Yeah, yeah. I'm horrible. I haven't gotten back to this in a while. After typing up that 'thesis' about my trip to Japan, I was a little tired of typing for a bit. I also figured that everybody would also be tired of me after reading all that crap.

I've been getting mixed reviews about the Japan post. I take good pictures, I take bad pictures. The story is amusing, the story's not worth reading. It's too long. It's kinda boring. I hope you didn't waste too much time on this. Whatever. I make this for myself primarily, and I choose to share it. Well, feedback is always nice. Er, sometimes nice.

Last time I did a vacation entry, it was on the Caribbean cruise I went on with my family at the end of summer '04. That website has since been wiped off the webmotron. However, the Wayback Machine has a copy of it archived. I'm not sure how many pictures are intact. That entry weighed in at 20 pages when the text was copied into Word (12pt font, Times New Roman, single spacing) The Japan entry was over twice as long, being 46 pages (!!!) when copied into Word. I remember getting feedback on how long it took some people to read the Caribbean Cruise entry. It was on the order of two to four hours. Now with the Japan entry, I'm getting completion times in DAYS. Yes, DAYS. And then someone came back to me saying it took her a week to go through it all. Yeah it was long. But too long? I don't think so. I tried to make it amusing to try to preserve the atmosphere I experienced while I was there. The entry is so awesome that it keeps crashing my sister's computer.

I also nearly doubled the number of headers for the site. #37 and #38 are from Washington DC. Then #39 to #67 are from Japan. I was debating wether or not to make the sad bear a header. I ended up declining.

I can't believe that it was a month ago this day that I was in Japan. It all feels surreal, like a memory of a fond dream. It was so much fun. I have to thank Chan and Star once again for being that awesome. You're awesome, that's right. ::thumbs up:: I went through all my pictures last night. I just sat there afterwards in disbelief that I was able to do all that in one week. Do all that AND drag Chan around the entire time. Heh, good times.

After returning, it took me a long time to get readjusted to Eastern Time. Especially since I'd stay up the next four nights, nearly all night, preparing the pictures and typing up the text for the Japan entry. This was made possible due to the fact my PI for this rotation was out of town for the week after I returned. Then I tried to re-synchronize my circadian rhythm with the help of caffeine. I thought I kicked myself back into the normal night-day cycle but as soon as I got back from classes, I was out. I didn't get back to normal until I flew to San Francisco on the third of April when I had no choice but to adapt to a normal sleeping pattern since I had two posters to present to total strangers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Monday after class, I quickly packed some clothes and supplies for the next four days and took a cab to the airport. I got to San Francisco pretty late. I also realized that I spent nearly $100 on cab fare that day. Good thing I'm getting reimbursed... I think...

I woke up bright and early to present up Sudipta's poster. It was raining hard that morning. I mean. I was contempating buying an umbrella on the way there. It was so bad that I didn't want to bring my camera because the rain might soak through the leather case.

Moscone center was farther away from the hotel than I had anticipated. The official FASEB map of downtown San Francisco was weak sauce. The convention center was twice as far than what I thought it would be. I was soaked through my clothes by the time I got there. I set up the first poster and walked around for a bit.

So the place was like a giant science fair. With no judges... Or ribbons. Just posters upon posters representing many dedicated manhours of slaving in a laboratory. That and there were rows and rows of vendors trying to lure people over with gifts of free stuff for taking a look at a catalog. I took advantage of that and filled my pockets with random goodies. Most of the time they were offering pens, but free is free. Can't argue that. Now I can say that I have a highlighter in the shape of a syringe.

I defended the poster for two hours. I believe I fared well. I took the poster back to the hotel and grabbed the camera since the weather had let up a bit.


If you can read, you can't miss it. These things lined the streets all around the concvention center.


Most of Moscone center is underground so it can be pretty disorienting when you enter one building and end up exiting another.


Giant science fair.


You can see some of the vendors to the left of the picture.


A row of vendors.


I exited from a different building I entered. So confuzzling...


Down the street.


Other side.


This is a plaza over the convention center adjacent to the Metreon.


The little grass lot in the plaza.


Surrounded by the tall buildings.


These cherry blossoms make me sad.


Sony in the Metreon which is the primary Sony store in the US.

I picked up Kingdom Hearts 2 from the Sony Metreon. I also took Tourist Trophy for a spin since they were demoing it. It's supposed to be the Gran Turismo of motorcycles. Not sure what to say about this. Being a motorcyclist, I don't think a videogame will ever properly simulate the real deal. Oh well. Oh yeah, you CAN take a spill in this game... but it's kinda hard. You have to try to fall. And when you do, it's like an automatic 'abort button' a la Rush series. Kinda weird but ehh...

I made a couple of calls to the guys back home. I've been horrible at keeping up with people aside from AIM. Lastly, I gave Knira a call. She advised me to check out the Chinatown in the city and so I did.

The chinatown looked pretty cramped. It's a little different from what I got used to seeing in Seattle.


A little kite store and restaurants.


Hey, it's that one building, whatever it's called.


A little park in the SF Chinatown.


I then went back to the hotel which is off Market Street. I ended up reading a bunch of publications when I got back. I can't just skip out on classes and get away with it... dammit.

Wednesday wasn't as rainy. I presented the second poster and got a couple of email addresses of people interested in the research I done. When I said that I did it for a rotation project, they were pretty impressed. A couple of people (PI's I assume) said that said their lab could use a grad student like me. Hmm...

Conference lesson: So if a cute girl walks up to you and your poster, seems interested in your work, listens to everything you have to say, agrees with you every step of the way and gives you her phone number at the end,... she's probably a vendor and only interested in sending you one of her catalogs.

After presenting the second poster, I walked out to Union Square just to check it out. I didn't have much time since my flight leaves at 7am, meaning I have to get there by 5am and I have to leave the hotel by 4:15am. Figure I need to sleep early for this.


I found a couple of street cars.


It's not like they can really leave their tracks or anything.


I ate an early dinner at Buca di Beppo... alone. It's a little awkward travelling by yourself. Anyway, on the way back to the hotel I ran into Sam. Freakin' Sam Enciso. It was a totally random encounter too. I could've sworn that he was living in San Diego. Oh well. He was tired from working all night and I needed to get back to the hotel to sleep early. That was cool.


I took the early flight back to Syracuse with a stopover in Atlanta. And that was the 2006 San Francisco experience, abridged version.

My circadian rhythm was really messed up at this point. The story goes: So I went to Japan, forward 14 hours. Come back from Japan, back 14 hours. Daylight savings happens, forward one hour. Fly to San Francisco, back three hours. Fly back to Syracuse, ahead three hours.

I also had to get up for a 9am class the next day. That's just great.

I haven't been doing too much besides bumming around the apartment. I'm still recovering financially from Japan. It was soo worth it.

Well, I was pretty bummed out when I got back. I checked my grade for my rotation and I got a 'C'. This was after announcing to the scientific community how great the lab is. It turned out that I was being graded as an MD resident. MD residents already have their doctorats so grades never count. Yeah, that's not me. 'C's mean academic probation in grad school land. So yeah, I was pretty bummed about that over the weekend until I got to talk to the lab to find out what happened. Good thing it's not too late to correct it.

I de-winterized the motorcycle. I need to do this soon. Easy as pie, no? I bought the necessary tools and everything. I just hope the engine doesn't blow up after I put it back together.

I've already beaten Kingdom Hearts 2. Actually, I beat it the weekend I got back from SFO. That's how grad students roll. I have two main complaints. First of all, Aeris' voice actress sucks. It just sounds so robotic. The voice actress for Aeris in Kingdom Hearts 2 is also Aeris in Advent Children. I don't really want to hear the English track on that movie. Second, the first song in Atlantica is, is... horrible. It's borderline retarded. Listen to it and you'll agree. Otherwise, Tifa and Yuffie in KH2 are Tifa and Yuffie from Advent Children. TEH HAWT!

I'm also using an iMac at work. It's one of those dual core Intel dealies. After using it for a couple of weeks, it still feels like a toy to me. I don't really feel productive on it. I end up playing with widgets and stuff. Oh well. Still want one though... just to play with it. heh.

Maybe I'll be less random next time and type up something decent.

music: Utada Hikaru - Passion

You know, if people actually take the time to read the entry, that usually means it was worthwhile. Personally, I'm not a fan of long blog entries. I don't really write them, I don't really read them. But at the same time, I'm also a big believer in "It's your journal, do what you want." Far be it for me to criticize anyone's personal musings.
-Kristi - 060426 - 2349EST
http://www.mykristi.com
kgovella@gmail.com

exactly, sis-tah!
-rich - 060427 - 1650EST



omshit general sam!
-chris - 060428 - 1725EST

spam@begone.com

days? serioiusly? it took me like an hour and a half. you people read slow.

jk
-kristen - 060428 - 2252EST



Yeah, running into Sam was totally random.

Sam: Holy shit, I know that guy!
me: Holy shit, it's Sam!

Too bad we couldn't really hang out afterwards. What are the chances?

Maybe people feel obliged to click on every picture or something.
-rich - 060501 - 1101EST