Damn It, Missed March LOL

Damn it. Looks like my streak has ended yet again. Gonna try harder to stick to it

So what’s happened? Major events include going on a 2 week trip to Melbourne with Jenny in February (fantastic city. Seriously considering moving there!) and celebrating my quarter century birthday with Mum, Dad, Dill, Steph and Jenny at an Italian restaurant in the City called Da Vinci (very nice food and atmosphere, if I may add!).

Work-wise, just been working at Newmarket a few nights a week (including the odd extra shift when Pete needed cover), and pretty regular locum shifts at St Lukes, Avondale and Epsom. Quite steady.

In the MLB and NBA sports world (I don’t care much for cricket )…
- The Phillies just routed the Mets 11-0 behind Doc’s stellar 7-inning shutout;
- The Yankees edged the Twins with smart hitting;
- Mo picked up his 4th save of the season, quietly marching towards the record books. I believe he needed 42 to tie The Hoff’s 601 save record, so 42 – 2 = 38… 38 saves to go;
- Cole Hamels was raped a few days ago in the third inning. Hope he regains his 2008 playoffs MVP form soon!! The Phils need him;
- The Lakers have been slumping (2 game losing streak) since going 19-1 after the All-Star break. Not too worried about them. They’ve already clinched a playoff berth I think

#27!!

The Yankees have done it again. The most decorated team in all of professional sports just won their unprecedented 27th (I repeat, TWENTY-SEVENTH) MLB World Series title, taking down the defending world champs (and my other favourite team from the other league), the Phillies. Just like how Babe Ruth and his Yankees won it all in the old Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter and co. have emulated what Ruth and co. did, but this time at the new Yankee Stadium!

Solid effort from Andy Pettitte, from the bullpen and Mariano Rivera who recorded the final five outs. But perhaps the man who deserves the most glory is no doubt Hideki Matsui. “Godzilla” singlehandedly mauled the Phillies with six RBIs including a two-run home run off Pedro Martinez. Well deserved World Series MVP, Godzilla!!

Let’s hope this is just the first of many for the Bombers!! Congratulations!!

Back to reality. Two more exams for me… Come on, Nathan! Study! Also found out I passed the Super OSCE yesterday night too, which I’m still quite ecstatic about!! XD

Run, Johnny, Run!!

One more win. One more win for #27. Didn’t manage to catch the game live on ESPN again, but caught most of the action on Gameday (as usual lol). The Yankees were up 4-3 when Joba Chamberlain serves up a home run to Pedro Feliz, tying it at 4-4 to end the 8th.

Send in “Mr. Blown Save” Brad Lidge at the top of the 9th inning to preserve the tie and what do you get? You guessed it; a loss for the Phillies… I have nothing against him (he seems like a genuine guy who’s struggling and trying hard to bounce back), but seriously. Cole Hamels and Lidge both need to work out where they went wrong this season/postseason…

After breezing through the first two outs, getting pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui to pop out to Jimmy Rollins AND striking out Derek Jeter, Lidge crumbles after a lengthy 9-pitch duel with Johnny Damon, giving up a single. THEN on the first pitch to Mark Teixeira, Damon takes off, bringing chaos along and an eventual win for the Bombers. Not only does he steal 2nd, but he manages to steal 3rd base as well on the same play (you have to watch the replay/highlight at MLB.com, because it’s simply epic). Lidge proceeds to hit Teix with a pitch, then Damon comes home on Alex Rodriguez’s clutch RBI-double. By now, the Yanks re-claim the lead, 5-4. Next up, Jorge Posada drills a two-RBI single to center, inflating the lead to 7-4.

Enter Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 9th. Mo only needs EIGHT pitches to dispose of Matt Stairs, Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. All three grounding out/popping up harmlessly to Teix at 1st. Game over, save, victory for the Yankees.

So there you have it. Clutch hitting from Damon, A-Rod and Jorgie; combined with clutch (and epic) base-running from Damon; and a solid save from Mo brings the Yankees within ONE win for #27. I look forward to Game 5 tomorrow!

Player of the Game for today? Johnny Damon. Period.

LET’S GO YANKEES!!

Bronx Bombers Up By One

Didn’t watch the game on ESPN today because of the three exams I have left… However, caught most of the “action” on MLB.com Gameday. Yankees bested the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, with veteran Andy Pettitte picking up the win and Cole Hamels the loss (what the hell is wrong with him this season/postseason?!).

Phil Hughes was shaky, giving up a home run to Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz in a non-save situation. Thankfully, Joe Girardi brought in who else but Mo to close out the win and pick up the save (since Hughes gave up the solo homer, the game became a save-situation) before any further damage could have been done.

What was most peculiar for me was Andy Pettitte logging a single to centerfield, then rounding the bases in a warm up jacket on Johnny Damon’s two-RBI double (was it a double or a single? I forget). Now I know he was most probably keeping his arm warm, but I’ve honestly never seen any other pitcher do that before lol. Forgive me if this is common practice, but I haven’t seen that many baseball games… Yet!

Nevertheless, great game. Yanks up 2-1!

Yanks Pull Even

A solid 7.0 innings by AJ Burnett coupled with a 2.0-inning, six-out save by Mariano Rivera usually means a win for the Bronx Bombers, and today was no exception. Although Mo kind of struggled in the 8th. Nearly gave me a heart attack; figuratively speaking Nevertheless, as Mo has done countless times in his illustrious career, he escaped the jam.

Homers from Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui paved the way for the win, along with a pinch-hit RBI by Jorge Posada. Alex Rodriguez, however, continues to struggle. Similarly, the Phils’ big first baseman, Ryan Howard. also struggled. Hopefully A-Rod wakes up soon. Otherwise his so-called postseason “transformation” thus far will be quickly forgotten.

Super OSCE went quite well yesterday (I hope!). Cellulitis with a penicillin allergy. One down, three more to go (4th, 7th and 11th Oct). Wish me luck!

Enter Night, Exit Light

The Yankees punched their ticket into their first World Series since 2003; Mariano Rivera was summoned from the bullpen at the top of the 8th, and you all know what happens next. 99.99% of the time, the Yankees roll on to win the game. Although I’ll admit, I was on the edge of my seat while watching Gameday on MLB.com. The Angels managed to squeeze one run off Mo (which is near impossible), but because it was a pivotal game (win or go home for the Halos), I’ll let this one slide (as Mo still recorded the save anyway).

So, the World Series stage is set. My TWO FAVOURITE TEAMS will battle it out for baseball’s most coveted prize. I remember telling Dill when the season just started that a Yankees/Phillies World Series match-up is possible. He told me to stop dreaming.

Teams-wise, I’m gonna have to say I like the Yankees a little bit more overall, so chances are I’ll be rooting for them. That’s not to say the Phillies aren’t awesome, because I love them just as much! But whoever wins, I’ll be happy. At least Boston didn’t make it

I had my P410 presentation today at 1:30pm too. All in all, I think we did a great job, and without a doubt, our Powerpoint slides were by far the best!

Now, just an OSCE and three exams to go…

Brad Lidge = EPIC FAIL…

Omfg… Brad Lidge blew another save  today… That’s “good” for ELEVEN MAJOR LEAGUE-LEADING BLOWN SAVES…

It’s a miracle the Phillies are even still top in their division…

The Yankees on the other hand were the first MLB team to clinch a playoff spot yesterday with a win over the always dangerous Angels. Late-game heroics (sac-fly) by A-Rod. I’m hoping that’s a preview to how much he’s going to step up (finally) these playoffs! They also won the game earlier this morning; Mariano Rivera coming through with the save = 524 career saves WOOHOO!! Mo also picked up the save yesterday, and was part of a sweet “double”-play (strike-out + throw-out) yesterday with Jorgie (Jorge Posada) in the 9th.

At Grafton IC as I type this. Trying to read the pre-reading for law (there’s a shitload today for some reason). Gonna be a boring workshop…

First Week Impressions

Just got home from a long day at work(s). Had my final day at Life Pharmacy Pakuranga for my externship, and then my usual shift at Newmarket. It’s been a week since I bought my new Nokia N95 8GB cellphone/smartphone from Expert Infotech from all the way over the ‘Shore, and I thought it was a nice time to express my first week impressions!

What can I say? I’m still speechless from how satisfied I am with this cellphone! Features-wise, it is by far the most jam-packed cellphone I’ve ever owned (Wi-Fi, 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera, built-in GPS, 8GB of memory, just to name a few of the countless functions!), not to mention how sexy the phone looks! It looks so manly. The epitome of what a man’s phone should look/feel like! What’s more, 95% of the time, it performs extraordinarily well. Why only 95%, you ask? Well, being a perfectionist, there are a couple of very minor niggles/bugs that I’m not too fond of:

- First off, it appears that all Symbian-based Nokia phones have this bug, where text messages in the inbox are shown surname first. So for example, if I receive a text from “Mariano Rivera”, the inbox shows I have a text from “Rivera Mariano”. This one doesn’t bug me as much as the next bug;
- After I flashed the phone to Taiwan firmware (the phone was originally for the Bulgarian region), I discovered that the firmware has trouble showing the names of texts I receive from 9-digit numbers (EG: 021-123456), and showing the names of calls (caller ID) I receive from 10-digit numbers (EG: +6421-123456). This bothered me the most, as a lot of my friends were on plan, and hence had phone numbers that length.

So after a few days of trying to live with these problems and trying to find solutions online, I decided to try my luck with the N95-2′s Hong Kong firmware (as Raymond updated his N82 to the newest firmware just a few days ago, and doesn’t have the dodgy 9/10-digit caller ID problem). Turns out luck was on my side. I now don’t have this problem, but at the same time, I desperately hope Nokia fix this bug in the Taiwan firmware for future updates (I much prefer having Taiwan firmware than Hong Kong).

N95 8GB (N95-2) Review:
Looks/Design: 9.5/10 (the slider’s a little wobbly, but still extremely solid. I just hope it doesn’t get any looser. But you can’t argue how sexy yet manly the phone looks!)
Functions/Features: 9/10 (if only the camera had the N82′s xenon flash, then this would’ve easily been a 10/10)
Ease of Use: 8.5/10 (here’s where my K800i might have the upper hand [it was soooo easy to use], but then again, maybe it’s because I’m a total noob to Symbian)
Overall (not an average): 9/10 (easily the best phone I’ve ever owned)

I also just finished my 5-day community pharmacy externship placement at Life Pharmacy Pakuranga. What a drag… The staff there were great, and it was a pretty good experience overall. However, I didn’t particularly like the efficiency of the dispensary. Their so-called “double-checking” system didn’t work well at all (even with 5 pharmacists on duty simultaneously!), and I found that patients had to wait much longer than they needed to for their scripts. But all in all, a nice experience!

Ok, I think it’s off to bed for me! 8am start at Superclinic! XD

K-Rod = FAIL

First of all, I’d like to wish my girlfriend a very Happy 23rd Birthday for yesterday! I hope you had a great day cuz I did!

Watching the Yankees @Mets game on Sky EPSN as I post this. Yanks lead 4-2, bottom of the 9th. Wang pitched pretty solidly through 6 innings, but definitely not fully back to his old self yet, although his velocity and sinker are returning slowly.

I LOL’d hard when in a dream matchup, closing pitcher vs opposing closer batting, K-Rod vs. Mo, resulted in K-Rod walking Mo, helping Rivera pick up his very first career RBI LOL!

A lot of people speak highly of Francisco Rodriguez, but I really don’t see what’s so great about him. His command is ridiculous. And if you manage to walk the opposing pitcher (esp. if this is Mariano Rivera, who’s hardly had an at-bat; this one being his 3rd. to be precise), you must be pretty useless.

UPDATE: The game just ended, with Mo breezing through the bottom of the 9th, picking up his 500th career save. Yankees win it.

CONGRATULATIONS, MARIANO RIVERA!! The greatest closer of all-time!! 500 career saves!!

On other news, Michael Jackson sadly passed away a few days ago… Why do all the legends die so young?…

Rest in Peace, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop… 29th August 1958 – 25th June 2009