Ursus Pacificus

Hi, folks…

Well, it’s been an interesting few days. I’m writing this Wednesday evening, 3/31/10.

I live in Rhode Island, not terribly far from Providence. In case you hadn’t heard we’ve had some weather.

Before I go into any detail about the situation here, let me just say that, as of right now, I’m OK.

I have power, heat, internet, phone, water and sewer working, so far.

Healy’s OK, Betty and Columbo are OK. The roof is, as far as I can tell, fine. I’ve had some water in the basement, at the South end, where the furnace, water heater, laundry room and workshop are. So far I have been able to keep the water under control, and contained in the South end of the basement.

The servers, and the 2 basement studios, and my primary storage areas are, thus far, not inundated.

The Detailed Scoop
I’ve been living in my current house (which I call colloquially “Broadside Ranch”) for 18 months, and have not had any water in the basement. No water in the basement, that is, until a few days ago.

I have a wet/dry vac, so I went to work sucking up the water.

Then, this latest deluge happened.

Fortunately my basement isn’t completely porous…. and my vac could keep up with the water as long as I stayed up with it.

This morning, at about one AM, I couldn’t stay up any more… I decided to try to get a short nap… around an hour… that way I could keep up with the water… well. No, I actually slept for two and a half hours. By the time I got back downstairs, I had a borderline crisis on my hands, as the water was making its way into the middle space of the basement, when my servers (including the one that houses all my websites) and podcast studio are. I managed to get it under control, so that was good.

The influx of water seems to be tapering off, now, which is good.

I’m still keeping a vigil over the water, and vac-ing/pumping. Once the water stops coming in, I’ll begin the remediation process.

As of right now, there’s no need to worry about me, my pets, or my house.

Thanks, and best wishes.

Paul

Well, this is interesting…

As some of you may have heard, I gave up the “god thing” nearly 35 years ago, and prior to that I was being raised Catholic.

Now, on the one hand, I recognize the importance of accurate numbers.

I’m normally rabid about not buying computers with a Microsoft operating system pre-installed, because I’m just going to blow it away, and install Linux… I’m paying for it, and it counts as a sale for them, but it’s never even booted under my ownership.

It never really occurred to me that I might be on a baptismal roll somewhere, and, as such, counted among the billion-or-so Catholics. It’s certainly something to seriously consider. I don’t know what diocese I was baptized in, and I don’t know if I’m committed enough to the idea to find out.

I suppose if I have nothing better to do on a rainy Sunday… instead of going to church

Wow!

I’ve been invited to join the panel on a local radio show, called Freethought Rhode Island. The weekly show is put on by members of the Rhode Island Atheist Society and the Rhode Island Skeptics’ Society.

You can listen live on radio in the Providence, RI market on 88.1 WELH-FM

You can listen live on the Interwebs at http://bsrlive.com/

…and you can download the podcast after the fact at http://www.freethoughtri.com/

The live broadcast and stream starts at 9:00 PM EST

It’s a call-in show, so… listen, and call in!

As first days at atheist conventions go, yesterday was pretty awesome.

Met Jim Underdown, Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles… we chatted briefly and he was very kind to grant me a brief (and entertaining ) interview for NewsUndies.

PZ Myers gave a talk covering design versus evolution, excerpts of which may appear either on NewsUndies or my UrsusPacificus YouTube Channel. Didn’t get a chance to talk with him, but then, I wasn’t really expecting one.

Saw Dr. Dawkins and Dr. Dennet lurking occasionally. No chance to talk to them, but, again, wasn’t really expecting one… and… really… I’m sure my throat would seize anyway, if the chance did come up.

There was the live screening of Real Time with Bill Maher, which was agreeable.

The cast of Mr. Deity performed a couple episode on stage, and Brian Keith Dalton, creator, director and star of the show talks about his journey into atheism. That was cool.

Then Richard Dawkins (whom we’d just seen on Real Time) and Bill Maher showed up for Dawkins to present AAI’s Richard Dawkins Award to Maher. Dawkins gave what I thought was a fair introduction, stating that while he and others on the selection board did not necessarily agree with Maher on everything, particularly medicine, this award is centered on making a large, positive contribution to the advancement of progressive free thought and abandonment of religious dogma (or something like that… I have his comments on video, although the quality may be lacking.), and in that area, his film Religulous, as well s his outspokenness in other areas has been a boon to the cause.

Maher accepted the award (was there any doubt?) and talked about a few things we’re facing as a nation and as a species… did some relevant stand-up schtick, and closed by reading from Rick Warren’s “The Purpose-Driven Life”… which is both pathetic and hilarious at the same time.

We were then treated to a “comedy fund raiser”… $20 a head to see 5 comedians eviscerate religious dogma, faith and practice. Nice. Well worth the $20.

Then, of course there were the pleasant conversations, interesting merchandise and opportunities to do NewsUndies footage and network a little.

All in all a great time…. and there’s still SATURDAY!

…and my IDA Fish shirt got a lot of positive views and comments. So, really, it was a win-win day…

More from Burbank later…

NewsUndies in DA HOUSE, YO!

Well, we’re here… it’s kinda warming up… Met some vendors, and scored an interview with Jim Underdown of the Center for Inquiry! Working on getting more interviews, chatting with some fascinating folks, and hearing interesting talks.

More later…

This is the prototypey, proof-of-concept-ish stage of my “prompting device”

Next stage? Find a way to mount the camera and the prompter to one frame, and somehow be able to pan/tilt/elevate the whole mess.

Simple.

Dan Piraro, known to many as the artist behind the wildly surreal comic “Bizarro” comic, put up a nice post about atheists and atheism.

It’s true that some of us in the atheist camp can get a little worked up about things from time to time. I would certainly lump myself in that group.

Fortunately, Dan is able to step back, and be calm and lucid, while still using unapologetically frank terms like “invisible superhero”.

Whichever side you’re on, you should give Dan’s post a read.

Here it is:

http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/2009/09/believe-it-or-not.html

Two spiffy new designs! If you’re going to AAI in Burbank, I hope to see you in one of these!

Fish. Neat idea. Livin’ in your own toilet. Yee-ha!

A new twist on an old favorite!

Woo hoo!

Going to the Atheist Alliance International 2009 Convention in Burbank, CA next month!

Are you going? If so, look me up! I’ll be the guy who looks like this:

Planning on snapping up some of those new designs from the KitschKave and wearing them proudly at the events!

Hope to see you there!

Hey, check it out!

Finally! The “Oh, my lack of gods!” shirt!

oh. my. god.
(not really)

..and as if that wasn’t awesome enough!

Even awesomer is the new “Intelligent Design Associates” shirt..

Both designs are available on a huge pile of things and stuff in the UrsusPacificus section of the UrsusPacificus KitschKave!

Whee!