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

The journal part of h2g2 is supposed to be a place where the users can post updates on all the things that are going on in their lives. So why don't I use it like that? I didn't when my system if core beliefs was shaken, I didn't when the structure of my family was permanently altered, I didn't when I learned to drive--not even to warn others in the area! But I am going to use the journal for its purpose now to tell everyone about a most happy event in my life.

It seems I'm not good at taking my own advice. A while back, I advised Vidmaster to just forget all about a girl he was having confusion with. "Maybe that is the best advice I can give you, though--staying away from girls, at least romantically." Looking back on that almost makes me laugh out loud. Because now, as you might have guessed, Ex Libris is just hopelessly smiten. And you know what's great? She returns the feeling.

The bad part about all this is that immediately after we had declared our feelings for each other she was whisked off to a place two states away. Luckily, though, we both have web-based email, and we've been making good use of it. Even more luckily, she's returning to Montana in August! I'm planning the biggest ever for that day. But until then, the interweb will have to suffice.

Good luck with the girl!
-peter the girl.

Why, thank you, Cymbeline. It is always good to know others care about you...and doubly so to encounter a fellow lover of the written word.

Why isn't there a smiley?

~Wes

*giggle*
There really should be.. I think it should be right up there after (How in the heck can we be the GUIDE and not have a smiley???! )
And books are bleeding addictive, I tell you! A universe to explore that's not the same one you see everyday.. I especially love fantasy/scifi.
-C
(by the way, good job calling me cymbeline! closer to my real name (which happens to be Cassie... Shh, you're the first person I've told on here.. lol))

So if your real name is Cassie and you like being called Cymbeline, where's "Peter" come into all this?

Ohhh...did I just see that you love (my heart bursts at the mention of the word) fantasy? Which series? Because you can hardly enjoy fantasy without finding a series or five. My favorites would be the series by Terry Goodkind, George R. R. Martin, Terry Pratchett....oh, I wrote a whole Guide entry on all of them. I don't like saying the names of the series, because you can hardly enjoy series without finding some pretty bad titles.

Though Discworld isn't a bad name....for the most part, I think an author's talent for writing story is inversely proportionate to their creativity with titles.

(If I write it enough times, the smiley will eventually form into being)
~Wes

I've only read a bit of Terry Goodkind.. Have you read the.. oh shoot, I have to go look it up.. sec... (Wait.. you can't tell I paused there.. oh well.. far too much time on AIM ;p) Terry Brooks! The Shannara series.. I read those before I was even old enough to understand them and I still love them! (The Terry's go together in my mind so that DOES make sense, in a twisted sort of way...) Never read any Martin, but I have definitely read Pratchett! Have you read Piers Anthony (that guy cracks me up! )



It's worth a try, eh?

As for "Peter"... *giggle* A friend here on H2 gave that nick to me and it's just weird enough to appeal to my odd sense of humour.. Plus it's somewhat confusing and gives me a cool story to tell people.. *giggle* especially people that know Uncle Heavy (dunno if you do), but he, quite hung over, is who gave it to me.



-C

Yes, I've read Terry Brooks. (You can't see the expression on my face, but it's icy.) Mr. Brooks and I have some issues to work with concerning the way he trashed his Shannara series with all those millions of sequels. "The Sword of Shannara" was excellent, but the rest weren't. In fact, they were sort of the opposite of excellent. I'll deal with Terry as soon as I'm done with Mr. Jordan. (ohh, don't even get me started with Wheel of Time....talk about over-marketing)

Yep, I read Piers Anthony for a while too. I thought his first nine Xanth books were really good, but then he took a break and resumed under a different publisher. (Didn't he?) All the Xanths after that sort of degenerated...too much concern with gimmicks and human-centaur-hippopotamus-dwarf-harpy-dragon-demon X(A/N)th-pig crossbreeds. I mean, the basic stock was good enough. We got humans, centaurs, goblins, all the standard fantasy stuff. The crossbreeds didn't really improve the stories. Oh well.


~Wes

Congratulations, Cymbeline! You've made it to my personal space as a friend. (You see, it's just that easy)



~Wes

*giggle* I'm sorry.. Maybe we should just agree to disagree about Brooks' books. As for Robert Jordan, I'm not going to start those because from what I've heard the series is so big that it won't get finished -- he'll die first. NOT my idea of an ideal ending to a series. I don't want to get attached to some characters and then spend the rest of my life wondering "what the heck happened next??"
I liked SOME of the later Xanth, but my favorite part of every book was honestly the author's note. I just think Anthony is a really, really cool guy!

My friend at w**k is the coolest (where I am), she bought me cheese. You know that Alouette spread? Mmm.. I'm a happy camper!

-cass

"w**k"? Is that like "work" but different, more confidential? Perhaps you work for the CIA and can't tell anyone. I myself happen to work for a slightly less glamorous government agency, the public library. !

Not getting started on Jordan would be a good idea. He probably will die before he ends the series, just because he's spending more time selling the books than writing them. At last count, there were nine books, a collectible card game, an offical sword, a computer game, and probably a Wheel of Time line of underwear for all I know. And just recently he released the first book (costing about $6 as a paperback) in two parts (available for $4.99 each). What's the difference? The newer version has an all-new, never-before-seen prologue! Wow, can't wait to have that.

s and s
~Wes

By the way, I'm not a French student, but doesn't "aloutte" mean "lark"? 'Hello, I'd like a slice of French lark cheese, please.' Reminds me of a Monty Python sketch....

I type it w**k because on H2 you're supposed to ** out the middle letters of swear words.. It's kinda supposed to be a cute lil joke. I wish I worked at the CIA! But no, I am a lowly copy shop girl.. Kinko's is my life! (Not really, but I spend three days a week there...) I wish I worked for the library! But they don't pay enough for my expensive tastes, unfortunately.. (I make $9.24 at Kinko's)

Merchandising kind of messes up the fun of reading books, or so I think.. Certain things are cool to have toys, etc, of, but they most often go overboard. T-shirts are about my limit.

Lark?!? *giggle* LARK CHEESE! Oh no, you've appealed to my weird sense of humour again.. That's going in a journal entry!


s and s
-peter

Working for the library is fine, but you're right--it's not for people with expensive tastes, like food or heating. It's a good thing I'm young enough that my parents still provide for most of my needs...otherwise I'd be out on the streets. There's a quote I like: "when I have money I buy books, and with whatever is left I buy food". (Or something. As it nears 2 AM here in the Rockies my posts are losing coherency...) When you get your paycheck from the library, there's not much money to begin with.

Another good author is David Eddings. I just thought of that. He was my introduction into the fantasy world when I was younger. And then I had to go and lend out the very copy of the book that started it all to a friend who was notorious for not returning books...


s, s and all that
~Wes

By my count 'tis now 4:57 AM my time.. I'm about to finally crash and burn (work tomorrow) but wanted to write back. So if this makes absolutely no sense, just uh.. poke me or something. ;P

My parents still provide for much of what I need, including food, a place to stay, and school tuition, but anything fun I want, I pay for myself (First, and then they pay afterwards, Lol)

I always wanted to work for the library when I was younger.. it's where I spent most of my time.

Which one's Eddings? Is that the Tangle Box one? (I have a completely awful memory for names) Cross-genres, have you ever read Laurell K. Hamilton? That is more horror/vampires, but a good read.. Kind of like a trash novel (which have their place, dangit! ) only two steps up.

Yuckiness! Not returning books you're attached to is horrid. Although with me I buy so many books that I just give them away afterwards, because I rarely do rereads...

G'night!

-Peter

I'm so glad I got a job at the library...and I'll be able to keep it all through high school. Perhaps it won't make much money, but it will look good on a resume.

Tangle Box....nope, that was Terry Brooks. Part of his Landover series, which was nice for a while but then failed to be interesting. Terry Brooks was just so cruel to the dog! I mean, why create a character whose whole life centers around regaining human form, then actually GIVE it to the character in one book only to take it away at the end of the book? Just so the blurbs can still laugh about the talking dog? It's supposed to be a COMEDY novel, not a depressing one.

Now that I'm done with Brooks, it's Eddings' turn. He wrote the Garion books--five in one series, five in another, two 700-page biographies, and 500 pages of preliminary notes he made before he even touched the typewriter. Sort of like Tolkein, but smaller scale. And the difference is that Eddings actually made use of everything in his notes (well, most of it) whereas Tolkein just wrote histories for the sake of history. If Mr. Tolkein wasn't already dead, I'd have some words with him as well.

Nope, nothing by Hamilton. I don't read much outside of fantasy, except maybe few short science fiction stories now and then. It's got to fantasy for me, nothing else. Whooo! Hobbit power!


~Wes

Oi Wes, "Hobbit Power?" After knocking Tolkien? If you say so, doll.

The library job probably will look quite good on your resume.. Plus you don't have to worry too much about your books getting overdue, since you're there anyway.. I owe the library here $20 actually.. *sigh*

Ack! I gotta run. I will write more from work in a few.. V. sorry!

-Peter the girl.

That's right, I'm knocking Tolein, not hobbits. "The Hobbit" was very enjoyable, nice story, lots of action. "The Lord of the Rings" was fine as a story too, and I would have been perfectly satisfied had that been the only thing Tolkein wrote. But no, it was just a way for him to get his histories of Middle Earth out. I'd like to see someone write the same story as in tLotR, but without all the history and blah. (We call these "abridgements", Wes) It would probably only have a couple hundred pages to it.....

$20? Shame! If you lived here I would dog you relentlessly to pay it all back. We (the library) are changing to a new catalog system this month, and some of the information we need to enter in by hand. Like overdue fines. So we're trying to get people to pay off the fines (less work for us) by making them all half-price. That should bring 'em in.

s and s
~Wes

*determined look* I'm going to finish this post before I move on to the next one!!

I don't even remember the Tangle Box books to be honest, other than the name.. I remember vaguely liking them, but then again I pretty much like every book I've ever read.. except Bram Stoker's Dracula. Honestly. That is the only book I can remember not being able to get into.. that and "A Confederacy of Dunces" but I didn't try too hard with that one.

Okies, then I've not read Eddings.. But I know my dad has. I think it looked a little too hardcore fantasy for me, from looking at the cover, or some such.

That's one out of genre series I would definitely reccommend, of course I've been reading it since it first came out (probably the only series I actually follow, and wait for the books to come out.. )

On to the next post!

s and s
-peter

Well I've only read the LOTR and Hobbit, although I own Lost Tales of Numenor, haven't found the time to read that yet. (A little bit tooo history textbook for me...) I did enjoy the history aspect of LOTR, though, to be honest. The action was enough to carry it through for me. (I also just like disagreeing with you to see what you'll say.. )

But, Wes.. It's only for a few days overdue (less than a week).. It's just 'cos I check out SO many books at one time, during the summer, when I actually HAVE time to read. I'm a big reader. At our libraries here the limit is 25 books, and I check all of them out at one time. I really like girly books like "the Fire Rose" by Mercedes Lackey though too.. I read pretty much anything out there that's fiction.

If I heard that I could pay my fee off half price I would so be down at the library though.. that's a good plan you guys have there..

s and s,
Peter

well, we *have* to make the fines half price, otherwise no one would be able to pay them. I heard another librarian telling a patron how many books she had overdue/lost--it came out to around $60. ( is just not enough)

All right, tell me the use of creating an entire runic Elven language (Tolkein did that, didn't he?) and then only alluding to it in a few places with phrases like "they read the runic Elven script"? I just don't see the point....an escapist could really get lost with Tolkein...

Never read anything my Mercedes Lackey....shelved her quite a bit, though. She seems popular. (I love being a shelver....I get to see when all the different types of books are checked out and returned at the same time and guess at what type of person was reading them.)

s, s, s, s,
~Wes

Jeez Louise! Oh.. she LOST books. That makes more sense. 'Cos with our limit on books, I would have to keep them like 3 months overdue or something to rack up $60.. I don't know if you guys have limits too or not. But yeah. SHEESH.

Umm... Because he wanted to? You really could get lost in Tolkien, and I think that was the point. I'm sure he created the world he wrote about to entertain himself.. that is the only reason I've ever been motivated to write fiction, is for entertainment. Only then for some reason his world sold, so he went with it.. At least that makes sense to me..

Mercedes Lackey is pretty good.. I haven't really had a chance to read anything but Neil Gaiman lately, though. Busy gal.

s and big s!
-Peter