New Year's day

New year's day falls on the 1st day of January to mark the beginning of the new year.Unlike Christmas day,which is lightly celebrated overseas,the beginning of the new year is marked by a huge celebration.The build-up begins with fireworks preparation taking place at just about everywhere that you look.Kids and teenagers buy fireworks,while states and cities plan their own fireworks celebration on a grand scale.
Times Square in New York is known to have the best New Year's eve celebration.A ball is dropped from the sky with a big timer on it counting down to past midnight which would mark the beginning of the new year.There is a firework celebration going on downtown.Just down I-95,in the Baltimore Inner harbor there is a lot of fireworks going on also.It is great to be in these places,especially New York Times square,but if you can not make it there,do not worry, one of the national network stations will carry the event live for you.At New Year's eve,you can always find a party going on.Just call up one of your friends and you would be directed to one.Booze is in abundance,Heineken,Guinness,Michelob beer,Budwseiser,you name and it is available.The thing I loved most about living in the DC metro area is that,people work very hard and they also party very hard.Choose any of the parties going on and you will be guaranteed a good time.While you drink and chat with friends and family members,the TV set will be on and as the clock counts down to midnight,everybody rushes to the set in order not to miss the beginning to the new year.
New year's day itself is full of college football games.College football's regular season ends around the last week of November each year.Since there is no playoffs in the college football game,the teams with the best regular season records are matched in various bowl games around the nation to determine who becomes college football's national champion.This was before the Bowl Championship Series was introduced in 1998.Throughout the 80's and 90's teams played in different bowls games, then the coaches and football writers get to decide who the national champion was.
There has thus been co-champions in the past,Alabama and Miami in 1978,Colorado and Georgia in 1990,Miami(Fla)and Washington University in 1991 and Michigan and Nebraska in 1997.There is a coaches poll and another poll by UPI(this is the poll by an association of sport writers.
In the 80's one of the bowls that determined the eventual college champions was played on New year's day.Now the championship games could be slated anywhere from the first week of the new year through about the 9 day of the month of January, to avoid a schedule clash with national football league.

Work permit

When I got into the US in 1985, all you needed for employment was a social security number.Most of the time it did not even have to belong to you.It wasn't until November 6 of 1986 that then President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act,making it unlawful to knowingly hired an illegal immigrant.Henceforth,employers were also required to request for proof of employment eligibility from potential employees.The bottom line, was to screened out undocumented immigrants.The jobs that I got while at Clemson and later on in Gainesville,Georgia,I provided a number that was issued to me by a friend.Even when I moved to Washington DC, I continued to use the same information to gain employment.By the time the Immigration Reform and Control Act was signed,I was already employed,so the law did not have an immediate effect on me.At the time,I believe current employees were not required to proof their legal status.
One of the side effects of the immigration reform was that a whole black market for official documentation started to explode around the nation.Fake driver licences,fake SSN,fake work authorisation permits could now be obtained from the streets.The first one that I got cost me 300dollars and it was a legitimate document.It was issued to me by an attorney of Haitian origin who was practising at the time in Silver Spring.I was introduced to him by a Ghanian friend of mine,with whom we worked in a gas service station.The first question the lawyer asked is how you arrived in the country?He then collects his fees and uses the information you provided him to process some work documents for you.The document arrives in your mail box in about a week or two.The guy must have been highly connected to be able to provide such legitimate documentation.He kept his operation very quiet,he did not request for any referrals.As a matter of fact, he requested that you not mention that you got the documentation through him.A number of my friends were shocked when I presented them with my legit working papers.I could not reveal my source though.The document help me a lot before it got missing on a metro train ride.I tried with no avail to locate the Haitian attorney.He had left the Silver Spring area and was probably operating somewhere else that was quite.
My work permit helped me get into many companies,included Fantle's drug store,Radio Shack,Circuit City,Burns Security and a whole lot of part time retail outlets that included Sears.By the time that I lost the document I was safely at Circuit City.I missed quite a few employment opportunities while I was at Circuit City.Sprint Spectrum had tried to hire me in 1998 and I had to turned down the job for personal reasons.Everybody,especially my co-workers were shocked because Sprint Spectrum was the place that everybody was dying to go work for.I did join Sprint PCS in the beginning of 1999,but that was after I had tapped into another black market source.This one I got the information about it while reading the Washington Post.There was an article there about a triving black market for official documentation downtown DC in the Columbia Pike area.This is an area with a lot of immigrations from Latin American.The article explained how the whole business is conducted from start to finish.They provided all types of documentations.
I got one from this source, after providing the individual with all the information that I wanted on the document.It did not cost much me either.About $100 is all I paid for it.There was a problem with the document though.A trained eye could tell that they were not legit.I could tell right away.I talked to a few people and they convince me that a company that really wanted to hire me with my experience would not bother to look too closely at the document.Companies interested in hiring you,actually go throw the whole hiring process and it is usually on the first day on the job that you are required to show proof of being eligible for employment.This was the case for the last two jobs that I held before leaving the US,at Sprint Pcs and AT&T Wireless.

Christmas Holidays

Christmas day is celebrated worldwide and US joins in celebrating the day that Jesus Christ was born.The built up to the day itself is treated differently than say in Cameroon.In the US it is a day celebrated quietly at home with a few friends and family members.People spend money on Christmas trees,including decorating the tree.It is also a cold period in most of the US,so you would not see people dancing in the streets and children moving from one house to the other to visit with their neighbours as in the case in the African countries.People spend a lot of money buying gifts though for friends and family members.This is one period when you do not want to be broke.People will remember you for not providing them with a Christmas gift.Retailers make a lot of their profit during this period.You go to the shopping centers and they are all full of people shopping.People shop for items,gift wrap them and get them delivered to the intended recipients.The post office and package delivery services are all busy during this period.If you want to pick up a job for the holidays,this is the period to do it.Ups,Federal Express and just about all the retail outlets will have "for hire" signs posted all over the place.I spent quite a few Christmas day at Willie's place.He had little children at the time.
I would buy them electronic games and educational hand held materials.I remember spending a few Christmas with the Awasums,Cecilia Awasum is my first cousin,married to David Awasum.At the time, they were living in Baltimore.They also had little children at the time.I would buy electronic gadgets for them and they will be all happy.On Christmas day,all you have to do is walked into any house and look at where the Christmas tree is.Underneath it you will see all the gifts that are ready for distribution.They are all neatly packed and placed underneath the trees.Once everybody is around, the gifts are distributed to the respective owners.The National Basketball Association(NBA)traditionally shows a professional basketball game sometime after 3.30pm.There might also be a college football bowl game or two.College bowl games are part of the post season match-ups that the NCAA provides during the holiday season.

Great College football games

I have watched some great college football games while in the US and I would start with a regular season college football game between the University of Miami and Florida State that took place in Talahasse,Florida in the 1986 football season.The game ended with Florida State coming from behind to get within an extra point of tying the game but Coach Bobby Bowden opted to go for two points to win the game and came up short.It was an exciting game though and Florida State won lots of fans that day including myself and they went on to embark on a tremendous record that would span about two decades, including winning two national champions.
The University of Clemson Tigers play their homes games in death Valley,Clemson,South Carolina and the University of Georgia is one of their big rivals.The game that I am talking about took place in the 1986/1986 college season and it was an up and down battle that ended with Clemson kicking a tough field goal in overtime to win a 35-38 thriller.It was one of the last games in the Danny Ford era at the School before he was push out for alleged recruiting violations.
Other great games include,University of Miami/Penn State in 1986,a game that Penn State won to knock Miami out of National Championship Contention.University of Miami versus Oklahoma for the 1988 National Championship win by Miami.The University of Florida versus Florida State for coach Steve Spurrier's national champion while at the University of Florida.Danny Wurlfull lead the Gators and in addition to winning the national championship that year,also won the heisman trophy.

Thanksgiving day holidays

In the United States,thanksgiving holiday is a one day affair that falls on the fourth Thursday in the month of November.It is the beginning of what is referred to as the "holiday season" which runs through new years day.The first one that I celebrated was while I was living in the Clemson University area.We were invited Agbor's research advisers resident.We spend the whole day at his place drinking beer, while the guy prepared some burgers on his grill.I believed we also had turkey that his wife prepared.It is worth noting,that there can be no real thanksgiving celebration without your traditional turkey.As a matter of fact, thanksgiving day is usually referred to as "turkey day".
By the year 1987, I had moved to the Washington DC metro area and we started a long period of celebrating turkey day at William Tabots residence.Agbor will drive from out of town, at first from Clemson and later on from Winston-Salem,North Carolina and he will pick me up for the ride to Virgina.At this time,Mary,Mr.Tabot's wife had already graduated as a pharmacist from Howard University and was working around the area.The place was always full with different family friends and relatives of Mr.Tabot.Willie,as we all called Mr.Tabot is a bon vivant and he loved having family members and friends around,especially Agbor and I.Since we both were single at the time,we always knew that we had a place to spend the thanksgivings holiday.We will normally arrive at his resident around 12pm to 1pm,while the cooking was still going on.The early arrival allowed us to catch up on what has been going on in each person,s life since the last time we met.Staying abroad at times is so stressful, at times it is even difficult to pick up the phone and talk to your loved ones.Even when we where out of touch with Willie for some time, we knew we could always get in touch with him during the holidays and we were immediately invited over.There was a constant supply of beer.
Everybody loves to drink Heineken and you could have as many as you wanted.There were periods that I will go almost year round without a drop of liquor.That all changes on turkey day.This was a day to indulge yourself.We normally spend the night over at his place.There were lots of free rooms.We did not have to worry about drinking and driving which is a no-no in the US.Dinner time usually starts around 4pm and the table will be full of all variety of foodstuffs.A stuffed turkey bird is usually the main attraction and everybody gets a piece of the bird with some.
Thanksgiving day is also known for the traditional football games that the National Football League(NFL)organises for the day.There are normally two football games,an earlier game at 12.30pm involving the Detroit Lions and a later game involving the Dallas Cowboys.The Dallas Cowboys are referred to as"America's team"because of the large fan base that follows the team.They are also noted for putting up a good show for thanksgiving day.Even on the years that the Cowboys are having a down year, you can always count on them to compete.There have been some thrillers on thanksgiving day,I remember Dallas Cowboy's quarterback Danny White rallying the cowboys down from two touchdowns, to push the game against the Minnesota Vikings into extra-time.The Vikings ended up winning a 44-38 thriller in sudden death over-time, with the vikings defense intercepting a Danny White pass and running it back for the final score of the game.That was on thanksgiving's day November 26,1987.
On November 26,1998 the same Minnesota Vikings defeated the Cowboys in Dallas 46-36.Rookie wide receiver from Minnesota,Randy Moss caught only three passes against the cowboys,but all were for touchdowns as he finished the day with 163 receiving yards.
November 28,2002 the Dallas Cowboys defeated their arch rivals, Washington Redskins 27-20.Down 20-10,the cowboys came back to post their 10 consecutive victory over the Redskins,with Dallas running back Emmitt Smith rushing for 144 yards,becoming the only playing in history to eclipse the 17,000 career rush-mark yard.
Who can forget the 16-14 Miami dolphins win over the Cowboys in a heartbreaking defeat in what is considered to be the most memorable thanksgiving day football game ever.The cowboys had blocked a potential game winning Dolphins field goal with 15 seconds remaining for a seemingly sealed victory, when Leon Lett came slipping and sliding on the snow, reviving a dead ball that was recovered by the dolphins on the cowboys seven yard line.Pete Stoyanovich then kicked a 20 yard field goal to seal the victory.The Cowboys will go on to win the Super bowl that season but the snowy thanksgiving day game will be remembered for a long time.

CAN 2008

The female talent will be lining up starting tommorrow in Equatorial Guinea for the start of the 6th edition of the female African Cup of Nations competition.This would be the first time that I would have the chance to know some of the top female stars in the continent of Africa.There are a total of eight teams that would be competing for the trophy, which has been won the seven previous times by the Nigeria soccer female national team.They have thus totally dominated the competition here in Africa to say the least.
There would be eight teams divided into two groups of four.Group A would consist of the Republic of Cameroon,Congo,Mali and host nation Equatorial Guinea.The favorite in this group would be the Republic of Cameroon.The host nation is always a threat in major competitions,so I would be looking out to see how Equatorial Guinea performs.
Group B should be considered the group of death,with favorite Nigeria lining up with the queens of Ghana,the Republic of South Africa and the lone participant from the malgreb countries,Tunisia.Nigeria is definately the favorite in this group and the overall favorite to pick up their eighth continental trophy in a row.If there is going to be any challenge for the flying female eagles of Nigeria,it would be coming from Ghana and the Republic of Cameroon.

Bankruptcy Filing

I got the news about retail giant Circuit City,filing for bankruptcy protection on the 11 of November and it was not a real surprise considering all the problems that the company had been facing of late.The problems included stiff competition from main rivals Best Buy and WalMart and other minor retail electronic companies that are now all over the place.
I worked for Circuit City for a period of five years,starting from January 1994 through December 1998.Prior to joining Circuit City,I had been working for Radio Shack in the Langley Park Location.I had to apply to work for Circuit City for a number of times before I was finally given the opportunity to work for them.I had applied to work in the location at Wheaton Plaza in Wheaton,Maryland about twice but I got a postcard note for them claiming that my services were not needed at the time.I got my break through a former co-worker of mind,who had left Radio Shack and was employed at the Circuit City Store in Beltsville,Maryland.I had always wanted to join Circuit City and I went to the location in Beltsville during the early days of January 1994 and talked to Doug Polsenberg.He introduced me to the store manager at the time,a guy named Joe Via.With my prior retail experience and a good word from Doug,I was given the paper work that kick started the hiring process.I fill out the application and left,heading to the Radio Shack Store,this time at the one in Beltway Plaza.I had requested to be moved to that location after getting tired of working at the Langley Park Location.
I got a call from the Manager at the Beltsville store saying that everything went okay and that I can report to the store for work.By everything being okay,it means that they have done a background check on you in the retail sector to make sure that you have not been involved in any shady dealings in your prior retail working life.I then had to leave Radio Shack right away.What rival retail outlets do,is if you leave to join one of their competitors,they let you go on the spot.No need for the required two weeks notification.I left for the Circuit City store in Beltsville,MD and the first thing that they did was get the managers at the various departments to personally interview you.Based on the interview,you would be placed in one of their departments.I ended up in the Ace Department.The Ace department is like the beginners department in the Store.That is where I was placed.You mainly get to sell items like walk-mans,headphones,portable CD players,boom-boxes,a lot of accessories,Cordless phones and land-line phones and lastly Walkie-talkies.Later on,the cellphones would be moved from the Car Stereo department to the Ace department.
The first two weeks,I spend in the store going through training.This is training for the whole store.They give you books to read and fill out answers to questions at the end of the reading.If you do not know something after reading the training manuals,you go to the floor and talk to somebody that already works in that department and they help you with the answers.This is how you get to meet the other employees that you are going to be working with.The two weeks came and went and the next step is to head for Richmond for the final training session before you could be placed on the sales floor.
Richmond,located in the state of Virginia is were Circuit City has their Headquarters.I must say that I was impressed by the manner in which Circuit City was been run at the time,even before heading for Richmond.Coming from Radio Shack,where we were paid peanuts to work,Circuit City was a major move in terms of potential earnings and total improvement in working conditions.The sales persons that I met all seem to have their product knowledge down to an art form.This was all around the store,from the Video,Audio,Soho(the computer department)Road Shop,Car Stereo,Major Appliances,Ace,and Front Desk help,everything was running smoothly.The Stores were extremely well kept and organized.The Managers of the various departments were very knowledgeable also.They had to be,employees working under you turned to you for answers and solutions,each time that they encounter a problem.So you have to have your stuff together as they say.
I made the trip to Richmond with an old but reliable car of mine.The drive was fine.I was given proper driving directions from the store.There was one other person that attended training at the same time that I did.The individual was from Texas and was hired to work in the Soho department,selling computers and accessories to go.Lodging was provided to us at a Holiday inn located close to the Circuit City headquarters in Richmond.This was paid for in advance.You got one meal,I believe super at the Holiday Inn,the breakfast and lunch were provided for in the training facility.The cost for your driving to and from Richmond was paid back to you in a future paycheck after providing the company with your mileage.This is an estimate and the company took your word for it and paid you the requested amount.It was a trust based system.
While at Richmond I got to do some other things like driving around the town when training was over to take a look at the city.Richmond is a lay back city and a little bit old fashion, but it is not a bad place to live at all.Things are relatively cheap there and you get to see some historical sites.I did get the breaks of my car fixed while at training.The cost was 200 dollars US and the mechanics did a pretty good break job.
The one week of training went very well.The training person himself had worked as a sales person for Circuit City,making it all the way to a whole floor sales person before going the route of trainer.As a whole floor sales person,you get to sell in every department that you choice to.You are not restricted like the rest of the other employees.For example,I was hired to work in the Ace department, if I venture to sell out of my department,it would be like taking money out to the pockets of those working in that department.
You are giving in training,all the technical knowledge that you are going to need in the sales floor.You get to know the history behind the different products.The different companies that sell these products.Terms like Spread Spectrum,high fidelity,super bass,mega bass,digital signal,analog signal are all broken down to you in the one week of training.At the end of the week, there is a quiz that everybody passes.The company did a very good job in the week of training and you had to be a total dummy not to come out of the training ready for sales.
A few things that were exciting about the stay in Richmond included some nice stories from co-workers from the different regions.If you plan on getting your music listen to by a music producer,never record it in a a high grade audio tape.The producer would just take a look at the tape and put it for his personal use.
Circuit city at this time had began branching into car sales and the company had a used car sales complex in Richmond called Car-Max.Car-Max took used car sales to a different level.We did not get to visit the complex while at Richmond,but Car-Max turned out to be a winner for Circuit City,at least up to the period that I was with the Company.Car-Max expanded and the latest information that I had from the venture was when they had five locations,one of them being in Laurel, Maryland.The use of computer was put into play to make Car-Max a success.Information that I got from training at the time is that you can go to one of the car sales location and they would input your information on the computer and let you know what type of car you can afford.
There were a few rowdy characters in the training,a few of them from the New Jersey and Boston area.The Richmond training covered persons from the East coast of the US.Training was over and I drove back to the Store.There is something called I-95 bypass,this is if you plan on driving in the capital Beltway and you do not want to be border with traffic.You take the back roads and this would lead you all the way from Richmond to the Washington DC area.The traffic is way less,although the route seems to be longer from my personal experience.
The first paycheck that I received from Circuit City was for about 960US dollar.This was definitely a big jump for two weeks of work done.Training in the store and training in Richmond;including reimbursement for mileage traveled to and from Richmond.
The pay structure at Circuit City is commissioned driven.If you are not getting paid by commission you get a rate of about $6.75 an hour at the time,but nobody wanted to make that amount of money.The company would not keep you around if you were making that hourly rate.The way the commission system works is that you get a volume commission,that is for everything that you sell in the store, at the time you get paid one percent commission.Then there is the "spiff",this is where the money is.You could go on computer terminals and check out what the spiff is for each product or you could read if off the sales tags on the floor.This is not apparent to the customers,but we the sales persons knew what products were paying the most and that is what you try to push out of the store.Then there was the Extended Service Protection Plan.ESP is what it is generally called in the store and the company pushes this to death.The sales person also makes a lot of money selling ESP, but it is a very had sell to the customers for must of the products.ESP is an extended service protection plan that you buy for your product and it covers it for a period ranging from three to five years during which the product would be repaired free of charge.If the product could not be repaired then you get if replaced for free.The extended service protection plans are not cheap at all.For example,there are some products that you purchased for say $350 and you are required to spend an additional $150 to protect it for five years.A lot of sales person did sell it though and the top sales persons in every Circuit City Store sold extended service protection plans.You sell extended service plans and you can see your income hit the $40,0000 a year mark,which is pretty decent money for somebody working in a retail outlet.
Personally,with my little electronic background upbringing,couple with the fact that I was in the department that paid the least commission,the first few years,I average just under $20,000 a year.By the time that I left Circuit City in 1998 my yearly income had moved to just under $30,000 a year.The cellphones section had been moved from the car stereo department to the Ace department and I was the most experienced sales person selling cell phones,with knowledge dating back to my days back at Radio Shack.We made most of our money during the Christmas holiday period that starts from the fourth Thursday of November through the end of the December month.
Other benefits that you get included discounted health care benefits.I did not get to use this because I was hardly sick at all.You get discounts on employee purchases also.A lot of the electronic products that I owned,I bought at a discount while working for Circuit City.Televisions set,Video cassette recorder,Speakers,blank cassette tapes,musical compact-disc and video Cassettes,a lot of accessories.The Company also had a stock purchase plan through which you could purchase company stock at a discount.I made some money buying the company stock at a discount and selling them at current price occasionally.When I left the company in 1998,the company paid me some money for having vested five years of service with them.The company at the time was using Union Bank which was based in North Carolina for the investing of pension funds.After I left the company,I got a check from Union bank which I placed in a savings account.
At Circuit City,we worked for around 40 hours a week,with managers putting in more hours.There was no overtime pay,but during the busy Christmas holiday period you could put in the extra hours and make a lot of money selling.Schedules ran from around 9am in the morning when the stores opened to about 9pm in the evening when we closed.Sundays hours were different,the store was opened, I believed from 11am to about 6pm.We had Saturday morning meetings about once a month which were mandatory whether you were scheduled to work for that day or not.Also about twice a year,the store conducts a general inventory of stock.This usually runs from very early on Saturday through around 11pm or 12midnight.Whatever is not completed is done on Sundays.The Managers pick up the rest of the reconciliation beginning on Mondays until all the stock is accounted for.
There are a number of reasons I believe brought Circuit City down to its knees.The first is competition, mainly from Best Buy at the time that I was working there.Best Buy has their headquarters in Minneapolis,Minnesota and around the mid 1990s, they embark on a plan to expand into the East Coast of the US.For the first time Circuit City was going to face some very stiff competition.Best Buy is structured a little bit different from the way that Circuit City was structured.They had the advantage of share size over Circuit City.You walk into a Best Buy location and it looks like a giant warehouse outlet.Their share size allowed them to carry more products and they could them achieve a better economic of scale.At the time that they arrived the East Coast,they opened a lot of stores in the Washington DC metropolitan area,one of which was based in Laurel,Maryland.That was the closest to our Circuit City store in Beltsville.But throughout the Region,each location that Circuit City had a store,Best Buy had one.Our Managers at the time told us not to worry at all about Best Buy.The reason is that,they do not have trained sales persons.This is true.Unlike Circuit City at the time that used commissioned sales persons to push their products out of the store,Best Buy relied on the fact that the customer would get their information on the product that they need elsewhere and come to their store and purchase the product.At the time we at Circuit City thought that was not a brilliant strategy but it turned out that they were right.
Circuit City would eventually move away from the commission based sales structure around the early 2000s, but they made the move when Best Buy had already overtaken them as the number one Consumer Electronics retailer in the US.
Another thing that did Circuit City I believe was the fact that they started to loose a lot of their trained sales staff.There are a couple of reasons why this was happening.The first is that the pay structure that Circuit City operated on was very unstable.For example I would take a top sales person working in say the Video department.You join the company the first year and lets say you make about $45000 selling.The next year you might see that income drop down to about $35,000 or $30,000.This is because the same products that you have been selling are no longer paying the high sales commission that you got on them the past year.So you basically do the same amount of work and got paid less for it.This would explain why at times when a customer walks into a Circuit City store,you would find a lot of salespersons just standing around talking to each other and completely ignoring the customer.A lot of them are looking at the money that they are going to make selling to you and it was not as much as it used to be.A way that the company fought this out was to get new store managers for the different locations.The new managers would then get hungry sales persons from the street,train and motivate them.
Upper management did not care at the time about people leaving, because you could get people of the street and train them to be making $30,000 a year and they would be very happy doing it.So the veteran sales persons,seeing their income dropping year in,year out,had to leave the company.A lot of people left this way.I would take the example of our car stereo department.When I joined the company,there were four experience sales persons there selling cellphones and car stereo.Before I left the company they had all gone to join a cell phone Company called Sprint Spectrum which had moved into the area around the 1996-1997 period.When I left the company in 1998,I was one of the top sales persons in the whole store and by far the best at selling their cellphones.I left for Sprint Spectrum,who at the time were specialized in selling cellphones and services.The departed sales persons were replaced of cause with persons making less money and with of cause less product knowledge.
Back to competition.Whatever Circuit City was selling,you could find another outlet that was selling the same products.There was retail outlets that specialize just in music,video,audio,major appliances,cell phones,car stereo sales and installation.Bell Atlantic mobile,Cingular Wireless,Com USA,Maya Ermco,Sprint Spectrum(later on Sprint PCS)Target,Radio Shack,WalMart.So the profit margins were all dropping by the day.You could go on the computer screen and check out the profit margin of a product and quite a few of them were coming up on the negative.
Circuit City's upper Management has to take a lot of blame for the Company going under.You look at the stock performance of Circuit City and it was always trailing that of Best Buy starting from around the mid 1990s.When Best Buy moved into the East Coast around the 1996 period,their stock labored at around $5 and our managers were all saying,"see their stock in going nowhere".This changed though in a hurry during the stock market boom of the nineties.The stock took off big-time and hit the 90 dollar mark in hurry.I remember Best Buy having a number of stock splits.
Circuit's City upper management reacted to change very slowly I believe, and when they reacted they did not seem to have a real strategy.They decided to stop the commission based pay scale when it was already too late.They went to an hourly based pay system and instead of sticking with it, they tempered with it by getting rid of people who they claimed were making too much money.They could not make up their mind whether they wanted to close down some stores or not.When they finally started closing down stores,it was too late.The company complained a lot about cost,but spend a lot of money redecorating their stores.This is something that I never get to understand.You walk into a Circuit City store and it already looks awesome and later on you hear that a store is being redecorated.You redecorate a store that does not need any remake and you threat store employees poorly.The poor treatment of employees was reflected on how customer service started declining in the Circuit City Stores.
They idea of filing for bankruptcy is to keep away your creditors,while you go through a process of re-organization.The plan is that you would reemerge as a stronger company in the future.Re-organization hardly works out in reality though.Right off the top of my head,I can not name a few companies that had filed for bankruptcy protection and emerged as a stronger and more efficiently ran unit.The problems that got you into bankruptcy in the first place do not go away.It is very difficult for you to get credit in terms of loans which are needed for any going entity.I just feel bad for the employees who are going to lose their jobs during this tough economic period.Hopefully though,they have learn a lesson and gain a lot of training while working at Circuit City that they could use in another company.

A Black President

Those two words in the same sentence were thought to be unthinkable not long ago,but how things have change, as yesterday Democratic Senator from Illinois,Barack Obama got enough votes to clinch the Democratic party nomination.He thus becomes the first African-American to head one of the two major political parties, heading into the 2008 elections which will decide who will become the next President of the United States.
Other black politicians,the Reverend Jesse Jackson comes to mind, had ran for the Presidency of the United States,but nobody had come this far.When Jesse Jackson ran for President of the United States,he made headlines by winning quite a handful of states on "Super Tuesday",but deep down everybody knew he was not going to be the party's nominee come decision time.Who is this guy anyway?
Senator Obama Jr. was born on the 4 of August 1961 in Honolulu,Hawaii,United States.His father,Obama Sr.is from Kenya,East Africa and his mother, Ann Dunham is from Wichita ,Kansas.His parents met at the University of Manoa,the father being an international student at the time.They were separated when Barack Hussein Obama was only aged two.His early schooling includes attending a school in Jakarta,Indonesia until age 10 and Punahou school back in Hawaii, until graduating from high school in 1979.
He moved to Los Angeles and attended Occidental College for two years before transferring to Columbia University in New York City.He studied Political Sciences,specializing in International relations while at Columbia University.He graduated with a BA from Columbia University in 1983 and his next University stop was at Harvard Law School were he enrolled in 1988.He will graduate from Harvard in 1991 with a JD magna cum laude.While at Harvard, the highlight of his stay there was being elected in 1990 as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
As for jobs that he had held,Obama worked at Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Research Group after graduating from Columbia University until 1985 when he moved back to Chicago and took a job as a Community organizer.
He taught part-time at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 to 2004.
He also worked as an Associate Attorney with Davis,Miner,Barnhill and Galland from 1993 to 2002.
He was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996,won re-election in 1998 and 2002.In the year, 2000 he made an unsuccessful bid to get into the US house of Representatives.
In 2004, he won election into to the US senate as a junior senator from Illinois.
Barack Obama has written two books,"Dreams of my father" and "Audacity of Hope".
Barack Obama is married to Michelle Obama(they married in 1992)and they have two children, daughters aged 10 and 7 years old.
Barack Obama won the Democratic party's nomination by concentrating on reaching the magic number of 2118 votes, and got there by picking up victories in small primaries and Caucasus instead of concentrating on the bigger states like his rival Hillary Clinton did.
He won Iowa despite the fact that polls leading up to the Caucasus,showed him trailing by a wide margin.
Hillary Clinton fought back though and won New Hampshire despite the momentum being on Obama's side.The back and forth race continued until Super Tuesday which ended up as a split decision.
After Super Tuesday,Senator Barack Obama build up a lead which he will not relinquish by winning eleven straight primaries and caucuses,picking up what turned out to be an insurmountable lead.
Senator Hillary Clinton, stayed in the race despite calls for her to throw in the towel,claiming she has the lead in the areas that counted the most,the super delegates.That argument crumpled when Senator Barack Obama started picking up one key super delegate endorsement after the other, until he surpassed Senator Hillary Clinton in the that category also.
Senator Hillary Clinton stayed on though until June the 3,when the primaries in South Dakota and Montana pushed Senator Barack Obama over the magic number of 2118. A 46 years one guy who spend eight years in the Illinois Senate and was elected to the US senate in 2004.
Back in February, Senator Hillary Clinton seem to have all the advantages to get the Democratic nomination;money,political connections,two terms in the United States Senate and to cap it all she had been first Lady when her husband was President of the United States.
Now after a campaign in which Senator Barack Obama raised a record amount of money, the one term Senator from Illinois is now just one step away from capturing one of the most glamorous jobs in the world.He wins in November and we have ourselves a brother living in the"White House".How is somebody like Senator Barack Obama going to change the lives of African-Americans living in the US?All the crap about a black man not being intelligent enough to play quarterback,about certain jobs being available only to Caucasians.
Now the premier job is up for grabs and African-American Senator Barack Obama will as of yesterday the 3 of June 2008 begin a journey that will lead him to the promise land.
One thing is for sure though,come 2009,if Senator Barack Obama wins, lives for African-Americans will never be the same again.There are a lot of check and balances entrenched in a Democratic society like the US,but the President of the United States still possess a lot of power around the World.
No wonder,Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stayed in the Democratic party nomination race until the very end.Who could blame her?We are talking here about a very historic moment.She had the chance to become the first female President of the US,no small fit either.
Senator Barack Obama does have a few advantages going into the November elections;the first being the fact that President George W. Bush has created quite a mess since taking over the Presidency in 2000.The war in Iraq,a slowdown in the economy just to name a few.Also the Republicans have occupied the White House for two consecutive terms and the public, I believe is ready for a change.
Senator Barack Obama's strategy would be to tag Senator John McCain as a continuation of the Bush Presidency.
Senator Barack Obama launched his national campaign for the Presidency of the United States infront of a crowd of about 10,000 people at the Nissan Pavilion in Virginia on Thursday June the 5 of 2008.
On Saturday the 7 of June,speaking in Washington DC,Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton officially ended her run for the White and endorsed Obama for the November elections.
To win the White House,McCain or Obama will need 270 electoral votes and the followings states are considered to be the swing states in the forthcoming general elections.
Colorado,Florida,Iowa,Michigan,Minnesota,Missouri,Nevada,New Hamphire,New Jersey,New Mexico,North Carolina,Ohio,Oregon,Pennsylvania,Virginia and Wisconsin.
Starting from the 1992 Presidential elections,Colorado has voted Republican all four times,so has Virginia and North Carolina.
Michigan has voted all four times,92,96,2000,2004 for the Democrats,so has Pennsylvania,Oregon,New Jersey and Minnesota.
Senator Barack Obama has promised a fight in which he will go after independent voters in all 50 states.The idea is to force Senator John McCain to defend traditional Republican strongholds.He has dispatched staffers to all fifty states.Obama can afford to do this because of his ability to raise funds in record numbers.
He demonstrated this ability during his battle with Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination.Obama raised a lot of money from minor donors by appealing to them over the internet.
On June 18 2008, Senator Barack Obama announces that he will forgo public funding for his presidential campaign. The decision frees him to raise funds privately for the run to the White house.
Raising funds privately is something that Obama is good at, as he demonstrated during his battle with Senator Hillary Clinton for the post of Democratic Party nominee.The decision means he has to give up $85million of public money, but also allows him to be able to raise up to $300million from the list of 1.5million donors that he already has available in his data-base.
The decision is a turnaround from an earlier pledge that he would stick to public funding if the Republican Presidential nominee did likewise.But haven't just demonstrated what a fund raising money machine he can be, it was widely expected that Obama would negate on his early promise.Sticking to public funding could have been disadvantageous to his campaign.
The decision to reject $85million of public funding, will allow Senator Barack Obama to raise and spent as much money as he likes in the upcoming general election,part of his plans to expand the Electoral College playing field.
On the 27 of June 2008, Senator Barack Obama meets Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in New Hamphire as the former fierce rivals appear in public during a rally in New Hampshire.The process of national reconciliation of the Democratic party begins with Obama haven promised Hillary Clinton to help in the retirement of her $20million campaign debt.
Senator Barack Obama had promised during his primary election run to abide by a 16 month timetable for removal of combat troops from Iraq.He is due to visit Iraq soon and is now opened to consider a slower withdrawal of the troops after making an "on the spot" assessment.A switch in strategy to catch up with Senator John McCain in the field of National Security.
On July 16 2008, Senator Obama opens 20 new offices in the state of Virginia, another proof that he sees the state as one of the battleground states.
Senator Barack Obama is in Iraq today this 21 of June, meeting with military officers there to discuss strategy,days after meeting with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.Before he headed home, he paid visits to Israel,France and Great Britain.
With a few days leading to the Democratic National Convention, Obama announced his choice for Vice President and it is Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware.Senator Joseph Biden himself had once ran for President of the US and is a long standing member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the US senate.I am a little bit surprise with the choice of Biden as Vice Presidential candidate but it seems as if the choice is working out pretty well.Senator Joe Biden has handled himself very well since his nomination as choice for vice President.He did very well in his debate against the Republican Vice Presidential candidate,staying clear of any personal attacks and petty criticism and he did not get in the way of Senator Barack Obama at all.
As early as a month into the voting,it seems as if Senator Barack Obama is heading for a November victory.He won all three debates handily and insiders are saying that with a month to go, he has to pick up one of three key states to get to the magic number of 270.The states in questions are Virginia,Colorado and Florida.He wins one of these states and he is in as the next President of the United States.
The Presidential Debates versus Senator McCain were not close at all with Obama winning with an average victory margin of 58 percent to 42 percent for John McCain.
With about a week to go before the actual voting begins,the prestigious New York Times has already declared that the one time Senator from the state of Illinois will become the 44 President of the United States come the 4 of November.
Congratulations President Barack Obama.

Where did all the money go?

Mike Tyson(Iron Mike),Evander Holyfield,Mc Hammer,Lattrell Sprewell,Jose Conseco,Michael Vike.What do all of these people have in common?Just read on.In 1985 I had just arrived the US and at the time I was attending school in a tiny Community College in Pendleton,South Carolina.I was inside the library after finishing classes for the day.I usually go to the library to pass the time while waiting for my brother who attend school at Clemson University to pick me up after completing his daily research studies.I ventured in the sports magazine section of the Library and a picture of young Mike Tyson caught my attention.Sports Illustrated had ran an article on the young Mike Tyson(Kid Dynamic) featuring him as a potential future heavyweight champion.At the time Mike Tyson was around the age of 19 according to the article and had just about 6 heavyweight bouts under his belt.He was still fighting 6 round heavyweight bouts at the time.There is a quote that I remember from the article in which one of Tyson's opponents had confessed that when Tyson hit him he felt like"he had been hit by a truck".Mike Tyson will go on to win the heavyweight title of the world in 1986 and become the youngest heavyweight champion(20years,6months old) in the history of boxing.In the process, he crushed people like James "BoneCrusher"Smith,Tyrell Biggs,Pinklon Thomas,Tony Tucker,Larry Holmes,Michael Spinks to name just a few.He ran into some early trouble like divorcing actress Robin Givens and losing his undisputed heavyweight champion of the world title in February 1990 to a 42-1 underdog name Buster Douglas in Tokyo.He got into real trouble with the rape allegations from a beauty contestant and a latter conviction(February 1992) that led to his serving a three year jail sentence(which he completed in March 1995).Around the time that Mike Tyson was accused of raping the beauty pageant,Sports Illustrated had ran a story mentioning how Mike Tyson was running through money.There was mentioned of four homes in four different cities and some of the bills to keep up the various homes were just staggering.All of these pails though to the fact that around the year 2003, ESPN ran a story that Tyson was homeless and had lived briefly in a homeless shelter.The story mentioned the fact that throughout his boxing career Mike Tyson had earned a whopping 365 million US DOLLARS.He had justed been declared bankrupt through a filing at Manhantan,New York.
Evander(The Real Deal) Holyfield won an Olympic bronze medal in the light heavyweight division in the summer olympics of 1984.He would turn pro shortly after dominating the cruiserweight division up to the late 1980s before making the move to the heavyweight division.He defeated James Buster Douglas in 1990 to become heavyweight champion of the world.In his boxing career(he still has not yet retired)he gross up to $250million US.He never got the reputation that Tyson carried around because he was not a real heavyweight fighter to begin with.For a while he was referred to as an"inflated"heavyweight.When he had the infamous fight against Tyson in 1997 in which Mike chopped of part of his ear he grossed $32million US from the fight.Evander Holyfield did not have a storied career as Mike Tyson, but he has had a pro career that had lasted more than two decades. He was heavyweight champion of the world for quite some time.We did not hear about any late night life like in Mike's case.There was a lot of noise about his belief in God.The lone negative story coming out of the Holyfield camp was his love affair with getting new spouses,especially during periods running up to his heavyweight title defense fights.He is reported to have a total of 11 children.Just last month(June 2008)there was a picture of Evander Holyfield's mansion in the middle of an article saying the home is in furclosure following the default on a 10million dollar loan from Washington Mutual.There was also mentioned of the fact that he was late on one of his ex-spouses child payment.The child payment was 3000dollars monthly.A Lawn mowing company was also suing him for half a million dollars of unpaid bills for the landscaping work on his mansion. There also mention of the fact that in a single month,Holyfield had to dish out 17000 dollars for an electricity bill.
Mc Hammer was a rapper in the 1990's and known for his hit song "You can't touch this".The Hammer man grossed 33million dollars in his career but had to file for bankruptcy protection to keep of creditors.A lavish lifestyle is blamed for his squandered fortune .Hammer is said to have spend 12million dollars on a mansion that had gold plated gates.He also had a fleet of 17 cars,threw extravagant parties and owned two helicopters.Within a few years though, the Hammer man was broke and had to file for bankruptcy protection.Time Magazine had him on its cover page with the whopping figure on a squandered 33 million dollar fortune.
Latrell Sprewell came to the headline in December 1997 when he attempted to choke during team practice,then head coach at Golden State Warriors,P.J Carlesimo.He was suspended from the NBA for the 1997/98 season and did not play again until he was traded to the New York Knicks on January 1999 after serving a reduce suspension(initially set at 82games).Drafter out of Alabama in 1992,Latrell Sprewell had a brilliant career that he cut short after the 2004/5 NBA season after turning down a three year 21million dollar contract from the Minnesota Timberwolves.He went on to star for the Knicks, helping them to the NBA finals in 1999 upon his reinstatement into the league, losing to eventual champions LA Lakers.He played for the New York Knicks up to the 2003 season before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he teamed up with Kevin Garnett and Sam Cassell to make another deep playoff run,but this time it fell short in the Western conference finals against the LA lakers losing to them in six games.He turned down a $7million three year contract extension in October 2004,playing out the rest of the season on his current contract,calling the contract extension an insult."I have a family to feed" he said.At the time he was earning $14.6million a season.So the 2004/5 season was his last in the league.He left the NBA after a career that had lasted for 13years.Last month,on the ESPN website there was a picture of a worried looking Lattrell in a story featuring his home being in foreclosure.A foreclosure suit was filed by Citizens Bank on Sprewell's $405,000 home in River Hills,Milwaukee claiming he owes an outstanding balance of $295,138 plus interest on the home and has missed the monthly mortgage payment of $2,593 since last September.This information is coming after Latrell Sprewell had his yacht"Milwaukee's best" repossessed last summer.The yacht which Latrell paid $1.5million for was auctioned off for $856,000 to help pay for the $1.3million that Sprewell owed on the boat.Sprewell has a company Sprewell Motosports which credit card bills have gone unpaid for months.
Jose Canseco was the other half of what was known as the "BASH brothers" in Oakland.He and Mark Arguire were part of a 1-2 home run punch that took the Oakland A' s to three straight world series,winning one of them in 1997.He had since retired from baseball and turned into a book writer, making accusations all over the place about former teammates and friends.In March of 2008,there was a picture of his Home in the Oakland area with the lawn all grown.The home had been abandoned by the former baseball star player opting out of the $2.3million home in Encino,Los Angeles area.He claimed that it does not make sense to keep on making payments on a house that does not belong to him.He claims that multiple divorce settlements have been part of the cause for his financial mess, but his situation is different from other celebrities that have lost their homes.Jose Conseco is currently pursuing a boxing career and had is pro debut in the 14 of July and he was knocked out just after 97 seconds.He got $35,000 for the fight but owes his lawyer close to $350,000.

I watched Michael Vick ran through defensive linemen from the quarterback position while at Virgina Tech.He was part of a team that went undefeated(11-0)in the regular season and noted for its special teams play and they made it all the way to the college championship bowl game in 2000 before losing to eventual college champions Florida State.He was drafted out of college by the Atlanta falcons in 2001 and on December 23,2004 he signed a record $130million 10 year contract,making him the highest paid player at the time in the NFL.The contract included a $37million signing bonus.Then came the dog fighting allegations that will get him in a different kind of uniform in the Kansas area for a maximum 23 months.Before his sentencing for the federal dog fighting conviction, Michael Vick put up his mansion in Guluth,Georgia for sale on a 19 October 2007 real estate listing.The estate was valued at $4.5million.According to the Atlanta constitution journal,Vick had bought the home in 2005 for $3.7million.The yearly tax bill came to $26,720 while the monthly mortgage was $23,706.It is not only famous people that get into trouble with their money.There is guy called William Post who won a $16million lottery in the Pennsylvania jackpot in 1988.By 2002 the guy had gone broke.He had bought a three bedroom home in Pennsylvania when he won the lottery and that is all the he has to show for his winnings.The guy spends his days now watching classic movies on TV and collects $450 monthly from the social security department which he lives on together with some food stamps.He is better off though compared to John McGuiness who was a hospital porter in 1997 when he won £10million in the lottery.At the time he was making £150 a week and sleeping in his parents floor.By 11 of February 2008 he had blew the £10million jackpot and was £2million in debt.John gave close to £3million to family and close friends, including £750,000 to his ex-wife.He spent £500,000 on a seafront home.He spend £200,000 on his wedding in 2003 to his present wife.He bought a Ferrari Modena Spyder.Other cars followed and at one time he had up to six in his garage including a Bentley,Bmw's,Mercedes and Jaguars.None of these got him though.His trouble started when he got a call from a friend who advised him to join the board of a football club, Livington FC in Scotland.At the time the soccer club was in the lowly 2 division of the Scottish league.He did help the club to the Scottish Premier League thanks in large part to the £4million that he put in the club as his initial investment.The team won the league cup in 2004 but success on the soccer pitch did not translate into financial profit off the field.The team was bleeding money and John McGuinness personally guaranteed some loans from the Royal bank of Scotland,who were suing him for £2.1million.The 44 year old father of four's home was repossessed by the bank after the bank had won a judgement in court and John was declared bankrupt over a £35,000 debt owed for a porsche car.He had to apply for a council house(subsidized housing)and he and his wife where applying for jobs.His parents also stood to lose their home also.We have all the facts in let us try to get in some analysis.
Why do people that have worked so hard all their life or lived in poverty all the lives get into riches and with sometime blow all the money?A few of these people complain about bad company.In the case of Mike Tyson for example.He is suing boxing promoter Don King for $100million claiming that the promoter got tricked him into signing contracts while he was in jail that made it easy for Don King to siphoned millions of dollars of him.Mike Tyson had also said something striking before all his troubles began.He said as hard he is working for his money,that is how hard people are fighting to separate him from his money.There is also divorce settlement.Mike Tyson divorce from his second wife,Monica Turner is said to have resulted in a $9million settlement.She is said to have put a lien at two of his Las Vegas home to try and collect on the debt.Mike Tyson also had children to take care of.Two from his marriage to Monica Turner and 4 others from out of wedlock.The now retired man from Pennsylvania, claimed that a lot of his fortune went to pay taxes and some bad investment that he was forced into.He talked of death threat from people including family members whom he "knew were going to do anything to get the money".One of his brother threatened to get him killed and the others force him into investing in their various car and restaurant businesses from which he did not get a dime back.William Post also talked of taxes and legals fees.The taxes come because as you make more money you get into a higher tax bracket.You need some very creative accountants to help you,but some of these accountants end up getting you into deeper trouble with tax shelters that are not legal.Legal fees are also a primary drain on some of these fortunes.Mr William claimed that you get sued from every direction and you have to defend most of these lawsuits and guess what comes with defending lawsuits?Legal fees.Mr Post was sued by his former girlfriend for not sharing his winnings and the court at one point held his escrow payments until he could pay all his debts.The guy ending up auctioning his winning ticket for $2million,and he used part of that money to purchase the home that he now lives in.The rest went to paying debts.So he went from everybody thinking you have $16million to actually only getting $2million for his winnings.Evander Holyfield claimed to be a man of God and hand out with people such as Creflo Dollar of World Changers Ministry.During his divorce hearing to Janice,one of his two ex-wives, she wanted the famous Church man to be summoned to court in order for him to disclose exactly how much money Holyfield had donated to his ministry.You have seen this guy on TV,the guy is shady.It is alleged that Holyfield had donated up to $7million to his ministry.Man of God indeed.The "Real deal" has to share some blame also.A claimed man of God with two ex-wives and 11 children living in a first world society where people on the average get one to two children.Even in Africa,where I now live, people are careful about getting seconds wives.I guess he was not world heavyweight champ for nothing.Bad company will get you anytime.Take the case of John McGuinness.He did spent quite a bit of money, but the guy was did in by the friend who gave him the football club board membership.He did spent £3 on close friends and family.You can accuse the guy of being loose with his money but I personally do not see anything wrong with sharing part of your good fortune with close friends and family.You don't share with the ones close to you and you end up living an isolated lifestyle.But to sink £4million pounds into a low division two side, that was just a terribly investment and coupling that with personal guaranteed loans for a football club was trying play with the bigs boys.He should not have accepted the phone call from the friend.If you win £10million on a jackpot,I do not see anything wrong with paying half a million pounds on a house.Houses do appreciate in value over time, at least until recently.Latrell Sprewell has a long time companion who had in January 2007 sued him for $200million claiming the NBA star had renegated on a relationship agreement that they went into since their relationship began in college.Sprewell has 4 children with the lady.

Welcome to China

The 2008 Beijing Olympics would be noted for the number of protest that took place before the games even began. It would be remembered as the games in which Michael Phelps break the long standing record of Mark Spitz(winner of seven goal medals in the 72 games)by grabbing 8 golds.Jamaican Bolt won the title of fastest man on earth clocking in at a world record 9.69 seconds.Usain Bolt made it a double by winning the 200m dash in a world record 19.32 breaking Michael Johnson's record that had stood since 1996.Usain Bolt picked up a third goal medal,this one in the 4x100metres men's relay. Ethiopia’s Turinesh Dibaba got the gold in the 10,000 metres running the second fastest time in the history of the event at 29:54:66.She when on to win the 5000 metres to become the first woman in the history of the Olympics to achieve the 10,000 metres, 5000 metres double.Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry has picked up four medals for her country,a gold in the women's 200 meters backstroke and three other silver medals. Great olympics for her so far. Oussama Mellouli picked up a gold medal for Tunisia in the 1500 meters men's freestyle swimming event.Francoise Mbango Etone successfully defended her olympis title four years ago from Greece winning the gold medal in the women's triple jump category. With a leap of 15.39 she wins Cameroon's third gold medal in the history of the olympics. She is by far now Cameroon's most decorated athlete in olympics.Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele Beyecha won gold in the 10,000 metres athletics event with a time of 27.01.17.

You Want Sports Info?We got it

Espn is the premier sports tv channel in the US.Personal experience started in the fall of 1985.At this period of time,the channel was not too popular.The idea of a sports channel all by itself had not caught on yet.Australia rule football was one of the popular programs that they carried.When the 1986 world cup in Argentina came around,they gave it a go but the was a problem with interruption of live matches for commercial break purposes.That problem had been fixed in recent years.They started gaining in popularity by the late 1980s and by the early nineties the channel had taken off big time.Today you can got great coverage on just about all you want.Soccer,Basketball,Golf,Football,Baseball,Hockey,Poker,Billiard.There are now three different branches for full coverage,Espn Classic,Espn and Espn11.

On the brink of Making History

By beating Power Dynamos of Zimbabwe by 4 goals to zero this past Saturday in Garoua,Cotonsports of Garoua became the first Cameroonian team to make it to the finals of the Champions league since it moved to its current format in 1998.They would be playing against El Ali of Egypt for the finals,the second leg is scheduled for the Garoua stadium on the 5 of November 2008.If Cotonsport of Garoua wins the home and away aggregate they would become the third Cameroonian team to be crowned African Champions,following in the footsteps of Canon of Yaounde and Union of Douala.

Waiting for the final phase of qualification

Cameroon's indomitable lions beat the tiny Island of Mauritius by 5 goals to nil last Saturday in the final day of qualification for the combined Can/World Cup matches.Cameroon had already qualified for the final draw of the qualification and they had nothing at stake in the match played at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde.The Lions finish this group stage of qualification with a total of 16points out of a possible 18,dropping two points with a tie in Cape Verde.The draw for the final leg of qualification in the African Zone is due to be held sometime before the end of this month. A total of twenty teams remaining will be vying for five places in the 2010 world cup in South Africa.The draw with fit teams in five groups headed by Cameroon,Ivory Coast,Ghana,Nigeria and Egypt.

Great Movies

Great movies is a category that is always fun to write about and the list is by no means restricted to movies that have won academic awards or what the critics say that they like.This is a list of my favorites movies and they provide for some good entertainment.
This list includes the following movies;Casino Royale(Any of the bond movies)On this one I would say that I love just about all of the James Bond Movies,great action,good looking women,innovative gadgets.
Top Gun. One of my all time favorites,the movie that lunch the career of Tom Cruise,great sound effects with the Jets breaking the sound barriers."I feel the need, the need for speed is all I can say".
Under Siege:One of the better movies by Steven Seagall.Some good opening moments."This is not striking a superior officer,this is striking a superior officier,lots of action. Tommy Lee Jones just about steals the movie.
Platoon:Movie about the Vietnam war,Tem Berenger,Charlie Sheen"You must be rich to volunteer for the army.Directed by Oliver Stone,you get to see all the ill effects of war.
Godfather part1(1972)&11(1974)The two godfather movies.Sonny steals the show in part one and De Niro did likewise in part Two.Moving scenes,you get to see how the mob really works.
Heartbreak Ridge Clint Eastwood stars and i believe directs this one.Training in the military is all I can say about this movie
Gladiators2000)Russell Crowe is the man in this one,movie about a general that has lost everything,and finds himself as a gladiator,has to fight his way all the way back. Great scenes,great fighting action.
Forrest Gump Tom Hanks plays the dumb guy on this one,movie came out around the late eighties,really funny movie is all a can say about this one.
Goodfellas,Ray,Joe Pesci,Robert Niro are all in this one.Pesci is just plain nasty in this movie in which Ray does the narrating.
Die Hard,This has to be the original Die Hard movie
,Gone with the Wind(1939)Life in the South during the civil war, great classical movie.
Glory,Denzel Washington plays a great role in this one.
Thelma &and Louise,Two female fugitives on the run here,Susan Sarandon is in this movie.
Boyz N the Hood, Movie about the violent day to day living in the city of Los Angeles.Director John Singleton got an oscar nomination for directing this movie.Angela Bassett is in this movie,so is Ice Cube.
Donnie Brasco(1997)great movie,Al Pacino in one of his finer roles in my opinion.Movie is about an FBI agent infiltrating the Mafia.Johnny Deep is also awesome in the movie
,The Flamingo kid,Another Casino movie with a Mob connection.
On the Waterfront,All I can say on this one is "I could have been a contender."
Beverly hill cop 1∧11 Two great Eddie Murphy movies when he was really funny
,Born on the Fourth of July,Tom Cruise show the plight of the war veterans,how they are neglected after coming back from war
Bull Durham, Nice sports movie on baseball.Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon.
Apollo 13(1995)One of the better sound effects that you would get on a movie.Tom Hanks, Kevin Beacon are all in this one.
Raging Bull,Robert De Niro plays the role of a prize fighter in this one.
,Moonstruck,This is a great movie;Nicolas Cage is just great in this one.Commando,Arnold is great in this one.One of his very early roles and he pulls it out very well as a special force guy brought out from retirement.
A few Good men,One of my all time favorite movies,star studded.Tom Cruise,Kevin Bacon,Demi Moore,Jack Nicolson are all in this one.
Die hard,The Last Boy Scout,Back to the future,Scarface,Universale Soldier,Dirty Harry,Full metal Jacket,48 hours,Another 48hours,Braveheart,Saving Private Ryan,Naked Gun,,American Pie,Speed,True Lies,Lethal Weapon,Point Break,Road house,Coaktail,Bad Boys,Commando One of the early Arnold S movie,Unforgiven,Young Guns,Conair,Goodfellas,The Shawshank Redemption,Rocky,Ten Commandments,Terminator2-Judgement Day(1991),The Great Escape(1968),Indiana Jones and the last crusade(1989),Patton(1970),Glory(1989),Midnight Run,Coming to America is a movie starring Edie Murphy and Arsenio Hall about their coming to America to look for a bride.

Great Books

The List of Great books is long and distinguished and includes works Harper lee. War and Peace by Leo Tolsky, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Great Expectation by Charles Dickens, Iliad by Homer, Paradise Lost by Milton, The hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, 1984 by George Orwell, Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen,
Divine Comedy by Dante, Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, Hamlet, King Lear and Othello by William Shakespeare, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, The Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, The Holy Bible, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry , From here to Eternity by James Jones

,Den of Thieves,A good walk spoiled,Who killed CBS,Babarians at the Gate,The Third Reich,
I would be updating this part of the blog with more titles later

College Football Week Four

You can call it the weekend of upsets, starting with number 1.USC going down at Oregon state. Alabama stuns Georgia at home,Florida also lost to visiting Mississippi and Michigan defeated 9th rank Wisconsin.Oklahoma should move to number one in my opinion.

A crack at Professionalism

The teams include Cotonsports of Garoua, Canon of Yaounde, Union of Douala, Astres of Douala, As Matelots of Douala,Unisport of Bafang, Panthere of Bagante,Sable of Batie,University of Ngaoundere,FC Danay of Yagoua,Fovu of Baham,Mount Cameroon FC of Buea,Tiko United and Aigle of Menoua. The championship initially scheduled for the 14 of September was posponed to the 27 of September. According to the Fecafoot Website, As Matelots of Douala and FC Danay of Yagoua would open up play on the 27 which is a Saturday with the rest of the teams playing on Sunday the 28 of September. The teams have been narrowed down to 14 clubs with the Mtn Elite one taking a crack at professionalism.
There is a problem of stadiums that needs to be worked out. Some of the stadiums are not up to standard and Fecafoot was trying to work out a system in which only certain stadiums would be used during the competition. Right off the top of my head I would say that the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaounde would be fine. So would the stadium in Garoua used by Cotonsports.The Tiko Town Green stadium also has a good playing surface although the stands could use some work. Renovation work was ongoing in the Stade Omnisport in Douala but the work is not yet complete. So the Douala teams would end up playing all of their games away from the city of Douala.

Nfl week Three

Squash all the talk about a New England Patriots perfect season.A 38-13 defeat by the Dolphins in foxborough did just that.Washington Redskins won again, this time a 24-17 win over Arizona.The New York Giants stay undefeated,so did Tennesse and the Buffallo Bills.Denver wins another close game to go 3-0.The Ravens are undefeated at 2-0.The Cowboys go 3-0 with a fantastic victory at Green Bay

College Football Week 3

The Results of the top ten;University of Florida 30, Tennesse 6 in knoxville. Florida always seems to punish Tennesse each time that they meet.5th rank Missouri at home over Buffalo 42-21.9th rank Alabama, a winner at Arkansas 49-14,7th rank Texas cruised to a 52-10 victory over visiting Rice,6th rank LSU pulled out a victory at 10th rank Auburn.I guess one of the top ten teams had to fall with Lsu playing against Auburn,final on this one was 26-21.Great win for 3rd rank Georgia at Arizona state.This was definately an easy season tricky game for them.Final score 27-10

Buying a car

Buying a car is quite an experience and I did own my share of automobiles while at the US.The first car that I purchased was back in 1992 while I worked at Radio Shack.I was not making a lot of money, but I had finish college, so I did not have to worry about college expenses.I used some money that I had saved, combined it with my tax return and I was accompanied to a used car sales auction by a friend of mine from the Caribbean Island called Gary.
The used car lot was a temporary area that car owners used for disposing their old automobile. Gary drove me to the car lot and we looked around for a while.I was not looking for anything that expensive and he noticed a Pontiac sunbird 2000 that I ended up purchasing.Pontiac's are made in the USA by General Motors and they are pretty inexpensive to maintain, as compared to foreign made cars.I paid 800dollars cash at the time for the car and drove it to my apartment at Sligo avenue, Silver Springs.The car had no tags at the time and I had no clue that it will be a problem to park it in a public resident.It was immediately towed and that ended up costing me an additional 100 dollars.
I had to search for a used car dealer to purchase a temporary tag for the vehicle.Later on I will get a one year tag from the DMV in Washington DC because they were less strict as suppose to the state of MD in which I lived.A got a liability insurance, this is the minimum requirement that you needed for the registration of the vehicle, and in case you are pulled over by the police.
The car ran pretty well and it took me to quite a few places .I drove to Richmond, VA for training when I got a new job with Circuit City.I took the car to North Carolina at one time.But mainly the car was for cruising around town.Once you purchase your first automobile, you look and wonder how you managed to have spend all these years without owning one.Gasoline was relatively cheap and driving a car, even an old one beats taken public transportation anytime.It came with a radio, which I listened to and I did used it for about 2 to 3years before it got involved in an accident on Georgia avenue, in Washington DC.The passenger side was totally damage and the DC council towed it to a local garage.
I was not injured in the accident, though the passenger on the other car had some neck injures and had to be hospitalised.By the time I got to see the car, I decided to just abandon it. I was not worth the trouble trying to get it repaired.I was back to catching the bus for about two to three months while I gather my finances for the purchase of another car.
My next automobile was a Nissan sports car, a 1985 300Z which ended up causing me more trouble that it was worth.I got this one with the help of a used car dealer, originally from Nigeria.We went to an auction and I saw the car, immediately fell in love with it and paid 1500 dollars for it.There was a couple of issues with the car which I could have avoided if I had done my homework. The first problem was that the car had some major body work that needed to be done on it, both in front and in the back of the car.
Secondly, the price to insure the car goes up because it is considered a sports automobile.You pay more for the thrill of driving.Thirdly, it was a two seater.The car had just enough space for the drive and one passenger.I would run into problems when I had to drive somebody to the club and they happen to bring friend along.The first thing coming out of their mouth is what where you thinking buying a two seater.This happen with a close female friend of mind from manyu division, and also with three sisters from Kenyan that where friends of mine.They were like"you can,t take us to the club with that".The car also lack space inside.There was no way you could get a quickly inside it.
Parts were also very expensive.For example, with my old sun bird, I could replace a punctured tire for less that 35dollars.Not so for my new baby.You are looking at 100 dollars for tire change.The body work ended up costing a lot of money, I do not remember the exact figures.I remember dishing out 250 bucks in one area, and another 700 bucks in another, just to get the car decent looking.
Once all the work was done though, I did get a lot of praise on how good the car looked.It ran nicely also.At the time, I was working at Circuit City, so I had a new car stereo system installed in it, together with some new speakings.I got a few offers from some ladies to sell the car, but I had sunk in so much money into it, I just could not figure out a selling price for it.Anyway, with all the major work done, I was enjoying the ride.It took me to the soccer fields for exercising, to Beltsville for work, and to the streets of Washington DC for sightseeing.
I got some serious traffic tickets with the car.One of them, I totally forget to pay and I had moved to a different apartment by the time a notice came for me to appear in court.Minor offenses that mushroomed into bigger problems when you do not take care of them right away.As everybody that has owned a used car will tell you, repair bills appear all the time and it is very difficult for you to save any substantial amount of money for other purposes.Once you get hooked to automobiles though, you would spend the money for repairs since you do not have a choice anymore.You have to have your car.The Nissan 300Z lasted for about two years and I abandoned it after I had skidded into a tree while driving to soccer practice.Luckily, there was nobody on the passenger side of the vehicle.That side was completed smashed in and the vehicle was "uneconomical" to repair.
I had learned my lesson from the owning a Z, as the 300 was called at the time.I struggle for a short period of time looking for a replacement automobile.A got one from one of my regular customers while I worked at circuit city.It was a Pontiac 9000 sun bird.The body of the car still looked good.It had a few mechanical problems that would be taken care off.I paid 900 dollars for the 1986 made car and started driving it back and forth to work.It needed a new battery which I got for 60 dollars and the catalytic converter had to be changed also.
Another major problem with the car was that it did over-heat most of the time, especially when I got caught in traffic. The car did save me for some time, until I left Circuit City and joined Sprint PCS Corporation.The journey from Langley Park, Maryland to Columbia MD would take its toll on the Pontiac and I looked for a replacement as soon as I starting getting my paychecks from Sprint.
The transmission on the Pontiac gave way and I told my store Manager at the time that I was shopping for an automobile.He too was looking to get rid of his old car, in other to purchase a new one.This were the days of the big cellphone and Internet boom and everybody was making a lot of change.I paid 2500 dollars for his Mitsubishi Gallant. I have forgetting what year the car was.I did know that it was a comfortable and reliable automobile, because, Agbor, my elder brother owned one that he had bought brand new.
There were no mechanical or body work that had to be done to the car.I love good music in my cars, so I did go to my former employer, Circuit City, to get a new car stereo and some speakers installed.I was to use the car for the year and a half that I worked for Sprint PCS and latter on for another year and a half after I had joined AT&T Wireless Corporation.There were two major repairs that I did do to the car though.One was to overhaul the transmission, which cost me about 900 dollars and the other repair,one that in hindsight I should not have undertaking, that cost about 1450 dollars.
The last car that I owned was a Nissan Maxima 2002 that I purchased while I was working in downtown Washington DC for AT&T wireless.I bought the car brand new after my Mitsubishi gallant had finally crap out.I had received an unsolicited offer from Capital One Auto finance company with a credit line of up to $38000 to spend for an automobile.
I had never finance a car before.I always taught of it as throwing money away. I have always preferred purchasing cars with cash that I have, that way do not buy what you latter on cannot afford and also you get immediate ownership of the car.I went against my better judgement, maybe because at the time I was making a lot of money.I had paid off most of my debt and my credit rating was also decent.That explain why a got the unsolicited financing in the first place.
I started doing some research on cars and talking to some friends also.I read a lot of consumer reports on various cars and read different car and driver magazines.After doing my homework, I decided on a Nissan Maxima.Nissan had been producing the Max, as the car is called for a while now but had just boosted the horsepower on the MAX from 225HP to 255HP.The rims on the new max had also being increased to 17 inches in size.I went to a car dealership in Capital Heights and talk to one of the sales persons.I already knew what I wanted so it was an easy sale for the salesperson.He had me test drive one and we both agreed that the car was pretty good.He showed me different colours and I settled on a Merlot colour, colour that is close to red looking.
All the paperwork was taken care off and after agreeing on a price, I convinced them to throw in a spoiler for free.The spoiler took a day or two to installed and the car was ready for me to pick up.The new max came fully loaded:Leather seats, digital car stereo system with cd changer.Bose speakers,about six in total.Power windows,full alarm system,remote control that allow you open and closed the car from a remote area.The car had very large tires, so you could go from zero to 60km in no time at all.
The feel of a new car also last for a while.You do not have to worry about repair bills or breakdowns.The heating and cooling systems functioned perfectly.It was about finally possessing that ride that you always dream about.The bad side was the monthly car payments.A whopping 525dollars a month.That could be the monthly payment for a modest condo in some cities.Anyway I got the car and I could go places and back in no time.Journeys that used to be a drag were now done in no time at all.

NFL week Two

The Washington Redskins bounced back with a come from behind win over New Orleans,final score 29-24. Their record is now 1-1. In the same division The New York Giants move to 2-0 after an empressive 41-13 win away at St. louis.Tennesse stayed undefeated,so did Green Bay, Carolina,Arizona,Pittsburgh,New England and lastly Denver. The Denver-San Diego game would be the one that people would be talking about though. Down 31-38 with less than a minute to go, Denver pull to within one and opted to go for two to win the game instead of kicking the pat to go into overtime.I wonder whether Mike Shanahan makes that call if his team was 0-1 like San Diego instead of 1-0. Still a very gutsy call though.

College Football Week 3

The University of Georgia escape with a 14-7 win over South Carolina in Columbia. The Texas-Arkansas game got posponed because of Hurricane Ike in the area. Auburn escaped at Mississippi state with a 3-2 victory scoreline. The scoreline is not a typo, and it was not a soccer game either. The much anticipated matchup between Ohio State and USC was all one sided as the trojans cruised to an easy 35-3 home win over the visiting buckeyes.

Keeping fit

Throughout my primary school years,that is between the ages of six to about twelve years of age I stayed fit by playing soccer just about everyday.That changed when I went to secondary school.The main aim then was to get a good secondary education and maintain my scholarship.Physical Education was included in the curriculum, but it was only for about once a week.
We did occasionally go out for pick up games, but that was also not on a consistent basis.It got worse when came holidays because guys in secondary schools did not find it fashionable to go play soccer it this point in their life.My holiday sporting activity consisted mainly of playing table tennis.Any out of shape person can do this.The same pattern continued when I went to high school.The concentration then was for me to obtain my advance level and head for the university.
So by the time I arrived the US, though I was not fat, I found out that things moved just I little bit faster for me.I was getting tired very easily.That is when I began to find out what it meant to be out of shape.During my stay in Clemson, I found out that there was nothing wrong with a grown man going out there and exercising.I started playing soccer.It was difficult at first but with time I began to develop stamina.When there were not enough people to play soccer, I started jogging using the track around the soccer field.Everybody was getting into shape, so why not join the revolution.With time i stopped being tired and started to keep pace with just about everybody.
When I left for Washington DC, I continued with the same routine.Working got into the way though, so I could not exercise as often as I would have loved to.I did at least for the next twenty or so years go out for some sort of exercise.Exercising does a lot of good for you.I found out that people taught I younger than I really was.I would say from about the age of 23yrs old when I started regular exercise I have never being hospitalized. I hardly get sick at all. At times when I feel I was getting weak or I feel a fever coming, I would just go out and work out and everything will be okay after that.
You do not have to play soccer.You can pick on any other sporting event.Playing basketball, playing volleyball,playing touch football,jogging etc etc.Any sporting event that you can do on a consistent basis will help greatly.I was provided with sick days at work that I never used.If I called in sick, everybody got worried because they knew I showed up for work all the time.Exercising also enable you to carry on many activities at the same time.I remember during my college years, I still had to put in forty hours of work all the time.Winter periods got I little bit tricky though because, in addition to it being a little too cold outdoors, the playing surfaces are mostly filled with snow.
This is true of the North East states in the US. Winter periods are the best time to use your gym membership.Membership fees in most gyms are not that expensive. You could get 19.99 dollars a month deals. I usually sign up for yearly membership and worked out during the winter.
Once spring comes around though, I prefer the outdoors.Today, I am 46years off age and I can walk for very long period of times, often covering great distances.This is thanks in no small part to the active lifestyle that I lived throughout my twenties,thirty,s and early forties.

Public transportation

It is called public transportation because anybody can get into it to arrive at their intended destination.It is a means of transportation for those that can not for the moment afford to buy and drive a car of their own.
Public transportation is provided in the form of the metro trains"subways"that run around the metropolitan area,metro buses and lastly ride-on buses.
In Clemson, South Carolina, there were no public form of transportation.Luckily,while I was there, my brother owned a car.Once he taught me how to drive,I could basically go where ever I wanted to go.This changed when I left for Washington DC metropolitan area.My cousin Eno,owned a car,but he did not stay long enough in DC when I arrived for me to benefit from the car.Also,he had a school and work schedule that was totally different from mind.I arrived the DC area using Greyhound, a major bus service that runs throughout the US.
My first place of resident was at 7777 Maple Avenue,Takoma Park,MD.Originally,I only had to get to and from work.My job was at East-West highway in Bethesda,MD.It took me two buses to get to work.The number 17 ride-on bus passes right in front of our apartment block.The ride-on bus service was ran by the local county of Montgomery,MD.You get for about a dollar, a bus pass that you could use all day long on the ride-on buses throughout the county.
One of this passes would take me to the Sliver Spring Metro station from where I boarded another bus to work.Metro buses are a little bit more expensive.An all day metro bus pass is only good for certain bus routes and it cost about 1dollar and 25cents.So all said, it cost me initially about 2dollars and 50cents to get to and from work.
Not bad at all.Public transportation is available on big cities only,mainly because it is expensive to maintain and there has to be a large population demand for it.So if you a going to attend a school in a remote area,be ready to get a personal ride as soon as possible.It will be virtually impossible for you to get anything done without one.
It is also very difficult to depend on somebody's else's because,people have different work and school schedules.If you attend a boarding school and your parents are taking care of all your expenses,you will be find.You can just walk to classes,to get something to eat,to a local bar or to visit friends that live around school campus.At the end of the semester,it is easy to get a friend drop you off in a nearby greyhound bus station where you can take the bus home.
When I moved to Sligo avenue, the bus schedule changed.At the time, I was working at the Radio Shack in Langley Park,MD.Two ride-on buses, the number 15 and the number 16 passed in front of the apartment complex.You could get a bus schedule as you board the buses, so you knew when to stand out to wait for them.They are on time most of the time.
When I started schooling at Benjamin Franklin,I started taking the metro train from the Silver Spring Station to the metro stop at Gallery Square or Union Station.This is part of the red line metro train service.The train service is much faster and runs throughout the Washington DC metropolitan area.It was divided into different routes, namely the red line, the orange line,the yellow,the blue line and the green line.Metro bus and train services are provide by the Washington DC Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The various routes will take you close to anywhere around the metropolitan area.The metros are also handicap accessible.Taking the train,though faster is also a little bit more expensive.You pay based on your destination.The prices are there for you to see.There is a rate for rush hours that run from 5.30-9.30am and 3.30pm-7pm weekdays.The fares go up during rush hours and you also have more frequent train movement during this time.
While I attended Howard University,I had to work sometime at Wheaton and of cause get home to Sligo Avenue in Silver Spring. To get to Wheaton, I boarded the ride-on bus to the Silver Spring Metro Station. From there, I either continued with another ride-on bus with the same pass or if the buses are running very slow I boarded the one marked for Rockville that would pass through Wheaton Plaza.
To go to Howard University,once I arrived at Silver Spring Metro Station,there is a bus 70 that takes you through Georgia Avenue to passing right infront of Howard University. The public transport system is great until that time that you can complete your education and have more deposible income for a car purchase.