Oscar time at the movies, 4 times over!

I was so stressed-out (check story at previous post) I decided to watch four movies in a row when I got home from work. Thank God it's Saturday, I can afford to sit through all of them!


First movie was Doubt. I enjoyed this film in so many levels. The acting ensemble is perfect! You have Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. Incidentally, all of these actors garnered Academy Award nominations for their outstanding work here. The screenplay is rich and glorious. John Patrick Shanley's direction is flawless. This should vindicate him from the Joe Versus the Volcano mishap. The story is controversial without being outright offensive. It does not insult the audience's intelligence. My predictions: Viola Davis, who was just 10-15 minutes in the film, will win Best Supporting Actress. Her acting was moving and very realistic. Doubt can get Streep her 3rd Oscar (2nd for Best Actress) if she doesn't lose to Melissa Leo.



Leo is in Frozen River, the 2nd movie I watched. It's an indie film about human smuggling, friendship (made in unusual circumstances), poverty, sacrifices, and hope. It's like Into the Wild (because of the scenery, haha), Thelma and Louise, and Ang Tanging Ina rolled into one. No mother will have a dry eye after watching this. Leo's nuanced performance was touching without being melodramatic. It's woman power throughout. No wallowing in self-pity. My prediction: Leo should win her first Academy Award for Best Actress.


The 3rd movie I watched is nominated for Best Picture this year. And like Doubt, is an adapted screenplay from a stage play. Unlike Doubt, however, the 2 protagonists in Frost/Nixon, Frank Langella and Michael Sheen, reprise their roles from the stage to the screen. Based on the true story of David Frost (played by Sheen), a British talk show host and his interviews with former president Richard Nixon (played uncannily by Langella). Frost was perceived to be an unlikely choice to "grill" Nixon about the Watergate scandal. He was thought to be just suited for entertainment and the light stuff, and so American networks did not initially sponsor his project. Boy, were they wrong! All in all, it was a great retelling of that momentous event in history when the first ever president to resign from office finally "confessed" and apologized to the world. Gripping and paced like a nail-biting suspense thriller. My prediction: Langella will win the Oscar. His only competition is Mickey Rourke. I still have to watch The Wrestler to confirm this.


The last film in this "moviethon" is Milk (nominated for Best Picture, too). Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA. Penn gives another remarkable performance here, earning him another Oscar nomination. Everyone else does great. It's funny, if not noteworthy, too, how Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, James Franco, and Lucas Grabeel, who are straight, play gay activists in this movie so convincingly! Hirsch, especially, was hilariously on-target! Equally engaging as Milk's adversary is Josh Brolin (Best Supporting Actor nominee). My prediction: Penn should "give" the Oscar to either Rourke or Langella, who are first-time nominees, hehehe. He already has a trophy for Mystic River.

Of deaf ears, numbed minds, and faltering spirits...

I've had one of the most boring and frustrating time at work yesterday. Dimple and I were tasked to photocopy the new worksheets for the Chase conversion. Since the 6F and 7F (Wamu floors) copiers are busted - well, they almost always are, we had to go down to the 2nd floor pantry (Experian) to do it. And so, for almost 6 hours, my brain was lulled into ennui and was reduced to an unimaginative and useless mush. My mind was almost hypnotized to death with the repetitious, almost ominous, sound of the Fuji xerox machine. So this is how a vegetable feels like.

What really stupefies (apart from the fact that I'm still alive) is that the copier on the 2nd floor pantry did not conk out on us, even when we have to print 80 back-to-back copies of a 76-page document. It performed really well! The 6F and 7F machines, on the other hand, are depressingly crappy. Even simple 1:1 copying ends with either a jammed paper or an inutile feeder, after a while.

Which leads me to the 2 PCs we have in the trainers' nook. These two cumbersome pieces of antiquated equipment have been complained about endlessly - to no avail. Try doing your TKS (timekeeping system) in any of these computers, and even if you're 15 minutes early to work, chances are, you're still going to be in trouble. That's how long it comes back to life! It's like resurrecting the dead! No kidding.

I hope that the Chase transition brings with it positive changes in the workplace. It should begin with the equipment. No employee should "waste" his or her time fussing over slow computers, busted copiers, limited PCs (currently there is a 4 PCs to 13 trainers ratio in our department alone!), etc. Employees should be able to do what's expected of them, but the company should make sure they provide reasonably working materials/equipment for the completion of the jobs. I mean, don't expect your soldiers to annihilate the enemies in battle with wooden swords and shields!

Right now, all the focus is on customer engagement, which is great. Although, I think we failed to completely realize that customer engagement is the RESULT of employee engagement. And the Powers That Be can't just overlook that.