So yesterday was 25 June 2009, and for me it will be a day that will be burnt in to my memory along side such days as 11 September 2001.

Yesterday I completed my time at medical school, and finally became a doctor.  I have spent the last 7 years looking forward to the day, and just as I suspected when it finally came I was probably one of the most happiest in the world.  My final exam was in OBGYN and at the beginning of the year I was really worried about it, as it is a speciality that I have never really taken much interest in throughout my time at medical school.  As the exam got closer and closer, my anxiety towards it increased proportionately.  On the exam day it self, I was so worried that I was only able to sleep 3 hours, which meant that I was up at 2am for a 12pm exam.  Needless to say I was quite tired and was running on adrenaline by the time I started my exam.  The short version of this story is that all my worrying was unfounded, as the exam was not as bad as I thought it would be.  So when it was over and I was told that I passed I was obviously really happy.  To say that my achievement has sunk in would be a lie, as even now I can not quite believe it.  If I were to guess, I think it will happen sometime next month when I start working, probably while I am doing something quite insignificant like having a cup of coffee.

As is the way of the world though, it is not possible to have the good without the bad, and yesterday that bad for me was the announcement that Michael Jackson had passed away.  I was first introduced to Michael Jackson's music back when I was about seven or eight by my uncle.  He had just bought the 'Off the Wall' album, and I remember sitting listening to it with him and my brother.  From that day he became my favourite solo artist and as I grew up I continued to listen to his work.  When I think of Michael Jackson, my first image is of his 'Bad' album cover.  That is the way I will always remember him.  I think this is probably because that was the first album that I ever owned, and I remeber it was bought for me and I listened to it so much that by the end of the week I knew the words to every song.  My childhood is scattered with moments associated with Michael Jackson, and I am glad to say they are all good memories.  To be honest I was always expecting this day to come, I just never thought it would be so soon and in such a manner.  Like many my age, I always thought that there was plenty of time, and even this year when I was not able to get tickets to his concerts I was not so bothered.  But now all I have is his back catalog to listen to, and though it is one of the greatest I feel that this second wind he was trying to catch would have been a true return to form that we all remember him for.  Oh well, the man taught me to appreciate music, how to dance, opened my eyes to the rest of the world and gave me some of my greatest memories.  I will always appreciate what he did for me, and I will never forget him.  He is my generations Elvis Presley, and I just hope that the next generation will be lucky enough to have a star as big as Michael.  Somehow I doubt it very much.  My best wishes go out to his family.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi.  I guess it comes from the fact that at heart I am a bit of a dreamer, and I like from time to time, to use these themes to escape from my problems, no matter what medium they are in.  More often than not, I usually escape in to books or movies.  I realise that is not very original, but it works for me and thats what matters.  I would have to say my fondness for fantasy probably started when I was about 5 years old and I used to watch such shows like 'He-man' and 'Thundercats', and all those other great shows that kids used to watch in the late 80's.  I remember I could sit for hours in front of the box, and just block out everything that was going on around me.  Funnily enough that habit got me in to some quite amusing situations but also alot of trouble.  
I have recently thought about why I love escaping in to these worlds of fantasy, and I have come to the following conclusion. When I was about 6 or 7 I went with my family to a planeterium, and whilest there under the lights I learnt about the nature of the universe as it was understood at the time. That was the first time I realised that everything must die, including the world, and more importantly at the time to me, my family.  I remember afterwards I was shaking with fear, and my mother had to console me and assure me that everything would be ok.  That was quite an experiance for me, and ever since then I have always had a fear of dieing, and so I believe this is perhaps part of why I enjoy escaping reality so much.
In these last few years my major fantasy fix has come from the discworld novels written by Terry Pratchett.  I enjoy reading these stories so much mainly because they keep me laughing long after I have finished reading.  Now that might sound strange to some, but actually it makes perfect sense.  Normally I will read one of the novels and I will not really laugh that much, but then when I go out into the world and learn things I will suddenly realise that it was refrenced to in the novels, and often I will chuckle at how obvious a joke it was if only i had known at the time.
More recently though, and by this I mean in the last few days, I have achieved a goal that I set my self about 12 years ago.  This was to purchase and play the card game 'Magic'.  At the time it seemed to me as the ultimate in fantasy.  The idea that I could pretend that I was some kind of wizzard and I could summon all these different beasts and spells to help me battle evil, seemed to me as the best thing ever.  Now I never achieved this goal when I first set it, firstly because it was too expensive, but also because my parents felt I had enough things to keep me distracted from my studies - television, comic books.  But anyway, recently I met a friend, and on my wave of post exam glee he was able to convince me to by some decks, which I am really glad he did because they are as fun to play with as I thought they would be.  Though I do not believe I am a wizzard when I am playing      

Everyday I surf the net, and amongst my many stops is the BBC website.  However more recently I have started to use the RSS feed option that comes with my web browser, and one thing that stands out to me, is the fact that we as a species are not very nice to each other.  Everyday I read about someone being killed or hurt, and more often then not it is an innocent victim.  What surprises me though is the fact that for the most part I no longer care or worry that this is happening.  Does this make me a bad person?  I don't know.  What I do know is that this sort of thing has been going on for centuries, and it is never going to stop.  I know this, because of a single fact.  This fact is that no one really cares for anyone outside their 'monkeyspere' (http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html).

Another thing that has been bothering me recently is hollywoods insensitivity to source material.  Now I understand that most of the time it is a question of budget, but sometimes I have also heard the excuse that they were trying to make it more realistic.  What bothers me about this is that more often than not the source material is a piece of fiction, so it does not make sense to me why if the author of the source did not feel to 'make it more realistic', hollywood felt it had to.  An example of this that comes to mind is the absence of web shooters from the spiderman movies.    It turns out that it was kept from the final cut because the director felt that it did not make sense that a guy with the genius to make synthetic spiderwebs equivalently as strong as the real thing would have such a crappy life.  Now firstly, having the web shooters would not have made the movie any better or worse, but it would have kept true to the source material and perhaps added an extra dimension to the fight scences.  Secondly, I think it is close minded to think that smart people could not have the same problems as everyone else.  Spiderman did well as a comic book because it 'spoke' to the reader through the emotions expressed by the characters.  A more current example is the ongoing debate on the casting for 'The Last Airbender'.  For those who do not know, 'The Last Airbender' was a cartoon that ran in 2005.  It was about war, opression and a young boy who had been given the task of freeing the world from said oppressors.  The cartoon had an Asian setting, and even though the characters looked Asian their voices were American. So the current debate is on the fact that all but one of the lead roles is played by a caucasian, and that the one asian that does have a lead role is a part of the opressing race.  I feel that the film should be recast, not because I am a racist - as someone has already suggested - but because I think it would be different and more importantly it would better reflect the source material.  Besides at the moment the current cast consists of new actors to the industry, who judging from their past record have not done anything that note worthy (apart from Dev Patel of 'Slumdog Millionaire' fame).

Now for something different.....Is this the end of the reign of Federa?  It would seem the world number one Nadal, has solidified his place with his win at the Australian open.  Just like Wimbeldon, this final was another 4 hour epic feature between two titans.  Like many I was hoping Federa would win his 14th tournament to equal Sampras, and I thought it would not be a problem after Nadal's 5 hour game just 2 days earlier, but surprisingly Nadal was able to keep up despite the pain of fatigue that he was surely feeling at times.  On paper Nadal is a better player, but Federa has had such an amazing career he is undisputably one of the greatest players ever.  I just hope he has enough energy and drive left to make history.  I don't have any one player that I can say I am a fan of, but I am always rooting for the underdog, it just so happens that between these two it is Federa.  Here's looking towards the French open, maybe this will be Federa's year again.