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Gayle Jordan

Law student, massage therapist, ironman, mom, gammy, hippie liberal atheist.

Quintuple bypass

And now, because I blog about everything…

Dad’s surgery.

Day 11.  Dad comes home tomorrow.  That’s day 6 post-op.  From having his skin cut open, his sternum cracked and his ribs spread, his lungs deactivated temporarily, a vein removed from his leg and quinsected for parts, that vein attached to heart vessels and attached again to heart muscle.  I am more than astounded.  And this procedure is common enough for him to have received an invitation to be a part of the “zipper club” in this area.

No doubt Dad still has a long recovery.  Fortunately for him, he was active before his heart attack, and he was neither a smoker nor overweight.  He’ll have to begin with a tiny little walking program and progress on to longer and longer distances.  For the last 18 months he had done 30 minutes on the treadmill every night, so he has a goal of returning to his former level.  He also has travel plans on his schedule; he had to cancel June’s and most of July’s activities (mom and dad are RVers – serious-9-months-and-thousands-of-miles-a-year-RVers).

I am so proud of how hard he’s trying (keep in mind it IS only day 11 since the heart attack), and I’m so proud of mom for holding up and managing and handling the drama and the effort.  Eric and I have been here and have taken our turns with whatever needs done, but the two of them have been troopers.

Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta has been wonderful, their church has been lovely to respect dad’s request for  no company in the hospital, and their friends and neighbors have been delightful in providing me with southern comfort foods.  My online school program has allowed me the mobility I’ve needed to be here (oh, yes, studied in the hospital and waiting rooms, even took my midterm today at the local library).  Brother has shuffled his trial schedule and has been available every day for support.

What’s troubling me?

In a word:  nutrition.

Yesterday, mom, dad, and I attended the cardiac rehab class at the hospital.  We got information on what it would be like for dad once he got home, the accommodations we need to make for his recovery, what his physical activity regimen would be, and the program of food choices he would need to make at home.  The class teacher showed up little vials of the fat content of various food, with dramatic oohs and aahs from the attendees.  Ribeye steak – full of fat – BAD.  Baked potato – almost none – good.  Bagels – almost none – good.  Pretzels – none – good.  Cheese – lots of fat – bad.  Nuts – lots of fat – bad.  Olives – lots of fat – bad.

I didn’t go to medical school.  I’m not a nutritionist.  I have only my own research and understanding of metabolic science to go on.  And I will not try to override anything dad’s medical team is telling him about his rehab plan.  I went grocery shopping today in anticipation of his coming home, and I tried to buy those things which bisect my choices for his health with his team’s choices.  Lean meats.  Vegetables.  Fruits.  All those grains?  Can’t do it.  I know mom (a diabetic) will buy those when I’m gone, and I won’t comment on it.

Here’s the deal.  If you’ve read the blog at all, you know the banner I wave is one of evidence-based living, scientific research, and reason and ration.  When I underwent my own health-recovery journey 10 years ago, I fervently tried to get an understanding of the metabolic process, nutrients in foods we eat, the factors influencing weight and health.  I tried to bypass interpretations of the science as much as I could, even reading the abstracts myself.  I don’t have a science degree, so I would do the best I could, then I’d refer to professional interpretation (read:  medical experts, not diet-book writers).

Along with virtually every scientist in the world, I understand and accept the theory of evolution.  I understand the micro-changes that have allowed us to get to this point in evolutionary history.  When you study that process, over the course of millions of years, and you see where agriculture came onto the scene, so to speak, and the results of introducing grain into our diet.  For millions of years, we thrived on meat-eating, almost primarily.  It is what gave us our big, beautiful brains, we know what protein does in our system, we know that fat, even saturated fat, is metabolically inert and doesn’t create an insulin response, we know what grains and sugar do to that insulin response, and we know the cascade effect of that chronic insulin response.

I know how I’m going to eat for the rest of my life, unless evidence and science show me differently.  I know how I would eat if I were recovering from a heart attack and heart surgery.  However, for my precious diabetic mother, and my precious fragile father, I can only relate my understanding of the process, what that eating style has done to my body and my lifestyle, and what I would do.  I won’t advise them to do the same.  I’m in law school, not medical school.

Don’t mean to be a Debbie-downer.  I’m elated that Dad has had the great fortune he has had with his recovery so far.  I will support and cheer and encourage as much as I possibly can.

Caribbean Cruise, 2009
same cruise - mom, dad, amy, and me

Thank you for all the well-wishes and kind words and deeds, and as always, thanks for reading!

4

Bonnaroo 2011

I’m home, I’m clean, I’m rested.

What a grand 6 days.  Yes, I know the festival is only 4, but as a volunteer we go in 2 days early, so that adds an extra 2 days of fun.  And sun.  And sweat.  And portapotties.

So here’s the deal.  When you volunteer to work at Bonnaroo, you commit to working roughly three 6-hour shifts.  In return, you get a free general admission ticket, early entrance and camping in the highly exclusive volunteer campground, 3 meal tokens plus a little box lunch during your shift.  At $275 a ticket, you can do the math on the hourly rate.  The jobs are various – picking up trash, working the toll booth, parking golf carts, manning information booths.  I’ll tell you about mine in a bit.

First I want to write about the festival.  This was Bonnaroo’s 10th year.  I remember when my oldest, as a teenager, asked me if he could go the first year.  I didn’t let him – he was 15 and I didn’t think he was ready for that.  I’d probably still say the same thing.  I had that reaffirmed this year:  my camping neighbors just happened to be moms of teenagers, one of whose daughter attended.  I just don’t think Bonnaroo works as well for high-schoolers.  They are still in the phase where they are terribly concerned about their appearance and peer conformity and not so much about the creativity of the music and the joy of the shared experience.  This doesn’t apply to everyone in high school, I realize, but to a great many it does.

So the lineup, as always, was fab.  There are 173 acts total.  There’s one main stage – if you google aerial pics of Bonnaroo, it’s easy to spot.  Then there are secondary stages, cleverly named Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, among others.  It’s a real trick trying to get to every act you want to see, and only 4 days to do it.  Although Centeroo is open 24 hours, the acts mostly run from noon to about 2 am.

There are the standard festival vendors – deep fried crap on sticks, greasy pizza, funnel cake, and the hippie fare too – falafel, vegetarian rice dishes, pasta.  No event is complete without the overpriced beer, but there’s also a Brooer’s Fest Tent where you can get specialty beers for about the same $6 as the Millers and Buds.

The biggest challenge this year wasn’t even the heat, which was oppressive.  It was the dust.  80,000 pairs of feet over the same 700 acres can destroy grass in a hurry, especially when it’s been dry to begin with.  Golf cart drivers wore bandanas, and in the end, just about everyone had to cover nose and mouth to get around.  We’ve had wet Bonnaroos where it was as muddy as this year’s was dusty, so take your pic.

Tent camping explains itself, along with the portapotties that go with it.  Pooping at Bonnaroo was a topic of conversation at every campsite.  There’s no trick to it – just get over it.  I wish I had had 1000 GoGirls, my handy-dandy girl tool that allows me to pee standing up – I could have sold them all.  The tents become unbearably hot by about 8 in the morning, so plan on moving outside to finish your sleeping in.

One of the joys of the community camping is the sharing of food and drink.  I go the easy route with cheese, nuts, olives, jerky, fruit – not gonna cook at Bonnaroo.  Plus, those are easy things to share with your campmates.  It helps if you have everything prepared – chopped and put into serving-sized bags – you want to limit the time spent digging around in the cooler, melting your ice.  But I know folks who eat gourmet at Bonnaroo – I’m too hot and too lazy.

This year’s top shows:  Mumford.  Buffalo Springfield.  Eminem.  Amos Lee.  Khalifa.  (This is my very scientific survey consisting of my opinion and that of my campmates.)  Honestly, the dust kept me from shows in the worst areas of it.  The pasture in front of the main stage has retained its cool, green grass.  That has a lot of appeal in 97 degree heat.

Now for my volunteer shift.  The first one was a 12-hour long haul 10pm til 10am in the VIP tent camping check-in.  That was fun because I’d never been in VIP and it was interesting to see (and I used their flush-toilets several times).  My second shift was the doozy.  It was Saturday 10-4 in…wait for it….Total Access.  Oh yes.  You and up to 7 of your closest friends can participate too, IF you come up with a measly $25,000.  That gets you VIP limo ride from the Nville airport, delivery to the door of your rockstar motorhome inside the secret, hidden, shaded campground that is Total Access, food from the 5-star, airconditioned, white linen restaurant in your campground, access to every show backstage, golf cart rides to ANYWHERE at Roo, all the food you can eat and liquor you can drink.  Blew what little of what was left of my mind on day 4.  Seriously.  Google it.

I’ve taken pics of Bonnaroo before, and didn’t do a very good job of it this year, but there’s scads of pics of the festival on the interwebs.  It was a helluva festival – always is.  It’s pretty high on the grunge factor, but worth it when you’re lying there on a quilt, listening to the jam with your friends.

Bonnaroo 2012.  I’m there.  Now to find that $25,000…..

6

Halfway through, bitches

Thought it was time for a law school update.

So my program is divided into Modules:  11 days per module, 30 modules a year.  I am now on Module 14.  Next week is midterm.  Half.  Way.  Through.  The first year.

Here are my thoughts at the .5 point (or the .125 point for the whole program – let’s don’t use that number).

–Still love it.  I love the challenge, I love the learning, I love the system, I love the history.

–It’s harder than I thought.  It’s not that it’s too difficult to understand; it’s that there are so many exceptions to the exceptions to the exceptions that I have to have memorized in order to cross the barrier that is the Bar Exam.  The writing is so fine and exact – every word means something.  I have always been able to express myself through the written word, but it’s precisely because I have at my disposal an ABUNDANCE of words and expressions and grammatical gyrations.  In legal writing it is the opposite – the fewer words the better (counter-intuitive I know).

–The biggest challenge is not the time management; it’s the information management.  You know all those volumes of law books you always see on TV and lawyer commercials?  Those are cases – rulings from which other rulings are made.  They’re relevant.  In real life, as a practicing attorney, you would access those cases and research what is applicable to your case.  In law school life, you have to know enough of that information to pass the Test.  Which information?  Ahh…good question.  Good luck with that.

–I LOVE my classmates.  We are a gnarly bunch.  We are mostly over 40, we have families and jobs and mortgages.  We live all over the world.  We are overachievers, smart, driven, and confident.  We are solely a cyberspace community, although I have a potential real-life, in-person study weekend coming up in June.   We use Skype, Facebook, cellphones, texting, email.  These are my people.

–I’m halfway through my first year.  The first year of 4.  In this program I have to pass what is called the Baby Bar, in California.  That is scheduled for June of 2012.  I’m already stressed over it.  Nothing like a little year-long, chronic pressure.  I’m of the belief that a little stress is good – it’s what keeps up from being eaten by predators.  Long-term, chronic stress?  Not so much.  But I’m managing, and it just adds more of a challenge to the whole affair.

That’s my update.  I have to mention that I’ve gotten my first phone call for legal advice.  I had to chuckle, and I said what I could, which mostly consisted of me saying that I wasn’t qualified to say or do anything, but it was still a milestone, and it gave me a little internal rush.

Just a pic of the fam

On an unrelated note, check out the blogs of my fabulous fam:  Amy and Glenda are in Thailand, and are keeping a travel blog:  http://www.twinsinthailand.wordpress.com, and Jesse and Sam are on a TransAmerica bike ride and are at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com, search Jesse Jordan.

Next blog, with any luck, will be my recap of Bonnaroo.  I’m volunteering, and I’m going in on Tuesday.  Iron and Wine.  All I’m sayin.

Thanks for reading!

3

kind of like the committee on committees

In a stunning departure from radicalism, I have chosen today to write about…writing.  And not even my own writing.  Other writers’ writing.

In a funny coincidence, I’ve been asked 3 times this week which blogs I read.  I’m happy to lay it out here, complete with links.  I’m not going to link all the websites I visit – it has to be a personal blog site.

So, starting with family…

This is the link to my son Sam (www.samejordan.wordpress.com).  Until he adds a new post, this will take you to his Mother’s Day gift to me.  This boy has always been able to express himself with words, and I’ve been nagging (just no other word will do) him for years to start a blog.  In an understatement, he’s an adventuresome soul, and this blog mainly details his adventures, starting with his description of “living in a van down by the river”.

Sam and his travel banjo - his Tranjo

Next is the twins’ travel blog (www.twinsinthailand.wordpress.com).  They’ve just begun this blog to chronicle their trip adventure in Thailand over the next 6 weeks.  They’re doing it old school, with no ipods/laptops/phones (only cameras), so their posting will be sporadic at best, but they’re taking notes and will do updates as they find computer access.

Pre-adventure: looking and smelling clean

Next is Big Jesse’s blog.  (www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/teamfly).  It’s hosted by crazyguyonabike.com, but that link should take you directly to the blog.  He’s blogged before about his bike ride adventures when he and Sam rode 600 miles in Austria and Germany.  This link takes you to Jesse and Sam’s adventures on his TranAmerica bike ride beginning exactly tomorrow.

Jesse and Loretta with Glenda - he'll explain the name

That’s it for family, now on to friends.

My friend Nena writes a blog about her fabulous life, focusing lately on her boot camp experience in her fitness journey (www.creatingarunner.blogspot.com).  She’s funny.  You’ll love her.

My friend Ted writes a blog about….well, everything.  He self-described as a “snarky know-it-all”.  How can you not love that?  (www.runolfr.blogspot.com).

My friend Ben has begun a blog about his upcoming travel across the country, and if you visit his site, be sure to go back to the beginning (it’s a brand new blog) to read his personal story.  (www.bjcarrier.wordpress.com).

My friend Karissa writes about raising little heathens.  I have the joy and pleasure of having she and hubby Joey in my life, and I get to watch the delightful process of their raising freethinking, openminded little boys.  (www.therationalzealot.wordpress.com).

My friend Amy writes about her interesting life in her Predicaments, Pursuits, and Ponderings blog.  Lately she’s written about her drive for a sustainable lifestyle, including her own adventure with organic gardening and homebrewing.  She and hubby Cary also include the adventures of Sarge and Barley.  Go read it.  (www.predicamentspursuitsandponderings.blogspot.com)

I have both a cousin and friend who write interesting blogs about their lives and families, but they’ve been dormant for quite a while, so I’m going to give the space they need before I send you there.  It happens to all of us who write — life takes over and robs you of precious writing time and inspiration.  I love you Susan and Amy – come back.  I need you.

Finally, these blogs, while I’ve met the authors and consider them friends, go beyond just a small group of reader-friends, and into the realm of megabloggerdom.

My friend Jesse writes, with his beautiful sister, “Possibly the world’s #1 brother-sister blog about rationality, science, and philosophy.”  I steal from Jesse pretty regularly; he’s smarter than we are.  (www.measureofdoubt.com).

My friend JT writes about, as his blog says, Fighting Religion Tooth and Claw.  When you begin to think I’m too arrogant or radical or in-your-face with my activism, read JT’s words.  I’m a gentle, passive lamb.  He’s inspired, he’s passionate, he’s sexy  (www.wwjtd.net).

My friend Greta writes a sex blog.  She’s also an atheist activist, but she’s the only one I could say writes a sex blog, and I had to do that.  If you go there right now, you’ll see she combines the two in an interesting article about secularism and sex.  (www.gretachristina.typepad.com).  Greta is a rock star, and I’m not the only one who consistently thinks:  “I wish I’d written that!”

Greta, in steampunk, shooting me with a blowdryer

My friend PZ Myers is THE big dog.  He’s a brilliant and articulate biology professor with a sketchy affinity for cephalopods.  Believers, suit up before you click.  (www.scienceblogs/pharyngula).

PZ looking especially distinguished in his squid-balloon hat

All of the above are currently engaged in a fund-raising campaign for Camp Quest (www.campquest.org), and if I were any kind of techie at all, I’d be able to put the fund-raising widget on this site.  As it is, as you cruise their blogs, make a choice (slowly and carefully) about donating to this fabulous freethought summer camp.  Slowly and carefully as in the PZ-vs-everyone else sense.

There you go.  I’ll write a post soon about other sites I visit daily for news and information.  I have a particular affinity for blogs, so if you write one, and I don’t know about it – Tell me!!  If I included you in this list, and you didn’t want me to – Tell me!  I’ll correct that in a flash!

Coming soon:  Law school update.  Ironman training update.  More attitude about nutrition.  It’s all good.

Thanks for reading!

3

Why I can’t just STFU

This post is not about why I think it’s irrational to believe in the supernatural.

This post is not (wholly) about my journey from faith to reason.

This post is about why I believe that religions are not a force for good in the world.  A great number of my believing friends, when hearing I have cast aside my former belief, question why I’m an activist about this.  Why not just let others have their faith, the comfort it brings them, the good the church does?  Why can’t I just keep my views to myself – why upset others by being public about my position?  It’s a valid question.

I have two primary reasons for expressing visibly and vocally my decision and desire to live a life based on reason and rationality.  The first one is more personal, the second is more important.

I spent 45 years in the faith, fervently and earnestly trying to follow its precepts, understand its directives, and doing my part to establish a relationship with God through the sacrifice of Jesus.  Many sermons outlined the elements of a dynamic faith:  prayer, bible study, fellowship with other believers, evangelism of the lost, financial support to my church.  I did all of these things consistently and passionately.  The struggle I had with inconsistencies, contradictions, illogic, and disagreements, I buried/twisted/denied/justified/explained.  When I finally admitted to myself that I could no longer support believing in this theology, as I wrote in my “Coming Out Blog”, I felt a sense of freedom, euphoria, and relief that has not dissipated; I feel that now as I write, and every moment of every day.

I recently attended the American Atheist Convention in Des Moines, Iowa.  While on a bathroom break, as we were washing our hands and looking in the mirror, another conference attendee remarked “You know, every time I’ve seen you, you are smiling!”.  I explained that I didn’t even realize it, but that I was just so happy to be on THIS side of the argument.  I commented that I have issues like everyone else, a serious health concern, dramatic family issues, constant stress from law school, and that the joy and happiness I find in life has never been more profound.

I can say that my first reason for wanting to be public with my life’s philosophy, believers, is the same reason you do.  I DO want you to know what it feels like to live like this, the freedom and confidence I find in living an evidence-based life.  So while a billboard announcing that may be offensive to you, try to align it with YOUR evangelistic efforts, and I hope you will find the fairness in the drive.  I support your right to believe what you want, and I support your right to want to tell other people about what those beliefs mean to you.

The second reason I’m “out” (from which I’m going to soon drop the quotation marks) is far more noble and important to the health of our country.  I’ve used the singular Reason, when in fact it should probably be Reasons, and while they are multiple, they all fall under the title: Why Gayle Can’t STFU.  Each topic should have a post all its own, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll try to just write one disclaimer statement.

Religion:

Subverts critical thinking skills – I think when we teach our children (and adults) to simply shrug their shoulders when addressing enormously important questions, we teach them not to explore further, question deeper, research broader, and we lose far more than we realize.

Represses women – It is astonishing to me that even the most progressive of christian churches would restrict a woman’s right to serve the faith itself.  The idea of that affected my daughters profoundly and irreversibly when they were seeking what they thought was God’s will at the time.  Your may feel that the version of the faith you hold does not do this, but your support of the whole does.

Endorses fundamental version of same book – many of my believer friends are the groovy, lovey, progressive types, and if this were the only version of christianity there was, I wouldn’t care so much about countering with visibility of my own.  It is not, and their version endorses a book which can be interpreted as a fundamentalist document, with more repression, more subversion, and more danger.

Encourages belief without evidence – To my believing friends who acknowledge they are not building their beliefs on science, but simply on faith, I ask:  “Why is it noble and good to believe something for which there is no evidence?”  It is not acceptable in a laboratory, not acceptable in a classroom, not acceptable in a courtroom, and not acceptable in life.

It substitutes an artificial morality, based on an ancient text,  for a genuine one, based on true compassion – I think even believers would agree that in 5 minutes’ time, we could improve upon the Ten Commandments…maybe include one about keeping your hands off of children, not beating your wife, working toward social justice in your community, restoring the environment, all based on a desire to decrease suffering, not on rule-following for rule-following’s sake.

It validates a judgmental system where certain groups (LGBT) are discriminated against for what it calls a sin, and interferes with loving families adopting and raising children – There is so much real suffering in our world, and much that we have the ability to alleviate, that any energy spent toward fighting against people who love each other getting married, having or adopting children, and raising those children with values and ethics and compassion, is a waste of time at the least, and destructive and hateful at the most.

It implements a hatred of self and body – the idea that we are born sinful and without worth is destructive and counter-productive to our becoming useful, functioning citizens in our society, and exacts a toll on its believers insidious in its scope and range.

It minimizes the very real problems of environmental issues, hunger, poverty, disease because of the belief in the more important afterlife – I remember as a believer hearing repeatedly that the most important thing we could do for people who were dying of hunger and disease was to pray for their salvation; more important than financially supporting relief efforts, more important than working to resolve those problems, more important than dedicating personal efforts in our own communities to affect those issues.

It endorses bad science by insisting on ignoring any evidence in conflict with its teachings – the battle in our public schools over the teaching of creationism vs evolution is exquisite in its audacity.  The scientific community is overwhelming in its acceptance of the evidence for evolution, and anything less is a violation of the trust our children are putting in us, and shows either a lack of academic honesty, or an irresponsible denial of reality.

It squanders its members time/creativity/money/compassion by directing it toward evangelism to the exclusion of actual social justice – I would not dispute that there have been good works done in the name of religion.  But I don’t think that religion is necessary for those good works to be done, with no loss of time/effort/creativity/money/compassion spent in the evangelizing of the people served, and the suffering alleviated.

There was a debate on this topic not too long ago between Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair, and he does a much better job than I in describing why I believe what I believe, and is worth the 90 minute investment to watch, believer or atheist.

When I was a believer, the faith community applauded my outspoken proclamation of my beliefs.  You admired me for taking a stand for what I believed in, whether it was popular or not.  You appreciated my willingness to take on whatever resistance I faced when I made these claims, and you did all these things on the premise that I had a moral and ethical responsibility to do so.  I ask you to continue to do that.

So while the southern girl in me is inclined to apologize for offending you, the humanist in me refuses, because far more is at stake than your feelings.  I am a patriot, I am a moral person, and it is very important to me to actively participate in our country’s social and political processes.  It is a question to me of intellectual integrity, and I find I can do no less.

Thanks for reading.

10

Very long overdue

I know, I know, I know.

I’ve been completely neglectful of my wonderful list.  I assure you that I’ve only neglected blogging about it, not dreaming about it.  It has transitioned from the 50 things to do in my 50th year to my straight-up Bucket List.  I have a hard copy of it too, that I keep in my planner and I’ll occasionally make a note or two.  The original list and notes are in italics – every time I publish it I try to add commentary on what I’ve done.


In order to celebrate managing to stay alive, happy, and healthy to my 50th, I am going to try 50 new things this year.  Some are huge (hike the Great Wall of China).  Some are tiny (drink a lime gimlet).  All are things I have never before done.  And in that same spirit of celebration, my friends and family will be participating with me.

I’ve had a few more suggestions since my last blog, and those will be reflected in the list.  I’ve decided to be a little less OCD, and a little more organic in the list.  I’m not going to preemptively remove anything from the list; there will be more than 50 things.  In my daily life, as I always do, I will seek out new and exciting experiences, and may very well add something to the list spontaneously, maybe even after I’ve done it.  I will attempt to do all, but my primary goal will be to accomplish 50 New Things.

You all have been so enthusiastic and free-spirited about all this; thanks for the suggestions and the WILLINGNESS to do them with me!

1.  Streak through Publix    –   Dora (You are SOOO on the hook for this – still)

2.  Do a Bob Ross painting   –   Glenda (Maybe after finals?)

3.  Drink a lime gimlet   –   Sam M (Got this one done – Hendrix gin, Rose’s Lime Juice, shaken and served by an actual Englishman – P-E-R-F-E-C-T-I-O-N!)

4.  Fire-hoop   –   Glenda (Not yet – need a little more practice)

5.   Color my hair pink/blue/something for a race   –   Glenda/Amy (for the Ohio Iron in September)

6.  Go to the Superbowl

7.  Scuba-dive Cayman or Honduras or Bahamas   –   Fran (maybe in conjunction with our Key West swim?)

8.  Write a song   –   Beth

9.  Hike a 14-er in Colorado   –   Ben (climbed Torrey’s Peak and Gray’s peak – 2 14’ers in the Front Range with my boy)

10.  Write a children’s book   –   Kristen

11.  Be in a live audience for a TV show   –   Kristen

12.  Eat crumb cake at Carlos’ Bakery in NYC   –   Kristen

13.  Horseback riding on the beach   –   Kristen

14.  Go parasailing   –   Kristen

15.  Go bungy-jumping

16.  Big-ass rubber band thingy   –   Mandi

17.  Run 50 miles   –   Vic  (less and less likely with each passing day – and it wasn’t probable to begin with!)

18.  Attend Loy Krathong, the sky lantern festival in Thailand   –   Vic

19.  Hike the Great Wall of China   –   Vic

20.  Swim in the largest swimming pool in the world, in Chile   –   Vic

21.  See sea turtles hatch and head for the ocean   –   Vic

22.  Go sky diving   –   Phil

23.  Learn to play pinochle, mah jongg, canasta or gin

24.  Eat gefilte fish with horseradish

25.  Dress like a man and go with a man to a straight bar and a gay bar (They don’t know it yet, but I’m going to do this with Chris and Bryson when they turn 21)

26.  Have a colonoscopy   –   mom

27.  Get a tattoo   –   Amy (Done!)

28.  Go to South Beach, Miami

29.  Attend lighting of candles in Jerusalem

30.  Take ballroom dance lessons  –  Tonya

31.  Meet the President 

32.  Do nothing for one day:  no work, no workouts, no computer, no phone, no TV

33.  Go on a photo safari

34.  Visit all the continents

35.  Panhandle on a corner

36.  Ride the TransCanadian Railway

37.  Drink Paddle of Destiny at Mellow Mushroom   –   Susan (I’ve done this at least 3 times, but never with my girl Susan, so it stays on the to-do list!)

38.  Renew marriage vows   –   Mike

39.  Finish an Ironman  –  me (woooohooooo!!!  October 23, 2010!!)

40.  Climb a redwood tree   –   Amy

41.  Hike the Adirondacks   –   Becky

42.  Learn to swordfight   –   Ted (I know Ted, my bad – I will do this!)

43.  Drive a race car   –   Ted

44.  Hike the AT   –   Ted

45.  Take a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class   –   Shannon

46.  Kayak the Gauley   –   Sam

47.  Do a road trip   –   Brianna

48.  Swim with dolphins   –   Brianna

49.  Full moon party in Koh phangan, Thailand   –   Lila

50.  Visit Iguazu Falls in Argentina   –   Lila

51.  Go dog sledding in Alaska   –   Lila

52.  Become a licensed minister and marry someone   –   Lila (OK, girlie, I’ve done the become-a-licensed-minister part – just gotta find someone who is disrespectful enough of the institution to allow me to do it!!)

53.  Swim with sharks   –   Lila

54.  Jump off of a waterfall   –   Lila

55.  Watch Dr. Zhivago (how did I miss that?)

56.  Memorize Pi to 50 places  (3.1415926535 – that’s as far as I can do from memory)

57.  Go see the Formula 1 race in Monaco  –  Brother Eric

58.  Sit through an entire episode of:  O’Reilly/Beck/Colter/Limbaugh  –  Brother Eric  (you have no idea how hard this will be!)

59.  Make Bananas Foster

60.  See the Tour de France in person, not just on Versus at 2:00 in the morning!

61.  Place a $1000 bet on one hand of blackjack  –  Brother Eric

I’d like to add here

#62.  Ride my bike around Cade’s Cove in the moonlight.  Done.

So there it is.  My achievement ratio is disappointingly low.  BUT – remember the disclaimer.  If I don’t get it accomplished this year, it rolls right onto the Life Bucket List.  And the ratio doesn’t take into account things I have done, since May, for the first time that DIDN’T make the list.  Like bat wrangling in England.  And trying to catch a longhorn.  And manually expressing my dogs’ anal glands.  Oh yeah.  Just couldn’t bring myself to blog about that one.

So that’s the update as of April of 2011.  I’m going to Florida with brother for a few days next week.  I’ll try to get one of those TV shows watched while I’m there, and maybe make the Bananas Foster.

If you have another thought, comment away!  Just remember the rule – if you suggest it, you’ll be asked to do it with me – that’s the dealio!

safe driving technique

Thanks for reading!

7

Eating babies, pt 3.

Every convention has its socializing element.  Every convention gives its attendees free time to talk and discuss and argue and laugh.  When the convention is an atheist convention, when its attendees are inherently thinkers and talkers, and have a deep appreciation of the joy and value of each moment, the socializing element should not be minimized.

Hence you have day 2 being recapped on day 3.  It was my intention to post at the end of each day, but the day didn’t end, again, until the wee morning hours, so here we go.

Jamila Bey

What a breath of fresh air to begin the morning’s session with Jamila Bey.  Jamila (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgdfHVwK884) gave us her experience of atheism in the African-American community (I know, Jamila, there is no ONE African-American experience!) with passion and clarity.  The social importance of the religious network in anyone’s life is not to be minimized; in the African-American woman’s life, it’s almost paramount.  Jamila seems to be made entirely of self-confidence and humor, but she has faced her share of resistance and criticism from the people she loves the most.

Jamila’s talk was followed by a diversity panel that was enlightening and informative.  The atheist movement by its nature is broad and inclusive, so when we have a diversity panel, we have a diversity panel!  It was interesting to hear perspective from other ethnicities and cultures.

We heard from comedian Paul Provenza, reading from his book “Satiristas”, and from Troy Conrad again, who was a scream.  Irreverent, thought-provoking, and interactive, both of these guys are worth Youtubing.

Then came the big guns.  PZ Myers (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/) spoke to us about what else?  SCIENCE.

from the biology professor
The great PZed Myers

We heard from Professor Hector Avalos, who is a Religious Studies professor at Iowa State University.  If you’ve seen the movie “Expelled” by Ben Stein, you’ll be familiar with his subject.

Finally, on Saturday we heard from two psychiatrists with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.  They shared with us the physiological and psychological effects of religious thinking and freethought.

Sunday started with JT Eberhard from the Secular Student Alliance giving us a report of student organizations and their phenomenal, exponential growth.  JT is such a voice for inspiration and motivation in the movement, and it’s my hope to have him visit the MTSU campus when we get the SSA going there.

Next was Lawrence Krauss, a quantum physicist who gave us little talk about Richard Feynman and his work.  We heard also from Matt Dillahunty, who hosts the podcast for the Austin Community of Atheists.  I got to join him for a meal or two, and found a little connection – his fiance is the former leader of the secular group at ETSU, and we chatted a bit about the student group there.

Finally, after an international symposium regarding the atheist movement, we listened to a military panel tell about the environment in the services for atheists.  I will leave to your imagination what their responses were.

Military Freethinkers

There’s a basic outline of what we did – I’ll try to blog in more detail about specific speeches and conversations I had with other attendees.  Tonight’s agenda includes more debate and beer, not necessarily in that order.

Thanks for reading!

8

Eating babies, pt 2

Christopher Hitchens was to have been a speaker at the American Atheists’ convention, but his health would not allow it.  He sent the following letter:

Dear fellow-unbelievers,

Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons of this for many years to come, but for now I have found my trust better placed in two things: the skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstitition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency.

That essential sense of decency is outraged every day. Our theocratic enemy is in plain view. Protean in form, it extends from the overt menace of nuclear-armed mullahs to the insidious campaigns to have stultifying pseudo-science taught in American schools. But in the past few years, there have been heartening signs of a genuine and spontaneous resistance to this sinister nonsense: a resistance which repudiates the right of bullies and tyrants to make the absurd claim that they have god on their side. To have had a small part in this resistance has been the greatest honor of my lifetime: the pattern and original of all dictatorship is the surrender of reason to absolutism and the abandonment of critical, objective inquiry. The cheap name for this lethal delusion is religion, and we must learn new ways of combating it in the public sphere, just as we have learned to free ourselves of it in private.

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.

As the heirs of a secular revolution, American atheists have a special responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution that patrols the boundary between Church and State. This, too, is an honor and a privilege. Believe me when I say that I am present with you, even if not corporeally (and only metaphorically in spirit…) Resolve to build up Mr Jefferson’s wall of separation. And don’t keep the faith.

Sincerely

Christopher Hitchens

Another great day at the convention – more posts to follow!

GJ

0

Eating babies, pt. 1

What do you do at an atheist conference?

Well, I’m finding out.  Technically, this is Day 2.  Last night was an informal fundraising dinner where I got to meet and speak with a few of the presenters, but it was mostly social.

Matt Dillahunty (Greta behind me) and me and the Thursday night dinner

Today began bright and early at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines, Iowa with the welcome by the mayor of the city.  That was immediately followed by the welcome by the president of American Atheists.  He was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly last year when billboard were put up in various cities.  In his opening speech, he took us through a series of statements beginning with “Consider an America….”

“…where judges can make decisions without fear of being removed from the bench.”     “…where science can be taught in schools by teachers without the threat of being fired.”   “…where loving families can adopt and raise children as they wish.”                        “…where our government begins its sessions with ‘Let’s get to work!'”                    “….where women can make decisions about their own bodies.”

Our first speaker was Jeff Sharlett, the author of “C Street” and “The Family”, the secret religious organization in Washington that has housed and sheltered a number of Republican scandal-makers, including up to this morning, John Ensign.  He was fascinating in his report about his experience with this group, and it is an incredibly important read, no matter your politics.  I’ll buy the Kindle version of his books and I promise I’ll  blog about them afterward, but I recommend them even before I read them.   http://jeffsharlet.com/

Next we heard from Edwin Kagin, who is my new hero.  He’s the legal representation of American Atheists, and handles most of the litigation.  He highlighted two recent cases:  in Utah, the fallen officers’ memorial case – where crosses are erected in their honor, whether or not they were believers.  That case was resolved at the state supreme court in AA’s favor.  The second case involved the Kentucky Homeland Security statement that says that:  “…the security of the country…cannot be assured without a belief in Almighty God”.  The state attorney general ruled that case unconstitutional as well.  Mr. Kagin is charming and articulate – he’s from the area in Kentucky where my mother’s family is from, and his accent was familiar and endearing.  http://www.edwinkagin.com/  Click on the link just to read the lovely tribute he wrote to his precious wife he lost last February.

Following Mr. Kagin is one of my favorite bloggers, if not my favorite, Greta Christina.  She presented a talk on Atheists and Anger (http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2007/10/atheists-and-an.html) which was magnificent.  This blog entry is pretty close to the speech she gave, and she was wonderful.  (A little disclaimer:  Greta’s blog is not only an atheist blog, it is also a porn blog, so heads up).  On the first night, I even got the chance to chat with her a bit.  I first found her blog as a trainer, as she shares her own journey to reclaim her health (just search for her entries on weight management/fitness).

We had a little comedy routine by Troy Conrad, who did a great George Bush bit, then heard from another attorney, Eddie Tabash who is also a debater.  Our final speaker was Matthew Chapman.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbwFB6tr2y4).  He is a great-great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, and is a filmmaker and author.  He has made a film, The Ledge, with Liv Tyler, that has been accepted at the 2011 Sundance film festival.  We got to have our own, private screening before its June release!  It was incredibly powerful and profoundly moving.  It’s a thriller/drama and I won’t spoil it, but you should go see this film.

I’m learning that this group is rowdy and bawdy and snarky and FUNNY.  I’ve enjoyed meeting some very interesting people, and if it were not after 1 in the morning, I would tell you more about them.  We had a costume party tonight that was a scream!

can’t quite see Greta’s GREAT steampunk costume!
me and PZ Myers, one of my academic rockstars

I plan to blog again tomorrow night (but tomorrow night is the pub crawl, so I’m not promising) and try to post some pics.

Here’s to 4-5 hours of sleep…

Thanks for reading!

1

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