Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? I do

Sitting in my home, I heard Tina Turner’s hit song ‘What’s love got to do with it‘ playing from a random direction and when it got to the part where she asked ‘Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
I answered ‘I do’ to myself 🙂

And here’s why:

I relate to her story and probably why she wrote the song and it makes a bit of sense.
No woman deserves to be hitten or abused.

But we are love beings.

Matters of the heart does not refer to the hollow muscular organ located behind the sternum, between the lungs in man.
It is connotative.

And so, I need a heart…

>Because, I want to remain human. A real human has SYMPATHY as one of the emotions embedded in him as a software by his creator.
Emotions distinguishes man from animals.
It is not for sale.
With sympathy and other emotions, I will not wish another what I will not wish myself.

>Because, I want to remain sane. If I cannot wish others what I wish myself, I can inflict harm on them and that is mentally unhealthy.

>Because, I want to see a baby smile back at me when I smile at him

>Because I want to be hugged without thinking if my hugger has a knife in one of his hands

>Because, I want my EMPATHY mode always activated.

>Because by default, my heart can pick up vibes! Manufacturers’ defect lol
So, if you think good, it’ll pick it up. It helps me in picking good friends from bad ones and people with good intentions from people with bad intentions 🙂

>Because, without it, I can’t pray for Nigerian leaders.

>Because, the bible says I should love my neighbour as myself

>Because with it, i can agnise nature in its purest state and believe that all of nature is interwoven.

>Because, amongst hundreds of other reasons, if anything happens to this heart I hold so dear, protect and nurture, if it breaks, it can be mended, healed, renewed, restored and made whole.

Thank you for reading.

Priscilla Esuku
© 2015

*You wan celebrate my birthday?

We always feel we make the right choices. That’s why we do the things we do.
But the consequences of our actions are the real determining factor as to whether our choices were actually right or wrong.

At the bank, last week, a certain woman was ranting about how that bank was useless and that she wants to close her account there.
Ok, a young lady walked up to her holding a form in her hand and asked the woman her date of birth.

She said ‘1957’.

Then the lady asked for the day and month.

And in a petrifying outburst, the woman shouted *“wetin you wan carry am do? You wan celebrate my birthday?”

There was mixed reaction in the room. Some laughed so hard, some gazed in utmost wonder, some mumbled under their breath and some voiced out their anger.

Seeing that the woman came clothed in rage and restlessness and terribly reeking of trouble-fragrance, there was an attempt to lenify her. But oh! It fuelled her up like she was just getting started!

Anyway, my busy schedule didn’t allow me see the end of the real life movie as I had to leave.
I would have loved to know the end sha 🙂

There are bad days.

No denying that fact.

But maturity would teach us to curb our anger and put our frustration in check.

Certain days, when all seem to go wrong,
I cut short my day and all its event, go somewhere quiet. Home is ok. But a serene atmosphere here is the goal, like the beach.
I lay everything aside.
Close my eyes.
Blank my head.

That’s the difficult one!

Because when you close your physical eyes, your brain opens up the mental eyes  and memories come flooding in like a rush and in one moment, you could have breezed past twelve years!

Hold it! It’s controllable. It takes practice to briefly shut your mind down. Or you might just end up with a migraine.

So, blank your head… the feeling is like when you’re in a room choked full of people and one after the other, they leave the room. Until you are the only one left!

Do not doze off!
I repeat, do not doze off… Lol
This is fact o 🙂

In  a few minutes you would have calmed down. You could pray. Because you are not in control of all the forces in the world so it’s wise to mentally consult a One, higher than you; a tamer of forces.

As you approach tranquility, you might want to finish your day with family or loved ones. Persons who believe in you.

Next day, start your day with prayer and a smile.

You’ll discover that even nature does smile back on her believers.

Thanks for reading.

Priscilla Esuku
© 2015
*wetin you wan carry am do? – What do you want to do with it?

*You wan celebrate my birthday? – Do you want to celebrate my birthday?

A look into the story of the Tower of Babel from a chemist’s point of view

One of the most amazing stories of all time is the account of the Tower of Babel, a biblical story in the book of Genesis, chapter eleven, verses one to nine (Gen 11:1-9).
I wish to give a breakdown of the story from an amateur chemist’s point of view and its moral lessons 🙂

Let’s go!

Verse one: Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
Verse two: As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
Verse three: They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and bitumen for mortar.

Ok, let’s refresh our memory a bit…
When crude oil is taken from the ground, to separate it into useful components, it undergoes fractional distillation, a technique that allows it to be separated into fractions with same number of Carbon molecules.
The lighter gases like the cooking gas are gotten first, then the gasoline which is the regular fuel for our automobile, then naphtha, kerosene, diesel and finally bitumen etc.
I want you to understand the chemical strength of bitumen which is a black, tough, viscous, low melting solid that forms (water)-resistant adhesive surfaces! And used on our roads with coal tar
Mortar on the other hand which is a mixture of sand and a binder eg cement with water, is used in masonry.
Used in covering wall or holding building materials.

Now imagine using bitumen as tar to plaster a wall made of fired bricks of clay!
Ahaaa! You’re thinking what I’m thinking 🙂

Verse four: Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

A tower that reaches to the heavens!
They sure did have high aspirations and enthusiasm.
You know this reminds me of the elementary geography I learnt many years ago about the atmosphere having 5 layers: Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. You know, it is the exosphere that escapes into space or should I say the heavens?
So, would I be wrong to replace the phrase “the heavens” in verse four with “exosphere”?
That is like 10,000km above earth o!
🙂 seriously, they would have made history with the skyscrapers before any mention of the wonders of the world.
God himself knew they would have.
Verse five: But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.
Verse six: The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
Verse seven: Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
Verse eight: So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Verse nine: That is why it was called Babel- because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Oh dear!

(If you want a theological review, please see your pastor 🙂 )

But so many lessons to be learned here:

• No creation can outdo it’s creator– verse eight
• Unity is strength– verse four/six
• Language unifies– verse one
• Migration can only end when your current position is your comfort zone and your comfort zone is heaven!– verse two
• Communication is key to establishing any relationship– verse three
• The bond of unity is a fertile ground for love to grow on– verse four
• God is all knowing, all powerful and ever present– verse five/seven/nine

Version used is New International Version (NIV).

Thank you for reading.

Priscilla Esuku
© 2015

Yet to find

I found out different ways to laugh
My baby girl came into this world
Oh! I laughed
My enemy stabbed me in the back
I laughed too
Differently

I found out different ways to cry
My brother got his visa after trying thrice
Oh! I cried
My friend told me she has cancer
I cried too
Differently

I am yet to find out different ways to love
I got my heart broken
I loved
I get my heart a newbie and
I’m climbing in love too
But it doesn’t feel different

Why?

Priscilla Esuku
© 2015

Naivete

Dictionary palava!
Lol that’s a synonym for Naivety 🙂
Check it out-

naivete :
(n.) lack of sophistication or worldliness; naivety; naiveness; (opp. of sophistication, worldliness, mundaneness, mundanity)
So, I talked with a lady in her late twenties  and was shocked when she revealed that she didn’t know about contraceptives!
If she was pretending, I don’t know but I kinda believed her though.
And the way she went about it was like, it’s good she doesn’t because she’s a good girl!
And I’m like, what??? So, I’m bad?!?

Now, I’m writing this as a typical Naija (Nigerian) lady and in this territory, really, such a girl is termed as good.

Great!
I told her to clap for herself.
She laughed.

Hey! Please get this straight: Being good and being naive mean two different things!
Knowing about sex doesn’t make you bad, it makes you aware and informed.
That’s what education does for you.
That a teenager knows stuff like that doesn’t mean he or she is bad.
It’s about knowing the limits of information you suck in necessary for your age and environment.
Five minutes discussion and I can tell a good child from a bad one. Anyway that’s a topic for another day.

There are topics that aren’t everyday topics and are very easily misconstrued like sex, love and relationship issues. Mere talking about it can cause you a slight embarrassment.

The adventure of Pangel: Letter to my ex (1) is an excerpt I published here not too long ago and that got some persons asking and thinking very off.
Infact, when I asked a dear friend if she reads my blog, she replied ‘yes, I saw you and your boyfriend wahala’.
Disappointment is not the word to convey my feeling because she obviously did not read to the end to grasp a little of its message. The dictionary doesn’t yet have the word that describes how I felt.
Ladies, please be informed about sex and sex related issues. You don’t have to be spoilt or ‘practise sex’ to know about it.

There’s a word called READ.
All you need is read about it. Get information about it to avoid paying a high price for your ignorance.
As one of my lecturers did say, reading is arm-chair traveling.

Thank you for reading 🙂
Priscilla Esuku
© 2015

Happy Sunday lovelies

I want to wish you a fruitful and productive week.

Mike Murdock said ‘If you’re not solving a problem, then you’re a problem’.

There have been times when we were other peoples’ problems. But this week, look for a need and meet it.

Solve (a) problem(s) and see the satisfying smile on someone, the kind of smile that gives a sense of fulfillment.

Lastly, Priscilla Esuku (lol that’s me) said ‘The joy of living is knowing you’re not alone’.

Meeting a need is akin to sowing a seed and your life consists of people, such that you can never successfully be an island.

Have an awesome week…

Priscilla Esuku

© 2015

Circled Cycle

Happy Independence to my lovely Nigerian readers.

You know, In everything…

…the right way is seemingly old-fashioned, but the old-fashioned way is still the right way.
Anytime.
And everything about life is a cycle!

[You’re allowed to take time to ponder on the above statement]

Man must be busy.
Man was created to be busy, hence the advance in technology and invents of patents.
He has made everything easier down to brushing his teeth. There’s the dish washer, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, computer, car, aeroplane and so on.

But in time past, our fore-fathers lived in huts built with their own hands, go to the farm and toil for their daily bread, married wives who wake up in the morning to sweep the house AND environment, I mean the entire surrounding every morning.

Cook everyday and had no freezer to store her food.
Raised at least a dozen kids on her own without house maids!
Walked long distances to the market to display their wares for sale.
They weaved their own mats.
Every woman made good use of the needle and thread.
Every single condiment the mothers used in cooking was prepared from scratch including the palm oil and salt.

Do you know hard work??? 🙂

But today the gym is the solution to all the laziness birthed by technologies’ easy life.

We’ve succeeded in making life easy but have had to build machines and devise means to expend the very same excessive energy stored while allowing our machines work for us.
Isn’t this a wonder???
Everything that has had its season in recent time, has had its season decades ago:
-Fashion and her trends
-Automobile
-Telecommunication gadgets
-Household gadgets
-Technology

And so on.

It’s just a cycle…
All of it.

Priscilla Esuku
© 2015

“Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake”- Unknown source

This is one of the strongest quotes ever!

Every man and woman that has a future, dreams. Now, I’m not exactly referring to the nightmare kind of dreams. But to the aspirations and peep-into-the-future kind of dream.

Keep the dream alive!

One day. One very sooner-than-expected day, you’ll be living your dream. That’s what it means to be in your dreams awake. This is the truest life!

I so wish you well and will love to share in your joy. Much love and thanks for reading.

Priscilla Esuku

© 2015

In Which I Learn Why There Are No Great Women Composers

I enjoyed this article. I hope you do too 🙂

Now talk about eccentricity married to mundanity- Gemma Correll

The most ludicrous ‘about-me’ you’re ever going to read!

Let me first give credit to this admired wacko Gemma Correll for being different enough to balance the cosmos.

Source of About-Me-http://www.gemmacorrell.com/about-me-faqs/

If you’ll allow it, this should lighten your countenance.

Enjoy!

Hello, I’m Gemma.
I am a cartoonist, writer, illustrator and all-round small person.

I’m the author of – among others – “A Cat’s Life” (Te Neues, 2012),  “A Pug’s Guide to Etiquette” (Dog N Bone, 2013) and “The Worrier’s Guide to Life” (Andrews McMeel, 2015). You can find out more about my books and comics here.

I publish my “Four Eyes” cartoon at GoComics.com and at The Nib on Medium.com
 I also draw a monthly Skycats cartoon for the Emirates Airlines Open Skies magazine.

My illustration clients include Hallmark, The New York Times, Oxford University Press, Knock Knock, Chronicle Books and The Observer.
Am I currently taking personal commissions? – YES / NO

——————————

What other people are saying about my work …
 “wtf. worst cartoons ever!” – Luc Walker of Australia
“I don’t understand this new illustration trend that’s… just bad pen drawings … at least put effort into things not pen doodles” – Gabe, from Twitter (and also, Australia)
“… ugly, pig-faced drawings … ” – Angry Canadian lady
“How is this funny? Like at all?” – Mariah (location unknown, but I’m guessing probably Australia)

——————————
awards
 Henries – Best Humorous Greeting Card Range for Four Eyes from Urban Graphic (2014)
 Society of Illustrators Comic & Cartoon Art (2014) Selected
 Young Cartoonist of the Year (2012) Runner-Up
 ADC Young Guns 8 (2010) Selected
 3×3 Professional Show (2010) Selected
Where did you study?
I went to art school in Norwich (England) – I have a BA (hons) degree in Graphic Design specialising in Illustration.

Why do your illustrations look like a five year old drew them?

I hire a five year old to do all my work for me. I pay him in fudge. His name is Alan.

Are you available for an interview on my blog?

Possibly. I am very busy and get a lot of interview requests, but I will answer if I can.
 You can e-mail me at gemmacorrell @ gmail dot com

Do you take personal commissions, for portraits n stuff?

Maybe…

What’s your favourite colour?

Turquoise.

What’s your starsign?

Aquarius.

What’s your favourite word?

Albuquerque.

What are your favourite Movies/Tv shows/ Books?

Movies – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Dogtooth, La Vie en Rose, Wayne’s World, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, The Royal Tenenbaums, Anything by Michel Gondry or featuring Gael Garcia Bernal.
 TV Shows – Project Runway, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Louis Theroux’s documentaries, anything involving models or Australian people. I don’t actually have a TV though.
 Books – I’ll just tell you some authors that I like, or we’ll be here forever – Bill Bryson, Jeffrey Eugenides, Torey Hayden, Margaret Atwood. I like books, I do. I have a Goodreads page, here.

How do you scan your images / contrast them / clean them up?

I scan my images into photoshop and then use the “Levels” tool to adjust the black/white until I’m happy with the result. Same if the image is in colour, although that makes it a bit trickier to get the balance right. I just use the good ol’ fashioned eraser tool for any mistakes (although often, I’ll just leave the mistakes in the drawing)

Which pens do you use?

I use PITT artist pens, Uniball Eye and UniPin fineliners, as well and Kuretake ZIG Art & graphics Twin. For colouring, I use watercolour, ink, Kuretake brush markers and Kuretake Clean Colour brush pens. For murals, I like Posca paint pens, or Kuretake “Paintys”
Are you related/married to Damien Correll?
No. It is funny that we have the same surname though, as it is quite an unusual one…. but we live in different countries and have never actually met (yet).

Is being an illustrator a real job?
No, it’s a fake job. I actually run a very successful drug smuggling ring. I just pretend to draw things and distract people with my cute pug.

Who are your favourite artists?
Camilla Engman, Lab partners, Sandra Juto, Beatrice Alemagna, Elisabeth Dunker, Quentin Blake, Tom Gauld, Simone Lia, Sara Fanelli, Ray Fenwick, Aya Kakeda, Carson Ellis, Brian Rea, Oliver Jeffers, Mary Blair, David Hughes, Harriet Russell, Anouk Ricard, Lizzy Stewart, Mia Christopher, Julia Pott, Marc Johns, Anke Weckmann, Jen Collins, Maira Kalman, Liza Donnelly, Tuesday Bassen … the list goes on, but my fingers are tired.

where do babies come from?
You don’t want to know.

Hahahahahahahahaha
It’s quite long and interesting… I decided to publish just this part. You can visit http://www.gemmacorrell.com/about-me-faqs/ to read the full about-me.
It made me laugh. I hope it’ll to you too.

And keep up the good work Gemma…
All content © Gemma Correll 2015
Thanks for reading.