Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Day The World Ended, GCI Stories...

Hey Blogland! wetin deh? Hope 2008 is being wonderful so far. This is my second blog post in 2008. See! i told you i was gonna be more deligent about it lol..

Some miraculous sturves happened this year. I mean it snowed here in Atlanta!

can u imagine?

Apparently the snow was a very heavy sumthin by ATL standards. There was so much snow, the city had to be placed under serious weather alert.

it was all over the local news stations too, people running in and out of stores buying pure water, flashlight, batteries and other crazy sturves as though a tsunami was about to hit.

Now take a wild guess at how much snow fell? 6inches? 10inches? 1ft? perhaps 2ft?

well nice try but it's none of the above.

The amount of snow was less than 1 inch.

1 inch snow got everybody scrambling like ants in a crumbling castle.. Now aint dat a trip?

I remember my coworkers making noise - advising i better start running home before the world ends from the 1 inch snow lol.. i told them - coming from New York, this was nothing. Back in New York, our cars got snowed in and we'd still have to dig it out and drive to work, school or wherever we had to be cos aint nothing getting shut down.

Some people were even anticipating the day off from work the next day.

Are you kidding me?

lmao!! lazy mofos!

That being said, i noticed some folks still managed to make tiny pathetic snow balls, so i guess it was a disaster afterall.



I was browsing facebook jejely the other day and came across one of my old school buddies "Teju" from way back in my Government College Ikorodu days. Mehn! you'd be surprised how many of your long lost buddies you'll find on FB.

Anyways, Teju used to be part of my clique back then, of which also included Femi (he was my bestest friend on visiting day cos his parents used to bring jollof rice and chicken each time they visited..after we finsh the rice, i demoted him back to regular friend lol), Tunde (Tunde was just a big ol punk mehn lol..he was the biggest amongst us, but he had no liver. i hope he toughend up a bit now), Meno (lol..funny igbo dude that used to stammer when he got mad. He used to bite when he fought too. watch out now! lmao), ishola (half naija, half polish..his sister was hot!) and muyiwa aka "cry baby".

These were my boys! Band of Brothers if you would. We did everything together - played monkey post, table soccer, scaled fence to go play street fighter at ketu bustop or stop by Mama Carol's restuarant to eat yellow eba and ogbono soup cos the school food was usually crappy, sneak into Iya sheri's farm together to go pluck corn illegally even though everybody said iya sheri was a witch but we still dint give a shit, go on "suicide missions" like sneaking into teacher's offices to steal exam questions, susbstitute answer sheets, or even change exam scores - it was fun changing a "3" to an "8" lol..omo i was bad sha. i hope my kids grow up to be angels.

Anyways, since we rolled together, we often got into trouble collectively and that often resulted in us getting sentenced to the school's public latrine aka "Shalanga" to go pound rotten shit in our house wears while our peers were in class.

Yeh! i have suffered.

Till today, i remain undecided on which sentence is worse - to pound rotten shit or cut grass and get fat blisters on your palms. Which would you opt for if you had the choice?

Mehn! i miss those days sha. No place like Naija. I hope the rest of the boys are still alive and doing great.

I haven't seen my brother and sister in nine years. My heart aches real bad. Mumsy too. I can't believe she's getting old. I remember when she use to chase us around the backyard with cain, now we joke about how she can't do those sturves no more.

Agba ti de!

I must enter naija this year! notin else matters this year more than that trip across the atlantic. In the words of OlaDELe - "Oya Spray me Money.." lol..

Experts say the US economy is headed into a recession. They argue the collapse of the mortgage industry is largely to blame. Big Banks suffering billions in losses mostly in part due to lending money to homebuyers who initially were able to afford mortgage payments, but later unable to continue paying after their low introductory interest rates sky rocketed. To get an idea - imagine obtaining a loan from a bank to buy a home.

The bank says well, we're gonna offer you an interest of say 3% for the first 5 yrs after which the rates could go up to say around 8% or so depending on the market - otherwise called Adjustable Rate Mortgage.

So basically, say you were initially paying $1100/month for the first 3 yrs, and then your monthly payment increased to $1600 and you begin finding it rather tough to keep up with payments. Now suppose you give up that home and go into forclosure - that home will no longer be worth it's estimated book value, it depreciates and so the bank takes a write down.

A write down is a reduction in the book value of an asset because it is overvalued compared to the market value. The bank takes a loss.

Just in january, 7000 home owners lost their homes in Metro Altanta alone.

Amongst other factors, Unemployment is at 5% - up from 4.7%. Consumer spending is down and when people don't spend money, the economy does not do well.

The Feds decided to slash federal interest rates in order to free up more cash so people can spend money and stimulate the economy. When the feds cut interest rates, it makes it easier for people to be able to afford things like car loans, home loans.. etc since the interest will be lower than what it used to be. That way as people begin to find things more affordable, they spend more and that in turn stimulates the economy.

Sorry, this does not mean Ijebu garri will be cheaper at african market. You will have to negotiate and price that garri yourself.

The white house also reached a tentative deal on a stimulus plan package that would pay stipends of $300 to $1,200 per family and provide tax incentives for businesses. Workers who paid income taxes could receive more than $300, and families with children would receive an additional $300 per child. The stipend, which some lawmakers were calling a “tax rebate,” would be subject to income limits so that the wealthiest taxpayers would not receive it.

Again, it's all in the hope people will spend this money back into the economy. However some fear this emergency action might already be too late and could result in the economy being worse off - imagine if people still ended up not spending that money back..hmmm.

Anyways all we can do is hope for the best. God help us all. All i know is if things get real ugly, i will run back to the village. There's no such thing as foreclosure for village.

Hey! I finally met my phone buddy. Yes! That same person responsible for me always running over my one thousand daytime minutes every billing cycle..

so what about her?

Hmmm busy bodies, i will leave that jist for another time.

Let's just call her worthy for now, but only time will tell.

Monday, January 7, 2008

The Wrap Up, Updates...

I know It's been a while, roughly a month and a half. I've been busy
with life and all that comes with it..you know. but hey! i haven't gotten into an accident since the last incident, so that's something to be cheerful about. Although my car is still at the shop undergoing restoration. They called me this morning and told me i should expect to have her back pretty soon. I can't wait. It's been over two months now and i miss riding in that comfort i grew accustomed to.

At the moment, I'm rolling in a '91 mercury Capri XR2 convertible i bought from my dad's collection. It's even got 17' rims on it lol..and even though I'm not exactly a rims kinda guy, i must admit, it doesn't look too bad.
Now this is one hell of a ride. From the outside, it looks like one of those cars you'd expect to see at an exibit. Don't be fooled however, this ride has got a mind of its own. it dies randomly for no reason whenever it feels like it - at least once a week, and if you try to travel faster than fifty miles/hr, you get this weird feeling as though it was about to disintegrate any minute.

Please when riding with me, try not to make any attempt at winding down the glass windows, they do not wind down at all. when a lost driver asks me for directions, i have no option but to open the driver side door in order for me to be heard. I remember this one time i was driving down Mansell rd, and this lady driving on my passenger seat side of the road had gestured me to wind down so she could ask me for direction. All i could do was gesture back as if to say - "Sorry, that window does not wind down ma'am". lol..from the look on her face, it appeared she didn't quite understand my situation and probably thought i was being a jerk. Oh well! i hope she didn't head down the wrong way. Wetin man go do? I'd have to reach across and open the passenger door to deliver directions - possibly while the car is in motion. i didn't think that was such a great idea. People would probably think i was a crazy African.

This car has bailed on me in the worst possible conditions you could ever imagine, including one time at a traffic light - i was the first car at the light btw and the car died. I must have uttered "On No" at least twenty times within the first few seconds. Several seconds after the light turned green, drivers behind me began expressing their displeasure, blowing their horns, yelling..it was a rather tense feeling as i fiddled for the key, repeatedly turning the ignition on and off hoping it would start back up. By this time, traffic had piled up considerably. it was evening rush hr. I thought i step out and just push the piece of crap off the side, but skinny ol me, i would need help. Besides i was in the inside lane, so the situation wasn't looking good. At one point i considered leaving the car there and just running off out of frustration. People were clearly pissed.

Just as i was about to step out of the vehicle, i went at the ignition one last time and VOILA! the stupid thing started back up. I slammed on the throttle and faded out out of sight in a hurry. I think one of the worst car trouble experience is when it stalls on you in a very dry and freezing weather. Yep! i have suffered in the hands of this car, considering i don't do too well in freezing weather. Anyways, all in all the car has been a blessing - when it acted right. I took it to the mechanic over New Year's Weekend and they checked it out. I'm pleased to say it has been behaving nicely since then, but i'm better prepared now if it decides to act up. Among several items to help me deal with situation;

A big plank in the trunk to hit the shit out of the battery, a jumper cable, a $3 portable fan from Walmart to blow cool breeze into the engine if it overheats, and finally a thrash bag to pack all my sturves in case it dies and i finally decide to dump the thing and bail out. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Xmas was alright. Even though the ones that I'm accustomed to spending such holidays with; my mum, bro and sister ain't here in the states - at least for now, i still tried to catch some fun. I visited pop and his wife, ate a bit ( i made sure to not fill up too much since i had more stops to make) and jetted out after giving my step siblings their Xmas gift. Next stop was my home girl's place, let's call her Capri. A buncha my other buddies were there too so it was all good. I filled up my tank a little more and she even had Bailey's Irish cream, hmmm.. correct girl!. Next i headed back to the other side of town to another one of my home girl's spot and linked up with some more friends. It was like 9-ish, so that had to be my last stop. I filled up this time to the very brim, drank, got jiggy to Naija music and some old school Reggae and Hiphop, played truth or dare and finally left when it was about to get crazy lol..buncha freaks in there, i was tempted to stay longer but i had to get up early later that morning to go chase some money. I had fun.

New Years was a bit quieter. I'm used to ringing in the new yr at church. it's a ritual. After all the hugs and well wishes, i headed straight to club queens international to go take over the turntables, but got distracted and ended up not spinning. DJ Bass was rocking, so it was all good.

As i reflect on the past year, i consider it quite a defining year for me. A lot of good things happened to me. Myself, my family and friends are in good health, got a significant salary increase (hey Mr. CEO Roger, please consider me again this Yr during performance review time o lol), bought my very first crib, solidified my DJ business, made some great friends and business contacts, survived a near fatal car accident and walked away completely whole, but most importantly, I'm alive and well. That alone is cause for Joy. The one sad thing though, was my friend losing her mum to cancer just few weeks before Xmas. it was quite depressing, even more so i knew her mom personally. Tinuke, My prayers are with you. May her gentle soul Rest in perfect peace.

So far the Year is going ok, you know - i'm just chugging along doing my thing. I have a date with the IRS on the 21st of Jan. They'd like me to come in so i can account for my 2006 taxes lol..can you imagine? like i make that much dough. I didn't keep any record of my 2006 financial statements, so I'm not exactly sure
what will happen. At worst i might be asked to pay back the tax refund i got but I'm leaving it in the hands of God. I'll keep you guys posted.

I spoke to my dearest mom on Xmas Day and after she prayed for me, she took style to gimme hints about marriage and all that stuff lol..I just told her to leave that side for now. At 27, all i wanna do is burst my ass and do me for now. if i run into a chic that will scatter my head enough to make me consider giving up bachelor life, she'll be the first to know. She sees a crib, decent job and stable income and she's probably thinking marriage is next lol..momsy neva hala. All i wanna be bothered with right now is how i'm getting that money, and while money is not the source of happiness, it surely is a means. so many things i dream to do in my lifetime, I wan jolly and we going need cash to do all that stuff ya know lol..anyways I'm passively looking sha - too many fine naija women in the ATL, you can easily loose focus.

Anyways, that's the update on MightyMike. Lord knows when next I'll get the chance again to update, but I'll put forth my best effort to be diligent about it. I'd like to leave you with a quote i read from a book on Google books (great App by the way) the other day - "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen, wherein he talks about how our
thoughts shape our lives. You are what you think - so to speak. I found it interesting and thought I'd share with you. I've included the link at the bottom of the page as well. Until my next update folks, take good care of yourselves.

"A man is literally what he thinks,
his character being the complete sum of his thoughts.
Act is the blossom of thoughts, and pain and
suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the
sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry."

- James Allen


As a Man Thinketh