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

I gave a lecture last night.

It's been hanging over me for weeks. My nerves have been getting steadily tauter.

It was a one-off, a 'one chance to do it right' thing, and it meant a lot to me TO get it right.

It went pretty well. I was scared stiff. There were a hundred and fifty plus listening, which was a big shock in itself, but I know I couldn't have done it much better.

Today, 2004 has somehow re-started. There's suddenly a garden needs sorting. There's decorating wants doing, that I'd temporarily forgotten about. A couple of weeks of my life seem to have vanished somewhere.

But what a buzz. I wouldn't have believed it yesterday, but I quite fancy doing something like that again.

I'm lucky. I don't have a grave fear of public speaking. I'm not sure why... I'm scared of people in almost any other way imaginable.

Anyway, well done coming out of it. I've been told it's very scary for you people.

I am surpirsed to learn that anything phases you at all, esteemed iconic-phocid one.

Trout

PS - does this mean that you've stopped sulking and will h2g2 some more now?

Hi Pinneped,

How lovely to wake up and read your super post. full of joyous wonderment that something that you had been dreading has turned out so well.

You have done it my friend. You have cracked the little shred of despair which was dogging you, and which was stopping you from appreciating all the beautiful things around you.

I really do congratulate you. Unlike the other two postings you have received, I am like you and absolutely dread public speaking.

And incidentallyb I cannot read the lime green postings on your home page. Are they supposed to be read with special spectacles?!!!

I have been reading your postings of "...get me" and have been wondering about them. Now I am beginning to understand what you are talking about.

I wish you well, and hope that last night's effort will be rewarded with lots of recognition and invitations to speak again. You can do it.

With sincere good wishes for a brilliant "rebirth" of 2004 and all the things you want and need to do. I would love to hear how you get on.

Also Ran1

Hi Guys

(I have so not been sulking, Fish-boy. I've been working. There not the same thing - are they? Though, now I come to think about it...)

I maybe over-dramatised (no, really?!?), judging by your interpretations. I'm not really terrified of public speaking. Terrified is too strong; preoccupied is more like it. I posted that note up top mainly because I only realised afterwards that I'd been thinking of little else for weeks. That disturbs be a bit (and also explains hootoo absence).

Hi AR1. Sorry about the lime-green comic sans. It's a seal-thing, yeah?
The "...get me" postings are about the Never-Starting Story, a cherished project. It's a little delicate, and I thought I'd fouled it up back there.

So, now you're all here, what're we going to talk about?

Pin

I can do without that kind of buzz. It's not worth the days of dread beforehand.

I was surprised the Pinniped would be bothered by public speaking too. I was going to suggest that instead of imagining naked audiences (surely that's off putting) you spoke in Pinniped Persona. The one that illustrates the Post articles - robed, hovering on a cloud, staff in hand...

Hi Jodan, hi Trout, hi AR1 .

"what're we going to talk about?" - All the ways in which Jodan is scared of people ?
Waz

From the back of the hall your nervousness didn't show one little bit.
The lazer pointer dithered a bit, and you got the odd slide out of sync.
Along with many others, I stood up to applaud.

Gee whiz ~Ancient Brit,

Did you REALLY hear him lecture? How super.

what are we going to talk about? Well I do not know what you all talk about.

I have spoken to Montague Trout about life in Swaziland - on another thread and also making Camambert.


I have spoken to the ancient Brit about not having to pay for a TV licence.

I speak to Waz about everything!!


Now I must learn what you like to talk about.

What was your lecture about? And did you have slides - were they photographs or drawings or what?

I am afraid I do not understand what the green is all about, but it does not matter.

My greetings to you all

Also Ran1

Good Morning Also Ran1 - I have reason to be proud.
Pinniped I should have mentioned in post 7 that I found the tie.

Hi Also Ran1 and also my esteemed progenitor.

Hootoo is more fun when we are a little opaque. The clues are always there, if we choose to search for them.

The lecture did indeed have photographs, plus a few paintings and one complete h2g2 Entry read out in its entirety for good measure. The drawings that survive are a little ordinary, so I didn't include any. The special ones, sadly, were all burned.

The lecture started in a location that is similarly tedious, hardly worth identifying, but we can say with some pride and awe that it ended here (though thankfully upright):

http://www.gencem.org/ed_resources/pictures/ppm_2/davy~~d.jpg

The tie to which Ancient Brit refers will itself invoke a sense of awe. Its existence has hitherto been assumed to be apocryphal. Does it really have a pig on it?

'Opaque?' 'Obscure?''Obtuse?' stretches and yawns and reaches for dictionary...why does the phocid insist on using words of more that one syllable?

'Because he's clever boots, because he's clever!'

Well done Pin! Top man!

Seems we are destined to be front page partners once again. It appears I have a certificate winging its way over.

Take care and see you in Bayou country!
Boots

It's ironical but here certainly is a pig in the middle.