When "sure" becomes "uhm..."

Well, am sure anyone reading this has been through it... in a relationship; a romantic one, that is - whether it's lead to something or not.

Know how cute you look together at the initial stages when he sends you sweet, flirty messeges all day and calls you at your busiest just to say that he can't stop thinking about you? And the way he calls you every night at exactly 9pm and talk on end about all the sweet nothings and you won't fall asleep before getting that call? And the way he looks into your eyes passionately when in public, without saying a word even when you say the 'chic line', "why are you starring at me like that?" And there he'll go with the 'guy line', "I'm not starring at you, I'm admiring you!"... And when whatever you ask of him, the answer stays,"Sure babe!"

Funny how this can only go for a while until he starts getting on your nerves in all the wrong ways to an extent that when he sneezes, it grosses you out big time! When he laughs, you wonder what you saw in his smile in the first place. When you hear him chatting with his friends, you wonder how old he is and when he is ever going to grow the f*** up!

That's when it hits you that the both of you are not on the same page anymore and you don't know how to deal with the whole situation. Then you try to get him to have 'the talk' where you discuss whether you have the same focus thus far or not. And guess what he'll do; he'll avoid you like a plague and insist that there is totally no problem in your relationship and that you're making things up... and he'll sound the most fragile you've ever heard him talk and you won't even bring yourself to break up with him cause according to him, you don't have a problem. Sad, huh?

So then, there you'll go into your tiny little cahoon of self-God-knows-what. See, these are the kinda men who make you feel like men are some type of horrible species that have come to "invade our peaceful planet"!

But oh well, back to the subject; the 'uhm' line.

It reaches a point in a relationship when whenever you try to have a decent conversation with your partner, all you get is, "Uhm... Baby, can't we talk about this later?" or "Uhm, baby, do we have to this now?" And before you know it, you'll start feeling so lonely in that relationship as all the two of you do lately is "the routine": You only meet over the weekends as both of you work the whole week and when you meet, you go to his house, do his laundry, prepare lunch, watch a movie, have sex then its time to go back to your house because he has to "meet up with the boys then visit his mother later and he doesn't know when he's going to get back." Such BS!
So he'll kiss you on the forehead and leave. Well, since you have his house spare keys, you'll convince yourself that you're still okay, otherwise, he'd have asked for them, right?

Gosh, the crap we take from these people!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways, before you know it, the two of you go for two weeks without seeing each other as he "always travels out of town". For the phone calls and texts, well, takes him three days now before he replies to any of your texts, let alone take your calls 'cause "baby it's been so hectic at work lately".

What do you in this case, really?

My piece of advice: If you're not married to this man or have a kid(s) with him, please RUN while you still can. Chances are, he'll suck life out of you and leave you with a shell of yourself. You'll remain depressed, wallowing in self-pity, self-hatred for allowing yourself to be treated so bad and all the self-bad-things you could ever think of. When he's done with you, he'll leave you wondering whether you're still attractive or not, to an extent that when a guy says hello to you, you wonder what's wrong with him, 'cause he only compliments you when he wants "some".

Girls, these happen, trust me. So, if you love yourself life like am sure you do, again, RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!

Catch my next post on how to leave with or without beef (grudge)... for your own good!

Xo Xo,

Vee.

Smooth Operator

So you've heard of this kind, right? I mean, they come in all colors and sizes and oh, don't you forget that he can speak more than six languages... even YOUR language if you find one that isn't of the same nationality as you.

Well, let's give him a better description: He's probably married - make that most definitely "happily married"; He's made enough "paper" to retire; He says all the sweet things you like to hear; He does all the things your "dream guy" would have to do... that's if you had one; He's the kind you wish would marry you and the both of you spend the rest of your married life in some beach at a private course and He's the kind you'd wish to gossip with your sister (or best friend) about all night while  giggling but you CAN'T!  

He ain't yours!!!

Now I NEED you to note the statement above with utter seriousness. The fact that he comes in the kinda package that fits your checklist and the both of you spend your QTs at all your chosen places - I mean, he ALWAYS lets you choose where you wanna go - doesn't really make him yours... especially if he has come out clean from the start about his marital status.

Weird how people like to judge each other whenever they find out that you are in this sort of arrangement (I mean spending QTs - quality time - with a married man). Well, true that the best of us go all moral on the next person when we got bigger secrets that would make Michael Jackson defend himself in the Murray hearing.

We all do that and it's always so easy for us go to on about, "oh, so she thinks she's all that just because she's sleeping with the boss, huh?" Well, this especially applies if you are indeed sleeping with YOUR boss and your colleagues find out about it... DISASTER waiting to happen, I'd say!

Dude, one; there ain't no rules when it comes to whatever it is you do after five o'clock (of course, as long as you don't do it INSIDE the office... that's just gross!!). Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, think of anyone who'd wanna be found 'in the act' in the boardroom! OMG! That would make for a good front page story for any tabloid, huh?

Back to the S.O. a.k.a. Smooth Operator...
He's the kinda guy that looks you in the eyes and tells you that you are the one... apart from his wife... Haha! Laughable that the best of us buy stuff like these from an S.O. You know, the disturbing part of it all is that he even takes you with him to important public functions and has a way of making you feel all important and stuff. But, he has to go home at the end of the event after making you want him; sending ALL kinds of signals the entire time. And, you can't call him when he gets home - and the worst part of it is that you know why. If he does call you from home, he'll be sounding as though he's under an ocean. And you can only imagine in which part of the house he'll be hiding when making that call. And you'll be missing everything in the phone conversation except, "...can you hear now?" LOL!

Make no mistake, though; if he does this before coming clean on his marital status, then, careful, honey!

Note: If you initially find out that he's married and you ain't got a problem with that, then DON'T let him discuss ANYTHING with you about his wife, cause, hey, he doesn't talk to his wife about you.  Does he now? IT'S DEPRESSING! Don't allow it. And the whole "she doesn't make me happy as much as you do" speech is BULL! Take my word for it!

Dude, why did you get married to her in the first place? It's not as if anybody put a gun on your head and forced you to say "I do"... and of course it would be condoned if that were the case, which is hardly it, most times, I fuss!

So, there he is spending with you one-two-three, or probably FOUR flipping years of your adult life, when both of you know that he ain't ever leaving his wife for you.

Word of advice: If you are the kinda woman who expects men to "commit" within the first three months of your relationship (following the 90-day rule) yet in those, he hasn't (and you know he wont), then have the fun and adventure you are up to while it lasts, then RUN... RUN... RUN!!

Fact is, he likes you a lot and so do you, so the feeling is mutual. He says that you mean a lot to him and he shows you this in a whole lotta ways than one. But, do whatever it is you are currently doing with him and RUN while you still can or else you'll end up with the BIGGEST broken heart of the 21st century... I promise you! Now, who wants to be the "broken-hearted girl"?

Girl, unless you are sure that you KNOW what you're getting yourself into, DON'T fall for the S.O... Oh, and don't they make it so easy to fall for?

Read "When he drops the 'M' bombshell on you" to understand where am coming from with this.

Xo Xo,

Vee.

Fashiorama with Vee

FASHIORAMA  

                        with Vee

Find your Fabulousity

Well! Well! Well! Now tell me who doesn’t care about fashion in one way or the other? We all do whether subconsciously or consciously, right? It doesn’t take Fashion TV for anyone to get ideas on how to dress up on a daily basis.

You often find the fashion freaks that wouldn’t be found dead on the streets looking A-okay!  

“The color of your belt should if not a must, correspond with the color of your shoes”. 

Weird how you find those of who claim not care a piece about fashion yet fuss over a guy on the street wearing a pair of suit pants with a paired of multi-colored sneakers on a Monday morning! Really, now I FUSS over that too! Or you find those who also claim not to be “fashion conscious” but wouldn’t show up anywhere in public in a flared top and a flared skirt as they know that they’d end up looking like a huge bird with no wings. That’s when it hits you that “the probability of you bumping into people you know when having a “bad fashion week” is super high!” – One of the gravity laws Newton totally forgot, don’t you think?

And yeah, we all have our fashion moods each week but I go by “dress-to-impress” any day. Why? The answer is simple; Confidence!

Ever wonder how your days vary to each other considering the outfits you wear on a daily basis? Never bothered? It’s time to pay attention.

Say for instance, you’re trying to catch someone’s attention who works close to your place of work. You feel confident to say hi whenever you bump into each other over lunch at the restaurant around the corner (when you’re feeling perfect in your attire), and terribly dread the thought of meeting this same person when you’re not “perfectly” dressed. Well. Don’t get me wrong. Am not trying to make you squash yourself into a nut shell, but here are some of the tips that would boost your confidence via Fashiorama with Vee any day!

1.       Attires say a lot about you:

You know what they say about food and people; you are what you eat? Well, I say, “you are what you wear” too. Clothes say a lot about you including your accessories, your hair, nails and yes, SHOES! Trust you me; the moment you have your confidence boosted, the inner beauty blooms out effortlessly because of the way you feel outside. You’re able to flash genuine smiles at people and step out of your shy side and face each day head-on.

2.       Attires speak to people:

Believe it or not, attires could get you hired of fired…well, depending on the job up for grabs. Imagine dressing in a super short but BEAUTIFUL skirt suit with the top showing the rest of your world to a Sales and Marketing job interview. The 10million dollar question would then be; between the company and your bodily assets, which ones would you be out there selling?

On the other hand, if you wore this same outfit to a managerial job in a night club or some fly restaurant, I bet you, you’d have a different feedback as compared to the result of the latter. Figure this out and know what to wear the next time you’re heading for a job interview. It would also apply to the men with weird sense of style. It must be something about them being fashion disasters (no offense), with no sense of color and an abnormal love for jeans and woodies.

Call me J!

3.       You are not what you wear??

Really now? Of course India Arie, the singer, sang that song and got you thinking that you really aren’t what you wear, huh? Come on. Come to think about it; if you dress pretty sloppy and out of touch with yourself, it would give anyone the impression that you don’t care how you look like on the streets, at work or at school all in the name of “you aren’t what you wear and you don’t care what people think”! Well, let’s see if this doesn’t get you fired or gets your lecturer thinking that you must be a part of some terrorist gang and call the FBI on you!

Simply put, people don’t take you seriously if you dress in a manner that would make them want t buy what you’re selling…not literally of course.

Well, literally speaking, of course you’re NOT what you wear. But figuratively, we all know my theory applies. Just because you are able to walk in town in you flip-flops, a T-shirt, and the tiniest shorts in your wardrobe doesn’t make you a “simple guy/girl” fashion wise. It screams a word I wouldn’t bring myself to write here.

Whatever happened to plain pair of denim jeans, a plain colored T-shirt and plain colored sneakers, if “simplicity” is what you want to portray! Don’t you fuss over grown up men walking the streets in broad day light in their inner vests? Would they handle it if ladies started showing up in public in their push-up bras with their boobs looking like their butts on the chests (depending on the boob sizes)?

4.       Have you signature look:

People please! Having your signature look doesn’t need any Lois Vuitton, jimmy Choo, Prada, D&G, and Gucci (the list goes on…), to have you looking like an A-Lister. Be THE trendsetter. Play around with the colors in your wardrobe and come up with a new look everyday.

You don’t really have to go all red carpet on yourself to be a trendsetter by copying the celebrities you see on TV. Let them rather be your fashion inspirations but don’t be seen wearing every look-alike outfits of Kim Kardashian or Usher everyday. Spontaneity baby!

The secret is to use what you already have in your wardrobe to get heads turning your direction.

Take for instance, almost every for ladies out of every five on the streets wear pants/trousers. Why not go skirts or dresses then and just work it?

For guys, find out what works for you; half casuals or just fully casuals, old-school, hats, caps, skinny jeans, buggy jeans, etc…

Nothing creeps me out like a guy wearing a brown belt and a pair of white leather shoes. Guys please; the color of your belt should if not a must, correspond with the color of your shoes. Thank you!

5.       Be modest: Sexy, not Trashy.

It is one thing to dress in sexy outfits and it’s totally a different story to dress and end up trashy. Without being judgmental, sexy is accommodated at any time of the day but trashy can only survive in your boyfriend’s bedroom when you decide to be naughty on a Friday night.

Expose less…

When you dress sexy, you know better than to expose “everything”, yet when you dress trashy, it shows that you nothing about the science of the mind on how one attracts pleasant attention when they keep people guessing than when they leave nothing that makes people wonder what lies beneath that cheeky slit on their dress.

The science…

Sexy would expose your legs and thighs, enough cleavage and arms to show off. This keeps anybody curious to know what’s more beneath all the reserved areas. But when you expose your legs, thighs, arms, back, cleavage and the like, you end up giving way too much candy to undeserving eyes. Remember, sexy and modest screams “Ooh-la-la + Respect”. Trashy on the other side would scream statements like, “am desperate for sexual attention (and it doesn’t matter from whom I get it)”.

6.       Use the days of the week:

This couldn’t be rocket science!

Let Monday be a no-joke-day but keep it sexy.

Tuesdays are meant to be the “yeah-my-blue-Monday-was-yesterday” days. So create the look that says that you are approachable today since you weren’t yesterday as you were having a presentation at work, being a Monday.

Wednesday is a mid-week day and the countdown to the weekend starts here too. The best of us like to drop somewhere for a drink or two with colleagues after work on Wednesdays. So wearing something that would easily turn into a “club-look” later in the day wouldn’t be a bad idea. Wear a pair of high waist pants with suspenders plus killer heals. This totally rocks!

Thursdays are kind of dull and busy most of the times as there’s loads to do at work as the week draws to an end, but a simple fitting skirt and a sleeved top in wedge heels would do the trick.

Fridays, wow, for most people, you’re allowed to show up at work in half-casual attires. So why not use that sort a sleek pair of skinny jeans you own and complete the look in stilettos or killer heeled pumps, a collard but sleeveless top and a cute blazer to wrap up the week? After all, you are bound to end up somewhere funky with the girls/boys after work and you don’t want to look like you just walked out of a choir practice from church into the club.

For the weekends, well, let’s just say that I suspect that you’ll be warming each other’s beds and are likely to stay indoors. In whoever’s house you end up after the frenzy Friday night, I guess it suffices to assume that you’d make do with his buggy shirt or her towel would do till Sunday evening!

Keep here with Vee!

Sing it on...

The DIY Artist

Follow your success.

By Vicky Meg.

This is for a DIY musician who hasn’t quite made it yet, but is well on their way. The NAMAs (Namibia’s Annual Music Awards) have finally been realized and all the artists who didn’t make it to the nomination list mustn’t be feeling all too good about the whole idea, but one thing’s for sure; They all would like to be the one’s receiving the awards next year at these times. One quick advice, try to follow this if you are hungry for success and be sure to have just that: success.

Key elements of the DIY musician

There are so many things about the way one builds a career that fits with what the entire idea of doing music is all about:

• Embrace the ‘freemium’ model, but let your fans still go and buy the same songs from iTunes et al;
• Do your 10,000 hours, and more on the music sites;
• Collaborate with exceptional talents to learn more to advance your own talent;
• Embrace Social Media to build a fan base;
• Stop looking for a record deal until you are sure that you are ready and has worked out who you are as an artist, what you wants and how to get where you want to go!;
• Engage yourself in activities that put you on the industry map;
• Leverage a brand association to give you a push ( this should be a result of all the above hard work);
• Have a functional, informative and active website at the center of your online presence.

Bombard agents and managers with tapes of GREAT complete trucks that you have already worked on as demos. Meet them and play a few tracks in your rehearsal room. Most managers as well as agents have done a lot of work with pop producers and writers who think that there might be something they could do to help. Be enamored of involvements with other major artists – be their massive fan and use the platform of being around them during gigs to reach your fan base too. Get a good manager with pop contacts who is ready to toil with you all the way.

Keep going!

Don’t give no matter what happens.

Turn your challenges around and take calculated risks knowing in advance what’s the worst that could happen if you tripped even just a bit. Your talent needs to have that chance. Read The Story of Success.

And, following on from that, take the time to focus on your own music before floundering around desperately looking for a record deal.

On your site, write pieces of articles explaining to your fans why you aren’t signed to a record label, yet! How cool is that?! In fact, I can’t ever recall someone being so upfront about their plans, clearly stating that you have ambition but also making the fans feel that they are right there in it with you.

The reason is that there are certain things that you need to do first to give you the best chance of succeeding in the future and also allow yourself the time to experiment and create the music you really want to make. It’s also in having loads of fun while pursuing your talent and that is what it’s all about.

The most important thing is to keep getting your music out there to as many people as possible and hopefully finding new fans along the way. The best way to do this is to continue making your music available for your fans to listen to while not being afraid to develop your sound as you go along. Keep touring whenever you get the required resources, practicing, and perfecting your live performances. At the same time, start releasing your own records independently for a while. Now this could such a hell of a bad time with enough challenges to complete the package, but you have to grow through that.

And, let your site be a paragon of ‘best practice’ for all the other artists you hang around– lots and lots of free music, but there’s a shop too, lots of social media links, and an email sign-up. However, don’t fall into the habit of asking people to trade an email for the free music, which I in fact recommend, but instead come right out and ask your fans to tweet or post on their Facebook page and other social networks you might be a part of, but don’t overdo it. – And ask for their opinions on your music.

Most of all, it comes across as completely genuine.

Songwriting secret

Hoping that you have the good fortune (born of your hard work,) write lyrics with some of the very successful songwriters – and whilst doing so, do the right thing – listened and learned.

Get yourself the guide to “scientific” songwriting. It’s a very specific method. Songwriters in this discipline write lots of different bits, lots of melodies and after the lyrics are written, they pick the four or five of the very best. You could write 25 melodies for one song and only four or five of those shall be chosen, so you never know how a song is going to turn out. But it works. It’s a tip worth knowing!

I hope that after reading this, you’ll grow from this pivotal moment and become a smart artist. You know you have the talent and are trying to uncover your art before looking for mainstream success. Chances are, you’ll become a household name with a great deal of musical integrity.

What can every DIY musician take from this? Well, watch your steps, dedication to honing your talent and the way you use the modern online world to build a fan base before you look for success and a helping hand. Sure you may be lucky, but let that luck comes from your hard work.

Music in the Space...

Is MySpace still as effective and as essential for musicians as it
was a few years back?

Or, has it passed its peak?

My honest answer is 'yes'. It's not the most important web presence
that you and your act should have these days.

That role goes to your own website - you need read a series of articles on how exactly you should set up your
artist site at the moment!

Your artist web presence now needs to be led by your own website,
backed up by a presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace.

That's if you want to try and use ALL the effective tools at your
disposal. It's true, there are a few artists who don't use all
five of those channels (some just relying on one) but that's a
risky choice and you'd better be able to let your music do all the
talking!

However, although MySpace has passed its most dominant moment, I
actually do think it's still important in the part that it plays in
your career and promotion of that career. How can that be if its
moment has passed?

Well, that's because MySpace is no longer the hot new thing but has
become the establishment. Odd because it has happened so fast.

But now, although some artists won't bother, if you don't have a
MySpace page you are preventing some of your potential fans from
discovering you.

MySpace is still the first place that many every day folks and the
music industry guys go to to find out about a new band. A band's
MySpace site still comes up very high in Google searches as well.

So, in truth, I think that having a MySpace page is now an option
rather than a necessity but you'll still benefit a great deal from
finding new fans and making connections with other bands by putting
in some effort to maintain a presence there.

As we move forward it's clear that you'll need to control a
presence on many sites (Twitter and Facebook in particular) and on
your own site, and your MySpace page will be just one place that
fans can connect with you. However, for now your profile on this
music-focused social networking site
is still worth your time and effort.

I wouldn't listen to anyone who says it's over. The latest figures
for 2010-2011 show a large drop in visitors to MySpace, but it is still
the 50th most visited site in the world.

The latest design changes have made it a bit less user friendly but
they have also said that they are now primarily a place for people
to discover music and films - so I'd keep a presence for now.

Make it an up to date showcase for your band - almost like and
electronic press kit - and it will continue to pay dividends.


So check out what's left of it and tell me what you think.
This article is posted courtesy of Chris Rockette (Make it in Music)

Oprah Says "goodbye" in style.

CHICAGO (UPI) -- Oprah Winfrey said "until we meet again" instead of "goodbye" to the audience for the final episode of her 25-year-old talk show in Chicago.
Winfrey, 57, ended her iconic series this week to focus on her OWN cable television network.
UsMagazine.com said Winfrey reminisced during the show's Wednesday finale with the crowd of 300, which included her close friends Maria Shriver and Gayle King, and her longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham.
"Each one of you has their own platform. Mine is a stage in a studio. Yours is wherever you are," USA Today quoted Winfrey as telling her fans.
"You can help somebody, you can forgive, you can listen, you can heal -- you have the power to change someone's life."
At the end of the show, she said gratitude" is the single greatest treasure I will take with me from this experience."
"I thank you for sharing this yellow brick road of blessings. I won't say goodbye -- I'll just say, 'Until we meet again,'" she added.

Amazing and very powerful message right there. This woman has lived her life on the screen; literally, that when it was time to say to say goodbye, she only said,"Until we meet again"; a sentence that carries with the happenings of the future that you should still expect to have as long the legendary Oprah Winfrey's alive on this planet.

Well, I, Vicky Meg, truly wish her all of God's blessings in all her endeavors.

The First picture from inside Westminster Abby

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