If you see me as a blur...

So, I've been a little busy lately.

I'm moving (again). This time to a lovely old house that needs to have it's floors refinished before I move in. I've spent the last couple of weeks repainting, removing carpet, refinishing floors. Thanks to Wendy and her brother John for doing so much grunt work.

And yes, Wendy and I are planning on moving in together into this new place. It's odd how fast romance moves after 40. Won and I dated for 18 months before marrying. Wendy and I have been dating since November.

As to what else has kept me busy...

First there was the West Coast Rapture RAM conference at which I was a speaker. I got to meet a lot of my favorite Podcasting atheists. (I have photos!)

After that I gave a talk at the University of Phoenix for the class on Western Religions.  I think I may have had a first there too.  I'm not sure, but I may have seen a lapsed Catholic turn into an atheist.  You can listen to the recording from that link and judge for yourself.

I'm also getting ready to be a counselor at Camp Quest West.  I've been working with the camp director, Chris Lindstrom to develop a short course on "Ancient Technology".  This seems to have several people in the Camp Quest organization somewhat excited.  And I have to admit, the idea is pretty good.  For example, do you know that the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth was Eratosthenes of Cyrene?  He also proved that the Earth was round, and he very accurately measured the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

As part of getting ready for Camp Quest, I'll be taking an Archery Instructor Course next month.  I'm also going through the Camp Quest training materials - although my talk at the UoP clashed with one of the conferences I needed to take for Camp Quest.  (Have to make that up).

Next month I plan to be at the Fresno Pride festival along with other CVAAS members.  We will have a booth there.  We need to be prepared - it will be our first advertisement of the Heretic's Barbecue for this September.

July I'll be at Camp Quest for a week, and I'll also go camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains with a bunch of my friends.  I'm really looking forward to both.  I used to go to Church Camp every year - Camp without the Church part and with extra science will probably be even more fun!  (Reminder to self -bring my telescope!)

Last month's fossil hunt went well for me - not so much for others in CVAAS.  I went on my own and met up with a heretic from LA (hello Larry!).  Came back with some good Trilobite cephalon fossils.  Didn't find the elusive Anomalocaris again.  I think I'm in the wrong formation for them.

 

I'm really doing a lot these days, and enjoying the heck out of everything.  There is so much to do too.  Like this blog for instance... it needs a major overhaul.  That will take me several hours of work that I can't afford right now.  And even when I move into my new place, I need to set up my new garden, and get my woodshop online.  It's been so long since I made heaps of sawdust that I'm going through withdrawel!

Oh, I also got interested in beekeeping - but found out that Fresno classifies bees with other dangerous beasts like lions and tigers and bears - and won't let anyone keep them within the city limits.  (sigh)  Well, I didn't need a new hobby anyway.

To top off everything, I plan to start taking classes again at the university this fall.  Maybe I can add a beekeeping class to my schedule of courses...

 

1 comment:

Liz Ditz said...

It's nice to read about you being busy and happy.

I'd planned to go to SkeptiCAL -- bought a ticket and everything -- but driving up discovered that 45 minutes in the car is 25 minutes more than I can tolerate. Turned around at the San Mateo Bridge & was whimpering by the time I got home.