Below are the most recent 4 friends' journal entries.

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
crazybetsy	8:06p	Something important I have learned recently: I have to be a surgeon. See, I desperately wanted to LOVE anesthesia. Gases! Injectables! Central lines! People with COPD undergoing quintuple bypass and did we mention they're in renal failure! Shouldn't that be fascinating and fabulous? (I didn't even mention the 35-hour work week... oh, wait, there it was.) Parts of it are fabulous, like "injecting" epinephrine, watching your mannekin's BP go up to 300/200 with a pulse of 150, then vfib and die. Or injecting real glycopyrrolate and watching your real patient's HR go up to 130 from 70. (Don't worry, I didn't make the decision to do that per se; it's just what has to get done to unparalyze them, and 130 isn't bad, really. Even though it kind of freaked me out.) Anyway, that's a digression, anesthesia is cool in some ways -- including how they're mandated to get a lunch break... dude, surgery, are you listening? -- but hellatiously boring in others. Smart anesthesiologists carry a little book of Sudoku. Or a novel. I just play with indigo (another digression: indigo is given intravenously so you can see the ureters! it's filtered out by the kidneys and excreted in the urine and if the surgeons have dinged the ureters they can tell by all the blue leakiness in the pelvis. but THEN the ANESTHESIOLOGIST gets to see all the BLUE-GREEN PEE! so it's pretty exciting. and indigo has a second use: it can be used to dab in nice patterns on scrub trousers and blankets and whatnot.) or gently manipulate the IV plumbing or stare at the numbers endlessly. Or look wistfully over the surgical field drapes at what the surgeons are doing. I'm only working 6-8 hours a day. Wouldn't you think that would mean I'd have tons of time to be productive? In practice, in fact, it means I spend many hours being a lump on the couch watching TV. Unmotivated to study, or clean my marginally squalid apartment, or go outside and play(excuse for that one: it's one hundred three million degrees outside), or see friends, or revisit my hobbies. When I was working 14-hour days, with one day off a week, I did ALL those things. Except for studying, because I didn't feel sufficiently obligated (working 80 hours a week counts as studying, I say). I baked from-scratch cookies for my team! I practiced piano! I went out to dinner with my friends! So, turns out I'd rather spend 80 hours doing work that's compelling and challenging and, dare I say, fun (packing damp gauze in an abscess cavity! cutting off a foot! driving the laparoscope camera! fun!) than 35 doing something I slightly don't want to do. And it's not just during working hours that I prefer trauma; outside of the hospital, I was happier and globally more productive, too. Waking up at 4:15 for a day on trauma was easier than 6:45 for anesthesia. Consider these points #s 52, 254 and 923 on the list of Why I Am Going To Be A Surgeon. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
madman_legion	2:06a	Lego Indiana Jones Ah Lego games, you wait 24 years for one then 3 come along at once. Seriously, after Lego star wars came out it was like the world was balanced waiting to see if people liked it... they did, because there’s nothing that reminds you of your childhood more than Lego and star wars (and light-sabers are cool) So, cashing in on the Lego is cool element, behold Indy in Lego format! Except that Indy is not as well known a franchise, most people can quote lines from star wars (I am your father?) but not so many in Indy. We remember bits, but not the bulk; all in all it’s not as close to home. So how does the game fare? Surprisingly well actually, the movements are as solid as ever and the game play just as tight, the problems, when they do occur are petty: Some textures look out of place - while in star-wars the floors were pretty shiny space floors, in Indy there is a need for "realistic" floors, so we see grassy textures; unfortunately we see flat grassy textures that look like they were taken straight from call of duty - coupled with the Lego fauna it doesn’t work perfectly. shimmying - for some reason the developers included the ability to "shimmy" along a wall (press against it and sidestep along it) this is fine but it's never needed in the game and all it actually does is mean that your characters shimmy on random things (walls boxes etc) usually during fights while you are running around trying to punch people Story - the less identifiable Indy franchise struggles a bit with the idea of Lego levels and while some bits are confusingly skipped over in grunty cut-scenes, some bits are extended massively (the tests to enter the grail room) in order to make the game work as a whole. It's not a deal breaker but it’s a shame as next to star wars it feels like the mould has been forced onto the Indy films. Finally and this is the big on: There’s no light-sabers - I know this is a stupid comment but ironically its also completely true, there may be more weapons and more innovative things to do (throwing swords to cut ropes to open doors) but ultimately the lack of light sabers makes melee fighting a pain and quite tedious in enemy spawn areas. All in all, the game is beautifully made and engrossing, the few niggles are at worst just that although the 50 or so characters that can be acquired feel very bland (there’s simply not enough disparate characters in the franchise) so you buy them more to unlock everything than for any real reason. It's not much longer than Lego star wars, but doesn't have any stupid "on rails" levels like LSW did (except for one section of the escape from the mines) Lego Indiana Jones is a worthy game but unless you love Indy or you love Lego there’s little reason to buy this if you could simply buy (or replay) Lego star wars. 6.5/10 (Comment on this)
madman_legion	1:32a	Wall.E So I've just seen Wall.E (opening night!), managed to squeeze into the 9.50 showing this evening... lets just examine this, tonight they had showings at 9.15, 9.50 and 11pm. This is a U people! seriously, for opening night there were maybe 40 people there - in a cineworld! Anyway, the film is probably the best pixar have ever made (with an awesome mini-skit before the movie) and has everything you could want, it's sweet, theres a subliminal moral about being eco-friendly and fat, theres a quasi love story and all of this is mostly told via 2 robots and a cockroach! there are 3 "humans" (ie animated humans) who have reasonable screentime and also a computer, those four pretty much provide the majority of the talking, the rest is up to grunts squeeks and cute looks. There is a fourth human role played by an actual human, which is ok the first time as he appears in a sort of promotional video before any other humans are shown. But meh, I don't want to spoil it. Seriously, go see it, now! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, July 11th, 2008
notscarysteve	8:38p	It had to happen sooner or later For the first time, ever, I have earned enough at Tesco to have money forcibly removed from me to go towards paying back my student loan. I hae now paid a whole £6 out of the £8,000 or I owe them. (excuse the lack of v as my v button occasionally dis nae work.) (Comment on this)