My favourite quotes

Here's a compilation of some of my favourite quotes, enjoy:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity

The speed of light is faster than the speed of sound, which is why sometimes people look bright until they start talking.

By Sunderland Riverside

Please enjoy my latest set of pictures, taken along the River Wear in Sunderland.

The Book of Ehud

The Book of Ehud, from Private Eye:

Chapter 94

1. And it came to pass in the days when Ehud ruled the Land of Israel as Sharon lay sleeping in an coma that the Hamasites came privily by night and stole from the Israelites a soldier whose name was Shalit and led him away into capitivity.

2. And Ehud counseled himself thus, saying.

3. "What shall I do? Shall I smite the Hamasites like unto Sharon? Or smite them an hundredfold also like unto Sharon?"

4. And he decided to go for the hundredfold option.

5. And so he sayeth unto the Children of Israel, "Gird up thy tanks and go forth into the Land of Gaza and smite everything you see until this captive is returned to us."

6. And they did even as Ehud commanded.

7. But, guesseth what? The captured soldier returneth not.

8. And, meanwhile, there was great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Land of Gaza, which was turned into an wilderness fit only for the cockatrice and the ant.

9. Now there dwelt in the Land of Lebanon certain Hizbollites who did look upon the works of the Hamasites and sayeth one to another:

10. "What the Hamasites have done, let us do also. For it seemeth an goodly idea.

11. "For as sure as the noonday sun riseth over the Cedars of Lebanon, the Sons of Israel will be consumed by wrath and their judgement will leaveth by the window."

12. And it was even as the Hizbollites foretold.

13. They also crept privily by night (see-eth above) and led certain soldiers of Israel into captivity.

14. The Ehud waxed exceeding wroth, like unto the hornet when a man whacketh it with his flip-flop.

15. And Ehud again took counsel with himself (see-eth above again).

16. And, lo, yet again he reasoned that smiting was the only answer, but this time it would be an thousandfold.

17. So he commanded the Israelites: "Go forth unto the Land of Lebanon and lay it waste like unto Gaza, except more so, for these people learneth not their lesson.

18. "Unlike myself."

19. And so it came to pass and the Israelites smote the Hizbollites, and they smote back at the cities of the Israelites and meanwhile the Hamasites did some smiting as well.

20. And the Hamasites and the Hizbollites rejoiced, saying, "It worketh every time."

21. But Ehud hearkeneth not, and sayeth unto himself:

22. "Perhaps I should extend the smiting to the Syrianites and then the Iranianites and all the rest of the Arabites.

23. "Until there is no one left to smite.

24. "And then the children of Israel may dwell in peace. Just as our forefathers didn't."

President Barack Hussein Obama

The Bush era has ended, this is now the era of OBAMA. Let's pray he achieves what he has promised.

On a different note, for a man who has been praised for his calmness, Obama was obviously very nervous today, you could see he was very tense. He managed to stumble his lines while taking the oath, and wasn't helped by the fact that the Justice didn't have the oath written down, so in effect Obama took a slightly different oath of office.

King James

Look at what a decent magazine cover looks like, featuring none other than LeBron James. I wrote an article about the furore surrounding his last major appearance on a US magazine cover.
I also converted that blog post into an academic essay and got a 1st for it! Now that's what I call recycling, or sustainable education.

Look at the nonsense of last year's Vogue

Things Fall Apart

For 1.5 million folks in Gaza, the new year opened old wounds, with Israel launching repeated air strikes into the impoverished region. The State of Israel has continued its 'War on Gaza' unleashing a vicious and repugnant assault on the Gaza Strip, let us not forget that the State of Israel was formed due to what we now term terrorism, in 1946, Menachem Begin's group, the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel which was the headquarters of the British Army, the Irgun killed over a hundred people in that attack, the Jewish need to have a country was so strong that they stood up to the might of the British Empire in order to have a land they truly called home. They killed and destroyed in order to have their way.
Now we are in 2009, many wars have passed, Israel still occupies the West Bank and no matter what nonsense their spokespeople say, they occupy Gaza, you don't need to have soldiers stationed on the ground for it to be termed occupation. Israel controls the airspace, the ports, and the land, nothing can enter Gaza without the consent of Israel.
As crazy as the Hamas charter is, and it is deranged, the Palestinian people have every right as the Jewish people had in the 40s to an independent, fully self governing state.
So far almost 800, Eight Hundred Palestinian men, women and children have died, killed by the abominable bombardment of the Gaza Strip a.k.a The World's Largest Prison.
My heart breaks when I see pictures of children as young as four with bullet holes in their chests, what have four year olds done to warrant an M-16 being shot at them?
The stolidity of the so called 'International Community' has been appalling, do a thousand need to die first?? I realize there is a lot at play here in terms of power politics, but we must do something, as humans we have a responsibility to each other, and when 800 people are killed in 13 days by another country in the name of self-defense, we as humans must say a big "ENOUGH!"
The Holy-Land is soaked red with the blood of Israelis and Palestinians, enough is enough, one cannot bomb their way to peace.
We must send a strong message to the State of Israel that their criminal military and humanitarian campaign can no longer be tolerated.

ENOUGH!

Julian Obubo's Robinson Crusoe Challenge ends in failure

I had set myself a challenge, the challenge was that a razor would not touch my beard till the day I hand in my dissertation, I accepted this challenge so that my facial hair would be a constant reminder of the amount of work I need to do, this challenge was going on fine, and I last shaved way back in the second week of October. I am blessed with what I term 'follicular prolificacy' or the ability to grow hair really quickly.
This challenge was twofold, not only was it to be a reminder to work hard, but it was also a scientific study- to see how I looked with a long beard, or to see how long my beard would grow if I didn't shave it for 6 months.

Anyway....

The results are that I may never know. I was advised by both brother and sister to shave it, my good friend William Cunningham told me I looked younger without a full beard, it seems the world has suddenly turned averse to beard wearing. Also, I began to suffer from 'beard fatigue'- which is the restlessness a bearded person feels when their facial hair isn't 'going anywhere', there's the temptation to pull out a razor and style it, or there is the further temptation, like the one I had last night, to completely and utterly get rid of the beard and start all over again.
So razor in hand, I shaved my beard. My namesake, the last non-Christian Emperor of Rome, Julian The Apostate, was known for his rich beard, he even wrote an article called 'The Beard Hater' making fun of those who had mocked his hairy face (they considered him quite unkempt for a Roman Emperor)
So, the name Julian has a history of beardedness, and I intend to keep that tradition strong, the issue now is to find the right length at which I want my facial hair to constantly be, rather than letting it grow to a apostolic levels (by apostolic levels I mean, I start to look like on of Christ's apostles) and then shaving it off, I must find a sort of middle ground, a beard equilibrium, this is my new challenge.
So in the end, I could not achieve my Robinson Crusoe look, I frankly do not think I would have completed it, after a while getting food stuck in your beard, or eating your mustache is not fun. But at least I tried, below you will find pictures of me, before and after the beardotomy.


Me, during the Robinson Crusoe challenge


Me, in my new hairless state

NB- Both pictures taken on different days, I don't just put on my suit simply to take pictures of myself.

Tim and Sabina's Wedding

As I said earlier, I was the official photographer for the wedding of a couple at my church, below you will find some pictures I took at the great event. My first wedding in eight years, this one a mixture of English and Cameroonian cultures.

Click pictures for larger versions

















more pics to follow soon