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I am a woman scientist...and I'm not a pioneer

Who here has heard of Rosalind Franklin? Probably all of you--or at least most.  She is a battle cry.  She is the story of repressed women. Talking about how wronged she was is close to a cult in feminism. Rosalind Franklin was an x-ray crystallographer who was best-known for determining the structure of coal.  At least until recently, when she is best known for being denied credit for the structure of DNA.  The story fits the narrative that feminists choose to make of history--this revisionist idea that men have always ignored the value of women, and very strong, determined women in science have been placed at the kids' table at the banquet of revered science, powerless to fight back.  Honestly, the reasons Rosalind Franklin didn't get the credit for discovering the structure of DNA: 1) she was jerk.  Sure, if she was a male jerk, maybe she would have been a little more tolerated, but nobody liked Rosalind Franklin.  She was a witch-with-a-b. 2) S...
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Happiness, a State of Being

This is a quick thought post.  I have been thinking and reading a lot about happiness this past little bit, and I've come to conclusion: Happiness is a state of being.  You can be happy and sad at the same time. You can be happy and distraught at the same time. You can be happy and melancholy at the same time. Because happiness is more than a temporary emotion that you wear.  It's an intrinsic part of who you are.
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Our Unhealthy Relationship With Physical Activity

We hear all the time about America's obesity problem.  I mean, it was basically Michelle Obama's purpose for 8 years, right?  And usually, that goes into a place where we talk about food.  Occasionally, we talk about physical activity, but usually, we talk about food.  Well, today, I'm not going to talk about food.  I'm going to talk about physical activity, and why we have a problem.  I'm a fairly healthy person overall, if I'd be so humble to say.  I mean, yeah, I don't eat as much food as I'm supposed to (yeah, I know, the other way from most people), and I sometimes am not the kindest to my body in terms of relaxation and sleeping.  But I have a veritable obsession with raw vegetables, and I'm so active that doctors always give me the "really?" when I tell them how much physical activity I get.  As if I have to be lying or something.  But I wasn't always that way.  Growing up, I didn't identify as an active or "sporty...
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Being Involved in Your Healthcare Without Being "That Patient."

All over the internet, we're told to "ask your doctor" and be "involved in your healthcare."  Personally, I find this difficult.  Basically, I don't like being a bother.  And I have worked in healthcare.  Yes, this is a double-edged sword.  I know how healthcare works, enabling me to suggest avenues that most people wouldn't know about.  For example, I recently had a blood draw done, and when they called me with the results, they informed me that one of the tests hadn't been ordered.  Instead of going back to the lab for another blood draw, I knew enough to say, "Well, that test would be done in a gold top, and they have two gold tops.  They couldn't have used it all for the tests that they did, and it's only been three days.  They will still have the samples, because they're a CAP-accredited lab, and CAP requires samples to be kept for look-back purposes for a period of time."  So, where an average patient would have just gon...
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My blogging change

I know that I haven't written anything for some time.  I've been busy.  That might be an understatement.  I am currently getting ready to have my oral qualifier in a little more than a week.  And as I've been transitioning into my new life as a PhD student, the way that I blog has been changing.  I still like the idea of blogging, but I've also been finding that online presence is not as important as I have made it in my life.  Being tied to the internet has not ever made me happy.  So, even though I don't intend to stop blogging, I will probably only do so when I have thought out a topic that I have something to say about.  Those have traditionally been the blog posts that I have felt the most fulfilled in writing, and the ones where I feel like I am contributing to the greater human experience.  I know that there are those who have been missing my book reviews.  And I am still writing book reviews.  Don't you worry!  If you...
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Of Kneeling, Screaming, and Debating

Last night, I laid in bed and thought about life.  It was an important moment in my life. I had a lot of turning points in a lot of my life stressors last night.  However, after this, I had a time where my mind was running 100 miles a minute about different things.  And I was thinking about this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/opinion/dying-art-of-disagreement.html.  This summarized so well my thoughts about recent events, and helped me bring together my logic, and here's the thing: Disagreement is a part of our culture as Americans.  It's well-documented that the Continental Congress often devolved to fisticuffs, and the Constitutional Convention had physical casualties.  However, this is still different from what we have today, of not even being willing to let someone who we disagree with have a moment to speak.  And that's because the discussions aren't about pros, cons, logic and conclusions.  It's about showing "how right" you...
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YA Book to Movie Franchises: Ranked!

I haven't been good about updating my blog much recently.  I fell out of the habit, I suppose, while I was doing my first year of my PhD, and things have been crazy.  So, I will try to grease the blogging wheels by bringing an old stand-by of mine: Lists and Ranking. I don't know why, but today, the concept of YA film franchises popped into my head.  I think I saw something about YA book series having been optioned or had its rights sold or something.  But I then thought about it in the back of my head.  And I decided to rank the YA film franchises (or attempts at franchises).  Of course, if I haven't seen it/read it, it's not going in the list. 13. Eragon: This movie was plain and simply bad, and it doesn't help that the source material was generally uninspired.  I still have to force myself to choke through the last few books of this series.  The first book was endearing and charming, the second saw some potential even through Eragon's infla...
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