Welcome to the tedi.substack.com weekly newsletter! At the beginning of each week*, this newsletter will touch on any number of entertaining, informative, or (possibly) useful topics.
The highlight for this week is the four episode of The 10 Minutes or Less Podcast with Dr. Tedi Villasor wherein I talk about former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) playing-coach Robert Jaworski who happened to celebrate his 75th birthday this past week (March 8, 1946).
As we move further into 2021, your comments and feedback will also be of immense help in shaping the direction of the newsletter. Till then, I will be utilizing a free flowing format that will incorporate the aforementioned podcast as well as a combination of book, movie, documentary, or television series recommendations.
Thank you in advance for your time and constructive feedback. Read away!
* - I know, it’s late this week. My apologies, it could not be helped.
Keep your suggestions coming!
As part of my efforts to release a self-help eBook by the end of August 2021, I was hoping to get the pulse of the public (so to speak) on the topics that they would like me to touch on. The general question is this: If you had an opportunity to talk to a counseling and/or sport psychologist for an hour, what would the session focus on?
The button below will redirect you to the survey.
My buymecoffee.com page is up and running!
Thank you for your time.
Tedi
Questions?
Are you in need of therapy? As a counseling and sport psychologist, I am here to help! For more information on scheduling a Zoom Teleconsult with me, kindly click on the schedule a session today button below.
Interested in having a speaker talk to your group or team? Click on the book me button below.
Vaccination Roll-Out (March 8, 2021)
As part of the Makati Medical Center’s mandate to continue on providing the best care and environment for its patients, the hospital—through its vaccination program—supplied additional layers of protection for its medical staff, nurses, and employees last Monday.
I received my first vaccine that afternoon and felt generally lethargic as the day wore on. This general body malaise continued well into the next day and I just had to ask our vaccine coordinator if these symptoms were to be expected.
This was her reply:
This sense of lethargy, fatigue, or body malaise means your body is reacting to the vaccine. It is what we called Reactogenicity. Body reacting to a foreign substance. This is normal and good.
As I write this (Wednesday evening), I feel my strength returning. A really bad migraine yesterday afternoon (possibly unrelated to the vaccination), obliterated what was left of my day. While this morning, I was walking on eggshells to say the least.
This is what happened to me right after my first COVID-19 vaccination. Except I still wear glasses and don’t have spider powers. Beginning and ending of the video is apt.
Hopefully, things will only get better from here on out.
Remember, the decision to get vaccinated (and by extension, what brand of vaccine to get) is both a very personal as well as a family decision.
Consult your doctor today so that you are aware of the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In my book, an informed decision is the first step towards any decision.
Robert Jaworski: Remembering the basketball icon on his 75th birthday (The 10 Minutes or Less Podcast with Dr. Tedi Villasor) [S1|E4]
Recorded on the evening of March 10, 2021, the fourth episode of The 10 Minutes or Less Podcast is dedicated to former Philippine senator, Philippine National Team Basketball coach, and PBA playing coach Robert Vincent Salazar Jaworski, Sr.
To commemorate the 75th birthday of the man known as “The Living Legend” and “The Big J,” I share some of my fondest memories of his Anjeo Rum 65ers (1990) and Ginebra San Miguel (1991) years, a very personal Coach Jaworski story, and a PBA record (that he holds) which will likely never be broken.
You can find the latest episode of The 10 Minutes of Less Podcast at the top of this newsletter.
Thoughts on my recently concluded webinar (How to take care of your Mental Health: In Conversation with Dr. Tedi Villasor)
Just wanted to thank again The Teachers of Boundless Borders Facebook group (namely Teacher Apple, Sir Deng Rodriguez, Father Cruz, Paolo and Portia Alvendia) for having me as their guest speaker last March 6, 2021.
I hope that my talk was able to help your members in some small way during this very difficult time.
Did you miss the webinar?
If so, The Teachers of Boundless Borders Facebook group have the entire talk up on their Facebook wall for interested parties to view at a more convenient time. Kindly refer to the poster below for more information on their Facebook group.
The Teachers of Boundless Borders promo poster.
Book review: Without a Doubt (1997)
Creative Team: Marcia Clark and Teresa Carpenter
Overview:
A little over a month after the end of the O.J. Simpson double murder case in 1995, lead prosecutor Marcia Clark, signed (what was then) one of the largest trial-related, non-fiction book deals—A hefty $4.2 million dollars—to share her story; her thoughts on the Simpson case.
Coined by many as “The Trial of the Century,” the general public (back then) had an insatiable appetite for anything related to the case. This book (as well as the many others that followed) helped curb that hunger.
Review:
If there is one thing that I love, it conspiracy theories. Among my favorite are the JFK Assassination and the O.J. Simpson double murder case. I can spend hours on each subject, but (sadly) not get any closer to anything resembling a justifiable reason/answer.
Yet the interest remains.
I can still remember what I was doing when I first heard of O.J. Simpson (Back then, I only knew him as Nordberg from the Naked Gun movie franchise) jump back into the public spotlight.
It was June 18, 1994. I was watching a live feed of Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks (We are a day ahead in the Philippines), when suddenly, the game was moved to smaller box (split screen) on the television. In it’s place was the now famous White Ford Bronco chase (err…procession) down Southern California.
In her book, Marcia Clark recounts where she was as well as what she was doing at the time of the chase (The 2016 The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story shares their own interpretation of Clark’s whereabouts as these events unfolded). Aside from the strategy of the prosecution, the book also touched on other non-related subjects such as her two marriages, alleged relationship with co-prosecutor Christopher Darden, and the pressures of being daily tabloid fodder.
Six months after the end of the O.J. Simpson double murder case, Clark came to the conclusion that in its own way, the case had irrevocably harmed her credibility as a prosecutor moving forward. She has since left the practice of law and has established herself as a television correspondent and author.
—
Despite my known interest in the O.J. Simpson trial, I enjoyed the chronological, blow-by-blow pace of Marcia Clark’s book. In the end, two things were made very clear to me: 1) that the issue of race superseded irrefutable DNA evidence and 2) a jury’s collective educational attainment plays an immense role in any deliberation.
Question: Would O.J. have received the same verdict if his trial happened in either 2005 or 2015 instead of 1995?
Movie of the Week (MOTW)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Back when this movie first came out, there was a part of me that questioned the legitimacy surrounding the disappearance of the three filmmakers (Bear in mind, the internet was nowhere near as potent as it is today so research on the subject was spotty at best). But there was also that other part of me that was open to the idea: What if it were true?
The fact that it could very well happen…to anyone.
Those are the depths from which truly scary horror films rise from.
So the year was 1999 (Maybe 2000), I consumed all the possible Blair Witch Project references that I could get my hands on—namely The Blair Witch Project (by Dave Stern) and The Blair Witch Project: The Secret Confessions of Rustin Parr (also by—surprise!—Dave Stern).
Read them cover-to-cover. I was a real sucker back then.
Ok, now let’s set the stage for the Movie of the Week!
It has been 22 years since the release of The Blair Witch Project. A franchise that has spawned not only a sequel (Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 [2000]) but a pretty gory 2016 remake as well.
I wanted to see if the original movie would hold up the test of time and…..sadly, it didn’t. Like a magician revealing the secrets behind his magic trick, this wasn’t my first go-around and I pretty much knew how it was going to play out—so the “freshness” factor is important. This isn’t one of those movies that you can play multiple times (even if that gap is roughly 20 years apart).
Another point against the movie was that this was—in my eyes—a sanitized version of the original theatrical release. Warning graphics would appear whenever the actors would drink alcohol or smoke a cigarette in a scene. They would also *bleep* out any profanities or distort the area in the screen showing gore (and there wasn’t much in this one to begin with).
But don’t take my feelings to heart. You need to experience it (If you haven’t seen it already) and judge it for yourself.
Just do yourself a favor and find a better version of the film.
Check out this amazing fan made trailer by The Trailer Guy.
The sanitized version of The Blair Witch Project (1999) is on sale this week on iTunes Philippines. ■
About
Tedi Gustilo Villasor, Ph.D. is a former columnist for Baby Magazine (Philippines) as well as a past contributor to NBA.com/Philippines. His other works include the indie comic books Lindol and OBIsessions.
Click here for more information on his work as a psychologist.
Official Website | Instagram | Pinterest | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook
Click here to order Lindol (with artist and co-creator Randy Valiente) from our online partner Secret HQ.
Click here to order OBIsessions (with artist and co-creator Jann Galino) from our online partner Secret HQ.
Click on the following links to order Issue #1, Issue #2, and Issue #3 of Lindol (with artist and co-creator Randy Valiente) from our online partner Mervstore.com.
If you happen to drop by Comic Odyssey’s Robinson’s Galleria, the branch is stocked with copies of Lindol #1.
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№9: Vaccination Challenges | Remembering Robert Jaworski on his 75th birthday | S1E4 | The 10 Minutes or Less Podcast with Dr. Tedi Villasor | + More!