Archive for June, 2008

Breast Cancer Tidbits (Part 1)

June 27th, 2008

“Breast Cancer Tidbits”

Women who have breast cancer within 2 years of their last pregnancy, or 2 to 4 years after delivery, are more likely to have a poor prognosis, study results show. (Obstetrics & Gynecology May 2008;111:1167-1173)

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Five per cent of breast cancer tumors appear to double in size in just over a month, researchers said yesterday.

The study, in the journal Breast Cancer Research, also suggested detection rates of just 26% for a 5mm tumor and 91% for a 10mm tumor. The computer data was from nearly 400,000 women aged 50 to 69. The faster growth was mainly among younger women in the study’s age group. (Daily Telegraph, 9/5/08, p25; Adelaide Advertiser, 9/5/08, p37)

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A University of Washington study claims that fetal cells surviving in a mother’s tissues may fight off breast tumors, perhaps explaining why women with children have a lower risk of getting breast cancer than childless women. Researcher V.K. Gadi presented the findings of the controlled study in San Diego last month. (New Scientist, 8/5/08, p10.)

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Adult women who were breast-fed as infants may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than those who were not breast-fed, unless they were first-born, study findings suggest. “As a general group, women who reported they had been breast-fed in infancy had a 17 percent decrease in breast cancer risk,” Hazel B. Nichols, who was involved in the study, told Reuters Health. (Epidemiology, May 2008)

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A meta-analysis of studies of taxanes alone or in combination with anthracyclines as first-line therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer shows that neither approach provides a survival advantage. (J Clin Oncol, Reuters Health May 9, 2008;26:1980-1986.)

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Pre-menopausal women who spend much of their leisure time in physical activities, especially in adolescence and early adulthood, are less likely to develop breast cancer than their more sedentary counterparts, according to a report in the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute for May 21. (Reuters Health, May 13, 2008)

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Women who have a sister diagnosed with breast cancer remain at increased risk of breast cancer throughout their lives, epidemiologists in Sweden report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute for May 21,2008;100:721-727.
(Reuters Health, May 13, 2008)

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Adding screening ultrasonography to conventional breast mammography increases the diagnostic yield by about 50% among women at high risk for breast cancer, according to study findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association for May 14. However, the combined strategy also substantially increases the number of false positives. (JAMA 2008;299:2151-2163,2203-2205).

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There Ain’t No Sea Bird in Malapascua

June 26th, 2008

“There Ain’t No Sea Bird in Malapascua”

Darkness gives way to light earlier in Malapascua – this I observed at 4:30 a.m. when I woke up. I lazed in bed a while and went for a walk at 5:30 hoping to enjoy the solitude of the beach, be immersed in the thunder of the waved against the shores. I was dead wrong.

The place was live. Tourists donning their wet suits, some are running with their underwater cameras to catch up with the boats that will take them to where the manta rays do their early morning cleaning ritual and the thresher sharks, never motionless, glide silently, effortlessly and gracefully in the northern depths of the island.

Also lining up a few feet from  where the sea kisses the shore, were inhabitants  of the island, too many to count, on their haunches, picking something up from the sand. On closer look, I found out that they were gathering anchovy fingerlings, battered to death by the constant pounding of the waves against the shore. When I asked a little girl what they were doing that for, she showed me a  handful of the dead fish and said, “For breakfast.” I felt a prick of shame and guilt that while we had a very sumptuous and expensive dinner the night before, the inhabitants were scrounging dead fish for breakfast.

If all that glitters is gold, its sheen  has blinded the government in Malapascua. Whereas the island earns a lot from tourism, the locals remain dirt poor. Scattered amongst the expensive resorts are one-room-affair huts, old, battered, dilapidated and about to fall smack to the ground. Some of the inhabitants are employed in the resorts, a few are diving instructors while most are masseuses, motorcycle drivers, souvenir peddlers, tour guides, boatmen or plain fishing folks. But by and large, the wealth within their midst, in their own turf, is out of their reach, its windfall denied from them.

Snorkeling in Malapascua is like a visit to a graveyard. Beneath the beckoning sea, are corals. all dead, probably from unabated chemical fishing in the past. Only a few brave fish flutter around, for curiosity than for feeding. Without live corals, the shallows around the island is devoid of fish, denying them the benefit of shallow-water fishing, impoverishing them even more. I did not see a single sea bird around the depths we boated around.

Undoubtedly, conscious effort was spent in maintaining the rusticity of Malapascua. A jetty or a quay will not negate the effort. It will give arriving visitors a sense of security from the risk of a broken leg, limb or neck as they disembark from the boats they came in with.

The lure of Malapascua is the lure of money. But not much of it is used to earn more. The short strip of road leading to the pier in the Cebu side, has never seen asphalt paving; the pier, once a pile of rocks, now a pile of ruins. The boats plying the 45 minutes or so distance between Cebu and Malapascua do not benefit from the economies of scale, their size appeal only to the most daring of souls during the monsoon season.

Malapascua can offer much by just doing a little. But then, if we missed on rice, there’s no reason why this shouldn’t be missed, is there?

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The Magic at 60

June 25th, 2008

“The Magic at 60″

I just turned 60 years old and this is my story.

I’m having a hard time answering the question, “How are you” without lying. When my wife died late last year, a part of me died with her. But this is not about my dead part but that part which lives until God knows when.

I just filed my retirement claims from the Social Security. Next week I will file my other retirement claims. So am I retired? Uhhhhmmm, let me see.

I am with my consultancy work, 5/7, doing technical writing for a large multinational company. Two hours each evening, still 5/7, I am in front of my PC posting in my blog at www.joespulpbits.com, hoping to earn something from it any time soon.

Saturday evenings, I either go out with my son and have a couple of beers in a music lounge or, if he’s unavailable, sit in a bar somewhere hoping to get laid (he, he, he). If my daughter is free from her hospital duties, I dine out with my children Sunday evenings.

Weekend mornings are devoted to tennis where I can still serve and volley in my doubles games; after office hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work out in the small company gym.

Pretty hectic for a 60 yr old, uh?

Not quite yet. I just had my first scuba diving lessons. I was speechless right after my fun dive where hundreds of fish of varying colors and sizes picked their cracker crumbs directly off my fingers. The experience was better than sex (at my age) that I committed to dive at least once a month.

I guess I am a prude for I consider sex not a subject for discussion in public, even among men who have this habit of talking of nothing of value but that. So when my cousin (who will be turning 60, herself, in a couple of months) told me over the phone that she still makes love with her estranged husband each time they see each other, I was struck with embarrassment and disbelief. Something must be wrong either with her or me.

Last month, my children and I had a nice weekend in Malapascua. Next year, health permitting, we will go to Bantayan Island, to Palawan, the year after. In the meantime, I am so engrossed with my passion for writing that I don’t even read inane emails, which we all have more often than not, anymore (they are good practice for long-distance shooting to the garbage bin).

A guy I met over a cup of coffee at Ayala turned out to be a diver himself and owns a yacht that can accommodate 100 people. He invited me to join him for a couple of weekend evenings sailing around the island of Cebu diving and fishing. Who could refuse an offer like that?

But first things first. I’ve got to be a proficient diver, then I have to find a way of continuing my long-neglected monthly contributions to the SOS Children’s Village. This is a foreign-funded orphanage in Talamban, Cebu where they take in battered and bruised children of all ages and turn them into good citizens and productive professionals. Pretty impressive set-up.

At last, I am debt-free and I have all the world to myself and my children. During my wife’s wake, I promised her that the remaining days of my life will be spent only on one thing – taking care of them. I hate commitments because I invariably end up fulfilling them even at the price of death.

And death, yes, that eventual ending we all will come to. My wife’s death removed my fear of it. Ironically, it is only when one fears death not, that one really starts to live. And I tell you, whatever is left of me, I intend to squeeze every juice of it, enjoying it to the last drop.

A Dockers commercial goes this way:

“My father taught me about life not with words but by the way he lived his.”

When my time comes, I intend to see a smile on the faces of my children for the things I have imparted to them on how to live their lives.

My wife must be tickled pink from where she is now.

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Get Smart

June 24th, 2008

“Get Smart“

Yesterday I indulged myself by watching a movie with the above title. It was a nice way to take an afternoon off, get away from it all and have fun. Though the star of the movie is a far cry from the original actor, but the leading lady is a lot more beautiful than the former. Overall, it is still the same zany adventures of a government operative who cannot tie his shoe lace properly.

One thing that caught my attention profoundly was a line from Maxwell Smart when he said,

“That was an extremely fascinating story telling absolutely nothing.”

I was struck by that line because of its truth, vis-à-vis, the real world. We are living in a world of stories, i.e., my story, his story, their stories, the government’s story, etc., which, if looked into more deeply tell us absolutely nothing. Even more so in the Philippines.

The left-wingers, never passing a day without going to the streets shouting slogans, burning epithets and flags, denouncing everybody but themselves. They fill our ears with their thunder, our streets with their garbage, yet they tell us absolutely nothing why they are what they are, do what they do.

Laborers, too ready to take to the streets demanding higher pay, tell us absolutely nothing why they are stuck in low-paying jobs, in companies that bleed them dry of their honest labor, nor do the long lines of people tell us why a rice-producing country cannot feed its people adequately; a huge gap in rice prices for the rich and the poor, forever creating a stigma among those who are in the fringes of society.

Our schools produce thousands of graduates each year, the majority of them unable to find jobs fit for the courses they graduated from. Statistics can bear this out. But statistics tell us nothing unless we know why these people cannot find gainful employment, do not respond to the demands of the times.

The Church promises a life of eternal happiness in Heaven but tells us absolutely nothing why this world must be of lesser importance to that after dearth (if there is such a one); it continuously speaks out of the evils of sin, but tells us nothing of the sinfulness within its midst.

It is often said that knowledge can set us free and knowledge is power. Isn’t it any wonder then, that in this world of fascinating stories telling us absolutely nothing, majority of us are still under the crushing yoke of financial and political bondage; that despite the increasing use of the Internet, we remain ignorant of those things which could impact our lives way beyond we could ever imagine?


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Nothing Atomic with ATOMIC BLOGGING

June 23rd, 2008

“Nothing Atomic about Atomic Blogging“

I am one of the millions of bloggers hoping to make good at it and in the e-commerce business. Not knowing a whit about them except for my inclination to write, I surfed the Net for my self-education. Unsurprisingly, I found zillions of potential sources of information, some of which are free while others cost a fortune. I settled on Atomic Blogging by Alvin Phang based on the sneak preview of his e-book which I got for free (they are all free).

I don’t know the reason for such but, more than a month later, I have come to know that my decision then was inconsequential compared to the consequences of my having done so.

Hoping to rectify my mistake on others, the following are my 10 reasons why people should not buy Atomic Blogging:

The sequence of subject presentation is tupsy-turvy:

I am an experienced process engineer and know that everything must follow a process governed by logic and facility to be useful and understandable. Atomic Blogging has neither of the two.

The spelling, grammar and syntax are horrible.

John Chow humbly admits that English is not his first language and this is clearly seen in his e-book. Nevertheless, his lapses are nothing compared to that in Atomic Blogging.

When I pointed these out to the author, he found it incredulous because, according to him, Atomic Blogging underwent proofreading no less than five times. I told him that one time by five people makes a whale of a difference against five times by the same person.

Atomic Blogging is written by an IT expert

(Or so he claims) without consideration for potential non-IT users like me. Requests for clarification for some technical terms are never answered.

Atomic Blogging writes about several ways to earn on-line

Without saying anything about “how.” No mention is made on how to paste even a “diggs” code into my site. To be fair, the author instructed me how to do it, only to find out that his instructions were wrong.

When I pressed this issue farther

The author told me to either paste the code in every page of my site (I only have one page and he knows it), or paste it on my “Theme.” Then he told me that I have to found out for myself how.

Customer service of Atomic Blogging is a nightmare:

The author claims to know Customer Service, then goes off on vacations leaving his clients attended to by an auto responder informing us that the author is out and shall be on such and such a date.

When I complained that one of his plug-ins won’t download properly

He, replied that I probably downloaded it improperly without even asking me the manifestations of such an anomaly.

The author claims to receive tons of emails

But don’t bother to answer mine except to say that everything is properly explained in his e-book, which is already difficult to comprehend by itself.

His e-book screen shots are of a different version of WordPress

Making it impossible for me to follow his instructions. When asked about this, I got deafening silence from the author.

The author chastised me

For not appreciating the effort he spent to help me, citing his answers to my emails. He sent me some emails, alright but none of these fully answered the items cited in mine.

When I bought Atomic Blogging, it was with an appeal that the author help me succeed in blogging. All I got was s _ _ t.

Don’t let Atomic Blogging fool you. You will surely go down the route I went through.


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Rediscovering Fruits

June 18th, 2008

“Rediscovering Fruits”

So many things have been written about fruits, yet we probably could never take in all there is they have to offer. Being from the tropics put me in the midst of the world’s fruit bread basket. But my fruit intake is sorely limited, due to budgetary constraints and personal preferences. In fact, it is rare to see a person with a very wide choice of fruits, variety wise. The Thais are an example. Not only do they have a national desire for fruits, they also have the penchant in carving them to very delectable serving styles.

I am strictly a banana guy, with occasional indulgences in pineapple, star apple and guava. Except for the former, I take the other fruits on “as available basis,” not for any nutritional considerations. How I take them, however, is another matter. And this is the subject of this posting.

Fruits should be eaten on an empty stomach.
This helps detoxify the boy, making possible a higher level of energy for our activities.

A fruit taken after a meal will lose all its nutritional value because it will just spoil and rot as it comes in contact with the food, which is undergoing a drastic change in the stomach induced on it by our body acids.

This is manifested by a “bloated” feeling from taking a fruit after a meal due to gas formation in the stomach.

For what it’s worth, this sequence of eating fruits is supposed to prevent hair from turning gray, dark circles from forming underneath the eyes. Oh yes, I have these undesirable physical attributes, hence, I switched my sequence of eating bananas.

Fruits and juice:
Drinking juice is not a substitute for eating the fruit (I drink a glass of orange juice every morning).

If it must be taken, it must be fresh and not taken out from a can or something.

Drink juice slowly to give it time to mix with the saliva (I don’t know how a juice cannot mix with the saliva once inside the mouth).

Juices must not be heated up (one has got to be crazy to heat up a juice),

The better part is that a 3-day fast with nothing but fruits and juices can make one look

Nutritional values of some fruits:

Kiwi:
Good source of potassium and magnesium, vitamin E and fiber. Vitamin C is twice that of an orange.

Apple:
Low in vitamin C but has antioxidants and flavonoids which enhances vitamin C activity, thereby lowering the risks of colon cancer, heart attack and stroke.

Strawberry:
Highest in antioxidants and protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel clogging free radicals.

Orange:
Keeps colds at bay, lowers cholesterol, prevents and dissolves kidney stones as well as lessen the risks of colon cancer.

Watermelon:
Though 92% water, it is packed with glutathione which helps boost the immune system. Also good source of lycopene – the cancer fightin oxidant, high on vitamin C and potassium.

Guava and Papaya:
Tops in vitamin C and fiber which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene, and good for the eyes.

(Emailed from a friend)

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Living out a Dream

June 15th, 2008

“Living out a Dream”

Mentioned in my previous post was my severe asthma as a child and how it vanished when the family moved near the sea. The second chapter is that when I was old enough to run, my uncle threw me into the water. Since then, swimming has become natural for me.

As a consequence of my attachment to the sea, was my burning desire to go scuba diving some day – even if it is the last thing I do in my life. That “some day” got tossed over the years, not for lack of opportunity but for some nobler reasons. My children were still in school then, needing whatever scant resource I have and my wife can’t swim.

Mi wife died last year and my children are both working and carving out their own lives. Well, dreams have a way of coming true if we just keep them close to our hearts and minds. That “some day” finally came yesterday, June 14, when I had my first scuba diving lessons.

Under the tutelage of a very seasoned master diver, Mr. Alfred Alesna (in photo), it was an experience difficult to forget. We started off with the basic skills in handling the underwater breathing apparatus and the things to do in case of some unfortunate incidents that could compromise the fun. The basics include the equalizing of the air pressure in the ears, blowing off water from the mask, retrieving dislodged mouth piece hose and removing water from it, inflating and deflating the flotation vests, use of fins and controlling buoyancy by controlling the volume of air in the lungs.

Then off we went for the fun dive. On the first go, I though I would never make it. Twice we surfaced because my chest felt like exploding. Gently coaxing me to relax and be “normal” and having me use the spare mouthpiece, we descended to the depth prescribed for such a kind of dive, 18 to 20 ft, without a problem. And the fun started.

The silence of the deep is awesome. Aside from the noise from our air bubbles, under water is a world stripped bare of the din above. Being weightless endows one with a feeling of invincibility and Nature’s architecture is an insight of the beauty this world is supposed to have, until Man marred it for good and forever.

Then Alfred motioned me to turn around and lo! Hundreds of fish of all sizes and colors, attracted by our air bubbles started to mill around us. And when we crushed the soda crackers we brought along for the purpose, they became bolder and practically picked the crumbs off our fingers. For a brief and exhilarating moment in my life, I felt like I was inside a giant aquarium, being one with these beautiful creatures of the sea.

Very soon, the landscape produced shadows not from the fish around us but other divers as well. This was the cue Alfred dreaded most – other divers. He then slowly tugged me towards the shore and our fun dive was over. Up until my instructor finished freeing me from all the harnesses of the apparatus, I was speechless.

My first lesson was punctuated by a nice lunch and a tin of ice-cold beer. Then I was on the way home with a promise to do it monthly hereafter.

But wait, another promise is to exchange emails with a Singapore “chick” who was also having her diving lessons.


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When Tennis is not Fun

June 14th, 2008

“When Tennis is not Fun”

I am a frustrated tennis player. Whereas my style and level of play elicit visions of a Sampras, my win/loss ratio is nightmarish. For this reason, despite the urgings of a fellow tennis player to blog about tennis, I refrained from doing so for lack of authority over and skill in the sport. Not until today.

The club I belong to is a study unto itself. At any given time, it is not impossible to have a game of doubles played with at least a brother, cousin, neighbor or a boyhood friend in the foursome. The level of play is determined by the loudness of speech and to lose a game assures a perpetual ribbing from the winners and audience alike.

“To have fun” is the favorite phrase of losers while the winners practically prance about the courts recalling that wonderful drop shot, that sharp backhand and the Heaven-high lob.

Upmanship is the norm, thus despite our familiarity with each other, our club does not have the identity or framework of a real club. In short, though one in the love for the game, we are fractious when it comes to managing ourselves. But the bottomline is still fun.

Today, I was confronted by one of the players supposedly for having told another player to tell this player to stop playing as his level of play sucks.

A game of doubles is more fun when the foursome is within the same level. Every now and then, for utter lack of sensitivity or self-reflection, someone of lower level crashes into a game, totally robbing it of fun and excitement. I may have said it or not, but I certainly would have been glad if I did.

Not wishing to be age-discriminatory (I am 60 yrs old myself), this guy runs with the stride of a duck at leisure, his synapses are probably wider than most or dying off faster than the rest of us, making his neurons travel slower between his brains and his limbs. He’s probably as blind as a bat at baseline, yet he insists in sitting with a group well above his level throwing the first-come-first-play mode into a frenzy.

A favorite joke among the club members is to have someone buy all his tennis gear so he can’t play anymore. So while the officers were trying to come up with something about fairness and all those B.S., I said, “I would agree with a regulation covering the opportunity to this play thing if somebody will tell me right now, with all honesty, without hypocrisy, that he wouldn’t mind having this guy a partner in doubles. “

End of story.

I am not writing for sheer snobbery but as a reality statement for those with false hopes and the people who pander them for lack of guts or hypocrisy.

I bet there was a time when nobody would like to have Rafael Nadal around for his gross lack of aptitude in the game. We all pass through that stage. Others overcome it with constant practice until people would love to them around. A few give up on realizing that it is not for them. Pug-nosed people insist to be where they should not be, unmindful of the needs and feelings of others.

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The Gold in Our Hands

June 12th, 2008

“The Gold in Our Hands”

All men are equal in that we, regardless of looks, wealth, health, sex, creed, affiliation, ethnic or cultural background, etc., all have 24 hours each day to live our lives the way we see fit.

The caveat is in the phrase “the way we see fit.” For the manner by which we use our 24 hrs, will determine whether we will fare well in life or continue to just crawl along.

Today is one of those days that my mind is as thick as lead. Nothing goes in or out, and I have practically accepted the inevitability of a blog-less day. Until my short chat with a friend in the lunch queue led me to write about:

Time, that highly perishable gold in our hands.

While waiting for our turn at the counter, I asked her, “Can you imagine what it is to be really doing nothing?” Before she can even utter a word, I found myself answering that question.

Nobody can really be doing “nothing.”

Some young people in my late wife’s hometown wake up around 10 a.m., with bad hangovers. Their lunch will be late and by sundown, they will again be drinking to get drunk, repeating the cycle of yesterday and many other yesterdays. Yet, it can be argued, that they are doing “something.”

Conversely, the highest paid executive in Asia barely has 4 hrs to sleep each day. The hours in between are crammed with work and work and work. Whatever time he has for leisure is probably no bigger than a postage stamp. He, too, is definitely doing “something.”

In between these two extremes are people, like you and me, who are practically chasing that precious time, lest our chores for the morrow will be nothing but the undone chores of today.

Not wishing to get lost in words over whatever that “something” means to people, it is best to get a metaphor from a candle. Practically useless when unlit, highly consumable if lit. But only when it is lit that it can be doing something. Either to light the bearer’s path that he may walk true and straight or, nobler still, to light the path of others that they may not stumble and fall.

While it is true that some candles, due to some destined ends, loose their glow before they are spent, others will burn through its wick. But its purpose is not anchored on how long it will last but on the intensity and consistency of the light it provides while it does.

Sorry is he who uses it to look for the traps and snares, rather than straight and narrow path of life.

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What the Bible Says

June 11th, 2008

“What the Bible Says”

My Bibliophile friend and I are always at odds with each other. We both read the Bible but with different intensity and rapt. I know what’s in it but I am not keen on where to find a specific passage or who wrote it, while he knows every punctuation mark in the Book.

We don’t disagree in the God-inspired nature of the Bible but I don’t agree in the accuracy of its human transcription, while he takes it in its entirety. A good example is the Book of Genesis, thought to have been written by Moses, years and years after Eve took fancy of the apple. How could one expect accuracy and veracity at such a wide span of time considering that there were no memory chips then and human memory is fickle at best, treacherous at worst?

Then there was this passage about entering Heaven and seeing things as that of a child. Of course, nobody can really guess what goes on in a child’s mind, specifically concerning the Bible, unless they are asked. So let’s have a few examples of children’s perceptions of the Bible:

o And God said, “Give me light.” And someone did;

o God split the Adam and made Eve. They were both naked but were not embarrassed about it. There were no mirrors then.

o Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple.

o Then they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven out with since there were no cars then.

o Noah was a good but one of his kids was some sort of a Ham.

o Then there was Jacob and his brother Esau. The former became more famous because he sold his birthmark to Jacob for some pot roast.

o Moses had God sent 10 plagues on Pharaoh’s people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels and no cable TV.

o The Ten Commandments include do not lie, cheat, smoke dance or covet your neighbor’s stuff.

o And, the most important thing, “Humor thy father and mother.”

o My teacher says Solomon was very wise. But it does not seem wise to me to have 300 wives and 500 porcupines.

o After the Old Testament comes the New Testament wherein Jesus is the star. He was born in a barn in Bethlehem

o Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life and went up to Heaven. He will be back at the end of the Aluminum as foretold in the book of the Revolution.

No wonder cherubims have the looks of a child – to humor God from all the errors and ills springing forth from His supposedly perfect creation.

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