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

I haven't done much today. I washed a couple of loads of dishes and cleaned the sink; I made a *huge* pan of soup (Sweetcorn and Mushroom, thanks for asking! ) and generally slobbed about. I even fell asleep for an hour in the middle of the day...

I got "volunteered" to help out a Mental Health charity connect their machines to the internet. I wish people wouldn't do that without asking me. I'm going along to fix them up on Friday lunchtime.

I'm watching "Pornstar - the story of Ron Jeremy". It's rather funny, but I need to change channel for "The District" in ten minutes.

It's a marvel to me that you don't get bored watching TV.

I used to, but nowadays I watch my TV in a window on one of my PC screens, allowing me to watch TV, Mustardland and Hootoo, while also working on web page designs.

I've been out all day with Doug, Sue and Dagesh; we just dropped Dagesh off at the airport and came home via Lidl. Full report later...

Amazing, Peet - you are a true multi-tasker! I can just about do the ironing and watch TV at the same time, but that's my limit. Can't even listen to TA and post in Mustardland simultaneously, as some MBers are able to do.

It's not "real" multi-shirki... I mean tasking, in that everything's on the same two screens, and the TV's the only one that produces sound, so I can follow the programme even when my eyes are off it.

Hmm, yes, I think I see what you mean, however my problem is not my eyes but my brain, which these days will only do one thing at a time!

That much? You must tell me your secret!

I've been meaning to ask this for some time. What on earth is mustardland? Somewhere hot, yellow, and.......?

I understand now! I thought I made a tremendous advance in multi tasking when I transferred the TV from the bedroom to the study, but your arrangement is much better and keeps the TV picture small, which is all that it deserves. I'm talking French TV and much of BBC Prime which is dire. And BBC world which is boring with one or two pearls (sometimes we get Panorama, sometimes we don't) and they keep their schedules muddled. Still I must see about watching on my computer screen.

But The Practice Peet, how can you, the bad acting, the actresses' hair, the ludicrous storylines (I have never got over that head in a briefcase), the legal inaccuracies, the incredible disregard for verisimilitude, the excruciating political correctness :one black man, one black woman, three or four white women -one overweight-, two white men. Have any elderly or disabled or Native Indian lawyers got on board yet?

I hope I am not trampling on your sensitive feelings Peet but I feel I can since they must look so tiny on your screen...

Mustardland is the witty name given to the worthy community of people who listen carefully and critically to The Archers, the echt-BBC programme on everyday stories of the English countryside (nightly at 7, omnibus on Sunday). The wallpaper of the message boards is yellow hence the name.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/

Thank you. As I don't liten to the Archers I won't be joining them. But I like the idea....

I don't listen any more... At the local, The Bull, you can enjoy vigorous and frivolous discussions of everything on earth except The Archers (and the General Election and the war in Iraq...). They would welcome a person with such a natty name. Go on, dip a toe.

Okay I'll think about it - thanks for the compliments on my ridiculous name

Martine, the last (well, most recently shown; I think they stopped at the 2002 episodes) couple of series of "The Practice" was rather good! That's the couple of series after the "head in a briefcase" storyline. David E Kelley knew a good plotline when he daw one, and damn the legal accuracy! (See "Ally MacBeal" for details... )

Red, yup, I think you might find Mustardland amusing. If you already have a username/password for one of the non-DNA BBC boards you can freely log in and wander around; if you wait a couple of months it's transferring to DNA, and you'll be anle to get in with your hootoo account.

Oh, and Martine, I have two 21" monitors on my computer, and if I feel the need I can maximise the picture onto one of them, so it doesn't *have* to be small...

(daw = saw )

On multitasking: I rarely sit down to crochet without the TV on. It's not that crochet is mindnumbingly boring and I need a distraction. On the contrary, I need to constantly count stitches and remember a complex pattern of stitches.

However, with the TV on, I'm inclined to glance up at the screen a couple times per minute. Without the TV on, I'll just sit there closely focused on these tiny stitches, and it doesn't take long before my focus length gets "stuck" in close mode. When I finally put down my work, it takes several minutes to re-focus on things across the room afterwards.

If there's really nothing on worth watching (you'd think with 150 channels on the satellite that would *never* happen, but it happens more often than I care to think about! ), I'll usually just put it on the Weather Channel.