I’m going to be doing an interview with Reddit later today, and they’ve opened a thread to collect questions for me. I’m already a-scared. Hold me, Mommy.

That amazing fact should go right on my résumé. Although I was challenged to stand outside in nothing but my light jacket for 20 minutes to get the true Winnipeg experience, and I demurred — I’ll save that for my next visit, when I’m ready for the advanced class.

Anyway, I had a grand time at a talk hosted by the Humanist Association of Manitoba. People around here asked a lot of good questions, it was a lively evening, and they even had one brave creationist ask me a question (“How do I explain molecules to morality?”^*). Then we stayed up until 1am working through some Canadian beer. If you’re living anywhere near Winnipeg, you ought to join the group for more regular opportunities for godless get-togethers.

Now, unfortunately, we have to make a long drive back home, and also be very, very polite to some American border guards. I’ll holler for lawyers, guns, and money if anything happens at the trepidatious crossing.

^*My answer was to point out that he’s demanding a bit much for a short answer. Forget the molecules part, since they don’t exhibit morality; all you need to know is that a population of apes found it advantageous to regulate their activity to promote cooperation, and voila, here we are, apes who say that rape is a bad thing.

I was a bit skimpy on the details before, but now you can find a list of all the specific times and places you’ll be able to find me when I make the grand rounds of central California.

Travel season begins again for me. I’ve already mentioned that I’m off to Winnipeg this weekend; the weekend after that is the Science Online conference. And then the whirlwind begins: I’m invading California, singlehandedly. Here’s my schedule:

W, 1/20: UC Santa Barbara
Th, 1/21: UC Davis
F, 1/22: Berkeley
Sa, 1/23: UC Santa Cruz
Su, 1/24: De Anza College (Cupertino)
M: 1/25: CSU Chico
T: 1/26 Sacramento City College
W: 1/27: Stanford
Th: 1/28: Sierra College

That’s insane. I may regret this when I stagger away from that grueling series. At least I’m giving the same talk at all of them, on creationism and complexity, so I won’t have to struggle to keep the topics straight.

And that’s not all! I’m coming home from California to hop on a plane to Ireland! I’m still working out a few details, but I can tell you that I’ll be speaking at University College Dublin on 2 February, and Galway on 4 February. I’ve got pending invitations from Cork and Belfast that I’m still trying to squeeze into the schedule; I may do both if I can work out transportation, but I’ll do at least one of them. It would be nice to visit all four so I can say I’ve done Ireland east, west, north and south.

And then I come home in time for the Darwin Day madness! I’ll be going to the University of Northern Iowa and South Carolina. More about those later.

I’m a fan of the comic strip Lio — the one with the weird little kid with the pet squid and whose antics clearly make him a descendant of the Addams Family. The strip for Christmas eve was a little different, though.

It hit home for me because the day after Christmas is my day of melancholy. It was the day after Christmas, 1993, that I got a phone call from my mother to let me know that Dad had died, unexpectedly, suddenly, quietly. It’s a memory that colors my holiday season every year, and it’s a strange thing — the grief and sadness never go away. One of the lies we always tell ourselves is that the pain will go away with time, that we’ll get over it, that time heals all wounds, and it’s not true. Every loss is forever raw, and we can feel it all again with just a thought or a reminder, like a Christmas phone call to the family. The older you get, the more of these moments of grief you accumulate, and they never leave you.

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I’m going to be speaking at the U of M tonight. I actually have to leave soon for this, because we had a light snowfall yesterday, and last I checked, the roads were slick as shellacked snot. I’m giving myself lots of extra driving time to improve my odds of actually getting there intact and with a still functional vehicle.

Also, some of us will be meeting at the campus club in Coffman Union sometime before the 7:30 talk. Feel free to stop by and say hello!

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Skatje and I are here — the roads were good and we made it plenty early. Stop by the Campus Club (4th floor of Coffman Union) any time before 7:30. If you take too long, all the salmon will be gone, I warn you.

My house is in chaos! The cats are yowling in panic! My fingers are fragile little icicles at the ends of my arms! It may be quiet here for a while. This morning, the contractors showed up to install new doors on my house — wonderful energy-efficient insulating doors to replace the old thin sheets of plywood — that were ordered way back in October. The first step, of course, is removing all those old doors, opening up the interior to the open air. In Minnesota. In December. And it’s snowing, lightly.

Anyway, if you think this is a perfect opportunity to charge in and penetrate the normally tight security in my lair, I should warn you all that the missing doors are currently manned by burly guys with nail guns and drills, and will soon be replaced with steel-framed thick slabs. With wall-mounted computer-targeted lasers, yeah, that’s the ticket, and exploding doorknobs. And I’ll be warm again, I hope.

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No worries. Doors installed; house warming up. Urge to kill… fading… fading… fading — rising! Fading… fading… gone.

I’m interviewed on the latest edition of The Big Podcast by two people on two different continents at the same time, via the magic of technology. Check it out!

I’m going to be on radio station KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, at 10:15am California time (12:15 Central time). You can also listen in via the web.

This is a left-wing Pacifica station, so I’m sure they’ll be piping it into all the California shopping malls in place of Muzak, so if you’re out shopping, maybe you’ll hear me too.