Since I'm unemployed now, I have lots of time to do stuff like set up WordPress and consolidate my blogs. Those of you who anxiously await my once-every-three-months lj updates will just have to add my new blog to your rss reader or something.

Hey, 2008, what's up!

January: Went to San Antonio for work. My application for Canadian permanent residency was moved from Buffalo to LA.
February: Went to Boston for work, had an extra day and a half for sightseeing.
March: Nothing happened, I guess.
April: Went to Columbus, OH for work. Launched Expelled Exposed. Got totally bummed out by all the negative vibes. Escaped to London! Stayed with Bonnie-san, my Australian roommate from Japan.
May: Eurotrip, continued: I did Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Luxembourg solo, then stayed with Bryony in Brussels. The day after I got back, I went to Disneyland with Lauren and Kush.
June: My theme park brings all the Canadians to the yard: Elizabeth and Peter visited, and we also went to Disneyland.
July: Turned 25. Sooooooo oooooooooold. Was involved in a coup the revitalization of the Bay Area Skeptics.
August: Rafted down the Grand Canyon. Finished my book! Also went to LA to see Mike Einziger from Incubus's symphonic debut. For work!
September: Flew to LA for a 15-minute interview at the Canadian consulate. Was approved, pending the medical exam.
October: Went to Houston and Memphis and launched the new NCSE website for work. Spent a lot of time playing Harvest Moon for Wii. Dressed as a mushroom for Halloween.
November: How about that election, eh?
December: Finally got my Passport Request. Next stop: Canada!

As for 2009... last year my New Year's post was less "resolutions" and more "plans". Since 2009 will feature unemployment of an unknown time, I cannot make plans with certainty. So, I will make resolutions instead!

1. Improve posture
2. Lose weight
3. Wear makeup more often
4. Be more social
5. Okay, one plan: move to Canada! FINALLY.
6. One more: get laser eye surgery.

Rules:

01. Go to the [Flickr] search engine and look up pictures from the places you've lived (town, state, country) and make a mosiac out of them.
02. Copy the URL of your favorite photos [here].
03. Share!

( No one on Flickr has taken a picture of the Funabashi Daiso, so this is incomplete )

Look what I made!

http://www.baskeptics.org/

Please tell me if anything about it sucks real bad, before we send out a general announcement! KTHX!

OH HAI did I mention Canada officially will take me? I had my interview a week ago: $300 to fly to LA and back for 15 minutes of describing my job history. It's okay, Canada! If I had no patience with government bureaucracies we'd run into more problems in the future, I'm sure!

So now I just need my medical check, which is apparently only an issue if you have ebola or spend more than a month a year in the hospital.

As long as the economy doesn't totally collapse, I'll probably be moving to Ottawa at the end of January! THE LOVELIEST TIME OF YEAR.

Today's experiment........................................failed

via this recipe

Interview with immigration on September 23, guys! Whoa!

But I have to sell all my anime stuff before I leave. Sale post is here if you've changed your minds on anything. Hint: if I know you, I'll probably give you a discount. Because I mostly want to get this stuff out of my room.

I have been working for 15 hours, but at last, I bring you: Expelled Exposed, the ultimate guide to Ben Stein's propaganda-fest.

See if you can guess my favorite line! It's the one part I wrote that no one even tried to re-write.

Last weekend I was at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I'd never been to Boston before, so it was pretty exciting. Also exciting: the tiny digital camera I got for Christmas. This is the first time I've had a camera under about five pounds since high school.

While totally amazed by the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History (how do you do that with glass? Crazy!) I was disappointed that they weren't more sparkly. Blah, blah, realism, whatever. I wanted pretty pretty princess flowers.


There is all kinds of free stuff in the exhibit hall.


Later, we crashed the Science Writers' Party at Fenway Park.


I am a corporate whore.

"Every dance move is the Robot if you can imagine an advanced enough robot." - Demetri Martin.

Robots evolve altruism, ability to lie in 50 generations

In another 50 generations I imagine they'll evolve ambition, stealth and death lasers, and then we'll be sorry.

1) Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The article title is the name of your band

2) Go to http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The final words of the last quote on your page are the title of your album.

3) Go to http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The FOURTH image on the page is your album cover. You can choose to go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrsocial/pool/ if you prefer a more dynamic, less philosophical cover.

4) Design your cover. Layout and presentation are up to you.

5) Post your cover, along with these instructions. In the comments your friends will tell you what kind of music you play and the name of the album's single.

Here is mine!:

Man, I was feeling like this last year was a complete wash until I started looking over the few lj entries I actually made.

2007 in review:

- went to Canada twice, for a total of five weeks
- went to Atlanta for the first time
- applied for Canadian permanent residency
- saved $6000 for the Canada fund
- gained 10 pounds, lost 15 pounds. Net victory!
- got a kitten! Okay, it's not really my kitten. Still.
- increased responsibility at work
- first published article

How about 2008?

- visit Bonnie-san in London and Bryony in Belgium
- go to San Antonio, Boston, Columbus, Minneapolis and Memphis for work
- first published book (only edited, but still)
- lose another 15 pounds
- maybe move to Canada? Depends on the speed of the immigration office.
- learn enough French to travel more easily

Happy Boxing Day!

So I got busy and forgot to update yesterday. So sue me, it was Christmas. I was doing important stuff.*

*this is a lie. I was watching NCIS via my parents' On Demand.

Thing I forgot to mention: I am a published author! More importantly, I am a published Kirk Cameron insulter. Yep, that's one for the C.V.

My boss Charles has an annual Iron Chef Christmas party. This was my entry, persimmon sushi with ginger wasabi (persimmon was my ingredient). I won Most Daring and Best Presentation, because I'm awesome. Apparently it's the first time anyone's won two awards.

I won Tequila-flavored rum and a jug of corn whiskey. Fantastic!

Wow, I have not been updating at all, have I? That is because my life is really damn boring right now, guys. And really boring updates go best on facebook, am I right? But this is what's been happening with me:

1. I watch too much TV. In fact, it's kind of remarkable how much TV I watch, since I don't actually have a TV (okay, we have four TVs, but none of them get any kind of reception and only one is currently plugged in). In conclusion: I love the internet, but probably don't really need to watch quite so much CSI.

2. I went to Atlanta for the National Association of Biology Teachers conference. It was pretty nice. They have a lovely aquarium. I did not go to the Coke museum.

3. I watched that Scrubs episode where the moral is that growing up is an active decision you have to make and now I'm totally depressed. My friends are getting hitched and I don't even know what country I want to live in. I am totally behind the curve, here.

4. Check it out: A Muppet Family Christmas on YouTube. Oh my god, so great. Also, the Flash & Ultra-Humanite portion of the Justice League Christmas episode. Best. Holiday specials. Ever.

The fact that I love Jon Carroll and think he's the best columnist ever is not news (although everyone not from the bay area is going, "Who?"). But today's column on politics is so great, you guys. Seriously, go read it.

[F]reedom rather specifically does not require religion, because freedom concerns the right to be, you know, free. Mitt is free to believe in Joseph Smith's revelation and wear his holy singlet; I am free to believe in charity, kindness and peace without attaching it to any supernatural being.

I am free to use anything at all to open the windows of my soul. If it happens to be the sight of a golden retriever on the beach at Limantour at sunset, they're my windows and it's my soul and government has nothing to do with it. Mitt Romney does not get to define the terms of my enlightenment - or, indeed, my freedom to ignore enlightenment if that's what I choose to do. Because it's freedom.

In the middle of the hate fest, Huckabee said: "With all due respect, we're a better country than to punish children for what their parents did." And he got booed! And I thought: Two hours of blather, one guy says something that makes him sound like a human being, and he gets attacked. Lordy, these are dreadful people.

Speaking of people I want to be when I grow up, Daniel Pinkwater now has podcasts up on his site. You can listen to him reading Lizard Music! That was ten-year-old Carrie's second favorite book!

Higgledy-Piggledy
Ben Stein's no scientist
Making a movie which
probably blows.

Words can't express how this
documentarian
misunderstands basic
science, Lord knows.

(http://www.expelledthemovie.com/)

This is Lieutenant Beans. He is a BAD KITTY who beats up the other kitties in the name of playing. We forgive him because he's so cute and tiny. But still. Poor other kitties. :(