World-renowed photographer Annie Leibovitz has been working on fabulous Disney recreations for almost a year now. The latest release- Disney ‘Fantasea’ inspired by Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” with Julianne Moore and Michael Phelps (merman in the foreground) is by far my favorite in the series.

another favorite Leibovitz piece is the john lennon and yoko ono portrait taken on the day he died and was released as the cover of Rolling Stones (#335) on January 22, 1981.

Photo Collage by Dundoo - MySpace Editor

1. The age you will be on your next birthday
2. A place you'd like to travel to
3. Your favorite place
4. Your favorite object
5. Your favorite food
6. Your favorite animal
7. Your favorite color
8. The town in which you were born
9. The town in which you live
10. The name of a past pet
11. The first name of a past love
12. Your nickname/screen name
13. Your first name
14. Your middle name
15. Your last name
16. A bad habit of yours
17. Your first job
18. Your grandmothers' name
19. Your major in college
20. Your favorite holiday

So our rotation in Family Medicine ends, but unfinished paperwork stays to hound me for one more week or two. I am procrastinating on the Wellness Plan I should be doing for a PGH employee. Instead, here I am blogging. But how the hell, do I make a dietary/activity/stress plan for someone I haven’t met, completely clueless even of her height and weight! I might have to do the "no longer mandatory"  interview afterall. :(

Other than that, our stay in 2B05 was fun.

The first taste of direct patient care was overwhelming. During my intial patient encounter, there was that nagging thought at the back of my head that I know absolutely nothing and I am bullshiting my way out of things, as MonMon would put it, “nagmamarunong.” I had no other choice of course, but to keep that façade temporarily and hope that whatever I’ve stored in my memory bank won’t fail me. Mistakes were committed, of course. But I eventually got the hang of it and gained confidence on my clinical skills. I feel like I learned more in the two weeks I spent in the clinics than I did in the two years I stayed inside the classroom.

I cruised through the public health lectures, though. Presenting in front of an audience is after all a comfort zone for me. I found so much satisfaction in being able to effectively connect with people and be able to bring my message across efficiently.  The same patient contact that I think I’m going to miss as we start our Radiology rotation for the next week. While unlike some classmates, I do not have a hard time reading xrays and other imaging modalities, the limited contact with a breathing and moving person is something that might hinder me from really enjoying the rotation. Hopefully, I would be proven wrong.

Boo! I have class tomorrow. The good thing is today was a pseudo-free day. I only attended a 7-8am conference and spent (almost) the rest of the day binging in food. I ate lunch with The Blockmates at Mr. Choi and had a GREAT time. Then, after the training with the DS apps, I had dinner with Sir Martin at Ihaw1, even though I wasn’t really hungry. I am anticipating my love handles to double in size anytime now. Tsk.Tsk. Back to my salad and chicken breast diet next week.

Hopefully, our stint at the Canosa Health Center in Tondo tomorrow would be fun . With my loony groupmates, I don’t doubt that. :D

*And, no this entry is not wrongly titled. Only goes to show how uneventful the week's rotation has been.

I initially intended to write an entry about my slavedriving tendencies but I’ll put that on hold to make way for a mini-tribute to a great man who yesterday sadly met his demise after suffering from a major CVA.

Seeing him walk, donning his trademark hat and carrying an umbrella around the academic oval to and from PhAn always evoked a smile on my face and a tag on my heart mostly because of his resemblance to my late grandfather.

His reputation as a well-respected mentor in the department had students look forward to attending his class. Usually, the class was the only chance a psych major would have to have him as teacher and because it was a course for the seniors, it seemed like a rite of passage.

His soft-spoken demeanor might give the false impression that he was passed his prime. I have to confess that I attended his class expecting a brilliant lecturer, someone who could make the text from Pinel come alive, his voice loud and clear, reverberating on the walls of my skull, in that sense he disappointed me. Instead of my preconceived notion of him as a teacher was a little old man whose dedication to his craft was betrayed by a twinkle in his eyes and a mischievous grin on his face that were always present every single time he stood in front of the class. In the end, he made me want to understand that dedication, inspiring me to pave way for my own path of learning, in that sense he exceeded my expectations.

Once in while, he would deviate from the lecture and break into his life stories. What could have been trite and contrived on others on him seemed heartfelt. Those moments only added more to the FG David experience that would forever endear the old man to me.

He seemed to be the last of his kind. I feel bad for the next generations of psych majors for they no longer have the chance to meet the great man, but I feel honored that I had mine.  I might have chosen a different field from the one he dedicated most of his life, but his legacy lives on me. He would forever be remembered.