Chris Worfolk's Blog

Last week, Sheffield Skeptics invited me down to present a talk on Ray Kurzweil, and his book The Singularity is Near.

I’ve been to the group before to see Richard Wiseman speaking and they’re a really nice group. They’ve now become so popular that they’ve taken over the main bar at their arena and have a great projector setup and sound system.

The talk went quite well from the feedback I gathered, I took out a lot of the more technical site that was originally in the talk when I delivered it to Nottingham Skeptics in the Pub in July, so I think I’ve got it about the right level between factual and not too technical now.

This month’s Wendy House happened to fall on Viv’s birthday, so following some pre-drinking where we finally got to use the shots roulette wheel, we headed to The Old Bar for some birthday cake, before heading into Wendy House.

This month at Leeds Skeptics in the Pub, we welcomed Dr Andrew Rae presenting a talk on “Dealing Reasonably with Irrational Fear.” The talk turned out to be fantastic, probably one of the most interesting we have had this year!

With Si heading down south like a coward, we recently headed over to Little Tokyo for a meal.

Having asked for a knife and fork last time and been provided with kid’s chopsticks, I decided this time it was best to take my own, just in case. Luckily I ordered the steak and that comes with a knife and fork, so problem solved :D.

Hurray :D.

Recently, I had to pull out of the opportunity of a lifetime, to go and work in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley, due to health issues.

It was undoubtedly one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. Not least because I had already paid for Elina’s flights and as a Yorkshireman, the idea of not being able to obtain a full refund on anything I’m not going to use makes me feel physically nauseated.

So, the war is on. I promised myself I would take Elina to Disneyland (and by that I mean I promised myself a trip to Disneyland, and Elina would be there too) and by god I’m going to get there somehow.

I’ll see you in Anaheim.

Last Thursday, Brian Quinn gave a talk to the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire on superstition. It turned out to be a brilliant talk, both entertaining and informative with Brian pointing out that superstition is actually wider spread than religion even though it’s even more nonsensical.

Last December, tickets for Rihanna’s next tour became available. It was ten months away, but I really wanted to get floor tickets, so I went onto the priority booking site to ensure I got some of the elusive standing tickets.

Ten months I waited.

Then, I was ill :(.

To avoid entirely wasting the £40 ticket I sent George with my camera instead. Still gutted though.

I would just like to congratulate my friends in the various north west humanist groups that were involved in the inaugural North West Humanist Conference which took place last weekend. Unfortunately I missed the event due to illness (gutted, as a Yorkshireman I can’t stand not attending events I’ve already paid for) but it was never the less a big success and I look forward to attending next year.

Last Friday, another series of the One Life course kicked off with a session on the meaning of life which Will had asked me to chair.

I tried to expand the discussion a little further than previously, where it has often stuck to its philosophical roots, to go beyond that and get into questions like, what would be a wasted life and what tenants do you live your life by. All in all, it seemed to go very well.

The biggest problem, however, is that for the first time ever, they didn’t provide a hot meal. I’ll be filing an expense claim for my McDonald’s shortly…