Thursday, May 19, 2011

Today was a good day... (Icecube) Lol

Today was a pretty great day for me, I must admit. Early in the day I went to meeting for this business meeting and it was pretty inspiring. I came away with these words of wisdom:

The way you do anything is the way you do everything
Character isn't compartmentalized. The kind of person you are in one area of your life is the kind of person you are in all areas of your life.

Successful people are never busy people
Because they plan, and plan, and plan so when the time comes to do things, they've got it all figured out and it goes smoothly. No rush, no fuss, no bother.

It's not who you know; it's what you know
Definitely heard this one and it's true.

Later in the day, I went to a Zumba class for the first time and it way HYPE! I had so much fun, sweated like a Christmas goat (lol), and hope it's the beginning of a new workout habit. I've been doing workouts using videos on Youtube and stuff on my own, but being in a class full of people gives more motivation to keep going.



I went with my sister and my best friend. They played some really good Latino music, including a Latino version of Waving Flag. You may be familiar with the Naija remix with K'Naan, Banky W, and M.I. Love that song. They also played Jessy Matador's Décalé Gwada which made my sister and I smile. That song's a bit of a legend around here cause two years ago the guys in our African student group did a routine to that song that really put them on the map.

Anyways, like I constantly remind myself, it's really the little things that make me smile....... :)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

3 Months Plus

Yep, that's how long it's been since my last post. Terrible, I know. One of my friends called me Sunday and lamented my lack of updates. So I just thought I'd let anyone interested know that I'm still alive and kickin'. Hehehee....

So what's been up? I've really been focusing on some personal goals and learning a lot in my new school. The world's really a changed place since I last wrote. So many things have happened, no need to repeat the news broadcasts here... Just makes me grateful for the life I have. Though imperfect, it's not hard to see that many are in far worse positions than I. Baba God, I thank You.

On another note, I'd like to share a few Naija artists that I discovered on my hiatus and have been jammin' to ever since. Tim Godfrey & Xtreme Crew. A highly skilled gospel musician, Tim Godfrey and his crew mix Igbo and Naija praise with modern instrumentals for a very impressive effect. "Igbo Melody", a medley of several Igbo praise songs, was the first one I heard by the group and it's awesome (as are the group's other tracks) Click the picture to take a listen!

Tim Godfrey & Xtreme Crew







Then there's Axios Choir, whose main instruments are their own voices. Their song "Ibu Ngalaba" is the only one I came across on Youtube, and it's desperately beautiful. The words of the chorus, "Ibu ngalaba jisi ndu mu eeeh" mean "You are the pillar that holds my life," referring to God. The song has been a real encouragement to me.  I also found the disclaimer they put at the beginning of their video quite charming,"Axios Choir will set you free from the habit of bad vocal chords." Hehehehe....

Those of us familiar with the Nigerian church scene know that whenever it's time to sing, our people like to sing loud, no matter the quality of the voice: from average to cracked. And often times those singing the loudest are those with the worst voices (aka those aunties with the high, shrilly, screeching voices LOL!). You can even find some of these individuals in various praise teams and choirs, oddly enough. It's good that our God is a loving God who doesn't put any stipulations on the praise that we give Him other than that it comes from the heart. :) Anyways... Click here to listen to Ibu Ngalaba.  Bye for now!