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

It sounds like you are definately headed in the right direction. I applaud your determination to live your life on your terms NOT according to you illness. Also, it is fortunate that you live where you do with the interests you have in art. That must be so cool to be so close to nature. I live in the U.S.A. and the closest I come to wild life are some cheeky skunks that like to eat the food I leave out for a feral cat that adopted me. I also believe that the world is a beautiful place, full of amazing creatures and plants. I guess I should include people in there somewhere. For instance, did you know that there is a breed of orchid in the lady slipper family, they have a cup or slipper like appendage that holds nectar. When a bee tries to get the nectar it ends up falling in the cup, then an amazing thing happens. An escape hatch opens at the back of the cup and when the bee tries to crawl out the hatch, it closes and glues two grains of pollen to its back and when they are secure it lets the bee go. Then when it falls into another cup of a female and the same hatch opens at the back the female unglues the pollen and thus gets pollinated. I hope your day is truely lovely. I must go and put my daughters clothes back in her drawer for the tenth time today.

Hello Boo! Yeah I know about that sort of orchid. I would like to know everything known about every kind of orchid in the world ... and also about every other kind of plant! And animals too. I already know most of the kinds of mammals in the world, and also lots about birds ... I'm trying to collect field guides about all the species of birds in the world. I already have guides to all the crows and jays, all the ducks geese and swans, all the tits nuthatches and treecreepers, all the New World warblers, all the woodpeckers, and all the hornbilss ... plus guides to all the birds in Southern Africa and Britain ... anyways. And I'd like to know about all the reptiles and amphibians too ... and also all the fish in all the rivers and lakes and in the whole ocean ... and all the insects, all the crustaceans, etc. etc. etc. because I really, really love the full diversity of living things on Earth! Except, sometimes, humans ... I do try my best to love humans but there are some humans that are so amazingly destructive ... destroying not only nature and other creatures, but also hurting and killing other humans for no really good reasons. I'm still struggling with trying to love people more ... basically I try and love everybody but there are some people whom I really wish that they would try and be a bit better people, stop that hurtful and destructive sh*it ... realise that they need the rest of the world and the rest of humanity ... realise that they are part of this world, the natural world, and the human world ... and if they mess it up, in the long run they themselves are also going to be worse off for it.

I really cannot understand how people could be so out of touch with nature. I can hardly believe that people could exist so far away from wild and wonderful, total nature ... with trees and grass and shrubs all around, in an incredible profusion of species ... and amphibians and reptiles, and birds and mammals ... even big mammals like rhinos and elephants ... really, I would die if I couldn't every now and then go and watch some wild rhinos, giraffes, elephants and so on. Or if I lived close to the ocean, I would want to go out and dive and see the coral reefs and the fish and swim with the dolphins and so on.

This is why it is hard for me sometimes to love humans. The people who are destroying the biodiversity of Earth are destroying it for all the rest of us ... they are robbing all of us from the opportunities of having these wonderful experiences!!

I know there are people who do not do this ... people who oppose all of this ... but they are so few!!! Or at least, they *seem* to be so few.

If I lived in a city far away from a really wild area with a full complement of plants and animals as it ought to be I would first go mad, and then I would die.

Erm sorry for ranting at you ... at any rate thank you for your message. I'll go and check out your Uspace now ...