Through mid-October. Was that at the tea place near the Moscone Center?

Ah, okay, yep, I remember you now. :)

I have shockingly little formal biology training -- a year of honors high school bio and that's it. During my linguistics MA I did some work with a couple of other linguists and a biologist on using context to disambiguate between the names of proteins, genes and transcription factors in the abstracts of PubMed articles, which is how I got going down this road. IDT brought me on as an intern on the basis of that research and my enthusiasm, and I learned a lot on the job. Between then and now, I did a lot of reading, and I got my current job because they needed a good web programmer. I don't do much on the research side (yet), but I'm learning a hell of a lot just from being in this environment.

The impression I've gotten is that if you want a job in computational biology, you need to be either a very good biologist or someone who knows how to program their way out of a brown paper bag and knows how to ask good questions. Much of my understanding comes from piecing things together myself, then going to my PI or my lead postdoc and saying "is this how it works?" (Sometimes I'm right, sometimes they correct me.)

I don't think I've met Noah, but he sounds like someone I'd like to get to know! I've been wanting to learn more about ab initio modeling of protein folding, and haven't had a chance to go pick the brains of the guys down on the second floor yet.

Oh, and I've never taken an ochem class in my life, though it was my favourite part of high school chem (two years, regular and then AP chem). I buy textbooks cheap at used bookstores and read them when I get bored, though. (My dad is a retired Chem.E. who worked in the oil industry, so I was learning about hydrocarbons about the same time I learned how to barbecue. Sometimes at the same time, now that I think about it...)

Fortunately, M. knows someone in Albuquerque who shares her desire to mint more shooters.

I will definitely do that, though I have no idea when I'll be likely to drive to TX again. In the interim, though, ilcylic is excellent people, and he and his wife spsh are people you should meet anyway.

Actually, work is talking about sending me to Geneva to do some stuff with the UniProt people sometime before the end of the year. I know Geneva is approximately as far as one can get from Zurich and still be in Switzerland, but L. and I would both love to see you again and we'd be happy to make the trip.

We'll have to wait for PET in Zurich ;-)


Nonsense. I'm sure an excuse can be manufactured for a visit to Zürich, say, in October?

My favourite range (down in Milpitas) is open till midnight Monday-Saturday, and till 10pm on Sundays. Weeknights aren't so great for me these days either, but I bet we could find a weekend that'll work out.

Definitely! And I'm sorry we didn't have a chance to meet up while I was in PA this time; we had a lot of relative-related stuff to do, and then Conshohocken caught on fire and we missed our flight and it was just crazy levels of chaotic. Next time, though, for sure. (Perhaps my brother-in-law acrownofswords will come along and let us use his hardware, too.)

An hour at the range is $10 for the first person, $6 for a second, and that gets halved if it's Thursday. The other pricing information is here. I forget how much ammo for my Sig P226 is, but I have a few boxes in the closet anyway. We'd probably also want to rent something smaller, like a .22, to start with, and ammo for that is dirt cheap. I think we could get away for about $20/person and have a grand old time.

Edited at 2008-08-27 05:46 pm (UTC)

No problem at all, seriously. We ended up spending a lot of time in Kingwood just recovering from the madness of the previous month of travelling, and then I fucked up my hand and spent a lot of time asleep. I wish I could have seen you and digitalusrex and a bunch of other folks, but the timing just didn't work out. Next time, Houston needs to come earlier in the trip so that I'm more social.

I hope you feel better soon! *hugs*

You're looking at Austin, though, right? I'll totally come visit y'all in Austin.

Absolutely! I'm in town through sometime in October so just let me know when, once you're back in the area.

Just remember Rule #4 ("Don't point the muzzle in the direction of anything you aren't willing to destroy") and you'll be aces. :) When's a good time for you?