Kimolisa Was Here

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I've heard of affirmations and know that they are supposed to help change one's life for the better. The sad thing is I have a bad case of inaction and I have not been impressed with the affirmations I've come across. Simply put, they are a bit on the long side. By the time I'm on the fifth word, I'm bored and thinking of something else. No Bueno.

I believe I'm a mess, I don't think I'm worthy of many things. I don't believe in myself and I haven't been living to my highest potential. So here's a little secret, I promised myself that I will make a change in my life in time for my birthday - February 13.

I believe my mind is a garden and right now it's full of weeds. The first stage of my work is clearing out the weeds and the next stage is to start planting flowers. These affirmations are what I'm going to be using. They are short and sweet and hopefully they will stick. I will be posting them daily on Twitter, follow me on twitter to get the good stuff, @kimolisa.

Below are the themes for the days of the week:

Sunday - Spiritual connections. I grew up in a Christian society so Sunday is considered the Sabbath  so I chose Sunday to be the day focused on connecting with God/Universe/Higher Source.

Monday - Keep it simple. To start the week, I thought it would be best to keep it short, sweet and powerful.

Tuesday - Stronger. The Spanish word for Tuesday is martes and for some strange reason I thought is was associated to Mars, the God of War. Tuesday, for me, is about tapping into my strengths and waging war against my inner demons.

Wednesday - Sexy Hump Day. I know hump day really means the middle of the week and we are basically getting over the hump, but I'm keeping it sexy. I believe that we shall claim, respect and honour our sexuality.

Thursday - Show me the money. I'm going to keep it real, I'm broke. I am not happy with that so I'm proclaiming that I want and deserve money.

Friday - Inspired. Random, empowering affirmations.

Saturday - Fun. Random good stuff.

I'm really following through with this because I remember what Aibileen told the little girl over and over in The Help. Just thinking the words over and over has such power, so if I really focus on these affirmations, even if it's just for a month. It's just to start which starts November 4th.

I had a post in mind to post for today but I felt that I needed to do this one instead. Thursday started lovely, the weather was divine, the sun was shining and the air was cool. I forgot how much I love cool weather. Then my day was almost disturbed when it was shared with me that there are four videos floating around of secondary school students having sex. I was also shown two of those videos. Sigh.

Where do I begin? How about by enumerating why this almost disturbed my day:

1. I had to watch the videos on a cell phone while my mother and sister were watching for my reaction. Can we say uncomfortable and awkward.
2. These are teenagers attempting to make porn. Ugh!
3. This could be a cousin or a friend's child.
4. How stupid can young people be? Hello! if a phone has the capability of recording videos, it has the ability of transferring them online and to other phones.
5. What did these young ladies think would happen to the video?

About the Talk

Literature has long been fascinated with fostered, adopted and orphaned children, from Moses to Cinderella to Oliver Twist to Harry Potter. So why do many parentless children feel compelled to hide their pasts? Poet and playwright Lemn Sissay tells his own moving story. (Filmed at TEDxHousesofParliament.)

The Talk

Back in 2007, the Kindle came out and it seemed interesting, but I refused to even entertain it. I'm an avid reader and I love the feeling of a book in my hands, the smell of a new book and the well worn nature of a used book. Why would I ever even think about purchasing another device to stare at? Also I am and will always be a supporter of bookstores and libraries, two of my favourite places in the world.

Basically, the Kindle and other such device were for techies and other people, plus I couldn't afford it and had better things to do with my money. I was one of those people who would share the stick figure drawing of a person destroying his friends Kindle in defense of books. Then I was turned to the dark side.

It didn't happen dramatically with the crack of lightening and thunder. It was more like that drip under your sink that eventually fills the bucket. First I came across a series of eBooks that I really liked. It was free and was an eBook, this meant I had to read it from my computer screen (something I still am not a fan of) or print it out (waste of perfectly good recycled paper).

Then my sister got a kindle app on her android phone and purchased the Hunger Game trilogy and The Fifty Shades of Grey series. She got to read them right away and was onto another set of "books". It took a while before I got to read the Hunger Games trilogy and I still haven't read Fifty Shades.

No problem, I can learn to live with out being able to simply download books. Then one day a friend sent a link to a free eBook on Amazon. I quickly went and got the book, but the only way to read it is from the Kindle App on the Amazon website. Reading from a computer screen is not fun, it's like you are handcuffed to the computer and what happens if you want to read on the go, in the bank in a line or while traveling. Sigh.

The straw that broke my camel's back, I found a website that shares the links to free eBooks on Amazon and free eBooks from a site called Smashwords that lets people publish eBooks. So here are all these free books, but that would mean I would have to read them from the computer or print them out which means wasting ink and paper. It's a conspiracy I tell you.

What doesn't help is the following:

• Sometimes, the eBook is cheaper than the actual book
• This is a great way to decide if you really want the actual book;
• Less cluttering of one's home with books you just didn't like or just found were okay;
• Free eBooks;
• Access to less mainstream authors who are quite good;
• As I live on an island, the price of the book will not be raised with the cost of shipping and importation taxes;
• I won't be tied down to the computer;

Don't get me wrong, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, I would feel bad about not supporting the local book stores more. I'm not crazy about another device to charge and be attached to. I'm not saying with a Kindle, I'm not going to support the local bookstore, but I will be a better cheapskate and work on living with less.

The reality is technology is continuing to grow and expand and one can't help but grow with it, but one should be aware of themselves and integrate it in a way that it is beneficial to their lives as opposed to jumping on the band wagon just because the technology is there.

Yes I have a Mac and an iPod, an Android phone, but they are not the latest and greatest. They serve a purpose and I am content with them. And now that the price of the Kindle has come down considerably, I have no problem with adopting it into my device family. Don't get me wrong, I still own a vintage rotary phone, a trusty desk lamp and my TV (which I haven't used in months) is not a flat screen and my DVD player is not Bluray.

As I embark on this next step in my Technological journey, I still have a desire to hold on to the things of the past. I'm craving a camera that uses film. It feels like technology is pulling me along kicking and screaming. For the record I will not be doing implants, be it in the skin or in my eyes or brain, I have some limits.

Are there any devices you have been resisting? What are they? Do you think technology is moving too fast? Leave your answers in the comment section below.

LOL, how funny is this, this talk is from TED Ed and this is Ted Thursday 101. I love it and I love this talk, especially the quotes. It also puts life into perspective, to me anyway.

About the Talk

Gravity. The stars in day. Thoughts. The human genome. Time. Atoms. So much of what really matters in the world is impossible to see. A stunning animation of John Lloyd's classic TEDTalk from 2009, which will make you question what you actually know.

The Talk

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I had planned on not continuing with posting trailers but...... I couldn't help my self.



I've got goosebumps, Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson and Leonard DiCarprio. I'm looking forward to this.


I don't always have a taste for Hitchcock but there a some of films that are excellent and I love what I'm seeing in this trailer. The cast looks solid and I'm definitely going to watch.


This is why I love Sean Penn. He can be a gay man in one movie and a tough gangster in the next. I love the film noir feel of this movie. Will it make it to Wadadli? Not sure, I might have to wait for it to come out on HBO.

One day, as I was driving, I noticed the sign for the Parliament of Antigua and Barbuda. It must have been new because I don't recall seeing it there before. Then it dawned on me that Antigua and Barbuda was a country. Bare with me, I can be a bit slow-witted. Seeing the sign made me really see that this little island nation was an actual country with population, flag, anthem, culture, etc. This got me to thinking.

What made one country more significant than another? What made us become more aware and knowledgeable about one country than another? I'll use the United States of America as an example because it impacts us in the Caribbean more than other developed countries. Granted that it is much larger than us, but why does the USA command such attention on the world stage? Why doesn't Canada or Brazil?

Is it because it is the best country in the world? Well not really, it ranks #37 in health care, #31 in education and #1 in wealth. After much thought I've concluded that it is because it says it's the best. It knows it's strong suits and tells you about it. The USA is not afraid of exporting to the world what makes it grand. I'm sure many people around the world know what Times Square and the Golden Gate Bridge look like without even stepping foot on American soil.

So how do we use this to our advantage? How can we become bigger than life and let the world know what we are working with? We act like the United States:

• Know your strengths and weaknesses;
• Try to soften the weaknesses;
• Broadcast your strengths;
• Keep producing content that show your strengths;
• Don't be afraid to express yourself;
• Even if you are not producing content, give your opinion;
• Have fun, get out there and be adventurous;
• Be the best at something;
• Even if it sounds stupid and it might not work, do it anyway;
• Make people laugh;
• Be compassionate and show that you care;
• Make a lot of friends, you never know when you might need them on your side;

Now I won't say do all these things at the same time, but consider them as a starting point in getting yourself noticed in a world that is getting noisier and noisier. Growing up, we try to be like everyone else, turns out we should have been trying to just be ourselves. Isn't it time the world see who we really are?

Oh My! 100 Ted Thursdays, so that means almost two years of posting Ted Talks that speak to and resonate with me. Awesomeness! I would like to thank Anika Kentish and her producer at the time at Observer Radio for inspiring this series. Their version was Ted Tuesdays and at 9am, they would play a Ted Talk, I would actually tune in for that in particular. Unfortunately, that segment didn't last, but it will live on here at Kimolisa Was Here.

Here are a couple talks that I'm loving, they are short and sweet.

About The Talk

In his typically candid style, Richard St. John reminds us that success is not a one-way street, but a constant journey. He uses the story of his business' rise and fall to illustrate a valuable lesson -- when we stop trying, we fail.

The Talk
 

About The Talk

Dean Ornish shares new research that shows how adopting healthy lifestyle habits can affect a person at a genetic level. For instance, he says, when you live healthier, eat better, exercise, and love more, your brain cells actually increase.

The Talk
 

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Between the two women above, who would you like to spend a Sunday brunch with? I don't know about you, but I'm drawn to the woman at the top. Okay, I'm cheating a bit because I know what the lady at the top is about and why she looks the way she does.

I'm sure by now, her story has made the rounds online, and to some I might be late (whateva!), but when I first saw this article in Yahoo's Shine, it touched a cord in me and I had a shift. Don't you love my new age jargon? The first thing you see in the article is a picture of Balpreet Kaur waiting in line, looking at her cell, and the first thing that came to mind was "Wow, she's ballsy! She has no problems with being who she is." I didn't look down at her or thought that she was lacking, in fact I thought she had a lot of courage to say "This is me, take me as I am," through her actions.

What endeared her more to me is that she took a situation where people were saying mean things about her appearance and turn it around to make people rally towards her side. Her message to those people who had a problem with her appearance was honest, candid and encouraged people to open their minds. She spoke power humanity, humility, and nurtured and encouraged the idea of thinking of changing the world through our actions.

Don't get me wrong, sure it would be nice to have brunch with a Supermodel. We could talk about me raiding her closet, the places she had been to, the people she had met, the people she knows, all the while paparazzi taking pictures of us. I would be the un-famous acquaintance or the random hand in the shot. Fun times. But I would rather spend time with someone who would nourish my soul, who would inspire me to do great things, not because it would make me look good, but because I would be helping someone or something in need.

So Balpreet Kaur, if ever I'm in your neck of the woods or you in mine, I would love to take you out to Sunday Brunch.

Check out the article and have a great week, and remember, you are awesome to the tenth power.

I love dance, I love to dance, I love to watch dance, I'm a fan. Granted now, when I dance I probably look more like a person experiencing an epileptic episode than a professional dancer. One thing from this talk that stood out for me was when he said his parents were supportive of him and that his dance teacher gave him free reins to experiment. Definitely awesome. I must warn you the dance created is very contemporary. Check out the talk and leave a comment. About the Talk

We all use our body on a daily basis, and yet few of us think about our physicality the way Wayne McGregor does. He demonstrates how a choreographer communicates ideas to an audience, working with two dancers to build phrases of dance, live and unscripted, on the TEDGlobal stage.

The Talk

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