Rats Laugh When You Tickle Them

I'm going to show this video at lecture in a couple of weeks. I find it mesmerizing.

UPDATE: I found a link to the original research article describing this study, and there's also an interesting NY Times article on laughter.

I did it (twice)

I am no longer a virgin Aussie lecturer. Today, in fact, I did it twice--once at 10 am in front of 250 students, and the second time at noon in front of another 90. And, surprise, surprise…it felt just like giving a lecture back in the States. The students laughed when I made stupid jokes, looked bored when I expected them to be, asked questions and responded to mine, and even started packing up their belongings at the same precise moment (just before the last three words of my lecture). Interestingly, the first student to introduce himself to me was an American undergrad from my old alma mater, USC (the one in Los Angeles), who is doing an honors thesis with a prof I knew well back in my grad school days. By the way, that class with 90+ students is titled Behavioural Neuroscience (like that spelling, my American readers?!). When I asked how many students were taking it because they were interested in neuroscience, nearly everyone raised their hands. Incredible!

At home we are now the proud owners of a Toyota Yaris. Thanks to a comment to this blog by Eric H., I thought we should give Toyota a try before I bought a Honda. And I liked what I saw! Our little car is a brilliant cherry red. Other “middle-aged” men buy a fancy sports car during their mid-life crises, but I decided to go with a nice starter car usually marketed to university students. A couple of cool things about buying a car in Australia--the financing included the option of buying comprehensive insurance from two different independent vendors. The insurance itself was about half the price of what I paid in the U.S. for the same thing, and includes a $400 deductible. In addition, the dealership took care of the registration with the state government (something that doesn’t happen in Georgia, for example). There was no pressure to buy an extended warranty or add options that I wasn’t interested in. And, I got a loan with no problem--me, with absolutely no credit history in Australia.

A few other observations about our new life here: (1) The major television networks spend most of their prime time hours broadcasting U.S. television shows, particularly those involving crime, such as “NCIS,” all three “CIS” shows, “SUV”, “Numbers,” etc. It’s no wonder that many Australians are scared of visiting the U.S., thinking they will be violently attacked as soon as they leave the airport. (2) Batteries are expensive. I bought two packs of two “D” batteries for Will’s music machine, and they were nearly $10 each. (3) The newspapers and television news are terribly sensationalist and biased, except for the ABC (the BBC of Australia), even compared with U.S. media. It doesn’t help that several major news outlets are part of Murdoch’s empire. (4) Some Australians really do say, “G’day, Mate!” It’s happened to me about every other day, and I nearly cracked up each time. (5) Most of the wines we have bought, including the mid-priced ones, have screw-tops instead of corks. And they’re good! (6) Both the private and public school kids wear uniforms, and some look like they’re from a 19th Century costume drama. One high school girl I saw the other day looked like an extra from “A Room With a View.” (7) Paper towels are about half the width of the ones in the U.S. (8) Three-wheeled “prams” (strollers) are all the rage here. We got one ourselves last weekend. (9) The weather forecast is usually focused on the next 24 hours, and maybe not even tomorrow. It’s rare to see anyone talk about the next 5-7 days. Thus, I was surprised to see that it was raining this morning because I hadn’t checked the weather yesterday. (10) And even though I lectured for about 3 hours today in front of a total of 340 students, not one mobile phone went off the entire time. How cool is that?

Campus Tour

Inspired by Lori's request, here are a few pictures that I snapped this morning while I made my way to the office. It turned out to be a graduation day for some parts of the university, so there were many people walking around in caps and gowns. You should be able to click any picture to enlarge it.

This first just shows some of the interesting trees that grow here. Someday soon I hope to be able to identify them.

The building below is the Social Sciences Library, which houses the psychology collection and is just across the street from my building. It's also a good example of the sandstone exterior that is found on several UQ buildings.

This is the Student Union. It includes a pharmacy, a hair salon, a (meat) pie shop, a refectory, a pre-school/nursery, a convenience store (called a lolly shop here), a school supply shop, a noodle stand, a sushi restaurant, and so much more:

There's a series of ponds or lakes behind the Student Union. It's a great place to eat lunch:

This is one of many cafés on campus. That's the co-op bookstore next to it.
Here's a little news shop, selling all sorts of salacious mags to the students (and staff).

Here's a shot of the Great Court. It's home to a Great coffee shop.
Keep in mind that this is winter and SE Queensland is experiencing its worst drought on record. Imagine how much nicer it would look if a little rain were to fall...

Middle-Aged Man

Yay! We have internet at home! It took several phone calls and a lot of patience, but Telstra finally got our ADSL working this afternoon. I promptly connected our Airport wireless network and Vonage, and both are working fine. That means our U.S. friends can start expecting phone calls very soon, and you can even call us at our old Atlanta number.

Since my last post, we moved into our new home and then headed off to a four-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Coolum at the Sunshine Coast, where I attended a research conference on emotions. This Hyatt is a world-class resort, and it will even be the meeting place for the APEC conference next month (Bush is attending, I think). The beach was fantastic. Kangaroos were jumping around as we walked to breakfast. I saw my first possum. V. had a wonderful one-hour massage. Will spent three hours at Camp Hyatt, and appeared to have lots of fun. Since then, however, our darling boy has not been so happy. He typically wakes up screaming 2-3 times in the middle of the night, and his parents are tired of it. It got so bad at the Hyatt that I had to drive V. and Will home for the final night. It's probably teething problems exacerbated by a cold. We gave him drugs when he went to sleep tonight, so maybe we'll see some improvement.

There's so much more to write about, but finally having home access to the internet means I can resume regular blogging (and read my favorite blogs too), so expect more details very soon. Tonight let me just mention my problems with our rental car. We have had this Mazda sedan for nearly three weeks and it is a great car. I have had no real problems driving on the left side of the road. The problem is with parking. For some reason, Australian parking spaces are narrower than in the U.S., and the rows separating the cars are much, much shorter. This means that parking has become a major headache. I now have several scrapes and a tiny dent in the front and rear bumpers, the result of navigating into spaces next to walls and poles. The rental agency is going to have a major fit when they see it. I need a smaller car! Alas, we plan to buy one later this week. When I went to the Honda dealership today to look at the Jazz (called the Fit in the U.S.), I inquired about whether I would be eligible for any financing (I have no credit history in this country, of course). The salesman used his mobile to call a woman in the business office. He began the call by saying, "I have this middle-aged man who recently moved from the States here..."

I guess I am getting old. But on the inside, I'm still about 24. Really.

Toowong: Home Sweet Home

Yes, we have a new home! Yesterday we received word that our application for a townhouse in Toowong was approved by the owner. We move in next Tuesday. Although the Queenslander in Paddington would have been nice, the location of this townhouse couldn’t be beat. We’ll be just two blocks from Toowong Village Shopping Center, which has a train stop and a CityCat landing nearby (the picture above was taken roughly a block from our new place). What’s more, my drive to work will be 5-10 minutes long. Our plan is to have Will go to a daycare facility two buildings away from where I work, and V. will take either the train or CityCat to work in the City a couple of days a week.

Speaking of V., she met with her new boss at the Mater Children’s Hospital yesterday. She loved the place! She already has her own office, although it will be several weeks before she will be able to work due to licensure issues. V. got a very good feeling about how psychiatry is practised here, and she is really quite happy about the arrangements for her job in particular. She’ll be working about 20 hours/week, and she’ll even be able to see private practice patients sometime in the future. She is really happy about the job.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the company of the Clarks. Ellen, the eldest girl, played in a tennis tournament this week at UQ, so I was able to watch a few of her matches. This afternoon V. is watching Ellen play doubles while I stay at home with a napping Will. This morning we had a long walk along the river from Southbank, across the Goodwill bridge (see picture above), through the Botanic Gardens, and finishing up at Queen Street Mall. We have probably walked more just in the past week than we did in the entire previous six months. And that’s a good thing.

Happy 4th of July!

It's Independence Day back home. We're celebrating in Brisbane tonight with some Apple streudel for dessert (we couldn't find apple pie).

Still no permanent home yet. Landlords here like to have several applications to chose from, so we're waiting a few more days to hear the outcomes of two. We're hoping for a new townhouse in Toowong, or a classic Queenslander in Paddington, the latter being just a two blocks from our friends who are hosting us. We bought Will a new high chair today. The choices at the Baby Galore! store were a bit disappointing, and we had to shell out nearly $200 for one that was far inferior to our old one in the U.S. that we got for $60. We still have so much to buy, including a car, a TV, a DVD player, and some furniture.

For those of you in the States, I hope you enjoy the fireworks and the day off! And, just so it's clear, that's NOT the Australian flag pictured here...just a little political humor (or is it humour?).

First Impressions

As you know, I have been to Australia several times, but here are a few impressions from the perspective of a new resident…

• People are incredibly polite here. Whether it’s a clerk at the shop selling me a cheap pair of sunglasses or the guy taking tickets for the Citycat, people are generally friendlier than I am accustomed to, even compared with those doling out the Southern hospitality in Atlanta.
• The birds provide a completely different soundtrack to your life here, as none seems to have a call that sounds like one back in the U.S.
• Roundabouts really are great for traffic flow, but the double-lane ones that include the ending of a freeway are just downright scary!
• Good ideas about how to do things differently and better are plentiful here. I can’t see why more of them haven’t made their way to the U.S.
• My new workplace is wonderful. My office is huge, my furniture is attractive and ergonomic, and the staff have been amazingly effective in getting me set up. I have never experienced anything like it before.
• Meatpies are a yummy, quick lunch and come in many varieties--including vegetarian!
• Paris Hilton appears on as many magazines here as she does in the U.S. What is it about her that I seem to be overlooking?
• This country is obsessed with sports...and not just as spectators.
• Coffee shops are at every turn. I can’t believe that Starbucks thinks it has a chance in this country (I saw one down at Surfer’s the other day). Of course, it is difficult trying to find a simple cup of coffee that doesn’t come from an espresso roast bean. But on the positive side, the baristas here are great artists. The patterns that they can make with the foam are stunning.
• The time difference between here and the U.S. makes everyone back there seem especially far away. Well, I guess they are.

Breakfast in Paradise

For the last three mornings, Will has woken up between 2 and 4 am. Somehow, our hosts, the Clarks, haven't been too bothered by this, but yesterday we decided to leave the house at 5:30 and drive an hour south to Surfer's Paradise to give them some peace and quiet. We arrived just after sunrise. At first it seemed like we had the place to ourselves, but it turned out that the Gold Coast marathon had just begun. Hundreds of racers ran by while we had breakfast. Will had his second baby "chino," which is an espresso cup filled with a milky froth. We also had omelettes and pancakes. A nice treat here is that pancakes are always served with real maple syrup and ice cream! Then we had a short stroll on the beach before driving back to Brisbane.

Thanks for all the comments and emails. I am hoping that I'll finally get a chance to catch up with my correspondence later today (after I go to work for the first time).

Landing

Another brief entry, due to my being extremely tired and jet lagged…I am writing to you from our friends’ (the Clarks) home in Brisbane. We landed in Australia this morning at 6 am, after a fairly challenging trip. Will gave a long cry as the plane took off from LAX, and he pretty much had to sleep on my chest for most of the trip. We resorted to using Benadryl twice to keep him sleeping. Our real problem was that we had to manage eight checked bags, 4 carry-ons, a stroller, and a car seat (and Will, of course) as we negotiated the check-in procedures, customs arrival, and renting a car this morning. However, it took less than 45 minutes to get through the whole customs process in Brisbane, so we had a chance to drive to South Bank in Brisbane for a nice breakfast before arriving at the Clarks. Victoria and I opened up a checking account at Westpac this afternoon and deposited our traveller’s checks right away. Will is having an excellent time with Ellen (who turned 11 today) and Sally (who’s 8). Their mother, Fiona, is taking great care of us. Tomorrow we will look at some possible apartments/houses to rent. I am already scheduled to meet with my new Head of the school (equivalent to the department chair in the U.S.) on Monday morning at 9:30.

It’s amazing to think that we are now far away from everything (and nearly everyone) we have have know for so many years. But V. and I are both excited and happy. Although it was a bit chilly, Brisbane looked gorgeous in the morning sun when we arrived. We already feel that all the hassle and emotional upheaval we have experienced in the last four months was well worth it.

No Net

I forgot that our internet access would be turned off today, so I am at a Starbucks with this quick missive. I am so tired and stressed that I can't be sentimental about my last night in Atlanta. But I am sure that I will have a big smile when we board the plane tomorrow....

The Empty House

Just a quick post to let you know that we survived our 1000-mile, 8-day journey to middle America. For those of you planning to emigrate, may I suggest that you do not take such a trip just before you leave the country. Here we are at 12:30 early Monday morning, cleaning our basement. We still have a bunch of pesky tasks to do before we board the plane on Tuesday, but I am so stiff from all that driving and so tired that I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep. I am hoping to write more a regular post in 24 hours with some photos from our trip to Arkansas and Oklahoma...

Sleepless in Arkansas

(Don't you think the title of this post would be perfect for the sequel...Imagine, 15 years later, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are living in the same little town in Arkansas, but don't know it. One day, they each drive to the same Walmart in Benton, looking for a small alarm clock. As they reach for the last $3 special on the shelf, their hands touch...)

Yes, we are in Hot Springs Village, where my dad and his wife retired 12 years ago. We are also very tired this morning. Last night Will had a miserable night of tossing and crying, and V. & I paid the price. He hasn't slept nearly enough in the past three days, which is surely the culprit. The lack of normalcy is hardest on him. But what can we do? I drove him around the country roads for nearly two hours yesterday so that he would nap. At 2 am, V. was giving him a bath. We sang every song we could remember--including about ten rounds of "Yellow Submarine" (with all the verses). We haven't experienced anything like this with him in over six months.

For those of you have never visited this part of Arkansas, let me assure you that it is absolutely beautiful. It's full of rolling mountains, dense forests, lakes, and the occasional pasture that seems to pop out of nowhere. Of course, I'm trying to soak up all this American landscape, complete with chigger bites. But I'm also keeping an eye on the Brisbane rental market...

Belly Laugh (an Update)

Just an update to my June 2 post. As of last night (June 15):

1. Get rid of two cars (one is being donated, and one is being sold)
2. Sell three sofas, the kitchen table, two beds, a dresser, a large desk, a coffee table, and some book shelves.
3. Hold a garage sale for all the other smaller items.
4. Sell a deck table and chairs, a BBQ, and another glass table set.
5. Get the carpet cleaned and the hardwood floors polished.
6. Hire painters to paint the kitchen and master bath.
7. Close all accounts and services that we don't need once we leave (and figure out how to pay the ones we still need until the house is sold).
8. Move two aquariums to other homes.
9. Sell some electronics equipment on Craigslist (two TVs, a stereo, VCR, and some old Macs)
   
10. Arrange to ship some things that didn't get taken by the movers.
11. Rent a car (or minivan?).
12. Say goodbye to all our friends.
13. Give one more lecture, and grade 70 papers and 70 final exams (me).
14. Throw away everything left at work (me).
15. See the last patients (V. is doing this all the way until June 15).
16. Take care of our 16-month-old.

More from Arkansas and Oklahoma later...

Save (with) Vonage!

Just a quick post to praise Vonage, a VoIP service available here in the U.S. I have been using their services for the past year, cutting our phone bills by 70% (at least), and not missing the old BellSouth service at all. However, when I called to cancel the service yesterday, I learned a real cool thing--we can keep using Vonage in Australia. That's right...for the same $24.99/month that we have been paying here, we will still have our old Atlanta-based phone number that people can call from the States, and from which we can make free calls to the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and a few other places. All that's required is that we take our Vonage modem with us and connect to it our new high-speed internet service in Oz. We will still need to add local service in Australia, of course, but this should greatly reduce the burden of long distance calling for our friends and family, as well as us. The only problem is that we will need to remember to turn off the phone when we go to bed to avoid having solicitors and others calling our Atlanta number in the middle of a Brisbane night.

Now, let's just hope Vonage stays in business.

A Sale in Our Garage and then Goodbye

As I write this, I am watching Keira Knightley's version of "Pride and Prejudice" on cable for the fourth time in the past three months. Yes, I am strangely obsessed by this beautiful film, perhaps because of the rich details in the set design, the story (I have never read the novel), the gorgeous cast, the dialogue, and most definitely the music. Anyway, that's not really the subject of this post, but having it play in the background provides me some comfort as I reflect on the momentous 96 hours that have just passed.

First, in a span of about five hours on Thursday, we got rid of our two cars and rented a minivan.

Then, on Friday and Saturday, we held the mother of all garage sales. It was my very first as the seller. I had absolutely no idea how much people really haggle over prices, and therefore became the hapless victim of that segment of the population that never pays "full price" for anything. As V. and I ran around in 90 degree temps, attending to Will whenever he wasn't napping, we had to deal with stubborn customers who had the nerve to ask to have a dollar taken off an item already marked down to $2. I was exhausted from continually moving things from the basement to the garage to display during the sale. One woman bought all of our plants in one fell swoop. A family that relocated to Atlanta after their house was destroyed by Katrina in New Orleans bought our patio furniture. A cute young couple bought our bedroom set. One guy was only interested in whether I had some old 35mm camera equipment in the basement (and I did!). I heard at least seven languages spoken over the course of two days (the cultural diversity in Atlanta always surprises me). In the end, we made a tidy profit, but we will need to make a couple of trips to the local Goodwill to rid ourselves of those things that just wouldn't sell.

On Saturday night we had a much more enjoyable time attending a party in our honor. Thirty-two of our closest friends (including one who flew in from NYC) threw us a wonderful goodbye party at Donna's house. A few of these friends were people I met when I first came to Atlanta in '96, whereas a few others we had gotten to know just in the past year. Several of V's friends came as well, which caused the room to nearly burst with psychologists and psychiatrists. There were some teary farewell speeches and some very nice gifts (including a Visa card to buy furniture once we get to Brisbane!). I am pleased with my new mousepad, made up of several of my work colleagues who got together and posed for a group portrait after a faculty meeting a few weeks ago.

The group picture on the left was taken mid-party (before Tracie's margaritas had their full effect!). Let me be clear. These people really are true-blue, honest-to-goodness friends, and we are going to miss them terribly.

Driving home last night at 1 am, I wasn't in much of mood to talk about it all with V. The six hours at the party flew by so quickly...just like our wedding. The idea that our life here is nearly over still hasn't sunk in. I'll see a few of these people later this week for some more goodbyes, but it it is time to accept reality...we ARE moving to AUSTRALIA! (Damn, what was I thinking?!)

Hola, Hello, and "Hey"

In the past few days I have been getting several hits to this blog from Chile, Argentina, and England. So, I thought I would offer a special welcome to you ships that pass in the night, before you going clicking away to some other more fantastic blog.

For the more "regular" readers, the garage sale netted us over $1000...pretty good, huh? And we nearly have everything finished on our checklist (take that, Audra!). I promise a more regular post (with pictures) tomorrow, the day I finish my 44th trip around the sun.

Check, Check

I think we have successfully completed two of the items on the checklist I posted two days ago. Three more should be taken care of by Wednesday.

We fly away from Atlanta three weeks from tomorrow.

All three of us are very tired right now.

Under Pressure

Two weeks from today we will load up a rental car and drive to Arkansas and Oklahoma to see members of my family for eight days. When we return, we will have one full day left in Atlanta before boarding the plane to Los Angeles. So, that means we have only 13 days left to do the following:

1. Get rid of two cars (one is being donated, and one is being sold)
2. Sell three sofas, the kitchen table, two beds, a dresser, a large desk, a coffee table, and some book shelves.
3. Hold a garage sale for all the other smaller items.
4. Sell a deck table and chairs, a BBQ, and another glass table set.
5. Get the carpet cleaned and the hardwood floors polished.
6. Hire painters to paint the kitchen and master bath.
7. Close all accounts and services that we don't need once we leave (and figure out how to pay the ones we still need until the house is sold).
8. Move two aquariums to other homes.
9. Sell some electronics equipment on Craigslist (two TVs, a stereo, VCR, and some old Macs)
   
10. Arrange to ship some things that didn't get taken by the movers.
11. Rent a car (or minivan?).
12. Say goodbye to all our friends.
13. Give one more lecture, and grade 70 papers and 70 final exams (me).
14. Throw away everything left at work (me).
15. See the last patients (V. is doing this all the way until June 15).
16. Take care of our 16-month-old.

That's all, I think!

But is it Art?

Back from D.C. last night, I got up early this morning to watch the season finales of "Heroes" and "Lost." Oh my! I was very moved by both shows, but, on "Lost," Jack's surprise flash forward (did you happen to notice that the name of the funeral home was an anagram of this?--I didn't!) and Charlie's final palm message were some of the best dramatic moments I have experienced in a long while. Both of these shows, as well as "The Office," are absolutely brilliant--three solid reasons why people should never get rid of their TVs. How am I going to survive without these shows for so many months? And I have no idea how the American broadcast dates for these shows correspond to when they air in Australia, so I may be waiting even longer...

Anyway, I have plenty of snobby friends who think my love of good television (and Diet Coke, for that matter) betrays my 25 years of education, which makes me wonder how I could be so wrong and they could be so right. Well, at the APS meeting I attended this past weekend, I saw a talk by Paul Bloom, a Yale developmental psychologist (and someone about whom I have blogged before), titled "But is it Art?" He recently studied how young children perceive art and discussed his findings in the context of broader philosophical theories of art. Among the various points he made (I didn't take notes, so I'm doing this from memory):

• Adults and children place special value on artistic reproductions of the real world. This explains the preference most people have for portaits, landscapes, pictures of still life, etc.
  
• Adults and children prefer original works of creation over perfect copies. Think about how everyone reacts to the news that a revered painting by a great master is actually a forgery. Three-year-olds have this same response when they are given a chance to have an exact replica of their favorite attachment blanket or toy instead of the original.
  
• The more we (and children) perceive that the artist labored, the more we value the end product. Bloom cited a study in which subjects reported liking an abstract painting more when they learned that the artist spent 28 hours or so on it, compared to a condition in which subjects were told that the artist spent 9 hours creating the same work of art.
  
• Adults and children recognize that the artist's intention is more important in appraising the art than what the end product actually resembles. As Bloom noted, tell a young child that the stick figure that she has just drawn not only looks like "mommy," but everyone else in the family, and you'll end up with a very upset child.
  

I believe that Bloom comes from an evolutionary psychology framework, and his bottom-line argument is that there may be a few basic principles that we all share when we evaluate works of art that reflect basic cognitive processes we use in other areas of life. I am not sure that this analysis works in the case of my favorite television shows, but in these shows I do appreciate the originality, the attention to realism (so that I become absorbed in this new reality), and the apparently huge amount of work it takes to create such a quality product. Why my snobbier friends don't have these same appreciations of my television shows, or why people the world over differ in their artistic tastes, certainly has less to do with the inherent qualities of the art, and more to do with what we already know about the artist and/or perceive in the art in the ways in which Bloom described.

Cops and Robbers

Our local city, Sandy Springs, recently became incorporated, and many members of its police force have been recruited from surrounding communities, probably with significantly better pay. As a result of all the enthusiasm that accompanies new things, the police department has been especially proactive, giving lots of speeding tickets and keeping the local neighborhood watches apprised of every local offense via email. I simply had to share this one with you, my loyal readers:

A 43-year old man was arrested at 6335 Roswell Road, in the parking lot of a gym after a man reported that when he walked out of the gym and got into his car, a silver Mercedes drove up next to him and the driver of the car began to stare at him. The complainant said that he noticed a motion coming from the man’s hands, near the waist area and suspected the man was staring at him and masturbating at the same time. (This is sometimes known as multi-tasking.)

The report indicated the man told the complainant “Hey Big Boy, can I play with you?” The complainant then got out of the car and walked over to the man’s car at which time the man probably read the word “Police” on the complainant’s T-shirt.
The man was arrested for Solicitation for an Illicit Sexual Act, a city ordinance. The complainant is a detective with Sandy Springs Police.

The guy in jail is upset because of all the luck, this guy was a cop.

The detective is upset because all day long everyone’s been calling him “Big Boy.”

To DC We Go!

We reached another moving milestone this morning when we gave our cat Sammy to one of my colleagues for adoption. She's going to be living on the 13th floor in downtown Atlanta with a view of CNN, Centennial Park, the Georgia Aquarium, and the World of Coke. I imagine that she's going to be crying out for me as she goes from room to room in the next few days. She was really attached to me, so I do worry about how she'll cope. I am sad.

On a happier note, we are flying to DC tonight for the weekend. I am presenting a paper at the APS meeting, and we'll get to see our old friends Larry and Lisa (and their three kids) in Virginia as well. However, we already missed our 4:50 flight to Dulles because of the traffic. We are now scheduled for a 9:50 flight that we hope we won't miss!

The Little Sh*t

For the record...I am sure that I would have hated our president if we had been in elementary school together. He would have been the little sh*t who was always getting everyone else in trouble while he snuck away with his little impish grin.

I'm in a foul mood.

Losing Sleep Selling a House

This past weekend was the most tiring one yet in our son's 15-month-old life. It started with a birthday party on Saturday morning during his nap time. He was able to make up that missed nap in the early afternoon, but he never got his second one. We then went to a 6:00 dinner at Patty and Sarah's house. Unfortunately, Will was ready to go to sleep an hour after we arrived, so I tried to get him to fall asleep on my chest as I walked around, missing the dinner conversation and having to eat my meal after everyone else had finished. This was all for nothing, as Will never went to sleep and just grew crankier. We left at 8:30, got home, and put Will, who was now completely exhausted, straight to bed. I then checked the messages. An agent wanted to show the house the next morning, "sometime between 9 and 12." (The early hour on a Sunday made me want to write my own "Dear 24," letter).

If you haven't had to show a house in this country, let me just say it is disruptive. Each time one is scheduled, usually with just a few hours' notice, we are expected to be out of the house, and, of course, our home is supposed to be spotless. With a young toddler in tow, this becomes extremely challenging. Normally we spend a good part of an hour feeding him in the morning, and then following that with another 30-45 minutes of bathing and getting him dressed. Well, yesterday, he slept until 9 because of his long day before. We quickly dressed him and left, not wanting to have the house messed up by the usual routine. This particular agent's three-hour window was especially annoying because most showings don't last more than 10 minutes. We went out to breakfast at a local Dunwoody institution, J. Christopher's (our first time, if you can believe it...and I am now sorry that I didn't know about it before now), and then headed to the mall to buy some shoes. By the time we got home at 1, Will was exhausted again. He even fell asleep in the car. But he woke up when I transferred him to his pack-n-play. Now he was awake again, but another message was waiting for us that an agent wanted to show the house sometime between 3 and 5. This time we waited in the house until 4, and then put Will in the car for a long drive to kill the time. He did fall asleep again, but woke up as soon as we got back to the house at 5:15. For the next two hours he tried to stay cheery while he banged around the house like a drunk and picked through his dinner. Putting him to bed at 7, he then cried for the next 40 minutes while we tried different tricks to help him calm down. He was so, so tired. Finally, after much singing of Beatles's songs, he gave me a smile, and fell asleep almost the instant I put him down. He was exhausted, we were exhausted, and our last "quiet" weekend was finally over.

And still no one has made an offer on our house.

Sorting It Out

It really happened. Four guys showed up at our house on Wednesday and began packing our stuff. They finished yesterday and then loaded it all into a 40-ft shipping container (they only used half the space, which seems like such a waste). That container will be taken to the port in Savannah, where it will be loaded onto a ship bound for Australia. We should next see these belongings around the first of August. But for now, our house feels strange. Some rooms are completely empty, while others look the same because we are not taking any of the furniture in them. Our kitchen is a mess. All the silverware, glasses, and dishes are gone. Last night we had dinner from the crockpot but we had to use a plastic fork and knife to scoop out the food. We also packed our cookbooks and pots & pans, so cooking is going to be a challenge for a while.

Both my home and work offices are nearly empty. I feel uneasy having all my books and files gone...what if I really need something that's been shipped? Of course, I will survive just fine without all this crap, but it is disorienting.

At work I have finished giving 4 of the 15 scheduled 150-minute lectures in social psychology. I have been giving this course all my best, as I would like to leave GSU on a high note. It helps that this is a course that I have taught more than 15 times since the early 90s. V.'s work is "winding down," although she has as many appointments in the coming week as she normally does. In the week after we come back from our Memorial Day weekend trip to DC, most of her appointments will be her last.

In six days we move Sammy to her new home (a colleague is adopting her). She's sitting on my lap as I write this. I feel really sad about leaving her here, but I'll save that for a later post.

Someone Else's Happy Ending

Last year, thanks to Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code podcast, I discovered the music of Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers. If you like great pop music, you really ought to give “Hang on Mike” a try. One song in particular gets played at least once a week on my iPod—”What to Do With Michael.” It’s an autobiographical song about Viola’s real-life romance with a woman he met in Paris after his first wife died of cancer. She was studying abroad and he was on tour, so they had to say goodbye until they met up again in New York, where they watched “The Spirit of St. Louis” in Bryant Park on their first date. They’ve been together ever since, as Viola sings:

Now my friend, they are inseparable
She even gets that boy to go to the gym
Now if you don’t think that’s love, you must by cynical
Or maybe man, you’re just dreaming in French, yeah

‘Cause she knows what to do with Michael
She knows how to make him feel
That he’s the one, he’s his mother’s son, not like anyone
He just needed time to heal
Well that’s right, he just needed time to heal

My affection for this song is partly due to my being able to relate to parts of their story, but I think it’s also one of the most romantic songs I have heard in a while. I wondered what happened to these two (the album came out in ‘04), and I was later pleased to see that Mike Viola posted an entry on his website about his life with his wife and daughter, Isabel, including the picture below. See, you love cynics, happy endings still happen all the time!Note: This is a modified verion of an entry I made at mog.com blog last June.

Last Times

With about a month left before our life in Atlanta concludes, we have entered that phase of a big move in which one experiences the last time for this and the last time for that. I am particularly conscious of these moments because it is really hard to imagine how they could ever be experienced again, given that we are moving 9000 miles away (according to Google Earth). The picture above was taken last Sunday at the last party for my lab group. A few days before that I gave my last lecture to a graduate class. I visited Emory this week for the last time, spending some time with my ex-wife Patty as we (finally!) divided up the pictures from our previous life together. I also saw some of my former Emory colleagues on that visit, which will likely be the last time I see them. I had my last department-related meeting yesterday. It was a weird meeting to attend, as it was focused on the department's plans for the next five years, and my leaving has affected those plans. Today kicks off the last "normal" weekend in our house, as the movers arrive on Wednesday. I am taking a lot of pictures during these last times. It's a feeble attempt to keep these people and places frozen in time as my memories start to fade in the coming years.

Watch Out, Bill Bryson

I discovered a blog today that I am just crazy about. It's called "Audra's Australian Adventures," and it's written by an American ex-pat who moved to Sydney with her husband about four months ago. Audra seems to be some sort of biotech researcher, but her prose is some of the best I have read in the blogosphere. To whet your appetite, here's an excerpt from her entry about Australian politeness:

Here, school children ride public buses. If you should find yourself on a city street in the afternoon, your bus is sure to pick up a gaggle of chattering students adorned in their distinctive uniforms. (My favorite uniforms are the well-heeled boys of Monte Sant’Angelo Mercy College who wear black knee pants, long grey socks, black ties, and flat-brimmed straw hats fitted with a black and white striped silk band. In the winter, a crisp grey blazer is added to their ensemble.) Students are required to give up their seats for adults, and they do so with avid enthusiasm. When exiting the bus, each and every student shouts an emphatic “Thank you” to the driver, who politely disguises his annoyance with a grunty smile.

This is good stuff. It makes me wish we were getting on the plane tomorrow!

The Journey, Part I

Our upcoming move to Australia has a certain inevitability to it, now that I reflect back on my prior trips to the country. In 1975, when I was 11 (32 years ago!), my family was living in Dixon, Illinois. My dad was asked by his corporate bosses to go to Australia for the summer to help the company start up a South Pacific branch. So, in May of that year we flew from Chicago, via Hawaii, Fiji, and Sydney, to little Wagga Wagga, a country town in southern New South Wales. I was the oldest child, and I had two brothers and a sister who was a toddler. How my parents managed with so many little ones on such a trip, I don't know, given that V. and I are already starting to panic about traveling with our ONE child.

We rented a house on the Wollundry Lagoon (see my last post), and my mother promptly enrolled my brothers and me in the public school a few blocks away. Even though it was our "summer vacation," I had an excellent time taking classes and getting to know the kids. My two brothers, on the other hand, did not enjoy the experience, as they were picked on constantly about their accents. All three of us were repeatedly referred to as "yanks" and asked about Disneyland and Al Capone. My brothers eventually quit school, but I stayed on. I remember coming back from Australia with excellent penmanship (we had classes devoted to handwriting) and pronouncing 'plaque' as though it rhymed with 'rock'. I came back to Wagga and visited my old school in 1996 and then again in 2000. See the pictures below...the first was taken in 1975, and the second 25 years later.

With the exception of my dad, we didn't travel far from Wagga that summer. We did go to Canberra, Melbourne, and a winery in northern Victoria. Given the short time we were there, it's amazing how many friends we all made. In August my dad was asked if he'd like to stay another 3 years, but by then my mom and brothers were more than ready to leave. I think it was really hard on my mom especially, and I remember that she used to keep a calendar on the wall in which she crossed out the days that we had left. And nearly everyday she would sing John Denver's "Take me home, country roads..."
I was probably the saddest of us all when we left. I had a girlfriend (for the first time) and many friends, I played sports (the only time in my life, really), and I was a bit of a celebrity as the only American most of those kids had ever met. In the picture above (taken by my dad on our last day in Australia) you can see me in the light blue jacket, with two friends on either side of me. My mom is second from the left, with my little brother and sister standing in front of her. My other brother is standing on the far right. The other people were the Smiths, a family that we spent a lot of time with. After we came back to the States, they moved to Surfer's Paradise, which isn't far from where we will be living in Queensland. Unfortunately, it's hard tracking down any particular set of Robert Smiths in Australia.

Alas, it took another 21 years before I came back to Australia. I'll write more about that trip in Part II.

Old Friends

That's me in the center of this photo, taken at the Wollundry Lagoon, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia in August 1975. I don't really remember the names of my friends here, but I think one of them (the one on the left) is Paul Arbuckle. My family lived in Wagga for three months while my dad was hiring people for a new branch of his company. I went to school, played rugby and aussie rules football, kissed my first girlfriend (Marie Manning, which apparently I have no photos of!), and made a lot of friends. When we came back to the States, I kept up the correspondences for about a year, and then all those friendships faded away. The whole experience was my special Aussie edition of "The Wonder Years."

Why I Like Atlanta

Although we have made a deliberate decision to leave for now, I really would enjoy moving back to Atlanta someday. So, pretending for a moment that I never have any complaints about it, here's my list of reasons to like Atlanta (in no particular order):

1. Trees, trees, trees.
2. Midtown.
3. The excellent restaurant scene (Canoe and Babette's have been my favorites).
4. A visibly successful Black middle-class (as opposed to what I left in Los Angeles).
5. The Georgia Aquarium.
6. MARTA
7. Piedmont Park.
8. Sweetwater Creek State Park.
9. Redtop Mountain State Park.
10. Northside Hospital (where our son was born).
11. The network of long streets that meander in all different directions without regard to the compass points and change names 2-3 times along the way.
12. Super Target.
13. The Malls (Lenox, Perimeter, and Northpoint are my favs).
14. Three Apple stores!
15. The misnamed Dekalb International Farmer's Market.
16. The general level of politeness of Southerners.
17. Being called "sweetie" by waitresses and women at the cash register.
18. Emory University.
19. Georgia State University.
20. Carter Presidential Library.
21. MLK Center (King's tomb is less than a mile from my office).
22. CNN center.
23. Philipps Arena.
24. A concert (and dinner) at Chastain Amphitheater.
25. Moe's.
26. Willy's.
27. The corner of Virginia and Highland.
28. Downtown Decatur.
29. Downtown Norcoss.
30. The Brickstore in Decatur.
31. Walking in Lullwater Park (near Emory).
32. Our subdivision and general neighborhood (Hunter's Woods and Deerfield in eastern Dunwoody/Sandy Springs).
33. Our house.
34. The birds that congregate at the four feeders outside my window.
35. Grilling dinner in the backyard.
36. The excitement that comes with the chance of snow flurries in Atlanta.
37. The great Atlanta airport.
38. The downtown skyline at night.
39. Seeing Stone Mountain from afar.
40. The Weather Channel (which is based here).
41. Felix at Mint Salon.
42. Jaclynn, our former personal trainer.
43. Spring in Atlanta.
44. Being able to drive to Savannah, one of my favorite cities.
45. All our friends.

Permanent Residents

27/04/2007

Dear Mr VANMAN,

PERMANENT RESIDENCE

I am pleased to advise that application lodged for permanent residence in Australia lodged has been approved.

...

It is also the Government's policy that migrants who arrive in Australia or are granted permanent residence on or after 1 January 1997 and who are not refugee or humanitarian visa holders, will have to wait two years before they can receive Austudy educational assistance. To inquire, ring the number listed under Austudy in the local telephone book.

All migrants/permanent residents will have immediate access to Medicare health services.

CITIZENSHIP ENTITLEMENT

Permanent residents of Australia can apply for Australian citizenship. Further information about Australian citizenship can be obtained by contacting the Department of Immigration and Citizenship enquiry line by dialling 131880 from anywhere in Australia at the cost of a local call.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family well for your future in Australia.

If you have any queries regarding this matter, please contact me on (07) xxxxxxxxx

Yours sincerely

xxxxxxxxxxx
Position Number 899
Permanent Business Entry

The End is Near...

...well, at least the end of the semester is near. Today is the last day of my classes. I still have about 70 papers and final exams to grade, but that won't require any last-minute lecture preparations. I am teaching one more course at Georgia State before we move--a three-week course in social psychology that meets every day for 2.5 hours starting May 14.

The picture here was taken yesterday during a short trip to Zoo Atlanta, which was a nice break from the usual routine. It came about because this semester an undergraduate student from Spelman College worked in my lab. Yesterday she presented her research at a poster session sponsored by the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience in the conference center at the zoo. Because I happened to be taking care of Will, I took him with me so that we could spend a little time seeing the animals. Unfortunately nearly everything was closing down by the time we arrived. The goats at the petting zoo were just going in for dinner, but Will got a chance to grab at their fur for a few minutes while a zookeeper snapped this photo. One of my friends from work, Tricia, and her daughter, Jamie, joined us a little later, and Will was much more interested in watching Jamie running around than looking at the lions, elephants, or monkeys.

We took care of another important requirement for our move this week--we booked the date when the shippers will come to get our stuff for May 16-17. That means that we will have nearly nothing in our Atlanta home for about 5 weeks, except the things that we taking in our suitcases or that we intend to sell. It's supposed to take about two months for our things to get to Brisbane. I can imagine that we will be very happy to see our things when they arrive in late July. And, by the way, still no offers on our house, although we have had about 4-5 viewings a week.

As V. described it yesterday, the whole move has taken on a surreal feeling. We are still pretty much going through our daily routine, seeing all the people we normally see, driving through the familiar neighborhoods, and shopping at our regular places. It's hard to believe that in about two weeks the first of the major disruptions will take place. In fact, soon I won't even be sitting at this computer (the desktop Mac in my wonderful upstairs office) writing these blog entries, with Sammy snoozing next to me as the morning sunlight comes through the window.

It's My Dahling's Birthday!

Yes, the mother of my child and my young wife of oh-so-many years is celebrating her own birth today. We started things off with Huevos Rancheros (my own version consisting of salsa, scrambled eggs, and cheese) for breakfast, followed by flowers, cards, and some dancing in the kitchen while Will watched with a bemused look perched in his high chair. Later V. went to a spa for a leg waxing and haircut (her first since Will was born) while I had lunch in Piedmont Park with Irwin, a long-time and close friend. Later David and Cathy will join us for a night out, which will begin with attending a reception at the Dean's house for those of us who recently received tenure and promotion, and then dinner at Babette's. We are leaving Will at our home with David and Cathy's daughter, Rachel.

It's a good day. And I'm an extremely lucky guy.

Give Me a Cuppa!

From The Age (the best newspaper in Australia, in my opinion), comes a story about perhaps the world's most expensive cup of coffee:

But Hervey's Range Heritage Tea Rooms located at the top of the Hervey Range, west of Townsville, now has a $50 cup of coffee on the menu.

The rare Kopi Luwak beans that make the expensive brew are retrieved from the droppings of the Luwak, a cat-like member of the civet family which is found in the jungles of Indonesia.

Tea room owner Allan Sharpe said the Luwaks eat the ripe coffee cherries, but the inner bean is not digested, meaning they can be retrieved from the animal's droppings.

The beans, which are then washed and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavours - cost $1250 per kilogram.

If you can get past the thought of drinking something extracted from animal droppings, the taste of the coffee is actually quite sweet and smooth.

I wonder how that would taste in a Starbucks Mocha...

Missing the Dogwoods

Spring in Atlanta this year has been strange. We had about 10 days starting in late March when the temps got to about 80 F and the pollen counts hit near record levels. All the beautiful blooming trees, plants, and bushes started to come out in their full glory. Then, all of a sudden, we went back down into the 20s for a couple of nights, and nearly all the blossoms disappeared. In the week since, we continued to have very cool weather, which culminated in a miserable Sunday yesterday. We had planned to go to the annual Dogwood festival, which takes place in Midtown Atlanta. I have been to it nearly every year since about '98 (I moved to ATL in '97), so I was especially looking forward to having a final glorious day watching the frisbee dogs and wandering among the crafts booths. This time we would be able to let our son roam around on the grass in the sunshine as well. Alas, the temps didn't exceed 41 degrees (5 degrees C), and the wind was blowing at gusts of 30 mph. So, instead we drove to an outlet mall where we had to walk around in our winter coats. My guess is that the dogwoods had stopped blooming before this year's festival had even started.

The picture I have posted here was taken at last year's Dogwood Festival, when we met up with our very good friends Larry and Lisa, and their three kids, Alana, Hannah, and Alec. They have since moved to the DC area and we miss them a lot, but I'm glad that what has turned out to be our very last DF was shared with them.

The Floor Show

Who needs to pay the big bucks to go out at night when you have this entertainment at home?

Spider Land

Check out this post with a picture of a spider in Queensland on Mooselet's blog. When you click on the link you'll see a gigantic spider on the wall in her house! (I believe it's a Huntsman). I let out a nervous laugh when I saw this. Just the day before, V. was complaining about the roaches and other many-legged insects that we occasionally find in our house. Although they are definitely ugly, our Atlanta bugs certainly don't inspire terror in a mere photograph. Check out Australia's Wolf spider in this picture! This comes from a web page titled "Spiders in Australia," and contains a photo line-up that rivals the FBI's Most Wanted list. Despite all these spiders with their scary sizes and hairy appendages, the website warns that "two spiders should be avoided, the Sydney Funnel-web and the Redback because their bites can be painful for some days." This website really downplays the perceived danger of these spiders, pointing out that no one has died from a spider bite in Australia since 1980 (a Sydney Funnel-web bite) and nobody has died from a Redback bite since 1956 because of the development of antivenoms. That's a relief...

Up and Down

This is an important week. I have a self-imposed deadline to notify my current employer of my final decision about Australia by Friday. On Monday my good friend and Chair of the department pulled out all the stops to try to get me to stay. But the following day, in a rebuttal of sorts to those persuasive attempts, a senior colleague told me a version of events he had heard about why I am leaving, which included a load of crap that stirred up all sorts of lousy memories of the past seven years. Meanwhile, my mother-in-law has been visiting from England. I had to make a very early morning trip to the airport so that she could fly to Jamaica...twice. She missed her first flight on Tuesday so I had to roll out of bed the next day at 4:30 to try again. She will be coming back to Atlanta in two weeks. Yesterday I spent three hours getting our application for our permanent residency visas ready and sent it off by Global Express. In addition, a moving company came to the house to give an official estimate for The Big Move we plan to make in a month. So far this week we have had one viewing of the house by a potential buyer that probably lasted 5 minutes tops! But, we did receive some very good news this week... our temporary visas were approved on Monday night, so that means we can start working once we have landed.

As things get finalized (or "finalised," as they spell it Down Under!), the bouts of anxiety, sadness, and regret have become more frequent. Fortunately, we found a great website about Australian tourism that has a wonderful (but controversial) ad called "So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?" Both Vikki and I are finding it to be the perfect booster shot for morale...

A Wondrously Venomous and Toothy Country

We are about to leave Atlanta with its troublesome squirrels and gentle deer to go to a place with a few more natural challenges.

I was re-reading Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburnt Country" last night when I came upon this vivid description of the "delicate and diaphanous" box jellyfish, which lives along the shores of Queensland during the summer:

In 1992 a young man in Cairns, ignoring all the warning signs, went swimming in the Pacific waters at a place called Holloways Beach. He swam and dove, taunting his friends on the beach for their prudent cowardice, and then began to scream with an inhuman sound. It is said that there is no pain to compare with it. The young man staggered from the water, covered in livid whiplike stripes wherever the jellyfish's tentacles had brushed across him, and collapsed in quivering shock. Soon afterward emergency crews arrived, inflated him with morphine, and took him away for treatment. And here's the thing. Even unconscious and sedated, he was still screaming.

Good news! This will not be the only jellyfish to worry about in our new land. The Irukandji jellyfish, a highly venomous creature only about an inch long, was recently spotted in Hervey Bay (near Brisbane), forcing the filming of a new movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson to move to a safer location. I also found this story about a recent stinging by one of these little critters in a pool in Townsville. I like how the story reports that the teenage girl was "severely stung," but there is no other word about her condition. I guess "still alive" is considered good enough.

And then there are the pythons. Apparently they are commonly found around Brisbane, although pythons are not one of the 14 species of Australian snakes that are poisonous. When I was at a group dinner last October, one of the staff at UQ told me about the python that once slithered up on his veranda while everyone was enjoying the sun, including his cat. A few minutes later there was a muffled scream--his cat was being crushed by the snake. The End. Everyone at my table (all Australians) chuckled at this story and then went on sipping their wine.

The Promise of Something Better

As I write this we have about as many days to go before The Big Move as the characters on "Lost" have been wandering around that enormous island with those scary spiders and beautiful beaches.

I was recently asked on the Yanks Down Under forum to elaborate about a comment I made. I had stated that we are moving to Brisbane because of "the promise of something better." What does this mean? Well, first there is the job at UQ. It certainly is better for me both professionally and personally. Professionally, it's going to reconnect me to my research interests and give me much more time to concentrate on my lab, write articles, and maybe even read! Personally, this job should give me some more time to spend with my wife and son as well.

Besides the job, there is the promise of many other things too...the adventure that includes experiencing a different culture and country (for at least a few years), being near the ocean once again, the relative safety and better quality of life in Brisbane (compared to most major cities in the U.S.), being able to have a short commute to work (I am hoping that I can walk to my office from home), a slower pace of life, a more family-centric society, the possibility of traveling to other places "nearby," the shedding of all the junk we have accumuated back in the States, a chance to re-energize our lives, and a place where Victoria can reconnect with her British roots.

Besides, it will be a real treat to hear Will say one day, "No worries, mate!"

Split Personality Blogging

I have had a hard time trying to write this next blog entry, although I have thought of dozens of things to write about in the past week. I believe the problem is that I don't have a strong enough focus for this blog. Currently it's devoted to talking about social neuroscience and related academic issues, but I'm more inclined to write about other things that catch my fancy, such as our move to Oz in a few months. And then there's the issue of my intended "audience." Do I really want to talk to other academics exclusively, or am I more interested in having my family and friends read these entires? Or, do I have any intention of attracting a regular audience of any type?!

The answers to these questions will be sorted out in the coming weeks. I think at present I am going to make it a more personal blog, and leave the more academic aspects to my lab website , which has its own blog about journal articles, etc. I also want to invite my close friends and family to this blog after a few more entries, so that I can bring them along in our travels. Thanks to "Tori" for this suggestion!

Acting Out

One of the expat blogs in Oz I enjoy reading is kittenDownUnder, which is authored by a woman who has written some honest, from-the-gut entries about what it's like to migrate to the other side of the Pacific. In her most recent entry she laments how little her friends and family have corresponded with her since she moved, and that gets me a bit worried. You see, I can already sense how my own friends and family are starting to "act out" about our impending move. Some have reacted as if I told them I have a terminal disease. Others have expressed how happy they are for us, but also admit they are feeling angry about our decision. One friend disclosed to another some confidential information I had shared, presumably because it won't matter because I will be gone in a few months anyway. Another friend is holding me personally responsible for her lack of sleep and loss of happiness over all this. Gawd! Is it any wonder that Australia is looking more appealing now? But honestly, as "kitten" indicates, I know that I am going to have some bouts of the blues once I get there and realize that this part of my life, including my current batch of friends and maybe even some relationships with relatives, is over. I am already starting to miss all of this, and I haven't packed a box yet.

For Your Reading Pleasure

Despite its original intent, this blog hasn't had much to say about social neuroscience (SN) lately. Perhaps it's because I have been a little preoccupied with plans to move to the other side of the planet?! Anyway, three SN-relevant books have recently found their way to my home, and I hope to write complete reviews of them in the next six months (what a weak promise!).

The first is co-edited by the granddaddy of SN himself, John Cacioppo, as well as Penny Visser and Cindy Pickett : Social Neuroscience: People Thinking about Thinking People, published by MIT Press. Despite the corny title, this one contains original chapters by many of the leaders of contemporary social neuroscience.

The second represents a more "junior" group of social neuroscientists: Social Neuroscience: Integrating Biological and Psychological Explanations of Social Behavior, edited by Eddie Harmon-Jones and Piotr Winkielman. There is quite a bit of overlap in the list of authors and chapters between this book and the Cacioppo, Visser, and Pickett one. I am more excited about this one, however, as it has a broader coverage of topics and includes some people who appear to have been overlooked by Cacioppo et al.

The third book every budding social neuroscientist should own is the third edition of the classic Handbook of Psychophysiology, edited by Cacioppo, Tassinary, and Berntson. My complimentary copy arrived just this week (check out the chapter on facial EMG--I'm a co-author!). My first impressions are that this one is going to be much easier to carry around, as opposed to that 12-pound monolith that was the second edition...

The Secret That Got Away

Well, it's no longer a secret to the people that matter most to me here in the States. I have told nearly everyone that would be affected that we are moving to Oz, and it's quite a relief. Today's big reveal was to my six graduate students, who, while very supportive of my decision, looked quite stunned as they walked away. You see, my current dean will not allow me to stay on in an unpaid capacity for the coming year so that I could direct them while they finish off their dissertations and theses. Instead, the most I can hope for is to play the role of "consultant" or "external committee member" on their projects. They are left trying to figure out who will be their next mentor, and, more importantly, what they will do once our Social Neuroscience lab is shut down in '08.

On a more positive note, our son Will has started pointing to objects when asked about where they are. He can now identify a plastic butterfly, the lights, the TV, the clock, and each of his parents when prompted. How can such simply activities appear to be so miraculous? I guess only parents can really appreciate "the little stuff!"

Psyched Down Under

That's a picture of my new workplace (in about three months) taken last October at the University of Queensland. The School of Psychology is huge compared to my current department at Georgia State. My new position will be in biological psychology, but it will have clear connections to the social psych folks, making this a truly "social neuroscience" position. I'm excited about all the new colleagues I'm going to have, although I will be leaving some great ones behind in Atlanta.

I got a lot accomplished this week towards our move, including telling most of my family members about what's about to take place. I also discovered that the wait time for an employer-sponsored permanent working visa could be as long as 5 months, so I'm simultaneously applying for a temporary visa (processing time=2 months). I also began the many steps in getting our cat, Sammy, ready for the move. Yesterday she was microchipped (a chip about the size of a grain of rice was injected between her shoulder blades) and given her rabies and other vaccinations. We go back in 30 days for rabies titre test that will then need to be approved by a USDA official in Conyers, GA.

In the meantime I worry about getting the house sold and timing everything just right in terms of the shipping dates, selling our stuff, and flying to Oz. Thank goodness I have our little family as a source of comfort!

Brisbane, Here We Come!

It's official! We are moving to Brisbane, Australia this summer. In case you have never moved to another country before (like my wife has), you need to know that there is a freaking huge amount of things to do:
-sell the house in 3 months
-sell nearly everything we own, as we don't have much of a budget to move things
-get rid of nearly all the electrical appliances
-apply for visas (which begins with fingerprinting and FBI background checks)
-get quotes from different international moving companies
-figure out how to transfer money and maintain U.S. accounts after we leave
-get our cat ready for the quarantine process
-enjoying our last chances of eating good Tex-Mex (but looking forward to an abundance of excellent Indian food)
-telling everyone we know that we are going to the other side of the planet, and then waving them all goodbye
and trying to "smell the roses" along the way.
Oh my!!

*I took the picture above in Oct 2006 from a cafe in South Bank, along the Brisbane river. Australia is incredibly caffeine-friendly...