Kyle Gets Logorrhea

Anyone see the documentary Spellbound? The national spelling bee champ, Nupur Lala, is in my class and works across the hall. So, um, I guess that makes me better than you, since my bee-acquaintance can spell "logorrhea" and your's can't, even if you have one at all! Punk.

Last night I brought a bunch of cans to Kroger for recycling. I opened up my trunk and two full bags tipped over, emptying about 50 cans into the parking lot. Fortunately it was windy, so all of the cans immediately rolled away, clinking way too loudly over the cement. More fortunately still, the two cars in front of me happened to have their headlights on, so I was fully illuminated as this was happening and everyone was able to watch me scramble around the lot to gather up the loose cans. They were everywhere and I only got about half of them. It was noisy and embarassing. Stupid cans.

Kyle on DC

I went to D.C. last week for a neuroscience conference. They have neuroscience conferences? Yes they do, so shut up and listen.

35,000 scientists converged in downtown D.C., which was quite empty bar-wise and restaurant-wise, unfortunately, but packed to the brim with the neuro-nerdy. Outer burrows are much more lively, so you know, and pretty fun. Anyway, when we arrived, our hotel refused to provide us with the cot that they promised, so one person had to sleep on the floor each night. Guys never bed together by the way, unless those guys are Lasse and Scott. And they weren't. Beyond that, the room smelled like stale cigarrettes and the management just plain sucked. But they gave us $20 and two free phone calls when we complained! That's something, isn't it? No, not really, not with the outrageously high cost of downtown hotel stays. Can I get an amen?

Everything else about the trip was enjoyable. Zoo was good. Science was good. Catching up with friends was good. Lasse and Alexis were good. I won the APA early scientist award this year, so I had an interview for that. Also, my poster drew a crowd for the entire 4 hours I had to present, and I had a successful meeting with a potential postdoctoral research advisor....all good.

Wait, one more for the bad list: I played a game of pub trivia one night with local friends. It was a very serious crowd, and one table in particular didn't like the fact that our group had more people than was permitted...so they repeatedly gave us those passive-agressive half-audible confrontations like "Boy, I wonder if the group of 7 got that one" and "Ahem...disqualified..ahem". After awhile of this, and after a few drinks, I kind of snapped, turned towards them and yelled "Did you get that one right? Five people...did you get that right with five people?!", then pointed at one of the guys and went "Huh? Huh? Five? Huh?". It was way too much, completely overboard...and I realized it a bit late. Everyone at our table was embarassed and didn't say anything. And it didn't help much that the guy at whom I was pointing was huge...no, that didn't help at all. Oh well, at least I shut the jerks up. That's my motto, for the record: "At least it shut the jerks up". Live and breathe it baby. Wildcat.