"The End"

The End.  Isn’t it odd to read an article that starts with the end? Just like how we conform to the idea of typecasting and consistency, we forever think of ending as plainly as it seems, end. After watching a movie or reading a book, we never get bothered on what will happen next to the characters. The story will linger in us for a while but soon it will be left in oblivion and even if we remember, only up to the act where the writer ended it. Such ending happens only in reel, but in real life, it’s a different thing.

The End. Sometimes we’re happy about it, but oftentimes, we fear it, hate it, avoid it, and deny it. We all know that everything will have to end sooner or later, but nobody believes it until the time has come and most of us unprepared. We’re taking things for granted, getting hooked with the materialistic things, falling hard in love with our present, that leaving everything behind totally get us insane. Ending is not synonymous with leaving, goodbye, or dying. It just the end of the chapter and there’s a lot more to life after it.

Things that do matter are the beginning of something after the previous ending. What happens after closing the once open ended relationship? Where are you going after ending an employment? How will you move on from one episode to another? As the year 2011 bid us goodbye, the year 2012 greeted us with lots of things in store for us. In between of yesterday and today, of people coming and going, of holding on and letting go, life takes another turn towards the inevitable changes with no other direction but to move forward. 

Forgive yourself for the wrong you did, for things you didn’t do and should have done then forgive others for what they did to you. Make peace with yourself and everyone around you. We can build a better world by starting it within ourselves. Every ending is the start of something better even the end of life here on earth promises a greater, highly rewarding beginning! Let’s all kick off the year with renewed hope, faith and love!

"Temperament" Portraits of OBRA

Summer is no excuse for OBRA to laze around; but definitely a chance to pump up more excitement into the hottest time of the season. OBRA’s young professionals get into the coolest nature escape with simply off-the milieu outfits but nonetheless completely unique arts of photography. Nash Anggahan, amazingly paired-off the idea of executives at work with nature wildness, which eventually led to the concept of “Temperament” Portraits of OBRA Incorporated.

Not a corporate-inspired, not quite a depiction of strangeness. Nash directed something that was equal parts formal and savage; fashionable, but with an exotic, wilderness vibe. “Temperament” Portraits of OBRA Incorporated featured OBRA Executive Boards in their first ever fashion photography as newly reinstated OBRA Incorporated with reformed objectives and extended fields of expertise. 

OBRA officers made up of Founding Director Nash Anggahan, Artistic Director Jesie Barandino, Creative  Directress Herna Estillore, Training Head Romel Marfa, Finance Manager Juvy Dincol, Business Unit Head Archipus Perucho, Marketing Manager Uel Ceballos, Sponsorship Head Kristine Tongson, and Publicity and Promotions Head Allan Sandoval set off to the homey paradise of Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife to carry out the “Executives at nature” appeal. Wardrobe mistress Juvy Dincol, made everyone in the team to dress in various characters of business personalities, all with blend of conservative and unconventional styles, while Nash Anggahan led the models to their perfect spot, creating a fabulous story out of each photo shot. Albert Gallano, helped build the striking attitudes of the models with his masterpiece of expressive and highly revealing style of hair and make-up. Defying the conventional style, “Temperament” turned the mismatched fashion elements to a incomparably artsy output. Explore more of OBRA’s complete photos and learn of their events and other creative-filled activities. Visit www.obraincorporated.com.

Passion Sunday

More than hundreds of Catholics were gathered at the St. Peter Church in Commonwealth, Quezon City to attend the Palm Sunday Mass yesterday.  Palm Sunday or “Passion Sunday” signals the beginning of Holy week as Christians celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ in the Jerusalem week before his death and resurrection. 

Palm frond vendors usually stay overnight in Church sideways with their mat laid and their whole family sat on it. Everyone’s busy working on the palm branches to be sold to mass attendees the following day.  The first service starts as early as 4AM and the last one is held at 9PM in the evening.  This celebration remembers the time when Jesus entered Jerusalem and the crowds cheered on him by waving the palm branches and covering his path with those palm fronds. 

Swarms of people were exuded with overwhelming faith as they altogether cheered and waved their palm fronds vigorously while the ministers sprinkled holy water to them. It has been a long-time Catholic tradition to have their palm fronds blessed with holy water and have it placed on the entrance door to keep away the bad spirits and other unwelcome guests.

Palm Sunday is only the start of the week-long traditions. Philippines stands out for being the only predominantly Catholic country in a region populated with Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. In spite of it, the Holy week in the Philippines still culminates with all the solemn observance of mixed up Christian and Pagan rituals. Monday to Good Friday is a packed series of religious ceremonies such as “Cenaculo” and “Pabasa”, the practice of reciting and reenacting the passion and death of Jesus Christ through the art of written verse form and drama. There are some catholic believers who scourge themselves by stripping from waist up, walking barefooted and flagging themselves bloody with rope and broken pieces of the glass attached with strings to bamboo sticks. Other believers do the Visita Iglesia where they visit 14 churches representing the fourteen stations of the cross. There is the “Salubong” performed in the pre-dawn of the Easter Sunday, a reenactment of the Risen Christ meeting with His Mother at the church patio under a specially prepared arch. Processions of two images end up inside the church and the mass then is said. 

Indeed, Holy Week in the Philippines is an appealing tradition of native practices with blend of modern practices according to locale and disposition.

Customers are always right!

 Customers are demanding by nature. Admit it; blood rushes up your veins when phone line is busy all the time, or when customer service people put you on hold, or when servers in the restaurant ignore your request after waving crazily with both your hands! You hate those front liners for not giving you attention while you are actually giving them business.

Weak customer service can definitely put down the company’s position. Today that we’re bombarded with different ways to speak ourselves,  bad publicity can easily be known on Facebook and Twitter as disgruntled customers talk amongst their friends and family about the experience.  When you’re the customer you like to be treated well and made to feel special. Make it the basis of exemplary customer service. 

Love the phone calls, and always wear your best smile when in front of the people. You show the customers your eagerness to serve when you respond quickly to their inquiries and other requests. It ensures them that any business they may give to the company will be hassle-free and efficiently handled. These are important podiums for generating sales, retaining the customers and creating a positive experience with beneficial publicity. It’s just all about appreciating the customers and honoring the company simultaneously!

The Soul Killer

We are smart, strong, in demand, career-oriented.

We want to do things on our own. We will never admit that we can’t.

We have everything under control. 

Yes, we actually do, because we are superwoman of today’s time. We go through stress, exhaustion and overworking experiences; all the symptoms of a successful woman.  But these make us unwell too. Well, it’s just the Hurried Woman’s Syndrome. There's nothing really life-threatening about it, only life-changing.  

We’re obsessed about living in the age of rage. Women who do too many things at once in roadrunner pace – juggling work with hectic home environment and complicated social life – go through chronic stress, weight gain, sleep problems, weariness, guilt, crankiness. We can still do excellent job, but we probably won’t enjoy it and so are the people around us. We are miserable, burnt out slave to time so we try other coping mechanism like partying, shopping, eating and drinking a lot, taking drugs—anything to anesthetize the pain of stress, and then we will end up tired and strained. 

Poor concentration, high blood pressure and even constant irritability are actually meant to slow us down. Hurried Woman’s Syndrome may not kill us but it can kill our heart and eat at our quality of life. We need a real quiet time. It’s one of the oldest and yet most effective “medicines” in the world: down time. Downshift from a life of hurry to a life of slow. Sit in the quiet of the night – no TV, no Facebook, no cellphone – then drift into the calmest and deepest sleep. Most of the women are suffering from Hurried Woman’s Syndrome, because most of them are too strong to ask for a cure. Take time to breathe and smell the sweetness of life. Relax.

Young OBRAS rock the women's month!

With the out breaking news of OFW being abused or accused of crime they never did, of rural girls being sold in the city to work in the club and sell their bodies, of young women being forced to marriage because of early pregnancy, OBRA Inc. (Organisasyon ng mga Batikan at Respetadong Artista ng Bayan,Ink.)  staging of Filipina…Bakit Ikaw? is nothing but timely. Finished written by OBRA Inc. pool of writers in latter part of 2010, Filipina…Bakit Ikaw? is a more youthful take on presenting women’s concerns without sacrificing the weight of issues and the quality of stage performance. Filipina…Bakit Ikaw? was initially a great hit on its grand launching last March 12 in CAP Auditorium,Makati City with students, teachers, professionals, and representatives from media and arts expressed their positive appraisal  and now – getting more inspired to give the best – is heading on its way to a year round staging to different provinces and schools. OBRA Inc. wanted to bring in something that fit the society’s needs for awareness and information, which are lacking still in many areas of the country today.  

Truth be faced, we are now living in time that line between sexes is going thinner. Women of this society have gone a long way as they are now taking more masculine role, especially the part of shouldering the needs and security of their family. This adds more pressure when unchecked and misguided: it brings an imbalance that could be disadvantageous to the person and to those surrounding her. Filipina…Bakit Ikaw? is a trilogy of the different life stories of Filice, Pinpin and Yna representing the true to life stories of many Filipina who labored for survival but were taken for granted and gotten abused physically, verbally and sexually. 

In these rampant renovating cultures, where just yesterday’s trend are quickly left and replaced, OBRA pool of writers headed by Herna Estillore observed and analyzed the cause and effect of everyday things in able to catch up with the fast-moving lives of the people. Their group of young and carefree minds picked up concerns that were more likely to catch the attention of the generation already exposed to the age of rage and chaos. As they say, story can either make or break a stage play. It takes a certain sense of style to be able to pull off portraying several serious issues all at once and sustain the interest of the audiences as they watch the tale twist and unfold. 

From the progressive story lines to the design elements, Filipina…Bakit Ikaw? under the direction of Jesie Barandino delved into current themes from a distinctly fresh viewpoint. There were none of the dull and dragging scenes – instead this was a performance that was far from our usual idea of brain-cracking, hypothetical representation of women’s issues but for all its distinctions served the same purpose of getting across the substantial message in an inspiring, edgy and contemporary approach. “Since it is a straight play and there are only few characters, it is a challenge for me on how will it be powerful. So I made use of few dance scenes to make it livelier.”  said the young stage play director. Spectators were awed by the remarkable dance choreography of Allan Sandoval and Kristine Tongson in the first act, a break from the customary straight acting play performance. From OFW account of Filice played by Herna Estillore herself, the whole stage transformed into the colorful and whimsy Cabaret set of Pinpin’s story acted out by another OBRA actress, Uel Ceballos. Nash Anggahan, the founder of OBRA Inc., maneuvered the technical wherein he set playful lightings against the moody panels, perfect enough to give the audience the bar scene atmosphere.  Instead of doing the third act as serious and tragic like the first two stories, the love journey of Yna and Hener played by Juvy Dincol and Archipus Perucho cracked the ice as they presented romantic-comedy, but no less high-expressive execution to the husband and wife’s issue. The entire play was an awesome success as the crowd roared in applause at the end of the show. It was an ecstatic feeling for the whole production team led by the production manager Lady Lyn Paras, as they had only less than two months to prepare everything. Jesie, proud and happy for his OBRA team said, “The important in a group is team work. We were able to manage the production and make it as wonderful as it is because we helped each other. We worked hand in hand to complete the play. And I appreciate that everyone is willing to share their time and effort for the production’s sake.

Right now, OBRA Inc. is focusing on the school tour within NCR and provinces to showcase Filipina…Bakit Ikaw?. There are lots to look forward since the group will be starting a new Film project, and at the middle of the year will already create the new Stage play script for the next year production. For more details and information, you can catch OBRA, Inc. in their website www.obra.com. “Filipina…Bakit Ikaw” is brought to you by OBRA Incorporated in partnership with OSRAM Metal-lite, Ital Design, Eclipse, Dunlopillo and NBN’s Sheka program.

TIME: the forever running entity

Its 5AM and your alarm clock starts to shriek. Since you are too lazy to get up, you decide to hit the snooze button. In the next hour, you’re already there in your morning routine of haste and panic, rushing your way on the road, busy cursing the traffic jam and the annoying sight of for-display-only traffic lights. You arrive to work panting, dragging yourself through the door while everyone is already hard at work and there you are, walking with crowning glory and confetti shower!  

The issue of tardiness in the workplace has become very common.  Many of us usually blame our late arrivals to traffic gridlocks, lack of sleep, preparing the kids to school, dealing with pets, forgetting something at home, LBM, hang-over, late night partying (of course you won’t dare to mention this one) and so on and so forth. Okay, you really don’t think that you convince them with your reasons. Your boss doesn’t care about how you get there to work, or how you nurse your children, not even how you answer to all your dogs’ needs or anything else if you come late almost every day!

It’s every individual’s responsibility to manage his time and separate the personal concerns away from the profession. Lack of time management is most likely the primary culprit of tardiness. Having control of our time means having our hands on the wheel of our lives. However, there are things we never consider that probably account for our chronic lateness. 

BUSY-NESS MANAGEMENT

No one cares if you fill up your organizer with things-to- do, schedules, appointments, extra-curricular activities or anything else that will make yourself extremely busy.  But you are not a super human. Don’t dwell on foolishness that being busy makes your life lived to the fullest. Squeezing as many activities as possible into the time you have available is like embracing the whole world while no one else can. Continuously staying busy creates only unneeded stress and unwanted eye bag. Get time to relax and breathe, it gives you a rest so you can focus more on schedules that really matter.

CHASING THE WIND

Many of us love to cram. We are unable to get things done unless we’re minutes away before the time. When we’re under pressure, the adrenaline rushes, and we feel fully alive making it possible to wake up at 6AM and leave the house at 6:15AM. Again, we’re a frustrated super human! Enough now, stop making yourself believe that you’re functioning at your best by accomplishing things in a rush. The way you do things defines your character. Sometimes, the process matters rather than the result we create. 

LOVE YOUR WORK OR PERISH

 Maybe it’s not really the lack of sleep that keeps you from getting up each morning. Once the passion for what we’re doing starts to die, our drives to get going also fade. When you’re in love with someone it feels like seeing the wonder of sunshine every morning. But when you’re depressed, you feel tortured having to wake up and go on with the day. The same thing happen when you’re in love with your job that you’re getting excited to work or you hate it much that you pray the day ends even before it starts. It’s either you learn to love your work or never work at all. It’s entirely your choice of liking the job or getting yourself other things to do. Being unhappy anyway is a complete waste of time.

 

Punctuality is the most demanding workplace ethic. We are all expected to be professional and to perform our job effectively. Productivity gets affected if we are often late and our employer will not be happy about that.  After all, we are accountable for our own action. It’s just an option of being hired or getting fired. We all have our choice.