There are all these PharynguFests going on, but they all make me entirely superfluous…I may have to pout. Why isn’t anyone inviting me to London or Anchorage? I know, it’s because you don’t need me, and you’re cheap and don’t want to spend the money on some distant nerd, since you’ve got plenty of local nerds right at hand. And that’s OK. I do have some traveling in my near future, in case anyone wants to take advantage of it.

I’ll be in Washington DC for the AFT/NEA conference the weekend of 28-30 March, so I might be available that Friday or Saturday evening.

I’ll be in Eugene, Oregon the weekend of 4-6 April for an Evo-Devo conference. Of course, there’ll be some major biology celebrities on hand, and I also have some old friends out there, so that might be trickier to schedule.

Then there’s a midweek event in Berkeley on 28-30 May, another evo-devo-genomics meeting, and I’ll be juggling TAM6 (Las Vegas) and the Evolution 2008 meetings (Minneapolis) on 19-24 June, and a MENSA conference 2-6 July in Denver, GECCO in Atlanta on 12-16 July, and Netroots Nation on 17-20 July. And then the Atheist Alliance convention somewhere in California on 25-28 September. Other events may gradually fill in my calendar, too.

See? There might be some chances to invite me to one of these events someday.

Thank you to everyone who noticed that yesterday I was one day older than the day before! And a special thanks to Bora for collecting all the various links together in one place.

• Archaeoporn
• bathtubnz
• Rev. BigDumbChimp
• Blue Collar Scientist
• decorabilia
• Thoughts in a Haystack
• Archy
• Jyunri Kankei
• Maryannaville
• Sandwalk
• Aardvarchaeology
• Afarensis
• Dr. Joan Bushwell’s Chimpanzee Refuge
• Dynamics of Cats
• Discovering Biology in a Digital World
• Effect Measure
• Adventures in Ethics and Science
• Evolving Thoughts
• Green Gabbro
• Greg Laden
• Living the Scientific Life
• Page 3.14
• Stranger Fruit
• Terra Sigillata
• Of Two Minds
• Mom of 2 Dancers
• Synapostasy
• Teacherninja
• The Beagle Project Blog:
• Thinking for Free
• Mythusmage Opines
• Science After Sunclipse
• Tangled Up in Blue Guy

Now I do have to remind you all, though, that we’re all aging at exactly the same rate (unless you have access to a spaceship that travels at a significant fraction of the speed of light), and all I’ve got is a head start on many of you, and a bit of a delay relative to some of you. So don’t go getting cocky, you young whippersnappers — you’ll be here someday, too.

So a guy gets a little older, and what happens? All these people try to draw attention to my age, largely with a collection of photoshopped pictures of yours truly. Don’t they know I’m funny-looking enough that no photoshop is necessary?

By the way, I got a nice present from my family: a new, ergonomic Cephalopod Throne. You’ll be reassured to know that now, when I fling thunderbolts of furious vituperation about the web, I shall be doing so with excellent posture.

Well, I survived my first week of classes, and I think I’m on track to make it through the next 14. Unfortunately, in these days of fast internet communication, one of my students has a blog, and has already posted a frank review of her classes. I’m assessed. It’s not good. I may have to flunk her, or maybe put her to work scrubbing the toilets.

All that noise from a pair of rather ugly pissants criticizing my daughter falls short of describing her perfidy. Today, Skatje spent the whole afternoon making lefse — and she’s really getting it down. The shape isn’t perfect yet, but the texture and the thinness is getting up there around Scandinavian-grandma-quality, which is pretty darn good…I mean, evil.

Dang. It really isn’t very evil at all, is it?

Except that she didn’t make enough.

I’m saying it a few hours early because when the clock ticks over to midnight I expect you all to be snogging or otherwise partying away, unless you’re one of those sensible types who doesn’t think having to get a new calendar is anything to celebrate, so you’re off to bed for a good night’s rest.

Here at Chez Myers, we shall be taking a middle road with a quiet evening capped with our traditional root beer floats. Whatever your happy choice of the day, have a good 2008.

You’ve got to have something better to do.

We’re having the traditional white Christmas here in Morris: a foot of snow on the ground, temperatures around 10 to 15° below zero C, a nice stiff 10-15 mph breeze, and no one with any sanity stepping outside.

Which rules me out right there. I made the drive to St Cloud and back yesterday, in even worse weather, to pick up #1 Son; I get to make the longer drive (but in somewhat milder weather) to Minneapolis to pick up #2 Son today. You might expect nothing but gibbering madness and exhaustion from me for a while.

So go do something with family or friends right now and get off the damn computer!

My last class for the semester is over as of this minute. All that’s left is to proctor one final exam, and then…the horror of grading. Exams and more exams and term papers and lab reports, all to be done next week.

I guess I can’t quite celebrate freedom just yet. But I will soon enough. I’ll probably get wild and read a book or something.