Mgbala Agwa Blogathon!

Last words from one of my best authors

2004-07-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. -
William Blake, Proverbs of Hell

bee

Thanks Everyone / Mange Tak

2004-07-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to everyone . You have been wonderful. I loved the comments . Please keep sponsoring us . Without your support ---
Fatima you are a great team player .See you Fatima next year ,, same time same place!

Blandina / Bee

Thank you & goodnight!!!

2004-07-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we are in the last hour of our twenty-four hour blogathon. We have raised approximately $424.72 which is really really good :) We would like to thank all of our sponsors & people who helped us out before we fall asleep. If this makes no sense, please forgive us.

Blandina would like to thank:

Rene Hansen: Mange tak Rene . Jeg elsker dig meget!

Shings: Nephew , what can I say. Thanks for donating your pocket money

Many thanks to the following people from Fourways Complex:S.A for their little but humble offerings.
-Kate Beck,- Kyln Albert,-Mercy,- Bill and Bridget

I (Fatima) would like to thank:
Audra - not only for really generously helping us out today but because she has helped us a lot before and her incredible kindness is really, really appreciated

Drew - for sponsoring me, but especially for telling others about our blogathon and giving us great encouragement and thoughtful comments

Allison & Billy - for sponsoring us but also for being really encouraging

Phil - for sponsoring us and encouraging us and who will be doing his own blogathon soon

Cara - for sponsoring me and actually being awake for more than half the time this went on for <3

My parents - who wre really generous

And we would both like to thank:
Angie: for writing posts and keeping us company xx

Pam: for contributing too and being so sweet

last but not least... Nduka: for making MAYF possible and telling us lovely stories and telling us that he loves us :)

If anybody is reading this and hasn't, you can still donate money (see the side), and the other MAYF team will be doing their blogathon next weekend, so...it's not really over yet!!

THANK YOU EVERYONE. You have really made a difference because this money goes straight to the people who need it, and I think that is a good thing to know :)

Beautiful words

2004-07-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

This was posted by Nduka as a comment , but i think its so inspirational. Hehe I'm sounding like one of those feel good gurus

I saw a new phase of the ever smiling moon as I looked up the sky,

With a gorgeous beauty that gladly glowed
Wearing crescent in a concave curve,
Reminding all again of her newness come, sandy spinning looks for us,time to wash off starcy hands that gum from plate.
And that life has come to another curve.

I reviewed my wishes and counted my blessings,
And then I resolved as I prayed by wishes made,but the day comes and never wants to go,seeing a man breaking firewood send me guessing ,how moon was made

Obinna will rather give me his fish from the watery soup of grand ma ,than to miss the moon game.we joke till the break at dawn with nothing but mamas folks.I remember the tortise tricks when they visited her friend inlaw in heaven.
Tortise said his name is all of you,when his friends inlaw brought food,tortise will ask,who is this food for and they will say,all of you.tortise will eat all the food,so was it till the visit end,and his friend recovered their wings from tortise.
tell me how tortise came back from heaven?
Nduka Ozor

12:04 PM

what is a melody

2004-07-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is dedicated to my former music classmates. I still have the notes on history of music . I also think the time is also great for music lessons to keep us awake.

Melody

A series of musical notes arranged in succession, in a particular rhythmic pattern, to form a recognizable unit.

A series of musical note arranged in succession , in particular rhythmic order . pattern , to from a recognizable unit
Melody is a universal human phenomenon, traceable to pre-historic times. The origins of melodic thinking have been sought in language, in birdsong and other animal sounds, and in the crying and playing of young children. The early development of melody may have proceeded from one-step voice inflections through combinations of such small intervals as minor 3rds and major 2nds to pentatonic patterns (i.e. based on a five-note scale) such as are found in many parts of the world (including some quite highly developed forms of Western art music where they often serve as a basis).
The concept of melody differs widely across cultures. One might compare the intensity of detail in an Indian raga with the austere lines of Western ecclesiastical chant, or the static, repetitive melodies of Japanese noh plays with the expansively lyrical lines of a Schubert song or the motivically generated melodies of Beethoven. In some cultures, specific melodies are associated with particular texts, as in Japanese noh plays and Western plainchant. Most melodies display patterns of rise or fall, of motivic patterning and of final cadencing that are specific to their cultures. Often such matters are related to the key or mode in which they are cast, which is likely to dictate their final note.
Melody is traditionally considered, along with rhythm and harmony, as one of the three fundamental elements in music. It is an oversimplification to regard them as independent,however. Rythmn is an important element within melody itself, not only because each note of the melody has a duration but also because larger-scale rhythmic articulation gives shape and vitality to a melody; while, at least in Western music, harmony often plays a fundamental role in determining the contour and direction of a melodic line, and the harmonic implications of a line of melody may accordingly give it life. Ideas of what constitutes a melody, and in particular a beautiful melody, are constantly changing in Westem music; almost every generation has criticized the next for producing music lacking in melody when it is simply that ideas of good melody are changing - a point strongly made by Richard Wagner in Die Meistersinger (1868) where, incorporating melodic ideas from the mastersingers of the 16th century, Wagner opposed the conservative Beckmesser, who believes in a set of rules for the composition of melody, with the young knight Walther from Stolzing, who has a new, imaginative idea (as Wagner felt he did himself) of what melody can be. In vocal music, from the time of the medieval troubadous through the song composers of the late Renaissance and the composers of bel canto opera , melody has always been of primary importance, and it remained so particularly in the Classical and Romantic epochs, in instrumental music as well as vocal. The breakdown of the tonal system in the 20th century, and the freer use of chromaticism and large leaps, has made melody less easy to apprehend.

Source
Grove Concise Dictionary of Music

The African Treasure

2004-07-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Proverbs mean a lot in African culture .They are a source of education in several aspects of life. I grew up with proverbs and have just remembered some of them during this count down!

1.Let the guest come so that host may benefit - East & Central Africa (Swahili)

2.The wasp says that several regular trips to the mud pit enable it to build a house- Benin, Ghana, Togo (Ewe)

3.Water that has been begged for does not quench the thirst--- Uganda ( Basoga)

4.One who enters the forest does not listen to the breaking of twigs in the bush --- Zambia ( bemba)

5.A tender bamboo cannot be eagerly desired ( for building ) Malawi (Chewa)/Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia (Nyanja)

Bee

Count Down

2004-07-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi
We are now approaching the last 3 hours . So near Yet so far !

Bee

ANother poem... and only 3.5 hours to go!

2004-07-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

DARLINGS, BY CHARLES BUKOWSKI

a world full of successful people's
sons
on bicycles
on the Hollywood Riviera
at 3:11 p.m.
on a Tuesday afternoon.

this is what some of the armies
died to save
this is what many of the ladies
desire:
these stuffed fractions
non-beings
pedaling along
or stopping to chat while
still seated upon their bikes
gentle breezes touching
undisturbed faces.

I understand very little of this
except maybe the armies killed the
wrong people
but they usually do:
they think the enemy are
those they are directed against
instead of those who
direct them:
the fathers of the darlings.

- Fatima

Random Facts Number Two!!

2004-07-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

1. Some Latin words/phrases:
carissime = dearest
pro di immortales! = heavens above!
o me miserum! = o wretched me!
nauta = sailor
hiems = winter

2. Claude Debussy's parents owned a china shop

3. Vivaldi spend most of his time teaching at a children's orphanage

4. Australia has more than 50,000 different species of insect

5. Piaget studies claim that young children do not possess the cognitive capacities needed to develop certain social skills such as developed eye contact, taking turns in speaking, and measuring a conversation partner's competence, knowledge,interest and skills. This seems a bit obvious.

6. By the age of 3 months, an infant can distinguish between its mother's voice and the voice of other females. (Really? 3 months?? I thought it would be sooner...)

7. Many roads in England still follow their original Roman routes.

- Fatima.

Fun (i.e. random) Facts Number One!!

2004-07-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

1. Experiments with captive eels show that they can navigate by the stars when traveling, just as some migrating birds can.

2. The loud noise you hear from cicadas comes from the special circular membranes they have on either side of their abdomen. They snap these back and forth to make a 'pinging noise'. Eventually they do this extremely rapidly and in concert.

3. Male and female birds both sing to attract mates. Studies show that males with more complex songs attract females with simpler songs, and vice versa.

4. Opium is the source of all natural narcotics.

5. Opera has been ongoing in China for centuries, but the first Peking school of opera modelled on Western methods was established in 1930. It did not have a huge impact.

6. The second most common cause of disease related death in humans are those that result from abnormal cell growth, i.e. cancer.

7. Ethiopia has existed in some form as a nation with identifiable boundaries for 2,000 years.

- Fatima.

Things I could learn all about just by reading the books we have at home (possibly part 1):

2004-07-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

- The Hittites
- Clinical psychology
- Organic chemistry
- Japanese
- Indonesian
- Restaurants in Spain in the 80's
- Black Theology (?)
- The entire animal world, thanks to the Encyclopedia Brittanica Animal Enyclopedia

Fun facts coming next, my friends.

- Fatima

Tricks to stay awake Part 2

2004-07-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

I must start doing my monthly budget
Bee

Tricks to stay awake

2004-07-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

I will now unpack the 400 or so books still in boxes in our basement from when we moved here two years ago, hehe.

We have a lot of chemistry books.

- Fatima.

I doubt anyone who loves the man is reading this, but...

2004-07-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

Pam's last post (Louis Armstrong) has filled me with weird joy. I can only provide something delightful in.. another way.

Dictionary creates vocabulary for a future without Bush
Posted on Sunday, July 18 @ 09:31:28 EDT

By Hillel Italie, The Associated Press

NEW YORK - If you have never dropped the word "dubyavirus" into casual conversation, urged that an official be "ashcrofted" or commented upon "The Cheney Effect," then you haven't seen the future, at least the future according to McSweeney's.

The ever-expanding genre of anti-Bush books has now entered the reference field. Coming in August from McSweeney's, the publishing house founded by author-activist Dave Eggers, is The Future Dictionary of America, a Utopian tome set "sometime" beyond the present.

Contributors include Eggers, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Franzen, Wendy Wasserstein and more than 100 others. Proceeds will be donated to "groups working for the public good in the 2004 election."

"The dictionary was conceived as a way for a great number of American writers and artists to voice their displeasure with their current political leadership, and to collectively imagine a brighter future," reads an introductory note from the editors, who include Eggers and novelist Jonathan Safran Foer.

The McSweeney's dictionary includes new words such as "dubyavirus" and old words such as "environment" with new definitions. Most of the entries are political. Some are philosophical, some simply playful.

Author T.C. Boyle offers definitions of "environment," including "a conceptual space, like the airspace over Iraq, which will create a sucking void if not filled to repleteness with high explosives."

Under the entry "dubyavirus," Thisbe Nissen imagines that President Bush has been indicted as a war criminal, thus ending "an aggressively invasive and tragically widespread disease." Another fiction writer, Paul Auster, defines "bush" as "a poisonous family of shrubs, now extinct."

In homage to Vice President Dick Cheney, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides invokes the "Cheney Effect," reserved for "the manifestation of personality changes brought on by the reception of a transplanted organ, usually the heart."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is the basis for "rumsfeld," defined by Vonnegut as "one who can stomach casualties." Attorney General John Ashcroft inspired novelist Robert Coover to coin "ashcrofted," when one is "removed from or disqualified for public office on grounds of religious delusions."

Daniel Handler, known to young readers as Lemony Snicket, gives us "fraudeville," in which "white-collar criminals were punished by performing tricks live on stage." Eggers has fun with "lactose intolerance," which he predicts will be cured in 2005 by one Ronald Frame, who will receive a "Nobel Prize and a tricked-out Camino." Franzen, author of the award-winning novel The Corrections, invents "the silence parlor," a soundproofed cafe "equipped with noise-cancellation technology."

Stephen King contributes "sloudge," his term for the endless political opining on cable television. "Most sloudge," King writes, is conducted by "overweight white men" seated around "shiny tables" and mouthing off against the liberal state.

Sample usage of sloudge, a la King: "The President's press conference was followed by over three hours of sloudge on MSNBC and six hours of sloudge on Fox-TV."

Some liberals, too, receive entries. "Dean depression," named for failed presidential contender Howard Dean, is defined by short story writer Ken Foster as "the surprising and illogical defeat of a populist candidate." Cartoonist Art Spiegelman contributes "ralphnadir," which is "the lowest point in any process," so low that the process must be changed.

Some examples:

The ralphnadir of America's unrepresentative two-party system led to the establishment, in 2012, of our current proportional allnite-party system."

He ralphnadired their relationship when he condi-scendingly denied that he'd cheneyed their joint account."

From Associated Press:
http://www.sltrib.com/arts/ci_2377614

- Fatima

What A Wonderful World

2004-07-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

by Louis Armstrong

Album : Louis Armstrong

I see trees of green, red roses too.
I see them bloom for me and you,
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white.
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night,
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands, saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, "I love you."

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow,
They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
Oh yeah

Going nuts

2004-07-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

My friends are worried about my state of mind.I'm just a little tired but i'm ok.If noone donates within an hour, for sure I'll go nuts.
Someone do something before i turn into peanut butter

Bee

The Humorous Side of Positive Thinking

2004-07-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

1. All of me is beautiful and valuable, even the ugly, stupid, and disgusting parts.

2. A good scapegoat is nearly as welcome as a solution to the problem.

3. As I learn the innermost secrets of the people around me, they reward me in many ways to keep me quiet.

4. As I let go of my feelings of guilt, I can get in touch with my Inner Sociopath.

5. Blessed are the flexible, for they can tie themselves into knots.

6. I am at one with my duality.

7. I am willing to make the mistakes if someone else is willing to learn from them.

8. I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are someone else's fault.

9. I need not suffer in silence while I can still moan, whimper and complain.

10. Just for today, I will not sit in my living room all day watching TV. Instead I will move my TV into the bedroom.

11. My body is a temple. Do you want to come over for midnight mass?

12. Only a lack of imagination saves me from immobilizing myself with imaginary fears.

13. Becoming aware of my character defects leads me to the next step – blaming my parents.

14. I am grateful that I am not as judgmental as all those censorious, self-righteous people around me.

author unknown

Job Evaluations

2004-07-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

Next time at work write your own job evaluation and let the boss sign!
1. "Since my last report, he has reached rock bottom and has started to dig".

2. "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity".

3. "I would not allow this employee to breed".

4. "Works well under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap".

5. "When she opens her mouth, it is only to change whichever foot was already in there".

6. "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle".

7. "This young lady has delusions of adequacy".

8. "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them".

9. "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot".

10. "This employee should go far - and the sooner he starts the better".

A great man was born 86 years ago on this day

2004-07-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Mr Mandela. Our thoughts and love are with you. We love you.

From the queen of Africa and associates

Bee

Serious stuff

2004-07-18T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm really feeling abandoned! Are my posting really boring ! I'm trying so hard to loosen your pockets. Still calling for afternoon donations . Someone has to do something .A promise is a credit .See u tomorrow those who promised me.Its not a threat but a friendly warning!

Yours truly
Africa queen

Stories

2004-07-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Stories ? Is it a dying art. i'm just inspired by Nduka 's story .But who has the time for stories if there is blogathan ?
Don't ask me
Bee

A story as told by Nduka

2004-07-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

Nduka says:
there is this Lion that has been growing in the mist of sheep
Nduka says:
The lion do not know of any other environment except that community of sheep
fatima says:
ohhh
Nduka says:
they go out to feed in the field
Nduka says:
each time they will be pursued by Lion
Nduka says:
and the Lion sheep will run away with the sheep
Nduka says:
,this happened for several periods
Nduka says:
one day the lion sheep looked at the lions that used to pursue them
Nduka says:
when the lion got home that day
Nduka says:
she looked at the sheep,and looked at her self
Nduka says:
she said to herself,wait a minute
Nduka says:
I look like those things that pursue us
Nduka says:
.So the next day,the lions come again roaring when the sheep went to look for food
Nduka says:
and the lion sheep did not run away,while the sheep
Nduka says:
took to their heals
Blandina says:
hectic stuff
Nduka says:
the Lion passed the lion sheep without harming it
Nduka says:
Then the lion sheep said so..I am a Lion?
Nduka says:
and from that day she discovered her group
Nduka says:
that is the end of the story
Nduka says:
But it has a lesson to learn from
Fatima says
fable
Nduka says:
Until you discover who you are,your potentials
Blandina says:
I love stories
Nduka says:
you will always be a prey to others

told by
Nduka

Here is a graphical representation of all the films I have watched tonight. Not including the weird documentaries.

2004-07-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

If anyone can guess what they all are - yes including the one with the name written on it - they get a prize. Or something.

- Fatima.

Here is another poem

2004-07-18T04:32:00.000-07:00

pity the monster, ee cummings

pity this busy monster,manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim(death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
-electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend

unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born-pity poor flesh

and trees,poor stars and stones,but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if-listen:there's a hell
of a good universe next door;let's go

---

In other news, I'm starting to get a stomachache now and feel really weird and cold. I've stayed up longer than this before - but never with the concentrated idea of staying up, so maybe it's some psychological thing. In blogathon time, we are now into our 13th hour (of 24). But in real time, I have been awake for about 19 hours. 19 hours is not a lot compared to the majestic three days I've been awake for before, but this time I can feel it... damn.

- Fatima.

Prozac Nation

2004-07-18T03:56:00.000-07:00

This article is interesting. If the movie does come out, I know I'll see it, and I feel that I should read the book before I see the movie.

However, Prozac Nation is one of those books that you feel you should read but so many people have talked about it and it's so much.. everywhere that you don't really want to read it. As well as that, it is really the kind of book I should have read when I was fifteen or sixteen, along with all the others I liked back then... The Bell Jar, Girl, Interrupted, Catcher In The Rye, etc.etc. Reading it now would be like going back to that sad, woe!-filled, teenage place and I'm not so sure that I want to do that.

It does look interesting... but it does look overwrought at the same time. A little too typical, maybe, though I can't say that because it is a real person's experience. Somehow though when things are just as they should be they become more detached from whoever is reading them. I don't know if that makes any sense.

Has anyone read this book? What did they truly think? I've only ever heard one person's true opinion, really.

I think it's just one of those cases about hearing of something so much that you're already sick of it before you go near it.

I like the title though. It always amazes me to think that a whole country could be running on the working of a population wired and stuffed with anti-depressants.

- Fatima.