My Picto-blog

You might wanna visit my picto-blog. I got there lomo photos taken from my nifty iPod Touch. Here's a sampler:

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The Persuader

I took a Personality Type test from www.mypersonality.info and here's the result:


It basically says that I'm more extroverted, more sensing, a thinker than a "feeler" and more perceiving than judging. My primary function is Extraverted Sensing, which means:

Sensing people process data with their five senses, so the Extraverted Sensing function allows a person to process life through their experiences. It is the ability to be keen to what is seen, smelled, touched, heard and tasted. It is energized by experience and it is able to live "in the moment."

I fall under the Creator temperament and people like me comprise 35.5% of the whole populace (pretty common, huh). Under the Creator temperament are Persuaders, Entertainers, Craftsmen and Artists. I'm a Persuader, also known as the ESTP personality type.

Being a Persuader (I'm among of the 8% of the population with the same personality) I'm described as:

"Enthusiastic and excitable, ESTPs are "doers" who live in the world of action. Blunt, straight-forward risk-takers, they are willing to plunge right into things and get their hands dirty. They live in the here-and-now, and place little importance on introspection or theory. The look at the facts of a situation, quickly decide what should be done, execute the action, and move on to the next thing."

-The Personality Page

People with the same personality as mine are Jacob (Isaac's son), Ernest Hemingway (the American novelist), Donald Trump (The Apprentice), Bruce Willis, Michael J. Fox, Jack Nicholson, Madonna and fictional characters like Bart Simpson (I find this really funny), Sonny Corleone (a character from The Godfather; he was supposed to be the successor of Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather, the most impulsive and violent of Vito's children who was brutally killed in a toll plaza) and James Bond (I'm telling you, I can be an incognito!).

I'm not sure if this test is accurate though I agree in most of the analysis. But I guess the most interesting here is the Bart Simpson, Sonny Corleone and James Bond part. LOL!

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Mockingbird

I just finished watching To Kill A Mockingbird, the movie adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize Winning novel of the same title. It's my first black and white movie and I find it endearing and intelligent. The story plays around two main plots: the fascination (and terror) of the three kids to a reclusive neighbor and all the scary rumors about the man; and about a white lawyer (the father of two of the kids) who was appointed to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. The main message of the story is aptly summarized from the line in the film: "You never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walk around in them."

What I liked about the movie its subtle yet brave way of confronting racism, which was a main issue in America during the time the novel was written. The element of suspense in story-telling was also seamlessly employed. And from what I have researched, this was one of the best film adaptations from a novel that was ever made, as approved by Lee herself. It was well-directed and there was a careful attention to details. I was drawn by the natural acting of the kids, especially the girl who played Scout. Most of all, though it was made on the 1960s, the movie's message is still relevant today -- that we should not judge people by their color or the way they look or what other people say about them. That we are created equal and everyone is worthy of acceptance, and we shouldn't kill a mockingbird -- we should not kill those that don't harm us.

I think I'll be digging on classic films for now. I'm done with Breakfast at Tiffany's and next on my list is Charley, another film adaptation, this time of a short story (actually there's also a novel version of it) entitled Flowers for Algernon. Click Here to Read More..

More on CDO and Bukidnon trip

Snapshots from my Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon trip.

This is what you'll see on the other end of Makahambus Cave. White water rafters pass through this river

The historical marker at the cave's facade.

Bonding time with my high school friend, Shine who now resides in CDO. The adorable kid next to me is Louisse, Shine's son and my inaanak.

An ancestral house in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental. The local folks (two men in blue and the lady in white shirt) showed us around before we interviewed 'Solo' papaya farmers.

Notice the carved image of a men at the corner, as if carrying the second floor of the house. I saw two old houses with the same architecture. I wonder what's the story behind.

In our quest in finding 'Solo' papaya plantations, we faced rain and narrow and muddy road. But the sight of the farm and the smell of the grass felt like home.

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Down South

I had an official trip to the southern Philippines last week (Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon) for our supply chain mapping of 'Solo' papaya. It was my second time in Cagayan de Oro City and my first time in Bukidnon. This trip has been very tiresome yet enjoyable and my most adventurous so far. I had several "first times" during the trip!

• It was my first time to go to Bukidnon. I knew from my grade-school books that pineapple was the main commodity of this province. True enough, I saw hectares and hectares of pineapple farms. Those farms were contract-grown by Del Monte Philippines. It's also called the Baguio of the south because of it's also an upland province and it's cold climate.
• While on our way to Bukidnon, there was a place where we are to go through a quarantine "pond," i don't know what it's really called (I had something like that also in one of my undergrad subjects but whatever, I forgot). All who pass through that place have to be 'quarantined.' It's the first province I went to with that quarantine thingy.
  
• First time to eat "binaki." Out of curiousity, in one of our stop overs going to Bukidnon, I bought this local delicacy sold in the sidewalk. My guess is it's made of ground corn mixed with milk, wrapped in corn husk and then steamed. I think it's similar to "suman" only that "suman" is made from ground rice.
• My first time to see a rubber plantation. I was facinated by the row of rubber trees because they look so the same (of course!) and they were of the same height. There was a little black thing attached to each tree that catches the latex.

• I've never been to a cave before until the Makahambus Cave which is just a few minute ride from the airport (we went there before going back to Manila). The cave served as a hiding place of Filipino Soldiers during the war. The end of this cave is a cliff and down you'll see the river where white water rafters pass. White water rafting is one of the main attractions in Cagayan de Oro.

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Passion 2010

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Going to Hell with Dr. Morrel

I am reading an old book lent to me by my officemate, More of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt. It tells the story behind popular stories and news from the past. I'm fascinated because number one, I love stories of people. Second, it's like a backstage pass where get to know about some untold secrets of popular people and happenings.

The story I'll be sharing is one that apalled me. I kinda doubted if it's true but with the turn of events, it seemed like it was. I researched it further and history has documented the role of this doctor to a man who altered history more than I could imagine. Keep reading.

Dr. Theodore Morell. What he lacks in competence is compensated for by charisma. He is introduced to prospective patients socially, makes an impression, and the impressionable are hooked -- eventually, in every sense of the term.

A specific case for your consideration...

Dr. Morrel is invited to a private home. His host complains of intestinal trouble.

The doctor appears concerned; how long has the discomfort been going on?

Intermittently for quite some time.

Nodding pensively and without hesitation, Dr. Morrel offers his diagnosis and suggested treatment.

Later the patient remarks: "Nobody has ever before told me so clearly and precisely what is wrong with me. His method of cure is so logical and I have the greatest confidence in him. I shall follow his prescriptions to the letter."

These "logical" prescriptions include exotic bacteria and hormones and phosphorous and dextrose and beladonna... and strychnine. Not enough strychnine to kill the patient of course. The dangerous if not entirely evil Dr. Morrel requires the depandence of this patient, for money, for prestige... and for his sinister experimentation.

After a few weeks in patient notices an improvement in his condition. his own words are: "What luck that I met Morrel! He has saved my life. Wonderful, the way he has helped me!"

In time, the patient's sense of well-being will be heightened beyond his dreams. For Dr. Morrel will add to his descriptive arsenal -- amphetamines. Speed.

By Morrel's own admission his patient "was really never sick." Not before he was introduced to Dr. Morrel, anyway.

Now it's a different story.

Now the slightest complaint is answered by pills and injections, a variety of medications spanning the questionable to the occult. And the result is shuffling, stumbling, trembling, emaciated, glass-eyed, gray-complexioned shell of a man. A human wreck.

Submerged in a sea of uppers and downers, he sleeps no more than three hours a night. Uneasy sleep.

In months, he appears to age years.

And still he professes his confidence in Dr. Morrel.

Truth is he needs the speed...

In this specific case the "treatments" lasted nine years, astounding considering the quantities of atropine and strychnine and amphetamines consumed by the patient in that period of time.

Twenty-eight types of drugs in all, their direct and side effects compounded. The speed took the highest toll.

We shall never forget nor forgive Dr. Morrel's patient, the man he was in the beginning, the monster he has became. Yet the monumental irony of his association with a megalomaniac physician was that in the end, the master mesmirist was mesmirized, the predator became prey...

The name Dr. Theodor Morrel has dropped into obscurity.

Remembered instead is his patient, a speed freak who spent the kast decade of his life shattered and shaking and with his brains in a basket, the man on earth went to hell -- because of Dr. Morrel.

Hitler was "high."

And you know THE REST OF THE STORY.

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