This is how I look like when I'm simultaneously updating my blogs (8), browsing my friends' blogs, trying to keep up with the 10 RPG's (Harry Potter, Star Wars, and miscellaneous Fantasy/Sci-fi/Reality stories) that I'm currently a character in, reading/answering my email, and chatting to 3 people on the Yahoo Messenger, just when I'm running out of prepaid internet.

This is my new baby. Tomato's already jealous of it. 

It's a shiny black Yamaha upright with 88 keys and 3 pedals.  We bought it just a few days ago, on August 18.  I wasn't asking for a new piano (although our old one, which I've been playing on for 18 years) has been sounding more and more metallic as of late.  The old one was a Yupangco--a local version of Yamaha, and yet we were only able to sell it for 25K! (Imagine a piano being sold for 25K.  That's just the price of a midlevel mobile phone!)  Still, it was traded in for this new one, which I'm absolutely ecstatic with.  It sounds gorgeous, with unbelievable sound and resonance.  On the afternoon that it was delivered, I played for 4 hours straight, until my back, shoulders, and wrists were aching like hell. I've bought a lot of new pieces, and I'm planning to review my 7 years' classical training even for just a few months before I re-start residency.  I'm mostly besotted with lyrical pieces like Canon in D and arrangements by Jim Brickman or George Winston.  For local arrangers, I recommend JonJon or Boboy Bagayaua, as they're the ones who seem to be able to capture the spirit of the songs best.

I just bought this yesterday, and I was done reading it an hour after getting home because I was already devouring it in the car.  It's a mature graphic novel portraying the extremely funny but very realistic relationships of six people who could easily be any six of us who are still lost in this world despite two decades of living in it.  There are some extremely funny but graphic (in the sense that it's vividly portrayed not on paper but in your head) parts, and the humor is oftentimes cynical, toilet-related, and raunchy.  Yet, nothing in it really offends (and I find a lot of things offensive), because everything plays a part in telling the story. 

By the time I arrived at the last page, I was bawling like a baby, with tears of triumph and joy.  And books don't make me cry easily.  Nothing of Nicholas Spark's ever really moved me.  In short, I highly recommend this book.  It won the Manila Critics Book Circle Awards (did I get that right?).  It's one of those Filipino works that I would proudly tell a foreigner:  "This was written by one of us!!"

A sample review: 
“After Eden is a love story that involves six people, serendipitous weather disturbances, and the minions of heaven and hell. It is, by turns, strange, hilarious and heartbreaking -- a story that somehow manages to be complex and yet pure and simple at the same time. It is also the best thing Arnold Arre has done so far, and that's really saying something, considering that he's won National Book Awards for his previous works, The Mythology Class and Trip to Tagaytay. Arnold has truths to tell about love, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, and he tells them with an eloquence -- in words and pictures -- that is all his own.”
-Luis Joaquin M. Katigbak, author of Happy Endings

This is the finished game of Scrabble that I played with Tomato last week.  I won, but just barely.  We had a lot of fun tossing each other weird words, just to see if the other would accept it, since we didn't have a dictionary handy.  Next time I'm going to tell him that there are new rules:  medical terms will be allowed.  He won't even know if I'm bluffing harharhar...

• It's expensive, and that's almost an understatement.  One 50 mg tablet costs 560 pesos, which is equivalent to $10.00.  I don't know about you guys, but the only other drugs I've encountered which are more expensive are strong antibiotics.
• Men afflicted with Erectile Dysfunction--especially Filipino men--are much too shy to tell their doctors about their problem.  It's a cultural thing.  They would rather self-medicate and risk the side-effects than tell anyone and suffer potential embarrassment.
• Even the people who don't really need Viagra want to avail of it for sexual enhancement.
• The incidence of sexual impotence is increasing because predisposing factors such as Hypertension and Diabetes mellitus are also on the rise.  It is estimated that by 2020, 185 million men in Asia alone will have Erectile Dysfunction.  

   Okay, so drug counterfeiting is a legitimate problem.  It robs patients and their families of both health and income.  It should be suppressed as much as possible, not just for the sake of lost revenue for drug companies, but also for the trusting consumers whose lives are on the line.

   However, I don't think that Viagra should represent the forefront of this campaign against counterfeiting.   It is still mostly just a lifestyle drug; hardly as important as the vaccines and the antibiotics that are also being bastardized in the market.   I found it disturbing that despite such emergent issues as burgeoning epidemics, worsening health-care and widespread poverty (which admittedly were not discussed in that forum),  the host (an MD) seriously called Erectile Dysfunction "The Scourge of the Century".    Even more disturbing was the fact that everyone actually nodded, laughed, and generally agreed.  I would think that we have more important things to worry about than a threat to good sex.  I guess the MD's there had no choice, as they were supposed to be representing the drug company's interests, but still...

   Perhaps if the audience had been composed of a different cross-section of society, the reaction would have been different.  But then, the MD might never have dared call ED the "Scourge of the Century" in the first place.

   

Exercise Tips for the Oversized (From Time)

1.  Short and Frequent
   Aim to exercise often, even two or three times a day, but keep the sessions short and sweet (10 to 15 minutes is plenty).  If it hurts, stop, and if you dread your workout, change it.  The pursuit of fitness should be a pleasure, not a punishment. 2.  Take care of your skin.
   One of the most troublesome problems large exercisers face is chafing, especially of the thighs.  Minimize the problem by wearing form-fitting clothes, preferably a synthetic fabric that whisks away sweat.  When it's time to hit the showers, use antibacterial soap and dry all body folds well.
3.  Be kind to your joints.
   Exercise can qualify as cardiovascular without giving your joints a pounding.  Take a gym spin on the recumbent bike, pump and elliptical trainer or enrol in a water-aerobics class.  Concentrate on strengthening upper-leg muscles, especially the quadriceps (the muscles on the front of the thigh).  That will, in turn, ease the strain on knees.
4.  Stretch Carefully.
   Limbering up is important for everyone, but overweight exercisers should staw away from stretches that strain the lower back, including that classic from gym class, the toe-touching drill.
5.  Mind your footwear.
   Sturdy running shoes usually offer the best support, even if you don't plan to run.  Be sure your shoes are roomy, an dkeep your toenails cut short.  Increased pressure on feet stuffed into sneakers that are too snug can lead to nagging problems with both nails and toes.