Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Be Discovered for “Asia’s Got Talent” at the Philippines Open Audition

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The chance is here for anyone with any talent to audition to compete in “Asia’s Got Talent”!

Soon to be the biggest talent competition in the world, “Asia’s Got Talent” will open its doors for individual and group acts of all ages to showcase their amazing skills on Sunday, 28 September 2014 from 10am – 6pm at SMX Convention Center (Seashell Ln, Pasay City, 1300 Metro Manila, Philippines). Anyone who wishes to share their talent with the world is welcome to walk in and audition.

For those unable to make the open audition in the Philippines, additional events are scheduled in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore. Budding stars can also log on to www.axn-asia.com/AsiasGotTalent for more details or to audition online.

“Asia’s Got Talent” is co-owned by FremantleMedia and Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and will premiere on AXN in early 2015 across 20 territories in Asia, including South Korea, Hong Kong and the Republic of China.

Earlier this year, “Got Talent” set the Guinness World Record as the world's ‘Most Successful Reality TV Format’ with 58 productions across Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle-East. “Asia's Got Talent” now marks the 63rd version of this international ratings phenomenon.

Mike Schneider Graces the Launch of Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes 2.0 Edition

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No less than Mike Schneider, the Senior Producer of Disney Interactive, graced the launch of a hit video game that will surely become the rave of all fans of the gaming franchise. To familiarize us with the guy, he was the one who also worked on the first "Disney Infinity", as well as previous Disney titles like “Phineas & Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension”, the “Disney: Sing It” series and various others.

He was the special guest and speaker at the event held last September 24, 2014 at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. Several members of the media got to play for the first time the new Version 2.0, and had the opportunity to battle it out via a motorcycle race. The winner, a lady gamer who beat all the guys in the room, got to bring home fabulous prices from Disney Interactive.

Mike has been in the video games industry since 1994 so he's the expert that you can trust when it comes to the gaming business. He has held roles in production and quality assurance, working in both business and creative roles as Senior Producer and Quality Assurance Manager, managing titles, doing some design work and even contributing to the dialogue script creation on several titles.

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From visionary filmmaker Jorge Gutierrez whose unique visual style and vibrant storytelling technique, “The Book of Life” tells the story of three best friends - Manolo and his equally courageous best friend Joaquin are not your typical Prince Charmings; the object of their affections is far from being your average princess, hence “The Book of Life” is a fairy tale that doesn’t go by the book.

Our story begins in a museum, where we meet a mysterious tour guide named Mary Beth, who is taken on the seemingly thankless task of guiding a group of rowdy kids who would rather be anywhere else, on a tour. But Mary Beth has something special in store for them, and escorts them into a secret room, where the magic of “The Book of Life” begins to unfold. “This particular area of the museum looks like Latin America basically exploded into it, turning it into a place filled with life and color,” says Gutierrez.

Christina Applegate voices Mary Beth and introduces us to the principal characters and their hometown of San Angel. We meet Manolo (voiced by Diego Luna), who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, Manolo embarks upon an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds, where he must face his greatest fears. The object of Manolo’s affections, Maria, voiced by Zoë Saldana, is an independent, strong-willed and fun-loving young woman who is wooed by her best friends Manolo and Joaquin (Channing Tatum), from their time as children to a reunion years later as adults.

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Nowadays, a community composed of condo unit owners from projects as big as the SM properties could just be enough to sustain your business especially when you have tapped on a prime commodity that every household will surely need in their everyday consumption.

Noone can practically live without water, and we value its cleanliness as well. Thus a water refilling station that provides clean, safe and reliable water supply is a basic necessity in all living conditions.

Aquabest the country’s premier water refilling franchise is poised to continue its expansion with the opening of its first condominium based water station.

The store located at the SM Sea Residences condominium complex located in Macapagal Avenue is part of the company’s efforts to tap emerging communities. The company intends to open stores in other SMDC developments such as SM Blue Residences.

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The local movie-going audience will soon be treated to an early release date of the English-dubbed family adventure movie “Foosball: The Unbeatables” as it opens this October 1 in cinemas nationwide, months ahead of its U.S. release.

Originally entitled “Metegol” in Argentine-Spanish and voiced with native Argentinian talents, the movie is known in the US as “Underdogs” and is also using the title “Unbeatables” in other international territories such as the Philippines.

“Foosball: The Unbeatables” is Juan José Campanella’s first cinematographic project since he was awarded the Oscar for “The Secret in Their Eyes” while Sergio Pablos, creator of the original idea for “Despicable Me” and supervised “Rio” is the Animation Head of the movie.

The movie’s English-dubbed voice cast is headed by “Harry Potter’s” Rupert Grint as the film’s hero- Amadeo, along with Anthony Head (who also starred in “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters”), Darren Boyd, Diego Ramos and promising new actress Eve Ponsoby. Additionally, well-known British TV thespians– Alex Norton (“Taggart”), Peter Serafinowicz (voiced Darth Maul in “Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace”) and Scottish comedian Lewis MacLeod, an ex-player for Scottish club Rangers – join the movie as the Foosball soccer player figurines who come to life to help Amadeo.

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From the tour de force thriller that became a bestselling must-read comes David Fincher’s screen version of Gone Girl, a wild ride through our modern media culture and down into the deep, dark fault lines of an American marriage – in all its unreliable promises, inescapable deceits and pitch-black comedy.

The couple at the center of the story – former New York writer Nick Dunne and his formerly “cool girl” wife Amy, now trying to make ends meet in the mid-recession Midwest – have all the sinuous outer contours of contemporary marital bliss. But on the occasion of their 5th wedding anniversary, Amy goes missing -- and those contours crack into a maze of fissures. Nick becomes the prime suspect, shrouded in a fog of suspicious behavior. Amy becomes the vaunted object of a media frenzy as the search for her, dead or alive, plays out before the eyes of a world thirsting for revelations.

Taking the alternately guarded and exposed role of Nick is Ben Affleck. Says Fincher of casting him: “Putting a cast together is like putting a basketball team together and Nick was the point guard. He has to feed the narrative. It’s a ‘he said, she said’ in the book; but it’s ‘he experiences, she experiences’ in the movie. It’s more subjective. You’re not gifted with all these inner monologues in the movie. So you need an actor who is very deft to play this role. It’s 3-D chess, not Chinese checkers.”

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"When there's rain, there's Max's Delivery!" says one of the executive of Max's Restaurant during the launch of the new and improved Max's Delivery service offering more delightful experiences for many satisfied customers.

True enough, it is a bit inconvenient to go out in the rain just to dine out at our favorite Max's Restaurant and we are glad than even during the rainy season, Max's continues to serve its customers via delivery service. We'll get to enjoy our favorite Filipino dishes even during the wet season.

Steering away temporarily from the Gilas Pilipinas promotions, Max's held the launch last September 18, 2014 at Whitespace located in Pasong Tamo, Makati. It was also a bit rainy that night but I managed to get there, and thanks to a friend and his ride, going home was a lot easier.

After dining on surprisingly a no chicken dinner, and everything was not from the Max's menu - a total change since we believe Max's employees needed some break from the taste and smell of their own dishes, followed a program to re-introduce the Max's Delivery service.

Recognitions were given to outstanding performers specifically the 1 Million delivery served by one of their branches, talks from their head honchos and a number from the actual delivery crew sporting their new outfits, accessories and motorcycles.

More about it below from excerpts of their official press release.

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The Far Eastern University Theater Guild (FTG) in collaboration with the President’s Committee on Culture continues its 80th season with the staging of “Makikitawag Lang Ako”.

The FTG’s artistic director Dudz Teraña directs this beautifully devastating, remarkably eloquent and unusually comedic tragic drama.

The production features some of the group’s senior actors including Yesh Anne Burce playing the role of Maria, the protagonist of the story and Ernest John Dimayacyac as Saturno D’ Magician.

The production will run for a limited engagement of four performances on October 3 and 4 at 3 & 6 p.m. in the FEU Auditorium.

“Makikitawag Lang Ako” was adapted by Risa Jopson from the chapter “I Only Came to Use the Phone” in the book “Strange Pilgrims” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

“I Only Came to Use the Phone” is about a woman whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. She hitches a ride on a bus on its way to a mental institute. Before she knows what's happening, she has been admitted as a patient. Her husband, referring to their trouble-ridden history, believes she has run off with another man. When she finally finds an opportunity to call him, he curses her and hangs up. When he does arrive, he takes the doctor's account to heart and leaves the woman at the hospital, where she eventually makes a reality of the insanity imposed on her by the medical staff.

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Most of the ladies can't breath last night because it was literally raining HOT guys at the Cosmo Bash 2014 event held at the World Trade Center. The annual bachelor bash was organized by Cosmopolitan magazine dubbed as Cosmo Tower 69 Bachelor Bash 2014, and as expected, it made a lot of ladies drooling after the guys who paraded half-naked on stage. But unlike the Bench: The Naked Truth event, there were no Coco Martin with a lady on a leash, no Jake Cuenca butt, or men displaying their bulges with mere underwear covering....only shorts with something evident protruding, and their close enough to six-packs galore.

There was however a scene-stealing James Reid who fell of the stage while performing. I thought ladies fell for the uber hotness of the muscular hunks, but one of the hunks literally fell off the stage landing in front of the ladies. Intentional, or simply careless?

Ladies instantly got high fever upon seeing the six-pack "pandesals" of the guys. Even the sight of hot Security Officers sexin' up the stage was so oozing with sex appeal. Want to be arrested? The surprise appearance of Daniel Matsunaga, Pinoy Big Brother latest season grand winner also lighted up the stage with more sparkling eyes from the ladies who were all swooning over the guys.

More photos from netizens below each one credited based from their filenames. Enjoy!

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Here is another original short story that needs no introduction anymore (maybe because the author didn't submitted any...hehehe).

Seriously, we all know that life could sometimes be very unfair but we should still find reasons to enjoy it. There would always be opportunities to smile and enjoy life to the fullest regardless of so many frustrating incidents.

There is a saying that life is like a wheel that is forever turning to reach our destination. There would be times when we are down there experiencing life's dilemma, but sure enough, the time will come when we would soon be on top to claim our happiness.

We should appreciate everything around us no matter which situation we are in. We should celebrate life inspite of the hardships and shortcomings. We should value the people in our lives while they remain significant part of our memories.

Here is our short story for the day. We hope reading it would entertain you, and make you realize

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I would always wake up early in the morning whenever I am away at a far away place. Why? I aim to catch the sunrise. I would always like to capture it with my camera regardless of how it looked like. Sometimes there won't be any opportunity since the sunrise would be at the other side of our location not visible since it would be hidden behind the mountains so I would do the second best thing: capture the sunset instead.

Luckily, our stay at the luxurious Infinity Resort in Puerto Galera allowed us to have a view of the sunrise. It was not as dramatic and spectacular as other sunrises I've seen since it was also covered by mostly mountains, but it was still a warm feeling to witness the sun slowly shining out to bring light to the world.

Of course, after such a sensational experience feeling the warm touch of sunshine on your face, my wife and I decided to have an early breakfast even before having our early morning shower. They say it's the most important meal of the day so we should not skip this before going through our tour of the resort, and the surrounding areas.

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Le Boat, Europe’s largest self-drive boating holiday operator, has launched a brand new App to help hirers explore the waterways.

The FREE Le Boat App, which is available to download from the Apple Store and Google Play, has been designed for people navigating the river and canals of Europe on which the company operates. Using GPS tracking, the App identifies the user’s location and informs them what’s ahead. Alerts will tell users about upcoming locks, where to moor, where to eat and provides useful information about local towns, villages and attractions.

First-time boater, Claire Warne, downloaded the new App and used it last week on her return cruise from Benson and loved it. She said: “it was quite addictive – we couldn’t stop referring to it. It was very reassuring to know what lay ahead and the design was very intuitive and easy to use - I loved it! ”

Abby Kettle, Head of Global Customer Engagement at Le Boat, has overseen the App’s development over the past 10 months and says: “A boating holiday is open to anyone – no experience is necessary and this innovative and handy tool will be especially helpful and reassuring for these novice boaters.”

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Le Boat, the largest operator of self-drive boating holidays on Europe’s waterways, operates its own fleet of 800+ self-drive cruisers from a network of over 40 departure bases across nine European countries. Le Boat brings together over 40 years of experience in canal and waterway cruising.

The company is proud to introduce their 2015 canal boating brochure for the upcoming season. The brochure includes cruising routes in 2 new bases in France and Holland, the new Poland destination, as well as showcases the brand new Le Boat APP.

The new look Le Boat brochure has a fresher design, with a clean and simple layout highlighting the maps and possible cruising itineraries for each destination.

Some of the brand new product to be featured in the brochure includes:

FutureYou.ph Introduces Students to the Right Career Opportunities

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Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) launched FutureYou.ph, an online career exploration portal that aims to address the lack of information on the right job opportunities for Filipino students and graduates.

The Philippines currently has the highest unemployment rate in Southeast Asia.

The country has an average of 2.8 million people who have been unemployed for the past 2 years. Majority of those are in the 15-24 age group followed by those aged 24-30, composing 48% and 30% of the unemployed in the country, respectively.

Of the total unemployed, 44% have either graduated or reached high school, and 34% have reached or graduated from college.

PBEd projects that jobs mismatch is one of the causes of high unemployment in the Philippines. Many students do not know what jobs are in demand--there are industries that have too many applicants but do not have sufficient career offers, while there are others that do offer careers, but do not have enough applicants.

There is an oversupply of talent—there are industries that offer jobs but have no applicants, and vice versa. This is partly caused by students not having enough information on where the job opportunities lie.

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Epson, a world leader in print solutions, has been named the number one Point-of-Sale (POS) printer manufacturer in Southeast Asia for the 5th year running. This is according to the latest research results from International Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets.

Over the past 5 years, Epson has dominated the market, with results in 2013 showing the print solution leader holding steady at 45% market share in the overall Southeast Asia POS printer market. This means that almost every other POS printer purchased in 2013 was an Epson printer.

While figures vary in every market, Epson maintains the lead in all markets where it has a presence. In Singapore, Epson holds 61% of the total market share, while in Indonesia, Epson holds 54% of the market for POS printers. In the Philippines and Malaysia Epson holds a 1-in-3 share with 37% and 33% respectively, and in Thailand, Epson holds 45% of the POS printer market.