A Blog A Day Challenge - Day 1: Write

I saw this post last night on one of my Facebook Groups and the person who made the post simply said she wanted to challenge herself. Then I remembered the challenge I made to myself when I decided to transfer this blog a few years ago and created the links to my other interests about 2 years ago in order to develop my niche - aside of course from the fact that I am one OC freak. This is the very same challenge I made myself when I started my WP blog.

Bethylicious, this one is for my personal rantings and interests; And they called Me Mary is to document all the things I learn and discover as I go through careers, conversations and studies; Rhymes and Verses as an avenue for my inner poet; In search of Nirvana for sharing things that inspire me. I even intended for a cooking+DIY projects+crafts one to be called Bethy's Nook and reserved all my researched and formal writing for my WordPress blog I initially called Pavements and Skyscrapers.

Aside from my obsessive drive to get my writings organized, it was also a strategy to have them optimized since each blog, except Bethylicious and the WP blog, would have its own specific niche. I thought the number of the sites I had would be effective in establishing a more visible web presence. The downside however is that all of them had to be managed and while I had big plans, executing became the biggest hurdle and hindrance.

Now I am stuck with blogs that doesn't have consistent posts.

Add that to the sudden growth and impact of different social media circles then you'll be even more overwhelmed.

Then I have Covey's words echoing in my ear repeatedly, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." So what is the main thing? The main thing is to write.

The next thing is the purpose of writing. This purpose will help you get the words out in the right platform and shared with a targeted audience. True that a writer does not need an audience as much as he or she needs to write but keep in mind that the writer is an artist and in order for him or her to be true to form and really expressive, he or she must choose the right medium and venue for his or her creative expression.

Aside from the number, the fact that I was mostly writing for a living is also one of the reasons why I have had to set aside my own passion. I have been writing for as long as I can remember and I've had my fair share of praises for phrases but I never truly considered myself as a writer until a few months ago when I became a shadow/acedemic writer. Sure it was fun because I learned as I was writing and I also got paid but the need to bring in more project$ became the driving force behind my writing not my innate need to express in words and not with that much burning passion. It was not until I actually had a severe case of writer's block that I had my biggest moment of doubt as I writer.

It happened some months ago when I got a project. I was given  sufficient time to turn it in and the client has even granted me one extension after the other yet I wasn't able to deliver. I was mentally shaking myself in disbelief asking how hard can it be to fill up 30 or so pages with something that was meant to be researched and analyzed. Someone on that team sent me an email that basically says, "...if you couldn't write it, then you should have said so. You knew this was paper was important to the client."

Those two words haunted my writing for the next few months and even now I still find myself stopping short at those two words: couldn't write. I maintain a blog for another client and I have to admit each post has had its own birth pains despite the fact that I am already quite well-oriented on the niche.

This prompted me do a writer's soul searching. And what I found is that writing is simple. It doesn't require one to get published all the time and while a book deal is great, its really not essential. The most important element of being a writer according to experts is that one must write. In short, in order to be a writer you have to do some writing. Hence, a blog a day.

Touchdown for Day 1.

Hopefully, you'll see one again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that...for now I have to go back to writing for a living but I feel great and I do appreciate your time. :-)

Titanic @100

It may seem cliche-ish given all the publicity and tribute the centenary has generated the world over but there is just something so touching about that tragedy that people feel so attached to. No, this is not something to add to the long list of commemorative tributes and memorabilia about the ship...I think Leo and Kate have already immortalized that on the big screen.

This is just a simple account about that great unsinkable ship slowly disintegrating 12,000 feet beneath the Atlantic ocean and its lasting impact.

A few years ago I read a back issue of Reader's Digest and that is when I came across this novel called Futility (The Wreck of the Titan). This work of fiction written by Morgan Robertson closely resembles the fate of Titanic: the largest luxury cruise liner afloat at the time, called Titan described as unsinkable with a capacity of 3,000 was on its maiden voyage to America hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on an April evening, capsized and sank with more than half of its 2,500 of its passengers perished because they brought only "as few lifeboats as the law allowed".

Similarly, RMS Titanic left its last port of call, Queenstown (now Cobh) on 10 April 1912 for its maiden voyage bound for New York. This Olympic class British passenger liner was built to be "the last word on luxury" and was designed to be unsinkable. There were over 2,200 passengers on board the vessel which was considered the largest ship afloat at that time. It carried only 24 lifeboats for a ship with a capacity of 3,000 which resulted to the death of more than 1,500 when the ship collided with an iceberg on its 4th day of voyage (about 11:40 pm, ship's time on 14 April 1912). The ship gradually sank in the next 2 and a half hours at 2:20 a.m. it split in half and went down bow-first with over a thousand people still on board.

The American novel was written in 1898, almost a decade and a half before Titanic.

Public outrage from what is said to be one of the largest peacetime tragedy at sea spurred much-needed regulation in the maritime sector. Two years later, in 1914 SOLAS was born. The sinking of the Titanic is not the most disastrous incident at sea but it is arguably the most popular and perhaps another lasting contribution of the Titanic aside from her history are lessons it taught us: to take preventive steps to avoid  tragic loss and ensure that life was protected when out in the open waters. 

Undefined

Lately, I've been looking around to find my voice. It seems that I have gotten better in most things but not further in the things I love the most. I know we all have to start somewhere.

I decided that the best way to find mine was to face the things I've always tried to escape or have taken for granted....one of them being this blog (IKR). While most people who started blogging about the same time I did have cashed in on their site, I have remained inconsistent in making posts and even with SEO knowledge, I still haven't decided which niche to concentrate on.

But what I do know is this: I never stopped concentrating on writing in one form or another.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of reading lately (I am actually thinking if writing book reviews is a good idea), but what I've learned is this: passion is everything and in order to be more productive about that passion, you have to make it a part of your routine and make it a ritual. Lets ritualize my writing.

If there's one thing I'll never stop doing its writing verses that rhyme...I know, I have boxes and envelopes with papers and notebooks full of 'em. Unpublished, unfinished, undefined. So I guess that should be first in my order of business in making writing a part of my daily routine.

And here we go...guys, meet the poet.

Steve Jobs: a man who changed the world

Today, the modern world was shocked with the passing of one of its greatest movers. Early this morning on this side of the globe, word spread about the passing of Apple's Chairman, the late, great Steve Jobs. The internet was burning from reposts, reactions, retweets and reports of this visionary's death.

As one BBC researcher puts it,

"There are 3 apples that changed the world, the one that Eve ate, the one that fell on Newton's head and the ones that Steve Jobs built." 

Having been a Mac user for a few months now, true enough one cannot help but feel a tinge of sadness and loss. We all know the story very well. Steve was one of the ruling elite of the computing world - a contemporary to Microsoft's Bill Gates, an inspiration to Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, a mentor to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

Business and world leaders, media organizations, even ordinary people expressed their grief and condolences to Jobs' family. It's not everyday someone so determined and dedicated leaves a mark and changes life as we know it.

Jobs was a college dropout who invented the first Apple in his parent's garage. He made the company and was eventually booted out when it became successful. After that he went on to start companies like NeXT and Pixar. He went on to creating the successful movie franchise Toy Story, together with blockbuster top-grossers Cars, Monsters Inc., Wall-e and Finding Nemo to name a few.

He eventually returned to Apple after the first company he founded bought NeXT in 1996. This was when Apple began to take a leadership position in the market. Dubbed as the "second coming" of Steve Jobs, he made sure the next generation of Apple products will be innovative and cutting edge and overall aimed at giving a great user experience.

Some people have commented that Jobs, as a boss may be a little too hard to please and a whole lot temperamental. However, he is an inspirational and charismatic speaker who can spark creativity that'll motivate transforming dreams into a reality.

Here are some famous Jobs quotes I lifted from PC World:

Think Different

"Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…the ones who see things differently--they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things--they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

"A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets."

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it."

Lead from the Front

"You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new."

"It's not about pop culture, and it's not about fooling people, and it's not about convincing people that they want something they don't. We figure out what we want. And I think we're pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That's what we get paid to do."

Strive for Perfection

"When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

Love What You Do

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

What did he do that has affected you and me? How exactly did he influence the world or changed our lives that send people into a frenzy when they woke up and found Steve Jobs gone...well my friend, that's simple: you'll never look at the fruit the same way again.

Hopefully, will get to write more on Steve over the weekend.

Facebook Timeline...Not much...what's the fuzz?

Followed the steps in Mashable on How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline and was able to make it work. (If you're interested to try, sign in to Facebook here.)

Not sure what the fuzz is all about because all the information in the Timeline were provided by the users. For the most part, as Facebook grew, we should have been more mindful of the things we shared online. 

I toured the new feature and was a bit well, surprised. It was kinda creepy that it remembered when I signed up, when my cousin was born and it was able to track how many friends I made each month. The most surprising part for me is learning how many of my "friends" were in Facebook in a year's time. I mean I joined in April 2009 and had a handful of 16 Facebook well wishers for my birthday that year compared to a whopping 110 last year. The idea of the number of people I was connected to came more of a shock to me than what the Timeline presented.

That perhaps is the most alarming reality of our time. The danger is not these social networks or some technical expert coming up with ultrasmart algorithms or software, it is the danger of us providing them with the idea or information unknowingly. Some criticized Zuckerberg's Law of Social Sharing - which roughly stated that, 

"...the amount of content that can be shared online doubles roughly every 12 months."

Its not surprising that privacy advocates are daunted by this overhaul in Facebook's Profile. The Washington Post reported that: 

"Timeline has three main components — a user’s stories, apps and a new way to express a person’s identity. Pictures and videos are featured prominently, making profiles more visually focused, and users can sort through information by date, type of media and location."

According to Nielsen, Americans spent 8 hours on Facebook last month, far cry from last year's 5 hours and 46 minutes. This shows just how much the social network has affected our lives. Spending time to check updates on their and their friends' statuses have now become part of the daily routines. 

Add that to the omnipresent Google and the microblogging platforms Twitter, with its ever-growing number of followers and  the meteoric rise of Tumblr, and voila! More and more time spent on line.

This is 2011, the digital age - everything and everyone is online. As privacy is slowly becoming a thing of the past, be mindful of information security. Before you click to share whatever personal information you have and grant access to anyone anywhere the globe, keep in mind that what you are sharing might be detrimental if not a direct threat to you and your loved ones.

FYI: Timeline rolls out this week, October 9 if I read correctly.

Of Learning, Knowledge and Education

A question was popped to me yesterday that inspired me to write this post.

That question was, "Why were we educated?"

You have to admit it was a rather simple question, one would have simply said to get a good paying job, to advance in my chosen field, to be better armed and prepared to face greater challenges or responsibilities.

However, the first thing that came to my head was because I loved to learn. Education gave me the training as well as the opportunity to see things and approach things differently - with analysis and caution and knowing that a single act could have varying effects and impact not just to the subject but other connected aspects as well. It thought me to be critical, observant and discrete as situations called for. My answer to that one sentence of a question was a paragraph - a synthesis of things that I have learned.

Then the person who asked me the question said, "Its simple, really. You went to school so you learn how to think." He went on to say that all the stuff they taught you in school, you're only using bits and pieces of that. Then one more from the group said, "Since I graduated, I began questioning the methods of teaching."

They were simply stating their opinions and beliefs and I respect that. Only it sparked a debate within - not to disprove their opinions but to express a greater understanding of the importance of knowledge, learning and education, after all the years I spent studying I think I should know better.

Well, they were right when they said that they teach you how to think in school. No, let me rephrase that: education itself challenges the mind to think. As Einstein puts it, 

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."

Socrates also agrees,

"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."

Education is not just about knowing, it is understanding that the human mind is capable of basic grammar and mathematics, that it can be trained to do greater things.

That more than memorizing, history is a reflection of your past to help you see into the future. It defines behavioral and social sciences, helps one identify culture and tradition and establish an identity not just as person but as a family, a society, a people. Economics is more than just theories - its the theories that need to be understood in order to analyze a certain pattern or order of things. Algebra, Geometry and Calculus involves analysis of the expressions and the problems - the same analysis that is required in logic and philosophy.

To question is good. It means one is trying to understand, however has one taken steps to bridge the gap? I guess that's when the importance of the willingness to learn come in. Because you don't stop where society tells you to stop. Learning after all is a lifelong process. An educated person may have the necessary papers to support professional requirements but to say that it makes him knowledgeable is non-sequitur.

"Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." ~Jim Rohn

Indeed, this will make a lengthy debate but at the end of the day its one's ability to adapt and use his capacity to think that will determine the level of education he has been able to instill in himself.

"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions." ~William Allin

A Job Affair: work I did, places I’ve been, people I’ve met

I’ve been working for a total of 7 years and 8 months now. During that time, I’ve also had 6 jobs. Given my age and the length of time I’ve been working and my level of education, people think I should already have a career. Sadly though, I have yet to find a job I can commit myself too especially since in my heart I know that service is my calling, the first five and a half years of my professional life is proof of that.

Rapport at North 

It was late in 2003, I was then a college undergraduate when I was offered a job at the Philippine Ports Authority in North Harbor. It was originally intended to be a brief project stint for their computerization program. What I thought would be a trial run for working lasted exactly 4 years.

View of a CY @ MICT, Nov. 2007

I started November 2003 and quit on November 2007. My initially boring tasks of reviewing lease contracts, scanning documents and data gathering were gradually finished and replaced with client transactions, license application review and evaluation, contract preparation, reports, research and communication, inspection and lease administration and other stuff.

@ the VTMS Tower

Over the years I learned to love what I do and even found time to go back to school and finish my studies.

@ M/V Princess of the Stars, Dec. 2006

However, I realized that skills and knowledge-wise I was growing but professionally, I wasn’t making much progress. Years have already come and gone and I still don’t have a career.

Daybreak, Dec. 01, 2007

And I deserved one, so sad and hard the decision had to be made. I packed my bags and moved on.

Landed @ Tech

Land Bank Plaza

For me coming to Land Bank was unplanned. It never really crossed my mind until one of my former workmates suggested it and I wasn’t overly excited about it at first. I even waited 2 months to actually come and apply for any position they had open for hire.

When I was finally invited for an interview, I had an impression that I did not qualify. The interview was so still and quick so when they thanked me for my time I left and told myself at least I tried. When I was about to step out, I was surprised that the receptionist told me she just received a phone call asking me to proceed to the 17th floor.

So I went back up a floor higher this time and when I got there the security personnel escorted me to the conference room and wait for my interviewers. It was a bit cloudy then and looked like it was going to rain but I was captivated by an overwhelming view. The conference room had an astounding view of Manila Bay stretching from the CCP bay area to South Harbor. A regular route I’ve been passing by for 8 years but never saw from up high until that instant. For me it was simply amazing.

A view of Manila Bay from LBP Plaza, June 2009

Then my interviewers arrived, I was still a little dumbstruck from staring outside the glass walls. Compared to the first interview I had earlier, this one went on a lot longer, over an hour probably. It was also more relaxed and we found ourselves laughing several times. The interview ended with smiles. This was August 2007.

Months passed and I stopped expecting to hear from LBP anymore so I was more than surprised when I got invited for an interview again and another, the last and final one. Finally on December 2007, I officially became part of eBSD-TMG.

eBSD's Retro Christmas @ Rosa's Garden, Dec. 2008

Brief as it may have been, my stint with LBP gave me the motivation and resources to go back to school and the opportunity to work with the best people and bring out the best in me. The experience really thought me a lot. I made a lot of close friends and it was sad I couldn’t stay.

BPO, KPO...brave new worlds: HSBC & TaskUs

When it was time to leave LBP, I realized that 5 ½ years of my working life has been given to service and that I have been waiting for a chance to get in for a while. I was beginning maybe it was not the career path for me or that maybe it wasn’t just the right time.

With the current buzz and boom of the BPO industry and given their big salaries, benefits and perks, I decided to give it a try.

I landed a customer service representative job at HSBC North Gate though it wasn’t planned. I went to Alabang for a different job interview and North Gate just happened to be a few steps away from where I was. I simply decided to hit 2 birds with one stone. After my exam and interview that morning I walked across the street to HSBC and went through a series of exams and interviews. I stayed till it was over for the simple reason that I wasn’t asked to go home. I thought maybe this was it. I was up for the challenge and took it.

HSBC M1 Tranche 114, July 2009

HSBC provided me a whole new culture, a different approach, a business experience. It thought me the value of diversity, expanded my knowledge on banking and showed me the importance of information security. More importantly, it provided me another avenue for learning, to push myself forward and break away from the ways I was used to.

w/ Team Arlene & the Service Queue, Oct. 2009

Unfortunately, as much as it really paid well, I couldn’t stay because it didn’t fit well with my studies. When I tried to weigh it, I just couldn’t give up school. It meant much and it was something I worked and sacrificed a lot of things for, it was just out of the question.

That was when I landed a voicemail transcriptionist job near our place in Cavite. It was near, it paid okay, I met friends. Friends from different backgrounds and they were interesting. Listening to messages also sharpened my ears and I hear a lot of stuff that were quite unfamiliar at first but Google was there to provide answers. I was rather a brief stint that got cut short because I was offered another job.

I thought about it. Staying in TaskUs is okay, if I wanted the easy way out. All I had to do was listen and type. However, I also knew that staying meant not putting all of my skills and talents in to good use. For me comfort was just not enough. I needed a challenge so I decided to throw in the towel.

A Century of Real Estate

I went to CPI after leaving TaskUs. I thought being part of the Documents and Collections Group was a step in the right direction. So even if I already had over 36 masteral units, I took on project-based contractual employment. It would accommodate my studies and for me titles and positions are empty if they cannot deliver or produce results. An individual’s contribution on an organization is not measured by his position.

Pacific Star Building

Combining all my years of working, I would have to say that the 10 months I spent in CPI was the most challenging. I don’t know how or why it happened but not a week passed that I did not have to write an apology letter or received a complaint. It wasn’t my job to find out why or how, the job was to address the issues and resolve the problems. I tried to do just that. It thought me to be resourceful and innovative and gave me the drive to put a system together and deliver quality service.

CPI Christmas 2010

Leaving came in naturally, not renewing my contract was a mutual decision. They were re-structuring the group and my position was dissolved. Having completed my masters, I felt obliged to put it into good use. Unlike my previous jobs, it wasn’t so hard leaving this time because from the start I knew it was a possibility.

w/ Systems & Inventory Team, Nov. 2010

Finally BGC

At present, I’m a virtual assistant for an offshore client. Adapting to a new culture, learning about new tools and technologies and meeting new people always interests me.

I am now writing professionally which i find rather challenging ‘cause as much as I love writing, it was for the most part always a hobby.

Now, it’s different. I’m beginning to discover an evolving world of e-marketing, slowly understanding SEO and PPC concepts and taking baby steps in content writing and backlinking.

When I told my boss I was leaving LBP, he told me:

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you work, who you work for or work with and how much you get paid working. What matters is you’re happy with what you’re doing.”

That depends on choosing to be happy though.