Latest Developments on the Treatment of Parkinson Disease

Dinah's Visit last Year- Macrine's enjoyed very much visit from relatives. A phone call from relatives and friends are most welcome!

In the next couple of weeks will be the 5th year after Macrine was officially diagnosed with Parkinson Disease. Today I believe she is on Stage 2, thus the medications, diet and exercise did retard the progression of her debilitating nervous system disorder. There are days when she feels she can do anything even cook or travel, but there are days when she is down and could barely walk. Most of the time she sleeps about 10 to 12 hours per day as side effect of her medication. Sometimes she is confused and thinks she is in the Philippines. She sometimes forget where she places things. You have to remind her of taking her medications etc...

I am lucky and grateful that our youngest son (David III) helps me taking care of His Mom on his day off from work. Otherwise my duty as the primary care taker would be unbearable. We are in the process of hiring part-time help ( not covered by my insurance) to help me with daily care and demands of Macrine, my spouse for over 60 years now. One of the positives, I learned for being a primary care giver was to be more patient and understanding.

Again, thank you David III for your help! Thanks to all relatives and friends who had visited Macrine both here in the US and in the Philippines. Special thanks to those relatives who call Macrine regularly just to say Hello. I would not mentioned names but you know you are and indeed we highly appreciate your thoughtfulness and kindness. Keep the call coming, rain or sunshine!

The Nieva Brothers and their wives visit in Amoingon, Boac, Marinduque, Philippines 2016 ( From L to R: Yong, Rene, Genny, Wendy, Oski, Macrine and Me)

Below is the latest development on treatments of Parkinson Disease for your information. Read on..

https://www.michaeljfox.org/files/111617_MJFF_YIR_8.5X11_DIGITAL.PDF?et_cid=1020600&et_rid=224829673&et_lid=Research+Year+in+Reviewem_cid=

My Prediction for the Three Major Oscar Winners for 2018

I have been following the Oscar Winners for the last three decades. This year my prediction for Best Picture is Call Me by Your Name, for Lead Actor-Timothee Chalamet and for Lead Actress-Sally Hawkins ( from the Shape of Water). The are nine movies nominated for Best Picture, five for Lead actor and five also for Lead Actress.

For the Best Picture category, I based my prediction from the Trailers and Reviews and from opinions of friends and relatives who have seen the movies. I have only viewed the movie, Get Out.

For the rest of the 8 Best Picture nominees: I have read all the reviews, trailers and TV interviews, story lines and viewers reception published in the Web. My second and third choices for best Picture is The Shape of Water and Lady Bird respectively. The nominees for the three major categories ( best picture, lead actor and actress) are as follows:


Best Picture:

“Call Me by Your Name”
“Darkest Hour”
“Dunkirk”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“Phantom Thread”
“The Post”
“The Shape of Water”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Lead Actor:

Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

Lead Actress:

Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Meryl Streep, “The Post”

The Oscar nominations for the 90th annual awards in all categories were announced last week from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California.

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” lead the pack with 13 nominations. “Dunkirk” followed behind with eight nods and Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” with seven. All three films earned best picture nominations.

The rest of the category was rounded out by “Call Me By Your Name,” “Darkest Hour,” “Get Out,” “Phantom Thread,” “Lady Bird,” and “The Post.”

The Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will be aired live on ABC on March 4.

Did Your Parents Give You a Lucky Name?

Image from luux.com

My late Mother-in-law had given my wife a formula based on numbers for predicting whether a marriage, a birth of a child or any addition to your household will bring good or bad luck or even death to your family or household. My wife had followed this formula when we assigned names to our four children. I am not superstitious, but I follow it also, because I have witnessed several cases of relatives in the Philippines, that had suffered early death, divorce or sickness because the combination of the baptismal names of the couples falls into the category of CONDENADO ( meaning condemned or death). This an update.

There are five categories, BUENAS( good luck), DUDUSO ( doubtful), PELIGRO ( danger), MALAS( bad luck) and CONDENADO. I have the number values for the 26 alphabets and the numbers that are suppose to be lucky, doubtful, danger, bad luck or condemned. But my wife refused to give her permission that I divulge this in my blog. But here is the essence of this pseudo science of numerology.

The 26 alphabets are assigned numerical values from zero to 26. Some of the alphabets have the same values. Eight alphabets are valued 12, four alphabets are valued 9, three alphabets are valued 18, and the rest from of the alphabets are valued from zero to 26.

The letters in your Baptismal name is added. This sum tells the numerologist if your number is either of the above five categories. Then the baptismal name of your wife is also added. The sum of your name and your spouse is added. If it exceeds 30, you start counting to 1. If you have a baby, the baptismal name of the baby is added to both husband and wife's total. Any addition to the household, even household help must be considered especially if the maid, cook or gardener lives in your house.

So how will you know if the sum of all the names in your household will bring you good or bad luck?

There is a list of lucky numbers, unlucky numbers, doubtful numbers, danger numbers and condemned numbers. There are 7 lucky numbers among them are 7, 9 and 11. There are eight unlucky numbers among them are 4, 8, and 29. There are 20 doubtful numbers among them are 5, 6 and 27. There are 8 danger numbers among them 12, 15 and 23. There are 8 condemned numbers among them are 3, 13 and 30.

Let me cite a specific example. My name "David" has a numerical value of 30 or zero. From the chart of 5 categories it is a bad number. So my parents did not give me a lucky name. But if you combined it with my wife's name value 21 our total is 21. The number 21 is doubtful. When our oldest son was born we made it sure that the combination of our 3 names is among the lucky numbers of 1,3,7, 9, and 11.

This numerology system is similar but not identical to the Chinese numerology. For example number 4 is a pretty bad number in Cantonese, for it sounds death, but in this system 4 is a good number. Eight is a good number in Chinese, but a danger number in this system. Both 1 and 9 are good numbers in Chinese and in my mother-in-law numerology chart.

Curious? I am sorry I can not elaborate more on this. My wife says, it will be bad luck to give details of this Numerology Activity that my Mother-in-law had been practicing for years when she was still alive. Evidently, this has been passed from generation to generation and believe to have originated from Spain. Have you heard a similar activity in your local province in the Philippines, UK or in Spain?.

Read the following related article:

https://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Your-Name-Number-in-Numerology

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E-Minor-Hilary Hahn

Time for some violin music

I first heard of this violin piece in 1952 when I was in first year college at the University of the Philippines, Iloilo College. One of my dorm mates was a violinist. He informed me he had been playing the violin since he was 10 years old. He hailed from Bacolod City. On Saturdays, he would play his violin with his door closed not disturbing his fellow dorm mates. But the sound of his violin reverberated on the thin walls separating our room. One day I heard the Mendelssohn concerto and I was forced to knock on his door asking him if I could stay in his room to listen while he was playing the piece. This was the first time I really enjoyed listening to a classical violin music. Here's more information on Felix Mendelssohn.

http://www.library.yale.edu/musiclib/exhibits/mendelssohn/mendelssohn.htm

Here's Hilary Hahn with her violin! Enjoy!
Hilary Hahn is an American violinist and was born on November 27, 1979. In her active international career she has performed throughout the world both as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors and as a recitalist. She also has built a reputation for championing contemporary music. Several composers have written works especially for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon and partitas by Antón García Abril.

Improve Your Parenting Skills as a New Year Resolution

The 4 D's from Left to Right: Dinah, David III, Me, Macrine, Dodie and Ditas, 2016

Today is Day One of the Year of our Lord, 2018. To most of us we believe in a resolution to improve our lives. So, If you are a parent, I suggest you improve your parenting skills.

The other day while talking about my children careers, my Italian-American neighbor asked me if Macrine and I had good parenting skills. Without hesitation I said yes, because all my four children are successful in their chosen careers. (http://davidbkatague.blogspot.com/2017/12/dinah-and-david-iii-professional.html).

I know we were not perfect parents, But we did try to be good parents. Are you a good Mother or Father? Read on...

There are six qualities to possess to be good parents: Patience, a good Listener, very Understanding, Consistent, show empathy, and excellent ability to express love. If you possess 4 to 6 of these qualities, I believe you have good parenting skills. For details and specifics on these qualities read:

http://kids.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Good_Qualities_in_a_Parent