Filipina Soul

Two cups of coffee: Obsessing over the NBA

by Grace on August 8th, 2006

Java. Welcome to the “Two Cups of Coffee “, our series of conversations with bloggers. We’re sort of picking our guests at random, much like in a coffee house, where one finds the first empty spot and hits a good conversation over a cup of coffee.

Today we’re chatting with a homegrown talent from our own network, b5media.Angelo Fernandez of NBA Obsessed gives us great tips on how to blog effectively and the unique flavor that he puts into his site as a “pinoy” blogger. Angelo is local to Paranaque, MM and passionate about books, PC games and detective-type TV series, and of course blogging.

Filipina Soul: Hi, Angelo, and welcome to Filipina Soul. You mentioned in an email that B5media blogging is your “day job”. Tell me again how you got started.

Angelo Fernandez : It’s really funny because I hate playing basketball when I was younger. Then I was introduced to the game EA Sports NBA Live 2003 PC version and I got hooked. I wasn’t just a fan from that point, I became a nut, reading anything I could about the NBA and watching every documentary and show I could to learn more about the league and the players. I was so to speak, NBA Obsessed (pun intended).

My brother Jayvee (Fernandez) was with b5media months before I got in. He writes for cellphone9 and co-authors theaftermac. They were looking for an NBA blogger and I was it!

FS: What kind of experience/skill do you think people need to blog effectively?

AF: When I first started out I wasn’t very confident because I didn’t really have much blogging experience. It’s a good thing b5media really provides that friendly environment to encourage its bloggers to build up your confidence.

To blog effectively you need to believe in yourself. You also need passion! You have to love what you’re doing. It’s this passion that keeps me blogging day after day even when at times I feel lazy.

Blogging is a way of communicating with an audience. So this means you need to get your message across to the people. So blogging should also command a sufficient mastery of the language you’re using. This all the more applies to professional bloggers like us, who are paid to write. it’s quite embarrasing for us to be caught using wrong grammar/spelling.

Also, for professional bloggers, it is assumed that the blogger has sufficient mastery of the topic at hand. I remember Aaron (Brazell) saying that (he hopes) that all b5media bloggers are resident masters of their respective niches. While this does seem to be some weight on our shoulders, it makes sense. We’re being paid for our opinions and personal points of views on our respective niches. And it shouldn’t be just any opinion, it should be an educated opinion.

FS: Wow, these are great tips and that I’ll bring home and use. Tell us more about NBA Obsessed, and how does being a “pinoy blogger” give this site its unique flavor?

AF: NBA Obsessed is an obsessed fan’s point of view on the NBA. I try make it feel like I’m just another fan, like others, just voicing out his opinion. This way I don’t project myself as some high and mighty genius, which I’m not anyway, and scare away my audience. That as an obsessed fan I may point out some things that others might not know. Like I made this post before about some guy named Len Bias who died from coccaine intoxication just a few days after he was drafted in 1986. At the collegiate level he was bigger and better than Michael Jordan and might have been better at the pros too.

Being a “pinoy” blogger has one very important advantage. I don’t have a home team so I’m a little more neutral than say a Chicago native cheering for the Bulls. This way I cheer for many teams that I like, not just one. It adds to the neutrality. It also makes me interested in all the teams, not just one, which is important for blogging about the NBA in general.

FS: And are you as “obsessed” about Philippine basketball as you are about the NBA?

AF: Sadly, no. In fact I know next to nothing. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I really hated playing the game of basketball as a kid (in fact I still don’t play). My obsession was for the NBA, not really basketball, since I got to love it playing NBA Live and not playing actual basketball.

Sometimes I watch our local NCAA games, especially the LaSalle vs. Ateneo games. I come from the University of Asia and the Pacific but I cheered for LaSalle because my dad came from there. As for the PBA, I really don’t follow it.

FS: There’s more coming to this interview, which we’ll post in one week. Meantime, check out Angelo at NBA Obsessed , and the Babbling Introvert .

Tags: Basketball, Filipino bloggers, National Basketball Assoc., Phil. Basketball Assoc.

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