ktravula – a travelogue!

Nominated!

This blog was yesterday nominated for eleven categories in the Nigerian Blog Awards 2010. This is overwhelming for a blog less than a year old. And for that, I say a big KTravula thank you to all of you who did the nomination on behalf of our fans, friends, readers, commenters and guest-posters. Big hugs to you.

Voting for the categories start on May 31 and ends on June 6. A full list of the categories and nominees can be found here.

Winner for the Nigerian Blog of the Year gets to be the president of Nigeria for one day, and gets a chance to make any government policy s/he wants. Oh, I wish ;).

Q & A, Again

The traveller attempts to answer some ten more questions that have either been asked him, or have not been asked yet only because the people who had them in their minds were not too confident about sending him the email!

10.

Q: Why did you remove your picture from the “About” page?

A: I had a mood swing! Yes, I have those too, and it is not controlled by the tide of the moon. Sometimes I get tired of seeing my own face online, and a sudden capriciousness overwhelms me to get rid of it. No questions asked. If you would send me your picture, I might send you one of mine too.

Q: Why do you make blog posts almost every day?

A: I don’t know. I really can’t control it. It has become a sort of habit that I can’t easily break. But some times I’m so tired that I can’t write anything at all. At those times, I just go to sleep, but not before a muted apology to the blogging muses of the day wherever they are for not being able to put their energies to better use.

Q: What are you going to do after your Fulbright programme ends in May 2010?

A: I really have no clear idea yet, but my tentative plans include a future academic pusuit either in the United States, or in Europe – whichever takes me first, and (if I don’t get a scholarship) whichever is more affordable. Yes, I am not the son of any Nigerian politician.

Q: What do you miss the most about Nigeria, aside from the food?

A: Aaaaaargh! You have spoilt all the fun by removing food as a choice answer.

Q: Do you really look forward to going back to Nigeria?

A: Because I still have a long time to stay here, I can’t answer this question, yet. Ask me again in a few months. But in private this time, if you want some honesty.

Q: If you’re so bloody smart, why do you blog instead of becoming a newspaper columnist, or at least a more serious author and not just a serial narcissistic exhibitionist of wicked (read beautiful, inspiring, nice, or any other sufficient word) lines?

A: It’s the internet age, and I’m dealing with the dynamics of the medium I’m most adapted to. I do intend to publish a definitive collection of poems, a collection of short stories or even a novel some day (if I get a publishing deal), but my interest is mostly in literary and non-literary translation. This blog is just a way of keeping my brain in shape. By the way, all the stuff in here are copyrighted. You can’t use them elsewhere without my permission, or you might be in hot soup.

Q: What do you think of the recent (in)famous wordfest in the Nigerian print media about the standard of objective review of music albums coming from young people?

A: Erm… I have no more comments on that. When I do, I know where to place them, and they’d get published, hopefully. It’s always a pain to not have a way to occasionally voice one’s opinion to a current issue. Nigeria is the country with the freest news media on the continent, after all. I’m glad for the chance to be able to contribute to current issues from this distance whenever the opportunity presents itself. Within Nigeria, there are other things that make that a very grueling process. On the top of this is electricity (or the lack thereof in regular and stable doses).

Q: What do you have with number 46?

A: I have no idea what you mean. Oh, that! (Giggles). I really don’t know too, but since after the second month when I ended up with forty-six posts, I have decided to try and meet up with that number every subsequent months – just for the fun of it. Let’s see how that plays out.

Q: Mention three of your favourite posts on this blog, and why?

A: I like this the most, because it was short, and it was my first culture shock experience. Then this because, even to me, it was funny. And then I love My First Class, since I had as much fun writing it as I had experiencing it in class. If you ask me tomorrow, I might have a different list. And besides, I think my favourite post is just on the way, not yet published. Ah, I can’t resist pointing to this one too.

Q: Have you met Governor Rod Blagojevich yet?

A: He’s no longer the Governor of Illinois, remember? (Don’t you read the dailies?) I however almost met Governor Partrick Quinn when he came to campus sometimes last week(?) for a University event. I didn’t meet him because first, there was no need to, and secondly, because by the time he was having a town hall meeting addressing students, I was busy dosing off at home after a very stressful day of work at school.

Blog, Writing and Real Life

I did not grow up with computers around me. I am definitely not a first generation internet user. Much of the first creative things I wrote in my life were in long hand on rough sheets of paper, and later on an abandoned typewriter in my father’s lounge. Today there are kids growing up who probably never spent a day without getting on the computer. Whether they are smarter or more efficient than us is beyond me, but I do know that there is some kind of thrill in my current adaptation to a 24hour electronic cycle. The book is dead, I’ve heard, incredulously, and yesterday when I tried to read the current edition of Time magazine in print, I found a certain kind of lazy resistance, and some unexplainable wonder that they still make paper editions of those in this age of the internet. It must be why I spend so much time trying to to finish reading a book of just 300 pages. There’s definitely a sort of taking over by the internet, and I’m surprised to be on the train, considering that my first email address was just ten years ago.

Right now, I’m going through a phase, a certain self-examination for the purpose of blogging, wondering whether it ever replaces the need for books and publishing. What’s the line between real life and a blog that is known and tied to the writer? In ideal situations, I should send my poems first to journals and literary magazines rather than publish them by myself on the blog, right? However I’ve observed a certain sense of impatience in myself that may have conditioned a different way of behaviour that has me publishing them here first of all before I show them to publishers, asking whether they want them in their journals. Most of them say NO, of course, citing the fact that I’d already published them online in some form. I blame my e-conditioned impulsiveness to have absolute control on the when and the how. There is no other way to explain the fact that I never get the urge to write anything most times until I’ve signed into WordPress, clicked on “New Post”, and having a blank post page staring at me. A few years ago, it was a blank page in Microsoft Word that elicits that kind of mental stimulation. It was the same kind of electronically conditioned inspiration that I used to get while staring at the rusty typewriter on my father’s lounge. The question then is, what will I do with the bubbly impatience that never let go of me as soon as I complete a piece of work that makes me happy but which I can’t show to anyone? It is a morbid fear of losing it, I guess, or having something happen to me before the work makes it to the public that mostly takes my hand to the “publish” button, and I’m satisfied. I found a similar kind of paranoia in a writer William Boyd who I heard admit in a recent Youtube video tour of his writing space to having always kept his manuscripts in the refrigerator because they were safer there, at least from fire in the event of an outbreak.

For my paranoia, I can only hope to write so much more, and (ah-ha!) seek an American publisher. Maybe the blog might help in that ambitious quest. Gone were the days when the pleasure was in jotting on scrap notebooks and book margins. These days, the inspiration comes from an e-blank page and the rasping of my Dell laptop keys. I can’t complain.

PS: My first electronically published short story will be published in an anthology of short stories from Africa entitled “African Roar” and published by Lion Press UK in January 2010. Considering that it will now be in a book form for the first time, I won’t be putting up a link to the full work online here, as much as I wish to do so right now. Ask me for the rationale, and I’ll say it’s the dynamics of the new media. (Or what do you think, Ivor?)

Search Engine Terms

Blogging has its perks. Besides the ability to express one’s opinion in anonymity (or at least pseudo anonymity), I’ve found some little pleasures in observing visitor behaviours on this site, especially the words that have brought them here on a first time visit from search engines.

This part of WordPress that allows me to see the search engine terms that bring visitors from search engines began to amaze me when I found that at least two visits to ktravula.com were consequent upon the search for “gay man sex“. I’ve now tried to search for those terms myself on Google and surprisingly I didn’t end up here. So I tried for “gay man sex Illinois“. Still nothing, I’ve tried “gay man sex America“, “gay man sex travula“, and still without luck. Whomever it was who was linked to my website for searching for gay porn must have spent so much time in the search engine before my site would be eventually recommended. I’m not gay, but I’ve now deliberately searched for “gay man sex ktravula” and this site shows up finally on the results. The result was this old post in which I had mentioned the Episcopalian Churches support for homosexual and lesbian rights. I am hugely relieved.

Here are the other terms that have brought people here since this blog began. In brackets are the frequency of such search engine terms. Enjoy.

gateway arch(13)
www.ktravula.com(4)
tyto alba(3)
pictures of university of ibadan(1)
heathrow airport terminal (3)
underground(1)
the social gospel movement(1)
perspective on slavery(1)
all saints church yaba(1)
schooling in west africa 16th century(1)
edwardsville couger lake (1)
uk border patrol agent(1)
african traditional religion holydays(1)
how do you pronounce bolanle in yoruba(1)
fulbright flta comment(1)
travelogue about church(1)
postsecret at siue(1)
sola olorunyomi(1)
my computer bitmap(1)
blocked head(1)
achebe(1)
nigerians speak british english with acc(1)
kola tubosun travelogue(1)
six flags(1)
dark skin women(1)
a picture of the cameras at six flags(1)
“halle berry” imagesize:1280×800(1)
gay men in robes(1)
social gospel movements(1)
mtn extra cool(1)
gay man sex(1)
gay men sex(1)
wal-mart traffic signs(1)
slavery times(1)
brown university to boston airport(1)
american autumn imagesize:1024×768(1)
maya angelou(1)
virginia lynn bennett(1)
ktravula(1)
leaving providence(1)
mafoya(1)

Many of them amaze me, but the ones I have coloured amaze me the most. And with this post, I’m going to get more homosexual references now for sure. I’m not looking forward to that.

This Blog

A while ago, I published the 100th post on this blog, and it felt somewhat remarkable. If anyone had told me that I’d be making this many posts every week I might have doubted them, but that doubt would have come only from the inability to conceive a place where there is uninterrupted electricity and internet access. And for the reason of these indulgences, I had made it a point to always find something new to talk about even when I’m cold, sick, stressed, broken, lonely or just feeling plain lethargic. And sometimes, like right now, I would start the first word without the foggiest idea about what I want to blog about, but end up with something a little meaningful.

I have stopped counting my days in the United States. The calendar is there to do that. I just make a mental note of the hours as they pass by. By my calculations, I have spent over two months here and it already feels like forever. But I don’t feel the pressure to keep feeling nostalgic, so I believe that I have finally entered the cruise mode – that time of the journey where everything seems suspiciously smooth and fine. The problem is, I don’t like it. I want some action and new challenges. I do not want to get used to the idea that I’m in America, and therefore all is well with the world. This is what pushes me out every morning, and alas, this is what causes me all the great stress episodes that keep my muscles aching and my butt in bed for longer hours than necessary.

And so, you would notice that once in a while, this blog gets a make-over. I have settled my mind about the design so that won’t change. But the colours would, mostly to reflect my mood. I am now in the autumn cum Halloween mood, thus the cool green. As per theme, for now it will remain the Nigerian Ghoul in the American forest, perhaps until the mischievous naming muse returns. Did anyone notice a new page on the right hand column, titled “favourites“? In there is a list of some of my favourite blogs, links and pages, as they came to me. And for the new comers to this blog, it also contains a few of the blogposts that got the most views. Yesterday attracted the highest visitor hits since the history of this blog, to my little surprise. It must be because of that Pumpkin post. The last time we had that many visitors, I had written a report of my first class experience, then later a poem to respond to a certain loneliness. I just hope that my occasional musings at least get my readers smiling, or sometimes thinking. This is my 113rd post, dedicated to you, the regular, silent readers. I do hope you’re having as much nice a time as I am, wherever you are. If you are, say “aye”!

Newer Entries »