LCHS-AA forms committees, adopts Spectrum
By Johnny T. Chen (Batch '83)

The outgoing officers of the LCHS Alumni Association formally turned over the leadership of the Association to the new officers headed by Arturo Samson in a special board meeting held last July 22.  Various key committees were formed with the following compositions: Scholarship Committee - Fe "Dy Guat Ching" Quimbo, chair; Dy Sun Kang and Glenda "Hong Hong" Sy, members; Ways & Means - Vy Beng Hong, chair; Christopher Chua Tek An and Carlos Dy, members; Education - Rodolfo "Rudy" Yu, chair; Teresita Racines and Chiok Hian Dy-Wang, members; Social - Dy Sio Te, chair; Juanita "Kheng Dian" Jo and Andy Ang-Lee, members; Membership - Teresita Racines, chair; and Juanita Jo, mmember; and Publications & Communications - Johnny Chen, chair; Manuel Te and Suniel Lim, members.

The board likewise agreed to adopt the LCHS Spectrum as official newsletter of the Association. All officers present manifested their support by being among the first batch of subscribers and sponsors of the Spectrum up to the seventh week.  Prior to adjournment, various matters were calendared for the agenda in the next regular board meeting on Aug. 13, one of which is the formation of the Steering Committee for year 2000 events.

Spectrum holds staff meeting via Internet

The first printed edition of the Spectrum hit the streets and reached its first batch of subscribers in Iligan City last week.  However, as in most maiden voyages, setting up and printing the master copy from the Web was not exactly smooth sailing. The process ran into some snags.  Fixing the problem, however, posed several knotty issues for the staff. The main problem was how to set up the Spectrum for bulk printing without deviating from its Internet format. This prompted the editors to call a meeting of the staff members. And so on July 19 and 20, the staff held a unique meeting: E-mail Conferencing. Logging on to the Internet, the editors and staff members formed a virtual network linkage by discussing the agenda using the editor's multiple e-mail filters as routing and auto-reply channel.

Among the staff who took part in this first Spectrum cyber meeting were Charles Sy, presiding; Ernesto Yu, Alex Rodriguez, Loloy Tan, Johnny Chen, Peter Dy, and Rene Tio. Each one of them situated in different corners of the globe. Distance, in this instance, became irrelevant. The group discussion was vibrant and vigorous.   And the kinks were soon ironed out. It was our first staff meeting via the power of the Internet.  Yet, who knows, based on its fruitful outcome, it looks like the staff may have more of such group dynamics in the near future. Or perhaps until another thorny problem arises to jolt the Spectrum anew?
 

E-MAILS

Rejoinder to "For Sale - Australian Services"
Sat, 18 Jul 1998 09:35:03 -0400

I would like to add my comment to the article "For Sale - Australian Services" in Leonardo Tan's column,  "Briefs from Down Under" (Spectrum, July 20, 1998).  Way before when Ronald Reagan was the governor in California, he initiated the privatization of all major government companies in that state. That pilot study somehow, to some extent, started to swift the entire US of A. We are even thinking here now of privatizing our Social Security System to save it from turning into a  milking cow in the hands of the government. The point is when government is in charge of the business, no permanent entity is in charge of the business. People come and people go. And money, too, comes and goes with them as well. Eventually, it will go down to the bottom. Is that what's happening to RP's PNB, PAL, NPC, and NSC?

Name withheld upon request, LCHS alumnus, New Jersey, U.S.A.
 

TRACERS

Random updates on alumni whatabouts & whereabouts

This week's "Tracers" tracks down the current goings-on and whereabouts of LCHS alumni all over the world as gathered by Spectrum's pack of impromptu paparazzi.  So here we go.  Several alumni wanderlusts are currently on globetrotting sprees.  Fernando Khu (Batch '65) and Edwin Co (Batch '68), two good buddies and brothers in the Iligan Masonic Lodge, are currently on a whirlwind tour of the U.S.A. and Canada.  Mike Lee (Batch '66), Spectrum's correspondent in Canada, is now on a pleasure cruise around the U.S.A., Mexico, and the Bahamas with his family.  Another Spectrum staffer bitten by the travel bug is Leonardo "Eddie" Tan (Batch '66), who will soon be jetting off to a  month-long swing through the U.S.A. and Canada with his wife (his Philippine side trip has been aborted due to the ongoing PAL pilots strike).  Speaking of travels, in case you need fast and efficient booking for your travel plans,  try visiting Aida Lim-Uy (Batch '61) in Cebu. She manages the Fortune Travel International.  Another alumnus into the travel & tour business is Larry Sy (Batch '72), who runs his own travel outfit called Agape Travel in Burnham, Illinois, U.S.A.  Larry was in town recently with his wife to attend the wedding anniversary of his parents-in-law in Cebu.  If you have problems with arthritis, sinusitis, bronchitis, or whatever-itis, how about checking it out with Felipe "Boy" Lim (Batch '70), now an acupuncture master in Cebu?  Felipe also prescribes Chinese herbs for all kinds of ailments.  It's not known, however, if he has now concocted a Chinese herbal version of Viagra.  For this you may have to inquire from Conchita "Kheng Giok" Te-Ong (Batch '61).  Who knows, she may have the answer to one's quest for the Chinese formula of this magic panacea tucked away somewhere in the shelves at Cebu's China Drug Store, where Conchita works.  And if all else fails or something goes haywire, well,  you can seek legal relief from Romulo Tiu (Batch '61), who's now a successful lawyer in Tacloban City.

Dateline Buffalo By Ernesto L. Yu, M.D., Batch '65  Ernstyu49@aol.com

Can it be a moment of mental aberration or a glint of weird science?  Revved up oldsters from Planet Extinction, instead of being in a whimpering state of sedation, are coordinating dance instructions among squirming juniors who are supposedly pseudo-gods in hipness quotient when the projects deal with wriggling hips and non-methological thrashing of extremities to the rhythmic propulsions of bouncy tunes. I'm talking about ballroom dancing, the calisthenics of choice for greying dinosaurs with anatomy components resembling pulpy fruits who could barely manage to isolate the independence of their cerebral agility from the virulent tampering of Alzheimer's bugs, and who preserve an amplified appreciation of '50s lounge music. Nothing is more morbidly intriguing than to witness the consolidation of a generation gap, where dreams and talents of different time frames mesh smoothly and coolly. Sadly, while the young ones handle these sessions as nothing more than slashing cheap sweats, the Neantherthals are in a mad rush to the neighborhood pharmacy for the over-the-counter balms and tonics to lull their morning-after anguishing moans.

Life is really full of irony and easy chuckles.

Spin the Fox Trot and Tango tempos. Tone up muscles you never realized you had.

Now, if I can just zap these nagging cramps, I can justifiably rekindle 10 golden years from my shrinking spine!
 

Briefs from Down Under By Leonardo "Eddie" Tan, Batch '66 edtan@idx.com.au

When I was still a college student in Architecture, I had the chance of meeting an old architect who was once a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, the very famous American architect of the 20th century. He asked me if I had crazy ideas. Why? To be a successful architect you must have a crazy mind and imagination. Now I know that I don't, that's why I don't practice architecture. But our world has gone crazy and mad beyond our dreams.

It seems that almost everything is possible now with the aid of our advancing science and technology. Man has now been tampering with Mother Nature. I will only confine my observations to one. And that is human reproduction.

Somewhere in England this week, a beautiful young lady will be celebrating her 20th birthday.  She is the world famous Louise.  The way she was conceived was greeted with great controversies. And theologians were at a lost regarding the moral issues involved. For Louise is the first "test tube" baby. But today, the procedure is so common and it has brought much happiness to millions of mothers who otherwise could not have conceived naturally. No more controversies. Catholic priests even happily baptized them.

Such is the nature of our society. Controversial at first. Then accepted as norm after the passing of time.

Are we going to accept human cloning in some distant future? The technology is here and already tried successfully with some animals. This is another example of science fiction becoming a reality. This is very terrifying as I believe Mother Nature never intended it to be.

A woman just won a case in a court here in Australia allowing her to impregnate herself with the sperms that were extracted from her dead husband. The woman might have gotten the idea from similar cases in the U.S.A. and the United Kingdom. And now it has spread here in Down Under. Of course this is a bit controversial here at the moment. Will this be accepted in the future?

Heard about a woman somewhere in U.S.A. who got married last month?  Nothing special about the wedding.  She got the ring, the cake, and her relatives and friends in attendance. But minus the groom! She was marrying herself!

I fear that the world is really coming to an end. That is, at least, for us the male specie! Fellow MEN, we are becoming redundant in this crazy world.

Sentimental Journey By Henry L. Yu, M.D., Batch '69 charlesy@durian.usc.edu.ph

Knock! Knock! Is the doctor in?

Cebu City. July 15, 1998. I was at Arts Magnate Learning Center in Banilad for the annual physical examination of the pupils in that school. There were 180 of them that I had to examine that day, from the toddlers to the grade five pupils.

Doing the job was not new to me as I have been doing this for the past four years now as their school physician. Besides, I have been in private practice since 1985 catering to a lot of patients with different ailments; some trivial, others difficult and challenging.

While examining these kids, my memories were brought back to that time in my life when I was a grader myself at LCHS, when I was the one being examined by our school doctor for our very own annual physical exam.  How time really flies! In those days, we would reluctantly submit ourselves to the doctor because we always associated him with injections, etc. However, as early as that age when I was a grader, I was rather an exception to the rule. I did not have any fears of being examined by the doctor. In fact, I always looked forward to seeing him because deep in me I had always wanted to be like him. Well, a doctor with a stethoscope, very dignified, helpful, and one who treats diseases of people from all walks of life. As early as my grade school days in LCHS, I already had the feeling that someday I, too, would become like him. I remember some of my classmates crying no end as the doctor examined them. I also remember telling the doctor that when I grew up I wanted to be like him. That dream became a reality when I enrolled at the Cebu Institute of Medicine in 1973. And as the proverbial saying goes, "The rest is history."

But becoming a doctor is not that easy. There is no short-cut to it. We have to strive real hard, burning midnight candles, so to speak. A lot of times saw us doing overtime and cramming for the many exams that were scheduled the following day. Coffee and cigarettes were the mainstays in our life as a medical student. The fear of failing, much more to be debarred from the academe, had always been our dilemma. There was no turning back. I had to be a doctor come what may. While most of my former high school classmates were already up there working as bankers, store managers, engineers, architects, etc. I, on my part, was still striving so hard to reach my goals. I could not fail my parents, relatives, classmates, etc. They who were already looking forward to the day that I would become a full-fledged doctor. (Continued next issue)

Dr. Do Little By Alex S. Rodriguez, M.D., Batch 1965 alpacino_8@hotmail.com

From childhood to maturity, there are numerous common practices and misconceptions we encounter from our parents, relatives and friends whom we grow up with, yet remained unresolved until we go into higher education where we will start to understand the mechanics of life itself. There are more questions which are left unanswered and buried within our cerebrum because they will remain insignificant until we experience such a situation and/or condition.

1.  Myth regarding hypertension or high blood.

I used to believe, as what had been taught to us, that a person who is hypertensive should stay awake most of the day because too much sleep can aggravate the condition.  The reverse is true because blood pressure is governed by your stroke volume (which means the amount of blood ejected by the heart per cardiac contraction), and the peripheral vascular resistance (which is the total pressure exerted by the small blood vessels to the circulation). There are many types of hypertension as there are many causes. Depending on the type of hypertension, that will be the approach to your treatment. The more relaxed a person is, the better will be the blood pressure since there will be less workload to the heart, less hormonal release and less energy demand to the peripheral tissues.  Ergo, rest can help in lowering the blood pressure.

2.  Myth regarding fever, chills and sponge bath.

Some people think that wetting a febrile patient can increase the temperature especially if one has chills.  Sponge bath can help in lowering the fever because it promotes convection and radiation of heat.  More so with concomitant chills because shivering will produce so much heat from muscular contractions thus the more you should do sponge bath aside from the antipyretic or antifever pills which will act on the thermostatic center in the brain and peripheral on the skin, which will promote evaporation of heat through sweating. (Continued next issue)