Conozco Pablo

One Friday night, I had a duty in the nursing home. I was feeling mixed emotions on my way to work for it was quite strange feeling working when others are enjoying the start of their weekends. As usual, I tried to appear confident although I am honest to myself that my Norwegian language skills is still not at par with those working in the department for many years. To add to the challenge, most of the employees are coming from outside Norway. In short, we care for Norwegians but most of us were not even born Norwegians, having diverse personal backgrounds and culture. For that night, I will be helping 3 departments, manned by 1 employee each to serve for about 70 patients in total. Usually, another nurse coordinates the 3 departments and should there be a need for one department for help, they ask one to do the tasks. For that night, that was my task, so I went around the 3 departments and determined that the department headed by an African woman could be the busiest for the night. ...

In the recent days, I started to engage myself in discussions in social media about news and current events happening in the Philippines. I find it challenging and frustrating. Reading through comments from one news to another, I realized every Filipino seems to find answers to questions that are either difficult or impractical in the modern times. So, this led me to think what could be the ultimate question for Filipinos to ask. Perhaps, this can be challenging. It seems hard to find a single question that tries to encompass all different inquiries and thoughts of Filipinos coming from different socioeconomic background and possessing varying personalities. However, one theme is evident. That is negativism. For example, there is news about the government or any government official. Almost everybody seems to cast doubt, reject or show hesitancy and mistrust. Later on, I was asking myself is being Filipino also being negative? Afterwards, I tried to think objectively. Yes, this questio...

I am a proud Filipino but there are some aspects of the Filipino culture that needs to be improved. These improvements are impossible if   everybody thinks there is no need for them, so I start with my contribution by recognizing these in this blogpost. 1. Learn to wait. No Filipino can wait. We all find ways to be ahead of the others. We are known for this. We simply can not wait as if there is no other chance to do a certain thing. As a result, chaos results, which is reflected in the systems we have either in large-scale government services or in ourselves as well. 2. Learn to think before talking. Feed a Filipino an attractive title of an article or news, he or she is able to form opinions even without knowing and understanding the story. I call this "Facebook mentality of hastiness." As a result, most non-Filipinos do not take us seriously, because we are more noisy than smart. 3. Learn to respect differences and opinions. Every Filipino thinks everyone should conf...

Do you remember PEMDAS rule? Maybe many have tried to forget this rule as an attempt to dump mathematical concepts in our unconscious mind. No one can blame that since many find mathematics as difficult, complicated and without use, although it is not. Now, since Valentine's Day, I will try to explain love and relationship through the PEMDAS rule. PEMDAS stands for parenthesis, exponent, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. This rule guides on how to simplify equations, or get the answer of a series of mathematical operations. Say for example below: 4^2 + 2 ( 3×5 ) ÷ 3 - 3 Using PEMDAS rule, perform the operations inside the (P) parenthesis: 4^2 + 2 ( 15 ) ÷ 3 - 3 This is followed by (E) Exponents 16 + 2 ( 15 ) ÷ 3 - 3 Then, perform (M) multiplication operations. 16 + 30 ÷ 3 - 3 (D) Division follows then (A) addition and (S) subtraction. 16 + 10 - 3 26 - 3 23 The answer is 23. The PEMDAS provides a strict guidance on how to solve mat...

Since June 2014, the average oil price went down from 110 dollars to less than 50 dollars per barrel. This news would have not caught my attention if I was not observing the same trend with the exchange rate between Norwegian kroner and Philippine peso, given that I started sending money for my family at the same period of time. So I asked myself how does the current situation affect us OFW's (Overseas Filipino Workers) working in oil exporting countries (primarily from the Middle East, Norway, Canada etc.) in the long-term.  To give a concise overview of what has happened. The current oil price downward trend has been primarily due to the oversupply of oil following oil shale boom in the United States, slowed oil consumption following slowing economic growth in the Eurozone and China, and the OPEC's (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) decision not to cut production from its current levels. On the other hand, we see other factors that potentially increases the pric...

In this season of love, I was about to make special post about love and relationships. However, I ended up not arriving with a concrete idea. Perhaps, explaining an abstract concept is challenging and unending, so I decided to present love as a concept with 14 ironies.  Before reading them; I would like to remind that I do not intend to put this sacred gift called love in a very narrow perspective, rather I would want to provide descriptions of love based on how it is perceived in reality. Here are the 14 ironies of love: 1. Love provides us comfort at night such that sometimes we end up crying 'til we sleep. 2. Love is a gift that sometimes we do not want to share our loved ones with others. 3. Love gives us the inspiration to be better and the reason to be exact opposite of it. 4. Love is something others wait and find, even though it is nowhere to be found. 5. Love is all about giving and being expected to unceasingly give more, even not receiving any i...

Today (February 11) is my sister's 30th birthday. I would not allow this day to pass without making a tribute for her. For those, who have not personally known me, I have one sister, who is very keen on her beauty without being vain, very strong and courageous without being emotionally numb, and very smart without being boring and unsocial. That is my sister, Doloures. In the first three decades of her life, she has shared many lessons that has influenced me so much. Of the many lessons, I will try to pinpoint the three most remarkable. 1. Worry not on the things you can not achieve. Focus on what you can do. While I am busy trying to plan an ambitious future, my sister provides a reality check for me. She sets my perspectives grounded and helps me realize that although I am willing to do everything I can, I still have limitations myself such that I can not achieve everything. As her primary objective is to live simply with less stress and complications, she gives a go...

Today (February 8, 2015) marks my 10000th day on earth. In this day, I would like to remember the 10 most memorable experiences I had in my life, which are worth remembering and sharing. Perhaps, only some of my closest friends and family members know about some of these events. However, I am making this post for others to know me better and perhaps get some inspiration and lessons from my experiences. First 1000 days: September 23, 1987 to June 19, 1990 Early life in a very close-knit family I only remember very little about this stage. It is expected just anybody else. However, I remember that this stage is perhaps the least complicated and most comfortable period in my life. During the day, my mother, father, grandparents take turns in taking care of me. Every need was addressed. They were present 24 hours a day. I remember they take turns in making fine gentle strokes in my back and hips until I fall asleep. As a result,  I cannot sleep without anyone besi...

Have you ever been asked a question that made you feel awkward or uncomfortable to a point that nearly made you hurt? Reasons may not be enough to explain why you feel so, but you would rather not be asked why or further since it makes your feeling worse. Why seems so hard to answer that you do not know how to react further. Questions have a lot meanings. It can be made easy but there exists a background why such question was made. The inquiries we make are rooted from what we value, how we were brought up by the society we live in, and the fears and thoughts we have. Whether planned or spontaneous, these questions can be thrown to anyone without considering how it can make the other feel. Moreover, regardless what reason or background these questions were made, at times we tend to forget that these questions by people, sometimes those who are dear and special to us. In addition, these awkward meaningful questions are greatest source of miscommunication and inconvenience. Many tend t...

There are many literatures dedicated to help one to be successful and achieve one's purpose in life. It seems everyone wants to possess both of these. Who would not want to? Nobody. However, did we ever make the distinction between making an achievement and striving for one's purpose. In this article, I will discuss seven ways of  comparison between an achievement 1. Achievement is merit to oneself; while your purpose is your contribution to others. When we were young our parents wanted to push us to achieve as much as possible. They prepare and teach us by sending us to school and improving our capabilities and skills. In doing so, they take pride from our achievements and we claim merit for our hardwork and determination. On the other hand, our life purpose depend not on our skills and capacity, rather on our ability to perceive the needs of our immediate surroundings and to effectively craft and implement ways to meet these needs. The more sensitive we become, the more we...