WHAT ARE YOU DOING around the day
the Da Vinci Code movie opens. A movie based
on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge of honor.

What can we as Christians do in response to the release of this
movie? Here are the usual suspects:

A) We can ignore the movie. ........

The problem with this option: The box office is a ballot box. The
only people whose votes are counted are those who buy tickets. And
the ballot box closes on the Sunday of opening weekend. If you stay
home, you have lost your chance to make your vote heard. You have
thrown your vote away, and from Hollywood's point of view, you don't
count. By staying home, you do nothing to shape the decision-making
process regarding what movies will make it to the big screen.

B) We can protest. ........

The problem with this option: It doesn't work. Any publicity is
good publicity. Protests not only fuel the box office, they make
all Christians look like idiots. And again, protests and boycotts do
nothing to help shape the decisions being made right now about what
movies Hollywood will make in the next few years. (Or they convince
Hollywood to make *more* movies that will provoke Christians to
protest, which will drive the box office up.)

But .....
On May 19th, you should go to the movies. Just go to another movie.
Save the date now. May 19th, or May 20th. No later than Sunday,
May 21st -- that's the day the ballot box closes. You'll get a vote,
the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid
down on a box office window on opening weekend.

Use your vote. Don't throw it away. Vote for a movie other than
DVC. If enough people do it, the powers that be will notice. They
won't have a choice.

The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the
DreamWorks animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun,
and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends.
In fact, let's all go see it.

Let's rock the box office in a way no one expects -- without
protests, without boycotts, without arguments, without rancor. Let's
show up at the box office ballot box and cast our votes. And buy
some popcorn, too.

May 19th. Mark your calendars now: Over the Hedge's opening
weekend. Buy a ticket.

And spread the word. Forward this e-mail to all the Christians in
your address book. ( First, remove all headers please) Post it on
your blogs. Talk about it to your churches.

And let's all go to the movies.
Technorati Profile

The DigitalFilipino.com Club's 6th Networking Event in Cebu

The DigitalFilipino.com Club will be having its 6th networking event in Cebu City this May 13, Saturday, 9:00 to 11:00 am. The venue shall be at Agelis Networks Incorporated, Ground Floor, JRG Building (Former Belvic Theatre), Gen. Maxilom Ave, Cebu City

Afterwards, club members interested to learn more about blogging, online payment acceptance, and Internet marketing can stay up to 5 pm as we will also have a technical workshop. If you have a laptop, please bring it with you as the venue has wireless Internet access.

Our sincerest thanks to club member Dann Diez of Agelis Networks (http://www.agel.com), for hosting our small get together.

This gathering is exclusive for DigitalFilipino.com Club members only and are requested to confirm attendance for food count purposes.

Agenda shall be as follows:
8:30 - 9:00 Registration
9:00 - 9:10 Introduction by each club member
9:10 - 9:30 Club updates
9:30 - 10:00 Philippine Outsourcing Destination Report (by Janette Toral)
10:00 - 10:30 Agel Business Briefing (by Peter Go, President, Agelis Networks Inc.)
10:30 - onwards Networking among members
Lunch break
1:00 to 5:00
Blogging 101
- Setting up a blog
- Adding a blog roll
- Registering and promoting your blog in Technorati and PinoyTopBlogs
- Integrating stats monitoring with Performancing
- Generating passive revenue with Google AdSense

Accepting Payments Online
- Email billing with YesPayments
- Mobile phone payment using LoadPH
- Product selling using YOSSN

Internet Marketing
- Evaluating Internet advertising options
- Email marketing
- Monitoring and calibrating ad performance

Interested non-members are requested to sign up as a member prior to May 13 and confirm attendance for food count purposes. There are three types of membership:

Individual
http://www.e-commercephilippines.com/x.pro/ModShop/ShowProduct/2356/

SME
http://www.e-commercephilippines.com/ModShop/ShowProduct/21290/

Corporate
http://www.e-commercephilippines.com/x.pro/ModShop/ShowProduct/7324/

We hope you can join. Thank you.

Supermarket Managers for the Future

Has anybody thought of managing a supermarket business or even deciding to venture into one?

Yesterday, I visited a good friend of mine and a well respected in the Supermarket Indusrty here in the Visayas and Mindanao, Mr. Francis Kimseng, currently the General Manager of Fooda Savers Mart Mango Ave and Guadalupe. We had a chat and one of the major concerns of this sector is that there are no institutions offering a course or even a programe for supermarket managers being developed.

We know for the fact that these supermarkets are owned by Fil-chinese all over the Philippines and there is a need to professionalize this industry. They are really the frontliners for the consumer goods that all of us need. If we want to have an affordable prices of these goods that we consume daily, it has to be managed and run by competent and experienced enterpreneurs so the consumers can buy the goods at a very affordable and competitive prices.

But the question is, how we can develop these managers and enterpreneurs in this sector? This is a challege to the academe, supermarket industry as well as the goverment sector. Some thing has to be done NOW or it may be too late.