my turn to update

hey ladies! first, i apologize for not keeping up with this. frankly, i kind of forgot about it until i asked caitlin if she had heard from any cohorts and she mentioned our blog. oops! no reflection on how i feel about any and all of you, i promise :)

since turning in my thesis i have kind of been all over the place. i think you all know i took a solo 10 day camping trip to california (OH how i love cali!). i've also taken smaller trips- a weekend in victoria bc, another at baker lake, wine tasting in walla walla, LA and Vegas for a friend's birthday... and a 10 day silent meditation retreat in southern washington. can you even believe that i was able to keep silent for 10 days?? it was amazing, definitely life-changing.

but here's my biggest and most recent news: i applied for a job with public health as a family planner/health educator. i really thought their desired qualifications read pretty much like my resume (sexual health education experience- and they preferred, but didn't require, a master's) but i didn't even get an interview. but that's okay. i'm sweeping my ego up off the floor and taking this as a sign from the universe that i am not meant to do the 9 to 5 right now. instead i'm moving full steam ahead on planning my international travels starting in late january, early february.

in the meantime, however, i'll be leaving seattle in mid-december for the east coast... and i don't think i'll be returning to this lovely emerald city (other than frequent visits, of course). yep, i'm packing everything up and driving out to old virgnie, to spend time with my family and plan my trip (and save a few months of rent) and i'll be taking off from there. i'll probably try to come to seattle on my way out of the country, since my first stop is thailand and i'm sure to have a connecting flight on the west coast somewhere. we will see and i'll keep you updated. but in the meantime i have a month and a half left, i'll be taking no more trips, and plenty of time for going-away-type parties/lunches/dinners/cupcakes/drinks.

Mortality Rates, Part I

So, I am involved in a new project right now, part of which is going to require that I define some of the terms we have come to know and love for "lay" readers. By "lay," in this case, I mean reasonably well-educated people who have not studied epidemiology or biostatistics. Here is what I am working on for an overall description of rate. What do you think?

"Since we will be talking a great deal about death rates in this chapter, a description of the concept of rate and how it is applied to health data is in order. When used in population health, the word “rate” generally signifies the number of unique events, like deaths or injuries, occurring in a specific population over one year; rate is therefore a measurement of proportion or ratio. The mortality or crude death rate of a population is the number of people who died in one year divided by the total population. In 2003 , out of a population of 290 million, 2,448,288 people died in the United States. Dividing the number of deaths by the total U.S. population gives us the rate at which people died – about one per 87 people. Most frequently, we calculate mortality per 100,000 people – that is, for every 100,000 people in the United States, how many people died during that year? In 2003, the crude mortality rate was 841.9 per 100,000 people."

Even more challenging than describing the terms themselves is finding graceful ways to "talk" to the reader, introduce the concept, and convince them to go along for the ride. Terms like "is in order" (see sentence #1) can be distracting and a bit pompous as far as I am concerned, yet I know that when such descriptions are well-written, the reader barely notices that he/she is being led by the hand (or nose!) along the definitional pathway. Any suggestions?

Coming next....crude mortality!

APHA?

Hi Girls!

Is anyone going to APHA? If so, I really want to meet up! :)

The Mental Institution

Hi girls!

ah...how can I describe my experience....the place looks like a mental institution. NO JOKE. All the walls are white. There's long, long hallways with white walls and tan doors. And the whole building is like this. And I almost feel like I'm in one too...When people say our government is a real bureaucracy, it's true. We spent almost a day trying to find out if our award letters should address the applicants as MD s or M.D. s. Yes, it took half a day to pass through all the authorities whether or not to have dots. DOTS?!?!? It's crazy.

Talk Amongst Yourselves

Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island (oh, how I miss Mike Meyers-SNL characters. If reference is not clear, just smile & nod & take this intro as a foray to "discussion topics")

Random things of interest in the news:

--> NY Times today, "Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?":
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/magazine/16epidemiology-t.html?ex=1347595200&en=ce44128eb0042a76&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalinkn=ce44128eb0042a76&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
AKA What epidemiology does & does not tell us. Though I want to write a comment about social determinants of health!

--> Public Health Certification
http://www.nbphe.org/

My favorite part, The registration fee is based on when you register for the exam: $300 August 15 – October 15, 2007 $350 October 16 – December 31, 2007 $400 January 1 – April 30, 2008. Meaning we should get on it NOW to save $50.

Ok, so nothing in the news about this, I'm just really curious how it's going to impact us as professionals. I tried searching for negative press about it (key words including 'controvery,' 'debate' 'concerns' but nada. Anyone else heard stuff?)

--> Public policy, Russia style
"Skip work, make babies, governor says"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070912/od_nm/russia_sex_odd_dc;_ylt=Ak0UbFVmQrfRhdswN1xe.IkSH9EA

--> Public health, China style (water sanitation)
Chicken chokes after testing the water
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070910/od_nm/china_safety_chicken_odd_dc;_ylt=AgSFeHgR526f9XWpXYiduAcSH9EA

And last two links not to mean anything negative or mocking about other countries. Just random things that made me chuckle but then think about more serious things. Which is all I can ask for in life.

My update from the foggy city...

Somehow I find that time simply slips away from me and before I know it I'm woefully behind on catching up with people, paying my bills, answering e-mails, and of course my looming thesis. Part of the problem is that I've only been in Seattle for only around six weeks total since spring quarter ended, and the rest of the time I've been essentially a nomad.

Right now, I'm in San Francisco and plan to be here in the Bay Area for the next six weeks. It's the start of playoffs for my club team's ultimate season, so I'm down here to be around for practices and the Sectional and Regional tournaments. Last year I came down here for around a month before school started, doing a similar thing, but this year I was much more loathe to leave Seattle. First and foremost because Will and I just moved into a new apartment last week. I'm totally in love with it and am bummed that I don't get to really live in it until the end of October! Once I get back into town, I will definitely have to have you all over to check it out. We're living in a one bedroom apartment in a cool old building at Phinney and 50th, right across from the zoo. I really like the location, although I tried to go for a run and realized that being on top of a hill means it's impossible to find a flat route to run. I ended up doing hill sprints instead, which are not exactly my idea of a leisurely jog.

My plan is to really work on my thesis full-time while I'm down here. I'm banking on the fact that all the friends I'm crashing at have jobs that will leave me all alone and bored during the day, creating the perfect environment to focus on my thesis. That's the theory anyway... I also got hooked up with a job coaching 5th grade volleyball at a local private school while I'm down here. It's pretty much the perfect job for me right now since my co-coach is one of my best friends from my ultimate team, we only have practice twice a week, and I'll make enough to cover rent and living expenses for the months I'm down here. I'm a little nervous about how coaching 10 and 11 year old girls will go. They are sooooo small I have no idea if they'll ever be able to serve the ball over the net. My co-coach assures me that what they lack in size and athletic talent, they make up for in adoreableness.

I hope to hear what the rest of you are up to as well. And I'm sure to be back on the blog asking for thesis support once I realize how far behind I really am!

Where are you RIGHT NOW?

I do hope we all contribute to this blog - I know everyone is busy & it's the summertime wind-down, lots of travel, etc. And the "first post" I think becomes daunting - is it interesting enough, I'll wait until I have more time, so many other reasons to postpone. So how about a simple enough question: Where are you RIGHT NOW?

I am personally in my new abode, in Wallingford along the Burke Gilman. Beautiful view of Lake Union (near Gas Works) and downtown Seattle. I just had a friend in town from the East Coast and he literally fell in love with Seattle - I find that happens a lot (I did point out that the summer weather can be condusive to a false sense of infatuation, Seattle Freeze concept, traffic, etc. to be fair, but took pride in my secondary home for the moment). ANYWAY, that's where I'm at - about to go for a run to the IMA. Yay for still having that pass, and that most of the pesky undergrads are going during summer. =) Though I'm not supposed to be here at all - should be on my way to the Hoh Rainforest for a weekend of camping. I'm having funky asthma problems, though, so I'm going up tomorrow AM with the second round of cars in my group. Giving me time to soak up sun outside & post on this blog! I promise to be more interesting in the future. =)

But please, POST, even just a sentence or two.

Someone, please post something

Where is everybody?

Speaking of health inequalities and income inequality.

Now I have somewhere to post this stuff. Today on Yahoo, the following two headlines ran right next to one another:

• Study: Arsenic in drinking water threatening millions globally
• Diamond-encrusted skull sells for $100 million

I'm not going to talk academic here...this is sick! And so emblematic of our problem here in the U.S. Rich people are so fricking bored, with so much money to spend, that this is "newsworthy." I guess I should be glad that arsenic in the water is still considered newsworthy, too? I think certain Asian (and other) cultures would categorize this as a fundamental imbalance in our priorities as a culture, but who ever thinks to question it?

Hey-o to Heather! Welcome to your new home! We're really looking forward to a post about your new job, digs, and life!

You know you're a Social Determinants of Health Nerd when...

I'm very excited about the upcoming PBD documentary, "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?" This is an apt time to foster discourse about the social determinant of health and root causes of illness, with people discussing the ineptitude of our health care system (with help from Michael Moore) to start thinking about what really impacts health. A I hope this gets the average person engaged & thinking, not just us nerds.

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/

This is great b/c it seeks to be more than an informative documentary, but platform for social action through a public health campaign. From the website:
Unnatural Causes, a seven-part series for PBS broadcast and DVD release, will, for the first time on television, sound the alarm about our glaring socio-economic and racial disparities in health--and seek out root causes. But those causes are not what we might expect. While we pour more and more money into drugs, dietary supplements and new medical technologies, it turns out there is much more to our health than bad habits, health care or unlucky genes. The social conditions in which we are born, live and work profoundly affect our well-being and longevity.
Conceived as part of an ambitious public education campaign conducted in partnership with leading public health, policy, and community-based organizations, Unnatural Causes will help foster a new and hopeful approach to the public's health. As Harvard epidemiologist David Williams points out, investing in our schools, improving housing, integrating neighborhoods, better jobs and wages, giving people more control over their work, these are as much health strategies as smoking diet and exercise. And these are the stories Unnatural Causes will tell.

Word.

The urge for social and behavioral sciences never dies...

Welcome SBS'ers. Old. New. Okay, mostly old. Hey.

This is a first post so of course I have no idea what to say. What am I up to? Knee deep in practicum when I should by all rights be knee deep in thesis. Getting ready to start another semester (yes, another. Two years is not enough for me. Just one class, though). Oh, and did I mention that it appears that my practicum will never end? My supervisor -- who shall remain nameless, although he is someone you probably all have at least a passing awareness of -- is as dry, humorless, and odd as he seemed on initial acquaintance.

Those first year gals are now second years -- I bet they're looking forward to going back to UW about as much as we were.

Beren has a cold, a summer cold, and we are watching Sponge Bob Square Pants. DeAnn just sent me her photos from our last party, and it inspired me!

The question now is .... how will I make it so that people other than me can post to this thing?