If Blogs Spoke

If your blog had a voice, what would it say to/about you?
- If Maarifa & Tafsiri spoke they'd tell me:
a) Stop treating us like step-children, we bring you happiness so update us regularly (Rhaahaha, yeah right!)
b) Will you stop toying with the idea of quitting blogging because the more you think of it the more real it becomes every day!?
c) When we grow up we'd like to become ..err...magazines, maybe satellite radio stations, digital Tv & movie networks and also help write your memoires by complementing the junk you've been writing in your diaries since you were 12 years old, or...whatever the heck your insomniac self pushes us to be since you seem to decide everything big head,lol!
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We're having a party and we will be dancing under the light until yawn* at our other home. To get an all access pass to the event please click on the photo below or follow the link below it.
** The two and a half people who visit & comment on this blog regularly would tell you that when akiey says party until dawn he means "to party until the sun comes up" whereas by Partying Until Yawn he actually means "Partying Until Another Year Comes Up",LOL

party till yawn

Ok, now time to get back to what we used to call life & also prepping a couple pics for friends' upcoming projects:)

Checking Body Parts

-Best viewed l-a-a-r-ge-

First off, I send out a big this to Blogger for being such a pain when I repeatedly tried to perform the most basic operations on their system. No wonder I've been planning to move my entire blog-related stuff to another site. Wapumbavu sana hawa madogi wa Blogger!
Lately I've had 101 photo design ideas struggling to pop out of my head & onto paper, website, print media etc faster than I can handle. For that reason I decided to draw on the creative juices by taking 3 ideas at a time, lol!
The above montage is one in a series I am developing as a tribute to some good fam & friends whose photos I recently came across on 2 CDs I thought I'd long-llost & were buried in the town's garbage dumps somewhere. The newly found CDs contain about 800 photos of people, places & things I caught on lens over the past 2 yrs & all this has now inspired an extra twenteen ideas ontop of the 101 I have doing the chakacha inside my thick head.
Currently, I am checking out body parts of people am close with, as well as those of blogpals who gave me the green light to use their pics (why the raised eyebrows, it's art!lol!), avatars & other blog 'things' for an upcoming composite photo meant to make fun of a situation that happened in my host country late last year but it's something we all can relate to since it was broadcast worldwide.
There' s still some room on the photo I am working on, so let me know on email, IM or phone if you'd like to be featured on it...Have no fear, won't make you look bad, if anything, you know my motto I Can Make U Famous.
Artists, like everyone else also do have a funny side. This caught my eye last nite. Enjoy:
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An artist working on a nude portrait got very tired after a busy month. He had become very weary from this non-stop effort he decided to take it easy for the day. Since his model had already shown up he suggested they merely have a glass of wine and talk .
They talked for a few hours getting to know each other better. Then as they were sipping their claret the artist heard a car arriving outside. He jumped up and said "Oh no! It's my wife! Quick take off your clothes!"

Blogversary and Winners

On this day a year ago, Maarifa the weblog came into being. The reasons & drive behind this have long been obvious to all of my loyal readers composed of close friends (some I've known for nearly 20yrs), family, the wonderful KBW family, my buddies from other web-related affiliations that I am actively engaged in, a couple professional clients and ofcourse not to forget the Web surfers who stumble upon my bloghome.
It has been a very interesting and satisfying 12 months thanks to your regular visits, generous comments & appreciation for the digital photographic art I share with you, sharing your opinion on all my rumblings, your genuine concern when I go/went AWOL (many thanks everybody in KBW!) ... and ofcourse everytime you made me feel welcome in your blog homes cannot go unnoticed.
There's absolutely no way I could overlook the many good things that this interaction, mainly through KBW/NYD/FLM/Afrikblog has brought my way. I am glad to have met an amazing lot of highly talented, funny, caring and creative-minded friends. Many I meet on blogruns, about two dozen also on email, IM and regular calls across states and/or continents. Some of you I've known for countless years [sema mamboz good chica Irena, my kin & kith: Naj, Farouk, Maleeha & Izzo!:)], some I've met several times & with many others shared unedited(LOL!) photos of fun/crazy stuff we get into so we've basically 'seen' each other & we can now attach faces and voices to blogs!
All this has fueled the engines behind the growth of both Maarifa (and its affiliate bilingual site: Tafsiri which in turn marks its 1st anniversary in 3 weeks) and akiey the blogger and for that I say a very big Thank You! For sticking around & enjoying the ride with me:)!

NB: I would quickly run out of space & wearout my fingerprints trying to elaborate why I like some blogs & bloggers, so here's a quick glimpse of my top blogs and my most fav lined up over there.
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To celebrate this day, I share with you the 3 winners of the two (long overdue) posts that had everyone trying to figure about The Mvita Don's modus operandi and the food this blogger made & shared with friends. Thanks everybody for participating in this brainstorm activty:)
and so..... the winners are:

I made this collage of the 3 Maasai girls from 3 diff pics to honour the often taken for granted cultural magnificence of the Maasai culture and to congratulate the 3 ladies below that got the answers right. KBW guys didn't seem to fare too well so I look forward to you doing better next time guys!

The Chops For Days Post on Tafsiri:
The winner: Mshairi, my 1st blogfriend whose intelligence, brilliance and down-to-earth good nature (I know many out there would agree with me) gives one that deja vu feeling of having known her in another lifetime. She gave the dish one quick look & without hesitating figured it was octopus stew gravy that was on made & shared that evening. Let me know what kind of photo edit you'd like done. Muchas gracias querida!

The Mvita Don Post: to the two winners go a photo of their choice so see me in my chambers please:)

1st winner: Guess, that avid blogger who had no inside info but one that relied on her photographic memory and used her "skewed brain... that...can read upside down, right to left, right to left upside down" to easily and accurately figure out about 95% of Don Mvita's MO as well as his tools of trade & 'hits'. Congrats!

2nd winner: K.i.d.a.d.a, the shy, yet risktaking, creative writer of a blogger who knows people that know this blogger better than she'd want to admit (total balaa!) also blew the competition thanks to her probing skills, arm-twisting & info extracting tacticts. Only flaw was a small mistep in the tools of trade but she got it very right with the 'hits':