Happy Saint Patricks Day!

Technically the McCreights (rhymes with “right”) are Scotch-Irish, but feel free to send kisses and green beer my way anyway. …Even though I’m actually more Greek than I am Irish or Scottish. Whatever, let me embrace my Irish-sounding surname!

Anyone celebrating today?

I’m going to Vegas, baby

…because I’ll be speaking at The Amaz!ng Meeting 9!

I’ve been dying to announce this since I found out, since it’s an honor to be invited to speak at such a large and truly amazing skeptical event. And it’s even more of an honor now that the speaker’s list has been announced, and I see what awesome people I’m listed with (and I made it in before the “And many more” cut!):

Elyse Anders
Greta Christina
Rachel Dunlop
Pamela Gay
DJ Grothe
Harriet Hall
Jennifer Michael Hecht
PZ Myers
Steve Novella
Bill Nye
Jennifer Ouellette
Penn & Teller
Phil Plait
James Randi
Adam Savage
Eugenie Scott
Michael Shermer
Karen Stollznow
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Rebecca Watson

…Just to name a few. Go check out the whole list here. The weird thing about my life is that I’ve actually met or even befriended most of that list already – I’m mostly excited because I know it means it’ll be an excellent conference. …Well, and I’m still flailing about meeting Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye. BILL NYE! *swoon*

Oh, and I should add that 24 out of 49 speakers are women. Way to go, TAM! See, who says these amazing skeptical women don’t exist? And no, I’m not just going to be speaking on the panel on diversity (though it’s great they’re having that discussion). Isn’t that awesome?! EDIT: Sadie Crabtree, Communications Director of the JREF, just informed me that the women actually outnumber the men as solo presenters this year. I think that’s a first for a skeptical conference! Go TAM9!

TAM9 Goal: Get Phil in the hot tub again, along with as many other speakers as possible.

I hope I’ll see you there this summer!

I'm going to Vegas, baby

…because I’ll be speaking at The Amaz!ng Meeting 9!

I’ve been dying to announce this since I found out, since it’s an honor to be invited to speak at such a large and truly amazing skeptical event. And it’s even more of an honor now that the speaker’s list has been announced, and I see what awesome people I’m listed with (and I made it in before the “And many more” cut!):

Elyse Anders
Greta Christina
Rachel Dunlop
Pamela Gay
DJ Grothe
Harriet Hall
Jennifer Michael Hecht
PZ Myers
Steve Novella
Bill Nye
Jennifer Ouellette
Penn & Teller
Phil Plait
James Randi
Adam Savage
Eugenie Scott
Michael Shermer
Karen Stollznow
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Rebecca Watson

…Just to name a few. Go check out the whole list here. The weird thing about my life is that I’ve actually met or even befriended most of that list already – I’m mostly excited because I know it means it’ll be an excellent conference. …Well, and I’m still flailing about meeting Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye. BILL NYE! *swoon*

Oh, and I should add that 24 out of 49 speakers are women. Way to go, TAM! See, who says these amazing skeptical women don’t exist? And no, I’m not just going to be speaking on the panel on diversity (though it’s great they’re having that discussion). Isn’t that awesome?! EDIT: Sadie Crabtree, Communications Director of the JREF, just informed me that the women actually outnumber the men as solo presenters this year. I think that’s a first for a skeptical conference! Go TAM9!

TAM9 Goal: Get Phil in the hot tub again, along with as many other speakers as possible.

I hope I’ll see you there this summer!

Off my ASS for …myself – Week 10

Starting weight: 186.4 lbs
Last week’s weight: 171.6 lbs
Current weight: 169.4
Weight loss this week: 2.2 lbs
Total weight loss: 17.0 lbs

I finally got sick of putting up with my increasingly baggy size 12 pants, so I went shopping with a friend today. Size 10 was actually a little too big, and size 8 (which I haven’t worn since high school) was a *little* too tight…but I went with the 8 since I plan on losing more weight and pants always get loose once you wear them a bit. So fuck yeah, back to a size 8. Feeling pretty awesome about that.

The quarter is over, so after I do a bunch of housekeeping things (Yes, Dad, that includes taxes and getting new tires!), I’m going to check out UW’s gym. I hear it’s really nice, and I’m technically paying for it anyway, so might as well go. Someone told me some machines allow you to hook up your iPod to watch videos from a personal TV screen. Guess who’s going to burn calories while watching House and America’s Next Top Model!

Wait, screw that. I can totally manage to play Pokemon while on an elliptical machine.

For the early birds

I’ll be on Atheists Talk, a radio show produced by the Minnesota Atheists, tomorrow morning. I’ll be discussing my upcoming speaking tour in MN, and give a preview of my talk about feminism and atheism. Here’s the information for listening:

Listen to AM 950 KTNF on Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio 952-946-6205 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 952-946-6205 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, or send an e-mail to radio@mnatheists.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it during the live show.

Remember it’s daylights savings tonight! …Because I totally forgot. Good thing I was reminded before the show’s calling me when I’m still asleep.

…Though I’m not going to lie, I’m probably going back to sleep after the interview.

Well, this is new

My mom texted me at 7:15am to let me know the Washington coast had a tsunami advisory. Apparently my groggy reply that I was fine didn’t make her feel better, because she then called me since she and my grandparents were convinced I was going to drown in my basement apartment. Oddly me saying “I live on top of a hill” was more comforting to her than the fact that Seattle isn’t on the Washington coast – it’s on the Puget Sound.

Haha, love you, Mom.

Though it is odd how differently we react to natural disasters we’re not used to. Massive thunderstorm? Go watch the lightning on the deck. Tornado? Stare at the cool green sky before running to the basement. Tsunami? HOLY FUCKBALLS! I’m going to pee my pants if/when an earthquake hits nearby.

Anyway, I don’t know if I have any readers who live in Japan or have family there, but best wishes to Japan. I hope everything there is okay. Same goes to anyone who actually is getting hit by a tsunami.

And you can all stop telling me it was my fault – I swear I was wearing modest pajamas.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Blag Hag!

Awwww, my little blog is growing up! It came into the world exactly two years ago, after I was extremely bored. I guess that reason can apply to many humans as well.Does this mean this is the start of my blog’s Terrible Twos? I apologize ahead of time if I start making crankier posts than usual, waking readers up in the middle of the night, and leaving my stuff scattered across the living room floor. …Wait, I do that last one already.

I’m celebrating my finishing my research presentation and studying for/taking my Statistical and Computational Genomics final exam. Oh yeah, I know you’re jealous. But if you want to have a celebration on your own, feel free to party in the comments. And if you want to give my blog a present… I heard she really likes it when people share posts they liked with their friends.

Oh, and do you know what the most exciting part is? It’s time for another Blag Hag Census! I’ll get a survey up when this quarter is done so I can crunch the numbers over spring break. And now I know enough Python that I can actually write code to analyze the data instead of slaving away in Excel! I’m almost as excited for that as I am for playing Pokemon.

…What, doesn’t everyone like data like I do?

Happy Belated International Women’s Day!

Man, do I fail at feminist blogging or what, missing this holiday? Oh well, such are the consequences of slaving away in the laboratory. I have absolutely no idea what has happened in the world in the last week or so. Wars could have started for all I know. I mean, I don’t even understand all of these Charlie Sheen memes!

Anyway, let’s have a belated celebration with an open thread. Discuss what women you look up to and have been most influential in your life. They can be famous, friends, family – but explain why they mean so much to you.