The Alder Grove

"In my sleep thought that I was standing in an alder grove of the straightest and fairest trees which the heart of man could think of or imagine."

Innerspace....

As I often "joke" among friends, Orillia isn't the sticks but you can see them from here. Standard conversation around here goes something like this. "You going to the bar tonight?" "Naw man, going to the liquor store and getting drunk at home. You?" "I'm gonna predrink a little at home and then go out and get hammered at the bar later."

So, having a conversation about...almost anything...generally only gets me blank stares. From cool indie music to books to science stuff, I have pretty much absolutely nothing in common with just about anyone in the entire city. We're talking about a place where music consists pretty much of Nickelback and Gordon Lightfoot (and that's only because Gord's from here). And talking science? Yeah, not so much. This is a town of retirees and fairly Presbyterian with more than it's share of young earthers. In fact, inspired by Lawrence Krauss, I have taken to wearing my tshirt with the Neil deGrasse Tyson quote on the bus to see if I can start arguments.

"The best thing about science is that it's true, whether or not you believe in it"

But after having taken a rather long Twitter hiatus, I came back and discovered this massive community of not only scientists...but fellow science nerds! And The Young Turks! The TYT Army! Not to mention MOOCs from organizations like Coursera and EdX...and science courses on World Science U. Suddenly I could indulge all my passions online with other people who agreed with me (and have hour long arguments with those who don't) and take classes with really smart people on topics that really interest me (even a few that I only grasped part of, lol) with professors from universities all over the world!! I also found that really handsome scientists would occasionally read my tweets and respond ... what can I say, once a groupie, always a groupie. ;-) Plus, occasionally, one of my Twitter fights ends up on YouTube being mentioned by a comic with his own rather well followed show. "Oh look, new clip! Aaaaannnd, why is my twitter feed on the screen behind him right now?"

Basically, this is just a little random bit tonight about how awesome the internet is. And how stoked I was tonight being called out both with a comment on The Young Turks AND having Lawrence Krauss use my question in the Q&A of his Einstein Origins panel. Now I'm going to read some Hitchens. There's another post coming up this weekend about super exciting plans!! Too tired to write it tonight though. Stay tuned!!

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