Rebranding Padre Faura’s Notebook as a management blog: a review of my other blogs

I haven’t blogged on Padre Faura’s Notebook for quite a while.  The reason for this is that its former functions were taken over by my other blogs.

My blogs/websites are roughly divided according to three types: Catholic, Physics, and Personal.

A.  My Catholic WordPress blogs

1. Monk’s Hobbit, “The Dark Ages is at hand,”  is my blog for Philippine religion and culture, especially those that concerns Jesuits and Ateneo de Manila University
2. Ateneo For Life is my blog for the promotion of the culture of life specifically in Ateneo de Manila University.  But I made my blog private, because I will not use Ateneo’s name unless there is a Jesuit behind the movement
3. St. Holbytla’s Monastery, “Reading Tolkien in the light of Faith” is my blog for the Catholic reading of the Lord of the Rings.  I haven’t updated it for more than two years, though there are still many ideas in my head that needs to written.
4. Ateneo Latin Mass Society.  There are four admins in this Facebook page.  We post here all updates about the activities of the Ateneo Latin Mass Society.  The original Yahoo group is not active enough, because frequent email conversations clog the mail box.

B.  My Physics Blogs

1. Ateneo Physics News, “Physics News and Features from Ateneo de Manila University,” is my blog to promote the Department of Physics of Ateneo de Manila University by news and features.  I always have this radar for what I think is newsworthy, then I interview people, and write the news or features.  The audience is primarily those in Ateneo de Manila University and the Physics Department’s alumni.
2. Ateneo Physics Teacher, “Mastering the art of physics teaching,” is my blog primarily to help teachers teach physics.  There are physics of everyday life, laboratory experiments, sample exam questions, and teaching methods.
3. Ateneo Physics Handbook, “Documenting courses, policies, and programs of the Physics Department,” is my blog for anything that would be useful for making a handbook for the teachers and students in the Department of Physics of Ateneo de Manila University.  I also post there announcements in Ateneo Blueboard that affect the department.
4. Ateneo Physics Laboratories is my blog for scientific notes, such as links to resources on a particular topic that would be useful for writing a research proposal or journal article.  I shall change its tagline to “Physics research notes and reviews.”  The main tab headers are the Department’s Laboratories.
5. Ateneo Physics Archives, “Archive of Physics related publications in Ateneo de Manila University,” is my repository for all the department’s publications.  I only post the abstracts and give the links to the original papers.
6. Physics Department’s Facebook Page.  This is my hub for all articles posted in the Department’s blogs, and also some articles about the department I culled from other sites.  This FB page is also my storage area for pictures whose url adresses I link to whenever I post pictures in the department’s blogs.  In this way, we don’t have to worry about space upgrades and we can use our WordPress blogs forever without paying WordPress anything.
7. Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Physics.  This is the department’s homepage.  It’s crazy url is bad marketing, so I don’t use it in my calling card; I use www.ateneophysicsnews.wordpress.com.  Soon I shall change the homepage to www.facebook.com/ateneophysicsdepartment.  I only use the department’s site as a link hub.  Once you click on the tab headers, they go the individual physics blogs.
8. Manila Observatory’s Facebook page.  This is where I place the links to articles I cull from Google Alerts about Manila Observatory.  (Do you know that there is a place–probably a hotel with a roof deck with observations–that also refers to itself as the Manila Observatory?)
9. Geometric Algebra, “Beauty shall save physics,” is my blog on geometric algebra.  I rebranded it as a blog solely about my thoughts on the subject.
10. Geometric Algebra Facebook Page.  This is where I post links to articles on geometric algebra and Clifford algebra that I cull from Google Alerts.

C.  My Personal Sites

1. My Facebook page.  It’s private, so I won’t link it here.  It is only for friends.
2. My Google Plus page.  It’s a public page.  It’s sole purpose is to collect all my blog articles in a single repository.
3. My Linked in page.  It is a semi-public page, with my CV publicly visible.  I don’t blog in Linkedin.  But Linkedin sends out very helpful articles about higher education which I regularly read.

C.  Padre Faura’s Notebook

So amidst all these blogs, where does Padre Faura’s Notebook fit in?  I think PFN will be my blog as I grapple with the job of being the manager of the Ionosphere Research Building.   A better term would be a steward.  As the Lord said to Peter:

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute [the] food allowance at the proper time? 43Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. 44Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. (Lk 12:42-44)

I have been reading lots of books on management, business, finance, operations research, marketing, sales, branding, search engine optimization–anything that would help me become a better leader and manager (and secretary and toilet bowl cleaner).  I’ll write about what I learned from my reading here.  Maybe others can learn from my joys and mistakes.  My aim is to institutionalize best practices, so that the Ionosphere Building and Manila Observatory can grow like a mustard seed into a big tree, while being rooted in the heritage of its glorious past.

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