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

Commuting into Nodnol never looked like fun to me, and especially not for that length of time.
Ooo, went and saw The Hours last night. Very good I thought and makes me want to read Mrs. Dalloway. I will add it to the list of things to forget about as I move.

I've just received an email from a friend I had lost touch with. It's a very odd feeling, having your past revisit you.

A serious thought.

Have recently seen both The Hours and Punch-Drunk Love. Both deal with folk who are depressed/ mentally ill.

Punch Drunk Love left me decidedly uneasy and I found it nigh-on impossible to identify with the male lead, whose feelings of isolation manifested in violence.

With The Hours I was able to sympathise with the female characters that also felt 'out of the loop'

Is my perception correct that on the whole, men deal with depression by lashing out and women turn in on them selves?

I'm not very eloquent, so can't put my thoughts into words precicely enough.

*Sits back & waits for the fur to fly*

Commuting just for about 40mins across Nodnol got to be bad enough in the end. These days when I'm down there I avaid the tube for that reason.

I think I need t think about that post by Tocc...

At risk of stretching the Salon, here is a programme that was on tv last night that you may find interesting, Lil.

This chap used straw bales for insulation. The position of the doors and windows where determined by the dimensions of the bales. These came from the farms and were as exactly as produced by the harvester. No industrial compression, insect or fire repellent and he used a chainsaw to sculpt them into the rounded shapes hw wanted around the doors and windows.

My apologies in advance for stretching the limits:

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/0-9/4homes/grand_designs/sussex.html

I caught the end of that last night. Looked like he'd one a good job of building a self contained (he had no mains services) home that looked good as well.

I can't see it anywhere in the above link, but he bought the woodland about 10 years ago and in common with most woodland sales the building of permanent structures is not allowed.

Many people woodland sites to camp, picnic and walk in. If we had the money I would love to have a chunk of woodland to play in and manage.

Because of the planning laws, Ben was refused permission to build a permanent structure and this applies to a shed in the woods if it has any form of main services, even if it is only supplying one light bulb.

It took him 10 years to persuade the authorities to allow him to build a structure, but it couldn't have any mains electricty, gas, water or sewerage. So it had to be completely dismantable and entirely self sufficient.

We have the strictest planning laws on , apparently, even Steve and Norm feel foul of them.

[d'E]
[]

The thread seems to have a name now.

It's a very sad day in the neighborhood...

Just heard that Fred Rogers died from stomach cancer. My kids loved that program.

My firm of architects has now decided that the entry can be designed the way I want. I have no idea what happened. I didn't have to threaten them or anything.

I was feeling great about a recent donation forom a local foundatin and the designs when I looked at my hand and noticed that the diamond out of my engagement ring had fallen out. I searched everywhere but didn't find it. So I'll have to buy a new stone, which I really can't afford right now since we'll be paying off medical bills forever.

Joins Marv in a G&T. Oops, looks at her watch. has one anyway.

How did the thread get its title? Are the Gods watching us? Erk!!!

Indeed, a nice tidy subject line. It's nice to have friends in high places.

*Alternating between surly and smug as she gets tech support to acknowledge poor database design and bona fide bugs. What ~is~ the point of having a field that you can't sort or select on and doesn't appear in any report?*

Blimey! that sound like Sage!

First of all:
Marv, Aw man! They really don't deserve you.

Welcome back, 3rd asst.sdiver! And welcome Trazeus.

All thanks and praise to Mina! Mina corrected the no-subject heading gaffe for me, but warned me not to make a habit of it. Three cheers for Mina!
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!

Toccata, that was a good question and I am thinking on it.

Bumblebee and eatsmice, apologies for not thinking of you when I wrote the introduction. I was going back and forth, trying to locate all the nuggets of lore and humor in the previous thread, but didn't hit every LED. *sigh*

I commuted thirty miles through 35 traffic lights and, latterly, through serious road construction for 10 years and will never do it again.

On my property I will be scattering seed for lots and lots of foxglove, because it likes shade and because the deer won't eat it. I am laying down as much bleeder hose as I can afford along the rows of pines, and have also got a few other easy growers, plus lots and lots of wildflower seed. And a half a dozen day lily bulbs to start in a sunny corner of the property.

Well, I just got off of the phone w/ a lawyer. I am basicly screwed if my company terminates...

Why so, old pal? If they fire you, you would seem to have even more reason to get a lawyer, I would think.

But then again, I'm not a lawyer.

Of course if you are fired from the company you could always bring up a civil suit against the person who falsified your info.

Tocc - Thinking about your question.

Witty - the field might be used by back end processes, however I would state that if so, it should be in another table.

Marty - but can they prosecute for the evil words they were bandying around or would it just be a straigth term?

Courtesy

I have been meaning to tell y'all about something our plant has done recently to scare away birds.

I'm sure everyone (at one time or another) has noted that birds tend to hang out on power lines. As long as they don't actually touch two of the cables at the same time, they don't get electrocuted. But why to they risk such a precarious perch? Well, the sheer power coursing through the veins of our electrical grid has a tendency to heat those lines to some degree. Have you ever notice on a summer day they seem to droop even lower than normal? The heating inherent in the voltage pushed down those lines causes a little expansion of the wires and insulation, hence the droop. During the winter months it's not as pronounced, and the cables will more efficiently transmit their power down the lines.

So, over the years, birds have taken to resting (and sometimes nesting) along those power lines, towers, and electrical generating plant's equipment. At a plant site, however, this can be a nuisance and a health hazard: a small portion of the birds do manage to electrocute themselves, ending as carcasses to be disposed of; and the livelier ones just manage to p**p all over the walkways and equipment, increasing the risk of people contracting sickness and disease.

Our plant needed to divest itself of these little critters for both reasons, however, we had to bear in mind the EPA sanctions on wholesale slaughter of any living creature. We recently purchased an 'eagle' to scare away the 'regulars' who'd transformed the transformer area into their aerie. Not a REAL eagle, mind you; a cloth and wire simulacrum attached to a pole via lanyard--carrying a cardboard salmon in its talons!

I must say, it's working. Better than the previous method we'd tried for months on end. That constituted using 'bird cannons'--a propane tanks hooked to an ignition tubes--that resounded LOUDLY and was supposed to make them take flight. All it did was scare the Sh*t out of them (what we were trying to avoid) and they became desensitized to it (unlike the plant personnel, who had to wear earplugs to cope)!

B4iLMAO