Driving is a wonderful skill. Something everyone aspires to, at the same time exhilarating and stressful. Sadly, it’s one of the most hazardous things we do in our everyday lives, and we are surprisingly ill equipped to appreciate the dangers. The result is the terrible toll of death and injury on our roads.

Part of the problem is that driving is so complicated: controlling the vehicle, responding to hazards, navigating, signaling: each task involving quite different information. Engine speed, the gaps between vehicles, landmarks. Drivers must scan frequently from hazards outside to instruments and controls inside the vehicle. Demanding tasks compete for attention … Continue Reading

It’s completely normal to feel shy or nervous sometimes, especially when you’re young. Such as when you want to ask someone out on a date. But if that idea worries you so much that you just can’t make the attempt, then maybe you’re not just suffering from shyness.

Does your nervousness come from always having the feeling that everyone’s watching you? After every conversation, do you agonise over what the other person thought about you? Quite sure you messed up, every time. Or maybe you hate meetings where you’ll have to speak, convinced you’ll make a fool of yourself?

Probably you really want to go to parties and stuff. But instead you find you stay home because you’re so nervous about meeting new people. Somehow you just can’t just let go and relax, because you’re so focused on your anxiety. So much so, it’s easier just to avoid parties altogether, even though that means you’re lonely. Continue Reading

Everyone’s heard of IQ, and most of us have had to take an ‘intelligence test’ at one time or another during our lives. But IQ only measures your ability to deal with hard facts, to follow instructions and to organise information so you get to the ‘right’ answer – and we all know there’s more to life than that.

In fact there are several other sorts of intelligence, none of which are measured by IQ tests. There’s the practical intelligence which enables us to get things done. And the aesthetic intelligence which gives us our sense of design, music and art. Skills like sports, dance, driving and so on depend on our kinaesthetic intelligence, and a sort of emotional intelligence gives us the ability to understand and manage our own feelings. Last but not least, there’s the social intelligence which enables us to deal with other people. Continue Reading

Can you size people up at a glance? Most of us are quite sure we can! Like how often have you felt your date’s a complete waste of time? Within just five minutes! You’re not sure why, but you’re convinced you’re incompatible. Was it the stubble? The scruffy clothes? The boring chat up lines? Whatever it was, after only a few minutes you’re already wishing you’d never come. This is going to be a long evening…

Looking back, were you right? Or had you misjudged him? After all, we’re always being told not to judge people on first impressions. Because quite likely we’re following stereotypes. Like stubble means he fancies himself and scruffy means sloppy and immature. Might such thinking mean that you closed your mind to his hidden virtues? We form opinions about someone’s character just from watching them too – and every bit as quickly. So if a policeman looks sour as we pass by, we probably feel that he just hates everybody! All of the time. Continue Reading

for this..

to fall would be too fast

to pour too fluid

to plumet too unimposing

no for this i must slide

or this i must drip

for this i must wade

slow..sudden..systematic..imposing..unavoidable..

for this,..

to glide would be too smooth

to whizz too swift

to assume too easy

no for this i must rivet

for this i must shuffle

for this i must know

for this,..

to imagine would be too lenient

to hear too good

to sense too polite

no for this i must envision

for this i must listen

for this i must recognise

I MUST!

I must endure every senseless whim

I must examine every intricate fibre

I must fulfill every unspeakable act

I must       slid..drip,,wade..shuffle..know..envision..undergo..recognize..endure..listen.examine..fulfill

I cannot escape

for this,

I must

I MUST!

This path stretching before me

This path that I must tread

This path that drains my tired heart

With every step ahead.

This winding, steep, eventful path

This tricky, twisting way

This overwhelming task;to climb

higher every day.

This soul, fatigued within itself

This body, drained and weak

These lips, so filled with words

and yet

too exhausted to speak.

This burden weighs my shoulders down

causes conflict within

This battle must be fought

yet only-

only-

one can win.

NAIROBI!

I feel you singing, sizzling through my veins

racing, like your matatu drivers on crack

echoing my name, calling, singing, sizzling

Nairobi! I long for your rough embrace

for I speak your language

I can at least ask the thief for my SIM card back

Always moving, shifting, changing, reforming, deforming…

always under attack

In your eyes, I see life. On your

streets, I learn to live – and your

alleys, I learn to avoid

Rangers for the bourgeoise, Qs for their

offspring, Rezarus for anyone, really

nighttime, when stars are enshrouded by

the smoke from a thousand lips

Only the proud survive, only the true love.

We whinge about the climate, secretly

grateful – we create our urban imperfection

Basing our superiority on nothing but

location, location, location

It is life. It is darkness. It is Java,

Maryland cookies, Kenchic after the rave

it is a pulse. It is Yin, Yang, struggle, truth, balance

lies, deceit, subterfuge, beauty,completion

it is urgency

it is anger at the condi

then smiling so he lets you give

10 bob less

it is Fridays listening to the imam

at Jamiya

it is knowing every freebie every day

it is Nick’s tattoos and belly rings

20 bob weed and highway races

watching ridiculous bar fights

getting high, taking photos

jamming outside Alliance, watching th

free movies inside

Safaricom, Nakumatt, Tuskys, Uchumi

I&M, 20^th, flags everyone ignores

Esther Arunga, Swaleh Mdoe

Storm over Paradise, Tahidi High

It is Nairobi

It is My Nairobi

singing, sizzling

it can be smoking wood burst to fire

a heart soaked in desire

but self-same said heart of gold

becomes as frost, wintry cold

I stretch my hand, but there’s glass

between us two and alas

I have fallen in a trice

and glass now’s turned to ice

the water’s cold and I’m going down

a frozen heart going to drown

you don’t see me through the snow

no, you don’t even know

to the bottom now I go

unfulfilled desires in tow

before last shut-eye I see

the one important to me;

on the surface decked in skates

and pulls a perfect number eight.

Take a seat, have a drink

Stop screaming at me

See, the neighbor’s think

That there’s something to see

Rip right round the reason

And don’t be a bore

Evidence my treason

And do nothing more

A mere kiss?

Is that all

For all this?

So small

My lip bleeds

Your eye’s swollen

Just pack and go

Guilty deeds

The fallen

Under a broken rainbow

Most faiths believe in the existence of a supernatural being who watches over us and eventually determines our eternal destiny. Well, mine does, anyway. I’m Adventist, a religion most of my friends and many around the world believe is more of a cult than a spiritual movement. Being who I am, I don’t really care-(in fact, I learnt an interesting term for what I am the other day- a BAdventist. Lol.)

So, like all other religions, all the bad people are going to die, and then after a certain time period, they will go to hell. I have a problem with this- I don’t think hell exists. But several pastors, spiritualists and generally holy people try their darndest to answer my questions and make me see I’m wrong- they think.

Is there really a hell? Some verses (of course, I can’t quote them for you. I never remember these things.) in Revelation make it sound as if the series of events will follow like this: The world will keep going until every person on earth has heard the Good News of Jesus, the son of God, and his offer for everlasting life and salvation. Then Jesus will come back, take His good people to heaven, and leave the rest of-er,us?- on earth to live in terror and absolute debauchery for a thousand years while the chosen ones live it up in heaven. After a thousand years, heaven will descend, and there will be a gathering of two great armies ‘on the plains of Gog and Magog’- the army of Christ and the army of Satan. Before this epic battle begins, a great fire will consume the forces of evil (as opposed to the Powerpuff girls), turning them into ash that will be blown away by a great wind, upon which all the evil folk will simple cease to exist. The Antichrist, The Beast and the Evil One i.e. Satan will be thrown into the Lake of Sulfur to burn forever. A new heaven and anew earth will be created, and you know the rest. Although right after that there’s a verse about a second death that completely confuses me, but that’s beside the point.

I’m not really sure what the point actually is. But that would suggest that hell does not exist. But everyone is so convinced it does, I must be wrong. Right? Hell is supposed to be a place where everyone who ever did anything that they didn’t repent for is going to go. (that’s most of us…see you there…)

So, to become Christian or to not become Christian is not the question here. (sorry, I’ve just done my midsem on Hamlet. I should currently be reading for my Earth Sciences exam tomorrow….but I’m not. Clearly.) The question is why. For fear of a hell that might not exist? Or for the fear of completely ceasing to exist? The glitch in free will. And then there’s the problem of if hell actually does exist. I’m sure you can see why that’s a PROBLEM as opposed to a joyful revelation.

I’m done rambling. Where are those notes….