Busy Tuesday

[logisticslad]

I had a morning of meetings today followed by a short trip to Temple University for the Philly Society for Neuroscience meeting. Actually, it turned out to be a slightly longer trip than expected as I got a bit lost hunting down the building that housed the event. I served as a judge for the poster session. Two of my students entered and did very well (tying for second - a bit of a shame since we only gave out one prize for first). I told them that I was very proud of them and better yet, my Dept Chair had come and got to see how well they compared to students from other local programs. He and I had a nice talk about having the Dept financially support one of my students which would be fantastic for her and a solid endorsement of my mentoring capacity! We stayed for the guest speaker and the fun presentation of how Brain Awareness Week at the Franklin Institute went this year. That's when neuroscientists and students do demonstrations about the brain and the senses for 6-12 year olds. It looked like it was a blast this year. I had done it awhile ago and I have to remember that I would love to volunteer for that again. It was a very energizing meeting and it is always fun to see what people around the area are doing.

This evening was my SF book club meeting at Borders in Bryn Mawr. We discussed Octavia Butler's novel Wild Seed as a tribute to her recent passing. Since the facilitator couldn't make it, I ran the meeting (still in my suit from the afternoon conference, so I looked very professorial). We talked about how Butler specifically made her characters Black, which was novel for 1980, when it was originally published. It's about a pair of immortal psychics with very different value systems and it explores the theme (which is present in many of her works) of how someone can willingly submit to enslavement and control by someone else. It is heavy on character interplay and thematic discussion, but low on plot. I liked it a lot and most of the group enjoyed it, too. It is still in print and has something to say about how things are today.

I got home and vegged by watching American Idol. They were singing the American standards, which they did very well and I had perfect vegging complete with purring cat. Then I checked my email and discovered that the paper that had been rejected by one journal as being not that interesting to them was enthusiastically and rapidly accepted by the second journal with only minor edits (we had resubmitted it only three weeks ago). This is an important paper for both my student, who is trying to graduate, and myself as it will help establish me as a researcher in this particular field which should help with the grants. What a difference the choice of journal can make!

Thanks to puzzld1 for the new icon!!!

Comments

[eleithyia.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a LONG day...
I also thought Idol was particularly good last night (and I'm really just posting this as an excuse to use my Chris Icon).