Recently while waiting for my power to be restored, I grabbed my camera, walked round the house, and took some shots. My current residence is at “Dome Pillar 2″, a new, unplanned, but rapidly developing suburb of Accra. Here are some of those shots:

This is my first time of using the “Embed Slideshow” feature in Picasa Web Albums. While the free 1GB (and counting) space is great, at this time, the overall feature-set is no close that of others in this space, like Flickr. Or maybe it’s by design … I sure like it’s simplicity.

By design or not, one feature that would help is a visual indication of the total number of [hotos in the slideshow, as well as the position of the current current photo (something like 1/20). This helps the user easily determine whether he/she can invest the time to see all the photos.

Today I took the final step in my ongoing process to open a fresh page in my life. I gave up all my financial interest in a business venture I’ve been cranking with a couple of friends for a couple of years. There was really not much to give up, as, hard as we’ve tried, we’ve not been able to really get off the ground, yet.

We’ve had our challenges — many of them — over the years. But this decision has nothing to do with any of those. This is just one of a broader set of ongoing changes in my life. I honestly believe to truly start afresh, one has to do away with anything that re-enforces the old reality. And I’m ready to do this, no matter how absurd that might seem to outsiders, and no matter what material cost I have to incur in doing so.

But to think about it, not much is changing, on a practical level. I’m still going to do much of the same old stuff that I’ve been doing (and love to do) all along — but as a consultant/contractor, and not as a co-founder/employee. But I’m now totally relieved of all those sucking tasks that I was supposed to perform (but which I never did anyway, because I hated to).

On the surface, one would think this doesn’t matter much, since I’m doing the same stuff I’ve been doing. But it sure does. This takes away the stress, the agony, and the guilt that goes with having a pile of frogs to swallow, but never getting to swallow any, because you hate to swallow frogs.

So what next?

I don’t know, yet. For now, I’ll keep on consulting and contract-training for Telesoft. But I want to finally let out this Golden Compass I’ve been hiding over the years — to go out there and direct young minds to their own True North — whatever that may translate into.

And I may start a startup (a real startup, not consulting) along the way. But it’s definitely going to be for a definite social cause.

So King George is finally dead. Long live King George!

And I think I need some sleep now. It’s been a long day.

Salty tears are dripping down my cheeks and settling on my keypad, as I write this. How could I be so selfish? I question my very self. How dare I follow my passion?

Since my college graduation in 2002, I’ve attempted one business after another, none of which has really taken off. And being the eternal optimist that I am, I’ve always stuck around or moved on to the next thing when the team went separate ways.

But reality has finally caught up with me. What moral and ethical justification do I have to keep pursuing my dreams, when my family is sick and hungry and looking up to me? And by family, I don’t mean the family that my Western readers are likely to have in mind. I’m still single. But I’m talking about my parents, siblings, and the whole squadron of relations who contributed in various ways to, literally, give me a degree?

How can I keep pursuing MY dreams, when my Mom who carried heavy loads on her head to give me this education is sick in bed, and there’s no money to foot her bills? If this is not selfishness, what is?

The reasons for these failures are many and varied, but the three that stand out are lack of funding, lack of focus/direction, AND, especially, lack of total commitment from all team members, myself
included. I’ve really come to learn, you cannot have it all, if you don’t give it all.

If I do survive tonight, I’ll be a very different person tomorrow. I don’t know what I’ll become, or what I’ll be doing. But I do know I’m going to make a whole lot of changes, and damn drastic ones, in this little life of mine.

In the process, I will probably break many hearts and make many enemies for myself. But I’m ready to accept all the blame, the scorn, and the angry rebuttals from my current circle of friends and partners … for Mom’s sake.

I’m sorry, Mom. Tomorrow is for you.