h2g2 - Well here I am then....

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	Well here I am then....

Researcher Data

Researcher129795

Name: Zeitgeist

Last posted: Jun 21, 2001

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Referenced Researchers

Gwennie

Sho - It's Mrs G to you!

Tashalls, Muse of Flights of Fancy (Losing Weight at A858170)

Eala

Referenced Sites

babelfish.com

here

Please note that Not Panicking Ltd is not responsible for the content of any external sites listed.

Hello!
I think I'll start off telling you how I became a H2G2 researcher. I came to H2G2 through a rather convoluted way. Being bored while browsing the internet one day (surfing the net sounds so stupid to me), I thought I'd go to the Babelfish translation site. I then realised that I didn't know the exact address, so I'd have to guess at it. My first guess took me to babelfish.com . This wasn't what I was looking for, but thankfully the people that had designed that site had considered people like me and provided a link to the babelfish translator at altavista (I think). Anyway, that can be found at here . After amusing myself for a while by translating things from English into German then French, and finally back into English. Kind of like a multilingual game of "Telephone". One of the things I translated was
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogs"
which became
"The fast brown fox jumps on the dogs putrefied"

I think you'll agree that there's a slight difference. Oh well. After a while, I began to tire of this game and noticed the little h2g2.com link at the bottom of the screen. Having nothing else to occupy my time, I decided to click on the link and see where it took me.

Being a big fan of the Hitch Hiker's Trilogy I had a bit of a look around the site, browsing various entries, reading comments and things like that. Joining up seemed like a good idea at the time, so here I am.

There you go, that's the story of how I came to H2G2, hope you enjoyed it!

Well.... time for some more information about the person who is writing this......

I enjoy reading science fiction and fantasy novels (esp. Neil Gaiman, Greg Egan and Terry Pratchet). I'm a recent computer science graduate (or will be come 22 June 2000). I live in a rented house in suburban Melbourne with my wife, Lauren and our daughter, Jordan.

I've lived in Melbourne all my life, and have never been out of Australia, but I'm sure that I will go travelling one day....

Apart from reading, other pastimes I enjoy include playing Cribbage (see my entry on this page) (if I wasn't so lazy at the moment I'd work up a proper link.... but anyway), cycling, playing Mah-Jong (the tile game, not a crappy computerised version of 'match pairs of tiles'), writing really bad haikus (see my forum posts about it), the card game Magic: The Gathering (also has an official guide entry), and generally putting in too many clauses in brackets into my writing (I guess I'm just used to writing down my thoughts as they occur and not bothering to structure them properly).

Oh and a big hello to Tashalls who I successfully outed as a fellow Australian.
Other people I like to hang about with (or harass, depends on who you ask) are :
Gwennie and Sho.

I'm no longer looking for work, so if anyone in Melbourne needs a recent graduate computer scientist, I could just be the person that you're looking for! If I wasn't already employed :-p

Job Haiku

I seek employment,
To program your computers,
Please give me a try.

Me Haiku

My name is Tom Haines,
I live Melbourne's suburbs,
With my wife and child.

That is all there is,
Feel free to explore my page,
And all it offers.

People have been talking about this Guide Entry. Here are the most recent Conversations:

No subject (Last Posting: Jul 18, 2000)
I love your Haiku (Last Posting: Jun 27, 2000)
Thanks very much! (Last Posting: Jun 17, 2000)

Click here to see more Conversations



	Journal Entries		Most Recent Conversations
	Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. Goodbye, farewell, etc, etc (Aug 19, 2000) This will probably be my last entry. Since finding full time work (being a software developer) I've found that I now have very little free time left. After staring at a computer screen all day at work, I don't really want spend my time after work looking at one too. I'd much prefer to spend time with Lauren and Jordan, so I guess I'm just saying goodbye, so anybody reading this won't wonder "Whatever happened to that weird haiku guy?". I'll probably drop in every now and again, to have a look around, but not that often I don't think. Farewell to my friends, Here at the Hitch-Hikers Guide, I will miss you all. Alas, time constraints, Mean that I won't be around, Here very often. It's been very nice, To be part of your lives here, Just for a short time. All good things must end, So I think I'll stop right here, Good luck all of you. This has been quite hard, Finding the right words to say, "So long and thanks for.......... Zeitgeist (in a rather pensive mood now) Click here to discuss this (No replies) The Job! (Jul 23, 2000) I GOT THE JOB! Having recently finished my computer science degree, I've spent the last few months searching for full time employment. A couple of days ago, I get a phone call from Andrew, one of the people working for the company I applied to. He asked if my referee was on holidays because he had been unable to contact her. Being a night club manager, she often keeps strange hours, so I asked Andrew to try once again. The next day I get another phone call saying that I had the job! It's a graduate software developer position for a financial services company in town. I think I'll find it a bit strange having to be at work by 8:30 am though. I'm used to being a slack uni student and not having to be in class 'til about 10 or 11:30. Oh well, those days are over now. Time to enter the corporate machine. Click here to discuss this (1 reply, Latest reply: Jul 24, 2000) Being wierd.... (Jun 26, 2000) I try to be nice to people..... It just seems that I come across as a little bit wierd, since I post to the forums mostly in 5-7-5 haiku form (well, I try to anyway.... sometimes I make mistakes sigh) I think it's just because I enjoy the challenge of trying to communicate my thoughts through a different method than just plain english text.... Oh well.... I think I'll have to continue to randomly search the forums for another one to crash into..... No time like the present! On to the forums, Looking for nice messages, And other good things. Away I will speed, And I won't be coming back, Without a posting.... Zeitgeist.... Click here to discuss this (No replies) Another stimulating sleep deprived journal entry..... (Jun 17, 2000) Oh god....... First she can't get to sleep on time.... Then she starts going to bed at a reasonable hour again, and what happens this morning? Instead of waking up at a reasonable time, like about 8:30am, Jordan decides to wake up at 6:30 am, screaming "Mummy!!!! MUMMY!!!!". Looking over to my wife, and seeing her still peacefully residing in the land of nod, I get out of bed, and go into Jordan's bedroom. The wail of "Muuuuummmmy" continues for a short time, while I locate her and start giving her a big cuddle. This calms her down a little, and we move into the only properly heated room in the house, the lounge room. We watch a little bit of television, but Jordan is starting to get thirsty and asks me "Bottle? Bottle?". Looking in the fridge, I see that we're out of milk, so I get dressed, put a jacket over Jordan's pyjamas, and wrap her up in a warm blanket. We then trek down to the local shop, to buy milk and the newspaper (Saturday's employment section is the largest). Having made our purchases, we once again trek out into the cold Melbourne air and return home..... Later that day It's now 11:00 pm and Jordan has just gone to bed in the last hour or so, she must be absolutely exhausted, I know I am.... She usually has a nap for a couple of hours during the afternoon, but today, somehow we managed to miss nap time completely. Oh well, I hope she sleeps well tonight..... Good night everyone....... Click here to discuss this (No replies) (Jun 13, 2000) Had a shocker of a night last night..... I went to bed at about midnight, with Lauren (my wife) asking me if I'd stay up and watch a Bette Middler movie with her. I declined and went to sleep... About 3 hours later I was woken by Lauren getting into bed with Jordan (our daughter in tow). Jordan (who is now 20 months old) was very cranky and upset about something, but we could not figure out what it was. Since Lauren had been up with Jordan all this time, I decided that I'd take care of Jordan and let Lauren get some sleep. Various methods were tried to induce sleepiness in Jordan (putting her into her bed, walking around winging to her in the dark, etc), but none of them were successful. At this point I decided that the easiest option was to let J stay up a little more and tire herself out. So I went into the lounge room, turned on the heater and television, closed the door, and began to wait. After an hour and a half filled with dozing, walking, fidgetting and watching TV, I decided that Jordan might finally be able to go to sleep now. I put her into her bed, tucked her up and said goodnight to her..... Thankfully, this time she stayed asleep.... I then crawled into bed and collapsed.......... Click here to discuss this (No replies) Click here to see more Journal Entries		From h2g2 The 5-7-5 Rule (Posted: Jun 4, 2000) (Last reply: Jul 1, 2005) From h2g2 Cribbage (Posted: Jun 21, 2001) (Last reply: Nov 17, 2002) From h2g2 Nitpicking (Posted: Sep 26, 2000) (Last reply: Oct 14, 2000) From h2g2 Hope you don't mind..... (Posted: Jul 23, 2000) (Last reply: Sep 14, 2000) From h2g2 Farewell Sho (Posted: Aug 19, 2000) (Last reply: Aug 28, 2000) From h2g2 Goodbye, farewell, etc, etc (Posted: Aug 19, 2000) (No replies) From h2g2 Curse of the working mum (15.6.00) (Posted: Jul 23, 2000) (Last reply: Aug 9, 2000) From h2g2 Coming clean (26.7.2000) (Posted: Jul 28, 2000) (Last reply: Aug 9, 2000) From h2g2 just a winge (Posted: Jul 24, 2000) (Last reply: Aug 3, 2000) From h2g2 15-2, 15-4 and 2 for the pair (Posted: Jul 26, 2000) (Last reply: Jul 26, 2000) Click here to see more Conversations



	Most Recent Guide Entries		Most Recent Edited Entries
	These are all the Guide Entries this Researcher has created. If you'd like to read them, click on the link, and if you want to talk about them, use the 'Discuss this Entry' button when you get there. From h2g2: A391024 My virtual pet (Jul 11, 2000) From h2g2: A340408 Cribbage! (May 26, 2000) Click here to see more Guide Entries		These are all the Edited Entries to which this Researcher has contributed. They obviously read the Writing Guidelines and submitted their Guide Entries to Peer Review: why don't you too? From h2g2: A430200 Cribbage - the Card Game (Oct 4, 2000) Click here to see more Edited Entries



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