New Faces

Three things this today:

Minnesota State Primaries

If you live in Minnesota you have an opportunity to participate in the State Primary. The biggies on the ballot are US Representative and US Senator. There were also school board and judicial nominations on my particular ballot.

Another Thank You

Thank you to a new Kiva lending buddy. Since I posted my initial challenge there have been three people who have been willing, able and wanting to participate. And in even more exciting Kiva-related news, I’m going to start lending money as part of the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious lending team. As part of a lending team I lend money as an individual, but I can count each loan towards the impact of one team. So, this is an atheism visibility project. Right now the atheist team is ranked 2nd of all teams on Kiva. Guess who just slightly ahead of us? Yup – Kiva Christians.

Anyway, our latest loan was made to Rose from Murang’a, Kenya. Rose is a mom, with one of her three children still in school. She is a tailor and farmer, growing produce and raising dairy animals. She wants use this loan to buy a chuff cutter, which is used to cut feed into smaller pieces for the animals she raises, and I guess makes life way easier. You can read her full story here.

A New Face At Biodork

I am very excited to announce that a new regular column will be appearing on Biodork twice a week. Meet Ellen Bulger!

Ellen is a life-long atheist – well, since the age of 11 – and a regular Freethought Blogs reader and commenter. She describes herself as a naturalist and appreciator of entomology and mollusks. She is a freelance writer and prolific photographer; you can browser her collection of over 22,000 photos over at Flickr. Ellen wants to show the world that we can find joy and beauty in this world without believing in superstition or gods.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Ellen will be guest blogging her photographs and writings. Her first piece will go up later this afternoon. – Welcome, Ellen!

New Faces
{advertisement}

6 O'Clock BS: Signs of the Times

First – Happy birthday to the Mall of America. This past Saturday marked 20 years since the doors first opened at the mall. Yeah, yeah… cursed MOA with it’s consumerism and overconsumption and blardeeblarblar. I like the mall. It has an aquarium. And LegoLand. And a ropes course.

Anyway, yesterday we passed this sign:

It is a digital display and the picture changed about every five seconds or so. I was waiting for it to scroll through so I could re-read an ad that I had caught out of the corner of my eye (oh you tricky marketers, you). While I was there a steady stream of people walked by, including a large number of spawnlings toddling after their parents. Here’s the interesting part: four young kids – we’re talking three and four years old – stopped, looked at the sign and then tried to interact with it. Each and everyone one of them looked confused when the sign didn’t respond. One girl tried to pressed harder on on the screen, and another took her finger and tried to swipe the screen across.

The future is here, y’all.

And here’s the ad that I was waiting for:

Le sigh. That’s what I thought it said.

6 O'Clock BS: Signs of the Times

6 O’Clock BS: Signs of the Times

First – Happy birthday to the Mall of America. This past Saturday marked 20 years since the doors first opened at the mall. Yeah, yeah… cursed MOA with it’s consumerism and overconsumption and blardeeblarblar. I like the mall. It has an aquarium. And LegoLand. And a ropes course.

Anyway, yesterday we passed this sign:

It is a digital display and the picture changed about every five seconds or so. I was waiting for it to scroll through so I could re-read an ad that I had caught out of the corner of my eye (oh you tricky marketers, you). While I was there a steady stream of people walked by, including a large number of spawnlings toddling after their parents. Here’s the interesting part: four young kids – we’re talking three and four years old – stopped, looked at the sign and then tried to interact with it. Each and everyone one of them looked confused when the sign didn’t respond. One girl tried to pressed harder on on the screen, and another took her finger and tried to swipe the screen across.

The future is here, y’all.

And here’s the ad that I was waiting for:

Le sigh. That’s what I thought it said.

6 O’Clock BS: Signs of the Times

Cross-Country Connections: Crowded

Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in very different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Crowded.

From me in Minneapolis, Minnesota:

Jellyfish congregate at the bottom of an exhibit tank at the Mall of America’s Sea Life.

From Erin in Bellingham, Washington:

Mama’s on Washington Square in San Francisco, with Mom in 2008.  I think we waited in this line for a good hour for one of the best breakfast’s ever eaten.

From Mom in Carbondale, Illinois:

I lived in Chicago for over thirty years so I know crowded, but few situations have given me panic attacks.  This picture taken in the Hall of the Mirrors at Versailles is out of focus and perfectly represents the feelings I was experiencing.

Cross-Country Connections: Crowded

Thank You

Earlier this week I invited you to join me on the microlending website, Kiva. I asked that if you were willing, able and wanted to join after learning more about the institution, to join through my personal invitation link so that I could receive $25 Kiva bonuses. Two of you took me up on my invitation, resulting in $50 worth of loan money that I was able to turn around tonight. Here’s who we’re funding:

 This is Ruth Del Carmen from Guasmo, Ecuador. She owns her own house, and since separating from her husband she is raising two children on her own. She runs a restaurant and sells cosmetics to supplement her income. She is planning on using this loan to buy chairs, table and a display case for her businesses. You can read her full story here.

Meet the Nuestro Sueño Group from Temuco, Chile. Group loans can be a good investment because members of a community come together to borrow, and have group support and peer pressure to make timely repayments. Members of Nuestro Sueño are planning on using their loans to purchase products for their individual businesses, which include food, clothing, crafts, and firewood sales.

Thanks for making these two loans possible, my Kiva loan buddies.

If you have an interest in joining Kiva, I invite you to join through my link here – Kiva is still giving $25 bonuses out!

Thank You

How's this for better photos?

I’ve come home from the Mr. Paul Aints baseball game. It was a wonderful time! I had a chance to see some of my favorite local and visiting atheists, everyone was smiling, eating crappy ballpark food, and cheering on our Aints.

I had an odd moment while I was in the line for the women’s bathroom. The woman in front of me started chit-chatting, and I mentioned that this was my first time attending a Saint Paul Saints game. She asked where I was sitting, and after a quick glance at the gold cross around her neck I said “Over in the Left Field section with the Minnesota Atheists.” Her eyes widened a little and I imagined her later going back to her friends saying “Guess what – I met one of them!” But she was nice enough. She asked how big our group was (“How big is your invading army?”), what kind of activities we did and what brought me to atheism (can you tell that this was a reaaaaallly long line for the bathroom?) I gave short, simple answers that I hope reflected well on Minnesota Atheists since this was a visibility event for us, and especially since I noticed that the line had gone very quiet; the women around us were listening to our exchange.

Continue reading “How's this for better photos?”

How's this for better photos?

How’s this for better photos?

I’ve come home from the Mr. Paul Aints baseball game. It was a wonderful time! I had a chance to see some of my favorite local and visiting atheists, everyone was smiling, eating crappy ballpark food, and cheering on our Aints.

I had an odd moment while I was in the line for the women’s bathroom. The woman in front of me started chit-chatting, and I mentioned that this was my first time attending a Saint Paul Saints game. She asked where I was sitting, and after a quick glance at the gold cross around her neck I said “Over in the Left Field section with the Minnesota Atheists.” Her eyes widened a little and I imagined her later going back to her friends saying “Guess what – I met one of them!” But she was nice enough. She asked how big our group was (“How big is your invading army?”), what kind of activities we did and what brought me to atheism (can you tell that this was a reaaaaallly long line for the bathroom?) I gave short, simple answers that I hope reflected well on Minnesota Atheists since this was a visibility event for us, and especially since I noticed that the line had gone very quiet; the women around us were listening to our exchange.

Continue reading “How’s this for better photos?”

How’s this for better photos?

6 O'Clock BS: Dave Silverman Throws the First Pitch!

This evening I’m hanging out with over 170 of my fellow atheists, secularists and freethinkers at the Midway Stadium in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Tonight Minnesota Atheists and American Atheists are hosting “An Night of Unbelievable Fun” with the Saint Paul Saints. Or rather…the Mr. Paul Aints!

Here’s a really crappy, zoomed in photo of Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, leaving the mound after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the game:

image

I’ll have more (and better) photos of the event up later this weekend!

6 O'Clock BS: Dave Silverman Throws the First Pitch!

6 O’Clock BS: Dave Silverman Throws the First Pitch!

This evening I’m hanging out with over 170 of my fellow atheists, secularists and freethinkers at the Midway Stadium in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Tonight Minnesota Atheists and American Atheists are hosting “An Night of Unbelievable Fun” with the Saint Paul Saints. Or rather…the Mr. Paul Aints!

Here’s a really crappy, zoomed in photo of Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, leaving the mound after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the game:

image

I’ll have more (and better) photos of the event up later this weekend!

6 O’Clock BS: Dave Silverman Throws the First Pitch!

6 O'Clock BS: Perseid Meteor Shower – You're Invited!

I’m going to be at the American Atheists Regional Conference in Saint Paul this weekend, so I can’t go camping, but maybe I’ll get a chance to see one or two meteorites meteors* early on Sunday morning. *sigh* Of course, seeing stars the morning after a pub crawl might be the result of a less than celestial cause. 

Seen on Facebook

*thanks to Stacy for the correction.

6 O'Clock BS: Perseid Meteor Shower – You're Invited!