Experience "X-Men: First Class" at the SM Cinema

Synopsis

“X-Men: First Class” is a film directed by Matthew Vaughn, focusing on the lives of Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) before becoming Professor X and Magneto, respectively.  The first class of young mutants are recruited by Charles to join the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and trained by him and Erik. Alliances are established and conflicts occur, leading to the existence of war between heroes and villains in the world of X-Men.

Viewers who were not able to watch other X-Men films will nonethelesss appreciate “X-Men: First Class” as it allows them to understand the beginning of the X-Men saga.  The cast also includes Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique.  “X-Men: First Class” is brought to us by 20th Century Fox.

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Special Screening

An exclusive advance screening of the film was organized by 20th Century Fox, in cooperation with SM Cinema, at Cinema 1 of the SM Mall of Asia (MOA) on June 1, 2011.  Cocktails were served at the second level of the IMAX lobby an hour before the special movie premiere.  The attendees included VIPs, brand partners, and the press.  “X-Men: First Class” opened on June 2, 2011 in all SM Cinemas nationwide.

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Cinema 1

Cinema 1 is one of the movie theaters featuring 400 to 1,000 seats where movie screenings and other major events may be conducted.  SM Cinema is currently operating more than 200 theaters of such type in 36 SM malls nationwide.  Other offerings from SM Cinema include SM Digital Theaters, the IMAX Theatre, the Centerstage, and the Director’s Club.

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CINEMOBILE:  Your Mobile Phone, Your Movie Ticket


SM Cinema offers convenience to moviegoers in terms of availing tickets through the CINEMOBILE:  Your Mobile Phone, Your Movie Ticket program.  Log on to www.smcinema.com for more details, or you may click the image below.

Click the image to visit www.smcinema.com

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Acknowledgement and Announcement

- Special thanks to SM Cinema Marketing Services Manager Haidie M. Esmero.

- Please watch out for the opening of IMAX at SM Southmall, Las Pinas in July 2011.

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The author is a blogger working for Valve eCapture. You may reach her at valve.ecapture@yahoo.com or valve.ecapture@gmail.com

I Heart Cafe Mary Grace

Mary Grace Squares

During my time, students and young adults in the Philippines only had fast food chains to hang out to until coffee shops began sprouting like mushrooms in various parts of the country.  I must admit, I was also victimized by the phenomena of these coffee shops.  If you knew me personally, you must have bumped into me in one of the many coffee shops situated in Luzon.  I may be from the south but I have been to the farthest coffee shops from my place.  However, there were times when I found myself looking for something else, or maybe, I was really looking for something new, until I found Cafe Mary Grace at the Alabang Town Center (ATC) in Muntinlupa City.

The location of Cafe Mary Grace at the ATC is nothing new to me because the shop that used to occupy that same place was ... you guessed that right, a coffee shop.  At first, I thought that Cafe Mary Grace was just any other coffee shops I have visited before, so I decided to try it a few days after its launching.  Well, I was wrong.  It is more than just a coffee shop. In fact, it is actually a cafe and restaurant with a homey ambiance.  I just knew I fell in love with the place, that’s why I keep on coming back again and again... and again.

Well, it is not only the place and ambiance that make me keep on coming back to Cafe Mary Grace.  More than anything else, I keep on coming back for their foods. Every time I go there, I order the mouthwatering Cheddar Cheese with Tomatoes and Capers.  It forms part of their appetizers, which also include Mushroom Pate, Grilled Kesong Puti, and Cream Cheese and Artichoke Heart Dip.  Their soups are also must-tries which include Seafood Chowder, Summer Squash, and Wild Mushroom.

Cheddar Cheese with Tomatoes and Capers

Salad lovers are recommended to visit the place as it has a variety of offerings including Fried Kesong Puti and Calamansi Vinaigrette, Prawn Salad with Mango Papaya Vinaigrette, and Local Greens With Chili Daing Dressing and Crunchy Garclic.  Its Mary Grace Caesar Salad is a must-try.  As the description in the menu states, the caesar salad is consisted of “breaded chicken fillet on top of crisp Romaine lettuce dotted with croutons and bacon bits, tossed in a tasty Caesar dressing.”


Cafe Mary Grace also has a food selection for pasta lovers.  Its menu includes several types of cream-based pastas including Mary Grace Mushroom Cream, Smoked Salmon and Cream, and Leek and Saffron Cream with Fillet of Cream Dory.  It also includes several types of olive-oil based pastas including Chorizo and Green Olive Pasta, Pasta Vongole, and Spicy Lemon Scampi.

For dessert, the Mary Grace Squares are recommended.  The delectable choices include Brownies, Food for the Gods, and Lemon Squares. Indeed, Cafe Mary Grace offers a whole lot of choices for people with the sweet tooth but among the cakes and other types of desserts it offers, no customer should leave the place without trying its luscious ensaymadas and cheese rolls.  Besides, they are the specialties of the cafe.

Peppermint and Fruits

I may be a coffee lover but I must admit that I fell in love with the refreshing homemade iced teas of Cafe Mary Grace.  The choices include Apple and Cinnamon Honey, Peppermint and Fruits, Wild Raspberry, and Sangria.  Customers should not have a hard time choosing which iced tea to order.  They can order any of these four offerings.  All of them are delicious, thirst-quenching, and are guaranteed to be refreshing.

There are a whole lot more in their menu and this is the reason why I love this cafe.  There are absolutely a wide array of food offerings to choose from.  It caters to various types of people, even to the techie ones as it offers free wi-fi too.

While I still love those popular coffee shops, I just know that there is something special between me and Cafe Mary Grace.

Apple and Cinnamon Honey

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The author is a blogger working for Valve eCapture. You may reach her at valve.ecapture@gmail.com or valve.ecapture@yahoo.com.

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Detour Photo Exhibit

Taken in Bangkok, Thailand by Borsoto

I was one of the privileged people to be invited to the launching of the photo exhibition “Detour: Capturing the World from a Different Perspective” at the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati Avenue, Ayala Triangle, Makati City on May 16, 2011. The event began at six o’clock in the evening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by exhibitors Cheryl Borsoto and Jackson Tan.

“Detour” features photographic works taken by the exhibitors while travelling in various parts of the world including Singapore and Thailand.  I am no expert in photography but I do appreciate such type of art.  The photos taken in foreign countries are awe-inspiring but what will also catch the attention of visitors, especially the Filipinos, are the impressive photographs that Borsoto and Tan have taken of the Philippines.

Here are some of the highlights of the exhibit:

Bangkok, Thailand, by Borsoto

Universal Studios, Singapore, by Tan

Batanes, by Borsoto

Baguio, by Borsoto

Mr. Jackson Tan

L-R:  Aimee Lin Borsoto-de Chavez, Vera Paquiz, and exhibitor Cheryl Borsoto

Borsoto and Tan were among the top students of professional photographer Jay Alonzo in the workshop “Photo 102:  Beyond the Basics.” “Detour” is a work-in-progress which Borsoto and Tan intend to continue as an online magazine featuring works by other photographers enrolled in the workshop.  The exhibit may be viewed until May 31.


***Note: The photos featured in this article may not be copied or downloaded for any purpose without permission.
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The author is a blogger working for Valve eCapture.

"Plain" Housewives As Opposed to "Sugar-Coated"?

Is there really such a term as “plain housewife”?  Or is it only being used by Filipinos?

I don’t know where that term came from but whoever coined it did not know what he was talking about.  A housewife is everything except plain.  A blogger once wrote that the term “housewife” is synonymous to “survivor”, “warrior,” or even “magician." Well, that's more like it =)

Happy Mother’s Day in advance to all career and “sugar-coated” moms!

No, I Am Not a "Plain Housewife"

I’m a homebased worker and not a "plain housewife" (a term used only in the Philippines, I guess).

I bet most, if not all, moms who work from home want to say the same thing to everybody.  I also bet that not only moms but all homebased workers want to tell everyone that we are not bummers.  I ALWAYS try to understand non-homebased workers’ notion that we, homebased workers, have all the time in the world to do everything anytime anywhere we want to.  Well, let me tell you one thing:  We are homebased workers, not superheroes.

There are, of course, a lot of perks involved in being a homebased worker.  First, and the most important of all, we don’t have to deal with bosses and co-workers.  We do deal with clients on a daily basis but the thing is, we don’t have to talk to them face to face.  Conversations are all done by phone or by e-mail, preventing us from having personal and professional conflict with them.  Everything is pure business, nothing personal whatsoever.

Second, as an online worker, I get to read articles of various topics like law, religion, and entertainment.  I get to read more than a hundred articles on a daily basis which I all have to finish whether or not they are interesting.  I don’t get to watch the news often but I get to read them...with pay.  Now, aren’t you jealous?  I get paid while reading the papers!

Third, working from home is way cheaper than working in an office.  We don’t need to worry about what to wear at work.  Ever since I became a homebased worker, I have stopped buying work clothes and started buying shorts, shorts, and shorts.  I stopped buying stillettos and have began to love flats.  I don’t need to worry about money for gas, the toll fee, and the parking fee (Now, you ARE jealous, aren’t you, Makati peeps???).

These are only three of the perks.  Yes, there are a lot more but being a homebased worker also has its downside.

First, homebased workers are not entitled to any benefit.  Unlike employees, we do not have vacation leaves, sick leaves, and emergency leaves with pay.  We do not have a human relations officer to handle our SSS, PAG-IBIG, or Philhealth.  We handle all of these on our own.

Second, employees do not pay their company’s electric bill while we, homebased workers, pay for our own energy consumption.  If our computers break down, we use our own money to have them repaired.  We are our own Management Information Systems officer or Information Technology officer.

Third, it’s not true that we are different from office-based employees.  If employees need to work from 8 to 5 and they need to work overtime, it’s basically the same for homebased workers.  We may not need to start working by 8 AM, but we need to work for at least 8 hours to finish the job.  We also work overtime if needed.  Homebased workers are more like commission-based salespeople.  We don’t get paid if we don’t have an output.  In other words, we don’t have all the time to watch TV, to go to the mall, or to do all household chores.  Just like employees, we have deadlines to meet.  We are also providers and we put food on the table.

Basically, we’re not far different from office-based employees.  If they have something to complain about, we have our own share of grievances.  If office-based employees are busy, we are busy too. If they are multi-taskers, SO ARE WE.

So, what am I doing in this kind of job?  Simply put, I love it.  I mentioned this in my previous blog and I’ll say it again, a wise man once said “Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

True enough, it’s like getting paid for doing a hobby. But then, again, I am not a "plain housewife."

An Office-Based-Turned-Home-Based Mom: "It's All About Perseverance"

by Vp:

Before the age of the Internet, being employed meant waking up early, travelling from home to the office, spending a minimum of eight hours a day working, and then travelling back home.  Such routine left little time for socializing, for sleeping at least eight hours a day, and for spending time with the family.  Indeed, it was difficult for all employees to live a balanced life.

In this day and age, however, people have the option to work from home which is very advantageous for working moms like me.  You see, I worked in an office for almost ten years.  My work was like two hours away from my place, so that meant wasting four hours of my life each and every single day doing nothing but travelling to and from the office.  Although witnessing heavy traffic was such an excruciating experience (think of getting hungry or wanting to pee while on the road), it was tolerable when I was still single.  But after getting married, I wanted to have more time for my husband.  Things got even harder when I gave birth to our first-born child.  That was when I realized how hard it really was to balance work and family life, until I knew I had to do something about it.

When I heard about home-based work, I knew it was something I wanted to try.  I started planning everything as to how I could eventually succeed in this field.  I decided to leave the corporate world, I bought my own laptop computer, my husband and I turned our home into a wifi zone, and then I started searching for online jobs at various web sites.  I was amazed to see countless sites offering various types of home-based jobs such as article writing, data management, and web site development.  More often than not, these sites would ask their visitors to bid for work.  In my case, I looked for article writing projects.  It was frustrating at first as I had my own share of rejection but my perseverance led from one project to another.  As a beginner, my earnings were only small but I knew it was the kind of work that I loved.  I have always been interested in writing since my younger years, and I always remember what a wise man once said, to “choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”  So, I continued to persevere.

Now, I can say that I have a stable job as a home-based worker.  Aside from doing what I have always loved doing, I also consider this job as the path to my dream of becoming an author of books.  I have worked my way to where I am now, and I know I can work my way to becoming more than what I am now.  I believe it’s all about prayers and perseverance.

Home-based work has not only helped me professionally, but it has also helped me improve my personal and family life.  Beyond all professional successes, still nothing beats success in family life.