VALENTINES DAY A MUST SEE MOVIE

A diverse group of Los Angelenos navigate their way through romance and heartbreak over the course of one Valentine's Day. Couples and singles experience the pinnacles and pitfalls of finding, keeping or ending relationships in a day in the life of love.

Also Known As: Untitled Katherine Fugate Romantic Comedy

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release

Genres: Comedy and Holiday

Running Time: 1 hr. 57 min.

Release Date: February 12th, 2010 (wide)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexual material and brief partial nudity.

Distributors: New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution

Production Co.: Karz Entertainment

Studios: New Line Cinema

Filming Locations: Los Angeles, California, USA

Produced in: United States

REMEMBERING HAITI THIS VALENTINE

A 7.3 earthquake hit Haiti, thousands and thousands of people have died. Up to 3 million people have been affected - there is no more fun, hopeless and no future. Now, there is no longer enough food, no water, no electricity and no medication supply. Many people are digging through the rubble to find out their family members and friends. All of them are still a remote chance that they will find their family members alive. They hoped against hope that the emergency crews and rescuers fight to find out their lovely family members' hands and knees which under the rubble and hope the rubbles are uncovering their family members or other survivors




With day-after-day that passed, they become ever more despairing. The emergency crews and rescuers still put a lot of efforts in searching the survivors. Hopefully, the Haitian can display perseverance in searching their family members who were trapped and believe that while we breathe, there is hope". It is because if our position is hopeless; we'll never get out alive although there is little hope that their family members will be found alive. Anyway, a miracle is needed for those entire still under the rubble.

Remember, Valentine’s Day isn’t the only time to show a little love. The people of Haiti are going to need help for the rest of the year too, as well as the foreseeable future. Even if your family can’t afford to donate money of your own, consider offering some handmade help whenever you can.

HERE ARE A LIST OF CHARITY ORGANISATIONS PROVIDING RELIEF
Action Against Hunger-USA,Hope for Haiti,Hope for Haiti Children's Center
Lions Clubs International Foundation,Love A Child, Inc.Project HOPE, Relief International, The Resource Foundation ,Saint Boniface Haiti Foundation ,Samaritan's Purse, Save the Children,World Relief, United States Fund for UNICEF

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE DAY

Beyond the roses, chocolates and historical ties to a pagan fertility festival, you'll find the real meaning of Valentine's Day. It's the true love that compelled a young Christian to give up his life rather than stop sharing his faith.
When we think of Valentine's Day, we often think of red roses, candy in heart- shaped boxes, mushy valentines, and winged cherubs flying about shooting starry-eyed lovers with arrows.
Who was the real Valentine, and why did he have a day named after him?
The real Valentine was a Roman Christian martyred during the third century A.D. by the Emperor Claudius II. Prior to his death, Valentine continued to minister in prison by witnessing to his prison guards. One of the guards was a good man who had adopted a blind girl. He asked Valentine if his God could help his daughter. Valentine prayed and the girl was given her sight. The guard and his whole family, 46 people, believed in Jesus and were baptized. When the Emperor heard about this he was furious that Valentine was still making converts even in prison, so he sentenced Valentine to death.
Just before being led out to his execution, the young Christian wrote a note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine." The first valentine was really a Christian witness. Growing out of this story we participate in a custom of sending cards to people we love.
Given that the tradition of sending love notes grows out of a letter written by St. Valentine to his jailer's daughter on the eve of Valentine's execution, it's ironic that the card we send has received the emphasis, instead of remembering the content of the original Valentine's card: a message of unconditional devotion to Christ, even upon pain of death.
Over time the word "Saint" has been dropped from St. Valentine's Day, further obscuring the origins of this holiday. Instead of a negative reaction to some of the pagan origins of the day, why not celebrate the true love that compelled young Valentine to give up his life?

YES YOU CAN!!!

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -Marianne Williamson

Journey so far PT 4 (MISS NIGERIA UK 09)

OCT 2009 I got back to the UK and got involved in the MISS NIGERIA UK BEAUTY PAGEANT
This event owes its existence to the dream of a remarkable little girl – Natasha Isimeme Ojie (1988 – 1994). Natasha’s brief life touched our hearts and impacted our lives forever.

Natasha was diagnosed with a brain tumour when she was only four years old. For one and a half years she went through several surgical operations and suffered the terrible after effects of chemotherapy.



Amidst all this, she showed unbelievable bravery, not permitting this tragically terminal illness to deter her.

… I took time to research on the event and found out that auditions were still taking place for the Miss Nigeria beauty pageant and immediately enrolled myself for it.
I didn’t tell my family or friends I only told my sister and Ruru what I was up to at the time as I was afraid that if I failed or didn’t win they would laugh at me or encourage me to give up on my goal, I didn’t tell them because I didn’t also want the pressure that come from their goodwill and support during rehearsals and preparation. I started rehearing with the other contestant and our wonderful coach Rueben. Ruben I met a year ago when I went to audition for production he was organizing in the west end and didn’t get cut , I thought to myself “oh lord he is going to think I’m a flop” and I’ll probably have problem with him during rehearsals, but to my greatest surprise he was very supportive and still is till date. I practiced my routines everyday and a week to the show I finally decided to tell my friends, still didn’t tell mum and dad,
The D-day had come DECEMBER 5TH 2009…. Nervous and scarred... everything went as planed the girls were awesome and guess what >>>>>> I WON<<<< WOW the happiest day of my life…finally after all these years of trying so hard... I AM MISS NIGERIA UK 2009

Journey so far PT 3 (NIGERIA'S TOP MODEL)

Hello diamonds its been a while ,in fact a really long time since blogged about my journey so far, I have been on holiday and still trying to fulfill my dream and haven’t had time to update .

Quick reminder to all my reader remember the aim of this blog is to inspire people especially women to pursue their dreams regardless of the many obstacle you may face.

So in 2007 I entered into the competition called NIGERIA’S TOP MODEL in the UK, and like I said before it was a really bitter sweet experience, as I was in my second year had a lot of work load on my hands from school and also running a society as the PRESIDENT OF THE AFRO CARIBBEAN SOCIETY at the University of Leicester,
At the same time facing challenges in the modeling industries, as a young girl I was really under a lot of pressure to be skinny and started to adapt to bad eating habits.
And after a while I started to notice I was irritable and was isolating myself from people to avoid being in an environment where there was food.
The competition NIGERIA TOP MODEL was organized by a lady called Sandra powers and although she had her goodwill for the show, a lot of things didn’t go to plan and things got really ugly and there was a lot of chaos and negative stories, the plus side of everything was although I didn’t win, I had the opportunity of meeting some of the sweetest people who remain very close friends till date, got a magazine cover, did a fashion shoot for the daily mirror and various fashion show in London. Now at this time I was well on my way to fulfilling my dream and more than anything I was grateful to GOD. That same year I did very well in school and was looking forward to getting into my final year of university (phew thank God).
Between the end of 2007 and 2008 my life was about studying and with the help of GOD I graduate with a 2:1. My parents family and friends were pleased and happy for me and I was most proud of myself.



Fast forward to APRIL 2009…. After working for almost year I was faced with a very bad tragedy which forced me to make a decision to go back to Nigeria on getting to Nigeria I was so depressed and unhappy and was constantly running away from home, I spent most of my time in Lagos instead of my hometown Port Harcourt.
I prayed everyday for God’s intervention in my life and as God would have it by August everything was sorted, I had the best time of life in Nigeria and meet some really amazing people. It got to a point where I didn’t want to come back anymore to the UK, but hey there a time for everything and at that time I knew I had to come back to face up to my responsibilities, but that wasn’t really the driving force behind my wanting to come back ,
Whilst I was in Nigeria I experienced a very bad plane incident. Just as we were about to land Port Harcourt (my home town), e started experience very terrible turbulence and just as people where crying and shouting I look out the window and thought GOD WHY ME? Is this why you brought me here, not you cant let me die, I was almost falling of my seat and at so many times my head would hit the window, tear rolled down my eyes and I closed my eyes and prayed, and after 15 mins everything clamed down, lord know as soon as the opened the door of the plane I was already out..Lol….
I cried for days from the shock of my experience, and then I told myself from this day henceforth I will never let an opportunity pass me by, I will make sure that I do my best and try as much as possible to achieve my life goal, and even when I’m turned down I’ll be happy and grateful that I tried.

P.S (FROM TEAM DIAMOND)
We refuse to indulge in negativity or pessimism. WE believe in empowering people to be their best .SO PLEASE KEEP ALL NEGATIVE COMMENTS TO YOURSELF.WE ARE NOT HERE TO DEBATE OR HATE.YOU DON'T HAVE TO VISIT IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT...ALTHOUGH COMMENTS ARE MODERATED CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WOULD BE PUBLISHED.XXX

JOURNEY SOOOO FARRR part 2

Throughout Primary and Secondary school, I was always very active in social activities,from dancing to acting and even when we would have Beauty Pageants. In my Junior year (jss1) I was princess of my House in my schools annual Inter- house sport competition,In my senior year (ss1) I was leading my march past for my House in the Inter-house sports and also competed and won several awards for sports ,and lastly, in my ss2 I was chosen as Queen amongst four others for my school. All these where for me were signs to carry on further my dreams. Once I had graduated from Secondary school and move to the UK Four and a half years ago just before I got into university I decided that apart for schooling I was going to pursue my dreams of becoming a super star and making my self a brand. One day I saw an advert in the papers for a Talent search. I took it to my friends and boyfriend and they all encouraged me to audition. My dear friend Ohita helped me get my hair done and my boyfriend followed me for support .I remember not being able to sleep the night before, but found that al my worrying was for nothing as when I got there, I was immediately picked to my greatest surprise. We had a mini photo session, I was a bit nervous but too happy on the inside. After everything I was told I had to pay a sum of £60 to be fully registered with the agency which I did (err BIGGEST mistake ever).They sent me my pictures and that was the last I heard from them .(guess you know what that means )…

RULE 1:
A truly interested agent will NEVER ask you for money.
They will never suggest to you that you need to spend money to make money. If an agent sees real potential in you that is where they will make their money, by taking a reasonable cut of the work that they get for you (usually no more than 15%). Legitimate modeling agencies do not have handling fees, signing fees, agency fees (outside of their cut of work done as noted above) or any other kind of up front before-you-can-be-signed fee...

Oh well! I was not going to let that stop me, soooo moving on. One summer afternoon just as I was walking into the reception of college, a woman who worked there asked me if I was into modeling. I responded saying I was trying to do it professionally and she said she knew someone who runs an agency and can help me further my career. I was thinking to myself “hmmnn another door has opened” wait until you read the twist... Funny now but wasn’t so funny back then… so she gave me a number which again I took to my friends and boyfriend and as usual much support and love was given. I called, and the gentleman at the agency requested to see some pictures, which I immediately organized with my friends and sent, he was impressed. As a result, I went to London to meet with my new agent fingers crossed, got signed and was immediately booked in for a fashion show. I thought to myself hmmmn this one is finally for real and I am now on my way to becoming a star. I participated in a fashion show for Miss Congo UK. I was so happy meeting with other girls like me, I even invited my parents who were pleased and happy for me, furthermore I was approached by the organizers for Miss Malaika to participate! OH MY GOD!!! It didn’t seem real. I was having the time of my life in fact at this point school was the last thing on my mind...

My agent was happy and from there I got more jobs .I am sure some of you are saying this girl must have started rolling in the cheques...hahahaha we are now getting to the twist, I wasn’t!... as my Nigerian people would say Na free… I was constantly told that was how everyone else started... its not like it hurt my pocket to transport my self back and forth after all I was still a kid receiving pocket money and not having bills or anything to pay by myself.

Now here comes the big one. I was told a huge fashion show was taking place in the Hilton by my agent and I was going to take part in it. I immediately called mum and told her but for some reason mum did not want me to go for this one, I guess even mum was thinking “please this people should stop using my daughter” or maybe it was God I do not know. I even asked him to call my mum so she can be rest assured I was in safe hands, which he did. Even my boyfriend was getting tired of all this work and no money... “ahn ahn babes this is not how it is done” he said. By this time I was thinking oh please your just jealous!! Oh well moving on… got my nails done and hair did (lol) all paid for by this wonderful agent and was invited later on for a briefing about the show w. My dear readers this was no ordinary briefing oh…lol….as I said before it is funny now but not in the least bit funny then!….He started telling me how beautiful I looked and how happy he was for me, until this beautiful talk started turning into something else. He started getting personal, trying to say we should take our professional relationship to another level, in other words he was trying to “Toast” me…. He told me to think about his proposition. I was just so heart broken and went home in tears. I understood clearly that this was the end because I knew that he wasn’t asking me, he was telling me. So went home and told mum everything and when he did not hear from me, he sent me a text saying. “There is no need to turn up for the show tomorrow as you won’t be taking part”. Now what am I to do? I constantly asked myself and was beginning to blame my self that it was my fault I should not have just said no... I was confused and finally called it quits, telling myself this would just go on and on and I do not want to wait for the worst to happen. I decided to focus on getting into university and getting a good grade for myself…. Sniff

However, I tell you, that were not the end. Soooo fast forwarding, it was the end of summer and I started University, a big girl now, studying Financial Economics. Trying to gain back my confidence and focus on other things. No more taking part in anything that has to do with beauty and instead focused on being a course rep for my department and do as much extra curricular things I could do in my safe university environment, which I did …

Fast-forwarding again ……….. First year came and went with a good result, new and fantastic friends, wonderful boyfriend, and family around for the summer. It was fun fun fun all the way, what more could I ask for? At the time nothing. Until Christmas 2006 in my second year, as I sat in my room revising for my exams. The thought came back to me. “You need to follow your dreams” I looked through some of my pictures again. I brought it up to my sister and friends who encouraged me. My sister IB would always say “you are better ?” and she would laugh and continue to say it. My dearest friends Folake and Margaret would always say the same whenever we walked past the shops in the city center or when we were watching ANTM. I did not want to let them get into my head. I was scared from my previous experience and have been told it is very common in this industry. “I JUST DON’T WANT TO BE PART OF IT ANYMORE!!!!” I would always say to them…but some where in me I missed it .I loved the camera, I loved the back stage interviews ,the make up ,the after parties…I missed ALL of it …

At the end of the year I came across an audition for a competition called NIGERIA’S TOP MODEL …now this was where the real deal started…a real BITTER/SWEET experience….I lost my friends, my relationship was in shambles, too many secrets and lies, eating disorders, picking up bad habits, all sorts of temptation, TV interviews, making new friends and a whole lot more….Tune in for the next installment…Part 3 coming soon.

P.S(FROM TEAM DIAMOND)
We refuse to indulge in negativity or pessimism. WE believe in empowering people to be their best .SO PLEASE KEEP ALL NEGATIVE COMMENTS TO YOURSELF.WE ARE NOT HERE TO DEBATE OR HATE.YOU DON'T HAVE TO VISIT IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT..ALTHOUGH COMMENTS ARE MODERATED CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WOULD BE PUBLISHED.XXX