About A Blog

I have thought about writing a blog for quite some time now, and finally, in conjunction with the purchase of a new laptop which makes normal computing tasks slightly more bearable, I started. 

There are two things that hindered me from starting a blog that I thought would be topical to write about.  The first, duh, is the overall topic and theme, that’s an easy one and I’m sure what everyone that wants to start a blog pines about.

But one thing I struggled with around blogging, aside from accepting that I might eventually be associated with that community and how many hipster-plus credits that would give me (note-I’m trying to avoid hipster credits) is the multiple, and seemingly overlapping portals of social media expression that now exist, and how my blog would be carved in that social “mediasphere”.

The second hurdle that really confused me was how do I make my blog a unique space that people will want to regularly visit, since blogging essentially is a back to basics version of all the functionality offered by Facebook, Twitter, Vine, and Tumblr.  It’s why I picked the intro clip to this post from He’s Just Not That Into You - there are so many forms and forums of communication through different portals, how does you decide what’s the most effective?

In one of my previous jobs, my boss required me to write my annual performance self evaluation in the third person point of view, so it could, theoretically,  read like an objective narrative piece should it ever be picked up by a completely uninformed person to read…that’s some awkward word smithing.

What’s the point of spending all this extra time designing HTML layout and copy editing all my writing to express myself when I can so graciously take advantage of the platform that Mr. Mark Zuckerberg and Mr’s. or Ms’. Whoever-else-created-the-rest-of –those-platforms-that-haven’t-had-Justin-Timeberlake-movies-made-about-them-yet created for me to write my thoughts or post my pictures? How do I avoid the tendency to have my Facebook page just be a mirror of what’s on my blog or vice versa especially when everyone is “on” everything now and every app allows you to simultaneously Facebook and Tweet your Instagrams in one fell swoop? (Is there a verb for posting to Vine yet? Is it “vining”?)  And most importantly, how do I combat the awkwardness of writing about myself?

The other thing that I was confused about is how to make my blog, this dedicated space on the Internet for my messaging somewhere that everyone would want to easily access throughout the day when we’re surfing the web.  I’m not an Internet junkie.  I am addicted to my iPhone and being able to access specific information updates at all times, mainly my Gmail and my Facebook feed.  But, I’ve never been one to comb the internet for hours watching endless YouTube videos, reading periodicals, or doing my own research on investing, fitness, product reviews, etc.  I want my blog to have a point and possibly a purpose, and maybe even to be a site that people visit on their own accord and not after I put up a link to a new post.  I don’t really have any concentrated hobbies, but I have come back from numerous travels, told my tales and been responded with, “You really need to start a blog, because you really can’t make this shit up”.  I mean, to be fair, sometimes it’s probably just as likely for me a have a “you can’t make this shit up” encounter on the way to work or to the grocery store, but that’s just how things happen. 

Maybe I’ll even venture in to video blogging – aka – vlogging.  After reading my first post about the drunk priests, a few of my friends told me one of the funnier parts of the story (not sure what’s funnier than a drunk priest) was that they could hear and see me telling this story out loud.  That’s kind of frightening – have you ever heard yourself on the phone or leaving a voicemail to someone? It’s horrendous and makes me want to throw my phone out the window.  But I guess it just goes to show that any given day it’s a church hall bingo ball cage of options for putting something out there on the interwebs.  

Uganda, The Pearl of Africa

I recently went to Kampala, Uganda for a quick business trip.  In terms of African destinations, Uganda has been on my list for quite a while, especially since I read the Uganda issue of TRVL profiling the families of mountain gorillas that thousands of tourists go to see each year.  

Unfortunately, my trip was only 9 days, including my travel days (about 1 1/2 full days each way), so there wasn't any gorilla tracking this time.  But, I was able to get out and snap some pictures and see some cool stuff.

Some City Views

Just a few views of Kampala City.  It's a pretty congested downtown area.

Some Statues in Kampala

Right: “The Stride”, a 19-foot high family group statue that stands at the parliamentary gardens. It is made out of pure copper.  The statue is made up of a family with three striding human figures swathed in draperies marching forward under the banner of the flag while the child touched by the mother is walking securely in the midst holding onto her with the left hand and carrying a book close to the body in its right hand.

Left: Independence Monument, commemorating Uganda's independence from Great Britain in 1962.

Statue bios courtesy of InKampala

Garden City Mall

After running around Kampala on the one Saturday afternoon I had snapping pics of all the sites, and being unimpressed with the markets, I decided to duck in to this shopping mall that my boss had told me about.  It was rumored to have good shopping/gifts and a decent food court.  

Top Left: Picked up a few local crafts at Banana Boat.  This is a really cool store that basically has all of the local handmade arts and crafts that most would want to purchase in the outdoor markets.  I found that a lot of the outdoor markets in Kampala were not very authentic and actually seemed to have most of the goods imported (as most bracelets and artwork were in commercial wrapping).  Supporting this store is a great because they do micro-loans to local artisans, support women's groups, fair trade practices, pretty much everything that makes you feel good, and its a storefront, so none of that stressful haggling.  

Though haggling can be a fun challenge, after living in China, and multiple trips to Africa, I think my days are numbered with that pastime.  

Top Right: My lunch of hand rolled traditional Northen Chinese pork dumplings.  These puppies were served up piping hot out of the bamboo steamer at Element Cafe (newest addition to Garden City, so no website yet), on the first floor.  I was a little skeptical at first since the menu of the hectic coffee shop and cafe had burgers, African dishes, Thai spring rolls, and dumplings.  I was expecting nothing better than some frozen pot stickers because the "open-air" kitchen only consisted of a than a four-burner stove, rice maker and maybe a counter top deep fryer.  

The cafe owner's daughter (Element is owned by a Chinese family) came up to me while I was eating and asked how I liked them.  I told her how delicious they were and she smiled and thanked me, telling me her mother had made them this morning in their house and I was the first person to have ever ordered them, since they had only been open a few days.  Cut to her mother waving and smiling to me from behind the counter.  

Bottom: Having felt like I had a very socially responsible afternoon, I headed out of Garden City back my hotel, and was saluted by this guy on my way out.  Thought it was a nice piece of art for a mall courtyard.  

The River Nile

Having not found a TON to stuff to do in Kampala, I was interested in trying to plan a day trip out of the city.  I had heard of a town about two hours away, Jinja, that was supposed to be nice for hiking and viewing the supposed source of the Nile River.  The concept of the Nile River's true source is a contentious topic between Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi and Ethiopia which all have major tributaries. 

I had also heard of white rafting on the Nile as another attraction of Jinja.  I had never done it before, and initially wasn't feeling inclined, but serendipitously, while I was in my hotel room on Friday evening trying to plan my day trip, I got an email and text from two different former colleagues both encouraging me to go rafting on the Nile, so I booked it.  

I would definitely recommend going with Adrift Adventure.  The website is great, you can book online, and they have hotel pickup.  Very reasonably priced for a full day of rafting, lunch, (a boozey lunch, which was well needed after the rapids), gear, guide and roundtrip transport from Kampala.  

Adrift also offers other adventure sports, like bungie jumping over the river, something like this:

NO, Lois, I did not do this, I just shot the pictures of it.  That was exhilarating enough to watch.  

Here, is how I experienced the Nile...

 But before all that peaceful tranquility, there was this-

This was a class 5 rapid, and the only one of the five rapids of the day that tossed me out of the boat.  That's me, in the back, yellow helmet, holding on for dear life.  Rafting was such a great time.  I'm not sure I could do it anywhere else but the Nile (not to sound snobby) because there are no rocks on these rapids.  That means getting thrown out of the boat warrants no fear of a cracked skull on the rapid rocks.  I wish I had more pictures of the experience, but the very business savvy tour company that had other guides on the river taking all the play-by-play shots of the whole day charged by the photo upload, so I decided to commemorate the experience with one lone photo.