Nonqaba said ...

Couch potato is about eating and comfort. Munching sweet and sour potato chips and nestling on the couch. Bad for the body and heart, but health can wait. We’re talking about cable T.V. and watching every channel and its ads. That was then. Cellphone and laptop computers now. Do we sit on the couch and surf the internet? Probably not. Couch potato doesn’t apply to online addiction because digital devices are not stationary like television sets. We take them anywhere, including the garage to run away from loving kids. We also take laptops to bed, his and hers in holy matrimony. Things that we traditionally do in bed can wait. We must be up to date about what strangers are doing online in their beds. No. Couch potato definitely does not apply to online gymnastics because we could be sitting anywhere. The beach doesn’t have couches. Coffee shops might have just one, the rest are hard chairs. Grass is not a couch, something you see in public parks. Absolute silence, as we sit on the grass

We, the indomitable fans, are gearing up for the post season after party to celebrate Coach Prime for his amazing once upon a time in Colorado. It will probably take place in the summer 2024. What? Don’t look at me like that. Don’t say they are 4-4 and that their chances of making the bowl are slim. Who is talking about the bowl? The after party will celebrate the effort of a man who said I believe we can, and if we can’t, we can say we darn tried. Once upon a time in Colorado, a football coach was reprimanded for being presumptuous, he can fish out a 1-11 team, from the basement of college football history. Deion Sanders did. He’s not Coach Prime for nothing. Colorado Buffaloes are 4-4 right now, but we are going ahead with the Coach Prime after party. Please keep this receipt. Planned Events For The After Party Football is a business venture, just like any other sports or grocery chain. We can start with a Coach Prime Summer Business School, where students are taught how to rescue an

Funny company name, but you won't forget the beeps. The government wants you to register your company so that it can deduct taxes, but there are also benefits your business will only get, if it is registered. Below is an old post, 13 August 2023 about company registration. Starting a business? We need a company name but we never think of music. We remember songs because they are short and sweet like Calm Down , Jericho or Piano Man . The longer the company name, the more complicated it is to design a logo that will not take a lot of space on websites, letterheads, billboards, park benches, pull-up banners, T-shirts, baseball caps and the sign outside the building. Once upon a time, surnames were company names because businesses started on the kitchen table, basement, back yard or the farm. That’s why there were names like Lever Brothers, Eaton’s or Brown and Sons. Time passed. There were mergers. Companies were listed on the Stock Exchange. A shorter name is ideal, but it might not

In 2019, Wisconsin signed a bill allowing kids to sell lemonade on private property: front yards. Photo Credit: online pic. The internet has beaten us to it. Kids as young as ten, know that a million online followers translate into money in the bank. That is why we should admit defeat and teach business studies in grade school, starting with the question: what would you like to be when you grow up? The traditional answer is, teachers, lawyers and doctors because they were respected in society. The new question should be: what will you do when you grow up? Business is about doing, and that is what kids under-ten see their teenage sisters and brothers doing on their laptops. Some of it is questionable, that’s why business should be taught in grade school, to limit illegality. Company names for example. Encouraging kids to think about them early in life, crystallizes business ideas in their heads. The Kool-Aid Stand Business studies in grade school will be a formality because some kids al

FOR LEASE sign on that blue building. Government workers are still on strike in our city and efforts to end it began a month ago. It goes like this. The union says this is what we want for our workers. The employer says this is what we can offer. Workers vote on the offer. If they reject it, they go back to the streets with their placards. This walk-out from the job by insurance workers is common in 2023 but it wasn’t, a hundred years ago, because work started with the family. Skills and crafts were passed down generations and families that specialized in let’s say, carpentry or brewing beer, formed guilds to protect them. Unions were brought to Canada and U.S. by settlers from Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Ukraine and other European countries. They were called guilds in the ‘old country’ and rules of engagement were different. It was not a worker vs employer tennis match. It was an extension of family. That is why it was easy for guilds to monitor quality, improve quality, improv

Mercedes, Africa's love story. They even have local names for this car . He walked into a dealership that carries one of the ten peacock cars in the world. There are two types of cars: utility cars that move human beings and goods and peacock cars, that tell the world you wake up at noon. He chose one and bought it with a credit card. Is that possible? Bicycles, I could understand that, not a vehicle with four wheels, not counting the spare tire. And definitely, not a peacock car.   Anyway, it’s fiction,  Daemon a scary book about gaming . It’s about hackers in the dark net, a subdivision of the internet. Fiction or no  fiction,  all credit cards have limits. That is why African Americans coined the expression, 'I maxed the card.' It’s possible for a  millionaire to buy a car with a credit card, you argue. Is that right? I don’t doubt that NBA stars, Shedeur Sanders, J.K. Rowling, Tyler Perry, Lewis Hamilton, Magic Johnson, Sheryl Sandberg or Rihanna have a tidy sum in the

In their determination to get as many views as possible, online newspaper  editors seldom think about the repercussion of headlines that misrepresent the story. A good example are headlines and British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, who has won seven championships. Certain clicks in motor racing don’t want to see him win again, so they have been fanning retirement flames. That is their problem, but it’s wrong to make headlines as if ,  it is a fact.  The misleading headline might lead to the people the reporter interviewed, to lose their jobs.  Buildings might go up in flames as religious protesters vent their anger at the headline.  Diplomats might be recalled.  People might die.   Except for blogs where the blogger is the orchestra and the conductor, traditional newspapers, magazines and television are governed by division of labour. Reporters gather and write the story. They do not craft headlines. Somebody else does, and somebody higher up, usually the editor, approves them. He

Raffensperger and the GOP tried to suppress the vote so that Herschel Walker (left)  could win and become Georgia's Senator in Washington. Rev. Ralph Warnock won. Brad Raffensperger is not a co-defendant in Trump's RICO case because he is a rhino. He has one focus, elections in Georgia. That's why he decided in 2020, that he would not soil his hands with another man's mud, Donald Trump's. Below is an old post, December 6, 2022. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State is working on his memoir, or he’s contemplating it.   That is why he should ensure that no party element tries to tamper with the result of the 6 December Senate Run Off election between Ralph Warnock and Herschel Walker. Raffensperger’s memoir will be a historical account of his life, especially his input in enacting the 2021 election law (SB202) to make it difficult for Georgians to vote. His publisher must warn him that he cannot distort history, and label himself pro-democracy. Examples. Earl

A rhino must focus. It has no choice because of its horn. It cannot chase things on the left, right, behind and around it. The horn is aimed at what is in front of it, fortunately it’s not me. It cannot put all its eggs in one basket. It does not need to satisfy different agendas because it is not running for U.S. president. Donald Trump is a rhino (although nature rhinos will reject him). He had a dream. One day I’ll be the U.S. President. It came to pass and time passed, so there was the 2020 presidential election. He ran, he lost, another man became President. He still doesn’t want to accept it because he is a rhino, his focus is on one thing, the Oval Office. Not Brad Raffensperger. That’s a long name. Who’s he? The Georgia Secretary of State whose primary job is elections in that state. Now that’s a rhino. He knows what he wants now and somewhere down the road. That’s why he leaked the 11,780 votes. Back flip to the 2020 election. Thanks to Stacey Abrams, the Fair Fight Coalition

Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang. Artificial Intelligence (AI) dictatorship is a pest. I cannot write like a duck, bobbing up and down the river trying to get to my destination: literary excellence. AI guesses my moves, my motives, my moods. Just let me be. I trip over stones when I’m writing. Sometimes I fall flat on my face, pick myself up and delete a whole blog, if it has no gas. However, I need a little favour from AI. Arrest the fall for trespassing. I suspect it wants to steal the shine from summer. I’m noticing some fallen leaves and I think it’s too early for that. I know they are pretty but I’m not in the appreciation mode yet. I still enjoy wearing tops and shorts, not boots and jackets lined with fake fur. AI, I’m not paranoid. I can also read the air, when it becomes fuzzy and loses its moisture. No. I’m not a meteorologist. I happen to live in one of the coldest places on earth, which is not a problem, but it is if some seasons want to jump the line. Very rude, like some immigra

It’s amazing how we kill each other because of ideology, religion and borders when we are the same. This day, this minute throughout the world, we are all doing the same thing, in seclusion away from people we live with, to ‘talk’ to our phones. His. Hers. It becomes a war if she touches his phone. Ringtone goes off like waves. Husband answers his phone. After the call she says: Who was that ? A marriage certificate does not give partners the right to question incoming calls, let alone touch someone’s phone and go through text messages and phone history. I’ve seen many movies where couples go for counselling before they get married. Some churches insist on it, but do they have a module on cellphones? They should, because it can cause friction between the two. I saw one movie where the wife smelt a rat because the husband changed his phone’s password. They used to know each other’s passwords. It was quite a unique arrangement. Sharing phone passwords? People living together don’t even s

We all have stories about the 2020 pandemic, some good, some bad. There was no work, no going out, nothing. We were under house arrest medically, but something good came out of it. Value. We realized that friends and loved ones we put a high value on, rank us very low in their graph. Now we know. I never forget friends that added, gave me something that made me a better person. Mama was my first friend but I was too dumb to realize it. Call me young and dumb. Later on in life, I was lucky to find friends that added rather than subtracted. Faz for example, she introduced me to the book The Second Sex  by Simone de Beauvoir the French writer, where she poses the question: what is a woman?  I went on to read her other books. Faz used to talk about how Simone was part of the Paris cafe culture, with her friend, Jean-Paul Sartre the writer. Vusi is another friend that added rather than subtracted because he introduced me to the blues. I thought saxophones and trumpets cried, jumped and care

National Indigenous Day 2022. They are found in a circle of three or more friends. Hollywood has a script cast in stone. The main character has four friends and she is the validator. She validates what each member says or does. Two friends are simple. No validator there. The dominant friend leads, the timid one follows. In most cultures, the man talks, the wife nods or says ‘ Yes dear .’ Three or more friends need a validator to cement the friendship despite obvious and latent differences. They are always there because of human nature and the ‘i’ element, and we are not talking about the iPhone. A conversation is going on. Does industrial waste pollute the air? If it does, who cares? Is climate change responsible for coronavirus? There is no scientist in this circle of friends but we have opinions about it, thanks to Google, which has made all of us clever. Are we? It’s only natural. We think our view of the world is the correct one. We take it personally if someone challenges it. We s

Transfer portal to Colorado? Remember the snow shoes.  Coach Prime only gives players shades (sunglasses), not warm footwear. LOL. Before you commit to Colorado Buffaloes, think winter, before you think Coach Prime. You know him. He’s a walking book that has been read from cover to cover but you are clueless about snow, if you grew up in a state where they jump for joy, when they see a handful of snowflakes. I’m writing this piece because of what’s happening outside. The snow is doing its thing, leaps and tiptoeing like Russian ballerinas that once belonged to the famed Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, before they defected to the U.S. I don’t know how cold Colorado is, but I know it has snow. Remember Colorado Buffaloes’ first spring game with Coach Prime at the helm? It snowed. Ha! Ha! In spring. That’s why I want to share my winter tips with young players that are considering committing to Boulder to join Shedeur Sanders and Xavier Weaver in football fun. 1.  It’s not cold when it’s snowing

We tend to think about marriage and its trials and tribulations, when the home space shrinks. It happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Houses  that are relatively big shrunk, because family members that are not normally there, were present for almost a year, thanks to lock down. Space also shrinks in winter, forcing us to be indoors most of the time. We live in apartment buildings and very small stand-alone houses owned by the bank. In winter, there are more boots, coats, toys, skates, sleighs and wagons lying around and that tests the phrase, through thick and thin. That is the main reason why after the invention of the microwave oven, many couples decided to give marriage a test run by living together. They wanted to iron out the thickness and thinness before committing to the long distance race, which includes kids. Parents of every race and creed do not like it. Kids don’t care. They want to test the waters so that they don’t go through the same grief as their parents. Assumptions

Anybody home? Yes Coach Prime, we still here for 'ya.' Home is always sweet home  despite a few bruises and coaches that play to win and not for clicks . Ouch! UCLA Bruins put away Colorado Buffaloes 16-28. That hurts, but those Bruins will not ruin and bruise our belief in Coach Prime. We are still of the Coach Prime persuasion. We are still Coach Prime inclined. We still believe we’re primed to net three more games. We are still beautiful. We are still captivating whether we win or not. We are still good despite the bruises from 3-0 to 4-4. We are still resilient. But most of all, we are still feared. Feared? Yes indeed. We are feared because we are expected, highly expected, like washing curtains, airing beds, mowing fall leaves and washing special plates because we are expecting lost and found relatives. We appreciate the extra effort teams exert when Colorado Buffaloes fly out to play them, although we don’t like that effort playing out at Folsom. It goes against etiquette

Wake up, internet addiction makes you vulnerable to highway robbery,  'highway' literally, because that is what the internet is. A second language is a +  not a -, something schools in Norway and Sweden understand. This blog offers Zulu , which was born in KwaZulu, one of the South African provinces. It is also spoken in Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Zulu lessons are sporadic for a good reason. I look for words I can explain in English. Linda is my favourite example, identical pronunciation in both Zulu and English. TODAY’S LESSON WAKE-UP Wake up is vuka in Zulu. Vu-ka you say the first part like volleyball but with a ‘U’ and the second like karma. Vukani is a popular boy’s name asking the family to wake up and realize something. We wake up in the morning or when the plane lands in Durban, our destination. We also wake up when we realize our mistakes. We own up and make the necessary adjustments. We also wake up when we realize what we were told, is a lie. Political examples

Mothers. Great responsibility, raising children so that they can survive in the wild. Beautiful online pic. Who is the photographer?  Thirst for power. It’s something I’ve never understood because you lose your freedom. You can’t yawn or pick your nose in public. You are constantly checking the mirror for broccoli stuck in between teeth or if your fly is open. However Trump’s thirst for power is unimaginable. Thirsty is  oma  in Zulu as in: Omar, Norma, Oman or comma. On a hot day someone will say:  Ngaze ngoma  (I’m so thirsty). The root word changes, when it describes the state of being thirsty.  Ngomile , the ‘a’ becomes - ile . Ngo-mi-le  (I’m thirsty). You say the first part like lingo, the second like milk and the last like leg . I don’t drink enough water, despite countless New Year resolutions to drink more. Just shows you how ungrateful I am. All it takes is opening the tap. I don’t live in the desert where water is priceless. Vampires and bed bugs are thirsty for blood. Men l

Donald Trump is scared that if he goes to jail, he cannot campaign for the 2024 presidential election. Knowing Trump, he will, as long as he has his phones. It's Halloween in Canada and U.S. on Tuesday, so don't be scared when you see passengers on the bus dripping with blood or having  faces with no eyes. Halloween makeup is scary.  Afraid or scared, is  saba   in Zulu.  Ngi-saba umbani  (I’m scared of thunder).  Halloween makeup scares you,  iya-sabeka .  Nature made many races that live in different parts of the world.  All of them have ugly people, depending on their concept of beauty.  For example, standards of judging a beautiful person in Africa are different from Asia’s.  We can be very cruel and say someone is so ugly, he is scary. Weddings are very stressful. The bride is scared that the groom might not show up. Grooms are also scared of being stood up at the altar. Some people are scared of heights and will not go up Mount Kenya, Tour Eiffel, Statue of Liberty or sca

I won’t be scared this Halloween. But you said that last year. I did, thanks for the rude reminder. Fine. I say it every year but they always get me on the bus or on the road. Blood. I cringe when I meet somebody covered in blood, something that is hidden in our veins for a reason. It’s Halloween dummy. I’m not dumb. I just don’t think about 'fun' things well in advance. There I was, at the local farmers’ market during the summer, enjoying color brought about by vegetables. Such markets have other things, like hand made scarves and mittens, hand made earrings, woodwork and soap. What’s this? A table full of human heads with distorted eyes and mouths. Ghouls. I think our English teacher said they are ghouls. Very scary. The ghoulish art was there the whole summer, then the penny dropped. This is Halloween art. That’s when I took the pictures. How could I forget Halloween, when dollar stores had them as early as August? China is big on planning judging from dollar stores. The onl