Year: 2008

Tenure. Or what’s close to it.

I abandoned myself to certain realities when I was a lot younger. That first, in order to keep to a certain lifestyle, a job in education would definitely be noble, but not practical. I was young and restless. Second, I believed in the philosophy that you can’t teach what you don’t know and being a fresh grad with barely any experience in worldly things would pale me in comparison to Richard Dreyfuss (who bares a startling resemblance to Rico’s dad) in Mr. Holland’s Opus or Robin “O Captain! My Captain!” Williams in Dead Poet’s Society.

So after college, I had in my arsenal a whole bunch of theories on andragogy (adult learning), child psychology, “best practices” and teaching philosphy. I was envious of friends who worked for the big agencies like Ogilvy, the McCann group, BBDO, etc. It was then I began to doubt having taken the wrong course. Deep inside though, I thought I was doing the right thing. Maybe not entirely. But I guess being hard headed (dalawa ang puyo ko) I wanted to convince myself that I was right.

Steve Jobs, in his “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” 2005 commencement speech addressed how past decisions will only, but always, make perfect sense much later on, …you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future..

So I trusted. I gave up Integrated Marketing Communications for a Development Education course. I gave up working in PR or advertising so I could do some work in Batangas with farmers and in Negros Occidental Oriental for a family farm school, not to teach, but to develop curricula. (Hyuk) I guess the joke’s on me as I’ve wounded back working with agencies for PR and advertising.

And my units in Education? Well, this letter only proves one thing.

My acceptance into the Institute

That Steve Jobs was right. 🙂

Categories
Mostly Everything

Race the World Challenge: We are Team Philippines!

In my previous post I talked about how Manila isn’t an official physical race city. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t part of the competition. Apart from the 10k race, the Race the World Challenge serves as a warm up for the big event on the 31st.

An interesting social experiment!

As of today, the Philippines ranks 14th (we were 13th as of 8.17.08) in the global race for most kilometers uploaded using a Nike+ Sports Band.

The running chart results is actually very interesting on several levels (aside from the trash talking on the side as you can see in the 3rd screen cap). First off, we’re the highest ranking Asian developing country in the race. In terms of Asian countries, we are second to Japan but we are also way ahead of South Korea and Taiwan. In terms of distance uploaded we are head to head with Denmark, Sweden and Argentina. Not bad. Not bad at all. What this means is that we have a remarkable participation of running enthusiasts who can afford to shell out a luxurious $100.00 (rough price) just to run. Do you have other conclusions you want to share?

Note: This could also mean that we have Filipinos who are clocking in from different countries but setting Philippines as the host country team.

If you own a Nike+ Kit and haven’t logged your miles to this competition, please do so! You can do this by clicking here and choosing Philippines as your team on the lower right. The countries are not listed alphabetically, but by rank. As the saying goes, sayang ang miles!.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Nike+ 10K Human Race Updates: Running with Coach Rio!

Hey folks! So we have two weeks to go till the Nike Human Race. A few folks were asking if Manila, Philippines is part of the 25 cities that will be holding an official race. Manila is not an official city for a physical race, but the Philippines is still part of the Race the World Challenge and very much part of the 10k virtual race. I’m running with PhilMUG.

The friendly folks from Nike have partnered with Coach Rio, who will be, in turn, organizing a physical run on 8.31.08 at the Fort, Bonifacio High Street.

8.31.08 Race Details with Coach Rio

DATE: AUGUST 31, 2008
TIME: ASSEMBLY 5:30 A.M. START 6:00 A.M.
VENUE: McKINLEY HILL, BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY
DISTANCE: 10KM

MAXIMUM PARTICIPANTS: 1,000 RUNNERS
RACE KIT CLAIMING AREA: NIKE PARK BONIFACIO HIGH STREET

SPECIAL PRIZES: Finishers will receive Nike Drifit socks and a 4×6 photo

Prizes include P15,000 worth of Nike GC’s for the first place (male and female).

More details at Coach Rio’s blog.

Important details

Participants of the race must have a Nike+ Sports Kit (iPod) or Nike+ Sports Band to join. I am still giving away ten 20% discount coupons for the kits. I have already given away 5 Nike+ Sports Bands to a few bloggers who wish to clock in on this date. If you want to avail of the 20% discount coupon, leave a comment here. Details on how to participate is posted here.

If you already registered, you can drop by the Nike outlet store at the Bonifacio High Street to pick up your 10k race kit starting tomorrow, August 18 2008.

See you on the 31st!

Categories
Mostly Everything

A Bugged Life 2008 Live Test

So the philosophy behind the new design was that I wanted ABL 2008 to be more personality driven than content driven. That sort of required me to think about what I wanted to communicate to my readers. Eventually I had decided to stick to the vectors rather than have my face plastered all over my blog.

I really enjoyed the previous Copyblogger theme and asked Gisele to take on a similar primary palette of blacks, white and shades of reds (A Bugged Life really used whites and reds since 2006 with the old layout). I purchased the vectors of the bugs from iStockPhoto because I also plan to use them within some of my posts as lasting “characters” in this website for purposes of illustration, fun and highlight.

We added a page list on a secondary headline for more information about the author (me!). That too, is unfinished as I’m drafting a few more references and a short tutorial on “how to use this blog.”

Four Sidebars

A Bugged Life 2008 has four sets of sidebar widgets to play with. I was a believer in the two column layout but then decided to go three not because I had a lot to place in my sidebars, but because I wanted to push most of my site information up and be seen in the first 2 or 3 scrolls of the mouse. The 300×250 AdSense widget is really a placeholder. I’m planning to add a few more things for branding purposes.

The other two sidebars are, you guessed it, the two wide sidebars on top and below the columns.

Gisele Jaquenod

Gisele is a fantastic designer. For those unfamiliar, she’s famous for her Birdie themes and merchandise. She was the one responsible for Phoebe’s Pass the Sauce, and that’s how I discovered her. Gisele is friendly, young and talented, and she’s much fun to chat with while she applies your site’s finishing touches.

The new theme has been up for about less than 10 hours. We’ve been testing this offline for the past 24 and there seems to be very little errors showing up, especially on Internet Explorer. The true beauty of the color scheme actually hits you when you’re viewing this blog on Safari.

Comments? Leave one here or in Plurk. For those who’ve left comments already, thank you very much! Thank you also to Gisele for this fabulous WordPress theme!

Art In Site Magazine to print 3,000 different covers made by YOU.

Truly hot. Art In Site is an upcoming magazine for Filipino artists, made by artists. And they’re doing something really bold. For their first issue, they’re calling for 3,000 artists to submit artwork to be used as the cover of their 1st issues (they’re printing 3,000 individualized covers!).

Need I say more? Here are the guidelines of the project. There are currently 2,054 slots left and 34 days (as of 12.08.08 2:56 PM) till the submission of your work. The magazine will come out in January 2009 – a bold, bold project! Reserve your slot now!