Recent posts by Rotorblade on Kongregate

Topic: Kongregate / Argue (About Everything!) Alpha Testers Wanted

Sign me up. I’d love a shot at testing Argue. It’d be a great primer for my career as a lawyer. =)

Topic: Off-topic / Earth Day - April 22

I think I’ll mow the lawn.

When I was a kid, my family and I would plant a tree on Earth Day.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Choosing a Career

I’m yet another person who didn’t stick with what he majored in at college.

I went to UCLA with the idea that I was going to do a science career. I had enjoyed my science classes in high school, so it seemed like a natural progression. When I got there, it was pretty much what I had expected, and it wasn’t until my fourth year of college that I realized that a career in scientific research might not be what I had bargained for. So I stuck with my Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics major. Oddly enough, despite taking many of the same courses as pre-med students, I never wanted to be a medical doctor.

During my third year, I finally had some free time, so I went to work as a researcher for one of my professors in his atherosclerosis lab. I did tests on mice for genetic markers pertaining to clogging of the arteries. I excelled in lab work and for a long time I found it pretty fun and engaging. After two years there, I realized that it just wasn’t going anywhere. I had to get a Ph.D. if I wanted to be remotely successful in the research field and I was pretty burned out on science at that point.

That was when I discovered medical writing. I’d been helping out with journal article drafts and other documents for many of the non-english speaking Ph.D. candidates and post-docs in my lab, but I didn’t know you could make a career out of it. I sat down and chatted with a guy in the next lab over who had been a medical writer but wanted to go back to research. He told me it would be right up my alley.

So I became a medical writer. It was good for about a year. Excellent pay, but I wanted something with more security. When I wasn’t getting the big medical writing contracts, I had to resort to small time web copywriting to keep the bills paid.

I applied to and was accepted for a job with a big pharma company, but it required that I relocate and I wasn’t completely sure that’s what I wanted to do with my life. I was torn between medical writing, pharmacy school, and law school (which had been at the back of my mind since high school).

Starting in August, I begin law school with a full scholarship. Savings of $37k a year? Why thank you.

How did I decide on law over science? Law had always been at the back of my mind since high school, but it was important to me to major in science during my undergrad. After all, I could be a lawyer, author, accountant, whatever else with a science background—but I had to be a science major if I ever wanted to think about research or pharmacy school. It kept my doors open. Also, I excelled at public speaking and debate in high school and college. One of my roommates used to tell me that I was the only science major at UCLA who could actually form a coherent sentence.

As for the future, I’m leaning towards intellectual property or land management as my focus in law school, but we’ll see where my classes take me. I haven’t decided whether I want to work in big law or a medium sized firm. Big law requires sacrificing too many things that are important to me, so I’ll likely stick with medium firms and just take the pay cut. But that’s still three years off. Also, sometime in my life I plan to start my own small partnership, but we’ll see. I’d also love to be a photographer—later in life, perhaps.

A word of advice. Do what sounds interesting to you, but make sure it will pay the bills. Oh, and don’t let your college’s counselors lie to you about the job market in your field.

Topic: Kongregate / Dinowaurs Alpha Testers Wanted

I’d love to give the alpha a shot.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Who will win the election!?!?

cpasley: Ah, but the previous governor was widely regarded as doing a fantastic job. There’s a reason why only 6 of our 42 presidents have been senators directly before becoming president, but half of the last six losing presidential hopefuls were senators. Legislative experience is largely overrated.

Einar: You recalled correctly. Still, only a fifth of the world’s countries (give or take a few) start liberal and head towards socialism.

As for who I think should be president and how the system needs to be changed—that was completely off topic from what warsoldier asked originally, so I didn’t add in my two cents. But since you asked, I may as well discuss it.

I don’t identify with either of the two main American parties. Heck, I don’t identify with most of the third parties. However, as far as political philosophies go, I’m a Classical Libertarian with Neolibertarian leanings. I am not so far into libertarianism that I feel we need to abolish the government. We still need it to keep the infrastructure in check, provide for the defense of the union, trade with other nations, and keep companies from choosing profits over the welfare of our nation’s citizens. But that should be the extent of it.

None of the candidates did it for me this year, but Paul was a step in the right direction. A slow step, but a step nonetheless. That being said, it should be no surprise that Clinton, McCain, and Obama are almost the exact opposite of what I could want in a president.

The way we do presidential elections is fine as it is. The electoral college allows for each state to have a decent amount of sway in an election. Otherwise, all presidential races would be decided by California, New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas. I’ve fully accepted that those who are not centrist Dems or Reps will likely never win in America.

The system requires an overhaul elsewhere, but I have to get back to work. I’ll add to the discussion when I get some more time.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Who will win the election!?!?

I’m still disgusted that Clinton, McCain, and Obama are the best three candidates that our country can produce. Senators, by default, do not have the experience necessary to lead a country. They’re all talk, they’ve had to appease too many people for too long, and when it all comes down to it, any of the three candidates will continue to divide the country, just like Bush has, during their term(s).

As for who will win, unless something scandalous comes out between now and November, Obama’s got it in the bag. Is that good or bad? Depends on who you ask. He’s got some good ideas, but it all seems like he’s telling people what they want to hear. But like I said before, all of the candidates seem like that.

And Einar, Europe is not only region that constitutes the “rest of the world”.

Topic: Kongregate / Thunderous OPEC Guardian longest badge ever?

The Balloon Invasion impossible was nowhere near the torture of the Papa’s Pizzeria badge. Not only was the Pizzeria badge RSI inducing, but it took way too long for each level. Couple that with having to do fifteen more days to get the last character up to gold. The Thunderstorm and Fuel of War levels on Balloon Invasion were actually easier than the first time through on elite. Aim mouse near left of screen, hold down mouse button, press keyboard key when necessary. Repeat. It was time consuming, but certainly not arduous like Papa’s Pizzeria.

Topic: Music / Music forum game

Emotion – Airbase

Topic: Music / Music forum game

I Can’t Feel You – Camouflage

Topic: Music / Music forum game

From Blue to Green – Chicane

Topic: Music / Music forum game

Turn Me on Mr. Deadman – Union Underground

Topic: Music / Rammstien

Rammstein was really awesome. I loved every single song on every album up until Reise, Reise. They changed their style too much for me at that point. It’s like they got better and better until they hit their apex with Mutter – and it was all downhill from there.

Also, if you like Rammstein, you may want to check out Eisbrecher and Megaherz.

Topic: Music / The Ultimate Band. Period.

You need to be more specific with your jk’s.

Topic: Music / The Ultimate Band. Period.

Trivia answer! The Polka Tulk Blues Company. My dad’s a big Black Sabbath fan.

And as for the best band(s): VAST, Mesh, and New Order.

Previously, Rammstein would have been the ultimate band – but they had to go and release Reise, Reise in 2004. And it’s been downhill since then. Pity.

Topic: Music / Rock or Calm music?

I used to like heavy metal (or whatever bands like Sepultura, etc. would be classified as) back in middle school and high school – but I guess I grew out of it once I went off to college. Either that or my ears couldn’t take it any longer. I still like rock though, but nothing too wild.

Tally me up on the calm side.

Topic: Music / any daft punk fans out there?

Uh oh, Cool. You’ve got your ”>” going the wrong way. Homework is far superior to Discovery. It’s just that Discovery was the CD out on store shelves when the majority of fans first discovered Daft Punk – so they tend to think it’s the best.

That being said, I no longer have any respect for Daft Punk after they teamed up with Kayne.

Topic: Games / MMO's

You might want to check out the big list of free MMOs on Fileplanet.

Also, if you’re into racing games, give Project Torque a try. I’ve been playing it for a couple of weeks and it’s pretty cool. It comes out of closed beta and into open beta on Sept. 4.

Topic: Kongregate / Badge Holders! Post your names!

I have all of the badges…and too much time on my hands, apparently.

Topic: Music / Favourite music Genre and song/band?

I used to listen to Abandoned Pools all the time in my first couple years of college. Back in 2000 (I think), I picked up this demo disc for the song “The Remedy”. It was so great that I picked up the first Abandoned Pools CD when it came out. My musical tastes have changed since then, though, but I still have a lot of their songs on my playlist. Such a unique sound compared to the typical rock stuff out there these days – and, yes, totally underrated.

Anyway, back on topic, my favorite genre would have to be the entire electronic music scene. Everything from psytrance to synthpop to industrial is in my collection although I have been getting back to my house and trance roots.

Favorite bands include: Iris, Vast, Chicane, Above + Beyond, Icon of Coil, Mesh, Mind.in.a.Box, Psykosonik, Stabbing Westward, and whatever else sounds interesting.

Current favorite songs: Memory Cell by Amo, Navas, D-Nox + Becker; Counting Down the Days by The Sunfreakz; Autumn Tactics by Chicane.

Topic: Off-topic / GameSpot

IGN was the place for video game news and reviews during my N64 days, but as the N64’s popularity began to wane and the Playstation became the dominant system in my home I found that IGN just wasn’t for me anymore. I guess I was disillusioned by a couple of their reviews at that point that were way off the marker. Needless to say, I moved on to Gamespot, where I found the atmosphere of the site more to my liking.

The real problem with gaming sites, like IGN and Gamespot, is the whole emphasis on the so-called “professional” review. What makes one person’s voice the be all and end all when it comes to the quality of a game? There are plenty of average, everyday kids and adults out there who have likely played more games than any reviewer – and those are the reviews I search out. I find the “user review” to be more honest, mostly because the user (usually) has no ties to the gaming industry.

That being said, I pretty much only use gaming sites for screen shots, trailers, and demos. If a game looks appealing, I check out the user reviews at GameFAQs and Amazon to see if there are any major complaints or compatibility issues. The only time I check out professional reviews these days is when there are not enough user reviews on a particular game. Metacritic and Gamespot are my top choices if it comes to that.

Topic: Music / Teh NG Audio Portal.

I haven’t explored it too much, but I love Polar 240 by ParagonX9.

Topic: Off-topic / GameSpot

Actually…just to clear something up…GameFAQs was started before GameSpot, and both sites were founded by completely different people. CNET now owns both sites along with numerous others.

And as for GameSpot, it’s a pretty good site for news, previews, and trailers – but I’m tend to disagree with quite a few of their reviews. Certainly better than most of the competition though (I’m looking in your direction, IGN).

Topic: Off-topic / Best Instant Messenger?

Pidgin really is excellent although it’s nothing compared to perfection that is Adium on the Mac (yes, I know they’re essentially the same). Trillian’s also pretty decent. I used it for years before discovering Pidgin.

Topic: Off-topic / Science!

Seeing as how I majored in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics – you could say that I like science plenty.

Other than dealing with the mixing of different solutions and concentrations of microbes, immunology has practically nothing to do with math.

Genetics aside, the physical sciences (chemistry, physics, etc.) have much more of a relationship to math than the biological sciences.

Topic: Kongregate / Server Down?

Yeah, it’s not working for me either.