like mint only disgusting.

Calypso? French music brought to Trinidad played mostly at their Carnival celebrations...oh yeah, so Jamaican. The music that we Jamaicans listen to at carnival is called 'Soca'. It's closely related to calypso and also originated in Trinidad...only it's not as annoying...While I'm on that note, I've always noticed that most people who imitate Jamaican accents end up with something that sounds vaguely Trinidadian or Bajan, with the exception of "Futurama"'s Hermes who sounds vaguely African. Goo'jahb.


Limbo is something that most Jamaicans just do not do anymore. It's tired and old. As a matter of fact, the only people in Jamaica who limbo anymore are 6-year-olds who watch more American television than probably necessary and the kind of tourists who spend their time in "Touristville" (aka. Montego Bay and Negril) and never step foot in Kingston where civilazation is. I mean the only reason the hotels put on events like limbo contests and shit is because they think that's what you want to see. It is not an accurate depiction of "real" Jamaica. (Neither is 'Shotta's'. Jamaica isn't always violent.)

If you want semi-accurate stereotypes, please stick with the Rastas, weed and dominoes. It's still wrong but it's closer than freaking calypso. >.>

Family Additions

Three main things to talk about now.

1. Grandma is back home. My grandmother has been living with my mum's sister in Florida for the past few months (since about September) and she's been having some financial issue's thanks to America's recession. She decided that because she had so many things to take care of in Jamaica that she should back into the country and get things done. It feels great having her back. My grandmother is the one person in the family that I feel I can go to about my problems 24/7. She's never too busy to lend an ear and a helping hand. I love her so dearly and was having a rough time dealing with my mother when she wasn't around.

2. Today was Uncle Xavier's birthday. (Uncle Xavier is my mum's boyfriend/fiance who we happen to live with) We sat at the dinner table, had an Italian dinner and a half-melted coconut, cream cheese and vanilla cake with strawbrry and whipped cream icing. It was pretty cool.

3. Tippy! Tippy is out new ginger kitten. He's maybe about a month old and is the cutest thing ever. We call him Tippy because he walks on his toes and rather than running, he leaps from one place to another. I'm glad that we adopted him because I work better when I have someone to take care of (besides myself) and those damn fish(es?) are not worth waking up for.

(++) I've also been watching the third season of Skins through YouTube. I'm already in love with Freddie and Emily.

Happy 2009!! And everything that comes with it.

First let me start out by wishing everyone (ie, the two people who actually read this thing) a Happy New Year!(I know January is half over, so sue me) 2009, woo! I'm gonna be 18 in two months. It feels weird to say. Your whole life as a kid, you sit down wishing you could reach that coveted age and break free with no strings attached. How wrong was I? I'm still going to be living with my mother and her boyfriend (and my brother) and still obeying their rules. I'm still going to have a curfew. I'm still going to rely on them for 85% of ...everything. God, 7 years ago I thought I'd be on my way to Julliard by now. Look at me. I'm barely getting by where I am as it is.

That reminds me, I'm at Art School now. (Still at Edna Manley College) I'm doing a course in Fashion Design, which consists of three classes: Collection Development, Fashion Illustration, Clothing Construction. It's not bad, I love the drawing and collection...I hate the sewing. But I guess I better learn to love it soon. My goal is to pass my classes this year. I want to leave behind some kind of success in my life. I don't want my kids to look back and see me as a deadbeat with no ambition. I mean I may not have a clear vision of my life but, I know I don't wanna waste it.

Speaking of dying-because it's such a happy subject-(how you liking my segues?) I was watching an episode of Scrubs online tonight. Yes, I have to catch up with the new season online, I'm so terrible. Whatever. "My Last Words" I don't know what they'll be, but if it were tonight, I think I'd let my last words be, "I'm doing better."

Funeral Playlist:
-"Leave Out All The Rest", Linkin Park
-"I Will Follow You Into The Dark", Death Cab for Cutie
-"When You're Gone", The Cranberries
-"Turn,Turn,Turn", The Byrds
-"Time After Time", Cyndi Lauper
-"The Prayer", Charlotte Church(with Josh Groban)
-"Hey Jude", The Beatles
-"Only Time", Enya
-"Somewhere Over the Rainbow", Israel Kamakawiwo
-"The Resolution", Jack's Mannequin
-"In The Sun", Joseph Arthur
-"Time To Say Goodbye", Sarah Brightman
-"Everybody Hurts", REM
-"Bohemian Rhapsody", Queen

What would happen if I died tomorrow?

Next year I will...

-Be patient with a parent that does sympathise, can't empathise and does everything in her power to help.
-Try to pass some kind of art course no matter how much it takes out of me.
-Tell the guy I like that I like him, the guy that I'm over that I'm over him and the guy that I love that I want to stop missing him.
-Not lock myself in my room like a hermit 80% of the time.
-Finish reading "Catcher in the Rye". I'll have to buy it first though.
-Try not obsess over Kal Penn or Taylor Lautner.
-Not web-stalk littleradge...anymore than necessary.
-Finish writing at least one of the four stories that are stalking my brain.
-Take my medication on time.
-Not purposely get myself impregnated just because I need to be needed and my stepfather-to-be won't let me get a cat.
-Make sure that the Harry Potter Theme Park Roadtrip goes on...as long as the theme park is open by then.
-Watch 'Unborn'.
-Read at least two books by Deepak Chopra.
-Do my best. I mean it this time.

Changing

You ever wake up one day and realise that you're a lot different from who you used to be? Neither have I. But I did pick up on it last night as I was nodding off. I had just come back from seeing Twilight. Mum and I fought when I got out of the car because I had blocked out her radio program with my constant chatter. I blamed it on excitement, but I think we both knew that it was just me being me.
The question is when did that become me? I look back and I see a quiet kid who only spoke when spoken to because she just never wanted to be part of anything but her own dealings. And to be honest, that is still what I feel I am. But it's not how I behave. Deep down, I'm an INFP (if you don't know what that means, that's what Google is for), an extrovert in no real way. I don't like this me. She's rude, angry, talkative. I want to go back ti being quiet and seething. Crazy in my own silent way. At the least, I'd like to find a middle ground Good luck to me, eh?

A few opinions I have:

I promised myself when I started this blog that I would try to break the stereotypes people held over Jamaicans. Well, truth be told, I'm not the average Jamaican. There's no such thing. You have the uptown people, the ghetto youths, the country people and those who are so uptown that they rarely are referred to so often that they'd actually have a broad label. (21 families might suffice.) All I can do is be me, and hope that no one assumes that I'm a genius because Jamaicans could never think the way I do. (If you have another reason for thinking that, though, it's all good.)

So here's what I think about a few random things.

Politics: I don't think about politics. I'm an anarchist at heart, being the kind of person I am. Everyone has a right to make their own choices without the fear of being punished by another human being. So, I don't really think about politics. But, I do think about things that can affect politics.

Religion: Huh, I don't really believe in this either. I believe in being spiritual and peaceful. Mohammed, Buddha, Jesus, Ghandi, Abraham, they all had the same message to spread. It was about respect, love, tolerance and patience. Peace. So why is it that in so many religions (and sectors of religion) in so many countries across the Earth, people are being taught that another religion is "evil" or "wrong"? They all have the same thing to say, they just speak a different language. My God is no different than the Judao-Christian God, or Allah, or Brahman or any other religion's god(s), people only call them by a different name and choose to seperate them according to their duty in life.

Sex: Yes, please! I'm joking. Truth be told, I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to sex. In most cases, I would probably say "Do it with the one you love." But in this day and age, those who save it are few and far between. So here's my policy: If anything were to go wrong and I were to get pregnant, I want a father in my child's life. I'm not going abort that small but real life inside me. So I will not have sex with someone that I cannot trust to support my child emotionally, if nothing else. And god forbid, he gives me a disease. I want him to be someone I can take to the doctor and get tested with before going unsafe (if we chose to be one-on-one). In short, if not the one you love, do it with the one you trust.

Conspiracy Theories: Are probably usually right. I'm not even joking. Is it so inconceivable that those in charge would hide important and disturbing information from the public? Must of us have parents who do it. They don't want to let us know the extent to which things have gone wrong because it will frighten us. Imagine that panic times, I dunno, 10 billion? Yea I'd keep shit secret too.

2012 is The End: I think there are a lot of reasons why it could be. Between Biblical and Mayan prophecies and science itself, factor in conspiracies that include jumprooms and crop circles, why the hell not? Because I'm too stubborn to believe that it could happen in my lifetime? Uh-uh. I'm not atheist. My mind (soul, spirit, etc.) will move on after I pass. So I'm not afraid of the end, because I know it won't really be.

A paraphrase from 'Contact':
If one city in one country on one planet in one solar system in every galaxy had a small population, that would still be millions of people. If they didn't, well that would be an awful waste of space.

Finally something to say...

So I've been coming online for days now trying to come up with something to blog about (as it turned out, my life is way more boring than I thought. And that's saying something). I've finally found my subject. Ever notice how people never really seem to offer up want you want until the moment you don't want it so much anymore? That just happened to me this week. I have a job now. It's not really work though. I get paid $3000 (roughly US$43) a week to help these two girls with their homework every day.
Now, everyone who knows me knows that I love kids and that I'm great at babysitting, but keeping them focussed enough to sit down and do homework for an hour or two? I have found the drawback here. But between rehersal's for this year's big musical, practicing my sight-singing and feeding my Facebook pet I really have nothing to do with my time... so I figured, what the hell? It's worth the cash, I got the time and I get to hang out with two adorable younger girls.

And in other news! There's a Halloween party coming up next month- any friends who are reading know I'm talking about Silent Scream- and I am so loving the idea of arriving as none other than Dr. Martha Jones of the Doctor Who and U.N.I.T. fame. (She's my fave companion...next to Tegan) For those of you who don't watch her and don't know the full extent of her costuminess:
Gotta love 'er. Some people are saying that her costume doesn't look like a costume at all. Well, duh, it's not supposed to. But alongside the Doctor, [click it] someone's bound to get it. If not, there's always the all black thing she had going in "Last of the Time Lords" and again in "Journey's End". [linkety-link-link]
The upside to the black deal is the fact that when someone decides to pose the question "What have you come as?", instead of responding "Martha Jones, and he's the Doctor.", I can say "I'm Dr. Martha Jones of UNIT, who the hell are you?". Makes the cosplay just a bit more kickass, no? Black jackets are a hell of a lot easier to find than maroon or red leather too. Gawd, if feels awesome knowing that I'd be able to afford one. Oh, and the backup backup? Lauren Cooper.

And now I'll leave you with:

"Amest I bovver-ed?"

Two Parts: Jamaica Land We Love

RANTING

I take YouTube seriously. But I don't have a proper camera right now. And all the ideas that my friends and I had about all sorts of cool videos that show Jamaica in a better light have been put on hold. For once, I'm not even thinking of shallow YouTube fame. There are millions of vloggers and comedians on YT that never get noticed. So it's not about that. I'm just so very tired of seeing the negative light that is shining over Jamaica all over the media. YouTube is filled with idiotic high school boys who, though they may be bright, tend to act like well...boys. They post retarded videos of them pretending to fight one another, "hitting" each other with chairs, cussing and throwing things. All the while, they wear their uniforms. It LOOKS BAD.

Let me say something to all those who watch these videos and having never been to, lived in, or been educated in Jamaica, don't know the intellectual capacity of the average Jamaican: It's rather simple. Most Jamaicans are bright. And capable of so much more than childish behaviour and play fighting. You see those boys who are throwing chairs at each other? Most of them are probably going to get extremely high marks on an examination that most Americans couldn't pass without college-level preparation before they turn 18. Most of them have the ability to gain an edge over you in the working world because American employers know that Jamaican schools push their students. We don't excel because we have a backbone and spoon-feeder in our teachers. We excel because the majority of them don't do shit. And we have to rely on ourselves to get into Ivy League colleges. You call these people ignorant, poor and ugly. Potheads, rastas, ghetto yutes, etc. It doesn't matter. We push even harder.

And to all Jamaicans who have lost your self-respect and somehow feel that this is the necessary way to get attention: STOP IT! Bugger off. STFU! Because you make us look bad. Jamaica itself gives so much way for comedy and art and eediat pickney wah step up and call demself star cau' dem tro a bokkle affa anedda yute. Dat mek sense? Stooooop. Gawd.

JAMteenz [that's the name my peeps and I came up with] was formed to help give Jamaican teens a chance to express themselves without being completely foolish. It's about comedy, art, dance and politics. And its coming whenever we get a camera....
_________________________________________________________________
CUZ MI a JAMAICAN!!

[Based off of the "Cause I am..." series on YouTube.]
Any recreation or publication of this blog must be requested by the publisher to the creator,Nikii G(c), or I swear I will hunt you down. Blogspot has a date stamp. It should also be noted that this was written for the sake of satire. I have nothing against Jamaicans, black people, rastafarians, white people, teenage mothers or Bob Marley's libido. Thank You.

So there've been a lot of stereotypes about Jamaicans running around and I just want to make sure you've got them all perfect.

I know all of Bob Marley's illegitimate children.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I live in a house made of zinc.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I got pregnant five times before I turned twelve.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I cannot speak proper English.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

"Ah tauk laik dis oll di taim, mon"
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I'm black.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I'm rastafarian.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I own a donkey
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I can beat an Olympic world record without even trying.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.

I've never seen a white person before.
-Cuz mi a Jamaican.