The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I have been following basketball more closely since I went to the USA in 2001 to continue my journey to MIT from Presec . During my 10 years in the US, I fell in love with the game of basketball. #ILoveThisGame . This love grew partly because I was unable to watch much football as a big sports fan. If you think I am talking about the NFL, you must be new here . Football, aka soccer, okay, I am about to talk about American sports so I would defer for now . I have blogged about  basketball  a lot. This time, let me tell you about NCAA basketball , even though March Madness is a couple of months past. I support the following colleges in the annual tournaments: Stanford, Syracuse, North Carolina (UNC) and UConn . From September 2001, I spent almost 12 months in Syracuse , New York with my dad who was working on his Post Doc at the time. I worked at a local grocery chain to get money for school, helped my dad with some side hustles and he taught me how to cook . He also was the...

One fateful day in 2000, I heard Arthur Musah (one of my idols at Presec) had gotten into MIT. The excitement that greeted this announcement was big in Presec because MIT was supposed to be the best engineering institution in the world. I had sworn not to do anything related to biology because I hated my biology teacher and I was quite strong in Math. It was the first time I heard about the Massachusetts (not Minnesota, Michigan or Montana) Institute of Technology. I declared that I was going to follow in Arthur's footsteps and enrol in MIT one day. Praise be to God, one day in March 2002, I found out I was admitted into my dream school. For a moment, I wondered if it was the Michigan Institute of Technology; I had some doubts. I must have done something right with my time at Presec. Some decisions and goals I set led to this moment, but what happened in that lean year between Presec and MIT. A lot happened, but it ultimately made me a little different from the person I was at Pres...

I am a  Boston Celtics  fan. I will admit I am a fair weather one too, not as consistent with them as I am with Manchester United. They gave me some great years from 2008 and 2012. With the Big 3 and their coach Doc Rivers shipped out of town, I am back to the cold winter fan days I am afraid. I can't believe the Boston Celtics will start the 2013-2014 season without any of  Paul Pierce ,  Kevin Garnett ,  Ray Allen  and  Doc Rivers . For what it's worth, I know the Jesus shuttle left last year, but to doctrinate that the Big Ticket's absence in Beantown would be Truth could make me cry rivers right now. It's an end of an era. As a Celtics fan, I am sad to see this run end, but hopeful for a quick turnaround to give Boston a team that will be relevant in April, May and June. As a basketball fan and a fan of these 4 aforementioned, I also wish them the best as they see out their careers. I started following the NBA very closely when I arrived in th...

Lebron James came into the basketball spotlight just as I was starting to become an avid fan of the NBA. While Carmelo Anthony was making the word Syracuse more popular around the USA , Lebron was showcasing his arsenal of talent in preparation for the NBA. I had left Syracuse for MIT , and found uninterrupted and ubiquitous internet supply which allowed me to appreciate them both. Because I was a big fan of Melo, I couldn't really be a big fan of Lebron. They were rivals, and fans support accordingly. Lebron was going to go as the first draft pick, beating out Carmelo. It was to be dark o! Because one Darko Milicic (the next Dirk Nowitzki ) went #2, consigning Melo to #3. Carmelo has acquitted himself really well in the NBA. Darko has only seen dark days. Lebron? What a career he's having and a player he's turning out to be. This is where, who and what he's supposed to be. "I'm Lebron James, from Akron, Ohio. I'm not even supposed to be here". ...

What happened in my diary in January 2009? We have an idea thanks to Twitter archive :-) The campaign song by Daddy Lumba called Nana Winner is even more of a hit now even with Nana Akufo Addo losing the election — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) January 5, 2009 I remember going out in Kumasi to chill and seeing some ladies dancing their tails off to this song even though Nana Akufo Addo had lost the election and we were in Kumasi, the NPP's stronghold of all places. They should have been shaking their tailfeathers more seriously. accra went agog with Atta Mills' victory while Kumasi was relatively quiet — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) January 5, 2009 Yeah, Accra did go agog, but Kumasi was mostly quiet except for some places like the ones described in the previous tweet. @eokyere lolest how be chale? i just return to yankee — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) January 8, 2009 Met  +Emmanuel Okyere  at +Barcamp Ghana  now  +Barcamp Accra  in 2008. He tweeted so...

On January 11, 2019, I  joined the  Success Drive  Whatsapp platform to be featured, share, answer questions, etc.   This was set up by Derrick Obeng of  Campus Radio Ghana . This was similar to the conversation I had with the  NUGS Volta Region Bloc Women's Platform  to share and discuss  volunteeringh , following after  Barcamp Ho  coordinator  Courage Christson Tetteh  had done something similar with them earlier.  Pamela Klutse  made that one happen and I blogged about it as well. 2 awesome people who all were part of the  Barcamp Ho 2018   organizing team. We discussed many things on the Success Drive  show , it was like a hot seat -  #KonnectKouch  ( watch this space ).  Edith Bannerman , the host, asked me: " So studying at  MIT  and Stanford ? How did that go? "  I picked up  #MightyAfrican  from my tertiary education in the US.  Let's dig int...

On one fine day in 2019, one member of Cape Coast Konnect - Lex Williams - had a bright idea. He asked that we have something like "hot seat" in this WhatsApp group run by the GhanaThink Foundation . We started a discussion around this and the result was the Konnect Kouch , a version of hot seat  in Konnect Groups for its members. Since then, at different times and in different Konnect WhatsApp groups, we would have had Konnect members   to volunteer as a Kouchee to be on the Konnect Kouch , on Saturdays & Sundays starting from 2:33pm  . This is basically a personality interview. We at GhanaThink moved this #KonnectKouch into some of the Konnect meetups (3 hour networking events mostly in the weekend evenings) and also to Barcamps (free networking forums on Saturdays).  1 of our GhanaThink members, Mildred Adeaba , earlier in 2024, encouraged that we should run this #KonnectKouch for GhanaThink Members (in our own WhatsApp group). I voluntee...