A series of moderately unexpected, relished and (hopefully) non-duplicitous events

So another vacation has come and (almost about to be) gone, and I must say this one has been quite eventful to say the least. Spending time with close and relatively new family, almost “forgotten” but eventually made the time to see family and friends from back home, particularly those I haven’t seen in years.

The moments that I have with loved ones are ones that I cherish most dearly, which bring about a range of emotions as I reminisce, and I’m excited to see what the rest of the year has in store as well.

I’m thankful to God that I’m going to new heights each year, and truly the latter shall always be better than the former. Can’t be doing the same thing every year. Oh no. Once that level is set, we’re taken it above and beyond.

Let’s do this.

P.S. Is it appropriate to post this on the first day of the academic year for school children? Meh. It’s done now. “Happy back to school” as a friend said.

“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

I write this post, not only to commemorate what the great women of this nation did 57 years ago at parliament, but to appreciate the women who are a part of my life today. I'm super grateful for both my mother and my sister, and every other woman I can call a mentor, an inspiration, a friend.

Growing up with my mother and sister, I've had the chance to experience the strength, commitment, tenacity and every other emotion-evoking word you could possibly conjure. I love how, as rough as it got at home, my mother was always there to keep the family together. As much as I could feel the pain, the heavy burden she has on her shoulders, the frustration of things not working, she'd still be able to pull through. Nothing was more comforting than seeing a smile on her face, a laughter from her that said things would be alright. At her core she has her super woman strength, and at her strength she has her super woman faith.

The same applies to my sister. Love the ambition and drive that she has, and I envy her sense of style and fashion.  The woman who's able to stand her ground at the face of adversity, and do it ever so fabulously, who's aware of who she is and whose she is, is the same woman I am able to call my sister. There just isn't a finite amount of words I could make use of to elucidate how much, how much, how much they mean to me.

I extend this appreciation to every other women I know, and know of. Do know that your words and actions are appreciated, even though this may not be conveyed. Do know that your strength, your courage, your tenacity, your faith, your ideals; your worth is noted. Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey said that surest way to keep people down is to educate a man and neglect a woman.

Continue to inspire and change the world Proverbs 31 women.

"A painter paints his pictures on a canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence."

I quote Leopold Stokowski with the intention of expressing how much I enjoy the scoring, additional music and any other greatly composed sounds that accompany a film. I find it so amazing how background music adds to the off-beat, inspirational, blissful or poignancy (a new word I've recently learned which I just had to put in) of a particular movie scene that's being set. It conjures emotions that allow you to feel for people you've never known and relate with on-screen friends you've never had. Ahhh the wonder of film scores.

Music in films seem to have come quite a long way, from the days of silent cinema where the pianist would tinkle with the black and white keys, to full scale orchestras filled with sections of string, woodwind and percussion instruments (hence the term "Philharmonic" indicating a significant number of contributing artists, if my Wikipedia knowledge serves me right).

Remember the triumphant moment when Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character walks in a diving suit after his tragic accident and countless sessions physiotherapy? Or how about the leg braces falling off young Forest's legs after following the basic instructions yelled out by Jenny? Perhaps you're a fan of the off-beat/quirkiness provided by Kimya Dawson in the film Juno? Or maybe you'd recall the thrilling moment when Cobb and his crew have to return from a dream within a dream within a dream.... in Inception? Each of these scenes have such amazing sounds accompanying them, and they make the film so much more compelling and heartfelt.

Yes, I love a good soundtrack to a film. It makes it all-the-more entertaining. And Better. Yes. Better.

10 life lessons I've learned from anime

1. A hero is never late or early, they always arrive when everyone else is on the brink of defeat.

2. Clothing malfunctions always happen to female characters: sooner or later...

3. Yelling extremely loud is the best way to increase power.

4. A slap to the face of a male character is inevitable.

5. Flashbacks before, during and after a battle are always appropriate.

6. It's customary for opponents to stare at each other for a moderate amount of time before engaging in battle.

7. Wearing glasses = intelligence.

8. Siblings that fall in love are usually not blood relatives.

9. Children/teenagers have enough power to save the world and enough wisdom to influence people's views.

10. Evil's never defeated for good: it returns after an opportune time.

Influence from others

It’s amazing how the people around you such as family and those you choose to be a part of your life such as friends have an effect on the kind of person you are. Growing up I unknowingly (which I’m well aware of now) adopted certain characteristics at home, and during the days spent at school. Be it a way of speaking to others, style of walking, how I think and plenty of others. Not quite sure where I got my (sometimes) awkward body language and hand gestures; but in any case.

I love how diverse the family is, and the buffet of influences they show through their actions and how they live out their lives. My mother is such a strong woman, and I’m not only grateful for her life but the unwavering love and dedication she has towards the Lord. I pray to reach such a level in my spiritual life one day. Through thick and thin she has been there and carried the burden of the entire family.

I’m jealous of the strength and independence my sister has, and the way she fabulously carries herself. She can also be such a character; nothing is more enjoyable then her random shot bursts of childishness. I think mine can be quite weird, so I try to keep them at a minimum when I’m around people, though I don’t think I’m doing a good job at that. And I like how my nephew reminds me about maintaining the child at heart. The way I look up to both my brothers: nothing pleases me more than being able to be on the same wavelength as them. I’ve always thought that they were so cool, and I still do to this day. So there are some things I like to plagiarize from them.

The friends I’ve had the pleasure of making throughout the years from primary until varsity are such a blessing to me. And what makes it better is that it’s a diverse group of people: different races, backgrounds, upbringing and beliefs make it all the more interesting. Example, I never knew “Pardon me?” was the preferred term for “Huh?” and spoons are primarily reserved for eating soup. I still use that “Huh?” and eat all meals with a spoon, but I do conform when I feel it’s necessary to do so.

The different things these people do and pursuit really inspires me. I’m blessed to have friends that have a big heart for family and friends, who are into extreme sports like surfing, who are pushing music careers by getting involved, who share the same love for computers as I do, interested in careers in science and commerce, who are practically like family, travel the world making a difference in children’s lives, hard-working and dedicated, seeking God’s heart and many more.

I don’t mention usually mention such things, but Lord knows I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends. Well…maybe I could lol.

"I'm ashamed of Jesus because I want you to like me; to think I'm smart, or sophisticated or whatever. It's like Jesus is the geek in the cafeteria, sitting by himself. And I'm the guy pretending his not my friend."

At first, I had no intention of watching this movie called Blue Like Jazz, not even the slightest. With such a title, it conjured up a few images in my mind which had nothing to do with the actual plot of the film. However, since I had requested a summary of The Help on IMDB and it came up on the “People who liked this also liked…” section, I figured I would give it a shot.

The film revolves around Don (Marshall Allman), a soon to be first year student at a Texas liberal arts college where his sole purpose is to rid of his Christian upbringing. The title character is surrounded by a semi-fulfilled, single parented, lifestyle to a stereotypical, break-out teen kind of lifestyle he decides to lead in his first year at college.

The film makes use of an abbreviation which is used at the said college, namely: “SCCR”. Setting, Conflict, Climate, Resolution, which the film pronounces as ‘’sucker’’. This forms part of the story arc, until the final ‘’Resolution’’ stage is reached. Steve Taylor uses this, along with satire of evangelism and awkward humour which distinguishes it from what you’d expect from a typical Christian film.

An emphasis seems to be placed not on Don’s newly found disbelief, but in exposing how his faith has seemed to have failed him in his life. This burdensome feeling is apparent throughout, until the closing moments of the end.

 This movie is interesting and Taylor’s delivery of the themes related to the Christian subject are sincere.

EA Sports. It's in the game.

Ahh video games, technology that has definitely made my life more enjoyable. I've been playing video games since I was like six, and I'd very much like to document what's currently on my mind concerning them. I believe the very first type of game I played was that one that came in like key-chain kind of apparatus. It came in your basic racing or brick breaker game. Then came along the TV game (have no idea what the proper term for it is).

The TV game - enjoyed so many classics on this little device. Super Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Megaman, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Excite Bike, Chip 'n Dale...yoh I could go on for days with this. And you could never go wrong with a cartridge - just a couple of blows underneath and into the TV game, and you were pretty  much sorted. There was no need for analog sticks, RT, LT etc. All you needed was the D-pad, your basic A-B button combination and you could pretty much tackle any game with that.

The Playstation (Particularly PSOne in my case) - now this system brought about huge differences and improvements to it. Like I mentioned earlier, it had analog sticks. The games I remember playing on this system didn't require the use of such sticks, and I was pretty happy about that, until I got the game Ape Escape. For some reason this game appealed to me - A LOT. I'd seen it in the first and last playstation magazine my parents bought me (which I had gotten thanks to some heavy crying). The analog sticks felt super awkward at first, but grew on me eventually. Of course Ape Escape was preceded by some greats such as Jonah Lomu rugby, X-men vs. Street Fighter, the FIFAs of the 90's and also followed by your Crash Bandicoots, Metal Gear Solids and many more. This is also the stage I learnt an interesting technique to play non-original games on the system, which involved a match stick and good timing. Might I add: if you didn't have a chip in your PS, late!!!

The Xbox 360s, PS3s, Wiis - this brought about some amazing games with deeper story lines, spectacular 3D graphics, more realistic AI and the media additions are pretty cool as well. The game I've playing a lot when I head home for holiday is FIFA. Honestly, you can never go wrong with a sports game. Especially when you're playing against others. Still need to get more games on this sytem, but this stuff can be pricey. Oh well....guess I'll wait for those specials during christmas time.

The PC - timeless. We've hardly ever had to spent money on acquiring games for this. Only requirement is basically ensuring that your PC is compatible with the minimum requirements, and going above this for nice-and-smooth playability. This is where I was introduced to gameboy games, Pokemon being the first one I played. Later on came other emulators to play the games I had always thought about and wanted to play so bad.

Awwww yeah, video games have done such wonders for my life.