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

Ack! Did you forget to bring the ex- Miss Australia with you?? It's a wonder you're not in jail right now. =P What's the situation like since the last time I've gotten around to posting (a month ago--I'm sorry!)?

Archaeology has been a bit romanticized. Not every archaeologist finds the holy grail and gains eternal life, or sleeps with a cute blonde nazi. Only 80% of them (us). The most interesting thing we've found so far would probably be an 1838 American half dime. (Don't ask what a half dime is, I'm not too sure myself. Wouldn't it just be a nickel?) Sometimes it's just so tempting to shove some of these things in your pocket. Ethical-Schmethical. Personally, the coolest thing I've ever found was a beautifully preserved quartz Native American projectile point. My favorite artifacts are the things which show a little humanity, like a colonial brick with a child's foot print on the top of it that was found last year. There was probably a whooping involved with that brick.

If the print house was a whore house it certainly would make the interpretation of the artifacts we find especially interesting. You never know with those colonials, they'd do anything to survive in the New World. However, as far as we can tell, the presses were the only thing that ever got hot on this site. How did you manage to go to a brothel and not get laid? That's quite interesting. Tell me more about those Japanese tunnels.

Fieldschool is almost over, and I promise I won't leave you hanging for so long! I have to run, I'm going sailing with a couple girls from the dig. Wish me luck, this will only be the 2nd time I've gone sailing in my life. 1st time was 2 weeks ago. ("Pull what? Tie it where??") With any luck I won't get keelhauled. Whatever the hell that means.

Take care!
Lauri

Sounds like you *are* in for a keelhauling - which, my crew informs me (I don't allow those barbaric practices on my ship, it upsets the echidna) is being dragged under the hull of the boat from one side to the other with ropes tied to arms and legs - so you get nice and scraped on the barnacles, and probably drown in the bargain. I hope this doesn't (or didn't) happen to you, so good luck!

I haven't heard anything from the lawyers lately. Can't be farked chasing it up at the moment either.

It's the dead of winter here, which means it's about 14 degrees celcius at night and 25 or so during the day, with sunny blue skies and perfect riding! Went for a nice fast ride today over Mt Glorious. Yeehaaaaaaaaa

Apart from being back at uni, I've volunteered for the rural fire brigade, so I'll probably have to go and put out fires - it doesn't rain much during winter here. The rural fire brigade gets called to car accidents and rescue stuff too, so that could be interesting. I'm not looking forward to seeing the aftermath of a horrendous accident, and there's been some nasty ones around here.

Rabaul was a fascinating place to live, especially as a young 'un. It's a small town on the edge of a deep harbour, that was once a volcano. The town has 6 volcanoes around it, two of which are active - one erupted a few years ago and buried Rabaul in ash. The last time it erupted before then was about 1935 I think. When I lived there you could take a boat and travel across to the volcano that later erupted and climb down into the crater. We used to collect sulfur (and you can imagine what happens when you mix sulfur and cordite and set it alight....). During WWII the Japanese had a major base there, and submarines used to be hidden in tunnels at Submarine Bay, as it's now called. Submarine Bay is a great place to go scuba-diving, and I saw my first shark there (I even had a kiddy-sized tank - my folks bought it in the USA, I think). There's a shallow reef from the shore out, which suddenly drops down into the depths as an underwater cliff, so the subs could get right up close to shore.They also dug tunnels all through the hills around the town, and we used to go exploring when the parental units were at work. Anyway, I'm sure you could find some stuff about it on the web if your interested. There is probably still heaps of unexploded armaments around Rabaul - people were always blowing bits of themselves off trying to grenade the reefs when they didn't feel like fishing...

Cheerio!

Well, I'm unscraped and not blue... so I guess I didn't get keelhauled. Thank god they didn't know about some of those other maritime traditions. Especially the one about crossing the equator. Phew.
The fieldschool is finally over, thank god. I really enjoyed it, but I need a break from my coworkers. Now I only have 2 weeks off to try to salvage my summer, and do all that stuff I've been putting off... like dehairing & waxing the new kitten. New addition to the family: 8 week, 2 lb. grey and tan part calico kitten which we've named Gypsy (after the character on MST3K). Though in hindsight, we really should have named her "Crack Head." She is terminally cute. Upon seeing her, one almost explodes due to over cuteness.

So tell me about good vacation spots in Australia. We're trying to make long term plans with a group of friends to go to Australia. Beaches are wonderful, but we also have a collective fetish for the wierd and just plain tacky. Past destinations have been Las Vegas (self explanatory), Museum of Menstration, Centralia, PA: The Town Afire For 30 Years--which I'm also doing an article on for a friend's e-magazine--check it out sometime! www.hackedtobits.com. I've only written reviews so far, but check out my Town Afire article in the September issue. I'm putting some work into it and I hope it will turn out well. =)

I'll be back at the uni in 2 weeks. Believe it or not, I actually miss it. I wouldn't believe me either. How is school going for you? What type of classes are you taking this semester? I've got Social Psychology, Kinship & Human Relationship patterns, a required "values inquiry" class, and The Rise of Modern America. Of course the classes all have very flaky sounding titles, because I'm an anthropology major. Ha.

Achoo!
Er sorry about that I've got the flu (again) so I'm off work for the day and sitting inside dreaming of being well enough to get out on the bike. Why can't we have cold bleak miserable winters like everywhere else in the world so I can sit inside and be properly miserable? Bleh. Or is it Spring already? I can never remember which months are what seasons...

Ah bugger it I'll just have to go for a ride anyway.

If you come to Oz you'll have to come to Brisbane and get in touch - I'm sure we could find some interesting places to show you around here. Gees the whole Gold Coast is a celebration of tackyness (and it's got a beach or two...). If my better half gives the nod you and your fiance are welcome to stay here for a night or two My email is [email protected]. If you're going to Sydney you might find the infamous King's Cross interesting - it used to be a very bohemian sort of place and now it's mainly strip clubs and weirdos. But I'm sure you have seen enough of that sort of stuff in the states - Australia has got some pretty beautiful places to visit so don't just go to the cities (and there's heaps of weird stuff in the smaller towns...like Rockhampton's Big Bull (which is continously losing it's genitalia....mind you there's not much else of interest in Rocky)) Anyway, let me know where you'll be going and how you'll be travelling and I'm sure I can give you some good info

I'm only doing two subjects this semester - Psychopathology and Research Methodology III. Fun. Actually Psychopathology is pretty good stuff - a two hour lecture on a particular disorder or group of disorders and then a guest speaker (who has close personal experience with the disorder) gives a talk. The Gender Identity Disorder person was hilarious - she was a vietnam vet who became a "showgirl" and a photographic model and then finally got the sex change operation about five years ago. Most of the speakers have been optimistic about the future - and bloody brave to come and talk to a group of students so honestly and openly about what they've gone through.

The macaroni and cheese reviews on hackedtobits were crack-ups. Goddamn you've got a wide variety of that stuff over there! I look forward to reading your September article.

Oh, what the hell is MST3K?

MST3K = Mystery Science Theater 3000

http://www.h2g2.com/A156476

Wow, Centralia sounds like a great place to visit! I'll have to go there if I ever get back to the States - and if the entire town hasn't been swallowed up/melted/fumigated....

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHaaaaaa (evil victorious chuckle)

I phoned the taxi company owner today, because I got sick of waiting around for the court thing to happen - and he said "our insurance company will be paying the claim in full" - so I checked with the lawyers and sure enough, they have given in, and will pay everything including costs - YEEEHAAAA....it's going to cost them over $1000 more than if they'd just paid me in the first place, but then they had to have a go, the pricks. Nice to be vindicated.

Ah ha! I've finally found my own webpage again. It's me, Shelly C. Q... I became slightly befuddled by the format change on h2g2. I pulled it up that fateful day and confused grunts could be heard coming from my direction. I even tried poking the screen with my finger like a cavewoman. All to no avail.

Sorry for the long absence, hope you don't sue for palimony. I'm glad you enjoy hackedtobits!!!

Lauri

Hey there!
Hard to believe it's been a year since we started conversing...wherever does the time go?

I went to another Big Day Out last Sunday - a newspaper reckoned it was 40degrees in the moshpit, but I think whoever took that temperature was standing well away in a nice shady area...cos it felt a bloody lot hotter than that!! Mind you, the beer helped keep me cool

Not a bad line-up this year, either - wasn't too enthralled by limp biskit, but I guess by then I'd been going for about 10 hours and the high pitched screaming was kind of irritating to my befuddled brain.

Anyway, my brain still hasn't recovered - so just a short note to say good to hear from ya again, and look me up if you make it to oz.

Oh, I've bought a new bike! A suzuki SV650S, lovely little v-twin with twin headlights that look kind of insect like. Can't wait until it's run in - Mt Glorious, here I come! I'll have to knit a matching blue jacket for my echidna...