Prudence and Madness

Who would have thought that Ms. Annalyn Jusay of Manila Bulletin’s Blog-O-Rama will take notice of this lowly doctor’s blog?

But then, she did. And I’m particularly flattered and excited that she took notice. I don’t know if my blog is hot stuff like that of Misteryosa and Mae Paulino’s blog, which have also been featured in her column. But then, maybe I do offer some uniqueness in the world wide blogosphere. After all, it is not everyday that one encounters a blogger doctor, right? Haha. I think I should ask Ms. Annalyn why she chose to feature my blog.

But anyway, I’m happy to be seeing my own words and header image printed in color in a newspaper.
If you can’t hunt for a Manila Bulletin newspaper at this time, maybe you’d just like to read the online version or just continue reading this post…

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A DOCTOR BLOGS AT ‘PRUDENCE AND MADNESS’

By Annalyn S. Jusay (now blogging at www.annalyn.net)

Tess Termulo is a 26-year old who blogs avidly while serving the rest of humanity as an emergency room doctor. Though she aspires to be a specialist in internal medicine someday, there’s no stopping her from writing about her life at her own site mystically titled “Prudence and Madness.” Does writing and being a doctor go together? She says it is possible and the secret is passion. ” The pursuit of scientific knowledge allures me, as well as the art of expressing my thoughts through writing. It is one proof, perhaps, that a creative writer and a scientist as one person is not really that far-fetched and contradictory nor does it require enormous ingenuity. Only honesty and true love for what you are doing are needed.” Let’s get to know more about this doctor’s thoughts in the following interview:

Q. Can you give us a background on how and when I started to blog?

 

A. Like many other bloggers, I started with creating personal websites using free webhosting services like Geocities, Angelfire, and Tripod. I got attracted to the idea of making myself and my work (my writings) known to a community of online users who are interested in what I’ve got to offer creatively. So, my early websites consisted of a short biography and samples of my poetry and essays.

 

 

But I’m not much knowledgeable with HTML back then and I just relied on the tools offered by these free webhosting sites. After a while, I got dissatisfied and for a time, I wasn’t able to post much on these personal sites.

 

I don’t exactly remember how I started with blogging. Most bloggers I know usually ask this of me and I simply don’t know the answer. I can’t remember if anyone introduced me to blogging or if I read some particular blogs. All I know is that I ended signing up for a Blogger account. I was, then, born in the blogosphere on May 18, 2005, in my new home, The Darkness of Prudence. This was a personal blog but then I started posting some poetry. I used “The Darkness of Prudence” as my poetry blog and created “Prudence and Madness” ( http://prudencemadness.blogspot.com), still in Blogger, as my personal blog.

 

I got the usual “hang-ups” that I started exploring other sites that offer free blog-hosting and photo-hosting services: Buzznet, Multiply, Friendster Blogs, LiveJournal, and others that I’ve already forgotten. I’m still maintaining my multiply site (http://altashheth.multiply.com) and using it as my photo gallery. About the other blogs, like my friendster blog, Prudence I Write ( http://altashheth.blogs.friendster.com), I only get to visit once in a while.

 

 

Eventually, I gained more knowledge about blogging and wanted more flexibility with managing my blog. I moved to my own domain, http://tesstermulo.com, I think, January this year.

 

 

Q. What do you like about blogging as an activity? What do you think is the best thing about it?

 

A. It’s a great stress-reliever. I started blogging when I was a medical intern and the 24-hour duties and obnoxious patients, residents, and consultants were just so damn stressful. I needed an outlet for all my rants about the co-intern or resident that really pissed me off, my frustrations with a really arrogant patient and my raves about a movie I saw or a book I’ve just read and the like. The blog afforded me that. The blog is also an avenue for my writing. It is a space where I can practice my art and receive the response I needed. Comments encouraged me to write more, as I suffered a sort of “creativity constipation” (I’m in remission, but I do get lapses every once in a while). People are also welcome to criticize the writing style, etcetera, but most of my blog visitors don’t do so, but, instead, just respond to the ideas that I want to come across to them, my audience. They appreciate my sensible and interesting ideas. And maybe they also appreciate that I let them take a peek through my life as a young Filipina doctor in a country wherein health care professionals are starting to dwindle.

 

 

The best thing about blogging, perhaps, is the sense of having your own space in the cyberworld, where it can be accessed by thousands of potential readers. Though many people might want to write in newspapers or to be on TV or radio so that their ideas can be heard, not everybody will be able to do so. Blogs, at least, give the lay persons the chance to broadcast whatever they want to tell the world and the world, if it chooses to, will be able to hear them and respond to them. That is, in essence, a freedom of expression.

 

 

Q. What advice can you give on getting started in blogging and maintaining one’s blog?

 

A. Being a blog addict that I am, I’ve been encouraging most of my close friends to start and keep a blog. The common questions that I get from them are the following:

 

 

1) I’m not good with HTML or CSS. What do I do?

2) I don’t know if I have enough time. How do I go about starting it and when?

3) What do I write on my blog?

 

 

As for #1, there are plenty of blogging platforms these days that will not require you extensive knowledge of HTML and CSS. For beginners, I would recommend using LiveJournal or Blogger. One can create a blog in a few minutes in a step-by-step fashion. You’ll need to be only minimally computer literate to be able to do this. And it’s free! Also, it’s almost hassle-free because you don’t have to worry about maintaining files, etcetera. You only need to concern yourself with the content. Just write your post in the text editor and then click the submit button when you’re done. Simple as that.

 

 

But, of course, when you’ve gained experience as a blogger, you may want to put more enhancements in your blog. You can still do this with Blogger. But, when you come to this stage, I would say it would be good if you get your own domain and a good web-hosting service provider. It will give you the chance to learn and practice HTML and CSS. Also, your own domain is more personalized, speaks more of who you are.

 

 

It would be good to think of a catchy, unique domain name before starting to register one. I don’t know just yet if my decision to name my domain with my real name is good or not (it’s been only up for 5 months, as of now). But at the time I registered it, I got attracted to the idea of “owning” a space in the WWW. So I named it like that. Maybe it’s vanity speaking.

 

 

As for #2, like with the other activities that you do, looking for the time to blog is up to you. Even the busiest people find the time to put up their blogs, if they choose to. So, if you do decide to put up a blog, then think of your schedule and decide when it is the best time for you to make blog updates. Do it at night after work or in the early morning before you go out, or while on the go. It’s really up to the blog owner.

 

 

As for #3, for newbie bloggers, just write what’s on your mind. It’s easier to start a personal blog than a topic-specific blog. Eventually, though, you’d find your “niche” (one of the favorite and most overused word by bloggers, hehe) in the blogosphere. Or you may just stick with keeping with a personal blog. If you’re still uncertain, just start with posts about what you’re thinking most of the time. Or something that has caught your attention. Write a commentary on a news article or a movie or book review. Start with something and when you feel the “flow”, go where it will take you. In my case, I write about my moonlighting experiences because that’s what I have most of the time.

 

 

Q. Care to share your online/blogging habits?

 

A. When I start my computer, the first things I check online are my blog and my email inbox to check if there are new comments on my blog or new threads in the mailing lists I’m subscribed to. I also update my twitter. After I’ve responded to the comments and discussion threads and updated my twitter, I go post my blog entries or visit my favorite blogs. I use a site, www.rssfwd.com, to subscribe to my favorite blogs. Partial and full-text feeds of blogs I’m subscribed to are sent to my email using this site. I prefer having it this way than using a separate RSS reader because it’s much convenient for me, knowing, at a glance, which of these blogs have been recently updated. Of course, I still go visit their sites.

 

 

 

Q. Your opinion on blogging for therapy and blogging for monetary rewards.

 

A. As I’ve said, blogging for me is a stress-reliever. I don’t want this taken away from me. I think I’d go crazy :-). On the other hand, I think, if I’m not too careful, though, I might end up getting too consumed by blogging and forget about the other parts of my life. It’s just a matter of balancing my online and offline existence.

 

 

I have nothing against monetizing one’s blog. I, for one, have been using Google Adsense and Blog-to-Profit. As of now, I have only reaped monetary reward from BTP. It’s fun receiving a monetary reward for doing something I consider as a hobby. I don’t mind deriving some income from it. But I don’t think I’d be gearing my blog to be a money-making site. I think my vanity takes precedence over my want for money. Hahaha.

 

 

Q. What do you think about having a Blogger’s Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics?

 

A. At this stage of the ever-evolving blogosphere, we are already following unwritten rules in blogging. One of these is the rule regarding plagiarizing blog content. We, too, are pissed off when another blogger copies our posts and reposts it as his own just the same way we are pissed off when something we wrote in a book/journal/magazine/newspaper is ripped and reproduced in another form and another person claims ownership for it. We get pissed off when a certain information presented by a blogger as truthful misleads us. We are greatly bothered if another blogger would start to be verbally violent towards another blogger to the point that he gives the impression that he may actually carry out what he’s been threatening to do.

 

 

To this, one would say, “but those are common rules, common sense”. Precisely, my point. Common sense is but a collection of points proven rational/logical. And common sense are rules that we follow in everyday life. So why be averse to putting up such rules?

 

But then, again, it depends on the rules you’re going to put up. If bloggers, somehow, would consent to putting up “rules for blogging”, I’m not convinced that the present draft would be the best way to go about it.

 

 

So, for those who’re waiting for me to say yes or no to Blogger’s Code of Conduct/Ethics, I’m saying yes…if the blogger’s code of conduct/ethics will read: be a rational and moral human being. Rationality is all we need in the blogosphere.

 

 

 

Q. Name five things you can’t live without as a blogger.

 

A. 1) Online Dictionary/thesaurus (although a hardcopy would do) - there may be some grammatical errors and typos once in a while, but I’m conscious about those and I prefer that I stay acceptably grammatically correct most of the time

2) My notebook (a.k.a. scratch pad) and a pen - I come up with blog ideas at unexpected times, like while riding the MRT or while cooking. I need paper where I can write down ideas as it come to me. I’m still a bit old-fashioned. I love paper.

3) My camera phone - I don’t lug a digicam around with me all the time. But I do have my cellphone with camera with me at all times. So, if I see something that looks “bloggable”, then I try to capture it with my camera phone. It’s not a high resolution camera but it works for me.

4) My computer - okay, I know I can blog even at internet cafes. But I’ve got lots of files stored in my computer that might be of use whenever I blog of something. Graphics, photos, texts, whatever. Nothing that I can’t carry in a flash drive but I just prefer updating my blog while I’m home.

5) Bluetooth for my PC - that’s how I transfer photos taken with my camera phone to my PC.

 

 

 

Q. What’s your dream blog post?

 

A. My wanting to post an experience with a breakthrough drug or procedure or something about that is greatly influential in the medical world, I think, will qualify for a dream blog post. No, I don’t want the post to sound too academic. I want to be able to word it in such a way that lay persons will understand it well enough to appreciate the vastness and significance of such drug/procedure/event in their daily lives. But I haven’t had the chance just yet. If I may add, another dream of mine is to be able to maintain a medical blog geared towards both the professionals and the patients. I’ve attempted to start one, which I named Prudence and Wellness, but I wasn’t able to maintain it so I have to put it down. Until such time that I’ve gathered enough experience perhaps to be an authority to put up such a blog, then I’ll just have to stick to my personal/medical blog.

 

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I hope you enjoyed reading that one

Filed under: Lifelogs by Prudence