Preconceived Concepts

Lord Harmattan, Darth FUFU and SHOEmaker

Hello peoples,

I had initially wanted to wait for Saturday to release the final versions of the characters I'm working on but hey! I need to please my few readers or they will get bored and leave me alone to talk to myself ...

here are three characters that I've rough-sketched, you will see more finalized versions as well as the characters some of the other commenter's created. we are still accepting ideas so feel free to post! Remember this is OUR VERY OWN GHANAIAN comic, (which i hope will kick Zingaro out of the picture) lets all be a part!

Me against THE ECONOMY

In the good old days … when I was young … I remember when …

These are phrases we have heard time and time again from parents, uncles, older family members and sometimes from people we don’t even feel like talking to who just happened to catch us off-guard. We are often reminded of how they used to walk to farms and to school, of how they studied HARD and never gave up. How they struggled to get into university and when they came out how they got a job.

Hey did you hear that correctly? Let me go back and say that again “when they came out of university they got jobs”. Now this statement seems rather normal. Until you finish university in OUR generation and find that getting a job isn’t as easy as it looks.

Back in the “Good ol’ days” there was a high demand for educated workers, when our parents were in university they used to receive allowance and had rooms to themselves (well at least till some point). Well times have changed now … in some public universities like the glorious ----- four people are quashed into an excavated sardine tin which they call a room. When you got there your life is your problem, and when you finally finish school finding a job is harder than using your tongue to touch your nose.

These days most jobs are looking for people with “5 years relevant work experience”, so for all of us who finished uni a few years ago are left to dry like your skin in harmattan. This has led to the development of the “Galamzey Mentality” amongst a segment of the youth today (where youth is essentially 35 and below … if you are 40 you aren’t and old man but you are definitely not a youth).

Nowadays every relatively young person is looking to create a job for themselves, partly because we don’t feel like sitting under the thumb of some old dude, but mainly for the reason that finding an orthodox job is difficult, and once you get it you find that it is mentally and creatively unchallenging and dampening, doesn’t pay enough for you to sit in traffic for 2-4 hours a day as well as a load of other things as well. Now don’t get me wrong here, many people get good jobs, and quite a lot of them pay well, but not everyone is enjoying these benefits (especially those who don’t have CONNECTIONS). Even those with jobs are looking for side attractions to lubricate their harmattan infested wallets.

Now I’m not writing this article to complain, rather I think that the entrepreneurial spirit displayed by we youth today is simply admirable, and we need to do things right. I can relate to people who are trying to get their businesses off ground zero and have parents sitting on their necks saying “oh Kwame, don’t you think it would be better to get a job?”. Don’t let disappointments get in the way of you starting and sticking to your own business, have a good vision and mission, make sure you have realistic plans that you can stick to and even if you are working on it part time (after your regular 9 to 5) you can still achieve a lot with proper time management and a little investment. Soon it will be our time to shine in Ghana’s economy, let’s make sure that we shine like the sun on not a polished shoe.

Also let’s patronize Done-by-us-Goods, we can be our own CONNECTIONS. We all need clients for our businesses to thrive so if we make sure that we create our own business communities we will definitely succeed, it just takes time, and since God is on our side, there aint nobody who can be against us …. At least not successfully.

So drop a comment with your business name, and what you do and let’s spread the word!

Adios Amigos

p.s. power to the lizard ... its time to scare the dogs

Fooling .... I mean Fueling

Is it just me or did the fuel station guy rip me off ...

In fact, when I had heard that the beloved lifeblood of my fine Korean made vehicle had increased in price by 30% this morning, my blood pressure rose by approximately the same amount. 30%! ... It might be necessary but hey!

Essentially I spend about GHC 200.00 on fuel in a month, with the added 30% it means that I will be spending GHC 260.00 a month on fuel … that’s a GHC 60.00 difference, and the last time I checked my salary hadn’t risen. Good bye Rhapsody’s and Tasty Jerky on a Friday night, it will now be replaced by a somber visit to Legon’s night market, 1 egg and no meat please.

Fortunately I am not too politically biased so I won’t say that this is an NDC thing or some rubbish like that, I hear the worlds crude oil price has risen to about U$ 90.00 a barrel, and the government has increased the TOR levy (a tax essentially) from 0.2% to 0.6% (according to the honorable minister of Information when speaking on a show with K. Pratt Jr.). Interestingly enough when I checked the prices of fuel over the past year (you can check it yourself with the link below) fuel prices have been between 75-90 dollars a barrel. Ah well do the math’s yourself. My problem isn’t if the price rise is justifiable or not (it probably is), but the fact that it’s going to harm my already miserable pocket.

I feel sorry for the people who have to wait 30 minutes to 2 hours to get transport to and from work, but now I am also definitely feeling sorry for the people who own their own cars … no one’s got it good o!

Anyhowly, I do feel that the government announcing a reshuffling of the ministerial positions was a ploy to get our minds off the fact that we have no more money after paying for transportation. And I feel sorry for them, they did tell us that they would reduce the oil prices when they were the opposition and the NPP pulled a fast one on them by reducing it just before they were ousted, which has now resulted in an interesting case of “foot-in-mouth-disease”. They should just man up and tell us Ghanaians the truth that the government can’t subsidize fuel for us and let us struggle to find a way to sort ourselves out. I think we can handle the truth, don’t you?

Feel free to drop you comments, and if you don’t agree with something I said, tell me, I’m not a close minded bigot!

Later peeps,

Added: 06/01/11

You know something, its very fortunate and unfortunate that the fuel increase has happened at this time of year. On the fortunate side; at least we were able to spend all our money during Christmas without whining over the new fuel price. On the other hand, some of us have spent our December salary already, basically meaning that January was going to be the month of miserly living, now with the added fuel price some of us have invested in shovels so that when we die our family members have the tools to bury us ...

References:

http://www.oil-price.net/?gclid=CIL5ocDVoaYCFQEOfAod1Tw_jQ

http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201101/58675.asp

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=200602

SUPER!

Hello there,

This is the prototype of BRA GHANA, Ghana's very own slightly yawa super hero. As is standard superhero policy (as stated in the superhero handbook) his real identity is a secret, known only to himself and a few associates ....

Now the thing is this, he need allies and enemies to make the story really interesting. So therefore we are accepting ideas for superheroes and super-villains alike.

Heres the thing, just post a comment with the name of your super hero/villain and their main abilities, you can also describe how you would like them to look as well!

e.g. super-villain: Darth-Fufu
abilities: fufu-beam, the beam has the ability to make anyone feel instantly lethargic and sleepy, the beam also lowers productivity and clouds the mind for a short period of time ....
features: a knock-off version of Darth Vader with a pot belly suit

Feel free to give me the most crazy ideas you have, you never know, your idea may feature in the upcoming comic!

the simple life

Hi guys!

You wake up in the morning and the phone rings

You pick up, to talk you hang up

You open up your laptop and login to facebook

Check out your myspace, send some mails

You sit behind dstv while eating your breakfast and talking on the phone, sending a whatsapp message or 7

get dressed leave home ... you know the drill (abi multitasking dey)

Sometimes its really great to get away for a few days, just to take things easy. Remember that not doing anything is an activity in itself.

Some people don't have lives as full as our own, or at least as full as mine, but they don't really seem to care. Just look at how happy they look, just running around playing ball. It was interesting watching them run around, play and chat, it was so so different from what I do with my friends. We all seem to multi-task well these days but scientific study seems to show that the more things we do at the same time, the lower the overall efficacy of each task, or basically the brain can do only one thing at a time.

Ah well, I just wanted to put up this picture so I had to write something small around it. see you guys later

VirtueReality Official Launch !!!

Welcome to the VirtueReality Blog .....

As usual i guess i have to start with the basics like ... "Happy New Year!" and stuff like that. Well I've said it.

let me tell you a bit of what i have planned for you (who may someday become loyal followers or avid HATERS of this blog). VirtueReality is all about being REAL THE RIGHT WAY or at least the best way we can. we will be releasing a comic strip, be posting photos and videos from new photographers and filmographers, be discussing how to make it in the tough business world we find ourselves in as well as highlighting the efforts of the entrepreneurial youth, and basically anything that comes to mind. no limits.

as you by now have noticed our name comes from VIRTUE and REALITY, we want to have fun, enjoy life as it comes but always, always try and do it the right way. we are Christians and are guided by the infallible word of GOD, we are far from perfect but perfection in Christ Jesus is our goal. its time to make a difference even if its only in a small way

now i would guess that people have made new years resolutions, plans, set goals or at least put some though on the matter of what they would do or do differently this year... like, i want to get a new job, or i want to get married or i want to do this or i want to achieve that. why is it that we often fall short of our new years resolutions and by the time the "today" rolls out next year we are found wanting? lets be realistic here, lets actually sit down and do some self evaluation. you probably know yourself better than anyone else does .... i hope. lets be SMART in setting our goals, not just for 2011 but for ourselves in general. by SMART i mean specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.

i think i have actually run out of things to say.

so ill just end with "WELCOME TO VirtueReality!" and feel free to follow us and tell your friends too. (yeah we like attention like that). i have no idea if we will release more posts today or not but we need to chill small a new year has come!

oh yeah and harmattan sucks

OFFICIAL LAUNCH

hi guys, back again so soon eh? ah well this is how it is ...

the OFFICIAL LAUNCH of www.virtureality.blogspot.com is on 01-01-11 ... for those of you who are not well versed in binary, that mean on the 1st of January.

our feature list as well as a lil something-something will be done on the 1st so stay tuned! or is it follow me? ah well anything goes.

ciao

a new beginning

hi folks, i'm just testing out this blogging thing. i don't think i have successfully maintained a blog before, well i will try now. for those of you who would like to read real, down to earth commentary on what i think is happening around and in our glorious country of GHANA. feel free to subscribe ... airtel

anyhowly the grand launch will be on the 1st of January. i do hope its good ...