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

you know, the world would be a LOT less interesting if everything was regular and sequential and logical...

..and you must agree that who/whatever decided (in the main) meat-eating humans should be made out of meat had a wicked sense of humour

sea, any news on NYU?

I know, which is why I'm glad that the Chaos Factor is still remotely unexplained. My only regret is that the Universe isn't infinite, which means that we won't be able to continue going for all eternity. But hey, Judgement Day's bound to be long before eternity comes about, along with the total heat death of the Universe, plus I doubt we'll explore the part of the Galaxy that I want to see before I die, but I'll live. I can always continue reading Isaac Asimov stories. Ah, Isaac Asimov...what would my life be without those...

*sea moans and falls onto a nearby couch- just to be dramatic*

[sea]nnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooo... no news yet. the waiting is KILLING me. it's been FIFTEEN DAYS!!! does it take THAT long for them to review my application and interview???? argh! i can't take this much longer!!!! every day at 11:30 or so, the mail comes and i SWEAR my heart stops until i go out and check it...

It reminds me of "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash," or whatever the name of that was. "Everyday I went to my mailbox to see if my Little Orphan Annie Society Decoder Ring had come yet,..."

Sea, perhaps your mail was misdelivered? If you've ever played Beureaucracy (sorry about my spelling, I'm very tired for some reason) by Douglas Adams, then you know what I'm talking about.

*sea's eyes widen to a physically impossible size*

[sea] don't even SUGGEST that possibility.... damnit, i'm not going to sleep tonight... *sob*

How appropriate for pedantic issues to cause vigorous discussion on the eve of the Pedants' Millenium!

sea, my commsierations. I think I'm up for a disappointment of my own tonight. There was a tintype I really wanted to restore that was part of a lot fo cowboy-roiented tintypes. I was seriously outbid by a collector, but I emailed him and thought I was going to be able to do the restoration anyway. Not for money but for the personal satisfaction. So tonight he tells me via email that he is so impressed by my work that it has inspired him to learn how to do it himself (he's a fine arts major), and he thinks he'll do the Hispanic cowboy himself. Sob. I wrote one more plea, then I'll turn my back on it.

Weird, because there is no money or glory in this. He's just a Mexican cowboy.

Hmmm. If we really want to get pedantic about it, we can throw in that the year of Jesus' birth was miscalculated and actually occurred around 6 BC, so that the millennium actually passed a few years ago and we all missed it. The world probably ended already too.

Lil, maybe your fine-arts major will trade you for your tutelage?

Was his name Pancho?

Hello all.
A Happy Hogmanay to you Loony, and all us other pedants
*thinks happy thoughts and swift mail for Sea*

Lil, perhaps it's one of those 'Obviously isn't meant to be' situations.

Thanks for the sentiments Titania, it's one of the reasons I stopped greeting new people, however, i have had a better return on this batch, possibly because I have stopped declaring myself as an ACE and giving out pages of links. I just offer a friendly greeting and a helping hand, should they need it. Seems to be less overwhelming.

*helps self to Y*

If we want to get really, really pedantic about it. Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 46BC - so it doesn't matter when JC was born. The modern-day calendar with a couple of minor (Gregorian) changes is still based on this.

What I want to know is why Julius Caesar invented a calendar for me 2017 years before I would need it.
We actually use Julian Dates here at work. Which always prompts the long running joke "What's the Julian date today?" to which somebody always turns to me and says "Well, what is it then?". Ho hum.

Give us back our stolen eleven days!

Kudos to anyone who correctly identifies the origin of this complaint.

Matina, let's have some salsa and tostado chips, and whatever else snacky is going.

I have had about half a dozen SubSeven port probe attempts in the past 24 hours, way over the norm. Wired.com says there is a big DNS attack in the offing for New Years, so I'm being a bit of a pest and reporting the intrusions as they come in.

It's starting to get cold down here. Really cold.

Not exactly answering Lils question but for a few hundred years Protestant England refused to adopt a calendar imposed on them by a Roman Catholic Pope (Gregory). Eventually they became 11 days out of synch with the rest of Europe.

The whole sad story lives here

(URL removed by moderator)

Night before last an acquaintance got so drunk he actually(intentionally, mind) smashed his head through the rear windshield of a car he was sitting in.

ln a happier automotive vein, a different friend of mine has just got his license back after -last year's- New Year's. l'm sure it won't be long before he gets it revoked again -- probably whilst out celebrating its return!

'Pologies for not being about much of late, and happy continued holidays to all! l'm here, just reading some backlog...

sea, if it helps -- l've gotten correspondances from colleges dated over a month before l recieved them. l guess that doesn't really help, but you can at least blame someone -- the post office.

And Fruity -- are you lurking? lf you are...tell the story of the strip club again...

Looney gets it right. The year, you should have said the year! Twas 1752.

Odra, if you feel like jumping on a soapbox, there's an article on Fox-Hunting been submitted to the peer review. Just had a little rant. D'you want the tag? Have you seen asterlil.com yet?

I wonder if I'll be wearing gloves to type, tomorrow? I am not used to this. How much snow where you are, Odra? And is your acquaintance with car claustrophobia ok?

l'd like the tag actually, yes please.

l feel quite cruelly cheated as a matter of fact, as we got -no- snow. None. lt utterly missed the Baltimore/DC area, and really didn't hit much of anything south of Philly. l feel so left out...
lt's just miserably bitterly cold here. Hasn't been above freezing for days, with wind chills usually around -23C
Consequently l've spent a lot of time at the barn breaking iced water tubs. Pawing through slushy-frozen water fishing out ice wedges isn't too fun...
Still, New Year's should be interesting in NYC, with all the snow. Snowball fights in Times Square!

Haven't seen it yet (asterlil) but l'm heading over now.

Oh, and he's fine...he was just rapping his head against the glass for no reason in particular, and someone asked him to stop, so he bashed his head against it just out of spite, and the glass, well, went. Always was rather thick-headed, though. l presume his hangover was far worse than any damage he might've inflicted...

Drat. Snow plows just came through and because they could not see the curb they plowed all the street snow onto the sidewalk that I've already shoveled three times.

Earth Mother enters with a large plate of warm "peanut blossoms" and says she hopes she hasn't missed the party. This seems like a warm and cozy place to spend the holidays. She sets the cookies on the table and says that the eggnog smells great. She'd like to have some.

Odradek, maybe your friend needs some noni juice. I'm sure it must cure hangovers - as long as your friend has faith

Matina, (maidbot) eggnogs all round please