jke – Page 103 – Kikuyumoja

the Chronicoool

Speaking of Dan and his artworks that inspired me and many others out there, I just had a quick stroll through his early journals and came across this:

The (Karengata) Chronicle / Nairobi, Saturday, October 12, 1985 / Price 3/50 (!)

An article by Nick Russel from 1985 – eternalised in Dan’s sketchbook.
Nick, editor & publisher of the Karen & Langata Chronicle since 21 years, recently commented on the Nairobi lowdown story and nowadays runs an online edition of the Chronicle.

@Nick: have you ever thought about installing a free blogging software such as the WordPress release on your webspace and maybe even joining the ever-growing Kenyan blogosphere?
The basic idea behind using a blogging tool is that it a) makes it easier to publish content on the internet, b) interact with your readers and c) you won’t need any IT guru in the background to fix the layout of your pages. Sijui about your webspace deals, but WordPress (as a start) is free of charge and just requires a MySQL database in the background. An alternative solution are the free, “ready-to-run” blogging services like wordpress.com or blogger.com as used by many other bloggers throughout the world. Another advantage is that you can easily switch the website’s layout by using (style) templates (again, free) or even adjust it to look like a newspaper (instead of a diary). This, I think, is easier to maintain and better than any pure content management system (cms) that otherwise requires lots of adjustments and technicooool knowledge. Hope this helps! :-)

I’ve been tagged by Mental…

…aggggrobatics, so here’s my reply:

dim ruuuls:

Post six weird facts/habits about yourself. These cannot be used against you later on.
At the bottom name the six people you will tag next.
Leave them a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged and to read your blog.

1. When communicating with other Exilkenyaners, I make frequent use of words like “aterere….., oh? i see…, kweli?, sasa?, aca!, whereby, supposed to, particulaaaar” etc. and automaticarrry adjust my pronouciaaaation in a way that I say simppoooooolll (instead of simple) or prrobarrry (probably).
You got to show peeepooooll where you’ve grown up.

2. I LOVE repairing stuff. The best thing I’ve ever repaired were diving goggles where the rubber broke – and I’d managed to fix it by using some thin fishing line and a cheap needle. As far as I am informed, those goggles are still in use (ama, Mathias?).
I know this is a common habit among other geeks, and I partly blame it on MacGyver & Co…

3. As a geek-growing-up, I used to be very interested in amateur radio and have been a member of The Amateur Radio Society of Kenya (ARSK) and the Deutsche Amateur Radio Club (DARC). I never managed to obtain a licence for a call-sign though as the internet with its various other technological challenges came in between. Maybe later…
The only licence I managed to get was a firearms licence for a simpooool air rifle way back in Kenya from the Firearms Department. I’ve never seen a Kenyan office THAT well organized. Kudos to those guys!

However, I would never again spend money on weapons. Except for my Leatherman Wave, of course :-)

4. The first CD I bought in my life was INXS “Welcome To Wherever You Are“, released in 1993. The first record was a single by OPUS “Life is Life”, sometime in 1986 or so. Ngoma ni maisha! (=> listening to music AND making my own music!)

5. I keep a diary in form of sketchbooks. Something that has been inspired by the late Dan Eldon. After going through various boxes of souvenirs from all the places I’ve been to and nice letters I’ve received in the past, I figured Dan’s way to be the most perfect solution to arrange all this stuff. All virtual stuff that I want to share with the world goes into my blog, the rest into my sketchbooks.

6. I bought ~~this~~ these books in Kenya to ~~scratch Rrrucy’s back~~ polish up my (non-existent) knowledge of the Gikuyu language:

And this one to take me there…. (knowledgii muuiiiuuruuuu)
(~ now you know what the Zungu in Mzungu stands for! :-)

Next victims of the tagging biashara shall be Anja, Cedric, Steve, Adrian, Wambui , Astrid, Carina, Edith, Christoph and Kui! :-)

wapi? (part 6)

Hat tip, Irene!

(hint: Mwai’s hideout :-)

How to confuse Gamaans…

True worrrshippaas of Kikuyumoja’s Realm might remember this entry, where I highlighted that Kenya and Germany do in fact share similar national flags.
Upon opening my snail mail box this morning, I found the following “How-to-confuse-Gamaans” instruction – carefully prepared by my dearest fan Mbuzimoja:

Kiptoo – this sure is something for Mtandao.de, sindiyo?

Bembeya, Rochereau et al

Ebay trouvaille – you won’t regret buying any of these plates!
Ive just come across this seller on Ebay Germany who apparently sells a lot of nice, old plates/records from the 1970s & Co musical Africa. So what’s so special about them?

1. collectors items!
2. try to get those ones in Nairobi or even Kinshasa today – impossiboooool!
3. some auctions include a preview link with an mp3 file (!)
There is this one Bembeya Jazz National record with current bids already as high as US-$ 102,50 and still 18hrs to go…
(@samsoum71: could u pls share your other mp3s of “analogue Africa” with the rest of the world? – the blogosphere will be delighted to enjoy these trouvailles from your collector’s shelves… THX!)

Kimendero’s nightmare? Googleardi, part 6

Earlier this week, Google released a new version of its earth viewer programme Google Earth – a stable BETA 4 which I just had to download and try out.
As far as I can tell, the new BETA looks promising, making navigation much easier and faster (!) – and of course with a new release, they also implemented some “new” maps/satellite images:

For downtown Nairobi, the guys running the image database added a CLOUDY satellite image – which is still better than what we had some time ago.

Now let’s have a look at Nairobi State House….

…sorry, this one of course :-)

Google Earth is also perfect for tracking down the various swimming pools all over Nairobi. Something that might come in handy while in Nairobi, in search for an open swimming pool. After all, not all pools are private (which of course reminds me of Mbuzimoja & me trying to find an open pool in NBO as late as 8pm – the only place open till 9pm is….THE GRAND REGENCY HOTEL, which charges Kshs. 1.000 /= pp….aterere…).

wapi? (part5)

Ok, this should be rather simpooool…but let me tell you: the moment I saw this scenery, I thought: “Ati, doesn’t this look like Vietnam?”
(Mzeecedric, Vietnam expaaaaat, can you agrrrree?)

@Shiroh: Yes, it is somewhere in Kenya! :-)

pimp my sunbubudiu!

…so what do you do in between the games?

Ok, I was a bit borred and thought about a small modification I wanted to do with this awful sunbubudiu (sunscreen?). After all, Germany’s Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co. KG never paid me for this free advertisment on my car so something needed to be done about it. I *urgently* needed to pimp my sunbubudiu! :-)
My alternative choices included the following Kangas, Kikois:

“WATU KWA AMANI”….ehhrr…well, a bit too big + strange, ama?

Well…I am crazy, yes, but not THAT crazy… LOL…. :-)

Perfect! A blue Kikoy from Kenya I received some years ago from Christine (5Z4LL).
I just love this colour! There are indeed so many purposes for a Kikoi and the next thing I’ll do with this material is to refurbish the interior of an old ’88 Suzuki Samurai…can’t wait for that, argh! (you hear me, Mbuzimoja?)

Glue glue glue….

Finished! :-)