Who Do You Think You Are? I am!

Congratulations to the Loogootee boys basketball team for winning the 1A State Championship on Saturday. This was our first state championship of any kind and it really was a long time coming as we've had several great teams in the past but have never been able to win the whole tournament. It really was nice to see our team and our fans celebrating in Banker's Life Fieldhouse on Saturday. Congratulations, guys.

Hoosier Hysteria

When I was in high school I was a big high school basketball fan. BoilerPip and I went to all of Loogootee's games and we would even occasionally travel to see some of the state's best players. After graduating from high school I watched and followed high school basketball less and less to the point where I don't follow it at all anymore. It's not that I don't enjoy it, it's that moving out of state, being busy with work and school, and not knowing the players really kind of puts you at a distance as to what is going on.

Loogootee played in the semi-state this past weekend and I was kind of on the fence as to whether I wanted to go. I haven't been to a game all season and I don't know any of the players. But the game was in south Indy and I heard we were really good so I decided to go. I went into the game really having little to no emotional attachment to the team. I must say, however, that by half time that completely changed. Despite not knowing any of the players or really knowing anything about the team, I really wanted them to win. It was like I was back in 2001 when I was a die hard fan and went to every game. It goes to show you that it isn't so much about the specific players involved but the team and community.

Loogootee pulled off the victory against a pretty good Edinburgh team and will move on to the state finals next Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. I must say, I thought the team looked really good and without knowing anything about Rockville I think they have a good chance to win next weekend.

March is one of the best sporting times of the year with the NCAA tournament. Yesterday I was reminded of the excitement of the IHSAA tournament and how thrilling it can be for a team and a community. Even though the tournament under the class system isn't as challenging as the old single class tournament, it still can be quite exciting and fun. Onward to the state capital once again for Loogootee. Hopefully this time we can pull off the victory. After seeing the game yesterday I think we have a great chance.

The Guy in Gynecology

As a primary care doc I see anything and everything that walks through the door. I'm lucky enough to get a first chance at most patients before they are sent off to a specialist. You'd actually be surprised at some of the patients who come in to see me. Anyway, this past month I spent up in Lafayette doing gynecology/Women's health. I've always enjoyed women's health professionally (it involves a lot of endocrinology and physiology, and delivering babies is probably the most rewarding thing I've done in my career). With this being said, the topic is a bit frustrating to me. Between my resident clinic and moonlighting clinic, I see between 20-30 patients per week. If you figure that women make up half that population, and a certain subset of that population will have health care needs specific to women, you would figure that I would deal with the topic a fair amount. Let's be honest, women's health is about as primary care as it gets. And yet, in the 18+ months of residency that I've completed, I can probably count on two hands the number of patients that I've seen with these complaints. Even up in Lafayette I met some resistance, despite having a medical degree and license (i.e. I couldn't be more qualified).

I'm kind of glad the rotation is over. On the one hand, it was an easy rotation, but I get tired of watching other people work. As I said, this topic is pretty primary care and I feel pretty comfortable being able to handle 95% of it. I find that the longer I do rotations, the more I know and my questions are now different than what they used to be. I guess that these are all signs that the educational process is working. I want to just work with my own patients now and not watch other people work.

On a different note, Sarah and I made a quick trip to St. Louis this weekend to see Radiohead in concert. Radiohead is my favorite band and in my opinion, are the best rock band of my generation. This is the second time I've seen them, the first being in Cleveland in 2008. They played a great show, with a surprising and variable set list, and the light show behind stage was awesome! Sarah and I really had a good time. Below is a video for the song "Separator" from the "King of Limbs: From the Basement." Enjoy!

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
IGN Rating: 10
System: Wii
Release Year: 2011


When reviewing a video game it is common to break it down into various categories and rate the game both in individual categories and as a whole. When I review the individual categories for Skyward Sword, I would consider it to be the best Zelda game created. The Legend of Zelda series is an iconic game series featuring protagonist Link trying to save the land of Hyrule and princess Zelda from the evil Gannon. The stories typically feature Link trying to return the omnipotent Triforce back to Zelda's royal family in order to bring peace back to Hyrule. The Zelda series is right up there with Mario in terms of video game importance in my book, so picking the best game out of the series is like picking the best player on the Dream Team or voting for Playmate of the Year - there's some stiff competition and a lot of great entities to choose from.

There is no question Skyward Sword has the best game play of the franchise. I've always thought of motion controls as somewhat of a fad - good for non-serious games like Wii Sports but not so good for "real" games. I have since changed my mind. The 1:1 sword movements with the Wii Motion Plus on this game are amazing. You actually have to swing your controller in certain directions in order to attack enemies, depending on how they are blocking. It adds tremendous depth to the game play and eliminates "button mashing." Sometimes I wish I could just press a button to do simple things but when fighting enemies the game play is just awesome. I never want to go back to the old way of doing things. My only complaint here are that you frequently have to recalibrate the controller, which is only a button press, but does get annoying.

The series is known for it's ornate temples that Link must conquer in order to progress through the game. The temples require intelligent problem solving skills and feature unique and interesting themes. Skyward Sword probably has the best temples of the series, especially in the second half of the game. They are unique and just awesome to play through. The Sandship and the Ancient Cistern were a couple of my favorites.

The graphics are the best the series has seen as well. At first I wasn't a big fan of the Japanese anime-style graphics, but they quickly grew on me and I think they suit the series well. The game is fantasy based so I think graphics that are too realistic would be goofy, and yet a normal cartoon appearance would be too childish. I just wish Nintendo would catch up to where the rest of the video game industry was over 5 years ago and go hi-def. I'd love to see this series in 1080p.

As with everything else in the series, the games feature a fantastic soundtrack. Overall I don't think the music in Skyward Sword is as good as previous games, but it still has some great songs and kudos to Nintendo for finally utilizing an orchestra to perform in the game.

In general I'm not a big fan of action-adventure, fantasy, role-playing games or titles such as The Lord of the Rings, so it is somewhat unusual for me to like the Zelda series in the first place. It has a huge nostalgia factor with my childhood, starting with the great SNES title A Link to the Past from 1992, and I've been hooked on the series since. Many, including myself, regarded 1998's Ocarina of Time to be the best video game ever created. In my opinion, Ocarina held the designation of the best Zelda game until 2006 when Twilight Princess was released. Maybe it was because it was originally released for the Game Cube, or maybe it was because I wasn't really playing games at the time of its release (I was busy with med school at the time.), but I always felt like Twilight Princess flew under the radar. It definitely did not get the attention Ocarina received, and yet I felt like it was better than Ocarina.

To me, Twilight Princess was like Ocarina on steroids. It contained Hyrule and all of the familiar places from Ocarina and A Link to the Past, but everything was bigger and more grand. It also had several new places to explore. The story was intriguing, unique, and dark. The music was the best the series has seen, even still, in my opinion. And even in their infancy, the Wii motion controls worked really well for the game.

The problem that I have with Skyward Sword is that a lot of this nostalgia is gone. There is no Hyrule. Instead you live on some random island in the sky, and instead of traveling by horse, you fly around on birds. It's really random and honestly I don't care for it at all. There are no fields or lands to explore really, instead you just fly directly to the locations you need to be. Skyrim this game is not.

Speaking of the locations, they feel "man made" to me in this game. They feel like obstacle courses created specifically for adventure. After playing games like Skyrim and the desert stages in Uncharted 3, some of these locations are somewhat disappointing. I think some of this is due to the limitations of the Wii, but it is tough traveling back to 2002 when I'm playing games in 2012. And you return to the same locations over and over again in this game, so you spend a ton of time in each location. I would love to see this series in high-def and have a bit more of an open-world, more realistic feel.

One of the reasons why you return to the same locations over and over again is because the game has a number of find and retrieve portions which to me serve no purpose other than to be annoying and take up time in-between the temples, which as mentioned above is where all of the fun is located. And while we're on the topic of annoying, I have no idea why Nintendo thought it would be a good idea to remind me of the obvious every time the obvious occurred. I do not need to be interrupted and told every time my hearts are low. I know they are low because (1) there is a heart meter on the screen, (2) the game already beeps at me when I'm low on hearts, and (3) I am likely getting my ass kicked in a battle at the time. Making me interrupt the game so that I can be notified of all of this is really just pointless.

I know this post was super long and likely doesn't excite the interests of most of the readers. However, it took me 45 hours to beat this game and it is one of my favorite game series of all time, and there are only a couple of games per decade released in this series, so I thought it deserved a large post. Don't get me wrong with some of my complaints. Skyward Sword is the best game made for the Wii and probably the best game of the Zelda franchise. For me, however, it is a game where the total does not equal the sum of the individual parts. For as great as the game is, I miss Hyrule and the familiar locations and themes that I am used to. I realize that Nintendo can't keep making the same game and so changes have to be made, and to be fair, most of my complaints are minor compared to all of the pros offered in the game. However, if I had to pick which game I thought was best, I would still pick Twilight Princess. To make sure I am remembering correctly, I have started replaying Twilight Princess. I beat the game in 2009, which is the last time I've played it. I'm an hour in currently and I miss the Wii Motion Plus already. Final verdict on this debate to come in a few months when I finish Twilight Princess for the second time.