The Special Something of a Team!

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a bunch of friends and a team? Friends are people who just wanna hang out, chill, relax, have fun and spend some quality time together. Time spent with a bunch of friends is something that is supposed to give you sweat memories. A team on the other hand, is a bunch of friends who are working towards a common goal. A team is usually on a mission; a dream. They are expected to do something together; they are expected to perform.

Making friends is easy; forming a team, is not. A former teammate of mine said a couple of days ago that, the problem with our (gaming) team was that we were having fun but we didn't realize it. Today, I have a different take on that. I got extremely upset today because a certain partner of mine didn't do his work properly. The thing that bothered me the most was that, when I explained it to him, his attitude was like "Yea, yea, I'll do it!". He didn't exactly say that but what comes out of a person's mouth is only 10% of what he says. Your voice, facial expressions, body language etc. communicate the message more than your words.

When I get upset, I usually turn to movies for some relaxation. I saw this movie about a team who struggle against difficult odds to come out on top. I suddenly realized something Its not how good you are or how much fun you are having together that determines the bondage of the team. Its the ability of every member of the team to impress and inspire the rest of the team. The kids in the movies and my team, had one thing in common. We were both formed when we got impressed by the skills of every individual. That is how most teams come together and that is exactly what keeps us together, I think.

The day you fail to impress your team, is the day you start losing that special something which your team had. You can impress your team with your dedication, with your special talent or with just your ability to do some work. When I do a lot of work and when I don't see a reciprocation from my teammate, the team starts to fall apart. I really feel that, this is the secret to keeping a team together. A team needn't be a five-member team, it can be just two. A team isn't formed just for games, it can be for work or passion. Do your part to woo your team, or sit on your ass and turn into a friend.

Changes in the Design of my Site!

I spent the past week working on the design of my website because, it really was dreadful to look at considering that I had just added two major features (login & shoutbox) without working on the design. I didn't get much time to work on the design but then again, if had got enough time, I'm not sure whether I would've utilized it to the full.. :P I've to turn my attention towards coding now because there are some key features still missing in the site, like comments and user uploads. The coming week will be spent on that.

Now, let me explain a little about the designing process I had to go through. The site is in php, which means that the HTML codes (which your browser understands) will be created dynamically by the server from a bunch of programming codes. This means that I can't work on the design of the website because all the content is stored in the database and I can't see anything on the screen until I get the output from the server. The output from the server won't come into the design application, it will open only in a browser. Thus, it was hard to make minor changes and check the sizes etc.

This is where the famous Developer Tools of Google's Chrome browser really came in handy. They say that there was a lot of commotion about this tool when the browser was introduced. Now I see the reason behind such interest in their browser. The Developer Tool was able to clearly reveal every aspect of my final output from the server and I was even able to edit the CSS values from the browser itself. I also came to know how it supports HTML 5 features which even Firefox doesn't support. I wish Chrome had been released sooner. I'm almost addicted to Firefox now and so, can't move away from it.. :(

Anyway, I would like to thank my friends especially Kaushik, Sanjit and taconite who gave some useful feedback on the change in the design of the site. And thank you Chrome for making my life easier.. :D You guys are also welcomed to give some feedback.. :) The website to check out is www.esportsindia.com