Dancing to a different tune

Cameroon, Lobe River.
So,

There is a party !, yeaay !

Everybody dancing to a song (let's call it song A)

[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVo-Y3mZRvA&feature=related ]

Yet, there is a guy, in his own corner dancing to a very different tune,

a different song, different style, with earphones plugged in his ears. (let's call it song B)

[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7eloMeUh0k&feature=player_embedded ]

Now, all song A people start wondering at what in the world this lone, stupid, incoherent, weird song B guy is doing.

for the lone guy, it totally makes sense. in his own world, he's doing the right thing.

apparently not for the others.

This, in my opinion illustrates the fact that it's sometimes really tricky to judge somebody without taking into consideration the angle he sees things from.

It might, sometimes be that things viewed from our perspective are right, and also that viewed from somebody else's perspective are also right. sometimes, there is no wrong or right. sometimes, it just is.

The War of Art

We've all experienced it and still do. some call it "writer's block".

it's when we, for some reason, can't get anything (or what we've planned to do) done.

it's when you just can't get yourself to ship that software.

it's when you just can't get yourself to get off the bed and head to work.

it's when you just can't get yourself to start doing what you've been putting off for way too long.

it's when you know it's good to get up and head for the mosque, but you just won't do it.

what is it due to ? what causes it ? how to fight it ? how to live that unlived life ?

how do you turn the tables ?

The cause :

-----------

Steven Pressfield calls it "The resistance". Seth Godin calls it the "Lizard Brain".

it's supposed to be that internal part of us that constantly fights against anything important to ourselves

and tries to stop us from doing it. it's that internal force that as we draw nearer to our goal, conceives tricks

to get us to back off.

it's part of our nature, it circulates through our body like our own blood. it sometimes whispers into our hearts.

How to fight it :

------------------

procrastinating is a habit. as with any habit, there's a way to fight it. you gotta unlearn it.

The Hairdresser

last time i went to get my hair cut in one of the saloon i sometimes go to, a new guy did instead of the usual one.

so, I started questioning him about how and when he learned his job.

he told me that he learns to cut hair on someone's head --> on the job learning, making mistakes on peoples' head,

risking being beaten by people whose hair he messes.

that reminded me of when I was still studying 4 my B.Sc. : ...

the same goes 4 when u're trying 2 memorize a song u like ...

lack of attention span

I recently realized this is a cause of failure in so many endeavors.

you set a target, start working on it, then move on to the next one.

you keep starting and starting all the time. you never get anywhere.

if you are on a long quest for something worthy like a startup, a marriage,

looking for knowledge, you need to master your mind and try not to allow

it to jump from idea to idea because that is one sure path to failure.

sad, but true.

[by Anonymous]

After 10 years of selfless service, a man realized that he has not been promoted, no transfer, no salary increase no recommendation and that the Company is not doing any thing about it. So he decided to walk up to his HR Manager one morning and after exchanging greetings, he told his HR Manager his observation. The boss looked at him, laughed and asked him to sit down saying;

Myfriend, you have not worked here for even one day. The man was surprised to hear this, but the manager went on to explain.

How many days are there in a year?
Man:- 365 days and some times 366

how many hours make up a day?
Man:- 24 hours

How long do you work in a day?
Man:- 8am to 4pm. i.e. 8 hours a day.

S! o, what fraction of the day do you work in hours?
Man:- (He did some arithmetic and said 8/24 hours i.e. 1/3(one third)

That is nice of you! What is one-third of 366 days?
Man:- 122 (1/3x366 = 122 in days)

Do you come to work on weekends?
Man:- No sir

How many days are there in a year that are weekends?
Man:- 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays equals to 104 days

Thanks for that. If you remove 104 days from 122 days, how many days do
you
now have?
Man:- 18 days.

OK! I do give you 2 weeks sick leave every year. Now remove that14 days
from the 18 days left. How many days do you have remaining?
Man:- 4 days

Do you work on New Year day?
Man:- No sir!

Manager! :- Do you come to work on workers day?
Man:- No sir!

So how many days are left?
Man:- 2 days sir!

Do you come to work on the (National holiday )?
Man:- No sir!

So how many days are left?
Man:- 1 day sir!

Do you work on Christmas day?
Man:- No sir!

So how many days are left?
Man:- None sir!

So, what are you claiming?
Man:- I have understood, Sir. I did not realise that I was stealing
Company
money all these days.

Moral - NEVER GO TO HR FOR HELP!!!
HR=HIGH RISK

what will they think of me ?

"don't focus too much on what people think of you, sometimes it shuts your genius and instills fear in you." -- Omar Mefire.

the ultimate fighting champion

I am a big fan of the series Friends . I've watched it more than 50 times maybe and I'd like to share with you an excerpt of a conversation between Monica and Peter.
This conversation underlines the importance of persevering when embarking upon a venture, be it an entrepreneurial one or else :

Monica : now, you can just look back at this whole thing with no regrets.
Peter : Look back ?
Monica : u're not gonna keep going, are you ?
Peter : Well, let me ask u a question. Am I the ultimate fighting champion ?
Monica : Nooo, but ...
Peter : Well, I'm not gonna stop until i'm the ultimate fighting champion.
Monica : that guy stood on ur neck until u passed out.
Peter : let me tell u a story. when I set out to create MOSS 865, do u think it just
happened overnight ? no ! there was MOSS 1 that burned down my dad's garage. there was MOSS 2 that would only schedule appointments in January. and 862 others that I learned from just as I learned from this fight : "Never let a guy stand on my neck."

Yes, I can

Thunder in alpha release

It's been a few intensive weeks developing Thunder.
and finally, we're there. we've got the most important features.
the engine's working fine :

we can convert our PDF files to audio MP3 using Thunder.

....But we still need to undergo some extensive tests and correct some quirks with the User Interface before moving to beta release ...

We hope Thunder is going to be a great tool for all the students out there looking for a way to reduce their on-screen time and help them maximize the use of their time by taking their lessons (on PDF files) with them everywhere.

OK, we got something !

It's been approximately two weeks since the development of Thunder started.

And we're using Scrum with sprints of 2 weeks length. so that means normally, today, we should have a potentially shippable version of Thunder.

Well, we got it !

Thunder's core engine is ready. I mean :

-we've built the engine that converts PDF to audio.

So, now, let the really hard work start. that of wrapping that nice functionality into nice looking pages. that's the part I really dread as lots of programmers.

So, let sprint 2 start !

such a long road.

you read about it on forums, you talk about it a lot, you even dream about it.
but it's never exactly like you planned it to be.
putting even a little application on the web is hard.

there's just soo many little things to do in a web startup. you've got to code, you've got to blog, you've got to market. as Bob Walsh puts it, you've got to wear 47 hats !

and what's even worse, you've got to actually deal with people. that's the most dreading part.

"Ooooh ! people are actually reading my blog ..."
"what are they going to say about me ?"
"are they going to like it ?"
"are they going to like me , or my style ?"


well, it turns out not everyone will ever agree on what you do, you just have to deal with it.
you're going to get weird and demoralizing messages. almost everyone thinks you're bizarre or even plain stupid.

I think, the key to it all is persistence. it doesn't mean you're never going to get hurt by what people around you say or think or even post as comments. it just means you have to find enough strength to stand back up and continue doing your stuff even if it means failing in the end.
Never ever quit !

don't get me wrong.
it just means even if you fail building your web startup, you haven't failed in the sense that you learned soo much from it.
you just have to keep at it, learn from your mistakes, listen to people and correct your ways.

maybe, if you never give up, there's hope down the road. you'll succeed, maybe !

follow me on Twitter !

twitter.com/omefire

Thunder (PDF to mp3 converter) Sprint 1

After reading and learning about Agile Software development (Scrum + eXtreme Programming), I decided it was time to put in practice for developing Thunder (

So after a lot of 'freaking out', the first sprint of Thunder finally started this week. I selected the features and tasks which are going to make it into the first sprint of Thunder :

-the library that will be used to extract text from PDF and convert them.
-the interface that will be used to upload PDF files for conversion later.
-the setup of a build server.
-keywords and SEO analysis (gotta start thinking about marketing now).