Apparently today is “Atheist Pride Day.” You are supposed to “change your Facebook profile picture to the [Out Campaign Logo] And change your status to something like ‘I am an atheist’ (or whatever).” I’m not on FaceBook so you’ll have to make do with this little post.

It turns out that the timing is quite good, too. Last night I went to a British Humanist Association talk by Daniel Dennett called “A Darwinian Perspective on Religions: Past, Present and Future.” It was chaired by Richard Dawkins. Here’s a fuzzy iPhone picture of the Q&A session at the end. (If only I’d brought my 50D!)

• Ryanair’s New Emergency Instructions Could Be Real One Day – Funny. Though we probably shouldn’t give them ideas.
• Liberal Democrats – Freedom Bill 2009 – I didn’t hear about this first time around, but it sounds like a good idea. As one of the commenters noted, even if it doesn’t go anywhere it might make the Government justify why these laws are needed when there are perfectly good, less draconian one already in place.
• Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance Is Bliss – “People who do things badly … are usually supremely confident of their abilities — more confident, in fact, than people who do things well.” I can’t actually remember how I stumbled across this link any more, but it makes fascinating reading. Does kind of make you a little paranoid, though.
• 10 Geeky Tricks for Getting Out of Bed in the Morning – I should probably read this more closely when I’m properly awake. I’m getting worse and worse at getting up in the morning…

This image represents my “Morning Routine” on a weekend. Croissants and tea are the way to go for a relaxing start to the day.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Pet.” I don’t want to guilt-trip you into voting for entry number 138, but it might give Cornelius’ short life meaning if you do. (No pressure.)

My entry for this weeks PhotoFriday, “Pet,” really had to be an image of our dear, departed goldfish Cornelius Maximus Willmington IV. It may not be the best photograph in the world, but how could you not love a fish who couldn’t float properly?

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “The Team.” I am entry number 189.

In south-west London the snow of the past few days has given way to grey skies and rain, and the snow that still lies on the ground is more icy than crisp. I much preferred the snow.

Still, the melting allowed for photographs like the above. This is actually a shot through my living room window.

Most readers will be aware that here in London we’re experiencing the worst winter for many years. We woke up this morning with a layer of snow that went past my ankle, which, sure, isn’t going to get any Norwegians worrying but is quite dramatic by SW19 standards.

Unlike many people, I actually made it into the office but, rather than get stranded there, I came home at lunch time and took a few pictures before sitting back in front of my laptop.

I’ve started to get “into” Twitter, the micro-blogging site, in the last month or so. One trend that I picked up on is that of “hashtags” where you put a hash (pound) symbol followed by a word somewhere in your message. This makes is searchable. The most recent that I’ve participated in is #firstmac, for which my contribution was:

A white iBook G3, paid extra to get the 600Mhz version with the faster bus speed and an impossible-to-use-it -all 384Mb of memory

It all started ten thirteen years ago. In November 1998 I went with a friend to Amsterdam, and now every November since I have spent at least a few days out of the country.

For the record, those trips were:

• Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1998)
• Abu Dhabi, UAE (1999)
• Thailand (2000)
• Oslo, Norway (2001)
• Malta (2002)
• Charlotte, NC, USA (2003)
• Cuba (2004)
• Brussels, Belgium (2005)
• Lille, France (2006)
• Jordan and Egypt (2007)
• Lisbon, Portugal (2008)
• Vienna, Austria (2009)
• Amsterdam and Den Haag, The Netherlands (2010)

It never started as a challenge and you can’t deliberately start a tradition, but I’m keen to keep this one going for as long as I can. Even if it is a little silly.

I hesitate to say that it happens often, but people do sometimes talk about special abilities or super-powers, even if it’s phrased as a “party trick.” Today I realised that I have what might best be described as a special inability.

I took a quick wander into Wimbledon, the nearest town to where I live. It looked gloomy outside and the weather the previous day had been windy and a little chilly. I decided to wear a jumper and my jacket. It didn’t take me long to realise that I had misjudged the weather and that I was very warm.

• Behind bars – Looks like another fascinating documentary by Louis Theroux.
• Music lessons – Why the music industry as it’s currently structured is dying.
• “You Don’t Understand Our Audience” – The whole spiel by Justin Long in Die Hard 4.0 about the media cynically manipulating audiences is much closer to the truth than most people would like to admit…