sfn 2007

San Diego, CA

0.1. the splendid thing about being the only neuroscientist in a lab full of psychologists is that i get to come to sfn unsupervised. in atlanta, that's not such a big thing, but when you’re talking SoCal, that’s when the heart starts singing. of course that meant I had to make a poster, but no one cares about posters anyway, even ones with sexy mri pictures on them. conferences are for professors to catch up and drink a lot, and students to feel important. and dude, san diego, unsupervised. academia can wait.
0.2. if you’re my advisor and you’re reading this, i didn’t just say that.

1.1. the first thing that happens to me is that i miss my connecting flight, which means i get to charge around the dallas/fort worth airport hunting for another one. good times. i'm also forced to eat lunch there. i select a barbeque place on the basis of being in texas, and it's horrible beyond all imagining.
1.2. incid. -- try not to travel across time zones on the day before daylight savings time ends, it's really very confusing.

2.1. san diego is shrouded in smoke and haze, not quite the biblical plague of darkness one of my friends described, but a rather awful reminder nevertheless of all that's going on.
2.2. it's about 20 degrees warmer than philly here, but you can hardly see the sun. add in palm trees and sailboats on the bay, and you have yourself some real cognitive dissonance.
2.3. also: there doesn't seem to be anyone out on the streets, and it's a weekend.
2.4. it's not san francisco, and it's not miami. i'm not really sure i like it. ask me again in a few days.

3. i was planning to get to the convention center and register for the conference, but the flight snafus put me in my hotel just before dinner time, and i figured that there wasn't too much point. besides, that would be the industrious and responsible thing to do (see 0.2).

4.1. hob-nob hill is the closest decent place to my hotel that google maps spits out, so i head there for food.
4.2. notwithstanding the sentiment in my previous post, i think there's much pleasure to be had in eating alone as well. for one thing, you get to pay full attention to the food, and since reading michael pollan, that's something i've endeavored to do a little more.
4.3. it's not important, but in case you're wondering: raisin bread, caesar salad, braised lamb shank with mashed potatoes, corn-on-the-cob and mint jardiniere sauce.

(cont'd)