h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

of how stupid i was as a teen.

a small group of us decided to screw up the class photo in our final high school year. my contribution was to throw my head back in a sid vicious sneer. another guy had his fist up his nose. and so on.

it was so bad the school got angry complaints from parents when the photos went home.

the net result is that 30 plus people now have a life long record of me being a tool.

Isn't that what being a teenager is all about - when all's said and done it captured you at that very *particular* stage of life.

well it might be if it weren't for the fact my own parents were among those who refused to buy the class photo.

some years later i was dating a girl and was invited to her sister's home for dinner. turns out the sister was in my class that year and DID have the photo, which was promptly dragged out for display to the entire party.

See .... I was right .... that happens all the time .... that's why it's my duty to warn the teenagers of today.


I take it she's and ex-girlfriend now.

long time ex now. it didn't affect our relationship at all, which was on and off for ages.

she did manage to get a rather expensive 'friendship' ring out of me however.

that's another thing i'd change if i had to do it all again. no free dinners or expensive gifts for women. it's sexist and stupid.

my advice to my sons should they be so smitten they feel inclined towards gifts, will be to tell the girl concerned you are setting up a savings fund for a deposit towards a mortgage. if she says she'd rather have a ring, then you can fairly safely sms her a request that she no longer call.

either way you get to keep the money.

You old cynic you ... on Valentine's Day too.


I agree though that gifts are a no-no apart from the 'normal' type clothes or earrings - at a reasonable price.


I always like to pay my own way - and don't like to think I owe a man anything ..... with the possible exception of my daughter.

valentines was yesterday here. but that must have seemed very cynical.

i am in my 40s, and without doing a pythonesque 'when i were a lad...' routine, it IS one of the things that has changed dramatically in the last 2 decades.

i probably belong to the last generation of men who paid for pretty much everything along the journey.

women today who still expect this are euphemistically called 'high maintenance'. i say 'euphemistically' because i can't use on this site the word i would ordinarily use.

not misogyny i hasten to add. same things prolly happen with gay couples.

loved the line about your daughter btw.

I know where you're coming from, but I think women for the most part have moved on from the old days and like to be self-sufficient...... well most of us.


Young men on the other hand still like to flash the cash presumably to impress - what they don't realise is the sort of girls who are impressed by that aren't the sort of girls their mother would like to meet.


Still, we have ladettes now and equality so the 'kept man' is way to go .... if you can get away with it.

this thread is turning into a nasty memory prompter for me.

i was thinking about your post and how i probably worry more about my pre teen boys than my daughters, regarding how matters of the heart might affect them later...

and i remembered hugh...

a peripheral friend from my school days with whom i did not keep in touch, but whom i later learnt had killed himself over a woman.

he would have been in that class photo.

Errr about that - my school photo prompts a similar memory, but my friend died in her sleep aged about 19 - just died.


Wedding photos are the same - we sometimes look through my brothers wedding album and try to spot those of us that are still living.


I don't think love is ever a good reason for suicide ..... but it's probably one of the top reasons up there with finances and work.

my completely unprofessional guess is that someone who NEEDS the love of another, particular, person, probably has some very deep mental health issues related to self worth.

hugh i remember for another thing. he took a javelin in the thigh because the next person throwing was incredibly stupid and threw when hugh was retrieving his. the javelin went straight thru his leg and literally pinned him to the ground while he was standing up. the instructor slid the entire thing out and put a finger in each hole until the ambulance arrived. lucky i suppose that the thrower was some 2 metres or so inferior in distance.

he survived that. which suggests that unrequited love can be worse than being hit with a javelin.

i wonder how many people top themselves out of boredom. they probably don't leave notes...

Hugh was a very unfortunate chap, but I think it's safe to say that anyone who commits suicide has a serious mental health issue.


Where I live it's the biggest killer of young men and that's plenty considering how many die in car accidents.


Bored stiff maybe.

i suspect some suicides are rational. if i did it it would be.

i am leaving my options open on this, like becoming gay in my later years.

no current inclinations on either count, but i can envisage how circustances, if not demanding of it, might make them attractive.

see how being reminded of class photos leads one to talk of suicide?

dangerous stuff i tells ya...

Well, it's not as if we're talking about suicide really are we - we're talking about people that were in our photos but are no longer with us.


Dead is dead whether suicide or natural causes so they just aren't here any more - this is making me wish I'd kept more photos.


I'm not altogether sure you can 'become' gay either. Is it not just a case that you were always gay and are now only mature enough to deal with it - or were always bi.


Just a thought you understand .... and you can tell me to mind my own business if you like - we won't fall out over it.

from what i've heard, totally hetero folks are a rare breed and that most of us have at least some inclinations towards same sex. while not undermining the biological basis of gender preference, it does allow for the, to my mind obvious, truth that one can choose who to sleep with.

i'm not gay, but it seems to me that old men are better looking and better company than old women. the exact opposite of young people.

How very well observed.


I've very much enjoyed our conversation, but I have to work tomorrow so will have to go to bed.


Feel free to post randomness or continue the conversation and I'll get back to it tomorrow.


Thanks for taking the time to leave your comments on the entry btw.