Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

29 Aug 2009

New beginnings

I have been running this blog for about 4 years now. From the humble beginnings on My space, to Blogger, to Wordpress (for a few hours yesterday night).

As I was sitting in the office, in the dead of the night, it came to me. My blog has been undergoing the same changes as me. It has been reflecting the mood, state of mind and state of being of what is going on in my life. I think that is what blogs are supposed to do anyway.

I noticed that when Nate and I got together, I changed my blog template. I had been meaning to do that, I just never got around to doing it. I guess there is an unconcious need in me to change my stuff with a new change in my life.

So, I have changed the blog's header to Nate's Girl. Because that is what I love being. His girl. I have refrained from getting all mushy and lovey on the blog for the period we have been together, and most of my readers have no idea who this Nate is that i suddenely started blogging about. Not to worry, I will tell all soon. And possibly , you will notice that he is about to become a permanent fixture on this blog. Along with Frosty, Biggie and Blackie. Anf Togetherness Supreme, our film. No, the film is not about us. It's about this.

Welcome to the changes.

13 Aug 2008

What Happens...

Life is what you wish you had but you don't. It is what you see from a far and yearn for, or in some cases, actually pursue it diligently, if only to have a taste of what you think other out there might be enjoying. Life wheezes pass you like that cab that won't stop when you hail, but will not hesitate to splash muddy waters on you on the pavement. And as you watch it speed away, you realize that you have just been dealt a very bad hand, and lady luck has retired, not for the night, but for the decade. Every morning on my way to work, I'm forced to stare outside the car window for long (long is used loosely as this could stand for 2 – 5 minutes) and sometimes, I do actually pay attention. Sometime last week, I observed, really observed. I become aware of a small pickup truck that I meet with at around the same time every day. It's a very nondescript car, and you are likely to ignore it. What made me notice it were the chickens in the back. The owners have constructed a mesh cage and horizontally divided in into two, thus making a double storied kind of cage. They pack chickens – hybrid broilers / or old layers on their way to the slaughters house – that is my assumption – in these two stories. The chickens sit quietly, almost demurely, as if cognizant of what awaits them.

Is this any different from my journey to work? Do the chickens also look at me and feel that fore boarding sense of worry and pity towards me? Do they look at me with their tiny beady eyes and wonder whether I know what awaits me, what the day that the night worked behind the veil of darkness to so deftly craft hold for me? Douglas Adams almost convinced me that mice do run earth. In one of these traffic snarls, my house mate and I got into a conversation, well more of a speculation about Mice and Cockroaches. I will give them first Caps as this will somehow recognize their yet-to-be-proved dominance. Cockroaches will be the only surviving living things on the planet when we finally fry ourselves up with UV rays and other cosmic rays and their off springs, radioisotopes. And we wondered, is there a scientific research, maybe in the USA, or Russia or even Japan, to make a replica of the cockroaches shell for humans to wear protectively, when we can no longer make higher SPF's? And Mice actually do run the universe; that every little thing we do, no matter how ingenious is orchestrated by Mice. Which is what got me wondering to my housemate in the car, what of the mice that scientists conduct research on? He thought that those were the prisoners or pariahs of the Mice kingdom, and being subjects of us lowly brained beings is their punishment. I thought he had a point. Imagine the lowest animal you can think of on earth, actually, expand your thinking, in the universe. Now imagine you being condemned to be the subject of its meaningless research.

What I fail to understand is why you would allow yourself to be one of the dirtiest animals on earth, especially if you controlled Earth. I mean, look at all the advancement we have thereof. Even in my pea sized brain (I'm looking at my brain from a Mice Point of view); I would surely want to be a greater animal. It's like God choosing to send Jesus as a pig to rescue the human race. I would call that very bad mathematics. Anyway, he had a point, if far fetched at that! We could be controlled by the lowest form of life without our knowledge. Apparently even dolphins had a revelation of what the world was headed into (notice I said what not where), and have been trying to tell us for years. Can't blame me, and other human forms for not listening. Their language is harder than Danish. And take it from me, Danish is not a language, it's a advanced form of galactic medley of confusion (Sorry Hunny, you can kill me later, you know how best)

Happens that religion can explain most things and hence rest our troubled minds as to why we exist. Science can also do that. Big Bang is where the two meets. They fight to differ, and to me, the harder they fight the more similar they get. Like an old married couple. Think about it, if an old married couple to us is along the lines of 10 years to 60years (life expectancy limits the bracket), what about centuries, and still forced to co-habit in the same house (read Earth), deal with the same kids (read Humans) century after century? I'm not a fan of religion. I was born into one. And somewhere along the way I felt like a groupie on some really confused rock band. I got the concept of what religion tried to do, but I saw it fail. Then I wondered why I was in the religion I professed to be in. I got one answer; because I was born into it.

When I really thought about it, I decided to get off the bandwagon and watch from the sidelines. I think this is when I should confess that my not so favourite pastime is thinking, and worrying. About things like; are there homeless children in Alaska, whether the ant that I stepped on accidentally this morning knew that it was going to die today, and if so, it say a proper goodbye to its family, (I worry about that with humans too) whether my pal knew her mother would be dead this time last year, and if so, what would she have done differently, whether I will celebrate my 30th birthday...anyway, that was not the line of thought I was going to follow in this blog.

You believe in the religion you believe in because you (your soul, your nature) cannot accept that death is finality. There has to be something more, otherwise, why do we bother living, why not kill ourselves and get over with. Well, I think suicide bombers have got that covered. That is why we go through the motions of life, because we have given ourselves reasons to, because we humans need justifications, reasons and answers in to Why, which when married to How , breeds very naughty children, namely, When, Where, and the twins, What and Who. We then devote our lives to finding answers, fighting about it, and proving the dominant faith and downplaying the rest.

Are the dolphins really that cleaver they might actually have something to say that if we do not heed to, will lead us to dire straits? If we stopped cutting into Mice and just observed them, would we learn something valuable and hence settle the Ultimate Question? I bet if I were to choose an animal, I would pick Ants. Sorry I know they are not animals... for animals I would pick the pig, for its celebrated orgasmic capabilities. But then, I figured that the only thing I have to worry about in this life is living to the ultimate satisfaction in everything I do, as I don't know what awaits me ahead, and if I spent too much time worrying, fighting and arguing about it, I'll lose on the best things.

Busy as I may claim to be enjoying the best of things, I do worry though; I'm still human, no matter how hard I fight it. Do I worry about religion? Yes. Why? Because it was ingrained in me from the day I learnt the difference between the beauty of fire from a far and the beauty of fire on my fingers. And just when I convince myself that I have safely crossed to the other side without the proverbial troll riding and digging deep into my back, it sinks it claws, from whatever end of my body it was hanging on to. But then I have that special innate ability to be stubborn, even unto myself. Don't' forget that other special gift of not being able to concentrate on anything for more than the time my brain will allow. It selective on what it really wants to concentrate on and there is nothing I can do about that, in this case, thankfully!

Making excuses is not my specialty. But I do like listening to them and wondering how best I would have put it, were it left to me. And by gawd, I would have an excuse for everything in the universe, and to me, everything interconnects. By some cosmic power of pulling elements towards the centre of the earth, all things hurtle towards each other, like the Bermuda Triangle, only at a slower pace. Religion, politics, relationships, business, war... all of it. It's all to satisfying so sort of deficient.

A quest by the human race to prove something to each other, to themselves. Unexplainable does not mean inexplicable. Just because something is unexplainable does not mean that paranormal forces must have been involved, only that we haven't found the explanation for it yet. I could start a whole school of thought and argument with true and untrue theories in accordance with that statement, but I'm not that inspired today. Take it as it is, mull over it in your sleep.

Living without knowing what you are here for, what your purpose in life is, where you are headed is frustrating. Which is why we have higher stress levels that any other living organism. That elevated stress level of animals, say a chimp will be to find it's tree cut down, or it's favorite spot occupied by a pride of lions. Why don't you try for a change, just not think about anything? Live today like you don't have another day like this. Actually, you don't. Today is never a continuation of yesterday, and neither will it ever be a prelude to tomorrow. Different entities, like you and your parents or siblings. You are related, but you are not the extension of any of your family, not even your twin. Think of the days septets, their mother being the week they fall in, their father the month. In the end you will have a father that has 4 wives, and each has 7 kids. Now take 11 more families like that and you have a clan called Year. The only relationship they have? Association by marriage, birth, nothing more.

This blog was not about religion, life, etc. It was about nothing really. It was my weird way of trying to prove something. Now as you were busy reading this, you failed to notice that the first words of every paragraph formed a sentence: Life Is What Happens When You Are Busy Making A Living. Get my drift?

Orignally posted on http://blog.myspace.com/darkangelme on Nov, 6th 2007.

3 Jul 2008

I've been exposed

No, not my after hours activities. Those are still a well guarded secret. No, I'm not telling you. I will not tell you in a box, with a fox, and do not tempt me with Courtney Cox, not if the fox were Courtney Cox. But since that is not the case, get away from my face. Yes, even Johnny Bravo is quotable.

My blog has been getting exposure. Yep! other people have actually realized that I exist. It's quite a shock for me as I did not think anyone (on earth) reads whatever I put on this blog. I do know that my trusted friends at that land where men are supposedly from do read it occasionally. They recently sent me a picture of their President receiving my RSS feed, which I thought it was only fair that I share.

I have been told that my blog has a calming effect, and such scenes have not been witnessed since they started picking up on my blog.

Instead, they have been working in a campaign to encourage me to move there

because they heard that I do 'go all the way.' No idea what they are trying to imply. Hey, I'm not easy, what give you the right....grumble grumble grumble.

I got a call telling me that some journalist would like to interview me in regards to my blog. Reluctantly, I agreed. I find questions like ' Why do you blog?' as irrelevant as 'Why do you sleep?' though I was very nice to her. The interview was shown on CNBC Africa. Another Kenyan blogger who was on the same show blogged about it and mentioned me over here. I will be posting an extract of that interview here soon (soon in Angel's language could mean years.)

JC (No, not Jesus Christ) picked me up too. I had no towel not did I raise my thumb, (if you don't know what that means go hang yourself. Seriously. Now!!) but somehow, she is featuring this fallen angel on her blog. I also noticed that Angelika has been visiting in the dead of night to peek at my codes!

So there, the Dark Angel has been getting exposure- of the good kind. If you've exposed me somewhere, let me know, I'll talk about you!

Almost forgot, I've also been exposed here!

23 Jun 2008

How I rate

I personally do not think i should be let to write, especially for the sake of other people's sanity and this is what some website thought of my blog?

blog readability test



Other not so genius blogger hide out over here

6 Jun 2008

I don't mind being a fluffer...

...if you will support me. No I do not want you to stage a demonstration. Although something like this in my honour i would not say no to.

I know a couple of guys tried to do that in for me (bless them).

I know you are dying to find out if i went out on that date. Well, just drop dead.

Back to fluffing. I know, i know, you can scroll back and stare later. This is obviously directed to the females and gays here. As for the rest, you can hate and move on. I do allow hatin' here as long as it is founded. A man hatin on another very hot man is okay...he got what you'll never have. I know you are also interested to know who I'm fluffing, you dirty minded <insert insult here>

I just discovered No nofollow movement. When I really want to understand something, i ask a person to explain it to me like I'm a 5-year old. It works. you should try and credit me while at it.

So I'm going to do the same with you.

Somewhere in your html is a gnome that adds a 'nofollow' extension to all posting on your blog from external sources. Yep, all those comments and links backs that other very nice bloggers leave you are considered aliens in your blog.

We all, (okay, most of us) want other people to comment on our blogs, even when we have said nothing important. (all words between 'our blogs' and 'nothing important' were typed under hypnosis by the 'nofollow' demons).

Commenting on other people's blogs helps you establish external links to your blog, which i heard is good for your blog's rankings, for those who care about rankings. Those who blog just to be heard, you might want to be heard by more people...i think, i don't know really.

If you're worried about spamming, you can remove the 'no follow' on the comments and not on backlinks. Bearing in mind that my departed goldfish Brian (see here why he is departed) was my Personal Assistant as he had a higher memory capacity than i have, I will stop pretending to give you and take you to the real teacher. Yes, I'm fluffing the teacher. Off you go for your lesson on 'no follow'.

Oh, before you go, (i hated it when my teacher said that) something for all Blogger users:

Did you know that posting a comment using Google/ Blogger ID does not help you get a link back to your blog? No sire! It links back to your Blogger Profile which is really useless. (well, not all that useless). So, next time you post a comment, and you come to the 'Choose Identity' part, ignore the Google/ Blogger, ignore the Open ID associated BS and select Name / URL. That enables you to key in your blog url... cool huh? I'm sure there are instructions for wordpress users somewhere, i just wasn't bothered to look. Sorry guys.

Homework - leave me a comment, lets see if you understood the above. I will visit you and give you extra coaching, (if you know what i mean)

So, that it for today. I have actually given advice on blogging! I will name this day a holiday for all Dark Angel's descendants.

Now go!

4 Jun 2008

Something Blue, Something global

Olga got off her plane, buggy, taxi or whatever traveling means she was using to pass on a simple yet important message. Same message, one day, all bloggers.

I wont steal her light by going into details.

I will tell you however that this was a brilliant idea by Mimi Writes.

I'm supporting Blog Blast for peace. Here is my show of support. Don't worry if you are too late. You can backdate your post like i did


Are you? Get your globe here

31 May 2008

Bet you didn't know that I'm a serial killer...

...of all things funny.

I claim I have a humour blog and even go as far as advertising it as such but every one knows i can't tell a joke to a 2 year old. I'm the kind that tells a joke and the garbage takes itself out. Yes. It walks away, preferring to be out there in the cold street, than listen to my flimsy attempt at making others laugh. And laugh they do. Laugh at what the joke might have been, at the purpose the joke-god had invented it to serve.

They never laugh at me. Because they know that I don't wear this t-shirt for lack of a fashion sense or lack of something else to wear.


Some people over at BC think I'm funny, which doesn't say much for their sense of humour. Either that or they accidentally saw this on my door.

Rob might have caught on this and sought to expose me. However being the chicken that he is (not) , he disguised it as a blog post with a collection of jokes from BC-ers. He even had the nerve to post it here. Guess which is one is my contribution, come back here and let me know if you laughed. I'll tell you what i think about you (and your sense of humour)

22 May 2008

How to give it hard... and perfectly.

The following instructions are designed to help you perfect your skills at flipping that finger out and saving yourself from considerable embarrassment that arises from lack of the proper fingering technique. Remember, it's not the size of the weapon that matters, it's what you do with it.







1. Extend either arm at an approximately 90° angle perpendicular to the body.












2. Bend arm at the elbow. Position it parallel to the body, forming three sides of a perfect square.








3. Close palm tightly








4. Fiercely upturn digit between pointer and ring finger.








5.
Hold approximately 10 seconds to a minute for emphasis.





If the above steps are followed correctly,
you should be
able
to do something like this:









6. Finally, if the desired effect is achieved, you can
Or you could stick around for some of this:



Disclaimer : Writer not responsible for anything that happens to you once you choose to follow the instructions as given above. However, failure to try it at least once will result you in being branded a c-ocksucker, sissy or any other demeaning word this writer can come up with. Writer may or may not have been in her right mind during the writing of this blog post, which makes no difference really.)

Not all the above instructions are the writers original material. No, she is not that creative. Some images stolen from here

20 May 2008

Men's Guide to Bra sizes

A friend of my boyfriend forwarded this a while back. Thought I' should share - for the sake of all my men readers out there.



14 May 2008

Pregnant teenager? Pointless Banters Contest

I was going through Pointless Banter's pages and came across a contest. I love contests, especially since i never win any. So why do I love them, because I get to fantasize endlessly on the winning speech I'll give one day.

This one in particular was asking the reader to post an answer to those hard hitting questions that teenagers send to Seventeen Magazine. It went like this:

Q: “What is the best way to let my mom know I’m pregnant?”

My response...

Dear confused pregnant teenager,

Unless your mother is the crazy, psychotic non-understanding type, she will definitely understand this one.You could tell her-

Mommy, i have something important to tell you. Danny and I were studying in the bedroom. We were setting up our apparatus for the Biology experiment. I was noticing that his apparatus kept growing huge and mine kept leaking. Suddenly, i tripped and fell coz the floor was now very wet. I hit Danny, who fell on top of me. Our apparatus got tangled on to each other. Every time i tried to get up, Danny pushed me down. He looked like he was in a lot of pain so i let him stay there for a while. Mom, you should have seen the expression on his face. After a few minuets, though it seemed shorter than that to me, his howled - like a dog does to the moon, only the dog sounds better - and collapsed on me. I think he got tired of trying to extricate himself. Funnily, his apparatus grew really small and it slid out.

You were parking the car by then , i did not think it was important to bother you with that. Plus Danny said it happens a lot during biology studies.

Do you think I'd have won the $25 gift voucher?

My (Wonder)ful Bank

I moved to Barclays Bank a few months ago, only because it sounded more international than 'The Bank Around the Corner'. OK, there is no such a bank but there will be if the current trend of naming bank in Kenya continues.

Barclays managed to convince me to get a credit card after years for refusing one. One salesman from my former bank did take me for dinner once to bribe me to get one. He tried to pay for dinner with his credit card, which was declined. Good going Sir!

After my LA trip, i was over my limit by thousands of shillings. Barclay Visa Card representatives kept calling me day and night- I'm serious to tell me that i was over limit on my card. One day they call me at 8.00 pm on a saturday and my patience- which i don't have much of to begin with- hit the roof. I calmly listened as he told me that my credit card was over the limit blah blah. I cut the guy short. (i would love to do that literally too). Like to about 2 feet, would make it easier to trample on him. I asked him if Barclays Bank was now a 24 hour bank. He said no. I asked him what time the bank closes on Saturdays. He said noon. I asked him what time it was. He said 8.15pm. I asked him if he calling me from Kenya. He said he was. I wanted to get clear on some things before i attacked him. And if he was a clever bloke, which he did not seem to be, he should have known where this line of questioning was leading to.

I told him that since I cannot do any banking at 8pm, whether on a weekday and definitely not on a weekend, I had no idea why he was calling me at that time to talk tell me what i already knew. I also made him understand that i had received about 6 calls that day only to tell me the same thing. He told me he could not see any rep who had logged in a call to me, which is why he called me. I told him i all the previous reps who had called me used the same line, and he should ask his superiors to change the 'How to lie to customers who are pissed off because you called them about the credit card limit at 8 pm on a Saturday evening' Manual and also I asked him if it was a matter of life and death. He said no. I asked him what I was supposed to do now that my credit was over the limit. He said i needed to put in money so that i could balance it. I asked him if it was possible to do it at that time. He said no. I asked him what was the Banks earliest convenience. He said Monday from 8.30 am. I asked him why he was calling me on Saturday at 8.15pm to tell me to balance my credit on Monday. He said he was sorry. I said that was not the answer to my question. I asked him if i went into the bank at 3.15 pm they would let me in. He said possibly. I asked him which one (most banks, including mine close at 3 pm in Kenya). He said any Barclays Branch. I asked for his full name and employee number so that if they refused to let me in, I could quote him, and also for his cellphone number, to call him if the security guards got rough with me for refusing to leave. He said he was sorry.

I let it go. On Monday morning, I called the Credit Card section and asked to talk to the Head of Credit blah blah. I had a very long conversation with him. Agreement - unless Barclays Bank is being robbed and they are calling me to tell me that my money is in danger, or it's on fire and they need me to help put out the fire to save my savings, no calls to me before 8.30 am and after 3.00pm. I got a deal. Not that I have lots of money in the bank. I wondered why, but then i thought, wouldn't any bank worth it's cents try to please a customer who always goes over her credit card limit?

I have a habit of keeping all receipts, including withdraw and deposit slips in my bag. I was clearing my bag and came across a withdraw slip. I never paid attention to what it says at the back as I'm always concerned on how much it says i have left in my account. I could not help but smile --



Free indeed!

If I loose 50kgs..

I'm in relationship that everyone thinks is the funniest thing ever, George Bush excluded. My boyfriend lives closer to the North Pole than to me, and like the holidays, I get to see him once a year. If you ask me, that is the perfect relationship. I just unlocked the door to the obscure and confusing world of relationships. I get to spend close to 8 months analyzing what he did during those four months that we are together, and by the time I'm done, I have forgotten exactly which situation pissed me off the most and he gets to spend 8 months forgetting how bitchy I was half of those 4 months. No, not really...He spend the 8 months birdwatching, occasionally calling me to check whether is till remember his name. I love him, do not doubt that. Though lately i have been questioning how realist i am being when it comes to my love life. Never before has 'love life' sounded so real - I mean, that's all we have. A love...

Thinking is one thing I do not enjoying doing, especially about my life. It always leaves me confused. How I'm i supposed to solve situations if I'm the one who got in to them in the first place. Doesn't the fact that i got into those situations mean that I'm not a good judge at all? A while back, I fell in love (or landed in the mucky stuff purporting to be love) and moved towns to be with the one. A few months, we discovered that we are as compatible as a shark and a dolphin - guess which one i was. So in packed my bags and moved back to my town. When I was not looking for love, it hit me in the face, left me for dead, and when woke up, i had a concussion the size of Texas...oh, and in love. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with a situation, especially one that is know for making people 'fall in and out of'. I was getting round to doing that, when the Danish viking left (not me, the country. But that also means that he left me. In the case of relationships, i understand that if i say he left me - it means he did away with the relationship. No, not at all. He left me, but not really left me. See what i said about me thinking?). After pillaging and raping - all with verbal, and sometimes pleaded consent, in case you were getting worried.

So why I'm i in this relationship you ask? Ok, you probably don't have the guts to ask me but you are thinking it. Becasue of such text messages:

Boyfriend: Blah Blah..i'm 110% into our relationship, i wnat it to work bcoz i want you and us..

Me: Wonder what the 10% more is.. Love you too

Boyfriend: The 10% is when my schlong grows hard (of course he did not call it that)

Me: Does it grow by 10% really?

Boyfriend: Yes! of the total body weight.

I was still laughing when this came in

Boyfriend: If i loose 50 kgs.

Now, isn't that what relationships should be made of?

6 Apr 2008

The Land of Opportunities

My boss thinks in her sleep. She says those are the best ones.

On Wednesday night, she thought. And her thoughts included me accompanying her to Los Angeles for a film locations expo. We are representing Kenya as a filming location, and meeting producers who might be interested in filming in Africa, and would like assurance that Africa does not always have to be described as writer Binyavanga Wainaina describes below:

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.

Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it—because you care.


That being true in every essence -pick up any book about Africa- I'll pay you if you don't have some sort of description as Wainaina describes above.

Being Kenyan, getting a US visa is top of the list with the likes of meeting Koffi Annan or eradicating world poverty. The trip was planned for 8th April, a less than a week from the night my boss thought. So when she told me on Thursday morning that she would like me to accompany her, i thought: now she's gone and lost it! no Kenyan has ever gotten a visa that fast.

At first, I checked the embassy's website for interview dates. The only available dates were 24th April. Too late. To some extent, I was relieved. Like any student in Kenya, i had dreams of studying in USA. But after seeing (well, hearing) horror stories about the US embassy, I gave up. my dream turned into loathe. The stories were long queues that started at 4 am and rejection of visa applications even without glancing at them. The last part i did not believe, but the first - i had seen my neighbour leave at 3.30am to go to the US embassy, which does not open till 7am.

Somehow, we got me an interview for Friday (the next day!) at 7am. I turned up at 6.30, and there were about 20 people before me! Never have I seen Kenyans that punctual. If only they turned up that early for other events in their lives - especially appointments and work. Good times! After undergoing through security check, and spending almost 20 minutes removing ,y bangles that have been on my wrist for years, I got through. Backtrack - i was kinda annoyed there. Surely, if it took me twenty minutes to take off the bangles, isn't that proof enough that if I was going to use them at weapons, then I wasn't the brightest of terrorist? The first part was the checking of papers by Kenyan girls with a faker American accent than Hugh Laurie in House MD. (I still love him). Then we sat back and waited for the interview. We are all in the same room, and we are called one by one on to windows that look like bank tellers booths to have our fingerprints taken. The next is the hard step, the interview. Everybody is listening into your conversation and it is very embarrassing when the guy behind the desk tells you - almost smugly - Your visa has been denied, you will find the explanation why on this pink sheet. Have a nice day.

I was the sixth or so person to be interviewed, and by the time my name was called, no one had gotten a visa. I sat there thinking about all the shattered dreams, all the dashed hopes... and it hurt. I was not concerned whether I got the visa or not really. for me, either way was fine. It's not like I was dying to go anyway. It would be nice to e able to go, I though, but I'm not excited at all.

So my name got called and I walked to the booth. The guy glanced at my papers and asked me about my company and the kind of films we do. I explained the difference between a production company and a production service company and a bit about why it was cheaper to film in Kenya than in South Africa.

A minute later he said - Mercy, your visa has been approved, please come collect your passport on Monday at 2 pm. I looked at him and said - Why, thank you!

So now I'm off to LA when I had completely given up on ever going to USA, all because i hold a Kenyan passport. But as I walked out, I could not help but feel bad for the guy whose conversation i happened to be listening into. He talked for a good 15 minutes without a pause about the poverty state in his family and how he was the beacon of hope for them , hence his need to study in the US, and i think his near desperation is what killed his chances. A part of me wished he had gotten my visa instead of me.

Why is it that Americans, (and pretty much everybody else) can get their visas to Kenya at the point of entry while we have to wait months to be granted the interview, then teeth clenching moments as we await the verdict?

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

15 Dec 2006

Stop the World, I wanna get off

I was goona post this on Wednesday (today is Friday) with good news about my life and how I'm coping. I has a marvelous time at Outspan Hotel in Mt. Kenya, wont go into details. It's beautiful place, and I wanna go back, this time with better company.

Anyway, I came back and left for Kitengela same day. My hot-blond-blue-eyed-not-so-very-gay-friend invited me to his house, which borders the Nairobi National Park,and had the time of my life.that is after he had taken me on a jolly drive to the most interior parts of Dagoretti for...MEAT!!! Picture blonde-blue-eyed near Dagoretti Market at midnight...now picture me...fit?

Slept to the sound of the raindrops hard on the iron sheets, snuggled into duvet and had that lonely feeling (well, that always happens if the rain is hard and I'm alone). Then the bad news... my ex ex, (not funny) the Creative Director I talked about - the one who wanted back in (i should have gone!!) got an accident on Sunday (when i as busy 'havin fun' :-) and his best friend together with his wife died on the spot. My ex ex came out a little bit hurt, physically. Mentally, he is tormented. He pushes me away and there is nothing i can do about it. He refuses to see anyone... and it kills me.

Now I'm thinking, just that week, we had argued about him and I and what kind of relationship we had, and how he is never there for me and maybe it's because he is punishing me or my earlier sins. When we fought, we made love. He text-ed me on Wednesday - One-liner ' Wanna shag?' I was not pissed. He was drunk, so i did not take any notice. I remember telling him : I really don't care about whatever he wanted. When I was told about the accident, i was speechless. I fucking cared. I cared that i came close to loosing him. I love him and despite what pulled us apart, i did not want him out of my life like that.True he pisses me, I even piss him off more. But that accident opened my eyes to how fragile life is and why I should hold my tongue, even in anger.

As i thought about him, i remembered my other pal in hospital and i realized that we have no control whatsoever in the direction our lives take, no matter how hard we try. I wondered, i he knew he was gonna get that accident, would he have got into the car? what would have have done differently with his pal who died? If my other pal knew her boyfriend as gonna push her off 3rd floor balcony, what would she have done differently?

I decided it's either i get off this out of control world or i evaluate each decision, each word, each action, as if it were my last.

Oh, i started my new job which I'm gonna quit in January for a month to try another one then make a decision then... life never stops..