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

Good night, sleep tight, mind those pesky bed bugs, etc. Good luck with your studies and getting well...

>>I missed the posts at the time, why are people demeaning LOTR?

>>because its not that easy to get into?

Wellll....it's not 'people'. It's me!

Actually, it's not that hard to get into. It starts as a merry enough romp. Sure, there are large sections that are difficult to get *through*...but if readers persevere they will be rewarded with a pointlessly long saga which has little literary merit and is utterly devoid of anything resembling an idea. Basically, it's an incoherent hotch potch of bits of plot and invented cultures, clearly made up as Tolkein went along. No rounded characters. A simplistic and poorly developed good vs evil theme. An utterly trite main plot arc of 'little guy succeeds against the odds'. If he was a half-decent author, he could have packed a lot more into many fewer pages. And don't get me started on Tolkein's racist sub-text or his naive Anglo-Saxonism.

So there. Mind you...That's only my two penn'orth. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise, via my personal space.

Can someone help me here - preferably someone with last week's Radio Times.

I just happened to notice when looking at the BBC Radio website last Saturday that there was a radio adaptation of Mark Wallington`s "Boogie up the Thames" I listened to it and lapped it up, and, as it was the first episode, went back yesterday to find the next ep. No mention of it anywhere - not even a BBC search of "Boogie up the Thames" produced anything, as if it had been wiped off the BBC's memory for good, as if we were in the Ministry of Truth here.

Has anyone got any idea if the rest is being broadcast? If not, I'll just have to get the book.

Although I might well regret this, Edward, I have to take issue with this... <>

I argued this vociferously on another thread, and no, no, 1000 times no! This 'racist sub-text' has to be carefully sought, and IMO is largely imaginary...

reading essential cell biology trying to find out the advantages of thin layer chromatography over paper chromatography

I find that extremely hard to believe, especially as the man always proclaimed his dislike of allegory in any form.

Too technical for me! How goes your assignment, Hnicky? Is this research for it?

yeah its for my assignment!

i never got an extension! ive done most of it and what i have left will only take me 5-10 mins. im supposed to hand it in before my 9 o clock lecture but im not going so will hand it in at lunch time when i get up!

That's excellent! How is the chest infection? I take it you're going to skip the 9.00 lecture - good idea... You should get some kip, and read a nice novel when you finish your work...

ive abandoned the work for now and ill finish it in the morning. im skipping all my lectures tommorow. may to my microbiology lecture but i dont know about the practical. dont think being in alab with bacteria will be a good idea!

my chest is playing up a bit. we have had snow all this week and here and i went to guides as normal (im a leader) tonight because i didnt want to let them down. the 15 minute walk in the cold and up a bridge was not the best thing. i havent been able to get rid of the wheezyness since and im breatheless when i move off my bed.
its my own fault. its been ok all day untill i went out.

i should probably study my bible a bit before bed. ive not done any all week which is bad. but i may just read brave mouth which is the second billy connelly biography by his wife. ive got a few other books i want to read but that one is in reaching distance!

A long walk in the cold, that'll do it! You have my sympathy... You're right about it not being a good idea to be in the lab with bacteria...
Have a good night... and a good day tomorrow... How is the Billy Connolly book?

its not too bad, havent really read much of it yet but its not bad so far. the first book, Billy, is fantstic it nearly made me cry in certain parts. its written by pamela stephenson his wife. in fact both of them are.

might go to the lecture tommorow and then tell the lecturer im not doing the practical because i have a chest infection and dont want to risk being in a microbiology lab and making anything worse whilst my body is fighting one bacterial infection.

So, how did it go? Well, I hope...

Did you know Pamela Stephenson is from here? (NZ).

I havent got up yet. Going to finish my assignment soon.

Yeah I did know about Pamela Stephenson. There is a bit abut herself at the beggining of Billy.

I never did read anything before bed last night. By the time I got off here at 3 I fell asleep!


So hows you this morning/whatever it is over there?

It's the middle of the night here, and I am just going off to bed... I am worn out from doing almost nothing all day... sigh...

It's not surprising you didn't read anything!

sleep well then.

It's a very hot Sunday afternoon, I have been reading the 3rd Boudica book (Dreaming the Hound) and I like your new name, hn-trainee wenchette and sputum spitter! Will you change it when you recover?

Probably when i remember to!

its currently 1 in the morning here and ive got to be up in 8 hours for church but i cant sleep. Ill be tired tommorrow im sure but i didnt get up untill 11 today! or maybe it was after?

It's 19.53 here, i.e., 0653 GMT. So, you'll be waking soon and going to church... I hope you did get to sleep in the end.. It'll probably take a while before you get your sleeping patterns back to normal.

Reading Sharpe's Tiger (Bernard Cornwell)... oh, deja vu here...

Nearly finished The Adventure of English (Melvyn Bragg)

and have now started Children: The Challenge - in a (possibly vain) attempt to get to grips with the Gruesome Twosome.