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

I am trying to sort out a tea-stain on my carpet.

As y'all know I had the entire flat re-carpeted last October, and the carpets are plain and gorgeous. Anyway, my flatmate asked could her brother and sister stay and since they have stayed before, (they are a nice family in their early 20s), I said "yes". But someone spilled a cup of tea. It is possible that one of the cats knocked it over, but someone picked up the tea-cup, and someone must have seen the spilled tea.

I have had two goes with soap and water, and it is a lot better, but I still have a large mark (about 6" x 12") which is discoloured. I have just bought some carpet cleaner, and done a spot test, and it looks as if the carpet cleaner may bleach the carpet slightly. So now I have TWO marks on my lovely carptet.

I need to talk to my flatmate about this, because the next step is professionals, and that will have to come out of her deposit. It isn't fair to do that without discussing it first.

The thing which really pisses me off is that someone must have seen it, and that if they had got loads of water when it was wet, I wouldn't have problem now.



B

Well I was 16 at the time, and I only went there for a day. It was a hospital morgue, so I only saw people who had died of natural causes. I saw two post mortems and they were difficult to describe.

I suppose I mainly got the sense that I was seeing something that is inside all of us that very few people get the chance to see so I feel amazingly priveledged in that way.

I don't have the same fascination with it now I've seen operations and know what goes on inside the body. We had a lecture from a forsenic pathologist, at the end he put his mobile number up and said that if anyone was interested to ring him up and we could come and watch a coronor PM, - one where the death was in suspecious cicumstances. Though that could be a road traffic accident, or anything where the cause of death wasn't certain. I haven't rung him. Mainly because i don't fancy being a pathologist that much, so i thought I shouldn't take the oppertunity of someone who did.

[Bc exhausted from plowing hrough the blog]

MR, i hope you had a good recovery from viewing that accident. Did youever find out how severe the injuries were ? Any chance the guy through the windshield survived ?

Heathcliffe. Thank you. I too vote Emily's books as not being worthy of vital bookshelf space.

Those with pretentious books need to donate one or two to those with insomnia.

There are a lot of the so called classics - both English and American - that sit and collect dust. I discarded a bunch of Hawthorne a couple of years ago and no one has even noticed. So, since I don't want to move more than I have to, I'm taking a stab at some of the other "greats". It's very liberating. I'm enjoying it.

I just discarded Ulysses. Sacriledge! It hasn't been checked out for over 20 years! And I think it's terribly boring - even if it is supposed to be the greatest book of the 20th century. I had a go at the Bronte sisters last year, although I did keep Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

With ILL, I can get the classics from another library if I need to. I'm tired of wasting shelf space on things that never circulate. It makes my percentages look bad.

We had the entire collection of Scott's Waverly Romances - dozens of volumes, beautifully bound with gilt-edged pages. They hadn't been checked out for so long that the spines had fused together! When I took over here and started weeding, I had to wear a mask in certain sections of the library because of the dust and mold from the old books. My predecessor couldn't bring herself to discard anything. And books in the literature and history sections were never even moved and dusted.

Ulysses? Aw. I could have found it a home.

" a classic is a book everybody praises and nobody reads" (Mark Twain)

Sometimes I think famous books are famous only so people have a reason to be pretentious. After all, who really thinks of themselves as "average" ? We all know that we are really quite extraordinary. Many of us feel that we are really brilliant intelectuals. The trick is making sure everyone else sees how special we really are. We certainly don't want to appear too full of ourselves, so what do we do ? We fill a shelf with classics so people can see for themselves. I find it remarkable how so much of what we do and say is really an exercise in human vanity. And yes I do include myself. Maybe I'm not so spectacular after all. Maybe if i concentrated more on enjoying life and less on impressing others- I'd enjoy life more ! Maybe I can love my fellow man more if I love myself a little less...

Bryce, I'd disagree: I'm with those who say you can't love others unless you love yourself. Maybe what you're thinking of is narcissism, that regard of self that is so complete it excludes anyone else...

Hypatia, your revelations are wonderful. A whole set of Scott, fused together!

[MTG]

BC you beat me to that quote.

Hypatia -
"I'll give you room and board in exchange for building bookshelves and moving books."

*Back begining to hurt just thinking about it*

Building things I enjoy; moving things, you have to pay me for that. Warning, I'm the most expensive manual labor you will ever hire. Especially if you try and pay me with or

Z, I am referring to myself as being pretentious in regard to that book, as it is highly unlikely that I will read it but am keeping it to impress. It is entirely different in your case, especially as you are reading it!

Ben, try 1001 Troubleshooter on your carpet, it never fails to get stains out of mine.

Actually, Lil, I didn't mean that I shouldn't love myself at all, just not so much. I think there is far too much emphasis these days on self-esteem . I was merely reflecting on how so much of what we do and say is influenced by how we want others to see us.

According to Jesus, the second greatest commandment is "you shall love your neighbor AS yourself". We can learn a couple of things from this. First, you must love yourself. Secondly, you are to love your fellow humans as much as you love yourself- not more, not less. Pretentiousness and vanity are objectionable because they involve loving oneself more than his/her neighbor, since they are born from a desire to appear superior to others. We exalt ourselves in our own eyes by putting down others.

BTW, Caer, I hope I didn't offend with my comments about pretentiousness. I wasn't criticising anyone except myself really

Ben, two other options for stains are:
The Vanish range and the oxy powder.
Both have saved my deposit before.

I found out today that one of the Beers I helped to brew will be at the GBBF this year

(NB GBBF - Great British Beer Festival help in London, Olympia!)

Tocc, you are a true soulmate for Munchkin.

wonders if Toccata would concoct a special brew for the diner

On Bryce's comment:
I was concerned that the only reason I do anything was for the attention of others. I decided that the only way to know for sure that that is not my motive is to only do things when nobody is around to know about it. That's the best I can word it right now.
I like some of the classics, but I mostly read new stuff, and graphic novels.

Hypathia, don't you sell of old books absurdly cheaply? I've got numerous books from libaries for 10p each, mostly classics, but including some history books that I've enjoyed reading a lot. I've only recently discovered classics. I'm a bit addicted to Thomas Hardy at the moment.

But there are some books that I'll never read. Though I hope that if I have children, (a bit of a distant hypothetical if I have to admit) then it will really benfit them growing up around loads of old books. Because even if they can't read them yet they might read them at some time in the future, and the worse thing that could have happened to me as a kid was running out of books.

When I was 6 my Dad had a job decorating a stately home, http://www.touruk.co.uk/houses/housebucks_ment.htm I spent ages playing in their libary I couldn't understand any of those books, I just loved the feel of the old books, and thinking that one day I would be able to read them really inspired me.

Ben, I don't know if it may help you with your carpet, but I'm sorry for replying nonsense to Caerwynn a little earlier. Gee, I seem to be able to be rude after all. The content thread was on my mind, and it's where I noticed your nick, so I got everything mixed up.