(As of January 17, 2001)
Hi, All! Many things in my life had been "on hold" for a while (thus late update of this page), but finally things are settling "in place."
Bruce (my boss) and I prepared and submitted a proposal to National Institute of Health last January to develop a system to image anatomy and physiological function of mice. The funding decision was supposed to come around last September, but because of bureaucratic delay, we did not know the funding status until a week ago. We have heard that it will be funded! It is a great thing as it will give us $2M over next 5 years, and the majority of my salary will be paid by this funding. Therefore, I will most likely stay at Physics Research Laboratory at University of California, San Francisco for a little longer.
Regarding my position at UCSF, my promotion has been talked about for almost a year. Because of my immigration status (since I am a Japanese citizen), the process is complicated and delayed. I have to obtain a new type of visa (H-1 visa) to qualify for the new position, and the process takes 3 months. Everything seems to be moving smoothly (even though I am never sure if anything is going wrong), so hopefully my promotion will take place in a couple of months.
I ordered my truck/car/SUV (whatever you wanna call it) at the end of September. Since some of the "options" for existing vihicle were not necessary to me, I ordered one without these "options." It took the Nissan dealer longer than expected to obtain the vehicle (3 months as compared to expected 60 days), and I was finally able to get the truck on December 28. It is yellow Nissan Xterra, a sports utility vehicle (a picture will be posted soon). We took it down to San Diego for a road trip for New Year's Day weekend, and we went to Lake Tahoe area for cross-country skiing. It has a lot of room and power, and I like it a little more than I expected.
Our friends, Anne and Jim, invited us to go to for a backcountry skiing tour in Colorado in March, so Regina and I are training for the trip. We will hop from one hut to another, traveling on skis for 5 days. I am very excited with the idea of skiing on trails. I love outdoors, but in winter, I haven't done much outdoor activities because it is so hard to move around in snow. Skiing across snow covered terrain seems to be an excellent way of transporting ourselves. Hopefully, my new truck will also make it easier to reach the trail head.
I am moving on/after January 23 to a house in Sunset District of San Francisco. I will have two roommates at the new place. It took me a while to find this place, as it is very difficult to find housing in San Francisco. The landlady is taking good care of the house, so I look forward to living there. Please email me to request my new home address and number.
Yes, my birthday (January 30) is coming soon. Since I expect myself to be busy with moving, I will probably have a small dinner outing on January 30, and have a house-warming/birthday potluck party a few week later.
Love! Koji
Praises, comments, suggestions to [email protected].