Under the Skin

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...