Join Blackhawk Defense Force!

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GREETINGS CITIZENS!
Blackhawk Defense Force is looking for both experienced and new players to help us grow into an effective fighting unit as well as a great place to get to meet new friends and have a good time. BDF is UEE oriented, legal, full fleet, anti-pirate, anti-griefer, star citizen dedicated and noob friendly.
**EU AND OCEANIA PLAYERS!** Our goal is to become international. We are NA based, but schedule our ops to best accommodate everyone. We have a strong EU department, The Black Watch, and we are working to build an Oceania/Aussie/Kiwi Department. Help us to grow into a 24/7 organization!
EVENTS! There are a lot of houses in Star Citizen with no light in the window. Tired of being a member of a dead org? Tired of looking for an org that is actually active? BDF holds a minimum of two events a week and usually more. Join us for the fun.
ACTIVE MILITARY AND VETERANS ARE WELCOME! BDF is proud to have a significant number of active military and veterans as part of our membership. We will work with your schedule. We salute you no matter when or where you served. o7
SQUARDON GOALS:

1. To have a good time as a group, participating together in the Roberts Space Industries Star Citizen. Simply put, we are here to have fun. Never lose sight of the fact that this is rule #1.
2. Function as a private military company, loyal to the Empire, conducting legal military and civilian operations. We will conduct our operations with professionalism and adhere to comms discipline when engaged in operations in the vicinity of the enemy. We will also lend assistance to other citizens of the UEE where and when ever we are able.
3. Learn the game and how to play it skillfully. Blackhawk Squadron will provide training for new pilots for all aspects of game play.
4. Although listed as a role play org, we are not hard core, and role play is not a requirement to being a member of this organization. We allow players to role play at the level they prefer. Generally we approach role play with a relaxed, friendly, attitude. There will be no 'hard-asses' here. The posted military discipline rules only apply when members are operating together on the servers during official operations, or in one of the In-Character channels provided. On the primary channels, and on some other private channels, out-of-character conversation is the norm, while in-character play is allowed. Military courtesy, however, is optional anywhere....for the fun and courtesy of it alone. Participation in text based role play story making on the role play channels is strictly voluntary.
5. Make new online friends. Learn to work, and fight together as team mates. Learn to trust each other, and cover each other’s backs on the forums, on the servers, and in the Verse. Eventually, we hope to form more of a family than a PMC.
6. Improve our combat skills with practice in both the Persistent Universe and the Arena Commander.
7. Learn to work together as a unit using teamwork, wingman tactics, and become an effective fighting force in the Verse...on the ground, in the sky and in space.
8. To be successful individually, and as a group in the game.
9. To find a proper location and establish a base from which to operate.
10. Secure reliable friends and make advantageous alliances with like minded organizations.
11. Secure profitable, legal contracts in Security, Reconnaissance, Escorting, Mercenary, Freelancing, Transport, Rescue, Vanduul and Pirate suppression, UEEN work, Combat Patrols, as well as Data and message running. We will take any honorable, military or civilian, job that we are equipped to perform.
12. To send out one or more Exploration ships to expand man's knowledge base of the universe, as well as to look for new territories and resources that can be exploited. Use our exploration as a source of revenue.
13. Always remember rule #1.

WHAT WE OFFER:
* A complete military style structure
* Full ranking system
* Individual and group training
* Training videos available on our private server
* Like shiny rocks? So do we. So there will be a large selection of awards, medals, ribbons and certification badges that will be presented for a wide range of combat and non combat accomplishments.
* A web site where all main members will have individual areas for character development and display of their uniform, rank, awards, etc.
* Solid organization with clear goals and the determination to consistently move forward despite the road blocks that Star Citizen may (will) throw at us.
POSITIONS AVAILABLE:
Fighter Pilot (generally single seat fighters)
Heavy Fighter Pilot
Single Seat Bomber Pilot
Light Multi-Crew Ship Pilot (fighters/bombers/drop ships etc.)
Light Multi-Crew Ship Crew Member (generally turret gunners)
Capital Ship Captains and Crew Members
Marine
Medical
Search and Rescue
Logistics and Support (includes transport, mining, repair, construction and supply)
Exploration
Leadership
Join our effort to establish one of the finest groups to play and enjoy Star Citizen with!
https://discord.gg/gHhgdtf5Bj
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/BDF1

Demographics: Gender, race/ethnicity, state, type of school, and hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.): female, white, east coast, semi-competitive public school, immigrant? lgbt?
Intended Major(s): Animal Science, Zoology, Biochem, Pharmacology
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1470 SAT (780 reading 690 math. only took it once so i’m gonna get it up dw)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.7 weighted 3.97 unweighted. school doesn’t do rank
Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc: AP Bio (4), AP Chem (4), AP Calc AB (4), AP Euro (5), AP Psych (5). also will graduate with an associates degree in healthcare science
Awards (💀): 1st place in HOSA pharmacology in the state & international competitor
ap scholar w distinction lollll
pretty sure i’ll qualify for national merit
national honor society/spanish national honor society
qualified for district orchestra in my state
Extracurriculars: Include leadership & summer activities
founder and prez of a club for animal activism (raised $500+ and collaborated with local businesses for fundraiser) (10-12)
job at vet hospital where i run urinalysis and blood tests and administer medication to patients (10-12)
selected to be part of an ivy med teen advisory council & designed school wide project
concertmaster of school orchestra and part of 2 other orchestras outside of school (one all-county orchestra) HUGE time commitment
tri-m music honor society vice prez but will be prez next year
key club treasurer but will likely be prez next year
summer internship at marine biology laboratory (contributions to research but no published paper)
volunteer at barn & wildlife conservation center
hopefully will get into one of the summer programs i applied to (🥲)
Essays/LORs/Other: Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.
i’m an ok writer but i don’t think these will be out of this world or anything
Schools: List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc cornell animal science ED ucla biochem uf animal science ucd animal science uci biochem ucsd biochem ucsb zoology ucsc biochem cal biochem usc pharmacology caltech chemistry stanford biochem georgetown bio syracuse bio purdue animal science vandy biochem duke animal behavior
pls do i have a shot at any of these schools 😭😭

Movie: Candyman (1992)
Synopsis
Inspired by Clive Barker’s The Forbidden, Candyman (1992) is set in the housing projects of Cabrini Green, Chicago. Helen Lyle is a University of Illinois graduate student who sets out to write a thesis about local legends and myths. She learns about a local urban legend, Candyman, who appears after calling his name five times in front of a mirror and uses his hook to split his victims from ‘groin to gullet.’
Candyman is a film depicting the rite of passage of Helen Lyle. During her evolution, her skepticism turns to fear when after summoning Candyman, a series of murders and a visit from Candyman himself cause her life to spiral out of control.
The Legend
Partly inspired by Hook Man (http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/the_hook.htm), Candyman was the son of a slave whose father became wealthy mass-producing shoes after the Civil War. As a result, Candyman grew up attending the best schools and later became a well-known artist. Highly sought out by the elite society for his talent in portraits, he was hired to paint the daughter of a wealthy man who wanted to capture her ‘virgin beauty.’ After falling in love and fathering her child, his lover’s father became enraged, organizing a mob to lynch Candyman. During the gruesome attack and eventual murder, the mob cut off his right (painting) hand and replaced it with a hook. They then covered him in honey and allowed him to be stung to death as the mob chanted “Candyman, Candyman.” It is said that Candyman returns from his grave to take revenge when one dares to say his name five times in a mirror.
How it relates to the field of psychiatry
Candyman is a psychiatric anthropological film that shines light on the social aspect of urban legends and why they resonate in certain communities. The French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, identified myths as a type of speech through which a language could be discovered. He is renowned for his structuralist theory of mythology which attempted to explain how fantastical tales could be so similar across cultures. Urban legends are cautionary tales of contemporary folklore that identify taboos represented in all cultures that capture four common themes: a) misunderstandings, b) poetic justice, c) business rip-offs, and d) revenge. Urban legends are a large part of popular culture and often speak to the fears, anxieties, and biases of that culture. In doing so, they provide insight and give us an idea of the moral fabric of the community.
For the people living in Cabrini Green, the urban legend of Candyman is validation of the fears of people living amongst the gruesome crimes against Ruthy Jean and the young boy. In the movie, we see that Candyman thrives off the perpetuation of this legend. Upon realizing that Helen may have caused a rift in people believing in his existence, Candyman beckons her to be his victim, with intent on killing her to give rebirth to his legend once again.
In his seminal work, Les rites de passage, Arnold Van Gennep described rites of passage as having three phases:
Separation
During this phase, the individual is stripped of the social status that he or she possessed before the ritual. After challenging the authenticity of the urban legend, Candyman appears to Helen “needing to prove his existence.” After a series of murders by the hand hook of Candyman, Helen is stripped of her social status and imprisoned.
The Liminal Period
During this phase, the individual is inducted into the liminal period of transition; a middle stage of the ritual, no longer holding her pre-ritual status (but not yet having attained the status they will hold when the ritual is complete). For Helen, the discovery of the words in the apartment attic, “It was always you, Helen,” highlights the liminal period. She is betwixt and between, with Candyman’s prophesy that Helen will carry on his tradition of inciting fear into the community of Cabrini Green.
The binary motif is seen throughout the movie: Candyman is an African American slave whose ‘spirit’ resides in the ghettos of Chicago. Helen, a white middle class woman, resides in a luxurious condominium. The use of bees as symbolism is also important in that they have the capacity to make a sweet honey while also being able to induce great pain. Also, the very way Candyman kills his victims is by splitting them in two.
Re-Assimilation into Society
During this phase, the individual is given her new status. As the prophesy foretells [spoiler alert], Helen ultimately becomes the embodiment of the urban legend.
In using the mirror, Candyman forces his victims to confront the self and non-self, or the “other” and to project internal conflict onto external images. These visual tools play with the spectator’s impulse control, and most importantly to question it; “No one ever got past four.” The notion of going past four is a common theme throughout the movie. Candyman, with his gruesome tale, plays on humanity’s infatuation with the grotesque and like Pandora’s Box, its allure compels us to approach the lid. In this case the ‘lid’ is opened by saying “Candyman” five times in a mirror. The ultimate twist [spoiler alert] is that Helen’s fate is to replace Candyman as the urban legend that haunts Cabrini Green. This trope is seen in many films, novels, and folklore {Aaron Mahnke (2018), Dark Conclusions [Lore podcast], October 16, available at: https://www.lorepodcast.com/episodes/46 (accessed: October 2016)}.
Key Words: Candyman, Cabrini Green, rite of passage, Arnold Van Gennep, Les rites de passage, Claude Lévi-Strauss, structuralist theory, urban legend, Hook Man, summoning, necromancy
Shantel Suncar, Maggie Yesalavage, DO, Anthony Tobia, MD. Copyright © 2015 Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) All rights reserved.

Back from a massive hiatus… I am now on medication for leukaemia and depression (I’m sure you can follow the cause and effect there). Also currently unemployed again and trying to find a job and finish my business studies at the same time. I had a dream where a particular scene in this chapter came to fairly fully formed, please let me know in the comments how you feel about the shift. I appreciate the comments and feedback a lot you guys.
Prologue Previous
7 years from now
“The weird thing about galaxies is that they have their own unique attitude. Their own shape and distribution of stars. If you observe another galaxy, you might see a full giant spiral of a galaxy that is almost perfectly perpendicular to you. You might see virtually nothing, observing only the thinnest edge of the spirals. Earth, or what is left of it, is in the Orion-Cygnus arm of the Milky way and it sits quite alone in its current locale. Earth astrophysicists once theorised a local bubble that resulted from novae and pushed the systems in Earth’s vicinity further apart from each other than is the galactic norm. This is only partially correct, as there was a series of stars that expired and created a set of far from average circumstances for Earth.
When the Voyager probes were sent out nearly a century ago (Earth reckoning), they left the gravitational hold of Earth’s sun after a few decades and then soon encountered the reason for earthlings believing they were thousands of light years from their neighbours. The microsingularities that created the jump lanes and the Hasstuun jumploop and all the other small quirks that make up interstellar space, are also the result of novae and such cosmic events. In the case of Earth, the expiration of an estimated seventeen stars within a short distance and short time of each other, years rather than millenia, some thirteen million years ago resulted in a field of anomalous space that twists and warps the very fabric of time and space only a couple of light years away from the solar system.
This region, containing the Tsskaas rapids, is what the first of us navigated through on that first voyage away from our dying home. Since the rapids were mapped and added to the navigational charts of the Commonwealth and its trading partners, there has been a steady stream of rescue missions to Earth, evacuating people and what flora and fauna still existed. We appreciate all the efforts the Commonwealth has put into salvaging what is left of the human race, and we especially appreciate the granting of our own moon to colonise and terraform to accept the species native to our former home. There are now about four million of us living within the Commonwealth’s accepting borders, over 95% on Terraneo orbiting Chahak. We would also like to thank the Commonwealth for allowing us to enter into government as our own entity. We are forever in your debt for saving what is left of humanity. We are not, however, in agreement about the form you have decided this debt should take.”
There was a collective murmur and intakes of breath that signaled the expected reaction from the Commonwealth parliament. Terraneo Chief Minister, Alice Springs, knew this was coming. She had not wanted to hang out all the dirty laundry in such a public fashion, but President Zaadstuun II had been an obstinate and venal negotiating partner in the last seven years. Alice was the first leader of a full parliament of all of humanity, and she was actively regretting ever standing for office to begin with. Her father had been possessed of a sadistic sense of humour, and being probably not a little inebriated when his daughter entered the world, decided that for an Australian girl with the surname Springs no other name would do. This ultimate dad joke had resulted in her receiving a veritable landslide mandate to become the Chief Minister of the parliament and had led to her now facing the frowning President and the perturbed parliament.
Since the bulk of the survivors from Earth came from the antipodes, there was always a heavy weighting in voting in public officials in favour of Australians. Along with the Aussies, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and about half dozen South African countries provided nearly 99 per cent of the remaining humans in existence. Not that there were many such divisions now, since everyone knew that the survival of the human race would require uniting into a strong, cohesive, people. But in the first two internal elections held by the humans, Australians voted almost exclusively for other Australians, resulting in the first human council consisting of twelve Australians, three Kiwis, one South African, two Namibians, two Madagascans, one Finn, one Argentinian, one American, one German, and three Chileans. This small body of elected officials had compared the many democracies on Earth, cherrypicked the best aspects of each, and set about writing out the first official rules for governing humanity. This Constitution was signed by all of the elected officials, as well as 500 humans selected at random from the survivors and led to parliamentary elections to choose the 200 representatives to administer the course of humanity for there on.
Now Alice Springs was waiting for the Commonwealth parliament to quiet down enough to state her case. Slowly the ire ebbed from the chamber and she sipped her water, drew herself up and began.
Now
None of the humans wanted to leave the engineering bay once they smelled the aroma of the soup wafting in the air, and a quick check with the ship confirmed that there was no immediate health risk associated with eating in engineering. So Jokke dished up six bowls of soup, with a more modest amount in Tsskaas’ bowl, and everyone found a more or less comfortable perch. Sofia and Janette sat cross-legged on the floor next to each other, Aminu sat on a raised conduit tunnel and Aliisa and Jokke stood next to a work surface of some kind with Tsskaas’ bowl of soup cooling next to them.
There were five silent but satisfied smiles in the room, Aminu even had tears flowing down his cheeks. “This is excellent, Jokke” he said before starting to blow on the next spoonful. The women all mumbled some sort of agreement while chewing, and simultaneously scooping up their next spoonful.
Jokke had to agree; the soup was pretty damned nice. It was a bit like a green Thai fish curry soup with big chunks of vegetables and tilapia and the very finely chopped mushrooms added an earthy tang like the flavours of swede, or turnip or artichoke, without the actual addition of the vegetables themselves. The ‘chili oil’ had given the soup a very nice lingering burn without being too spicy and the ‘garlic pepper’ rounded off the flavour beautifully. The fish fell apart in your mouth and the ‘broadbeans’ retained a bit of crunch, since they were cooked in their pods. All in all, it was the best food he had eaten in over half a decade.
As Jokke drank the rest of the broth from his now emptied bowl and set off towards the cookpot, he asked “anyone else ready for seconds? There’s probably enough in here for another round for everyone.” Everyone moved in almost complete unison towards Jokke and the delicious soup, refilled their bowls and settled down again. This time they took their time waiting for the soup to cool and started talking about their rescue and their lives, with Aliisa, Janette, Sofia and Aminu all curious about Jokke and where he had holed up over the last decade, and Jokke curious about Sofia and her life… and her mother’s.
Five years from now
The Sateian Man-o-war flowed in liminal space, neatly transposing itself from one gravity well to another. The dart-like shape of the vessel belied its size. Without a frame of reference it would be easy, even logical, to construe that the ship would be a small, agile, craft. When it hove to at the edge of the solar system it was planning to examine next, any observers would have had to amend their first impressions. Passing the planetoids at the edge of the star’s gravity well, the ship compared not unfavourably in size to the larger asteroids and small planetoids. At over 200 kilometers long, the ship is mind-boggling in its scale. The sheer size of it resulted in it producing enough of its own gravity, that only a small artificial boost made life aboard the ship almost indistinguishable from life on the Satet homeworld.
Garar of clan Fa’i was late for her post on the bridge. Her shift had started over thirty seconds ago and her shift lieutenant was not a kind man. She could expect a dressing down at the very least, but if she caught him on a bad day, she could expect to spend at least a full minute in the flenser. She picked up her speed, made it to the bridge, paused for an instant to gather herself and entered the bridge as confidently and serenely as she could manage.
There was no sign of lieutenant Damo L’ekk, and Garar slid into her chair thanking all her ancestors for sheltering her from harm. “Nice to see you aren’t ill, operative Fa’i. I was growing concerned”, the oily voice said from behind her. The blood in her veins seemed to freeze and she avoided flinching only through a supreme act of will. Shit
Garar turned to face the snide face of lieutenant L’ekk, the apology forming on her lips, when the look in his eyes shut her up like someone ramming a basketball into a wine bottle. She lowered her eyes and turned back to her station, knowing that she would feel those seconds of lateness at the end of her shift, and for days to come. She busied herself on the scanners, waiting, praying, that the warm breath of her superior would move away from her shoulder. After some minutes, seemingly hours, she felt the lieutenant moving away to torment someone else. That’s when she saw it, and she knew she had to call him right back to her post.
She repeated the scan three times, verifying and re-verifying what she had seen on her first sweep. Fuck, fuck, fuuuuck “Excuse me, sir? There is an object of interest in range of the third ventral array. Recommend further examination.” Garar could have sworn she felt the air coagulate around her as the lieutenant appeared at her shoulder again. “What is it, you incompetent wretch?”
“Sir, there is an artificial object traversing space within about two light seconds of the gravity well of this star. It is small and slow, and judging by these energy readings, any possible occupants will be long dead. There is a slight radiation signature, but no active systems, so I can only assume that propulsion has long since failed.”
“Don’t presume to assume anything, wretch. I shall send a harvester to reel it in. It is the first indicator of intelligence we have encountered for almost two years.”
Garar could hear the smile in his voice, and knew that any credit for discovering the craft would never reach her. She could only hope that the recovery and study of this new sign of civilisation would distract her superior enough that she might avoid punishment for her tardiness.
In the quiet of space, a medium sized craft detached from the leviathan. A hundred meters in length, shaped like a sword, the harvester quickly made up the ground to the beleaguered alien craft, grappled it, and drew it in. The harvest crew in their radiation-proofed armour brought out two graspers and a cargo platform, dragging the craft onto the platform. As the craft settled onto the platform, one of the outriggers bent, and the craft tumbled a short distance, dislodging a part of itself in the process.
The intricately engraved golden circle rolled for a second before submitting to gravity and resting on the floor of the hold.

Are you looking for someone who's never gonna give you up? Who's never gonna let you down? Who's never gonna run around and desert? Someone who's never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye and hurt you?
Are you looking for a guy who will listen to your school/work stories with passion? Looking for someone who will actually make effort to be with you as much as they while still respecting your boundaries? Looking for someone who will take the time to plan some online dates? Looking for someone who will make you feel beautiful every single day in so many ways ? Well, look no further, you found him. I really wanna find that special someone who everything will make sense with, someone who all those love songs will make sense with, that someone who I will find the will and motivation to make cute small gestures of love to, who will make me a little more excited to wake up in the morning, looking forward to what the day has for me knowing that I will have them by my side (maybe not physically but in spirit). I will never shame you for what you think or what you believe in, except maybe if you don't like memes then SHAME ON YOU (kidding) I'm not here to judge you, we should accept each other for who we are.
Now that the cheesy intro is done, Hi! I'm a dental medicine intern, I like playing video games, i watch too much youtube, i like watching anime and sitcoms. I cook and bake sometimes, i'm really good at it (says anyone who has tried my food) i just don't do it often because of laziness. I don't do drugs, smoke weed or drink alcohol but it's okay if you do. I have so much love to give and yet i can't find someone to do that with. It's really hard to find a girl who will reciprocate feelings and especially to make some effort in a relationship and communicate well, or at least that was my experience so far. I have sadly been ghosted a lot and had a lot of unfortunate incidents, but oh well, i always keep in mind that something good will happen eventually. I do suffer from mental health issues but they're pretty much under control and i'm almost off the meds so i believe i'm going in the right direction. This will most probably be long distance at the beginning at least, until i finish my studies so we can divise a plan to move to each other, so if you can't handle distance, that's okay, this isn't for you. I know distance can be hard, but if you find a partner who will make effort to make time for you and plan cute dates with you and try to spend as much time with you as they can, then it's all worth it.
Here's what i'm thinking, cos based on the previous experiences, waiting 6 hours for a chat reply just kills off the vibe : We could do voice calls like daily at first, kinda like a speed date, get to know each other, ask each other questions, that sort of thing. I think that would beat going for chats at first cos usually i have to wait hours for a reply then we both lose interest.
You : -I don't really care about looks, height, skin color, body type, nail polish colour, eyelash length or body hair. Every girl is beautiful in her own way, you just have to know how to appreciate her. - You need to be able to cooperate with me since this will be long distance for the time being so we will have to work around our schedules and find time for each other. I know it sounds hard but it can easily be done if there's a will. - I know i said i will provide so much care and attention and love so i expect it to be reciprocated because one sided attention and effort is exhausting and even toxic. Plus it takes two people to maintain a relationship - I don't mind if you have tattoos or piercings or anything, it's your body and your choice to do what you please with it. I'm also 420 friendly and alcohol friendly as long as you're not doing anything to harm yourself. -After a few tries with posts, I'm pretty sure i want someone who's clingy, because that translates to someone who will WANT to spend time with me, someone who will check on me a few times a day, someone who will make a big effort to make time and to spend quality time together and that really makes a big difference to me. I also want someone who can carry a conversation with me not just follow my lead. -Communication, communication, communication. I think this one speaks for itself. I want someone who can i really have conversations with. Because the true test of a bond isn't when we're having pleasant conversations all the time, it's when there's conflict and the way you will react to those conflicts. I want someone who will make effort to make this work, not call it off within the first sign of an inconvenience. -I want you to make effort to talk to me especially at first because the first period of making that bond is really critical imo and it needs a lot of communication.
If you read till the end, you can send me your message with an INTRODUCTION about yourself (i reckon it's decent effort to write me something after i've written all of this), include the word Bananahammock in it so i know you read till the end, tell me something interesting about yourself, or like your plans for the rest of the year, you know, apart from us going out. * sheeesh * Please be available to text and get to know each other so we can build a connection

Are you looking for someone who's never gonna give you up? Who's never gonna let you down? Who's never gonna run around and desert? Someone who's never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye and hurt you?
Are you looking for a guy who will listen to your school/work stories with passion? Looking for someone who will actually make effort to be with you as much as they while still respecting your boundaries? Looking for someone who will take the time to plan some online dates? Looking for someone who will make you feel beautiful every single day in so many ways ? Well, look no further, you found him. I really wanna find that special someone who everything will make sense with, someone who all those love songs will make sense with, that someone who I will find the will and motivation to make cute small gestures of love to, who will make me a little more excited to wake up in the morning, looking forward to what the day has for me knowing that I will have them by my side (maybe not physically but in spirit). I will never shame you for what you think or what you believe in, except maybe if you don't like memes then SHAME ON YOU (kidding) I'm not here to judge you, we should accept each other for who we are.
Now that the cheesy intro is done, Hi! I'm a dental medicine intern, I like playing video games, i watch too much youtube, i like watching anime and sitcoms. I cook and bake sometimes, i'm really good at it (says anyone who has tried my food) i just don't do it often because of laziness. I don't do drugs, smoke weed or drink alcohol but it's okay if you do. I have so much love to give and yet i can't find someone to do that with. It's really hard to find a girl who will reciprocate feelings and especially to make some effort in a relationship and communicate well, or at least that was my experience so far. I have sadly been ghosted a lot and had a lot of unfortunate incidents, but oh well, i always keep in mind that something good will happen eventually. I do suffer from mental health issues but they're pretty much under control and i'm almost off the meds so i believe i'm going in the right direction. This will most probably be long distance at the beginning at least, until i finish my studies so we can divise a plan to move to each other, so if you can't handle distance, that's okay, this isn't for you. I know distance can be hard, but if you find a partner who will make effort to make time for you and plan cute dates with you and try to spend as much time with you as they can, then it's all worth it.
Here's what i'm thinking, cos based on the previous experiences, waiting 6 hours for a chat reply just kills off the vibe : We could do voice calls like daily at first, kinda like a speed date, get to know each other, ask each other questions, that sort of thing. I think that would beat going for chats at first cos usually i have to wait hours for a reply then we both lose interest.
You : -I don't really care about looks, height, skin color, body type, nail polish colour, eyelash length or body hair. Every girl is beautiful in her own way, you just have to know how to appreciate her. - You need to be able to cooperate with me since this will be long distance for the time being so we will have to work around our schedules and find time for each other. I know it sounds hard but it can easily be done if there's a will. - I know i said i will provide so much care and attention and love so i expect it to be reciprocated because one sided attention and effort is exhausting and even toxic. Plus it takes two people to maintain a relationship - I don't mind if you have tattoos or piercings or anything, it's your body and your choice to do what you please with it. I'm also 420 friendly and alcohol friendly as long as you're not doing anything to harm yourself. -After a few tries with posts, I'm pretty sure i want someone who's clingy, because that translates to someone who will WANT to spend time with me, someone who will check on me a few times a day, someone who will make a big effort to make time and to spend quality time together and that really makes a big difference to me. I also want someone who can carry a conversation with me not just follow my lead. -Communication, communication, communication. I think this one speaks for itself. I want someone who can i really have conversations with. Because the true test of a bond isn't when we're having pleasant conversations all the time, it's when there's conflict and the way you will react to those conflicts. I want someone who will make effort to make this work, not call it off within the first sign of an inconvenience. -I want you to make effort to talk to me especially at first because the first period of making that bond is really critical imo and it needs a lot of communication.
If you read till the end, you can send me your message with an INTRODUCTION about yourself (i reckon it's decent effort to write me something after i've written all of this), include the word Bananahammock in it so i know you read till the end, tell me something interesting about yourself, or like your plans for the rest of the year, you know, apart from us going out. * sheeesh * Please be available to text and get to know each other so we can build a connection

Are you looking for someone who's never gonna give you up? Who's never gonna let you down? Who's never gonna run around and desert? Someone who's never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye and hurt you?
Are you looking for a guy who will listen to your school/work stories with passion? Looking for someone who will actually make effort to be with you as much as they while still respecting your boundaries? Looking for someone who will take the time to plan some online dates? Looking for someone who will make you feel beautiful every single day in so many ways ? Well, look no further, you found him. I really wanna find that special someone who everything will make sense with, someone who all those love songs will make sense with, that someone who I will find the will and motivation to make cute small gestures of love to, who will make me a little more excited to wake up in the morning, looking forward to what the day has for me knowing that I will have them by my side (maybe not physically but in spirit). I will never shame you for what you think or what you believe in, except maybe if you don't like memes then SHAME ON YOU (kidding) I'm not here to judge you, we should accept each other for who we are.
Now that the cheesy intro is done, Hi! I'm a dental medicine intern, I like playing video games, i watch too much youtube, i like watching anime and sitcoms. I cook and bake sometimes, i'm really good at it (says anyone who has tried my food) i just don't do it often because of laziness. I don't do drugs, smoke weed or drink alcohol but it's okay if you do. I have so much love to give and yet i can't find someone to do that with. It's really hard to find a girl who will reciprocate feelings and especially to make some effort in a relationship and communicate well, or at least that was my experience so far. I have sadly been ghosted a lot and had a lot of unfortunate incidents, but oh well, i always keep in mind that something good will happen eventually. I do suffer from mental health issues but they're pretty much under control and i'm almost off the meds so i believe i'm going in the right direction. This will most probably be long distance at the beginning at least, until i finish my studies so we can divise a plan to move to each other, so if you can't handle distance, that's okay, this isn't for you. I know distance can be hard, but if you find a partner who will make effort to make time for you and plan cute dates with you and try to spend as much time with you as they can, then it's all worth it.
Here's what i'm thinking, cos based on the previous experiences, waiting 6 hours for a chat reply just kills off the vibe : We could do voice calls like daily at first, kinda like a speed date, get to know each other, ask each other questions, that sort of thing. I think that would beat going for chats at first cos usually i have to wait hours for a reply then we both lose interest.
You : -I don't really care about looks, height, skin color, body type, nail polish colour, eyelash length or body hair. Every girl is beautiful in her own way, you just have to know how to appreciate her. - You need to be able to cooperate with me since this will be long distance for the time being so we will have to work around our schedules and find time for each other. I know it sounds hard but it can easily be done if there's a will. - I know i said i will provide so much care and attention and love so i expect it to be reciprocated because one sided attention and effort is exhausting and even toxic. Plus it takes two people to maintain a relationship - I don't mind if you have tattoos or piercings or anything, it's your body and your choice to do what you please with it. I'm also 420 friendly and alcohol friendly as long as you're not doing anything to harm yourself. -After a few tries with posts, I'm pretty sure i want someone who's clingy, because that translates to someone who will WANT to spend time with me, someone who will check on me a few times a day, someone who will make a big effort to make time and to spend quality time together and that really makes a big difference to me. I also want someone who can carry a conversation with me not just follow my lead. -Communication, communication, communication. I think this one speaks for itself. I want someone who can i really have conversations with. Because the true test of a bond isn't when we're having pleasant conversations all the time, it's when there's conflict and the way you will react to those conflicts. I want someone who will make effort to make this work, not call it off within the first sign of an inconvenience. -I want you to make effort to talk to me especially at first because the first period of making that bond is really critical imo and it needs a lot of communication.
If you read till the end, you can send me your message with an INTRODUCTION about yourself (i reckon it's decent effort to write me something after i've written all of this), include the word Bananahammock in it so i know you read till the end, tell me something interesting about yourself, or like your plans for the rest of the year, you know, apart from us going out. * sheeesh * Please be available to text and get to know each other so we can build a connection

Hello all, Before I get into anything, I first want to say that this is all very new for my Girlfriend and me, and I apologize if anything I disclose here comes off as uninformed or inaccurate.
Also, I greatly appreciate the existence of this community and I thank anyone willing to be involved with her case.
Seizure Details: Her current seizures and seizure-signals are that of Jacksonian Seizures. All on her Right Hand. Tingling/numbness moves from fingers, to hand, to arm, and then once it's in her face, she is likely to have a Focal, Tonic seizure for under a minute.
To make it more simple to read, these are the steps for her before and after occurrences: - 5 days of Right Hand locking up/tensed fingers (We had no clue what this was from) - 1st Tonic-Clonic / Grand Mal Seizure, lasting 3-4 minutes (Also 1st ever seizure & no family history). - Brought to the ER, where she would stay for 6 days. - 1000mg Daily of Keppra was given. - Roughly 2 seizures daily, but all seizures after her first were different. She is now conscious for them and they last between 20 seconds - 1 minute. - CT & MRI came back clear. - 24 EEG was given, and she experienced 2 brief seizures along with plenty of episodes of hand/arm clenching during the EEG. EEG Results were, "No abnormal brain activity." - Keppra didn't help, most times she was worse directly after receiving it. We weaned off Keppra and switched to 50mg of Lacosamide(Vimpat generic).
- Based on the CT, MRI, & EEG, they declared PNES. - She was discharged, with realistically no improvement. (It was not a great experience. The hospital lied quite a bit about timelines, seeing a psychiatrist, etc etc.. That's okay though..) A head of Internal Medicine came by during discharge, he appeared to be very helpful and honest, and said to not bother taking anything anymore meds since the EEG had no results. I asked about weaning off, and he said there was no point, "she's non-epileptic."
After stopping the medications, she immediately had a couple more seizures and she was much more prone to arm stiffening and numbness.
Current Status
Another neurologist, on his own accord and without my opinion to do the same, had her resume taking Lacosamide(Vimpat generic) and bump it to 200mg daily. She also taking an SSRI - Sertraline 25mg as prescribed by a separate psychiatrist. (Most likely due to the "no abnormal brain activity" results from EEG.
She has been 5 days seizure free after properly taking the Lacosamide twice daily. We are grateful for this.
Why I am writing: She is still having constant arm/hand stiffening, like every hour. She is unable to do, quite frankly, anything with that arm. If she tries, it usually results in some sort of accident or failure which can be very discouraging. The hand and fingers seem to always move on their own. It recently started affecting her right foot with the same symptoms: Numbness & tingling, and I also observed her toes moving without her knowing they were.
She is an artist and engineer, both of which require her arm, hand, and fingers.
I am seeking any advice, similar case stories, feedback on her current status, etc. that may prove to be helpful in her journey to having more relief in her symptoms. Again, we left the hospital diagnosed with PNES but the only thing that has helped is the Antiepileptic Drug (AED). She's to get another at-home 72-hour EEG. If it yields similar results to that of the first one, we'll be back to square 1.
She says, and I ask every other day, that she has no side effects from the Lacosamide(Vimpat). The tingling she experiences is not a side effect and is something she's felt since just before her first & worse seizure.
There doesn't seem to be any sort of trigger for her hand/arm stiffening. Sometimes it will occur for 30 minutes - an hour at a time. She has been very de-stressed while being at home and comfortable. She still has an appetite, we go for short walks and I try to keep her somewhat active. Regardless of what goes on during the day, it doesn't seem to affect the outcome much.
Does this end up being a case of "Increase the dosage till it goes away" since it is stopping the full seizures from occurring? Have any of you been diagnosed solely with PNES but only found relief in AED's? Is that a normal medication route PNES? Is the tingling something that some of you experience regularly and continuously? Please share any unfiltered thoughts with us and thank you so much for any amount of your time given here.
- She proofread all of this and is happy to have her story shared through my account -

My organization has a rogue program director who is costing us a lot of money. Either she's incredibly incompetent or she just doesn't care. She is also on the board. For the last year I have documented multiple issues about how she runs her program-everything from lack of transparency, to not getting board approval for certain things to questionable reimbursements to what now amounts to $20k missing to fundraisers she's organizing that end up costing us thousands to keeping me CFO, in the dark and stonewalling when asked for information.
In December I gave the president a years worth of documentation-detailed notes, emails, text messages, canceled checks etc. because there was a lot of money unaccounted for & questionable reimbursements. there are some things that definitely need to be investigated further (I did what I could before handing it over to the president. Can't do much when I get stonewalled). Nothing has been done apparently. I've not been told how to proceed. I don't have authority over this director so my hands feel tied. And I'm fed up. At first I thought they must be doing an internal investigation but I haven't been asked for the bank account or QuickBooks passwords. So I don't think they've even looked in to anything yet but maybe I am wrong because I did document everything and provided proof to back up everything I said. It was pretty cut and dry IMO.
The latest issue, and this is the kind of decision she makes that is the reason her program is draining us financially.....she has a program member who participated in a fundraiser in April 2022. This member sold $1,740 worth of coupons to a local pizza place. It was a 50/50 split with the pizzeria and was organized by this particular director and we lost $1600 despite us getting the first $50 from each participants profit because she's that incompetent. Anyway. So this member owed $890 for their programs & uniforms/dance wear for 2022. After half of the $1740 ($870) went to the pizza place another $50 went to us which left $820 to be applied to the members balance which again was $890. So that member still owes us $70 which I just figured out last night when it came to my attention that the director waived this members 2023 spring program fee ($300) because the member sold so many pizza cards last year!!! How does this make sense? She didn't fundraise enough to cover all of her 2022 fees and still owes us but since she fundraised so much last year we are giving her a free program this year? It all makes sense now. She's an idiot who doesn't know what she's doing here.
So this situation we have where she's waiving this members fee because she thinks they fundraised enough to cover this years fee.....this is why she's $20,000 short! She's not keeping track of anything, she's not letting anyone else be involved and she's letting multiple members get away with not paying and it's costs us so much money! Her program, the way she runs it, it costs us more to run the program than the program brings in. No other program has this issue, the programs pay for themselves and then some. But this one program is consistently costing us tens of thousands more than it brings in!
Plus. When we have fundraisers for members to raise funds for their fees, she always gives them 100% of the funds raised and WE have to pay for the costs of fundraiser. Anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand. And she doesn't see why this is wrong, she doesn't see why we shouldn't LOSE money here. I'm not kidding. She thinks we should pay all costs! The majority of the board is not ok with that either. She had one fundraiser right before I came on board where she was letting people fundraise more than the cost of their fees for the year and she was giving them back all the extra funds! This fundraiser cost us $1200 to have the discount cards made and we got none of the profit. Even worse, some members were given back too much money! Because she didn't look to see how much they owed. At least two people were given back $500+ more than they should have been. Not that they should have gotten any money back, they should have been allowed to fundraise just the amount needed to cover their fees and any extra should have gone to the organization.
She's been with us for 16 years. And I know the president and VP don't want to have to deal with finding a replacement. But they also won't do anything to reign her in. I have felt for months that the board needed to know about the issues with this program. Our president has been out for a month after a medical emergency. Our next board meeting is in 2 weeks. In February she should have collected $12,920 from the members she took to a dance competition. She is over $6,000 short. Her December completion, she is $2,000 short. My plan was to ask about these at the next meeting-ask her in front of the board how many participants she had and then go over the fee and the amount she collected and ask where the rest of the money is. But I don't know. I've never had to do this before. But something has to be done.

I traveled to St. Augustine in late 2001 on Halloween as my aunt lay dying on IV morphine for a surfing trip. I did this for selfish reasons because in my loss of her and others I loved in IV heroin addiction, I often let my concern for my own inability to control the things around me lead me to consider relapsing in the helplessness of another failure and loss to a stolen dose of medication. 

I managed to resist the urge in morphine, but in essence loading up my surfboard and gear and heading out into a developing coastal storm and swell was exactly the same behavior that I was running from my whole life of trauma and failure in connection. I headed to Amelia Island to ride out the storminess until the next day hopefully revealed a clean early season NorthEast swell from a rather A-Typical Nor-Easter off the Sou-Easterly barrier island coast of Georgia( the Wild Horses on Jekyll and Cumberland island endure). Anyways, I had missed my hotel reservation in yet again poignancy of Gods correction overlooked, in my attempt to run from the pain of obligation to more traumatic loss, and as I overlooked the symbolism or running from home for clearer skies and calmer seas, as I Entered St. Augustine the Tempest had failed to move offshore to the rising tide and as much is often the case in modern times, Poseidon rises to our occasion for over looking battles within ourselves. The Castillo and the Old Town were already under a foot of water and with it the whole beautiful bar scene with what I could only miraculously imagine was scorn fetched ashore a king tide. As I slowly drove through the pooling waters on both submerged landings of the Bridge of Lions, I saw mast lights at the holding quiver. I could only imagine that every sailor was tending frayed standing gear to Any Port Wine in the Storm aboard, while tending anchors to haunting moans in building romance to a green eyed woman named Gail. (I know all too well the metronome of rhythm that a loose halyard slaps to the tempo of a gust buffeted mast of a shoal draft sloop in St. Augustine harbor.) Anyways i reached a spot to park next to Surf Station on Anastasia Island after struggling to find a dry dingy landing for my truck anywhere else but I could not find rest in my vehicle in the howling onslaught of compartmentalization of this building low, to the pressure of the situation in denial. What’s Global🤨Warming Anyways God; arrogance as you can see it’s cold and miserable outside? 🤔 As i left the parking lot to find a hotel to rest, I stopped for smokes at a convenience store and so often as I do the people of the world tempt my compassionate response. Now I do pick up strays as a Tea Company traumatized pirate at heart I tend to understand the taxing nature of the over served, but because of the autistic repetitive abuse from bad toilet training and a hyper vigilant fear about the plumbing I’d rather masterbate withdrawing into my sht, then meet someone and risk it coming, to blows. I really hate objectification of a body in absence of a mind, so as I write this I will consider a job for paying my funeral expenses, or government welfare from the shitty truth. But anyone that loves a sailboat knows exactly what overlooking intellect and connection for beauty and frustration! As I stopped, I met one of these she’s, and because I often help people who struggle in clarity, this woman who was chased out of every bar that was underwater on the mainland, and who was also left behind ashore for the wild natives by other sailors in moments of Anchor Lit Worry on Top O’ Mast in the Objectification of fear for the Gail’s tempest. From a few sentences I gathered that she needed desperately some dry shoes from walking through storm surge, as she no doubt left to fend for herself by retreating sailors to fight their own battles with the sea, and in the process also that she had been sleeping in the rain for at least 8 hours under a blanket layed by a stranger in beauty and kindness. Well the shoes, and the lack of sleep was enough to convince me to pick up her bag and gathered her needs as my own. Lucky too because not two hours later I got a call with her there with me in the car that let me know that my aunt had passed away. As a result we proceeded to get obliterated at this little area of Karaoke bars near O’Steens Fine Shrimp(despite often being at odds with her one tracked personality in the drink/drug selection, and some company everything and everything else my wounded stuck up broken ass could feel conflicted about like my Christian Brainwashed sexuality that I resented on a weekend with Zero surfing, or sun, or sobriety.) But as I call myself out here, then again what can a sailor tossed about on a storm that we fail to take responsibility for do, but abide to go down in denial of consideration for what we found in gratitude? 😳that would be Connection to the Anchor Light; That which can send us to depths of bottom for want for another outcome, or carry us oft in grateful wonder aloft. In humble personal reflection, that Weekend may have been an absolute Shipwreck in everything that My Aunt Passing Away as I sat in my Truck in a growing tempest reflected, but the one thing that helped me in that storm that weekend was the one thing left by every sailor ashore to return to the object of his concern in the waves; connection to the peace offered to us in our storm. Anyway this was the thought in that weekend that seemed a disaster, but hindsight it’s still 2020.
TLDR; I met an Angel in St. Augustine in the rain the night my Aunt died that I didn’t really hit it off with, but I could easily have married her. I’m so terribly sorry dear. [In retrospect the best] weekend of my life. Forgive me Dear wherever you may be I pray [you are] good. 💜

I will be a reapplicant who just applied this past cycle; I currently hold a deferred decision and a waitlist. I think it’s time for me to face my reality and accept my fate by actually preparing for the worst-case scenario.
State/Country of Residence: Pennsylvania
Ties to other States/Regions: family lives in TX if that means anything at all (I think I don’t meet the criteria for Texas residency for TMDSAS)
URM? (Y/N): No, Asian
Year in School: Graduated in 2021, currently Gap Year #2
Undergraduate Major(s)/Minor(s): Psychology Major from an Ivy League
Cumulative GPA: 3.69
Science GPA: 3.48
MCAT Score(s): 517 (129/130/129/129) (call me crazy but considering retaking in May)
Research Experience: 4000 hours working as a clinical research coordinator at a big children’s hospital; 450 hours from an undergrad psychology research lab (but heavily connected to its medical school)
Publications/Abstracts/Posters (include how you were credited e.g. first author, second author, etc.): First author of the publication in a low-impact journal, Fifth author of publication for a mid-impact journal
Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer): 200 hours of Medical Volunteering (abroad)
Physician Shadowing: Combined 200 hours of shadowing Pediatric Oncology, Pediatric Endocrinology, Pediatric Neurosurgery, Internal Medicine,
Non-Clinical Volunteering: 30 hours of Premed peer mentorship (1 year), 70 hours of being a support worker for a disabled individual in the community (2 years)
Other Extracurricular Activities: 115 hours of leadership: Vice President in a cultural club (100 hours, 1 year), Organic Chemistry student leader (15 hours, 1 semester); 100 hours of campus tour guide (2 years); 50 hours of academic fellowship in undergrad, 180 hours of Choir singing, 300 hours of tutoring.
Other Employment History: 100 hours of Library Assistant
Immediate family members in medicine? (Y/N): N
Specialty of Interest (if applicable): Endocrinology
Interest in Primary Care (Y/N): N
Interest in Rural Health (Y/N): N
Medical School List:

• Mt. Sinai
• Vanderbilt
• Mayo Clinic
• Cornell
• UMichigan
• UCLA
• Baylor
• Emory
• Case Western
• USC
• BU
• Brown
• Rochester
• Albert Einstein
• Dartmouth Geisel
• UMass
• Thomas Jefferson
• Tufts
• Hofstra
• UVM
• Kaiser Permanente
• Some TX schools IF I do qualify as in-state

(For all my fellow MS1s/MS2s or anyone else out there studying for Step 1!)
Hi all,
Longtime casual lurker here (I needed to create an account to make this post, lol). US MD student. I sat my Step 1 exam March 7th and learned yesterday (March 22nd) that I passed. I went back and forth on writing something up on Reddit, but ultimately I am doing so because I would like to share a few things that helped me get in a good headspace with the exam and help others out there do the same.
First of all, I would like to deeply thank the Anking team for all that they have done and are doing for medical students across the globe. You are shaping medical education for generations to come, and by extension countless patients will benefit from your efforts. Specifically, I wanted to thank the "Anking YouTube guy" for your scores of instructional videos about Anki learning for medical school. You truly are a titan of medical education. On behalf of medical students everywhere, I would like to say from the apex of my heart: thank you.
​
For those who find this info helpful, I will start with scores/resources I used:
Scores:
76% CBSE, 99% chance of passing within 1 week (school-administered, 27 days out)
My school administered a CBSE in the last month of our pre-clinical curriculum. This score prompted me to move my exam date up 1 month (!), effectively giving me 2 weeks to brush up on my weaker areas identified by the CBSE: blood, immunology/micro, and biochem. For blood and immuno, I used BnB + Pathoma + Anki (more detail in resources below). For micro, I reviewed the sketches from my Sketchy videos last year and did UWorld Qs. For biochem, I watched a few Dirty Medicine videos (weakest areas were vitamins, HIV, antivirals, Hep B, glycogen and lysosomal storage disorders) and completed the UWorld biochem Qs I had remaining.
75% CBSSA 31, 99% chance of passing within 1 week (10 days out)
Note: all CBSSAs are predictive, but higher numbers = more recently created by NBME, so select higher number CBSSAs for your practice exams.
85% free 120 (88%, 90%, 78% - 3 days out)
UWorld: 60% complete, 69% correct
Did not do UWSA1 or UWSA2 (headspace reason - more on this later)
​
Key Resources:
School's curriculum + student-made Anki cards specific to our school's curriculum (1st year only)
Sketchy Micro (1st year micro learning) and Pharm (1st and 2nd year, mostly 2nd year for organ-based systems when I felt like I needed more anchoring after BnB videos)
BnB + Anking for onboarding new material (started 2nd year for organ system pathophys/pharm - felt to be excellent and efficient for Step 1 prep, did not follow school's curriculum 2nd year). It is a big leap of faith to abandon school lectures for BnB/Pathoma/Sketchy and Anking, but I scored very well on all of my 2nd-year exams without attending lecture/engaging with the material which A) helped me pass my 2nd-year exams, and B) accelerated my prep for Step 1 and allowed me to feel prepared to take it early. Makes you wonder.
Pathoma (did not watch videos, read corresponding chapters for 2nd pass of material after BnB, then unsuspended cards corresponding to that Pathoma chapter in Anking deck)
UWorld: started 2nd year, added Qs from each organ system once I had finished the corresponding BnB/Pathoma learning. Really only started doing UWorld Qs daily in December, at which point I transitioned almost exclusively from Anki to UWorld for review/of old material. I was not someone who kept up 600-1000 Anki cards/daily for all of my 2nd year - instead, I prioritized UWorld for old material and Anki for onboarding new material (which kept the mental burden lower, as I really enjoyed learning through UWorld). Also, there is a great deal of overlap between organ systems (i.e. pulm/cardio/renal) so focusing on the overlaps will keep you from forgetting the most important pieces of each organ system.
There are arguments on both sides about how to do UWorld Qs, either in in tutoexam mode and timed/untimed. It comes down to what you need UWorld for. I chose to do all but 40 Qs in untimed tutor mode. For me, UWorld was a learning tool. I started slowly, taking all the time I needed to be able to extract the necessary information from question stems. Naturally, my timing improved on each Q, and on the real thing I finished each section with at least ~5 mins (first 3 blocks I had ~8 mins left).
I liked doing my UWorld Qs in tutor mode because I found it to be the most efficient method. I did not have to spend ~1.5x time on my UWorld sessions having to go through question stem twice to remember information about each question. I selected an answer choice, learned the logic behind the correct and incorrect answers, and made an Anki card(s) with any information that was new to me. I found it more helpful to make my own cards than use the UWorld tagged Anking cards which I felt did not always capture what piece of information I was taking away from each question. I have these ~1500 cards in a deck that I am planning on keeping going into my 3rd year rotations (as I found many Step 1 UWorld Qs contain great clinical pearls).
School's 2nd-year NBME subject exams: these were components of my school's 2nd-year curriculum that we needed to pass to pass the course. Exams tested NBME Qs from 3 grouped organ systems that we learned in each block of the course. Exams consisted of ~125 Qs with standard NBME timing, and were foundational to my prep (helped build my timing, which I did not use UWorld for).
​
Key information I found on Reddit late in the game:

1. From the "Anking YouTube guy" himself: if there are any Anki cards that you keep running during your 2nd year (I know the volume is a lot, I couldn't keep everything going), prioritize Pathoma (esp. chapters 1-3), Sketchy Micro, and Sketchy Pharm. I liked BnB for physiology. Physiology, I found, is the least memorizable - the Step 1 Qs will force you to be flexible and apply physiology concepts in new ways. Focus on understanding physiology, but that's not to say that Anki isn't helpful for it. It just wasn't as helpful for me as Anki for keeping the small details of pathology/micro/pharm fresh.
2. High yield tags in the Anking deck. I chose to cut back on my Anki cards during my 2-week dedicated period by filtering out "low" and "lower yield" cards, and I am glad I did. I personally felt that the tagging was excellent (it is my understanding that a great deal of, but not all, cards in the Anking Step 1 deck have been assigned a tag in this system). You can search by each tag to pull up the cards that have "low" or "lower yield" tags, and then select all and suspend. I would recommend this during your dedicated period in particular (especially if you are focusing on learning entire systems/relearning material from previous years).

What I recommend if you are starting out on your Step 1 journey:

1. Look around, talk with upperclassmen at your medical school, browse Reddit posts, see what has worked for others and think about what has worked for you. Try out different methods and materials. This is how I found BnB for my 2nd-year learning and it was singlehandedly (along with correspondingly tagged Anking cards) the greatest thing for my 2nd year learning (and by extension, Step 1 prep). NBME Qs have a different "flavor" than my school's curriculum (and my school's in-house quizzes which were separate from the NBME exams I described above). If this is the case for you, realize you will likely need to supplement your school's curriculum with 3rd-party resources (UWorld at a minimum).
2. Ask yourself: how are you doing in your classes? Everyone learns somewhere along the way that they need to take their learning into their own hands. Critically look at what you are spending time on, and ask yourself if it is an effective use of your time. I am not someone who finds the traditional lecture model to be conducive to my learning. I appreciated the BnB videos because they A) cover only relevant information to the topic at hand in B) a much shorter time than traditional lecture (think no pauses, misspeaking, digressions, etc.), allowing me to spend more time with Anki or UWorld. I would watch a BnB video, highlight while listening, and then immediately unsuspend the correspondingly tagged cards in the Anking deck and complete them. I greatly appreciate having an experienced instructolecturer for clinical reasoning and physical diagnosis skills, but I knew if I needed to learn about tumor suppressors or mood stabilizers, I wasn't going to learn watching/attending a traditional hour long medical school lecture. The name of the game in medical school is efficiency: there is a lot of material to get through, so really take the time to figure out what resources are most important for your learning and skip the rest.

What I recommend as you are in the thick of dedicated and nearing your Step 1 date:

1. This is ironic, but try your hardest to stay off Reddit. Everyone's experience is different, and looking around can generate more anxiety than benefit. At this point, you likely have a system in place that has been working for you (if you need to tweak your method and are looking for tips, then by all means look for those threads), and you know where your scores are. The CBSSA exams will give you a percent chance of passing Step 1. Trust your scores. You can find a wide range of outcomes on Reddit: low percent scorers passing Step 1, low percent scorers failing Step 1, high percent scorers passing Step 1, high percent scorers failing Step 1. At the end of the day, keep it internal, focus on you, and don't put yourself in an anxiety spiral trying to figure out where you are and what you should be doing, etc. For this reason, I did not take UWSA1 or 2, as A) the NBME is the organization writing Step 1 and their material told me twice I had a 99% chance of passing Step 1 within a week, and B) I did not want the anxiety of a numerical score/potentially low/deflated score (as some users have reported) from third-party material whose creators are not the ones writing Step 1. That being said, if you are early in your preparation (i.e. before you have planned to take your CBSSAs and free 120), I think UWSA1 and UWSA2 are excellent practice tools (learn from the questions and practice timing, but don't get into an anxiety spiral if you get a score that isn't passing or is much lower than you had expected). Trust yourself. Keep it internal, stay confident in the days and weeks leading up to the exam.
2. Everyone's situation is different, but I would strongly recommend completing 60-80% UWorld with a percentage that brings you comfort (my school recommended 65% correct to be safe, do with that what you will). If I were to have kept my original date (which I considered before ultimately moving it up), it would've been because I wanted to get through more UWorld Qs before sitting for Step 1. Anki can only take you so far - UWorld will help you apply the information you have learned to new situations (which is what you will be doing on Step 1). Also, I would highly recommend taking at least 2 full-length (200 Q) NBME practice exams (CBSE/CBSSAs) with a % chance of passing in 1 week that brings you comfort and the free 120 before you sit for Step 1. CBSSAs are slightly more predictive due to their testing traditionally 1st year basic science material (biochem, genetics, etc.) at a closer percentage to Step 1 than the CBSE which has a slightly greater percentage of 2nd year material (pathology, pharmacology). Make sure you carefully review your practice exams and make flashcards, etc. to learn and review new pieces of information. Your exam will feel closest to the CBSSAs/free 120 (note: there is a new free 120 and old free 120 - the new one was put out by the NBME in June 2022, so make sure to do at least the new free 120 (not sure how many Qs overlap, I did not do the old free 120)). I highly recommend doing the free 120 in tutorial mode, which simulates the interface/structure of the real exam. This is a long exam - the most difficult part for me was keeping energy up on the 5th, 6th, and 7th blocks. Something that my school recommended which sounded helpful but I never did was to take a CBSSA and then make it a full 280 Q exam by going into 2 blocks of 40Qs random on UWorld in exam mode timed.

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What I recommend for exam day:

1. Know what snacks work for you and which don't. Know what your body does at the time you will be starting the exam. Know if you are someone who likes to use the restroom after each block. Know the layout of facility where you will be testing. If you can, drive to the testing facility prior to the exam and ask kindly to take a look around (obviously you will not be able to go into the testing area unless you choose to pay to do a test-run, aka sit at a computer in the testing site and take the free 120). I did not pay to do a test-run, but I visited the testing site a week before and was able to get a sense of how long the drive was going to take, where to park, where the restrooms were in the building, what the lockers looked like, etc. Just kindly explain that you will be testing there on X date and politely ask to take a quick look around. This will make you calmer on test day.
2. Don't get hung up on a Q. Don't do it. Step 1 is now P/F (sorry, titans of old who put an enormous amount of work into studying for this exam when it was non-P/F) and you do not need to worry about 1 or 2 Qs out of 200. USMLE says approximately ~60% is passing on their website, other Redditors say ~65% is safer based on # incorrect for a ~196 (lowest passing numerical score before Step 1 went P/F). Depending on who you believe, this means you can get ~70-80 incorrect out of the 200 Qs that are graded and still pass. (There are 80 experimental Qs that do not count towards your grade and you will not know which ones do not count towards your score!) So, this is all to say do not get hung up on a Q. If you are staring at something and it is not clicking/you are carefully re-reading the stem multiple times trying to find information to get you to one answer over another and you cannot find it, narrow down the answer choices, make your best guess, flag it, and move on. (Odds are you are probably right, anyways - trust your preparation and intuition.)
3. Roll with the punches on exam day. Tell yourself: it will be okay. Didn't sleep well/didn't sleep at all the night prior? Neither did I (4 hours, 1:30 AM - 5:30 AM, tested at 9 AM). Practice anxiety reducing techniques now (slow breathing and meditation helped for me) to turn your brain off if you need to the night before. A shower, 2 cups of coffee, a good breakfast, and adrenaline got me through the first 3 blocks. I sipped down 16 oz of matcha/coffee/chocolate milk blend during first 3 breaks and had little bites of snacks (banana, trail mix, 100% dark chocolate) to get me to block 4. Energy dipped a bit during 4th block, but had oatmeal + peanut butter for lunch and 16 oz coffee across the last 3 breaks, which came at a perfect time and helped me keep my energy strong enough for the rest. There will be questions/blocks that seem easier and more difficult to you. Trust your preparation, do your best, and tell yourself: it will be okay.

After the exam:

1. I had a great two weeks planned with my family, which helped take my mind off the exam in a big way. The natural tendency is to think about your exam, look up answer to Qs when you leave the building/when you get home, etc. (I certainly was guilty of doing this) but ultimately, none of it is in your control after you are done and you need to keep living your life. Assuming you entered the exam with scores on your CBSSAs/Free 120/UWorld you were comfortable with (you've earned them, it's not an accident!) the only thing you can conclude is that your real exam will have a similar outcome. If your CBSSA tells you you have a 90-99% chance of passing if you were to take Step 1 in one week, then there is a very strong likelihood that you will pass the exam, regardless of how you feel during or after it (barring any drastic change to your baseline that day). When I was waiting for my score report, I am guilty of going down the Reddit rabbit hole of looking at others with similar scores as me who failed, those who didn't sleep well or at all before their exam, or walked out feeling like they failed, etc. Of course, this was all unnecessary stress/anxiety. Once you are done, leave the exam behind you. Please. Try your hardest to not perseverate on the exam. Instead be present and put your energy into literally anything else. It is easy to forget that throughout this process, we are all living, and there is so much more beyond medical school and Step 1. Again, trust your preparation/scores going into the real thing, and assuming you don't have a drastic change from baseline, it will work out and you will land in the range of your practice scores.

TL;DR: trust yourself and your preparation, avoid comparing yourself to others or going down Reddit rabbit holes before and after the exam, and once you are done, leave it out of sight and mind and live your life <3

While the risk of severe, acute Covid that leads to hospitalization or death has decreased during the 3+ years of the pandemic, the primary concern has shifted to the chronic side—winding up with Long Covid. My colleagues and I reviewed Long Covid in-depth earlier this year, but there have been new reports that firm up evidence for 4 ways to reduce the likelihood of chronic sequelae from a Covid infection (or re-infection).

Novid

The first and only definitive way is to avoid Covid infections. As I previously reviewed, there are still approximately 10-15% of Americans who are likely Novids, never having been infected (potentially confirmed with negative anti-nucleocapsid antibodies), and that per cent will continue to decrease over time as the virus relentlessly finds new (and repeat) hosts.
A good quote from Mike Ryan of WHO from an excellent new piece on the ongoing threat
“You don’t want to get this disease once if you can avoid it, and you don’t want to get it four times for sure.”

Metformin

A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of metformin provides evidence for a second way, with a 42% reduction of Long Covid. A 2-week course of this very safe and inexpensive treatment was quite effective in a cohort age >30 and BMI >25, across multiple subgroups, as I have summarized. This is the only randomized trial to provide evidence for prevention vs Long Covid. Of course, we’d like to see the results replicated in another, larger trial of all comers, and fully understand the mechanism of the benefit, but given the magnitude of effect and the safety/cost issues, there appears to be little downside for use of metformin at this juncture.
In JAMA Internal Medicine, 2 new papers were published this week that firm up evidence for a 3rd and 4th means of preventing Long Covid.

Vaccination

A systematic review of 41 articles (distilled from 255 full-text papers reviewed and 5334 records), involving over 860,00 individuals, looked at risk factors for developing Long Covid, which included female sex (odds ratio 1.56), high BMI (OR 1.15), smoking (OR 1.1) and multiple comorbidities or hospitalization (OR 2.48). Vaccination was associated with an overall 43% reduction of Long Covid as shown below, with consistency of direction across all 4 studies assessing this relationship.

Paxlovid

A preprint from the large Veterans Affairs data resource posted last November suggested that the use of Paxlovid was associated with a 26% reduction of Long Covid. Fortunately, the investigators have done considerably more in their final publication of these data, with nearly 4-fold more patients treated with Paxlovid and the follow-up extended from 90 days to 6 months. The very good news is that the 26% reduction has held up. For over 35,000 individuals treated within 5 days compared with ~246,000 controls there was a 26% reduction of Long Covid (Post-Covid Condition, PCC). Importantly, this benefit was across multiple organ system outcomes as shown below (no effect seen for reducing liver disease or diabetes).
The association of Long Covid protection was seen irrespective of vaccinated status.
And consistently across different risk factor subgroups as seen below. Noteworthy, as I commented on for the preprint, is the population under study, mainly older White males. The lack of diversity and youth of the study population makes extrapolation of potential benefit across the board more difficult.
While the evidence supporting Paxlovid or vaccination protection vs Long Covid does not come from any randomized trials, both of these observational reports provide added support that was not previously available or aggregated, respectively. There was a recent Washington Post article about the potential of less Long Covid with Omicron compared with previous SARS-CoV-2 variants, but many confounders, such as infection and vaccination-induced immunity, make it difficult to assess.
OK, But What About Treatment?
It’s good that we now are seeing multiple ways to reduce the likelihood of developing Long Covid. But there has been no substantive progress for treating it. This week a small Paxlovid randomized study for treating people affected by Long Covid was announced and will start its enrollment of 100 participants next month, with 15 days of paxlovid or placebo and a full immunologic profile. A very large, randomized trial of Paxlovid should have been initiated a year ago, given the evidence of persistence of virus in reservoirs or remnants of virus, from multiple studies. Nonetheless, it is great that the Yale team, including Harlan Krumholz and Akiko Iwasaki, are now on it.
An article in today’s Rolling Stone (of all places) reviewed the potential of low-dose naltrexone and the fact it is getting frequently prescribed, with an excerpt below. In our Long Covid review, we highlighted naltrexone as a candidate drug for treatment but there is not yet adequate evidence to prove it is efficacious. A Canadian randomized trial of 160 participants is expected to provide data next year
That’s the up-to-date summary. We’re making progress for ways to reduce the chances of developing Long Covid, but far too little and slow on the treatment side. Hopefully, we’ll see much more in the way of testing the many candidate treatments in large, rigorous, randomized trials in the months ahead.
Link to Dr Topol's post with charts and links to evidence and research: https://erictopol.substack.com/p/preventing-long-covid