The Amazing Meeting 2012, Day Four (part 1)

Saturday, July 14, 2012:

As you can probably guess, I didn't get much sleep between sunrise and 8:00, but I did show up for Ben Radford's talk, Doomsdays and 2012 Mayan Prophecy.
` Apparently, not only did the Mayans not think that this year would be the last, and not only were there other calendars which 'end' in different years, but they actually referred to dates that were decades and even centuries after the year 2012.
` But who cares what they thought, anyway? It's not as though anyone would be able to predict the end of the world -- plus, everyone who's tried so far has failed, as no one seems to have noticed the world ending!

 

If you would like to learn more about this subject, and what his talk was like, he wrote an article about it in Alibi, which I thought was really informative. But wait, there's more:

The Amazing Meeting 2012, Day Three (part 2)

I will not add much text to this post, as it largely consists of videos to begin with, and those are enough to keep one occupied. Also, since I know that since there may be children wanting to look at this post, especially ones who don't like swear words, I will give fair warning of this. (No, really, I will.)

Although the buffet was preferable, at this hour the Steak and Shake was the only place open, so Leonard and I got a salad (which took at least 20 minutes) and brought it upstairs to the TAM hall, where there was a huge line waiting around to get into Penn Jillette's Rock n' Roll Doughnut and Bacon Party.
` After eating said salad, and stupidly trying to clean up oil with water, as Leo pointed out, I discovered that the line was just for donations/T-shirts. No point in waiting in that line! I didn't even particularly want a T-shirt, but since I had already donated 25$ previous to coming to TAM, I got to grab one anyway and headed in.

The electrical kept shorting out around this time, but I ran into the same Swedish guy and he showed me the money -- not as much as it looks, but it has an ant on it, and Linnaeus. Also, I start talking into my camera again a lot, which is really trippy, and then continue to speak like a normal humon:

I do like to put my camera down, but not the whole time, as you'll see, but first, here's a description of this party from Penn, in which he talks about how much cool stuff is going to be happening, and how he's going to be singing badly and swearing and saying bad things about religion and stuff:

The Amazing Meeting 2012, Day Three (part 1)

This post is so big and packed with photos and videos that I broke the evening chunk, with Penn's Rock 'n Roll Doughnut and Bacon Party, off into another post. Just so you don't think I'm cheating you.

Friday, July 13, 2012:

Being Friday the 13th and all, there was a Friggatriskadekaphobia Treatment Center this morning, but I preferred to sleep in until 7:30, when I got up to go see the first Skeptic's Guide To The Universe live recording. I brought my mango smoothie, beef jerky and royal trail mix as protein to help stave off the hunger without making my intestines miserable.
` I didn't bring my badge, but since everyone knew me by then, even the guards, I managed to look so pitifully enthusiastic/desperate about texting Leo to get my badge from the room (assuming he hadn't left already) that they let me in anyway.

Let's just say, SGU is different when the different co-hosts are all in the same room, and when you have the ability to see what's going on -- this is actually the first of two recordings which were later combined into a single episode!
` Since Rebecca was apparently too freaked out to come to TAM this year, they procured Richard Saunders as guest rogue this time (despite my previous offer to fill in!):

Jay Novella, Evan Bernstein, Steve Novella, Richard Saunders and Bob Novella.

They're talking about the follies of militaries using dowsing rods as bomb detectors that are programmed by inserting a picture of the object that they're supposed to detect. Yes, really. Apparently, as I found out later, this has resulted in many lethal bombings.
` And now for a dinosaur:

The Amazing Meeting 2012, Day Two

I really have no excuses as to why I've been delaying my posts, even though I'm working on a lot of things and socializing more than before. I've been really tired, yes, but this particular post is so easy to do! Let's get back to where I left off last post:

Thursday, July 12, 2012:

It was six in the morning, on the seventh floor, when I was repeatedly awoken by what sounded like a guy shouting in perhaps an arabic-type accent, "Atheists! Aaaatheists!" over and over, and in my half-asleep state, wondered if he was planning to bomb TAM.
` Sounding as though he was right outside the door, I was too paranoid to get back to my room on the eleventh floor. Since I was also not taking my Al-Qaeda delusions seriously, I so wished I'd had a pair of earplugs with me so that I could get back to sleep.
` I swear he was saying, "Atheists! Atheists! Aaaaatheists!", or perhaps it was another word in another language that sounded like "atheists" when attenuated through the walls.

This went on for a couple of hours, until such time that it was quiet and I slipped back to my room without incidence, where I greeted my roommate Leonard, and realized that this was the first time I had encountered him in the hotel room we were sharing.
` I took a shower and we went off to breakfast at this cafe on the corner of the hallway adjacent to the blinging, pinging casino. I had a yogurt parfait, which came with a bowl because it was too big to fit into the parfait glass, and finished Leonard's last piece of lox, as protein is essential when trying to stave off hunger.
` Leonard and I spent a lot of time together on our own, although we did get spend some time meeting such people as Ray Hyman, creator of the Skeptic's Toolbox.

 Admittedly, I spent much of this time running around and flapping my arms and jumping up and down -- although considerably less so than the previous night at Skeptics in the Pub -- and basically embarrassing myself somewhat, and amazingly did not perturb Leonard's stoicness in the slightest.

Without being a dork, I also talked to Michael Shermer about writing articles for Skeptic, and how many words they should be. Then I ran into Penn Jillette and one of his associates (probably Mike Goudeau, but I don't remember), and nearly bounced and flapped after him into the Grand Ballroom where he was setting up for his Sunday School podcast.
` I introduced myself and then went back out the doors, discovering that they were locked from the outside -- they must have known I was coming!

And that was just the beginning.

The Amazing Meeting 2012, Day One

Not to be too apologetic, but I would have had this post up yesterday if I hadn't been spending so much time learning about the psychology of influence and suggestion from this hypnotist/mentalist guy. As this will one day probably lead to some interesting shenanigans, I don't mind so much the missing out on valuable internet time. ;-)

Based on my BlogNotes for Wednesday, June 11, 2012:

Got up at 6:30 in the morning, packed up all the stuff I had sitting by my bags while the kitten climbed all over my backpack. Also got a video of her being a moron, playing with my hand from inside a toilet paper package, among a few other things to show folks that I meet while abroad, such as the view of Puget Sound from my house, and our three setting suns. (They're in my TAM photo set, along with the rest of the photos you see here.)
` Lucas drove me to the airport, all the while condemning my protein drink for smelling like low tide. (When I opened it the first time he asked, "Did you fart?" just as he asks every time we drive by a paper mill....) Thanks to his help, I was so ready for TAM that I believed that nothing horrible would go wrong (and it didn't).
` Got my boarding passes at the kiosk (didn't even need to use the bar code I had spent so much time trying to correctly print out days before), had a veggie burrito at Q-Doba, listened to some podcasting goodness, and finally made it into the plane, where I had a nice view of Mount Rainier:

And we weren't even in the air, yet!

I'm currently sitting on the plane between two people who are passed out, and am taking pictures out the window across the one guy who is apparently "chasing rabbits". Am continuing to listen to episode 54 of Cognitive Dissonance. Apparently, Iran is killing people for drinking alcohol because they've killed all the homosexuals! That crazy Iran!
` The napkins on the tray tables, which have Life's Ultimate To-Do List include 'Find the Loch Ness Monster'. Somehow, I don't think that one will be checked off by too many people.

Flying over Seattle.

Had a bite to eat in Phoenix, and after accidentally sitting in the wrong row, discovered that my seat had not one, but two windows through which to take video of such spectacular sights as near-collisions with clouds! Even taking off was exciting:

Am writing my TAM posts!

I have been typing in my TAMNotes, as well as being kinda busy, and am about to go out the door to another meeting, from which I will depart early and then go hang out with the cool hypnotist/mentalist guy for some shenanigans! The things we shall learn from one another. Mua ha ha ha!

Just keepin' ya updated with my progress. Do check out my TAM photos/videos on Flickr!

Edit: It's the next day and I still haven't finished transcribing because I've been so busy/out all night. Vegas has truly changed me. In any case, I'm getting back to it...

Still haven't written a word for my TAM posts...

Nor checked much of my email or other online stuff today, except for a few things from people who were at The Amazing Meeting. I suppose I could have done more, but am just so tired from TAM, plus going to the gym, plus karate, plus other things.
` Most of the day has been spent both doing innumerable little cleaning projects around the house, as well as spending a lot of quality time with folks, from the humans and cats that I live with, as well as people I both have and haven't seen/talked to over the phone in a while.

But am I going to start my online duties now? Well, on my way home from the gym, I stopped at the library and found that I am finally off the waiting list (beginning at #21) for a book by Lawrence Krauss, A Universe From Nothing, which was sitting on the shelf.
` Since I have just gotten off the phone with a friend in Ohio at nearly 11:00 p.m. (or 23:00), and then checked some of my emails, and am currently half asleep, I've decided it's best to relax and read this book, while eating some delicious Greek Gods pomegranate yogurt.

Don't worry, I still have my dedicated face on, it's just that I've been more dedicated to people and things in my personal life today. Vada, by the way, is apparently relieved that Lou Ryan hasn't gotten rid of me even though he kept the kitten.