What to do during the NBA Lockout

It’s October again, people. Usually by this time of the year, I’d be opening the TV and switching the channel to NBA TV every single morning. You see, October is the start of the NBA season. It’s when people like me watch live games and replays, and keep tabs on rumors and transactions all day, every day. It’s when people like me become all about basketball.

After a wonderful season, with Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki finally getting the championship they deserve, we’re now left with the NBA’s second lockout.

Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the gang getting the hardware.

Too bad it had to come to this. Fans like me feel the loss of not being able to watch and cheer for our teams. Imagine what the lockout does to the hard core fans. I lose a piece of myself for every day without basketball. Do they lose themselves?

There’s more to read right here.

2011
10/12
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No longer the greatest shoes never made

Those are pretty awesome kicks, right?

The Past

Tinker Hatfield, Nike designer, was asked to design shoes in 1989 for the second chapter of the Back to the Future series. He created the Nike MAGs, a power-lacing and self-illuminating pair of shoes. While riding a hover board, Michael J. Fox made these shoes the most famous never made.

In 2005, an online petition asking for the shoes to come back caught Tinker’s attention. With nothing else but the original prop shoe from the film, Tinker and Tiffany Beers, footwear innovator, began rebuilding the Nike MAG from scratch. After six years, three restarts and thousands of hours, they finally got a perfect replica of the original.

There’s more to read right here.

2011
10/11
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The Game Show that has America Buzzing

A couple of weeks ago, my mom, my brother and I were in my room watching TV. We were checking all the networks we frequently watch. Most of the shows of History, National Geographic, Discovery, Star Movies, HBO and AXN during that particular hour were pretty “uninteresting”. All that changed when I flipped the channel to Star World.

BOO-YA! It was a new game-show. Standing right there in the middle of the stage was a big African-American man trying to bounce ping pong balls from one plate, to two others and then into a fish bowl. He needed to put three ping pong balls inside the fish bowl within a minute. It was pretty frustrating to see near misses. Good thing the dude won that round.

I just made that title up. I forgot what the name of the challenge is. :p

There’s more to read right here.

2011
10/11
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It’s about the video games, baby!

For a couple of months now, my cousins and I have been quite addicted to the video games Drum Mania and Rock Band. It comes as no surprise since we’re all musically inclined. HAHA. Well yeah, it’s not a new thing anymore but it’s just recently that we really spent much time and a few hundred bucks to have some foolish bonding time. I think these games are cool because it lets us play musical instruments even outside our homes and churches.

I think the reason why we enjoy playing Drum Mania so much is because we get to compete against one another and kick each other’s butts. Moreover, the song list is pretty cool, although we can’t understand what they mean since most are Japanese Pop (J-Pop). On the other hand, we enjoy Rock Band so much more because it lets us play songs as one band, something we can’t do because our instruments are in separate homes.

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2011
10/11
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Hyperspecialization: The Future of Work

Remember how the division of labor works? Bring it a notch higher and you’ll get hyperspecialization. The concept, unsurprisingly, was inspired by Adam Smith’s concept of the division of labor. It is demonstrated when a big job assigned to a single person is broken down into a number of smaller jobs that are assigned to a greater number of people.

Hyperspecialization is the separation of work leading to improvements in speed, quality and cost.

The current trend is to break down jobs into smaller tasks (as evidenced by Boeing’s initiative to build the 787 Dreamliner, albeit the unfortunate result). The current rise of knowledge work and communications technology is perfect for hyperspecialization to flourish. Intangible knowledge-based goods and information can be transported anywhere, anytime, without cost and without delay.

There’s more to read right here.

2011
10/11
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Of Online Conflict

A growing number of people are getting into Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. However, most of them don’t know how to use social media responsibly. Still, a number of people continue to abuse online freedom. Having fake accounts make people feel anonymous, so to speak, and this gives them the balls to thrash enemies online. Creating false information about somebody is easy and spreading it is easier. Imagine how much heat someone can take from a community of haters. Although it would be hard to determine what is true and what is not, the sheer amount of information would be hard to deal with. Social media tools give us power to say anything we want, good or bad; so, it’s obvious that misusing social media is very easy.

There are just some people who are gonna hate on you because they want to.

Yes, the internet allows us to hammer our adversaries. Imagine how bad it would be if these ‘adversaries’ are organizations. Thrashing a brand would be pretty easy because we have social media, our networks and plenty of bad experiences to motivate us. Moreover, it’s way too easy to turn one small bad experience into a big deal.

There’s more to read right here.

2011
10/11
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A new way for a new day

Some weeks ago, our professor organized a seminar to help us with our blog writing. He invited some Organizational Communication graduates from UP Manila (Alvina Antonio, Alps Aguado and Ingrid Cudia). During her turn, Ate Alvina told us that we wouldn’t have trouble being inspired to write entries because we have the internet and, our experiences and interests to draw from. So, I immediately thought of what I could write about. (Sorry for zoning out on you, Ate Alvina. Here’s my peace-offering.)

One of the things I enjoy most is music. I’ve enjoyed it since elementary school. The love for it was never hard to develop, being surrounded by people who are so passionate about it. It was in high school when I started writing my music. Here are some reasons why I did: it allowed me to express myself, my thoughts and feelings; it let me make others appreciate music; and it made me look cool. HAHA! I never intended to get famous; I knew I was never that good in the first place. However, there are those who are and they choose to do something about it.

There’s more to read right here.

2011
08/11
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Communication Evolution: The emergence of Social Media

Like most people, I have witnessed how fast the different ways to communicate have evolved. I was fascinated with how, after only a few months’ time, new ways and tools presented themselves as better alternatives.

"OrCom Photo 1: Development of Communication"

The ways how we communicate have changed dramatically since the first word was uttered.

I recall seeing people walking around with beepers strapped to their belts (cause back then, having a beeper was the in thing). Some even had two – one for work and one for family. Also, I remember seeing my dad using the first mobile phone (a tall and fat Globe phone) owned by anyone in our family. I was about 5 then so I can’t remember the exact details. However, I‘m pretty sure it was only meant for calling. I remember thinking how pointless it was that they had letters with numbers on the keypad. The letters never did matter until the decade that followed.

There’s more to read right here.

2011
08/10
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Task at hand: Academic blog

I’ve never really done too much writing online. I remember having an old blog where entries were about an “interest.” I also had a Multiply account, however, that was primarily for looking at my friends’ photo albums. After having Friendster, Plurk and Facebook accounts, I can safely say that I have and still participate in social media.

As a communication major, I have to do my best to learn its aspects. I haven’t realized the importance of having social media accounts until now. I just had them so I wouldn’t be left behind. There’s more to read right here

2011
06/25
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“How much have you changed?”

Last Saturday, Sir Barry asked us how much we have changed since entering the university and consequently, the Organizational Communication program. I recalled how I used to think as a Computer Science student a few years back. Honestly, all the talk I heard about how easy it is to get communication degrees made me think ‘less’ of these programs. After a year of trying to love ComSci, I eventually gave up and decided to pursue OrCom. I thought I’d have quite a relatively easy path towards graduation but, man – was I so wrong. There’s more to read right here

2011
06/25
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Introduction to OrCom
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What is OrCom?

BA Organizational Communication intends to present a holistic perspective of present organizational dynamics by focusing on organizational-related communication skills. In addition, the program seeks to address the ever-increasing demand for expertise in modern communication as related to organizations in the Philippines. If you want to know more about it, just click this.

OrCom-mateys!

  • Barry Barrientos
  • Danna Mangalindan
  • Dien Castillon
  • Isa Pascua
  • Jackie Pe
  • Jenina Juganas
  • Joshua Samarista
  • Luigi Crespo
  • Maine Francisco
  • Mara Martinez
  • Marga Lomodag
  • Monica Castro
  • Ria Landingin
  • Rizza Fortajada
  • Janel Salanguit
  • Lois Roque
  • Carla Yecla