#Winning a What Do You Know quiz contest on #blooddonation

Earlier this month, I was nominated by my buddy +Edward Amartey-Tagoe to represent Blogging Ghana in a special What Do You Know Quiz to celebrate World Blood Donor Day. I donated blood for the first time in my life but biology has always been my least favorite subject since Presec, I don't follow current affairs even a 233rd of what I used to do in KNUST JSS and I knew very little about blood in general. I clutched at straws looking for what material to focus on in this quiz and looked for motivation via prizes available. In fact, it became too late for me to but I would have likely backed out. I had won 2 What Do You Know quizzes while in Presec but this was different. I stayed the course, but still didn't study anything until the wee hours of the night before for like 23.3 minutes. Today, I participated in the quiz and emerged victorious. #Winning!

When I was in KNUST JSS, I represented the school at Kiddie Quiz where we lost in the semi-finals. I got my nickname Clue cos I loved organizing quizzes. While in Presec, I participated in inter-house and inter-class quizzes and won some. I participated in 2 special What Do You Know quizzes for Presec and won both. Funny enough, I was just telling the Presec National Science & Maths quiz team about this just a couple of days ago. After Presec recording the highest NSMQ mark so far and fending off the great girls of Wey Gey Hey, it was my turn to win too. On my way to the quiz grounds, I played all the gospel songs I had on my phone through the car. I needed divine intervention. It was a Sunday anyway. I arrived at the  not cocky because I was not cocksure of my preparation but confident of pulling off a great result. Just because :-). 

I am going to be on what do you know quiz competition live on GTV at 1pm. Quiz is on blood donation. #wbd #giveblood
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) June 16, 2013

+Maame Aba Daixy gave me some great links to check out, the website of the Ghana National Blood Service as well as the STACC website. +Kobby Blay of Ghana Health Nest chipped with this helpful link too. I even read my own blog post for inspiration. I gradually woke up this morning to questions and answers on the quiz preparation word document I had hurriedly put together and read through last night. I asked her to just read the document and throw questions at me. I will answer what I can and listen to answers of what I couldn't. Yea, that was my idea of preparing for a quiz on television. :-) I did quite okay and a few things cropped up so she googled the various subjects and we discussed things like blood types, universal donors and universal recipients. I whatsapped my brother +Kofi Ulzen-Appiah and sister Tracey for some tips (on biology and blood), as well as another doctor friend of mine who lives in Akim Oda. I thought to google and get info on World Blood Donor Day proper as well as hemoglobin cos the word just was all over the place. At one place, I thought a possible question would surely be "How do you spell Haemoglobin?" She laughed :-)

I got to the GTV studios with 2 bags with laptops with open web pages that I would study. I never got the chance to open the laptops. It took me some good minutes to find GTV Studio One, and then I had change from my BlogCamp13 T-shirt (with @Abocco on it) to a World Blood Donor Day one, do makeup, and call my mother. I did so after I found out the quiz would actually be live on GTV and not recorded for later. I never announced my appearance on the show because frankly, I was and was going to be unprepared. Daixy gave me some helpful tips. I would be competing against reps of MTN, Dodowa Keep Fit Club, Rotaract Club of Adentan and Christian Youth Builders. I thought to myself while going to GBC, no matter what, I have to place higher than the MTN guy. After my namesake producer of the show gave us an hour of tips, the quiz master Daniel Afari Yeboah, finally showed up and the quiz was underway.

I hadn't told many people I was going to be on TV because I didn't want to make a mockery of myself. And also, you may find it hard to believe, but because I am "modest", I didn't want to go around saying "I will be on TV, so watch me". Funny enough, some friends of mine who I know for sure don't watch GTV ending seeing me because they were browsing channels looking for the Black Stars game. So all the guys mostly saw me, but the ladies who should have been watching were bizzie biz. Lol. I was going to take my few 23.3 minutes of fame and sow some seeds to get my own reality show later. Don't you think I would do well in a reality show? Isn't my blog material enough evidence? Isn't this retrieved wallet story just the knockout punch? :-)

The actual quiz was great television material. While introducing myself on the quiz show, I mentioned my Twitter name. Yea, why not? You can read a whole blog post about that in particular here. Dan Afari Yeboah spoke his big English as usual and didn't disappoint. He's quite the entertaining quiz master. I found out later, that he was a lawyer. I had decided that I would be as commentative as I could on the quiz show, especially if I was flunking the questions. I can't be out spoken anymore these days, I am the outspoken guy. One hiplife legend once said "I keep my mind open and I keep my mind spoken". So there.

I cant believe I won another What Do You Know quiz after being so unprepared. I won because I was just so freaking positive. #morevim
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) June 16, 2013

Thanks to all of you for believing in me n cheering me on. I appreciate paa. Was away from my phone while competing in the #wbdd WDYK quiz.
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) June 16, 2013

I mentioned my twitter name live on Ghana Television when I introduced myself in a quiz show that I won. Can't see new followers tho lol
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) June 16, 2013

This is actually the third time I've been on what do you know. Did so twice in #Presec. Still undefeated. :-) @kwasireports @BloggingGhana
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) June 16, 2013

So yeah, after some small drama, I came back strongly like Presec did yesterday and won the contest at the death. Thank You Lord Jesus! Folks came to congratulate me and others said they admired my confidence. I just said "I pulled it off". I was nervous about the whole thing but I just remained positive. I told a couple of the GTV workers I had given a free ride to Shiashie that I always remain positive. Me and positivity sleep together. Try it. It works. We just keep on #winning. We got that tiger blood. In local parlance, you can call it "vim".