I’m often asked what religion I have - “um ah, atheist, Santa Claus, evolution, don’t really believe in Gods...” but it’s a conversation that doesn’t really go anywhere and I always feel that I’m coming across negatively, even if it can be quite a positive thing. It can be quite empowering for example - “taking back control”, something I’ve heard a lot recently - but it can be worrying for those hoping for immortality. And so I’ve decided to create a religion that’s more appropriate for people like me, or indeed just me.

This religion will be based around the Giant Gourami Gods. Not one Giant Gourami God - I’ve been looking into the religions quite extensively for this article and the more interesting ones have many Gods. The Romans and the Vikings for example - they would have been completely different people had they only had one God. Before Christianity arrived in Europe we also had many Gods. And I think this is more sensible position to take - many Gods makes more sense than one and it is a powerful position to have. “You have one God; I have twelve. If one of mine dies I still have eleven left!” Also, if you only have one God, then criticising him or her is a bit risky, but if you have twelve chances are they don’t get along all that well anyway.

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In a word, the weather of late has been… frustrating. Some times too cold, other times windy, and then occasionally record breaking warm. The worst aspect has been the utter inability of the weather “experts” to predict conditions as close as 24 hours in the future.

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I’m filling in for James and Tracy this week. It’s Chinese New Year which means Malaysia has gone crazy! Don’t attempt to travel anywhere at this time of year because you won’t be able! Indeed if you do have to be somewhere then consider walking. It is a good time of year for fireworks however, so that’s something exciting.

Over on the Board we have some great discussions. This is because we have New Blood. The average life cycle of an active Board Member is somewhere between 5 and 8 years. A few people, such as myself and Lasse, are immortal. However immortality is pretty rare, even on Sexyloops and so it’s important that we have a regular influx of new members.

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We had short holiday last weekend. After 3 groups on Friday we drove 500 km to Sweden. There is nice guesthouse by the river. I visited that place last winter with snowmobile group and I liked place a lot, nice stuff, good food and beautiful scenery. Guesthouse is located next to Lainio river, it is well-knowed, especially upper part (mountain part) for fishing. You can find big graylings, trout and salmon from upper part, best way to get there is helicopter. Lower part where guesthouse locate has great fishing also but it is not so ”legendary” than upper part.

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Northern pike are an interesting species. They are for one, northern, and they are wide spread in Northern Europe where just about any body of freshwater (running or still) potentially can have pike in them. The very interesting part about this fish is that they are also able to live in brackish water, just as for instance perch are.
It’s a vulnerable species, though. They salinity tolerance is low and historically there has been many incidents with influx of high saline salt water to their habitats and the result is a near-collapse of the population.

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Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how.

---Viktor Frankl

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