Preparing for Sunday

Tomorrow is Humanist Sunday at Church of the Restoration. Instead of delivering the talk, I will be reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas. Gail and I are playing an extended set of duet pieces on the piano. We rehearsed twice this week. We also have a potluck meal which follows the service.

We attend Skepticon 6 in Springfield

We spent a few days in Missouri last week. On Thursday, we drove to Mt. Vernon, MO and spent the night at the Super 8 motel. There is a restaurant in Mt. Vernon which we really like. It is called the Red Barn. They have generous portions of food. We had supper there on Thursday.
We got up next morning and drove to the Springfield Expo Center where Skepticon 6 was being held. We attended a couple of sessions that morning. The most memorable one was about Freethought Exchange. The organizer of Freethought Exchange, Jason Testerman, grew up as the son of a Christian minister. What he does is contact churches and arrange to come talk to congregations about his worldview. What transpires is an exchange of ideas. Jason is not the only one doing this. He has a few others in different cities doing the same thing. Jason lives somewhere in Colorado. He has a website in which he explains what he is doing. We spent Friday and Saturday nights in The Arbor near where my parents live. The Arbor is just north of The Abbey. While in Springfield, we ate at Ryan's. I should say that the various talks given at Skepticon 6 can be viewed on YouTube. Some of the speakers this year were David Fitzgerald, Seth Andrews, P. Z. Myers, Greta Christina, Rebecca Watson, and Amanda Marcotte. We returned to Sand Springs having heard a lot of speeches, some music, and quite tired.

What will I miss if I skip Skepticon 6?

Friday November 15th

10:00 am • Atheist Film Festival hosted by David Fitzgerald Main Hall

10:00 am • How to Swear Secularly with Monette Richards Room B

10:00 am • How to Cartoon and Launch Your Own Webcomic with Dale Debakcsy Room A

10:00 am • Creating the Record: Going Toe-to-Toe with Hostile Administrators and Officials with Neil Wehneman Room C

11:00 am • How to Tell Your Friends Jesus was a Dick with Ben Schuldt Room A

11:00 am • Secular Safe Zone Ally Training with Andy Cheadle-Ford Room B

11:00 am • Atheists Speaking in Churches with Jason Testerman Room C

12:00 pm • Is There a 'Right Way' to Talk to Religious people? With Mark MacLean Room A

12:00 pm • Resume Writing with Amanda Knief Room C

12:00 pm • How to Manage Grief with Rebecca Hensler Room B

1:00 pm • TBD - Someone Amazing Room C

1:00 pm • Public Health: Obamacare and Grassroots Action with Planned Parenthood and Lauren Dow Room B

1:00 pm • Handling Public Criticism - Stephanie Zvan Room A

2:00 pm • So You Wanna Become a Professional Atheist? with Dave Muscato Room C

2:00 pm • Seth Andrews hosting the Thinking Atheist Radio Podcast Main Hall

2:00 pm • Nutrition and Training with Mike Lane Room B

2:00 pm • Helping Kids Out of Religion with P.Ferguson Room A

3:00 pm • Live Podcast hosted by Dogma Debate Main Hall

3:00 pm • What is your SocioSexual Orientation? (SSO) with Darrel Ray Room C

3:00 pm • How to Talk/Write about Skepticism for a Non-Skeptical Audience with Amanda Marcotte Room B

3:00 pm • Atheist Music with Ashley Miller, Dave Muscato, Jt Eberhard, and Shelley Segal Room A

4:00 pm • Islam and Modernity with Faisal Saeed Al-Mutar Room C

4:00 pm • How to Read Media Critically (plus ukulele) with Ashley F. Miller Room B

4:00 pm • Getting It On at the Con: How to Get Lucky Consensually with Miri Mogilevsky Room A

5:00 pm • Dinnertimes!

6:00 pm • PZ Myers: "The Cambrian Explosion" Main Hall

7:00 pm • Rebecca Watson Main Hall

8:00 pm • David Fitzgerald: Sexy Violence! Violent Sex! The Weird-Ass Morality of the Bible Main Hall

9:00 pm • Shelly Segal Performs 'An Atheist Album' Main Hall

10:00 pm • Godless Perverts hosted by Greta Christina Main Hall

10:00 pm • Bar Night at the Convention Center Lower Level Hall

Saturday November 16th

9:00 am • Seth Andrews Main Hall

10:00 am • Aron Ra: Pterosaurs are Terrible Lizards Main Hall

11:00 am • Monica Miller Main Hall

12:00 pm • Lunchtimes!

2:00 pm • David Tamayo Main Hall

3:00 pm • Amanda Knief: Great Godless Lobbying: Why Heathens Need to Be Better Citizen Lobbyists Main Hall

4:00 pm • Richard Carrier: Is Philosophy Stupid? Main Hall

5:00 pm • Dinnertimes!

7:00 pm • Amanda Marcotte: How The Religious Right Is Cranking Up The War On Women Main Hall

8:00 pm • Greta Christina: Activist Burnout--Prevention and Treatment Main Hall

9:00 pm • Keith Lowell-Jensen Main Hall

10:00 pm • Bar Night on the Town in Springfield Springfield, MO

Sunday November 17th

9:00 am • Hemant Mehta: Don't Post First and Ask Questions Later Main Hall

10:00 am • Debbie Goddard Main Hall

11:00 am • Rebecca Hensler: Creating and Defending Secular Space Main Hall

12:00 pm • Lunchtimes!

2:00 pm • John Corvino: Gay Sex in a Disenchanted Universe Main Hall

3:00 pm • JT Eberhard Main Hall

Once again this year, attendance at the above listed events is free of charge.

Saturday night roundup

Last Friday we went to Tulsa Town Hall. The speaker was Dan Rather, former CBS news anchor, now with AXS News Cable. For an 82-year-old guy, Rather looked good. He spoke about concerns he has for the future, one of which is global warming. The disappearance of the arctic ice is quite dramatic, as satellite images show.

Afterwards, we ate at Ollie's Station, a railroad-themed cafe in the Redfork area of Tulsa. Model trains circulate overhead as you eat below.

Friday evening I went to the meeting of the poetry group. There were five of us there. We talked about chapter 4 of How to Read a Poem by Edward Hirsch. Next month we will discuss chapter 5. We meet at the coffee shop in Barnes & Noble bookstore on 41st Street.

Ayla stayed overnight with us last night. This morning we took her to eat at the Crescent Cafe and then took her home.

Chamber music in Tulsa

Yesterday as I was driving to the Case center to walk, I passed by St. Andrew Lutheran church. I read the message which announced a blood drive from 3 to 8 that day. It was just a little after 3 pm so I decided to change plans and give a unit of blood instead. Sometimes giving a unit of blood can take some time, but the Red Cross was not busy. I got in and out in about an hour.

Later, we met Bill and Jackie Dusenberry at White River Fish Market. Marilyn Clarke was there, too. The five of us had fish dinners. I had the broiled seafood combo, which consisted of scallops, shrimp, and sea bass. Along with that I had potato salad and a green salad.

After we finished eating, we drove over to the Lorton Center for a concert by a string trio. On the program was Piano Trio in D major by Beethoven, Schumann's Phantasiestucke, Op. 88. After the intermission we heard Piano Trio in B major by Brahms. The trio consisted of a piano, a cello, and a violin.

Back from another short vacation

We got back home yesterday from a short vacation. I took a lot of pictures and will post some later.

We left on Wednesday morning and drove to Sallisaw. It rained on us most of the way there. As usual, we did some geocaching. The first cache we found was in Akins, OK. It was a virtual cache, meaning there is nothing physical you have to do. Instead of signing a log sheet, as is the usual practice, you observe the scene and then e-mail the cache owner the answers to some questions found on the cache site.

The GPS took us to the grave of Charley Arthur Floyd, better known as Pretty Boy Floyd. Floyd was a notorious outlaw who met his demise at the age of 30. There are plenty of other Floyds buried in this cemetery. I'm guessing he came from a large family. I am wanting to know more about him now that I have seen his grave.

We ate dinner that evening at Shad's Catfish Restaurant south of Sallisaw. The menu is on the wall, literally. The food was pretty good. I had the all-you-can-eat catfish. We spent the night in a motel in Roland, not far from Ft. Smith, AR.

By the next morning the rain had stopped and we went looking for caches as we headed for Spiro. Spiro was the location of the Caddo Indians who formed a government about a thousand years ago. They built mounds of dirt in the area known as the Spiro Mounds. We watched a short film and then took a self-guided tour around the mounds.

From Spiro we went south through Poteau and on to Heavener. We checked into our motel and had dinner at the Southern Belle, a railroad coach converted to a diner. The next morning we visited the Heavener Runestone, a short distance away as the crow flies, but there is a railroad year between the runestone and our motel. We had to drive around the rail yard.

The runestone is fairly large -- something like 14 feet high and 12 feet wide. It is encased in glass now, but in years past it was exposed to the elements.

After seeing the runestone, we drove over to the Talimena Drive and viewed the fall foliage. We drove west toward Talihina and found one cache along the way. We stopped for dinner at Pete's Place in Krebs. Their specialty is Italian food. I had the shrimp alfredo. The unique thing about this restaurant is that each table is in a separate room with a door to a hall. This restaurant is famous for Choc Beer. We left, driving through McAlester over to the Indian Nations Turnpike. We drove north and got home before it got dark.

The scarriest picture of all

Recent pictures

Recent pictures

I guess you could call this a toilet toss. The idea is to toss a roll of toilet paper into the ring.

Recent pictures

The top picture shows a ninja warrior about to select a duckie from a pond. The bottom picture shows the crowd at the event. In the background is the former Page Library. It now houses the Sand Springs Museum. It rained briefly at the start of the event.

Volkswalking in Skiatook

Today was the date of the Tulsa Walking Club's October walk. It was held in Skiatook. The path was a rail-to-trail conversion of the Osage Railroad. I was told it runs all the way from Tulsa to Bartlesville. October is National Volkssport Month. To commemorate the event, the AVA provides a patch which can be obtained for $3 from local clubs. I bought a patch, which is orange in color and depicts pumpkins, a basket of apples, eggplants, etc. It is 3 X 4.5 inches in size.

The walk started in Skiatook and went south on the trail for half the distance. There we met the checkpoint person who punched our start cards. Then we walked back to the start point. The total distance walked was five kilometers. Along the way we met some friends we had not seen in a while.

At 2 pm, we were at the S-B Library for the HAT meeting. There were only five of us there today. When we got back home, I fixed a pot of chili. We watched Moyers while we ate dinner. As soon as I finish this blog, we will watch the NBC Nightly News on the Internet.

Zimmerman concert

Tonight J and I went by the Storey residence in Tulsa and picked up Glenn and Gail. The four of us attended a Roy Zimmerman concert at Hope Unitarian Church. Zimmerman is a singer and songwriter who is constantly on tour going from city to city across the nation. He has written literally thousands of songs. You can hear him sing at his website: www.royzimmerman.com

Disappointing turnout at protest

First I made my sign at home.

Here I am at the east side of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

I went to a protest today in downtown Tulsa. The site of the protest was the Hyatt Regency Hotel across the street from the Bank of Oklahoma tower on second street.

I first made a sign on poster board. See picture above of me adding crosshatching to the large letters. I got a from blocks from the house and realized I did not have my cell phone or camera with me. I went back and got those two items. (My cell phone has a camera on it, but I prefer using my Fujifilm camera.)

I parked at the Home Depot parking lot about a half mile away from the hotel. I was a couple of blocks away when I realized I had left my sign in my car. So I trotted back and got my sign. I arrived at the protest site right at 4:30 pm, the appointed time. But alas, I saw no one there I recognized. Then I spotted Ali Canada in front of the BoK tower. I went down to the crosswalk (cops were everywhere) and crossed over to the north side of the street. Ali was carrying a "We Are One" sign from a rally from a few months back. Ginny had asked us be there early to stake out a good site. Ginny, by the way, was suffering from an injury she had sustained from a auto accident a few months back and was unable to come.

While I was chatting with Ali, Faye joined us. As they say, two is company but three is a crowd. A patrolman with the Tulsa Police who was across the street came over to talk with us. The reason for the heavy police presence was a visit by former president G. W. Bush. In addition were several senators and Governor Fallin. It was a big Republican gathering.

The patrolman said that we could not stand on the sidewalk in front of the BoK tower, that an area for protests had been designated on the east side of the Hyatt. We had no choice but to move to the east side of the building. When we got there we met four others who were there for the protest. They soon left to get something to eat, saying they would return. However, they never came back. I asked Ali to snap a picture of me holding my sign. That is the other picture shown in this posting.

Before long two women showed up. Now we were five. About six o'clock, the time for Bush to speak, we decided to walk with our signs. We circled the block three times with our signs. My sign was probably the most lame of the signs. Some of the edgier signs called Bush a war criminal. (The ex-president is limited in the countries he can travel to since some countries have a warrant our for his arrest should he ever cross the border into those countries.)

We dispersed around 7:00 pm. I got a ride with Faye back to my car parked at Home Depot.

Why did not more people take part in the protest? 31 had signed up online to be there. Part of the answer lies in the fact the Oklahoma is the reddest of the red states. Every county in Oklahoma voted for Bush in the last presidential election. I have concluded that many liberals are intimidated when it comes to showing up for protests.

I am heartened by this affirmation by Edward Everett Hale found in the Unitarian hymnal:

I am only one

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Methodist Book Club

This past Monday the Methodist Book Club met. We had read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker. That was to be the book we discussed in September, but the September meeting was canceled with the book being carried over to October. Our memories of the book had grown a bit dim with us having read other things in the intervening month. Also, Amy (the group leader) forgot to bring the discussion questions, so the discussion was rather free-ranging.

For next month we will be reading Slavery By Another Name by Douglas Blalckmon. That was a book which I had recommended. We are also going to read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

Tonight was all you can eat rib night at Rib Crib. We ate there and I had my fill of ribs. When we were in Springfield last week (Wed. - Fri.), we ate at Ryan's Steak House one evening. They had ribs, of which I ate quite a few, but they were not as good as Rib Crib ribs.

Yesterday I finished reading The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. I first read this book about 55 years ago as a student in elementary school. It is the only book I have a memory of having read in elementary school, though I know there were others. The author was also the illustrator. The book is the story of a retired school teacher who sets out from San Francisco in a balloon. A bird lands on top of the balloon and punctures the fabric of the balloon, which causes the balloon to crash on the island of Krakatoa, which is between Java and Sumatra. As it would happen, the residents of the island have constructed a platform which they keep at the ready for swift evacuation. Attached to the platform are twenty balloons. A large volcano is on the island which rumbles constantly. One day it erupts forcing the families on the island to mount the platform and evacuate.

That's the story in a nutshell. The story appealed to me for I could see myself drifting along in a balloon.

Looking back on the week just ended

Once again, it is Sunday. Looking back to Monday, Sept. 30, Gail come over for duet practice. We had our final practice of "Summer Samba" by Melody Bober, which we played today, Oct. 6, at church. On Wednesday, we went to Tai-Chi Chuan class, which are helds at a Baptist church on 129th St., about a mile from my house. On Thursday, I cooked chili. I had hamburger in mine, but J eats hers without meat. On Friday, we attended Tulsa Town Hall in the Performing Arts Center. The speaker was Kahled Hosseini. He is the author of The Kite Runner, a novel set in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, we had the grandchildren. They are now ages 8 and 10. We went to McDonald's in Sapulpa on Saturday. After spending the night with Nanna and Papa Dan, the grandkids and we got up next morning and went to a model train show in Bixby. (It was more of a swap meet than a show.) We went via Sapulpa, bypassing Tulsa. At Kiefer we got delayed by a train for about 10 minutes. We paid our $3 each for admittance. (The kids were free.) Inside the building, we saw five different layouts of model trains. Everything from N gauge up to O gauge. I think HO gauge is ideal for model trains. A couple of the layouts were fairly large. There happened to be a geocache hidden behind the building which I found.

Today was Humanist Sunday at church. The message was delivered by Larry Roth. Gail and I played "Summer Samba." We imposed upon Joni LeViness to accompany us using shakers. We had 14 people this morning.

The week in review

Last Sunday things went about like they do every Sunday. Religious education hour, church service, home for a nap, news, take the trash to the curb for Monday pickup, etc.

On Monday, since Gail was still on vacation, we walked in the morning. This week I walked 11 miles.

On Tuesday, we ran an errand in Tulsa. I would say more, but I can't. Also, we attended Tai Chi Chuan class. That evening we went to a seminar on estate planning. They had food there, making it worthwhile.

One day this past week, I photocopied the newsletters for HAT. We are resuming the newsletter hoping it might generate more interest in the organization. We ceased publishing the newsletter when e-mail came along about ten years ago.

On Thursday evening we went to the Brookside Library for a meeting. No one showed up. I am thinking of canceling the group. It is the Oklahoma Observer Discussion Group.

Today, we went to the Schusterman-Benson Library for the HAT meeting, but our regular attendees were at the talk given by Mikey Weinstein. I would have been there myself, except the AHA had notified its members in northeast Oklahoma of the HAT meeting. I felt someone needed to be at the Library in case anyone receiving the notice showed up.

In between all these activities, I have been reading my tablet. I have downloaded about 150 books in the last few years. The books which were on my Kindle (now defunct), I transferred to my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. Today I downloaded Wuthering Heights,. I read it several years ago, but as it was a free download, I went ahead and added it to my library.

Tai Chi class started

Today I started in a Tai Chi class. There are about twenty others in the class besides myself. The first session lasted about an hour and a quarter. I am the only man in the class. All of us are up in years. J is in the class, and I think she may be the youngest one there. The class is being held in a Baptist church next door to the facility where we walk. The class is to last six weeks and meets once a week.

Finished another book

Tonight I finished reading another book, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini. It is an historical novel based on a true story. I read it for the Methodist Book Club, which would normally meet tomorrow evening, except tomorrow's meeting has been called off. The next meeting will be in another month. We saw a movie recently. It is The Butler. I highly recommend it. You will relive many key events in your life, if you are my age. Gail is about to leave on a vacation. We will resume practice on the 23rd of this month. Attendance was very low at church this morning. Many people were away on travels. The sermon today was on Jewish celebrations. We are now in the period of the high holy days of the Jewish calendar. I am enjoying my new Samsung tablet. There is a lot to learn about it. I also recently got a new LG phone. There is much to learn about it also.

A new update

Here it is Sunday evening once again. Today I delivered the message at Church of the Restoration. The talk I gave was "Black Life After Slavery." This was the second part of a two-part talk on this subject. The talks were based upon the book Slavery by Another Name written by Douglas Blackmon. In a nutshell what Blackmon describes in the book is the system devised by whites to keep blacks in a state of slavery, although slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The 13th Amendment says that holding someone in slavery is illegal, but it contains an exception, a loophole, if you will. The loophole has to do with being in debt to others. Indebtedness was used as a means to keep black Americans in a form of slavery.

It worked like this. A black person is accused of an infraction of the law (either real or imagined). In some states not having a job was against the law. Vagrancy was a crime in many states. You could not take employment unless you had a statement from your previous employer saying you were free to go.

Lets say you were picked up on a vagrancy charge. You go before a magistrate and are found guilty. You can be both sentenced to jail and fined. In most cases those accused had no money. Your fine was converted into additional jail time. Counties would then lease prisoners to plantation owners, railroads, mines, anybody needing cheap labor. Those who leased the prisoners were responsible for their incarceration. Mortality rates among leased convicts was high, from 25 to 45 percent per year. Prisoner abuse was rampant. Many prisoners were guilty of no crime. All it would take is an accusation against a black and they were swept up in the system.

Blacks were treated in this manner in the South from roughly 1877, when federal troops were withdrawn from the South with the end of Reconstruction until approximately 1942 and the U.S. entry into World War II.

Back to church this morning, Gail and I played the "special music" as it is called. We played "Paso Doble Noble" by Catherine Rollins. It is a Spanish piece which reminds the hearer of bull fights.

Tonight I started reading Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker. This is the book we will be discussing at the next meeting of the Methodist Book Club.

Testing this blog once again

Is there something wrong with Blogger? Yesterday I tried to post an update to my blog, but I could not get anything to work. Maybe it has been fixed since then. So far, it seems to be working OK.

Since I last posted here, I have bought a Sumsung Tablet. The reason for the purchase was because my Kindle bit the dust. It went to sleep and never woke up. The good thing about the Kindle was it had 3G capability, meaning I could download a book from anywhere. With my new Samsung tablet, I have to be within a WiFi zone to download.

I recently finished reading a novel (for the Methodist book club) titled Defending Jacob. It was a long novel, and by the time I got to the end I wished I had used the reading time on another book. I am in the midst of reading several other books at this time. One book is 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian by Guy P. Harrison. This is a collection of 50 essays each dealing with a question pertaining to religion. Three of the questions are: What Are Miracles?, Why Isn't Everyone a Christian?, Will the End Times Ever End? How would you answer some of the questions posed here? Check it out from your library and see for yourself.

Another book I have just started is The Cure for Fundamentalism: Why the Bible Cannot Be the "Word of God."

I found one geocache yesterday. It is close to an area in which I have been walking lately. That was the first time I went geocaching in several weeks. Now I need to check to see if this blog will save.