“Looking Back…

over my shoulder, I can see the look in your eyes…” totally feeling Mike and the Mechanics right now. For the record, I’m neither good at memorizing lyrics nor singing along. This is one of the few including some old school rock songs that I can comfortably sing along and pull some karaoke moves … in the shower though.

I was doing my round of blogs then came around this one that asked:

Go back to one of your first blog posts. What did you write? Share an excerpt if you feel comfortable. How have you and your blog grown since then? Source

Wow! This feels like going back to my nursery and primary school books and reading my compositions if you know what I mean. But this one can’t be as bad, my composition back then were rib crackers. I swear if someone like my folks unleashed one of them I would die of shame…haha!

My first blog post : The Elusive. I was so green in this writing/blogging world it’s just nostalgic. I hadn’t read many blogs so to say, I was more of a books and magazines kind of girl. The writers there were my role models as I tried to make sense of my thoughts and communicate them to you, you and you. Here’s an excerpt;

“Everyone has their weakness and strengths. What I usually say is that if you can handle the weakness of the other person then you’re set. This does not only apply to relationships but to friends and family too. It is how you handle the other persons weakness that keeps you close together because you can eventually even turn that weakness into a strength … SWOT analysis comes in handy haha!”

That was a random post by the way! Thanks to @Suetiful, @Nkirdizzle and @Putty_Catt for coercing me into starting up a blog. This is just after we had finished campus and were new to the working world. How time flies. They were partly the reason for my second blog post: Ho’s n Bro’s. Interesting post right there. There was a jumble up but I think my point came through. Here’s an excerpt;

“So all those boy mistakes I have made previously have modeled me into who I am today. Cheers to you. It’s so funny how to relate with boys/girls it’s like you need a manual, or rather that’s how many people view/put it, its like there are rules and regulation. I mean, boys, they are just human beings like the girls too. They have everything the girl has of course except the physical appearances and bodily functions , male testosterone vs female estrogen, otherwise every other thing is the same they’ve got feelings, they get hurt, they get happy and sad. If you pour something hot on them they get burnt too…okay, am now being sarcastic. But honestly, there’s no rule in any book that stipulates how you should treat a man/woman, or even if you get any, it wont work, because you have to learn the person and know what it is that they want/like because every person is different. My thought, you have to learn and grow into people to know what tickles their fancy, what puts them off.”

Funny thing is that I’ve always written about life, what I think of it, the lessons I learn from the many happenings and where I see myself in it. I beat around the bush, before making the point clear. More of trying to make you understand my point of view before bringing in the conclusion.

300+ posts and 3 years down the line, some things have definitely changed or improved to the better. Just like wine, I get better with age. From the thought process, presentation, wording, prose, spellings e.t.c. I still have a long way to go, hope a few years down the line I will be able to make something out of the blog like help a life or two in one way or another, have it work for me, change it to a website, change its look. There’s so much room for improvement it’s overwhelming.

In other very unrelated news, formerly this day was Moi Day (10/10/year). However, our leaders felt that we either had too many holidays or Moi was full of himself for declaring a holiday in his name. So in the new constitution you can guess what transpired, the holiday was axed! Now I’m proudly working and building the nation on what was to be Moi Day and boy isn’t the day dragging!

Signing Off ~~~ *Kawi*

Special’ove’ize

Of late, for some not so strange reason I’ve been trying to figure out what I my specialty is or what is it I love … on my blog that is. I basically write anything and everything that comes on mind. So when someone asks me what my blog is about, I say just that “anything and everything”. I mean it’s not solely about fashion, travels, poetry, food, photography, name it, because I’m pretty sure in the many posts I have, there’s something on each *facepalm*

Then it all takes me back to when I had just finished high-school and it was time to go to campus. How many (feel like saying *by a show of hands* I wish this was a talk of sorts) knew what they wanted to do right after their O-Levels? Personally I didn’t. I was made to go to Strathmore University to do a Diploma in Business Information Technology (DBIT) because my dad didn’t want me hanging around the hood (this was revealed to me later on in life). Then after finishing that one, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do and there was an opportunity of continuation. Such that my DBIT was to act as my 1st year in Bachelor in Business Information Technology (BBIT).

I thought that was pretty cool, that’s minus one year, so I’ll have 3 years of Grad school. As you can see, without much struggle and thought I just got into the Business and IT world. Then I worked hard at it and bore my fruits at the end of it. I then started working and while at it, I was still trying to discover what I want to specialize in. What is it I enjoy doing? This because I came to realize that business and IT is so broad. Slowly while working in my first job, I discovered what I don’t like and what I don’t want to be. Then I was lucky enough to move from my first job and into a second one, where I discovered what I love and what I want to be. Hence, my third and my future ones. Now, I can specialize, I can distinguish between what I don’t like and what I love. That’s what I am up to.

Better, how you generalize all your boys who are friends, they are all the same at the same level. Then comes a time you lay your eyes on this one guy that sweeps you off your feet *swoon* and you special’ove’ize on him, because you want to be in with him for the long haul. So with my blog, I’m still at the general stage, where I am trying almost everything out. So far, I see myself getting inclined to “Life Lessons”, I love writing out my stories in parables and in a way anyone can relate and learn from them. I just need to figure an interesting way to bring it out, so that I can make you enjoy them as well. You know how we say “customer is king”, y’all super readers are my customers.

“For the love of what you do, what you want to be, where you want to be or who you want to be with, your world somehow comes together at some point to help you specialize in it, that’s what I call special’ove’izing.” ~ Kawi

Signing Off ~~~ *Kawi*

201,082 Thanks

Since I want my ego pampered sometimes, okay. who am I kidding, like all the time. I know am not the best bloggist,  for lack of a better word, just avoiding writer … and shamelessly promoting myself from blogger to bloggist. You’ve got to do this things for yourself you know, I mean, who will? And the question I love to ask *rhetorical though* is what brings you back to read what I publish? Those 201,082 site visits, it could be one person always coming back, I just wonder what brings you back? And for that reason, that one person or 1,000 people who come to check what I’ve shared…a HUGE thanks, from the bottom of my heart

If I didn’t have anything to say thank you for today, at least I have 201,082 thanks to say. However, am very fortunate to have the 201, 082 as an addition to the many other blessings in my life. So basically, all my thanks goes to God for making everything possible, for without him, none of these would make sense. At least he makes them <the people in my life, the achievements, the failures, the events, the outcomes and all the good and bad that comes with all these > all make so much sense.

To more publishing, to sharing of thoughts and opinions… to more sunshine in your lives through me *wink*. I think am one of the few girls who has problems with remembering very important dates, yes! So I put on reminders if it’s a slaughter me situation or keep getting mild heart attacks of whether the day has passed. But for mum, dad and sister, their birthdays and their wedding anniversary (strange enough) are super glued to my mind. Thank God by sheer coincidence Mr.Man’s birthday is on the same day as mine.

So I take advantage of such moments to celebrate since I probably missed my blogversary or not. Too lazy to go and confirm.

 

It’s Thursday, that day if you have forgotten to be thankful and truthful throughout the week, it gives you a chance. Enjoy the evening lovelies!

Signing off ~~~ *Kawi*

 

Blogging101: 10 Lessons Learnt

Blogging for me started as a joke. Let’s say peer pressure from friends who thought that I should probably share my thoughts with others in form of writing. It was very random, we came up with the name over lunch…lol. Anyway, my confidence to write was at Zero or worse yet negative. I will completely blame my English teachers all through my 8.4.4 they made me think I can’t write. Nowadays that’s like one of my favorite hobbies, because at least no one forces me to use similes or proverbs or a start or ending to a story for me to continue…bleurgh! That sucked big time, it made me hate compositions and languages…too many rules!

So @mrsmwiti tagged me. First let me do a happy dance, because she tagged me … yeah you know those guys who are your *digital* undercover role models, but I’m not saying it out loud (that was a whisper).

Geez! 10 is many, but here goes on what my blogging101 since I started approximately a year ago *whoop whoop*, I feel a bit achieved.

1. Be Yourself !

A blog is like a friend, the way you would explain to a friend something or tell a tale, is the same way your blog should. It’s a conversation with imaginary people who will either respond by commenting or not … they’ll just laugh and brush it off. Like what you’ve just done.

2. Keep it short and precise, if long make it *mango* juicy!

Don’t say too much because then someone gets bored trying to figure out what the blog is about. However if it’s long add some yumminess into it … like they say “add salt and spice”. Somehow it makes someone be glued to the post, such that, if they leave it in the middle, they will want to come finish it up or they’ll even bookmark it.

3. Images make all the difference!

I’m those kids who used to read a book or even the newspaper because of the images. They say a picture is worth a thousand words … in my world it sure is.

4. WYSIWYG “What You See Is What You Get”!

Format, Design, Theme and Colors : The human eye is designed in such a way if this three are off, then your brain zones off as well. You will just not enjoy.

Format – Should be neat, readable font and well paragraphed - good format implies organized person.

Design –  Should be clean, clear and not cluttered. If cluttered it will make reading boring.

Theme and color – They go together *like rice and chicken stew*…hehe, get a theme that says “this is me”. if you know what I mean.

5. Would I read what I write?

Yeah, sometimes I go back and try to entertain myself with my previous blogs or just see what I wrote in a particular situation…if I can’t read it over again, then there’s a problem.

6. Make it ERUPT *Easy to Read, Understand, Perceive and Trigger

Just as it is … I think when someone blogs they should make it Easy:

To read – this could be through the language used, the font size and color, format as mentioned earlier.

To Understand – Avoid jargon, unless you’re an actual expert *pun intended* writing for actual experts *pun intended again*. Otherwise keep it simple.

To perceive – with a blog, people should be able to understand what you’re talking or better yet writing about, by creating a mental picture.

To trigger – More like to evoke the feelings from your post. Whatever it was about, there should be some reaction you want to trigger. Right?

7. Break Open

This is important, you need to break open your cocoon and let your blog be displayed so that others know you, how you write, your style … it kind of gives you a sense of belonging and when you write, even without looking at who the author is, the readers can know it’s you.

8. Read what others write

Read, read, read … I mean you don’t expect people to be reading what you write while you don’t read theirs. Don’t be stingy with your eyes, even with the least time … one blog a day or week can suffice. They give you pointers sometimes … they get you to have an open mind topped up with some extra knowledge since different bloggers write about different things. Basically, you become diverse.

9. It’s never that serious

It’s a blog for pits sake, it’s not an exam or a test or a personal diary … it’s just a blog. A place where you can give your own opinions without interruptions unlike when you’re speaking (entirely my thought!).

Keep your personal life and your blog in two separate places otherwise, blogging will become a task, then at some point a burden, which will eventually make your life miserable .

10. Express yourself, It’s all yours!

You choose what you want to write … go ahead and do it without fear nor favor as long as you’re not stepping on anyones toes. For me, blogging is kind of therapeutic, it makes me feel really good especially once I click “Publish” … I know that’s pretty weird, but don’t mind me.

Wow, I’ve managed to reach 10 things I’ve learnt about blogging *PAT ON THE BACK*. Now to tag, I think these guys should do one of these @Nkirdizzle @thegreencalabash and @Wanjamajid.

Decues my good people!

Signing Off ~~~ *Kawi*