🏆 Winning Makers Festival "Work From Home Edition" 2020, 🦠 The Covid19 & 🌙 Month Of Ramadan

In this month during the pandemic period of Covid19, i’m excited to finally joined Makers Festival 2020 by Product Hunt for first time ever! This time around it was different situation, working from home. I’ve been doing things like work from home to another home when i always travel around Asia as a digital nomad for many years. This time around i’m back at my hometown Yishun, Singapore and there is new regulations to follow due to Covid19. So most of the time i’m at home in my room infront of my desk or either out for a quick grocery shopping.

Other than that i just wanna say: 
“i’m not busy! i’m just focused. I can no longer say yes to everything. Just too much for me” — random thoughts.

💜 My Reflection On The Pandemic Situation

I question myself, i use to be on the front line but that was way back then. I use to work as a security officer & serve National Service in the Singapore Civil Defence Force 10 years ago. Then i switch my interest seriously in Tech & Design industry & Community. But what can i do now? With the skills i have to contribute to the community?

The best answer was: “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” but when i’m at home on my desk, what can i do ? Staring at the screen all day reading tweets, news, countless messages notifications from the makers community, family and friends on whatsapp and telegram.

Can i do something beneficial or add some value? I told myself, i’m an indie-maker. I can build something with the skills that i have acquired all these years. So in the first week of Singapore’s Circuit Breaker period, i spent most of my time reflecting after reading so many local news like almost every hour. Never in my life i’ve read so much news and information from community to tons of news reports. After reading the news and looking at the social media i realize there is not much i could do but just to stay at home and keep myself update with verified and reliable sources of information provided by our local government website updates at https://www.gov.sg/.

I read alot of Channel News Asia news & also reading Ministry of health news. Apart from that, so many makers in the community started their coronavirus tracker project and i see many software engineers start to build the site. In just one week, i saw hundreds of Covid19 projects from all over the world online.

🥈Won Runners Up! — 🚀 Makers Gonna Make!

I won “Runners Up” in Makers Festival “Work From Home Edition” 2020 by Product Hunt! So here is how i got inspired and started. Read Product Hunt Winners newsletter here: https://www.producthunt.com/newsletter/4615 Thank you to Product Hunt Team, Community, indie-maker community who supported my initiative DIY project. Thanks for the support! — Also Thank you to Aaron for reaching out to me.

From ProductHunt.com: Makers Festival “Work From Home Edition” 2020

• Over 500 makers participated, submitting more than 90 products!!
• More than 1700 upvotes helped determine the winner!!

Congrats to all the makers who spent time and energy developing products for a noble cause. 🏆 — Product Hunt Daily Digest, 28th April 2020

📸 Submitted this video for Makers Festival 2020

After reading tons of news, it got me so occupied. So at that point of time i saw Product Hunt launch the Makers Festival WFH Edition on twitter, i was really excited to join! I question myself, what should i build? I ponder again and i told myself is not what i should build but what can i do from home. I want to do something quickly without thinking so much and just ship it. So i started to do one thing at a time. I always wanted to update myself easily with all the news. So I told myself let’s do something both, tech + diy project perhaps? So i started to build Fajar Siddiq micro-project. So here are the 3 things i did!

🦠 A Total 3 Projects I Made during the Pandemic

😷 1st Project: Fajar Siddiq Covid19 Tracker (digital)
I went to CNA Covid19 news — https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/topics/coronavirus-covid-19 i got myself the data and turn it into https://fajarsiddiq.com/covid19 now i can go to my personal site to see the same information updated as the CNA. I also applaud Singapore for putting a great Infodemic battle during this Pandemic.

How to fight the COVID-19 infodemic: lessons from 3 Asian countries https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/how-to-fight-the-covid-19-infodemic-lessons-from-3-asian-countries/

“With a cleaner, minimal look and also with darkmode look. Looks good on mobile view. I made a simple static site host it on github + netlify.” — https://www.fajarsiddiq.com/covid19

🛡️2nd Project: Fajar Siddiq DIY PPE (Non-Digital) for personal use. 
This project was really awesome, i was inspired by the coronavirus front lines wearing mask and also the PPE face shield. So i ask myself. I have surgical mask and also hand sanitiser, i needed my own face shield. So i told myself, let’s build it rather than buying online. There is plenty of DIY face shield projects by youtubers as well! Most of them use transparent film, double sided tape, thick black sponge and the mask/rubber strap/string as a headband. Then i did some research on google i saw many big companies around the world doing their own PPE for their front lines. So i start to build my own, it was made out of laptop cover! A piece of hard solid acrylic. It was a 2 days project for me back at home during the circuit breaker. I did the project and made a video on how i do it.

What is circuit breaker? https://go.gov.sg/circuitbreaker 
Heightened safe-distancing measures to reduce movement in Singapore’s Covid19

🇸🇬 3rd Project: Fajar Siddiq Pandemic Covid19 Redirect Links (Digital)
Redirect all the links on gov/agencies and official resources to keep me updated easily. Here is some of the link i redirected using netlify. I got alot of friends from other countries and families asking how’s the condition in Singapore, where to get support and etc. So i just forward them these list of links provided by gov that have been directed under my personal domain name as a verified source. Also my goal is to help people around me who are close to me like my neighbours back in the neighbourhood and my family members.

• Google Covid19: http://fajarsiddiq.com/googlecovid19
• Updates: http://fajarsiddiq.com/updates
• Chart: https://fajarsiddiq.com/covid19chart
• Situation: https://fajarsiddiq.com/situation
• Data: https://fajarsiddiq.com/covid19
• CB: https://fajarsiddiq.com/cb
• Summary: https://fajarsiddiq.com/summary
• MOH: https://fajarsiddiq.com/moh
• Resources: https://fajarsiddiq.com/resources
• Dorm: https://fajarsiddiq.com/dorm
• Support: https://fajarsiddiq.com/supportcovid
• Essentials: http://fajarsiddiq.com/essentials

👏 Billion thanks to the coronavirus front lines

During this challenging times so many people are facing not only the health issues but Economic Crisis, Covid19 regulations from most countries around the world like lockdowns, circuit breaker, restriction and movement control orders, contact tracing, budget funding support for the needy’s and those who are affected since the Mid-January onwards till now. The coronavirus front lines from all around the world work very hard to fight the Covid19. I gave around of an applause for their courage, bravery and Billion-Trillion thanks with so much love to all of them around the world from gov, agencies, volunteers, nurses, doctors, cleaners, food delivery, groceries store owners, chef & kitchen staff, security enforcement, telcos, ambassadors, enforcement officers and other essential workers who put their heart & lives for the people in our country during this Pandemic Period. Turn around time is so quick and alot of things are uncertain with the new regulations. Alot of tests is been done and new clusters can happen if we don’t stay at home. Best is to stay at home and stay healthy! 👏💜

I got back home in March 2020 from Hyderabad, India after my trip https://fajarsiddiq.com/travel and i was planning to go Malaysia for my next digital nomad trip, on the day itself it was the closure of borders control. My trip was cancelled. Most of my trip is related to work from anywhere remotely with a laptop & wifi. The culture and future of remote working is now here as i can see it more clearly and many digital nomads are still out there in some country. I pray for their safety and health ❤ I manage to celebrate my birthday with my maker community friends at https://ramadanmakers.com before the lockdown and restriction movement orders in India. During this trip i met makers in real life for first time!

I wonder how it will be like after Covid19 ends, i hope i can travel again and doing work remotely. I kept thinking about it over and over again. Here are some of the tweets i came across.

🏆 Previous Year 2019 Makers Festival Winners

In the previous year 2019 Makers Festival i didn’t join because i was helping other makers in the community to give feedback, support other makers and some of them won. I’m always happy to see other people winning and earning. I like to be surrounded with people who always encourage each other, always speak kindly with love, full of positivity, realistic, relevant, creative, dynamic, progressive and also those who are always helpful. Shout out to previous winners in the makers community! ❤

🌙 Diversity & Compassion in Ramadan 2020

Ramadan is special to me, is like a school for me. In 30 days i told myself i must achieve alot of things and do things that pleases the Almighty. I’m blessed to celebrate this month of Ramadan with my family members. What do i need to do in month of Ramadan? Well, is a spiritual month. I do fasting, praying, recitation of the holy book Quran, giving money and help the poor and needy. Most of time is caught up. I have to wake up every morning at around 4:45am and begin cooking, eating then i will fast the whole day not eating or drinking until around 7pm when the sunsets. There’s plenty of good deeds we can do in month of Ramadan.

For years i’ve been trying, is not a one night thing. I remember those days i started reading from just a few letters. Reading is not enough because you have to put hours of practice. This month of Ramadan is the best time ever throughout my whole entire life. Every year it keeps getting better and better. I’m blessed. This book changed my life.

🌙 Best Ramadan ever in my life, you can get the best out of it if you keep on developing your focus. Persistent pays.

🤗 I can finally put this book back to the shelve. I made a promise to myself. Every hour, every minute is really crucial. I kept myself busy offline. It was 30 days on streak. The Quran is 604 pages in length in its most standard Arabic copy. It contains 77,430 words within 114 chapters. The goal of many Muslims is to read the entire Quran book in a thirty-day time period.

As busy as it gets and as prioritise as it gets with so much todo tasks, I’m glad to help and see some successful projects from other makers as well.
Shout out to these guys who keep on shipping and made it!

Not to forget this, i launch a diversity project in this month of ramadan and pandemic times of covid19. Working on this project sharing to others what is Ramadan is all about. I wanted to launch https://RamadanMakers.com V2 but i don’t think so i have enough time and due to Covid19 alot of things have change for me. Alot of my close buddies/clients contacted me, i had to say no to some of the projects. I have a very tight schedule, i need to take care of my health and finance as well. I’m so sorry. I will follow up and reply from time to time on the DM’s on telegram, twitter and email.

Also i recently was featured at Product Angle by Pradip from New York.
Read full article here: “We chat with a designer — Fajar Siddiq.”
https://theproductangle.com/chat-with-a-designer-fajar-siddiq/

Recently i’ve been using https://lineicons.com website to make simple bootstrap websites templates. It was very useful and it helps me with the design itself too. Recommended! They also launched on Product Hunt recently! ;) I’m so happy for them

Also there logging my task almost everyday at Makerlog
https://getmakerlog.com/@fajarsiddiq great maker community and also there is plenty of new updates like the new design, blog, discussions and loving the new trophy case! ;) If you want to be a maker, you can sign up! Completely FREE and there’s pro account too.

I’ve been making tons of videos to grow my youtube channel.
Do watch my videos and help me grow! Subscribe, comment and like~
I recently bought the new iphone se 2020, i made tons of review videos too.
Thanks to https://moft.us for sending me the invisible laptop stand and also klokki app as well! Check out the video playlist below.

Also do check out my other launch videos i did for some makers!
Thank you guys for all the support. I hope to give a better service.

💜 Makers & Hackers, Thank you.

I will like to thanks to all the MAKERS COMMUNITY
To https://buymeacoffee.com/ who makes a good platform to get the coffees easily. My Broken lens in now replaced with a new one!!! I’m so happy and grateful. It was month of March, then is hard to go to the camera shop. I was busy help other makers, traveling, fixing my health, my shipping, my launching, my clients. Finally in early month of May, i order it online and got a brand new camera lens now. Thank you to the makers who supported it. I will continue my project now, make good videos and keep going. I hope i can make beautiful videos and let everyone enjoy to watch it. My upcoming project is https://makersflix.com

🤙 Upcoming Surgery, Online Meet-up & More Fun Stuffs and Influencer updates

In another update about myself, i will be going surgery for first time. My surgery date is postponed 3 times due to Covid19 regulations. I will be fixing my Inguinal Hernia Repair. The cost is cheaper now at the hospital, i can’t afford to pay the private hospital for this. Finally i found a way, i could get the doctor to help me and also get a recommendation letter from the polyclinic to hospital. Thank you. I’m nervous about my upcoming surgery.

My podcast episode, my mic stand broke and my usb adapter had issue. I will be back producing more 🥭 Mango Minutes podcast.

📖 Read My Full Interview by @makermag On Becoming Influencer: https://fajarsiddiq.com/makermag

“Since then, I’ve been shipping products and helping other makers in the community with product design feedback and reviews, testing their apps or websites. I have been very active on Twitter and Makerlog as well, where I met other indie makers from various community.”

“One day, I received an email from Product Hunt. The email subject was titled Do you want to be our first influencer?”

“Influencer is not really a job, but it is something the indie maker community needs. The community is small and many people need help, resources and information to build their next profitable business or make side projects for fun. Being an influencer means promoting the fun, healthy culture and the good vibes in the community.” — Fajar Siddiq