Back to Utah for me

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!

I hate Thursdays

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.

The sacrifices I made for the Reason Rally

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.)

Hey, that’s me at the Reason Rally

I hear there will be a slick and professionally produced DVD of the talks from the Reason Rally eventually. For now, though, there’s lots of stuff appearing on youtube, including this recording of my talk. I haven’t listened to it — I simply can’t listen to myself without cringing — so if some cunning rascal spliced in a soundtrack from a Donald Duck porn cartoon, I wouldn’t know it. So I fling this out, close my eyes, and run away.

I’ve got to go give a completely different talk this morning, anyway.

The party got a little wild last night

1300 atheists unwinding after the Reason Rally and a long day of talks at the American Atheists National Convention leads to…costumes. Trekkies and a multitude of Jesi and Mohammeds. Loudness and alcohol. Raucus laughter and grand plans for world domination. Somehow I ended up in a strange hotel room late at night with a bottle of Jim Beam and a swarm of well-known godless folk you’d probably all recognize.

Regrettably, I had to extract myself from the scene and get some sleep, because today I must stand up in front of all those hung-over, weary atheists who are just now experiencing the symptoms of the creeping crud from standing in the rain for 12 hours, and talk coherently for a while. This is going to be a harsh day, I think.

And then…hurtling through the sky to Minneapolis! Long drive home! Frantic scramble to prep for tomorrow’s classes!

Awww, just what I wanted!

Yeah, it’s my birthday. So? What you gonna make of it, huh?

Anyway, some of you got together and got me a most excellent birthday present, exactly the thing I wanted: credit with no effort on my part. You made charitable donations to exactly the kinds of organizations I support!

Perfect! Thanks everyone!