Self-monitoring
The last couple days of my Match subscription are running down, so I’m getting in those last minute contacts. It’s just too expensive for me to rationalize keeping up. I’ll be lucky to get a single date out of the whole thing to be honest with you. Who needs a love life anyway, am I right? Okay, maybe I’m not right. Although the outcome hasn’t amounted to anything, I think it was still worth trying.
I’ve been talking to my friend from high school in Florida lately. It’s been really interesting catching up. He’s got some challenges going on that are a bit out of his control right now, but he seems to be handling it as well as possible. He’s also working on his bachelor’s degree in pre-med. Adam was always a really cool guy. Just one of those people you can say, “Now there’s a good person.” Feels weird talking about the past when I lived in Florida with one of the few people that were there to watch me go through it. Today I called him and we were on the phone for quite awhile. Towards the end of the conversation we talked about the day I left. Just different talking to someone who was there, I guess more real somehow.
I’m on break now, finally. Anytime is always the perfect time for a break. I have homework and school visits to do, so it’s not a total break, but definitely a relaxed period. I have to interview my mom (she’s in the age range of a person I should interview) for a class, so that should be interesting. I think we’ll both enjoy it. She’ll get the opportunity she wanted of spending the night in Oxford. I know she gets bored where she’s at, so she’ll likely enjoy coming up. She does get anxious when she’s away from home though, so it won’t entirely surprise me if she has me take her back early. We’re also planning a visit with my half sister soon. She normally gets anxious around that time, which I can understand. It’s an awkward experience still, even for me. She’s also going through a phase again now where she thinks she knows which guy is really my father. I think I stopped caring about that awhile ago though. She says he’ll see me if I want. I’m selfishly thinking of what good will come out of it for me. I don’t see any, really.
I’m doing some other homework stuff during break. I’m being trained on the WPPSI-III, WISC-IV, and the SB-V. For those not in the know, that’s psychobabble for IQ measures. I joked with Curtis saying if you want the experience of having your IQ taken while not knowing the score, and at the same time me secretly judging forever you on your IQ, then this is the deal for you. I was just giving him a hard time, of course. I kid, Curtis, I kid. In class right now I’m the taker and I’m trying to test the ceiling (top possible score) as a 14 year old. I’m not looking at a perfect score, but it’s amusing to know I’d make a really high IQed 14 year old. Giving the test is a challenge and is very detail oriented with protocol.
I also have some sort of mini-project for my development class in addition to the interview and I have work to do on my thesis research. As usual, I am atypical in my topic. I’m studying intended condom use in adolescents. I haven’t proposed yet, but we’ll see if there are any open arms soon enough. It’ll likely be challenging to find someone to chair my thesis. Oh well, I’m a stubborn ass. Two faculty are leaving the department for other universities, so there’s a bit of resettling going on anyway.
Now here’s a big kicker, although no one in my program knows it yet, I am seriously considering applying for another program in the fall in which to enroll in fall 2007. This would mean leaving a year after completing my masters and not doing an internship, definitely not the usual course. Through my thesis research I’ve discovered other programs that are much more adequate in preparing me for research in primary prevention programs dealing with sex and drug education. One, which is broad, would be in social psychology. My social psych professor from NKU, Dr. Krull, has offered to help me look into programs.
The other program, which would be more direct, I previously hadn’t even heard of. I would need to apply for a masters program first, and then a Ph.D. It’s called a public health degree in which I would specialize in the behavioral science aspect. The programs are directly aimed at primary prevention programs dealing with sex and drug education in primary prevention. It’s also very research intensive with stats out the ass. It would be very challenging, but I think going into this field would be the most worthwhile for me. The most appealing program I’ve seen so far is Emory University, which is adjacent to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, prime location. Naturally, these programs are highly competitive to get into, I’d say even more so than school psych programs. The competition and the response to me wanting to leave the program I’m currently in are two large and very real obstacles. I also take a serous risk that even if I am accepted that I would not get my school paid for at the new program, so one of the best case scenarios may entail me taking out many loans.
What was the title of this post? Oh yeah, self-monitoring. I am doing that. I have been going to the gym for awhile and am actually slowly gaining more weight now without changing my diet, 171.4 at my last weigh in. I got my Excel on and made up a spreadsheet so I could put what I was doing for exercises, my heart rate, blood pressure, cardio, plyometrics (fancy name for increasing power also used for jumping), all kinds of stuff. I have even been reading up on the American Council on Exercise to make sure I’m doing everything right. Today, since I signed up for a 5K race while I’m at a psych conference in Anaheim, I decided to do a trial run to make sure I could make it. I managed to do 5K in 23min 45sec, running my skinny ass off the whole time. That’s like a 7min 40 sec mile pace. I was going pretty hard. It may not sound very fast and you hear people brag about how they can do five and six minute miles in their sleep, but I’d like to see them actually do it. It was a comparable time to when I was running in high school, although that doesn’t say much for when I ran in high school. It also reminded me running is really hard and how lucky I am to live in a world where I can do racquetball instead for cardio. I will still work on my time for the race though, only a couple weeks away.
In lock news, I recently decoded a master combination lock. I also picked it open to rub it in and hurt the lock’s feelings. I have yet though to build up the nerve to try long enough to pick my front door. While I don’t have a neighbor on my floor, in my mind the sound of the pick against the lock pins taps loudly like some sort of cacophony I’m sure my upstairs neighbors will hear.
Finally, extending from my self monitoring (I had to compulsively throw in that lock detail out of nowhere) I am trying round two with Spanish. For those who forgot to keep score, I fell on my face the first time. I put school study time and Spanish on my workout sheet. Seemed like a convenient place. Last time I tried an hour for each, which was unrealistically overachieving for me (my underachievement knows no bounds). This time I will try for 30 min each at the least for four times a week. Although I will attempt every day, four will be my minimum. I am trying audio CDs now (Pimsleur) instead of videos. It’s a conversational approach.
I’ve been talking to my friend from high school in Florida lately. It’s been really interesting catching up. He’s got some challenges going on that are a bit out of his control right now, but he seems to be handling it as well as possible. He’s also working on his bachelor’s degree in pre-med. Adam was always a really cool guy. Just one of those people you can say, “Now there’s a good person.” Feels weird talking about the past when I lived in Florida with one of the few people that were there to watch me go through it. Today I called him and we were on the phone for quite awhile. Towards the end of the conversation we talked about the day I left. Just different talking to someone who was there, I guess more real somehow.
I’m on break now, finally. Anytime is always the perfect time for a break. I have homework and school visits to do, so it’s not a total break, but definitely a relaxed period. I have to interview my mom (she’s in the age range of a person I should interview) for a class, so that should be interesting. I think we’ll both enjoy it. She’ll get the opportunity she wanted of spending the night in Oxford. I know she gets bored where she’s at, so she’ll likely enjoy coming up. She does get anxious when she’s away from home though, so it won’t entirely surprise me if she has me take her back early. We’re also planning a visit with my half sister soon. She normally gets anxious around that time, which I can understand. It’s an awkward experience still, even for me. She’s also going through a phase again now where she thinks she knows which guy is really my father. I think I stopped caring about that awhile ago though. She says he’ll see me if I want. I’m selfishly thinking of what good will come out of it for me. I don’t see any, really.
I’m doing some other homework stuff during break. I’m being trained on the WPPSI-III, WISC-IV, and the SB-V. For those not in the know, that’s psychobabble for IQ measures. I joked with Curtis saying if you want the experience of having your IQ taken while not knowing the score, and at the same time me secretly judging forever you on your IQ, then this is the deal for you. I was just giving him a hard time, of course. I kid, Curtis, I kid. In class right now I’m the taker and I’m trying to test the ceiling (top possible score) as a 14 year old. I’m not looking at a perfect score, but it’s amusing to know I’d make a really high IQed 14 year old. Giving the test is a challenge and is very detail oriented with protocol.
I also have some sort of mini-project for my development class in addition to the interview and I have work to do on my thesis research. As usual, I am atypical in my topic. I’m studying intended condom use in adolescents. I haven’t proposed yet, but we’ll see if there are any open arms soon enough. It’ll likely be challenging to find someone to chair my thesis. Oh well, I’m a stubborn ass. Two faculty are leaving the department for other universities, so there’s a bit of resettling going on anyway.
Now here’s a big kicker, although no one in my program knows it yet, I am seriously considering applying for another program in the fall in which to enroll in fall 2007. This would mean leaving a year after completing my masters and not doing an internship, definitely not the usual course. Through my thesis research I’ve discovered other programs that are much more adequate in preparing me for research in primary prevention programs dealing with sex and drug education. One, which is broad, would be in social psychology. My social psych professor from NKU, Dr. Krull, has offered to help me look into programs.
The other program, which would be more direct, I previously hadn’t even heard of. I would need to apply for a masters program first, and then a Ph.D. It’s called a public health degree in which I would specialize in the behavioral science aspect. The programs are directly aimed at primary prevention programs dealing with sex and drug education in primary prevention. It’s also very research intensive with stats out the ass. It would be very challenging, but I think going into this field would be the most worthwhile for me. The most appealing program I’ve seen so far is Emory University, which is adjacent to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, prime location. Naturally, these programs are highly competitive to get into, I’d say even more so than school psych programs. The competition and the response to me wanting to leave the program I’m currently in are two large and very real obstacles. I also take a serous risk that even if I am accepted that I would not get my school paid for at the new program, so one of the best case scenarios may entail me taking out many loans.
What was the title of this post? Oh yeah, self-monitoring. I am doing that. I have been going to the gym for awhile and am actually slowly gaining more weight now without changing my diet, 171.4 at my last weigh in. I got my Excel on and made up a spreadsheet so I could put what I was doing for exercises, my heart rate, blood pressure, cardio, plyometrics (fancy name for increasing power also used for jumping), all kinds of stuff. I have even been reading up on the American Council on Exercise to make sure I’m doing everything right. Today, since I signed up for a 5K race while I’m at a psych conference in Anaheim, I decided to do a trial run to make sure I could make it. I managed to do 5K in 23min 45sec, running my skinny ass off the whole time. That’s like a 7min 40 sec mile pace. I was going pretty hard. It may not sound very fast and you hear people brag about how they can do five and six minute miles in their sleep, but I’d like to see them actually do it. It was a comparable time to when I was running in high school, although that doesn’t say much for when I ran in high school. It also reminded me running is really hard and how lucky I am to live in a world where I can do racquetball instead for cardio. I will still work on my time for the race though, only a couple weeks away.
In lock news, I recently decoded a master combination lock. I also picked it open to rub it in and hurt the lock’s feelings. I have yet though to build up the nerve to try long enough to pick my front door. While I don’t have a neighbor on my floor, in my mind the sound of the pick against the lock pins taps loudly like some sort of cacophony I’m sure my upstairs neighbors will hear.
Finally, extending from my self monitoring (I had to compulsively throw in that lock detail out of nowhere) I am trying round two with Spanish. For those who forgot to keep score, I fell on my face the first time. I put school study time and Spanish on my workout sheet. Seemed like a convenient place. Last time I tried an hour for each, which was unrealistically overachieving for me (my underachievement knows no bounds). This time I will try for 30 min each at the least for four times a week. Although I will attempt every day, four will be my minimum. I am trying audio CDs now (Pimsleur) instead of videos. It’s a conversational approach.