New Year Resolutions..Or Not!!! Stop Blogging!


lol..I was laughing at some new year resolutions I read from the New York Times this morning:

* Stop blogging, go back to reading normal books and watching TV
...........
* Stop trying to be the author of a book via blogging

* Stop trying to sell ur book and sign autographs via blogging.

* Stop acting like your day was more exciting that other human beings out there, so you have to blog about it.

Lolll...that's funny, cos I know most of you won't stop blogging. Its fun to be jobless and type funny stuff to share with random folks, or inspirational stuff, or creative stuff, or even stupid stuff. I'm sure it makes some people feel like they're not the only stupid people in the world, that there are definitely others like themselves out there. Anyways, I've found out that blogging is fun sha, in my own opinion, judging from these three months I've been on blogger.

Ooooooh...the new year is in a few hours though........woah.......I'm counting down...I want to encourage everyone to go into this new year with God, because if you start with the Alpha, you will definitely end with the Omega, He's the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Whatever form of praise you begin your new year with, you won't go lower than that in the year to come. So if you start with a very high praise, your praise will keep getting higher and higher as the year goes on because you will keep finding reasons to praise God. Amen. Some tips on what you can do on the night of new year's eve: go to church, share a molten chocolate cake from chili's with your family, eat some fried rice/jollof rice and chicken, call your extended family, best friends and friends, and generally just have fun (like duh, I know I'm already stating the obvious...my bad...). Have fun guys! Happy New Year.

~Cheers~

Click here, for the article that inspired this post.

***Starting Over Again***



Starting over again means relinquishing one's past and putting all energies towards a brand new strategy. As the new year is approaching, I can't help but reflect on what Revelation 21:5 says, "He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." In the twinkle of an eye, God can make everything brand new. He can make you forget the past and dwell on the future. I want my new year to give me a brand new feeling. I want the bad things of 2006 to stop exactly at 12 midnight on december 31st, and the good things of 2006 to pour into january 1st 2007. It's simple to talk about, but only God's power can accomplish it. But I have a very strong feeling that you and I will accomplish a lot in this new year. In 2007, I pray that God will go beyond and above all that you can ever ask or imagine, and that all your dreams will come true (yes, you reading this right now). People think dreams don't come true, but little do they know that every dreamer has a reward...they have a passion that once ignited cannot be put out...so don't be scared to dream great dreams (Joel 2:28, 'your young men shall see visions'!)

That being said, I'm not making any new year's resolutions for 2007 per se, because any time I make them in a very determined tone, I end up not accomplishing any of them. Why, you may ask? Because anything we try to do by our own power and might never works out the way we want it to. The human flesh is so weak that we cannot accomplish hard tasks by ourselves. So if I say I want to accomplish a task in 2007, I'm going to do it differently this time...God help me...not by my own determination, not by my own power or by any other human defined characteristic.
What am I trying to say? You can call it a new year's resolution, because there may be no other way to say it, but make sure you know somewhere in you that you cannot accomplish it all by urself...tell God ur dream and ur passion...and let God do the rest!

My Classic IQ test:


Woke up this morning to the sound of birds chirping outside the town house. Did my daily morning routine (prayers, brushing my teeth, smiling at myself in the mirror etc), then I rushed downstairs to read the Word. Anyways, so I got stuck on the definition of a particular word, and as usual I checked the dictionary to sort out it's meaning. That's how I got side-tracked by what is called "the classic tickle IQ test" (or so they call it). Unconsciously, I got hooked on all 12 pages, and this is what they came up with for moi:

Congratulations, jaycee!
Your IQ score is 122

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others. Your Intellectual Type is Precision Processor. This means you're exceptionally good at discovering quick solutions to problems, especially ones that involve math or logic. You're also resourceful and able to think on your feet. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.


So if u want to have some fun with this IQ test, go here (its the same questions everyone answers, they don't re-mix the questions): http://web.tickle.com/tests/uiq/index_main.jsp

SHARE UR SCORE WHEN U'RE DONE, AND PLS DON'T LIE!!!
Anyways, this is just for fun..I usually don't believe in these things...but enjoy...

Girls and FUN!!!


My friends and I were just remembering the song, "girls just wanna have fun" and we were laughing. I'm thanking God for a very wonderful holiday right now because I've been having too much fun. It's going to be a very memorable one after all...from shopping to movie nights (by the way we went to see DREAM GIRLS last night---good movie), to eating cereal, to sleep-overs, to riding in cars (and getting lost), to reading novels, to SCRABBLE (dang, I love that game...give me somn intellectual any day), to making long-distance phone calls and talking to long-lost friends, and finally, to crazy gisting....it's like we've been starving to talk about different experiences and different gists like ever since...oh well, it's always fun to reunite during christmas. In all this, on christmas eve, we all sat down on the bed and talked about what christmas really meant to each of us. It was so terrific that christmas was explained differently by every individual, but at the end of the day...it only boiled down to one thing...that God loves us so much despite all we've ever done. Will be blogging on another topic soon (I'm just cooling my brain cells...he he).....

Merry christmas to you all again and stay blessed...for now...ciao...

Chimamanda in the New Yorker...


She writes so well it almost brings one to tears...my goal is to read both "purple hibiscus," and "half of a yellow sun" this christmas (as I have heard excellent reviews abt these two books). I just need to get them in my collection somehow. I was reading her narrative about life during the war in the New Yorker, and she killed it...

This is only an excerpt:

At first, he wrote excited letters, and sent pictures of himself in camouflage holding a long, gleaming gun. He took special pride in his boots and wrote about how he polished them with Kiwi polish, the way he had polished the shoes my father wore to his lectures. His handwriting was barely legible and his English was comic. “Hungry is killing me,” he said. He wrote about the poor state of the barracks. He wrote about not being paid. Slowly, the letters cooled. Then, in a hasty letter, he wrote that he might be sent to Liberia, as part of the Nigerian Peacekeeping Force. Civil war was raging there. People were being skinned alive, he wrote. People were being dragged to their deaths.
“He won’t go to Liberia,” my father said. “He’ll be fine.”


Fide did not go to Liberia. Months later, a military coup took place in Sierra Leone. And General Sani Abacha, who routinely killed activists, who routinely shut down the media, who routinely jailed opponents, decided to send in Nigerian troops to restore democracy.
When my parents told me that Fide had died—he was blown up by a land mine in Sierra Leone, on September 3, 1997—I stared at them for a while and then started to smile because I knew that they were wrong.


“Which Fide?” I asked, as if he were not the only Fide we knew.
“Our own Fide,” my mother said, and those words will never leave me, because even as grief enveloped me I realized how lovely they were. Our own Fide. He was our own.


To read the story, go to: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060612fa_fact3

***Once Upon a pair of Stilettos***


You know I was saying in my last post that I was free from incarceration (a.k.a med sch exams). So, I've been having too much fun already! From shopping on tuesday to dancing on wednesday (plus a tyler perry movie night at church last night), you name it...so I stumbled upon a pair of stilettos online today, and my eyes saw 'red.' I think I shd make that my next project....errr...wait first o...let me check my bank account...

Hold on for one sec...

I'm back from bankofamerica.com, (*sigh*), I guess I can make do with just staring at it for now...lol! Ha ha ha...was so mad on tuesday...only 3 tops plus one fall jacket for 70 somn dollars...hsss...abeg I'm not going to the mall any more!
Back to my guitar lessons...

His Soul speaks to my soul...


This post is inspired by Uzo's poem... (her "after the dream" post)...

I stared at this part of the poem for a very long time...

We talk and communicate
Not as two people
but as two souls
Learning our reason for being
This dance - a waltz

And I started to think that she's not the only one... many people probably experience this feeling of euphoria! Sometimes it's just crazy when u think someone's soul is speaking to ur soul. Have u ever talked to someone and then they say some things and leave some other things unspoken? And whether they say it or not, both parties have a silent understanding. Have u ever stared someone deep in their eyes and they stare right back at you until both parties withdraw like a reflex action? Have u ever laughed with someone while being physically in their presence and all of a sudden both parties stop laughing because they notice there's something more to that one laughter? I was thinking of how possible it is for a person to communicate with another person without even saying a word!

Meanwhile, it's possible for one million other people to actually say words but at the end of the day there is NO COMMUNICATION...they can talk and talk and talk from the beginning of the morning till the roosters lay their heads to sleep, yet it's just the thought of that one person that still gets to you at the end of the day...the unspoken words may even matter more than the spoken words...

The silence of the lambs...

DISCLAIMER: this post is 'generally speaking.' (*winks*). Think not that I am in a position to kiss and tell.....like Uzo...it's NOT happening to me...:)

As for the picture of strawberries...I'm reading a book right now, and the guy notices the girl is not a traditional type of person so instead of sending her roses, he sends her a box of STRAWBERRIESSSSS....ha ha ha....I'm so NOT traditional....geez, flowers are so COMMON!

A lil UPDATE ON MOI: I'm finally free from exams at last...so I can now ROCK N' ROLL, TUMBLE, SLEEP, READ, PLAY, LAUGH, JUMP, DEBATE, and pretty much anything I'd like to do that is so NOT medical school-related. I'm thinking of learning how to play the guitar this christmas, because there's a song I really want to sing to God...and I'm thinking of singing this song at the "youth night" at church...hmmm...let me see if that's possible....

God is my LOVER....my HUSBAND....gotta see what I can do! Anything for the Lover of my soul... try Him menn...He's the best lover you can ever have. And it's even funny because I learnt that for anyone to be in an excellent relationship, you first have to be in love with God, then because He loves you too, He will send the Holy Spirit as a guide to help you find the right relationship, and then when you're in it, He will keep giving you tips on how to keep ur relationship alive...He's the best! Have you tried Him first?


**Consequences**


Proverbs 14: 1 "The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands."

With..her...hands!!! With her hands...with her own hands. Most things that happen to us are as a result of the seeds we've sown in a previous time and place, except they are things that God wants us to go through before we manifest our destinies. A seed can be defined as anything that we do in life, it could be being a lender to someone in need, it could be giving money for a good cause, it could be being a friend in need, and it could also be being a very wicked person. I used to think seeds were defined only in good terms, but I slowly learnt that bad seeds can also be sown. And the word of God says that "God is not deceived, whatsoever a man sows, he shall reap." So if you sow a good seed, you will reap a good seed and if you sow a bad seed, you will definitely reap a bad seed. The word REAP means that those things will come back to you in more ways than when you sowed them. Think about a farmer planting just one seed, of course when the seed grows into a mighty tree, it will produce a lot of fruit...so you don't "reap" seeds but you "reap" fruits, and every individual fruit contains several seeds. So it's definitely gonna come back to you in more ways than you know it...

If you've been mean to someone...someone is going to be terribly horrible to you one day...

If you've been a great help to someone in your past...then when you're in need, God will send help your way...

If you've destroyed someone else's body, yours is already on its way to destruction...

and the list goes on...

The only thing that can bring a good change to a bad seed is when you cry out to God for forgiveness, because there is no VERDICT that cannot be changed by God's mighty hands.

As per how this is related to the opening scripture, building a house is not necessarily physical, the little seeds we sow here and there can either build us either great houses or poor houses...

Therefore, sow your seeds wisely...be careful of what you do in this life...

***Confirmation***

I don't know about you, but it feels so good when you hear God's voice telling you something, in the intimacy of prayer, in broad daylight, or when you're just staring into space or a thick black cloud of emptiness at night, and then you go to worship and fellowship on a sunday or on any other day of the week, and all of a sudden the shepherd of the house takes you unawares by saying the same exact thing ("verbatim") that God told you a while back. This is "confirmation." These types of happenings increase my knowledge that He is real, and if I had doubts before, it quenches it completely. It is again, the 'invisible hand phenomenon.' The feeling you get when you know there's something out there in the invisible that controls the visible...

I've experienced that feeling before...and it happened today again..."and His Name shall be called Emmanuel..."God with us."

Here's to TEAM WORK!!!!!!


***It can't be better than this***
(a funny picture someone sent to me today)
when it boils down to food, we've all got to work together men!

Thought for the day


Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones."
That's what keeps my cheerful spirit each single day...have you ever thought abt it? Give ur heart a chance...be merry. I was having another of my conversations again with a sweet-heart, and we concluded that in this life, "you really cannot please everybody." No matter how much you try, some razz people still won't live up to ur expectations. Don't please men, let your life be all about pleasing God. When you're trying not to please everybody and u're just being yourself, u'll find out that you'll be so much happier. Give time to yourself, your body and your soul. Take time out to do little things like getting a massage, reading a good novel, visiting an art museum, talking to ur close friends on the phone and having a very good laugh. Not to forget fellowshipping with people who believe in what you believe in...("don't abandon the fellowship with the saints")
And guess what? You'll be just good to go...like bread and butter...
Love ya! *muah*
Signed: Me

***The DOMINO Effect***


I was very inspired (as always)...at first it was just "pun" (we were just playing with words), then it became transformed into a discussion I will never forget. The little things in life do matter...little things like having a little chat with ur friend, in the comfort of a little cubicle with clothes and girls' stuff strewn all over the floor (lol). We talked about different things...we talked about school, then about life, then about life after life, then about the power of God. I can leave you with a part of the discussion that stuck in my brain the whole of last night though. She said God's power is like the "DOMINO EFFECT." Dominoes are small tiles traditionally carved from ivory or bone with small, round pips of inset ebony. The 'domino effect' is when a line of domino tiles fall one after the other because of the little push of the first one. But there is only ONE domino effect where the last tile does not fall, instead it gives an opposite reaction and hits the other tiles back up in the opposite direction. It is the game where God is a player. Think about chemistry, there's always an equal and opposite reaction for every action. It's kinda like waves rippling through a stormy ocean. In this game, although your situation may be a rippling domino effect (i.e. things in your life may be getting out of order one after the other), when God's playing the game with you, He becomes the last TILE. No matter how much you push the last tile, it's not going to fall down. In this game the last tile in the domino effect is a STRONG TOWER. No matter how rough life may seem, it's going to stand tall. It's going to stop the second-to-last tile from falling down...He's always there to raise you back up from the ground...where you've fallen...
Think about it...and when you're done, put a big smile on your face...


~O Little Town~


“When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: " 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”- Matthew 2:4-6

Merry Christmas everyone...remember there's a very significant reason for the season...never forget that!

Ye, iz a lie...my CHICKEN!!!


Yeahhhh....there goes my chicken. Do u realize how yummy, scrumptious, and delicately seasoned my chicken was? No, I don't think so. I mean this chicken was spiced up till the very core. It wasn't ordinary o...it was cooked inside its roots. It was sooo good to the extent that if the chicken was given the opportunity to taste itself before it died, it willingly would have given up its life (knowing it tasted that good), seriously. The story began like this, I came back from anatomy lab today excited that I had fried rice and chicken in my fridge. I changed from lab clothes to comfortable home clothes and was smiling to myself just dreaming about that chicken in the fridge. So I warmed the rice and chicken and served it on a platter of gold, then I started munching and munching. Ok, so I usually save the best for last right? So when I was done with the fried rice, I looked at the chicken and said, "now, behold it is time to eat you." So I picked it up with my delicate fingers and proceeded to take the first bite.......

[INSERT HORROR MOVIE SONG]

...and all of a sudden, before my very eyes, the chicken landed at my foot. Arrrrggghh! Not my chicken...I'm not gonna complete the story cos I will get mad...but this inspired me to carry out a chicken review:

**What kind of chicken lover are you?**

A) You love live chickens so much that you are a vegetarian

B) You love chickens, but you don't mind killing them. If they fall down on your carpet, you will wash them with water and continue eating them...
__
C) You love chickens so much that anytime you eat them you're such in a haste to down them in. So if they fall on the floor, dang the bacteria, you carry them and continue eating without washing...(at least there are other bacteria living in your body anyways, the theme will be survival for the fittest, and at least the chicken just hit the end of your sneakers, the bacteria won't be up to 10% of it's usual population)

D) You love chicken, but common, life is not hard...you can't risk eating bacteria and losing your life, so you throw the chicken right down the THRASH!!!!!

Which one are YOU? Are you crazy about chicken?

How is a Man saved?


Found an article that can answer some of your questions...so that you can begin your journey in finding God and in finding the TRUTH. Let it be that someone showed you where to start from:

The Deja Vu (have we met before?)

I had my yahoo music on, and I apparently had tagged this song before because the first time I heard it (being the romantic I am), I was in awe.

It's funny that you can meet someone and know that you're going to be with that person forever (or NOT...lol)...even if you just met.
* You look at their finger and u know they'll be wearing ur ring
* You look at their tummy and you know they'll be bearing your children.
* My best line, "I thank you in advance for when you said "I do" next month and for those beautiful children of ours"
* Marriage is a beautiful thing...it seals up friendship, and it seals up love...forever...a fairytale that never comes true for some...a perfect story for those whose stories have already been written about in the volumes of the Book of God...a bashed phenomenon in the faithless generation in the midst of which we live in today, where divorce has a very high rate.

Going back to the books...this was just an opportunity in the middle of a saturday study break to be mushy for a second!

~Greater than my imagination~


I learnt a very important concept during the concert tonight. It was when he started describing how heaven looks like...how it was described in the book of revelation: the streets of gold (not the usual gold, but a gold that is transparent), the gates made with pearls, and the light that is not provided by either the sun or the moon, but by the radiance of God Himself. After all these descriptions, he quoted ephesians as saying that even though we have great imaginations, everything that concerns God goes beyond our wildest imaginations (He goes above and beyond all that we can ever think or imagine). This means that no matter how much I dream, and no matter how wild my imagination runs...I can only imagine...but when push comes to shove, I cannot really start to comprehend the depths and heights and width...

LADIEEEEEEEESSSSSSS....this one is for you!


Are you this person??? Don't say, just laugh it off...cos I know some of you are...



Thinking about "kindness"!!!


It is in galatians 5, listed as one of the components of the 'fruit' of the Holy Spirit. I decided to read these things one by one again today (private time study), judging myself to see if I was trying to practice them. And then I stopped at 'kindness.' What exactly is kindness for goodness sakes? Is it letting people do what they wanna do, or letting people have what they wanna have from you? Is it allowing people to take advantage of you or somn? Is it always putting up a facade of happiness? Is it saying "yes" when you really mean "no"? Is it stripping yourself off everything you have and sacrificing it for other people? Considering all the above questions, after doing my research the answer was a big 'NO' to all of the above! You can make sacrifices, but kindness is also a "thinking phenomenon." It is not irrational at all.


There were certain things that stood out to me in the definitions of kindness I came across, and I picked the important ones to dwell on:


kind #1/kaɪnd/
(from dictionary.com)
–adjective, -er, -est.
indulgent, considerate, or helpful; humane (to be humane is to be tender, compassionate and to be sympathetic towards other people)

(from the american heritage dictionary)
Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature; forbearing (enduring, refraining, being patient and having self-control, tolerant); generous (liberal-kind words); Agreeable; beneficial

So one thing that stood out to me was "indulgent"...interesting word...and its funny that I hear a lot of people using this word, hope they know what it means...

in·dul·gent /ɪnˈdÊŒldÊ’É™nt/
–adjective
characterized by or showing indulgence (a catering to someone's mood or whim; humoring; Commerce-an extension, through favor, of time for payment or performance; Something granted as a favor or privilege; Patient attention; a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone) in·dul·gent·ly, adverb
—Synonyms forbearing, easygoing, tolerant
.

BUT...I also found out that indulgence could mean "foolish or senseless behavior," and that is not what the Bible means when it says be "kind"...

It's really good to try and understand what these things actually mean before we try to practice them...it makes one look at the inner picture...so what this basically tells me is that sometimes:

1) I need to learn how to humor people ("indulgence"). It is not necessarily every single thing one needs to point out to a friend, there's a way you can tell people things that they will appreciate you more for it, and they will probably thank you for letting them know sometime in the future...but what was that word again? Kindness is being liberal (kind with words)...the way you speak says much about you, and even the bible says, "let your words be seasoned with salt, so that it may impart grace on anyone who hears you speak." Do your words carry grace? Or are they rash, impotent, and non-beneficial?

2) I need to learn how to put people first before myself ("considerate"). Have you ever fought for the best positions? Have you ever fought to be number 1 all the time? Have you ever fought to always be the winner? It is good to be the winner, but do you carry the notion that is "me, myself, and I?" It's definitely time to start being considerate.

3) "Warm-hearted": I love warm-hearted people, you just want to be around them all the time because they make you feel better about everything. No one wants to be around a whiny, grudgy, non-talented person. Or do you? Kindness goes with warm-heartedness.

4) "Agreeable": I checked again for this word and it said, "willing or ready to agree or consent; conformable." I laughed...wait a second, do people always agree with you or disagree with you? Why don't they always agree with you? Have you ever really thought about that? Maybe there's something you're not doing or something you're not trying to be vulnerable to. Woah, this is telling me kindness is something that alludes us to VULNERABILITY...yikes...vulnerability is not such a bad thing after all...

5) Indulgence: what stood out to me was the fact that sometimes we have to give people an extension of favor, an extension of the time for people to repay you back, a second chance. This goes out to people who go around ridiculously threatening lives who haven't returned favors. That's something to think about. We may all have to start changing attitudes to make the world a friendlier place. When you show kindness, I notice that it is then that people would even want to repay you back...you don't have to chase them all around the whole city, just take a chill pill and give them more time...they will willingly come....or they would apologise and may do other favors for you. All in all, it just pays to have a little bit of indulgence.

Pleasure, Power, & Pain


While sipping on my extra-hot extra-whipped cream chocolate @ starbucks a few days ago, and while listening to some jazzy songs in the background, I felt a sudden jolt of exhilarating inspiration. I felt like I was in one of those movies, or one of those TV shows--take "heroes" for instance, if you watch it u'll know how Isaac Mendez gets a sudden inspiration to paint, his eyes get pure white and he starts painting to infinity. Well, in my case, I was suddenly inspired to write poetry:

Pleasure, Power, and Pain:

Pleasure, Power, & Pain
Three emotions in one
The first takes you to oblivion
The second takes you to great heights
And the third makes you cry
Pleasure, Power, & Pain
Three emotions in one
Three different directions,
yet just one target-the human mind
Pleasure, Power, & Pain
Three emotions in one
You feel like you're soaring high
but yet you also feel like you're sinking low
Pleasure, Power, & Pain
Three emotions in one
Lord, if you weren't in my life
I wonder what I would have become
You've become my dignity, my passion, and my ultimate emotion
You've taught me how to
use Your Power to give me pleasure and erase all my pain,
and thats something to treasure for as long as I live.