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

YaY! Good News
Hope the job comes through!

Sounds like good news, but tempered as always with plenty of bad points. Even two weeks' pay owrth of retail therapy on my lunch break yesterday hasn't helped.

I'll have to ask you guys for your advice about the work sitch elsewhere... this *is* the thread for "good stuff"...

Oh sure!
Ask away elsewhere, if you prefer
I am sure you can get opinions around here.

OK here is some good news from my piece of the world.

First of all, we went to Heidelberg and I got to see, for the first time in my life, the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve!! It was very different from what I expected. I expected mostly flat, gently rolling grassland ... actually, it was much more hilly, even mountainous in a few places ... and there were many trees amongst the grass. There were some quite densely bushy places, and there were 'bushveld' trees and plants much further South than I'd expect to meet any. It was a relevation. It was very scenic, and the way the grass rippled and rolled like waves on the mountainsides was incredible to experience ... it looked as if the whole mountain was alive. The reserve represents a sample of a large piece of the Highveld as it must have looked prior to human disturbance. I was very impressed and I would love to go there again soon ... especially in Spring after the first rains when everything is green and the flowers are in bloom.

Well, beyond that, I'm doing well. I'm getting a lot of work these days. A translation job ... two proofreading jobs ... portrait commissions ... and right now I'm working on the caricatures, which work is going along well. More work prospects are on the horizon. The husband of the woman who commissioned the caricatures offered to help me out with my plants. He said he'll buy some of my baobabs and other plants and sell them from his road stalls which he has up in the Dendron/Vivo area. The more such contacts I can get, the better. I really need to get the people with the farms, especially the game farms, because many of my trees and plants are more suitable for such areas, big areas, than for suburban gardens. That guy is now a contact in that area up North where the big game farms are, so potentially it could work out great. Also I'm thinking of going to talk to an old school teacher of mine, who's now the deputy head of the biggest high school in town, about donating trees and other indigenous plants to the school. This coming Spring I'm going to plant lots of new trees ... a thing I'm now doing more and more is to work with cuttings, because then I can propagate certain outstanding individual plants, particularly big and beautiful and fast and strong-growing ones. Eventually I will always work with the seeds as well, because I do want to propagate a diversity of genetic types even within a species or subspecies or forms. My collection is getting large now, and I really wish I could get a bigger place.

Wow, Willem, the trip to the Nature Reserve sounds like it would have been awesome! I may love the city, but there's nothing in the world like being in beautiful, wild places that haven't been encroached upon by urban sprawl and the like. I've never been to Africa, but would love to someday, if I have a chance.

I really love your idea of donating indigenous plants to the school! I'm looking forward to hearing lots more about your work with the plants, it's a fascinating subject for me.

I'm glad you're getting lots of work lately, that's wonderful!

Yes, nature is great, as I'm saying over on another forum as well. When I'm in a wild place I feel a particular kind of inner peace, a particular kind of belonging, a particular kind of wholeness and one-ness with my surroundings. Occasionally though I also get the same kind of 'information overload' that I sometimes get in cities. But in nature I feel less threatened by it. For me it helps to get to *know* nature ... the different kinds of birds, the different other kinds of animals, the different kinds of plants, even the kinds of rocks and geological features. It makes me feel more familiar with everything and it also helps me to more appreciate everything.

Anyways, as for work ... now I'm busy with the caricatures, and I've also done another little translation job ... and two more pencil drawings of mine have been sold in the shop! This is going well!

"information overload" I can relate.
I really feel awkward in a square house on square blocks in a square city bombarded by squared off information on a grid pattern full of graphs and publisized spins....

Nature suits me .I like circles and curves, natures shapes and scents and timing. I like how I am a small being in a large natural world with a perfected order of it's own. Small mini enviornments such as Botanical Garden,aquariums gardens can passify

I need wide open spaces sometimes, they are the only thing big enough to absorb painlessly all the thoughts and emotions I have when I get bogged down.

You know abbi, the information overload I get sometimes when I'm in a subtropical forest amidst a riotous abundance of life ... I get a different kind of quietness when I'm in a desert and sitting on a mountaintop gazing over the empty land ... it's not desolate, it's merely very open, there's life but it's more subdued, more spread out, but it's still there, the desert has its own kind of life ... basically, I need forests, and I also need deserts ... both offer to me different kinds of experience, different kinds of one-ness and wholeness.

"I really feel awkward in a square house on square blocks in a square city bombarded by squared off information on a grid pattern full of graphs and publisized spins...."

You know, as much as I love lush forests, rolling meadows, and wide open spaces, there's something abut the city which makes me feel a completely different kind of one-ness and wholeness. There's a certain symmetry to the blocks and houses and such. I'm very comfortable in orderly and symmetrical surroundings (as those of you who've seen inside my place can attest to). I'm sure that's why I enjoy the Botanic Gardens and the Japanese gardens so much. They've got the best of both worlds, natural beauty and a sense of both freedom and connection with something, while at the same time a sense of order and symmetry which I find very comforting in an often chaotic world.

Or maybe I'm just weird.

I can understand that too.
Some feel uncomfortably closed up in mountain canyons and lush areas.
Some even need the hustle bustle of city life.

It is important for each to figure out where their healing places areSome are not aware good medicine can exist in a place.

The hustle and bustle is the bit about city life that can wear on my nerves... fortunately I'm conveniently located so as to be within easy access yet still somewhat removed from the real rat race. There's just a certain sense of security I get from the city as a whole- it has a rhythm that I find very energizing.

I don't know how to explain it, but big, wide, open spaces can make me feel vulnerable, and sort of "lost", if that makes any sense?

I do love hiking and stuff, especially in wooded areas. When I can disappear among the trees, then I feel really free.

I hardly ever feel lost in nature, at least here in South Africa, because of the stuff I know ... I know the kinds of plants and animals and I can therefore rapidly 'learn' every new place, for instance, after seeing a certain place once I know it, I note individual plants and when I return to it later I recognise it. In open places like deserts I use the geologic features as cues ... rocks, ridges, whatever is there. Of course, nature can be very dangerous ... but strangely, I've never yet felt any sense of danger or vulnerability in nature. I always know exactly where I am and where I can go to get what ... for instance I know where there's water to be found, and I know where the closest human habitations is. And I'm usually with other people, and in a group I don't feel vulnerable. The times when I do feel in danger is when I'm in territory where there are people who are likely to be hostile ... for instance in the old days in the so-called 'homelands'. And I've not yet been in Zimbabwe or Mozambique, though they are both very close, because of the dangerous situations that I might encounter there.

To me, cities can be OK ... if they are beautiful and orderly and if there aren't problems in them like rampant crime, pollution and so on. When I was in Pretoria I believe I became mentally unstable because the environment was too chaotic and too polluted.

I slept 8 hours last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is the first time since last November.

I forgot how wonderful it feels.

I think we may have hit on a combination of drugs that just might control the pain without the use of narcotics. It has been 10 days since I took a pain pill. It rained Saturday and I was walking around the faire grounds comfortably. Occasionally there is some background pain but never more than a level 2. This may be the beginning of something bea-u-t-iful. We shall see.

I have also cut back on the anti-depressants. Co-workers should be glad. They won't have to hear me sing White Rabbit and see me dancing to the filing cabinets.

There IS too much of a good thing.

Yay!!!!!! I'm so glad you've finally found something that really helps to really control the pain! And sleeping well is a heck of a bonus, too! I was shocked when I asked about your ankle he other day and you'd said it wasn't bothering you- what wonderful news! I'm SOOOOO thrilled for you!!

I got six hours' sleep last night myself! I've noticed a decrease in my pain levels recently, too, I was even able to take my front steps at a run the other morning... Richenda and Barton can attest to the fact that that's no easy feat-there's a lot of them!

I'm off to visit the Art Institute today, though I'm not quite dressed and coffee-d up yet at the moment. Looks like a quick stop at Starbuck's is in order.

Have a fantastic day, everyone!

Ugh... did I *really* just use the word "really" twice in one sentence? Argh! I hate being tautological!

*note to self: use the preview button, you git!*

Enjoy yourself today.

Great Richenda!
A good Sleep does surpasses all!
Glad to hear the pain is better, whatever your doing keep it up

Hi all! Had a fantastic time at the Art Institute... checked out the miniatures (my personal favorite), some awesome Himalayan and Etruscan artifacts, Medieval armor and weaponry, and an amazing collection of American daguerreotype photos. I've never been much into photography, but I think my interest's been piqued- there was a gorgeous photogram taken in a river which totally blew my mind! Not to mention all of the beautiful paintings... I'm more of a Renaissance/ Neoclassical gitl myself, but I also loved the Matisse, Picasso and Modigliani.

Had a lovely dinner next to a bubbling fountain, and did a bit of shopping along Michigan Ave, as well. Hooray for retail therapy!

Sorry to ramble on about it, but it was too wonderful a day to keep all to myself!

Got to spend lots of time with PC and H'venlee over the past several days.

We played at the playground. "I can do this! No I can't"
(a quick realization of one's limitations)



On Friday, we watched the Fearless Vampire Killers.

Saturday we introduced PC to the Faire. H'venlee, Barton and I all work there. PC insisted that we were not going to get her in garb, but before the end of the day the transformation took place. (knock-out be-u-ti-ful!)

It was wonderful to see PC having a good time. Her laughter is contagious. One of our star performers want her in his audience at every show. (see, I told you we'd put you to work up there).

Sunday was H'venlee's birthday. I think we spent it underwater. The heavens opened and spewed forth great torrents. By the end of the day, ny garb gained at least 30 pounds.

I am now going to wake Barton up and roll him in the direction of the bedroom.

Nite all and keep smiling PC . It looks great on you.

I wanna see