Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
   Wow! That's finally over, and it actually went well! You see, this was my first scientific talk ever. The only tough point was one of the questions I was asked. I fumbled around a bit, and gave a pretty "political" answer (high word-to-meaning ratio). The worst part of the whole situation is that (It always happens this way, doesn't it?) starting about halfway through the next talk, I started thinking of all the real answers to the question! I could have answered it so much better, and (ego alert!) not looked so bad.
   On the plus side, I was not nearly as bad as some of the other talks (and one in particular). I would say that, objectively, I was not the best, but I was in the top five of sixteen. In fact (and you may discount this to ego, but I truly believe I am being objective here), I can only think of two that I would say that were better than mine, and none exactly at my level, with several immediately below me. After that (not chronologically, but in ranking), they dropped off pretty exponentially, culminating (in reverse) with the one I mentioned earlier, who could not stand still, or even upright. So, in rating myself, I would say 3/16.
   Now, lest you think I have too big a head, I believe I took that ranking, not because of superior performance, but because of the low standard (which is why I never rate myself by other people).    In other lab news, I have two days to complete the other half of my paper, though it should be easier to write now that I've given the talk. I'm also, once I get home, going to work on a poster presenting my project. I "got in good" with the IT people here at the lab, and so one of them is going to print my poster for me when I get it done, and then ship it out to me. That's really great, because do you know how much it costs to print a 3' x 6' poster? Full colour? More money than I have, definitely.