I like Ze Frank. His vlog is very popular because it’s funny, and because it’s snarky, and because he so often speaks truth.
Yeah, and so?
I’ve been running around like a madman recently with way, way too much on my plate. At some point in the future I’ll give y’all a rundown on the projects I’m trying to do, but it’ll have to wait until
1) They fail,
2) They succeed, and I’m allowed to talk about them, and/or
3) I have time to talk about them because I’m too busy with so many projects to actually talk about the projects keeping me busy.
But I still come back to this blog. When I’m really busy and I blow it off, I feel bad. I like to chat about this stuff, and given how many people read it, I guess you like to hear it too. That’s not bragging, really, it’s just a fact.
I like facts. They’re easier to deal with than the other stuff, and they have the benefit of being true.
But where I’m headed with this is that without the readers, without the BABloggees, I’d be blogging into a vacuum. People send me tips and they send me jokes, they send me outrage at the latest pilfering of truth by some fathead antiscience goofball, they send me praise, they send me damnation. I also get logos, and website suggestions, and offers for a website redesign (which I try not to take personally), and offers to talk at a local museum, and offers for ways in which I can stop talking about politics and religion, and offers that really, are just someone’s way of wanting to help out. There’s so much coming in, and I have so little time to answer it all, let alone even some of it. But I appreciate it, all of it.
Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. It’s a pretty good idea for a holiday (even if the actual history of it is probably as screwed up as most other American holidays). Just a time to sit back and say, hey. Thanks.
And here’s where Ze Frank comes up again. The man is a good writer, a really good one. So listen to what he has to say about Thanksgiving, and giving thanks. And when you sit back this holiday, remember what he said, and remember to actually do what the name of the holiday says. And it’s OK to actually mean it, too.
I do.
Thanks.
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:19 pm
That’s a nice message to listen to before heading off from work. Thank you and your friends’ blogs on the sidebar for keeping us informed, intellectually stimulated and entertained. Too, for the friends on BAUT.
(And I’m not brown-nosing this time.)
Happy Thanksgiving, all!
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Thanks be to you Phil!
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Eh, you just like The Show for the “Dirty Space News”.
Thanks for all the Bad Astronomy — and the various podcast interviews! They’re inevitably worthwhile listening.
November 22nd, 2006 at 8:18 pm
I didn’t know you were a zefrank fan too!
And thanks for all your hard work in defending science.
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:44 pm
That zefrank never blinks. I think his eyelids are fused open.
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:06 am
I get an error message when I try to wath the video.
“Sorry but we were unable to load the video you requestet,
please try back some other time”
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:25 am
you’re welcome man, we gotch’ya back.
(thanks too
)
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:29 am
I heard on yesterday’s news that doctors had surgically repaired a newborn who was born with his heart sticking out of his chest. The kid’ll never play football, but he should be ok. This wasn’t done by some psychic surgeon with drapes, mist, and funny lights. It was done by physicians who studied practices based on evidence and experience; the kinds of values we BA Bloggers appreciate. That we live in a world where this is possible is something that we can all say, to whoever you want to say it to, thanks.
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:50 am
My thanks to you as well, BA, and happy holidays to you and your family. The nation’s second-favorite holiday (it seems that Halloween may be first?) really did start out with the Pilgrim’s (NOT Puritans) being helped through their first nearly killing winter by the folks who greeted them as they set up camp: the local native peoples. That is the essence of this holiday; all the rest has 250 years of embellishment, but the core story is one of helping fellow humans who need help.
I guess that isn’t a passe attitude even for the most cynical among us to admire and perhaps a behavior to emulate once in a while…
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:19 am
Your Blog is one of the first things I read as I start my day, though you can probably tell by my comments it sometimes is accessed before I’ve finished my first cup of java.
Thanks for your dedication Phil. I really appreciate being reminded there are other rational people in this world. Gives me hope for the species,,,
GAry 7
November 23rd, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Thanks, Phil, for a nice post about the holiday from a non-religious perspective. And thank you for being a beacon of reasoning, science, clear thinking, and hope. I enjoy your blog for the ideas and information you bring me, and the entertaining and fun way in which you share it.
And thank you to my fellow BABloggers for the continuing exchange of ideas, for the efforts to keep the conversation civil in the midst of strong disagreements, and for your patience when I get a little verbose.
November 23rd, 2006 at 6:17 pm
I just finished a plate of finest Thanksgiving fare, a big portion of which was a juicy section of turducken. Ooh my. Let’s say I am learning a whole new meaning of “gravitational collapse”. If I implode all the way to a gravitational singularity, just know I was thankful for the BA, the BABlog and all those who make this corner of the Blogotubes their regular haunt.
Off to lay down and see if I exit this world as a neutron star. . . ooh. . . .
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:22 pm
Swiped from Cosmic Variance – poem of the day:
http://cosmicvariance.com/2006/11/23/thanksgiving/#comment-142341
)