Borders (stream of consciousness) Blogging at the BCCE

OK, so Ames is not as bad of a place as I first thought. I have had some time to explore the campus and the city, and both are kind of growing on me. The whole lack of internet thing for conference visitors is still a sore point, but I can understand the issue with network security. The woman at the conference services desk told me that she could give me a free AOL disk and I could use it to dial up from my room. I passed.

I did find a Borders (I keep a T-Mobile account for just such emergencies) that is essentially empty. Very bizarre. It is in a strip mall right next to a Best Buy. I wonder who gets the bulk of the DVD sales?

Anyhow, this afternoon's conference sessions are a little dry, so I bailed and headed for some blogging time. Of course this means that tomorrow that there will be at least three concurrent sessions that I will want to attend. I am at the 18th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE), along with almost 1400 other chemistry geeks. I am doing the budget package and staying on campus (dorm room and cafeteria food...do I know how to have a good time or what?), but have been incredibly pleasantly surprised with the accomodations. A single, nicely appointed room, air conditioned (its a beautiful 87 degrees outside with low humidity, although T-storms are coming), and designed with private showers. The room is cleaner than any dorm room I have EVER experienced.

The campus is huge (IA State is a Big-12 school) and very nice. Lots of new construction. The town is pretty big, and there are at least three different downtown-like areas that I have found. Easily laid out for walking.

The conference has been good so far also. The opening plenary lecture was given by the Director of Solar System Exploration Programs, Dr. Firouz Naderi. This guy gave one of the best opening talks at any conference I've ever attended. He gave a behind the scenes look at the Mars Explorer Program, and was funny as hell as well as informative, excited, and smart. I am going to have to suggest to my college's Convocation Committee that we invite him to campus.

There was also a performance of a Chemical Magic Show by a group of students from Creighton U. I have some ideas (stole has such a bad ring to it) about how to improve the show my students do annually. Great stuff.

So overall, life is good. This distraction is just what I need. More later.