Death Note

My interest in anime has decreased significantly since I last watched Cowboy Bebop, as the quality of recent animes are lamentable. No, I do not mean the technical side, which is more glorious than ever. However, I'm juz not interested in the 'all style, no substance' trend that recent anime has increasingly adopted...

Until I finally found this series... Death Note.

Alright, to be honest, the premise sounds lame at first. A brilliant but eccentric, world-wearied high school student came across a 'Death Note' one day, which he discovered that he can kill anyone he has in mind so long as he writes the name down in the notebook, and picture the person's face in his mind. Experimenting the "Death Note" on 2 criminals, he was at first shocked that it really worked, but soon becomes obsessed with passing his righteous judgement upon the wicked, and crown himself a god of a new world. But the serial of 'killings' of criminals caught the attention of the police & crime investigators worldwide, and soon a mysterious, faceless detective known to the world only as 'L' begins his hunt for the mysterious mass murderer behind all these killings, nicknamed 'Kira'.

Now if you think the plot description sounds shallow, you're DEAD wrong. Even only after watching the 1st 3 episodes of the series, each episode continues to astound me with its depth. The existential themes explored in these episodes are intriguing, and I'm reminded of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, especially the protagonist Raskolnikov. The cat-&-mouse game between the 2 lead characters are incredible suspenseful (an adjective you'll hardly link to anime), and the lack of gratuitous action sequence & annoying chibli cuteness are incredibly refreshing changes to your everyday anime, to say the least. Coupled this with the high quality animation plus the seductively dark tone of the anime, who in their sane mind could have possibly overlook this gem?

The series seems incredibly promising to me, and you can bet I'll be following it for the next few weeks. If anyone is interested, head on to this link and judge for yourself!

Medical Aplitude Test

Taking the medical aplitude test after Keat's example... Here's my results:

1 emergency med 40

2 dermatology 39

3 med oncology 39

4 orthopaedic surgery 38

5 pediatrics 37

6 obstetrics/gynecology 37

7 psychiatry 37

8 nephrology 37

9 gastroenterology 36

10 allergy & immunology 36

11 aerospace med 35

12 radiology 35

13 nuclear med 35

14 neurosurgery 34

15 general surgery 34

16 plastic surgery 34

17 hematology 34

18 otolaryngology 34

19 endocrinology 33

20 general internal med 33

21 family practice 33

22 preventive med 33

23 urology 33

24 rheumatology 33

25 neurology 33

26 pulmonology 32

27 ophthalmology 32

28 physical med & rehabilitation 32

29 thoracic surgery 31

30 infectious disease 31

31 colon & rectal surgery 31

32 radiation oncology 30

33 cardiology 30

34 anesthesiology 28

35 occupational med 28

36 pathology 28

Well happily emergency medicine is my current favourite specialty, but disappointedly general med & general practice are so low down in the list as I do include them under consideration. I've practically ruled out surgery as one of my future career path, so it's quite annoying to see them so high up (probably bcuz of my tendency for more immediate results seen), and I absolutely hated orthopaedics. Psych is among the top ten which is cool, as I do have some interest in it. No idea bout paeds & O&G, will only have the runs next year.

On a side note, pathology is the lowest in the list... the direct opposite of Keat's list lol

I'm in my general surgery run now... Stuck in a field I have little interest in... Can't wait for this to be over and get started on Psych next lol.