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

The Floella page is on page 43 of the initial 52-page version of 'Insolvent Loonyversity' (which I think is the version you have, rather than the later 50-page version). I suspect our previous conversation about her was lost in the Blip, alas...

You'll have to let me know when/if you get to see the programme.

I did indeed get antibiotics and finished my course on Tuesday. I now am back to normal.

In theory then yes, Titchfield Abbey is somewhere I can get to - the abbey itself is about halfway between Fareham station and where we've met before. No planned strikes or engineering works, so that's always a good start. Did you have a proposed day and rough time?

Ooh, my wife has just told me that England won . I spent much of the evening running an RR10. In previous years they've cancelled it when it clashed with a major football international, but not this year.

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Going to Titchfield or wherever though very much depends on what my daughter decides to do, I'm afraid - I'm not going to leave her home alone for any substantial time. So if she goes with my wife I'm happy to meet up wherever, but if she stays with me then I'll meet you here, but won't be able to travel to meet you I'm afraid.

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Aha - I was looking in the books on my bookshelf, but book was on the computer desk Yes, Exeter were honoured to have Floella as Chancellor but of course nepotism would reign at IL...

That's good that Titchfield is closer to the station. My plans for Saturday and Sunday are currently flexible, so your family's plans are more important, of course. I will have my Nokia and should be able to get online as well so we can see what's possible. If I can't get to you this time, I can book another trip to the hotel near your house. I see online that they have decorated the rooms so the wall of weirdness has gone (a large plain white wall that gave me optical illusions until I put some coloured bottles in front of it).

Glad you got to do the RR10 without it being disrupted by I didn't see as I watched some and also saw a bit of The Titfield Thunderbolt, as it just happened to be on iPlayer - excellent to see the engine that is in the Museum of Liverpool

It looks like I will be staying in the Eastleigh area with my daughter over the weekend. So I'm still happy to meet up, but sadly won't be able to travel, sorry. But let me know what you get up to and when, there's a possibility I might go for a run at some point other than parkrun, but nothing's set in stone as yet.

Today I went back to the dentist for a 45-minute appointment and, well, the dentist was terrible.
I went expecting to have 3 fillings done, which I had assumed would be in the area my jaw ached this time last week. But the dentist said, 'I'll start with one the other side of your mouth' but the nurse wasn't there and the dentist waited for her to come in. So I was lying in the chair waiting and nothing happened until the dental nurse returned and things started, and the halfway through the nurse walked out again and everything stopped.
Eventually she returned after the dentist herself had left the room to find her and the dentist asked where she'd been and she said she needed the toilet but didn't think it was professional to say so, and then the dentist and dental nurse had an argument while I was lying there beneath them. I couldn't say anything - I had anaesthetic and had the draining thingy in my mouth - and someone getting agitated while holding a dental drill inches above your head isn't a pleasant experience.
But long story short, I only ended up having one of three fillings done, and they didn't replace the missing fillings where I'd had toothache.

And before you think I have to overdramatise everything, I'd like to emphasise that today at nammettime I went to Tesco and the record shop entirely without incident (I bought a meal deal and records by Bonnie Tyler and Bryan Adams).

In my latest , Word automatically generates AI descriptions, most of which are along the lines of 'A comic strip of two people', 'A comic strip of men talking' or 'A comic strip of a person talking to another person', but descriptions it has created that are different (whether right or wrong) include:

A comic strip of two people in a library
A cartoon of a person in a hospital bed
A cartoon of a person crying
A cartoon of a person talking to a student (no students appear on that page)
A comic strip of a person giving a cake to another person
A comic strip of a person shaking hands with another person
A comic strip of a person walking to a person in a restroom
Cartoon of a cartoon of a person giving a job interview to another person
A comic strip of a monkey
A comic strip of a police station
A comic strip of a person on a wheelchair holding a megaphone
A comic strip of a person selling tea
A cartoon of a person and a cow

I definitely find it amusing how sometimes the AI is surprisingly accurate but also gets basic things wrong (so labelling a cartoon featuring five characters as 'a comic strip about two people'). So I'll leave you to decide which of the labels above are accurate and which aren't.

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Actually, my son and wife look unlikely to go up this weekend after all - it is all based on when my father-in-law moves house so my son can help him pack, and he had thought he'd move next week but apparently that's fallen through now.

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But essentially I should be around to meet up now Saturday afternoon or anytime Sunday

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Sorry your weekend plans all changed. My plans worked out ok thanks to D’s sister who has been there before so knew lots of tips and tricks to make things easier. We got to see plenty of A long day, but definitely worth the effort

Sorry about your experience, too. . . That is shockingly unprofessional and so disappointing that you didn t even get the treatment you were expecting. . .Not overdramatising indeed. Very easy to develop a phobia - I can t say I recommend the one who took over after mine retired, as I asked a question with my mouth open and he didn t answer and then later told me off for making annoying noises. . .

That is funny about the AI alt text. I can t guess what a stereotypical student might look like, such that it identified one on a page with no students. . . Fascinating that 5 people is counted as 2 people - no wonder it struggles with hands and fingers

Sunday afternoon at Titchfield Abbey might be a good option

Quick message for now confirming that I can do Sunday at Titchfield Abbey - do you mean the Abbey itself? Give me a rough idea of time and I'll look up trains.

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Glad the plans worked out so well Ds sister didn’t think it would have been possible for us to get there on foot, so that was an impressive achievement. Excellent that we got to see the art exhibition and meet the artists, as well as exploring the historic site

The one-handed boost felt strange at the time, but post-exercise analysis confirmed it was less effort than me trying to climb the hill by myself - thank you (plus I think my keep fit has helped) as I felt a lot less fatigued after the walk than I did after the almost-flat 5k charity walk I did a few years ago Free tea was good as a restorative

Thank you very much for the book - lots in there to savour. I read a few pages last night. My favourite artwork so far is the depiction of the Covid fever - the outline of the body shape is clever and poignant at the same time

I hope you have a successful journey back.
Yes, it was a good round trip to the abbey that I think worked well - I've put the photos I took on so you should be able to see them and/or keep any for your personal use should you wish. With hindsight it probably would have been a sensible idea to leave my bike at the hotel, but the one-sided boost worked out even if a bit odd.

It was very good to have a refreshing cup of as well at the end. I arrived at the station with about five minutes before the train, so the timings all worked out very well. I hope you didn't have too long to wait after I'd left.

Glad you're enjoying the , and the Covid fever (one based on real life). I also was pleased that I finally managed to squeeze the one remaining Covid-themed page into the book on the page before, even if it is odd that it is the only page with my family in. That bit is 14 months older than the next oldest page in the .

Still, take care and hopefully see you again soon - and I'm sure we'll chat lots in the meantime.

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Thanks for the photos - some great ones there I'm still looking through all the ones I took, but will add more. I think I might have enough decent photos to make a book about the - Wimbledon regulations don't allow us to make a profit out of photos without a licence, but as you mentioned Lulu offers 'unpublished' printing, I could do that, too

Glad the timing was spot on for your train. I gathered my luggage and went outside just as D's sister arrived, so that was spot on, too

The journey home was OK - I think with it having been a busy week with sporting events it made the trains extra busy, so it was a bit cramped - one poor guy couldn't get to the seat he had booked as so many people were standing in the aisle, so had to stand behind me for a while, but he enjoyed reading my birdwatching magazine over my shoulder There was a bit of a delay at one stage, as the train hit something on the line so had to be checked for any damage, but it was able to continue, thankfully. Luckily I had booked plenty of time to make the connection to the next train, so there was no problem.

That's interesting about the other Covid page - I was impressed by your hand and Covid test artwork, too. I appreciate the fever page the most, though, as it captures the sensation perfectly

I've updated my bird list to add the 5 new species I encountered at the weekend - I'm up to 89 species for the year now, which is not bad. I added another one to my overall list, too, as a Roseate Tern is a rare bird that I hadn't seen before - I've now seen and photographed 142 different species

The Yellow Car game is funny - now I know about it I've been spotting more yellow cars than ever before There were even two outside the train station!

A funny-but-not-funny was Delay Repay from my London trip - my ticket was from A to B and I arrived at B exactly an hour later than planned due to delays and a missed connection. I applied for 60+ minutes' Delay Repay (50%), but they only gave me 30-59 minutes Delay Repay (25%) - must have decided that I arrived at 21:43:59 rather than 20:44:01 so I was delayed by less than 60 minutes Not too bad, anyway - paid for the lunch with my friend

The meeting about my proposal went quite well - the bully wasn't there and the other people made helpful suggestions for improvement. I just have to wait for the next level of approval, but hopefully that will go through OK with the meeting's overall positive endorsement

Continuing the sporting theme of this week, I found a Wheelchair Basketball taster event at work, so I went along this evening. The team have chairs for people to borrow, but sadly the good ones had all been taken by the time I arrived (I arrived 10 minutes early but everyone else had got there before me). I didn't mind overall, though - I would have liked to try a basketball chair again, as I tried one in Winchester Science Museum, but it wasn't worth risk of injury in a chair with insufficient back support, and everyone else there was way more sporty than me. I enjoyed watching the other people playing instead (a mixture of basketball players and wheelchair basketball players).

Glad to hear you had a goodish journey back, even if that was largely because you'd had the foresight to allow plenty of time for connections. Very disappointing that you didn’t get the refund you felt was deserved for the trip to London.

And I'm glad that you have enjoyed the so far. The bit after the Covid drawing, with my colleague deciding to e-mail another department and complain that I wasn't doing any work, using the words 'not minding the shop', is 100% true and happened when I was off work ill. I have no possible explanation for that.

But another thing I have no explanation for is what has happened at work this week. As you know, my current role is ending and I'll be doing something else from 1st August. Last week I was told that I need to apply for a new role by the 5th August with interviews potentially held on 7th August to find out what I'll be doing on 1st August. There is in my mind a rather glaring flaw in that timescale, but the manager of the new area doesn't seem to see it.
But then on Thursday he angered everyone in his team when he announced that, as part of the redundancies etc that had resulted in six members of staff in his department losing their roles and no longer being employed in the university, he has decided to randomly promote three team leaders to become Associate Academic Registrars. No-one who lost their job had the chance to apply, there's no reason why they have been promoted, everyone knows that those individuals have no interest in doing their jobs, learning the new records system or supporting their staff, they just got instant promotions at a time when people are getting fired.

That was a great Yellow Car photo with appropriate number plate - I definitely recommend you hunt down 'Cabin Pressure' by John Finnemore, it's a great comedy show.

That's excellent news that you've spotted a new bird overall and doing well across the board

So on Thursday night after work there was a long gathering of colleagues in the area I'll be moving to to discuss the new work situation, as there is going to be a restructure despite the manager insisting it isn't a restructure, just job roles are changing all across the department in numerous different ways and everyone will have different team structures and responsibilities, but it isn't a restructure.

This weekend was originally due to be a the Eastleigh Beer & Cider Festival, and a couple of my friends booked time off to visit, only for the date to be changed a couple of weeks ago. As they had time off now they still came over, so on Friday we went to the pub at the end of the road, where they enjoyed a meal and listening to live music, and yesterday after parkrun we walked to Winchester.

Today is a comparatively quiet day, especially as my wife is driving my son up to be with my father-in-law for a week, ahead of his moving hopefully next weekend.

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Yes, tricky when a delay is exactly on the boundary between categories, but 25% is better than nothing.

That is a strange phrase to use about someone off sick - no possible explanation indeed... Excellent comebacks that it is a shame couldn't be delivered at the time - 'to 'err' is human' indeed, and I can imagine SC would jump on that...

A few pages to check when you're rejigging the book - page 0 dates, p22 recreuit, p24 useles, p35 philospophers.

That is strange about asking people to apply for new jobs to start in the past - I thought my organisation liked to leave things to the last minute, but that is going beyond! Shocking about the promotions, too - not good that it seems regulations weren't followed (I did once get a promotion without having to do an interview, but only because my boss was able to prove that I had already been doing the job when a colleague went off sick and subsequently left). Good luck with it all

That was funny about the car numberplate - very pleasing to see a yellow car that knows it's a yellow car

That's a shame about the festival, but glad you and your friends got to make the most of the weekend, anyway I had a good weekend with an Octopus for a Preemie meeting, and a bit of birdwatching too (now up to 90 for the year, which is a good round number).

The only disappointment of the weekend was that my mum and I tried to record to DVD, but were not successful There was a 'record' button on the remote control, but after trying it and checking the user manual, we discovered the button was vestigial so the DVD player is not a DVD recorder after all Did your other friend have any luck with YouBend?

Thank you very much for letting me know about the typos you spotted - I've adjusted my copies now so once I've uploaded that to Lulu future copies will be correct - although that'll only really be the public version now and one copy for me.
The trouble is that when doodling, I write the text when drawing, but type the words on top when doing the Photoshopping polishing phase, which makes it difficult to spot what I've actually typed at time of typing, and then read what I had intended to write rather than what I actually wrote, which makes spotting the typos difficult.

I can certainly picture that the DVD makers use the same control for all their range, irrespective of whether the players has those buttons or not. Seems like it would cause unnecessary confusion and is wasteful, though.

I messaged NorthOne productions and have been able to download a copy of their mastertape, which doesn't have adverts but does have 4 or 5 minute gaps of blank screen where adverts would normally be. So that's positive - I just need to work out how to put that on a disc and hopefully make it playable.

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Thanks for sending the picture of what it looks like when you're typing over the speech bubbles - that is tricky to see whether the typing matches the text indeed. I agree it's worth doing, though - makes the text very clear to read, and I like the contrast with how the placards are handwritten text as they would be

I finished reading the book today - a great record of events. I like the ending - very apt. More excellent artwork, too - the 'hiding under the desk' panel is very funny!

Yes, it is strange about the remote control - OK they couldn't remove the useless button without changing the whole shape of the device, but they could have just left it as blank rather than putting the 'record' symbol on it and causing unnecessary confusion indeed...

I'm very glad you have a copy of the programme in some form, so it won't be lost when the powers that be decide to take it off streaming services or whatever. Good luck with copying it into different formats

Which of the labels are accurate and which aren't:

A comic strip of two people in a library - accurate

A cartoon of a person in a hospital bed - semi accurate - bed but not hospital

A cartoon of a person crying - accurate - funny toddler temper tantrum artwork!

A cartoon of a person talking to a student (no students appear on that page) - not accurate - person talking to another person *about* students, I see

A comic strip of a person giving a cake to another person - semi accurate - there is cake and people, but no giving.

A comic strip of a person shaking hands with another person - inaccurate - can't find any people shaking hands, but I wonder if it is interpreting the panel where someone is beckoning people to a meeting

A comic strip of a person walking to a person in a restroom - inaccurate - people are outside the restroom and there isn't any particular walking going on

Cartoon of a cartoon of a person giving a job interview to another person - meta! Inaccurate - no cartoons of cartoons and it is not a job interview, just two people standing opposite each other by a table

A comic strip of a monkey - accurate!

A comic strip of a police station - inaccurate - is that interpreting the cartoon of a police car, rather than police station?

A comic strip of a person on a wheelchair holding a megaphone - fascinatingly inaccurate - there is a person in a wheelchair, and a megaphone, but the person in a wheelchair isn't holding the megaphone!

A comic strip of a person selling tea - semi accurate - the tea is being given not sold

A cartoon of a person and a cow - accurate!

I'll start off with the quiz - yes, you got them all right

It recognised illness, but assumed hospital. The 'handshake' page was the one discussing the Christmas party (which actually happened with the VC, who hates it being called the Christmas party). There's walking away from the toilets but definitely not walking towards them.
I would argue that the 'monkey' is a gorilla (no tail) but whose first name is 'Monkey', so I do wonder how much of the descriptions comes from the text. Part of me wonders whether the page about a cow would have a description changed to 'Cartoon of a sheep' if I changed the text to say 'I am talking to a sheep' or words on those lines.
Similarly the 'police station' involves a building by a speech bubble containing the word 'police'.
Also the person in a wheelchair holding a megaphone - all the pictures contain 'my' character with a beard, and in the top pictures the person to my left is holding a megaphone and in the bottom pictures the person to my left is in a wheelchair, so has AI assumed they must be the same person?

Thanks again for proof-reading. I think that typing over handwritten text does increase the introduction of typos to the page.

Nothing to report here today other than having the uncertainties of work still on my mind.

How's your week going?

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Ah That is interesting about the 'handshake' page being a page with two people who have hands Fascinating about the Christmas party discussion being real... Ah, a gorilla, yes of course - given the name I wasn't sure. Highly possible that a cow called 'Sheep' would yield a caption about a sheep, given that they are both four-legged creatures... Also makes sense that the AI recognised 'person', 'megaphone' and 'wheelchair' and merged them into one because of the similarities in layout with you on the right hand side of each panel

I can imagine the uncertainties are troubling Somewhat troubling here, too, as I don't think my project has received approval yet (my boss's boss contacted me to ask questions about something else, and didn't mention anything about approval). There is still one more chance next week before the deadline passes and the other guy's project goes ahead by default. Annoying that it puts me under pressure if/when my project does get approved, as I could have been finalising it this week instead of the day before the start of the new academic year It may yet be thrown back in the bin so I daren't do anything with it without approval in case of invoking Murphy's Law...

On the plus side this week I've been doing various bits of training alongside people from around the organisation that I hadn't met before, so that was good - everyone contributed to the discussions

I also found 'Cabin Pressure' on Box of Broadcasts The first episode was very good - set the scene well, and then the humour literally and figuratively took off I particularly enjoyed the way Roger Allam imbued the word 'Sir' with layers of meaning I look forward to listening to more episodes while doing crafts

Well, maybe Monkey Kong is more an anthropomorphic apeman of indeterminate height (between 15-100ft as picture demands) than strictly a gorilla, but definitely not a monkey. But as I have a friend called Cat who isn't a cat I don't see that that matters; a by any other name. Which reminds me, I work with someone called Daisy who isn't a daisy.

Have you had any news with your project since?

I'm glad that you enjoyed 'Cabin Pressure' - it really is a treat and top-notch comedy.

On Wednesday night I did the dullest RR10 at Wide Lane, running round the sports field. But that was my 6th course so I've qualified for a league place - currently 217th out of just over 1,000 - but I'm sure I'll drop a fair bit after the next couple of runs when more people qualify. I was quite pleased as I finished 3 minutes faster than last year, even if 3 minutes slower than two years ago.

Then for reasons unknown I woke up in the early hours of the morning with the very strong smell of maple syrup. I thought that was odd, and made the mistake of googling smelling maple syrup, which of course discovered various liver disorders, with various other symptoms including nausea, loss of appetite, weight loss, headaches etc which didn't apply. So now I'm assuming it is a consequence of dinner - I had a Chinese and apparently some sweet and sour sauce is made from maple syrup.

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