Online footprints... Laura Atema

"Online personalities"

Yes that's a thing now, I'm not gonna talk about it in the usual and

standard way.

I'm viewing it from a cooperation/company/product point of view.

In this day and age you as a business person cannot afford not to be

connected on the world wide web... Especially if you provide a

service, a service that requires constant interaction with the

consumer. Now I am not gonna claim to be some sort of expert on this

like many people do these days (online marketeer/specialist appears oh

so often on folks business cards). I'm viewing it as a consumer. As a

customer I like the idea of being able to contact a company/service

provider so easily as looking for their account online, be it on Facebook

Twitter, Tumblr, Pintrest Google plus etc..

And as a product/service/consumer you have to be very careful as to

how you interact with your online consumers, they are an unforgiving

lot. Especially f.b/twitter... I've witnessed many a tongue lashing of

a product/service by a consumer... And once other online consumer get

wind of it, they go H.A.M on the recipient, people online are always

looking for a good fight/put down. And they do it as a mob. It can be

daunting to deal with such people, but that is the price you have to

pay for offering constant feedback for those that require genuine

assistance. There also comes the responsibility of what you post online as a product/service provider. You have to be careful that you portray yourself in the best possible way, in this day and age of retweets and screen munching whatever you delete can always be thrown back in your face by consumers. One must always think before they tweet/post status updates/wallpost etc, I assume that it must be very hard to deal with disgruntled consumers especially those that like hurling insults.

What's your online foot print?

Want More Hair?... John W. McEwers

I'd love
I think
more hair
more hair
like a big
old grizzly bear
more hair makes
you manly
more hair
makes you tough
more hair feels
like carpet
more hair keeps
you rough
more hair
for pretty ladies
to rub their faces on
more hair for
guys to jealous of
and more locks that can
be flung
I think more hair would be awesome
but I wouldn't wanna overdo it
because too much hair would make
me like a little furry blanket

and I couldn't cover both of us
just you and that ain't fair
more hair!

Keyboard Gangstas... Ofentse Melato

As technology evolved and the magic of it all was beyond just being able to change the TV with a remote or watch some dirty nasty video on our phones, we never imagined we would be in an era where there ‘gangstas’ online. People who would be on some “say some sh*t before I press delete on your a**”. Nowadays people constantly screen-munch your sh*t and threaten you with pressing enter on your thoughts. Yup, that’s the luxury that technology has afforded us today.

Forget the days of one life during the day and another after dark (and no, I don’t mean those lovely ladies of the night). Those who were always trapped between what they want to be and what they have to be are liberated. You are no longer confined to living with your reality and escaping to your fantasy world (that’s the farm for the funny), now you can have an online personality that fully enjoys existence day to day 24/7/365. Be it a priest offline and Captain Save-A-Ho online, a boring accountant offline and busy freak online or a dirty rat offline but a saint online. You can be anything that you want to be as long as you’re behind a keyboard of some sort, who is going to prove you otherwise?

I know fellas who would literally piss their pants if they had to talk to a woman in real life, you know, those all of a sudden they become one of those stuttering mofos. But today they are QWERTY Casanovas (look at your keyboard if you don’t know what QWERTY is or ask your online personality for help). Then you want to out them because you know them in real life and they re not like that but here’s the catch…

1) How are you gonna prove it and

2) How do you keep them from exposing you?

That’s right, 9/10 times when you want to expose someone, they either have sh*t on you or someone who has sh*t on you  is watching so you and your online personality better tell each other’s secrets to make sure you both guard your backs. If you are not careful, you might even fight with your online persona...it gets ugly.

That right there is the beauty of online personalities. As long as no harm is done to another soul, online personalities afford you the space and resources to be who you want to be and how you want to be, when you want to be (just watch out for that 419 wayo).Those that need to know the real you already know and those that don’t, just have to keep wondering if you  really are this messed up in real life. What’s personally great for me is that, I can be so outlandish online that people refuse to believe that I can actually be like that in real life. What more can a person ask for is you can live out your fantasy that well? That’s like saying “Hey, I’m a f**king good liar and that’s no lie” , do you believe it or not? While you are figuring that out, we live on and press backspace on your sh*t cause we’re gangsta like that.

It ain’t nothing but a G thang baby and you ain’t no gangsta…show me your QWERTY so I know you’re gangsta like that.

INSURANCE 101… Cynthia

What is Insurance? InvestorWord.com defines it as “A promise of compensation for specific potential future losses in exchange for a periodic payment” In layman’s terms, it is money you are paid by your insurer (insurance company) if you lose something you had insured and paid a premium for.

Insurance is a lifeline.  Most people do not appreciate this because it is a cost and more often than not it has no return. It only pays off if sh*t hits the fan and you had been wise to pay those periodic installments called premiums. Truth is no one knows the future. You may use this argument to mean you really don’t need to protect yourself against the unknown. My advice is DON'T!  This in fact should be the reason you protect yourself against that unknown. Life in itself is a risk. If you can, protect yourself to the best of your ability and insurance is one way of doing this.

So what are the ABC’s of insurance? There is the specific potential future loss meaning you have to identify a likely risk that is yet to come that you want your insurer to compensate you for: if it ever happens. Examples of these are accidents, illnesses, fire, theft, damage to property etc. Secondly, there is the periodic payment to the insurer i.e. a premium. As I said above, it costs to be insured. Basically, the insurer requires you to pay a certain amount to him over an agreed period of time so that you are eligible for that compensation if the need arises.

Let us take the example of medical insurance. No one wants to fall sick, yet it happens to the best of us. Good treatment is expensive and most people cannot afford the cost of good treatment from their normal earnings. This is where taking out a medical insurance cover becomes vital. There are many Insurance companies that offer very good medical covers at very competitive rates. Let’s take a cover that allows a maximum limit of say Kshs 25,000/- for outpatient treatment and a maximum limit of Kshs. 250,000/- for inpatient treatment. Such a cover in the current market will cost you on average Kshs. 700/- per month coming to about Kshs. 8,400/- per year (please note my figures are not exact but thereabout); Now look at the benefit here. You can receive outpatient and inpatient treatment up to the maximum limits and your insurer will cover all your bills. You basically pay only Kshs. 8,400/- for Kshs. 275,000/- worth of treatment. That is what I call a good deal! 

Most people get skeptical about insurance because there is the possibility of the risk you have insured yourself against never happening during your insurance period. Well, this is how the insurance companies make their revenue. So unless it was an investment cover (this is a topic for another day), the money does not return to you if the risk does not occur…but what if it does? This should be the question you ask yourself whenever you are tempted to ignore taking out that insurance cover. Can you imagine having to pay the whole Kshs. 275,000/- from your pocket if God forbid you fall ill? You may be forced to seek cheaper treatment and that my friend is taking a gamble with your life. Alternatively, you will pass on the burden to your family and friends to raise the money to cover your bills. To this I say most people have enough financial problems of their own. If you can help it, spare them additional burdens.

Insurance without a doubt takes a huge financial load off your shoulders. You essentially pay less for a bigger benefit when you need it the most. There are many types of insurance covers; any foreseeable risk you can think of can be covered. The starting point is to figure out which risk is most likely to happen to you and cause a financial impact. So if you are in a financial position to insure yourself, do it. Always remember to ask yourself, what if it happens?

And She Was Gone ... Ginger

She chose to walk alone.
Though others wondered why.
Refused to look before her,
Kept eyes cast upwards,
Towards the sky.

She didn't have companions.
No need for earthly things.
Only wanted freedom,
From what she felt were puppet strings.

She longed to be a bird.
That she might fly away.
She pitied every blade of grass
For planted they would stay.

She longed to be a flame.
That brightly danced alone.
Felt jealous of the steam
That made the air its only home.

Some say she wished too hard.
Some say she wished too long.
But we awoke one autumn day
To find that she was gone.

Some say she wished too hard.
Some say she wished too long.
But we awoke one autumn day
To find that she was gone.

The trees, they say, stood witness.
The sky refused to tell.
But someone who had seen it
Said the story played out well.

She spread her arms out wide.
Breathed in the break of dawn.
She just let go of all she held...

And then she was gone.


(From the cartoon series 'As Told By Ginger' )

Online Personalities

Hey, hey my good people...
Sorry for the absence been a bit busy, but don't worry we haven't forgotten about our loyal ;) v3rcity readers...
The topic for this month is 'Online personalities'...
I had to explain this to someone the other day... they didn't understand what I meant.
We all have them... whether you realise it or not. an online personality is a persona that one takes on when they are online ( Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, Whatsapp, Tumblr etc.)

Some personalities similar to our own, and some completely different.
this month we are gonna explore the facet that is "online personalities".

After all v3rcity is an 'online personality' right?

hope you have fun reading!!!
much love
v3rcity