:: Geeks in Paradise ::

:: aloha blog fans! i'm so sorry for the delinquency of my posting of late, but i have been suffering through life in waikiki for a conference. as i sit here typing this much overdue update i am looking at the sunset over the south pacific, eating a hawaiian pizza with pineapples that were picked this morning, and listening to some hula music with a fruity umbrella drink. it's dropped to 86 and i am freezing! but don't feel sorry for me friends, in 3.5 hours i will be boarding a plane to return to beautiful buffalo and will be glad to be able to make snow angels tomorrow night... anywhos, on to the post! i've learned some things this past week: scientists and the tropics go together like chocolate and pickles. i'm not sure where along the way to a phd that you take the phasion for phds, but i think i missed it. it is quite a site to see the talks end for the day and within minutes my colleagues are headed for the beach... in the worst possible attire. they've shed their lab coats, but i think to save humiliation they should keep them. donning the brightest and tackiest aloha shirts (tacky aloha shirt is redundant, i realize, but those chosen by the science community are especially tacky) with slide rules and calculators in the chest pockets, teva sandals, knee high socks (!) shorty shorts hiked up to the point of resembling steve urkle, and a half quart each of zinc oxide on their noses. after 20 minutes on the beach they return to the conference (still in their tevas, urkel shorts, and tacky-tastic aloha shirts) looking like a freshly boiled maine lobster (aside from their snow white noses thanks to the zno). perhaps that the smarter one gets the less they feel the need to impress. i don't claim to be a fashionista, but i do think that perhaps someone should publish a peer-review article on proper tropical attire before they allow geeks in paradise. ::