Our lifestyle, as we know it today, is increasingly becoming more virtual… virtual money (GCash, Smart Money), virtual selves (Second Life), virtual extensions of our characters (RAN Online), virtual experts on any topic (thru Blogging services like WordPress and Blogger.com), etc.
In our search to quench our appetite for anything NBA (the NBA Summer League in BTV is just not enough to quench that appetite) while waiting for the 2007-2008 NBA Season this November, my friends and I decided to set up a virtual NBA League. Apart from this very reason of satiating our unsatisfied desire for anything basketball, we wanted to experience how it is to run / manage and to coach (as well as scout opposing teams’ players) our own NBA Team. What better way to do this than establishing your own NBA League.
Yep, through the use of a meticulously programmed application called Fast Break Basketball (FBB), one can simulate the the realities of operating an NBA organization. Roster files are updated. Game settings are almost realistic — think of incorporating player fatigue and player potential into the equation. Full control of how a team plays defense and offense. Full control of how to rotate your players.
So, if you are a certified junkie for the game of basketball and are a no non-sense lover of the game, we invite you to join the BallEx SIM League (you can view the Team Rosters from this link to aid you in choosing your favored team to manage). It is still in beta test mode, so pardon the bare presentation of the home page. Interested users can sign up in the BallEx SIM League Forum.
A waste of precious time, maybe. But for us basketball addicts, it is one healthy diversion.
Categories: BallEx SIM League
I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I have been experimenting with Facebook. I, in fact, am about to write about and share what I have found and experienced so far with this social utility tool (or should I say platform?).
Anyway, if you happen to be the type of WordPress user who just glosses over the Dashboard area, then you wouldn’t have noticed this bit of news from WordPress.
Yup! They’ve created a WordPress application for Facebook. This application lets a Facebook user with a WordPress blog post from Facebook and have it appear on his/her WordPress site, and vice versa.
If you have scores upon scores or hundreds upon hundreds of friends in Facebook, now is the time to take advantage of that vaunted network effect to kick off. Each friend gets updated as you create new blog entries.
Bad thing is… I couldn’t create links! Anyway, I am sure the people at WordPress will be doing something about this soon as this app is recently offered.
Okay now… About to push the PUBLISH button…
Voila!
UPDATE (07.19.07, 12:32 am Manila Time): It worked! I am now posting this update from my WordPress console.
Categories: Social Networking
I’ve been doing the rounds for some time now, telling my friends and some acquaintances that you can, indeed, earn money by just blogging.
I’ve gotten quite a number of incredulous expressions. I’ve also gotten some nods of approval.
The featured blog in the article I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER is a top blog site running on WordPress. You can always see it on the list when you log in to your WordPress Dashboard. This site was just started January of 2007! You can see the site’s performance statistics in the link to the article below. Now that I am writing about this blog site, I am potentially sending more traffic to the blogger’s site (hope I can get that commission as a referror… and that’s possible!). I wonder if the cat gets some form of reward for this? I bet tons of cheeseburger for breakfast, lunch, and dinner….
The proof of the pudding is in the tasting (did I get that right?). Check out this article from BusinessWeek.
Weehoo! From a mere obsession or a hobby to a genuine source of income.
Categories: Blogging
I love it when I get directed to a new blog site that has so much to offer despite its narrow niche play. My buddy Gary, who operates the Exchange.ph Sites (the links to which you can see in my Blogroll to the right), told me about Southbound.
It’s a “blogazine” (a term they so aptly coined, I suppose) that talks about anything and everything about the South. South, in this relative case, would mean the locale south of Manila, Makati included (correct me if I am wrong, Guys of Southbound, since you categorized Makati as “Sana nasa South” 
). You can view it as your localized “Lonely Planet” guide. Or, moreso, your “Lonely South of Manila” guide.
It’s a great resource site for those of you who are unfamiliar with the deep south (not the “deep south” that Adam Sandler was referring to in “Little Nicky”, of course). If you are the type who goes for the hole-in-the-window restaurant variant or the not-so-famous-but-offers-great-food restos, then you this is the site for you to do your research before heading out past the toll gates of South Super Hi-way (I am gonna go try out Vibang’s one of these days….).
Keep it up, Guys! Your site is a perfect example of “finding a place” in the scheme of things, and executing well! May the aspiring bloggers and entreps out there who wish to make a living on the side (or better yet, full time) learn a thing or two from your worthwhile endeavor.
Cheers!
Categories: Entrepreneurship · Leisure · Philippines · SME · Small Business · eCommerce · mCommerce
Just yesterday, Globe Telecom has launched an online portal dedicated to the SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) Segment.
The SME Online Portal aims to provide a one-stop resource and information center for SME’s. This site contains Globe’s list of products and services, already packaged and custom-fitted for the needs of the SME market, as well as tools, resource materials, and links which the Filipino entrepreneur can make fully use of. It also will periodically feature an SME success story to provide inspiration and sets of learning for the newly established ones and for those who are in the process of or thinking of putting up businesses of their own.
It’s not much as of the moment, but it’s a step in the right direction. Keep reading →
Categories: Globe · SME · Small Business
Hehehe…. Surprised with the new look?
I felt cramped with the old WordPress template. Plus the fonts were so small. I wanted something clean and simple.
Bear with me as I try to tweak my site’s presentation. Probably a change of picture here… and then a bit of a widget there…
Might have to overhaul my categories and come up with a few, stackable sets for easy reference.
I have set up a new section where I can post photos (and brag about how good I am even with a sucky camera… hehehe… frustrated photographer here!).
Thinking of even putting up a section for Book Reviews… (Scant though they may be… few and far between… given my horrible habit of not finishing a book…)… Hmmm… Bad idea.
Thinking of even getting my own domain and have this site hosted…
Might be a good idea.
Categories: Thinking Out Loud
Scene: Bank Branch somewhere in Metro Manila
Customer: Hi, I am a “Telco Cash” user and I would like to ask for assistance with how to enable the Telco Cash fund transfer to my Bank Account here and vice versa.
Bank CSA (Customer Service Assistant): Good morning, Sir. Ah… wait please.
Customer: Okay.
After a few minutes….
Bank CSA: Sir, I will refer you to our Customer Service Head regarding this query.
After a few minutes…
Customer: Hi, I am a Telco Cash user as well as a depositor in your branch. I saw in the newspapers and heard that I can now transfer my Telco Cash funds to my Bank Account and vice versa. I would like to know how I can do this.
Bank Customer Service Head: Good morning, Sir. I am very sorry, but I will not be able to help you on this one.
Customer: I don’t understand… your Bank and the Telco Cash came out with full spread ads on major newspapers for this new and, supposedly, convenient feature….
Bank Customer Service Head: I know, Sir. It’s a bit awkward on our part. I believe it’s best if you go to the nearest Business Center of your Telco Cash for the details on how to enable this feature.
Customer: Oh… Can I talk to your Branch Head? Maybe she knows about this.
Bank Customer Service Head: Wait a minute, Sir…
After a few minutes…
Bank Branch Head: Good morning, Sir. I was asked to help you out regarding the Telco Cash to Bank fund transfer. I am so sorry as well… We’ve heard of the news and sets of announcements about this new feature for Telco Cash users and our Bank’s account holders. However, We haven’t received any official communication or advice from within the Bank on how to handle the process.
Customer: Oh… So I really have to go to a Business Center of the Telco Cash to get the details on how this can be done?
Bank Branch Head: I am afraid so, Sir. Or better yet, you can call their Help Desk so as to save you the time and effort in making the trip to the Business Center of the Telco Cash.
Customer: I see…
Categories: Banks · Payment · eCommerce · mCommerce
It’s good to be back.
I purposely tuned mysef out from posting anything from Friday and the rest of the weekend so I could take a much needed rest and spend some quality time with my Family.
I slept and slept, as well as pored over some of my half-abandoned readings to try and catch up on my backlog (i.e. I have yet to finish 20 books in my stockpile). A trip to the bookstore last Saturday night did me good as I got the resolve to finish at least 4 titles before the month of July ends.
Too bad, the bookstore was on a storewide sale. Some titles were going for a 40% discount. But I just couldn’t get myself to buy one (although I was already holding a copy of “Naked Economics” by Charles Wheelan). Useless to buy right now as I may not be able to get past the halfway mark… again.
Anyway, on with the postings…
Categories: Bits
In this 2nd part, I wish to highlight the growing nature of basketball as a “global sport”, influenced by the popularity of the NBA as well as its “open door policy” on allowing foreign-born players to compete in the league. These two factors must be recognized and embraced as an accepted fact — that the world and game of basketball is, indeed, already GLOBAL.
Article of Excuses
I recently read an article by a noted sportswriter who wrote about the lambasting we got from a tournament, the FIBA-Asia Club Championships, in which the All-Pro Philippine Team participated. We all know that Filipinos are known sour-grapes when it comes to losing in basketball. In that article, we got the usual litany of excuses as to why we got beaten badly. In fact, most of them were valid: unfamiliarity with international rules, lack of cohesiveness, and fatigue. Keep reading →
Categories: CBA · College Basketball · FIBA · NBL · PBA · Philippines
One of my Life goals is to write and publish a book. I have conjured up various materials already and have an idea of what this book figment will be about.
As I get myself further immersed in this new medium of expression (called blogging… hehe), I am slowly, but surely beginning to accept that I may not NEED to write and publish a book.
Then, someone reinforced my thoughts on the above. That’s another link love to Marc Andreessen’s blog…
Here’s what got my attention (5th Lesson for Marc Andreessen):
Fifth, writing a blog is way easier than writing a magazine article, a published paper, or a book — but provides many of the same benefits.
I think it’s an application of the 80/20 rule — for 20% of the effort (writing a blog post but not editing and refining it the quality level required of a magazine article, a published paper, or a book), you get 80% of the benefit (your thoughts are made available to interested people very broadly).
Arguably blogging is better because the distribution of a blog can be even broader than a magazine article, a published paper, or a book, at least in cases where the article/paper/book is restricted by a publisher to a limited readership base.
This of course assumes that you’re not trying to make a living writing magazine articles or books, or you’re not trying to get tenure as a professor by publishing peer-reviewed research papers.
However, at least in the former case, even the money part is changing fast. There are now a meaningful number of bloggers making a reasonable, even great, living by blogging, in some cases substantially more money than they would writing for a magazine or a book publisher.
It is going to be tremendous fun to see the race that is rapidly evolving between blogging on the one hand and traditional forms of publishing on the other hand — there are advantages on all sides, but I think blogging is going to post a lot more challenges to magazines, newspapers, books, and other forms of traditional written media in the years to come, and more so than many people in those industries currently imagine.
It’s also been striking to me how much more fun blogging is versus public speaking — at least for me. And the reach from blogging seems to be much broader than speaking even at the largest conferences. I’m not sure I’ll ever speak in public again — I’ll be at home instead, blogging in my underwear.
I know of friends who are seriously considering writing a book. Hope you get the drift with item # 5 above.
Categories: Blogging · Marc Andreessen · Quotes
