Atheist Karaoke and Ashley Learns the Ukulele

On Wednesday night, I’m hosting a “Godless Karaoke” event in Columbia, SC.  What does being godless have to do with karaoke?  Absolutely nothing.  Except that I know a lot of super awesome people in the skeptic and atheist movements that really love music and karaoke.  I think there’s some sort of connection there, I’m going to figure it out.  Anyway, we definitely need to start some sort of atheist band.

About a month and a half ago, I obtained for Christmas a ukulele with the thought that it would be easier and nerdier to learn than the guitar, something I had failed at a couple of years ago.  I was listening to an old CD I found in my car, which has this wonderful song by the Nerf Herders, “Mr. Spock”, which I adore and I thought to myself, “If I could play this on the ukulele, that is about the most dorky thing in the universe, I love it.”

I have now recorded five songs on the ukulele on YouTube and here they are in reverse chronological order, starting of course with “Mr. Spock”.  If you’re looking for nostalgic, may I recommend the Kermit the Frog number at the bottom.  If you need additional nerdiness, we’ve got Tom Lehrer’s elements set to a possibly recognizable tune.  And if you need more Gaga or Stevie in your lives, there’s a little bit of that as well.

Atheist Karaoke and Ashley Learns the Ukulele
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Published at Salon

So, it’s been an interesting day.  I should have known when I woke up slightly more willingly than usual with Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance stuck in my head.  Anyway, I cross publish my blog on OpenSalon, Twitter and Facebook because it’s automatic and low-effort.  I’ve been writing lengthy Prop 8 things for a while, they’ve gotten limited attention, but apparently my long ramble late last night was appreciated by many people.

I checked my e-mail and there were a lot more than usual, comments on this piece but over at Salon.  Turns out I’d made their front page.  Furthermore, Broadsheet posted an edited for length version on their site.  This makes me happy since when I read something interesting I send it immediately to either PZ Myers, Andrew Sullivan or Broadsheet.

So, yeah, I’m just stoked that my name is on the front page of Salon (twice!) and people think I’m vaguely interesting.  Since I think the ideal life would be just writing opinion pieces and speaking at events, it’s like a tiny little slice of that.  My mother has decided that this means I need to go to Law School.  I kinda want to, but that’s madness.  I credit the good fortune to putting Diego Forlan as my new Facebook profile picture.

Published at Salon

This is the gayest thing ever

To start this off, I am not a Figure Skating fan, in as much as I don’t follow figure skating, and I only like men figure skaters and the US seems to be mostly into it’s lady figure skaters. And then there’s this boy… man, I guess, he’s my age anyway. He apparently has a show that’s going to be airing in the near future — and he’s awesome. I mean, a figure skating program to Poker Face? Can you get gayer than that?

In other news, I think Project Runway majorly messed up by not giving the win to this dress:

Do want
Do want

I want it.

This is the gayest thing ever