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Director’s Message Like every good video game, the gamer feels satisfied with the story, the game play, and the overall adventure. Another year of PUSO is coming to a close and we hope that the general members are left satisfied after an enjoyable adventure filled with laughs, obstacles, and most importantly, memories. We hoped that you, the general members, were satisfied with the meetings that were put on by your 2009-2010 PUSO Board and gained some knowledge to apply to the rest of your years in college. 

Seniors, congratulations!!! We hope that we made your last year here in PUSO as memorable as we can.  You will surely be missed, but don't be away for too long. PUSO will always welcome you back with open arms.

Alumni and seniors, thank you for all of your support in our board.  You paved the way for us, and hopefully our board was able to stay true to what PUSO, the organization, is all about. For future board members and general members, we hope that you experience PUSO the way we have.  All the memories that we have made with one another are all special. Keep spreading that PUSO Love.

Current board, thank you so much for all of the hard work you have done.  We know how hard all of you worked, and we want you to know that we really appreciate it.  PUSO would not be what it is today without all of you.  As directors, we hope that all of you had a memorable experience on PUSO board. Don't forget, that no matter where we all stand in the future, you remember this year as a great and successful year. Thank you, Final Fantasy XVI board!

We hope you all have a wonderful summer! See you all in the 2010-2011 school year!

"Take PUSO and run with it!"

With Much LOVE,The 4 Moogles/DirectorsAthena, Don, Jen, Michael

Inside This IssueDirector’s Mesage (1)30 Day Workout (2)General Member Spotlight (3)Opinion (3)Filipino Recipes (4)Post Grad Review (4)Editor’s Note (5)

Important Dates HSO One Day (5/28)

PUSO Pages is a bi-quarterly newsletter. Information presented in these issues relate to academic improvement, club activities/resources, its members, and a pursuit of a health career. If you have any concerns, contact Franz Patrick Corrales at FranzPatrick@gmail.com and Jenny Robles at jennys.robles@gmail.com

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30 Day Work OutBy Michelle Huynh

"I need to look good. I need to look good. This will all pay off." This is what I remind myself every morning and every evening as I am working out. All my life I have been fighting against obesity. It is very difficult to stay on a strict diet if you are constantly being fed rice and oily food at every meal every single day. For some people, stress can cause break outs, but when I stress out, I gain weight. One night when I was reading updates about my favorite bands in Korea, I found out that they are currently holding auditions on June 22nd, 2010. I have exactly 30 or less days to work out and get into shape. I wanted to be fit for my rapping (oh yes, I rap) audition for YG Entertainment. I turned down my sausage and pancake breakfast for egg whites, half an apple, and four bottles of water. Every three hours I would eat cooked chicken breasts with a small side salad. Any snacks after 7pm were off limits so I'd only consume water or one banana.

But just pure dieting will not be enough for me to get the body that I want. Every morning, to boost my metabolism, I would open my iTunes and play my "work out" playlist with costs that makes me feel like dancing. I would do 100 jumping jacks, 50 squats, 120 crunches, and 45 push-ups.

It seems like a lot for one morning, but it keeps me from falling asleep in class and it makes me feel happier throughout the day. At the end of the day, I would do my homework right away to reduce my chances of procrastinating. After finishing my work, I would lift 8lb dumbells 10 times for a set of three, 50 gut busters, and jog a mile (for those who want to avoid waking up your neighbors, you can simply do 30 minutes of jumping jacks and 30 minutes of jump roping). Working out before going to bed relaxes your body and forces you to go to bed, so I suggest working out early so that you don't find yourself awake at midnight doing absolutely nothing.

So you are probably wondering: So? How is it? Does it work? My answer to you is: Yes. I went from a size 12 to a size 9 and from a size 9 to a size 6. Currently I am a size 4 and I am planning to drop to a size 2 very soon. These drastic size changes may worry you a bit because it seems like my work out has been working "too well". When I started the combination of dieting and working out, I was already a size 6. I started dieting the beginning of Winter Quarter without any physical exercise. Ever since I started working out, I've felt more awake, happier, and stress free. I have exactly 26 days left of my work out until my audition, but I will still continue my exercise after my audition.

I hope this inspires a few readers if you feel like you can't lose weight around your (insert body part here). If I get a part of YG, you guys might see me in a few Korean gossip websites/magazines with the headline "The first Vietnamese-Chinese YG Entertainment trainee". (Hopefully!)

PUSO General Member SpotlightBy Chantle Edillor

Name: Nika CarrilloNickname: NeeksBirthday: September 2Hometown: SF; the BAY AREA WOOOOTYear and Major: 2nd year bio majorHobbies/Interests: eat, sleep, study, chill, but eat mostly. and sleep too.Why did you join PUSO? I love filipinos and I love health, what betterplace to find that than PUSO?Define 'PUSO love': It's that love you get from a place outside of home with a

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group of random strangers that share the same interests as you.If you were stranded on a deserted island, and could only bring one item, what would it be? My hair straightener, I have really nappy hair and I have to look good so people will rescue me.Favorite song you like to sing in the shower? LADY GAGA - BAD ROMANCE..(my guilty pleasure)What are your goals after college/where do you see yourself in 10 years? I see myself owning my own medical clinic, working with a bunch of non-profit and charity foundations, building schools in Africa and allaround Asia, and mostly importantly, continue eating and sleeping

Better Next YearBy Don Balanay

So the school year finally comes to a close but can you really say that you’ve accomplished all that you’ve wanted to get to? Can you really say that you’ve lived every moment that was given to you to its fullest? I can surely say that I haven’t, but there’s always next year… right?

Here are my last words of the year that I hope will give you some insight for a ‘better next year’. First off, find your passion. There’s no point in studying for something you need to do. Granted, there are those classes that you just need to take to fulfill some major requirements

or some bullshit like that, but take classes that interest you. I can tell you that I took my first business class this year and it was an amazing experience. Not was I allowed to learn and relate to the class material, but also you’re actually surrounded by other students with the same passions you have yourself.

If that doesn’t work for you, find your specific outlet for stress. Don’t let others choose something for you to do, find something that you can cater to yourself, and only yourself. You’ll be amazed at what avenues this can take you in. Try to find some sort of hobby or pass time that will keep you both occupied and progressive. I’ve taken up the time to cooking a whole lot more – a passion I’ve put off for quite some time due to a lacking of having proper equipment. But there’s no need to go crazy about this hobby searching, if anything, go pick up a basketball or an instrument and let your mind go free. Who knows, maybe if you just pick up a pencil and paper you’ll be the next Picasso.

Lastly, find your niche. Find a group of people that you absolutely can’t be without and make sure to never lose sight of them. They will provide you with the most motivation to start your year off right. These people are your family away from home. And hey, who says PUSO can’t be that family for you next year? I know it’s definitely mine.

Until next year, the better year,  Don

Filipino RecipesBy Lemuel Zamora

Lechon Manok Recipe (since Lechon Pork is way too expensive)

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken 3 tablespoons of brown or white sugar 1 cup soy sauce 1

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head garlic, minced 1 onion chopped 3 tablespoons of fresh ginger  3 tablespoons of calamansi juice or lemon juice 1/2 cup of sprite, 7up 2 cups of lemon grass

1 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 tbsp oil 2 tablespoons of salt 

Directions: 1. Marinate the whole chicken in soy sauce, calamansi juice, minced garlic, chopped onions, ginger, soda, sugar and pepper. Let stand marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hr or overnight! 2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 3. Stuff the chicken cavity with lemon grass. 4. Rub salt and oil all over chicken. 5. Dump the whole marinade mix inside the chicken. 6. Cook chicken for 1hr & 20mins or until golden brown and fully cooked.  

Pinakbet Recipe

Ingredients:½ lbs pork with fat, cut into small pieces2 Amapalya (bitter melon) sliced to bite size pieces2 eggplants, sliced to bite size pieces10 pieces of okra, cut in two1 head garlic, minced2 onions, diced5 tomatoes, sliced1 tablespoon of ginger, crushed and sliced4 tablespoons bagoong  (the brown, smelly stuff)3 tablesp oons of oil1 1/2 cup waterSalt and pepper to taste 

Directions: 1. In a cooking pan, heat oil and fry the pork until brown, remove the pork from the pan and set aside.2. On the same pan, sauté garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes.3. In a casserole, boil water and add bagoong.4. Add the pork in the casserole and mix in the sautéed garlic, onion, ginger and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.5. Add in all the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are done, careful not to overcook6. Salt and pepper to taste.7. Serve hot with plain rice. 

Post Grad (2009)© 2010 by Franz PatrickFranzPatrick.com★★ / ★★★★

Directed by Vicky Jenson and written by Kelly Fremon, Alexis Bledel stars as Ryden Malby, a recent college graduate who planned out her entire future well before high school. (Which isn't really a stretch from her very lovable character Rory Gilmore on "Gilmore Girls.") Unfortunately, things didn't quite go as planned when she found herself being unable to get a job because of the fierce competition in the job market. This movie had the potential to be really good because of its modern way of approaching one of the most common questions of recent college graduates: Will I be able to immediately get a job after college? I thought the first twenty minutes was strong because it dealt with that particular issue head-on. It may not be incredibly realistic but at least it tried to be relevant. However, the deeper we got into the picture,

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the movie suffered because of bad writing and the material easily succumbed to eyeroll-worthy typicalities. Ryden had to choose between her kind-of boyfriend (Zach Gilford) who w as torn between law school and music and the exotic guy next door (Rodrigo Santoro) who seemed to have his life together, deal with her eccentric and sometimes funny family (Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch, Carol Burnett), and question where her future was heading. All those distractions certainly did not distract me from the fact that the writer ran out of creative and meaningful ideas to really tackle the issue of unemployment after college. I liked the movie best when it focused on Bledel's struggle in trying to define her career and encountering her rival (Catherine Reitman) from time to time. It's a classic case of having emotional intelligence (Ryden) versus lacking one (her rival); it was so frustrating to me because the elements of making a smart movie were there but the writers didn't take full advantage of such elements. In fact, I felt insulted that the film threw clichés right at me. I couldn't care less about the kinda-sorta boyfriend and the sexy guy next door because if I wanted to watch a movie about that, I'd probably go see a film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. I couldn't care less about the family either because their side stories didn't add up to anything. The performances were mediocre at best but I didn't mind much because I was more concerned about how it was going to approach the main issue. For a character who was supposed to be prepared to face the world (with enthusiasm to spare), the movie felt unprepared to discuss the real issues. The writer and director should've assumed that smart people would see this film. Maybe then they would've challenged themselves not only to challenge us but also inspire.

Editor’s Note

When September hit, it was a fresh start for all of us—a new school year, a new season of clothes, and new cool weather—everything that made the trip back from the outskirts of California bearable.  But back to school meant back to books, lectures, tests—stress in its most abominable form.  In this year’s PUSO Pages, we tried to encompass that no-stress feel; create an atmosphere where you, as general members, can read up on important information without feeling as if it were “un-fun” and irrelevant to your college lifestyle.  And to accommodate for this, we brought you Filipino recipes. Love stories, movie reviews, spotlights, de-stress techniques, nutritional guidance and workouts.  While also keeping with the advice necessary to succeed as bio majors—information concerning bio specializations, volunteering experiences, careers, and research.  With so much going on in our lives, we, as bio-public health-bme-everything else majors, experience a hodgepodge of relentless anxiety, especially in terms of academic performances, homework loads and after-class activities. Oh, and not to mention, midterm after midterm after paper after midterm.  Bio becomes our lifestyle—a lifestyle that stabs away at the social butterflies that use to interweave with our existence; a death we often feel resentment towards because of the diminishing twinkles in our eyes. And because of that, we don’t need some survey telling us that we, as future medical professionals in the making, are stressed to the max—with so many things to juggle, it’s practically a given that our college years are not exactly carefree.  There has to be a better way, right?    

What’s the secret you ask? How do so many people find that balance between school and…life? Well, my PUSOians, the secret is to accept imperfection.  Not necessarily imperfection in its entirety, but rather, imperfection in its smallest form—miniscule failures I like to call them.  No one can be exceptional at everything all the time.  You have to focus on your priorities and let the oppressive burden of total perfection go.  Maybe straight A’s are your thing, and you study like mad to maintain your grades.  But is it realistic to expect yourself to also be the star of your research team? President of your pre-health club? Or even a Greek-head? Maybe not.  What is realistic is to decide what matters most to you and excel at that.  Never forget that even overachievers deserve a little downtime just to daydream.  So spend this summer relaxing. Do some work, volunteer, research, something.  Get that health-career ball rolling. But don’t forget to set a little time for yourself to have fun before the school year creeps up on you. 

And with that, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read these PUSO Pages.  We, as board members, tried our best to cater to your interests and your concerns.  And with that, we were able to create a newsletter for our members, with information worth reading and definitely worth the paper.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this year’s PUSO Pages.  Now get to killin’ those finals! You can do it!

With all my PUSO,

Jenny Robles Editor-in-Chief

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