That’s our picture from last year… I’ll be sure to get into the front this year….. as you can barely see me… tucked into the very back left hand corner… I think I was being all “i’m too cool for this” when now I’m like “aaaah! i wanna be in the front!”

So the leadership conference last year was amazing. That’s my coverage…here’s CFI’s actual write up on the weekend… with write ups by me, Tyler Handely, Jack Rivall and Elvia Nidia Gonzalez. Tyler is awesome and will be working at CFI this summer - which is totally awesome. We need a Canadian voice there! Jack is also all sorts of amazing… he’s hilarious and was definitely someone I kept in touch with after the conference was over.

The conference is what really pushed me full throttle into student activism in the secular world… (I was slightly involved previously, but after that conference I was like a weekly visitor to CFI and pretty insistent about taking over the Guelph group.) I thought about doing some “live blogging” of sorts this year - but then realized that I’d have to take a laptop… and not talk to all my USA friends as much as I’d be blogging. So … I won’t be live blogging, but I’ll bring lots or stories and goodness back with me to write about

Anyway - this year’s conference is in July! Yay! And anyone who is involved with on campus activism and what have yous of secular organizations should DEFINITELY go. I wasn’t 100% into all the speakers last year - although they were really interesting - it was FAR more productive and interesting to interact, network and toss ideas around with so many other student leaders from across North America.

So here’s the info for this year! I hope to see you ALL there! (yay Roy!)

CFI Student Leadership Conference 2008

The Center for Inquiry is pleased to announce our 2008 Student Leadership Conference, to be held July 18-20 at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, NY. The conference will feature special keynote addresses by Paul Kurtz, Eddie Tabash, Robert Price, high school activist Matthew LaClair, and others.

The conference marks the 12th anniversary of our campus outreach program and will coincide with the opening weekend of the CFI Institute Summer Session and our annual CFI Community Leaders training weekend. The event brings together student and community activists from around North America for a blowout weekend of workshops, networking, lectures, and top-notch entertainment featuring some of the leading minds in the humanist and skeptic movements. You will not be disappointed!

We encourage every campus group to send at least one representative (if not more!) and we are keeping the costs down to make sure this is possible. Registration, room, and board for the entire three-day event cost only $35 for interested students. A limited number of travel and registration grants are available, based on need, to make sure every group can send a representative even if it lacks the resources to do so. The registration form and grant application can be found here.

So, what are you waiting for? Send in your registration today, or email Debbie Goddard at dgoddard@centerforinquiry.net for more information.

GO GO GO! If you’re going from ANY area that is moderately close by there will likely be a carpool. I know from Toronto we took two cars last year and paid very little for transportation. The whole weekend cost me tops $50… if that. It was such a good time.

So I hope everyone interested will attend! (for more info… although I dont know what else you’d need to know… just e-mail me!)

It’s Summer time! And besides Sex and the City - I’m most excited for the new Batman movie.

I’ve got a pretty kickin’ summer lined up. Sorta. Kinda… Mostly. Anyway.

I’m working midnights at the look-up center. Basically I work Sunday - Wednesday from 9 pm - 7 am… 10 hours, 4 days a week… looking at maps. Not too shabby. Every weekend off, which I’m pretty excited for. So weekends will be spent either in Toronto or with my new “crew” from work. Me and three other girls hit it off pretty well, so we’re all keeping in mind that we have Saturdays off, and no one works Sunday mornings. We’ve had training together all week, so it’s going to be a HUGE bummer when we all start working different shifts next week.

I think the best thing about this is have Thursday - Sunday off (well, sunday until 9) so I have a TON of time to start devoting to writing (which I promise I’ll do!) and a lot more time to devote into secular group things… And I’ll actually be able to make it out to events! Which is fun. I couldn’t do that at my last job.

They such a dynamic group of people, which is awesome.

Besides working there are a few other “big” things - Sex and the City comes out in like 15 days… and I’m really really really excited for it. Also the CFI student leadership conference is in July, and that promises to be a lot of fun. Mostly because I’ll get to hang out with Roy!! Woo! (and all the other secular kids… but Alon and Roy are especially exciting.) Hemant is coming at the end of June which will be a weekend of secular awesomeness. Lollapalooza - although still up in the air as a maybe - will be FANTASTIC … if I can find someone to go with me. *angry face*

Also I’ll have a couple radio slots to work on, and the launch of the new student secular site is really exciting… and my birthday is in the summer… aaaaaand… yeah. I just have a lot of things to look forward to in the next little while. It’s nice.

More time for CFI events = more trips to Toronto = more shopping at H&M = I <3 life.

Dear loyal readers, forgive Katie for mentioning “2 Hot Girls in the Shower.” (They’re not that hot btw, plus, no boobage is visible). She is still sick with flu-like symptoms and clearly her usual discerning sense of taste is not all there. If Katie were not sick, I’m sure she would suggest you go watch the Midwest Teen Sex Show. First off, as the name suggests the show is about sex, but it’s not porn. It’s educational! (Well, actually, some uptight scumf*cks might consider it to be porn, but these people are crazies). The Midwest Teen Sex Show, is made somewhere in the mid-west of the good ol’ US of A and it’s sex ed that is fun. And funny. And informative! If only sex ed were taught in school the way they did it on the Midwest Teen Sex Show…I’d actually remember something from those classes. All the sex ed I did learn was either from the awesome Loveline radio show, surfing the internet, or *gasp* my parents. My parents were smart, they gave me good books on sex. The first one I got and arguably the best would have to be the Where did I come from? book. They later gave me others, but Where did I come from? was the best. It describes orgasms sooooo cutely! It says they are satisfying like a BIG sneeze. To a degree that’s true, but the best way to know what an orgasm is is to have one. Actually, don’t have one, have MANY for orgasm are just awesome.

Anyway, for funny stuff, check out the Midwest Teen Sex Show. At the moment, I know I have good taste in funny things. Heck, I know I have good taste in general. Yep, in music for example, I’m listening to the soundtrack from The Fiddler on the Roof as I type this.

On another note, this is my first post on Katie’s wonderful blog. I think it’s a decent post, no? If you think so, say so in the comments. If you don’t, shut up, you’re wrong.

I look forward to blogging a helluva lot more here.

At first I thought to myself “why have i never seen these before!?” and then I remembered “oooh, because I don’t watch stuff on youtube”…

however - for some reason…these clips entitled “Two Hot Girls In The Shower” make me laugh real hard. Aaaaand so far I’m the only person who thinks so. As everyone else has told me “they’re not that funny”… SHUT UP.

On Friday CFI held an event with the producer of the Agenda, Wodek Szemberg, on the topic of why we see so few atheists in the media. I *really* wanted to go - but again the whole sick thing got in the way.

I heard feedback about the event that wasn’t so hot, on point in particular stuck out to me where one of the members of our group said he was ignoring/disregarding scientific fact. As someone who has spent the last few years fighting for rationality and science that tickled me wrong. However - when I dug for more info the “truth” of the matter came out.

Some people in the crowd were getting angry because the speaker wasn’t feeling sorry for atheists. Because he was telling it like it is. He claimed that all shows that are free of God and religion, are essentially secular - like a sporting game.

Now I can see why people would get angry about this. Because when they think “secular television” they think TV that is actually catering to their… “movement” or whatever. They are thinking a show ABOUT atheism/secular humanism like the Skeptologist or Point of Inquiry. They’re shows made my skeptics/atheists/humanists to cater to that crowd about issues they deem important.

… People want to see atheist propaganda - and simply secular television isn’t good enough for them. Ah ha. But I see where the confusion is coming in for people.

People want to see loud and proud atheists on TV shouting “WOO DAWKINS!” or talking about how awesome science is. Having a secular program, just isn’t good enough for them. An important point that was made is that they weren’t feeling like the victims anymore - and that wasn’t good. Because if we’re not the victims, how can we make everyone feel sorry for us?

Simply put, I feel bad that this guy took flak from the audience for telling the truth. The fact of the matter is - the proposals that are put in to make secularist television shows are SO lame and cheesy. It’s difficult to create a television show surrounding a movement. There aren’t really that many environmentalist television shows, or feminists television shows. There are shows with feminists on them, there are also shows that are written and directed and produced entirely by women - but the theme isn’t always feminism. That doesn’t make it a non-feminist show.

If there was an “atheist” show on television, I likely wouldn’t watch it. Just like I don’t read many blogs that are loud and proud about atheism 24/7. The one statement that really got me worked up was this by Rod “He sure doesn’t sound like an atheist.”

Why? because he didn’t tell you what you wanted to hear? because he didn’t make it seem like the media was giving atheists a spanking? because he didn’t start spouting anti-religious propaganda? Ask me about my views on religion - I don’t sound like your everyday Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris atheists. I can assure you of that. To say that someone “doesn’t sound like an atheist” because they didn’t tell you that the people in your movement are being victimized is pure crap.

I really wish I would have gone to that talk. I think the speaker was spot on, and deserved much more credit and appreciation than what he was shown.

*UPDATE*

Zak has a blog. I think I knew it existed a long time ago, but couldn’t find it again. Anyway, he does write ups about CFI stuff - and I like them because he a) doesn’t sugar coat things and b) usually formulates some of my thoughts into sentences that I usually don’t know how to formulate. His sum-up of the event:

Overall, the evening was a refreshing look into atheist activism in Canada. I now realize that about half the visitors at CFI events are morons who have more in common with the religions they claim to oppose than the freedom of thought and ideas that CFI is suppose to really be about. However, the question period that followed was long (as was expected) but the questions were generally polite and supportive since the rude and crazy people made themselves heard throughout the presentation and, I suppose, couldn’t think of any new ways to rant. More importantly, the activists in the crowd (the ones who actually do things) were generally supportive of the message being presented so I hope we can use the opportunity to start working towards more productive and realistic goals.

Amen.

*update #2*

So… I had to take all the quotes out from the e-mails, it’s hard to gain the same message from the post, but alas… gotta do. Everyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows I hate more than anything on earth taking stuff off of my blog - especially when it’s been there for more than a few days and has gotten a lot of reads. I remember when the christian camp asked me to take stuff down it nearly went as far as court.

I think the last time I willingly took content down from my site is when a friend of mine was arrested for manslaughter… after I posted the stuff, I decided I didn’t want it up.

However. …I … whatever.

I’m running out of energy to keep blogging. I get in trouble too much.