Thoughts | Life | Photography – Page 29 – Blogging about life around me and in me

Learning

October 18, 2012 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life • Tags: coda 2, dreamweaver, learning, photoshop, tutorial, website, wordpress •

Learning is a very wondeful thing. I have been at the school of learning in the past few weeks, most of the learning has been through books of course, but then, where else are we told to go other than to our books. I know it is easier to learn from Youtube and other video sources but then I digress.
I have learnt something about how some companies are run, how to design websites with Dreamweaver, and how to mock-up a website with Photoshop, while at it, I learnt about using the photoshop mock-up to create a website in Dreamweaver and it was one of those Aha! moments, it just blew me away. After that I delved into the world of WordPress. Yes I know I am already using WordPress on my site. But after the few things I just learnt, I asked myself would it be so bad to try and develop and WordPress theme and donate to the WordPress repository as a means of giving back to the system. And that is how the journey began, the journey to become a wordpress theme developer.
I have already developed a theme with assistance from a tutorial I read in a mag and I could see my name as theme developer and all that but I need to do something from the scratch which will require learning some PHP, CSS and improving my HTML as well as Photoshop manipulation but then it is good so far though I have found Coda 2 an intersting piece of software but still learning to use it.
Now in this quest, the first question is this, How do you convert a Dreamweaver site to a WordPress theme? I have seen some stuff out there and I hope to post tutorials when I learn anything in this quest but I will appreciate any help.
Thanks

End of the Road

September 12, 2012 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life • Tags: Data, issues, life, MTN Nigeria •

How times change and very quickly indeed.
I started using cellphones the moment the original gsm licenses were issued in Nigeria 2001 and I have been using them till now.
In my 11 years of using the various networks, most of my cash has gone to one network in particular and that network is MTNng
I have sworn over their reliable service in my area among friends and colleagues. I use their postpaid, their prepaid and even their data cards and sims for my network.
To say I’m invested in MTN is an understatement my data networking revolves around them.
I got the blackberry for myself a few years after I got it for my wife and we have been using it since then every where we went. So much that I got a quarterly blackberry subscription to use with my device.
A few months ago, I noticed that the quality of the service, data-wise had dropped from the regular 3G to EDGE. I waited about a week, hoping that it would change and go back to its normal state, after seeing no change, I made a call to the customer service and the lady though nice, seemed to be more interested in making sure I got the new security code thing that The company is peddling. I told her my problem and she gave the routine customer service tale of maybe there were a lot of users that I should try after sometime. Of course by this time, I did not have data to work with on my network so I moved to another network incurring some additional cost in terms of their hardware.
Then 3 weeks back, everything went down to GSM from EDGE which means zero data for my wife, myself and anyone using MTN around the area.
I sent a message to @mtn180 on twitter trying to get assistance or someone that would start the process of getting the system in the area checked. No luck no one answered my message.
All this got me thinking, is it that the networks don’t go around to check the state of their equipment? I know there is the routine check of power generator and fueling but I wonder greatly about checking that the equipment is giving the quality service it should give. And assuming they don’t, when a customer is showing some concern about the quality of service, should it not be taken seriously?
The subscription on my BB is now only useful when I link the device to a wi-fi network or move out far enough from my area before I can use a service I have paid for.
Knowing that my BBQ with expire by the end of this month and not sure that the issues will be resolved, I officially tender my quit notice to MTN with respect to data service. It has been nice doing business with you but I guess this has to end as you can’t keep your side of the agreement but my cash will now go to someone else.
@jaidox

Once in four years –Again

August 12, 2012 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life • Tags: life, olympics, sports •

Earlier on this year, I wrote about the small issue of leap years and how often they happen and the many things that people can do when these years come around.

Another once in four years event has just been concluded today that is the Olympics.
This leap year’s version was held at London and it has been a very interesting 3 weeks of watching athletes perform wonders and excel at the various sports they are participating in.

These athletes showed such determination, passion and devotion to excel during their events. As a result, a number of olympic and world records were broken. In the 100 meters men, women marathon and 800 meters men just to mention a few.

While we all associate with the winners, a thought is spared for the losers as you cannot have winners without losers. Some of the losers we dejected while others rejoiced in the privilege participating.

A lot of countries it seems sent out their teams to make up the numbers while others wanted to win and make a point an example of this is the host country Great Britain which finished with the country’s highest medals count on the table.

Some traditional high level performing teams disappointed but some new teams and champions were revealed.

These last 3 weeks have been memorable and exciting with people from all over the world cheering on their teams and other teams participating in events of interest.

One thing I am glad for is that there was no injury which would not heal and there was no accident or incident relating to any athlete while performing. This has allowed us all to enjoy a wonderful and memorable olympics.

This version is over if you are not counting the paralympics. The next version is in Rio in Brazil and that is the next year for next leap year…I can only wonder how the world will be by that time.

Photographs – A piece of life at a time

July 28, 2012 by Jide Ajayi • Photography • Tags: photography •

I love photographs. I love being behind the lens and capturing a bit of other people’s activity while they are not ready for the shot. I believe it brings out the beauty in them as they are just being normal without the changes and the poses that we create when we are trying to take a picture – yes before you say it I will, I get a lot of blurry shots but I also get some good ones as well.

Now taking pictures is a wonderful thing and most of us love to be in pictures but some are more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it and now that we all have phones and games and all manner of devices that can take pictures, it is very easy to change roles and enjoy the pleasure of capturing a piece of one’s experience and that of other people.

Prior to the availability of cheap digital cameras, I used the film camera and I remember that after taking enough shots to fill a roll, I hurry to the developer and I drop off the film to pick it up a few days later.

Well, when the shot are eventually processed and printed and I pick them up, I am surprised at how the shot I remembered being so bright and sunny and perfect come out so dull. I persisted with my picture-taking and saw some improvements but then most of the time; it did not come very close to the shot I took. Then I had the opportunity to send my pictures out for development elsewhere and behold, the shots were way too cool for me to have been the one that took them. The sun was the way it should be, the brightness was just like daylight. There was no dullness and then I learnt something new about photography, it does not end with the shot, there is a craft in the development process. If it is done well, the picture is close to what the film captured. If it is not, then you may not like what comes out from the studio.

Now, this is something I was able to articulate better after digital cameras became quite common and I began to read magazines, blogs and books on taking pictures, improving them and printing them. I began to understand the process and I from then appreciated the opportunity software like Photoshop gave to people, the power to bring out your picture the way you envisioned it and shot it is now in your hands.

In future posts, I will look at some of the guys that inspire me and teach me more and more about the process as well as on some of the things I have learnt.