Here's something I forgot when I decided to go back to school: I don't like studying. I like learning, but not studying. Studying feels so forced. Learning is much more leisurely. But, alas, studying is one way we learn, right? So, it's time to study (cram) for my first test of the year. But as I mentioned, the class I'm now in is pass/fail, so I'm hoping I do the former. But I'll keep you all posted on whether that happens and if I'll be returning to television sooner than expected.
In other exciting news, we learned all about the reproductive system yesterday and various ways of getting and not getting preggers... IVF, surrogate wombs, etc... (all this time I thought it was a stork). Did you know a woman who's gone through menopause can serve as a surrogate mother, carrying a baby to term? I didn't. But all you need is a uterus! Aside from actually making me want a baby more (but we won't get into that here- sorry!), the lecture made me realize that sometimes sex jokes work and sometimes they bomb hard... and that this is just one of the many ways where public health and entertainment and comedy meet... and need a lot of work. This is where I come in! But not yet. I still have to pass the first test.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Student of Scatology
It's a two-post day today, apparently, but I just had to share a few quick things from the day. First, in the morning, we learned about the digestive system, culminating with an hour-lecture on diarrheal diseases (big killer in the third world). A whole hour on diarrhea! I thought I could talk about bodily functions for a long time, but an hour on diarrhea. Awesome. Unfortunately, immediately following the lecture, came lunch.
Second, in the afternoon we learned about the respiratory system, which is my least favorite system as it involves math. Not that I don't like math, I just would rather keep math and science separate. There's only so much brain power up there. Anyway, I was looking at a chart of the different types of respiratory movements including laughing, sobbing, hiccupping, sighing, etc, when I came to the end-- valsalva maneuver-- and yelled to my study group, "There's a name for the breathing you do when you shit?!" Indeed, the valsalva maneuver is the "forced exhalation against a closed rima glottidis as may occur during periods of straining while defecating." Apparently, outside of the TV world, we say "defecate" rather than "shit," as I learned when my table-mate turned to me and said "real classy" after I used the wrong word. I miss TV. Sigh.
Now off to learn about the urinary system. No, seriously.
PS. For a more detailed and hilarious account of the hour on diarrhea, check out my classmate's blog.
(Apparently, the only other person interested in health communications in this class had the same idea to blog about this crazy experience. Brilliant minds...).
Second, in the afternoon we learned about the respiratory system, which is my least favorite system as it involves math. Not that I don't like math, I just would rather keep math and science separate. There's only so much brain power up there. Anyway, I was looking at a chart of the different types of respiratory movements including laughing, sobbing, hiccupping, sighing, etc, when I came to the end-- valsalva maneuver-- and yelled to my study group, "There's a name for the breathing you do when you shit?!" Indeed, the valsalva maneuver is the "forced exhalation against a closed rima glottidis as may occur during periods of straining while defecating." Apparently, outside of the TV world, we say "defecate" rather than "shit," as I learned when my table-mate turned to me and said "real classy" after I used the wrong word. I miss TV. Sigh.
Now off to learn about the urinary system. No, seriously.
PS. For a more detailed and hilarious account of the hour on diarrhea, check out my classmate's blog.
(Apparently, the only other person interested in health communications in this class had the same idea to blog about this crazy experience. Brilliant minds...).
Grad School or Grade School?
I'm the worst blogger ever. Blogging and homework, I'm learning, don't mix. Neither do blogging and the Olympics. No matter, I shall persevere.
Remember last post, loyal readers, when I wrote that I felt old? Well, that all changed drastically yesterday. Yes, in comparison to my classmates I'm still old, but in how my student life is shaping out to be, I'm nine. It really all comes down to a few factors: 1) I carry a backpack to school. A really big dorky one. 2) I pack my lunch (or at least try to) everyday. Sandwich, fruit and snack. (Although this time, I make sure the fruit doesn't smush the sandwich, Dad.) 3) I walk a block from my apartment every morning to the bus stop where other Hopkins students and employees are also waiting for the Hopkins shuttle-- a normal bus with "Johns Hopkins" really big across the side. Usually. Until yesterday, when a different bus in the shuttle rotation pulled up. A big yellow school bus. For a moment I was confused until I saw all the Hopkins boys and girls dutifully get on. I followed them up the stairs and said hello to the nice bus driver (side note: according to Dr. Suess "My Book About Me" my first career aspiration was to be a bus driver. Granted my knowledge of career options was pretty limited, but I knew that a) I didn't want to be a teacher and b) my bus driver was awesome... more awesome than my teacher... and got to drive a bus!). When I reached the top of the stairs and looked out at the adult faces already sitting in the green vinyl seats staring up at me, I literally laughed. "Holy shit. I'm on a fucking yellow school bus." Memories of elementary school came back in an instant before I realized I had to find a seat. Do I sit in the back with the cool kids, or in the front so I don't barf? I chose the front and even found someone I knew to talk to and compare Walkmen (Walkmans?) with. Minus the Walkman part. The whole experience was awesome and hilarious and weird.
To add to the feeling of being nine, on Sunday, thanks to the wonderful world of social networking, I had lunch with a girl who I went to school with from kindergarten to 6th grade and hadn't seen since in 20 years. We were good friends back then and it turned out, not only did she settle down in Baltimore, she grew up to be pretty cool and normal, too. It was nice being able to reminisce and get along with someone I hadn't seen in 20 years... and as an added bonus, it made me feel young.
Remember last post, loyal readers, when I wrote that I felt old? Well, that all changed drastically yesterday. Yes, in comparison to my classmates I'm still old, but in how my student life is shaping out to be, I'm nine. It really all comes down to a few factors: 1) I carry a backpack to school. A really big dorky one. 2) I pack my lunch (or at least try to) everyday. Sandwich, fruit and snack. (Although this time, I make sure the fruit doesn't smush the sandwich, Dad.) 3) I walk a block from my apartment every morning to the bus stop where other Hopkins students and employees are also waiting for the Hopkins shuttle-- a normal bus with "Johns Hopkins" really big across the side. Usually. Until yesterday, when a different bus in the shuttle rotation pulled up. A big yellow school bus. For a moment I was confused until I saw all the Hopkins boys and girls dutifully get on. I followed them up the stairs and said hello to the nice bus driver (side note: according to Dr. Suess "My Book About Me" my first career aspiration was to be a bus driver. Granted my knowledge of career options was pretty limited, but I knew that a) I didn't want to be a teacher and b) my bus driver was awesome... more awesome than my teacher... and got to drive a bus!). When I reached the top of the stairs and looked out at the adult faces already sitting in the green vinyl seats staring up at me, I literally laughed. "Holy shit. I'm on a fucking yellow school bus." Memories of elementary school came back in an instant before I realized I had to find a seat. Do I sit in the back with the cool kids, or in the front so I don't barf? I chose the front and even found someone I knew to talk to and compare Walkmen (Walkmans?) with. Minus the Walkman part. The whole experience was awesome and hilarious and weird.
To add to the feeling of being nine, on Sunday, thanks to the wonderful world of social networking, I had lunch with a girl who I went to school with from kindergarten to 6th grade and hadn't seen since in 20 years. We were good friends back then and it turned out, not only did she settle down in Baltimore, she grew up to be pretty cool and normal, too. It was nice being able to reminisce and get along with someone I hadn't seen in 20 years... and as an added bonus, it made me feel young.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Geriatrics
I've made it through three days of this intensive biomedicine class. It feels like a lot longer than that though. After day 2, I remembered that I don't really like studying dense science-y stuff. Especially after a full day of class. It made me miss work life even more, especially the part of not having to study when I got home, and even more so the part about unwinding with a glass of wine. One glass of wine after school and there's no way I'd get any of the reading done. But yesterday, after day 3, I remembered that a) this course is pass/fail, b) I was pre-med once upon a time and vaguely remember a lot of this stuff and c) I really don't have to do all the reading since we divide it up among our study groups anyway. So, last night, I did a few hours of my part and then settled in for Olympics watching and an early night sleep.... and it totally made a difference in my happiness, which really is the most important, don't you think? No point in killing myself. I'm not in med school after all.
On to another topic. Age. The other day my study group divulged our ages. I admit, I was the one who brought it up when we were discussing how uncomfortable the chairs we have to sit in for seven hours a day are. I interjected with "But, it's probably because I'm old." Great springboard for bringing up age. Real slick. It turns out, that-- surprise-- I was indeed the oldest at the table. And not just by a few years. The rest of my group's ages are: 23, 24, 24, and 27. It's not a huge deal... It's just different from what I'm used to working in TV where I was on the younger, if not youngest, side of my co-workers. I liked being younger for many reasons. It's a new perspective now. I'm getting used to telling people here that I had a whole other career before this.... and the kids love the mention of having worked at Comedy Central. (Although when I said that I worked for Colin Quinn, no one at the table had heard of him. I don't know if that's a testament to their age or to Colin's dwindled fame or to them just being unaware of pop culture, but come on, he was on SNL, people.) Yesterday I did bring up a "Friends" reference (from the last episode-- where Pheobe calls Rachel and starts a rumor that the plane she's on has a broken phalange. We were learning about phalanges... and fyi-- they're bones in the hand). Anyway, no one knew the episode I was talking about, but at least they had heard of "Friends." At the very least, I'm learning to curb my pop culture reference more toward mainstream for this crowd. As their elder, it's the least I can do.
On to another topic. Age. The other day my study group divulged our ages. I admit, I was the one who brought it up when we were discussing how uncomfortable the chairs we have to sit in for seven hours a day are. I interjected with "But, it's probably because I'm old." Great springboard for bringing up age. Real slick. It turns out, that-- surprise-- I was indeed the oldest at the table. And not just by a few years. The rest of my group's ages are: 23, 24, 24, and 27. It's not a huge deal... It's just different from what I'm used to working in TV where I was on the younger, if not youngest, side of my co-workers. I liked being younger for many reasons. It's a new perspective now. I'm getting used to telling people here that I had a whole other career before this.... and the kids love the mention of having worked at Comedy Central. (Although when I said that I worked for Colin Quinn, no one at the table had heard of him. I don't know if that's a testament to their age or to Colin's dwindled fame or to them just being unaware of pop culture, but come on, he was on SNL, people.) Yesterday I did bring up a "Friends" reference (from the last episode-- where Pheobe calls Rachel and starts a rumor that the plane she's on has a broken phalange. We were learning about phalanges... and fyi-- they're bones in the hand). Anyway, no one knew the episode I was talking about, but at least they had heard of "Friends." At the very least, I'm learning to curb my pop culture reference more toward mainstream for this crowd. As their elder, it's the least I can do.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Public Health Humor
I finished two days so far of the Biomedicine class and even though I learned from my reading last night that there are no pain receptors in the brain, my brain hurts. Yes, I defy science. The class has been fairly straightforward. We read a section, discuss it with our assigned groups, take a quiz, hear a lecture by different Hopkins researchers on a topic related to the section. This happens twice a day... making for a very long day... with about five hours of reading at night.
Thankfully, a good chunk of the learning comes from group discussion. We're teaching ourselves basically, which I like. Listening to hours of power point lectures in the dark is a sure-fire recipe for nappy time for Jackie. Here we only have two separate hours of lecture and so far they've been pretty interesting (i.e today we heard one lecture about neurological effects of HIV and one on spinal muscular atrophy) . We're moving pretty fast, (learning the nervous system in two days), but it's basically so we are familiar with the terms by the end of the two week. Even still, there's a lot of shit to know...
But onto the good part! The professor/doctor who's running the class apparently discovered the concept of autoimmunity. (There are some very hitters at Hopkins... and they are not shy about reminding us that across the street is the world's best hospital). So, on the first day as I was getting up for break, I asked this doctor whether it was okay for us to leave our computers at out seats during lunch... and he said that it was fine, but "don't leave them overnight because the cleaning people think that everything in this building is infected with AIDS and they won't clean anywhere near anything that's left." Wait. Did the grandfather of autoimmunity just make an AIDS joke? I think he did! (Okay, we're defining "joke" loosely here)... But still, are AIDS jokes fair game even at public health school? I tried one out later on my classmates... oops! It wasn't really a joke but I was talking about what I want to do (combine entertainment and health communications), I gave the example, "you know, try to make AIDS funny." Crickets. Yeah, apparently, not funny. I got a lot of eye rolls and gasps... no laughs. It made me miss the good ol days of working in television, where AIDS is hilarious! Oh well. Maybe I'll become humorless, too, eventually. Or just more sensitive. But, I hope not.
Thankfully, a good chunk of the learning comes from group discussion. We're teaching ourselves basically, which I like. Listening to hours of power point lectures in the dark is a sure-fire recipe for nappy time for Jackie. Here we only have two separate hours of lecture and so far they've been pretty interesting (i.e today we heard one lecture about neurological effects of HIV and one on spinal muscular atrophy) . We're moving pretty fast, (learning the nervous system in two days), but it's basically so we are familiar with the terms by the end of the two week. Even still, there's a lot of shit to know...
But onto the good part! The professor/doctor who's running the class apparently discovered the concept of autoimmunity. (There are some very hitters at Hopkins... and they are not shy about reminding us that across the street is the world's best hospital). So, on the first day as I was getting up for break, I asked this doctor whether it was okay for us to leave our computers at out seats during lunch... and he said that it was fine, but "don't leave them overnight because the cleaning people think that everything in this building is infected with AIDS and they won't clean anywhere near anything that's left." Wait. Did the grandfather of autoimmunity just make an AIDS joke? I think he did! (Okay, we're defining "joke" loosely here)... But still, are AIDS jokes fair game even at public health school? I tried one out later on my classmates... oops! It wasn't really a joke but I was talking about what I want to do (combine entertainment and health communications), I gave the example, "you know, try to make AIDS funny." Crickets. Yeah, apparently, not funny. I got a lot of eye rolls and gasps... no laughs. It made me miss the good ol days of working in television, where AIDS is hilarious! Oh well. Maybe I'll become humorless, too, eventually. Or just more sensitive. But, I hope not.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Back to School!
After a long weekend (just in feeling, not in actual time), I'm back to school for my first day since college. So far so good. I made it here via the Hopkins Shuttle which arrived 30 seconds after I did at the stop a block from my apartment, then 15 minutes later at the school. Fifteen minutes door-to-door. Not bad. And thus, I am now 45 minutes early for the "welcome breakfast" which starts half an hour before the orientation (which starts two weeks before actual classes start. I'm just here for my Intro to Biomedicine for Dummies class). Shit. I could have still been at home watching five more replays of the USA swimming relay photo finish and Michael Phelps's full-body scream. Oh well. Here I am.
Being that I'm 45 minutes early for the breakfast (and I already had a (publicly) healthy breakfast at home), I am very thankful that there is non-secure wireless internet here. Otherwise, I'd be wandering around this place reading the public health oriented posters verrry slowly. And luckily, there are plenty of couches (this building overall is ridiculously nice. Thanks, Bloomberg!), and a cafe with the comforting smell of toasting everything bagels. Although the shuttle was full of male doctors, the people at the public health school sitting around me are all women, who pretty much look like me. Little do they know I'm blogging about them (heh heh heh). I probably should be reading something related to my class today, but I've already read the chapter on the integument system and wounds and frankly, I'd rather figure out what the hell is going on before I read anymore.
If I didn't make this decision to go to grad school, I'd (well, I'd be sleeping as it is 5:20 am in LA), I'd be waking up to a day in Glendale, CA at the Style Network. But here I am in Baltimore at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Weird.
Being that I'm 45 minutes early for the breakfast (and I already had a (publicly) healthy breakfast at home), I am very thankful that there is non-secure wireless internet here. Otherwise, I'd be wandering around this place reading the public health oriented posters verrry slowly. And luckily, there are plenty of couches (this building overall is ridiculously nice. Thanks, Bloomberg!), and a cafe with the comforting smell of toasting everything bagels. Although the shuttle was full of male doctors, the people at the public health school sitting around me are all women, who pretty much look like me. Little do they know I'm blogging about them (heh heh heh). I probably should be reading something related to my class today, but I've already read the chapter on the integument system and wounds and frankly, I'd rather figure out what the hell is going on before I read anymore.
If I didn't make this decision to go to grad school, I'd (well, I'd be sleeping as it is 5:20 am in LA), I'd be waking up to a day in Glendale, CA at the Style Network. But here I am in Baltimore at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Weird.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
I'm Huge in Baltimore
I experienced an ounce of glory yesterday back at Wachovia where I met a fan of the show I just worked on in LA. I had to go back to the bank and speak with a real person because my ATM card hasn't arrived yet and I needed either cash or a money order to pay the movers, who also have not arrived yet. Bastards. (Stay away from Ben-Hur Movers. They take their time and are assholes about it.) Anyway, I was in Wachovia where the people are beyond friendly (I learned that they take a class on customer service), depositing my final paycheck from E! Entertainment and getting a money order, when the bank teller struck up a conversation regarding my California drivers license. When I handed her my paycheck, she asked what I did there and if I was still able to work from Baltimore. I told her I was a writer for Clean House Comes Clean and that no, I'm not working for them anymore. Then she said, "That's so cool. I'm a huge Style Network fan and I love that show!" What? Not only had she heard of the show, but she also loved it. Like Clean House Comes Clean, not just Clean House. Crazytown, USA, I'm in. A fan of the show? It was very cool. I told her I was a huge fan of Wachovia (actually, I didn't, but I am) and I high-tailed it back to my air-conditioned apartment.
See, I was affecting people's lives working for reality TV. Who needs a public health degree?
See, I was affecting people's lives working for reality TV. Who needs a public health degree?
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