There Are Four Lights

TEDActive co-hosts Kelly and Rives. Session 1 “Mindshift” starts with Daniel Kahneman.

Jake Shimabukuro plays “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the ukulele. Michael Shermer talks about belief in the brain.

Session 2 “Discovery”. Lunch break at the beautiful Riviera Resort with picnic baskets for six and the gorgeous snow-peaked mountains always in the background.

Session 3 “Action” with Sheryl Crow. Jamie Oliver wins the TED Prize.

My TEDActive 2010 Flickr set

Last February, I was chosen to be a TED’09 Fellow and attended the TED conference in Long Beach, CA. It was a life-changing experience. This year, I’m headed to TEDActive, in Palm Springs, which is the simulcast of TED. For those of you who live in a cyber-cave, head over to TED.com already!

I did a talk, last year, on the TED Fellows stage, and this year I’ll be doing another little talk—-this time, during TEDActive‘s TEDYou session. I’ve recently put the finishing touches on my slides (example above). My talk will be about skepticism and manga!

I’m currently spending a little time in Los Angeles, away from my lil’ hobbit hole up in Canada. Unlike when I’m in Canada (where I stay in my hobbit hole, have no adventures, and eat second breakfast), since I’ve been here I’ve been heading out to events and cool places—-and meeting cool people.

A couple weeks ago, I was invited out to the Magic Castle by Richard Wiseman, psychologist, magician, and author of The Luck Factor, Quirkology, and his newest book 59 Seconds. My man, Q, and I had a lovely time at the castle with everyone in our group and key lime pie and cosmopolitans were had by all! (ok, just me).

The Magic Castle is, guess what, full of magic! We had a blast and Q and I are actually headed back in October for his birthday. All of the photos can be found on my Flickr page, here.

I found out about Richard and his new book while listening to an episode of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe a few months back. He was being interviewed about 59 Seconds, which lead me to buying the book and then tweeting about it. His @reply of thanks and mention of my TED attendance was the beginning of our twitter friendship!

Twitter was also responsible for our outing yesterday to our first Caltech skeptics lecture. I caught Michael Shermer‘s tweet about Dr. Jeff Schweitzer‘s talk “Beyond Cosmic Dice: Moral Life In A Random World” and Q was nice enough to take his nerdy gal out to Pasadena to be with skeptics and endure all that sciency-stuff he doesn’t like, awww~!

Well, since I’m a TED Fellowship member, I couldn’t waste the opportunity to introduce myself to another TEDster! Here’s a pic of Michael Shermer and I from after the lecture, when everyone met up at a nearby restaurant. Unfortunately—-as you can see—-I’m back to my usual ‘no makeup + nerd vision + ponytail’ look…