2015 New Year's Resolutions

1. SPEAK UP!
2. Make a github pull request.
3. Lastly, follow the girl (give me more time).

#GreatLent2014

So today is the end of the Great and Holy fast of 2014, or otherwise known as Easter. Had all types of emotion run through me today during and after church, wondering what to eat today rather than focus on the mental aspects of it. Seriously, I felt like dancing to all the hymns today at church (I was that excited). You don't know how I look forward to this day every year, besides Christmas of course. It's true what the infamous Tenny Thomas achen was saying about Easter being the "festival of festivals" and how we put on our BEST clothes, and yes I LITERALLY spent the day before, shopping for new clothing items and accessories. It's practically my second Christmas.

But all in all, this lent has taught me a lot. I feel like every year it's the same for me in terms of having similar problems faced during lent. If you know me, some people describe me as the Incredible Hulk. I can struggle with anger, a lot. Especially with having temp jobs to looking for a full-time one, or even just applying to grad school programs in computer science. I am often angry because I want people to be satisfied with their needs first ahead than my own. When I went to my first confession back in 2011 at Baltimore Leadership Camp, Leeson achen made me realize that I strive for perfection a lot (as a typical Indian-malayalee would). I mean I know there's a whole bunch out there since the Internet is a HUGE place to go to for tutorials and such on anger management. But in my mind, being the Internet the way it is with advertising, I think that there's no way to really control it. I guess since then, or at least since college started, I have been often quiet a lot mainly because I will always try to hold it in from saying something lame. Then again, this lent has made me make confident decisions in wanting something urgently (of course not love yet).

Happy Easter to all, and to all a good night.

Who am I really?

So, I forgot to post this yesterday but here goes.

I actually didn't have a bad weekend at all. A couple of cousins from Philly came on Saturday to spend lunch with us, while they were still here in New York. After that, was getting ready to head out to a future leadership camp committee interest meeting at 'cherry lane' church. On the way there, I was pretty darn excited, I got the radio pumped to a high enough volume, got a parking spot (not that it matters) and met some old and new friends. But then again, I get excited because I definitely want to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime experience assisting with the technology aspect of things for the year to come. We've had the pleasure of having a former NYLC convener and a former committee member speak about their experience(s). After hearing, I didn't know if I wanted to sign-up or not. A while later, it was time to nominate people for convener(s) and lead(s) for the respective sub-committees. I mean I hear all sorts of names of those who were/are active and those who weren't. Out of nowhere, I hear a young gentleman say 'Chris', pointing at me apparently (I initially thought there was someone named Chris behind me, knowingly there wasn't). And another young gentleman seconded that. I could've sworn I had no intention on becoming convener nor lead, I just wanted to be a part of this just for the technology support. After hearing my name, I was thinking of what Moses said to God of who am I to lead these people? Like really? ME?! I wanted to decline at first because most people who were nominated did as well, but then again, I was talking to the person right next to me (who happens to go to my parish) and she said "let's see how it goes." So, I didn't resist raising my hand wanting to decline. After that, there were three remaining candidates, and each were given a short message on why they are good for the job of being convener (just to be clear: the result is not official until the diocesan metropolitan bishop says so). I felt like Sunil Kurian (friend's brother) as he was nominated for Diocesan Council, which is another story too long to tell. As my turn came up, I said I involved myself in many activities within the national and area levels (i.e. website, leadership camps, missions trip, etc.). I mean I forgot some things out, but as they were tallying the results and said the other two won, I kind of felt a little overwhelmed because I thought I'd let those two people down for mentioning my name. While on the way back home, I was thinking over and over throughout the weekend, I was thinking what am I good for then? I mean do people care so much about a camp website, the logistics, and other important types of information?. I guess what I'm trying to say is that sure I felt a little sad, but then again satisfied at the same time for making some sort of influence unto others. I guess that's what truly matters in life, the little and ordinary things.

As Thirumeni (bishop) and the diocesan team looks over all of the applications, please pray for them as they make a suitable decision in making a fantastic team to be a part of this truly life-changing experience.

UPDATE: Well, by the Grace of God, I've made the New York Leadership Camp committee. Sadly, I'm not convener nor lead, but I have the greatest title of all: WEBMASTER. Visit us on the web at nylc2015.com.

#Feed50!

Today was an interesting day spent in the city. First, I woke up to the sound of my alarm at 6AM to snooze it and go back to sleep, until I hear the sound of my mom's voice waking me up at around 6:40AM (The Big Bang Theory's Howard Wolowitz's mom's voice). I then get ready and start heading out to pick up a girl from my church, (wait for it...she's younger) to then go on our way to another parish member's house for us to get a lift from him all the way to St. Mary's Jackson Heights church. On our way there, we made a pit stop at a local dunkin donuts and got breakfast, and then headed out to the church. When we arrive, we start chit-chatting with other fellow parish reps. Next, we went inside the sanctuary for morning prayers and a parish rep meeting about different matters and such (Oh by the way, did you know New York will be hosting another leadership camp in 2015?!...shhh, don't tell anyone yet!). We start heading into the basement of the church to start preparing lunch bags for "people who are homeless" as a #Feed500 support (I added #Feed50 as the title because we only prepared fifty) with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a snack and a water in them.

We all finally start heading out to walk to the subway train station (7 train) all the way down to Times Square. When we arrive, I finally looked up and saw the 2014 lighted sign up on top (as seen on tv on new years day), and of course we bump into Mario along the way (he/she sounded just like him). Next, we all separated into designated groups and walk a lot farther to 46th street. My group, however, came across some interesting homeless people. Some of my group mates said I got a tad bit more excited than I usually am about spotting homeless people on the streets. Until we came across a guy named Dirk (later he said Derrick, identity theft crisis perhaps?) and started bashing up on politics and how this world is so messed up (of course he used words I will not use publicly on the web), but it got me wondering that he's like anyone else, being frustrated at the miseries of government, economy and such. Later he said he got accused at a local library for being a bad guy for something I wasn't too sure of. But he's certainly right, government is screwing us over. He said he was from the Russian Orthodox faith and an immigrant too. I was a bit surprised at the fact that he also quoted St. John Chrysostom. After we talked, I spent for a coffee to give to him because he wanted one so bad (he said he'll pay me back, one day). But then again, it suddenly hit me, as Bobby Varghese (area councilman) pointed out, these people are just like us, their behaviors, actions and deeds. The only thing is that they look funny. I remember talking to him within the group and a couple walked by and smirked (S.M.H. = Shakin' My Head.) After that, we got food off of the biryani cart, for the first time, that Bobby always craves for, which wasn't so bad. Finally, we headed back to the church and we were on our way home. Here are some pictures from today, by the way:

Blog Redesign

Apparently, I have been delving more into front-end development and user experience design. Based on my previous contracting jobs, I have been playing around with the Internet more and more, especially with browser developer tools (i.e. Chrome and Firefox), and git. I was having trouble where to host my personal space on the web whether it be on Blogger, Github, Harp, etc. And I was trying a lot of different methods in which to make me a better developer. 

Like recently, I have been playing around with the Twitter Bootstrap 3 framework integration with Blogger based off of a bookmarked link I saved in my del.icio.us account. I've searched and searched all throughout Google (for many days) for this solution. Over the past few months, I've realized that blogging is getting more common now more than ever whether it be through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Medium, you get the deal, in which people can freely post content. Another alternative I turned to was messing around with the @HarpPlatform and making boilerplate templates. Even last year, I installed nodejs and wrote my first "Hello World" program. What I definitely like the most is that majority of sites (or all) turn out to be static in the end until the user(s) uses the web application. It's like what the @HarpPlatform says on their features page, "Static is the new dynamic". Furthermore, this whole site is using blogger code with twitter bootstrap framework embedded, plus used the same color scheme as the Harp platform's features page.

I have been meaning to get back into my blogging grind. Feel free to also follow me on twitter.

2014 New Year's Resolutions

1. Code.
2. Blog.
3. Read.
4. Listen.
5. Golf.
6. Exercise.
7. Cook.
8. New instagram project (i.e. #Project52)
9. Follow the girl on twitter.

UPDATE:
1. Code (check yearincommits for 'theuiguru').
2. Blog.
3. Read.
4. Listen.
5. Golf (got 2 hole-in-ones in mini-golf during CUZINZ getaway).
6. Exercise (Lost ~10 lbs).
7. Cook (Cooked for Thanksgiving/Potlucks).
8. New instagram project (i.e. #Project52) (Didn't post on instagram compared to my flickr).
9. Follow the girl on twitter (still working on this one).

This LITERALLY made my weekend!

Apparently, my cousin sent a picture of his son, Evan, resembling me from when I was born.