Perhaps there really is hope for me!

Just reflecting on the past few days...

They have been pretty busy, and as Lou Ryan says, he's never known anyone busier than me. And yet I've been slacking off the mad science blogging just to get other things done. This time I don't feel so bad about it, though, because I've gotten more acclaim on my writing.
` I know I've been name-dropping lately, but Trystan Swale, known as a co-host on the Righteous Indignation podcast and author of the Leaves That Wither blog, wrote to me about my encounter with Richard Dawkins:

I love that bit about the book signing because it is clear how much it meant to you and what a good time you were having. That's precious, especially as the US is such a huge country and I guess you don't get big skeptical types come to town every day. You deserve to make the most of it. I don't read your blog because of your ambition, I do it because I think your writing is detailed, entertaining, touching and flows like a stream of consciousness.

Comments like these greatly cheer me, and give me hope that by the time I get to The Amazing Meeting 2012, I'll have enough cool articles to show for it that someone or other will hire me on as a writer. My dream come true!

Other good news includes NBC finally paying Lou and I today! Edit: here's photographic evidence:

If we keep being paid for the things that people owe us, on a semi-reasonable time scale, Lou says that we're going to keep this house but move to a country populated by fewer crazy people.
` It was ironically Friday the 13th when he was sent to Tacoma because the wrong supplies were shipped up here, so he had to drive through some pretty crazy traffic, TWICE.
` He saw two accidents and many near-accidents, including people passing without even looking at one another on four different ramps, and most people seemed to be either on cell phones, text-messaging or looking at something inside their cars, while the other 10% were WTF-ing at it all.

"At least the drivers in LA have etiquette!", Lou fumed. For example, in LA, the person behind you won't try to pass a stopped bus faster than you do -- as someone had just almost hit him doing that very thing!
` At another point, when stopped in traffic, Lou yelled at this one guy who was talking on his cell phone and smoking a cigarette at the same time, to at least put one hand on the steering wheel. To the guy's credit, he did.
` Then, there were these prostitutes screaming at one another and angrily waving their fists... in the middle of five lanes of traffic! One of them had a little dog, but let go of its leash because of course dozens of cars are nothing to worry about. Lou yelled at them to get out of the street, but they didn't even seem to notice.
` Then, upon driving up to our house on this winding street, this woman in a Mercedes was weaving way into the oncoming lane and the pedestrian lane because she was looking at something in the backseat and almost hit a motorcyclist head-on! She didn't stop weaving until Lou leaned on the horn, which he could do only because he'd just reconnected it with a pair of pliers for such an occasion that day!

All I have to say is, no wonder so many people around here are assholes. Of course, we've had plenty of non-car encounters with complete assholes and mental hospital/jail fodder, from the unbelievable crazy landlady and 14 ex-roommates, to just random people who shouldn't be allowed to be so stupid, but this time... this time... Lou vowed to eventually leave the country.
` For real.
` My other dream come true!

Of course we should still hang onto our U.S. citizenship, but at the same time, we should spend a lot of our time living elsewhere, in a country where we aren't surrounded by such distracted, oblivious and inconsiderate folks.
` Surely there is a country where people are a little smarter and conscious of the world around them? Some parts of northern Europe seem ideal for that. Maybe we could spend a little time in the Southern Hemisphere for the winter, though?
` Any suggestions as to which country might be a good place to try are welcome! We are sick and tired of feeling that we are surrounded by idiots all the time!

As for our current roommates, I can't complain about ol' Brianade, but one of the others recently drank some of our vodka, and the other doesn't even need alcohol to seemingly lose brain cells:
` He recently had been leaving his clothes in the washer for over 24 hours before putting them in the dryer because he said that they weren't done washing until after he left for work, and then couldn't be drying them at night because that's highly annoying to Lou Ryan, when he's trying to sleep on the couch.
` So, he just left them until the next afternoon. When Lou suggested that he put the clothes in the washer early enough so that they would be done before he left, he seemed as though he hadn't thought of that before. Really?!
` And also, the same roommate seems to have forgotten how to flush the toilet completely -- again! Even the other roommate flushes it all down when he vomits from drinking too much!

Even though this type of behavior isn't insane abuse, fighting, threats, maggots, booby traps, household devices clogged with rocks/dog poop, being kept up and away from the house all night every night for months, having to lock property behind doors, urine poured all over the house, etc. we are still living with people whose brain functionality is pretty far below our own, and it will be nice to have the house to ourselves.
` We've also come to the conclusion that since half of all people are below average in various mental abilities, and we're so far above average, then almost everyone is bound to seem brainless to us. I do not think that it is a coincidence that Lou, I, and Brianade have at least genius-level intelligence and are into critical thinking and also are not the ones who need help tying our shoes, so to speak.

I tell you what, it's still more fun to use a dead vole to play catch with a cat than having my two brainless roommates! Vada agrees:

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Don't mean to bring anyone down here, especially after such good stuff is going on, but this is life -- mostly shitty, but uncharacteristically with some good things as well. This is one reason I hang out with the skeptics and such -- also, they can help spread word of this blog.
` The other night Brianade and I were at this secular meeting of doom -- where he is also known as "Shoebag". Edit: pictures! This is when it started to really fill up:

I was just about to start plugging my blog left and right when this epidemiologist lady introduced herself to the group and sort of dominated the table I was at, and I eventually glazed over and forgot about plugging my blog until long after the arrival our our bills, which said:

I only remembered about plugging my blog after I had gotten home. Ah well, maybe next time. Until then, I'll continue plugging my blog the old-fashioned electronic way!

Such are the realities of day-to-day life. I might be a good writer, but as my mundane posts show, my life is anything but glamorous, even though this is (sadly) by far the best I can recall my life ever being, having been attacked by crazy people since I was a little kid!
` Oh well, at least we live in a great location, and the sunset is getting closer and closer to its summer position of not being blocked by trees:

That's one thing I cannot complain about. Now, as for the people around here, only some of them actually seem fairly intelligent....