No great news to report over the last few weeks, just the usual hodge podge of work. I spent a few days in Reston, Virginia reviewing grants for the Deparment of Defense, which was about as exciting as it sounds. Grant reviewing is a hit or miss affair ... if the proposals are worthwhile then it can be a very illuminating time, but if they're crappy then it's the longest few days of your life. This instance fell in the latter category.

I've gotten a few more rides in on my birthday bike, although i haven't yet come to the point of commuting to work on it. I did do a trial run to Stanford a few Sundays ago when i needed an extra day to catch up on all the work i'd been unable to get to during the week. With my messenger bag i rode up Woodside to Alameda, and over to and down Sand Hill to get to the Stanford medical campus. By the time i got to my office i wanted to cry. Soooooo out of shape. I got in a full day reviewing a few papers for journals (see my comments above on grant reviewing ... same deal), then biked over to meet my parents, Hilary and Jeff, and Veronica at Jeffrey's for some burgers. Hopping off my bike my quads tightened into lactic acid-filled fires. My teriyaki chicken sandwich gave me energy to pedal home. Not the most impressive display of my fitness, but a decent demonstration that i can bike to and from work and get something useful done while there.

I've only made it to the second act of Metal Gear Solid 4, with the usual excuse of work in effect. The action is as taut as ever, but so far the answers promised in this concluding chapter to the convoluted Metal Gear saga have been less than revealing. The entertaining 60's flashback Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater aside, the MGS series has been a downward spiral of retarded plotlines. That doesn't mean i'll stop playing ... i just wish i could skip the endless cutscenes. Well, i could, but my futile hope for closure won't let me.

I've spent the last few days in the Lone Star state, first in Dallas to see my sister Emily, brother-in-law Jared, and nephew Camden at their house and now in Houston for the annual meeting of the AAPM. My time in Dallas was spent hanging out at Emily's house with little Camden, and hopping from one air conditioned haunt to another to avoid the 100 degree humid heat outside. However despite these conditions, Jared took us out on Lake Ray Hubbard for some motorboating in his craft, with Camden clinging to mommy in his lifejacket. We moored the boat at a little shopping/restaurant area for dinner and some shopping at Bass Pro Shops. It was a restful couple of days, playing with the little guy as well as Emily's two mischievous dogs Tut (the little basenji shown here) and the gargantuan weimarauner with the appropriate name Hagrid. My trip was assigned a degree of difficulty as i left my ATM card in a cash machine at SFO before my departure flight. I realized it 5 minutes later, but my card was not to be found around the ATM. I phoned to cancel it no problem, but now i'm ATM cardless for the duration of my trip. A cash advance from Emily will hopefully tide me over. I arrived in Houston today, a short flight from Dallas and no less sweltering, and am now settled into my room at the Hilton. I went to one workgroup meeting this afternoon, and have another tomorrow as well as a talk to give Tuesday morning, but plan on getting a lot of work done while relaxing in my hotel room. Starting with catching up on fac13. Not the most academic of pursuits, but something i've neglected for too long.

Watching Blood Diamond on HBO at the moment. I've come to the conclusion that i am shamefully undereducated about the strife in Africa over the last 15 years. From Rwanda to Sierra Leone to Darfur, there's so much pain, suffering, and atrocity in the dark continent. Leo Di Caprio is underrated as a dramatic actor ... he has done well to shed his child star past and demonstrate genuine range in parts from the Departed to Gangs of New York to this one.