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

I appreciate your reserve, Lil, at moderating the flow of conversation. And that was me, KerrAvon, who agreed with you and Ben about certain famous artists being not all that and a bag of chips to everyone.

::hands a few pieces of excellent Mexican chocolate to Ag under the cushions::

Mexican chocolate, for those of you who don't know, is different from European and American chocolate--it has cinnamon in it. It's lovely.

And I too am very happy for the ivory-billed woodpecker. I wonder if there are any in Hypatia's neck of the South?

I love cemeteries. I often go for a walk around or local one, which has quite a few soldiers' graves. It's wedged into a long strip of land next to the railway and nevertheless is the most peaceful place in the entire area. Cemeteries aren't grim at all, to my mind.

I always wondered why cemeteries are supposed to be haunted? Surely they are the least likely place to haunt. If you, as a self-respecting ghost on a mission, were going to haunt somewhere, surely it'd be the scene of your death, or a person you didn't care for, or somehwere meaningful to your life? Or perhaps ghosts like the peace and quiet as much as anyone.

Thanks for the chocolate, FG. Yum!

Great job, Kelli! And a very Happy, Silly Birthday to H2G2 .

As to the new cemetary, I know what Lil means about Arlington-style landscaping. She lives in a high desert climate; to maintain the trees and grass necessary would be too expensive in terms of the water, and it wouldn't fit the local landscape -- Which is really beautiful. I love New Mexico!

SC

Desert ,should be mummification,natures method
a lazy ghost or ex sofa would not want to go far from his last resting place
An interesting side issue if you where cremated ,instead of buried would you be fuming
Been reading but since being told by the BBC on one hand politics affect every thing
Have not posted any comments re wars ,(father in Aden ,cypress, Greece) but have read back log

Two very nice but very hasty delivery men have just torn in and out of the kitchen and left me a pyramid of boxes to deal with (note, in kitchen, which is full of kitchen table, chairs, fridge, washing-up etc, and not in nice empty pre-prepared study. But then they did seem to be in a tearing hurry to deliver more boxes to someone else).

Do I open the lot now or wait for S to come home?

'...would you be fuming'

[º0O]

I figured it would have to do with the climate after thinking about it. I guess that I just assume that desert dwellers would realise that their lawns were a problem with teh local ecology but that is because I am an idealist.

[mr]

[GDZ]

I would like to see more xeriscaping up here because Montana is an arid state, but alas, people are addicted to their gigantic perfect Kentucky bluegrass lawns.

Ivory-billed woodpecker

H2G2 birthday - , and !

On the tender discussion point, I am all with the "Wikipedia is great for definition, the Guide for perspectives" attitude. Now, about those N entries I have ideas for in the drawer... I say this not to scare B further away - but in accordance with Lil's, IMHO, very sensible hostessy attitude. Unsubscribing to a thread or indeed the whole salon could be construed, in my quirky mind, as a little overdoing things. I mean - I was nearly starting to hammer my head into the table over deconstructivism. It went about a mile over my head - my neither that nor 7 wild horses would drag me away. All in a positive spirit, I hope you understand.

*temporarily leaves PC to go check if 9's well or ill - going to school tomorrow or not*

Hope 9 is feeling better! D and I have been pretty good all year...

*quickly knocks on a table leg*

A friend of mine has seen 3 colds, 2 ear infections, and an allergic reaction to medicine requiring not one but 2 trips to the emergency clinic in the last 3 weeks. She's pretty much ready to tear her hair out!

Okay, I have a question to ask you all. I have a friend who is very, very large. She has, because of her weight, severe sleep apnea, back problems, and other assorted weight issues (she's upwards of 350). Because of these, she has difficulty exercising. Now, she's getting help for the apnea (a machine) and for her high blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. The thing is, she eats very, very badly. She continually tells me how she's losing weight and eating healthy, but her house is full of chips and cookies and ice cream and all of these things she's not supposed to eat (she's also on a special diet because of her blood counts).

Now she's mad because her doctor wants her to go to a nutrionist before recommending gastric bypass surgery. I've listened to her rant and rave, but frankly, the doctor's right. She eats horribly, drives to my house (we live less than 1/4 mile apart)and the store (which is across the street from our complex), and generally isn't doing anything to help herself.

Here's the question. Do I say something? I mean, she's my friend, and I don't want to hurt her feelings, but the way she's eating and refusing to exercise means that she's simply getting bigger. Or should I just keep my mouth shut and nod when she raves about how unfair it is that they won't do the surgery?

MR (Welcome to my world, I have this problem on a scarily regular basis!)

Do try and get her to loose weight another way. You'd feel awful if she had a serious complication of surgery that you might have been able to prevent her from having.

It won't be an easy conversation to have, and she might storm off in a huff, but hopefully she'll think about it and take a reality check and learn to take responsiblity for her own health.

I'm with Z on this one. I reckon that nodding along with only backfire later when you say something and she gets huffy because she thought you agreed with her.

I'm currently also trying to shove healthy food into a friend (hence the veg soup) and whilst not going great, it's going better than planned. I think if you provide alternatives which may still appeal (so not just loads of raw veg and fruit) then it might be easier. A lot of people (myself included) have fears and hates about eating healthily because it doesn't have that same stodge and sweetness that junk food has.

Then again I comfort eat pasta and bread, which doesn't count as junk food but isn't very good in the grand scheme of things

Oh and don't worry too much about B, she'll be back when nice Mr Z drags her back. This is why I moved us two to my PS

Happy birthday h2g2! I feel so old! And I can't even prove it because I changed accounts and can't remember my old one!


Kat

My mother da mn near died during her gastric bypass. It's a risky surgery and it does not guarentee a positive outcome. ALong with the surgery there are some severe life changes hat also need to occur. She will be unable to eat many of the foods she used to be able to eat, she will have increased danger of hernias, colon problem, and many other gut related ailments. It's jsut not a good idea unless all other avenues were exhausted.

From what I have seen of the documentaries about people that have the gastric bypass surgery, it has a dramatic effect on the way they eat. They can no longer eat all sorts of things and never more than a few bites at a time.

I love my food, and the thought that I could never again have any of the things I like so much is awful. I'd much rather have them occasionally than never, and adopting a sensible, balanced, healthy eating plan means I can still have just not every day. I can still go far a chinese feast, just not every week.

It seems that a lot of people see the bypass surgery as a fix, they don't have to take any further responsibility over their bodies. Not everyone, I hasten to add - where is B4 when you need him? They are not prepared to make the lifestyle changes that would give them the same end result in a healthier and *far* more enjoyable way. Yeah so it takes longer to get to target and it is hard work, but it is far less risky that going into the operating theatre seriously obese.

MR, I would say something. You have lost a sh*tload of weight yourself so you can demonstrate that it is doable! She needs to find an exercise she is happy with - something like swimming would be good because she could get a good workout while not getting too sweaty and not stressing her joints. A difficult sell though - I hated my body is a swimming costume when I was big, and at 260 lb I was a hundred pounds lighter than she is now!

Thanks for the nice comments on my entry guys

I just want to clarify the things that I like about Wikipedia, compared to h2g2, and it boils down to two things:

- Ease of editing (and thus the up-to-dateness of things)
- The far reach of entries

Wikis aim to be so complete that within one entry you'll find links to other subjects, just as here on h2g2. However, with Wikis the links are far more common and you can literally link to something that hasn't been written, a big 'hello, write me' as it were.

Do I like the tone of some Wikis (Wikipedia in this case)? I can't say they charm me over. But again, not all of the entries on h2g2 read well either.

I just wish we could mix some of the this with the that.

In other words, I'd like to have my cake, eat it too, and have the instructions given to me in a witty way, as well as perhaps a link to choosing the perfect cake mold.

*sigh*

I open the paper today to see one of my former PLs. He's the fat bearded fellow in the middle:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/04/28/entertainer/ent07.txt

And he left me for the woman (She claims she's a "performance poet". ) wearing Birkenstocks in the lower left corner.

::mopes off in search of a glass of ::

Looks like we have created the Atelier effect. Similar, though smaller in execution, to the slashdot effect, a posted link will die once all the salonistas try to access it at once.