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

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To quote my favorite book, Stranger in a Strange Land, “The only thing wrong with this church is that a man has is that a man has absolutely no privacy.”

For those of you important people who haven’t figured out who I am, my name is Candy.

If you haven’t read Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinhein, I highly recommend doing so. Being a child of the 60’s (which really refers to the period between 1965 - 1974), Stranger is my bible so to speak. You will find me quoting from it repeatedly. My original copy is long gone and the copy I have now is held together with a wing and a prayer and lots and lots of scotch tape.

Today was a day of multiple revelations for me. I consulted my 8-ball (not to be confused with my bible) and it said, ‘To make up for lost time, commit to living in the present.” I laid to rest a ghost that I didn’t even consciously knew existed. I have been driving the same route for four months and today I saw the beauty I had been missing.

AND - I hopped on my right foot!!!! Thank you right ankle. If I hadn’t broken you so badly last year, I never would have been diagnosed with PTS and the buried demons would never have come out!

Every posting I made today has been POSITIVE!!!

I may just be in a manic mood, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

Charrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrge!

I have good stuff to report as well... Today, I managed to land a another short-term work assignment through a staffing agency. It's only for a few weeks. but it'll bring in some money to pay the bills with while I look for a 'real' job, so it's kind of relief. And if I doa good job (which I know I will), they may very well find other assignments for me after this one's finished.

Oh, and I'm re-reading 'Stranger In A Strange Land' today... it's been a few years, and apparently I missed some things. It's still as awesome as I remember it being!

RE: temp job...remind me to give you the names of the people I have worked with in the past

RE: Stranger

LOLROTF

Hey Richenda... will remind you when I see you, thanks! You're too kind.

Yeah, after what you said Saturday I decided to re-read Stranger and see what I missed the other dozen or so times.

I'll get to reading it soon - I'll need something to do at w*rk

May you never

Good morning. You could try working at work

It's not a job really.. more of a contract to indulge in a series of periods sitting, standing and trading insults on films, the inhouse music and members of staff who aren't there; punctuated occasionally by the sale of a ticket, its subsequent tearing, the sale of a lot of sweets and their subsequent scraping off the cinema floor. Oh, and watching movies

Perhaps I'm worth more, but it's hard to pretend it's work.. though listening to some of the others can be a bit, well, taxing.

Sorry I was out of it last night. Yesterday was a real hind-brainer.

I should talk...if I can manage to keep myself busy with work-related items two out of the eight hours I'm here, I think of myself as productive

BORINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Both of us are worth more

At least you get to watch movies, all I get to do is surf

No problem about last night. When you didn't answer, I wasn't at all concern. In fact, I would have been surprised if you did

Hello everybody! OK, this is sort of a 'cultural question' ... I wasn't a child of the 60's, I was a child of the Old South Africa which might as well have been a different planet. My own Bible was the old Afrikaans translation of *the* Bible and it was a really weird translation with lots of very incomprehensible passages. I read 'Stranger in a Strange Land' while recovering my sanity after my suicide attempt of 1992. I found it a disturbing and not-very-comprehensible book, but maybe that was due to my mindset. My dad who was a child of the fourties and fifties in an even-older-South Africa read the book recently, and he did not like it at all. So, could you perhaps tell me a bit about what it is that you appreciate about the book, Candy and Psychocandy? Maybe I could reread mine but I'm honestly scared of doing it ...

Willem, I'm about halfway through re-reading it fo rthe first time in a long time... and it seems I'd missed a LOT of stuff previously. Richenda, however, has probably got the entire book to memory.

Once I've finished, I'll see if I can explain what it is I appreciate about the book. Should be done by the end of the weekend if I quit sleeping so much.

Hi Willem,

B is standing right here next to me and he remembers having suggested reading something from it, particularly the passage what good art is. But he and I are currently of the opinion that unless you are feeling particuarly welll-grounded, that you probably shouldn't read the book unless Vivienne wants to read it and have a good laugh. Then you can let her decide or translate. (by the way . . . is your copy in Afrikaans?)

You mentioned movies... If you want a good laugh I would suggest SHreik if you know what I did last Friday the 13th. (It was a space channel movie, what would we all do with out space channel movies?)

Candy, yes I remember ... it was about the Caryatid who had collapsed beneath her stone. No, my copy wasn't in Afrikaans ... I don't think they'd translate that book into Afrikaans!

I think maybe it might work to let Vivienne read it ... she's a tough one and probably would laugh at it while I would perhaps take it a bit too seriously ... you know what, she just mentioned something to me. I remember from the book, when Michael came to Earth from Mars, he was very weirdly built, with thin arms and legs and a huge chest. Subsequently he reshaped his body and built muscles fit for life on Earth merely by thinking of it, through the force of his will. Vivienne can do that as well ... she can change her body in various ways just by thinking about it! She may have some interesting comments on stuff in the book, coming from her perspective. After all, for all intents and purposes she, too, is an alien on this planet ...

I just got past the part with Rodin's sculpture of the Cayatid. I've seen pictures of the sculpture before, and now I think I know why I liked it so much.

Yeah, the sculpture is nice ... I went and saw some online pictures of it. I think it's actually on the cover of the first edition of 'Stranger'.
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Candy, by the way, happy to hear about your ankle being well ... is it totally OK now? It took rather a long time to fully heal, didn't it?
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But anyways since this is the 'Good Stuff' thread, here is some of my own Good Stuff:
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1. It's now almost two years since my last psychotic episode! This means that I can soon donate blood again! They told me I needed to be stable for at least two years on my medication before they'd allow me to donate blood. It will be two years in October of this year ... it may seem like a long time yet, but for me right now time seems to be flying.
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2. I'm now starting to get along well with the practice of painting with watercolours. I'm working on painting people's faces. I'm now getting to the point where I can get the face pretty much right on the first try.
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3. I just checked out a South African powerlifting federation's website and the lifting records they list for the 60-kg class are all within my reach! So I'm soon going to contact them and see if I could join up. I think I could maybe even manage to break an SA record or two. But anyways first I have to get my power rack. A friend of ours is building one for me. He just finished building security gates for the house, and the power rack ought to be much simpler and easier. I hope he can get it finished this week or the next. From then on the going will be easy ... this rack will be most helpful in helping me to bench press and squat to my limit without any safety worries.
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4. We've just visited the Far North of South Africa and I took lots of photographs of beautiful baobab trees and I'm going to paint them soon!
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5. My sister Maryke is going to have a baby in December!

Hey, Willem, that's lots of good stuff! I can now say that I know for a fact what a talented artist you are, and that is something to be truly proud of! Good luck with painting the baobab trees.

Congrats in regards to your sister's pregnancy! That's wonderful! I love being an auntie, it's great fun. I'm sure you'll be a fabulous uncle!

I hope you'll get your power rack put together and be able to join up in the powerlifting federation... that'd be awesome! Keep us posted.

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More good stuff: I've just had the best weekend visiting Richenda and B. I don't remember the last time I laughed so much or so hard... or stayed up so late! I squirted soda through my nose and nearly wet myself at least twice... as well as getting the best night's sleep I've had in weeks. Thank you again sooooo very much, Richenda!

Hi Willem,

The fracture healed fine. I was in a non-weight bearing cast (wheel-chair bound) for about 9 weeks and then limited mobility for another 6 weeks. It was the soft tissue and nerve damage that caused most of the problems, and ultimately the RSD. The foot was at about a 45 degree angle to the leg and to avoid the break going compound, they had to do a temporary reduction in the emergency room. I didn't get into surgery for a week. I'm sure that all of that added to the injury. Currently, I am going through a second round of therapy (flexibility, strength, balance).

But, the funny thing is, the accident was probably the best thing that could have happened. If I hadn't gone to a doctor due to the fear of falling (not just mine, but anyone I cared about), flashbacks and panic attacks, I wouldn't have been diagnosed with PTS. If, when we were hiking in March, Krispy didn't 'appear' to be about to go over the edge (which tripped the PTS), none of the other stuff would have come out.

Hmmmm.... if I knew what good a broke ankle could have brought, I would have done it years ago. But, then again, you guys wouldn't have been here, so maybe it was a good idea I waited.

Jeez, you guys get to visit each other and everything! It's now over a year since Krispy visited me. I can't yet afford a trip to the USA or to Britain ... jeepers. Can any of you guys maybe afford a trip to South Africa??!!

Candy, and how is it going with the RSD and with the PTS and finding out what all the problems are?

What, no good stuff to report for over a month? Well, I've got a bit of promising news anyway...

My agent from the temp agency phoned me Saturday and left a message on my cell phone... the company I'm at did in fact call and ask about keepng me on, she wanted to know if I were "interested". I told her yes, and she said she'd keep me posted, and would look for other temp spots as well, as they're hugely impressed with me. Imagine that!

Oh, and on my way home, my friend Stacy and I stopped by a little boutique and I found the most awesome handbag with the album cover from Sgt Pepper's on it. How cool is that? It's the little things in life which bring me the most pleasure...