HANNA; Saoirse Ronan

"I just missed your heart" the first and last sentence in the movie...
So, my friends and I went out for dinner. After that we decided to watch a movie since it was Friday night, and we finally settled for HANNA. I in particular wanted the movie because I first saw Saoirse Ronan in City of Ember which was a nice movie and assumed this one will be better.

Saoirse Ronan was good, I think she felt her role and acted it well. But I did not feel the movie; especially every part there was a fight. The music was so loud at such times and I just did not see the action. I felt their fight scenes were all fake and not interesting.

I should have waited for another hour to watch Hangover 2 instead of watching what I did not enjoy. The worst part is, I could not get the main message in the movie and actually have no lesson from the movie. When I was a kid, my mum used to ask me what I learnt from any movie watched, gone are those days I guess when there were any lessons from movies. These days, it is either robot cars are boxing, or vampires stories; Lord have mercy!

At least I learnt something today; never watch a movie because you think the trailer is good, choose movies wisely so you dont like me wish you had spent your day sleeping instead of watching a movie and later regretting...

Tommorrow am going to watch Hangover 2; fingers crossed, hoping I wont regret.

HANNA; Saoirse Ronan

"I just missed your heart" the first and last sentence in the movie...
So, my friends and I went out for dinner. After that we decided to watch a movie since it was Friday night, and we finally settled for HANNA. I in particular wanted the movie because I first saw Saoirse Ronan in City of Ember which was a nice movie and assumed this one will be better.

Saoirse Ronan was good, I think she felt her role and acted it well. But I did not feel the movie; especially every part there was a fight. The music was so loud at such times and I just did not see the action. I felt their fight scenes were all fake and not interesting.

I should have waited for another hour to watch Hangover 2 instead of watching what I did not enjoy. The worst part is, I could not get the main message in the movie and actually have no lesson from the movie. When I was a kid, my mum used to ask me what I learnt from any movie watched, gone are those days I guess when there were any lessons from movies. These days, it is either robot cars are boxing, or vampires stories; Lord have mercy!

At least I learnt something today; never watch a movie because you think the trailer is good, choose movies wisely so you dont like me wish you had spent your day sleeping instead of watching a movie and later regretting...

Tommorrow am going to watch Hangover 2; fingers crossed, hoping I wont regret.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY

Since I am preparing for exams, I decided to use this opportunity to discuss something more educational. And since Memory is one of the topics in a subject am taking this semester; Cognition and Perception, I thought it would be do me good to write about it. Truth is though, am tired with school and cannot wait to graduate next year and join the work force like my brothers whom I envy so much….anyway that’s another issue, let me not digress.

So, memory is defined as the ability to acquire, retain information and retrieve the information when needed. There are three important processes involved in assessing this information; encoding, storage and retrieval. Encoding involves receiving the information and making sense of it, this could be visual or auditory. Storage is analyzing the information and retaining it either for a short or long period of time depending on the nature of the information. Then, retrieval is the ability to remember and make use of the information that has being received and stored. For example, when I meet a person for the first time and the person tells me his name is Walter (encoding ), then I make sense of the information and put it in my mind (store), then few weeks later I see the same face and am able to remember this is Walter which I met few weeks back (retrieve). Failure to retrieve, remember is known as forgetting.

There are three basic types of memory; sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory. Sensory memory is retention for a brief period of time due to sensory stimulation in the environment and this retention is usually only for about a second. Shorty term memory is retention of memory for about 15 to 20 seconds and it is possible to store large amount of information here by chunking them up into groups. For information to get to the long term memory there must be constant rehearsal because this is permanent memory that serves as an archive used to remember information in the past. For example, a student goes for a lecture and pays attention, the information is in the short term memory, but it goes to the long term memory with constant study of the lecture notes provided.

The processes and types of memory is really basic and easy to remember, but even if you don’t understand there is no cause for alarm because the main aim of this is to diverse means to improve memory. Here are 5 important ways that memory can be improved;

Attention; it is important to pay selective attention in order to remember and retrieve information when needed. Do you find yourself constantly forgetting what people say to you, or not remembering the instructions to doing a particular thing? You probably need to pay more attention and let your mind be there. Do not try to multitask when you are faced with a serious situation, do not think of other issues when engaging in activities that are of importance to you. Be in that meeting spirit, soul and body while paying undivided attention and pushing away all forms of distraction, then you will remember vital information.

Eat balanced diet; when I read that food enhances memory, I almost jumped for joy because, “men, I love food”. However it is not just eating food but eating balanced diet. We as Africans may not find this fascinating because of the kind of food we eat and our culture that does not motivate eating balanced diet. Despite all that, we can decide to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Also exercise is needed, it may not be a routine so stressful but at least something to keep you fit and relaxed.

Association; a picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. You remember information more easily if you can visualize it and associate it to something vital. For instance if you want to remember a name, say Rose, you visualize the rose flower and associate it with the person. You must know that there is no limitation involved here because it is your own mind and your own way of remembering. You can decide to associate a person called Rose to your favorite cup which has a Roe flower on it, so when you try to remember the name you, simply remember your cup thus, Rose.

This is my most efficient mode of remembering, once I associated what my lecturer told me to a rat because I felt her voice sounded like the squeaking of a rat and I wanted to remember it, which was easy for me afterwards. If you are coming up with something weird, you do not have to say it to anyone, as long as it enhances your memory. It's your mind; make the images as shocking and emotional as possible to keep the associations strong.

Drink moderately; whatever thing done should be done in moderation, if you drink alcohol, am not telling you to stop, but to do it in moderation because research has shown that it may affect your memory. Drinking affects mental tasks, and the abuse of alcohol has a negative effect on the cells and neurotransmitters of the brain. Moderation in consumption may help to improve not just cognition but also memory. However, more research needs to be done regarding this and I must say that I also have little knowledge about alcohol and its consequences regarding memory. The bottom line is, drink alcohol moderately.

Sleep; have enough sleep, make your life less stressful, and create time for fun. Sleep for about 6 to 8 hours a day or as you feel is appropriate; endeavor to rest after a hectic day at work so you wake up the following morning feeling refreshed and less stressed. It may be difficult for some people to sleep especially when they have a lot of problems on their minds, but if you can make yourself sleep it will help a lot to distress. Meet with friends when you have the time or during weekends, talk, laugh together and do things you enjoy. The less you worry, the more information you can retain.

Finally, do the one that best applies to you as no one knows you more than you know yourself, not even me. So, it is your decision; your choice to pay undivided attention, associate and visualize information, eat healthy, drink moderately, and have enough sleep. Better do all, or research more about memory and how it can be improved.

Have a nice time, be the best in whatever you do, and pray for me that I do excellently well in my upcoming exams. Adieus

IF THEY CAN, I CAN

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked, what is the root of all money? Evil aside, let us now talk money, people who have it and its roots. Moscow was in June 2011 was declared as the city with more billionaires in the world with a total of 79 living billionaires beating New York which had 59 billionaires. Yes you just read that, not 7 or 9, but 79 BILLIONIARES.

Now, whether you know where Moscow is or not, no one cares, there are billionaires living there, normal human beings like you and me. Here they are;

5. Roman Abramovich – $17.1 billion (owner of Chelsea Football club)

4. Oleg Deripaska – $19-billion (aluminum)

3. Alisher Usmanov – $19.9 billion (steel minning)

2. Mikhail Prokhorov – $22.7 billion (internet)

1.Vladimir Lisin – $28.3-billion (coal mine)

These men have worked hard to get to this position. Since they did, we all can if we choice to WORK hard and above all be FOCUS

HOW FAR....?

Each time people ask me where am from and I tell them Nigeria, the next thing they say is “how far?” it is assumed that Nigerians here in Malaysia generally greet each other in this manner and I never saw it as a big deal until recently when it occurred to me that we are already half way into the year, therefore I need to ask myself “Nanko, how far?”. I think we all need to ask ourselves the same question; how far have we gone in achieving all the goals we had in the beginning of this year?

Sincerely, I think I have achieved half of my goals, on the other hand, there are certain things I intended doing this year that I have not even started working on. This is a cause for concern as I only have few more months before this year runs out, so I decided to come up with strategies that I call “speedy moves”. Let me share them with you…..

Set timer to remind me to pray; I am a Christian and believe God should be the number one in my life. I am going to set my phone timer to ensure I say a word of prayer every three hours, will pray about anything that comes to mind only to make God priority and number one. Now it does not matter your religion, if you want to want to put your God first, then why not? Remember you are doing this for yourself and for your success. My dad always tells me “there comes a time where you will be left alone, just you and your God” this time is now, it’s time to get serious.

Attach me goals to my mirror; let me talk about something else so it does not seem as though I am preaching. Am going to write down my goals (unachieved ones) and attach them to my mirror so that I have access to them every day. The mirrors in my room are precious to me and since I look at them daily, in fact continuously I might as well as use them as a means to speedily achieve my goals. You don’t have to do same if you don’t love mirrors as much as I do, you can condition your goals to any stimuli you choose to, do whatever works for you.

Hang around more motivated people; I probably should not include this as one of the things I aim to do because so far there are no such people around me, but it will help if you look around you and analyze the caliber of people that surround you. Are you surrounded by people who do not even have plans, or don’t know what they want out of life? You may probably want to think twice and act fast because the companion of fools suffers harm.

Use my time productively; I know that nothing's ever done yesterday and tomorrow is yet to come; it is only in the today that anything ever is done. Today, I am deciding to make good use of my time and most importantly sleep less. Seriously, I don’t think it is profiting to sleep for 6 hours anymore; doctors will say you need it to be healthy and function well, but I know people (my brother) who sleep for about 4 hours and still manage to be healthy and successful in life so am going to do same. Reduce my sleep and use the time I have to work. That however will not stop me from having fun and being friends, in fact, this weekend am going to the cinema with my friends to watch Kungfu Panda 2, cant wait…..

In conclusion, Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. This is my plan/strategy for the remaining months of the year and am determined to strongly go by it. I challenge you to come up and yours, remember to do whatever works for you because there is no such thing as “one plan fits all”. It is your life and you alone can determine HOW FAR……

TRIP TO BANGKOK; DAY 3

Today, we decided to just stay at home. Watched lots of movies, downloaded Google Sketchup and had fun playing around. I took some pictures from the balcony of 1008.

TRIP TO BANGKOK; DAY 2

At 8:45 we were ready to go out. A taxi man came and picked us to Safari world. We had fun seeing all sorts of wild animals like lion, tiger, and so many others. We generally had fun, in short, pictures talk better than words.

Duncan Mighty- America (video)