O.k. I know I said I’d do a post about The Amazing Meeting 6, which was fun, but not in the same, life-changing-meet-new-friends-and-the person-I’ll-run-away-to-Australia-for-and-marry, kind of way.
This isn’t that post.
However, it is the post in which I mention that I met Soccer Girl. She’s probably the cutest chick in the world. She has a very funny vodcast and she filmed me (very drunk) on Friday night doing my double jointed arm trick. See it here.
She and George Hrab were pretty much in each other’s hip pockets for the entire conference. Whether they’re a couple or not, I can’t say, but if they are a couple, they may be the sexiest pair of people I’ve ever met. Though Daniel Loxton (of Junior Skeptic) and his lovely wife are a close second. What is it about intelligence that makes people so darn hot?
Oh yeah, and did I mention that I’m a cover girl (hint : 2009 back cover)? It was a little weird having Phil Plait chase me down to get me to sign his copy of my picture. And by weird, I mean awesome. I have no shame at being a cover girl, since I share the honor of cover-personhood with Robert S. Lancaster.
I promise I will write a thorough, thought provoking post about The Amazing Meeting 6 in which I will cover all of the things about it that I feel totally suck in spite of it being a really great time, and in which I discuss my hangups about being a female in the skeptical movement and how I feel that the some girls in the movement get attention only if they act as cheerleaders for the men instead of actually doing meaningful work on their own (it’s like how in basketball, people go to the men’s games and leer at the cheerleaders, but the women’s league can’t get any respect, at least in America) and how I worry that I might be just another one of those cheerleaders… You get the idea.
I’ll do a full Good Things/Bad Things post. I promise.
Independence Day, or The Fourth of July is a celebration of America’s independence from Britain.
It’s not the day we defeated them, but the day a bunch of sweaty, wigged lawyers got together and declared the Colonies to be an independent nation.
It’s the day with the most flag waving, red, white and blue, patriotic Americana.
And yet…
America, the only country to format its dates thusly: mm/dd/yyyy, commonly calls its most patriotic holiday, dd/mm.
Fourth of July, the only day of the year that Americans format the date like the rest of the world.
Also, yesterday I almost bought a little resin statue at my local Dollar Plus type store that was a Bald Eagle sitting atop the Liberty Bell. I have no idea what it was doing in Australia, but I thought perhaps it was there for my fellow American ex-pats, feeling the Spirit of ‘76.
This just seemed to follow that giraffe clip rather nicely:
Thanks to icanhascheezburger.com
I will do one more post before heading back to the U.S.
Then, upon returning, I plan to write about my experiences at TAM6.
In the meantime, allow me to plug my podcast:
Natural 20 – It’s mostly about roleplaying games, the gaming community and the rewards and challenges of the gaming experience. There are two episodes (though technically, three, but only two official ones) up currently, with a third (official) one coming shortly, and there will be a fourth episode coming up next week where we explore gaming superstitions.
This is the mental image I get whenever I hear about this new-ish title for the old “Paleo” diet.
There’s nothing wrong with these kind of diets, per se, it’s just that, well, I don’t think it’s a very good name.
After all, the Neanderthals DIED OUT.
They were outcompeted and were basically an evolutionary dead end. We survived because we developed different strategies for survival that were more adaptable to different environments. Then, eventually we created agriculture, which was a great leap forward in our ability to feed large groups.
In order to get the benefits from this so called “cave-man” diet, we depend on our ability to grow crops (maybe they should call it the “Bronze age” diet).
Basically, it’s a romantic misnomer for a diet consisting of good, healthy raw foods and quality proteins.
You don’t have to carry a spear and wear mammoth skins to get the benefits of that.
Since I so enjoyed making that little Atheist’s Creed video, I decided to make another short video. This time I’m further promoting a positive image of godlessness by posting images and words from my nuptuals.
Prepare to be “awwwww”ed.
One thing you can be sure of, it wasn’t a fairy-tale wedding!
I’ve become slightly obsessed with the Steampunk aesthetic. It’s a bit of a dystopian/utopian science fiction genre in which steam is the dominant technology. Lots of airships and locomotives. Think copper, brass and their lovely offspring, bronze. Lots of guages and rivets and fancy scrollwork. It combines a victorian aesthetic and Jules Verne-esque gadgets with a kind of rugged clunky, grease smeared sense of fun. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is often considered steampunk.
For a while now, I’ve been really into the 1950’s aesthetic. The early atomic age held such a sense of hope, we were going to go to space! There were all kinds of gadgets for the home! Women were women and men smoked pipes! I love the futuristic utopian 50’s thing. The future was right around the corner! I know it was all mostly cold war propaganda but, in spite of the constant threat of nuclear war, it was a happy time. (Not to mention, being a woman with a set of full hips, the 1950’s silhouette is extremely flattering to my figure.)
I tried to draw some similarity between the two aesthetics: Both were times when there was hope in technology. In one, there was power in steam. Transportation between continents was faster than it had ever been. The telegraph was making communication instantaneous. The railways were making crossing continents safe and easy. Minds were abuzz with invention and it seemed like the tide of new ideas was going to take off and the future was bright. In the other, there was the rocket, there were jet engines and we had control of the atom. There was plastic and cheap means of production. The luxuries of modern life were available to anyone. Every man had a home and every wife had a waffle iron. A chicken in every pot.
When I started searching for examples of these parallels, it led me to an interesting observation: many science fiction films made in the 50’s were adaptations of books written in the late 1900’s. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds. These futuristic visions of the steam era were reproduced in technicolor for audiences in the hopeful yet terrified 1950’s. Of course there are parallels between these two eras. Those parallels were being drawn at the time! (Link: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea trailer on YouTube)
All this time I’ve been feeling conflicted and it turns out there’s no conflict after all.
Now, I’m not immune from the affliction of carrying two conflicting ideas in my head at the same time, after all, this is a blog based on two ideas that are pretty incongruous. Sometimes, though, when I see it in others it cracks me up.
I often debate with evolutionists because I believe that they are narrow mindedly and dogmatically accepting evolution without questioning it. I don’t really care how God did what He did. I know He did it.
TexasSky, Christian Forums [2006-Aug-24]
If your original Hebrew disagrees with my original King James — your original Hebrew is wrong. If your original Hebrew agrees with my original King James, your original Hebrew is right.
AV1611VET, Christian Forums [2006-Jul-20]
You are banned. You are not a Christian for Christians don’t accuse brothers and sisters in Christ of being non-Christian.
Troy, Bibliocality [2006-Feb-07]
Jesus is not a Jew. Jesus was Jewish.
awesomelegend, gaiaonline.com [2006-Nov-18]
Ah, that was a good hearty laugh.
My husband said it, “And people wonder why I’m so elitist!”
