The NOVICE MASTER|Welcome to Uncle Che’s NOVICE MASTER. This blog is all about Science and Technology, Business and Economy, Home and Family, Personality and Self Improvement as well as personal opinions, reviews and lifestream

GRRRRRRRH

What’s this? I was mad. How could I just as for a 15mins permission from Lainy to go get some soft drinks and immediately I came back into the room, there was an outage. I could no longer continue the instant messaging with Lainy over yahoo messenger. Though we didn’t have much to say to each other again, I guess some emotions of hugs and bye-bye was worth the extra minutes. The outage started at a few minutes to 11pm and ended at about 3:40pm today. Before I came online, Lainy was already off for bed and I could only read some offline messages. Frustrating!!!

Over the past three weeks, the outages here have gone back to “normal”. When I say normal, I it ironic. I mean frequent interruption of power. Outages in Cameroon are as frequent as greetings. Even with the intervention of one American energy company, I guess the only thing that has changed is just the name of the electricity corporation from SONEL (Societe National d’Electricite) to AES-SONEL. I don’t even know what the AES there stands for and I don’t even care. All I know is that they are a mess.

Someone asked me not to put any blame on the American company. He explained that despite the fact that they have an influence up to the level of a change of name, they run less than 50% of the show.

Cameroon, as they rightly say, is Africa in Miniature. We don’t only have everything here but we have everything in abundance, especially when referring to natural resources, food crops and cash crops. Even the electricity that the masses are constantly deprived of is well enough to power at least 5 African countries. Yeah, you heard me. Five!!! However, politics always has a place to play. For political reasons, about 4 potential sources of power generation are being ignored.

I really don’;t have any problem with all of the above. The bills. That’s my problem. Why should my bills almost double when I use power for less than 80% of the time I need it.

I really felt pity for Noela. She had three assignments to complete and submit today and was still on the second when the outage occurred. I am not sure she had a sound sleep. She must have been dreaming about the unfinished work the whole night.

Sorry, baby. Never mind them

Do you have a friend or two who is so talented in what he/she does so much that you feel you want to be in that place? Have you found yourself asking questions like “where and when does he/she learn further”?

Everyone has a skill or two. Some are easily seen, while others are hidden. Some, where there easily seen or not are well utilized while others are just being “wasted”. Friends who make good use of their skills, talents or gifts are a good inspiration to us all.

The other day, after reading a post by Lainy, I told her what a good writer she is. I must have told her that several times, but what was special about this last time is that for once, I told her exactly why I think she is a good writer.

Lainy, you are such a good writer. Your writing is a perfect blend of conversational, narrative and descriptive.

Today, a friend, Bara Mark (aka Mbarakanamozo) of Bareta Online showed me a newspaper with on of his articles on the front page. Though I was amazed, it was not much of a surprise. I can recall that I have seen his article at the front page of the Eden Newspaper more than once. What is amazing about his writing is the fact that he is not a professional writer. It is just a hobby for him and what he writes is not even close to what he has studied in the University.

Bareta is a young Cameroon studying Microbiology in the University of Buea and currently residing in Buea. If you visit his blog expecting to see some Microbiology related talks, then you are wrong. He calls himself the analyst and believes very strongly in human rights and freedom of speech. He is no politician, but a dedicated student who always aims at leadership roles. If he were to stand for the presidential elections someday, I bet I will be his campaign manager.

Bareta’s most recent article as of today (Tuesday 17th March 2009) is MT.CAMEROON RACE,THE PEAK OF ANGLOPHONE MARGINALISATION. Oh, before I forget to mention, that is the article I saw on the front page of the Eden Newspaper.

Bareta was the very first candidate of Pen 2 Net. I love the courage he took. After making him are that WordPress won’t be the piece of cake that Blogger is, he still accepted my offer of migrating his blog to self-hosted WordPress and accepted a domain name which will be paid for by the Pen 2 Net project as long as his blog remains alive.

I wish I could find more talented Bloggers like Bareta and introduce them to the Blogosphere.

PJ Isreal Hussein and Galaxy J. One hit Africa with "E MAKE SENSE", their debut.

They are passionate, serious and dedicated to their course. At last, they made it. A debut album is not always an easy task. They have been into music for a long time and I always knew there is something in them that will explode into the dream they have always lived.

I was with them at the University of Buea and have watched them record at Slim Records. I have even featured in one of their tracks recorded by Big Slim himself, at Dirty South City.

This album titled in Pidgin English “E MAKE SENSE” literally means “there is a lot of meaning in this”. These guys rap in three languages; French, English and Pidgin. I guess that is one of the characteristics that makes them the masses’ choice. They do both singing and raping and filled in this 14-track album is a whole lot of emotions, truth and education behind the songs.

They are my pals. We shared the same dream. They are now ahead of me and I am happy they are making it and looking back at us. They both took the pains to personally deliver an autographed copy of their CD to me.

I will send them a mail this night requesting for permission to put up their songs on CamHooD. I hope that doesn’t go against the contracts they have signed with their sponsors and producers.

To learn more about them, meet them at their official website www.zionside.co.cc

Most employers have used the current situation of high level of unemployment and unavailability of jobs as a reason to exploit jobseekers.

The very first step of this exploitation is the demand for probation. How can you ask someone to work on probation for three months, against a job that pays $60.00 a month? You don’t even get any compensation during such long probation period. Instead, some workers “pay” for probation. Do you imagine looking for a jobs because you are broke and when you have one you are being expected to pay your fare to and fro and at the end of the month get nothing? Nasty!!!

A majority of employers, in order to lure you into accepting their cheap offers, will promise compensation you during the probation period. Since this is just a promise and not an entity in the agreement, you risk getting nothing at all.
What if at the end of the probation period they “decide” you are not the “right” person for the job? Yeah, this may be right. But what if you are actually qualified but the prefer living their entire lives with interns and workers on probation?

Some employers appear to be just but paying their workers at the end of the month is still a problem. Most of the workers won’t quit. They will sit tight hoping against hope. Before your how runs out, you are being owed a three-month salary. Oh, where is the job market heading to?

It is amazing how times flies. Just got up one morning, and heard kids from the Saint Theresa Nursery and Primary School playing loud in the school band. What are they up to? Why are they playing? A friend asked me if I don’t know every school re Hearses for the Youth Day?

Oh! It’s almost 11th Feb here. 11th Feb was always the best day of my life when I was in Primary and Secondary school. Though I hated the march past and all the events preceding it, I always had to bare it because I knew the rest of the day will be gold for me. I really can’t understand why I loved the youth day celebrations so much. I guess it was because on that day, I always get to see kids from other schools dressed in various outfits. Since it usually takes me a long time to save some cash for that day, it was always certain that it would meet me as a wealthy kid

I lost all the fun in Youth Day celebration when I completed Secondary School. Maybe I started feeling too big for it.

I love my PC. I love the internet. I am crazy for the WWW and though I actively participate on blogs, social networks and forums, I feel the need to make my presence felt locally. I have always dreamt of something I could put up on the web that would be of help to my counterparts. Something a particular group of people would like and would be of great help to them.

One evening, after a  very long and tiring day, I decided to have some quality time listening to my demos. Yeah, in case you never heard, Uncle Che is an unsigned rap artists. HipHop is my passion and I go crazy on the mic doing some Christian Rap, or pure hardcore, with a little bit of gangster. My demos are pretty old. I have been so caught up with work recently in a manner that I have made a very great sacrifice on the part of music. The newest demo I have now is at least two years old. Ha ha ha

When I was listening to the Demos, something stroke me on my mind. What if it was just more than me listening to this right now? How many people know what I am listening to? If these were to be promoted and I gained some fame, would I be encouraged to put more efforts and become a better rapper? If so, then could I possibly get a record deal somewhere and release a market quality product and sell nationwide?

As these questions kept ringing in my head, I thought of a web solution where unsigned artists could upload their stuff (audios and videos) for others to stream or download, form fan clubs, sell tracks or album…etc. Yeah, this is not something new, so what the heck? Hmm. You are right. There are possibly hundreds of solutions on the web that work like this. However, I am standing up and looking at you straight in the eye, shoulder high and saying “Mine is a niche”. Yes! You heard me. I won’t set up something with the intention of having all unsigned artists on the planet register to. I am out to build this just for a very small community, which can be easily managed and the members dealt with at a more interactive and personal level. This would be some sort of family of unsigned artits, all of whom are either Cameronians, or living in Cameroon.

Secondly, I am not just making Camhood a website. It is an organization. The people who register would not just be some “behind the monitor” fans, but real people whose identities can be verified and they can be called upon to hold meetings and contribute for everyone’s benefit.

Through Lainy’s help, I have bought Camhood’s domain name at NameCheap. Now, the next step is figuring out how to start it all. It ain’t gonna be easy, Yeah, dat I know…