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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Lazy Sunday post

Well, its Sunday & I have the house to myself during the day, which rarely happens! Its a muggy, breeze-less day though, so its not much good for anything but lounging out of the sun. I live around 1500 feet above sea level, with a clear view of the ocean, & usually enjoy an awesome trade wind that keeps it around 72 degrees (Fahrenheit) year-round. Today is an exception!

I considered posting another college-related guide sort of post today, but honestly - its Sunday. That sounds like work. Look for a post on how to deal with stubborn, pain in the *** professors in the next few days!

Today, I'm going to post three of my favorite things, in no real order or one category!





Anki lets you create (or download from other users) sets of flashcards to review virtually anything. Learning a language, memorizing facts, definitions, whatever! An
ki tracks your progress, & stages how often you should review cards depending on how well you show you know the material. I'm using it to review medical terminology. My favorite features are the ability to add pictures, sounds & even videos to cards.

So, for example, I make a card with the 'front' saying 'the central compartment of the thoracic cavity. It contains the heart, esophagus, trachea, etc'. Then I click to show the back - 'mediastinum', & a recording plays of me saying the word, & a picture of a diagram appears! Depending on how well I know the answer, I click one of four buttons which determines how soon the program will show them again.

The best thing about Anki is that you're not limited to studying on just the computer you made your decks on - you can study online from any computer, its available on many mobile devices, even the Nintendo DS (if you have a flashcard device).


I am a huge video game fan, & my favorite genre is the 2D action RPG. Another Blogger introduced me to the Cave Story website, & I wish I could remember who it was so I could say a huge 'THANK YOU!!' I've been sneaking in a bit every day since I got it, & am currently stuck on a monster tank boss that runs you over while cockroaches spit acid at you. Fun! If you're like me & have been in the dark about it until now, read on.

Cave Story is a side-scrolling 2D action RPG that plays similar to old school Metroid, Megaman & Castlevania titles. Its RPG elements lie in upgrading weapons through drops from enemies in a limited fashion, an engaging story & characters, & earning new items that upgrade your character. It was developed over five years by one man, nicknamed Pixel. The graphics will strike some as limited, but others who appreciate 2D graphics will embrace them instantly. The music is catchy, the gameplay is tight & challenging, & its a fairly lengthy game. And its freeware! A total labor of love, from one guy. Its also been re-released on the Wii, in the DSi shop, & is an update is rumored to be in production for the 3DS.


And lastly, a book. Well-Dressed Ape examines the human being as an animal, in a humorous, sometimes self-depreciating style, with a ton of fascinating insights into the workings of animals & people, & how we're so different, yet alike in many strange ways. We share the feature of toxic spit with the Komodo dragon, for example - as much as 23% of human bite wounds that are untreated result in amputation! If you have an interest in biology, anthropology & world cultures, with a sense of humor, this book is a must-read.

Random happiness - my laptop has been heating up like blacktop in the sun for some reason, so I hunted around my cluttered storage shed & managed to find a broken laptop cooling stand with a fan that stopped working for some unknown reason. Took it apart, discovered the problem (some hair caught in the fan, ew), problem solved!

28 comments:

  1. i definately have an interest in biology anthropology and world cultures and the part with the bite was astonishing so i think im gonna rnead that book.

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  2. Cave story sounds really cool ^_^

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  3. While I had heard of the second two, I had actually never heard of Anki. I think I might have to use this for some of my projects. Thank you!

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  4. Hey, for the laptop, make sure you don't set it on blankets or cloth for long periods of time. That always tends to overheat and if you overheat it could lead to troubles with the HD

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  5. Anki! I used to use that to study in college!

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  6. I absolutely love Cave Story!

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  7. that flash card thing is really cool.

    if you'd ever like to participate in my blog lemme know..i'd be glad to interview you ^_*

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  8. If you have SNES emulator i recomend Chrono Trigger low sys req just for laptop and great story from Square (guys from Final Fantasy series)

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  9. My brother lives in Hawaii, on Oahu. He likes to surf if he can get a minute from work and the kids lol. RPGs rock :) love them!!

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  10. interesting, but veeeery long :p

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  11. This Anki app looks interesting, I hope it will help me.. will say later if it did

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  12. Very interesting.Keep up the good work!

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  13. Last book looks really intresting maybe i will read it.

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  14. Good read but didn't read all of it got no time right now will finish it later :)

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  15. Pretty interesting. I love cave story.

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  16. Very long read, but your post never fail to grab my attention and i just cant stop reading xD

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  17. I use anki for learning japanese, it's really useful.

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  18. Good read, will definitely check some of these out

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  19. which are your favorite video games?

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  20. I'm learning the japanese spelling and that Anki program looks promising. I scrolled through a bit and I can't seem to get past the account creation... I'll try later tonight. Thanks!

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  21. Glad to hear you are using Anki, it's a great little program for learning.

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  22. Anki service looks interesting. Thanks for this useful link

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