Now I really can’t wait! Seven years after the release of their last studio album Black Mantra, Wolfgang’s sixth record is finally hitting stores by year’s end! The band informally disbanded back in 2002 when the realities of life caught up with Mon, Manuel, Basti and Wolf. The past few years saw all but three of the original members leaving the country and no more than three reunion shows. Fortunately for hardcore fans, Razorback and Wolfgang once again took the stage last year for two weekend concerts.

As if it wasn’t enough, it was also announced that a  new Wolfgang album was in the works. Aside from a smattering of fan favorites and classic rock covers, a never-before-played track - RP DEATH SQUAD —was also previewed. The release date was  initially slated forthe last quarter of 2007, but as expected, it did not materialize due to  the undeniable logistical circumstances that the members had to deal with.

But fans  need not fret now! Worlds end, but on December… we can pretend.

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After weeks of dealing with the stress and challenges of clerkship, a break was definitely in order. The awarding dinner for the Ten Emerging Blogs of 2008 was definitely a welcome addition to my already cramped schedule. Though I initially had my reservations about going due to relatively inaccessible venue and the need to be up early the very next day, I figured a little affirmation wouldn’t hurt. I’ve been passionate about blogging for the past year and I was after all representing two blogs which finished in the top three. After hours of thankless slavery, a little pat on the back seems like a very inviting prospect.

Despite not much whoring and a traffic base that’s comprised mostly of wide-eyed do-it-yourself travelers who just happened to stumble upon our site via search engines, Visit Sagada made it safely to the top ten. This blog was launched January and has since emerged as the definitive resource for Sagada. The line-up is comprised of familiar faces and names - Fritz Tentativa (who also entered the short list with his personal-slash-tech-slash photography blog - Fritzified), Jeff Villafranca (owner of the blog that gets reborn every three months - Teknostik) and up-and-coming travel jock and web designer Angel Juarez. Though I would surmise that the star power of this collaboration is formidable, I’m pretty sure that Visit Sagada lost a considerable number of votes because of my undeniable and prominent association with the project. Those lost votes notwithstanding, we were still able to get to a respectable finish and we’re really grateful and honored for being included. (more…)

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Everyday, clerks are expected to be in the Clerks’ call room by 7 AM. There’s a log book in Ward 4 where you have to sign in to prove that you really were punctual for a particular day. If you fail to sign up before a resident grabs hold of the log book, you run the risk of being marked absent for the day. During the orientation, we were told that we should be prepared to everything and anything.

They weren’t kidding. (more…)

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This won’t be your last breath, I know
I could see the tears form in your eyes
But we’ve almost made it
It will break my heart to see you go
Because we almost made it

- You’re Killing Me, Chicosci

For the past six weeks, I’ve been regularly sacrificing an entire night’s worth sleep to man my post at the Philippine General Hospital. It’s been a story of fatigue, mental anguish, twilight zone moments and stolen naps recurring every three days for four weeks running. Most students go into an entirely new setting when they’re up for a 24-hour tour of duty in the emergency room. The amount of work can be very daunting and at times, it can seem that finishing all tasks with an acceptable level of efficiency and competency is close to impossible. But I manage, we all manage. This early we’ve already figured away to circumvent challenges  to our alertness, energy level, heart strings and various bodily functions to be awake enough to triage patients, put intravenous lines, extract blood for diagnostic purposes, insert all sorts of catheters, suture nasty wounds and allay fears of nervous relatives. How do we do it? It’s part-adaptation, part-mind control and part-paradigm shift into this no-nonsense-yet-not-cold mode that we all are refining with every duty. (more…)

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Death is the great equalizer. We will eventually face it one day and no matter how much we romanticize the esoteric beliefs on life-after-death, death will continue to remain as a concrete and irreversible termination of somebody’s life. It’s like having nature remind us that the phenomenon of life was never meant to look after the welfare of the individual. It was never just about man. We die - just like everything else that is living. The difference of course is that our species have figured  out ways to challenge the natural order after years of practice and research. (more…)

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Players score by making beams of laser hit blinking pads on an opposing player’s armor located on the shoulders, torso and back.   The laser is propagated from a phasor (i.e. the  laser gun). The game is made more interesting by the fact that the phasor itself is a valid target. Once a player is hit, his phasor shuts down and is rendered helpless for a few seconds. Not all hits are equal -tags made to the front of the armor carry more weight than the other sensors. Players could also score  by shooting down an opposing team’s base suspended from the arena ceiling.

There are elevated portions in the arena. The place is pitch black and the only thing that you’ll see are the blinking lights from the armor.  It’s literally a labirynth of walls, windows and ramps but it’s hard to get lost inside. You’ll almost always have two options at any single time. This makes navigating through it fairly easy. This also makes predicting the movement of other players more tedious and challenging.The pictures were taken with flash so it may seem like the arena was well lit.

THE TEAMS

The Red Team
Jayvee, Rico, AJ and Poyt

Green Team - AKA Team Visit Sagada + Jehzlau
Benj, Angel, Jeff and Jehzlau

*yes, that’s green, the room’s LIGHTING is just BLUE. hehe

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Thanks to the generosity of LazerXtreme - a newly-opened establishment that resurrects laser tag again in the Philippines - a select group of bloggers were given the chance to give the place a spin. The participants were a mix laser tag veterans having had fond childhood memories of playing in now-closed shops in SM Megamall and Shangri-La EDSA and laser tag virgins who had no idea what the laser tag was about.

Here’s the lucky group who got to play. I’m sure you know most of them already.  People in this shot: Atheista, Atheista’s brother BJ, Lakwatsero, Teknostik, Baratillo Cubao, Fool45, A Bugged Life, Tanggera, Rebel Pixel, Fritzified, Bakla Ako and Jehzlau Concepts. Not in the shot: Estelle and her mom. (more…)

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Dark Knight  is among the most  anticipated films this year. With the very strong merits of the last Batman movie (Batman Begins) and the death of Heath Ledger - the actor who plays the intriguing role of the Joker — the movie could break all sorts of records in the box office aside from kudos from movie critics and casual moviegoers alike. The film also stars Christian Bale, Michael  Caine, Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhall.

For those who want to watch Dark Knight before everybody else, the Philippine General Hospital Sagip Buhay Foundation  is offering premiere night tickets for the reasonable price  of 250 pesos each. Sagip Buhay Foundation is a non-stock non-profit organization that helps indigent patients in the PGH wards and intensive care units avail of potentially life-saving medications and  diagnostictests. It has been helping needy families of the seriously ill for the past fourteen years already.

For a ticket that’s not even twice the usual ticket price in SM Mall of Asia, you can enjoy Dark Knight before most people would get to watch it aside from also giving those in need a hand in helping their loved ones fight the biggest challenge of their life.

What: Dark  Knight Premiere

When: JULY 18, 2008 (Friday) 7PM

Where: SM Mall of Asia

How much: 250 pesos

Again, all proceeds go to the Sagip Buhay Foundation. For more tickets and inquiries please text Dr.  Adrian Paul Rabe  at +639163333603.

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My team better win more games soon.  I trust my teammates. I know we can!

I’m obviously the one wearing Dirk’s number. We’re at 0-3 right now but things are looking up. Mike will play the rest of the season barring any untoward incidents.

*not in pic, my brother’s also with the Black team.

Uniform palang, champion na! :p

Unbeaten! We’ll play them this Saturday before I go on duty. LOL.

PinoyExchange Basketball League

Want to watch? Go to St. Paul Seminary at San Antonio Village, Makati this Saturday. The first game starts at 2pm sharp.

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I remember Miggy starting a similar topic about four years ago so I’ll
start it again for the new generation. haha. Despite being around
since what seems like forever now, I still look at Chicosci as a
“young” band - maybe because most of them are just a couple of years
older than me. It’s amazing that they’ve already done 4 albums to
date! Few rock bands in the Philippines have reached that number in a
decade - off the top of my head, Razorback, Wolfgang among others. Im
proud to say that I bought the last three Chicosci albums the first
day they were available. :p

I like Chicosci for the very reason why most people loathe them. I
like their almost chameleon-like ability to adapt something that feels
like a big departure from their previous album while still retaining
some recognizable elements. It’s polarizing and a bit hit-or-miss, but
it’s always great to see a bad try something new and grow as musicians
even if the general direction may seem somewhat random and erratic.

“Method of Breathing” is my favorite album by Chicosci. I hated it
when it came out. It ended up sounding so raw compared to the really
processed sound of “Revenge of the Giant Robot”. There were serious
problems with the recording of the first track (Solution Cairo) and
that probably made it harder appreciate the album during the first few
spins. I love the frenetic tempo of most of the songs. There were also
songs that borrowed elements from what seemed like Latin and South
American influences. Despite the rough edges, the album made it clear
that Chicosci was willing to push their creative boundaries and was
not afraid to experiment and enrich the sound with elements that
would’ve been considered alien given their initial image.

“Chicosci” is second in my list by a hair. The band totally
committed like crazy to this new image thing and though I’m not
particularly fond of this very-out-there type of presentation, the
music is definitely the most well-polished and most well-produced that
I’ve heard from the band. The elements just all came together -
especially with Miggy getting really comfortable and even more
flamboyant with the songs. I’ve been shielded from local radio, MTV
and other sources of mainstream music for the past three years so I
don’t know if it sounds like any of the stuff that’s big right now. I
also don’t listen to “emo” or any of its derivatives that seem to be
the buzzword of the current decade. I like the music and that’s that.

“Icarus” is number 3. On some days, maybe I could bump it to number
two. I love “Gift of Tongues”, “Open Casket Romance” and “An Argument”
A LOT.

“Revenge Of The Giant Robot” is last. Im sure almost everyone would
agree that things got real better after the debut. Kudos for the
band for consistently showing growth.

—–

Top 10 songs (off the top of my head)

10 Sink Or Swim (Revenge Of The Giant Robot)
9 Chicosci Vampire Social Club (Chicosci) <<< my guiltiest pleasure.
HAHAHA. I get weird looks when I tell people I like this song.
8 Gift Of Tongues (Icarus)
7 Rolento (Method Of Breathing)
6 An Argument (Icarus)
5 You’re Killing Me (Chicosci)
4 Colonized (as recorded in Method of Breathing)
3 Glass Is Broken (Method of Breathing)
2 Dance Of Ones of Zeroes (Method of Breathing)
1 Sorry It Was A Joke (Chicosci)

Yes, I am one of the few Chicosci fans who didn’t go crazy over Paris.
Hehe
—

Everything that I wrote is my opinion and I’m not imposing on anyone.
:p Please share your own lists.

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Most people would actually write an on hiatus post  to warn their readers of an upcoming lull but unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to do something similar to that. For the past week, I’ve been engulfed by the art and science of Anesthesiology. I’ve been learning how to make people numb, paralyzed and amnesic for extended periods of time so that surgeons could do their life-saving work. Though most people have a dismissive outlook towards anesthesiologists, I’ve really gained a good sampling of what they could offer. Patients at the brink of death could be sustained at that point thanks to the skills of a good anesthesiologist. I’ve seen a stab patient lose more than 90% of his total blood volume and still live. That alone is a tremendous testament to the skill and competence of Philippine General Hospital-trained anesthesiologists and surgeons.

The downside to all this learning is the not-so-little problem of not having enough time to sleep, eat and yes, blog. A clerk rotating under anesthesiology is expected to spend close to 80 hours a week in the operating room - with stretches  of  continuous 36-hour shifts being the worst-case scenario.

 In thirty minutes, I’ll be back in the operating room. And yeah, anesthesiology is supposedly one of  less toxic (demanding, difficult, exhausting etc.) rotations in Clerkship. Wish me luck. :p

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