up too early...

Am up too early this morning. Going to work early so that I can go see Richard Dawkins speak at my lovely alma mater this evening.

Hoping for no falling asleep at work, no stupid protesters at speech, and, perhaps most importantly, for him not to make one of his occasional blindingly awkward statements that make me go "oh, dear, I do like you, but could you maybe stick to things you know, or at least not phrase things you don't know quite so stridently?" Every now and then, as an anthropologist, he does hurt my head a bit.

Aaaanyway. Must go catch bus. *Shuffles*

nattering and lecture

The Dawkins icon comes out again so that I can say that I quite enjoyed seeing him. ♥ He read several passages from his new book, talked a bit in general, and answered questions, most of which were intelligent and interesting, and answered accordingly. The poor man did get completely flummoxed when someone asked what his theme song would be (how do you answer that even if you're not the kind of guy he is?), and had a few moments of professorly "It's your own time you're wasting" attitude at some disruptions (the pavilion being used is annoyingly echo-y, and prone to loud noises due to bleachers and loud metal doors, and so on). There was one moment which... I'm sure was not awkward for anyone in the audience but me, during which I had a moment of terror that I am somehow cursed.

Several years ago when I worked as an A/V assistant on campus, a biology professor had a neurological episode in a class I was video-recording. This particular day, I had another job lined up right after this class that I recorded every day, and I distinctly remember thinking "I hope Professor ___ lets the class out early so I don't have to run to my next job." He did, in a sense. Around the middle of the class period, while I was doing my homework in the booth, I heard him stop suddenly in the middle of his lecture, and then the sound of a dropped mic... and the now-unconscious professor had to be picked up by the paramedics and taken in for a lot of very serious testing. He turned out fine, but it was all veeery unnerving (not to mention guilt-inducing for me), so I had a moment of slight panic when Dawkins faltered for a moment, lost his place in a reading, and went silent. "Here we go again," I thought. Of course everything was fine, but I'd had no idea that incident had stuck with me so much as it apparently did... so that's why I'm telling it to you all now. :P

Anyway. Random stories through with. Alas, no sign of the lovely Lalla, but Dawkins himself was very fun and entertaining and well-worth the trip, and as a bonus I've picked up his new book. Looking forward to reading it on the bus tomorrow. Which reminds me, time for bed.

Oh, and there is now a Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, or something like that, from the people who did Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Zombies, not really my thing. Sea monsters, though? Totally into it. So I'm probably going to have to read this one. ♥