It’s been a long day, already.
I started at 6am this morning because I was being interviewed live on BBC Radio Leeds at 7:15 regarding the Humanist Community of Leeds event taking place later that day.
As usual Richard Staples made me feel most welcome in the studio – I say as usual as it was only a few weeks ago I was talking about the Catholic Care adoption agency as some of you may have heard. If you want to, you can listen again to today’s show for the next week (it’s an hour and fifteen in).
Then the rest of the morning and indeed a large part of the afternoon was filled up with the event itself which went very – we had quite a few “first-timers” come down. Indeed given we were expecting quite a low turn out with it being Easter Sunday we were quite surprised so many people turned up!
As if that wasn’t enough I’ve then spent the afternoon coding, catching up on my blogging and later I’m going out to be interviewed for a documentary on volunteer work in Leeds. Not exactly the leisurely Sunday I could have done with but an exciting one none the less!
I ways always told that gambling doesn’t pay, that you would always lose money and it was a bad habit to get into.
On Thursday we had a work’s nigh out to Alea Casino down at Clarence Dock to take advantage of their special offer dinner which also includes a free chip to use on the casino floor.
After dinner hit the roulette table and to my surprise I managed to hit the right colour several times in a row. I then moved onto strips of numbers and hit lucky again. Indeed by the end of the night I cashed out and left the casino with £1 more than I went in with even after factoring in my coke, a two course meal plus an extra side and two glasses of wine.
What this means is that I have done the scientific research and it turns out that gambling actually does pay! I know, I’m as shocked as you are but there you go. Of course part of the scientific method is being able to repeat the experiment, however most of the office managed to walk out of there having won some cash. So take that science!
Kate organised a gay night out last week (we’re not entirely sure whether this is her way of slyly trying to tell Steven something or not) and we ended up in The Viaduct on Lower Briggate.
As soon as we walked in there a guy with a good ten years on Steven asked him to get his penis out so he could have a play with it. Scary times. What is more interesting is the fact that it is almost acceptable – as Rich pointed out, you would never get away with that in a heterosexual environment if that is the right description to give, but it’s for some reason just acceptable in a gay bar?
This was soon followed by drag cabaret. This really annoyed me because of the obvious technical inaccuracies. For example her singing was coming out of the PA system but she clearly had no microphone, if you can’t even bother to pretend to be miming then it’s just a poor effort in my book.
And why where their sex catalogues, everywhere?
And somehow people still wonder why I preach the virtues of a relaxed night chatting in Wetherspoon’s.
I just wanted to make that clear for the record because I don’t really feel enough has been said about it.
Last week myself, Oli, George and Lil headed out for a night out which ended when Lil got really drunk, decided to attack a group of guys and earned Oli a rather beat up eye for his trouble when he tried to calm things down.
Still, spoils of war and all that, at least I got myself a nice new hat.
With Rich having been doing research for his book on the Bermuda Triangle (the book isn’t about that, he’s just writing a section which it makes an excellent case to reference) he volunteered to give Skeptics in the Pub a talk on the topic.
It was really interesting even if the answers are somewhat mundane compared with the mystery. It was also interesting to know that statistically no more ships have actually disappeared in that area than any other similar size body of water – there is actually no mystery at all.
Steve also did an excellent job filling in for Daryl in the news segment.
For the final session of this year’s Perspective we invited Sam Butler over from the Church of Scientology in Manchester. It was really interesting to hear what he had to say and get a good insight into the beliefs that Scientologists hold.
Unfortunately it wasn’t chaired well and we ended up not getting any real chance for questions which was a disappointment. Also I managed to mess up the focus on my camera and so half the photos were out of focus. Still, the first of hopefully more such Perspectives.
I was interviewed by the BBC recently as part of a piece they were doing on the Humanist Community of Leeds. If you haven’t seen the article, you can read it here.
Here at the Chris Worfolk Foundation, we’re really excited about the directions in which the charity is moving. Whether it is our widely success Humanist Community that the BBC recently covered or the national splash we’re making with our Enquiry Conference.
Our trustees are busy making a difference too whether it’s Gijsbert who has spent all day talking to the Yorkshire Post, myself speaking out against Catholic Care on BBC Radio last week or Richard being one of the first people to volunteer their time on to speakers networks, we’re out there trying to make a difference.
Of course the focus of our work is promoting humanism but rather making a direct difference in the communities we work with. This can be seen in the groups we’re involved with such as the Humanist Community and the Humanist Action Group. We’re a doing organisation, not a talking organisation. We want to enable people to get stuck in there and make a measurable difference.
I’m really proud of how everyone involved in the project is pulling together and I really believe that the foundation has a bright future ahead of it. As such I am announcing today that I am doubling my personal monthly donation to the foundation to continue it’s good work.
If, like me, you feel that support for humanists, atheists or whatever non-believers choose to label themselves as then now is the time to act and support our good work. Become a supporter and help us continue or valuable work that makes a direct difference to local communities.
Chris
With out speaker from the Muslim Debate Initiative having canceled us on the night before, a speaker from the Leeds Makkah Mosque kindly stepped in at the last minute to present the session on Islam. I found it a really good session, there were some excellent questions asked and interesting answers given.
On Tuesday I gave a talk to Leeds Atheist Society on animal consciousness. I wasn’t sure how well it went at first but the feedback came back very positive, despite one of the dolphins the audience telling me he didn’t believe animals were in fact conscious.
