Back in Town

I'm back now from AbSciCon. It was actually a good meeting this time, as opposed to past AbSciCons I've been to. I got to meet a few new people, including Abby Allwood, who's skyrocketed in the Early Life community. She gave one of the keynote talks at the conference. If you read any of her papers, the quality of her work is quite impressive. However, she seems to lack a bit of charisma (at least from my interaction with her) compared with most field geologists. I think she takes herself and her work a bit too seriously, like myself if I don't watch out (Beth knows what I'm talking about!).

I was staying near the San Jose airport, right by the light rail, so it was easy for me to go to downtown San Jose. I went down there for dinner a few nights. I found a cool vegan restaurant, and I also had some sushi at Smile Sushi. I actually sat up at the bar, so I got to see my sushi being made and chat with the chef a bit. And I also figured out I don't like uni (sea urchin). It's kind of like a pink cream puff, and it starts to melt after a while. It tasted good, but I just didn't like the texture.