Third World Living: Mesmerized by Roadworks Part 3

I just found out yesterday that Wes Craven is filming the 4th installment of his teen-slasher horror film franchise  Scream. I must admit I was quite a fan of the  Scream films. Scream 1 poked fun at the whole teen-slasher genre but managed to be entertaining and had a brilliant twist-ending. I was pretty sure it answered all dangling questions but then came Scream 2  which sought to prolong the drama while making more money. Finally, there was Scream 3  which for me was like beating a very dead horse with a stick. So you can understand why I was perplexed to find yet ANOTHER Scream film was in the pipeline. Speaking of perplexing horror sequels, early Saturday morning, I was awoken by the deafening sounds of machines  working hard on our street. What?! Roadworks again??!

If you happen to follow my blog, you will recall that in September last year, our untarred road was finally tarred. Well, not quite. It was indeed too good to be true.The road contractor managed to complete half the road leaving us with a bizarre Yin-Yang pattern: 

 RoadWorks Part 1: The Half-baked Yin-Yang

The road contractor mysteriously disappeared and we were left to wait with bated breath for the sequel. Finally, in  January this year we were given  Roadworks Part 2; the memorable sequel:

 Roadworks Part 2: The Mysterious Yang-Yin Dusty Trail

Roadworks Part 2 was strange and completely unsatisfying. Alas, yet again  before any questions could be asked, the road contractor had evaporated into thin air! Life went on and seasons changed. Heavy rains came and the shoddy nature of the first two installments of the Roadworks franchise were becoming apparently. Suddenly, this past Saturday, the roar of engines signalled the 3rd installment in the horror franchise: 

Roadworks Part 3: All Yin and some zen

Finally, after almost a year, it appears our street is finally uniform. There is zen on our street. But here's a thought; instead of half-baked shoddy work, wouldn't it be better to do a really good job the first time around?  Or like horror film franchises, do we have to keep waiting for yet another installment? Sad to say, but that is why I call it "Third World Living".

When everything has to be # -ed: Confessions of a Twitter Addict

How well do you know any of the following:

1. Twitter
2. Tweet
3. Followers/Following
4. Unfollow
5. Retweet
6. Trending Topics
7. @username
8. DMs 
9. Twitter is Overcapacity
10. Verified Account
11. Justin Bieber
12. Tweetphoto/Twitpic
13. Twitlonger
14. Snaptu/Hootsuite/Nimbuzz/Pixelpipe/Gravity/TweetDeck/UberTwitter/Twaitter
15. #nowplaying
16. #MusicMonday
17. FollowFriday (#FF)
18. Hope140
19. Jack Dorsey/Biz Stone
20. Who.unfollowed.me/Qwitter

So....how well did you fare?

Scores

0 : Clearly you are not into social media and have never heard of Twitter. Looks like I have to break it down. According to the folks over at Wikipedia; "Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers."

1- 5: So you have heard about Twitter? You probably had a peek at a friend's account but still do not see the use.You are convinced that people join Twitter to find out what Demi Moore (Kutcher) had for breakfast and so you think its pointless.

6-12: You have a Twitter account. You joined out of curiosity but  yet you still fail to see the use. You can't even remember your username and password.

13-18: You are on Twitter. You enjoy news updates or occasional words of wisdom from people you follow. You check your account from time to time but can go days or weeks without being on Twitter. You are in a good place.

more than 18:  You are a complete Tweethead; an absolute Twitter addict  who craves a Twitter fix morning, noon and night.

Symptoms of Twitter addiction may include:

• Panic at your inability to log on to Twitter either through phone network malfunctioning, internet downtime or the dreaded ""Twitter is over capacity. Please wait a moment and try again" message

• Your number of Tweets exceeds 2000+ even though you have only been on Twitter for a few months

• You are on Twitter at odd times of the day: 1am, 3am or 5am 

• No one around you understands why you are on Twitter and is still hooked on Facebook or even (tragically) hi5

• You use Twitter to find directions to places or get recommendations for movies, restaurants or software

• You send messages to friends on Twitter instead of texting them

• You start to # everything on #Facebook. You refer to your friends in text messages, facebook or emails as @James and start to restrict your facebook status to 140 characters

What I'm desperately trying to understand is how I went from seeing Twitter as futile and useless to being a complete Tweethead. I  now have  4,485 Tweets to my credit and counting. Anyway, I have accepted it and I'm off to get my fix. If you are looking for me, you know where to find me! 

My Twitter homepage

**Fever Pitch: Ghana on the brink of making World Cup history and other tales

 Source: Daily Guide newpaper

For football fan-atics like myself, the World Cup is panning out to be deliciously interesting. All expected outcomes are not coming to pass and there have been surprises abundant. The drama is never-ending and its even reaching soap opera-esque dimensions. 

Here are some delightful headlines:

*English goal keeper Robert Green and the ball that got away

*Nigerian midfielder gets over 1,000 death threats over his sending off 

*France's World Cup fiasco - The Curse of the Irish perhaps?

*The Curse of the Nike Advert?: All footballers featured never made it past the World Cup quarter finals

*A strangely disallowed American goal 

 

*A strangely disallowed English goal

*An off-side Argentinian and a strangely allowed goal 

*The media-hyped tale of Two (Boateng) brothers  and their over-hyped epic encounter on opposing sides on the pitch 

Not only is it drama-filled but it is (supposedly) our time...Africa's world cup. The fact that the Black Stars remain the only African team in the actual competition may make it hard to believe that it is indeed the time for the continent. Currently, our Stars have the incredible burden of the whole of Africa on their shoulders. It has been an absolute delight getting emails and  text messages from friends all over the continent and the world declaring their support for the Black Stars. I just heard that Kenyans are flying Ghana colours and it appears South Africans are affectionately referring to the Black Stars as "BaGhana" - a witty take on  their not-so successful football team "Bafana Bafana". Of course in the case of South Africa, we have to contend with the fact that as soon as we lose Ghanaians will probably be back to being not-so affectionately referred to as "Makwerekwere" (derogatory SeSotho/SeTswana term  used to refer to Black African foreigners in South Africa).

Back to the Ghana-Uruguay encounter slated for tonight. Is there hope? Could Ghana be trailblazer in Africa yet again? Is it really "Our time" ?

BBC Focus on Africa magazine July - September 2010 edition

**Fever Pitch: Okay so I borrowed the phrase from Nick Hornby 1992 novel  of the same title which apparently is an autobiographical account of his lifelong love / obsession with (my beloved) Arsenal football club (The Gunners!). Fever Pitch was later made into a movie starring Colin Firth in an unforgettable lead.