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

Don't fret. I've been here about 2 weeks now and I think that I have discovered the following (bear in mind that I could be wrong):
1) The more you talk to people, the more they talk to you.
2) The more time you spend just poking about this site, the more people talk to you (probably because they find you in the "who's online" window and click on your name and come and have a look at your page and that's how I found you, by the way).
3) Some people you talk to don't reply. There must be a variety of reasons for their lack of response but it's probably best not to dwell on it. Just go and chat to someone else instead. You're welcome to talk to me and pick holes in my page if you like and I'll reply until you decide to ignore me.
4) If you have a particular passion I think you may need to go and look at other peoples' pages and track down people with a similar passion. Then engage them in chat. I haven't spotted a straight-forward way to spot people with similar interests to my own other than looking around.

I can tell you like to pick, so come over and criticize my spelling, grammar, punctuation and distorted view of the truth. You're welcome.

And another thing: The more messages you leave in various fora, the more trails that lead interested folks back to your page.

Why hello, and thank you very much for the attention. Thank you also for the clever advice.

Since you invited me to, yes, I think I will nitpick a bit -- but only with a smile and in the friendly spirit of community. Two things that jump out at me are the fact that the h2g2 site style guide requests the one-word spelling "Hitchhiker" in favor of your two-word spelling. And I would style "tv" as "TV." However, I'm American, and how would I know if the U.K. prefers lowercase letters?

I am very much a dog person, so I think I would understand you. I like cats, but I love a good, big, dumb mutt. Something that'll knock you to the ground and stand on your chest when you push through the door after a tough day at work. Something that'll slurp its tongue across your face, you loving it, while your friends are disgusted by the peremptorily unacceptable human-animal contact. Something big enough that there'll be no danger of stepping on it while tiptoeing through the house at midnight, looking for the light switch.

I very much want a dog, but I can't quite afford one. I was never dogless as a child, but I have been canine-impaired for the past six years since I moved away from home.

Thanks for stumbling across my inane-but-improving-every-day welcome page. Pleased to make your acquaintance and read about your fondness for snakes, among other things.

You can't beat a good nit-pick, can you? Thank you for that. The nits you picked were actually ones I could correct, because they're in my introduction. If you haven't already discovered this, you can edit your introduction but not your journals. At some point over the weekend I'll change my Hitch Hikers' to Hitchhikers'. I'll leave tv in lower case though. I'm sure you're right but I have to fight off the urge to give my tv too much respect.

My dumb mutts come to work with me every day. Almost everyone there loves them. Almost everyone there has their own dogs and on Fridays, quite a few dogs come to work. It's bedlam, as you can probably imagine. My cat-keeping (is that hyphen in the right place?) friends might take a dim view of my dogs giving me (or them) a big sloppy kiss, but all the folks at work take dog affection for granted. You have my sympathy. No dog = big hole in life. My current dogs were dumped on me when my last dear old dog died. I wasn't really ready for more dogs so soon after my best boy departed but these rascals soon settled in and now I can't imagine life without them.

I'll be looking out for your journals and if you would care to come over and pull mine to pieces, I'd be delighted. I'm going to try to do one every weekend if I can think of anything interesting.

Are you about? As you mentioned adding some bells and whistles to your page, I thought you might like to have a look at a couple of user pages I've come across lately that are, in my humble opinion, rather splendid. Look out for Joanna (Princess of Darkness) and Wazungu in the "Who's Online" window. Also, for things that are nicely written and very entertaining but without the pretty frills, look at IanG's page.

I've changed my "Hitch Hiker's" to "Hitchhiker's" as you suggested and I've done my journal for this weekend. I made one deliberate error to keep you on your toes. I may have made several others accidentally. That'll be a treat for you!

Thanks for the consideration. You're a sweetheart. So, I guess this is like a puzzle for me now, eh? "Where are the errors"?

I should write something in my journal. And I need to start working on an entry or two. Hmm... what to write?

I've looked at the Princess of Darkness' profile. It's quite large and involved, isn't it? I need to read up on the GuideML rules and regs.

What a busy time you have ahead of you. Did you like Joanna's fireworks? This: http://www.h2g2.com/U123301?skin=classic is the address of Wazungu's page. It's called "The Waterhole" and it's best viewed in "traditional goo" (that's dark blue). One of these days, I might consider getting into the technical task of making my page look more interesting. Manana! (doesn't look right without the enya, does it?). Trouble is, when a Spanish person says "tomorrow" it means something more akin to "this day, that day, some time, never". In English, "tomorrow" just means tomorrow. I'll nip off and see if you spotted my error(s).

Hey Parapluie, you're back. Long time no communicate. How are you? I found your guide entry on the OED. It's just wonderful. I think there's every chance it's the best I've ready so far. Very impressive. I left you a message over at the Peer Review thread. There are also 2 messages dangling off the end of the actual OED entry. You would never find them unless you knew to look there because no alert appears on your home page to let you know.

Coincidentally, I did my first guide entry last week and took it over to Peer Review. Mine's about cicadas. It's nowhere near as well written as yours but it's interesting.

Are you going to be about now? It's good to see you back (even if only briefly).

Good golly, I've missed a lot. I don't make it back to the site nearly as often as I'd like to. I'm looking forward to reading your cicada entry. I looked at your home page on the site. Nice picture. How does your skin achieve such a glowing orange hue?

Thanks for the kind words about my entry. I fell in love with the OED in college. The professor of my "History of the English Language" course was once a researcher for the dictionary. Much of our work centered on OED research, because of the dictionary's excellent attention to etymology.

If I'd been more comfortable with being a poor student instead of diving into corporate America to find a job as fast as I could, I think I would have been quite happy to study the linguistics and the history of English. The fear my parents placed in my heart (of getting stuck in school and not becomming a successful professional -- which, honestly, has yet to happen) is indeed a strong force.

Now that I'm working my way up to a comfortable professional status, though I'm still quite poor, I see that I may as well ahve stayed in school longer! Oh well...

Catch you around later.

I achieve this orange glow by eating twice my weight in carrots every day. It's the carotene you know.

Parents, ah? Isn't that the collective noun for conspiracies against the young and vulnerable? The whopping fibs one's parent's tell one. Tut.

In any case, you and h2g2 have found each other now so you can not only put that (perceived) deficit right but the rest of us can benefit from your parents' plot to cut your education short.

I'm interested in peculiar survival strategies and researching for the guide has given me just the excuse I need to investigate in greater depth all the things that fascinate me - so that I can write guide entries about them.

I expect quite a few other people are doing likewise. Perhaps you could too - time allowing. I think your Oxford English Dictionary article was well worth your effort. I really enjoyed it and I'm sure everyone else who reads it will too.

Speak to you later.
Sal