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

[Munchkin]
Safely back home. There was hail and some light snow on Saturday, and it did get breezy, but the tent was warm enough. Sadly did not walk as far as we had intended due to a surfeit of pubs and rain. It peed down today, making us give up early. I can, however, recommend the Trooper Inn and The Pub with No Name (occasionally called the White Horse) between Petersfield and Priorsdean for those of you in the area.
Oh, and I am very disappointed with your virus scores. I got 310% for Sci-Fi, 230% on British and 240% on BBCB. I am also in danger of Cthulhu

Wandawoman

I work all sorts of hours, it goes with the job but a lot of the time I am stuck in an office so calluses are not something I'm to familiar with (I've got staff for that )

In the terms of the Atelier that makes me a mangler these days .

One problem with being outside on nights is that I can't join the other bleary eyed insomniacs online at h2g2, my laptop doesn't like getting wet.

Munchkin, glad to hear you survived and pubs noted.

Had a walk up on the Downs this morning, usual gathering of bikers pedal and petrol powered, walkers etc queuing for the bacon butties (some times wish H wasn't veggie) including four Coppers and associated flourescent cars.

Garage looks a whole lot clearer, Council dump is a whole lot fuller and No2 son and H are happier at having got some space for head gasket changing in two weeks.

Spent the afternoon trying on clothes for Paris trip, though the weather forecast is as miserable as for here, so comfort and warmth will win over sartorial elegance.

So how did all the arrangements work out, Caer? Plane or train; fixed itinerary or a nice wander about?

Hey BB does it mean that I have made it when my personal slang (manglement) is used in common Atelier Vernacular?

Red, The Dark Side cover as well as Division Bell were ones that I chose. Gratefull Dead references abouded as well.

Marv

Made it to what is the question?

Mangler, mangling and manglement have all made it into my vocabulary, Marv. It's only a matter of time before the Oxford Dictionary picks it up.

Munchers, I used to camp near Petersfield when I were a Girlie Guide (translation: Girl Scout). The only booze I remember was Captain's gin - she hid it in her hot water bottles.

I did go to see the sea on saturday and spent time wandering along the beach at Llandudno and then a trip up the great orme (y gogarth). Is there something strange about wandering along the beach/pier of a faded victorian seaside resort in the middle of february? Then a shaut jaunt over to Anglesey to go to a lovely little bay to watch the waves crashing against the rocks at the headlands (and be blown about by far too strong winds). Dinner in pete's eats http://www.petes-eats.co.uk/ for dinner. Full as usual especially with the Llanberis moountain film festival on over the weekend.

I am infected with the following viruses it seems: Linux, Junkfood, Sci-Fi, FreeBSD, BBCB, Religion, 8-bit, british, Unix, Southampton, discordia, windows, vi. politics, brand names, hippyism, X11, Computer games, Conspiracy Theory, Ultima, Macintosh
Of the computer stuff I was mostly infected with BBCB (yay for elite ) followed by X11
I may be infected with : Pokemon, USA, Japan, Prog Rock, Cars, Football

Hmmm, they might be onto something there

Forgot to mention my memic afflictions before.....

Top with 200% was Sci-Fi, closely followed by England and Southampton.......which is weird because I've only been to Southamton once and that was in 1991!

Can't remember the rest.....didn't know it was show and tell!

Going to go back to the link and see how P fares........

OP... you had me so confused for a moment there...

G, hope things are okay.

having fun customizing XP... found some styles and boot screens and login screens... fun fun fun!!!

I think it would have taken a little longer than a day trip to come over and see you Sea

Afternoon all. Resting up ahead of tomorrows visit to the local hospitals Department of Physical Medicine (aka a glorified gym or torture chamber)

i should say so! and i would certainly hope i'd remember the visit afterwards!

Munchers, glad to see you didn't get weather-stomped... but 310% for Sci-Fi!

Vincent is eating the sofa and I don't know how to stop him. The sratching I expected, but not cushion chewing.

And now the squeamish are advised to skip the rest of this post.

My landlady's daughter works as a veterinary assistant, and tonight she told me an amazing story. For about a month Dr. Washburn (Becky) has been seeing a young tom cat with a goiter-like bulge in its neck which Becky had diagnosed as an abscess. It never seemed to be ready to lance, but gradually increased in size to a point where it was starting to affect the cat's ability to breathe normally. So Becky decided to operate, and Cille assisted.

What they found was a fetus. Becky reckons it was an absorption: while the litter was still in the womb, one kitten fetus somehow got inside the other. It wasn't very kitten-like when Becky removed it -- lots of hair, one tooth and one perfectly formed ear -- but it was attached to the "outside" cat, and feeding, through capillation.

A lot of pictures were taken as soon as they realised what they had, the fetus is now in formaldehyde, and Becky is writing a paper to publish information about this extremely rare occurrence.

Well the Olympics are over in Salt Lake. I have long been a critic of the process used to get the olympic and the local politics that have marred the road to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. But tonight, for at least a breif moment, I was treated to the olympic spirit as Istood on the street in fron of my house looking at the most extensive firework display I have ever witnessed. 90,693 shells were used in the display. Stretching from Down Town SLC to the olympic staduim at the University of Utah, the fireworks were bursting so loundly that I thought I heard an accident outside at first. I heard shouts of USA from my neighbors, prompting me to shout CANADA (yes, my favoured team in Hockey won gold 50 years to the day after their last gold medal) in response. This valley was brought together for at least that very short time by the games. The olympic rings are in view on a peak in the vally still, but one onders how long before the are extinguished just as the cauldron that kept the flame for the last 17 days was made dim. I was treated to a brief greeting form two of the bobsleders from Brasil Friday at my local bar, and that was a great moment. Stumbling from their hesitant english to my non exsistant portugese. They were very fun guys even tho I think I may have told one of them "Good Cuisinart" (I know nothing of their language). Their tranlator did tell me that they call the bobsled a "frozen banana" The residents of Salt Lake Valley were treated to the world, these last two weeks. We got to show our good side, and it really seems that, for once, we did not look foolish in the eyes of the nations of the world. I hope that the people involved in the games are happy with the outcome, be it in medals won, just making it (My brasilian friends came in 38th but this was their first try ever), or making sure that everyone got to their hotels in good time. Thousands of vollunteers heled out foor the games and many of them are incredibly proud to have been there. As I said, I was a critic of the event, but they seem to have passed without major disastor. To the people of Torino Italy, I hope your games go as good as ours did, and to the people of Athens Greece I hope that you maek the most memorable summer games in history. To the people who were not able to be here to support their atheletes but followed the games, I hope that coverage was good and that you saw the very best in your nations Women and Men. I am glad the the games are over as I disliked seeing armed soldiers in my town patrolling checkpoints and venues. I am glad that we were not attacked by terrorists looking to make a point. I am glad that the planning done to make the games a reality did not pave over the regular guy on the street. In the course of the last eight years since the games were announced, there have been scandals abounding. The first chairman of the SLOC was fired and replaced in disgrace. The light rail system was illegally completed going against the vote of the residents of Salt Lake City. Our freeway was rendered nearly useless for four years in the largest rebuild of a major interstate in the history of US roads. Through all of this, we have had a successfull games and I am proud of the athelets of all nations that were able to compete,even if they went home without that trophy so sought after in all sports. As life returns to normal in Salt Lake valley, I will remember the feeling of pride as I saw the incredible fireworks display. It has been an emotional few weeks here as the worlds eye turned to the place of my birth. I only hope that if we ever get an event on this scale again, I can support it more fully and not feel guilty when I watch a hockey game to see my hero Joe Sakic score twice in Team Canada's win over the US for Olympic Gold.

Marv, the four TV news reports I've seen today (CBS [America], BBC World, Sky Australia and TVNZ) have all given the thumbs up to Salt Lake City and the way it put on a successful Games.

Our best result was a female downhill skier whi came 11th. NZ rejoiced. In the last two Winter Games she fell over and failed to finish

Well, here are my viruses:

Politics 235%
British 175%
Pokamon 121% (how? Never seen an episode)
Industrial 110%
Environmentalism 103%
Scifi 100%

Might be suffering from:

Religion 90%
Japan 85%
Totl 85% (?)
Junkfood 80%
Conspiricy theory 80%
Macintosh 80% (no, now really, I have never come closer to a Mac than spitting distance)
Brand Names 75%
USA 70%
BBCB 70%

These olympics go to the history because of all these scandals,
I'm afraid.
We got 3 medals, one of each kind.

Doing the virus scan was interesting, I was clicking on all these logos, but I have to say that although I recognised I didn't actually know what half of them were! Although some of them I must have seen on my sons' friends clothing. Just goes to show how powerful images can be. Although No2 son did go so far as tosay I'm a hoopy mum

WM, we are going on Eurostar, cos its such fun and easy from here. Train straight to Waterloo and walk over to the Eurostar platform. The Gare du Nord in Paris is central and also easy to navigate. Paris is a good city to wander around, with the aid of a good guide book. I'm just hoping that the weather isn't too cold, wet and windy.

That kitten thing, Lil sounds very similar to an op I was present at when doing my theatres experience. A woman whose pregancy wasn't progressing and there was no heart beat, was in for a termination as the foetus was pronounced dead and the same sort of mass was removed, a hydiform mole, I think it was called without rummaging in the attice for my old medical reference books. It was very sad.

On a more cheerful note the camellia outside my window is blossoming, and most of the daffodils seem to have survived the gales so far.

Well, glad to see that Russia was up at the top of the scandals causing tables, at any rate.

What was your silver for Hati?