Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time

This Christmas there were no children. In that respect it was sad.

This Christmas, however, there were zombies. And in that respect it was awesome.

All I want to talk about are the zombies.

The board game, Last Night on Earth, is a relatively complex game based around the relatively simple concept of brain eating zombies wanting to eat your brains. You can either be the brain possessing heroes or the brain craving zombies. The heroes have the advantage of various guns, clubs, and special traits while the zombies have the advantage of being numberless and relentless.

Round 1. Team Hero: Adam/Ellen. Team Zombie: Scooter/Ashlee.
The first game was a disaster for the zombies of their own design. The goal for the heroes was simply: kill a lot of zombies. The goal for the zombies was simply: eat some brains and don't get killed too much. And the zombies did quite well at first eating their first brain only two or three turns in. Worried that the heroes were holing up at the police station setting up a rowdy defense the zombies then decided upon the unorthodox plan of a strategic retreat thinking that time would run down before the heroes could kill enough of them to win then game. It turns out zombies don't usually run away because zombies aren't very good at it. The game ended when after the heroes loaded up on a variety of weapons the zombies didn't know existed they then proceeded to hunt down and execute a sufficient number of the poor, defenseless fleeing undead to declare victory. It was mass zombicide; war crimes were committed. 


Round 2. Team Hero: Scooter and Ashlee. Team Zombie: Adam.
Second game involved finding gasoline and a fire source to burn out all the zombie spawning points. The heroes for whatever reason spent most their time collecting awesome weapons, however, and eventually the time ran out. It turns out gasoline is a little hard to find in a run down, zombie infested wasteland, and it doesn't help when the zombies proactively guard the gas station. Make up your minds zombies: do you want brains or petrol?


Round 3. Team Hero: Adam and Ashlee. Team Zombie: Scooter.
The objective of the third round was to escape in the truck after finding the keys and some gas. Despite finding both practically strapped with a bow wrapped tightly around their faces the heroes still had a difficult time getting all the gear to the truck. The zombies succeeded in eating a number of the heroes, but this coincidentally led to their undoing because it turns out for every human you eat another one rises up in its place. Or more exactly in the middle of the game board right where the blasted truck is. Despite their being a dozen zombies on the truck with them -- and the corpses of a few of their friends -- the heroes managed to make it out of town at the very last moment.



Round 4. Team Hero: Scooter and Ashlee. Team Zombie: Adam.
Last game all the heroes needed to do was find four towns folk and then hustle their butts out of town. They performed swimmingly. They all quickly bound together at the gun shop, loaded up on weapons and obscene amounts of dynamite that no one had previously known were available, and then proceeded to blow the every loving bejeesus out of the zombies. Along the way they quickly collected their needed townsfolk and simply waited for dawn when they'd all stroll casually out of town leaving the city nothing but a smoldering crater of zombie parts. Unfortunately it turns out the zombies had the trump card of trump cards and the very last turn played it resulting in one of the four townsfolk running off to join the circus or some garbage like that thus leading to zombie victory. Stupid, dirty, cheating zombies.



Just so my Christmas story isn't entirely about the evil reanimation of the dead, let me say that we also went to a terrible Christmas carol opera in San Francisco and then ate a month's worth of chocolate at Ghirardellis. It's what baby Jesus would have wanted.  


It's toe lickin' time!

The Gold Standard

"The gold standard." A descriptive phrase in medicine -- and I'd imagine probably in other disciplines as well -- used to such excess that a little scowl briefly crosses my face whenever anyone says it. With the high value placed on communication in health care and the tendency to imitate I needless to say spend quite a bit of my day scowling. What it refers to, if it is not already clear, is the test, study, drug, whatever, considered the best and most effective in accomplishing whatever task it is you have in mind. For finding vascular blockages it's usually angiography or venography. For identifying offending pathogens it's usually bacterial or fungal culture. For treating penicillin sensitive Staph aureus infection in a non pen allergic patient it's penicillin. When it comes to medical students, I have learned recently, it's Dan Marino. No, not Dan Marino the former Miami Dolphins quarterback -- I am fairly certain he either passed away shortly after filming Ace Ventura or he was immediately cast in bronze and shipped to the football hall of fame shortly after retirement -- but the Dan Marino from Jersey. Or maybe it was New York. I am not entirely sure where Dan Marino the fourth year medical student was who worked with us for two weeks in the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU), but he certainly set the industry standard. Why? Partly because he was always so pleasant, helpful, and interested in his work. Partly because I am pretty sure he was always smiling. But mostly simply because I liked introducing to people my medical student: Dan Marino. Good kid that Dan Marino.

This last week I have learned that although San Antonio has the gold standard in small Spanish missions used in acts of rebellion from foreign powers, it does not in zoos. Nevertheless as San Antonio generally sets the bar pretty low for most things, the Spurs aside, I was mostly impressed. The zoo here it turns out is pretty nice. I was expecting a glorified petting zoo with a taco bar, but actually got something close to a world class zoo, research center, and wildlife repopulation program akin to the San Diego Zoo in California. Except for the fact that, their extensive bird collection aside, they only seemed to have one of every animal. Even when the descriptive plaques would state, "always found in herds of ten or more, the social such and such" would almost always be found alone. Maybe with a single ostrich or antelope to keep him company. So even though the giraffes and zebras had impressively large exhibits. There was just one. One zebra. Hanging out. Probably bored out of his mind. I don't know if animals can go crazy, but they just may here. The scarcity of certain animals animals aside, however, it was a fairly nice place that I would recommend everyone go to. Everyone. Even yo mamma.

Anyway, the gold standard of Pembroke Welsh Corgis ladies and gentleman:

(Her name is Ahi. Or Cupcake. Or Bailey. It depends on who you ask.)