...and anyone else who finds proofs of god's existence in philosophical debate kind of amusing.

Proofs of God's Existence summarised, at Godless Geeks

My favourite:

ARGUMENT FROM INCOMPLETE DEVASTATION
(1) A plane crashed killing 143 passengers and crew.
(2) But one child survived with only third-degree burns.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

This made my incredibly crappy day a brilliant one.

 Derby Widow - n. The partner of a Rollergirl. Purpose is to hold bags, drinks, administer first aid, attend bouts, buy their Rollergirl ice packs and skating accessories and sit on organising bodies as a social member.

John has been complimented by many of the girls since the weekend as making a "very good Derby widow". They said he's so good that he needs to start giving training to the other widows.

To this end, he will be getting this shirt for Christmas:

The Lulz.

I called my article about twitter and facebook 'Tweet@BraveNewWorld'.

Whether they'll publish that title is a whole other story. But I had a mild self-congratulatory moment for cuteness.

ok, moment over, back to work.

I like this meme. It is quite sweet.

Please do it! Reading your responses will give me something other than cleaning to do today while I languish at home with asthma. :)

*cuddles you all*

This is an old one, we can do them again, yay!



***Here is a meme, STOLEN from penguin_bot. Thankyou :)

Fill it out and post it under comments, then put it in your own journal to see what sorts of letters other people write about you.

Dear ______,

I _____ you. You have a nice______. You make me _______. You should _______. Someday I will ______. You + me =________. If I saw you now I'd __________. I would build a _______ just for you. If I could sing you any song it would be _________. We could __________ under the stars.

Love,
_____________

(P.S. ______________.)

I think we all have a secret trash fetish. Sometimes, amidst the writing about plastic giraffe installations and giant saunas being built in the middle of civic park and interpretive feminist wail theatre, I cue up Lady Gaga. Because it has a pop hook, gives me the horn, and is obvious. Very occasionally my brain gets tired of the deliberately opaque and craves moronic poseur.

1. Tasha Yar 2. Overwhelming anthropomorphic arrogance - humans are so special, yay! Let's lecture Q on this topic again! Pfft. 3. Odd interpersonal interaction usually involving too much affection or humour 4. Tasha Yar 5. Stupid big haired betazoids.

True Blood seems to have devolved into a mish-mash of poorly thought out, gushy hetero sexfests and gratuitous violence. I'm rapidly losing interest. The story arc isn't really engaging me either. Hmm. Bring me back BSG, sob.

Has it struck anyone else that this show is less about vampirism than it is about sex? If I took a drink for every sex scene in the first season I'd be in Betty Ford. Still. Anna Paquin in short shorts - never a bad thing. Oh and I lied about not phone posting...Oops.

Back from Melbourne. Sitting on the couch playing guitar hero with the lads. Wearing...skates! Start Derby on friday. First skate tomorrow...tonight I've just been skating around the kitchen, trying not to kill myself on sharp objects. Today was nice, met and chatted with bitspike and invaded Jason's logical reasoning tutorial. Intellectually crushed on Prof Judith Richters and her bookshelf. Dreamed extensively about C and got home to a clean house (best husband ever) and hugged the crap out of him and the kitties. Missed my fam.

Hey kids, on the road with Jason and currently in a service station in Wagga. Many snacks and Rocky Horror Picture Show are being consumed. We should get into Melbourne sometime this arvo. We stayed in an ABBEY last night. For reals! We part ways this arvo though we meet back up on and off over the weekend. Should be meeting up with some of the Melbourne vegans tomorrow. Meeting up with zinester friend Candace this afternoon and going to Sticky institute. Whee! Then dinner and drinks with Laura and Mick tonight and Candace. Jason was coming but is now off to a piano recital. Cultured shmo. X x

x-posted to veganpeople , sorry if you get this twice

Dear PETA,

Thank you for proving, once again, just why you suck.

http://www.feministing.com/archives/017289.html

What the hell is this? Are you trying to make every woman in the world turn against the animal rights movement? It isn't funny to pick on the fat kid. Its just mean. It isn't even halfway to being enlightened, although you must think you are, in our woman-hating thin-obsessed culture. With shows like the Biggest Loser and magazines everywhere screaming at women to despise their bodies, you fit right in.

But as animal rights activists, aren't we supposed to be caring for all animals? For their right to a life free from pain and heartache?

Also, don't peddle lies. Anyone who is vegan KNOWS that it is possible to be a fat vegan/vegetarian. Just ask the buckets of soy ice-cream in my freezer and the epic amounts of olive oil on my shelves.

Maybe you pick on women and have titles like "save the whales" because you are really too gutless to write "Fuck HLS" over a highway. You know if you pick on fat women, lots of people will agree with you - because god, being fat is such a travesty and sin, AMIRITE?!?. But oh, if you write something about animal rights that actually gets in people's faces, you might actually piss some people off. We don't want that now.

So, PETA, you can kiss my fat ass. You aren't animal rights advocates. You're women hating, dominant culture collaborating assholes.

Now get the hell outta my face.

Love,

Sarah.

My friend Julie, who was due on the same day as me, just had her baby early by caesar section today. Amalia Grace, precious and tiny at 2.6kg. I should be happy and cheerful. But it hurts it hurts it hurts and I can't stop crying. Where's my healthy happy baby? Where? Fuck this.

A very nice thing about today, though, is that I found out that my good friend zebrallama and his friend vegetus are coming for a visit in August. Woop!

May there be fire and booze and beach hilarity!

It'll give me a chance to show off my mad curry skillz. And half-arsed fire spinning ability.

Also, new favourite bands/singers:

The Gossip
The Paper Scissors
La Roux
The Middle East
CSS
Lady Gaga

All of those are respectable except for Gaga.

Oh, and I got the TINA gig! Woooooop! Meeting with festival director and national media co-ordinator in a week or so, then I'm basically in charge of Newcastle media for the festival (EFF. 0_0) Should be good and a steeeep learning curve.

Life is good, despite aforementioned sadness. Now I better use the last of my time to find out what the heck I'm doing at this conference today. eep!

mwah! xx

Crap, I really need to stress that "pro-life" in my last entry was a MISTYPE.

I am not pro-life. At all. I am very, very strongly pro-CHOICE. I was just rushed for time on a public computer and my brain got fuddled.

So...don't defriend me! Heh. I've gone back and edited the entry so it reads correctly now.

I can't change what has happened and I can't fix how I feel. The best I can do is make a place for it - a part of me reserved for the grief - and try to do other things parallel to it.

I am learning flash and illustrator.

I am working from home as a copywriter/proof-reader/designer/tutor.

I am writing a non-fiction book.

I am not job searching. I am not pushing myself to be or feel something that doesn't fit comfortably. And I am not going to feel guilty about either of those things.

Creativity and going easy on myself, that's the key. I'm still being selectively social but will let that change when it wants to.

I am feeling positive about trying for another baby in a few months. That has to mean something.

I wrote this article today for Lunacy, a womyn's zine my uni puts out. Enjoy! Feedback is always appreciated.

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I finished reading The God Delusion today, and I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Dawkins, in answer to the proposition that atheists were fundamentalists (or scientists, etc) in the same way that religious fundamentalists are, said something I found to be pertinent to the vegan/AR worldview.

In a nutshell, he said that atheism (insert veganism here) is based on an appreciative review of the evidence at hand, upon rational facts, and its fail-safe test is that if an atheist were provided with convincing, overwhelming, rational data to prove the existence of God/Allah/Gods/etc, they would immediately change their viewpoint.

If extrapolated to veganism, the parallel is clear: veganism is a worldview based on a review of the facts - a review of the real, tangible, observable suffering of others. It is no different in principle from observing the suffering of an oppressed human minority, and acting in their defence. If it were proved that animals felt no pain, and did not suffer, and that meat and dairy and eggs and other animal products were also ridiculously good for your health, there would be no vegans. Increasingly and for some time, independent science and naturalist philosophy have been whispering through the dark of omnivorous society that veganism is a clearly rational choice.

We are not vegans because someone appeared in a vision and told us to be. We are not vegans because an ancient holy book of indistinct origin and authorship tells us to be. We are not even vegans because it makes us feel nice and warm and fuzzy and gives us a sense of mission and place in our world.

We are vegan because our brains are switched to "on" and we think for ourselves. We are vegans because the facts are inescapable, and the cool eye of rationalism lives and breathes in us all.

This is why we are not fundamentalists, and why accusations of such a thing are quite seriously misguided. The only thing we have remotely in common with fundamentalists is a dedicated, passionate advocacy of our position. There are few, if any, other parallels.

(x-posted to veganpeople)

Just as I think things are on the up...

I took Piccolo to the vet yesterday. She's lost weight rapidly, her breathing is laboured and the growth on her face has grown again. This time it is hard and there's little to no discharge.

The diagnosis is cancer, and she has something close to a week left of enjoyable life before she needs to be put to sleep so she won't suffer too much. As it is she is only eating and drinking; she's stopped playing and exploring, and just sits in one spot, struggling to get air.

I was surprised by just how ferocious my reaction was; I cried all the way walking home and climbed into bed after settling her and howled for about an hour. Erin came around after that, which was good because I had a reason to surface from my stupor. Two of her fish have died in the last week, so she kind of knew how I was feeling.

Holding Lolo this morning, I had to try to thicken my skin; she sits in my hands, wheezing, fighting for air. It is incredibly distressing for her and for us to watch.

It was not made any better by the vet being a total cock (my normal doctor was away). He was abrupt and kept calling her "the animal", "the rat", and noticeably was cold and detached. He was very rough with her as well. I wish Nigel was there :( Piccolo likes him.