The Swift conference in Washington D.C./Maryland has been going on all this week. I really did want to go, but I think I always knew that it wasn’t going to work out. I wouldn’t have been ready to present anything, and I can’t afford to miss any school during this very busy time before final exams. Still, I wish I could have been there to hear talks and meet people. I’ve never been to a conference before, but I’d really like to. I hope I can make it to the next one.

Speaking of conferences, the call for abstracts for the Florida Academy of Science meeting in March went out yesterday. It’s due December 16, the at the end of finals week – eek! I don’t need to have results yet to write an abstract, do I?

I finally finished reading Pete’s long paper on SGRs and AXPs that I’ve had around for a while. It seems the more I read, the more I realize how little I know. I feel like I want to read everything about everything, if only I had the time!

I wanted to install the latest release of HEASOFT and CALDB on Tuesday, but the HEASOFT website was down. Today I bravely (or stupidly) deleted the version I had to install the new one. I think it went smoothly, although I won’t really know until I test the software.

I ignored it in the past, but having inconsistent access to Hubble (the computer) is starting to have an affect on my productivity. I wonder how easy it would be to remotely connect and work from home. It seems that’s what everyone else does. I should inquire.