- Can't remember a more peaceful transition into a new year. Guess it's because of the contrast with what last year was like. Can't say there's much to complain about.
One blip in the radar though: the addition to the cubicle is M.I.A. Not A.W.O.L. though. That's the official story from H.Q. Strange happenings here. All rumor, not enough fact. Well, live and let live; it's the only way for now.
- New kid on the block: wonderful personality! Great, soothing contrast to previous occupants. Had almost resigned myself to a life of forbearance and longsuffering. Thank You for the respite.
- Amorous thoughts have been on my mind lately. Rather strong ones. Could it be TIME? I hope so. Need to move to the next level and stop thinking of and caring for self alone.
Question: Where to find a kind lass with what it takes?
Answer: She can't be found. Can only be delivered. Wish I knew how to track the parcel... how far is it?
(What would change if I knew?)
Question: Do I have what it takes?
(Quick)Answer: Clearly, I've still got some character formation to complete. No doubt.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
I finally caught TB
Oct 17: 5.46 a.m.
What am I doing awake at this ungodly hour? At the office? Surely there are better ways of getting a promotion... That's not what it's about. We at NCLR are off for Team Building! Somewhere out in the bush (Malewa, Gilgil.) Last time I got left behind; wasn't a part of the family yet. This time I HAVE to go or have a very plausible explanation as to why not.
(I'm not too enthusiastic about the whole affair, if I may confess. I'll have reason to be relieved I went later on.)
What am I doing awake at this ungodly hour? At the office? Surely there are better ways of getting a promotion... That's not what it's about. We at NCLR are off for Team Building! Somewhere out in the bush (Malewa, Gilgil.) Last time I got left behind; wasn't a part of the family yet. This time I HAVE to go or have a very plausible explanation as to why not.
(I'm not too enthusiastic about the whole affair, if I may confess. I'll have reason to be relieved I went later on.)
Monday, 6 October 2008
New beginning
7.30 a.m - Arrival at office. New addition to the 'Cubicle'. Through some intelligence thought it would be a rough day. Quite the opposite. Morning passes without incident.
2.30 p.m. Peace still reigns. Not quite sure how. Stranger has been fitting into new shoes all day. Must admit, not a bad show. Wonder whether the calm will last. I'll certainly work to make sure it does.
6.25 p.m. Contemplating the future. With new 8 to 5 arrangement, whither the room for extra-curricular? Whatever shall be my vocational fate? Need lots of consultation on that one. As end of'40 days' approaches, answer should be forthcoming. It now is beginning to make sense.
What have I to fear? After all I've achieved...uncertified...? Nothing but DOUBT must I fear. THAT is the monster to be slain at the soonest. With him vanquished nothing shall obstruct my progress.
Motto for the coming period: He who brought me this far shall take me further still.
2.30 p.m. Peace still reigns. Not quite sure how. Stranger has been fitting into new shoes all day. Must admit, not a bad show. Wonder whether the calm will last. I'll certainly work to make sure it does.
6.25 p.m. Contemplating the future. With new 8 to 5 arrangement, whither the room for extra-curricular? Whatever shall be my vocational fate? Need lots of consultation on that one. As end of
What have I to fear? After all I've achieved...uncertified...? Nothing but DOUBT must I fear. THAT is the monster to be slain at the soonest. With him vanquished nothing shall obstruct my progress.
Motto for the coming period: He who brought me this far shall take me further still.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Adult angst
Who said only teens suffer angst? I have gnashed all day in the nightmare of anxiety and self doubt! What a way to live.
And I thought I was over that stuff. Seems like so long as I'm alive there'll always be something to trip me up, JUST when everything was going so well.
Good thing is, nowadays it's short-lived. Otherwise I'd have gone out of my mind ages ago.
Oh, bother!
(Btw, the picture on the right, called "The Scream" captures this feeling quite nicely, je pense.)
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Social-lifeless
I have no social life. It's official.
It's 6 p.m. on LABOUR DAY and I'm at the office. How holiday is that? Not that I'm working. I had planned to work on my website (I just viewed it and feeling uninspired, ditched that plan.) Happily I haven't been idly twiddling my thumbs; a pdf classic by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been keeping me busy. Quite something these classic books.
When I retire (hopefully in 10 years) I'll write some books which will hopefully become classics and be read for generations to come....yeah right!
It's 6 p.m. on LABOUR DAY and I'm at the office. How holiday is that? Not that I'm working. I had planned to work on my website (I just viewed it and feeling uninspired, ditched that plan.) Happily I haven't been idly twiddling my thumbs; a pdf classic by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been keeping me busy. Quite something these classic books.
When I retire (hopefully in 10 years) I'll write some books which will hopefully become classics and be read for generations to come....yeah right!
Saturday, 13 October 2007
Creative writing
Writing is now my new hobby(cheers! whistles!). I have finally found a useful and inexpensive way to entertain myself during non-working hours. Yes, writing IS entertaining. Taxing on the brain too. All I need is to carry around a good biro and an A4 exercise book. Lovely!
Below I have posted the first product of my hobby. This one was born in a cafeteria downtown on Moi Ave. Enjoy.
Anti-Citizen City
----------------------
There's something wrong with Nairobi. Having lived here most of my life I would know. It pains me to see things this way so I'm taking pains to explain.
Cities continue to exist primarily due to the economic activity that takes place in them. Most companies worth their salt have at least one branch and/or headquarters in them. With the high concentration of people living and walking around it makes sense if you are selling merchandise or services to have a presence.
This said, I am appalled at the measures taken to ensure a thriving business environment. For starters there are fewer and fewer places where one can relax without spending money. The metal railings outside some buildings that were once sat on by tired pedestrians taking a breather are now covered in spikes. The message portrayed being "We have no room for idle bottoms here!" Just in case your backside is sturdier than most, there is a stone-faced askari hovering nearby to urge you to take your 'diab' and place it elsewhere.
"But there's Uhuru Park..." you say. True, and its pretty well spruced up nowadays by the way, but suppose you are exhausted on the opposite end of the CBD (like Moi avenue), it surely makes no sense trudging all the way just to take a rest; you'd probably die en-route. Jeevanjee Gardens? Let's not even go there. Literally. Unless you enjoy listening to preaching done at a volume that should be outlawed.
What's worse about this whole affair is that the Nairobi City Council is in on the racket too. The recent and almost rabid upgrade of the city, though commendable, has it's dark spots. Consider those large green cement flowerpots that have been installed in various places. They aren't an eyesore; it's just that they have a really unfriendly sign on them : "DO NOT SIT ON FLOWER POT." Hmmph! With all the taxes we pay willingly or otherwise, you would think we have a right to sit on a public flowerpot now and then.
---I've edited out the last part of this article because it seemed disjointed. Not sure what I'll put in there but for now that's the end. >11-09-10
Below I have posted the first product of my hobby. This one was born in a cafeteria downtown on Moi Ave. Enjoy.
Anti-Citizen City
----------------------
There's something wrong with Nairobi. Having lived here most of my life I would know. It pains me to see things this way so I'm taking pains to explain.
Cities continue to exist primarily due to the economic activity that takes place in them. Most companies worth their salt have at least one branch and/or headquarters in them. With the high concentration of people living and walking around it makes sense if you are selling merchandise or services to have a presence.
This said, I am appalled at the measures taken to ensure a thriving business environment. For starters there are fewer and fewer places where one can relax without spending money. The metal railings outside some buildings that were once sat on by tired pedestrians taking a breather are now covered in spikes. The message portrayed being "We have no room for idle bottoms here!" Just in case your backside is sturdier than most, there is a stone-faced askari hovering nearby to urge you to take your 'diab' and place it elsewhere.
"But there's Uhuru Park..." you say. True, and its pretty well spruced up nowadays by the way, but suppose you are exhausted on the opposite end of the CBD (like Moi avenue), it surely makes no sense trudging all the way just to take a rest; you'd probably die en-route. Jeevanjee Gardens? Let's not even go there. Literally. Unless you enjoy listening to preaching done at a volume that should be outlawed.
What's worse about this whole affair is that the Nairobi City Council is in on the racket too. The recent and almost rabid upgrade of the city, though commendable, has it's dark spots. Consider those large green cement flowerpots that have been installed in various places. They aren't an eyesore; it's just that they have a really unfriendly sign on them : "DO NOT SIT ON FLOWER POT." Hmmph! With all the taxes we pay willingly or otherwise, you would think we have a right to sit on a public flowerpot now and then.
---I've edited out the last part of this article because it seemed disjointed. Not sure what I'll put in there but for now that's the end. >11-09-10
Friday, 31 August 2007
learning free
In further pursuit of freedom, I have ended up deep in literature about homeschooling/unschooling. Men such as John Holt, John Taylor Gatto and Ivan Illich have been my "enlighten-ers" in this. But my journey to educational freedom didn't start with them.
I encountered homeschooling several years ago when I discovered one of my college professors from the States, who was in Kenya for a year, didn't send his kids to school. That seemed odd for a prof who made his living from pedagogy. His kids seemed pretty smart and happy regardless. They also had lots of time to go walkabout on campus and socialise and that to me wasn't such a bad thing. Hmm.
Later, after campus...
My interest piqued when I was introduced to a Kenyan family that homeschooled. I met the daughter in that family and was completely blown away by her demeanor. She acted like a tiny grown up; such fluent and unabashed speech! (she was four at the time, btw.) If more of us had been brought up that way, who knows what we'd have achieved by now.
Needless to say, I am obsessed by natural, non-institutional methods of learning. One of the reasons being that my own formal education was miserable from somewhere in mid-primary all the way to Uni. A part of my high school I enjoyed because it was a slightly more liberal place than what I had encountered prior.
Right now I am reading excerpts from a book by John Holt, an education reformer from the sixties and seventies who decided that reforming schools wasn't the answer to creating better learning environments. Abolishing formal schools ALTOGETHER is the only remedy since they weren't in the first place created to be places where children could achieve their full potential in whatever they desired. Schools were invented to teach people their place, to grade and pigeon-hole them so as to make them easier to control. Encouraging the spread of school is the worst thing that we could do. Read the chilling quote below from "Instead of Education:Ways to Help People Do Things Better" by John Holt:
I encountered homeschooling several years ago when I discovered one of my college professors from the States, who was in Kenya for a year, didn't send his kids to school. That seemed odd for a prof who made his living from pedagogy. His kids seemed pretty smart and happy regardless. They also had lots of time to go walkabout on campus and socialise and that to me wasn't such a bad thing. Hmm.
Later, after campus...
My interest piqued when I was introduced to a Kenyan family that homeschooled. I met the daughter in that family and was completely blown away by her demeanor. She acted like a tiny grown up; such fluent and unabashed speech! (she was four at the time, btw.) If more of us had been brought up that way, who knows what we'd have achieved by now.
Needless to say, I am obsessed by natural, non-institutional methods of learning. One of the reasons being that my own formal education was miserable from somewhere in mid-primary all the way to Uni. A part of my high school I enjoyed because it was a slightly more liberal place than what I had encountered prior.
Right now I am reading excerpts from a book by John Holt, an education reformer from the sixties and seventies who decided that reforming schools wasn't the answer to creating better learning environments. Abolishing formal schools ALTOGETHER is the only remedy since they weren't in the first place created to be places where children could achieve their full potential in whatever they desired. Schools were invented to teach people their place, to grade and pigeon-hole them so as to make them easier to control. Encouraging the spread of school is the worst thing that we could do. Read the chilling quote below from "Instead of Education:Ways to Help People Do Things Better" by John Holt:
"A global schoolhouse would be a world, which we seem to be moving toward, in which one group of people would have the right through our entire lives to subject the rest of us to various sorts of tests, and if we did not measure up, to require us to submit to various kinds of treatment, i.e. education, therapy, etc., until we did. A worse nightmare is hard to imagine."
Shiver me timbers.
My children (if I ever have any) shall be homeschooled, no contest.
My children (if I ever have any) shall be homeschooled, no contest.
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