Last week, I initially planned to study for my USMLE Step 3, the two-day medical licensure exam I took yesterday. It was bad enough that I refused to buy any preparation book or practice questions for the test–maybe I should have–but I can’t believe I blew off studying to watch FIVE seasons of The Office.

Yes…not 1 or 2 episodes, but FIVE seasons of that satirical show set in Scranton, PA.  I had only seen one episode previously, and that was during one of my night float blocks.  Initially I didn’t think it was too captivating, but after blasting through 2 seasons, I couldn’t stop until I caught up to this season.  The scripting is well-written to encompass an overarching theme of the season while individualizing a plot for each episode.  It’s also neat that one of the show’s writers, BJ Novak (Harvard alum), also plays as Ryan the temp.

That said, I’m ashamed to admit that I spent over 60 hours in a week watching TV instead of preparing for an exam that I must pass in order to apply for my medical license. Scary.

That’s not all folks. I also recorded the theme song of The Office on piano. I used the built-in unidirectional mono microphone on my Thinkpad T42, while playing on my Casio CDP-100 keyboard. The Casio has Steinway sampled tones, but unfortunately the speakers are horrible (I do not have a passthrough audio cable). Enjoy!

misc life

I finished the USMLE Step 3 exam today. It was more ungodly than I had imagined. A friend of mine had joked about the progression of these licensing exams: Step 1 – 2 wks of preparation; Step 2 – 2 days of preparation; Step 3 – No. 2 pencil. Well, I didn’t even bring a pencil for the test, since it’s all electronic.

I can now get back to more pressing matters, such as updating this blog! More entries to follow. For those of you who are interested, I’ve made the Anki flashcards for Step 3 available on the downloads page.

medicine usmle