Skepticism

Dragon*Con and other Southern Events – Final Warning

Don’t say you haven’t been warned.  We’ve been talking about it for nearly a year now and now we find Dragon*Con almost upon us.  For those of you living under a rock, Dragon*Con is one of the largest fantasy and sci-fi conventions in the country.  It’s held in my own hometown of Atlanta, Georgia and this year, as if it could be made more awesome, it features an entire track dedicated to Skepticism.  Randi! Phil Plait! PZ Myers! Michael Shermer! Lori Lipman Brown! Stephen Novella! Michael Stackpole! (ETA: Sorry, I thought PZ was on the list but must have gotten confused! Fixed now!) The list goes on and on! Since there will be skeptics and Skepchicks around, of course, there are lots of opportunities to come by and say hello.   Here’s the rundown of events the next couple of weeks:

Skepchicks in Florida – THIS SATURDAY, August 23, Carr2d2 and I will be hosting Skepchicks in the Pub in Destin, Florida – details of where and when will be posted here as soon as we have them.

Pre-Dragon*Con Skepchicks in the Pub – Thursday, August 28 – Carr2d2, A and I will be there, amongst the rest of the gang of Atlanta and visiting Skeptics who may be coming in earlier. Facebook has the details here.  At least one robot will be present!

And, of course, Skeptrack itself – check the site and Facebook for details.  We will all be there – come say hello!

ETA:  I forgot there is another Atlanta Skeptics event coming up the same weekend we’re in Destin.  So if you’re unfortunate enough not be in Florida, go say hello to the folks at Secular Gwinnett on Saturday, August 23rd, 7 pm at Summit’s Wayside Tavern in Snellville, GA.

Maria

Maria D'Souza grew up in different countries around the world, including Hong Kong, Trinidad, and Kenya and it shows. She currently lives in the Bay Area and has an unhealthy affection for science fiction, Neil Gaiman and all things Muppet.

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38 Comments

  1. Not to argue over semantics or anything but…this Saturday is the 23rd, not the 16th. Just so there’s no confusion :)
    By the way, let me know if anyone needs help finding a place to stay! See you all this weekend!!

  2. I can’t tell you how jealous I am. Please take lots of pictures of slave leas, dawnstar, black canary, that magician chick who speaks bachward and any other hot chicks in fishnet stockins. Got to love fishent skickings.

  3. You know if more skepchicks wore fishnet stockings I bet that athsim would be a lost more popular. Hmm, is that mysoginsitic. Damn, I hope not….

  4. “By the way, let me know if anyone needs help finding a place to stay!”

    NOW you f*cking tell me! ;)

    I’ll be there and I’ll try to make the pub Thursday!

  5. adrebellious – Thanks for catching the date typo – I have fixed it. I must be livin in the past…

    Gabrielbrawley – Please comment drunk more often – fishent skickings made me giggle :)

    sethmanapio – Wow, I am really honored. I’ve never had anything more than a dirty haiku dedicated me. :) You rock!

  6. I think they should be called fishnet skepchickachings because if all the skepchicks wore only them, the coffers would go kaching-kaching with calendar sales.

  7. I wish I could have gone to the prom with the bum bot.

    That scenario would make the best bad 80’s teen movie EVER.

    … I haven’t shut up about the bum bot for the last 3 days.

  8. Wait… aren’t we missing an event? Or possibly two? Atlanta Science Tavern is partying like rock stars this weekend (see the meetup group for details) http://science.meetup.com/102/ and also having an event on the 30th, with taypro talking smack about creationist geology.

    Its like living in a big warm bowl of skepticky goodness.

  9. your MOM is the missing link!

    ooh. I should probably work on my smackanism/smackanese before next week.

    Any pointers?

  10. The big question: Smack, or PC?

    Let’s see… Smack talk…

    You’re delugional.
    Here’s a dead horse. Lets see if you can beat it until it turns into oil.
    Your brain is fossilized.
    Your mama didn’t raise no fools… your church did.
    Creationist geology, huh? Shouldn’t you spell that with a “th”?
    So, was that 16 or 22 generations after the flood?

  11. Masala, the Crab Trap is technically in Fort Walton, and is located on Okaloosa Island (which is something of a subdivision of Fort Walton). Anyway, if you wanted to stay strictly in Destin for whatever reason- cut down a little drive time, etc- then banddryad and i were thinking about this pub called McGuire’s Irish Pub that’s pretty damn awesome ( http://www.mcguiresirishpub.com/ ).

    If you’re interested, here is the link to a tourist-guide type online book (just ignore all the crap about rental properties). It has a pretty good map showing Fort Walton, Okaloosa Island, and Destin so you can get a feel for how close they are. http://www.nxtbook.com/dx/ECPCDX/ECPCDX801/index.php

  12. Your mama didn’t raise no fools… your church did.

    Yes! No smack talk repertoire is complete with out a “Your momma…” in there somewhere. Well done! :)

  13. Oh, good. Well at least my only Smackanism attempt began with “your mom…”

    I’ll keep the other suggestions handy given the sheer likelyhood that a mob of creationists shows up for Atlanta Science Tavern at Manuel’s.

    If there ARE any non-Dragon*Con goers out there, head over to Manuel’s. I will be missing out on some good Skeptrack sessions Saturday night. But when given the opportunity to go all Smackanese on some young-Earthers, my decision is clear.

  14. adrebellious, I think there are actually two Crab Traps, one in Destin, one in Ft Walton. At least, that’s what the web site says. But I will take your advice and do McGuire’s. Do you think we need to call ahead ? What’s the set up like?

    Taypro – I’m bummed I’m going to miss another ATL Science Tavern meeting. Next time, I hope!

  15. Masala, you’re right, there is another one in Destin (i forget about it). For McGuire’s, i could call ahead just in case, but it’s probably not necessary. They have an upper deck that would be perfect. The set-up is basically downstairs is the restaurant and upstairs is an open-air bar (but you can still get food there).

  16. adrebellious The upper deck sounds great. It doesn’t look like we’ll have a huge group – maybe 12 or so. If you wouldn’t mind calling ahead, that would be great! I’ll update the Facebook site.

  17. I’m not too worried about Fay- it will be over us by Friday, but wunderground is saying only about 30% chance of rain. For all we know, the curve west could be higher into Alabama.

    I will give McGuire’s a call tomorrow and give them a heads up. Is there a particular time you want everyone to meet? I’m assuming sometime evening/night, but they might ask me for a specific-ish time if they want us to make a reservation.

  18. Anyone know a good place to park for O’Terrills? I know its lot looks like it fits about 7 cars. I’m not THAT familiar with the area. Anything non-scary and possibly free?

  19. adrebellious I put 7 on the Facebook invite. Let’s plan on that.

    taypro The website says Free Parking and I did a Google Maps Satellite and Street view of it – the lot seems fairly large and there also seem to be some other lots near by. I’m not sure if the other lots are for other establishments. There appears to be a parking lot (probably paid) about 2-3 blocks away. I’d try the lot at the pub first. I’ll also give them a call and see what they say and put updates here and on Facebook.

  20. Also according to Google Street View (wow, I love that thing), there is a public parking lot at Pine and Courtland – which is just a block away. I can’t tell if it’s free or not.

  21. Masala,
    I called McGuire’s and they don’t take reservations for that large of a group. The lady on the phone told me that if we just showed up, they’d fit us in pretty quickly, and that there probably won’t be any problem with us setting up shop in the upper deck. Excitement ensues! :]

  22. adrebellious That’s cool. Hopefully it won’t rain on us on the upper deck! :) I’m all stressed about Fay now. But that’s just me :) See you in a few days!!

  23. Is PZ Myers going to be there too? I do not see him on the guest list. Nor do I see it on his calendar on his blog. Or is he mentioned as an example only? Or maybe he is going to go ninja style and just appear in a puff of smoke? Or squid ink?

  24. Grimmstail I must be losing my mind. I could SWEAR he was going to be here. Sorry, I must have misread… :( I’ll fix the post. But there are lots of others! Lori Lipman Brown! Alison Smith! Novellas Galore!

  25. Seriously, the only thing the TV weatherstuds have been right about Fay on is “this is a tropical storm.” The more they say it’s gonna come across the panhandle, the more I expect it to head to Ireland.

    But I shouldn’t be so hard on our Fox 5 weatherguy. He has to rush through it to get to today’s birthdays :)

  26. Masala,
    Hey i just sent this message in an email to you, but i’m not sure the email address i used is right, so i’m going to post the message here, as well:

    Heya, just wanted to check in about Saturday night. Looks like we’re going to get a lot of rain and wind, after all :\ What Tina (banddryad) and i were thinking about is, if you and the other people just really wanted to see the beaches and water despite the rain, we could go to one of the restaurants on the Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island (where one of the Crab Traps is, actually). The boardwalk has several restaurants, all with beach views. Of course, if you just wanted an awesome place to hang out and chat skeptically, the downstairs, inside of McGuire’s is just as awesome as the upper deck.

    See you soon, i hope!
    Adre

    It would probably be easier if you had my phone number. Just email me for it ( my email is [email protected] )

  27. adrebellious – I sent you email as well but for you and anyone else – let’s stick with McGuire’s and just hang downstairs. We’re heading out later this morning – hopefully the weather won’t be too bad to drive in. Looks like we won’t get much good weather but oh well :)

    See you tonight!

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