I recently joined the Zog Sports family of athletes. Yes, I’m still studying for the damn GMAT’s and it sucks! But I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to try something new and fun :), so after being asked repeatedly throughout the winter to join a Zog football(soccer) team (thanks Sarah), I finally did.

Our first game was yesterday– indoor style out door soccer– and we lost 6-5. Oh and I learnt something about myself: I kinda suck at football. Oh, something else I learnt was that I am badly out of shape, despite my sexy lean look. Anyway, If yesterday’s game was anything to go by, I’m pretty sure that those two problems will be fixed by the end of the season. By the first 10 minutes if the first half, our opponents were up 4 goals to nil, and we spent the rest of the match trying to catch up. I think we did a pretty splendid job getting to 5, and allowing them just two extra goals…

If you haven’t played indoor football a.k.a small poles before, you might be tempted to think it’s a pushover– very wrong! By the end of the first half, I was ready to go have a beer. There was lots of running involved and the game kinda never really stopped because there are no out of bounds lines.

If you haven’t tried out Zog ,Sports, I urge you to. It’s a pretty sweet group of people you get to hang out with– and then you get to drink afterwards! Check out www.zogsports.com or www.zogsportsnj.com to see what they still have open. You’ll probably have a choice between football (soccer), dodge ball, kickball, touch football and basketball. Go on check it out!

Leave a comment!

See Photos of this day here.

By all measure, this year’s Central Park Challenge was the biggest and the best in 23 years! There were more adults, more kids, more runners, more supporters and more refreshments! Choc full O’ Nuts, one of the refreshment sponsors for the day, brought a whole new feel to the park when it showed up in it’s “Coffee Bus”– a little reminiscent of the icecream man, but for adults (though the crazy parents these days will let their kids eat anything!).

As always, the Play area was alive with hundreds of energetic little people, draped in sometimes oversized orange shirts (this year, the Central Park Challenge stayed true to it’s brand colors– the park was alive with blue, yellow and orange). Face painting , sand art, the bouncing castle and the Jr. All American Races, all staples of the Central Park Challenge, were present again this year. One new addition to the show however was Audra Rox: from my vantage point, she sounded good, but I think she recieved mixed reviews overall. Whatever the case, the Play area was a success this year, and I hope the Central Park Challenge keeps it a success each year by reinventing it frequently.

The stage area this year was amazing! It had a huge yellow stage skirt with all the event sponsors listed in blue. On the stage itself, there was a HUGE-ONGOUS sign that read “A DAY OF HOPE” that acted as the back drop to all the perfomances. Close to the end of the event, as Dr. K’s Motown review brought the day to a close with “Ain’t no mountain high enough” (can you say authentic motown?!), I stood at the back of the crowd and marvelled at the number of people who had braved the warnings of a potential “severe thunderstom”, to be in Central Park, to celebrate this Day of Hope. As the last notes of the song were sang, the towering ”A DAY OF HOPE” sign on stage seemed to bolster the words of Dr. K’s music, and send a wave of excitement through the crowd which quickly rose, and then broke with loud cheers and applause…

…and then the rain finally came.

But by then most people had expended all the Hope they had been holding in for this wonderful event, for a year. And boy had they expended. Earlier in the day (7am-ish), most of these people that were now being ushered out of the park by the rain had run a 5k race, or walked and cheered a mile to show their support for people with disabilities, or both. The rain couldn’t have come at a more opportune time– people needed to be sent home to go recharge for next year’s Central Park Challenge. Will you be there?

I found some pictures of the day here for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy and leave a message.

The countdown is on! 11 days from now the Central Park Challenge will happen! Act NOW to make a difference in the life of a child, an adult or a senior citizen with developmental and learning disabilities!

Here is what you can do to help:

1. Click here and make a donation of whatever you can afford
2. Form a team online and raise funds, or
3. Spread the word (by sending the URL to friends and family, encouraging them to help out too)

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment, or signing up for email or RSS updates. You can also e-mail me at pbaffour.wordpress@gmail.com. Thank you.

Disclaimer

The views expressed below are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views YAI/NIPD Network or any of it’s affiliates, or its Board of Directors or the people they represent.

I blogged about the Central Park Challenge in the past (please click here to visit that blog post), but I don’t think I said much about the organization that’s responsible for this wonderful day: YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities Network.

The YAI/NIPD Network has been creating hope for people with disabilities for over 50 years. Most people who know about this organization usually know one thing: that it’s a “national leader in the provision of services, education and training in the field of developmental disabilities”. What people might not know is that the YAI/NIPD Network is a leader in the fight for human rights. You can read here about a recent gorundbreaking lawsuit won by the YAI/NIPD Network, that has major implications for the future of housing for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

Please help support YAI’s great work by clicking on the photo below and:

1. Making a donation of JUST $10 (or more if you can afford it)
2. Forming a team and raising funds, or
3. Spreading the word (by sending the URL to friends and family, encouraging them to help out too)

You can also view YAI/NIPD Network’s photostream on flickr here . You can also see YAI’s video’s here.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment, or signing up for email or RSS updates. You can also e-mail me at pbaffour.wordpress@gmail.com. Thank you.

If any other media outlet reported on this, I probably wouldn’t waste my time chewing them out. But when CNN publishes a story about someone calling another person “sweetie” (read it here), and attempts to pass it as “serious” news, I begin to wonder what the hell is going on?! With all the catastrophes going on around the world, with all the wars, natural disasters, falling cranes in NYC, police abuse of power, racism, and the ever worsening economic situation of this country, CNN finds the time to go after Barack Obama for calling someone sweety!

Now, I understand that some may find that a little derogatory, and I can accept that– though I don’t think it is. Many people who commented on that article said they had the same habit– and seriously, who hasn’t slipped up and called someone they shouldn’t have honey, hon, babe, sweetie, darling etc. before? My point is, It might not be right, but it happens UNINTENTIONALLY! AND he apologized!

And WHAT in the world is wrong with the people who use this as a basis on whether or not to vote for him?! I thought we had thinking people in this country. If you don’t want to vote for him, base it on his policies damnit, and not on the fact that he called some lady sweetie!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment, or signing up for email or RSS updates. You can also send me e-mails at pbaffour.wordpress@gmail.com. Thank you.

Just read this and here’s what I think:

If the pilot of this plane is really that dumb, he SHOULDN’T be flying the plane in the first place! This whole thing might have been a set-up by the passenger and his “friend” who works for jetblue (or not), but that’s not the point. The point is that the pilot should have had more sense, and controlled his flight attendant, and asked them to remain seated in the jump seat– after all, they had already agreed to let the passenger have the other seat– instead of bullying him into the toilet. At the very least, he could have offered him the jump seat as opposed to the toilet!

Besides how dumb the pilot is, I feel bad for jetblue for having such poor staff training. Please leave your comments.

So, soon after I made my last post “Stab-In-The-Dark-Innovation: Plausible?”, I recieved and e-mail from Mr. Joachim Breitner letting me know he had responded to a comment I left after I read his blog Nomeata’s Mind Shares.

After reading his respose, I realized that I probably wasn’t too clear about what I said, so I replied to his response. I posted his response and my response below to help you understand better. You can find another one of his blogs here: http://planet.openghana.org/

Joachim Breitner:

Hi Papa,

I wasn’t there for the money (although it was nice to get it, of course), but I went in the spirit of a volunteer – so I went when I felt that it would fail.

Nevertheless I think the trip would have been worth it for SOSHGIC if it had been used properly. Some of the skills I hoped to teach to the kids were rare in Ghana and valuable everywhere else and would have benefitted them.

Ah, and I just find your blog entry at http://pbaffour.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/stab-in-the-dark-innovation-plausible/
and it has a slightly different tone than your comment here :-), and I agree with what you said there. Please note though that it wasn’t really missing research that caused the failure, but missing internal agreement or even communication.

And BTW, I wasn’t played “a lot” for the standards of a German university student, but it wasn’t cheap for a Ghanian school either.

Papa (Me):

Hi Joachim, thanks for getting back to me. And thanks for seeking out my blog too. I’m really sorry if it sounded a little “stiff” and cold– I can assure you it wasn’t aimed at you. The point I was trying to make in the blog (which I think I need to clean up a bit more) was that SOSHGIC did not do the research THEY needed before deciding that they needed someone to teach Linux. I’ve looked through your blog, so I know you’re very competent in your area of expertise, so again, I do NOT blame you at all for wanting to leave. Rather, I blame SOSHGIC for not taking the time to do the research into how to make sure the students took full advantage of your skills, BEFORE asking you to come in. I hope this clarfies my point.

Also, I agree with you, you probably were not paid “a lot” by German high school standard. I’ll make an amendment to my posting.

Again thanks for going out and trying to help. I am in NY and I work for a non-profit, so I fully understand the heart of a volunteer. Thank you and stay blessed.

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NOTE/Disclaimer: I only have one side of this story, so if you have any information concerning this issue, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail at pbaffour.wordpress@gmail.com and I will post it for you as an update to this blog. Thanks

I love my high school…It’s LARGELY responsible for the person I am today and I will forever be greatful to everyone involved in making that experience happen. AND because I love my school so much, I just had to write this blog post to help it do better. I look forward to some interesting comments.

I just read a little blog post by a guy who was hired by my high school to teach Linux. You can go here to read it if you’re interested. Anyway, this post kinda got under my skin a little bit and got me thinking: why would they do that? Why would they find a guy from Germany and give him money (a lot, i’m sure), pay for shipping/ freight and housing, to come teach Linux? The only logical conclusion was that he would be providing an invaluable service that merited all the expenses. However, after reading the blog to the end (and still being in touch with my high school), I realize this Linux program bore no fruit! My brother just graduated and doesn’t know the first thing about Linux. Another brother is still there, and hasn’t mentioned Linux to me (I’ll ask him about it).

I am a HUGE fan of innovation and creativity– how couldn’t I be after being a business major at Whittier College and studying under Dr. Jeff Decker ? But I’m can not, with any logic, business or otherwise, support innovation wich isn’t backed by research. And it seems that this is exactly what happened in this case. According to the posting, there was no interest– absolutly NONE– in the Linux initiative, thus leading this guy to resign. Which only means, the executives who hired this guy didn’t do their homework before making that decision– or they made a decision because it sounded “cool”, not because it would actually do something for the students.

See, the thing that gets to me is that they wasted money on this guy (who by the way I think is an amazing person for resigning– he could have stayed on an kept taking the money) without first assessing what exactly they needed Linux for or if there would be some interest in it. At the very least, they could have made Linux a required part of the Computer Science course in SOS if they were going to spend all this money on this Linux guy. If his primary purpose there was to implement a system (as opposed to teach), then they should have instituted mandatory hours during the week, when all staff and students went to learn Linux.

Anyway, my whole rant aside, I know that the people who run SOS HGIC are some of the smartest I ever met (yes, I really believe that), so they must have has some good reason to hire this guy. I’d really like to read some comments from people who have any idea what this thing was all about.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment, or signing up for email or RSS updates. Thank you.

Have you received some automatically generated comments that have been blocked by Akismet? Are you unsure whether or not these comments are spam (THEY ARE!)? Check out this blog for answers to your questions: http://blog.akismet.com/2007/11/27/it-really-is-spam/

Issue 2 - The Java e-mail application isn’t working

The my last blog about my TMO Wing phone, I ranted about how I went on a holy grail quest to find a way to make the e-mail application that comes with the phone to work. And I found the answer and brought it to you! Today, I’m going to rant a little about another e-mail related problem with my TMO wing.

Most if not all of you have heard about GMAIL going mobile with a Java based app for your wm6 phone (other requirements apply– see here). If not, just google it and it should come up–and here’s a link that downloads the app directly to your phone, gmail.com/app. Just enter it into your phone browser. The problem with this mobile app though is that it doesn’t work…well, not for me anyway, and a couple hundred (if not thousand) other people as I’ve discovered. See, just like I did with the problem before, i’ve been to internet heaven and hell, trying to find a solution to this problem, but this problem is a little different– it seems this app worked for some people right out of the box, whilst others just can’t seem to get it to work.

The classic symptom of this app not working are is an certificate error massage when you try to download your messages with the app:

“Sorry, Gmail for mobile will not work on your phone. Your phone doesn’t have the appropriate certificate to communicate with the server. Try accessing Gmail for mobile in your mobile browser at http://mail.google.com”

THE SOLUTION: Now, in some forums, i’ve found that downloading a verisign class 3 public certificate directly to your phone solved the problem for people, so here’s the link if you want to try that: https://www.verisign.com/cgi-bin/support/rootcert/getrootcert.cer

yes, I know it’s a long link, but it’s work the finger exercise if it gets the app to work for you. If this doesn’t work… Well, I have no idea how to fix your problem though i’m still looking and will bring you an update as soon as I find one. In the meantime, Please leave a comment if you have some ideas on how this problem can be fixed. Thank you!