I made it back, scudding ahead of the oncoming hurricane! Actually, I saw no sign of it: everything was calm when I left Tennessee and North Carolina this morning, and all my flights were on time. I know some of the east coast people were seeing flight cancellations, but I think my timing was just right to be well ahead of it all.
I hope it all dribbles away quickly, but otherwise, best of luck to those staring Sandy’s landfall in the face…and better yet, best of preparation.
Let me tell you about my day.
I’ve got a full schedule of labs, classes, and meetings today, and it’s advising week at UMM as well.
Late this afternoon, when my last class lets out, I’m bolting out the door and running for my car, and then in a squeal of burning rubber, racing for the airport. We had our first snow today. I estimate that I’ll arrive in Minneapolis sometime around the tail end of rush hour. I’m cutting it close.*
I’m flying to O’Hare. I arrive at about 10:30pm. My connecting flight to Nashville leaves at 7am. I have no idea what I’m going to do for 8½ hours. Maybe rewrite my talk.
I arrive in Nashville at 8:30am. I’m giving a talk at CSICon at 11:15am.
I’m explaining a difficult and fundamental topic in evolutionary biology: the role of chance. I just noticed that I have to do this in a half hour. I think I will be rewriting big chunks of my talk.
At 11:50am I intend to collapse somewhere.
The good news, though, is that finishing up my obligations early means I get to mostly relax and enjoy the weekend, and I really really need that. Except that I’m also bringing a stack of grading with me, and also have to prep a lecture for Monday (fortunately, the topic for that is regulation of cell division, and I know that stuff inside and out.**)
Anyway, all that just to let you know…posting may be light for the next 30+ hours. You can cope, right? Also, bonus: partying Friday and Saturday night, so maybe I can compensate with mildly inebriated posting (no drunk posting for me, I’m too old for that crap anymore.)
* But have no fear, I won’t compromise on traffic laws. I shall get there safely or not at all!
** Wait, I know everything in this class inside and out — I still suffer in fussing over all the details.
In an effort to prioritize and clean up my flood of incoming email, a while back I announced an important change: I’ve partitioned my email so everything sent to myersp@morris.umn.edu (my university email account) is handled on one machine, and general messages are dealt with at pzmyers@gmail.com. My university email account is intended ONLY for work email, so if you send stuff there and your address doesn’t end in “umn.edu” or “hhmi.org” or something similarly specific, it’s going to get shunted off into a slush folder and I’ll deal with it once I’ve managed all the other official stuff that piles up, i.e., probably about never.
If you send it to pzmyers@gmail.com, there’s no guarantee I’ll get to it quickly, but at least it doesn’t get immediately drop-kicked into a deep dark pit of neglect first. So, really, if you aren’t one of my high-priority students, or a colleague, or a university or grant administrator, don’t try to contact me at the umn.edu address.
I’m only mentioning this because my umn.edu account’s black hole seems to be getting larger and larger, and I’m becoming increasingly reluctant to look in there and try to rescue any messages. I might never escape.
Talk among yourselves, everyone. I’m in Austin — I’m actually right in front of the Capitol steps — for the Texas Freethought Convention, after getting in after 1am last night. I just heard Aron Ra shred the religious, and Matt Dillahunty and Richard Dawkins and Sean Faircloth are coming up. It’s good to be in Texas, a phrase I’m surprised to have ever written.
It sounds like the convention is close to being sold out, so you’re too late for the afternoon/evening sessions, but we’re going to be right out her in public all morning.
Oh, look…a picketer!
I’m flying off to the Texas Freethought Convention in Austin tomorrow night. I see on the schedule that I’m delivering the Saturday night keynote, and that I’m in the company of Richard Dawkins and Aron Ra and Matt Dillahunty and Jessica Ahlquist.
My personal schedule lately has been raging chaos with obligations piled on top of responsibilities teetering on a foundation of work, and…
and…
Jeez, I haven’t even had a moment to think about what I’m going to say! In two days I have to give an hour talk that will make it worthwhile to hang about in an auditorium rather than going drinking. I am a bad, bad person.
But I’m really good at throwing a talk together on short notice. So I thought that what I would do is put it out to the Pharyngula commentariat: if you were in Austin on a Saturday night, and you had to listen to me talk, what would you want me to talk about? What subjects in freethought and/or science get you wound up, and would have you either pumping your fist or throwing beer bottles at the speaker (either extreme works)?
Leave suggestions. I’ll make up my mind so I can get the talk assembled on the plane.
I haven’t had time to watch this yet, but I apparently appear very briefly in this program. It’s the usual thing — I spend a few hours talking, and it gets edited down to a few seconds.
I’m looking forward to it, because from my perspective I met those people and they were actually rather nice, but their beliefs about aliens ranged from mildly off the mainstream to rabidly weird and ignorant. I’ll be interested to see what emerged from all of the conversations — unfortunately, I’m still en route, sitting in an airport with a 2 hour flight and a 3 hour drive ahead of me, and then a pile of prep work before classes resume tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, and I’m feeling cranky. Probably just as well I’m going to be offline most of the day.
Life? What life? I’m too busy flitting about. Last week it was Duluth and a long stint in Washington DC; today I’m in Murray, Kentucky; next week I’ll be in Austin, Texas, and the week after that, in Nashville for CSICon. And then I get a little break. After that, though, I wanted to plug Eschaton 2012, because it’ll be your last chance to see me before the end of the world.
Oh, wait. I’ve just been informed by the conference organizers that the world probably isn’t ending, so I guess you don’t have to go.
THE WORLD IS PROBABLY NOT ENDING.
NOW STOP WORRYING, AND CELEBRATE REASON!Come to Ottawa for a weekend gathering of scientists, philosophers, authors, academics, skeptics, rationalists, humanists, atheists, and freethinkers, where you can see presentations and join discussions on science, skepticism, gender issues, theocracy vs secularism, godless ethics, parenting beyond belief. Featured speakers include blogger PZ Myers, author Ophelia Benson, philosopher Chris DiCarlo, science education activist Eugenie Scott, and many others. You can even participate in a live recording of Canada’s skeptical podcast, “The Reality Check” (trcpodcast.com).
Saturday evening we present our gala “Night at the Musuem” (held at the Canadian Museum of Nature), which includes a reception, talk by PZ Myers, and late night special events, with exclusive access to the Fossil Gallery and Earth Gallery.
The price of $275 ($225 for CFI members) includes access to the Friday night plenary session, a choice of 2 daytime tracks on Saturday and Sunday, lunches and snacks, plus the Saturday evening gala. (A limited number of volunteer discounts are available – email volunteers@eschaton2012.ca for more information.)
November 30-December 2
Ottawa, Canadawebsite: eschaton2012.ca
twitter: @eschaton2012
facebook: facebook.com/Eschaton2012
Oh my gosh, I’m part of a gala! I’m going to be doing a science talk on chance and coalescence theory and the failures of prominent creationists to grasp essential concepts, which sounds a bit somber for a gala. Maybe it will help if I dress all in motley?
Next week, I’m off to Washington DC for day after day of grant-related business, and I’m going to be tied up with all kinds of projects. But I get in on Monday evening, and on the way to the conference, I thought I’d take a little detour…Salman Rushdie is speaking! Don’t tell anyone at HHMI, I promise to buckle down to work right after that.
My Seattle homies of a certain generation will recognize the importance of this guy in building our character.
