Help Put The X's Back In Xmas



Looking for a way to celebrate the end of another stressful shopping season? Need an excuse to get out of the house and away from all those annoying family members who showed up unannounced for the holidays? Well then, come downtown Wednesday evening and party with the Missoula Area Secular Society as we attempt to put the X's back in Xmas.

This is a long running tradition of several friends of mine and they've graciously agreed to let M.A.S.S. piggyback on their festivities. So, come on out and have some good fun, great conversation, and give yourself the holiday gift that nobody else can give you... a hangover.

We'll be starting at "The Chicken Lounge" at 5:15pm. To get there, go in the front or back door of Double Front Chicken at 122 W. Alder (half a block west of the red X's... hehehe), and then go downstairs. The Chicken Lounge closes at 7:00, so we'll be moving on at that point to some other open downtown bar. Likely places to look for us might be; Al's and Vic's, Sean Kelly's, The Badlander, & The MoClub, or maybe someplace else.

Please tip your servers abundantly, drink responsibly, and plan for appropriate transportation home.

M.A.S.S. in the News!

This is just a quick update on today's Snow Sculpting event. We had a few surprises. The first was that hardly anybody showed up, or if they did, they couldn't find us (we were just over the ridge to the south out of view of the parking area). But it was pretty cold, so I guess the turnout wasn't that much of a surprise. We had a great time, did a lot of experimenting, built a 4 foot tall snow candle, an equally tall "North Pole", and hopefully learned enough to do some more interesting sculptures next year.

But the second surprise was that, about the time we were finishing our second sculpture and deciding what to do next, we noticed someone trudging through the snow directly at as with a big smile on her face as if she was happy to have found us. We all figured this must be someone new who wants to join the group (and our snow sculpting adventure). But then she got closer and announced that she was from The Missoulian and had a photographer and videographer following her up the hill. So, we chatted with them for a while about M.A.S.S. and contrived a few photo ops for them.

After they left we packed up or gear and headed back down to the parking area, ready for some hot chocolate. As we were coming down the hill to the parking area, we noticed a KPAX truck pulling in. The driver got out and said "I'm looking for the Snow Sculpting People". "You found us" we said, and we turned around with all our stuff and headed back up the hill with her following with her big video camera. We contrived some more photo ops and she interviewed me about M.A.S.S.

So, M.A.S.S. is about to get some local publicity. Hopefully it'll be positive and show us as who we really are... your neighbor's, coworkers, friends and other happy, law abiding citizens of Missoula who just happen to not have god belief and want to get out, meet each other, and have some fun together.

Anybody who's here as a result of the publicity in the Missoulian and KPAX and interested in joining us, be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for this site to be alerted to new upcoming events, or check back regularly. If you have a Facebook account, you can join the 60+ other people who've joined our group there to be notified of new events through FB. I'm looking into a little downtown bar hopping for Wednesday afternoon / early evening as our next event but am still waiting on some final info for that. Full details will be posted here as soon as I have them ready.

M.A.S.S. 1st Annual Winter Solstice Snow Sculpting Festival


Winter Solstice Officially Arrives at Noon, Sunday December 21st, 2008.

Come join the Missoula Area Secular Society (M.A.S.S.) and build a snow sculpture or two to coax the sun back to our hemisphere. (If the days start getting longer on Monday, we'll know we succeeded.)



Where: Blue Mountain, on the south side of the road from the lower sledding area... generally.
Map: http://tinyurl.com/mass-winter-fest
When: Sunday December 21st, from 11:45 until everybody gets too cold to hang around any longer.
What to bring:
A) WARM SNOW CLOTHES!
B) An extra set of warm clothes to change into, especially shoes and socks. This is supposed to be fun, so don't make yourself miserable.
C) Snacks.

Other Recommendations:
a) Snow Shovel(s)
b) Large buckets and bins for making large blocks to sculpt and for hauling extra snow with.
c) Sled(s) for pulling buckets and bins filled with snow.
d) Child slave labor
e) Gardening and kitchen utensils for sculpting.
f) Spray bottle and extra water for 'setting' and 'fixing' details.
g) A ladder, if you plan on doing anything tall.
h) Plastic kitchen containers of all shapes and sizes.
i) An imagination
j) A camera

Make your sculpture as simple (standard snow person) or as complex (international space station) as you feel comfortable with. Don't be afraid to experiment and fail.

For hints on snow sculpting, check out:
http://fun.familyeducation.com/outdoor-games/winter/34936.html

For inspiration (or intimidation):
http://www.flickr.com/groups/snowsculptures/

Please be sure to take everything you bring with you back home again (especially children).

Scamming The Credulous

I had to laugh when I got this email today. Obviously, it was broadcast out to many thousands of email addresses, but I was still amused to see it in my inbox, considering.... you know. In fact, the way it started out I thought it was a real email from a real person, and I was thinking "Oh boy, here we go...", but I quickly got suspicious about the time the "only surviving lawyer" died midway through the first sentence.

Dear Friend

Greetings in the name of God, Please let this not sound strange to you for my only surviving lawyer who would have done this died early this year. I prayed and got your email id from your countries Christian guestbook which i have been with my late husband and liked to visit once more if God will in his infinite mercies.

I am Mrs. Joy Hoffman from Kuwait, I am 68 years old, I am deaf and suffering from a long time cancer of the breast which also affected my brain, from all indication my conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that, according to my doctors they have advised me that I may not live for the next two months, this is because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad stage. I was brought up from a motherless babies home was married to
my late husband for twenty years without a child, my husband died in a fatal motor accident Before his death we were true Christians.

Since his death I decided not to re-marry, I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum of US$5.6Million dollars with a Security Firm. Presently, this money is still with them and the management just wrote me as the true owner to come forward to receive the money for keeping it so long or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf since I can not come over because of my illness or they get it confisticated.

Presently, I'm with my laptop in a hospital here in Mauella Hospital Germany where I have been undergoing treatment for cancer of the lungs. My doctors have told me that I have only a few months to live. It is my last wish to see that this money is invested to any organization of your choice and distributed each year among the charity organization, the poor and the motherless babies' home.

I want you as God fearing person, to also use this money to fund churches, orphanages and widows, I took this decision, before i rest in peace because my time will so on be up.

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Security Firm. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will prove you as the new beneficiary of my fund. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.

Please reply me through this my private email address: DELETED@aim.com

Hoping to hear from you soon,Waiting for your reply

Yours in Sincerely,


Mrs. Joy Hoffman


It's pretty obvious who the scam's targets (aka "marks") are. I guess these scams have gotten enough publicity by now that most people aren't fooled anymore forcing the scammers to start scraping the bottom of the credulity barrel.