HOW WE MET...
It was the Christmas of 2009 and the my jail-broken iphone still couldn't scratch the itch that my heart felt for a smart phone. I was frustrated with not been able to sync the songs I bought from Ubuntu's 7digital music store to my phone. I hated the control that Apple exerted over the device that I thought I had full ownership of when I signed the contract with at&t. I needed something different - I needed things to change. So I switched to t-mobile and tried out the t-mobile's myTouch. The experience was painful and ended in sorrow, pain and more disillusion - apart from the fact that I had to sign in to my Google account to make the phone really functional, how do you explain the fact that a Linux based phone had trouble connecting to a Linux laptop, eh?!. I can't recall how it happened but I stumbled across the brand new 'Linux' phone from Nokia. I looked it up and it looked promising enough to me to let go of about $600 (I was young and foolish) to pre-order you. You didn't get here till late January but when you did I wasn't disappointed.
WHEN WE MET...
I found it funny hearing other people complain about the lack of support that Nokia gave you in terms of syncing software on Windows based systems. I never really cared for those complaints. I was comfortable with just ssh'ing into you and copying over files directly from my machine. I was okay with ssh'ing from you into my laptops and pulling stuff. Life was simple. Life was beautiful.
Of course there were huddles in our relationship. The 'task' support on your calendar application sucks (no point mincing words) and then you could not really sync to more than one calendar so once my company exchange based email was set up there was very little room for other calendars. Through out our relationship various workarounds popped up with varying levels of success for each of your little idiosyncrasies. I found your 32G more than enough to dump my data on but also appreciated the fact that I could get more space with an SD card. I loved that I could video chat via Skype using t-mobile's network at a time when the iphone still refused to let users make regular skype calls. I appreciated the ease with which I could create a wifi hot-spot on the go so that I could tether my laptop to my phone and VPN into work. I totally loved your built in FM transmitter which meant I could play songs on my car radio/stereo directly from you. I appreciated that you had a FM receiver (normal fare on regular symbian phones I know) where other so-called smart phones had trouble even receiving calls. And when my calls dropped on you, I was rest assured in the knowledge that it was the network's failing and not yours. Then there was your awesome physical keyboard - I wrote many a blog post on your keyboard. I regularly connected you to my Blackberry playbook and used you as an external keyboard. I won't mention the fact that you had none of those useless 'fart' applications that some others prided themselves on. You may not have had a billion applications in your store but you sure had some of the best and certainly useful application collection ever needed by a smart phone.
And you were more than a phone to me. You were my computer, a veritable companion through many-a-hackathon and sleepless night. You were my first true love (smartphone wise) and what we shared will always live on for eternity in my memories (afterall I plan to live forever).
MEG, BEFORE and AFTER...
There was J. She wasn't a big fan of yours and I dare say it was no surprise that she's past tense :p. Meg understood the beauty of your simplicity in ways that made me appreciate her more. She loved your keyboard as much as I did. She loved that you were not pretentious or gaudy but sturdy and dependable. You went about your duties with little fuss and performed beyond the limitations of the creator's shareholders temporal aspirations.
Yes, you had your faults. Before long news had filter through to me about you dodgy USB charging port. In the words of scripture (to borrow an Obama euphemism), "when you see the leaves dropping you'll know it is time". And so it proved for before long, your USB port gave way. And then the magnet in your backdoor that controlled access to the SD card fell off. Nokia, graciously, fixed these issues when I sent you in the one time but age is the one villain we all can't beat - eventually these issues cropped up again.
But for each one of your faults you had many more pluses. You were a programmer's dream machine and before long, you were running a scaled-down version of LXDE Linux. Then NitDroid appeared and you were double booting into Android (at least that appeased the google fanboys if nothing). Then you started running Palm OS games without batting an eyelid. In the last few months you've started running Java apps and Jad files. It's a testament to the beauty of your conception that newer versions of Firefox, Opera mobile, Flash still pop up in the wild for you despite months (and in some cases years) of neglect and disavowal from the official creators of these tools.
THERE'S STILL TOMORROW...
You were awesome when it came to multitasking. You had no problem attempting to concurrently run as many apps as I attempted on your meager 256MB ram. You told no lies about your abilities. Your fault was that you tried too hard to be honest. You were never really a phone - you were always more than that. Perhaps, that was the reason you tired so soon - you always gave your all. Slowly it became obvious that you weren't getting any faster. Then the company switched to Exchange 2010 and even MFE didn't work anymore. And when your USB port died again and the SD card magnet fell out it meant I couldn't stick things into you (pun intended) the way I wanted any more. I now had to keep more than one spare battery and charge the batteries via an external charger. It was sad... it was the cooling of the ember
You know you'll have always have a place in my heart. You'll always have space on my study desk too. You won't ever really be replaced. In fact, I'll be switching to your prettier and more efficient little sis, N9. Yes, I know that makes me look like a pedophile to the rest of the world but I know you understand. She's doesn't attempt to be all you were, as indeed she can't, but she's as close as anything out there right now. Her seamless smooth build and awesome swipe gestures put the pretentious Lumia series to shame. I just wanted you to know that she's a capable friend and I appreciate you more each time I double tap her screen to wake for. For she won't be who she is but for the awesomeness of your simplicity and elegance.
I'll miss you Mamo, I will!
I can only hope that in Jolla the memories that we shared and the promise that you showed would live on.
Thursday 27 December 2012
Monday 26 November 2012
Woman,Black,Mad!
Dear page,
I can confidently say that this is sure not going to be my last ' straight out of the experience' post. Meaning, I just(i don't mean now now o) saw the movie about that woman that was really hurt by her husband(am not gonna say the title...else you'll start judging my timing). Moving ahead....
I admit that my eyes got misty at some point during the movie...(another thing,am a fountain when good movies are concerned) I have tried to teach myself how to watch him a movie without taking the story personal. That's the explanation for why I get mad when my fave act is mad,cry when he/she does, get high with excitement, and on and on. It's so bad that I even read the subtitles along(like a sing along thingi) and with the expression deemed fit too. I know I have it in me to be a great actress if I wanna,but nah!....dat's not my destination, though the 'bus could take me through that route.(my husband,be ye rest assured, there's nothing to be afraid of)
But the reason I picked up my gadget to start typing is cos of what Helen was made to go through. Her husband for 18yrs comes home on the day of their anniversary with a woman and says,that she should move out and that this other woman had 2 kids for him already. That's the summary. If I were in her shoes, what would I have done?
* I would have cried my eyes out of their sockets. She did!
* the next man that crosses my path would wish he was on another planet by the time am done reading him the charges against him for the 'crimes he did not commit'. The man in the movie didn't have it easy.
* I'll wallow in self pity for as long as pity allows me,(twld take a really long while) then I would come to my senses someday(or maybe God will remind me that he still loves me) and pick up the pieces of me that can still be put together. Her mother held her while she cried and told her(in sweet words) to get her life back.
* I'll make a mental note to make the man suffer as much as he made me,even if it's to strip him of whatever property he has or thinks he has. She didn't do likewise, instead she said to let him have it all. Am like,though I know you found a new love and the butterflies in your tummy are soaring, the man should still suffer. Kpshew!
* when I get the opportunity to punish him I would! She ran to his side when he was sick.I was a little touched here,but it got jucier when she slapped him and started punishing him. I was like, this is one mad woman!
The movie ended well, she went back into the arms of her waiting new found love and her ex-husband was left with the ring and divorce papers.
I don't pray to ever go through this terrible event,but who does? I was chatting sometime ago with a relative and we talked about the ordeal women go through. Some loose their husbands to death, some to rivals, some to work and etc. When this happens, they are left helpless and stranded. Some don't have people to turn to and some don't even to how to move on with their lives.
I praise those who have been able to find their footings, of course it's all through God's grace. Every day I pray for my husband. That he doesn't die suddenly and that he doesn't fall for the temptations too. I don't want to know the answer, but what would I do if I were to loose him?
Though I may not be stranded nor lack people to turn to, but there's the emotional vacuum. Even when none of the options are bearable, many would say loosing him to death is a lesser punch than loosing him to another woman.
The lesson herein? Woman, as much as you pray against these, prepare your self with how to deal with the eventualities. Man, have you ever heard of the woman's wrath? I promise you this,you don't want to know how mad your wife can get.
Signed,
A fellow black woman.
Saturday 17 November 2012
On School Grounds
I had to make a quick dash to the grounds whereon the structures of the school I attended are. If it were up to me, I'd have opted out on this trip(i've been going back and forth these grounds at a frequency I am not comfortable with), but the tag on the reason for the journey was 'IMPORTANT'. So I went!
It's strange how time applies to people in varying ways. I got here and - though I seem to visit this place more than I wish to, there were signs of W-I-P...work in progress. It's funny that this place always appeared busy. It didn't just appear so, it actually is.
I saw faces I hadn't seen in awhile, some I acknowledged, many I didn't. I saw some of my teachers and lecturers, some made me proud of them while the other few actually disappointed me. This is me assuming that situations affected them in similar ways. But as it has fallen on my ears over and over again that there are different strokes for different people, I would be less harsh in my recording my observations.
There's this man,he has always occupied the seat of the school's secretary (if his position has changed, it probably just did). This, I can conveniently say, has been for over 15yrs. But the strange news is that he still carries the same bag as he used to. Of course he must have changed the exact bag,but what I mean is that he still carries those 'missionary bags', like the ones our fellow believers of another denomination - Jehovah's witness, carry. Another thing is the 'yet to be confirmed' assumption of his not having a car yet. Of course again, times may not have been favorable to him.
This then brings the focus on me. Years have come and gone, plans made too. Some have gone as I wished and others?...down the drain! I recall the period of my graduation from University. We filled forms and answered questions centered on our projections for the next 5 years. What were my responses?
*N.Y.S.C - national youth service corp
*Masters degree
*Get signed on for a musical deal
*Settle down with my husband
*some others too.
I have not gone for my masters degree, I have not gotten signed on for any musical thingi,yes I am very happily married and I have served my nation. A little regrets here and there, but I can't say I have not been blessed.
The hands of the clock have ticked and several things have happened. I have learnt alot, I have been to places, I have met people and I have gained experiences. Though I am not where I wished to be yet, I am consoled to know that I can still get there. I am not going to lose focus,I will look straight onto my destination.
I promise myself to be progressive in live and not be stagnant. When old friends see me, they've got to be able to say that things have fallen in place for me. They've got to say times have been good!
But of course, it's not going to be by my power, it's by God's grace.
Sunday 4 November 2012
That pep in my step
I finally have a valid excuse for not blogging for the last 2 months but I'm not telling. I only mention that I have a valid excuse so that it would be known that I've not given up the idea of blogging just yet. Lately, I've been given them up as fast as I can though: I hardly ever touch my guitar after sabbath hours, I don't go to play soccer once a week anymore, and I sure say much shorter congenial prayers nowadays instead of ...
But I'm back! And in other news, it has come to my notice (from no less a source than the horse's mouth) that Quemi mistakenly told my best friend that I use the 'Eniola' alter-ego. You are still like a sister to me and I forgive you Quemi. After all variety is the spice of life and what would this blog be without my healthy dose of self-deprecating sarcasm, eh?!
My mum and I saw "Flight" at the movies today. It's a pretty good movie. I remember reading an interview with Denzel Washington a few years back (reproduced in Signs of the times, I believe) where he talked about the motivation behind his selection of movie scripts and how he let his Christian beliefs guide what he agreed to appear in. It's obviously been a long journey from the days of Mississippi Masala and Devil in a blue dress (or something). I joked with my mum that I was taking her to go see this one movie because there was some nudity and swearing/cussing in the movie and her opinion of Denzel would hopefully take a nose dive after seeing the movie. My mum jabbed back saying Denzel and Obama were like her first love and nothing would change that. I'd say that Denzel and Obama appear to have a similar strut/gait (swagger for my naija bros) in their steps. "Flight" is a good movie - if you get the chance see it.
Okay, I'm out of stuff to say. This is usually the part where I talk about God and how He is merciful and kind and good. And He really is all that and much more but I'll be a hypocrite if I typed one character in that regards right now. It just popped in my head that when the bible says God loves a cheerful giver it wasn't just talking about material giving (yes, I know that is the original context). Seriously, it's like Paul is saying we should strive to live cheerful lives because each day we live we give yet some things just can't be given if our live is not in the right place to start with. Phew - the lengths people (I'm looking in the mirror here) would go to to justify their own selfishness. You'd think a brother would knuckle down, pause and find a reason to be cheerful and then come share it here. No, not moi!
I'm tired. There's work tomorrow. Sometimes I feel like the real message I want to pass across gets lost in my sarcasm and desperate attempts at dry humour. The thing is God really is good - seriously, He is!
But I'm back! And in other news, it has come to my notice (from no less a source than the horse's mouth) that Quemi mistakenly told my best friend that I use the 'Eniola' alter-ego. You are still like a sister to me and I forgive you Quemi. After all variety is the spice of life and what would this blog be without my healthy dose of self-deprecating sarcasm, eh?!
My mum and I saw "Flight" at the movies today. It's a pretty good movie. I remember reading an interview with Denzel Washington a few years back (reproduced in Signs of the times, I believe) where he talked about the motivation behind his selection of movie scripts and how he let his Christian beliefs guide what he agreed to appear in. It's obviously been a long journey from the days of Mississippi Masala and Devil in a blue dress (or something). I joked with my mum that I was taking her to go see this one movie because there was some nudity and swearing/cussing in the movie and her opinion of Denzel would hopefully take a nose dive after seeing the movie. My mum jabbed back saying Denzel and Obama were like her first love and nothing would change that. I'd say that Denzel and Obama appear to have a similar strut/gait (swagger for my naija bros) in their steps. "Flight" is a good movie - if you get the chance see it.
Okay, I'm out of stuff to say. This is usually the part where I talk about God and how He is merciful and kind and good. And He really is all that and much more but I'll be a hypocrite if I typed one character in that regards right now. It just popped in my head that when the bible says God loves a cheerful giver it wasn't just talking about material giving (yes, I know that is the original context). Seriously, it's like Paul is saying we should strive to live cheerful lives because each day we live we give yet some things just can't be given if our live is not in the right place to start with. Phew - the lengths people (I'm looking in the mirror here) would go to to justify their own selfishness. You'd think a brother would knuckle down, pause and find a reason to be cheerful and then come share it here. No, not moi!
I'm tired. There's work tomorrow. Sometimes I feel like the real message I want to pass across gets lost in my sarcasm and desperate attempts at dry humour. The thing is God really is good - seriously, He is!
Friday 12 October 2012
Fashion,craze or sparing the rod?
I saw a girl today and I had to shake my head for some reason. Was I ashamed of being identified as a female like she is? Was I pitying her parents or guardians? Was I sorry for the generation she belonged to? I think it's a combination of everything. If she was my sister, I would deny her. Truth is, she can't even be my sister or better still, my sister can't be that loose.
So what did she do? She wore a green skintight jean trouser which looked like it had seen better days. I can't say if she was sagging or if she intentionally pulled it down to make up for the 'undersize' issue. The band of the trouser hung on her bum - not the waist as supposed. Then she had this 'it-was-white' tanktop which she tucked into the trouser. The idea was to cover the part of her bum which would have otherwise been available for public viewing. Thanks to the little sense of decorum she had left,she thought of that and also remembered to wear a jacket over it to keep her over-obvious bosom in check. The only thing about her that I liked was the jacket, but she killed that like with the way she wore it. The background color of the jacket was black. Then it had poker dots on it; pink,orange,white, blue.....no green. Maybe it was the white on it that made her consider wearing it, but you needed to have seen it....ERROR!!!
Then the hair. From what I could see, where I sat,her hair was natural. Very thick looking with signs of an attempt to brush both sides up to meet at the middle,you know, Mohawk style! I couldn't make out the color of the hair,it looked brown and black at the same time, then it had a light tint at the tips - 'orange-ish' or gold. Now there was an issue: her hair was to short to make a fringe,so she used extentions. It beats me how a dark skinned girl whose hair color accentuates her 'blackness', thinks she can get away with having blonde bangs. Maybe it would have looked better if the 'fringes' were not shooting out in a fallen manner like the dropping front of an old facecap. What's worse was that the weave-on she used was so thick, bending or brushing it into place would have been a chore. My pity for her set in when I realized she had such a delicate fine face.
But she is not the only one in her camp. I sometimes wonder that if I, as a fellow female, can be infuriated by the manifestations of this craziness, what then would the men folk say. But they also have some share in the blame. Everyone does. I wonder what home these girls come out from sef. Don't they have parents,siblings or other family members?
Have we lost the sense of what is right because of fashion? Has the buzz of fashion come down us like a plague? Is the concept of being fashionable a crazy idea? I think we have just pushed the boundaries of fashion to accommodate our experimenting with colors, patterns, order and norm. This has folded the hands of 'proper' and bitten the tongue off 'decorum'.No one can correct the excesses of these fashion crazy folks, who have without doubt confused what being fashionable and trendy means.
If parents would remember their duty to their kids,the society and the world at large, they might realize that they can't keep overlooking the freedom that these little ones. I say little ones,cos the older ones have the advantage of maturity to interpret what fashion and being trendy should be like. If the older women would stick to the fashion items that are meant for their ages and stop wearing undersized clothes, misusing make-up and learn how old + trendy - trashy adds up, they would be able to stand as authority and models to the confused. It shouldn't be so hard to correct them, or is waywardness the new 'it' in fashion? Should the family sit back with a complacent manner as one (or more) of their own gallivants in these costumes?
If husbands, fiancés and boyfriends would man up to saying the truth about how their women/girls are dressed, it would go a long way in installing sensibility. Don't tell us we look good even when we look trashy, and don't smile with one cheek when we step out of the salon even when you know that the hairstyle we have on does not do us justice by the looks. This might be a case of the kettle turning to the pot for help as sometimes the men folks don't even have a clear understanding of what the subject in focus is about.
This is my take. Looking pretty is a major issue, your confidence even lies on it most times. Go on, play with colors, but remember it is not a masquerade party. Your hair is your crown wear it well, or it would look like you borrowed what is on your head without even checking if it fits in the mirror. Your legs are also great asset-they could be. 3", 6", does it matter? You compete for who rocks the pumps more and whose shoes have more height, but need I say that when you have those leg cramps she won't be there to help with the massage, let alone share the pain.
Beauty is skin deep; being fashionable doesn't birth it, it accentuates it.
So what did she do? She wore a green skintight jean trouser which looked like it had seen better days. I can't say if she was sagging or if she intentionally pulled it down to make up for the 'undersize' issue. The band of the trouser hung on her bum - not the waist as supposed. Then she had this 'it-was-white' tanktop which she tucked into the trouser. The idea was to cover the part of her bum which would have otherwise been available for public viewing. Thanks to the little sense of decorum she had left,she thought of that and also remembered to wear a jacket over it to keep her over-obvious bosom in check. The only thing about her that I liked was the jacket, but she killed that like with the way she wore it. The background color of the jacket was black. Then it had poker dots on it; pink,orange,white, blue.....no green. Maybe it was the white on it that made her consider wearing it, but you needed to have seen it....ERROR!!!
Then the hair. From what I could see, where I sat,her hair was natural. Very thick looking with signs of an attempt to brush both sides up to meet at the middle,you know, Mohawk style! I couldn't make out the color of the hair,it looked brown and black at the same time, then it had a light tint at the tips - 'orange-ish' or gold. Now there was an issue: her hair was to short to make a fringe,so she used extentions. It beats me how a dark skinned girl whose hair color accentuates her 'blackness', thinks she can get away with having blonde bangs. Maybe it would have looked better if the 'fringes' were not shooting out in a fallen manner like the dropping front of an old facecap. What's worse was that the weave-on she used was so thick, bending or brushing it into place would have been a chore. My pity for her set in when I realized she had such a delicate fine face.
But she is not the only one in her camp. I sometimes wonder that if I, as a fellow female, can be infuriated by the manifestations of this craziness, what then would the men folk say. But they also have some share in the blame. Everyone does. I wonder what home these girls come out from sef. Don't they have parents,siblings or other family members?
Have we lost the sense of what is right because of fashion? Has the buzz of fashion come down us like a plague? Is the concept of being fashionable a crazy idea? I think we have just pushed the boundaries of fashion to accommodate our experimenting with colors, patterns, order and norm. This has folded the hands of 'proper' and bitten the tongue off 'decorum'.No one can correct the excesses of these fashion crazy folks, who have without doubt confused what being fashionable and trendy means.
If parents would remember their duty to their kids,the society and the world at large, they might realize that they can't keep overlooking the freedom that these little ones. I say little ones,cos the older ones have the advantage of maturity to interpret what fashion and being trendy should be like. If the older women would stick to the fashion items that are meant for their ages and stop wearing undersized clothes, misusing make-up and learn how old + trendy - trashy adds up, they would be able to stand as authority and models to the confused. It shouldn't be so hard to correct them, or is waywardness the new 'it' in fashion? Should the family sit back with a complacent manner as one (or more) of their own gallivants in these costumes?
If husbands, fiancés and boyfriends would man up to saying the truth about how their women/girls are dressed, it would go a long way in installing sensibility. Don't tell us we look good even when we look trashy, and don't smile with one cheek when we step out of the salon even when you know that the hairstyle we have on does not do us justice by the looks. This might be a case of the kettle turning to the pot for help as sometimes the men folks don't even have a clear understanding of what the subject in focus is about.
This is my take. Looking pretty is a major issue, your confidence even lies on it most times. Go on, play with colors, but remember it is not a masquerade party. Your hair is your crown wear it well, or it would look like you borrowed what is on your head without even checking if it fits in the mirror. Your legs are also great asset-they could be. 3", 6", does it matter? You compete for who rocks the pumps more and whose shoes have more height, but need I say that when you have those leg cramps she won't be there to help with the massage, let alone share the pain.
Beauty is skin deep; being fashionable doesn't birth it, it accentuates it.
Friday 14 September 2012
A fork in the path
Kay,
There's a point in every man's heart when he does one good thing - makes one good choice. It's not always obvious when or where the choice takes place but that takes nothing away from the magnitude of the occasion. You once said a man ought to know why, if not when, he chooses a path when such a point arrives - I like to think the man ought to know how to decipher such a point first and then the why and the when comes into place.
For instance, the man has to know that God is directing the path that he's chosen. The path no longer remains his but God's. It's called "letting go" in some cultures; in others it's called surrender: The man has to surrender.
Then there's the question of trust. It sounds redundant that trust should become an issue after surrender has been branded about with such impunity. Really, can one surrender without trust? Can one let go without knowing - accepting with all that he is - that the one who would be in charge is actually able to take charge? Or that in the event that the one who would be in charge can't 'take charge' the consequences will be acceptable? Redundancy serves, sometimes, to re-emphasize the obvious - trust serves to expand the concept of surrender. The currency of surrender is trust and faith is the ink with which the denominational value of the 'trust' currency is printed.
A wise man once said "Now these 3 abide: faith, hope and love but the greatest of all is love". Love, that state of being where ideas seem to develop wings of their own and raise the bearer to such heights, perhaps depth, as can't be fathomed by either the disbelieving or the unbelieving. It's a step toward the complete devaluation of the very essence of the bearer in pursuit of some ideal. True love, God himself, will give up his own eternity so that ingrates like myself have a shot, should we so choose, at eternity. True love is becoming like God in every aspect. Letting go of all that I hold dear in exchange for all that He holds dear. Depending on his providence and grace in every circumstance and at every turn that he leads me to. Anticipating, no believing, that it would all work out regardless of where or how things are currently panning out.
That point - the one I talked about in the first paragraph, the one where one makes a good choice - that point is where one chooses or rejects true love, God's love over all else.
Quemi pointed out to me that I had posted this (apparently in error). I wrote this a long time ago. I don't know where it was meant to lead to or why I spent the time to write it. I can only assume that I had just broken some poor damsel's heart and I was writing her a long-winded explanation. Now before you shake your head in disgust at 'men' in general let me say that if I could write this way every weekend I sure would love it. But if it takes breaking someone's heart every weekend to produce this beauty (in the eye of this beholder), then there's something wrong with me...
I just had to spoil it a little. It was getting a little too serious - this post. Faith, Hope and Love. It never gets too serious when we talk about them, though. It never gets old when we start to live out those principles in our lives. God knows the world needs more faith, more hope, and much more love!
There's a point in every man's heart when he does one good thing - makes one good choice. It's not always obvious when or where the choice takes place but that takes nothing away from the magnitude of the occasion. You once said a man ought to know why, if not when, he chooses a path when such a point arrives - I like to think the man ought to know how to decipher such a point first and then the why and the when comes into place.
For instance, the man has to know that God is directing the path that he's chosen. The path no longer remains his but God's. It's called "letting go" in some cultures; in others it's called surrender: The man has to surrender.
Then there's the question of trust. It sounds redundant that trust should become an issue after surrender has been branded about with such impunity. Really, can one surrender without trust? Can one let go without knowing - accepting with all that he is - that the one who would be in charge is actually able to take charge? Or that in the event that the one who would be in charge can't 'take charge' the consequences will be acceptable? Redundancy serves, sometimes, to re-emphasize the obvious - trust serves to expand the concept of surrender. The currency of surrender is trust and faith is the ink with which the denominational value of the 'trust' currency is printed.
A wise man once said "Now these 3 abide: faith, hope and love but the greatest of all is love". Love, that state of being where ideas seem to develop wings of their own and raise the bearer to such heights, perhaps depth, as can't be fathomed by either the disbelieving or the unbelieving. It's a step toward the complete devaluation of the very essence of the bearer in pursuit of some ideal. True love, God himself, will give up his own eternity so that ingrates like myself have a shot, should we so choose, at eternity. True love is becoming like God in every aspect. Letting go of all that I hold dear in exchange for all that He holds dear. Depending on his providence and grace in every circumstance and at every turn that he leads me to. Anticipating, no believing, that it would all work out regardless of where or how things are currently panning out.
That point - the one I talked about in the first paragraph, the one where one makes a good choice - that point is where one chooses or rejects true love, God's love over all else.
Quemi pointed out to me that I had posted this (apparently in error). I wrote this a long time ago. I don't know where it was meant to lead to or why I spent the time to write it. I can only assume that I had just broken some poor damsel's heart and I was writing her a long-winded explanation. Now before you shake your head in disgust at 'men' in general let me say that if I could write this way every weekend I sure would love it. But if it takes breaking someone's heart every weekend to produce this beauty (in the eye of this beholder), then there's something wrong with me...
I just had to spoil it a little. It was getting a little too serious - this post. Faith, Hope and Love. It never gets too serious when we talk about them, though. It never gets old when we start to live out those principles in our lives. God knows the world needs more faith, more hope, and much more love!
Wednesday 29 August 2012
If only we knew!
The preacher stands at the pulpit and speaks about the samaritan woman.
He talks about how the woman met with the Lord and he pointed out to us - the large congregation - that if she had known she was going to meet the Lord that day, she would most likely have had a different state of mind. Would she have worn a different attire? Would she have gone to the well side at the wee hours of dawn and waited for him? Would she have gone there with the best cup she had on the shelves in her kitchen,if she knew that the Savior was going to ask for a drink of water?
He goes on to draw out a sermon from the tale of the woman at the well. I can still hear his voice as he even cracks a joke about how we make assumptions and the bad sides of having our minds made up,before we get the opportunity to find out the true position of things. He made a quick digression telling about how his wife says that Adventist men are not romantic(i share a similar opinion, though I pray fervently that my husband is different). He claims that this is an assumption wrongly generalized. He was driving home the point that Jesus was open minded enough to accommodate the neglected woman from Samaria who visited the well.
As he continues to open his mouth for the words of God to pour out,my mind catches a flying thought. If I knew that my husband was the man I was going to get married to some years ago, would I have acted differently?
Ours is like a fairy tale, (and I am so so looking forward to the happy ending where we get to live happily ever after) we met as kids. Though my senior,we met again in school where he was in his final year as I was just in my first year. Our paths crossed again in the University- his last year,my freshman year. Then we became phone friends(to think that I used to wonder why the long calls kept coming) and I even refer to him as a family friend(me representing my family and him,his- though my mum knew his grandparents)
There, I guess I have narrated enough about our history,so back to our discussion. If we had known we would eventually get married, would we have related to eachother in different ways?
My husband hangs an accusation over my head...he claims I broke his toy,when we were kids(you think that's funny,no?) Don't tell him I said this, it's between you and I. When he goes on and on about how I spoilt the toy - i think it was a car,or one of those boyish thingies - in my head am like it's either the thing was on its way to being condemned,or the thing was probably fake from the outset cos I wonder how a girl under 5 could have done much damage.
I could go on with the dirty laundry, but I'll let things slide for now. But the main question on my mind is, if we had known we were gonna end up together what would we have done differently? To a large extent I would say we had a good relationship. Many had thought we were cousins while others called us school father and School daughter(me,i saw him as a brother,so you can imagine my bewilderment when he spoke his love to me). Raking through my mind(though not a detailed search), I can't pinpoint anything I would have done differently, my husband?...amongst other things, I bet he wishes he didn't give me =N=5 for lunch that day in my JSS 1(maybe I would have been fatter if he had given me more sef)
Well, so much for my ramblings. Guess I'm just taking the topic personal. I'll try to apply this to other life aspects....you probably should too.
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Painful old age!
She's gone and done it. Yes, she's turned it completely officially to a chick-blog. And not just that, she's done it while managing to compliment her 'man' to boot. Life can be quite un-understandable (won't incomprehensible be a better word?) sometimes. I did promise myself that I'll only spend on paragraph on the topic though - so if you read anything else related to the matter in a later paragraph just imagine that you are reading it here. Comprehende?!
I do think I'm getting senile at the ripe out age of about 3-0 (by the way 0-3 is going to be the scoreline when next my dear Arsenal takes to the pitch - Arsenal of course playing away from home). You see, lately, I've had the privilege of reviewing the direction of my choices and they are - what shall we say - 'unambitious in a innocuous way' (ha! see big english). It's true that I've never had a "the-artist-formerly-known-as-snoop-dogg" album in my collection but most recent additions are beginning to push the limit of gentility - Sarah Groves, Audrey Assad, Corrinne May, etc. There have been some jazz - Madeleine Peyroux, Sophie Milman - and some instrumental - Maya Filipic, Kendra Springer - but even those have definitely been on the mellow side. I think the most noisy songs in my collection are slowly becoming the Take 6 ones (I kid, you know). But seriously apart from that Cake song about "long skirts and short jackets" and maybe a few Sixpence Non the Richer (Stephen Curtis Chapman, Third Day, etc) songs there's not much I can hold my hand up in pride about when it comes to pure unadulterated noise.
Read into that last paragraph what you will. I got tired writing it sef - yes, writing about me is making me tired - GO FIGURE! Nope, it's not that time of the month - Quemi has made it perfectly clear that you can't guess correctly when it comes to that. But I've been up to my normal tricks there sha. It's only now that I think about it I realize I've mentally shelved the last 2 dates in the month when it was that time of the Month for the Mrs. and I blame Quemi for it. Speaking of Quemi, did I mention that she's responsible for the new design of this blog? For years - yes, years - I was prodding happily along with a white background and black text. This year I got very adventurous and changed the font around a little. And boy, did I feel good?! But Quemi had to have her say. Boy, did she have her say. Of course, since we all know that her husband (he of the much acclaimed 'man-of-my-dreams' post) scares me I don't need to go into why this new look will have to stay. At this rate though I'll might have to pack shop and go begging for some other blog to park my rants on. Now that I think about it I realize that I don'thaveknow any male friends of mine that blog. Maybe, they all blog anonymously like I try to do here. Even that is likely to change soon - Quemi's expressed her desire to post the url to this blog on her facebook page (Q-U-E-M-I that's how you spell good times?).
For about a week now, I've been reading Stephen King's "The Stand". Now that is a good book but don't go reading it on my account if you are susceptible to night mares o (I no send you message). Seriously, for the past few days I've been sleeping at midnight only because I know that if I stayed up all night I won't be able to finish the book anyway and I had to be up for work at 6.30am. It just occurred to me, though, that I could have called in sick (damn!). Is it just me or were all his earlier books actually quite thick on biblical-ish themes? The last 3 King books I've read (Salem's lot, Desperation and now The Stand), apart from been "spooky" at times, have all had strong "bible-ish" themes (let's just cut to the chase and legalize the conjugation of nouns to adjectives with the use of '-ish' - wait, isn't that already the case?). So the book. It's junk! I'm addicted. I love it. I'm not the smartest one around now, am I?!
It's kinda like how bible study yesterday was meant to be about "Homosexualism". I'm like "please people don't waste my time I'm not coming". I know what I think (don't always do what I think though) the bible says on the subject - which is that it's a sin! So what's the point in reiterating it especially since I suspect the discussion would have no bearing on my salvation - at least not directly. I've been around 30-odd years (yes, I know you are beginning to get fed up with me bragging about my age but that's not going to stop me) and I now consider myself an old timer (I've read enough books to know I'm wrong there). So like all good old timers I'm going to stop wasting my time and yours with this pointless discussion on straight or gay dudes. Now, on the question of gay babes (I can see Meg pointing me to the couch if I continue so at this point I rest my case) - no comments! Seriously, folks how about we stop rationalizing God (big word alert - anthropomorphism). He isn't accountable to any of us and he isn't a MAN. If He says He is not cool with something then obviously it means He is not cool with it - regardless of how strongly we may or may not feel about the said 'something'. Yes, we all have free will. But should God's will also be subject to what my free will decides to be right or wrong? Say it with me people - NO!
Let's see... what else is there to talk about? O yeah, I stumbled upon a atoday.com article about how to keep the sabbath earlier this week. I scrolled down to the comments section where I saw a couple of readers having a good go at each other about the relevance or irrelevance of keeping the day. Now what I don't get (and maybe this is me been senile again) is why someone that obviously doesn't give two hoots about the relevance of the day would waste his time getting himself all worked up by reading the article from top to bottom and then waste more of his (and now my time) pouring out his angst at the evil that he perceived was done to him by his reading the article in the comments section. Freedom is just so abused in this country now it's unbelieveable. Any way, let's let that go now, shall we?!
I wish I could end this blog on a high but I've been almost morbidly moody all week. I blame my guilt at how I've spent my nights not sleeping, and then on the actual physical impact of not sleeping all of which in turn I blame on Stephen King. Wait, now I sound like that guy I just wrote about in the previous paragraph - talk about beams, specks, and eyes!
I do think I'm getting senile at the ripe out age of about 3-0 (by the way 0-3 is going to be the scoreline when next my dear Arsenal takes to the pitch - Arsenal of course playing away from home). You see, lately, I've had the privilege of reviewing the direction of my choices and they are - what shall we say - 'unambitious in a innocuous way' (ha! see big english). It's true that I've never had a "the-artist-formerly-known-as-snoop-dogg" album in my collection but most recent additions are beginning to push the limit of gentility - Sarah Groves, Audrey Assad, Corrinne May, etc. There have been some jazz - Madeleine Peyroux, Sophie Milman - and some instrumental - Maya Filipic, Kendra Springer - but even those have definitely been on the mellow side. I think the most noisy songs in my collection are slowly becoming the Take 6 ones (I kid, you know). But seriously apart from that Cake song about "long skirts and short jackets" and maybe a few Sixpence Non the Richer (Stephen Curtis Chapman, Third Day, etc) songs there's not much I can hold my hand up in pride about when it comes to pure unadulterated noise.
Read into that last paragraph what you will. I got tired writing it sef - yes, writing about me is making me tired - GO FIGURE! Nope, it's not that time of the month - Quemi has made it perfectly clear that you can't guess correctly when it comes to that. But I've been up to my normal tricks there sha. It's only now that I think about it I realize I've mentally shelved the last 2 dates in the month when it was that time of the Month for the Mrs. and I blame Quemi for it. Speaking of Quemi, did I mention that she's responsible for the new design of this blog? For years - yes, years - I was prodding happily along with a white background and black text. This year I got very adventurous and changed the font around a little. And boy, did I feel good?! But Quemi had to have her say. Boy, did she have her say. Of course, since we all know that her husband (he of the much acclaimed 'man-of-my-dreams' post) scares me I don't need to go into why this new look will have to stay. At this rate though I'll might have to pack shop and go begging for some other blog to park my rants on. Now that I think about it I realize that I don't
For about a week now, I've been reading Stephen King's "The Stand". Now that is a good book but don't go reading it on my account if you are susceptible to night mares o (I no send you message). Seriously, for the past few days I've been sleeping at midnight only because I know that if I stayed up all night I won't be able to finish the book anyway and I had to be up for work at 6.30am. It just occurred to me, though, that I could have called in sick (damn!). Is it just me or were all his earlier books actually quite thick on biblical-ish themes? The last 3 King books I've read (Salem's lot, Desperation and now The Stand), apart from been "spooky" at times, have all had strong "bible-ish" themes (let's just cut to the chase and legalize the conjugation of nouns to adjectives with the use of '-ish' - wait, isn't that already the case?). So the book. It's junk! I'm addicted. I love it. I'm not the smartest one around now, am I?!
It's kinda like how bible study yesterday was meant to be about "Homosexualism". I'm like "please people don't waste my time I'm not coming". I know what I think (don't always do what I think though) the bible says on the subject - which is that it's a sin! So what's the point in reiterating it especially since I suspect the discussion would have no bearing on my salvation - at least not directly. I've been around 30-odd years (yes, I know you are beginning to get fed up with me bragging about my age but that's not going to stop me) and I now consider myself an old timer (I've read enough books to know I'm wrong there). So like all good old timers I'm going to stop wasting my time and yours with this pointless discussion on straight or gay dudes. Now, on the question of gay babes (I can see Meg pointing me to the couch if I continue so at this point I rest my case) - no comments! Seriously, folks how about we stop rationalizing God (big word alert - anthropomorphism). He isn't accountable to any of us and he isn't a MAN. If He says He is not cool with something then obviously it means He is not cool with it - regardless of how strongly we may or may not feel about the said 'something'. Yes, we all have free will. But should God's will also be subject to what my free will decides to be right or wrong? Say it with me people - NO!
Let's see... what else is there to talk about? O yeah, I stumbled upon a atoday.com article about how to keep the sabbath earlier this week. I scrolled down to the comments section where I saw a couple of readers having a good go at each other about the relevance or irrelevance of keeping the day. Now what I don't get (and maybe this is me been senile again) is why someone that obviously doesn't give two hoots about the relevance of the day would waste his time getting himself all worked up by reading the article from top to bottom and then waste more of his (and now my time) pouring out his angst at the evil that he perceived was done to him by his reading the article in the comments section. Freedom is just so abused in this country now it's unbelieveable. Any way, let's let that go now, shall we?!
I wish I could end this blog on a high but I've been almost morbidly moody all week. I blame my guilt at how I've spent my nights not sleeping, and then on the actual physical impact of not sleeping all of which in turn I blame on Stephen King. Wait, now I sound like that guy I just wrote about in the previous paragraph - talk about beams, specks, and eyes!
Tuesday 21 August 2012
Checklist for my 'potential him'
"You this girl sef, you're funny o! though you are not weird and that this idea i had isn't strange". These are the thoughts on my mind as i flip the pages of my notebook where i had done some jotting.
I shake my head as i read thru,and i whisper a quiet prayer of thanks to God.I happened to have dated the write-up,it was in the month of May 2010.I say no more about the reason for my gratitude for now,scroll further down for the concluding part.
Some years ago, i was having a 'clear-your-head-and -get-some-direction-for-your-life' session.My thoughts hovered also on the subject of the man i wished to spend eternity(that's the life after death has done us apart) with. I decided to make the list....notice i said 'the' and not 'a'. I think its a normalcy with both sexes to have a list of character traits looked out for in a potential spouse.A number of ladies across the globe have done this - either on paper or as a part of a conversation-and i did too, though there are a lot of things i don't join the 'ladies-band' wagon in doing. Like the love for color pink or the freakish love for teddies.
Anyways back to my list, here it goes.
--T.D.H (you don't know? - tall, dark and handsome)
--vastly knowledgeable
--have a love for music
--hear unspoken words
--loving & all...
--love God and understand what loving God means
--good sense of humor
--realistic
--command respect
--a good smile
--balanced in fashion things
--healthy habits
--full of ideas and open to more
--wise enough
--admit offenses and apologizes when due
--of medium size (not fat nor lanky)
--disciplined
--goal oriented
--smooth talker
--patient
--nice dancer
There! You've got to admit that this is a Master List. Me sef,i give me a thumbs up,to think that this was written at the wee hours of the day...yeah i wrote the time also,twas 6am. :D
You think am nuts?....it crossed my mind too. But you see here's the catch - and the other part of my prayer of gratitude. Then i had these topsy-turvy relationships, so i prayed for God to step in - i literately tabled this list before him. He answered!
That thing people say about making the list being an unrealistic activity built on fantasies, dint happen in my case. God sent me an answer to my prayer about 2.5months later,in the form of the man who is now my husband. So how does he rate in terms of the list? In the light of not making the head of the man in question swell too much (cos he might just get to read this) I'll keep it simple.
He dances well(he's got moves that can crack your ribs) has got a sweet smile(he's eyes twinkle when he is really smiling) loves God,is loving & all, knows lotsa things(too much sef sometimes - Google & Wikipedia are his accomplices). Obviously T.D.H, makes me laugh and all the rest.Did i mention that he sings,he doesn't just love music. I could go on...but what would it profit me to have his pride inflated - we know that's a done deal already,cos i have written too much sef(though my delete and backspace keys are still working,I'll test waters)
So did i get a perfect man? No. Why? I am not perfect my self. But did my man meet my expectations? Yes. How come? Cos i voiced my concerns to God.Would i recommend this? Maybe. Why Maybe? Cos like other areas of our lives, we come up with our expectations.Some times God follows our list,other times he does his own thing.But we've gotta be open-minded enough to trust his will.
Am i happy about God's choice for me?....Heaven yes!!
Friday 17 August 2012
Absolutely nothing...
"I will never you nor forsake you". Heb 13:5
This is about my 2nd week reading the book of Hebrews. I started chapter 13 this morning and I immediately started enjoying the book. I'm not sure if it the fact that I was reading the last chapter or if I finally received revelation. The latter part of chapter 12 does talk about profanity in the same context as not valueing what is sacred as sacred so no more bible jokes. Sometimes the bible can feel like one massive kill joy - the keyword is "feel". There's a large junk of Romans 6 that talks about dying with Christ (Meg's going to start rolling her eyes now) and been dead to sin. That chapter strips the bible of all it's kill-joyness for me. Suddenly like David God's law becomes perfect. The lightness of the burden that Jesus offers in place of mine becomes a reality and all's well that ends well. Because it is no longer Paul (sorry, but I could not resist) that lives but Christ that lives through me - and nothing is impossible for God.
I think I wrote that last chapter for ME. To remind me of the freedom and power that God has deposited in me through Christ. I went a sizeable part of this week asking God for his peace and telling him that I wanted to feel his presence. Well this morning it strikes me (in proper church speak - the spirit spoke to me) that God has been faithful in all the things I've asked him and part of the work with Christ is trusting him when we cannot see or feel him. Knowing and experiencing God is a beautiful thing.
I want to say something about Meg but nothing comes to mind. F course this can get me in trouble. It's almost like you are so enamoured by something and you want the world to know but you are speechless so you take a pen and write "I love Meg" (google or lifetyme Meg?!) on ur tee shirt and then go stand in the middle of the intersection of 10th street and West Peachtree St in downtown ATL. It's new territory for me (and I've been around for almost 3 decades).
Anyway RvP has gone to the dark side. I don't know where Man.U bought their voodoo dolls but their influence on the-player-who-used-to-be-a-potential-legend is undeniable. Part of me (chalk it down to the old man) almost wishes he hurts himself scoring an own goal (the only goal too) when the Manc come visiting the emirates. There's something obviously wrong with Planet Earth and football is even close to the solution.
I'm not sure how to end today's blog post (blog post actually rhymes with compost)
This is about my 2nd week reading the book of Hebrews. I started chapter 13 this morning and I immediately started enjoying the book. I'm not sure if it the fact that I was reading the last chapter or if I finally received revelation. The latter part of chapter 12 does talk about profanity in the same context as not valueing what is sacred as sacred so no more bible jokes. Sometimes the bible can feel like one massive kill joy - the keyword is "feel". There's a large junk of Romans 6 that talks about dying with Christ (Meg's going to start rolling her eyes now) and been dead to sin. That chapter strips the bible of all it's kill-joyness for me. Suddenly like David God's law becomes perfect. The lightness of the burden that Jesus offers in place of mine becomes a reality and all's well that ends well. Because it is no longer Paul (sorry, but I could not resist) that lives but Christ that lives through me - and nothing is impossible for God.
I think I wrote that last chapter for ME. To remind me of the freedom and power that God has deposited in me through Christ. I went a sizeable part of this week asking God for his peace and telling him that I wanted to feel his presence. Well this morning it strikes me (in proper church speak - the spirit spoke to me) that God has been faithful in all the things I've asked him and part of the work with Christ is trusting him when we cannot see or feel him. Knowing and experiencing God is a beautiful thing.
I want to say something about Meg but nothing comes to mind. F course this can get me in trouble. It's almost like you are so enamoured by something and you want the world to know but you are speechless so you take a pen and write "I love Meg" (google or lifetyme Meg?!) on ur tee shirt and then go stand in the middle of the intersection of 10th street and West Peachtree St in downtown ATL. It's new territory for me (and I've been around for almost 3 decades).
Anyway RvP has gone to the dark side. I don't know where Man.U bought their voodoo dolls but their influence on the-player-who-used-to-be-a-potential-legend is undeniable. Part of me (chalk it down to the old man) almost wishes he hurts himself scoring an own goal (the only goal too) when the Manc come visiting the emirates. There's something obviously wrong with Planet Earth and football is even close to the solution.
I'm not sure how to end today's blog post (blog post actually rhymes with compost)
Friday 10 August 2012
LDR, multitasking and phantom menaces
This one is going to be a certified rant (right up the same alleys as Quemi's "that time of the month") so fasten your sit belts. But since I know that I don't have the God given ability to get myself out of any trouble this rant will get me in, I'm going to try to be subtle about it.
So I stumbled across this really good christian novel on smashwords.com called "Kicking Eternity". If the book were a movie it would be a certified chick flick; if it was a disease it be would so potent it would make cancer look like a joke; but alas it's only a novel. Anyway, I'll bury head in shame and admit that I not only read it back to back but that I also totally enjoyed it. I grew up expecting religion and knowing God to be as simple as the way the characters in the book related to God - as simple as short direct heart felt prayers, quiet time in God's presense and what not. But I'm African and you know how we do. I don't know if it's poverty that makes us so loquacious or if it's just the fact that I'm part of the meagre 20% or less of introverted Nigerians that makes me think that we either talk too much without hitting the point directly or we hit the point too many times like our Father has too much wax in His ears and our words are meant to chisel away until we puncture His ear drum. No complaints though - I understand that prayer is more for the pray-er than for the prayed-to so maybe the repetition is to work up some faith. Er, but faith comes by hearing... by the word of God, no?
Anyway, so I read the book because I'm in a long distance relationship (insert much cussing and hair pulling) and getting something to do with your better half across the ocean can be challenging - timezone, sleepzones, nepa, internet and all ganging up against us. But nothing, not even suffering from LDR (yes long distance relationships are not normal and if its normal it's a disease-ish) or been madly foolishly in love can blind the eye of a brother to that most excellent torture device called female multitasking. Ladies just know how to do it. Let me rephrase that. Ladies just know how to convince themselves that they are good at it regardless of what the stats say about mankind's lack of ability in that particular sphere. But life is short and love covereth a multitude of sin (especially after they've been aired on this here blog as Quemi will testify) so let's move on, shall we?
But wait I've got nothing else to say now that I've had my fill of subtle rantiness. God knows I want to type some more now but there are just more questions than answers in my head right now like why do girls like romance stories, sef? Seriously I just felt sad and empty when I finished the aforementioned novel - like Drew & Rainey got something that God in his infinite wisdom has decided to hold back from me for another few months. I don't know sha, I just don't know. I think I'll stick with syfy going forward.
I just discovered Corrinne May. I like her. Not the way I like Meg. The way I like Meg is more properly known as love - and imma shout from the mountain tops :). But I digress. Corrinne's right up there in my mind as Sara Grooves, Audrey Assad and JJ Heller. And as a plus she sounds more like Sarah MacLachlan without the sadness-lust (terrible dry humour, I know). So instead of getting sixpence none the richer's new album I got Corrinne's 2012 album. It was either that or Ray LaMontagne's. And that's a no-no seeing as it was my ex that introduced me to him and we (my ex and I - that just sounds wrong) still have a special Ray song.
Just read through what I've typed. It's in my best interest to stop now. God, Meg & I could do with a little less of Meg's laundry on this blog :D. Seriously, though, Meg's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Just thinking of her brings a smile to my face.
So I stumbled across this really good christian novel on smashwords.com called "Kicking Eternity". If the book were a movie it would be a certified chick flick; if it was a disease it be would so potent it would make cancer look like a joke; but alas it's only a novel. Anyway, I'll bury head in shame and admit that I not only read it back to back but that I also totally enjoyed it. I grew up expecting religion and knowing God to be as simple as the way the characters in the book related to God - as simple as short direct heart felt prayers, quiet time in God's presense and what not. But I'm African and you know how we do. I don't know if it's poverty that makes us so loquacious or if it's just the fact that I'm part of the meagre 20% or less of introverted Nigerians that makes me think that we either talk too much without hitting the point directly or we hit the point too many times like our Father has too much wax in His ears and our words are meant to chisel away until we puncture His ear drum. No complaints though - I understand that prayer is more for the pray-er than for the prayed-to so maybe the repetition is to work up some faith. Er, but faith comes by hearing... by the word of God, no?
Anyway, so I read the book because I'm in a long distance relationship (insert much cussing and hair pulling) and getting something to do with your better half across the ocean can be challenging - timezone, sleepzones, nepa, internet and all ganging up against us. But nothing, not even suffering from LDR (yes long distance relationships are not normal and if its normal it's a disease-ish) or been madly foolishly in love can blind the eye of a brother to that most excellent torture device called female multitasking. Ladies just know how to do it. Let me rephrase that. Ladies just know how to convince themselves that they are good at it regardless of what the stats say about mankind's lack of ability in that particular sphere. But life is short and love covereth a multitude of sin (especially after they've been aired on this here blog as Quemi will testify) so let's move on, shall we?
But wait I've got nothing else to say now that I've had my fill of subtle rantiness. God knows I want to type some more now but there are just more questions than answers in my head right now like why do girls like romance stories, sef? Seriously I just felt sad and empty when I finished the aforementioned novel - like Drew & Rainey got something that God in his infinite wisdom has decided to hold back from me for another few months. I don't know sha, I just don't know. I think I'll stick with syfy going forward.
I just discovered Corrinne May. I like her. Not the way I like Meg. The way I like Meg is more properly known as love - and imma shout from the mountain tops :). But I digress. Corrinne's right up there in my mind as Sara Grooves, Audrey Assad and JJ Heller. And as a plus she sounds more like Sarah MacLachlan without the sadness-lust (terrible dry humour, I know). So instead of getting sixpence none the richer's new album I got Corrinne's 2012 album. It was either that or Ray LaMontagne's. And that's a no-no seeing as it was my ex that introduced me to him and we (my ex and I - that just sounds wrong) still have a special Ray song.
Just read through what I've typed. It's in my best interest to stop now. God, Meg & I could do with a little less of Meg's laundry on this blog :D. Seriously, though, Meg's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Just thinking of her brings a smile to my face.
Wednesday 1 August 2012
There's Poland, then there's Scandinavia
So... 3 months eh... that's how long it has taken me to recover from the beating Quemi's better half gave me for offering her the avenue (this blog) to rant. And what about Quemi? I don't know... who would go near her after that beating I received.
By the way I hope you noticed the choice of words in the paragraph above - first I was given, then I received the said beating. The more sinister among you may infer that I got beat twice. Let's just say I won't refute that conclusion. Whether the reticence I now display when it comes to indulging you thus is a product of my actually been beat up twice or the magnitude of the possible one-time beating is also left to your discretion.
Anyway, I'm still alive sha - and Quemi still has access to this blog. Now whether that is because I'm scared that removing her access to it would result in another round of beating or I'm just been stubborn is up for debate. As I was the one that was beat up and not Quemi I shall now desist from pursuing further the subject of my been beat up. Apart, of course, from mentioning that the husband of the aforementioned Quemi has apologized to me now on more than one occasion - no doubt at Quemi's request. I swear (against years of good Christian upbringing no less) that Quemi's hold over the man no longer surprises me to be honest. What does surprise me though is the amount of pain she appears to not see on my face each time the husband approaches me to offer one of his many 'heart felt' apologies. If I didn't know better I'd conclude that Quemi is using the opportunity to punish both of us: her husband for having the effrontery and indecency to beat me up in public; me for some unknown childhood sin I must have committed against her.
On to weightier matters though, I've now spent 1 year at my current place of work. My boss actually had to remind me as I had completely forgotten. I'd planned to go see a movie to celebrate but I could not get the Mrs. to buy into the idea - she muttered something about forgetting our engagement anniversary and yet remembering my work anniversary. In the words of some old sage - you win some you lose some. Seriously, I like it at my current office and I've had a great one year. I totally grateful to God. I'm even inclined to stand up in church next sabbath to 'testify' of it naija style but let's leave it at that - inclination.
I was talking to my Uncle the other day about Barrack and how I felt history would remember him as been a much better president than the vast majority of Americans now think of him. I think this would be partly because his achievements, or lack there-of, would be looked at against the back drop of the huge 'hatred' and utter lack of 'agreeableness' (I can't believe the spell-checker didn't flag that word) that his political opponents have displayed during the 4 years of his tenure. From an Adventist perspective though, the division of state and religion could not gotten any clearer than during his tenure (it's a joke my people, please take it easy). Part of me wants to see him have a second term just to see how much his style morphs under the lack of pressure of running for second term. But then again my Uncle and I agree that it may also be for the best of the country if a Romney in office heralds a government that is united in solving America's problems rather than bickering about imagined political bends and what not. Then again it could be argued that a Romney victory is a victory for the spread of FUD.
There are two things ways I look at it.
By the way I hope you noticed the choice of words in the paragraph above - first I was given, then I received the said beating. The more sinister among you may infer that I got beat twice. Let's just say I won't refute that conclusion. Whether the reticence I now display when it comes to indulging you thus is a product of my actually been beat up twice or the magnitude of the possible one-time beating is also left to your discretion.
Anyway, I'm still alive sha - and Quemi still has access to this blog. Now whether that is because I'm scared that removing her access to it would result in another round of beating or I'm just been stubborn is up for debate. As I was the one that was beat up and not Quemi I shall now desist from pursuing further the subject of my been beat up. Apart, of course, from mentioning that the husband of the aforementioned Quemi has apologized to me now on more than one occasion - no doubt at Quemi's request. I swear (against years of good Christian upbringing no less) that Quemi's hold over the man no longer surprises me to be honest. What does surprise me though is the amount of pain she appears to not see on my face each time the husband approaches me to offer one of his many 'heart felt' apologies. If I didn't know better I'd conclude that Quemi is using the opportunity to punish both of us: her husband for having the effrontery and indecency to beat me up in public; me for some unknown childhood sin I must have committed against her.
On to weightier matters though, I've now spent 1 year at my current place of work. My boss actually had to remind me as I had completely forgotten. I'd planned to go see a movie to celebrate but I could not get the Mrs. to buy into the idea - she muttered something about forgetting our engagement anniversary and yet remembering my work anniversary. In the words of some old sage - you win some you lose some. Seriously, I like it at my current office and I've had a great one year. I totally grateful to God. I'm even inclined to stand up in church next sabbath to 'testify' of it naija style but let's leave it at that - inclination.
I was talking to my Uncle the other day about Barrack and how I felt history would remember him as been a much better president than the vast majority of Americans now think of him. I think this would be partly because his achievements, or lack there-of, would be looked at against the back drop of the huge 'hatred' and utter lack of 'agreeableness' (I can't believe the spell-checker didn't flag that word) that his political opponents have displayed during the 4 years of his tenure. From an Adventist perspective though, the division of state and religion could not gotten any clearer than during his tenure (it's a joke my people, please take it easy). Part of me wants to see him have a second term just to see how much his style morphs under the lack of pressure of running for second term. But then again my Uncle and I agree that it may also be for the best of the country if a Romney in office heralds a government that is united in solving America's problems rather than bickering about imagined political bends and what not. Then again it could be argued that a Romney victory is a victory for the spread of FUD.
There are two things ways I look at it.
- God truly is an remarkable God. If I had half of his power and fore-sight, He knows I won't have created free will or the ability to abuse it :)
- Someone needs to tell Romney that for every one Poland there are a few Scandinavian countries. In fact for every Poland there's a Greece, Spain, Portugal. While for every Norway there's a ..... Denmark?
Monday 9 April 2012
‘That time of the Month’
As I go ahead with my writing, I wish to state clearly that this is no lecturing session, so if you don’t know what ‘that time of the month’ means, please visit Google/Wikipedia for clarifications.
That said, I express how I appreciate the efforts of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, biologists, and other medically related personnel. It has to be known that these people go through serious conditions. Read countless books, sit for series of exams, observe varying ailments, attend to an assortment of patients, make several recommendations……the list just goes on. Another effort that thrills me amongst many others is the work of the researchers. Conducting various tests, studies, searches, etc and collating the results thereof. I think it’s a risky business knowing that the outcome of your study becomes a reference point for many discussions, decision making and recommendations. Lifestyles and personalities often find their definitions and explanations from certain studies conducted.
I guess you are wondering where the title of this write-up comes in. Well, it is based on some studies conducted ages and ages ago about one of the human genders. It has been mentioned in medical offices, family houses, class rooms, religious settings, work places and so on. Many individuals of this class have even been labeled with these findings. They have been identified with some or all of this findings, and in some cases, it has formed the bases for explaining certain characteristics or mannerisms portrayed. The class of people earlier mentioned, are in this write-up because of the roles they have played; the medical persons recorded their observations, the researchers confirmed its generalization, and the rest of the world? They just absorbed and applied the findings.
Still don’t know where this is leading? Well, it’s about the lady that serves you your meal at the restaurant, the sales woman at the counter in the shop, the teacher of your daughter’s grade 2 class, that not-so-fine woman who was your piano instructor during your teenage days, that chic you gave your card at the party, the female nurse at the hospital, even the striper at the club. Bringing it home, It’s about your mother, sister, cousin, girlfriend, wife…..it is about me.
It is often said that when it is that time of the month, ladies act in funny ways. Some get wimpy, start to nag and experience higher body temperature. I hear some get touchy, clingy, flirty, irritated, moody and many more. What one lady experiences may be similar or different from what the other lady goes through. Our friends, family members, colleagues, bosses and others have excused our behaviors due to one of these ‘symptoms’ or the other. Sometimes they are sympathetic, other times, they are just pests, rubbing it in and exaggerating the situation. Though the ladies sometimes are causes for this behavior, question is, can they really help it?
A joke was made about how the males would cope with being females for a short period. It was concluded that they would suck at it and I agree. The lady goes through a routine of hormonal changes, what man can handle that? She has to wear a smiling face and stand at the counter even when she would rather be crying on her bed. She would walk around the room when she could as well be clutching her tummy and squatting at a corner. She gives that speech, even when her insides are burning. Yet she does this as ‘nicely’ as she could.
Yeah, she broke a glass or two and banged the phone. Maybe she spat in your face or was on your case and just wouldn’t let go. In her shoes, how would you have handled the situation? This is no excuse for those ladies that seem to capitalize on these ‘symptoms’. Here’s a thinker, you can’t always tell when it’s ‘that time of the month’. I know a certain man – my Husband, he always tries to guess the time. When he thinks I am a little unusual, he asks if it’s that time. I laugh it off of course, a lady always needs to have an alibi!
So here’s the gist, you can never tell when it’s that time of the month. All the lady needs is just an extra dose of sweetness. Do not pity her [she is already resigned to her fate] nor rub it in her face, but bear it in your mind and reflect it in your actions. Hold her, talk to her, be easy with her, help her laugh……just be sweet and she would remain more like the person she is when it is not ‘that time of the month’.
That said, I express how I appreciate the efforts of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, biologists, and other medically related personnel. It has to be known that these people go through serious conditions. Read countless books, sit for series of exams, observe varying ailments, attend to an assortment of patients, make several recommendations……the list just goes on. Another effort that thrills me amongst many others is the work of the researchers. Conducting various tests, studies, searches, etc and collating the results thereof. I think it’s a risky business knowing that the outcome of your study becomes a reference point for many discussions, decision making and recommendations. Lifestyles and personalities often find their definitions and explanations from certain studies conducted.
I guess you are wondering where the title of this write-up comes in. Well, it is based on some studies conducted ages and ages ago about one of the human genders. It has been mentioned in medical offices, family houses, class rooms, religious settings, work places and so on. Many individuals of this class have even been labeled with these findings. They have been identified with some or all of this findings, and in some cases, it has formed the bases for explaining certain characteristics or mannerisms portrayed. The class of people earlier mentioned, are in this write-up because of the roles they have played; the medical persons recorded their observations, the researchers confirmed its generalization, and the rest of the world? They just absorbed and applied the findings.
Still don’t know where this is leading? Well, it’s about the lady that serves you your meal at the restaurant, the sales woman at the counter in the shop, the teacher of your daughter’s grade 2 class, that not-so-fine woman who was your piano instructor during your teenage days, that chic you gave your card at the party, the female nurse at the hospital, even the striper at the club. Bringing it home, It’s about your mother, sister, cousin, girlfriend, wife…..it is about me.
It is often said that when it is that time of the month, ladies act in funny ways. Some get wimpy, start to nag and experience higher body temperature. I hear some get touchy, clingy, flirty, irritated, moody and many more. What one lady experiences may be similar or different from what the other lady goes through. Our friends, family members, colleagues, bosses and others have excused our behaviors due to one of these ‘symptoms’ or the other. Sometimes they are sympathetic, other times, they are just pests, rubbing it in and exaggerating the situation. Though the ladies sometimes are causes for this behavior, question is, can they really help it?
A joke was made about how the males would cope with being females for a short period. It was concluded that they would suck at it and I agree. The lady goes through a routine of hormonal changes, what man can handle that? She has to wear a smiling face and stand at the counter even when she would rather be crying on her bed. She would walk around the room when she could as well be clutching her tummy and squatting at a corner. She gives that speech, even when her insides are burning. Yet she does this as ‘nicely’ as she could.
Yeah, she broke a glass or two and banged the phone. Maybe she spat in your face or was on your case and just wouldn’t let go. In her shoes, how would you have handled the situation? This is no excuse for those ladies that seem to capitalize on these ‘symptoms’. Here’s a thinker, you can’t always tell when it’s ‘that time of the month’. I know a certain man – my Husband, he always tries to guess the time. When he thinks I am a little unusual, he asks if it’s that time. I laugh it off of course, a lady always needs to have an alibi!
So here’s the gist, you can never tell when it’s that time of the month. All the lady needs is just an extra dose of sweetness. Do not pity her [she is already resigned to her fate] nor rub it in her face, but bear it in your mind and reflect it in your actions. Hold her, talk to her, be easy with her, help her laugh……just be sweet and she would remain more like the person she is when it is not ‘that time of the month’.
Friday 2 March 2012
a backlog of lightbulb moments
Okay I admit. The title of the blog posts are usually as random as a phrase from a song I'm listening to while I write or something. Any way, I've been toiling with the idea of starting an open source project to create a download-able 'text' yoruba bible (I admit that there's probably one but I've not found it yet).
Thanks to the qbiblefree app (yes, I still use my N900 - and I'm not changing it till something better - read more hackable - comes along), I found out about Zefania XML format. So now I kinda know what format the bible would be in if I were ever to consider starting the project. The next question - were to get actual yoruba bible data from was kinda solved with a quick google search. The good people at http://www.africanportal.net/ABO/BibeliAtoka/ have uploaded pdf files containing bible books. Yes, there's still the problem of breaking it down into chapters and perhaps verses. Sejda has been a little helpful there - the books can be broken down into pages. It's not a one-to-one mapping with the chapters but it's a start. I figure I can actually use the pages as they are now with a little of meta data stored in a noSQL database or just flat files.
Then there's the really crazy part of how to type of all the pdf text through a web interface. My javascript is presentable at best. Or put another way, I program better in scala than in javascript - and you won't want to gamble your life on the quality of my scala code. Any way today something cool happened. I found this site here: http://www.jawish.org/blog/archives/314-Javascript-Thaana-Keyboard-version-3.0.html. It's basically the same problem as I'm trying to solve but for a different language. So I've spent the last two hours adding little modifications and I think it's works... almost. In fact,here's an example., there's an example text field at the end of this post that uses the modified script to allow you to type yoruba alphabets. Hopefully you can toil with it and probably even leave a comment on what you think.
I realize now that there's very little excuse for me not to go ahead with this project now - that's the scary part. I even found an example of how the keyboard interface can be designed: http://www.branah.com/dhivehi. But maybe it's time I started it anyway. I know it's time to sleep - lightbulb!
I'll upload a downloadable script with tutorials and all that. For now - use the non-yoruba letters (q, z, c, x, and v) on the keyboard for the non-english letters (Ọ, Ṣ, Ẹ) in the yoruba alphabet. The x and v are for acute and grave marks (ami) - type them before typing yoruba alphabets that require ami - hope it works :)
Thanks to the qbiblefree app (yes, I still use my N900 - and I'm not changing it till something better - read more hackable - comes along), I found out about Zefania XML format. So now I kinda know what format the bible would be in if I were ever to consider starting the project. The next question - were to get actual yoruba bible data from was kinda solved with a quick google search. The good people at http://www.africanportal.net/ABO/BibeliAtoka/ have uploaded pdf files containing bible books. Yes, there's still the problem of breaking it down into chapters and perhaps verses. Sejda has been a little helpful there - the books can be broken down into pages. It's not a one-to-one mapping with the chapters but it's a start. I figure I can actually use the pages as they are now with a little of meta data stored in a noSQL database or just flat files.
Then there's the really crazy part of how to type of all the pdf text through a web interface. My javascript is presentable at best. Or put another way, I program better in scala than in javascript - and you won't want to gamble your life on the quality of my scala code. Any way today something cool happened. I found this site here: http://www.jawish.org/blog/archives/314-Javascript-Thaana-Keyboard-version-3.0.html. It's basically the same problem as I'm trying to solve but for a different language. So I've spent the last two hours adding little modifications and I think it's works... almost. In fact,
I realize now that there's very little excuse for me not to go ahead with this project now - that's the scary part. I even found an example of how the keyboard interface can be designed: http://www.branah.com/dhivehi. But maybe it's time I started it anyway. I know it's time to sleep - lightbulb!
I'll upload a downloadable script with tutorials and all that. For now - use the non-yoruba letters (q, z, c, x, and v) on the keyboard for the non-english letters (Ọ, Ṣ, Ẹ) in the yoruba alphabet. The x and v are for acute and grave marks (ami) - type them before typing yoruba alphabets that require ami - hope it works :)
Monday 30 January 2012
What a game!!!
I've been playing around, pro-actively for a change, with Qt and coding for my phone: over the holidays I created a SDA hymnal app for my phone. I don't mean to brag but the Mrs and an aunt were both jealous enough to request that I port it to work on their Symbian phones. I plan to blog about my experience learning Qt maybe once every blue moon.
Actually I'll start right now and talk about event filters. There's code out there that serves as an example of how event filters work but I strongly doubt that the availability tutorials have reached a level of verbosity that can render my own take on the topic redundant. On the N900 (hildon/maemo 5), there are a few applications that have this nifty search functionality where once you slide open the keyboard and start typing the application starts to search for what you are typing. I wanted that functionality on the aforementioned hymnal. For this to work I first attempted to override the keyPressEvent method of the main window but found out that the QListView on the main window actually was stopping the key press event from getting to the main window. To handle scenarios like this on possible solution is to use event filters implemented by two functions - installEventFilter and eventFilter - that together allow a widget to pass responsibility for handling events to some other widget.
So with the QListView example above, let's assume the instance of the QListView is called listView and the instance of the QMainWindow on which the listView is displayed is called mainWindow. Then to redirect listView's events to mainWindow you have to call listView.installEventFilter(mainWindow). A way of understanding the installEventFilter function is that you've installed a siphon in the process by which listView usually handles it's events so that listView's events now slip out of its hands into mainWindow's. You then have to get mainWindow to handle the events that come its way from listView - this is where eventFilter method comes in. You have to override mainWindow's eventFilter method such that you do any event specific checks and target object checks.
I've included the code portion based on the example in the documentation here for for the fun of it. Now this is not my code o. I copied it almost verbatim from the Qt documentation but added some comments that may be useful if you read the epistle leading up to this paragraph
//within MainWindow's constructor set up thesiphon filter
//then you override the eventFilter method
Now that you've read this you can now go on and read the Qt documentation here (http://developer.qt.nokia.com/doc/qt-4.8/eventsandfilters.html#event-filters) for actual code.
Actually I'll start right now and talk about event filters. There's code out there that serves as an example of how event filters work but I strongly doubt that the availability tutorials have reached a level of verbosity that can render my own take on the topic redundant. On the N900 (hildon/maemo 5), there are a few applications that have this nifty search functionality where once you slide open the keyboard and start typing the application starts to search for what you are typing. I wanted that functionality on the aforementioned hymnal. For this to work I first attempted to override the keyPressEvent method of the main window but found out that the QListView on the main window actually was stopping the key press event from getting to the main window. To handle scenarios like this on possible solution is to use event filters implemented by two functions - installEventFilter and eventFilter - that together allow a widget to pass responsibility for handling events to some other widget.
So with the QListView example above, let's assume the instance of the QListView is called listView and the instance of the QMainWindow on which the listView is displayed is called mainWindow. Then to redirect listView's events to mainWindow you have to call listView.installEventFilter(mainWindow). A way of understanding the installEventFilter function is that you've installed a siphon in the process by which listView usually handles it's events so that listView's events now slip out of its hands into mainWindow's. You then have to get mainWindow to handle the events that come its way from listView - this is where eventFilter method comes in. You have to override mainWindow's eventFilter method such that you do any event specific checks and target object checks.
I've included the code portion based on the example in the documentation here for for the fun of it. Now this is not my code o. I copied it almost verbatim from the Qt documentation but added some comments that may be useful if you read the epistle leading up to this paragraph
//within MainWindow's constructor set up the
listView->installEventFilter(this);
//then you override the eventFilter method
bool MainWindow::eventFilter(QObject *object, QEvent *event) { if (object == target && event->type() == QEvent::KeyPress) { QKeyEvent *keyEvent = static_cast<QKeyEvent *>(event); if (keyEvent->key() == Qt::Key_Tab) { // Special tab handling return true; } else return false; } return false; }
Now that you've read this you can now go on and read the Qt documentation here (http://developer.qt.nokia.com/doc/qt-4.8/eventsandfilters.html#event-filters) for actual code.
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