To my great relief, I’ve made it to the big city without a hitch (last time I came out here, I spent more time sitting on a runway in Allentown). Now it’s just a busy, busy couple of days visiting with some very cool people—this time I’ll actually get to visit Seed Central—and then back home on Wednesday.
I’ve got to work on my image. Here’s another report about meeting me that says I “turned out to be a more low-key guy than I expected”. Maybe I’ve got to try and reverse expectations.
It’s true. I make Mr Rogers look like a bomb-throwing anarchist. I walk into a room and people fall asleep. If I start talking, catatonia and death ensue. I’ve got the personality and verve of a cheap mannequin.
Everyone will testify to the truth of what I say.
A few of us infamous bloggers met at a pleasant party at the home of Jim and Kat Lippard, and here we are:
At last, someone has accurately reported on my awe-inspiring personal presence:
P.Z. Myers was a towering giant of a man, with a bristling piratical mustache, a rakish beard, fangs, and little sucker-tipped tentacles instead of fingers. His booming, gravelly voice took over every conversation and ranted at us until we all finally agreed with him about everything.
I think the fact that I look shorter than everyone else in that picture is an optical illusion.
Yes, I did, although it was tough going. Grrl Scientist was more personable than I was, and Lynch was always sniping at me cruelly. I had to be the cranky old guy up there. Oh, well…we did get lots of questions, and it went smoothly enough; Diane Kelly, the moderator, had the easiest job in the world since she she just had to prime the pump with a few questions, and everyone just went along with it.
Tonight—Seamus McCaffreys Irish Pub around 6. I guess some of us will meet in the lobby of the Hyatt at 6 before walking over, or you can just meet us there at 18 W Monroe. Just look for the trio of science nerds…oh, wait. That description isn’t very unique here, is it? How about the guys who forget to remove their nametags when they leave the hotel…nah, no good…the people with laptops…crap. Sorry, we just blend in.
I see that the temperatures back home are hovering around freezing—unseasonably warm for Minnesota, but still, I get to post this picture taken outside my hotel here in Phoenix.
What’s that? Palm trees, blue skies, and it’s warm enough that I could run around naked (they’re comparative biologists, they’re used to seeing weird organisms, but I think I’ll spare them that particular sight.)
Hi, Mary! Hi, Skatje! Hi, Connlann! Hi, Alaric! How’s January in the frozen North treating you all?
While I’m off absorbing knowledge, entertain yourself with this video of drug-treated spiders. I’m going to be the one on caffeine, I think.
SICB update: last night was a social evening, and I got to meet John Lynch for the first time. In person, he’s actually exactly like he is on the blog: friendly and talkative, and he paid for my beer. Definitely an appeaser, in other words. Grrl Scientist was mysterious and prettier than the two of us put together (again just like her blog). Me? I was just surly and hateful, standing up every once in a while to deliver a ranty denunciation, just like the blog. They’d better agree with me, too—I get peevish with these people who always say I’m milder mannered in real life than they expect, and I might have to denounce them rantily, or have them put in a concentration camp and sterilized.
As for today, I can tell this is one of those meetings where there are long juicy sessions that suck me in for long periods of time. I’ll be parking my butt in room 103B for the symposium on “Linking Genes and Morphology in Vertebrates”, and I might not move all day, other than staggering out for coffee now and then.
In the race to SICB, GrrlScientist has beat me here to Phoenix, and she had so much further to fly. Now we’re just waiting for that slacker, John Lynch, to show up.
Tired now. Must drink beer.
Prepare yourselves, Arizona! John Lynch, GrrlScientist, and I will be wafting into Phoenix tomorrow, and here’s a short version of our busy calendar:
I’ll be leaving Phoenix on Sunday for New York for a few days, and various social events there. It’s busy, busy, busy for the next week!
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions—they’re always so narrow and boring. I’d rather advance some bigger goals.
When I was a young fellow, and my father was teaching me how to swing a bat, he’d tell me I shouldn’t aim to hit the ball, I should try to swing through it. When he was teaching me how to play football, he’d tell me I shouldn’t aim for the lineman’s chest, I should set the goal of running straight through the guy and a hundred yards downfield. (Of course, there were other words of wisdom from my father, like “you’re a born nerd, boy, and I don’t know why we’re wastin’ time with the sports”). The point still stands, though: if you’re trying to go from here to there, don’t set your sights on there—make your goal an unreachable point far, far beyond there. Never settle for a small piece, always go for everything…and be glad of whatever you can get.
In that spirit, then, here’s what I’d dream of seeing in the next year.
Attention, Phoenixians (Phoenicians? Phoenotypes? What do they call residents of Phoenix, anyway?). (John Lynch, GrrlScientist, and I are going to be in your area next week for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meetings, and we are all unanimous in our expectation that this will be an excellent opportunity to cadge free drinks from meet all of our fans out Arizona way. We’re all going to be taking advantage of the meetings to learn us some new science, but there will be a few opportunities to socialize, too.
Jim Lippard is hosting a get-together at his home on Saturday, 6 Jan, from 5:30 to 8:00. To make sure that the size of the gathering is manageable, you’ll need to contact him to get directions. Hey, you get to meet us and Jim Lippard! What a deal!
In addition, on Friday, 5 Jan, we’ll want to wander off to somewhere near the convention center for casual food and drinks, say around 6ish. Do any of the residents who’d like to join us want to make suggestions about a locale? Something convenient, easy for foreigners like us to get to, but not likely to be overwhelmed by the hordes of like-minded biologists spilling out of the meeting at the same time. We can hammer out the details in the comments.
