Conference update, photo woes

Another Alaska update before I head out for our banquet! Yesterday I went to lunch with my academic grandfather (my advisor’s PhD advisor), who I’ll call AG. I had never met him before, but he was really nice, funny, and intelligent.

AG: So you’re my academic granddaughter? I lose track, I’ve trained over 40 PhD students.
Me: Wow, that’s impressive.
AG: I like to consider it a failure to practice academic birth control.

He’s also one of the most famous and accomplished scientists here, and he gave me a lot of great grad school advice. Though my favorite was probably when he told me if I was certain I wanted to go into academia, to marry a sugar-daddy doctor or something so I actually have some money.

Him: Hey, that’s what I did. My wife is a physician. I don’t mind it!

My talk today went really well. I was getting more and more nervous about it as the conference went on. Yesterday at the member’s meeting for the society they actually announced the time and location of my talk to a room full of ~150 people because I was the undergrad award winner. My immediate thought was “oh fuck.” Though the room didn’t end up being packed, mainly because my talk was the first of the day at 8:30 am. And on the third day of a conference, people start waking up later and later. I still had about 40 people come though.

We were initially having some technical difficulties. The session chair couldn’t get the computer to work, so I was afraid I’d have to give my talk sans-Power Point (nooo!). That’s what I get for joking about doing an interpretive dance of my talk all week. But eventually someone in the audience donated their laptop, and we were able to hook that up to the projection system. Once I started talking I wasn’t nervous because I was focused on…well, talking. I was actually able to answer questions without sounding like an idiot, hooray! And many people told me it was great (including AG, woo!), and that they heard other people saying it was great, so I’ll call it a success.

And as for my photo woes? I have a ton of funny/beautiful photos so far, but unfortunately you don’t get to see any of them. My little camera that I was using before, the base I need to transfer photos and charge it broke during the plane ride. Blargh. Will try to go to Walmart tomorrow and see what I can do. And the big fancy photo – which I have a bunch of neat bird photos on – can’t upload without installing software, and the lab computers here won’t allow me to do that. So I guess you all just get the boring text versions of my adventures for now.

Banquet time!

Where are our future atheist politicians?

It’s pretty well known (at least among heathen circles) that atheist are fairly underrepresented minority in the US Congress. Pete Stark is the only out non-theist, and there are five people who chose not to answer the religious affiliation question – which of course doesn’t mean they’re necessarily unbelievers. There certainly may be closeted atheists in Congress, but one reason we want out atheists is so we know there will be at least some people in our government promoting a secular viewpoint.

A lot of atheists tell us not to despair; that as atheism spreads and becomes more and more accepted, we’ll start seeing more and more atheist politicians. But as of right now, coming out as an atheist is a gamble that you’d be committing political suicide.

So what’s the problem? you ask. Yeah, right now it’s bad, but in the future it’ll be better. Well, the problem is our future politicians are growing up in the present, where they see being religious as a requirement for getting into public office. I was talking to my friend who’s one of those wishy-washy deists (mentioned in my post “Wanting to Believe”) who is starting law school with the hopes of becoming involved in politics. He was raised Christian, lost his faith, but then desperately tried to regain it (settling at deism, I suppose) because you “Have to believe in something to be a politician.” So not only is he lying about his faith with the hopes of being elected 15 or 20 years from now (he still tells people he’s the Christian his parents raised him as), but he basically convinced himself to actually have more religious beliefs. He jokes that if in the future it comes out that he had something going on (said the relationship was complicated) with an atheist activist chick, there would be a scandal. The sad thing is, I can’t tell if he’s really joking or if there’s a hint of worry there.

Now, this is just my own experience with one person out of the many current and future law school students in the United States. But it does make me worry a bit. Is it going to take longer than we thought to see out atheists elected? Should I not care if they’re closeted or not? Maybe it would be best that they sneak in this way – even though young people are becoming less religious and more accepting as atheists, we’ll still have to deal with the old peoples’ vote. I guess my personal code of conduct wouldn’t allow me to lie about such a big part of my life, and we know politicians never lie or manipulate…

So what do you guys think? When are we going to see out atheists elected? Does it even matter if we do?

Alaska!

I still can’t believe that I’m actually in Fairbanks right now. I guess I’ve been really busy all day with the meeting that it hasn’t quite sunk in yet – I’m sure once I see a moose wandering around it’ll hit me. It’s absolutely gorgeous here though. I’m used to pancake-flat Indiana, with Purdue being void of nature and full of brick monstrosities…but here it’s just hills and green everywhere. Seeing the mountains in the sort of pastel dusk colors from the plane was so awesome. I just wish I could have gotten a photo, but alas, I didn’t have a window seat.

Speaking of plane rides, mine were a bit interesting. My flight to Seattle I was sitting next to two frat guys, wearing their letters and talking about a frat conference they were just at. They were nice, but I found it mildly hilarious that they were both watching the in flight movie of Confessions of a Shopaholic and seemingly enjoying it. This also made my day:

Guy1: *headbanging as if to a hard rock song*
Guy 2: Dude, what are you listening to? *touches iPod so it lights up*
Me: *looks and sees “Clocks – Coldplay”*
Guy 2: Bro, awesome.
Me: …

When we were landing in Seattle there was a rainbow! That was neat.

My flight to Fairbanks was also interesting. I was wearing my non-theist shirt again (I just can’t get enough drama, I guess) and the middle aged guy next to me started talking to me. First he tells me he’s from Utah. Hmmm. Then he says he has 8 siblings. Alarm bells start going off in my head. Then he says he spent a 2 year mission trip in Boston for the LDS church. Yep. Thankfully he either didn’t read my shirt, didn’t understand it, or didn’t care because he never mentioned anything. It was still a little awkward. Mainly I just didn’t want to get into any sort of religious discussion, especially since it was about 3 am my time and I just wanted to go to bed.

Alright, off to the social at the campus pub. Seriously, why don’t we have an official campus pub? Lucky!

Leavin :D

Woo! Leaving for the airport in about 45 minutes! You know, I’m really not sure how big name bloggers post so often. Do they just never go on vacation? I’ve been trying to make some posts for while I’m gone, but I still feel like I’m going to be neglecting you guys. Well, it doesn’t help that I don’t have a laptop (waiting until grad school to get one). I can theoretically post from my phone, but it has a character limit so I get about 3 sentences in. I will make some posts about my adventures while I’m up there, but if not, I’ll at least write some stuff down so I don’t forget it when I get back. Just think of it this way: you’ll have a bit of a dry spell for a while, but then lots of crazy Alaska stories and photos afterwards!

Oh, and I think about everyone I know has told me to say hi to Sarah Palin. Ha. Ha. Yes, she’s the one person you know from Alaska and she’s an idiot. Hilarious. Though this wins for most original:

“Say hello to Palin for me. Knock up Bristol on my behalf.”
“That may be difficult for me to do, but I’ll try my best.”

See you guys later :D

Alaska Itinerary!

I leave for Alaska tomorrow, woo! I’m so excited that I feel like I’m going to explode, so I’m going to let out a bit of that energy by bragging about all the neat things I’m going to see. That way, if I’m not posting on a certain day you can at least imagine me hiking in the accurate beautiful location, right? Like always, suggestions are welcome for things I definitely should see in the towns I mention below.

Wed, June 24th: Leave for Indianapolis airport around 1 pm, get to Fairbanks 11:30 pm.
Thurs, June 25th: Conference starts at 8 am (this is going to be a rough day). Lunch with the ASM officers, various technical sessions, symposiums, etc.
Fri, June 26th: More technical sessions, picnic with delicious Alaskan Salmon/Halibut/Cod in an old gold mining town.
Sat, June 27th: My presentation at 8:30 am (ahhh!), more sessions, dinner banquet
Sun, June 28th: Last day of conference, sessions all day, mooch food off of the break sessions because I didn’t buy a meal plan

Mon, June 29th: Field trip to the Large Animal Research Station, the US Army Permafrost Tunnel, and the Alaskan Pipeline. Also visiting Creamer’s Field, a giant bird sanctuary, and whatever other random cool thing I find in Fairbanks. It’s only dark from 1 am to 3 am, so I theoretically have a lot of daylight to explore in! LARS has muskoxen and caribou, and I hope they still have babies this time of year because omg they’re adorable:

Think I can successfully smuggle this back on the plane?

Tues, June 30: Leave for Denali in the morning, get there around noon, store my bags and go hiking all the close trails until the bus for my hostel comes at 9 pm. Hope there are no creepers in the coed bunks.
Wed, July 1: Huge Denali trip! Get on one of the early buses that takes you deep out into the park, try to get as many awesome photographs as possible (If I get something 1/10th as awesome as what’s on Flickr, I’ll be happy).
Thurs, July 2: Leave Denali, arrive in Anchorage around 6, meet friend who lives there and drive to hostel in Seward.
Fri, July 3: Visit Exit Glacier and the rest of Kenai Fjords, hope it isn’t overrun by tourists, see fireworks at Seward at midnight.
Sat, July 4: 4th of July celebration at Seward! Not really sure what the hell’s going on, but should be fun. Drive back to Anchorage.
Sun, July 5: Explore Anchorage. Still not sure what the heck I’m doing, but I’m sure Friend from Anchorage and other random people will have suggestions.
Mon, July 6: Flight leaves Anchorage around 3 pm.
Tues, July 7: Flight finally arrives in Indianapolis at 10 am. Sleep schedule promptly messed up. Furiously check 500 missed blog posts, upload photos, and then be reminded that I actually have to get back to work at some point. Damn.

And today? Do laundry, go to the bank, get last minute camera stuff, go play with camera so I know how to use it, get Tru Blood episodes from my friend for the plane ride (omg sex + vampires = ADDICTED), finish some last minute blog posts, pack furiously, and don’t sleep because I’m too excited! Wooo!

Alaaasskkaaa :D

Sorry for being absent!

Hey guys, I just want to apologize for not posting much the last couple of days. I’ve been recovering from my Idaho trip, but also preparing for my Alaska trip. I’ll be gone from Wednesday June 24th at noon to Tuesday July 7 at noon. I won an Undergraduate Student Research Award for the ASM conference, which means I’ll actually be giving a 15 minute talk there. For those of you not familiar with biology conferences, it’s kind of crazy for an undergrad to be doing anything more than presenting a poster, and even that’s unusual. So yeah, I’ve been working my butt off the last couple of days making sure my Powerpoint presentation is perfect and that I’m really comfortable with the material. I think it’s going to go well!

I’ve also been working to make a lot of posts that will go up once I’m gone. I will probably have internet the first week while I’m still at the University of Fairbanks, but after that I’ll be hiking. There’s a possibility I’ll have internet through my phone, but I doubt it since I’ll be in the middle of nowhere. Even if I do, the most I’ll be able to do is twitter, so if you really can’t make it two weeks without me (hopefully not…), follow me there.

Don’t forget to also send me random questions! Either comment here or email me at jmccreig(at)purdue.edu, and I’ll try to answer your questions in posts.

Atheist Shirt & Airports

I mentioned before I left that I may wear my atheistic club t-shirt for my return trip home as a sort of social experiment. I’m not sure what I really expected – maybe some funny looks or the occasional glare. The front of the shirt isn’t too in-your-face just because the font is sort of small, but the back is kind of provocative: it has Robert Ingersoll’s quote “The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels.”
Well, I wore it. Caught the bus to the Pullman, Washington airport (tiny place, only conference people leaving) then left for Seattle. Then Seattle to Chicago, then desperately running to my plane to go to Indianapolis (made it!). I hadn’t noticed any reactions, really. This could be for a couple reasons. One, I was working on four hours of sleep, so maybe I wasn’t as perceptive as usual. Two, the back of the shirt is the more controversial side and I don’t have eyes in the back of my head, so maybe I missed all of the glares. Or three, people in airports are too busy worrying about their own flights to care about some chick’s atheist shirt.

As I was getting off of my plane in Indianapolis, a guy probably in his late 30s or early 40s moved in front of me, turned to me looking at my shirt, and mumbled something. All I heard was “*mumble* shirt.” For all I knew, it could have been “nice shirt” or “fucking shirt” or who knows what. I just sort of smiled awkwardly, but then he kept talking.

“Non-theist, eh? So is that not quite an atheist?” he asked. When I’m talking to people where I don’t know their views on issues, I tend to give very dictionary-like answers. “Well, non-theist is an umbrella term for atheists, agnostic, or other nonreligious people. It includes all of them.” “Hmm, what’s that other one?” he asked. “Secular…secular something.” “Secular humanist?” “Yeah, that’s it! Well, cool shirt, I like it.” I felt really relieved at that point. “You don’t know how good it is to hear someone say they like it. I get the opposite response more often.” He laughed and we walked to the baggage claim together. It only took about a minute for me to be sure that he was some sort of non-theist. We ended up discussing Dawkins, Dennett, various atheist philosophy, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and my work with the club. Apparently his dad was a philosophy of religion professor, so he actually knew more than your average non-activist atheist might. We ended up talking for nearly 20 minutes (baggage took forever) and it was pretty awesome.

I’ll probably never see this guy ever again, but it was really fulfilling to randomly meet another nonreligious person who you could have a civil conversation with. I guess that’s why I like wearing the shirt to begin with. I don’t want to get the glares and dirty looks, which I have certainly gotten. I still remember the mother with three small children who was staring at me like I had horns growing out of my head. No, I put up with the dirty looks for the rare friendly one. Those make it totally worth it.

Social experiment a success =)

(Also, related post by Hemant on reactions to atheist shirts)

Grrr American Health Care

My dad just got the bill for my exciting trip to the doctor for my bronchitis last month. It was nearly $1,000! Holy hell. $400 was just for going to the emergency room, since I don’t have a family physician down at campus and I had a 103 degree fever, so I needed to go somewhere quick. Our lovely insurance is only paying $350 (to quote my dad, “Those crooks. I hope Obama puts them all out of business). Thankfully my family isn’t poor, but we’re not rich either, and having to pay $650 so someone can tell my I have bronchitis (which I could have guessed, since I was around my friend who had it) and prescribe me meds is pretty crappy.

I don’t claim to understand all of the inner workings of insurance, but this seems a bit ridiculous to me. I hardly ever get sick enough to go to the doctor. Other than regular physicals required for school and sports and my bronchitis last month, I think the last time I had to go was when I broke my foot when I was 5. So tell me again why we’ve put all this money into an insurance company for me, and then when I actually get sick, they only pay a tiny fraction of a cost? They won’t even pay for my birth control or my Gardasil vaccines because they consider it “optional” instead of “preventative.” Instead I shell out $600 bucks a year to make sure I don’t spit out a baby or having crippling periods. They should be paying me to make sure I don’t clog up the welfare system with another kid and that I finish earning my degree so I can some day have a wonderful job that stimulates the economy and cures cancer (or something like that).

Sorry to rant, but it’s pretty annoying. I know insurance companies love people like me who never get sick but keep putting money into the system. I just wish that when I do get sick, they would actually do their freaking job.

Home! And Q&A

Hey everyone! I’m finally back in good ol’ West Lafayette. Flights went well and I have a couple stories to tell, but right now I’m just going to enter a vegetative state and skim through my 250+ blog posts I’ve accumulated. Oi. Look for real posts later tonight or tomorrow.

Though on a semi-real note, I need something from you guys. I’ll be in Alaska from June 24th to July 5th to attend the American Society of Mammalogists meetings and to go hiking. I have no idea how much internet access I’ll have – it’ll probably be somewhere between limited or absolutely none. I want to prepare some posts before I leave so you don’t have a big drought, and I don’t want to just post silly videos.

This is where I need you. Let’s have a little Q&A session. Either comment here with a question you’d like me to answer, or email me at jmccreig(at)purdue.edu with “Blag Hag” in the title somewhere. You can ask whatever you want no matter if it’s atheism/biology/blog related or something absolutely random. I figure you guys haven’t known me for very long, so there’s a lot you can ask. I’ll pick my favorites to answer. Don’t be afraid to be silly or philosophical, but also don’t expect me to dole out my credit card number or something.

Or if this is totally lame, I guess you can just ignore my blog from June 24th to July 5th. But I hope you won’t do that!

Almost done

I should probably have a lot more to post about now that the conference in almost over, but I’m so brain dead that I can’t come up with much. Hearing technical biology talks (80% of which are over my head) from 8 to 5 is just mentally exhausting after a while. That being said, I really enjoyed the conference. There’s so much cool science going on out there, and now I have all these neat ideas floating around in my head. And while the whole grad school application process still freaks me out, I feel like I have a lot better idea of what I need to do since we had some talks about that.

Though honestly, the best part was just being around so many nerdy biologists. It was amazing sitting in a bar, and instead of hearing people talk about sports, hearing people talking about transcriptome characterization or population genetics or who knows what. Everyone just went into absurdly geeky mode. Take this dinner conversation, just one example out of many:

My Prof: Those are all the Oregon State people over there, and those are all the Michigan people sitting there.
Me: And all of us Purdue people clumped together here.
My Prof: Yeah.
Me: So overall we have a diverse population, but when you look at subpopulations there’s very low variation.
My Prof: Yep!

One more, just if you don’t believe me:

Me: Excuse me! *trying to scoot past someone to get in a seat* Sorry!
Guy: Oh, don’t worry, it’s an open niche that needs to be filled!

My flight leaves 6:45 am tomorrow and I’ll be back in my apartment around 7 pm (hopefully). I plan on wearing my atheist club shirt for that trip, so we’ll see if I get any fun stories out of that. You know you’re officially a blogger when you start doing random crap just for the potential blog posts.