If you’ve been reading about the struggles that I’ve been sharing here recently on this blog, let me tell you this is nothing new. I’ve been in in constant $h1t$ nearly all my life, often too personal for any one to comprehend, and often through no fault of mine. The above photo brings to mind three years of enduring pleasure in pain.

From January 1994 to December 1996, I had my secondary education at Fijai Secondary School in Secondi (NOT Takoradi, FWIW!) in the Western Region of Ghana. While at school, the entire year group was sent home and later made to sign a bond of “good behaviour”, for whatever crime I never got myself to understand. And our final exam, the (then) Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE), was cancelled nationwide, and we had to re-write the whole damn thing again.

But I digress. I just wanted to share this great photo of my friends, which I found today… taken over a decade ago back at Fijai Secondary School. From back to front, left to right: Fritz Williams, Moses Bentil, William Ayitevi, Emmanuel Insaidoo, Cyril Mettle, Gershon Worwu, [psss... can't remember this guy's name], Tsemeng, Maranatha Acquaye, and Manfred Amissah.

Where am I? Of course I’m not in the photo, but looking at this squad, I couldn’t be too far from the scene. Either I shot the photo, or I stood aside and opted to be out of the photo (the latter being more like it).

Guys… where are you all? George misses you all, dearly.

If you see an angel or a group of angels flying too close to ground, you can be sure they’re after me. Yes, it’s me against the angels yet again. This is not how I planned this life to be at all.

Can’t say anything now, but… suffice it to say I’m now fully convinced that whenever I make a conscious decision to move on in this little life of mine, all the angels in heaven (or wherever they are!) line up against me. But why? Just to test my pulses?

Anyone’s got an electronic copy of CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters: Letters From A Senior To A Junior Devil to pass along? Me think I need this book.

[photo credits: Ana Jine @ Flickr]

If you visited this website more than once last week, you would have met a completely different website on each visit. Life, indeed, has been twisting me in all directions over the past two years — and this website, my principal medium of expression, has loyally been following along in each new direction I turn.

I’d like to thank all of you my regular and long time readers and friends who have stood by me all through it all. Here are a couple of updates:

For some really long term plans (long term = few weeks down the line!)… I’ve moved the blog (which will henceforth be called the journal ) away from the homepage into a sub-directory — http://GeorgeAppiah.com/journal/. But no sweat … everything is tightly integrated, and there are links on both the top horizontal menu and on the left sidebar to take you there.

I’ve also drastically reduced the “blogging load” on me. I’ve sold off most of the blogs I’ve been authoring for some sweet little bucks, and I’ve given away others as gifts. Over the past 3 years, I’ve authored and sold (or abandoned) blogs spanning such vast topics as renewable energy, nude art, wifi, lucid dreaming, web development, country music, digital photography, computer history, fairy tales, oh my!

Anyway, I’m currently focused on two primary websites, which I’m going to turn into a real business to support my intended nomadic life. Here they are:

1. http://www.Ghana-Travel-Guide.com: I don’t need to explain what this is about. Do I?
2. http://www.GeorgeAppiah.com: In addition to this blog (which is going to get a lot more attention from this point on), I’m building lots of practical, how-to tech guides to help you wonderful folks out there. More about that later.

If you visit these two websites, you’ll observe they both spot the same basic layout and design. That’s by choice. I’m in the process of registering an LLC in Delaware, US. Why am I registering a business in US and not in Ghana where I live? Let’s reserve that for a series of posts later on

And it seems I still love hacking cellular networks, and I’m likely going to take a second Masters degree in wireless communication engineering this autumn at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. Yes… tuition is completely free, but sorry… deadline for admission into Swedish public universities was the first of February.

More updates later. Love you all.

Hello you wonderful folks. A 419 scammer is using my identity for his scam operations to dupe unsuspecting people. This unscrupulous son-of-a-bitch is sending out scam emails in which he identifies himself as:

• George Appiah, a Ghanaian diplomat with millions of US$ stuck somewhere (huh!)
• who’s website is GeorgeAppiah.com
• with US telephone numbers 224-333-1700 and 646-862-3498

Sure, all that info are mine (except the diplomat thing and the millions, of course ) but no, I’m not a fraudster. Someone is simply using my identity for his 419 scam operations. And funny enough, I have personally received one of these email proposals from this “George Appiah”. A few folks have also forwarded to me emails they’ve received with same identity and similar millions of dollars proposals. And today yesterday I had a call from a gentleman in the United States — who has also got such a message.

How do I handle this? I don’t know. If you have any suggestions, kindly contact me. But please note that I am a Ghanaian living in Ghana so the Department of Homeland Stupidity Security (or whatever they call it) and all those US consumer protection institutions ares outside my reach.

In the meantime if you receive any such email, first know that this is definitely NOT from me, even if the sender’s address seem to be coming from my domain georgeappiah.com. Email headers can easily be faked. And then kindly forward a copy to me.

Thank you.

Why the silence since I announced my 30-day exercise plan four days ago? I promised to do daily updates but I’ve not had the chance to post even a single update yet!

Since last Thursday, my Internet connection has been all but dead. My ISP seem to have some major DNS issues across their entire network. I’ve also not had power most of this time. And my long time “apartment mate” Cyril packed to strike out on his own last Sunday… so I had to help him with the packing and all that.

I’ll do a batch post of my progress on the exercise plan shortly.

You must have also seen some new changes here on this website, especially the new top menu links — and it shouldn’t be too difficult to guess where my life is heading now. A comment on that is also coming shortly.

I’ve got no furnished house,
No diamond ring,
Just a lonely broken heart,
Full of love,
An’ I can’t even give it away.

The single question I’m most often asked is “What’s going on, George?” Today being the 30th of December, the last but one day in the year, I’m going to try to tell everyone what’s going on: what’s out, what’s hanging, and what’s in. So here we go:

What’s Out

• Dinah: The little girl couldn’t live on dreams any longer, so somehow the dreams we planned had to go astray… and we’ve had to go our separate ways. All the best in your newly re-discovered love life, Dinah. And if you’re looking for me, look no further: I’m right here on the blue side of lonesome.
• Huawei Technologies: This life is too short, dear Jeffrey and co. Yes, I made some really crazy career decisions in the past, but my past flaws should be no excuse for anyone to waste my time.
• 21 Days Of WordPress Poetry: This one baffles me the most. For months these guys had been pestering me to do a WordPress training for them, at a fee. But in the spirit of the season, I decided to do this training for free instead — from the 1st to 21st of December, 2hrs a day, ANY time during the day at their own convenience. Only caveat was a minimum of 5 attendees per session. After the NBSSI training, I kept waiting day after day, but no one turned up! How telling about human nature: people crave for the fruits hanging up there, but are not willing to stretch out their hand to grab thems.
• Vulgar language: I don’t know where this one came from, but it’s time to say goodbye.
• Stuff: I’m digitizing what I can and letting go of much of my “stuff” - books, clothing, gadgets and other cherished possessions. I want to be as free as possible. I want to live with just a single suitcase and a backpack. Nothing more.

What’s Hanging

• Gradschool: I’m currently rounding up my Masters program in GIS, but I’m not sure what’s to follow. PhD or a second Masters degree? From hindsight, I really know I wasn’t the least prepared for online studies at all. The isolation is near fatal. While I’ve mechanistically made my way through all coursework, I really don’t feel any sense of accomplishment at all. Plus, GIS is really not my cup of tea. So I’m thinking of a second Masters degree, this time, on-campus, and in radio communication. But the part I’m dreading most is having to leave Ghana. I’ll do anything to stay and study here, if it were at all possible. But no, it isn’t.
• WeblogsAFRICA: Tired of hearing people on the continent, even media professionals, complain about the generally negative reportage on Africa in the Western media, I thought it would be a great experiment to see how emerging new media technologies and citizen journalism could be leveraged to evangelize Africa to the world. After all who can tell the story of Africa better than Africans? But two years on, I’ve still not been able to pull this off the ground. First my health has not been the least loyal to my intentions. And then, I’ve never been successful at putting together a great team. Within the last 18 months along, I’ve put together 4 or so different teams, none of which lasted long enough to get anything done. The idea of bootstrapping a business from the ground up is just not in the “system” of most Ghanaians. While I still believe in this cause, I honestly don’t know what to do next.

What’s In

The same old me and my stubborn ambitions to tread the path that’s less trodden — but this time, with a blank sheet in front of me. How will I fare?

Your guess can’t be any wilder than mine.

You’re free to go, darling, I’ll break the ties that bind
Somehow the dreams we planned have gone astray
You’re free to go darling so ease your worried mind
I’ll never stand in your way.

There’s no ring or shining gold so strong that it can hold
A heart when it longs to be free
The lips are cold, darling, that once said yes to me
The tender glow is gone I know
You’re free to go.

There’s no ring or shining gold so strong that it can hold
A heart when it longs to be free
The lips are cold, darling, that once said yes to me
The tender glow is gone I know
You’re free to go…

(— Jim Reeves)

All the best, Dinah, in every new pursuit of yours.

Yesterday’s training for the Greater Accra Regional heads of the National Board For Small Scale Industries’ Business Advisory Centers went on as scheduled, but not without problems. The training which was to start at 9am could only be started after noon!

First Zipnet, NBSSI’s ISP decided a fine Monday morning like that was the perfect time for their service to go down. And since I possibly couldn’t teach about Internet without access to the Internet, we had to wait and hope. After waiting for a while, it was apparent to us we were going to wait all day. So we decided to change venue, from the NBSSI’s headoffice to the Greater Accra regional office.

But the regional office also had its own challenges. There’s no network of any sort available (at least not in the office we used). So after struggling to get a dialup account working on my laptop computer, we had to also put up an ad-hoc network, so all participants could access the internet via my laptop.

Anyway, in the end, the training went surprisingly well. I guess much of the magic came from the participants’ open and friendly attitude, and a high level of motivation to learn.

Here are some photos from the event, taken by my colleagues Remy Edmundson and Christopher Bennett.

Setting up the ad-hoc network

Training in full swing, after the long wait

Michael and Philomike, Participants

Gladys and Anthea, Participants

Remy helping participants

Chris helping participants

My joy, when it was all over

The training continues today. Will, keep you updated.

Something magical happened in the Tanzanian city of Arusha earlier this year: TED held its first conference in Africa, titled “Africa: The Next Chapter.” Thought leaders from across the continent gathered with counterparts from around the globe to build new and lasting collaborations.

While I couldn’t be at this conference, thanks to the magic that is the Internet, I’ve watched every single one of the talks published so far.

My personal favorites from the Arusha event are: Ashesi University College President Patrick Awuah’s talk on “Educating a new generation of African leaders“ and Economist George Ayittey’s talk on “Cheetahs vs. Hippos for Africa’s future“ … both Ghanaians (yeah, I’m THIS biased.. and I’m not afraid to tout it )

And building upon the phenomenal success of this conference, TED is now making this an annual event. From a post on the TEDBlog:

We’re delighted to tell you that there will be another TED conference in Africa next year, and that we hope to make it an annual event on the continent! TEDAfrica will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, September 29-October 1, 2008 (save the date!), and will follow the format of this year’s TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania.

In addition, a new South Africa-based nonprofit organization, TEDAfrica Foundation, has been founded. TEDAfrica Foundation will devote its existence to promoting a better future for the continent of Africa.

Here is Patrick Awuah’s talk from this year’s event in Tanzania:

… and here’s George Ayittey’s talk: