personal
pharyngula | June 5, 2011Sadly, today I leave Ireland…but happily, I land in Scotland. I'll be speaking at the Crystal Palace in Glasgow tonight at 7ish. Remember, this is the event that creationists have put out a call to take me to task, so I'm hoping we'll have a diverse crowd of science-minded people to provide thoughtful discussion, and creationist loonies to provide entertainment.
drorzel | June 5, 2011Why no blogging today? Among other reasons, because we went to the playground with SteelyKid. And this:
is a whole lot more fun than the Internet.
pharyngula | June 5, 2011Just a reminder…
At 8pm GMT (convert to your local time; it's 2pm to those of you in the band from Minnesota to Texas) here at the O'Callaghan Alexander Hotel, Dublin, in a room yet to be determined (check the YouTube info page for location updates), we'll be putting on a little talk show. We'll have an audience; locals can stop by. You can also appear by request via Skype.
It should be fun, tune in to the Magic Sandwich Show!
drorzel | June 2, 2011I didn't post anything to acknowledge Memorial Day this past Monday, because Union doesn't take the day off, so it was just another Monday around here, albeit with fewer stores and restaurants open than usual. SteelyKid was at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend, though, and celebrated by going to the annual parade. Which was enough of a hit that she was still marching around on Tuesday when she came home:
Where was she marching to, you ask?/p>
Why, to the pond, to throw leaves in:
What's that got to do with Memorial Day? Nothing. But it's fun, so there you go.
(No Appa picture today…
pharyngula | May 31, 2011Hey, I've got a few days free at the tag end of my trip to Ireland and the UK. Would it be a good idea to pop in to visit the Cheltenham Science Festival? Is it easy to get to, and once I get there, will it be easy and reasonable to get lodging for a night? I'd love to see Robin Ince's Infinite Monkey Cage in particular, but I'd be unhappy to make the trip and then discover I need to book a month in advance and that my only choice is to sleep on a parkbench.
drorzel | May 26, 2011Kate is off at Wiscon (or at least en route-- her flights are all screwed up), and SteelyKid is off at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. Which means I don't have an Appa picture this week, but in honor of the pagan origins of the name of the day, here's a picture of SteelyKid enacting a scene from the movie Thor:
Well, OK, she's just gesturing dramatically with a fruit twist on the steps of the Nott Memorial. But it sort of looks like she might be declaiming some of the ludicrous dialogue of the Asgard sequences... Maybe?
I dunno. That's all I've got, really: she's out of town, I went…
pharyngula | May 26, 2011I'm beginning to feel like I'm a bit organized for my visit to the Ireland and the UK next week. Here's when and where.
3-5 June: DUBLIN. I'll be attending the World Atheist Convention, and speaking at noon on 4 June.
6 June: GLASGOW. I'll be speaking to the Glasgow Skeptics at 7:00 in the Crystal Palace, 36 Jamaica Street.
7 June: BRIGHTON. I'll fly from Glasgow to Gatwick in the morning, I might be saying hello to Johann Hari in the early afternoon, and then I hitchhike or something to get to the
Brighton Skeptics in the Pub by 8:00, to speak at The Caroline of Brunswick, 39 Ditchling Road…
pharyngula | May 25, 2011I'll be on Minnesota Public Radio on 31 May, on a program called Bright Ideas, in front of a live studio audience, which will probably pepper me with obnoxious questions. Or fun questions. We'll find out.
This event may have already been 'sold' out (tickets are free) — but you locals can try to get in here (Never mind, it is already sold out).
sa smith | May 24, 2011Thanks to everyone who has sent a message! Just so yall know, everything is fine on my end here in OK.
Me and Arnie went to campus before the storm hit and just hung out there (with about a dozen other students pups and a cat, lol!) Realized that was the first time Arnie has been on an elevator. Arnie was more aware of this fact than I was. LOL! I really wish I had my video camera on me for that. I was relieved when I saw on the news, people emerging from their shelters with their puppahs and kittehs too, but I heard one family was missing one of their dogs and a cat, and two dogs lost…
pharyngula | May 23, 2011I guess Josh couldn't get that post-Rapture interview with Harold Camping, so he settled for the next best thing: me.
drorzel | May 20, 2011This was a hellishly busy week, and today was especially bad. I barely had time to read non-work-related email, let alone write anything for the blog. And now that I have time, I'm too fried to write anything.
So here's a bonus cute-toddler photo, with an ego-blogging element:
That's SteelyKid sitting in my desk chair, watching the National Geographic video clip from the other day. She's pointing at the screen to say "That's you walking Emmy!" Which she does every time we play it, and it doesn't get old.
I don't think she really gets the physics yet, but there's plenty of time for that...
drorzel | May 19, 2011Earlier tonight, I was sitting at my computer, and SteelyKid came running over. "Let's go to Israel. Pretend Israel." she said in a conspiratorial whisper.
"Why are you whispering?" I asked. "Do we have to whisper in pretend Israel?"
"Yes," she replied immediately. "Because there are bears."
The origin of this odd conversation was today's "trip" to "Israel" at the JCC day care. The pre-schoolers all got out in the hall, sat down, and pretended to ride an airplane to Israel. Once there, SteelyKid's class made like good American tourists, and went shopping. She excels at shopping.
This was a…
pharyngula | May 17, 2011GRADES ARE DONE AND TURNED IN!
I've got a nice bottle of wine and a wild woman on the way. Or I might just pass out and sleep.
pharyngula | May 17, 2011I've added another engagement in London on 9 June: An evening with Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers. There will be a steel cage. Two enter, one leaves. We'll settle who will be Emperor of the Atheists, finally.
Well, actually, it will just be a pleasant conversation, hosted by the British Humanist Association. If you're interested in listening to chit-chat between two godless biologists who mostly agree on everything, get your tickets soon — they'll probably sell out fast.
pharyngula | May 16, 2011JackC has posted images from the Friggatriskaidekaphobia event this past weekend…and also from our tour of the Penn Museum. Guess who the people in this photo are:
pharyngula | May 14, 2011I'm about to head off to that wretched hive of scum and villainy, the Philadelphia airport, to make the Morris run (we'll do it in less than 12 parsecs!) I just wish TSA would lighten up now that that horrible terrorist is dead.
pharyngula | May 14, 2011I'll be back in online action in a while, but I thought I'd just mention that we had a grand time at the anti-superstition party, and today we had an equally lovely time touring the U Penn Museum with a few of the regular commenters (I hope they'll link to some of the photos they took: Jack C was our official tour photographer, I think). Now I have to relax for a bit and enjoy a nice dinner with Tom and Margaret Downey.
I'm just posting this so you'll all be jealous and wish you'd shown up, too.
drorzel | May 12, 2011Tonight's Toddler Blogging features SteelyKid taking a picture of me taking a picture of her, while Appa does the forced perspective thing again:
The "camera" in this case is the salt shaker that came with her kitchen playset. Which is a versatile object, serving also as a drinking cup:
The beverage in question was "fish juice," squeezed from the green plastic fish you can just make out in her hand. She made us all drink some, despite the fact that it was, as she put it, "little tiny yucky."
I'm a little amazed we got these, because at dinner a little while earlier, she slipped off a chair…
pharyngula | May 9, 2011Even if they did make him wear a funny hat at his graduation this past weekend.
OK, yes, he isn't always so serious.
He's also currently single, and soon to be stationed in California.
pharyngula | May 8, 2011
Since my opposition is dragging in loads of riff-raff to try and raise money for Camp Quest, I've decided to bring in some firepower of my own. The beard is willing to make the great sacrifice if Team PZ wins this competition at the end of this month. Even better, at the request of my daughter Skatje, I will recreate the look of 1980s PZ:
In fact, since Skatje and I will both be at Convergence at the end of June, I will coerce her into helping me re-enact this very photo, and will post it to the web. It can't be a perfect replica — I've grown a little wider, and she's gotten a wee bit…