Entry 46 - Passed the SCJP

I passed my SCJP certification today, yahoo!!!  Finally I can relax and not worry about not passing it.  I was actually not that confident that I could pass it eventhough I've been a Java developer for about 6 years now.  I was having a hard time memorizing all the intricacies of the language, as I mostly use an IDE that handles all these things for me.  The exam was for 3 hours but I finished it in about 1 and a-half hours.  I was thinking of reviewing the test items since I had a lot of time left but I decided not to.  I was thinking that if I did a rundown of the items, there were some items that I was not so sure and I may end up changing some of them when in fact they were already correct.  Well, I guess it was the correct move as I passed the exam, got 76% of the test questions right.  Not that high of a score but still far from the 58% passing grade.

Entry 45 - SCJP, Is It Worth It?

I've been reading around the internet on whether taking the SCJP is worth it?  Well for me it doesn't matter as I'm taking it as a company sponsored certification, so I don't have to pay for anything.  The question is, if I didn't have that sponsorship, would I take it, would it be worth it to take it?  From what I've read, people have mixed reactions to this question.  Some say that it isn't worth it, it's just a way for the vendor to earn money.  Other say that it's just a tool for landing a job.  Personally, I think it really is just a way of forcing yourself to learn the inner workings of Java.  To force yourself to learn the concepts behind Java.  For an experienced professional like me, I've been using Java for more than 6 years now, and from my reviews, there are still concepts that I thought I understood, but I really didn't.  Getting the certification is not really a gauge on whether you're a good developer or not.  It's just a way to see if you understand the concepts behind Java.  Additionally, I think the ideal person to take this is not really those that are new to Java but those who are experienced developers working on various Java projects already.

Entry 44 - Reviewing for the SCJP

In the company I'm currently working at, they are sponsoring certifications.  One of the certification they are offering is the Oracle Certified Java Programmer (1.6).  Since it's sponsored by the company, I decided to register for it, and I was lucky enough to be able to get one of the vouchers.  The voucher will be used as payment for the certification exam.  The voucher is only until the end of April, then it expires.  I decided not wait until the end of April so I registered for the exam on April 13.  I've been reviewing little by little for a couple of weeks now and I want to pick-up the pace of my reviews so I decided on the earlier exam date.  Hopefully I'll be able to successfully pass the certification exam, it'll be a lot of waste if I didn't.

Entry 43 - Table Tennis

Played some table tennis with an office mate a while ago.  I used to play table tennis a lot during my high school days.  I played almost everyday while waiting for my Mom to fetch me from school.  Last time I played was college for a PE class.  The satisfaction of playing was so-so, and I felt that it was just a moderate excercise.  I used to enjoy playing a lot, but this time, it just felt so-so, maybe I just need a sport that feels more tiring like basketball, badminton or tennis.

Entry 42 - Commute Tomorrow

I heard that there will be a transport strike tomorrow.  For my commute tomorrow, I'm expecting the worst, but I'm hoping for the best.

Entry 41 - Consistency is the Key

I've been able to excercise consistently for two weeks now.  Hopefully I'll be able to do this consistently, my initial goal is for a month.  In this way, I'll be able setup a routine that may help me in solving my inconsistency problem.

Entry 40 - Consistency

Well, my consistency is still a problem.  Some days I'm super motivated, some days I'm super lazy.  I believe that's my real problem now, consistency.  Consistency to finish what I started.  Consistency to keep on doing something that I set out to do, not just for a couple of moments.  I will try harder knowing that this is my problem.

Entry 39 - Value Averaging

I've been into stock trading for 2 years now and I haven't lost money but I haven't earned what I wanted.  Aside from that, there's always the stress of getting affected on the daily price movement of the stocks I have.  I don't want this stress, and I'm planning to experiment and use a different strategy.  Instead of timing the market, I will be trying out Value Averaging.  This is a new concept to me, but I've read that it should be somewhat similar to Cost Averaging.  I'm already doing Cost Averaging now, but I also want to try out Value Averaging.  I'll keep on doing Cost Averaging but I'll also try out Value Averaging.

Entry 38 - Why the Philippines Does Not Progress

My house is not that near to a main road so I have to ride a tricycle to get to where the buses are.  The tricycle needs to have 4 people before it travels to its destination.  This morning, I was the first one on the tricycle so I had to wait a couple of minutes before the tricycle was full.  While waiting, there was this person who was not really very familiar with the place and was asking some directions from the tricycle driver.  The tricycle driver looked as if he didn't even want to talk to the person.  He looked like he was annoyed and was answering as if the person asking for directions was really bothering him.  Since it was obvious that the tricycle driver didn't want to help, the person asking for directions decided to just ask another person.  When this person was no longer near the tricycle, the tricycle driver started mumbling about how the person was stupid.

This is why the Philippines hasn't progressed, its because of people like this.  People who are selfish, only thinking about themselves.  Even more, people who have "crab mentality", purposely dragging other people down so they can raise above them.  I don't know what the tricycle driver's problem was, but that wasn't really right and what he did was really annoying.  I know it's bad to wish ill of someone, but maybe he needs to encounter a similar situation, where he'll be the one asking for help, and he'll be ignored.  Maybe he was having a bad morning, but still, there's no excuse.  Maybe he was just raised that way, to be selfish, only thinking of himself.  This is the main problem of the Philippines, Filipinos who only think of themselves instead of sharing with each other.  Look at Japan, look how disciplined they are despite the tragedy that has befallen there country.  I can just imagine if that happened here in the Philippines, the chaos would be unimaginable.

Entry 37 - Back From Cebu

I'm back from my 5 day vacation and I must say, it was a very relaxing one.  We had planned an itenerary, but we were only able to follow it on our first day.  Our original plan was to go around Cebu City for our first two days, then go to Mactan Island and Bantayan Island for the rest of the trip.  That was the plan, but what happened was on our first day, we went around Cebu City, got to visit Sto. Nino Church and Magellan's Cross.  We also went to the Crown Regency Hotel, where the Edge Coaster and Skywalk was.  After that day, we suddenly decided we wanted to stay at Shangri-La Mactan resort on Mactan Island.  Initially, we planned on staying for only two nights.  We would stay one night, go to Bohol for one night, then stay another night at Shangri-La Mactan.  But we weren't really into getting to a lot of places, what we really wanted was just to relax and take it easy.  So in the end, we decided to book the rest of our stay on Shangri-La Mactan.  Three days, quite expensive but I feel it was worth it.  The rooms looked great, all the facilities you'd expect was there.  Swimming pools, health clubs, beach, even a Timezone arcade.  Breakfast buffet every morning.  I was always looking forward to the morning where I would be able to eat a hearty breakfast, and lots of fresh fruit too.  We only went out of the resort a couple of times, one to eat dinner at Sutukil (this was very disappointing experience) as well as visit the Lapu-Lapu shrine.  We also ate dinner at Hola Espana, they served great tasting pasta and pizza.  On our last day, we visited a market in Cebu (forgot the name) which sold lots and lots of dried squid and an assortment of dried fishes.  We also didn't enjoy that experience as the taxi ride was really long and the place smelled, the type that sticks to your clothes and hair.  But I guess you really can't have it all, as we were really having a great and relaxing time at the resort, maybe some stress was needed to balance it out.

That Shangri-La Mactan was really a wonderful place to stay at, just a little expensive, but I feel its worth it.  Felt really relaxed and rejuvenated, felt my skin became a little smoother from this vacation.  But now, it's back to reality, maybe I'll add vacations like this as one of my motivations.  Really work hard, be sucessful and earn money that I can use for these kinds of vacations.

Entry 36 - Packing for Cebu Vacation

I'll be going to Cebu for a vacation from March 10, 2011 to March 14, 2011.  We bought the tickets last year, when there was a promo for it.  It was so cheap that we decided to buy it, eventhough we weren't sure if we were going forward with it.  Looking at it now, it seems the vacation is too long for a Cebu trip.  People I know also say that 3 to 4 days is more than enough for a Cebu vacation.  For our case, it's 5 days.  We'll see if it really is too long.  I won't be able to write here for a couple of days.  I'll just make an entry when I get back from vacation.

Entry 35 - Happy Birthday Sis

It's my sister birthday today and we celebrated by eating out for dinner.  We ate at Mann Hann restaurant.  It's a chinese restaurant in Trinoma.  We ordered Yang Chow Fried Rice, Brocolli with Garlic, Sweet and Sour Pork, Steamed Fish Fillet, Seafood with Vegetable Soup, Siomai and Chicken Feat.  My other sister and my brother in law were also there as well as my very cute nephew.   I felt that I ate too much food and still feel a little bloated right now.

Entry 34 - Bought a Jansport Bag for My Sister

My sister's 14th birthday is tomorrow.  Me, my Mom and another sister decided we should buy her a new bag, since the bag she's using for school is already looking worn out.  I went to Eastwood Mall this afternoon, to the The Traveller Shop and bought a Jansport bag.  It was a little expensive, but since three of us was sharing the gift, we decided to go ahead with it.  Instead of giving the gift tomorrow on her birthday, we gave it to her tonight, so she could already use it tomorrow.  I also found out that she really wanted a Jansport bag, so it really made her happy to receive one for her birthday.  It also made us happy to see that she really likes out birthday gift to her.

Entry 33 - Failing This Project

The plan for this blog was to write an entry everyday.  This project was a means for me to "cure" my procrastination which has been troubling me for quite some time now.  I want to correct this problem because I feel I've lost a lot of chances due to this.

Well, I've somewhat failed on this mission, I haven't been able to consistently write an entry a day.  I'm not giving up on this though, this time around, I'm going to fight this and not just leave it unfinished as is the case for some of my projects.  For a change, I want to finish something I started.

Entry 32 - New Laptop

I bought a new laptop yesterday, it's an Asus N43J.  The Asus N43J wasn't actually part of my list of choices.  I already did a lot of research about which laptop I should buy, and Asus N43J wasn't in that list.  I didn't even know that the Asus N43J existed until yesterday.  My original choices were either the Dell XPS 15 or the HP Envy 14. I chose these two models as they had good performance, and they were not noisy and not prone to overheating.  I already tried looking for these models but these two models are not available anywhere here in the Philippines.  I already looked everywhere and gave a lot of time researching as to where I could possibly buy these here in the Philippines but I just couldn't find it.  Because of this, I had to change my plan.  My plan yesterday was to look around at SM Megamall's Cyberzone, check out what laptops were available in the market.  The specs I was looking for is at least an Intel CORE i5 as well as at least an AMD Radeon 5670 or GeForce GT 325m.  As I was looking around, I mostly saw some low end specs, and I only saw a couple of models that was near the specs I wanted.  I went to a couple of stores, looked around, and at one of the stores, I was given an Asus brochiere.  Asus was actually having a new years promo, the brochiere had a couple of models they were selling with some additional freebies.  I saw the Asus N43J, the specs were within what I wanted, but was a little above my price range.  Freebies included a 500GB USB3 external harddrive as well as a Logitech wireless mouse.  I also kinda liked the look of the laptop, aesthetically it looked good.  I was intrigued so I tried reading about this model through the internet, but I couldn't find much information as this was a farely new model.  I wasn't sure if I was going to buy this model, so I still looked around.  I got to this Lenovo store, and saw the Lenovo Y460.  I actually had read a lot about the Lenovo Y460 already, and one thing I didn't like about it was that it heated up more than other laptops.  The specs were within what I wanted, price range was actually nearer to what I was aiming at.  Freebies were also available, including a wireless mouse and two laptop bags (the bags actually looked good).  So now I had two choices, buy the Asus N43J which I didn't know a lot about or buy the Lenovo Y460 which I had read a lot about but had some negatives to it like the heat issue.  Well, it took me a while but I finally decided to go for the Asus N43J.  What made me decide?  One factor was that it was newer than the Lenovo, it had a Blue-Ray drive, and a USB 3.0 port.  The Lenovo didn't have this.  I was thinking, since I was willing to shell-out a somewhat large amount to buy a laptop, why not buy something that was more future proof.  I also thought that I was already overthinking, taking into consideration too much of the research.  I was thinking that I wanted the perfect notebook, considering performance, noise level and heat issues.  I didn't know any of these things about the Asus N43J but I decided to buy it anyway.  I made a risk, and hopefully it pays off, that the laptop I bought would live up to what I want it to be.

Entry 31 - Wasn't Able to Sleep Well Yesterday

My sister kept coughing yesterday evening.  She coughed and coughed none-stop, I didn't sleep well because of this.  And it looks like she's still coughing tonight again, might be another sleepless night.

Entry 30 - Don't Worry Too Much

I've always been a happy go luck guy, not worrying about things too much.  Lately though, I find myself worrying about things that I don't usually worry about.  I don't know, maybe it's my age, maybe I'm realizing that I'm no longer young and I'm worrying about my future.  I think I'm doing much worrying about my future.  Maybe I'm planning too much and want my future to be perfect making me worry more that what I'm currently doing may not lead to that future.  I need to change this mindset as this worrying puts unnecessary stress on me.

Entry 29 - Thinking About Buying a New Laptop

I've been experimenting with Android development, and my current laptop is having a hard time handling the load. The processor is an Intel Celeron and memory is 2gigs. It seems this is not enough, especially when I launch the emulator. My laptop's performance really takes a hit. I have a plan with regards to my laptor upgrade, but I may have to move this earlier.

Entry 28 - Using N82 for this Entry

I almost forgot to write an entry today. I'm already lying in my bed and my laptop's already shut down. I was thinking of just writing an entry tomorrow morning, but that would defeat the purpose of my project 365 blog. So now I'm writing this using Opera Mobile for Nokia N82. It's a little difficult, with the small screen and small keypad. I'll only probably do this again if there is no other choice.

Entry 27 - The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good

"The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good."  I heard this quote from a TWiT episode 286.  The quote is from Voltaire, and I got really interested with it, relating it with my venture into creating my first Android application.  My progress has been slow in developing my first Android application, and hearing that quote made me realize some reasons as to why this is.  The first thing that came into my mind is that I'm trying to hard to start off perfectly with my Android development, when I really should have been concentrating on just being able to produce some results.  I'm taking too much effort into finding the right way when I could just try to produce what I want to produce.  I could always just go back next time once I learn that some of my codes could have been coded better.  At least this way, I have faster output, not necessarily the best, but it's better than having no output at all.  I have big plans for this venture, and I've already wasted a lot of time.  When I find myself wasting time again on too much perfectionism, I will remember this quote and hopefully it will put me on the right track once again.