miss chisomo

Malawi

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:39:20 +0100

I am on the road again in one month.

Missing Malawi….

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:39:03 +0100

Missing Malawi….

Oh what I would give to sit down with a cup of tea and listen to...

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:57:17 +0000

Oh what I would give to sit down with a cup of tea and listen to him read his hate mail all night.

Paris at night. Breathtaking…

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Paris at night. Breathtaking…

The New Woman

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:41:23 +0000

The New Woman - Miss Mary L. Pendered

“In the first place, I submit that the ‘Advanced Woman’ […] does not so much require to be courted as convinced. The word ‘court’, I take it, signifies to solicit, cajole, persuade, or - as a slang term defines it - canoodle, and the so-called ‘New’ woman is not to be canoodled. Either she falls in love or she doesn’t; and if she doesn’t, it is not necessarily due to any failure of method on the part of the man who wants to marry her. He may, at all events, be sure that she is quite ready to wed the one who can command her respect, attract her senses, and assure her of his right to her, whether he be intellectually her superior, equal or inferior. For the most highly-developed woman is not all brains, and there are to be found in the average man diverse other qualities as compelling and worthy of worship as intellectuality.
Moreover, there ought to be less difficulty about coming to an understanding with an ‘Advanced Woman’ than with a traditional one. The latter is hemmed in by pretences and the fear of what outsiders may say or think. The former should be free from such considerations, and, when a man has satisfied her that he is desirable, should be prepared to meet him with the frankest encouragement. Coyness and modesty are not confused in the mind of the ‘Advanced Woman’.”

Thanks to Will T. for enlightening me.

Texts from last night...

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:40:00 +0000

Texts from last night...:

My new guilty pleasure. Definitely a good break from researching plagues.

"First of all, people who say they’re divas… you’re not a diva. I’m pretty..."

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:37:29 +0000

“First of all, people who say they’re divas… you’re not a diva. I’m pretty sure you’re a c*nt. You’re not a diva. You can’t just call yourself… You can’t be rude and thoughtless and selfish and just label yourself “diva” and that makes that okay. No, you’re a c*nt. I don’t think it’s acceptable. You’re not a diva, you’re a broken person that’s making it impossible to feel sorry for you.”

- Sarah Silverman on Real Time with Bill Maher

My homemade French Country Salad ~ Inspired by My favorite...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:51:08 +0000

My homemade French Country Salad ~ Inspired by My favorite Cheesecake Factory dish.

1 bag spring mix salad
half teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
half cup of candied walnuts or pecans
1/4 cup of dried cranberries
half cup of sliced beets
1/4 cup of goat cheese
Chopped roasted asparagus (I recommend roasting the frozen asparagus spears from Whole Foods)
fresh black pepper to taste
sea salt to taste
top off with Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing

the foodie chronicles

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:56:40 +0100

the foodie chronicles:

My first book review for the Washington Times

Wanton disregard for human life

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:04:00 +0000

Yesterday, Pope Benedict declared, “[AIDS] cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.

As a humanist, as an African, as a person who has lost relatives to this disease, I am deeply offended by his irresponsibility and disregard for a scientific solution which is the most effective way to curb the spread of the disease.

I wanted to be very cautious in my approach to his comments but I believe he does not warrant my sensitivity. His actions illustrate an opinion by Sam Harris: Religion must be recognized as the only form of thinking where bad ideas are held in perpetual immunity from criticism.

The only way we can eradicate such thinking is if we question it at every interval.

"If you’re in the marriage business, do it equally. If you’re not going to do it equally,..."

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:55:52 +0000

“If you’re in the marriage business, do it equally. If you’re not going to do it equally, then get out of the marriage business.”

- Michael Maroko, a California lawyer for same-sex couples, on a judges proposal to issue licenses for civil unions to all couples and leaving ‘marriage’ to the faith community—quoted in Newsweek magazine March 16, 2009

Smugness: No longer a quintessentially American trait

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:41:00 +0000

Smugness: No longer a quintessentially American trait

Chisomo's Chicken Tarragon Salad Sandwich

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:00:00 +0100

2 cups chopped roast chicken breast*

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed black peppercorn

1/8 cup chopped red onion

2 tablespoons diced tarragon

1/8 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 cup light mayonnaise

1 hard boiled egg chopped

1/8 cup dried cranberries

a pinch of paprika

red leaf lettuce

slices of honey wheat bread

(*Best to use leftovers from free-range roast chicken recipe. See Roast Chicken and Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson pg. 26 for recipe.)

Add first eleven ingredients into bowl. Stir until desired consistency. Lay several leaves of lettuce onto one bread slice and spread chicken salad over. Cover with other slice. Voila, my first recipe to the world.

Mother and child ~ Chitipa, Malawi August 2006

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:33:00 +0100

Mother and child ~ Chitipa, Malawi August 2006

The fallacy of "children's" literature

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:47:00 +0100

I’d always thought the grand assumption that classic children’s books were strictly about innocence amidst fantastical worlds was unrealistic. At age 18 I became obsessed with the OZ series after finding out that L. Frank Baum was a feminist and portrayed Dorothy in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a strong-willed female who had to lead three male underlings to find courage, wisdom, and sensitivity before she could find her way home to her lazy, deadbeat uncle. Lo and behold, the magisterial wizard turns out to be a fraud, a demure man hiding behind a bellowing voice and excessive histrionics in an effort to mask the world from his insecurity about the mediocrity of his existence. Lewis Carroll penned Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with unparalleled brilliance. Carroll was a mathematician, a logisicst and a nontheist; In Through the Looking Glass, the Queen demands Alice to believe in the impossible to which she proclaims, ‘one can’t believe impossible things’. The Queen replies, “I dare say you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Then there’s the infamous Walrus and The Carpenter poem. Such intelectual undertones become obsoleted by the fact he was allegedly a pedophile who photographed young girls in the buff and was especially smitten with a young girl named….Alice. J.M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan) kinda preferred hanging out with young boys. It kind of changes your perspective on tales of innocence doesn’t it?

Literary dealbreakers: I will dump you for reading dumb books.

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:22:00 +0100

The old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” has now taken a backseat to an important argument - is it fair to judge a person by what (s)he reads? I don’t have an answer but I have an opinion. Check out the NY Times article.

I'm selling out...

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:40:00 +0000

For over a decade I’ve been a faithful PC user. Why? It is relatively easy to upgrade and fix on your own. Genius bar not necessary. Macs have traditionally been used by a small but burgeoning demographic of American society called graphic designers. But now Steve Jobs has reached beyond this meekish bunch and has managed to convince the elitists that it is the operating system of choice. I resisted. A nonconformist by nature, I’ve refused to buy into this Mac user mentality; the entitlement that comes along with owning this sexy white sliver of a machine was offputting enough.

“Oh, you don’t own a Mac? You’re missing out!”

Really?! What exactly am I missing out on? It is a machine, not a cultural movement. I missed out on the Harlem Renaissance and the Abstract Impressionists. Now Guitar Hero… that is a cultural movement. That invention has reached fever pitch and has elicited many a geek burrowed in a dusty basement with such fervency that hasn’t been witnessed since Dungeons and Dragons hit the scene in 1974.

I digress. The point is my PC has crashed on me for the last time and I’m willing to see what the fuss is about. Sorry Steve Balmer. Vista just isn’t working for me. I’m crossing over to the other side…

Hi! My name is Chisomo. You can call me Narcissus.

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:32:00 +0000

Hi! My name is Chisomo. You can call me Narcissus.

"Sometimes I had an intense desire to cry because of something my father said, but instead I laughed,..."

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:47:00 +0000

“Sometimes I had an intense desire to cry because of something my father said, but instead I laughed, because life, cynicism had taught me to put on a mask, I laughed. For him, I did not suffer, I felt nothing, I was a shameless cynic, I had no soul… because of the mask I showed. But inside, I felt every word he said.”

- Manuel, Children of Sanchez by Oscar Lewis

Reinvention

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:32:00 +0000

“You can’t let yourself get bored… I think you seek challenges, and that’s not a bad thing!!”

Thus spoke the man who didn’t like to be challenged. But he was right. I’m bored with myself. Let the metamorphosis begin.

-ck