ABLE Bioblog

Hi folks,

We were hoping to have the registration form for the conference up and running today, but we had to make some changes to the workshop schedule last week that now must be coded into the registration form before it can go live. The form is now in the hands of our techies, and it shouldn’t be much longer before it’s ready to go. We’ve been playing around with a demo version of the form and it works really well, so we’re confident that you’ll find it a straighforward process to register. Plus, we’re lucky to have a number of labs that can hold more than the usual 25 people, and a number of presenters who have agreed to take more than 25 people in their workshops, so we’re also confident that there’ll be plenty of space to accommodate everyone once registration finally does open. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

In other news, HOLY COW DID YOU SEE THAT HOCKEY GAME LAST NIGHT!!?? Yay Canada! Local boy Sidney Crosby came through with the game-winning goal in sudden-death overtime to give us not only the (arguably) most coveted gold medal of the games (at least as far as we Canadians are concerned), but also our 14th gold, breaking the record for the most gold medals earned by one country in the winter Olympics. Plus he’s won the Stanley Cup. He’s 22. What were you doing when you were 22?

Come to the ABLE conference in June. Sidney Crosby won’t be there, but I can show you where his parents live . Also, we have Starbucks.

Jen

Sidney Crosby; image obtained from Wikimedia Commons

Well, it’s February 2nd and Nova Scotia’s own Shubenacadie Sam is the first groundhog in Canada (and therefore North America – take a number, Punxsutawney Phil!) to make weather predictions from a hibernating rodent’s point of view. And the verdict is…

Six more weeks of winter. Which is hardly a surprise, considering how bitterly cold it is here in Halifax this week. I’m not complaining, however, because I know our colleagues to the west and south have gone through considerably worse recently, if not still at the moment.

In six weeks, however, it will all be over, and we’ll be six weeks closer to the most fun you can have in summer school – the annual ABLE meeting! If you haven’t done so already, please check out the spanky new ABLE conference website, where you can find the anticipated costs, information on travel and accommodations, and descriptions of this year’s major workshops. (I was really hoping for a lot of mundane, ho-hum major workshops this year, since I probably won’t be in a position to attend any of them myself, but NOOOOOO – the members just had to come through with a bunch of fun, interesting, challenging major workshops. Try to tone it down with the posters and minis, ‘K?)

Speaking of the ABLE conference website…this year, stewardship of the conference site has been taken over by the ABLE webmaster Mark and his minion, Chris. (Or maybe Mark is really Chris’ minion…it’s hard to say…) Anyway, it’s a huge burden off the shoulders of the conference hosts, and I think it will work well as a permanent arrangement. It’s so easy – just tell them what you want posted and *poof* – it appears! Just like that! (Clearly these two are underemployed and have way too much time on their hands.) I want to thank Mark and Chris for doing such a great job on the site, and making Jendy’s life just a little bit easier.

That’s all for now…registration opens March 1st, and there’s lots more information to come in the meantime, so stay tuned!

Happy Groundhog Day,
Jen

Creepy Google Street View has come to Canada! Check out some of the 2010 meeting venues and other points of interest:

The Life Sciences Centre (major workshops)

The McCain Building (mini workshops and AGM)

Pier 21 (the closing banquet)

Howe Hall (on-campus accommodations)

The Garden South Park Inn (off-campus accommodations)

Historic Properties (downtown Halifax)

The Northwest Arm

The Angus L. MacDonald Bridge

Enjoy your virtual stroll around an early-spring Halifax!

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving,
Jen

Would you believe I actually started drafting this post over a month ago?  I thought it would be the perfect little task to accomplish while the students in one of my classes were diligently writing their final exam (a couple of them found an error in one of the questions -oops)…but then there was an Incident, and then a Thing, plus quite a lot of Stuff.  You know how it is – between the Incident, the Thing, and the Stuff (not to mention the “Vacation”)…well,  there goes the month.

But that’s all behind me now and I’m sincerely looking forward to the academic year ahead, which for many of us (I believe) starts right about now.  September is one of my favourite months of the year; I find the warm sun, cool air, and that unmistakable morning light very energizing, even as the days get shorter.  So it’s in that spirit that I make this, my first “Countdown to ABLE 2010″ post (or, what  would have been my first post, if the the actual first two posts hadn’t been so particularly time-sensitive).

I hope that this blog will be a convenient and interesting way to (1) keep you up to date on our conference planning progress (without giving away too many secrets – we want to overpromise and underdeliver, right? Er, wait a sec…) , (2) pique your interest in visiting Halifax, and (3) deliver (hopefully) useful travel information about the region . I’ve already compiled a list of potential blog topics, and I’ve started to look at my city through visitors’ eyes.  ( It’s kinda fun, actually.)  So if you have any questions or suggestions about the next meeting, or if you have any questions about Halifax or Nova Scotia, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  Mindy and I are both born and brewed Atlantic Canadians (Mindy’s from The Island, I was born on The Rock, and now we’re Bluenosers – huh?!?!); anything we can’t answer off the tops of our heads we can surely find out for you in short order.

Slainte,

Jen

OK, I just have one final (I think this is my last…) post from the 2009 Delaware conference. It is a good one!!

–The conference pictures are now online (http://www.ableweb.org/conf/able2009/images/index.html)!  Thanks for all your contributions. (Sorry, the captions didn’t post with the images; I’ll fix it if I have time).

–Have a listen to this PODCAST — interviews of first-timers’ impressions of the ABLE 2009 conference. (a production of Marielle Hoefnagels and Mark Walvoord prompted by Paul Hyde’s major workshop)