The Thrill in Ventriloquism: The Magic of Giving Life to a Puppet

 

Jeff Dunham and the Gang

Although ventriloquism has been an existing entertainment for decades, it was with Jeff Dunham and Achmed, the idiot suicide bomber puppet that Jeff uses in his acts centered on terrorism, and all his other unbearably funny and cute characters that the whole world recognized the genius in the clever design in the act of talking with puppets that talk back. With that, the whole show took off to the lane of greatness.

 

The art of ventriloquism is not as easy as it seems, or rather it is just as hard as it looks like. In a way a ventriloquist is like being an actor on stage, but the role demands more skill than just being able to fulfill the emotions needed for the play. How can a ventriloquist make a puppet talk without moving his (the ventriloquist) mouth? The ability to do so is the most amazing feature in the act.

However, when one achieves this skill with such finesse that he can do the act with a good quality of voice and also be able to change this voice at will, then he will just have to possess a good sense of humor to get started. It is important for a ventriloquist to have the wits and the humor to pull off a good show; otherwise it will just be a blunt conversation between a doll and a guy who has his hand underneath the doll. As you can see in Dunham’s shows, humor form a huge part in making the show successful. His acts with his characters that were described by the Times as “politically incorrect, gratuitously insulting and ill tempered” are instant hits with the folks because he talks so naively to them while they are most of the times grouchy and cranky.

Aside from being able to voice out the snide that his characters make without moving his lips and having a good sense of humor, a good ventriloquist should act cool, while talking, asking, and even arguing with the character whose lines actually comes from him. And while he is at that, he must be able to exert flexibility and versatility in uttering his and his characters lines without making the show a one-man act. It is said that with constant and persistent practice it is not impossible for one to learn the art of ventriloquism.

One could very well say that ventriloquism is a magic trick where a man brings a mechanical figure to life. Ventriloquism brings the enchantment of life to a toy, and so it would seem that the fairytale puppeteer Gepetto is not the only one who can make a Pinocchio.

BPO Offshore Outsourcing: A Win-Win Strategy

Global interdependence is manifested in more areas of technology, especially in the internet. And now it is observed in strategic decisions of businesses around the world too, particularly in outsourcing. A lot of people are talking about how advantageous it is to resort to BPO offshore outsourcing services. In fact, the industry is growing at 30% with the developing countries currently leading the way. But what is it really that makes it a great decision for businessmen to outsource? In short, what makes this a good and effective strategy?

Firstly, you have the advantages of cutting down the cost of labor expenses, the time-efficiency of the BPO services, the effectiveness and quality outputs. And to sum all of that, you get an increase of profit. But all these advantages will pour into your business if you get that one major key to all of these.

It all comes down to the expert skills of the workforce of a BPO outsourcing company. All the advantages that you can get from BPO offshore outsourcing comes down to the excellent services of BPO professionals. Some developing countries who were mentioned earlier as the leaders in the BPO industry are naturally endowed with a vast pool of excellent workforce, already proficient in English whether in pen or in speech. This is especially true in India and the Philippines. Catering to the outsourced needs of foreign businesses helps boost their economy, which is why the industry is rapidly growing in these countries. The whole setup actually benefits both parties: the clients are provided with great services at lower cost, while the outsourcing market provides jobs for a huge workforce that is also continually growing each year.

This is definitely a win-win situation. Surely, despite the frustrating situation brought about by the economic recession, the world was still able to smile when IT industry made BPO offshore outsourcing possible.

UN Human Development Report 2009

THE NEXUS: Legally Wired, Available for Release Feb. 11, 2011

The Nexus: Legally Wired

The latest issue of The Nexus will be out for release this Friday, February 11, 2011 with a new cover that features the way law and the internet and computers have integrated in today’s times.

This is probably the first time that the publication have opened the idea about the integration of the cyber world and the legal arena, so everybody are excited to know what it is all about.

Editor-in-Chief JR Lopez Gonzales has already posted the cover page of this latest The Nexus issue in the MSU- College of Law saying , “After a couple of sleepless nights, cups of coffee, stress, tight fund, and a recurring migraine. We’ll release The Nexus before the week ends.”

Indeed the work is far from being easy especially for the full-time instructor and full time student Nexus EIC Gonzales. That’s why being able to finish this issue is one of this talented guy’s “Mission Impossible” accomplishments. Under his brilliant direction and editing, and with the help of layout artist Jed Reyes’ creative hands they were able to publish this awesome addition to The Nexus publication.

The Nexus: Legally Wired features lots of new stories related to the legal arena hot from the internet such as cyber crimes, and also includes the issues on SC plagiarism, the latest activities of the college and internet sources for the law students. It also has the interview with the Assistant Dean of the College, Atty. Alizedney Ditucalan who has been known not only for his brilliant mind but also for his “cool lawyer” fashion statement, and many more.

A lot of people are already excited to have their hands on The Nexus: Legally Wired.

For those who want to grab a copy of this issue, you will have to wait until the final release. The Nexus: Legally Wired is only available for the students of College of Law-  Iligan Extension.

If you want to know more about the latest The Nexus issue or you wanted to contact with the EIC of the said publication, you can get in touch with JR Lopez Gonzales on Facebook, Twitter, or directly through his email. Read more from JR on his blog, POLITIKALON.

The Best Internet Sources for Law Students

The Nexus AY 2010-2011 cover page

Half the world is sleeping, and half the world is online. (Major in Facebook, anyone?) 🙂

Well, not every one is using the internet checking out the updates on their Facebook profiles. There are also some of us who are searching for information relevant to the study of law and the legal profession.

The internet is a huge source of digital information about virtually anything under the sun. It has become easier for us to search for the cases to read and notes to study on. It takes us only a few seconds to get the information we want since all these are only a few clicks away. But sometimes we get annoyed with our dear friend Mr. Google because of the irrelevant pages that are included on its results page. If you want to skip Google in searching for law notes, SCRA, rules of courts and case rulings, here are 5 sites that you can visit, browse and subscribe to.

1. Supreme Court of the Philippines website – This is the main website of the judiciary department of the Philippines. Here you can find full SCRA transcripts, laws, policies, circulars, orders and rules of court, and many more updates on the legal and judiciary arena.
2. Chan Robles Virtual Law Library – This site is one of the favorites of many law students. It contains full SCRA transcripts, past bar exam questions, past and existing laws and many other legal texts. They also provide review notes, but not all of these notes are available for free. You can also find past bar exam questions here, but not all questions have suggested answers provided on them. The Chan Robles Virtual Library is owned and managed by the Law Firm of Chan Robles and Associates.
3. LawPhil.Net – This is my personal favorite source for full text SCRA cases. I prefer it over Chan Robles since it has a better webpage color (white and lavender). It also provides laws and updates on the judiciary department, but unlike Chan Robles it doesn’t provide notes for bar reviews.
4. BATASNatin.Com – This is a good site to start learning all about the Philippine legal arena. It provides information both for the newbies who are trying to have a good grasp with the legal profession and the Philippine laws, and for those professionals and lawyers who are trying to sharpen and continually update themselves with what’s going-on in the judiciary system via the internet. One thing unique with BATASNatin.Com is that it allows anyone to submit relevant articles and other contributions to the site, anything related to the laws and the legal profession, such as your opinion regarding a certain policy or court decision.
5. Scribd – This is not a site exclusively dedicated for the legal arena, but this is a great source of law reviewers and past bar exam questions, either with or without suggested answers. You can also find some documents of case digests uploaded by many Scribd users. You can download the files as PDF (Portable Document Format), MS Word or text files, depending on your preferences.

These are the 5 most popular sources but there are many other sites you can visit if you don’t want to use these sites.

Now let’s get to the “juice-ier” part. Here are the top 5 sites where you can search for case digests, and I’ll keep it short.

1. Philippine laws and legal system — JLP-Law Blog
2. Case Digests of Supreme Court Decisions
3. UST Law Review
4. Case Digest for Law Students
5. Pinay Lawyer.Com

We have to admit that there are times that our head can’t handle dealing with the whole SCRA transcript, and a case digest helps us understand the whole thing that would have sounded to Greek to us (this is especially true for those who are beginners in the study of law). Still, as our lawyer professors would tell us, reading the whole case transcript still provides more knowledge than the case digest.

These are only few of the thousands of sites on the virtual world, so if you think that these sources can’t give you what you are looking for, you can search them up on Google or Yahoo. Remember that in searching on the internet the major skill you will need is a good amount of resourcefulness.

Hope this helps. Believe in yourself! 🙂