I'm finally home from
Apostacon[1]. Walking into the house felt like getting home from a long road trip, even though it was a 20 minute drive from home. I'm exhausted from a great weekend. And I'm far from who put the most into this, so I can only imagine how exhausted the main organizers are.
At these conventions,
I usually don't spend much time watching the talks[2]. This time was even more so. I only got to see 4 of the talks, and 2 were only because they were during lunch (
Shelley Segal[3] &
Dan Barker[4]).
I was so exhausted, I nodded off during Amanda Knief's talk despite her being one of my favorite people on Earth. I also got myself a signed copy of her book,
The Citizen Lobbyist: A How-to Manual for Making Your Voice Heard in Government[6], and am excited to read it. If you're at a conference she's speaking at, she's a must see.
Another must see is
Fred Edwords[8]. He's a genius. He knows many things about organizing groups, and he has a way of telling us these things in a way that makes you motivated to go do it. If you ever want to start a group and need help getting it going, the help of Fred Edwords is invaluable. And he's dedicated to providing that help. Atheism simply wouldn't be the same without him.
I'm sad that I missed Matt Dillahunty's mentalism show. Especially considering how impressed I saw people were with it. It was so involved that we had to clear the room for him to set up. Sadly, it was the only thing we didn't record (at Matt's request because he's got some special plans related to it).
Luckily, Matt wasn't the only thing people were impressed with. It's a huge relief to have had Apostacon go so well. Attendees really seemed to like it. I've seen several positive reviews on the Facebook.
JT Eberhard has had nothing but high praise for us[11]. That's a lot of pressure for next year. Although, we've already got some ideas for next year, and have already had our first meeting for next year.
I think my favorite part of the weekend was seeing Jamila Bey wearing a shirt familiar to me.
She bought a shirt for
REASON[13], Omaha's skeptics group and our oldest existing non-theist group. Seeing someone of prominence, who I respect. give some love to a group I love makes me happy.
Another highlight was a conversation I had with
Greg Lammers, American Atheists' National Affiliate Director[15]. It's always good to see him, since he's the kind of guy you're always glad to see, but this time was especially good. I learned about American Atheists' plans for upgrading their support of local groups, including polling groups for what kind of support they'd want and potentially customizing it for each individual group.
I'm sure I'm missing a lot, but I'm sleep deprived so that's inevitable. Plus, I'm saving certain bits to put into their own posts.
Some great pictures of the event are up on
Biblename Foto[16], with more promised to come.
Next stop is
Skepticon 6[17]. Based on what Skepticon organizer, Micah Weiss, has said, Skepticon is sure to even better than it has been in the past. I won't go into it any more than that because I don't want to ruin their surprises. But it's going to be good times.
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