June Newsletter

This month, I included free websites for creatives, vet contacts, Chimamanda's new story & more

Hello,
If you're an Addis Ababan resident, I'm positive you're also relieved the intensely sunny season is almost behind us now.

As some of you may know, I'm a cat grandma now—my little ginger cat had her own kittens.
I talked about her difficult birth & surgery in this Tiktok video—which garnered mixed reactions, as I'd expected.

But if you're a pet owner in Addis Ababa and your animal ever needs the help, I recommend that you take it to Dr. Patrick's clinic in Ras Amba (here's his Facebook page & phone no. +251 91 058 5855).

For more options, check out this Facebook page for other vets' contacts.

Now, here are the 5 other things I wanted to share with you this month:

1. Free Websites You Can Use

If you're a student, an architect, or a creative of any sort, this one is for you.
I took these right off of a couple of Tiktok videos and checked that they can be useful to people residing in Ethiopia as well.

(I) nobaproject.com

"The Noba catalog covers the traditional scope of introductory psychology and then some. With 104 modules (and counting) we're confident you'll find what you're looking for."

But let's agree not to use this website to self-diagnose, okay?

(II) thenounproject.com
This site is full of free icons that you can use in presentations and other visual projects.

I signed up just using my email and looked for icons and pictures under the word 'brain'.
And everything they have can effectively get the point across.

(III) gutenberg.org
On this site, they upload lots of 'classic' books for free.

(IV) photopea.com
Since I found this free, online alternative, I stopped using Adobe Photoshop.
It feels like the same application. And since I only use it for basic editing, it's been a good enough fit for me so far.

(V) zotero.org
This is for you students, especially if you're working on research papers or theses.

I used Google Docs' PaperPile—which I downloaded as an extension—and it saved me a lot of time while working on my architecture thesis.

But this one doesn't look bad either.


2. Book(s)
Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Every time I come across Chimamanda's writing—be it a nonfiction piece about a woman who intended to give birth to her child in the US but ended up going into labor above the Senegalese airspace or her lengthier novels—I'm always reminded of just how lyrical plain words can be.

Her latest Amazon Originals short story, Zikora, is no different.
I downloaded this book for free on Audible (with an audible account you can download one free book or so a month), and I listened to Adepero Aduye’s narration of it on my way to run some errands.

I look forward to actually reading parts of the story too, though.


3. Music
Taya's album finally went out a couple of Fridays ago, and I can’t decide which song is my favorite yet.

I know I'd done this a lot but I can't stop fangirling about her voice. If you're yet to give her music a listen I suggest that you start with Canticle and Carry Me Home.


4. Verse(s)
This month, I wanted to share this interaction between Jesus Christ and Pilates, the conflicted Roman governor, which happens towards the end of John's gospel:

Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”
Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.

John 18:33‭-‬38 NKJV


5. Updates on my project(s)
I'd briefly been the center of a TikTok reaction trend because I used the Amharic word for 'ant' when I meant 'aunt' on my podcast interview with Gugut Podcast.

If you've come from there or are one of the members of the team, thank you for the laughs, and for joining me here. And if you're a student, I wish you a calm exam season.

May you have a cozy, fruitful, and blessed month.

—w

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