Hapones?

Overheard on the radio this morning, a radio announcer interviewing Robert Dean Barbers, the General Manager of Philippine Tourism Authority:

Radio Announcer: Saan pong bansa nanggagaling ang pinakamaraming turista sa Pilipinas?

GM Barbers: Maraming turista ang nanggagaling pa rin sa U.S.

Radio Announcer: Ay, ang akala ko po ang nangunguna sa listahan ay ang mga Koreano.

GM Barbers: Pinakamarami pa rin ang galing sa US, sinusundan ng mga Koreano tapos mga Hapon.

Radio Announcer: Ahhh....so mga Americans, Koreans and Japans. (?!?!?!?! )

Rough translation:
Radio Announcer: From which country do we derive the most number of tourists?
GM Barbers: Majority of the tourists come from the United States.
Radio Announcer: Oh, I thought the list was topped by Koreans.
GM Barbers: We get the most number of tourists from the U.S., followed by Korea, then Japan.
Radio Announcer: Oh, so Americans, Koreans and Japans (??!?!?!?!)

A reunion of sorts

What happens when you put together former classmates from law school together? Why, chaos, of course. Venue was Una Mas, Greenbelt 2. I even forgot to take some pictures of the food we ate because we were all so busy catching up on each other's lives. All in all, it was an evening of good food shared with good friends. Hope we can do it again soon.

Bon voyage Jeanne!

Small plane crashes into a Manhattan building

I woke up this morning with a full bladder and a strong urge to pee, so I went to the CR. After going back to bed, I also felt very thirsty. Ayayay...the discomforts of pregnancy.

Anyway, with all of these things happening to me very early in the morning, I could not immediately go back to sleep. So I decided to switch the television on, hoping to catch some boring show to rock me to sleep. What flashed before me did not make me go back to sleep. Instead, I was jolted into full consciousness and sent me running to the computer.

The image of a burning building in NY immediately caught my attention, accompanied by the headline banner of BBC saying that a plane crashed into a NY building. What flashed through my mind was "Oh no! Not another terrorism attack again please!" I'm sure the people of NY have not yet recovered from the 9-11 attack.

Anyway, there have been no indications of terrorism involved. However, fighter jets have been reinforced and there's a no-fly zone over Manhattan. According to the news reports, it was a small plane (probably a 4-seater) that crashed into the 20th floor of a 50-story condominium tower located on East 72nd. The Belaire Condominiums, built in 1988, has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million. It is a tower overlooking the East River, about five miles from the former World Trade Center building. As of this writing, there have only been 2 confirmed deaths.

What's so disconcerting about this is that this building is located near a hospital, the Hospital for Special Surgery. So, several lower floors are occupied by doctors and administrative offices, as well as guest facilities for family members of patients of the said hospital.

I hope that this really is an accident and no terrorism is involved. For more info, please visit http://www.cnn.com/.

Tips on recognizing a stroke immediately

Based on personal experience, I cannot stress enough the necessity of recognizing the signs of stroke at the earliest possible moment. So, when I read Kevin Kelly's site, I thought of posting some of its contents in my blog in order to help spread this information.

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim quickly he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the patient within 3 hours, which is tough. Sometimes, symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. But doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by performing 3 simple tasks:

1. Ask the individual to SMILE.
2. Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
3. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE. (Coherently, ie: It is sunny out today.)

The American Stroke Association lists more warning signs of stroke, and these are:
* Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
* Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
* Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
* Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
* Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

Not all of these warning signs may occur in every stroke. In my case, I had numbness on the right side of my body, severe pain in my left eye and difficulty speaking. I could not even recite the alphabet. The important thing to remember is not to ignore signs of stroke, even if they do go away. Unfortunately, we don't have 9-1-1 in our country. The best thing to do under the circumstances is to bring the individual to the nearest hospital so that the doctors may give the proper medical care and attention. If diagnosed early, the stroke may still be easily reversed, depending on the damage.

Arming yourself with this knowledge may just save another person's life.

(P.S., you might be wondering when the stroke happened. This happened to me 2 years ago and I'm ok now. FYI.)

The weekend that was...

I had a very uneventful weekend. The ravages of typhoon "Milenyo" were still visible all across the metropolis. I hope all of my friends and relatives are okay and weren't affected by the typhoon, except of course for the power and water interruption.

It's Monday once more and the beginning of a workweek. For some reason, I'm feeling a lot better today. Read somewhere that eating foods rich in complex carbohydrates will lessen the feeling of morning sickness. Must be the result of the oatmeal breakfast I had this morning. Note to self: I will eat oatmeals every morning from now on.

I'm sorry to all of those who commented on my previous post which were left unanswered. I actually answered them but for some reason, could not post the answers to blogspot. Don't know what's wrong. But I do appreciate all of your greetings.

My posts have become less frequent. But I'm not abandoning blogging. I consider it a very helpful therapy for me. I just hope I get into a writing mood one of these days. Anyway, that's it for now.


P.S.
Tomorrow, 3 October 2006, is the deadline for submission of entries in the 2006 Yonex Sunrise Philippines National Open Badminton Championships. It's one of the premiere events in the Philippine badminton scene. For more info on this tournament and on how to join, please visit this site.