Wow (Dec 24, 2011)
Getting the baby out was hellish. It might even have been worse for Lainey. It's all a very long tale which I might relay one night at the Horse and Groom, but for now it's enough to say that he's a he, was 9lb, we don't have a name yet but everyone is ecstatic. And at least two of us are enormously relieved.
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(32 replies, Latest reply: Dec 26, 2011)

AV annoyance (Dec 16, 2011)
Wow... so it seems the Aviators have been swallowed up into something greater without anyone having the courtesy of letting us know!

I knew there was some talk of the group being assimilated into a wider group but I think it's a bit rude for that to just happen without anyone being informed. Particularly the contributors. I'm hugely annoyed that I did virtually all the work on the Aviators, yet my views have been entirely ignored by the new Aviators team. I don't even know who the new Aviators team are. Have any of them made any videos for h2g2? Or for themselves? Nobody has come in and said hi, we're the new chaps, we love/hate your clips and would love/hate it if you were involved.

To get to the point: I personally made all nine of the nine videos that have been made so far to accompany EG entries. I also started the group and produced the Beeblecast, which was our massive chance to get a mass community-owned AV project going. And I championed AV when I was Editor at the Post and we had a couple of great radio plays that got roundly ignored. We didn't have a massive impact, no - but we did show how AV and audio-only projects could be produced, and the views on our YouTube channel alone number around 50,000. It's a huge area for h2g2 to pull punters in, if only it could attract the right people to make the vids in the first place.

This might sound trivial but since h2g2 became independent I've been filming various bits with the idea that I might write entries that cross over more (eg I've filmed a route on a local mountain bike circuit that I could easily write an Entry to go alongside). I think the videos pull people in and, if not, at least increase awareness of the site.

In the past I would have submitted the entry to PR with a link to the video (if it was done) and asked if it added to the Entry. If the Entry was already in the EG I would ask the group first, then the Editors for approval.

I definitely think that killing the old Yahoo group was a mistake - if you'd said to the Aviators 'come up with SOMETHING' we would have. Honestly - we'd have had a podcast by now or an EG video. I'm sure that if you'd brought the Aviators in independently rather than trying to lump us in with a bigger group we'd have all had more fun and got a hell of a lot more done. But the group has just been allowed to disintegrate.

If anyone knows the new process, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a link to how it all works. I still don't understand why it had to change so much without explanation, but if there is a new Aviators group I'd like to be involved. It would be great to meet other people who are making videos for h2g2 at last...
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(12 replies, Latest reply: Dec 31, 2011)

h2g2 T-shirts! (Dec 1, 2011)
I've just found half-a-dozen blue h2g2 T-shirts that Natalie sent to me when I was Post editor. They're all still wrapped in plastic. I've got three L and three XL. If anyone wants one as a little Christmas present email me your address and I'll send it to you next week. First come first served...
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(21 replies, Latest reply: Dec 21, 2011)

Full Term (Nov 19, 2011)
So for those of you who still remember who I am, Lainey has officially now gone full term. This means there could be a baby Skanky any moment now, though the due date is not until 9th December. To answer the most common question: we don't know the gender of the baby and, to give our most usual response, we hope to find out on the day. Ho, ho, ho.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my last journal - I did read the replies but my time 'sitting by the computer' is so limited now I really don't have much time to talk. Every day that passes now is one we 'tick off', we seem to be in a weird kind of stasis counting down the time before we become three. She is utterly exhausted and I can't wait until the baby comes so we can share some of the load.

I miss you all here on h2g2, I wish I could put the time in that I used to even up until eight or nine months ago but life has really changed now! I'll let you know as soon as there is any news
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(70 replies, Latest reply: Dec 24, 2011)

Hi from Rich and Lainey (Oct 23, 2011)
Hi folks,

Great to see h2g2 has made it across to be a fully-functioning, independent entity. What an amazing result! I really hope h2g2 can go on and be the site we all knew it couldn't have become under the previous owners. I think the previous editors were really hamstrung by the rules and regs they had to adhere to, and I really think the site will flourish with new energy and a 'can do' attitude.

I've had some great times here and I hope you're all well. I made some fabulous friends here and I've been lucky enough to meet some of you in person, but there are plenty of you who I never met who I forged great friendships with. I've let them slide to the stage where perhaps they're not great friendships any more. I'm sorry about that. It's not that I meant to lose touch, but I'm sure the parents among you will appreciate that I've had other priorities lately!

However - without wanting to denigrate the friendships I've made - the reason I joined h2g2, and still my prime purpose for being here, is/was to contribute to The Guide. I don't think I have a lot to contribute any more in terms of simply writing, but there may be stuff I can do in terms of filming an entry first then writing afterwards. Entries such as mountain biking centres/routes spring to mind.

Anyway, in terms of me/us we are having our lil one in seven weeks time. That's the big news. There was a lot of other news I thought I might tell you about, but actually when I think about it, there is nothing else. I'm going to be a Dad in 50 days or so.
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(18 replies, Latest reply: Oct 24, 2011)

Ickle Skanky (Jun 6, 2011)
Hi folks,

I don't know who's still subscribed to my PS, but for those of you who don't have any contact with me elsewhere - I'm going to become a father for the first time in September
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(44 replies, Latest reply: Sep 19, 2011)

h2g2c2 (Jan 25, 2011)
I heard the news about h2g2's 'disposal' at lunchtime (via Facebook, natch) and I haven't really known what to make of it since.

Let's get the negatives out of the way first: h2g2 has been behind the times since I joined. Second to Wikipedia in terms of being the definitive guide and waaaaaay behind everything else in terms of being a great social network. And it's cliquey, and slow to change, and set in its ways, and almost impenetrable to any outsider. In the context of the wider web, it doesn't serve any obvious purpose that isn't catered for better elsewhere.

And isn't it bizarre to get a 'here's a load of new stuff' message on Friday, then a 'get ready to relocate' on Monday?

Anyway.

I think the idea of a community proposal to take ownership of the site is a great one. It's a long shot. I suspect the winning bidder may be more interested in the technology than the users. That would be a shame. The community here may be small and fairly factionalised (is that a word?) but it is passionate. That's a strength and a failing - people here tend to unite and divide between so many minor issues. That needs to stop.

I think if there is to be a h2g2c2 (h2g2 community consortium) bid, *everyone* here needs to get behind it. The bid needs figureheads who know what they're doing. A web designer who knows how h2g2's code works needs to be left in charge of working out how we would get the site transferred to new servers. Somebody who has worked in the field needs to work out how we can make money to support the proposed new site. And perhaps we need a group of people representing separate parts of the community to work on our behalf - maybe the Post Editor, a prominent Scout, a committed Ace - to properly make decisions so we don't degenerate to the usual level of infighting.

There's loads of discussion about this elsewhere on the site. If you're reading this and you've got this far, you must care. See if there's anything you can do. You never know. I'm off on holiday tomorrow, so it's all in your hands. Sorry.
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(18 replies, Latest reply: Apr 20, 2011)

Football in Qatar (Dec 3, 2010)
As Qatar have won the World Cup in 2022, perhaps now would be a good time to remind the world how good they are at the beautiful game?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf1fVBGM9ec
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(9 replies, Latest reply: Dec 4, 2010)

The Problem with Atheism (Nov 9, 2010)
I'm a fully-confirmed, paid-up atheist. I think that the whole of our creation can be explained scientifically and that the rationalist narrative is at least as, if not more, compelling than any faith-based creation story. There are one or two gaps but we'll fill them. It's been all but proven that we don't need a god to explain how we came into being, so I don't need or want to believe in one.

But isn't it illogical *not* to believe in one?

If the atheists are right, nobody knows any different. We all just die and get eaten by worms. We don't get a moment of triumph where, at deaths door, we get to say 'Ha! I told you so!' and we don't get any special treatment. We just get to feel slightly smug while we're alive.

Whereas if the religious people are right, when we atheists die we get poked with fiery tridents by mad pixies for all eternity and all the faithy people get fed grapes and champagne or something. So in that scenario, we get a proper kicking relative to the creationists.

The potential gains are: for the atheists, an earthly superiority complex. For the religious types, an eternity of grapes and an absence of savage pixies. There seems to be a lot of gain for a small amount of faith.

So a rational person would surely realise that there is no god, but also realise that they might as well believe in one just in case and have the odd pray now and then to cover themselves in the event that there is a god after all? Cover your bets, right?

Although if there was a god, he'd be all over this kind of thinking and have a really mean part of hell just for the bet-hedgers, wouldn't he?
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(37 replies, Latest reply: May 30, 2012)

Somewhere in the Far East.... (Oct 15, 2010)
...someone is sending this to the equivalent of 'Funny Old World'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11548982


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(No replies)

Skanky hello (Oct 4, 2010)
Hi folks,

I haven't been around h2g2 at all for the last few months, so I just thought I'd drop in and say hi.

I was terribly sorry to hear about the death of Terri. She was one of my best friends here and was one of the people who took me from 'occasional visitor' to 'h2g2 addict'. I was away in Spain from almost the moment the news broke, but I realised how special many of my friends here are and resolved to check in more often.

I don't have much news, but the bit I have is that I'm busier than ever. I've signed up for a number of Open University short courses in science lately, in an attempt to get qualifications in stuff I was reading anyway. It's obviously a bit more complicated than that but I'm managing to do 15-20 hours of study each week, and I may even end up doing a degree as a result.

I may have some PR entries in the pipeline, some are actually part-written, and there may be some AV to come as well.

How are all you chaps? What have I missed?
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(43 replies, Latest reply: Oct 13, 2010)

Farter's Day (Jun 20, 2010)
It's 2am, and I've just finished organising our picnic for tomorrow

Yep, it's Father's Day tomorrow (today?), and as we're playing cricket we decided it would be a fine idea to get our respective fathers in place nice and early and have a great picnic before the game starts. We're playing at Shaldon tomorrow; a pitch in a great location overlooking the Teign and with views all the way over to Dartmoor, and if there was ever a place for cricket Devon-style this is it. There's the friendliest welcome you can imagine, there's a buffet in the pub afterwards, and for our first game (our first ever, in fact) they even arranged for one of their mates to fly over the pitch in a light aircraft to commemorate the occasion. Great friends, really, and lots of fond memories. So it's perfect for us to meet up for lunch as well.

It's going to be quite poignant as well, hence the extra effort and 2am finish. This time last year, of course, we had one less father-in-law each, so that's worth celebrating. And both of our 'fathers' are actually step-fathers, both of whom came into our lives at difficult times and yet earned our love and respect so quickly and easily that it's hard to believe there is no biological link.

I think tomorrow is going to be a fabulous day. Neither of them will get a run or take a wicket, bless 'em, but I think they'll both be chuffed with our plans.

And the 'farter'? That Dad's mine
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( 1 reply, Latest reply: Jun 20, 2010)

Evening all! (Jun 3, 2010)
I've popped in to get drunk with Mu Beta over at the Horse and Groom. Please excuse anything I say after around 11pm, as it will be nonsense. Yes, even more than usual.

How are we all?
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(17 replies, Latest reply: Jun 3, 2010)

Good day, bad day (Mar 25, 2010)
On the day of our reception, the company providing one of our 'essential services' (I can't say which for reasons that are about to become obvious) pulled out at the last minute. They did their best to find people to fill in, and promised a full refund.

I arranged for them to do something special and secret for Mrs B's birthday as she's 30 on Monday, but they seem to have used this as an excuse to avoid giving us our money back. Today was the final deadline; I've had to spill the beans and ruin the surprise for the wife, and we've written to threaten legal action if it isn't sorted out pronto.

So I'm pretty gutted about the situation, to say the least - it would have more than made up the disappointment at the reception and made her birthday really, really memorable.


And this on the same day I decided that I'm going to start studying again. I went to uni when I was 19, like most of my friends, but had chosen totally the wrong course and dropped out after six months. Today I sent off the forms to the OU to register for a couple of short science courses, and I plan to start a degree in the autumn if they go well.


So I'm kind of disappointed, angry, frustrated, excited, optimistic and nervous all at once. Thank goodness Mrs B understands it all.
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(10 replies, Latest reply: Apr 3, 2010)

Hello! (Mar 21, 2010)
Been a while, eh?

No, I still don't have any wedding photos to show you.

No, I'm not planning to write anything in the near future.

No, I won't be popping in every day.

No, I don't have any plans to save h2g2, or any new initiatives, or competitions, or the slightest inclination to do anything other than renew old acquaintances. And I'm not going to go back and read all those conversations I'm subscribed to from way back, because it'll take me months.

Anything been going on? I haven't read anything here since October. Any news? any rumours? Any lies that sound vaguely feasible?

One thing I need is a bloody good beerfest. Does anyone still drink beer?
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(32 replies, Latest reply: Apr 3, 2010)

Get A Life (Dec 31, 2009)
And I leave you with this joyful piece of work, which just gets better the more you read:

http://www.cornishstannaryparliament.co.uk/

Happy New Year, all.
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(5 replies, Latest reply: Dec 31, 2009)

Long Time No See (Dec 25, 2009)
Apparently, I haven't posted since mid-October.

In a week, I fly to The Gambia, and when I return there will be a Mrs B as well. In principle, this wouldn't take much to organise (get to Gambia, appear on appointed day) but in reality I'm acting as travel agent, tour guide and nonsense-answerer for everyone that's going out there. Today, thanks to a hell of a lot of hard work on my part, I finally have the vaguest idea what's going on. It's amazing how a 'simple idea' can be so much damn work.

Have a great Christmas, all, and hopefully I'll catch up with you around February.
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(77 replies, Latest reply: Mar 7, 2010)

Women (Nov 21, 2009)
Well done. You win.

Lainey's off on her hen do this weekend. I have the place to myself. ALL weekend. Woo!

Except I have nothing to do. I can't make her a cup of tea when she wakes up, nor one when she gets home from work. I'm eating out (curry) all weekend, at least in part because there isn't any point in coooking anything nice if your lover isn't there to enjoy it.

My cousins met up with me for a curry tonight, and we all agree that the world wouild fall apart without women. We'd be ok with our pubs and stuff for a few days, but would soon fall into an apathetic state brought on by Sky Sports News, comfortable sofas and lager. I don't see how we'd cope.

The flat feels weirdly empty. I'm used to there being two people here. One may be asleep on the sofa or off to bed already, but there's two of us. It feels lonely right now.
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(13 replies, Latest reply: Nov 22, 2009)

In Defence of Science (Nov 10, 2009)
I've just been watching QI XL, for my sins, and there was a little bit about the Gomboc on there. A Gomboc is a little self-righting device - whichever way you start it, it will end up resting on the same point - and it is unique in the world.

I thought this was rather clever and quite good fun, until one of the panel asked its inventor 'so what purpose does this serve?' with a sneering look.

Why is it only science that seems to have the obligation to serve society's needs? Is every work of art, every sculpture and painting, every song and symphony, every film and TV programme, created to serve the greater good rather than a cultural need? Or do they further society in an entirely seperate way to science, which needs to justify every step forward by demonstrating our lives will be richly improved as a result of every morsel we learn?

White-coated boffins messing about with test tubes and contradicting one another with messy, complicated explanations of things that have absolutely no value to anyone anyway. Right?
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(16 replies, Latest reply: Dec 31, 2009)

Retirement (Nov 9, 2009)
After 18 months, I've decided to retire as Post editor with immediate effect.

Since the summer break, I've struggled to get back into the groove and found that editing has increasingly become a chore rather than a pleasure. That isn't a good attitude for an editor to have, obviously. I'd have liked to have gone through to the ten year anniversary issue or Christmas before calling it a day, because there were a couple of ideas that I wanted to see through, and I was still enjoying my work (if not as much as I used to).

Today, two of Lainey's colleagues were involved in a very serious car crash. Neither will ever recover fully, if at all - they're both in intensive care. They are both in their twenties. I have never met either of them and Lainey barely knows them so we're not affected personally, but it was enough of a shock for me to take stock. Saying goodbye to The Post was a big deal, but the time is right now for me to go.

Knee-jerk? Maybe. But it's a knee-jerk that's been about to happen for a while now.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my time at The Post, and I'm really grateful to Shazz and EMR in particular for giving me the chance to be involved. And good luck to Bel and the rest of the team for the future. It's been a blast.


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(16 replies, Latest reply: Nov 10, 2009)

index, follow (Oct 19, 2009)
This is going to be quite a dull bit of news for most people, but I've just noticed that the robots tag on all h2g2 pages now says ''.

This, in theory, means that we should get nudged rather higher in search results, as the whole site is indexed and all the internal links between Entries come in to play. And, as conversation forums will be indexed by Google from now on, we're going to get conversation threads starting to appear in Google searches much more frequently.

I wonder if this is the first step in getting the search facility fixed/improved? If not, it will be a hell of a lot easier to design a custom Google search box that works.
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(33 replies, Latest reply: Oct 24, 2009)

No More Wildlife... Thta seems to be poretty much that. (Oct 14, 2009)
I was looking forward to today. I had the day off, and I managed to get rid of most of the stuff that 'had' to be done on Monday. I always have *something* to do, but it's nice to be able to get on with things at a leisurely pace rather than filling my day with stuff that I really should be catching up on.

I didn't get up as early as I'd planned, but that was fine. My plan was to finish the proposal for my access work for next year, something I've put a lot of time and effort into as a volunteer (with, of course, half an eye on making sure I was well-placed for next year).

And I was bloody glad I hadn't got up nice and early.

By the time I'd had a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich, I'd had an email telling me that there wasn't the money there to pay me for next year, and probably not the time to analyse my results even if there was.

I'm gutted. I spent the whole afternoon slobbing on the sofa eating biscuits. After blowing my best chance at getting a job in an outdoor ed centre in the spring, I've now lost my best chance of working with the Wildlife Trust regularly.

A lot of people have lost their only jobs, so I feel a bit guilty about moaning about a job I didn't need to do and did mainly because I believed it was a worthwhile use of my time. I guess it isn't really the job - it was a project I'd invested a lot of time and energy into and something that would have brought the WT a good income within a couple of years.

So I suppose that's pretty much the childhood dreams over. I'm a hotelier, just as was apparently predetermined (see previous journal for definition).

That's how I feel, anyway. But is there a point at which one should give up? I make a decent living at the hotel and don't really need to do anything else, but it isn't very challenging and, without wanting to sound immodest, I think I've got a decent enough brain to be doing something better.

Yeah, I'm fed up.
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(17 replies, Latest reply: Oct 18, 2009)

FAO Producers, British Eurosport 2 (Oct 14, 2009)
Dear Sirs,

Please would you inform your cricket commentators of the following:

'Predetermined' and 'premeditated' are not quite the same thing.

'Predetermined' implies the result of an action is decided by the fates in advance. If you say it was 'predetermined' that a particular shot would be hit for six, in some situations that would almost be true; but if a batsman top-edges a ball into his face by mistake, that probably isn't going to be predetermined.

The word you are looking for is 'premeditated', to explain that the batsman has decided to play a particular shot regardless of the ball that is bowled.

A premeditated shot may well fly over the ropes, or might end up splattering the batsman's nose. A predetermined shot will hit the boundary or the batsman's face regardless of the shot he actually plays, and you're getting a bit further into philosophy than a Twenty20 match can handle here.
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(3 replies, Latest reply: Oct 15, 2009)

I Love The Mail (Oct 8, 2009)
No, not really.

But I do love the responses to the frothing-at-the-mouth stories, like the Anton du Beke row:

http://bit.ly/CNMy6

You don't have to go far to find a real beauty:

'The box-ticking PC brigade should bear in mind that if their smug and sanctimonious little campaign to get du Beke sacked from Strictly succeeds, they have quite neatly scuppered any chance Laila Rouass has of going on with the competition.

Well done to the rent-a-quote crowd!

- Grumpyoldman, Europe, 8/10/2009 16:16'

Yeah, you fools! That's the big issue here! Poor Laila! Heartless fiends!

And then:

'All you people get a life its only television Lola, we may be in the 21st century, but with someone in another Muslim country being sentenced to 1000 lashes.. IT SEEMS LIKE WE COULD BE IN THE 17 th CENTURY.'

I don't understand that one at all.

And this one is brilliant - towards the bottom of page three in the comments, but worth finding:

'This won't get printed but as a woman, I blame women for alot of this nonsense as so many are incapable of answering back with a witty remark. Its so easy.

- sonia, France and UK, 8/10/2009 13:22'

That one actually had thirteen more 'good' clicks than bad. Astonishing.

Everyone that said 'actually, I can see how she would have been offended' got huge negative scores; everyone who said things like 'the world has gone mad' or 'We're living in Hindustan!' [if you're going to be like that, surely 'Islamistan'?] got whooping hurrahs.


Even better than reading Mail comments is the 'spEak You're bRanes' website, which I won't link to because it contains a little flowery language. Take a look if you enjoy the mindless ramblings of the nutters on these stories. I guarantee you won't be disppointed.
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(13 replies, Latest reply: Oct 14, 2009)

Cavaliers 09 (Sep 30, 2009)
We've got the Cavaliers end-of-season bash on Friday (an actual proper formal dinner: tuxes, port, awards and everything followed by a nonced-up trip to a pub that's never seen a tie before), and I've just put the final touches to our 2009 video.

You've probably heard the story of how the Cavaliers started often enough by now, so I won't bore you with the details too much. But looking back at the summer, we actually did incredibly well. We started with about four of us, a pub and the back of a fag packet, trying to work out if we could get eleven hardy souls together who might fancy a game once in a while. We played four times last year and lost them all. Last winter, it all got a bit more serious; I managed to sort us out 16 fixtures, and on a wet day in Okehampton we took the field and got hammered by 145 runs.

Since then, we've got better. So much better, in fact, that some of us are actually starting to look like cricketers. My personal tally of 306 runs was fairly astonishing given that I barely scored a run in the early days. We won three times - once against one of the teams that comprehensively thrashed us twice last year. Chalky scored 50 one glorious day at Budleigh Salterton, and three of our bowlers took three wickets in an innings.

But we've also stayed true to the 'if you want to play, you can play' ideal. We play because we love cricket first and foremost, and if we do well it's a bonus. So we've had the delicious sight of old Bryan, who doesn't know the first thing about how to bat, playing six games for us and scoring exactly half a run an innings. And every run he gets is cheered wildly, because we share his happiness in being able to go out and play cricket. None of us could ever play for a club, I don't think, but thanks to the Cavaliers, that doesn't matter. If you've always dreamed of hitting a six or taking a wicket, you can play for the Cavaliers and eventually, you might just do it.

We've had 32 Cavaliers playing for us now - some just once, some turning up every week. And we're all mates, which is beautiful; everyone is a member of the family, or a friend, or a friend of a friend.

Putting together and watching the video reminds me what a beautiful thing we started. Our partners out there in the rain cheering us on. Our fat bellies wobbling around the field attached to huge grins. Our obvious delight in one another's achievements. And the ecstacy when we get something right for a change.

Some of the highlights for me have little to do with the cricket itself. Getting texts from our wicketkeeper, who was always the first to arrive, marvelling at the weather and the ground and urging me to get there quick to soak up the atmosphere. The curry-house in-jokes. One of our bowlers putting a winter's illness and strife behind him by taking a wicket in our first game and tearing off around the pitch in celebration. Someone who didn't like cricket until they came along one day running in and out of the clubhouse with updates on the Ashes score. Fifty people turning up for a barbecue at our midsummer match. And everybody smiling just about all of the time.

Yeah, it's a pretty special thing. We've got big plans for next year: maybe affiliation with a local club so we have a 'home', more emphasis on playing in the more beautiful clubs in Devon, maybe even a mini-tour somewhere one weekend.

It's going to be a seriously long winter, I think.

I'll post the video up on our website when the Cavaliers have seen it
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(31 replies, Latest reply: Nov 5, 2009)