My talk tomorrow

I know when it is, now. (Derp. The program was online as a .pdf file. I didn't know that right away. I don't tend to think of those things. Also, when I was a section chair, I e-mailed the people speaking and told them their times - because there was still a chance to shuffle things around if someone went "But that time will NEVER WORK FOR ME! That is the WORST POSSIBLE TIME EVER!" Of course, my section was less than 1/3 the size of the one I'm speaking in tomorrow...)

So it's at 9. Which is good - I will have a chance to pick up my registration materials, get to the room in decent time, but not hang around so much I stress out over it. Also, the talks following mine are on different topics (one is on bryophytes) so hopefully the chances of Dr. Professor Big Expert With Something to Prove being there are lowered.

(Did I ever tell you how my FIRST research talk ever - it was in Knoxville at the ESA meetings in, what, 1994? Anyway, I walked into the session and sat down and thought, "Hm, that guy over there looks familiar." It was E.O. Wilson.

Commence hyperventilating. "Oh crap oh no E.O. freaking Wilson is going to hear my sad little grad student talk and he's going to think I'm an idiot because I have no experience and this is the first official talk I've given" (Never mind that some years later, when I briefly met David Tilman - arguably the most famous plant ecologist currently - he was a very nice man and not someone who'd take a grad student's presentation to bits merely because it wasn't polished or wasn't perfect, and I suspect Wilson would be the same way - it tends to be the comparative tyros, rather than the titans, who feel the need to belittle others, who think that makes them look smarter). But anyway, at the break, Wilson got up and walked out and didn't come back - probably was going to another session after seeing the talk he specifically wanted to see. Now, I admit I'm a little sad about that - E.O. Wilson could have been in my audience! - but then I was just relieved)


But anyway. I practiced my talk a couple times on Tuesday, practiced it again today. I THINK I have it down. I have 15 minutes allotted and the last time I practiced it it took me 12, which is kind of the ideal - that allows time for potential technical difficulties at the start (e.g., previous speaker forgets to unmount his flashdrive) or for questions at the end.

Still, I'll be glad when it's done. It's been a little while since I gave a public talk (the last meeting I was at, I did a poster) and I'm a bit less sure of my results than I was on the LAST talk I gave.