I realize I should have put this post up last week, but if you follow me on twitter you’ll know things have been a bit hectic. Hopefully it’s not too out of date a week after the fact. And if I don’t get it done now I doubt there’s anyway it’s happening post-SDCC so here goes.

I lost my camera a few months back, I think while running through an airport, and to whomever found it I hope you enjoyed what was on it and thanks for not posting it online anywhere ;-), so word pictures in your mind grapes will have to suffice for imagery.

If you’re completely unaware of what TAM (The Amaz!ng Meeting) is I’ll take a brief moment to explain. It’s an annual meeting of skeptics hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundation held in Las Vegas, NV. I was able to get my bearings quickly while at TAM because in many ways it felt like a scientific conference with the atmosphere of a comic book convention. Two events I am quite familiar with. It was like a scientific conference in all the ways you might expect, people were discussing lofty ideas, interesting talks were being given and there was a general air of “smarty-pants” wafting through the convention hall. All that is a very welcome break from the mire of everyday ignorance we all seemed forced to confront or at least. There’s actually a palpable sense of relief knowing if someone says something illogical and/or irrational you can call them out on it and chances are they won’t just brush you off and call you a jerk.

But it’s like a comic convention in that there are lot of geeks (or nerds, dorks, whatever your preferred term is). Geeks, as I define them, are people extremely passionate about a given subject and have a reputation for being a bit single-minded in their devotion to said subject sometimes at the expense of other things like social skills. There’s an etiquette to moving around in a big crowd where there are few alpha-persons that the majority of the plebs want to interact with. This may come across as a personal gripe but there were more than a couple times I was waiting to speak with someone after they’d given a talk only to have someone else barge in, cutting off myself and the others waiting politely. One time this was so brazen that I was actually elbowed aside so a guy could force his way into a crowd of people who’d already been there. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write about this complaint but I’ll point out it’s my only real complaint of the entire event and I think it’s worth pointing out in a public forum. Unless you’re part of the skeptical club skeptics can be a tough group to stomach. They’re (or maybe I should say “we’re”) an opinionated, vocal bunch who regularly defy and decry what many others hold as sacred. Being legitimately rude on top of that isn’t going to help the cause.

I’ll try to end on a positive note and say that the talks were great. They were diverse, informative and sometimes just entertaining. I had many great conversations with speakers and attendees alike. I even met a few Paleoposse (while hopefully creating new ones) which always feels like a win. It was nice to finally shake hands with Steve Novella and Brian Dunning, and if my charm and business cards have any effect I’m hoping there will be more high profile names on our growing list of interviewed guests.

So if you were curious about TAM I’d say give it a shot, don’t expect to get much sleep and always know where you towel is.