disparate comments, just after "organising" a conference ..

being a host is not natural to me.
why do i feel like some kind of diplomat, in co-organising this special session?

well .. at least it wasn't a disaster.

---

i'm reaching a strange age:

1. soon it might be correct to call me a "professor" .. which is strange: i've spent 10 minutes of many a first day of class, telling my new students that it would be wrong to call me "professor" but that "doctor" or "janus" would suffice:
   
   you wouldn't call a lieutenant a general, would you?


2. my friends and colleagues are picking up their first ph.d. students.  i wonder if that makes me some kind of unofficial mathematical "uncle" ..?
   
   an odd thought: i wonder if they're "scared" of me,
   in the same way that profs used to scare the younger me? (-:

(perhaps more, to come ..)