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

Well, it's been another nice, quiet weekend. Made some nifty lunch yesterday (see recipe journal) and watched "Good Bye Lenin!". Today, we ran some errands- pet shop for some natural grain kitty litter and some grass for Herman to sniff at should he need more fiber, grocery store for quinoa, black beans, bean sprouts, polenta and a bottle of , and the Planet Of Sound, where we got CDs by Budgie, Blue Cheer and Amon Duul II, as well as used copies of the novel "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" and a book by Steve Biko entitled "I Write What I Like". All in all, a good weekend.

And Herman's finally got all the cat food off his back.

Edward- I shall be bestowing upon you tracks by not only the 13th Floor Elevators, but also a couple more Blue Cheer (unless you'd like the CD?). Terri and Yoda- expect the transaction to be transacted tomorrow! Everyone else- hope you had a great weekend and that your week gets off to a good start.

s all around!

That sounds like a pleasant weekend. Glad things are going well.

I'm excited about my new Volumetrics diet. Will keep you posted on whether I actually lose any weight.

The ides of March is the 15th - my daughter's birthday, so it's a special day indeed!

Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it infamy! (Reference to Kenneth Wiliams as Julius Caesar)

Ta in advance for the tracks.

Just stopping for a quick hello.
Glad things are sounding nicer for you than a year or 2 ago.In so many areas! Love and money and job and roomate situation. Yay!

Give herman a pet for me
thanks for all the laughs in emails
(I normally skip the mass surveys)

Hi Abbi! Good to see you- and glad if I can help bring a few laughs. Things are definitely better than last year, working for the jerk who wrote bad checks. We got a bit behind for a while, but things are OK now. And yeah, it's nice having gotten rid of the roommate and having K and Herman around instead. After being single for over six years, I'd forgotten how nice it can be to have another person around all the time.

Edward, do you like Amon Duul II? Found their first album on Sunday, and it's pretty cool. I'll hook you up with the other three tracks within the next couple of days.

Hello and nice hearing from everyone else. Any of you know how to fix a leaky dishwasher hose? The hose under the sink drips a little and I don't want water accumulating under there. It'll attract bugs, and then we'll have to move. I've tried tightening it but I'm wondering if there's some sort of washer inside the line I should replace.

Yes...it is the Ides of March. But, no, you don't have to worry unless you're Julius Caesar.

Amon Duul II - I haven't heard much Krautrock, apart from Can. Holger Czukay is certainly one cool mother.

Dishwasher hose - they might well be different in the US. Ours have a sort of elbow arrangement http://www.bnotions.com/photos/TRK472B-2T.jpg, and inside there's usually a hard, nylon washer. You could try replacing the whole schmozzle. The new one would be held to the hose by what we call a Jubilee clip - a ratcheted metal band which is tightened with a screw http://www.belowcostappliances.com/images/ge-hoseclamp.gif. Although...it's more likely that you'd buy the whole hose. We have a tiny kitchen, so we had to let our dishasher go in favour of a tumble dryer.

Now...just to show off...this is entirely from memory. Honest! (O-Level Eng Lit)

Oh Pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood.
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth

That's a remarkable piece of writing. I can barely remember the title after studying Julius Caesar in my Inter-cert exams. Well done.

According to this article on Roman dating, the Ides arguably should have been yesterday, as that was the day of the March full moon.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/calendars/a/romcalterm.htm

Actually...I was made to memorise the speech before O-level - by a teacher who was later 'quietly let go' for fiddling with the boarders.

I can do a fair amount of 2B or not 2B, too.

...With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life...

HI there guys. Thanks for the explanation of Roman dating, Woodpigeon. I don't know nearly as much as I'd like about the history of the Roman Empire.

K has a "thing" for Krautrock, and got me into it. We've got a cool video I wish I had a way of streaming, so I could email bits of it... ah, well. Maybe I'll select an Amon Duul II track for you. Maybe I'll make a "mix" CD for you, like you did for me. We have some Can, too. I think I know what I'm bringing to listen to at work today.

You need to get yourself a 'Pod...then you won't have to choose which CD to pack.

The problem with the 'Pods is that all of the ones I've seen, will only store around 4000 or 5000 tracks. I have that many CDs to choose from. I'd spend half my life copying stuff to the hard drive. That's the only thing holding me back. Well, that and the fact that we need a new computer and clothes dryer, and need to have the car serviced, before I spend any money on a 'Pod.

I have a portable mp3 player, it also plays CDs and has a radio tuner. When I get the new Beast, I hope I can get all the old mp3s over. I might take your suggestion about the second hard drive.

Hey, do you have any idea why, if I copy a bunch of mp3s to a CD, I can't copy them back onto my hard drive? My Beast says it can't read the files. Do I need to format the CDs somehow first?

That CD problem sounds strange.

Are you just copying the mp3s onto CD as mp3s? - in which case you should just be able to drag them back via Explorer. Or are you making an Audio CD - in which case you'll have to rip it again.

It's weird- if I copy them to CD as audio (CD) files, I can pop the CD into the drive and drag the tracks right into CD Extreme. If I copy them onto a CD as mp3 files, I get an error message stating that [something, program, CD drive, dunno] can't read that kind of file. You'd think it'd be the other way around.

Wait a minute...are you dragging the mp3s from CD onto CD Extreme? I've not used it before - but it looks like it's Sony's proprietary burning software.

If that's the case - I presume that it has various modes, for copying data and audio disks, which would be why it's giving you an error like that.

HOWEVER...that's not what you should be doing. You should just be opening up the CD in Windows Explorer or My Computer and dragging the files from there. (and sorry to be patronising if that's what you are doing already). Only one potential niggle from there - they may copy over as 'Read Only' so you won't be able to rename them. Right-Click, Properties...and you can uncheck Read Only.



I slotted my new memory in my PC last night. Now when I click on something, it opens before my very eyes. I don't have to go and make a cup of tea while it thinks about it any more.

>I slotted my new memory in my PC last night<

Sounds kinky! Seriously, though, wish it were that easy to add memory to people. I've got so much going on I can't keep track of it all.

We've got a busy weekend planned. The Geezers guitarist and his wife (the rich ones) are going away with the baby this weekend, so we're dog-sitting. Conveniently, they live about a block away from the Music Box Theatre, where this weekend's show is "Spike & Mike's Twisted Festival of Animation 2006". We love Spike & Mike. I also have a coupon for 30% off at Borders, and K "needs" a dictionary of folkloric/mythological creatures, so I guess we're book shopping?

Tonight it's grocery shopping. And of course, we're having a massive blizzard (on the 16th of March! ) as I type, which should make (a) getting from work to the train and (b) getting the groceries up all the stairs into the apartment a b*tch.

And poor Herman fell off the couch onto his face and gouged a hole in his chin. It doesn't seem infected- but has anyone any suggestions of something nontoxic I can put on it to keep it from becoming? I have some herbal hemp salve, but it has lavender in it, and I'm afraid he'll lick it off and get sick.

Aloe Vera.

The purest form you can find, with NO additives, if all else fails, but an aloe plant, slice the leaf apart & rub the sap on direct.

It is magnificent for healing any skin injury, totally non toxic, animals can eat gallons of the stuff & simply end up very much healthier & it doesn't sting or irritate, quite the opposite.

Works on humans too; rub it on, drink it, do whatever, it's a wonderful thing. Brilliant for hair conditioner also, traditional in most asian countries.

zdt

Someone always knows the answer on hootoo! That's great Terri. I used to have an aloe plant and it was great for slight burns, whether from sunburn or the stove.

Lavender's not toxic (in reasonable doses). In fact - I once made a pot au chocolat infused with it.

I'd thought of using some juice from my aloe vera plant, but according to the vet (and a couple of animal protection agency web sites), aloe vera can cause serious gastrointestinal problems in cats, so now I'm a bit apprehensive about using it.

Maybe I'll use the hemp/lavender balm, if lavender's OK.

For the curious, lists of plants harmful to cats:

http://www.pawsonline.info/plants.htm