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

*As Matina and Chloe clean the salon and make ready for the new conversation, the service lift doors open to reveal a clutch of CLI bots bearing a goo spruce. The tree is so tall that it is brought in at an angle, and it isn't until the bots take it over to the customary corner near the kitchen that the tree is sat upright with its root ball in a huge tub and one can appreciate its fullness and size*

*As the bots swarm over it to set up the colored LED lights, the tree looks around, raises its branches in triumph, then settles itself so that its branches will give best advantage to the addition of ornaments*

Welcome to the Atelier! If you are a first time visitor do take the time to read our forum page A304354 and learn about how the atelier functions, where we've been and what we're trying to become. Now "become larger" wasn't in the plan, but look who all showed up at the atelier when we went live:

Ottox
Z
magwitch
Mr. Dreadful
Pastey
Nick
egon
Agapanthus
Bel
Yar Kramer
Marv the Grate
mini cheese mouse
keaboo, who turned out to actually be Teuchter
Haragai
Solnushka
Titania
oxygen*
Beatrice
Santragenius
Irving Washington
Jau emne
d'Elaphant
Bagpuss
B4
David B
kelli
Corrupt One
lil (Auntie Giggles)
space cadette
Demon Drawer
Phil
GDZ
Rosemary
Eatsmice
Bald Bloke
lostmonalisa
Psychocandy*
Bluebottle
Gw7en
Hypatia
kea*
lentilla
Witty Moniker
Milla
Styx the Rat
Metal Chicken
Taff
Teuchter (as herself)
tartaronne
ltp
SE (Sporky)
FG
nicki
candi
Pedros_Ecosse
Wolfgang
hygienicdispenser*
todaymueller (880)
Mysterious Stranger
Ændr
scrumph*
Kitty
gurus
geggs*
Little Lost Mammoth*
BondageBeanBag
Tifa - the bunny*
runescribe
Lilith*
Peculiar Pepe*
Flamedancer*
Amy Paper Lady - 2676

I make that 71 entities. Whether some are sock puppets makes no difference; somebody took the time to don the new identity and visit. If you behave yourself (gives the Corrupt One a severe look, remembering the damage done by a certain dragon), you can put on whatever costume you care to. And Amy was last to the forum, which means she's the one in the blue mohair sockpants.

Welcome to our new salonistas! Oxygen, Psychocandy, hygienicdispenser, scrumph, Tifa, Lilith, geggs, Peculiar Pepe and Flamedancer are all first-time visitors. Others have been away so long that it seems like a renewal -- AEndr and Kitty, Runescribe, FG, and Styx the Rat. And it is always reassuring to see Sporky.

With so many people and the excitement of going live and the splatting of bugs, it was a while before the salon calmed down and actually began to chat about this and that.


"Can of Worms" Topic: packing groceries to carry home
Runner-up: Guides and Scouts

Best Item of Trivia:
Wait, wait, I've found the PROPER term for Anfang in English. It's a historiated initial. Or an inhabited initial, if it has little people or animals in it. But no one except calligraphers calls them that. Most people call them, eh, Illuminated Capitals.
I am a librarian. Fear my Google-fu. - Agapanthus 2101

Best Moment of Geek (and there were many):
I hit a bit of a breakthrough with making looping-audio-with-an-intro (i.e. it has an intro and then a looping portion which loops indefinitely); the framework I'm using doesn't have a built-in way of doing that. My solution isn't perfect by any means, since it doesn't work if the looping portion is less than 1/60 of a second long, or if you let it loop more than precisely 2147483640 times (2147483641 if you don't have an intro), but I don't think either thing is likely to become a problem. - Yar Kramer 2116

Purest Moment of Silliness: The Prawn Nativity http://pic.twitter.com/XFLXATit

Other Topics of Note

keeping large predators as pets
the world ends on October 21st
pumpkin carving
the anagram season
Pastey unveils the hero
dogs who chew rocks
NoJoPoMo A87709062
Create U14992038
International standards for baby feeding
bulb-eating critters
sleep habits
cat allergy and libraries with cats
gaming
The works of David Attenborough
beer
on the ability to edit posts
trolls
pronouncing surnames
undue familiarity with first names
campanology
single malts
Zinc the pagan god - And his gravelly voice echoes over the hills as he says, "Gesundheit." - Gw7en 1189
snoring
Christmas commercials begin
unhealthy diets
coffee vs tea
the Relevant Name Game
A Meet in Manchester
Mexican restaurants not in Mexico
marzipan
adventure books
hardware review - what's in ~your~ inventory?
book review - how many have you got?
mammoths can purr?
is turkey preferable to , well, anything else?
Black Friday
polyamory
lots of new smileys A87723967
sexual offender lists
snow
Advent candles
Oz books


Moments from the conversation:
Can you have deja vu about the end of the world? - Bluebottle 427
Sleep is that period of time just before you come to consciousness with the side of your face attached to the keyboard. - Pastey 622
"backlog whiplash" - Irv 815
I fear that I must point out that the centre of the world, nay, the universe is Manchester, England. Unless I go somewhere else in which case the centre of the Universe moves with me. - Pastey 1391
I'd happily listen to David Attenborough narrating the Story of the Freshly Painted Wall, Drying All Afternoon. - Agapanthus 1715

Clouded horizon
Delaying longed for sunrise
Lingering darkness
- Titania 1727 (one of a series)

Should I buy a new chainsaw, a new laptop or an iPad2? - eatsmice 1886
I have a laptop and a smartphone. But Mrs. D won't let me buy a chainsaw. - Mr. D 1929

Someone has parked a house outside my front door. - Lil 2076

I didn't clean up for my cleaner and she resigned. Now Ben won't let us get a cleaner until it's er, clean enough. - Z 2202

I'm thankful to have a woman who will be happy getting orifice supplies for Xmas. - B4 2413

Someone offered me a tea one time that smelled like a cross between a gym locker and a wet dog. Can't remember what it was, but it would explain adding a lot of spices to mask the smell. - Hypatia 2589



Best short story:
Hello. I've just come back from the card shop, where I bought a card in preparation for my wife's birthday. I bought a big card saying 'Happy birthday to my wife' in large, friendly letters on the front, which the person behind the till commented on, and then spent ages asking if I wanted to buy some stamps. - Bluebottle 1468



And so here we are, with the salon decorated, with advent candles in all the windows, with a huge goo spruce that is happy to be with us and awaiting our decorations. Please make yourselves at home.

First?

Dang!

Nearly...

How did I get here so late? back to top to read post....

*Strolls in with his *

F5, click link, click reply, paste, click post. Just like that.

Great intro Lil!

*Hangs his rather tattered owl ornament on the Goo Spruce*

Matina brings GDZ an Irish coffee in an FTTF mug, plus a new h2g2 tee shirt from the zazzle store*

Great intro. Now I'm off to do Mother's shopping. *waves*

First led?

*settles down to read intro*

*drags in her Matt*

I made the first page this time. Kewl!


lilac x

What a grand summation Lil

Nice intro, but what's this about h2g2 T-shirts? Have I missed something?

Hmm... No F5 key on this phone! Oh well, it's probably the first time I've ever made it to the first led, so I'll be satisfied with that.

*stands back and admires tree*

Oooh! A t-shirt and a mug!

First LED! Yoo-Hooooooo!

B4postingtakes2long&ienduponLED#2

i made it here and read the intro and all the preceeding posts before adding mine.

mini

*hangs several coffee mug shaped ornaments on the tree from the back room of the Cafe*

[egon]