Road trips

I got back yesterday from a pleasant and productive trip to the Austin area. I visited with my colleague Virginia Scofield, but more importantly, got to visit several people in the University of Texas Austin Section of Neurobiology. Although the visit was put together on rather short notice, I was able to meet a few people, and quite a few people attended a talk I gave. I was pleased that they were asking very perceptive questions, and seemed genuinely interested in the story I had to tell.

The downside to visiting the particular day I did was that UT Austin was engaged in cleaning its entire power system. Apparently, this involved blowing steam through some massive turbines. This process is going on apparently all week, and it involved noise like few things you've ever heard. Have you ever stood next to a jet engine at full throttle? Louder. They had construction guys handing out earplugs on the street corner, it was that loud. Fortunately, some areas inside the building where I gave my talk were relatively quite. The offices of some of the people I met were not so lucky.

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In other news, I’ll be turning off the option to comment on this blog, even though I haven't received a single one yet. Call it a premptive strike. I visited another blog, and saw a whack of “comments” that were nothing but typical spam advertisements. Gah.