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New Music: BY SLOPY Titled – SHOMA TAKE E
APHRODEN SPOTLIGHT: TENDAI HUCHU
“Writing is a form of escape for me. My head is a very crowded place but its only when I write that I find calm and solace.” Tendai Huchu
Tendai Huchu was born in 1982 in a sleepy mining town north of Harare called Bindura, Zimbabwe. He attended Churchill High School in Harare and from there went to the University of Zimbabwe to study a degree in Mining Engineering. He dropped out in the middle of the first semester, worked briefly in a casino and from there drifted from one job to the next, working as a binman at some point. Four years later he returned to university. Huchu started writing while he was in high school; and he was sub-editor of The Churchill Times, the school newspaper. He won a couple of national essay contests for his articles; he only delved into fiction-writing when he was 23 … “because I felt I had a story to tell.” Huchu’s first novel, “The Hairdresser of Harare” – a story of Vimbai, an ambitious young single mother navigating her life through Zimbabwe's social, political and economic decay whilst trying to create a better future for herself and her daughter. Along the way she meets Dumisani, a dashing man from a wealthy family who, unknown to her, carries a dark secret that will shatter her view of the world – explores the great African taboo subject of homosexuality. It was published October 10th, 2010. His second novel, “An Untimely Love”, which begins with the intriguing question: what happens when two suicide bombers meet and fall in love with each other on the day planned for their attacks? The story is told from the perspective of the terrorist Khaled Patel. An Untimely Love was published December 1st, 2010. In 2013, Huchu was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship (a prestigious international award open to published writers from around the world).11 FUN FACTS ABOUT TENDAI HUCHU
- After he saw his name on the cover of his first novel – The Hairdresser of Harare –Huchu threw up (vomited) and then went numb.
- While experimenting with Victor Hugo’s technique in The Last Day of a Condemned Man (1829), Huchu wrote his own homage, The Last Day of a Suicide Bomber, which was published on www.bibliotastic.com; and forms the first part of his second novel ‘An Untimely Love’
- His biggest literary influence is Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher - - Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
- While he plays a ‘fair bit’ of chess, Huchu’s has confessed to be “irredeemably mediocre” at it.
- Huchu’s first novel “The Hairdresser of Harare” was translated and published in German in 2011.
- He got the idea for The HaHHHairdresser of Harare on Christmas day 2009.
- Huchu has been known to display Luddite tendencies (a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology), which means you’re not likely to spot him on Twitter or Facebook any time soon.
- The first book he ever loved was A Kiss For Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik; which his mother read to him repeatedly at bedtime.
- Huchu never studied creative writing; rather he learnt through reading writers who he admired … and did a lot of trial and error.
- He wrote The Hairdresser of Harare in Edinburgh.
- Huchu reads a book a week … although, when time allows.
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2013 CAINE PRIZE WINNNER, TOPE FOLARIN
“Being a writer means honouring the essence of who I am.”
Tope Folarin
Oluwabusayo Temitope Folarin was born in 1982 in Ogden, Utah (U.S.A.) to a Yoruba father and an Igbo mother. The eldest of four younger siblings (three brothers and a sister), his family moved from Ogden, Utah to Grand Prairie, Texas when he was 14. Though he completed his undergraduate program at the prestigious all male black higher institution –Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia; he spent a year at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and a semester in South Africa studying abroad at the University of Cape Town. He also worked for an NGO where he interviewed Parliament members about including anti-child prostitution laws within the South African constitution and aided in the development of HIV/AIDS training clinics for rural South Africans. 2004, before heading to the University of Oxford for his Masters program, he was a Galbraith Scholar dealing with issues of inequality and social policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He finished his studies in African Studies at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After a few years, Folarin worked as a spokesman for Google in London; followed by a low-level position on the Obama campaign; then a period of unemployment. As a result of this – Folarin moved to Washington D.C. (in 2008), where he connected with poets and writers including poet and professor, E. Ethelbert Miller. These connections led Folarin to submit his first published short story, “Miracle”, for the Caine Prize. Monday, July 8th, 2013, Tope Folarin emerged as the first writer based outside Africa to win the £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing. Miracle, which is set in Texas in an evangelical Nigerian church where the congregation has gathered to witness the healing powers of a blind pastor-prophet, first published in Transition 109 (2012); was written because he – wanted to tell an honest story about faith. But, Folarin’s first attempt at writing was about … spiders which he won a local competition for (when he was 9). As a result of this, he became more ambitious and started writing a book titled “The Knight’s Journey.” Unfortunately, he didn’t finish the book. He began to write ‘Miracle’ while he was still at Oxford (2006). Miracle, today, has become part of a larger project, a chapter from the yet published book titled The Proximity of Distance, a collection of stories that chart the growth of a single character. Folarin, is an assistant in Washington D.C. to a member of the board for the entity that oversees the audits of public companies – Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and he serves on the board of the Hurston/Wright Foundation – whose mission is to discover, educate, mentor, and develop African American writers. By: Olusola AgbajeThe post 2013 CAINE PRIZE WINNNER, TOPE FOLARIN appeared first on Aphroden.
Serena’s Diary
Dear diary,
It feels like it has been January for three months. And it feels like it has been a year since I last wrote in you. This is a good time as any to say happy New Year, right? Even though the year feels like it has aged.
I have been without a phone or a laptop for 7 weeks. I am sad to admit I am a hopeless technology addict. I have been communicating via letter tied to the leg of a bird, smoke signals and the likes. I had no idea how attached I had become to these things until they were not at my disposal. I woke up one morning and my phone refused to come on and it felt like my lover had deserted me, my heart ached. I spent so much money trying to fix it. it is not like I was even phoneless, I had one of these Nokia torch light phones to put my simcard in and receive calls with, but there was no internet, no twitter, no BBM, no whatsapp, no Google chrome, no book shelf filled with soft copies of my treasured books that I always chose to read over actual communication with real people. Then about a week after, my laptop too went in the same direction. I remember crying and sulking and asking God why. Like what have I even done to even deserve this? I sulked and threw mountain size tantrums when it became apparent that my parents did not feel the urgency I felt needed to be applied in replacing these devices. i blew a fuse when my mother said ‘But it is just a phone now’. Like, how dare you? Just a phone? It is my best friend, my ever present companion, an extension of my hands and I cannot simply exist happily without it.
Then it hit me.
It is actually just a phone. A phone I bought with my money and I had allowed it enslave me. How did it ever get so important? When did it become so hard to have actual face to face conversations about the way I feel? When did my happiness become so tied to that little device and the people in it? I was asking God why and crying like I had been cast the worst lot of all. Over a phone? Why?
Idols do not have to be carved figures that you have to bow to every morning and pour red oil on or something. I think I understand now that anything or anybody you rate so highly (perhaps even above God) becomes an idol. The process is usually a sublime one, it happens without you even realizing it.
I have a new phone now. And a new laptop. I will not even lie, I am happy. But I promise to try to not allow these things become major determinants of how wide my smile is, I promise to always make an effort to be grounded in reality; real life, real people, face to face conversations. I promise to be more careful of the things I allow occupy my heart and how much space I allow them occupy.
Love,
Serena.
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Historical Facts on Ghanian Literature
- Ghanaian journalist, educator, lawyer, editor, politician and author, Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford (also known as Ekra-Agiman, 29 September 1866 –11 August 1930) published (what is probably) the first African novel written in English, Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation (1911).
- Voices of Ghana: Literary Contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System 1955 -57 was the first Ghanaian literary anthology of poems, stories, plays and essays. It contained works that had been broadcast on Radio Ghana between 1955 and 1957; and writers anthologised included Frank Parkes, Kwesi Brew, Cameron Duodu and Efua T. Sutherland. It was published by the Ghana Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in 1958.
- In the mid-18th century, Reverend Thomas Thompson from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, upon his arrival to the Gold Coast sent three young Africans – including Philip Quaque to London for training. Quaque later became the first African to be ordained as a minister in the Church of England, and a prolific writer whose letters provided a unique perspective on the effects of slave trade and its abolition in Africa.
- The first Ewe (Niger–Congo language spoken in south-eastern Ghana) grammars and primers (an elementary textbook that serves as an introduction to a subject of study or is used for teaching children to read) were produced in the 1850s at the Bremen Mission, which operated in the East of the country since 1847.
- The first printing press was established at Akropong (a town in southern Ghana) in the 1870s.
- During the 13th century, Ghanaians developed their unique art of adinkra printing (visual symbols), which were hand-printed and hand-embroidered and used exclusively by the then Ghanaian royalty for devotional ceremonies. Each design has a name and meaning derived from a proverb, a historical event, human attitude etc.
- The Ghanaian national literature is one of the oldest in the entire African continent, as the first work of Ghanaian literature dates from 163 A.D.
- Efua Sutherland, a colonial-era female playwright, dramatist, poet and director, helped to establish the literary magazine, Okyeame (in 1961), which saw the rapid rise of a new generation of thinkers, writers and poets.
- Ghanaian author, poet, playwright and academic, Ama Ata Aidoo became the first published African woman dramatist after Longman published her first play in 1965.
- Prominent Ghanaian writer, playwright and dramatist, Joseph Coleman de Graft, (aka Joe de Graft, 2 April 1924 – 1 November 1978), who was appointed the first director of the Ghana Drama Studio in 1962 was responsible for the Ghanaian premieres of plays by two Nigerian dramatists: James Ene Henshaw and Wole Soyinka.
- Quobna Ottobah Cugoanos was the first African writer to publish a book attacking slave trade – Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787).
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12 Things To know About The 2011 Caine Prize Winner: Noviolet Bulawayo
“For me it’s important that whoever starts reading my work doesn’t put it down. Laughter carries you through and I have to connect to the reader. Humour allows me to do that.”- NoViolet Bulawayo
Born Elizabeth Zandile Tshele, on 12th October, 1981 in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North (Zimbabwe). Bulawayo attended Njube High School and later Mzilikazi High School for her A-levels. When she was 18, she moved to Kalamazoo, Southern Michigan (United States) to live with her aunt; where she completed her college education in 2003 at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. She later earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Texas A&M University-Commerce and Southern Methodist University respectively (both located at (Texas, U.S.A.) In 2010, she completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Cornell University. In 2011, Bulawayo won the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story "Hitting Budapest" about a gang of street children in a Zimbabwean shantytown. In 2013, her debut novel entitled “We Need New Names” was published (May 21st) to rave reviews; and it was included in the 2013 Man Booker Prize shortlist, which made her the first Zimbabwean to be shortlisted for the Prize. DID YOU KNOW …- Her pen-name NoViolet Bulawayo are homage to her mother (who died when she was 18 months old) and her hometown. NoViolet is her mother’s name, which means "with Violet"; and Bulawayo, which is Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, is her hometown.
- She adopted the pen-name, NoViolet Bulawayo, when she was at university.
- Bulawayo's father Noel Tshele, was a police officer.
- She went to the US to study law.
- Bulawayo was among the 2013 National Book Award's "5 Under 35" (5 authours under the age of 35). She was selected by Pulitzer Winning writer, Junot Díaz.
- Her 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing short story "Hitting Budapest" was the first chapter of her 2013 Man Booker Prize shortlisted debut novel – “We Need New Names”
- She became the first black African woman to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
- “We Need New Names” was also shortlisted for the 2013 Guardian First Book award. At 31, Bulawayo was the youngest contender.
- Besides writing, Bulawayo is also aspiring to be a filmmaker, noting that – ‘I also have an interest in film so I’m taking film classes”.
- Her biggest literary inspiration is the late Zimbabwean award-winning author, Yvonne Vera, because more than any other writer …“I care about the same things she cares about; from the poetic grace of language to (feminist) themes to the writer’s spirit of courage, that bravery to say things that would not normally be said. If she wasn’t in the picture I don’t think I’d have the courage to write about things I’m writing about.”
- “We Need New Names” was also selected by Oprah Winfrey as one of "Nine Must-Read Books for June 2013”.
- She worked on “We Need New Names” for four years.
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Introducing The Etisalat Prize For LIterature
“By recognizing and celebrating writers and other members of the literary community across Africa … while also applauding and rewarding the efforts of those who have ventured into fiction and short story writing in recent times.” - Etisalat
The Etisalat Prize for Literature is the first ever Pan-African prize (relating to all people of African birth or descent) to recognize debut fiction writers. The Prize aims to serve as a platform for the discovery of new creative talent out of the continent and invariably promote the growing publishing industry in Africa. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRIZE: 1. The Etisalat Prize for Literature celebrates new writers of African citizenship whose first fiction book of any genre (over 30,000 words) was published in the past two years. Authors and their publishers can be based anywhere in the world. 2. The Etisalat Prize for Literature comes with £15,000, a Samsung Galaxy Note, a Montblanc Meisterstuck, a sponsored book tour to three African cities and the Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia mentored by Professor Giles Foden (author of The Last King of Scotland). 3. Shortlisted writers will win a Samsung Galaxy Note and also go on a book tour to two major African cities. 4. It also aims to promote the publishing industry at large and will therefore purchase 1000 copies of all shortlisted books which will be donated to various schools, book clubs and libraries across the African continent. 5. Submissions are only be accepted from publishing houses. Thus, all books entered must have a registered ISBN number or an equivalent. 6. Entries for fiction books will be submitted by publishers who have published a minimum of ten (10) authors. 7. Each entry will be required to be accompanied by Seven (7) copies of the book. 8. Applications will be accepted via post only. (Visit etisalatprize.com for more information.)THE 2013 ETISALAT PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
This is the maiden prize, and the judges (or patrons) are: - Ghanaian author, poet, playwright, academic and the first published African woman dramatist (1965), Ama Ata Aidoo, - Nigerian Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist, Dele Olojede, - Zimbabwean editor and literary critic, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, OBE, - Nigerian intellectual and seasoned writer, Kole Omotoso, - Ghanaian-born Writer, Publisher and Dramatist, Margaret Busby, OBE, and - South African award-winning Novelist, poet and playwright, Zakes Mda. The shortlist for the prize was announced 23 January 2014. They are: 1. Nigeria’s Yewande Omotoso, “Bom Boy” (September 2011) – About Leke, a troubled young man living in the suburbs of Cape Town. He develops strange habits of stalking people, stealing small objects and going from doctor to doctor in search of companionship rather than cure. Through a series of letters written to him by his Nigerian father whom he has never met, Leke learns about a family curse; a curse which his father had unsuccessfully tried to remove. 2. South Africa’s Karen Jennings, “Finding Soutbek” (June 2012) – Located in small town of Soutbek, are introduced a series of stories about intriguingly interlinked relationships. Contemporary Soutbek is still a divided town – the upper town destitute, and the lower town rich, largely ignorant – and through a series of vivid scenes, the troubled relationship between Pieter Fortuin, the town’s first coloured mayor, and his wife Anna is revealed. In so many ways the past casts a long shadow over the present, not in the least through the unreliable diaries of Pieter Meerman promoted by Pieter Fortuin and Professor Pearson, a retired white historian. They give us a unique insight into the lives of the seventeenth-century Dutch explorers, and hint at a utopian society. The blossoming friendship between Anna, Sara, a foundling, and Willem, Pieter Fortuin’s nephew, is unsettled by David, Anna’s and Pieter’s son. His father has bought David a bright future, but when he comes back from boarding school David appears alienated from his father and from his old friend, the former gardener Charles Geduld, just as Anna starts to accept him as her son. Is there hope, or are we left with Willem’s conclusion that ‘he would spend the rest of his life working off the debt of his family’s poverty’? 3. Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo, “We Need New Names” (May 2013) - tells the story of Darling, a 10-year-old growing up in politically unstable Zimbabwe – homes destroyed by paramilitary policemen, schools closed …, she has a chance to escape to stay with an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America's famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. By: Olusola Agbaje The winner will be announced 23 February 2014.The post Introducing The Etisalat Prize For LIterature appeared first on Aphroden.
12 Facts On Sudanese Housewife Turned Award Winning Author , Leila Aboudela
When I write I experience relief and satisfaction that what occupies my mind, what fascinates and disturbs me, is made legitimate by the shape and tension of a story. Leila Aboudela
Early Life Leila Aboulela was born in 1964 in Cairo, (Egypt) to an Egyptian mother and a Sudanese father. She moved to Sudan at the age of six weeks and lived in Khartoum continuously until 1987, where she attended Khartoum American School and the Sisters’ School, a private Catholic High school. She graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of Khartoum specializing in Statistics in 1985; and then travelled to Britain where she obtained a M.Sc. and an MPhil in Statistics from the London School of Economics. In 1990 Leila moved to Scotland with her husband and children; by 1992, she started writing while working as a lecturer in Aberdeen College and later as a Research Assistant in Aberdeen University. She has had several short stories published in anthologies and broadcast on radio, and one of her short stories, ‘The Museum’, won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000. Her collection of short stories, Coloured Lights, was published in 2001. Her first novel, “The Translator” (1999), was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times in 2006 and it was nominated for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, “Minaret” (2005) was also nominated for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. Her third novel “Lyrics Alley” (2011) was the Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards; and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011. DID YOU KNOW THAT…- Leila’s third novel Lyrics Alley (2011) was inspired by the life of her uncle, the poet Hassan Awad Aboulela, who wrote the lyrics for many popular Sudanese songs.
- Leila’s works have been translated into thirteen languages.
- She wrote her award-winning book, Lyrics Alley, while residing in Abu Dhabi.
- Born in Cairo, Leila has lived in Sudan, Britain, Indonesia, the UAE and Qatar.
- Her mother who also attended the London School of Economics for her doctorate, was the first female dean of the Khartoum branch of Cairo University.
- Her uncle, Hassan Awad Aboulela – whose first poem triggered the inspiration for Lyrics Alley, died in 1962, two years before Leila was born.
- Leila has confessed to writing only in the morning.
- While writing Lyrics Alley, she watched 1950s films to draw inspiration from the clothes, the furniture and the hairdos; and read novels published around the early 50s.
- Her favourite books of all time are Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Tayeb Salih’s The Wedding of Zein.
- She is the first recipient of the Cain Prize For African Writing in 2000 for her short story "The Museum", at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare.
- Her first novel, The Translator, (1999) is taught in universities in Sudan.
- She graduated from the University of Khartoum, in 1985, as the only woman in her statistics honour class.
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World youngest female Billionaire emerges 21 days into the New Year!
- Management consultant for Mckinsey & Co. from 1995-96
- Chief of staff to US Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers during President Bill Clinton’s administration from 1996-2001
- Vice President of Global Online Sales & Operations from 2001-2008
- Head Online Sales of Google’s advertising & publishing products
- Head of Sales Operations of Google consumer products and Google Book Search
- COO of Facebook Inc. after meeting with company’s co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg during World Economic Forum, Davos in 2008.
- TED speech titled ‘Why we have too few women leaders’ (December, 2010)
- Barnard College’s graduation ceremony Commencement Address (May, 2011)
- Jewish Community Federation’s Business Leadership Council as a Keynote Speaker (2010)
- Harvard Business School’s the Class day Ceremony as Keynote Speaker ( May 2012)
- Colgate University’s second annual Entrepreneur Weekend as Keynote Speaker (April, 2013)
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Top Ten Videos in January
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Serena’s Diary
Love,
Serena.
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How Well Do You Know Ada Udechukwu
“Every experience plays into what one creates.”
- Ada Udechukwu
Ada Udechukwu is one of the few female artists associated with the Nsukka group (a group of Nigerian artists who were associated with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in the 1970s.) Born 1960, to an Igbo father and an American mother in the city of Enugu (Eastern Nigeria); where she also grew up. Amid the bloodshed to form the Republic of Biafra – which led to the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 1970), she and her siblings took refuge in Michigan, U.S.A., with her mother while her father stayed behind. They remained in Michigan until 1971, a year after Biafra’s collapse.
Not formally trained in the visual arts; Ada enrolled at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1977, at the age of seventeen, where she majored in English and Literature and obtained her bachelor's degree in 1981. A few years later she began to paint on fabric, using a restrained linear style to draw designs on dresses, shirts, trousers, scarves, and other garments.
Udechukwu considers herself primarily a poet and continues to write. Her book of poetry, Woman, Me, (1993) which expresses many of the same personal qualities as her works on paper, has been well received by critics. As she did in her university days, Udechukwu continues to express herself through poetry, drawing, and painting.
She only began writing fiction in 2003, enrolling in an MFA program at Bennington College, Vermont (USA) where faculty members include award winning American authors, Amy Hempel and Rick Moody.
HERE ARE A FEW THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ADA
1. She has had several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the The Newark Museum; and her works have been sold at auction, including 'INTERIOR II' which sold at Arthouse Contemporary Limited 'Modern & Contemporary Art' in 2010 for $1,333 – $2,000 ( 200,000-300,000).
2. Her husband is Professor Obiora Udechukwu; he is a Danna Professor of Fine Arts and Coordinator of the African Studies Program at St Lawrence University, New York. He is also an award winning poet, and a fellow member of the Nsukka group.
3. Her short story, ‘Night Bus', published in The Atlantic Monthly, August 2006 was shortlisted for 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing.
4. When her family relocated to the USA, they lived at East Lansing, Michigan, because the University of Nigeria, where her mother worked, had a link with Michigan State University.
5. While living in the US, her mother used to send out her (Ada) and her siblings to raise funds for Biafra.
6. Her husband, Obiora, was involved in the propaganda units during the civil war, as he didn’t fight. His involvement ended up being a very crucial time for his work as an artist, as he helped to form a group of artists who wrote plays collectively and did their own work – their painting/writing – in the name of the Biafran cause.
7. When Ada was a student at the University of Nigeria, her future husband, Obiora, was a lecturer. They didn’t meet till she was getting ready to graduate, which was through her roommate who was related to him.
8. Her daughter, Ijeanuli, 31, had her graduate degree in Film; while her son, Nwora, 27 majored in Art while in college.
9. She studied under the legendary author Chinua Achebe, at the University of Nigeria.
10. Her husband accepted a teaching position at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York in 1997, at the height of Nigeria’s military dictatorship, which saw the family’s relocation to US, where they have been living ever since.
By: Olusola Agbaje
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Exclusive: T-Pain Feat VTEK- “Dream” (Reference Demo)
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Photography 101: Things To Consider Before Buying A Digital Camera
4) PHYSICAL DESIGN.
Chances are that your camera is going to be hauled around, taken from place to place. It is bound to take a few hits and nicks in the process, so when picking a digital camera you should look out for the type of material it is made of and how resistant you think it will be to all the future falls and hits. You should also check for how it feels in your hands, how the buttons are placed, how they feel, how easily they are pressed and how easily accessible the buttons are. You should also turn on the camera and see how long it takes to come on and also how many seconds there are between successive pictures.
5) BATTERY LIFE.
We do not want our cameras going off in the idle of long trips with no easily accessible point of charge now, do we? Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are known to last the longest but if you are on the move and there is no guarantee of a charging point, you may want to get a camera that takes standard AA batteries. Or to be double sure, you can get a digital camera that supports both rechargeable batteries and long life disposable batteries.
6) COST
This may be the last but it is not the least. I mean, unless you are a professional photographer (and even then), there is no point in breaking the bank and going into debt to get a digital camera. You can just get one that is in line with your budget and get in the business of saving memories.
By: Okaima Oyakhirome
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APHRODEN SPOTLIGHT: Rising Publishing House – Cassava Rebuplic
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10 Things you should know about United States’ Silicon Valley
- The Stanford University provided the solid background technology research and development that gave rise to industrial innovation in Silicon Valley along with help from private sector.
- In 1969, the Stanford Research Institute International operated one of four nodes of ARPANET that later formed the motivation for the Internet.
- Two friends Ralph Vaerst, an entrepreneur and Don Hoefler, a weekly writer for Electronic News in early 1971 were credited for christening Silicon Valley.
- Silicon Valley was originally referred to as Valley of Heart’s Delight because, it was used for agriculture and food crops production.
- Silicon Valley is a high concentration of firms involved in commercial production of semiconductors, which heralded the microcomputer revolution from Silicon-based ICs, the microprocessors, the microcomputers and other computer technology innovations.
- This area employs millions of information technologists, engineers, scientists, from major Universities spread across the valley because of its favourable market supported by US department of defense, Stanford University and other high network venture capital firms. It is recently notable for producing world’s young billionaires through stock’s valuation.
- The cyber-city has received credit for many breakthroughs in research and technology of US Navy. By 1909, Charles Herrold Started the first radio station in the US with scattered programming and later led to world’s first global radio communication system by Federal Telegraph Corporation (FTC) formed by Cyril Elwell in 1912.
- Silicon Valley is home to several world leading media outfits such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, KGO-TV/ABC, CNBC, San Jose Mercury News etc., for the sole purpose of covering its companies and business activities.
- Silicon Valley at present is synonymous to World’s biggest high-tech site because most of the high-tech firms’ headquarters are located there. Notable among these companies include: Fortune1000, Adobe Systems, AMD, Apple Inc., Cisco Systems, Google, Facebook, Juniper Network, SanDisk, HP, Dell, Amazon, Nokia, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
- Silicon Valley is renowned for its quality of Universities and Colleges that continue to lead the way in research and technology. It is literally the laboratory for so many high-tech and business innovations/startups.
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Maria Carey, Jennifer Hudson, Tama Braxton, Wayne Brady, Others To Perform At “BET Honors”
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Monday Like A Friday: The whistleblower
- Set Early Deadlines – If you have a project due by a certain date, set your own deadline, but set it earlier that the actual date. This sounds elementary, but not many do this. Have you ever finished a project earlier than the deadline? It feels great!
- Advertise the deadline – Tell others about your deadlines: your spouse, significant other, and close friends. You will find that by making it public you will have added motivation to hold yourself accountable. Failing yourself is easy, but failing in front of others is not.
- Make it serious – In a culture, where deadlines are seen as optional, make a choice that you will adhere to the deadline. After all, it is a choice. Make the decision and hold to it. When others are going out and you have something due…don’t take the easy road.
- Take pride – When others do not care about timeliness, you will inevitably get flak for your stick-to-it-ness. Take pride in knowing that you are getting the job done to your personal standards.
- Know you are being more productive – Take stock of the fact that you are making yourself more productive by completing things on time. Projects left to the last minute take longer to complete. No last minute craziness and disruption to your other work.
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14 SIGNS YOU MAY BE WRITER
“Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. … It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.” - Enid Bagnold
Some say writers are born, others … are made. Either way, one thing’s for sure – Writers write! Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you just wrote? If you would have made a great writer? Just scribbling down your thoughts, and amidst the chaos of those written words, there it is! – like a little fire in a thick forest; that phrase, statement, sentence that seems to encompass everything you’re feeling & thinking right that second. Newsflash – You’re, somewhat of, a writer. There are a few signs that you may have missed that show that you have what it takes to thrive in the field of writing. Even if you’ve got a stable career and family; one thing is certain … it is never too late to start writing.SIGNS THAT YOU ARE A WRITER 1. Are you an Introvert (very shy); meaning you would rather be alone with your thoughts than chill with friends. Then, you may just be a writer, besides you’ve got all the time in the world.
2. Do you have problems expressing yourself orally, and you seem great at writing them? Look no further, you’re a writer. 3. Do you dream to one day have a career that affords you to be in your pyjamas/underwear all day? And work from home? It’s real; some people want a career where they have to look professional all day, while others just want to work from their bedrooms. 4. You Are An Observer – You usually find yourself in the middle of a conversation, and then it suddenly feels like you’re floating above yourself, watching the whole thing unfold. An obvious lack of attention, because you’re thinking to yourself, “This is it!” How am I going to describe this later!?” While it’s not considered a good trait, you might as well make the most out it by writing about it. 5. You Read Voraciously (You have more books than friends) – Writers are readers, it is just a fact of life. That is not to say that everyone who reads can write, but any aspiring writer that doesn’t read should consider a change in career pronto! As writers are drawn to books like ants to sugar. 6. Do you feel this compulsion to write? And when you don’t write, do you feel like something is missing? Good news, you are already a writer. 7. Have you ever fantasized about writing? Or have you just fantasized more than you think is normal? If you have a tendency to drift off to fantasy land you may be a writer. One of the traits of a great story teller is the ability to fantasize vividly, with the little details. Many writers can do this at will and some can do it while keeping up with a conversation. 8. Story Telling - a love of telling stories is essential to enjoying the craft of writing. Many cultures, if not all, have storytelling etched in their backgrounds as telling stories has been seen as a vital medium to keep tradition alive as it passes through generations. 9. Do children prefer you tell them a story of your own making rather than from a book? Children are very good at recognizing a writer/storyteller, even better than adults. 10. Did you enjoy writing when you were young? If you enjoyed writing when you were a child, it could be a sign that you were meant to write. Children know what they like and tend to know what they will do with their life even if they cannot express it. 11. If you call writing, during your self-imposed schedule, as “going to work” or “working”, then you are! 12. Do you have more than a couple of notebooks filled with writing from cover to cover? When writers first start out, they write anywhere and everywhere. Anyone who has jumped out of bed after a dream and frantically searched in the dark for something to write with, and on, is on the right track. Do you feel the need to always write everything you experience? 13. Has your job, in a way, trained you how to tell a story? Then seize the day! 14. Have you ever been told that you’re a writer? Sometimes it takes that one person—a teacher, a parent, a friend, a lover—to give you a nudge and help you find your path.
Now that you’ve discovered that you are a writer; don’t forget to hone your skills. It’s one thing to be a writer; it’s quite another to be a Great Writer. Happy writing.
BY: Olusola Agbaje
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NEW MUSIC : Your Number By Nikki Laoye & Xblaze Feat
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