10 Drafts and a Focus

Published at February 7, 2008 in Attitude, Blogs and Blogging and Success. 30 Comments

I get embarrassed whenever my friends say I am a man of ideas: because I am neither a genius, nor was I a gifted child.

However, I understand where they’re coming from. Whenever I watch shows, read stuff, interact with people or simply observe the world, at least one idea pops up in my head like a light bulb that you see in the cartoons. In short, ideas keep on coming.

Because of that, I needed an outlet. And writing seems to be the perfect choice. I carry a notebook and a pen. I scurry to them as soon as ideas come, wanting to express them in writing. Not wanting to forget a thing.

I still forget, though. So I needed a tool that works fast. The next thing I knew, this blog was born.

However, the ideas that I want to write and finish are too much for my tools. I wanted to finish all of them at the same time, but that is impossible. Sometimes I catch myself switching from one post to another. Not to mention the distractions that surround me.

As a result, I don’t finish anything. I took a quick glance at my blog’s control panel and here’s what I saw: 10 drafts – posts that I had started but remained unfinished. Some of the posts are finished and only need polishing. Some I still intend to complete and publish in due time. I actually have more drafts but let’s keep it simple. 10 drafts.

At first I thought I was just uninspired. But I immediately nixed the thought because if that was true, how come in my mind, those posts are already done? I knew what to write, I have them completed in my mind. But I couldn’t channel them through my fingers because they couldn’t keep up.

Suddenly, I realized, it isn’t my fingers. It’s my lack of focus. Focus is what separates unrealized ideas from successful posts. Do I want this post to end up as the 11th draft in my control panel?

I do not. So I finished this entry – not because I was pressured – but because I liked to and I wanted to; It is my joy to share and express my thoughts. Therefore, I have to will myself to success.

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Join Support Groups and Support Them

Published at February 2, 2008 in Attitude, Blogs and Blogging, Observations and Opinions, Simple Tips and How-To and Success. 20 Comments

A person needs a support group in order to feel a sense of belongingness and to be successful. A group can define a person, that is why it is important to join a group which shares the same interest and makes us feel comfortable from the start.

I personally like small support groups for a number of reasons:

- I grow with them and its members
- I know the leaders and can communicate with them
- I can participate, be heard and be noticed
- I like the personal approach

Like any other relationships, memberships in support groups are two-way streets: they support you and vice versa.

Actively participating in your support groups make these groups bigger, more active and more influential. In turn, these changes make you proud, make you part of a community, give you more experience and more exposure. Consequently, you grow more as a person you intend to be.

I have plenty of support groups in my whole life: my family, my girlfriend, and a couple of organizations during my education. I will not, however, mention how I support them as it will sound like I am tooting my own horn.

Since we are in the blogging world, I have listed below a select few of my “online” support groups. (If you are a non-blogger reader of mine, don’t worry, the technical terms are minimal). Some of these you might be able to relate to. After reading, if you are interested in learning more about them, I encourage you to click on their links:

SUPPORT GROUP#1 – Readers, Lurkers, and Visitors

Let us differentiate the three first. Visitors are people coming from various sites. They can be from search engines like google looking for something and somehow ended up here. These people probably will visit once then leave. 7% of this site’s traffic are coming from search engines.

Lurkers, on the other hand, are people who visited and decided to come back. However, they prefer to just read and comment only once or twice (sometimes they don’t). There is nothing wrong with that. Some of these people, I know personally.

Readers are people who are regulars of the site. They read, go through the archives, and sometimes comment when appropriate. Most of the readers are fellow bloggers who know the ethics of blogging.

How do I support them?

One of the reasons this site continues to exist is because of them. So I will continue to write useful information to feed their hungry minds. I read my readers’ blogs and comment when I have something genuine to say. I make sure I link to the post I think others will find interesting.

The top commentators are rewarded by displaying their links on the right sidebar. On a similar note, last month, I had moved the “latest comments” high on the sidebar to easily keep track of any responses.

The following 5 readers commented regularly here: Vic the CaribooPonderer, Jeni of Down River Drivel, Marcus Langford, Frank C of OpTempo – Internet Review Magazine, and Cris.

SUPPORT GROUP#2 – BloggingZoom

If you are a blogger who wants your articles and posts get promoted, BloggingZoom.com is the place for you. In other similar social sites, self-promotion is considered a mortal sin. But the creators of BloggingZoom (Vic Franqui of Make Money Online and Court Tuttle of Internet Marketing) made it known that publishing your own posts is what the site wants you to do, and members will “zoom” your submission as a vote of approval if they found your articles worthy.

What I also like about BZ is that making friends is a lot easier and they comment on your submissions. It means one thing: you get a readership that generates quality traffic and might subscribe to your blog.

A BZ power user, Jason Clark of Inner88 – Review of Internet wrote a very good explanation of BloggingZoom. You’ll find it extremely useful if you intend to be a member of BZ.

How do I support BloggingZoom?

I like the community in BZ; the leaders are approachable even though few sensitive people might find Vic a little bit harsh. My way of supporting them is following the rules especially in post submission. Vic and Court don’t like members copy-pasting their posts for one good reason: duplicate contents. Google penalizes sites that copy others’ information. Vic also explained the benefit is mutual. I do not see any harm writing 4 sentences (approximately 350 characters) to describe your submission.

Also, they encourage you to zoom others’ submissions and visit their blogs so they get traffic as well; I have been doing that already since my first day as a member.

SUPPORT GROUP#3 – BlogHology

Download Free Bloghology EbookA blogging friend of mine – Mert Erkal of searchforblogging.com – has a vision, a vision where selected bloggers are grouped together and their best posts are promoted. I am part of that group. He calls it BlogHology. Below is a blurb of what it is:

… Similar to an anthology, a bloghology is a collection of bloggers, their profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. It is a PDF e-book which can be easily circulated throughout the blogosphere for personal branding and marketing of selected good quality bloggers…

How do I support BlogHology?

Mert is a hard-working person who is dedicated in achieving his goals, and at the same time in helping others. As a result, he inspires others using the “lead by example” technique. Seeing these characteristics in him, it is easy to follow suit. He only wants one thing from the participants: to promote BlogHology to their own readers by putting up a download link on their blogs.

I encourage you to download (by clicking on the BlogHology image above) the BlogHology E-Book, where I was also featured. Find out which of my posts were included in the first edition.

SUMMARY

I believe in the old adage “No man is an island.“. No one should be. Whether we like it or not, we need others to be successful.

In choosing the right support groups for me, I see to it they have the following characteristics:

-They should have a vision-mission
-The leaders support their members
-The members voluntarily reach out to others

How about you? Do you have support groups that you would like to share?

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YouTube “Video Is No Longer Available” Error

Published at January 27, 2008 in Blogs and Blogging, Simple Tips and How-To and Videos. 12 Comments

Janie of Colloquium emailed me yesterday regarding my post about my personally-selected YouTube Videos. She said she was not able to view them because there was an error in each video: it says it is no longer available.

I’ve seen that one before. The first time in my own video. I got worried, thinking if I violated YouTube’s Terms of Service (TOS). Was the video taken down due to copyright infringement or copyright claim by other parties? I didn’t think so. Fortunately, the (only) video in my account was not deleted. So how did I fix the error?

I didn’t. It was on YouTube side. My instinct told me to press F5 to reload the page before I make a drastic move in my blog. Luckily, the trick worked.

So I emailed Janie back saying that it is normal when the page with embedded YouTube video is open for a long time. The clip is not gone, removed or deleted. All she has to do is refresh the page and the video will re-appear.

She thanked me for letting her know because she didn’t “realize that You Tube timed out like that.” to quote her.

I want to thank Janie for pointing this out. She inspired me to write a post because it seems to me that this issue looks like a big deal to a concerned viewer. I hope that this post somehow reaches YouTube so they can fix the annoying “Video is no longer available” error that makes their members and users worry.

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Let Go of Fantasies and Serve Your Purpose

Published at January 21, 2008 in Motivation, Observations and Opinions and School/Teaching. 17 Comments

I remember this girl in college that I really liked a lot. Let’s call her Kathleen.

I liked Kathleen so much that I kept enrolling in her class even though I didn’t really talk to her. As a matter of fact, I only talked to her once.

Her course, if I recall correctly, was International Studies. Mine was Computer Application. Huge difference, but what sent me to her class and kept sending me back was her. Always her.

She’s beautiful — my type of beauty to be perfectly honest. Her face was angelic and her smile was captivating. Somehow, her beauty kept me drawn to her. She was like a magnet; I was attracted and I liked it. I didn’t want to last a day without a glimpse of her.

Her class, however, in its entirety, was not as beautiful as her. I didn’t have any friends and nobody reached out to me, especially when there was a group activity. I was alone, sitting in one corner left to mind my own business. I was always near the door so I can sneak out of the room quickly after the lesson. (And after giving this girl one good look.)

Her classmates didn’t like “outsiders”, unfortunately, I was one. So I had to endure their aloofness just to see a girl who didn’t even know I existed. Despite that, I remained in my seat quietly, fantasizing about myself talking to Kathleen. It was like an addiction that I couldn’t resist.

And it was like that for 2 semesters, until I failed in some subjects.

The failures were a wake-up call. I asked myself: “Is it worth it?” Apparently, Kathleen did not and will not give me any positive response. She was just a fantasy, and my failures were real. Staying in her class didn’t benefit me at all. I decided to stay away.

I still saw her in the catwalk, in the canteen, and in the campus. Sometimes she was with her friends, sometimes she was alone. I don’t recall a specific time when my eyes met hers. Because it was more of me looking at her, than she looking at me.

Fortunately, I got over her and never enrolled in her class again. I realized what a fool I was for letting myself get hooked by her beauty, thus, hurting my college records.

There was a reason I was in school: to learn and eventually to get ready for work. Obviously, I wasn’t fulfilling my purpose.

Consciously diverting my attention to my purpose, I enrolled in classes where I knew I have friends who could help me out in case of academic hardships. This strategy was perfect. Everything was easier for me. I also enrolled in Summer classes to catch up. I graduated College, had a job, and lived a life. All because I learned to let go of a fruitless fantasy and served my true purpose.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve never heard anything about Kathleen since, but I spotted her one time while I was watching TV: she was in the commercial. That was before I got my first job as a programmer almost 10 years ago. I chuckled the first time I saw it, but I wasn’t really surprised — she was truly a model-material (One thing I learned from my fantasy is that, I had a good taste!)

The point is, there is nothing wrong with fantasies. But putting it on top your priorities to the point of hurting your objectives in life is another story. Don’t make the same mistake I did by prolonging it and wasting your time getting nothing in return. Let go of it and serve your purpose.

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5 YouTube Videos That Always Make Me Stop and Ponder

Published at January 16, 2008 in Personal and Videos. 20 Comments

YouTube is a haven for people who love entertainment. It is a place rich in all kind of videos: hilarious, educational, thought-provoking. You name it, YouTube has it.

Since anyone knowledgeable with videos can upload anything he wants, YouTube has somewhat become contaminated by junk videos that present no meaning at all. Worse, some people abuse the system by writing offensive comments that can be considered as trash and immature.

However, if you are a person who exercise good judgement, you will know when to avoid those and how to find valuable videos that are worth remembering. I applaud video creators, who post insightful clips. They truly understand that a thing of beauty is meant for sharing.

Below you will find videos which I personally like as they inspire me and make me reflect on life.

You probably had seen some (if not all), but it never hurts watching them again. To go directly to the YouTube page of the videos where you can also read viewers comments, click on the title. Otherwise, simply click on the Play button of each video below to start watching:

1. Young Tiger Woods Wins British Open (1 min)


This spliced video, which features a young Tiger Woods winning the British Open, is one of my favorite Nike Commercials. It makes me smile for two reasons, 1.) Seeing Tiger Woods as a young kid playing golf is amazing in itself. 2.) His relationship with his parents is masterfully captured in this concise clip. My full interpretation can be read in this post.

2. Dancing Prisoners (4 min 25 sec)


Fellow Filipino Byron Garcia probably didn’t see his idea becoming a huge hit all over the world when he published the video of the prisoners dancing “Thriller” (popularized by Michael Jackson). It was inspiring and amusing at the same time, and seeing the inmates dance like they have a mission is a sight to behold.

The video has been viewed approximately 11 million times, and has caught the attention of bigtime and international press. As a result, the inmates dedicated a dance to the whole world and CNN featured them on its website with their heart-warming stories of rehabilitation. I hope every prison in the world does something productive instead of letting the inmates hurt each other.

3. Everyday (5 min 45 sec)


The world is spinning slowly everyday, and people from all walks of life have their own business to mind. In the midst is one man – Noah Kalina – who took pictures of himself everyday, for 6 years, and created a video out of them. The result was awesome. It started with the word “Everyday”, and then one by one, his compiled daily pictures which were taken in various places, flashed in quick sequence. It ended with a phrase “A work in progress.” Which, in my opinion, is open for interpretation.

4. My Name Is Lisa (6 min 26 sec)


This short film came out just a couple of months ago and immediately gained recognition because of its truthful message addressing an “unwanted condition”. Already viewed more than a million times, it won 3rd place in YouTube Project: Direct voted by the viewers. I don’t intend to spoil this clip, but here’s a short scene near the end to give you a hint of what the film is all about: An old lady suspiciously asked a young girl: “Who are you? What’s your name?” Confused, the 13-year old girl answered in a soft manner: “My name is Lisa…” Great script, great acting, excellent message.

5. The Shot (30 sec)


A regular guy had a dream of making it to a professional basketball league and making a game-winning shot when he was young. It didn’t happen. However, he has a competitive drive to win and dreams of playing in an organized game. He continues to love basketball. So he continually practiced hard, working on his shooting in the community gym with his friends.

That regular guy is me. And when my awaited day arrived, I finally hit a winning shot for the first time in my life. Somehow, my dream came true. (Additional information in this post.)

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I know some of these clips might not mean anything to you. Some of you probably have your own selections, and that is perfectly acknowledged, because I also understand that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So allow me to take this chance to say that I am truly thankful for the video creators who shared their masterpieces with public viewers. Their geniuses make it worth the stay in YouTube.

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