So – decision time! I am happy to write that I’m heading to FreethoughtBlogs. Over at http://freethoughtblogs.com/tokenskeptic.

I’m considering continuing on with this site in some capacity, which I think I’ll try to do. Most likely I’ll organise it to be a formal archive of my earlier work.

New blog-posts will be appearing at: Token Skeptic. It’s not the same as the Token Skeptic Podcast, but there may be some overlap at times.

If you’re a regular reader (or even just someone checking this site out on your way to finding more Tim Minchin lyrics) – I’d love to have you as a reader at that new blog. The RSS feed for Token Skeptic is here.

Thanks to my supporters, especially Digital Cuttlefish, Paul Caggegi (who created my snappy new banner) and my dear friends who I emailed to let them know ahead of time and whose advice I greatly appreciate. Here’s to being the Token Skeptic at Freethought Blogs.

A counter protest for 40 days doesn’t seem right – why draw attention to them? Instead, lets do something for the people who are probably most affected and could use the boost.

Let’s give the nice people at BPAS 40 days of treats. – Okay, we’ve got to do something about this

Anti-abortion protesters and prayer groups. They can legally ‘block’ the way to providers and make it very, very uncomfortable for those going to those services, let alone the people who work there. We’ve had members of the Perth Atheists ponder how best to tackle similar anti-abortion protests here (not unlike the ’40 Days for Life’ vigils outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Services).

Now? Although this is a story heralding from the UK and we’ve never met, I recognised the name of Carmen D’Cruz (http://www.carmenego.com - who has appeared at a number of skeptical events in London – including Westminster Skeptics, which is a great gathering!) and I really, really like the positive spin it makes in regards to counter-protests. Indeed, there shall be cake! The Forty Days Of Treats Website.

The Guardian – Cakes and the right to choose: Unhappy about a pro-life campaign outside the BPAS, two friends decided to act – in a peculiarly British way

They were especially keen to support the charity after the recent Nadine Dorries amendment aimed at stripping abortion-providers of their role in counselling women. Instead of holding a rival protest and further upsetting women who went to the clinic, Carmen D’Cruz and Liz Lutgendorff decided to “express our opinion through cake” – and 40 Days of Treats was born.

For every day the pro-lifers were praying outside, D’Cruz and Lutgendorff vowed they would cheer up staff inside, and launched their idea on Twitter and Tumblr. “We thought it would be nice to show lots of us appreciate the work they are doing. It’s not combative, or confronting the protesters in a way that no one would want,” Lutgendorff explained.

You can follow the 40 Days Of Treats on their official Twitter account at http://twitter.com/40daysoftreats – and Tweet your support (or even send treats!) to @clare_bpas@edforchoice @marie_stopes @abortion_rights @FPACharity!

What do I do after enjoying a great session of the 2011 #Ig Nobels (a live-Tweet marathon where I surprisingly managed to get the attention of Tim Minchin, who is currently dealing with a cold while on tour and was helpfully distracted by the Coffee-shop Opera breaks -- get well soon, Tim!)?

Today, I’m heading off into town in order to do the final checks on students who are attending Work Experience Week, involving on-site and hands-on involvement with careers that they well might make their own some day. Although, to be honest, my work experience once involved a detective agency and I didn’t end up in that career, but it was brilliant fun regardless. It’s nearly the school holidays and I’m looking forward to the break.

Here’s three things to keep you intrigued while I’m gone: firstly, I didn’t announce it on the blog, but I donated both audio and funding to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast recently!

September 23rd: A Star Party With A Noisy Astronomer – An Interview With Nicole Gugliucci. Nicole’s site can be found at www.NoisyAstronomer.com.

That episode will also feature on the Token Skeptic podcast today, so even if you don’t subscribe to ’365′ (and you should, it’s fantastic!), you can download it off my show and enjoy the interview with a really talented and inspirational astronomer.

The 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is seeking both contributors and funding, so if you can help out, please do! I’m going to see if I can make one more interview-episode before the end of the year, but you can do a essay, an investigation, a lecture, all sorts of things to help out with content. Even just sending a few dollars their way will help maintain the show, one that has been nominated a number of times and even won a Parsec Award for podcasting.

Secondly -- Long- Live The Book Shop -- Embiggen Books Re-Opens October 7th!

Now, I’ve just finished an article for the CSICOP website, which mentioned in passing my habit of recording things for short films…

…such as this with fake Australians; this with Minties being squashed in front of a audience; this one heading into the far north of Western Australia and driving through an out-of-control fire; this one with an Impossible Triangle in a traffic island in Claisebrook; torturing Americans at Dragon*Con with musk sticks and this travel diary in London with Peter Pan…

…even one with dozens of Dachshunds in Parliament…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAW4pn1NK3c

…okay, perhaps all my filming is a little overwhelming at times, but it’s a fun record of things I do and I appear to have a great audience for my travel documentaries. Thanks, subscribers!

There’s also times that I don’t film things. My first visit to Embiggen Books was such a time, because it was damaged by a really awful flood due to the apartments above and I thought it was such a shame to take photos or film it when it wasn’t at its very best. I really, really hope to make it back there and do one of my films in the future -- and now it seems that this will happen!

On October 7th, the shop will reopen! If you can make it, do so and support the best rationalist bookstore in Melbourne and probably the world…  mind, I haven’t done any tours of other rationalist bookstores, but I’m sure that it measures right up there with the very best. Go prove me right and check it out when it’s open next month!

Finally -- check out this article by Ben Radford -- not only a great wake-up call for those who blame the media for horror stories-hysteria, but because my blog-post on Dungeons and Dragons gets a mention! Yay!

Self-Claimed Vampire/Werewolf Accused of Murder -- Benjamin Radford, Discovery News:

Already there is talk about a “vampire cult” in this case, and as often happens, entertainment media is blamed. The news media loves stories like this, but the fact is that 99.9 percent of kids — even those fascinated by vampires — have a pretty good grasp on reality.

It’s a TED Talk! By the way, live streaming of the Ig Nobel Awards, happening 7.30am Perth time (which is 7.30pm east coast USA). – which means NOW!

It’s one of those mornings where I’m thinking about my students who have got an exam today (and does one wish ‘Good luck’? I think I’ll stick to ‘Remember to use a nice black or dark blue pen and take time to think about the question’)…

…and I’m ignoring the massive pile of laundry that has started to develop sentience in the corner of my office (I’ve started brainstorming names for it -- Basil? Sondra?)…

…I’m putting in the last few transcripts for my book that will be out next month and editing today’s podcast episode - speaking of cool sounds, Peter Gregson and Milton Mermikides have released their album ‘Terminal‘ for download on Bandcamp, so go get it!

…and I’ve noticed that the tree that has crushed the back-yard fence into splinters is still being stoically ignored by the neighbours, which must mean they are waiting until December to pop ornaments on it and sell tickets for viewing their symbolic Christmas Tree art-installation (‘With Its Tragic Sacrifice, The Brave Fallen Zombie-Jesus Pine Tree Massacres The Paling Fence Of Commercialisation And Secularisation Of The Season‘)…

…and I’m glancing at the stats of my blog, where the most hilarious interpretation of its recent activity might be explained by someone obsessively searching through Wayback Machine for evidence of their very-public infidelity (or maybe it’s just a Yahoo slurp spider with a fetish for acting batshit crazy?). Oh, and there’s the usual schoolwork and I’m tinkering with programming and now my email access is down and woe is me with my first-world problems.

I know, I know, everyone should just get a life. It’s nearly the holidays, I’ll work on the life thing then. Honestly:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9WZtxRWieM

Did I mention 2012 is going to be awesome? I have, I know. Now that I’ve got that out of the way -- here’s some things that I’m reading / viewing:

The Chasers are returning with a new show called ‘The Hamster Wheel’ (coincidentally, I’ve just finished putting my interview with Julian Morrow into my book) -- and they’re looking for volunteers in the Sydney area. See the picture, above. Click click.

GO NCSE! Evolution and Global Warming Denialism: How the Public is Misled -- a talk by Eugenie Scott in Glasgow, earlier this month:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT2pNg4oxYE

and to finish off - DINOSAURS!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywqpf1Nge3k

Back to work now. Shoo.

When most people have house-guests staying, they’re probably worried that it’s going to end up like this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le3jrp6LzjI

In short, people always think that the house-guest is going to be the biggest issue.

Not for me. In my case, I have a different concern: ‘How am I going to entertain a house-guest -- I’m either working or thinking about working?!’

Add to the mix the fact that I live in one of the most isolated cities in the world… and that my general knowledge of the local area for an international tourist can be summed up with:

- That’s the Swan River and the Bell Tower;

- That’s Rottnest Island;

- Much further south of here there’s tons of interesting stuff -- the far north is really interesting too… in fact, lots of great things in both directions, really… fossils, desert, weird animals, weirder natural landmarks, and wineries and… trees? There’s always trees…

- Did I mention the Swan River? There it is again…

Result?

Two frantic days of trying to clean a house that I haven’t lived in for three weeks; fixing and painting massive water-stains on the ceiling from where the rain got through during that time I was away; some puzzling over a slightly bent-out-of-shape futon bed; several boxes of paperwork and two heaps of laundry hurriedly camouflaged in the office; two broken vacuum cleaners and one hurried raid on every tourist brochure booth I can find, with the hope that there’ll be something entertaining happening for the three days that my guest will be staying…

Don’t forget -- I’m also still working on the second-last week of term. This means I’m grading papers and heading into work. There’s also my other little skeptical projects on the side, as per usual. Because I love working. Oh, dear…

I should emphasise, I’m fine with having a house-guest, I just wasn’t really as prepared as I could have been. It’s entirely my own fault. Did I mention my devastating lack of local knowledge? Oh, look, there’s the Swan River. Again.

I am so glad that my house-guest turns out to be just as fantastic, funny and willing to be adventurous as I thought they were. Because then, it seemed as if everything happened at once. All of a sudden, I seem to have a rather interesting, exciting, busy and downright awesomely glamorous life…

Thursday

Nothing too unusual -- I head into work in the morning and review over the year’s program and start planning for 2012, including a little brainstorm as what I might be able to do in regards to changes to the podcast. My guest and I grab lunch in Kings Park after they’ve toured around Perth, and later we all prepare to go out for dinner.

See, the awesome comedian and fellow skeptic of ‘Unbelievable’ fame Lawrence Leung is doing a show in town on Friday. Thanks to the magnificent team behind the Global Atheist Convention, they’ve selected Lawrence as a co-host in 2012… along with me! Since I’ve met Lawrence only once before for an interview in Melbourne, I thought of catching up with him for dinner, along with some of my friends. With HUGE thanks to the Atheist Foundation of Australia -- they made it happen!

Dinner ends up being one of the best nights I’ve ever had -- the enchanting, revolving city-view C Restaurant, and a table of seven. Laughs, amazing food, the world’s funniest waiter (Greg!)… and although I am none the wiser as to exactly how awesome the GAC will be in 2012, what I do know is that if it’s anything like the time we had at dinner, we are some of the luckiest people on the planet to be working, let alone hanging out with each other next year at the GAC.

Friday

After my guest spent a day at Rottnest Island, we head out to see Lawrence Leung’s ‘Jet-Pack’ show at the Astor -- which was very nearly cancelled, because a bus hit a power-pole an hour before the show was due to start -- and it turns into another brilliant night out. A bunch of friends from the AFA forums have dinner beforehand (I didn’t know that Grill’d burgers had a shop in Perth!) and coffee, which is great timing as a larger group from the forum board is planning to get together for lunch tomorrow, and I’m able to introduce my house-guest to them.

Of course, Lawrence’s show is phenomenally funny and I’m in tears by the time the final gag is being shown on the big screen. He does indeed get his jet-pack… and that’s all the spoilers you’ll get. DO see the show if you have the chance, it is well worth even the threat of a power-pole destroying bus attack delaying the start for twenty minutes.

Saturday

We’re up and heading into the city one more time, for lunch with the rowdiest, funniest, most divine members of the AFA forum board -- the traditional (and even less impromptu as time goes on, but that’s kind of the joke) Impromptu Lunch.

Get-togethers like this reflect the community spirit that I’ve observed amongst atheists; we commiserate, trade stories, gossip and laugh, laugh some more and then end up putting colourful floppy hats on much-loved AFA moderators. I don’t think we even found Annie’s purse, which was apparently The. Whole. Point. of the get-together… but who cares?

Lunch turns into dinner, which turns into even nuttier photo-sessions and unless you’re a member of the AFA forum (and if you’re heading to the GAC in 2012, you should be!), it will remain immortalised in this one photo that I’m posting here. Thank you so very much to everyone who was a part of making the visit memorable for my house-guest!

Sunday

I can’t remember. After dropping off my house-guest on a fantastic bus-tour of the South-West before they caught their flight back to Melbourne University, I spent the day upside-down on the couch with half a melted chocolate bar and the grading that’s due on Monday. Really happy that our visitor enjoyed their time here as much as we enjoyed their company, and so grateful that things worked out so well over the long weekend.

It’s kind of peaceful, living the non-glamourous life on the couch, quite frankly. I could get used to this.

Thanks to Nicole for the find!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPLWKBWkn3s

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSA7kKNu2Y

Troy Davis was executed this evening for the murder of an off-duty policeman after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute stay of execution amid widespread public doubts about his guilt.

Davis, 42, died at 11:08 p.m. ET, according to a Georgia Department of Corrections official. His death by lethal injection came after an approximately four-hour delay for legal review.

I’ve been sending out a few Tweets about this today. Mostly retweeting the information I get from following Amnesty International.

I’m grading the last few papers for the course I taught this year. The students had to respond to one out of a choice of three passages, on the topic ‘Life and Death’. They were asked to analyse, clarify, and evaluate its concepts, argument and assumptions.

Of course, by posting it here, it means that I can’t use it in future tests. But I don’t care. You can read it too. This is part of the passage that was used – ‘The Last Word on Capital Punishment’, by AC Grayling.

If the argument for capital punishment is the Biblical one of an eye for an eye, then execution is no revenge. If a murderer lives as long as his victim’s family, and suffers from life imprisonment in some way analogous to their lifelong sentence of loss, then a millionth part of revenge is served. But to kill a murderer not only pushes us in his moral direction, it merely shortens his suffering. When he is the calculating murderer of dozens or hundreds – a bomber of crowded buildings or airplanes – releasing him from prison by death cannot compensate a billionth part for what he has done. Even for the vengeful, therefore, execution is no satisfaction, and yet stains us in perpetrating it.

Of course, considering the kind of savvy subscribers I have, you would have checked out the article by Dr Chris French of the UK Skeptic by now… if not, quickly go and read the story in full here - Psychic Sally Morgan hears voices from the other side (via a hidden earpiece):

The theatre’s general manager, Stephen Faloon, claimed that the voice heard by the audience was actually the voices of two members of staff working for the theatre, not someone supplying information to Sally. Sally Morgan Enterprises also denied that the medium was being fed information during the show.

This episode is reminiscent of the exposure of faith healer Peter Popoff by James Randi in 1986. Popoff would wow his audiences by giving specific and accurate details of their medical problems before claiming to cure them with his divine powers. This information was, according to Popoff, provided to him directly by God. It was certainly an effective technique, as at this time Popoff was raking in around $4m per month (tax-free) from his poor, sick and uneducated followers.

…in order to enjoy the following:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K14sIoE8qT4

Chris French is a professor of psychology at Goldsmiths where he heads the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit. He edits the The Skeptic.

I’ve spent some time offline and missed a few news items, but this is the only one that I thought I should mention as it would probably miss everyone else’s attention:

NH notes 50th anniversary of UFO abduction story

LINCOLN, N.H. (AP) — Fifty years after Betty and Barney Hill reported seeing a flat, cigar-shaped craft hovering over them in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the state has put up a historical marker noting their close encounter with a UFO.

…”I think that she wanted to make sure the materials were available for serious study,” said David Watters, director of UNH’s Center for New England Culture. “She said to me that she wanted the dress to be preserved, so that when our science caught up with alien science that it would be able to determine what the chemicals were on her dress, for example. Or the star chart that she made under hypnosis — some day she thought it would be possible to have that confirmed through astronomy.”

In 1991, Betty told The Associated Press she was retiring from making public appearances because of her age and her “disappointment in the way the UFO field is headed.” She said too many people with “flaky ideas, fantasies and imaginations” were making UFO reports. ”If you don’t know the answers to something, you can always dream them up, whether they are true or not,” she said. “A lot of the UFO field certainly is not sticking to the facts.”

Interestingly enough, the University of New Hampshire campuses do not have a skeptics, atheists or freethinker group. Any suggestions out there as to what might be done to encourage such a thing? I did put a message on their Facebook page a little while back, after hearing of the UFO festival that is held in Portsmouth, near one of the campuses. If there are any students from there who might be reading this – contact the http://www.secularstudents.org website.

What have I done instead of going online?

• Dealt with a very large pine tree that collapsed across my back yard and smashed through the dividing fence on Sunday night. No one was hurt, but there’s about twelve to fourteen feet of pine tree across the yard. I’m now waiting on the details regarding the other home-owner’s insurance to get it fixed, which was something I was chasing down on Monday;
• Got the roof fixed and thus stopped the leaks getting through the ceiling on Friday;
• Sanded, patched up and painted two ceilings because of the leaks – did this for most of Saturday and Sunday;
• Graded papers that I picked up on Thursday;
• Practically fell asleep on the dance floor on Thursday night during a lesson;
• I’m currently cleaning the house in preparation for a house guest, much to the horror of the cats;
• I took all the audio and video and photos off my laptop and assorted devices and sorted them out for either future podcasts or vodcasts;
• Created two podcast episodes – one for the Token Skeptic and one for the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast – and wrote up four different transcripts of earlier episodes. I now have an article that is two-thirds finished that I want to submit today as well, about the New Zealand Skeptics convention.

I also finished the overall book that I intend to publish in October. One of the things I have decided is to change the name of the book, after talking to a friend about whether calling it ‘Token Skepticism’ was really the best idea.

I really hoped to include all (or at least in part) the interviews that make the Token Skeptic Podcast as it is now. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that it just isn’t going to happen and I wish I had better news in that regard. I really hate wasting a good resource, especially something I was dedicated to completing because I genuinely respected the work, but it’s just not going to be. I really wish things were different, but as it stands, the book as planned may be far too large anyway, so perhaps it’s better this way. Maybe I’ll create a second book next year.

Since I never really intended the podcast to go beyond a hundred episodes with the podcast, doing the book always seemed a way to finish off the project. I’ll see about doing something else with my time in the future, perhaps, and today demonstrated to me that it might be for the best.

Anyway, today has just been one of a series of very busy days and it’s just going to get busier and even more hectic. I’ll be catching up with Lawrence Leung, who is doing a show in Perth on Friday (he’s the other co-MC of the Global Atheist Convention) and there’s a Perth atheist get-together on the Saturday.

I have been keeping busy. There’s been a great many things taking up my time. Be happy, right?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzIBZQkj6SY

After deciding to spend some time off the internet (and thus less time being grumpy, rude and generally pointlessly disagreeable and unproductive online), I clean my office and take the bin out to be emptied.

Upon doing so, I promptly step onto this creature outside my front door.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking it looks like.

That’s what I thought it looked like.

That’s certainly what it FELT like under my foot.

I have now discovered what it feels like to essentially throw oneself backward using nothing but thin air as a catapult, while impersonating a promotional reel for a Jerry Lewis movie.

I will now apply for the million dollar challenge, as apparently I do have telekinetic powers. I also have a toenail that has to be prised off, as it’s bent out of shape from the landing.

The not-a-snake is fine. It did a little hissing, as I sat there for two minutes (while bits of wastepaper floated down around me from the bin that was hurled into the garden). It started to wobble forward on its little legs, while I called for help – which was kind of hindered by my being unable to say anything but ‘Get a bag. Get a bag. Get a bag…’

I got a bag.

I gently urged the Shingleback Lizard into it.

I hopped down with one good foot to the local park and shook him out onto the grassy area, near the scrubland.

It trundled slowly off into the greenery.

I’m taking a break from life for a while just to focus on other things. Please don’t send me any lizards to encourage me to cheer up, I seem to have quite enough lizards for one year and it’s not even summer yet.

I’ll be appearing on Science on Top podcast and there should be another (overdue!) Token Skeptic podcast episode out tonight, once I’ve picked up all the paperwork from the lawn.

This is one of those posts where it’s just easier to take a photo of things to demonstrate what on earth I’m talking about and get it over and done with (the usual – pics provide evidence)!

Firstly, I arrived home to a dozen packages waiting for me, which has taken me about a day to either pick open, pry open or saw through using scissors in a most-unrecommended fashion. Here’s four things that deserve a special mention:

Wearing in these photos – a t-shirt, one of several, that were sent to me as thank-you gifts by Jack Scanlan. Thanks Jack, you’re a sweetie and the zombie one was also hilarious. I’ll see you again next year at the Global Atheist Convention!

In my left and right hands – this is old news for some, as I blogged about it previously – the 2011 Best Individual Activist Award (Collegiate – First Place) plaque arrived in the mail! I do have a photo of myself standing at the SSA booth at Dragon*Con, but I think it was taken by a friend and I haven’t requested a copy of it yet. When I do, I’ll pop it into my Flickr or Facebook series of ‘wonderful memories from the 2011 D*C’.

The slightly-blurry thing with the blue cover is my M.Ed Thesis, called Anomalistic Beliefs in Australians: A Rasch Analysis. I had a look online to see if it’s been archived via Trove, but it doesn’t appear to be there yet. When it is, I’ll post a link in the ‘About’ page. This is the result of several years work and the patience of my supervisors and friends, who encouraged me throughout. Here’s a link to the acknowledgements page.

In the other picture? I’m holding the latest (and wonderfully large!) edition of the UK magazine The Skeptic, which features a book review I wrote on Richard Wiseman’s ’59 Seconds’!

This was a bit a surprise to find, as I forgot that I submitted the review and I’m tremendously flattered to be included. Small point of interest to subscribers to this great magazine; there’s a few comments by Barbara Gleave on page 78, about Prof. Bruce M. Hood’s book ‘The Science of Superstition’. She met with him at QEDCon in February, while we were both at the Saturday night event. Over dinner they sorted out the issues she raised in her correspondence, about the wisdom of talking about death with children, et al, and I thought it was dealt with rather well by both of them. Consider that another recommendation for those considering going to QEDCon in 2012!

Speaking of conventions in the future – I appear to be featured on the speakers’ page for the Sixth World Skeptics Congress, to be held from May 18 – 20, 2012 in Berlin, Germany! I’ll post more details when I have them, but if there’s any readers in Germany who plan on attending, it’ll be fantastic to see you there.

Because this is a blog-post about awards, I’ve saved the very best for last. Congratulations to Daniel Loxton for his wonderful win! The article in the National Post is here:

The best science writers in Canada were celebrated on Wednesday night, as the winners of this year’s Lane Anderson Award were announced at a ceremony in Toronto. The Lane Anderson Award goes to the best science book written by a Canadian; one award is presented for best adult book, another for young readers. The winners each receive $10,000.

…the award for young readers went to Evolution by Daniel Loxton (Kids Can Press), which was described as a “tour-de-force of science writing [that] will spark the imagination of readers as they contemplate how we and other creatures came to be.”

Now? I still have jet-lag, I have a final bundle of grading to do and this blog-post cheered me up. I hope it did the same for you. Expect a bunch of podcast episodes heading your way, now that I’m finally home.

I have missed the 11th of September, due to crossing the international date-line and missing a day. Many thanks to Digital Cuttlefish for the blog-post ‘Obligatory 9/11 Post‘ and the post ‘9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Eat Their Own‘ which was apparently inspired by a Slate article I sent them while on the road. Or is it ‘in the air’? Either way, please visit their site.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ0LlOU68dA

Features Pamela Gay and Matt Lowry’s science show, George Hrab, Felicia Day, Jonathan Strickland and Scott Sigler. Download the films and the forthcoming interviews at www.tokenskeptic.org.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ziO7sKwqkk

Includes The Bee Dance, The Stravinskian-argument dancing guy, Who is Ms Information and what it’s like in the Geologic Headquarters (puns).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3fgJ8LEa3M

Beautiful work, directed by Jason Ball! So lovely to see a glimpse of home when I’m so far away.

(I’m at the 48 second mark, waaaaahhhhhh!!!)

I was stuck in an elevator with this guy. He couldn’t figure out how to use the card to get to the Executive Floor of the Hilton. He was very charming and polite about the problem, while five people helpfully punched buttons, angled the card, tried inserting it several different ways. He ended up riding up and down about three times before we all figured it out and got him up to floor 28.

It was nearly as good as 2010, when Stan Lee entered the glass external elevator and watched with silent bemusement the excited squeals of the Spiderman-costumed child who was yelling about how high we were going… while everyone else was pretending. that. they. weren’t. staring. at. Mr. Comic. Book. Himself.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY3CebnA8U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ku02FhVYj4