The Fullness of Time By: Redemption Year: 2005 Click here for the artist's site Every once in a while, and album just comes out of nowhere and blows the listener away. The unexpected nature of these musical surprises makes them that much more exciting. Redemption wasn't completely unknown to me. I recognized the name, and knew that the inimitable Ray Alder was the new voice of the band. But I wasn't familiar with the music and didn't have any elevated expectations going into ...

Well, not too long ago I wrote a piece about how I play, at times, Mr. Mom .  Feeding my the family, bathing the kids and putting them to bed, washing, ironing, and even an occasional bathroom are all within the realm of reason.  Well, this weekend the rubber meets the road. My wife's grandfather passed away peacefully this week.  We really wanted her to be able to be there for her family, but didn't think it would be possible.  However, we realized that I wouldn't ha...

Match day. It means little to most people, if it means anything at all.  But to medical students it is just about one of the biggest days of our lives.  It is the day where you find out if everything you have been doing for the past four years is going to pay off.  It is the day you find out your future.  Not only where you are going to be living, but it is the day you finally have nailed down what branch of medicine you are going to specialize in.  Once you have matc...

Some people live for the Superbowl.  I say "Meh." Others long for the World Series.  Tell me who won. The NBA playoffs and championship are what yet other people love.  Pompous ball-hogs. Me, I live for March.  And the Madness.  Oh yeah, nothing better than March Madness.  Game after game, some of the best basketball talent you will ever see, and without a doubt the best team play of anything.  There will be Cinderella stories, upsets, teams that pla...

Meh. That pretty much sums up my attitude about the weight loss last week.  I worked out every day, did pretty well.  Never got on a scale.  Just didn't feel the need.  My clothes continue to fit too loose, but I don't want to buy new ones until I stop slimming down, which will still be a while I hope.  I was able to go for a 7.2 mile run Saturday morning.  That is what excites me the most. See, when I first started exercising after the beginning of the year I...

*Note: Le me start off by saying this is not intended as a "suck-up" article.  I hope it doesn't appear that way, it is simply a comment on an observation I recently made and thought others who blog here may find interesting. I am sure that we have all heard about how the auto-syndication of JoeUser is a benefit to us, the bloggers.  But I wonder if we really appreciate just how much that syndication throughout the community actually accomplishes.  I know I didn't until r...

I love it when someone can poke a little fun at themselves. One of the best aspects of some recent "Mormon" movies is that there are many aspects of Mormon culture that they don't take seriously. Films such as "The RM", "Singles Ward", and "The Home Teachers" have me rolling on the floor as they poke fun at very true aspects of life in Mormonia. Likewise, it appears that certain groups at Microsoft don't take themselves too seriously. One of the aspects that helps to build the mystique o...

Pimping. It is the cornerstone of medical education, at least in most US medical schools.  You learn the basic science in the normal classroom or lab setting, but when it comes time for the clinical education, didactic sessions become rare and most of the learning is hands on. This can be very beneficial, as this type of learning is often much more permanent.  I assure you, when I think of diseases that I have encountered, I think of that patient and what their story was.  T...

Far too often I sit down to compose a blog entry and then. . . Nothing. Just nothing.  My mind cramps, then freezes, then just goes to sleep.  It always seems that my best ideas come at the worst time to try to actually write them down.  But today I think I may have solved that.  I went for a walk.  Yep, a walk.  With a pen and a notebook in my pocket. It was amazing.  Suddenly I had extra blood feeding my brain cells.  Suddenly they could functi...

Synchestra By: The Devin Townsend Band Year: 2006 Click here for the artist's site I am very, very cautious with my use of the word "genius" to describe musicians. I think it is overused almost to the point of rendering it a cliché. As such, if I call someone a musical genius, I really mean it. In that case, let me say up front that Devin Townsend is a musical genius. He is almost overflowing with musical ideas, and has the multiple different outlets for that musical energy. ...

So, I am longing to blog. JoeUser will certainly be my main blog (just too many great people here for me to leave), but I have set up a Blogger one to use in times when JU is, er, indisposed. Hope to see you all here soon. Congrats to Stardock on the overwhelming (literally it appears) success of the game!

In the past week or so (since JU came back online), I have started getting incomprehensible replies.  No, not just so weird and out there that you can't follow them.  These are truly incomprehensible.  They are gibberish posts by anonymous users.  I cannot fathom the point of them, as they aren't even links for VIAGRA or CIALIS or VICODIN!! Is anyone else getting these?  Here is a prime example.  I guess I could be grateful they bump my articles back into view ...

I used to be a gamer. I used to play some PC game just about every day, for an hour or two at least when time allowed. I enjoyed it, stayed pretty current on what titles were coming out when, snagged just about every demo out there, and felt that, while not as hard core as some, I had my finger on the pulse of PC gaming. But I admit, I arrived on the scene late. I missed out on a lot of what are considered really classic games, and this is most pronounced in the turn based strategy realm (TBS). ...

There are all things we like, and other people just don't get it.  That is fine, we don't all need to like the same things, as that would make life terribly boring.  But you know, there are just some things I don't get either.  I don't need to get them, but I don't understand why so many people do.  Here are a few. Anime : What is the deal with Anime?  So many of my classmates are huge fans.  They download like crazy, have DVDs, etc.  I have seen bumper sti...

Bizarre. That is the only way to describe it.  Bizarre.  I am currently taking my 4 week, mandatory "Capstone" course.  It is an amalgamation of all sorts of different things they think they should teach us before we go.  Sort of a last ditch effort.  To be fair, there have been some really great lectures/presentations so far. But today we had a class that just beat them all.  It was a thoroughly uncomfortable experience. The class was on LGBT issues in med...