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

Shutup shutup shutup! See, even Hoo prefers his age to mine!
Claire : You want to see showing off? Go to my personal page, then see. The entire thing was written under the html . Beat that, if you will.

I hate you, az.

Interesting intro Fnord. I think I'd rather read real Joyce though, given the choice

And my name is Clare! With NO i!!! Please.

*Goes off to do Yahoo search for Camut so as not to be caught out in his ignorance*

Fnord: sequel? Yeah, kinda, sorta. I mean, I've read it. But, sequel? Quick question: how did you hear about them? The books, I mean... I picked the first up randomly off a rack in a library because it (a) had a cool cover and (b) was next to the Dr. Who book I wanted.

Clare: "I hate the idea of randomness, of no plan, which makes it a whole lot easier to believe in in a way."

Revel in the randomness. Caress the chaos. The sooner you realise that life does NOT have "meaning", the sooner you'll realise what the meaning really is.

Abrahamic and other Western religions try to kid us that life has superficial meaning, by wittering about gods and purpose and heaven and stuff. Eastern religions, Buddhism and Taoism in particular, seem to be closer to what I think may be the truth, in that they seem to bask in that very lack of sense and purpose and see beyond it to a deeper possibility.

I wish I'd been this close when I was your age...

H.

Hey Noggin,

Isn't it just so totally annoying that these young whippersnappers are so much more 'clued in' than we were at their age? Also much more sophisticated. Heck, they even know how to use computers and big words! The little show-offs.

Still, can't help but love them and wish them all the best.

az

Jean Francois Emile Camut, French architect.

Or perhaps Albert Camus, French philosopher and playwright.

Noggin

Hi Az.

How true. We didn't even HAVE computers and big words when I was that age. Had to make our own entertainment, grumble, grumble, mutter...

Love them to bits, though. Don't know why so many old folks complain about the younger generation.

Noggin

Noggin, (ya old fogey!)

Of course we had big words back then! Doncha remember?

I could even use quite a few before the old memory started slipping.

Yeah, gotta love the youngsters. Have a lot to say, don't they? And even though some of it is quite familiar territory, they can still surprise you.

Me? I love surprises!

az

And now I really must get that early night I promised myself a few weeks back.

Goodnight all

Noggin

buenas noches todos!

very azzzzzzzz

Well, I love ya old folks, too, a lot more than I love my *actual* old folks. Damned senile midlife-crises-stressed out hateful b*stards... I do hope I'm as close in my old age as you are now....

Clare : Actually, I've been making sure very carefully to spell your name correctly for *all* my other posts... go back and check if you don't believe me...

Hoo : You haven't read the sequel? In my view, it's MUCH superior... same old three book pattern, same length, but R.S. died before it so it's just written by R.A.W. It's less about transcendence and belief structures and more hugely centered around quantum psychology and alternate universes. It's called "Schrodinger's Cat", naturally enough. Buy it now. It has many of the same characters under different names, and many different characters under the same names, and it shows them in different contexts...in one chapter, Joe Malik, male, becomes Jo Malik, female. Naturally, it's hilariotus.
How did I find it? Well, a Christian friend of the family gave my brother a encyclopedia of "conspiracies, cults and cover-ups" by R.A.W, and I stole it off him and found it very interesting, especially the entries on Discordianism, Gurdjieff and Leary. Then I was in a bookshop and noticed that a book by the same author which seemed to be about one of the conspiracies I'd read about, Illuminism (boy was I wrong), so I bought it. I'm currently attempting to trick my parents into letting me buy the whole R.A.W caboodle off Amazon.

Back to a conversation long since dead - although I agree our generation are rebels without causes, (damn you, genes, and our natural urges!), one of the only good things about generation X (or are we X-1 by now?) is that it often seems to be more intelligent, on average. Or rather, our generation has a bigger gap between intelligently-challenged and intelligent, and there's less middling-intelligent people.
Clare and (dammit, sorry for being rude, but I just can't think of your name and am going to say) that other girl: Wow!
A compliment from Az, Noggin, AND Hoo! We really have outdone ourselves this time...

Hoo - just realised to my shame that I wasted about ten lines because I misunderstood your post. Please accept my apologies while I go hide in the corner.

Fnord:
Compliments from all of them are indeed rather special. Particularly Hoo's, you don't see those very often! (or at least, I don't )

Noggin:
I should indeed have checked the spelling before trying to sound knowledgeable. I meant Camus , and have now actually gone out and bought a book of his (which I *shall* read) too find out a bit about what I thought I could bluff. (My total knowledge of him was gleaned from the intro to Nausea, which is by Sartre, for goodness sake!)

And I love you all too! Nice interesting people who have the time and intelligence to talk interestingly and the patience to explain what they mean.

Clare: To be honest, I know s*d all about Camus. The French existentialists are not my field of expertise. I'm mostly self taught, and tend just to follow my nose on whatever I'm interested in at the time.

And there's nothing I like better than an intelligent response to any little snippets I have to offer. Wish there were more of them. (snippets, that is).

Noggin

hi Clare,

You love all of us . . . including meeeeee? Thanks. Since Fnord hates me it's nice to have some balance happening.

btw, I also have to be careful about spelling your name because my mother's name is Claire and that is often the first thing that comes to my fingers.

Meanwhile . . . BIG NEWS!!!

Brought home the new computer this evening! Yay! Yipee! The new Jag. For those of you who don't know, has been quite a rollercoaster ride for the past couple of weeks - will she, won't she, can she, she can't?, why not? Stuff like that. But now that I finally have the new beast here sitting beside me I'm almost limp with weariness wondering how the fu** I'm going to be able to tranfer all my stuff.

OTHER good news! Don't have to go and see Reloaded tomorrow because young Agustin has an exam the next day - thank god!

Only bad thing that has happened this week (suppose I should say - so far! - as it's only Tuesday) is the washing machine in my other flat broke down (it's not really *my* other flat) and have been having emotional arm waving about discussions with Spanish landlord who seems to think I should buy the new washing machine. I half suspect he is only doing this because he likes the excitement of the arguments and it gives him an excuse to smoke. See what sort of fun adults get up to?

Fnord, I think the fact that Noggin, Hoo and I aren't parents to *anyone* is what might make us special. We haven't had the likes of *you* sucking the life's blood out of us for the past fifteen years, making it impossible to live the lives we'd always hoped we might, and then having to *love* you and clothe you and feed you! (yes, being totally silly and sarcastic - you know I love you). However, also pointing out that it ain't easy raising kids and quite often people don't do such a good job of it. Also, many people I know who have never had children seem to remain kids themselves almost all their lives.

Have I rambled on enough yet? Oh yes, I think so. Bye!

az

Az - Consider the hate removed - which is d@mnably lucky for you, since otherwise you'd have to look behind yourself everywhere you went, which is not only impossible, it's also annoying.
Same as az 'as put, if I write Claire instead of Clare, it's cos all my Claire/Clare friends are spelt Claire.
Az - again - From the rate you'd talked about it, I'd assumes you'd already got the d@mned thing.
The fact that the two of you and Hoo aren't parents makes me feel a lot better. I always have this slightly distasteful association of parenthood being basically the giving into base and useless urges. I think it came around a few years ago at the time I was first reading Freud. Or was it when my parents started arguing and split up? Or when my stepdad started beating my family up? Who knows. Sorry, random talk, might wanna skip it.
In fact, I'll put it on a separate paragraph and put a warning onto it, and if it looks stupid having the idea for the warning before the actual item, I'll just delete this bit, and you won't have a clue...
WARNING: IGNORE!!!!

Anyway, it's made me feel a lot better talking to you lot on here because you're anonymous, so there's no way I can pin preconceptions and prejudices upon any of you based on the people I know, and vice versa. Except the preconceptions of anonymity...

See? That warning piqued your interest, huh? What is it with humans, I don't know....

"I always have this slightly distasteful association of parenthood being basically the giving into base and useless urges."

Base, certainly, useless, no. We are all the product of those urges, and I'd say that so far nobody I'd describe as "useless" has posted on this thread.

I'd just choose not to do that, mainly, I think, because I don't think I'd be as good at it as I'd want to be. It doesn't *matter* that I'm a mediocre snowboarder who can barely land a backside 360. It doesn't matter that I'm a mediocre windsurfer who after practicing for fifteen years off and on still can't carve gybe properly. It doesn't matter that although I consistently score well in job appraisals, get raises and bonuses and stuff, I'm never really satisfied with my own performance and think I could do better. None of these things really matter.

But I couldn't deal with not being quite good enough at being a dad. That would matter. And the only other option is not being one, full stop. So that's what I go with. And I know that if other people really sat down and thought about it like that, the population would plummet. So it's kind of a good job they don't, eh?

H.

The population NEEDS to plummet, I'm sure.
People are more than what they are products of... if I said that George Bush is pretty useless, many of my less educated friends would agree with me, yet I am as much a product of him as anything else in my life.
Yet you must agree that not all base urges are useful, at least?
"None of these things really matter"... hmm. Did you mean to say it like that?

Sincere apologies to everyone for being tedious in my enthusiasm about my new computer.

Az and Fnord,
Most people spell my name with an i first time I tell them; I'm hopng if I'm fierce enough they'll get scared and stop!

And good luck with the new Jag Az

Hoo,
'But I couldn't deal with not being quite good enough at being a dad. That would matter.' By your own admission, being a dad would really matter to you, you'd think about it and care about it and probably do a good job of it. On the other had you'd constantly be worrying that you weren't up to it and couldn't do it. Short of a daily assurance from your charges that you were the best dad in the world you'd end up sure that you were incabable and a failure, you'd worry yourself into an early grave, and it wouldn't be worth it.

On the other hand, that leaves the people who don't care about botching the job of being parents to be parents, which seems a shame.

Tricky.