My Journey in computer Programming

I’m not really new to computer coding/programming, software development and tech in general.
My computer programming journey started around 2010. I did a lot of research on computer programming languages back then but I never wrote any code. I quit as a result of information overload. I didn’t know where to start from.

Fast forward to 2014, I got serious about my passion for software development during my masters, but I didn’t finish learning any out of all the things I started learning back then – from moodle to html, css, php, mysql and javascript. Then I quit again.

In 2015, i started wordpress, and in 2017, I launched my personal blog http://www.igbalayeolajide.wordpress.com.
I have been writng but I have not been putting my articles out there.

Now in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown, I decided to pick up my computer programming pursuit.

I started with a website project whose prototype was designed by a UI/UX designer using Figma.
I wrote the code for the web page using html and css but I got stuck because the code I wrote is not looking like the prototype.
Recently, I have been considering learning the JAMStack approach, but where do I start from?
I have read so much about it, I have reached out to Bolaji Ayodeji of hashnode through tweeter DM, but he didn’t reply my message. I tried the outreachy, I got stuck because I don’t know what category I fall under – referring to the outreachy criteria for eligibility as an “under served community”.
But I won’t stop now. I’ll continue till I get it.

#programmer, #webdeveloper #hashnode, #technicalwriter

A Letter to My Brother

Each time I take a look at you, I’m always happy for just one thing, that you exemplify the truth that a man can indeed overcome his limitations, that he can live a life of deliberate pursuit and attain his mark through consistency and perseverance.
However, my concern is in that no man can become anything truly great without the understanding of his responsibility to his Creator.
As much as we are all created for a purpose, which we all are unconsciously or consciously in pursuit of, we are also ladden with responsibilities placed upon us by our God our CREATOR. And as Soren Kierkegaard put it, “The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do…to find the idea for which I can live and die”.
So it suffice to say that any pursuit outside God always end in futility, and vanity, in the word of the preacher.
I compare that to a Rolls Royce being used to transport farm produce.

But what really is greatness?
Is it in the externalities of our dyed hair, pumped muscles, nice body shapes, large deposit in the bank account? What is greatness to you?
When you think about great people, whose name or names come to mind?

Lemme show you an example of a great man in the Bible.
His name is John the Baptist.
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord…Luke 1:15.
There’s greatness in the sight of the people of the world, and there’s greatness in the sight of the Lord.
Which one would you rather choose?
To be great in the sight of God or to be great in the sight of the world?
For greatness in the sight of God brings peace, rest, joy, and fulfilment.
But greatness in the sight of the world brings unrest, burden, sadness and emptiness. Whatever it is the world gives to you, you’re constantly living to protect it, and that’s burden enough… constantly living to prove something to someone, something that’s not of any eternal value.
So ask yourself, what do you really want? What are you pursuing with your life? On what are you investing your life? Is that thing worth your harvest at the end? Because you rip what you sow. What matters to you in life?
What do you want from life?

Where Are You?

Where Are You?
Just as God called to Adam, and asked him, “where are you?”.
Adam had gone to hide himself alongside Eve. He had done what God asked him not to, and he had gone to sow fig leaves to cover his nakedness because now his eyes are opened. He’s now aware of his “nakedness”. So Adam died as God had said.
Adam died, not physically but spiritually, he lost the presence of God, he lost his place in creation. He lost his dominion.
You’ve lost something too, and you’re looking for it in the wrong places. You’re struggling. You’re empty, for you have once tasted the stuffs that life is made of, the true essence of life. You know it, you can’t deny it. But you don’t have it anymore.
You are like Adam, you have left the presence of God, and you have gone to sow different fig leaves, just to cover up your mess and emptiness, but it’s not enough.

I see God reaching out to you this morning, His heart is longing for you, He wants you back in the place of fellowship and intimacy. So He’s asking “where are you?”.
The many years of bitterness and offences, many years of disappointments, many years of fears, doubts and despair has caused you to hide yourself away from your only help; God, the lifter of men.
So He’s reaching out to you this morning, where are you?
Something is about to break forth for your good, but you can’t receive it in this your present state. There’s a work that need be done in you.
Will you go on your kneels and tell God, “I am here”.
God knows where Adam was before asking him. He knows where you are in your journey. He only wants you to ask yourself that critical question. He wants you to confront the truth you have been fighting, the truth you have been hiding from.
So tell Him, “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and thou that bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
Where are you?

Christian beliefs and the Hillsong Writer.

Marty Sampson, a worship music writer known for his work with Hillsong Worship, revealed he is losing his faith and believes Christianity is “just another religion.”

Reading his story reminds me of the late evangelist; Billy Graham. At a point in his life when he was faced with the issue of un-clarity concerning the word of God as a result of some aspect of the Bible that seem contradictory; his faith and belief in God, he went into the woods, placed his Bible on a fallen tree and he said “Lord, I might not understand many things in your word and your ways but I BELEIVE..!”.

The Paradox of Progress 2

…There is a way out! I continuously remind myself.

So what’s the way out? I ask myself.
CONTINUE!
I have to continue because “I am becoming”.
You see life is not solely a function of what you have, but who you are. In the midst of the whole chaos and perceived lack of progress nor results, who are you becoming? Popular old time American author, Jim Rohn once said that success is not in what you get, success is in what you become.
Jesus said to take heed that “a man’s life consists not in the abundance of what he possesses”
Remember I mentioned earlier in the Part 1 of this piece that “…while we look for the things that are visible as an indicator of our progress, God’s looking at the invisible workings of the inner man.” That’s what one can also refer to as “Character” or “Attitude”, inner strength, self control…etc

The Paradox of Progress – 1

It is the paradox of progress in living and following God, that your life is void of obvious results and yet…

I believe I represent a category of people whose situation is closely related to what I’m experiencing presently.

A situation where one’s journey in life becomes frustrating that one looses the desire to go on. A one characterised by recurring failure; a one where for every 2 steps taken forward, one takes another 4 backward.

The “Other Kind” of Life

Every worry, every anxiety, every agitation, every desire, meditation and every other mental and emotional trouble I have ever experienced and i still experience is due to one reason, that I don’t want to lead an ordinary life. Or rather, I don’t want to live a mediocre life.

Why the trouble?
I don’t want to waste my life.

An ordinary life I believe is a life lived day by day solely for oneself; work, sleep, wake up, eat, drink and play. And in the ordinary life’s accomplishment – go to school, graduate with a good grade, get a job, make money, get married, raise children and probably retire at good old age or earlier. All these for me is an ordinary life.

Then one ask, how then do we live? What then is the “other” kind of life that is different from the one described?

Performance Pressure

I had a clear thought about this issue recently.

It’s the same issue that has taken me through many wrong paths and not well thought out decisions. It has cost me more than I could afford, and has kept me longer than I desired to stay. It has often put me under unnecessary pressure and also ensured I tarried long there. This same pattern has made me quit too soon when I should have held on a little bit longer. It has made me jump from one thing to another, without following through on any. It has caused me a blur of purpose.

The Millennial Plague

Having been born in the 1980s, I would be classified under the demography of a millennial or a generation Y. Many articles and research topics has been done on this generation; their opportunities, challenges and prospect in organizations, and one of the recurring challenges is the “millennial plague”.

The millennial plague is that of haste, impatience, and lack of persistence. They’re easily distracted; a result of too many appealing options and choices.

If you’ll take my hand

You are alone
You are really alone
Even though they often told you “you’re not alone”
But you know you are alone
You try to put on that “I’m fine by myself” face
And your “I don’t care” signals
Trying to convince everyone that you’re doing fine, with your straight face and sometimes shallow smile

But you’re alone