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If anyone happens to be reading this blog email me at thisisradionick@gmail.com, about anything even/especially just to say hello.

myspace deletes atheist network

I don't get my panties up in a bunch very easily. I am an out of the closet atheist who will spend a great deal of time talking about it. I am an avid follower of skeptic groups, but I still am not all worked up over myspace deleting what has been described as the largest atheist/agnostic group in the world. From the articles I have read about it there seems to have been no reason for them to delete it.

It's ridiculous, but they have the right to do it. I had taken my business to facebook a long time ago and my myspace page was just a holdover. I went ahead and deleted my myspace page last night, mostly because nothing good comes out of myspace. I got messages from people that I already talked with on a regular basis. I didn't meet anyone from some distant exotic land. I spent most of my time on my page deleting friend requests from porn sites.

I am not pissed off about them deleting the atheist group, mostly because they had driven me away a long time ago.

Roy Schneider

I just learned that Roy Schneider died. It's always a bummer when I learn about a great actor dying (it sucks when anyone dies), but Roy's death has struck a strong chord and reminds me of something that I loved and had not thought about in many years. Everyone loves Jaws, if you don't there is a strong chance that there is something wrong with you, but I was obsessed with Seaquest.

I have heard many people talk about there love of Star Trek from their childhoods, I liked Star Trek as well, but Seaquest sparked my imagination. It was a continuation of the fascination I felt after seeing the Abyss, but I could see it every week. I just checked the IMDB page on Seaquest and I was eleven when it started.

I know it wasn't the greatest show in the world, but it was about science and technology and exploring the unknown. I was obsessed and it was well known that I would maim anyone that got in my way of seeing that show. Fair well Cpt. Bridger, you will be missed.

My new favorite activity

Galaxy Zoo is consuming my life at the moment and I happily give my consent. It's a site where you look at pics of galaxies and group them into a handful of simple categories. There are millions of identified galaxies that need to be categorized and it turns out that people are much better at this task than computers. I am really excited to be making a contribution (granted a small one) to science. Plus a bonus you get to see really cool pics of lands far far away.

I learned about this from the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait.

oh yeah i have a blog now

Totally forgot I had started a blog. No one is reading so it's not a big deal, but it is my social obligation to blog. I moved to a new house this week. Moving sucks, but moving into the third floor sucks more, especially in January when there is ice everywhere.

I have come up with a few ideas to blog about so that there will be something of substance in this microscopic corner of the internet.

-Nick

Penn's new show

Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller fame has recently started a video blog online. I am very happy to be getting a regular dose of his ideas and feelings. The concept of no filters and stream of thought is a very cool idea and I am enjoying the posts he has put up so far. Watching this new show mostly reminds me of how much I miss Penn Radio. I was extremely sad the day the radio show went off the air. I miss Michael Goudeau.

Finally getting this thing started

I am not sure how to start this, or what I want to say exactly, or who I am trying to reach. So I have decided to just start writing and see if I have anything to say. I believe strongly in Huey Lewis & the News, not really...o.k. I do like Huey Lewis, but more than Huey and the boys my life seems to be driven by science. I am an engineering student and spend my time going to classes and studying or working at the tutoring center on campus.
I have always had an interest in science, but deciding to study engineering started me on a road of being more proactive in my interest. Now I spend a lot of time reading science books and blogs or listening to the back catalog of my favorite podcast "the skeptics guide to the universe" (I highly recommend you check it out). I have also been re-watching the Cosmos series and I would like to state for the record that Carl Sagan looks like a pimp in a corduroy jacket and turtle neck sweater, a pimp with a Phd in astrophysics. I am madly in love with this show.
Ending this first blog on a geeky story, I was driving down the road the other day and I saw a vanguard logo on a mud flap. The end of the V covered the rest of the letters and made it look like the square root of anguard, my next thought was that if it's the square root of anguard you can take out the a's and be left with a(square root) of ngurd. I casually mentioned this mentioned this to a couple of friends (super geeky friends I might ad) and they said that was the geekiest story they have ever heard.
My point is that I am being told by other geeks that I am spending too much time thinking about math and I am perfectly fine with that. Sometimes things change for the better. I don't know if anyone will ever read this or future posts, but I have now filled my twenty first century social obligation by having a blog post.

-Nick