Bright Ideas | MagandangBalita.com

MTVs have not been in my radar for quite some time (nor TV for that matter). But the Bagong Simula MTV caught my eye and ears and heart.

Liparin ang langit na bughaw
Pagningningin mga tala at araw
Mamumulang muli ang silangan
Sa bagong simula ng ating bayan>

It’s a battle cry. A call to arms against poverty. To begin anew.

The way it was sang was really gut-wrenching, from the soul. The lyrics Many scenes from the video evoke patriotism and the heart of being a Filipino. Very intelligently executed.
The way Marc Abaya (?) pulls at his shirt with the sun printed on it can be interpreted in many ways. One of them is that the sun with the octal rays needs to shine from inside of us, ready to burst forth. Another one would be the plea for each of us to become the light that our country desperately needs.

The scene where a group tries to put the flag firmly on the ground signifies unity. A quick shot of hands working as one as the words “mag-kaisang-bisig” were sang.

References to the Philippine Revolution/Araw ng Kasarinlan are strewn all over. Bonifacio, Rizal, the Aguinaldo Porch, tearing of “cedula”. A different enemy this time, poverty. Maybe we also need a different tactic to overcome it.

The sad realities of being poor were graphic enough and needs no further explanation here. Something needs to be done. Actually, a lot.

There were some scenes which I wish were done differently. They were just too showbiz-y for comfort and fell a little flat for an otherwise awesome MTV. They didn’t really connect.

As a final note, the poignancy of the flag scenes, specially the ones against the sky and the sun captured the message of the song: A New Beginning for a Brighter Future.

Bagong Simula Video. Lyrics lifted from Habagat Central.

Filed under Bright Ideas, General Interests, InForNation, Inspirations, Music

Everyone wants to save money. Especially during these times when the price of commodities, oil and every other thing we use our hard-earned income for, we turn to money-saving tips that would help us cope with the current situation.

These practices are based on personal experiences and thoughts, or learned from others or through reading. Disclaimer: They have worked for me but are not meant to be professional advise. You decide how to use them, if at all.

What better way to save than with the ubiquitous mobile phone.

Don’t Use It. If it can wait for later when you see the person you need to reach, postpone calling or texting. If you can make a free landline-to-landline call, don’t spend your talk time. Even if or just because you can. If your plan allows you 100 minutes worth of calls and you only get to use a portion, the tendency is to use up what’s left and “it would go to the telecoms coffers.” Anyway you’ve paid for it, right? Having a mindset like this just promotes a spendthrift attitude. Pretty soon, you’ll end up using more than your subscription minutes.

Use Missed Call as a Signal That You Are Near. I used to fetch my wife when she was still working. I’d let call her when I am near but would let her phone ring once or twice. That would be her cue to pack up and wait. It save us a few minutes and a few pesos. But done regularly.. you get the picture.

Missed Call Equals “K”. One thing I have not tried yet is equate the missed call with “k”. You know, just to say we got the message or we agree. If you think of it, if you sum up all the k’s for one day from the three telecom giants, I think they would amount to a several thousand pesos or so. If you translate that into the local economy, that might be a million pesos saved per month, at least.

Pause and Read. One of the mistakes I make is respond immediately with one liners, or answer what my texter asks. Then, after seeing the “Message Sent” on my screen, I realize that I could have included some other details that might be asked, or some question that I would like answered. Or in my haste, not responding would have been okay, too.

Communicate Clearly. When you do call or text, make sure that your message is clear. Thought there are widely used contractions and lingo for texting, never assume that everyone understands or “speaks” it. Your recipient might ask for a re-send. Think also of the potential risks that a wrongly-understood message can cause: botched business deals, relationship strains, missed appointments, and so on. Be clear. Be concise. Get your message across clearly.
A personal choice that I made was to get a mobile phone that would suit my needs to call and text. It would be great if it had other fancy stuff like a camera, mp3 player, radio, bluetooth and the works. But if this would come with a price, I’d pass up that model and end up getting the almost out-of-production phone. So up to now, I still have my Nokia 2600. I will replace itwhen it fails to do what it’s supposed to do: Call and text.
Some other things I didn’t get were accessories, casings, ringtones, etc. While I would like to retain my “individuality,” I’d rather do it in my work and actions and not spend for it. I don’t see the need to get my own personal message alert or designer casing. Those are not the reasons why I got a cellphone. Call me a utilitarian, a function-before-form kind of person - but hey, it’s money not spent and directed to better use.
While the money-saving attitude goes on high alert during hard times, the trick is to make it a habit whatever purchasing power the peso or dollar or might (or might not) have. Saving is a habit that can be inculcated with everyday routine such as using your mobile phone.
I hope to follow this up with some other tips with commuting, daily work and even food.

How about you? How do you save?

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3 June 2008

School in a Flash (Disk)

How about a school that you can take anywhere? As long as there is a computer that can read a flash disk, you can.

In a post about a big dream, several ideas were presented for a free elearning school. A commenter wisely asked what I have been doing since that time. Though there were some advances made in the areas of networking and knowledge build-up, there were significant manifestations of progress.

Until now.

Last Saturday, I made a presentation about entitled e-Learning: Open, Free and Portable. Here is a short summary.

About 10 years ago, e-Learning existed. The main problem then was the use of expensive software and proprietary content. Almost always, budget was a constraint.

Fast forward to 2008.

e-Learning is Free. The proliferation of free and open-source software has benefited all sectors of society, including and most specially education. While commercial tools are also available, dependable and arguably affordable, there exists a whole gamut of no-cost applications downloadable and free. Even support and help can be had from the forums and communities. The following “suite” can already create engaging content.
Moodle - Learning Management System
GIMP - Image Editing
WINK - Screen Capture
Audacity - Audio Recording and Editing
Though varying degrees of expertise and skills are needed, the mere availability of the software is an enabler to developing countries like ours.

e-Learning is Open. The internet has made available an abundance of knowledge never before seen in our history. With a click of a mouse, millions of pages worth of information is freely available. With MIT leading the way in sharing their resources through the MIT Open Course Ware project, many universities have followed suit. There are some projects that I know of commissioned by CHED which will be released through a similar vehicle. The people behind Wikipilipinas are to embarking on a repository of OER (something I wanted to do with eLearningport.com, which will now become a connector of sorts).
With content being open and shared, education can now be a distributed faster, better and more efficiently.

eLearning is Portable. Internet access, or rather the lack of it, is one of the barriers to eLearning. While doing eLearning online clearly has great benefits, it may be necessary to develop courses that do not need connection to the web, or at least constant connection.

School inside!

eLearning is portable, Now, you can put your school in a flash disk.

The point that I wanted to get across was really the last one. Instead of using a presentation software for by visuals, I used Moodle in a USB drive. I got StickyMoodle from VLEMiddleware which packaged all the requirements for a Moodle installation.

A portable school. School in a flash. Education in your pocket. Learning with a stick.

What a concept!

Wouldn’t it be great if those who couldn’t go to regular school be able to have the chance to get an education too?

Filed under Bright Ideas, TEaCHandLEARN, Tech

11 May 2008

Pangea Day and the Filipina Behind It

Pan - entire; Gaea - also spelled as gaia - meaning earth. Pangea Day, literally Entire Earth Day.

This is not about the Earth Day celebrated some weeks back (though I’m all for that too) where we turned off our lights for one hour. This is about a dream come true about a dream. A dream shared by everyone on earth.

Her dream: World Peace, like you, me and the beauty pageant contestant. It is really our desire, right. But we ask ourselves “But what can one person do?” I think she asked the same question and she came up with a first step: To meet together. I agree.

From Pangeaday.org

In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED Prize, an annual award granted at the TED Conference. She was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. Pangea Day grew out of that wish. Watch Jehane Noujaim’s 2006 acceptance speech now.

Pangea Day, the day the world comes together through film.

Pangea Day is over and many Asian countries, including the Philippines, as Technogra.ph blogged, missed the four-hour event because of the time difference. Though we didn’t get to participate actively, it was just the beginning. There is still a lot to do.

Am just wondering if any Filipino film maker submitted, or any Filipino was part of any film or organizing the event, or if there was a Philippine representative in any of the seven cities where the event was. It would be great to hear (or read) first hand info with a Pinoy perspective.

If it’s any consolation, we could trace Pangea Day to a Filipina who had an influence on Jehane. In her 2006 TED talk, she mentions a certain exchange student named Donna from the Philippines.

From the TED talk video:

“A long time ago, about forty years ago, my mom had an exchange student named Donna.”

(Note the Rosary, Missal and “Belo”)

(Donna eating ice cream.)

“And this is Donna teaching my Aunt a Filipino dance.”Unmistakably Filipina, either an Igorot or Muslim dance.
Anybody who knows her? Where is she now, the Filipina behind Pangea Day? Might be a great story for FilipinaImages.com.

Images captured from the TED.com talk.

Filed under Bright Ideas, General Interests, InForNation, Inspirations, The Future

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25 April 2008

Play Chess with Different Rules

I just found that aside from Chess, there are three other variations I can play on my iBook.

From the Chess Help File:

Crazyhouse follows the same rules of movement as chess, with the winner being the first player to checkmate his or her opponent. However, when players capture their opponent’s pieces, they receive the same piece of their color to drop into the game at any time. For example, if a player captures a knight, he or she can later drop a knight anywhere on the board, even if it brings about check or checkmate.
In crazyhouse, a player cannot drop a pawn into the 1st or 8th rank. Also, you can promote a pawn to any piece, but if that piece is captured, it reverts back to a pawn for the capturer’s use.

Suicide follows the same rules of movement as chess, but there is no castling. The winner is the first player to lose all of his or her pieces or to have no legal move left. The king doesn’t hold a special significance, and it can be sacrificed like any other piece. Also, players can promote pawns to a king.

Losers follows the same rules as Suicide. However, the king holds the same significance as in chess, and players must reply to checking moves first. But if a player mates, he or she loses.

Is this part of Wesley So’s discipline? I don’t think so (pun unintended), but it might just help him grow his repertoire of moves. Funny thing though is I’ve lost as much as I did with regularl chess yet it felt fun losing. Maybe because it continues to teach me how to think differently from the way I used to.
In life, maybe you can ask yourself: “What will I do if I can do anything I want, regardless of time, money, ability, training, location or physical condition?” You might just have a Eureka moment.

Extra: For book lovers:

There is a great adventure book that used chess and a certain Chess set as its topic. This I think is way much better than a recent around-the-world-mystery-adventure in all aspects. Persons are considered in their equivalent chess piece. Pawns, Black knight, bishop, qhite queen… and a play on the number eight, the chessboard (8×8)… fibonacci sequence… the puzzle of using the knight to cover all squares of the board in exactly 64 moves… music (octave), etc… I wonder if the sequel has been finished or will be out soon.. The tile of the book is The Eight by Katherine Neville.

Filed under Bright Ideas, Simple Joys, The Future

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