Exciting news! Kate Donovan, known for her writing at Teen Skepchick, Friendly Atheist, and other places, is going to be joining me here as my co-blogger. JT Eberhard accidentally announced this early, so I’m going to post it without her official blurb or anything because I AM NOT PATIENT.
I’ve been somewhat slack on keeping this updated the last few weeks thanks to the difficulty of finishing up my summer classes, starting a new semester, a new job, preparing a talk for Dragon*Con, and being really sick. It then occurred to me that I could get someone else around here to pick up the slack for me since I am doing that whole “getting a PhD despite my better judgement” thing.
I don’t know Kate as well as I know a lot of others in the movement, but her writing is well-loved by others here at FtB, I’ve yet to read a post from her I didn’t enjoy, and, as I’ve befriended her on Facebook and Twitter, I’ve seen a kindred spirit. She is sarcastic, but upbeat. She has a sense of humor and a sense of outrage. She can criticize without being mean. And, importantly, she is different from me and will be bringing a different focus with her.
Let’s start with she can bake and juggle. These are things I do not do… maybe some day we can make a video where I play the ukulele and she juggles to the music. With our powers combined we could be mildly amusing.
She’s also much younger than me, which is weird, because I don’t feel terribly old. She was apparently raised to think alternative medicine was real, which is difficult for me to imagine. I was raised by being given all of the medicines that there were to keep me from dying of asthma and allergies, so I can’t imagine the alt med universe as given credence by not crazy people.
She hasn’t even bribed me with cookies to give her this space, so I must think she’s OK, right? Here’s what JT said:
Still in college (leading the secular group at Northwestern) and already starting to get noticed for her abilities as a writer and for her work exposing the bullshit that remains in the field of mental health. Her project, the Psychology Program Database, helps steer students toward schools that teach only evidence-based therapy.
SO BE EXCITED Y’ALL CUZ I AM. I am so busy I don’t even remember researching all this information about her, hopefully it’s accurate. She can yell if it’s not.
Ashley's co-blogger is a third year student at Northwestern University who runs on coffee and snark. . At some point, she'd like to make people sit on couches and tell her about their feelings, but right now she writes in different places around the internet and makes silly faces when she doesn't know what to say. She's the president of her local Secular Student Alliance affiliate, and she is on the Secular Woman speakers bureau. Opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Secular Student Alliance
14 comments
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Rhys
September 5, 2012 at 6:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So awesome!
VeritasKnight
September 5, 2012 at 6:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Congratulations Kate! Ashley, you couldn’t have invited a better blogger. Kate’s work is great and I’m glad you’ve brought her to FtB.
BenSweaterVest
September 5, 2012 at 7:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I LOVE her!
Xanthë
September 5, 2012 at 7:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Great news! I look forward to seeing the ukulele juggling duet (I think…)
Pteryxx
September 5, 2012 at 7:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think this is the same Kate Donovan who transcribed the entire awful PenisGate discussion completely solo… for which she deserves some sort of medal and probably a long vacation. Welcome!
Kate Donovan
September 5, 2012 at 10:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I am the same Kate Donovan! Plus, I just had a vacation
So life is rainbows and puppies and now I get to blog here!
Pteryxx
September 6, 2012 at 4:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yay! Thank you so much! I’m a (non-transcribing) volunteer with A+Scribe and you’re MY HEEEEROOOOO.
trinioler
September 6, 2012 at 9:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yay, Kate Donovan! *squee* I squeed when you thanked the A+scribe account on twitter! Yays!
Andrew Tripp
September 5, 2012 at 7:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
She is, without question, the absolute best.
Cassy
September 6, 2012 at 4:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
GET A ROOM!!
Stephanie Zvan
September 5, 2012 at 8:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
We win! Well, you win, which means we all win! Win, win, win!
leftwingfox
September 6, 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ha! I read that post by JT and thought “Really? She posts at Ashley’s blog? Why haven’t I noticed that before?”
Yay, my brain isn’t as faulty as I thought! It’s been a bad week for that. =/
IslandBrewer
September 7, 2012 at 3:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Write the all things”
What are the “all things”?
Brianne Bilyeu
September 7, 2012 at 4:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
w00t! That’s awesome! Welcome, Kate.