San Antonio among other things

I spent a good chunk of last week down in San Antonio. I was at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. SPSP is an organization that most people in my field belong to. When you join, you give them money, and they send you journals that they may or may not let you publish your work in. If you want to go to the annual conference to hear more about the research it costs extra. But they'll let you 'publish' (put up) a poster with your research on it. I got the student discount. Only $125.

San Antonio was a lot of fun. I stayed at the Crockett Hotel, right across the street from the Alamo. The best part of the city is probably the Riverwalk. Or maybe the smell of horse droppings. No, the Riverwalk is better. The narrow river meanders through downtown, and the (concrete) banks are tightly lined with trees and 3-4 story restaurants and shops. There are no barriers between the walkway/patios and the river, so I'm sure hundreds of drunk people fall in every year. My only regret was that I didn't see it happen.

The conference was great. I got to hear a bunch of interesting talks, and I met a few of the 'celebrities' of social psychology. They acted like they didn't know who I was. Too star-struck, I guess. After spending a few days in the "hill country" and elsewhere in south-central Texas, I think I now know where all the stereotypes of Texas come from. There were cacti, mustaches, and lots of tasty Tex-Mex and BBQ. When I left San Antonio it was 75 and sunny. When I got home it was 76 and sunny. Now, three days later, Sarah and I both have snow days because of 1 - 3 inches of sleet (ice) accumulation on every major road/surface. The high today was 19. Definitely quite a change.

Fortunately, I was able to get in my intramural basketball game last night before the weather hit. It was a close game, but we ended up pulling away at the end to win. I had a good time. I scored 12 points and was able to get in some quality minutes. Next week we play a group of guys from the ROTC program. I'm sure they're going to be in great shape, so we're probably going to get run into the ground. If I survive, I'll let you know how that turns out.