much more important than the emotional baggage i usually leave around here...

This year, I'm doing research with a math professor, my adviser. He introduced me to the material, and then gave me about 6 problems, saying he hoped we'd have one of them done by sometime in spring. He disproved one conjecture and immediately replaced it with something else. Of the revised list of six, we've finished three, and are working on more. [[He keeps alternating between being happy about progress and worried about running out of problems.]] Personally, on one note, I've proved a corollary to a theorem of his, which felt pretty darn cool. At some point, I should write more about the research on here. I've done more than just that.

Given the amount of progress, my prof. brought up the subject of math conferences. He had been thinking we'd get to one in the spring, where I'd present, but now he's thinking about as early as this month. He did a bit more checking, and discovered three or four possible conferences this year. The one he's pushing for the most? The National Joint AMS-MAA Conference in San Diego, 6-9 January. [[That's right. California.]] There, I'd probably be displaying a poster of my research, not giving a talk, but I'd get to meet his fellow research group members, who work/teach in California, and I'd get to hear any of a number of Big Math Talks. Because, yes, I'm a geek like that, and I've heard all around how students don't often get to national conferences, and any chance offered should probably be taken.

There's one MAA option in Minnesota this October, and there's one MAA option in April, again in Minnesota. MAA conferences are more focused on teaching; AMS conferences are more focused on research, so he was quick to point out that there's an AMS conference in May in Claremont, CA, where his research group might get to present a whole section of talks on their resarch focus [[in which case, if I attend, I'll get to present along with the woman from whose masters thesis I was working -- *gulp*]]. The last isn't set in stone yet, however -- they may not get a slot for the series of talks -- and it is right before finals.

I'm currently thinking of going to the national conference. In San Diego, California. I've never been west of Minnesota. I've never been on a plane.
Any input? Anyone??