Welcome to the Cesspit For Your Lives

Sometimes I wonder if I walk around with that plastered to my forehead...
Now don't get me wrong, I almost enjoy being a dumping site, I feel like people only tell their real issues to people they trust and consider close friends. But it amazes me just how many people are comfortable enough with me to do that! It's ridiculous, really. And I've heard it all, I mean it, not that I'm gonna let out any secrets here of course, but there's nothing you can tell me that will cause me any genuine surprise... I'm sure of that.
My friends have started to notice too. Sometimes something big may get out and they'll tell me about it: "Hey OMG did you hear..." And usually my response is now:  "Yeh they told me..."

Now myself and several people have a couple theories concerning this phenomenon. Perhaps I'm just a super friendly and trustworthy person. Or maybe I just tend to accept more crap than the average person because I have my own issues to deal with but use dealing with others' as a distraction (Hmmmm O.o).
One thing's for sure.... when you come to me... I CANNOT JUDGE YOU. I can advise, give my opinion, but I can never say what you did was wrong. I don't know I guess it's just that if you mustered up the courage to tell me something personal, who am I to turn around on you and crush you?
Oh and I'm a super great listener! I rather listen than talk, and I've realised a lot of the time, my friends feel better by simply talking about their stuff. You don't need to respond because most  of time, your response won't mean much. But empathy is much more powerful than sympathy.... try it...

But yes I've realised that waste disposal is a dangerous business. Full of things that must not be repeated, sticky situations, and delicate responses. And while it'd probably be wiser and all-round healthier to stick this sign up...

I quite enjoy the one that's up right now... :)

WOW

Ummmm....okay I have no idea why I'm back. Or if any of my followers will actually read this!
Time to blow the dust off this baby and get it up and running, while I have the motivation.
Nobody probably gives a damn but HEY! This thing is my little vent :) sooooo hello blogosphere.... I'm back and reay to begin... again.
The point of this whole post is to say hi :D and make you all listen to Con Te Partiro by Andrea Bocelli.... If you haven't already... loving it :D

Peace & Harmony

Now that music is finally going somewhere in our church... there is one particular goal that I have at the front of my mind.

Singing in harmony. All the 4 parts: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass

I mean.... we  are a Mennonite church after all (look it up kids) and no matter how modern we may become, there are still a few fundamental ideas in worship that we should hold on to: And harmonising is one of them.

How many years  have gone by with me sitting and painfully enduring the crappy choice of key by the leaders with no music to follow. Or the twisting and breaking of a deep-voiced male trying to sing the melody, and when the note was too high.... eh.... we could sing one a few notes lower... nobody will know the difference right? WRONG!

Now some of them may say that worship is not about how the music sounds but about how you feel and the connection with God.
But when a church is filled with crummy singing like that.... how can you even enjoy it enough to feel anything with God. Personally I usually recite the first 50 numbers in pi over and over to maintain my sanity.

Next is the famous excuse: I just can't sing.... or.... I just don't have an ear for music. What utter RUBBISH. The human brain is a musical machine. It enjoys interpreting the patterns and anticipating the oncoming combinations. So if all music you listen to sounds simply like random noise.... then I may accept the ear for music excuse... And on singing.... then just sing another part... or simply sing quietly then. If you know you can't sing well, why does everyone else in the church have to know it too -.-

So I leave you with that... in the hopes that next time I post about singing it will be about how beautiful we sound in church. We currently are working on the harmonies but we haven't sung them yet in church....

Eventually we may sound like this.... preferably not looking like this though :P

I know what's wrong

Ok guys.... here's the real reason I've not been writing much these days.... it's because I haven't been reading! I figured it out recently. This blog began in the midst of a reading spree and the best posts were products of that spree... I think even the novelty of the idea kept me going for a bit after I stopped, but now that I've been doing this for almost a year :o (wow), I realise that good inspiration for writing, a lot of the time comes from reading (for me at least). So in order to break this little dry spell, I fully intend to start reading again. It is summer after all... sooo don;t give up on me just yet LOL. I'll be back... I hope

Thanks, Merci, Gracias, Grazie

Graduation!!

And I'm back again, with another lame apology that you guys don't want to hear... And I'd love to blame my absence on those dreaded CSEC exams that I've been complaining about since God knows when, but let's face it.... those were over a long time ago... I've just been lazy.... and for that I sincerely apologise. But you don't have to accept it, just read. ;) 

       Now on to the good stuff. I've GRADUATED from my school... officially. And although I'm reapplying to spend another two years there, preparing for yet another set of hugely important exams (yes, prepare for the ranting), there's still a sense of freedom as I spend 3 entire months not being an official student of the school. 

       Now the Graduation Ceremony was great! Surprisingly... You see we (we being the students) all expected it to be some drab formal dinner sitting for hours at tables listening to speech after speech about how vibrant and full of life this year's graduates were... as they bored us to death...

       It turned out to be quite the opposite though... There were only a few speeches and they'd been quite well done... i.e. short and sweet... and the rest of the ceremony was filled with us collecting some tokens (Dog tags with the school emblem printed on it) and then the dancing/hanging out part of the night. 

       Okay... before I move on... I don't know how many of you know me that well... but if you did, you'd know that I'm pretty much the quiet, self-conscious, awkward type of teenaged boy. I know it and I don't care frankly. So in other words, I am not exactly the kind of person you expect to actually DANCE... so it was a surprise, even to myself, when I found myself on the dance floor, without having so much as a care, and dancing... wait for it.... with a girl. You see the big thing about that was... I didn't take a date to Grad... and I'd never met this girl before in my life till that night... 

My friends' reactions were hilarious! First of all, one of them was kinda into the girl I was dancing with, but he was to chicken to dance... and she even asked him first. And secondly, while I was dancing I turned around and saw one of my friends behind me just standing there. Over the music he shouted to me that he'd searched the hall a couple times looking for me but it never occurred for him to check the dance floor... It was ME after all. The whole thing was just one huge laugh. 

But anyway... it was a wonderful night and everyone had loads of fun... I'd put some pictures up but I don't know if my friends would be open to having their faces open to the whole world :P

So 'till then just imagine a gorgeous guy getting down on the dance floor and you've got the picture ;)

-Levi Jeans 

Change...

Again... I apologise for my EXTREMELY long hiatus from blogging.... I've just been super busy. Really this time. Those pesky CSEC exams that I've been going on about for the past.... two years... have finally come around and boy is it an anticlimax... but anyways...

This post is mainly a congratulations to the new Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad Bissessar. After a grueling campaign battling the former governing party, the PNM, the People's Partnership prevailed with Mrs. Bissessar at its head.
The loss truly came as a shock to the PNM and its leader, Patrick Manning, who had honestly believed that they had this election in the bag. I mean he had to have believed that, having called snap elections in the middle of his term as Prime Minister.
But the people have voted for change. Change from the poverty, crime and corruption of the PNM's governance.
Anyways I have to go :P but again congratulations to the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago and I wish her the best of luck in all endeavours... we all have full confidence that she will bring about the necessary change in our nation!!

Hair

Why does it seem like my family is always harassing me to get a haircut.... I HATE haircuts... 

Nevertheless I finally obliged on Thursday after weeks of my mothers nagging. But this time we weren't going to Dwight's, we went to Jean Paul instead... (Don't those names sound fancy?)

Now this is my first time getting my hair cut by Jean Paul, so I had no idea what to expect. Even when you tell a hair dresser what you want done, it's always different. I thought, like Dwight, Jean Paul would just do the regular scale down cut of my afro-ette. Boy was I wrong! 

This guy managed to make my curls go straight and he gave me an almost emo hairstyle. I was shocked for sure, but still rocked the look to lessons. Well who told me to do that! One of my friends began stuttering as I approached the gate,"L-l-levi? W-What did you d-do to your hair??!!" I'll admit it was too much of a shock for some people but others were lovin' it :) 

I'll post a pic but by the time I took it in the night, my hair had begun to lose it's silky softness and get that thick coarse feel again so it's not a perfect representation of what everyone saw.

Yesterday I tried redoing my hair in that style but to no avail. So what do I do instead? I pump some super hold serum into my hands and slick my hair up into a faux hawk... well, at least the closest thing to one that I could with my hair. Again at lessons, some were all love and others were just shocked. It was really funny actually. 

Today though I just left it alone on my head :D in no particular style. But I'll continue to mess around with it while its short until I get my fro-ette back.

Some pics?  :

BEFORE

AFTER

-LS

When Harry Potter Went to Church...

Sorry for my long absence from the blogosphere! I've been pretty busy with exams approaching. In fact, I have French Orals this week! But still, it's no excuse for treating you all this way...

So recently I've found myself again debating with other Christians who seem to have found some interpretation of the Bible that tells them exactly what's what in todays world. I really want this Bible because apparently it says: "Harry Potter is 'demon ting' " and "Rock music is evil".

WOW!

People of Christian faith, I am telling you now, as I have said before and will always say.... there is absolutely nothing wrong with Harry Potter! No one can imagine how furious I was when there was that period with all the burnings of the books and marches etc. If there are two things every man should live by they are:

1. Don't ever burn a book! EVER. 

2. Don't make your faith look stupid and ignorant.

I have made these points in my own church when I was much younger. When I was reading the HP Series, I would purposely take it to church and hold it together with my Bible. It was an invitation for debate and did I love it! To put it nicely... I definitely shut them up. I still don't think they agree with me but they can't really argue against me since I've already disproved most of their theories about the books. 

Put simply, HP is a great book and movie series. It's amazing young adult literature full of original ideas and a well developed plot line and can do nothing but benefit young hungry minds. 

Next up.... 

Rock music. Where did this argument that you cannot praise God with Rock music come from? Music is a medium through which anything can be expressed. A guy in my school was under the impression that you cannot praise God with rock because you cannot play rock with a pure heart. Apparently we must look at the roots of rock and because it originated with social rebellion and 'impure hearts' we cannot play it. Another is that 'Lucifer was the angel of music so he controls music and rock is Lucifer's music'.

Why? Because some fools make back masked tracks? Some heavy metal rock bands are satanists? All of that means NOTHING. 

I guess the real reason I'm so upset is that these 'true Christians' who shun rock and HP Books, like to pretend like they have been blessed with this knowledge. As my message to them and partly as my own acceptance of the fact... Nobody KNOWS. I do not KNOW. They cannot KNOW. So stop acting like you KNOW. 

How To Train Your Dragon

How To Train Your Dragon must be my new most favourite animated film.

A hapless young viking, Hiccup, aspires to kill dragons and to become accepted into the society. But after finding the Night Fury he brought down and releasing him, he learns that there are much more to these creatures than they once thought.

The storyline itself is really good but I guess it's hard to go wrong when you're following a book right? The whole message was very Avatar-like in a good way. What separated this movie from other animated films for me was just the quality of the animation itself. Each person moved the way he was supposed to and reacted in the right way. It was just really well thought out. Toothless' almost feline appearance really separated him from the rest of the dragons with his sleekness and strength. It was amazing how his whole appearance changed depending on whether his pupils were slits or dilated. 

Although not as cute or cuddly as the creatures in other animated films, these dragons managed to become as, if not more, loveable. 

Jay Baruchel did an amazing job with Hiccups voice as did Gerard Butler with Stoick's. 

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone. It's not only a kids movie and I've seen it 2ce, neither time in 3-D, so if you do get that opportunity, it'll probably be even better!

God Is Watching You

Due to the insufferable heat we've been experiencing recently, we decided to go to the beach with our grandparents and uncle. Now I was looking forward to the drive because my uncle is one of those fun ones who constantly asks me,"But does she look good or not?" :P
Well the drive started alright. But Granddad needed to fill up the tank so we stopped off at the gas station. As we looked out of the windows, we spot this bumper sticker up on a slightly open door saying,"God Is Watching You." It's only when we look at what's behind the door and spot the toilette that we burst out laughing. Now my uncle pulls out his camera but can't get a good shot at the door and the toilette together. And did I mention he has multiple sclerosis which affects his legs? So he asks me to hop out and try to get the picture and I gladly oblige. Note that all this is while Granddad is filling gas.

Well I go fairly close to the slightly open door and snap once or twice. That's when the petrochemical distributor  (you know... the pump lady?) calls across to me from on of the gas pumps.
"Yuh seein' sometin' in dere awa?!"
The expression on her face was scary as hell! It then occurred to me that a teenaged boy walking up to an ajar bathroom door and taking pictures doesn't really give a very innocent impression. And kids in this country can be total perverts! I flushed the brightest red I could with my brown complexion and explained.
"N-no it's just the... uh...the sign!"
"Aw-haw... the sign... okay." - And with that she turned away, probably reasoning that a boy with such a handsome, innocent face could never be up to no good... :D
Nevertheless it was still fairly embarrassing and facing the laughter of my sister and uncle in the jeep wasn't exactly the highlight of the day.
Just thought I'd share the experience with you guys because I must admit it was pretty funny...
I'll try to get the real photo and put it up for you guys.

Picky Eaters...Well kids...

With the three days off between exams, I find myself slumping down in front of the television and giving my mind almost no stimulation as I stare at the mindlessness on American cable TV. One of the components of this mindlessness is Wifeswap - a show on Lifetime about women who trade places for 2 weeks and try to bring something to the other family.  They usually pick wives of 2 extremes. A Christian and a Pagan or a playful, easy-going parent with a strict one... 

One thing that seriously annoys me though is the lack of discipline in some of these houses... especially when it comes to eating. I mean, do people just like proving the American stereotype that the rest of the world has? (And it's not a good one for any of you under that misconception.) 

I was fuming with rage when I heard a little boy say,"I hate mashed potatoes," or watched a mother say that she has to go to 3 different take out places each night to get what each child wants. What is wrong with these people? You're not allowed to say that you don't eat this or you don't eat that until you leave your parents' house! 'Till then whatever they give you you eat! A kid under ten years old can't give a justified reason for not liking mashed potatoes. Potatoes are a staple - there are loads of different varieties and almost everyone in the world eats them. Don't tell me you don't like mashed potatoes.

But parents are to blamed for spoiling their kids. Catering to their every whim can do nothing but harm. And when they're older and people have to worry about their spoilt, picky behaviour... all they become are nuisances.

And the major excuse for these parents not wanting to discipline their children is always,"Well I don't want my kids to hate me!" Are they idiots! I'd do a better job raising kids than these nut-jobs. My parents make me eat whatever they cook whether I want to or not and I've received my fair share or lashes and slaps (in public too but we don't call social services for trivialities like that here) and you know what? I love my parents with all my heart because I know that everything they do is to make me a better person. And as far as I can see, it works a lot better than what I see on Wifeswap :P 

Trini Vagrants

Now Trini Vagrant aren't the kinds you feel sorry for because they have no home. No. They're the kind you laugh at 'cuz they look funny and are usually lunatics! Wanna see?






I love our vagrants... may they never find homes and keep entertaining the general public and tourists!
Okay that might be a bit mean :P

Fw:

I'm back from my little hiatus from blogging. It wasn't my fault, honestly. My Grandfather needed to borrow our modem again and it's taking a little longer than expected to get it back. So sowy!!

Forwards... Now it's true that some forwards are  interesting or funny. But those are the minority. Sometimes I wonder if people forget where the delete button is and accidentally hit forward anytime they think something is boring. 
And the naivety of people can be so annoying!
First of all, for all of you who haven't figured this out yet...


MSN IS NOT RUNNING OUT OF USERNAMES or CLOSING DOWN!!!! It just doesn't work that way. And even if it were true... you'd think that MSN would just place a notice in your inbox like they did when you signed up or when they changed to Windows Live. They won't send around a forward message!!


And I am in that 93% of people who won't pass on that prayer, or that psalm, or that picture of Jesus and I'd really appreciate if you people wouldn't flood my inbox with that stuff. Yes I'm a Christian, but...
-If that email doesn't make my day like it says it will, I'm not forwarding it to people because it probably wont make theirs either.  
-I think you're being rather demanding and annoying by trying to guilt me into sending an email.
So yeah... I treat those emails like spam, 'cus that's basically all they are.


I also don't like emails that:
1. Warn me about a virus - I have a Mac remember!!
2. Make me think of that special person's name so they will be mine (under the condition that you send to 20 people within the next 2 days :P)
3. Are sent by people who are dumb enough to think that pressing F6 after will reveal the answer.


I'm not sorry for offending anyone because at least I'm saving a lot of people like myself some annoyance if you stop sending forwards. 

The Jotter

The time has come for me to join the ranks of those who own refillable pens! For my birthday last week my sister gave me a black Parker Jotter pen, a classy looking little instrument. And what might seem like a simple gift really means a lot to me. I've always admired the way some people just have one pen that they rely on, the metallic glint in a man's shirt pocket or the casual, 'It's okay, I've got one' of a woman fishing through her purse. Up until now, to me, pens were just things that fall apart and get lost. But now that I have my own little refillable(and one as classic and sturdy as the Parker Jotter), I have a newfound respect for these little pieces of metal and plastic. The ability to write will always be cherished by some, no matter how far into the age of technology we go, and to those, a good writing tool is priceless. So thanks sis!

I Am Yours Final - Trinidad!!

Two days later and I'm now writing about the concert... Remember that big rant post about tickets being sold out last year... turns out that was for VVIP (Very Very Ignorant People) tickets. So on Thursday, my birthday by the way, we got three general admission tickets to see the final concert of Beyonce's I Am Yours Tour right here in the Queen's Park Savannah!! This was actually my first concert ever. 

Beyonce was amazing of course... she really knows how to put on a show.

At least that's what I could tell from the screen I was looking at. You see there were a few issues with this concert:

1. Ticket Prices - for around $80 USD, you'd expect more, even for general admission. And if you wanted to see her properly then get ready to pay around $170 USD for VIP or $270 for VVIP. Now tell me guys... where else in the world is there such a thing as VIP or VVIP tickets for a concert?...those IDIOTS

2. Viewing - Do you know how I saw Beyonce? On a screen... Why? Because we were too far away to see anything... and there was a barrier preventing us from getting any closer. Not only was that an issue but the two micro screens with which we were provided to view the concert remained on the ground for half of the show, despite the unanimous protests from the patrons shouting, "Raise d' screen!!!" Also, the general admissions area was lower than those in front of us so we could see little more than the elevated drum kits. And the massive scaffolding structure setup for the spotlights in the middle of the VIP section before us didn't really help much either.

3. Service - This doesn't really apply to us folk who were in general admissions because apparently $80US means nothing these days. But even the people who were in VIP and VVIP were complaining (serves them right for paying that much). All that extra money was for food and comfort. Apparently  food and comfort means corn soup, doubles, beef sandwiches and gyros all of which finished before everyone had eaten and standing up in heels on uneven dusty ground.

I think the only thing preventing patrons for demanding a refund was Beyonce's great performance. Well into the concert, people forgot the obvious problems and contented themselves with listening and dancing.

Oh and Beyonce did the palance and sang Check On It to a soca beat!!



That's one of the screens!!

Carnival

It's Carnival season! You know what that means! Wild parties, lots of drinking, half naked women (or the occasional half naked man :P) dancing through the streets and sex.

Fun huh?

Carnival's not really my thing... at all. It's a bit too crazy and it's nothing like it originally was (before my time). Apparently there used to be this funny little thing involved in Carnival, a long time ago. It's called...hmm... ah yes... CULTURE. Buy hey, who am I to complain right? I mean Carnival it what puts Trinidad and Tobago n the map! Plane-loads of insane foreigners eager for the wildness. What happens in Trinidad, stays in Trinidad after all.

Components of Carnival:

- Parade costumes (no not the fun cute marching band parades) - As prices go up materials go down, to the point where you're paying thousands of dollars to dance in the streets wearing nothing but a sparkly version of a bra and panties or a pair of shorts for the guys. These are usually picked up by the vagrants around the capital who seem to have their own parade  going on after Carnival. Don't ask me how those get on the streets - you'd think with that little clothing you'd at least try to keep it on :P

-Music - The traditional Calypso music has in recent times ben replaced by the fast paced, jumbled nonsense called Soca. I mean why would you listen to social commentary in the form of song when you can listen to the nonsensical ramblings of 'singers' who seem to have nothing in their vocabulary except - bumper, whine, flag, wave, jump and 'hand in de' air!'
But we can't forget the Chutney Music. Don't ask me what the  indian community was thinking when they invented this - probably about rum, seeing as it's the main focus of most of the songs. And there is almost always a subtextual meaning to the songs. Here is one that is not about rum but definitely has a subtextual meaning.

So my plan for this Carnival is to hide away in Freeport with some relatives. We'll just hang out and tell jokes etc. We always have a good time...

AS Maths

Okay guys so I've been wondering... how many kids learn Advanced Subsidiary Maths at 14? In Trinidad a lot of us do it as an Add Maths course - actually no... most of the people starting it are 15. But a few of us skipped... and landed in mathematic hell.
Okay so it's not that bad but ask a 14 year old from somewhere else to find the area under a curve and then the volume when rotated 360 degrees or to find the stationary points of a curve using differentiation. And we haven't even done Iteration or ln yet, but we've done logs... I don't know, but it doesn't seem to me that this is the normal sort of work a 14 year old is subjected to.
Take a look at this paper if you want to see (and this one is pretty easy)... GCE Core Mathematics C2 AS
Maybe it's just because I was at AS Maths lessons today but the thought just crossed my mind.
So tell me can most people my age do this??

The Best Live Voice

Now it's okay if you don't like her style of music, but you must respect Beyonce and that amazing powerhouse of a voice. No one can deny that she is a brilliant singer with stunning vocal skills and best of all... it's not only when she's in the studio.

She is also one of the few artists who I've heard perform almost perfectly each time on stage. I'm not saying her concerts are the best as a lot more makes a concert than the singing itself (these days at least) but who needs all the frills when you can reproduce each note flawlessly. Note also that she does this all while on her knees, swinging her head around dirty dancing on the floor. A lot of live performances where a lot of dancing was involved, I notice that the singing is never that great. But I've seen Beyonce drag herself all over the stage and then still manage to impress with vocals. 

It' true that she can be a bit scream-ish sometimes but still... her voice is made up of pure awesomeness!!  

Tell me I'm lying...

URL Change?? Need Your Help

If there are any real frequent visitors to this blog (I hope there are a few at least :P) I'd like your opinion again. By again, I'm referring to the time I consulted you guys about the change in template.

This time I'm contemplating changing the URL of my blog. I'd given it it's current URL when I'd been new to the whole blogging thing and had no idea what I was going to do with this blog. I guess I'm still in that spot :P as you've probably noticed by the lack of a consistent theme to any of my posts. But I at least now have a name that I think I'm keeping and the URL might be more appropriate as www.cafe-denim.blogspot.com or maybe without the hyphen... I don't know. Just give me some feedback. Tell me which of these you like...

www.cafedenimblogspot.com

www.cafe-denim.blogspot.com

or it could be something with my name (LeVi - for those of you who don't know) or jeans (lol) as it's always brought up about my name.

I'm just a bit concerned about changing it and I like having a Trinidadian reference in the URL.

Lemme' Know!!

You Don't Need Another 6 Inches

So Mom's been saying this for eons but of course I hadn't listened until Dad backed her up. But now I know - that I don't need a Foot-Long Sub at Subway!! For maybe 2 years now I've been eating foot-longs at Subway. The bigger you get the more you need to eat right? (And I'm tall for a 14 year old.) Wrong!

Dad went into the whole explanation and comparing the way Americans serve food and the way that the French do. Honestly guys, look at a serving size at Burger King or Wendy's and then go to a French Cafe and order a meal. You'd probably think you're being cheated for your money but trust me, the seemingly tiny amount of food that you get is quite enough and they're doing you a favour.

I've heard a story from some relative's who were in the US for a while. They said that they saw some girls (from Europe I believe or somewhere in Eurasia) who were taking a picture with a large coke. They'd never seen any drink that big! And I've seen some of you guys down one of those by yourselves. Here, our family of four will buy a large drink, share about half of it and throw the rest away.

So Dad encouraged me to try a 6" Sub and see how I felt and honestly, I was content after that. I din't miss the other 6" of bread and meat and everything else that's going to be stored as fat anyway...

So to everyone out there... have a regular sized meal, no you won't "like fries with that" and just have a bottle of water and forget the large or even medium Pepsi!