Sunday, June 19, 2011

Top 10 Paradoxes

We can express paradox in different ways.  In literature, paradox is a mere figure of speech.  In theology, a paradox is distinct from a contradiction; paradoxes in theology are truths that only seem contradictory, but further and careful scrutiny would show that they are not, whereas contradictions are impossibilities and untruths.  In the mindblowing world of mathematics, paradoxes are contradictions that are possible and true (e.g. 1 = 0.99999…).

Indeed there are different treatments of paradox among different disciplines.  But what is paradox in general?  A paradox, according to wiki, is “a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition.”  So, as I want to interpret it, paradoxes can either be possible (which happens in theology and math) or impossible.   Paradoxes can be seemingly contradictory but actually not or they can be outright contradictory.    

I love paradoxes because they are awesome mindblowers. 

Warning:  This may happen while reading this list 

Once you are ready for some massive brain-beating, meet me after the jump.

The Filipino Diabetic Part 1



My dad just got out of the hospital a few days ago. He is a diabetic and also got hypertension which means he occasionally has a high blood pressure. Daddy suffered this condition for more than a year now after his diagnosis.

But what really is diabetes and and how is this disease such a health threat at the same time a health deficit?

Diabetes Mellitus is the condition where there is lack of insulin in the blood steam to help glucose be assimilated in the cells to and be used as energy.

There are two types of DM.
DM 1 means that the pancreas do not secrete insulin. Pancreas are the glands responsible in secreting insulin. Persons who have DM 1 are dependent in injectable insulin and most of them if not all of them, would have to depend on it for their entire life.

DM 2 means that the pancreas secrete only a scanty amount of the hormone. Another hand, it could also mean that the person having DM 2 takes in more glucose than what the body requires and by which their is insufficient supply of insulin produced by the pancreas.

My dad suffers Diabetes Mellitus type 2.

In my dad's case, like most other persons suffering DM2, he has maintenance drugs for diabetes. These drugs have different mechanisms or dynamics on how it works in the body to intervene the illness. One of his drugs stimulate his pancreas to produce more insulin. Another drug slows the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream.

Aside from his oral anti-diabetic drugs, my dad also has other maintenance drugs to control his hypertension or high blood pressure.

But drugs are not all good. In fact, if not taken with much care, awareness and safety, it could lead to other complications. The therapeutic effect of a drug might mend only a certain problem, but a lot of people neglect that drugs have side effects and long term effects called adverse effects. More so, they also have dangerous effects when they get to interact with other chemicals, food and other drugs we ingest and that stays in our body. These are factors we cannot easily control especially once they are already absorbed in our body.

Dad suffered a lot of complications of Diabetes
One it caused edema in his legs and feet because of poor blood circulation. Edema is a swelling caused by fluid that leaked out of the blood vessels because his blood vessels couldn't hold them in anymore.

Hypertension also developed because his blood has become viscuous due to the accumulation of glucose in the blood. It makes it sticky and blood cannot circulate well.




This leads to another complication which is poor or slow wound healing. My dad walks everyday and if he cuts himself, especially on his foot, it takes long before it heals. In some cases, for other people, the wound never heals and turns gangrenous, resulting to amputation of the dead tissues.

Another complication that arose was dad's eyesight degeneration. This is a result of the poor circulation as well. His eyes do not get enough good nutrition and oxygenation. To make it short the eyes degenerate resulting to poor eyesight, meaning vision gets blurred and it makes the person strain to see. This causes headache and pain because of the pressure in his eyes. My dad can no longer see clearly and he got bleeding inside his eyes. He had to undergo cataract surgery and retinopathy to intervene this problem. And because he had swelling inside his eyes or on his macula, he had to be injected with a drug that stops the swelling inside. But whatever procedure he underwent, it never restored dad's vision to like before.

Recently, there came another complication discovered. This time, during when he was confined in the hospital. He had a 3rd stage renal disease, which means his kidneys do not function well anymore. We all know that kidneys play an important part in maintaining our blood to be free from impurities. It excretes the waste in our blood stream and important in balancing the chemicals that go in and out our body. Dad's kidneys can no longer perform this function well anymore. This led to more swelling or edema in his legs.

And the more dangerous part of it, because his kidneys can no longer excrete and filter blood well, the by-products of the drugs he takes can no longer be excreted properly thus it remains in the body and continues to toxicate my dad's bloodstream causing many damages all over the body.

One damage it made, which was the primary cause of his hospitalization was the sudden drop of his blood sugar. Yes, my dad is diabetic then wouldn't be a drop of blood sugar a good sign? No, for in this case it dropped really low that he is in the state called hypoglycemia. His body almost collapsed because the body's energy is depleting very fast. In fact being in the state of hypoglycemia for a long time is much dangerous than being in state of hyperglycemia (high glucose in the blood). It can lead to coma.

At that time my dad really was weak and he was sweating cold. He was shaking or what we say as tremors and he feels he can't breathe well because his muscles are weakening. He gets irritable, almost disoriented, uneasy, can't sleep and can't focus. More over, he is having a very high blood pressure. This prompted us to rush to the hospital emergency care, and eventually needs to be confined.

I am sharing this to all of you because we all need to be aware of this certain disease.

This is the first part of my blog post and on Part 2 I will be talking about how this disease has already become rampant amongst us Filipinos and what could be the factors that inclined us to acquire such illness.

I am basing all these thing from facts and real events that happened in my life and I have been a witness to the condition my dad is going through.

:)

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Filipino Happiness

People have always talked about how a Filipino can smile even though tragic events are happening around them. Other countries also wonder about that. I don't have the exact answer but one of the things that I think contributes to it lies in the history of the Philippines. Being conquered by a lot of countries, the Filipinos have developed a sense of resiliency towards painful events. They have a deep sense of hope that things will turn out for the better. You can just imagine the horrible stuff those invaders did to our fellow men and yet the Filipinos still forgive them and even turned out to be one of the most hospitable people around.

Another factor is probably the fact that a majority of the Filipino population are Christians and being Christians, we know that a higher being does not ignore our suffering and we can turn to God in times of life's sufferings. I observed in other countries that they don't or maybe they can't really smile about it and yet I observe the local news and somehow... the people there are grinning ear to ear. People who have lost homes. People who have nothing and yet they can still smile. Maybe some may call us fools but during those times, what can you do? It's not like moping around would help.

I think that having a family centered orientation also contributes to this cheerful nature. When a Filipino is lonely, he/she knows that mother (or another relative) is only a phone call away or a shout away. No one can underestimate a Filipino's love for their families or even their fellow men. Even though they can be harsh sometimes (not the abuse kind mind you), it is probably because they think of your future.

History, Faith and Family. These contribute to the smiling Filipino. I'm truly proud to be pinoy.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Jimmy Kimmel's Most Epic Comeback

Kimmel is one of the funniest and most entertaining men in TV.  He has done plenty of fun craziness in his career, but I think the following video - done back in 2008 - is his most fun so far.

(Warning: for mature audiences only...)

Sarah Silverman, his then girlfriend, pulled an epic prank on him when she guested on his show.  Watch below:


This was Kimmel's rebuttal a month later.  Definitely more epic...


Bonus:  
- somebody also made a parody starring Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton
- here's something recent. a prank on Ron Artest


Just a random sharing.  Hope it made you laugh ^__^


For more on Bernel, go to the "The Bernel Zone"...  

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

49 Days: What will you do?

As anyone who's been stalking my FB wall lately, you would know that I've been watching this great Korean TV series; 49 days. It's a 20 episode drama written by So Hyeon-Kyeong and directed by Jo Young-Kwang. Recently, I've been watching a lot of Asian dramas but as always I'm pretty much choosy when it comes to shows, only watching the interesting ones until the end.
49 Days
49 days is a beautiful story about Ji Hyun (Nam Gyu-Ri), a rich girl who's life was well and perfect. She was getting married to the man she was destined for and no one could be happier. But her life literally takes a sudden turn when an accident caused her to have a coma. Pronounced brain dead, Ji Hyun's soul wandered about and she met the Angel of Death a.k.a. the Scheduler (Jung Il Woo). He offered her 49 days to find 3 people who sincerely love her but this excludes anyone of blood relation. As proof she had to collect 3 tears. Ji Hyun then was "allowed" to take over a depressed person's body - Yi Kyung for a certain time. Ji Hyun felt confident that she would accomplish that mission easily.
Nam Gyu Ri and Lee Yo Won

On her first day "alive", Ji Hyun remembers why she got into an accident - she had seen her best friend and her fiancée being intimate and had driven blindly and so crashed into the back of a truck. Suddenly she's not that confident in finding those three persons.

But then Ji Hyun has always been known to be the optimistic princess and as she unexpectedly finds other people who care, she brings her hopes up and goes on to find people who can shed those three tears for her.

As the story goes on, Yi Kyeung discovers someone is possessing her body and soon enough Ji Hyun and Yi Kyung help each other and find something meaningful in their lives. The writer also gives a satisfying finish as she reveals a secret to the watchers.

The drama has a smooth script but isn't that heavy though I can't help but cry at the end. Ji Hyun gives an air of being a scatter brained at first but she is someone who is genuine and can do things if she puts her mind in it. Though she is definitely a cry baby, being in tears in almost every episode. Nam Gyu Ri performed her well.  Of course, Lee Yo Won (playing Yi Kyung) has always been considered a very good actress in Korea and her acting in the show was unquestionable considering that she had to play 2 different personalities.

On my own personal drama reflection; I also think what if I was given 49 days and be in the same situation? Would I do what the unselfish Ji Hyun did? Do I really know my friends? Can I forgive my fiancée (If I had one) for doing that? Can I forgive my best friend for plotting for my end? Would I have the grace to accept my end?

I can't speak for anyone but myself though but I really liked this drama and recommend it to you if you haven't seen it. ^__^

Has Just Recently Watched "Drive Angry 3D"


Wasn't able to watch this in 3D in a movie theater.  But I think it would have been awesome if I did since it's the good kind of 3D (i.e was shot with 3D cameras) and not the poor technique of post-production 3Ding of 2D-shot movies.  

This is not really a movie review.  Won't tell you much about it.  I wrote this just to say that I really love this movie, even though it received some negative reviews and has flopped in the box office.  I don't know why a lot didn't like it.  "Drive Angry 3D" was oozing with gritty action and contained both badass and very funny moments (the funniest scene though was already shown in the trailer).  The story and plot both felt cliche and unique, I can't really tell, but, nonetheless, they delivered.  

It also has three entertaining and fascinating characters (kudos also to the actors, as they successfully made the characters they played to be such) They were mean, badass motherf*@*##!!!

John Milton (the Protagonist/Anti-Hero)

Jonah King (the Villain)

The Accountant (Not Only The Best Character, But The Best Thing About This Movie)


The movie also has one of the baddest, raddest weapons ever in fiction...
It is badassly called as the "God Killer".  No joke.

Well, I can't guarantee that you will also like the movie as I did.  But if you care to watch it, here's the link:


When not writing about badassery, movies, or entertainment in the "Experimental Theatre", Bernel is writing about them in "The Bernel Zone"...

Sunday, June 5, 2011

New TV Shows to Premiere This June

I'm a man of few words. My point here is to share to you the new TV shows that I'm gonna be downloading this Summer. I'll leave the trailers to win you.


Falling Skies (Sci-fi)


Franklin & Bash (Legal Comedy)


Switched At Birth (Family Drama--ala Mara Clara)


Wilfred (Offbeat Comedy)


Love Bites (Sex Comedy)


Alphas (Sci-fi)


Platinum Hit (Reality Show)

But still, can't wait for the Fall releases. It's usually the best season for TV.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Prank-ly Speaking

I was venturing into my old social network site (a.k.a Friendster) when I chanced upon a video shared by my friend, ANDoi. Its this one;


The video got me interested in other similar deeds and found this;


It was quite entertaining to see those people laughing. It was probably some marketing strategy by the store but its still funny.
 Now, this one is really scripted but not obviously so and the two guys look like aliens even without the shades on.


Bernel did tell me that they might be scripted but we can always wonder, right? :)

If you don't have anything else to do, do stop by my personal blog; Now and Then, Here and There.

May 2011 Round-Up: Signs of Revival

Just one day late with this month's round up.
And so we're catching up with April's slow fiasco with 10 entries this month starting with;

No Don't by Niki that expresses her wish to keep up with the blog
followed by;

Rain or Shine, Let the friends reign by Niki, an entry about hanging out with friends even when it rained

- Maddy shares a part of her life in Royal Jester

- and the part 1 of Pinoy Mentality - some things we could have without

- Ching also posted an awesome entry about Not your ordinary graffities.

- and of course what's Bernel with out his fourth interesting things found in the internet

- A tribute to Awesome cats was written by Niki accompanied by cute cat pictures.

- Niki also invites readers to watch a mind twisting anime with Code GeAss: Lelouch of the Rebellion

- And of course Maddy's part 2 of Pinoy Mentality.

- Bernel ends this month's list by writing about expressing his posts in Bernel's Bullets

I guess its still not right to post the hierarchy but let's all keep it up.

I am optimistic about this blog's future. ^_^



On a side note, Maddy and Niki will be starting classes this June. See you. ^_^