A Victory for the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign

A while back I posted how the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign had their ad “You Can Be Good Without God” rejected in Bloomington for being “too controversial” even though the bus agency (owned by the town) had run religious ads before. Well, they’ve reached a settlement regarding their lawsuit! The transit will run their ads on as many buses for whatever length of time at the normal rate, and pay for part of the ACLU’s legal fees. And they say it best:

“Let’s be straight here: this is a victory not just for atheism and secularism, but for free speech all around.”

I’m crossing my fingers that West Lafayette is next. Maybe I need to go beg their organizer a little more…

Goddamnit Facebook

First my Dad friends me. Then my Mom’s like, “Wait, why did you friend your Dad and not me? Friend me too!” Then I think my Prof/Boss friends me so I accept his request, only to find out his friendship was merely suggested to me by a coworker, so in actuality I sent him a friend request. Then a minute ago I get a friend request from a cousin who is Republican, Christian, and a fan of Fox News and Sarah Palin.

…

Why, why?!?!

It’s a bit ironic because she comments on how the McCreights are bad at keeping touch and it would be a great way to get to know each other, but I have a hunch she would be appalled at most of the stuff on my facebook page. It really doesn’t surprise me though. I mean, she’s right, my dad’s side of the family doesn’t keep in touch at all, even though I have much more relatives there compared to my mom’s side (which is unusual for Greeks…). But the one thing I know is that something went horrendously wrong politics wise in my family:Seriously, how do two working class Democrats produce 1 Democrat (my dad) and 3 Republicans?* What went horribly wrong?!? Maybe this is the reason why we don’t keep in touch…

*The question marks are there because I seriously have no idea how many cousins or second cousins or probably third cousins (I’m the youngest cousin of the bunch) that I even have, especially because it seems like everyone has been remaried at least once or twice. The ones shown are just the ones I know the names of.** And my brothers didn’t arise by parthenogenesis, they just have a different mother that I was too lazy to draw.
**Actually, it’s kind of sad. I’ve done some genealogy stuff and I have an accurate family tree for the McCreights back to the 1700s (and for other branches back to the 1500s) yet I don’t know my modern relatives.

New Blogs

Two of my friends just started blogs, so I figured I’d give them some pluggage.

My friend Mike is a political science major and a prolific tweeter who will now be blogging over at Politics and Pucks. Most of his stuff will be over politics, the interactions between politics and religion, pop culture, and hockey. Yeah, last part’s a bit random, but who doesn’t like some blogging randomness? Maybe there’s a huge number of political hockey-loving atheists that I don’t know about. I always enjoy Mike’s political insights, especially after he’s had a beer or two (hear that, Mike? Drunk posting!!).

And you guys have already met my friend Mark who did a series of guest posts for me during Blogathon, and humiliated himself with me in our Chop Suey karaoke video. I’ve known Mark since first grade, and I think he’s funnier and more insightful than me, so I told him he should start blogging too – now he’s over at The Internet Stops Here. Consider it a mathimatical sister blog to Blag Hag. It’ll cover atheism and random nerdy topics, but instead of biology, he’ll talk about math and his adventures in teaching. Oh, and his first post features yours truly being a giant dork, so that’s extra incentive for you to go check it out.

Now go and say hello!

Ahhh, much better

I’m feeling much better now after resting. Took a five hour “nap” after making that last post at 9am. I could have slept longer, but I didn’t want to completely destroy my sleep schedule. A friend I hadn’t seen in five months ended up randomly calling me to tell me he was passing through town, which forced me to actually get dressed and stop being a cranky zombie. Was great to see him though, and human interaction + delicious middle eastern food woke me up. I then proceeded to sleep eleven hours last night, which put me at about the total necessary sleep for the last two days. Had insane Harry Potter dreams involving Snape running around crying with smeared eyeliner/mascara running down his face, me as Hermione being annoyed at people asking for my help in finding books in the library (Do I look like their wizarding Dewey decimal system?!?!), and me “off set” as Hermione joking with Daniel Radcliffe how I really should have been allotted a love scene with Snape…and then Alan Rickman walks by chuckling and I die of mortification. Hooray messed up dreams!

My left eye also seems completely unwilling to focus today, despite my being up for two hours already. I’d like to chalk it up to the messed up sleep schedule, but the whole inability to focus in the morning thing has been happening more and more lately. So have the headaches, the squinting, the… yeah, I really need to go see an eye doctor. Last time I went was four years ago, and he said I would need glasses sometime in college. Well, I’m about to be a senior in college, so I’m pretty sure I’m doomed. I really don’t have anything against glasses* other than it will complete my transformation from Uber Nerd to Nerdica, Queen of the Nerds.
Hmmm…glasses may not be that bad after all.

*Contacts are right out since my eyes are super sensitive and just the sight of someone adjusting their contact freaks me the hell out.

I MADE IT!

And the Blogathon is over! Ahahahaha, success! Not once did I fall asleep, and I’m sure I only humiliated myself a couple of times rather than constantly. And more importantly…

We raised $449.32 for the Secular Student Alliance!

Thanks to everyone who helped out: Everyone who donated money, PZ and Hemant and the SSA for spreading the word, my friends Mark and Vanessa for keeping me company and helping me with guest posts, and the commenters who helped keep me up with their wit and insights, especially Andre Vienne and Veritas, who were insane and wonderful enough to stay up all night and comment on every post.

But while my part of the Blogathon is over, yours isn’t necessarily. You can still go here to pledge a donation to the SSA until Friday the 31st. Maybe you want to give a dollar for every post you loved. Maybe you want to give 68 cents so we’re not dealing with decimals anymore. Or maybe you just know someone who would enjoy one of the posts – spread the word, and maybe they’ll consider pledging!

Thanks again, everyone! Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go sleep for a very long time.

Suggested bloggy reading

Since I’m likely going to crash once this is over and be disgusted by the idea of blogging for at least a day or so, here are some of my favorite blogs you can peruse in my absence. Unless you’re one of those people who saw my 49 posts, went “What the hell?”, and didn’t touch them. In that case, you have plenty of Jennifer material to work through! I suggest starting at the beginning. Some post refer to others without linking (yeah yeah, I got sloppy), but most importantly my most recent posts have been rambling nonsensical shit piles thrown up in a desperate attempt to speed up the flow of time so I could go to sleep.

Anyway, uh, yeah, cool blogs:

Skeptical/Scientific:
Friendly Atheist
Pharyngula
Why Evolution is True
Travels with Darwin

Humor/Entertainment:
Indexed
Psychotic Letters From Men
Not Always Right
Tiny Art Director

Almost…done…

This is post 48 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

The disgusting breakfast of champions

And lunch, and dinner, and second dinner, and and and…

In the last 24 hour I have ingested what can only be 50,000 calories of food (please don’t calculate it though, I rather not know). The problem with the blogathon was that I had no time to cook (and I had no ready-to-eat food available, whoops bad planning), so I depended on deliveries and friends bringing me food. What did I eat?

McDonald’s sausage McBiscuitwhateverthehellitscalled
McDonald’s hashbrowns
Medium McDonald’s coffee
Potbelly big chicken salad sandwhich
Pepsi
Venti Starbucks iced coffee
Pepsi
Wendy’s crispy chicken sandwich
Wendy’s small fries
Pepsi
Glass of Bailey’s/Kahlua/Chocolate Milk
Half of a large order of cheesy bread

When I lay down at 9:01, I’m probably going to die of a heart attack. It was nice knowing all of you. Thanks for your support.

Seriously though, I’m going to eat nothing but fruits and vegetables for a week, ugh. I feel disgusting.

This is post 47 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

I'll pray for you

From Mark:

Still alive, here’s Guest Post #5!

The question was “How you feel when people say ‘I’ll pray for you’ because something bad happened to you?”

In the end, it’s a tough question to answer.

On one hand, the people that say these things to me don’t understand that it means nothing to me whereas they firmly believe that their prayers (if they end up doing them at all) accomplish something that they obviously cannot. Of course, I would much rather they try to hire the best doctor/lawyer they could to help me out.

On the other hand, however, knowing that they are intending to pray for me to their god in a way that does not inhibit me from getting better means that they care. They certainly care enough to feel empathy for me in my time of need. It’s not up to them to try to upgrade my situation on their own. They are not expected to pay my hospital bill unless it is their fault to begin with that I’m there.

So, while I would not like to have to deal with a chaplain coming to give me my last rites as I’m dying, I will appreciate every prayer, useful or otherwise, that people can spare. It may not do anything on its own, but I will be comforted by the fact that there is someone out there somewhere who cares about me in my hour of need.

This is post 46 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

I’ll pray for you

From Mark:

Still alive, here’s Guest Post #5!

The question was “How you feel when people say ‘I’ll pray for you’ because something bad happened to you?”

In the end, it’s a tough question to answer.

On one hand, the people that say these things to me don’t understand that it means nothing to me whereas they firmly believe that their prayers (if they end up doing them at all) accomplish something that they obviously cannot. Of course, I would much rather they try to hire the best doctor/lawyer they could to help me out.

On the other hand, however, knowing that they are intending to pray for me to their god in a way that does not inhibit me from getting better means that they care. They certainly care enough to feel empathy for me in my time of need. It’s not up to them to try to upgrade my situation on their own. They are not expected to pay my hospital bill unless it is their fault to begin with that I’m there.

So, while I would not like to have to deal with a chaplain coming to give me my last rites as I’m dying, I will appreciate every prayer, useful or otherwise, that people can spare. It may not do anything on its own, but I will be comforted by the fact that there is someone out there somewhere who cares about me in my hour of need.

This is post 46 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Favorite sleep deprivation memories

This isn’t the first time in my life that I’ve pulled an all-nighter. Most just end with me being cranky and crashing. Others are more memorable. Once I had pulled an all-nighter for our Science Olympiad State competition (as did most of the team). On the bus ride home most of us went completely insane – not only were we exhausted, but we had basically eaten nothing but candy bars. Eventually everyone fell asleep on the bus, but after a little while I woke up screaming that my legs were on fire! …because I had fallen asleep right next to the heater. It was hot, but probably not hot enough to flail my legs over my poor friend’s head.

I also saw Team America World Police in theaters after pulling an all-nighter. At the time, it was the funniest thing in the world. I was constantly in tears laughing, and my friends were more amused with my insanity than the movie itself. Let’s just say I didn’t find it quite as funny the second time around.

Oh, and there was that one time where I made a bazillion blog posts in 24 hours. Yeah, that was cool.

Any good stories?

This is post 45 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.