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

At least it's no longer thursday.

Santra, you need to drink lime blossom tea.

Right now I'm drinking dark wheat beer for the vitamins... Likely won't help on other things than my psychological well-being

G'mornings, all.

I have just been very bad and consumed two s for breakfast. I'm rather at peace with this decision, though, seeing as only one of them had sprinkles.

*sips *

Still in training at the new gig, as I will be for 6 more weeks. It's a whole firehose of information from which we drink. Need coffee badly to prepare for the day ahead.

Morning all.

I get to break out my PC Tech skills today, been a while since I got to do that. In-law's computer broke a couple of days ago, get to see if I can fix it for them.

My author talk at the library last night ran very long and I was 2 hours late getting home. The dogs, here alone for 13 hours, were not amused. They can get pretty mouthy when they're alone and their supper is delayed.

Poor s!

Marv, glad to hear work is progressing as expected, sorry to hear that it is training by firehose. That tends to be what happens in the tech industry, though - at least that's the way it is when there IS training!

*sips *

Hmm. Lack of sleep was not directly my fault. Or, well, it was, since I needed to get up early so that I could show my old college to a friend of the family since they can't get an *official* tour. But when I *did* get into bed, I spent a couple hours tossing and turning, feeling too hot.

... and I just got a phonecall from my mom. Said family-friend was supposed to arrive at my mom's house 20 minutes ago at the latest, and they are still not there. This particular family-friend is kind of notorious for that sort of thing. (When my mom told my sister that they were going to arrive between 10 and 10:30 AM, my sister replied, "So, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, right?")

I.m here, for any given definition of here. Here being somewhere in ayrshire. im posting from a nintendo DSi which is tiresome.

mini

We have a neighbor like that, no concept of consideration for others. She was an hour late for her own daughter's wedding. Really, there needs to be a special Darwin award for that.

Wow. A bit of backlog there.

Glad to be through it.

Hi!

*continues typing madly*

Today, I saw something that restored my hope for humankind, on a small scale.

A young mother got on the bus I was on, with a pram. As soon as she had secured the pram, she unwrapped her baby and even unzipped his/her overall.

A few stops down the line, an old lady pushing a zimmer frame approached the wide doors in the middle. As soon as the young mother saw her, she got up and moved the pram to make it as easy as possible for the old lady to get her zimmer frame onboard.

This might not sound like much, but the young woman displayed two qualities that I have found missing in so many young people of today:

Common Sense

and

Consideration

And don't get me started on the common sense of unwrapping/undressing babies and small kids once you get indoors (during winter). I don't know how much screaming I've heard in supermarkets, shopping malls and other indoor public areas from overheated kids. How hard can it be to understand that your kid is hot and, as a result, extremely uncomfortable? Argh.

Common Sense and Consideration are sadly lacking these days on the whole. I'm glad that you got to witness both in action, Ti!

*sips *

Nice, Ti. And I agree, common sense and consideration are two things sorely lacking. As is courtesy. Only thing - I do not think it is solely - maybe not even mainly - the youngsters who excel in the lacking. I surely come across behaviour that stands against what I was brought up with in just about all sorts of people.

As I do come across pleasure and surprise such as yours about things done by all sorts and expressed by all sorts. So, there is hope

Last week, problems with the stove in our house (we've owned it for nearly a year now) had added up enough that we felt justified in calling a repairman. (That, and the home warranty our realtor paid for was about to run out).

He was supposed to be here "between 8 and noon". It is now half-past noon. I'm told he's running late, but he'll call before he comes by.

[egon]

Re: Ti's point - I sometimes surprise people massively by offering to help carry bags/open doors/give up my seat/get push-chairs out of trains etc. It saddens me that it surprises people.

I find whisky surprisingly medicinal. I only seem to drink it when I'm feeling unwell.

When I've been abroad, which is rare, people are helpful, which is nice, but sometimes they are too helpful.

I wonder whether I'm the only one here who puts their groceries in a certain order on the conveyor so that they will be packed rationally and without ruining the goods? For example, you never pack bread goods or boxes of rice with frozen or cold stuff, because it ruins the baked goods by raising condensation (and hastens mold), and rice boxes will quickly swell. And cans of soup do not go on top of bananas or tomatoes. Etc. You can't depend on the cashier to understand this, because apparently it's no longer part of their training, so rather than sound all anal and picky, I just make sure the stuff reaches the cashier in a packable sequence.

Invariably, the person in front of me will perceive that I'm handicapped and not just offer to help but will suddenly reach into my cart and start pulling stuff out and plonking it down all out of order, shouting "Here, let me help you!!" because if I'm on wheels then I must also be deaf and slightly retarded. What do you do?

Mark you, it's been a couple of years since I shopped for myself (except online), but when I did, this almost always happened. I would grit my teeth and do my best to rearrange the goods before they got to the cashier, which sometimes left the helper looking puzzled or wary. You can almost see the thought bubble form: "Well, that's the last time I try to help anybody..."

Because if you're on wheels then not only are you deaf and slightly retarded, but you might be crazy as well.

Eh, I meant 'abroad' as in 'out of the house' as opposed to 'in another country'.