Friday, March 29, 2013

Priscilla: the review

Before my mom and I went to see the show, I made sure my mom saw the movie version so she will understand the musical.  I believed the show was good for her to see since it will have lots of colorful costumes in over the top musical numbers.  Something visual for my hearing challenged mother.  And I was right about the show good for my mom.  She enjoyed it and even felt it was better than the movie.

I too enjoyed the show.  It was indeed very colorful and campy which is my idea of gay and fun.  It had more songs that were not in the movie.  A lot of the new songs were from Madonna and the 80s.  Those are my kind of music.  The story pretty much followed the story in the movie which was very helpful for my mom to understand.

I do have two things to criticize about it.  One was the singing voices were drowned by the orchestra.  I could barely hear the actors singing.  And the second criticism was the use of the songs in the story.  It sometimes felt forced.  They tried to used existing songs to a particular situation in the story and it always just not as good as the music specifically written for the story.

All and all an enjoyable evening.  I will give this 3.75 stars out of 5.


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Boring Jekyll & Hyde


Last night I saw Jekyll & Hyde with my friend Tom.  Neither Tom nor I have seen this in Broadway so we both decided to watch it during the pre-Broadway run here in Chicago.  After all, Deborah Cox was the lead role.  On paper, this show sounds like an entertaining one.  But I was sadly mistaken.  First, the understudy played the role of Lucy billed for Deborah.  This alone was not enough for me to dislike the show.  It was the fact that the show was just plain tedious.  I did not give up after the 3rd number but it continued to be a bore.  The actor sang strongly but the arrangement of the songs were just nothing spectacular.  It had a flare of modern rock but in a wrong way.  I almost felt the actors were yelling a lot while singing the songs.  Don't even get me started on how Jekyll turns into Hyde.  It was implied that the other characters don't recognize Hyde as actually Jekyll so they should have done something to make this more plausible.  All Jekyll did was took his pony tail off and don a cape/coat and tap hat when he turns to Hyde.  Am I suppose to believe that Hyde is unrecognizable as Jekyll this way?  On the positive side, the stage set up was artsy and effective.

I wanted to leave in the middle of the show but decided to finish it so I can say I have seen it.  Otherwise, I would have just seen part of it.  I may have waited for it to end but no sooner after the last song ended, we were out of there.  I will give this just a 1 star out of 5.  I say skip it.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Smarties in the family.

According to Mama, Uncle Ramon always boast about his daughter Josephine being 1st place in the Philippine Architecture board exam that year she took it.  Rightfully so for Uncle Ramon to be proud for garnering the highest score over the rest of the people who took the national board exam is a great accomplishment.  What Uncle Ramon did not know, his daughter is not the only one in our family to have placed in a Philippine National board exam.  Besides Josephine, cousin Benito also was in the Top 30.  He was 29th in the Philippine Bar exam when he took it.  Also cousin Edgar was 15th place in the Philippine Medical Board Exam when he took it.  I myself placed 17th in the Philippine Physical Therapy board exam.   Benito, Edgar and I were not as good as cousin Josephine but still a great feat.   Looks like my family has some "smarties".

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Finally from Priscilla


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, oh 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 cannot hide it
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 cannot 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, oh 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 cannot hide it
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 cannot hide it
Finally, oh finally, yeah, Oh oh
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 cannot hide it
Finally Oh Yeah...
Finally Oh Yeah.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Australia, the movie


The movie Australia came out in 2008 and I just saw it recently when I borrowed the DVD from the library.  Since it was free to borrow this DVD, I thought I should see it.  Big names the like of Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman were in it so I expected it to be decent.  It it proved itself to be an above average movie.  The location shoot was definitely very representative of the beautiful north countries of Australia.  Plus it helped that real Australian actors beside Nicole and Hugh were cast.  That made the accent very realistic indeed.  It was a pleasant surprise to see another Australian actor David Wenham in it.  I did like him in Van Helsing and LOTR movies (Two Towers and Return of the King).  The story was inspiring and moving but kinda long.  I thought the story would end when one conflict was resolved but lo and behold, the movie went on to resolve another conflict.  It was 2 hours and 31 minutes long!  So it felt like it dragged on and on.

This is an entertaining enough movie but not worth a room in my collection.  I would give it 2.75 stars out of 5.

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Who controls our healthcare? Part 2

I already gave one example on how Insurance company or Insurance Coverage directs the kind of healthcare we get.  Now let me give you another example from my own experience as a Physical Therapist.

I currently have been working on a Nursing Home.  I have learned that Medicare people have 100 days coverage for inpatient nursing home rehab therapy (PT, OT, ST).  This coverage also differs on the needs of each patient as determined by their RUG levels.  The higher rehab therapy needs means more reimbursement from Medicare to the Nursing Home.  Higher RUG levels also means more rehab coverage in every 7 day period.  Highest RUG level requires that the patient must complete 720 minutes of skilled rehab therapy.  The number of minutes lower to 500 then to 320 to 150 and to 45 minutes at the lowest level.  Although ideally the rehab professionals determine which RUG level each patient falls under, almost always the Nursing Home administration pressures the rehab professionals to put all patient on the highest RUG level for better reimbursement even though they are not appropriate or unable to tolerate or participate in therapy that will insure that they complete 720 minutes of therapy in 7 days.  Not only are the rehab professional pressured to put every patient at the highest RUG level, often the rehab therapist are also pressured to continue to give each patient therapy till their 100 days of Medicare coverage are used up even though the patient can be discharge before that.  This clearly illustrate that the factor from which how much therapy a patient gets depends on the reimbursement their insurance is able to pay.

It should be also mentioned that a patient who have used up his/her 100 days of Medicare coverage can be reinstated for another 100 days after they have been hospitalized for 3 nights or more.  So it is SOP in the Nursing home that every Medicare patient who qualifies for another 100 days gets to have therapy again even though they are not appropriate.  While those therapy appropriate patients who does not have Medicare coverage does not get therapy.

So often about 25% of our patient loads in the Nursing Homes are not appropriate for therapy and about 30% are not at the appropriate RUG level.  

Friday, March 01, 2013

Who controls our healthcare?

Here in America, pretty much the Insurance company dictates the kind of healthcare you get.  In an ideal world, the healthcare professional makes that decision but reality is far from ideal.

Take my friend Jasmine's situation.  Jasmine had a strong family history of colon cancer so her doctor strongly advised that she gets a colonoscopy at the age of 43.  But her insurance company would not pay for it since 50 and older is the "approved" age for an insurance covered preventative colonoscopy.  A year later she developed some lower GI symptoms so her doctor ordered a colonoscopy.  It was discovered that her colon was almost entirely blocked by a big tumor that turned out to be malignant.  It was surgically removed 3 days later but the cancer has already metastasized to the liver and lungs.  Even with aggressive Chemo and Radiation therapy post surgery, the cancer on the liver and lungs did not respond.  2 years later since the initial discovery of the colon cancer, Jasmine passed away from respiratory arrest.  The metastasized cancer on her lungs just occupied much of her lungs that she could not breath properly.  She went to bed one night and was comatose the next morning.  She died later that noon.

The sad thing about Jasmine's story was she got a colonoscopy too late.  Had she gotten the colonoscopy a year before the discovery of the cancer, she could have gotten the cancer removed earlier before it metastasized to her liver and lungs.  It could have very likely saved her life.