Sunday, October 2, 2011

Still posting videos from Chile






Moving Right Along...

Announcing changes to this blog! But first...

Mitchell and I have been doing a lot of that "spending time together" thing recently. We also got married just over two weeks ago. I suppose the two things are related?

Anyway, during the times when we are at home at the same time (which are wonderfully awesome times even if I'm unemployed, he's underemployed, and we both spend too much time stressing out about things we have no control over), we tend to talk. Right now, we're talking about individual endeavors that we'd like to accomplish by the end of the year. We both love fall; we both feel motivated to take on a small part of our perceived world. We both have this want (probably would phrase it more like "need") to write.

So the other day we had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: I'd like to specify my blog a bit more. I've hardly written on it.

Mitchell: Yeah. I've hardly written on mine either. Y'know... from reading authors write about writing and from reading my dad's blog, I've realized what... well, what we both should do. *pointed look* Write. Every. Day. It doesn't matter how long it is. It doesn't matter if it's crap. And yes, I realize it's funny to have me saying this. [Mitchell is, perhaps, more of a perfectionist writer than I am].

Me: No. I think that's great. I would like to write everyday. I've just... I've lost what I'm writing about. I haven't written almost at all since I got back from Chile (I hardly wrote while I was there). My blog title is too general. "Urban Health" and "Pop Culture"? That's too broad; I could write about anything with that subject line, and I keep feeling like I've got to be more complete.

Mitchell: Yeah, you.

A couple of days pass. Then today (over a baked turkey and pesto sandwich):

Me: I want to start writing. Seriously, what should my blog be about? What do you think?
Mitchell paused, thought, laughed, almost choked on his food, and then said,


You could make it about Linda Holmes' worst nightmare... talk about "The Ghost Map" and disease, go see "Contagion", talk about disease in movies and books...


My guy knows what I like. He knows this so well that he started describing something that my knee-jerk reaction was to go find and bookmark/list right away, and then I realized that it didn't exist yet. I needed to start writing it as soon as possible.

Yes, I've been bit by the epidemiology bug. I've also been bit by the film geek bug and the book worm bug. I'm not easily grossed out, but I am easily amazed and inquisitive.

So, my plan is this:

  • I'll use this space to write about reading books of the Science Writing genre (writing about science performed, usually, by journalists rather than scientists).
  • I'll use this space to talk about diseases (infectious and chronic) according to the movies.
  • I'll use this space to discuss recent mainstream articles on epidemiological research, and how research sometimes doesn't translate all that well into a journalistic lexicon.
  • I'll use this space to diverge a bit, sometimes, into epidemiological theory, content, and practice outside of the page or screen.
  • I'll learn more about all of these things as I go.
Let's see what happens.