doing my giddy science nerd dance
So I just got back from a two-hour lecture on volcanos and climate change and all that good stuff.
By Bill Nye.
In person.
I was in the second row.
There were maybe two little things in the entire lecture that I didn't already know, but it still RULED! Like SCIENCE!
Along with the lecture he did his silly fun tricks. Freezing a marshmellow in liquid nitrogen and then eating it.
Shooting vortex rings made visible by stage fog across the room by using a cardboard box with a circular hole in one end and a bigger hole on the other end covered in a piece of shower curtain, which he'd "thwap".
It was nifty.
Also I met a guy.
Yes, I know, the last couple guys I got hopeful about didn't turn out so great. Like Aurora says, all the best ones are either taken, gay or dead. Or make-believe.
But what kind of optimist would I be if I gave up this early?
So anyway, I wore my cape because it was raining, and because I stand out in it. And while waiting in line for the doors to open, this young man gives me the usual "hey, I like your cape." We exchange a few friendly words and then I get my ticket and go grab my awesome seat in the second row.
And a minute later, there's the guy asking if the seat next to me is taken. Which it's not, so he sits down and we chat some more to pass the half-hour before the lecture starts.
Well, first of all we're both science nerds. Obviously. That right there is enough to fill a good conversation. Same interests, too - biology, cosmology and physics (and we laughed at the irony of doing a science lecture in a Church of Christ, because that's where this thing was located).
So this guy, according to his claim, just got a degree in marine biology, and is going to the Philippines in the fall to study clown fish and sea anemones, but as he had nothing to do until then, he's been driving around seeing places and is staying a month in Portland because it's his favorite city of all the places he's visited. Which is quite believable. Portland rules like science!
After the lecture he bought me dinner at Subway and then walked me back to my apartment, mainly because we were both far from finished talking.
So I've got his email address and will likely see him again before I go home for my break.
ALSO BILL NYE!
Just in case you forgot.
By Bill Nye.
In person.
I was in the second row.
There were maybe two little things in the entire lecture that I didn't already know, but it still RULED! Like SCIENCE!
Along with the lecture he did his silly fun tricks. Freezing a marshmellow in liquid nitrogen and then eating it.
Shooting vortex rings made visible by stage fog across the room by using a cardboard box with a circular hole in one end and a bigger hole on the other end covered in a piece of shower curtain, which he'd "thwap".
It was nifty.
Also I met a guy.
Yes, I know, the last couple guys I got hopeful about didn't turn out so great. Like Aurora says, all the best ones are either taken, gay or dead. Or make-believe.
But what kind of optimist would I be if I gave up this early?
So anyway, I wore my cape because it was raining, and because I stand out in it. And while waiting in line for the doors to open, this young man gives me the usual "hey, I like your cape." We exchange a few friendly words and then I get my ticket and go grab my awesome seat in the second row.
And a minute later, there's the guy asking if the seat next to me is taken. Which it's not, so he sits down and we chat some more to pass the half-hour before the lecture starts.
Well, first of all we're both science nerds. Obviously. That right there is enough to fill a good conversation. Same interests, too - biology, cosmology and physics (and we laughed at the irony of doing a science lecture in a Church of Christ, because that's where this thing was located).
So this guy, according to his claim, just got a degree in marine biology, and is going to the Philippines in the fall to study clown fish and sea anemones, but as he had nothing to do until then, he's been driving around seeing places and is staying a month in Portland because it's his favorite city of all the places he's visited. Which is quite believable. Portland rules like science!
After the lecture he bought me dinner at Subway and then walked me back to my apartment, mainly because we were both far from finished talking.
So I've got his email address and will likely see him again before I go home for my break.
ALSO BILL NYE!
Just in case you forgot.