Thursday, March 31, 2011

Seems like 172 hours of boredome


Just saw 172 hours with James Franco. After all, he was nominated for best actor so it provoked my curiosity.

The movie was so boring. Watching him hallucinate while trapped in a narrow canyon was just so tiresome. It seems they just did those scenes to make the movie longer. The movie got a lil more exciting when he finally cut his arm. And that part was kinda gross too. Made me grimace. On the otherhand, the part when he was finally rescued was kinda touching. And the scenery of the canyon was breathtaking. So the movie was not all bad.

1 star out 5. Yeah, it deserve just 1.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Ryan Harrison

Ryan Harrison is an American Professional Tennis player that reminds me so much of the California blond beach boy look from the 80s. His record is nothing to talk about but he sure does look good playing tennis. Nice to watch indeed.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Jane Eyre



Any English movie with their English accent excites me. I am fond of watching period English films the likes of Austen's classics and old monarchy stories. And mind you, I am not familiar with the story of Jane Eyre so I watched this movie with fresh perspective.
Jane Eyre in it's basic story line is a love story. A story on how a girl, who seemed abandoned by good fortune, found love and wealth in its many forms. The acting quality, costumes and set locations did not disappoint. The way the story flowed was also riveting. One complain I have was on how some of the scenes confused me into thinking that this was a horror movie of sort. The mystery part of the story was exaggerated and exorbitant. That just annoyed me in the end.

3 stars out of 5. Not sure if I will get a copy for my collection.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Finally from Priscilla Queen of the Dessert

Priscilla Queen of the Dessert is now on broadway. I would love to see this very gay and very campy musical. The music and the costumes are just too much. Till I get to go to NYC, I will just have to contend with the video below.


Meeting Mr. Right, the man of my dreams
The one who shows me true love (or at least it seems)
With brown cocoa skin and curly black hair
It's just the way he looks at me that gentle loving stare
Finally you've come along
The way I feel about you,
It just can't be wrong
If you only knew the way I feel about you
I just can't describe it
ohh ... no ... no ..
Finally it has happened to me right in front of my face
My feelings can't describe it
Finally it has happened to me right in front of my face and
I just can not hide it.
I seems so many times
You seemed to be the one
But all he ever wanted was to have a little fun
But now you've come along
And brightened up my world
In my heart I feel it, I'm that special kinda girl
Finally you've come along
The way I feel about you,
It just can't be wrong
If you only knew the way I feel about you
I just can't describe it
ohh ... no ... no ... nooo
Finally oohhhhh finally yeah oh yeah .
Finally eehhhhh
Ooooooooh finally Ohhhh yeah yeah

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Israel Trip - Western Wall

Prior to my trip to Israel this past fall of 2010, I had a vague idea of what the Western Wall (aka wailing wall) is. I have seen picture/video of Jewish people praying and bumping their head on the wall while chanting some hebrew prayers. Other than that, I really have no idea why they pray to that wall. But after the trip to the wall, I now know that this wall is the remnant of King Solomon's temple. And there was a room near the western end of the temple called the "Holy of Holies" where the ancient Jew housed the Ark of the Covenant (Moses' ten commandment tablets). Jews believed that the Holy of Hollies is as close to God as you can be. And since the actual location of the Holy of Hollies is now covered by a Muslim mosque, the Jew has only access to the Western wall. So they go to the western wall to pray.

Upon arriving at the Western Wall, it was nothing spectacular to behold. Everybody was asked to cover their heads to approach the wall. Good thing there was a big bin with white Yamaka (aka Kippah) for the gentiles like me to borrow. So I took one plain white yamaka and wore it as I approached the wall. Indeed there were Jews in their traditional outfit and facial hair wailing in hebrew as they prayed and bounced their head against the wall. It is said that if you write your prayer/request on a piece of paper and stick it in the wall, God will see it faster and perhaps your prayer will be granted sooner. As if there was such a thing! But I did just that. I had one prayer written on a paper which was to make my friend better from his cancer. I approached the wall as a skeptic but left it as an altered person. I got overwhelmed somehow as I prayed to make my friend better. I got farklempt. After the very emotional prayer, I wiped my teary gentile eyes and swallowed the lump in my throat and stuck the paper on a very crowded wall crevice. Somebody said that I felt the presence of God that moment. Perhaps I did.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Decisions...

I am at a crossroad where I have to choose between possibly returning to that stable, comfortable place that I am not very happy with or pursue something else that I could be happier or perhaps not. It is a gamble that some of us need to decide on. But whichever path I may choose, I know it will have to decide soon.

I am talking about pursuing to continue with my old job or looking for another job. The old job is stable and I have grown comfortable with it. There are some issues and some people that I would rather not deal with but that may be true in any other job out there. On the other hand, I may end up with a new job that I would regret or hate even more. Change can be daunting but fortunately for me, my profession is recession proof. And fortunately for me too I am not in a tight spot financially. I could go for months on hiatus from work and I will be fine.

Decisions, decisions...

Friday, March 11, 2011

I heart the Warblers.

I am becoming a big fan of the Warblers in Glee. Not only are they wholesomely handsome, their melodic blending is awesome. And they are not afraid to sing songs sang by girls. Here are two of their performance that showcase their talents.




Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Do what is best for the patient and not just what the doctor says!

I come from an extended family of doctors/physicians and I have high respect for their profession and knowledge. But we all know that doctors are only human and they are not perfect. They may not necessarily know all the time what is best for the patient. Since I work with and see the patient more often than they have seen their doctor, I may be in the position to know what is better for the patient with regards to their Physical Therapy needs. I had a recent issue with my managers insisting that we physical therapist should follow the doctor's order regardless of what the circumstances are. That is simply idiotic and cowardice. Just because they are afraid for the doctor to yell at them is not reason enough not to do what is best for the patient.

The situation was regarding a 60 yo man with severe OA of both knees with flexion contractures and a pain level of 7/10. Doctor CP wrote "aggressive PROM" on his/her order. For the first 6 sessions of treatments, I modified the order to be mostly active stretches and home low load stretch so as to not cause more pain. No improvement on extension ROM was noted after the first 6 sessions. So my supervisor told me to do tibial pressure because Doctor CP insists on it. I complied and did 3minutes of grade III tibial AP oscillatory joint mobs instead because I believe this will be better tolerated and yet achieve the same effect as the sustained tibial pressure. Joint mobs also allow us to have more time to address the strength and pain issues of the patient. After the following additional 6 sessions of treatment with Tibial AP grade III, we achieved a 5 degrees improvement in extension. That is a very good result clinically considering is diagnosis and age. I firmly believe that if I did any more aggressive physical stretch on this patient, he would have more pain and I would have done more harm to him. My belief was confirmed during that one time when I did not put a bolster under his knees during his E-stim to have that sustained extension stretch with very low load force. The patient complained of more discomfort on the knee after the E-stim. And during that other PT session, after I was chastised for not following the doctor's order to the letter, I did the aggressive stretching (as adamantly instructed) and the sustained tibial pressure and sustained prone knee hang with weights. Patient complained of increase pain post treatment from 5/10 to 8/10. He also was not able to tolerate the full 10 mins of the sustained tibial pressure and prone knee hang so it was cut short to 8 mins.
These two instances clearly confimed my belief that the "aggressive PROM" order of the doctor was the best approach for this patient since it caused him more pain. My approach not only increased ROM, it also improved strength and decreased pain.

My treatment approach was clinically sound, ethically correct and better than the doctor's order since it treated the patient as a whole and not just his knee ROM. Since management has had run in with Doctor CP in the past, they have adopted the unspoken policy of doing what Doctor CP says regardless of it being the best for the patient or not. And what is worse, they choose to chastise me instead for using my better ethical judgement to modify the doctor's order to better manage the patient. That is just wrong!

Friday, March 04, 2011

Glee: Don't you want me?

I luv Glee and I like this song. So here is Blaine and Rachel singing "Don't you want me ".