Wearing the big scarlet "A" on my chest (and I don't mean the Hawthorne kind)

Okay, first off, let's get this out of the way. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in any kind of god or supernatural force at work in the universe. I put my trust in science, reason, and the philosophy of secular humanism. I totally respect everyone's right to believe whatever they want to, as long as they don't force their views on me. I guess this is my blogosphere version of "coming out."

Given that, on Sunday I attended an excellent talk at the D.C. branch of the Center for Inquiry on parenting for people who are not religious. (I would have said "atheists" instead of "not religious" but I'm discovering a lot of people prefer other labels, such as freethinkers, skeptics, secularists, etc. Also, a lot of agnostics may not completely reject the notion of a supernatural power but have many similar concerns as atheists. ) The talk featured Dale McGowan, a interesting and articulate guy in person and editor of a book called "Parenting Beyond Belief: Raising Caring, Ethical Kids Without Religion," as well as Nica Lalli. I learned a lot, took notes, and can't wait to read the book. Why did I go to such an event? There are a couple of reasons.

The first reason is the obvious one. David and I are starting to think about having kids in the next year or two. Since we're both non-believers (I don't mind the term "atheist" but David typically will say "agnostic" just so he doesn't have to get into arguments with people about his beliefs . . . or lack thereof), I've been thinking about the obstacles and special problems we'll face as parents in the U.S. not raising their kids with religion. How do you answer questions about death and mortality? How do you educate your children about religion and acquire a necessary "cultural literacy" in religion without indoctrinating them? How do you raise your kids to think for themselves and ultimately choose their own religious beliefs? And how do you explain to your children the hostility and discrimination they will sometimes face from others since their parents are atheists? These are all big questions that no one book can answer. However, it's nice to now know there's a community of people who have gone through these experiences themselves, and who I can learn from.

Second, I've been thinking a lot lately about finding an atheistic community in the DC area. Non-believers are a varied and individualistic bunch. We usually don't organize the way religious folks do. But since the publication of books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawson, and Christopher Hitchens, non-believers have started becoming more vocal and organized. I guess you could say many people are "coming out" as atheists. So I found a few local groups that I'm starting to check out. I'm going to try to attend meeting of the Secular Humanist Group of the Unitarian Univeralist congregation of Arlington. There's also a branch of the American Ethical Union in Northern Virginia that looks interesting. However, I really think the Center for Inquiry's local DC events seem the best match for me. An affiliated group of the Center for Inquiry, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, publishes one of my favorite magazines, the Skeptical Inquirer. It's focus is more on science and human reason than ethical issues.

I'll blog more about any future events of any of these groups that I go to. A gathering of self-proclaimed skeptics, freethinkers, and atheists is turn up some characters and interesting interactions.

A sobering encounter with my own mortality

I just had a scary, but ultimately beneficial experience yesterday. As many of your know (and by you I mean the few friends and family members who actually read this blog), I've been dealing with digestive system issues for a while now. Not to go into too many details, but I was tentatively diagnosed with IBS a couple of years ago. My doctor had mentioned about 6 months ago that I might want to consider getting a colonoscopy just to rule out some other stuff a lot worse than IBS (any of which was very, very unlikely). I finally got around to doing it a couple of weeks ago. I am so glad that I did it. If I wouldn't have had the procedure, I would have most likely developed colon cancer by the time I was 40.

See, when they did the colonoscopy, they found a polyp in my intestines. Having polyps before the age of 50 is very, very rare, so my doctor was surprised to say the least. However, right after the procedure he said he was almost certain it was the benign kind since I had no risk factors. (I'm basically the opposite of all the risk factors for colon polyps. Risk factors include: being older in age, male, African-American, smoking, eating a high-fat diet, and getting no exercise.) It was like a 1% chance it would be a problematic polyp. When I saw him for the results of the biopsy yesterday, though, he had some unexpected news - the polyp was pre-cancerous! In technical terms it is called an adenomatous polyp. It's pre-cancerous because these kind take 5-10 years for it to develop into cancer. Given I'm 32 now and it had been there for a couple of years, I probably would have developed colon cancer in my late 30s. As long as I get colonoscopies every 3 years for the rest of my life, though, I should be fine, as they remove the polyps during this procedure.

Since there is no reason why a reasonably healthy person in their 30s with no risk factors would ever get a colonoscopy, I actually have to thank all my stomach problems. If I wouldn't have had IBS then I never would have had this procedure and found this potentially life-threatening (and totally unrelated) condition.


So in honor of my not getting cancer in a few years, last night I consumed my three favorite things that trigger an IBS attack - alcohol, cheese, and chocolate. Yeah for IBS!

The giganitc bathtub is gone from our living room!

For over 6 months, we've had Kohler Sok tub sitting in the living room. No, it wasn't there so that we could fill it up with ice and put beer in it (a suggestion more than one person has made). We had originally bought it for our master bath renovations at our apartment. However, the back and forth with our co-op management over the renovation plans dragged on for almost a year, so the tub sat for months in the only room it could fit - the living room.

For the first week it was kind of amusing. David would lay in the bathtub and hide, call the dog's name, and then laugh when she got all confused and started barking. That's was only funny for a few days, though. After a short period of time it's become the constant thorn in my side. Every time I walked into our living room I would wince. And if we wanted to invite people over, I had to make sure I knew them really, really well. So the bathtub has seriously cut into our entertaining and, hence, seriously limited my social life (especially since I'm old and crotchety now and don't want to go out. You have to come to me.)

Since we bought the new house in December, the master bathroom plans at the apartment have been severely revised. Basically the plan now is do what's quickest, simplest, and at a reasonable cost. That doesn't include tearing down walls and expanding the bathroom to fit the gigantic Sok tub. Can I just mention what a cool tub is it? It has an inner layer that overflows into an outer shell, so you can fulfill your childhood fantasy of letting the bath water run over the sides of the tub. (Am I the only one who always wanted to do that?) And it's a spa tub, which means it's like a jacuzzi but with little air bubbles. As the Kohler website says: " Adding a playful element to this placid escape, unique portals release millions of effervescent bubbles. The captivating, champagne-like bubbles cling to the body and caress the skin."

Unfortunately, the tub won't fit in our new house either. So I listed the thing on Craigslist for about 80& of what we paid for it and waited. After a couple weeks I finally got a bite. It took four guys and two dollies to get it out of here, but finally it's gone. It was a bittersweet moment. No playful, effervescent champagne-like bubbles will be caressing my skin anytime soon. But at least I don't have a FREAKING BATHTUB IN MY LIVING ROOM anymore.

Anyone want to come over now?

If you were Carrie Fischer would you rather have an action figure modeled on your face be compared to a hot young actor or a chimp?

The 10 Star Wars Toys that Unintentionally Look Like Other Celebrities

This makes me hungry for some pancakes . . .

Here's my 2 minute time waster for the day. The best part is towards the end when Pancake Man's friend comes in, so keep watching until the end.



Do know what made me feel better after I realized I lost 5 minutes of my life to this clip (2 minutes to watch it plus 3 minutes to blog about it)? The guy who made it spent a hell of a lot more time making it. I hope it helps get him into film school.

Speaking of being a nerd . . .

If I any the free time and money this spring, the first thing I would do is go to LA in March. That way I could attend Paleyfest - 25th anniversary celebration of the Paley Center for Media. The Paley Center (formally the Museum of Television and Radio) regularly hosts panels and seminars on various TV shows, personalities and topics, both past and present. For the 25th anniversary celebration, one of the panels is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion, with Joss Whedon and currently eight of the former cast members in attendance. I think I would officially go from being "nerd" to "super-nerd" if I actually went.

So does anyone want to go to LA with me on March 20th. Seriously. I'm not kidding. All I need is the smallest push and I am so there.

Just to make the offer appeal to a broader audience, there will also be panels on Mad Men, Chuck, Gossip Girl, Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies, Friday Night Lights, Damages, Dancing with the Stars, Judd Apatow, Tracy Ulman, and (I kid you not) the 1968 Elvis comeback special.

Is the pop culture "nerd" the modern "cool" kid?

I loved this article from the AV Club on contemporary pop culture obsessions that make you a big, fat nerd. While in the past outcasts recognized one another by quoting lines from Monty Python, modern geeks have a variety of options to choose from. Along with the classics like role playing games, Renaissance fairs and Star Trek, the 21st century nerd can also pledge their allegiance to MMORPG's like World of Warcraft, online social networking (facebook, myspace), fantasy sports leagues, and re-vamped versions of classic scifi TV shows a la Battlestar Gallactica and Dr. Who.

My own personal nerdiness pops up at #8 on the list. For anyone that doesn't know, I am a total devotee of all things Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly for those of you who've lived under a rock for the past few years). I've been guilty of reading a lot of fanfic, watching episodes of his shows over and over, and dressing up as Buffy for Halloween. I'm currently reading the Buffy season 8 and Angel season 6 comic books. Within the world of fandom these are all pretty tame activities. One I make it to a convention dressed up in character I will have crossed over to the dark side.

One thing not discussed in the AV Club article, is how being a pop culture geek is now actually seen as "cool." The mere fact that a website like AV Club exists and runs articles about all these fandoms, I think, demonstrates how mainstream being into with some "geekish" pop culture topic has become. In some circles you're almost not considered cool if you don't obsess over every detail on a show like Lost or Heroes, or if you don't remember collecting all the variations of Luke Skywalker action figures that Mattel put out. (I personally was very proud of the three Boba Fett figures I had, since you could only get a Boba Fett by sending in three proofs of purchase from other Star Wars action figures.)

So when did being a nerd become cool? Did the nerds revolt and take over or have all the frat boys and cheerleaders just become us?