Help...my professor is aweome

Not only is he involved in some interesting research...
his views are making me rethink my faith, not in the sense that I am becoming atheist(urgh) or agnostic (eeww) rather, it is giving me insight as to what the original judeao founders of Christianity must have felt.
Every day we learn something new...maybe there is no such thing as witchcraft...maybe Tolkien got it right, we do not know what happens to man after he dies, we are only making stuff up as we go along in life so we have no fear of the after life instead have some sort of hope that the after life may be better.
Does that make me any less smarter than my fellow scientists?
No, i don't think so, rather it is the hope that there is something better out there for me that keeps me going. It might not be "god" per se, but there is a force that drives us to be what we are, a force that I aspire to be with someday, a force that I believe I am part of...this force lives in me, lives around me encompasses all that I do, this force is me, this force is God...
God because there is a lack of a term to describe it...
We were made in his image, hence I am a god to, here on earth but when I leave here I would like to answer to him, and I would love that in that moment it will be a conversation of love.
Sometimes, I think I am Christian because I was born Christian, and I look at what Christians are doing today...appalling all in the name of faith.
Why can't we live and let live, why must a religion be right or wrong...if we all believe in God why can't we all find him in our own special way
this isn't agnostic propaganda I like to know where I stand...as of now...
I believe in God...I believe that when I die I will be caught up to some higher plane to be with him...all this depends on how I spend the time he has given me here on earth..I hope I spend it well..instead of bickering about whose religion is right or wrong...

oh excerpt from my professor:
Dr Roderich Tumulka
researcher in physics at the Mathematics Institute at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Paranormal phenomena do not exist

The single most important scientific discovery, most relevant to everybody's daily life, is that paranormal phenomena do not exist. Magic, witchcraft, mind-reading, clairvoyance, faith healing and similar practices do not work and have never worked.

There is a large body of very strong scientific evidence for this conclusion, concerning virtually all suggested forms of paranormal phenomena. For careful discussions of this evidence, I refer to the sceptical literature.

The degree to which the public is aware of this evidence, and has accepted and digested the conclusion, is often far from satisfactory and varies a lot from one phenomenon to another. While in Western countries everybody laughs at the idea of witchcraft, belief in astrology is quite widespread, and the efficacy of prayers - say, for health - is hardly ever doubted.

It makes a crucial difference for our lives, whether we imagine ourselves to be surrounded by supernatural beings and happenings or whether we see ourselves instead in a world that science can help us understand. Many scientific principles, concepts, or discoveries need not be understood by the public, despite their importance - they need only be understood by the experts. The question of the paranormal is different, in this respect.

This is really happening

1 U.S. dollar buys 1 million Zimbabwe dollars on black market

The Associated Press

Thursday, October 18, 2007

HARARE, Zimbabwe: The black market exchange rate for the U.S. dollar broke the 1 million Zimbabwe dollar mark Thursday and the government announced another sharp jump in inflation.

Worsening hard currency shortages more than doubled the price of the U.S. currency in the past 10 days, pushed up by central bank buying on the unofficial market, dealers said.

"People are asking for a million and getting it in big bank to bank transfers. Cash for cash is anything above 750,000-1," as the country faces shortages of local bills, said one dealer. "Technically, it's still illegal."

The official exchange rate is 30,000-1. In the first week of October, the black market rate surged to about 520,000-1, up from 400,000-1 in mid September.

"There's too little foreign exchange out there and too many chasing it," including the central bank, said the dealer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being punished by the government.

Those with foreign exchange "don't want to part with it as a hedge against inflation," the dealer said.

Lengthy power and water outages linked to shortages of hard currency, spare parts and gasoline occur daily.

Travelers returning home to Harare from shopping trips for soap, cooking and other basics across the country's borders have reported central bank buyers at the downtown bus terminal offering top black market rates for leftover U.S., Botswana and South African currencies needed to pay for food, power and gasoline imports.

Police raids on currency dealers at the terminal have stopped.

Central bank governor Gideon Gono said in a policy speech this month that his bank saw the terminal as a source of hard currency and that the official exchange rate was all but obsolete.

The state central statistical office announced official annual inflation rose to 7,982 percent in September, up from 6,592 in August, already the highest in the world. Independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000 percent and the International Monetary Fund has forecast it reaching 100,000 percent by the end of the year.

According to the monthly statistical review Thursday, the poverty line for a family of five nearly doubled to 22.6 million Zimbabwe dollars (US$22.60, €16.25 at the dominant black market exchange rate) in September, amid rising prices and rampant black marketeering in scarce staples. Most essential goods that have disappeared from store shelves.

A senior school teacher earns three-fourths of the benchmark for poverty — about US$17 (€12), having received a 200 percent pay increase awarded after a crippling strike closed down schools across the country earlier this month.

A regular police patrolman takes homes less that US$5 (€3.50) a month.

When available, a can of beans costs about 60 U.S. cents (about 40 euro cents) at the black market exchange or US$15 (€10) at the official rate.

In a bid to tame inflation the government in June ordered prices on most goods and services to be slashed but relaxed this as it merely worsened already chronic shortages. On Friday, the government allowed a 300 percent increase in the price of a loaf of bread.

An estimated 4 million Zimbabweans — one-third of the population — live and work abroad and their remittances are the largest single source of hard currency. Zimbabwe was once the region's breadbasket and Africa's second largest exporter after South Africa.

pour qoui

I think I should begin blogging about sorority stuff. Here is goes.

This past weekend, we didnt do the Engineering frat instead we went to DSP for an outdoor party...I made out with a hippie ouch.
Rocket got the spawn of hippies they went home together so the odds are they hooked up nice.
Young as classy as she is I'm not sure she got the guy she wanted but I do hope she did (love you to bits luv)
KD was also at the party I wish he was the hippie I made out with hot hot hot
Sunday...I spent 4 hours with Jack Sparrow there might be some flames, thats fine by me I hope the feeling's mutual
Monday...hooked up with the cigarette guy :) but he said something about ebony and ivory...uncoolI'm not looking for something with him I want Jack Sparrow
Had a chat with Melva about a Latina who gets on our nerves...I love the mc but she can be a cougar at times. Apparently someone doesn't think I should have a little, well I say I can't be bovvered, Goldie is sweet and we get along unlike Aussie and myself meh drama
Told the cigarette guy I am bethrothed, he hasn't called since (hmm) I better ell him the truth he might be thinking I am a tramp.
Rocket actually hooked up with the Jamaican, she didnt enjoy it :( so much for me trying
Football game this week, mixer with DSP with an after party, maybe hanging out with the awesome PSR girls...I hope the cigarette guy knows we are not exclusive because I really want Jack Sparrow.

Learning to fly as you fall

The normal human instinct when spending a weekend with over 20 people whom you would on a good day not be around, is to stay in a closet and hide.

When put together in one place, most humans tend to make the most of it. It might be to disappear into a closet, or to bring out the best in everyone around you. When you are with like minded people eg, Engineers like I was, then you aren't too shy to bring out the goofiness, then talking about the frequency at which your brain functions isn't considered dorky rather it is the norm, I think in such cases if you don't understand what is being spoken about you are uncool (take that cheerleaders lol I have love for cheerleaders one of my friends is one)

But my point is, no matter how seemingly different we think we are, innately we are the same, striving for recognition and approval by our peers and other people. Once we understand we are constantly being watched that drive to prove ourselves comes out in full force, and when given the chance to relax we always take it.

I love engineers, I love engineering...I do love the Rutgers university engineering governing council for teaching me the bit of life that stereotypical engineers will never understand

I'm Leaving on a Jet plane

Yesterday I got news that a relation of mine died from an auto mobile accident.
God rest his soul
So this is going to be a tribute to Nelson Okubor

You were taken for granted while you were alive
With your funny suits when it was time to party
The horrendous mistakes you always made
The little things you did that made us laugh
The things you did that made us mad
For being there through good and bad times
Always a loyalist forever,
We miss you.
Too bad I never got to tell you
But Agbor was never the same when you were not around
We won't get to yell Nelson again in this life
But by God's grace we will meet in heaven
And Nelson will be said joyfully from our mouths.
Rest in Peace Nelson Okubor and may God grant you eternal rest in his bossom

And So It Begins

Officially I will be moving back into the dorms today...or maybe tomorrow I haven't really made up my mind.
Am I excited? Of course I am, seriously who wouldn't be
However I think I might be getting a new roommate, boo....hopefully she doesn't bite else I might be forced to bite back.
It is 3:48 am for some reason my brain seems to think it is 9 am...after effects of jet lag i suppose, but even though I am up, I am still kind of tired...hence I am not saying much now, but hopefully when I head out to Rutgers later today, there will be an enormous tale to bring back but until then, good night and good luck
cheers.

indecent dressing of my arse

is that how you went to the island today? in a little dress like that? don't you know you could have been arrested by the police for indecent dressing?

seriously that's what i was told, that my sundress was to short and too umm sexy for Lagos state government.
the ruling party in Lagos state AC is supposed to be relatively liberal in comparison to PDP where my allegiance lies only because.. but i digress. AC is supposedly liberal so my thought was oh prostitution will flourish in Lagos now that these Yoruba men have been freed from their bondage, no more do you have to be a big man to bear the cost of Eko girls of the night. Unfortunately the case is not so.

now the government is dictating what i can wear and what i cant wear.

• my breast shouldn't be exposed (well i don't even do that anyway because i am soooooo conscious of how small they are and all these big chested friends of mine always steal the show so why bother :-D)
• my skirt shouldn't be more than 3 inches above my knees (ha ha you have to be kidding me the only skirt i own that isn't a wrapper barely comes to my thighs, why because my legs are my best assets why hide my talent that had been given to me by God? if my legs can cause people to glorify his name why shouldn't i use it...OK that is borderline blasphemy but seriously...if i recall rightly the ancient Africans didn't even wear clothes until the Europeans came so where did this propriety come from?)
• my make up must not lol cause any one to stare...seriously i wouldn't want that to happen, because that can only mean that i look like a clown...I'm not a fan of make up any way so that is not my problem.
• no tight fitting clothes...OK i am a size 0 if i wear a size 2 i am pretty sure people will wonder if i am wearing my mothers clothes or not, and how else will i show that i have a few curves and i am not all just skin and bones?

i don't remember the rest, but last time i checked, i wasn't a national of some Shariah country that dictated how i was supposed to live my life, very soon i will be told i cant drive a car, or i cant have a job because I am a woman.

and you know what grinds my gears none of the so called dress code in anyway is addressed to the male population...i mean i think any man that dresses shabbily for instance if the length of his tie doesn't reach his belt then he should be arrested for indecent dressing, that is a gross fashion crime. If his sleeves don't come to his below his wrists he should be made to serve serious time, if however his sleeves come down to his palms, then he should be given life imprisonment, because i think fashion is serious business since that is the way the government wants it...

this is my logic, if a size 16 lady dresses up in clothes meant for a size 4 then she is constituting a public nuisance because that is just plain disgusting, no one wants to see her rolls i am sure (yes i am against those fat women who say fat is beautiful and all that nonsense to help their low self esteem...FAT IS WHACK LOL) if such a person is found she should be apprehended lol

and if anyone is found wearing Christian Dior and Coach at the same time...omg bring the person to me so i can punish him or her, you don't mix french fashion with American...so not rad!

my point is simple, i don't live in the middle east where women's lives are dictated, presently i live in the 21st century where i can do as i please go as i please and say what i please, why do we always have to allow society to dictate the way we look. our fashion should be an expression of our inner self...if today i feel like a baby and i want to go out naked because i mean babies do come into the world naked...i should be allowed to do so. If i feel like being a slut for a night...lol i should be allowed to look like one.

it is these same politicians who make these laws that still go around raping unsuspecting young women and then wash their hands and tell me what to think and what not to think...no i wont have it, just as i wont have a pastor tell me how to live my life...but that is another topic on its own...cheers!

women have been emancipated we shouldn't allow loneliness of the need to belong tie us down and send us back to the stone age...and no i am not really a feminist i just do like feeling stripped of my rights...

PS this so called indecent dressing blah blah is not in the federal constitution, if you are a human rights lawyer get at me we could do some damage to fashola and his holier than thou wife.

a bien tot

So Long Sweet Summer

It has been a wonderful summer and now it is coming to an end...
reminds me of the song by Dashboard Confessional that goes

So long sweet summer
I stumbled upon you you and gratefully basked in your rays
So long sweet slumber
I fell into you now you're gracefully fading away

I was once described as emotionally inept...:(
but at this point in time that so does not describe me, in fact emotions are overwhelming me, that is not to say I am as emotionally unstable as a pregnant woman, rather I am in perfect control of my emotions just that urgh I dont like controlling emotions take over my time which is exactly what is happening.

I remember being in primary school and reading sweet valley high, Elizabeth and Todd's summers were always perfect because i dont know, it was fiction? People dont spend the entire summer gazing at each other and saying sweet nothings to each other, life just doesnt work that way. And if it does it never lasts that long...as is my case :(

Like something out of a Harlequin book, girl sees boy and has her insides in a tangle...boy notices girl and girl nearly implodes...haha


and as i am sitting in the plane looking out through the window during take off, i will be thinking of him and singing

hey thanks, thanks for that summer
its cold where you're going
i hope that your heart's always warm
i gave you the best, i gave you the best that i had...
So long sweet summer
i stumbled upon you and gratefully basked in your rays
so long sweet slumber
i fell into you, now you're gracefully fading away

United States of Africa...?

I have never met the new president of Nigeria...Umar Yaradua, but I happen to know two of his nieces from the late Musa Yaradua. They were good girls pretty liberal Muslims yet I didn't know what to expect from this newbie who cut his teeth in many powerful positions including being a two time governor of Katsina state being one of the 6 governors who was never mentioned as being a thief, simply for that feat I commend him.

PDP must have known what they were doing when they nominated him as their presidential candidate and even though he won through questionable means, I doubt the Nigerian masses will not be pleased with his term however long or short it may be.

So far since his term began, there has been a strike by those silly members of the labour union, protesting the fuel price increase from N65 to N75 , after they embarked on their five day strike that crippled the nation El president negotiated with them till the present price level N70 (I don't know how many of these labour union members has lived in the UK or the USA, fuel prices are ridiculous, no one complains they just buy more fuel efficient cars ).

Recently there was the African Union assembly i think during this past weekend, where some funny heads of state led by Col Gaddafi decided they wanted to form a United States of Africa.
As erroneous as that sounds I don't think they were in the right frame of mind when they cooked up that notion. Have they been country to country to note the disparities between peoples cultures, modes of life, standards of living etc? I have seen first hand what amalgamating over a 100 different tribes can do to the stability of a nation and then you want to bring in people who kill their siblings into the same fold as people who have been displaced by these same folk? I say no.
El president made this speech and from now I will not see him as a hausaman with all the fitting stereotypes but now i know he is a president and he has done right by me for ignoring Gaddafi's ramblings:

“our perspective is mediated by the critical need at this point in our continent’s developmental process, for the nations of Africa to focus more on the strengthening and consolidation of internal governance and growth structures, and on more robust regional integration.
“Focus on inter-regional collaboration is equally critical especially considering that all the five regions of Africa face essentially the same challenges of poor infrastructure, inadequate energy, endemic poverty, and the twin bane of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
“Conversely, these issues, along with the challenges of conflict, disease and poverty, drive the imperative for us to present a united and common front in the global arena. There is strength in the synergy that is only possible from functional unity.
“This brings me to another critical variable in this debate: the degree of our commitment to our continental body and the essence of our Africanness. To the extent that we continue to subscribe and owe more allegiance to extra-continental bodies to the neglect of the AU, our steps towards functional integration will remain faltering.”

It shocks me that during the entire time, no one spoke of the crisis that is Darfur, I know the former president Obasanjo rallied peace corps to help out the black Sudanese who were being butchered by the Arab Sudanese but the situation hasn't changed if African leaders can sanction these Sudanese people a lot of things there will change, how can they these African leaders championing a unified government, champion a cause when one of the key disasters facing Africa cannot even be smoothed out.
They didn't even speak about Zimbabwe and the nonsense Mugabe is turning that country into.
You cannot eat your cake and have it too. Deal with the present problems and maybe then we will condone a talk about unification which brings the question...who would have been the first leader of the United States of Africa, Col. Gaddafi...LOL I mean he calls himself the soldier for Africa, well he is a terrorist, we shouldn't allow terrorist to propose a unification because you know what that means, it means a Jihad. Personally I love Africa and I don't want to be displaced because some crazy fanatic that wont even allow democracy in his own country proposes a unification that threatens the well being of my family.

I am here in the USA studying to make my country great like the USA not for some madman to broker an idea and destroy everything I stand for...liberté,égalité , fraternité something Col Gaddafi and his yeomen do not know.
The road to recovery does not start until we can remove the leeches on our skin, when people like Gaddafi, Mugabe, and those wicked Sudanese Arabs are gone, then we can talk.
PS I don't support a United States of Africa, never will. Thank you Yaradua for stalling because the next time this topic is approached someone will get a piece of my mind.

post picnic

"did you drunk dial me last night? haha awesome!!!"
i have only lived three years of my awesome life in the US but why is it that drinking, getting drunk is somehow the norm.
my logic is that it is because of the stigma people place on drinking that influences these bad habits. I mean when you look at countries that have less stringent drinking laws the number of drink related accidents is relatively lower, the prevalence of alcoholism is relatively lower, drink related crime s also low.
which brings to mind the era of the prohibition, not only did gang related crime and smuggling increase, the consumption of alcohol also increased. flashback "the forbidden fruit"
i think there is something innate in us that attracts most humans to things that are considered taboos. I mean you watch tv and are bombarded by commercials of condoms, practising safe sex, in churches they drum abstinence into your head and what happens, a lot of girls who end up pregnant grew up in the church, does this mean that she didnt learn anything in the church, no i dont think so, i just think that whenever doing something is given a stigma of taboo, people practising it and not thinking of the repercussions increase.
i am anglican never in church have heard a sermon that smoking or drinking are sins, it usually is along the lines of tthey are bad for your health but when i go to pentecostal churches like the ones in the US they say smoking and drinking are sins....sreeeeech
rewind, where is that in the ten commandments?
im not a fan of smoking, simply because i dont find it attractive, and my grandfather had some sort of throat infection before he died, he pretty much croaked for a year and change before God eased his pain. so yes smoking is bad for your health but calling it a sin....omigosh
drinking on the other hand, i dont understand why it is a sin, Jesus turned water into wine for his mother...if it was a sin...dont you think his mom would have known after all it was her righteousness that made God choose her to bear his only begotten son.
why cant society stop telling us the hings we should so and shouldnt do, the thigs we should wear and not wear, the places we should go and not go? why cant we all just live by the golden rule do to others as you would have them do unto you.
for example (mind you i have nothing against fat people) those fat girls who dress up and have all their guts hanging...disgusting, humans should not be subjected to seeing that, which is why i dont show off my guts even though i am what society refers to as underweight...not only is it unattractive, it doesnt show any self respect in the ladies who dress that way....
i'm going to leave of here when i get back from my exam i'll do more writing.
cheers

little children

Hey Hey

today I attended a church picnic, and my goodness was it interesting.
first I was constantly watched so i would eat...apparently some people think I dont eat like a Nigerian aka i am too skinny to be nigerian...bleh
then i got to hang out with the little kids ie the ones in high school now, and dear dear it was some degrassi stuff going on.

apparently one guy called out a girl on her extensions...erroneous, guys should never ask girls if their hair is as long as...well the extensions she has on.
while that drama was going on...some other guy was trying to spit game to another girl..and my goodness did he cook up some interesting stories.

it amazes me that he's trying to ask miss thing to be hs gf because as i was told two weeks ago by the youth pastor's wife, there is an unspoken rule that the kids in the youth group arent allowed to date AT ALL!!!

so while this was going on, the stereotypical black baptist family began yelling at kids to begin to clear up..in this day and age, you cannot i repeat cannot yell at me to do something i dont want to do.
this is why there are little kids, they are meant to clean up after the older ones, not that i have a problem with cleaning up but if i have to do it ask nicely dont freaking yell and expect me to do anything.

which brings me to my point tonight:
Why are your stereotypical african americans rude. is it in their nature to never regard anyone with any respect?
I mean the way i was brought up was that respect begats respect. respect isnt a right, it is earned. So how can these people who dont have respect for themselves expect to be accorded any sort of respect.
Growing up i was always respectful to my younger ones, apparently here it is supposed to be the other way round, but when i compare the relationship with my siblings to the relationships of african american siblings, there is always a huge difference.
and this whole judgement thing how is a young man going to tell me in church that my skirt is too short (well it wasnt said to me but to a girl i know)...is it innate in african americans to always be in other people's business? mind you i am not racist, but today the african americans i interacted with pretty much characterized these stereotypes...but umm i have an exam to study for now...i will do best to study and with that i bid you adieu for the time being.

First things first....

Since I live in the US nowadays I only communicate with my parents via phone...well today happened to be interesting, I was speaking to my mum about doing something with her ipod and I told her to speak to my sister when she gets home concerning the ipod (my sister goes to boarding school)

The woman I love to call mother said my sister was home due to the ongoing strike, teachers and students alike couldn't get to school and so it had to be shut down.

In this day and age people still strike over oil price increase? I'm pretty sure there are more things t be worried about, like Global Warming (el oh el).
Seriously I resent these labour unions because they are striking over an increase from N65 to N70.
If I recall properly fuel prices are almost at $3.00 here in the US and that is over 300% more than the proposed increased price.

Yes there is the talk about difference in standards of living and whatnot but do the masses realise that at N70 the fuel price is still being heavily subsidized?
It angers me that every time there is a strike in Nigeria, it is never the people in power that suffer-yes a few people may get yelled at, ostracised once in a while-it is the young students who are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow that suffer.
And then these same labour union leaders send their children to schools abroad so as to not be affected by the machinations of their parents...hypocrisy if you ask me.

Well right now I am reading a Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin...it helps me to zone out of the mess this present generation of Nigerian leaders are creating, watch this space because very soon it will be known as the blog page of the President of Nigeria.