Protocol Snow

2nd year of med school is no joke. This is the last preclinical year and the amount of material we’re cramming in is ridiculous. Adding to the pressure is the ominous USMLE Step 1 looming at the end of the school year that is pretty much the most important test in my life. Forget SAT or MCAT, this is the big one.

Still, I got this awesome keyboard a while back and have been meaning to take pictures so here’s my first post in a few weeks.

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My brother got his copy in the mail today so I can do the big reveal: I printed my first photobook! It depicts my recent vacation to Taiwan and Tokyo. I used the services of Blurb, which provides the software to design books of all types and also has great printers.

The book cost me about $60 including shipping for a 170 page 10″ X 8″ hardcover with dust jacket. Prices will vary depending on the number of pages and the dimensions of the book.

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I signed up for Amazon Prime a few months ago because I had an opportunity to split the $80 annual membership fee with a few other guys. Since then, Amazon.com has been getting plenty of business from me. Prime gives you free 2 day shipping and overnight shipping for $3.99. I never order overnight shipping, but occasionally I magically get my items the next day if the assigned shipping center is close.

I even do household shopping from Amazon now for things like shampoo and detergent. I find that Amazon has slightly cheaper prices than retail at the supermarket, not to mention that I don’t have to waste any gas driving out to stores. It’s win win for me. $80 a year is a little steep though, but it’s definitely worth it if you can find a few buddies to split the cost.

This past Sunday was the release of Smash Brothers Brawl and since I didn’t have a Wii, I headed out to Toys R Us before opening hours to camp out for a bit. I had previously purchased a Wii during the week of Super Mario Galaxy’s release but promptly sold both on eBay after I finished the game.

Mario Galaxy was captivating for the 12 or so hours it took to beat the main quest, but when I started to go for the complete 120 stars, I realized I didn’t have the drive to play through all those time trials and coin collect-a-thons. All for what, an artificial gaming badge of honor? I had sapped the sweet nectar from Mario Galaxy and was ready to move on to the next promising gaming bud.

So this was my second chance with the Wii. Smash Brawl is exactly what you’d expect, a fun party/pseudo-fighting game steeped with Nintendo lore. One of the biggest new modes is Subspace Emissary, a side-scrolling adventure mode revolving around a campy storyline that is essentially a thinly veiled Nintendo fan fic. This is a world where Link walking in the forest passes by a sleeping dinosaur (Yoshi) with hardly a second glance, and where Fox and Diddy Kong team up to fight a giant Pokemon. The actual gameplay is a real chore since you have to navigate through mazes to find the end of the levels, but watching the entertaining cutscenes makes it almost worthwhile, plus you can unlock most of the characters by going through this mode.

However, the real feature is the online play of course. In theory, this is what Nintendo fans have been wanting for years, but the execution thus far has been pitiful. I am spoiled by the Xbox Live experience, no doubt, and I can understand Nintendo’s position on limiting their online service to protect kids from predators. But everybody not under 12 years old suffers as a result. Each “Smash Bros. friend” you want to add to a friends list requires inputting a 16 digit code. If you want to share custom stages with that person, you’ll need to add him as a “Wii friend”, which requires inputting another 20 digit code. No voice chat and a bare-bones online presence are what I expected and Nintendo delivered exactly that.

All that can be forgiven if playing random strangers actually works, but it’s very spotty. In the first several days of release, getting into a game was almost impossible as Nintendo was clearly unable to handle the server load. Last night and today, I was finally able to get into a few games and had some fun, though the lag is immense at times. I’m talking 2 frames a second lag. Perhaps later this week or next week, the online play will be smoothed out.

Despite all the negativity, Brawl is the best game on Wii without a doubt and I’ll probably be keeping the Wii this time around. The fighting mechanics at the core are solid and it’s great fun to beat up all these Nintendo characters. But for now, stick with playing local multiplayer.

Penny Arcade comics are hit-or-miss, but they do have some classics. They recently started a service selling full size prints of virtually all their comics and I decided to pick up a few of my favorites for decorating purposes.

The comics come printed on thick stock paper and seem perfect for hanging on the wall. I’m happy with them, though the customer service at the Penny Arcade store could use some work. I never got notification that my order was shipped and my order status on the website is still blank. After 10 business days, I sent them an email asking if they were having problems printing the comics, but never got a reply. The comics showed up all of a sudden yesterday though, 12 business days after my order.

I have it all planned out. When I’m officially a licensed doctor, this is going up in my office. Orange Box DVD next to the poster to give you an idea of the print scale.
Original comic

This one will be displayed in my game room. The comic’s actually referring to the John Woo Stranglehold game, I don’t know why I put Mass Effect next to it. From what I hear though, Mass Effect is so good that it can blast your nuts off and you’ll grin. I’ll finally play it for myself today.
Original comic

And this last one will be in the bathroom. Maybe even in the women’s restroom if I have my own clinic someday.
Original comic

I’m leaving for Los Angeles and winter break today yay!!!

I went into Tokyo having throughly planned a list of stores I wanted to visit, mapping their locations using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth software. For pretty much any other country, this level of preparation would be overkill. But if you’ve ever been in Tokyo before and wanted to find a specific address, you’ll know how difficult it can be to arrive at your destination.

Tokyo blocks and buildings are organized very haphazardly, and hardly anybody besides the government uses the address system, preferring instead to navigate using landmarks. If you get into a taxi and give an address to the driver, chances are he’ll have as much of a clue how to get there as you do.

Let’s take a look at a sample address: 2-29-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. This says that the store is in the city of Tokyo, in the ward of Shibuya, in the area of Dogenzaka. That’s pretty easy. Going deeper, the store is in the No. 2 chome (sub-area) of Dogenzaka, in the 1st building on the 29th block.

Without a detailed city map, it would be nearly impossible to figure out which block is the 29th (let alone where the 1st building is) as there aren’t any signs posted on the streets or on the buildings. None of the maps I have go into sufficient detail to label individual buildings, so the best you can do is find the 29th block using a map by orienting yourself with nearby landmarks, and then walk around the block until you see a sign for the store.

It just so happens that this address is for Shibuya 109, which is a major landmark in Shibuya where trendy teenage girls shop for clothes. This place would be easy to find even without a map.

Anyway, here’s the multimedia goodies I picked up on vacation. Even though I went to all this trouble finding stores, I actually didn’t have specific things in mind that I wanted to buy and just browsed around. This was probably a bad idea going into Akihabara, the electronics neighborhood of Tokyo and the “gaming mecca” of the world. I’ll explain in a future post.

(clockwise from upper left)
Phantasy Star Online artbook, purchased at Mandarake in Shibuya.
Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail, purchased in the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi shopping mall in Tainan, Taiwan. This is the PS3 game that I alluded to several posts ago. I bought this even though I don’t even have a PS3 system and have no plans to get one anytime soon! But I did ride the Taiwan HSR twice last month, which was pretty cool. This game lets you drive it.
Bomber hehhe!, purchased at MediaLand in Akihabara. This is an obscure game about blowing up skyscrapers and one I’ve been wanting to get for years. I believe this game was released after 9/11, which is surprising in itself.
Pro Yayku Team de Asobou! (Let’s play pro baseball team!), purchased at Super Potato in Akihabara.
Frame Guide, purchased at Super Potato in Akihabara.

Cowboy Bebop limited edition boxed set, purchased at Trader in Shinjuku. This is the PS2 game based on the popular anime series.

An assortment of music CDs purchased at Book Off in Harajuku and HMV in Shibuya. (clockwise from upper left)
melody. “Be as one” album
melody. “Lovin’ U” single
melody. “Ready to go!” album
Genki Rockets “Heavenly Star” single
Nobuchika Eri “nobuchikaeri” album
Leah Dizon “Koi shiyou” single

Most of these games and music CDs were purchased used, which has none of the negative connotations associated with it in the U.S. In fact, I prefer buying used goods when I’m in Tokyo. The conditions are graded with labeled tags by the stores, and you get high quality merchandise at the low prices. For example, I found a used copy of the melody. “Ready to go!” album a few days after its official release in stores. I bought it for $10 less than the new price and the condition was pristine.

The long-awaited DJ Max Portable 2 for the PSP released in Korea last week, and I got my deluxe copy in the mail today. The full name: DJ Max Portable 2 Orpheus Package ~Night Black~ [Limited Edition]. Only 1,000 of these were made! This was a tough item to snag, but it’s a nice collector’s item for sure. There’s also a ~Metallic Silver~ of this set that’s essentially the same thing, but with a silver box and a different jigsaw puzzle design. Only 1,000 of those were made as well.

For those unfamiliar with DJ Max Portable 2, this is the sequel to last year’s sizzingly hot Korean music game. It’s very similar to the music game Beatmania, where you need to push buttons in time to the music. Or as a friend called it: “DDR for your fingers”. Check out last year’s version in action to get a feel for the game.

I haven’t tried playing the sequel yet, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the Limited Edition box. I also own the LE of the first game, and the production values of this set are MUCH better than last year’s. The box closes very smartly with a magnetic strip on the flap, as does a smaller box included inside that contains the jigsaw puzzles, art cards, and calendar. Other items in the set are a 3 CD soundtrack, the game, and an art book. The set overall has a very satisfying weight to it. Quality item all around.