Cine Europa 15




Cine Europa on it's 15th year has just got bigger! With multiple locations throughout the country, more people can enjoy and learn more of Erope's culture through film.

Thanks to its partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines Cine Europa has increased its number of venues from three to six!

As of now the festival is running at the Shangri-La Theater ( 6 to 16 September) who is known for supporting initiatives like these. 

Here are the schedule for the other venues so you can catch them.

Ayala Center in Cebu (21 to 24 September)
Liceo de Cagayan in Cagayan de Oro( 27 to 30 September)
Additional Venues are
FDCP Cinemateque, Davao (4 to 7 October);
FDCP Cinemateque, Baguio (11 to 14 October);
FDCP Cinemateque, Iloilo (18 to 21 October).

Today I watched a short film from France called "Cuddles in the Kitchen" which due to technical difficulties was shown thrice, followed by full length film starring Adam Goldberg called 2 Days in Paris. It was so hilarious that the cinema house was full of laughter!



You can still catch the remaining movies up until the 16th at the Shang so be sure to watch a movie or too. And by the way have I said that this is for FREE!? Just come early as seats are on a first come first serve basis. 

here's the schedule of movies to be screen for the rest of the screenings.

Thursday, September 13, 2012
1:00 pm        Will You Marry Us (Switzerland)
3:00 pm        Father of My Children (France)
6:00 pm        2 Days in Paris (France)
8:10 pm        Everlasting Moments (Sweden)
Friday, September 14, 2012
1:00 pm        Senna (UK)
3:15 pm        Poll (Germany)
6:00 pm        Father of My Children (France)
8:30 pm        Will You Marry Us (Switzerland)

Saturday, September 15, 2012
1:00 pm        Breathing (Austria)
3:00 pm        We Can Do That (Italy)
5:30 pm        Poll (Germany)
8:30 pm       Senna (UK)

Sunday, September 16, 2012
12:30 pm       Turquaze (Belgium)
2:40 pm        The Last Emperor (Italy)
6:00 pm        We Can Do That (Italy)
8:30 pm         Breathing (Austria)

Your Cowardliness Messes Other People's Lives

After a seven year stint managing accounts I decided to lie low and put up a business (which later on had to take a backseat and slow down. ). In between shoots I took a job as a CSR to learn more about the Inbound part of the call center industry.

For the past few days I have applying for a management job in the BPO industry and I prefer to walk in for these job applications as they are faster. Unfortunately, I encountered this certain BPO with ethics that I don't know what word I would use.

I came to their office around 11:30 because as stated in their advertisement that cut off for application is by 12:00 PM, to my surprise the nice lady told me that they only conduct interviews until 11:00 AM. I should have taken that as a warning, well I guess I did. The lady told me that they will let me know what time I should come in for my interview.

The whole day passed and  no message was received.

The following day I decided to just drop by their office I rang the bell and the nice lady told me that "Her boss is the one that decides who gets to be invited for an interview and that if I did not receive a call or text message it could be either her boss is too busy or I was not qualified.

I was saying inside my head that "Wow! I wouldn't be hurt if I don't get accepted at this company, with that kind of etiquette, I wouldn't wanna be in."

The "Don't call us we'll call you" line is no longer used. The trend and the right thing to do is to let your applicants know whether they pass or not. Come to think about it, the don't call us we'll call you statement says a lot instead of just telling your applicant well call you later. right?

I was starting to get frustrated that time. I mean why not put on your advertisement that FULL and REAL DETAILS and stop messing everybody's time and yes I knew something was coming.

The lady came back inside the small office and told me to take a seat. After a while she came out again and had a look as if there is something that she needs to tell me but is having a hard time on finding a way on how to break the news to me.

I stood up and looked her in the face, finally she was able to blurt it out my boss says that you are not qualified because your past two jobs are just of a CSR, of course I reacted but in a mellow way. I told the nice lady "That is find I just thought that seven years of management experience is enough. Thinking that I might feel better she told me further that I am qualified as a Quality Associate but the position has already been filled up, I replied smiling "No problem ma'am it's okay because I don't want that position anyway I am looking for something in the operations department"

Common! Letting me know there is a position that I qualified but it is no longer available? It doesn't make sense at all, why mention it?

For seven years of working in the management side of the business I was tasked so many difficult things including interviewing people for the job and yes I am the one that tells them if they passed or not. Not just that I also terminate people face to face. So I don't find it logical for someone to tell an applicant lies.

Being offered something lower than what I am applying for was something big, parang gusto kong manapak nung mga oras na yun. I doubt that the manager even read my qualifications. Now I am not gonna brag about my credentials and achievements here, all I know now is that they lost someone really good.

Now reading this some may think that I feel bad. Well yes I feel bad but not because I didn't get accepted but because of the hassle that it has caused me. We need to learn how to respect other people's time. I could have spent the time going to other offices instead of waiting for them to have the courage to tell me that I didn't qualify.

Well I guess that's about it.

To the call center HR Managers out there reading this, PLEASE LANG HUWAG TULARAN ANG KUMPANYANG ITO.

Cheers!

Sunday Mass Reflection: 09/02/2012 THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURN

So I just got home from Ortigas, aside from working there today which is a Sunday, I decided to attend church at the mall at the Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord. It's a huge chapel inside the mall where you could attend Mass then go straight shopping. Come to think of it, this set up is very Filipino, remember as kids when malls aren't really that popular for every one, that after church our parents would take us either to a fast food or the market and buy something like food or a toy (which ever you would successfully negotiate) that you could bring home.

Anyways today is kinda special, why? Well I really liked the homily on today's mass at the mall because I learned something new.

click the picture for a bigger image

The Law Of Diminishing Return 

We often say that "Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result is insanity". Well the Law of Diminishing Return suggest that doing the same thing (specially when it is effective) over and over, in time, would diminish the effect. 

No is an exception, even us priests do get this as some point, what do you think would happen if you have said Mass after like 1500 times? the priest said. So it is important to reconnect, calibrate and re-enforce. 

I can totally relate to what he said. In my work in the operations department of call centers, I often experience this just like any other agent. A lot of us would come to a point where the things that we use to do that has been effective would seem like not working anymore. 

So remember, again what you need is to Reconnect, Calibrate, Re-analyze to come up with a new approach. 

The Procession 

The procession on the start of the Mass reminds us that we are on a journey, a pilgrimage, as the saying goes let all the good that I can do be done now as I would not be back on these roads we should always seize the moments. 

We all say that we only live our life once so live it to the fullest, be a blessing to others as long as you still have the opportunity to do so. 

As pilgrims we should all learn something through this journey. 

Honestly this is the shortest part of the priest's homily but I would have to say that this is the deepest and I don't have enough words to verbalize it. But I hope that I got my message across. 

The Liturgy of the Word

Listen and don't just hear. Well this is a task and I know a lot of people does have a hard time focusing on the readings but we should listen to the scriptures and learn from them just like how the first Christians listened to the same scriptures that we read every Sunday, sent to them as letters from Jesus's apostles. 

The Offertory

If you would think about it, the priest opened everybody's mind and set the bar higher when it comes to the offerings that we give every Sunday. Why? what he said was it doesn't matter how much you gave what matters is how much it costed you. In other words its the not the amount but the value of your offering. 

Each offering should be sacrificial, this means that it must cost something from you to give it. Say for example your 10 pesos that you were suppose to use to buy, say an ice cream but instead of buying your ice cream you just decided to offer it. Remember that Christ mentioned before that the old lady that gave her last silver offered so much more than the people who gave more than a silver coin. 

The Holy Communion 

This one is also close to my heart as it opened my mind. Every time when we pray most of us pray for something that we need. But why not when we receive the body and blood of Christ, why not pray to God and ask, What Can I Do For You. 

I guess that makes a lot of sense, so I am not gonna say anything further.


Till next Sunday Reflections. 

Ian