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

So be it:
weekend from tomorow till Sunday!

One thing I heard from a girl in my Swedish class:
When she met some Swedish friends of her in Germany, they became crazy, when they went by a store that is named "Knüllerkiste" which means translated, a box where you can find things at very low prises (Scoopbox or something like that). She also told me what is so funny about it. Well...
Perhaps, somebody should tell the manager - but not me!

Heheh.. Well, that is fairly amusing, I must say. But I guess it's only amusing if you're Swedish and possibly a bit drunk.
Another day of nothing to do, since most of our clients have the day off today. After that, weekend, with the Monaco Grand Prix and possibly the start of moving out to the new apartment. Wahooo!

May I be so rude to ask what you do then?
Wait! I'll go first! I'm 17, so that means I'm still in school. AARGH!
And to think that I actually spent 4 hours this morning on my free day in school doing maths.... please shoot me!

Hehe.. the knuller thing is pretty funny.. if like LIS says, you're slightly drunk...

btw I do not advice going to bed at 2 am to wake up at 6 am and do maths for four hours... it's unhealthy! (I'm very jealous of all the people who are past this stage in their lives....)

Miriam\

Of course you may be so rude. BUt if I give you permission, then it's not rude, is it? Anyways..

What I do: Well, I answer the phone, logging faults for a pretty major player in the computer business (company with three blue letters). When our customers have a failure of some sort, they call us (meaning myself and my colleagues) and we log their fault and then send it off for an engineer to deal with.
We spend most of our time just sitting around, waiting for people to call, though.

You spend time at school on your day off to do maths? *shudder* I could never do that. I don't agree too much with maths.

I can counter your advice with an even better one. Don't go to bed at 1 am, toss and turn for an hour and a half and then get up at 6 am to go to work for 8 hours. Now that is unhealthy. But then again, that's what I get paid for.

I don't understand why so many people hate maths...

1. When you got a bad teacher, you'll show him by making all the answers exactly right - he (or her) will explode, and you get a good mark and a nasty grin! But Danger: Don't be too enthusiastic and become a Nerd.
2. An attractive teacher can be caught, when you permit that you have got problems with the theory...
...OK most of them are no beautifull charming people, and the second point does work at almost all topics.


Global Player with 3 Big Blue letters... Bosch?

I can't really say that I hate Maths, I just don't agree with it very much. Doing something absolutely right can piss the teacher off pretty good as well. For instance, if you point out that something in the maths book is incorrect didn't get my teacher to appreciate my efforts in finding the error. I mean, is it my fault that I knew that a marathon is 42,195 metres and he didn't?
What I'm saying is that I wouldn't voluntarily do four hours of maths on a day off, that's all.

And since when do you spell Bosch with three letters?

Two Statements, two times missed the point?

1. Yes, maths can be boaring!
2. I have great respect (if not to say: love) for IBM, that's true!

back in a minute

If I just had been able to explore the maths side of things in a bit different way than the SChool way, I think I could have really started to like mathmatics. However, school system don't really encourage pupils to think in new, creative ways to get things right, and therefor stifle the interest in maths, and other subjects as well.
I think I taught myself a whole lot more maths when I got to think for myself than when I was in school. The problem for me in school wasn't the maths itself, but the reason why we had to use it. I never got the hang of equations in school, mostly because noone could give me a good example of when I might need it in real life. Then, when I finally got the hang of it, they asked me to explain how I had come to the conclusion I had, and I couldn't explain it, so they told me I had to have done something wrong.
Anyways, I don't agree too much with maths, and I don't think I ever will.

Agree!

But philosophie wouldn't help poor Miriam with her specific problem: How can I manage the xxx homework!

So, as engineer in spee, I'm quite good at calculating things, which does not means that I am a mathematician (?). That means, in 98% of homework problems I find the solution in relative short time...

what is left to say?

Maths is perhaps equal to a language, ther is also a set of vocabularies you just have to lern. Then there are some standart sentences, which you have to learn also, because the grammatic rules are to difficult to build them on your own. And then, in 99,9% of all cases the right answer of a possible question can be find in a certain book.
- Axiom, Deffinition
- Sentences
- Tasks, the way you solv them is like writing a story, you want other people to understand what you did (if you are not Franz Kafka, Arno Schmidt or James Hattfield!)

calculating
jj

Oh I agree too!!
They want you to calculate it this and this way, and if you do it any other way, or can't explain what you did sufficiently it's wrong... and since you just learned to do it in that way it's rather hard to explain it too...
And that's why I speant my free time trying to get the nonsense stuck in my head... sadly my copybook fills up quicker with drawing than with correct calculations
(In fact, after a test my teachers ask what I drew this time (I only draw after finishing the test though!) and my English teacher is quite fond of the Swedish I once scribbled over my testpaper ).
Hmm.... talking about Swedish (and getting off the scary subject of maths ) I went to an island called St Barths Saturday, it's pretty close to here, so we went by sailboat (with my classmates, never saw so many people barf at once! Yuck!), and apparently the island belonged to the Swedes at some point (did you know that? Did they teach you that in history? ), but it's French now.... anyhow, there's still some blue/yellow-cross flags around the place and Swedish streetsigns, funnily enough I found one saying Kyrkogatan, and a very good friend of mine lives in Kyrkogatan in Örebro, so now I'm wondering how common this streetname is, does every town in Sweden have a Kyrkogatan? (I'm chatting on and on again, aren't I?)
So we were eating at this place there, and inside there's all this Swedish stuff (even a picture of Karl Gustaf (Gustav?)!), so I asked the guy behind the bar if anybody there actually speaks Swedish (normally I don't think twice about talking to strangers, but following LIS' advice, I had to try..), but only the owner did, and he wasn't there And there wasn't anything else Swedish to find on the island...
Well... I guess I should stop rambling now and get on to my homework

So JJ, do you want to share something about what you do on a daily basis in your life?

Hej då..
Miriam

Oh I agree too!!
They want you to calculate it this and this way, and if you do it any other way, or can't explain what you did sufficiently it's wrong... and since you just learned to do it in that way it's rather hard to explain it too...
And that's why I speant my free time trying to get the nonsense stuck in my head... sadly my copybook fills up quicker with drawing than with correct calculations
(In fact, after a test my teachers ask what I drew this time (I only draw after finishing the test though!) and my English teacher is quite fond of the Swedish I once scribbled over my testpaper ).
Hmm.... talking about Swedish (and getting off the scary subject of maths ) I went to an island called St Barths Saturday, it's pretty close to here, so we went by sailboat (with my classmates, never saw so many people barf at once! Yuck!), and apparently the island belonged to the Swedes at some point (did you know that? Did they teach you that in history? ), but it's French now.... anyhow, there's still some blue/yellow-cross flags around the place and Swedish streetsigns, funnily enough I found one saying Kyrkogatan, and a very good friend of mine lives in Kyrkogatan in Örebro, so now I'm wondering how common this streetname is, does every town in Sweden have a Kyrkogatan? (I'm chatting on and on again, aren't I?)
So we were eating at this place there, and inside there's all this Swedish stuff (even a picture of Karl Gustaf (Gustav?)!), so I asked the guy behind the bar if anybody there actually speaks Swedish (normally I don't think twice about talking to strangers, but following LIS' advice, I had to try..), but only the owner did, and he wasn't there And there wasn't anything else Swedish to find on the island...
Well... I guess I should stop rambling now and get on to my homework

So JJ, do you want to share something about what you do on a daily basis in your life?

Hej då..
Miriam

Yes, Miriam, I knew that there was an island in the Caribbean that once belonged to Sweden. I wasn't too sure of what island it was, though. St Barths sounds familiar, though. And to answer your question about 'Kyrkogatan', I could pretty safely say that most towns and cities in Sweden has a 'Kyrkogatan'. This is basically because 'Kyrkogatan' means "Church Street" and most towns and cities has a church with a road or street leading up to it.
I think that if you would like to find Swedish literature and possibly movies, St. Barths may be a good bet, since they have their Swedish history, and from what I've heard they try to keep that, if only for the sake of history.

Isn't it just the worst thing possible when you get disallowed an answer at tests just because you either couldn't really explain how you got to the solution you did, or if you got the right answers from the wrong book, and the teacher hadn't bothered to check if those answers supplied were really correct? (Long sentence)
As I said before, I don't have to be a philosopher to learn maths, I just want to know when Ican get any use of what I learn.

I thought so Well, it was pretty funny anyway, especially since everybody else was like: what on earth do you want a picture of a streetsign for?! (and I love making my classmates think I'm slightly crazy ). Come to think of it... there was a big church next to the school the sign was on... that explains a lot

As soon as I noticed the Swedish flag I really wanted to look around, but we only had 20 minutes before the shops were closing and as you can imagine nobody else was much interested in a bookstore, and I didn't really want to go wandering around by myself on a strange island... oh well.. perhaps I can write to someplace there to find out more...

Yup! My fantasy fails to come up with that answer too (and I don't think I have a lack of fantasy )... but don't try to ask a teacher, because they'll never answer such a question anyway...

Miriam\

I can totally understand that you didn't feel like wandering off by yourself somewhere where you didn't feel at home. I know I would, but that's beside the point.
See? I told you that if there's a Church around, there's a "kyrkogatan" around somewhere very near. Either a "Kyrkogatan", a "Prästgatan" or a "Prästgårdsvägen". That's "Church street", "Priest street" and "Priesthouse street" in English. Sounds really corny in English, but who ever disputed that Swedish was a corny language?

Yesterday was the National day for Sweden. IT doesn't get celebrated very much, cause we Swedes don't really know what to celebrate. I mean, the US has their Independence Day, as well as Finland and Norway, and most other countries has something to celebrate that has something to do with overcoming a great ordeal, but Sweden has never had that, so we don't have anything to really celebrate. Some say that we should just celebrate the fact that we have a country to celebrate, but then again, you could do that whenever you feel like it. The National celebration generally consists of a few cheers for Sweden and the distributing of some free flags to people that has said they'd rather like to have a flag but doesn't feel they can afford it. And to finish everything off, we sing the national anthem. That's pretty much the celebrations on the Swedish National Day.

Back for good.

Nationaldagen... Gustav Vasa was elected (an elected king?) on an 6th of july, and in the 19th century on this day, the swedish "Verfassung" (constiution?) was signed (learned that yesterday).
Well, we also don not "celebrate" our national day, but you haven't go to work.

Miriam, here is what I do in real life:
I do my studies in Berlin, and, starting in august, I will be in Stockholm for one year, also for studying-stuff, so that's why I joined this nice conversation.

Well this means I have to organise a lot of nasty things, you can imagine: trouble with examination (I have to write 'em before), with accomodation (I definitly don't like it too much) and relationship (...) , but then I'm really looking forward it. Perhaps you can call me "Lost in Sweden" by the time...

Yes, and now I *really* regret not going off by myself If I had just known before I went that it used to be Swedish I would have prepared myself to go wandering off by myself...oh well.. I'll try emailing the tourist office..

What do you guys think of the new style h2g2? Personally I think it suck that you have to click a thousand times to get on the latest message... I'm not that patient

Gosh, Holland doesn't even have a National Day (of course we are well known for not being the least bit nationalistic, except when it comes to football Watch during Euro 2000 when the Dutch anthem is being played, only a couple of the players will be mumbling along with it ). Actually that's not true we have Queensday (the Queens birthday, on April 30th), I suppose that's the National Holiday...

LIS (what's your name? It feels kinda awkward to call you LIS ), I thought Swedes never had trouble celebrating anything.... although, on second thought I can imagine it not being too much fun when you have pay a hellish amount for the Absolut, especially since it's actually made there.... (it's like $4 for a liter here... hahaha )

So, JJ, what are you studying then?
Just practice saying "Vart är ... ?", and you won't be that lost

Yah, time for me to dive into physics, Bohr's Atom theory to stay in Scandinavia

Miriam\

JJ. The Swedish constitution was signed on the 6th of June? Cool, I didn't know that, and I'm supposed to be a Swedish citizen. I think the "Fellowship of the Lost Ones" would be an interesting thing to pursue. People that live in a foreign country, either working, studying or otherwise occupy themselves in that foreign country. We already have a Lost in Scotland (that would be me) and a Lost in Germany.
I hope you'll enjoy your year in Stockholm. I can't say I'm too fond of the city myself, but that may be because I'm a small-town-guy. I do think it sucks taht you have to organise all those things yourself, though. When we moved over here, the only thing we really needed to think about was to find a place to stay within a week of getting here. First week's accomodation was covered by the company.

Miriam. Yes, I agree with you that it kinda sucks to have to click through a bunch of pages to get to the newest ones. Why couldn't they think of adding a direct link to the last batch of entries in a forum? I mean, if only three or four people have contributed to the forum entries, they have a pretty fair notion of what the content is, so they don't have to (or want to) read it again and again, every time they want to reply to a post.
You are correct about the celebrating. We can think up the silliest things to celebrate, just for the sake of it, but the National Day is something that's suposed to be kinda formally celebrated, and noone really knows the reason for it, so the celebrating itself loses some of its attraction. We do like ot know what we're celebrating, like finishing third in the World Cup of Football, or winning the Ice Hockey World Championships again.

Name's Christian, BTW.

I think I'll stop rambling now. See ya.

Clicking sucks! So, let's simply create a new conversation. OK, i'll do after writing this one.

Euro2000: I'm not really looking forward it, I think this time we (the German team) will be totaly lost in Holland, or shot into the Orbit by some Balkan-nation team (fear!). Yesterday they won 8-2 (Hurray!) but against Lichtenstein (what? they got enough people to build a team there?)!

So check the new conversation: "lettres des enfants perdus"

jj

Clicking sucks! So, let's simply create a new conversation. OK, i'll do after writing this one.

Euro2000: I'm not really looking forward it, I think this time we (the German team) will be totaly lost in Holland, or shot into the Orbit by some Balkan-nation team (fear!). Yesterday they won 8-2 (Hurray!) but against Lichtenstein (what? they got enough people to build a team there?)!

So check the new conversation: "lettres des enfants perdus"

jj

I don't have many expectations for the Upcoming Euro2000, myself. Even though Sweden is in there with the big boys, I don't think I could really be too bothered with who wins. I'll probably go see the Opening game Belgium vs. Sweden on Saturday, but I'll be much more psyched about the American Football Game between Scottish Claymores and Rehin Fire earlier that same day.