Is it actually the dressing?

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he latest incidences by men have resulted to serious discussions and criticism in regards to the value of women in our society. It has portrayed the actual male chauvinism of the highest degree in our society. It is true that we can never be equal, men and women, and that is why men wear trousers and women dresses but in the eyes of the Lord we are all equal. It is true that a woman was created from a man’s ribs, from the creation story, but everyone has a right to life and other privileges in the society.

If you are yet not aware of what I am talking about, well, it is about the bestiality men have portrayed lately. Yes I am a man and I stand accused because the vice falls under the gender I represent. Actually I’m ashamed to be proud of being a man whenever such incidences are reported. It is inhumane to deprive off an innocent Kenyan off his/her rights. No one has the privilege to dictate how life should be. I think the constitution of a particular country has this mandate. It is actually shameful to see men in their senses forcefully undressing women and even going ahead to indecently assault a woman before a crowd.

Try to imagine this. The assaulted woman could be your mother, your wife, your daughter, your niece, your girlfriend, your best friend… How would you feel to see you loved one assaulted the way some crazy idiots were doing? A grown up man saying “Leta chupa tuweke ndani.” I think we see people walking upright and we think they are okay but there are so many mentally handicapped people in the streets.

If you really want to undress and touch a woman, there is a way of doing it. Find that one woman who will occupy your heart and you can undress them any time you want because you will both be bounded by love. There are also such services up for sale in the streets. In the clip was a man with a wedding ring. This proves the level of cowardice such a man portrays. He is a “jogoo” up in the streets but a real coward at home. These acts really raise concerns if the cause is actually dressing. To all the men out there, let women work in the doctrine of “My dress, my choice.” Wacha tamaa. Kula na macho

WATCH WHAT YOU EAT

Does alcohol make you fat?

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onventional wisdom tells us that the infamous `beer belly’ is caused by excess alcohol being stored as fat. But did you know that less than five percent of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat. In actual fact, what the alcohol does is to reduce the amount of fat your body burns for energy – a characteristic called `fat sparing,’ meaning the alcohol’s presence in your body spares the fat from being utilized for energy. Whereas carbohydrates, fat and protein need to be slowly digested before being used by the body, this happen when alcohol is present. The alcohol molecules diffuse through the stomach wall as they arrive and can reach the brain and liver in minutes (this reaction is slightly slowed when there is food in your system.

The alcohol then arrives at the liver for processing, where most of what you drink is converted to acetate- this is what your body will burn instead of fat, instantly sabotaging your weight loss efforts. The fact that alcohol is also very high in calories adds serious insult to injury. Pure alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram, which makes it nearly twice as calorific as carbohydrates or protein (they contain 3.75 and 4 calories per gram respectively) and only just under the caloric value for fat (9 calories per gram). Another reason to monitor alcohol consumption is that alcohol actually stimulates your appetite. Avoid skipping a meal to counter this – you’ll be even more likely to munch on the snacks, and drinking on an empty stomach enhances the negative effects of alcohol. If you’re worried about a night out, include an extra 30 minutes of exercise to balance your calories. Calorie content of common alcoholic beverages

Beer: a pint of beer contains 148 calories.

Wine: dry wine contains fewer calories than sweeter wine. A glass of dry wine (or champagne) has about 106 calories and a glass of sweet has a whopping 226 calories.

The hard stuff: the calories in gin, rum, vodka or whisky depends o the percentage of alcohol, but generally, a double gives you 100 calories. The calorie content of other types of alcohol varies greatly. Watch the really sweet stuff, though. A serving of schnapps has 108 calories, and crème de menthe will set you back 186 calories.

Mixed drinks: obviously, the larger the drink the higher the calorie content. So choose a smaller cocktail like a cosmopolitan and you’ll only take in about a third of the calories. Calories range from 115 calories in the almost- saintly Blood Mary to 262 for a Pina Colada. A vodka tonic is somewhere in the middle at 171 calories.

Please buy your own newspaper

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robably, the reason some media companies decided to staple their newspaper was to tame fellows who borrowed newspapers read. Gone are days when people, some with soiled or sweaty hands, would clumsily flip through the paper at the new stand and in the process put off prospective buyers. Unfortunately, these people shifted their annoying habits elsewhere.

They hang around the vendors waiting for anyone to buy a copy. Even before the vendor has given back the change, they will pool around you peering over the shoulders to read the paper. And mind you, theirs is not a cursory glance at the days headline. They will slowly read page after a page sometimes even reading an entire in depth, double-paged feature and discuss the issues at the same time. Your only hope is to pretend that you are in a hurry and take off with the paper. Afterwards they have no apologies to make.

Then there is the insensitive gossip who will offer a running commentary as he reads. At such moments, you wonder whether he does not know you bought the newspaper to read it not to be read to. If someone seriously wanted to read the day’s newspaper, why not buy a copy? And if one cannot afford it, they can go to a hotel, buy a drink and sip leisurely as they read the provided newspapers.

Tips to finding a well- paying job

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here are many factors that go into determining what job is right for you, even if most people think as the right job. But here are a few tips to land you are well paying job.

a).           Be patient. Just as it’s sometimes jokingly said you may have to kiss a couple of frogs before you find a prince, you might have to do a few jobs that don’t fulfill you before you find the right fit.

b).          Decide what the most important things are to you, and the hierarchy of your needs. Is it being paid a lot of money or recognition and a title or an office of your own or a good boss? This kind of thinking will help you weed out a job that will not turn into a career.

c).           Put time into job haunting. It not likely that your perfect job will just land on your lap. Send your CV’s, target the kind of companies that provide the working environment you appreciate, or pays the kind of money you would like.

d).          Sue your networking resources. Attend work related functions, conferences, internet professional networking sites, or just talk to different people in various industries.

e).           Find a way of differentiating yourself from pack. Always make sure you’re able to point out a potential employer what makes you a special and puts you ahead of the job seekers.try and back this up with facts like projects you completed successfully for previous or current employers.

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.  You don’t blame them on your mother, the ecology or the president.  You realize that you control your own destiny

(Albert Ellis)

That moment when you wish your boss could give you a week off to travel to the Coast and have some peace of mind after a hectic week trying to beat some deadlines.
                                                                      Imaginations nazo!

TECHNOLOGY MATTERS

Make your internet search easier

With the deluge of information out there on the web, knowing how to look is key.

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nformation is power is an old axiom but one that rings true in every situation. Information capture, or knowledge management, is fast becoming the true competitive advantage at individual and corporate level with researches being conducted world wide and lately, academic writing, a trend that has become so rampant.

The internet is one source of volumes of current information. But with the proliferation of online businesses and millions of existing websites, and with many more getting added every minute, searching the internet efficiently is becoming a formidable task.

In this computer era, the need to use the internet to search for resources is not es-capable. Search engines are some of the most useful internet visitor should learn to efficiently use as they comb for information.

But we need skills to conduct an effective search. Before doing a search, it’s important to define your topic as completely and succinctly as possible. What information are you looking for from the internet?

With the exception of search engines such as Google.com, which will take questions in the form of actual queries, most work best if you provide them with several keywords. So how do you determine which keywords will work best?

Your most powerful keyword combination is the phrase. Phrases are combinations of two or more words that must be found in the documents you are searching for in the exact order shown. When you use quotation marks around a phrase, you are telling the search engine to bring back only pages that include these exact search terms in the order you typed them. Use nouns as query keywords. Never use articles (“a,” “the”), pronouns (“he,” “it”), conjunctions (“and,” “or”) or prepositions (“to,” “from”) in your queries.

Diversity

Most search engines are insensitive to case: You can type your queries in uppercase, lowercase, or a mix of cases. If you use lowercase, most engines will match on both upper and lowercase. For general searches, lowercase is the safest form to use.

Don’t fall into the rut of using only one search engine for all your search needs. Every search engine returns different results. Google remains the top search engine on the internet followed at a distance second, Yahoo! There exists dozens of specialized search engines that are extremely efficient and innovative though not very popular.

The focus on a specific topic like business, law, or medical researches a geographic location, a target audience, or a specific file formats like pdf files. They search from only a few specific sites thus they often offer greater depth of coverage for a category that makes results narrower and more relevant. www.truveo.com is the search engine that helps you find video content from all video sharing websites like YouTube and most mainstream media websites like CNBC, BBC and Reuters. Truveo indexes web videos in near real time so you can safely rely on it for timely searches. 

Make use of the internet, It is there for you.

Life Reality

Love for our men and women in uniform

It is a profession that is considered a calling. It is one that demands a great determination and patience. Yes, working in any security force is a challenge. A challenge that only the men in uniform will know and understand. Civilians never know what the men in uniform go through. A uniformed officer will always watch over us as we retire to our beds at night.

The officers will have to endure harsh climatic conditions and most are the times they have to endure rain protecting our lives and property. And what happens when a uniformed officer is on the wrong? We throw all sorts of words to them. We criticize them trying to prove how inefficient they are.

Are these officers not human beings like us? Are they not our brothers, sisters, parents, children? Don't you think they deserve our love and appreciation? Whenever we have a problem we always run to the nearest police station, military camp and anywhere the officers can be. Ask yourself, how many times have you said hi to an officer in uniform? How many times have you offered the officer water to quench his thirst?

Lets be real. They are part of our community and are mandated to protect our lives. Lets show our love to them. Lets stand by them in fighting crime. Tribute to our fallen officers involved in the Kapedo massacre. May God rest their souls in eternal peace. Till we meet again our brothers.

A successful man will never see the day that does not bring a fresh quota of problems, and the mark of success is to deal with them effectively

(Lauris Norstad)

What ‘you look good’ really means.

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 don’t trust most people. In particular, I don’t trust old friends who I haven’t met for a long time and what they say about me during that unexpected meeting in the middle of the street. It is not such a bad idea, hearing people say they missed me (they never call, though) and how good I look. But when the fellow who is this is sizing me up, eyes fixed on my shoes, lingering on my trousers, taking in the shirt and never getting to my face, I get suspicious.

Get suspicious

I get suspicious because I always get the feeling that this kind of scrutiny has nothing to do with my wellbeing, rather an attempt to gauge how well I’m doing. Money- wise. In a town where the average guy has perfected the art of impressions into a career, I suspect that when a fellow is telling me that  I look good, in his mind he is saying something else. “Look at the shoes, this ka- guy has certainly gone down market… Shs1,000? More like it… The trousers, not that bad but seems somebody has really worked on them with an iron box… Looks the part of the suit he wore during my wedding 10 years ago… My, my… the shirt is definitely Gikomba.

At the point his eyes will land on my waist as he is saying, “Man, you look good” his mind is saying, “Dude, hit the gym and forget the high- waist, only General Defao can pull it off.” And it is not lost on me that when I enter a clothing store, the attendant will mouth a polite “welcome, sir” with her eyes quickly jumping from my shoes upwards. After the quick glances she will direct me to a certain section of the shop her mind having been made up. “As far as I can tell, this guy has never spent more than Sh1,500 on himself and it is likely that he will start today.

With that I’m dispatched to the back of the shop where Sh1, 500 is the average cost of items. A very thoughtful girl, she won’t have me waste my precious time looking at items I can only afford in my dreams. 

From my heart

IF ONLY WE DID NOT HAVE TO DIE.

The most wicked surprise in life is death”- Anonymous.

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his rings true to many of us especially those who have lost a loved one. Sometimes death does not surprise, especially when you lose someone who has been critically ill for a while. I think what makes it such a dreadful thing is the finality that comes with it. No more calls to say hi; no more dinner dates, no more fighting for the remote control, no more heart- heart conversations.

Knowing that it’s over and that chapter has come to a close albeit abruptly, is the ingredient that makes death so morbid. Losing someone dear causes a lot of emotions to surge through you. You feel lost, sad and depressed. You even feel angry; not to mention empty. No one likes to talk about death. Not me, not you, and not even the most spiritual among us because no one

wants to die. Even the suicidal ones do not really want to die. All they want is attention- to enable them live life longer.

I’ve been thinking about death and just asked God to let me die before my remaining loved ones do so. I feel I cannot stand to lose a dear one again.

The pain may dull but it never really goes away. My prayer is just but wishful thinking, I know. People die just as others are born. I am angry at life for disregarding order, and for taking the young before the old. I wonder why young people die, why children die.

I wonder why parents die, why mothers die. My heart went back into my teen years. I will miss out on sharing my life with my dear mother, and grandparents. Why did I have to encounter the pain of death at such a young age? I wonder. When you lose a parent to death, you get mad at life. You had such high hopes of what you could do once they get better. You feel for your other parent (If he/she exists) who you have been seeing struggle for his/her partner.

You feel sorry that their friend and confidant is no longer there for them. You feel sorry for your siblings who will no longer have a mother/ father or even both. Then the overwhelming sadness that your parent will not be there to share the rest of your life and the milestones therein hits you like a bolt of thunder.

The fact is that there’s nothing in this life that’s real than death, but at that very moment that it overwhelms you, God in His loving mercy sends you the grace you need to go on. To those who are recently bereaved, I believe that there is going to be sufficient grace to see you through your pain. For today, you are here. I hope this poem will talk to you.

 

“Oh wicked death, always hovering at the door,

Never wanting to go away,

Sometimes I think you have wandered afar,

Making me forget you temporarily

Then only too soon,

I hear you knock on the door.

Sometimes gently, sometimes hard.

Yet I never open the door for you

I never want to welcome you;

Almost never

Now you rob me of my love

Then you rob of my job and strength

But hold on,

Tomorrow I will rise above you

Tomorrow I will find it in me

To have the strength to go on

To have the GRACE to live:

For live I will

For to live is what I want.”

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered

By failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the great twilight that knows not victory or defeat

(Theodore Roosevelt)

Life is full of challenges. Everyday brings its couple of challenges and as a human being, giving up is the last resort. We ought to gain the courage to face each challenge as it comes. No situation is permanent and everything comes to an end. Determination is the key to attaining and getting through all this. Hard work and hope are the main weapons to counter challenges.