This was another long, intially boring but interesting later. As usual, I got up early, did somethings I had been meaning to do for a while (no, nothing special - just laundry) and headed towards the BCC. After a couple of talks, it was about time to feed myself. So, I headed towards Burger King along with Raghava, Anil and Kiran. Weather in and around in Baltimore is still pretty windy - its ironic that whenever I am busy attending talks, it’s bright & sunny while I am roaming around outside, it’s invariably cloudy and chill Nothing new as it has been the same for quite a while now. Soon after Josh’s (Joshua Anderson, Tech graduate currently in Iowa State University) talk on simulating polymers (I must say, the animations were quite impressive), I headed towards BWI on the Light Rail - to get my rental car.

National was out of compact cars and that automatically upgraded me to mid-class (with no extra cost). I got all sorts of coverage (complete collision waiver and liability) as there is no guarantee that others on the road would drive as carefully as I do. As it has slowly been becoming a (good) trend, I didn’t miss any exit but the evening traffic meant that it took 40 minutes for a 10 mile drive. If that was bad, worse was yet to come (so goes my slogan for big city traffic — worse is yet to come or be patient, it only gets worse). On my way to Virginia (to meet Nagesh, Rashmi and Pradyoth), first 5 miles took 45 minutes and next 50 miles also took 45 minutes. Again, not missing any major exit was definitely helpful. Highlights of my stay were play-time with Pradyoth - it didn’t take him too long to be attracted by Sony Vaio and he spent much of the time as if we had known each other for years; informative/demonstrative discussions with Nagesh (yeah, about photography) and good food (thanks to Rashmi). As I had to prepare an animation for tomorrow’s talk and there was a good chance that it would snow (and icy roads, hence), I started back around 10.30 pm and without missing any exits, I was in Days Inn in less than an hour or so.

Once I finish the animation, some slide editions (thanks to Ralph, this will provide a very convincing justification for using LDA in our calculations) and tomorrow’s talk, I will spend quite a bit of time in studying the book given by Nagesh, Rashmi and Pradyoth, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. For those of you perverts out there, this book is about photography, dealing especially with how to shoot great photographs with a film or a digital camera. Like I said before, it has been a pretty eventful day and I am just learning that my Apple has already been delivered in Houghton - I should have got it shipped to Days Inn or to Rag’s place in NJ. March Madness has officially begun - I learnt, from Nagesh, about the 12 Vs 5 jinx and I am glad that the jinx / tradition has been witheld this season too, though one of my friends, Pramod, isn’t too happy (yeah, Syracuse lost to Texas A & M). Well, let me stop writing and start working before it gets too late….