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No office on Monday - August 29

I hate it when the Office of the President announces cancellation of work at a very short notice. Take August 29 for instance. We have scheduled a small event gathering on the morning of August 30. We are supposed to do last minute follow-up on August 29 but now our plans are ruined as the news show today that there won't be any work this Monday.

I hope the Office of the President can already announce if they are extending holidays that fall on a weekend on a much earlier date. It disrupts business operations and schedules. For the SME, it causes so much both already and am sure much so as well for big businesses who may have scheduled deliveries and work deliverables on that day.

It is the 4th or 5th year of this administration already, they should have learned already. On our part, we can't make assumption always that holidays will be extended.

Sharpening the saw

I'm going through 3 important trainings this month (as a participant). They are: 4 Roles of Leadership (August 16-18), 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (August 23-25 in Cebu by Righttraining and Human Resources, Inc.), and 4 Disciplines of Execution (August 30-31). I've read so much about these topics but thought of going through the workshop for further validation. It is an interesting experience and hope that the people I train and provide consulting in the future will further benefit from this.

Change of plan

Oh well.. it seems my Seoul and Taipei speaking stints won't push through for this month. The Congressional Oversight Committee for the E-Commerce Law changed its meeting schedule from August 17 to August 30. As all report submission gets adjusted so is my State of Philippines E-Commerce Report writing. However, in these times of political conflict, I am also thankful with the change so that our legislators can attend to urgent political matters at hand.

I started putting more photos in my photo blog here and certainly brought back great memories to mind. From Cebu, my first book launch, to a trip yesterday.

It seems a lot of people are searching for information about Raul Roco these days. My blog hits shoot up a little with Raul Roco topping the search queries.

 

Blogging Gloriagate Forum: A Success!

Yesterday, the 1st iblog Mini: Blogging Gloriagate was held at the U.P. College of Law. It was a smashing success! My sincerest congratulations to the team behind the UP-ISP for the hard work they poured for this effort.

I agree with Jove Francisco in his belief that blogs have made an impact to our society already. Whether the government admits it or not, blogs have contributed greatly in the knowledge dissemination and expression of views on a lot of issues today, especially Gloriagate.

I admit though that a great effort must be exerted to teach more people how to blog and realize its benefits. I think a person will appreciate the value of blogging once he/she realizes the role or mission they're taking on for themselves. All in all, blogging is about sharing, to inform, to educate, to impart our perspective, even to entertain, and be ourselves (or least give a glimpse about we are).

When Manuel L. Quezon III said that "blogging is crisis-driven, and the Philippines is in a perpetual crisis," I think this can be construed not only in terms of politics but also about being a Filipino. A lot has been written about how damaged our culture and ideology is. In times of conflict, I'm sure a lot of us are amazed when we hear quite far-fetched point of views. Moreso during elections, the kind of people enlisting, aspiring to become the country's president, is a reflection on the wide-array of values, principles, and beliefs that Filipinos have in the country. Of course, you can also use your blog to declare your future political plans like Paeng who thought of becoming a senator someday.

Thefore, blogging presents an opportunity for all us to understand each other more and hopefully be able to appreciate and respect our fellowmen's point-of-view. So when the Gloriagate ends, there's much more to blog about and this is just the beginning. I hope those in the profession of personal/values development will take blogging as an opportunity in influencing change in the Filpino culture and values, especially among our young.

Atty. JJ Disini considers as partly an elite's tool to-date. Perhaps bloggers today would consider a major task of influencing educators to teach ordinary students how to blog. I remember in grade school days, we were required to maintain a diary that our teacher checks on a weekly basis. If journaling can be used to document lessons learned and creative ideas in a day, I believe this young people will be able to appreciate and recognize their potential to bring about change in our country. Build up hope and self-esteem.

An interesting blogger I met during the event is Atty. Punzi, ang cute ng blog story niya. But like him, I agree that we live in interesting times and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I think we are now beginning to see the weakening of discussion groups as there's a value in documenting our insights rather than see them forever gone when a community shuts down.

For those of you who were not able to make it to this event, I encourage you to visit J. Angelo's blog as he took photos and blog, blog, blog during the event. Galing talaga!

Nursing an injury

Last night, I just arrived from Seoul. As I was about to crossed the street to get an airport cab, I slipped and landed with my lower hip hitting the floor. I felt liked Triple H slammed by Batista directly to the steel stairs during their steel cage match. While being treated at the clinic, airport personnel talked about how that area is so accident prone. Actually, it is not my first time to slip in that area but have prevented myself from falling. I guess when you are too tired and anxious to get home, you tend to forget which areas of the airport are dangerous.

Funny thing though is when I was on the floor and aching, airport personnel approached me wanting to pick me up, I objected and requested not to be moved. Thanks to my training during high school with the Red Cross, I learned that in such situations, it is best to be handled by those knowledgeable of first aid. As I felt a bit better, I allowed myself to be picked up. What contributed to the fear of being mishandled is a recent news report where 2 men were victims of a hit-and-run incident. The policemen and town folks who picked them and put them in the police car obviously had no first-aid training. They could have aggravated their injuries more.

Next week, I'm tutoring a government official, working for the Ministry of Trade in Bhutan, about e-commerce. It is interesting to find the interest about this subject increasing once more.  

Last week, my book project with TechFactors.ph fully materialized. The book is about Introduction to I.T. Projects, meant for 4th year High School students. What I like about this opportunity is being able to introduce and document the Philippine Schools Cyberfair as the case study of the book.

For more updates about the Korea training, I urge you to check my Teaching Life blog.

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