Addiction

1) I am addicted to ravioli (a type of stuffed pasta). I love it! I can't stop eating the stuff.

I had some Sausage and Meat Ravioli for breakfast today. I had another variation of a meat ravioli for lunch and, for dinner I had... you get the point!

2) I discovered the treasure that is Vanilla yoghurt. It's awesome. I got the cheap version (Giant Eagle store brand). It tastes a little like sweet ogi from Yorubaland. I love it!

3) My netbook has been hacked into. It's horrible. Now it won't connect to the internet. Luckily, this means I can probably send it back to Dell for a system recovery thingy (I tried that already, but it didn't work. I was quite surprised. After about 5 years using HP computers, I had become a pro at the "restore factory settings" business. Or so I thought).

4) The US Open is on now. I'm hoping Rafa Nadal wins it. That'd be awesome. As I type, Wawrinka and Murray are playing. It's the fourth set and both of them are still going at it. Looks like they both took an injury or medical time out at some point.

5) The big audit at my factory will be postponed. I know it. My boss knows it. My factory manager knows it. We will all be in deep sh!t when that happens because we've had over 1 year to prepare. Fortunately for me, I have had just over 4 months here, part of which was spent away: what, 1 week in Arkansas, 2 weeks in training, 2 weeks of shutdown, 1 week in Chicago, etc. So I've substantively been in the plant for just about 3 months. Or less, if you count the 2 weeks I have spent giving training off-site. So it shouldn't be too bad. I suppose.

Still, we are under a phenomenal amount of pressure. A corporate visitor came around for 2 days last week and gave us a massive dressing down. It was a train-wreck. She asked a lot of questions like "Where does the factory stand with THIS or THAT", and I gave her a lot of "I think..." answers. She told me to eliminate "I think" from my vocabulary and tell her instead what I know. I wasn't sure of many of the things she wanted to know.

I know there will be several Come-to-Jesus meetings next week. You know, panic mode meetings. I am braced for it. However the cookie crumbles, we are in deep deep soup.

6) I went to my protege's house on Saturday. She is 15, very bright, very smart, etc. She lives in the ghetto. I hope she makes it out of there some day soon. She is such a beautiful, bright and kind girl. I really want to invest in her, especially in teaching her math and science. I was shocked to see the sort of mindless work she was doing for science work - at that age? She was hand-copying scrambled squares into a square grid, the objective being to form a picture of a panda at the end of the exercise. This was not for art class (as I had assumed), but was for their Physical Sciences class. My jaw fell to the ground when I saw this sh!t. At her age, I was in SS2 or SS3, preparing for NECO, JAMB, GCE and SSCE/WASSCE and had already taken JAMB & GCE once (trial run). I could dY/dX my way to the moon, and could tell you all about the circulatory system, digestive system, etc. This felt like Primary 6 work. And we wonder why some American schools are falling behind. Na wa o.

7) New addiction: iPhone games. Can't get enough of them! "Huggy: - really cute. Kind of like "Crystal Caves". Also, "Angry Birds" (free). "Chicktionary" (free). Toobz (free - like "Angry Birds", was introduced to me by my sister).

8) Looks like more traveling ahead: one week in Columbus (combining work and pleasure), two days in downtown Cleveland for work (I think it'll be in Cleveland - I'm not sure), and between now and the end of October, another 3 personal trips to Columbus.

9) Another corporate person is visiting next week. She is, however, the good cop. So I think she will be less brutal to us. I think. Hope.

10) Oh yeah! Really big news! Duke Nukem game coming out. After over a decade of waiting! Whoooooooooooooosa!


Read about it here: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/blogs/screenplay/duke-nukem-whatever/20100906-14wa5.html

I was about 10 years old when the franchise fizzled out. Yikes!

11) One last note. As I typed, Wawrinka beat Murray. So it looks like Britain's search for a male GrandSlam winner will go into its 75th year. Jesu Kristi. :)

I'm doing Math again

Today, I whipped out my statistics textbook to refresh my memory on some stuff about standard deviations and z-scores and means and medians. It's nice to be doing math again. That's why I love my job so much: so many curve balls. I have done complex statistics, been a graphic designer, spoken in public numerous times, made fancy presentations, coached people, spent a half million bucks and done lots of cool stuff since I took this job. I love it, and I can see that I am contributing a lot! Whooooosa!

I ate some "Russian" bread today. At least that's what it said on the label. It was deep brown (there was some caramel added to it). The stuff is so heavy that the sliced loaf could easily be a defensive weapon in the unfortunate event that one has an intruder. It's like a bloody brick.

And oh, I had some peanut butter with it. That stuff tasted like poison. Apparently it is very popular in the US. Yuk. I hated it. No questions asked. Ewwwww.

Nothing beats loving what you do...

I am incredibly blessed to have my job. Absolutely fortunate....


I love it. I have grown more professionally in the past 3 months than I did for 2 years after leaving college. Really frightening stuff, actually...

I ate some pasta today, made by my company. To say that it blows my mind would be an understatement.

What's better than loving your job?

Having a company that makes an absolutely delightful product and (on the side) delights you at work, too.

Dreams come true!

The best I ever had...

Dannone Yoghurt...

Better than the Yoplait.

Better than the Stonyfield farm.

Two thumbs, waaaaaaaaaay up!

Weekend at home... sort of...

Aaagh. The pleasure of spending a weekend at home.

Well, sort of. I have some Princeton Alumni meeting this weekend. I am, surprisingly, looking forward to it.

In addition, I have some studying to do.

Work is getting a lot tougher, but it's challenging and exciting at the same time. Comparing my position here in this plant with my previous position has highlighted the reason some companies succeed and others don't. This is a professional organization: an organization of absolutely seasoned people who blow my mind every single time I see them. It's a truly remarkable place, where every single person is just bloody bright. I have met two truly forgettable people: one of them was fired, and the other one (word has it) is on his way out.

It's sink-or-swim here.

Upcoming week

I started studying for one of the 3 big exams I have coming up soon. Well, at least I tried.

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to get my hair done. The hair dressers are from Togo, and they are great: very nice ladies. Crucially, they didn't braid the hair unbearably tight, as some people are prone to do.

One deal breaker, though: the lady who did my hair talked on the phone the entire time. She yelled and screamed and hollered and spit on my poor head. It was quite disconcerting. Enough to make me seek another hairdresser, sharpish. Yes, I'm paranoid like that.

Oh yeah, I'm going out to dinner tomorrow with a group of people in a meetup group. SO that's Monday settled, then. I plan to go to work really early, work on some administrative stuff, and then leave work around 3pm, before coming back to my apartment to do laundry and possibly pack. And then go to dinner around 7pm or 06:30pm.

And then Tuesday night, head out to Illinois after work. And then return Thursday night. Sleep over in Cleveland on Thursday (at the airport hotel), and then return to work Friday, and drive to Columbus on Saturday.

Luckily, I am not doing any more traveling for the next few months. I think. Perhaps a drive to Cleveland every now and then. Perhaps.

Not sure... I realized earlier today just how unbearably tired I am right now. I need to start resting a little. Take things easy.

And, yes, I'm thinking of going to the US Open (perhaps even the finals). I kind of wonder how much it will cost. But no matter. Seeing Rafa Nadal is a priceless experience. I hope the knees hold up, and (more importantly), that he does very well at the tournament.

Training and work

Aaaaaaaagh. I hate to keep harping on and on about the same thing. I am definitely going to Illinois next week. Today I gave a big presentation at work - myself and another dude from work. He's very bright, and I was quite impressed with him.

It went better than I expected. I think I was a lot less nervous about presenting to such a large group than I thought I'd be. Indeed I was very confident when I got up to speak before the group. Rather surprising, but for me, what that means is that I will never be nervous again when speaking before a large group. I am that way: once I conquer a fear, there is no going back. And I really think this is one fear that has been conquered.

One more thing, though: I had a 12-hour day at work today. The training session we had was a big eye-opener for us. What it showed us is just how far we have to go. Today, my boss mentioned something to the effect of doing this every week from now until September 30th. AND. I. WAS. LIKE. HOLY. BLOODY. SHIT.

He said we might have to do this 2 days out of every week, and do it every week from now until September 30th, when we have a massive, massive massive audit which our plant HAS TO pass! Scary shit! Tomorrow, we have to sit to finalize what the plan going forward is (i.e. myself, my boss and the bright dude I gave the presentation today with have to have a meeting). Anyway, what matters is that we completed this round of training...

On the road again

I found out that I might be going to Illinois again next week. For a 2-day conference.

Actually, that was the first email I read today upon my return to work. It's funny how these things happen: you return to work and find that your name has been entered in some conference and you are expected to be there, sometimes even to talk at said conference. Hilarious. In this case, though, since I really like my job, it's not a big deal at all. I sent the invite to my boss to confirm that I am indeed the one they want (and not him). I'll wait to hear what he has to say, but I am pretty sure it is me.

In the spirit of travel, I hereby post this video:




And, yeah, since tomorrow is my birthday, I am going out to dinner with a new friend. I just met him a few weeks ago. He is a nice man from Cameroon who lives in the same apartment building. I am really looking forward to that, as I am rather bored.

Back in town - barely

Good morning all. Today is July 11, 2010. My birthday is in 2 days. I have a busy week ahead of me.

I write from my apartment in Twinsburg, OH. I have been away from my apartment for quite a while now, and when I got back last night, it felt a little unfamiliar. I was surprised at just how messy it was. That was a little disappointment. I remember that before I left for Oklahoma, I had left things in a mess. And when I got back from Oklahoma for that one night, I didn't do much cleaning, as I was too caught up with recovering from the long trip, and preparing for my trip to Arkansas.

Well, Arkansas was a blast. Shame on me for pre-judging Arkansas. I had such terrible notions about what Arkansas would be about. I visited our plant there in March or February (I forget when), and even though I loved Jonesboro, I convinced myself that Jonesboro was an island of civilization in a backward, back-water state. Well, Little Rock changed that. First, the airport is as modern as any other I have seen in recent times. Heck it's a lot better than the airport at New Haven, which (as I think I blogged about), is a disgrace of a room-and-parlor organization with just two gates that are about 10 feet apart. No missing your flight because you couldn't get to the gate in time at that airport.

Back to Arkansas.

My trip to Arkansas was eventful. A little background first. The main reason I had to go to Arkansas was that my company was sending 20 people in my plant to Arkansas, as part of a team-building initiative. We all work together, but really never thought of one another as a solid, indivisible team, mostly because we work at different times, and sometimes do not see each other for weeks on end. In any case, we all had to go to this place called Team Trek. We were scheduled to fly into Little Rock, and then take a shuttle from Little Rock to a little place called Tumbling Shoals. Now I admit I did not do my homework on this trip. Our assistant booked the flights, but I did not find out how I would get from the airport at Little Rock to Tumbling Shoals, which is about 90 minutes away. At the Cleveland airport, I saw a co-worker, who informed me that there was a shuttle to get us from Little Rock to Tumbling Shoals. Turns out she was right. We were due to arrive Little Rock around 01:10pm, and there was a shuttle at 01:30pm to take us there. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the flight out of Cleveland going to Chicago was delayed. By the time that flight landed Chicago, the flight out of Chicago going to Little Rock was boarding. I mentioned that I met a coworker on the plane. Her name is Yolanda. Well, when our plane landed in Chicago 9about a half-hour late), Yolanda ran out of the plane and caught the flight to Little Rock. Me, on the other hand, had some plane-side hand luggage which I had to retrieve. So I waited.


And waited.

And waited.

And finally got the luggage.

But missed the flight to Little Rock.

What now?

It was the first flight I ever missed. Considering that I have been a relentless road warrior over the past 18 months, that is a little surprising. I also like to think that I plan my flights very wisely, but in this case, I did not book my flight. Our assistant did. Which is not to say it was her fault, because it really was not, but...

It was already a tight connection in the first place (about a 45 minute layover), but since the inbound flight was delayed, I had no chance. I got to the gate just as boarding ended. The monitor said "Boarding for the Flight to Little Rock is complete". Yikes! Oops!

I was pissed.

It was my first time flying American Airlines, if I am not mistaken, and the experience was horrible (since they delayed the inbound flight and knew I was on that flight).

In any case, I spoke with the man at the counter, who was nice enough to inform me that "2 people from your flight made the connection to Little Rock".

Well, well, well... is this how this is gonna go down? They'll try to blame me for this? I explained the circumstances to the foolish man, who eventually backed down and put me on the next flight to Little Rock, about 4 hours later.

In the interim, I was on the phone with HR at my company (including our assistant, who was awesome about everything, and who booked for a separate car to pick me up when I arrived Little Rock).

I arrived Little Rock around 05:30pm or thereabouts, and thankfully my luggage was there. I was driven by a really cool driver to Tumbling Shoals (we talked the whole way about his life, my life, Nigeria, West Africa, ghettoes, poverty, Princeton, Newark, Yale, etc). It was quite awesome.

Oh, by the way, Yolanda had gone ahead and narrated my situation to the rest of the group. You see, the group took different routes to get to Little Rock. We flew out of Cleveland at different times (7am, 10am, what not). sometimes 2 or 3 people from the plant were on the same flight, sometimes about 10 were on the same flight, etc. Some flights went to North Carolina, others went to Dallas, etc.

From North Carolina, Dallas, what not, we all then flew to Little Rock; the idea was that everyone would get to Little Rock at around 01:00pm, and the shuttle would take us away at 01:30pm. Well, of the 20 people expected to be at Little Rock Airport by 01:30pm, 19 showed up. No prices for guessing who didn't show up!

Well, my manager excused himself from the group - he got a charter car and drove himself. So 18 people made the trip in the shuttle, instead of 19.

In any case, I made it to tumbling Shoals later in the day. But only after I got a voice message from my boss asking me to buy some booze along the way. And then another voice message came in asking me to buy some Jack Daniels along the way, too. Hilarious. When I saw that he had left me a voice message, I thought he would be inquiring about my welfare, but alas, that was not the case. He was instead thinking of liquor. Hilarious!

I couldn't buy either, since the company had specifically instructed the limousine company that we could only stop the car to make restroom breaks. Any other thing was forbidden. Strange, but true.

So I got to Team Trek liquor-less.

And found out that Yolanda had made it, but her luggage had not. Since she was literally the last person to get on the plane, her luggage was not checked in with her, and it was left behind. We would later find out that her luggage came on my flight, and since she was not there to receive it at Little Rock, it was left behind there. FedEx would not deliver that night. Or the following morning either. Not until 04:30pm the next day!

In any case, Team Trek was awesome. The first night, I arrived late. Too late for dinner, so I missed dinner. But my lovely co-workers had saved me dinner. I loved that fact. I ate the dinner hurriedly (baked potato and some roast chicken! It was awesome).


First a little description of the setting. Team Trek is set in a remote area in Arkansas (really remote area, but my GPS got us there, thankfully!). The site is made of different cute cabins, set on several acres of land (at least 30 acres, if I were to guess). The rooms are bunk-style (yes, like back in a dormitory), but they are incredibly comfortable and really awesome. Thick mattresses, clean sheets, good lighting, good restrooms, etc. The only complain was that the shower stalls were a little tiny. Everything else was awesome. I was in a room with 8 beds (so 4 bunks), but luckily did not have to climb up or down, because there were just 4 women, so each of us chose the bottom bunk. Well, the following day was Outdoors day, where we were to learn about team building and trust through outdoors-y activities. I tell you, it was frightening.

Our group of 20 was split into two groups, naturally of 10 each. Since there were just 4 women, each group had 2 women. Each group had a guide, who was a trained coach on the Team Trek staff. They gave lectures on team building, but also handled the outdoors stuff (so safety, logistics, operations, etc). When I got there in the evening, they were all at a lecture, which was completed after I had my dinner. We were told to be ready at 06:30am for breakfast, and by 07:00am, we should all be back in the classroom. I tell ya, I was so excited: it was awesome!

Well, the first test for our team of 10 came by going into the jungle. We were taken to complete a 'task'. Before we reached the site, the instructor (his name is Nick) told us that he wanted all of us to commit to the task. We all said 'yes', that we would do the task. Now, before we even set out that morning (Wednesday), we were given a safety briefing, 2 harnesses, a helmet, etc. The kind of stuff you'll need to go bungee jumping. I started to suspect that we might all have to do that....

In any case, it was not bungee jumping. Instead we stopped somewhere in the jungle and came to a really tall tree. On the trunk of the tree were steps, the kind of steps that mountain climbers usually use as footholds. 40 feet in the air was a platform, about 20 feet across (the actual numbers are 38feet and 18 feet, but who cares, right?). About 7 feet away from the platform was a bar, about 4 feet wide. It appeared that the objective was to climb the tree, walk across the platform (which, by the way, had no railings to hang on to), and then leap out and catch the dangling bar. Oh, yeah, there were ropes we would attach to our harness for safety. The fun part, though, was that the ropes would be held down by the rest of your teammates. In other words, you had to trust them with your life. I tell you, it was scary. Nick told us to first sit down and write down our thoughts. I wrote what I just narrated above, that the objective appeared to be climbing the tree, walking across the platform, and then jumping. I added that that seemed impossible, as it simply looked too tall and too far, etc.

Well, it was. And I did it. I was the 3rd person to go, and my co-workers held me down. I didn't catch the bar, but that was not the objective. It was to conquer fear, and for me, I had long knew that I was afraid of heights. It was awesome. I loved it, especially when I missed the bar, and felt the tug of my harness as my teammates (9 of them), held me back so I could be safely lowered to the ground.

What else?

After that, we had other things to do. We had to catch a vial of "contaminated" material from the middle of a field, without going into the field. In effect we had to use a lasso. Then we had to get all 10 of us across a tight rope (yes, I walked a tight rope, albeit with a harness). Afterwards, one of us had to climb another really high tight rope while the rest of us held him down. I was not the chosen one - it was another guy. That was pretty awesome.

The next day, we had another challenge - this one was to get out of a contaminated "nuclear" zone. We failed on this challenge, because we didn't ask one of our teammates (who had a radio) the right questions, or communicate correctly with him . After this day, we watched a movie that demonstrated the importance of team building: Remember the Titans. I quite liked it. Many people in the room had seen it before - I'd never seen it before, and I quite enjoyed it! It's apparently based on a true story. Very interesting!

Finally, we had a grand challenge, which was to build a boat. But first we had to find the items to build the boat. You guessed it. The items were scattered across acres and acres and acres of land. And we had to find the items, one of which would "expire" after a few hours. There were about 23 or 24 items in all We were given radios for communication, maps for finding our way, compasses for navigation, basic training on how to use these, and a slap on the back for good luck. It was kind of like a reality show.

We split into teams, including a stationary headquarters, which would eventually realize that we needed them out there, so they gave up coordinating activities from a "control" base and actually went out there to look for stuff. It was amazing. I was part of a group that had to find 6 items. Each item was given a number or a letter or a combination, each of which was attached to a tree. We had to find the numbers or letters and call them in as we did.

My group was led by a Canadian man who had hiked the Grand Canyon. No, I mean really hiked at the Grand Canyon. He went inside the Grand Canyon and back out.

o_O

I, the couch potato, am 25 pounds overweight and cannot remember the last time I did any real exercise. Also in my group was a nice man with a lot of endurance (he is about 50 years old, but he does a lot of exercise). And a Vietnam vet. And another guy who is about my age, but still, another man. Men of that age are typically really fit. You can understand why I would struggle a little. Or at least think I would.


In the end, there were only 2 people who did not stop for a break. The Grand Canyon man and... myself. I was so proud. It took us about 3 hours to find all the items. I was proud of my Geography lessons from secondary school, as I was able to read the map flawlessly..

Next day, early in the morning (Friday), we built the boat using 55-gallon drums (6 in all). We chose 6 rowers, and tried to beat a record set by another company. We failed at the record, but were all so proud of our effort, that we didn't care. We all got in the water (eventhough I cannot swim), and took pictures. Then we went over each person's Coat of Arms, where we talked about our lives: the defining moments (for me, the day my father bought a computer and also the day my brother got his hand caught in a running blender). From those two days, I said a) a new world was opened up to me through the computer (i.e. science, because I spent a lot of time reading encyclopedias on CDs and Disks), and b) I learned through my brother's physical pain and my mother's anguish, that I did not want to become a doctor. We talked of our strongest and weakest points (mine were for strongest: curiosity, fact-based decisions a.k.a. objectivity in inherently subjective matters and for weakest: level-headedness - oft mistaken for coldness, curiosity -oft mistaken for nosiness and being judgemental, and on the latter point, I narrated the story of a mechanic I know, who has a tough-guy demeanor and tattoos all over his body. Alas, he is cute as a bunny in reality, watching chick flicks all day long. Yet I had assumed he would be the kind of person watching slashers all day. I was wrong. I had made assumptions about him, but his reality ended up being so different from my picture of his life, that I was thoroughly ashamed when I eventually got to know him).

We also spoke of governing values. I chose four: temperance, faith (not in a particular religion, but in a Higher Power - this is not exactly true, but...), generosity (since I relied on this from other people to get me through college). We also talked about something we have that money cannot buy & death cannot erase, and I mentioned my college degree, because I paid a total of $0 for it, and, well, even if the paper copy disappears, the process of going through college will never be taken from me. We talked about what we want to be remembered for after we die, and I said I want to be remembered for conquering my fears. I actually quoted Fela, and his "The secret to life is to have no fear" quote. Then the other 19 people had their own presentations about their quote of arms, and that was it.

There were many revelations during this coat of arms stuff. One lady told us her mother had passed away 15 years before, of bone marrow cancer. Another told us about how he had a son, only to find out 2 weeks later that the child was not his. Another told us of having twins born on Christmas Eve, only for them to die on New Year's Eve. It was quite revealing.

Afterwards, we parted - it was emotional, and it was difficult to say goodbye to everyone.

The best part of the whole thing was the personal growth for me and for everyone else over the past few years. I also got to spend a lot of time with some of my coworkers, which was a lot of fun! We roamed the Chicago airport and ate and rambled about, etc. I had a good time, actually.

I got back to Cleveland Airport around 11:30pm, and got in bed at 11:45pm on Friday night. I stayed at the Airport hotel (a Sheraton, which was very nice), and then drove to Columbus on Saturday morning, and back in the evening. I don't need to mention the fact that i was exhausted by the time I got back.

So I took a step back recently and checked all the traveling I have done over the past 2 weeks. I went from Cleveland (on Friday July 2nd) to Minneapolis to Tulsa (Oklahoma) where I stayed for one night at a hotel to Stillwater (Oklahoma) to Tulsa (Oklahoma) to Stillwater, back to Tulsa, and then to Tennessee and then to Cleveland and Twinsburg, then after one night in Twinsburg, back to Cleveland, to Chicago, to Little Rock to Tumbling Shoals, back to Little Rock, to Chicago, to Cleveland, then one night at a hotel in Cleveland, then to Columbus yesterday (Saturday) before driving back to Twinsburg in the evening.

o_O

Needless to say, I plan to remain in Ohio until September. I will make about 4-6 trips to Columbus between now and September, and Inshallah (no, I'm not a Muslim), make a trip to California in September and Texas in November and possibly again in December. But I really want to take it easy now...

Oh, yeah, the World Cup finals was played today. Holland vs. Spain. Two perennial losers. Spain won, 1-0, as they have other games in this tournament. I kind of watched the match, and did laundry and cleaned my apartment at the same time. To be honest, the match was a disaster. Did I mention that the officiating (by Howard Webb, a Brit) was a bloody disgrace? The ref, at a point, gave a yellow card for a foul he did not see. Indeed I believe he gave the card because the Spanish player play-acted and screamed like a little school girl). The match itself? Boring. Negative. Lots of fouls by the Dutch. Lots of diving by the Spaniards. Just before the goal, I texted my pal Tim in NJ and told him that the game needed some excitement, like a headbutt as we had the other time in the 2006 finals, and lo and behold, we got a red card shortly after that. Following that, Spain scored a goal, Casillas burst into tears, and at the final whistle some on the Dutch team started crying like a bunch of school girls. I didn't really stick around to watch the celebrations, so terrible was the match. I think it's the most boring World Cup finals I have seen since... well, ever... perhaps 1990, cos I don't really remember that one. 1994 was really exciting. As was 1998, as was 2002, and 06, and now this. Yuk. I am glad this useless World Cup is well behind us!

In any case, after the boring match, I watched "Behind the Music" on VH1, with Jennifer Hudson. And, right after that, was a movie on VH1. "Remember the Titans". I laughed out loud when I saw that.

What next now, after this long blog post? I have to clean my apartment a bit more, and then after that, possibly watch the show "The Next Food Network Star". And then go to sleep. This week is a big one for me at work, so I have to be on my A-game!

OK, that's it for now. Take care!!

Greetings from Twinsburg, OH

I am back in Ohio. I am in Twinsburg for one night. Oklahoma was a blast; I went to see a friend of mine, a lady I have known for about 20 years now. She is a beautiful, brilliant, humble, God-fearing lady, and I absolutely adore her and wish her the best. In many ways, she is a lot that I am not: easy-going, patient, etc. I really loved my time there. She and I and her lovely roomate and her roomate's friend, and another friend of theirs went out to several places: dinner on Saturday at a Thai restaurant, a movie on Saturday night (Grown Ups, with Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and the guy from King of Queens - overall a really funny movie, even if a pointless one); We rented 2 movies (The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Maid in Manhattan, which I had seen before, which stars Jennifer Lopez) and then on Sunday we went to church for the church's 4th July celebrations. I met a lot of her friends, all Nigerians: they are a brilliant, dynamic bunch. We talked, we laughed, we argued! It was a typical Naija gathering.

On Sunday, we drove about 70 miles from Stillwater to Tulsa for the Sunday service at 10am. In church, we had a sermon delivered by an energetic Nigerian preacher, who is actually a Schlumberger engineer. He is a very bright man, and his wife, this welcoming, warm and very beautiful lady was just awesome to us. In any case, after church, we went to the Tulsa Zoo ("And Living Museum") where we saw all sorts of animals, took lots of pictures and generally goofed around. I bought some figurines in the zoo, too.

Towards the end, as the zoo was closing, a massive snake crept out of the bush and passed right in front of us. We screamed and ran off in different directions. The snake went back into the bush - it was at least 10 feet long, wide as my knees. I was frightened, and we were all badly shaken. Needless to say, we kept leaping and screaming at every little motion after that. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. On our way out, we saw a man on a golf cart, with 'SECURITY' emblazoned on his shirt. Upon narrating our story of the snake, he assured us that the authorities already know about the snakes; indeed the authorities put the snakes there themselves, to kill rats. He mentioned that they are harmless snakes and "they will not bother you", he finished emphatically. That was precious little comfort. He was very pleasant about the whole thing, and calmed us down as much as he could. After he left, one of us wondered out loud why there had been no warning signs before we entered about wandering (but harmless) snakes. My friend replied that it would probably scare folks away. She was right. I might not have gone in at all if I had seen a sign of that nature. Not after having lived in Ibadan for so long and seeing snakes at a frequency of more than one a week for over 10 years of my life, sometimes finding the snakes upstairs inside the house. A thousand horses would probably not have dragged me inside the zoo.

Sunday night, there was a planned fireworks show, but with the rain relentlessly battering the area, the show was canceled. My friend and I stayed indoors, while her roomate and her roomate's friend went off with their boyfriends. We watched the beginning of Maid in Manhattan and ate Jollof Rice, which she had prepared before I arrived. She is an exquisite cook. We go waay back. Her father taught my eldest sister Chemistry in University. Her father taught my other sister Chemistry in University. Her father taught me Chemistry in University (she and I were in the same class her dad was teaching). Her father and my step-mother were friends before my step-mother passed away. Her father and my father are friends. Her father probably wrote one of the numerous recommendations that my eldest sister required for her application to American universities a decade ago. In other words, we go waaaaay back. She made me feel incredibly welcome - made her home my home; it was tough saying goodbye to her this morning, but somehow I summoned up the courage to do so. She is a true friend, and I am glad that I am in her life and she is in mine.


On the way back, I drove from Stillwater back to Tulsa. I very nearly missed my flight. At the Tulsa airport (which is much bigger than I remembered from 2 days back), there was a long line at the Delta desk - the line had about 35 people, but the line was only moving at a rate of 2 people every 15 minutes. And there was just 1 hour before the flight took off. Do the math. I had arrived so late because a) I had not anticipated that the airport would be so busy - big mistake. The day after a holiday in the USA is always terrible for flying or other public transport, and 2) I had spent quite a bit of time traveling around the city trying to find a gas station that accepted credit cards or cash or didn't require my having to enter the store to find the clerk and pay him for gas and then go back outside to pump gas. Of course, while I was driving around Tulsa looking for a suitable gas station, I was still working on the assumption that Assumption 1 was valid i..e that there would be hardly anybody at the airport, and that the airport was a very tiny one anyway, kinda like New Haven's airport. Big mistake. Upon arrival, there was a) trouble finding the Delta Check-in Kiosk and b) a big crowd of people waiting at said Delta Kiosk, with just a couple of really slow attendants at the Kiosk and no self-service.

Eventually, everyone flying to Memphis (my transit point) was waved to the front of the line and the self-service kiosks were opened up. I made it in time. At Memphis, I had about 30 minutes, so I sat down to a nice meal of fries and crab cakes (which I had never eaten before, but of which I had heard a tremendous amount). And after that, it was mercifully boring - I got to Cleveland, drove to Twinsburg, and voila! here I am: watching youtube clips of Wimbledon, which I completely missed, as I was at work for the first bits of the tournament, and for the weekend matches, I was on the road or in Oklahoma. So I am effectively watching 2 weeks on tennis via highlight reels: of Berdych beating Federer in 4 sets in the Quarter finals, of Murray beating Tsonga and the dramatic point I had read about but had had difficulty envisioning - at 5-5 in the tie-break in the second set, Tsonga let a sitter slide, and the momentum of the tie-break, set and match swung firmly in Murray's direction after that. Of Berdych beating Djokovic in straight sets in the semis, of Nadal beating Murray in straight sets in the semis (some say this was the match of the tournament), of Rafa beating Berdych in straight sets in the finals, and of the comments Federer made about his injury after he was beaten by Berdych. Looks like it was a fun 2 weeks. And of course there is Serena's victory to watch, too: over Sharapova and eventually over Zvonareva.

In other matters, my Ghanaian friend has recommended a good Ghanaian movie to me. It's called Front Door. The recommendation came in response to my unreserved plaudits for Shirley Frimpong Manso and her excellent movies. He tells me that this is the 2nd best Ghanaian movie out there, after Perfect Picture (I don't even agree that Perfect Picture is the best Ghanaian movie, but that is a matter for another day). He also said, however, that it is like the Ghanaian Ocean's 11. I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, since I found Ocean's 11 unwatchable and stopped after about a half hour of trying and failing to follow the plot.

In any case, we shall see. Still on the subject of movies, my friend and I saw parts of "Why did I get married", by Tyler Perry and it was actually quite nice. We could not watch the whole thing as we did not find a website that would stream it fast enough, and the clips uploaded on Youtube are missing several parts; since I want to watch the rest of the movie (I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw), I think I will go off to rent the movie some time in the near future. Once I figure out what my schedule will be the next few weeks, I'll probably find time to watch the movie.

I am going to Arkansas tomorrow, so I need to hurry up and finish this post, probably watch the movie called Front Door, and write down the list of things I need to pack specially for the trip (work-related items). The good news is that I really don't have to unpack at all, since I just returned from another trip today and my suitcases are sitting in my (very dirty) apartment. I am spending so little time in my apartment these days that I might as well live in a hotel. At least for the next week, I know I'll be away until Friday night, and then possibly I'll sleep over at the airport hotel (instead of driving back here at night - after 11pm), and then go to Columbus on Saturday morning, and return either Saturday evening or Sunday morning. I'm still not sure.

Anyway, I have lots of figurines purchased from the Tulsa zoo, had a great time with my friend and made new friends, too.

Overall, a productive weekend, and it was oodles of fun, too!

Take care,
And have a great week!

En route Oklahoma, by way of Minneapolis

I write from the Cleveland airport, where I just found that my flight is overbooked. Before I checked in, I was offered the chance to give up my ticket. I declined. I am yet to determine whether my flight to Tulsa is a direct flight or not. On the ticket, there were two cities listed: Cleveland (the origin) and Tulsa (the destination), and there were no transit times. But on the screen at the gate, it says Cleveland, then that flashes away and disappears, Minneapolis appears, and then Tulsa. So I'll find out shortly whether or not we'll be stopping over in Minneapolis. It matters little to me. My bag is checked in and my hand luggage is fairly light (one wheeled bag and a very large purse that contains 2 smaller purses). It sounds like a lot, but it really is not. I'm accustomed to carrying lots of weights (as a geeky high school student, I hurled lots of textbooks to school every day). In addition, I have a very large purse (hell, I have 2 large purses, so this is nothing new to me).
09:38pm ET: I am now in Minneapolis, and there is an African-American woman at the terminal, gossiping on the phone. She opened by talking loudly about some friend of hers who wrote a play and is now about to hit the big time. Now she is talking in normal tones, conspiratorial tones, if you please. But I have good ears. She is talking about her job and her company and her boss. Being in Minneapolis brings memories of the trip I took here in February this year, for some personal development session when I was still a (disgruntled) employee of my former company. I can't say I have great memories of the place, since it was bitterly cold when I arrived there, but visiting in transit is a totally differenty experience.

On the plane from Cleveland, there were a number of unusual things. First was the extremely skinny kid who sat next to me, wearing a T-Shirt that read Oklahoma State. Since I will be visiting Oklahoma State, I tried to pick up a conversation with him, but that died a quick death, since this chap appears to be an absolute social failure. More importantly, his mouth reeked of carbide. I think I need to look into the origin of carbide, and the reasons some people have lots of it, and others don't. To make matters worse, he sneezed a lot on the flight. As did the woman in front of me, and the man sitting across the aisle to my left, and the people in the 2 rows behind him. Indeed the man sitting to my SouthWest was coughing so intensely that I was convinced he would expel his lungs right unto the seat in front of him. Furthermore, the couple that sat across the seat from me had a strange condition: the woman had something covering her nose, akin to a surgical mask. When she briefly took it off prior to boarding, I noticed that she has one nostril, with a black hole for the other nostril. Something made me suspect that she has cancer. In addition, there was a smell around this couple: the smell of disease and decay, and (morbid and heartless as this might sound) a smell of impending death. I was frightened and eventually very guilty, especially because I only realized very late in the flight that the odor which I had noticed upon arrival in the plane, was coming from the couple. I thought of the fact that they already have a nasty invader in their lives, in the form of a potentially incurable disease. How dare I complain about the fact that I was inconvenienced for all of 90 minutes?

Anyway, away from that, I spoke extensively with my boss today. He is, like I have mentioned many times before, a very bright man - a very strategic brain. We plotted the path for my plant for the next year. It was great just speaking with him so extensively. Unlike my previous bosses, who were bright eyed and clueless about manufacturing, here is a man who knows exactly what he is talking about. I love that about him! I have learned more from him in 8 weeks than I learned from my bosses at my old company in over a year. That's how awesome this guy is. And the entire plant is full of people like that. I have also found that he is a perfectionist, so I know I have to step up my game.

In other matters, there is a white couple here at the terminal, with a little black baby (very cute baby). Everyone is staring at them, open-mouthed. I love it when people just forget their manners and allow their curiosity to take over. It's hilarious!

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray to reach the Wimbledon Finals. Britain, still reeling from England's pathetic display in South Africa, invested a lot of expectation in this match, and there was the usual shameless hype from the blinkered British Media: endless articles about how this is Murray's time, shows about how Murray has all it takes to beat Nadal, etc. Well, the good news is that Rafa did not read the script. Furthermore, I think the British are probably reluctant to admit that Murray might not yet have what it takes to win a Grand Slam. He has all the shots. He has all the skills, but one thing he does NOT have is the mindset. Tennis is at least 50% mental - I know this despite never having played it professionally. Even when I hit with my sister (who is by no means Steffi Graf), I can tell just how mentally exhausting it is to do well under pressure. That's what matters more than your footwork or the quality of your ground strokes. Plus, Murray relies more than anything else on consistency. Nadal, on the other hand, relies on explosive points - turning defense into offense quicker than possibly any other player on either the WTA or the ATP, and yes, that includes the GOAT.

Another really funny thing, there was some article yesterday on the internet by Nick Bolleteri, who is responsible for producing some of the greatest tennis players of all time i.e. Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova, etc. Mr. Bolleteri gave a number of reasons why this was Djokovic's year. How the real Djokovic, who had charmed the tennis world with his imitations and his humor, had returned. How Djokovic was free swinging again. How Djokovic's game is dangerous when he is in this sort of mood, and yada yada yada (you get the point). Turns out Berdych did not get the memo. It was apparently a routine straight-sets victory for Berdych, with Djokovic providing little resistance to Berdych's power. I didn't see the match, but that's what I was told. So Bolleteri, the guru of tennis, got it wrong this time.

Edit: This is being posted on Monday 5th July, as I didn't have internet access in Oklahoma.

Life - it can be such a heartless bitch

A friend of mine has lung cancer. He is about 40, and yes, he has been smoking for years and years. He is in New Jersey, and I understand that he is receiving chemotherapy. Word on the street is that it has spread to his brain, and that it's not looking good. He was so nice to me at my old plant. When I first arrived, as a kid who was scared out of her mind, I needed some help. He helped me. Took me under his wing. Indeed, he was the one person who told me one day (upon realizing that I was the only Team Leader in the plant, late at night), that if I needed any help anywhere in the plant, even if he didn't know the area well, he'd be there to help. He is that kind of man. Once, a few months ago, I took him to the hospital. He'd cut his hand badly - there was quite a bit of blood. I was frightened. I was nervous because of all the blood and all the pain I imagined he would be in. Turns out he was in very little pain - or at least he didn't show it. Instead, he was laughing: at me for reacting so sheepishly to all the blood. At my relentless fidgeting as the nurses came to examine him. When the doctors finished with him, they slapped a band-aid on his finger and told him to go home and rest. And he put a smile on his face. That's the sort of guy he is - quick to smile, quick to reassure, and, I might add, quick to comfort other people. I hope this ends well. Or at least that it ends quickly and he doesn't have to suffer for a long time.

Still on the subject of the bitch known as cancer, today my plant manager had an emergency meeting. A long-serving member of my plant passed away. She had lung cancer, too. She had only begun chemotherapy really recently. Apparently she got a chance to see her family before she passed away. She didn't wake up this morning, we were told. My plant manager was pretty shaken up by the whole thing. So were the long term employees at the plant, as this lady had been at the plant 30 years.

Life, you see, is short. And too often, it can be a bloody bitch.

Unease

I cannot help the unease. I am unable to recall a time in my life when things have moved so quickly. The changes that are taking place at work, the fact that I have to lead those changes, the fact that the plant is not moving as quickly as I had expected, the endless traveling, seeing a friend I haven't seen in 6 years again, going to Nigeria in August, the exams I may or may not be taking, the nerves about going to Nigeria, unease about my sister's wedding to her strange fiance - all have added up to make this quite an unsettling time in my life, and I don't like the feeling. It's new territory for me - I'm usually in control, in absolute control of everything around me.

Away from that, my 401k is rolled over; my car is now registered in Ohio. All, it seems, is well with the administrative side of my life. I just need to engage my brain and make it follow suit.

I think I might feel so unsettled because I haven't really had a chance to see the Cleveland area at all. My sister went back to New Haven, to work at some Yale clinic, and so I am alone again in Ohio. Still, I haven't had the chance to see any of the local areas because I have been going to Columbus so often. It appears I will visit Columbus every other Saturday from now until the end of November. That's what I think might happen, although the frequency of the trips might decrease with time (perhaps to just monthly). It's not the end of the world, but it can get really exhausting!

I received my travel plans for the Arkansas trip from my assistant a few days ago - turns out I will be returning to Ohio around midnight on Friday the 9th July. Why she booked a flight for such a time is beyond me, but I didn't make a fuss of things. Indeed I didn't say a word. Sometimes there are battles you just don't want to fight. In the future, of course, if I have a trip, I'll let her know a priori what I need - in this case, it was totally my fault for not speaking to her a priori.

What else is new? Wimbledon is going on. Today, Roger Federer lost to a man named Berdych who is from the Czech Republic. By all accounts, Berdych played well. Andy Murray beat Tsonga, meaning he will next face Rafael Nadal, who defeated Robin Soderling. I quite like Rafa Nadal. Scratch that. He is far and away my favorite tennis player! It is my hope that I can take a weekend to go to the US Open this year and watch him play. Still on tennis, I found this gem of a website online: http://fuldans.se/?v=yuxiylhvsv. The face is Soderling's, the dance moves are hilarious!

The World Cup is still going on. I can barely name the Quarterfinalists (I think they are still in the Quarterfinals). I do know, however, that Ghana has saved Africa's blushes by being the only African team left in the knockout stages of the first World Cup to be staged on African soil. Good on ya, Ghana!

Came across an excellent article about England's trip to South Africa. Here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/index.html

If, like me, you will only read sparingly about this World Cup, make sure that is one article you read. Quite eye-opening.

I am really frightened about visiting Nigeria this year. From what I hear, the country has not changed much in the 4 years since I last visited. It remains a toxic soup of hopelessness and poverty, a steaming cauldron of starvation and backwardness. I recall the abject poverty I witnessed and lived in Nigeria. Days on end without tangible food. Children with kwashiokor, the classic egg-on-sticks appearance, their hair flaming red from malnutrition and what not. It still gives me nightmares. The years of my childhood conjure images of happiness with a family that loves me dearly, but also memories of the agony of living in a wretched state, without access to healthcare, decent clothing, food, etc.

One more thing - Nigeria turns 50 this year. I say it's time for the country to take a long, hard look at its present composition and determine whether we want to redefine our borders. A nation should be composed of a "coalition of the willing". Is this present composition the only solution for Nigeria? Something tells me not.

Travels

So it's the beginning of a series of trips.

Two Saturdays ago, I drove to Columbus. The trip is 2.5 hours long either way, and I made the to and fro journeys on the same day, spending 6 hours with a lady I know there. I did the same this Saturday. In effect I haven't had a single Saturday off in a long time.

I was so exhausted on my return to Twinsburg each time, that I simply fell on my bed and slept until Sunday afternoon. The Sundays I spent reading or browsing the internet, or cleaning my house (in other words, doing nothing tangible).

To complicate matters, I had a rough day at work yesterday. I had a terrible meeting, and I was woefully underprepared for it. It was a big lesson for me.

As though that's not enough, I am flying out to oklahoma on Friday the 2nd July, returning the 5th July, then flying out to Arkansas on the 6th July, returning on the 9th July and then traveling to Columbus on the 10th July. The good news is that my plant is shut down until the 20th July. That would normally be unqualified good news (stay at home, have time to explore the area, etc). But, I have a class on the 13th July, my birthday, and I have to give a training class on the 15th July. And I might be going back to Columbus on the 17th July. What does this all mean? It means that I substantively have no break from now until the end of the shutdown. Add to that the stress of planning my sister's wedding (from a continent away) and the fact that somewhere amidst all these things I have to travel to Nigeria in late August, and you can imagine how overwhelmed I feel at the moment.

Not to mention that my plant has a massive audit some time in September, and if we fail this audit, it will come right unto my boss and myself. I am really nervous at the moment, but if I have picked up anything over the past few years, it's that everything will even out. I just have to wait.

P.S: I got my hepatitis and HIV results back. Phew. Regardless of how clean you are, you always wonder, no?

Pre World-Cup hype...not

1) The World Cup begins tomorrow. I was at work during the opening ceremony. Thus I didn't see the ceremony. I didn't record it on my DVR either. Am I to be concerned that I am not as feverish about this World Cup as I was about the last 4 World Cups? I think not. I suppose it is a part of growing up: letting go of your past, moving on to more exciting hobbies, etc. A decade ago, I would have been able to reel off every team, every player on every team, every group and all the teams in the groups. Hell at the Quarterfinal phase of France 1998, I recall that I knew all the scores of all the matches that had been played in all the groups during the group stages. Now I cannot even name all the teams in Nigeria's group! It is a weird change.

2) I played tennis a few days ago with my sister. It appears watching Nadal on television has helped my forehand. It rocks. Sadly, my backhand needs work. I really need to get a tennis coach as soon as possible.

3) I volunteered to be a mentor to young girls interested in the sciences and engineering. They are in middle school or high school, and all are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Most are probably ethnic minorities.

4) My sister and her fiance speak a lot on Skype. I don't really think there is any chemistry between the two of them, but really, whatever floats their respective boats. The fiance is absolutely insufferable - but outsiders often wonder what makes lovers so engrossed in each other's company. I am absolutely perplexed as to what they see in each other. And how (& why) they don't pull out their own hair as they go over the minutiae of their lives. Their conversation rarely goes beyond "How are you? Where is your sister (i.e. I), etc". I really just don't get it, but I have learned to clamp my mouth tight shut. Now it appears they are fighting. The other day, he called her "bullish", and not in a nice way. Already they do not necessarily appear to be happy with each other. Sometimes, in my more cynical phases, I wonder if they are together because they have been together for so long? Or because they wonder if they will not find anyone else? The whole thing is a mystery to me. Both seem miserable and artificial around one another. I don't understand it, but perhaps in time it will all become clearer to me.

5) I found out that I am fat again. Another time for a great diet and this time I mean a culture and lifestyle that I can support.

6) I really should call my friend Val. I rarely feel guilty about not calling people, but in this case, I do. He is from Bulgaria, and we were great friends in college. I wonder how he is doing now. He is in Grad school. I hope he is healthy and happy.

7) I have been in DMAIC training for the past 2 weeks, with people from all across the world. It has been fun. Today, though, there was a dinner for all the folks in the training - a lakeside buffet on a yacht. I couldn't attend it.

8) I bought an Invicta watch online a few days ago. It arrived today. As part of the perks of working at my awesome job, I got a discount of about 90%. i have a thing for watches, apparently. I can't stop buying them. The Invicta watch cost $40, but when it arrived, it was a little too large, so I might resize it.

9) My awesome job keeps sending me checks instead of depositing my salary in the bank. I really hate having to go to the bank. They tell me it will take a few weeks before my Direct Deposit kicks in. It's really annoying, though...

10) Since I just moved to Ohio and since this is the great USA where every state thinks it's a country, I have to jump through hoops to become a legal driver in Ohio. First I have to change the title on my vehicle to read "Ohio" where I now reside instead of "New Jersey" where I have lived since 2004 and where I bought the car in 2009. This was a long journey. I had to call the bank (which owns the lien on the car) to send the original title to the County Clerk's Office here in Ohio. This alone took about 2 weeks, since everyone at the bank acted like I was speaking Greek the first time I called about this matter. And then the County Clerk, in their infinite wisdom, instead of simply calling me or emailing me to let me know when they received the documents, sent me a letter by post to inform me that they got the documents. I mean, in this age, wouldn't an email suffice? Or a text message? Or a bloody telephone call? Save yourself the 44 cents it takes. Save yourself a trip to the post office or local mailbox. Save yourself the f*cking effort.


As you might rightly deduce, I am not a big fan of governmental agencies. They are some of the most bureaucratic monstrosities around. Indeed, I am not the only person who feels this way. Since I work in Lean Manufacturing, and my job largely revolves around eliminating inefficiencies in manufacturing processes, it is not a surprise that I read this post : http://blogs.reliableplant.com/1158/lean-in-washington/ and agreed with pretty much everything the blogger had to say. Indeed, his experience mirrors mine and that of probably millions of poor Americans at the mercy of fat, lazy, entitled government workers across the length and breadth of this country. And this is not to say that all government workers are entitled and fat and lazy, but in my experience, a good percentage of them are...

In any case, back to the car wahala. After I got the letter from the County of Clerks saying that they had received my title, I was asked to come in to get the title change completed. Once this was done, I saw a notice saying that I could change my driver's license to an Ohio license. I had completely forgotten about this. Upon inquiry, I was informed that I had to take a written test to transfer my driver's license from New Jersey to Ohio. Alas, this written test is conducted at another branch of another office (a half hour away), peopled by - you guessed it - fat, lazy, entitled government workers. In any case, part of the blame is mine. Hell, most of the blame is mine. I should have read all the requirements. I should have gone prepared. I should have known. Indeed I went in to the office only with the intention of changing the title from Ohio to New Jersey. But when I saw that this particular office handled license changes, too, I remembered that I had to change my driver's license and license plates. These all took place before the bombshell that I had to take a new written test and that I had to drive a half hour to take said test, and then return to the original office to complete the license change. What a waste of a 30-minute drive. A simple computer, set up to automatically administer said test, will not cost that much money to run. I mean, what is the magic involved in doing something as simple as this?

In any case, it is late (past 9pm!). And I had a long day at work, only leaving my office at around 06:45pm, more than 2 hours past my regular exit time. So I'd better go to bed!

Good night!

The times, they are a-busy

I am doing quite a bit of traveling and working and ... well, quite a lot of stuff.

I have been in training all week, with lots of lovely coworkers from all around the world: Brazil, the UK, France, Germany and Canada. All really bright and incredibly awesome people!

My sister is here, and she will, Inshallah (no, I'm not a Muslim - not that there's anything wrong with that), spend the entire summer with me in Ohio before her wedding in Nigeria in August, which I plan to attend. We will have a lot of fun, Inshallah. A few nights after she arrived, we went to see Avatar in 3D (yes, I found a gem of a cinema that was still showing it). It was well worth the $20! In any case, my sister is here and we are planning things together. Sometime this week, we will hopefully go watch Prince of Persia, and then this weekend is the World Cup opening weekend (I cannot get myself excited about this World Cup, however hard I try).

I have quite a bit of traveling coming up, though. I'm going to Columbus the weekend of the 19th June and again the weekend of the 26th June. Then the weekend of July 4th, I'm going to Oklahoma to see an old and dear friend, and the weekend after that, I will be in Arkansas (6th-10th July) for a work-fun trip, paid for by the company but without any actual work involved. It's a team-building exercise with some of my other co-workers, so I am really excited about it! The weekend after that, I will likely be back in Columbus. In short, there is quite a bit of traveling and driving around to be done in the near future. Omo, ko easy!

In any case, some time this summer, I plan that my sister and I will go off to Sandusky and see Cedar Point, and if we are really fortunate, we can go off to Put-in-Bay over some weekend.

I'm really excited about all the plans.

Have a great summer!

Blog from Yale University

Hello everyone! I write from Yale University where my sister is graduating tomorrow. In a few minutes, she will be returning from a "family" visit to her future in-laws. Some time early this afternoon, she drove off with her fiance to a town nearby, to meet members of his extended family.

Her fiance is this creepy guy - I really do not understand exactly what it is that attracts either of them to the other. They are a textbook mismatch, but it is not my duty to speak about what I consider the qualities of an ideal relationship, so as I have learned in my short few years, in the matters of love between a man and a woman, if you don't have anything positive to say, you keep your mouth shut tight~! A number of things about him have made me uneasy:

1) He has made jokes about wife-beating. There are certain things in life one does not joke about: HIV, car accidents, armed robbers... wife beating... Not funny at all.
2) He has made light of the Nigerian senator who is under fire for marrying a 13-year-old girl, and he feels strongly that a 13-year-old girl should be allowed to make the choice to marry at that age. This in spite of his medical background. It is, to put it mildly, alarming.
3) He jokes all the time. There is never a serious moment with him, and that's why I am hesitant to use his wife-beating or child-bride jokes against him. Perhaps he was joking. But then again, perhaps not.

He has been dating my sister for about 7 years, and she is an otherwise bright and very intelligent woman, so I will close my eyes and trust her judgment. Let's hope it ends well. I think, he is a nice guy - he has a sense of humor: but that is a huge chunk of the problem - he jokes all the time.

In other matters, my father is here, as is my mother. My father is a bitter and very nasty man of about 70, who has an unfortunate but absolute emotional chokehold on my mother. She quit her otherwise promising career in accounting to raise us, the kids, and I must say that the 30+ years they have been together have robbed her of any independent thought or free will. I love her dearly, but I often worry about her - she worries all the time: about us, about herself, about her husband, her son (my eldest brother) in Nigeria, etc. I recently lost my grandmother (her mother), and I believe she might not have had a chance to properly grieve the loss of her mother, since my mother was in the US when it happened. It is sad. My father was substantively an alcoholic when I was a kid, and the opportunities that have come the way of the 3 girls in my family (myself and my 2 sisters) have largely been by dint of our own hard work, support of my brothers and mother & especially that of my awesome eldest sister, who has a Phd from Princeton. She is bloody awesome - the most intelligent person I know. Period.

Today she downloaded a game unto my iPhone. Apparently she is already on Level 108 (I don't know when she started playing this game - probably a few months ago, but...), while I struggled to get past Level 1. She's that smart! (Edit: I am now on Level 8, and elede maa de Ijebu!)

Anyway, in other matters, an old friend from Nigeria (who I hadn't spoken to in 6 years) declared his love for me on facebook and asked me to marry him. I don't know what he imagined the response would be: "Yes I will leave my life and my career in the US behind and since I have loved you for the 6 years but kept this agonizing secret to myself, I will hop on the next flight to Nigeria and be with you 'til death!"

Seriously.

How can anyone propose on facebook?

How can anyone declare love on facebook?

It's sheer madness.

Oh yes... in sporting matters, it appears Lance Armstrong has stepped on dog poop and is about to be exposed as the cheat and liar many have always believed him to be. Floyd Landis, the disgraced 2006 winner of the Tour de France, apparently sent emails to influential journalists and officials in the Cycling World, detailing the lessons on substance abuse he allegedly received from Lance Armstrong. This news was gleefully reported in the European press but largely ignored by the Americans, who continue to labor under the illusion that Lance Armstrong is clean as a whistle. There is an excellent article in the UK Times, a paper whose Sports section I absolutely adore. The article is here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/cycling/article7133884.ece

It is a gem!

Moving on... but still staying on sports...


It's remarkable how much I have changed over the past 5 years - I went from someone who was absolutely obsessed with football ('soccer' to Yanks) to someone who did not even know that the Champions League Finals was taking place last Saturday (May 22nd). Not until I received a facebook message from an old friend asking me about which team I fancied (Inter Milan or Bayern Munich), and I saw lots of messages on facebook about the upcoming match did I realize that there was a big match taking place. The World Cup is starting some time next month, and I cannot even name the teams that will be taking part in the competition. 10 years ago, I would have been breathlessly waiting for the start of the Champions League Finals, and I would unquestionably have been able able to reel off the list of teams taking part in the World Cup, or indeed the date the World Cup will begin.

Now, in 2010, I have no idea. The times, they truly are a changing!

The week ahead

The week ahead promises to be an exciting one.

1) First, I have to take a blood test some time this week, most likely tomorrow. I am scared. Frightened out of my mind. Not because I have engaged in any risky behavior, but because I am hypochondriac like that.

2) My sister is graduating from Yale next Monday (not tomorrow, but the 24th) and I am flying out Friday night to be with her in New Haven. I will also be spending some time with her fiance, apparently. I don't know the guy much. They started dating about a year or two before I left Nigeria in 2004, but for the past 6 years I have hardly been back to Nigeria. I went back in 2006 for my visa status change, but that's really been it. I have spoken with him on the phone a couple of times, but these are usually awkward conversations filled with small talk and nothing particularly interesting.

3) I am going to Oklahoma for the July 4th Weekend celebrations, to spend time with a childhood friend. Her name is Ekenem, and we have been friends since we were in creche. Probably for 20 years. Really lovely woman! Honest, God-fearing, beautiful, talented. It'll be great to see her again after 6 years! We talk on the phone and on Skype, but it'll be awesome to see her again.

4) I talked with an old University pal who is now in London. We chatted on facebook. It was great to hear from him again and see that he is doing well and having the time of his life. Really cool dude, too.

5) Two of my good friends from Nigeria are getting married next year. Congrats to them. There is an increasingly small pool of my crew that's unmarried. It's alarming.

6) Nobody talks about my sister's wedding anymore. It appears noone in the family wants to go there. I haven't brought it up either. It's exhausting, but it remains the intractable elephant in the room: it's still there, we can't escape it and we must address it.

7) On Friday, I bought a nice netbook online, about 40% off, thanks to the perks of working for my employer. I was very happy with that! I really like my new job and the company. It's awesome. I have a meeting with my boss on Monday, to talk about the way forward for the team. I'm looking forward to that.

8) Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are going to play the Madrid Open Finals in a few hours. I am really looking forward to that, and I'm unquestionably cheering on Rafa Nadal, as I really like his style. Roger Federer is the Greatest of All Time, but Rafa's game is really exciting to watch, methinks.

9) I will receive a new bed on Thursday May 20th. I bought it on Friday (a day I apparently went on a shopping spree). I am really looking forward to that, to be honest. I've had an air bed for the better part of 2 years, so this is my first real bed. It cost $1k, including the frame, head board and all that fun stuff. I have to finish cleaning my house to prepare for its arrival.

10) Hells Kitchen starts up again next month, from June 1. I like the show, as well as Bones, CSI and the morning chat show The View.

11) I need to get cable ASAP. The French Open is coming up, as is the World Cup. I absolutely need to get cable right away.

Anyhoo...


I hope the week turns out great! Enjoy your week!

Greetings from Ohio!

There is so much to talk about. Alas, so little time.

I am settled in. My apartment is lovely, and I have the impression that I will have fun in it. I was shocked by the sheer amount of stuff that I have - my belongings were packed into over 107 boxes. Most of these contained books, clothes and knick-knacks like figurines. Consider that I do not have a bed or a sofa, yet it will take me probably another week before I get rid of the last of the boxes. I moved in on Saturday May 1st at around 10am, and despite warning the movers not to bring my belongings until at least 11:30am that morning, I was shocked to turn around at 10:15am and find a truck outside the apartment complex.

I drove from New Jersey to Ohio. The decision to drive was not an easy one. I hate driving, mostly because of the aggressiveness and impatience of the vast majority of American drivers. I drive a little Honda Civic, a car that I'm certain real enthusiasts scuff at. Relative to the gas-guzzling SUVs that litter American roads, it's a small car. So I'm always really cautious when I drive. The main reason I bought the car (and I am rather ashamed to admit this), is that when I test-drove it, I was really impressed by the shiny electronic speed-indicator. It's a bright, shiny toy of a car. A car for kids, is what I call it, and every time I see the electronic display, I can't help smiling. It's the sort of thing a kid would love, and I was enamored with it from the moment I saw it. Now it also helps me a lot, since the speed indicator is right in front of me, so when I am on the highway, I always know what speed I am going at. It's got an automatic transmission, and I think it is a 4-cylinder (not sure, which is embarrassing, since I am an engineer!). The other option for me was a Toyota Corolla or a Hyundai Elantra. I was advised by my sister that the only people she knows who own Hyundais are South Koreans, who come from the country of Hyundai, and when I drove the Corolla, I didn't think it drove as smoothly as the Honda, and I certainly wanted a car with a shiny display. Thus I ended up with my little wine colored Honda Civic LX...

Back to the trip to Ohio.

I made the decision to drive because I have a lot of important documents which I couldn't squeeze into my carry-on luggage, and which I did not trust the carriers to move, especially as the first line in their disclaimer was "This company is not responsible for the loss of any important documents".

o_O

Say what?

So I decided against buying a plane ticket, something I had left to the last minute and which would have cost an arm and a leg anyway.

The trip is a 7-hour ride if taken at once. Since I am not a big fan of driving, especially not in long stretches, I decided to split the journey in two, stopping over at Johnstown, Pennsylvania for a day. This added about 90 minutes to the trip. I booked a nice hotel (I think it was a Hilton, I forget). The most recent time I had booked a hotel was during my apartment-hunting trip to Solon, Ohio, where I had made the mistake of booking the cheapest hotel I saw on the internet. It ended up being a motel (Red Roof Inn), and one of the most depressing and frightening places I had ever been in. Indeed one of my pals from my previous job laughed at me when I told him that I was at a Red Roof. He said it's well known for being a hang-out of prostitutes and pimps and druggies. I perceived a faint smell of weed when I first stepped into the motel room on the day, and considering that I had to spend 3 nights in the ramshackle room, it was a very depressing feeling. The sheets were filthy, the door mysteriously locked and opened of its own free will, a fact that resulted in a terrifying episode where I was actually locked in the room because the door would not open from the inside. Eventually I called the front desk, who sent their manager over, twice, to open the door. As I was about to leave the following morning, I requested a different room and promised to swap when I returned from my apartment-hunt. Alas, after 10 hours driving up and down the Cleveland area listening to real estate agents convince you that their apartment complex is the best in the area, I was too exhausted to fight that battle with the motel and spent the final night in the horrible motel. It was a depressing experience.

Where was I?

Yes, so when I decided to book a hotel this time, I read the reviews, I verified that it's not a motel, and generally did my homework before jumping in blindly!

Anyway, I whipped out a map of the North-East and Mid-West and decided upon the town I would stop in. The decision was simple: Johnstown, PA. You see, much of Western Pennsylvania is... well.... it's rather empty. There is farmland, there are cows, there are tunnels, there are mountains...there are rednecks (lots and lots of them) and then smack in the middle of this barren nothingness, is Pittsburgh. I know this area relatively well, as I spent the summer of 2007 (a brutally hot summer, mark you) traipsing the length and breadth of Monroeville, a suburb of Pittsburgh, working for a huge but relatively unknown company (think BASF - that kind of company) that makes Organic Light Emitting Diodes.

Anyhoo, when I glanced at the map of Pennsylvania (which lies between Ohio and New Jersey), Pittsburgh and Harrisburg were the first cities to jump out at me. I flirted with the idea of calling my old boss from Monroeville and meeting him for lunch or dinner on my stop-over. That all seemed attractive until I set eyes on that word on the map: JOHNSTOWN!

For those who do not know, Johnstown Pennsylvania had a huge flood some time in the 19th Century, one that would come to define the town for the next few decades. (Details can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood)

It essentially wiped out the entire town. I had studied this as a senior at Princeton, where I had sat, riveted in CEE 263, as the instructor went over the details of the horrific destruction that had befallen Johnstown. For years after that, I had wondered about the town, and dreamed and dreamed of being able to visit it one day.

Well, here was the golden opportunity, so I packed up my belongings, entrusted most of them to the movers, but the really critical documents like birth certificates and visas and things, I decided to move on my own, in my own car. I programmed my GPS for Johnstown, PA and drove over in about 6 hours. It was a thankfully uneventful journey, and allow me to add at this point - Western Pennsylvania, despite the redneck problem, is a really beautiful place. I drove past rolling hills and pristine forests, through the most charming tunnels burrowed in the mountains. It was a distractingly beautiful drive, and Johnstown, oh Johnstown was everything I imagined it would be. The history, the culture, the lay-out. Without any question, the layout of the town is the most attractive I have ever seen in the United States. But the trip to Johnstown is a story for another day.

Back to Ohio.

My job is lovely. First, I got my sign-on bonus of $14k, some of which has gone into my credit card bill. The rest of that will probably go into paying for my ticket to Nigeria in August, and possibly my sister's move when she graduates. I work at an awesome plant - it's a massive, massive plant, with about 1000 people, but they are all really lovely, and the stifling and suffocating atmosphere at my previous job is so far not present. I am not on the floor nearly as much as I used to be - indeed I am hardly ever on the floor, which is a good and a bad thing. The biggest difference between this job and my previous one is probably the competence of the people. My previous job had a relatively quiet plant manager - he was really into the touchy-feely stuff that company is enamored with. There was also a very young Operations Manager who knew absolutely nothing about soup making. Her heart was in the right place, but I just could never shake the impression that this was a woman who had somehow had leadership thrust upon her. She just could never convince me that she was competent. Next we had a Quality Manager with her head in the clouds, a CI Manager who had no training in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma or anything of the sort, Engineers who were so far up their own arses they could lick themselves out, Business Unit Managers who climbed their way up by kissing butt, a Sanitation Manager that casually googled answers to critical questions about food sanitation, and a non-existent training department. No wonder the plant was such a mess.

This plant is radically different. First, this genre of food is very different from soup: it's less dangerous. In soup, there was the omnipresent fear of mistakenly killing a consumer by not fully thermally processing food (a very real danger, that!). Here, the consumer cooks the food after he receives it, so it's an entirely different kettle of fish. In addition, there is a lot of experience and competence in the plant. I sat with the Plant Leadership Team during my first week, and I was absolutely flawed by the level of knowledge these people have. The Plant Manager has been the Plant Manager at 2 other plants in this Division and with this Company. The HR Manager has been in HR for over 20 years. The Plant Controller, who sits on an annual budget of 1 third of a billion (yes, you read right, over $333 million per year) and sales of over 3/4 of a billion (yes, $750 million), is a seasoned money manager. The two Operations Managers came from this plant and know enough about the processes that take place to make sound decisions. I cannot stress to you how impressed I was with the level of expertise in the plant.

More than anything, the engineers here actually do Science. There is Engineering Statistics! Capability Studies! Six Sigma! Yes, yes, yes! I heard the words standard deviation again! I was in a plant! In Industry, thank you Lord!

This company is one that has never taken the Science out of Food Manufacturing, and for that reason, I am incredibly grateful. I will talk some more about my plant in the near future.

There is so much to talk about - it's such an awesome place.


Meanwhile, my senior sister is getting married, and it appears that there is a gulf between her vision for her wedding and the size of my father's pocket. My father is not wealthy - far from it, and more than that, he is the worst manager of money mankind has ever seen. She wants a 2 million naira wedding. He insists that he cannot even cough up half of that. My eldest sister suggested postponing the wedding or having a small wedding in London, where the groom lives. I haven't said much about it, largely because I have few feelings about it. I really hope this all turns out well.

Back in the Garden State

So I have returned to New Jersey. The journey back from Cleveland can best be described as hellish. My flight out of Cleveland Hopkins Airport was delayed, and I only just made it in time for my connecting flight at O'Hare Airport. It turns out the flight from O'Hare was delayed, so I needn't have worried. Upon arriving Philadelphia International Airport, I took a train to Philadelphia 30th Street Station, and then another train to Hammonton, before driving for about 30 minutes to my apartment. I arrived my apartment at ~01:30am on Sunday morning, the 25th April.

The good news is that I found an excellent apartment complex to live in. It's relatively inexpensive, and I think I will have a good time there. There is a tennis court and about five minutes away is a swimming pool, in the event that I decide to learn to swim.

In other news, I spoke with my former Plant Manager who wanted to know why I quit, and I explained gently and politely about the major reason I felt like it was time for me to leave. Overall, it was a very positive discussion.

I have to pack up my things from my current apartment and move off to Ohio this week. It's a daunting task, and I have to come up with a cohesive strategy. I think I'll tackle the books first - begin by packing up all the books, and then move on to other things such as the miscellaneous stuff I have spent my money on over the past year: the endless array of figurines (hour-glasses, snow globes from my relentless travels over the past 6 months, Newton's cradle, stuffed animals, an armadillo from Texas, a doll from Bulgaria, baubles from Louisiana, etc). It's a little insane, to be honest...

If I am MIA over the next few days, it's probably because I am packing and coordinating my relocation.

Ciao.

Greetings from Cleveland

Greetings from Cleveland

I write from the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. I am returning to New Jersey after a 2-night stay in Ohio, apartment hunting. It was a truly interesting trip.

I was set up with a company known as CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway company, to show me around the areas around Solon Ohio and take me to apartments that I might like. There are two agents working on my relocation. One can be described as a House Agent, who sits behind the computer and googles apartments and amusements, and calls them to arrange tours for clients, showings for apartments, etc. The other, presumably the junior agent, is the Field Agent, who takes you on the tour, ferries you from one apartment to another.

I was set up with a female House Agent and a Male Field Agent. I met him bright and early on Friday morning at a CORT showroom (CORT also sells furtniture, so they have showrooms, and this Field Agent of mine is apparently also a furniture salesman for the very wealthy). The Field Agent, hereafter Agent X, is middle-aged, with a receding hairline and an unfortunate bald spot smack in the middle of his head. If he were a character in an Agatha Christie novel, she might describe him as nondescript. I prefer to use the word forgettable. He is the sort of man who is just designed to blend in, to fade into the background, to be forgotten. There is something truly remarkable about just how unremarkable he is. I tell you, he would make a great criminal because he looks harmless, utterly innocuous. In any case, I met Agent X at the door, and he showed me around the area, describing in his monotonous voice the many pleasant attractions of the Cleveland Area. It might feel like I am being a little unkind to this man, but once I got over the “chirpiness" of the man, I quickly realized that he is the epitome of a mid-Westerner: male, Caucasian, middle-aged, and sadly, boring.

Anyway, we eventually visited about 12 apartments, some more expensive than others, some better kept than others. The 3rd apartment building we visited was my favorite, and it was the one to which I would eventually return to process a lease application.

I understand that this is a long-term position, that I will be at this job for at least 2 years (at the absolute least), and I might very well be in this plant for up to 4 years. With this in mind, I really wanted a comfortable place. Despite the fact that the rent is a little higher than the jawdroppingly low prices I had glimpsed on the internet, I decided that it was safest to go with my heart and pick an apartment I really like. It’s a detached 1-bedroom apartment, with grey wooden panels for walls, and a modest garden by the pathway. Most importantly, it has a tennis court, so I can play tennis all-day, everyday if I want to. I have a feeling that Cleveland will be good to me. Unlike crime-ridden Philadelphia, it's a relatively peaceful city without the noise, filth and congestion of most large cities of a similar size. The airport, I must confess, is a disgrace of a dump - a small, run-down set of rooms without a decent restaurant. It needs an upgrade - sharpish.

Anyway, till tomorrow or after, take care.

Fatigue

My move to Cleveland is confirmed. I'm quite excited about it. I've been dreaming of moving to this company for a while now. It's a company I grew up with (in Nigeria), and one whose name is synonymous with excellence worldwide. I hope I have a good time and learn a lot in this position.

I will miss the guys in my current plant, no doubt. I've really enjoyed working with them over the past year, and I've learned an eye-popping amount of stuff from them. I think the overwhelming majority of them have taken me under their wing and shown me a lot of the cooler aspects of their jobs. The best part of the job was getting to know the cooker and retort operators. The knowledge these men have about making soup is truly remarkable, and the good news is that the 3 people who worked with me in this area had a great attitude: respectful of one another and me, work well together, open minded, etc. I really liked working with them! And there were many other cool operators in my plant - strangely I got to know the guys who worked in the kitchens a lot. I say 'strangely' because when I first arrived, they were the most resistant to me, and now they are very receptive of me and of any ideas that I have. I really like that, and it has been a fun year! However, I am exhausted. I cannot decide whether the sheer physical toll of working such strange hours is what pushed me over the edge, or whether it's some of the lackluster salaried people I had to work with, or the absence of any training for me, but I must confess that by the 6th month, I had become absolutely exhausted with the plant and all the seemingly insurmountable bottlenecks we faced.

In any case, I'm about to move off to Cleveland, and I am incredibly excited about the opportunity. I will see my (soon-to-be former) boss tomorrow and start packing the day after that.

In other news, it appears Pope Benedict is in a bit of hot water because he apparently did not crack down on some priests who sexually abused young boys a few decades ago. Word on the street is that Pope Benedict was aware of the situation, objected to the abuse, but fearful of the disgrace a scandal would bring to the Catholic church, decided not to make a fuss. And that takes me rather nicely to a quote by Monique, the Oscar-winning actress of the movie Precious (which I haven't seen), who said as she received the Academy Award: "Sometimes you have to forgo doing what is popular in order to do what's right".

Benedict did not make the right decision. Instead he made the popular decision - he was afraid of an 'event', a confrontation, a scandal. Well, now he has to face the music.

There is shock and horror in the Catholic community about this, but for me - a long-time atheist and life-long cynic of anything to do with Christianity, none of it surprises me. You elect a Nazi for a pope, a man who looks as creepy as Hannibal Lecter, one who makes controversial comments about Islam within 3 years of becoming pope, and for some reason you expect him to be a saint? Give me a f*cking break!

Random Musings on a slow Monday morning

My plant shutdown is mercifully over.

I enjoyed the normal schedule for the 2 weeks - working during the day as opposed to the strange hours I worked in the past, lounging in the office, not getting any calls to the floor, not having to do much work, etc. But I missed the company. Yes, the operators who occasionally give me drama were really missed, and I'm happy I'll be seeing them again this evening. Delighted, actually.

In other matters, my job search continues in earnest. Well, it's proceeded beyond the stage of a mere job search, since I have 2 offers already. I already took one drug test (a "piss test"), and I will probably take the second one tomorrow morning, on Tuesday. Whatever the case, I really want to head out of this company. I call this plant the 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams', although I think 'Graveyard of Dreams' is more apt. The more pressing issue is that I have to find an apartment (hopefully around Cleveland Ohio), pack, settle in and report to work in 12 days. I don't know if it's feasible, but I am sure as hell going to give it a shot. I'm especially looking forward to moving to Cleveland. I made a list of things I want to do in Cleveland. It's still not complete yet, but I am really looking forward to doing some things I never really had a chance to do here in NJ or never had the time to complete:

1) Take a ride on a hot-air balloon: http://www.gentlebreeze.com/ This is one company I have in mind, although they are in Columbus, and I'll likely be in Cleveland. i'm really looking forward to doing this, and Inshallah, 2010 is the year I'll do it!
2) Go camping: I need to figure out who with, though...
3) Learn to swim
4) Learn to ride a bike (I know, I know... how can a 23 year old not know how to ride a bike?). Well, I had a horrific accident on my tricylce as a kid - resulting in lots of blood and a trip to the local ER. I still remember the scene today: nurses chasing me around the hospital as I ran, blood dripping behind me, trying to escape my god-father doctor (who has now passed, bless him). I had to receive stitches for the accident, and eventhough I tried to pick up riding again at Princeton with three really generous friend-instructors, it never really took off.
5) Horse-riding. As the daughter of a man who played Polo for about 30 years, it's really a big disgrace that I don't even know how to ride a horse.
6) Tennis lessons - Big fan of tennis, and I always have been!
7) Go on a cruise - I discussed this with a friend from Ghana, and she said she and another mutual friend already talked about it, so we may be on to something here.
8) Visit 5 US National Parks, starting with the one in Ohio (the Cuyahoga Valley National Park) - including California
9) Join a book club
10)Learn to shoot? (This one is a little crazy, but why the hell not?)
11) Go snorkeling? Perhaps visit Australia for the Australian Open?
12) Visit the famous stadia in Europe (Wembley, Bernabeu, Nou Camp, etc)
13) Visit Puerto Rico
14) Visit Canada - since Ohio is close to Canada, this is certainly do-able
15) Go hiking
16) Go skiing
17) Take a boating/lake trip
18) Go to a tennis match, perhaps the US Open?
19) Go to an Olympics tournament
20) Go to a World Cup tournament
21) Go to a rugby match

I certainly think these are modest and attainable goals. The hot-air balloon ride may sound a little risky, but it really isn't. What's life without a little va-va-voom? One should experience a lot of cool stuff while in your 20s. Do not wait until you're too ill to do these things before you actually do them. It is my hope that I complete items 1-10 or at least start these items (1-10) or develop concrete plans, except number 7 and perhaps 10, before the end of 2010. I'll see how this pans out.

In other matters, I cannot get this song out of my head. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6c8srkNfBI

The song is the soundtrack to a movie called 'Scorned', by Shirley Frimpong Manso. If you stick with me long enough, you'll find me waxing lyrical about Shirley. I believe she is unquestionably the most gifted and refreshing filmaker to come out of Anglophone West Africa in 20 years. And I don't offer such praise lightly - I really mean it. Absolutely brilliant woman.

Anyway, back to the song...

The song is titled 'Daa ke daa', and it's about a woman singing to her lover, asking him not to hurt her. Here are the lyrics:

Daa kԑ daa kԑ daa always and always and always
Kԑ oosumᴐ mi, kaa tse mi tsui If you love me, dont break my heart
Mԑ ni ji nᴐni ofeᴐ mi nԑ - What is it youre doing to me? Or what are you doing to me?
Obaa tse mi tsui You will break my heart
Obaa gbe mi You will kill me


It's in a Ghanaian language - I believe Ga or Twi, and one of my Ghanaian friends jokingly accused me of being more Ghanaian than many real Ghanaians, and I thought that was funny, even if absolutely untrue.

On movies, I watched the Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Madonna's ex-husband, Guy Ritchie. It starred Robert Downing Jr., who did the best he could with a nebulous plot and an insipid script. His side-kick, Watson, was played by a handsome actor (he's also famous, but I do not recall his name. Edit: His name is Jude Law). One critic said the director's goal in filmaking is "to make cool movies about cool guys with cool stuff". Having seen one and only one of Mr. Ritchie's movies, I tend not to disagree.

The movie played like a series of breathtaking snapshots, one fabulous picture after another, but with no adhesive to tie-up the snapshots; instead we end with a mish-mash movie, a patchwork movie, occasionally marked by great screenshots, but without any beating heart to sustain and fascinate the viewer. I'll give it 2 stars of 5, and that's because 1-star reviews often reek of bitterness, even where there is none.

As a long-time fan of Doyle's works, I think the plot was an insult on the great works of Mr. Conan D.

First, the relationship between Watson and Holmes was wide of the mark. A little-known detail is that the character of Gregory House in the TV show "House, M.D." was inspired by Sherlock Holmes. I do not know whether Wilson was also inspired by Watson - I doubt it, since Wilson and House seem to have an unresolved but undeniably potent sexual tension between them, while Holmes and Watson definitely did not! In any case, Holmes and Watson in Ritchie's latest offering were more House/Wilson than Holmes/Watson, or at least from my own interpretation of Doyle's rendering of Holmes/Watson. Ritchie's Holmes/Watson bicker like school girls over minutiae, a lot like House and Wilson do, and I am of the opinion that this is a classic case of the master imitating the mimic: the scriptwriter might have overdosed on House, MD right before he wrote that script because whether by choice or not, his characters end up more House/Wilson than Holmes/Watson. It's a disgrace. Holmes and Watson had their differences, but these never descended to the level of petty carping like I saw in the movie.

For one, Ritchie's Watson (like Dr. Wilson) is far more attractive than the original Watson - indeed he has some of the 'boyish good looks' Dr. Wilson is reputed to have had in the original House Script (I don't believe Robert Sean Leaonard looks 'boyish', but he also has his own ooh-la-la'). If memory serves, there is mention in the books of Sherlock's attractiveness, but I do not recall anything about Watson being a handsome man, and certainly not a distractingly handsome man like the actor who played him in this movie. In any case, the movie was nice mind-numbing action for a slow day, and I must admit that once I allowed myself to forget about the Holmesian theme, I enjoyed the movie.

And one more thing I noticed. Robert Downey Jr. has a nice big arse (baby got back!). That was quite funny to observe.

In other completely unrelated news, I understand that my Nigerian passport has expired. It expired almost a year ago, and now I have to renew it. I have to send a number of things to the Nigerian embassy, probably in DC, and get them to issue a renewal. I'm wary of dealing with the embassy, because I've heard terrible stories about them -- of seizing passports without any communications as to why, of very long delays that complete stuff up your travel plans, lost documents, etc. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed.