---TaKe ConTroL---

Geek's Night Out

2011-10-11T19:50:00.002+01:00

I went out for some fun at a club on Friday night and when I got bored, my droid filled the gap. I prepared this post "in the club" (Reminds me of 50 Cent). Enjoy!

For amoment I‘m thinking that this is all a waste of time. BTW, as I type thisdocument, music is blasting on my ears, my joints ache from a lot of dancingand once in a while I try to pick myself up and rock my body once more to thebeats. In case you don‘t get it yet, I‘m in a club.

It‘sfriday night and Samuel had invited me to Jemaimah‘s birthday which was to holdat a club at Adeola Adeku. I had put it in my itenery and looked forward to it.Before now, the last -- and first -- time I was at a club was at Paris, thefarewell party for the 2008 Imagine cup. It was fun but I only went ‘cos it waspart of the program lined-up for the event. Now this; this is actually goingout of my way ‘cos today was one of the most stressful of the week.

I mustconfess, it was worth it. I had the first lap-dance given to me, I rocked somear$es like the world was gon end tonite. The fun was madt! Then I got tired. Idiscovered that, unlike programming where I have fun and seldom got tired,while clubing, I actually get tired of dancing. Tired and bored of the wholething. Then I thought of what to do, then I reached out for my droid, opened upmy pdf on phone gap and read a few pages, then I danced a little more, pesteredSamuel a little when he tried to catch some sleep, philosophised a little abouthow vain clubbing is yet deceiding that I would do it more, once in a whiletho. Then finally, I get the idea to write a blog post while Tina is pesteringme inbetween and I rock to more music inbetween. BTW, I just got a company, avery pretty lady whom I think is a commercial sex worker, we talked a littleand she seem to be curious about what I was doing on my phone. I told her thatI was preparing a blog post and asked her if she wanted to read it, sheanswered in the affirmative and I gave her to read.

NowSamuel is awake and he has to drive us home. My freind tells me her name andasks me for my number. It‘s 5:30 AM andI‘m on my way home.

Scala Boot-Camp

2011-10-06T17:10:00.001+01:00

My last post was about Java programming language becomingless relevant. This does not mean the JVM won’t be useful anymore. As far asI’m concerned, currently, the JVM is the development platform that’s best for realprogrammers because, among other things, it balances the old with the new. This is why am creating more apps on it. Lately I’ve been doingthis on Scala programming language.

I’ve been writing Scala for some time now and I think it’s avery cool language, I also discovered that there are very few people (if any atall) at the local developer community who codes in Scala. This inspired Samueland I to put together a boot-camp for programmers to get a head start in Scalaprogramming language.

The detail of the boot-camp is as follows:

Date: 3rd and 5th of November 2011; 10:00 am to 3:00PM

Venue: F5 (2ndFloor), Block 504 MQ, Besides Ikeja Shopping Plaza, Kodesoh Street Ikeja, Lagos.

The three-day event aims to cover the Functional programmingand the basics of Scala Programming Language at the first day; a little ofadvanced Scala on the second day and Scala-based Web development using Lift WebFramework on the third day.

To take part, you would be required to pay a fee of 5, 000 NGN(approx $30) upon arrival.

To RSVP or for any questions, contact me on +2348093773683 or Samuel on+2348029056826. Or email me at celestocalculus@gmail.com. If twitter is your thing, just mention me, I'm @celestocalculus. You could also join the Fcaebook group for more information http://www.facebook.com/groups/122560751178514/

UPDATE:
1) Date has changed, please check up the new date ;)

RIP Java... Umm, maybe

2011-09-15T14:47:00.000+01:00

Java as we know it may soon be considered a legacy language.

On Tuesday 13th of September 2011, between 5:00PM and7:30PM, Nigerian time, at the local Microsoft office in Lagos Nigeria, Iwatched a live streaming of the official unveiling of Windows 8. StephenSinofsky lead a team of presenters who showed the world what the future ofWindows (and invariably, PC) would be. Part of what was demo'ed is the new platformfor windows development. Developers would now write their apps in erstwhileweb-only development languages: JavaScript, HTML and CSS as native Windows App.There was an overhaul of the Windows development platform the Windows sack now has: Windows Runtime (WinRT) --> JavaScript--> HTML & CSS OR WinRT --> C#/VB/C/C++ --> XAML. Thesame app would run unmodified on desktop, game consoles and mobile devices. I'mstill WOW'ed.

Now my arguement is this: The main promise of Java which isWrite-Once-Run-Anywhere is (almost) finally broken by a sexier language. BeforeI continue, let me point out that I am a passionate Java programmer. I've beenwriting Java since 2005 and it's currently my favorite language (I'll choose itover any language -- Human or Computer). People who know me know that I'm verypassionate about the language. And when I see posts which asks when Java would disappear,I just laugh at them. But with windows adopting JS as a native language, all Ineed to do now is write JS and it would be executable on all platform.Considering that Node.JS has already made it possible to write JS apps for UNIX-based systems, even though it'snot native, it still (kinda) works. I strongly believe that many OS vendorswould love to replicate the ubiquity that JS brought to browsers; noting thatJS is also backed by a set of standards.

Anyway, I'm still gon code Java passionately while it'sstill relevant, though I doubt Oracle would fold their arms and watch Java die.

BTW, if you want to try the new release of Windows before itis finally released, then visit dev.windows.com and download it. I'm not a fanof pre-release versions so I'll just wait till it's finally released.

Image is courtesy of http://cybergyaan.blogspot.com.

P.S. Why is every top personality in Computing namedStephen? Stephen Jobs (Apple), Stephen Balmer (MS) and Stephen Sinosfsky (MS).Ok, I'm changing my first name to Stephen too :)

My #SWLagos Experience.

2011-09-12T06:53:00.002+01:00

TiketMobile, the second placed idea is a beautiful one. I got to know about the idea when Constance came to UNILAG to tell me of a wonderful idea has. It was at Jaja hall and we sat at the quadrangle, Constance told me that he had figured out a way of getting people to easily buy tickets from their mobile device. He gave a few scenarios and I grabed the idea. We refined it a little bit and looked forward to an opportunity to work on it.

Down the road, he started working with me to get FriendsGreet out and then he told me that he would love to try this idea out at Start-up weekend. I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to network with other techies and learn a thing or two. Also, the idea of working on a project with a random team sounded like fun. So I did some stunts on twitter and got registered :)

I must confess that if my team hadn't taken second overall on that evening, I would still had been really fulfilled. For me Start-up Weekend was more for the experience than the prize. It gave me the opportunity to see mobile app development through the lenses of Ope (a wizard, I must confess) and also to see the "benefits" of Lift Web Framework (I'm sure Seyi would laugh here) via the insightful analysis of Seyi (BTW, I'm still vexing with L'Erin for taking Seyi away from my team). Also to work with Joe, a gifted graphics designer (who happens to know every high-brow, silicon valley tech blogger and thinks I should blog more too) and Desiree, a really beautiful lady who happens to be a coder too. She's also a wonderful team player as she easily plugs in to the personality of every member of the team.

Start-up Weekend Lagos also granted me an opportunity to do some stuffs for the first time. I got to work on GIT for the first time while pushing TiketMobile web services to AppHarbor. BTW, AppHarbor is a really cool cloud platform for hosting .NET, very easy and straight to the point. Thanks to OO for the AppHarbor tip and Tomiwa for helping me figure-out how AppHarbor works when my head was deep in codes. I also got to meet Maxwel, who said he has been following my blog since wining the first Imagine Cup challenge. I really, really do appreciate :)

All in all, it was a great experience and very fulfilling. What more can I say, my team came second behind a team composed of (obviously) more experienced people. Thanks to everyone for sharing three days of their life with me :)

P.S Err... Francis, thank for registering me in such a short notice, I promise not to put you on the spot again :D
Update: TiketMobile is on twitter at @tiketmobile and TiketMobile on Facebook. We are still gon be developing actively but we are currently at http://tiketmobile.co.cc

Yet another Bulk SMS Platform… Sorry, it’s Bulk SNS

2011-09-02T01:55:00.000+01:00

In case you are wondering, SNS stands for Social Networking Sites.

My BSc thesis discussed my study and creation of an application which lets users broadcast to all the contacts on their social networks the way it is done on bulk SMS. I call it FriendsGreet.

The original idea occurred to me around the last week of December in 2010. I wanted to yell a personalised “Happy New Year” to all the contacts on my Facebook so I sought an application which would allow me do it and I foundeth it not. So I decided to create it. I did the barebones and abandoned it for other things. When my final year project came calling, I submitted two proposals one for building a NoSQL datastore (which I called LabRat) and the other was FriendsGreet. When I attended Prof Uwadia’s (my project supervisor) inaugural lecture (which focused on SNS and its effects in Nigeria) around April or May, I was inspired to resume work on FriendsGreet again. I was glad when he approved FriendsGreet.

Below is the link to download my proposals for LabRat and FriendsGreet and also, my final year project write-up (which you should actually be interested in :) ). I’m currently working actively to get FriendsGreet out so you can start using it.

This is why I have been offline for ages, now I’m back. BTW, follow me on twitter on @celestocalculus. I've resumed work on CSC Lounge too.

LabRat proposal.
FriendsGreet proposal
BSc Thesis.

Disclaimer
The work on this thesis is original. Any resemblance to any other work before this is purely coincidental.

New look of CSC Lounge

2011-05-30T03:35:00.005+01:00

The major feedback we got was on our UI so we decided to do something about it.

Throughout the month of May, we have been trying either to recruit UI/UX experts into the team or buy a UI. A fortnight ago, we decided that we would hack our UI ourselves if we don't get a UI/UX expert with our requirements. We knew the technologies involved, we are trained computer scientists, we know the issues and the things to look out for but we were just not UI people. I did the last interview for a UI expert on Monday, 23rd May and I thought we had gotten our man, I even blogged about it. But it appears our new recruit was not ready for the fast-pace which we require to move at when he didn't show up for out (proposed) UI hack for the first two days.

When you want a UI which loads in the quickest time possible and you want to control every code that runs the UI, it's hard to get someone. Around here, what is mostly obtainable is people who create image slice in Photoshop for their webpages. We didn't want that. This is more reason why CSC Lounge is needed!

Buying the UI was also an issue because most theme shops require buyers to pay via PayPal -- and in Nigeria, PayPal services is not available (I really wonder why I didn't get my foreign friends to help me buy and e-mail it to me, maybe because I'm not a fan of buying UIs).

Hacking the UI was the (only) option available to us. Jide designs HTML at his current full-time job, but not in the way we were going to do it. Hacking web UI would be a new experience to me -- a (mainly) back-end and application logic coder. I was excited!

We hacked from Thursday 26th and Saturday 28th May, 12:00 am to 6:00 am each day, eating only fresh fruits in the process. We logged our sessions on twitter from time to time with the hash-tag #CSCLoungeUIHacking. We hacked with just notepad++ and our browsers -- no IDEs involved/allowed.

Our first draft UI has been hosted on our domain and it's accessible via http://csclounge.com/new/. Jide did the HTML, I did the CSS and we had colour advice from my younger brother Anthony. We are currently finishing-up the CSS and yet to do the images, but that is the final theme and outlook.

Please check it up and give feedback. Thanks.

Special thanks to those who were with us on twitter during the process and also those who thought that it was a bad idea tweeting our coding sessions: @DavidAdamoJr, @OOTheNigerian, @Mukoshy @LatoyeCFC.

On the 14th of June, I'll be 23 (I'm feeling old already) and we would be releasing the fully functional version 2 beta by then.

P.S.: Anthony is a final year architecture student at The University of Nigeria and currently holds the award of the most creative student in his school. Awarded by the Students' Union. He heads a team of digital and print graphics designers. Connect with him on Facebook here

Connect with CSC Lounge

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/csclounge

Twitter: @csclounge

Building Nigeria's Tech industry -- You are responsible

2011-05-22T05:55:00.006+01:00

Last Tuesday, I was a guest at the first meeting of 200 and 300 Level, University of Lagos' computer science students who are beginning now to plan their participation at the 2012 Microsoft Imagine Cup. In attendance at the meeting was no fewer than 10 student tech enthusiasts, including 2 ladies. Upon quizzing one of the [pretty-looking] ladies, I discovered that she was still in the foundation program with a lot of interest in DBA -- particularly Oracle. My presence there was some sort of inspiration to the students as they plan their onslaught.

So who am I?

"Once you are lucky, twice you are good" -- Sarah Lacy

I had been a member of teams which won two editions of the Microsoft Imagine Cup competitions (Nigeria challenge), back-to-back. I was the Leader of the team the second time. In 2008, my team represented Nigeria in Paris and in 2009 my team represented Nigeria in Cairo (with me as the team leader).

I'm currently serving an extra session. I should have graduated last session -- also, I should have dropped-out of school. Due to the advice of my course adviser, I took few units both semesters of last session, deferred my final-year project and spread my final year over two sessions. This enabled me put more into my technical and entrepreneurial development.

Among the students present, I personally mentor 3 of them directly. Currently, my presence with the students means a lot to them, it's like a morale booster. It makes them believe that being technically sound pays -- even if it's just a free trip abroad!

On being technically sound...

A lot has been said about Nigerian graduates not being technically sound. Lately, there was a heated discussion when someone put-up a really short note on how many Nigerian techies are just a reminiscence of Milli Vanilli.

Really, I remember how it used to be when I just got admission into the depertment. For one, I was the only one in my class who would (arrogantly) focus on the technical importance of what is being taught as opposed to the grades. This is probably partly because I was writing code before I got into the university and partly due to my undying interest in computer science. It took like my second Imagine Cup victory for a lot of my classmate to begin to see beyond the school grades but this didn't go deep because the set following suffered the same fate.

A lot has changed now. With the ascent of Dr Fasina as the new HOD, a lot of focus has shifted from just producing a set of nice grade, ply-card carrying graduates to producing technically sound graduates. This is quite evident with the introduction of a modern functional programming language (python) into the school's curriculum for year 2 students. But with the fascination with the Imagine Cup, I'm sure it would take more than that to get students to see the real importance of having the skills.

A change in direction...

While speaking to them, I was quick to remind them that having technical skills was more important than taking part in the Imagine Cup. I told them that the Imagine cup was just an opportunity I took advantage of -- because of my skills. I made them see the importance of building a community that would be of mutual benefit to everyone in it. They could discuss on the new cool thing they are learning and the project they are undertaking. They listened and they noted it.

They listened because they see me as an influential figure that has a few feathers of achievements on my crown. They would listen to anyone else whom they view in such light.

You are responsible!

We can write notes and blog posts, and move around in an [air-conditioned] saloon car, and complain about how bad it is to get people to employ and/or work with us on projects and how the school system is so messed-up in Nigeria.

That is easy, very easy.

Much easier still is talking [and blogging] about successful Western tech start-ups. Their stories are just so magical, like they were taken from a nursery school fairy-tale.

The hard part is doing something about it. When it comes to this, there is always an excuse -- "I'm too busy", "they didn't even design the page well", "No I cannot write or talk about them, they are wannabe's, and they probably won't go far". While we give these excuses, Nigerian universities continue to produce graduates who are not technically sound and who would have been better if they had a little mentoring. A little more motivation from people who should actually set standards in the local IT scene would make a lot of difference.

Lately, one of my [graduated] classmates argued that most successful tech entrepreneurs were just business people who hired technically-sound people (citing Bill Gates as examples) and that being technically sound would not take you far. I wonder how many (Computer Science) undergraduates operate with these principles. But in the midst of all these, a lot of them still want to know and would do better if you spared a little time, out of your comfort, to tell them what they could do -- from your experience.

Re-introducing CSC Lounge (http://csclounge.com)

It is on the backdrop of this that I and a friend came together to create a web platform which allows you to indirectly mentor undergrads. We call it CSC Lounge. CSC Lounge lets you post technical 'dumps' -- tweaks, how-to's, slides or a fully fledged article -- in order to instil interest on undergrads. The follow-up on this would be a series of discussion which would provide an opportunity to mentor students who are interested. We are also building algorithms to recommend users to employers based on the users' activities on the platform.

I had earlier started-up a direct mentoring project (see http://ezeokoyecelestine.blogspot.com/2010/09/raising-successors-celestine.html) and it has been successful with the only student I recruited onto it. In a period of 6-months (or less), I've helped him chart a course in Java programming with impressive personal projects (GUI based single user and networked multi-user tic-tac-toe game, multi-tab text and HTML editor with different colour themes, etc) to show for it. Currently he's grabbing database development. He did these while still maintaining a good grade. I didn't do this by sitting with him and instructing him all day. I did it by first igniting interest in him, then occasionally checking on him from time to time and answering his questions. I know a lot of impacts would be made if we can reach out to undergrads in this way.

Based on the feedback we got with what we currently have, we are re-implementing to include a number of use-cases and a redesign. We would re-launch soon with a more appealing UI/UX and more interesting use-cases and we would call on you to help mould Nigeria's future.

Get Involved!

Kowaa -- Explain your database to Apache Solr.

2011-05-17T05:14:00.007+01:00

CSC Lounge (http://csclounge.com) is currently being reimplemened.

Major feedback we have gotten revolves around the need for the UI and UX to be more modern, colourful and intuitive and we are working to meet those needs. But it's not only the UI that we are working on, we are re-implemening the whole system with the Scala-based Lift web framework. The major reason we chose Scala is that it is more cost effective and flexible, besides it's what the cool chaps use for their systems now-a-days (ask Twitter and Foursquare). One of the module which we worked on (and is currently ready) is the search module.

The search was built on Apache Solr (http://lucene.apache.org/solr), an open-source search server created with Java on top of Apache Lucene (http://lucene.apache.org/java/docs/index.html). Solr is an amazing product and recommended to anyone building a web system from scratch (or already has a running web system) and want to add search functionalities. It works by allowing developers import indexes, which would be persisted to disk as documents containing fields that are accessible to search. Beside just searching, the results can be returned highlighted or transformed in whatever way the developer wants. Results could also be returned in several formats including XML (the default), JSON, PHP, Ruby, Python. Most of these features are actually base features of Lucene (which currently powers twitter's backend and a number of NoSQL DBs, like CouchDB). Solr allows users to import indexes from different sources -- XML, RSS, Wikipedia or an already existing database. Ours was the case of an already existing database. The problem with the process is that you have to manually create an XML file which tells Solr how your database is defined. This is a stressful process as you have to switch between the XML editor and your database and, in between, decide what you want to index. God help you if you have a complex database system which requires nested Solr fields.

This is where Kowaa comes in.

I created Kowaa to automate the process. It's a simple Java-based GUI tool that connects to your database and provides interfaces for you to set the properties of the Solr document and fields. It presents you with interfaces to select which database fields you want to index. It also allows you create nested fields. It then spits out the XML you need in a directory you specify. You can now customise by setting transformers (like HTML stippers) and other processors. I searched the internet for a tool to do this and I didn't find any, so I created one.

I used it with Microsoft SQL Server but I included options and JDBC driver libraries for indexing MySQL, PostgreSQL and JavaDB (network and embedded). To download, just follow the URL http://csclounge.com/kowaa.rar. The file contains both the source codes and the build so you can customise the code as you want to. It was built for internal use but we figure it would be needed so we are giving it all free! So if you are looking to set-up Solr on your site on an already exsting database you might want to take advantage of this.

After downloading, extract to any directory of your choice and run by invoking the following command on the command line:

$ java -jar path_to_extract/dist/Kowaa.jar

What does Kowaa mean?

Kowaa is Igbo word for "explain". Ifetayo also reminded me that when you break it into two, it means "teach us" in Yoruba (Ko waa). So it's more like explaining (or teaching) Apache Solr what your database is.

Don't trust the ecosystem

2011-05-06T05:34:00.005+01:00

I was supposed to have a 'date' yesterday afternoon but my date had a couple of reasons to cancel it. I was a little disappointed but thankfully, I had invited a co-techie over so we had a handful of gists. I, being a newbie in the community, had a lot of listening to do. He summed up with one piece of advice "don't put much trust in the 'ecosystem'"

This was affirmed when I got a digest mail from the Lagos GTUG which I am a member of. The mail introduced a Google site created by one of it's members to connect local developers. No, the concept is not bad in itself, in fact it is wonderful. But if this invention was not a part of what I and the creator discussed in my bid to get him to join the CSC Lounge team, I wouldn't be posting this blog.

A couple of weeks back, Jide and I decided that the job at CSC Lounge was getting too much. We had more on our TODO list than we have on our DONE list, so we decided to hire the service of a creative personnel to ease off the stress. After a couple of considerations, we shortlisted a few people whom we should approach. We decided that we each talk to our acquaintance. Mine was a guy I met at a tech event I attended earlier whom I thought would make a good teammate.

After discussing a handful of the idea, the prospects and the benefits with him, we did a little brainstorming and pruning. I would say the discussion went well and he promised to get back to me with his final decision. I was expecting his call or e-mail -- well quite! The call or e-mail never came. Then I got the mail about his invention.

The worst part of his lack of personal creativity is that he used the same name as CSC Lounge but with a little twist! (CSC stands for Computer Science)

Google, our host on the tech user group which we both are members of, run with the policy "don't be evil". Hmmm... I smell some evil playing out.

Meanwhile, I'm having a second look at developer ecosystems, I think my techie friend (who visited yesterday) is right in a lot of ways.

CSC Lounge

2011-04-06T01:07:00.004+01:00

Around this time last year, I was in my (supposedly) final year in school and I wanted to leave a legacy. I spoke with Jide -- one of the few people who are my close confidant -- about it. Jide was my roommate the previous session, so we had gotten very close. This thought spawn a lot of ideas which we shared between ourselves. None clicked until one night, while Jide, Ola (another classmate and one of Jide's roommates) and I were chilling in Jide's room, a random idea came for us to create a website for all classmates to keep contacts after school. It would also allow past computer science students to mentor subsequent computer science students. Also it would showcase students whose got skills and are doing stuffs.

That night, as it evolved, the idea spawn away from the original concept to a facebook-like application for our class + the mentorship thingy. We were preparing for our final year fun events (beach parties, barbecue nights, dinner, etc) and we would use the project to woo corporate firms to pay for our funtimes. As more people in the class heard of it, required features grew wider and more facebook-like but we still went ahead with it anyway.

Being the most experienced developer in the class and the one who nurtured the idea to growth, I tasked myself to raise the team who would build the application and also to interface with the corporate guys. I raised a team of 4 guys and 2 girls and gathered e-mails of the corporate contacts.

I exchanged a few e-mails with my corporate friends and things seem to be going fine. Corporate friends were responding, team was enthusiastic and in our first meeting, I coined the name "CSC Students' Lounge" for the application, CSC is what we call computer science in The University of Lagos. The name was agreed upon by the team as a temporary name, for lack of a better name. I created the requirements for our facebook-like, CSC Student's Lounge. Little red riding hood was still hopping happily!

After two or so meetings, team members started giving excuses on why they would not be able to make it to the next meeting. Then subsequent meetings turned into inspirational sessions, as I had to start telling team member how the project could boost their CVs. Corporate friends were still responding, but you need an application to sell now! So I kept corporate friends on a hold and began re-strategising. Couple of weeks after, app was not done and team inspiration was down, so I began droping team members. In fact, some even came to me and requested to resign. Finally it droped to Jide and I, and I had to revisit the idea.

I dropped all the facebook-like features and it returned to just mentoring. Then one event occured which made me incorporate articles. A computer science student from a remote university came to UNILAG and met us presenting a project we did for a course in information technology (CSC421). My team's presentation (and me in particular) impressed him, so after the presentation he approached me, introduced himself and told me how he enjoyed my display. He told me he was very interested in computer science but because stuffs like that does not happen in his school, his interest was begining to wane. He now reads computer science just to pass exams and get his degree, yet he told me how he would love for people to bring stuffs like that to them. He said a lot of students would embrace it with open arms. The idea of experts putting-up articles at intervals for students' consumption was born! A lot of other ideas came along and brainstorming with Jide, we prunned them until they came out right. We also called the application "CSC Lounge".

We sat down to implement and when we were done with the first working prototype, we began to think of how to get it up online. We were not regular income earners so raising cash for hosting was an issue. We needed to come up with stategies that would allow us raise cash while not getting our mind of the project. The only closest option was asking for contributions from friends and acquintances. We did that and after some time it worked and we were live.

Yesterday, 5th of April, 2011 at 6:05 AM WAT, we moved CSC Lounge to the root domain http://csclounge.com after running on a beta domain for exactly 2 weeks. What we currently offer is a platform which acts as a technical dump for people who do stuffs in the industry -- they could dump things; from a single line tweak to a fully flegded article. Students then ask them questions based on their dump. This way they mentor students and they keep the interests burning.

A lot of other great features are coming along (and a redesign too). This is because we are not just the everyday blogging platform (like the one you are on now). We aim not only to answer the question "What can I get from the platform" but also "What can I do with/on the platform". Some of the features are already even implemented, just waiting to be released.

The URL again is http://csclounge.com and it's open only to verified students and selected experts. We hope users enjoy using it as we enjoyed working on it.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/csclounge
Twitter: http://twitter.com/csclounge

P.S.
I'm dedicating CSC Lounge to everyone who has, in one time or the other, being my protege. To my current protege Dumebi Duru, who would never see me online on Facebook and let me be, but would always have one question or the other to ask. I hope you grow in your quest and become one of the bests.
To my ex-classmate and ex-protege Bukky Osi (was also on the team but pulled out) whom during those class assignment, I would explain to her what to do and she would come back with the tasks done. Your interest and development still impress me, I wish you could dare more and certainly hope you become a name to reckon with.
To all my other numerous proteges, you'll soon get a couple more mentors ;)

#JustReflecting

2011-03-07T01:36:00.003+01:00

This month makes it six months since I unofficially left home -- that is, if you want to see me, my primary address is not where my parent stays (even tho I don't yet have a personal primary address). And really it has been nothing short of what I expected, tho it gets to the extreme sometimes.

I love to dare, it's just in me, crazy unthinkable things. I've lost count of them. I personally believe that in the journey to manhood, a young man should leave the confines of security and venture into the jaws of the real world, especially men who do not want to live obscure lives. After all, anything which would not kill you would make you stronger. That's what led me out.

Over this period, I've been stuck at the road a number of times due to bad traffic (Lagos na!) A lot of these time, I would wish I'd just go home to mumsi food but I'll realize it's far away. At some other times, I've also looked into my wallet to discover that it's not smiling at me and I've had to take drastic decisions to salvage my state (like take molue, instead of the comfort of BRT or danfo, after which I'll almost always swear never to board a molue again, lol). Even tho I'm not very good with money, I've kinda improved over this little time. I've also made a few families away from my family of birth -- the Ademilua's, the Claudius-Cole's -- places where I can call 'home' and and do some house chores when I wake up in the morning (after sleeping from 5 to 9am due to overnight hacking + I'm also not good with house chores too).

I know greatness beckons and I'm sure these experiences would only make the story sweeter. I'm very grateful to my lovely parents for being liberal enough to trust me in handling (and experimenting with) my life even though most times they do not understand what I do (my mom still asks me for explanations on what I do on the computer all night, even though I've explained a gazillion times. I guess I must be terrible at explaining).

Over time, I've also learnt that you do some things wrong a number of times before you finally start to do them right. Right now, I'm learning how to sell my products and I think I'm doing terribly badly. I'm not very bothered 'cos I know I'll improve with time. Besides, at this stage, I can always run back home and get re-embossed when things get out of hand.

#JustReflecting

Yeah... crazee me!

2011-02-16T13:49:00.002+01:00

I thought I was crazy, now I realized I'm not actually crazy, I'm super crazy!

Sitting my own o, jeje in the lab reading for a test when one chic decide to start staring at me. Me I stared back o! Then we started doing "first to look away"... After some time, she burst into laughter and turns away, and actually walks away. I smiled and followed her and asked: "Didn't ur mommy tell u not to stare at strangers?" Then we started talking. I got all her details and when when I wanted to leave I asked for her number. She refued to drop it (in the typical Unilag chic spirit!) Then I told her to hold on to my phone that I would call my number whenever I wanted to speak with her. She took my phone and I walked away, went back to continue reading for my test.

My test av finished now and she is refusing to pick my phone. Armed with her name, department and level, I headed to the faculty of social sciences to find this chic, to no avail. I have a gazzilon calls to make and 20% of me is asking myself why I did it, 50% is amazed at the crazee thing I just did and 30% is just indifferent. :D

I'm closing in on her sha, I've gotten a few people who are in her department but not in her level. Next is to find people in her level but for now I'm taking a break. If you call me any time soon, maybe a chic would pick the phone nd say "hello"!

P.S. After a lot of pressure from my pops (the latest being holding a mirror to my face and asking me "how do you think you look?"), I've finally cut my hair! Now I adorn a low punk. I think it kinda looks nice and makes me look extremely different. I actually went home last weekend hoping to blow my hair, but after a little thinking, I realized I would be stepping into a lot of offices and they could be judging me by the hair I wear. So I decided to play by the rules! Anthony have blown his hair though (badt guy!). I didn't get to see how he looks before he went to school, cos he left in the morning and I arrived in the afternoon. Home is now funnier, Chima is at home :)

Passed out!

2010-12-07T03:47:00.003+01:00

It was Sunday 5th December 2010, my parent just had a thanksgiving session for the silver jubilee of their wedding, hours later I was wasted... passed out and throwing up. That was the best day of the year so far!

To celebrate my dad had gotten some wine (13% alc) but I was not in the mood for wine so I took a few sips and requested for some beer (6.5% alc). Midway into the beer, he offered me rum (45% alc), I turned it down. Then the lady staying just opposite our place came in and at the spot, downed one and half glass of rum! In my head I was like, "shuo, see this tin wey I dey run from na em this chic come down like say notin dey inside." I took the challenge and after my beer, I started with the rum! Mumsi was there givin me those eye that she would give me when I was 7 if she disapproves of what I was doing in public, those eyes that says "stop that!" Me I no send am, I just throway my face.

Then it was me and popsi, the guests were gone and the guy was just jisting me about his bachelorhood and his adventures while I was downing more glasses of rum. Momsi had left the sitting room for us 'cos she disapproves of the heavy drinking. Anthony took a few wine and went to bed, so it was just me and my old man. We were gisting, laughing, demonstrating, hitting each other - a typical beer parlour setting. Gradually, I was shifting away from the realm of reality. I finished the bottle of rum and took the remaining of the only glass my dad was sipping all along, then I went to bed. But the whole drama was yet to begin.

I don't know how long it was into my sleep before I started throwing-up, can't tell what was happening except that Anthony and my dad was tending to me. My dad later told me that I was throwing up for about 2hrs 30mins. He said, after I offloaded every food in me, I started offloading the drinks, then he started getting scared. He was afraid of what would happen if the was nothing left in me to throw-up, according to him, I could start throwing-up blood. Of course, they kept it all away from momsi, they had to. In my drunken state, I could see the fear in his eyes, so I thanked him for letting me drink to stupor and sharing with me the way he did. He gave me some milk and it was all settled. I went back to bed.

It was 5am the following morning when I finally woke up. Anthony told me I messed-up everything. It was so funny to me. I was glad that finally, I had experienced what it was like to be passed out. I'm not a teetotaller, but because of my upbringing, I drink responsibly. Secretly though, I really want to experience the whole getting drunk and throwing up thingy. I couldn't be more appreciative to my pops, for letting me experience it in the security of home. When he awoke, he had a few words of advice for me. He let me know that he wouldn't be proud if he heard that I was in such a state outside home and I assured him that I would never be in such state again, ever! I plan on keeping my words.

I had a pile of bedsheets to wash while mumsi mocked me and called me a drunkard...

Raising Successors - The Celestine Discipleship.

2010-09-08T04:47:00.006+01:00

It's no longer news that I won't be graduating with my class, what I pray for is that my best plans work out.

Due to my discovery that there's limited supply of developers, I've started a discipleship program. I call it The Celestine Discipleship. I intend to try my best in imparting the knowledge I have accumulated over the years on computer science students, at least make them able to convincingly win the National Challenge of the Imagine Cup and put-up a good international representation.

The program: Endorsed by the H.O.D of Computer Science, University of Lagos; Extra-Curricular; F-O-C. I already have one disciple and I'm on a hunt for suitable students for recruitment. I hope to build a small bread of self-confident software developers whom I'll ultimately absorb into my start-ups. By the end of the program, among other software development thingy, they should be very competent in Java, C# and Scala programming languages. Hopefully, they would get some silverware for themselves too - maybe Google Code Jam or Microsoft Imagine Cup trophy.

I'll try my hands on this while I'm serving my self-imposed extra session. It would work out, I'm very positive.

P.S. Waltag's searching for investors. If you know anyone we can talk to holla at me and we'll send our business proposal to the person (individuals only, please). Thanks ;)

Waltag... The challenges so far!

2010-05-16T02:06:00.003+01:00

Over a period of almost a year, David and I have iterated through a couple of specifications for a social web platform we are actively trying to make a reality; Waltag. The whole idea streams from the concept of making your school life more interesting. Also, to keep memory of all those nitty-gritty which would linger after school but one just can't place a grasp of it. We hoped to achieve this by letting users log what happens in their rooms! So how have we fared?

When the idea first emerged, we wanted to know what was happening in students' rooms, simple. They would tell their story via several means; words, images or videos. Oh! They would also be able to share links. Then there was the idea of a group chat feature. With great excitement, we created a development blog, got a business adviser, and did a couple of other things. It was fun; we would get it ready in three months. Then reality set in.

Challenges.

Of course, all projects have their challenges, Waltag wasn't any different. Connecting the dots now, the challenges were inadequate skill set, inconclusive decisions and lack of funds. Before I saw these, I thought, "both of us are currently computer science students and Waltag is a software project, this should be easy considering that a few months earlier, I lead a team of student programmers to win the local Imagine Cup". I was wrong. When I realized the shortage in skills, we tried to make up with getting people to handle different aspects of the development. To date, we have iterated over ten people in our search for the skill set we need. We have settled with two of them and are yet to decide on a final person. Abubakar whom I competed with at the local Imagine Cup challenge would handle the mark-ups. To kill the issue of funds, Samuel, a former schoolmate of both David and I who had experienced 'work', was picked. We had Ayo on graphics but he needs a lot of inspiration to share the Waltag dream unlike Anthony, my younger brother. Even though (when I last assessed him) he was not as good as Ayo, Anthony shared the Waltag dream. We are currently considering the option of having Anthony handle the graphics, though he does not know that yet.

The real challenges.

Putting aside the challenges which arise directly from the project (which is quite easy to deal with), the biggest challenge was personal differences and school (and activities associated with it). David is a very religious person, and when we conceived Waltag, he was a member of the executive council of a foremost students' fellowship LVCU. Also, unlike me, he likes to get very involved in a lot of things. I am extremely less religious and less involving too. This sharp contrast in personalities brought a lot of conflict in decisions which had to do with implementation date, whom to hire, share allocation and many things that concerns personal interests. This is made worse by my inherent desire to control, to be in charge, to dictate strategies. When I decided that school was an inhibition to our successfully releasing Waltag on the scheduled date (I haven't changed my opinion on that though), I decided to defer school (which I wasn't enjoying after all) and crazy as I was, I wanted to pull David into my personal decision. lol. With persuasions from a lot of concerned fellows (but most especially because of my mom's long face whenever she remembers that I'm deferring school), I decided to take less courses each semester of my final year and extend school by one more session. Yet school is still as energy sapping as ever. The plan is to release Waltag within the period of my stay in school and watch the acceptance level while still a student before I start administering from outside.

Ideas, Inspirations and all the I's.

So far, a couple of ideas that we developed during the iteration of Waltag has been implemented in mainstream social network sites. For instance, twitter now asks ‘What's happening?’, Waltag’s initial handle for being different from everyone else (as opposed to "What are you doing?" which was twitter's question when Waltag first went into implementation phase). Google buzz was also launched which adds direct status pop-up and live status feeds, Waltag's original idea. One of the things we have realized during the course of this project is that, whatever you are thinking of now is probably being considered by another industry giant, the faster you act the more original you are. We also learnt that the route between ideas, design and implementation, testing and marketing is a very long one (especially when you are in a third world country like Nigeria). Yet we are not deterred. We have either dropped ideas which are conflicting or modified them to be better (or, at least what we think is better). We have also stolen stuffs (even as little as inspirations) from ambitious projects by university students, the latest being the Diaspora project. I look forward to users accessing Waltag as a custom seed from a Diaspora XMPP server soon (of which I was planning on implementing an XMPP server specifically for Waltag). Waltag has all those concepts in it's stitches, all the concepts Diaspora stands for.

So far, so good...

The Waltag project is growing, we just got our domain up and we are working on putting-up a waiting page there. We have fixed a date for the first alpha release. We are coding. We are organising. We are designing. We are raising funds.

The Waltag team currently comprise of:

Celestine Ezeokoye (that's me). Codes and Strategy

David Ademilua. People and Operations

Abubakar Ango. Web and Servers

Samuel Iso. Funds and Business

...and on the queue we have:

Anthony Ezeokoye. Logos and Graphics (I hope we clear his hire soon and he accepts our offer!)

Personally, I would love to say thank you to everyone who in one way or the other (even as little as asking 'how far?') has contributed to reminding us that we have a task at hand. The entire Waltag team is grateful. We know that Nigeria (and Africa) is capable of creating quality software systems and exporting them for the world to enjoy. We believe Waltag would be a major step in that direction. We know it would.

Code-athon

2009-09-19T01:28:00.003+01:00

Coding a lot lately... Actually I'm reading-up on lots of frameworks on the Java platform... iBatis, JUnit, JPA and coding. All for Waltag. Despite my long coding periods, I'm still falling short on my target for the last few days. Lots of distractions, yet I have to beat the milestone for this month. I think I need to do a coding stretch, a code-athon.

The longest time I've spent on the system is 22 hours writing Imagine Cup codes. Ok, I had a few breaks in between. I read of these guys who created Grafight. On their blog, they say they spent 32 hours with no sleep, 8 cups of coffee. Ahn ahn..., why would they not come-up with service that people would kill themselves to use?

With the rate at which this project is going, a code-athon is eminent, 40 hours maybe (I go bend)... I'll get myself a coffee drink (mumsy betta not hear this, lol) and whenever I feel sleepy, I'll just run it down my throat. Then I'll see how far I can go.

Just for those who are wondering what Waltag is; Waltag is a social networking platform targeting students resident in higher institutions. It helps them to quickly share ideas, and to communicate in a special way. It is currently under development and the development process is logged at www.waltag-development.blogspot.com (though the blog is currently not open to public viewing).

All those time I was off...

2009-08-21T12:50:00.002+01:00

Not like I purposely left o...

The Imagine cup, hmmnn. After a lot of gra gra, we sha go. As before now, noting happen + the debt I incurred from phone calls + the boredom that accompanied my stay in Cairo. Ok, I won't keep quiet o! I sent Microsoft a personal note on how the event did not go well. I expected a reply, for where... all I got was an automated response from the PR department, "Out of Office:....". Ok, that's their business.

My life goes on... In between, series of rejections from different sources. Alphie's always my escape. Talking of Alphie, he was 1 year old on the 9th of August and he's still kicking... well just one fault - the speaker on the right-hand-side is bad. Aside that, every other thing's fine. Besides, I can always use some external speakers or some ear phones, yada, yada, yada...

It's like these competitions drain the psyche out of you... After putting in a lot, they are just not worth it in the end. Clung to Jesus lately and he's helping me get back to my normal self. I miss Tinuade, she just keeps promising me she'll come to school every weekend and she keeps failing... Except when I'm at home, she'll call and ask if I'm in school that she's on her way! Sorry O.

I've decided not to take-up any paid employment (...like I just made that decision). Been really, really, broke lately, (...as in, really, really, really broke). After writing up this beautiful composition on Nairaland, I got the hottest bashing I've ever gotten online. The result was the chilliest mellow. Men, I mellow! Ok, personally, I went through the profile of some members then I convinced myself that I'm still just beginning! Then I decided that I won't take up any contract to create a bespoke software for anyone again... Well, except IT projects (...bring it on!!!). So how the hell am I going to eat?!!

Less than a week after I returned from Cairo, I stumbled on Scala programming language. I've been coding with it ever since. I love it! The fact that it runs on Java makes me love it even more! Twitter uses it at their back end, and LinkedIn too. Then came Lift, a web framework created to run with Scala. I always want to put something up on Scala at my programming blog but I just kept postponing it.

Now I'm busy. I'm creating a Status Blog/Social Networking Site (SB/SNS) for halls of residence in institutions. Not like I'm good at web applications, in fact I think I sulk at web apps. Almost all web based contract I get, I kinda mess them up! I'm better at back-end logic implementation, hard-core programming. But I've decided to take my chances once again. Lift is looking very interesting so I'm getting back to web apps. Plus I'm working with David. He's getting hotter at web interface design. I think it (that is, the SB/SNS) would be the bomb! It's just computerizing what a lot of people already do manually.

Since I won't work for anyone (...surely, by God's Grace!) and I won't take up contracts (...hopefully, by God's Grace!), I have to rely on my creativity/imaginations to feed myself. God helping me, people will buy my ideas. Then maybe, I'll just achieve Mark Zukerberg's feat in Naija and Seun Osewa may just have a compatriot!

Howdy !!! (...sorry, See ya!!!)

"My Mentor"

2009-07-11T13:44:00.003+01:00

Gush!!!

I log-in to my Yahoo! mail and I see a message from someone I don't know requesting that I be their mentor. This is beginning to get scary!

Ok all the appreciation, I appreciate but the mentor part... nna men!

Like this is not the first time. Was walkin along the street of Unilag when two guys accosted me, both taller than I am.

"Team X abi. We were @ the Imagine cup... Please we want to know how to write programs..."

All those kin things sha. Christ! I was humbled. First scared, then humbled.
Now someone is saying I shud be their mentor, small me.

Ok, I know the basic problem of the average Nigerian youth is getting a real role model and I'm in position to be one. God help me to do the right things. This is such an herculean task.

Reminds me of Damilola, everytime she comes to me with one programming task or the other and I complain, she would just shut me up with the famous line made popular by spiderman's uncle - "With great powers come great responsibilities".

I guess I'll just live up to the responsibility. I pray for God's help.

PS: Somehow, my iTunes library got corrupted and I had to delete it. Now all my cherished play count is gone... sobs.. sobs.

The Block.

2009-07-07T23:56:00.007+01:00

Between us is a block,

A block that’s all but good,

For years I’ve nurtured this block,

I’ve built it into a brick wall,

Despite its status I enjoyed building it,

But I’ve decided to pull down the wall,

Yes, I’m pulling it down, down to vestiges.

It was the same block, yes this same block

That took the great Napoleon to Waterloo,

This same block saw King Phillip’s Armada,

Fall to Queen Elizabeth’s Navy.

This block saw the most loved angel,

Become the most hated creature.

I’m going through the process of bulldozing,

The very hurtful process of destroying,

Destroying this block that I raised into a wall.

Heart piercing rumbles would be heard,

But of great importance is this,

That the wall is brought down and the block is history

Today might be thorny,

But tomorrow would be grateful,

That this block, this very creepy block

Never extended quarter the size of the great wall

‘Cos some things, no matter their appeal,

Need to be crushed,

Crushed to ashes.

Can you figure out the subject of this poem?

----------------
Now playing: The Fray - Never Say Never
via FoxyTunes

He may not come when you want Him, but He's always on time

2009-07-07T12:59:00.002+01:00

The Fray - You found Me

I found God
On the corner of First and Amistad
Where the west
Was all but won
All alone
Smoking his last cigarette
I said, "Where you been?"
He said, "Ask anything".

Where were you
When everything was falling apart?
All my days
Were spent by the telephone
It never rang
And all I needed was a call
It never came
To the corner of First and Amistad

Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me

In the end
Everyone ends up alone
Losing her
The only one who's ever known
Who I am
Who I'm not, who I wanna be
No way to know
How long she will be next to me

Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me

Early morning
The city breaks
I've been callin'
For years and years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
Ya never send me no letters
You got some kinda nerve
Taking all my world

Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Where were you? Where were you?
Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me
Why'd you have to wait?
To find me, to find me

[Thanks to songlyrics.com]

***************************

What does this song lyrics mean to you? I've been playin it since the morning of yesterday!

Anada poem again?

2009-06-28T14:22:00.002+01:00

Character

Of what use are the shades of the cloud if it cannot regulate its downpour?
Of what marvel is the rainbow if it fills the sky and blurs true colours?
Of what pleasure is the sea if it overflows its bank and erodes its beaches?
Of what need is drinking water if it finds its way down the trachea instead of the oesophagus?
Of what use is solar energy if leaves get charred before their chlorophylls are activated?
Of what sense is music if it plays at decibels that perforate the eardrums?
…
Of what use is intellect if it’s not adorned with great characters?

©Celestine Ezeokoye, 2009.
Inspired by the ordeals of a bright final year student of the Department of Computer Sciences, University of Lagos. He took the law into his hands and landed himself in police custody only few weeks to his graduation. He is at risk of being rusticated from the school.
_______________________________________________________________

The Last Air Bender. A movie based on the animation "The Avatar" will be in the Theaters by July next year. I'm guessing they are working on releasing a movie based on Naruto, Bleach, etc... Francis won't like this, lol. I think I won't either. I think it's better it remains in its original animation form. Look at Dragon Ballz... The movie is fkd up.

Vuze gave me a trailer.

To download the full version visit vuze.com

New technology blog

2009-05-27T04:52:00.000+01:00

I've created a new wordpress blog for all those programming stuffs that pop into my little (or big) head.

For all the programming ppl out there (or if u jst want to check'ir out) visit:

http://technicalculus.wordpress.com/

Some random stuvs

2009-05-26T00:05:00.001+01:00

You are in trouble!!!
Can't remember aw many times Ade mentioned that line at the interactive session we had today, ok yesterday. Calls after calls and Ade, an architect with Microsoft (ok, software architect), finally fixed a meeting with team X. The session was one of the most elevating I've ever had. First it wasn't just about the session. We were treated like some kind of star at the office... "This is the team that won this year's Imagine cup... that would be representing Nigeria in Cairo" N'Dee introduces us to the Country Manager, Emmanuel. We took some photographs with him and then we had a meeting with Ade and Shina at their conference room. Interacting with industry professionals opened up our eyes to a lot of things. The real world challenges, tasks and all. We are really in trouble for taking part and wining this year's national challenge, 'cos we have to win in Cairo and push this solution into the industry. After the session, I told John and Francis "Hope u guyz had a nice sleep last night, cos dat wud be the last full night sleep u'll enjoy until we return from Cairo." John felt the fever. Thanks to him we have a mosquito infested room (at his home) to code at!!! Can't count aw many times av had to beat myself these few hours, awsh!!!

Amaka's B'day
It's my girl's bday 2day... Happy birthday dear.

More Coldplay tracks
Got Lost!, Life in technicolor and 47. I'm feeling Lost! like mad!!! Men Chris Martin's so inspirational... listen to this "Just because I'm losing doesn't mean I'm lost... You might be a big fish in a little pond, doesn't mean you've won". Challenges you to bring out the best in yourself!!! Feel me?

Solange, Beyonce's lil sis did Viva la vida really well. See her performance:

The "Wining the imagine cup national challenge" series is still coming up.

----------------
Now playing: Coldplay - Lost!
via FoxyTunes

Imagine Cup 2009 - Winning the National Finals: The SMS Module.

2009-05-19T14:50:00.004+01:00

Welcome to the Imagine Cup 2009 series... This is the first of the "backstage gist" of how we won the National finals of the Imagine Cup... The team captain's experiences.

If u were at the national presentation, u'll notice that the "WOW" of Autonomous Health System X (AHSysX, that's our software solution) was the SMS. As simple as it was sending SMS 4rm a phone to a computer system, the stunt that made it possible was not easy to pull up.

Ok System X was ready for quite some time. I had implemented the SMS message parser (the nonsense that would tell what a received message means), Francis had implemented the task scheduler... John's SMS module was working.... outside system X. The issue now was installing the SMS module on System X.

System X was written in C#, theoretically, it was supposed to be able to run any DLL written in any CLR compatible language (including Visual Basic.NET) as long as the basic implementation rules are followed (of course those rules are top secret... team X stuffs). John was more comfortable with VB.NET so he wrote the SMS module in the language.

After a lot of gra-gra, the SMS module finally worked on Monday. Men, I was so happy. Ok oh, John bring this stuff let me install it on System X and confirm that it runs on the platform... my guy is in his final year so he has many stuffs to do too.

Wednesday night come... My guy finally carry d stuff come o. I was putting some finishing touches to the ASP.NET pages (first time working on ASP.NET, had to do it cos... long tin reason, anoda story 4 anoda day) till like 1:30 am. Ok I install the scheduler, 'course it worked fine (was implemented in C#), then came the SMS module... While we were @ it, we were already singing Cairo songs... John was already yarbing Francis, telling him what to say and what not to say in Cairo... Cairo was clearly ahead of us (we did our homework so we could only look forward to wining, actually getting an opportunity to win the real thing, in Cairo).

I did the whole System X configuration on the SMS module, John and Francis were watching actively. Ok I start the System X Windows service... lo and behold... "System.NullReference exception"... (na error be dat o!). No, just give me 10 minutes, it's just some minor reference problems, I go fix am. Na so me and the tin sidon there o... 3 nak, 4 nak.... I look around me (that was at 3:00 am), John don crash, at 3:30 am Francis say "wake mi in 30 minutes"... I'm on my own... I remember when Jesus was praying in the garden and Peter, James and John sleep forget their oga... I remember the words of Dr Fasina, "The success or failure of this project is ur success or failure". Nna men, I gats fix this stuff anyhow, anyhow.

That night, within the space of 3 hours, I went to ease myself three times... I knew that that wasn't a time to give-up hopes and kill the SMS plans... it was suppose to be the "WONDERFUL!!!" of the application. I had to take a decision fast. At 3:00 am, "John, Oya wake up, ur SMS module is going to be re-implemented in C#. Come and explain the VB codes let me write the C#". But as I looked at the VB, I got more confused, I couldn't think straight. Then Francis poped into my mind... He's a C# guy too... and I know his abilities, his greatest strength is his ability to context switch really fast. He can move from writing database triggers to writing C# codes within seconds... me ke... give me 30 miutes... or more!!! At 5:30 am "Francis wake up, come and covert this VB to C#, oya o be quick, we have less than 4 hours to get it ready". I knew I had to be awake to monitor what was happening (sleep no even show sef).

"What if we don't win here", "Mehn we have to go to Cairo", "Bill Gates and Paul Allen stayed up all night to create the software they sold to the Altair guy, (BASIC maybe)"... A lot of thoughts crossed my mind that morning... I was almost beginning to lose hope. At 6:30 (probably),while he was battling with the code conversion, I asked Francis if he thought we would win. His response: "Guy you are the team captain, this is not time for us to lose hope don't worry this thing will work. I think you need some sleep". At 7:00 am, two hour to the event, Francis virtually forced me to sleep. I set my phone alarm to 7:30, and laid down and closed my eyes. Three minutes later, I opened them again, I couldn't sleep.

I was losing energy, I needed a drink, I got "Burn". Energy revved up. At 8:00 Moses called to tell us that the place was set-up and ready, John had to go home and prepare. At 9:00, I had to get ready. We went late. I was sapped of energy, I took a bottle of Sprite, thanks to Moses. All I needed to do the was think, thank God I did that.

I figured the SMS receiver wasn't working yet and we needed to buy time. We were the third on the list. We had to use the internet to send SMS, and our application was distributed (the service was on my system, the database was on Francis' system, SMS, well it had been moved to Francis' system) so I had to ask that our presentation be moved so we could set-up our distributed network, we were granted the request.

While the third team was presenting, Francis whispered to me that the SMS module was working. My heart leaped. We'll show this SMS stuff finally. Thank GOD. I said the Hail Mary silently. While the presentation was going on, He and John were translating the codes, while I was studying the points raised by the teams presenting. I realized that the SMS was going to give us the award, well along with the presentation... that was what the other healthcare solutions presented by every other team didn't have. That was our Joker.

When I finally got up to present Team X's solution and I sent an SMS from the mobile phone to the system and the audience roared with a great ovation, I sighed. Thanks to Francis, he saved the day, and John too. I did nothing but send SMS.

So when you pick-up ur phone and dial a number and u hear the person at the other end or u do any thing like click a button and some "WOW" stuff happens, know that at least one programmer stayed awake for at least one night to make this possible and salute the person's efforts.

Watch out for: Imagine Cup 2009 - Winning the National Finals: Team X.

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Now playing: Winans Phase 2 - IT'S ALRIGHT (SEND ME)
via FoxyTunes

2009-05-18T12:09:00.002+01:00

Yuppie!!!

We won!!!

Cairo here we come...

After putting in lot of efforts, we won the Imagine Cup national finals. We brushed teams from Covenant University and OAU to win.

Who says we are not THE BEST???

Debola missed two classes to watch us, I'm sure she has someone to yerb in her blog... Her presence kinda killed my nerves, Thanks a lot.

Full posts of all the events that led to the victory coming soon...

... yes I write poems too (I don't only write Java and C#)

2009-04-21T23:34:00.003+01:00

What If?

What if the sky is not really blue?
What if the person on the mirror is not really you?
Every five years they say...
A known fact becomes hearsay.
If what seems like treasure today…
Turns out to be a shadow overlay
Will you crawl around and wail and weep
Or lay in arms of dearly grip
Do folks who tend you and are there
Know you love them and you care
What if they breathe and live each day
With dimmer gen of your love for them.

©Celestine Ezeokoye, 2009.

On my mind lately...

2009-04-04T14:49:00.005+01:00

Just finished watching Taken for the second time... Niam Leeson was great. Above that, it was shot in Paris and it reminds me of our Paris experience last year! Hmmm I remember the black guy on suit and sunshades strolling around the airport when we just arrived... Jide called him a lost Nigerian (abi Jide...), I disagreed cos he was darker than an average dark Nigerian. He was kinda scary but the aura of being in Paris didn't make me realize until I saw this film.

Ok they smoke a lot over there!!! See cigarettes, burnt (abi she na smoked...) ones. Ahn Ahn!!! I remember I saw a Tom-Tom wrapper with the pile of cigarettes. That new Tom-Tom flavor then... the one with blue wrapper. Jide argued it wasn't Tom-Tom, but my eyes were not deceiving me now!!! He latter agreed. Of course one Naija guy (or gal) av been there and the person brought Tom-Tom along, The person smoked too, Hmmm...

Where Kim lodged, I think it's at Bir-Hakeem, not sure sha but it looks very much like Bir-Hakeem. Where he met with Jean-Claude, I'm very sure it's La Defense. The Arc Du Triumphe was clearly visible.

Ok I saw The Eye too... Jessica Alba. Hot stuff.

Started work (IT that is) on Thursday. Everyone who hears that I'm working at the department thinks I was lured into doing it... plus no pay!!! Damilola asked me on Thursday "are you sure this is what you want?" My answer: "Of course, I chose it... I had choices but I chose this for a reason". Thanks babe for your concern, and Rayo too... Thanks.

The Dining Philosophers problem

2009-03-28T15:28:00.003+01:00

Earlier today I lost a chess game, my second loss since I've been playing the game... Ok I'm not a grandmaster; actually this is my fourth game ever. Lost the first, won the next two and lost this... 4 games in all. I've always dodged the game, but when Jide (roommate) requested that we play this morning, I gladly granted the request - well at least I won't be writing Java codes.

When I went to bed last night, I had lost count of the number of laptop computers that stared at me throughout the whole day and all I wanted to do was just sleep. The whole of yesterday was spent making some silly philosophers dine following a given threading pattern (bla, bla, bla....). We are supposed to be on holiday oh, but the whole cells in my body are so agitated like school is still in session. The dining philosophers problem is a classical problem in concurrency and we were supposed to simulate it using Java programming language.

Ok oh at the CSC302 lab exams, my program was the only one that ran (out of over 90 people), so that was supposed to make me the bad guy of the class, ok at least confirm me as the class’ bad guy. Now that comes with a prize, I was supposed to look at everybody’s program, have loads of phone calls when an assignment is given… yada, yada, yada.

Dr Fash gave us a take away assignment, dining philosophers, and believe me, no be beans o. I woke up 3am Friday morning to fix mine, after helping some people out with theirs on Thursday. It took me till 12 noon to make my philosophers dine and dine differently from every other one I’ve seen. From then, I just needed someone to save me from the legion of computer science students ready to lynch me. Every code I saw was similar in some way to another person’s code. Everybody got their codes from the internet and by looking at one person’s codes, I could tell about two other people with the same codes. I couldn’t attend mass and stations of the cross, and when Debola called me by 7pm I was very thankful that I would leave the hostel for the first time yesterday. Then I had four people in my room waiting for me to attend to their problems.

Debola, I know you’ll read this; you really saved me last night… I’m very grateful. I knew I was finding it difficult to connect when I was discussing with her, I was thinking philosophers throughout the whole day, but all I needed then was someone to pull me out of the mob and she did just that. Her second to the last advice was “go and get a good sleep” and I not only did that, I decided not to look at any codes today. I slept for 12hours and when I woke up this morning at about 9:30, I took the day off by watching Avater-The last air bender, book 2 and playing chess. Despite my decision, I still fixed three people’s codes before 12noon today. Someone once described me as an oracle; I guess they are turning me to that.

Her last advice was “update your blog”… well I’ve just done that.

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Now playing: James Morrison feat Nelly Furtado - Broken Strings
via FoxyTunes

--->Taking Control<---

2009-02-28T13:52:00.004+01:00

Lately, I made a number of calls to personalities I never imagined I'll have their numbers on my phone. Ok I called MTN Brand Manager, called some Lagos state government officials... all thanks to the role I currently hold at our preparations for 2009 Imagine Cup. Having spent a larger part of this week writing codes for my CSC 306 assignment, creating a lexical analyser, I've not had the time to write a proposal for sponsorship which we were supposed to send to MTN.

Now Lexical Analyser was gone, I sat down to write the proposal. From having very little knowledge of what writing a proposal entails, with Coldplay blasting across my ears, I picked up the pdf I downloaded on proposal writing and the off I went with this wonderful executive summary - Ok the guys at MTN would decide if it's wonderful or not. But sincerely, I never imagined I'll write such an appealing piece, building points from paragraph to paragraph.

Looking back three years ago, before I got into Unilag, I never imagined myself exploding this much in such short period of three years. Last year I went on an eye-opening trip to Paris representing Nigeria in a software challenge. This year I'm at the helm of affairs, handling a team of programmers that would take part in this year's challenge (thanks to helps from Jide), writing proposals, liaising with people in high places... what more. I find myself being in more control of myself. I find myself saying NO to thing I'll ordinarily have said YES to. I find myself taking-up responsibilities and mapping out strategies to get things done. I find myself GROWING UP.

Basically I've learnt the secrets; I’m getting more efficient… Even if all things are not working as planned, I never hold it up against myself; instead I focus on the parts that are currently working and give the “sour grape” excuse for not going after other parts. I’ve learnt to work more for the intangible than for the tangible, for the long run than for what’s coming now-now. I believe that I’ll be in strong control of the future and I’ll be stirring things in the directions I want them to go. I’ve always believed I’ll be there but I never knew the secrets for a long time. Hey prepare for me, you’ll be hearing of me soon!

Exams start next week. I’ve set my goals; hope things work out as planned. I wish myself all the best. Baba God dey my side so me no dey shake one bit.

I better go and start preparing for our Imagine Cup Team meeting. Enough of all these ehm... psyche builder...lol.

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Now playing: Coldplay - Lovers In Japan-Reign Of Love
via FoxyTunes

Familiarity.

2009-02-12T17:09:00.013+01:00

I keep a very countable number of people really close. Not like I can't extend my friends base but I really want to maintain the count of people I really care about. "Every other person is just an acquaintance", I told one friend. But this close friend stuff might not be that good afterall.

Due to some misunderstanding I had with my closest friend last Friday (I have a female closest friend!), I've restructured my principle on relationship with people. I discovered that familiarity could bring you more insults than good.


"
Never expect anything from anyone.
If u get anything, fine! If u don't - well u never expected.
Trust people well enough for them to be useful, not more.
Always be positive with people and appreciate them.
Never get too familiar or u'll be less appreciated.
You are the only one who really knows u, so invest in u.
"

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

Neck cracking projects:

CSC302: Implement a CPU Register using Java - I'm bustin this one. I av to read flip flops to create a register (registers contain flip flops). Now the assignment is more like "Implement flip flops then use the code to implement a register". 2 in 1. Plus there are diffrent kinds of flip flops and then there are different kinds of registers. I don't av time... really cos no mark is attached.

CSC305: Implement a Parser for any C-type language - HOD's course, compiler construction. 20 marks. Haven't started yet cos of the following two.

Imagine Cup 2009: Complete analysis of System X's architecture - Quite fun but really tasking. Last night I stayed awake all night on this but didn't type a single character on the .docx file. It invites me to a different domain of operation which I couldn't attain last night. Instead I drafted a schedule for the project. I just delegated part of the job to John. I trust he'll be able to handle it (well, hope so).

TestEngine: Samuel's test engine software - Called Samuel to come over and see aw far it has gone when he told me I had to include sessions in the tests. Some restructuring was required - well that's more pay!

I'm working on my effectiveness... My life depends on it!

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Now playing: Enya - If I Could Be Where You Are
via FoxyTunes

Year of Miracles

2009-01-30T01:04:00.010+01:00

I can't believe that this is my first post for this year... well that's the way it is. Yesterday I was giving an excuse for not yet dropping a post. "I can't believe I've not blogged this year... all these shackles of school works sha..." Then Sado cut in "hnnmmm you think I don't know why?... Your 100 hours awoof don finish". Lol. No be lie sha and na pesin waifai I connect take post this one (like I'm poorer than a church rat).
Thanks to Samuel (my secondary school twin broda wey don be madass programmer) I'm currently creating my first software for money this year (the guy just corner one job come my side).

Ok, now the issue of the post. Who have been to Oshodi lately? That place have changed like magic. You can like to remix Dare's song - "You not the Oshodi I used to know, You are a shadow of yourself. I think I lost you in 2008, like a ...(ati be be lo). That's like the biggest miracle of 2009. Nna meeennnn!!!
Just like the object oriented programming paradigm, Oshodi now have organised features. Let's take a look at some of them

FEATURE 1: FROM THE BRIDGE, YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE CONCRETE ON THE ROAD. Remember the last time you boarded a bus from Jibowu to Oshodi (say Dec 23 2008, after CSC307 class) the bus stops midway at the bridge and the conductor screams "gbo gbo ero!!!". You bole and as you walk down the bridge, you catch a glimpse of people and danfo and molue competing for space. Then you search for the black tar on the road. If you are too short sighted to look further to Bolade junction, you'll think that Oshodi was actually tarred with people, danfos and molues that move randomly like molecules in a chemical reaction. Go and look down the bridge now and you'll think another intelligent scientist dropped a better postulate that Oshodi decided to go with... Ok don't take a bus from Jibowu this time cos they'll stop you at the Other end of the bridge (LASTMA is looking for scapegoats on the bridge and no driver want to fall victim).

FEATURE 2: YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE FOOT OF THE BRIDGE FROM BOLADE JUNCTION - UNBELIEVABLE!!! It's like all the magic of Oshodi took place between bolade junction and Oshodi bridge. Abi now. Seriously, walking along Agege motor road Oshodi now is like walking along La Defense road in Paris cos you can actually see the bridge as clearly as you would see the Arc Du Triumphe. Reminds me of our Imagine cup trip to Paris. That fateful day when we crashed out of the challenge, when Seun crept to the room to sleep (maybe cos he could'nt handle our ouster), when Jide, N'Dee and I strolled around Paris and returned to the hotel at 1 am (Jide was actually dozing off - with mouth wide open - at the shop when N'Dee was making her selection of cloths!!!). Ok on that fateful day I saw the future of Oshodi (even though I didn't recognize it). The Arc du Triumphe was clear from down the road at La Defence just as the Oshodi bridge is clear from far away. See it now.

Now that is the future of Oshodi.

The features are plenty O... You can't cross the road again without looking left and right (and left again) unless you don't want to see Super Eagles win the world cup next year... You have to queue to use the pedestrian bridge (be careful sha cos the bridge is shaking O)... They are now planting flowers around... etc. You can name your own observations. Oshodi is now some tourist centre of some sort. Go and see for your self.

SEMI POST:
Suzanne Wenger, the oyibo Osun worshiper died this month at 97 years. As you have read in the papers, she was an artist that came to visit Nigeria when she got fascinated by the culture of the Osun people and deceided to become an Osun worshiper. She later rose to the post of high priestess.
I first read of her when I was in JSS1 in one fine art text book and I loved her story ever since. Little wonder I recognized her face (amid all the wrinkles) at the newspaper immediately I saw it.

Preparations for Imagine cup 2009 is underway. I'm leading the team of programmers. Dr Fash has dropped another really crazy idea and is leading the technical committee (I call it the executive council) and Jide is the team co-ordinator. We are doing the system analysis and coding is going to start very soon. The team motto is "Win in Cairo" and that's where our eyes are. It's going to be fun and I hope to maintain another blog dedicated to our 2009 Imagine Cup challenge(with Dr Fash's approval). Wish me luck.

Looks like I'm done here.

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Now playing: Coldplay - Cemeteries of London
via FoxyTunes

"...do you even know how to kill me?"

2008-12-28T02:09:00.002+01:00

"I'll cut your head off, see if that works"

That was Wolverine's reply to Sabertooth's question. The last conversation in the trailer to the latest X-Men movie scheduled for release on May 1. The movie rekindles the rivalry between Wolverine and Sabertooth and brings legendary X-Men characters like Gambit, into the scene. Cos of this movie, I downloaded two Wolverine wallpapers with Hugh Jackman in perfect pose.
Watch the trailer:

I'm a big X-Men fan and I'm looking forward to movie.

Wait for the next one. I enjoyed the novel so I'm certainly going to look out for the movie. Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra are going to save the Vatican from the cold revenge of the Illuminati on the night of the conclave. It's Dan Brown's novel, Angels and Demons on the big screen. Tom Hanks would be a character to watch out for. A sequel to the Da Vinci Code (even though I ddnt watch that), I'll certainly look out for it. Scheduled for release on May 15.
I got two trailers for the movie:

&

Click the link below for the biggest movies for this year. The box office shakers from Yahoo! movies.
http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/1319/top-10-box-office-movies-of-2008/fp#photo0

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Now playing: Shayne Ward - Melt The Snow
via FoxyTunes

.::~||~Feelin It~||~::.

2008-12-27T09:41:00.002+01:00

I'm feeling dis Fela guy, GOSH!!! We need a new Fela badly to keep our gofament people on their toes.

If u'll volunteer raise ur hands up.

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Now playing: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti - Army Arrangement (Remix)
via FoxyTunes

It's Christmas

2008-12-25T02:10:00.002+01:00

It's Christmas eve and I'm blogging, facebooking and listening to Gorillaz. Was coding until I inserted my express card now I'm online and...

Wud av had lectures yesterday but Dr Fash accepted our appeal to call off the class. He also gave us next week off. But not Prof Sofoluwe. Oga DVC didn't want to call off his Monday class o! He says "It's not compulsory to attend lectures now." The boss use one assignment hold us. "You should submit on Monday" oga said "But it's not compulsory o! You can even submit after the exams shebi it is me that will deceide if I'll mark it or not"

We missed the family's Christmas tradition of goat meat peppersoup last Christmas, well I think we did sha. I've spent the last couple of days at aunty Nkiru's place at Anthony village cos popcy can't be spending 500 box everyday for transport to UNILAG(not to talk of the one I spend from my pocket). Mumcy came here yesterday for some business stuffs and I forgot to remind her that this year we mustn't miss the peppersoup.

It's a full house already. Francis and Anthony are back from school. Chima has always been at home (though he can't wait to resume at UNIBEN next year). I'm the only one missing. Once it's dawn, I'm outta this place.

I've developed a habit of neatness lately. I bath at least twice a day,...bla bla bla. Today was different sha. It's like harmattan started today so I was reluctant to bathing this morning. When PHCN struck in the afternoon and I finally decided take my bath cos the laptop battery had ran out, they brought the light back so I chilled. To cut the long story short, I didn't bath today, lol. Lazy me.

Merry Christmas to any one who reads this post before Christmas is over. If u read it after, save the greeting for next year Ok!

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Now playing: Gorillaz - Rock the House
via FoxyTunes

"...a tiger's waiting to be tamed..."

2008-12-21T19:50:00.015+01:00

"When you tame a beast, you control power..." goes one advert by Stallion Automobiles on Cool FM. But the title line is from Coldplay's award winning album track - Clocks. I was singing along with this track when the line struck me.

First about the song. Clocks was written by Chris Martin and was the last track to be recorded in the album "A rush of blood to the head". It gained wide acceptance and won the Record of the year at the 2004 Grammy Awards.

Now the line "A tiger's waiting to be tamed" flooded my head with the great talents that exist around me. In this context, the "tamed" now represent the ability of these folks to harness their skills and explode with them.

First Anthony. My immediate younger brother. The most creative person I've ever met. Currently studying for a degree in Architecture at UNN, he's a bundle of skills when it comes to drawing, sketching, shading, painting,... etc. Was going through his sketches for last session "my favorite hundred sketches", I couldn't help but marvel at his abilities. All Chima could say was "I wonder where Anthony normally get all these idea from". I used to draw better than him but when I decided to drop the skill and focus on my studies (succumbing to pressures from parents), he continued. Now he's a phenomenon. See for yourself:

Wait did I say he and Chima were joint runners-up at the Commonwealth Youth Program art competition for 2006 (or 2007). They have the kpali for it at home.

When Kennedy told me he wasn't going to return to Lagos last holiday I was not very surprised. I had taken that decision too but the unavailability of accommodation chased me home. Ok, now I received this call from one "09" number. I knew immediately that it was from Abuja (I had a friend there who used to call me). "Hello Celestine..." the person on the other end said. "Hello who's this", "It's Kennedy... I'm in Abuja to interview Soludo." Levels!!! Kennedy is the Communications Officer of the Students' Union at UNN Enugu Campus and had gone to interview the Central Bank Governor for their SU mag. Kennedy and I hold similar ideas on most issues of life little wonder he called me on the night of Barack Obama's victory and we chatted for over 30 mins on the phone (not free night call o!). Great communicator and very politically inclined. When I told him I wouldn't do politics he was quick to point out that politics is everywhere. "If you plan to start-up and grow a multinational software company, you must do politics" and I don't agree less.
I remember vividly the circumstance that brought us together. I was going to "chyke" a girl that was his friend. He refused to permit me cos the girl was a girlfriend of another friend of his. Well the discussion swayed from the girl to us. We discovered that we grow up at the same neighbourhood and faced similar challenges and we bonded from then. His versatile nature is going to hold the world spell-bound when he explodes.

Now Rayo. I saved her name as Debola on my phone. Well I don't know why I think this chic is a phenomenon. But each time I decide to visit the blogsphere, her blog (all4words.blogspot.com) is my entry point. I think her writing skills are extraordinary. Jide (my Imagine Cup teammate) doesn't disagree. We read her post "My father's house" and Jide was really impressed. I'm a jambite in writings but Jide has read every novel you can name. I started with Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and I really enjoy the book. I'm not an expert but I think she'll explode if she exploit the skill. She's studying Law in Unilag and she wan be lecturer (nna mmeeennn, hot!).

I know a lot of other people who'll explode if they succeed in taming the tiger in them but for now watch out for these three. Better get to know then before it's too late.

Meeennn I cracked a number of relationships last week cos I was terribly broke. Was supposed to go for the burial ceremony of Lolade's dad but I couldn't make it to Aguda Surulere on Wednesday and Thursday. I was away from home and my maga was supposed to pay me for a software I debugged for him but he was posting me so I couldn't do much. Ebele called me on Tuesday and I was to see her on Friday, but I couldn't make it, even though she called me on Thursday to remind me. I was supposed to go to Tinu's place on Saturday and teach her how to use NetBeans IDE 6.5 but I fkd up. I'll spend a lot of money this week to mend these relationships... hmmm.
I dnt know the kind of pain I'm feeling at the right hand side of my lower jaw o! It can't be a dental problem cos I brush my teeth everyday (yes now). I think I'm teething. But the last time I counted my teeth (over a year ago) I think they were 32. The pain's actually getting to my upper jaw, close to my ear. It better go on time cos I don't have time for it.lol.

-->AMEBO<--
I visited GRAMMY.com for the nominees for the 51st Grammy Awards. Lil Wayne topped with 8 nominations. My Coldplay was next with 7 nominations from their album released June this year "Viva la vida". Go check out the nominees and make your predictions.

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Now playing: Coldplay - Clocks
via FoxyTunes

Never losing a fight...

2008-12-19T23:56:00.003+01:00

It's such an unfair world! Why can't we just want something and get it just as we wanted? Why does life have to permit that we be denied the pleasure of enjoying what we would most certainly give all for? Well, those were obviously the questions of the Baudelaire orphans when the were going through the miseries of count Olaf.

I remember when I first encountered the movie "Lemoney Snicket - A Series of Unfortunate Events". It was at Sodehinde hall common room. As usual now, guys were screaming "Porter!" when the happy little elf scene started the movie. A little while later, power was interrupted and everyone was chanting curses to "NEPA". Power was restored and seized at intervals so we never had the pleasure of seeing the end of the movie. Today was different as I had dinner and returned to the movie without "NEPA" noticing it.

The story - Three siblings lost their parent and had to be adopted by a relative. He tries to kill them to get their parent's fortunes. The law discovers and takes them from him but he follows them under all guise and eliminates anything in his way.

The lesson waited for the end of the movie before it manifested itself: "Every unfortunate event is an entry into a pleasant journey ahead..."

With a number of past experiences I've come to discover that this is true. One don't always get what one desires but one have the power to choose. Choose to stare helplessly at the spilled milk or chose to grab the opportunity that opened up after a door closes.

Our choice determines if we actually lost a fight or we discover another path with every seeming defeat.

To me, defeats don't exist. But as Robert Langdon's (in Dan Brown's book, Angels and Demons) father told him "If it wasn’t painfully difficult, you did it wrong."
Good things they say, don't come easy.

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Now playing: Avril Lavigne - Sk8er Boi
via FoxyTunes

A rush of blood to the head

2008-11-15T17:14:00.002+01:00

I pressed the 'Enter' button on iTunes with my favorite Coldplay track "A rush of blood to the head" from their 2002 album, "A rush of blood to the head" selected. I checked the 'play count' column, this would be the 95th time I'm playing this track and I'm certainly not planning to stop.

Buried within the melody – the wonderful blend of instrumentals and Chris Martin's smooth voice – is a message on one of the greatest forces that all human possess. A very abstract lyrics though, you need to be a genius (like me) to figure out the message. On first glance at the title of the track, ("A rush of blood to the head") first reaction's – these rock artistes have come again with their weird tracks – but if you've ever felt like yanking someone's head off their neck, or worse, because of what they did to you, then you should listen to this track.
The other person does something really bad to you, due to your anger (or vengance, same ni) you plan all sort of terrible things against the person. You won't be alone, you certainly won't. There'll be people around to psyche you on (to whine you). You gain momentum, anger pumps up. But there'll be someone else telling you it's useless to continue. You'll refuse to listen. You'll go on and get even with the person. It could be so terrible that your prey would just sit and cry, or worse still, their loved ones would do it. Your supporters would laugh, you might. When you realize how terrible what you did was, there's always a way to pass the blame. Some would blame their temper, a few others their anger, and most others the devil. Generally, they'll pass the blame to the rush of blood to the head, that little (or huge moment) of anger.

A few days ago I was pondering on the lyrics of this track trying to pick out the words and connect it to real life. I finally concluded that these guys should be talking of anger, I may be wrong though. Chima (my comedian younger brother) suceeded in stealing my MTN sim and running home (as in village) with it. He followed popsy who went home to do some maintainance at his house. He returned yesterday and my sim was browsing on his Sony Ericsson phone. Finally the internet have come to me!!! First I synched my version of the lyrics with that of lyricsmob.com, then I solved the puzzle.

I tell people (including you) that only elites would enjoy the kinda songs I listen to. I'm sure you can attest to that.

––>amEbO<––
Eminem named Vibe Magazine's best rapper. Would be releasing his new album next month. Hinder, the rock band that hit the industry with their hit track "Lips of an angel" from their 2006 album "Extreme Behaviour" is out with a new album titled – I don't know yet, maybe I'll search the internet for it now. Ok it's "Take it to the limit" hmm, Ok. Coldplay's Viva la vida occupies number 36 on the Rick Dees top 40 from 33 last week. You should listen to that track, I know it's going down but it's blazing!!! Still on Coldplay, I visited MAMA (MTV Africa Music Awards) site to vote Coldplay for the best Alternative category. I hope they come to Abuja for the awards. Walahi, I'll raise money and go and see them. Alapomeji jo!!! 9ice won the MOBO awards for best African Artiste. Don't doubt him he'll bring home grammy.
I'm packing PHP into my head, using Java EE to do websites require lots of ceremonies to make it perfect. With PHP I should escape all those design patterns, software archetecture, etc and create sharp sharp websites. I'll reserve Java EE for bigger, more tasking projects. I'm searching for someone who'll gimmie a collection of R&B tracks of the 90s sometimes I just want to listen to them but my collection is limited.

2nd...Second...Cekond.....Ya Second!!!

2008-10-14T23:55:00.007+01:00

Nna meeen, no be so dem dey blog o!!! I intended to update this blog every month (as per one kin busy homosapien), but I just abandoned it. But a lot of gr8 tins don shele since d last (and first) post. One chic I met, inpired me to visit my blog again, she's such a passionate blogger, posting sumtin four times per week. Check out her blog www.all4words.blogspot.com.

Christ I've really gone Rocky!!! I really enjoy Coldplay, Green Day, 3 Doors Down... And all those Pop... Maroon 5. Alternatives too... Plain White T's, Snow Patrol... etc. I decided to play Lemar while coding today (haven't listened to his music in a while) and I discovered how I've missed soul music. Christ!!! My all time best music – If there's any justice – just kept me repeating it over and over again, like I should design an algorithm that would loop the music forever. You should listen to the music attentively from start to finish, the beats men... Try it and you'll agree with me that it's a classic.

Well, second semester year two is over. I'm now in year three, no be beans o!!! Like play like play now we go graduate. Last semester was wonderful, in fact, last session was the bomb. A lot of wonderful things happened in my life. This is the summary of it all:

Ran from pillar to post, light-hunting to create the almighty “CarBurn” software that brushed off contestants from over six tertiary institutions in Nigeria to win the Nigerian challenge of Microsoft Imagine Cup, 2008 – Software design category.
Represented Nigeria in Paris at the International finals of the global challenge - Microsoft Imagine Cup, 2008 – Software design category. Had fun in Paris, visited The Louve and saw the Monalisa, went on a boat cruise at the seine river, went for the hottest party you can think of (Imagine cup 2008 farewell party), had a face-to-face chat with prof Tolu Odugbemi, the honourable vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos. Unfortunately I didn't climb the Eiffel Tower.
Had our Imagine Cup praises sung at The Punch and This Day newspapers.
Went for a 10 minutes interview at “Today at STV” (which I didn't take part in).
Bought a classy Samsung R510 Intel Core 2 Duo laptop which I call Alphie.

I'm very grateful to those who made things happen for me last session. From Microsoft – Victoria N'dee Uwadoka, Ify, Paula, and all staff of Microsoft Nigeria. From The University of Lagos – Dr Ebun Fashina (the greatest mind and the most insightful thinker I've ever met), Jide Olatunbode, Seun Adepeju (my CarBurn partners-in-crime) and every member of my class (you guys are really off-da-shizzle). My great room-mates – Akin, Jide and Yemi. And my very own pals Tinu, David and Seye. Last but not the least, my folks and my great siblings. Really appreciate y'all.

Looking forward to a more wonderful session when school resumes again. Meanwhile, I lost a lot of weight last session, lemmie try to gain back my weight.

By the way you can check-out our team blog at http://teamcarburn.blogspot.com/ and don't forget to post a comment here.

[Now Playing]...someone shud tell u how much I luv u, cos I really do. Wish I cud hold u the way that I wan to cos no one can luv u like I do....[Lemar – someone should tell you].

Here I am

2008-08-13T01:31:00.000+01:00

Finally, I created a blog for myself.

I'm Celestine Ezeokoye. I've been called a couple of other names (most of which are derived from my name) and I personally decided to stop fighting people who call me cele, babayaro, etc. Well my official nick names are celestocalculus (or calculus for short) and cele (some people prefer to call it twice, as in cele-cele, which I think is quite sexy).

A lot of people would call me a programming freak cos I love to talk about computers and do lots of programming. Well before I met computers (and well before I became a bookworm in my senior secondary school) I used to do a lot of drawing. Thanks to Akin (Rm E013, Sodehinde hall), I'm bringing back that part of my life. I also started writing poems. I've written two. I'll soon start learning how to play the guitar.

One thing those people close to me (and observers too!!!) would notice is that I love (and I mean love) music. Yesterday afternoon Dave (my closest pal) asked me this very familiar question "dem use music do u?" cos we were discussing and I just stated singing along with one of 9ice's song. I'll usually say I love rock songs most but I discovered that I enjoy any wonderful music, even those as mild as Corinne Bailey Rae's. My favorite artiste is Lemar (certainly not a rock artiste).

The timeless stuff came from my phone. Was Thinking of a new banner for my phone and I came up with -=timeless=-. Not so bad she bi? You'll be seeing something different some other time.

Apart from my great siblings I've got wonderful buddies. Dave (my closest pal) and Tinu (Mumma Gee) av always got my back. Wow Amaka, hmmm, I call her my lil girl, I think about her often (ya I mean it) and I think she's breaking deep into the friend zone. I really need her to keep doing well in school.

I was in Paris last month and it was a great experience. I'll leave that for another post. Meanwhile, always remember that you are the only person of your kind and the world's waiting for you to explode.

Please don't forget to drop a comment.