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

The interview went well. I'm going home now.

That's good news!

Z (feeling slightly overwhelmed by the amount of work I've got to do in such a short space of time, all s, s etc are needed. Basically I want attention !)

That is encouraging news, GDZ.

*Gives Z a nice shoulder rub, a proven stress reducer.*

Amy, I'm glad you are feeling better. You'll have to work on those 'missing the floor' skills.

*appeciates WM's back rub*

*Gazes attentively at Z over the top of her glasses*

*blinks*

*(...in a nice way)*

Of course

How are you B? Feeling any better?

*see what it says in my name*

I think it's time for a group shoulder rub.

I haven't read Trollope since I was 17 years old. Didn't like him much then, maybe I should give him another go. And I like George Eliot too, but found the key to getting into Silas Marner was a 7-hour flight with nothing else to do.

For some reason the director of one of the libraries in my area always knows when someone needs their neck and shoulders massaged. And she's really good at it. You can be sitting there all stiff and uncomfortable - but bravely keeping it to yourself - and she'll trot over and start kneading your shoulder or whatever. It's uncanny. The first time she did it to me, it put me off, but it felt so darn good that I forced myself to put up with it.

Was it a company you're actually interested in, GDZ? In Salt Lake?

I've worked with people like that Hyp. It's nice, at times.

Well, geez, you've all been busy! Glad to hear the interview went well, GDZ, and that Amy seems to be healing nicely, and hoping that Ag's honey got home okay.

Today was the big day...D got her formal diagnosis of ADHD with complications from dysgraphia, so now the school district has to 1) actually do something and 2) pay the military back for the money it put out to do the testing. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when an officer in full military dress uniform arrives at the district office with a lawsuit in hand. What *were* they thinking?

She's also gotten a prescription for *gulp* Adderall, which, according to the package insert, is basically various forms of amphetamines. I'm still ditering on that particular lump. I'm thinking of trying a homeopathic remedy first, just because putting my kid on speed is an idea I'm having a tough time with. And what the heck does "emotional lability" mean, anywho? It's one of the side effects, along with loss of appetite (great, my tiny boo is going to get smaller!), and I have no idea what it means.

The company I interviewed with is a placement agency. The interview really consisted of them finding out where my work interests lay so that they can place me properly.

B - the book you're referring to is We, by Zamyatin.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1634/Ant.html

Haven't read it, myself. I've read most of the anti-utopian/socially concious fiction on my own, and on purpose. I especially enjoyed Walden II, and Animal Farm. Guess I should pick up We - but I'm already reading three books at the moment (Kinky Friedman's Walk Through Austin, Pat Buchanan's Where The Right Went Wrong, and when I'm feeling down I'll pick up Truth, by Terry Pratchett.) I'm with you, Lil, Small Gods is probably my favorite book. It's also the first book of his I ever read.

Agapanthus - it's my opinion - as long as your chest isn't still filled with disgusting fluids - that the best thing for a head cold is exercise. It drives out some of the infection, heats up your head, and generally makes things work better. You have to be careful, though - too much and it'll get worse. I usually ignore cold symptoms and continue to exercise, coughing wildly and frightening the people at the YMCA. Then I end up being sick-sick for a couple of days, staying in bed and coughing wildly.

Hypatia - I used to have a supervisor who would give spontaneous back rubs; unfortunately, she usually had a motive: passing off work to me that she hadn't completed or wasn't interested in doing. She'd come over, ask "How ya doin?" rub my shoulder, then say "I've got something that you'd just love to work on." Made me cringe.

Montana - there are effective homeopathic remedies, but at the moment they're illegal. And depending upon how young D is, it might not be a good idea anyway. Good luck with your squidling - it's a hard decision to make!

I thought that was the book. I've read it. Well, most of it. I don't really do dystopia novels. They make me cross. It's very... ummm... quiet, I think is the word. Very Hamlet. Not much happens in a very intense sort of way. The blurb for my copy said that it inspired Brave New World (or possibly 1984), although I wasn't sure if that actually meant inspired or in the same vein.

Good luck with D, MT. And sock it to the local authorities.

You've remonded me, thouh, that I'm in a bit of a quandry at the moment and must do some research into dyslexia and especially dyspraxia, as we have yet another trainee who informed us half way though a course that her seeming inability to plan a coherent lesson might be caused by the fact that she has both. I think we are going to have to put an explicit question on our application form (obviously the one we have now is too vaugue) and then decide once and for all whether we are really set up for it or whether we should recommend them to someone who is (read: the FE colleges who have to figure out a way to deal with it). I spent hours this course figuring out tricks she could use to get herself through an hours teaching without losing track of where she was or what she was doing. I have to say, it's a credit to her coping mechanisms that she isn't the worst trainee on the course this time. Even so, I can't help thinking that this isn't the profession for someone who can't spot patterns and can't do sequencing. Z, you have dyslexia, don't you? What do you think?

Oh yeah, great classic book recommendations. Trollope is good, although I was always put off by the fact that he's John Major's favourite author. Apparently.

I liked Defoe's Moll Flanders. And Dangerous Liasons by Some French Author. I also have a bit of a thing about Russian classics, which should be advertised under the heading of 'Not as depressing as you think'. Except Dostoyevsky, who is. Bulgakov's Master and Margarita is superb if you like magic realism, and really not how I expected it to be at all. I liked War and Peace too, but even most Russians admit to skipping the 'War' parts. Do not touch Anna Karenina with a barge pole. Terribly annoying woman.

I also recommend Sons and Lovers (Laurence) and the French Leiutenant's Woman (Fowles), both of which I was forced to read at school. Actually I hated Sons and Lovers but it's very well written and one scene - the mother standing in the moonlit garden will haunt me periodically till the end of my days. The other is a clever book. I like clever books. I read the Maggot by him too, but I didn't understand it at all.

And.. rigt I think I'll stop now...

When I was working in Germany one of my colleagues used to give the most fabulous back-rubs. I would sit there and have to remind myself "must not make sex-noises at work - must not make sex-noises at work" which is ironic, because the oooohhhs and aaaahhhs I wanted to make were much more like Meg Ryan larging it up than me actually in the act. I really could do with a back-rub right now though.

>> I can't wait to see the look on their faces when an officer in full military dress uniform arrives at the district office with a lawsuit in hand. What *were* they thinking?

How come? I must have missed a bit of the saga there.


>> I'm thinking of trying a homeopathic remedy first, just because putting my kid on speed is an idea I'm having a tough time with.

I would be really *really* careful about putting her on speed too. If you do go for a homeopathic approach, (and it can be incredibly successful, viz me), then find yourself a good homeopath, don't try to self-prescribe. You wouldn't self-prescribe 'normal' medicine, now, would you?

A friend of mine who is an accomplished NLPer has had incredibly good drug-free results with ADHD too. However there are more crap NLPers out there than good ones, which is a frustration for those of us who aren't crap.


Feeling marginally better today. Ache all over and have what is so delightfully termed 'a productive' cough. Oh and a mild headache. And I have fed the cold so well that I have put on 6lbs!

B

H was out last night for an awards thingy, No1 son was down at the pub and the bottle of cheap plonk in the larder was calling me. Stupidly I managed to drink the bottle. Well, not the bottle, but it's contents. I am swearing off alcohol, for a while, it's not my friend.