Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.

Category: Long Reads

Stories that take a bit longer to get through.

  • In Memoriam

    In Memoriam

    Four years ago today my cat James (named after the character in Ursula K. LeGuin’s Catwings) died at ten years old. Death is an integral part of life and while there isn’t much cause for sadness years and years later, I like to look back over the experiences I had while he was a part…

  • Project 52

    I am not one to make New Year’s resolutions, but I did make a commitment to Project 52 back in January. Like a lot of other people I was sick of wanting to update my site, only to put it off until the interesting bit I planned to write about was no longer relevant. My…

  • RPG Origins

    When I was a kid I was told that role-playing games were the first ominous step toward declaring allegiance to Satan himself, and,  being young and naïve, I embraced the whole sordid tale. Instead of playing Dungeons and Dragons or Baldur’s Gate, I spent a lot of time outside having rollicking adventures as an audacious…

  • Snowmageddon!

    Snowmageddon!

    Wow. Baltimore got 26” of snow, and here on the edges of the city I think we got closer to 30”. This is definitely the biggest snow I’ve seen in Maryland in my life, and when you add it to the other 1-2′ snow we got a few weeks ago, and all of the “normal”…

  • Impromptu Sledding

    Impromptu Sledding

    The “light dusting” of snow we were supposed to get this past weekend got so excited about covering the earth that it forgot to stop, leaving us with about four inches. Faced with an abundance of soft powdery crystals and the broodmother of all hills in front of our apartment, Rachel and I simply had…

  • Silly Joss, Networks are for Talentless Hacks

    I finished watching Dollhouse this weekend, further convincing me that somebody like Joss Whedon is perfectly positioned to lead his contemporaries into the wonderful world of 21st century business models, a la Trent Reznor in music. Careful, spoilers inside. With an army of rabidly loyal fans at his command and a good number of people…

  • Exhalation

    I had my interview day at the University of Maryland School of Medicine today, which I think went decently well. It’s difficult to develop a metric by which to grade the “wellness” of an interview, but so far my rubric states that if the interviewer and I are able to carry on some semblance of…

  • Interviewed

    This weekend I had my first medical school interview, a welcome contrast to the slate of rejections I’ve received. Heading to Loma Linda University and the 70-degree weather of Southern California after the subfreezing temperatures in Maryland didn’t hurt either. While there’s no way to know for sure, I think the interviews went well. I…