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

FG, my tomatoes are thriving despite hail storm and cold weather (no frost yet,though) but they could do with some more sunshine, I think...

Does anyone know where to find the latest Ernie (Piranha Club) comic strips online? There's supposed to be a quite funny one about Swedes!

We're supposed to have a fire drill today, but I'm not sure if it'll be postponed - at the moment it's pouring down outside... *glad that she has a spare pair of dry socks and indoor shoes at w*rk*

*still doesn't floss because the string tends to get stuck between those of her teeth that are very close together and it's just too much trouble trying to unstick the string*

*probably should start using those special plastic toothpicks again*

Tomatoes, just don't ask. They didn't thrive at all unlike last year
I think it was mostly down to the growing medium we were using (same brand of stuff as last year) as nothing planted in that has really done well.
Right now it's a bit sunny. Yesterday it was tipping it down with rain till mid afternoon.

Quiz, quiz, ... one more that I just got the link to from Hati in 'nother thread ():

http://www.fidius.org/quiz/pirate.php

As to m'self:

"Your pirate name is:

Mad James Bonney

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!"

Coincides well with my daughter's standard impression of me, I should think

But Santra,
This quiz has been here and anyway, Lil just asked us not to flood the convo with quizzes. Why do you think we were discussing weather at the first place.

I never bite dentists but I have fainted more than once while being treated. Usually I start with declaring this as soon as i enter the room. So they save everything that can be saved to themselves.

Ah, the pirate quiz again . However, *this* time I managed to get it to work so perhaps it's not a bad thing that it turned up again.

Mad Anne Bonney
Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Iron Ethel Flint

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you are that person. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

I seem to remember that I got the same result last time...

Sorry Lil, I couldn't resist and instead of Mad Anne Bonney, this time I'm:

Mad Mary Rackham
Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

I answered it as my RP character in SWG might, yes it's taking over my life

MR - I'm delighted that you finally have a date for the X's posting. You must be feeling a lot more relaxed about things now?
Funny that the date more or less coincides with Mercury's departure.

I won't be sorry to see Mercury's influence diminish. Should we have a party at the end of this thread to celebrate, Lil?

With the recent news of my sister-in-law's breast tumour, I find myself with a new problem to consider.
My two daughters now have a family history on both sides of their family.
Do I tell them to get themselves pregnant as young as possible - to reduce their own risk?
What about the consequences of rushing into motherhood before they're properly ready? And the ethics of bringing a child into the world for reasons other than wanting that child?

I've come to my own conclusions about this: they're intelligent, sensible girls, at the start of promising careers, and they're more than capable of working it out for themselves. Maybe I'll leave a few leaflets lying around?

I can't believe you'd seriously tell your daughters to get pregnant as young as possible, Teuchter. I mean, it's not like there aren't risks attached to motherhood too, not least extreme stress and poverty.

Anyway: I be Black Davy Bonney (we're obviously related, Santra!):

'Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr.'

I went to the dentist last week, for the first time in 5 years
My teeth are fine, but the gums need some work, the dentist was polite, and once I told him I was a microbiologist, talked to me in an informative, but non-condescending manner.

The follow-up Hygienist appointment was more of a lecture, but I did learn that I could improve the technique of cleaning my teeth.
I shall try the tiny toothbrushes, for the gaps, but doubt I shall get into flossing.

As an aside, a local attraction is finally opening
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3590480.stm

Z staggers in with a slight hangover. Mmmm Paris was amazing. We did all the touristly things.

Going up the Effiel tower was one of the most incrediable experiences of my life, I didn't realy want to go up it, because I'd heard the view wasn't worth the money and I don't like doing such touristy things. But it was an amazing view, quite terrifying high, and we walked up the first two stages, which was a blister inducing achievement in itself. Brother no 1 who was scared of heighted faced the fear and managed it as well, which was an incredable sense of acheivement.

The Musee D'Orsay was wonderful, I got to know a good few of the paintings, Whistlers Mother was impressive, she used to live on the street behind the house where I was born, the Lourve I have to say I still find too big and too busy, I still don't know if I like the Mona Lisa, because how are you supposed to get to know a painting when you can only see it with a crowd of twenty people all taking bl**dy photographs. I've seen lots of famous paintings and have never had to queue up to see any of the others, I got to spend a good five minutes alone with whilsters mother and examine it but you just can't do that with the Mona Lisa, I still don't think it's Da Vinci's best work. I wish I had the time to get as familar with the Lourve as I am with the National Gallery, then I could make friends with more of the paintings, as it I'm exhausted when I go there, this was my second visit, I can do no more that strike up an acquiantance with them.

For the group hug that I missed.

If the subject of teenage boys comes up I realised when spending a weekend with my brothers, that we all act differently around our family from how we interact with people in the real world. In a mere three days together we bickered about five times, I've lived with A for about 18 months and we've never bickered once, at all. We just don't.

I've also noticed when my Dad visits my grandparents he starts acting like a teenager again. So perhaps don't take how your son acts at home as an indication of what he's like outside of it. Thinking about Amy's comment a while back about teenager girls being more capable than teenage boys, thinking back to my time in hall of residence at the age of 18 that just wasn't true, I can think of quite a few boys that were very independent and capable - and quite a few girls that weren't.

I did the drug name quiz without the BNF and got 11/17, but I do know drugs by their generic names rather than their trade names. The only one I knew offhand was Warfarin.


Moralising quiz. Well I got totally permissive, but they didn't ask about and of the things I think are morally wrong, meat eating, private health care, strike breaking, and not paying taxes, eating at Macdonalds, banking at Barclays (and I'm still not sure why I'm boycotting them, I think it's something to do with south Africa), buying Nestle Products, private education, grammar schools, child labour, capitalism, or voting Conservative.

I think I may be too passionate judgemental about political issues, that said I do miss selling socalist worker, and I'm still not sure about whether I want a revolution I do worry that these political opinons are things you do as a teenager and you grow out of them as your realise that black is not a good colour to paint your bedroom.

I don't think any action that doesn't harm others is morally wrong. Though consentual incest is a difficult one after all, it's ilegal because it might harm the child so perhaps it should be prevented by law, in the interests of society. That said considerable harm comes breeding bettween cousins, and that is allowed by society.

Picture quiz I got

Analytical
Trustworthy
Self-Assured

Yup fairly accurate.



dave's quiz.. In the words of socrates, "I ate what?!?!" Though I didn't have a calculator around to raise my score to 'e'



I still don't floss, but I have started washing my teeth recently, it was one of those things I got out of the habit of when I was a despondent teenager, and I'm still struggling to remember to do that every night, so I don't think I should push myself. I know if I start elabortate routines I don't keep them up. I've never been to a dental hygenist - and I don't know where to find one. Soon I will be working and can afford dental care, it's no 345 on the list of things to buy after 'flat', and '' (or perhaps )




Awhh Ben I missed you too - glad to be back now I didn't know that you can get brushs for flossing?



Do you know how long I've spent replying to this post? Over an hour.. Decidcation or what?



Don't have any in my roof garden, but my lavender is doing well. I didn't know 'wet' was a cultural thing? I take it as meaning 'pathetic'... Didn't Margret Thatcher refer to some members of her cabinet as 'wets'?

And finally....

Teuchter, not a nice situation to be in, but you daughters will, as you know make up there own minds, whether or not you told them to get pregant. I *believe* that the risk is only significantly increased if first degree relatives have cancer, you know, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, but I'm not 100% sure.

So you enjoyed Paris and read the backlog well done Z.

I shall not do the Pirate quiz. However, in place, I shall recommend furiously a wee book called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe. It has a bucket load of Arring, Running Through and Shanties while also including Charles Darwin, The Bishop of Oxford, the Inventor of the All-Blood Dog Biscuit, the Dangers of doing that Errol Flyn thing where you slide down the sail using a cutlass to slow you, Crazy Golf, Hams and far too many jokes to even begin to relate. So buy it now http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0297848852/qid=1093522239/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/026-4297461-9199660 and shout "Arrr!" as you learn what the Seven Seas are.
Sorry for the wee rant there, but it is a silly book.

Ban Collie Day? What's next? Ban Labrador Day? But really, what is "Ban Collie Day"?

Welcome back Z.

I will not do the pirate quiz this time around, but I will take a look at that book. Later. I'm in the middle of the goblet of fire now, and promised to reread "The Man in the High Castle" so I could explain it all to a cow orker. And I still haven't finished the Blind Assassin, or War and Peace.

Hey Munchkin, did you right that customer review on the Amazon page?

It's how you say 'Bank Holiday' with a UK accent - when we get the monday off as a public holiday.

Actually I'm feeling slightly depressed about Ban Collie Day myself, because it's my Birthday friday and because I'd forgotten about it until today, hardly any of my friends seem to be able to go out because they're all going away for the Ban Collie day.

Dammit soberity is evil.

My Pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Vane

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You tend to blend into the background occaisionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!

Man in the High Castle, good book I'm currently reading a book which has all sorts of writing by/about P K Dick. From blurbs sent out by publishers to essays on science fiction and stuff about philosophy.

I've not started War and Peace...

Sorry for not noticing the true reason for debating the weather - which, btw, is gray in the greater Copenhagen area though they do promise that we don't get a flood-inducing amount of rain again like the other night (somebody had to be rescued by dinghy from standing on his car roof - having wet feet!).

My reading of the backlog must have been somewhat hurried . So, I'll promise to post no more pirate quizzes...

I'm struggling to get through more than my daily and weekly newspaper. On my night stand is an essay collection by Umberto Eco. Some of the topics are a bit hard to keep the concentration on - but when he writes well, he writes really well

Sadly I did not right any reviews for Amazon there. I tend to get too excitable and ranty when talking about books and loose any coherence I had in the first place.