personal
sa smith | June 28, 2011BACK!!
Went to a wedding this weekend. Actually, was in a wedding this weekend. I had a blast, everything went off without a hitch, and it completely and utterly reinforced my opinion that I want nothing to do with marriage. I just have no emotional or practical need or desire for it.
Its not because I personally have any negative experiences with it. My parents have been married for ages, as have my grandparents and aunts and uncles and my brother seems to like it a lot.
Im just entirely uninterested.
Some of that probably comes from my non-religious upbringing. When you make a child…
pharyngula | June 28, 2011I know I usually post the crazy wacky stuff under this title, but to be honest, that's actually a minority of the stuff that finds its way to my inbox: most of it is neutral in tone, a lot of it is telling me I must write about subject X, but some of it is also complimentary — and the good stuff outnumbers the deranged stuff.
So here is a fairly typical letter from someone I outraged and offended once. I know this is only anecdotal so it can't be used to make quantitative arguments about the effectiveness of my approach, but it does work for some people. I never get letters telling me they…
drorzel | June 27, 2011On Saturday, we took SteelyKid to the Bronx Zoo. It was kind of hot, and she got a little over-tired by the end, but it had a lot of amazingly cute moments, too. And, unlike Sunday's trip to the beach, I brought my camera and shot a couple hundred pictures of various things. Including this shot of SteelyKid on Grandpa's shoulders at the start of the day:
That's a keeper, all right. What was she looking at? Well, this happy couple:
Hello, large predatory cat.
And hello to you, too, Aslan.
(These could probably be improved further with some slightly more sophisticated image processing-- the…
drorzel | June 27, 2011We spent Sunday morning introducing SteelyKid to one of my favorite places in the world, Jones Beach on Long Island. She was ok with the water until an unexpected wave sideswiped us and splashed her in the face, but enjoyed the sand quite a bit. And I got to swim in the ocean and body-surf on some reasonably good waves. I was too busy swimming to remember to snap cell phone pictures of SteelyKid at play, so you'll just have to use your imagination.
A lot of liberal-ish bloggers will invoke the name of the city planner Robert Moses as practically a curse-- he's blamed for enabling "car culture…
drorzel | June 23, 2011SteelyKid is in a bit of a "no pictures" phase at the moment, which makes it kind of difficult to get weekly shots. Hence the run of Toddler Blogging pictures without Appa in them-- when we pick Appa up, she runs away.
Thus, this shot with the color balance all wonky (I could do a better job of cleaning it up, but I'm lazy), because the flash hadn't warmed up yet, and she started freaking out before I could get a better shot. It does, however, show the finest balloon animal you can get from "Mr. Twisty," who does his act at the Greenmarket every now and then:
That's a monkey climbing a tree…
drorzel | June 19, 2011My parents came up today to go out for dinner for my birthday/ father's day. On the way home, SteelyKid announced that she wanted to go to a playground. We explained that first we needed to go home and get Emmy, and then we would see about going to a playground. SteelyKid then suggested that we bring Emmy in the car with us to the playground, and I said "Well, we'll ask Emmy."
When we got home, I let Emmy outside before SteelyKid came into the back yard. When she saw Emmy was out, she ran right over, calling "Hey, Emmy, you want to go to the playground?"
Then she answered herself, in a…
drorzel | June 18, 2011Today was my birthday, one of the integer-multiple-of-ten ones that's supposed to be a milestone. And, really, to the extent that it does prompt self-reflection, it's nice to be reminded that the last several decades have been pretty good to me: I've got a really good job, a great family, and the whole nice-house-in-the-suburbs life that a middle-class American of my generation is supposed to be going for.
Interestingly, while we did go to a birthday party today, it wasn't mine-- one of SteelyKid's friends from day care turns three in a couple of days, so we went to a party for her at a local…
drorzel | June 16, 2011Kate here while Chad is at DAMOP, with this week's Toddler Blogging.
What, you may ask, is SteelyKid counting on her fingers?
In fact, she is counting down to . . .
Takeoff!
pharyngula | June 15, 2011Back in the day, when I was a teenager, I used to hop on the bus to Seattle and spend a day wandering the seedier parts of town. I'd get off around Pike Street, near the Farmers' Market, and wander around 1st and 2nd Avenues, which were not nice places for a quiet young man. But I had an obsession and a pocket full of change, and I was jonesing for a fix. I'd go to the porn shops.
Maybe you don't remember 70s-era porn shops. Maybe you weren't even born then. But the like of these beasts is something that we'll not see again. They were beautiful.
The typical layout was to have walls covered…
pharyngula | June 12, 2011I'm at Heathrow, about to begin the long trip home. It's going to be epic: somehow, with all the layovers and the long drive from the airport, I anticipate pulling into my driveway just about exactly 24 hours from posting this.
No! I won't post anything to Pharyngula as soon as I get home! I plan to crawl into bed and not move again for a few days.
drorzel | June 12, 2011It was the sort of mid-June morning that global warming deniers dream of: cold and threatening rain. the rain held off until all the speakers had spoken, all the graduates had done their walk across the stage, and all the degrees had been passed out. That's as much as you can ask for, really.
through a quirk of teaching schedules, I actually knew fewer people in this graduating class than most others-- I didn't teach the big intro courses in their first year, so I didn't see the usual crop of would-be engineers. I've seen this year's physics graduates a lot, though-- I've had them all in…
pharyngula | June 10, 2011I'm at the Cheltenham Science Festival, I have been given a press pass, and I intend to use it fiercely to be entertained for a few days. I think I'll go listen to Alan Moore rumble about snake goddesses in a bit, and I know that tomorrow I intend to be fawning fanboi to Brian Cox, and whatever else I do will be on a whimsy.
Oh, wait…whimsey. I'm staying at a hotel called The Big Sleep, which is pretty darned ominous. Don't the British read Raymond Chandler? I feel like I've got to go all noirish now.
pharyngula | June 9, 2011Now you can listen in to the whole discussion via those British Humanist Association podcasters with the lightning-fast response times. Or you can read a review. Aside from the righteously angry but poorly aimed protesters, I guess last night went over reasonably well.
pharyngula | June 9, 2011I'm on the Pod Delusion, recorded just last night and already available for listening.
drorzel | June 9, 2011SteelyKid is in an intermittently shy phase right at the moment. Sometimes, she's really outgoing and shamelessly mugs for the camera, other times, well...
Of course, two minutes after hiding behind Appa and insisting that I not take pictures of her, she marched over and demanded to see the pictures on the camera.
We've had an extremely busy couple of days-- her day care was closed yesterday and today for a Jewish holiday-- so that's all I've got the mental energy for tonight. I almost forgot to past anything at all, but Kate reminded me, and I thought I had better head off the angry/…
pharyngula | June 9, 2011So, tonight I had a civil and fun public conversation with Richard Dawkins, hosted by the British Humanist Association, which went well…but was marred by protests at the beginning. It was very exciting.
The cause for the chaos was peculiar to me: they were protesting AC Grayling's proposed new university, which would have an £18,000 tuition, twice what other universities charge. It seems silly to demonstrate over Richard Dawkins, who has only agreed to lecture there, or AC Grayling, who just wants a good education in the liberal arts for students, or the university itself, when the real…
drorzel | June 8, 2011
Relevant data: Due date in early November, blood tests for Bad Things came back clear, and while we haven't gotten Official Word from the doctor, everything looked fine to the ultrasound tech yesterday. Gender is going to be a surprise, as it was with SteelyKid.
We told SteelyKid about it last night, and to the limited degree that she understands, I think she's excited. Last night at bedtime, I mentioned that she would need to give up her pacifier soon so the baby can have it, leading to the following conversation (more or less):
SteelyKid: "Mommy has a baby in her tummy, and it's going to…
pharyngula | June 7, 2011If you aren't in London, you won't be able to hear my talk for Atheism UK tonight at the South Place Ethical Society, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL, at 7:00. But you could listen to my interview on Radio Freethinker, anywhere where you have the internet.
I don't know why you would want to, anyway. I'm neither particular pretty, nor is my voice especially lovely. But apparently you can wind me up in a conversation.
pharyngula | June 6, 2011I just got back from a busy evening at the Glasgow Skeptics meeting; big crowd, lots of fun, a certain creationist will probably be whining about his savage mistreatment soon, I got to meet Charlie Stross, I had Glenlivet delivered to me for the Q&A, I also drank a bottle of Irn Bru (mmmm, mediciney liquid bubble gum), and Cthulhu ate my brains.
Tomorrow, bright and early, I fly off to Gatwick, take a detour to London, and speak in Brighton. This is my life.