the Signpost

after several career missteps that would have sunk actors of lesser stature, tom cruise has finally regained his footing with the engaging and thrilling Ghost Protocol, the fourth film in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

aside from tom cruise, Ghost Protocol doesn’t boast of any high-powered A-list stars, but it does work in many unexpected levels. the story is well paced, and the action scenes are top-notch, though thankfully not too overburdened with many technologically enhanced scenes (like in films 2 and 3, which frankly turned me off).



what pleases me most of all is the way they incorporated humor and technological glitches in the story (yunno, just like what happens in real life). remember that instructional gadget that’s supposed to self-destruct after spitting out the mission details to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise)? well this time, it DOESN’T. so he had to go back and give the payphone a good whack to make sure the thing fried itself off properly. i gurgled over that.

and it also helped that they had Simon Pegg — who excels at being effortlessly goofy — in the cast. i also liked the fact that the story emphasized the part where Hawke’s team had to rely mostly on their wits and skills (rather than just their sleek gizmos and gadgets, which tend to fail at the most inopportune moments) to pull themselves out of tight spots.

there are a few dramatic moments, too, but i’m glad the filmmakers decided this time around to focus on moving the story along without getting too entangled in emotional issues, which tend to weigh the story down.

Ghost Protocol also stars Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton, who along with Simon Pegg, are part of Ethan Hunt’s team, and is directed by Brad Bird.

my verdict? do yourself a favor and watch this film.

Tags: brad bird, Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible, simon pegg, tom cruise

the feast is over. now what?

December 25 will and should always be known as Christmas day. based on experience, though, i propose another name for it: Leftover(s) Day or Day of Leftovers (whichever sounds right to you).




why? it’s self-evident isn’t it? i’m referring to the latter end of it — starting around 1:00 pm and stretching interminably until the day is over: from the time you wake up bleary-eyed to confront a table still piled up with food from last night’s feeding orgy, until the time your guests and other sorts of stragglers have left, leaving you with a huge mess to sort through.

and we’re not just talking about the dinner table or your sofa. this also extends to your refrigerator and some parts of the kitchen where some bowls and pans may have been carelessly tucked unnoticed just before you tottered off to sleep earlier (out of sheer exhaustion and in varying conditions of bloat).

By “leftover”, i don’t just mean food though. it also covers discarded christmas decor, gift wrappers and cartons, ribbons, greeting cards, food packaging, plastics, bottles, unused food ingredients, etc. individually, they don’t seem like a big deal; piled together, they can seem like a huge, overwhelming obstacle that your brain refuses to deal with. you want to fix them as soon as you can, but after all that pre-holiday buildup, you wish they’d just magically disappear.

Tags: celebration, christmas, holidays, leftovers

as excited as i was when The Dark Knight Rises trailer was released a couple of days ago, i have to admit it didn’t measure up to the alacrity i felt when Peter Jackson & co. finally unveiled the first official The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey trailer (see below).

along with my bubbling anticipation was a creeping anxiety (what if doesn’t measure up to the brilliance of Lord of the Rings trilogy?). fortunately, the 2.5-min trailer doesn’t disappoint. in fact, it’s better than i had expected.

Martin Freeman (as the younger Bilbo Baggins) hits the right notes, and Ian McKellen (Gandalf) is superb, as usual. what pleases me most is the way the dwarfs (or “dwarves,” as JRR Tolkien would say) are introduced — comical, ominous, grim and whimsical. heck, i even liked their song! it’s also nice that Thorin Oakenshield (played by Richard Armitage) looks properly imposing and heroic.

all in all, i am quite satisfied, and pretty dissatisfied, too — to think that we still to wait until December 2012 for the first part of The Hobbit to hit the screens! aaargh… it’s almost enough to make you weep.

Tags: An Unexpected Journey, ian mckellen, martin freeman, peter jackson, richard armitage, The Hobbit, tolkien

for some reason, i got pretty much engrossed in the topic of a book that I have worked on recently – which is like saying Feb. 29 happens every year.

the thing is, some of the issues that were emphasized in the book jived with what I have noticed in the past few years: the growing number of freelance professionals and consultants that have been dotting the employment landscape lately (although experts say this has been going on for decades already – apparently it took me that long to realize it harharhar).

the operative word here is knowledge worker, and it seems like I (and some of my colleagues and friends) had been part of this trend for years now without being aware of it.

Peter Drucker first coined this word in 1959, and through the years it has evolved to comprise several meanings. but based on the book I have worked on lately, knowledge workers will be the wave of the future. basically, this means that – depending on the industry you’re involved in — in the next few decades the current practice of organizations of maintaining a huge workforce will give way to companies just hiring a minimal no. of employees, while most of the other posts will be handled by outsiders (outsourcing, ahem): specialists, freelancers, consultants, contractors and other types of professionals who will be selling their time, expertise and services as self-employed, part-time or temporary workers.

this type of setup would naturally raise some concerns about security and doubts about a temporary employee’s loyalties. Drucker, however, posits that under this system, these individuals would consider themselves professionals rather than employees – rendering “the knowledge society a society of seniors and juniors rather than of bosses and subordinates” – and whose primary loyalty is to their profession, hence the emphasis on “peer-to-peer” knowledge sharing across organizational and company boundaries. (also, i imagine that the term professional alone should entail some adherence to a set of behavior and standards [ethics], and this should include discretion, accountability and reliability).

while this leaves the field wide open to a lot of workers of varying levels of expertise and quality, I suppose the “hiring” factors that most employers would consider will hinge on a few things: what the project requires, the knowledge worker’s credentials and track record, etc. (sorry for sounding like I’m reading from a textbook.)

i guess i am a knowledge worker and have been so for years. for some ridiculous reason, it makes me feel better to know that i’m not just one of those faceless individuals who had been cast adrift in a vast sea of uncertainty to toil endlessly for a buck (well, of course, i am… but now that i know that i’m part of this huge wave, it makes me feel like i’m not so “lost” anymore – because in the future, more people will be joining the fold. meh.)

Tags: employment, freelancing, future trends, Knowledge worker, outsourcing, Peter Drucker