The second day of the Research Spring Strategy meeting was as interesting as the first — and probably more educational for me, since it featured talks from our Physical Sciences folks, who did a great job of making what they do comprehensible to a software person like me. I usually don’t like long, PowerPoint-heavy meetings, but this one was an exception; I came away with a new appreciation for the role that IBM Research plays in the company and what my colleagues in other parts of the division do.

That said, it was still a long day, and I had to resist the temptation to gobble sweets. I didn’t quite succeed, but I indulged far less than I did yesterday.

I’m flying home from JFK tomorrow morning at 9:15am, so I decided it would be a good idea to be close to the airport instead of on the wrong side of two bridges. But as far as I can tell, there are no decent hotels near JFK (certainly, the ones on the IBM list didn’t look impressive when I Googled them), so I’m at the Wyndham Garden LaGuardia instead. It may be just as quick to take a taxi from here directly to the terminal than to take a shuttle from a JFK hotel to Federal Circle and transfer to the AirTrain — and it’s certainly cheaper than holding on to a rental car an extra day (just in case anyone from accounting is reading this blog…).

The Wyndham is OK so far; my room is a bit too close to the Grand Central Parkway, so it’s noisy — but I’ve survived worse. And they had free copies of the New York Times in the lobby, so I had something to read during dinner. I think my plans to use the exercise room have been derailed, though; I made the mistake of checking my email right after dinner, and when I looked up, it was well after 9:30pm — I think sleep is a higher priority than exercise at this point. Morning is going to come earlier than I want.

My hotel put a new copy of Westchester magazine in my room today; one of the cover stories was definitely not something I’d see at home: “Cater your Seder”. It turned out to be a one-page item listing a half-dozen caterers — but that’s probably five more than would be available in San Jose.

The Research Spring Strategy meeting, which is the reason for this trip, took up the whole day today; it was interesting, and might influence some of what I do this year. It was also probably rather fattening; I made the mistake of taking the bus over for the continental breakfast, which was nothing but carbs. And then both lunch and dinner were buffets, served on large plates, with lots of desserts as well as some actual food. I didn’t fill up my plates, but I did sample quite a few of the desserts (I didn’t finish them all, at least). And there were more goodies available at morning and afternoon break — those I was able to skip without feeling deprived. It’s a miracle no one fell asleep during the meeting.

When I got back to the hotel, I felt compelled to use the workout room. For some reason that I don’t understand, the hotels here feel compelled to overheat their exercise rooms — this one must have been close to 80 degrees. So I worked up a better sweat than usual, but I don’t think I actually exercised as much as I’d like to have done.

Tomorrow is the second and last day of the meeting; neither “breakfast” nor dinner is included tomorrow, which may be just as well.