I marched for science

2017-Apr-23, Sunday 12:02 pm
mellowtigger: (gardening)
I was planning to attend the Science March anyway (more on my reasons in a different post on another day), but this march was unusual in that my employer was also participating as an official Partner. So I got to join my coworkers on the march. The weather cooperated, and it was a beautiful day. The count of how many people attended is under dispute. Even the earlier Kids' March had over 800 RSVPs, so you'd expect the main march to be heavily attended. The count showing up in local newspapers is only 10K people (with some great photos at that article). The march organizers, however, are estimating 48K people. If they were the ones operating the drone at the march staging area, they should have some good evidence for their estimate.

I made a sign to carry on the march. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to easily take photos. That oversight has consequences: fewer photos, poor quality photos/videos, and getting separated from my group for a long time so I could steal "a moment" to take photos.

Here's the pre-crowd assembling early for the march.

ScienceMarch St.Paul premarch at churchScienceMarch St.Paul droneScienceMarch St.Paul street gathering

We even had a band playing appropriate Earth Day music.

(embedded video is breaking the post, so here is the YouTube link)


I joined my coworkers for the march, and I even made it into their Twitter posts.  These 3 photos are not my own, of course.

ScienceMarch StPaul the whole TNC groupScienceMarch StPaul poster TNC united by nature guided by scienceScienceMarch StPaul me taking a photo

I eventually left my group to climb a bridge wall to try to get a video of the massive crowd. I never could see all of it at once, so the attendance was much higher than what you can see here.  After I took these photos, it probably took me 20 minutes to find my group again, even with multiple phone calls and texts.  I had the same disorganization leter while trying to find my former landlord and his group amongst the throng.

ScienceMarch StPaul crowd 1ScienceMarch StPaul crowd 2


(embedded video is breaking the post, so here is the YouTube link)

Then I got down from the fence that I was standing on. I'm a klutz, though, even on a good day, and I was wearing new glasses from 2 days earlier, so my depth perception is very bad. I ended up meeting the pavement harshly. Much later, I made my way to the Nurse station at the rally. They said I was their biggest accident so far. Typing this post on Sunday, my leg is still bleeding a bit. I won't be doing the gardening today that I had planned.

ScienceMarch StPaul my injured legScienceMarch StPaul nurse station

The rally was attended quite well. I could never get close enough to the capitol steps to hear the speakers well. I never did spot a single news station van or camera (although local stations did have coverage on the 10pm news). I also never saw one of the portable overhead 360 cameras that the police use.  It was the state capitol, after all, so maybe they already have plenty of security cameras everywhere.  It seemed like every third person carried a sign, so the crowd was very engaged. It was also unusually "pale", even for Minnesota. Where are we losing our minority kids in the science classrooms?

ScienceMarch StPaul rally at capitol stepsScienceMarch StPaul dinosaur costume
ScienceMarch StPaul woolly mammoth contraption side viewScienceMarch StPaul woolly mammoth front view


The woolly mammoth was an impressive mechanical contraption.

(embedded video is breaking the post, so here is the YouTube link to video 1 and video 2)


And, in no particular order, a collection of the few posters that I was able to capture on my sunscreen-smudged cell phone camera.


ScienceMarch StPaul poster Blinky SimpsonsScienceMarch StPaul poster Rosie the Riveter
ScienceMarch StPaul USA flagScienceMarch StPaul poster future scientist
ScienceMarch StPaul poster good science makes good judgementScienceMarch StPaul poster no science no beer
ScienceMarch StPaul poster resist ignorance
ScienceMarch StPaul poster science isn't liberal pollution isn't rightScienceMarch StPaul poster science lab labrador
ScienceMarch StPaul poster quote Carl Sagan science is a way not to fool ourselvesScienceMarch StPaul poster stand with Data Star TrekScienceMarch StPaul poster science is important muppets
ScienceMarch StPaul poster science based policy not policy based science

I think it was an Earth Day well spent.

#ScienceMarch #ScienceMarchMN #MarchForScience #NatureUnitesUs

drama

2009-Dec-12, Saturday 02:12 am
mellowtigger: (Default)
I'll save the most-curious incident for last, okay?

I drove out to the east metro after 3pm to install a temporary pc at one of our sites. The original computer was compromised by virus, and there is an important meeting happening Saturday betwee bigwigs at my company. I'm guessing that significant decisions will be discussed about the financial future of the organization. *fret* I suppose job security is a question for everyone these days, regardless of where they work.

Afterwards, I went to the Minneapolis Movie Bears bar night in Saint Paul. It's a monthly event. I happened to already be nearby because of the pc replacement, so I went. It started at 7pm, but people don't really arrive until 8pm. What is it with "gay time"? I dunno. The spaghetti dinner tasted better than I was expecting. Then again, maybe beer just makes everything taste better.

Man #1: I was hoping to cross paths with someone that I haven't seen since late October. I don't know his name. (I'm bad with names.) I wanted to thank him for bringing props to the showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" at the last film showing by this group. He's always been polite with me, so I wanted to interact with him at my own initiation. Unfortunately, I didn't see him all night. *personal disappointment*

Man #2: Instead, I did talk with a new person who was another tech support guy. He works at a local community college where I went to classes for a while several years ago. He had a peculiar accent that I couldn't quite place. Was he Nicaraguan? No, wait, his mother was Norwegian. He was... Venezuelan maybe? Ugh, beer. I can't remember. He was polite and friendly, though, and that counts for a lot in my world. He happened to say that the reason the group wasn't showing movies any more is because they weren't invited to this location any more. *surprise* I wonder why? It's probably better that I don't know. I don't get along well with drama. (*foreshadowing*)

Man #3: Some short guy was drumming up business for a man who was doing professional massages in the upstairs area of the bar. He was trying to sell "muscular hot guy doing massages". Honestly, though, I was only impressed by the short and less muscular marketing guy. I have strange tastes, I guess.

Man #4: I found people that I recognized, so I chatted with them for most of the evening. While there, 3 newcomers arrived. The story they offered is that one woman was straight, one man (her brother) was straight, and one man was gay. It was actually an entertaining evening for a while. Curiously, two of them said that they wouldn't have guessed that I was gay. The third one asked me outright if I was gay. What does that mean? (I'm definitely gay.) If it matters, I was most impressed by Man #4, the one that they said was gay. They seemed to regard me as Butch Guy [tm] of the evening. *ignorant shrug*

Someone "new" (recently "out") in my group encountered difficulties, though. I don't know details, and really I don't want to know. But the threesome and the original group separated. I was the only one remaining at the table after both groups left. Apparently there was some worry that the threesome were all straight and were "working" the crowd for their possible benefit. I dunno, beats me. I thought the conversation was entertaining. *more ignorant shrugs*

The point of drama escapes me.

I came home, ate food, posted on Livejournal, and then crawled into a cold bed to sleep while hoping that work pager calls don't wake me in the morning. It would've been nice to expect more conversation with any of those 4 guys. Seems unlikely though.

Beer. How many civilizations has it destroyed?

(edit: This morning, it's so tempting to lock this post or delete it, but truth wins out. Drama happens. Life moves on. The pager has barked only once this morning. Lucky me.)

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