This is my 2nd post on my way to build my own portfolio site. If you want to see my (groundbreaking) 1st post, here it is
So far, I've been trying to make up a design and layout for my site. (Disclaimer: I'm a functional developer and this is my excuse to say I'm not a UI guy!)
I've started going mano-a-mano, sketching and drawing by pencil and paper. I couldn't really create a design from inspiration so I just mocked up something based on what makes sense to me in terms of functionality and simplicity. I'd have to apologize for the very poor image, I don't know how best to enhance images yet, but here are my sketches -
Then, after about 4 hours of looking into Bootstrap, playing around with HTML, here's what my actual page looks like -
I'd say it ain't so bad. The page itself is all HTML 5 compliant and Bootstrap-styled. The template is based from the Boostrap: Cosmo theme and I just adjusted some CSS to my liking.
On my next post, I will be talking about the functional-side of things - AngularJS, MVC 4, my solution structure - all that fun stuff.
/* TODO: Until then, keep coding (message to self). */
Cheers,
Stephen
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Why we need to be emotional?
Reminders on how important it is to be filled with emotions and not succumb to the more apathetic world of practicality and logic.
Around 7 years ago, as an associate trainee, I missed doing something at work that I was specifically asked to do. My boss even left me a note so that I don't miss it. The task itself was really simple. But somehow, somewhere, I misunderstood what I was supposed to do and left some details to my assumptions. In short, I blew it for the very first time which warranted me being sent to my managers corner-room (aka the 'Principals Office') to get a good lambasting.
That first time that I ever got scolded at work really taught me a lesson - more than learning how to avoid that same mistake again was that it's necessary for me to not take anything personally and not let any emotions be mixed up in my beating. And I had to convince myself that taking out the emotions was really crucial for two reasons - 1.) so I don't go home feeling sorry and regretting what I could have done instead; and 2.) so I can come to the office the coming days and move forward not carrying that chip on my shoulder, doubting my confidence and self-esteem.
Professionally, leaning less on emotional decisions all seemed logical and I could really attest that, at least, for me it worked that I deal with my job not taking anything personally and leaving out all my emotions to rest. It made me think logically. I was more rational and practical and in many ways, more efficient in making my decisions at work which got me noticed and lead to my progressive career, in my humble opinion. At least from where I saw it, I had the winning formula. So far so good... or, so I thought.
When I entered into a relationship, years after rolling solo and enjoying my early years as young professional, single and ready to mingle, my entire perspective on staying more logical than emotional became really problematic.
I never thought that being single minded on what's plain and practical could go against so many basic aspects in a relationship. For instance, sharing a meal to eat at the same time when one of you has to wait for hours just to make it so. Or when you are dead tired from work but a still voice inside you insists that you see you're special someone, then you go the stretch just to have that short conversation. I mean, why wait when you're already starving? Why push out for some more time to make that visit despite the fatigue?
As I look at it now, I believe that the reason being logical and practical takes the back seat towards a genuine relationship is because we are not meant to build relationships out of these two. We can't deal with our lives with that distant approach of not being involved emotionally specially when it comes to the people we chose to love. Really, how can you love without the emotion of it? If loved worked under specific terms of mutual benefit, then I'd say that's not love more than it is a business deal. And that as my first point, is that emotions are necessary for building strong and honest relationship with our fellow human. And relationships are the design with which we are made - it puts meaning to our existence and purpose to the people around us.
Another reason, I believe, why we need emotions in our lives is because it is the driving force behind our motivations, our commitments and our reasons for doing what we do. We need emotions to be fully functional. And here, I mean to distinguish and differentiate what it means to be fully functional in the basic, menial sense compared to someone operating inspired and highly motivated - driven. I believe that the stronger the emotional attachment we have towards a goal, the better the likelihood of it becoming a reality. Steve Jobs said, you have to love what you do. And I believe that because, I think, the fact behind it is not easy chasing a dream. If it were in fact easy, everyone would have made it happen for themselves to whatever desire they cherished in their hearts. The sad truth is, life is tough. More often that not, it's more rational to quit and hang the towel, than to press on and keep fighting. And here is where emotions empower the heart to be relentless and ever hopeful.
The last reason why I believe we need to be emotional in life, is because our emotions simply escape all sense of logic. Our emotions are limitless because they could not be quantified, objectified or subjected to norms and boundaries. No one could have a universal definition of what it is like to feel joy, or sadness, or despair. Because it comes as it is and it is simply lived in the moment. And because it is boundless, it allows us to transcend our current obstacles, challenges, and circumstances. It allows us to see something magical out of the ordinary and appreciate how beautiful life is. It makes us more than rational minds making logical sense of the world. It makes us truly human.
The rain was pretty thick and the winds were just as bad because of another tropical typhoon. I wasn't able to go out and the sleepy cold weather drove me past any mood for productive stuff. Which explains, why for the most part, I found myself laying down and googling randomly (as usual) - but no, I'm not lazing around... its just bad weather :)
Fortunately, and maybe out of a stroke of some fine luck, I chanced upon two great videos in YouTube that have really given me a surreal idealism again about entrepreneurship, making your own business, and living your dreams in life. These are about two people - Ryan Blair and Gurbaksh Chahal - two great entrepreneurs of our time having distinctively different stories of success, but both incredible men with such great stories and lessons to share.
I haven't heard about Ryan Blair until today. He is the CEO and co-founder of ViSalus, a multi-level marketing supplements company, an author and speaker. I learned about his story through a documentary in YouTube covering the production of his book, 'Nothing To Lose, Everything to Gain'.
Hearing stories of people coming from rags to riches, or from bad to great really has that appeal to me because, I think it appeals to the very nature of life - that no matter where you came from, or what you've started out as - it won't need to be the definition that you make for the rest of your stay on earth. Ryan's tale of how he came from being a thug in the ghetto to becoming a successful entrepreneur, author and investor is awe-inspiring. The fact is that life will always get to you no matter where you are, and what you've already overcome in the past, it will throw you bigger challenges and would constantly try to beat you down.
Even after overcoming the hood, with his mother going through a very long period of coma, and his son being diagnosed with autism in the middle of the most monumental success he was attaining, he stepped up to show how the battles are fought even by those that are already successful and have seemingly overcome worse. Ryan's animosity, tenacity and persistence not only allowed him to stand his ground, but it allowed his greatness to come out from the dire situation as it is. This is an important reminder for me - I should stay hungry and strong enough to battle out complacency; and that, I try my very best of not being derailed and unfocused. After all, I have nothing to lose but everything to gain when I just keep going at it. Not stopping, always striving to be the very best that I can be.
Gurbaksh Chahal, on the otherhand, is a serial eentrepreneur who came into business as early as 16 years old. He founded a number of startups and have sold a couple for hundreds of millions. What I like about him in is how mature and real he gives his perspective of business and entrepreneurship. In essence, he says that in order to succeed in life you simply have to had the ambition, discipline, and purpose. But not as easy as how we know to define those three ingredients, does come the real grind behind running a business, or a start-up for that matter.
Like he said, there are many misconceptions in business. One is, for instance, that you have to be first or the original. Or, that you be perfect and narrowed down to a single path or outcome. Instead, entrepreneurs must come to terms with the fact that innovation is key, not originality, that pushing forward to a goal and having the audacity to embrace change in the process is crucial, and that, starting a business from the idea of selling it off later should not be more important than pursuing a business for the passion of fulfilling a need and creating real, tangible value.
I've taken in a lot lessons from these two men today. But I think the most important thing I can take away is that I have been given the same opportunity and freedom, if not more, to create my own story. I'm am no less talented or disadvantaged compared to them. But only, I am a little less as determined as they are. And that should not keep me from trying. All it really takes is to keep on fighting the fight to better what I've become so far and to keep the persistent attitude and go on and on and on. No matter what.
Creating my personal space in the web has been an ambition that I had for the longest time. Ever since I started my career in IT, I have always wanted to create that personal space. To me, it would be cool, awesome and useful because not only do I get to showcase what I can do, but more importantly, its a constant learning hub for myself, and hopefully to others who can pick up a thing or two with the content that I place in there.
But whenever I think about the implementation-side of things - the content, the layout, the technology stack, the platform, the cost - I can't help but be overwhelmed until eventually, my mind shuns the idea off and flushes it on very long cycles of procastination... Honestly, because even as the years have passed, even if I had transitioned from the early days of being a trainee to a senior developer, the first step is still as hard and as daunting for as long as I remember - Where do I start?
Before today, I have tried to brush up and read up technical papers and watch videos that I feel would help me be more ready to embark on this ambitious goal again. I've learned about Bootstrap to ease my way through UIs because I am honestly not strong on that end. I've practiced and learned more about AngularJs because I do feel its a skill that I want in my bag of tricks for the next years to come. So, what's stopping me from taking that leap is to clearly define what is the purpose of my site
Just to get things going, here are the things I explicitly want to accomplish -
Publish Blog content with support for code markup, indexing, table of contents, images
Apply the near cutting edge technologies - AngularJS, MVC, C#, SQL
Easy Build and Deploy through a very good hosting framework
Complete this as a birthday gift to yourself and share and post it to friends, neighbors and the world - site launch!
Those 4 bullet points are seemingly easy to read and go through. But heck, in my mind, the neurons are firing fast to try and logically catchup to the how's and what's behind the site's ground work to finish. Its a lot of work, but it can be done so I better get started. 'Till the next stop!
In 96 days time, me and my fiance will be getting married. Like most couples, we have been working hard towards our goal and our plan for quite a bit of time now. The last year leading up to the wedding day has been all about details. Unlike most couples though, we are on a long distance relationship (LDR). My fiances working in UAE and I'm based in the Philippines. So, as the guy left behind, I have been on top of things for our preparations and whether that's good or bad, we have yet to find out come our wedding day. But for my bride's sake (and mine too), I do hope everything pans out accordingly.
As a true bro, I know this experience of being hands-on over your wedding isn't really a guy-thing. We men are genetically engineered to be hunters, women, on the otherhand, are gatherers. They love anything that has to do with home-building, cooking, and being up to date with the latest news (aka gossip), and that goes back to prehistoric times, I believe. As hunters, our original disposition was to be out in the jungle and look for something to kill, and eat. As such, I believe men are both predisposed to a chance at instant greatness, or stupid death, yeah I have remembered you, Robert Baratheon. We dudes, go after what we want and do what we can for the hunt. How we do so is usually secondary as the details will just come about. Because what matters the most is we just get what we want - the hunt.
I understand that most dudes don't really pay alot of attention to the small details that make up for a wedding. Like me when all these talks of colors schemes, dates, food choices, venue, church, flowers, etc., have started, I was clueless like this poor guy -
Before my fiance left, I was always relying on her to make every little note on every small details. And trust me, there's a lot of it. Eventually though, specially since she went abroad a year before our wedding date, I had to up my ante and take care of business. This my friends, is a premiere on my first hand experience to our wedding day. See you next time!
Since my Blogger account is fairly new, I couldn't remember it's exact URL so I googled 'Stephen Cate Blog'. To my pleasant surprise, the result that came on top was indeed my blog. But not this one from Blogger, it's my throwback-blog that I have completely forgotten to have ever existed!
This first blog attempt was done in June of 2008. What the - 6 years ago?! Honestly, reading through the text doesn't make any sense to me now. Did I really write that? Haha a blast from the past!
But just like old photos of ourselves, when we were perhaps younger and less conscious about our self-image, getting a feel of the kind of ideas you had years back is a nostalgic experience. 6 years ago, I was a different person. I was always eager for attention and I wanted to insight peoples opinion because I wanted to expound on what I have to say, not really because I want to hear them out. But more of because I just had to let out what I have in mind. Well, maybe that simply is the spur of young age, a young man seeking his way through the thick forest of the new corporate landscape.
I like the title I gave that first ever blog though - 'A New Day'. Now, when ever I hear that phrase, I always get that thud bit of hope for a new beginning, a fresh start. Which ironically is quite the opposite to how I went with seeing a new day in that first blog -
Everyday, I wake up with the delusion that life is celebrated by embracing things anew.
Now, I'd like to think that I've learned more about being truly hopeful and positive. I've come to agree that life is not all random and Now, I could at least say I've carried on a more mature tone. Less dramatic, less eccentric, and hopefully, less confused.
So, this is my first shot at creating a blog post. I honestly have no idea where to start. My thoughts are scrambled between what I need to learn to get started and what I want to do to be awesome at this ASAP.
At this time, I have real no intention of doing anything more than to test out Blogger for myself to be able to demo this and teach it to a family who's looking into this for her business. I'm an avid fan of learning to teach, and further that by teaching to learn.
In any case, here's my first post. Hopefully the first of many more good stuff, or wanna-be good stuff, in the attempt to speak my mind and get my thoughts out for another guys or gal to see.
