I’m captured on yet another podcast: Chariots of Iron, the one thing god’s armies cannot defeat.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I’m captured on yet another podcast: Chariots of Iron, the one thing god’s armies cannot defeat.
Karen paid a visit to my university office and didn’t find me, but left a nice note. Thanks!
This is going to be a common occurrence. I’m on sabbatical, so I’m not in my office very often — but if you just go out the main doors of the science building, turn right and walk up the sidewalk to College Avenue, and cross the street…I’ll probably be there in the big white (but needs a new coat of paint) house. Go ahead and knock. I might show up at the door barefoot and in a grungy t-shirt*, but I’ll probably be civil.
*There will be pants, too, probably. Usually.
It’s right next door, but I haven’t been to North Dakota that often. There are a couple of dates planned that will change that, though: on 24 September, I’ll be in Fargo for a free movie night with the Red River Freethinkers.They’ll be showing Julia Sweeney’s Letting Go of God at the Fargo Theater at 6pm, and then for an anti-climax, I’m giving a lecture.
If Fargo is just too darned congested for you, I’ll also be speaking at Minot State University in Minot, ND on 5 October — deep in the heart of the state. I’ll put up more details about that later.
Since several people were curious, the reason I’ll be in Australia next year is that I’ve been invited to speak at The 2010 Atheist Global Convention in Melbourne, on 12-14 March 2010. All that way for 3 days? I’ll probably arrange to spend some extra time on my own dime checking out the drop bears and venomous kittens and raucous Australians out there — suggestions are welcome. Invitations to sack out on a couch somewhere, also welcome. Generous offers of good Australian beer, especially welcome.
The organizers also want to get an estimate of attendance, so they’re asking likely attendees to register their interest in an entirely non-binding query. You know Richard Dawkins is going to be there, as well as the fascinatingly controversial Peter Singer, and several of the exotic natives of that distant land, such as Catherine Deveny, who I’ve admired since reading this column. It should be an enlightening couple of days — join us!
I was recently interviewed for the Young Australian Skeptics podcast, and it’s now available for download.
I have been abandoned. My wife has left me. The kids have all moved out. I’m stuck home alone with nothing to do but work and take care of the annoying cats for a whole week, and I may just go insane.
The Trophy Wife has gone to summer camp! She’s working for a week as a camp counselor at Minnesota’s Camp Quest, the secular place for smart kids to be. I’m thinking I should probably demand, as a price for forcing me to bach it for all this time, some kind of direct report from her at the end of the week that I could post here and get everyone excited about sending their kids (or spouses) away for a while.
I’d say that I should get her to send me daily updates on the events there, but I think she’s going to be busy. As it is, all I’ve heard so far is that they have luxurious new cabins and great food. I had leftover tuna casserole for dinner last night, just sayin’.
Two things about my daughter: she’s always been a finicky eater, particularly hating seafood, and she is currently living far from home, in Arizona. I just about fell off my chair, therefore, when I read that Skatje is actually trying sushi. And she likes it! Well, sort of, and only some of it, but it’s a step forward.
Darn kids. They keep growing up and changing on me.
One nice thing about being the most evil blogger on the interwebs is that I can occasionally trick my kids into thinking I might be just a little bit cool. My son Connlann introduced me to the black humor of Mr Wiggles (my kids have inherited a weird sense of humor!), and the author, Neil Swaab, offered me a copy of his latest compilation, Rehabilitating Mr Wiggles. I mentioned that it was my boy who led me to Mr Wiggles, and so Neil generously sent me a second copy, autographed for Connlann. See the effect?
If you don’t know Mr Wiggles, you’re probably going to spend the next few hours browsing in appalled fascination.
An anonymous contributor, signing himself “An Opinionated Englishman”, took umbrage at some passing mention of Lipton tea that I made a while back, and sent me a couple of boxes of genuine English tea from some place called Whittard of Chelsea.
Whoa. There really is a huge difference.
This is terrible. I can never go back to drinking the domestic stuff now, and am going to have to go looking for a local source of imported teas. Darned snooty Englishmen, waking me up to reality. How dare they?
…was the SkepchickCon in Minneapolis this past weekend. This was a consequence of some extremely ugly last minute flight rearrangements from Germany that brought me home significantly later than I had planned (although Lufthansa did helpfully tell me I could get back earlier if I would just buy that seat in first class in an earlier flight…for an additional $5000). Melissa Kaercher did make the grand effort of connecting me up virtually over skype for the Evolution 101 panel, but unfortunately, the internet in my hotel went totally kablooiee 5 minutes after the panel started.
Oh, well. I learned about everything I missed from Greg Laden and bug_girl. Next year! Next year I must go!
