The Freudian Slip Of A Bacolodnon

I don't know but I feel like going back to the old online game I was once hooked up with. When my mom introduced Conquer Online to me, I was not quite ecstatic about it at first. But when I started playing the game and trying to learn the concept, I was addicted to it right then and there. I showed it to my wife and she too got hooked up with it. Now, even my 4 year old son has a character of its own. It's a role playing game where you get to choose what kind of character you would want to be. For my first character, I chose an archer and named him Carpenter which is the english translation of the Filipino hero Panday . When I changed into a new server (Sunshine), I chose a Taoist. A taoist is like a sorcerer or a magician. The character is adept in the skills of magic. Archers are of course good in bows and arrows. There are two more characters: trojan and warrior. Both are good with the sword and hand to hand combats. I have met new friends through this game and CO has becom...

It's almost half time. By Thursday, ww would have already spent a month rotating as Community Interns. Unfortunately, I really haven't felt my being a Community intern. Maybe things will change next month now that we will be assigned in the field. Anyway, the PGIs are busy preparing for the upcoming carolling activity next month. So far, we have been doing a lot of practice already and the last time I heard us singing, we were doing great progress. Yesterday, my cousin Angelie was admitted in BOLMSH because of hypogastric pain. Later PE revealed a possible appendicitis. I too examined her at the E.R. after my auntie called me up and I advised them to have her admitted for a stat appendectomy. I immediately called up Doctor Hinolan and asked him if he could be Angelie's surgeon. She was immediately operated on that afternoon and I got to scrub for Doctor Hinolan. Doctor Galon was our anesthesiologist. Later I took a picture of her appendix and showed it to her parents and my...

I was fixing my library the other day and I decided to transfer all of my old notes, documents, even love letters from my wife and important papers from my bedroom to the new library. So I started going through them, sorting them out from memorabilias, personal letters, reviewers composed of old notes, even old certificates and news clippings of previous achievements and involvements. I also happened to rediscover old pictures of my high school days. How I missed high school. What I missed about it the most are the high school plays we had. Every year, my classmates and I would produce and perform a play. I would be the writer and director and most of my classmates would be actors and performers and crew. Usually, Renalyn and/or Andrea would play the leading actress or supporting actress. Then the leading actors would either be Rommel, Kayo, or JR. The rest would be part of the whole ensemble. The first class play we performed was the story which I wrote entitled: Under the Spell. If I...

While Thanksgiving Day is not an official holiday in the Philippines, my family and I went out last night to celebrate not exactly Thanksgiving Day but my sister's birthday. We had dinner at Aboy's and for the first time after so many years, the entire family went bowling at Negros Super Lanes in Goldenfields. While we were younger, and when my parents still used to work at their respective sugar milling companies, almost every holidays, officemates would have bowling tourneys and we would join along and have our own little tourney at the side. When the sugar crisis of the late 1990s happened, bowling tournaments have been abandoned as part of cost-cutting measures. We used to enjoy these moments together. So last night, all of us, including my son Rien, went bowling. It was a rocky start at first. It has been a long time since I played duckpin bowling. But it was still fun and has remained fun after all this years. I guess if there are some things I should thank for, they ar...

It is a human act to put up signs. They are visuals that either direct, support, give advice or attract attention. If not for signs, how would one know the difference between a male's washroom from a female's. Companies and business establishments would spend millions just for print advertising. Huge billboards have been crowding over the city for the past months and usually, the bigger the billboard, the bigger the company being advertised on the board. Signs are everywhere. They are labels in a food container, traffic rules, even just simple public display of affection and gratitude from a winning politician. You can find them by the road side, inside jeepneys, hanging on fences, painted on walls, over bridges or on rooftops. Signs are eveywhere. While most signs are serious and direct-to-the-point, the signs that are funny (unwittingly or not) or creative are those that grab the reader's attention effectively. Imaginative slogans are those that are easily registered in m...

The past few days have all been about these 3 P's. Earlier in the month, the World Pool Championship was held for the first time in Manila, Philippines and while the favourite Efren 'The Magician' Reyes did not make it to the final rounds, Ronnie 'The Volcano' Alcano, a fellow patriot, defeated German Ralph Soquet to win the title of World Pool Champion. Alcano becomes the third Filipino to win the most prestigious title in 9-ball, the other two were Efren Reyes and Alex 'The Lion' Pagulayan. Last Sunday, another Filipino made it big in the world of sports. Manny Pacquiao, the Destroyer, the Pacman, fought Erik 'El Terrible' Morales of Mexico for the third time inside the boxing ring. Dubbed as the Final Chapter in this epic boxing trilogy of the modern era, Manny Pacquiao defeated the Mexican after 3 rounds of boxing. El Terrible could not withstand the speed and power of the Pacman's punches. The Mexican fell on the floor 3 times, once during t...

Today, the Bacolod Our Lady of Mercy Specialty Hospital celebrated the death anniversary of its former boss: renowned surgeon Doctor Patricio Y. Tan. Dubbed as the father of Surgery in Bacolod City, the late Doctor P-tan, as he is fondly called by friends and colleagues, revolutionized training of surgical residents and the dispensation of medical services to Bacoleños during his time. He was considered a pioneer, a trailblazer, and many surgeons today owe their training to him. Doctor P. Tan is beloved by many even after his death, both by his former employees, former residents who are now surgeons and consultants, and even fellow medical doctors who are in other fields of specialization. P. Tan was also former chief of the Bacolod Our Lady of Mercy Specialty Hospital and during his time he had made numerous contributions to the field of medical service. During his death a few years back, employees and doctors of BOLMSH dedicated a shrine in his memory and renamed the hospital’s cha...

We won third place in the first ever Post graduate Interns Surgical Quiz Bowl. It was expected really. Unlike the other teams, the three of us: Pax, Mark and me, did not study a single reviewer for this competition. During the entire contest, we were relying heavily on stock knowledge and it didn't turn out bad. We were in fact leading the pack during the first 10 questions but got humped during the last leg. This right-minus-wrong style of scoring sucks big time but well those are the breaks of the game. RMC won and it was a tight match between them and CLMMRH (who I heard reviewed for a month every 5 pm). Anyway, I am sending some pics I took for my Sun-Star column. I'm on the run now. Can't stay long. I'm ym-ing with friends for a particular project. :-)

I haven’t been to Mambucal Resort since the day it was renovated and managed by the Provincial Government. Therefore, when my maternal grandmother decided to celebrate her 85th birthday, the choice was to celebrate it at this pristine mountain resort. Lola Isabel Seterra biuda de Balinas turned 85 last November 12 and all of her children and grandchildren and her first great grand son were present, including close family friends. Mambucal Resort is one of the oldest tourist attractions in the province of Negros Occidental. In the past, many tourists, both local and even international, come to this mountaintop, dubbed by many as the “Left Foot” of Mt. Kanlaon. This active volcano has made this resort as beautiful and mysterious as it is expected. All of Lola’s children were there: Tito Jose (who is now a resident of Cavite and the eldest), Tita Remedios, Tito Juanito (who is former head of traffic in Bacolod City) with wife Tita Gilda, Tita Melda with husband Tito Lorenzo, Tito Junior a...

Even if I am assigned in Community, we are still required to "float" in duty days when no PGI is present. Currently, Gesper and TinTin are the only two PGIs rotating in Surgery, which means, there is at least one in every three days that there is no PGI working in Surgery. (Joanne is still on leave) So it is up to us Community PGIs to float after office hours. Today, I am scheduled to float. While I don't like the set up of us Community PGIs floating, I believe there is really no choice left for us. I still think Community Rotation is a time when a PGI is really working in the community, which means no 24 hour-duties for the entire rotation. It is the only time of a PGIs life when he gets to sleep in his own comfortable home every night without much worry and pressure. But this decision to float has already been made and we have no choice. But actually we do have a choice. We can either choose to be sad and lonely, or choose to find humor in all of this hard work. To smil...

when... 1. you are addicted to magic sing or videoke bars. 2. you leave your shoes or slippers before you enter someone else's house. 3. your car always has a funny dog with bobbing head. or a rosary wrapped around the mirror. 4. your shirt smells of Ukay-ukay 5. you push the door when it says "pull" or the other way around. 6. you turn your head when someone "psst" you. 7. you always have the picture of the last supper in your dining room or a large pair of native spoon and fork hanging on the wall. 8. you never fail to jaywalk. 9. you have a funny ringback on your cellphone. 10. you cross yourself or say "tabi-tabi" whenever you pass by a termite mound (fearing the wrath of the nuno sa punso) 11. you memorize by heart the Bom Tarak dance steps.(bom tarak tarak...) 12. you crave duck's eggs (balut)like crazy. 13. you eat spaghetti with your rice or with your bread like a sandwich. 14. you are most of the time 15 - 20 mins late to work. 15. procras...

A week in community is over and we are still missing BOLMSH. Not that we don't like it in the community. Our first assignment at the City Health Center was at the Social Hygiene Section. Every morning, the three of us would swab vaginal walls and endocervices for samples. Then, the swabs are smeared on the glass slides, gram stained and then analyzed under the microscope searching for positive signs of STDs. Life is beautiful at City Health Center. No pressures. No worries. But we do miss BOLMSH. And every time we come back to the hospital in the afternoons for our daily conferences, we are greeted with fellow PGIs who obviously miss us too! I miss the "magic four": Gesper, Kentot and Japit. I miss bonding with these three guys during our 24-hour duties. That's why, when I came back to the hospital for the first time since we had our community, all of us huddled together infront of the camera and took loads of pictures, along with the new PGI JJ Segundera, who turns o...

If tombs and death can teach, they teach us to let go. The past few days have been lessons for letting go to some of us PGIs. For us outgoing OB-GYNE PGIs, it was time to let go of the comforts of the hospital, the familiar surroundings of the DR and Nursery, time to move on and venture out into another assignment: Community. But the letting go wasn't really sudden. The letting go process involved 2 days of partee starting with Dr. Escaniel's and Nurse Argee's birthday celebration. The following day we OB and Pedia PGIs gave a shifting partee to the DR and Nursery staff. I made the fruit salad myself. It was fun times for the DR staff. November 1 marked the first day of a new assignment. I purposedly did not report to the OPD that morning because I was too busy preparing the foods for our expected visitors. So, as early as 8 a.m. my wife and I were busy preparing at the kitchen, cooking everything that we bought the night earlier. I made spaghetti, chicken pochero, Waldorf ...