Commitment

The unfortunate thing about the world, I think, is that you need people to make everything happen since there's nothing meaningful that you can accomplish on your own... well, meaningful to society.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are people who rarely ever let you down, and will communicate effectively, and all the things that you think about in your dreams, but I probably know about three people like that... maybe I know more, but I think I know about three. If I had to count those I knew for certain - none.

What I'd like to see is people stick to their word, or at least try to stick to their word. Once again, I refer to the lyrics of a song, this time by Badly Drawn Boy, and his song "Epitaph".

Please, don't leave me wanting more.
I hope you never die, there's no need to say why,
Just promise that you'll try to give me all you can,
I'll never ask for more.

All I ask is for people to do what they're supposed to do. Maybe I'm a wierdo, but I didn't want to be normal to begin with. The people who have accomplished meaningful things with me in the past know that I'm not a guy who's stuck up for progress reports every so-often, and strict scheduling, but I am a guy who likes to meet deadlines and achieve goals.

It'd be really awesome if people followed some of the following guidelines when committing to a project.

• If you know you can't do it, don't commit.
• If you want to badly, and you know you still can't, for whatever reason, don't commit.
• If you give it a shot, but realise it's not working out, say sorry and get out.
• Don't waste my time, your time, and especially not our time by pretending you have a clue.
• If you want to stay in, and you know you can, then try already.
• Save the excuses. You either did it or you didn't.
  

On that note, I'd like to comment on the excuses. The thing about excuses is that they are only valid for a specific period of time, so if you're given two weeks to accomplish a goal, and after the second week you've done all of nothing, there is no excuse that can save you, short of illness, death or you leaving the country. If none of the aforementioned apply, then you should leave.

I've heard excuses like "I've not eaten yet", "I just ate", "I have somewhere to be" and "I have to do this thing". "Somewhere" and "thing" are very descriptive words, as you can clearly tell.

I know how it goes, nobody wants to do the work, and they'll all come back to us when we turn it around.

As I mention this, it brings to mind a project that we're working on currently. It's a lot of work, and we had an initial core. Raquel, one of the members couldn't continue with us, and she told us that she didn't think she could continue, and that she was sorry.

When people do things like she did, I'll never ask for more. There's always a spot on the team for her for showing such class. Yeah, the girl's all right.

being Terrylous

Now, there was a guy who went to my (old?) school, Presentation, San Fernando. His name is Terryl. People often spoke of others as acting or being "Terrylous".

Ones words and actions often determined the level of Terrylousity that one was endowed with. Tonight, on my MSN window, I saw "If i had a dollar for every girl who tell me I sexy..." has just signed in. I didn't make out the rest of it, so I open the window.

"If i had a dollar for every girl who tell me i sexy i would be a millionaire ( 600,000girls in trinidad )"

Now, apart from the lack of capitalization at the occurrences of "I", since when does 600,000 equate to a million?

I wondered how he came upon this figure. Maybe he has 400,000 to make up the difference? But then again, it's Terryl. Maybe it's in another currency? Nah, it's Terryl, he'd not go that complex.

During my time, thinking about Terryl's proclamation, I stopped myself and realised it's clearly some sort of fabrication, I mean, since when do girls talk to Terryl?

...blatant and obvious Terrylous behaviour.

Not knowing.

So, appears here name was Iva, but the church mis-spelled it Eva. I only now know this.

...floating fast, like a hummingbird.

For as long as I can remember, I've been told that birds are messengers. If ever and whenever a bird should come into your home, for whatever reason, be prepared for some message.

Usually, the message is of some one's death. It's actually happened quite a few times in the past, but I've often linked it to pure coincidence, and the fact that there are numerous bird, or small animal-sized entry points throughout the home. One of the instances I remember was more than eight years ago, if I recall correctly, where a bird perched itself over my parents' bed. Later that night, we received word that "Nen", an aunt, had passed. Other incidents, and I know there have been, I can't recall with any sort of accuracy at the moment.

Tonight, well... yesterday night, around 7:00, I was told that "Auntie I-ver", which should have been "Eva", her real name, something I never understood, but I digress. I was told that she may have passed on.

Coincidentally, I was listening to a song about death, well... suicide, not particularly death, "Somberly, without regret, I make another sandwich and I fill my face, and know that things have got to you, but what can I do?", while eating a sandwich.

Somewhere along the way, before 10 that night, I wondered why I hadn't heard of any bird-sightings in the house. I do remember nearly killing a bird that was slow to get out of the way while I was driving... or was that Tuesday? I didn't touch it though.

Either way, I hadn't seen, nor had I heard of anyone seeing a bird in the house. Oddly enough, just before 11, a bird flew into the house, made a half-loop, and then flew right back out, as if to say "Don't try to stop me."

"What the hell?" I thought, seeing as I had wondered about the spirit messenger bird earlier on. I phoned my mother, to let her know, and she said that maybe Auntie Iver was just passing through to say "Bye" on her way up and out. Maybe, she was saying "Remember to remember me, standing still in your past; floating fast like a hummingbird."

(In case you're wondering, the first snippet of lyrics came from "Ease your feet off in the sea", by Belle & Sebastian, and the second came from Wilco's "Hummingbird")

It's something...

I tried to pick a cool, unique layout, at least one that's different from Philo's. Strangely, it seems, she's got the best layout there is.

I take the name of my blog from Belle & Sebastian's "The Boy With the Arab Strap".

It's something to speak of the way you are feeling,
To crowds there assembled, do you ever feel you have gone too far?
Everyone suffers in silence, a burden.
The man who drives mini-cabs down in old Compton,
The asian man, with his love-hate affiar, with his racist clientelle.

Everyone's got problems, even if they don't talk about it. But, really, it's something to talk about it. Why stay silent when there's something wrong? Being quiet about it doesn't make it go away. I can understand sitting back and watching for a while, but, if it's still not getting fixed, and it's bothering you, say something about it.