Just because I want to... flaunt!

Happy new year in advance to all my readers. 2012 seems to be my best blogging year yet. We can only hope it gets better in 2013. Here's to all my blog readers, followers, and supporters. Thanks for making my blogging experience worth every effort. May we all have reasons to celebrate by this time next year, just like we did last year. Because I appreciate you guys, you still have one week to enter for the triple giveaway of Izegbuwa's Christian Fiction here.

So after Prism did a post on her lovely natural hair, I wished I could do mine too, but I couldn't because my hair is always in twists, and the shrinkage is massive, such that people wonder why my hair still looks short in twists. I always have to explain the principle behind natural hair shrinkage. The fact that my tips curl up like mad doesn't help matters, but I try not to worry about it. I just rock my boring short hair that does not seem to grow.

So it has been over two years since I cut my dreads off, and left my natural hair to grow out. I got an offer from Prime TV, a new fashion station in Nigeria operated by the Nigezie crew, to be the hair tips presenter, because of the work I have been doing on my natural hair blog and outside of it.

So I went there, and shot 15 episodes of tips in five hours. I had the opportunity to get out of my boring twists for once. Though when I got home, I washed my hair and put it back in twists the next day, lol.

So enjoy the pics. Believe it or not, they were all taken on the same day - in less than 5 hours, even the camisole testifies, though I did not take a picture of the first episode. It was stressful, cos I had to keep changing hairstyles, starting with twists, progressing to twistouts, and ending in afro. Fifteen ways of styling hair is not easy for me at all, though some of them look the same in the pictures. The next time I would have the opportunity to take these kinds of pictures would probably be when I shoot the next 15 episodes.

So tell me, which look do you like best?

I still have a long way to go before my reaches hip bone length. Right now, I am on Bra strap length as we can see, but I am gonna maintain a good hair regime, and hope for better result

In the spirit of Christmas -Triple Giveaway

Good Day people. I will cut to the chase. I will be giving out three books, courtesy the latest Christian Fiction author in Nigeria, I Izegbuwa.

She has just released three lovely books, all Christian Fiction, and I will be giving out a copy of each.

1. The Stolen Years

A story about the ripple effects in a family torn apart by their parent’s greed.

Adenizen is the perfect school in every sense except for one thing. On the outskirts of its campus, there is a student villa where the female residents are fair game for any man who can pay the price. Madam Ofilia runs the villa and will go to any length to take the most promising girls under her wings, as long as they live up to their side of the bargain.

But when the ladies of A16 at Noble Hall become her next target, events take an unexpected turn. With each of these girls running her own agenda, it seems Madam Ofilia has bitten off more than she can chew. As things go awry, she is brought face to face with a buried past that might eventually cause her to meet her waterloo.

2. Fit for a Crown

Three African women from three different eras are bonded together by a thin, fragile thread. Iyogie is the soft spoken matriarch of the Idusefe family. A lone figurehead in a community of ancient traditions, she practices her faith quietly. But like a lamp which burns in a dark room, her inner strength cannot be hidden and she offers hope to those close to her.Ifueko: Living in the era of colonial transition, her destiny seems to have been decided by the men who rule the world in which she lives. But when these same men are subdued during the foreign invasion, Ifueko must take her destiny in her hands by deciding whether to go the way she has always known or to follow the road less travelled.Stella is a modern day beauty queen, living life in the fast lane. When her life begins to spin out of control, she realizes that she may need to apply the brakes before she crashes. In a bid to reverse some of her hasty decisions, she takes a trip into the past to discover what exactly has been holding her back and what she must let go, if she is to lay hold of the true essence of life.These women swim against the tides of their time, each one drawing inspiration from her forerunner as a legacy of true and lasting royalty is passed down from one generation to the next.

3. Blooms among Thorns

Like most ladies in the prime of their lives, Imade is determined to make a success of herself. She arms herself with everything that is necessary for this quest including a prestigious degree, a promising banking career and Dapo, her perfect man.

But she never anticipated that setbacks could occur along the way and is distraught when her perfect man walks out of her life and leaves her expecting his child. Then, just when she is learning to get along fine as a single mother, Dapo resurfaces; and it's not because he has missed her. Before long, Imade finds herself embroiled in one battle after the other as the ideal future she has mapped out, begins to fall apart. But though her dream of a perfect life is shattered, her faith in the perfect God is not. It is in her most dismal hours, that she discovers that God is able to turn her frustrations into triumphs if only she would yield to His transforming grace.

If you are interested in getting the book, both paperback and kindle edition are available on amazon. For the kindle edition, you can get them here, here, and here.

To enter for the giveaway,

1. Be resident in Lagos, Nigeria, or have an address the book can be delivered to, so you can get it later.

2. Follow this blog via google friend connect.

3. Follow me on twitter, @hattylolla

4. Let me know which of the books you are interested in, by dropping a comment below.

Winners will be announced in two weeks.

You can achieve that thing - My life as an example.

Before you read on, I would really appreciate if you read this interview of mine on the Women who write series on femme lounge, and drop comments.

Constant improvement is the really cool. I look at how far I have come in this Spoken Word thing. You guys all remember the first time I went to read my work, how bland and plain it was, even though I was reading from the screen. You can check it out here.

My first appearance was really dull, and I have been looking for the picture, but it seems to be missing.

Then we started adding life to it.

But we were still reading from either a screen or a book, and not performing

And then, we knew if we didn't take this serious, we would get left behind. So we decided to go into professional spoken word... So we dropped the paper, dropped the reading, and moved on to greater things - Performing.

And then we started getting inviting us to major and big events.

My first professional appearance. No more reading

 Plus our names started appearing on posters, flyers and DVDs with the veterans

And then, we started going for TV Productions for Spoken Word.

Performing at Unchained Voices

And then, we started doing Solo Spoken Word presentations at prestigious events like the International Day of the Girl. 

Performing at IDOG

Doing a combo of Spoken Word and Soul Music

What am I trying to say? When it comes to spoken word in Lagos today, my name gets mentioned, along with many other great people. Earlier this year, I knew absolutely nothing about spoken word. It is really God's grace.

If you put your mind to do anything, believe me, you will achieve it. I did not achieve my professionalism in Spoken Word on time, due to faults of mine... called laziness. At the end of the day, I lost nothing when I decided to be more serious.

Believe me, if you want to improve yourself in anything, you can. If you doubt that, scroll back up again, and look how I was when I started, and compare it to what it is now. The pictures themselves testify. For booking and reservations, please call 07061141501. Thanks

Its harder to get videos of professional performances of mine, than it is to get the crappy ones, which were loaded on youtube, but I got this one from the last Word Up.

It is titled The Wrestle. I featured my cousin, Oyinkansola (watch her video featuring brymo here). 

The video below does not start from the beginning of the performance, so the intro and round one of the fight, which is about two minutes long, is missing from the video. I hope you get the message behind the performance though. When I get the full one, and of better quality, I will upload it.

Introducing the new African Naturalistas range of products

Sorry, I know this is not a hair blog, but I guess some of you might be interested in this.

I am happy to let you know that in addition to the whipped hair butter I sell, we have just launched some new hair products.

They are suitable for all natural hair carriers, and for relaxed ladies who are interested in minimising the amount of chemical products used on their hair, by using more natural products.

A list of our products are
1. African Naturalistas Hair Butter (100ml and 250ml) - There are 3 different types,

Lavie Life: Helps with Alopecia and controls breakage

Minty Jazz: Stimulates growth and improves scalp health

Sweet Rosie: For Dandruff and Itchy scalp

They cost N700 for 100ml and N1200 for 250ml 

African Naturalistas Hair Butter

2. African Naturalistas Deep Conditioning Treatment - 473ml. We decided to make this a bigger size than regular to ensure that people with very long hair can also use it loads of times. This is meant to help condition and improved the health of your hair strands. It costs N1200

African Naturalistas Deep Conditioning Treatment

3. African Naturalistas Moisturising Natural shampoo (250ml) - There are 4 different types, Lavie life, Minty jazz, and Sweet Rosie, Wishee Washee (made specially for kids). This shampoo was made specially for people who are trying to run away from those harmful sulphates. It costs N700

African Naturalistas Moisturising Hair Shampoo

4. African Naturalistas Anti-Dandruff Herbal Rinse (250ml) - There are 2 types of this, one for oily hair, and one for dry hair. It helps combat issues of dandruff and unhealthy scalp. It costs N700

Africa Naturalistas Anti-Dandruff Herbal Rinse

Please, click here for more details about each product.

So how do you order? Simple. You can order by sending an email to nigeriannaturalhair@gmail.com with the subject 'Product Order', letting us know what you want to order, or you can simply call us on 07061141501.

Would be expecting you all to order immediately. Thanks

Wordpressers speak back: Nigerian Blogger users are ignorant, backward, etc

For all y'all that were looking for drama in my last post, I can happily announce to you that it seems you are going to get it after all, and this is completely not my own doing, as you all brought it yourselves with your comments. So, Toinlicious, bring back your seat, things are turning out to be interesting after all. And everyone, please, leave Toinlicious and her seat, there are many seats in this cinema of mine. I am sure you know that when I started the 'How I see Nigerian Blogsville' series, I did not know it would take this turn. Don't worry, it is just friendly banter, so please, let us keep it friendly.

If you have not read the first two parts of this post, I advise that you read them here and here before going on, and I am sure you will agree with me that my hand is not in this drama. I was just writing, as my blog title states.

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Some people commented in my last post that word-pressers feel they are all that. Well, you have met your match, in fact, more than your match as they think we bloggers users are backward, ignorant, not technologically advanced, etc. They are also ready for war, looooollllll. So you all that want to fight, get out your swords if you live in the eras on the 1600s, and your grenade if you live in this present century. But one thing is sure, I am the blog coward that won't be found anywhere.

Olatoxic, who is my close friend in real life, but definitely not in blogsville, is the word-presser I spoke about in this post, who detests blogger, visiting it, and everything about it. He has taken time to reply some of you who returned his sentiments. He climbed the podium, and took the mic, and declared war. The thing is that I am so surprised he saw my blogger post, and even took time to comment, after his declaration of blogger hate. I guess blogger was just too sweet for him to stay away from at this point in time. 

Here is what he had to say

*zooms in* #TeamWordpress FOR LIFE!!! *tears singlet and brandishes war paint*

Oh, it looks like I'm a one man army... *jejely wears new cloth and proceeds to climb stage like a gentleman*

*knacks mic and clears throat* Hello there, my fellow bloggers. I speak for the wordpress side of our dearly beloved artform. I think it's sad that you guys cannot see the light. Your platform is clunky and difficult to use. Why do I have to have a blogger account to EASILY post a comment on here? Be doing eyetest for me everytime I want to comment. -____- And have you any idea how hard it was to read your blogposts on my curve2 browser? It was so frustrating that I gave up on it even after I stepped up to an android phone a while ago. You see, it's really pathetic that blogger doesn't have a sensible mobile web platform even at the end of 2012. Neanderthal!

Also, do you know why we don't SEEM to have a community as such on wordpress? Obviously not. Let me help your (for lack of a better word)... ignorance: "Wordpressers" are almost all on twitter as well. That's where we do all the bonding and fighting and camaraderie-ing. You see, we've learned how to work both platforms for optimum exposure and 'benefitability'. WIN-WIN!! So yes, we do bond and fight too, we just keep all that 'pettiness' away from our blogs where we can focus on the actual art of writing/blogging while we keep all our 'silliness' on twitter.

Oh, another thing, I subscribe to a few blogger sites directly through my email... and I receive the posts in my inbox 24hrs later! Like, wharraheck?! Where's the sense in being alerted about a post the day after it was published?! Do you bother with yesterday's newspaper when there's today's to read? Rabbish and nonsense. Mscheeeeeww!!

Abeg, I dey go paddle my kayak go back wordpress jarey. I for done subscribe to comments so that when you people reply me, I can receive it instantly in my inbox but... Oh look, blogger is not that advanced yet. Oh bugger.

ps For those of you so concerned about not having your pictures up on your wordpress comments, if you were any technologically advanced, you'd know that you could use your twitter, facebook or even blogger acct while commenting and your avatar from any of those accts would show up, with the link to that profile attached too.

pps @ilola, I'm incensed that you did not credit me in your post. We are now fighting. I demand an apology and atonement for your sins. 3-|

pps I bear no grudge towards you blogger bloggers (see how rubbish that sounded?) and your backward ways, the vexed tone of this comment was purely for purposes of mirth. I do not take responsibility for any one of you who do not possess a real sense of humour.

*bows and exits stage left*

I am sorry Olatoxic for not crediting you in the post. I never knew you would even read a blogger post, talk less of commenting. I was trying as much not to stain your wordpress pure blood (Harry Potter things) by mentioning your name on blogger, as we are too far beneath for you, since it won't do your wordpress status any good. And just so you know, I use my blogger account to comment on wordpress posts, yet my picture still doesn't show.

Blogger users, I hope you notice that they said it is our ignorance that makes us build a strong community, such that we bond and fight on blogger, instead of doing it on other platforms. It sounds to me like Olatoxic is trying to justify the lack of community love of word-pressers, like we have on blogger. Lol

So bloggers, let us know. Are we really these adjectives way word-pressers have described us to be? 

P.S: This blog is a hate-free zone. So let us try to keep our comments non-volatile and jovial, as we all know that that is what Olatoxic's comment is.

How I see Nigerian Blogsville (2) – The two clans... not cliques

If you missed my previous post, be sure to read it here, before proceeding. By doing so, you will to appreciate this post better.

Haa, people of blogsville, is if fair? Is this how life is? You people just set me up for failure. You want to become Alakobas of my blogsville career? I see you people like drama too much. When I said there are two clans, I meant proper clans, not cliques, as I suspect most of you are expecting. You all want to put me in trouble, ehn. But read on, the post is still interesting, even if it doesn't cause you to bring out your boxing gloves. 

Just imagine a real life community that has two major clans with a wide river separating them, same tribe, same goals, but different kind of structures and houses. That’s how Nigerians that blog on Wordpress and Blogger are on the internet.

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So yes, there are two major clans in Nigerian Blogsville. All others are negligible. The blogger clan and Wordpress clan, and they hardly mix.

If you decide to leave your primary family to join the other clan, they will beg you to stay, cajole you, try to convince you. You might give in to their pleas, or decide that you are going, so you leave them your house address in the clan you are migrating to, but the truth is they will hardly come to visit you. And some of them will tell you "we will miss you. Unfortunately, I don’t do wordpress, or I don’t do blogger."

In fact, loads of times, you have to go back to your house in your former clan, and tell your former family that you have something new for them in the new house. Some will come, some won’t.

After a while, you concede defeat and either come back to your former family, or accept that you have lost their affection and stick with your new family.

There are few, like Angels Beauty, Ms Tizzle, etc that cut across both clans, they know how to paddle in that river that separates the two clans, but ask them, it takes serious consistence. Having to cross a river all the time is not beans.

For me, I did not visit Wordpress bloggers in the past because they did not have the Google follow button on their blog gadget, and I couldn’t figure out a way of following them on my blogger dashboard, which is my method of keeping up to date with blogs I follow. Some people have other methods. So I just blanked out Wordpress bloggers. But I later figured out how to add them, so I now cross that river few times, but the truth is that they hardly come to blogger, so I don’t even know most ones that exist. The ones I follow are like Angels Beauty and Ms Tizzle, that try not to limit themselves to any clan.

How do I know blogsville people like to stay in their clan. Apart from the ‘I don’t do Wordpress or blogger’ comments I have seen and dropped, I visited my friend’s wordpress blog when he was campaigning for the Nigerian blog awards. He put up a list of blogs he felt should be nominated in each category. He typed something like ‘For the blog of the year, vote a.wordpress.com, b.wordpress.com, or c.wordpress.com, so he didn’t campaign for any particular blog, as long as it was a, b, or c, he was fine. They were all Wordpress blogs.

So I pinged him, and asked "how come I didn’t see any blogspot blog on this long list of yours?" His response was ‘I hate blogger, I can’t stand it, I don’t visit it.’ And here I was, thinking it was only blogger people that disliked Wordpress people. That’s a classic example of bloggers who will never cross that river for anyone.

So when choosing your clan in this blogsville, choose well, and try to be loyal to one clan, not being from blogger today, and tomorrow, you tell us to follow you to Wordpress. What if you want to have your house in the two clans at the same time? Fine, but as for me, it is just too much stress.

Did you notice the irony? Wordpress bloggers still call themselves bloggers, even though they do not use Blogger, lol. They should call themselves Word-pressers. Sorry, I just had to chip that in.

So this is the end of my ‘How I see Nigerian blogsville’ rant series. I hope you enjoyed it

How I see Nigerian Blogsville

I remember as a new blogger, when I could hardly get traffic to my blog. I could only boast of about four followers after almost a year of blogging, and I always had to drag my colleagues at work by the ear to read my posts and beg them to drop comments, just to be sure that what I was writing was making sense.

I stumbled on some blogs, and read in the comment session how they addressed themselves. They knew about one another, they were always rushing to drop comments on new posts, and they even rejoiced and danced whenever they became first to drop a comment on someone’s post. Some of them had like 20 followers, which I found very impressive, seeing I could not get up to 5 in a year. Some had like 40 and some had like 100. 100 followers? For me, that was the height. They all seemed pretty close, and were a very strong clique. They referred to themselves as blogsville.

After a while, I so much admired them, that I dropped comments on one or two blogs, asking how I could join blogsville, because I thought blogsville was like this virtual internet village where you have to register and become a member, so you can know and support one another. Some did not answer me, but one lady said all i needed to ‘join blogsville’ was just become a Nigerian blogger. It did not make sense to me cos I was a Nigerian blogger and I did not seem to be part of this much admired blogsville.

After a while, I just let it go and concentrated on my traffic-less blog, working on the quality on my posts. I left blogger for about 5 months, due to stress at work, and a came back when I noticed that my gift of writing was getting too strong to be ignored.

I started posting better things, few people followed me. I checked their blogs out, and followed back, commented, etc, not because I was looking for followers, cos I wasn’t even aware that following and commenting on other people’s blogs could increase visit to your site, but I began to notice a difference.

For example, Myne would come visit me, comment and go, when no one was even willing to look at me. I visited back and I saw that she had like 300 followers even though we started blogging around the same period (obviously, old things have passed away for Myne).

I started to know people on blogsville, and the remaining, as they say, is history.

So back to the main topic, how I see blogsville…

I love Nigerian blogsville, i won’t lie. This is because overtime, we have come to create another virtual, yet real, world of our own. It is a very strong community.

Imagine a real village, having people of different temperaments, people you like, people you don’t like, people you are indifferent about. People with varying opinions and views about life, yet doesn’t make any of them better than the other. Just think about that village, it might be in Abeokuta, Ihiala, or Otukpo, and put it in a virtual world, that’s how I see blogsville.

Someone told me that her friends always wonders when she talks about people in blogsville, and they think she’s in sane, because they can’t see anything, and she tells them "These people are real. There’s actually this world/community that exists on the internet, and they are very real just like you and I.” And she’s telling them about how one blogger did something to another, how one loves another, etc. But they just look at her like she’s crazy or so.

What sealed it for me was the famous blogsville fight exactly a year ago. The so-called team pro-gay vs anti-gay. The way everything blew up. It was like a real life fight, in which I kept silent before anyone had the opportunity to deck my head. It just portrayed to me what a strong force we are. So much emotion, people left blogsville, people fought, made up, laughed, cried, etc. And you say it is just internet? I think blogsville is more than just internet. It is a community. Twitter can be ‘just internet’, facebook can be ‘just internet’, but blogsville is a community, not just a virtual one, but a real one, and I am glad to be part of it.

The only requirement to join this community to let yourself known, and be friendly to the ones already there, and voila, you are in. Else, you will stand alone in the cold for a very very long time, just like I did, while you watch others cuddle one another. It’s not because they are wicked, they just don’t know you exist.

Did I mention that in this community, there are two major clans? Watch out for my next post.

You are invited to Word Up

Just in case you haven't heard or noticed, there's a Spoken Word revolution currently going on in Nigeria, and sooner or later, it will be hard to ignore.

I am therefore using this medium to invite you to the biggest Spoken Word concert in Nigeria currently, Word Up. We had the first edition in August 18 this year, and it was off the shizzle.

Since I don't want you to miss the type of fun we had last time, the below picture is my official invite to you. I am actively involved in the Spoken Word movement in Nigeria today, so please, I would love to see you there.

This is the flyer we would be sharing. Anyone that loves Spoken Word and literary arts would recognise the names on the flyer, and agree that these are indeed the top Spoken Word performers in Nigerian today.

Just in case you missed it, yes, I will be performing there. Remember I said I am one of the promoters.

Please, check the flyer or IV for more details about the event. Please, check it fast, the event is this Saturday, so don't dull.

See you all there, hopefully, before I mount the stage.

Six ways to become a modern day Marriage Counsellor/Relationship Expert by Atilola Moronfolu

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The days of having to spend money going to expensive counselling school in the US is over. Who says you have to waste precious time reading all those books and engaging in those time wasting psycho analysis, just because you want to be a respected marriage counsellor?

There are sure better and faster ways to becoming a marriage or relationship expert, especially in this age when the pressure to get married is so high, and the one to get divorced is even higher, your skills as a relationship expert is definitely going to be worth a lot, especially if you use avenues where people can assess this expertise of your, like the internet.

So here are six sure fast ways to become a marriage or relationship expert

1. Get married

What better way to become a marriage expert than living the experience yourself. Get married, and use your experience as a blanket method to advise everyone. It doesn’t matter if your relationship with your spouse is unique. It doesn’t matter if the person whose relationship problem you are trying to solve is in a courtship with someone who likes beans, while your spouse likes rice. Don’t care about differences in personalities. As long as you are married, whether the marriage is 1 minute old, 1 day old, or 100 years old, you are automatically a relationship expert.

Also, no one cares if you are happy in your marriage, sad, battered, have been keeping malice with your spouse for the past six months or six years. As long you got a ring on your finger, you are automatically are a relationship expert.

2. Get divorced

This is another fast way to be a relationship expert. You are more equipped in recognising the signs of a bad marriage, who not to marry, and who not to date. The more divorces you have on your hands, the more certificates of marriage counselling you are equipped with, the more people respect this expertise of yours. You sure will be getting a lot of sad married women as customers.

So yes go ahead and get divorced. Who says your pain has to be wasted? You can cash out it by becoming a relationship expert.

3. Be a prophet or seer

It doesn’t matter what your state is… rich, poor, tall, short, thin, fat, whatever. As long as you are a prophet, you will be seeing visions that God will reveal to only you. He won’t reveal to either of the parties in the relationship or marriage. After all, they are not blessed with the prophetic gift you have. As long as you are a prophet, God will tell you who kola should or shouldn’t marry, without informing kola. He will tell you how many kids Angela should have, and what she should be cooking for her husband every morning and night.

In fact when you are a prophet, you will become a relationship expert with the highest form of control, as we give great respect to our prophets on this side of the world. So yes, become a prophet/seer to be a counsellor, and if you can’t become one, lie that you are one. it’s really difficult to know the difference. Trust me.

4. Be a modern day pastor

This is another relationship expert that has almost as much control as the prophet. It doesn’t matter when you were ordained pastor, or what ministry you were called to. Whether your calling is warfare, deliverance, holiness preaching, prosperity preaching, motivational preaching, or any other specific one God calls pastors to concentrate on. As long as you are a pastor, you are a qualified marriage counsellor. Your congregation will not even be bothered about how you treat your wife, whether you love her like Christ loves the church, whether you beat her, or belt her, whether you give attention to your kids, or put the church before your family. No one cares.

It will also do you good not to address the issues when your sheep come running to you when there is a problem in their relationship or marriage. Just tell them that what God wants is for them to go back home, and close your eyes to the real issues. Once you are pastor-something, you are an automatic marriage counsellor and relationship expert. And the good thing is that the ladies will love you, especially the ones who have a problem in their marriage. The thing is, you must be careful lest you are tempted to fill the vacuum their husbands have refused to fill, so you won’t be relieved from your pastoral responsibilities, and lose that precious relationship expert certificate, and you will have to stop practising.

5. Be a musician or any other kind of celebrity

Once you are a musician, and have the ability to spew words, add beats to them, and get a dead club jamming, you are automatically a relationship expert. Go on twitter, Facebook, etc., and let the whole world know your opinion about relationships and marriages. Your ever-loyal twitter followers and Facebook fans will be sure to spread your sagacious words to the public. It doesn’t matter whether you are married, single, or divorced, holy or a saint, frat member or cultist, whether you lick tom-tom, or smoke weed publicly, sing meaningful songs or thrashy meaningless songs, or whatever. As long as you are a celebrity, the world will respect the fact that you could rise above many and become famous, however you were able to achieve that. You will automatically be respected as a relationship expert and marriage counsellor.

6. Be a blogger/commenter

If you can’t do any of the above for now, start a blog… any kind of blog, but romance blog or occasional romance articles will work best in your interest. You can either be a known face or anonymous. We don’t care. As long as you can drive traffic to your blog, we will see you as a relationship expert. Start a 'ask the blogger' series, advise us, tell us what you feel is right about sex and courtship, it would even do you good to be forceful about it. We really don’t care about your credentials or history. The fact that you are only accessible online will prevent people who don’t agree with your views from stoning you.

If you are too lazy to start a romance blog, just become a regular commenter on such blogs. As long as you are consistent in commenting on such blogs, you will be noticed, and recognised as a marriage counsellor and relationship expert.

So yes, these are six ways to drive the marriage counselling experts out of business. Pick the one most convenient for you and you are sure to be cashing in some bucks very soon.

Atilola’s words.

This article wasn’t written to diss any particular person, so if anyone feels am talking to them or anyone, you are wrongly mistaken, and I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

I wrote this post because I noticed that in recent times, everyone has become a relationship expert, which is ironic because, the more these so-called expert advices are flying around, the more relationships and marriage are failing.

My own opinion is that marriage is a good thing, and God is the author of marriage. If you have problem with your Honda car, you would most likely take it to 'The Honda Place' for repairs if you can afford it. So why is it that now that we are having problems with courtship and marriage, we are not turning to God, the manufacturer, for help? We would rather listen to the six personalities mentioned above, people who might even be in the same problem or worse than us.

Counselling is good and necessary at times, but choose your counsellors wisely. 

Just to mention again...

Hiya, before I go to the topic of the day, let me quickly mention that I was featured in the 31 Days of poetry on EG Creativity. My work, The Same Cane, was put up. If you have read my book, then you would remember it. Else, head over here to read this particular one. It is a classic case of what goes around comes around, and bites you in the butt, lol.

Also, I will be at the CBAN book fair at Shepherd Hill Baptist Church, exhibiting The Blessing of Sarah by Morolayo Owoputi and Antonyms of a Mirage by Atilola Moronfolu from 30 Oct 2012 to 3 Nov 2012. So for people who haven't bought my book yet, or just want to hang out with me this period, this would be a great time for us to meet.

So, I want to mention again, just in case you did not know before, or you actually forgot that

Source

1. I am an Editor. I edit books, and get them ready for publishing purposes. And no, editing is not the same as proof reading. I do heavy content editing and structural editing

2. I transcribe audio books.

So please, if you are interested or you know anyone interested in my services, holla at me. You can check out more details about it here.

I hope to ear hear from you guys. I need your money to buy garri to drink oo.

This must be one of my shortest blog posts. lol

We need a major Rank Shifting in Nigeria

Before I get to the order of the day, please can you do me a favour? I am on bended knees. I would please like you to please support my hair blog, African Naturalistas, by voting it as the Best Topical Blog of the year in the Nigerian Blog Awards. I promise that you won't be asked to pay. We would really appreciate it if you support us by voting us as the winner of this category. It will help create more awareness for the blog. Anyone can vote irrespective of citizenship or location, you don't have to be a Nigerian or be resident in Nigeria. If you don't know what blogs to vote in other categories because you are not a Nigerian, it's fine. Just vote for the blog as the Best Topical Blog. Click here to vote now, as voting ends on 11 November 2012. Thank you in anticipation.

Many of us have been complaining that 'Nigeria is bad, Nigerians are voiceless, nothing good can ever come out of Nigeria,' and all those depressing statements we unconsciously prophesy into the future of our country. What many people agree on is the fact that for Nigeria to change, the mind-set and attitude of a lot of Nigerians would have to change. Right from the person that complains about the government, but don't fail to throw thrash on the express road immediately after LAWMA officials sweep it, to the ones that say our leaders are corrupt, but would not hesitate to pay for 'Special centre' for their kids to write JAMB or WAEC exam.

We need a major shift in our mind-set, and someone very close to me, Dayo Nigeria,  has tried to do justice to that, in his new book 'The Rank Shifting'

It isn't just like every other book, but one that traces any attempt to build a nation to the individuals in the nation. A country is just a name, that only gets her identity through the people that live in it. Therefore, if any meaningful transformation would happen, the author believes that it can only happen when the citizens of the country themselves have been transformed.

The summary is that it takes only a transformed man to get involved in transforming a nation. It all starts with personal grooming.

So are you interested in this major rank-shifting, or do you know who will do well from reading it? You can get a copy of this book from Eden Christian Library, Obafemi Awolowo University... Young Disciples International, No 1, YDI str, LASU/Isheri Expressway, Hotel Bus stop, Igando Lagos, or call Daniel on 08058669338, 07036027017 to get a copy

You can check more about the book on their facebook page here.

Time Speaks... by Atilola Moronfolu

Time speaks

And when it speaks,

Its voice is loud and clear, not a silent squeak

Or something the human ears cannot pick

They say time is a thief of memories

Because he takes along with him all the beautiful stories

But we forget that on judgement day, the thief always pays back what he stole

And when he pays, he does it seven fold

Time will separate the genuine from the counterfeit

Honesty from deceit

Success from failure;

The unholy from the pure

The Winners from the losers;

The truthfuls from the liars

Time will expose the liars and the deceivers

And open the backside of the underachievers

Time will show you the enemies and the frienemies

Even if they package themselves nicely like Egyptian mummies

Yes time.. Time speaks

And when it speaks,

Its voice is loud and clear, not a silent squeak

Or something the human ears cannot pick

Have you been cheated, or falsely accused

Do you feel that your rights have been abused

Don’t worry, neither should you despair

'Cause time would soon make everything clear

In the meantime, remember that … Time speaks

And when it speaks,

Its voice is loud and clear, not a silent squeak

Or something the human ears cannot pick

Antonyms of a Mirage - US Hard Copy Giveaway

Before I go to the business of the day. Lemme quickly insert this picture of mine. It is a picture me taken, when I wasn't aware of it, at my first ever TV interview.

Its time for the third phase of the Hard Copy giveaway of my book. This will be going to the interested readers in the US. You have been asking for it since, and it has finally come to you. I am really sorry for the delay

How do you qualify? Very simple

1. You must be residing in the US.

2. You must be a follower of this blog. Click on the follow button, on the follower gadget, on the right hand side of this blog, if you are not yet following this blog

3. Follow me on twitter. The handle is @hattylolla.

4. Like my any of my editions of Antonyms of a Mirage on amazon by clicking the like button on any of these pages here, here or here. (Liking just one will get you qualified, but you can like all, just in case you are over-killing this. Lol)

5. Drop a comment indicating your interest below.
For those hearing about the book for the first time, read the synopsis and watch the trailer below. You are sure to love it. Even if you have heard about the book, still read the synopsis because I know you haven’t read it before. You can also find out more about the book here.

Synopsis
A character suffering from multiple personality disorder decides to express herself. With six different personalities in her head vying for the spotlight, a constant battle occurs as the book progresses.

The sagacious one starts with her wise stories, in her usual mature style. As the bitter one, the melancholic one and others take over, more heart wrenching issues are exposed, and the reality of the world we live in comes to play. Each character invites you to her world, to experience what they are experiencing in their own unique way.

The article starts with one about corruption in Corruption Noni, where the writer had the opportunity to interview corruption and then progresses to really deep stories that touch prostitution, religious hypocrisy, marital pressures, and other societal ills. Each article portrays a reality that you can relate with.

At the end, the comic one ends up defeats all and is victorious with her funny stories, proving that no matter how twisted our reality is, there is always a reason to laugh in the end.For those hearing about the book for the first time, read the synopsis and watch the trailer below. You are sure to love it. Even if you have heard about the book, still read the synopsis because I know you haven’t read it before. 

You can also find out more about the book here.