How to Become a Hero in Small Ways?

A CALL OF ACTION! Small Acts of Heroism for our Country

by Alex Lacson

#EDSARevolutionCelebration

Creative Way to Help

Find out things that you can do to help organizations. Check out this video to discover more creative ways how. :)

How to Start a Successful Blog Today?

Joshua Field Millburn of minimalists.com, shared his thoughts on how to start a blog and how to make it successful today. Read his article below:

How to Start a Blog or Website: Step-by-Step Instructions

So you don’t have any idea where to start, right? Guess what—neither did we. We were clueless. Literally. When we started The Minimalists a few years ago, we had no idea how to start a blog. We could hardly spell HTML, let alone build a beautiful website.

But good news: it’s easier than you think. We’ve learned a ton during our ascent to 2 million readers. And now you can learn from our pain and suffering to circumvent much of the tedium involved in creating a successful blog. Here’s how we started our blog, step by step, followed by additional rationale and insights below:

1. Domain and Hosting. The first thing we did was go to Bluehost and register our domain. We didn’t even need to set up a WordPress page first, since Bluehost does all that for you. Bluehost’s basic price is $3.95 a month, which works for 99% of people (note: readers at The Minimalists can use this link receive a 50% discount off the monthly price and a free domain name). Then, we did a simple install of WordPress through Bluehost. When we had questions we were able to chat with the “live chat” folks at Bluehost for free; they pointed us in the right direction and made the set-up super easy.
2. Theme. A good theme gives you the look and feel you want for your blog, allowing you to design your blog exactly how you want it to look. If you’re not a coder (we certainly weren’t), then a theme makes the design work a million times easier. Plus, once you purchase a theme, which are inexpensive for the time they save you, you own it for life. A theme has two halves: the framework (the bones) and the Child Theme (the beauty):
   • Framework. There are several WordPress theme frameworks on the market, but Genesis is without a doubt the best and most flexible choice. Genesis is the first half of your theme. Many themes merely handle the aesthetics of your new blog, but Genesis provides a necessary foundation for your Child Theme. Simply go to StudioPress and purchase the Genesis Framework.
   • Child Theme. After you get your Genesis Framework, you’ll want to find that right Child Theme (which is just a silly way to say “blog design”). The Minimalists uses the beautiful “tru” theme, which is available at BYLT, the Genesis Community Marketplace. Head on over to BYLT, browse their carefully curated collection of themes, and find the design that’s right for you.
3. Tinkering. Once we had our domain, hosting, WordPress, and theme, we spent a lot of time tweaking the theme to get the look and feel we wanted (i.e., making our vision a reality). Then we spent even more time tweaking the theme and arguing about it and tweaking it some more. We also set up a freeFeedburner account so people could subscribe to our site via email and RSS subscriptions. And then we established a free Google Analytics account to track our stats. Feedburner and Google Analytics were both easy to sign up for, and we still use both today.
4. Plugins. We use only a few plugins on our site: “Google Analytics for WordPress” and really simple Facebook and Twitter share-button plugins (since human beings are intrinsically wired to share value, it’s important to make your posts easy to share with others). They take just a few seconds (literally a few seconds, it’s just a click of a button) to install once your site is all set up. And if you really want to play around with some cool plugins, check out Eight Deuce Media’s 11 WordPress Plugins That Will Get You Laid.
5. Content. Last, via WordPress we started writing and uploading the content for our pages: About Page, Contact Page, Start Here Page, Books Page, Events Page, Archives Page, etc. Next, we designed our logo using free images we found online and text from a regular word-processing program. Then we put a picture of ourselves in the header (this is important because people identify with people, not logos). Finally we started writing new blog posts and posting them regularly (at least once a week). And the rest is history.

For actual demonstration, check out his Video Blog on YouTube: 

Source: http://www.theminimalists.com/blog/

How to unlock the Intelligence, Passion, Greatness of Girls

Leymah Gbowee, a  Nobel Peace Prize Winner  shared her life and how did she 

used her own potentials by being an active and socially responsible citizen to bring

out girls potentials as well. 

"I am now on a journey to fulfill your wish in my time and capacity of little African girls. A wish of being educated, to set up a foundation that gives 4-year scholarship to all the villagers who has potentials."-Leymah Gbowee, 2012

Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkxcsrveLw&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLOGi5-fAu8bEvGh0Tf_riVcOgvAU4FxJ3

How Technology Allowed Me to Read

Ron McCallum was born blind but in this talk (TED Talk), 

he showed how he became able to read through the use of technology. 

"Computers have changed the lives of the souls of the people around the world. But I think it changed the lives of the blind people than most of the other groups. Let me tell you the interaction between the computer-based adaptive technology and the many volunteers who helped me over the years to become the person I am today."- Ron McCallum, 2013

It's your turn to share to the world how technology or even modern technology helped you in any other way to become the person you are right now. 

Share it to us. Email your article to jojo_armenta@bcyfoundation.org. 

Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoTSdOkjEVs&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLOGi5-fAu8bGBdmcaxdD_lUZ1wXZhpccQ

How To Create a Facebook Group and Use it to your advantage

Times have changed and it indeed has changed the everyday routine of the choices we make. Not only has it managed to make our ways different, but also our progress. It has become so developed that almost everyone requires it to get the job done. It has reached to the point where it has now become a necessity... Well, at least to the majority... The Working Majority. Examples of these necessities are mobile phones, e-mails and of course, computers. Lots of businesses or works obviously rely on communication and inevitably demand the latest or the modern way of communicating when they're not face front with each other. Besides that it spares you from meeting up every now and then with a lot jeopardize, especially your safety, it also saves us time. Using the examples as tools to get the job done is extremely recommended whether you'd work alone or not, but especially, if not. Working in a group really takes up time especially because of the decisions to be made. Usually, it's better to make decisions with your group when you're all facing each other personally, but that’s not always possible. That's where online work groups are very convenient, useful and efficient. Online groups can be created in almost all networking sites and e-mail enabling sites, but it is recommendable to have it done with the common and user-friendly sites. A good example is Facebook. With the site’s popularity and its increasing number of users and other network clients, a lot has taken advantage of its features and functions with getting their jobs done and easier at that. With that given, here's how to create a Facebook group and use it to your advantage.

     To jump start, log in to your Facebook account and as soon as you get in, focus on the left-hand portion of your news feed and look for the Groups section. At its bottom, you’ll be able to see the “Create Group” option and go with that option. 

      Enter the group name you want or what you and your co-workers/group mates have agreed upon. After that, you are now to add your members to the group. Do that by simply typing their names with the correct capitalization so that Facebook can help you in choosing.

       Upon adding all the group members to the group, the next step is to choose whether your group is an open, closed or secret group. Choose Open if you want anyone to see your group, including its posts, members and information. In addition, anyone can join without the administrator’s permission. The Closed option enables the public to see the group and its members only. They will be required to ask permission to join if they ever want to join. Closed option is more professional or recommended, though not too secure. The most secured option from the public is Secret. This option restricts anyone who is not included in the group to see the posts neither its members. Neither can they also ask permission to join, if somehow they ever manage to find the group under the option of Secret. Even so, the administrator or the appointed administrator/s is/are the only ones who can add members to the group.

        The Facebook Group has many features and it functions well and sides with convenience a lot. You don’t even have to log in to your email to send Document files or PowerPoint Presentations and such. Facebook Group gives you the advantage of simply posting it to the group and commonly uploads the content in a jiff.

    From writing a post to posting a file, it has been made simple and possible by Facebook Group. If you want to post whatever format your file is in, All you have to do is select the options present in the picture, choose the desired file to be posted and click “Post” and voila, done!

       It doesn’t end there. You also have the advantage of chatting with your co-workers/group mates all at once. If you ever have anything to propose or just plainly brainstorm with others on the confines of your house, all you have to do is to access the group settings menu (The gear symbol in the upper right corner of the page) and pick “Send Message” and a sub-window will open up. It is to prepare for the group chat where you have the option to choose who will be included in the group chat. As soon as you decide, click “Start Chat” to initiate the talk.  

      To some, they do not require these options to get the job done but we have to admit that in these situations, we need it, especially if we want to save time. Though as good as it can be, we should maintain equilibrium between relying on these “tools” and what we can do when we are given the chance to face each other up front and close. Commonly these “tools” are only used to prepare and it is indeed a good one, but take note, the preparation will not always revolve around these “tools”.

Contributed by: Jan Miranda

HOW TO DEAL WITH CYBER BULLIES

            We all naturally thought of bullies as someone to be afraid and insecure of. Dealing with them isn't as easy as they would to you, because of course, the bully's probably on a one-path state of mind on taking advantage of you. We thought we've got ourselves away from bullies inside the confines of the internet, and you probably guessed it already. We didn't. The internet is also inhabited by threatening bullies, and not only your ordinary neighbor/school bully. These people can form threats to your identity, accounts, and a lot more if we don't keep caution. The worst part is, anyone can be a social media bully, even a physically defenseless kid can, that is, if they have complicated capabilities of hacking. But for those with the common extent of threatening through the user-friendly way like through communication, blackmail and so on, these are the people we need to worry about especially that we're not too big YET to be even considered as victims of hackers if ever, as they aren't considered as social media bullies, but more of highly-skilled thieves with unbelievable stealth entering your houses in the middle of the night, while you're sound asleep. Given the inevitability of their arrival in your sight like school bullies, here’s how to handle those social media bullies.

ON INSULTS

        The common type of bullying that can be found in social networking sites. Even outside the internet, it's known as one of the basics of bullying, and critically effective. With just words, big changes can occur to people and even the way they decide and their state of mind. We can remedy this by plainly ignoring the one that insults. Usually, ignoring them would make them look more stupid and it turns out that they ended up insulting themselves by wasting time. Though if we just can't handle it, we can actually ignore them in many ways. We can log out of whatever social media we're in, or if you think that the bully can never be utilized by you in the future, there is always an option to terminate both your connections with each other or just simply block them. Though as much as possible, try not to fight back, since it causes more trouble on your part and they usually return once they know you respond to their unconscious attempts to have unaccredited and unnecessary social merit or self satisfaction (because they probably didn't get what they want in something particular or general). As Robert J. Sawyer said in his book "Calculating God", "Learning to ignore is one of the great paths to inner peace."

WHEN THEY'RE THREATENING YOU

    The common threats bullies have within their reach are usually blackmail and the classic threat of inviting someone to have an up-front fight with. The solution to the up-front fight threat is to ignore it or for both threats, it's best to talk to someone you trust about it. Recommended people to talk to for this situation are your parents, relatives or your best friend/s. This helps you gain guidance before you can ever make any rash decisions that you'll probably regret upon doing so. But most of all, it helps. It helps you ease out the pressure and trouble, and it opens up a lot of options and the support you receive will increase your confidence or at least decrease your worries. Then, try formulating a plan, as much as possible a flawless one, and make sure it includes a good part of legal authority, if ever you want to be sure. Though if so ever they succeed, especially in the blackmailing threat in social media, like for example, posting a picture that is very critical to your reputation or spilling information from you that you did not want to expose and so on, we always have the option in social networking sites to report it as abuse. Or if you think that's not enough, you can always confront the bully up front with proper authorities or guardians and ask the bully personally to take the post down without using any physical force as this would be better in most situations.

    All the probable solutions to cyber bullying are usually not needed if we were to prevent it. Being a victim of cyber bullying isn't as inevitable as the up-front bullying because in the platform of the internet and the utilization of freedom of speech with various uncountable crowds who sides with whoever they think appeals most to them, we all become equal in the platform, unlike up-front, we are detained by our limited capabilities, and words aren't as concrete as actions to the commoners. That's why prevention or caution should be a priority upon entering social media. In social media, there are user-friendly settings that give us the option to limit our audience. This is of utmost concern because it can strengthen your security, information and especially your identity and reputation. As the very famous quote by Desiderius Erasmus continues its unending relevance to a lot of situations, "Prevention is better than cure", it never fails to remind us of the significance of prevention, unless our recklessness is more dominant and we have to learn its significance by finding the cure.

Photo source: http://www.sidedooryk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Cyber-Bullying-Photo.jpg

Contributed by: Jan Miranda