Internet Marketing Bootcamp

And now for something completely productive and "uninane."

A compelling force has influenced me to post this, I know not the origin of this invisible hand. Yet it feels strangely familiar yet surprisingly alien all at the same time. I only pray that my weakening grip on reality and sanity will hold strong.

The Internet Marketing Bootcamp: Learn the Industry Trends

In recent years, the Internet has become a potent tool for selling products or services. It has also opened employment and income-generating opportunities to many Filipinos. So much so, Internet marketing has become the latest buzzword in the online sphere.

A series of seminars aims at sharing basic information on the creative and technical aspects of Internet Marketing. The “Internet Marketing Bootcamp” will run for six consecutive weeks from January 26 to March 1, 2008. Each session will be held from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at RCC Center, Shaw Boulevard, Pasig City.

Some of the country’s Internet Marketing luminaries from U.S. Auto Parts Philippines (USAP) will discuss the key concepts and strategies on this emerging field:

· Michael Joseph Villar, USAP Affiliate Marketing Manager, will give a crash course on performance-based marketing, how companies and individuals can benefit from it, as well as the challenges confronting affiliate marketing.

· Email Marketing Manager Alvin Jimenez will present the email marketing campaigns and their relevance.

· Rico Sta. Cruz, USAP Creative Director, will discuss the essential principles in Web design and how to apply them to the Web.

· Copy Editing Supervisor Jennelyn Tabora will talk about online copywriting and its crucial role in attracting and building readership.

· Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Project Managers Gabriel Libacao Jr. and Rhiza Sanchez will explain the basics of search engine marketing and how to convert visitors into sales and profits.

· Senior Web Analytics Specialist Maia Nuguid will discuss how Web analytics can help in assessing Internet marketing strategies.

Marc Hil Macalua, USAP Vice President for Marketing, will give the inspirational speech. Web Project Manager Elymar Apao will facilitate the Bootcamp sessions.

The Bootcamp is sponsored by the U.S. Auto Parts Network, the premier warehouse of auto replacement and performance part brands in the United States. One of the leading players in the Internet retailing industry, U.S. Auto Parts ranks among the top 100 online retailers in the United States in 2007.

The Bootcamp is open for all professional bloggers, Internet marketing enthusiasts, or anyone who has a background in Internet marketing. Interested persons may send their updated resumés at elymar@usautoparts.net or glibacao@mbsautomotive.com. Qualified applicants will be informed via a confirmation email.

Participants are encouraged to bring their resumes as a Job Fair will closely follow each seminar.

For further details, please visit the Internet Marketing Bootcamp site (http://www.usautoparts.com.ph/imb/), US Auto Parts Internet Marketing Bootcamp (http://www.usautoparts.com.ph/), US Auto Parts Official Website

(http://www.jobsdb.com/PH/EN/V6/JS/JobSearch/JobSearch.asp?PN=JobListing&pagename=adslist&searchtext=mbs). – US Auto Parts Job Listing

Contact Persons:

Elymar Apao
elymar@usautoparts.net

Gabriel Libacao Jr.
glibacao@mbsautomotive.com

It's Complicated™ part 2

Life is complicated.

We simplify it as much as we can but all we really do is arrange factors to a more favorable manner of handling complications. Relations with other human beings only adds up to a complicated mess of emotions, obligations, commitments and interactions.

Given that, why bother with a relationship at all?

Whether it is with a lover, a friend, blood relation or casual acquaintance, we seek such relations despite the added value of complicatedness due to the fact that we are social beings. We yearn for contact and connection. Whether it is physical or emotional, it hardly matters. It still gets a lot more complicated.

While living a life is complicated, it is through sharing that life - the experiences, beliefs and emotions and its totality - that we ultimately have a clear grasp on the realities we face. For in those complicated relations, we, at the very least, need not face them alone.

Clarity

This weekend presented a uniquely alien experience: A trip to a "divinely touched" location with the motivation of gaining guidance to obstacles that plague the perpetually troubled mind.

Hoping for an invisible hand to provide hints and clues on how to go about the mysteries and struggles of everyday seems like an idea born of desperation. Still, in a world that doesn't come with a user manual or a clear curriculum to achieving happiness, perhaps placing trust on a omnipotent being portrayed as a bearded man riding on clouds might not be so bad after all. Atheist may claim otherwise, but to each their own.

It wouldn't hurt to try, as they say. Given such an opportunity, the author asked for what was considered necessary at that given time: Clarity. Clarity on things that have been gnawing at the mind and the heart. Of course, with something as immaterial as faith, one can never be sure when such things will manifest. While being free of the burden of such worries is welcome development. Paranoia of missing or misinterpreting the signs (if such things exist) is always a possibility.

To paraphrase Cowper, The Big Man works in mysterious ways. And yet this begs the question, would it be so blasphemous to ask for a straight answer rather than work through a medley of riddles and omens? Perhaps, it is the act of actually undergoing such difficulties that will give us the clarity that we need, and the results are really mere afterthoughts rather than the true answers that we continuously seek.

Of course, in the end, it's really just a matter of faith, if not, perspective.

Movie Quote Trifecta

The truth shall set you free, but at the same time, the truth hurts. So the question is, can you handle the truth?

It's Complicated™ part 1

"It's Complicated™" - Two well-known words in the average Friendster junkie's vocabulary that can easily generate a sudden spur of interest and perhaps unwanted attention.

It seems the invocation of this verbal pair is sure to elicit response from close and not-so-close friends to inquire about the story behind the sudden shift in relational status. Strangely enough, if this author is not mistaken, to claim that a certain situation or scenario is "complicated" is to avert the need to explain the situation outright, whether due to emotional and psychological stress with regards to the situation or inability to fully grasp the reality that is currently presented. And yet the mere sight of those two words betray that very purpose as everyone who is hypnotized by it's alluring gaze begins to pry and investigate on the juicy details of the moment leading to donning of such a label.

The wiser among us would prefer to never make use of the label, or at the very least, chose to ignore the clamor of the overly curious. Still, such trivial matters of Social Networking sites features and functions hardly touch upon the very concept of what is "complicated". Because if one were to truly stop and consider, everything, especially anything related to human relations and interactions, is complicated.

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End

A new year, a new chapter.

At least that's what this author would like to believe. Can the end of a cycle really mean a new lease in life? Or a new beginning?

It is quite convenient to think of it that way, yet, what is often forgotten is that, in order for some things to begin, something else must usually come to an end. That may not be universally true, but it still brings up the notion of letting go. Out with old, in with the new as they say.

But as far as yearly self-assessments go, one wonders if this practice of closing doors in order to open other windows of opportunity is something that one might eventually regret. A good friend recently said that sometimes we just don't have to look back at the choices we make. Yet, the idea of abandoning a pursuit, one that has been heavily invested upon, can be quite.... difficult to say the least. Is it possible that despite good intentions, this tidbit of wisdom would lead to a path lost forever, or will stubborn delusions blind the recipient from the harsh and brutal truth?

The above is but the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The celebration of New Year's day is usually marred with life-altering ruminations and contemplations of self-improvement. It may be a new year, but does that necessarily mean that it has to be a new you? Must we only change only after the 365-day cycle? Do we really need to simply let go?

2008, personally, seems to have started the way 2007 did. Just a whole bunch of questions, with the answers nowhere to be found.

The (Hypothetical) Mathematics of Christmas

Making a study that spans a number of yearly cycles is nowhere near this author's forte, and to be quite honest, neither is Mathematics. As numerically challenged as this author is, an attempt at discovering the algorithms of Christmas is not entirely out of the question. It's not so much as an inquiry of why, or discovering the relevance of such an endeavor has in the grand scheme of things, but more or less a pursuit that can be best described as fueled by the need to do something other than slip into a catatonic state of inaction.

The theory goes that the age of a person is inversely proportional to the amount of phat lewt (or as celebrants of the birth of certain messianic infant, "gifts") one receives during these times of Yule. Granted, this could be an isolated case of one's upbringing and differs from person to person. Still, boredom dictates that formulation continues. To put it simply, as one’s purchasing power increases (bums and hobos not included) instead of your peers giving more gifts, it seems mightily absent. The reason is of course, lost in a pile of sweet and putrid fruit cake, meaning, it’s rather pointless to speculate further as the mind is already slipping due to the sheer stupidity of what’s been written so far.

However there seems to be a reverse of the trend when one sadly departs the domain of singledom and "settles down" to raise a family (How can anyone call it settling down when it's infinitely more chaotic than single life is simply mind boggling.). That is, if one was fortunate enough to have other poor souls to join in the procreation of the human species and suffer the responsibility of raising parasitical devices of devastation, or children, as they’re most often called. Yes, that’s the dumbest drivel to ever come off my fingertips, and the dumbassery can only get worse.

Ok, now the buzz has been killed, time to move back to contemplating the power of cheese with regards to celestial bodies and the destruction of the universe.

The Holidays Are a Mixed Bag

The eventuality of this post, as one can easily deduce, is well, for the lack of the better word, inevitable, ‘tis the season after all. It would be somewhat peculiar, strange even, to have no comments regarding the festivities this month of December. Even for those of different faiths, as well as the faithless.

Never mind the long standing debacle on the commercialism of the Christmas season. Such things are, and will always be, best left to people who have too much time on their hands and/or feel that their opinions matter on scale grander than their admittedly meager scope. The eternal question of whether or not the spirit of the season lives on or is in plugged into an iron lung, struggling on its death throes, waiting for someone to mercifully free it from its misery can best be answered by yours truly as such: Yes, the spirit is well and alive, and it comes in a mini skirt.

Chauvinistic jokes and internet memes aside, the best way to describe Christmas personally comes from two sources. Legendary comic Steve Martin, in his mildly entertaining Yuletide comedy Mixed Nuts, described it as the saddest part of the year, since it is when we look at the things we don't have or can't have. This was further emphasized by an old acquaintance, who, in one of our rare opportunities of dialog, described it as bittersweet. Before anyone busts out the proverbial small violin and ever-handy box of tissues, this is hardly a cry for help by some inconsolable bastard suffering from continuous Dashboard Confessional jam sessions and repeated viewings of Million Dollar Baby.

While those who are of the notion that the glass if half full or have internal rainbows with golden unicorns prancing around in their noggins would disagree, contesting the year-end self-evaluation of individuals is a common practice that some may deny doing, but in reality, the subconscious has no choice but acknowledge the need for such an appraisal, just like in birthdays. As utterly depressing as that sounds, free stuff and mini skirts are never a bad thing given the right circumstances, and to some, life this silly fool, enough to wipe away the cloud of despair and inadequacy.

The Great Weekend Crash of 12/10/07

The weekends, at least from my experience, feels a lot like the proverbial sugar rush.

Yes, that infernal product of nature. An occurrence that have adults who have the delightful misfortune of being responsible for walking weapons of mass destruction, otherwise known as children, cowering in sweet, sugary fear. Fortunately, Mother Nature still believes in balance. As if in answer to the lamentations of a million mothers, fathers and nannies, the sugar crash came into being, and all was good.

Overdramatization of glucose-related biochemistry aside, the weekend prior to today's post fits that description appropriately, if only in a metaphorical manner. The alcohol-charged euphoria was further heightened in the company of old, familiar faces, as well as a new breed of companions who's life stories remain sealed and untapped thanks to the limits of social interaction placed upon by everyone's dreadful enemy: time. Suffice to say, a resilient sphere of invincibility shrouded those basking in revelry, wherein tomorrow was just so distant that if felt non-existent.

And then, it was over.

While the forging of new bonds may or may not have happened, opportunities of expanding the social circle were present and were perhaps capitalized, the reality is that the weekdays has reared it's ugly head, significantly destroying the buzz that plucked many away from their comfort zones. A better understanding or appreciation of fellows who, once mere denizens haunting the area adjacent to the sacred workstation, are slowly realized. Still, that does not take away the crushing despair that the night (or nights) of careless frolicking and inebriation are over. Normalcy has never looked so dreadful, and sleep, has never felt so enticing.

I ask myself, would I ever do something like that again despite the painful crash back into mundane reality?

HELL.

YES.

Birthday Trifecta in Play

Today marks the beginning of a series of birthdays to be celebrated by three individuals who have the misfortune of knowing this author. That doesn't even count the other two who, despite being colleagues, were the lucky ones who have escaped the fate of ever coming into close contact with yours truly.

Birthdays are a peculiar thing. While I do subscribe to the fact that its one of those festivities that only gets worse as time goes by, it's something that we can never ever detach ourselves, unless you're part of certain religious orders who have the wisdom of totally ignoring the celebratory ritual of being one year closer to shedding one's mortal coil.

Still, the notion of recognizing another year gone by is surprisingly therapeutic. It allows as an avenue of reflection of what we are, what we've become, and what we could possibly be. While such evaluations can be done any time we please, attaching a certain time period puts a different and perhaps even more focused perspective in self-appraisal.

To end, I will shockingly share a few "personal"(I have no word that would go a level below affectionate) messages to the celebrants. For the one celebrating on this very day, thank you. Our past may very well qualify as an emotional rollercoaster, but it is how we cope with what is left that makes it truly worthwhile.

To the one celebrating on the 7th, your honesty has always been appreciated. While I would like to change our current social setup, having the privilege of your company dampens the bittersweetness of it all.

Finally, for the one celebrating on the 8th, you silly bastard. A decade of delightful dissonance and brotherhood we have shared, surviving through tough times and remembering (perhaps too much) the good. Here's hoping we have more decades to come you sick and twisted git.