"Incredible"

Collecting some happy songs to my playlist to pep me up.

Late in warming up to Madonna's recent "Hard Candy" album, so only coming across this bouncy track. So far, it's the only song in the playlist. And it does the job.

Sense

Which one of the five senses do you value most?

There's a reason why I'm asking:
A patient had suddenly lost his sense of sight and set me off into a pensive mode ("mood," more like) - and this is one of the questions that popped into my head.

Spent

As in emotionally and physically.
Must've been because it was my third night in a row with this dying patient, because when he passed away with me and his family members present, I lost it. I shed tears in front of the patient's family as I consoled them. That has never happened before. Snapped to professional mode and had to collect myself in the bathroom.

And my next admission a few hours after that was another case that'll break anyone's heart ...

I may talk like a cynic, but I'm a real softie.

Need to reignite myself by getting lost in life's simple joys ...

Cable v. Satellite

Back to regular cable after 2 years of satellite dish TV. Shaving off a chunk from the monthly bill by combining phone, TV, and internet. The other reason for the switch was because The Filipino Channel is now available through Cablevision with cheaper subscription. Can finally tear down the unwieldy dishes and cables off the roof. Re-adapting to cable's pros and cons:

Some cable pros:
-We can watch TV now during a rainstorm. No more messages about "searching for a signal."
-More DVR space.
-On Demand!

Some cable cons:
-Less HD channels. What do you mean USA is not in HD?
-Less channels: No more Cinema One - must Netflix my Tagalog movies from now on.
-Less user-friendly search menu.

Bounty

Sharing the greenery from our front yard. Peppers above, basil, and tomatoes below. I raided the garden some time ago with my parents' help (not a green thumb here). After my mother snipped a bitter melon from its stem, she told the plant "Thank you." She turned to me and said, "I always tell them thank you." Loony, but it probably works. I've heard gardeners being advised to talk to their plants to help them bloom. Veggies aplenty and I've had my share of roughage (lots of beans!) to last me the rest of the year.

Reading ...

NY Times' Funny Pages features a weekly graphic serial.
Been following Rutu Modan's "The Murder of the Terminal Patient."
Why?
Because it's set in a hospital and it's a mystery?
No. Because it reminds me of the Pinoy Komiks I devoured when I was a kid in the Philippines, which I would secretly buy and hide from my mum and aunts. And when I didn't have the money to buy them, I came up with stories to tell and drew my own.

Hmm. Home-sick thoughts: Where can I buy Liwayway Magazine?
Do they still publish Pinoy Komiks?
Whatever happened to "Niknok"?

Young'uns

"Venting to Heal It":

Been taking care of young patients lately. Young as in younger than me or close to my age.
Not all of them are terminal. But when they are, it gets to me. "Mortality," as Keats wrote, "weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep" in those times and it scares me. But it also helps me prioritize what's important in my life.

That was a downer, now here's an upper from that much-missed Gary Larson strip, "The Far Side":

Caturday

In honor of 4chan's Caturday, here's the new addition to the household:


My mother picked up another stray! Though he's well-behaved and potty-trained within a day, he's not the cutest kitty in the litter. I said he's ugly, my brother says he looks like a rat, and my mother is going to name him Mickey Mouse.

The total comes to 5 cats and 1 bird. So far.

Remote Control

Maybe because I watch too many DVDs or I'm just rough with them, but remotes for our DVD players die in my hands a lot that I feel like I'm the Dr. Kevorkian of remote controls.
So if you want your suffering remote to die, just send it to me.
The original remote for my player self-destructed because the batteries melted inside it.
So I borrowed - stole, more like it - my parents' remote so I can use it in my room and that died, too. (I'm surprised it lasted this long after I spilled Coke on it.)
Since universal remote controls don't have the buttons I frequently use (no Disc Skip or no Subtitle buttons?!), I had to buy a replace remote for my 6 year-old player this time.
Of course, it cost a bundle because it's an older model. But when it arrived, and after I juiced it with new batteries, I felt like Sweeney Todd and saying, "At last, my arm is complete again!"

Band-aid Your Empty Lives With These

It’s No Boo-Boo: Bandages as Fashion Accessories
By KAYLEEN SCHAEFER
Published: August 7, 2008, NY Times
Since the adhesive strip has been upgraded by designers or studded with Swarovski crystals, some adults have begun to view it as any other accessory.

So ridiculous that I have to share this from the Thursday funny pages, otherwise known as Thursday Style Section of the NY Times. They wear band-aids for no apparent reason except to be hip. My favorite part's at the end of the article:

Patricia Graf, a designer in Aachen, Germany, wears Mr. Seibert’s designs as a ring, on a foot or under an eye as a sparkly version of a football player’s greasy black stripe. Somebody once offered to buy her bandage from her at a party.

“Gross,” Ms. Graf told this reporter. “It was used.”

As for Mr. Brown, he’s worried his supply is running low (he bought only six boxes, after all) and plans to use them sparingly from now on. New York Fashion Week is just four weeks away, and for that, he said, “I definitely have to be rocking a bandage somewhere visible.”

Can't wait for patients asking for designer bandages in the hospital soon. "Would you like the Swarovski or the Tiffany duoderm on your pressure ulcer?"

Beijing Opening

DVR-ed the 4 hour ceremony since I was at work. Watched the "artistic portion" and sped through the Parade of Nations to the lighting of the Olympic flame.

Curious about what Zhang Yimou would do with live spectacle compared to his cinematic spectacles. (I like his quieter movies: "Not One Less" and "The Road Home.") Marveled at the technology he used: the LED screens on the floor and top rim of the stadium. The flying and wire work got a little tired. More amazed at the low-tech undulating printing blocks that formed Chinese characters, drops of water, and the Great Wall - a segment at the end of which I found myself applauding. The sphere with performers traveling around it was cool until Sarah Brightman pierced my ear drums. I don't know but there's something so "Triump of Will" about the whole ceremony that I can't help Zhang Yimou may be the next Leni Riefenstahl.


The spectacle confirms that poorer countries would never be able to host the Olympics in the future. When will the IOC let an African country host the first Olympics in that continent? It is the only continent in the 5 Olympic rings to never host one.

Now, onto the swimsuit competition -er - the swimming competition.
The games I will most likely watch for sportsmanship: Beach volleyball and gymnastics.
The games I will most likely watch for hotness: Swimming, Soccer, Water Polo, Basketball.

The Next Filipino Import

Douche: "What do you do?"
Me: "I'm a nurse"
Douche: "Of course, you are. You're Filipino."
I'm a stereotype in so many ways. (But let me be the first to make fun of myself.)
So imagine my relief to hear that pretty soon, we'll be importing teachers in addition to nurses.

Lessons Far From Home
by Phuong Ly from The Washington Post
At a Forestville elementary school, Mabel Ventura learns what it will take to give her family in the Philippines a better life

The bleak side of the story is that Baltimore can kill you (Sorry, John Waters.):

Pinoy Teacher Driven to Suicide in Baltimore
By Rodney J. Jaleco
ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

Spray On!

My Quest? Build A Better Condom
By Callie Lefevre
TIME, 7/31/08

Jan Vinzenz Krause, inventor, 30

German entrepreneur and sex educator who designed a spray-on condom made of liquid latex

There are lots of reasons scientists are looking for ways to make condoms more appealing--and safer--to use. TIME's Callie Lefevre asked Jan Vinzenz Krause about his efforts to make a spray-on condom.

How did you get this idea? I went to get my car washed. In Germany, you drive through a tunnel, and there's water coming from all sides. I was sitting in my car, and I said, "Yes! This is the idea! I will try this with a condom." So I went to a hardware store--I felt a little like MacGyver--and I bought a tube, put some holes in it, attached these nozzles and connected them to a box of liquid latex. The latex sprays out of the nozzles.

What's the advantage? The condom fits 100% perfectly, so the safety is much higher than a standard condom's, and it feels more natural.

Did product testers worry that spraying on latex protection would ruin the mood? Yes, that was mentioned. The prototype takes a few minutes to dry. For people to buy it, it needs to be ready in five to 10 seconds.

Any other hesitations? They were a little bit afraid to use the tube.

Are you waiting for someone to come up with a better latex formula? Right now, I have to focus on things I think will be successful in the immediate future.

So what's your latest project? A condom brand in six sizes. We developed this brand for the Web. Men on the Web--they are very honest.

Could you imagine kids getting a hold of this? The way I got a hold of my parents' condoms when I was in grade school. I thought the condoms were balloons, but my aunts insisted they weren't. So I demanded to know what they were. Being conservative, they didn't explain it further. Believing they were balloons, I blew them up and took it outside in the street to play, much to my aunts' mortification. They weren't good balloons to play with. They popped after they landed on a blade of grass.

So, what if a kid gets a hold of a spray on condom and sprays it on his schoolmates? He'll probably just think it's silly string.

Simplify

The first week of August instructs us to feng shui our lives by celebrating National Simplify Your Life Week - a tidbit courtesy of CBS Sunday Morning News. Do professional personal organizers and declutterers have that powerful a lobby? Maybe instead of sinking down on the couch simply watching "neatTV" and "Clean House," I should sort my junk alongside the folks in the program and hold a giant yard sale for useless stuff. Selling possessions may be the only option for some to fend off foreclosures in this economic climate anyway.

Not going to be as drastic as some have done - whittling down their material possession to 100 things. That just sounds so monastic.

How To Live With Just 100 Things
by Lisa McLaughlin
Time Magazine, 06/05/08

Like always, I will start with cleaning my desk. Fie on those who psychoanalyze my clutter! I'm not messy just because my life is.

Brassai

At a recent visit to the Met, I wandered around the small photography exhibit and discovered Brassai. I feel dumb (my inferiority complex kicking in) because when I Googled and looked him up in Wikipedia, he's apparently well-known and well-loved. The pictures displayed at the exhibit showed Parisian scenes at night: in alleys, after-hours bars, bordellos. They had the feel of film noir - a term yet to be coined at that time. Paris + film noir = I'm there.

"I'm a Bleedin' Romantic"

"What's your blood type?" How's that for a pickup line? It's not as weird as you might think.

My friend started talking about blood type as a sign of romantic compatibility. I simply thought she was wacky. But upon trawling the net for some research, the idea that blood types can be a matchmaker, much like how others believe that astrological signs can indicate compatibility, is an idea that's been around for a long time. And researched, too, by a Japanese scientist. It reminded me about the four humours the Greeks assigned to bodily fluids.

From Elle Canada:
Romantic chemistry is in your blood
Astrology aside, your blood type works as the new matchmaker.
By Steve Burgess

So, here's the breakdown and see if it's true to your type:

Type O: Type O’s are outgoing, and very social. They are initiators, although they don’t always finish what they start. Creative and popular, they love to be the center of attention and appear very self confident. Worst Traits: Vain, careless, ruthless. O is most compatible with O, and AB.

Type A: While outwardly calm, they have such high standards (perfectionists) that they tend to be balls of nerves on the inside. Type A’s are the most artistic of the blood groups. They can be shy, are conscientious, trustworthy, and sensitive. Worst Traits: Fastidious, over earnest. A is most compatible with A and AB.

Type B: Goal oriented and strong minded, type B’s will start a task and continue it until completed, and completed well. Type B’s are the individualists of the blood group categories and find their own way in life. Worst Traits: Selfish, irresponsible, arrogant. B is most compatible with B and AB.

Type AB: Type AB’s are the split personalities of the blood groups. They can be both outgoing and shy, confident and timid. While responsible, too much responsibility will cause a problem. They are trustworthy and like to help others. Worst Traits: Critical, indecisive. AB is most compatible with AB, B, A and O.

(Source: http://www.falloutcentral.com/news/2008/06/01/bleeding-love/)

Let's see how many of you know your own blood type.