I only have 4 hours to sleep before gettign up to fly home.. so I’ll make this short.. Photos will have to wait yet another day.. My talks today went well.. hard to say how well.. but it reminds me why I do what I do. Both groups were receptive to the message about getting kids more interested in science. It was very nice seeign freind Hannah’s folks at the first talk.. many old freinds at the second.
 
 I also had two good roundtables with folks at the austin site. I love listening to what’s on people’s minds..

Saw lots of old freinds today.. met lots of new people.. My second talk wasn’t completelyt trhough until about 9:30.. then I met my freind Dave for dinner. Great hippy indian food/ beer store/ music venue .. then.. we met our freind Alison (from the colony)  and Scott for a eer ,,

got hoem around 1.. now must quickly fall asleep. More from threairport tomorrow.
nite all, nite sam
-me

Really good day with a crazy twist at the end.. To tires to write much about it now.
Worked all day in the hotel.. then gave my talk tonight at ITC. Saw many. mnay old friends.   Deadicated my talk to my late friend Jim Monzel who’d been the program chair of this conference. Jim passed away 2 weeks ago.

My talk went pretty well.. . got to talk to many folks afterwords.. about 15 of us went out to dinner at a mexican place.. When we  got back, my rental car was gone (!!!!).. Long story.. but I’d parked at a meter… it had a sign which I quick read saying something about no parking 9-3… I did not see that it meant 9PM till 3AM 🙁

My friends Peilin. ,, Bill and Mary drove me 8 miles out to reclaim the car.. All in all it was a fun adventure.. pictures about it tomorrow

right now I need to sleep. I have 2 talks tomoorw.. and the first is very early..

more then !

nite all.. nite sam
-me

Hello from Austin TX.. home of one of the largest under bridge living  bat colony.
I just spent several hours trying to repair a piece of equipment I was planning to borrow for some of my talks down here.. only to find that it was too far gone to  repair on the road.   No worries though .. I enjoyed hanging out with the pieces owner Carl.. He’s big time into doing science outreach with kids as well.. so the time we spent was good time. I didn’t really need the device in my talk anyway..

I’m excited and also nervous about the talks.. all three of them. When I have the jitters like this I keep wondering why I agree to do this kind of thing. Public speaking is so scary to me.. I just hope the message I’m bringign resonates..

I’ll let you know.if it does.. (I think it will) . wish me luck

nite all, note sam
-me

Happy day of the dead.. strange concept, I know. On this day many folks in Latin America go to visit the graves of their loved ones and bring them their favorite foods
and flowers..

Diane and Gabe made this special Dia de los muertos bread… in the shape of a skull and cross bones. for Gabe to take to school

In the spirit of the day, I just went out and put some Halloween candy on Sam’s
memorial stone in the back yard.. Not that he’s  ‘there’.. any more than he’s everywhere.  .. It just felt good to do (enjoy,  my son…)

I hope everyone takes some time to send some love to your own ancestors today…

In the same Halloween theme.. Herb sent me some pictures of Project-x.. aka the pumpkin king from the Haunted Forest. Homer and I built this robot 2 years ago for them. It’s about 6 feet tall when crouching.. then rises to a full 23 feet when actuated. It has two 8 foot arms controlled by pneumatic cylinders that are operated by wired contacts on a pair of gloves. When the opperator speaks into a mike, the monsters 3 foot wide mouth opens and closes in time with the speach and his eyes flicker red and yellow.  Unfortunately, I didn’ thave much time to put into the project this year.. I did help them get the electronics running. Homer redid the pnematics this year. Evidently, it’s all worked pretty well for them this year.  It was good to hear. Here are soem pictures from Sunday’s matinee show.. the Matinee is for little kids.. This thing is pretty scary at night..

Well.. that’s about is for tonight.. more tomorrow fro Austin..
nite folks.. nite sam
-me