Tuesday, September 28, 2010

September Update



I downloaded an app for my phone that allows me to post to my blog, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I have survived the first round of exams, and am experiencing a very brief lull before things hit the fan next month. In October I have exams for every single class. It's going to be a great time...

Recently, I had exams for both Microbiology and Pathology. Both went decently well, so I'm off to a good start for the semester. Additionally, I took my first two practical exams for Restorative Dentistry III. I had to do a crown prep and make a provisional crown out of acrylic in a three hour time limit. It went about as good as it could have, and I averaged 95/100 between the two. I snapped a quick picture of the temporary crown (its a little yellower than the other teeth, fyi). I took a photo of my friend Rob's preparation, too, which I will upload so you can picture what it looks like under the temporary.
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Monday, September 13, 2010

Current Musical Interests

I just wanted to do a quick post about some of the songs I'm currently listening to.  It'd be too hard to list everything that I've been discovering here, but I wanted to offer a few suggestions.  

It's you know how you learn a new word, and then all of a sudden you hear it used everywhere around you?  The same thing happened to me this summer with a group called Florence & The Machine.  This video was the first instance, but since then it seems I can't turn on the TV without hearing one of their songs.  The band is pretty minimalistic, just great vocals, guitar and some percussion.  Anyway, the video below is pretty mind blowing, and has inspired me to try something similar here in Philly.


Moving on, I have a couple of songs that I consider hauntingly beautiful.  The first is Your Ghost by Greg Laswell.  It was featured on an episode of Dollhouse a bit less than a year ago, and has literally been floating around in the back of my mind ever since.  The next is Hawaii by Meiko.  There is just something about these two songs that I can't get over.  Creepily wonderful.  

Katy Perry's got a new CD out. She's pretty trashy, but I really like the song Firework.  It's catchy, and upbeat, and I've listened to it a bunch.  (The previous statement is largely understated.  I've listened to it a TON.  In addition to still liking the song, somehow my Zune got set to repeat with that song on, and it cycled for 20+ hours.  I don't think you can reset playcounts with the Zune software, so it's currently my #1 song.  It also appears it's going to be in that position for a very, very long time.)

I'd also like to bring up a song called Dice that can be found on the first mix from show The O.C.  The artist is Finley Quaye.  Run and listen to this song.  Run along...

Finally, I'd like to highlight a song that I lost.  But first, it's storytime...  It was sophomore year of high school, and I was taking Fitness For Life.  Linkin Park had just released Reanimation, an album of remixes of tracks from their first effort, Hybrid Theory.  Anyway, that CD was the one that was in the player in the school's weight room.  I remember hearing the song My December and absolutely loving it.  Another memory I associate with the song My December is having my best friend Thomas help me ask a girl out to Jr. Prom.  We were in his 4Runner getting all of the little folded stars together when it came on the radio.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Anyway, fast forward a couple of years later when I was in college.  I had bought my first (and last) iPod and I was building my music collection up.  I downloaded My December, and I recall feeling very disappointed because it just wasn't as good as I remembered it.  Well, last fall, I found the version of My December that I associated all of those high school memories with.  It was actually spelled differently, as in My < Dsmbr.  When I heard it, I all of a sudden knew I had downloaded a different version all those years ago.  It makes me happy to have found it.