Saturday, July 30, 2016

The Gerardo Chronicles

Saturday Stories
July 30, 2016 Edition
The way the big pharmaceutical companies would mark up their products almost twice the price is true. I first heard about it during the expose of then Senator Manuel Roxas, who is now Secretary of the Interior and running for President next year, when he was pushing his landmark Cheaper Medicine Act.

I just got more inside stories from a friend whom I will call Gerardo, a retired supervisor of medical field representatives. I was on my second day in a row at the mall food court with root beers from the supermarket.

I have heard that a physician's sample of a drug is more potent that what you get from pharmacies, and apparently it is not true either.

To Be Continued Next Saturday

Prescription For Change: Investigating Overpriced Drugs
CBS This Morning


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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Saturday, July 23, 2016

How One Life Touches The Other

Saturday Stories
July 23, 2016 Edition
A friend and I went to the grocery to look for stuff for the upcoming traditional Christmas exchange gifts. We talked for over an hour at the food court. We are both "old-school" when it comes to relationships.

I finally found a woman who believes in forever. I got to know her entire life, with orange juice for her and a can of rootbeer for me, and a large bag of chips between us.

I have always felt it is an honor when people share their lives. But when it comes to my ability to steer the conversation away from me, I think of it as a gift.

~ Huggybear Diaries, December 4, 2015, Friday

Ever Since the World Began


"How one life touches the other is so hard to understand;
still we walk this road together, we travel through as far as we can,
and we have waited for this moment in time ever since the world began..."

Photo courtesy of lifehack.org


Wednesday, July 20, 2016

My Favorite Song From Fiction Factory

Wednesday Songs 
July 20, 2016 Edition
(Feels Like) Heaven



Photo courtesy of simplyeighties.com


Saturday, July 16, 2016

Everyday Thanksgiving

Saturday Stories
July 16, 2016 Edition
Everyday Thanksgiving

Since I learned to appreciate the many blessing, big and small, in my life, I feel myself getting more open. My private life is still strictly off-limits, but I have long ago stopped being defensive with intruders.

"How it's going, bro?" asked a friend.

"Still the same," I smiled. "Everyday is a miracle."

He said he liked that.

"That," I said, "is called the Attitude of Gratitude!"

~ Huggybear Diaries, December 4, 2015, Friday

Attitude of Gratitude
Brian Tracy


Photo courtesy of returnofkings.com



Wednesday, July 13, 2016

My Favorite Song From The Adventures

Wednesday Songs 
July 13, 2016 Edition

Two Rivers


Photo courtesy of musiconvinyl.blogspot.com

Saturday, July 09, 2016

Standing On My Own

Saturday Stories
July 9, 2016 Edition
 Standing On My Own

My work, as a writer and in my present office job, is all about creativity and spontaneity. Yet I want my life neat and ordered, designed by my own individual needs.

I'm a man of habit like Saul Grisman, the hero of David Morell's The Brotherhood of The Rose, the epitome of precision and an absolute professional at the top of his game.

The orphan Saul, his best friend Chris and their foster father Eliot have become more than just protagonists from a novel for me, even now when I had lost the book along with over a hundred other paperbacks during the Ondoy flood in 2009 when I was still in Manila.

A character becomes special when you see an aspect of yourself in him. I'm not a covert intelligence operative like Saul, but I was also an orphan, and I saw the death of my best friend and my own foster father.

I am a survivor, and I have known how it is when you look around and find that the people you love are gone, when you somehow feel abandoned, even though you knew deep in your heart you are never alone.

~ Huggybear Diaries, Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Brotherhood Of The Rose


Photo courtesy of booknvolume.com


Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Saturday, July 02, 2016

Trust The Unfolding

Saturday Stories
July 2, 2016 Edition
 Trust The Unfolding

I told the caretaker yesterday to tell the landlord to lower my rent. I gave her the amount I want the rate to be, explaining that I would stay long if the rent is reasonable. I really doubt they will find a boarder as quiet, clean and reliable as I am.

My plan is to find a better place, someplace cheaper that could also meet my need to stabilize my bank account, if they refused. They did and I just got the word.

The mere fact this happened means there is a more ideal place waiting for me out there. I have no idea where it could be, but I know I'll find it and I'm already excited to see it. This is called trusting the universe.

~ Huggybear Diaries, Thursday, December 3, 2015

Trust In The Universe Like Another
Alan Watts

Photo courtesy of yoganonymous.com and thespiritscience.net