It’s the day of reckoning: in about 4 hours, I get to give my talk here at the GAC…sandwiched in between Sam Harris and the Four Horsemen, in front of an intimidatingly huge crowd.
No worries, eh, mate?
I shall survive. They may have to pour me off the stage in a bag, but I’ll get through it all.
The day is off to an awful start. Internet access in the hotel is only intermittent, and it’s only occasionally that I can get on; and then this morning my laptop plays prima donna and dies, repeatedly, with ugly lock-ups and horribly slow performance. I may be restricted to blogging by iPad all weekend, which is slower and clumsier.
The day will get better. Mary has plans for us. We’re going out to see the sights this morning and afternoon, so she’s totally in charge. She keeps talking about flowers and trees and birds, though, and not a word about Cephalopoda or Insecta, so it might be a little weird. I’ll try to cope.
Then, 4:00 to 6ish, any pharyngula people in the vicinity ought to converge on the South Wharf Hilton Bah for some ‘Strine beeah. The Global Atheist Convention commences at 6:15 with a cocktail party, and then…chaos reigns!
We are nicely situated in our lovely hotel room in the Melbourne Hilton. Yay, showers! After 15 hours on an airplane, we need them.
There is no rest for the weary traveler, however. We’re charging out on the town shortly to visit the Melbourne Museum — if you’re interested, we’re meeting in the Hilton lobby around 1:30, or otherwise look for the flashing angry eyes of the mob of atheists at the museum at 2.
Breathless adventures await!
I have nothing to say except that I’ve been traveling since 10:30 Tuesday morning, I’m still in a big metal bird in the sky, and I want to get out. Now. But I guess I’ll wait until we land in Melbourne…in a few more hours. Gaaaaaaah.
That was really quick. The Salt Lake Tribune already has an account of my evening’s talk — it’s fairly accurate, too, since I did give a bit of a firebreathing talk.
Also, they have a number of photos online. I didn’t even notice, but I did kinda like this one.
I’m now picturing large numbers of Mormons reading the paper on Easter Sunday morning and hearing all about the ferocious atheists gathering in the city. Rah, us!
OK, here’s another one of me calling down atheist wrath.
Now you’ve seen the full range of the PZ Myers Experience.
The day started off with me wrecking my knee somehow. That was bad.
I spent most of the day lying down with an icepack. Swelling greatly reduced! That’s good.
Missed my chance to explore my old neighborhoods. Bad.
Recovered enough to hobble around campus before my talk. That was good.
Gave my talk, got a standing O (they’re desperate for atheists in Salt Lake City), and even better, got lots of sharp questions. Yay good!
Went out to the Red Iguana, a favorite old restaurant. It’s still there! It hasn’t changed, mostly! The food was delicious! All good!
I’m back in my hotel, leg propped up and iced again. Oh, well. Good to end on a calm and quiet note.
I just discovered a short write-up of an encounter I had at the Reason Rally with a gang of evangelicals.
Blake Anderson and I had a very pleasant talk with him. Blake invited him to his church again; Myers had already blogged on Blake’s earlier email invitation to him. He declined explaining that he liked to be polite in public but he could not be polite in church. He acknowledged we were being polite here. He asked, “Are they ridiculing you here?” We said they hadn’t been so far. He said, “They should be.”
Leave it to Christians to think that being polite was a triumph. They set the bar very low for themselves, don’t they?
I do like this comment, though.
In that short interaction, PZ Myers was quite charming, quite polite and warm, and at the same time quite intentionally insulting and rude.
It’s a gift.
It’s been a long time since I was last in Salt Lake City, and I’m looking forward to flying out there tomorrow. I know it’s full of weird strange Mormons, but they’re actually mostly nice people with wacky ideas, and the state itself is freakin’ gorgeous — we have very pleasant memories of raising young (godless) kids there.
I’ll be speaking on Saturday at 4pm in Orson Spencer Hall on the University of Utah campus. The topic will be The Good Atheist: Goals for the Godless 21st Century. Would you be surprised to learn that my definition of “good” does not include rolling over and playing friendly little puppy with the religious? There might be a little bit of fire-breathing in town Saturday night. Bring your Mormon friends!
Mondays aren’t bad—I’ve had the weekend to get ready and get some of the backlog cleared away, so I can go into class prepared and confident. Wednesday’s pretty good, too, since that’s actually the day with my lightest teaching load. Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, my morning is effectively blocked out with nothing but teaching, and then there are the committee meetings, and to cap it all off, there’s a seminar class from 5 to 6pm…and worse, by Thursday all the momentum I had acquired over the weekend is exhausted, and I’m scrambling to do the prep work for my Friday classes.
Friday is Friday, and you’ve got to love Friday. But Thursday…oh, man, it’s the armpit of the week.
And today is Thursday.
Never mind me. I just had to get that gripe off my chest.
I am a terrible person. After my busy weekend of travel this weekend, I get a phone call this morning to remind me of a planned doctor’s visit this morning…a visit I had to cancel because I’d completely forgotten to do the preparation.
That’s right. I gave up a colonoscopy in order to attend the Reason Rally and AA convention.
I hope David Silverman appreciates my sacrifice.
(Don’t worry, I’m rescheduling it for next month.)
