In Orlando at the moment, for the second conscutive year at the Academy of Molecular Imaging meeting at the lovely Gaylord Palms Resort. I haven’t stopped by to gaze at the gators yet, but i’m hoping to catch the feeding on Tuesday night. I flew in on Friday afternoon on a direct United flight, spending the journey finishing the wonderful and sobering Watchmen and managing to catch some elusive sleep on a plane. I got to my hotel around 10pm, after a half hour taxi ride with a talkative Pakistani cabbie who 1) sleeps only three hours a night, 2) dropped out of medical school after one day and smashed up the headmaster’s car on his way out, and 3) was a bowler on a professional cricket team in England before taking a ball in the eye and separating his retina. I chose to stay in my room, get some decent room service, and watch the evening’s college basketball games.

Speaking of March Madness, my bracket was officially wrecked this weekend. I didn’t have high hopes for my ill-informed picks, but was actually in decent position in my pool until Saturday. UConn’s loss today screwed my remaining hopes … the popular favorite looked mediocre at best in all the tourney games i saw them in so i can’t really question the outcome. Florida’s win this evening represents the last points i’ll earn this year, and the only Final Four team I got right. Of course, i’m sure i’m not the only one who failed to pick this year’s underdog crowd. As much as i mourn my failed picks, i have to admit this year’s unpredictable field has made this the most exciting tournament in recent memory.

My Saturday was spent preparing my Sunday morning talk at the meeting, with a brief interlude for lunch by the pool with my friend Fred. While working on my talk in the afternoon, i listened to my iPod using the studio monitor earbud headphones i bought at the airport in SF. They are marvelous at blocking external sounds ... as i found out when the cleaning lady rang the doorbell, came in, and tried to get my attention all while i was blissfully ignorant with work and music. She scared the hell out of me when she finally tapped me on the shoulder.

During another break, a visit to the opening night reception from 6-8pm, I got a pin from Vizen Medical, the company spun off of my old lab in Boston. They’re having a contest where at some random time each day, they’ll look for the first person wearing a pin, and give them an iPod Nano. I’ve got mine in my jacket lapel. I also got a nice notebook case from Biodose and a mini fan that displays a moving logo on its blades from Isotec. Returning to my room at 8:30pm, i spent the next six hours working on my talk, due to be delivered at 8:45am the next morning. I knew i was going to be up late, so i didn’t bother forcing myself to do nothing but work. I solidified and beautified my slides while watching TV, including the heretofore unseen and intriguing 1992 thriller Deep Cover with Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum.

Oh my god, this is hilarious. For some reason i stopped changing channels on Nick at Nite and Who’s the Boss, and they’re showing the episode where Tony sees Angela naked coming out of the bath. The one Peter instituted as the Quahog parade theme in that Family Guy episode.

I awoke at 6:45am this morning after grabbing a scant four hours sleep. I loaded my talk on the auditorium computer and grabbed a cup of coffee … everyone was pretty miffed that there was no breakfast spread this morning, especially considering the usual plethora of refreshments. I got to sit at the moderator’s desk and introduce my colleague’s 8-8:45am talk, which actually broached my topic nicely. I gave a review of hypoxia imaging before discussing future directions and my own work. Unfortunately, the problem with this strategy is always that if your review goes too long, you lose time to discuss your work, which is your desired focal point. I had to accelerate through my last ten slides or so and was still about five minutes over, but all in all i was happy with my performance. I attended the rest of the morning sessions before Sam Gambhir took the Stanford MIPS group out to lunch. My lack of sleep forced me into an afternoon nap, but luckily there wasn’t much at the meeting that i was keen on during that time. I feel incredibly relieved now that my talk is over, and can enjoy the rest of the meeting unfettered.

They should rename TNT the Law & Order network. I’ve watched a total of six episodes in the last two days, and have a 66.67% hit rate in predicting the outcome. My crowning achievement was tonight when, after missing the first half of an episode while watching the fantastic new Family Guy episode (Bertram is born!), I figured out the ensuing twists in my first two minutes. Another useless skill to throw on the pile. I was finally able to turn it off as they’re now showing that unsatisfying episode where Briscoe is believed to have fabricated a suspect’s confession.

I’ve always contended that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is a pale version of its predecessor, while L & O: Criminal Intent is diluted further still. But there was a really awful episode of SVU on last night that villified a Howard Stern-esque disc jockey. Sometimes they lay the morals and moreover politics on rather thick on these shows.

My radiochemist friend Fred is suggesting we get massages at the resort spa, and i must say i’m tempted. We get a 15% discount for being registered at the conference, so it’s actually not too bad. Maybe on Tuesday before i head back on Wednesday.