Just received my first paycheck as a “Medical Officer III,” employed by the Republic of the Philippines-University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital. And now that the customary treat for the more senior residents and the required contribution for bills at home are already done/paid, it’s time to contemplate what to do with the rest of what the government has decided to compensate for my (rather amateur) services as a physician. Do I:
[ ] buy a laptop I can use to make the 7 mortality presentations I need to finish by the end of the month? (correction, 7 and running, since Feb is not yet over)… I’m eyeing the white ultraportable eeePC:
[ ] buy a dual-SIM phone I can use to call my family and friends (Globe) and co-residents (Sun), without the hassle of having 2 bulky phones in my blazer pocket? The stylish myPhone Slyder is at the top of my list:
[ ] buy the latest edition of Adams’ Principles of Neurology? So that I won’t fail the next exam? (or else, Sunday duty ang katapat).
[ ] buy a new Littman branded stethoscope? I lost mine in the Pay wards last month, and I’m now using a cheap imitation (works great, by the way, so this item is at the bottom of my things-to-buy).
Or, I could be really childish and buy something totally unrelated to work… like my own Playstation!
My social life recently has been limited to visiting patients, interaction with the friendlier consultants (I try to hide from the scary ones), and playing PSP (actually an alone-activity, but at this point, any respite from hospital work would qualify as socialization). Of the three, it is obviously the last that I enjoy the most. Especially since I rediscovered that the PSP reincarnated one of my favorite Playstation games of all time… PaRappa the Rapper! In this video PaRappa is being taught by Instructor Mooselini to drive and rap at the same time (my personal favorite, Stage 2):
2008 is just around the corner and it’s about that time of the year again for me to get a new planner (quite a requirement for a semi-OC person like me). Last year and the year before and the year “before-before” (hi to my Comm I/II Prof, Ma’am Gavino of UPM at this point, who finds the distinctly Filipino phrase “before-before” weird), I used Starbucks planners. It was quite easy to get them then; I was still a med student and the stickers overflowed with each exam that went my way (at worst, there could be 4 exams in a week). This year though, the stickers were more difficult to complete (reason 1: unemployed state, reason 2: no more exams, reason 3: tachycardia), so I had to find an alternative, especially since by 7AM of January 1, 2008, it’ll be all systems go for a full year of toxic work c/o the PGH Department of Neurosciences for me (gawd!). Good thing I found the Jollibee planner. As it turns out with my critical appraisal (which follows), it seems that the Jollibee planner is not just a decent alternative, it’s even a better datebook than the one from Starbucks!
The traditional Filipino christmas celebration involves the preparation and partaking of what is usually a large, lipid-laden, stroke-inviting Noche Buena feast during Christmas Eve (I’ve heard stories of dogs suffering from strokes after begging for scraps at the Noche Buena table!). And while the actual event (ie, eating time) is a very happy time for everyone, the activities some hours prior are usually toxic and stressful. Grocery lines start snaking and become kilometers long, taxis become rare commodities, pots and pans have to be brought down from places you didn’t know existed… all this culminating in a mad dash of cooking/preparing the usual suspects (in our family, they’re spaghetti, ham, and fruit salad).
So this year, our family decided to be practical (read: lazy) and instead of tiring ourselves with hectic cooking, we spent the 24th doing our last-minute shopping; then we just had our Christmas dinner outside (we also had loads of Friday’s Fun taking pics).
Still, Christmas didn’t seem complete without at least a semblance of a potluck meal. Hence, upon arrival at home, I prepared my very own contribution for our Noche Buena Dessert: Strawberries and Cream. The recipe follows (no, it’s not from Jamie’s Kitchen; he wouldn’t dare make a dish this complex):
The Philippine contingent on Saturday ended up in 6th place at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, a far cry from the what was posible 2 years ago when the meet was hosted by Manila, where — cheered on by their kababayans and helped by homecourt advantage – our atheletes won the most golds. This year, on the other hand, the country took home two special awards: the MVP of the entire tournament was Miguel Molina, a Filipino swimmer, who was chosen because he was the winningest male athlete in the games (with 5 medals in all); the award for Sore Loser of the Year meanwhile also goes to Team Philippines, with the most number of athletes walking out from their respective matches to protest against alleged bias in their events (ie, boxing, taekwondo). Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao I heard was very disappointed with the new title bestowed upon Filipino athletes; Thaksin on the other hand must be thinking that this was payback for his allegations last time that there was cheating in officiating in the Manila games.
Sometimes the problem with med school is that you get so busy with duties and with studying, that it becomes difficult to find time to attend to other interests, especially those that are not relatable to work inside the four walls of the hospital. So many episodes, movies, games, plays, books, events, news, issues etc etc were lost this way during my 5-year stay at the PGH. Survival sometimes meant having to block out all other competing interests in an effort to understand and commit to heart (yes, not just to memory) the fronto-ponto-cerebello-dentato-rubro-thalamo-cortico-spinal pathway; and for this, the feeling that one is detached from the real world is an all too common experience for the average med student.
Good thing there are reruns.
Today I watched five documentaries in a docufest sponsored by my sister’s org in UP Diliman. All were from the award-winning GMA show I-Witness, and all I missed when they were originally shown on TV. The first, Howie Severino’s Brod Is Thicker Than Water, discussed the death of UP stude and Sigma Rho neophyte Cris Mendez from hazing. When news broke out of Cris’s death, I was on duty at PGH for pre-residency qualification; I found out about it from my sister, Cris’s classmate at the NCPAG. We usually talk about updates on this issue (or the lack thereof) during dinner.
One of the major trends in modern medicine is its respect for the intrinsic power of numbers and their study. In the movement known as Evidence Based Medicine (or EBM), the teachings of tired old doctors passed on from generation to generation are not taken as absolute truths, but as principles that are less convincing than those supported by hard evidence. The NHS classification of medical literature uses Level A to apply to theses supported by strong studies such as consistent Randomised Control Trials (or RCTs), and Level E to refer to expert opinion or theoretical results (find out what Level B, C, and D mean in Wikipedia). The whole idea is to determine best practices in the medical field by testing them against objective observations and to do away with extraneous variables such as bias in making important medical decisions.
Indeed numbers have a very strong power to convince. When used properly (ie, in presentations that can sustain the interest number-haters like myself), they can strongly influence opinion, affect stances, and forward certain advocacies (who can forget that three-storey projection in The Inconvenient Truth? 3:15 on this YouTube video). I am sharing below my favorite number-play sites (ie, sites I go to when I suddenly get that nerdy urge to know more about the world):
Our internet connection at home has been down for more than a week now; I’ve thus been forced to do my online-related activities at internet cafes outside. Not only is this bothersome in the sense that I have to block out noisy high school kids playing online games while attempting to blog, check blogs, get e-mail, search and surf; the idea of leaving footprints of whatever internet activities I’ve been doing for the next user to see and use is also not a very comfortable thought for me (I remember someone hacked into my e-mail account dati!). This inconvenience has resulted in a few e-mails not replied to last week, some ideas not translated into blogposts, and in research work being postponed (hopefully not indefinitely). So apparently, internet access is important to me, and the current problem in connectivity impacts not just a few of my daily habits.
I wonder, how important really is the internet to Filipinos? In searching for statistics related to internet use in the Philippines, I chanced upon the following interesting facts about Pinoy internet usage and history:
No pop blog is complete without a post on YouTube. This video sharing website is arguably one of the most popular destinations in the (pla-) net; it’s hard to think of anyone who hasn’t gone to visit it even once. As for me, I YouTube frequently, and although I still haven’t uploaded my own videos (again, the ghost of my techno-incompetence haunts me), I have quite a few favorite YouTube finds that I can share.
