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

[GDZ]

[fg]

Morning, all. This is a bit awkward, but is the Holy Grail of goofing off at work: I am posting to HooToo with an actual client in the room. He's filling out paperwork, and also cannot see my screen, so I'm not ignoring him, just pretending to do work. Still, it feels... evil

Sunny and cold here today. How is everyone?

It is allegedly warm here, I wouldn't know since I haven't been out since 7:30 this morning.

As part of our transition, they have tinkered with all of our schedules. Our hours of business are now 9am to 9pm.

*You* don't actually have to work 9-9, do you?

12 hour shifts are not all that bad if you only have a few of them. I worked noon to midnight (or midnight to noon) at the ski resort a few years ago.

No, I work 9-5:30.

{ for ACC}

for Barach Obama's speech...my family is similarly multi-cultural/multi-racial, whatever.

I agree with MR and SVG on "when in Rome"...however, I would not conform to practices that are inhumane or injurious, no matter what. Probably why I'm unlikely to move to a country that would consider such practises as normal.

Just my

Just had a long talk with a client about her medical history...

Why is it that people with psychological problems -- specifically those with psychiatric medication -- never have just the *one* mental issue. It's always a roll-call of some sort. Is it that the nature of the issues complicate other mental processes? Or that psychiatrists like to find work for themselves?

Introspection is a teriible disease...

To be fair to immigrants to Britain demanding that their way of life be preserved, that is rather the way of life that Britain says they must conform to. I still think the problem is that we say that you can do what you want in our country, we are the very bastion of doing what you want, but what we actually mean is as long as you conform to white Anglo Saxon ideals.

Personally, I couldn't care less about muslim girls wearing headscarves for eg, but I don't really understand why they aren't required to wear them in school colours. Unless there's a religious significance to their wearing something pink and flowery.

Did I mention I got an A on my first bit of Masters coursework (my teaching thing combines the normal teaching thing with part of a Masters). I am so smug, even if quite a few other people got one too.

Congrats on that A, Sol!

[SG V]

[Mol]

Congratters, Sol!

Hi, Mol!

Right. That's another piece of demon coursework firmly handed in at the very last minute by the skin of its horrid little teeth - of course, if it brushed them, it wouldn't have teeth-skin to do things by, though I have no idea where I am going with this observation, possibly because I am slightly drunk.

I am slightly drunk because today is S and my wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by going to a very posh restaurant indeed, eating ourselves silly, and drinking something expensive in a ridiculous decanter. I nearly burnt out half-way through pudding, as my stomach suddenly twigged I'd put more butter and cream and sauces and glazes into it in the past hour than I'd normally put in in a month, but we sneaked the chocolate truffles home in a tissue (not a napkin - I couldn't possibly pinch a linen napkin and this establishment couldn't possibly provide paper or even mere cotton ones). S also out-did himself and presented me with pretty jewelry, so he gets a very large gold star and seventeen brownie points.

Because I am slightly drunk, I really should avoid complicated discussions about immigrants, legal or otherwise. But I was once an immigrant, living with parents who did not speak the language and having a funny foreign name and funny foreign habits, and I tell you, it is ing hard to 'join in' and 'assimilate' and 'learn the language' when all the native citizens are standing well away from you and so busy bitching among themselves about your weird foreign habits, strange accents and difficult names that they simply can't talk to you, encourage you when you try to join in, let your children play with their children, accept your invitations to tea, and so on. 'Assimilating' under those conditions is pretty impossible. You get so very very lonely, bouncing off the cold shoulders of those who think you ought to 'learn the language' and won't talk to you so you can practice until you HAVE learnt the language, perfectly, with no accent at all, that no wonder you fall on the necks of other similar immigrants with glad cries and huddle together for some warmth. My sister and I, being second-generation, spoke the language perfectly, but we had funny names and our mother, who never got her tenses right, sent us to school with marmite sandwiches. Doomed, we were, Doomed. The temptation to dismiss the natives as mean gits and only socialise with other English speakers who knew how to make tea was unbearably strong sometimes.

Also, we weren't practicing Catholics. We were 'opted out' of Religious Instruction classes by our parents for this reason. The bullying! The bullying! And not just from the other kids!

And now I will SHUT UP before I jump up on a table and crank up the gears from subjective this-is-my-experience ranting to Sweeping Generalisation Barn-Storming.

So, turns out that I have, at this comparatively advanced age, become allergic to spring -- or at least things that bloom in spring. Dangit.

> Why is it that people with psychological problems -- specifically those with psychiatric medication -- never have just the *one* mental issue.

Not to make broad sweeping generalizations... I've noticed that some - not all - people with psychological problems like to talk about their problems. Even if they're socially unacceptable problems, like cutting yourself or exposing yourself in public. Not that I've had any experience with that, mind you... (And how do you politely get off the phone with somebody that's telling you this?) I think it's a form of self-castigation, much less painful and messy than the flail, but a bit noisier.

> but we had funny names and our mother, who never got her tenses right, sent us to school with marmite sandwiches.

So what is the present tense of 'marmite?' She marmited, she marmites, she will have marmited, she will marmite...

Does the verb "to Marmite" generally require a direct object? I can never remember.

*happy to see Mol and Kelli again*

I've just been watching a wonderful cartoon that will resonate with cat owners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q&feature=related

[Irv]

Mornin All

Last day before Easter, cloudy and cool with promises of rain. What excellent timing on behalf of the weather Bobs. I suppose next Tuesday will revert to full on Spring with sun and blue skies. Bahh...