Well, this is todays little rambling. I'll be getting a new book and pen today, if I can find the stuff I want that is. Today hasn't been very interesting, woke up at 9:42, didn't really understand where I was and how the heck I could have sleept through 5 missed calls from work. Geez, guess I just needed the extra sleep. Well, that's it, hope you like the new pice, and I wish I could learn how to draw.

homo erectus

So what do you do when you find yourself at work with nothing to do? You've just gotten the new server up and running, services have been moved and by some stroke of devine intervention - everything works perfectly! I didn't know what to do, and suddenly found myself droodling - this here is the result - the first piece of "homo erectus". I really don't know how to draw, which is pretty much obvious, but I actually had a lot of fun doing this, so maybe this will be a regular thing, who knows?

AGW

For those who does not know what AGW is, it's a short for Anthropogenic global warming - it's the notion that human emissions of CO2 is one of the main factors of the raising global temperatures. They say there's a scientific consensus concerning this and they might be right. What do I know, I haven't been to the poles to check if the icecaps are melting or anything.

What I can say though is this - it sure as hell doesn't seem like there is any warming going on outside my bedroom or office windows. Rigth now, we are experiencing some 20 degrees below zero, the snow is all squeeky and my nose froze to ice during the two minute walk from my office to the gas station. So I'd be happy to see some warming here. I thought, well - the rest of the world must be getting a hell of a lot warmer, since it surely isn't getting warmer here - well the latest news stories tells another tale. Europe is covered in snow, it's so fricking cold, that people can't remember the last time we experienced so much cold weather. Global Warming my ass, actually - that wouldn't be such a bad idea, since I'm freezing my bums off at the moment.

Brewing!

It's been quite a while since I made my last entry. Right now, Im just happy that this years homebrew is popping. Last night was dedicated to brewing, heating and mixing everything together. I barely made it home before heading to my mums for the weekend, I managed to get a few, but clear "plopp", from the barrel. I tried to measure the original gravity, but hey it floated so high, that it didnt even give a reading. ^_^

There are three possible outcomes:

1. The yeast gets killed due to the high amount of sugar.
2. It wont complete the process, leaving us with a completely destroyed batch.
3. It completes the process to the full, making this shit pretty darn strong.

I also spent last night trying to learn Blackbird by The Beatles - finding it very hard.

R.I.P - Tails

Earlier today, one of my mums cats were put to death. He was the cutest thing you'd ever see. He was always so cuddly. Just before the weekend, he hurt himself somehow. We really don't know how or where. The vet couldn't find anything on the x-rays, nothing. Still, he would scream out in pain, when you touched him on his lower back. He couldn't empty his bladder nor was he able to take a dump. It was so painful to watch him during this weekend. Today it was decided that it was best for him to move on. It's so sad, he could always cheer me up when I visited my mum - the thought of him gone, forever really brings me down. But it was nothing we could do for him - he was in so much pain, and we couldn't do nothing to ease the pain. Now, all we've got are memories - and his twin brother. The memories of the joy he brought, still lives on. I hope his brother won't miss him too much - I know I will.

complaints

A few weeks ago, I bought a 3-pack of microwave pop-corn. What's better on a saturday, to rip open a can of beer and munching freshly popped pop-corn? Not much I tell you! Those that know me personally, know how much I love pop-corn, it's pretty darn close to an obsession I tell you. The problem with this particular saturday was the following, one of the bags of pop-corn, specifically the last one, was bloody empty! It wasn't because anyone ate the contents mind you, it was sealed and everything, one could feel one single little seed in the bag. I panicked of course, searched every inch of the house for a replacement, but no such thing. Pretty upset I wrote the company who happens to market and sell this stuff to tell them about this very unplesant incident.

Last night, a package arrived from these guys. It was heavy I tell you. I got my hopes up, dragged this shit all the way home from the post office, thinking it was a bunch of pop-corn. I was a happy camper, ripped the packaging off only to find a cardboard box, with the companies name on it. No letter of apology or anything. The content of the box was the following:

* 500g macaroni
* 400g chopped tomatoes with basil and oregano
* 400g black beans
* 410g corn
* 185g tuna
* 227g pineapple
* 227g water chestnut
* 100g light chocolate
* 100g dark chocolate
* 350g peanuts
* 100g cashews

Do any of you spot the problem here? You got it! Not even a single grain of pop-corn. No letter of apology. They just sent me this crap to shut me up. They didn't even send me a pre written form. I'm still an unhappy costumer, even a single bag of pop-corn would have been enough, I mean - that would have covered my expenses, I want pop-corn! I don't want any of this crap! maybe I could sell the peanuts, cashews and all this other crap on the corner, but what the heck!

Atheism

I was asked by some of my English speaking friends if I would consider writing in English - well here goes nothing.

Tonights topic is atheism, what it is, what it's not and why that's the only rational choice.

A lot of people, especially those that are religious, think that atheism is a belief.
First things first, atheism is not a belief, it's quite the opposite - it's lack of belief in a claim. This claim is the existence of gods. In comparison, one might say that I'm also an atheist when it comes to the existence of ghosts, faeries and other mythological creatures. One would not say that this is based on belief?

That aside, there are several levels of atheism, but they all fall under the cathegory of atheism. These might be described as strong or weak atheism, agnostic or gnostic and so on. These terms describe knowledge. Where some atheists say that they simply do not believe in any of the gods that have been described up to this date - some say that there are no gods.

I fit somewhere in between those. I do not believe in any of the gods that I have heard of, simply because I have never seen sufficent evidence or proof of their existence. Do I find it likely that there might be presented a god with sufficent proof in the future? Not likely, but I cannot say with 100% certainty. This simply means that I fit into the group of those that are agnostic-atheists. In strict terms, those that are agnostic think that the question cannot be answered, which is the only objection I really have - that's why I simply say that I'm an atheist and do not say anything about being gnostic og agnostic. I simply state that I haven't seen any proof for any gods existence, yet.

Why is atheism the only rational choice? Well, it's quite simple actually - first, let's find out what the word rational really means. In my dictionary "WordWeb", it's described in several ways - but I guess this is the description that fits best: "Consistent with or based on or using reason."
So, what does this word reason mean? "A rational motive for a belief or action" and "Think logically" are two meanings where one of them is a noun and the other a verb.

Some say that it's not fair to compare God with faeries, unicorns, trolls and other mythological creatures. I say: "Why not?" I do not believe in Santa either, even though I see him every x-mas. When someone asks me if I believe in God, I usually reply: "Which God are you talking about?" It's like most religious people, think that their God is the only God ever conceived. To mention a few of the gods I dont believe in; Zeus, Thor, Zeke, Loki, Mithra, YHWH, Mars and Ares. These are some of, but not exclusively, the gods I do not believe in. As Richard Dawkins stated: "We are all atheists about most of the gods humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

I care whether those beliefs or ideas I fill my brain with are true or not. I try to believe as many true things as possible and hold as few false beliefs as possible. Those that know me, know very well that I cannot rest untill I have looked something up, if there is a disagreement.

The most popular argument I meet during my discussions with religious people is: "What do you have to lose?" What they mean is: "If God is real you win, if he's not real you really haven't lost anything. If you reject him, you are sendt to Hell." This is called Pascals Wager, since it was first posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal.

This argument is flawed in several ways, those that are most important are the following:
1. What if one of the other gods are the real one and that god sends you to hell?
2. Wouldn't the all mighty and all knowing God, see through my false belief? It's not enough to say that you belive in God to do so. Wouldn't it then be safe to say that god would appreciate the honesty of a sceptic, non-believer?
3. What if the true God, hasn't been discovered yet?
4. Going through your life, believing a lie is a bad thing. Not only because one as a believer would spend time and money on this belief, but also because it's generaly a bad idea to believe false claims.
5. If god is all knowing, he knows what it would take for me to belive in him, so if he wants to save me from Hell, he knows what to do. If he does not want to save me from Hell, one might say that he's quite the evil bastard.

Most people make choices based on what they know to be true. You do not stick your fingers in the socket - more than once, unless you are really stupid. Neither do you drink bleach, just to try it. In all other aspects of their lives, people base their decisions on rationality, evidence and logic - why is the question about whether there is a god and which of the thousands of gods to chose from, any different? This brings me to my point, the only rational choice is to be an atheist, up till the point where there is proof for a god. Then comes the question, does that god deserve my praise?