A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…

And this one is truly amusing. The summer before I went to Mason, I went fishing with my parents and my Uncle Bob (in the background) on the Chesapeake Bay (I think). I caught a fish. I didn’t want to touch it. This picture resulted.

Yes, that’s actually my natural hair color. I had weird red highlights in the back of my hair at this point but you can’t see them.

An Ode to Dr. Mom: Or Why Medical Journal Covers are Scary

My beloved mother is a doctor. A pediatrician to be exact. She’s pretty kickbutt at her job too- she’s an officer in the AAP section on Bioethics and used to be an editor of Grand Rounds. She’s brilliant. And hilarious. And gorgeous. I’ve been told I take after her a bit. So anyways, all the photos on here are of my madre. (and heck, my entire family is cute, so they’re in a lot of these as well. : D )

Mom and I at the Texas State Fair a few years ago.
Feel free to laugh at my Ronald McDonald hair color-
that was one unfortunate case in my hair adventures.

Anyways, my entire childhood was colored by her medical career. Not in a bad way, but in a sort of- huh, this is a little different- way.

Mi Madre y mi hermana Karen at one of her baby
showers- I don’t know who took this picture actually.

There were some definite pluses. I was hardly ever the kid growing up who if I felt sick, had to go to the doctor’s office. I just went to Mom. She’d check my ears or throat or something and get me something out of her stockpile of medical samples. She’ll highly object to any sort of implication that she was my primary physician though- each of us kiddos had a separate doctor away from her. It just worked out pretty well having her mad medical skillz around the house- particularly for me. I was a pretty darn sick kiddo who had a habit of picking up nearly anything that was ever running around the neighborhood or school. I still have a bit of that- evidenced by the nearly three weeks straight I was sick in London (sinusitis is really gross). I’m sure my Mom’s abilities managed to save us quite a bit of money on doctor visits.

Mom with my brother Benjamin, his wife Valerie, and my Daddy
at Valerie and Benjamin’s baby shower.

We also would get into these great conversations over dinner when we were younger- Mom would tell these stories about her patients (completely anonymously of course) that we’d refer to as “Stupid Patient Stories,” or in some cases, “Stupid Kid Stories.” Some of them, such as “Fireworks Boy” and “Nintendo Thumb” have gone down in our family history as legend. Part of me still thinks they would make a fantastic medical short story book.

Mom and Daddy at a family friend’s wedding.

As I’ve grown up, Mom’s doctoring has led to some truly fascinating conversations on different diseases and bioethics cases. I’m currently looking at doing an intense article on Electronic Medical Records due to her own experiences with a new system at the hospital she works at. Her opinion has been invaluable on some of the articles I’ve written- and in turn, over the years, I’ve edited some of her medical articles. It’s a very happy arrangement.

Mom and Maggie. I just adore that look of wonder on her face.

I started thinking about all these things today as I noticed yet another Medical Journal on our kitchen table. This one was pretty tame- just a list of article titles on the cover- but I still enjoyed picking it up and trying to read the names. It included such scintillating articles such as, “Duration of Androgen Suprression in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer,” and “Primary Biliary Cirrhosis Associated with HLA, IL12A, and IL12RB2 Variants.”

So this one isn’t too bad. And honestly, most of the medical journal covers out there are sort of this same thing- classic text on a plain background. But I’m pretty sure my mind was scarred at least a few times as a child by the horrid covers on one of these medical journals…Cutis. A journal on “cutaneous medicine for the practitioner.” Aka- lots of horrid skin things.

I’m not going to put up a bunch of really gross pictures here- but I think I’ll post one of the covers from past years that scare me particularly…

Now is the time to put down any food you may be eating, drinks you may be sipping, and make sure your gag reflex is under control. This picture is not a close up or even that great of quality (yeah, I’m being lazy and sticking with my iMac camera right now), but it is still tremendously disgusting. (If you want better quality, click on it and it’ll do a better close-up).

Vol. 68 No. 3 of Cutis, published in September 2001. This picture is apparently of “Palmoplantar pustolosis exhibiting acral pustule formation on the palm and fingers with destruction of the nail plates.”

(Cutis, please don’t sue me. If you really have a problem with me having this photo up, let me know and I’ll take it down immediately.)

So yes. Having a mother for a doctor is truly an adventure.

Miss Maggie Goes to Target

I hung out with my sister Karen and my awesome niece Maggie a bit today. This video was one of the results.

: )

Street Performers Playing with Fire Outside Notre Dame

Here are two awesome videos I took in Paris of these performers I became absolutely obsessed with one night outside of Notre Dame. In fact, I got so distracted I never actually properly got to go in and look around the Cathedral- my only big regret from my EuroTour. Still, just check out how awesome these guys are!

I love no matter who you are, where you live, or what language you speak, everyone just really loves a spectacle. And yeah, the wild cheering, tongue clicking and laughing in the background is me. It appears my voice gets considerably higher as I get more excited about things. Too funny.

Baking with Rachael: Beer and Cheese Cupcakes!

For a while now, I’ve been reading the great fun which is the Cupcake Project, an experimental baking blog by a very funny lady who churns out cupcakes of all the weird flavors under the sun. For a while now, I’ve wanted to make the recipe for Beer and Cheese Cupcakes.

When my parents went out of town yesterday abruptly (“We don’t have time to go camping but we’re going anyways!” I love them!), I figured it was a good time to make a very big mess. So I bought all the ingredients, turned up the radio in the kitchen, and got to work.

My set-up in the kitchen. The many cookie jars in the back actually hold like, chocolate chips, brown sugar, etc. It was my mother’s idea.

Though in the original recipe, (Jenn) used Bud Select, I bought Shiner Bock. I tried it the other day while out with a friend and really liked it. Plus it’s from a local Texas brewery so I gotta support it.

All the ingredients and equipment on the counter.

The Ingredients:

• 1 cup beer
• 1 stick, plus 1 T, unsalted butter
• 1 cup grated cheddar
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 t baking soda

First, I had to grate all the cheese up.

Here it is all set out.

First I combined one cup of Shiner Bock and one stick and one tablespoon of butter, chopped into 1-inch chunks, in a large sauce pan.

Heat to melt the butter.

Mix it up.

The rest of the beer makes a nice tipple for the cook! (Yes, I am 21. I’ve been 21 since January.)

Then I added in one cup of the previously grated cheese.

I took the whole mess off the heat and whisked in two cups of brown sugar.

Here’s what that bit of cooking ended up looking like.

I cracked two eggs into another bowl.

And whisked in 3/4 cup of sour cream and a tablespoon of vanilla.

Then I added that to the beer mixture.

I sifted together the flour and baking soda

Put that into the batter.

Then I made my test cupcake to see how far the batter would rise in the pan.

The first cupcake. Posing with the beer.

Then I mixed up all the frosting, with cream cheese, cheese, powdered sugar, and bacon bits.

I tried them and liked them quite a lot.

There were mixed verdicts. I loved them but thought the icing overpowered the cupcake. I could barely taste the beer actually. My friend Whitney, who’s a supertaster, was not a fan of the mixing of flavors. A guy I know, Oz, loved them and actually ate two. Sara ended up throwing hers away- said it might taste better without the icing, which she thought was too salty.

I also gave a few of the cupcakes to the employees at Starbucks but I never heard what they thought of them. Hm. I actually have about ten or twelve left if anyone else would like to try them.

I think I’m going to try to make the margarita cupcakes next!!! : D

Wake-Up Call: Don’t Get a Grad degree in Humanities

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education was sent out over the Mason History Department listserv (yes, indeed, I am actually a History major- I’ll explain that later)- I thought it was particularly interesting.

Written by Thomas Benton, the thesis of the piece is that despite the enthusiasm of students, graduate degrees in the humanities really aren’t a good financial investment and often lead to disappointment and huge debts. Essentially, if you get higher education in a subject, it doesn’t actually lead to greater job opportunities.

I’ve stood by this belief before- in fact I mentioned it just a few posts ago. I firmly believe that graduate journalism degrees are impractical, if not completely useless, in a field where 1. you do NOT need even an undergraduate education in journalism to succeed and 2. all the rules are changing anyways.

However, I don’t know anything about a graduate degree’s relation to humanities. The article does go against what I’ve always heard before- that more education = more money and more opportunities. I need to look into it more- I’m going to be sending out e-mails to a few former professors/bosses asking for their input on this issue. I think it’s a very interesting subject to look at closely, especially in this bad economic climate.

Ironically, the day after this was sent out on the listserv, Professor Meredith Lair, who wrote the e-mail on the article, sent out another piece encouraging people not to freak out over the article’s contents. Some of what she said came off a little like the advice from what the article called “professors, who were generally too eager to clone themselves,” but other parts of it seemed very smart advice.

“There is so much in this very competitive profession and in the economy as a whole that is beyond our control. So the key is to focus on what you *can* control: your work ethic and the choices you make towards your degree. Try for a strong finish this semester and, if you’re not graduating, think about how you can maximize your productivity in your classes going forward.”

Very interesting. I’ll have to look at this more. : )

UPDATE!!!!!!

I spoke with a professor at Mason who didn’t wish to be named, but in his opinion, this entire article was “Too Myopic” and didn’t take into account all the things that can be done with an MA in humanities. So there is HOPE for people who are in despair over this article. : )

Traveling Alone in Rome: Pros and Cons

So did I mention I was going to Rome this last weekend? It came up in the hostel post, but I don’t think I ever elaborated.

Basically, I went by myself, pretty spur of the moment, and it was fabulous. I got to do nearly everything I wanted to. I got some incredibly good food and cappuccino as well.

I came up with a pretty good list of the positive and negative aspects of traveling by myself. I am by no means any expert on this sort of thing, but these are just derived from my experience traveling alone for three days. (Yes, I was only supposed to be there two days, but due to an airplane mix-up, I was kinda there for three. Don’t ask.)

Positive: I, a travel maniac who loves learning a lot about everything I look at, got to see the Colosseum, the Palatine, the Roman Forum, numerous churches, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museums, the Pantheon, and most of the city around. I also got to try some good food.

Negative: I, a travel maniac, am bad at remembering to drink water/eat food/take a break and forget to take care of myself in the process. I ended up with an extra 5 hours in Rome on Monday and I used it sitting in the airport reading a book because I was just so flipping exhausted and sore from all my walking and adventuring. My feet are still pretty sore and blistered and my legs feel all floppy.

Positive: It was nice being able to plan things out and still be able to change those plans pretty randomly without any sort of worry. I could do exactly what I wanted without caring about anyone else’s concerns.

Negative: I started talking to myself after a while because of the unnerving lack of human contact. It’s like- I was surrounded by people I didn’t know that I could barely even communicate with. I didn’t ever really feel lonely or sad to be alone, but I did feel very…detached.

Positive: I felt so freee and independent and strong doing this all by myself.

Negative: I really could have used a person by my side when men shouted or whistled at me (it happened about 3 or 4 times) or say, someone good at pushing me out of the door on the morning to get to the airport with more than 20 minutes to get to check-in.

I did feel safe in Rome, but I think that was only because I was being especially neurotic about my safety. I wore a money belt with my passport, credit card, and insurance card in it under a loose shirt and a hoodie jacket the entire time. When I had my camera out, I wore it around my neck, knowing that I looked like a crazy tourist, but that it was safer that way. I only brought my purse with me, packed with the minimal basic clothing, meds, cell phone and items. Plus, I stayed mostly in highly populated tourist areas. The only really sketch area I was around at all was near Termini Station where my hostel was. And I never really felt totally uneasy there- it was just a little dark and quiet and graffitti was everywhere.

Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable, rewarding experience. I’m glad, since it looks like I may be going on my grand European adventure at the end of my studies in London by myself. My awesome roommate Kate has to back out. I actually am running a bit short of money and am worried about getting back to the States in time to be with my sister when she has her baby (due late May, squeal), but I still want to travel a bit, because realistically, I don’t know when or if I’ll get to do it again for a long time.

I’m thinking currently that I may go on a shortened trip to a few must-see cities of mine- Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Nuremberg, where my mom’s family lived for a while when she was growing up. I may add a few others along the way, but that’s my tentative idea- travel around for a week and then come back to London to fly back to the States.

We’ll see what happens.

Man, I’m bad at putting up photos and captions- I still haven’t gotten up a lot of my photographs from my Spring Break trip with Aram over two weeks ago and now I just added like 2000 pics from Rome. It’s going to happen, it’s just a long process of going through them all and writing up bits on them.

Ciao bella!

My Photos of Political Leaders

This is really random, but I was curious to see how many political candidates/leaders/presidents etc. I’ve taken pictures of over the years. Consider this a retrospective of Rachael’s random political pics.

I obviously didn’t take these few photographs of my third grade class with former President George W. Bush, then Governor of Texas. See if you can guess which one I am! It’s a game!

Photos I took of Senator John McCain at a Rally last September

Photos of President Obama and Vice President Biden at a rally from last fall

Photos I snapped of Bill Clinton’s appearance at Mason in Spring 2008  (bad quality camera at the time)

I also have old photos from an Obama rally in February 2007 before he even officially announced he was running for president. They’re on my old computer back home though- no access to them.

Political rallies are also a great place to get action pictures of the ordinary citizens out there. I’ve gotten tons of great photos in the past of crowds.

Wooo!

A Day in my Life in London through Photos

Last Friday, I took pictures all throughout my day in London and wrote clever captions to them for Connect2Mason.com. If you have any desire to know more about what I do all day, go here to find out. : )

Fashion’s Translation to Standstill Art

I went through the Hussein Chalayan exhibition at the Design Museum in London and was alternately intrigued, impressed, and disappointed. Essentially, I thought the designer’s ideas were brilliant but the exhibit was very limited in portraying them effectively- I was frustrated by some of the set-ups and wished they had tried to explain the concepts better rather than making it look as “pretty.” I’m writing a much more extensive review of it for NWL that I hope will explain my opinions more in-depth.

I just don’t know how well fashion translates to an art gallery setting. Fashion is meant to be a moving, breathing art that conveys certain ideas about the designer’s or wearer’s thoughts and beliefs- if you take out the people and remove the moving elements, it’s harder to dissect effectively. Just my own opinion that one though. I’ll write more after the article gets published- seems silly to try to give everything away beforehand.

I will say, I’m really excited to finally get to write reviews regularly. It’s something I can’t ever really remember doing- even back in high school. I can’t believe this entire element of journalism has been left out of my portfolio so far, but I’m very happy that it’s getting remedied now. Plus it’s just fun getting to go to all these places and look at different things with a critical eye.

It’s a really cool museum and I’d love to go back there at some point. There was an exhibit upstairs on Alan Aldridge, a celebrated graphic designer of the 60s and 70s who worked with the Beatles extensively. I had to run through it quickly but it was a really fun set-up that totally got across the trippiness of the time period and the uniqueness of his art.

In other news, my Mac computer wins major awesome points for its cool region-switching DVD abilities. This resulted from certain frustrations in my flat last night when we realized that the DVD player left here worked fine, but didn’t have a cord to connect it to our television set. I relayed this to my brother in a phone conversation- he suggested looking for some sort of downloadable driver to play the British DVDs on my computer. Imagine how happy I was to find out quickly that Macs can actually switch between regions four times during the life of the computer, very easily. I’m now set on “Region 2,” Europe, and plan to switch it back to the States when I get back there in May. Now we can watch DVDs we rent from the library. Yay!

We’re going to break it in tonight with “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Full-frontal nudity scenes, wooo!