Waiting in my email box this morning was one of the funnier and more unexpected messages I've recieved lately:

Hello!

You have been invited by Trademarked to join the listed Yahoo! Club named "Atheist Singles".

To become a member of this club, just go to the Web address below: http://edit.clubs.yahoo.com/config/sjg?.i=atheistsingles&.a=i&

You need to go to the address above to join the club, but you can take a look at the club by going to: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/atheistsingles

You can learn more about Trademarked by looking at the Yahoo! Public Profile: http://profiles.yahoo.com/Trademarked

[lots of other crap]

Thanks,

The Yahoo! Clubs team
http://clubs.yahoo.com/

Errr, okay. Yes, I'm atheist; yes, I'm single, but how the hell did "Trademarked" discover me? Frankly, I don't mind much at all- a trip to the 'atheistsingles club' website was more than enough to keep me entertained for awhile.

Apparently, club members consist mainly of 15-30 year old atheist guys trying to get a date: the posts moan on and on about the lack of women atheists, how only 10% of atheists are women, and so on. One bright young fellow said he was annoyed that "all Mexican girls are Catholic," and requested that the 'club members' alert him of any available "atheist Mexican girls" they should run across. You can just imagine the herds of young atheist men combing the streets, looking for an 'athiest Mexican girl' for their sex-starved buddy.

Another guy was, despite his atheism, contemplating joining a church for the sole reason of meeting a woman. He inquired if anyone knew of a denomination that didn't require "too much praying and stuff."

The best treasure from my little websurfing excursion was this link, which is and oh-so-aesthetically designed (note my dripping sarcasm) page containing a critique of every single major and not-so-major religion that the author could think of. Here, you can find such insights as:

"now, i'll give a really brief opinion on the jewish religion. this is one of the few religions that has not gotten overly commercial. i have yet to see a jewish person sell their beliefs to the highest bidder. and for this i commend them. although historically persecuted, jewish people also tend to be more tolerant of others. the only real flaw (in my eyes) is that alot of times their religious beliefs tend to take over any free thought they have. and they never tend to question their religion or beliefs (questioning yourself leads to better self knowledge). But all in all, i''d say that judiasm is one of the few religions that is still about the beliefs and not the marketability of them."

"these people [Mormons] believe that a guy named Josepth Smith (joe from here on out) was walking in the forest wondering what religion he should choose when jesus came down (apparently jesus just loves to kick it in the forests of utah) and told him to form the mormon church. so joe went back to his farm and told people, and they followed his (obviously its not hard to gain a cult following in rural utah). these are obvious hallucinations, not a reason to start a religion."

My, my, this fellow's finger on the pulse of religion is remarkable, nothing short of miraculous. I suggest you all visit his masterpiece site and fill yourself with knowledge. And don't forget to sign up for the 'atheistsingles club'! You might discover just the hormone-driven young atheist stud you've been looking for.

Last night was another one of those "sit in front of the TV with Patrick, Richard, Liz, and Julia for a long time" nights- this time, we watched an amazing movie called _High Art_. It's considered a lesbian movie because, well, it's about lesbians; the amazing part was that it didn't portray lesbianism as "the other," an issue, or anything out of the ordinary. The characters were just that, characters, and not the usual stereotypical lesbian characters. I also really liked the fact that not only lesbianism, but also bisexuality was portrayed as nothing unusual. Basically, the idea of sexuality was not made an issue of, it was just a movie about people, people who loved and created and worked, just as people do.

I seem to be spending more and more time over at Liz, Richard, and Julia's place (henceforth to be called queer house, or QH), and I really enjoy it. They have such a great dynamic for living together; they all know and humor each other's little indiosyncracies, have fun together, but still seem to give each other as much room as needed. I've now been granted full fridge-raiding privilege, and I frequently occupy one particular corner of the "ant couch".

Patrick seems to think that Liz and I ought to date, and other people I've mentioned it to think that it's a swell idea. I could see it working, too- we're alike in our weird slightly-anal "german-ness", but very different in other interesting ways. I know I'm sounding rather clinical and unpassionate about it, but believe me, I'd definitely be interested- Liz just isn't really the type that you'd ever really associate with passion. Funny, independent, smart, fascinating- yes. With her, though, I think passion is one of those things that takes awhile to uncover.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to write over the weekend; Laura, my 22-year-old sister is driving up for a visit, and I doubt I'll have the time or the desire to tear myself away for an entry. A party and a trip to Uptown are in our plans, though, so I should have something to say once she's left on Sunday or Monday.

Listening to: The New York Philharmonic recording of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Billy the Kid and Fanfare for the Common Man. Believe it or not, it's the first CD I ever bought.