FW: New Year's letter

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: Mark Reimers <http://www.yahoo.ca/~mark1reimers>
 > Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 13:50:03 -0800 (PST)
 >
 > Hi Robert,
 > 
 > Thank you for your note, and Happy New Year! It was good to see you and Noelle 
 > in June.
 > 
 > Here is a brief update about what I've been doing this past year.
 > 
 > Mark
 > --------------------
 > 
 > This year
 > was my third in Richmond, Virginia. We have a pleasant, if
 > non-descript, house just across from Richmond`s big central park, and five
 > minutes from the river.
 >  
 > This was my
 > third year at Virginia Commonwealth University as well. Like many big state 
 > institutions, VCU is trying to re-invent itself as
 > a for-profit entity, while not losing too much of its state subsidy. I really
 > dislike the new emphasis and I expect to be moving again in a few years.
 >  
 > DeAndra
 > finished her first year at NSF this November. She contributes a lot to the
 > organization, but is rather frustrated working under a rather patriarchal boss.
 >  
 > A very good
 > friend told me in August that she had cancer. When I went out to Vancouver to 
 > be with her
 > for perhaps the last time, I also revisited my old Alma Mater, UBC, and gave a
 > talk in the statistics department, to an audience including one of my old 
 > profs. 
 >  
 > At the
 > Joint Statistical Meeting in Washington DC I had dinner with a friend from U of 
 > Toronto, and she
 > and I will help organise a session for JSM in Vancouver next year.
 >  
 > I started
 > serious effort in moving into brain imaging by becoming an adjunct researcher
 > in the Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program at NIH; I am working on
 > characterizing variation in human attention. I attended my first meeting of the
 > Human Brain Mapping Society in San Francisco,
 > and then enjoyed six days in Yosemite Park.
 >  
 > My course
 > at Cold Spring Harbour Labs in June went very well, but we lost one instructor,
 > and I will have more to do next year.
 >  
 > I spent the
 > last two weeks of 2009 travelling and hiking in Peru and Bolivia.
 >  
 > I started
 > assembling material from some of the courses and talks I have given into a
 > website, which will appear in a few weeks at www.humanistideas.net.
 > I welcome your comments or suggestions.
 >  
 > Mark
 >  
 > Lima, Peru
 > December 31
 > 2009