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Mostly Everything

Tips for a Successful Virtual Doctor’s Appointment

So, you have decided to take the plunge and have a consultation via the internet. While this is a great tool to use, it can also be a bit intimidating, especially for those who have tried something like this before. Now, it is important to maximize your time with your healthcare professional. This will lead to a more accurate diagnosis and will also help you to understand how to take care of yourself better. To make sure that your consultation is a success, here are some of the tips that you can rely on:

Choose a Physician Close to You

Sure, thanks to the internet, you can speak to a medical expert that is thousands of miles away. However, it is often better to choose someone who is a little closer to home. Fortunately, this is something that you can do since there are numerous services that let you contact someone close to you. For instance, you should be able to find Ontario family doctors in Toronto, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Kingston, Kitchener, Markham and other locations.

Make it a point to find a healthcare professional that is nearby to you, regardless of where you live. If you live in British Columbia, you can locate BC family physicians serving Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, Richmond, Port Coquitlam, Langley and other cities in British Columbia. So, don’t be afraid to do a little bit of digging and look around.

Gather Information Beforehand

It is a good idea to do a little bit of prep work before the consultation is underway. In particular, you should consider making a note of all of the symptoms that you are currently or were previously exhibiting. Write down exactly how you felt and what happened afterwards. This way, you will not forget to mention anything important during your appointment. You may also want to take photographs of cuts, boils, or rash so that you can send it separately to your medical expert. This will allow them to see it more clearly.

If possible, try to gather up some medical records that you may have had from previous doctors as well. This will provide your current healthcare professional with some important insight into your general health and condition.

Pay Attention and Make Clarifications

It is easy to zone out when someone isn’t right in front of you. However, it is imperative that you pay attention to what your doctor is telling you. This is the only way that you will be able to understand what is actually going on and thus treat yourself accordingly. Now, sometimes, you may be plagued with a poor internet connection. If you feel like the conversation has gotten stuck or skipped, make sure to say something. Always have your physician repeat what you felt you have missed. This will make sure that you receive any important diagnosis or information that you require.

These are some of the things that you need to keep in mind when attending a virtual consultation. This way, you will be able to make the most out of it and will be on your way to feeling better in no time at all.

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Mostly Everything

5 Bollywood Movies Shot in Shimla

Despite the growing trend of couples heading to foreign countries, Shimla remains the hottest destination for honeymoon couples. Same is the case with Bollywood movies! Despite huge budgets and trending foreign destinations, the picturesque Shimla attracts Bollywood cameras and has been doing this for ages.

A 1960 movie that gave Bollywood the veteran actress ‘Sadhna’ was not only shot in Shimla but also named after Shimla. The movie was called ‘Love in Shimla’. Despite many other shooting locations developed in India and abroad Shimla has not lost its charm for the film-makers due to its natural beauty.

It feels great when you visit a place with which you are already familiar with. So, get acquainted with the movies and scenes shot in Shimla before planning your trip and booking flight tickets from Delhi to Shimla on Yatra. Here is a list of 5 Bollywood Movies shot in Shimla.

Bang Bang!

The 2014 Bollywood movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif was shot in the picturesque Shimla. Katrina Kaif, the lead actress, has played a Shimla girl, Harleen Sahni, in the movie. The scenes of the movie were shot at different locations in Shimla namely Ritz, Kufri, Mall Road and Lakker Bazar. The shooting at Shimla was done for straight six weeks. Due to some reasons, a song and few action scenes were shot in Film city, Mumbai, by recreating Shimla.

3 Idiots

The revolution-creating Bollywood movie 3 Idiots have many scenes shot at Shimla. Various scenes of the movie were shot in town hall and Ritz at Shimla. The famous Woodville Palace of Shimla was shown as the house of Ranchhod Das Shammaldas Chanchad. The wedding scene of Kareena Kapoor from where she elopes with R.Madhwan and Sharman Joshi too was shot in the locales of Shimla. The mesmerising hill-station of Shimla has been captured in various frames for the movie. ‘Behti hawa sa that wo’ song was shot with Christ Church of Shimla in the frame.

Jab We Met

The enchanting Bollywood movie starring Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor had many scenes shot at Shimla and its neighbour Manali. The main locations of shooting of the movie included the beautiful Rohtang pass, Shimla-Kalka toy train and Shimla Mall Road. The romantic song ‘aaoge jab tum o saajna’ shows the serene beauty of Shimla on the silver screen. It was shot at the Mall Road. The summer hill area along with the mountain railways too has made the film beautiful with their significant presence.

Gadar Ek Prem Katha

The 2001 movie based on a love story suffering due to the partition of the nation, too has captured the mesmerising beauty of Shimla for the audience of Bollywood movies. The convent school shown in the movie is a convent school-based in Shimla. You might have guessed it was the famous Bishop Cotton’s School of Shimla. Few other locations too were used for the shooting of the film.

Main Tera Hero

It is interesting to note that David Dhawan, the director of the movie, shot many scenes in Shimla for the movie because he believes Shimla is a lucky location for him. Varun Dhawan starred the movie along with Nargis Fakhri and Ileana D’Cruz. The director captured St.Lawrence School, Shimla in the movie.

Is the movie lover inside you jumping with excitement to visit the beautiful locations of B-town movies’ shoot? Are you craving a visit to Woodville Palace, Town Hall, Mall Road, Shimla-Kalka toy train, Rohtang Pass and other similar locations? Then what are you waiting for?

Plan an affordable trip on Yatra and go for online booking of tickets from Delhi to Shimla or look for cheap flights from your location to Shimla. You can use Yatra for planning your affordable journeys.

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Mostly Everything

Can You Really Find Database Of Bad People On The Web?

Many times, we want to know who we are interacting with and who, at times, we may want to go ahead and avoid. What can you do to avoid bad people that you just want nothing to do with? Are there ways that you can better understand what is going on and how you can get away and ignore the most toxic people out there? Here are some thoughts on the matter.

Who Someone is Online Shows Their Character

The fact of the matter is, there are some people out there who are total and complete jerks. These people, often times, make it quite obvious and will let everyone know what is going on and why they should be completely avoided. Bad attitudes abound and, many times, you will notice that it can be quite simple to weed out the people who are going to give you the most problems in the long run.

Of course, you can often get the opposite as well. These people may seem really nice but then, after a while, you start to get curious about their character and who they are under the service. Sometimes you find that they really can be that nice. But, sometimes, when you get them online, you will be able to see that character more clearly than anything else that you may have been looking at with them. That can be stressful and, at times, really disappointing for you to try and face as well.

Looking Up Bad People Online

So, of course, you may want to try and head these people off at the pass, so to speak. How can you make sure that you don’t even associate with bad people in the first place? Did you know that you can actually go online and find a database of bad people that you may want to avoid? These sorts of websites actually take a lot of time to make sure that they can get data on people so that you can figure out who the bad folks are. Many of these sites have been checked over and, many times, you are going to notice that there are usually quite a few people in agreement about what is going on and why they are on the list. These databases can be great, because it can help you to avoid bad first dates and ensure that you aren’t going to get caught up with people you’d rather never associate with in the first place.

Above all else, you want to know that you have a fairly solid grip on who is good and who may be good to avoid as time goes on. By avoiding toxic people and staying away from them at all costs, you can be sure that you’re doing whatever may be best in regards to the larger picture. Figuring this out and knowing who is, and is not, worth your time and energy will make all of the difference in your life.

Image Credit: Pixabay

 

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Digressions

From Walwalan to Chillnuman: How to class up your drinking game

Notes: This post originally appears in Manila Bulletin’s MBLIFE.

So in the 90’s we had this thing called “house party,” which basically meant staying at home because we had no money. Our meager school allowance was left to the spoils of small change by the end of the week so between the half-dozen friends we could only really afford a bottle of rum and a liter (or two) of Coke. Yup, rum coke. Vodka sprite. These were the Gen X cheap cocktails of choice in a time before Andy Player and Tanduay Ice. And it’s probably the same for young millennials.

Spoiler alert: as you grow into your respective careers and earn a little bit more money, tastes change. Your affinity to sugary drinks and pre-mixed cocktails will start to wane, with preference to more sophisticated libations. Congratulations, you’re in the process of becoming a tito (or tita). But fret not! It simply means that you’re becoming more discerning with age: saying goodbye to cheap cocktails and saying hello to the world of whiskeys, single malts and gin & tonics.

Because whiskey is the most approachable in terms of availability and price, let’s start with that. For this piece, I went for a Johnnie Walker’s Blenders’ Batch, a curious dram which you can procure in S&R. I chose this for two reasons: Pinoys are already familiar with JW as a whiskey so it is held in high esteem because for some reason, JW Black’s vanilla notes appeal to the Pinoy taste. Second, this particular blend is an experimental one, in limited run and not so easy to find. So it’s basically hipster. And at P1,699 SRP, it’s still very affordable.

Here are three suggestions on how to consume this whiskey:

1. Neat (with a little water)

Taking your alcohol neat is the best way to appreciate the efforts put into creating the specific blend. For the JW Blenders’ Batch, you’re really getting something thematic – a “show off” of traditional American flavors – bourbon (which is made from corn) and rye (which is made from rye grain). The liquid is matured in bourbon casks and then transferred into former rye casks for as long as 6 months.

You will want to bring down the alcohol content from 40% to about 35% with a little dash of water – it really depends on how much you want but I’d recommend somewhere between a teaspoon to a tablespoon. Adding water opens up the flavors of the whiskey when you smell and taste it. It’s like smelling the grass after it rains – the rainfall opens up the flavors of the earth. Same goes for whiskey.

Instructions

Fill a whiskey glass or a Glencairn sipping glass with about 30ml of whiskey. You can add a little water, too.

2. Old Fashioned

It’s called an ‘Old Fashioned’ because it’s one of the oldest cocktails to date that’s stupidly simple to make. The resurgence of this cocktail in recent times is due to the rise of modern day speakeasy bars that mimic the prohibition era, as well as that episode in Mad Men where Don Draper fixes himself one behind the bar.

This cocktail is best made with an American whiskey – either bourbon or rye, so it’s rather thematic that we have the Blenders’ Batch on hand which is bourbon finished in rye casks. An old fashioned is really just a whiskey base with a sweetener such as sugar or sugar syrup and a dash of bitters. I prefer to use Angostura bitters (you can find this in online liquor stores, the liquor section of Landmark and South Supermarket in Alabang) but you can really just substitute this with a squeezed orange or lemon.

Instructions

Crush some sugar into a whiskey glass. I found that a tea spoon of brown sugar or muscovado works well. Add your bitters to wet the sugar and then pour 30-60ml of whiskey and stir to dilute. Add a huge ice cube. You may opt for small ice cubes but this may dilute the drink. You may substitute sugar with honey or simple syrup (simply heat a pan with 1:1 ratio of sugar and water) to make mixing easier.

3. Highball

If you’re trying to ease into the world of whiskey but find the taste too overpowering, you can dilute it with a can of soda water (not Coke!). You can easily find Canada Dry or Schweppes club soda in most supermarkets so fill a tall glass with ice, a shot of whiskey and top the glass with soda. Throw in a lemon or orange peel for class.

Instructions

Pour whiskey into a tall glass with ice. Pour soda water to the rim. Top with an orange peel or an umbrella or a slice of bacon. Whatever, really.

Categories
Digressions Geek

I can’t believe this piece is 11 years old. Oh how the world has changed.

Me: “Mobile Internet.” USD 140 laptops. HSDPA. Oh how the world has changed. 2006 was the wild west of mobile — the iPhone was new and Internet on your phone was a novelty. Oh the places we will go…

Publication: Mobile Philippines August 2006
Section: Columns
Column title: The prodigal screen protector and other bedtime stories

Mobile Internet? Yes, literally!

Well, the “Internet bus” will make waves, in my humble opinion, if it is used as a social development tool rather than for pure profit.

There is an ongoing project in Australia called StreetNet. This involves a huge bus, a dozen or so laptops hooked up inside, and wireless access eminating from a point of origin. The bus roams the streets of Sydney from 4 P.M. to midnight, helping the homeless keep in touch with the ever-changing rudiments of technology. How, you say? Because of their life circumstance, the less fortunate have it bad (yes, even in a place like Australia) when it comes to enjoying the basic leisure even modest households can enjoy, such as access to the Internet. I was looking over the project description: the cost of a huge van and infrastructure amounts to USD$100,000.00. Factors to consider are rising prices of gas, maintenance costs, and the availability of a wireless infrastructure in the area, among others.

Back here in the Philippines, there have been efforts to duplicate the “Internet bus” model. Remember back in the 80s when the Love Bus made waves because of its air conditioning? Well, the “Internet bus” will make waves, in my humble opinion, if it is used as a social development tool rather than for pure profit.

For one thing, driving around a huge bus with Net access in the city will do nothing more than contribute to the traffic and pollution. For something like this to unleash its full potential, the following things could be taken into consideration:

First. The target market should be the rural areas that cannot afford to have Internet access due to the lack of infrastructure. And speaking of infrastructure, a lot of households in the rural farms of Batangas can actually afford to buy computers but cannot afford to maintain them due to leaks and other weather intrusions. Having a one-stop shop “iBus” kills two birds with one stone.

Second. The Philippines is actually the first Asian country to successfully launch HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) commercially. Known as 3.5G, HSDPA was implemented by Globe last month on its networks, providing very fast data access wirelessly. This makes the mobile Internet café concept much more feasible.

Third. What about cost? Well, I’m no business junkie, but I believe projects like these should fall under a corporation’s CSR division or Foundation where overhead costs are shouldered by sponsorships and donations that should at least break even in the long run. The objective: the goal isn’t profit, but uplifting the technology literacy level of those who cannot afford due to circumstance.

The mobile Internet café is probably the most ideal solution for developing countries. I believe there are several organizations and corporations working together to bring the cheapest laptop or PC to the market. You have IBM, Intel, Microsoft and AMD, among others, plus Negroponte’s foundation that aims to bring the US$140.00 laptop to the masses. But once you bring these to them, what next? Will they actually use them? Will they just sell them or rent these out? I trust the entrepreneurial drive of most people below the hamburger index, and they will do almost anything to make money. The last thing they need is a computer. With the contained environment of the “iBus,” they can be taught, on a purely voluntary basis, about taking the next step in upgrading their lives.