1996

Yup, every year I have done a retrospective post of ten years back. The fact that this is my third one doesn’t go down well with me because it shows I’ve been around for a really long time. There was 1995 and 1994.

Of course the most outstanding thing of that was clearing with K.C.S.E. Talk about the beginning of a long road to hell…but that’s another post altogether.

This time we'll do a very quick run through…bringing to serious competition to MEMOIRE my fellow flashbacking competitor!( Oh this post was done earlier in the year when she had returned!)

Music

Enter Metro FM which in fact initially was called Capital…then enter Capital FM-with the Likes of Feel My-Toes(Phil Mathews), BAB KEY-Oh-Koh(Bob Kioko)...Zain Verjee,Jo Theones, etc etc etc. Bye Bye KBC we now had new stations to dub our music from. And what was the music that graced us at that period. I remember Walt Baby Love quite well cause I had dubbed his voice in my own home copy of 'if your girl only knew' Aaliyah and 'Last Night' Az Yet. Do you remember 'Who do you love' Deborah Cox?

Of course spilling onto this year from the previous, was BROWNSTONE, 3T (can anyone remember the song Tease Me…we can do it nice and slow bring your body close to mine...)
Also spilling over were MJ’s album-HiStory and Mariah’s Daydream Album-which to me is her best-with songs like Underneath the stars, Melt Away, Open Arms, Always be my baby-shururup dow shrururuturutu dow…Janet Jackson’s Design of a Decade Album with ‘Runaway’ that had a line about … ‘... African skies with a Nairobi mood’

Celine Dion broke out with her ‘Falling into you’ album wow ‘if that’s what it takes’still my fav song with that 10min long song ‘all coming back to me now’ A song also featured in “Up Close and Personal” Pfeiffer and Redford.

Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack was also spilling into this year…and so was 'Kiss from a Rose'. Can you remember Tony Rich Project….' nights are lonely the days are so sad'. Toni Braxton Sophomore album…'I always think of you inside of my private thoughts…the very thought of you makes me wanna get undressed I wanna be with you in spite of what my heart says…." NGAI FAFA...and then there was a Ragga re-mix of the same song that’s my all time fav re-mix ever! Notable Soundtracks “Nutty Proff” with Montel's killer 'I Like' obviously Az Yet, and there was a song there by Ill NANA…oh yeah! I think even Set It Off was from that era. The likes of Notorious B.I.G and idiots arguing Notorious Big. Tupac died-or did he in that year! 'Changes' what a song! Babyface and 'The Day' Fugees made an appearance 'Killing me softly' Wasn't 'Macarena' also form this year? Space Jam soundtrack!

Television

I think the best thing to happen to me TV wise was Beverly Hills 90210-unleash that Theme music with the serious trumpet…and the 2 hour long pilot episode that debuted the week we opened school, first term. There was the usual Living Single/Fresh Prince/Perfect Strangers /Family Matters/ Sisters / Lois and Clark / E.R / Neighbours / Hangin' with Mr. Cooper/ Commish / Family Matters / Murphy Brown / cheap comedy On Our Own/ Step by Step
Knots Landing…

Club Kiboko…with its funny cartoons like ‘Count Duckula’ the blood-fearing, vegetarian Count also known as ‘Ducky-Boo’ (LOL -Kipepeo you must have loved it!)


Movies

I think all through, I didn’t watch a lot till I cleared then I let it rip. Beginning with Richard Gere's Final Analysis...to Basic Instinct to Fatal Attraction...that was a Genre of movies I got acquainted to. Sliver to Fair Game to Indecent Proposal. Who needs to sneak in porn when you could rent it out legit! Talk about Porn with a great stotyline=Basic Instinct! Went for those New Years back to back movies at Fox Drive-In 7pm-4am and watched Jumanji Twister Mission Impossible, Nutty Professor…Other movies to note: Dante’s Peak/ Devil’s Own / Primal Fear/ Braveheart/ Independence Day/ Set it Off/Jerry Maguire/Space Jam/Phenomenon/Broken Arrow (Travolta was making as many movies as he could lest his fame plummeted again) /Sleepers (all star cast!) Courage Under Fire (Meg Ryan still had it!) ….and many many more cause there was a night that MNET-movie magic didn’t disconnect and I watched from 7pm till 12pm the following day...yes the birth of the Couch Potato. M-Net was like a forbidden fruit only for the privileged lucky and for you to get it free-well Santa wasn’t coming your way for the next few years or so.

School

-Besides the whole Final year pressure, and notable set books of Government Inspector, Concubine, Shamba La Wanyama-puke! Yawn!
-Our Bio Prac involved some cow intestines, and instructions involved, squeezing out the contents and testing for presence of lipids, carbs bi-products, fats…and for obvious reasons that section was done last. Funny thing is guys were handling them intestines like you do your privates with the utmost delicate and fine precision…careful not to stink yourself. Until time was of the essence and people grabbed them intestines and squeezed them chap chap…jist aside, graceless under pressure…it was do or die/squeeze or else
-Took part in M.U.N. Did not get selected to become a Junior chair in M.U.N-no I was not bitter having spent numerous sessions on Friday at I.S.K training only not get picked at the end! It's not like I wasn't smart or the Koffi Annan type or anything-DAMNIT! Adding salt to insulted injury I got stuck as Ecuador Ambassador in Nuclear Disarmament. Now you know the juiciest sessions were in Human Rights! Funny thing, I had co-signed a document for France and in the session voted against it. JACK-ASS! France was not amused. France represented by a pit-bull in a skirt, stared at me threateningly across the aisles… Oh and there was this babe called Anushka that had long flowing hair and she was from Malaysia( as in she was not representing it she was from that country) and she kept stealing glances or so I thought…oooh I still have her signature…God Bless the United Nations and NO PLACE else!
-Became a School Prefect…OH the power of the RED TIE! And the prefects room where we’d play Strip Poker with none other than Stunnuh Jay…that’s when we became buddies with Ms Stunnuh especially since we got picked from school real late…the prefects room was also a den for playing marbles and darts and table tennis and hanky panky hahahahahaha. There was this chick Sheila that was always eager to play strip poker but always lost…so off would go her shoes…socks…tie…hanky…shirt…and she’d remain in a t-shirt clutching her arms in front of her looking like she had been violated in a very, very naughty way!
-Oh those numerous dates to Slush ati and mature romantic walks to and fro school.
And the lunch dates were after or before swapping letters. Yaani I’m still yet to fathom why those letters meant so much at the time-but boy oh boy there was hell to pay if you had not replied a letter.
-A buddy of mine, Sam and I were busted tuning this chick-Faith in Physics class. The idiots that we were, were passing her letters…I don’t remember well but I had written something to the effect “Michelangelo knew art I know not…Picasso knew beauty I know not…But when I look at you…I know…I know….” (Give me a second as I regain my composure…is that a master piece or what!?!?!?!?!?) So, the Physics class teacher curious as to what this 3 buffoons were giggling at came running and managed to get hold of the paper…10 years today she’s probably stopped laughing!

Social

-14/02 got a lovely Val’s card signed J.A.F…didn’t take me long to figure what that meant and to think I had given her an Original Poster of GoldenEye. Unbreak my heart say you love me again…Undo the tears…Cut the crap and give me back my POSTER!
-Sofi, Sofi, Sofi…if there was a year we really bonded this was it! Hope you are reading.
-My friend’s sis would hide out at our place when I was reading during the holidays. She’d appear at 10 and stick till around 4…Poor thing was lying to her family she was in college all day…and then when my buddy once appeared without prior notice and found her there…there was an awkward moment! I mean all parties involved were innocent but wow that awkwardness…mmm mm mmm
-Discovered the value of relatives…or the lack of. It’s such an awakening when you realize that no one actually cares about you, no one is there for you as they pretend to be. You are alone in this world…and the better you realize this the faster you grow up!
(Cue M.J’s they don’t really care about us!)
-Couldn’t wait till Dec hols…to live the wild side. Cut my hair! Go partying till the break of dawn. Hung out with my cousins…er…uhmm…that fro lingered on a few more years and partying till the break of dusk is what most likely happened.
-Missed one of my favorite cousin’s wedding...at that time I was feel-anga nothing but in retrospect I do wish I kinda attended!
-We kosanad with an entire family over some stolen goods at our place. Our immediate cousins…things never returned to normal…but as much as you realize family counts you also discover-tough love!


I think that is all I chose to remember for now. It seems like yesterday.

KBW ADMIN

Introduction

The Kenyan Blogs Webring (KBW) has grown steadily over the past two years and rate of growth increases month on month. We have come to recognise that many of our new members and some of our older members are not aware of the admin team and the role it plays in the running of KBW. This post aims to answer some of those questions and provide an opportunity for you to ask more.

The admin team is made of six bloggers including myself.

My colleagues on this team are :

-Afromusing
-Daudi
-Kui
-Maitha
-Mshairi

We are spread over three continents and 9 time zones reflecting the wide geographical base of the KBW members. In addition, we have a 50/50 gender split on our admin team which again reflects the nature of KBW. This team has been together for almost a year now.

What do we do?

So what do we do? First and foremost, we are the support mechanism for KBW. Either directly though our interaction with bloggers or indirectly through the services we provide on our website KenyaUnlimited. This support ranges from html issues to general blogging advice.

The admin team is also a decision making body. All decisions regarding matters to do with the webring are debated honestly and vigorously amongst us until we come to a decision. An example of some the recent decisions we have taken are the composition, timing, and running of the Kaybees, the Kenyan Blogs Awards.

Apart from these two roles we do general administrative work for the webring, for example,

* building the information database and actively keeping our site bilingual;
* actively seek out positive PR for the webring and its members;
* investigating the role we can play as a socially responsible organisation;

All of these centred around building a community of and for Kenyan and Kenyan friendly bloggers and raising the level of blogging debate amongst that community.

Admin blog

We have also set up an admin blog [url] where important and appropriate decisions and actions taken by admin regarding KBW will be posted as and when necessary.

Contact us

Each member of the admin team now has a personal email address at KenyaUnlimited. Please feel free to contact me on any KBW matter at my email address which is nick [@] kenyaunlimited.com. I have sole access to this email address, although I may raise any issues that relate to KBW with my fellow admin members. Our main email address admin [@] kenyaunlimited.com remains the main point of contact for the admin team. Please note that this email address is accessed by all six admin members.

Finally

We want to emphasis that we are here as a support mechanism and not as a controlling body. Our focus is to build on the stable foundations we have laid together with you to turn the Kenyan Blogs Webring into a positive force wherever we and you are. Your suggestions, comments and interaction is not only welcome but highly appreciated.

Fear!

Diagnosis

Chronic Fear! A deep seated emotion as a result of anticipated danger/harm or pain be it physical, emotional or social!


Clinical Manifestation
8 months of absence...M.I.A....A.W.O.L...hibernation...with an excuse that he was working building up KENYAMOTO...y'all have seen its excellence...and we know excellence is not an adjective associated with a denture wearing, prosthetic hip dancing, dyed toupee stickin, cataract obscuring, hunchback of Machakos, David Mwenje look-alike, Mayor Dick Waweru sound-a'R'ike UNCLE BLUE!

reason for his disappearance:
-humiliation? do u remember this

-defeat? do u remeber this

-Age induced fatigue?

-rejection/dejection as Aunt Mshairi who called the wedding off and opted instead for solitary life in a Convent that allows cigarettes. She donated the 2carat ring to the salvation army and his engagement gourd that they drunk some traditional brew from to the museum!
Dedicated her life to prayers, to give thanks for escaping the mistake that was to be and threat to her gene-pool.

(another one who should be in fear is KELITU...sweetie sijasahau that funny character assasination...I thought I was the only one allowed to do that...boy was I wrong! You will be part of the Next Top Model...just kidding I can't shamubulia you like that...or can I?)

Plan of Treatment:
Remind him that fighting with a younger, taller, smarter breed will lead to complete annihilation..again!

Treatment Plan:
First welcome him back!

So... LET'S WELCOME PAPA BLUE back...the origianal BLUE POET of the famous mugumo tree where he told his post adolescent tales. Let them poems rip BLUE! and let's see you woo the new KBW ladies as you did with the older ones. Let's see you in action, kwanza, ebu start with KenyanMusings!

Check out KENYAMOTO as well...you'd think I have an endorsment cheque...hint hint...

Blue my BLOG NEMESIS...lets show them battle as it was done back in the day!

This time let blood be shed! EBU y'all scream for WAR WAR WAR WAR WAR!!!!!!!

The loss of meaning!

Stolen from Selwyn Hughes. It just hit me, I have never done a 'food for thought' post in a long time so here goes...

The loss of meaning is perhaps the most devastating crisis we can experience. Without meaning life becomes drained of its colour and bleached of all interest.

"He/She who has a "why" to live for can bear with almost any "how." Woe unto you who sees no more sense in his/her life, no purpose, no aim and therefore no point in carrying on. They are soon lost.

One of the components lying beneath non-organic depression is a sense of meaninglessness. Such despair often leads to suicidal tendencies. Today as you read these lines, many will bring their life to an end simply because they do not have a "why" for living.

On the other hand the loss of meaning can be less dramatic than above as characterised with "Sunday Depression." Where people who have been active all week in their work (or TV) find themselves with nothing to do or no one to impress or please, whereupon the inner emptiness that is inside them becomes more apparent! Earthly pleasures seem useless from booze...partying...you name it...all become replaced fully and wholly by emptiness.

The Christian whose heart is filled with AGAPE LOVE will sense a meaning of purpose in everything he/she is called to face. They can endure the "how" because they have a "why"-the "why" of eternal purpose and eternal meaning. "

My questions to you:
-how many feel they lack a "why" to get thru the "how" in life?
-do u lack meaning in your life even though for a second...do you suffer from emptiness that leads to depression that may manifest however it does?