My blogging will be at a minimum for at least two weeks. My family is going off to visit my family in California! My son has been counting the days til we leave since August 1st. We are half packed and ready to leave tomorrow. Tomorrow will be airline hell, but by Tuesday I will be happily settling into my California relaxation mode.

I used to love flying. Now, if it wasn't for my family living across the country, I'd avoid flying like the plague. Between Homeland Security's ineffectual but degradingly insulting measures and the airline's incresasingly petty fees and service cuts, the fun has been totally sucked out of air travel, leaving nothing but a husk of misery, anger and bitterness. I used to travel with a smile and just enjoy the ride. Now I fly with a tight lipped sense of dread. Thank you very much airlines. You suck and your suckiness gets worse year after year.

Brief moment of computer time. Thankfully I have been paying little attention to news and mostly relaxing. Spent several days staying with friends in the Hollywood Hills (in a house that originally belonged to D. W. Griffith) now with relatives in Santa Barbara.

I hear Fred Thompson, supposedly the savior of the Republican's chances for the White House, has hit some rough waters. No real surprise, of course. It's going to be a rough ride for ALL the candidates, particularly the Republicans who have to somehow appeal to an America sick to death of Bush but also appeal to the base that is so fanatically right wing they practically are from another culture altogether.

Coming to UCLA is like returning to the womb for me. My mother got her Ph.D. here, she taught here, and I got my Ph.D. here. The layers of memories at each corner at UCLA are stacked like cordwood. Sometimes I am not even sure whether a vague memory is from early childhood, later childhood, high school or grad school.

I have returned to UCLA for an international conference comprising the bulk of the researchers in the world studying the model system C. elegans, a nematode that has been critical in discovering a lot of what we know about, for example, aging.

My family will be on a trip for three weeks. First part is work for me (a conference at UCLA) and the second part will be spending time with family and friends.

I will try to repost some old articles that still have relavence just so you all don't forget me!

Bye bye