One naughty Easter Bunny



Happy Easter to you all. It's such a wonderful feeling that Jesus resurrected on the cross to the shame of the devil.

Isn't he/she cuteeee??? Aww!!



Hope you had a particularly splendid Easter weekend. I wasn't exactly sure what to blog about without being too religious and the like. I watched (on the television) a particular Easter Bunny (Human ofcourse) placing coloured eggs near coral reefs underwater as a game for tourists to search. It was a bit funny seeing a pink costumed scuba diver (complete with ears and fake fur) placing the eggs. 

FAQs about Bunny Rabbits

1. They live in warm fluffy places like meadows, forests or even holes.
2. They unfortunately eat their poo-poo
3. Their reproductive rate is very high. Infact, female rabbits have the ability to be pregnant again while carrying a pregnancy. Yep, it's true.
4. They are timid creatures.

Being part of the Easter celebrations is quite unique like the Santa Claus/Father Christmas figure during the christmas holidays. The Bunny carries eggs and candies to kids and is sometimes depicted in clothes; dating back to the early 19th Century.

Hope is the medicine for despair

Hello lovely people,


Nigeria has just concluded its presidential elections and now we have a new (still the incumbent) president. Some in the north don't like him because of tribalism and are currently venting their displeasure through violence.

Anyway, i checked my mail for any new mail and received this from a friend whose name is Tunde Hundeyin and he happens to be a motivational speaker. You can get inspiring articles at his blog at www.tundehundeyin@blogspot.com  Here's one you might find heart-warming.

MOTIVATION TODAY

...get going

"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated."-Sir Edmund Hillary.

Issue 54, Feb 2011

I chose to drop out of a MSc. programme sometime ago because I figured that the exercise was not adding any value to my life. My lecturers were so disorganised that they hardly attended classes and if they did, it was to sell their handouts, which of course added to students' bottom line at the end of the course!

They quoted the same books they studied as undergraduates and imparted no current knowledge or skill! Out of discontent, I opted out to follow my passion for photography. I bought my 1st D-SLR equipment, got trained, and today I'm happy, having added a veritable money-making skill to my life. I'm assured that I won't have to live from job to job, seeking to make a living with an unjustifiable certificate.

Life is a decision. It is the way you dream and work towards it. Live a fulfilling life.

Money follows people wherever they go and in an overly populated nation like Nigeria, money flows along people's path. Money-making opportunities abound and one must plug-in to discover how to trap this flow of currency. Your skills and ideas are necessary to create avenues of generating wealth.

The workplace is changing in such a rapid manner that graduates are now garnering skills and taking up vocations hitherto reputed to be practiced by illiterates and artisans. Professions like hairdressing, tailoring, photography, event catering and decoration are examples. In a few years, in fact, graduates who do not add an extra skill to their lives will be outdone by their skilled counterparts. It would make no sense not to get a degree but its only relevance would be just that and basic knowledge. Vocational skills would generate the currency you require to provide your needs. Spending decades on a white-collar job is definitely fading out as upwardly mobile executives are now looking inwards and creating the businesses of their dreams.

Usually, people find it Herculean taking the step of faith out of their comfort zones and zones in sync with public opinion. Below are tips to staying ahead:

Document your dreams: A dream is a stream of water; it flows away, never returning to its initial spot. A dream is a bird; it escapes on its wings so soon. The shortest pen is longer than the longest memory. Never underestimate the power of a dream, it has the capacity to bestow on you renown. Trap your hunches & visions down in written form as it helps you to crystallize your ideas.

Chart your course: Fill in the gaps between your current reality and your dream. What goals/steps would take you into the future you crave? Design an action plan and be disciplined enough to follow the path.

Get a mentor: Find an accessible & experienced person from whose wealth of knowledge and experience you can glean. You must be teachable, willing to serve and ready to pay the price.

Get informed: Go to school. Read books/journals. Attend seminars/conferences/workshops. Google it! We're in an information age, you know? Information increases exponentially by the second. What you need is as close to you as the next click. Appropriately interpret what you read, hear, see and perceive.

Pay the price: Every prize has a price tag. The national anthem says: "The labour of our heroes past..." People become heroes as a result of their work. Work hard and smart at your dream. Subject yourself to physical, spiritual, financial, mental and social discipline in congruence with your dream. Be consistent, strategic and deliberate in your approach.

Keep the end in focus: Discouragement is bound to try your belief in yourself. Courage is the antidote to fear and doubt. Fix your eyes on the distant image in your telescope. Superimpose your future in your mind's eye, never giving it up to momentary challenges. Your difficulties have a shelf life, if you'll hang on; you'll have what you desire. Hope is the medicine of despair so, be patient, consistent and you'll climb to the top of your dream.

Never seek significance, rather seek destiny. In seeking your purpose in destiny, you'll find significance. Those who seek significance find it only to lose it so soon.


Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin II



(The picture has nothing related to the topic but i just love those cute cuddly puppies. Awwwww!!!)

Thank God it's friday and other gists

A bizarre incident occured last weekend. A male neighbour on my street was scheduled for an appendisectomy on sunday morning. So, he got ready and proceeded with the surgery. Then in a twinkle of an eye, he was gone. Now, i don't know whether the anaesthesia was improperly administered or he just blacked out like that. The crux of the matter was that the man died. He was the bread winner of the family and the only son.

What amazed me was the sudden burial a few hours later. To make matters even more intriguing, the man's body was still warm. WARM. So, could it be, that he was still in a medically induced coma and the doctors failed to realize that he might still be alive (probably with a faint but sure heart response)? Anyway, he was buried withour further ado.

Then comes the intriguing part: The family were upstairs and the generator was switched on. After hours of service, the generator switched itself off for 15 minutes and then switched itself on again. The family scrambled out of the house in fear that probably the guy's ghost was hunting them.

As funny as this may sound, it still bores down to the fact that this was a tragedy. The man was 24/25 years of age with a prospective future which was cut short by a doctor's negligence and the speedy burial which could have been much later in order to ascertain whether he was truly dead or not (either through revival or autopsy to determine cause of death).

I am not a know-it-all but this to me, is despicably wrong and morally unjust. The medical facilities need a serious review. It's no wonder Nigerian and other African politicians travel in a whiff of smoke to have medical treatment for something as ridiculous as a headache. I have lost a fellow colleague in my former workplace to hospital negligence for an appendisectomy. I also had mine in 2004 and the supposed stitches that the nurse had removed were still in place and i had travelled for NYSC. I was just lucky that i realized in time to have it removed (all of it).

People in Western countries with access to quality medical care do not value or rather appreciate the value of what they have.

On a lighter note, thank God it's friday. And for my curious peeps, my ankle is 90% healed. Have fun. Don't drink and drive and Nigerians, your vote is in your hands. Vote wisely because i do not want to hear complaints thereafter.

Thank God it's friday!!!

Nigerians tomorrow would change the tide of time by preparing to vote in tomorrow's parliamentary election. And it's a frenzy here. The government has placed a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on movement today. Why? I don't know. But what i do know is thank God it's friday.

In a dramatic turn, i got to work my usual time at 7:55 a.m and usually, we have a company sponsored breakfast of bread and tea. So i reach out for the jam in the fridge co-joined with the water dispenser and a glass bottle immediately rolled out and BANG the shards of glass and liquid flew everywhere. I froze on the spot as i surveyed the damage that had occured until i saw blood. It dribbled from my ankle. It was really gushing. Yet i didn't feel pain. My colleagues scrambled to administer first aid before i was taken to a pharmacy where the gash was properly treated and i was given anti-tetanus injection and antibiotics (it wasn't deep as the wound was directly on my ankle bone but the blood was profuse) before being whisked back to the office.

So, i walk with a plastered leg at the moment and not happy that i am starting my weekend on this note but notwithstanding, it's friday. And with fridays, it means generous hours of movies and sleep and food.

Happy weekends everyone.

Love/sex scenes from a writer's point of view

I remember when i started writing very amateurishly in my teens and i wrote my first romance book. That book was very controversial in my high/secondary school. Not controversial as in transgender stuff but about hot, raunchy sex between two consenting adults. And i attended a christian boarding school. Can you imagine the sex scenes revolving round a 14 year old girl's brain? It was enough to make a monk smile and say Yee-Ha!!! (Cowboy exclamation).

It's not that i was a corrupt kid. I was this shy and extremely reserved girl with an overactive, throbbing imagination trying to get unleashed with such viciousness. The title was Gritters on your door. I don't know what gritters means even today but i smile when i remember:

My friends teased the hibbie jibbies out of me as the book passed from one skinny hand to the other (we were so skinny, it was unbelievable). Senior students scrambled to have a read of this awesome book. I was never so embarassed in my life as they poked fun of the sex scenes which was a collaboration of ideas i had gotten inspiration from books, movies and sexy female comic characters (Wonder woman, Poison Ivy etc). Yet, that book was hotter than a Mills and Boon sex scene at the time when it was still conservative.

Now, it's a different ball game. My new WIP is a Category Romance. As i sit in front of my laptop, happily orchestrating the rhythm of the alpha male and heroine, through lots of sexual tension and all other intricacies, i get to the part where they make love and i can't help but reminisce on the yesteryears where i might have huddled in a secluded corner to write, lest i get the teasing of my life and be labelled an immoral creature.

I do not feel bad that someone will read my work, infact i am more than happy to share (except my Dad reading it, though) and it's more emotional than some bland fluid mechanical movement like a scene from a porno flick. However, some great tips on creating a sensational love/sex scene (in my view) are:

The scenes must exude love.

The reader must feel the passion.

It must be genuine and go with the flow.

Lots of detail yet not too much in order to stir the reader's imagination (Think of a lady in a sexy one piece swimsuit and one in a sexy teeny weeny bikini. Which would you prefer?)

Dialogue is also important and a little dirty talk is not bad depending on whether its just a simple romance or an erotica.

If as a writer, you don't feel it, it's also very likely that your readers won't feel it.

Before writing any love/sex scene, the chemistry and body language between the main characters is very essential as its supposed to be romance and not a man-soliciting-sex-from-a-prostitute rigid plot.

And please, don't mind these words Love/Sex as they do mean two different things that interchange with each other.

If you're a romance writer, please comment on how easy or difficult it is for you to write your love/sex scenes.

No Strings Attached Movie Review

I decided to showcase a movie today instead of chalking it to the Movie Reviews section of my blog. This week’s review is NO STRINGS ATTACHED directed by Ivan Reitman  and starring the cute Natalie Portman and prankster, Ashton Kutcher. The movie is very much like a novel sequence with a detailed plot and I can’t help but wonder if the writer of this screen play is also an author.

The movie opens on the two characters in their childhood, with Ashton’s character, Adam, depressed with the divorce of his parents and a reluctant Natalie’s character, Emma,  holding his shoulder. Years later, they meet again at a college frat party. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t watched the movie…yet.

Ashton played his character well but I honestly thought in some scenes (like when he was desperate for sex and was calling all girls on his phone log) he would burst out laughing, because of his comedic nature. Both characters also pulled off their first sex scene, as the camera revealed only their faces. But in a subsequent one where a male roommate knocked on their door, for disturbing his porn flick, they resembled body doubles and the camera shot from an aerial angle that hid that little teeny weeny piece of information. What I couldn’t understand, was why Emma was afraid of commitment when it was obvious Adam wanted more than just sex (which to any guy, it would have been a voluntary match made in cloud nine).

It also didn’t help when she didn’t rescue him out of embarrassing situations like when he told her she was beautiful after their first rendezvous, during her hang-out date with a fellow doctor colleague.

The part I didn’t like was when the bespectacled Lucy threw herself on Ashton. (Why must bespectacled girls be un-attractive?) I burst out laughing when the phone interrupted their smooch-ville episode and Lucy stood looking like an idiot with her bra exposed while Adam’s own was still on.

Above all, the film was sweet and utterly predictable which is the norm with romance. Also, a lot of focus was on the raunchy scenes than on the story itself. Why did Emma believe that there was nothing like Love? Was she traumatized in previous relationships? The film failed in that regard. However, my favourite part in the movie was when the estranged lovers meet at the hospital and she was about to run and embrace him and he said with tears in his eyes:

“Wait. Don’t come any closer. Because if you do, I won’t let you go forever” And they embrace and kiss. Awwww!!! The more realistic part was also when they show the new couple chowing down on food after they reconcile; which shows a very realistic portrayal of coupledom as its not all swashbuckling swords and purple linens.

Go get your DvD if you haven’t watched it in the cinemas.

Ever tried songwriting?

These days, more and more songwriters are bursting into the writing scene, writing short but melodic verses for the singer that would render it. I haven't done much research on it but i guessed that too many aspiring writers stick to writing books and do not ''adventurize'' outside the box.

I think it's even more lucrative than book writing and not to mention, less stressful. You don't have to go through the exhausting process of submitting, querying, synopsis, getting rejected, re-editing and so on. But getting the appropriate channel through record producers that will buy the song, might be where the challenge lies. And just imagine the tons of royalties gotten if the song becomes a hit. But if book writing is your passion, then write on.

Yet i feel song writing is a totally Pantser-ish way of writing yet it must be carved into a plot of Verse 1, Verse 2 with rhythms, a bridge sometimes and the anti climax. It must have tons of emotion and depth in order to appeal to the person being sung to.

I got my inspiration for this article from the hit song GRENADE by Bruno Mars.

The song is really emotional and it...made me cry.

Put so much zest in a song and when the singer sings or performs on stage, you'll see people swooning or even fainting (apart from the singer being cute!). LOL.

So, have you ever tried songwriting?