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

2 Trees: sure, lets see some MP3s!

(From http://www.h2g2.com/F26140?thread=75849&latest=1) *there is a commotion as several thousand ants of various hues run through the salon led by Amy the Ant and disappear into QMike's apartments* Some of the ants are carrying a large bundle that squirms and shrieks* *they go through the apartments, into the Mosh Pit and into the cave system beneath the Atelier* (To: http://www.h2g2.com/F28107?thread=63332&post=681177)

I'm late................................................

Go out for the day and look what happens, still interesting things happen.

Ox, if sitar music is your current thing you should try looking for Anandar Shankars version of Jumping Jack Flash. It's a total indian, funky, sitar cover of the Stones classic. Should bring a smile to your face

Me I'm still working my way through the CD's I bought yesterday, Everlast, Alabama 3 (A3 in the US), Add N to (X), Cousteau and Moby. I've now got two copies of the Moby album play, but the one I got yesterday had a limited second CD with B-sides from the singles.

*Meanwhile, outside, the Krylma Leader is seen following the tracks left by the ants as he attempts to find one of his pets that is being kidnapped by some unknown terrible enemy. As he finds the new tunnel, KL says something about never doing anything to anyone except the heroes and dives in after his pet ants*

*ambles across terrace leaving muddy footprints grinning big grin*

Lizard is PR genius. His pet ants! heh heh heh, he means the ratant queen. AMy and Styx flush out ratant nest in Majic Wood! No more ratant soldiers for Lizard purposes!

Somebody tell Afi and Garius.

*rustling noise outside and several squadrons of brown rats scurry across salon and down steps after Lizard* commander Jenner pausing to exchange whispers with Styx then follows other rats down spiral stairs*

*Styx goes into kitchen, more muddy footprints on counter* I'm hungry.

*flops down on the couch with a telepathically-emitted apology for her existence lapse, idly wondering why she is always last to know about her friends' various sexual preferences*

*Monty, who disappeared into the aether with her, emerges and, with Freudian glee, is winding and tying himself into various knots to amuse her*

Gordian...foursquare...hangmans'...
No, dear. Rabbit goes -around- the tree. Then into the hole.

*comes up the veranda steps, singing, and stops to remove muddy shoes*
Odra! Welcome back from wherever. You have missed some excitement -- Styx and Amy seem to have flushed the ratant nest, in all senses of the word. Matina, get some roast beef out for Styxand cut him some carrot sticks, please. I'll take care of the champagne!

And have Chloe clean the floor in here. Several armies have been through, today.

*offers Odra a Y and takes one for herself*

*accepts Y*

Ah, thank you, Lil.

Ratants? *suddenly looks concerned*
l should go back over that backlog. l kept reading it "ratan" and thought they were talking about wicker furniture. l hope they haven't eaten the cat...Dio?
Diogenes?

*as Matina in the kitchen gets out carrots for Styx, Dio comes springing out of the crisper and bolts under Odra's feet, and from thence under the sofa*

Ah. There you are.

*Matina kindly brings Dio a bowl of yogurt, with which Odra coaxes him out from under the sofa*

Most of the action is out by the Aroma Cafe, in the magic wood -- thread called "Probably up to no good", although the action I'm talking about doesn't rev up till 90 or so posts in. It's not over yet, I don't think.

Have you met Chloe, Odra? She seems to be in the relation of daughter to Matina, and is in fact somewhat childlike. Made out of transluminyte, in case you're wondering why she's a bit difficult to focus on...

So how did the hippie label come about?

*squints a bit*

Blasted contacts...*bit of blinking and...*
Ah.
Hello, Chloe, pleased to meet you.

*sips champagne; python settles cozily*

The hippie label came about quite spontaneously this week during a meeting with my Lit professor. Ostensibly l was to see him about the main paper we are doing for the greater portion of our grades in that class, as all of us are to clear our thesises (is that the proper plural?) with him first.

Anyway, he asked me peripherally about the paper, and then proceeded to go on at length regarding my intentions at the college. At one point he asked me point blank,
"Why exactly are you -in- college?"

Not in a nasty or inimical way, mind, just idle curiosity l suppose.
At any rate, he (like so many and, indeed, the staff of the college itself) told me l didn't belong at St. John's, and whether l do indeed belong at college is still a question in my mind. The hippie appelation followed this segment of the conversation, which in turn was followed by his printer choking on the copy of the course syllabus he was printing for me (l'd lost mine).

He asked me what l wanted to do with my life and whether l had any plan at all or was just "drift along with a song", as he put it.

And the truth is, l've no earthly idea.

At the end of the conversation he suggested l put aside the headphones he sees me constantly sporting and instead focus on the coursework, and also to talk more in class.

"And the headset that you always wear /
A queer one from the start /
For careers, you say /
You want to be remembered for your art /
Your obsession gets you known throughout the school for being strange/
Making life-size models of the Velvet Underground from clay..."

theses.

Is the singluar of feces a fecis?

Did this Lit professor at any time comment about your academic ability or achievements to date, or even your aptitude? Or was it all a gut reaction to the headphones?

*reflects that, in her time, she has written quite a few feces statements*

He thinks me quite capable of the work, l believe. Well, in fact, l have been, as l've gotten As on both the midterm and the first essay. He merely has identified me -- and rightly, too, l suppose -- as "one of those" (a quote) -- meaning, one of those students up to the workload but not particularly motivated; the underachiever.

The sort that drives her art history and English high school teachers mad by getting 9s on a 9 point scale for essays, yet barely passing their classes for lack of homework assignments' being turned in, and the sort who gets semi-thrown out of private (US term) school for "being sociopathic, disturbed and in need of counselling), which was qualified with the statement "She reads too much."

Ah well. l'm never quite going to latch into the scholastic scene, l don't think. An acquaintance of mine claims this is represented on my astrological chart. l think it's just that l'm just bone-idle

Well, society is always pushing people to make up their minds what they're going to do with the rest of their life by age 18 or earlier. It surprises me how many actually DO make the decision and more or less stick with it.

I was an underachiever too, until I found what I wanted. That involved a socially accpetable form of running away and sort of drifting for a couple of years, and then trying 5 or 6 or 7 careers. I didn't get to programming till my mid-30's. And I'm still changing careers. What can I say? There's more than one way to live a life, but you wouldn't think it to hear your so-called counsellors.

If you were a bloke, I bet they wouldn't be calling you sociopathic and in need of counselling. You'd be called independent minded and in need of further experience.

Or did you set fire to something?

... or as an early teacher put it to my mother - I was seven years old - Loony has the apptitude but not the attitude.

Matina, glass of sparkling wine please

You wouldn't know me in public, you know. Very quiet, very reserved; l just keep to myself with my music...though l do exhibit an unhealthy fascination with matches and lighters, admittedly

l think the "disturbed" bit came from the fact that l and the two friends l had at the time (who were also "disturbed") all had a deep and abiding interest in Adams at the time and for fun, at lunch, would amuse ourselves by confusing the rest of the middle schoolers by throwing ourselves at the ground and attempting to miss.

l've decided that my future career plans consist of either moving to Portland OR, or (as l've always claimed, when asked what l'm going to do with my life), lying about in Harvard Yard making fun of all the business students.

Depending on which way the upcoming elections go, however, l would consider leaving the country as well...

Me too.

What about the horses? The pay is total crap, but it would be something you like. Again, if you're much like me, you'd bail out after a while because working in horses doesn't give you time to do ANYthing else. Still, I'm going to have one or two when I go west. They just won't be kept quite to BHS standards, which they will probably appreciate.

l'd actually consider taking up a groom's or exercise rider's job, particularly in lreland because l've known people who have and it's a lovely place. l probably would go abroad if l were doing horses for a career, though -- in this country l've run into WAY too many crazed / egomaniacal / abusive / plain nuts people in the horse business.

Most of them used to be my riding instructors.

You're moving to SF, then, Lil?

The really crazy ones turn into head girls or barn managers.

I'm thinking of a very boonified ex-ghost town called White Oaks, in Lincoln County. I'm thinking of buying some land and building a straw bale house.

Ireland is so yesterday. Come to New Zealand, home to many wonderful horses. In Australia/NZ the biggest thing happening on November 7 is not the American elections but the running of the Melbourne Cup http://www.h2g2.com/A461053

Mmmmm, Maybe I should get my maid to prepare a couple of rooms for visiting Americans....