We're back from Vegas!

Hi everyone!

After my nearly week and a half-long blog hiatus, I am seriously behind! I had absolutely no free time to write during my trip to Vegas for TAM7 – I might have had time if I were able to write in the car, but doing to makes me carsick.

TAM7 was fun – I got to meet a lot of new and interesting people. I didn’t feel particularly enlightened by the speakers and panels, but that’s okay – I am rather entrenched in the skeptical movement, so I am not surprised that there was nothing particularly new to hear about. We've got a few entertaining stories from the after-party, such as Saint Gasoline being constantly reminded of his knife-fucking ways, me tying people up with some bondage rope and running into an internet friend in passing. We also have a few entertaining stories from the road - staying in the worst motel ever and passing by the "Jesus Christ is Lord... Not a swear word" truck stop.

I quite enjoyed a performance of the “Nigerian Spam Scam Scam” in which Dean Cameron receives a Nigerian 411 scam email and corresponds with the scammer for over a year. The performance is a reading of the correspondences.

Michael Shermer had some interesting things to say about politics which Flimsy will cover in more detail – politics are his thing more than they are mine. We will also return to our regular deconstructing of Mere Christianity and silly journal articles.

Leaving for TAM7!

In a few hours we'll be leaving for TAM7. I am going to have limited internet access, but will probably be Twittering interesting tidbits. You can follow me here.

Somehow, I'll figure out how to blog from my Blackberry - maybe I can write up blog posts using my laptop, then transfer them to my Berry? We shall see!

I have to thank all the people who have bought jewelry or just straight up donated money to help Flimsy and I get to TAM7. You know who you are (I'd call you out by name but you might want to remain anonymous) and you deserve lots of love!

I'll be Twittering random updates or pieces of interesting information as I see fit, as well as posting random pictures of our road trip to Twitpic.

JREF Swift Blog

For those of you familiar with the James Randi Educational Foundation (the lovely TAM7 folks) you might want to check out the Swift blog - I guest posted over there!

Check it out! I feel so famous.

TAM7 in one week!

I am so super happy! We'll be leaving for TAM7 in exactly one week. Of course, TAM7 does not actually start until a week and a half from now, but we're taking off early to drive there, stopping to visit the Grand Canyon on the way.

You will, of course, continue to recieve your daily dose of Zizturism, Flimsyism or Petterism, so fear not. Too bad I can't blog in the car - it makes me sick to read text while riding.

Tulsa Skeptics/Atheists, can we borrow your couch?

I've decided that Monday, July 6th, we'll be stopping in or around Tulsa, Oklahoma on our way to TAM7.

Is there anyone in/around Tulsa (especially along highway 44) whose couch we can borrow for the night? We'd probably be arriving around midnight, sleeping, then having breakfast and heading out again in the morning.

What about Flagstaff, AZ? We'd be there July 7th, I think.

Here is our map. I've never driven halfway across the country and back before.It will be an adventure!

E-mail me and let me know! If no couches from skeptics or atheists are available, we might check out couchsurfing.org

What's that, you ask? It's a website for people to hook up with couches! No lie. Check it out.

TAM7 in one month!

Hey!

So I really want to know, who else is going to TAM7? It's just about one month away from now, and Flimsy and I are super exited.

So far, I know that fellow blogger Unbeguiled will be there, and Surly Amy and I have some plans to meet up. Anyone else? if you read my blog and are going to TAM, of course I want to meet you!

P.S. We're still scrounging around for the funds to get there. If all else fails, I have a credit card, so don't worry - we're going, period.

P.P.S Thanks to all of our fairy skepfathers and skepmothers for your donations to help us get to TAM7

Skeptical jewelry!

Flimsy and I are poor, but what we lack in cash we make up for with our brains and, apparently, our creativity.

We've decided that there is a serious lack of geeky, skeptical, atheist jewelry. So we've decided to make our own.

Here are our first few pieces:

 

Flimsy, wearing the necklace above:

One specifically for the doubting ladies (or guys who like pink abalone shell):

Here's one that's a little less subtle...

and one for a skeptic!

 

This is the first time I've ever really made jewelry, and I am hoping that someone out there will love this stuff enough to buy it from us and therefore help send us to TAM7! Right now they are one of a kind. I've got more design ideas in my head, these are just the ones I've made so far. I've also got a bunch of really thick brass blanks to make key chains. I already made one for my friend The Alien - it says, "Incredulous Spiritualist" on it.

I'm not sure exactly how much to charge. I was thinking somewhere between $10-$15.00 depending on what bits I use. What do you think?

TAM7 again!

So even though Flimsy and I are poor, this summer we're planning on attending The Amazing Meeting 7, a meeting of the minds for skeptics and freethinkers.

Of course, we can't really afford to go, but damnit, we're planning on going anyway! We applied for scholarships to cover the entrance fees. We're driving instead of flying because it will be cheaper, even though the drive is 24 hours total.  We're also asking around to see if someone would be willing to share a room with us.

We'll be driving from St. Louis, making a slight detour to stop at the Grand Canyon. Our driving map looks like this.

Hot damn, that's daunting. 3300+ miles total. Flimsy's car gets like 33 mpg. Last summer, it would have been cheaper to fly. This summer, it's cheaper to drive.

If for some reason you have a charitable heart, you can donate to our TAM7 fund by hitting the donate button over on the sidebar. We've had.. one(!) person donate, so thanks! Also coming soon, Flimsy and I will be making and selling SKEPTICAL JEWELRY to help us with costs.

Also, I just got new license plates and had to retire my old ones (they made a new plate design), which are custom and say "ZIZTUR" on them. Maybe I can auction them off?

Check it: business cards!

I decided to blow some money on some really spiffy business cards, as I often go out and about and people ask me about the things I do, and I want to point them to my blog. Here is the front:

 

(which reads: www.ziztur.com/Atheism is freedom of the mind/A fine mixture of attempted intellectualism, photography, and snark.)

And the back:

(Which reads: Ziztur is a twenty-something iconoclastic skeptical ignostic strong atheist existentialist determinist naturalist ... Biomechanist scientist researcher occupational therapist urban explorer poet photographer. She lives in St. Louis City.)

I'm hoping to be able to hand them out to random people I talk to while I am at TAM7, assuming we get enough funds together to go. :)

The Amaz!ing meeting 7

Flimsy and I really, really, desperately want to go to TAM7, a conference organized by the JREF to promote skepticism and critical thinking.

TAM7 will be July 9-12, and will feature lectures and workshops by all of my favorite skeptics and atheists, including James Randi, Michael Shermer, Penn & Teller, etc. It's a dream come true for a geekskepticatheist girl like me.

I'm not really sure we can afford to go, which is a crappy reason to not attend. We're applying for a scholarship to pay for the conference fee (scholarships are donated) so hopefully that will help us out. Sometimes it sucks being a poor grad student!

I've also added a donate button to my site, in the event that you feel really generous and want to help us get to TAM7 - it's over there on the left sidebar, but if you get RSS feed you'll have to go to the main site to see it as most of the sidebar stuff does not show up in the individual posts. While I'm thinking about it, does anyone know how to fix that?

Is anyone else planning to attend TAM7? If you are, I totally want to meet you!