For most of yesterday, besides meeting a couple of really interesting people, I was flirting around with my new found love - my new Apple MacBook. So far things have been surprisingly easy-going between the two of us.

The biggest issue I’m grappling with now is how to quickly UN-LEARN my PC habits accumulated over the years. And I think I’m doing such a great job at that, being being the nerd I am. Here are some of the surprises I’ve been dealing with:

Unboxing and Plugging: After I unboxed the baby and inspected everything inside the box, I took the beautiful power adapter and looked all round the computer searching for where to plug it in. Before I could think “this must be it”, I felt this pull, and BAM! - the thing plugged itself in! No kidding, the damn connector plugged itself into the computer! At this point I started thinking: this Apple thing must be damn good — I’ve never been treated like an idiot like this before (get the gist?).

Anyway, I pushed the power button to start the baby. After a few clicks I was up and running with my user account, and the baby politely asked for my permission to connect to the WiFi in the room.

But it seemed like something was missing. Where is the right mouse button? Actually Macs have “right-click” functionality … except there’s no right mouse button — there’s just one mouse button! The “right-click” menu is, you go CTRL+Click. Apple must have a design philosophy behind this, but I’ve not had made time to read on this yet. Trouble is, I keep clicking on the right side of the single button and waiting for something to happen.

The Control (Win) / Command (Mac) thingy: Back in the PC environment, many keyboard commands and shortcuts are done with the control key plus some other characters (eg. CTRL+A - for select all, CTRL+C - to copy, CTRL+P - to Print, etc). There’s something similar in the world of Macs too, except this is the COMMAND key. But here’s the thing: There’s CONTROL key in addition to this COMMAND key, and the Command key is in the wrong position :-). So as you’ll expect, I keep hitting FUNCTION+something, and always getting the wrong results.

Installing & Uninstalling Applications: I’m yet to read on the RIGHT way to install applications. Sure, I’ve installed a bunch of applications already, but it seemed so easy that… I’m left thinking… there has to be something else I’m not doing. How can Apple take me to be such an idiot that they’d make things so easy to do round here?

It’s already Sunday morning, and I’ve not had any sleep within the past 48 hours. So I’m off to catch some sleep now. More love stories tomorrow.

I’m so full of life now, thanks to a brand new love I’ve found. I now have a spanky yanky pretty little brand new girl in my life: pretty and prim — but not too slim; with heavenly eyes — and just the right size; very smart … and she just can’t ever be bothered by any of those silly things I do.

She’s from the city of Appleland, the tribe of MacBooks. Vital stats: white, Intel breed 2.2GHz processor, 1G RAM, 120GB storage… and all the usual excellente goodies of the Apple MacBook tribe. But I’ve not been able to find a cool enough name for her yet. So why don’t you suggest a name for my new Apple MacBook?

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.

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.

From the very beginning we knew our little baby was NOT going to be a household name. Rather we wanted her to be the unknown giant upon whose shoulders many Smart Ghanaians would stand and lead our nation and the rest of the continent towards a safe, just, and prosperous future. And while things have been moving quite uneasily slow for us, we’re moving forward nonetheless.

A major initiative currently underway is a center to be run in conjunction with the Institute of Mathematical sciences, an institution founded and headed by our very own Prof. Allottey.

Yesterday, accompanied by my two partners in crime - Christopher Bennett and Remy Edmundson - I went to inspect the status of work on a facility at McCarthy Hill, Accra, which is likely going to be our new home. This facility currently houses the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and is being expanded to temporarily accommodate the yet-to-be-launched Allottey Andam University College.

We couldn’t have access to indoor facilities, but here are some photos we took from the compound. Enjoy.

Just looking spying around…

On top of the world ….

… with Christopher Bennett

Another shot with Christopher Bennett up the roof

Christopher Bennett and Remy Edmundson

Starting the journey back to ground zero…

Almost down now…

This beast will give us Internet access… for the time being

Man… George Appiah loves to squat!

It’s been a good day… we’re ready to return home now!

Man or statute? I was going through some directories on my computer, and came across this photo of this statute young man, in full gear for last year’s 50th Anniversary celebration of Ghana’s Independence. Even from the photo you could mistake him for a statute!

And apparently everyone else knows this man, except me! I’m told he often stands at major junctions in the city — causing heavy traffic jams, as drivers slow down to catch a glimpse of him.

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.

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:

Guadually I’m getting back on my feet. I’ve not had the need to visit the hospital for quite some now, and I’m grateful to all of you for all your support and encouragement throughout this past and painful year.

Here are just some quick updates for this week…

NBSSI Training

Today and tomorrow (Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th November), I’ll be doing training for the heads of the Business Advisory Centers of the National Board For Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) in Greater Accra region.

This was originally scheduled as a one week training, but was reduced to 3 days and eventually 2 days. And even then it’s just 9am-2pm, not full days as was originally planned. So I’m not sure how we’re going to squeeze everything into this limited time now.

An oh, this is a pro-bono training, as they couldn’t find the budget for it, but I decided to go ahead with it all the same. This training was arranged by Remy Edmundson of Integrity.

WordPress Hackathon

From the From the 1st to the 21st of December, I’ll be holding a marathon of WordPress training at my apartment in Atomic/Haatso, Accra, Ghana. This training is dubbed 21 Days Of WordPress Poetry and …

All sessions are absolutely free and open to anyone! I’ll provide details and topics to be addressed later in the day.

I’ll Be 28 This Week!

Wednesday, 28th will be my 28th birthday! Wow… I’m this old? Anyway, I’ve no idea yet how this day is going to be :-). Maybe I’ll return to my long lost “self” … shut out the rest of the world entirely and reflect upon this thing called life (which I’m supposed to be living and doing such a poor job at it!).

6 Months On The Road … Or Maybe Not

And now the big thing: From the 1st of January (February?) I’ll be embarking on a full 6-month expedition, which should take me to the capitals of all the 138 (?) geo-political districts in Ghana!

Details will be provided soon.

Yep, so that’s about it for now. Kind of busy really. What do you think?

Update: Integrity link and many typos fixed.