Wednesday, October 29, 2008

After Lunch break...

One of the scenarios my mind imagined happened when Irene and I, with several other people from the 4th floor ventured inside the elevator. Can you guess?

It wasn't like a scene from Speed where a bad guy rigged the elevator (although that'll be frightening) instead the elevator froze when it reached our floor and the doors won't obligingly open for us so we could get off. Now, it was fortunate the janitor accompanied us so he managed to keep a near hysterical girl from going into a full panic mode and no, it wasn't me. But I have to tell you, when you have someone in very close quarters in panic, it was hard not to feel panicky too. I think I've squeezed Irene's arm a couple of times as a measure of assurance that the other hysterical girl won't be the death of me. Lolz.

Why was the elevator stuck? We don't know. We only heard that it was being fixed that morning and by lunch time, the technician told us that they've repaired it. So, we took his word and there, we're stuck. We tried our cellphones to call the guard on the ground floor but we all had no signals. Man, with all the high-end phones inside that metal cart, none had signals! The emergency bell was disable so we couldn't alert the technician. The janitor pushed an incorrect button, which plunged the car into darkness and stopping the fans that feed air into the small cabin. The act drove the panicky girl, edgy. She managed to calm down with the help of her friends who were doing their best to calm her down with a joke or two. Fortunately, the technician must have a 6th sense with the problematic elevator and he pried the doors open with his tools. We were shouting in relief! Irene and I ended up coming in late for our next class but our instructor was understanding so we were good.




Sunday, October 26, 2008

Halloween in the air!

Yesterday, I was at the mall and relished having a Saturday free. After I finished my lunch and wiped the grin off my face (lest other people think I'm a loon now) I sat back for a few minutes and I watched the selected food court staff doing their usual business dressed in pirate costumes!Yesterday, I was at the mall and relished having a Saturday free. After I finished my lunch and wiped the grin off my face (lest other people think I'm a loon now) I sat back for a few minutes and I watched the selected food court staff doing their usual business dressed in pirate costumes!

Too bad, none of them resembled Jack Sparrow or commotion would have been the thing for the day with loads of photo ops in the side. Hahaha. It felt I was heading for a swash-buckling meet N greet! The ladies were in costume too as fortune tellers minus the crystal balls while others were in witches get-up. I even misread a lady's intention, dressed as a fortune teller to thinking she wanted to tell me my fortune. *grins* It turned out she was asking me if I wanted to buy anything from her food cart filled with assorted Japanese dishes. I declined since I don't think I can squeeze anything else and besides, I only can stomach, is their beef teriyaki, so she went to the next table. Jeffer will definitely me give me some pointers here. See, I told ya, she's poking me already!

I wanted to take a picture of the pirate guys but I'm without my partner-in-crime for this mall visit. Kaecie's half away across the globe! Connie has issues with this mall, which I understand while Lyne, I didn't have time to ask as it was an impromptu decision from my end.

I left the food court and passed by the skating rink. Kids were twirling around and beginners (young and mature) were moving along the side of the rink, holding on the side bar for balance as they test their skating skills. Watching the people at the rink, brought back memories from college.

I remember I had skating rink discount tickets (good for 20 ppl), which I was holding after we completed our on-the-job training (OJT) at Elsie Gaches. I suggested to the second group coming from our Psych class to join us and check out the skating rink at the mall. Since, I still have extra 10 tixs, I broached our end-of-activity day with the group from another school. They liked the idea but we couldn't decide which exact day because we all had varied schedules. They told us they would let us know once their schedules have been sorted out. Unfortunately, like all half-cooked plans, at our final day of training, the group from the other school changed their minds because they still have a few more requirements to finish and for us Letran Knights, we put it off for a different day because we too had similar requirements to complete. Lolz. In the long run, we weren't able to hit the skating rink because before we knew it, it was already a week leading up to our graduation and I had already one thing in my mind, California!

Anyway, back to my yesterday's visit at the mall. After buying the needed toiletries, which can't seemed to find their way at our town mall, I nearly let out a shriek inside the department! My gaze fell on a group of mannequins with ghoulish masks on! If I could've taken a picture I would and post it here but the department people might think I'm on to steal their 'halloween ideas'. Hahaha.

I headed for NBS to buy a medical and a pharmacology dictionaries to help me get acquainted with the medical terms and drug names while taking the Medical transcription course. I really hope I don't have another spell where it feels like I'm in a middle of having "information overload or meltdown". Lolz. Last week, I had that feeling when I was studying for the Dermatology modular exams. This week, I'm "studying" the Orthopedics module. I kept saying to myself that the names of the human bones and muscles should be just a re-aquaintance since I've been through with this section of the human body when I stayed a couple years taking up Nursing. I'm forcing my mind to see the names like Latissimus dorsi, Sartorius or Tarsals, Tibia and Fibula as friends. Lolz.

I was able to receive several discount book coupons from NBS and I'm thinking of using it when I buy The Secret. Kaecie mentioned that I give it a read, so I will. Then I'll use the other discount book coupons for purchasing the rest of the Stargate Atlantis books : Exogenesis, Halcyon, The Chosen and Rising. Plus, the two up-coming books: Nightfall and Angelus.

Going home was very tiring. I had to contend with sardine-style packed way of traveling. I navigated around bodies, tried not to step on anyone's toes (literally) and made sure, no one tried to make a pass at me when I got off the bus. I was holding my breath on the way out too, because my nostrils have already been assaulted for too long.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Prison Break Season 4!


The premiere aired last Tuesday but I wasn't able to watch because I was drawn back to Gateworld after being away from the computer or I should say, after not being able to go online for a week.

It was what the fans have been waiting for... The return of Sara! Season 3 was disheartening because we really thought, Linc found *gulp* Sara's head inside the box. It made me wonder who was the unfortunate soul Gretchen used to pass as Sara. I'm still hoping for a re-airing this Saturday but so far I haven't seen any announcements from Cs9.

Pic image from JustJared. Thanks!


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

After a while...

I took tonight to go online (finally) since I lost my episode guide for Stargate: SG-1, which I printed last night. While on the subject of Stargate, I visited Ask the Authors (Fandimonium) thread

This is such a great thread! I didn't know there was one here! This was a good idea made by the poster and I'm glad the mods made it a "sticky note" in the forums. I would like to post a question in the future too. Hopefully, when I've finished reading the 74+ pages, a question will pop up. I hope the authors are still around to answer some questions from very recent fans. Lolz. At the moment, I'm in page 2 and reading all these interesting questions and answers. It was also from this thread that I found out there will be two upcoming SGA books. Yay! One, Stargate Atlantis: Nightfall , which is due this coming November and the other is Stargate Atlantis: Angelus. I can't wait!

On other things, I had finished our major exam for Dermatology specialty and our doctor-lecturer showed our exam results. Hmm, I need more improvement on the Anatomy and Physiology section in the future exams while maintaining or even go for a higher points for the rest of the exam sections such as Pharmacology, Medical Terminology, Health Records, Treatment etc. We had an impromptu group guiz this afternoon (we were divided by twos) and Glo and I came out with a decent score thanks so much to Nina too.

My forays to the transcription world was challenging. I was transcribing since yesterday and I've managed to polish three chart notes. I still have 12 or so files to transcribe. The accents of the dictators have surprised me. Let's just say, my ears weren't as keen as I thought. I have a British accent dermatologist and an American one so far.

Irene also found her transcription files difficult to transcribe. It seemed doctors have the habit of drowning the medical terms by shuffling papers around their desks (the voice recorder picked it up with no problems), or by speaking very fast (not clearly enunciated most of the times) or an intrusive click-clack of someone's high-heeled shoes in the background.

She wished we had those high-end computers from the tv show CSI-NY, where a software removes the ambient sounds and allows more tweaking on the dictator's voice to understand the words. Of course, we can't request something like that. I'll have to train my ears for tomorrow's activity.



Sunday, October 12, 2008

Baby... SNAKE!

My calm Sunday morning turned into a heart-stopper day when I went out to the porch and found a... baby snake!

I was going to get the morning paper and was curious why my two cats were fussing at the corner of the porch. I took a peek at the object of their attention and I came up short in letting out a shriek!

I rushed inside the house and calmly asked mom how I should kill the baby snake! She said I should get something to bash its tiny head with. I reached for the mop. The rag's no longer attached to the metal head so it was good for the job. I didn't like the idea to be at arms length of the thing even if it was only a baby snake.

I put on the rain boots for extra precaution and headed back to the porch. My cats were still playing with the unconscious baby snake but seeing it with its underbelly up still made me squeamish.

I drove the metal bar of the mop on the baby snake's head but I didn't feel the reassuring crush of its bones. I repeated the motion until I saw the jaw looked dislocated. However, to be on the safe side, I struck the baby snake until its head was crushed to pulp. Gross.

The baby snake was about one foot and a half! Brownish color, which could be a baby python. Ack. I would have taken a picture of it but I was too unnerved by the incident. I think my cats found their 'plaything' by the empty lot across us.

I'm also relieved my cats are doing their guard duty. Lolz.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

First day of classes!

So, I've enrolled yesterday at one of MTC academy branches and attended my first day of class this morning. I met Ces (BS Nutrition grad), Cres ( BS Accountancy grad), Linda ( a registered nurse) Glo, Alex and Irene. They were very nice and very chatty which helped eased my overwhelmed emotions. It was strange to feel this way when all I've been thinking of for over a year was taking this training course. Now, that I'm here, I feel indifferent.

My enthusiasm has hid itself under a rock leaving me during the orientation, with some frayed nerves, which was enough to send me in a panic mode!

I think I was having an information overload this afternoon while I listened to the stories of the other MT students who were a month or so ahead of me. Our mentor shared to the class newbies (Irene and I) what to expect within the training course. I suddenly wondered if I was doing the right thing. I've already mentally berated myself why I hadn't got around to sending my CV first to the person my mom said I should get in touch if I was interested to go abroad. I was so caught up about leaving my job and was also thinking too much of MT and the path I could take after finishing MT (take up summer classes on screenwriting at the International Academy of Film and Television) that I didn't realize e-mailing this individual was also important. Argh. I will have to wait until I finish this course then I'll contact the person because I can't leave MT when I've started with it. I hope I'll be able to receive some good news in the overseas front.

My first session was typing and this will continue till Friday, which will be a slew of typing exams. Not enough time. Again, I've chided myself why I didn't maintain my WPM (words per minute) since Typing was a part of our curriculum back in college. While I'm fairly fast now, our instructor said, "a 300+ wpm" will have to be attained by the end of the six month course. I'll keep positive thoughts that I'll be able to type that fast. *taps finger on table*

I don't know if this Friday too, where Irene and I
will meet the doctor-instructor for the medical lab transcription session. The schedule was mentioned earlier by our mentor but it has slipped my mind.

The 15 modules are with me so I'll be browsing through the pages (perhaps module 1 and 2 since their thicker) to speed up the acclimatization into the world of Medical Transcription.






Friday, October 3, 2008

Near Mishap!

I was too slow but it was a good thing, Mom was able to recover her balance.

Time slowed all right and even my reflexes weren't quick. *mental note to self**Be extra aware when Mom tags along.* We were heading to the Jeepney stop and Mom couldn't stand waiting and rushed off to a jeepney that was trundling by. It was at this moment, her foot was caught at the jutted piece of broken up pavement square slap. If she hadn't regain her balance, she would have slammed against the jeepney just coming to a halt beside her. I nearly freaked out! And the traffic police officer didn't so much as to pull her out of the way. He was closer to her than I was! His reflexes were non-existent! Yet, they loved to give tickets jeepney drivers 'not following' traffic rules.

The near-accident scene was set like a video-loop inside my head and it sickened me. It took a while for it to get out of my system. Mom would have ended in the hospital with a gash on her head or worse. I'm thanking her guardian angels for this.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Clearing Out

I decided to dispose all of the old and ruined VHS tapes, which contained guest appearances of my favorite boy bands and girl bands when they toured Asia. They were collected clips from MTV Asia spots, Musica Si, Channel V, MTV Europe, Party in the Park specials, Disney Awards to ASAP appearances. Wait, the ASAP appearance of A1 is with me. I knew I saved it.

I do hope I didn't throw that out. I'm a bit lazy to go an re-check the container. Lolz. This was memorable because I was with my best mate, Kaecie and the rest of A1 fan club members. Several months ago, she sent me a link of the ASAP special. It was uploaded by a kind soul in Youtube. It brought back wonderful memories. I remembered how excited we all were. Mark mentioned he was surprised when they visited USA because they were greeted by A1 fans at the airport. I think he said something about not expecting any fans there because they weren't very known in that part of the world. So, he thanked all of us for spreading the word. Okay, I'm sure he may have said that bit in their other guest appearances in other countries, still, I do recall reminding my A1 USA friends (who have more connections than I have) of these guys USA visit.

Back to the vhs tapes, I also recorded one hit wonder tv shows where my fave actors have starred in, Hallmark movies, which were most of the times hard to find vcd copies in the video shop and music videos. I really hate to see them all go but molds have made their home inside the film. I don't have a suitable cleaner for these vhs tapes anymore. Besides, both of my vcrs are kaput and I won't be visiting the repair shop anytime soon so, it was best to discard them and use the storage container for my cds now.

My wish? I had a vcr machine that could transfer what was recorded from the vhs tapes to cds then I could've saved them and re-watched the clips to pass the time or if I need to de-stress.