Today I gave the last of 3 guest lectures I signed up for this year. The first was in an undergraduate linguistics course taught by our friend (and neighbor) Kristin; the second two were for a graduate course in systems neuroscience. They've been fun to give, but also exhausting...I would say at least a full day of preparation for each lecture. I hope I get invited back next year—hopefully I can re-use a lot of the slides I made for this time around.

Although it's been tiring, it's also nice because it helps me feel like a "real" professor: As much as I enjoy research, and the students who help out in my lab, I definitely always pictured myself as doing some lecturing as well. This was a nice way to easy my way into it. It's also a good way to advertise myself and my lab to the neuroscience PhD students—one of these years I'm hoping to recruit 1-2 for my lab.

I still have to put together some "lab" activities for the neuroscience course for Wednesday...I should be working on that now but I'm exhausted, so I think I'll go to bed (Jill's working tonight) and finish this up in the morning. I can't keep my eyes open, much less think straight.

Some of the folks in my lab had talked about having an end-of-year picnic tomorrow; they never really got their act together in planning it, and it's also supposed to rain. So we are going to head to Gringo restaurant for "happy hour" instead (in quotes because most of the undergraduates aren't yet 21) (though of course we can still be happy). With one exception they are all quiet and our get-togethers tend to be slightly awkward. But not too bad. I tell myself that they have fun going out with their lab boss, and getting a free dinner at a grown up restaurant!

Hopebench