Blood Donation

I donated blood for my uncle recently, and I still have a visual reminder of it. I have a hematoma (blood clots beneath the skin) from the site where they take samples for tests. Every adult (from age 18 to 50) are capable of giving 450-500cc of blood 4 times a year. During my internship as a medical technologist, we get to hear a lot of funny jokes and hearsays on how to recover after a blood donation. Some say you eat “Balot”. Some say just take in a lot of fluids like soup, water (and some men would say drinking beer after blood donation would recover your blood and make it cleaner). Actually, drinking more fluids would help but our blood producing organ (the bone marrow) will automatically manufacture your blood components in time. The fluids would replace the liquid part lost and the marrow would replace the solid part. It would help to eat food rich in Iron like bitter gourd (Ampalaya) and liver. There are other foods rich in Iron but the best one that I love to eat during breakfast is the egg with ampalaya. Some don’t like it because of its bitter taste (or after taste), but it really comes with the preparation. So it goes with other meals with that vegetable involved.

The ingredients are:

1 medium size ampalaya

2 medium size eggs

2 table spoon cooking oil

3 cloves garlic (minced)

1 small onion (minced)

Salt for seasoning (optional)

To prepare the ampalaya without its bitter taste is by simply removing the seeds and scraping the white flesh where the seeds used to stick by a spoon. Rinse it twice to make sure (never remove the skin or else you won’t have anything left of it). I do it by cutting the vegetable in half, then scoop out the seeds and white flesh and finally cutting it sideways into thin slices. Now, sauté the garlic and onion in a pre heated pan with the oil. Add the sliced ampalaya to make sure when the meal is done, it would be cooked. After 5-10 mins, check if the ampalaya is soft already. It would mean It is halfway done already. Scramble the eggs and pour it over the pan (make sure you are on low fire to avoid oil splattering all over you). You can either fry it like an omelet or you can make it like puffed eggs with vegetables (let it form a circle with the ingredients in the middle as an omelet or stir everything until the egg is softly cooked for puffed egg with ampalaya). Some would add a little ground pork to add some meat.

Blood Donation is and must always be free. There’s nothing more meaningful and heartwarming than helping someone extend their lives. Yes, it’s a bit painful but nothing you can’t tolerate. There are doctors and med techs that could help you learn more about donating blood. By donating blood, you are replenishing your own blood. When you donate at the Philippine Red Cross, you would get a donation card entitling you to get a bag of blood in the future absolutely free! It’s like investing for your own health at the same time cleaning your pipelines inside your body.

Give blood, save lives!

Gifted Children

Kids these days are growing so fast. My 5 month old daughter could stand now with minimal support (but lazy enough to crawl, how ironic). My friend from college wants to make a study regarding the relationship of a kids’ growth with their lifespan (how creepy is that?). I’ve watched a lot of gifted children on TV, some with IQs with greater than 140 (mere geniuses), some could make quotes at an age of 5 years old, some accelerated 3-5 levels ahead of their age, and some could beat chess grandmasters as early as 5 to 7 years old. Being a parent of these kids would’ve been too much pressure, providing and supporting the young mind to meet the demands of their dream. Even with special kids, the support (financially, emotionally and psychologically) is very draining. As a parent, you need to nurture them according to their needs. With gifted children, you have to further develop their talents and skills at the same time balance other stuff like sports, diet and entertainment. Parents need not give the pressure they are experiencing to their kids, as this may lead to frustrations and failures. It’s a gift that they are gifted, so whether they excel on their field or just not enough, let’s just be thankful of who or what they are. Even gifted or special kids feel a lot of pressure knowing what they have, thinking and striving thru the demands of the people around them, living up expectations beyond their years (even if there are none). Children these days need to be guided to a world we are living these days. It is not enough to teach them the basic, but rather, show them how to use each resources that we have wisely. My daughter may be gifted or not, but I’ll always love her no matter what. I want to show her the real world no matter how harsh it is, but I will always be there to make sure she will survive and live to the fullest.

Power Play

Upon watching the news regarding our power distributor (meralco) together with a star (ms. Santos), being judged by a group known as VACC (to my dismay I forgot what it meant). VACC vouched to boycott all the movies of the said actress due to airing a commercial for a company whom they think is getting a slack off their “hard earned” dough. Though the said group is thought to be a group against crime, I don’t think there is a crime airing such commercial. Every person is entitled to their opinion whether voiced or in thought, so why should they do such actions against this actress? I am no fan her, but I think they are barking at the wrong tree. I think they should boycott meralco instead and start turning off their electricity. In light of the same issue, I am laughing my heart out to senators who bullied our foreign investors, reprimanding them from giving an “opinion” to stop the amendment of EPIRA (a law governing power generators and distributors). As I have said, every person is entitled to their own opinion, so these poor investors should not be questioned nor treated as such since the local people entrust their lives and jobs to these investors to live day by day. I don’t want our country to send the wrong impression to the thousands of investors worldwide, looking for opportunities here in our land only to be bullied by lawmakers. We all want the cost of electricity to go down, but I think there is a proper way of saying it, and most of all, a proper time and place to talk about it. Any country cannot and will not stand on its own without any foreign investor. Countries rely on trade to circulate resources and further the improvement of their lands. Let us hope the concerned people would take this into consideration. Most of all, let us hope that the people who have the capacity to alleviate our current situation, may find some compassion towards us most of all the marginalized.

Patriots or Parrots

A famous president once said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask yourself what you can do for your country”. Maybe for a normal, ordinary, low to middle class Filipino citizen, he might not take this phrase into consideration. After all, our state of living in metro manila now is so expensive (also in some major cities nationwide). Prices growing higher and higher and as my grandmother used to say, “All prices went up only briefs and panties go down now a days”. Has anyone taken the time to check how high the taxes around the world are and what benefits do they get? We have cheaper rice than Thailand where we use to import some of our rice (is that a signal that we shouldn’t buy thai rice? Just joking). We have cheaper fuel compared to the United States. Another effect is the value of the dollar right now due to the current US economic crisis. Enough of that now before someone contacts me to be an economist. But as an educated Filipino, have you asked yourself what have you done for the country (aside from populating it)? In a very simple way like throwing our trash in the proper place, by not spitting all over the road, by following traffic rules and regulations (not beating the red light, walking on pedestrian lanes, waiting for utility vehicles at the proper place, etc), and by being concerned with our neighbors and the community by participating in civic activities. In some of these simple ways we could help at least the country as a community and once these simple ways act collectively than we could achieve something as a Nation. Some would ask why I bother thinking of these things. One answer would be is IF you rephrase the statement, you might end up with this “ask not what you can do for your country, but ask what your country could do for you” which would sound like the “juan tamad” era. Another answer would be is: “Don’t ask your country what it can do for you… simply it will never talk back”. Several people may have protested, rallied and hell knows what, but we haven’t quite heard a very clear feedback from the government. I’ve recently heard that prices of major necessities in the market increased again due to oil price increases. I know we have cheaper alternative sources for energy and have anybody in this good land thought of using it? Would it mean that there is someone behind the oil price increase and prevents anybody or anyone from using a cheaper alternative source just to take advantage of the HUGE revenue? Still, I believe that the wheel of justice in this world is still moving….very…very…very…very slowly.

Feasibilities

I’ve been working on 3 feasibility studies this past week. To think that I am a graduate of a medical course, and a family business with tourism in nature, I am working on something a marketing or management course graduate should be doing. I am laughing at myself thinking what I’ve been doing and at the same time worried how hard it is. It doesn’t look easy as I have perceived it so I am working my back hours and hours just to finish it. I am looking for a job right now, looking for a good opportunity for me to be able to raise my family in a comfortable way, and at the same time looking for a business that would be my fall back. I’ve always dreamed of putting up my own computer shop, so that’s one of the studies I’m working on. My family and I just moved in on our new residence and I found out there’s no convenience store inside the building and I have to walk a few meters away just to buy my pack of cigs (I guess you already know the 2^nd business). Lastly, I’ve been reading franchise papers and found out that investing at a water station is actually good! Each business has their own capital margins and each is good prospects. In terms of capital, I know I’m quite short on cash (let me rephrase that, totally broke) and It would be really harder for me materializing my dream. So I’ve come to a point that applying for a loan would be a good idea should I push thru with this. Let me weight my options: With my financial crisis right now, my bank wouldn’t lend me (because my account is now closed); asking some help with my parents would be another idea but it would lead to a debate that either would end me losing or my parents would say we don’t have such money. I’m looking other options like asking some relatives or maybe a business partner(s). Should I finish the studies soon and fail to put up a business, maybe I’ll just sell my work to Recto. =)

Happy Father's Day

It is a great wonder that human beings created a salutation called “Father, Dad, Daddy, and Papa”. Since time in memorial, we have addressed fathers in different kinds of terms. Fathers may not be the one in labor for 9 months, in pain giving birth nor rear the child, but they are the provider (or so they say but not always the case). Different places have different kinds of fathers, good ones and bad ones, weird ones and normal ones. I’ve always looked at my father as my role model and my idol. Knowing how he grew up, how strived to become who he is right now considering that he lost his father at the age of 2 months old. I know it would be hard to be a father without having one. I seen his strengths and weaknesses and somehow learned from it. Being a father myself, it’s now hard to judge any father compared to the days when I was still a bachelor. Being a father is hard but also fun and exciting. Working day by day just to provide the everyday needs of your family, looking for resources that would make sure that you will survive the next few days. At the end of the day, you would see your kid/s and play with them. It may sound ancient but, seeing them happy is enough to make your worry and pain go away. This father’s day, I would like to commend the fathers who are least mentioned or talked about like single fathers, fathers who are abused by their wives, fathers who are sole breadwinners, fathers who’s child they’ve never seen, fathers who lost their children, fathers who we’re left by their children for whatever reason and most of all, the fathers who have taken cared of several people. No parent means any harm to their children and no father wants their family hungry.

Happy Fathers day to all fathers!

Vault of Knowledge (with little craps)

I read from The Inquirer (june 10, 2008) that Mr. Go (a school supervisor or something) was waging war against publishers / publishing houses releasing books with erronous contents (partially per se but very troubling), to think that it would be read by Grades 1 to 6 pupils. I have a 5 month old daughter and I don't want her having misconceptions regarding some contents printed on a certain book APPROVED by an agency of the government, and passed thru the eyes and tables of a Department exclusively for the wellfare of the education of children, and yet proven to have misleading and / or erronous statement which would become FACT for these young minds. The publishing house mentioned is very famous (I used to have books during my primary and secondary education printed by them), Accusations like these would really rattle them. I too, am a businessman, and I know what it feels to have your reputation questioned down the line, but, what they are doing is like selling a room in a hotel on a certain country irregardless of the convenience it provide and what you only think of is the revenue you will recieve. Can't the publishing house think about what the children will learn with those kind of
materials? They too have children and I know one way or another their kids would use their books. Would you want to instill in the mind of your kids that they came from a stork and make it a solid fact, when in reality they came from the union of their parents' cells. Books are a very useful tool for learning, irregardless of genre or content. We should take extra care for the school books our children read for they are the basic foundations of our childrens mind. You don't want to hear your child read the letter "D" first without reading "A, B and C" right? Let's just hope and pray that the concerned agencies related to this would do something. Yes, a drop of dirty water doesn't mean the ocean is dirty,BUT, a mango seed planted in the middle of the corn field looks
harmless at first but would be hard to remove in the future.

The juvenile brain is like a sponge, absorbing everything...did I say what kind of sponge?
I hope not the ones we use to clean the dishes.