New Services Inbound ... Watch out Ghana, we are coming thru!

Hi peoples! VirtueReality started as an idea in a very furry head, it became a blog, and people started sharing our ideas with us, very soon the next stage in the evolution of VirtueReality is coming, BUSINESSIFICATION! Yes people, this year (action year) is the year that VirtueReality becomes a company. We will start rolling out our services soon, starting with ModART and Virtupix, whose pages will soon be updated on our site, i think you can see the headings.

ModART is essentially a drawing service, where portraits are converted into drawings and Virtupix is a brand new photography service which will be out-doored (hopefully) next month (not on the 1st though). Virtuepix plans on climbing up the ranks of Ghana's excellent photographic executioners to become one of the best (and affordable to). More info soon! The two services are being released together because they are Xtremely linked. Hope you like!

Oh yeah, and if you are wondering what are other services will be, feel free to look at the image eh!

Writers Block

I was listening to a song by Victizzle a British Gospel rapper. It’s called “Take you to the Future”. One of his first lines is “I don’t get writers block, ‘cause then I would write about writers block”. And it got me thinking, hey! I haven’t posted anything in ages. It’s been like 3 years since anything was put up and I think it’s time for me to break my silence and start a wild posting spree. I was thinking about writing something spectacular but then I was thinking too hard … so … let’s just chat.

There are a couple things on my mind today, first up is, “are Ghanaians workers efficient?” I mean if you take the average day at work, and I don’t have any evidence to back this. How much time does the average Ghanaian actually work? 1 hour, 2 hours maybe 3? I don’t know for sure but out of the 6 or 7 hours a day we are supposed to be working (lunch break not included) I have a faint feeling that we work (optimistically) 50% of the time. And when we are working, it’s sometimes suspect. I mean, I went to a DHL office and spent 10 minutes listening to the woman there talk to a friend on her cell phone just for her to finish and tell me that she can’t help me. I think I was pissed off but I cannot remember exactly.

So many companies these days are prohibiting their employee’s access to the internet, and those that do make sure to kill all links to …. FACEBOOK (and its friends Twitter, LinkedIn, hi5, etc.). The reason being, of course, is that Facebook gets more time than official work. This would be useful if every working Ghanaian didn’t have a phone that they can use to access Facebook. By the way someone should teach me how to use twitter …

I went to a particular ministry on 2 occasions (I won’t mention the one since this is embarrassing) in fact, now that I think of it I will, I went to the Register Generals office to pick up some documents at 2:30pm on a working day and was told that it was TOO LATE FOR THEM TO FIND THE DOCUMENTS and that I should come back in the morning. I asked them what time they close and was told between 4:30 and 5. Hmm makes you wonder how Ghana works if you can’t take 2 hours to find a document. ICT please come and rescue us. Anyway, enough about working. Its Friday! On to more interesting things.

No what interesting thing can I think of? Hmm…

Ooo yes I am introducing something cool to the general public and it’s called MODART. Actually it’s been around for a long time it’s just not been commercialized. You’ll hear more about it in the next post!

Credit where credit is Due!

Wow, i just saw these web pages by rinkworks and loved them, these posts are for men only, we need all the help we can get ... this is not my usual kind of post, as you can see it is finished ...

http://www.rinkworks.com/romantic/

http://www.rinkworks.com/persuasive/

How safe is your car?

I know all the troskie people are probably saying in their heads, “waa look, e get car sef wey e dey wan’t complain”. It’s true, I mean, you hardly get caught by armed robbers when you have a car, you can get to places on time, use AC (if you are lucky), its far easier to catch a woman (if you are a guy) as well as intimidate walking men (ladies). I mean, having a car is good. Unless you remember Fifi’s 30% which is causing some of us to spend over GHS 400 a month on fuel … did you know that troskie people?

Just the other day I did a great service to myself, as well as the world at large, and locked my key in my car. In fact I felt very stupid since I had done this same thing less than a month prior to this momentous event. I stood by the roadside for a few minutes looking for people with similar cars to no avail. Fortunately I know an excellent metal worker whose office was just a 10 minute walk away. So I walked.

I met my friend and we both walked back to my car holding in total 3 items, a large screwdriver, a crowbar and a long, flat, curved piece of metal. Wanna know how many minutes it took to open my car? Not a moment over 2, yes not even 2 minutes. I stood there in horrific awe of my friend’s skills and vowed never to leave anything in my car again. EVER. At least not in a public place.

Now my car is not the newest of cars, nor does it have central locking, or an alarm system but people with cars that fit the “el-cheapo” segment are not the only ones in danger. If you have a “fresh” car, you may notice that the door automatically unlock when opened from the inside. Well tough luck, your screwed too. “But my alarm system works!” well I hear there are parts under the car that you can cut to disconnect the battery, no battery, no alarm, go fish.

So what do you do now? Is nothing secure enough? Well for all intents and purposes a cars security measures are designed to slow the thief down as much as possible but they are not fool proof. So we the human beings who own the cars have to wise up, and here are a few tricks.

The first one is not a trick. If you dont want someone to steal something from your car, don't leave it there. PERIOD.

1)      Make sure nothing is visible in the car: Don’t allow a thief to use your car for window shopping. If you have a boot use it, if there is a package then put it under your seat. One of the first things that attract thieves to a car is seeing an object in plain sight. So don’t forget to remove the face-plate from your stereo. Oh and please hide the things BEFORE stopping, if all the thieves are watching you stuff a million cedi’s into your boot when you park there’s not much use in that.

2)      Carefully choose where to park your car, for example if you are parking at the mall, go the extra distance and trouble and park in front of the banks, there are always a security guard there.

3)      Inscribe your VIN/chassis number everywhere on your car. You can use the VIN number to track down a car, it’s difficult in Ghana, but often times if you have hidden an inscription of your VIN number somewhere people don’t check (like the interior of the wheel arch) you might just be lucky and find your car (if the whole things was stolen and repainted)

4)      Make your car look secure, even if you don’t have an alarm, feel free to put a sticker in the window saying that it does, chale everything counts. Getting a steering lock is good. It makes your car virtually un-drivable without a heavy duty metal cutter, which most average Ghanaian thieves don’t have.

These are just a few things I was thinking about when I had to break into my own car. Let’s keep our pride and joy safe!

,The great debate: to VAL’S or not to VAL’S that is the question.

Good day readers, today we bring you a massively interesting debate on whether or not to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I know that many of you are reading on to justify receiving gifts (women) or to get out of buying them (men)! Other may stay tuned for a myriad of reasons but whatever the reason may be, you might just learn some interesting things.

We have three speakers on each side and will be starting with those “For” the motion! Just as a reminder this is Ghana and as such homosexual activities are prohibited by law and as such are BANNED from discussion in this debate. Also the Bible clearly informs us that homosexuality is unnatural and sinful, Romans 1:26-27, Leviticus 20:13, Leviticus 18:22, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, I’m sure there are more but that is a talk for another day...

For speaker 1

Good day judges, ladies and gentlemen, I am here representing those who are for the motion that Ghanaians should celebrate Valentine’s Day. I honestly believe that we are the majority, and will now explain why.

One may ask, what is Valentine’s Day? Let me enlighten you. Valentine’s Day falls on the 14^th of February and is a celebration of love and affection between couples. It was named after one or more Christian martyrs by the name of Valentine or Valentinus. The most interesting of which was a priest who ignored a marriage ban and wedded young couples, he was caught and executed and the couples he had wedded wrote him letters about their love and how it was better than war (which was going on at the time). Thus the celebration and the giving of cards started!

It has so many benefits, including, strengthening relationships between couples and acting as an avenue for expressing ones feelings. But one important thing is that Valentine’s Day allows people who are busy all the year through to set some time aside and spend it with the person they ‘love’.

The celebration of Valentine’s Day is a good thing and should be promoted.

Against speaker 1

My good friends and moderators, greetings. I am here to represent the majority of people who find that Valentine’s Day is just not necessary, even troublesome perhaps.

Just in case you do not know the first celebrations that take place on February the 14^th were pagan in origin. There was the Roman pagan festival of Lupercalia which was associated with purification and fertility rituals. There was also another pagan festival of the Greeks, celebrating the marriage of Zeus and Hera. Yet another was based on the worship of the roman queen god Juno. Even Val’s days favorite mascot, Cupid, is a Greco-Roman god who also goes by the name “EROS” (sound familiar?). If you read Deuteronomy 12:29-31 you may find something very interesting about adopting or “overtaking” customs other people use to worship their foreign gods and not the true God of Heaven (whose kid is Jesus Christ).

Even from the so-called Christian background, a renegade priest marrying couples against the law? Was he the inspiration for Las Vegas? The Church does not even recognize Valentine's Day as a Church holiday anymore.

Let’s move from its origin to its practice. Valentine’s Day is miserable for single people. If you are not involved in a romantic relationship during that season, contemporary Ghanaian society makes you feel ‘unlucky’. Even the term ‘gnashing’ when one does not receive a gift on Val’s Day is derogatory. What good is a public celebration if it causes others to feel left out?

It is a hard day for poor Ghanaian men who are pressured to perform, and/or to give gifts. Already Atta’s 30% is still hurting us, and now we must buy girls gifts? Chale!

Also for those in “complex” relationships (i.e. more than one), Val’s day can be the day that finished them off completely. How can one man juggle 3-12 girls if they all want attention on the same day? It is virtually impossible and only the best of “bad” men will escape with their lives. We should consider them small. They are human too.

Then there is the generation of massive post-valentine’s day waste. The day itself is wasteful enough, all the diabetes-inducing chocolates, drinks, paper greeting cards, most of which are discarded within the week. Hmmm.

For Speaker 2: Rebuttals

Judges, audience; I think the “against” speaker is vehement because he does not want to spend his meager salary on women. Please my friend; let us not be so cheap!

First of all the day of February 14^th was chosen to overcome those so called pagan rituals and not because that was its origin. The early Christians made it a celebration of romantic love instead of eroticism and sexuality. So your argument holds no water, or chocolate for the matter... In fact it is so porous one might think that it was a sieve.

Valentine’s Day’s love is not limited to romantic love, it is about the expression of true love, which the bible graciously defines for us in 1 Corinthians 4-8a. Who would not want to celebrate such a wonderful thing?

Now, no one forces men to do anything. Is anyone holding a gun to a man’s head, making him buy jewelry, candies, clothes, cars… ahem, or anything else for the lady he likes? The answer is NO! Valentine ’s Day is a day for expressing feelings, if you have none, then no need for expression! After all is the ONLY way to express ones feelings through gifts and money spending? Of course not, our venerable Ghanaian ladies are more caring and considerate than that!

People who are in "complex" relationships are not in the right so any exposure would be good. In fact if that was the only factor in this celebration it should be celebrated 12 times a year!

Just because other holidays are wasteful does not mean that the fact that Valentine ’s Day MIGHT be wasteful is not an argument worth considering, the same level of “commercialization” is done during Christmas, so please, some things are from the exuberance of business men and cannot be avoided.

Against Speaker 2: Rebuttals

Greetings Judges, fellow contestants and the general public; my opponents saying that Valentine’s Day is about true love might be true but the only publicized part of Valentine’s Day is for romantic relationships between men and women. That is the case. Need I continue?

And on behalf of men, there is MASSIVE emotional pressure by women to receive something on Valentine’s Day. In fact, even if they do not say a word, they may be intimidated by all their friends who have received “showers of blessings” and then look at their “chisel” man in a new light.

Val’s day is one sided. In many cases it is just about men doing something for women and hardly ever vice-versa, at least the women should participate small.

For Speaker 3: Closing Remarks

My good friends, let us do what is right and pure and consider Valentine’s Day for what it is, a day from expressing true and unfiltered “authentic” love to all. May you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and may love be with you.

Do not be poisoned by those who are against Val’s, they are boring and dry and broke to boot!

My love goes out to all of you. Thank you

Against Speaker 3: Closing Remarks

I feel that the “for” speakers closing remarks are very insulting. The only reason why he is talking like that is because he is too black to have a girl and as such is free to do what he pleases today!

Let us consider the dubious roots of Valentine’s Day and how it has been reduced to a glorified erotic holiday. Let us boycott the celebration of this unnecessary time and money waster and focus on more important things. Like world peace. Thank you.

--

Anyhow, this is just a small debate to get people’s minds working. As for me “NO COMMENT”.

--

Links:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13&version=NIV

http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/what-is-true-origin-of-valentines-day.html

http://www.wf-f.org/Valentine.html

http://www.holidays.net/amore/cupid.html

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2012:29-31,Leviticus%2018:26-30&version=NIV1984

http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/valentine.asp

Airtel, please we are Ghanaians!

Hi peoples, honestly speaking I think the mobile telephone industry still has much to offer us loyal subscribers … which they haven’t given us yet. Don’t get me wrong! Things have come a LONG, LONG way, I remember in 2004 when TiGO was Buzz and I bought my chip for over GHS 17.00 (equivalent), the calls were billed per minute, not per second and the call chargers were a whopping GP 25 a minute. That really sucked.

Now with the advent of per second billing and the tariffs for some networks being a steady GP 8 things are looking up. But what about internet? Honestly even though MTN is the Most-Terrible-Network, they have the best pay as you go mobile internet package in Ghana at the moment (at least I think so) charging a measly GP 3 per megabyte as against Airtel’s GP 20. But on the modem scene for computers, the new kids on the block, Expresso, have the best 1 gigabyte package, coming in at GHS 15.00 a month as compared to MTN’s GHS 25.00 and Airtel’s GHS 30.00.

What’s the best network for callers? I think Airtel. Their calls are always GP 8 per minute, rain or shine, on network or off, and without any form of registration (bite that Voda), unlike MTN, whose zone keeps giving me GP 10 all day, I mean it’s cheaper to use Airtel to call MTN in the daytime, and that really sucks for MTN, unless you get that elusive MTN zone of GP 3. On the flipside Vodaphone’s habit of giving you 25%, 50% and 75% bonuses when you recharge is really cool. Ah well you can’t eat your cake and have it … at least that’s what the books say.

Well I’m just talking plenty but what I really wanted to talk about is the picture in the post. It’s from Airtel’s new promotion that they keep sending me 10 texts a day about. Now the real question is …

WHICH GHANAIAN WILL PICK MONEY FROM A POT?!

Are you kidding me? Is there no juju in India?

the SHOEmaker continued ...

“Hey boss, wey thing dey your bag inside?”

KD turned sharply, his sleepy eyes gazing at the voice that just spoke. The man was rough looking, and brandishing a long gleaming cutlass. It was 11:45 pm, KD was walking on a lonely footpath in Dansoman, there was nowhere to run and no one walking around. Things didn’t look too good.

“Why … you fit hear? I say wey thing dey your bag inside!” the man said huskily.

The man stepped forwards aggressively, shifting the cutlass from his left to his right hand. KD looked at him carefully and then spoke, his voice laden with irritation.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for one of you guys? It’s been hours, a small test that I want to conduct and this is what I get? I thought you armed robbers were a little more punctual with your robberies”

The man stopped and looked KD up and down. What kind of nonsense was this? He had seen fear; he had seen anger but this? In fact it had been a long time since his cutlass has spoken with someone’s bones but this idiot was asking for it. I mean, the impudence of someone getting robbed! He grunted and charged at KD.

Almost immediately he stopped short. There was something metallic hovering right in front of his face; it looked strangely like the ‘under’ of a coal pot.

“Thrusters 35% output”, KD’s voice was hushed and quick.

 “Fire”

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ring! Ring!

I looked at the time, 6:15 am. Ah this foolish phone again, its only breakfast time and someone is calling me, they won’t even let me get to the station before disturbing my life. I picked up the phone and answered it with an annoyed, “Hello, Inspector Bediako here, what do you want?”

“Hello Inspector sir”, the voice on the line called out, “we have come across a charred body on one of the back roads near Dansoman roundabout O! We need you to come right now to help sort things out”

I grunted a muffled ‘yes’ and cut the line, this was the third one this month, can’t people just sleep at night?

the SHOEmaker

Some people just have head. They were born with head, they will grow in head, and they will probably die, cheating the world of head that they should have distributed with others. (for all of you with bad minds, may God bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you and give you peace …)

Kwamina Danso was one of those people. He was just good, real good. He breezed through Ghana’s chew and pour scholastic system like a jet ski. He was technically inclined, so Tech was his only option. Unfortunately he failed miserably, not because he was an idiot but because he was essentially in 14 different courses at the same time instead of the Electrical Engineering he was enrolled in. unfazed he set about doing what he always wanted, to make shoes … just that his shoes are not always so normal.

Back from the Dead: Time Management 101

Back from the Dead: Time Management 101

Wow, it’s been more than a week and no posts. That’s not too good. Sometimes there seems to be so much that needs to be done, you try and plan, say that you’ll do this and that, but by the end of the day you look back and see that you have not really accomplished much. But you feel as tired as if you climbed flagstaff house with your bare hands.

So that’s my story, I planned to do loads of things last week, including posting, but alas it was lost in the mire of day to day drudgery. Well NO LONGER! Today I’m going to talk about time management, and hope that I learn from it as well.

What is it about time that is so strange? When you are doing something interesting (like watching a movie, eating, talking to friends) time seems to move like a cheetah. Literally speeding. But then, when it comes to the mundane stuff like work, chores or other activities that require any type of repetitive procedures time seems to magically transform itself into a snail … that has fallen asleep.

Yeah so enough beating about the bush, it’s time to cut it down for good. I think I’ll start with some biblical perspectives on time first and then get to some day to day applications afterwards.

Ephesians 5:15-16

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

This is pretty straight forward I think. God is telling us that time management is very important, and that basically if you are smart you will practice time management, because if you don’t you’ll probably just end up wasting it on useless and sometimes detrimental things.

2 Peter 3:8

⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

Another thing is that God does not see time as we do. Due to the fact that he is eternal, the importance is on “what” happens, more than “when” it happens. For example, Jesus Christ died for my sins a long time before my ancestors even sniffed the world. The fact is that it has happened, and that’s that. Taking it into consideration we might want to prioritize the things we do, to ensure that the essentials are done first.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

¹ There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: ² a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, ³ a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace

What again should I say? In your life, if you need to do something you can find the time to do it. Period. After all, the Word says that there is time for every activity. So I think we should stop giving the excuse that “I don’t have time for …” and start strategizing on how to get it done, as long as it is important …

Exodus 18:1-27

¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. ¹⁹ Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

You can’t do everything yourself. Sometime you will need a helping hand or you’ll find yourself bogged down by the stress involved with it. Even Moses was having trouble and was advised to delegate his authority to others and concentrate on the more pressing activities. The moral of the story? Do what is important to you most (or what is important in general), if you can delegate your other tasks to other people, do it.

Wow, that’s a lot of info and only four passages. But practically what can we do to effectively manage our time. I mean we have tried so many times (well at least I have) and it’s not been working too well. So what will make this time different?

1.

First up, we need to recognize God. He is God over everything, including time. Take a minute to talk to Him about your time. If push comes to shove ask him to deliver “time” into your hands. Abi “ask and you shall receive” make the most of it, I just did.

2.

Have a “master plan” or a vision. You need to know what you want for your life. Otherwise how would you decide what is important and what isn’t? you can check my earlier post on “Pursuing your Vision” for help over there.

3.

Thirdly, I find that writing things down concretizes things. My head is as volatile as boiling water, I forget details easily, writing things down has helped me immensely. It also serves as a reference, and when you make a checklist, you can always go back to it and see what is left to be done. Oh and don’t write on pieces of paper, write in a book. Pieces of paper get lost. In fact I lose almost every one.

4.

This is going to sound funny. But keep fit. Really, no joke, fitness helps the body and brain to work optimally and thus increases the efficiency of the things you do … hence better time management! So next time you lift weights (guys) or powder your face (girls) recognize that doing that will help you help yourself in more ways than you thought!

5.

Controlling the way you sleep. Do you know that if you sleep 8 hours a day, by the end of your life you would have spent ONE THIRD of it snoring? Serious waa. But the length of your sleep is not as important as the efficacy of it. If you can sleep for 10 hours, but when you wake up you are ready for anything and can work the whole day efficiently, don’t reduce the time you sleep. But if you just sleep for sleeping’s sake, taking an hour or two out of it to do some important things could go a long way to increasing the things you can accomplish in a day.

6.

Making use of “dead time”. If you drive daily in Ghana, you have approximately 1 to 4 hours of dead time each day. Dead time is time that is spent “in-between” other things. For example, driving to work takes me about an hour. What have I accomplished in that hour? Nothing, besides just arriving at work. Making good use of dead time would help you immensely. You could get an audio bible and listen to it whilst you drive. You could make all your “social” telephone calls during dead time. There are so many things you can do whilst waiting for a bus, or eating lunch, or between classes. Think.

Well I think this is my longest post ever. I was thinking about writing more but the ideas are not forming up too well, I think I need food.

But it’s all good. Hopefully I will be able to take my own medicine and ensure I get all the work I need to get done, done, as well as posting on the blog.

Adios!

Oh and the Shoemaker is ready …. 

New Bra Ghana Pic

Hi guys!

Just did another Bra Ghana pic and wanted to put it up. Shoemaker will be released this week as well with his bio attached. Oh yeah Mama Asanka is also being "put-together" so hopefully by the weekend we will be seeing her too.

Hope you like!

Later