Nerds on the Beach

Ahhhh - my happy place.

I got back last night from South Padre Island and the 2012 PAT-Net conference. I didn't have a great conference experience because I only attended two panels but my presentation went really, really well. I would have gone to more panels, but the organizers were talking about moving my panel from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon (this information was relayed on Friday night) so I spent Saturday morning prepping my presentation. Then it turned out that we didn't change the panel after all. It was pretty irritating and unorganized. BUT, there were like 20 people in my panel which is a record for me - like by 10 times! And they seemed to like my presentation about using Marx's theory of alienated labor to create a similar theory about being alienated from the body or from your health. Almost all of the comments and questions were for me and they were all positive and really showed that I hit a chord with the crowd. I was floating afterward it was AWESOME! I also wonder if I could publish that idea. I was thinking it was maybe lame, but the response I got was great. Plus I came up with the idea of surplus health which I think is worth exploring. I also had a suggestion to think of surplus health in terms of behavior rather than measured outcomes which might be a way to go. We'll see! I do think the field is ripe for some theory and another person on my panel was talking about theory in public health, but he did it in a very boring, instrumental way.

I also talked to my advisor and he thought the project I mentioned earlier sounded like a good deal and that I should not worry about revising my comps and just work on my proposal. That's great news. I just have one more person to hear from about my last comp and if he doesn't have any major revisions, those are done but for the defense. Another milestone! YAY!

In non-academic news, I finished reading Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff. Well, started and finished yesterday. It's a page turner! I really enjoyed it. It's a non-fiction account of a plane crash during WWII in New Guinea and the survival story of three people and the amazing rescue. I was seriously riveted the entire time. Go read it!