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

N1NJ4 : Wow, an American on our tiny little English (sorry, but mainly) site? I feel so cosmopolitan.
227777: I'm willing to place bets that over 90% of the active posters on this site have read it, and thus that comment is practically the most self-defeating obsolete one you could have chosen.

"...read hitchhikers guide... best book ever written"-227777

"...read hitchhikers guide... best book ever written"-227777

-wow fnord, took the words right out of my mouth, 27, did you think there may have been a reason we ignored you the first time?

by the way, although Im american, I still love soccer, sorry football

sorry I did not mean to apoligise to football, but to apoligise to you for saying soccer.

Porto has just won!!!

All the Scots in the street have suddenly become quite silent(ish).

Only watched the match here and there, though have to say the Portuguese goalkeeper is quite dishy!

az

Az

Big, fat white beer bellies are the meaning of life for some men, however we also see some ladies walking around with the same, as it is the fashion!! crop tops, hipster skirts or trousers, and the immense whiteness inbetween........great if you are a beautiful, young girl with a washboard tummy, not so great if you are not, and you don,t!!!!

Jane

hi Jane,

In fact, the Portuguese fans didn't take off their shirts so much, which was a bit of a shame as in general they were much fitter and trimmer than their Scottish counterparts.

Has been quite a bizarre experience though - having Seville turned into this heaving mass of heavy-drinking, kilt-wearing (in 38º!) Scots all over the place. Even though they were totally sh*t-faced most the time they were always quite pleasant and polite (except for peeing in the streets - ick). And whenever they saw a Porto supporter they would 'high-five' them and offer them some beer. Which I thought was quite in the proper spirit of things.

computer is growling - going to post and

az

Possibly the only reason they were being nice is because they were so drunk they couldn't tell who was who, or were incapable of being impolite. Or mabye they are just nice people. (where i would put an emoticon if i believed in them)

Could you help me out with the phrase "my computer is growling"? I have never heard a computer growl

N1NJ4 (the name doesn't mean i am a kombat fr33k)

hi N1NJ4,

My computer growls! I bought it second hand three years ago - have no idea how old it really is. Anyhow, it makes all sorts of strange sounds, especially when it's been left on for more than an hour. And when it starts going 'grrrrrrrrrrrrr' I know there is a good chance it is about to shut down or do something else weird that makes me lose my page, so then I post quickly as I have lost quite a few postings this way.

Am hoping to get new computer soon.

How can you not believe in emotions?

az

I think N1NJ4 believes in emotions, az, he just doesn't use emoticons. As to that (Az to that! Hee hee...d'oh..), yay him, neither do I, as I dislike being associated with the type of people who say things like "Heya! LOL! How r u doing? LOL! ". Then again, if you are one of those people, please don't take offence, or a gun and come and kill me. Lol. . Lol.
-m3

In a way, life is a collection of experiences. Just as life is a collection of time measures. Saying that life is a collection of experiences doesn't really say anything tho. I made the point of the experience-thing myself some time ago in here (could be a different thread, now I think about it), but decided it was not an explanation, but just a different way of saying what it is. Definitions are nice, just to know what is meant by a word. They don't, however, tell us anything about the concept itself.
The concious idea that the meaning of life could be being aware that the life is happening to us, is, in my humble opinion, bung.
I know that the thing in front of me is an apple. It's supposed to be juicy, and tends to go brown if I leave it sitting there on my desk for too long. I know this from experience. I have done that before, and know that is what is going to happen.
This experience doesn't tell me what an apple tastes like, tho...
The same goes for the meaning of life. I have tasted life, I know what it is. I even think I have an idea what it is for. We are alive for a reason, and what I think the reason is, is to enjoy ourselves and others. The idea of procreation is tempting too, but the attempt of procreation is a better meaning of life than doing the procreation itself, as far as I'm concerned.

Rant almost over...

The meaning of MY life may not be the meaning of the lives of others, nor is my idea any better or worse than that devised by anyone else. I have my beliefs, and like them. Others may (and, I am sure, do) find these despicable. Ah well, can't please everyone.

Hope to have made a contribution (OK, any comment is a contribution, but a valued one would even be better),

Signing off,
Goyahkla

Goyahkla: I admire and agree with (most of) what you are saying, the only flaw in it being that it's been said before. But I won't hold that against it.
The only thing I have a major problem with is the thing that constitutes most of it.
Yes, sure, life can be seen as a collection of experiences, but like you said, it's a pretty pointless thing to say. Many things are more than the sum of their parts, although this is physically impossible, and life is one of them. I could as easily say that life is a collection of breaths, or a group of thoughts, or cells, or energy, or a series of information, and each is true -as far as they go- but most people have figured all this out for themselves anyway.
Good contribution anyway, though....

hi Goyahkla,

I wasn't actually referring to just any old experiences, like in your apple example. Rather, having life-affirming experiences, which would have to be quite personal and subjective, but it was *our* personal lives I was talking about not LIFE in general.

Somehow I don't think I am being any less 'fuzzy'

Oh well.

az

Az, (to me at least) it wasn't fuzzy at all - or rather it wasn't TOO fuzzy.
(Finally put in a new journal entry in my space! yay!)
-m3

The meaning of life.........does there have to be a meaning???? we are just here, now, and all too soon we shall not be, however whilst we are actually here we have to make sure that we survive, that for most people means getting up in the morning, going to work, to earn enough money to pay the taxman, to ensure that we can eat, pay the mortgage, payments on the car, put an extension on the house, re-decorate, pay for the kids schooling, and out of school activities, in the summer holidays, whilst we have to keep on working, pay someone to look after the kids, or send them to summer school, buy designer trainers for little Johnny, because his friends has them, keep up with the latest fashions, hair, makeup and clothes, buy a new computer because the one you bought last week is now inutile because the latest one has more megaheads or something, oh, the neighbour has just bought a bigger house, so sell yours, get a bigger mortgage in order to have a bigger house so that everyone is suitably impressed, buy impressive wines that have a nice label to really impress your friends when they come around to dinner, after all if it is really expensive it must be good, no matter how it tastes!!!

I could go on, bit is would be boring and repetative

Jane

That should actually read, BUT THAT WOULD BE BORING AND REPETITIVE

Like this thread, then........

Which brings me back to the question, what is the meaning of life???



Jane

Can you know? Can you care? Can you have the means of finding out? Can you have the means of persuading the others? Can you get tired of this thread?
Can you remember a number?
42.
Those who can, leech.

Yep, 42 is a number that I can remember

I care very much about life, in all it,s way shapes and forms, but I don,t really know if there is actually a "meaning" to it all, does there really have to be?? we are here on this earth, we are alive, and basically we want to survive in the best way possible that we know!!

Life means different things to different people, for some it is the struggle for material possesions, for others academic achievment and acknowledgement, for some people it is fame and notoriety, for many others in our world it is simply having enough food to eat, and for many people all meaning would be lost from their lives if they lost one of their children.

We are all far too selfish and inward looking, what is the meaning of our lives? where we should really be asking, what is the meaning of someone else,s life, suffering, sadness, abuse, handicap, jealousy and hate seem to abound, we should be searching for love, harmony, peace and tolerance, which seem intangible in our world today.

Jane

I wonder how many times 42 has been given on this thread... If anyone counts, let me know.

In the meantime, I have decided the meaning of life is boring and discussing leads to a very disconnected and confusing thread. There are more important things to talk about on the subject of what is the meaning of life.

The soccer conversation was nice