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

[BB]

Re: Ruskin

Do spare computers and parts thereof count as useful or beautiful?

I think it's a bloke thing

He who has the most stuff wins

I need a bigger place, just to get all the stuff in.

I guess that I win at my househod. Bryce and Jarak (my two room mates) have few possesions really. Out side of the common area furniture they both only own a chest of drawers and a bed. I have desks lamps and files. I also own all of the art that we have hanging in the front room. I guess I have a lot of empty space in my spirit as I have many collections. Of course my latest collection seems to be an expensive one, I now own no less than four routers along with other associated internetworking kit. I am geek hear me roar.

[]

[Affy]

Yes, spare computers are beautiful. Except for the PC my brother added to my collection. Four Macs and a PC! Alas, no routers rooters or rowters.

I wonder if a PC makes a good chew toy...

Marv, dear, I didn't mean to imply that just because you had stuff it meant your life was lacking. And I'm not talking about stuff that makes you happy. I am talking about the stuff that drags you down, the knicknacks that sit in boxes, the random bits of paper, the dried-up pens....you know, the clutter. Anything you use, or that makes you happy, isn't in that category. I have a plastic Taco Bell Yoda/ Magic 8 Ball thing that sits on top of my computer. Why? Because Yoda makes me happy. As your rowters do you. And art is there to make the soul sing.

Ben, it isn't that I don't have stuff. I just hide it well!

Heh, at my work no less than five people have that exact same toy sitting on their monitors. We use them to hurl insults to each other by proxy.

Well the flat is finally clean, which is good. I was getting very dispirited by all the chaos and mess.

I still have 3 boxes of papers to deal with (I am talking about archive boxes here. The ones that take a whole drawer full of paper). And I have about 5 or 6 boxes of pictures and ornaments. But basically the things that are inside the flat should be inside the flat. Unfortunately most of the things that should not be inside the flat are in the hall...

They should be sorted out with two trips: one to the council tip (which I must look up in the phone book) and the other to a charity shop. Actually I have some clothes to sell too, and I may do a trawl through my bookshelves. Books on HTML4 and MS Project 98 are not beautiful and neither are they useful any more.

I am exhausted though. In the end my ex did turn up with his new g/f. A potentially difficult meeting handled well by all three of us. I am not entirely sure how I feel, but I have felt better... (and will again, of course).

B

[Amy]

Ooooh, Caer, don't get me started on Russian/English sense of humour... but oh, ok then

Basically, I personnally find the Russian sense of humour largely comprehensioble and funny, especially the point at which we really link up which is the very robust dark stuff. Unsurprisingly, given the last 70/80 years, they excell at the 'cold joke':

Three prisoners are sitting around in the Gulag circa Stalinist purges time discussing their sentences.

First prisoner: 'I'm here because I was an opponant of [drat, can't remember the name] 'Tikanov' [imagine someone deep in the politburo]. How about you?'

Second prisoner: 'I'm here becase I'm a supporter of Tikanov. What about you?'

Third prisoner: 'I am Tikanov.'

But all my students have, at one time or another, told me 'We don't understand the English sense of humour.' They even have a phrase, which is either translated as suntle English humour or, and this is probably more accurate given how they use it, thin English humour. They use it as a kiss-off phrase and it means 'not funny at all'.

Thing is, here is a Russian joke. There are no hidden word plays. Now, whose humour is thin?

There's this man walking through a forest and he comes across a pond, and in the pond there's this frog.

'O Frog,' says the man, 'Why are you so green, slimy and horrible?'

'But I'm not,' says the frog, 'Generally I'm perfectly white, fluffy and kind, but right now I'm sick.'

Badoombommchink.

I showed a bunch of teens Monty Python... once, just to illustrate thin English humour at it's worst (I have a whole, perfectly reasonable, lesson based on it too. Great for intonation practice...). Some of them found, well, a few of them, found it hysterically funny. Some of them sat there with horrified looks of total disbelief on their faces... Anyway, it stopped them asking for videos for a few weeks.

Regarding stuff: I'm a great hoarder. Well, you never know when it's going to come in useful, do you? But then, every now and again I go mad and throw almost everything out. Very liberating! Go Ben!

Hmmmm... too much clutter in my flat - been thinking of doing something about it for quite some time now, but having difficulties getting started...

Found a funny site where you get to play DJ and do some scratching - not really my thing, I thought - but I really had fun trying to combine the various gagdets, on beat, synchopated, stuttering...
http://www.turntables.de [it's in English]

I wonder if any of the Swedish humorists have been translated into other languages? We do appreciate British humour - that was once of the comforts P.G.Wodehouse had when his books were being boycotted during WW2 - at least they were still selling in Sweden... probably thanks to some excellent translators who really put down their soul and heart into their works

[Amy]

{[caer csd]So Russian humour is no nearer ours than anyone else in Europe? Have you tried Red Dwarf on the teens, Sol?

Oh dear, clutter. When we moved here there seemed to be so much space, now the attic is beginning to grown under the weight of junk! Most if it should really go to the Council tip. With both sons at home indefinitely, their rooms are virtually impassable and its an uphill struggle to keep the sitting room looking tidy.

The house next door is currently empty, an elderly couple lived there, but the wife died at Easter and the husband now has Alzheimer's and is in a care home. The daughter and son-in-law have been renovating it with view to moving in. On Friday a van turned up from a a house clearance firm and it was rather sad to to see the possessions out on the drive whilst they were loading the van. From 3 piece suite to dusty vases of artificail flowers, there whole life was there. It must be so hard for the daughter.}

Now, Monty Python is humor at its best. I still remember the old ladies (Eric Idle et al) on a raft in the North Sea, going to see Kierkegaard about the meaning of life. One of my favorites, that skit!

I tend to like that kind of humor, the deadpan type with someone absolutely serious is being outrageous. I've seen a Russian movie, which was supposed to be a comedy (can't remember the name, tho) and I can remember a lot of bad lighting and vodka. And not much else.

In fact, I'm feeling rather restless at the moment...perhaps a dose of Holy Grail will do me good. yes, I think it will. Will you excuse me, please?

[Munchkin] Monday again eh? I actually quite liked the two Russia jokes there. The second one was nicely surreal.
Well, due to various odd circumstances I have got myself booked on a Nile cruise at he end of September We is going from Luxor to Aswam and back. Anyone been that way and can give me some recommendations?

Munchkin, did you see my posting no.231?

Aswam - well, the Abu Simbel of course - and the Luxor temple is the one with those impressive pillars (a James Bond film was cast there) and near Luxor are also the... the... don't know the English name for them - the two statues of Memnon, and the temple of Hatshepsut, and of course the Valley of the Kings (and Queens)

Don't know much about other sites along that part of the Nile - we travelled by bus... oh yes! The Pullman Katarakt Hotel (I think it's name was) where Agatha Christie wrote some of the chapters in 'Death on the Nile'

Candy is dandy
but liquor is quicker.

- In honor of Ogden Nash's Centennial birthday.

T, I knew someone had been, but I wasn't sure exactly who. Don't think I get to go as far up as Abu Simbel

You can't go to Abu Simbel by boat - the Aswan dam is in the way - usually you go there by car or by bus - or cab - it's definitely worth seeing!

[Ben]

Yesterday was a really bizzare day.

A friend of mine pinged me on MSN to say that everything is in place for me to have two months work with him in September and October. A bit of a contrast to the rabbit-punch in the afternoon.

I shouldn't be ungrateful, and I accepted for various reasons, but I could do with some more time off...

B