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

Hello - sorry I didn't respond yesterday. I think I pretty much spent all day yesterday panicking about my interview today. Which as far as I can tell seemed to go well, all I can do now is wait. Apparently they expect it to be a while before they respond. As they are restructuring the whole team (22 members of staff) and each member of staff can apply for up to 4 different posts that can be interviewed for, and they are doing an interview for each post, not combing and consolidating all the application interviews that each person is going for into one interview - that's potentially a lot of interviews to get through, although of course in reality it won't be 88 interviews needing to be done, but still would take time to go through. I doubt any actual work is going to get done this month.

I went for the in person interview approach in the end, so that's possibly the first time I've gone in the office in the middle of a holiday. I made a cup of tea before the interview, checked on Ann, my pot plant (full name Leaf Ann Cleef, named after Lee Van Cleef, an actor in westerns with a leaf-pun name). I got the pot plant at graduation, when they annually get plants to decorate the stage with and then chuck them immediately after.

So hopefully I'll now be able to relax and catch up on doodling (I've a couple of interview ideas) and writing stuff for h2g2 (I've been to the cinema so have two write-ups to do, plus a tank one). And tomorrow if I get up on time I should be able to go on a running club trip to Bracknell parkrun.

Hope you have a great weekend, and with anything you are up to!

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Yes, I guessed you would have a lot on your mind in the run up to the interview. That is hassle to have to go into the office on a day off, but glad it was OK and glad it meant you could check in on Leaf Ann Cleef

Does seem like a lot of effort for limited reward, to hold up to 88 different interviews and consequently take a while to make decisions... Plus takes away from actual work being done, as you say, especially as no-one knows what they should be doing until decisions are made... Good luck with it all

Glad you have Entry ideas I have a few, too, but currently can only see posts I've already replied to (like this one, thankfully ) as everything else gives Gateway Errors...

Not too bad, anyway - I've been making progress on my photo book (as I got screenshots from when I was on TV in the audience behind the players ). Also doing crochet while listening to Cabin Pressure etc - I found 'John Finnemore, Apparently' (from 2008 repeated in 2017) on BoB, and enjoyed how it piloted ideas that were included in Souvenir Programme L was another great episode with poignant moments as well as laughs - very clever limericks, too

I am delighted to be able to have a day off interviews today. I spent the morning in Bracknell, a town in Berkshire famous for not being famous for anything. I wonder if anyone famous is from Bracknell, hang on.... Apparently the star of the Tracy Beaker television series is from Bracknell. I never watched an episode myself, but if you did, then there you go.
Bracknell was a very enjoyable parkrun course, largely flat but with a twisty wood section which made it feel like a proper trail run, and I got my fastest time for over a year. It was a good club trip and definitely rewarding.

on doing the photo book and crochet - I'll have to see about catching up with 'John Finnemore, Apparently' as I've missed that one. His dialogues are very moving, though.

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Glad you had a good parkrun tourism session I watched one episode of Tracy Beaker as it just happened to be on when I was watching TV one day, so I can picture the star. It was interesting, but not something I sought out more episodes of. Glad the parkrun was an enjoyable route

The supermarket was quiet when we arrived (yellow car) but then got busy just as we went to the checkouts. Amusingly a neighbour turned up in the queue behind us, but then the staff opened another checkout so she got through before us Not too much difference, though, so we saw each other in the car park (yellow car)(yellow car) before going home.

I made more progress with my book, but didn't finish as I spent more time birdwatching instead. No new species as it was quite hot, so most birds were hiding in the shade of vegetation, but good to get out and about. The highlight was a dragonfly zooming round and contemplating whether I was a useful plant to sit on - it didn't land, but I still was able to study it in good detail as it flew over my legs

Oh, and the Christmas Cabin Pressure episode is M for Molokai More poignance and I when Arthur blew the party blower and someone asked where he got that from, and he said, 'Oh, I always carry one of those'

A funny thing happened when I was doing parkrun - I was sworn at quite vehemently by a lady who made it quite clear that she didn't like me whistling. I apologised and said I'd whistle quietly, but explained that it was a way I find to distract myself from backpain etc and got sworn at again before she ran off ahead. When I finished the run she came up to me, apologised for being rude, and then said that she'd got a PB. So my whistling even successfully inspires people who hate it.

Yesterday we went to my sister's to look at her new kittens and the children were delighted and have persuaded my wife to let us adopt two which will happen next month when they're old enough to leave mum. After the visit we went to Alum Bay for a couple of hours, where I took my son on the chairlift, as I'd promised him a ride on the chairlift last time we were at Alum Bay, only for it to be closed then. Unusually, there was a host of about 100-200 people who I can only describe as Tibetan Monks riding, seeking enlightenment on the Needles chair lift. The lift is a return trip - you have to get off once you're on the beach and join a queue to go back up, and so as we were queuing, above our heads arose monk after monk after monk, all ascending to the heavens .

I did, however, see five yellow cars yesterday.

Today I've had another interview, and I'm glad that they're over and done with.

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That was a strange incident - glad you got an apology, and that was positive that your whistling inspired a PB I got an apology today myself, as I was out for my walk and said hello to a man, but then his dog came round the corner and lunged at my wheels, snarling and growling ... Luckily the man was able to pull the dog away, and he apologised as we both ran away in different directions...

I can imagine that was a sight to behold, with monks on the stair lift! Glad you all had a good day

Five yellow cars is impressive - I listened to the Yellow Car Game episode today

Well done on getting through the second interview, and all the best with the results

I see your son's school's steel band has been booked to give a performance in the park in September - I can imagine that will be good

Excellent news that you've caught up with the Yellow Car episode - I think my memory was playing tricks with me as I was sure it entered into the series earlier, but at least you now know that I hadn't been lying about the Yellow Car game being in the series all along.

Ooh - I've realised that this is a natural segue into my game, as I got in the post a parcel containing a copy of the 'Pope Joan's Home In Rome' without the spelling mistakes. (I don't know if you spotted, but the Pope's podium when in Asterix Airport says 'MJN Air').
Anyway, the game is the Pope and AI descriptions beyond the standard 'A comic strip of a person talking to a person' when talking to multiple people, 'A comic strip of two people' when more than 2, and page 1 is 'A comic strip of a cartoon'.
Page 4 is 'A comic strip of a person in a red hat'
Page 11 is 'A comic strip of two people at a desk' while page 12, which is identical except for the dialogue, is 'A cartoon of a person holding a cane'.
Page 13 is 'A cartoon of two people talking to a person' while the identical Page 15 is 'A comic strip of a person talking to a person'.
Page 16 has become 'A comic strip of a person holding a stick'
The 12 different people on page 19 are 'A cartoon of two people'
23 - 'A comic strip of a person talking to a person'
24 - 'A comic strip of a person and a person'
25 - 'A cartoon of a person and a person talking'
26 - 'A comic strip of two people' (6 different people on the page)
27 - 'A comic strip of a road sign'
28 - 'A comic strip of a car going off a road'
32 - 'A comic strip of military men'.
33 - 'A comic strip of cartoon characters'
34 - 'A cartoon of a military order'
36 - 'A comic strip of a soldier and a tank'
37 - 'A comic strip of a person in a red robe'
44 - 'A comic strip of a story'
47 - 'A comic strip of two people in a shower'

My next plan is for us to see 'Despicable Me 4'.

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The Yellow Car Game was worth waiting for I didn't enjoy the Q episode so much, as most of the humour was embarrassment-based but I was amused by the Travelling Lemon Game!

I did see MJN Air on the podium, but didn't appreciate it at the time like I do now

That is funny about the AI descriptions - 'a comic strip of a cartoon/story' seems hardly worth the pixels... It definitely can't count... Fascinating that it picked up on different things in pages identical except for the dialogue... I didn't get a caption on every page of my book but when I did it wasn't a difficult task for the AI: 'a person in a wheelchair playing tennis'.

I made some progress on my project today as I received an e-mail at 4pm. The e-mail raised more questions than answers (data protection, etc), but I am hopeful that the result is good enough to start telling other people about the project next week

I hope you enjoy Despicable Me 4

Excellent to see on that you have finished the Lighthouse Trail - great work Glad you had good weather for it, too

Hope you're having a good weekend! Its a break away from project work in any case.

We've been to the cinema twice, to see 'Despicable Me 4' and 'Alien Romulus'. I've done a bit of updating some of my film entries, but still some work to go on a couple before 1st January 2025.
I see you've been writing another Jane Austen entry, which I look forward to reading.

Today I did Abingdon parkrun in another club trip - Abingdon hope all who parkrun here! Another fun course, but the narrowest I've done, so in a large section there was no room to overtake anyone so much of the first lap was walking-pace as a natural bottleneck at the narrow bit prevented running. I did get to enjoy drinking a in the middle of the Thames, though.

If you don't automatically get an AI caption, there is a generate AI description option, which I think I'll keep pressing as it is amusing.

Today's the 12th anniversary of Peregrin's passing.

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12 years...

I had a bit of an unusual weekend, but it was a good break from projects, yes. The supermarket wasn't very busy (yellow car) but things had been moved around and some things were out of stock, so it was a bit faffy. More faffy yesterday as my hoover battery stopped charging, plus I needed to pump one of my tyres up - the compact pump my sister bought me last Christmas wasn't working, and the one my dad bought me many years ago also broke I did some birdwatching early in the afternoon but don't think I managed to see the spoonbills I was looking for (there were a few white blobs around, but I think they were egrets) then I went shopping to get stuff sorted out (5 x yellow car).

Yes, I enjoyed writing about another Jane Austen novel while I had the chance (and h2g2 was behaving itself just enough ). I hope you enjoy reading

Good that you got to do more parkrun tourism I hope you enjoyed the cinema sequel sessions

Aha - I found 'Generate Alt Text' Impressive that Centre Court is described as 'A building with a green wall' - accurate Also 'A bird on a tennis court', although the second similar picture is 'A bird standing on a white line', which is nearly but not quite. It also recognised (one of several) 'A person in a wheelchair serving a tennis ball'.

Further into the book it's getting confused as it struggles to count - doubles were 'a couple of people playing tennis' but then turned into 'a group of people playing tennis' Me and D's sister were 'a person and a person in a wheelchair in a stadium' and then turned into 'two men sitting in wheelchairs in a stadium' (possibly because it counted my right wheel as the left wheel of a second wheelchair ). Now it's really struggling - a picture of a scoreboard with two magpies on top is "A scoreboard with a scoreboard and a scoreboard with a scoreboard and a..." Then back to 'a person playing tennis' Amusing indeed!

"above our heads arose monk after monk after monk, all ascending to the heavens " - great to see your photos on - a sight to behold indeed

Yep, the trip to Alum Bay was quite rapturous in many ways - I sent a couple of photos to earlier too.

Hope you've got your tyres sorted - I must admit for my bike I gave up on handpumps and went for a gurt big car pump
Sorry to hear about your supermarket issues - I hate it when they do that, move things round just to try and encourage sales. It doesn't even work - if I go in the supermarket and think 'I need to buy X' then that is what I buy - supermarkets aren't relaxing places like charity shops where browsing is relaxing, they are very much a case of go in, get what you intended and go. (If they want me to browse they should at least start selling DVDs and CDs again).

Yesterday my wife and I went to London for our first ever day trip away leaving the children behind (they didn't want to come). We spent the day in the National Gallery and later on went on a Banksy hunt . We weren't actually in London long, but it was nice to get away.

This has to be the medal winner - definitely on the scoreboard: "A scoreboard with a scoreboard and a scoreboard with a scoreboard and a..."
Have you been tempted to go back over earlier books such as Career Curiosities or Pandemic Paintings to see what AI makes of those pictures? I hope there'll be at least one 'A painting of a painting'.

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Yes, a gurt big car pump is what my dad bought for me - much easier than a hand pump indeed. Sadly yesterday I set it all up, turned it on and then the fuse blew and smoke smell came out of it - the motor burned out The compact bike pump my sister gave me was easier to manoeuvre, but the nozzle wasn't as easy to attach, and the battery stopped charging This time I've gone for a compact car pump, so hopefully that will be the best of both worlds (just need a plug adaptor, as I discovered it only has a car cigarette-lighter-style plug). Luckily my tyre isn't totally flat, so it can wait for a couple more days

Yes, moving things around in the supermarket just makes people confused rather than buying the things they encounter instead of the things they want... End of aisles are tricky, too - I see there is research saying more sales are made from ends of aisles, but I miss half of them doing the zigzag pattern, even when they contain basic things like yoghurt, so I have to go hunting...

Glad you and your wife had an excellent day trip Had you been to the National Gallery before? I enjoyed my trip there a few years ago - plenty to see around Trafalgar Square

Yes, the scoreboard definitely broke the AI That is a good idea to see what it makes of the other books

with the pump - and getting an adaptor so you can use it wherever you are

I must admit my method of finding things in supermarkets is to wander along the middle aisle and look up and down all the side aisles for the sort of thing I'm looking for, so I really don't look at aisle ends at all...

I don't think I've been to the National Gallery before - I know I went on a school trip to a gallery in London, but I think that was the National Portrait Gallery next door, as nothing looked familiar. I distinctly remember that 'Candle in the Wind' was in the charts and some people went to the London HMV after to get a copy as it wasn't available on the Island.

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Joys of HESA Return and more AI fascination today, too - my boss generated something using AI and edited the HESA Return accordingly, not realising that the AI was more likely to make a mistake than the staff who supplied the original information themselves... Satisfying for me to check everything again, though, as it is educational about how the AI guesses people's names (eg Louise/Lisa - same thing ).

That is a good supermarket strategy Mum and I are gradually learning - for many years we have done the zigzag pattern, and then only in the last few months we realised we don't need to do the zigzag down aisles we never buy anything in, we can just turn round and go to a different aisle

Glad the National Gallery was something new for you both The National Portrait Gallery is also good

Another excellent Cabin Pressure episode that I listened to last night - very good how it isn't just episodic, but themes run through the series - it was Burling Day again, with a side order of Yellow Car Game

Excellent looking at your photos on - not too difficult, apart from a few times when the arrows disappeared, or it said the photo had been deleted, and one time where it said I had 'liked' something that didn't exist

Poignant Cabin Pressure episode, with Arthur trying to learn teasing by saying 'You're not looking very tall today' - was what D once said she would like to say to people who decided it was appropriate to comment on other people's weight.

Career Curiosities AI Alt Text is as amusing as you anticipated - we got a "A drawing of a cartoon" We also got "A group of drawings on a piece of paper"
- An interview with people asking questions is "A group of people with question marks"
- Two people saying a lot to each other is "A page of a paper with text"
- Two people talking are "A group of cartoon characters with text"
- A person talking to a person is "A page of a notebook with a few cartoon characters"
- The cartoon of the fire warden talking to a person sitting in an office chair is "A comic strip of a person and a child"
- The piled up in-tray is "A cartoon of a stack of coins"
- The new boss being parachuted in is "A drawing of a person holding a parachute"
- The crocodile boss biting people's heads off is "A drawing of a cartoon of a monster"
- Two people in a lift is "A drawing of a person with different expressions"
- "A cartoon of a person talking on a phone" - accurate
- "A diagram of a diagram of a computer" is a fascinating concept
- "A drawing of people and a few objects" is a different description
- "A line drawing of a cartoon character" is also a fascinating concept

That's strange, that your boss believed that AI would instantly know what correct data would be rather than members of staff. Considering that AI can't even count, I definitely wouldn't put my faith in it right now....

Do you often like things that don't exist? I think a lot of people would like world peace, but sadly that doesn't exist...

Hang on.... (gets Career Curiosities off shelf....)
I enjoyed trying to match the cartoons with the AI descriptions - sometimes there's no way to identify what's what.

Today's been a day of GCSE results - my son did better than he expected - but still has no idea what he wants to do or which college he wishes to go to. And I'll be moving into the Quality department now.

In exciting news, I don’t know if you saw but Dave Gorman's doing a couple of pre-shows at Hedge End, which geographically isn’t far from here (but difficult to get to). There is a Hedge End station, but that is no-where near. Inexplicably my wife didn't want to go but I found a friend at work who was happy to be asked. I did consider asking you but thought it would be a bit far for you to go, particularly considering the distance between the station and the theatre. Fortunately my friend both drives and has a car.

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Yes, it was most strange - I talked to my boss today, and didn't get a definitive answer about what happened, but possibly she got confused about what needed to be checked with what and changed the HESA Return rather than the AI output... Quite worrying, but hopefully she learned a lesson Yes indeed, given that AI can't tell the difference between 'a person' 'two people' and 'a group of people' it's no wonder Louise is Lisa, James is John, Irene is Ivan, etc...

I had more pump disappointment this evening - the cable arrived, so I plugged the new pump in, and the pump somehow deflated my tyre in record time Not easy trying to work out what to do while moving around with a flat tyre, but I eventually managed to find where the hand pump was hiding - not 75psi like the old electric pump could do, but I managed to get the tyre up to 40 from flat, and pumped the other tyre up from 25 to 40, so that will keep me going for a while

Yes indeed there are many 'like'able things that don't exist... I listened to the Cabin Pressure episode with the hypothetical fax machine this evening - very funny with the King of Liechtenstein playing the Yellow Car Game but awarding himself points for Black Dogs etc

Glad you enjoyed playing the AI caption game with Career Curiosities Also glad your son got pleasing results and you have a result of your interviews, too

Yay! I did see the Dave Gorman shows and noted there were some not too far from you. I did contemplate going, but it was tricky logistics indeed - there was a dot that looked like it might have been a wheelchair space, but it was all on its own, so I didn't book it. I'm glad you found someone to help you get there and I'm sure you will have an excellent time

- are you able to get a new new pump to replace the new pump?

I had a strange day today in which things did not go according to plan at all, but all worked out. This year is the 80th anniversary of D-Day and I was saying to my friend from the Island earlier this year that I'd never been to the D-Day museum in Southsea, but felt I really should. He also thought it would be a good place to go to - and said that he could get today off. Unfortunately what we hadn't realised (and I'm sure wasn't on their website before) was that today, as there is a music festival in Southsea, the D-Day museum is, in fact, closed (music festival ticket holders can go, but not the general public). So we were a bit stumped by that - expecting that this being a Bank Holiday weekend in the summer holidays would be their prime open season, but apparently not.

So we went to the Spinnaker Tower instead, as neither of us had been there either, despite it being open now for 20 years. We also had a wonder round part of Pompey we hadn't been to before to see the Square and Round Towers and then found out that another couple of friends were passing through Pompey on the way to the Island, so we were able to meet up with them for 45 minutes. So in the end it all worked out quite well, even though I didn't do what I'd expected to at all.

With Dave Gorman unfortunately the only day with tickets available was Wednesday, which I felt would have added to the awkwardness, and I'm assuming that Dave Gorman will hopefully tour again in the near future, presumably including somewhere much closer to you. He has to make a living, after all.

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