With Georgia Proverbially on my Mind, I Found Serendipity...and Broke the Friday Jinx...

Well. Kind of. At least I'm blogging on a Thursday!

Started seriously exercising this week. Monday was cool, Tuesday even better; skipped Wednesday. Huffed and puffed today as I pulled the bloody crow-looking bar down towards my chest and grunted. Felt bloody good! Let's get to tomorrow, where I grunt for longer. Yeah, baby!

My postings has revealed a lot about my state of mind--here, there, and everywhere. I haven't been visiting my other blog "friends" enough, but each tome I do, I always start with Daniel Hoffman-Gill--a British actor who's just a real, top bloke. His eclectic postings reveal a sensitive and level-headed guy who needs to be read. He must be in Poland with his partner-in-crime, Mark, to use comedy to change the world.

Changing the world never came easy--ask the Americans who are so bent on forcing the blame on Russia over the offensive on Georgia. A colleague had a post from the guardian newspaper last night, which I browsed very quickly. The words were sufficient to explain away what the author--Seumas Milne--was trying to say: Georgia is a CIA-backed regime.

Not something many of us would like to hear.

When German premier Angela Merkel praised Saakasvilli(sp) and encouraged it to join Nato, I wondered what that was about if not to cement the Western ties the Georgian leader so desires.

Russia might be no angel, but let's stop the hypocrisy here. Milne talked about "sycophancy", and I think he couldn't be too far off the mark. Here's a quote excerpted from the renowned huffingtonpost.com:

"The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered". George Bush denounced Russia for having "invaded a sovereign neighbouring state" and threatening "a democratic government". Such an action, he insisted, "is unacceptable in the 21st century".

Rather serendipitously, as I tried to find a discerning image for this post, I came across a bloody useful read: Jungleredwriters that chronicles posts from mystery writers, with lots of useful stuff for
budding writers like, erm, myself.

The irony of my writing is that while I continue to obtain plaudits for my writing in Ghana and all that, I haven't got my life sorted out on the only writing that I think matters--a published crime novel. Conveniently, I've managed to convince my sub-conscious that because I will publish my articles on technology for Sunday World next year, my thriller takes a back seat.

This, despite what one American academic--Rebekah Hurt-- wrote of me, but inexplicably changed her site to an invited-only one:

Bensah’s blogs are as much about the performance of a slightly idealized version of himself and his communities and about the continued speculation about the boundaries of those ideals and the realism of those performances as his blogs are about strictly and consistently keeping track of specific progresses though to the completion of projects. On Feb. 21st, Bensah quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail,” and follows with this post, which self-consciously reflects upon his blogging persona and what he would like to make of it, reflecting his growing consciousness about his site’s potential readership and consumption:

Delusions – indeed – of grandeur are setting in, so stop me before I go too far;-)) point is I chanced upon my article on the deregulation thing on Club Ghana [linked]. It was for personal consumption! But hey, it’s up there. What can u do? It’s, I guess, stupid to assume that anything you post online will not find its way out of your intimate site, and outside the parameters of your “eccentric” or conservative world. It I sjust [sic] not possible that it will stay there untouched without the indefatigable Google finding its way to it by way of its various spidering techniques:-) Anyway, this revelation has come as an epiphany of sorts in the sense that I am fast beginning to realize I best watch what I write…

Bensah pokes fun at himself by gesturing toward these “delusions of grandeur”, his comparison of himself to Emerson and his possible imaginings that recent attention to his blog are warranted by the high quality of his writing, but, at the same time as he goes on to write that “taking cognizance of this should no mean that [he] start[s] affecting, or exaggerating,” one finds that, inevitably, he is emboldened, and perhaps very rightly, by his increasing web popularity. The positive feedback he receives through blogging impacts the very processes of self-improvement that he is blogging about because, having received such praise, he imagines himself capable of doing bigger and better things – such as completing his full-length crime-thriller.

The operative word, ofcourse, is full-length!

The Perfect Introduction?

I'm never sure about beginnings, because I'm not quite sure where to start with them. If that sounds ironic, try this for size: I had a perfect storm of ideas last weekend on how to introduce my significant other to the folks. I've been cogitating no-end like my life depended on it, memorizing, preparing the scripts in my head, from the words to the atmosphere necessary to get them to feel at ease and laugh with us when we make the introduction.

I've got some four months still, and by gum, I will use every instance to visualize, vizualize and vizualise the situation like I had lived it in the last life! It's been too long. Last time I posted something similar was in November of...2006, and Sandy and I have been dating how long now? Honestly...

Not to self-flagellate myself or belabour the point, but I have been a monumental wuss. This month, being exactly 48 months since I came back home, and experienced turbulence with my ex and whatnot, is a perfect time to think clearly and get serious on where I want to go with my life.

I started by clearing my desk and work corner of unnecessary newspapers and stories and articles I have forgotten to read. If they were that important, I would have sought them ought and readf them. Maybe, they are not that important after all!

My weight has also been in free-fall. I've lost 5kilos in one month before. I can do it again. I've already prepared a table of how I see my life segmented: blogging; Sunday World column writing; novel; regional integration surveying as well as my professional work.

Back to being a man on fire!

Enjoy yours.