OF EXAMINATIONS

I started this blog intending to always be around, writing atleast once every two days. quite an easily achievable feat, but then there is this concept of examinations. They take us away from our other commitments, rob us of our sleep and unfortunately they still find a way to trample on our esteems and personal confidence at times (especially when you refuse to heed to their commandeering demands). So by now I guess you have already figured out why I have been absent from what is supposed to be my new love. Examinations!!

The subject of examinations is something every one has an opinion about depending on who they are and what they do in the society at large. Let me try and give you what some of the various categories of people of interest may think or have to say concerning examinations.

Firstly, lets take a students perspective, obviously because I am a student. To a student, the reaction without a doubt is, 'why examinations?' They may be construed to be nothing more than a punishment for who knows what (being a student?) Why would lecturers and our professors teach us and not believe that we understood them? Is it that they have that little faith in us or that they doubt their teaching skills? One more thing, why do they use materials while teaching and then go ahead to prohibit us from referring to ours while answering questions they had to refer to materials before asking? What happened to being fair?

Secondly, lets try and fit into the teacher's shoes. In their capacity as scholars they believe examinations are the only way they can be able to tell whether we, as students, have the capacity to grasp the concepts taught and apply them accordingly. Flash that crap!! As teachers they only try to intimidate us, make us believe them the heroes, that they still know more than we do. They are out to punish the instances we missed lectures because we were cool enough to know that the hottest artists were performing in town or that hollywood was at its best again. Since when did being cool become an offence?

Finally enters the parents and guardians. To them examinations are to show and prove how good kids we make, how we are attentive, respectful and on the verge of achieving the very best in the society. They want what is best for us, and how else can this be achieved than by getting the straight As? You must be the dumbest person in that examination room if you believe that, and your lecturer knows it and is probably already celebrating. What your parents want is self satisfaction that they did their part and did it well, and for you to leave their house and stop asking for allowances and there is no better way of solving this for the long term than having you pass your exams, get a good job and fend for yourself. It is also an additional source of retirement benefits. So when you graduate and you see your parents happy and all, try and find out the root reason.

Now that you know the real reasons behind examinations like I do, I am not asking you to rebel against exams, ensure you pass them, for the right reasons though. It is not an offence to be cool, but it will not be cool when you still ask for allowances from your old retired parents when you are 35 years old. Another thing, prove the teacher wrong, show that you are equally good if not better. As for you parents they deserve their own-time, so find yourself out of their house even before graduation if you can. Plus, they deserve atleast a treat to a holiday trip from you and even better a comfortable retirement life.

Three papers down, four to go for me in this semester's examinations for me. All the best of luck for those who are in it with me, currently or at any other time. 

   

MONDAY BLUES

When a Monday morning kicks off in a weary manner, then the prospect of the whole week becomes scary. You do not know what to expect and when. It is more like operating in a vacuum, where you do not know or feel anything, all you do is pray that the wheels of time turn faster so that you get to Thursday again.

I am not sure how you spent your weekend, but all I am sure about is that nobody quite enjoys their Monday mornings. Somehow we all would like to wish away Mondays, get them totally expunged from the calendar. It would be fallacious, at least I believe, if anyone was to claim that they always enjoy their Mondays. However, some would, depending on how they spend their weekends, look forward to Monday.

I would not say I had a busy weekend, that would be a lie, but then again that might just be the reason why I did not enjoy this particular Monday. Maybe a glimpse into how I spent my weekend would come in handy in convincing you to join me in this campaign where we officially hate Mondays. This is not a journal I am doing, so for my own good I will leave out all the ‘juicy’ details and hope that it is one of those moments where curiosity and suspense makes you remain locked on my piece of literature.

I am not sure when your weekend begun, mine started on Wednesday morning, picked up on Thursday and by Friday it was over the roof. I know that contradicts my earlier statement of me having a not so busy weekend, but then again who said you have to be busy for you to get over the roof? The details of Thursday and Friday I will have to minimize since they fall under the ‘juicy’ category of which we are not venturing into. I do not drink either by the way, in case you are wondering or expecting to read a drunk’s confession.

So on Thursday my acquaintances and I (text missing) … then on Friday I had to wake up at 7 o’clock in the morning because I was to be settled down by 8 a.m. to acquire some knowledge on Equity (by the way, did you know that equity aids the vigilant and not the indolent? Mmmh) Then came my good professor with his theatrics on Trial Advocacy (again, text missing)… before you know it I was having a sweet (‘juicy’ details withheld) Friday night.

Saturday! A good day on the calendar, never disappoints, unless it is off season in the major football (yanks prefer soccer) leagues. After my sweet (‘juicy’ details withheld) Friday night, it was inevitable that I was going to wake up past 8 a.m. Ooh! I almost forgot, I received a phone call from a special friend asking me to help out with something, so I rushed out of bed, into the shower, got dressed up and set off. It was quite more disappointing for me that I did not offer that much help, than it was for her.

However, we cannot allow my unfortunate incapacity towards my friend’s request derail us from the main issue. The day was set to be a much more eventful day. I was also caught up in the football web and on this particular day I watched Gor Mahia FC on the one hand, unfortunately lose the Kenyan (Tusker) Premier League title, while on the other hand, Tusker FC (yes…tusker) deservedly retained the same. That was a highly predictable game by around the 30^th minute, so I might have been disappointed as a Gor fan but I would not really say I was hurt. Then across the borders came a more entertaining and unpredictable game. Some well known devils in red came eye to eye with certain villains; it was a bad meets evil turn of events.

To cut an ‘evil’ story short, you do not easily get rid of a devil, especially when it is in red. Sunday, I woke up to a pancake promise, rushed to say my Hail Mary and within a couple of hours the pancakes were history (whoever wants to rid the world off the amazing me should simply spike my pancakes). Later that day… I still think old Harry Redknap was the man for Spurs, the boys lacked their usual self-belief and drive. So that was a boring game, it was much better when time came for an astonishingly improved Chelsea side who were up against the see-sawing Scousers. You cannot mention Liverpool and fail to talk about their natural cheat and cheeky number 7, (of course I have never forgiven him for Ghana’s exit from World Cup 2010). Then another (‘juicy’ details withheld) night capped my weekend off.

After all those activities, mind you I have not revealed the distance covered and kilo joules of energy lost in between, I was still expected to be up and paying attention by 8 a.m. So I dragged myself out of bed to mark the end of another sweet (‘juicy’ details withheld) night. The difference between this one and the others was that it led to the dreaded Monday morning. The dreadful day that should just be scrapped out of the calendar (I wonder how many signatures I would gather in support of a petition to that effect). Monday Blues, that’s what I call it because as I sat there looking drowsy and feeling awful, I could not pay attention to my lecturer. It was Monday Blues, and this is what I was writing during my Property Law Lecture…oops!! My lecturer might just be one of those who get to read this, I have to go study, let us wait for the next Monday.

PAWNS.

We might get to think that we bear a sense of control over our life, the fact that remains evasive of our grasp is that at times we are mere pawns on this chessboard of a planet. We get set loose from the onset, out to open the attack, devour all that is in our path. We have our adrenalin levels pumped up by pep talks similar to what is given to athletes right before that final match. Our sense of loyalty strengthened by the fear of being letdowns. We become loyal and blindly psyched into fighting other person’s battles, mere mortals believing they have been elevated into immortality.

The main point of concern however, is not the possibility of being mere pawns, rather it is the fact that even as mere pawns we do possess the ability to define, change or maintain whatever trend the game was taking or was to take. A pawn might be considered by many as the weakest, most appropriate piece when it comes to offering sacrifices. This is not an entirely misguided notion. However, for the glass-is-half-full kind of thinkers, the importance of the ‘mere pawns’ becomes much more elevated.

Power has been defined in various many ways, the most appealing to me being that power is the ability to define phenomena and make it act in a desired manner. Therefore, by influencing the action, no matter how slightly, of anyone or anything, power is being exercised. The holder of power may also be anyone or anything, thus you can be shocked at how easily you could be turned into the subject of power held by the most unexpected of things or people. I place emphasis on things because it is easy to be in denial of the power that things can exercise over us. For instance, alcohol may make one behave in a certain way, there then, that person becomes the subject of the power held by the alcoholic beverage.

Back to the issue of being but mere pawns in life, it is easy for one to be weighed down by the thought of being such minute pieces on the board. However, pawns have the ability to define a game and put it on a certain course, and therefore with this ability, pawns do possess power. Once one holds power, never mind the amount, then that person cannot be useless. Pawns therefore with the seemingly little power they wield cannot be useless.

Another point worth noting is that about power is that it is also reliant on numbers, it increases proportionally with numbers, at least in most cases. This is as suggested by the notorious saying that there lies strength in unity, or unity is power. Back to the chessboard, you will notice that pawns are the many of all the pieces. They may not be all that powerful but the little strength they possess is sort of magnified by their numbers. If moved with a little wisdom, the pawns can terrorise the opponents.

Conclusively, the gist of this all is that we should never downplay the power that anything or anyone wields, no matter how unlikely to possess power that person or thing appears. Similarly, we should never allow any kind of intimidation to come from anyone who believes that we are powerless. We are of the ability to define phenomena and make it act in a desired manner, we are of power. Whenever we are faced with any challenge of which our powers and ability seem as limited as the pawns’ and our chances of success appear minimal, the mere thought of giving up should not even cross our minds, instead we should seek solace in the reality that pawns do determine and dictate the pace and technicality of the game. Unity should also be key, knowing that it is highly unlikely that two or more will fail in the same challenge when their thoughts and ideas are consolidated.           

THEN CAME THE MASTA.

A thought that has been circling my mind for ages, well okay, ages is a little far-fetched because I am actually too young to have been around for ages. The point is that I have had the desire to blog making circles in my head, something like a vulture eagerly awaiting the fall of he who was short of luck enough to find himself in the middle of a desert, without water. Imagine the beauty of that horrible scene when he actually drops and the sky scavengers’ king comes swooping down for him. Oops an oxymoron. Well, point of the matter is that I have wanted to but had never actually taken the initiative, but here I am now.

You can never know the depth of a lake until you actually drown in it, very sadist. However pay no attention to that, take it as lightly as you would a blind saint walking onto a road with a loaded lorry oncoming at full speed. So I might have the ability to write, one of which some might have elected to term as a talent in my composition writing days, but there is only one way to find out whether it is ordinary writing or it is indeed MastaWRITE. Anyway, I have already decided to title my blog as such and am not changing it any time soon or any time at all, (it is an ego thing by the way). So I will not deny the fact that am biased when it comes to myself, so I will willingly subject myself to the not so attractive idea of letting others pass judgement on my case. Ooh, and because the law also requires that I observe the rules of natural justice, in this instance ‘Nemo judex…legalese…legalese…legalese. I am sure you get the point.

I set out to obtain the necessary resources to pursue this new course of literature, I did not get sophisticated super high-tech equipment though, nevertheless, I still expect to be able get some sort of consideration out of this. Think reimbursement. Let us not focus on that, not just yet. This may end up proving that I indeed have a talent, so when that happens we’ll say that my buds have blossomed into beautiful (insert favourite type) flowers. I am not the type that will get satisfied by the flowery aura only, so the pretty little things must go all the way up to fruition. It is after I have tasted the fruits that I might consider the elusive notion of satisfaction, okay I might let one or two get to taste the fruits, but nothing is as sure as the confusion that the egg and chicken argument presents. Let us just conclude by saying that there will come a time I will want to have the ‘make money out of your blog’ to be more than an option in my blogger settings.

So there has been in existence a lot of bloggers, authors and many other forms of people who seem to have had me beaten in the race of making money out of words, however, I’d like to proudly pull a life-is –a-marathon line on them all. They made it here first but the point is that I am now here, you can never have an improvement of anything without having experienced the inferior version of that thing. They came, they saw but they never conquered (I have always wanted to use that line). Therefore, I am here aiming for nothing less than conquering that which they could not. Will I achieve? Let time be the judge this once for there is no limitation of actions when it comes to success, its sweetness or lack of it is always the same.

However, one cannot make it to any height without the support of his fellows, both positive and negative, so show a brother some love (or hate) to ensure he gets to some level. There are many out there who do a marvellous job when it comes to formulating ideas out of words, enjoy their works but always have the amazing masterpieces that I intend to present in mind. They are good, they had the confidence to challenge, they have done so and others have surely impressed, but then came a new erra, then came me, then came the Masta.