Movie Mission #1 - Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid

This movie is preserved by the US Library of Congress and the AFI and is ubiquitous on a lot of Top 100 movies list. It stars Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford as Sundance. It tells of the adventures of the two and is known for showing the beauty of Wyoming wilderness during the loooong chase scenes. The movie is all about people chasing the two actually. The cinematography is superb of course and the actors are top notch. One memorable scene is when Paul Newman is taking Sundance's lover around while the (later) Oscar winning song Raindrops are falling on my head is playing. I thought the scene was really out of place but it was a nice break in the mood of the movie. The best thing I love about the movie is the ending. History is questionable whether the real Butch Cassidy survived or not. And so the movie leaves you to decide whether the duo could have survived a barrage of gunmen. I recommend you watch Butch Cassidy for educational purposes. It may not be something you'll thoroughly enjoy as a relaxing movie but it will be a learning experience if you love movies.

Patients

I'm always ecstatic when I bump into my patients on the way to the restaurant or something and they just smile so big at me and tell me: "I can't believe I was so skeptic and put this off for so long. It's just amazing what's happening." I feel my tired smile go from my ear to the other. My pretend cruise smile becomes real and I reply: "It makes me happy you're happy with the results."

That's always the case with first timers, they start skeptics but are drawn in because of the competitive prices on the ship and the advantage of anonymity and discretion being on a cruise offers. No one will know they "had work done" while vacationing. They could always say it was the great sea air, the long due rest that contributed to their amazing transformations. And I agree, I'm amazed at what this tiny injections can do to.

People who had it done before always swear allegiance to the treatment's effectiveness. I had two women sitting for my seminar one has never done it before but when she saw her seatmate nodding she asked her if it was worth it. The veteran answers: "So worth it." And that's it. These are the people you love. In a minute, the skeptic was risking doing it and going home happy. I always pray there would be more people like this whenever I speak. Swearing the truth to the magic of non-surgical facial rejuvination.

Dedication

For weeks now, while I've been fixing paperwork to work on my cruise ship, I'm being taken care of my manning agency, Dolphin Shipmanagement Inc. I just have to say, the people working for this (well, those who I interact with anyway) gotta be either very well compensated or just plain dedicated. More than once did they have to stay (with us) until late into the night to finish paperwork. Just last night we went home at 11 pm and we still left a lot of them pushing paperwork at that time. Considering they are working on another time zone to meet demands from the foreign principals, I still see them 8-9 AM in the morning! Ha! And they have to deal with Seafarers who feel they really are "heroes" and feel all self-important and demanding. Talk about dedication...

So I thank you Ma'am Riza and Ma'am Jane :-) especially for putting up with the nosiest group of doctors you've ever helped out. LOL...

CHRISTHOPER

Let me prove how disgustingly incompetent or stupid our government is. My POEA overseas employment certificate was filed around a week and a half ago and my name was mispelled as "christhoper" instead of christopher.

Isn't my name common enough? Does it have any weird spelling contrived by my parents?

Here's the clincher, my manning agency refiled it to correct my name.... when my OEC was returned my name was... STILL CHRISTHOPER... oh c'mmon!!!!! how stupid can they get?! Are they all jejemons working there?!

Thank You

I passed on my first try. I am deeply contented and thankful. It is only through God's hand that I made it. I know so. No question. Not even half of the people who took the Physician Licensure Exam passed. Why? There are serious issues to that exam, really...

1. Questions are sometimes vague, sometimes you seem to have a feeling that an "except" at the end of the sentence is missing.
2. Questions that cannot be understood at all. They should hire typists that have a health background. I think the board of medicine write down their questions on paper and typists encode them because I see all the mistakes non-medical will have when reading material by medical people. You will just shake your head when you see... SIMBASTATIN - I really doubt a doctor will mistype/misspell that LOL
3. The questions do not represent the intended objective of the exam - i.e. to test what a general practitioner should know. A micro exam which solely focuses on STD. A patho exam laser pointed to immunology and nephrology. It's biased.

As an individual acquainted partly to education (I'm almost certified to teach HSBiology in the U.S.) I can say that the greatest contribution/sacrifice the board of medicine can do for medicine is to learn/retrain on how to make correct, meaningful, objective-based, and that can be evaluated.

Sigh... Thank you Mama Mary. You are the greatest. Venerable PJPII, St. Rita, St. Jude, St. Thomas, Father Dominic thank you for your intercessions. Br. Jon, SJ thank you for your special prayers!

The morning of thursday (the PRC announcement came thursday evening), I was in Piat praying to Mama Mary to help me and my friends, the gospel was... "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened..." I immediately knew Mama Mary interceded for us. She was just talking to me as direct as She can. I'm just amazed at the unsubtle signs she has given me. My specific prayer prior to the exam for Jesus to please send His Holy Spirit - I was surprised when our testing site (College of the Holy Spirit) was announced, I didn't even knew our country had such a school LOL... a person's request on youtube for me to record a song I didn't even know but when I read the lyrics I knew it was Jesus talking to me... right after the test... Huwag Kang Mangamba... everything moved by His divine hand. Amazing. I am Yours my Mother and Brother Jesus. I am your soldier. And I will stand on the ramparts proclaiming your amazing blessings on your poor poor servant.

This is for my Mom and Dad who has sacrificed so much to bring me to where I am.

Reflections on a Year Past

One thing someone has to start practicing is reflecting more often. At the end of each day looking back on how your day has gone, rethinking what things one could have done better, reflecting on words we've said, how we have shown our appreciation of our brothers and sisters. I admit, I have yet to learn to do this more often. For me, it comes and go depending on my mood. What makes me happy is that I realize that I reflect more if I had a great day rather than when I had a sullen one. I think it has helped me cope with frustrations better. It's easy for me to forget and let go of bad experiences simply because of, that. I forget about them. They only become a scar in your psyche if you acknowledge them. Don't get me wrong. We MUST learn the lesson taught but we mustn't wallow in the experience.

At the end of the day, remember how we opened our eyes into new opportunities, given to us by God. A new day to live, to love. A new day to be a servant to our neighbor. A new day for humility.

I read back to the year's start to see what my thoughts were this time last year. I found nothing. Hahaha I'm not surprised. This blog is more of reporting what I've been doing socially but is scarce with what I really think and more often (I admit) it's in the most edited version. This year, I commit to share my thoughts more openly. Acknowledging that I may be able to help others by letting them see how I live my life in happiness. This time last year, I was still an intern. Now, I still am one, waiting to take the licensure exam that will give me the right to treat. I pray God gives me His Holy Spirit to guide me in the exam and as I treat others. May He fill me with the compassion that my teachers has so tried to embed in me. And more importantly may He let me be an example and witness to His goodness and influence other doctors.

I should've. I should've not. The question is moot on my taking the exam last August. I've reflected on this already. Had I passed and was in residency during Ondoy, our house would've burned down. I feel blessed God decided I be home during that time. And I can't exchange the love I've found in all the mess ^_^ This was God's plan for me.

For next year. What do I want? I want this country to work. For the people to get up and start working and not just criticize. Criticism is important but criticism must come from people who are involved. I love something I read in the newspaper: "if you can't lead a thousand, lead one." We don't need to be elected to help building our nation. I keep thinking that maybe Japan did good by closing their country for a hundred years, maybe we should do that. Learn to live with what we have and reexamine ourselves, who we really are.

This early on, I'm going to say. I will vote for Mr. Richard Gordon for president and Mr. Jejomar Binay for VP. Both are successful local executives in the past. I pray they will win and can do for the country what they have done in smaller scale for their communities.

A toast to all for more happiness, love, and freedom from all worries in the new year and the years to come! Happy New Year everybody!

Sangley or DMIA?

In the bid to slowly desaturate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport which serves the entire Metro Manila the Philippine government started to develop Clark Airfield a former US military base as the new international aiport to serve the capital metropolis. Renamed as the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, it's the only airfield in Asia capable of handling space shuttle landings - a legacy of the American presence in the country. It has two runways and a LOT of more space to expand. As part of the program for its development, the northrail which is already on the works has been rebuilt and is planned to link Metro Manila, Bulacan, Subic and Clark. Projected travel time for people who will use the airport is 1.5 hrs from the Metro to Clark. Not bad considering commuting in the metro to the NAIA takes the same amount of time or sometimes more.

Put aside though was also an initial proposal into developing Sangley Point in Cavite located in a peninsula jutting inside Manila Bay, a very ideal location in my opinion. Plan was to reclaim land around it and make it into a combined international and domestic port and international airport and building a causeway that will link it to Manila crossing the bay in what I think will be an amazing sight. That was a very big dream but I don't think we don't deserve it. New York has three international airports serving it: JFK, Newark and La Guardia; London has Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Why can't Manila have three too? Don't tell me we are not on the level of NY or London, we may not be financially wise but on stature: YES. Metro Manila is at par with these cities. And we should not ever think of we are overbuilding because we are just preparing for the future when our density and population increases. The government plans to close down NAIA completely when the time comes but I suggest we don't do it. We could divide the air traffic if we had three airports. Service could be very efficient then and the airports not too congested.

I really don't believe we have to be poor. It is our choice to be poor. All opportunities to raise ourselves up are in place. We just choose our leaders poorly, we don't want to get our hands dirty, we wait for handouts, and we are so undisciplined. Wake up people we could very well beat all our neighbors hands down if we wanted.

The Strength of Our Resolve

A few days ago I heard a very composed father on the radio relating how his family, along with mediamen were ambushed and killed by his soon to be opponent for governorship of a province. I wasn't new to news of political rivalry edging on violence and murder. But I was surprised at myself at how indifferent I felt for the people involved until the news sunk into me, now a few days old... people died, whether these people are truly innocents - some maybe and still some may have done a thing or two in their lives worth punishment - yet the way their lives were taken cannot be construed in any other way but pure selfishness and evil. I resent the fact that the government's (and by this I mean people up there) hands are tied by the politico culture of the country. For me, the issue here is not whether I am for or against whoever side or family should rule. It is that NO ONE is above the law and that it is apparent that not a trickle of conscience exist in those hearts that did this.... policemen and other participant who agreed on this despicable act, where are your souls? Are you so afraid for your own lives to agree to do this? If the mastermind didn't mind killing these people then who are you to be spared? Aren't you all participants now a "liability" that could squeak any moment. You've woven your own deathmats people... tsk tsk tsk...

I'm intrigued. I seriously want to pick the mind of the people who thought of this. What went wrong with their plans? Did they seriously think they could have gotten away with it? Or is it a seriously stupid plan and they were relying purely on guts? I love strategy and planning and this has gotta be one of the worst thought of plans LOL... killing people with Filipino mediamen in the entourage??

Sigh... I pray we have enough resolve to follow through to provide justice... this is still our country and we should own it.

Musa my muse

Musa paradisiaca aka. banana is my favorite fruit.

An Ambitious Solution to Manila's Flood Problem

August 22, 2009 - flood waters rose up again in Sampaloc, and after a long while of absence, even entered the UST campus, and all it's buildings, even the hospital, even the supposedly "raised" carpark. The multistorey carpark's groundlevel is raised 1 meter from street-level but this did not stop the infamous Sampaloc Flood. This really has to stop. My suggestions are many but all can be classified "wild" and "too ambitious" but will certainly work. I hope we put everything into this because this is flood is really counterproductive to our country. Imagine... Manila is our capital. It's so embarassing!

1. Redig all the covered waterways and even create a lot of new ones. Water has to go somewhere right? We should even build flood reservoirs. They can be underground, under buildings and are left empty until there's a lot of water and it will spill in those reservoirs and then thrown out when the rain has stopped. Malaysia has done this. They build a traffic tunnel which is turned into a flood reservoir whenever the need arises. Build another big canal similar to the Mangahan flood waterway cutting right through the middle of sampaloc, it doesn't have to be open, it can even run through the entire length of streets, the flood waters will be right under our feet...

2. Regrade the entire city. This has been done, although after a really destructive force rapt through a city. Seattle, which was built on a tidal plane was regraded one and in some places two storeys high after its great fire. Imagine if we raised the entire Manila landscape one storey high. No more flood.. LOL... this is really far fetched, too much history will be buried but it will be an enduring solution. And reconstruction doesn't have to be overnight. And we will not be wasting money trying to slowly raise street levels like what Manila is doing now feet by feet. In the long run, it is more expensive. And we'll also have a new tourist attraction... Manila's Underground City. --This is really not uncommon I discovered, Mereyside in UK was raised one storey high, Seattle as I've said one to two storeys high (Seattle Underground City), a large part of Atlanta has been raised one storey high (Atlanta Underground City), Rome is resting on a different Rome more times over, Mexico was raised from a dry lakebed... I can go on and on. I am leaning more towards this suggestion really. And considering the sealevel is rising, it may be our only option soon enough. It's a big sacrifice yes... but it is also a very big opportunity... we could bury all our electric cables making the city beautiful. New monuments... new public buildings, and most importantly flood, never again to be seen... can you just imagine?

Addendum :

This is interesting to share. How exactly did Seattle do it?

After its great fire, the decision was made to forever end the flooding problem of the city. They built concrete walls to line the street leaving the sidewalk at the original ground level at first... The insides of the concrete walls (the street) was filled in to produce the new raised street level. People continued using the old street level. Slowly merchants transferred to their second floors and used it as the new commercial space and used the lower floor for storage. Brick arches were put on the narrow sidewalks and were lined with thick glass to allow light below. There were two levels of sidewalks at that point. Once the people have completely moved out of the "now" underground these sidewalks were closed. Parts of the remaining underground city of Seattle is now available for tours... It's amazing how they did this, and how persistent and determined they were to stop flood from hurting their commerce... I hope we had this vigilance...

Manila Frustration

Pictured above is the proposed Burnham plan for the reconstruction of Manila which never came into fruition save for a few buildings. This is really frustrating. Of course no one can ever tell of the real circumstances during that time, history anyway should always be taken with gigantic boulder of salt. President Quezon scrapped the plans to further his plans of a new capital outside of Old Manila in his name (which by the way also did not materialize). But can you imagine Manila if the plan did go through? Burnham's plan for Manila commissioned in 1901 and completed in 1905 was actually made before those of Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. (with McMillan, they revived L'Enfant's 1791 vision for the US Capital - the crowning feature of which is the National Mall). All these cities have the same perfect symmetrical look with wide diagonal boulevards, intersecting streets, big parks, and awe-inspiring public buildings and monuments.

Some of the amazing features of the Burnham Plan?

• A 75 meter baywalk/park from the national mall all the way to Cavite with a wide scenic boulevard spanning the entire route. This actually "sort of" made it through as the Dewey/Roxas Boulevard.
• A park, canopy covered scenic drive covering the entire length of the Pasig River terminating in an park at the edge of the Laguna Lake. Sigh... wonderful right?
• Wide boulevards radiating from the center of the National Mall right behind the capitol. This is very similar to Paris' and DC's layout and it would have been amazing.
• The capitol will surround a gigantic plaza which I imagine would look like Plaza Mayor in Spain.
• Big parks surrounding the city edge.

A key feature of Burnham's concept of urban planning is taking advantage of waterfront scenery. Other big unplanned cities have covered waterfronts, filled to the brim with buildings whilst those of Burnham's like Chicago and DC has given the waterfront "to the people" with parks and public spaces which is ideal, since tall buildings built farther away can actually still see the view right? Burnham envisioned Manila as a walk-to-everywhere city just like Paris with more canopy cover, which would have been ideal, healthier citizens, with less pollution.

It's really frustrating. Chicago, after 100 years since Burnham's plan for it, is still implementing and finishing his fantastic vision, with building the eco-bridge that will cover the mouth of it's harbor in a bid to host the Olympics on 2016. Imagine, our city, with buildings rivaling those of Washington D.C. and Paris. Is it too late to reorganize our congested city? Do wee need the destruction of war just to fix our urban jungle? I'm actually loving Imelda in that she sees no boundaries nor limits in what she wants to accomplish. I want more architectural monuments in our capital, I want to bring Manila the glory she deserves.

HP & the Half Blood Prince (Spoiler Alert!!!)

I thought that a very long time spent waiting for the sixth HP installment will ensure very satisfied HP fans both read and non-readers. I hate the fact that the movie dwell too much on adolescence, hormone surge and flirting and totally left out the fact that the sixth book is very pivotal in explaining a lot of things and setting-up the scene for the end of the series.

Important scenes that were left out from the book / unfaithful scenes :

The Room of Requirement - Harry was supposed to accidentally see Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem when he hides the Half-blood Prince's book.

Harry and Ginny's first kiss was totally different from how it happened in the book. Not that this is important but it is rather annoying and could have been omitted altogether actually.

The absence of the great battle scene at the end. The Order vs. Death Eaters inside Hogwarts. Epic. But amazingly absent from the movie. It would have been a great great scene something that could have rivaled Voldemort vs. Dumbledore although I think that scene from the HP5 also detracted too much from canon.

The most important thing to me was the fact though that Dumbledore did not freeze Harry at that encounter before his demise. I do not think the REAL Harry, and by that the character conceived by Ms. Rowling would have just stood there and did nothing while Dumbledore was wandless and his life threatened. No amount of promise would have stopped Harry from helping.

I think the ending was ok. I'm guessing they will start the next movie showing a short scene of Dumbledore's funeral and that's fine with me. I hated the rock concert sort of tribute at the end of HP6 though. Raising their wands sheeesh....

It was a good movie. Yes. A good movie by itself but an unfitting tribute to the book. Much like the first movie of the twilight saga...

Shame. We've really let ourselves go...

When was it that Filipinos we're proud of their craftsmanship? There used to be a time when Filipino-made equated to being of outstanding quality and longevity. Now, people find ways to cheat consumers for a few more bucks of profit in exchange for loss of loyalty.

Today, I have to encounters that really annoys me. Out I went to prepare the documents and requirements I need to file my application for the Physician Licensure Exams. I thought Copytrade stood for quality photocopies... well... I can't even read my transcript, and I had it photocopied powder! The answer... "Ganyan po talaga, sa machine po kasi... try niyo na lang po sa iba..." What the fuck?! As if she's going to give me back my money to try another copy company.

I then went to SM North EDSA to my favorite photo printing company Mitsubishi in the basement of the Main Mall. Well... lo and behold... all my pictures looked like photos from the 70's!!!!!! I was really pissed... their photos used to be so crisp. And I went there because they had the best value for quality, but now... I don't have qualms paying more if I am going to get quality, but how much?! how much is quality nowadays?! Is it worth an arm, leg or a kidney? Does this mean, doctors too can give less than quality service?

I think it is totally unfair that we have to take this crap from people who over services to consumers. We must always uphold what we think we deserve for what we paid. To the streets!!! LOL

The Sex Video Scandal

I was watched the senate hearing on the Hayden-Katrina Sex Video scandal on youtube. I have several observations.

1. Katrina Halili may not be that good an actress, but SHE IS ONE. Ang arte niya. She canoodled with an attached man, believed he loved her etc., and participated willingly in 3 out of 4 videos. "I haven't gotten work since February" blah blah blah... I'm sure this media circus is really bad for her career, yeah right...
2. Senator Madrigal is the only one qualified to be a senator in that panel. I mean, yeah, all people have the right to serve. Have the right, but I think once you've been chosen, you have to make yourself deserving. Educate yourself. I think Senator Revilla and Senator Estrada have already been the products of their parent's wealth, so they had every chance... they went to exclusive schools blah blah blah pero bakit parang they seem stupid to me (sorry but that's what I'm getting). Sentaor Revilla's questions are biased and some doesn't have anything to do with the objective of the hearing (to educate the Senators on how to make new laws concerning these kinds of things). Senator Estrada have not even seen the video being discussed (which I am highly doubtful). And these people... discussing this things as if they themselves are not pervs. pfft... Sino kaya ang mas maraming duming tinatago?? Please don't vote for this people next time. Please lang po.
3. Hayden would not be in this mess had he not recorded those stuff. He truly is responsible for what is going on. Kudos to the way he conducted himself. He is a doctor afterall. Answering stupid questions... sigh... It's annoying hearing them, let alone if you have to answer. Hayden should get help for his problems.

I'm intrigued who this BIG FIGURE is who is responsible for spreading the video. hmmm... God will be his/her/their ultimate judge I guess.

Susan Boyle

This woman almost brought me to tears. She proves there is a God and He has put His graces on all of His creations. Good work Susan. I hope you get to the top.

Her surprise performance reminded me of mr. paul potts :-) kudos to both of you!

--lordzagato