Quarter-Life Crisis

For those who have been wondering where I've gone MIA the past couple of weeks, I have started real work and said goodbye to freelancing. I'm now a nurse at the Philippine General Hospital.

I know, things happened pretty fast for me too. I got the call and next thing I know I was back on the bed side again presumably doing what I have been trained for in college. It's overwhelming and tremendously stressful even without the series of unfortunate coincidences I have ran into. Huge adjustments have to be made in a really short span of time and as the Universal Conspiracy would have it, I have been assigned to Ward 1, the Female Medicine Ward, notorious for heavy patient traffic, acuteness, infectiousness and severity of patient cases.

I'm already on my third week, my second at the Ward. Although the first two weeks have been primarily allotted for the General and Ward Orientations, they could only do so much to truly prepare me for what I consider the biggest change in my life so far. The rest, as they say, is up to me.

For what it's like to be in Ward 1, difficult is an understatement and I refuse to use the word "toxic" and the myriad of connotations and socially accepted uses it is associated with in the health care field (don't even get me started on this as I think it deserves another post). Words fail me. What I cannot express with them, I do with tears. Primarily of exhaustion and frustration. Exhaustion with the physical and intellectual demands of the job and frustration with work relationships. I guess what I'm saying is it sucks to be the newbie at work. Especially in a job where superiority and merit is directly proportional solely to length of time spent in the work place. Being at the bottom of the food chain, you are at the mercy of anyone and everyone, and the worst part about it is you simply don't have a choice but to wait until another newbie comes along.

It's really hard to stay positive, but I haven't entirely lost hope. I know things would be better and that there would be brighter prospects for the future as long as I have my goal in mind, but until that happens, I have to wait and hopefully, Better comes sooner than expected.

I'd Like To Buy the World a Coke

Did you know that at the time Coca-Cola was invented, it actually contained cocaine?

"Until 1905, the soft drink, marketed as a tonic, contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich kola nut." And it was sold in neighborhood soda fountains, more like our modern day 7-11s. Free access to illegal drugs? Hollywood could have had a party. No wait, they actually are having a party. :s

random thoughts

I am still in a state of mild disbelief. It's weird when something you actually hope for becomes real and tangible for a change. And then you start to wonder, if it is what you really wanted in the first place.

not another phelps post

This is how Michael Phelps swam swum.

I was in Stumbling frenzy again when I came across this funny picture. I forgot the link though. :c

new look for my blog

A face lift for my blog that I have been meaning to do for quite some time now. I wanted to go for fresh pastel colors but decided the pink and gray theme should stay just because I'll never get tired of that color palette. :p I removed some unsightly Google ads and replaced them with Stumble and Digg links for added popularity, heh. I also updated links on my sidebar so that they'd actually be useful. If you want your site to be included on the links list just give drop me a message. :D

acts of shameless self-promotion

I have a new site and I'm really excited about it. So please check it out:

http://theidentitygame.blogspot.com

life lessons

sometimes we hurt people without even realizing it.

Italian Nights are here again!

I was expecting a riot for this month's Italian Night. Give or take 8 people. But somewhere along the way, people started ditching us. Leaving me and a couple other friends- Sed, Alyana and the esteemed Vladimir, to enjoy the night. We catched the 7pm screening of the Italian Film showing at the CCP then afterwards, pasta for dinner at the Harbor Square.

Quite depressing and seemingly prophetic, C'eravama Tanto Amati (We all loved each other so much) is an Italian comedy that talks about idealism and how people generally deal with the inevitable disillusionments of life. The story opens with three men who became close during the war as they dealt with imminent death and danger fighting the Nazis. After the war and armed with illusions, they find themselves living their own separate lives. Each taking on a different path, not necessarily according to their ideals. In the end, after some years, an unlikely reunion happens where they make an unexpected discovery.

*Catch the Italian Film Festival every second Tuesday of the month at the CCP. A different film is featured every month. Catch screening times at 4pm and 7pm. Admission is FREE.

Pampers World @ Glorietta

The Pampers World Tour is here in the Philippines and was officially launched at the Glorietta Activity Center last weekend (June 26-27). It's an information campaign which highlights the different stages of a baby's development and the new Pampers Stages diapers fit for every stage. Aiming to give parents a firsthand experience of what the world is like for babies, the Pampers World Tour is fun, educational and absolutely FREE! Plus, endless picture opportunities!

Come see the world in a whole new perspective. Join the Pampers World Tour on the following dates and venues:

August 9 & 10- at the SMX, Mall of Asia
September 13 & 14- at Trinoma Mall

The Revolution will be Fabulous

...and extremely expensive.

Credits: http://www.1988revolution.blogspot.com/

SLHMC

Southern Luzon Hospital and Medical Center, where I'm attending a 3-day training on IV Therapy, is so freaking remote! Absolutely nothing within a kilometer radius on 3 directions. There's a Starbucks however, 500 meters to the north. :o

signs of the times

baby pandas

They're awfully adorable.

I died and gone to panda heaven!

human in brine

Inadequate resources and perhaps, lack of training have compromised rescue operations off the coast of Masbate where M/V Princess of the Stars sank last Saturday due to Typhoon Frank (Fengshen). Three days have passed after the tragedy yet hundreds of passengers are still missing. Some are trapped or left underneath the capsized ship (for lack of resources to bring them to land) for fish to feast on. There are even stories of drowned corpses with body parts eaten by fish being washed ashore. Now, if our little finned friends had a way of canning humans, that would be their perfect revenge.

it's not a robot, you moron

Credits: To the amazing nataliedee

jobhunting 101

Rule #1 It's all about patience...
-------------------------------------patience...
--------------------------------------------------------------------PATIENCE! dammit.

wifi-detector t-shirt

Clearly, the geeks keep outdoing themselves. Swoon over

The Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt

Thanks to the ingenious monkey robot inventors from ThinkGeek, now we don't even have to be bothered by such unimportant stuff as cracking open our laptops to check for wi-fi connection.

Check out more of the Wi-Fi Detector T-shirt here.

malicious, masquerading Trojan!

From an AVG virus scan report (lol):

ipod talk

Catholic saints are interesting

Take this one for instance. The image of this skewered saint stands before the old Spanish church in Liliw, Laguna along with other statues which supposedly take the form of other Catholic saints and martyrs. These cemented replicas bear the name of the saint below them. But I was stupid enough to exclude the name plates when I took the photo.

Why this particular scene in the entirety of his life was chosen, I have no idea. Maybe it's supposed to show martyrdom of some sort. But isn't it a little too morose? The sky seems to agree.