You should try to find a way to take a vacation and go on a dig!
For the past 10 years now, I've been going on Paleontological
digs in Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana. I thought I was
an armchair enthusiast, but found the opportunity on a trip to
Mount Rushmore, and I've had a great time indulging my childhood
dreams. I'm sure there are opportunities to do some "drive-by
archaeology" as well, lol. I recommend seeking that sort of thing
out to just about anyone who is remotely interested!

Lähettänyt: Atomicmutant 1:22 pm (EST) May 30, 2008

I just picked up a book at Half Price Books today,
and when I entered it into LT, immediately saw that
you gave it 5 stars on the book info page!
"The Goddess and the Bull". I'm
excited to read it. I guess you can add "fellow
ancient history buff" to the list. :)
I'll let you know how many stars I come up with
when I'm through with it!

Lähettänyt: Atomicmutant 6:54 pm (EST) May 23, 2008

Books that "preach to the choir" give me the same feeling, but I do find them useful, in sometimes making connections that are helpful. You know, like where you're driving in an unfamiliar place and all of a sudden you go "oh....this meets up with THIS road! How about that?" So I sometimes get new and different ways of thinking about an issue by reading those.

I only briefly spoke with PZ, but he was quiet and thoughtful. He's going to post about the talk and his reaction to it later on, I think. Dennett was proposing mandatory teaching about world religions in the schools, which PZ agreed with, but he also thought that this would lead to a "more benign" form of religion, and PZ was not so sure about that. That's the gist of it.

Lähettänyt: Atomicmutant 4:09 pm (EST) Apr 4, 2008

I thought you'd appreciate this . . . I met PZ Meyers last night!
I went down to Mankato to hear Daniel Dennett speak, it was very
good. PZ sat down right beside me, so I introduced myself and
thanked him for the blog....and the fact that I wouldn't have
been there if I hadn't read about it on Pharyngula! We also
chatted oh so briefly after the speech, which was very well attended.
Have you read "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon"?
That is primarily what the talk was about.

Lähettänyt: Atomicmutant 1:32 pm (EST) Apr 4, 2008

Well, hi back! It's interesting to be called a "fellow Pharyngulite and Heathen", lol. I haven't been all that vocal about my philosophical/religions preoccupations (or lack thereof) until the Heathens group on LT, and of course Pharyngula stokes the fires so well. I'm like a lot of people, I think, who in "real life" don't go on and on about things the way we tend to on the web. There have been several local Minnesota events that I wish I had been able to get to, it'll happen eventually, I suppose.

Taking a look at the books we share, it's a pretty darn good list of excellent reads!

Nice to meet you, thanks for dropping me a note!

Lähettänyt: Atomicmutant 8:26 pm (EST) Mar 30, 2008

Hi!
I just saw your review of March, and while I enjoyed it, you forgot to close your italics somewhere in the middle, and the entire rest of the review page has gone italic-y. If you wouldn't mind, could you make that one change?
Thanks so much!
Alana

Lähettänyt: Caramellunacy 8:10 pm (EST) Mar 24, 2008

We have a lot of books in common (I haven't included many of them, I'm being rigid about only including ones I've read since November 2006) I'm enjoying library thing, seeing my book list grow

Lähettänyt: amf0001 1:40 pm (EST) Apr 18, 2007