Well, sort of. I’m autotuned saying three words, but it’s still for awesome. You can listen to and download Skeptical by Three Ninjas here.

Here’s a snippet of the lyrics:

My skeptical muscle is strong like Bertrand Russell
I like to avoid fights but still find the occasional tussle
I try to act famous but I’m just a small corpuscle
and if creationism comes up expect me to dominate the discussle
These faith-based fucks like to pretend to sound logical
but it’s founded on fallacies frequently fully mogical
you can misinterpret data about polystrate logs
but everyone points and laughs reading Ken Ham’s blog

Make sure you check out his other delightfully nerdy songs!

The US military seems to think so, at least from their Mandatory Soldier Fitness Tracker survey that measures a soldier’s competency in areas like Family, Emotional, Social, and Spiritual. Justin Griffith, an outspoken foxhole atheist, wasn’t shocked when he flunked the Spiritual section, but was appalled when he was referred to counseling because of it. Here’s a snippet from his results:

Spiritual fitness is an area of possible difficulty for you. You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your beliefs, principles, and values. Nevertheless, who you are and what you do matter. There are things to do to provide more meaning and purpose in your life. Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal. Change is possible, and the relevant self-development training modules will be helpful. If you need further help, please do not hesitate to seek out help from the people you care about and trust – strong people always do. Be patient in your development as it will take time to improve in this area. Still, persistence is key and you will improve here if you make this area a priority.

Make sure you read Justin’s full piece describing the test, because it makes these results even more revolting. Apparently not believing in a higher power or considering yourself spiritual means your life lacks purpose and meaning. Who wrote this crap, and why is it being used by the United States government?

Kudos to Justin for being outspoken about this. It takes immense bravery to speak out as an atheist, especially in the military. Hopefully this will gain enough attention that something will be done about it.

PS: And in case his name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the one organizing Rock Beyond Belief, a secular concert/extravaganza in response to an overtly Christian concert held at his base earlier this year. I’ll be speaking there, along with awesome people like Eugenie Scott, Hemant Mehta, Margaret Downey, and great musical guests. Make sure to show him some love!

Mom: She’s visiting from Seattle, where she’s getting her PhD.
Random Guy: Oh? What are you studying?
Me: Genome Sciences.
Guy: Oh yeah? The really small stuff, right?
Me: Well, I guess it’s really small…
Guy: Do they wear hats too?
Me: …genome, like genetics. Not gnomes.

Later:
Mom: So your program is officially called Genome Sciences? Why not Genetics?
Me: Well, genomics is more holistic… Sort of bigger picture.
Mom: I’ll remember that name by thinking of gnomes wearing G-strings!
Me: …sometimes I wonder what goes on in your brain.

Now you know where I get it from.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, FL.

…

OMFG I’M SO EXCITED AAAHHHHH!!!

Actually, I have nothing else to add. I just wanted to rub it in to my friends who aren’t here with me. That’s what friends are for, right? ;)

I’ll make sure to post geeky photos when I get back. And I’m sure I’ll have interesting stories to tell, especially if my dad keeps calling Dumbledore “Dingledorf.”

Don’t Ask Don’t tell has been voted to be repealed. Yay!

I’d say more or find a relevant news article to link to, but I’m currently sitting in the New Orleans airport and functioning on 4 hours of sleep. So you get shoddy blogging, sorry.

So, now that we think it’s okay for gays to be open about their sexuality when they’re getting shot at fighting for our rights, will we actually extend those rights to them and let them marry when they come home? Or is that too much to ask?

Oh well. Baby steps.

I plan to celebrate by doing absolutely nothing for a week. Thankfully for you, my version of doing absolutely nothing includes blogging.

Then I’ll be flying around visiting family for a bit, including hitting up the Harry Potter theme park with my parents. Kind of overly excited for that.

I may post a real summary of grad school so far later, but right now I’m content with being braindead for a bit. Consider this an open thread until I put a real post up. What awesome stuff have I missed recently while I was busy finishing my research?

Me? Worked in the lab writing Python programs until midnight. And since I’ll probably be doing that again tonight (woo research presentation on Friday), you get this filler post.

What’s the nerdiest thing you’ve done in the past week?

I asked this to my friends over Facebook, and my personal favorite was “Flirt with a NPC.” I’m sure you guys won’t disappoint me either.

And I’m about to go pass out somewhere. My Canada speaking trip was fun, but I’m exhausted now that I’m home. I’ll write up more about my trip later, but for now I leave you with one very important question to ponder:

Why does Canada get Cadbury chocolate products year round? Why must we wait until Easter time for Cadbury eggs, when they have delicious stuff like Caramilk bars? Totally unfair.

First I’m told Seattle is a godless paradise, and I receive religious spam at my apartment the first day. Then I’m told it basically never snows, and now this?!

Very clever ploy to get me to move here, Seattlites.

Though everyone has told me when it does snow, people here flip out. After a couple of minutes standing at my bus stop, I can confirm this. This Midwesterner will continue to laugh at drivers spinning out in a half inch of snow.

…As long as the bus actually ends up coming, and gets me to school in one piece.