F.E.A.R.

Now normally I don’t have much to say about games, no matter how much I enjoy them. F.E.A.R. is one of the most hyped up games of the year, and despite not knowing much about the game (and refusing to play a stupid demo version–not that I had the time so far anyway), I finally got the game yesterday. It’s a pretty good first person shooter/adventure in the style of Half-Life with a very creepy feel to it–like a mixture of Max Payne’s dream sequences and the insanity of The Suffering. But that’s not what I feel the need to talk about. I got the biggest surprise of my gaming life during a particular firefight between my character and a squadron of 3-4 soldiers. I was pinned down behind some machinery and wanted to backtrack in this squarish area to approach the enemy from the rear and suddenly I hear enemy radio chatter: “Watch out! He’s trying to flank!” Needless to say, I stopped dead in my tracks with my jaw on the ground, thinking “What the @^%#?? They know?!?!?!” Quite possibly the coolest AI trick ever implemented in such a game.

USMLE Step II - Clinical Knowledge and Clinical Skills - and Residency

So this last week was interesting... I took Step 2 Clinical Knowledge on Thursday - nine hours including some break time and then Clinical Skills yesterday in Philly - about eight hours including orientation and breaks. I was getting slightly nervous about having the second exam so close to the first one, but it was pretty easy. I am glad I didn't waste more time studying for it. I'm so glad that they are both done and over with. Now the last two standardized exams I need to take this year are Advanced Care and Life Support at the end of November, and recertifying in Basic Life Support in (probably) March.
My military interviews for residency are already over, but I am applying to some civilian schools as a backup. I have interviews scheduled at four so far (late December and beyond), and I need to call back a fifth to set one up. I am waiting to hear back from three more, but they're probably tougher to get interviews for so they may just say no, especially since they know I am an Army match. In any case, I already met my expectations of getting interviews in (at least) half of my applications, so I don't really care what the other schools/hospitals say. I have about one percent chance of actually needing to interview with them anyway. I will know about the Army in early December, and if they tell me I'm going to DC or Honolulu, I will have to call back all these programs and tell them to cancel my interviews. Which would, of course, save me a lot of hassle, time, and money. Let's see how it goes.

Strawberry on the Shortcake

This was one of the first Japanese Dramas I ever saw. I think there are 10 episodes. Part of the reason I like watching the J-dramas is that they ARE short. You get that nice feeling of continuity, and then there’s an (admittedly) illogical sense of fulfillment after finishing the series. But with dramas that only last one season, it’s more like watching a really long and involved movie. There’s no more annoying fluff and filler episodes. You just get a highly streamlined story.

Of course, I may like this drama because it was one of the first few I saw. However, it was a really bittersweet, endearing, emotional experience watching this production. I doubt it’s even considered to be one of the premier j-dramas, but I highly recommend it if anyone gets a chance. It really makes you think about people’s personalities, life’s quirks, fate, and love. Plus, it has music by ABBA (opening and closing themes), and it fits so well that you can almost believe the songs were written just for this show. It’s a beautiful, haunting series, definitely worth watching. It made me go out and get a ABBA’s greatest hits CD. Which, incidentally, is not a bad buy. Check out the drama info here. Oh, and if you use torrents (and if you don’t know what I am talking about, I think you need to do some googling) you can go here to download the drama. Hurry up becuse who knows how long people will be seeding/uploading. Unfortunately I do not know of any way to buy it with English subtitles. You’re gonna have to download the free version, but it’s really good quality and has excellent English subtitles.

Therapist in a Box

When I still worked at the bank my friend gave me this Therapist in a Box as a joke. It's got a little timer and a squeeze toy couch and some amusing cards with quotes and booklet on therapy. God knows I needed some therapy when I was working there. Anyway, I was cleaning out the spare bedroom and found it again, and finally got around to reading the booklet and such. I found this quote to be amusing and thought I would share:
"The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they are okay, then it's you."
-Rita Mae Brown, American author and playwright

Is it you??

This is ridiculous. And quite amazing.

I have had this picture on my hard drive for a while, and just rediscovered it. I thought it was an interesting mind-game, so I put it up here. Wrkos pettry wlel deson’t it?

Free telephone calls using your computer

I don’t know how many people ever used Dialpad back when it was free. All you had to do was to click on an ad every so often and you could call anyone in the US for as long as you wanted through your computer. One of the original VOIP services. Nowadays VOIP services tend to be pc to pc, which doesn’t really make any sense to me if you use IM services already. Anyway, I did notice a couple of services which still offer pc to telephone services for free. Voipbuster lets you call for one min to a lot of countries, and for unlimited minutes if you DEPOSIT 5 Euros (6 bucks?) in their account using paypal. If you call free countries (like US and UK, but oddly enough not Canada), you don’t lose your deposit. Supposedly you can only call land lines, but I have called my cell phone from voipbuster and the call was listed as “FREE” and went through. Go figure.

Adcalls, on the other hand, lets you call US and Canada for free, no other strings attached. More in line with the spirits of the free dialpad. Of course, the only reason anyone would have to use it is if their cell phone reception at home sucks (like mine), if they’re running out of minutes, or, of course, to call Canada. Too bad I no longer have any people in Canada I call, but it would be nice not to pay any long distance charges. Quality seems to be decent, and it DOES call cell phones. I had some problem with the volume of my voice being slightly low for the other party, but that may be headset issues on my end.

(Maybe if you’re in Kuwait with internet, either of those options would be viable to limit cell phone costs)

Best Buy or Best Lie?

URL: Best Buy or Best Lie?

Now this is actually something I can very well relate to. Maybe not in the extent that the author in this article did, but at least in wondering about that guy or girl at the door who I KNOW doesn’t care asking me how I am doing. But maybe its a northeast US peeve.. I am sure store greetings work well in countries where the culture demands make such greetings mandatory and expected.

Aspiring Vatican Exorcists

AOL News - It's the First Day of School for Aspiring Vatican Exorcists

Anyone looking for a career change? Classes are now starting!

Wish I Was In Nebraska...

LINCOLN, Nebraska (Oct. 10) - One gas station manager's mistake paid off for drivers who were able to buy fuel for about a tenth of the current price.
For 30 to 45 minutes Friday, three of the Kabredlo's Convenience Store's four pumps sold premium unleaded gas for 29 cents a gallon (6 euro cents a liter) - about a tenth of the current price. Gas hasn't been that cheap since 1955, according to AAA Nebraska.
Until the mistake was caught, lines formed at the store as news of the cheap fuel spread, said Max Wolfe, who was doing landscaping for Kabredlo's.
Wolfe and his co-workers took time out to fill up. "I was on E, and I filled my tank up for $4 (about euro3.30)," Wolfe said. "It made my day."
Nathan Olson said he usually pays $72 (euro60) to fill his gas-guzzling 1998 Ford F-150. On Friday, he filled the tank three-quarters full for $3.50 (euro2.90).
On average, Lincoln gas stations are charging $2.93 a gallon for gas (64 euro cents a liter), according to AAA.

Cops Looking For $1 Million Bill Counterfeiter

Click here to check out this story.

Apparently the police is looking for some guy in Idaho who is trying to pass off a million dollar bill. Oh come on–I can’t even consider that counterfeiting. Its obviously a joke–and who the hell has change for a million anyway? Though i guess if its Idaho, someone may actually believe him.. (If you’re from idaho, then I’m just kidding.)

Jew-Sponsored Stock Car Booed Off Track

Now THIS is newsworthy (onion style)
I wonder if NASCAR and INDY allow religious symbols on cars.. though all that ad-space is probably very expensive and all the cars are corporately sponsored anyway.

Monster モンスター

Animenfo’s blurb on this anime

I don’t think I have ever been as hooked on a series–anime, tv drama, regular television, everything included–as I am when watching an episode of Monster. Despite many other excellent anime I have seen, with the possible exception of Hajime no Ippo, none have been able to capture my attention almost very second of the series as well as Monster has. Exactly what is it about this anime that makes every episode so exciting and thrilling? Perhaps its the fact that it’s about a “renegade” doctor. Or maybe because it’s about a frustrated good versus an oh-so-plausible yet almost supernatural evil. There’s plenty of action, and plenty of suspense. And each episode makes you feel like you’ve learned a new secret... or you’re uncovering a new part of the “conspiracy.” And there’s plenty of intrigue in the inevitable way that different characters end up crossing paths and sharing their pieces of puzzles.

Take for example the last episode I watched. Two characters who were briefly introduced (separately) earlier in the series, a detective and a criminal psychologist/psychoanalyst are interviewing serial killers. Even though they had different roles and information about the monster loose in society, they end up teaming together and discovering that these seemingly unconnected cases all had one deadly link in common: the three serial killers had all killed one person out of their many victims because they were told to by a message consisting of the respective victim’s name in a sandbox in a certain park in Germany. The way its done almost gives you chills. And you have to realize–these people aren’t even the main characters! Those people are busy solving their own mysteries.

Testing.. Testing... Testing....

So I figured this MS Word plugin for blogger seemed like a useful thing to try. Now that I am actually in MS Word, I realize that this doesn’t feel quite as interesting as it does typing in information directly in the webpage designed to be formatted for blog posting. For example, I am confused as to the lack of a title... I guess it will either ask me or I should just make and glorify one here. This also means that I have to personally change the color of my text, etc. This may be a bigger hassle than I thought before… but I have to say, it is nice having autocorrect and autospellcheck/grammercheck. Furthermore, even though I tend to write small blogs, using word does decrease the risk of losing a blog due to browser malfunctions. Assuming I save the blogs I type on Word. At least it has a recovery function.

(image placeholder)(image placeholder)

I wonder if I can actually orient pictures better in posts using Microsoft word…. Hmmm not sure about that… I think I’ll actually need to a WYSIWYG type editor to make it perfect. In any case, enough stalling. Let’s see how this looks when posted.

PS–Apparently it does ask me for the title, and it does NOT handle images yet. At least I can add them after posting.

A cell phone that points to Mecca

THE HAGUE, Netherlands–For Muslims, it’s a high-tech call to prayer. A new cellular telephone generates five automated reminders a day at prayer time and points Muslims in the direction of Mecca.

It also contains a copy of the Islamic holy book, the Quran, in both Arabic and English.

Check out the link.

Now this is crazy, but I am sure it’s gonna sell to its intended audience. But at the same time, if you’re really religious, I am sure you can manage without a cell phone to remind you to pray. Though I guess the compass thing is relatively useful if there’s no mosque in sight.

Gator-guzzling python comes to messy end

This is one messed up fight...

MIAMI–The alligator has some foreign competition at the top of the Everglades food chain, and the results of the struggle are horror-movie messy.

A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said.

The incident has heightened biologists’ fears that the nonnative snakes could threaten a host of other animal species in the Everglades.