MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God i have officially added another year to my current age. I am grateful for my life and the wonderful people that are in it. I am thankful for the immediate members of my family and my friends, to those top 20 people that have written on my wall before my day started thanks to the time zone, i will specially thank you all on my blog. Chichi Oraukwu, Chinny Onu,Adunola Okupe, Motunde Femi Pearse,Uju Abah, Yetunde Olowoyeye, Anita Umebese, Temitope Oloketuyi, Labake Awosusi, Oyeyemi Fajemirokun,Kele Utubor, Tundun Onileere, Sonia Joe,Tolu Babalola, Tope Shoga, Amaka Ezekwe, Katherine Enchill, Funsho David Cole,Stella Isokariari and Joseph Fagbamila. Thank you so much for your birthday wishes and i wish you God's blessings as you wish me the same. To everyone else who did after the top twenty you are loved and my Dave and Buster's accomplices, Dayo, Chinelo, Fadeke, Aisoso, Uche, Ann, Azuka, Soco, John, Uwa, Bisola, Jackie, Tope and lastly my brother, thanks so much for everything.

SPARE THE ROD AND SPOIL THE CHILD

Hmmm, those good old naija days we endured a lot of beating and deety(dirty) slaps. As a child back then when i was growing up you don't want your parents to tell you the same thing twice especially when the second time lands you a slap on the face or an unexpected beating from behind. Those were the days when the rod was not spared. The phrase spare the rod and spoil the child doesn't apply to a lot of nigerian parents espeically mine. My dad had a way with words especially when he spared the rod but this child was not spoiled. There are some things that your parents would say that would hurt worse than being beaten,my dad had that as his weapon but my mom on the other hand would just throw one dirty slap that would let your wisdom teeth take a walk out of your mouth.

Usually it didnt just end at home , in school ,you had teachers that would intimidate you with their canes and that alone was scary. Canes of all sizes would sit behind the teachers table waiting for one ripe buttocks to flog. Back then i would have endured punishment to those canes, and there was this myth that the thinner canes hurt more than the thicker and fatter ones. It didn't matter. Never be afraid of the weapon ,be afraid of the person holding the weapon. I can take a thick and a thin cane and flog a kid and it wont hurt but if i decide to flog you out of frustration or annoyance you can as well call yourself dead meat. Some teachers were just plain mean. I remember back then when we had this mean math teacher in Primary six, if you get anything less than 15 out of 20, you are dead meat and he gave more strokes of cane if you got more questions wrong, imagine if you got 2 out of 20, 18 deadly strokes of those his canes that God knows where he got them from.

In the Western world it is a lot ddifeerent, the breed of kids in this generation makes wonders really never end,i watch some little brats come to my job and act up and their mothers behave like the kids are remote controlling them such a scenario as this

A kid is playing with a wig and acting the fool meanwhile there is a sign on the glass that say

"PLEASE CONTROL YOUR KIDS". And then the mother reads it and this is the kind of conversation that ensues

Mother: Honey put the wig down

CHILD: (still acting the fool) NO!

Mother: I said put the wig down

CHILD: No (starts throwing a fit)

Mother: Be quiet i said put the wig down

CHILD: No, you be quiet (tantrums and then throws the wig on the floor)

ME: (silent thought: you are so freaking lucky you are not my kid, i would have marinaded your ass in the store and given it to yo daddy for dinner, better put that s*** away and get your little behind on the floor)

Mother: Oh dear, i need to take him home he needs a nap, he is getting grouchy.

Me: (silent thought: only grouchy)

Another scenario is some hispanic lady who came to the store with her little kid and the little girl was playing with the hair dye bottles and putting it in her mouth,my coworker saw her and told her nicely not to play with the bottles and the mother acted like she had earphones on, she didn't correct her kid , next thing the girl was opening the bottle and then my coworker intervened again

COWORKER: Put the color down, don't play with it.

MOTHER: You don't have to yell at my daughter.

COWORKER: I am not yelling at her, can't you see she is playing with the hair dye. She was just about to drink it.

MOTHER: She is just a little girl, if you wanted to talk to her you should have said so nicely and by the way english is her first language.

Bamm!!!!!!!! Right there, a fifth grade is definitely smarter than this lady. What does first language have to do with simple obedience?

Like for real, i have seen some mothers make some lame excuses for their really bad kids. If your kid is acting up, its not because he or she needs a nap, they don't even need to get one, whoop their little behinds. I believe the reason why i act responsible is the fact that i got whooped as a child and it helped my thinking and choices. Its not abuse, i believe that sometimes those once in a while whoopings just help the children to know not to repeat that same act again and know when to behave. If my kid acted funky in the grocery store, i would beat daytime savings out of that kid, you cant just display embarrassing behavior in public and then try to make excuses for it. If you keep making excuses for your kids behavior they would never become responsible for anything. You would continue to do stuff for them because they are so dependent on your excuses, the stupid ones you make for them.

Practical parents who know how to instill discipline in their kids can do so without whooping them, it may come in form of taking something that the child values a lot or just some sort of punishment thats the sparing of the rod and spoinling the child. It can work either way but it depends on the child. Children learn as they grow and experiences make them wiser. Experiences such as putting your hand in a flame and knowing it would burn you.There is nothing wrong with correcting kids. I would never whoop my kids just becuase ...,but if it is a corrective measure i won't mind doing it but there are other ways,but our African parents, i give them kudos.

Image: Photobucket

OFFENSIVE OR NOT? CLASS OF 2011

When i graduated in 2008, the class of 2008 had the slogan that went with the year "08,don't hate" it rhymed and we thought it was cool other graduating classes didn't have their rhyme that good but looking at the class of 2011 in a different school the story is different. Two young arab Americans decided to show pride in their graduating class of 2011 by making sweatshirts with the number 11 which looked like twin towers and a thunderbird flying nearby with the slogan"You can't bring us down". It was perceived negatively by some staff and students as the school as it referred to the September 11 attack on the Twin towers in 2001. The staff of Dearborn Edsel Ford High School had a meeting in which the matter was discussed but the boys were not punished because they didn't see it in that light as being wrong, they were only trying to show pride in their graduating class. Their sweatshirts were confiscated though. It is pretty sad that shirts were seen as offensive. I don't see it that way though, they were just showing some pride but to sensitive United States citizens especially those who lost family and loved ones, sincere apologies. I think somehow that the situation may have been perceived differently if these young boys were not Arab. What do you think?

Picture: 1Up.com

DESIGNER BABIES

Wonders shall never end. What is this world coming to? In this technology age, humans are beginning to believe that they can create another human from scratch. What with this in vitro, in vivo and all that stuff, I am a Cell and Molecular biology major and sometimes the thought of these new inventions makes me very uneasy. I beleive that these genetic findings should help to cure and eradicate diseases and not add new controversies in people's lives. It started with Dolly the sheep who eventually died because she was not genetically fit to survive. Now almost couple of decades later, they are coming out with "designer babies". What in the world is that?
Designer Babies is a new hot trend, that helps couples decide what kind of baby they want. Like say the man has sickle cell in his family, the making of this baby will eradicate that so therefore the baby will not have any sickle cell trait, it also goes for Huntington's disease and Muscular Duchenne Dystrophy. Parents can also decide if their baby should have blonde hair and blue eyes. I think it is rather unethical to try to trake the place of our Creator, ALmighty God but a lot of people will tell me that it is my own point of view.
So now there are Pro's and Con's to this:
Pros
1. Genetic diseases are avoided. This is done by a procedure which is rather scientific but for just reading, all that sickle cell, Alzheimers, Asthma and all that stuff will be eliminated.
2. Infertile parents can have children. How?
3. You might not need health insurance in the future. Especially if all these genetically inherited diseases would be eradicated.

Cons
1. The embryos get thrown away. Now why would you want to do that. Some couple cannot even produce a zygote not to talk about an embryo.
2. It's a baby and thats why you are expectant in the pregnancy state. Why would someone want to know what their baby looks like before he/she is born? Taking the fun away from pregnancy.
3. There is a most expectant chance to have a baby born with defects.
4. The child would seem like a factory made product because he/she was pre ordered with specifications. Not fair. Remember that the child would grow up one day and hate the way it looks because,it might end upop not looking like the parents and the kids at school would ask "who is your daddy?" Not a good question. I am sure that's not the milk man's son either.
5. It is so unethical. It is a sin.

I am sorry but that's my opinion. What do you think?

FEBRUARY

This is the shortest month of the year and the second month in the year.At the beginning of the year, you came up with a goal or a number of goals that you hope to accomplish this year, so far what are your accomplishments, have you changed anything of recent, what do you hope to achieve next month? How are your personal relationships with coworkers, classmates, family and friends going?
In February, i have tried to accomplish a lot of new methods and strategies of paying my bills and keeping track of my finances as well as balancing my books, also tried to keep good personal relationships with people and delete junk out of my life and also develop a more personal relationship with my Creator.
It gets even better in March, i can see it coming.
I hope to finish my book during the short break from school in March and have a swell 25th birthday.