Let it all motivate you

The way to be highly motivated is not to go out and look for things to motivate you. The way to be highly motivated is to let everything motivate you.

Be motivated by the defeats as well as the victories. Be motivated by the challenges and difficulties just as much as you're motivated by the positive possibilities.

When you hear encouraging news, be motivated. When someone gives you discouraging news, be just as motivated.

Your level of motivation does not depend on what happens. It depends on the way you choose to respond.

Choose to respond with a sense of positive and meaningful motivation. No matter what happens or fails to happen, let it motivate you to reach higher and to create new value.

You cannot know everything that will fill this day, yet you can choose right now what to do with it. Let it all motivate you to make the efforts that will make it all even better

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Praying for others

A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agree that they had no other recourse but to pray to God. However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on
opposite sides of the island.

The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land and he was able to eat it's fruit. The other man's parcel of land remained barren!

After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, there was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, again there was nothing!

Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing!

Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife could  leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God's blessings, since none of his prayers had been answered.

As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from heaven booming, "Why are you leaving your companion on the island?"
"My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them," the first man answered. "His prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything."

"You are mistaken!" the voice rebuked him. "He had only one prayer,  which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings."

"Tell me, O God," the first man asked the voice, "What did he pray for that I should owe him anything?"

"He prayed that all your prayers be answered.."

For all we know, our blessings are not the fruits of our prayers alone,  but those of another praying for us.

My prayer for you today is that all your prayers are answered. Be blessed.

"What you do for others is more important than what you do for yourself"

Great Day To Be Alive

This is a great day to be alive. This is a great day to be you.

You can delight in the beauty of every little thing. You can experience the wonderful satisfaction of knowing you're making a positive difference.

You can dream, and then enjoy working your way toward the fulfillment of that dream. You can learn and create, and love and share, and experience life's richness in your own unique way.

This is an outstanding moment, because it is a culmination of all you've ever experienced. The paths you've chosen have led you right here, and now you can do something new and meaningful with it all.

The fears and shortcomings of your past no longer have to hold you back. The genuine love that's within you has more longing and ability to be expressed than ever before.

Look around you with thankful, loving eyes, and feel what a truly great day it is to be alive. The very best of life is here now for you, so live it to the fullest on this uniquely valuable day.

Haaaaaba !!!

Ghana Movie Awards 2013 - Review

The 4th edition of the Ghana Movie Awards (GMA) finally took place on
30th of December 2013 at the Accra International Conference Centre. A
host of Ghanaian movie actors and actresses graced the occasion, from
both the local language and the 'abrofosem' movie circles.
Nominations for the various categories were made available about a
month ago. The nomination list this time did not separate movies made
in local from the English ones. In the previous GMAs , that was the
trend, this time around, they were all put together in the same soup.
Odd Thoughts
Apart from Kwadwo Nkansah (Lil Win), seemed no local movie person won
anything. Well, Kumawood has already awarded those in the local movie
a few days ago in the Akoben Awards so no sweat.
I don't know if it's the style or rule of the organisers of the GMAs
to always nominate and award a movie which has not been seen by the
public. A movie to be premiered on 1st January 2014 gets a nomination
about a month before it becomes public viewing , and subsequently gets
awards for various categories. This practice at the GMA always baffles
me since other movie awards like the Oscar Awards, which most people
in the movie industry around the world wouldn't deny they wish to have
in their statuette cabinet, have rules that the movie should have been
shown in cinema over a period of time. Well, that's Oscar Award rules,
they want people to see a movie before it gets nominated and awarded.
Ours is GMA rules, you get nominated and awarded before the movie is
even shown to the public to know why they were even applauding when
the movie won an award
As usual the audience to the show were not lively and always had to be
told to clap for performances. Well, maybe it's because the
performance were not that interesting to so it did not trigger the
audience to spontaneously put their hands together for them.
Did anyone see Mafikizolo of Khona fame perform ? Or I missed it.
Hope it wasn't a ploy to get people buy ticket
The winners on the night were the same old familiar faces, no
surprises. I guess the same people are doing the movies over and over
again, get nominated over and over again, and win over and over again.
A comedian, who came on stage, virtually said dry jokes. I always
wonder why stand up comedians always tell the audience to clap for
themselves. Is it that when they realised their jokes are not funny
and the people are just watching them without laughing, they tell them
to clap for themselves to lighten up the auditorium for them to have a
mental satisfaction that the clapping is for their performance. That's
some nice trick; I guess its stand up comedy lesson 101.
When the nomination list came out, there was a news report of a
producer/writer/writer lambasting the list, but was very interesting
to watching her receiving more than one award on the night with all
smiles(am sure she wanted to cry). I thought she would not have even
attended the event after what she was reported to have said. May be
the organisers sang the old school song "Cool it Now" to her
It seemed those called out to read out nomination list were reading
from a smart phone from one of the event sponsors. Some had difficulty
reading from that small piece of electronic device due to all that
lighting around the stage. Next time, they should provide them with at
least a 7" tablet pc to make the reading easier . As for the antics of
those reading the nominations and award winners on stage, the least
said about them, the better.
The large screen played a video of a nomination list for an award for
males, only for the announcer to call out a female winner, the
audience as usual went "ooooooo". Event director should up his game
because it was awkward watching the announcer try to defend herself .
It made me remember the washing powder TV advert of the little boy
saying "it's not my fault"
Least I forget, whose idea was to bring this Asian guy , I think from
Korea, who started "performing" when people were heading for the exit?
I guess it was to make people laugh on hearing him say some Twi
phrases talking about women's back side. To me, the phrase were
somehow derogatory to women, didn't find it funny. Most people at the
auditorium might not have heard him because as soon as the MCs for the
night thanked people for coming to show, they started walking out
only for the MC say they shouldn't go and that there was a last
performance. It was too late
In all, I will give the Ghana Movie Awards 2013 a mark of 55% . This
is the 4th event, I hope the 5th Anniversary will see improvement and
make it more interesting. I am tempted to say they are still learning
and it will be harsh to compare them to other movie awards which have
even crossed their 50th event.
God grant us life to see the next one in 2014.

ECG PRE-PAID METERS

The ECG until a few years ago , have been sending their personnel to
residential and non-residential premises to read credit meters and
also deliver bills. They then switched to Pre-paid meters installed in
both residential and non-residential premises, although not all credit
meters have been changed. The meters installed were not of the same
kind although they were installed by same ECG. There were different
methods of loading money.
The latest project by ECG with regards to pre-paid meters is a worry
to some people, especially those in residential houses.

Which other country,apart from Ghana, removes the electricity
pre-paid meters installed in residential houses, line several meters,
then fix it to a pole some where on the street, so that if you want to
reload it , you have walk to the street, whether there is
rain,shine,day,night,dawn ,etc .?
Forgetting the other security risk like an armed robber having access
to it by tampering with your power source outside your home before
even coming close to your house.When your power goes ,example at 2am,
you have to unlock all your doors, walk to the pole on the street and
reload.what if its an armed robber who has tampered with it ? By
unlocking all your doors, you have given free access to the robbers

The issue of the meter catching fire, which has already been reported,
is of great concern too. The meters which are fix to a pole are
installed by lining three or four on a pole. Should one catch fire,
the rest of the meters also get affected ,meaning more houses in an
area gets no power and extra cost to ECG to replace all ,although they
would have just replaced one if the meter was left in the house.
In spite of the fact that, they have not fished changing all 'Credit
Meters' to Pre-Paid,and with the soon to be be introduced 'Smart
Pre-Paid Meters' in 2014 , they are replacing existing pre-paid to
these 'pole meters'.
These among other factors are the reasons why ECG should rethink on
this replacement of pre-paid meters. One head from ECG on tv said its
a pilot project, well, their attention is been drawn to the fact that
they are placing their consumers lives in danger especially having to
make a consumer leave his/her secured house to go to the street to
reload credit to the pre-paid meter.

The President has directed that government officials living in
government premises should have pre-paid meters installed. With this
kind of 'pole meters ' and considering the security concerns above, is
the ECG not also placing their lives in danger? Or since they are
government officials, they will have theirs in their compound but the
'Ordinary Ghanaian ' ,as we are described, will have to walk to the
street to reload

The simple suggestion is that, they can go ahead and change the
meters, but should not fix them outside on a pole. One might say it
will curb illegal installation, but issue is these connections are
done by their own people. They should clean their house of people who
engage in that, and not put the consumers lives at risk.
The ECG may have good intentions to improve their services but this
improvement should not at the detriment of the people they are serving

English Lesson 102 - You and I or You and Me

Too often, people use I in expressions like you and I or my wife and I when they should be using me.

·         It is a present from my wife and me. (correct)

(me – objective case of I after the preposition from)

·         It is a present from my wife and I. (wrong)

(This is as wrong as saying from I.)

·         Keep this between you and I. (wrong)

(This is as wrong as saying between I and the post.)

Remember, prepositions govern the objective case. Therefore, the word I must change to me when it is the object of a preposition (i.e., follows the preposition).

The fact that it is preceded by you and or my wife and is actually irrelevant.

You should only use I in an expression like you and I when it is the subject of the verb

For example:

·         You and I argue on this subject on a daily basis. (correct)

(You and I — subject of the verb to argue)

·         My husband and I accept your apology. (correct)

(My husband and I — subject of the verb to accept)

If the terms objective case and subject of a verb are confusing, there is a neat trick to determine whether to use the you and I form or the you and me form. Simply remove everything apart from the I and try your sentence again. You will naturally use the correct version.

·      It was proposed by my wife and I/me.

Question: I or me? 
Step 1: Remove my wife and 
Step 2: Try the sentence again.
Step 3a: It was proposed by I. (wrong)
Step 3b: It was proposed by me. (correct) 
Therefore:

·         It was proposed by my wife and me. (correct)

·         It was proposed by my wife and I. (wrong)

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