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We had 2 gigs last week. Friday night was at One Luv. It was the first night of the 2-night grand opening of the bar. We hardly practiced, so we weren’t able to give our best. Besides, we kind of lost the excitement when Jackie decided to leave the band. Our songs were limited to what only Mac can sing. I would, but we didn’t practice all the female songs. We don’t blame her though. It only sucks it was on short notice. It was like about 3 DAYS BEFORE THE GIG. *note the sarcasm*

Line up in One Luv Reggae Bar last April 20:
K. Wasabi
Barrio Morning Glory
Paul Zialcita with Bahaghari
Lokal Grounation
Peace Pipe

Second night, April 21:
Lumbayao
Tiempo
Goodleaf
Barrio Morning Glory
Indio I

I was requested if we could perform an acoustic set. I’m glad we didn’t because most of the bands that performed were full bands and they played SKA! WTH. They said only reggae, so most of our songs are new on our playlist. *sighs* I think Mac also got cold feet. He didn’t properly introduce our band. *sighs again* Better luck for us next time. We got another gig, but it would in Las Pinas this time. We’ll be playing with Coffee Break Island. ^_^

Our gig at Marty’s, Sucat is a gig by Monkey & Banana Productions. Band that night were:
Panochita, Zionneh, Ano, Myka, Jamafruit, and Green Leafy Confetti. Hopskatch were in the list, but I think they’re the band who I was told couldn’t make it that night. It’s such a small world. Paul, our former percussionist, was there! One of the members of the production is Tage’s brother. Tage’s our former bassist. Tage was there. Hehe~ Then a friend of Jozen was there. He talked to us and asked what happened to Jozen because he knew Jozen’s with us. XD; What a small, small, small world. I had a feeling I would see Paul. I’ve been talking about him to Mac and Reyton… Then he suddenly shows up. Anyway, our performance at Marty’s was so-so. The band before us was very inconsiderate. They performed about 8 songs. It was already very late. Darnit. I wanted to go home early either. *sighs* I’m glad we stayed a bit (we waited for Reyton) because we got to see the band after us perform. They also played DJs and the Matisyahu song (a song performed by the band before us). It would be a waste of precious minutes to perform songs already played by other bands. Why not other songs, right? But that’s not really the big case. After we played, the bassist asked Mac if he could borrow my guitar. He was asking permission from the wrong person. Mac said that the guitar isn’t his and that we would be leaving in a while. Then he asked who owns the guitar. Wasn’t he watching our performance or is he just stupid!? I don’t remember exactly how our conversation went. I think it went like this:

Bassist: Who owns that?
Mac: It’s hers. *points at me*
Bassist: Can I borrow the guitar?
Me: Why?
Bassist: We have two guitarists, but we lack a guitar. We’ll only play two songs. Just 2 songs. That’s all.
Me: Huh? We’ll be leaving in a while.
Bassist: For just 2 songs.
Me: *thinks* Your guitarist didn’t bring a guitar of his own? Why be a pest to other bands here? Geez~

Why would I lend my PRS!? FUCKING ASSHOLE! Don’t they know that guitars are precious to their owners? I’m not stingy. I just dislike it when some band members don’t have their own instruments to bring during gigs. Maybe it’s alright if they borrow a cable or a guitar strap, BUT NOT THE GUITAR! I was also afraid they would run away with my guitar. It’s expensive and it’s also a gift from my dad. Why would you want to borrow a guitar that’s expensive!? Didn’t he think that if he damages my guitar, it would be the end of the world for him? I just ignored him and left the stage. Then I saw that they borrowed the guitar from the guitarist of the band before us. The guy from another table talked to me. Myka, the band of that frickin’ bassist, asked if they could play ahead since their bassist is already drunk. WTF. Don’t let them play anymore!!! ARGH! They said they will only play two songs, but they were already on their fourth song when we left. *shakes head*

I kind of dislike their lead vocalist because she seems arrogant. I got pissed off when they played Underneath It All and DJs! We just played DJs then darnit. She sang Underneath It All like she was singing a R&B song. Then the toasting of their back-up vocals sounds like hip-hop rap. Ugh~ They’re like a showband.

Oops, lunch time. I’ll probably blog again later.

UPDATE 10:12pm Nap of PHNO Forum comes this PCIJ PDF file, check it out it even has the signature of ASEC Marcelo T. Farinas II, Head, OEA Special Concerns.

UPDATE 6:09pm 4/23 Roman gave us another update providing us a link to the PCIJ's PDF file on the "confidential" proposal document for the 2007 Party List campaign and i-site's 2007 election files titled Palace ’special operations’ in party-list elections bared an article relating to the 2 OEA Documents.

This is just great now we see people cooperating and exchanging information to expose the shameless insidious machinations of an Administration known for flare-ups and eruption as described by the Inquirer editorial.

Posted at Bare the List Site, can anyone verify if this document are genuine and accurate?
____________________________________________
Roman Says:
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:01 pm

Is the following memo the “alleged” one?
_____________________________________________
Office of the President
of the Philippines
Malacañang

Office of External Affairs
CONFIDENTIAL
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH: ATTY. ERLYN DE LEON
SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT

FROM : THE OFFICE OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

SUBJECT : FORMATION OF THE OEA SPECIAL CONCERNS
GROUP AND REQUEST FOR FUNDING SUPPORT

DATE : 16 OCTOBER 2006

The Office of External Affairs (OEA) would like to respectfully inform Her Excellency of the formation of the OEA Special Concerns Group (OEA-SCG) which shall focus in the participation of our grassroots and allied NGO’s and people’s organizations in the 2007 Congressional election.

This specific electoral campaign has the following objectives:

1. Provide full support to several COMELEC accredited partylist groups that are ascertained to be pro-administration and ensure the winning of nine (9) to twelve (12) seats in the House of Representatives;

2. Form a party-list bloc that will support the plans and programs of the administration and help in countering destabilization moves by the opposition as well as left-leaning party-list groups; and,

3. Contribute in the overall campaign to substantially lower the number of votes of leftist and left-leaning party-list organizations, and in the process reduce the seats of these anti-administration parties in the House of Representatives.

The OEA-SCG is headed by Assistant Secretary Marcelo T. Farinas II, assisted by three (3) Directors and a 5-person Secretariat. The OEA-SCG, in cooperation with concerned groups and officials of some government agencies, has formulated a comprehensive analysis of the party-list situation and prospects for 2007 (confidential copies are hereto attached).

The OEA-SCG has secured a private office in Ortigas Avenue, Greenhills as its Operations Center. However, there is the immediate need to increase the members of the Secretariat to make the group fully-functional in order to expedite the attainment of the aforementioned objectives, and resource support is required.

The group has a national network from various sectors including Ilocanos and other major ethnic groups, women, youth, OFWs, senior citizens, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples, urban poor, farmers and fisherfolks, and workers, as well as international support in the United States of America, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

All the pro-administration partylist organizations to be supported shall also establish its own headquarters and shall need fulltime staff. This shall be done immediately after accreditation by the COMELEC.

Attached please find the 2007 Party-List Campaign proposal including a proposed budget of PHP 5.5 Million from October to December 2006. Corollary, may we request that funding assistance from Her Excellency’s Intelligence Funds be immediately granted to the SCG as well as the various partylist groups identified as pro-administration.


For Her Excellency’s perusal and approval.

[Signed]

ASEC. MARCELO T. FARINAS II
Head, OEA Special Concerns Group

___________________________________

Confidential

2007 Party-list Campaign

A Proposal

The party-list system has been exploited to the hilt by left and left-leaning organizations and has been dominated by them since the 2001 elections. To date, the legal fronts of the CPP-NPA-NDF have 6 congressmen in the House of Representatives, while the moderate left organizations and the opposition have a combined 6 representatives as well. These anti-administration congressmen have a total of PHP 780 Million in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) annually (PHP 65 Million each per year) or PHP 2.34 Billion in 3 years. Furthermore, they are using their positions and influence to campaign against the President and the policies and programs of the administration.

The 2007 elections specifically the party-list campaign shall again be used by these organizations to expand their political influence and gain more seats in the House of Representatives. Some are also eyeing seats in the Senate.

Bayan Muna and Anakpawis shall spearhead this leftist campaign with the objective of achieving 3 seats each. They are strengthening and consolidating their forces and are gearing up for additional party-list congressional seats through the women’s sector (Gabriela) youth sector (Anak ng Bayan), Muslims (Suara Bangsa Moro) and OFWs (Migrante).

Other left-leaning partylist groups are consolidating ranks and shall definitely aim for the maximum partylist seats allowable. These partylist groups include Akbayan, Partido Manggagawa and Ang Ladlad.

Various groups identified with the opposition are also aiming to win seats in Congress through the partylist “backdoor.” The United Opposition or UNO, the Filipinos for Peace, Justice and Progress or FPJPM (the NGO that launched the failed presidential bid of the late Fernando Poe, Jr.), the Citizen’s Movement for Justice, Economy, Environment and Peace or JEEP (the NGO that campaigned for the presidency of Joseph Estrada), MARE (the women’s organization identified with Ms. Loi Estrada), and the Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice or UMDP (formerly named as PMAP or People’s Movement Against Poverty).

These well-funded partylist organizations shall actively campaign for forty (40) seats in Congress with the foremost objective gathering additional votes in the House of Representatives for another round of impeachment against the President.

The administration and its allied civil society organizations should have a comprehensive counter-plan with the objective of frustrating the aforementioned grand plan of the left and the opposition. This proposal is one-way of achieving that goal.

Objectives

Five (5) to eight (8) pro-administration party-list organizations shall be fielded in the 2007 Congressional election with the following objectives:

1. Provide full support to several COMELEC accredited partylist groups that are ascertained to be pro-administration and ensure the winning of nine (9) to twelve (12) seats in the House of Representatives;

2. Form a partylist block that will support the plans and programs of the administration and help in countering destabilization moves by the opposition as well as left-leaning party-list groups; and,

3. Contribute in the overall campaign to substantially lower the number of votes of leftist and left-leaning party-list organizations, and in the process reduce the seats of these anti-administration parties in the House of Representatives.

Conduct

Agbiag! Timpuyog Ilocano (AGBIAG!), Babae para sa Kaunlaran (BABAE KA), League of Youth for Peace and Development (LYPAD) and Kalahi Advocates for Overseas Filipinos (KALAHI) have filed registration as national sectoral organizations. These are the 4 main party-list organizations to be supported. Two (2) to five (5) more partylist groups shall be given support, which may include a coalition of Muslim and Indigenous Peoples and already registered party-list parties.

Timelines

October 1 to November 30, 2006:

Firming up of party-list organizations to be supported.
Full operationalization of the headquarters including completion of all required staffing.

December 1 to December 31, 2006:
Planning, and expansion and consolidation of network, and Party-list Conventions

October to December 2006 Proposed Operation Budget:

Item [1]: Organizational and consolidation meetings, and operational support
Budget: 150,000/organization x 5 organizations
Total Monthly: 750,000 x 3 months
Total for 5 months: 2,250,000

Item [2]: Conventions of COMELEC accredited and pro-administration partylist groups
Budget: 550,000/organization x 5 organizations
Total for 5 months: 2,750,000

TOTAL [Items 1 & 2, for 5 months]: 5,000,000
10% Contingency: 500,000
OVERALL TOTAL: 5,500,000

He's an Independent Candidate for Governor of Pampanga.

Against decidedly evil choices:
the wife of the country's top Jueteng Lord,
and the son of the King of Illegal Quarrying,

it's poetic,
if decidedly Quixotic,

that a Man of the Cloth
has coalesced the forces of good
in the hopes of saving Pampanga from its so-called Leaders,

including the President of the Philippines herself.

How could she blatantly allow,
and even encourage,
such morally unqualified candidates
to run for the top post in her home province?

It's symptomatic of her supreme arrogance
and utter callousness, really.

This is the same President who didn't even reprimand
the Secretary of inJustice, when, with infinte insensitivity,
he declared that Julia Campbell,
the U.S. Peace Corps volunteer bludgeoned to death in Banaue,
was to blame for her own demise...
because she should have known better than to go hiking by herself.


This is the same President who's NOT lifting a finger
to prevent the congressional campaign of her phonepal "GARCI".
Letting her "fingers do the walking" indeed.

This is the same President who's ruining the career of a hapless Manny Pacquiao;
forcing the "People's Champion" to run as Congressman,
if only to forcibly evict the Opposition's Muse,
Darlene Antonino Custodio, from the Lower House.

And now, this.

In a microcosm of what should be systemic in our nation,

a good man with hardly any resources,

in this case,
an "Among",
as Priests are called in Pampanga,

has had to run against tremendous odds,

just to give hope,
and perhaps, bring back a semblance of honor,
to his home province,
stripped of all dignity by the powers-that-be.



Can he really succeed?
Does "Among Ed" really have a fighting chance?

In circumstances not too far removed
from the current drama in Pampanga,

two brave women once dared to challenge,
and win,
against seemingly insurmountable, immovable, entrenched rulers.

Cory Aquino dismantled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986;

and just three years ago,
Grace Padaca ended the Dy's hegemony in Isabela.

IT CAN BE DONE.

please visit:

In a recent family gathering, my niece asked me if it would be advisable for her to pursue a medical career after college (which meant she has to attend medical school right after she finished college). She’s starting freshman year at DLSU on a course of Early Education.

I think it was a good sign that, even at this early stage, she was considering career possibilities and not limiting herself to simply finishing college and getting a diploma. She seemed intent on making the best career choice, with conscious assessment of her strengths and weaknesses and other factors. This is how each potential college student should think.

So, I asked her, “do you really want to be a medical doctor? As in really, really want it? Do it as a career from the time you get your license until the day you die?”

“Yes!”

“Then that answers your question.”

That was simplifying it but the desire for that particular career and the willingness to work hard to the bone to pursue it is perhaps the biggest chunk of the answer to her question. If her parents would allow her, have the means to sustain her education and the stagnant years after medical school when she still needed financial support while establishing her medical practice, and if she wants it, then why not?

But perhaps the “want” should be scrutinized and evaluated if it really is the truest desire of her mind.

I know there are a lot of potential college students and graduates out there who have the same dilemma as my niece and who may be in a more clouded uncertainty than she is. So, for you, here are some points you need to ponder to make the right decision:

Do you have the intellectual capacity that a lifetime medical education demands?

It is no secret that medical students do have above-average to superior intelligence. NO reason to be humble about it because it is what is required to complete a medical course and to be able to sustain a lifelong studying that a medical career entails. The best medical schools do not take pains on selecting the best students among the applicants for the sole purpose of getting high ranks for the boards. Schools select these students because they know these can sustain the rigors of studying in a medical school. So, if you are aiming to get into the top medical schools, like UP and UST, you need to get good college grades and NMAT score (>85 would be good).

Can you keep up a rigorous, long-time study?

Unless, of course, you absorb what you read in books and hear in lectures like a sponge, you need to have an established working study technique. Also, it would be of great help if you see studying not merely as something you have to do just to pass the exams, but rather as a habit.

Are you willing to go through hell to be a medical doctor?

To answer this question, of course, one needs to know the “hell” that I’m referring to: the hell that every medical student goes through to finish medical school.

The actual hell begins in the clerkship year, which is the fourth year of medical school. Fourth year medical students are called “medical clerks” or, simply, “clerks”. this is the time when there are less time spent in lectures and more time spent doing hospital duties, in application of what is learned in the classroom lectures and discussions. At times you’d get the feeling that you live in the hospital and not at home or in your apartment anymore. Though you go on 24-hour duty only every 3 days, you feel that you are on duty everyday because you still work at the hospital during non-duty days (from duty and pre-duty days), from 7am - 5pm or until the late hours of the night, depending on the “toxicity” of work.

(By the way, the word “toxic” is the medical clerks’ favorite word. It is used to connote difficult or voluminous work, like “I had the most toxic duty” or “Medicine is a toxic rotation”. It can also be used to describe an unnecessarily strict, stubborn, or meticulous person. )

So, what are included in the medical clerks’ “hospital duties”?

These are:

• Carrying out of residents/consultants orders in the medical chart of the patient. A clerk should be constantly up-to-date with what is happening with the patients under his care and those under the care of his “alternates” (co-clerks assigned to take care of his patients when he is absent or off-duty) and must have a general knowledge of all the patients in the rotation he is currently in. Failure to do this would result in “demerits”, accumulation of which could result into additional 24-hour duties or a minus on the final grade for that rotation. Orders carried out by clerks usually are:
  • IV line insertion
  • Change of dressing
  • Checking of patients’ vital signs every 2-4 hours or every hour, if patient is in the ICU (then nurses will just copy the vital signs you took and will reprimand you if you’re a minute late in taking the vital signs)
  • Administering of IV drugs that needed extra precaution or have to be administered slowly
  • Pushing patients’ wheelchairs, stretchers, oxygen tanks and IV stands to wherever the patient is going to have a procedure done (operating room, x-ray department, CT scan department, etcetera). There are no orderlies to do those things and so the clerks have to do it themselves.
• Clerks are also responsible for keeping the database up-to-date (history and PE data, drug lists, problem lists, discharge summaries, etcetera)
• Help indigents in asking financial support from PCSO and other charitable institutions by preparing medical abstract and following up application with coordinators.
• Prepare reports for everyday conferences: admissions conference (AdCon), pre-operation and post-operation conference, mortality and morbidity conference (M&M) or Dr. X’s rounds (replace X with your favorite toxic consultant of choice), and the clinical-pathologic conference (the granddaddy of all conferences where clerks, interns, and residents get culled by consultants and even consultants have a go at each other). Being from duty is not an excuse for a sloppy presentation. Just your luck that you’re presenting for admissions conference when you’re tired from duty.
• Following up referrals to different departments. For example, there is an order for a chest x-ray to be done for a patient in the ward. The clerk-in-charge or CIC of the patient will fill up the form, go to the resident on duty at the x-ray department for approval of the form. Before it gets approved, the resident will ask all sorts of questions like why the patient is for x-ray, why it wasn’t ordered earlier or previously, what is the medical history, and etcetera, that is almost becomes a mini-Revalida (oral exams taken at the end of the fourth year in order to graduate from medical school). When the resident has exhausted the poor clerk with all sorts of questions he could think of, then he’ll sign his name on the form.
• Assist in surgical operations, undergoing another mini-revalida from the consultant to the most junior resident assisting while your hands are already stiff from holding the retractors.
• Become runners for residents asking you to buy food, drinks, paper or whatever or have something photocopied or borrowed from the library. That’s why clerks have their own little notepads, or for techies, PDAs. They are not used just for jotting down new lab results but also for taking down everybody’s orders.

In short, the medical clerk is the lowest form of animal in the hospital.

Clerkship is potentially a danger to one’s health, too. Either you lose so much weight because of being overworked, or you gain so much weight because of being overworked (and you de-stress by eating and drinking).

And on top of all these clerkship duties, clerks still have to find time to study for shifting exams, and the written and oral revalida. The latter is so important because flunking it would mean you are not going to graduate. Flunk it thrice over and you’re doomed to repeating the entire clerkship year.

So, okay, you passed all the exams, finished clerkship, and finally you’re marching down at PICC to get your diploma. Happy ending already? Oh, not yet! It isn’t over. There is still the one-year internship at any accredited hospital. How important is internship? Well, without it you will not be allowed to take the licensure exam. So it is really a BIG deal.

So when the clerk becomes an intern, he is not the lowest form of animal in the hospital anymore. He becomes the second to the lowest form of animal in the hospital. Whoopee. The only good thing perhaps is that you are already a senior to somebody (the clerks) and you can ditch your yellowing v-neck top to wear a white blazer jacket and pants/skirt, which can make you look more like a doctor than a maid/yaya.

I’ve just offered you a previous of medical clerkship and internship. But to fully grasp how it’s like to be one, you can try hearing all the anecdotes, especially from the new graduates. Some are funny, others sad, and a few downright scary. After hearing everything, that’s the time to ponder and decide if you’re willing to go through all that hell just to be a medical doctor.

But, of course, if you really, really want something, what can stop  you from getting it?  So, if my niece really wants to become a doctor and if it is the truest desire of her mind, then she need not ask for my advice at all, I think.  She’ll be pursuing it, whatever people around her will say or tell her to do.  I hope that’s the attitude potential medical students will have.

This video has been making the rounds the past couple of days. It's a cool exercise in stop motion video. Check it out!

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I've been neglecting my Vox site lately... recently got back from a trip to California and also gearing up for our upcoming vacation to Rome & Venice in Italy.

Nonetheless, I've got some material that I'll post later on.

Cheers!

And so last Sunday, we finally took the kids to Blow-up Babies at Serendra. For months, I've been meaning to have my tots' pictures taken. And for the longest time, i've been procrastinating shopping-around for what could be the best professional photo studio for them.

I have been to Picture Company (ATC and Rockwell)  and Picture This! (Shangri-la Mall), they seem fun and cute to work with for the kids' pic. But honestly, neither of them  impressed us. Then i read an exceptional write-up about Blow-up Babies, i went to their website and knew instantly that I have found the ONE ;)  

I was compelled to have the kids' pics taken the following Sunday.

(I must say that the pics came out beautifully)

---------------------------

 

 

Now, I present to you the snapshots taken at Blow-up Babies-

the official, unofficial and behind the scene pics!

(For complete pics, please check-out my friendster for the dropshots website address)

 

 

 

AND of course.. any visit to Serendra wouldn't be complete without.. SONJA'S cupcakes (thanks to Dean for introducing me to this carb-and-fat-loaded, calorie-rich, scrumptious treat ;)