During last Thursday’s trivia quiz we were asked to identify the philosopher that said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.” Unfortunately the Snook and I spent so much time arguing over whether it was Descartes or Pascal that we missed the obvious answer. (It was the always-quotable Voltaire, of course.) Anyway, I thought of that quote while reading through these 300 Proofs of God’s Existence. Pretty funny. As an agnostic I’ve never really felt compelled to try to talk someone out of their beliefs, but I can certainly understand the frustration trying to debate with someone that can’t form a decent argument. (Link courtesy of John.)

Update: Crap! Looks like the site went down. Oh well, bookmark this one for later.

My epidermis must weigh a lot. I’ve already lost all ten pounds I put on during the vacation despite cheating on my diet and not going to the gym. The only thing I can chalk it up to is all the skin I’ve shed this week courtesy of my sunburn. Gross, I know, but if there’s a silver lining to be had from my dermatological distress, I’ll take it.

Friday Five:
I haven’t done one of these in ages!

1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings?
Normally I get up somewhere around 7:00, I guess. On the trip we generally managed around 8 or 9. Since we got back on Monday though, I’m horrified to admit I’ve been sleeping in til one o’clock in the afternoon every day! I didn’t schedule myself to go back to work til today so I didn’t have any impetus to get rid of the jet lag. Getting up this morning was hell.

2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late?
Not really. I’ve never been one to sleep in very late (except when I’m jet-lagged, of course). We usually get up before 10:00 unless we’ve been drinking the night before.

3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?
The very first thing? SHIVER. It’s freakin’ cold in Sydney this winter. Then I usually hit the toilet and the shower.

4. How long does it take to get ready for your day?
I’m pretty fast. Less than an hour, although that probably includes thirty minutes of dawdling on the Internet. It helps that I don’t bother with drying my hair or putting on make-up. 🙂

5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast?
Lamina. It’s about 100 steps from our front door, around the corner on King Street. Great coffee and terrific eggs benedict. We go there way too often.

What’s your blood type? Are you a B-negative? Leigh-Anne and I want you go donate some of that hemoglobinny goodness at your local Red Cross. We’re both gonna do it (if they’ll let us, that is).

Just stumbled across Orson Scott Card’s website today, and it’s fantastic. It’s always such a surprise – but why should it be? – when the people who write books I like turn out to be people I like too. My favorite section is his ongoing column “Uncle Orson Reviews Everything”. His review of Pirates of the Caribbean has me desperate to see it, while his thoughts on marriage were quite illuminating. I never really thought about it that way.

We made our triumphant return at pub trivia tonight with a respectable fourth place finish (which netted us $10). I also won a free schooner of beer (for knowing which member of the “Friends” cast was first nominated for an Emmy) and a Black & Decker Toasted Sandwich Maker in the Joker Poker Draw. Go me! Okay, your questions for the day: Which six countries in the world have the highest Christian populations? Which three track & field events did women first participate in at the Sydney 2000 Olympics?

I have very little restraint when it comes to taking pictures on vacation. In fact, I took almost 200 during our recent holiday! Lucky you, though; you only have to look at 160. The vacation pictures are here!

(Once again I must apologize for how crappy my camera is. It overcompensated for the extremely bright weather by making everything dark and washed-out. Trust me, everything was many times prettier than these pictures make out.)

Bad news: The iBook monitor is definitely dying. Discussions on the Apple support site have led me to believe that the bad design of the hinge has broken the wires connecting the display. As I’m out of warranty, it’s going to cost hundreds of dollars to fix (or the Snook and I are going to have to attempt the pretty tricky operation ourselves). Not happy, Jan.

Good news: The computer itself still works fine. I’ve got it connected up to the Snook’s mammoth monitor right now and damn it looks purty.

Annoying discovery: Apple intentionally crippled the iBook so that I can only mirror the display (i.e. I can’t turn off the laptop display or close the lid without the thing going to sleep) and I can’t get any resolution higher than 1024 x 768. Grrrr. I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I have about half of our trip photos captioned and ready to upload. Unfortunately I’m being slightly hampered by the fact that my iBook monitor is having a BIG FREAKIN’ MELTDOWN. *hyperventilate* I may have to take it to the shop tomorrow.

Happy birthday to Snookums, who turns 27 today. Man, we’re gettin’ old.