Happy Hearts Day!

No, this is not an old post nor an entry for Valentines Day (though I know of a funny one here). Why the odd greeting? Because it really is Heart Day!

World Heart Day that is!

And I'm not talking about these cutesy hearts either...

but this one, the real one...

To be accurate, yesterday was World Heart Day, but what's one day for something so important? The theme this year, as you can see above, is knowing our risk factors. The thing with heart disease is it's largely preventable. Most of the risk factors, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and lack of exercise can easily be prevented or treated. The cost of which is nothing compared to the effect.

Anyhow, there's nothing I'd love more than to bore you with details, but there's no such thing as too early to start thinking about risk factors. Let me leave you with these short clips that will amuse you and hopefully provoke you into action.

NB If you'd like to know more about cardiac disease risk factors, prevention or cardiac rehabilitation, please feel free to message me or just leave a comment.

Photohunt: View

I've been reduced to a mere specter in the blogosphere for the last 2 weeks. No substantial entry not even a photo entry for Photohunt! I must say, it feels strange not being able to blog or even comment on other people's blog. During the break, I have a change of views--literally!

This used to be the view that greets me each morning


Not anymore! This is the view from my new home.


Ok, so not exactly that. That was taken from the hole where the Air-conditioning unit should be. Still this one's not bad at all!

Yeah, we moved 2weeks to the date today. We're not quite settled in yet, but it was surprisingly easy to get used to. I love the view that greets me each morning. It's astonishingly calm and serene which is a big bonus being right smack in the middle of the metropolis.

Let me leave you with a few other views I see on a regular basis.

A view from my office.


This one's at the other end of the building.


For some reason our rehab center is 8 stories up. Tough for wheelchairs, but excellent view.


Here's the view from up front. The the Philippine Central Bank where our currency is minted. It sure has a fortress-like feel to it, heck it even has a moat!

Whew! It's good to be back. Thanks for viewing!

PhotoHunt

Blogging Break

Yeah yeah, I know I'm too new at this to be taking a break now, but it can't be helped. We moved a couple of days ago. It went fine, the house is nice--it takes some getting used too but it's much much easier than I initially expected. We still don't have a phone yet nor any sort of internet connection to speak off. Right now I'm renting a unit at a computer shop during my break just to post this. I can still be reached via email and ym, but only during office hours. I can't blog from there because blogger is blocked. I still get to read blogs using my reader but I'm unable to comment so to the blogs I'm following, I have not dropped of the earth. All that said, I guess I'll be taking a break for now. I hope to be back soon. Meanwhile, you know the drill, head on over to chickenmafia.com (if you don't already go there hehe...).

Pinoy Survivor

Pinoy Survivors starts in a few days, and I thought now would be a good time to write about my failed attempt at joining when they held the audition last May. Ok... ok... so I got lazy busy last May--it was my birth month after all. Better late than never right?

Anyway, I went on a Wednesday at SM North EDSA after work. I got there around 6pm and I was astounded by the number of people queuing for it.

If you've never been to SM North, that's the line to the food court. That line reaches the end of that block and continues to the front entrance and each line was 4 person thick!


And that was only to secure an application form!


This is the next stage, hundreds of people waiting to be pre-screened.

At this point, I've decided that Pinoy Survivor is not for me. I decided to act all reporter-y and snoop around instead. Wearing a dark coat, a small bag by my side and camera in hand I actually got mistaken for a reporter.

They are then asked questions and have their forms reviewed, if they pass this part, they then proceed to the interview portion. There was about 7 in each group, only 1 or 2 proceeds to the next part from those 7, and sometimes none at all.

A person who got knocked out after the pre-screening actually approached me to tell his tale.

Aspirant: "It's too bad, I think I almost made it. I just didn't want to be the odd man out so I repeated their answers."
Me: "So what happened?"
A: "We all got booted out."
M: "What was the question anyway? "
A: "If you knew you'd be the next to be voted off, what would you do?"
M: "What did you say?"
A: "What the others did--I will give them the food and beg them to let me stay."

Obviously, he never watched Survivor. He assured me though that he will come back the next day and try again. Entertained, I tried to give him a friendly advice, I said next time try framing somebody up.

Now if you managed to get in to the next round, you get to line up some more. Just look at her number, 10352?!! There must've been at least 50,000 who came in just that day!


"So why should we pick you?" "Because I'm a Pinay, and I want to show the world that Pinays are strong and are no push0ver yada yada yada..."

So how long did they fall in line? The lady in wearing the striped blue shirt said she's been in line since 8am. Whoa! 8am? I took this photo at a few minutes before 6:30pm and she'd not even being pre-screened yet! The guy (yes, that's a guy) behind her got in just a mere 5 minutes later. I got to talk to them again later on, they managed to get themselves to the next round.

And after all that, skipping work, forgetting lunch and dinner, risking UTI, (urinary track infection) there's a huge chance that you still won't get picked. They're only looking for 16 castaways after all. I guess if you can't survive standing in line the whole day, forget the island.

After seeing the effort these hopefuls put into it, I guess the least I can do is watch the pilot. If you were as moved as I am, the show starts on Monday at GMA 7. I just hope JC does Pinoy Survior recaps.

Happy PT Day everyone!

It's not a secret that I'm a Physical Therapist. I've been one for 5 years now almost to the day. As it is, I've been asked often enough what a PT is. I found each time that my answer dos not suffice. I found that it's difficult to grasp the answer satisfactorily without actually seeing it--even then, it's still difficult. I'll tell you what it's definitely not though, it's not a part-time job.

Today is as good a time as any to try to explain what a PT is. As word's have failed me a number of times, I've taken the liberty to show you this video.

I hope you enjoyed watching it. Feel free to ask questions. If you've decided that being a PT might be for you, you might want to check this out for more info. Thanks for your time! :)

N.B. The PPTA National Convention is around the corner, if you haven't registered yet, do so now!

Photohunt: Strings

These strings add to the burden of the people by increasing the controversial systems loss.

And you know what's even more irritating? A friend told me a story in his own area where his father called the electric company to report such illegal electrical connections. When the inspector came to check and thus "relieve" the thieves of their illegally procured electricity, he kept mouthing off the words "Don't blame me, your neighbors called to tell on you." Tsk... tsk.

PhotoHunt

Photohunt: Beautiful

A free 7 day trial sample of the new Pond's Age Miracle

She's beautiful ain't she? Well, maybe not beautiful, but she sure is radiant. That though is not the real reason why I used this particular photo. In a society where more and more youth is associated with beauty, products such as this one continues to capture their market share. This one purportedly has CLA or Conjugated Linoleic Acid that's supposed to rejuvenate old degenerating skin to produce new ones. While I don't necessarily know that it works, I can imagine why such a product would be popular. Who doesn't want younger healthier skin? Yet beauty is indeed just skin deep. A healthy skin does not a healthy body make. Nor does it necessitate a sound mind or more importantly a virtous character. I suppose it doesn't help to care for the skin, just not at the expense of the rest of the body.

If you want your own free sample, just txt 7Days to 2966 and present it to any Watson's.

PhotoHunt

I'm not back, but guess who is?

Jollibee's Amazing Aloha!

An order of this burger costs only P82, not bad huh?

I was excited when JC broke the news to me, heck I've been meaning to try one of these beauties since Saturday. Things is, now that I've finally managed to get myself one, I didn't find it particularly good. The bacon used to be crunchy, and the pineapple used to be amazingly sweet yet tangy, providing an excellent contrast to the general saltiness of burgers. This time it felt bland, like it was dead. Of course it's entirely possible that it's my tastebuds' problem.

Cheesy Bacon Mushroom also at P82

This second one's new I think. I didn't get to try it though, my brother said it's good. I'm not taking his word for it though, I'm trying it tomorrow hehe... Oh, and I ate bought one of their chilidogs too.

This one's for P42.

Not too pretty, but not bad at all! I actually enjoyed. Which means there's nothing wrong with my taste buds, leading me to think that maybe this reincarnation of the Amazing Aloha just isn't amazing anymore. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to give it another try, after all it's a childhood favorite after all. And I've always said I'll try anything twice (not anything, don't go wise on me), just in case the first one's a fluke. I just hope the next one lives up to the memory.

Calling in sick

I know I haven't blogged in quite a number of days, didn't even submit an entry for photohunt (which I still intend to do before the next one starts). I've been ill--still am actually. I even had to skip work today.

While I intend to blog about our Laser Tag adventure, I haven't the energy to do so. You might want to check the photos here though.

Will blog as soon as I'm well again, just calling in sick. Have a happy week you all.

N.B. You might want to visit Chicken Mafia if you don't already. If it's me your missing (just saying), you can check my old entries there.