Yet More Journaly Bits Since Last Post

Although documenting things that I am busy with besides science writing were once something that I'd hoped that I could do less of, I kind of see this as becoming a theme, especially because these are so much easier/faster to write. Not to mention, they tend to be shiny!

 

The events of this week start out surprisingly mundane, considering their overall strangety levels...

I still have my 'dedicated face' on....

Arrgh, I have so many drafts, because there's a million things to write about! Maybe I'll just make a post that's all my shortest drafts smashed together incoherently? Seriously, though, it's like my bloglife is passing me by!

(Edit: As it turns out, there's much more to life than just blogging. Checking out the wildlife around my house, for example...)

Making more than one post a week may have worked when there was nothing important for me to do, but now I spend my time with school and athletic endeavors, spending time with other people, and cleaning up after practically everyone in the house. (Kudos to cool roommate Brianade for collecting the dozens of garbage bags and gathering them up in contractor cleanup bags for free garbage removal day!)
` Yesterday, superhero Lou Ryan said he thought he was the only one who cleaned up the garbage that was thrown on the counter instead of the garbage can, but I let him know he's not the only one!

Speaking of Lou, he didn't get the part of Sasquatch for the Brooks shoe commercial (too bad, because that would have been funny -- perhaps it was because he was too short?) but he did get the part of a hop-head in some big-time movie. It may be a small part, but he will at least be in the credits!

I've also been spending very long chunks of time working on making my own planner-organizer, for keeping track of school, blogging, other projects such as music, opening and responding to email, keeping house, etc.

` I also spent a huge amount of time cleaning out my bedroom closet for the first time, washing six loads of laundry (including my clothes that have been in storage for over a year) and putting much of it in the closet, as well as preparing Spanish-teaching tools for Brianade, which has also taken way too much time.

However, every time it seems as though I'm not making much progress, I think about my crazy roommate. Take his latest crazy behavior, for example:

Have I always been this way?

It seems that I've always been dedicated to learning about the world, and science, which gets us to that understanding. So dedicated, that I drew a picture of my 'dedicated face' a few years back:

But, was I always so dedicated to finding the truth? Was I destined to find this as a worthwhile ambition?

A typical, non-horrible Monday

There's laundry in the dryer after midnight. I'm the culprit. This is especially bad, because the roommate who resides directly beneath my office -- the alcoholic one -- had slammed the dryer door at 4:30 a.m. last night, thus waking up Lou Ryan, who had been sleeping on the couch with his feet up (because of his back), and got up and turned off the dryer. This morning, he told both roommates not to put anything in the dryer at night. What kind of an example am I?
` (Then again, Lou right about talked my ear off just now as I was trying to write this, so it's not like it's cutting into his sleep.)

Why did I put laundry into the dryer this late? I don't even want to write about it now that I'm tried from nearly losing my ear in a cascade of phonemes, but it seems like such a good story that I'll stay up all night if that's what it takes! After all, my life is no bed of magnolias....

This morning (that would be April 16), I got up, literally wrote my plans for the day on a sheet of paper, had some breakfast and conversation with the crazy roommate, checked my email/Facebook and got around to about 5% of the stuff just from today (yesterday), before moving onto the last couple of Spanish homework items (due at noon), which require my sense of hearing, yet there was a very loud sound, because the main bathroom's fan is about the loudest set of whirling blades from 1968 in this damn house, which only throws me into a rage if I insist on controlling my ADHD enough to do Spanish under these conditions (in other words, I can't, and refusing to accept that makes it worse), so I just did something else that doesn't require my ears.
` Just as I was getting back to my homework, the never-drunk-but-always crazy roommate got in the shower, thus turning on the fan again, and I stood by the door and listened to him talking to himself about his life's obsessions. Although he got out of the shower when his half-hour alarm went off, he didn't get out of the bathroom for another half-hour, which was when I left for school.

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!

Creationism -- Why I Never Believed It

This post actually grew out of a different post I am writing on the subject of the baffling well of ignorance that is creationism, and I decided that it would make a good introductory article.

First of all, I would like to come right out and say that my lack of belief in creationism (young earth or otherwise) doesn't really have anything to do with my lack of belief in God. After all, I knew several Christians who actually understood why evolution and other scientific theories made sense and laughed at the creationists (and Intelligent Design proponents) for exactly the same reasons as I did -- and then some.

And what are those reasons? Well, I've written several enormous blog posts about evolution, creationism and Intelligent Design, which discuss many of those reasons in detail, and I'm going to rework them and post them on this blog, along with newer material, of which I already have reams.
` The very fact that my material keeps multiplying (i.e. this post is an offshoot of another) is part of the reason it's taking me so long.

But, how did this all start in me? Why am I planning on making this a prominent subject for this blog? Why do I have such passion for the subject?
` Because, I have spent such a long time reading about what evolution is, and the claims and arguments that it makes (never even mind the evidence), and then being amazed at all the ways that creationists have failed to mention or even seem to understand them.
` Through all the earth-shattering changes that have occurred in my life, this has been one of my all-time favorite subjects to write about since the 1990's. That some people still believe in this stuff truly astonishes me. I've often wondered if they really believe it -- maybe some of the proponents don't?

So, how did this astonishment start?

Weirding out Richard Dawkins and other tales from two atheist gatherings in one day!

This doesn't precisely have to do with science, but the issue of people using their 'freedom of religion' to harm others (not to mention, spout hate speech) is an issue that is really important to me, and it should be to others, whether or not they have a religion.
` And so, I went to the Northwest Freethought Alliance Annual Conference, featuring (from left) former clergy Jerry Dewitt and Teresa MacBain; biologist, public science educator and uber-atheist, Richard Dawkins; former Maine legislator known for his work toward child advocacy and separation of church and state, Sean Faircloth; and evolutionary psychologist and overall hard worker at the RDF Elisabeth Cornwell.

It's no joke, but this took place on April Fools' Day at Renton Tech, which is where I took the above picture. Much like my previous post, I figured I'd construct this one of whatever notes and pictures that I could, here and there, and compile them for your viewing pleasure.
` And, as for people who aren't involved in such movements, especially fundamentalists who think that Satan is leading these people on, here is your chance to get a glimpse of the dark and hidden world of... the atheists' eeeeeevil agenda! Woooooooo! Scary!