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

Entry: How to Restore Perkiness to Your Morning- Seven Methods Debated - A61686291
Author: zaney_the_viper - U14290576

This debates seven useful methods of restoring perkiness to your morning, with pros and cons of each.

Hello zaney

I can see that this contribution has the makings of a decent entry!

>>Method One: Coffee. The problem with coffee is that it is an acquired taste and acquiring it means choking it down until you get used to the bitter flavor.

Good coffee should not taste bitter. There is something wrong with the way you make it if it is. Maybe you could say

Method One: [Strong] Coffee. The problem with coffee is that it is an acquired taste and acquiring it means choking it down until you get used to its particular flavour.

There are a few typos and punctuation errors, but I will let others have a chance to comment before I list these, as they are not so important as the comments from others on what you have written


Lanzababy Scout

I think a very important part of being awake and perky in the morning is how (and when) you go to sleep the night before.

You don't have to go into any details, though. There's an entry on that here:
A590799 How to Get a Good Night's Sleep

Your entry describes methods based on things you can do once you are out of bed. For many people, if they're anything like me, it's the actual getting out of bed that's the problem!

This entry is really very suited to H2G2, but I think the "downsides" of all the suggestions should perhaps be played down a little. You seem to be saying "You could do ..., but .." leaving the reader with the impression that there is no real way of perking up your morning, as all the suggestions have a negative effect, or are impractical if you don't have the time or don't like doing the things suggested.

Having said that, it is, of course, always important to give both sides of the argument, but, in keeping with the title of the entry, as I say, the doubts created by these negative aspects should perhaps be softened a bit.

Hi Zaney

You've missed out a refreshing shower, for people that have showers.

Also, setting your alarm clock a bit earlier than you need to get up so you can hit the 'snooze' button a few times. On most alarm clocks the snooze goes off every nine minutes.

I agree that coffee shouldn't taste bitter, and I need two cups of coffee to wake up. I could never learn to love tea though.

I think the title is a bit long-winded, especially for first thing in the morning, maybe something a bit shorter.

Good Luck

Emmily

I agree, the title is too long. There is a limit of about 35 characters/spaces, so once the piece is finished the title should be amended.

At the moment though it could well we 'How to Restore Perkiness in the Morning' and leave off the last part (Seven Methods Debated)

This might then allow the author to add any further suggestions as they are made?

Lanzababy

Thanks for the advice! I'll add your suggestions to my article.

Don't feed your the previous evening. That way, she will be all hungry in the morning and, um, make sure you get up to feed her.

Thank you for the advice, everyone!!! I have changed my entry to include some of the suggestions you gave me and have included ways of overcoming the negative effects of each suggestion. What do you think?

A few links you could add to the article (I'm sure you can find more):

Coffee A1675
Tea A61345
The Great British Breakfast A103177

Re yoga, I think you can get DVDs as well as CDs, and DVDs might be easier for a beginner as you can watch the instructor on your TV/computer screen and copy what she does.

Re breakfast, there are modifications you can make to the "traditional English" breakfast to make it a bit healthier. Have plenty of onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and baked beans (if you have the beans on the toast you won't need much butter) and grill the bacon or sausages instead of frying them.

Nice suggestion about the but of course she may wake you up in the middle of the night If you have a small child who likes to get up early you could train them to wake you up at your preferred getting-up time and no earlier.

Hi!

The last line should be rephrased, both so it removes the 1st person reference, and to make it a little bit stronger (just a couple of lines).


Other than that, this looks like a great piece.
I don't have the mental willpower for a walk, but when possible a fryup can fix anything, especially with the cup of tea.

'Give yourself the illusion of sleeping in' I never thought of it that way. Great way to put it Zaney

A belated Welcome to h2g2 and Peer Review Zaney. I had a quick glance at your Personal Space earlier, there were so many converstaions I didn't realise you were a newbie, meant in a nice way. I hope you're enjoying hootoo and look forward to more Entries from you in the future.

No need to worry about learning GuideML and adding links and stuff, unless you want to, first timers are usually let off having to deal with all that, or at least they used to be.

Though if you do want advice on using GuideML they are plenty here who would help you.

Oh, and, I think toybox's suggestion was

Emmily

Yes it was. It doesn't even work anymore with mine

I did a few more changes. How is it now?

What are skittles? Is it a proprietary brand of cereal somewhere? If so, it needs some explanation and a capital letter. I have only heard of skittles (with a small "s") as a kids' game, or bar skittles for playing in pubs.

I understand why you have pros and cons in each point now - I'm sorry I was a bit dim about that before: it is a debate, and you are obliged to give the pros and the cons in a debate. You were right to do that and the changes I suggest aren't necessary.

Otherwise, having read it after your changes, I would say there are practically no typos or punctuation errors, and it's coming along nicely.

Skittles are a sort of sweet like M'n'M's, lots of brightly coloured little sweets. Yes, they need a capital letter. Possibly a footnote, but unless zaney wants to get to grips with GuideML this might be a job for the sub-editor.

but apart from the rainbow colours M&Ms are not like Skittles, which are chewy sweets with no in them (they're not nice, M&Ms are nice ), they are both made by Mars though.

BBC advertising restrictions, I'm not you can use a brand name, sort of, in this way an Edited Entry?

I've spotted a couple of things that need changing, both in 'Method Four' section

but isn't *two* unhealthy

beans and potatos,

potatos - potatoes

Emmily

I'll try that sentence again, as there's two words missing from it, it should be -

BBC advertising restrictions, I'm not sure you can use a brand name, sort of, in this way in an Edited Entry?

Emmily

I'm not sure I can understand brand names either Emm, and I didn't say they were the same as M'Ms.

Out of interest - how does this brand name thing affect your Baileys entry btw?

Yeah, if Mars is the brand name, what are the products Mars produce called , maybe I didn't restore my perkiness this morning

The are lots of Edited Entried on brand names, it wouldn't be a Guide to life, the universe and everything if they weren't included.

But, there is a difference between writing about a certain brand named item, and including one in an Entry. Like I said, I'm not sure if Skittles can be used or not. Maybe the Eds can confirm one way or another, then we'd all know.

Or you can email the Scout forum for advice lanzababy.

Emmily

Well, if Skittles are sweets, then they can be replaced with "sweets".

Another brand name entry that we have is Marmite. There are probably things about cars and Apple computers too.