Sunrises, Cows and Backpacks

The ONE day I decide to get up before dawn, specifically to see the sunrise, it's cloudy as heck! Well played Mandeville, well played. And I mean, if anybody out there truly knows me, they'll know that I'm a midday kind of gal....so this was truly a huge effort on my part. The film I've been working on is due for submission on Thursday, and seeing that it is entitled The Sun Rises, it would be good to at least have footage of a sunrise. Right? Well, we sure as heck aren't getting up before dawn tomorrow so I see a name change coming.

In any case, we decided to not let the morning go to waste so we went over into some "nearby bushes" to get some nature shots, specifically of goats and/or cows. After trudging through the dewy morning grass and lush red dirt, we came upon, yeah you guessed it, an empty field! Please note that I shed no tears for not seeing any cows. They are, after all, my mortal enemies. Anyhow, we proceeded to get some nature shots (of the grass mostly) and shortly after, a lovely gentleman passed us by with his three goats, who were later the subject of our HD filming. Whoopeee.

On my way back home, I sat beside a little girl in the taxi. She wore a pink JanSport to match her pink school uniform. I gave the bag a once over, realized that it seemed pretty authentic and almost said out loud "You better prepare to have that backpack for a loooong time little girl. Well, if you were my kid anyway". For the remaining three minutes of the ride I fondly remembered my school days and my exploits with a certain JanSport bag.

You see, my older brother got a JanSport bag for high school. It was army green, with tan leather at the bottom, which made it that more awesome than the regular ones. It had the the "authentic" zipper string-thingums, that I would later find are extremely valuable and should be tied tight enough to withstand theft. I was in awe of that bag. Fast forward a few years, my brother was leaving high school and I was just getting in. Of course I didn't get a new JanSport and that same beloved JanSport was now being worn by my other older brother. Whomp whomp. I was distressed. 

But not for long, because the bag was getting rather worn (and there was an enormous ink stain on the leather part) so my brother decided it had done it's time. Boy was he wrong. I wore that bag until it's dying days. Though it may have been only for a few weeks, I was one of the "cool kids" just for wearing that old, green, severely pen-graffiti modified bag. And I was happy. I eventually got another one, but it wasn't authentic, so I didn't care much for it. Then I began to care about school a lot less so my backpacks were the very least.

And that was just my randomness for today!

What Really Grinds My Gears

I'm not the kind of person that gets annoyed easily...most of the times. So when something annoys me, it really grinds my gears! What I'm also not, is the person who posts these random pet peeves on Facebook, or onto the walls and under the photos/posts of the individuals that cause my gears to grind so terribly. I marvel at the immense level of restraint I show. With that said, please allow me to harp on the two most recent cases of my annoyance:


1. "Professional" photographers who upload blurry/out of focus shots 

I put professional in quotations because the term is quite relative, especially on Facebook. Let me also declare that I do not put myself in any higher esteem than anyone in the capacity of photographer. 

So, you tell me now, why on God's green earth would you put out sub-par work? WHY?!? I mean, you own (or are in the process of starting) a business and your aim is to showcase your work so that you can attract potential clients. Right? So naturally, the best course of action would be to put forward samples of your best work. Right? Apparently, for some folks, I am dead wrong. 

I literally cringe when I see these crappy photos. I mean, what goes through your head when you upload that blurry-ass-possibly-Sasquatch-looking-photo? I don't know. Then, I think to myself, maybe they didn't intentionally upload those photos, because certainly no business person in their right mind would consciously put out bad products for consumers to view. But then, I think to myself again, why on earth would you just upload a bunch of photos without first going through them to ensure that they are at a certain standard that should reflect the quality of your work? WHY?!? Furthermore, let's say these photos were "accidentally" uploaded, do you not see it fit to go through the uploaded album to ensure that what you're putting out is good enough? 

I don't know. I don't freaking know man. But this crap grinds my goddamn gears!!!!

2. Professional entities that put out work with errors

Notice here that professional is not in quotations, because I am referring to the real money-making industries out there. Then again, there are some others that don't fall into that category, but they are guilty of the same crime.

Just today, I was viewing an album on Facebook that was uploaded by FLOW Jamaica. I was appalled. I wouldn't say that I'm a grammar Nazi but I tend to take those things seriously. The gross number of errors that I spotted, after just glancing over once, was unbelievable. The one that really got me though, was this incorrect spelling: Jamaiaca.

Even writing it here, it got the squiggly red line beneath that indicates a spelling error. So I really can't see how that is excusable. In this instance, I didn't even stop to think to myself of any circumstances that could forgive these shortcomings. Because to me, they're just that: unforgivable shortcomings. But before you rush to crucify me and say that "everyone makes mistakes", let me go ahead and agree. Yes, everyone makes mistakes, especially in this age where internet short-hand is the new normal. But, doesn't every writing device or app have a spell-check option? As far as I know, yes. Even if I'm wrong, whatever happened to proofreading? Aren't there still persons employed as Editors? 

My point is, if you claim to be a professional, the quality of your work should be at a certain standard. If you can't hire a proofreader (I'm totally free to do that by the way), at least make it a point of duty to have your work viewed by another pair of eyes before putting it out. Is that too much to ask?

Why do YOU blog?

Welll, guess who's lost the urge to blog? Anywho, as I read and re-read a draft of a post I've been working on for a while, I began to wonder why I really blogged anyway. Is it because I just want to write for the heck of it? Or is it because I want to share my thoughts with the world (my 5 followers and a few FB friends)? Or, is it because I want people to applaud me and say, "Wow, you write really well!" or "Great stuff you wrote in that blog there!".

Even as I write I'm still trying to figure out which one it is, or if it's a combination of all three. I mean, I know I write really well (didn't get my BA in English with an emphasis in Writing as a gift!) and sometimes recognition would be awesome. But, that's also the reason I'm writing short stories and screenplays, which are still works in progress. Granted, I could submit my work to the Gleaner and Observer and wherever else, but I just don't think that's anything awesome. I used to write poetry back in college-mostly because I had to for class-and sometimes I thought of getting them published....well, when someone asked me why I haven't done that yet. Even now I ponder about publishing....for a whole 10 seconds until my mind wanders off.

As for sharing my thoughts, that would certainly be a trip if I decided to lay out my thoughts as they came. I might actually try that for a future post. But what I really mean about sharing my thoughts is that I'd give my opinion on stuff. Stuff that I care about, or don't care about for that matter....stuff that's trending...once in a blue moon, stuff that makes the news. Because I'm really not a follower of the news. I only read the Classifieds in the paper and I'll watch news on TV if....well, if the TV got stuck on the channel. So much for that.

So, I guess I really blog for the heck of it. With a slight need to be applauded. I guess. I don't know.

So why do YOU blog anyway?