Sucking it up

I'm off to Seaside Town tomorrow to attend a conference. I'm giving a paper on Friday morning. $64,000 question: why am I doing this?

Possible reasons:

1. The conference will be interesting and I'll learn about lots of cutting edge research going on in my field.
   
   Uh huh. Right.



2. Excellent networking opportunity.
   
   Whatever.



3. Handy line on the curriculum vitae.
   
   Two days. Night in tasty dormitory accomodations. Six hours on the train. Hours of talk-preparation palaver. Distraction from dissertation writing. Only one damn line?
   
   
4. Chance to talk about my own brilliantly novel research and burnish my high-octane reputation.
   
   Oh god, please kill me.
   
   Next entry: highlights of conference attendance. Prepare your buckets of popcorn.