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

I am indeed enjoying Talk Like a Day, although the team meal at an Italian at nammettime to say to my line manager before she goes on maternity leave was ruined by her going into labour this morning and not coming to work after all. Hopefully she'll name her child in honour of the day. You know, Polly or Jolly Roger or something…

I've not seen the 1950s' 'Helen of Troy' for decades! Or was it 'The Trojan Horse'? Hmm, not sure. I definitely have 'Troy' on DVD, though. That'd be an interesting subject to compare different films from different decades on, though… Not going to happen in the near future, though. Yesterday I watched 'Clerks' for the third time in the last week, just got to watch it another two times. That was after spending 90 minutes with my son's French homework, having spent earlier this week with my daughter's maths homework. It gets annoying when the only time I spend with the children during the day is doing homework with them.

At the moment I'm convinced that the number of chairs for students outside our office's hand-in hatch changes every time I go outside.

The road outside is still closed and unused – maybe something will happen on it tomorrow? Seems a wasted opportunity to me, though.

Are you manning the bookstall Saturday? (By manning I of course mean 'man' in the Latin rather than Germanic sense, 'cos s are designed for hands). Hope you enjoy that.

At the moment I'm annoyed because a few days ago I had an idea for a 1-page cartoon drawing about a dedicated female follower of fashion (wearing a brand new leopard-skin pillbox hat, naturally) and I remember thinking that it was a really, really funny idea - but I can't for the life of me remember what the idea/joke was now

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Oh wow, that was an unexpecteed change of plan yesterday... I hope all is well so that the baby doesn't need A87946483 That would be good to name the child in honour of the day!

I don't know 'Clerks' so I can't imagine what you have been gleaning from it by watching it 5 times, but good luck with that...

Ah, that is a lot of homework for your children so soon into the start of term... Difficult indeed...

"At the moment I'm convinced that the number of chairs for students outside our office's hand-in hatch changes every time I go outside." Either the powers that be are trying to gauge demand, or people are using the area as a chair exchange!

That is a wasted opportunity to have closed the road for two days already for no reason... Risk of problems later indeed... I hope today has seen some use of the space.

" 'cos s are designed for hands "

Yes indeed Yes, I am manning the stall tomorrow, with one of my pub quiz teammates, so that should be good I hope you all have a good weekend

Aargh - that is annoying that you lost the punchline of your idea... It might come back to you if you go to the place where the idea appeared and retrace your steps Fascinating what random things float through one's brain but disappear when the opportunity to write them down arises...

The baby wasn't that early –she'd decided to leave taking maternity leave until the week before the due date, so it was only a few days early. Still waiting to hear details about name, weight and exact time of birth etc.

Yesterday I watched 'Mallrats' for the second time, but will probably watch 'Clerks' for the fourth time at some point over the weekend. I've two different versions of 'Clerks' in the 10th Anniversary Boxset - the original cut and the final theatrically released cut with a soundtrack, as well as the option to watch with the 'lost scene' which hadn't been filmed due to budgetary reasons but was recreated in simple animation for the tenth anniversary DVD, and both version of the film has the option of being watched with a commentary (the first commentary was originally recorded for the laserdisc release and so they talk about turning the disc over to watch the deleted scenes, which of course you don't need to do with the DVD).
I want to do the film justice as it is one that spent several years in the 'Top 250 Films of All Time' on imdb, so there's a lot of fans out there.
I can't remember how many times I ended up watching 'Dark City' when I wrote the h2g2 review of that film, but it was definitely several…

Still nothing much happening on the road, though the Fresher's Fair is on uni land near the road. Downstairs they have deckchairs all over the place with the Solent logo, but still there's a fluctuating number of chairs outside, even though surely as teaching doesn't officially start until next week there can't be any work being submitted? I think the chairs might be being taken into the International Office if students are queuing there.

The place the idea appeared was on my journey to work, and I've recreated that the last few days when coming to work by retracing (or as I travel on a bike, does that make it recycling?) my steps/pedals. Sadly being at work got in the way of me being able to draw it right away. Still maybe it'll come back to me.

I feel disappointed and let down that my union isn't doing anything for today's climate strike. How about you?

Have a great weekend, maybe you'll find a on , or a will land on a ?

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Ah, that is good that the baby was nearly due when the labour started She was taking a chance to arrange to go out for a meal that close to the due date, though!

"I want to do the film justice as it is one that spent several years in the 'Top 250 Films of All Time' on imdb, so there's a lot of fans out there. "

That is impressive about the different versions - I watch a film twice if there is a commentary, but haven't needed more than that so far (although I sometimes pause and rewind if I didn't quite understand something the first time)

Aha! I have seen the Deckchairs http://wonkhe.com/blogs/arranging-the-deckchairs-university-branding-and-campus-furniture/ That would make sense that the chairs outside the hatch were needed for the International Office. I have shepherded a surprisingly large number of people so far, as the somehow find me even though they have to pass two receptionists to get here

That's a shame that recycling your path didn't bring the punchline back to mind yet - could well reappear on a different day when you're not thinking too hard about it

We received a strange message about the climate strike - something about having to get approval to not do the work you were not going to do at lunchtime or after work so I didn't see anything happening...

I did have an excellent weekend, thank you - we didn't sell many books (usually people are queuing outside the door at 9.50am, but this time nobody arrived until 10.30am) but it was enjoyable to look at the books ourselves, chat and drink while we were waiting I also enjoyed a visit to A87945862 - the weather wasn't great, but the views were still very impressive And I very much enjoyed meeting my parents and looking through their photos from their recent holiday in China I hope you all had a good weekend and managed to see some Heritage

If you're writing about a film with an original and director's cut(s), each with a commentary, would you watch those too?

I don’t think those chairs were supposed to have been borrowed by the International office, as their door is the other side of the set of double doors outside our office. Although the students are all back with teaching today I've not been too involved as I don't deal on a student level any more, just course level instead. Everyone else appears to be in a panic, though, so when I have a query I can't expect anyone to be able to provide an answer at the moment.

On Friday I sneaked along to the Fresher's Fair, which was held inside the new sports hall building. It was good fun – people kept giving me items of stationery, and pizza (which as I don't particularly like pizza I thought was a bit odd). I got a free Ikea bag, lots of random brochures about discounted takeaways that don't deliver to Eastleigh and they've got a lot of clubs trying to sign students up. It was impressive to see the side of uni life that goes on all around and about me but without me,

The weekend was very quiet – on Sunday when I had hoped to see heritage in Winchester it rained all day, and though I walked to the station the trains weren't running and the replacement didn't turn up, so I decided not to bother in the end, alas. Saturday was a better day, we spent the afternoon at a church in Totton where they were either holding a church fayre, or possibly a Girls' Brigade fete (not sure which) and my family performed as part of their puppet group. I think I might be being roped into the puppet group too as they need extra performers for the Christmas show; they've secured the rights to perform the soundtrack (but not the Muppets) for 'Muppet Christmas Carol' this year, which will be a UK exclusive.

Glad you had a good weekend – how far can you see from there?

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Good question - I can't say I have ever seen a film that exists with a Director's Cut, but my strategy would probably be to watch whichever was shorter and then read about the differences... I have read about how changes were made to a few different films after audience previews, but I think I like to watch the most polished versions

Ah, that is difficult that you sometimes can't get on with your work because other people are otherwise engaged at the moment... I hope all is going well. I'm still shepherding random people around, but not too many per day, so that is acceptable. Glad you enjoyed the Fresher's Fair - strange about the pizza, but always good to get more stationery

That was disappointing for you that the transport was so bad so you couldn't see any heritage after all... Glad the puppet performance was good The Christmas Show sounds like it's going to be very impressive

On a good day people can see Blackpool, the Lake District and Snowdonia from St John's Beacon On Sunday I think the visibility was about 2 miles in each direction, which is still good! Definitely plenty to see from up there

Did you have the torrential rain this morning? I hope you didn't get utterly and totally soaked if so, but I can imagine you were at least either utterly soaked, or totally soaked if so...

If you see almost any film by either Ridley Scott or James Cameron there's bound to be a Director's Cut or two out sooner or later. Of course the classic case is the 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit' series – if you watch all six films in their theatrical versions it will come to 17¼ hours, but if you watch the extended editions it will by over 20¼ hours. Of course it all depends on the nature of the Director's Cuts, usually they are as polished as the theatrical versions and restore scenes removed from the original. Or sometimes they can completely change a film's emphasis or make an upbeat or generic ending into something more interesting.
But yesterday I watched 'Clerks' for the fifth and final (for now) time, so can move on to watching 'Chasing Amy' for the second.

Yes, we had torrential rain this morning – I've had an e-mail this morning saying that Southampton Citr Library is closed for the next few days due to flooding: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49810079 My got very wet on the way to work cycling through all the big puddles, but fortunately I have spare socks. It was quite funny that outside in the subway near work there were a group of young female students in clothing that didn't look particularly waterproof who were shrieking at the sight of a puddle, almost as if they'd never seen water before. In the end rather than walk through the puddle they turned around and went back the way they came. (Which gave me an idea for a cartoon of someone screaming at the sight of a puddle – hopefully I won't forget it this time).
I wonder how the sand lizards are coping:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-49804484

What has the weather been like up there?

Work's not been too bad here – we've only had one course that's not been approved yet start this week so far.

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"Of course the classic case is the 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit' series – if you watch all six films in their theatrical versions it will come to 17¼ hours, but if you watch the extended editions it will by over 20¼ hours."

Yikes... I was able to imagine the first Lord of the Rings film was probably fairly faithful to the book, but also probably explains why I was not able to get through the book...

"usually they are as polished as the theatrical versions and restore scenes removed from the original."

Whereas I would say that there was a reason why the scenes were removed from the finished film, so putting them back in again would make the film less polished...

"Or sometimes they can completely change a film's emphasis or make an upbeat or generic ending into something more interesting."

Ah, that is a different concept - so a director makes a film that is polished to be as marketable as possible, but can indulge themselves later to make the film more artistic in a way that may or may not be of interest to audiences... I think they would still have to work quite hard to tempt me into watching such a thing, though...

Yikes, that was bad flooding - we were very lucky here that it wasn't half as bad as earlier in the year when the River Dee burst its banks. My colleague got drenched on the pavement when a car went fast through a puddle, though She didn't have spare socks, but she did have a towel and I was OK thanks to my towel The cartoon about shrieking at the sight of a puddle sounds funny indeed!

Let's hope the sand lizards are coping in the sand indeed - I didn't know there were some in Merseyside as well as Hampshire, so I will keep a look out for them I have seen a few A6017438 this year, which is always pleasing

Glad your work's been going OK. I'm still shepherding students, and a surprise construction project has started so it is rather noisy as well I'm just about managing to get my own work done in between, so it's OK...

With Director's Cuts, the issue is usually who had the right to Final Cut for the theatrical version of the film, which often wasn't the director. So a writer/director might have written a film script, but they need investment to make it. The production company makes the film and the distribution company tries to ensure that as many people see it as possible, and either of those might supply the finance to make the film (or finance may also be raised by one or more additional companies). Usually the companies that finance the film retain the right of Final Cut, so a director might have written the film and made it, but can be told 'no, we're cutting out all the scenes with, say, LBGTQ+ characters in because it won't be shown in China with them in, and making money is more important to us than your original idea'. Or they might say 'our market research says that the optimum film length is 90 minutes so if the film is longer than that we'll cut out scenes at random to make it fit.' Or because of censorship regulations. There's an infinite number of reasons why scenes might have been cut and the film changed.

So the Director's Cut is discovering the concept that inspired why the film was made to begin with, restoring what the original intention was before it was botched by the money makers. Sometimes new technology is used to achieve something that had been beyond the original production's ability such as the case with the 'Star Wars' special editions, though that's less common and far less interesting. So it can go either way.

I normally carry two pairs of spare socks in my bag and I'm on the second pair today, but hopefully the first pair will be dry when I get home to put back in the bag. I have two s at work.

The only idea I had on the way in to work today was the line, 'My dear fellow, I'm so snobby I never wear the same pair of red trousers twice', which I'm sure I'll find a home for one day. I drew about a woman encountering a puddle, but there was less shrieking and I made her a mother on the school run in the end in order to contrast her with a son who just wants to jump and splash in the puddles.

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Yes, I must admit after posting I did think of the scenario when a film could be cut to remove scenes about eg LGBTQ+ issues if the scenes might be considered challenging to the 'dominant' audience... which would lead to vicious circles of underrepresentation and explains a lot about the film industry (but not everything, as many films wouldn't even have had the scenes made in order for them to be deleted...)

"'our market research says that the optimum film length is 90 minutes so if the film is longer than that we'll cut out scenes at random to make it fit.'"

In that scenario, it is in their interests to cut well (or for the director to plan well in the first place) so that it will appeal to the target market for its content as well as length, so I would class that as 'polishing'.

The effect of new technology is another different scenario indeed - I saw a bit of one of the classic Star Wars films on my 'in laws' TV, and the film was made extra fascinating by how their TV is configured to create natural skin tones, rather than being too saturated, as it inadvertently made it look as though all the characters were in front of a green screen! I thought it was because Star Wars had been digitally enhanced, but I saw the same effect on Countryfile

Yes, interesting concepts indeed - I salute you for watching the Director's Cuts and writing about them so that I can read about them

That is a fine line about the red trousers The puddle cartoon sounds fun!

Wow, that isn't good that it is a Second Spare Sock Pair Day for you - here the morning was very pleasant, but it has gone dark now... I hope your socks are dry by the time you get home

Not every scene would have LGBTQ+ scenes in, true, but it can apply to lots of different scenarios. For example a film might have, say, an environmental angle, but if the film company is a media conglomerate and receives advertising and sponsorship money from a company in an industry that the film is criticising then they can choose to delete any critical scenes.
That's the trouble with the big budget films – the more money tied into a production, the fewer risks taken and the more conservative the films that they make are. The more interesting films are made by low budget independents who have the freedom to film anything they want to, but they don't have the money or resources of the Hollywood giants and also don't get the audiences of the bigger companies that try very hard and very well to hold onto their monopoly.
And while it is definitely in a film company's interests to cut well, they don't always. Take the classic case of 'The Avengers' (1998). That's a classic case of 'we'll cut scenes out at random to make the film last 90 minutes' and the result is an incomprehensible mess that didn't recoup its production budget yet alone break even. That ain't polishing, that's hacking. Instead of making a diamond shine and sparkle by removing a flawed corner here and there, it's getting a gurt big axe and smashing the jewel in half and hoping for the best.

I'm working from home tomorrow First time for everything. It coincides with my son having an inset day and I have to spend the day doing online training on the uni's bribery, GDPR etc etc policies. No-one's every tried to bribe me here in almost 12 years so I guess I must be doing something wrong. Might be heading to Sussex after parkrun on Saturday to see a bonfire, which I think might be a tad early. I don't know whether there's anything dry left to burn.

The chairs outside the office have all been removed and been replaced by seven ankle-high colourful cubes that I believe are for sitting on, though they're a long way down, and are located next to two knee-high tables. Honestly, I've seen dice that are bigger than they are, but admittedly no dice on coasters as these appear to be.

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy whatever it is you get up to.

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"That's the trouble with the big budget films – the more money tied into a production, the fewer risks taken and the more conservative the films that they make are. "

Yes indeed...

Yes, difficult to enable the audiences who would be interested in films with artistic freedom to see independent films when they can't get widespread release, like even the Asterix films...

"That's a classic case of 'we'll cut scenes out at random to make the film last 90 minutes' and the result is an incomprehensible mess that didn't recoup its production budget yet alone break even."

Yeah, exactly - 'hack rather than polish = lose money' gives the incentive to polish rather than hack... Is there an unhacked Director's Cut, or was there no budget for that to be done because of it making a loss?

Ooo - on the one hand exciting that you get to work at home for the first time, but on the other hand I can imagine the training is not so exciting (it must be that time of year - I have to do that training, too!) I'm sure you'll do well

I used to work at home a couple of times a month as I had to write the minutes for meetings (and I needed a lie down for an hour after driving for an hour each way to an hour long meeting A87937168 ) and it was good, that I had a specific goal to achieve and could concentrate better than in the open plan office

"No-one's every tried to bribe me here in almost 12 years so I guess I must be doing something wrong "

Yes!

The cubes sound fascinating Good for small children, but small children definitely wouldn't be able to reach to submit their work through the hatch!

Have a great weekend, and I hope the bonfire is good if you get to go (not much dry material left indeed after this week...). I don't have any specific plans, yet, but there is a high probability of good food and good company

It looks like with 'The Avengers' there was a petition a few years ago asking for a director's cut to be released, which got the response,
'As you are no doubt aware, Warner Bros. owns one of the largest libraries of film and television content in the world. Decisions as to which properties are revisited and which are not are based on a variety of factors such as company priorities, what is in the marketplace, rights issues, and many other confidential considerations. There are no current plans to revisit this property.'
So that'll be a no to the Director's Cut. I'm still hoping for a version of 'The Muppets' Christmas Carol' that reinstates 'When Love Is Gone', a song that's the emotional keystone of the whole story.

I spotted another story about lack of investment in telling a wide range of stories on the BBC website earlier, about how no-one is interested in adapting a story about four women in their 50s: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49825045

I'm fairly sure in previous years when I've done that training I went straight to the multiple-choice test and guessed the answers, but apparently they're not allowing you to do that anymore… At least it'll be better than checking six identical course set-ups for our Academic Partnership, which is getting a tad repetititititive.

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"There are no current plans to revisit this property."

Ah, I suspected as much...

That is disappointing that there was pressure to change the story rather than keep it as it is and market it accordingly (the 'purple pound' or whatever colour it is is not insubstantial...) but now that it is on stage at this stage of the 21st Century I'm hopeful it will start to do very well

"I'm fairly sure in previous years when I've done that training I went straight to the multiple-choice test and guessed the answers, but apparently they're not allowing you to do that anymore…"

Yes, it was similar here, not that I ever skipped the text but they could be completed quite quickly, whereas this training session is set up so that we have to go through each page of each exercise before being able to take the test so it is taking a while... Not bad, but I notice the typos, and whoever set the interim tests for each exercise got a bit bored at one stage, just copying a bit of the text and then asking if it was true or false - one would hope it was true indeed

"At least it'll be better than checking six identical course set-ups for our Academic Partnership, which is getting a tad repetititititive."

My working from home day went on for much longer than I was expecting - the training went on and on and on. I managed to do 8 bits – covering Bribery, GDPR, Freedom of Information, Equality & Diversity, Prevent, Security Awareness, Fire Safety and Display Screen Equipment but still have Office Safety, Risk Assessment and Manual Handling to go

Alas they didn't let you skip to the end – they have both text and a voice, and though you can read the text quickly they don't let you press the 'next' button until the voice has droned on to the end of everything you've just read. That's what I wanted to skip, I never saw the point of having it both in text and voice format, just slowed the whole process down.

And yes, there were a lot of 'true or false' questions, and to many of the questions the answer is 'all of the above'. Definitely poor punctuation as well as US Spellings, which when the subject in question is UK law is a definite no no.

Did you have a good weekend? We went to visit friends in Sussex for the whole weekend – they live in Burgess Hill, which was celebrating Bonfire Night. A tad early, I thought, but apparently in Sussex they take Bonfire Night incredibly seriously. Between a dozen and a score Sussex towns and villages have Bonfire Societies – each Bonfire Society having its own uniform – and Bonfire Season starts in August and events occur every weekend leading up to the big bonfire in Lewes. This weekend was Burgess Hill's turn, with people in costume – and many with black face paint, which seems questionable at best – carrying flaming torches through the streets (and just discarding the flaming torches on the ground as they feel like it, leaving them burning on the street in front of children). It seemed quite extraordinary, ending with fireworks and the lighting of the bonfire (although I didn't get anywhere near where the bonfire was visible when lit, but had seen it earlier in the day where it was next to a funfair). I bunged some pictures on

So how was your weekend in the end?

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Yikes, that is intense... Good luck with the last 3 bits... Makes me feel a lot better about the training I did - only took me 5 hours and the language was comparatively good as it was definitely UK-centric for starters!

That is irritating about the voice indeed - I have done some training with one of those, but the software did allow me to speed the voice up so it didn't cause too much delay compared to just reading... Some people may learn better by hearing than reading, so it is good that the option is there, but there should be a choice...

Wow, that is a different world in Sussex with all the bonfire nights... Interesting question about the black face paint indeed - reminded me that one of my local troops of Morris Dancers had (I haven't seen them for a few years) a uniform that featured black face paint, and I now wonder whether it was intended to be simply a mask to hide their identities, that just happened to be black, or whether its origins were questionable at best... They wore black and blue costumes, though, so blue would/should have been an option...

I had a good weekend as hoped The food on Saturday was good because last month there was a problem with - it wouldn't melt properly so cheese toasties were not pleasant - but this month the was back to normal so I enjoyed that. I went to RaptorWatch again, and met the RSPB volunteers I maybe saw Merlin (the bird rather than the !) but definitely saw a Marsh Harrier and plenty of Egrets

My car got another slow puncture today but hopefully it won't take too long to sort out again and then I'll put photos on and look for yours

Could that be a troop of Border Morris Dancers? They traditionally hide their faces with a variety of face paint and veils. My aunt is a member of Bloodstones Border Morris and they use a combination of black and red facepaint: http://www.bloodstonebordermorris.co.uk/ But apparently the use of face paint goes back at least five hundred years and is a pagan tradition.
I have to concede that the use of dark face paint isn't always automatically racist – for example, if you were a soldier about to go on a night raid then using face paint to camouflage your face and thus avoid being shot at clearly doesn't have racial connotations.

Have you seen the links that Icy North has sent about the Lewes effigies? That must be quite a sight.

Did you snap a photo of the Merlin, and if so would it be a new one for the list? I assume a Marsh Harrier doesn't have the same take-off ability as the Sea Harrier

Sorry to hear about the slow puncture, hope that is easily and quickly resolved. I'll be dashing off at the end of the day to head off to puppet later, so I don't know if I'll get a chance to look online before tomorrow – but I'll look when I can.

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Yes, possibly it was a troop of Border Morris Dancers - definitely different from the ones that I do see every year, with their straw hats, sashes and bells Ah, yes - the Welsh/English Border is not far away from here Thank you for the link - excellent to see the traditions are continuing, and I can imagine your aunt has great fun with those dances

I haven't seen anything about Lewes this year yet, but I have seen Icy North's links in the past - that must be quite a sight indeed...

A Merlin would be a new one for the list, but I checked my photos last night and was not able to tell if the small blob I captured was a Merlin, or just a starling or something, so I haven't added it to the list. The Marsh Harrier is definitely good at the vertical take off and landing

I hope you enjoyed the puppets last night My car was much more quickly fixed last night, so that was a relief. The road was nearly turning into a lake again, but the water managed to drain overnight so it was OK this morning. I hope your route was not too bad today.

My aunt doesn't dance any more due to her back, but she plays the accordion (and argues with my dad about whether or not it is a better squeezebox than his melodeon).

Puppets went well yesterday – we rehearsed the first two songs and some dialogue. My son is Bob Cratchett and I am Dr Bunsen Honeydew (although not really as though we have the rights to use the 'Muppet Christmas Carol' soundtrack, we're not using the Muppet puppets) who in the film is a charity collector, as well as various other background characters. The main roles are being played by the children so my wife and I, and a couple other parents, are there to provide additional numbers really. I think there's eight children and four adults?

Glad to hear you got your car fixed easily enough. There were a few tree branches down today and my gloves hadn't dried out from cycling home in the rain yesterday, so I'm in mismatching winter gloves. One pair had a big hole in the left glove and I lost last year's right glove when I discovered that my bag had a hole in, but together they work. But the puddles have drained away now compared to this time last week. It seems to be sun and showers at the moment – the light's always better after the rain to clear the sky.

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Ah, yes accordion and/or melodeon music is vital for Morris

That is good that there are various background roles played by each non-starring Muppet so the adults can take those roles as 'extras' while the children play the main characters Is your puppet green with glasses?

There's definitely something up with my car, as another warning light about the tyres lit up on the dashboard this morning, but last night I booked it in to the dealership to be looked at properly, so that will be reassuring next week. Last time I had problems with the tyres, they were almost 5 years old, but these tyres aren't even 2 years old so it is very strange...

That was a shame that you lost a glove through a hole in your bag, but makes good use of the glove with no hole Today is much colder here this morning, so if it is similar there, I can imagine you'll be using the winter gloves even though your other gloves have probably dried out by now