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

Asteroid Lil's been telling me about you. Complimentery things . So now I've found you, and now there is no place to run, Excitement shakes me, oh god help me what have I done??!!

*ahem*

From your researcher number I see you're pretty new, but your homepage tells me otherwise. It's very professional . Are you just a quick learner, or have you been here before?

Oh, no! I've been tracked down! I knew this would happen.

Lil's adorable. I've enjoyed getting to know her at the café. And now I find out she's been blabbing about me. I'll have to have a word with her

Nice to meet you Mike A --
*has sudden urge to pronounce 'Mike A' like an Italian mobster would pronounce 'Mikey' with the accent on the second syllable, and quickly decides against it*

I've been here at h2g2 for about 10 days, now... had somehow managed not to even know it existed before then, but got quickly hooked. I already know basic html pretty well - even teach it sometimes - so it was just a matter of learning the differences with GuideML. Thanks for the compliment on my page. It's been fun to put together.

I notice that you're a member of HRASC. I've put in an application, but haven't heard back yet. I would think my submitted guide entry on Naturism http://www.h2g2.com/A333523 would qualify me.

Nice to meet a musician. I love the bass, but I'm a keyboard player myself. Had a basement rock band for a while, and also travelled on the road as a lounge musician wearing horrible clothes *shivers* when I was very young This summer, I'm attempting to learn the musical saw (!) which I'll be playing when I perform in a theatre production of "The Grapes of Wrath" this fall.

By the way, I get hooked on authors too, but don't you think you might have read just a little too much Herbert this past year?

Once again, good to meet you. Glad you tracked me down. (Just don't kill me please...)

Redbeard

Asteroid Lil is fantastic, and you will njoy being in her company. I see she has mentioned me before to you? . Or how else do you know I play bass?

I remember, me and a friend registered with h2g2 back in June/July. But we didn't do anything cos we thought the site was a bit gay *^_^*.
Then, on October 2nd, I get home after some shopping feeling a bit bored. I find a magazine, the one that brought me to h2g2 back in the summer. So I think "well there's nothing else to do, might as well go back to the bloody place". Now would you beleive how things have progressed from there? The people I've met, the things I've done. Simply not possible irl. Wow.

If I recall rightly, Naturism was your first article, yes? A persons first article tends to be one of their best, I was very proud of my first (now it's sadly forgotten). I will read it, and since I'm a sub-editor I could lend any nexessary assisstance. Nice, eh?

I am in a 'band'. Really it's not a band, more of an unfunny joke. Drummer has no drums, one guitarist is too far out to bring his guitar and amp, other guitarist can't be bothered to play, and I keep forgetting to play!
BUT, I've had a proposition from another band, and the kid at the fore says he can get us into a recording studio. So now I've had an idea for a band of my own, should I ever need one. Has potential to be very fun, if anyone has the bottle to go through with it

Now, James Herbert was one of my favourite authors, but I haven't read a book of his for 5 months. I've still got one unread, and once I've finished the book I'm slogging through now I'll give it a try. It's called The Dark and it's one of his most grusome, apparently. Well, I've read some sick s**t from him, but it's been a while.
Hell, the amount of sick s**t I see every day, it'll probably just be a walk in the park. Who knows?

So, I'kll check out your guide entry then. Catch ya l8er

Yeah, Lil is great But she didn't mention you specifically before... I got the bit about playing bass from your own page!

Good thing you got bored and decided to revisit this place. You're right, you couldn't possibly do all this IRL. I was struck earlier today, in a conversation that I've had with someone for the past few days, how this place is both huge and intimate. We were chatting about some political issue, and as I was about to refer to a particular law, I suddenly realized that I didn't even know what continent this person lived on!

Naturism was actually my second article. The first was Normal, Illinois, USA, and I got a kick out of writing it... sort of testing the waters on guide entry writing, but I really focused on the Naturism one to get it the way I wanted it.

Oddly enough, even though I'm a huge reader, I haven't read any James Herbert. What two or three titles would you recommend to start? I need to pick up some more summer reading.

As far as bands go, I've known a number of 'bands' like yours Hope the new opportunity works out for you.

Redbeard

I guess it was the picture of the bass-playing mouse that gave it away . That was done by Lil actually

All the things I've done on h2g2...I've met people of all cultures, ages and races. Had discussions that would have been impossible with the kids atound here (I'm 14, btw). Meanwhile, it's a greeat release for my love of writing. I've written 103 guide entries in nearly 8 months. These range from the factual, the factual/playful, the pointless, the 'role-play' area and two orginasations, plus now some fiction. Instead of sitting down with a pen and an achy hand, I can batter this keyboard into submission (fast typer). Fantastic.

Ok, if you're going to read Herbert, then I recommend the rat trilogy. The Rats, Lair and Domain. Make sure you read them in that order, cos I read them in the wrong order! You can read each as a stand-alone book, but the power of the trilogy is great.
The Rats is goof, Lair is ok, Domain is awesome. One of only three Herbert books that has actually scared me (I've read 13). Honestly, you get engrossed in it and it does get scary.

Finally - everyone's known a band like our Black Rose

> I guess it was the picture of the bass-playing mouse that gave it away < ...
Yeah, that, plus the statement: 'I am the Official Bass Guitarist for Jenner!'

103 guide entries! Wow! I took at look at Watership Down... wonderful entry!

Thanks for the Herbert recommendations. I'll pick up the Rat trilogy and read it in order.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Cult Of Jenner. I've sort of snubbed that website, think I'll go and check on it (been months since I last went).

Watership Down...my first official entry, and by far my favourite. I am so proud of it

Good luck with da boox

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the PTB, Mike.
(I thought I'd move my response over here to our discussion thread.)

Naturally, I don't know any of the details, so I can't really respond very well except to say that I hope things work out well for you. I've enjoyed meeting you and hope to have many more discussions in the future.

In my experience, whenever an organization with a diverse constituency grows to a particular size, there's an inevitable conflict -- sometimes it's between order and chaos, sometimes between status quo and change, and almost always between different visions of where that growth should take them -- but the conflict is inevitable.

I may be reading way too much into this, but I'm guessing that you're a boat-rocker sometimes. To the people steering the boat, that's uncomfortable, yet without the boat rocker, you'd never get off the sand bar... as long as the boat isn't rocked so far it gets swamped.
*grabs his head as he realized he just stretched an analogy way too far and his brain hurts*

So anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is, however this works out, I hope this won't keep you from being one of the many bright spots that I've found here at h2g2.

- From one who has only been here two weeks and has not a clue what he's talking about,
Redbeard

How'd you hear about it?

Yeah, there's conflict. I'm a bit, uh, anti-mainstream. A lot of people here a willing to sit around, be friend;y, and pretend nothing bad happens outside their own little hole. h2g2 is their friendly cubby-hole. So when the odd radical person turns up, they get scared.

On this occaison, it wasn't much. A mere "F**K YOU" direced at somebody intent on taking the piss out of me. Of coyrse, this was the 6th time I'd got in troubvle with the PTB, so of course they took action.

Every so often somebody pops up who's not afraid to speak out against the mainstream. They're rewarded with a suspension.

Just remember, brother. It may seem friendly here, but don't get sucked into it...

'a bit, uh, anti-mainstream' huh?

How'd I hear about it? If you mean the fact that you've been labelled a 'sinner', stripped of rank, and that you're pissed off, you said it in the Naturism thread. The rest was conjecture. Lil mentioned that you had run into a problem, but didn't know any details either.

I don't think I've even MET a PTB here yet. In my limited experience, they aren't what h2g2 is, anyway... it's the people who participate, voluntarily, that make h2g2 special. Don't worry, I won't get 'sucked in', but I also won't get turned off to the friendships here just because of administration.

On the other hand, the moment the PTB interfere with my ability to enjoy h2g2, I'll be there to shake things up myself. I just use different weapons.... (usually I annoy people to death with diplomacy)

I've dealt with bureaucracies a lot. I work in a large university, and, for the most part, I avoid all the administrative BS, but when they try to interfere with what I need to do, then I get involved.

One of my proudest fights may seem like nothing much to you... I volunteered to serve on a university committee _specifically_ to PREVENT them from accomplishing anything It was one of those annoying bureaucratic solutions-in-search-of-a-problem (regulate what kind of advertising that departments can accept in their publications -- just the thing to make my job putting together theatre programs, etc. very difficult!) Sure enough, they immediately started coming up with regulations to justify their existence... no advertising from companies that sell alcohol (there go the restaurants in my theatre program), etc. After the first meeting, they had a 10 page set of regulations already! After each meeting, I wrote a 10-12 page point-by-point response why their proposal would cause problems and pointing out instances where they would be hypocritical, etc. And each meeting, they'd come up with a new proposal, and I'd spend the next week carefully writing a response. After four months of meetings, the end result of their entire work was the statement: 'Departments should be aware that the advertising they accept may reflect on their department and the university as a whole.' I had won! I actually managed to prevent them from accomplishing anything (weird kind of victory, isn't it?)

Sorry for the long story. Just trying to let you know the way I fight my battles. If you need anyone to fight a battle that way, let me know... I'm really good at it.

Keep fighting. Keep surviving. And don't forget to find time to enjoy it all as well.

Redbeard

Yeah! You gofer it! That was cool. I thought stuff like that never happened. You rock

I seem to be very forgetful about the hints I leave lying around. *^_^* guess that's why I'm so surprised when I keep getting in trouble irl

You can tell when the PTB are about the forums cos their names are bold and italicsed. Generally they won't give you trouble. One thing I remember about being a newbie was the sheer innocence of everything. I never got into the situations I do now. I hope that can apply to you too. Hope I'm not being a bad influence here or anything

btw when this place ain't enjoyable any more, i'll be off

> btw when this place ain't enjoyable any more, i'll be off <
Of course! No point staying here if you're not having fun! Hell, I get paid for my job IRL, but if I stop enjoying THAT, I'll be off! So far, I've been there 12 years, and I still love it.

You? A bad influence? Naahhh. An interesting influence, yes!

Redbeard

Whass your job irl? I get the feeling that alot of people get lumbered with things they don't like.

Compliment appreciated

Yeah, way too many people have jobs they don't enjoy. I'm very lucky.

Officially, I'm Assistant Chairperson of the Theatre Department at Illinois State University (only really use that title when I'm calling someone outside the department when I'm trying to get things done). In actuality, the job has evolved somewhat based on my interests and strengths.

I teach some theatre management classes, plus occasional classes in theatre photography, as well as some short computer classes (Photoshop, Quark, beginning web design) -- not all the same semester. I do all the theatre production photography, most of the graphic design for posters, brochures, programs, etc., and am the webmaster for the department. I run the box office and other management areas during the year for all the theatre productions. I occasionally act, direct, or musical direct for a show if it's something I want to do, and I work a lot with the theatre students in a lot of different ways -- they're a very cool bunch and great fun to be around. We have a very good department with over 250 theatre majors, very well respected productions and the professional Illinois Shakespeare Festival in the summer.

I do a lot, and the people I work with have come to respect that so I pretty much set my own hours, etc. Often I may be working 'til 2 am, but on the other hand, people don't really expect me to show up there in the morning until they see me. Right now, I'm working on a 50-60 page program guide for the Festival, and I'm doing it all at home on my computer, which has allowed me to have h2g2 on in the background so easily while I'm working.

I really don't know a shorter way to describe it... I can't just say 'I'm an engineer', or 'I'm a shoe salesman'.

Redbeard