Donation Centers in Dumaguete

(Photo credits: www.examiner.com)

We all need to pitch in! Check out these donation spots in your area... Even if you and I are far away, we can still donate and contribute to the relief effort! :-)

check out Bianca Gonzales' Blog for provincial donation details...

Lord Allen's blog for items to donate, numbers to call and where to go in Dumaguete.

For donating in Dumaguete, you can tweet @princessngaako for details.

For Sillimanians, they're accepting donations in cash and in kind at the SOAD Office, College of MassCommunication and SU Church!

:-) Let's keep the spirit alive!

My Ondoy (non)Experience

If I hadn't watched TV, nor heard from friends and family, I wouldn't have thought that the recent typhoon ONDOY had had wreaked this much havoc.

In Dumaguete, the worse we had was a light rain that went on for most of the day...

Turning on the news showed that in Manila, and provinces in Northern Luzon, whole houses were already submerged in water, with all types of vehicles already being dragged by the raging flood waters.

I have a lot of friends and family in Manila, so naturally, I got very worried. This is an unproductive type of worrying, I know, because since I'm way out here, I really can't do anything but worry, which I did ( It was like rocking furiously on a rocking chair, but going nowhere...), and PRAY... Eventually, I'm going to donate, but really, it doesn't help if you know that there is a probability that people you know and love, are, heaven forbid, wading around...or worse, swimming around in floodwater (or on top of their roofs!).

It's so surreal...One of my friends said that for around 4 hours she was sitting in the car with her 6 month-old son, as the flood waters were starting to rise around there pick-up truck. I have a soft spot for babies and kids, so you could just imagine me being such a worrywart over these things. I have a cousin in Makati who also has a young infant, but I just checked, and he said that although the waters did rise, they were safe and dry in their next-door neighbor's two-storey house. (Maanne, Mae, JF, Maylah, Auntie Marlene, I hope you guys are safe too.)

Most of my worry has been unnecessary, I suppose, but i usually worry about friends and family that I can't do anything for. Even for that pesky typhoon Frank last year. I worried. And that was very unnecessary (and a fat lot of good it did for me too.)

And so, all the relief efforts have gotten me all fired up, and like my dear altruistic and ever socially-conscious friend A. from Quezon City, I want to help too. I wish I could do something more medically-inclined, but for now, since there has been no major catastrophe in Dumaguete where I'm from (thankfully), the least I can do would be to donate.

The Bayanihan spirit is so contagious... I am especially proud of the selflessness of our people who are helping in the relief effort. I am amazed and inspired.

God Bless you all!

~ SONIA

-> Bravo to my friend FG for being proactive, and designing his house the way he did. :-) Go Chaleco power!

(Photos by: GMA and Static.co.stuff.nz)

"Doctora..."

1:30AM

Lola's living room

I could have heard a pin drop...if somebody besides me were around to drop it. *nervous swallow*

I'm not entertaining any scary thoughts, as I am the only one (hopefully) who's awake in the house. All the others have gone to sleep hours ago.

My 84-year-old grandmother took ill and I was sleeping over to see to her needs, and to manage her. After the necessary history and PE and the essential labs (just 2), my suspicions were confirmed. My grandmother's condition (I won't say what it is, though) is a pretty common thing for the elderly.

I felt responsible for seeing to her care, because I happened to be, after all, the "first doctor of the family". (I have a tita and tito who hold doctorate degrees in law, but that, of course is another thing, totally.) I'm managing this as an out-patient case, of course, but with her being geriatric, and my very own grandmother, I'm keeping a watchful eye just in case anything gets out of...order. Managing/treating family members can be quite challenging, because you really have to keep being on your toes just to make sure you've got all the bases covered.

Like, for instance, with my lola... her current case is something I regularly see at the hospital wards and is a common complaint in the ER, but before I gave her the medication, I had to go check my books and look up on medscape.com if my management was still current, and effective. An evidence-based search rewarded my efforts.

In fact, I'm still up because I want to check if, from the time I gave her an antipyretic (fever meds) to four hours after (which is a few minutes from now), she wil still be afebrile.

My grandmother is into alternative medicine as well, and just yesterday, I noticed that she had charcoal dust arund her bedsides, and an open book, placed facedown on her tummy. She apparently had been reading about "The Healing wonders of Charcoal" before she fell asleep.

"Tsk, tsk.." I tutted, with a smile. My grandmother would always be after a cheaper panacea, a "cure-all", so to speak, all the time. In fact, to be perfectly honest, the fact that she had decided to comply with the medication I prescribed and administered was flattering. But then again, she always listened to what I said anyway (as is the privilege of grandchildren), sometimes she teases me and calls me "Doctora".

1:45 AM

Nope, no fever. She's sleeping soundly, and so is my Lolo.

So far, so good.

:-) Good night!

~ Sonia

Kissing

This is the song that brings to mind warm, deep, hugs that smell faintly, but very comfortably of familiar baby scents…of gentle kisses from the one you love

…and you’ll settle and nudge deep, deep into strong stable arms that will keep you safe and won’t let go…

…with the heart of your heart, beating softly, under your palm placed gently on his chest, a steady promise that when you wake up, he will still be there, and nothing has changed, except that, he has loved you more with every new day…

Facebook frenzy

I do believe in free speech, but somehow, like in this story letting issues air out in shoutouts on Facebook is quite...unprofessional.

There are two sides to every story, and to shed light on the real issues, both sides must present their sides in a proper court of law.

It's not just because of the fact that Vicky Belo is a doctor, it's also because of the fact that a lie, if said over and over, and repeatedly becomes so ingrained into the subconscious that it eventually starts to resemble the truth...

(...it worked for Hitler.)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20090922/tph-belo-twits-facebook-user-go-court-no-b9426e6.html

The Hippocratic Oath

I'll be swearing on this later today...(at the Cebu Waterfront Hotel, Lahug, Cebu City, 6PM).

Can't wait to see my old friends, and new colleagues.
:-p
I'll post pictures soon. :-)

It's just a little crush

Talk about serendipity...

I was online during lunchtime yesterday, just checking out my Facebook pages when somebody I knew from Medical school suddenly messaged me and said Hi. It was a nice surprise.

I used to have a big crush on him for a time.

He was a good-looking, smart (very smart), athletic, talented guy who had a bit of the Bad boy vibe going. By some funny quirk of fate, he was always carrying around a camera and seemed to be perpetually snapping pictures of everyone and everything (like me). I also heard that he was into reading the classics (like, well, ahem, me?). Moreover, the fact that he was around 5'10" was just frosting on the cake.

He was the friend of a good friend of mine, and, being the curious creature that I am, I of course, quite subtly (hopefully), grilled my friend for positively any useful tidbit of information about him. Although I'm particularly obsessive about detail, my powers of attracting males are only up to wishful thinking and obsessive detail-finding. (Translated: Hindi ako malandi sa crush. * smile * )

Aside from all the other previously-mentioned "attributes" the thing I liked about him was that he was a laid-back, down-to-earth funny guy who was comfortable speaking in Cebuano (my, his dialect) as he was speaking in English, as well as being able to carry off that puffy afro and alternately a skinhead 'do with equal panache. (I'm a suckafoo for that skinhead 'do.)

There was one occasion where he gave me a rose. It was long-stemmed, red, and when he gave it to me, I thought it to be very beautiful. It's beauty was magnified by the fact that I was flattered, of course, and that I liked him.

Crushes in the workplace (or in my case, school) always seem to spice up the work environment. There was this study where they reported that having crush objects in the workplace significantly increased (and improved) performance output. It's true for my part, having a crush always gives me a subconscious desire to do my jobs better...it even gives me a positive attitude and a spring to my step.

...But back to crush thing with the aforementioned guy, nothing ever came out of it, you know. It was only a crush. And besides, this "object of my affection, nay, admiration" fell in love with one of his classmates and they ended up together, which, of course, made him strictly off-limits in my book.

I don't resent that happening, though. And besides, she's a great girl. It wasn't a big disappointment because "no emotional roots had sunk into the ready crust of my idealistic heart" anyway. Roughly translated, that meant, it was too soon to tell if there really was anything going on between us, and I considered it just a harmless infatuation for my part.

Nevertheless, it was an important (and essential) lesson to learn. Some people are just not meant for you, even if you wish them to be. Or, even if you try your hardest, or wish with all your heart, things don't always turn out like you want them to...

---------------

I learned my lesson the hard way, in the most painful way possible. And by learning, I don't mean this one. Yet, if did involve an infatuation,a crush that became something more...and resulted in a world of hurt.

Baby Nate

I was in Cebu City for the past few days, just taking it easy, chilling out and spending time with my titas and tito and babysitting my little cousin Nate.

My tita goes to school during the daytime (and is only free in the afternoons and up), so Nate is pretty much left at home with Manang Mayen, his nanny. He goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays at an "achievers" school just one ride away from their home. He loves it there, and he's a really precocious learner, according to his teachers.

It really amazes me how fast he picks things up. Why, he knows his way online and can even pull up files from the computer (he showed me family videos the last night i was there) when you ask him to. Right now he's back to playing solitaire on the laptop because he's already bored with Spider Solitaire. He can also email, send text messages and pick up things you teach him really fast. He has an elephant's memory, and to top it all off, he is as cute as a button (and has perfect teeth).

Nate is the youngest granchild in a brood of fourteen on my lola's side of the family. I'm the eldest, and being that, I have seen them all grow up. Many of them are taller than I am now. Nathan, Nate, is the favorite because he is the youngest (and cutest). Everybody dotes on him and he is just such a lovable kid. It always seems everyone is at his beck and call.

My lola and lolo especially, are crazy about him. There is a different spark in their eyes, a definite zest in their dispositions whenever he is around for the long weekends (they're based in Cebu, so they only visit occasionally). I think Nate was probably a big factor in Lolo's recuperation...Lolo would always be entertained by his antics.

My Lola has a hip problem and uses both a walker and a wheelchair. Nathan is always the first to yell out, "Wheelchair!!" whenever he hears the tap of lola's cane/walker from the bedroom. Most of the time, he's the one who grabs the wheelchair and pushes it to the bedroom door, making it easier for lola to sit in. He's usually ready to hand lolo a piece of tissue whenever he gets the sniffles. (Trust me, he's a really sweet kid.)

Whenever I hold onto Nate when we're at the mall, I like to pretend that he were my child, my own toddler. He's a well brought-up kid with a calm temperament. One of my aunties said that he was a happy kid. (He is.) When I told my Tita that I wanted to have children someday, she said with a smile, "You're good with kids, you're very caring, so I don't see why not..." (And then she proceeds to think up plans as to how I could meet my Mr. Right, but that's another story, of course.)

I had told her that if I wasn't going to get married, I was planning to have a baby by the time I was 35 years old, instead. :-) "Don't worry," she said, "everything will fall into place when the time is right..." As to having children, that's basically my plans for now, raising children is a big responsibility and I really want things to be perfect and good and ready... and I want him to be like my cousin Baby Nate. :-)

I

Patrick Swayze dies at 57

This was the first headline that popped up when I opened my yahoo page.. I have to say, this was sudden, and quite shocking. Patrick Swayze was an icon. Growing up, I watched Ghost and Dirty Dancing too, and cheered for the happy endings too.

And yes, Pancreatic CA is no joke.

Rest In Peace, Patrick Swayze...


Patrick Swayze Pictures

-------

Buzz up!
Publicist: Patrick Swayze dies at 57
Associated Press - 3 minutes ago
celebs:
Patrick Swayze

Swayze's publicist Annett Wolf says the 57-year-old 'Dirty Dancing' actor died Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, after a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze died in Los Angeles, Wolf said, but declined to give further details.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. He kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot.

Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. The show drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that. Swayze acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

C. Thomas Howell, who co-starred with Swayze in "The Outsiders," "Grandview U.S.A." and "Red Dawn", said: "I have always had a special place in my heart for Patrick. While I was fortunate enough to work with him in three films, it was our passion for horses that forged a friendship between us that I treasure to this day. Not only did we lose a fine actor today, I lost my older 'Outsiders' brother."

Other celebrities used Twitter to express condolences, and "Dirty Dancing" was the top trending topic for a while Monday night, trailed by several other Swayze films.

Ashton Kutcher — whose wife, Demi Moore, co-starred with Swayze in "Ghost" — wrote: "RIP P Swayze." Kutcher also linked to a YouTube clip of the actor poking fun at himself in a classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.

And Larry King wrote: "Patrick Swayze was a wonderful actor & a terrific guy. He put his heart in everything. He was an extraordinary fighter in his battle w Cancer." King added that he'd do a tribute to Swayze on his CNN program Tuesday night.

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Moore) — with great frustration and longing — through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse. In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center

August Rush

I saw August Rush during the last few days of my stay in Manila. I watched it at dawn because I couldn't seem to sleep, I was too wrapped up in watching movies after a self-imposed.. "diet". :-p

I thought it was something like that Brad Pitt movie Sleepers in the beginning, because of the Boys Town effect of the start... It was a good thing I waited, because the movie was quite good, and very entertaining. It was whimsical, because it was about a boy who used his prodigious talent for music to do the impossible...find his musician parents who were separated 11 years ago. His dad was a rock musician who left at the peak of his career after feeling that his music had lost its meaning after losing a girl he only met once. His mom was a Julliard-trained cellist who got pregnant and was made to believe that her child had died when she met an accident.

And if that wasn't enough...he didn't even know their names, or what they looked like. He absolutely had no clue as to who they were. All he believed in was that, if he could learn how to play music, he'd be able to make himself heard...so his "lost" parents would hear it, and would know where to find him.

He then runs away and finds himself with Robin Williams' ragtag band of child musicians, an underground money-collecting scheme he dreamed up, in exchange for a place to sleep and live in in an abandoned theater. Evan, the boy, began to display an uncanny knack for learning how to play instruments and composing. Robin Williams' character attempted to make money out of him by having him play in clubs, using August Rush as his performing name. Evan somehow escaped and found himself in a church where he learned the basics of composing in the morning and ended up playing the pipe organ majestically by the end of the day...

This prompted an acceptance into Julliard, where his exceptional music skills astounded the professors and his musical work, inspired by the sounds he heard all around him was chosen as the piece to be performed in the Concert at the Park, a prestigious event which was attended by a great number of people. (It was cute of him to ask his professors naively, "Will there be more than a hundred people watching? His professors smiled and said that he need not worry, there will be thousands there.)

His plan to conduct his own symphony was almost waylaid when Robin Williams reappeared in the scene, posing as his father and proceeded to take him back to the streets. Serendipitously, August's dad comes up and chats with him, and they then have a guitar duel, playing so well and in sync with each other, unknowingly because they share the same stupendous musical skills.

The video clip above, of them jamming in the park is one of my favorites in the movie..the other being that of the finale, that final climactic moment when everything comes together, after the universe has "effectively conspired" to bring August, his cellist mother and rockstar father to that magical night in the park where they found each other again.

The music would swell and I'd find myself in tears all over again...because it was so sad at first, then because of his little victories and then finally, because he got the thing that he had been searching for so earnestly.

This clip is the performance of August's Rhapsody, which he composed and played that night. (No words were spoken in the last few scenes, but oh my, their faces spoke volumes, their mouths, eyes and hands communicated that love was victorious, and everything had fallen into place. Louis found his long-lost love Lyla, Lyla, in turn, found Louis, a man she thought she would never see again, the father of son she thought she had lost so many years ago, and August...dear August Rush, who never stopped believing...

Think of Me

EarWorm ( a.k.a. The song that never stops playing in your head)

I've practicing this one, singing it so much, it even woke my ma, who shushed me. haha
After watching it on youtube.com, it somehow grew on me.
Aside from the fact that I love Broadway. :-p

~ S.

p.s. once i'm good enough, you'll hear it here, live. Or not... :-p

Never Cry

July 7, 2009 - Entry on Death of CR, 5:10pm, Holy Child Hospital

“Never let a patient and his family see you cry…”

One of my teachers back in internship year told us that a physician was not supposed to shed tears, or to show weakness in front of the patient and his family in the event that he/she was right with them when they died.

You were the doctor, she said. You were therefore expected to show composure, and be onjective when everyone else was emotional and not thinking rationally. However, if you couldn’t help yourself, the best thing to do would be to excuse yourself into some back room, where you could cry privately, preferably alone, with no one around to see you. And then when you’re done, you go back to your patient’s room and face everyone, acting as if nothing ever happened.

Call it coldness, call it being stoic, but when it really comes down to it, the patient’s folks would appreciate it if someone were more in control. Calm and collected under the intense pressure, giving orders as needed.

To be objective is to avoid clouding one’s judgement with sentiments so one can focus on the task at hand and act on it effectively. Problems that arise from medical management are settled more easily when one decides from a perspective unmarred by emotional entrapments.

(Meaning: DON’T get too emotionally attached /involved. :-p)

I was thinking this actually, when I was standing there at the foot of the bed of my friend’s father, Uncle Dodong, as he lay dying.

Three days earlier, he was working, as usual, driving his cab around. His co-drivers saw that he had pulled over to the side and then was seen to have lost consciousness. They thought he was just taking a nap, so they left him alone, and almost one hour after, they noticed that he had begun to turn blue (medical term: Cyanotic). They then rushed him to the nearest hospital where resuscitation was done. He was said to be pulseless when they examined him initially, and a defibrillator was applied to charge his heart back to pump, judging from the burn marks on his chest.

He was revived somewhat, admitted to the ICU and maintained on medications while being attached to a mechanical ventilator to help him breathe. There were times when he’d open his eyes and seem to glance about things in the room, but he never really gained consciousness. His attending physician explained that because of the delay in getting help, he had already suffered massive damage to his heart and brain due to lack of proper oxygen deliver y to these tissues. The chances of a full recovery were therefore nil.

In the end, his family decided to let him go, after much tearful discussions. They could no longer afford to pay for the prolonged time in the ICU.

And so, I’m writing this while I sit in a coffee shop here in the city,because just a few hours ago. I kept on asking myself whether it was okay to cry in front of the others. My instinct in situations like these is to keep up a stiff upper lip so I can , hopefully think straight.

But then, I realized that I wasn’t there as a physician, I wasn’t there to examine him and he was not my patient.
I was there as a friend. I was there, in the last few minutes of his life as a friend of the family, as an adoptive niece, as a person who cared and mostly as a person grateful to have known such a good and kind man. He was a good father to his children, and a loyal and faithful husband to his wife, Auntie Sonia.

Here was a good man, a person who I respected in our community, and someone who always supported our group of friends when we were putting together our community projects some years back. He would offer his house for our club meetings, as well as give me a ride home when I needed one (he always had good timing, passing by school during the busy rush hour.) He was quietly, a strong presence in our community, an honest man who did an honest day’s work all the time.

I was there too, standing at the foot of his hospital bed, quietly brushing away tears that I could not keep from falling. Saying goodbye always, always gave me a reason a sense of profound sadness…”

(Goodbye, Dear Uncle Dodong, thanks for everything! We will defintely miss you.)

Rest in Peace, Carmelito Rojonan

Carefree

This video was taken at the Enchanted Kingdom theme park, in Laguna, Philippines, last August 2009.I would like to congratulate my classmates for a job well done in the 2009 Physician's Licensure Exam. 95%! Chart-Topping success!

Alphadog (GI JOE)

My cousins and I went to see GI JOE this afternoon...

It was flashy and CGI-powered, but it was good fun...we grew up in the GI JOE generation, after all.

I loved it mostly because Channing Tatum.

I have a big crush.

Every few big scenes, I'd be yelling out "I love you, Channing!"

(I think it's just 'cause he's so...manly.)

Aahh...

Physical beauty.
Gotta love it.

This video for GQ is catchy. It's the perfect way to make someone know how sexy you think they are to you.

(That future boyfriend of mine (better be game.:-))

(video taken from GQ website and http://www.channingtatumunwrapped.com/)

(It it doesn't download, click here..)

( I love you, Channing!)

* grin *

(Mini-critique: Although the film is loaded with loopholes and is mainly CGI-powered, it's a lot of fun to watch, and Marlon Wayans provides the necessary comic relief it needs. Channing Tatum eats his words and Sienna Miller over-kisses, and the scenes get All-American corny, however, on the first run, you'll be cheering for the 'JOE's too all throughout the film. It's something you'd watch with cheesy popcorn or fries and watch with friends or cousins...it's just plain fun, no thinking required. A little note, though...Cobra didn't really become Cobra until about a few scenes into the end. So we'll be expecting a sequel, of course.

Can't wait. More chances to yell, "I love you, Channing!!" LOL. Just kidding.)

Paparazzi Time

She's a celebrity...someone we saw in Serendra one time. (Embarrassingly, I did a lomo move and shot this "from the shoulder". :-p)

I'm willing to bet my first paycheck you can't guess who she is, though.

Clue: She's a model.

Good luck. lol.

Repost (Friendster blogs)

Once upon a time i wrote This... and it is only now, after rereading it, and hearing about it, that I realize the grave implications of what I had done. Love sucks, especially if you weren't given much of a choice... Everything will be ok. I take heart in the fact that life has a way of putting things in order, and everything working out for the best. (Thanks FG (a.k.a. Kuya FG)!)

briankenny on 10.24.08 at 8:46 pm

Steph…the movie was not really dramatic, and i am violently reacting, it was not pathetic-boy. It was just so romantic and only romantic people could understand. And there is this line in the movie…”sana ako na lang, sana ako na lang ulit” you wil really turn crazy if you have that moment.

Repost (Multiply)

November 30, 2008
Dumaguete City

The last time I was truly hurt in a relationship, i stayed off my "heart muscle" for a year before I felt I was strong enough to have another go at it. I try to avoid getting hurt in anything, because although I have a high pain threshold, I abhor pain, and I never deemed it necessary in things like these.

Now, the thing that I hate most about the fizzling out of relationships is the "termination of the contract, and the liquidation of the investments". There is no other term I can use to best describe how it feels, but I'm sure you get the general picture.

It's virtually a see-sawing between joy and pain, and optimism and then pessimism (i.e. "do you think we'll still be friends?"), which is, a necessary part of life, and growing up.

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To which my friends replied, and I paraphrase... It's all or nothing, "If one must go, everything must follow.", i.e. no friendships, no communication, no attempts whatsoever.

I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, but what you do?

What do you think?

Twitter surprise

I got this message in the mail this noon, when i checked. I'm one of the two million, but this is pretty cool. :-)

Arnold Schwarzenegger. cool.

I hope Leo DiCaprio adds me next. or Wentworth Miller:-)

This made me smile

I was just looking around youtube, and this was one of the "main events"...I clicked it, and liked it. An instant picker-upper...Michael Jackson's songs have universal appeal. Beat It is one of my favorite songs too.

On the Plane trip home

- August 30th, 2009

6:45 AM

Cebu Pacific Flight 625

While people-watching on the flight

I had an overwhelming sense of resignation and uncertainty when I boarded... this happens all the time whenever I leave the big city and head back for my hometown.

It's always temporary, but I always have this feeling everytime.

I left my camera on my cousin Hershey's bed (since i sleep with my camera next to me, i think it got lost in the covers and I had forgotten about it.)

My nephew Rhys reminds me of another little baby.

* sigh *

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CHEAPER EXCESS BAGGAGE COST

I boxed up all my books, and clothes and sent them via cargo hold c/o my airline, Cebu pacific. If you don't want to pay for too much excess bagagge, this is the way to go. You pay less than 1000 for something that would cost around Php 5000 in extra charges at the airport, AND you get to pick it up hassle free when you get to your destination. If you ask me, that's a real bargain.

Cebu Pacific has a good service.

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People-watching and other thoughts

They have a travel magazine on deck...and I've been reading on the must-see destinations in the Philippnes. There are a lot. *sigh* (Here we go again, more places to think about.)

My fountain pen is leaking. (I am writing on the folding table now, which, i suppose, was put to better use as a snack table when they used to offer snacks in-flight. They don't anymore.) I think it's ratty how they don't serve snacks anymore on trips. In the middle of the trip, one or two flight attendants started pushing a cart down the aisle...it was loaded with sandwiches, drinks and whatnot. The recession is upon us, and even airline passengers feel the pinch.

A guy one seat across the aisle behind me is bouncing a little pink baby (about 3 months old) on his knee. She appears calm and quiet and is not making a fuss aside from the occasionaly cooing. She is dressed in a terry-cloth jumper, pink and perfect, complete with a little white baby ski cap. Undoubtedly a girl.

My ears hurt, this is the first time in all the years that i've been flying to manila and back that my cochlear system has let me down. *sigh* Can my luck get any worse? Swallowing big gulps of air is not working. (I'll be partially deaf for a few days, of course. Bummer).

The little baby is asleep now, sucking peacefully on a pacifier. Her dad's the one carrying her...a terribly young-looking dad. If he didn't have the baby cradled in his arms, I'd have said that he was fresh out of college...a varsity basketball team member, I assume, judging from his build and well, white basketball sneakers.

Early fatherhood is fine, of course, as long as you know how to get milk. :-p

I'm sitting next to a couple of ladies on this flight. The elderly one is in denim cut-offs, wearing a shawlish-looking dark blue t-shirt, made for a man, but apparently chosen by her for comfort. Both of her hands were protectively clutching a black Louis Vuitton tote (genuine or not, I didn't really care), as if all her life savings were hidden in it's deep recesses. She was silent and coughed occasionally, but was mostly asleep during the flight, never once taking off her grey and black fedora, not even for a minute.

Another lady, younger, and presumably her daughter, judging from the way they communicated with less words was equally interesting... She kept fiddling with her i-pod and cellphone before the "Turn off your cellphones please" reminder came on, and I noticed her elaborately decorated fingernails and toenails. They were very distracting...especially since she was wearing jewel-encrusted high-heeled sandals. I snuck a peak whenever they slept.

I didn't feel like being chatty on this plane ride...I just felt tired, and that I needed to keep to myself. I was feeling resigned.

Before I knew it, the plane had touched down, and I exhaled... It was a rough-ish landing and there was turbulence above, but still, it was nothing to worry about. I had no thoughts nor feelings nor premonitions of my death that morning. It was cool. Nothing to worry about.

While the plane was coasting, I took my phone out and texted my mum, because they said they were picking me up. The guy across the aisle from me gave a little laugh and went, "Here na me, where na you?" when he saw me texting.

He laughed because we weren't supposed to turn the cellphones back on yet as per airplane regulations but I hurriedly did it anyway, so he figured I was texting my boyfriend.

Yeah right.

Boyfriend.

Ha!

So I just smiled, and said no.

I waited patiently in my seat until the last few people filed out, and then i got my tote, a black Victoria's Secret bag, the one and only one I had and stepped out into the Dumaguete sunshine.

I was home.

For now.

P.S. They didn't even have a game (I always win something in these games, mind you.). Thanks to my cousin Ged for taking me to the airport at 5 in the morning.