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

Welcome to the Atelier! Are you new here? Please check out the main page at A304354 and avail yourself of the linkyou'll find there, which takes you to the floor plan and some deeper explanations. Matina the maidbot will fetch you refreshment while you're waiting.

This initial post not only welcomes newcomers like you, but welcomes back all the regulars, known as salonistas. That 'ista' suffix tends to connote some sort of valor, and the salonistas display theirs by reading all the backlog.

All gratitude goes to Sporkulious Eglon, our scribe for the previous thread, who ascended to that post by winning his very first First-to-the-Forum mug in the nearly four years he's been a charter Salonista. I still remember asking, when we first met, what "sporkulious eglon" meant: he had no idea. *hands the Sporkster a beautiful plumed quill pen in a holder of teak with the phrase "Scribe 63X" carved into the side* Sporky, your notes were copious and im many places I have been able to quote you verbatim. Thank you on a job well done!

Sporky also culled a quotation which he evidently favored, namely my defnition of the Thanksgiving holiday: "Obscene amounts of eating followed by institutionalised violence on television."

NEW ENTITIES AND RETURNS

Ottox finally bit the bullet, unlurked and joined the Atelier. We all recognised him from other places. Affy finally fell back into our midst with strange stories to tell, stories that we all believed unconditionally, right everybody? And then, at the very end of the thread, Gw7en reappeared with stories of a new job, a move to Austin and a bad case of Atkins caffeine deprivation.

THINGS DISCUSSED

the weather (as ever)
laws regarding chains on tires and salt on roads
Snowmobiles and their horrid cousins, ATVs
Weight and stress -- is there a connection?
Commute times: Solnushka has the longest on average of those who volunteered their travel stats
flat pack furniture
stupid forms (the ones you fill in that have questions like "Why did you lose your passport?")

QUIZZES AND GAMES

After earlier talk of learning styles, Candi Nook directed all of our attention to two quizes (see posts 212 and 214 for links); most of the Atelier were strongly visual (nonverbal esp) learners, while few were Audible/Kinesthetic.

A geek test made the rounds (see post 590), most of us more than making the "geek grade".

Lil started a new subject header game just before Thanksgiving, one she made up involving relating words to both subject matter and rhyme, and everyone did quite well, considering. Considering simulposts, creative spelling and a couple of unrhymable words.

NOTABLE MOMENTS

Several uses of the b***** word were used and still remain unmoderated. Zaphodistas everywhere raise their fists in triumph!
we all learned what exactly undivorced entails
Manda is most decidedly male, not female. Salonistas blamed the confusion on his name's similarity to many feminine ones.
Science has finally proven the health benefits of Guinness
MR's TAship was extended another semester
A neighbor's dog has been suspected of stealing Lil's cat food bowls
GreyDesk finally caught up on the backlog... of the previous conversation
The Demented-One met the illustrator of the Harry Potter books
Hypatia finally moved her library's book collection into a temporary home (and that task may be ongoing yet)
Z got his first nigerian email spam, and Sporky did as well the same day (GreyDesk is still deprived).
FG completed her move to her new apartment, short the aid of two expected helpers, and tackled the settling in bits, as well as the confounded manual to her new Tivo.
Sporky, possibly a secret member of the pomegranate lobby, reminded everybody that pomegranate season ends in December.

Thanks to solar flares, the aurora borealis was out in full force. Some lucky salonistas were able to view all its splendor while others had to grapple with cloudy skies and light pollution or being on the wrong part of the planet. Titania had such a wonderful experience that she painted her impressions of the Northern Lights.

Amy, while recently cleaning, has found a dearth of lightbulbs in her home, while FG, having just moved, has found herself with an excess of bulbs. A swap is no doubt in the works.

We all learned how to convert Celsius to Kelvin while trying to figure out the mathematics involved in converting Fahrenheit to Celsius (something to do with multiplying a fraction ). [Some of us learned, anyway.]

In other acts of the gods, two troublemakers in Lil's local political scene were struck ill (or dead, as it were), leaving Lil and other members to feel a bit troubled by their relief and their guilt. The power of collective negative thinking has been blamed.
Egon and Amy also suffered the loss of a grandparent.
Amy was under the weather for much of the conversation -- under the weather, how appropriate for a disorder which appears to be related to barometric pressure! Geeks have still not come up with a way to measure weather in Amys.
Candi Nook had a gig, which went very well and even resulted in several CDs being sold.

RECIPES
Hot toddies from B4
Bourbon pecan pie (was that FG or MR's recipe?)
Traditional Burnt pumpkin pie (d'E)

Still Ongoing, I think, is a discussion of the role of government in supporting the arts. At the end of the last thread Affy had inquired about the suitability of certain programming languages, and what with all the geeks in this place, another spirited discussion broke out. And we're doing a group consult for Solnushka on the matter of relocation and new employment.

EXCELSIOR!

And now we look ahead to the new thread, which Witty Moniker has volunteered to scribe. Salonistas united in Netiquette! Let the new conversation begin!

Am I first?

Rats! Missed it again.

Yes, you ARE!

Dang it, Ryan!

B4ilose#2slot

Which I just did... That's okay, though, as it was to Amy.

B4iforget2bookmark

*settles back onto the sofa after traipsing to the new thread*

That's relief, as I have already received a FTTF mug, I didn't want to deprive anyone else.

Is there a package for printing logos on china, like on T shirts, for home use? It just would be rather fun if we could really have FTTF mugs, tha twould be so

*Matina brings Z an Irish coffee in an FTTF mug*

Dang typos! Not only did I hit the Z instead of the X but Eleven went and gave Sporky next thread's honorary plume! Sporky, will you swap with Witty in a few weeks' time?

I have to run some errands, but when I come back I shall have some geeky questions, so s please hang around.

Oh, for goodnes sake, that's the second time in two threads! Congrats Z! And Sporky!

Anyway, here's what I was pontificating about in the other thread:

Well, obviously we are stuck with Putin for the forseable future, but Chubias has now emerged as the definitive leader of the Union of Right Forces (before they were more of a collective), and is said to have presidential aspirations. That doesn't put him much in the running yet as the Right Forces lot are definitely somewhere in third place as a party (we'll know after the Duma elections next week) but it's not something you can rule out. You know how Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and then spent huge amounts upgrading his players out of his pocket change? He's nothing to Chubias in terms of oligarchy status. In fact, Chubias is the man who is one of the main reasons for the oligarchs in the first place as he was the man who oversaw the stripping of former USSR assests and selling them off for a pittance in the first place. So assuming he doesn't actually run foul of Putin like Berisovsky and the Yokos guy did, he's not a bad bet for the future, in which case we may as well give up on Russia entirely.

That said Putin shot to power in six months when the smart money was previously on good heavens I forget the name: Primakov or Chernymerdin, even Lushkov as an outside bet. Now where are they? Absolutely nowehere in terms of national politics, so you never know.

Now, don't you regret you asked that?

Woo Hoo etc my first FTF mug, - I'm so proud!

Welcome back Gw7en! You did read all of the blog for the last convo, right?

Does anyone think Russia will ever join the EU (or be allowed to)? I know Russia isn't necessarily considered traditionally European, but...why not?

[MTG]

Hi Gw7en.

Candi, we don't have anything special planned for tonight. I'm so knackered when I get home that I vegetate. So, we'll go out this weekend and celebrate.

We are behind schedule with our move. We've had help from the city public works department. That's why we're behind schedule. These guys are not hard workers. It's my own fault. I set up the schedule assuming that they would work as hard as my library staff. It's not going to happen. But we'll be close enough to reopen on Monday as planned.

I've been getting a lot of compliments on our temporary home. We're calling it the MiniLib. Everyone is surprised that we have as much in it as we do. And that it's light and pleasant. I honestly don't know what they were expecting. I guess they thought we were going to make them go to the warehouse and retrieve their own books.

Yes, it seems to me that most of the time there has been Europe... and then Russia.

I don't know about anyone else here, but my knowledge of Russia is rather anitquated, thanks mostly to our outdated syllabus in US schools and our tendency to dwell on "negatives" (communism, economy).

Ah, a new forum conversation where I've read all of the backlog! Life is good. I'm happy....

*Remembers the few hundred pages he has to have read over two hours, the possible failing grade in a 1-credit class hanging over his head because of the stupid ICON programming language, the fact that his normal solace from reality, the jazz band, has stopped meeting until mid-January, that he hasn't done his XMas shopping yet, that he's stuck in the middle of a huge move that should have been over a fortnight ago, and that he has no job with which to gain some small amount of money with*

Oh....I'm depressed....

Welcome back G7!

Courtesy

I thought Russia had always been regarded as part of Europe, that's certainly the way it was regarded prior to the revolution.

The Czar was related to all the other crown heads in europe.

Geographically everything west of the Urals is considered European and anything east is Asia.

[BB]

*Witty sits near the hearth, pen and notebook in her lap.*

Gw7en! It's great to see you!

A for Marv and a for Sol.

Let's all thing positive thoughts and get things moving in the right direction for all concerned.

I'll try.