---

I'm working on a project that I need help with. Basically, I'm designing a website to help all Ghanaian students who are applying to colleges in the US. The idea is to create a single website with almost all the resources and links that a student will need when applying to schools in the US. This is because most of the websites online are more bias towards domestic students and offer little for international students. Moreover, a good number of folks back home have to pay to use the internet which is so slow that it takes more than ten minutes to load a single page sometimes. What makes matters worse is that our brethren back home have not had much exposure to the internet and often times do not have the luxury of time, skills and money to do any reasonable research online. The result is that there is an uneven playing field where very brilliant students who could have made it to some of the best colleges in the world but do not have the needed resources are not able to make it here. What hurts me the most is that there are some extremely good students who could easily use the vast resources here in the US to improve themselves but do not even consider throwing in an application because they are deterred by the cost of college here. It's true that education in the US is extremely expensive and it is virtually impossible to get a full scholarship but some have made it here with nothing and that means that it is possible.

The other main feature of the website is to create two huge databases: one of Ghanaian students in Ghana and the other of Ghanaian students in the US. What I'm hoping to do is to link each student in Ghana to one student in the US. The student in US will serve as a mentor to the Ghanaian student; advising, reviewing essays, helping with the application, etc. I'm hoping to link students with sort of the same background so that they will be able they will be able to better relate. For example, if a student wants to attend school X, we'll also try to connect him/her with a Ghanaian student in that school. Also, if there is a student who is applying from the Northern Region, we could look for someone with similar experiences so that he/she guides the prospective student.

I've been playing with this idea for sometime now. I've been a victim of the admissions process myself twice and gotten bounced by almost 20 schools so I know how important this project is to me. It was a student from my former high school who finally helped me to get here. It's a long story. Everyone gave up hope but I worked with my mentor and we finally made it. I came here without having to pay anything. I can't say how thankful I am. Our universities are wonderful but they compare in no way to colleges here - at least in terms of resources. That is why I want to help our brothers and sisters back home who want to come and study in the US to be able to live out their dreams.

I'm currently working on the website (even though I don't know a line of code) and looking for a host. I'll post more details here when I'm done. Please let me know if you're interested and we could work on this together. Let us together help our brothers and sisters live out their dreams. Let us remember when we were in their shoes and probably how desperate we were. Let us look back at all the wonderful opportunities that we've gotten since coming to the US (for those in the US). And let us make an effort to help.

---

There was no school today.  Yay!!!  We had no labor day when everyone else was on vacation so this is some sort of compensation that we have.  Technically, we're supposed to hike a mountain somewhere near the school called Pinnacle but I didn't go.  Actually, I meant to go but I spent the whole day doing some sort of crazy needless but useful research online.

I've spent the entire day in the room (except for when I went out to grab lunch).  As you probably know, I've been flirting with the idea of building a website to help Ghanaian students who want to study in the US.  After doing a little online search, I decided to use drupal.  I don't know much about open source software and so I had to depend on what other people.  Infact, I don't even know how to code.  What a shame.  I've started learning html here.  Hopefully, I'll be able to learn the fundamentals to get along.

The first thing I tried to do when I got to drupal was to download the latest edition.  Boooh!!  It didn't work.  My system did not have the software to open it and so I went to microsoft to see if I could get a solution but all the stuff that showed up didn't make much sense to me.  And so I went back to drupal to be a better student and take some classes.  Unfortunately, it was very difficult to know how to get started.  I thought that was crazy.  I was looking for a place that showed me what to do step by step but found nothing like that.  I tried searching for links to learning how to use the software and that wasn't much help.  The only thing that I learnt from those searches is that I will need php and mysql to continue.  There was talk about apache and some other technological stuff that I had no clue what the meaning was.  All the same, I downloaded php and mysql.

Now, the problem is that I don't know what to do.  I have even downloaded php admin to help but it doesn't offer any clues.  Obviously, this is crazier than bravenet where all you have to do is to enter what you want to do.  But I guess it's going to be worth it in the long run since it's going to a lot more functionalities than bravenet (I think) that is going to be free of charge without any annoying banners.

I'll probably have to stop now and do some homework so that I don't get behind in my classwork.  French isn't going good at all and probability is not being too nice.

In the meantime, any tech savvy guy/gal out there who knows about how to install drupal and build drupal websites and use php and mysqul should please holla and tell me what to do.  Ill really appreciate any help I can get.  They have a forum for users but I feel too dumb to ask some of the question I have. 

Thanks.

I'm supposed to be studying but I've spent the past four hours browsing.  But at least I don't regret doing it - at least not entirely.  I've been doing a lot of out of classroom studying online and visiting lots of websites.  My bookmark list has increased dramatically list; with websites from lessons on Probability through a Harvard blog to Ghana sites.  Somehow, I have managed not to add facebook to my list.  Why??  It is already addictive without it being on my bookmark list.

Talking about facebook, I think it's probably my site of the week.  It's simply addictive!!  I sign in every little time I have to see what's going on.  The crazy thing that I found out is that facebook was founded by two undergraduate students from Harvard.  And then I found out that Mozilla firefox was also designed by an undergrad from Stanford. I already knew that Bill Gates started his microsoft while a freshman at Harvard.  Then there's the case of youtube that I didn't even know existed (yeah, right) about being sold to google for a whooping $1.6billion.  That is so crazy!!!  It's not like I'm making a case for the Ivy League schools or anything of the sort.  What I'm more interested in is that young people are doing fantastically wonderful things.  It makes me wonder what I'm doing???  Hmmm, tell me, what should I do??

Apart from those sites, the other one that has got me addicted is ghanathink.  This is a great website that is sort of a think thank for Ghanaian students founded by Ghanaian students to stimulate the discussion of ideas that would eventually lead to the solution of some problems in Ghana.  So at least, Ghanaian students are also doing something.  Yay!!!  There is another website that has caught my attention recently GhanaUnite.  Honestly, this site has caught my attention because the founder is one of the big giants from my school.  You know, one of those high school heroes.  Interestingly, all the major Ghana websites that I've been surfing feature prominent guys from my high school.  Once I went to the crazy extent of going through most of the Ghanaian schools that are listed on facebook and realised that guys from my school, Presbyterian Boys Secondary School - Legon (PRESEC), had one of the biggest representation and no of students going to top schools.  That is open to debate but statistics always have question marks don't they??  I was thinking about it once and realised that the US really does a good job of attracting some of the best talent to it's soil.  And I'm sure that is one of the main reasons why the US is prospering.  The role that international students play cannot be downplayed at all. 

The other sites that I visited this evening were drupal, mambo, and joomla.  I'm yet to learn more about them but they are basically free source websites that can help one in creating very good websites.  I'm trying to create a website to help Ghanaian students who want to come to the US to study.  I was going to try bravenet but I realised that there are several other options that are free out there, probably offer better options and there are no annoying ads.  What I did was to first do as thorough a google search as I could to make sure that there was no site that was doing what I was thinking about doing.  There wasn't.  Even though a few that were similar but did not represent my aim of helping Ghanaian students with the application process.  Then I went shopping for how to design the site at minimum cost and maximum functionalities.  Now, I have to learn everything about webdesign and database manage and especially that whole thing called open source software.  That's a lot of work.

One last thing before I sign off.  There is some incredibly fantastic news.  Some of you may know but for those of you who don't, let me share the good news with you. You can MAKE FREE CALLS and not pay a dime.  Well, it's sort of limited to the US but it's still good news.  That means a huge cut on phone bill.  The money can always be used for more important things .  Just download SKYPE and start talking.  It's a promotion that ends on 31st December this year. 
I also just came across this website http://www.gizmoproject.com/index.html that promises free callsto about 60 different countries - landline and cellphone.  I can't say much about the site or software because I haven't tried it yet but if it works then it'll be very good for some international students.  Unfortunately, it doesn't offer any free calls to Ghana.  Aaarrgghh!!!  It's so not fair. 

Alright guys, since I have come now come back to my blog and hope to stay committed for sometime, I think it is only fair that I give you all an idea of how I'm thinking about going about my blog.  In the first place, I'm going to try to stay committed and focused although I can't promise anything.

The most important thing though is that I'll try to focus less on my personal life (who cares if I have a g/f or not) and write more on ideas.  I think that is so much cooler than talking about me.  Once a while, I'll drop a line about what I'm doing and what's up with me but I'll try and make my mission statement the discussion of ideas.

Another point that I have to mention is that I'll probably be more Ghana and Africa bias.  Well, what else do you expect me to do.  I am here as an international student representing Ghana and Africa and I intend to do that to the fullest.  For those of you who don't know much about Ghana, don't worry, this could probably be a learning experience.

Today has been a long day.  I have barely had more than two hours of sleep.  I spent all night awake studying for probability.  Of course, there's no way my head was buried in the book all the time.  I was hanging out in Derrick's room and had interesting conversations with him on many topics the most prominent of which was Berea vis-a-vis other colleges. 

By morning, I was exhausted and ready to collapse.  This reflected at work where I was terribly unproductive for the one hour that I was there.  I even had to use the excuse of going to get the mail to prevent myself from snoring.  It was crazy.  Then the test.

I can't really complain about the test because it was not as horrible as I expected it to be.  I'll only have to wait to get the results.  It's a mighty 15% of our final grade so I'm really concerned. 

The rest of the day was just a blur.  I'm sure I dozed through my other classes and barely finished homework for one.  You'd think that I'll catch some sleep afterwards.  I only slept for one hour and then went for some sort of get together for international students.  Quite cool except that I couldn't eat the chicken the way I wanted to.  It was so huge that I bet I would have made myself messy trying to disect and consume it. 

I'm supposed to be sleeping now but I've been on facebook for the past two hours.  That is an aweful waste of time.  I'll have to make sure that I learn time management.  But before then, I think I'll head down to the basement and see if there is any movie or food.  I'm hungry.  Plus I feel I deserve a well earned holiday.

Next time, I'll tell you how I used some interesting probability to figure out a love clue.

Yay, yay, yay!!!  Shout it out aloud on the mountain tops in the valley down below.  Tell the mighty eagle to carry it on her wings and fishes to spread it through the sea.  Dalilboy is back online.  Boy, it's been a mighty long time.  Two long years.  I must say that these bravenet guys are not that bad afterall; keeping the site for two years and allowing me to log back in. I'm quite suprised that I even remembered my password.  But, oh well, the good thing is that dalilboy is back online and hopefully he'll do a better job this time around.

So what did I do during the two years of haitus??  A lot.  I mean a whole lot.  I tried blogging from Ghana but for some weird reason it didn't work.  There were times when I would type a whole entry and then nothing would show up.  I guess I got pissed off eventually and quit.  (I hope this entry shows.)  So I was talking about my year in Ghana huh?  So much happened that I cannot put everything here.  Let's just say that I had a crazy good time as well as some major dissappointments. 

First I got to work in a prestigious bank, Ecobank, as an intern.  They let me take some crazy exam before even looking at me but by God's grace I didn't do too bad on the exam so I was considered.  Actually, I mean to say I did real good.  But that was not before I went to a bunch of camps and stuff like that.  Then I applied to Yankee schools and they all bounced me.  Very, very, sad.  I therefore sort of idled about in a college for a year and did the application again and here I am.  Back in the US.

I'm in Berea College.  Yeah, I know most of you have probably not heard of it but it's a pretty cuul school in that every admitted student is offered a full tuition scholarship.  Personally, since I didn't have that much money, I came here without paying a penny.  There's an interesting story on the whole application process but I'm not going to bore you with them now. 

That's it.  Spread the news.  Dalilboy is back online.  And I'll try to be the same ole' lil boy...

This year has not been a so fantastic year for me with regards to college admissions.  Can you believe that I applied to eight different schools in the US only to be turned down by ALL of them???  This is one of the painfully bizzare things that has happened to me this year.  I was so confident that I'll get a school that I didn't really bother that much about being turned down.  I don't know if you can blame me for being so optimistic.  I wrote my SAT I again and improved my score to 1400:  Verbal - 680 and Math - 720.  I also pulled my SAT II scores up a lil' bit to Writing - 660, Math IIC - 670, and Physics - 710.  I must confess that I was completely surprised with my Physics score.  I didn't remember a thing and there wre whole chapters especially electricity that I had not covered at all.  What made matters worse with the SAT II is that I was working then and so had very little time to study.  Boy, those were crazy days.  I'd come back from work late and then rush off to a math class.  I quit the physics class because the teacher wasn't doing too well and I didn't have that much time.  That's even the more reason why I was shocked with my Physics grade. 

Anyway, it turned out that despite my presumably good grades and supposedly outstanding extra-curricular profile I still got turned down by all the schools I applied to.  I don't know if it's wise to name all the schools I applied to.  You see, I was kind of forced to apply to the very top schools since I need a tremendous amount of financial aid.  My mum is not really well to do financially and since she's the only one taking care of me, I virtually need a full scholarship to attend any college in the states.  What this means is that I had to apply to schools with need-blind admissions policy for international students and as those of you who know how the college admissions work, you'll realise that I was very limited.  I ended up applying to Yale, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Grinnell, Colby, Colgate, and Bates.  I really wasn't crazy about the school I went to so far as it offered good and sound education within a superb environment.  I know someone is going to tell me that I'm nuts applying to all these schools.  Well, life is a game of risks.  You got to learn to take some risks sometimes.  Actually, I didn't think I was going to loose all together since I had relatively one of the high SAT I scores around. 

What it all boils down to is that I have to pray that the local university I applied to here will admit me and consider me as a local student.  They have this weird policy of admitting Ghanaians with foreign credentials as international students.  What this means is that you have to pay way more than the local guy will pay.  It's a pretty selective school though, and all I can do now is to pray real hard that I'm admitted.  I can't just fathom myself sitting at home for another year.  It's gonna disrupt all my plans and I can't bear to look at myself.  In the meantime, I'll consider re-applying to colleges next year.  If anyone knows of any college that dishes out full scholarships to international students, pls let me know.  Also, if there is a school with a rolling admissions policy that someone thinks will admit moi and give me a more than decent dose of financial aid, holla out.  I've been roaming the internet and bothering educational advising officers but I think any good advice won't be out of place.  I must say that it sulks to be denied so many glamorous opportunities just because one ain't so rich.  Alas, that is life and one must learn to live with it.  I have fallen but I shall definity rise.  Defeat is just not one word in my vocabulary.  I'll turn it as an experience that is a golden opportunity for those who choose to grab it.  And that is exactly what I am going to do. 

O.K. so maybe I'm not a crazy fan of Michael Jackson but that does not mean that I cannot empathise with him.  I haven't even read all the details of the case so I cannot be in a position to comment on the case but who cares, I'll still go ahead and comment all the same.  Now I'm not looking at it from the position of guilty or not guilty.  That is a totally different issue.  What I'm more concerned with is the way the boy and his family wanted to rip of poor Michael.  What I simply can't understand is why the boy's family will let him stay with Michael in the first place.  Come on, this is a guy who is notorious for having affairs with boys.  Why in the world then will you let your son go and live with him. Unless of course you have some other motives.  In the meantime, Michael who apparently has a soft spot for children (I guess especially young boys) is touched by this guy's cancer status and accepts him.  Then the very people he was trying to help turn around and try to drain him.  Isn't that outrageous??  They hear about Michael settling one guy for about $15 - $20million dollars and decide to milk him dry.  What even makes matters worse is the fact that the mother has also been involved in a similar lawsuit.  I guess she finished spending the $150,000.00 and was looking for bigger meat.  You can see from the way Michael spent lavishly on them that they like to live big.  It's a shame they lost.   It's high time people stopped deliberately targetting celebrities and using them as stepping stones to their own selfish fortunes.  Sometimes, they forget that a ball thrown to a wall inevitably bounces back.  I have no qualms with those who geniunely seek the prosecution of perverts.  My problem is with those who conscientously seek the destruction of other people.  Kudos to Michael.  I'm wishing him all the best and will be eagerly waiting to hear his new album. 

Gosh, I can't believe that I'm being able to post again.  It's been such a long time that I'm pretty sure any readers I won would have been long lost.  Now all I have to do is to start from scratch and see how commited I can be this time around.  And then I'll also have to learn to fight the spammers who continue posting ad's at the comment side.  It's so annoying. But that's not what I'm intending to write about now. I'm just so thrilled that I can post again.  I can't say I've been bored - no not at all.  On the contrary, I've been so busy (doing nothing) that I've had very little time to really enjoy my year off.  The irony, however, is that I cannot enjoy myself when I have nothing doing.  You should have seen me the first two weeks I came home.  I almost went nuts with boredom.  Infact, I got so bored that I decided to move around from school to school to see if I could sell some of my books.  It was futile though  because the students were writing their exams then.  But at least it got me busy, and I've been busy ever since then.  I'll try and see if I can write some old entries and tell you what I've been up to.  Believe you me, it's been one crazy roller-coaster of a lifestyle.  First, I went to two camps in a row in different parts of Ghana, walked 20km a day for four days and slept in villages, went for another three day camp walking a total distance of 50km and sleeping in villages for the nights, writing my SAT's, getting a job, applying to colleges, getting turned down rather painfully, learning for the first time that I can actually run 100m, and then trying to do something beyond the normal so that I won't just blend into the normal routine of everyday boring life - eat, work, and sleep.  Boy, I've had loads of fun and crazy days.  Can you believe that I actually managed to gather enough courage to go to a prom not too long after coming home.  It wasn't exactly the kind of prom you guys know about.  Infact, I wouldn't call it a prom at all. Can you believe there were people there in jeans and sneakers.  Was I dissappointed??? I was disgusted.  And we sat there till 11p.m. and you could count the number of people there.  It was so appalling.  But I don't really blame the organizers since a good bunch of them were students.  The only good thing about the night was that I got the pretty damsel home at exactly 12 midnight - just the correct time we had been given to report back home.  I must say it was quite an experience.

Now, I'm working at Ecobank Stockbrokers Ltd as an intern.  The pay sulks but it feels real good working here.  I just can't believe my good fortune.  I'll tell you guys all about that sometime soon.  It's an interestingly long story.  I have to get back to work now and make sure I clear all the backlog of work that I've created myself.  I can't stop being amazed at how lil' me, a so called aspiring engineer/science student has now ended up in a banking environment - much more one to do with the stock market.  It's just amazing.  You should have seen me the first day I was asked to debit and credit ppls accounts.  It was so hilarious.  But I'm doing pretty good now.  So good that I'll one day venture to give lectures on the Ghanaian stock market here on this site.  So you bettter keep on hanging in there.

Testing to see if I can comfortably post entries now