Now that they are not the favorites to win the title, it dawned on me that I am a Laker fan.
It was easy to root for them when Magic was dishing no-look passes in the 80's and I was mimicking how they played when I was playing barangay liga-type basketball when I was a tween. Or when Kobe and Shaq had a doze of Zen and were stamping fear into the hearts of their opponents in the early 2000s. Or when a Zen-ed Kobe had Gasol, Bynum and Odom. It was easy.
Now, well one can hope things won't be that bad. But I don't think it will be that bad. Kobe is still Kobe. Chance always exists. With Nash and Gasol, hmmm, I am smiling now :- )
But what draws me deeper into this team more than the casual observer who sees "Ws-Ls", is that they are an organization who lorded over a former world that's shifting towards faster. A world where pace and athleticism seems to be dialed in and stuck at 28 years old. When cap room is very punitive. And when one can not simply spend to get to contender status. Now, it has to be built.
Over the last two years, where the trophy went to the Heat, I rooted for teams that actually lost. No, I am not Lebron-hater. I think Pat Riley's Heat took a page or two from his old Showtime Lakers. (Miami to me is the Showtime Lakers of the East.) Its just that I am drawn to how an organization can built a team to become what is now known as Durant-Westbrook Thunder or Duncan-Ginobli-Parker Spurs.
I am now more interested in the process, when in the past it was simply about the results. Or better yet, I am now more interested on the process that brings an organization to the result they want :- )
So, for 2013-2014 season I will be glued to everything purple and gold. Not because they are favored to win the championship. But because they (players, coaches and executives) will absolutely struggle and honestly look for ways to win every single game.
"... why think like mere men?"
Saturday
Wednesday
Not Yet
Two weeks ago, I wrote down the grades of my students. Almost half, got what the school states as "Failed", 5.
That term, "Failed" never sat well with me as the apt description of what transpired over the past 10 weeks, an academic term for us. More so now that the framework we use is OBE.
A "5" is more like a "not yet".
Why?
I have seen enough, meaning statistically confident, to conclude that a student who got named as someone who failed can turn around and be the next revelation. If that is so, did he really fail or did it take longer than usual? Was the "failed" event really a failure or the means towards improvement?
Taken in another way, and this time using our vernacular - a "5" is hilaw pa. Hindi pa hinog.
"... why think like mere men?"
That term, "Failed" never sat well with me as the apt description of what transpired over the past 10 weeks, an academic term for us. More so now that the framework we use is OBE.
A "5" is more like a "not yet".
Why?
I have seen enough, meaning statistically confident, to conclude that a student who got named as someone who failed can turn around and be the next revelation. If that is so, did he really fail or did it take longer than usual? Was the "failed" event really a failure or the means towards improvement?
Taken in another way, and this time using our vernacular - a "5" is hilaw pa. Hindi pa hinog.
"... why think like mere men?"
Monday
On jeepneys and Philippine education
Outcomes-based education, OBE. A lovely idea. I am glad that I am part of its contextualized execution in the Philippines. But this is not about that. This is about the business side of it.
And it starts with a Filipino icon - the jeepney.
The jeepney is part of the Philippine cultural heritage. Riding in it is part of being a Filipino and the Philippine experience. Just ask the recent visitor we had - Vin Diesel :- )
But if one is to judge it in terms of efficiency and carbon footprint, I think we would feel differently about it.
The idea that a driver has to reach a certain amount, boundary, before he earns his keep drives the one behind the wheel to behave according to his local optima, yung kita niya, rather than system optima, yung bilis ng paghatid ng pasahero. And one can't blame him too for all this fracas, the Philippine transport system is built around a franchise model. Meaning, it is a business opportunity that serves a society's needs. Though it serves society, it is still a business, thus profit-driven.
This also help in explaining why jeepney operators does not feel "motivated" to properly maintain (or simply meet the minimum requirement) his cash cow, the jeepney itself . Why would he if the price for the service is controlled? His only option, is to keep operations cost low so that he squeaks some profit. Thus the prevalence of poorly maintained jeepney abound. Have you seen Manong driver pump the brakes a few times before one feels the jeep decelerate?
To further aggravate the situation is the fact that there's two polar opposite systems that try to exists as one. From the operator's perspective, it is a low cost business. But from the man behind the wheel it must be customer driven. Customer driven? Yes. Because the jeep has to stop where one wants to alight and it will stop where one wants to be picked up. This dynamic drives the need for traffic management. Two ideas being forced to co-exist will result to an enforcement challenge, actually - a nightmare . Just ask the MMDA and the respective cities' local traffic enforcement units. Of which by the way, also drives a lot of vile things to happen :- )
Now, imagine that this same concept was also used in our nation's education system. How many of the current schools that operate are profit driven even if their respective charters do stipulate non-profit? And if we compare the number of public schools vis-a-vis the private schools, what ratio are we going to come up with?
Privatizing education makes (made) sense and it has solve a problem much like the jeepney system or the franchise model of transportation system. The jeepney was a brillian solution after World War II. It solved the problem of transportation infrastructure by recycling surplus US jeeps and gave immediate employment to Filipinos after the war. Now that the situation has changed, the once brilliant solution that was massively embraced is turning out to be the reason why we now have this massively huge mess.
What happens now if we get the same result from further privatizing, a brilliant solution to the state's limited resources, our education system relentlessly? Would it look like and feel like our jeepney transportation system in a decade? Do our government bureaucrats in MMDA have the same headaches in DepEd or CHED when it comes to enforcement or regulatory functions?
Would OBE be simply a shiny new jeepney in this situation? Though shiny and new, a jeepney still?
I wonder.
But, let me do my part and do that report :- )
"... why think like mere men?"
And it starts with a Filipino icon - the jeepney.
The jeepney is part of the Philippine cultural heritage. Riding in it is part of being a Filipino and the Philippine experience. Just ask the recent visitor we had - Vin Diesel :- )
But if one is to judge it in terms of efficiency and carbon footprint, I think we would feel differently about it.
The idea that a driver has to reach a certain amount, boundary, before he earns his keep drives the one behind the wheel to behave according to his local optima, yung kita niya, rather than system optima, yung bilis ng paghatid ng pasahero. And one can't blame him too for all this fracas, the Philippine transport system is built around a franchise model. Meaning, it is a business opportunity that serves a society's needs. Though it serves society, it is still a business, thus profit-driven.
This also help in explaining why jeepney operators does not feel "motivated" to properly maintain (or simply meet the minimum requirement) his cash cow, the jeepney itself . Why would he if the price for the service is controlled? His only option, is to keep operations cost low so that he squeaks some profit. Thus the prevalence of poorly maintained jeepney abound. Have you seen Manong driver pump the brakes a few times before one feels the jeep decelerate?
To further aggravate the situation is the fact that there's two polar opposite systems that try to exists as one. From the operator's perspective, it is a low cost business. But from the man behind the wheel it must be customer driven. Customer driven? Yes. Because the jeep has to stop where one wants to alight and it will stop where one wants to be picked up. This dynamic drives the need for traffic management. Two ideas being forced to co-exist will result to an enforcement challenge, actually - a nightmare . Just ask the MMDA and the respective cities' local traffic enforcement units. Of which by the way, also drives a lot of vile things to happen :- )
Now, imagine that this same concept was also used in our nation's education system. How many of the current schools that operate are profit driven even if their respective charters do stipulate non-profit? And if we compare the number of public schools vis-a-vis the private schools, what ratio are we going to come up with?
Privatizing education makes (made) sense and it has solve a problem much like the jeepney system or the franchise model of transportation system. The jeepney was a brillian solution after World War II. It solved the problem of transportation infrastructure by recycling surplus US jeeps and gave immediate employment to Filipinos after the war. Now that the situation has changed, the once brilliant solution that was massively embraced is turning out to be the reason why we now have this massively huge mess.
What happens now if we get the same result from further privatizing, a brilliant solution to the state's limited resources, our education system relentlessly? Would it look like and feel like our jeepney transportation system in a decade? Do our government bureaucrats in MMDA have the same headaches in DepEd or CHED when it comes to enforcement or regulatory functions?
Would OBE be simply a shiny new jeepney in this situation? Though shiny and new, a jeepney still?
I wonder.
But, let me do my part and do that report :- )
"... why think like mere men?"
Sunday
nudges
Though we can't always see it at the time,
if we look upon events with some perspective,
we see things always happen for our best interests.
We are always being guided in a way
better than we know ourselves.
if we look upon events with some perspective,
we see things always happen for our best interests.
We are always being guided in a way
better than we know ourselves.
Indian Author, Spiritual Teacher
Thursday
"Rage against the dying light..."
It was the 10th week. It was customary and by-design, a documentary festival for all the courses I facilitate. The image is one of those "romantic" scenes I, a professor, have been given the privilege to experience. To be part of.
I recently taught Business Process Outsourcing, Food Service Management, Retail Management, Marketing Principles, Engineering Management Practices and Service Quality this past 3rd term at an ABET-accredited school - Mapua Institute of Technology.These courses are part of the core courses of an academic program called Service Engineering and Management.
I sat. Watched. Studied. Learned. And then, graded.
I saw more than 100 of 8-minute+ documentary films on the various service institutions in the Philippines. More than half of the work, really felt and looked like, in a bad way, student projects. I third, done with passion. And a few, transcendent gems. Gems that have raised the bar for how a documentary like this should look, sound and feel.
Over the course of five years, I have met, probably, over a thousand managers since I started requiring students to produce documentaries like these. I have seen how managers of bangketa restaurants and how managers of big corporations share similar challenges. Differing only in degree of scope. All aspire for better profits and all talked about providing better service and quality. The "how" the only creative difference.
But the most innovative solution I have encountered in solving a business situation and it is even more fascinating because this is a solution, for a queuing situation, did not come from a highly-paid manager in Makati or in Bonifacio Global City who owns a graduate degree. It came from a street hawk who runs a very popular eatery. His solution, slow it down. It was genius, because sales are still increasing and customers keep on coming back :- )
This cyclical 10-week experience also helped in concluding a hypothesis.
I have noticed that those who produce quality outputs are the Students and not those who only paid the tuition fees, the Enrolleds.
My experience over a decade has allowed me to decipher early, between, who are Students, thus needs to be given a different challenge so that they can be better, great and those who are Enrolleds who simply wants to stay the same, thus needs a different voice to challenge them. The voice called Hard Reality.
The objective of this "rage against the dying light" is to engage the students and challenge them to articulate in an obvious visual form what they got from the learning sessions. Another objective is that of a communal learning session, for a student work is seen by fellow students. This approach has its own disadvantages but, I think, its distinct advantage that outweighs its disadvantages is the fact that the student work is not only limited to the eyes of the professor. But its value, no matter how small, has been multiplied.
In behalf of the the future Service Engineering and Management students, we would like to thank Ms. Cabral, Mr. Caguiat, Mr. de Ocampo, Ms. Casino and Mr. Adrid for showing how documentaries under Sir Fants should be done.
And as a personal note, thank you for "raging against the dying light.."
"... why think like mere men."
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."
American Author and Psychiatrist
Wednesday
Tuesday
On Indie films and Outcomes-based Education :- )
This will be denied. I think.
Or it would be put on a narrative that it was taken out of context. But I heard it as clear as Yanna's cry asking for milk. To this person, Outcomes-based Education (OBE) is about doing EVERYTHING so that the student will make the cut. Will pass.
Really? That is OBE?
I do not know if that is the true intent of OBE but that interpretation says more about the speaker's logic bubble and heart rather than OBE itself.
Let me be clear on this. I am not against OBE. I am all for it. In fact, it is a page taken out from the Field-book of my other passion of being an Organization Development Practitioner :- )
I will even venture a more daring interpretation by saying, that if we take out all the esoteric and high-sounding terms, OBE's dynamic at its core is similar to a film director's shouting, "Lights! Camera! Action! Cut! Good take! That's a wrap!"
But if we fail to protect a good idea, OBE, from the elements of this world, like a good project manager will do putting on his "protecting-the-plan-hat", it will not be a stretch if we will see a new level of abuse or an "on-steroids" version of an innocence-shattering overstepping on the Teacher and Student relationship on our hands in a few years.
Or should a situation, as alluded to in an 8-year old (bestselling) book called Freakonomics, happen first before we see?
I think, OBE is like the web. It is neither good or bad. It is a means to an end. But as secondary parents or as parents per se, do we allow our child to surf the net with wanton abandon? Or do we put safeguards to protect our child as they surf the net?
Life has allowed me a privilege to see how plays, films, teleseryes and TV commercials are done from the inside. From concept to the actual staging or shooting. Sometimes, we have to do a painful and time consuming re-casting because the actors does not have it or is a miscast for a role.
If we are to embrace the person's take on OBE, are we not using OBE as an excuse to produce mediocre and lugaw engineers?
What happens to our beloved Philippines then?
Will Hollywood prosper, with all its seedy side stories, if it allowed itself to ONLY crank out B-movie actors and actresses? And not de Niros or Pacinos?
I am not writing this so that we stop here. At a conclusion after a passionate treatise.
What's the use of a conclusion if it does not lead to an improvement?
So, this is how I will wrap things. I think there's a reason why the authorities are THE authorities. They have proven, in the past, that they are capable. It is truly a messy and confusing affair when one finds himself at the end of the universe. Though they may show their limitations, (But who has no limitations?) they are still good.
The ball is on their hands.
"... why think like mere men?"
Or it would be put on a narrative that it was taken out of context. But I heard it as clear as Yanna's cry asking for milk. To this person, Outcomes-based Education (OBE) is about doing EVERYTHING so that the student will make the cut. Will pass.
Really? That is OBE?
I do not know if that is the true intent of OBE but that interpretation says more about the speaker's logic bubble and heart rather than OBE itself.
Let me be clear on this. I am not against OBE. I am all for it. In fact, it is a page taken out from the Field-book of my other passion of being an Organization Development Practitioner :- )
I will even venture a more daring interpretation by saying, that if we take out all the esoteric and high-sounding terms, OBE's dynamic at its core is similar to a film director's shouting, "Lights! Camera! Action! Cut! Good take! That's a wrap!"
But if we fail to protect a good idea, OBE, from the elements of this world, like a good project manager will do putting on his "protecting-the-plan-hat", it will not be a stretch if we will see a new level of abuse or an "on-steroids" version of an innocence-shattering overstepping on the Teacher and Student relationship on our hands in a few years.
Or should a situation, as alluded to in an 8-year old (bestselling) book called Freakonomics, happen first before we see?
I think, OBE is like the web. It is neither good or bad. It is a means to an end. But as secondary parents or as parents per se, do we allow our child to surf the net with wanton abandon? Or do we put safeguards to protect our child as they surf the net?
Life has allowed me a privilege to see how plays, films, teleseryes and TV commercials are done from the inside. From concept to the actual staging or shooting. Sometimes, we have to do a painful and time consuming re-casting because the actors does not have it or is a miscast for a role.
If we are to embrace the person's take on OBE, are we not using OBE as an excuse to produce mediocre and lugaw engineers?
What happens to our beloved Philippines then?
Will Hollywood prosper, with all its seedy side stories, if it allowed itself to ONLY crank out B-movie actors and actresses? And not de Niros or Pacinos?
I am not writing this so that we stop here. At a conclusion after a passionate treatise.
What's the use of a conclusion if it does not lead to an improvement?
So, this is how I will wrap things. I think there's a reason why the authorities are THE authorities. They have proven, in the past, that they are capable. It is truly a messy and confusing affair when one finds himself at the end of the universe. Though they may show their limitations, (But who has no limitations?) they are still good.
The ball is on their hands.
"... why think like mere men?"
rest from within
"With a lot of wisdom comes a lot of heartache.
The greater your knowledge, the greater your pain."
~ Ecclesiastes 1:18
Monday
more than conquerors
By: Christian D. Larson
Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
The Sören Kierkegaard part of me :- )
It is very
dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself
prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One
must follow it.
Saturday
by W.O. Mitchell
What I focus on
in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong
I am or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can't do and
how there's not enough time in which to do it, isn't that what I get
every time? And when I think about how powerful I am, and when I think
about what I have left to contribute, and when I think about the
difference I can make on this planet, then that's what I get. You see, I
recognize that it's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it.
Thursday
New Year :- )
Life I am the new year.
I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice
what you have learned about life
during the last twelve months.
All that you sought
and didn't find is hidden in me,
waiting for you to search it out
with more determination.
All the good that you tried for
and didn't achieve
is mine to grant
when you have fewer conflicting desires.
All that you dreamed but didn't dare to do,
all that you hoped but did not will,
all the faith that you claimed but did not have --
these slumber lightly,
waiting to be awakened
by the touch of a strong purpose.
I am your opportunity
to renew your allegiance to Him who said,
'behold, I make all things new.'
I am the new year.
~ unknown author
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