Conozco Pablo

How do we summarize the year 2021? It is quite complicated as it seems, especially who works as a nurse in the middle of the pandemic. However, I will attempt to summarize into three parts: work, personal and general reflection. This will be the focus of this blogpost. TWENTY highlights of my work situation. 1. Alpha variant . The year started with long bout with Corona virus at work.  2. Beta variant . Yes we were hit the British variant as well.  3. Delta variant . It was very sporadic, but nevertheless, I felt less the brunt of the delta variant at work. But from time to time, some of my colleagues are affected. 4. Omicron variant . Well, as of this writing, we are hearing some cases at work. Hopefully, the situation will not get worse. 5. End . Yes, I ceased to work at a nursing home where I had a tenured part-time work. 6. Start . I started anew with night shift tenured work in one of Oslo's most modern health facility. 7. Reduced . Given that I began anew a...

Dawn of 17th of December 2011. That was ten years ago. I fell asleep around 1 o'clock in the morning after a five-hour bus travel from my hometown Butuan to the island metropolis of Cagayan de Oro. It was an unusual travel. Roads were blocked by gushing waters, falling trees and long queues of vehicles going to the city. I was not so alarmed because weather disturbance was not uncommon. The intensity is well-quite expected, but it has been raining continuously for hours. The day before I had last lecture in the university before the Christmas vacation. It was raining, and a little bit cold. Nothing unusual. In the middle of my morning lecture, I received a text message. There was a change of plans. I will sleep on a hotel near the city center instead of the hotel nearby the river. I guess they decided it to be that way, because I was expected to arrive around midnight. Just like before I had a full day of lecture until 5 pm, then I take the first bus I get. That simple ...

Few days ago, I have browsed some of the notes that I have written several years ago. I have come across with an interesting note I wrote 8th of December 2019, two years ago. Quite interestingly, I started writing along the lines I wrote then. I realized the change that happened during that span of time. This is the content of this blogpost. The red one were written last 8th of December 2019. The blue one were written today, 10th of December 2021.   It took awhile before I woke up. It was a long journey before I realized everything. In the last few days, everything seems vague and foggy. I never expected everything became clear and concrete in the last few months. I was not prepared for the last blast. I never expected I was strong enough to withstand all of it. It was hard and mind-blowing. It was easy afterall. It was quite logical. One can never force lies to be facts. It made me think the amount of time wasted. I think I wasted time a bit. I acknowledge that. Is this really wha...

I am quite aware of the fact that there are two great criticisms people throw at me since then: I always fail to say thank you and sorry. The first one is perhaps one of the reasons I created this blogpost so I could permanently thank everyone who helped me. It does not necessarily mean that me failing to thank someone is tantamount to saying I am ungrateful. I am thankful, but I simply just forget to express it explicitly. However, saying sorry remains to be one of my weakness. I just can't easily say sorry without making an argument for not being sorry. I admit, couple of times, I would want to say sorry, but logic and words always dilute my intention to say sorry. So on this blogpost, I would like to enumerate those situations I am deeply sorry. Winter 2019-2020 Quite recently yes. Very few knows about this, but yes, I made a couple of mistakes that influences some of my mistakes today. I was trying to please people, while I was not certain what I really want. I was ...

Perhaps you heard about intermittent fasting before, but have you really understood how it could work? Well, it is simple as alternately being in a long fasting state with a periods when one is allowed to eat. It may sound difficult. I could say it is both easy and challenging, given that I have engaged myself into intermittent fasting almost daily for over two years now. In this blogpost, I will share my personal experience about intermittent fasting. 1. It is not a diet. It is not a diet, wherein one starves out oneself to attain weight loss. That is not the primary purpose of intermittent fasting, rather it is inducing sufficient stress to the body to be in a healthy "survival mode." One could actually eat whatever one likes during the non-fasting period. However, the first thing I noticed when I started fasting is that I got full easily during the first meal, such that I eat a little thereafter. So instead of eating three full meals, I gradually reduced it two...

Is life a result of mere chance, destiny or a result of our choices? The answer to this question depends on where we are in our lives. Not too long ago, I am huge follower of the belief of co-creating of our destiny. We move on and decide what to do in our lives, but in general, the path is just partially within our control. Destiny is somehow a vague, predetermined path we can deviate from time to time but nonetheless, we go back to it one way or another.  Perhaps, believing on destiny maybe not be illogical at all, but I have changed the way I interpret this. On how I shifted away from this perspective will be discussed on this blogpost. We choose our unique façade We present ourselves uniquely to the world. The people surrounding are accustomed to a set of values and patterns of actions associated with us. This constitutes our identity directed towards others. However, at times, the exterior is incongruent to what really is inside, our real identity - the person we k...

Life is such a rollercoaster. Likewise, our ability to accept and trust our skills and abilities fluctuate from time to time. The confidence directed towards ourselves depends on a variety of factors, but sometimes we neglect to be objective to what are the major reasons why at times, our self-confidence is at all-time low. These primary influences will be discussed in this blogpost. Overly-stressing and mediocre experiences The inability to handle things within our capacity is a common reason. Some people force themselves way too much their limits, and such expectations are quite ambitious considering previous experiences. Ofcourse, individuals end up being frustrated, and some even give up - a telltale sign that one is developing self-confidence. However, the opposite is equally dangerous. Putting oneself in a playsafe environment will not stimulate growth and creativity, and thus people will be blinded to what they can actually do and achieve, as well as recognize what makes themsel...

Working and living in Norway for over 8 years now have been both rewarding and challenging for me. There are several times that I have questioned myself whether Norway is indeed the right place for me to live, and always I have come up with a positive answer. Nonetheless, this does not guarantee that there are some aspects of the Norwegian society, tradition and culture that shocked me up to this date. This is the focus of this blogpost. 1. Flat organizations This is the most striking feature of most organizations in Norway. The organizational structures are relatively flat, meaning hierarchy is almost just a concept, than reality. The employees can literally ask questions to their superiors. Politicians are somehow accessible. There are bureaucratic problems, but in general, communication for top-level managers and the usual employees is open. This highlights that Norwegians value the concept of teamwork among employees to attain its goals, rather than blindly following top-down instr...