Dengue and Martinez Memorial Hospital (Caloocan)

Well, before discussing the horror of the disease itself, let me Segway to horrors in one particular hospital.

What started as a labtest in Martinez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan turned out as a disgust and holdup combined. It is already a bad idea to name your hospital a "MEMORIAL Hospital," (all patients should have memorial plans for good measure?), but then in addition they have this Annex, which is actually a row of decrepit rooms in a decrepit building beside a creek, which emits a foul cadaverous stench.We had no choice but to transfer to the newer building, which is 2 times more expensive (an obvious tactic?). Then we also had to pay for room transfer, although we only stayed for a few hours in the room with peeling paint, fetid restroom, wrecked window screens, and reeking smell from outside. If you dont have bacterial infection at the time you were admitted in this room, you will most probably be oozing puss by the day you are discharged. One private 'annex' room by the way costs around 600 PhP per night, while it's 1200 for the new 'wing.'

The admitting ER resident also asked if we know a practicing doctor in the hospital. After we said we dont, she assigned us with a bit of smile to a certain Dr F, who we found out later, was one of the owners of the hospital. Why was the ER doctor had that trace of smirk... I found out later . 

The patient was actually our babysitter. We had to leave her for one night and morning to be the babysitter  ourselves at home. Coming back around noon next day, we asked to talk with the attending Dr Ferdinand Martinez. We were told that he left, but it's ok, the nurses said, he already wrote some of the treatments needed. 

After the result of the most recent blood test came out, we still had no Dr. F to talk with. so we have decided to transfer to a better hospital. We asked for the bill to be readied. Lo and behold, even if the patient's platelet count is still borderline manageable, Dr F, who we cannot reach, apparently prescribed transfusion of 3 bags of white blood cells. Each one costing 2500 plus 3000 more for the screening needed. That's 10 K PhP in one pop!

When we refused the transfusion, a procedure where I have some general reservations myself (i have heard so many horror stories about dirty blood being given to a healthy person), the billing dept (of course) wont let us leave without paying for the bags. One nurse was insisting that we ready our own ice chest, and bring the bag home and do whatever we want to it (what, to drink?).

Nearing midnight, we had to relent to the transfusion just to be over with it. So it's instant 19000 PhP for one night of stay at this fucking hospital: 

And the patient had no improvement after the treatment; we had to go to another hospital. More on Dengue and this next (better) hospital later.

Dont ever go near Martinez Hospital.

iPod and Headlights!

This is our original art, original concept.from an original shoot :-) 

Why suddenly I had an inkling to look for it and post it here? It's because I am suddenly having second thoughts on buying an iPod Touch, which I have budgeted for several months ago. My problem is still storage space. 

It's also saddening that Apple seem to be abandoning this iconic original iPod. In fact the first time they called it 'classic,' it already seemed to connote old and leftover model. Now there's zero refresh to this icon.   

And to add to this sadness the iPod on the left was stolen. We hope the new owner is enjoying its 160 GB, while the thief wakes up one day with malaria and lupus combined.  

The iPod on the right is still alive and delivering great podcasts. Invaluable while driving.

random quotes picked up

Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process.

--EB White

One of the classiest, clearest writer ever.

The one who doesn't fall never stands up. It happened that people made me an idol. But everybody loses. I'm just a human being.

--Fedor Emelianenko

The humble Superman lost. He'll come back. If I can bet at Vegas, I'll be a thousand dollars he'll win on his next fight. 

I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.

— Simone de Beauvoir

Im reading the biography I won from Jessicarulestheuniverse.com

Today is the beginning of a new day! Wait…hang on. Sorry, just checked. It’s the same day as yesterday.

--Stevemartintogo

short-tweet-writing genius. why did he start just now?  

(photo from michaelgrecco)

As she manuevered around me I noticed she has scars down her back from hanging on hooks and six heavy silver rings in her labia.

--Kimberly Nicole Rathkamp

Reading this sentence is like reading the title "Love in the Time of Cholera," as Steve Martin commented in one article. Seems youre happy ambling along "Love... in... the... time... of..." and then blasted shocked by the word Cholera! By puss and boils in the skin!  

Pakula died on November 19, 1998 in a freak car accident on the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York. He was 70 years old. A driver in front of him struck a metal pipe, which went through Pakula's windshield, striking him in the head and causing him to swerve off the road and into a fence. He was killed instantly.[3]

--Wikipedia entry

I liked Presumed Innocent and Pelican Brief. His last movie with Brad Pitt is a thrash.I wish I die like this. 70 also is a good age to die.

“Since knowledge is never lost, productivity will always rise.”

I am surprised to see Alan Greenspan’s Memoir in hardbound in the bargain bins. Although that book is being attacked for its endorsement of "financial product innovations," I still consider that tome a gem.

`Think about three or four moments that you believe to be the most important during your time frame. Then think about what the leadership did about it. It doesn't have to be complicated. What happened, and what did the leaders do about it? That's your book."

 --David Halberstam tip to would-be writers of nonfiction. But could this apply to fiction as well?

Halberstam died in a car accident as well. While being driven by a student to a speaking engagement. Halbestam died, student lived. If there are more than one in the car, the one driving almost always lives.

You can multitask with a lot of things, but you can’t really multitask reading a book.
--Jonathan Franzen

Thinking of buying Freedom as an audiobook in audible or should I read it in printed form. 

I enjoyed Corrections, which was his last novel, published a decade ago. 

Watching The Social Network

... is like witnessing the new generation of Woody Allen movies to me. This could be strange to some people, but this is the analogy of an all-talk-but-exciting-throughout movie.

And then Aaron Sorkin is becoming to me a writer to watch-out for. Read these dialogues:

and this: 

After watching the movie, best to search, download, and read the leaked screenplay itself.

Then further reading should be the profile of Zuckerberg in the New Yorker, which I think he cooperated with partly due to his anxiety on the movie almost entirely about him. 

I don't "do facebook" primarily because I do not want another time depleter while I have so many backlogs in books,  movies, then there are already blogs and podcasts that are part of my routine, responsibilities at home, demanding work and boss, etc. etc. But the movie makes me want to read about the organization more. In a few years, the company will become a staple of business cases and textbooks. It might be useful to get bombarded on the details this early. 

Going back to the movie: The Social Network did pull it through. Some are saying it is  a testament of the generation. But it just might be a very good exhibition of arrogance of people with high IQ's, which I don't support. You enjoy those scenes, but it's not the most desirable to witness in real life.  

Although I understand that it could be the nerd's way to get even, given that indeed the dont get invited to belong in social clubs and 'great parties' in general. So let them be. Dont strike up a conversation if you cant keep up. It's a form of turf respect. 

Obama pics

If you like taking photos or looking at photos and somehow and still not following the Whitehouse flickr page, do it now. 

The series is one best teacher of events photography. You cannot ask POTUS to pose all the time or angle his face to a softbox or umbrella. Rarely would we have the chance to arrange the best possible light for each picture that we take. But in this case, the photographer is a real expert in mastering available light and getting his camera in to take the shot given the chance. In the process, he shares a glimpse of the daily grind of the president. 

In this picture, see how Obama is a master speechwriter himself. After blowing up the picture, we can see how he understands the cadence and rhythm of the spoken words against the written.  

This photographer, Pete Souza, is fantastic. I wonder how he blends in the room  unobtrusively. And then how he is ushered out in a top secret meeting after taking hi shots.

Now, one funny result from Obama being this open to everyone (to have a flick page at that, which is updated almost daily) is this:

Just to check if this is exaggerated or not, I tried these pictures: 

into...

from... 

into...

Could the most powerful man on Earth have planned this during college? If no, has he discovered this funy complication by now? If I can change my signature, I'll devise something similar.

:-)

Review in bullets: Honda Jazz 2010

First off, a nice commercial:



And then my review in bullets:

• I am disappointed in missing the vaunted fuel efficiency of this car. I dont get the 15- 20 km/L advertised when Jazz was first introduced. 8-10, city 14 at SLEX are the realities.
• I like that it's relatively easier to park..
  

• It is spacious indeed when you need it to be spacious. The foldable rear seats work!
• If you live in Malabon, dont buy this car. Several nights of downpour last week, I had to stop by the sidewalk to let the relatively tamer floods of Monumento subside before proceeding ahead.  
• The usb port is missing while the lowest Honda City has it. Why did Honda Philippines choose to scrimp on this small thing? What savings made them say yes, we should remove this feature?
• Humps! Even the medium sized ones are enemies of this car!
• The pull is ok. you can accelerate and overtake when you want. 
• Driving visibility is very good, unlike other cars which feels like a tank--smallish windows for the useless porma look.
• I regret choosing color white, given the time I have to clean cars or even to bring it to carwash during weekdays.
• I like the dashboard compared to the others that ive seen in its price group. 
• 7 over 10

Winner!

For posterity, Im writing that this brought some bright light to another dark hell week at work:

The challenge was to write a story given a background music. I entered the spur-of-the moment doodle that I also posted here two weeks ago (entitled simply as "Sequence," because I can’t really think of a title for that rambling).

Although I tried indeed to formulate a scene in a movie with the background music-- in short, the entry stuck strictly to the assignment--I was just counting on the promise of a consolation prize and an invitation to coffee or cocktails that Jessica has been assembling recently (in lieu of a bigger gathering that she’s been planning for some time now for blog followers). Ms. Jessica Zafra, the master herself, who I consider as one of the five best Pinoy writers alive, has been inviting for drinks a small group of constant participants to her “Litwit” challenges! (If it is not part of your morning reading yet, you should follow her blog). And the invitees can prepare 10 questions each, I believe to relieve the awkward silences.

Talampunay or me asking Jessica 10 questions over drinks, though nerve-wracking, should be a very welcome shake to our 9-to-7 lives. (630am to 10pm, if you include travel and prep time for that proverbial office grind).

Now, although there was no cocktails for this week, it was really a big, happy surprise to see turmukoy as the first prize winner of Litwit 3.8! And then the prize, a dense biography of Sartre and de Beauvoir. Wow!

Ive been hearing of their marriage-less, 'free' relationship more than ten years ago, since Soc Sci 1, and their existentialist justifications to their seductions and affairs. This arrangement must be a source of inspiration for all those landmark writings on existentialism. 

I am ready to put away whatever is currently bedside (American Pastoral by Roth) for this book. 

I was so thankful! Masaya at maganda ang buhay! J

Hindi magandang gamitin sa ads...

ang picture na ito na parang nagpapakita nang kasibaan.

Mukhang iresponsable rin ang kanyang ina.

Gutsy Carlos

These remarks don't come from a church people should be going and giving money to:

Catholic bishops have criticized President Benigno Aquino III for saying that his administration will promote both natural and artificial methods of family planning. At least one bishop said Aquino could be excommunicated.

Carlos's placard saying Damaso! must have hit them where it truly hurts. They're playing Noli indeed with these threats. These worthless priests, who now cant deliver a decent homily, has no contribution any more to society except to make people sleep in their droning masses.

You da man Carlos! Mabuhay ka!


And then there's this stupid cop...

Andres [the apprehending police] said Celdran was wearing a “Charlie Chaplin costume.” 

Watdapak? 

Sequence

Split screen, real time, dalawang tauhan, isang lalake at isang babae, tanghaling tapat, tumutugtog ang background music.

Si babae ay naglalakad sa bukirin, si lalake sa isang kalye, papuntang EDSA. Naririnig ang papalapit na kalyeng matrapik. Businahan ang mga oto't bus.

Parehong malayo ang tingin nang dalawa, nag-iisip nang malalim habang naglalakad. Si lalake ay di mawaksi sa isip ang kanyang hipokritong boss na walang alam gawin kundi magpagawa nang report. Puros na lang report na walang resulta. Tuwang-tuwa ang boss at kumikislap ang mga mata pag nakakakita nang mga palamuting bar graph, spiderplots, at piechart. Gustung gusto nya rin ang mga retorik na katulad nang “have a sustainable capacity-building solutions to increase our pool and capability.”

Pareho silang magsasalita nang: “Langya.”

Si babae naman ay iniisip ang ipinipilit nang nanay nyang pagtatrabahuhan na pabrika. Kung siya ang masusunod, ayaw na nyang umalis sa bukid. Subalit ang lupa nila ay unti-unti nang napupuno nang mga kubo nang kanilang pinsan, kapatid, tiyahin, ditse, ingkong, tiyuhin nang tiyahin ng pinsa, na walang libangan kundi magkastahan. Nagkalat na ang kanilang mga anak-anak at unti-unti nang kumokonti ang mga taniman. Sabay na iiling ang dalawang tauhan, at magsasabi: “Tsk!”

Tutuluy-tuloy lang ang kanilang paglalakad at pagtingin sa malayo. Tapos, bigla na lamang, si babae sa bukirin, ay makakatapak nang mainit-init na tae ng aso! At si lalake naman, sa sementadong kalye papuntang EDSA, ay makakajackpot nang isang tumpok na ebak ng kalabaw.

Matatapos ang background music, parehong magtataas nang talampakan ang mga tauhan at magsasalita: “Putsa!”

Magsisimula ang kanilang itinadhanang pag-iibigan, na sinimbulo nang dalawang tumpok na tae na natapakan. Bakit may tae nang kalabaw sa Edsa? Bakit may asong sa pilapil pa dyumebs?