Happy New Year Everybody!

a few hours before 2006... i thank everybody who has been part of my life this year in one way or another: the people of a1 2008; the people of a1 & a2 2007; the class maximus; my new pals in ortigas who i can't even remember the names (my usual dilemma^_^); ate ruth & family; kuya anthony; my pals from angelicum; robert, marge and tina; my dad & mom, potsy and God! thank you for all the blessings this year! and although i'm crossing the years pretty sick(again for the umpteenth time), i feel soooo blessed...

i feel that the year coming will be a year of change in superaltive proportions for me... i'm excited at the same time nervous... i hope God's spirit is with me all the way... sigh... and of course! because it's saturday! it's time for!!!...

my week's 5 favorite things :

1. Phantom of the Opera (movie) - i have the dvd, just magnificent
2. Everytime You Hear Auld Lang Syne - really touching
3. Mr. John Williams - just... glorious music
4. Marshmallows
5. My new dieting technique - which i invented hehehe

lz

Merry Christmas Everybody !!!

it's Christmas Eve (well not technicaly hehehe) but i am already wishing everybody a blessed christmas. let's remember what this night represents. and it doesn't matter if we really don't believe that on this excact date Christ was born, what matters is that He was! we just lost his birth certificate and decided that a really cold month is good month to celebrate! spread the love people!

and it's saturday so... here's my week's favorite things:

1. coco jam from kuya anthony
2. the 2005 maximus medicinae christmas party
3. leoning's pinong palabok
4. christmas in the philippines

and...

5. tina & marge! merry christmas my princesses! God bless us three!

Our Christmas Party 2005

my classmate and birthday-mate tin alba hosted the class party at her parañaque house. had fun and the food was good. our subsec sponsored the food as i see it (jamie brought the food ^_^).

at long last... a complete subsec a2 (as complete as can be unfortunately) ^_^ - - chris, gelo, jamie, vina, ice, ivy, keech, steff, tin, aids, benrub, philip, ton, jet, joan, cha, aileen, marose, mean, ryan, and yaps

Readings on Motivation

i'd like to share a few things i've been reading, some people may know directly what i'm implying, for others, you may be able to use the new knowledge ^_^ these are researches on motivation and goal orientation :

"achievement motivation research initially established that effort and persistence on achievement tasks are greater in people who set goals of moderate difficulty(neither too hard nor too easy for their current abilities), who seriously commit themselves to pursuing these goals rather than treat them as mere "pie-in-the-sky" hopes, and who concentrate on trying to achieve success rather than on trying to avoid failure (Dweck & Elliott, 1983)"

"Effort and persistence are greater when people perceive a continuing connection between the level of effort they invest in a task and the level of mastery that they achieve (Cooper, 1979)"

"Effort and persistence are greater when people believe that the potential to control outcomes (e.g., achieve success on the task) lies within themselves rather than in external factors that they cannot control (Stipek & Weisz, 1981; Thomas, 1980)"

"Effort and persistence are greater when people believe that they can bring about desired outcomes through their own actions (act as origins) rather than feeling that they are pawns whose fate is determined by factors beyond their control (deCharms, 1976)"

no wonder... ^_^

lz

My Week's Top Five

1. i'm in the mood for love - the movie album
2. barbra streisand... and other musical instruments
3. cassava from white thumb ^_^
4. biology! hahaha
5. charlize theron

Nobody Taught Us How to Study

looking back, i'm quite disappointed studying skills were not taught to us as students. i realized, i, and i think most of my classmates never learned these skills through our teachers and we're left alone to discover how assimilation of knowledge takes place.

im beginning to think this is the reason why i have difficulty memorizing. well it's not that i can't memorize, but i'd rather avoid it altogether if i can (y'know what i mean) ^_^ my most effective way of doing it is: typing it in the computer in a big font maybe size 24 at 150% reading it aloud while i type it and then doing it again and again. i believe that when more senses are working to accomplish remembering something, it would be easier to recall. this way, i am using my tactile(keyboard) sense, hearing, and seeing it as well. you can say i'm still working on how to smell it hehehe.

well anyway, memorization is so low in the cognitive ladder its obvious it's not an good way of learning. no wonder there are many people who are good at remembering stuff but can't put it all together. this requires higher order thinking. the cognitive ladder from lowest to highest : knowledge(part of which is memorization), comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. so if you have exams/professors whose questions are application, that's good, it's more challenging and starts to require you to use higher order thinking.

how has my studying skills evolved? well they're better that's all i can say. i am more efficient than when i was starting college. i can say i have developed more ways to motivate myself to study without a threat of test. i can even say i am ENJOYING staying up late for something ^_^ for those who know me... surprising yeah! hahaha Medicine sort of jump-started me, forced me to make study skills for myself... sigh... only through continuous challenges can we keep on improving. i've read that for people to get motivated to do something, the task must be appropriate in difficulty(we have to think that at we have at least 50% chance of success) and the reward we are going to recieve at the end must be something appealing to us(passing is appealing). it's true... stuff from research they can be creepingly true... i have been reading on motivation and you'd be surprised that some are so... "that's common sense" but seeing people study this and write about it makes us realize that some of this concepts are universal and can be applied to help other people get motivated to study and do stuff. i know i'm already blabbering here so i'll share more as i learn more ^_^

lz

My Week's Top Five

1. My Streisand Specials DVD Set
2. Longanisang Ilocos
3. Gavin De Graw's More than Anyone
4. American Chopper
5. Naruto

Great Great Gift!

i recieved my Streisand Specials yesterday and watched 3 of the 5 specials :

1. My Name is Barbra April 1965
2. Color Me Barbra March 1966
3. The Belle of 14th Street October 1967
4. A Happening in Central Park Spetember 1968
5. Barbra Streisand ... and Other Musical Instruments November 1973

this is just barbra at her best, pure and crystalline voice, you don't even know when she's breathing, it's just like one endless note :-)

lz

Meg's Debut

we attended meg's debut tonight. potsy was part of the 18 princes(18 roses) and mom the 18 treasures. me... i think i tasted almost all parts of the buffet, specially liked the maki, the chicken fillet and the fish fillet ^_^

lz

Last Night *edited*

i stumbled on a bbc interview which i don't know why, made me watch it... and in a few more moments... i was already glued. this guy from bbc (i forgot his name) was interviewing a man called jean-marie la pen, a man from the french legislative i think, and oh my god, i never hated a living man like this, i thought i was seeing the spawn of hitler alive!

this man was totally blaming ALL (yes, ALL) of france's problems to the immigrants(this is in line of the recent french street riots). he said that even immigrant's children born in france (and therefore are by birth-right french) was also part of the problem. he said he'd do everything to get get rid of these people! ...oh! don't get him wrong he says... "i have a black employee..." "i have other foreign employees..." "i am for intergration... but in small numbers..." "i am not an internationalist, i'm just nationalistic..." NATIONALISTIC!? F*CK YOU!! grrr...

it was very apparent that the bbc guy was starting to get irritated and was already making ways for him to say directly he hates these people... and la pen doesn't even seem to notice it... he's so preoccupied of thinking that what he's saying is right and good for his people and that they understand him. and this stupid guy bullshits all the bbc guys research about statistics on immigrants saying that the research is real bullshit when it was the french government itself that issued these figures.

hehehe... i remember the bbc guy saying... "so... you're saying these figures your goverment released are wrong and you're basing your statement on what you see on the streets everyday?" this was after the man was saying that "just look in the trains there are a lot more immigrants here" because the bbc guy was saying that in germany there is a higher ratio of immigrants vs. endemic people but there are no riots in germany. sigh... i really am disappointed there are still people in the world like this. and to think... this guy is thinking of running again for presidency in 2007(he lost to Chirac last presidential elections).

ANYWAY... i am enjoying watching HBO's rome and just noticed there are so much penis things in this TV Series-movie. penis graffiti on walls, showing real penises, on-stage dramas with penises hehehehe... i looked it up and it seems romans are really "in" to penises hehehehe... they view it as a symbol of power etc...

Another Friday

this was a really good friday. got to go break bread with my friends from a2 (though i didn't eat).

i watched harry potter and the goblet of fire on opening day. i thought it was better than azkaban. my only disappointment? it's too short for me, a lot of interesting things from the book were not included

oh! i bought my star wars episode iii dvd and have watched the yoda vs. sidious scene an endless number of times. reading from forums, many things were said about this duel which i think is really more interesting than obi-wan vs. anakin.

hmm... the emperor stronger than yoda? i think not, he had his advantages especially that he had an opposable thumb hahahaha but really yoda's real defeat was that he gave up when he lost his lightsaber. though i don't think he'd prefer any other method killing the emperor. i don't think he'd use force lightning even if he did know how to use it. during the last few moments of their force lightning resistance-battle you can see that master yoda was winning and sidious worried. but as i said... opposable thumb... hehehe

Star

looks like a mouse-deer ^_^

we have a new baby!

beautiful 1 month old japanese spitz of pure stock. we named her "STAR" ^_^ here she is nuzzling my tummy hehehe

Lame choices - -kind'a funny...

i tried a mock exam on bio and i found these choices... rather lame

why are large mammals sucessful in the grassland biome?
a) because they create their own shadow - - pfft! pretty lame huh

taxonomists...
a) work for the IRS - - haha im just oozing of sarcasm, was this supposed to be a joke!?

NEWphylum porifera(sponges) is appropriately named because...
a) they are not very rich - i don't understand why the exam has these choices ??

lz

Bacteria.... our ancestors

the endosymbiotic theory states that the origin of the eukaryotic organelles are symbiont bacteria which have been engulfed into other larger cells. this was trivial at first fueled by some observations. however, in the past few decades, it is surprising that evidences are accumulating providing evidence for this controversial theory:

a) mitochondria and chloroplasts have their own genetic material different from the information from the nucleus
b) mitochondria and chloroplasts divide in a similar manner as bacteria
c) mitochondria, chloroplasts, the nucleus, and the endomembrane system have double membrane systems the outer of which is similar to the cell membrane and inner more similar in make-up with prokaryotes
d) mitochondria and chloroplasts have 70s ribosomes, bacteria have 70s ribosomes. the ribosomes used by the cells are 80s

recently... centrioles have been found to contain small amounts of DNA. these were suggested as remnants of their origin.

what do you think?

Understanding - - then imparting

I admit, this is the thing that gives me that happy feeling inside hahahaha : understanding insanely unreadable stuff and then shedding light on it… reading stuff like gene regulation(which I ignored in college), I have to rest every paragraph just to give my brain breathing time hahaha sigh… I hope I do well doing imparting these stuff, I know it would be difficult, my paradigm-shift ‘ika nga, but I know I’ll emerge victorious ^_^
lz

Lessons to be learned…

I remembered the song I posted a while back… now… I send its message to a friend :

“there’s a universal plan for every woman, every man…”
“ there are reasons for the path we take”
“there are no mistakes, just lessons to be learned”

I’ve learned so much with all the things I’ve experienced, i hope you do too with yours ^_^

DNA methylation, parthenogenesis and hermaphrodism

Have you ever thought why there are no true mammal hermaphrodites or why mammals or vertebrates for that matter cannot reproduce parthenogenetically?

Today, reviewing gene regulation in eukaryotes, I’ve come to understand few basic principles which govern these events.

I’ve always thought that the only thing fertilization accomplishes is returning the number of chromosomes to the diploid number (2n). therefore, I also thought that if these was the case then, a zygote can be formed from a container and two egg cell nuclei or two sperm nuclei because it satisfies the requirement for the diploid number.

Apparently, it is not possible(as of the moment)because of an occurrence called DNA methylation. Cytosine residues in vitro are occasionally methylated and this determines whether a certain gene will be actively transcribed, repressed or do other functions. Now, the methylation pattern is usually preserved in the chromosomes you inherit from your mother and father. Remember that you have two sets of chromosomes, one from your mother and one from your father. Some genes are active only on one of the chromosomes… how is it determined which chromosome does the job? Is it the paternal of maternal chromosome? Some processes have an inherent order, for example, the gene for the enzyme ILGF-II (insulin like growth factor-II) is paternally unmethylated and maternally methylated. And in this case methylation serves as a negative regulator. Therefore, all your ILGF-II principally comes from your father.

The understanding of the principles which govern the pattern and inheritance of the methylation pattern is not yet fully understood. But this leads us to the point of my exhausting story, two egg nuclei thefore cannot be used to produce a zygote because the chromosomes have the same methylation pattern and in turn many of the genes will not function normally.

God is saying… "don’t mess with me, I’ve planned ahead" ^_^

Terms for the layman :
Parthenogenesis – zygotes develop without fertilization
Diploid – bearing two copies of chromosomes, humans have a diploid number(46 chromosomes in all), plants can be polyploid meaning they can have more than two sets, fungi and lower animals are usually monoploid/haploid
Cytosine – one of the four nucleotides which make up the genetic code
Methylated – a methyl group (-CH3) is attached to the molecule as a side-chain

Happy Christmas! Part II

since i got great reviews from my take on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," i've decided to do one of my favorite melodies...

widely believed to be composed by Henry VIII(1491-1547), Greensleeves is a traditional english folk song and the following is my take on it. this is my arrangement and i've added the intro, ending and interludes. robert said there's a christmas lyric for this tune and i've yet to see it, i've always liked its medieval sound. pardon my mistakes and i hope you enjoy it.

Playing : Greensleeves (LZ on Piano) Download

Happy Christmas!

i'm really looking forward to this christmas ^_^ for one jasper's(my car) going to be fixed and i can drive around again haha! sigh... and this maybe my last christmas here ^_^ if lady luck's on my side ^_^

'twas a lazy day so i thought i'd record a christmas song for all of you ^_^ just ignore my mistakes hehehe! raindrops for my effort!

Playing : Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas (LZ on Piano) Download

Finally...

"He that loveth not, knoweth not

God - for God is love."

-- I John 4:8

finally... i've come to read Acts of Faith by Erich Segal. great story... sigh...

a wonderful day yesterday was even though tiring the least, walking in full stride from the train station to my building and then back, standing in the jampacked train then walking again, well it was worth it, i spent the day with my wonderful women (ha!) even though i had to endure a filipino movie (yes ^_^) even though afterwards i can't stop talking about how very unfortunate everybody's situation was (hehe) at least i felt satisfied we kept on disturbing everybody around us (as we usually do)

sigh... anyway... thank you marge for making me read this book, this just added more fuel for a certain hmmm.... pothole that's been in my life (otherwise very complete and satisfying for that matter) that i certainly don't wish to fill anytime soon, sigh... if all goes well (HAHAHA) margie, i vow! i won't be the first one of us to succumb to the lure of the son of Aphrodite

you go girl!

woohoo, i just learned from my highschool yahoogroup-mate that we won the miss international 2005 beauty contest and i was just so proud when i read how she answered her question :

Q: "what do you say to the people of the world who have typecastedfilipinos as nannies?"

A: "i take no offence on being typecasted as a nanny. But i do takeoffence that the educated people of the world have somehow denegratedthe true sense and meaning of what a nanny is. let me tell you what sheis. she is someone who gives more than she takes. She is someone youtrust to look after the very people most precious to you- your child, the elderly, yourself. she is the one who has made aliving out of caring and loving other people. so to those who havetypecasted us as nannies, thank you.it is a testament to the loving and caring culture of the Filipinopeople.and for that,i am forever proud and grateful of my roots and culture."

GREAT ANSWER! YOU GO GIRL! i've never been this proud being a filipino ^_^

^_^ by the powers vested upon me by the great godess ishtar i hereby declare Precious Lara Quigaman an honorary degree from the Ishtar Institute ^_^ HA!

"Blag!" Reloaded

pfft... these kids are.... i don't know... tsk tsk tsk... tell me roberto how do you pronounce "blog?" i got these from urbandictionary.com

american male pronouncing "blog" >> http://www.urbandictionary.com/listen.php?word=blog&skip=1

a "bugging" question

yesterday, on the jeepney as i was on my way home i observed an event which in this case (and for the umpteenth time) stimulated my curiosity.

really... i don't know how to explain this and i really want to know if someone knows how to.

i saw these fruitflies hovering near the trashcan in the jeepney. and curiously they remain hovering over the same spot in the jeepney even though the jeep accelerates, deccelerates, stops suddenly or whatever. you may not understand but try to recall some of your physics ^_^ isn't it that an object on the jeepney (let's take me as an example) will be subjected to newton's law of inertia which means that if the jeep suddenly stops i continue moving forward, hence, i might have to hold on to avoid me being thrown out of my seat. and this if i may remind you is because "i am ON to the jeep." another example would be on the elevator, you feel the inertia when it stops right!? now, my point here is: i move with the jeep because i am attached to it. ok.

now these fruitflies in the jeep and mosquitoes i saw in the train in the past are NOT ATTACHED to the vehicles but rather are flying, hovering, floating over them and not in any way attached to the jeep, how is it that they maintain their position when it is very obvious that they should be left behind as the moving vehicle moves forward. we can conduct a simple experiment: bounce a jackstone ball on table, now as the jackstone leaves the surface, push the table and what happens? the jackstone bounces back on a spot considerably far from its point of origin.

you can say that the fruitflies and the jackstone have rather different characteristics, one is living and the other is inanimate, but still both are subject to the laws of physics right!?

my question here is: ARE THE FRUITFLIES ACTIVELY FLYING WITH THE JEEP CONTINUOUSLY MONITORING THE CHANGES IN SPEED & DIRECTION!?

if they are, i'd be rather surprised because it gives them a rather high level of sophistication.

i've recieved insult from this question from my college physics professor, perhaps because he just doesn't know how to answer it, and still my questions remains unanswered... i will not rest until it is.

lz ^_^

La Naval de Manila 2005 Festivities

Everything went well, very beautiful as usual, i uploaded some pictures, if you want some desktop sized res images, just email me ^_^

Dominican Saints

I've added some of the pictures i took during the La Naval de Manila Festivities, if you are looking for more Dominican Saints or higher resolution versions of these images, email me (lordzagato@chrisalipio.com)
San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila - first Filipino Saint; Martyr

Santo Domingo de Guzman - founder of the Order of Preachers

The Actual Feast Day

the actual feast day of the lady of the most holy rosary is today october 7, so the beautiful statue of the la naval de manila was brought down from the baldachin to be venerated. i didn't have a camera since i arrived late (from school) but anyway it was still moving to see people almost killing each other to get to the altar.

Private Joke ^_^

I'm sure the godess understands hahahahaha!

Crimson Sky

crimson sky taken in my backyard last year june 29, my bro's birthday ^_^ very beautiful

Blag!?

in light of my brother's query and to prove my point, i researched it on the net and indeed! i am right "Blog" a combination of two words "Web Log" is pronounced rhyming with "Dog" or "Blob." Common mistakes reading it "Bee-Log" (totally absurd) and now as my brother says to me "Blag." Is that an attempt to have a slang!? just totally wrong...

new terms related to blogging :
blogger - people who blog
blogosphere/blogdom/blogworld - realm of blogging
vlog - video blog
phlog - photo blog
blogorrhea - tendency to fill blog with too much trivial information (like what is happening now, pfft)
blogroll - part of blog showing links to other blogs

resources :
www.askoxford.com
http://www.andreas.com/faq-blog.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Who's my thousandth visitor?

well... actually this count is not reliably accurate because i started putting the counter way off when this blog started and i must say that knowing www.chrisalipio.com has been online since 1998 it would mean it's an inaccurate count. AND! this ticker also counts me when i visit so.... (drum roll please!) ta-daaaa!!!! I am the thousandth visitor! HAHAHAHAHA! this is a realy nice gift for my birthday thank you everybody!

lz

Thank Yous

thanks to all the people who greeted me today ^_^ special hi's to ms. tin alba who shares this birthday with me ^_^ special prayer for my grandpa who also shares this birthday with me!

special thanks to : my mom & dad, potsy; the highpriestess and the godess; tito roman, tita pat, kaitlynn and tristan; tita lites who gave me my cake ^_^; my med classmates, a1 and a2, and mr. acosta and verle; claude and robert and to everybody who greeted me and i forgot thank you! everybody, you're super!

lz

My Take on Imelda's Jewels

My take on this matter : I hope i don't get burnt at the stake but really... my opinion is that :

WE SHOULD NOT SELL THESE JEWELS

though these jewels were part of the country's dark history, these can be a very useful educational tool for our children and grandchildren. how more can they appreciate history when they see it with their own eyes how their forebearers suffered while other people swam in precious stones!?

who would probably buy these jewels when sold? (a) countries or their museums would want to add some valuable things to their national treasures i.e. the sminthsonian might buy a lot of it, (b) people, i.e. queens, princessess, and other royalty and people who can afford them.

sigh... our history displayed on other's people's museums or rotting away in a private vault. this is unacceptable to me. we should give these to our own national museum, heck! we can call these the philippine crown jewels.

i think the fact that they were attached to our history and mrs. marcos made these jewels priceless... and the money that we will get with selling this stuff- do you really think that most of it will go to the farmers!?

i really don't know why i'm so appaled by the idea of "giving" away our history. i remember this instance when my mom told me that she had one of the rings(heirloom said to be more than cenntury old) given to her by her auntie melted and made into new jewelry and i think i was really affected :-( call me a freak but i thought part of my family history melted with that

La Naval Enthronement

whew! it really was exhausting... holding back my emotions that is... hahahaha! I was really surpised I thought I’ve had it with 3 (or 4?) years of attending the la naval festivities, but I just cannot explain it!?? Seeing the image like a queen being brought down the church nave, preceeded by like 50 priests dressed similarly. It’s just like a queen entering her court. People were clapping… touching… waving their pañolitos… crying…

I got to touch the image, paganistic you might think, but I just really had the urge to touch it as it passed by in front of me. The image wasn’t wearing her real-real beautiful jewels maybe they thought it was better she dressed casually as she passed the people.

Of course there were these heavenly voices of the tiples again serenading their queen. Whew! Well… at least I didn’t cry… not yet :-)

my favorite house moment...

my favorite house moment? hahaha! nothing can be better than this ^_^ i captured this from episode 5. thank you to mr. brabante for giving me the whole first season ^_^

reflections on life cycles

i was just reading about ecology earlier and i am now realizing on the extent of how much we did and did not learn on this subject. true, our professor may have been one of the course's most proficient and skill-oriented instructors but still the subject ultimately did not cover basic concepts that must have been studied. I remember such things disregarded to be reported (which of course no one pays attention to ^_^ )

anyway… to the segue. The high priestess was just talking about cycles in life, particularly to the seemingly incredible adherence of ours to a pattern that is both mmm shall we say pleasing and revolting (hehehe)

I sincerely hope nothing unpalatable happens to anyone of us especially now that we should be celebrating the fruitful lovelife of the godess but this makes me reflect… are we really following cycles during the course of our lives?

In my case, the simple example of my encounter in pharma may be enough, and i cannot stress enough how much I fought to try not to go through with this experience (again in this case) well… so much for trying. but in this pattern, a very invigorating prospect dawns… highschool : bad experience, college : good experience, medschool : BAD experience, my new moment in life : GOOD experience! ha! so it seems I may not need to worry at all!

Yet… a lot of things bother me, friends and family of course. adjustment, and a lot of other terrible things that though I’ve thought about, still would be a challenge when I face them in reality

Hmm… for the godess – what are my foresights into your new foray? … (reflect… reflect…digging into my 8th sense… {hehehe}) I really haven’t met your guy so I’ll delay that for now…

Your pureness, high priestess (haha!) I read your writings and I realize that everything is a choice, the fact that we are here where we are is proof enough. I admire your courage and resiliency. Sigh… you know me I am a real slothful person hahaha! But day by day I am slowly realizing medschool has really transformed me into something of a studying machine hehehe, for how many months now I haven’t lost my zest to study! And even though there are moments that I’d rather watch tv and play pc-games! Something just zaps my ass and makes me study hahaha! Must be the smell of green money hahahaha!

There can be no greater “thank yous” I can give for the valuable life lessons you both thought me during our everyday conversations, they’re something that have become carved in my tablet permanently, and I assume, something that would be a good point of argument with my future women (hehehe) well really this a thanks (hehe)

This is long… huh the point of this being…? hahaha the godess has just gone to a higher plane… so it was just fitting to go back to some things that tie us up… I pray more good things in store for us and everyone else…

it's that time of year again

• it's that time of year again when i go to do my devotion to the lady of the most holy rosary la naval de manila enshrined in the now 51 years old sto. domingo church. time to hear the tiples sing "... adios reina del cielo!" the enthronement is on september 29 at 4 or 5 pm i forgot. i've placed a link below the title bar of this blog to my old la naval page. most of the links don't work but just enjoy the pictures ^_^ if anyone has la naval stories to tell email them to me and i'll post them on the la naval mini-webby.

• i'm starting to feel the air turn cold ^_^ yep, christmas is just around the corner. it's really nice lights are going up again and lot's of food served hehehe

• i got the guilty pleasures cd from astroplus in the podium a few days ago and everysong is very satisfying i espcially love the songs: it's up to you, all the children and (our love) don't throw it all away

Med Week

busy week, as i've said, my talents were pretty much exploited this week, since my work portfolio isn't going to be active anytime soon, i share the job i did with the ust faculty of medicine and surgery student council :
it's for the student council to be put in our lobby, photos were of mr. allan brabante (i did not have time to orchestrate them myself because of other graphic jobs) and more ideas by verle ^_^ we had a fun time doing it and we have a special cameo in the large (4 X 3 feet) tarpaulin billboard : (see the keyboard at the bottom of the poster, i did a little tinkering^_^)

>> my deepest condolences to the family of my former highschool teacher Mr. Crispin Astrologio, he wasn't really technically my teacher, but he helped me and the emperor through a lot, may he rest in peace

>> on a lighter note, i am really elated to know that i'm really in demand in school (haha) well, i'm happy they appreciate my graphic designing abilities ^_^ my current costumers?? mse (a sorority), the medical student council; my own org: medical missions, inc., and i also did our pharma alternative medicine presentation, all in one week! well well well... thank you to the people who exhaust my ideas ^_^

>> im going to activate my portfolio in a few weeks time (look up under the blog title) so you can see the things i designed for them

>> congratulations in advance to the godess ^_^ y'knaw what i mean hehe

Night Out

we attended the high priestess' med week party at ratsky's morato ^ after an hour of ear-aching but otherwise nice live-band music, we transferred next door to my favorite coffee bar ^ coffee bean and tea leaf ^ chatted away till 2 am ^ 'twas nice to spend this time with you guys ^ hope we can go out sometime soon again ^

Linnaeus' Clock

reviewing my botany ^ i came across several interesting things ^ one that really stuck on my mind and i searched for a picture in the net (because its very interesting) is about a horologium florae or a flower sundial thought of by Carolus Linnaeus ^ father of taxonomy ^ he noticed that several flowers opened and closed at different times of the day so he arranged them outside his house so that it could serve as a clock ^ wonderful right ^ and you may say he's very persistent ^ it must have taken him months to observe if the plants did keep to their schedule

Free Streisand Single at Barnes & Nobles

from what i'm hearing, they're flying off like pancakes :-) btw, look at just what airbrushing and makeup can do to a 63 year old woman :-) just like buttah

Venting

Passed First Pharma Shifting, well... hehehe Ginebra San Miguel Advertisement "Bilog ang Mundo." Haha!

Me and Verle went out to celebrate my achievement, Sandy's supposed to go but something came up. Had hours of chat talking 'bout everything, enjoying our neighbors stare and noise, i think everybody at Napoli's that night must've been from UST haha. thanks again verle :-)

on a different note, im really annoyed i must say. read ahead :

"chris, can you make a ticket for a fundraiser our org plans?"

Note : I'm information committee head so this is my job, alright let's continue on

"Alright, send me the details and i'll get to it. No Problem" No problem at all really, i love doing these stuff.

"Oh, the org logo must be there as well as other boxes for sponsors' logo and of course someplace to tear and ticket number."

???? Me Thinking: ok? "Alright, how bout the details? what should i put in the ticket?"

"I'll ask ----, if possible just send me a draft."

pfft. i don't know if you understand what just happened in the conversation but i must say, i'm not God! i don't make something come out of nothing, and i'm proud to say i am a good enough artist that i'll not make something not good enough for me and risk giving it to people to hear them say something shitty about my work (shitty things i don't intend them to think anyway). i can easily invent the details but imagine people looking at the ticket i designed with what? invented information and they say: "what the hell are those written?" and as well i can imagine that by the time they have time to look at my work that's also the time they have decided what to put on the ticket so what they'll notice is how shitty the things i've written there. Hell... and the people requesting these are doctors!

Letting Go

oh my god, streisand raw and unplugged!

streisand and a piano, imagine. i can almost imagine her reading our posts in the streisand yahoo group and thinking "ok, i'll give them that, just me and a piano."

just live and beautiful, voice cracks and all.

i hope she goes on oprah again and sings this live. it'll be just river of tears for oprah and her audience.

"it's so hard..... letting go................................................"

watch the video : http://blog.columbiarecords.com/barbra/index.html

Merlin 2

woohoo! one of my favorite tv movies, merlin is going to have a sequel ^_^ i know someone reading this is as excited as me haha

i just loved the character of the celtic godess-warrior queen mab in the original merlin. at first you seem to take her as a villain but later on you'll find out that she's fighting for her existence and the existence of her kind, queen mab is the protrectress of the faerie, of the old ways and in the process to protect the old way, she creates merlin to help her, unfortunately, her sister (the lady of the lake also played by richardson) and merlin turns their back at her and she disappears forever. i really like the character the way she's says that with everything around her evil, she can't help but do evil to survive.

unfortunately there will be no queen mab on the second merlin, but miss richardson (who also plays rita skeeter on the new harry potter movie) will still play the lady of the lake and sam neil reprises his role as merlin.

babs new video

babs has her new video for her new album on amazon video, titled "stranger in a strange land," it's dedicated to the soldiers fighting the war in the middle east.

dr. house m.d.

there's this new series in star called house m.d. it's about a frustrated doctor who was crippled because of a muscle infarction. other doctors were not able to help him, the only symptom was pain. he refuses to see patients and talks to them without tact often offending people who do not know him, but the hospital administration does not want to fire him because of his brillance as a diagnostician.

on the first episode there was this woman who was having violent fits and was diagnosed to have a brain tumor, dr. house doesn't agree, he was sure it wasn't a tumor, he just doesn't know what it was yet...

he had his residents give the patients steroids, modern medicine's wonder drug, treats anything, anytime. he reasoned that it might be vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, and in this case, in the brain, he said that if it was it she'd be cured if it was really a tumor, she's going to die anyway.

the patient seemed to get better until she had a very violent seizure attack. dr. house up to until this time hasn't seen the patient personally, he was convinced by one of his residents to take this case by lying that she was his cousin. dr. house suddenly had an enlightenment, there could only be one thing that could cause this response to steroids.

the patient had cysticercoid larvae in her brain, but by this time, the patient refuses to be treated and wants to go home and die with dignity. dr. house goes to her finally delivered my favorite line from this episode: "there has never been dignity in dying, there can only be dignity in living."

all it took was good ole albendazole to treat her. this adds something that i should look forward for every week. well aside from hoping the godess, the priestess, and i would be able to go out ^_^ btw, it has been nice talking to you again godess, thank you for the appreciation.

lz

Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile

i'm extremely enjoying this new game by tilted mill, its the next installment from pharoah and cleopatra from another company, they seem to have transfered the rights and i must say the new company did a really good job. the only trouble with game is that the people are never satisfied, well... that's all real ain't it!? but hey! give me some slack, im playing the game for enjoyment, not to suffer the headaches of a pharoah ^_^

a snapshot :

view ontowards my pyramid(still under construction) an an obelisk built on my honor (hehe)

if i never saw her --

if i never met you...
if i never saw your face
this world...
this world would be a colder place i bet

haha! but still my GAWD! i saw this angel walking along emerald avenue, i thought wowow this woman really looks like NATALIE PORTMAN! (Read this: i watched "Closer") just strutting along there not minding anyone, wearing a baby blue baby tee, jeans, auburn hair (sigh...) i could just go on hehehe didn't she notice that all the faces just whew! WENT along with her stride, hehehe anyway my jaw didn't drop (i was able to hold it up until i was inside my building). this was... this was really a good day...

reminds me of the time i saw this woman inside the manila cathedral - - oh! just looked like jackie foster wish it was her (maybe it was her(wink), rambled about the woman for like about - - WEEKS! or months, tell me friends. i wish i had a dr. hitch (thanks verle for lending me the video)

lz

The First Hurdle - - Che-ECK!

woohoo! got the first hurdle! yeah! passed prelims woohoo! thank you to jerome for letting me borrow his F.R.I.E.N.D.S. DVD Collection ^_^ thank you!

i was watching tv the other day and found a new show that i like: Discovery's "Rides," nice, i really loved this pick-up truck they customized real nice, i hope i can have sumthin' like that in the future ^_^

Guilty Pleasure

Ms. Streisand's 61'st album is to be released on September 20th. She pairs once again with Mr. Barry Gibb of Bee Gees fame for this album. Their first partnership, Guilty, is Ms. Streisand's highest selling album launching into No.1 on its first day of release. I hope this album achieves even half of the previous' success ^_^

Next week... exam week, I hope I do well, I hope I do very well ^_^

My Favorite TV Shows Nowadays

with a lot more time for R&R, i've caught on watching a lot of tv again. here are some of my favorite shows (in no particular order of importance) :

the nanny : (hallmark) i forgot how funny this show was, and with the numerous mentions of barbra, this is part of my everyday ritual

who's the boss (hallmark) : though i think this is already gone, i enjoy looking at their funny wardrobe and just love the character of mona, the sarcastic mother hehehe

american chopper (discovery) : love, just love this show, especially when paul sr and his brood are having arguments, love the motorcycles and the process of making them, this is just great

we built this city (discovery) : this is G.R.E.A.T great! i am in awe of how these great people transformed scrubland, marshes and/or whatever to the greatest cities in the world, and how they use technology to protect their city nowadays against the wrath of nature. london, paris, beautiful just beautiful and you'd be amazed at how they became the cities we know of

megastructures and frontlines of construction (nat-geo) : ain't i a frustrated builder!? hehehehe i really am, frustrated, city planner, architect, engineer. i hope i lived in the past so that i wouldn't have take a college course to build. well, i fulfill my dream by playing simcity4 rush hour, ceasar III, and other city building games ^_^

i watched this special yesterday in discovery which reminded me to make this list. it's about how the city of venice is trying to save the city from being buried in the sea. amazing... how they plan to do this, venice is just too beautiful to let the sea eat it

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (etc.) : carson's fashion tips are a blessing to any straight, gay or metrosexual's life, and it's always a treat to see them jumping like they're in tutus HAHAHAHAHA

friends : very funny... the cast is just great :) make's me miss my friends and wish we lived in a building just like monica, chandler, joey and rachel ^_^

well... let's see i can't think of anything more today so i think i'd continue to bore you sometime soon

Screen Protector - pfft! and my desktop

i bought a screen protector for my pocket pc yesterday. i cannot believe such a small piece of plastic would cost Php 500.00!! In US dollars (around $10) it wouldn't be that expensive but for filipinos!?

I've finally traced my desktop's problem, my friend Ryan C. was right, it IS one of the DDR memory modules i just recently bought (thanks ry). it's a shame, most retailers here do honor warranties, but on super-strict policies, i do not know why consumers here are not as protected as we deserve to be. Now I have to return AGAIN in that far-flung place just to be irritated by the under-educated technical staff.

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

I could not resist... (a bit like voldemort) ^_^ I bought my copy of the Half-blood Prince yesterday and finished it at 2 am this morning, with the periodic break in between.

my reaction : SHOCKED! i am utterly stricken and stupefied! :D i expect some of you reading this might have not come to reading the book yet so i will not rob you of the surprise. i must say that this shocked reaction is not about the half-blood prince herself/himself anyway but of what comes at towards the end of the story...

for harry-potter followers... do not hesitate... read...

i cannot wait for the movie of this to come out, mostly because there will be so much kissing, i am already laughing by myself imagining Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe praising and worshiping Madam Rowling for writing in their favor HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (there, a little tease...)

lz

WHOA! WHOA! I have a new baby! 

lord, heal our land

this 5+ years old song really affected me a while ago (in church) after not hearing it for quite sometime, i think it's very appropriate for the country's current situation:

if my people will humble themselves,
humble themselves and pray
if they seek my face and humble themselves
turn from their wicked ways
i will hear from heaven and forgive their sins
i will hear from heaven and heal their land

lord heal our land father heal our land
hear our cry and turn our nation back to you
lord heal our land hear us o lord and heal our land
forgive our sins and heal our broken land

lord we bend our knees humble ourselves
humble ourselves and pray
lord we seek your face and humble ourselves
turn from our wicked ways
father in your mercy forgive our sins
father in your mercy come heal our land

lord heal our land father heal our land
hear our cry and turn our nation back to you
lord heal our land hear us o lord and heal our land
forgive our sins and heal our broken land

forgive our sins and heal our broken land!

words and music by tom and robin brooks

london here i come!

my lola was discharged yesterday afternoon. i was not able to personally talk with her doctor but my mom related the details of their conversation to me.

yesterday as i watched the live announcement being made as to who will have the honor of hosting 2012's summer olympics, i kept on wishing it would be london. well... i got my wish! and i vow to go to london on 2012 for the olympics! woohoo!

another trip to UST

i brought my grandmother last night to the ust emergency room because she was having chest pains. at first, i thought that it might be GER because as i asked her, there was no radiation of the pain and that she tasted something bitter earlier on. i had her brought to the hospital just to be sure, as only an ECG and a cardiac enzyme panel would confirm if she had MI.

the laboratories and the ECG results confirmed that she had an ischemic episode, she needed to be admitted. she was admitted to the UST CVU, and it is now that i see one of the reasons God gave me this time-out (^_^ you should see me now, im almost crying). i have a lot of free time now because i have to take care of my lola. she took care of me from since when and i think Mama Mary is telling me something, that i have yet more important responsibilities for the time being...

one of the best decisions of my life was transferring my lola to the care of Dr. Super Mario, i owe him a lot really. i think my former groupmates' and my great knowledge in cardio roots from him and that alone merits great gratitude, and now this... :-) God will bless him i know. and if ever you want great care hehehe i'm promoting him, he has a subspecialty on hypertension and atherosclerosis.

lz

for the benefit of the lay people :
GER - gastroesophageal reflux (heartburn)
MI - myocardial infarction (heart attack)
ECG - electrocardiogram
CVU - cardiovascular unit

jackfruits and mangoes

today, we went to my mom's friend's farm in rizal, even though the day did not start that well (the jeepney they rented got stuck in the mud because we went through a dirt road), everything worked out though. i was surprised how many produce we harvested, almost a dozen jackfruits, a lot of caimitos, santols, piñas and bannanas. i must say i enjoyed the experience and thought that i would want to retire doing something like that... eating what i plant and perhaps from time to time kill my cow to have some meat hehehe :-) tita caring, mom and i are thinking of putting up an orchid farm there... we will see...

i was surprised last night to see my left palatine tonsil to have a purulent material looking like tofu on it. i was first worried because in my experiences with tonsillitis before, none were like this: nonpainful and unilateral, so i thought they were polyps but looked at, of course, the blessing that is the internet, i saw that it was a bad case of strep tonsillitis, thank God.

Point of No Return

You have come here in pursuit of your deepest urge,
in pursuit of that wish, which till now has been silent, silent . . .

now you are here with me: no second thoughts,
you've decided, decided . . .

Past the point of no return - no backward glances:
the games we've played till now are at an end . . .

Past all thought of "if" or "when" - no use resisting:
abandon thought, and let the dream descend . . .

What raging fire shall flood the soul?
What rich desire unlocks its door?
What sweet seduction lies before us . . .?

Past the point of no return, the final threshold -
what warm, unspoken secrets will we learn?
Beyond the point of no return . . .

Past the point of no return -no going back now:
our passion-play has now, at last, begun . . .

Past all thought of right or wrong -one final question:
how long should we two wait, before we're one . . .?

Past the point of no return the final threshold -
the bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn . . .

We've passed the point of no return . . .

-From the Phantom of the Opera

crumpled money

i was so embarassed... ^_^ forcing the ticket machine to eat my crumpled twenties hehehehe. after walking like one and a half kilometers from the nbi carriedo office to the lrt 2 recto station, i realized this would be the first time i ride this new public transportation. i entered the station immediately noticing the great difference from of course the ancient lrt and the more modern mrt 3. the station was spacious, and clean. i thought the escalators ran too slow but i think i must just have been in too much of a hurry. the next thing i had to do was figure out how to get the tickets because the old mass transits had tellers, this had ticket vendos. i finally got my ticket to araneta center cubao and arrived there after 30 minutes, it was then i realized that i had to walk to transfer trains (sigh). i hope everything was planned together so that walkways would not snake in and out of the buildings etc. well, i must admit, the lrt2 is a trophy for the filipinos, riding it was almost like going to japan ^_^ anyway i feel more of a filipino today having another experience under my belt

faithful in sin

me and my mom went to the basilica of the immaculate conception or the manila cathedral. once again, i basked in its peaceful beauty, and at its transept, layed the body of the cardinal. i saw in his face that he suffered a lot from his disease. i hope he has joined our father john paul ii and i believe that he will pray for our country, so that the peace he worked for may continue to reign.

i went to quiapo afterwards, navigating the narrow passages left by the epidemic of vendors and went up the escalator of a building which now serves as the nbi clearance center. i must admit, having experienced more worse procedures in this country, the quiapo experience relatively ran smooth. my nbi clearance however was not yet released, being a new applicant, i have to wait for it to be encoded... (sigh) well... the good things ended there. anyway, i applaud the efforts of the bureau to make their system more efficient. the payment for all kinds of clearances foreign or local was the same... good. the more expensive one is only for those who need it for naturalization blah blah, i believe that's good also, let those foreigners pay more hehehehe

I attended my nephew's 8th Birthday. Happy Birthday Ish! 

murky water furthers life

life abounds in the dark of the amazon, where fish almost blind search for food they couldn’t see. where carnivores flourish with just hope that the river of life will offer something on the next swish. yes. god provided everything. small fish big fish bigger reptile still, if knew the fish did that on the next flip his brethren catches him on her eager mouth, if knew the algae that littler sunlight will pass through on the onset of the rain, they’d stop struggling, they’d stop. but god gave them ignorance, unlike man which heads on foward, headstrong, unwary of challenges, obstacles but still i can see the intelligence of his design, of life, of the guppy, of the boa, weaved in the fabric of life where everybody struggles to be a colored embroidery of. and man like the turtle waddles slowly seeing the shore, where grass is plenty, and where she shall lay her eggs, carrying on the future, bringing forth the loves of her life out of the murkiness.

pictures from the archive 

the force is with me - - episode 1

here are some observations and details from readings about the star wars series.

i read somewhere that anakin was immaculately concieved (hehehe). watching episode 1 again yesterday, i heard anakin's mother talking that there was no father and how qui gon related to the jedi council that indeed the boy might have been conceived by the medicholreans well...

when the emperor touched the burnt anakin on the forehead he calmed down (ROTS) there were people saying that this was an act of compassion from the evil emperor but i don't think so... relating to obi-wan's touching luke (ANH) and qui gon touching jar-hjar (PM) i would think of it as the emperor using the force to ease anakin's pain

and i must express my remorse over what happened in revenge of the sith. it is really sad to see anakin succumb. he asked for master yoda's advice, and he did not listen. i do not know if master yoda did know what will come about. but had anakin followed his advice and not seek the cure for padme, he would have not himself choked her:-(

>>more to come

the kind clerk

i did see hope in the face of this one clerk. i saw that, in the midst of these people who seemingly are oblivious that they are in an emergency room, laughing, feasting on tsismis about the others who are working on patients, there are still people who go out of their way to make a patient, even though not suffering that much, comfortable.

the fear of pain may bring more suffering than pain itself. who wants to wait for their judgement hearing people giggling, not knowing what awaits them. it seems that the hospital system here in this country does not give a damn what the stamp RUSH means. what do you say is the difference of a laboratory exam result needed by the ER stamped with rush and that of an outpatient coming in for perhaps cough, a LOT, a whole damned lot, and it seems to me that both are processed in the same speed with the same priority. this saddens me. the way how they approach their obligations... finishing their conversation on the intercom about nba scores while an emergency room patient relative (me) waits for him to attend to him. this makes me really sad, this is the place where i am going to work in the near future and this is the kind of help we extend to people...

i do hope more people are fed with fire of the holy spirit to touch others the way how this one single clerk gave me hope. to trust that not everyone has become too miserable to care...

bolinao - - a series of photographs

what could be more soothing than lying on a bamboo raft looking at a half-moonlit sky, the moon, feeling the wonderful ocean breeze, hearing the giggling of your cousins and sibling and feeling the soft drizzle on you body... for me... nothing more (yet)

we were fetched early thursday by our hosts auntie lita and uncle alex and traveled on the new philippine pride: the north luzon expressway. the road's so smooth now you can drink an open cup of coffee without spilling it all over your crotch haha + at the pampanga-bulacan border we saw a wonderful phenomena 

we arrived at our destination after what seemed like traveling forever passing by several sea side towns and some centuries old churches. we were greeted by a sad-faced trillanes, sentinel to the beachfront property who understands only chavacano (this really made me grin) 

we unpacked and the elders prepared our meal while we rested i scanned the property, saw the cottage where ruffa gutierrez stayed during her filming of 'pinakamagandang babae sa balat ng lupa' i looked around the newly constructed beach house fronting the ocean.  

i can get used to this hahaha and what i really appreciated were the 1.5 foot thick barandillas of the azotea (i could lie anywhere!) 

we ate and the kids hit the beach afterwards while i waited eagerly for the sunset (this is the chance to practice again) and i think i did well enough to post it here ^_^ 

we ate dinner outside: ate ruth's barbecue and uncle alex's fishes were mmm just exquisite 

the next day after breakfast...