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

So that's where you're putting the level between good and, err,... improvable. Mind you, h2g2 researchers aren't professional writers - otherwise they would be writing for a living!

Please bear with us and have mercy

Oh, that old thing? I wrote that my first day here. There's a reason I haven't done anything with it. It has no where to go.
No, my standards are not immediately discernable.
Professional writers are not good writers. They're just people who make a living doing it. Good writers are what anybody with a basic command of language can become. Many good writers are not professionals.
And, I ask for no excuses for my ineptness in many fields, because I am here to learn.
I have been writing all my life. Never made more than $300.00 in a single year for it, but I bin doin' it.
Thus, in the Writing Workshop, I am there to help. If there is anything to help. If you have ideas, bring them on. But make no excuses for anyone. I've already run into a couple of researchers this week who backed down when the going got real. They protested that they were 'only' 17 years old.
If you can type in English, it makes no difference. If you're going to write in English, prepare to have it read, no excuses. If you ask for help, I'm there.

I won't repeat the stuff from over at the 'Hemingway' thread...

Just this: It's true that a huuuuge amount of researchers is very young, and the age of 17 isn't even the youngest around here. The Programmers' society has members aged 13, and much of all the moderation rules is in place because h2g2 is aimed at being a 'family site' - full stop.

Posting to the Workshop *is* a call for help. Preferably, constructive help. Lamenting about lacking grammar in an entry without giving hints about where and how to improve IMHO isn't overly constructive.

I'm counting myself into the 'hard-boiled' fraction now (after some 9 entries which have gone through PR). I can't tell what would have happened if the first peer comments had been some rather harsh bits about my lacking skills in English. Most likely, I would have adressed the site with a gesture and left.

Now that you've put it that way. I can understand a little of your problem with me.
Um. I have no idea what IMHO means.
By the way, I have a thing about smileys.

I have behaved very badly. I have looked at your space and I wish we could have met under different circumstances.
I apologise.
I offer no excuses. Instead, I will pretend to be a better person from now on. Thank you.

On another note: I recently bought a very expensive edition of a book about Escher.
I spent years driving and repairing Volkswagens, the air-cooled type.
I had a Type 2 with Groucho Marxes face spray-painted on the front. I called it 'Julius'. I resurrected it from a friend's yard and drove it until I messed it up by cross-threading the fanbelt pulley nut. I let it go to the parts yard for $125.00. It was the first vehicle I ever loved.

Ummh, I wasn't meaning to stomp on your feet , and (un-necessary) apologises heartly accepted! I've realised too late that you're a newbie to the site

My big love was a VW Scirocco! Absolutely trusty in all respects, and scored over 220,000km in 11 years until the engine died . Never drank more than 8 litres per 100km, and averaged some 7.2litres. I wish they were building it again...


I've still got plans to write an entry about Escher and/or his tesselations but first I'll have to finish some other work. How about starting a cooperative effort? I know Dastardly is also a fan which would yield three members of the team!


and have some !

Oh, I forgot... Peer Review and especially the Workshop can use much more researchers with an incentive to give feedback. Let's keep up the good work

What would we do for an illustration?
I think Escher could be lumped in with a couple of other Swiss artists, like Mondrian(sp?) and that scream guy. At least, my leaky memory suggests he wa swiss.

I have a little tickle in my brain to do an entry on E.T.A. Hoffman and Robert W. Service.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything useful about Mondrian and the others


As to Escher... hmm, we can't post graphics here, but there *are* ways to get them. Escher's works are all copyrighted but we could link to some pieces, and there's still the (somewhat arduous) way of fiddling together a GuideML made of 1pixel elements

I wish I could import 'Paint' bit maps here.
Modrian was the chap with the ruler straight blocks of blue (he's got a shade named after him), red, yellow and white.
I wish I could remember that scream guy's name.
Besides, writing 'what you know about' doesn't say how long you've got to have known. I think thirty seconds would be about right.

You've got a point there, and I've done that already. But it was with the 'Cannibalism' entry, and I felt quite safe that no Real Life Guru on that matter would step in in order to correct me

Ah. You'd be surprised at what we eat in the New World. Have you ever heard of the 'Dirty Toe' cocktail?

I'm afraid (or should I better say, 'glad'?), no I haven't!

There's a famous bar in Alaska. They keep a preserved toe in a jar.
The truly bored and drunk are invited to....ah, you get the picture.

Edvard Munch. Norwegian.

ahem. Excuse me

Thank you. We caught that a couple of days ago. We're posting in three different conversations. Sorry about that.

Well, it's not uncommon for h2g2 conversations to drift off topic after posting number three

I repeat myself when under stress
I repeat myself when under stress

Yep. Silly question. In German text, are all Nouns capitalized?
If so, how do you handle this when handwriting?
I've been running across some German sites while researching Semmelweis.
The Hungarian sites have been interesting, too.

So, off on a tangent we go

Yes, in German all nouns and names are written with an uppercase first letter - no matter if you're typing or writing.

Oh, Semmelweis - I saw your early draft. AFAIK (As far as I know), the main point was that the doctors were switching places from dealing with patients who had died recently and the young mothers, and carried lots of germs along with them