A spectre is haunting America - The spectre of AFNI. A few times every year the good people at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) hold an AFNI bootcamp at various locations around the country and around the world, attempting to teach, persuade, proselytize, inveigle, and coax young FMRI neophytes into using their product. And, fortunately for the rest of us, sometimes these bootcamps are held at the NIH itself, and these are open to any interested researcher.
I went to one of these bootcamps last spring, and it was an eye-opening, pupil-dilating, sphincter-tightening experience. For five full days we talked about, discussed, and analyzed data; and the nerd bacchanalia continued to rage underneath the carmine streaks of the westering sun. Normalization, connectivity analyses, surface mapping, carousing, bear-baiting, and wenching followed upon these lectures as surely as gout follows upon vice; and although I cannot remember anything that was said or taught during these sessions, I do vividly remember how I felt, which was - kind of sore.
Your ticket to paradise can be found here. Registration tends to fill up very fast, so I recommend submitting an application as soon as possible. Most important, the entire event is free (minus your tax dollars). You will, however, have to pay for your own travel, meals, Nutella, and sketchy Travelodge room.