My Future Saint

One thing that excites me the most is to call the now Venerable Pope John Paul 'the great' Saint. I have a special devotion to him and pray that he becomes a saint in my lifetime. I have made an online tribute to him at http://giovannipaolomagno.blogspot.com and I hope you visit it and read the interesting things I am also finding out about him.

Ton's Birthday Bash

27 March 2010 - We celebrated Ton's birthday and his board success. It may also be the last time we see each other for a long time. Most of us are leaving the country for residency. We may be gray when we see each other again. Let's conquer the world guys!

Ton and Beautiful and Sexy GF Chiara

Gleek Wannabees

2007 Section A'ers

San Pablo

We visited my relatives farm in San Pablo for a supposed Pabasa ng Pasyon. But they finished early and all we did was eat eat eat and tour the surroundings.

Sun Kissed Mahogany

Quickie Moonlight

I helped out Makati Red Cross for their Mass Blood Donation twice and it was playing 'real doctor.' My first MBD was in Asian Life headquarters an HMO and the next one was at Hewlett-Packard headquarters in McKinley Hills. I must say that working in Makati would be really fun. The interiors of the offices are really really really nice. You'd think you're not in the Philippines! Thick carpeting, the smell of new furniture everywhere, and so so much space. No cramped desks or bathrooms. Everything is just nice.

Just as I thought...
Hewlett and Packard are real people ^_^

With Makati Red Cross Volunteers

With Beautiful HP Girls

With Makati Red Cross Volunteers

Semana Santa 2010

I went to see the annual Hermandad dela Sagrada Passion de Jesus' Lenten exhibit in Intramuros and took photos of the exquisite Santos. Truly treasures of the Philippine Culture.

Sorrowful Mother

Mother of Sorrow

Jesus is Betrayed by Judas Iscariot

Jesus Christ Crucified

more photos in my flickr set >>

To Give No Deadly Drink

14 March 2010 - I took my oath as a doctor at the Philippine International Convention Center. The oath took mere seconds compared to the lengthy speeches of everybody who wanted to speak. I think the oath is more for that than for us, let alone our parents. Nevertheless, it made a good opportunity to wear a barong, which for me has been so long since the last. ^_^

Doctors trying to be funny

Inductee!

With UST-FMS Dean Dr. Graciela Gonzaga

Whoa! Girls!

With my parents who sacrificed so much
to make me who I am now

Buddy Earle from Group G

Mom and Dad

Brod Potsy

Prude and Uptight

I am continually castigating myself thinking I am too prude and uptight. Prude - a person who is or tries to be excessively proper, especially one who is easily offended by matters of a sexual nature; Uptight - Excessively concerned with rules and order. Hahaha... well I am not easily offended by matters of sexual nature thats for sure. But is something wrong with me if I get annoyed of people throwing their trash out of the jeep?! I cannot reconcile the fact that people do that or tolerate their companions or children doing it. You don't need a college education to know that throwing trash out of the PUV when the trashbin is right there in front of you is wrong right?

Just yesterday, filing my application for my physician license number I saw my undergraduate batchmate who shall remain unnamed blatantly cut the line feigning looking innocent when there we were more than 40 people who have waited for more than an hour were right there. I could have just sat in a cold office offered drinks by my mom's friend from PRC while I cut the red tape and used influence but I chose not to when thousands of people endure heat and the long queue to get something from the PRC.

It's a pity really... we all look for a change for the better when we ourselves cannot apply simple civility and culture to ourselves. I guess I won't be ashamed being prude and uptight as long as I know I harm no one and even contribute a little change for the better. God bless you batchmate.

Jesus is a Light Bulb

Earlier, I think Jesus was talking again. "You can be like this, maybe even better." I've been imagining being myself as someone who would do exactly such a thing - using props. Explaining today's gospel, the father friar explained Jesus' transfiguration simply yet rather magnificently... Jesus is a lightbulb. When someone who doesn't know what a lightbulb sees it, what will they see? Something round, rather elegant... fragile, but what did it do? Is it something special?

Plug it in and you see a miracle... there is something about it... there's something special about the round thing... only you don't see it all the time. Jesus said I am the light of the world and the darkness will not overcome me... but when His physical self went up to heaven did the light go out? No, said the good priest, no... we are the light of the world now (showing a row of christmas lights) we are the small lights that Jesus left to be the light of the world and for each other (then plugging the christmas light to the big light bulb)... but in order to be something special and glow we must be plugged into the big light... Jesus. SIMPLE. MAGNIFICIENT. AWESOME.

It is really different hearing mass from an O.P.

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.

It is finished.

One of my favorite lines in the new testament. These words by Jesus signify the completion of our salvation by His sacrifice. And how appropriate after taking the Physicial Licensure Exam that our Lord's next line (as modified to apply) is : Father, into your hands we commend our spirits!

Deboto

No more appropriate time to introduce Tagalog in my posts than now. Yesterday, mom and me went to quiapo church to hear mass on the last day of the novena to the Black Nazarene. We chanced on Bishop Teodoro Bacani officiating the mass and I like what he said.

Sabi niya, may dalawang klase daw ang deboto ng Nazareno. Una, and deboto sa Imahen ng Nazareno na dumarating lamang tuwing piyesta at nakikihila sa lubid at kailangang makalapit at makapunas sa imahen. Ang ikalawa ay ang deboto sa Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno mismo. Mga taong nanalig kay Cristo, dumadalangin at nakikinig sa mga pangaral niya.

Paano nga ba maging tunay na deboto sa Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno? Tanong ni Bishop Bacani: "Ano ba ang ginawa ng Poong Nazareno para sa atin? Hindi ba pinasan niya ang krus ng paghihirap para sa ating lahat?" It goes to say that if we are the real kind of devotees, we try to emulate his example and carry others crosses and not give our brothers and sisters crosses to carry for us. People who get drunk become crosses to the wives they go home to, to their families who have to take care of them. People whose cigarette smoke become a burden to their neighbors. Wiping handkerchiefs and professing faithfulness to the Image of the Black Nazarene doesn't compare to people who live their lives like him.

Nuestro Padre Poong Nazareno, Hari ng Langit, Aming Tagapagligtas, maraming salamat po sa lahat ng mga biyaya. Ipinananalangin ko po Nuestro Padre Poong Nazareno na sa taong ito iligtas niyo po ang inyong mga deboto sa kapahamakan. Samahan niyo po sila sa paglalakbay para gunitain ang inyong kalbaryo. Gabayan niyo po ang mga magiging pinuno namin para maging katulad niyong maging magandang halimbawa sa amin.

The Duggar Family House Guidelines

1. Always use soft words, even when you don’t feel well.
2. Always display kind actions and joyful attitudes, even if you have been mistreated. Have the right response by quickly forgiving others in your heart even before they ask.
3. Always be enthusiastic and look for opportunities to praise others' character.
4. Always deflect praise and be grateful to God and others for the ways they have benefited your life.
5. Always use manners and be respectful of others and their belongings.
6. Always do what is right, even when others may not, or when no one is looking.
7. Thank God for how He made you, for what He has given you and everything He allows you to go through. (Romans 8:28)
8. Don’t mock or put others down. Develop compassion and pray for others.
9. Never argue, complain, or blame. Quickly admit when you have done wrong and ask for forgiveness (even if you were only 10% at fault). Don't wait till you’re caught. Be sure your sins will find you out. He who covers his sin will not prosper, but he that confesses and forsakes it shall find mercy.
10. Have a tough accountability/prayer partner to daily share your heart with and to keep you in line (your parents, spouse). The power of sin is in secrecy.
11. Be attentive and look for ways to serve others with sincere motives and no thought of self-gain.
12. Think pure thoughts (Philippians 4:8, Romans 13:14).
13. Always give a good report of others. Don't gossip! Never tale-bear unless physical harm will come to someone. (Use Matthew 18.)
14. Never raise a hand to hit.
15. Never raise a foot to kick.
16. Never raise an object to throw.
17. Never raise a voice to yell.
18. Never raise an eye to scowl.
19. Use one toy/activity at a time. Share!
20. Do your best to keep your surroundings neat, clean and organized.
21. Never let the sun go down on your wrath. (Don’t go to bed angry or guilty)
22. Amendment J.O.Y. -

Put Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last.

The duggar family (http://www.duggarfamily.com/) is the star of the reality show 19 and counting. They have 19 children and are financially stable and self supporting even before their show started. The children are home-schooled. they are devout christians and is somehow now a model family. They defy their seeming potential for chaos by their sheer number by their good faith and principles in living. I can only hope that my family, present and future, be like them -- hahahaha not their number (well why not) but their success in the way they raise and teach their children.

My New Year's Top Five - XXIII

Wow. I skipped a whole year doing this. Hahaha ^_^ This was fun! Not in any order :

1. Photography - I took this more seriously last year. With the gift of Lumix from the heavens above ^_^
   
2. Cheesecake ! - my guilty pleasure oh lala... I want to try making one this year!
   
3. Facebook and FB Games - this is both boon and bane of my year. I embrace your presence in my life FB and Pet Society!
4. Mom - I spent a lotta time with my Mom this year. I loved her and hated her LOL... But I conclude... I love her more still ^_^
5. THP - occupied my mind more than I've admitted or will admit (toink) LOL but what can I do? And still yet bewitched, bothered, and bewildered...
   

The Three Wise Men

Fr. Alarcon's sermon yesterday, on the feast of the epiphany, put emphasis on how the Magi are called to be "wise." He asks, "Ano ang pagiging Pantas?" (How is one called wise?). He shares that for one to be called wise, one must have two things: Knowledge and Experience. He continues... "a fresh graduate applying for a job may be knowledgeable, but he is not wise, for he doesn't have the experience of someone who has spent years in the company. A newly wed couple may be knowledgeable on marriage, but they don't have the wisdom of those who celebrate their 25th, 50th or 60th wedding anniversary."

Why do we need to have wisdom? To fully grasp Christ's teachings. We don't only need the knowledge Catechism teaches us. We need the experience to understand them. The wise men were considered wise in their time because they knew how to interpret the stars. It was the science of their times. They knew something important was happening and sought the mysterious light. They didn't only know something was happening. They lived it. They experienced it.

What did Matthew say about the Magi? Matthew didn't mention there were three but mentioned that the Magi from the east bore three gifts . Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Symbolizing the three roles Christ was to undertake. King, priest, and the ultimate sacrifice. Tradition gave us the names. Caspar or Gaspar, Melchor, and Balthazar.

The Magi had the tenacity to seek out Christ. Similar to us, we don't know the exact path or formula to discover Jesus, we only have but a simple guide that lights our way. In our way are a lot of Herods tempting us and tricking us to hand over our salvation. May we like the Magi keep our eyes on our target. Seeing Jesus and someday kneel at the foot of His throne to bear him the gift of us.

01.01.10

I just thought this was a very nice date to post something. LOL. Happy New Year everybody!!!

In The Time of Your Life

I would like to share this as a thought for the New Year... Reflect...
(Paraphrase as read by BJS)

In the time of your life, live... Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed.

Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption.

Be the inferior of no man, or of any men be superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself.

In the time of your life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.

-- William Saroyan

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!

Grace. Class. Beauty...

Candice, medschool classmate and friend got married to Iloilo City Councilor Nielex Tupas, son of Governor and Former Mayor Tupas of Iloilo 27 Dec 2009 -- sharing their anniversary with my parents. It was a great wedding and I loved the bishop's sermon.

The Beautiful bride in her Monique Lhuillier Gown
Fine-tuned by Paul Cabral
Sanctuario de San Antonio de Padua
Forbes Park, Makati City

Ninong Franklin Drilon
Cousin of Gov. Tupas

Beautiful Candice after the Ceremony

Steff sung in the Marriott Hotel and Casino Reception

Michelle Obama?
Oh... It's Verle ^_^

Me and Candice

Holiday Photo

Candice's UST Med Friends

The only Photobooth Image I've seen - thanks to Ailen
I hope the others surface as well..

Da'boys with the Princess

With Mayor and (My) Future Vice-President Binay
With Future President (with high probability but He doesn't have my vote yet ^_^)
Benigno "Noynoy" Simeon Aquino III

Cocktails and tapas served during registration. There was a photobooth. The food was awesome, the program was so smooth and perfect.. and the Can-can dancers... well hahaha... entertaining. Awesome wedding. And because the groom was a politician and Candice and siblings were super well-educated. The speeches were great and not a bore!

Also in attendance were : Judy Araneta-Roxas, Miguel Zubiri (will add more when I remember more ^_^)

Amadeo

We spent 2 days at Kim's hometown of Amadeo, Cavite -- coffee capital of the Philippines. It was right beside Tagaytay City. Tagaytay Ridge was a mere 7 minute drive from their house, depending whether it was Kim or me driving though. ^_^

It was east coast spring time temperature when we were there and I enjoyed it thoroughly! It was the perfect weather for studying... or sleeping. ^_^ We hanged out on the newer Starbucks beside Summit Ridge hotel which had fewer people and lesser noise. I was convinced. I have to have a property in that place!

The three of us during a study-break in Starbucks Summit Ridge

Evergreens in the Pink Sisters' Chapel

Alex and Kim - Pink Sisters

Me and Kim - Pink Sisters
Didn't have the energy to train Alex in Framing -- hahaha ^_^
peace Alex!

Kim has a nice and very accommodating family ^_^ ... and a really nice house to boot hahaha. And I loved her niece Lila Stephanie. She's so cute! I could only wish to have a daughter as sweet, behaved and beautiful as her. Or have a daughter-in-law like her LOL... hahaha! I repeatedly told her... You'll be my son's girlfriend Lila hahaha. She was shy at first but has apparently inherited her Tita Kim's love for the camera. When she saw I was going to take pictures of her she sat on my lap and we took A LOT of pictures. ^_^ The entire time we were there, I didn't hear her cry, complain, nor throw a tantrum. A smile that can erase your worries, doubts and make you forget about anything else. I perfectly believe now how one can just spend an entire day watching their kid... just that, watching them...

I want me my own Lila!

Lila and Me

Lila and Tita Kim

Happy Lila

Chris and Kim at Starbucks

I vote this as one of the best Starbucks in the Philippines

Our hostess Kim during our Leslie's dinner.

Of course mushroom burger was on our itinerary and I can't go to Tagaytay without passing through Leslie's.